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Topic: RMP 53, and its setat and mh^2 units
Replies: 5 Last Post: May 19, 2009 2:47 AM
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Milo Gardner
Posts: 1,105
Registered: 12/3/04
RMP 53, and its setat and mh^2 units
Posted: May 16, 2009 9:15 AM
Dear Forum members:
Removing Ahmes Egyptian fractions, and replacing them with readable Ahmes intermediate rational numbers, the arithmetic, algebraic and geometric statements and operations in RMP 53 are reported by two columns of data.
The first colum has not been fully read in terms of Ahmes hand written diagram (in Chace) and likely by other transliterators. Chace did not report the diagram of a triangle sliced into three sections, annotated by Ahmes. The total of the first (top section) of the triangle, written in red, is 7 1/2 1/4 1/8.
The second column of RMP 53 reports the derivation (proof) of the sum of the area 63/8 setat, by :
9 x (7/4)
which Ahmes places in a formula for an area of a triangle:
1/2 the base times the altitude, such that:
9 x 7/4 x 1/2 = 63/8
written as an Egyptian fraction
7 1/2 1/4 1/8
quotient: 7
remainder 7/8 = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8
The first column of confusing data provides unclear discussions:
4 1/2 setat
2 1/4
1 1/8
dmd 5 1/2 1/8 setat
followed by another total
1 1/4 1/8 mh^2
with mh^2 being a cubit strip (100 cubit unity is a term that may connects to Ahmes' hekat units terminology).
Chace's comment
" 1/0 of it is : to be taken away; then this: the amount:"
may refer to 1 1/4 1/8 mh^2?
One of several questions: how is column 2's 63/8 sum connected to column 1's confusing sums(s)( please suggest connections to the triangle diagram, its notes, and 5 3/8 setat sum, and 1 3/8 mh^2 sum and/or subtraction?)
In other words, which number was reduced by 1/10 to obtain 1 3/8 mh^2, and so forth?
Best Regards,
Milo Gardner
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Hugh W. Nibley
© 1979 by Hugh W. Nibley
I. The Jewish Doctors: From Philo to Plotinus the Jewish teachers steadily deeschatologized and de-literalized the scriptures. (N. Dentwich, JQR IV, 1—21).
"...the initiative in the attempt to stamp out orthodox Judaism and to Hellenize the Jews was not taken by Antiochus, but by the influential body of Hellenistic Jews." (Oesterley, Apoc., 29).
The Rabbis were implacably hostile to the old Jewish sects (G. Molin, Sohne Gottes, p. 166) Including the "Galilean heretics," (Eisler I, 484). They banned and destroyed the old Apocryphal writings (K. Kohler, JQR XI, 145), which were then taken up by the Christians (Torrey, Apoc. Lit., 13ff).
The school of Hillel established a "method of overcoming the letter through the disintegration of the text into its components, the single words, with complete disregard of the context for the sake of the particular word..." (I. Sonne, Ginzberg Jubilee, 278).
The scholars "spun out abstract doctrines far beyond the ken of the common folk, and insisted that these are the truths of religion and morality." (M. Kadushin, Rab. Mind, 87f). The Meturgemen in rendering the Bible into the language of the common people "did not scruple to transform the text before him in the boldest fashion . . . to modify the language of the prophet . . . and even, in certain cases, to reverse the plain meaning of the text." (Stenning Targ. Is., x, xi, xiv.).
In this operation the most useful tool was the Memra (="Ma'amar" or "Dibbur;" "Logos"): "The Word," in the sense of the creative or directing word or speech of God manifesting His power in the world of matter or mind; a term used especially in the Targum as a substitute for 'the Lord' when an anthropomorphic expression is to be avoided . . . In the Targum the Memra figures constantly as the manifestation of divine power or as God's messenger in place of God Himself, whenever the predicate is not in conformity with the dignity or the spirituality of the Deity." eg., Ex. 33:22 "I will cover thee with My Memra," NOT "My hand". Gen. 3:8, Dt. 4:33, "The voice of the Memra," NOT "the voice of God," etc. (Jew. Encyclop., 8:46f).
Today it is recognized that there are in the Old Testament "many dominating anthropomorphisms which seek to bring forth Yahweh's relationship to his people." (J. Muilenburg, JBL 77:23). Contrary to popular belief, the question of idolatry "could have played no part in the formation of Israel's monotheism," (Y. Kaufman, JBL 1951, 195), and there is in the Old Testament "No argument against plurality of gods." (id. 189).
II. The Christian Conflict.
A. The Early Christians were Literalists
"But that the older unspeculative conception of the creation of man in the image of God survived in the theology of the Church is shown by unambiguous passages in the Clementine Homilies." (S. McCasland, JBL, 1950, 95).
eg., Clem. Homil. X, 3: Peter addresses a conference: "Man, who was made in the image and in the likeness of that God who creates heaven and earth and all things on the earth, even those that are obviously stronger than he, such as the lion, the elephant, etc."
In the common Christian belief of the Second century, "the Holy Ghost appears as a distinct entity (alles eine besondere Grosse) beside the Almighty Father and Jesus Christ." (C. Schmidt, Texte und Unters., 43: 273).
When Clement of Alexandria speaks not for himself but for the Primitive Church, he says "that God and the celestial spirit world are to be thought of as literal and physical (Korperlich), which is completely un-Clementine." (Bousset, Jud. Schulbetrieb, 157).
Tertullian, the first and best-informed of the Latin Fathers, "in his hostility to idealism (Platonic), falls into the error of accepting a crass materialism which translated God Himself into terms of body." (C. Cochrane, Christianity and Cl. Culture, 230).
Ignatius (1—2 Cent.): "There are some Christ-betrayers, bearing about the name of Christ in deceit, and corrupting the word of the Gospel . . . They do not believe in His resurrection. They introduce God as a being unknown..." (Trall. 6).
"Do ye, therefore, mark those who preach other doctrines, how they affirm that the Father of Christ cannot be known..." (Smyrn. 6).
The worst error of the Gnostics—so-called—is that "they teach that Almighty is unknowable . . . that he is unutterable, indescribable, unnameable..." (Const. Ap. VI, 10) "He is not self-caused and self-begotten, as the Gnostics say, but everlasting and without beginning." (Ib. 11).
B. The Doctors deliberately renounced the teachings of the Early Church Regarding God:
"I know that people say that according to the scriptures God is physical (corpus esse) . . . But 'God is light' (John 1: 5), and since God is light he is therefore completely incorporeal." (Origen, Peri Arch. I, i).
"The vulgar speak of God as of a person, but they are wrong . . . The (Pagan) philosophers, on the other hand, held very nearly the same opinion of God as we do. Plato's opinion especially is virtually identical with our own . . . so that any one might conclude either that all present-day Christians are philosophers, or that all the ancient philosophers were Christians." (Min. Felix, Oct 18f. 210 A.D.).
"There are some who say that man is in God's image, and quote Gen. 1:26 without first knowing what is meant by the image and similitude of God." (Philastrius, PL, 12:1269).
"At this time the issue was stirred up as to whether God has a body like a man's; the greater part of the common people especially insisted that God has a physical body of human form. Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria led the movement against this belief, and was opposed by the ascetes of the desert . . . who anathemized the books of Origen" . . . Most of these Egyptian reformers were "naive souls, simple and plain of speech, the greater part of them being uneducated, while the Bishops were university men and followers of Origen." It was the "Origenists vs. the Anthropomorphists." (Socrat. CB, VI, 7; Mich. Syr. VIII, 1; Theodoret, CH, PG 82:1141; Soxom. CH VIII, 11.).
The greatest reformer of the 4th century was Audios the Syrian, who tried to restore the primitive purity of the Church. "He preached anthropomorphism, and the doctrine easily fooled naive and uneducated people." (Soz. CB VIII, 11).
"If stories about the gods are to be understood mythically, then they are nothing but words . . . if they are to be understood allegorically, then they are nothing on earth but myths." (Aritides, Apol. 13:7, the first Christian Apologist, rejecting all allegorical interpretation).
The word that best describes God, "asomaton, that is to say, incorporeal is not employed in our Scriptures, where it is entirely unknown," (Origen, P. Archon, Intd. 8). Therefore it is necessary for Origen to squeeze it out by forced and arbitrary reading. For example the scripture, "Who hath seen me hath seen the Father," would give us a bad time, were not the passage more correctly understood by us to mean NOT "see" but "understand". "The story of Moses seeing his hinder parts is just one of those old wives tales. Let no one think it impious if we say that God is not even visible to the Savior. For to see and be seen are the properties of bodies, and so cannot be applied to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." (Ib. II, iv, 3).
"In the third century . . . Bishop Nepos attacked the 'allegorists' with a book in defense of a literal and earthly Millennium; in reply to this 'unhealthy' teaching, Dionysius, the sophisticated Bishop of Alexandria wrote what Jerome calls 'an elegant book, deriding the old fable about the thousand years and the earthly Jerusalem with its gold and jewels, the restoration of the Temple', etc. This in turn brought forth a two-volume counterblast in Jerome's day by one Apollinarius, who "not only speaks for his own following but for the greater part of the people here as well, so that I can already see," says Jerome, "what a storm of opposition is in store for me!" Jerome frankly admits that the opposition represents the old Christian tradition, his own liberal 'spiritualizing' interpretation running counter to the beliefs of such eminent earlier authorities as Tertullian, Victorinus, Lactantius, and Irenaeus. This puts him in a dilemma: 'If we accept these things literally we are judaizers, if spiritually, as they were written, we seem to be contradicting the opinions of many of the ancients.'" (H.N., JQR 50, 99.).
C. The philosophic vocabulary had no place in early Christianity:
The word "asomaton, that is incorporeal, is not employed in our Scriptures where it is entirely unknown." (Origen, P. Ar. Intd. 8).
The term "non-being", "out of nothing", "Consubstantial", etc. are not found in the Scriptures and were unknown to the early Church. Therefore their introduction caused much misgiving and discussion. (Soc. EH I, viii, 27).
"The word 'ousia' (nature, being) was unknown to the common people, since it is not contained in the scriptures." (Socrat. HE II, 37).
"The doctrine that caused the greatest amusement to the heathen, and which they have the hardest time understanding is that concerning Christ's physical incarnation and suffering." (const. Ap. III, 5).
Peter: "We deny absolutely that there is any evil in matter as such," (Clem. Recog. IV, 25).
Peter to Simon Magus: "You seem to me not to know what a father and a God is; but I could tell you both whence the spirits are, and when and how they were made. But it is not permitted to me now to disclose these things to you, who are in such error in respect of the knowledge of God. If we set forth pure truth . . . with arguments and sophisms, they (the hearers) roll them in the mud (it scandalizes them) . . . Wherefore I also, for the most part . . . try to avoid publishing the chief knowledge concerning Supreme Divinity to unworthy ears." (Clem. Recog. 2:60, 3:1). Simon had just said: "I say that there are many gods, but that there is one God incomprehensible and unknown to all." (Ib. II, 37).
Martin Luther complained "that it was impossible to become a theologian except with the help of Aristotle, 'that comedian who deluded the church with his Greek mask.'" (C. Michalson, Un. Sem. Qt. Rev. 13:3).
D. Why the God of the Philosophers and the Christian Doctors is the Same:
"With perfect impunity and the greatest of ease they proceeded to do violence to the Scriptures, blithely disregarding the original teaching . . . They never consulted the Scriptures, but busily worked out elaborate structures of syllogisms . . . They cultivated the arts of the unbelievers and took to hair-splitting discussions about the once simple faith of the Holy Writ." (Euseb. CH, V, 28).
"O miserable Aristotle. Who taught them dialectic, the art of proving and disproving..." (Tertull., De praescr. 7).
E. The theory of the later Doctors:
"A really scientific theology which would present the Christian God as abstract being in the manner common to orthodox metaphysics was a crying need if the (Christian) religion was to have standing . . . The pronouncements at Nicaea and Chalcedon show the finished product." (Enslin, WTR 47, 215).
"In expounding the Bible if one were always to confine oneself to the unadorned grammatical meaning . . . it would be necessary to assign to God feet, hands, and eyes, as well as corporeal and human affections . . . These propositions uttered by the Holy Ghost were set down in that manner by the sacred scribes in order to accommodate them to the capacities of the common people, who are rude and unlearned . . . Now the Bible, merely to condescend to popular capacity, has not hesitated to obscure some very important pronouncements, attributing to God Himself some qualities extremely remote from (and even contrary to) His essence . . . Having arrived at any certainties in physics, we ought to utilize these as the most appropriate aids in the true exposition of the Bible." (Galileo, To Christina, S. Drake, 181—3).
"We must also take heed, in handling the doctrine of Moses, that we altogether avoid saying positively and confidently anything which contradicts manifest experiences and reasoning of philosophy or the other sciences. For since every truth is in agreement with all other truth, the truth of the Holy Writ cannot be contrary to the solid reasons and experiences of human knowledge." (Id., 186).
(According to these classical statements, God in order to help the feeble understanding of men to grasp his nature, deliberately obscures the issue by giving us a picture of himself that is as much unlike him as possible! The "unadorned meaning" of the Word of God is hopelessly misleading until it has been corrected and brought into line with the "manifest experiences and reasoning of philosophy or the other sciences")
III. The Result:
"Deicide has been committed. Existentialism is not the murderer. It is simply the witness to the crime. As Nietzsche said, "is it the churches which are the tombs of God, and God is dead not because He never existed, but because people have killed Him with belief. The very manner of the church's credence is the murder weapon." Existentialism detects the crime when it says: "No God could be believed as you believe Him and survive..." (C. Michalson, Un. Sem. Qt. Rev. 13:4) "God is set aside, according to Bultmann, not by denying Him but by affirming Him in the wrong way. Ironically, the theologians are the class of people most likely to commit deicide." (Ib., 5).
"According to Aristotle," as Ortega y Gasset has said, "God does nothing but think about thought—which is to convert God into an intellectual, or, more precisely, into a modest professor of philosophy. To speak of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in terms so bloodless is deicide and Luther witnessed the crime." (Ib., 4).
"I am unconvinced that the word 'God' symbolizes anything. Not only are many statements about God self-contradictory, but they may not refer to anything but aspirations . . . as far as I can make out . . . you want me to take the statement that Jesus ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God, as a metaphor . . . how careful one must be not to push the thing a little further, and regard the paternity of God and the virginity of Mary as metaphors, like God's arm." (J.B.S. Haldane, Sci. & Supernatural, 62, 65).
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What is meta? ×
Possible Duplicate:
Why did my consecutive days disappear?
My stackoverflow account was showing visited 48 days, 24 consecutive then I logged in at 2 Am in Midnight. and after That I logged after 36 hours. I expected it should show 26 Consecutive but Alas I saw it.. 50 days and 1 Consecative. I guess there is a problem with local time zone. Now I have to log in for one more month to earn Enthusiast
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marked as duplicate by ChrisF, Time Traveling Bobby, Nick Craver Dec 7 '11 at 11:15
2 Answers 2
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Anything based on "days" in the Stack Exchange system always means UTC days.
You can check the current UTC time by hovering over your name in the top toolbar. enter image description here
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Do you see anywhere on stackoverflow.com your local time? I don't. All times are UTC times. So I assume all their calculations are also based on UTC.
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Bible is Clear: A Fetus is NOT a Life
I came across Exodus 21:22-25 while performing research for my rebuttal to a reply by C_Andy_3. I would like to thank C_Andy_3 for the discussion that led to my discovery of this passage.
Old Testament quote, emphasis mine (thanks to Mechon Mamre for the RaMBaM translation):
This clearly states that the fetus was not a life. In fact, it indicates that a miscarriage could be caused without causing harm. The loss of the fetus can be compensated by mere money. After that, if there is harm, it is life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, ….
I don’t agree that causing a miscarriage causes no harm to anyone, personally. I’m merely noting that the Bible states this. More importantly, the Bible explicitly states that the fetus is not a life. For it is only when harm is caused to the woman, that thou shalt give life for life, etc.
My personal view on abortion is that we should do everything we can to reduce the need and increase the availability of the procedure. Comprehensive sex education, improved availability of birth control, reduced stigma for using or purchasing birth control especially among teens, will all reduce the need for abortion. But, when it is necessary, it should be readily available and legal.
And, since we now know that the Bible says that a fetus is not a life, perhaps we as a secular country, as well as our theocratically minded vocal and powerful minority, can and should stop opposing women’s rights to the procedure. While they’re at it, perhaps they can even stop the death threats, murders, and harassment of doctors and clinic workers. Dare I say as an atheist that it would be “the Christian thing to do.”
In case anyone thinks that this is merely the Jewish Interpretation, here are a couple of mainstream Christian interpretations of the same passage.
Here’s the King James translation of the same passage. Emphasis mine again.
Here’s the New International Version translation of the same passage (emphasis mine):
Exodus 21:22 Or she has a miscarriage
If anyone would like additional translations or has some to add, feel free to add or request them. Given that these are all substantially similar in stating that a fetus is not a life, I think it unlikely that some other translation will disagree materially.
33 Responses to Bible is Clear: A Fetus is NOT a Life
1. C_Andy_3 says:
There is no need to thank me for creating a blog that represents what I don’t believe. Jeremiah 1:5 states “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (God speaking to Jeremiah) the fact that the angel came to Mary and Joseph and told them they would conceive a child who would be the reincarnation of God states that the life of Jesus did not begin when the Virgin had her child, but when He was CONCEIVED. Those are MY biblical points to counter yours. Please find another passage in the New Testament that shows life does not begin until the child is born. And by the way a miscarriage is another name for “fetal death” how does something die if it doesn’t live? Babies have a heart that drs can see 4 weeks after initial conception. That is a baby, who has a life. When you have an abortion you are KILLING a child. Whether or not you are ok with that is between you and God. :) don’t get wild on me, I’m tellin you why those are my beliefs. Both spiritual and personal experience have given me and understanding. I know women who have had abortions (not speaking for all) and the regret and guilt they feel after can be unbearable.
• Alfred E. Neuman says:
Maybe I’m just being very literal like our atheist friends here… but even the referenced line that is subsequently used to twist the text and argue that a fetus is not a life actually does so on its own by referring to the woman as being “with child.”
I guess the atheists overlooked the word “child?” After all, it’s with “child,” not with ‘potential child’ or ‘future child’ or ‘non-living child’ or ‘not yet alive child’.
Sure the punishment for killing the mother too was more severe, but that doesn’t prove that the “child” wasn’t ‘alive’ before the “woman with child” was “hurt” via loss of said “child.”
Even the devil can quote Scripture (with the intent of misleading) and good heavens, these monkeys are flinging poo! Monkeys, I award you my highest honor!
Sincerely yours,
• Hi Alfred (love the Mad Mag reference),
Welcome to my blog.
First, let me point out that it’s not atheists in general; it’s just me. This blog is my opinion. I take sole (and soul, if I had one) responsibility for my own statements. Others who have commented can take responsibility for their statements. But, none of us can claim to speak for all atheists as a group as if atheism somehow generates a common opinion on anything other than the non-existence of all gods.
As for the word child, no I didn’t really overlook it. I merely noted that said “child” is explicitly excluded from the eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life equation and is therefore not yet considered a life by the authors of the Bible. “Woman with child” is a common, albeit slightly dated, way to say pregnant woman, not surprisingly used in a 2,000-2,800 year old text. However, the statement that the “child” (actually fetus, perhaps there was no word for fetus in biblical times) is worth a fine in shekels while any other harm is measured in life for life is still a clear statement (in my own opinion) that the child/fetus is not yet a life.
I do personally believe that a fetus is alive, has a heartbeat, etc. And, as I stated, I would take real actions to reduce the necessity for abortion.
However, the current claim by the religious right (actually religious wrong) that all life is sacred in the bible and thus that abortion is a sin and should be outlawed is flat dead wrong on a great many levels. For starters, it is wrong because our laws don’t come from the Bible … thankfully!! But, it is also wrong because the Bible does not provide any text from which one can conclude that a fetus is a life or that a fetus is more valuable than a woman. So, their attempt to imprison women during their pregnancies and take away control of their own bodies is not only in direct violation of the great constitution of the world’s first and oldest constitutionally secular country, it is not even supported by the book from which they claim as the source of all morality.
So, instead of outlawing abortion, how about we take real meaningful steps to reduce the need? How about if we institute real sex education? How about if we increase availability of birth control, especially life-saving condoms, to teens?
No. The religious wrong couldn’t possibly support such things. They’re sinful.
So, we go on creating accidental pregnancies when the vast majority could be prevented. (Yes, I know most birth control is not 100% effective.) But, for those who oppose abortion, the obvious way to reduce it is to reduce the need. Instead, the same idiots that fail to notice that neither abortion nor birth control is ever mentioned anywhere in the Bible do everything in their power to increase unwanted pregnancy and thus increase abortion. It’s ludicrous.
Remember, the number one cause of abortion is unintended pregnancy.
Anyway, thanks for adding to the discussion. It is a valid point that the word child is used. I just still believe that the rest of the text separates that child from the biblical authors’ opinion of the living.
• Cerberus says:
I commend you for trying to come in defense of your war king, but is that even necessary? Can your god not speak for himself? And the words “with child” will never negate the fact that your war god has called for the countless slaughter of children both the born, and those that were not yet conceived. You know, the women that were the property of men? “With child”?
There’s your poo back at you, Al. With my blessing.
2. C_Andy_3,
1. I thank you for an interesting conversation that made me think and do research. The fact that my opinion differs from yours does not stop me from appreciating your input into my thought process.
2. Here are three lists of the major holidays in the Christian religion.
Oh wait, here’s another with far more holidays.
Guess which one is not on any of these four lists. Go ahead … guess. Did you guess?
Ready for the answer?
Holy F Day
The holiday no one ever heard of. The holiday no one celebrates. The holiday that is not on any list of major Christian holidays is the one that celebrates the Incarnation of Christ. Why? Because neither a fertilized egg nor a fetus counts as Jesus Christ. The big holiday is for his birthday, not his conception. Admittedly, both are actually on the wrong dates so that Christmas would coincide with and supersede Saturnalia. But, the point is that His birth is a big deal, not his conception.
This is also why we celebrate our own birthdays, not the anniversary of the date on which our parents got all hot and sweaty.
3. I did not say a fetus is not alive. Nor did I say that it does not have a heartbeat. I said that the Bible states that a fetus is not a life. I also stated my opinion that the rights of a fetus do not outweigh the rights of the mother. I also stated that I would support programs that genuinely reduce the need for abortion, such as the comprehensive sex education that worked so well for you plus increasing the availability of birth control for those who make different choices than you.
4. You made a leap from fetus to baby without a valid sequitur. Fetal death is not infanticide. When one has an abortion, one is terminating the life of the fetus, not an infant. By far, the vast majority of abortions in the U.S. are performed in the first trimester. These are not infants. They’re fetuses.
5. Why restrict me to the New Testament? Was the God of the Old Testament a different God? Was S/He less all-knowing? Was S/He less infallible? Matt 5:17-19 clearly states that all of the old laws still apply. BTW, this includes not eating pork or shellfish and celebrating Passover. I assume you still believe in the 10 commandments. They are only in the O.T. Matt 5:17-19 (NIV)
6. God kills more fetuses than all abortion clinics combined. The current theory of why type 1 diabetes (which I happen to have) survives rather than being weeded out of the gene pool is that it makes a fertilized egg more likely to implant in the womb. Since 80% of all fertilized eggs never successfully implant, this is a big advantage to making it into the world, even if 1 in 6 will die of the disease (without modern medicine).
7. At least one passage in the N.T. says that god sometimes thinks it’s OK to kill a fetus. Hosea 9:14 says (NIV):
Give them, Lord—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.
If those are babies as you state, that’s pretty mean for god to kill them.
So, do we agree to disagree? Do you admit that I at least have a valid point even if it may not be the only one and even if it differs from yours and your preacher’s?
Remember again, the Bible never mentions abortion or birth control. Both predate even the Old Testament. Why the omission? The lack of any mention of either by name is itself a statement of a sort. The authors were not prudes. They put in plenty of other opinions about sex.
3. The Expulsion Of Gods says:
And I second the notion in that I clearly do not agree with, C_Andy’s response.
C_Andy_3, many governments have used bible verses the justify their own cruelty towards others in the name of their gods. An example of this would be “The Crusaders Of The 12Th Century,” Who slaughtered or tortured
anyone who stood in their way.
And as we all know quite well that such beliefs , and verses can comfort the minds of the flock to do virtually any kind of atrocity against, men, women, and children of the enemy.
Even today, our government, military and religious leaders rule wars as a so-called “moral” obligation in the destruction of their enemies, and all based on biblical reasoning. To be blunt, in the Gulf War, for instance,
an F-16 fighter/bomber had “Isaiah 21:9″ written on its bombs.
And I don’t think that I’m mistaken in reference of GWB’s crusade against Iraq – as this Iraq was once, Babylon. And the bible’s words gave them their justifcation in that blind commitment for corporate profits – at the expense of all involved.
If you’re on a crusade for the unborn, then why not save our young whom fight for profits?
It would save plenty on both sides…after all, aren’t they our young too? Just curious.
4. EOG,
You make some excellent points. I like that you’re clear that the bible is used for justification, rather than being the actual cause. In Gulf War II: The Vengeance, the real point was oil.
I’ve heard that at least some of the crusades had economic reasons as well. Though, I’m no history buff, so can’t really confirm this myself. If I cared enough, I’d google. But, I don’t.
The more important point is that the original book on genocide, the Bible, can definitely be used to justify both the best and worst in human nature. Alas it’s message is so self-contradictory. Would that it had never been written.
Yecch! I’m almost waxing poetic about my hatred for the damned book.
And yes, I certainly agree with you that it is incredibly hypocritical to worry more about the unborn than the born. As I’ve stated before, the current Repugnican Party platform can be summed up as “Life begins at conception … and ends at birth.”
5. The Expulsion Of Gods says:
I thank you, Scott. That reply made my day!
In regards to my “clear” points about the bible being used as a justification for wars, or peace…
That’s the only message that I gather – why else would it be so immense in contradictions?
For myself, the book’s nothing more than a pseudo-representation of a deity. And as always, presented as factual evidence for the existence of said deity when no such evidence has ever even presented itself. And upon scrutinizing its pages it introduced (to my utter astonishment) the clear fact that it’s incorrect, incoherent and a comouflaged manual for the intentional betrayal of all within any nation.
I’d noticed when cherry picking verses, and with the addition of your own jargon of opinion, in that it gives a cunning evasion for the self-centered in their quest for predominance of minds through their own book of fraudulent propagandized murmurs.
I will never allow my self to be controled by those again…
Not ever!
Regarding the crusades:
Do you agree to the established fact that the church of catholicism had once conducted wars throughout the countries of Europe to become the most dominant power, and had absolute command over
all the nations therein?
At the time, no monarch could hold any authority within his own nation without the full support of the church in Rome. And this was never done at the behest of a nation’s own people because, quite frankly, the people simply had no choice in the matter.
The acquisition of those nations, their property, and wealth was never attained through the kindness of the pope.
Would it be any different under the rule of the crusaders? After all, those crusaders were under the direction of the same church in Rome, weren’t they?
-Yecch! I’m almost waxing poetic about my hatred for the damned book.-
Thanks…I like that one, Scott.
-The current repugnican party platform can be summed up as “life begins at conception…and ends at birth.”-
Well done!
Did you just suggest that bible readers are cunning linguists?
Well done!
Not original on my part. I got it from a good friend years ago. It’s even more true now.
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
-Did you just suggest that the bible readers are cunning linguists?-
Not exactly. What I mean by this is for those whom aren’t willing enough to think for themselves.
I really do care for people such as, C_Andy_3. But reaching them is almost an impossibility to be sure.
She seems to be a good person; but I fail to see why she’s unwilling to except the reality in which she’s a part of…
I know the feeling of comfort she feels. But that sense of comfort is an illusion…
Be the notion of heaven, hell, gods…it makes no difference. These are merely constructs that…while may have started with good intentions in mind, but, as we can see its corruption is absolute.
Still, it’s highly doubtful if the book was ever written with any good intentions though. As history teaches us that people will scam others into doing things to enrich themselves, and all the while, building their sense of security to eventualy play their role as god.
That devious act has been played throughout the centuries.
I wonder if she’s inclined to even notice how her god acts the same as spoiled little men whom had once governed nations.
I wonder…
• Did you miss or ignore my reference to “cunning linguists”, deliberately to sound like cunnilinguists? It’s not original on my part. I just wanted to be a bit funny about it. Oh well.
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
Oh bother…
It most definitely appears that missed this one completely!
I was still half asleep when replying to your post, but I get it now. My apologies.
And it is funny.
Perhaps next time I’ll just tilt my hed to the left, and maybe that one little marble will fall into the correct hole..which will result in a repaired brain-fart.
Wow…that went completely over my hed, didn’t it?.
6. Here’s a terrible recording of a great scene from Mrs. Doubtfire that is probably the source of my prior joke. It’s certainly not original on my part, but may predate the movie by a number of years too. The scene starts as the two are alone at the table after Pierce Brosnan has just given Sally Field an expensive bracelet.
7. The Expulsion Of Gods says:
That was excellent, Scott.
Though I could not hear all they were saying, but that was refreshing nonetheless.
I’ve never seen the move, but I’ll be getting it.
Thanks for sharing it.
8. [email protected] says:
Has anyone ever read the scripture in the Bible where it states that we are NOT to argue about scripture?? Just asking.
9. The Expulsion Of Gods says:
Hi nskinner,
I understand. You, just as the scribes that had contrived that piece of shoddy workmanship never want it to be questioned because when people learn to question any sense of authority, in particular, any kind of book and people that claim to be the “sole” authority, knows when it’s under scrutiny that it indeed will loose all credibility.
Look, I grasp the need for those whom feel the necesity to worship an imaginary friend, but there are those of us, through experience, that no longer except the book as having any validity whatsoever.
Please bare in mind, nskinner. When one never learns to question a dictator, then one will never see a problem in killing for him. I value life, do you?
10. nskinner,
I’m not sure anyone on this thread has attempted to make a point about whether it is OK to argue about scripture.
I would think a lot would depend on whether we’re talking about the Jewish God or the Christian God. I tend to think that most Christians like to imagine a perfect God.
However, I recently read a book by Alan Dershowitz. He points out that as God is described in Genesis, God goes well beyond allowing debate about scripture. He allows Abraham to argue with God … and win!! He even shows pride that one of His creations has won an argument with Him. This was the discussion of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God still destroys the cities, but not before allowing that if 10 righteous men (not women, of course) can be found in the cities, then He will spare them.
We can debate the righteousness of that despicable creep Lot later.
But, if God allows for argument with Himself, certainly debate about scripture is allowed.
Christianity seems to feel that somewhere along the way, God achieved perfection. Perhaps He learned it while He was screwing Mary … or her mother. Or, perhaps He learned it while He was on the cross, though nothing in the New Testament actually states that Jesus and God and the Holy Goat are one. The word trinity, to my knowledge, does not appear in the N.T. anywhere.
Regardless, Christianity comes along and all of a sudden, God is perfect, and retroactively so.
Judaism on the other hand has centuries and now millennia of tradition of interpreting the Bible and arguing over it. That’s what the Talmud is all about. Rabbi after rabbi after rabbi interpreting the Torah century after century after century.
So, which God? Which Bible?
It doesn’t matter to me. All are up for debate. I know more about some than others. I know more about Judaism than about Christianity and more about Christianity than about Islam and more about Islam than about Hinduism. But, any who seek to impose their religion on me are wide open for criticism and debate in my book.
That makes Christianity the most open for debate … and ridicule … on my site. Were I in a country with another religion seeking to create a theocracy, I would be debating that religion instead. Here in the U.S., it is Christianity seeking to form the United States of Saudi Arabia, or what I generally prefer to call the Democratic Peoples Republic of the Christian States of America.
And, to anyone who thinks that a Christian theocracy would be any better than an Islamic one, um … no. It wouldn’t. In fact, there would not be much of a discernible difference. The laws would be about the same.
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
I’d say, you’ve made some fascinating points regarding the aspect on biblical debating, and makes it quite clear that even the biblical god enjoyed it.
Though, for myself, it makes no difference in whether or not any gods would care if I’d debate them because this god shows no contrast from any other.
In fact, when comparing Lucifer to God one can’t help to ask the question relating to who is the real liberator. But, since the scribes also give an indication to the effect that their god is the personifcation
of both, good, and evil, then lucifer and hell become a moot point at best — the same as god.
• I was only playing god’s advocate, which is harder for me than devil’s advocate.
For me, the issue is not even comparing and contrasting gods, the issue is simply one of showing that there is any evidence for the existence of any of them.
There isn’t.
Therefore, this whole exercise is merely an alternate means to attempt to convince people that even their own religion does not say what they think it does. And, as such, they should stop trying to legislate from their mistakes about their own religion.
Were I forced to choose between spending eternity in heaven with a bunch of born again Christians or in hell with some fire and brimstone, I’d choose hell. But, the choice is a silly one to discuss since neither exists.
When I die, I expect to have exactly the same experiences I had for the first 13.7+ billion years of the universe, i.e. none.
11. BTW, here’s a really good write-up on the subject. Note that the author acknowledges that a fertilized egg is alive, but debates about when to grant the right of personhood and whether to consider the other life, the one on which we all agree (I hope), the woman’s life.
Life Begins At Conception. That’s Not the Point
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
Sorry to have taken so long with my replying to this issue, but I’ve had a lot on me lately.
gods advocate, hey?
I understand, and it is the better approach in showing how the clergy have only injected their own fraudulent tokens into the books narrative when the bible has already stated god’s feelings on the matter, and rather expicitly so…
And for the clergy and government leaders to encourage such treacherous statements, and conduct, lends them no credibility to be taken seriously, nor gives them any ground in their commitment to convert others into their inane idea of quackery…
If such so-called “leaders” wish to be taken seriously then they need to be honest with everyone, and not by the nonproductive promotion to lecture every one by enacting their dishonest creed of corruption into every persons mind, or household – I say, NAY! That is not even close to the function of the fundamental principles inacted by the founders that has granted everyone a choice in relation to whether or not to follow any religious doctrine that was manufactured solely for monopolizing the countries money, and people into the clergy’s immoral sense of conformity!
(I say to anyone whom cares to read this!) We are a species (like the apes) that has always been one of nourishing ideas through example, and not one of total domination!
And for them to continue this reckless behavior will only contribute to their empires DEMISE, and hopefully all religion therein!
There…I’m feeling a little better now.
And I completely agree will the article, and even more with Jewish community to be precise.
No problem. Welcome back.
Amen, so to speak.
One minor correction. We are not like apes. We are apes.
<Evolution Rant>
Exactly the same evolutionary hierarchy that makes us animals, vertebrates, tetrapods, mammals, and primates also makes us apes. We are in the ape family.
To not include us in the term apes would be to remove the scientific nature of the word ape. This is, by the way, the reason that the English language word reptile is not a scientific term. It is not a family. It should map to the taxa saurapsids. However, it explicitly excludes members of the family dinosauria (dinosaurs, including birds). Therefore, reptile is not a scientific family. To use ape in a way that excludes humans would be to deny that apes are a scientific family, specifically the taxa hominoidea, or for our even closer relatives the great apes, hominidae. In Latin, this becomes incredibly obvious since both taxa hominoidea and hominidae are obviously derived from the word for our own genus homo.
P.S. No. I don’t remember off the top of my head the differences in which levels of our taxa are which (a word that is both singular and plural in taxonomy). I always have to look them up. In order, the taxa for the groups most closely related to us, from closer to more distantly related larger families are:
Homo: Our own genus.
Hominini: All species closer to us than chimps and bonobos, e.g. the genuses ardipithecis, australopithecus, paranthropus, and homo. I may be missing some.
Hominidae: the great apes, i.e. chimps, bonobos, gorillas (several species), and orangutans.
Hominoidea: All apes, i.e. all of the above plus gibbons (quite a few species), and siamangs (2 species, I believe).
Having seen chimps, mountain gorillas, orangutans, and Bornean gibbons in the wild, I can assure you that the relationship to us is very obvious in any of these. Chimps in particular (and bonobos too, though I haven’t seen them in the wild) are so similar to us that you can read their facial expressions without even trying.
</Evolution Rant>
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
I get the point, Scott. Sorry for any misunderstanding on my part, as I do discern, and except that we’ve always been apart of the ape family tree. But I was only using the term loosely in an effort to show how closely related we actually are to them. Was I wrong in doing so? I wouldn’t think so.
