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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40481 | Same sex marriage in Skyrim
Fancy that.
You can marry anyone in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Bethesda has confirmed.
"The subject seems like hush hush," someone asked Bethesda marketing guru Pete Hines on Twitter.
"Not hush hush," he replied, "just not making a huge deal out of it. You can marry anyone."
Then, "Sorry, should clarify. Not any NPC, just mean any male or female. Doesn't matter what you're playing."
In Skyrim, out in November, you can have romantic relationships with NPCs. You make friends with people by doing things for them. Friends will treat you differently and will go into dungeons with you. If you own a house, your spouse will move in with you.
There's much more on the game in our Skyrim preview.
Comments (79)
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40520 | General Question
Jeruba's avatar
Using your U.S.-purchased laptop in Europe: what do you have to know?
Asked by Jeruba (41851 points ) July 8th, 2009
If you live in the U.S. and are taking your Dell laptop, Asus netbook, or any other portable computer along on a trip to Europe, what do you need to know?
— Can you plug in your power supply as long as you use an adapter for European current? or will it blow up your laptop and/or your power supply?
— How about recharging your battery?
Once you’ve over come those hurdles,
— As long as you have a wireless Internet connection, can you just access your usual ISP without going through any additional hoops?
— If you want to use a dialup connection, is it going to work?
— Anything else to know? In particular, anything to be prepared for when it comes to customs?
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0
5 Answers
Jack79's avatar
The most important thing to remember is the current. If you just use a plug adaptor it will in fact blow up your laptop. You need to use one that transforms 220V into 110V, make sure it’s meant for this particular job (I think also the Hz are different, but not sure if that matters, I’m sure someone else knows details better).
The battery will be recharged through your own cable, once you have set up the transformer (or whatever that machine is called) you’ll be getting 110V just like in the US, and can basically plug in any device you’d use at home.
No, you cannot access your ISP. I don’t think you could access your ISP from a different city. You’ll need to access one of the local ISPs, either get a new connection (you can buy limited-time cards in some countries) or log onto a local WiFi network, which can sometimes be for free. Most netcafes in big cities allow you to log onto theirs for a small fee. Restaurants and cafeterias may often offer WiFi for free if you sit and get something at their table. It basically depends on where you are.
Dialup will work (assuming you have a phone line) but you have to set it up on your computer. Just like in the good-old days.
You’ll have to open your laptop at every control point, but security is so strict everywhere now that they’ll strip search you anyway, and the laptop is the least of your problems. I was at the airport just today actually and had a problem getting my laptop fan through, they checked it quite thorougly to make sure it was just a fan and not a bomb. Normally you shouldn’t be asked to pay taxes. Worst case scenario (it happened a lot in the old days) you’ll have to declare it at customs, it gets written on your passport, and then they have to check you left the country with it and didn’t sell it. But nowadays almost everyone has a laptop, so they’re not that bothered, it’s considered a personal item, rather than an imported piece of high-tech merchandise (unless you go to Belarus or Albania).
cwilbur's avatar
I know that Apple offers a set of power adapters—its power bricks are designed to convert either 110V or 220V, and you just need the right bits to plug the adapter into the wall. I’d expect that Dell or Asus or whatever other company would offer something similar.
whitenoise's avatar
I have been travelling the world for my job for about half of my time during the last five years and i know of no laptop brand that needs a voltage converter. You should check the voltage requirements for your laptop’s power supply to rate 100–240V, but if you have one exclusively for the US (ie restricted to 110 volts), I would be surprised. Don’t worry about the cycles. (Europe is on 50hz.)
In general you will find most hotels in Europe will offer you wifi access or ethernet, but it is very common to charge you an additional fee for it. In general, you will be able to use VPN over them.
Throughout Europe you can use a single plug adapter, except for the UK. They have a particular UK plug.
You will in general find no dial-up service and using dial-up services from your hotel room will be very expensive. If you are set on using dial-up, check with your ISP before you leave for a dial-in number and protocol in the country (countries) you travel to, although I do not think that is a viable route.
In many European countries there are public wifi-hotspots. For those you will need to purchase credits. For instance through T-mobile. Many of these credits are to be used in a specific country and cannot be carried cross-border.
A last tip: when you do bring your laptop, don’t leave it in the train.
Lightlyseared's avatar
In the UK McDonalds provide free wifi and (surprisingly) decent coffee.
The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar
Most modern electronics are dual voltage capable so all you would need is a adapter for the region you’re traveling to. In fact using a voltage converter would be really bad for an item that has dual voltage support. Check the power supply for your device and it will tell you if it is, or is not.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40555 | Should I let my child fly alone?
Updated: 4/04/2012 1:04 pm
Most airlines welcome children five years of age and older as passengers without an adult traveling companion. This is usually allowed even on international flights. These passengers, up to age twelve, are called unaccompanied minors. While this may be a new experience for your family, airline employees are accustomed to it. Each airline's policy will differ, but in general, children traveling by themselves are charged a full fare. Some major airlines also charge an additional fee for the extra handling and supervision unaccompanied children require. When you put your child on the plane, you'll give the child and supervising flight attendant the name, phone numbers, and address of the adult picking your child up. Of course, you'll have already provided this information during ticket reservation. Depending on individual policy, you may be allowed to get your child settled on the plane, but since the aircraft is a secured area, you'll probably be asked to say good-bye in the terminal. A flight attendant or other personnel will show your child where the bathrooms are, and demonstrate safety techniques. If your child is sick, keep in mind that airline employees usually aren't allowed to dispense medication, so you may want to consult a physician before your child boards the plane.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40558 |
Keyes' personal life often overshadowed her acting career. Besides her often turbulent marriages to Shaw and directors Huston and Charles Vidor, she lived with the flamboyant producer Mike Todd for three years during his preparation and filming of "Around the World in 80 Days." She played a cameo role in the movie and helped on publicity.
Todd sent her to the premiere in Caracas, then called her abruptly from Paris with this message: "Listen, I have to tell you. I've fallen in love with Elizabeth (Taylor)."
"Oh well, nothing lasts forever," she philosophized in 1977. "The good part was that I invested all my money in `Around the World in 80 Days,' and that set me up for life."
Keyes gave a frank account of her romances and marriages in her 1977 autobiography, "Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister." Her role in the 1939 classic led to a contract at Columbia Pictures and stardom.
Among her notable roles: as Robert Montgomery's lover in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941), the Ruby Keeler role as Al Jolson's wife in "The Jolson Story" (1946), and as Dick Powell's wife in "Mrs. Mike" (1949).
She also starred in B pictures that were later praised by movie critics as prime examples of film noir: "Johnny O'Clock" (1947), "The Killer That Stalked New York" (1950), "The Prowler" (1951), "99 River Street" (1953) and "The Big Combo" (1955).
Vidor, a handsome Hungarian who directed her first Columbia film, "The Lady in Question," became romantically involved with Keyes, though both were married at the time. When her husband committed suicide and Vidor's wife, actress Karen Morley, divorced him, Vidor and Keyes married. The marriage ended two years later when she discovered he was unfaithful to her as well.
Their marriage in 1946 led to an adventurous life. Just one of the examples she recalled in 1971 involved Huston returning home from the 1949 film "We Were Strangers," with a gift from actress Jennifer Jones, a pet chimpanzee.
David Niven wrote in his memoir "Bring on the Empty Horses" that Keyes became exasperated at the non-housebroken animal and issued an ultimatum: "One of us has to go. It's the monkey or me."
According to Niven, Huston replied, "Honey, it's you." Keyes reported in her own memoir that it was the chimp that got the boot.
The Huston marriage did end in 1950, however, and Keyes sought analysis to recover from the failure. Her conclusion: "I was always looking for the same man — a strong father figure."
After a few minor roles at Paramount, she appeared in "Gone With the Wind" and then moved to Columbia, where her career blossomed.
After her film career and marriages ended, she turned author, producing an autobiographical novel, "I Am a Billboard," two memoirs, "Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister" and "I'll Think About It Tomorrow," film scripts and articles.
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A vision of the future. Where to begin?
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#1 Quantonium Members - Reputation: 101
Posted 23 March 2012 - 02:26 AM
Good day!
I've played video games my entire life, and view it as my biggest hobby. For many years now I've thought about making games, and even though I'm not going for a career in video game industry, I'd really like to create the ideas I have in my head.
I have absolutely no programming experience, but a little artistic exp. I love to draw, and try to do this a little bit evey day to improve my skills to the point of making the necessary artwork needed for a game.
My vision is that I am able to create simple games on my own. Just me. I know this requires quite a bit of skills in various aspects of game design though.. I have my whole life ahead of me, and I'm willing to spend many years on the project.
I'd like to make simple games (probably only 2d, although 3d would be a fun step to take after a while). Platformers, adventure games, 2d rpgs, who knows. Obviously I'd start with making ultra-basic programs, move on to something like tetris when I'm ready to actually delve into game development itself. I do not fear baby steps. I like the idea of using an extensive, professional programming language, but obviously there are easier choices. I'm not sure if I like the thought of being limited in any way though..
What would be the best course of action? What programming language should I go for? What other things will I have to learn to make my idea come true?
Thanks for any answers.
#2 Ashaman73 Crossbones+ - Reputation: 5421
Posted 23 March 2012 - 05:15 AM
Start small.
There's really no best practise. I would sugguest, that you start with a simple scripting language, too avoid IDE, developer environments, etc. and make a simple, text base game first. Just to get it running. Once you get the hang about coding, designing etc. you can start to get into more advanced topics like hi-level OO languages like C++,C# or java, visual rendering etc.
You don't need to fear to loose much knowledge to learn language A first and convert to language B later. Or to learn OpenGL instead of DirectX.
Just dive into a simple scripting language like lua and start you first "hello world" tutorial Posted Image
#3 Rld_ Members - Reputation: 1042
Posted 23 March 2012 - 05:28 AM
Every language has its own benefits and downsides and some of these are also rather personal things.
If I would give you some personal advice (this might or might not be the best way!) I would do the either of the following 3:
I think it is safe to say that this is the most used language among professionals, it provides a lot of freedom in what you want to do, but it also demands that you take care of everything so to say. It's easy (easier compared to other languages) to make memory leaks for example. Depending on how far you want to be in control yourself, you also need to learn a 3D API. But in your case I think it would be a lot easier to just use SDL or SFML if you don't want to be bothered with 3D apis.
C# + XNA
I like this because it gives me enough freedom to do the things I want to do with just a few tutorials up my sleeve. I think it's pretty easy to get in to and get something working on the screen. Although I do have to say that I only used the 2D bit of XNA, so I can't really say anything about that. I guess it's comparable to a simple 3D engine, but I really don't know.
I love this for quick 3D games. It's very easy to use, has 3 different scripting languages you can choose to use: Java(script?), Boo (own language I thought) and C#. It has plenty of resources and tutorials to follow so you can dive into it pretty quickly.
Like I said. These are the things I would go for if I had to start anew with building something up and I want to it to be a bit more professionally represented. There are other ways obviously and these are what I personally like. I'm sure others can guide you in other directions that fit your need.
#4 Manabreak Members - Reputation: 141
Posted 23 March 2012 - 05:32 AM
Learning the basic programming skills is the first step, and the language you choose doesn't matter. C# is a really simple yet efficient language, and it shares similarities with all the major languages like Java and C/C++. I still wouldn't recommend any single language over another one.
After you can make small programs without tutorials - in other words, you know how to solve problems by yourself - you can start designing the first steps into the game development world. Start small - make a text game first. Later, try adding an inventory for your player that keeps track of things he has picked up. Be creative and try to find problems you don't yet know how to solve. For example, if you like the idea of procedural content, try to make a random dungeon generator. You'll learn about the problem domain as you crawl through the solutions. This approach helps you out with the graphical games as well - you will come up with problems like "how do I draw stuff on the screen? How do I make the stuff on the screen move? How do I make the stuff on the screen move while making sure they won't go through each other?" That's when the general problem solving skills are needed. :)
Just for a heads-up, do not use Unity3D for your learning, it'll teach you bad habits about coherence and encapsulation that you don't want to learn. :)
#5 Strix_Overflow Prime Members - Reputation: 736
Posted 23 March 2012 - 06:55 AM
Like others have mentioned start with basic programming, learn enough about the language and framework / language libraries, recommended languages are Java, C# and Python but I personally will recommend C#, for many reasons, ranging from all the features you can freely use in .net to all the language features (both present and future, and those future features make me drool). One thing that sadly always never gets mentioned with C# is the fact that you can flawlessly make decent web sites with ASP.NET MVC and if you are planning on making a game you most likely will need a website for it.