At any rate, you’ve explained it wonderfully, Scott. Thanks
• It is never wrong to point out how closely related we are to our nearest relatives in the animal kingdom. You just hit upon a personal pet peeve of mine with respect to separating us from the other apes, thus triggering a rant.
It is my hope that if more people realize that we are apes that we might treat our cousins a bit better than we currently do.
We might work harder to protect them in hopes of preventing their extinction.
We might stop performing medical tests on them.
We might stop eating them.
12. Celeste says:
Can we talk, Scott? If you could e-mail me, it would be appreciated.
13. Celeste, whether you agree or disagree with my opinion, yours would be welcome here. It might spark some good debate. Tangents are also welcome.
I do like to keep the conversation public so that everyone can participate though.
14. The Expulsion Of Gods says:
Say! Does anyone know what time it is?!
Why, it’s Expulsion’s tangent time!
I came across this article the other day from “Wikipedia” and found it interesting. Enjoy!
–God is dead–
“God is dead”, also known as (the death of God) is a widely quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It first appears in the Gay Science, in section 108 (New Struggles), 125 (The Madman), and for a third time in section 343 (The Meaning of our Cheerfulness).
It is also found in Nietzsche’s work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which is most responsible for popularizing the phrase. The idea is stated in “The Madman” as follows:
–God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives:who will wipe this blood off us?
What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of the dead too great for us? Must we ourselves not become Gods simply to appear worthy of it?–
–Nietzsche, The Gay Science, section 125, tr.–
Walter Kaufman
Death of God theological movement
The cover of the April 8th, 1966 edition of Time Magazine asked the question “is God dead?” and the accompanying article addressed growing –Atheism– in America at the time. At the time, a movement called “death of God” was arising in American theology. The death of God movement is sometimes technically referred to as “theothanatology”, deriving from the Greek words theos (God) and thanatos (death).
The main proponents of this theology included the Christian theologians Gabriel Vahanian, Paul Van Buren, William Hamilton, John A.T. Robinson, Thomas J.J.Altizer, John D.Caputo, and the rabbi Richard L.Rubenstein.
In 1961, Vahanian’s book The Death Of God was published. Vahanian argued that modern secular culture had lost all sense of the sacred, lacking any sacramental meaning, no transcendental purpose or sense of providence. He concluded that for the modern mind “God Was Dead”. In Vahanian’s vision a transformed post-Christian culture was needed to create a renewed experience of deity.
Altizer offered a radical theology of the death of God that drew upon William Blake, Hegelian thought and Nietzschean ideas. He conceived of the theology as a form of poetry in which the immanence (presence) of God could be encountered in faith communities. However, he no longer accepted the possibility of affirming belief in a transcendent God. Altizer concluded that God had incarnated in Christ and imparted his immanent spirit which remained in the world even though Jesus was dead.
Unlike Nietzsche, Altizer believed that God truly died.
He considered this to be the leading exponent of the death of God movement.
Rubenstein represented that radical edge of Jewish thought working through the impact of the Holocaust. In a technical sense he maintained, based on the kabbalah, that God had “died” in creating the world.
However, from modern Jewish culture he argued that the death of God occurred in Auschwitz.
–Although the literal death of God did not occur at this point, this was the moment in time in which humanity was awakened to the idea that a theistic God may not exist.–
In Rubenstein’s work, it was no longer possible to believe in an orthodox (or) traditional theistic God of the abrahamic covenant; rather, God is a historical process.
Ah – freedom.
• Good tangent, very very tangent. Let’s run with it.
Old humor:
God is dead. — Nietzsche.
Nietzsche is dead. — God.
Of course, for any god to die, one would first have had to exist. I think what Nietzsche probably meant was that the idea of god was dead or perhaps should die.
Since I haven’t actually read Nietzsche, I can’t really say.
But, if we’re going to discuss theism versus non-theism versus atheism, it pays to wonder why we have advanced so little for so long. Both Epicurus (341 BCE – 270 BCE) and Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563 – 483 BCE) noted that there are no gods centuries before the supposed time of Christ.
No one has ever proffered a single shred of hard evidence for the existence of any god. So, why do nearly half of the people on the planet still believe in god(s)?
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
Usually because it gets rather ingrained at an early age due to children believing what their parent teaches them. They’re incapable of making those choices on their own, but most don’t even have the luxury of even making any choices at all, and that compiled with the lapse in judgment from the government is why our nation suffers.
The clergy simply want power over us all…
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
The date on the Wikipedia article is wrong, because according to Time Magazine the actual date was Fri Oct 22, 1965.
It’s no wonder you can never fully rely on Wikipedia to give accurate information, because typically, anyone can type their own spin into the narrative.
I know they try to keep it as accurate as possible, but when that kind of information has been up long enough it tends to get ingrained into an ignorant persons brain, causing a severe and rather permanent psychosis.
Hope this has been worthy of your time…but if not? Oh well.
Bye all!
• Wikipedia is still a fantastic resource. It is not perfect. However, it has been ranked as more correct than the Encyclopedia Britannica across the whole list of topics covered.
Far from devolving to the least common denominator, as would have been expected by a misanthrope like me, wikipedia has proven itself among the most valuable resources on the web.
No source is perfect all the time.
Wikipedia is usually chock full of links backing up its statements. One can easily click through to the reference whenever one cares enough or doubts the information.
BTW, did you take the time to correct the wikipedia page? (Not that I’ve ever done so.)
• The Expulsion Of Gods says:
Nope. Someone else can have that pleasure. Just testing.
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Author Veronica Roth Divergent Interview - Part 1
Veronica Roth's first novel, Divergent, was picked up by Summit Entertainment (the studio behind all the Twilight movies) and soon will be made into a major feature film. No names are currently attached to star in the film version (there aren't even any rumors floating around on the internet as of July 2011 when our interview occurred), but we do know that Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman) has been tapped to adapt Roth's book.
We're still a few years away from seeing a movie version of Divergent, however the author made the trip to San Diego for the 2011 Comic Con in support of her book and the film project it spawned. And in part 1 of our exclusive interview, Roth talks about her Comic Con experience, creating the main factions in the book, explaining and defining the different virtues of each faction to her readers, the book's violence and how it could be portrayed on screen, and casting Beatrice and Four:
View Part 2 of our interview with Veronica Roth: Divergent Interview, Part 2
Divergent Plot:
In the dystopic future of Divergent, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to a particular virtue: honesty, selflessness, bravery, peacefulness, or intelligence. After leaving her family for a rival faction, sixteen-year-old Beatrice undertakes a brutal initiation in her new home while keeping a secret that could lead to her death. But when she discovers growing unrest between the factions of her seemingly-perfect society, Beatrice must decide whether to reveal her true self in order to save the ones she loves.
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Movie Mashup (1996)
Boys (1996)
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Boys is a 1996 American film starring Winona Ryder and Lukas Haas. The film was originally titled The Girl You Want. The film earned $516,350 in the United States box office. It is based on a short story called "Twenty Minutes" by James Salter. The film is set in an East Coast boys' boarding school in the United States, and was shot in Baltimore, Maryland and on the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, which represents the school. John Baker Jr. (Lukas Haas) is a boy bored with his life at an upper middle class boarding school, and the prospect of his future running the family grocery store chain. He no longer sees the point in school, stating what's the difference if he gets a zero attendance for being three minutes late or skipping the whole class so he might as well skip the class. Now close to graduating from boarding school, his life is turned upside down when he rescues Patty Vare (Winona Ryder), a young woman he finds lying unconscious in a field. Patty regains consciousness that evening in John's dormitory. She stays awake long enough to tell him she will not go to a doctor, and then passes out and does not awaken until the next morning.
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Link to all Videos for Tafseer of Surah Yaseen (new videos will have this tag)
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1. Zainab Khan
Is there any way I could get recordings of the ramadan tafseer series of Surah Yaseen and Surah maryam in a CD form so I can share and distribute it with my family members and friens at university? and so I can always keep a copy of the lectures with myself as well.
Jazak Allah khayr.
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You are browsing the archive for right-wingers.
Ten years ago. The Iraq War in retrospect.
4:16 pm in Uncategorized by rich2506
From WHYY Public Media.
One of Philadelphia’s Gold Star Mothers, Celeste Zappala, was interviewed by WHYY on Tuesday, the 19th of March and the tenth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Zappala lost her son Sherwood Baker in 2004. He was the first National Guard member to lose his life in Iraq. During the Vietnam War, the National Guard was so safe a place to be that the future president George W. Bush signed up for a six-year tour (Not that he even served the full six years), but in Iraq, the National Guard was a vital supplement to the regular armed forces. Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (D-MA) charged in 2004 that by keeping National Guard troops in their billets longer than they had planned and by using them as regular forces, the Bush Administration didn’t have to impose a draft or to increase the size of the regular armed forces, and thus that using the National Guard in that way amounted to a “back-door draft.” Recruitment for the military to keep enough troops fighting in Iraq was a problem. In 2007, the Army had to spend $1 billion in bonuses to recruit and retain the soldiers it had. The economic collapse at the end of 2007 made it a good deal easier to do keep the military fully staffed.
Why did the Bush Administration depend so heavily on the National Guard during the occupation of Iraq?
Much of the planning for the occupation of Iraq was improvised, last-minute and inadequate. The Bush Administration didn’t appear to think that many forces or much momey would be needed after Baghdad had fallen. The problem then was very ably sketched out by Colonel Harry G. Summers, who built upon the theories of Carl von Clausewitz concerning war and national determination. Colonel Summers’ book was entitled “On Strategy: The Vietnam War in context” and it was written in response to the failure of the US to win over the Vietnamese people to the cause of America. The military in both Iraq and Vietnam did everything that was asked of it and it carried out its assigned task with enthusiasm and professionalism. In neither case can America assign any significant blame to the military for the inability of the US to win hearts and minds in the occupied country. The Iraqi insurgents certainly deserve a great deal of credit for making an American victory after the fall of Baghdad impossible. Had all gone according to the plans made by the Bush Administration and had Iraqis quietly accepted the American occupation, there would have been no need for Bush and his people to whip up American enthusiasm and support for the war.
As it was, the left wing was proven correct by the failure to find any WMDs and was thus completely uninterested in supporting the war and the right wing was perfectly happy to keep their activities in support of the war very sharply limited. The right-wing columnist Jonah Goldberg was asked why he didn’t join up and go to Iraq in uniform (Goldberg was at the very upper age limit for joining the military). He later apologized for this response, but it’s worthwhile to remember what he said:
The point here is that Goldberg’s attitude was quite typical for right-wingers. People who supported the war didn’t feel the need to actually go over to Iraq and spend years in a foreign land actually getting themselves involved in learning a foreign language and dealing with a very different culture. Patriotism only demanded so much.
According to Summers, yes, any military or any country’s political leadership can carry out short, brief military actions without getting broad-based buy-in from the country’s civilian population, but any war that costs significant time and resources must get the civilian population emotionally involved. People must be absolutely convinced that the war is of immense significance and that it’s worth great sacrifice to win it. Bush failed to get civilians from the right wing to go to Iraq as civilian reconstruction personnel, which explains why $8 billion of the money allocated to Iraqi reconstruction was lost. Without on-the-ground personnel overseeing projects and with Americans attempting to supervise projects from desks inside the “Green Zone” in Baghdad or from the US, it wasn’t at all surprising that the US reconstruction effort was a complete flop.
Getting Americans motivated
The first step to getting Americans enthusiastically involved in the conquest/occupation of Iraq was supervised by Madeleine Albright in February 1998. Albright brought several fellow war hawks to a town meeting in Ohio. It was a PR disaster as citizens vigorously questioned why Iraq was considered to be a threat and why that threat had to be neutralized via a war. Albright and her people were unable to answer these objections and the Clinton Administration didn’t make any further attempts to whip up the public to supporting a war against Saddam Hussein and his country.
It’s generally accepted among many former skeptics that no, President George W. Bush and VP Dick Cheney didn’t arrange for 9-11 to happen, but the belief was based on solid facts. Bush and Cheney both had oil industry roots, there was good reason to believe that the US oil industry would profit enormously via an American occupation of Iraq and 9-11 occurred just a few years after Albright’s failed attempt to get American citizen buy-in for a war against Iraq. Al Jazeera points out that safeguarding civilians was certainly not on the agenda of the invading Americans:
Even if regular people didn’t buy that Iraq had something to do with 9-11, the Washington DC press corps certainly did. What we do know for certain is that Bush & Cheney manipulated the information suppled by America’s intelligence agencies to make it appear that Hussein had something to do with 9-11.
The deleted paragraphs in the summary called “Key Judgements” read:
Many on the right wing have made their defense of the Bush Administration center around the allegation that Democratic Senators had access to the same intel that Bush had and that they reached the same conclusion. No, Democrats had access to the intel that Bush edited to make it look as though Iraq was a threat.
The consequences?
As documented below, by the most scientifically respected measures available, Iraq lost 1.4 million lives as a result of OIL [Operation Iraqi Liberation], saw 4.2 million additional people injured, and 4.5 million people become refugees. The 1.4 million dead was 5% of the population. That compares to 2.5% lost in the U.S. Civil War, or 3 to 4% in Japan in World War II, 1% in France and Italy in
The US absolutely must prevent anything like the Iraq War from ever occurring again. How are we doing on that? Unfortunately, not very well. The US leadership appears to greatly overestimate the effectiveness of sanctions, underestimates the usefulness of diplomacy and has far too much faith in our intelligence agencies. Also, people in Washington DC, both government officials and the press corps, appear to be talking about the deficit in much the same manner that they discussed Iraq in late 2002-early 2003. The good news is that US troops are very highly unlikely to go back into Iraq, no matter how badly the situation there deteriorates. The US couldn’t do much there the first time and it seems our leadership knows that it couldn’t do much on a return engagement. Could the US invade Iran? Certainly, elements want very badly to do so, but I think the public would be very highly likely to resist.
Wouldn’t say “Great” Minds Think Alike, but certainly “Some” Minds Think Alike
3:52 am in Uncategorized by rich2506
Two right-wingers have come to the same conclusion at the same time. Ted Nugent, the aging one-hit wonder of the late 1970s and really, really enthusiastic gun advocate, tells us about black people voting for the Democratic Party:
And, at the same time, Herman Cain, the marvelously entertaining gaffe-machine of the 2012 Republican primary, says about Americans in general that President Obama is continuing his campaign even though the election is over and he’s been reelected and Cain and Bill O’Reilly agree that Obama has not been able to solve all of America’s problems (Gee, an obstructionist House majority and a constantly-filibustering Senate minority wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would they?), but the real problem is that (selected excerpts) “51% of the voters were…misled enough to vote for him.” O’Reilly: “How dumb are they?” Cain: “We have a severe ignorance problem.”
So yeah, I guess we liberals are just too stupid to know what’s good for us. Funny how, when the “smart people” were in charge, we ended up getting into a completely unnecessary war and the Great Recession. Hmm, strange how that works out!
Bizarre anti-Obama arguments
8:45 pm in Uncategorized by rich2506
Tango: Rahm Emanuel, Eric Holder, Tom Daschle, Gregory Craig and soon enough Hillary Clinton. Early on this admin reaks of the Clinton White House, and seems to offer no real "change" other than nameplates on the offices. So what again where you saying? Read a real news outlet? How’s this:> Get a clue. But typical of most libs you’re too busy attacking and hating the right to even notice how wrong you are.
After a liberal questioned what bpphilly meant by this he responded:
Tango: you really are a dipsh*t…Obama promised Hope and CHANGE. His admin is now full of Washington insiders…exactly what you cite is wrong with Bush’s White House.
Except that nobody ever complained that Bush’s government was "full of Washington insiders," we complained that Bush and his people were criminals, not that they were merely "insiders." So I responded:
Oh good grief! "Change" Read the rest of this entry →
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Aoi "Slave, Lacky-kun, Aoi-chan, President" Ogata
Aoi Ogata
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Aoi Ogata
Main character of AAA, by Fukushima Haruka. She is the president of the student council of AAA, the highest ranking middle school in Japan. Her first love was Kuroda Hayato, a student who ranked first in the entrance exam for AAA but disappeared in the beginning of the school year. Coincidentally, she ends up the slave of Kuroda Hayato, the leader of CCC. Whether they are the same person is unknown.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/77823
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Submitted by john2 475d ago | rumor
Mortal Kombat PC Announcement Imminent, Steam Directory Updated Last Friday
DSOGaming writes: "It's a great day today everyone. It seems that NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros will be announcing the PC version of Mortal Kombat 9 in the coming days, as the game's Steam directory has been updated last Friday." (Mortal Kombat, PC)
Is this rumor true? Rumor votes 14
Th3 Chr0nic + 475d ago
i was very disapointed when i saw how awesome injustice is but no PC version. SO this news is really good, esp for me since ive been a Mk fan since the very first one when i was barely tall enuff to play the arcade cabinet.
john2 + 475d ago
IMO, there is a chance for a PC version of Injustice. If MK sells well, then I don't see why NetherRealms wouldn't like to port it
NYC_Gamer + 475d ago
I hope its a quality port and not some rushed quick cash grab for MK fans sake
john2 + 475d ago
@NYC_Gamer: Now that's the big question. MK Arcade Collection was an awful port. It would have been a great addition to PC's fighting catalogue, however the port was so bad that it was better to stick with MAME. Here is hoping that NetherRealm won't screw things up
Th3 Chr0nic + 475d ago
I yea you guys on the port concerns. I was about to buy Mk arcade collection but then i read about all the problems and didnt even bother.
john2 + 475d ago
@Th3 Chr0nic: Yeap, it's really unfortunate that MK Arcade suffered from idiotic issues. NetherRealm is not familiar with the PC platform, but that game lacked basic features (like the ability to map the keys)
Skate-AK + 475d ago
The MK Arcade Collection was crappy on console also so I can see why the port would be just as bad.
Smashbro29 + 475d ago
All I'm saying is this had better be the GOTY.
john2 + 475d ago
If Amazon's earlier listing is anything to go by, then yes: MK PC will be the GOTY Edition
Smashbro29 + 475d ago
Software_Lover + 475d ago
*evil laugh*
Just another edition to my Mame Cabinet. Cant wait.
kevnb + 475d ago
Why did they wait so long?
Zha1tan + 475d ago
Will play but I really will need to hook up my PS3 controller to play this one for PC.
Cannot stand that xbox D pad for fighters.
MooseyXTC + 475d ago
hano + 475d ago
Took them so long to announce it.
Many better fighting games (Capcom and indie) released on PC since this game got released on consoles...
So now it's a kind of meh announcement for me.
#7 (Edited 475d ago ) | Agree(1) | Disagree(0) | Report | Reply
skyrimer + 475d ago
I can't wait for the mods for this :)
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Suppose that there is no phase of the Armenian question which has aroused more interest than this: Had the Germans any part in it? To what extent was the Kaiser responsible for the wholesale slaughter of this nation? Did the Germans favour it, did they merely acquiesce, or did they oppose the persecutions? Germany, in the last four years, has become responsible for many of the blackest pages in history; is she responsible for this, unquestionably the blackest of all?
I presume most people will detect in the remarks of these Turkish chieftains certain resemblances to the German philosophy of war. Let me repeat particular phrases used by Enver and other Turks while discussing the Armenian massacres: "The Armenians have brought this fate upon themselves." "They had a fair warning of what would happen to them." "We were fighting for our national existence ... .. We were justified, in resorting to any means that would accomplish these ends." "We have no time to separate the innocent from the guilty." "The only thing we have on our mind is to win the war."
These phrases somehow have a familiar ring, do they not? Indeed, I might rewrite all these interviews with Enver, use the word Belgium in place of Armenia, put the words in a German general's mouth instead of Enver's, and we should have almost a complete exposition of the German attitude toward subject peoples. But the teachings of the Prussians go deeper than this. There was one feature about the Armenian proceedings that was new---that was not Turkish at all . For centuries the Turks have ill-treated their Armenians and all their other subject peoples with inconceivable barbarity. Yet their methods have always been crude, clumsy, and unscientific. They excelled in beating out an Armenian's brains with a club, and this unpleasant illustration is a perfect indication of the rough and primitive methods which they applied to the Armenian problem. They have understood the uses of murder, but not of murder as a fine art. But the Armenian proceedings of 1915 and 1916 evidenced an entirely new mentality. This new conception was that of deportation. The Turks, in five hundred years, had invented innumerable ways of physically torturing their Christian subjects, yet never before had it occurred to their minds to move them bodily from their homes, where they had lived for many thousands of years, and send them hundreds of miles away into the desert. Where did the Turks get this idea? I have already described how, in 1914, just before the European War, the Government moved not far from 100,000 Greeks from their age-long homes along the Asiatic littoral to certain islands in the Aegean. I have also said that Admiral Usedom, one of the big German naval experts in Turkey, told me that the Germans had suggested this deportation to the Turks. But the all-important point is that this idea of deporting peoples en masse is, in modern times, exclusively Germanic. Any one who reads the literature of Pan-Germany constantly meets it. These enthusiasts for a German world have deliberately planned, as part of their programme, the ousting of the French from certain parts of France, of Belgians from Belgium, of Poles from Poland, of Slavs from Russia, and other indigenous peoples from the territories which they have inhabited for thousands of years, and the establishment in the vacated lands of solid, honest Germans. But it is hardly necessary to show that the Germans have advocated this as a state policy; they have actually been doing it in the last four years. They have moved we do not know how many thousands of Belgians and French from their native land. Austria-Hungary has killed a large part of the Serbian population and moved thousands of Serbian children into her own territories intending to bring them up as loyal subjects of the empire. To what degree this movement of populations has taken place we shall not know until the end of the war, but it has certainly gone on extensively.
Certain German writers have even advocated the application of this policy to the Armenians. According to the Paris Temps, Paul Rohrbach "in a conference held at Berlin, some time ago, recommended that Armenia should be evacuated of the Armenians. They should be dispersed in the direction of Mesopotamia and their places should be taken by Turks, in such a fashion that Armenia should be freed of all Russian influence and that Mesopotamia might be provided with farmers which it now lacked." The purpose of all this was evident enough. Germany was building the Bagdad railroad across the Mesopotamian desert. This was an essential detail in the achievement of the great new German Empire, extending from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf. But this railroad could never succeed unless there should develop a thrifty and industrious population to feed it. The lazy Turk would never become such a colonist. But the Armenian was made of just the kind of stuff which this enterprise needed. It was entirely in accordance with the German conception of statesmanship to seize these people in the lands where they had lived for ages and transport them violently to this dreary, hot desert. The mere fact that they had always lived in a temperate climate would furnish no impediment in Pan-German eyes. I found that Germany had been sowing those ideas broadcast for several years; I even found that German savants had been lecturing on this subject in the East. "I remember attending a lecture by a well-known German professor," an Armenian tells me. "His main point was that throughout their history the Turks had made a great mistake in being too merciful toward the non-Turkish population. The only way to insure the prosperity of the empire, according to this speaker, was to act without any sentimentality toward all the subject nationalities and races in Turkey who did not fall in with the plans of the Turks."
The Pan-Germanists are on record in the matter of Armenia. I shall content myself with quoting the words of the author of "Mittel-Europa," Friedrich Naumann, perhaps the ablest propagator of Pan-German ideas. In his work on Asia, Naumann, who started life as a Christian clergyman, deals in considerable detail with the Armenian massacres of 1895-96. 1 need only quote a few passages to show the attitude of German state policy on such infamies: "If we should take into consideration merely the violent massacre of from 80,000 to 100,000 Armenians," writes Naumann, "we can come to but one opinion---we must absolutely condemn with all anger and vehemence both the assassins and their instigators. They have perpetrated the most abominable massacres upon masses of people, more numerous and worse than those inflicted by Charlemagne on the Saxons. The tortures which Lepsius has described surpass anything we have ever known. "What then prohibits us from falling upon the Turk and saying to him: 'Get thee gone, wretch!'? Only one thing prohibits us, for the Turk answers: 'I, too, I fight for my existence!'---and indeed, we believe him. We believe, despite the indignation which the bloody Mohammedan barbarism arouses in us, that the Turks are defending themselves legitimately, and before anything else we see in the Armenian question and Armenian massacres a matter of internal Turkish policy, merely an episode of the agony through which a great empire is passing, which does not propose to let itself die without making a last attempt to save itself by bloodshed. All the great powers, excepting Germany, have adopted a policy which aims to upset the actual state of affairs in Turkey. In accordance with this, they demand for the subject peoples of Turkey the rights of man, or of humanity, or of civilization, or of political liberty---in a word, something that will make them the equals of the Turks. But just as little as the ancient Roman despotic state could tolerate the Nazarene's religion, just as little can the Turkish Empire, which is really the political successor of the eastern Roman Empire, tolerate any representation of western free Christianity among its subjects. The danger for Turkey in the Armenian question is one of extinction. For this reason she resorts to an act of a barbarous Asiatic state; she has destroyed the Armenians to such an extent that they will not be able to manifest themselves as a political force for a considerable period. A horrible act, certainly, an act of political despair, shameful in its details, but still a piece of political history, in the Asiatic manner. . . . In spite of the displeasure which the German Christian feels at these accomplished facts, he has nothing to do except quietly to heal the wounds so far as he can, and then to let matters take their course. For a long time our policy in the Orient has been determined: we belong to the group that protects Turkey, that is the fact by which we must regulate our conduct. . . . We do not prohibit any zealous Christian from caring for the victims of these horrible crimes, from bringing up the children and nursing the adults. May God bless these good acts like all other acts of faith. Only we must take care that deeds of charity do not take the form of political acts which are likely to thwart our German policy. The internationalist, he who belongs to the English school of thought, may march with, the Armenians. The nationalist, he who does not intend to sacrifice the future of Germany to England, must, on questions of external policy, follow the path marked out by Bismarck, even if it is merciless in its sentiments. . . . National policy: that is the profound moral reason why we must, as statesmen, show ourselves indifferent to the sufferings of the Christian peoples of Turkey, however painful that may be to our human feelings. . . . That is our duty, which we must recognize and confess before God and before man. If for this reason we now maintain the existence of the Turkish state, we do it in our own self-interest, because what we have in mind is our great future. . . . On one side lie our duties as a nation, on the other our duties as men. There are times, when, in a conflict of duties, we can choose a middle ground. That is all right from a human standpoint, but rarely right in a moral sense. In this instance, as in all analogous situations, we must clearly know on which side lies the greatest and most important moral duty. Once we have made such a choice we must not hesitate. William II has chosen. He has become the friend of the Sultan, because he is thinking of a greater, independent Germany."
Fig. 52. VIEW OF URFA. One of the largest towns in Asia Minor
Fig. 53. A RELIC OF THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES AT ERZINGAN. Such mementos are found all over Armenia
Such was the German state philosophy as applied to the Armenians, and I had the opportunity of observing German practice as well. As soon as the early reports reached Constantinople, it occurred to me that the most feasible way of stopping the outrages would be for the diplomatic representatives of all countries to make a joint appeal to the Ottoman Government. I approached Wangenheim on this subject in the latter part of March. His antipathy to the Armenians became immediately apparent. He began denouncing them in unmeasured terms; like Talaat and Enver, he affected to regard the Van episode as an unprovoked rebellion, and, in his eyes, as in theirs, the Armenians were simply traitorous vermin.
"I will help the Zionists," he said, thinking that this remark would be personally pleasing to me, "but I shall do nothing whatever for the Armenians."
Wangenheim pretended to regard the Armenian question as a matter that chiefly affected the United States. My constant intercession in their behalf apparently created the impression, in his Germanic mind, that any mercy shown this people would be a concession to the American Government. And at that moment he was not disposed to do anything that would please the American people.
"The United States is apparently the only country that takes much interest in the Armenians," he said. "Your missionaries are their friends and your people have constituted themselves their guardians. The whole question of helping them is therefore an American matter. How, then, can you expect me to do anything as long as the United States is selling ammunition to the enemies of Germany? Mr. Bryan has just published his note, saying that it would be unneutral not to sell munitions to England and France. As long as your government maintains that attitude we can do nothing for the Armenians."
Probably no one except a German logician would ever have detected any relation between our sale of war materials to the Allies and Turkey's attacks upon hundreds of thousands of Armenian women and children. But that was about as much progress as I made with Wangenheim at that time. I spoke to him frequently, but he invariably offset my pleas for mercy to the Armenians by references to the use of American shells at the Dardanelles. A coolness sprang up between us soon afterward, the result of my refusal to give him "credit" for having stopped the deportation of French and British civilians to the Gallipoli peninsula. After our somewhat tart conversation over the telephone, when he had asked me to telegraph Washington that he had not hetzed the Turks in this matter, our visits to each other ceased for several weeks.
There were certain influential Germans in Constantinople who did not accept Wangenheim's point of view. I have already referred to Paul Weitz, for thirty years the correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung, who probably knew more about affairs in the Near East than any other German. Although Wangenheim constantly looked to Weitz for information, he did not always take his advice. Weitz did not accept the orthodox imperial attitude toward Armenia, for he believed that Germany's refusal effectively to intervene was doing his fatherland everlasting injury. Weitz was constantly presenting this view to Wangenheim, but he made little progress. Weitz told me about this himself, in January, 1916, a few weeks before I left Turkey. I quote his own words on this subject:
"I remember that you told me at the beginning," said Weitz, "what a mistake Germany was making in the Armenian matters. I agreed with you perfectly. But when I urged this view upon Wangenheim, he threw me twice out of the room!"
Another German who was opposed to the atrocities was Neurath, the Conseiller of the German Embassy. His indignation reached such a point that his language to Talaat and Enver became almost undiplomatic. He told me, however, that he had failed to influence them.
"They are immovable and are determined to pursue their present course," Neurath said.
Of course no Germans could make much impression on the Turkish Government as long as the German Ambassador refused to interfere. And, as time went on, it became more and more evident that Wangenheim had no desire to stop the deportations. He apparently wished, however, to reestablish friendly relations with me, and soon sent third parties to ask why I never came to see him. I do not know how long this estrangement would have lasted had not a great personal affliction befallen him. In June, Lieutenant Colonel Leipzig, the German Military Attaché, died under the most tragic and mysterious circumstances in the railroad station at Lule Bourgas. He was killed by a revolver shot; one story said that the weapon had been accidentally discharged, another that the Colonel had committed suicide, still another that the Turks had assassinated him, mistaking him for Liman von Sanders. Leipzig was one of Wangenheim's intimate friends; as young men they had been officers in the same regiment, and at Constantinople they were almost inseparable. I immediately called on the Ambassador to express my condolences. I found him very dejected and careworn. He told me that he had heart trouble, that he was almost exhausted, and that he had applied for a few weeks' leave of absence. I knew that it was not only his comrade's death that was preying upon Wangenheim's mind. German missionaries were flooding Germany with reports about the Armenians and calling upon the Government to stop the massacres. Yet, overburdened and nervous as Wangenheim was this day, he gave many signs that he was still the same unyielding German militarist. A few days afterward, when he returned my visit, he asked:
"Where's Kitchener's army?
"We are willing to surrender Belgium now," he went on. "Germany intends to build an enormous fleet of submarines with great cruising radius. In the next war, we shall therefore be able completely to blockade England. So we do not need Belgium for its submarine bases. We shall give her back to the Belgians, taking the Congo in exchange."
I then made another plea in behalf of the persecuted Christians. Again we discussed this subject at length.
"The Armenians,"' said Wangenheim, "have shown themselves in this war to be enemies of the Turks. It is quite apparent that the two peoples can never live together in the same country. The Americans should move some of them to the United States, and we Germans will send some to Poland and in their place send Jewish Poles to the Armenian provinces---that is, if they will promise to drop their Zionist schemes."
Again, although I spoke with unusual earnestness, the Ambassador refused to help the Armenians.
Still, on July 4th, Wangenheim did present a formal note of protest. He did not talk to Talaat or Enver, the only men who had any authority, but to the Grand Vizier, who was merely a shadow. The incident had precisely the same character as his pro forma protest against sending the French and British civilians down to Gallipoli, to serve as targets for the Allied fleet. Its only purpose was to put Germans officially on record. Probably the hypocrisy of this protest was more apparent to me than to others, for, at the very moment when Wangenheim presented this so-called protest, he was giving me the reasons why Germany could not take really effective steps to end the massacres. Soon after this interview, Wangenheim received his leave and went to Germany.
Callous as Wangenheim showed himself to be, he was not quite so implacable toward the Armenians as the German naval attaché in Constantinople, Humann. This person was generally regarded as a man of great influence; his position in Constantinople corresponded to that of Boy-Ed in the United States. A German diplomat once told me that Humann was more of a Turk than Enver or Talaat. Despite this reputation I attempted to enlist his influence. I appealed to him particularly because he was a friend of Enver, and was generally looked upon as an important connecting link between the German Embassy and the Turkish military authorities. Humann was a personal emissary of the Kaiser, in constant communication with Berlin and undoubtedly he reflected the attitude of the ruling powers in Germany. He discussed the Armenian problem with the utmost frankness and brutality.
"I have lived in Turkey the larger part of my life," he told me, "and I know the Armenians. I also know that both Armenians and Turks cannot live together in this country. One of these races has got to go. And I don't blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians. I think that they are entirely justified. The weaker nation must succumb. The Armenians desire to dismember Turkey; they are against the Turks and the Germans in this war, and they therefore have no right to exist here. I also think that Wangenheim went altogether too far in making a protest; at least I would not have done so."
I expressed my horror at such sentiments, but Humann went on abusing the Armenian people and absolving the Turks from all blame.
"It is a matter of safety," he replied; "the Turks have got to protect themselves, and, from this point of view, they are entirely justified in what they are doing. Why, we found 7,000 guns at Kadikeuy which belonged to the Armenians. At first Enver wanted to treat the Armenians with the utmost moderation, and four months ago he insisted that they be given another opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty. But after what they did at Van, he had to yield to the army, which had been insisting all along that it should protect its rear. The Committee decided upon the deportations and Enver reluctantly agreed. All Armenians are working for the destruction of Turkey's power and the only thing to do is to deport them. Enver is really a very kind-hearted man; he is incapable personally of hurting a fly! But when it comes to defending an idea in which he believes, he will do it fearlessly and recklessly. Moreover, the Young Turks have to get rid of the Armenians merely as a matter of self-protection. The Committee is strong only in Constantinople and a few other large cities. Everywhere else the people are strongly 'Old Turk'. And these old Turks are all fanatics. These Old Turks are not in favour of the present government, and so the Committee has to do everything in their power to protect themselves. But don't think that any harm will come to other Christians. Any Turk can easily pick out three Armenians among a thousand Turks!"
Humann was not the only important German who expressed this latter sentiment. Intimations began to reach me from many sources that my "meddling" in behalf of the Armenians was making me more and more unpopular in German officialdom. One day in October, Neurath, the German Conseiller, called and showed me a telegram which he had just received from the German Foreign Office. This contained the information that Earl Crewe and Earl Cromer had spoken on the Armenians in the House of Lords, had laid the responsibility for the massacres upon the Germans., and had declared that they had received their information from an American witness. The telegram also referred to an article in the Westminster Gazette, which said that the German consuls at certain places had instigated and even led the attacks, and particularly mentioned Resler of Aleppo. Neurath said that his government had directed him to obtain a denial of these charges from the American Ambassador at Constantinople. I refused to make such a denial, saying that I did not feel called upon to decide officially whether Turkey or Germany was to blame for these crimes.
Yet everywhere in diplomatic circles there seemed to be a conviction that the American Ambassador was responsible for the wide publicity which the Armenian massacres were receiving in Europe and the United States. I have no hesitation in saying that they were right about this. In December, my son, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., paid a visit to the Gallipoli peninsula, where he was entertained by General Liman von Sanders and other German officers. He had hardly stepped into German headquarters when an officer came up to him and said:
"Those are very interesting articles on the Armenian question which your father is writing in the American newspapers."
"My father has been writing no articles," my son replied.
"Oh," said this officer, "just because his name isn't signed to them doesn't mean that he is not writing them!"
Von Sanders also spoke on this subject.
"Your father is making a great mistake," he said, "giving out the facts about what the Turks are doing to the Armenians. That really is not his business."
As hints of this kind made no impression on me, the Germans evidently decided to resort to threats. In the early autumn, a Dr. Nossig arrived in Constantinople from Berlin. Dr. Nossig was a German Jew, and came to Turkey evidently to work against the Zionists. After he had talked with me for a few minutes, describing his Jewish activities, I soon discovered that he was a German political agent. He came to see me twice; the first time his talk was somewhat indefinite, the purpose of the call apparently being to make my acquaintance and insinuate himself into my good graces. The second time, after discoursing vaguely on several topics, he came directly to the point. He drew his chair close up to me and began to talk in the most friendly and confidential manner.
"Mr. Ambassador," he said, "we are both Jews and I want to speak to you as one Jew to another. I hope you will not be offended if I presume upon this to give you a little advice. You are very active in the interest of the Armenians and I do not think you realize how very unpopular you are becoming, for this reason, with the authorities here. In fact, I think that I ought to tell you that the Turkish Government is contemplating asking for your recall. Your protests for the Armenians will be useless. The Germans will not interfere for them and you are just spoiling your opportunity for usefulness and running the risk that your career will end ignominiously."
"Are you giving me this advice," I asked, "because you have a real interest in my personal welfare?"
""Certainly," he answered; "all of us Jews are proud of what you have done and we would hate to see your career end disastrously."
"Then you go back to the German Embassy," I said, "and tell Wangenheim what I say---to go ahead and have me recalled. If I am to suffer martyrdom, I can think of no better cause in which to be sacrificed. In fact, I would welcome it, for I can think of no greater honour than to be recalled because I, a Jew, have been exerting all my powers to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Christians."
Dr. Nossig hurriedly left my office and I have never seen him since. When next I met Enver I told him that there were rumours that the Ottoman Government was about to ask for my recall. He was very emphatic in denouncing the whole story as a falsehood. "We would not be guilty of making such a ridiculous mistake," he said. So there was not the slightest doubt that this attempt to intimidate me had been hatched at the German Embassy.
Wangenheim. returned to Constantinople in early October. I was shocked at the changes that had taken place in the man. As I wrote in my diary, "he looked the perfect picture of Wotan." His face was almost constantly twitching; he wore a black cover over his right eye, and he seemed unusually nervous and depressed. He told me that he had obtained little rest; that he had been obliged to spend most of his time in Berlin attending to business. A few days after his return I met him on my way to Haskeuy; he said that he was going to the American Embassy and together we walked back to it. I had been recently told by Talaat that he intended to deport all the Armenians who were left in Turkey and this statement had induced me to make a final plea to the one man in Constantinople who had the power to end the horrors. I took Wangenheim. up to the second floor of the Embassy, where we could be entirely alone and uninterrupted, and there, for more than an hour, sitting together over the tea table, we had our last conversation on this subject.
"Berlin telegraphs me," he said, "that your Secretary of State tells them that you say that more Armenians than ever have been massacred since Bulgaria has come in on our side."
"No, I did not cable that," I replied. "I admit that I have sent a large amount of information to Washington. I have sent copies of every report and every statement to the State Department. They are safely lodged there, and whatever happens to me, the evidence is complete, and the American people are not dependent on my oral report for their information. But this particular statement you make is not quite accurate. I merely informed Mr. Lansing that any influence Bulgaria might exert to stop the massacres has been lost, now that she has become Turkey's ally."
We again discussed the deportations.
"Germany is not responsible for this," Wangenheim said.
"You can assert that to the end of time," I replied, "but nobody will believe it. The world will always hold Germany responsible; the guilt of these crimes will be your inheritance forever. I know that you have filed a paper protest. But what does that amount to? You know better than I do that such a protest will have no effect. I do not claim that Germany is responsible for these massacres in the sense that she instigated them. But she is responsible in the sense that she had the power to stop them and did not use it. And it is not only America and your present enemies that will hold you responsible. The German people will some day call your government to account. You are a Christian people and the time will come when Germans will realize that you have let a Mohammedan people destroy another Christian nation. How foolish is your protest that I am sending information to my State Department. Do you suppose that you can keep secret such hellish atrocities as these? Don't get such a silly, ostrich-like thought as that---don't think that by ignoring them yourselves, you can get the rest of the world to do so. Crimes like these cry to heaven. Do you think I could know about things like this and not report them to my government? And don't forget that German missionaries, as well as American, are sending me information about the Armenians."
"All that you say may be true," replied the German Ambassador, "but the big problem that confronts us is to win this war. Turkey has settled with her foreign enemies; she has done that at the Dardanelles and at Gallipoli. She is now trying to settle her internal affairs. They still greatly fear that the Capitulations will again be forced upon them. Before they are again put under this restraint, they intend to have their internal problems in such shape that there will be little chance of any interference from foreign nations. Talaat has told me that he is determined to complete this task before peace is declared. In the future they don't intend that the Russians shall be in a position to say that they have a right to intervene about Armenian matters because there are a large number of Armenians in Russia who are affected by the troubles of their coreligionists in Turkey. Giers used to be doing this an the time and the Turks do not intend that any ambassador from Russia or from any other country shall have such an opportunity in the future. The Armenians anyway are a very poor lot. You come in contact in Constantinople with Armenians of the educated classes, and you get your impressions about them from these men, but all the Armenians are not of that type. Yet I admit that they have been treated terribly. I sent a man to make investigations and he reported that the worst outrages have not been committed by Turkish officials but by brigands."
Wangenheim again suggested that the Armenians be taken to the United States, and once more I gave him the reasons why this would be impracticable.
"Never mind all these considerations," I said. "Let us disregard everything---military necessity, state policy, and all else---and let us look upon this simply as a human problem. Remember that most of the people who are being treated in this way are old men, old women, and helpless children. Why can't you, as a human being, see that these people are permitted to live? "
"At the present stage of internal affairs in Turkey," Wangenheim replied, "I shall not intervene."
I saw that it was useless to discuss the matter further. He was a man who was devoid of sympathy and human pity, and I turned from him in disgust. Wangenheim rose to leave. As he did so he gave a gasp, and his legs suddenly shot from under him. I jumped and caught the man just as he was falling. For a minute he seemed utterly dazed; he looked at me in a bewildered way, then suddenly collected himself and regained his poise. I took the Ambassador by the arm, piloted him down stairs, and put him into his auto. By this time he had apparently recovered from his dizzy spell and he reached home safely. Two days afterward, while sitting at his dinner table, he had a stroke of apoplexy; he was carried upstairs to his bed, but he never regained consciousness. On October 24th, I was officially informed that Wangenheim. was dead. And thus my last recollection of Wangenheim is that of the Ambassador as he sat in my office in the American Embassy, absolutely refusing to exert any influence to prevent the massacre of a nation. He was the one, and his government was the one government, that could have stopped these crimes, but, as Wangenheim told me many times, "our one aim is to win this war."
Fig. 54. THE FUNERAL OF BARON VON WANGENHEIM. The German Ambassador to Turkey. Mr. Morgenthau (in evening dress) is walking with Enver Pasha. Immediately in front, of them is Talaat Pasha.A few days afterward official Turkey and the diplomatic force paid their last tribute to this perfect embodiment of the Prussian system. The funeral was held in the garden of the German Embassy at Pera. The inclosure was filled with flowers. Practically the whole gathering, excepting the family and the ambassadors and the Sultan's representatives, remained standing during the simple but impressive ceremonies. Then the procession formed; German sailors carried the bier upon their shoulders, other German sailors carried the huge bunches of flowers, and all members of the diplomatic corps and the officials of the Turkish Government followed on foot.
The Grand Vizier led the procession; I walked the whole way with Enver. All the officers of the Goeben and the Breslau, and all the German generals, dressed in full uniform, followed. It seemed as though the whole of Constantinople lined the streets, and the atmosphere had some of the quality of a holiday. We walked to the grounds of Dolma Bagtche, the Sultan's Palace, passing through the gate which the ambassadors enter when presenting their credentials. At the dock a steam launch lay awaiting our arrival, and in this stood Neurath, the German Conseiller, ready to receive the body of his dead chieftain. The coffin, entirely covered with flowers, was placed in the boat. As the launch sailed out into the stream Neurath, a six-foot Prussian, dressed in his military uniform, his helmet a waving mass of white plumes, stood erect and silent. Wangenheim was buried in the park of the summer embassy at Therapia, by the side of his comrade Colonel Leipzig. No final resting-place would have been more appropriate, for this had been the scene of his diplomatic successes, and it was from this place that, a little more than two years before, he had directed by wireless the Goeben and the Breslau, and safely brought them into Constantinople, thus making it inevitable that Turkey should join forces with Germany, and paving the way for all the triumphs and all the horrors that have necessarily followed that event.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Enver again moves for peace.
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Social Media Health Network
Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care
Items tagged as "trends"
BUS 106: Demographic Trends in Social Media
Created by Cynthia Floyd Manley
WBNR 111: 2013 consumer trends healthcare communicators MUST capitalize on
One of the benefits for members of the Social Media Health Network (SMHN) is access to participate in the series of webinars the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media is producing in collaboration with Ragan Communications. Webinar archives are later published here in the Network site as member-only premium content. In this webinar, [...]
Created by Randy Schwarz
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Resources for English Majors
Dr. Bryan D. Dietrich's website (NU english faculty)
Honor Society
Lambda Iota Tau, honor society for literature; Newman University's chapter is Epsilon Alpha.
Awards for Writing
Student grants "for any project that supports or furthers the mission, vision, or current theme of the Gerber Institute" – up to $500
Norton Writer's Prize (requires sponsorship)
Atlantic Monthly Student Writer's Prize (annual)
The Nation Student Writing Contest (annual)
Transitions Abroad Student Writing Contest (annual)
Articles of Interest
"Why English Majors are the Hot New Hires" (July 2013)
"In Praise of (Offline) Slow Reading" (January 2014)
“Why Focusing Too Narrowly in College Could Backfire” (November 2013)
Professional Associations and Organizations
Modern Language Association
National Council of Teachers of English
Conference on College Composition and Communication
National Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning
Poetry Society of America
International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts
American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies
Medieval Academy of America
Accessing MLA International Bibliography database
1. The MLA International Bibliography database is a subscription service purchased by our library, so you need to have an NU username and password to access it.
2. On the NU home page, select the "My NU" tab on left, then open these links in succession:
3. Under "Students" click "Dugan Library." Then under "Resources" click on "Databases." Login page opens; scroll to bottom and log in using your NU Library username and password.
4. When the database home page opens, scroll down and select "Ebscohost databases," then "MLA International Bibliography." Select by clicking the "MLA International Bibliography" or checking the box next to this database and clicking "continue" at the bottom of the page.
5. Start your searches within the database.
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Grocery Cart Follows You Around Store
Chaotic Moon Labs, who brought us the The Board of Awesomeness, has an idea for a more practical technology: A grocery cart that knows what's on your list and follows you around the store. Chaotic is testing the cart with Whole Foods.
BLOG: Behold the Board of Awesomeness
Shoppers control the "Smarter Cart," via a motion-sensing Kinect synced with a Windows 8 tablet. The motion sensors monitor the user and follow her down the aisles. If she can't find a product, it will direct her. If she adds a product to the list that is different from what's on her list, the system informs her. In the demo, for example, the shopper chooses pasta that is not gluten-free, even though he had put gluten-free pasta on his list.
Whole Foods has plans to begin testing the carts at one store in Austin, Tex., next month.
Credit: Screen grab from YouTube video
via Geekwire
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Above: Cinematical's Scott Weinberg with his celebrity stalker Jennifer Connelly.
Whenever there's an editorial change here at Cinematical headquarters, it's our tradition to announce it live on the site. That said (gets up on his tiny stool with a glass of sparkling apple cider), it is my pleasure to congratulate the new Managing Editor of Cinematical.com! You know him as "That guy who's always making fun of Jewish people", however his official birth certificate reads: Scary Spooky Spice Scott Weinberg (aka Scott Weinberg).
(Waits for loud roars from the crowd to subside ...)
Our former Managing Editor, Kim Voynar (whom we love, cherish, honor, adore, obsess over, crush on, etc ...) will remain with Cinematical, but segue into a Festival Editor role. That's right, our festival coverage kicks so much ass, we need someone with sharp skills and plenty of wit to run the entire show. In all seriousness, both Scott and Kim are tremendous assets to our team and have taken a huge part in our growth over the past three years. I'm ecstatic to be working with each so closely from here on out, and you should be happy because, with their help, this little movie site will become that much more enjoyable to read in the coming weeks and months.
We here at Cinematical wish you a wonderful, sun-drenched weekend, and, as always, we thank you for your continued support.
Cheers! Mazel Tov!
(Now who the hell brought the sparkling apple cider -- this stuff sucks!)
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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2003-11 > 1067786843
From: (Raymond Whritenour)
Subject: [DNA] DNAPrint majority % accurate?
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 10:27:23 -0500 (EST)
themselves "Black." This is a sociological categorization arising from
from the description given.
Ray Whritenour
This thread:
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You may also like
problem icon
An environment for exploring the properties of small groups.
problem icon
An Introduction to Mathematical Structure
Small Groups
Stage: 5
Article by Toni Beardon
Suppose you go to sleep with your T-shirt on, get hot in the night and take it off, then later in the dark put it back on. How might you be wearing your T-shirt in the morning? In your sleepy state you might have turned it inside out, or back to front, or back to front and inside out, or left it the same way as before. These are four different actions on your T-shirt. You could have done this several times, combining any of the four different actions. Of course any of the actions is reversible in the sense that you can end up with the T-shirt the same way as at the start.
We are going to be mathematical about this and use symbols and a table to sum up how the actions can be combined. We use S to mean put the T-shirt on the same way as before, however it was, B to mean turn it back to front, O to mean turn it inside out, and A to mean turn it inside out and back to front. Note that these letters don't describe the end result because that depends on the way you were wearing the T-shirt in the first place, only on how the actions affected it. For example if the first time you turned it back to front and inside out (A), and the second time just turned it inside out (O), then combining these two actions (O*A) would be the same as a single action of turning it back to front (O*A = B). Now complete the table before reading on. Apply S, B, O or A in the column first.
Here we have a set of actions and a rule for combining them, where combining two actions gives another action in the set, we have an 'identity' S, and each action combined with itself gives S. This is a group of 4 elements. Groups are very important in mathematics, they are used to solve many problems, and some people spend their whole lives studying groups and finding out new things about them.
This article will give an account of all possible groups of one, two, three and four elements, but first think about a group you already know well, without perhaps ever calling it a group. The integers with the operation of addition form a group. Perhaps we should not even mention this group in an article called "Small Groups" because it has infinitely many members, but it is a free country! When we add two integers we always get another integer. Like our T-shirt actions, this group has an identity. Zero is the identity because 0 + N = N for any integer N. If we take any integer N then there is another integer -N so that when we add N and -N we get the identity. Elements which combine to give the identity are called inverses, for example 6 + (-6) = 0, 159 + (-159) = 0 etc. In our T-shirt group each action is its own inverse so the actions are called self inverse.
Modulus arithmetic provides lots of examples of small groups. Take the set of numbers {1, 3, 5, 7} and fill out the multiplication table below modulo 8; that is multiply the numbers together, divide by 8 and write down the remainder.
What do you notice about the table when you have completed it?
Did you notice that no other numbers apart from 1, 3, 5 and 7 are needed to complete the table? What else did you notice? The identity is 1 and the elements are all self inverse. Each row has all the numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7 once only and in a different order. The same is true for the columns. Again this is a group of 4 elements.
Now consider four actions on a rectangle together with combinations of these actions. These actions are I, X, Y and H where I is the identity, X is a flip about the horizontal line turning the rectangle over, Y is a flip about the vertical line, turning the rectangle over and H is a half turn about the centre O. After any of these actions the rectangle goes back into exactly the same space. Now make up your own table.
Compare your table with the two previous tables. What do you notice?
Did you notice that all three tables have the same structure? They are all the same as the T-shirt group. If we replace S by 1, B by 3, O by 5 and A by 7 we get the second table and if we replace S by I, O by X, B by Y and A by H we get the third table.
Now here is another example, this time the set {1, 4, 11, 14} with multiplication modulo 15. This time the table is completed for you. What do you notice?
set 1, 4, 11, 14 with multiplication modulo 15
Again we have the same structure as before and replacing S by 1, B by 4, O by 11 and A by 14 shows the correspondence between the first table and this one. Although the examples come from different contexts there is only one group. It has a special name: The Klein 4-group. The power of group theory is that, no matter how big the group, once you recognise the group involved, all the mathematics known from other contexts is immediately available to use and does not have to be repeated again.
Now try another example from modulus arithmetic, this time {1, 3, 7 and 9} with multiplication modulo 10. Make your own table, see if you can spot the differences from the other tables.
Did you notice the essential difference? This time only 9 is self inverse, and 3 and 7 are inverses of each other. This is a group but it is not the Klein 4-group. We don't get 3 times 3 to be the identity so what happens to powers of 3? The powers of 3 modulo 10 give all the elements of the group:
3² = 9; 3³ = 7 (mod 10); 34 = 1 (mod 10)
Now suppose four people sit around a table in a Chinese restaurant, very hungry, but there is only one dish on the lazy-susan in the middle of the table.
There are 4 actions on the lazy-susan which put the dish in front of the four people so they can serve themselves, a quarter turn, a half turn, a three quarter turn and a whole turn. Clearly we can call these actions Q, Q², Q³ and Q4 = I, because two quarter turns make a half turn, and four quarter turns make a whole turn but that is equivalent to returning the lazy-susan to its starting position. The group table is:
* I Q
This is what is called the C4 group, or cyclic group with 4 elements. The fact that taking powers of 3 modulo 10 gives all the elements 1, 3, 7 and 9 suggests that this modular group is also cyclic. The 'powers of 3 modulo 10' group and the 'lazy-susan' group have exactly the same structure, which is easily checked by replacing 1 by I, 3 by Q, 7 by Q³ and 9 by Q² . They are both the group C4 . Although there are many different contexts in which they can arise, there are only two possible groups with four elements, the Klein 4-group and C4 . Reason?
There is a group with just one element containing the identity all on its own. With two elements there has to be the identity and a self inverse element and we have already seen groups with two elements buried in the groups we have been exploring (subgroups). Take S and B in the T shirt group, I and H in the rectangles group, I and Q² in the lazy-susan group; each of these gives a group with two elements. Two more examples groups are given by "putting on your glasses" and "putting on some rubber gloves to do the washing up". The reader is left to decide how many elements these groups have.
With three elements there is only one possible structure Reason? . Suppose we had three diners in the Chinese restaurant equally spaced around a circular table, now they would have to turn the lazy-susan through 120o , 240o or 360o to get that delicious dish of mouth watering food in front of each of them. We denote the three actions by R, R² and R³= I. This gives the following group table for C3 , the cyclic group with three elements.
* I R
We can draw networks to represent these groups. Each line in the network represents one of the actions of the group and the vertices show the combinations of the elements.
You have now met all possible groups with up to four elements. You may like to look at three more modular groups and decide for yourself which types they are.
(a) {1, 2, 3, 4} with multiplication modulo 5
(b) {1, 5, 7, 11} with multiplication modulo 12
(c) {0, 1, 2, 3} with addition modulo 4.
Answers .
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Back to the previous page
Artist: Atmosphere
Album: You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having
Song: The Arrival
Typed by:,
(They've arrived) With the excitment of a new born
Came to join the main event and fight against the luke warm
(They've arrived) With nothing but they word and they history
Take a can of paint and try to decorate they dignity
(They've arrived) It's not what they anticipated
Fuck, it doesn't matter put your fists up and instigate it
(They've arrived) And they can't save the planet
I'm just a man that loved rap
So much in fact I put every piece of myself inside these fucking cracks
What is that, you whisper something from the back?
You think your personal attacks make up for what you lack?
(C'mon!) I'm just a cat searching for a clean lap
To crash in a world hurting, waiting for their turn to take a nap
Sorting through the bills, fanmail, and life threats
Wondering why the postman ain't delivered my wife yet
(They've arrived) They call me Sean, this is Anthony
No need to act hard cause we got extended family
So I smile while I try to use my words wise
(They've arrived) Oooh child are the wings tired?
Smilin' like a couple of fools that the Queen hired
(They've arrived) Can't wait for the vibrate to thicken
So we can watch the world hips gyrate
(They've arrived) Even the deads gettin live
It's a little deeper, you can float, c'mon baby dive!
(They've arrived) To fall in love with this bitch
From the petals on her flower to the pimples on her tits
Fuck the insults, and fuck the compliments
Just wanna see the mommy free the honesty and common sense
Stop followin the wind that you swallow
'cause it's too simple to aim for a target sittin on a fence
(They've arrived) We do it for the candle in the sky
Here's a toast goes out to those who can't handle their high
You and I? We can swim into the tide
and watch these other children lose they mind
(I'm doing fine)
(They've arrived) and they landed safe and sound
(They've arrived), so fix the beef
Quit actin' like a sheep
Either spit your speak or sit there and grit your teeth
(They've arrived) to spread the info to the kin folk
Fuckin with the climate on the inside of the windows
(They've arrived) They're here, the baby farmer
Gonna take it farther, make a mark and break apart your fake martyrs
Planted firm, let the planet burn
I'm tryin to keep my prize on the eyeball
Who's to blame for your lack of conviction?
I wasn't drafted, I asked for the mission
and hold in plain sight whatever gave you the right to question mine?
The night prowler, gonna crawl past all the rap politics
you can put that on your last dollar
Wake up. It's bigger than a paystub
There's the door, get your money, go wash off your make-up
(They've arried) and they don't need your lovin'
If you don't wanna give it, keep it
Doesn't really mean nothin'
(They've arrived) come and beat it 'til it stops breathin'
No need to even try to even reason with, they're not leaving
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Artist: Tony Touch f/ Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, Styles P Album: The Piece Maker 3: Return of the 50 MC's Song: BARS Typed by:,, {"Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-JuJu the Chairman Productions" <- Big Pun} {"Check it out, yo!" <- Pun} [Intro: Jadakiss] Uh huh! [Styles P]: Tony Toca whattup baby! D-Block reportin in yeah! [Verse One: Styles P] I don't know you or heard of you if you ain't do real shit (I don't know you!) You just snack food like cashews and trail mix Ride the six hundred benz yeah the champail six That's the outside inside's champagne I'm real numb I don't feel your man pain (I don't feel him!) I'm tryin to stick up, a hundred brick pickup Sittin in the pickup, cocked back one in the head of the blicker Stick you like a sticker I don't wanna meet you, know you or dap you Gun taped to the toilet, when I play the bathroom (Godfather!) Come with the good green and call me the vacuum Come with a problem nigga they call me to clap you Come with the money baby you know I'm a stack you (You know that!) Sound like a rhyme yeah but shit is all factual You fuckin with a family man Don't you ever cross the line where the family stand (Never!) Few shooters in the family van some in the hoop though Me I'm gettin money with honey up in the coupe though Flyin on the highway You get shot in my hood if you walk or talk sideways [Verse Two: Sheek Louch] It's no real rhyme or reason, every quarter every season My flow get hotter, pretty bitches twistin up my trees and (I'm hot, son!) I keep 'em on they knees, I do this with ease (let's go!) I get my shine/Shyne on and I ain't from Belize (Waddup Shyne?) I ain't runnin from the Ds', I ain't touchin no ki's Maybe couple guns here, couple lil' P's (that's all!) Sell it by the pound, get a couple lil' Gs' (yeah!) I'm a big dog, now get up off my nuts, you fleas (HA!) I still the razor in my mouth (let's bounce!) The hammer with the laser in the house, computer with no mouse (yeah!) Touch screen, every diamond on me cut clean (bling!) Chain swing, watch Bezel, pine tree green (OWWW!!) YUCK~! Sheek flow nastiest Let you fill up in the rest, you messin with the "_____" (fill it in!) I be all in the hood, homie and I don't wear a "_____" Who the fuck y'all niggaz tryin to impress? (Yeah!) Yes! [Verse Three: Jadakiss] AH-HAH! Yo Too much clothes, I'm runnin out of closet space (uh) Too much dough, runnin out of deposit space (uh-huh) Psycho 'Kiss, yeah I'm a closet case The hardest bars, used to have the hardest base (uh-huh) They don't worry me (nah) I'm on top 'til they bury me, this is that inmate therapy (C.O.!) Good price get you some nice work (uh) Stomp a nigga out with the Lou-B's, see if the spikes work (red bottoms) Ten thou' in the bank, see if the dice work (let's go) Kidnap a nigga just to see what his life worth (uh-huh) I be in the trenches (yeah) sales on the benches (what) Know you see the cuts on the diamonds, princess Young niggaz doin all this dumb shit, senseless (what!) Whole +Entourage+ full of Ari's and Vince's (ha ha) Play this, believe every word when I say this That boy Jada's, one of the greatest {*echoes*} Motherfucker~! {*echoes*}
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MPhil's Avatar Jump to comment 26 by MPhil
I think your pre-theoretical, emotionally charged postitions on this cloud your scientific judgement. I did not use a dismissive word (at least it wasn't meant dismissive in any way.)
The examples you give are about the strength of certain relations (bounds) between individuals - I was talking about intellectual capacity and mental complexity. And our empathy certainly receives a broader in our mental framework with conceptual cognition, even sometimes expressively formal (constructing arguments, analysing them) cognition, with broad knowledge not only of the know how, but of the "knowing that", the propositional kind.
Propositional knowledge requires propositions, which in turn have both a logical structure of information, the relational rules if you will, and semantic content through intersubjective agreement (tacit and induced through learning of the rules both of construction/analysis and refering) about the conventions of reference. No propositional beliefs without propositions - no propositions without any form of conscious representation of the content of the "it is the case that" statement. ie logical/grammatical language (the logical requirement is the requirement of being able to communicate/describe/express relations and properties) with uniform rules for refering. The being conscious of, the analysis and modelling of descriptions itself (such as what science does)requires a means of representation/expression/description that has a meta-level structure. (This is also what talking about talking, analysis of language is)
We have no scientific or indeed broadly epistemic justification for the assumption that any animal other than humans have any genuinely grammatical language, much less with meta-level structure.
Other animals show great possession of know-how (though still by many orders of magnitude not approaching the complexity of know-how and social interaction in development and realization required to devise and build a particle-accelerator for example), but propositional knowledge? Planning yes - meaning future prediction. Even intensional, self-refering communication (but we know this only of our nearest encephalically-related entities, some small part of the great apes, and only then through the teaching of rudimentary sign-language).
The complexity in and thus the mental complexity required for the rudimentary sign-language not even a handful of study-subject apes could master is light-years away from any complexity (from logical structure alone - for example explicit self-refering in the context of communication) of any communication we observe naturally in animals. But the expressive force and actually realized content of human language-use, including mathematics, physics, philosophy, political language, discussions, rational debates etc - is again light-years away from what these handful of apes who mastered sign-language are able to communicate, express, think. Their language is not expressive enough to even model such things.
Then we have the case of apes being able to press numers displayed on a touch-screen in a grid-matrix in correct numerical progression faster than human subjects. The only thing that can be reasonably extrapolated from this is that these subjects grasp the concept of symbolic representation (which is a huge thing in itself, distinguishing the complexity of the minds of these animal by several orders of magnitude from those of, say, turtles or fish.) and progression.
That is a lot, but it's -again- still light-years away from modern mathematics, or even the maths an normal person learns in school, or even the expressive capacity of the idiolect of the average person, light-years away from the complexity of phsyics or philosophy, of math or drama-plays, of construction (through society) and descriptions of economy, economic processes and states-of-affairs, from the development of and theorizing about politics. The complexity of a human society, with such complex relations as between individuals, certain functional roles they fulfill, certain personal relationships, their relations even to artificial social constructs such as governments and instiutions, conscioulsy constructed and structurally/institutionally regulated artifacts as laws, political parties, companies - their respective connections, the role of the artifact of many in its myriad possible relations to myriads of things - this is a complexity completely unseen in nature - nothing we see outside of human sociality comes close.
Other animals do have such things as roles, as interaction, hierarchical structure (determined by social roles of individuals) and even such things as social reward and punishment - but compared to the above - (political parties, companies, economy, science etc) it is absolutely rudimentary.
Honestly, you're making a fool of yourself by attacking me with such weak arguments. You are furthermore attacking strawmen and failing to bring up any argument against the position I was actually taking.
I actually am informed in the cognitive neurosciences, work with some cognitive neurosceintists and the nature and structure of the mind, its composition, implementation, structure and working is my field of research - I think I can claim to know what I am talking about.
And by this statement:
or a puffed up sense of humanity's importance.
you're displaying exactly the kind of false thinking I was attacking. Yes, we are not different from animals in principle, yes their minds work on the same basis as ours - but what I wrote in my last post about intellectual capacity and mental complexity still remains true. Scientific judgement involves not hypothesizing beyond what the evidence tells us, and using minimal explanations (parsimony). From all the data we have, the conclusions of my last post are absolutely substantiated.
Yes, dogs have strong relations to other individuals (we also bread for that during domestication of wolf to dog), but that does not contradict anything I say.
Want a more direct scientific explanation? You can have it. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the entire cerebral cortex (most decisively the neocortex), and the Broca's and Wernicke's areals are the brain-areals whose structural complexity make complex mentality/intellectual capacities like ours even possible. Among that is the faculty for explicit multi-level conceptual thinking, which is in essence systematic, logically structured representation and manipulation of information (ie grammatical language). Some of these areas are not existent in other animals, and the others are substantially rudimentary compared to ours.
People with a position like yours generally ignore (or don't know) both this and the fact that I mentioned in the above comment - that outer criteria for the complexity of mentality is also the complexity of social artifacts and interaction. And animals just don't have anything as complex as theater plays, computers, programming, particle-accelerators, science in general, philosophy etc, or even just grammatical language capable of expressing and thus communicating meta-level thinking.
To downplay or just (as you seem to do) ignore that there is an amazing, incredible difference of level of complexity between this and anything and everything we see in animals is a) downright wrong and b) quite disrespectful toward the accomplishments of rational thought, of science and philosophy.
It's of course a good thing to show where and how we are similar to animals in behaviour, what we have in common, because for too long (especially due to the three great monotheistic religions) we have thought of ourselves as different in ESSENCE from animals (as having a soul and a "free will") and of animals as enitrely incapable of mentality. But not acknowlidging what I have laid out - that is how far the similarity goes, and where the differences lie, is - overdoing it (in addition to being dismissive of the achievements of science for example)
In light of the above elaboration, I think you ought to retract your last statement (the last two lines specificially), neither is true and both are insulting towards me, among other things because my field of study is actually the mind.
*EDIT: Substantial Additions for clarification and provision of further examples and arguements.
Sat, 24 May 2008 17:44:00 UTC | #174988
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Oldies Music Playlist and Mixtape 115: Mad Men: Season 2
A playlist of songs from AMC's hit Mad Men TV show
Oldies Music Playlist and Mixtape 115: Mad Men: Season 2
Mad Men: Season 2
The second season of AMC's smash hit TV show Mad Men takes place in the year 1962, although several oldies songs featured in Season 2 weren't recorded until later, some as late as 1967. Which makes sense, actually: as the soundscape of the era began to reflect growing dissatisfaction and the sometimes frightening advances of mankind, the men in the grey flannel suits felt the world they inherited -- their world and their birthright -- begin to shift under their feet.
1. Chubby Checker, "Let's Twist Again" (purchase/download)
In the same way that Chubby's original hit helped define Season 1, his smash followup does for this season -- two years after the first, just like the show's timeline.
2. George McGregor, "Temptation Is Hard To Fight" (listen)
Technically from long after the show's year of 1962, this obscure soul gem on Chicago's Twinight label actually benefits from its lack of late-Sixties hip.
3. Edd Henry, "Crooked Woman" (listen)
Ultra-rare and extra groovy Detroit soul that barely made an impression on the locals at the time, yet Northern Soul fanatics recognize it as a lubricious, jazzy stomper all the same.
4. Baby Washington, "Congratulations Honey" (listen)
Washington sang in an early version of the Jaynetts before they hit with "Sally Go Round The Roses," and at the same time unleashed sultry solo strolls like this R&B number.
5. Kyo Sakamoto, "Sukiyaki" (purchase/download)
A bizarre one-off hit, and a real rarity in that it was sung in Kyo's native Japanese, "Sukiyaki" has nothing to do with the food: the song's hook is actually "I look up when I walk."
6. Jack Jones, "Lollipops And Roses" (purchase/download)
Easing into the more familiar "adult contemporary" sounds of Season 1, this lush ballad by the "Love Boat" crooner is lyrically sort of a lesser version of "Try A Little Tenderness."
7. Perry Como, "The Blue Room" (purchase/download)
The legendary crooner's golden voice fits this tale of marital bliss perfectly, right down to the pipe-smoking!
8. Percy Faith and his Orchestra, "Theme From A Summer Place" (purchase/download)
Perhaps the most famous of all adult contemporary instrumentals, and a positively bucolic soundtrack to young love of the era.
9. Marilyn Monroe, "I'm Through With Love" (purchase/download)
Yes, that Marilyn -- singing the song that made her an object of affection as well as lust in the comedy classic Some Like It Hot.
10. The Pentagons, "I'm In Love" (purchase/download)
Rare doo-wop by Californians, and a perfect bridge between '50s vocal group balladry and the lush Uptown soul of the new decade.
11. Brenda Lee, "Break It To Me Gently" (purchase/download)
Though she was only 17 at the time, Little Miss Dynamite stacked enough explosive heartbreak into this ballad to make it a girl-group standard.
12. George Jones, "Cup Of Loneliness" (purchase/download)
A late-'50s number by the man who brought country into the modern age -- largely by welding spirituality with honky-tonk despair, as he does here.
13. Peter, Paul and Mary, "Early In The Morning" (purchase/download)
Another spiritual, this time unearthed as folk music by the trio that brought it to the masses, and given a typically activist sheen.
14. The Gigalo's, "Swingin' Saints" (purchase/download)
An instrumental version of "When The Saints Go Marchin' In" that owes more than a little to Duane Eddy.
15. Helene Smith, "Pot Can't Talk About The Kettle" (listen)
The first Miami soul sister languished in mid-Sixties obscurity despite sassy, agreeably sloppy pop-soul 45s like this one.
16. The Sevilles, "Treat You Right" (purchase/download)
Another one of those nebulous late-period doo-woppers that should have had at least one hit. Namely, this one, which sported a trendy cha-cha lilt.
17. Martin Denny, "Misirlou" (purchase/download)
Before Dick Dale got to it, "Misirlou" was just a Greek love song often transformed into cheesy exotica -- but that was just the kind of travelogue Denny built his rep on.
18. The Tornados, "Telstar" (purchase/download)
Few songs better capture the feeling of the new era than this one, the instrumental that featured the weird sound of the clavioline and the even weirder production of Joe Meek.
19. Johnny Mathis, "What'll I Do?" (purchase/download)
A heartbreaker from the master that, typically, seduces as it cries.
20. Mr. Acker Bilk, "Stranger On The Shore" (purchase/download)
Another massive instrumental hit for the kind of people who wouldn't have gone near rock and roll, this clarinet take on the standard is a fitting farewell to the season.
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5. Mad Men Season 2 Music - Songs From Mad Men - Oldies Music Mixtape and Playlist
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@article {170, title = {Classroom Research and Composition classes}, journal = {Teaching English in the Two-Year College}, volume = {18}, year = {1991}, month = {05/1991}, chapter = {98-102}, abstract = {Asserts that learner-centered classroom research helps community college instructors discover how and how well students learn. Argues that teacher-initiated research projects promote collaboration in classrooms and across the campus, enhance faculty understanding of the learning process, and encourage teachers to try new methods.}, url = {http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true\&_\&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ428275\&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no\&accno=EJ428275}, author = {Kort, Melissa S} }
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What the Laws of War Allow
Chase Madar and Tom Engelhardt, April 16, 2012
Of course, it wasn’t Barack Obama’s fault. He didn’t nominate himself for the Nobel Peace Prize back in 2009 when he was already on a distinct war trajectory in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Nobel committee did it in what, even then, was visibly a vote for the idea that "peace" was anything but George W. Bush.
After all, the new president had run a campaign against a "stupid" war in Iraq, but for prosecuting "the right war," and by the time he was awarded the prize in October 2009, as an incipient peace president he had already escalated the war in Afghanistan and his administration was deep in a fierce debate over just how many more troops to send there in what would, by December of that year, become a "surge."
By the time the president accepted his award in March 2010 in a speech entitled "A Just and Lasting Peace" — which might more accurately have been titled "On the Necessity of War" — he had significantly increased troop levels in Afghanistan and similarly upped the levels of CIA personnel, private contractors, special operations forces, State Department personnel, and so on. In addition, he was already overseeing a spreading drone air campaign in the Pakistani borderlands.