If you do decide to pick C#, have a look at an engine or XNA once you are comfortable with programming in general (not just the syntax), at this point your maths should be fairly decent up to pre-calculus standards. If you want to dig deeper and learn the ins and outs of graphic programming, have a look at SlimDX / SharpDX / OpenTK which are wrappers for DirectX / OpenGL, these have a very steep learning curve and depending on what your aim is, it may not be a good idea to go lower, from a learning point of view these are excellent choices but if you want to make a game and forget about whats happening behind the scenes stick with an engine or XNA.
#6 Quantonium Members - Reputation: 101
Posted 23 March 2012 - 08:18 AM
Thank you all for good advice. I've read up a little on the differences of the most popular languages, and it seems to me that the biggest difference between c# and c++ is that c# is "managed". As I don't have any knowledge on programming yet, I don't really understand what that means, but I figure it means that it's a bit easier to do use, but may be restricting in very complex programs where you would want even more control? I guess c# is a good thing for a one-man-team perhaps..
#7 L. Spiro Crossbones+ - Reputation: 8870
Posted 23 March 2012 - 08:42 AM
It sounds as though you want to be a one-man-(or woman)-wrecking-machine.
There are a few cases of those in history, and I congratulate you on realizing that in order to get your games made, you yourself need to learn how to program.
I know how you feel.
From an early age I started as an artist, having drawn this when I was 12. Everyone expected me to work for Disney, but game design was my passion.
But then I realized my games were being designed, but not made. I guess I need to be a programmer?
Programming turned out to be even more fun than game design, because I knew that no matter what the situation, I would always be able to make my own games without anyone else’s help.
Yes you should steer towards programming if you want your ideas to come to fruition. The only designers who ever get their own ideas made into real games professionally are those who have already spent the last decade proving their design skills.
It is fairly easy to get a job as a programmer as well, while not so easy to get a job as a designer.
On considerations towards language, well, I suppose you have to start somewhere. I never learned C# until I had already learned C++. But I started with TI-81 Calculator DOS, then mIRC script. Then C++.
Since my background has nothing to do with C++, yet learning C++ was fairly easy before learning C#, I would wonder what any value there is in learning C# before C++.
I have heard that learning C# or Java and then moving to C++ is quite a horrible experience. The first languages I learned had no memory allocation system. I learned memory allocation via C++, and I feel stronger for it today. I can imagine the headache I would have had going into C++ from C# or Java.
So many new’s and so few delete’s. What a nightmare.
So here is my viewpoint.
Many people will say that learning C++ is easier via going through C# etc.
However we all know that humans learn more easily the younger they are. It may be a pain in the ass but in the end you will have learned more easily than if you had started 4 years later.
I had no concept of memory allocation when I began C++ and frankly it goes with the territory. I see no reason not to at least fiddle with C++, even if you decide to make some other language your language of choice temporarily.
I decided to check out C++ for a while at the very beginning only to hide back into my shell of mIRC Script. It was quite helpful for giving me an idea of concepts I would need to know for hitting C++ head-on later, and tackling it a while later was much easier, because:
#1: I already had experience with the language so I wasn’t just starting from scratch.
#2: Now my experience starting to make things I saw in C++ make sense.
As for the rest of your questions, they will answer themselves as you learn.
What else do you need to know to make your own games?
Why don’t we all sit back and see what the future holds for gaming, yeah?
Start doing all kinds of things to explore the world of gaming and you won’t be left behind. Any answer we give you today won’t be valid once you are ready to actually use our advice, so learn how to answer these questions for yourself as the gaming world progresses and you will be able to keep up with the technology of today, once that day arrives.
L. Spiro
L. Spiro Engine: http://lspiroengine.com
#8 mdwh Members - Reputation: 718
Posted 23 March 2012 - 08:50 AM
My personal route to C++ was C, then Java, then C++. I'd tried learning C++ from the start, but the object oriented concepts I found confusing until I learned Java, where it made sense really easily. Perhaps the issue with memory managing wasn't a problem for me, because I'd already started with C where I knew I had to deal with those things...
(And whilst I like C++, there's probably a fair argument to say start with C# or Java, and don't bother going onto C++ at all;))
#9 DekuTree64 Members - Reputation: 899
Posted 23 March 2012 - 11:47 AM
Hey, you sound a lot like me 15-20 years ago Posted Image Congrats on finding this site. I know my journey would have been a lot easier if I'd found it sooner.
My progression was:
SNES shows up at Christmas '91. Instant obsession.
Draw board games on paper.
Got a computer in '98.
Found RPG Maker 95 in I think 1999 and got to work making a game in it. Never fully finished, but it was pretty long and good.
Took a couple community college classes on C++... never taught me what I really wanted to know, but at least learned the basics of variables, loops, arrays, pointers, functions, etc.
Discovered VERGE RPG maker and wrote a battle system in its C-like scripting language.
Discovered DirectX examples on MSDN or something, which FINALLY taught me the critical knowledge that I'd been seeking for years... how to get an array of pixels onto the screen. My programming skills grew leaps and bounds over the next weeks/months.
Discovered the GBA homebrew scene in 2002, which drew me in due to the similarity between GBA and SNES, with SNES being my first and still favorite game system.
A couple years into my GBA experience (2004 at this point), I got offered a job by a game studio up in Seattle. Worked on DS games there for 5 years, then moved back home in Kansas CIty.
...and now I build acoustic guitars. How's that for a non-sequitur? Posted Image But it's true. I think my "programming brain" is just about recovered from that very stressful last year in Seattle, so I've been poking around at game dev again. It's good to be back Posted Image
Anyway, I'll vote C++ for a first programming language. What I don't like about higher level languages like C# and lua, is that you always seem to be dependent on a library to do all the bits and bolts work of getting stuff on the screen. And for me, that always results in the discovery of something the library doesn't do, and then I have to change my game design... cue anger.
I love how with C++, you can get very close to direct interaction with the hardware (or in the case of GBA, actual direct interaction), and build everything from the bottom to the top in a single project. I suppose it could be argued that it's better to build your low level library in C++, high level game code in C#, and scripting in a custom, game-specific language... but I prefer it all in one place. In fact, I prefer to use C rather than C++. But C++ definitely results in more flexible/reusable code when used properly, and learning C++ will teach you a lot of useful concepts that can be implemented in C, but aren't necessarily obvious until you've used a language that supports them naturally.
Good luck!
#10 vleugel Members - Reputation: 240
Posted 24 March 2012 - 01:27 AM
I think programming isn't as hard as people say it is, I started with c++ without any prior programming knowledge and picked it up quite easily from some online tutorials. I was 13 years old back than.
People say c++ is too hard in the beginning, but I disagree. Sure you'll walk into many memory leak bugs and what not, but it gives you a very good understanding of how it works. Sure, c++ is less productive than other languages, but you can always switch to another one later. Changing from C# to C++ is much harder in my opinion. As soon as you walk into C++-related problems you'll say to yourself "screw this shit" and never take a look at it again.
#11 Quantonium Members - Reputation: 101
Posted 25 March 2012 - 01:26 AM
Thank you all for the very inspiring words! I love it when people give constructive, useful, and encouraging tips, rather than the depressing words you get from a lot of other forums..
In any case, I've been thinking over the past couple of days about the different languages, and now I'm even more convinced that I'll start out with C++. It seems like most people think it's a safe bet. And, as I stated in my OP, I rather like the idea of not missing out on anything. I like knowing that I'm in total control over what's going on, and that nothing really "does it for me".
Of course, there will be many challenges along the road, but I'm looking forward to it. At the moment I'm in Thailand and enjoying tons of fruit and chilling out, but when summer starts back home in Norway, I'll be getting a good book on c++(any suggestions?), and start tinkering with code. Something I never thought I'd do :)
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40571 | Wow there are some great games coming out for the Wiiu in 2013
#11TheBonfiniPosted 1/4/2013 2:56:28 AM
Chocobo115 posted...
TheBonfini posted...
That's what sucks though, most multiplats won't be released. Stuck on inferior hardware until next gen.
Inferior? More like equal-level at least.
ok, at least. At most it is better hardware though, isn't it? I dunno for sure but the vids of some of the games look like PC graphics to me.
Sapphic ladies - |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40573 |
How much of a roflstomp would it be if Red fought Ash?
#1CrystalKing5426Posted 1/10/2013 11:43:48 AM
Other M is the One More Day of Metroid
#2bretonftwPosted 1/10/2013 11:44:52 AM(edited)
They're about the same size, but Red looks slightly bulkier so I'd say he could take Ash's punches.
#3Fenrir_HowlsPosted 1/10/2013 11:45:20 AM
Depends, is Ash allowed access to his entire roster?
The Official Fenrir of the Shin Megami Tensei IV board.
The Official Atsuro Kihara of the Shin Megami Tensei IV board.
#4NewbiusPosted 1/10/2013 11:45:27 AM
Red would kick his *** with no Pokemon.
#5GATTJTPosted 1/10/2013 11:45:41 AM
Red would throw the fight, he wouldn't have the heart to defeat his mentally challenged younger brother.
#6poikesPosted 1/10/2013 11:46:37 AM
Nope. Because Ash's stupid Pikachu would somehow one-shot every pokemon on Red's team. I hope someone throws a thunderstone at that thing.
Like somehow he finds out Doc is Peter and that Peter is dead and he's all like "Aww hell nah. Nobody kills the webhead but me"- homiesunite
#7scrappybristolPosted 1/10/2013 11:47:03 AM
Red is 16
Ash is 10
Kinda one sided.
Ring Ring
#8LexifoxPosted 1/10/2013 11:47:23 AM
They would tie.
#9SlimeStackPosted 1/10/2013 11:48:25 AM(edited)
Red has a sucky Pikachu, Ash has an OP Pikachu.
Edit: I guess it depends on which Red. Manga Red I guess has a pretty strong Pikachu, but game Red's Pikachu is lacklustre.
#10TruePowerSeekerPosted 1/10/2013 11:48:28 AM
Who do you think
granted Ryouga beats them both |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40576 | GameFAQs Answers
Welcome to GameFAQs Answers for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Below are a list of questions for this game, and if you see one you'd like to answer or read, just click it and jump right in.
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If you haven't realized yet, all the major Zelda titles had direct sequels. Zelda II, Majora's Mask, Phantom Hourglass. Hell, Four swords technically had a Trilogy. So don't you think maybe Twilight Princess might get a direct sequel eventually. And if you say everything was tied up at the...
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Yoshi's New Island pre-order bonus revealed
Posted by: Matt Liebl
In reaffirming Yoshi's New Island March 14th worldwide release date, Nintendo also shed light on the game's pre-order bonus. Fans who pre-order a copy of the game prior to its launch can receive a Yoshi Egg Game Case -- "the perfect carrier with which to store copies of your favourite Nintendo 3DS games or another cherished small item." Sound intriguing?
In all likelihood, if you're pre-ordering Yoshi's New Island it's probably because you're excited to explore Egg Island and not because of the carrying case. Still, it's a nice little perk I suppose.
Yoshi's New Island is a sequel to the Super Nintendo title Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and is set in a new location, Egg Island. In this sequel, Baby Luigi has been kidnapped once again. It's now up to Yoshi and Baby Mario to set off on an adventure to rescue him. Look out for Yoshi's New Island on 3DS come March 14, 2014.
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Emperor Ing
The Emperor Ing is the ruler of the Ing Horde, and also the guardian of Dark Aether's Leviathan. It is surmised that the Emperor Ing was a Phaz-Ing from Phaaze that was corrupted and mutated by the Leviathan core, allowing it to rip both itself and the Leviathan into an alternate dimension in order to protect the Leviathan from the Luminoth. The Emperor Ing appears in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes as a major boss near the very end of the game, guarding the Ing's final source of dark energy.
The Emperor's first form resembles that of a giant Inglet, and will use its tentacles to try to hit Samus into the raw Phazon that surrounds the arena, as well as phasing its tentacles through dark portals in order to stab at Samus directly. Firing at the red core on the ends of the tentacles will cause them to retract, and once all are retracted the Emperor will open up revealing its core. The core will fire a strong laser at Samus to try to stop her from damaging it directly, as well as erecting a shield which will spin around the core. Samus must fire between the gaps in the shield to damage the core, the Annihilator Beam being the most effective but also draining alot of ammo from Samus' reserves. Super Missiles are also very effective. If Samus does not deplete the cores health fast enough, the Emperor will close up and will have to repeat the process of retracting the tentacles again.