Give him credit. He stood on the Nobel podium and gave a speech that, read today, looks remarkably like a rousing defense of American-style war and little short of an attack on the limited ability of nonviolence to make a real difference in a violent world. Among other things, he made clear that he wouldn’t be bound in any way by the examples of Gandhi or King, trumpeted his willingness to act "unilaterally," and plunked for the necessity of war. ("I raise this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter the cause. At times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world’s sole military superpower.")
Manning, accused of passing secret U.S. military and State Department documents on to the website WikiLeaks, is now in military prison awaiting a trial whose verdict is essentially a foregone conclusion. Everyone knows that after military "justice" is done under pressure from an administration led by a president who has already publicly stated – at a $5,000 a head fundraiser in San Francisco, no less — that Manning "broke the law," they will throw away the keys and leave him to rot in prison till hell freezes over.
What the Laws of War Allow
By Chase Madar
Wait a minute: that’s the WikiLeaks "Collateral Murder" video! The gunsight view of an Apache helicopter opening fire from half a mile high on a crowd of Iraqis — a few armed men, but mostly unarmed civilians, including a couple of Reuters employees — as they unsuspectingly walked the streets of a Baghdad suburb one July day in 2007.
The slaughter captured in this short film, the most virally sensational of WikiLeaks’ disclosures, was widely condemned as an atrocity worldwide, and many pundits quickly labeled it a "war crime" for good measure.
But was this massacre really a "war crime" – or just plain-old regular war? The question is anything but a word-game. It is, in fact, far from clear that this act, though plainly atrocious and horrific, was a violation of the laws of war. Some have argued that the slaughter, if legal, was therefore justified and, though certainly unfortunate, no big deal. But it is possible to draw a starkly different conclusion: that the "legality" of this act is an indictment of the laws of war as we know them.
This collective non-response, it should be stressed, is not because these humanitarian groups, which do much valuable work, are cowardly or "sell-outs." The reason is: all three human rights groups, like human rights doctrine itself, are primarily concerned with questions of legality. And quite simply, as atrocious as the event was, there was no clear violation of the laws of war to provide a toehold for the professional humanitarians.
The human rights industry is hardly alone in finding the event disturbing but in conformance with the laws of war. As Professor Gary Solis, a leading expert and author of a standard text on those laws, told Scott Horton of Harper’s Magazine, "I believe it unlikely that a neutral and detached investigator would conclude that the helicopter personnel violated the laws of armed conflict. Legal guilt does not always accompany innocent death." It bears noting that Gary Solis is no neocon ultra. A scholar who has taught at the London School of Economics and Georgetown, he is the author of a standard textbook on the subject, and was an unflinching critic of the Bush-Cheney administration.
War and International "Humanitarian" Law
Surely standing by and taking careful notes while the Iraqi people you have supposedly liberated from tyranny are getting tortured, sometimes to death, is a violation of the laws of war. After all, in 2005 General Peter Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly contradicted his boss Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by commenting into a live mike that it is "absolutely the responsibility of every American soldier to stop torture whenever and wherever they see it." (A young private working in Army Intelligence named Bradley Manning, learning that a group of Iraqi civilians handing out pamphlets alleging government corruption had been detained by the Iraqi federal police, raised his concern with his commanding officer about their possible torture. He was reportedly told him to shut up and get back to work helping the authorities find more detainees.)
As Gary Solis pointed out to me, Common Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention assigns only a vague obligation to "ensure respect" for prisoners handed over to a third party. On the ground in either Iraq or Afghanistan, this string of words would prove a less-than-meaningful constraint.
Part of the problem is that the laws of war that aspire to restrain deadly force are often weakly enforced and routinely violated. Ethan McCord, the American soldier who saved the two wounded children from that van in the helicopter video, remembersone set of instructions he received from his battalion commander: "Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every [expletive] in the street!" ("That order," David Glazier, a jurist at the National Institute for Military Justice, told me, "is absolutely a war crime.") In other words, the rules of engagement that are supposed to constrain occupying troops in places like Afghanistan and Iraq are, according to many scholars and investigators, often belittled and ignored.
Legalized Atrocity
Even when these principles are applied conscientiously — and often they aren’t — they still allow for remarkable levels of civilian carnage, which the Pentagon has long primly (and conveniently) referred to as "collateral damage," as if it were a sad sideline in the prosecution of war. And yet civilian deaths in modern war regularly are the central aspect of those wars, both statistically and in other ways. Far from being universally proscribed, the killing of high numbers of civilians in a battle zone is often considered absolutely legal under those laws. In the pungent phrase of Professor David Kennedy of Harvard Law School, "We should be clear — this bold new vocabulary beats ploughshares into swords as often as the reverse."
The relative weakness of the laws of war when it comes to preventing atrocities is not simply some recent debasement perpetrated by neoconservative Visigoths. Privileging the combatant and his (it’s usually "his") prerogatives has been the historical bone marrow of those laws. In the Vietnam War, for instance, the declaration of significant parts of the South Vietnamese countryside as "free-fire zones," and the "carpet bombing" of rural areas by B-52s carrying massive payloads were also done under cover of the laws of war.
IHL has certainly changed in some respects. A century ago, the discourse around the laws of war was far more candid than today. Jurists once regularly referred to "non-uniformed unprivileged combatants" simply as "savages" and the consensus view in mainstream scholarly journals of international law was that a modern army could do whatever it wanted to such obstreperous, lawless people (especially, of course, in what was still then the colonial world). On the whole, the history of IHL is a long record of codifying the privileges of the powerful against lesser threats like civilians and colonial subjects resisting invasion.
Let’s be clear: what killed the civilians walking the streets of Baghdad that day in 2007 was not "war crimes," but war. And that holds for so many thousands of other Afghan and Iraqi civilians killed by drone strikesair strikesnight raids, convoys, and nervous checkpoint guards as well.
Regulatory Capture
Who, after all, writes the laws of war? Just as the regulations that govern the pharmaceutical and airline industries are often gamed by large corporations with their phalanxes of lobbyists, the laws of war are also vulnerable to "regulatory capture" by the great powers under their supposed rule. Keep in mind, for instance, that the Pentagon employs 10,000 lawyers and that its junior partner in foreign policy making, the State Department, has a few hundred more. Should we be surprised if in-house lawyers can sort out "legal" ways not to let those laws of war get in the way of the global ambitions of a superpower?
Copyright 2012 Chase Madar
Read more by Tom Engelhardt
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Monday, January 18, 2010
Daredevil #506
Daredevil #506 Cover. 2009. Acrylic and
gouache on bristol board, 11 x 17".
1. So sweet! You're like a style chameleon.
2. This is awesome! And thanks for mentioning Hiroshige's name, I'm checking his stuff now...
3. I recognized the Hiroshige homage the moment I saw this piece, and as a long-time admirer of that Edo series, you elicited a huge fangirl squee out of me.
Two great fandoms in one spot! I could not be happier, sir. Your signature and the logo at the top are genius. Icing on the 4-layer cake.
I certainly hope Marvel authorizes this cover for a licensed t-shirt design.
4. Yeah, the design elements are what really put it over the top for me as well.
When I first saw it, my first question to you was going to be if you had any push back from editorial for such a specific design choice.
That Steve Wacker, he's good people.
5. Thanks, everyone! And yes, Michael, Wacker is certainly good people... he just got a well-deserved promotion.
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Remember Agatha Christie? How she, her friends, and a talking dog would ride around in a van and solve mysteries like that ghost at Old Man Winters's farm? Wait, that might have been somebody else. But what most people probably DO remember correctly is that Agatha Christie was a best-selling mystery writer who penned classics like Murder on the Orient Express and who pretty much defines the genre for a lot of people. Like the Half-Life of mystery novels or something. So Agatha Christie and/or classic point-and-click adventure game fans should be happy to know that AWE Games and The Adventure Company are releasing a series of games based on Christie's work, starting this fall with the classic And Then There Were None.
The setting is much like the book: a group of people are lured to a sprawling mansion on a lonely island, only to find that their host is nowhere to be found and each of them is revealed are guilty of some unpunished crime. Then things really start to get interesting as, one by one, the guests succumb to murder -- murder most foul. Your job as a new character who did not appear in the books is to unravel the clues about the murderer's (or murderers') identity before you get greased, too.
Those who have read the books won't automatically shout, "You fools! So-and-so did it! The clues are so obvious!" Actually, they might, but they'd probably be wrong. The game's plot varies enough from the book's so that even Agatha Christie fans will find it engaging. In fact, there are many alternate endings planned for And Then There Were None, depending on how you progress through the game. Players can unlock an ending that re-creates what happened in the book, but their game experiences are pretty much guaranteed to differ.
As far as gameplay goes, if you're familiar with traditional adventure game conventions, you'll slip right into And Then There Were None quite easily. It all appears to be there: exploration, environmental puzzles, inventory puzzles, mining dialog for clues, et cetera. The pre-rendered graphics and the character models looked pretty good, just as you would expect them to in a modern game of this type. If you're itching for a traditional adventure game with a murder mystery plot, this appears to be just your thing. Look for it in fall 2005.
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The Safer Way on All-natural Penis Exercising Meth
The Safer Way on Normal Penis Exercising Approach
Presently, acquiring a penis enhancement product is not a hard class of action. You can locate quite a several adverts of the in males mags, developed-up sites and as properly as on tv. These things variety from capsules for you to pumps and also sections. Needless to say, the most well-recognized choices any penis surgical treatment. However, there is certainly no question that all of these strategies incorporate various hazards. Any penis surgical technique on your personal demands several complicated and fragile processes that will permanently destruction a male organ. The exact same factor applies employing manhood devices just like sends, extenders along with fat loads. They could set off manhood sores, scarring damage, and in several scenarios Peyronies disorder.
But specifically how does a single get started off performing penis exercising? Correctly, you will need to very very first visit an superb penis exercises strategy from the world wide web. An typical software is made up of phase-by-phase recommendations that may well assist you have out the distinct packages additional correctly. There are numerous quantities of exercise routines that have to be completed twenty to fifteen min’s daily. Immediately after you get an application, you can commence straight away utilizing merely the fingers, some lubes, together with a considerably comfy hand towel.
Like each some other muscle tissue of your entire body, your penis might also increase as soon as and for all if exercised on a regular basis. The conclusion end result could even surpass your expectations if you go with your existing physical exercise routine together with healthful meals, nutritional supplements, and an all spherical well-balanced lifestyle. Conversely, using boosting pills, pumps, and surgical treatment typically needs hazards these as extended long-term impotence, bruises, as nicely as tenderness. They may possibly fairly increase the dimensions of your individual penis nevertheless it generally has a cost tag. And also speaking about expense, these approaches can value hundreds or even thousands with regards to dollars. The unique worst case circumstance is not acquiring constructive final results even although struggling together facet it penalties. An specific wound up just squandering your cash. Typical penis exercises methods for illustration stretching and milking are finished just by employing the palms. Exercising is finest suited in comparison with additional strategies because it is really absolutely normal and organic. This also implies that there are not any achievable aspect outcomes along the way. Usually performing exercises your penis slowly and gradually and progressively stimulates expansion of refreshing cellular flesh producing your penis compartments improve in the prolonged run. As quickly as the chambers develop in dimensions, there are way far more suites with regards to blood circulation though difficult. Essentially the forever larger penis sizes obtaining a mushroom-like brain which can make any lady drool.
It is feasible to function at your personal charge when carrying out the penis exercising. This implies that you are equipped to improve or possibly sluggish up the concentration of your individual routine if you want to increase the benefits. You’ll be equipped to basically boost the mild strain used by way of your palms pertaining to larger as well as faster boosts. Your routines can be executed within 7 min’s just about every day. Which indicates that that can be accomplished them about your day-to-day pursuits? An fantastic element is the answers are very long lasting. As shortly as you boost the size of the Corpora Cavernosa action, the end result can not be solved. Which means that you have long sustained effects in contrast to several other methods which include enhancement capsules? In situation you usually exercising regularly above the following month or two, it actually is regular to increase close to 2 inches in place up period and also all-around an inches during circumference. This is a fantastic goal for you to try for, due to the fact it is a truthful focused which is achievable for almost all males.
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Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections : Search Collections
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Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp)
French, 1875 - 1963
View Objects By Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp) >>
French artist Jacques Villon (born Gaston Duchamp, 1875 - 1963), the master of Cubist printmaking, was the elder brother of artists Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876 - 1918) and Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968). The most reserved personality of the three, Villon had a spare and gentle demeanor, accompanied by a devotion to precise analysis and a meticulous attention to process and craftsmanship. A printmaker throughout his career, he also began painting seriously in about 1910 and continued as a painter until his death.
A characteristic aspect of Villon's work is his repetition of subjects. Not only would he repeat a subject in different mediums, but he would also return to it long after its first appearance. He usually portrayed familiar things: friends and family or objects he knew well, such as his brother Raymond's sculptures. Villon closely analyzed his subjects, fragmenting them into Cubist facets, dividing them into stacked planes viewed from above, or infusing them with what he called an inner line of movement. While he had an unsurpassed ability to suggest volume and tone with the black-and-white lines of an etching, he demonstrated an equally acute and subtle sense of color in his paintings that revealed an unexpected baroque aspect of his artistic personality.
The step-by-step process of printmaking and the precision inherent in constructing a Cubist composition were perfectly matched to Villon's sensibilities, for they required a methodical mind. Villon said, "I must have problems to solve," and his gradual development of a graphic language for Cubism provided him with many. For answers he drew from an array of sources, including his study of Leonardo da Vinci's theories of optics and proportion, techniques he learned as a camouflage artist during World War I, conversations with his artist brothers and their avant-garde circle of friends, as well as what he called "solitary work on a private road."
Printmaking and the Duchamp Family
Jacques Villon learned the methods of intaglio printmaking from his maternal grandfather Émile Nicolle (1830 - 1894), who specialized in depictions of Gothic and Renaissance buildings as well as scenes from local life in Rouen, France. The young artist portrayed his grandfather in one of his first etchings in 1891.
Villon moved to Paris to study law in 1894, and he soon began submitting drawings to illustrated newspapers such as Le Courrier français and L'Assiette au Beurre. He simultaneously started producing superb color aquatints in the sophisticated manner of the Belle Époque, many of which were inspired by French artists Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Helleu. In 1904, Villon's brother Marcel came to live with him on the rue Caulaincourt in the Montmartre section of Paris. During that year, the seventeen-year-old Marcel made a group of etchings, including a portrait of their sister Suzanne Duchamp which illustrates the influence of Jacques Villon's elegant style of that period. A few years later, the brothers collaborated on a printed menu for a first communion where they signed their names together on the plate. While Marcel would soon abandon printmaking, Jacques Villon continued to make etchings, aquatints, drypoints, and lithographs for the rest of his life, and his principal reputation as a printmaker, rather than as a painter, persists to this day.
Toward Cubism (1909-12)
"My passage from one form of art to another, from expressive drawing to analytical Cubism took place a little before 1910."
Around 1907, Villon began to make black-and-white etchings and drypoints almost exclusively, abandoning the color aquatints he had previously preferred. Soon he eliminated detail and simplified the forms in his compositions, shifting radically away from the elegant Belle Époque manner. The spare Young Girl at the Piano is among the earliest examples of Villon's new style, foreshadowing his 1911 drypoint portraits of Renée-the daughter of one of his cousins. In his treatment of the dancers in the Ball at the Moulin Rouge and in Musicians at the Bistrot, he continued to portray the cabaret subjects typical of his earlier work. However, rather than describing the figures in detail, he began reducing their forms to simplified patches of parallel strokes--a method that prefigures the segmented, faceted planes in which he rendered the characters in his Cubist prints. In the portraits of Renée, he concentrated on a single massive figure, blocking out large planes that he covered with a network of crossing lines, some of which run through the contours of the figure, integrating it into the surrounding space.
Cubist Prints (1913)
In 1910, Leonardo da Vinci's Treatise on Painting was issued in a French translation, which included a commentary stating that Leonardo practiced the ancient Greek theory of divine proportion, known as the golden section. Leonardo's treatise profoundly influenced Villon's development of a Cubist style, as it did artists such as Fernand Léger, Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris, and Villon's brothers Raymond and Marcel, all of whom regularly met at Villon's studio in Puteaux, outside Paris. Villon gave the name "Section d'Or" (Golden Section) to a 1912 exhibition organized by the Puteaux group.
Leonardo's system for dividing objects into pyramids became the basis for Villon's Cubist compositional structures. According to this system, the viewer perceives an object as divided into the four sides of a pyramid, with the tip originating in the viewer's eye and the object as its base: one side of the pyramid is in shadow, another in light, and the other two are mid-tones. Villon applied Leonardo's theory in his prints of 1913, beginning with the three monumental portraits of his sister Yvonne. In these works, he translated Cubism into the linear techniques of printmaking--filling the broken, segmented planes in his compositions with hatched lines of different spacing, density, and direction. Planes in the deepest shadow were most densely covered with hatchings, while those in bright light were either left vacant or only lightly hatched. Villon developed his Cubist prints in a highly unusual way, making a painting of the composition before he engraved the copper plate. When the plate was printed, the image as it appeared both on the plate and in the painting was reversed.
Villon and Abstraction
"Total abstraction is not for me. I am too fond of life and of semblance."
Villon declared that his work never was completely abstract because the starting point for all of his images was in nature. Nevertheless, in the 1913 drypoint The Tightrope Walker he moved closer to abstraction than ever before, concentrating on expressing the figure's fragile balance on a horizontal plane at the base of the composition and focusing on the light falling on him, rather than describing his physical form.
As his grand "classic" Cubist period drew to a close, Villon returned to an earlier interest in the representation of motion occurring throughout a composition, a concern that emerges more forcefully in his smaller, more dynamic etching The Little Tightrope Walker. There, the figure's point of balance is on a tilted diagonal rather than on a horizontal plane. Villon covered the entire surface with closely spaced, vertical lines and swirling curves that trace the figure's movement. A dark, angular silhouette pointing downward describes his plunge, surrounded by multiple arcs, curves, and arabesques. A similar etching, The Little Machine Shop, portrays mechanical rather than human dynamism. It is the last print Villon made until 1920, after he returned from military service in World War I.
Constructive Decomposition
"Towards the end of the war I treated objects by successive plans. I proceeded by disposing the object in superimposed layers, and that enabled me to confer greater expression to the volume. Each colour-layer being graded, a new object was born, which was finding in itself its own source of lighting."
Villon introduced "constructive decomposition"--his system of dividing objects into stacked planes over which light and shadow are distributed--in the works he created after his service in the camouflage unit of the French army during World War I. Villon was inspired by geographical relief maps, which he had probably encountered during his army service, where superimposed layers of paper are used to indicate the areas of greatest relief. One of the cardinal principles instilled in camouflage artists was the importance of continual awareness of a view from above, a viewpoint that is evident in the etchings of The Chessboard, Bird, and Nobility. While Villon varied the colors of each stacked plane in the paintings where he used constructive decomposition, in his etchings he infinitely modified the density of lines or, as in Nobility, used a roulette to change the textures of the planes.
A Note on Jacques Villon's Name and Its Pronunciation
Jacques Villon was born Gaston Duchamp, a name that he changed in the mid-1890s when he moved from Rouen to Paris and took up a career as an artist. He took the last name "Villon" from the medieval poet François Villon. According to a friend, "Out of delicacy, [Villon] always pronounced the name giving the two l's a pure 'l' sound, and not the French 'y' sound customarily used in pronouncing the name of the poet. 'It seemed more respectful not to take over his name entirely,' he once said." "Jacques" came from Alphonse Daudet's novel, Jack, which appeared in Paris in 1876, and whose hero--a boy shattered by the harshness of the industrialized world--Villon found a sympathetic character.
Jacques Villon, Poet of Precision: A New Acquisition in Context, 2001
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Friday, December 12, 2008
Kilmer 2008: Third Runner-Up
by Peter Day, CC '12
Oh Bulbasaur
With your giant head
and hunched back legs
you look like a turquoise frog
with skin cancer
and an enormous tumor
like a moldy Hershey kiss on your back
You whip people with vines
which creepy fanboy writers
make good use of
in their S and M
and tentacle rape inspired
slash fiction.
Oh Squirtle,
with your tiny T-rex hands
you're more like a dinosaur than Bulbasaur
that was just bad designing.
You wiggle your tail
this next part's in parentheses
(that looks like what happened
when I rolled my silly puddy
into a spiral
and pretended it was a cinnamon roll
and pulled the end away
so it got all stretched in the middle)
end parentheses
and so the appendage trembles
and it looks so pathetic
that your opponents relax their guard
creating an opening
so you can throw up on them
a stream of clear cool vomit
like a geyser
or something else that's phallic.
Oh Charmander
your tail was on fire
so I rushed for a watering can
to save you from the flames.
I doused you with water as pure
as a mountain stream full of pure water
killing you instantly.
This next part is a haiku.
How do I pick one?
I'll be a dick about it.
Gary, you chose first.
1st Runner-Up
2nd Runner-Up
Three Dishonorable Mentions
1 comment:
Mama Mia White Man said...
Wow, Peter, your poem is truly excellent.
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Alley in Pisa, Italy
by Lars Kotthoff
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I've just noticed that whilst shooting with my D5100 using M mode settings reset after each shot. Say, the camera is on a tripod pointing to an object. I've balanced out the exposure to a 0, aperture set to F/8 (this doesn't change btw) and the shutter speed is set to 1/15. I take the picture (camera hasn't moved) and the exposure level and the shutter speed have changed to some random settings (+2 EV exposure and 1/250 shutter speed - it's different every time though). I've searched everywhere, but couldn't find an option that would allow me to save/lock my current settings providing the the image in the view finder doesn't change.
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I think the other question might benefit from being merged into this one, given that your answer here is the correct one. – jrista May 7 '12 at 16:25
3 Answers 3
up vote 8 down vote accepted
This behavior is caused by automatic exposure bracketing.
I've had someone with a Nikon D5000 behaving the same way in manual mode, and it turns out that automatic exposure bracketing caused this problem. My Pentax K-5 behaves the same way if the drive mode is set to exposure bracketing in manual exposure mode.
If this does happen to you again, make sure that bracketing is not set and disable it if it is. You do not need to reset the camera to factory defaults.
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Good to know that. Thanks DragonLord! – Valdas Bycenkovas Apr 26 '12 at 19:21
Yep, just tried this and it worked. Disable bracketing and setting stay the same on 'M' - thanks! – Valdas Bycenkovas May 5 '12 at 17:32
@ValdasBycenkovas: Given that this is indeed the correct answer, you might want to switch the "accepted" answer check to this one. – jrista May 7 '12 at 16:27
thanks DragonLord - I had the same problem as Valdas Bycenkovas - it was veru usefull short worth it answer - it works – user11496 Sep 7 '12 at 23:30
Exposure safety shift? You should disable this in the setup menu if you do not want the camera to change settings for you.
Usually 1/250 is not a random value but the flash-sync speed, check if you get the same behavior with the flash down, assuming it's up.
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No, i very rarely use the flash and therefore it's closed down pretty much all the time. Also the 1/250 it was just an example, it's different every time. Just tried now: 1st picture exposure 0 EV, F5.6, shutter speed 1/1.6". Took the picture and settings changed to + 2 EV, shutter speed 1/25". Where is the exposure safety shift? Just gone through the whole menu, but couldn't find it... – Valdas Bycenkovas Apr 23 '12 at 19:22
On my Nikon its in custom settings. Maybe it is called something else on the D5100? If all else fail, try a factory reset. – Zak Apr 23 '12 at 20:26
Yep, resetting to the factory settings did the trick. I still wasn't able to find the exposure safety shift, but I think quite simply because it's just not there :) Thanks! – Valdas Bycenkovas Apr 23 '12 at 21:23
I have a D5100 and I have not seen this happen. As Zak mentioned you may want to try a factory reset. Also are you using the latest firmware for the D5100? The only time I have ever seen anything reset is after the camera turns off, and even then the only thing I have seen reset going from Quick Response Mode for the remote to Single Shot mode. The settings themselves stay the same.
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Thanks! I hesitated to reset it to the factory settings at first for some reason, but then decided to do it anyway and it worked! The settings stay the same for the 2nd, 3rd...etc, pics. Ta muchly! – Valdas Bycenkovas Apr 23 '12 at 21:21
@ValdasBycenkovas - Glad it worked out for you. Good info to know if that ever happens to me. => – Lynda Apr 23 '12 at 23:32
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78010
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Alley in Pisa, Italy
by Lars Kotthoff
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123 reputation
bio website
location Rovereto, Italy
visits member for 1 year, 11 months
seen Dec 5 '13 at 14:54
PhD student.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78012
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PIA17941: Opportunity Rover on 'Murray Ridge' Seen From Orbit
Target Name: Mars
Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun)
Mission: Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Spacecraft: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Instrument: HiRISE
Product Size: 1416 x 1441 pixels (width x height)
Produced By: University of Arizona/HiRise-LPL
Full-Res TIFF: PIA17941.tif (6.124 MB)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA17941.jpg (282.8 kB)
Original Caption Released with Image:
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The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter caught this view of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on Feb. 14, 2014. The red arrow points to Opportunity at the center of the image. Blue arrows point to tracks left by the rover since it entered the area seen here, in October 2013. The scene covers a patch of ground about one-quarter mile (about 400 meters) wide. North is toward the top. The location is the "Murray Ridge" section of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.
Researchers built the commands in January 2014 for HiRISE to acquire this image. The stimulus for planning it was a pair of before-and-after images taken by Opportunity showing that a rock had appeared beside the rover in early January where that rock had not been present a few days earlier. Scientists considered from the start that the most likely explanation was that a rover wheel had moved the rock during a drive just before the "after" image. This new image from HiRISE was designed to check a less likely possibility, that a fresh crater-excavating impact had occurred and thrown the rock in front of the rover. The image shows no evidence of a fresh impact. Meanwhile, observations by Opportunity in February solved the mystery by finding where the rock had been struck, broken and moved by a rover wheel.
As of Feb. 14, 2014, Opportunity had driven 24.07 miles (38.74 kilometers) since landing on Mars in January 2004. Murray Ridge is between "Solander Point" and "Cape Tribulation" on Endeavour's rim. For a wider-scale view of where it is in relation to Opportunity's full traverse, see PIA17558.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78017
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Radionuclides occur with half-lives in a vast range of over 37 magnitudes as listed in this site. In question 7584, Lubos Motl explained how Gyr half-lives were determined. This method doesn't appear applicable to evaluate sub-microsecond half-lives. How are extremely short half-lives determined?
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1 Answer 1
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Line width.
Any kind of fast decay is measured by its line width.
You make a high-precision energy measurements of a statistical number of decays, measure the width of the resulting distribution, subtract off contributions due to Doppler broadening and your instrument's intrinsic resolution and what you are left with goes into
$$ \Delta E \Delta t = \frac{\hbar}{2} $$
This is a staple method of experimental particle physics.
As you can see, very short half-lives translate to very broad lines. Other examples include the decay of the $J/\Psi$ (and indeed most strong decays).
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I'm always amazed at the utility of Heisenberg's principle. – Michael Luciuk Feb 22 '12 at 4:05
But how can you be sure that it gives you an equality in Heisenberg's principle? My question is the following: Wouldn't this kind of reasoning give you a upper bound to the half-life instead of giving you a precise measurement of the same? – user23873 May 8 '13 at 19:17
Upper bound turns to an exact equality (with maybe some known factor of order unity) if we know the exact distribution function along mentioned variables. For example, Gaussian wavepacket along $x$ gives you an equality $\Delta p\Delta x=\hbar/2$. And for the decay processes we know that the exact function is the law of decay $\exp(-t/\tau)=\exp(-\Gamma t/\hbar)$. Thus we can use the Heisenberg's relation in its equality sense. – firtree May 9 '13 at 3:26
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78024
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A Girl Who Reads December 19, 2011
Are you a girl who reads? If not, you should become one because readers make you pretty great catches. And if you have daughters, you might want to mentor them in the reading department, not just because others will want to date them, but because they will be really great, well-round women. That’s what the this article says, anyway, and I think I agree. You? (And note: boys should read, too.)
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78043
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9550 Carmel Mtn. Rd
San Diego, Calif. 92129
American Literature On-Line
email a question: Ms. Harkins--questions email your homework: Ms. Harkins--assignments
East of Eden:
Nature vs. Nurture
The central question of this conversation is What influences a person's personality more--nature (the way the person was born) or nurture (the environmental influences).
Before you conduct any online research, you need to logon to your account at learningpoint and respond to the following prompt (on the discussion board) by agreeing or disagreeing with it and explaining why. Here is the initial prompt, taken from pages 95 and 96 of East of Eden:
"I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. . . And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? . . . As a child may be born without an arm, so one may be born without kindness or the potential of conscinece . . . to a monster the norm must seem monstrous, since everyone is normal to himself. To the inner monster it must be even more obscure, since he has no visible thing to compare with others. To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous."
Once you have responded to the novel's quotation, spend some time gathering information from the following links. See if it causes you to question your opinion, causes you to change your opinion, or if the information reinforces your original idea. As you read, you should copy and paste key lines into word or jot them down on paper. Once you finish gathering information, you need to return to the discussion board at learningpoint and post a revised opinion, including references to the specific articles. Then read through what your classmates have said and respond to at least two. You should only spend abou 15 min. gathering information.
A general overview on the issue (the first four pages, at least): BBC discusses genetics
The twin studies reveal the controls of nature: Cloning and twin studies
The biology of the issue: Nature plays a role
Sesame Street tackles the nature perspective: Sesame Street Advice
This article suggests that both theories are correct: Nature AND Nurture
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78051
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101 reputation
bio website quesity.com
location Tel Aviv, Israel
age 29
visits member for 2 years, 2 months
seen Dec 17 '13 at 12:28
Hi :)
My name is Lior and I live in the beautiful city of Tel Aviv, Israel.
Programming has always been my passion. Today I'm the Co-Founder of a really cool startup - Quesity. Check it out before you go on a tour in a big city :)
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78052
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Reading List Books:
"White House Kids" by Joe Rhatigan. The White House is the most famous mansion in America. Imagine your mom or dad has become president and it's about to become your new home: What would it be like to live there? At first it seems exciting. There's a bowling alley in the basement, a movie theater where you can screen the latest films, chefs to prepare whatever you want to eat, and presidential aides to help you with your homework. You don't even have to do any chores! Sounds great, doesn't it? But sometimes it's not easy for the kids who call the White House home. They're forever in the spotlight, and those pesky Secret Service agents are always around. White House kids can't go out for a bike ride whenever they want or have a simple sleepover at a friend's house. For every perk, there's a problem. Read it and see: Would you like to be a White House kid? (Primary Grades)
"The Thanksgiving Book" by Lucille Recht Penner. Who invented Thanksgiving? Was it the Pilgrims, those few dozen astonishing people who fought hardship and disease - who survived fear and loneliness - to plant the seeds of America? Their "first Thanksgiving" (for which the Indians supplied the deer meat) is certainly the most famous in history. But Thanksgiving is far older than that. In England, where the Pilgrims came from, English farmers had been celebrating Harvest Home for many hundreds of years. Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Greeks and Romans, and by the ancient Hebrews. In China, Thanksgiving was celebrated as the birthday of the moon. "The Thanksgiving Book" tells the story of these and other unusual Thanksgiving celebrations spanning the centuries and circling the globe. Most of all, it shows how - in many of the things we do, as in many of the foods we eat - our Thanksgiving celebration joins us with all of humanity who came before us, who planted and harvested, who made merry in their time. (Middle School)
"High School Musical: Stories From East High" by N.B. Grace. The pressure is on! The students of East High are preparing for the SATs, and Gabriella has the unfortunate honor of tutoring Sharpay - who shines much more brightly onstage than she does on her practice tests. Luckily, the school's upcoming Halloween Festival is taking everyone's mind off the SAT crunch. This year's theme is Future Fantasy, and the students will wear costumes that represent what they would like to be someday. Gabriella and Troy are both wondering what kind of future the other foresees, but they'll have to wait until the party to find out. Will their visions match up? Or do the two of them have different ideas about where they're headed? (High School)
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78058
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Nippon Ichi, makers of the critically acclaimed Disgaea and La Pucelle: Tactics, returns with another new tactics game, Phantom Brave. The first title published by the company's new U.S. arm, NIS America, Phantom Brave takes some steps in a new direction, is even more hardcore than the previous titles, and remains a deep and satisfying tactical epic.
Marona is a Chroma, a magical mercenary of sorts in the archipelago world of Ivoire. Unlike most Chromas, however, Marona possesses the power to summon phantoms and is always accompanied by Ash, her dead parents' former accomplice. This connection to the dead scares the locals who call her "The Possessed," and rarely give her any work. Naturally, mysterious and dark powers threaten Ivoire, providing an epic quest to save humanity set against Marona and Ash's own personal dilemmas. Story wise there aren't too many surprises here, but it's solid and entertaining stuff with fun characters, balancing levity, and drama with aplomb.
Like all of Nippon Ichi's previous tactical efforts, Phantom Brave strives to be different and innovative, and the company's really outdone itself this time. Indeed, standard tactical paradigms will have to be rethought, thanks to the erasure of the world's familiar gridlines, radial movement, and Marona's phantom-summoning ability.
Strategic Novelty
Being a 13-year-old girl, Marona must rely on the strength of others to succeed, and summons phantoms to fight for her. As the explanation goes, phantoms have no physical form and thus must be channeled into a physical object in order to fight. Every object in the world can house phantoms, and will in turn bestow stat modifiers on their new inhabitants. For example, confining a phantom to a rock will give it greater attack and defense, but lower its speed. Every item in the game (including your own minions) can also be picked up for extra stat boosts, and more importantly, used as a weapon. And then they disappear. Yes, perhaps the most strategically different aspect of Phantom Brave is that your phantoms can only be on the battlefield for a few turns, and thus must be thoughtfully summoned and used before they disappear. Rationing attacks and phantoms is a key part of the game's overall strategy, and oftentimes you'll need to make do with your weaker phantoms and save your best ones for the boss.
Phantom Brave uses a deeply convoluted and satisfying system of recursive feedback to build your characters. As in Disgaea, Marona can create a huge variety of phantoms to aid her in various character and monster classes, with more unlocked as you progress through the game. Characters gain mana and experience from fighting, as do any items they bring with them, unlocking new abilities for each to use. With the help of a "Fusionist" phantom, characters and items can be combined to aggregate their mana and abilities, as well as raise the maximum attainable level. To keep you from building incredibly powerful characters with every ability, every character has distinct skills with separate pools of skill points for each, each rated from A to F. Using a tree attack requires plant skill points, while using magic requires offensive magic points, and repeatedly using skills of these types will increase the number of skill points available for that type of attack.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78060
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Public Home > 1951 Chevy Deluxe > 1951 Chevy Deluxe from ebay
1951 Chevy Deluxe
1951 Chevy Deluxe from ebay
Some people call these a Bel Air but, it was not a distinct series of its own until the 1953 model year. This DELUXE was an EBAY junker with far too much glue used. The front suspension had to be cut from the frame and a straight axle made and added. I left the interior the way I got it. I stripped and repainted the engine and trans, modified the intake manifold to accept the tri-carb. setup, added HEI and an alternator. I scratch built the duel oil filters and mount as well as most of the exhaust. The only paint I added is the Grey primer to the panels between the bumpers and body. I just cleaned and polished the red paint it was sprayed and added Bare Metal Foil. The wheels and tires are from the spares bin.
Image URL for use on other sites:
Link to send via email/instant messenger:
Code for a Fotki Journal:
Uploaded: September 26, 2011
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78061
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JRC Publications Repository
JRC Publications Repository >
Browsing by Author MOADEL T.
Showing results 1 to 1 of 1
2006Interaction of Radiolabeled Antibodies with Fungal Cells and Components of Immune System In Vitro and During Radioimmunotherapy of Experimental Fungal InfectionDADACHOVA E.; BRYAN R.a.; APOSTOLIDIS CHRISTOS; MORGENSTERN ALFRED; ZHANG T.; MOADEL T.; CASADEVALL A.Articles in Journals
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Thursday, October 2, 2008
Seven Lessons...
This week’s Runner’s Lounge TIART is Life Lessons I have learned from running. Here’s seven; one for each day of the week:
1. Races are like vacations; always have short, medium and long term ones booked, paid for and looked forward to.
2. You have to know the lows to enjoy the highs; injuries, bad runs and crap weather are all somewhere in you future, let the downs highlight the ups: great, injury free runs on perfect days.
3. Enjoy the journey as well as the destination; you’ll cover a lot of miles as a runner so sometimes just stop and smell the roses.
4. Be flexible: metaphorically and physically; learn to be adaptable – life happens and don’t forget to stretch.
5. A change is as good as a rest; do you always go out the door and turn left, mix it up and turn right for something different.
6. You get good at what you do; be it running, playing the violin or hoping on one foot, practice makes perfect, be tenacious and stick with it.
7. Be like the horizon; you’ll be faster than some and slower than others, just keep moving.
1. Grat list SLB! Love the you have to book em in advance.
2. Great post. I love planning my vacations around running!
3. You are so right on #2. Those bad runs really make the good ones better!
And, hey, thanks for stopping over at my site!
4. #3 is a good one for me. i'm so bent on beating my time that i usually miss the surroundings. seriously, i'll "stop and smell the roses" or at least the smog around me. ;-)
"be like the horizon"... i love that line.
5. Love your list Q,
I'll certainly print and keep this on the fridge!
6. I especially like the analogy in #1!
7. great post!!! these are all SO true.
8. #7 is deep, makes ya think. Ya know...for like 1-2 seconds, and then ya become distracted (or at least I was). Kept thinking about a vacation because of #1...I need a vacation.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78079
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Quotation by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904), Russian author, playwright. Likharev in On the Road, Works, vol. 5, p. 468, "Nauka" (1976).
Surprise me with a
The Columbia World of Quotations © 1996, Columbia University Press.
Copyright © 2014 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78095
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Birthday / /
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Tokyo: International Bellydance Competition
August 18 - 20, 20126:00 pm
Along with Anasma and Mayady, Ranya will be a guest judge at the 2012 Tokyo International Bellydance Competition, sponsored by Deseos. In addition to the competition itself, the event will include a series of workshops as well as a performance showcasing the competition winners, judges, and others.
Saturday, August 18
The TIBC 2012 “Starry Nights” showcase will feature performances by Ranya Renee, Anasma, Mayady, Farasha, Nicole (with group), EG’ZILE, Kazumi, Joe of Deseos (with ATS troupe), Tabla Kwaiesa, and 1st place winners of TIBC 2012.
Doors open at 18:00 (6pm), show starts at 18:30 (6:30pm).
Purchase show tickets here.
Sunday, August 19
11:30-14:30 (11:30am-2:30pm): Workshop A (Ranya) – Classical Oriental/Golden Age Technique & Styling (all levels), 10,000 yen
11:30-14:30 (11:30am-2:30pm): Workshop C (Anasma) – Bellydance Liquid Fusion Techniques and Combinations (all levels), 10,000 yen
18:00-21:00 (6pm-9pm): Workshop B (Ranya) – Modern Egyptian Oriental Choreography (all levels), 10,000 yen
18:00-21:00 (6pm-9pm): Workshop D (Anasma) – Bellydance Liquid Fusion “Big Bang Drum Solo” (all levels), 10,000 yen
Monday, August 20
18:30-20:30 (6:30pm-8:30pm): Workshop E – Oriental & Fusion (special joint Theatrical Bellydance Workshop taught by Ranya and Anasma), all levels, 8,000 yen
Workshops A, B, C, D = 10,000 yen each
Workshop E = 8,000 yen
Multiple workshops = 10% off total amount
Click here to register.
One Response to “Tokyo: International Bellydance Competition”
1. Yoko Mikami says:
Ranya, looking forward seeing you soon !
Say Something Nice :)
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78102
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This sounds very much like any Greco-Roman historian. As one reads through Luke and Acts there are any number of key figures and events which “fit” into the general history of the world. Figures like Augustus, Herod, Pilate, Gallio are all well-known characters. So too Luke’s geographical references attempt to show the expansion of the Gospel west from Jerusalem to Rome. There are things in the book which the modern reader fails to appreciate as historical, such as the detailed descriptions of sailing on the Mediterranean Sea in Acts 27.
Pick2But it is equally obvious that Luke writes this story as just that, a story. There are elements of the book included in order to enhance the story from the perspective of literature. He intends to tell an interesting story, with foreshadowing and surprising twists.
Perhaps the best example of this is the dramatic introduction of the main character of two-thirds of the book at the end of Chapter 7. Saul appears as “approving” the stoning of Stephen, then he is dropped from the narrative for a chapter to create narrative tension. Again, Saul encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus and is told he is going to be the light to the Gentiles – yet that plot line is dropped in chapters 10-12, only to be picked up in chapter 13 perhaps a dozen years later. This is the work of a master story-teller, teasing his readers with hints and foreshadowing of what we know must be coming.
Yet there is a third part of Luke’s book which cannot be ignored. Luke is a theologian, and his book is telling the reader about the work of God in the world. He has theological interests, such as how God’s plan is unfolding in history, or the movement of the Holy Spirit as the gospel moves into new areas of the world. Darrell Bock’s recent The Theology Luke/Acts demonstrates that Luke had many theological interests which run throughout these two books.
It seems to me that interpreters of Acts can only hold one or two of these three points at any one time. Either Paul is writing history, or theology, it is assumed, because the two genre are distinct. This is true for a modern history for the most part, but not so an ancient history. There is no separation of church and state in the Greco-Roman world, nor can history and theology be neatly separated in Thucyidides or Josephus. It is impossible that a writer in the first century would create a dispassionate, non-theological history (as if he was a modernist living in 1850!)
It is equally impossible to read Acts as only a theological history without recognizing that he was an excellent storyteller who highlights some of his theological views by describing them in a highly organized, literary fashion. I am not sure anyone wants to read a history that is non-literary. I suppose that would be a list of names or a series of un-interpreted facts, although even a list of names is filtered in some way.
When we read Acts, all three of these elements ought to be held as more or less equal. That is something of a challenge, since most people are drawn to one or two of the points, rarely all three. Someone might find a great deal of satisfaction working on the historical questions in Acts but find very little use for narrative approaches to Acts. Another reader might focus solely on the theological issues without any sense of history. This is sometimes done in the service of application: what does Luke tell us about the Holy Spirit for today?
Can a reader approach the book with all three elements in mind? Are there other elements I am omitting?
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78103
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Thursday, July 14, 2011
Politicans are A-Holes
A visual representation of what politics have become.
As I've said many times in this blog and in my everyday life, I don't like to talk about politics. I loved politics and debating growing up, but in the Age of Ignorance (or the Age of Immediate Consumption and Regurgitation, whatever you prefer), political debates have become nothing but pissing contests where the two opposing parties are more than willing to drown in each others yellow seas.
These attitudes, perpetrated over hundreds of years of bureaucratic bullshit,has led to a major divide between hundreds of millions of people. And now, we're in the world's biggest Mexican stand-off, where every politician has the gun to someone's head, and they're all sitting in a room waiting for the someone to take the first shot. If that tension isn't enough, add corruption and uncertainty to every social, fiscal, and legal issue available, and we've got a country full of people screaming their heads off, all at the same time.
I've never sat inside a federal budget meeting, so I can't say I'm 100% right... but if yesterday's news about Obama storming out of a debt management meeting tells you anything, it tells you things are not getting better. It's turned into an ugly political war, where the issues are thrown under the rug, and everybody is spewing off about shit that just doesn't matter, like credit ratings, debt ceilings, and whose dick was found on Facebook today.
I mean, really, do we even DISCUSS the ACTUAL issues anymore, or are they merely buzzwords in self-indulgent expositions of grandeur? All we hear are ridiculous numbers and statements, with the only apparent goal of striking enough fear into us Americans that we shut the fuck up and line up quietly. I don't give a shit what Moody says about America's credit rating. Just open the goddamn mailbox and you'll see we all buy too much shit we haven't paid for yet, I don't need some snooty number-cruncher to tell me I need to put my nuts in a vice because the country is going to hell.
You see, at this point, it's not about what side of the issue our politicians are on: those issues affect all of us, BUT trust me when I say, IT DOESN'T MATTER what comes out of a politicians mouth. How many statements have you seen a politician of any type ACTUALLY abide to and follow through? Not many, because they've fooled us all into thinking they are working for us. Which they aren't- unless it was Obama's honor in serving and helping his country that allowed him to walk out of the room yesterday.
And don't let the CNN analysts fool you... who gives a shit who started arguments, made accusations, and tossed insults? A LEADER is supposed to LEAD, no matter the circumstances. Now, Obama isn't happy about the way things are going, and there's only one reason someone storms out of a room when that feeling arises. And when is that?
When they don't get what they want. And that's the reason, whether it's Obama, your little sister, or a frustrated hooker... when we don't get what we want, we leave.
While my criticism isn't strictly on Obama, at the end of the day, he is supposed to be the leader, not the leader of a shouting match. It doesn't matter if we voted for him or not (partly because our votes REALLY don't count for anything, if you know the election process beyond what our misguiding textbooks want you to believe), he is supposed to be the man with the necessary vision to take the right steps for our country, unclouded by the media, strong-footed on the slippery political slope.
But he really isn't, is he... he's just the faceplate of a pull for power between two sides, putting shitty situations into eloquently delivered declarations of progression. Obama is the ultimate media president, and the media's had a ball putting the man on a political pedestal. But no matter how many calories his wife eats during her lunch (seriously Associated Press, who the fuck cares?) we have two political parties whose differences are destined to end very, very badly, and his ignorance is simply feeding the growing fire.
We can keep ignoring the divide, and storm out of the room every time it bears its nasty face, but even Obama knows it... this ship isn't righting itself. And the worst part about it is we've spent decades and decades electing politicians who care less and less about the problems of everyday Americans (or even know how the life of an average American is LIVED), and more and more about their personal gain, so it's not going to be fixed anytime soon.
So no, I don't like to talk about politics. "Politics" is just two people arguing opposite viewpoints in order to distract our attention from what the realities of a problem are.I'm more interested in "discussions" and "solutions", then berating a co-worker in front of all our colleagues (or at least, it was ALLEGED this happened). That's not 'progress' or 'change', that's just the same old tired act we've been watching for the last 20 years.
(Note to Obama-hating Republicans: don't get excited because I bashed Obama. You're just as wrong and full of shit as the Democrats are... plus you still support Sarah Palin, who just might be the craziest sociopath in the world.)
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Investigative Journalism and Media Corruption: A Rant
This week it was announced a US jury FINALLY came to their senses, and found Rod Blagojevich guilty on 17 different counts of political corruption (which left me thinking holy shit, how many people did he try and sell Obama's seat to?). It makes me laugh when I think about this arrogant dumbass talking about how he's got this gold mine, and won't let it go for nothing. It's nice to see justice get its due occasionally (in other words, John Edwards might want to learn how to hold his soap).
But all prison and political jokes aside... when the dust finally settles in the the Blago case, there is still one question poking at me: this is it? We've got 50 governors, 100 senators, and 430+ US representatives... and this is the only example we've got of political corruption? Somehow, our country continues to spiral into further and further debt, CEO's are continuing to stuff their pockets, we've STILL got no health care answer... and I'm supposed to believe we're fixing the problems of corruption in our government? Most people will write this off as some anti-government pro-conspiracy standpoint, but how far off am I? The screams of government foul-play still echo from the Bush administration, but there is no modern chorus to accompany those voices.
So who is to blame for this silence? The voting population? Well, you can't really do that, because all 280 million of us are faced every November with the same election choices: dirty or dirtier (no, I'm not going to make a Weiner joke, although it screams for one). We can't really blame Obama, either, because he's one man taking on a congregation of 500 (or 250 if you take out the Republicans), but you can't say he's established a progressive attitude towards this subject.
Obviously, the most obvious answer is the media. Remember the days of muck-raking and yellow journalism attacking the establishment, keeping our interests at hand? Those journalists who existed as the mediator between an old-time public vs. government system of checks and balances? Well, those journalists are long gone, and have been replaced by way too many Scott Templeton's (seriously, if you don't know who I'm talking about, stop reading and go watch The Wire already). Investigative journalism has turned into mistress hearsay and unconfirmed sources, chasing down stories which are really ignoring the heart of the issue.
That is, unless you've seen ANY journalist write an in-depth article articulating the cycle of corruption we've been watching for decades.
A component of this loss of investigative journalism is the combined decline of newspapers and explosion of Twitter. With Twitter, the question is no longer 'what is your story', it's become 'who told the story first,' which has turned fact-checking into a public (although widely ignored) art. This leads to the abandonment of long stories, which involve a lot of time, research, interviewing, and money... time nobody in the world of watchdog journalism wants to partake in.So what are we left with?
We're left with an hour of evening news consisting of reading tweets, 'panels of experts' arguing the same issue over and over again, and gossip-based speculation into other stories around the world. It's underlined by a supreme selfishness, something which has no place in the world of journalism. I don't want journalists telling me their Twitter handles, talking about their new book and doing nothing but distracting us from the issues at hand. I want to know what our politicians are saying and thinking behind closed doors... I want the reality of government, not more ads for reality TV!
In other words, all perception is lost. And while I blame it on the media, we're in part to blame for allowing this to continue. We let Robin Meade advertise her fucking album a dozen times a day while she reads the news. We allow ourselves to get distracted by how many fingers Lady Gaga keeps up her ass daily, and what is going to happen next week on Jersey Shore. We don't have time for the writers of the world willing to make enemies, and that's at the heart of investigative journalism.
And without investigative journalism, politicians like Blagojevich and Edwards WILL continue to do the dirty work, line their pockets, and laugh as the US debt continues to rise and rise. They're running our country into the ground, and we're standing by, watching the political divide grow, talking about Obama's 15th edition of his Great Economic Fix. Meanwhile, the backdoor deals and subjective decisions continue like business as usual.
After all, Blagojevich got his idea to sell that Senate seat from somewhere... you really think this was the first time this happened?
Thursday, June 9, 2011
RTB is Expanding!
I know you've all been wondering where Reading Through the Blindfold has been the past couple weeks. I've been around, cringing at lots of happenings in the media, building a brand new site for you all to enjoy!
It's called Processed Media, and will be the new home for all RTB reviews! Of course, Reading Through the Blindfold will still be your home for all the latest takes on the news of the world.
Keep your eyes peeled for great new stuff here, and I hope you'll enjoy Processed Media! In the meantime, check out the new Processed Media Facebook page and sign up for new updates (and the RTB Facebook if you haven't yet!)
Talk to you soon!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The Big Gay Elephant in the Room
Ask the average sports fan what the biggest problem in professional sports today is, and what will the answer be? Steroids? Continuously ballooning paychecks? Right now, a lot of people would probably say the egos of owners vs. players, considering the current and upcoming lockouts in the NFL and NBA, respectively. Then, step into the DeLorean, and ask someone the same question 20 years ago. The answer would probably be gambling, drug use, or free agency.
Now, these are all valid issues, but one of the most disturbing (albeit predictable) problem with sports is hardly ever discussed, and when it is, usually isn't talked about in an objective manner. It's the skeleton in every closet in every professional league, and it's the one question David Stern, Bud Selig, and even Roger Goddell wouldn't have an answer for... which is probably the recent it doesn't get asked. It's a simple question, really...
What's up with the rampant homophobia?
There was a story that like most stories, appeared quickly on ESPN's home page, only to be removed mere hours after the story broke (probably due to the scathing debate talking place on the comment board.) The article is about hockey sports agent Todd Reynolds' comments about New York Rangers star Sean Avery's endorsement of the same-sex bill making it's way through NY legislation. I won't give Reynolds the light of day by quoting him, but you can read the article here. He basically pulls every Catholic cliche out of his ass regarding marriage and its definition (although he finished it by saying he didn't hate anyone, nor did he think gays were unequal).
We all know sports agents are vile: they've ruined college sports, raised salaries exponentially, and have done nothing but ignore the integrity of sport. But the comments he made reflect the silent values of professional sports. Name one openly gay professional athlete in the NBA, NHL, MLB, or NFL. Fuck, you can even throw in the PGA and NASCAR.
Finished counting? You should be, because the answer is ZERO. And does that seem like a realistic answer? Because anybody thinking it's real is beyond foolish. There are many gay people playing professional sports today, and it's sad none of them feel they can stand up in the sports world of 2011. But can you blame them? Every NBA and NFL ad features the biggest, manliest men in primal screams of male power and domination. Half the experience of going to a professional sports game is to see the dozens of half-naked girls each team has to dance and cheer and hold up round cards.
I thought we might shed some light on the issue when Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was seen yelling 'faggot' on the sidelines. Instead, all we got was the obligatory cliched comments from GLAAD, a fine from the NBA, and Kobe 'going' to some counseling. Half the reaction to Sean Avery (who is straight) being in the commercial from the media seemed to be one of subtle scorn, with many reporters writing as if surprised someone would stand up and do this. The other half misguided the argument completely by bashing Avery's on-ice character and not what he was doing by appearing in the ad.
Personally, I think the reaction to a heterosexual man appearing in an ad supporting homosexuality displays more about the moral character of these professional institutions than any steroid scandal. Creepily, it parallels the professional religious structure, where homosexuality is ignored or swept under the rug (or in the case of some white-collared molesters, simply moved around the country to different churches). If these people can't even admit the fact their company is making money of gay athletes, how could they handle a professional athlete coming out?
Sadly, this issue doesn't end with male sports; the list of openly gay female athletes is a short one as well. In summary, I think it's deplorable we live in a society where the people children admire and adults cheer for, can't even be cheered or admired for who they really are. And if organizations like GLAAD would do more to these powerful leagues than point fingers and say "you're not being very nice" when people are ignorant, maybe things would change. Maybe if gay athletes didn't have heterosexuality shoved down their throats in high school by coaches and Gatorade commercials, they would be able to speak out, and not fear being ostracized in the locker room.
But, I have to remember I'm in America, where oxymorons define our values. Sports are the most homoerotic activities in the world. We play with wood sticks, leather sacs on our hands, chasing around balls and hugging each other. Yet somehow, you can't be gay and play sports... that's just not OK. It's kind of like saying we're 'one nation, under God.' How the fuck can you say we're united when we can't agree on anything at all?
If you haven't seen the ad with Sean Avery, here it is. If you live in NY (which I no longer do), make the right decision and vote.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Television Review: Archer
How do you define Archer? It doesn't fit easily into the action or comedy genres, and the fact it's animated really separates it from every other show in its realm. It's like taking Mad MenArrested Development, the good parts of The Office, and throwing them in a blender with the best of the 4,867 James Bonds movies. Set to puree, blend for 30 seconds, and you have Archer.
The story revolves around ISIS secret agent, Sterling Archer, and the exploits of Malory, ISIS chief, and Sterling's mother. Archer possesses all the best and worst qualities of spies: an abundance of awesomeness, a penchant for strong drinks and soft bodies, and a self-obsession Charlie Sheen would be envious of. Of course, like any son, he's a reflection of his mothers values and lessons (which explains Archer's fetish for ping pong paddles during sex, and his constant need for acceptance, among other things), and that dynamic is one of the shows core concepts. Each episode contains a clue into why Archer is who he is (and why he's so obsessed with his mother), and how his mother's cavalier approach to parenting played into it.
Like any good spy show, Archer's list of international enemies with ridiculous surnames is long. Also (like any good spy show or movie), enemies seem to escape most climatic situations, usually due to Archer's ignorance and complete disregard for standard procedures (plus he's usually comparing himself to Burt Reynolds in various movies). However, the best aspects of Archer's action scenes aren't the crazy stunts he pulls off with fellow agents (including the sexiest animated woman ever, Archer's ex, Lana Kane); it's the conversations taking place during those scenes. Every time gunshots and explosions ring out on the screen, it seems to be the time characters have profound moments of honesty, shouting and arguing with enemies and each other while pulling off ridiculous stunts.
It's thse little touches which make Archer the best show around. It takes superfluous drama like hostage situations and turns them into hilarious moments of exposition (or, in Archer's case, moments for him to forget his witty line and say "Shit, I had something good for this!", without becoming lost in the minor details of trying to explain itself, and tie up loose ends (aka the last season of LOST).
Most of the time, the episodes end with major dramatic elements of the story unresolved, very reminiscent of Seinfeld (as is the element of running background jokes throughout the season, which there are plenty). Some people call it lazy storytelling, but Archer's true focus isn't on who wins the Spy Wars, but the life of the primary and ancillary characters living in the spy world, a breath of fresh-air from the fecal spray known as 2011 network television.
Archer is the type of show which people will either love or hate: it's rude, violent, extremely sexual, and very blunt. The deadpan delivery of the show's jokes shows the sophisticated (though low-brow)nature of the show's comedy, and the voice talent (including the always-brilliant F. Jon Benjamin in the titular role)is remarkably sharp. It makes political statements without soap boxing (or most of the time, without making a direct reference), its constantly hilarious, and it wasn't built for the masses (which ruins anything). From the sharply-written dialogue, to the concise and always-focused plot lines and season arcs, Archer delivers excitement and laughs unmatched by ANY show on television, be it animated or not, comedy or drama.
Personally, I can't recommend Archer enough. It's hilarious, vulgar, obscure, intriguing, and while it operates way outside of reality, its grounded morally in a way most shows wouldn't bother to attempt.... and that's because most viewers don't really care about morals (or else why would in every action movie, the guy who kills everyone gets the girl in the end?). But Archer does- as he says at one point in an early episode: "Big picture, I'm probably not a very happy person." And it's that perspective (plus the fact Malory, Archer's mother, seems to have more influence around the world than the President) which separates Archer not only from the Get Smarts and Mission: Impossibles of it's genre (been a long time since there was a good spy show, huh), but from every other show, comedy or otherwise, found on television today.
If you haven't seen it.... go do it. Now.
Acting (Voice): A+
Production Values: A
Characters and Plot: A+
Overall: A+
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Perception vs. Reality: The Lady Gaga Debate
Last week, Lady Gaga's new single 'Born This Way' set records when it topped the Billboard charts a mere 3 hours after it's release. She's always trending on Twitter, gracing magazine covers and being the most popular 'rebel' in the world. At this point in time, the only entertainer (I save the word musician for talented people) more popular then her right now is Justin Bieber (a frighteningly revealing truth of the music industry).
Now, people know I like to bag on Lady Gaga, especially after the last Grammy Awards show, when she showed up in an egg, paraded around by her 'slaves.' However, my criticisms aren't directed at her talents- because, at the end of the day, there is a talented songwriter and musician with a decent voice within Lady Gaga. I just can't stand to watch as the facade she's created with her Gaga persona and lifestyle consume the world (and cheap, retarded knock-offs like Ke$ha are cashing in on the lifestyle she advertises).
This all came to a head this morning, when I read quotes from a Lady Gaga interview in this month's Bazaar magazine. The article involves a number of different topics, including her career, life, mentality, etc (you can read the full article here). Honestly, her answers frightened me. Seriously frightened me.
Now, to understand my fear, you've got to understand the roots of Lady Gaga. 5 years ago, she was merely a girl named Stephani, whose meek presence at her musical shows (she usually sat and played piano while she sang) was obviously preventing her from becoming popular. It wasn't until she made a number of artificial changes to her life did she become famous. Changed her name, stopped being a Alicia Keys-knock off and jumped on the techno bandwagon, and started dressing like a complete asshole. She presented herself to us as the weird, new generation's version of Madonna (needing to top the last singer to adorn that title, Britney Spears).
I'll give her credit, she did it. But now she's become more than that. She's a superstar, a spokesperson, and fuck me if she isn't becoming a role model for everyone from little girls to adult gays everywhere. Which is all well and good, except everybody is idolizing a liar who acknowledges she lives separated from reality (in the interview, the writer says she talks about living in a world 'between fantasy and reality'). This really bothers me, on a number of levels. First of all, she's basically perpetuated a lie to the point she has to live it 24 hours a day, although she deflects this issue by saying (and I'm paraphrasing) 'I didn't like Hollywood, it just wasn't me.'
Well, I must ask, who is she? Her new trend is putting prosthetic bones on her body everyday and trying to tell everyone she's had them forever, and they come out when she's inspired, and now she's showing us 'her true self', a phrase I've heard EVERY TIME she releases a new album. She lives a life knowingly separated from reality, but still consider herself an expert on the world's situations (her political comments and advocations are well-known). To me, it seems like she jumps on the controversial topics because it brings in fans and sells concert tickets. She even goes onto say in the Bazaar interview that money and fame are the least important things about music to her.
So why write multiple songs glamorizing the fact paparazzi follow you around? It's one thing to stand up for what you believe in, but when you stand up for anything and everything with cameras around it, you can't say you're not doing it for the attention or the money. If that was the case, you'd still be playing New York clubs under your birth name, enjoying the life of a starving artist. But you're not. You're talking to idiot columnists about how Alexander McQueen (the designer who committed suicide months back) is living through you. Worst part is, this new collective of shithead magazine writers all eat it up, and this one goes as far to describe listening to the new Gaga album with her as 'epic.' So much for objective journalism, right?
Gaga wants you to think she can do no wrong, and that she's a misunderstood genius in the crazy corporate world. I'm standing up and calling bullshit on this one. She's fake, has a completely fabricated personality and philosophy, and is yet another superstar being crazy for the sake of being crazy. When asked if her horns would make people question her, here was her response:
Classic example of diverting from the topic at hand. The issue isn't about stealing power from women. At least for me, it isn't. It's about teaching a generation of kids (ESPECIALLY young girls who are constantly being pressurized by the media culture around them) that being yourself is secondary to the glitz and the glamor, and how one can justify anything if you rationalize it enough (kind of like a Catholic confessional, and we've seen what joys that mentality brings upon the world).
People aren't going to like what I say about Gaga. But for all the people in the world who idolize her because she "shows people it's ok to be yourself", don't be fooled. Nobody wants to give it intelligent perspective, because she's the perfect marketing ploy: the corporate 'rebel'. She isn't being herself, and all she's teaching us to do is give up who we are to be famous. And that's not "making a difference," that's just ruining the world.
Here's the infamous video of Lady Gaga before she lost touch with the real world, in an NYU talent show. Isn't this a million times better than those three crap albums she's released?
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The NBA's Age Rule: A Simple Answer
With a work stoppage looming next summer in the NBA, a lot of sports personalities are taking it upon themselves to 'fix' the NBA. These solutions range from making sense (contraction, salary restructuring) to being ideologically ludicrous (too many to name here).
The biggest and most disagreed upon problem involves the NBA's 'one and done' rule (a basketball player can leave for the NBA after one season of college), which is always being debated. Some say NCAA players should be paid like professionals, others say there should be more restrictions on when players can leave (the NFL requires a player to be 21 or have 3 years of college experience), and others think the players should be able to leave out of high school.
No matter what side of the fence someone sits on, the debate always boils down to a common point: (and what's quickly becoming an over-used phrase): "the current rules hurt the NBA and NCAA product." This presents a number of problems, most of which dive deeper into the philosophical structure of these two entities (things no media conglomerate appealing to the masses wants to touch).
First of all, let's look at the NBA and ask a simple question: why are you involved? This decision doesn't really concern the league, if you think about it. The NBA is a product, always shifting its vision to fit the rising and falling stars of the league. It's marketed and driven by individuals, and the benefits it can provide to a young adult simply doesn't compare to anything a college could offer, EVEN if they were allowed to pay their players (and let's be serious, the NCAA is nothing but a minor league confused with its identity).
With that being said, how is it fair the NBA gets to decide what the rules are?It's not the NCAA's fault you have too many teams with sub-par talent, affecting your "product". They market individuals like they're the most important part of the game (which they aren't). Money is the most important part of any sports event. Nobody cares about the players. The NCAA doesn't care they didn't finish their education, and neither does the NBA. Why do you think more than half of athletes are broke 5 years after they retire? The money runs out, and you're left with a 35-year old with a broken body, and no secondary education, or money to pay for it.
The other question I have to ask: where are the parents and the family in the decision-making process of someone like Kyrie Irving? We're talking about a large group of impressionable young men, many of whom were taught to listen to coach, not think for yourself. And when your parents have lost their values, tainted by the sparkling allure of money, all logic and sensibility goes out the window. Morals are lost in the limelight, and the kids are the ones who suffer (plus it's 2011, and knowing you'll be drafted in the 1st round gives more employment security than most of us recent post-grads). BE A PARENT, for fuck's sake. Teach your stud athlete the values of an education, and make sure he's in touch with reality (unlike the aforementioned Kyrie Irving, who believes 9 college games is enough practice).
And that's why I say: LET THE PLAYER CHOOSE. If they don't want to go to college, why should they have to? These are young men, who are only going to get used by their friends, families, coaches, agents, etc. for the next 15 years of their life, no matter what decision they make. If they want to place no value on a $200,000 scholarship, so be it. There's nothing the NCAA can do to put more value on their product than the NBA, so don't try. It's his life path.... let him decide it.
We forget when we talk logistics about NBA and NCAA rules, just how dirty and broken the two systems are. We love the entertainment, but choose to ignore the blatant exploitation of human talent which comes along with it. And when that happens, we lose our values, and rationalize and justify egregious acts we normally wouldn't.
It's a simple question, really. WE weren't forced to go to college to have our images used to make exorbitant amounts of money. Why should they?
Here's a fun graph showing the revenue the NCAA generates annually, JUST from the CBS deals.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Education in America: All Children Left Behind
It's state budget time in America, otherwise known as "Time of the Year where Politicans Break Promises and Cut Funding for Everything Possible." It's gotten worse in the 21st century, where our reckless spending habits have finally caught up with us. And I know I usually don't weigh in on anything political, but there's a really disturbing common thread in all these state budgets being passed around the country: massive education cuts.
Look at Florida... Nevada... Arizona... New York (where recent news speaks of a sit-in to protest the cuts, which I couldn't support more).... the more states I look, the bigger the numbers get. $450 million. $1 billion. Every state in the Union is scrambling to get in under budget, and curtail the massive American debt (at least on a state level). And while education may be the easiest way to do that, the after effects clearly aren't being examined enough.
Let's start at the most basic level: firing teachers and removing extracurricular programs. First off, for every single teacher you lose, the value of EVERY student's education declines. Less teachers leads to busier teachers, more worried about keeping their test percentages up, and not caring about each individual student. The trust of the teacher-student connection is lost, and once that happens, a teacher is speaking upon 30 pairs of deaf ears in their classroom.
Any teacher will tell you the less students they have, the more effective they can be. It's simple common sense. Removing things like music programs (a growing epidemic in America's public schools), academic clubs and the like, you prevent teachers and other figures from reaching students in a meaningful way, further diminishing their education.
So then what? Less programs, less staff, less money.... all while political leaders demand higher test scores from everybody. Anyone who's seen the fourth season of The Wire can visualize what happens. Focus is removed from students learning, to students test-taking, and everybody suffers. More pressure on the teachers, more pressure on the students.... and in the end, what are they really learning anyway? We've all been students in our lives, what do you remember from the state-mandated 10th grade test you took?
Probably not much. But if I asked you what you learned from your teachers in high shcool, it would be a much different answer. Personally, I wouldn't have made it through high school OR college without the teachers I had, and there's a specific reason for that. Whether we want to believe it or not, the two most influential groups of adults in our lives as children are our parents, and our teachers.
Why should these people, who sacrifice their lives to be teachers (as doctors do to be healers) suffer the brunt of society's financial shortfalls? Not to mention the teachers getting fired are going to be the young and unestablished, further deepening the void of post-grad employment opportunities as we move forward.
So what can we do? I can think of some novel ideas... how about we force the rich Congressmen and women of the world to work as civil servants on $10,000 a year salary? That would probably cut our national debt by 10% by doing that for a year, and they certainly don't need the money, they are all rich!
There are many different ways to approach a fix to this problem, but it must be one that shakes the foundation of the educational system. In 2011, students exist as nothing but numbers and percentages for job performance to be measured against. In turn, those numbers become political folly, to be tossed around and paraded as improvement or need for change.
The United States government needs to SHOW it cares about its children and students.... not just that it APPEARS to be. Our poor public education system is collapsing right under our eyes, and it scares the living shit out of me the only solution we have is to cut funding even more.
What happened to 'change', Obama?
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Children's TV: Practices in Conformity
A few weeks ago, Nickelodeon announced they will be bringing back some of their greatest shows from the early-to-mid 1990s, and playing them during certain evenings of the week (you can read the details here). This news was hitting the media about a week after MTV announced that Jersey Shore would be taking their "talents" to Italy for the next season.
So how are these stories related? First of all, MTV and Nickelodeon are owned by the same company, Viacom (and have for a long time). But what's more important is the juxtaposition of teenager cultures being displayed by the shows you see on MTV today and the return of the Nick classics (save for the addition of the shitty Amanda Bynes show). When you sit down to look at it, it's quite disturbing.
Look at the shows on Nickelodeon and the values they taught us (for those in my 23-28 age group who enjoyed the hey-day of Nick). Doug taught us it was ok to not be the coolest kid in school (The Secret World of Alex Mack and Clarissa Explains it All also did a great job of this). Angry Beavers and Rugrats showed us to question authority, and the most important thing in the world is family. There was even Rocko's Modern Life and The Adventures of Pete and Pete for the kids who always felt a little weirder than everyone else (yes, I'm referring to myself).
It was a fantastic lineup of shows, but more importantly, those shows taught us as young, impressionable people how to be individuals, and have confidence in ourselves. Be different, be celebrated, and climb as quick as you can to the top of the Crag-Rock in Global Guts. Even MTV played interesting and original music videos, supporting musicians, their weird visions, and the whole idea of originality and rebellion against the machine.
Now it's 2011, and MTV and Nick ARE the machine. We now have shows like iCarly and Jackson VP, (by-products of the Disney child star era of the early 2000s) where the only thing making these people 'different' are the idiotic, unrealistic ways they try to achieve fame (like the two shows mentioned, which are about a girl and her web show, and a teenage fashion executive). The ideas and problems of real-life teenagers are now reality show-esque pipe dreams of kids who succeed because they are popular. It's not as bad as Hannah Montana, which essentially taught kids to hide who you really are in order to become famous, the 'sellout' mentality Disney has relished for decades (but as I frequently say, that's a conversation for another day).
(Note: I also won't speak on Sponge Bob and its extremely homophobic and racist comments, because it's a monster worthy of an entire book, much less a short rant on this blog.)
Taking the mentality of most kids who transition from Nick to MTV around 13 or 14, MTV is really becoming a scary animal. Here are some of the lessons these shows preach: 1) if you don't want to finish high school or be a responsible teenager, get pregnant and you'll end up on the cover of all the magazines and be famous (Teen Mom), 2) all the morally-bankrupt cool kids are experimenting with heavy drugs and a frightening level of promiscuity (and if you aren't, you're lame) (Skins), and 3) emotion and originality in music is no longer important, all that matters is getting fucked up, dancing, and feeling hung over (every techno song and Katy Perry video they show) . But that's not even the best...
What is MTV's biggest contribution to society today? The belief that being a completely self-centered, arrogant, unethical, morally-bankrupt scumbag will fill all your dreams and have everybody chasing you around. That my friends, is everyone's favorite TV show, Jersey Shore.
It scares me to think the youth in our country are watching the behavior of those shells of people, their priorities and behavior (ESPECIALLY the potrayal and treatment of women, both on the cast and who appear on the show), and ACTUALLY look up to these people. Why should Snooki be on the cover of Rolling Stone? What is her contribution to the world of entertainment? In reality, she's done nothing but show the degradation of character in our society today, and a chilling example of the shallow-minded mentality we idolize today.
We're living in the age of reality television, where disturbing displays of selfishness reign, usually at the expense of the fairer sex (The Millionaire Matchmaker is a reality show where a woman judges women for money, and then parades the best selection of them in front of rich men for their pleasure). But the bigger problem is the mentality its creating, the black hole of originality and creativity left in the minds of our youth.
When we were young, alternative music and individuality reigned. Today, we're dominated with images and signs of conformity, all with a certain separation from reality. We've been reduced to definition of character by tweets and status changes, and dreams of being creative and different have been replaced with Hollywood lights and drug-riddled evenings.
And to be honest with you, it scares me. The MTV's and Nickelodeon's of the world are contributing to the erosion of American culture, based on the concept of being different, and separating from the norm (the Pilgrims just wanted to worship their own way, without persecution). And once we've lost our identity and sense of individuality, what do we have left before we are living in the world of Murderball?