Emperor Ing's final form
Once Samus defeats the core, the Emperor will revert into a chrysalis state, requiring Samus to morph into Spider Ball mode and climb onto the Emperor. The Emperors chrysalis is dotted with yellow holes which tentacles will sprout from to attack Samus. While a yellow hole is bubbling with dark energy, Samus can drop bombs on the hole to damage the tentacle and the Emperor. This phase must be completed quickly as the Emperor generates poison gas that slowly rises and will damage Samus while she is inside the cloud. Inglets also appear that can be destroyed for pickups
Once this form is defeated, the Emperor will hatch, turning into a giant creature resembling a Warrior Ing. Its weak point, its glowing core eye, will change colors during the battle, signifying a change in weakness and attacks. In its orange form, the eye will not attack directly and is susceptible to damage from the Power Beam (and Super Missiles) and the Annihilator Beam. In its purple form, the Emperor will fire a beam of dark energy that will freeze Samus, and can only be hurt by the Light Beam or Annihilator Beam. In its white form, it can only be harmed by the Dark or Annihilator Beams and produces portals of light that fire intense beams of light energy. It can also spawn Nightbarbs, a swarm creature that can be destroyed for health and pickups. After its health is depleted the Emperor Ing will fall, allowing Samus access to the final energy controller.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40615 | Quote Originally Posted by SurrealOne View Post
I do find myself in Bedford, MA from time to time for business, you know. (In fact, I'll be there in the middle of October...) Fall River shows on Google Maps as only being 65 miles away. It's a good thing I don't know where, in Fall River, you live!
Oh boy, I got nervous for a minute... I forgot there was a Bedford, MA. Because New Bedford MA is like 10-15 away... :-P
- - - Updated - - -
And sometimes it takes 2 hours to get from Fall River to Bedford because of traffic. |
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The Seer & The Condemned by Phoenix_Flames
Chapter 6 : Always Him
Rating: MatureChapter Reviews: 4
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And here's chapter 6! Thank you to all my faithful readers and reviewers, especially those who returned after my extremely long wait between chapters 4 and 5. You guys are awesome. In particular, a huge thanks to adluvshp, talltwin18, and rez. You are wonderful and absolutely inspire me with my writing. And as requested by a few of you, here's a longer chapter! :)
I am also pleased to say that chapter 7 is more than 80% complete and will be hitting the queue shortly after this one has been validated!
With that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
James apparated to his parents' home after his appointment with Clancy O'Dell. With his day so relaxed and no more scheduled appointments for the day, he had decided to take the rest of the afternoon off: something he so rarely did. He let himself into the house he had grown up in and was met with the sound of familiar voices. He followed their voices and into the kitchen where he saw his parents and brother.
Albus sat at the table, his head bowed in silence. James could tell he was only sitting at the table because his parents were making him. When Albus had the choice to do as he pleased, he liked to steal away to his bedroom and shut himself off from the rest of the world. Albus kept to himself these days, wallowing in his solitude and hating himself for something he would never forgive himself for.
James and the rest of his family desperately wished Albus would move past that day at Azkaban and the events leading up to it. He still blamed himself for Alaric Rousseau's death, and after months after the incident at Azkaban had passed and he was still attempting to recover, Harry and Ginny had held a conversation with him, asking him if he would ever move on. Or at least try to. When he said he would always consider himself to be the murderer of a fourteen-year-old boy, Harry and Ginny had sought help for Albus, and ever since then, he had been going to see a psychiatrist every other week.
Today had been his most recent appointment, but seeing Albus sulking once again, James could only assume one thing. They had made no progress yet again. But after three years of no progress, James could hardly be surprised anymore.
James momentarily frowned at the sight of his brother. He wondered if he would ever see his brother truly be himself again, if he would ever smile or laugh like he used to. There would be the good days every now and then, when the old him would peak into his daily life, when his smile would return - full and wide - when he would laugh in an unguarded fashion, but just as quickly as it would come, it would fade and his somber expression would return once more. It made James pity his brother. He knew Albus didn't want to live a life full of self-loathing, but for some reason that James just couldn't begin to comprehend, Albus just couldn't forgive himself. Due to Al's incapability to move on, he hadn't gone anywhere with his life since he had graduated from Hogwarts. He had finished out with a strong seventh year, and he had received remarkable grades on his N.E.W.T.s. Albus had always been a brilliant student, but with how he reacted to everything, James believed his schoolwork to be a good way for Albus to channel his thoughts. He had been something to take his mind off of everything that had happened, and since he had left Hogwarts, he had done just about nothing with his life. He was still living at home with Harry and Ginny and he had yet to find a job; it also appeared that Harry and Ginny weren't trying to push him either. Not until Albus made progress with his psychiatrist at least.
James forced his frown off of his face and instead replaced it with a smile. He walked to the table and embraced his brother from behind. James remembered the days when Albus had refused to give or receive any physical affection. Then he and Al had had their breakthrough. Emotionally vulnerable. The words had followed James around ever since that night three years ago in the hospital wing of Hogwarts.
Albus gave a weak smile and patted his brother's arm kindly, accepting the hug from his brother.
"Hey there, Al," James greeted him. For good measure - and extra reassurance, as Al so often received these days - James placed a kiss atop his head.
"Hi, Jamie," Albus greeted in reply.
"How was your appointment?" asked James as his arms retracted from around his brother.
"Fine," he answered but left it at that.
Knowing that the results of Al's appointments were mostly held in confidentiality unless Albus wished to share them, James didn't ask any more. Instead he turned to his parents, his mother busying herself with cooking lunch while his father leaned against the counter and pretended as if he was helping.
They greeted him with smiles and warm exchanges. "Dad," James began to question after they had shared their hellos, "you're not at work?"
"No, I'm not," grinned Harry. "We've had new leads as to the whereabouts of the next few Death Eaters. Our field Aurors are out there right now looking for them. Headquarters is empty, so I came home. I'm on call, though. I could ask you the same thing, though! This workaholic isn't at work on a Friday for once?"
Harry asked his last question with a sarcastic chuckle.
"Nope," said James happily. "I just got done with an out-of-office appointment, and work was slow. I decided to leave early for once."
"Good," commented Ginny from the kitchen. "You overwork yourself. It's good for you to take a break every now and then. Would you like something to eat, sweetie?"
"No thanks, Mum," he replied. "I had a scone during my appointment, and I'm having a big dinner tonight. Norah's coming over for dinner."
That seemed to grab the attention of everyone in the room. The three other Potters within the kitchen seemed to briefly go still and silent until they realized they had externally reacted, and soon all three of them tried to act as if this wasn't big news to all of them. James even noticed Albus perk up slightly and listen more intensely. His father, though, was the first to actually say something.
"So is it safe to say the two of you are finally dating again?" asked Harry.
"Not quite," answered James, sliding into a chair next to Albus. He began to absently rub his wrist. "I mean, maybe. We're talking about it tonight. We still have a lot of ground to cover, but we're both willing to work at it."
"That's great news, baby," said Ginny enthusiastically. "I'm ready to have my second daughter back."
James rolled his eyes at his mother. He loved how much his parents loved Norah and considered her a daughter of their own, but he couldn't deny that, during their break-up, his mother's incessant bickering over James to forgive Norah for her wrongdoings had been annoying.
"Speaking of," interjected James, looking about the kitchen, "where's your first?"
"Out shopping with Lucy. She has a date tonight," Ginny said absently.
Harry grit his teeth, his arms folding across his chest, and he breathed out quietly. "It's not a date..."
"It is too, Harry," snorted Ginny.
Harry rubbed his forehead in annoyance, and James couldn't help but grin. Harry had always been the protective-not-wanting-to-let-go kind of father, but now that Lily was growing up - and very quickly at that - that side of Harry seemed to push itself to the surface more and more these days, unwilling to let go. James also knew that Lily had dated before; she had dated at Hogwarts, where she had just graduated from two months ago, but perhaps it was the idea of Lily going on real dates outside of Hogwarts that made Harry worry.
"She's dated before, though," said James in a questioning tone.
"Well, sure," answered Ginny, "but I think this time 'round it's more who she's going on a date with that's bothering your father."
"It is not!" retorted Harry quickly.
"Really? Who is it?" asked James curiously.
"Scorpius Malfoy," his mother said.
James made a noise of surprise. After the events at Azkaban, Albus had remained friends with Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius had claimed to not know Parker's true nature and he declared that every act of friendship during that awful year had been genuine and true; Scorpius claimed himself to be a true friend of Al's during that rough patch, and he had helped Albus to the road to recovery as best he could. Scorpius had been a great friend to Al since, often dropping by the Potter's home and whatnot. In a way, with the amount of time that Scorpius spent hanging around the Potter house, James shouldn't have been surprised that he and Lily had grown close.
"It's not that she's dating the Malfoy boy," argued Harry. "Scorpius Malfoy is a perfectly fine bloke. He's proved that to us over the years. I just don't..."
He faltered and found himself unable to finish. Ginny only smiled and went to kiss her husband's cheek where she whispered something in his ear that only he could hear. Harry gave a sheepish smile and rubbed her arm in response. James couldn't help but smile at their exchange. When Ginny moved away from him, Harry was quick to change the subject. He looked back to his eldest son and smiled.
"Anyways, we're glad to hear that you and Norah are working past your issues," commented Harry. James could see him begin to make another comment, but his father's gaze went down to his wrist where James was absently rubbing at it. James looked down to his work and noticed he had rubbed the skin raw; it was now red and tender. James watched his father swallow an uneasy lump in his throat, and he quickly changed gears. "Your wrist bothering you again?"
"Yeah," muttered James. To get himself to stop messing with it, he sat on his left hand and brought his wrist closer so he could inspect it. It was now blistering, and skin was flaking off from all the friction James had caused. "Something strange happened during my appointment. It hurts randomly; some days a lot, some not at all, but during my appointment...It hurt like it never had before. It felt like it was burning. It was excruciating. I just don't know what to do about it anymore."
"Honey, you should really have a Healer take a look at it then," commented Ginny absently.
Harry brought his hand to his mouth where he gnawed on the nail of his thumb and turned his back to everyone. "Who was your appointment with?" he asked, his voice seeming restrained but no one seemed to notice.
"Clancy O'Dell," replied James in a nonchalant tone. "We met at her regular coffee shop."
Harry's brow pulled together, and he asked yet another question while hoping no one would find his questions strange. "Was it just the two of you?"
"No. Her boyfriend came this time."
"Boyfriend?" Albus piped up in questioning. "But I thought you and her - "
James twisted to look at his brother, his eyes going wide as a sign for Albus to shut up. James knew Al was aware of him sleeping with Clancy, but that was something his parents didn't need to know. He shook his head and Albus clamped his mouth shut.
"Nevermind," Al said quickly. "Who's she dating?"
"Some guy named Nolan Paxton," said James with a roll of the shoulders.
When James turned back to face his parents, he listened to his mother go on about how he should really get his wrist taken care of. Harry, uneasy, began to pace about the kitchen, rubbing the back of his neck, until he finally excused himself before he brought too much unwanted attention on himself for his inability to control his anxiety on the matter.
Harry slipped quietly out of the kitchen and quickly made his way through the house to his study where he shut the door. Alone, he fell back into his chair behind his desk and grabbed onto his head. He groped at his hair, tugging at it, until he finally pulled his hands away only to take his glasses off the bridge of his nose to rub his eyes in frustration.
"Shit," he cursed under his breath.
What had he done? Three years ago, what had he done? He should have told James from the very beginning.
He didn't know what had gone through his head that day at Azkaban when he had hidden James' scar, the scar that still remained perfectly hidden to his very day. And it would always remain so. Only two spells could reveal his scar, and Harry knew James had no reasons for such counter-curses to be placed on James.
He thought he could just hide it from everyone and never speak of it again. He thought he could act like it didn't exist and it would never come back to haunt them like Harry's had. He had tried to convince himself that there was no reason to fear, and after everything his sons had gone through, he wished to believe that it was over. At that time, he had just wanted his sons to live happy lives without fear or worry, and he had given that to them in doing so.
He knew his actions would have their repercussions. He knew the scar would affect his son the way his had affected him. He saw it some days. While no one knew what truly drove James to be such a different person at times, often driven by anger and impatience, Harry knew better. Harry knew it was that second soul living inside of him, and on those days when he would see James lash out, he was tormented by the decision he had made three years ago.
James acted as if he didn't know he had changed or what had changed him and why, but Harry could see the fear he held for himself, the fear of not knowing what he would do next, and Harry pitied him. It made him wish he had told him just so he would know what was happening, but time had passed and now there was no way James could ever know and not be angry with his father for what he had done.
He thought he didn't have reason to worry, especially. He had had no reason to worry until recently when it seemed as if his wrist was bothering him more and more. Especially today. This was strange to Harry. If James' scar worked the same way Harry's had, Harry understood the concept that the more it hurt, the closer he was to the one who had created the horcrux: the person to which Harry still wasn't sure of but he had his hunches.
Now, Harry feared, it seemed as if James had been in the very same coffee shop with the person whose soul now partly resided in James. Who could it be though? The only people there that day who could possibly encountered James was Elias and Parker. Elias was dead; Harry had seen the body himself. Parker was believed to be dead also; Harry had seen James use the Killing Curse on him, and he had seen Parker fall into the cold ocean. Despite this, the body of Parker Namken never turned up. They had just assumed it had been crushed by the crumbling Azkaban, no questions asked. Harry had long ago begun to question the idea of Parker Namken being the one to have a horcrux.
Had Parker Namken been in that coffee shop? Surely James would have recognized the boy, Harry assumed. How could they ever forget such a face that had caused them so much pain?
But Harry had long ago assumed that Parker Namken was alive and that a part of him resided in his son. If Namken was smart, he would have gone underground and stayed there. If Harry's assumptions were correct, was Parker Namken finally returning to the surface? And if he was, what did he have up his sleeve? What trick was he trying to play by being at the same coffee shop as James?
He hoped, if all of his thoughts were truly accurate, that Namken was flying solo in all of this. The completion of the new, rebuilt, and modified Azkaban prison had been completed a year after the demolition of the original. It had received an entirely new location and had been designed in such a fashion that Harry was absolutely certain that it was impenetrable from the inside and out. He had taken part in the location selection and the layout of the prison, despite how much he had wished to have no involvement whatsoever.
Since the completion of Azkaban, perhaps half of the Death Eaters and criminals who escaped that day had been caught, but the other half were still yet to be found. That was exactly why Harry's field Aurors were out there that very moment searching for Death Eaters. Despite how old, beaten, or worn down some of them may be, they were still extremely dangerous. At first, Harry had feared for the safety of his family and the world he had helped create, but after three years of continued peace, that fear had faded. He knew the Death Eaters had gone underground. He only hoped they weren't working towards an uprising, but if they were, Harry prayed that they hadn't found and joined forces with Parker Namken.
It had been years since Norah had felt such butterflies in her stomach. She didn't quite know why she was so anxious and excited for her dinner with James that night, but she decided that her excitement was ultimately better than any paranoia in the fact that the night may not go as planned. She highly doubted that, though. She had full faith that after tonight she and James would once again be on the right track. Since she had returned to her office at the Daily Prophet from visiting James, her day had gone much slower than she had hoped. Finally the time came, though, when she wrapped up an article and left her office for the weekend.
She returned to her small flat where she tried to busy herself with simple things just to pass the time until she could get ready to go to James'. She finally decided she couldn't wait any longer, and she had taken a long shower, shaving every inch of her legs, and she had painted her nails. She was putting the final touches on her curly hair when the doorbell to her flat rang. Humming under her breath, she meandered through her flat and to the door where she greeted her visitor.
"Albus!" she beamed in surprise, and she immediately jumped into his embrace.
Al opened up his arms for her and held her tight, burying his face into her neck with a smile. "Hey, Norah," he said happily.
"What are you doing here?!" she asked in awe. "I mean, I'm thrilled to see you! Just surprised. Here, come in!"
She peeled herself off of his lanky frame and, taking his hand, pulled him into her flat. She shut the door behind them and turned to face him. He looked good; better than he had the past few months, anyway. His hair was longer, but still not quite as long as James'. When she looked at him these days, Norah still couldn't believe how much he had physically matured over the past three years. He was inches taller, and while he had also grown broader, he was lankier these days, his face longer and narrower. He didn't look like a teenager anymore; he looked like a man.
She hadn't seen him in a while. When she had still been dating James, seeing Albus was a regular occurrence. She was always seeing all the Potters, but ever since she and James had had their fallout, she had seen Albus a lot less. She had missed him greatly, and she was thankful he was taking the time to come by and see her. Especially since Albus was such a shut-in these days, he stepping out of the Potter home for more than just his psychiatrist appointment was a big deal.
"I wanted to see how you are," said Albus with a smile. "We don't see each other like we used to. I miss you."
"Awe," beamed Norah, and she embraced him again. "I've missed you too. Thanks for stopping by."
She moved further into the flat, Albus following her. They were comfortable around each other. After ending their relationship on fine terms, they had become good friends.
She weaved her way back through her small flat, through her bedroom, and to her bathroom. Albus threw himself down onto Norah's bed, turning onto his stomach to watch her as she sat down at her vanity in the bathroom. She busied herself with applying her make-up as Albus watched.
"James came by the house today," Al said absently. "He said you're going over there tonight."
"Yeah!" answered Norah enthusiastically. "It seems like we're both ready to finally make things work."
"That's great and all," answered Albus, but Norah picked up on his uneasy tone. He seemed reluctant to be happy for her and his brother. He finally added on to his previous statement. "But, Nore...You know what he did, right?"
"Al..." she sighed and rose from her spot at her vanity. She went to stand in the doorway and leaned against the frame.
"You know, don't you?" he stated again, his voice stern and serious. Now Norah knew Al had meant business by coming to her flat. "You know he slept with Clancy O'Dell? Did he tell you that?"
"I know he slept with her, Al," Norah groaned.
Albus was quickly scrambling off of her bed. He approached her, his expression sad, and Norah couldn't help but wonder just what was going on with Albus beneath the surface. His shoulders fell with her answer, and his expression turned to that of disbelief.
"Then what are you still doing trying to get back together with him?" asked Al in an appalled voice. "He slept with someone else! You deserve better than that, Norah!"
"Maybe I do," she said quickly, rolling her shoulders, "but I don't deserve any better right now, Al. You know it was me to screw up our relationship first, right? James walked in on me kissing Kiernan. We were broken up when he slept with Clancy. He was a single man; he could have done whatever he wanted."
"You really think that?" blurted Albus. "He should have been more forgiving for you!"
"We can't change what's done, Albus," Norah said quickly. "What's done is done, and what matters is that I love him, and I know he loves me too. That means we're both willing to forgive each other and work together to be a couple again."
"You shouldn't have to settle for him. You shouldn't have to work so hard to make him happy. You deserve so much better than that," he said in an undertone.
Norah watched him curiously. He was looking at her in a way she had never seen before. Her brow furrowed with her confusion as Albus moved closer to her. His new height caused him to loom over her, and she had to tilt her head up to meet his eyes. As he came closer, his expression grew softer. Uneasily his hand reached out and he gingerly fingered one of her curls. His eyes were swimming with something she didn't understand from him, something that made her ponder his true feelings for her.
She knew she should have stepped away from Al in that moment. She knew she should have turned in the other direction, told him the conversation was over, that Albus had no say in it whatsoever, but she found that she couldn't. She was frozen, rooted to the spot as Albus continued to move closer and closer. She was shaking with bewilderment and curiosity as to what he would do next.
Finally he was only inches from her. She could feel her chest touch the top of his stomach every time she inhaled. His palm flattened against her cheek, and he said in a low voice, his breath tickling her lips. "I never should have given you up."
And then he was kissing her. Fiercely, passionately. In such a way they had never kissed before. Not even when they were dating three years ago.
Caught off guard, her eyes opened wide with surprise, and she stumbled back with the force of Al's kiss. He kept his hand against her cheek, but his other found her hip and squeezed tight, pulling her flush against his long form. Norah remained unmoving, too shocked to even respond as Al's plush lips molded against hers.
Finally she was able to gather her bearings, and she squealed against him.
"Stop," she was able to gasp against his lips.
Her arms moved from her side and went to push at his chest. She broke her lips away from his and gave his chest a powerful push, sending him stumbling away from her.
"No, Al!" she cried out, the back of her hand going to her mouth. "What was that about?!"
"You shouldn't be with him!" Albus shouted.
"I love him!" she cried. "I love him, and you have to understand that! When you love someone...you'll do anything to make it work. It doesn't matter to me what he did. Or what I did. Not anymore."
"But you - !"
"No, Albus!" she cut him off. "I love him. I'm sorry."
Albus stopped and pursed his lips. He stood in the middle of her bedroom, fuming and distraught. He had gone three years of not letting anyone know that his feelings for Norah still remained, and then he had to go do this. He had to go be stupid and kiss her. He wished he had controlled himself.
"What did you mean? What you said a minute ago?" she asked uneasily after a minute of awkward silence. She looked to his downcast gaze and tried to find his eyes. He stumbled back another step and lowered himself onto Norah's bed, taking his head into his hands. "When you said 'I never should have given you up...'"
"I meant exactly what I said," he said in an almost inaudible whisper. As much as he now wished he could, he knew he couldn't take back what he had said. He couldn't take back that moment in which he kissed her. He was suddenly faced with the situation of sharing his true feelings with Norah. "I never should have handed you over to James. I should have fought harder to keep you."
"Albus?" she asked uneasily, trying to decipher his meaning. She tugged her shirt, which had bunched itself up on her hips when Albus had grabbed her, back down and apprehensively approached him. She sat next to him on her bed, trying to urge him to continue speaking. It was so rare that Albus voiced his inner thoughts these days.
"My feelings for you..." he began and then faltered, but Norah's kind eyes urged him on. "They never left."
"You still have feelings for me?"
He nodded.
"Oh, Al," she moaned. "I had no idea."
"Of course you didn't," he muttered. "You moved from me to James. It was obvious how much the two of you loved each other, and after everything we had all been through, I could tell the two of you were just happy to finally be together. Neither of you ever stopped to look back and see how it made me feel."
His words brought tears to her eyes. Tears of pity for Albus and guilt for herself. Was Albus speaking the truth? Had she and James really been that oblivious to how Albus had felt?
"We didn't think you were that upset. You seemed happy for us, and I never thought you truly cared for me. I thought it was more of a physical attraction than true feelings."
Albus shook his head again. "How could you think that?" he whispered painfully.
"I-I don't know..." she breathed. "Why didn't you ever say anything?"
"I didn't need to," he answered. "I convinced myself I would move on. You're right in a sense. I thought it was just an infatuation; I thought I would move on. Once you told me how you felt for my brother, I realized I was stupid to have never seen it before. Of course you loved each other, and on that day, I wanted nothing more than for the two of you to be happy. Even if that meant I lost you along the way."
"Albus..." she moaned in pain. When he said nothing, she uneasily asked, dreading the answer. "Do you love me?"
It took him a moment to find his answer, and in that time, Norah could feel her heart clenching in her throat. She didn't know what had prompted her to ask, and she didn't know what she would do if he said yes. He finally spoke slowly. "I don't know if what I feel for you is love. I don't know if I love you or not. I try not to think about it too much because I know you and James are meant to be. I just think...I think my feelings for you never left because you were someone special to me when I truly hit rock bottom. During that hell, everyone left me. I had no one. No one but you, Norah. No matter what happened during that awful year, you were always there. Even James turned his back on me. You were the only one who didn't."
His words made her feel even more guilty than she already did. Albus didn't know what had truly gone on during that time he spoke of. Yes, she was always there for him when he had needed her, but he didn't know everything else. How James had to be the one to keep her faithful to Albus, how she had longed to be with James, how she had searched for a way to let Albus down easy. She could feel herself drowning in her guilt, and her tears began to steadily flow down her cheeks.
"Please don't cry," Albus said gently. He reached out and wiped away her tears. "I'm sorry for what I did. For kissing you. I should have kept this to myself. I know that you and James...I understand how you feel for one another. I understand that you will always find a way to be together."
"I'm sorry," she said in reply. "I love him. It will always be him."
"Of course," he muttered. "It will always be him."
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40661 | [Haskell-cafe] commandline parsing?
Marc Weber marco-oweber at gmx.de
Sat Jul 29 08:53:00 EDT 2006
I've been using pesco_cmdline for a while now. But I did notice that
it doesn't fit my needs.. And it took me quite a while to get to know
why I was getting strange typeable errors when specifying the wrong
default value or reading the wrong type.. (these errors occur at
runtime thus they don't use haskells strength)
So I got another crazy idea. Why not see arguments as tokens and use a
parser such as parsec?
All you would have to do is creating some kind of syntax tree.
Consider an example application : mmewcde (my mega executable which can
do everything).
mmewcde edit <file>
mmewcde mv <file> <file>
mmewcde mv --target-dir <dest> <folder> <files>>
mmewcde cp <file> <file>
mmewcde cp --target-dir <dest> <folder> <files>>
mmewcde callsox <infile> <options> <outfile>
Why not something like tar?
mmewcde tar <x|c|f|v>* ..?