Have a good one,
And for all my early-90s Nick fans, the ORIGINAL theme song from All That (apologize for the shit quality):
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The NCAA Hypocrisy
Yahoo! Sports has found themselves a pot of gold. Anytime there is a breaking story involving dirty college coaches, Yahoo! seems to be right there in the thick of it. Their latest "victim" (in very loose terms) is Jim Tressel, head coach of arguably the biggest football program of the last 15 years, the Ohio State Buckeyes. Long story short, he found out his players had traded memorabilia for tattoos and other "improper benefits" (again, loose terms). He neglected to tell anybody about it until December, and even when he did, lied about what and when he found out.
The students in question were suspended in January for the first 5 games of the next season - however, they were allowed to participate in their team's BCS bowl game for that season. I found it very odd at the time- much like I do any NCAA decision- but I didn't feel the story had played itself out yet (remembering the Reggie Bush storyline of about 3 years). Now, their coach has been nailed, and suspended for 2 games and fined $250,000 (2 for the coach, and 5 for the players? Hmm... )
Some may find the punishment fitting (for both the coaches and the players), but I disagree. In my opinion, if the "rules" (remember, LOOSE) were broken and Tressel didn't tell anyone, he should be fired on the spot. It's clear he kept the truth quiet to keep his players for the 2010 season, although he says he didn't tell anyone because he didn't know who to tell, which might be the biggest load of shit I've heard since OJ tried to say "I only went inside the hotel room to talk to the man."
Friday, March 4, 2011
A Moment of Passion
As a sports fan, there's nothing like the dramatic aura of live sports events- and the bigger, the better. I mean, people pay thousands of dollars to attend the Super Bowl for a reason, and it certainly isn't because of the recent string of halftime show duds (Black-Eyed Peas, and The Geriatric Who?.... c'mon). It's because of the excitement, the drama, the entertainment.... and for most of us (and I'm speaking to the hardcore fans out there), it's waiting and hoping for moments of greatness. Unexplainable victories, photo finishes... its' the high we all crave as sports fans. We'll throw away hundreds of dollars just to have an opportunity for the feeling.
Growing up, I wanted to be a sports writer, because of that feeling. To be able to witness those moments of greatness first-hand, and capture them in paragraphs for the rest of the world... it's an art form, really. I wanted to write about Jordan dropping 63 on the Celtics, or Nolan Ryan throwing his 7th, and final, no-hitter. But I didn't, for a lot of reasons.
Tom Bowles grew up the same as me... he just wanted to write about NASCAR. And unlike me, he got to the big show, signed a contract with, and was there at the Daytona 500 this year when unknown 20-year old Trevor Bayne won in dramatic fashion. I'm sure Bowles was having one of those moments of sports ecstasy, with all the tension in the air and whatnot.
Amazed by what he saw, Bowles stood and applauded the young man, who was so excited, he couldn't even find victory lane. Bowles smiled and clapped along with his colleagues, not in a moment of subjective journalism, but in a moment of pure passion and love for what he'd just witnessed.
A week later, Bowles was fired. How did that happen, you might ask...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
F*** the Grammys
That's right, I said it... fuck the Grammys. In my opinion, I watched the Grammys die while I grew up in the 1990s, and seen it's corpse shrivel into a self-serving event by a collection of people SO out of touch with modern music, it's embarrassing to watch. From this day forward, the Grammys are dead to me.
So, what killed the Grammys? First of all, the fact it's now become a yearly Lady Gaga spectacle. Anybody who saw Lady Gaga and her self-serving, ridiculously obnoxious 'egg' concept saw the proof. The selfish nature of the egg concept was borderline offensive... People dressed and acting like slaves, carrying around an overrated singer whose sold out everything except her skin color to become famous. What about that celebrates the art of music, and the celebration of it's most talented artists (not that the Grammys do that, but you get the point)?
Nothing at all. It was a major distraction for what the event was supposed to be about: celebrating OTHER artists besides herself. The whole point of the costume was to bring attention to her five minutes of the show (very disrespectful).
But her behavior also points out another reason why the Grammys suck: it's no longer an awards show. It's a television concert, where the performers go home with shiny gold-covered boxes with tubes as keepsakes from the show.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Something for the Ladies
A recent commentary by CNN producer Mary Rogers caught my attention today. Not because I recognized her name, but the interesting title of her opinion piece.
"Egypt's harassed women need their own revolution."
So I read the article. The majority of it details various incidents she's experienced, and names she was called, all with an air of near surprise any of it occurred. The heading says she's been living in various Middle Eastern countries since 1994... so maybe she's just forgotten about the women living in her own country.
Now, this is not to bash Rogers, or diminish her experience or the lives of the women in those regions of the world (because the problems of women in Muslim culture is a legitimate concern). I'm not a woman, and I've never been to the Middle East... But there's one question I have to ask, and it's one I'd imagine would go through the mind of ANY woman who'd read this article.
What the hell is the difference in the U.S.? Rogers speaks as if she's from the privileged land of America, where the majority of men respect women. While it may not be as bad here, I'd be hard-pressed to find any female who hasn't had the exact same experiences with name-calling and groping that she has. From the world of sports to the media, to television and the images we present in films (both adult and otherwise), it's clear that women in AMERICA are still looking for a revolution.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The ESPN Gossip Machine
SportsCenter. The show holds a dear place in my heart. I grew up during the hey-day of SportsCenter, with broadcasters like Dan Patrick, Rich Eisen, an unpolitical Keith Oblermann, Stuart Scott, Kenny Mayne... the list of quality hosts for the best source of sports news in the world during the 1990's carries on and on. It was the perfect package: all the best moments of the night's sports games, without having to watch 15 hours of game footage. Always concise and delivered with a humorous, but professional and educated touch.
Well, I think it's safe to say that the golden age of SportsCenter is long over.
But it's a religious activity for 80 percent of the male population between the ages of 14-50! How could I say such a thing? Clearly I must be raging against the machine, with no point or moral compass for this opinion.
Friday, February 4, 2011
The Job Economy: Exercises in Bulls*&#ing America
This is the headline of a CNN article I read today, the entirety of which is found here.
"Winter weather kept job seekers home and offices closed in January, getting the year off to a disappointing start, while the unemployment rate took a surprising tumble.
The economy added just 36,000 jobs in January, falling far short of expectations. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate unexpectedly sunk to 9%, down from 9.4% the month before.
Economists surveyed by CNNMoney were expecting the economy to add 149,000 jobs during the month, and the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5%." (
What's so interesting about these paragraphs, one might ask? With a quick glance-over (authentic to the way 95% of news is read today, in the modern non-newspaper world), there doesn't seem to be much there, except that the job economy sucks, as usual.
However, a simple analysis of the first two sentences shows what a farce this attempt at 'news-reporting' is.
It starts with the first two words: "Winter weather." Starting the article off with a quick deflection of responsibility to an uncontrollable entity is an easy way for an organization like the government to hide facts, and shirk accountability easily. And it's followed by a contradiction: nobody could hire because of the weather, but somehow the unemployment rate dropped.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Roger Goodell: Another Scumbag in an Empty Suit
*WARNING: This post contains a higher level of profanity than usual, even for myself.*
We all know the commissioners of our great sport leagues are full of shit. All of them. Bud Selig never cared about steriods until he was forced to, Gary Bettman could care less about maintaining the traditional culture of hockey, and we all know the evil workings of David Stern. However, arguably the most respected commissioner in American sports, Roger Goodell, might take the cake when it comes to lying through his teeth.
On a basic level, Goodell is no different from the self-serving assholes that fill the halls of D.C. buildings today. He's driven by nothing but his own interests and beliefs, and doesn't act upon anything unless it's affecting his revenue stream. For example, bad press about athletes like Pacman Jones led to the racist and completely subjective 'Conduct Policy', which is nothing more than a slavemaster's whip to Goodell. The bad boys misbehave, and he slaps them with whatever fine he feels necessary. No rules to adhere to, and Goodell can punish who and how he sees fit. I must ask if the NFL likes to play under a dictatorship, because there doesn't seem to be much of a movement against him and the rules he makes.
What I find amusing is how all of that power, all of the elitist bullshit behavior Goodell displays on a daily basis, couldn't measure up to a washed-up quarterback with a dirty past. Brett Favre didn't do much on the field in 2010, but he sure as hell walked up and down Goodell, both in private, and in public. Did anybody even hear what the final decision was on Favre? How about two months ago, when Goodell promised a swift decision to the accusations of Favre's Woodsian behavior. Although, if you know anything about Favre's history, you know the story is true.
Monday, January 3, 2011
The Wait is Finally Over
Hello all,
First, I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year. Tumultuous as 2010 was, we learned a lot of things: Brett Favre hasn't learned anything in the last 15 years about womanizing, Obama isn't America's savior, and most importantly, we will all be owned by Google or Apple in the next 20 years. Lots of things changed, but as usual, it all stayed relatively the same.
As readers of this page, you know I've been on quite a long hiatus. I've been working on various projects - including an awesome documentary about mental health funding, among other things. But it's 2011, and it's time to return focus to RTB.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Why the NFL's New Rules Don't Matter
We've all been a part of the debate about the NFL's new stance on helmet-to-helmet collisions. We've heard the reaction from football analysts, current and former players, and coachers around the league. Some have responded in odd manners, others with a typical knuckle-headed rhetoric, but most surrounding the game think it's a good thing the NFL is taking this stance on violent on-field actions.
However, I see this move as more of a distraction from the bigger issue at hand: keeping football players out of the hospital with major brain injuries. This rule is like throwing a scrap of meat at a starving dog. The NFL gives us this rule, a complete 180-degree turn from their normal stance on violent injuries (ever heard the phrase, "It's a part of the game"?), and it's a small morsel of what the sport really needs - a full psychological reconstruction of how the game is played from the ground up (which yes, I know will never happen).
Everybody loves watching the highlight of the wide receiver getting smashed so hard by the linebacker that the ball pops out of his hands and his helmet falls off. That's why 90,000 people go to a football game, and that's what keeps the NFL profitable. However, there's been a growing resentment over the league and the images it presents, and all that bad press damages the NFL's product. How to solve that problem? Distract the public away from the real issues, and instead make a split-second decision to change the culture of your game? It doesn't sound like a well-thought out solution, Mr. Goodell.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Boy Scouts of America: Teaching Intolerance since 1910
Created in 1910 by William Boyce (with the help of others), the Boy Scouts of America was one of many outdoor-oriented youth groups in its time. However, it became the most successful due to the organizational skills of its creators, who quickly wrote up handbooks and absorbed other youth groups until they were the predominant power. You can read a detailed account of the BSA's history here.
Now, everyone's always thought of the BSA as a great way to introduce children to nature and outdoor activities, but they've discreetly enforced some disturbing polices over the years. I found this article on CNN today about a gay father of a Cub Scout in Texas who was forced to give up his leadership position because of his sexuality.
First, I gotta ask; has the BSA learned ANYTHING since the Matthew Shepard tragedy? It's bad enough they didn't stand up for him when he was murdered (or disparaged the murderers, one of who was an Eagle Scout himself), but they're continuing the path of intolerance and ignorance they've been paving since 1978, when they wrote this official memo outing homosexuals (and atheists, as well.) In regards to the recent firing of the gay Texas father, this is what BSA PR director Deron Smith had to say (and as always, I quote);
"We focus on our mission, and our mission is to take young people and prepare them for an exceptional adulthood.That's it. That's why our policy is the way it is. Our volunteer leadership has elected to keep that policy in place."
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Down with Agent Zero
I've never been a big Gilbert Arenas fan. Even after three straight All-Star appearances, (culminating in an All-NBA 2nd-team selection in 2007) and thousands of adoring fans yelling "Hibachi!" after every 3-pointer. His attitude was always arrogant, and I thought he was overrated. What I saw on the court was an extremely selfish player who didn't trust his teammates or coach, with occasional flashes of brilliance.
And then the injuries hit. In 2007-08 and 2008-09, Arenas played in a total of 15 games due to a serious knee injury. Before the 2008-09 season, he somehow managed to procure a 6 year, $111 million dollar contract, further compounding the problems of the post-Jordan Washington Wizards, who could never find consistency even with a "star" like Arenas. Without him, they were a cash-strapped franchise fighting for survival in a weak Eastern Conference.
When last season began, Arenas called the Wizards the team to beat in the East, and there was hype surrounding his return to a talented Washington team. However, a bad start to the season led to a quick downward spiral. Then, in December, Arenas admitted to storing weapons in his locker, destroying his team's season and throwing the franchise into disarray.
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Michael Connor
Since 2002
Works in Brooklyn, New York United States of America
Welcome to the Internet Smoking Room
Following the conclusion of This is the ENDD and Pinar&Viola's front-page exhibition, this project can be found here permanently.
This weekend, to coincide with This is the ENDD: a Forum on the E-Cigarette, the front page of Rhizome.org will present The Smoking Room, created by Pinar&Viola and programmed by Gui Machiavelli. In this lush chatroom, you can wield strange new kinds of e-cigarettes and blow virtual smoke shapes while talking to friends and strangers.
I know. Vaping is not smoking. This is rule #1 of vaping culture, a distinction of paramount importance for vapers (who rightfully want to avoid the social stigma of the cigarette) and e-cigarette manufacturers (who want to avoid tobacco-style regulation). Therefore, in their marketing of this emerging technology, the manufacturers have trodden a fine line between reminding potential users of the good, old-fashioned "benefits" of smoking, and establishing their product as something new and hi-tech and detached from bodily consequence. In a word, as something virtual.
Getty Images: Still Kinda Sexist?
Portrait of a confident businesswoman
On the Front Page: Vince McKelvie
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The Right Coast
Editor: Thomas A. Smith
University of San Diego
School of Law
A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Tech Oligarchs
I have been saying for a long time that Google is to be feared (as well as used; I'm not crazy). There's also a big issue in their stock structure -- multi-class so control can remain concentrated in a few wizards. I feel as if I should have something to say about it, but hey, it's the market and all that. But what if we are evolving toward a world in which a few goofball geniuses call the shots for the rest of us? Still, try to fix it and you end up with Congress concocting something just as bad.
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Tom, I'm very familiar with the tech industry. Trust me--if tech giants end up ruining your life, it will be through rampant incompetence and confusion, not political ambition and power-lust.
Posted by: Dan Simon | Aug 14, 2013 12:40:39 PM
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This is a repository of programs for diy roboticists. It involves interpreters, libraries, simulators, and other software bits that may or may not be useful to others.
Why use scheme? It is a rather small language. It has a minimal standard. It is not always the easiest language to work in, but it is based on the actor model. For this reason, I like it and stick with it, because it is perfect for message handling. I envision this as a very useful means of higher-level control of a low-level system.
Lua is also quite small. I use it in my simulator base.
Nachos is the not-so-tiny schemer. It is based on Tiny Scheme. It includes a library of C data structures, and types for scripting C with Tiny Scheme. You could say it is tiny scheme with alot of batteries included and the ability to connect C-types to it (this might be called 'smobs' by some). It has a net-repl, and you can script it remotely using Telnet. I use it as an alternative to Python and Perl. It does not support threads real well, only a gross hack. To support threads in scheme would require alot of brain-wracking to figure out how to modify the scheme. Or maybe not, I just do not see yet how it can be done easily.
I experiment with this. I found it to be very hard for me to understand, but a good learning experience. I use this in my simulators, using TCP/IP. I also use it for experimenting. I made an OS out of this. But I do not want to release this, I am afraid it will blow up someone's computer. It is not very hard to make it run on the metal. You will need a C library to emulate the Unix calls, and a few hacks to make it get keyboard and video. To do this, you must compile it with the library statically linked into it. This is an option that is not documented, and I only can get it to work in really old versions of the program. Newer versions don't seem to work. Do this by building the mini-target. But I find Scheme48 to be a bit too hard for me to understand as I am not a good Scheme programmer, just a slobbish C hacker.
I also ported this to DOS using DJGPP. If you want it I will make it available.
This is a small SDL/OpenGL based 2D simulator. It is used to simulate your robots, try things out, etc. It is a very small game-like engine only, it is portable to Windows and Linux. It uses Lua as a script language. It is not complete but I will post it up sometime soon.
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The parasite beast is fighting a losing battle
The parasite beast is fighting a losing battle because if they win they lose, in fact all of us lose. The world is presently controlled by the parasite beast powered by greed, the more that you have, the more you want.
This by design create haves and have-nots which forces society to waste a lot of resources on protection, by police, soldiers, burglar bars, locks, bombers,tanks , guns.
The ruling class must protect themselves from their slaves. If any country decides to operate a system that is beneficial to their community at large. They will be subverted economically, militarily, …...
The simple reason for this is, if the oppressed people in the parasite beast country find out that people in country X are happy they will want the same for themselves and would be incited to overthrow the beast.
So all of this arms race is to protect the parasite beast from being overthrow by their own people. In the same way they need the police at home.
The people are conditioned from birth to serve the parasite beast, we are taught to to love our beast because God gave them dominion over us. Do not worry if you serve your beast well God will have a place in heaven for you.
The beast on the other hand has his heaven on earth while he is alive. You must realize that if the beast really believed in this they would never have sanctioned all these bombing, wars, killing ….
The parasite beast system is based on making you want more and more so that they can work you for less and less. This consumer demand system is wasting earths resources and creating unnecessary pollution which will eventually destroy life as we know it.
The most important resource is clean air and water. The parasite beast has built under ground shelters all over the world where they believe they can weather the storm for years. After they have sent us to kill our brothers and sisters all over the world and create a total catastrophe. The beasts will weather the storm.
They will perish in their underground shelters also. When they are finished only cockroaches will be left on earth.
We have to stop them now before they put earth in runaway global warming. All these wars are to steal oil which will eventually cover earth with greenhouse gases.
Police and soldiers all over the world drop your arms and go home, there will be no one to charge you for AWOL.
Implement a zero growth economy that is not based on consumer demand. Shutdown the military industrial complex now before earth passes the point of no return.
Unuseminucum 3/26/2014
The main game of the parasite beast is to overthrow democracies all over the world and install hypocracies .
Oh wow, LOVE this. Totally added into my Google Reader already. I will live vuoaricisly through Lolo's life and times as chronicled here until I myself live by the sea and have my own little pup. My sea town will by Cape Town and my future choice of pup a current dead heat between a bulldog or a boxer. My ETC for sea/dog living is Xmas 2011. Can't. Bloody. Wait.
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Sacred Texts Japan Index Previous Next
p. 231
42. O Kimi Kills Herself on the Island
Click to enlarge
42. O Kimi Kills Herself on the Island
DOWN the Inland Sea between Umedaichi and Kure (now a great naval port) and in the province of Aki, there is a small village called Yaiyama, in which lived a painter of some note, Abe Tenko. Abe Tenko taught more than he painted, and relied for his living mostly on the small means to which he had succeeded at his father's death and on the aspiring artists who boarded in the village for the purpose of taking daily lessons from him. The island and rock scenery in the neighbourhood afforded continual study, and Tenko was never short of pupils. Among them was one scarcely more than a boy, being only seventeen years of age. His name was Sawara Kameju, and a most promising pupil he was. He had been sent to Tenko over a year before, when scarce sixteen years of age, and, for the reason that Tenko had been a friend of his father, Sawara was taken under the roof of the artist and treated as if he had been his son.
p. 232
Tenko had had a sister who went into the service of the Lord of Aki, by whom she had a daughter. Had the child been a son, it would have been adopted into the Aki family; but, being a daughter, it was, according to Japanese custom, sent back to its mother's family, with the result that Tenko took charge of the child, whose name was Kimi. The mother being dead, the child had lived with him for sixteen years. Our story opens with O Kimi grown into a pretty girl.
O Kimi was a most devoted adopted daughter to Tenko. She attended almost entirely to his household affairs, and Tenko looked upon her as if indeed she were his own daughter, instead of an illegitimate niece, trusting her in everything.
After the arrival of the young student O Kimi's heart gave her much trouble. She fell in love with him. Sawara admired O Kimi greatly; but of love he never said a word, being too much absorbed in his study. He looked upon Kimi as a sweet girl, taking his meals with her and enjoying her society. He would have fought for her, and he loved her; but he never gave himself time to think that she was not his sister, and that he might make love to her. So it came to pass at last that O Kimi one day, with the pains of love in her heart, availed herself of her guardian's absence at the temple, whither he had gone to paint something for the priests. O Kimi screwed up her courage and made love to Sawara. She told him that since he had come to the house her heart had known no peace. She loved him, and would like to marry him if he did not mind.
This simple and maidenlike request, accompanied by
p. 233
the offer of tea, was more than young Sawara was able to answer without acquiescence. After all, it did not much matter, thought he: 'Kimi is a most beautiful and charming girl, and I like her very much, and must marry some day.'
So Sawara told Kimi that he loved her and would be only too delighted to marry her when his studies were complete—say two or three years thence. Kimi was overjoyed, and on the return of the good Tenko from Korinji Temple informed her guardian of what had passed.
Sawara set to with renewed vigour, and worked diligently, improving very much in his style of painting; and after a year Tenko thought it would do him good to finish off his studies in Kyoto under an old friend of his own, a painter named Sumiyoshi Myokei. Thus it was that in the spring of the sixth year of Kioho—that is, in 1721—Sawara bade farewell to Tenko and his pretty niece O Kimi, and started forth to the capital. It was a sad parting. Sawara had grown to love Kimi very deeply, and he vowed that as soon as his name was made he would return and marry her.
In the olden days the Japanese were even more shockingly poor correspondents than they are now, and even lovers or engaged couples did not write to each other, as several of my tales may show.
After Sawara had been away for a year, it seemed that he should write and say at all events how he was getting on; but he did not do so. A second year passed, and still there was no news. In the meantime there had been several admirers of O Kimi's who had proposed to Tenko
p. 234
for her hand; but Tenko had invariably said that Kimi San was already engaged—until one day he heard from Myokei, the painter in Kyoto, who told him that Sawara was making splendid progress, and that he was most anxious that the youth should marry his daughter. He felt that he must ask his old friend Tenko first, and before speaking to Sawara.
Tenko, on the other hand, had an application from a rich merchant for O Kimi's hand. What was Tenko to do? Sawara showed no signs of returning; on the contrary, it seemed that Myokei was anxious to get him to marry into his family. That must be a good thing for Sawara, he thought. Myokei is a better teacher than I, and if Sawara marries his daughter he will take more interest than ever in my old pupil. Also, it is advisable that Kimi should marry that rich young merchant, if I can persuade her to do so; but it will be difficult, for she loves Sawara still. I am afraid he has forgotten her. A little strategy I will try, and tell her that Myokei has written to tell me that Sawara is going to marry his daughter; then, possibly, she may feel sufficiently vengeful to agree to marry the young merchant. Arguing thus to himself, he wrote to Myokei to say that he had his full consent to ask Sawara to be his son-in-law, and he wished him every success in the effort; and in the evening he spoke to Kimi.
'Kimi,' he said, 'to-day I have had news of Sawara through my friend Myokei.'
'Oh, do tell me what!' cried the excited Kimi. 'Is he coming back, and has he finished his education? How delighted I shall be to see him! We can be married in
p. 235
[paragraph continues] April, when the cherry blooms, and he can paint a picture of our first picnic.'
'I fear, Kimi, the news which I have does not talk of his coming back. On the contrary, I am asked by Myokei to allow Sawara to marry his daughter, and, as I think such a request could not have been made had Sawara been faithful to you, I have answered that I have no objection to the union. And now, as for yourself, I deeply regret to tell you this; but as your uncle and guardian I again wish to impress upon you the advisability of marrying Yorozuya, the young merchant, who is deeply in love with you and in every way a most desirable husband; indeed, I must insist upon it, for I think it most desirable.'
Poor O Kimi San broke into tears and deep sobs, and without answering a word went to her room, where Tenko thought it well to leave her alone for the night.
In the morning she had gone, none knew whither, there being no trace of her.
Up in Kyoto Sawara continued his studies, true and faithful to O Kimi. After receiving Tenko's letter approving of Myokei's asking Sawara to become his son-in-law, Myokei asked Sawara if he would so honour him. 'When you marry my daughter, we shall be a family of painters, and I think you will be one of the most celebrated ones that Japan ever had.'
'But, sir,' cried Sawara, 'I cannot do myself the honour of marrying your daughter, for I am already engaged—I have been for the last three years—to Kimi, Tenko's daughter. It is most strange that he should not have told you!'
p. 236
There was nothing for Myokei to say to this; but there was much for Sawara to think about. Foolish, perhaps he then thought, were the ways of Japanese in not corresponding more freely. He wrote to Kimi twice, accordingly, but no answer came. Then Myokei fell ill of a chill and died: so Sawara returned to his village home in Aki, where he was welcomed by Tenko, who was now, without O Kimi, lonely in his old age.
When Sawara heard that Kimi had gone away leaving neither address nor letter he was very angry, for he had not been told the reason.
'An ungrateful and bad girl,' said he to Tenko, 'and I have been lucky indeed in not marrying her!'
'Yes, yes,' said Tenko: 'you have been lucky; but you must not be too angry. Women are queer things, and, as the saying goes, when you see water running up hill and hens laying square eggs you may expect to see a truly honest-minded woman. But come now—I want to tell you that, as I am growing old and feeble, I wish to make you the master of my house and property here. You must take my name and marry!'
Feeling disgusted at O Kimi's conduct, Sawara readily consented. A pretty young girl, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, was found—Kiku (the Chrysanthemum);—and she and Sawara lived happily with old Tenko, keeping his house and minding his estate. Sawara painted in his spare time. Little by little he became quite famous. One day the Lord of Aki sent for him and said it was his wish that Sawara should paint the seven beautiful scenes of the Islands of Kabakarijima (six, probably); the pictures were to be mounted on gold screens.
p. 237
This was the first commission that Sawara had had from such a high official. He was very proud of it, and went off to the Upper and Lower Kabakari Islands, where he made rough sketches. He went also to the rocky islands of Shokokujima, and to the little uninhabited island of Daikokujima, where an adventure befell him.
Strolling along the shore, he met a girl, tanned by sun and wind. She wore only a red cotton cloth about her loins, and her hair fell upon her shoulders. She had been gathering shell-fish, and had a basket of them under her arm. Sawara thought it strange that he should meet a single woman in so wild a place, and more so still when she addressed him, saying, 'Surely you are Sawara Kameju—are you not?'
'Yes,' answered Sawara: 'I am; but it is very strange that you should know me. May I ask how you do so?'
'If you are Sawara, as I know you are, you should know me without asking, for I am no other than Kimi, to whom you were engaged!'
Sawara was astonished, and hardly knew what to say: so he asked her questions as to how she had come to this lonely island. O Kimi explained everything, and ended by saying, with a smile of happiness upon her face:
'And since, my dearest Sawara, I understand that what I was told is false, and that you did not marry Myokei's daughter, and that we have been faithful to each other, we can he married and happy after all. Oh, think how happy we shall be!'
'Alas, alas, my dearest Kimi, it cannot be! I was led to suppose that you had deserted our benefactor Tenko and given up all thought of me. Oh, the sadness of it
43. The Ghost of the 'Kakemono'
Click to enlarge
43. The Ghost of the 'Kakemono'
p. 238
all, the wickedness! I have been persuaded that you were faithless, and have been made to marry another!'
O Kimi made no answer, but began to run along the shore towards a little hut, which home she had made for herself. She ran fast, and Sawara ran after her, calling, Kimi, Kimi, stop and speak to me'; but Kimi did not stop. She gained her hut, and, seizing a knife, plunged it into her throat, and fell back bleeding to death. Sawara, greatly grieved, burst into tears. It was horrible to see the girl who might have been his bride lying dead at his feet all covered with blood, and having suffered so horrible a death at her own hands. Greatly impressed, he drew paper from his pocket and made a sketch of the body. Then he and his boatman buried O Kimi above the tide-mark near the primitive hut. Afterwards, at home, with a mournful heart, he painted a picture of the dead girl, and hung it in his room.
On the first night that it was hung Sawara had a dreadful dream. On awakening he found the figure on the kakemono seemed to be alive: the ghost of O Kimi stepped out of it and stood near his bed. Night after night the ghost appeared, until sleep and rest for Sawara were no longer possible. There was nothing to be done, thought he, but to send his wife back to her parents, which he did; and the kakemono he presented to the Korinji Temple, where the priests kept it with great care and daily prayed for the spirit of O Kimi San. After that Sawara saw the ghost no more.
The kakemono is called the Ghost Picture of Tenko II., and is said to be still kept in the Korinji Temple, where it was placed some 23o to 240 years ago.
231:1 About two hundred and fifty years ago a strange legend was attached to a kakemono which was painted by an artist celebrity, Sawara Kameju by name, and, owing to the reasons given in the story, the kakemono was handed over to the safe-keeping of the head priest of the Korinji Temple.
Next: XXXVIII. White Saké
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78179
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directoryRiverbot - Search in this Group
With the following form, you can perform a search in the items summaries and details of a given tracker of the project Riverbot. If you need to perform more complex search, use the query forms in Browse items page of this tracker. If you want to perform a site-wide search, use the search box in the left menu.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78192
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Adventures in Ethics and Science
The math limerick.
A real nerd can combine love of math and poetry, like so:
{(12+144+20+3(4)^0.5)/7}+5(11) = 81 + 0
It’s a true equation. And, it’s a limerick. Read it out loud and you’ll see:
A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square-root of four,
Divided by seven,
Plus five times eleven,
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
(Actually, since it’s not dirty, this might not officially qualify as a limerick.)
1. #1 Emily
September 6, 2006
How about this other one (an old one, but still my fav):
\int_(1)^(3(1/3))(z^2 dz) cos(3pi/9) = ln (e^(1/3))
The integral of z square dz
from one to the cube root of three
times the cosine
of three pi over nine
equals log of the cube root of e.
2. #2 chezjake
September 6, 2006
It’s not dirty, but it is gross; so it surely qualifies. ;-)
3. #3 Scott Simmons
September 6, 2006
We’ll promise not to sue, if you promise to never, ever, do this again …
4. #4 Chad Orzel
September 7, 2006
The integral of z square dz
from one to the cube root of three
times the cosine
of three pi over nine
equals log of the cube root of e.
Plus a constant.
5. #5 beajerry
September 7, 2006
6. #6 Emily
September 7, 2006
Plus a constant.
Nope — it’s a definite integral ;-)
7. #7 Madame
September 9, 2006
Madame DeFarge
8. #8 geekwraith
September 10, 2006
Oh, it officially qualifies as a limerick, no question. Check out the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick form (its acronym gives rise to the oedilf-dot-com url. You ought to figure out what word your lim could define and submit it. :oD
Here are some more math lims, just to give you an idea (no, I’m not the author — at least, not of these :oP ):
The relation where p exceeds b
Implies b’s never greater than p
(Unlike j = k,
Which means k = j),
So it’s antisymmetric, you see.
Using step-by-step math operations,
It performs with exact calculations.
An algorithm’s job
Is to work out a “prob”
With repeated precise computations.
And of course, they do try to sneak a little humor in:
If a matrix derives all its actors
From its parent’s square matrix cofactors,
It’s an adjoint. This knowledge
Was useful in college;
When dating, such facts are detractors.
And this one… well, I tip my hat to the guy who came up with it:
Now I note a verse rendering pi,
Within which the words strictly high-
light, adeptly encrypted,
How to get scripted
This number in digits. Just try!
(Author’s Note: This verse can be decrypted to give the value of π to 24 decimal places. Simply count the number of letters in each word and you will get 3.141592653589793238462643.)
… I love limericks. I’ve contributed upwards of 30 to the aforementioned “Limerictionary” myself, but I’m not posting any of them here. (Some of them are geeky, but not math-related. :oP)
9. #9 Jonathan Vos Post
March 4, 2007
2 Biolimerix
Jonathan Vos Post
Some creatures attempt the invisible
we find the chameleon risible
one spots one at times
the way imperfect rhymes
in a poem stand out individual
Though the shell of a poem be bony
the sea-otter, he takes a stone, he
floats to dinner, dressed furrily,
cracks it open, then thoroughly,
eats the meat of the sweet abalone.
19 Nov 1978
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78193
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Tag archives for bike
Weekend Diversion: Be Safe, Be Free!
“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.” -Dwight Eisenhower One of the greatest feelings is the freedom to travel, whether by your own power or a mechanical motor, far faster than your own legs can take you. Kimya…
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78200
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Contact Us
Top 10 Kids Cartoons Based on Inappropriate Movies
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Studios love to milk successful properties for everything they're worth, and sometimes, in an effort to reach a younger demographic, they take mature films and re-purpose them as animated series for children. Below we've got a list of ten films inappropriate for younger viewers – many of which were rated-R – that were surprisingly retooled as cartoons.
'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'
Jim Carrey's infamous rubber face schtick and his man-child humor is accessible to children, sure, and taking his animal-loving pet detective and turning him into a cartoon is sort of understandable. Plenty of kids watched and loved both 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective' and its sequel 'Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.' But that doesn't mean that the films were necessarily for kids, especially those smaller youngsters watching cartoons on a Saturday morning. Ace is a detective who literally talks out of his ass and loves making sexual innuendos. The cartoon series focused more on Ace solving cases and the slapstick, oddball aspects of his character, neutering the adult humor to cater to the sensibilities of a younger crowd. And it totally worked because the show ran for five years, from 1995 to 2000.
'Rambo: The Force of Freedom'
Does a mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran with a bloody bone to pick with local law enforcement sound like something for kids? No, which is why the film was rated R (and was, at the time, the first cartoon based on an R-rated movie). The cartoon show based on 'First Blood' aired in 1986 and was cancelled the same year, though its one season was quite lengthy, with 65 episodes. The show removed most of the violence and didn't have a drop of blood, making Rambo part of a team called The Force of Freedom, fighting against an international terrorist organization. While it still had guns aplenty, it relied more on hand-to-hand combat to be more family friendly.
'RoboCop: The Animated Series'
Based on the violent R-rated 1987 Paul Verhoeven film starring Peter Weller as the titular half-man, half-machine, singular law enforcement entity tasked with cleaning up the mean streets of Detroit, this cartoon series began in 1988 and ran for 12 episodes over the course of two months. Like the film, the show was about Alex Murphy, a man turned into a cyborg cop who sets out to clean up Detroit with the help of officer Anne Lewis. Dr. McNamara, creator of the evil ED-260, is featured as the main villain in many of the episodes. Aside from some toned down violence and the absence of drugs, not much changed between the film and cartoon iterations.
'Kid 'n Play'
The rap duo that starred in three R-rated 'House Party' films about wild teenage rappers and their crazy partying antics (and attempts to have sex) parlayed that success into an animated series that ran for one year, from 1990 to 1991 on NBC. On the show they continued to be recording artists, but their antics were toned down and the message of the show became about positive role models and learning valuable moral lessons. The real Kid 'n Play were featured in live action bookends on the show, providing commentary for each episode, but neither of them provided voices for the actual series.
'The Mask'
Itself based on a Dark Horse comic book series, the 1994 film 'The Mask,' starred Jim Carrey as a man who finds a magical mask that releases his inhibitions and makes him a cartoonish, trouble-making weirdo with a proclivity for catchphrases and dancing. Like 'Ace Ventura,' 'The Mask' had some sensibilities that could be accessible for kids, a line that Jim Carrey's movies often straddled in the 90s. While the film had violence and sexual adult humor, the show was about the day to day shenanigans that Carrey's character Stanley found himself getting into, along with his loyal dog. The show's 55 episodes ran from 1995 to 1997.
'Dumb and Dumber'
That's right — Jim Carrey's films inspired three cartoon series, and all three make this list. 'Dumb and Dumber,' the Farrelly brothers film starring Carrey and Jeff Daniels as two well-meaning simpletons trying to return a suitcase of money to a beautiful lady and getting themselves caught up in a web of crime, was also turned into an animated series. The film featured plenty of slapstick alongside the adult-oriented humor, sexual situations, and crude jokes. Naturally, the cartoon chose to focus on the goofiness of the two leads, with Harry and Lloyd and the shenanigans they get into with their big dog van. It also weirdly featured a female pet beaver named Kitty. 'Dumb and Dumber' only lasted for six months, from October 1995 to February 1996, and ran for a total of 13 episodes.