Of cause I'll have to write the funtions
edit :: String -> IO ()
mv :: String -> String -> IO ()
mvDest :: String -> [String] -> IO ()
which have to be called
Now I'd like to do this:
optionParser = many $ oneOf [ edit, mv, mvDest, cp, cpDest, callsox, tar]
optionParserWithHelp = optionParser <|> printHelp
edit = do
string "edit"
file <- existingFilename
launchEditor file
mv = [..]
mvDest = do
string mv
string "--target-dir"
td <- existingDirectory
files <- many existingFilename
map (movefile td) files
printHelp = do
oneOf $ map string ["-h","--help","--usage"]
prettyPrint optionParser
main = do
args <- getArgs
parseAndExecute optionParserWithHelp
prettyPrint might look like this (this will be unncommon ;)
mmewcde --help:
edit <exitingfile> or
mv <exitingfile> <file>
Would this be nice? Does this already exist somehow?
perhaps many can even be made nongreedy so that you can specify more
than one command at once
mmewcde mv --target-dir d f1 f2 cp --target-dir d2 f3 f4 ...
Does this make sense?
I think this would lead to self documenting well mantainable code.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40664 | Why is there no splitBy in the list module? + other suggestions
isto isto.aho at dnainternet.net
Mon Jul 10 12:34:36 EDT 2006
ma, 2006-07-10 kello 14:26 +0200, Christian Maeder kirjoitti:
> Maybe someone can extract a result from the old discussion about
> "Prelude function suggestions"
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.libraries/1684/focus=1684
> splitOn :: Eq a => a -- ^ seperator
> -> [a] -- ^ list to split
> -> [[a]]
Was the consensus that several functions should be added to the
predule, wasn't it?
How about the following?
1) On split
where the first list is a regular exression like in vim-editor.
E.g. splitRE "(<br>){2}" myHTMLString
Ok, the type has to be String and there seems to be the regexlib, giving
splitRE = splitRegex . mkRegex
where the first list is a sublist used to split the second list.
Somehow, I more often need this one than the breakWhere -version
(but still finding it helpfull if breakWhere is put somewhere).
See also the suggestion 4.
2) Other string/list functions taking string/lists as argument
and not just a char/item.
intersperse [a] -> [a] -> [a]
replicate :: Int -> [a] -> [b]
I'll guess the "list versions" of takeWhile, dropWhile and the other
in this section (sublist, extracting) are almost the same as splitRE
above, except that splitRE is only for strings.
"List versions" of elem and notElem are subList and notSubList. Are
these somewhere (couldn't spot them in 2 seconds and don't rembr)?
3) Reshaping of a list
Couldn't spot this either in another 2 seconds... Sorry if this is
reshape r c a = [map (a!!) [c*i..c*i+(c-1)] | i<-[0..(r-1)]]
Prelude Text.Regex> reshape 2 4 [1..8]
Prelude Text.Regex> reshape 4 2 [1..8]
Ok, it seems that sometimes there is a need for a version where
multidimensional matrices are reshaped freely to any dimension as long
as there are the correct number of items... (but haven't thought how to
implement this one).
4) splitRE again
splitRE :: [a] -> String -> [a] -> [[a]]
First one here is the regex pattern basic elements of type a.
Second one is the regex string having place holders for the basic
Third one is the list over which the split is done.
splitRE [1, 15, 3] "\(@1 at 2\){2}@3" myNumberList
would make splits when it faces sublist [1,15,1,15,3].
Here, @ would be used as a metacharacter to place the list items
in to the regular expression of type a.
Other text.regex-functions for type a?
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40677 | Jump to Navigation
A Valuable Diuretic
I believe the following combination to be an unusual one in acute conditions where a diuretic is needed, especially where you cannot combine the diuretic agent with the other remedy. Add to the sedative from one to two drams each of specific cactus and specific asclepias. The diuretic influence of this combination is sometimes little less than marvelous, and the beauty of the suggestion is that there are almost no cases in which either of the remedies would exercise a detrimental influence.
T. A. DEAN, M. D.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40726 | iOS app Android app More
Riki Ott
Riki Ott
Posted: February 11, 2009 04:56 PM
Protecting a Whaling Culture
What's Your Reaction:
Wainwright, Alaska. "Let's have dessert!" said Kenneth "Kenny" Tagarook. Earlier his wife, Ann, had cooked a substantial meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and canned green beans. "White man's food only holds me for a couple hours," he teased.
The Tagarooks are Inupiat ("In-OU-pe-at" or "Eskimo"). They are hosting me and Kenny's cousin Rosemary Ahtuangaruak during our visit in Wainwright. The village of 720 mostly Inupiat people lies along the Arctic Ocean over 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.
Kenny placed a tray of "muktuk" - raw, frozen bowhead whale meat - on the kitchen table. He sliced little finger-size pieces for me with his ulu - a traditional knife for cutting meat. Rosemary and Ann handled their ulus like extensions of their hands.
I examined the muktuk. The skin was almost an inch thick and black. The other half of the strip, the blubber, was a pale rosy white. The skin had a rubbery texture, while the blubber melted in my mouth like rich bacon grease. Kenny watched me closely as I chewed. I reached for another piece. He grinned.
The Inupiat culture is a whaling culture that revolves around bowhead whales. Beluga whales, walrus, ringed, bearded, and spotted seals, fish, and sea ducks are also harvested from the Chukchi Sea, the western half of the vast Arctic Ocean, but bowhead whales are the cultural cornerstone. Many Eskimo games have significance for whale hunting. For example, the blanket toss is a way for hunters to gain height of eye to spot whale spouts farther out at sea.
I struggled to understand a way of life that is so different from mine. "Kenny, how old were you when you first went whaling?" It doesn't take much prodding to launch the gregarious Kenny into storytelling, the traditional way of sharing information in this culture. Kenny's first language is Inupiaq, but his English flows easily.
"My dad wouldn't let me go whaling when I was six. Seven. Eight. Nine, I stowed away on a whaling boat. I was supposed to be in school. My dad couldn't find me. The crew found me when they pulled the boat up on the ice to make camp. The boat was heavy. They pulled away a gunny sack and found me." He laughs at the memory.
"They didn't take you back to the village?" I asked.
"No, my dad decided it was time. I stayed out one month." In response to my puzzled expression, he explained, "A lot of whaling is waiting. Waiting for leads (water channels in the sea ice) to open. Waiting for whales to come. Waiting out storms. Moving camp to be safe."
He jumped up and pulled a compass from a cupboard shelf. He put it on the table and said, "We put the compass on the ice and line the red arrow up with north. No one touches it. We check it all the time. If the ice shifts, we know." He moved the table to demonstrate shifting ice and the red arrow slid off north. "We move camp to shore-fast ice."
Kenny saw I was still puzzled. He explained, "The ice moves all the time. Fast. Leads open and close. It's very dangerous. Once, we didn't break camp fast enough. One man was standing on flat ice. Sea ice shoved up under him - pressure ridge eight feet high! He went flying through the air."
I thought about the Bush administration's Arctic policy that opens 40 million acres of the Chukchi Sea to oil and gas exploration and development. The oil industry claims it can clean up an oil spill in sea ice, but when the Inupiat ask how, the information is not forthcoming.
The truth is: The technology does not exist to clean up oil spills in the Arctic Ocean. The booms and skimmers that were used to recover 3 to 11 percent of the Exxon Valdez spill are useless in sea ice or broken ice ¬- and most other Arctic conditions as well. The "nameplate" capacity on this equipment brags of recovery in calm conditions and daylight, not the darkness and bitter storms of the Arctic Ocean.
The technology to find oil in remote corners of the planet and get it out of the earth far surpasses our ability to clean oil up once it spills. This technology, driven by greed and need, threatens the Inupiat culture - and the endangered bowhead whales.
Bowhead whales were declared endangered in 1973 under the Endangered Species Act as the whales have not recovered from commercial whaling in the 1600s to 1800s. There are 7,800 bowhead whales in the Arctic Ocean, 41 percent of the pre-whaling population. The Native harvest of 25 to 40 animals does not affect the population recovery - but a large oil spill certainly could.
Kenny became a whaling captain and a community leader. When his crew harvests a whale, his family keeps one-quarter of the meat, his crew gets one-quarter, and the community shares the other half. Kenny shares most of his meat with the community at whaling celebrations in spring, fall, and winter. Sharing and celebration is part of the whaling culture.
The Inupiat culture is incompatible with oil and gas development. The solutions to America's energy crisis are not in remote places of the planet but in our own backyards. Investment in regional energy development of solar, wind, and waste biofuels, instead of more oil and gas development, would better serve the Inupiat and all Americans. The Bush administration's U.S. Arctic policy should be scrapped.
Spill survivor and author Riki Ott shares insights on disaster trauma and recovery nationwide and in Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (Chelsea Green, 2008). Ott is an advisor to the nonprofit organization REDOIL, Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40737 | It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Finding Stability through GamingDecember 13, 2012 by
Have you ever had that dream that you showed up to school or work with no pants? As awesome as wearing no pants would be, what you feel while your dreaming is intense embarrassment and humiliation. It's like a Black Friday sale for all of your insecurities. Opening up to people about your mental health is just like that, except it is real and can be an incredibly difficult thing to do. I decided to write this in part due to the. It's goal is to provide a window into someone else's story of anxiety or depression. It's been an incredible source of comfort, serving as a remind that it really is dangerous to go alone and that taking some help along the way isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength.
Sick and Tired
As a kid I was sick a lot; I would miss school all of the time. It's normal for there to occasionally be days where you would need to go to the front office and call mom or dad to come pick you up, but for me there were often weeks that I did this every day. I eventually got into a nice lull during middle school and the beginning of high school where these problems abated. We figured I had just grown out of being sickly. But around my junior year, things got bad again. Mental health issues can be a slow burn. I thought things were fine, but there was something under the surface that started affecting all aspects of my life. I was sleeping less; I wasn't eating; I was nauseous; my body was always tense; I didn't want to leave my room. My doctor had no idea what was going on, "You're healthy," he assured my mother who just wanted someone to fix her son. I'm not sure when or how I came to the realization that I needed help, but I did. I told my parents that we needed to find me someone to fix this and do it soon.
Not Quite Green Vomit, But Almost.
I've heard and read people compare a mental health disorder to drowning, being in a prison, or being a simmering restlessness and anger building within you. I've felt every one of those, but that's not exactly how I view living with anxiety and depression. To me it's more like—and forgive the hyperbole—being possessed. Remember that scene in The Exorcist when Regan writes "Help me" from the inside of her stomach? That's how anxiety makes me feel. Fully aware that it's ridiculous to be nervous about seeing a friend you haven't seen in a while; or using the phone to call someone you've never called; or writing a blog post about something incredibly personal even though there is a fair amount of anonymity; or…well, you get the picture. You're aware, but you're helpless. Untreated and swept under the rug, it builds. You find that sometimes it's debilitating, keeping you from getting out of bed in the morning or falling asleep at night. Your body is subject to whatever irrational anxiety or made up stress your brain decides to conjure up, and you can't do much about it. Sometimes it's less invasive, just an incessant, nagging thought in the back of your head that you can't seem to ignore. It permeates your whole being. Instead of being your own master, you're subject to what your brain commands, not the other way around.
Remember that scene in The Exorcist...? That's how anxiety makes me feel.
So, I got help. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and mild depression. Now you'd think that this would feel awful, finding out that there is something wrong in your head; the exact opposite was true. It was liberating. Yes, something was wrong with me, but it had a name and I found out how to combat it. I was put on a regulatory anti-depressant and slowly started to live my life again. One of the misconceptions about anti-depressants and other mental health drugs, is that they just make you feel good. That's not what they do; they normalize the chemicals in your brain so you can start functioning again. But drugs are only one tool to help combat mental illness.
Take this. It's dangerous to go alone.
You might be wondering, "Why is he posting this on a gaming site?" Well, that's because of another crucial tool: you need to find things that anchor you. For me, family and friends have been integral, but when things are really bad, where do I turn? Videogames and writing. There is a decent amount of anecdotal evidence stating that people with mental health disorders tend to gravitate towards the arts and videogames. I'd say that's probably true. Both allow for control: if I'm writing a short story or essay, the words are mine; if I'm painting something, the brushstrokes are mine; if I'm playing a game like Mass Effect or TellTale's The Walking Dead, the choices are mine. To be in control of something, when everything else in your life feels out of control, it's therapeutic. Don't mistake what I'm saying, retreating into gaming is not the answer, but using it as a tool certainly can be. Games force you to make hundreds of thousands of decision repeatedly. Inherently, they're stressful. When I'm in a game, I don't have time to worry about each shot fired, each jump made, or each conversation option selected. More often than not games only allow you enough time to react, and for me, that is why they are so special. They let me deal with my anxieties in a controlled environment where if I make a mistake it's ok. Playing through a fantasy world like Skyrim, tackling random people around the world in bouts of Playstation Allstars, or wracking my brain on how to quickly figure out a puzzle in Portal are entertaining experiences, for sure, but why I really love them is for giving me the tools to go out in the real world and not feel so unequipped. If you've read to the end of this, I appreciate it. If the things I wrote sound a little too familiar, reach out to someone. Remember, it is dangerous to go alone, but, you're not.
Author's Note: I originally wrote this piece the Thursday night before the tragic events happened in Newton, CT; as the story develops it seems as though the perpetrator did suffer from some sort of mental illness. I'm not trying to fabricate any gravitas for this piece, nor will I be so pompous so as to suggest that had he gotten proper treatment those events would not have happened. However, I do feel like it further solidifies a growing belief that there needs to be a national dialogue about mental health care in the United States. So I urge anyone who feels like they may suffer from these issues to just talk to someone, it helps more than you know.
-- Sebastian M.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40741 | Bless You (2010 - Remaster)
Bless You (2010 - Remaster)
John Lennon
Bless you wherever you are
Windswept child on a shooting star
Restless Spirits depart
Still we're deep in each other's hearts
Some people say it's over
Now that we spread our wings
But we know better darling
The hollow ring is only last year's echo
Bless you whoever you are
Holding her now
Be warm and kind hearted
And remember though love is strange
Now and forever our love will remain
Written by LENNON, JOHN
Published by EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics Provided By LyricFind Inc.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40770 | March 16, 2014
Homework Help: Chemistry
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 7, 2012 at 7:06pm.
C3H8+5O2 -> 3CO2+4H2O
Isotope: 46Ti
Abudance: 70.900%
Mass(amu): 45.95263
Isotope: 48Ti
Abudance: 10.000%
Mass(amu): 47.94795
Isotope: 50Ti
Abundance: 19.100%
Mass(amu): 49.94479
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40828 | Tuesday Ten: Bad Cover Version
Gen 26 2010, 16:44
Ok, for the return of the Tuesday Ten for 2010, this week is the first of a pair of posts that are companions of sorts. Both of them will be looking at cover versions, but in specific ways. This week, I'm looking at covers where the originals weren't necessarily bad, but the cover versions are definitely worse. And next week, I'll be looking at covers that are better than the originals. Obviously, this is a highly subjective area, so feel free to argue the case if you think I've dissed your favourite song. Better still, I'd love to know about any glaring omissions from the list.
There is a Spotify playlist to go with this, which can be found here. I have opened it up to be a shared playlist, so if you have anything to add to the list, please do so - please follow the format I have done so far, in adding the cover and then the original also if possible. A couple of my choices for the final list are not on Spotify, so I have included all those that didn't make the final list also. Anyone who can make it through all the bad covers perhaps deserves a medal.
A final note before I start - perhaps unsurprisingly, the shortlist for this week was much longer than the one for next week...
Whitney Houston
I Will Always Love You
(originally by Dolly Parton)
My girlfriend really, really doesn't like this - and that might just have something to do with her love of the Dolly Parton version. I can't stand it either, though. Whitney Houston is one of those soul singers who was blessed with an unbelievable voice, but never really had the songs to do her voice justice, and the seemingly endless warbling on this track - and the god-knows-how-many-weeks this track spent at the top of the charts, not to mention it's position of karaoke and wedding song (do people ever listen to the lyrics of songs?) of choice for evermore - to me is like running nails down a blackboard. At least Dolly did it with feeling, rather than just to promote a film, and, for that matter, she cleaned up in royalty payments for allowing the cover, too.
Newton Faulkner
(originally by Massive Attack)
Of various recent abominable cover-versions I've sat through, I think this one pissed me off more than any. The original was one of the (many) highlights on Massive Attack's brooding Mezzanine, and Faulkner's weedy vocals are not an equal on any level with Elizabeth Fraser's otherworldly singing. What's even more irritating is that he attempts to imitate every bit of Fraser's vocals, and then there is the percussion and acoustic backing, and that choir-effect. Eugh. The original was fantastic for it's china-doll fragility and (like the rest of the album) oppressive darkness, this take is just insipid, vacuous and fucking awful.
(originally by Black Sabbath)
It's quite striking just how dated this now sounds. Only twelve years old, it attempts to mesh together near-gabba paced beats, cheesy synths and vocals and odds and sods of effects to make it sound like the original at least in part. The thing is, it just sounds like a fucking mess. Unfortunately, for me, it's much like most later-period UVR was - half-arsed in a "will this do" kind of way. Needless to say, I'll stick with the original if you don't mind.
All Saints
Under the Bridge
(originally by Red Hot Chili Peppers)
It really helps to know what the song you are covering is about, as I recall that members of the group confessed at the time that they had no idea that it was about heroin use - the fact that whoever was behind the group covering it, also removed the final verse (you know, the one with the most explicit drug reference) helps to confirm just how much they attempted to sanitise it. That and the identikit girl-group "R&B" approach to the music. The original was brilliant because of the feeling behind it - like many songs Anthony Keidis penned, his lyrics always gave the impression that he had lived it, good or bad.
Gravity Kills
Personal Jesus
(originally by Depeche Mode)
There's not exactly a shortage over bad covers of Depeche Mode songs, but this one in particular confused me. As a comeback after five years silence, it got them noticed, but it was a little listless, really. Some of the rest of the album that it came from was actually pretty good, but most only got as far as this cover and turned away, sadly. And anyway, if you really want to know how great GK could be, head back to their storming early singles Guilty and Enough.
Space Oddity
(originally by David Bowie)
Another that had me asking, well, why? Scooter Ward's voice, yes, is deep, wracked with emotion and adds a certain, uh, gravitas to his songs, but here, it just sounds a little flat. I think more than anything, this is one of those songs that is very much of it's time. When Space Oddity was first released, just over forty years ago, the world was watching mankind take their first steps on the moon, and as such is something of a monument to a time when humans were both in awe and scared of what was in store in the future. So, perhaps, this song should just be left alone, yes? (And maybe it's a good thing that I can't find a copy of this to link to anywhere)
Tori Amos
Raining Blood
(originally by Slayer)
The cover album has been a reliable contract filler for aeons, but the covers album that this came from was certainly different. Yes, it completed a record contract, but it took twelve songs written from a male viewpoint and switched to a female viewpoint, and the results were striking to say the least. Some of them worked (the cover of Eminem's '97 Bonnie and Clyde is absolutely extraordinary), but some of them really didn't. Turning one of Slayer's signature tracks into a tense and drawn-out piano ballad for me just rips the original point of the song away. After all, you don't listen to a Slayer song for the lyrics, you're there for the riffs and stampeding thrash metal. Taking those away leaves...well, not a lot.
Duran Duran
White Lines (Don't Do It)
(originally by Grandmaster Melle Mel)
Now onto a covers album that was absolutely panned upon release, and too fucking right, too. Apparently a set of songs they loved, they would have been better showing their love of the source material by leaving it well fucking alone. I've mentioned their horrendously inappropriate take on Public Enemy's 911 Is A Joke in passing in a previous Tuesday Ten, so I'll instead turn the barrels on this. Well, I guess at least they probably had an idea of the sentiment behind this song, at least, and I've no doubt that they were probably well acquainted with the, er, white lines in question at one point or another. But - and it's a big but - they prove here why exactly new wave bands other than Blondie stayed well away from rap, and even roping Grandmaster Flash himself in to provide some cred can't save this version from being utterly, utterly shit. Most of the rest of this album could have been included in this list too, by the way.
Eleanor Rigby
(originally by The Beatles)
Remember this band? I was astounded to find that they still existed, and are still going. Most people reading this, I'd suspect, will remember them for this, from the album that Marilyn Manson put out on his short-lived label. Why this was a single, I will never fucking know. A tuneless industrial-nu-metal savaging of a Beatles classic (bad covers of Beatles tracks could well provide a Tuesday Ten of their own, too), this should have sunk quicker than it did, but for some reason it kept getting airplay. Even more astonishing when the other single from this album, The Reckoning was one of the best songs of it's time but was seemingly ignored instead of this dreadful cover.
DJ Sammy
The Boys Of Summer
(originally by Don Henley)
My girlfriend disagrees, as she loves cheesy dance like this to go running to, but this was the first of a number of godawful dance "covers" of eighties/nineties "rock" hits that came to mind, so it makes it into the list. Don Henley's eighties, erm, classic was bad enough - one of those MOR tracks that tackles the staple subject of getting old (and boring, it would appear), something which seemed to be a rite of passage at the time. DJ Sammy got a female vocalist to do the vocals, and put a lowest common denominator house beat below it, along with samples of the guitars. I've no doubt it slayed clubs in Ibiza, but on a winters night in the north of England, this appearing on MTV Dance is less than welcome. [Note: the version on the Spotify playlist is a "karaoke-in the style of DJ Sammy" version, as that was all I could find. You are spared the awful vocals, at least, thanks to that]
Other abominations that didn't make the final list:
The Saturdays | Just Can't Get Enough (originally by Depeche Mode)
Marilyn Manson | Tainted Love (originally by Gloria Jones, however cover based on Soft Cell's cover!)
Alexandra Burke | Hallelujah (originally by Leonard Cohen)
Scissor Sisters | Comfortably Numb (originally by Pink Floyd, of course, and I hate this cover even more than the original)
Girls Aloud vs Sugababes | Walk This Way (originally by Aerosmith, however cover based on Run DMC/Aerosmith rework, and more proof that pop covering rock never works out well)
Alien Ant Farm | Smooth Criminal (originally by Michael Jackson)
Fugees | Killing Me Softly with His Song (originally by Roberta Flack)
Florence + the Machine | You've Got the Love (originally The Source And Candi Staton)
Decoded Feedback | Love Will Save You (originally by Swans)
Peter Murphy & Nico | Waiting For The Man (originally by Velvet Underground)
Tatu or Snake River Conspiracy | How Soon Is Now? (originally by The Smiths)
Paul Young | Love Will Tear Us Apart (originally by Joy Division)
Commenti accettati
Shef RockSoc
Commenti in sospeso
• redcrush
This is the first time I ever heard anyone claim that the Dolly Parton version of 'I will always love you' to be more superior to Whitney's. Interesting.
Gen 27 2010, 17:09
• SteeleDream
Teardrop by Newton Faulkner is great, I think. Covers aren't made to sund the same as the originals. He has his own way to perform it.
Gen 27 2010, 20:24
• azrael316
SRC - How sOon Is Now. I actually quite like that one. lol. Nothing to do with Tobey Torres at all, no sir, not at all... :)
Gen 29 2010, 18:40
• soundhead801
Oh my fuck. And I thought the Cure's cover of LWTUA was a horrid turd.... Jesus no.
Gen 30 2010, 22:14
• eLiSiR-21
I like the Teardrop cover, and also Whitney's version of the song I Will Always Love You.
Apr 23 2011, 22:21
Visualizza tutti (5 commenti) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40835 | skip navigation
§ 1241i. Authorization of appropriations
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of sections 1241e through 1241o of this Appendix.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40868 | linux generic headers?
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http://ubuntuforums.org – I have updated my kernel headers, what does that mean for the kernel? I heard that generic headers/kernels are NOT the "real" linux kernel. I currently have the 3.5.0-generic linux, but my father said I shouldnt have chosen this one because its a development headers and potentially unstable (which I experienced it with some versions of it). He said I should get the 3.2.0-headers/kernel. How should I get these, what are generic headers, and are there real differences between "normal" and generic headers? Or are generic headers standard linux kernel code? I dont get it any mo (Hardware) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40884 | Thread: Matrix Reborn
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Old 10-28-2004, 01:05 PM #169
The master of jokes
jokemaster's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 7,748
"You saying I'm a coward?!"
Jokemaster sat up straight, facing backwards and emptied a clip shooting at the civic's tires. Suddenly a bullet passed and hit his arm, knocking im back and saving him from a bullet that was heading towards his brain.
"Remind me, never be a hero again."
-Forum post on why Vader knew Luke was his son.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40916 | MasonicWorld.com
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XII October, 1934 No.10
by: Unknown
Every brother must decide for himself whether freemasonry has, or has not, is or is not, a religion.
Without argument pro or con a few thoughts are here set forth by which such decision may be illuminated; doubtless he who decides in the negative will herein find support for his position, and perhaps he who finds joy in the belief that Freemasonry is more than a Fraternity, and that the ancient Craft is not alone of this, but of two worlds, may be comforted.
To discuss any subject intelligently it is necessary that those who speak and those who listen have a common understanding of the terms used. It will hardly be necessary here to define Freemasonry although many have phrased many definitions. But it does seem essential that the reader and the writer have one mind as to what is meant by religion.