'Beetlejuice' might be the most child-friendly film on this list, as is most of Tim Burton's work, but there's something a little weird about taking a perverted poltergeist in a dark comedy who drops the F-bomb and tries to force a young girl to marry him and making him a more friendly entity for TV. The show also stands out as actually being a decent half hour of animated fun. In the film Beetlejuice is more of an antagonist for much of the runtime, but the show made him friends with Lidia (Winona Ryder's character from the film) and continued to let him use his magic to help Lidia get out of (or into) trouble. The show was mostly successful and ran from 1989 to 1991 on ABC before moving to Fox, where it stayed from 1991 to 1992, and had 94 episodes total.
'The Toxic Avenger'
It's fair to say that the work of Troma Films is not for children. From films like 'Terror Firmer' to 'Tromeo and Juliet,' and the iconic 'Toxic Avenger,' Troma makes low-brow, low-budget, crass fare. It certainly has a strong following, which it used to make 'Toxic Crusaders,' an animated series based on 'The Toxic Avenger' film series. Following the success of environmentally minded cartoons like 'Captain Planet,' 'Toxic Crusaders' featured character Toxie — a mutant — leading a group of outsider teens on a mission to save the planet from pollution. The show only had 13 episodes that ran on Fox in 1991, and left behind all the sex and violence that had been hallmarks of the film series and Troma.
'Police Academy'
Based on the film franchise that gave (burdened) us with seven films from 1984 to 1994, the animated series first aired in 1988 and lasted for two seasons and 64 episodes. The slapstick-heavy, low-brow films (the first of which was rated-R) were about law enforcement officials being forced to accept any and all candidates to the police academy, resulting in a mix of goofballs and simpletons attempting to become police officers. Like most films on this list, the slapstick and goofier aspects were the main takeaway from the 'Police Academy' movies when translated for television. The main crew from the films are joined by a group of K-9 dogs to bumble their way through solving crimes. 'Police Academy' drew many of the actors from the films to provide their vocal talents, including Leslie Easterbrook, Steve Guttenberg, and Michael Winslow — not that kids would notice this sort of thing.
'Conan the Barbarian'
In 'Conan the Barbarian,' the '82 fantasy actioner starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by John Milius, Conan is asked “What is best in life?” and he responds with “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.” And somewhere, someone in the studio system thought, “This sounds like perfect kids' cartoon material!” 'Conan the Adventurer' dispatched with much of the violence and the themes of fascism in favor of fantasy and legitimate adventure, and ran for 65 episodes from 1992 to 1993. Conan became a more morally upright character in the animated incarnation, displaying a strong moral compass and refusing to engage in illegal activity, whereas in the film he was a murderous womanizer.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78217
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Ostrich Chicks
Ostrich Chicks
1. My brain is swimming with ideas on how to use that. I only wish I could remember this later when I need this sound
2. @Mike
Make a bookmark folder for “Sound Ideas” (or “Scraps, “Scrapbook” or the like) and start collecting!
Leave a Reply
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78226
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*Red Envelope Art
for Chinese New Year
Event detail
Come celebrate Chinese New Year at the Portola Branch by making red envelope artwork! This workshop is for ages 10 and up. All supplies provided. Sign up is required. Please call 415-355-5660 to sign up!
*Funded by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.
Take our survey
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78239
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Go To Search
How do I contact the Human Resources Department?
For questions or comments about the Human Resources Department, see our contact information.
Human Resources
Show All Answers
1. How do I apply?
2. How do I contact the Human Resources Department?
3. How long does my application stay active?
6. What accommodations will Human Resources make for handicapped applicants?
7. What are my appeal rights?
8. What are the office hours and deadline for applications?
9. What does the Human Resources Department do?
10. What is the employment process?
11. What is the process used for selection of applicants?
12. What jobs does the city have?
13. Why didn't I qualify?
City of Shreveport, Louisiana
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78243
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Helen (actress)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Born Helen Richardson
21 November 1938 (1938-11-21) (age 75)[1]
Occupation Actress, Dancer
Years active 1951–present
Spouse Salim Khan (1981–present)
Children Arpita Khan
Relatives Salman Khan (step-son)
Arbaaz Khan (step-son)
Sohail Khan (step-son)
Helen Jairag Richardson (born 21 November 1938) is a Indian-Burmese movie and stage actress and a dancer. She mostly appears in Hindi movies. Her career began in 1951 with the movie Awara.
Helen was born to a British father and to a Burmese mother in Burma. She was raised in Mumbai.
References[change | change source]
1. "Helen celebrates 72nd birthday on Nov 21st". bbc.co.uk. 21 October 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017j20n. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
Other websites[change | change source]
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78253
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Forgot your password?
Comment: Re:tag the survivors with RFID (Score 1) 60
by Sique (#47521139) Attached to: How the Internet of Things Could Aid Disaster Response
I think you didn't get the parent. Before the disaster, you screen the people who will be affected by it and designate the survivors. Those people get tags to be easily spotted and identified. Thus you can rescue the survivors easily and don't need to waste time on people not deemed worthy to be alive.
Comment: Re:well (Score 1) 128
by Sique (#47521061) Attached to: The Psychology of Phishing
Even if I get spam that claims to be from my bank, I can see it being spam because I got similar spam allegedly from other banks I never did business with. The same with the two messages of unclear status, I seem to have with so many sites, that the one that claimed to have sent by a site I actually have an account with was easily spotted.
Comment: Re:This is news? (Score 1) 216
Every institution abuses their power. Governments are just the scape goats U.S. Americans like to butcher. Other countries have banks, other big corporations or the neighbouring country to beat at. Stop blaming the government for all failures, or at least start distributing your blame more fairly.
Comment: Amiga 2000 in East German nuclear research (Score 3, Insightful) 192
by Sique (#47498511) Attached to: The Almost Forgotten Story of the Amiga 2000
In the late 1980ies, the Nuclear Research Facility at Rossendorf near Dresden, Germany had two Amigas 2000 as central processing units for their accelerator experiments. It was fascinating, because Rossendorf was in communist East Germany, and the Amigas probably were bought half-legally for obscene amounts of (east german) money. But appearently they urgently needed the 32bit processing capability and were using selfdeveloped Zorro cards for the signal reception and processing.
Comment: Re:I'm sure (Score 1) 261
by Sique (#47475793) Attached to: UN Report Finds NSA Mass Surveillance Likely Violated Human Rights
I'm sure the NSA has the widest spread program to do so. No other country routinely collects all information of all people all over the world (though they claim not to collect the information about U.S. citizens under certain conditions). And for UK, they are already in conflict with the European High Court about collecting this information.
And at the same time, the NSA is the most useless organisation when it comes to fight domestic terrorism, as the only fact related to domestic terrorism they ever uncovered was a money transfer by a San Diego cab driver to a charity in Somalia which is considered a front to a terrorist organisation.
Comment: Re:Hard to place? (Score 4, Informative) 45
by Sique (#47473423) Attached to: Fossils of Cambrian Predator Preserved With Brain Impressions
Actually, they are considered pan-arthropoda, a greater group, that includes the arthropoda, but also the tardigrades and the onychophora, and if they are indeed related to the velvet worms, they would be classified as onychophora and not arthropoda. And yes, they are connected, in the same sense that all protostomia are connected.
Comment: Re:Hard to place? (Score 3, Informative) 45
by Sique (#47473403) Attached to: Fossils of Cambrian Predator Preserved With Brain Impressions
Yes. Because they are, as far as we know, not related to shrimps, though they look superficially similar. According to the article, they might be far relatives to today's velvet worms. That means that even the Tardigrades (microscopically small livings in puddles and wet soil) are closer related to shrimps than the Anomalicarididae.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78254
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Forgot your password?
Comment: Re:Predictable (Score 4, Interesting) 484
by am 2k (#47315163) Attached to: Supreme Court Rules Against Aereo Streaming Service
Comment: Re:Yes, but for the wrong reason (Score 1) 220
by am 2k (#47274515) Attached to: US Supreme Court Invalidates Patent For Being Software Patent
But what's an abstract idea?
Isn't the definition that you have to be able to give a patent to a developer skilled in the specific art and he/she can implement exactly the device described by the patent without inventing anything new? If that's not possible, the patent is supposed to be invalid because it's an abstract idea instead of a concrete implementation.
Comment: Re:Debuggers (Score 1) 294
by am 2k (#47031785) Attached to: Fixing the Pain of Programming
Simplest case, trying to debug remote code running on a server for which you have deploy-but-not-debug permissions on (this comes up a lot for me, actually).
For these cases, you should set up a local mirror environment where you are allowed to debug. Of course, if you can't reproduce the problem locally (because of system-interdependencies or a critical database you aren't allowed to copy for testing due to privacy issues), you have a problem...
Comment: Re:I would think (Score 1) 379
by am 2k (#46800525) Attached to: OpenSSL Cleanup: Hundreds of Commits In a Week
If a change is security related and non-obvious, then won't doing it in such a rush probably introduce new bugs/vulnerability into the code?
I guess you're not a programmer? When programming, you develop mind models of the code. This means that you can see behind the structures and write complicated stuff very quickly. After a while of not working on the code, you forget that model, and small changes are very dangerous, since they might result in side effects in other parts of the code you didn't consider.
That means that when you're constantly working on the same codebase and add features quickly, you get better code and less bugs. Note that this only stands true without a deadline looming ahead (which I don't think the OpenBSD devs have), since then you tend to make dangerous shortcuts and litter the code with "FIXME"s you tend to forget about.
That's also how hackathons work. I've been able to create full products in a weekend that otherwise would have taken months.
Comment: Re:I would think (Score 3, Insightful) 379
by am 2k (#46800473) Attached to: OpenSSL Cleanup: Hundreds of Commits In a Week
The often repeated mantra that high level language compilers do a better job than humans isn't true, and doesn't become true through repetition. The compilers can do no better than the person programming them, and for a finite size compiler, the optimizations are generic, not specific. And a good low level programmer can take knowledge into effect that the compiler doesn't have.
While I agree, there are also specific cases where a human cannot reasonably do an optimisation a compiler has no troubles with. For example, a CPU can parallelize subsequent operations that are distinct, like talking to different units (floating point math, integer math, memory access) and not using the same registers. A human usually thinks in sequences, which require using the result of an operation as the input for the next operation. Everything else would be unreadable source.
Finding distinct operations and re-ordering commands is easy in compilers, and the optimized result has no requirement of being readable.
C tries to find a middle ground there, where the user still has a lot of possibilities to control the outcome, but the compiler knows enough about the code to do some optimizations. The question is where the correct balance lies.
Uncompensated overtime? Just Say No.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78257
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"Tivo-ifies the web" Paul Kedrosky
America’s Civil Rights Movement
history, politics
5 comments on “America’s Civil Rights Movement
1. Div says:
Everyone on the planet is of African descent.
2. admin says:
True enough.
3. Is the American President as powerful as the heads of multi-national corporations? Sorry to still be cynical in this time of international euphoria, but I’m not sure the President is much more than a figurehead. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t do anything to really change things because he wouldn’t have the support he would need.
4. admin says:
I’m sure, like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of the bell curve of opinion.
However, I have some hope that the Obama administration will have a go at reducing the impact of lobbyists, which create an inferior version of democracy.
5. Ashley says:
Comments are closed.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78278
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
How would you translate sentences like:
'I wish I had remembered that earlier.'
'I wish I had made the most of it while I still could.'
There are a few ways to say I wish in Spanish, but I wasn't sure exactly which one fits best in this situation where the speaker is expressing regret or remorse.
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
up vote 10 down vote accepted
There are two general patterns that could be used to express the desire that something had happened or had been done. One can—as far as I know—only be used when speaking in the first person, while the second can be adapted to other viewpoints.
The first relies upon the expression ojalá hubiera, and works as follow:
I wish I had <past action> => Ojalá hubiera <past participle>
1. Ojalá no la hubiera conocido jamas. => I wish I had never met her.
2. Ojalá hubiera [yo] traído mas leche => I wish I had brought more milk.
• Certain modifiers can precede the word hubiera (as in Example 1.)
The second pattern is much more flexible and relies on want words such as gustar or desear.:
<X> wish(es) <past action> => <X> gustaría | desearía haber <past participle>
1. A él le gustaría haber tenido mas dinero. => He wishes he had had more money.
2. Desearía no haber dejado de hablar con mi mamá. => I wish I hadn't stopped speaking with my mother.
1. gustaría & desearía are the conditional forms of their respective verbs.
2. Again, certain modifiers may precede the word haber.
3. This pattern doesn't carry a sense of remorse to any major degree. It generally has the nuance of a reflection, but adverbs of magnitude could be used to help express the gravity of the statement.
These are general grammatical patterns that should be more or less understood everywhere. There are probably more idiomatic phrases in use throughout Latin America, but I couldn't think of any specifically.
I hope this helps! :)
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78296
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Say, I want to modify mmap. So I create a new shared object file for that purpose and use LD_PRELOAD to use it instead of the original mmap. However, I need to refer to a variable which is my program files. How can I do that? I read somewhere about weak references. Is that the way to do that. I don't think you can use extern because you compile the shared library separately than your program. Any advice on this?
Secondly, does LD_PRELOAD only affects the usage of mmap in your code, or also for example mmap called from within the standard library libc.so that your code utilizes?
share|improve this question
Do you have the source of your program ? If yes, why do you want to use LD_PRELOAD instead of overwriting mmap() ? – dwalter May 21 '12 at 16:11
1 Answer 1
Using LD_PRELOAD will affect any call to function that has to be located dynamically, regardless of whether it is in your own code or in a shared library loaded by your code. You can use LD_DEBUG to see exactly where things are finding symbols. Take a look at:
$ LD_DEBUG=help ls
This will show you the available debugging options. Note that ls here could be any dynamically linked executable.
I'm not sure entirely sure about the first part of your question. Have you tried using dlsym() to look up the variable?
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78297
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
In my model I have
package models;
import play.*;
import play.data.validation.*;
import play.db.jpa.*;
import play.libs.*;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
import javax.persistence.*;
import java.util.*;
import play.mvc.*;
public class User extends Model {
public static void facebookOAuthCallback(JsonObject data){
String email = data.get("email").getAsString();
Session session = new Session();
session.put("user", user.email);
When this action action is axecuted it gives the Session cannot be resolved into type. What I am doing wrong :(
Thanks in advance
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
Have you tried NOT putting this code in your Model, but instead putting it in your controller. Session is a controller concept, and I don't think it is a good idea mixing it with your Model.
share|improve this answer
I am using fbconnect module for login with facebook. When the use click on the link he is edirected to facebook but when he returns from facebook with JSON Object which contains the user data it needs to execute this action which is in my model and I want to set the user session how can I pass the loggedin user email to my controller or putting it in a session inside a controller – Zoha Ali Khan Jul 12 '12 at 8:16
Your Answer
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78298
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Jenkins successfully manages to checkout the project from BitBucket but after that I get this error message:
Started by user anonymous
Building in workspace /Users/Shared/Jenkins/Home/jobs/myprojectAdHocBuild/workspace
Checkout:workspace / /Users/Shared/Jenkins/Home/jobs/myprojectAdHocBuild/workspace - hudson.remoting.LocalChannel@xxxxxxx
Using strategy: Default
Fetching changes from 1 remote Git repository
Fetching upstream changes from [email protected]:myuser/myproject.git
No candidate revisions
Archiving artifacts
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Any idea how to fix it?
My server system information:
MacMini running MACOSX Lion 10.8.2 (fresh installed) Jenkins version 1.489
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migrated from serverfault.com Nov 9 '12 at 3:39
Please read the FAQ before posting a question. This is OT here. – SvW Nov 8 '12 at 11:39
Can I know what OT means? – Claus Nov 8 '12 at 11:41
Off-topic, meaning that this sites doesn't deal with this kind of questions. – SvW Nov 8 '12 at 11:41
"If your question is about… Server and Business Workstation operating systems, hardware, software and virtualization" I don't think is so OT – Claus Nov 8 '12 at 11:44
@SvenW interesting.... if this question is "OT" then why "serverfault" allows tags such as "jenkins" and "revision-control" which this question is covering? – Alex Nov 8 '12 at 11:57
1 Answer 1
up vote 0 down vote accepted
Btw I've found a solution.My error was that,in the Jenkins job configuration area I included the branch to be build tag in lowercase characters when it was case-sensitive
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78299
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
In a Rails app I realised I had committed a sensitive file config/credentials.yml to the git repo.
In an effort to tidy things up I followed the advice on GitHub and ran
git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch config/credentials.yml' --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
and then added to gitignore
echo "config/credentials.yml" >> .gitignore
When I try to commit these changes
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "ignored credentials.yml"
I'm getting a message
error: pathspec 'adds credentials.yml to gitignore' did not match any file(s) known to git.
How can I fix this error? Or, how can I undo my changes and safely revert to the git history on my remote?
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1 Answer 1
I think you might've forgotten the step
$ git add .gitignore
before trying to commit, or then you mistyped, when you shoud've given
$ git commit -m "Add credentials.yml to .gitignore"
Process advised is highly dangerous [for the repo contents], so one must be really careful to follow all the steps in detail.
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thanks eis. I had already run git add .gitignore. Are there any other steps i can take to resolve this? I realize this is a dangerous process, and am reluctant to take any more steps on my own without advice – Andy Harvey Dec 11 '12 at 17:13
grateful for your advice on this, if I use git reset HEAD --hard to reset local from my remote repo, will this undo these changes I've made to the local git. Or does the routine above run deeper than that! Apologies, still trying to get my head around this. – Andy Harvey Dec 12 '12 at 3:28
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78300
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
The following data shows my projects, time frames, and their phases. I would like to visualize this data using R ggplot() code shown below. However, as we can see below, getting an error while inferring Months from the data. I would like to use the name of Months as x-axis labels. Moreover, I need to print the name of the projects besides the rectangular boxes. Please help me in this. Thank you.
> temp
projects starts ends order Phase
A 2013-02-15 2013-03-15 1 Research
A 2013-03-16 2013-04-15 1 Prototype
B 2013-04-07 2013-04-30 2 Research
B 2013-05-01 2013-08-30 2 Prototype
C 2013-05-01 2013-07-30 3 Research
D 2013-05-01 2013-07-30 4 Research
> a = ggplot(temp, aes(xmin = starts, xmax = ends, ymin = order, ymax = order+0.5)) + geom_rect(aes(fill=Phase), color="black") + theme_bw()
> b = a + geom_text(aes(x= starts + (ends-starts)/2 ,y=order+0.25, label=projects))
> b
Error in unit(x, default.units) : 'x' and 'units' must have length > 0
In addition: Warning messages:
1: In Ops.factor(ends, starts) : - not meaningful for factors
2: In Ops.factor(starts, (ends - starts)/2) : + not meaningful for factors
3: Removed 6 rows containing missing values (geom_text).
Please also see the version of R.
> version
platform i686-pc-linux-gnu
arch i686
os linux-gnu
system i686, linux-gnu
major 2
minor 15.2
year 2012
month 10
day 26
svn rev 61015
language R
version.string R version 2.15.2 (2012-10-26)
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1 Answer 1
up vote 4 down vote accepted
try converting starts and ends to Date
temp$starts <- as.Date(temp$starts)
temp$ends <- as.Date(temp$ends)
If that does not work, you may want to use dput(temp) and paste that into your question.
Copying + Pasting OP's data, converting to date, then using OP's code Using the ggplot2 code above
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Could you tell me how can I print name of the projects on top of the rectangle instead of inside. Moreover, I want to remove duplicate names. – samarasa Feb 15 '13 at 22:14
You would probably want to plot the text at the appropriate coordinates. However, I would post that as a new question. – Ricardo Saporta Feb 15 '13 at 22:26
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78301
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
It seems like everybody has had an unpleasant brush with the Java Service Provider, that thing you can do with a file named like META-INF/services/com.example.Interface, but that nobody uses except for trying to load the right XML parser. I'm trying to work with a library that uses the Service Provider API, and trick it so that I can provide some runtime-extended classes (using cglib) that don't actually implement the interface but can be made to do so easily.
Basically, I think the steps I need to perform are:
1. Create a custom class loader that will respond to getResources(...) and return an "extra" URL
2. Also have that class loader hook getResourceAsStream(...) to return a list of the classes I am going to manipulate with cglib, when asked for the "extra" resource
3. Finally, have that class loader load those classes when requested
But here's where I get lost. For example, when the library tries to determine what implementers are out there, it calls getResources(...) which returns a bunch of URLs. But getResourceAsStream(...) doesn't take URLs, it takes "names". Names which seem to be classpath-relative, and therefore the same everywhere. So META-INF/services/com.example.Interface in has the same "name" as META-INF/services/com.example.Interface in their JAR, right? Except somehow this works with those blasted XML parsers...
Of course, all of this assumes they were smart/kind enough to call ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader() rather than using ClassLoader.getSystemResources(...), ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream(...), etc., as in the latter case there's no way to hook the ClassLoader and provide the faked file.
I guess in that case I could use BCEL to manipulate the class files when my code is being packaged by Maven, rather than waiting until runtime to do it with cglib?
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Could you compile some stubs and register them via META-INF/services in the usual way, but then proxy them with cglib once they're loaded? – OrangeDog Dec 21 '10 at 14:30
What's the actual question/problem? Your approach of using a custom class loader (and setting it as the context class loader around the call to the library that calls getResources...) should work. – bkail Dec 25 '10 at 4:41
bkail - The ultimate problem is that I've got classes (Type1, Type2, ...) that can be run by another class (Runner), which are themselves run inside a GUI. For various reasons, this is ugly in my application. What I'd like to do is dynamically "fuse" them together and have Runner$Type1, Runner$Type2, etc. presented to the GUI, so that users are aware of what classes are available. – jonathan-stafford Dec 27 '10 at 11:28
1 Answer 1
up vote 2 down vote accepted
The idea I described was along the right track. The mistake I made was in thinking that using ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream(..) to access the contents of the URLs. Instead, you should just URL.openStream().
Had I found it before posting, java.util.ServiceLoader (@since 1.6) provides some insight into how to do things correctly.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78302
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I understand that creating a WYSIWYG/Rich Text Editor is an absurd thing to do given the many different, annoying things that are required to achieve cross-browser support. The project I'm currently working on, however, requires a very very simple WYSIWYG editor (three options, link, bold and italics).
My question is then, am I going to spend as much time customizing and paring down TinyMCE to fit my requirements or is the task of creating my own a fairly simple one given the fact there's only three options (and nothing like text resize or undo/redo)?
Also, is the general consensus still iFrame and designMode or are we significantly far along the HTML5 train that I can go with contentEditable?
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I'd imagine that removing features from TinyMCE would be a lot easier and less time consuming than descending the 8 levels of hell that are building your own cross-browser WYSIWYG editor. – Rory McCrossan Nov 24 '11 at 10:47
I've just googled and it appears to be a straight-forward affair to remove features from TinyMCE: tinymce.com/tryit/custom_formats.php. Notably, the theme_advanced_buttons1 variable. – Rory McCrossan Nov 24 '11 at 10:50
Take a look at WYMEditor. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of TinyMCE or CKEditor, but may be well suited for what you need. – unclenorton Nov 24 '11 at 23:39
TinyEditor may be useful, although hard to tell a whole lot about browser support. scriptiny.com/2010/02/javascript-wysiwyg-editor – mg1075 Nov 25 '11 at 1:36
WYMEditor looks like something that could be helpful. Thanks! – Dormouse Nov 25 '11 at 12:06
1 Answer 1
up vote 3 down vote accepted
You have to ask yourself one question, do you feel lucky^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H do you want to maintain said WYSIWYG editor?
Two years ago I thought this would be a good idea. I took the editor used here on stackoverflow. Threw away all the UI code and re-wrote the whole thing from the ground up, only saving the markdown parsing piece. And let me tell you, markdown is a whole lot simpler than HTML/WYSIWYG. The final javascript, UI only, is 1600+ lines of code and took about 2 weeks to write the first pass of full functionality.
I implemented it into the web app I was working on a the time and learned something real quick: I was now spending 50% of my time maintaining an editor and the other 50% of my time delivering code for the actual domain-specific part of the web app I was working on. That basically means I was spending half of my time not delivering anything that really contributed to the bottom line of the web app.
So how about you -- Is this WYSIWYG editor such a core, critical part of your app so much so that you'd be willing to now spend half of your time supporting it -OR- is the other bits that your web app is doing far exceed the importance of this one piece of your UI so much so that you could "farm it out" to TinyMCE?
Also, there are a lot more options out there besides TinyMCE which you could use as a starting point.
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I try to repeat this over and over again, but people likes to reinvent the wheel. CKEditor and TinyMCE are great pieces of software, of course they aren't perfect but they have so many hours of work done there that it isn't wise to just ignore them. It's much better to find out which one fits better your coding pattern, take a look at the code, the features/bugs and then try to create patches for it so you can use the code but leaving the core of the work to a dedicated team. – AlfonsoML Nov 30 '11 at 13:56
Thanks, I've decided to just modify an existing WYSIWYG Editor. – Dormouse Dec 2 '11 at 9:50
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78303
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I am building a website with recipes in Drupal 7. I also have cooking tips on the website and for some of the recipes I want to show related cooking tips on the page of the recipe.
I have two content types, one for the recipes and one for the cooking tips.
What would you consider the best module for this? I already tried the References Module but this only worked in the View with an overview of all recipes, not on the page of a specific recipe.
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1 Answer 1
up vote 0 down vote accepted
May be http://drupal.org/project/Relation ?
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78304
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm building a site and I hope to be able to "like" it using Facebook. I've glanced over their SDK, and it seemed pretty straight forward...
I've "made" this:
<h1>Testing the Facebook like button</h1>
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=177127339057410";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://yannbane.blogspot.com/" data-send="false" data-width="450" data-show-faces="true"></div>
And I saved it as "index.html" on my computer. Now, when I try to open it, it just displays "Testing the Facebook like button" header and continues on loading, and nothing really happens. How come? I'm of course not trying to "like" index.html, but my blog (http://yannbane.blogspot.com/), so I thought there should be no problems with opening it locally...
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I haven't worked with this API, but should js.src = "//connect.facebook.net begin with the protocol before the "//"? (Like http://)? – Tim Feb 9 '12 at 14:25
1 Answer 1
up vote 3 down vote accepted
In your head you need to have the opengraph information, facebook requires it for the like button to appear.
the meta tags should look like this
Information required is
you can read more here https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/
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everyone seems to miss that "Step 2" :P – Lix Feb 9 '12 at 14:18
Oh yeah, I wondered if that step was necessary... Hah! – jco Feb 9 '12 at 14:21
I also need to include the Javascript SDK? Well, then I'm concerned about the channel file... Can you tell me: if it possible to make like buttons work on local web documents? – jco Feb 9 '12 at 14:57
i dont believe you need the javascript SDK, i dont recall adding it, but follow the instructions on fb and it should tell you. Also did i not answer the question correctly? should have received a correct answer click lol :p :p – JimmyBanks Feb 11 '12 at 3:46
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78305
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Standard icon
C63.5-2006 - American National Standard for Electromagnetic Compatibility Radiated Emission Measurements in Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Control Calibration of Antennas (9 kHz to 40 GHz)
Description: Methods for determining antenna factors of antennas used for radiated emission measurements of electromagnetic interference (EMI) from 9 kHz to 40 GHz are provided. Antennas included are linearly polarized antennas such as loops, rods (monopoles), tuned dipoles, biconical dipoles, log-periodic dipole arrays, hybrid linearly polarized arrays, broadband horns, etc., which are used in measurements governed by ANSI C63.4-2003. The methods include standard site (i.e., 3-antenna), reference antenna, equivalent capacitance substitution, standard transmitting loop, standard antenna, and standard field methods.
• Status: Active Standard Help
Get This Standard
Buy Purchase a copy of this standard Buy External Link
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78311
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Hallways of Reaction
4 kommentarer
< >
*|PEZ|* Venima (The Silent One) 13. jun 2013 kl. 1:34pm
The beast that once was... [ophavsmand] 13. jun 2013 kl. 3:52am
*|PEZ|* Venima (The Silent One) 12. jun 2013 kl. 5:16pm
This map could do with checkpoints...
The beast that once was... [ophavsmand] 5. maj 2013 kl. 2:02pm
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78327
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George Reeves Colorized Gif
Art by Ben Burgraff
'process' gif, showing the transition between a B&W George Reeves' photo, and a 'colorized' one...this takes me 3-4 hours to accomplish, so this is REALLY time-lapse!
And here's the final result (after I remembered to adjust his belt buckle to a 'brass' look!)...Notice that George is standing on a box, to make him look more imposing; also, as this is a photo from late in the series, it's possible he would jump off the box, rather than swing in on a bar, to create a 'landing' (if it wasn't crucial to the scene). His feet were seldom in a shot, so this is conceivable, as a time-shaving measure...
For even more Superman images check out the Superherouniverse.com Superman Gallery.
If you have any super hero art work or computer images you have made and would like to share with other Superman fans send it to [email protected] .
Looking for Superhero Merchandise or just like to see what all is out there for superheroes. Check out superheromall.com.
Perfect for both die-hard fans and casual readers, this fully updated edition of DK's classic guide tells you everything you need to know about Superman's 60+ year fight for truth, justice, and the American way.
Buy from Amazon Now!
George Reeves Superman
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78328
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
What shortcut key do you use to switch keyboards on your mac? Windows uses Alt + Shift, and on the Mac the default is Apple + Space. However, that's also the shortcut for spotlight.
I ended up disabling the spotlight shortcut.
What's your preferred keyboard switching shortcut?
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2 Answers 2
up vote 1 down vote accepted
On a Mac I use Command + Shift + Z to switch languages. I was already used to Alt + Shift from Windows and, since Command + Shift alone wasn't a valid combo, I just added the nearest key (Z).
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Looks like a reasonable thing to do – alok Jul 27 '09 at 11:28
Since I use GNOME-DO on Linux, and used to use Google Desktop Search on Windows, I changed the spotlight shortcut to Ctrl + Space, and use Apple + Space for language switching.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78329
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have integrated audio in each slide that narrates the slide. At the end of the audio, I want the slides to automatically transition to the next slide.
How do I set this up?
share|improve this question
Do you have PowerPoint 2010 (Windows only) or do you have PowerPoint for Mac (2008 or 2011)? Have you added the sounds using the Record Narration feature or have you added independent sound files, per slide, recorded in some other way? How exactly have you added the sound files if the latter? – Steve Rindsberg Oct 11 '11 at 15:40
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Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78330
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I need a map of the SMC campus, but I'm really sick of running out of ink after printing one thing and then having to pay ridiculous sums of money to buy more ink.
The map is here: Map
I would print in black and white, but I'm wondering if there are any chrome or photoshop extensions, or even websites that transform the image into something more ink-conservative.
For example, I don't need the buildings to be a solid color, or the roads to be gray, so it would be a tremendous waste of ink to print it as is.
Anyone know anything like I'm talking about?
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5 Answers 5
up vote 38 down vote accepted
One Photoshop solution could be to use the "Trace Contour" filter. Admittedly, it works better on images with higher resolution, but I think you won't be able to cut down on ink much further:
Map image after Trace Contour filter
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Use draft mode to print- this will reduce colour saturation (or 'blackness') to save ink.
I'd also recommend filling in areas that arn't important in white - in paint.net, using the magic wand, global selection and 26% tolerance cleaned up your image to this in roughly 2 seconds. A little more work by seperating colours into layers (magic wand with same settings, cut and paste into a new layer) and increasing the transparency yielded this.
In short - print in draft mode, fill in white, seperate layers, and increase the transparency of these layers.
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Draft is a massive ink saver on some printers - on mine, it's the only mode that doesn't soak the paper in ink... Of course, the quality may be horrible, but it should be good enough to read. – Bob Jun 18 '12 at 6:35
It is not the simplist things to do, but if you can use GIMP, you can do this in two ways:
1. Use Select -> By Color to select the regions that are that color, and then use Bucket Fill to fill them with whatever color you want.
2. Use the magic wand tool with an appropriate range set (should be very small in your case).
Use this to change colors that you don't want to white.
share|improve this answer
or use Paint.NET.. just another alternative to GIMP – tumchaaditya Jun 18 '12 at 6:49
True. They are both free, but GIMP is available on more platforms. Additionally, Journeyman Geek's answer mentions that as a possibility. – soandos Jun 18 '12 at 6:50
Whilst not technically as good as Soandos's answer (so +1 for the technical one!), I would highly recommend purchasing a cheap Epson printer + fake ink.
Most national computer shops/websites will sell one unique model of printer that you can only buy from them at something stupid like £10/£15/£20, but have ink that can cost twice that, locking you in to that shop... I personally find the cheapest ink I can - usually at £1/£2 per cartridge when bought in bulk and just use that.
Only complaint with the brand I use - Red comes out a little orangey, but, I hardly ever print out proper photographs and would much much rather have a page cost that is a fraction of using real cartridges.
share|improve this answer
Fake ink works with canon (I love these) and lexmark (tricky) as well – Journeyman Geek Jun 18 '12 at 5:15
+1. I think in all honestly, your answer is more practical than mine. – soandos Jun 18 '12 at 5:17
adding: if you are a frequent printer, get the printer fitted with CISS(Continuous Ink supply system)... – tumchaaditya Jun 18 '12 at 6:48
If the ink colours are wrong, switch the supplier. Fake ink needs not be inferior. – Konrad Rudolph Jun 18 '12 at 8:50
+1 @tumchaaditya It's something I'd get if I printed things. – Rob Jun 19 '12 at 2:41
Why not take a picture of the map with your cellphone and carry it anywhere you need without printing it on paper?
I use to do it with commute maps when I travel.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78331
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The camera on my PC does not work
Try this sure to SAVE your changes:
• From ooVoo menu bar click on ooVoo and select Settings
• Move to the Advanced tab and UNCHECK ‘Use Hardware Acceleration’ checkbox
• SAVE the changes
Didn't work? See the next steps:
1. Are you using an external USB camera? Disconnect and reconnect.
2. Do you have a new camera OR did it used to work? Check for updates on the drivers from the manufacturer.
3. Click on the ooVoo Help menu and select Check your audio and video.
• If there is more than one camera option, select each one and test to see if you can see yourself.
• If you get a message saying that the camera is currently busy, make sure that the camera is not being used by other programs.
• If you get a message saying “ooVoo is not detecting your camera,” check if your webcam is detected by other applications and installed on your computer (such as the webcam software or other video programs). If it is working on other applications that use the camera, please send us the camera model or laptop model in a support request.
*Win 8.1 users - update your display card driver and your camera driver
Note: ooVoo will not work with a Playstation camera or external camera requiring a video card.
Rating:Rating of 0.5 Stars5 Votes
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Topic Information
• Topic #: 3908-1422
• Date Created: 8/21/2013
• Last Modified Since: 7/11/2014
• Viewed: 2451
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78338
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Advanced Class Bias
I came to the somewhat embarrassing realisation recently that I'm extremely prejudiced against people based on which advanced class they play. I'm not talking about technical performance expectations here ("class X is overpowered/useless"), though there's probably some of that as well, but about the person behind the avatar. Simply put: I kind of expect players of certain classes to be nicer and more competent individuals than those of others.
It first really struck me with Vanguards. I'm ridiculously biased in their favour. While I've certainly had some positive experiences with random Vanguard players in the past, none of it even comes close to justifying the sheer extent of my bias. I think it comes down to a mix of class identity and their role in gameplay. The trooper story is very much about being a "good soldier", even if you make dark side choices, so I expect people who play one to find that role appealing, and to enjoy being a hero of the common people. Vanguards then take this another step further by being able to tank, and a lot of them do. In PvP this means that they really are protectors of the common (squishy) people - holy crap, this guy literally just took a bullet laser for me! How could you not be in awe of that kind of dedication? (If a Vanguard turns out to be a dps player, I'll be a little disappointed, but forgive them anyway.)
Hello there, handsome stranger! I feel strangely reassured by your presence. Let's be friends?
This got me thinking about how I see other classes. Interestingly, I expect Commandos to be kind of derpy, even though they are "noble" troopers as well. Considering that this is my main's class, this might simply be a case of "takes one to know one". One of the Commandos in my old guild is also extremely talented at getting himself into trouble. And for quite a while after release, dps Commandos were widely known as "one button wonders" that were supposedly popular with players that had no skill. I guess this might simply be a case of overwhelming amounts of past experience overriding everything else.
When I see a Scoundrel, I expect him or her to be a easygoing and friendly. This is probably a mix of story and role bias again: smuggling is for people who like to crack jokes and have fun... and somehow most Scoundrels I encounter these days are specced into healing, which makes them instantly seem supportive and helpful.