The terms has many meanings in many minds. For instance: “What is the religion of the Unite States?” is a question intelligently answered by: “On the whole, Protes-tant,” by those who think of religion as made up of modes of worship which may be Episcopalian or Catholic, Jewish or Mohammedan, Baptist or Buddhist. But change the tense and ask: “What are the “Religions” of the United States,” and the only complete answer will be a catalog of all the faiths followed in this country.
There is, then, a difference between “the religion” and “the religions.” Carried a step further, there is a great distinction between “a religion” and “religion.” Any qualifying article seems to connote a special variety of theology; it is only when we forget that “a” and “the” that we come to that experience of the heart which is essential religion.
Some deny that in Freemasonry is “anything” religious, let alone religion. “Freemasonry as we know it was born in a tavern in London; how can it be religious?” has been asked by those who forget that lilies bloom on a dung hill and that the carpenter who walked by Galilee was born in a stable. But to those to whom Freemasonry is but a social order these words are not addressed; he who can avow a belief in God, kneel at his Altar, take vows in His name, receive the teachings of the Lodge and deny “any” kinship with worship of the Great Architect is not within the reach of words here to be printed. Religion is most emphatically not theology; more’s the pity, the two are all too frequently confused. Religion is consciousness of, kinship with, worship for a Supreme Being; theology is the means, the method, the science of such worship. Theology is the manual of astronomy, but it is the stars in the sky towards which we reach; theology is the craft of mixing colors, but man thrills to the sunset without knowing even the names of its hues. Nor is it necessary here to say that Freemasonry inculcates no theology. Every Freemason must affirm the existence of Deity; he is an unhappy Freemason indeed for whom a life to come is not a fact, but nowhere about the Altar of the Great Architect in a Lodge, in no words of any Masonic ritual, is there a symbol or phrase setting forth by what ways or means a brother is to claim kinship with the Unseen Presence.
Millions of reverent men never even heard of the term “theology,” still less know its meaning. But there lives no man who does not know of God - aye, even if he knows but to deny him. R.W. Brother Joseph Fort Newton, of the Golden Pen and understanding heart, who sees more in life and religion and Freemasonry than is given to many a brother formed of more common clay; has written:
“There is in human nature a spiritual quality, by whatever name it is described; to express which some contrive theologies, others write rituals and others sing anthems. It is a part of our human endowment, at once the foundation of our faith and the consecration of our labor. It emerged with man, revealing itself in love and birth, joy and woe, pity and pain and death; in the blood in the veins of men, the milk in the breasts of women, the laughter of little children, in the ritual of the seasons - all the old, sweet, sad and happy human things - adding a rhythm and pathos to mortal life. Older than all creeds, deeper than all dogmas, it is the voice out of the heart of the world; the account which life gives of itself when it is healthy, natural and free.”
It is this sense of one-ness with an invisible Absolute, of a touch with matters spiritual none the less true that they are too ethereal to phrase; of the reality of that which is the more all embracing that it is unseen, unheard, untouched and unknown; which is here meant by the term “religion,” with no qualifying article to fence it into the narrow confines of any creed or special faith. It is “that natural religion in which all men agree” as the wise fathers but it in the first of the Old Charges of a Freemason. Modern science teaches us that what we see and taste and touch and feel is but the shadow of reality. In the eyes of science the common chair on which we sit is a vast space filled with vibrating electrons and protons, too small to conceive, too speedy to envisage. The space we know and move in is but a phase of time; the intervals we measure on a clock face are but parts of a “space-time continuum.” In somewhat the same way, neither Freemasonry nor religion are really as we see them; they are but shadows of a greater reality behind. In a certain theatrical produc-tion it was necessary to introduce the Christ. To do so with a reverence which should offend no one, the producer showed His presence merely by a glory of light which came, and passed, and went. Religion is such a glory - a light from One Passing Unseen. In all reverence, Freemasonry too, is a hidden sun of which we know only the shadows cast by brethren as they move against it.
It will be news to none that Freemasonry has secrets; but to some the concept will be new, that the greatest secret is one which none need take an obligation never to reveal. It is one each man must learn for himself; for its words have not been coined, so he cannot tell it if he would.
So has religion her secret - it is written large in many a holy book, yet never the tongue which may read it aloud. It is painted in the rainbow and the aurora, but never the artist has lived who could limn it. It sounds in the music of great composers, but never has a harmonist translated it in words formed by the lips. So religion and Freemasonry alike tell their simple, profound secrets, to all who will learn, by the use of symbols. Freemasons are bound each to each by the Mystic Tie; define it, explain it, put it pinto words! It may not be done, for there are no words. Some say it is the Cabletow, confusing the symbol with the thing symbolized. The cabletow is no more the Mystic Tie than the umbilical cord is the mother love. Yet the Mystic Tie is real; brethren braid it in the Lodge, twist its strands together in fellowship, lay cord on cord to form it in pity and charity and relief. The friendly word ties a knot in it; the familiar background of mutually lived Lodge life keeps its end from fraying. Those who meet on the level and part upon the square, who listen together to the old, old words of the old, old ritual, tie it tighter, and tighter about them . . .but cannot tell of it; only feel it, know it, love it. A great Masonic poet wrote:
“What is it in the wild things that calls to little wild things? What secret sacred things do the mountains whisper to the hillmen, so silently yet so surely that they can be heard above the din and clatter of the world? What mystery does the sea tell the sailor, the desert to the Arab, the arctic ice to the explorer, the stars to the astronomer? When we have answered these questions; mayhap we may define the magic of Masonry - who knows what it is, or how, or why, unless it be the long Cabletow of God running from heart to heart?” Religion cannot exist without the human race, since - at least as far as we know - the beast of the field do not worship. And the contrary is true - the race could not have been, without religion. Wise scientists “prove” that worship of an Unseen Presence is an outgrowth of a primal fear of the unknown causes of natural phenomena; thunder, lightning, earthquake, wind storm, tidal waves and so on. But others as wise point to the instincts through which alone the race has survived and grown - love and protection of the weak, care of the infant, mutual helpfulness, the formation of tribes on the foundation of the greatest good to the greatest number; all of which, during the slow years, have evolved into justice, liberty, unselfishness, courage and the giving spirit. Even the beasts of the jungle know love of offspring and occasionally the spirit of helping one another; without them, no species could survive.
Religion, then, rests on the certainty that there “is” a meaning to life. Without it, our very existence is chaos. No man is so Godless, no character so vile, but what some within is a consciousness of “meaning.” The completely selfish person who live solely for himself cannot survive. Nor confuse this with that queer doctrine which says that all that is lofty and fine in humanity is but “enlightened selfishness.; that the courageous man who faces death for his friend is doing that which pleases him better than living securely without risk; that he who devotes himself to service to others at personal sacrifice prefers that life, and therefore, but please his own desires; that the missionary who faces torture and death to spread the gospel thinks only that in such a life will he find his greatest joy. For if that doctrine is carried back to the Great Teachers - Jesus and Moses, Confucius and Buddha - it becomes blasphemy.
Religion knows there is meaning to life; Freemasonry is as definite in her dependence upon the rationality of the Universe, the define justice in which brethren have most faith when understanding it least. Without creed or dogma, Freemasonry is predicated upon an utter belief that in the universe man has his place, and in the reality of spiritual value. Here Freemasonry and religion are so close they seem to become one. Yet even when two theories of living coalesce there is no proof that one possesses, or is possessed by the other.
Religion should not be required to submit to any process of “proving.” Proofs are for the mind; religious conviction transcends the mind. Proofs are of man; religion in man’s heart is of God. Proofs are what we see with the eye and touch with the hand; religion’s certainties are not of the earth, earthy. Theologies and dogmas, rites and churches, creeds and faiths have complicated religion for the common man by a multiplicity of details, a hard and fast hewing to some one line, conceived by some - doubtless human and mistaken - mind. Religion, as distinct from “a” religion or “the” religions, teaches only by the simplest of symbols - so does Freemasonry. The parables of the Carpenter of Nazareth are all concerned with every day things; the symbols of religion - home, fireside, a building, a lost sheep, a father’s love - are simple. The symbols of Freemasonry which teach the most are the simplest - the square, the compasses, the letter “G, the sprig of Acacia, a Great Light to shine. . .
Tear aside the dark veil that hangs between today and the dim and distant past when men worshipped fire on a pile of stones - a group of half naked men and women and children in solemn procession pass from east to west by way of the south about the godhead burning merrily, casting in the flames the roots which, ignited, give out the sweet odor, laying on the coals what was to become the “burnt offering” of the days of Moses, all with the dim idea of propitiation.
Tear from a “high” church the veil of formality and austere ritualism which enshrouds its truths - a group of men and women kneel humbly to partake of the bread and wine by which they offer contrite hearts to the Unseen Presence.
Finally, tear aside the covering of mystery and ritualistic observance which conceals a Masonic Lodge at labor from a profane world - a group of men who pass from the east to the west by way of the south to gather about an Altar, there to lay their hands and vow themselves to mutual service, offering their gifts to the Great Architect of the Universe in gratitude for the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and of the old, old Craft. . . Every brother must decide for himself whether Freemasonry has or has not, is or is not a religion.
But before he decides let him read, in the Great Light of Masonry, Matthew, Chapter XVIII, verse 20. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40922 | Documentation Center
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Semilogarithmic plot
h = semilogy(...)
semilogy plots data with logarithmic scale for the y-axis.
semilogy(Y) creates a plot using a base 10 logarithmic scale for the y-axis and a linear scale for the x-axis. It plots the columns of Y versus their index if Y contains real numbers. semilogy(Y) is equivalent to semilogy(real(Y), imag(Y)) if Y contains complex numbers. semilogy ignores the imaginary component in all other uses of this function.
semilogy(X1,Y1,...) plots all Yn versus Xn pairs. If only one of Xn or Yn is a matrix, semilogy plots the vector argument versus the rows or columns of the matrix, along the dimension of the matrix whose length matches the length of the vector. If the matrix is square, its columns plot against the vector if their lengths match.
semilogy(X1,Y1,LineSpec,...) plots all lines defined by the Xn,Yn,LineSpec triples. LineSpec determines line style, marker symbol, and color of the plotted lines.
h = semilogy(...) returns a vector of handles to lineseries graphics objects, one handle per line.
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Logarithmic Scale for y-Axis
x = 0:0.1:10;
y = exp(x);
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If you do not specify a color when plotting more than one line, semilogy automatically cycle through the colors and line styles in the order specified by the current axes ColorOrder and LineStyleOrder properties.
You can mix Xn,Yn pairs with Xn,Yn,LineSpec triples; for example,
Renderer Support
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40924 | Documentation Center
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3-D Flight Data Playback
Aerospace Toolbox Animation Objects
To visualize flight data in the Aerospace Toolbox environment, you can use the following animation objects and their associated methods. These animation objects use the MATLAB® time series object, timeseries to visualize flight data.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40925 | Be the first to rate this file! 9 Downloads (last 30 days) File Size: 6.13 KB File ID: #40955
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GUI to assist with combining/pulling out figures and subplots
This GUI assists with generating new figures using data in existent figures.
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axes within subplot to new figure
combine multiple figures into subplot
integrate two figures
integrate two subplots
place data from a line in figure into workspace
To open:
Open the GUI by running figure_helper.m.
To use:
1. Place the figure handle(s) that you are pulling from in the GUI's text box (for multiple handles, separate each handle with a space).
2. If you are interested in a particular axes within a figure (e.g. if the figure contains a subplot), make sure to make that axes active. One way to do that is to choose the "edit plot" (white arrow) option in the figure's toolbar, then click on the axes of interest.
3. Choose the action you're interested in by clicking one of the buttons on the left.
Required Products MATLAB
MATLAB release MATLAB 7.10 (R2010a)
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40926 | image thumbnail
updated 2 years ago
Delta Sigma Toolbox by Richard Schreier
High-level design and simulation of delta-sigma modulators (electronics, deltasigma, sigmadelta)
1; end end
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updated almost 5 years ago
Phase Locked Loop Synthesis and Simulation by Ben
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updated almost 6 years ago
Convert Text to an image by Tobias Kiessling
text2im.m converts a passed text string to a matrix which contains the the string as an image (simpl (text image conversion...)
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40927 | Documentation Center
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Transfer distributed array data or gpuArray to local workspace
X = gather(A)
X = gather(C, lab)
X = gather(A) can operate inside an spmd statement, pmode, or communicating job to gather together the data of a codistributed array, or outside an spmd statement to gather the data of a distributed array. If you execute this inside an spmd statement, pmode, or communicating job, X is a replicated array with all the data of the array on every worker. If you execute this outside an spmd statement, X is an array in the local workspace, with the data transferred from the multiple workers.