Gunslingers I view as more of a lone ranger type, sitting at the back behind their cover and doing their thing while nobody else pays attention to them except to say: "Dude, you know you're out of healing range, right?" I also expect them to be very serious about doing dps, because otherwise they wouldn't have chosen one of only two advanced classes that can perform no other role.
The latter is a prejudice that I apply to Sentinels as well, though I also view them as more sociable and helpful. They may be pure damage dealers, but they are still goody two-shoes Jedi, you know? It also seems to me that among all the different damage dealers, Sentinels are the ones most likely to play in a manner that still focuses on supporting other players (for example by using their utility powers at just the right time). I admit that this perception might simply be a result of their high visibility though (hard to miss that jumpy guy with the dual lightsabers who's constantly in your face), and that other dps classes might be just as helpful from range and just not get noticed.
Guardians are - to me anyway - the game's "average guys". It seems a bit wrong to say that about a Jedi class, but basically they represent the typical good guy or hero with no other defining features. If nothing else I expect Guardian players to be well-intentioned, however other than that I pretty much anticipate mediocrity. I know that I'm doing them a great injustice that way because I've known some very good Guardian players in my time, but I've also seen just as many Guardian tanks who can never remember to reapply guard and dpsers who only ever do average damage (this includes my own Guardian alt by the way). I just can't get excited about being grouped with a Guardian either way.
There is another class this applies to for me, and that is Sages. Maybe it's because they were all over the place shortly after release when they were the major flavour of the month, but they always struck me as the kind of character played by someone who just wants to have it easy. (Note that my main alt is a Sage.) I'm always hesitant to give my MvP to a Sage because even if they did well I always doubt whether they really worked for it. I'm always a little suspicious of them initially and they'll have to be truly amazing to impress me.
Now Shadows on the other hand, I expect those to be highly skilled players, I'm just never sure about their attitude. They seem to get played by people of extremes, and will either be wonderful team players that provide great utility, or selfish jerks who constantly roll their eyes at all those other people who can't stealth and slow them down. I think this might be a prejudice that is related to stealth dps gameplay in general as I vaguely seem to recall having a similar bias against rogues in WoW back in the day.
I can't really comment on the Imperial advanced classes because I mainly experience them as the enemy, so my biases are pretty much limited to "is annoying", "hurts" and "hurts a lot". However, I think that even if I did play Empire side more, the prejudices I listed here wouldn't automatically translate to their mirror advanced classes due to some classes having a very different flavour to them - I don't think I could ever view a bounty hunter as a heroic protector of the people for example.
Do you expect people to act a certain way based on which class they play?
1. I'll be honest in that I haven't played enough TOR to get the class stereotypes yet. I know that sounds funny having leveled a Gunslinger all the way to L50 and having a stable of toons between L17 and L33, but it's true.
Unlike in WoW, where you just know the Rogues will be jerks (and yes, I've caught myself exhibiting asshat behavior from time to time when leveling my Rogue) and the Retadins have a superiority complex, I just haven't caught onto that nuance in the game yet.
Honestly, I like the Commando because you get the CC earlier than some other classes (like the Gunslinger). It makes me feel useful taking out the normals and weaks in a Heroic and/or Flashpoint while the others are DPSing down the main group.
While I like playing the Shadow, the one thing I have trouble adjusting to is that a Shadow can't disappear mid-fight like a Rogue can. When I play the Shadow after having run Warsong Gulch for a dozen times, I've found myself bitching at the keyboard as to "why won't the damn thing let me vanish!" (/urg)
So far, of the Imperial Classes, I like the Bounty Hunter the best. Not a Sith, pretty much a free agent, and I do love me that Death from Above. Doesn't do quite as much damage as I'd like (it is AOE after all), but I just love the look of it.
Eh? Gunslingers get slice droid at 12. The only AC that gets its long duration CC later than the Commando is Sentinel. /scratches head.
That's because in purely technical terms, the true equivalent of a WoW rogue is a dps Scoundrel or Operative. They do have "vanish", and Operatives even stab people and poison them. However, I just can't associate any class that can heal with true roguishness. :P
And funny you should mention Death from Above... you should check out this video about Imperial class stereotypes. ;)
2. I don't count slice droid since it's of limited utility. If there are droids around, sure, but anything else is kind of useless.
The Shadow's CC has to move in pretty close for you to engage, and I can't tell you the number of times I've cursed a blue streak because the enemy saw me in a hidden state and attacked before I could CC them.
As for the Scoundrel/Operative, you're right. The Shadow is closer to a Feral Druid than a Rogue. But yeah, a healer type that can vanish? Go figure.
I'll have to go check out that video in the morning. (I'm beat.)
2. We're supposed to interact with other people!?
Wait, maybe that just means I fit your class stereotypes. My mains are a Gunslinger and a Sniper.
1. Yes, you there at the back! Just because you're in cover that doesn't mean I can't see you!
3. To me gunslingers are childish, immature and like to mess with people. However I also see them as dependable.
This opinion comes from the story quest, how I play and observing other gunslingers in pvp.
1. Was wondering whether any guildies were reading along... ;) You haven't entirely lived up to my gunslinger stereotype - too helpful. :P
4. I have an irrational bias against classes that can ONLY DPS, like "you selfish jerk, everyone else is dual speccing." Having said that, I'm now BEING a selfish jerk, and loving it.
5. Commandos :) Richy the one button wonder and cant think who is getting into trouble a lot :)
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Blues In A Tab
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Blues in A (bass)
4 times 2 times, then go back to 1
section and do it 2 times
Then do this 1 time and do the 2 section once and the 1 section 1 time, now start all over.
This is blues in A tabbed for bass, have fun go play this with a good guitarist to
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78340
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7 best reasons to use HTML5 for future business apps development
by Doug Drinkwater
December 10 2013
The age-old debate between native and web technology refuses to go away, but don’t let that distract you from the very real possibility that HTML5 could one day be key to your company’s custom business apps.
It’s multi-platform
The beauty of web apps is that they can work across numerous operating systems, regardless of whether they're powering a smartphone, tablet or laptop. What this essentially means is that one colleague/customer could be using the app on an iPad, while another checks it out on an Android smartphone (note: this is however providing that both platforms support all the APIs used in your app).
So, what are the advantages of doing so? Besides saving on costly app development (more on that below), it means your app is more likely to support some of the newer devices to come to market, even if they sport a different screen size, resolution and aspect ratio.
It's cost effective
As a follow on from the previous point, developing for one technology compared to three of four is going to save your business a whole heap of cash.
Rough estimates have put custom iOS and Android app development for enterprise between $50,000 and $250,000 (that low-end estimate will rise if you’re looking for a unified iOS app that supports both iPhones and iPad), with HTML5 considerably cheaper individually and collectively.
Add into that the fact that most employees (at least in big Fortune 500 enterprises) will require different tools, from workflow and checklist applications to software-as-a-service solutions and you begin to see why this cost saving is essential.
As an added bonus, businesses going with HTML5 apps won’t be forced to hand over 30% of their app revenues to Apple or Microsoft for entrance into their respective app stores.
Developers love the easy life
Why go with HTML5 web apps for your business apps? Well, one obvious answer is that it makes sense from a developer standpoint because it is so easy. Programmers and developers are already using the technology – as well as CSS3 and JavaScript -- for the web so this should come as second nature.
By comparison, developing apps natively is a whole different ballgame which requires very different skills.
Fragmentation isn’t any worse than it is natively
When it comes to developing apps, fragmentation is an issue experienced both with native and web applications.
And although there are at least 15 mobile browsers in existence, each available in different versions and supporting different levels, with HTML5 you’ll also have the challenge of developing apps for multiple platforms (and different versions of those platforms) with native.
So fragmentation is little worse there than it is natively.
(Sign up for the free Tablet App Development monthly newsletter)
It’s only going to get better
Truth be told mobile web apps could only get better 12 months ago; there were limited features in the apps themselves and even developers in an IDC study claimed to be ‘neutral to dissatisfied’ with what tools were on offer.
Notifications are still missing compared to native apps, but everything else is coming together. The apps are now better equipped for capacitive touch control and most apps support pinch to zoom. The majority are also able to detect a user’s location, store data locally on the device, and access information on the device, such as downloads and contacts.
As a sign of progress in this area, numerous app developers are already implementing HTML5 into 'hybrid' native apps too, while Facebook and LinkedIn have done as such in the past. Furthermore, there are various ISVs in the enterprise space (such as PhoneGap) letting developers build native apps using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.
Add into the mix that the final spec of HTML5 isn’t likely to be finalized by the Worldwide Web Consortium until 2014 and you can see that improvement is still a very real possibility.
(Worth reading: Developer says HTML5 performance is 'horrible' & Ignore the hysteria: Mobile HTML5 apps can be good for business)
You can update apps faster
One other advantage of swerving the App Store is that you won’t be forced to wait when you have an app update ready.
Yep, instead of waiting for Apple, Google or Microsoft to give you the green-light, you can push out your web app update whenever you – and your users – are ready.
Good resources are never too far away
Not only are the developer tools easy to get a handle on with HTML5 but there are already numerous companies willing and able to work with companies on their business web apps.
The likes of Mubaloo, Gizmox and Compsoft, to name a few, will help you build your customized web app, while Sencha has numerous online tools if you're going it alone.
(Stay on top of the latest tablet news, reviews, trends and apps by subscribing to the free TabTimes Daily newsletter)
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Latest in tablet business / productivity
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78349
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Richard Gentry
Authors A-Z: Richard Gentry
Richard Gentry
Additional Resources for Richard Gentry
TalkAbout Videos with Richard Gentry
>Watch Now
» In this video interview series, Gentry discusses the theories and applications found in his book and DVD: Breakthrough in Beginning Reading & Writing.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78357
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Technology Section Image TEP Home Page
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Technology Home
Vital Considerations
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Critical Thinking
Clickers (Personal Response Systems)
What if you could:
clicker unit
Clickers (personal response systems) allow students to select anonymously an answer to multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no questions displayed by the lecturer. Students choose their answers on transmitter units that send a signal to a receiver attached to the lecturer’s laptop, and the results can be displayed for the whole class to see.
Clickers being used in group workThis technology allows instructors to:
At the University of Oregon we have adopted the iClicker technology for use across campus. By adopting iClickers it has allowed the university to consolidate the purchase of student units through the DuckStore in a similar procedure as buying textbooks. Additionally, instructor kits can be checked out from the Center for Media and Educational Technologies (CMET) on a term-by-term basis. For more information about how this process works, and to find additional resources, see: Using i>clicker at UO -- notes for instructors (NOTE: This link will open in a new browser tab or window)
Clickers in the Classroom: How to Enhance Science Teaching Using Classroom Response Systems (PDF logoPDF file)
Douglas Duncan, University of Colorado
Forward, Chapters 1 &2, (2005), Pearson Education, Inc
You're a good teacher. You really care about whether your students learn. So as you lecture you watch their faces for clues and ask yourself, “Do they get it? Are they enthusiastic about what I'm saying?” You stop and ask them, “Does anybody have any questions?” Students nervously look at each other. No one raises a hand. Good, you think to yourself, no one had a question— they must be following my presentation and understanding the subject.
If you're an experienced teacher, you know you shouldn't make that assumption. Many students will not call attention to what they don’t know, especially in a large class. Research shows that instructors usually overestimate how much students learn. But now, there’s a better way! Technology has advanced to the point where classroom response systems—or “clickers”— allow a teacher to sample the thinking of all students, at any time, without students having to risk embarrassing themselves in front of their peers.
Clickers in the Classroom: An Active Learning Approach
Margie Martyn, Baldwin-Wallace College
EDUCAUSE Quarterly, Volume 30, Number 2, (2007), pp. 71-74
Current research describes the benefits of active learning approaches. Clickers, or student response systems, are a technology used to promote active learning. Most research on the benefits of using clickers in the classroom has shown that students become engaged and enjoy using them. However, research on learning outcomes has only compared the use of clickers to traditional lecture methods. Although learning outcomes are higher when using clickers, the question is whether the clickers or the active learning pedagogies are the cause. For this reason, I conducted a study that compared learning outcomes resulting from the use of clickers versus another active learning method—class discussion.
Using a Personal Response System in Economics Teaching
Caroline Elliot, Lancaster University
International Review of Economics Education, Volume 1, Issue 1 (2003), pp. 80-86
This paper offers a brief introduction to a Personal Response System that can be used in group-teaching scenarios, reporting the results of a trial using the technology in a second-year undergraduate Microeconomics Principles course. Advantages and disadvantages of the technology are discussed, and the possibilities for using this technology more widely are explored.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
When I use MathJax, sometimes the fraction lines got a different thickness (below imgage). Why?
Another question is how to increase the vertical space between the lines, because in \begin{align} ... \end{align} the lines are so close to each other and it's hard to read them (as you can see on the below sample image).
enter image description here
share|improve this question
closed as off topic by Loop Space, tohecz, lockstep, diabonas, Stefan Kottwitz Oct 4 '12 at 21:19
MathJaX doesn't use the same program as TeX so questions about MathJaX aren't really on topic here. You will probably have more luck at the MathJaX Help Forums – Loop Space Oct 4 '12 at 18:59
See my response here for details of why this happens in MathJax. – Davide Cervone Oct 5 '12 at 15:43
Ps, you can use \\[dimen] to add extra space between lines of an alignment. So \\[5pt] would add an extra 5 points of space between the lines at that breakpoint. – Davide Cervone Oct 10 '12 at 17:15
Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78366
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Future of TF2R and our rebrand plans...
Also selling unusuals if anyone intrested.
Message: And other stuff. No, this is NOT all to one (you can do simple math right?). Only requirement is to be polite when claiming. Oh, and the winner of the SHOVEL gets a copy of BIOSHOCK 1.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78368
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August 24, 2011
In the mood of…
And a printed blouse would be a perfect addition to my ever so “plain” wardrobe, all these candies are officially on my wishlist but some of them are slightly out of budget. I’ll use them as inspo instead and hope to come across alternatives on highstreet.
1. Isabel Marant, 2. Balenciaga, 3. Erdem, 4. Jonathan Saunders.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78427
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Did Iraq just win one for the Busher?
George W. Bush got just about everything wrong in Iraq, breaking that country into smithereens along the way. But did he get the biggest thing right? By Tish Durkin
Tish Durkin
Tish Durkin
Wouldn't it be weird if George W. Bush turned out to be right about Iraq?
Clearly, Bush and his merry band of neocons were wrong about plenty. They were wrong about weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong about Saddam Hussein's alleged, Kleenex-thin connection to 9/11. They were wrong about almost every practical decision they made and every word they said regarding the occupation.
But do you remember what it was that tossed up all those juggling balls of justification in the first place? It was a simple, if immodest, geopolitical calculation: If we could get rid of an increasingly bellicose Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in the heart of the Arab world, that would free the frozen, poison molecules of the authoritarian Middle East and force changes throughout the entire region. And unless you completely discount this past weekend's elections in Iraq, you have to admit: In that core calculation, Team Bush might have been better at math than we thought.
Conversely, when it comes to postwar prognostications, their critics might not have been so smart as they sounded. The critics said that Iraqis wouldn’t embrace democracy. On Sunday—and not for the first time since the invasion—millions of Iraqis defied plausible risk to life and limb in order to cast their votes. (Meanwhile, it bears noting, many of us democracy-defining Americans stay home on Election Day if it rains.)
The critics said that given their age-old ethnic enmities and disparate geographical claims to oil fields and revenues, Iraq’s Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds would inevitably split the country in three. That hasn't happened, at least not yet. The critics said that Iraqis, with their Arab-Muslim hearts and minds, would forever fuel the insurgency against the infidel invader—a scenario that did seem to play out for a time, and which, God forbid, could yet revive. But for a long time now, the mind-set that seems to be solidifying in Iraq is that normal, average Arab Muslims like being blown up by abnormal, fanatical Arab Muslims even less than they like being killed, harassed, or generally ruled by the forces of Western occupation.
Don't get me wrong: I am not trying to pretend that Iraq has turned from a bloodbath to a bed of roses. Nor am I suggesting that regional geopolitical success, even if it were assured, would render the war anything but a failure by many measures. The most solid result would not excuse a surfeit of poor or dishonest rationalizations. It wouldn’t put hundreds of billions' worth of war funding back in the U.S. Treasury to be spent, as many would prefer, on programs at home. It wouldn’t restore the life or health of those U.S. soldiers who have been killed or wounded.
Yet, the Middle East being the Middle East, a modest regional success would be no small achievement. Just for the sake of the exercise, let's entertain the notion that rather than poisoning the well, the screw-you diplomatic doctrine of the Bush administration instead cleared the way for the We-Are-the-World approach of Team Obama. Take, for example, the case of Syria, to which the U.S. has recently restored an ambassadorship. Clearly, the Obama administration would like Syria to forswear assistance to the insurgency in Iraq; to lay off Lebanon; to quit threatening Israel via Hezbollah; and to get behind international efforts to rein in Iran, its longtime yet still unlikely ally.
For the U.S. to accomplish any of that, Syria must see more advantage than disadvantage to playing ball with America. Before the war, like it or not, the Iraq with which Syria had to deal was ruled by an increasingly emboldened genocidal autocrat who had set himself up as a latter-day Salhadin, very much in opposition to the West and with teeth gleamingly bared against Israel, the Kurds, and America. After the war, like it or not (and Syria doesn't like it), the Iraq with which Syria has to deal is headed by a democratically elected, U.S.-backed coalition government the collapse of which would send chaos across the border, and the stabilizing of which means a new regional order. Syria would undoubtedly prefer for the game to take place in the dark with nobody in the bleachers—but post-Saddam, it has no choice but to play ball with America.
Yes, it's early. No, we don't know what's going to happen when the U.S. finally withdraws, although it's safe to guess it won't be pretty. Maybe it's too much to hope that Iraqi democracy will get out of all this alive. But maybe it will. Maybe Iraq will emerge as a corrupt, chaotic, compromised democracy, but a functional Arab democracy nonetheless, complete with voters, a free press, and political parties that fight, but not to the death. Before the war, that was a ridiculous pipe dream. As of Sunday, it's looking quite a bit like real life.
Admit it: Ever so faintly, it is beginning to look as if, about this at least, the English-mangling man in Crawford, Texas, might turn out to be right.
If only he hadn't gotten so much else about Iraq so very, very wrong.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78437
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Tickle 1.1
This project is an open- source implementation of a domain-specific language called Transaction Control Language (TCL). This is part of the Illicom TradeXpress™ Enterprise package, used with their Realtime Transaction Environment (RTE).
The compiler supplied with the vendor's development system generates K&R C code as an intermediate step, which is then compiled into an executable. The domain specific language has simple variables and simple functions, but the vendor's compiler emits few errors or warnings for common programming errors.
The Tickle project provides a compatible compiler which provides better error messages, more complete error reporting, more warnings, and emits ANSI C as its intermediate code, compilable by a wider range of modern C compilers.
The tickle project also provides a pretty printer, for improving the layout and readability of TCL (RTE) programs.
Note: The language support in Tickle is not yet complete. There is also no documentation for the language itself. These are being worked on. Contributions are welcome.
[ Download | Class Documentation | Aegis ]
[ Sourceforge: Project | Statistics ]
TradeXpress may be a registered trade make of Illicom in your juristiction.
Tickle is written and owned by Peter Miller <[email protected]> and is freely distributable under the terms and conditions of the GNU GPL.
There is more Software by Peter Miller at his home page.
SourceForge.net Logo This page is hosted by SourceForge.
This page has been accessed approximately times since 27-Jan-2006.
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maghanap ng salita, tulad ng cleveland steamer:
mispronunciation of the website "you tube" by people who use english as a second language ESL
Have you seen that video on your tube?
ayon kay jake2007 ika-09 ng Marso, 2007
Words related to your tube
esl internet tube website you your
An unofficial word used only by the owners of youtube to seperate themselves from the rest of the youtuve community.
Steve Chen: We come to Yourtube Headquarters.
ayon kay fonizzlemyshilzzle ika-05 ng Enero, 2011
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78453
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Mar 22, 2010
Why are duets almost always a bad idea?
I was just listening to an Emmylou Harris duet the other day and I thought to myself: why are duets always so disappointing? Is it because people are afraid of hurting the feelings of famous artists? Duets tend to only happen late in an artists career, when they're pooped and looking around for ways to make it interesting again. They come with a fair amount of baggage — they're Legends. Say you get Emmylou into the studio to perform a duet with you and she lays down a track. It's a little sloppy, she hits a duff note or two, but she comes out of the booth smiling. What do you do? Do you say 'Emmylou, I'm sorry but that didn't really work for me, can you do it again?' If course you don't. You don't correct a legend; maybe she does this on all her albums; you don't know. So you mutely accept her duff vocals and the record goes out and it's crap. (For her part, she thought the same about your vocals but said nothing, too.) The only exception that I can think of is Paul McCartney, whose team-ups with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson were both good pop records. My theory is that Paul missed John. He wasn't born a solo artist; he became one; the duets completed him.
1. This made me laugh. Thanks.
2. ummm...lady gaga and beyonce?
barbra striesand and donna sommer?
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SEER Training Modules
Ovarian & Fallopian Tube Cancers
The ovaries are a pair of organs in the female reproductive system. They are located in the pelvis, one on each side of the uterus. The fallopian tubes convey eggs from the ovaries to the uterus. During each monthly menstrual cycle, one ovary releases an egg, which travels through a fallopian tube to the uterus.
The ovaries secrete estrogen and progesterone, the female hormones that control the development of the breasts and other female body characteristics as well as regulate the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.
Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women and the second most common gynecologic cancer (second to breast cancer). The American Cancer Society estimates that about 25,580 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed in the United States during 2004. Ovarian cancer accounts for 4% of all cancers in women.
Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of all the female cancers, primarily because it produces few early warning signs and is, therefore, often detected late. About 70 percent of women have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis.
The ovaries contain three kinds of tissues:
• Tissues made up of germ cells that produce eggs (ova) that are formed on the inside of the ovary.
• Tissues made up of stromal cells, which produce most of female hormones.
• Tissues made up of epithelial cells that cover the ovary.
In general, ovarian tumors are named according to the kind of cells the tumor started from and whether the tumor is benign or cancerous. Most ovarian cancers arise in the covering of the ovary (epithelium). Stromal tumors start from connective tissue cells that hold the ovary together and produce the female hormones. Germ cell tumors start from the cells that produce the ova (eggs).
Ovarian malignancies tend to grow rapidly and rarely cause pain or other symptoms that might lead to early detection. The cancer usually spreads directly by shedding malignant cells into the abdominal cavity. Adjacent tissues and organs such as the liver, stomach, intestines, omentum (the fatty tissue attached to the intestines), and diaphragm are likely areas of invasion. Ovarian cancer can also spread through the blood or lymph glands to other parts of the body, such as the lungs and brain.
When the diaphragm is affected, normal drainage of fluid from the abdominal cavity may be impaired, resulting in ascites, the accumulation of fluid that distends the abdomen.
Fallopian Tube Cancer
Fallopian tube cancer starts within the fallopian tubes, a pair of ducts that transport eggs from ovary to uterus. Primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube is very rare, comprising only 1-2% of all gynecologic cancers. It is more common for cancer to spread to a fallopian tube from elsewhere in the body (usually the ovary or endometrium) than for a new cancer to develop in the fallopian tube.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78476
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Traveling Luck for Pahamunayalayagammedda, Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka flag
Where is Pahamunayalayagammedda?
What's around Pahamunayalayagammedda?
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Also known as Pahamunayalayegammedda
The timezone in Pahamunayalayagammedda is Asia/Colombo
Sunrise at 06:32 and Sunset at 18:57. It's light
Latitude. 6.5833°, Longitude. 80.4333°
Loading map of Pahamunayalayagammedda and it's surroudings ....
Geographic features & Photographs around Pahamunayalayagammedda, in Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka
populated place;
a large commercialized agricultural landholding with associated buildings and other facilities.
Airports close to Pahamunayalayagammedda
Colombo ratmalana(RML), Colombo, Sri lanka (117.2km)
Bandaranaike international(CMB), Colombo, Sri lanka (159km)
Airfields or small airports close to Pahamunayalayagammedda
Wirawila, Wirawila, Sri lanka (170.9km)
Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.
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Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Austrians bite back
I thought I'd post an Austrian reply to Mr Roche's blog "Why Austrian Economics is Flawed". Here goes:
1. Is Austrian economics a school or a political ideology masquerading as a science?
First, Mr. Roche starts off with a misrepresentation of what it means to be an "Austrian". He seems to confuse or conflate the school with some of its members. He neglects the fact that the Austrian school is made up of peoples with very different political views. Some Austrians like Hayek supported all sorts of government interventions in the market such as the minimum wage all the way to healthcare. Other Austrians like Mises thought that government should intervene less, but still has a role in society. There are even some Austrians that don't believe in any kind of government. But all of that is beside the point. Austrian economics is a value free science. It describes the economic effects of policy. Whether those effects are "good" or "bad" from a value perspective differ from Austrian to Austrian. For example, the school may describe the effects of a minimum wage was a cause of more unemployment in specific demographics than otherwise would be. This did not persuade Hayek from supporting it. After Mr Roche begins by smearing the Austrian school, he misrepresents another Austrian position:
There is always an excuse within Austrian Economics that implicitly assumes government cannot spend dollars any better than a household. This might be true in a general sense, but it is not always true. For that implies that households and businesses always make rational decisions.
I don't think this is an accurate representation of the Austrian position. Austrians recognize that government spending on scarce resources removes those resources from potential usage by the private market. Even in the best case, if those resources are idle there still will be an impact on prices. Cosmo Kramer illustrates this well here:
10 heads of lettuce on store shelves has an effect on the relative price of lettuce. 10 unemployed people has an effect on wage rates.
So government spending does have an effect on prices of assets and other resources. To determine the value of government spending, we need to compare it to the way the market allocates resources. The market relies on the price mechanism to allocate scarce resources according to the needs and wants of society. Prices that properly indicate the scarcity of resources relative to the wants of society emerge as a result of the existence of money, private property and voluntary exchange. The state operates outside of society. It has special privileges that the rest of society doesn't. For instance, it is the monopoly issuer of money, something that would be called "counterfeit" if you or I were to do it. It can also coerce property transfer to the state (taxes). Because the state operates outside society, its spending may or may not reflect the needs or wants of society while society's spending, by definition must. In short, the position is thus: because the state operates under different terms than society, state spending may or may not reflect the wants needs of society where individuals buying iPhones by definition does.
According to Mr Roche, the Austrians that predicted future housing trouble because of fed produced low interest rates in 2001 were utter failures in 2004 when housing prices were accelerating and the market was booming. This is essentially what Mr Roche does by saying today, the Austrians are wrong to predict inflation as a result of QE. Sure, if you measure inflation only by consumer prices, no, there has not been a huge increase in prices. But this is easily explained by even MMT-advocates. Consumers are so debt burdened that the acceleration necessary to produce inflation is absent. However, looking at the acceleration in stocks, bonds and other assets, it's clear there is price inflation in those areas. Michael Hudson reiterates this idea in the first 2 mins of this video. This observation plays into the Austrian money is non-neutral theory: inflation doesn't fall like snow on consumer prices. It falls in chunks in multifarious places around the economy. If you are measuring inflation only by the CPI, which doesn't include stocks, bonds, or real estate, you could say there is no inflation, but there clearly is price inflation in those areas. He then states:
To be technical, the fed doesn't set any rate. It only influences rates. To influence the Federal Funds Rate (FFR), the fed purchases or sells assets from primary dealers and credits/debits their reserve accounts. The federal funds rate has influence on lots of other interest rates like the WSJ Prime Rate. According to Bankrate:
So unless is guilty of "outdated gold-standard thinking", the FFR does have an effect on rates Banks make to people. Therefore, it does affect market decisions on whether or not to start long term projects now because rates are low or to wait. I'm not saying the interest rate is the only signal to investors, but it is an important one.
3. Inflation
He is accurate that Austrians distinguish between price inflation and monetary inflation. But this does not, as Roche claims, mean that Austrians ignore that the private market is where most money is created. Many Austrians are very critical of the private banking system as it exists today. He claims that:
Austrians, in their fervor to demonize the fiat money system, make several errors here. First, they assume the government controls the money supply (which they don’t). It’s actually controlled primarily by private banks in a market system that Austrians should love.
Apparently he never read any Rothbard when he criticized the current private banking system as "fraudulent". Rothbard takes great effort to historically document that even absent a central bank (ie, during the "free-banking" era of the 19th century), private money creation is dangerous and leads to misallocations of resources and can lead to economic recessions when the misallocations are corrected by the market. However, Roche goes into some "moneyness" nonsense and there I think he errors greatly. He seems to believe that money and other stores of value can be aggregated to form some meaning. There seems to be some obvious problems due to the heterogeneous nature of these assets. For example, sure, bonds can be considered savings, but to use a fruit analogy, the apple is frozen (a bond) and cannot be consumed immediately unlike a normal apple (money). So to aggregate both together and say "let's eat" is silly. Sure there are two apples, but at dinner time, someone isn't going to be able to eat until he thaws the frozen apple (converts it to cash). He uses this error to describe the "non-effects" of QE. The claim is also held by many MMT-advocates that QE isn't money creation because it is only removing savings (US bonds) from bank balance sheets and replacing them with equal value in cash as reserves. I'm no banker, but it seems like the nature of bank balance sheets does matter. Reserves and bonds do not have the same nature just like the apple and the frozen apple. Having more of one and less than the other has an effect on banking behavior.
This blog just scratches the surface on what's wrong with Roche's blog. I think Roche has valuable insights, but his analysis of Austrian economics is rot with errors.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
LinuxFest Northwest Presentation on Open Source car entertainment
Hope you enjoy it!
- Slides
Monday, June 29, 2009
Introducing: WifiProximity
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The mobilest of environments - the car
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Multi-Process Mobile Desktop Concept
A Multi-Threaded Mobile Desktop
Building a mobile desktop
class PluginInterface
virtual ~PluginInterface();
virtual void OnCommandRecieved(CommandClass command) = 0;
virtual void init(DesktopServer ServerInstance) = 0;
virtual void run() = 0;
int main(int argc, char** argv)
if(argc < 2)
printf("usage: core [pluginname]");
string pluginname = string(argv[1]);
PluginInterface *plugin = LoadPlugin(pluginname);
DesktopServer *Server = new Server();
void Speak()
string volumelevel = Server.Evaluate("AudioDevice:GetVolumeLevel");
Server.Send("AudioDevice:Fade '0'");
SpeakSomething("Turn Left in 100 Meters");
Server.Send("AudioDevice:Resume '0'");
void OnServerMessageReceived(string message)
string plugin_name = GetPluginName(message);
Plugin plugin = GetPlugin(plugin_name);
Concept Drawbacks
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
OpenICE - Computer Enhanced Cars
OpenICE categorizes IVI into 4 sections:
* Entertainment
* Information
* Connectivity
* Mobility
The Future:
The Future:
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Overclocking your CPU in Linux
Super PI
Happy overclocking!!
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main index
Topical Tropes
Other Categories
TV Tropes Org
YMMV: Royal Pains
• Awesome Music: The season 2 promo rap.
• Base Breaker: Evan. Some fans find him completely annoying, others think that he's the best part of the show.
• Though as of late, he's become a much better character since he started dating Paige, to the point where when Hank was a jerk to him, Evan gave him a speech that was pretty close to a reason you suck speech. Those who couldn't stand Evan before probably like him now. Rescued from the Scrappy Heap indeed.
• Die for Our Ship: The Foe Yay between Hank and Dr. Peck has ignited this.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Paige went from hiring Evan to be her fake boyfriend mid-second season to being his real wife, part of the team, and Promoted to Opening Titles.
• Foe Yay: Hank and Emily. It gets more interesting when they act on their attraction... in the second episode after her appearance. It doesn't look like they'll end the enemy stage just yet, either.
• Ho Yay: Boris and Hank (Could be Foe Yay depending on how the story is going), Evan and Boris (though more on Evan's part), Divya and Jill, Hank and Evan
• Nightmare Fuel:
• In 1x07, "Crazy Love", the patient of the week gets put in an MRI. Something tries to get out of her chest. Turns out to be an RFID chip, which is even more creepy.
• In the season one finale, Evan finds mold in an attic. Moving, black mold. It is made marginally less creepy when it turns out to be bats.
• That one time where Hank drilled a hole in an old guy's head.
• "You Give Love a Bad Name" begins with Hank opening the chest of a guy who has just been shot and instructing someone else to hold the ribs apart. This troper was very quick to look away.
• Purity Sue: Hank. Seriously, does he get paid extra for being a goody-two-shoes?
• The Scrappy:
• It didn't take long for Dr. Peck to be hated by the fandom. Just check this out for an idea of how fans think of her.
• Molly, the bratty teenage daughter of Hank's new favored patient in season five, was also pretty unpopular with fans. It didn't help that she seemingly dedicated her life to making Hank's job harder.
• Stop Helping Me!: Evan seems hellbent on getting HankMed more customers, over the insistence of Hank himself. When he buckles down to it, he is a good CFO.
• Tear Jerker:
• Evan watching helplessly as Hank tries to revive their father during his heart attack. Capped off when they finally get him to the emergency room and the surgeon - after asking what happened and if Hank is the primary physician to which Hank responds he's the son - can only reply with a shocked and sympathetic: "Jesus..."
• The revelation that Milos, Boris' seemingly diabolical cousin is in fact severely mentally ill, to the point where he believes that Boris is hoarding a cure for his illness. It's especially sad watching Boris try to reason with him.
• Values Dissonance: Divya has to hide her work from her parents. She creates an elaborate cover story and enlists Evan to support it. The American viewer is probably thinking "You are over 21, right?"
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78513
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"carver" logo blackletter lowercase
Spencer Cross's picture
I feel like I should know this, but I don't. Perhaps somebody else does?
carver_type.jpg41.42 KB
degregorio's picture
Cuando diseñe una etiqueta de cerveza te pediré tu fuente, luce muy bien.
Pero creoq ue puede ser aún más condensada, tiene demasiada contraforma interna.
Me gustaría ver más, creo que esos son los caracteres menos problemáticos.
Juan Pablo De Gregorio
Spencer Cross's picture
Thanks Erik. That is close. The more I look around, the more I think it might be something that somebody cut all of the pointy bits off of by hand.
Juan, if I'm translating you correctly I'll let you know if I figure it out. Unforunately, I don't have any other characters to show you. This is a logo and it's all I've seen of theirs.
[professional] http://tokyofarm.com
[personal] http://fivethousand.net
[communal] http://kernspiracy.com
[cultural] http://blogging.la
bowfinpw's picture
After looking at a lot of blackletter typefaces while hunting for this, I am coming to the feeling that this is hand-drawn. The letterforms seem inconsistent, and over-simplified. The 'a' seems particularly out of place to me, considering the other letters. I think a broad pen-tip leads you to letters like this, probably guided by looking at some typefaces, but this doesn't seem like an attempt to recreate any particular typeface.
I vote for hand-lettered. With no other letters to confirm this is a font, it will be hard to prove otherwise.
- Mike Yanega
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78525
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Media (Images, Audio, Video, Documents) - Adding Documents
WordPress allows you to easily upload and link to documents from your website. To do so, you’ll follow steps similar to Adding Images, except the end result will be a plain text link to the document of your choice instead of an image.
Place your cursor in the contents area approximately where you would like to put your document link and click on one of the icons after Upload/Insert above your toolbar to begin:
(Note: It does not matter which button you choose–Image, Video, Audio, Other–as all media goes to the Media Library regardless of type.)
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78528
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Talk:Technical problems
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Revision as of 05:15, August 9, 2012 by PuppyOnTheRadio (talk | contribs)
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I don't know why there are so many Horizontal Rules after each section, and while I followed that pattern when adding a section, I was seriously considering removal of all those horizontal lines. Sadly, I am being monitored by the UnFBI, so all my edits are reverted in under 2 minutes (or its free) so there's no point in me doing it. Ajhuncyc (talk) 04:50, August 9, 2012 (UTC)
It's obviously trying to ape the format of some other document. And doing it poorly. Feel free to delete them. Puppy's talk page05:15 09 Aug
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/78529
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Zeichen 101 Needs Recooking (Get featured)
Since there were so many noobs intruding into this article, this article is getting colder. You can help it get hotter by recooking this article. Please cook it if you like this article by going to Uncyclopedia:VFH.
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