X = gather(distributed(X)) or X = gather(codistributed(X)) returns the original array X.
X = gather(C, lab) converts a codistributed array C to a variant array X, such that all of the data is contained on worker lab, and X is a 0-by-0 empty double on all other workers.
For a gpuArray input, X = gather(A) transfers the data from the GPU to the local workspace.
If the input argument to gather is not a distributed, a codistributed, or a gpuArray, the output is the same as the input.
n = 10;
C = codistributed(magic(n));
M = gather(C) % Gather data on all workers
S = gather(C) % Gather data on client
Gather all of the data in C onto worker 1, for operations that cannot be performed across distributed arrays.
n = 10;
C = codistributed(magic(n));
out = gather(C, 1);
if labindex == 1
% Characteristic sum for this magic square:
% Ensure that the diagonal sums are equal to the
% characteristic sum:
areDiagonalsEqual = isequal ...
(trace(out), trace(flipud(out)), characteristicSum)
Lab 1:
areDiagonalsEqual =
Gather all of the data from a distributed array into D on the client.
n = 10;
D = distributed(magic(n)); % Distribute data to workers
M = gather(D) % Return data to client
Gather the results of a GPU operation to the local workspace.
G = gpuArray(rand(1024,1));
F = sqrt(G); %input and output both gpuArray
W = gather(G); % Return data to client
Name Size Bytes Class
F 1024x1 108 gpuArray
G 1024x1 108 gpuArray
W 1024x1 8192 double
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40928 | Documentation Center
• Trials
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Using Logical Arrays in Indexing
A logical matrix provides a different type of array indexing in MATLAB®. While most indices are numeric, indicating a certain row or column number, logical indices are positional. That is, it is the position of each 1 in the logical matrix that determines which array element is being referred to.
See Using Logicals in Array Indexing for more information on this subject.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40955 | Topic: Dwyane Wade
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Dwyane Wade
TV Performances: The 2004 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic medals won: Bronze medal at Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's basketball Film Performances:Just Wright, Undeniable: The Rise of Dwyane Wade Awards Won:2006 - Best NBA Player ESPY Award2006 - Sportsman of the Year Personal Information: Dwyane Wade Jr. Born on Jan 17, 1982 in Chicago Professions: Basketball player, Athlete Nationality: United States of America
See Wikipedia: Dwyane Wade |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40958 | User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 30 Ratings
User score distribution:
1. Positive: 24 out of 30
2. Negative: 5 out of 30
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1. Dec 28, 2013
2. Nov 18, 2013
3. Dec 16, 2012
4. Jan 26, 2012
5. Nov 7, 2011
6. Sep 10, 2011
7. JoeyR
Jun 24, 2009
The critics that rated this poorly obviously aren't good at it. Therefore, they take their frustration out on the franchise. Plus, they don't like the entertainment-without-blood-and-sex that Sonic delivers (they've been making up excuses about why Sonic stinks since the mid 90s and Sonic's ratings have only gone up since then). It's different. It's entertaining. It's engaging. It's fun. Play it. If you're any good at fast paced racing games, you'll enjoy it. Expand
8. TheRealSyko
Jun 2, 2008
I am well aware that Sega's flagship franchise has been ailing of late, suffering from Video Game Leukaemia: turning out droves of unfinished titles. This is one of the few exceptions. The concept of the game is refreshing, the gameplay is addictive, yet difficult enough to keep the length reasonable (unlike its sequel). One thing it lacked was substantial cutscenes, probably for the better: all the less of Jason Griffith's sneering Sonic voice and hoarse Jet voice to hear. Shadow (fangirl idol #1) is entirely absent from the story, and inserting Jet to supplant him, even if for one game, was probably not a good PR move. HOWEVER: All things considered, the graphics are well rendered for PS2 (just don't mention GT4 and FF12), the gameplay is insanely addictive when you get into it, and the unlocks tempt you to keep going back for more. WELL worth it. I borrowed it from a friend and was impressed enough to buy it. Expand
9. Liz
Jun 5, 2006
Well, I thought it was fun, even after beating it three times over. The graphics were nice, and the CG videos were amazing, but I saw flaws there. For one, the mouths didn't move accordingly, but that can be overlooked. There are very few levels, but there are two worth your time to unlock, and they are very fun, with shortcuts and other things hidden everywhere. The other levels are fun too, however few, and give you a feeling of actually being in Sonic's universe, not in some random city. Basic controls, but they fit the bill nicly. The frusterating races come all too often though, and is the real reason why this is only worth a rent. Sonic Fans: Buy. Racing Fans: Rent. Hate both? Avoid. Expand
10. [Anonymous]
May 27, 2006
What could have been a fun, enjoyable racer is turned into tedium by an unnecessarily high difficulty level. SonicTeam seemed to think they were making F-Zero instead of a Sonic spinoff. Unfortunately, this isn't nearly as good as F-Zero. Once you learn the controls, (which takes a while) the game provides some thrills and funny cutscenes, but overall, there's just no reason to play it.
11. EthanR.
May 26, 2006
A very average game. But i've got to hand it to sega, this is a pretty well created game. The controls are basic, but sometimes frustrating. The level desighn was amazing, there was shortcuts everywhere. The graphics were good. The worst thing about the game is how impossible some of the races were. Overall it was a good game but not worth a buy.
12. FrankG.
Apr 15, 2006
On the outside this may seem to be just another way to squeeze money out of Sonic's name, but once you play the game you may find, as I did, that this is one of the most refreshingly fun racers in a long time. This game is in a league of its own with its racing style that combines the best of surfing, biking, skating, and many other extreme sports.
13. BrianA.
Apr 3, 2006
it is an embaresment to all sonic lovers everywhere.
14. TreyW.
Mar 3, 2006
This game is a game for people who don't press the boost button repeatedly, The graphics are very high tech, and with the 3 new characters and the hoverboards make this game a blast.
15. Jan 26, 2012
Mixed or average reviews - based on 32 Critics
Critic score distribution:
1. Positive: 6 out of 32
2. Negative: 5 out of 32 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40959 | • Publisher:
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Mem Image
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New low price! Enjoy while it last!
Master this original puzzle game by using the iphone features in ways they were meant to be played. This game is designed to be easy to learn, balanced to be challenging for different
players skills, and to be greatly addictive.
The concept is simple: Use your sense of observation, deduction and memory skill to match identical pictures and empty the board of its entire set of cards. some cards contain a hint while others are obstacle. Arrows will hint you where to find the matches while frozen cards will not be movable. You can move the cards by scrolling your finger on the screen or you can reveal the pictures by shaking the iphone.
- Press on a card to reveal it
- Press the screen and move vertically or horizontally to move the entire set of cards. The cards will only move if there is empty spot for them to move into.
- When the iPhone icon is shaking, shake your iPhone to reveal the entire set of cards for a few seconds. More often you shake it, more difficult it will become to get the icon to shake.
1 - Each games begins by revealing all cards for a few seconds and then turn to hidden side. Try to memorize as many cards as you can! By revealing many cards on the first turn you will have room to move the cards around.
2 - By moving the cards around, the arrows will hint you where to find matches. Move in many direction and try to create different pattern to get different hint from the arrows.
Have fun!
Update 1.1
New picture cards have been added. Enjoy!
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40962 | • Studio:
• Release Date: Oct 11, 2013
No score yet - based on 1 Critic
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Summary: As clichés go, in 1999 the World as we knew it was about to change - and we'd been expecting it. Since childhood we'd been promised that the 21st century would bring us dramatic new technologies like flying cars and Utopian cities. Instead it bought us the smart-phone, social media, and virtual societies. And as it turns out these technologies began to transform society almost as dramatically as the moon colonies we'd been expecting. Now over a decade into the revolution DSKNECTD explores how digital communication technology is profoundly changing the way we interact and experience each other - for the good and for the bad.
Runtime: 98 min
Official Site: http://www.dsknectd.com/
Production: Internegative Films
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Language: English
Director Credit
Dominic H. White Director
Writer Credit
Dominic H. White Writer
Cast Credit
Adam Gazzaley Himself
Christopher Cacciacarne Jake
Daniel Chouinard Dad
Derrick Jacobson karza85
Duane Osterlind Himself
Eric R.W. Rice Himself
Jacki Morie Herself
John Kim Kim Jae-Beom
Jonathan Gratch Himself
Kelly Tran Kim Yun-Jeong
Kenneth Woog Himself
Larry Rosen Himself
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang Herself
Rodrigo DeMattos Stripes
Tristan Moreno College Research Participant
Producer Credit
Dominic H. White Producer |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40966 | Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critics
Critic score distribution:
1. Positive: 7 out of 8
2. Negative: 0 out of 8
1. The astute and eclectic programming makes for a better listen than other attempts that have been made to compile '80s alternative rock.
2. A must-have for any fans of true alternative music and a primer for younger generations to see where their favorite bands got their inspiration.
3. Provides a mind-blowing nostalgic trip for those who grew up with these songs.
4. Like the great college radio station that never was. [29 Oct 2004, p.69]
5. You don't judge a compilation by its hits alone, and it doesn't take long to find the set's weakness: sequencing.
6. Virtually all of these songs and recordings have held up beautifully. [28 Oct 2004, p.104]
7. Listening to these four discs, you can really picture an entire nation of college students and twenty-somethings promoting their own gigs, designing their radio station playlists and folding their own record sleeves while staying up late to watch 120 Minutes.
8. 60
In short, it needs a rigorous editor. [Feb 2005, p.94]
User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings
User score distribution:
1. Positive: 3 out of 3
2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
3. Negative: 0 out of 3
1. MarcD.
Jan 11, 2005
Excellent mix of songs. Makes me miss the days of Richard Blade and Poorman in the mornings on KROQ.
2. BernardH
Nov 18, 2004
Informative and representative of the time. Interesting style shifts. A lot of fun to listen to. Booklet is a great resource.
3. KyleB
Nov 15, 2004 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40968 | The Ashlee Simpson Show Image
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2. Second Review
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• Starring: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz
• Summary: In season one Ashlee records her CD and writes her songs for the CD. It also deals with Ashlee's breakup with her boyfriend and when Ashlee's CD goes platinum. In season two, we watched Ashlee Simpson rise from being Jessica's cool younger sister to a multi-platinum selling artist and this new season will capture the journey and everything that comes with mega-stardom. MTV captures it all, from her infamous SNL appearance to product endorsement and movie deals, to preparing for her biggest musical challenge--her first nationwide tour. Throughout it all, Ashlee is challenged with reproving herself as a serious artist, while keeping her integrity and identity in tact. This season gives an intimate look into the crazy new world that only success can bring and culminates with Ashlee's first ever tour. Expand
• Genre(s): Comedy, Reality, Game Show, Arts, Music
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/40977 | Today's the big day all you Twi-hards have been waiting for— Twilight: Breaking Dawn (Pt. 1) is officially in theatres! If you're on Team Edward and can't get enough of those cunning, mysterious beings we call vampires, then this is the playlist for you. We're counting down the top 5 lyrics that name drop your fave creature of the night:
5. Nicki Minaj - Moment 4 Life
"And yes I call the shots, I am the umpire / I sprinkle holy water, upon the vampire (vampire)"
We're hoping that Nicki isn't referring to the one and only Edward Cullen — we know you're thinking the same thing! Holy water, like garlic or a wooden steak, is just another way to defeat a vampire. Maybe she's talking about the Volturi clan?
4. Lady Gaga - Dance In The Dark
"Run, run her kiss is a vampire grin / The moon lights away while she's howlin' at him"
Lady Gaga's lyrics have the potential to be about dear old Bella Swan. The love triangle between her, Edward, and Jacob are represented in the line above. Her kiss with Edward vs. her lust for Jacob? We think Gaga planned this...
3. Timbaland - Morning After
"Maybe we can start a riot, maybe we can run this town / Maybe I'll be your vampire, we could figure it out"
Timbaland is offering himself to be your Edward Cullen in his lyrics for "Morning After Dark". Sure, he may not have the hair, the clothes, the sparkly skin but: Tim's a fun-loving guy and, unlike Edward, might be able to make you LOL!
2. Tom Petty - Free Fallin'
"All the vampires walkin' through the valley / Move west down Ventura Blvd"
Here's a classic tune that name drops vampires by Tom Petty. The Twilight saga wasn't even born yet when this song came out, but maybe these lyrics were a premonition for the upcoming gangs of vampires that Twilight writer Stefenie Meyer created? Hmm...
1. Monster - Kanye West ft. Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross
"Love, I don't get enough of it / All I get are these vampires and blood suckers"
Jay-Z's line in Kanye's "Monster" sounds a lot like what Bella went through throughout the Twilight series. Since she's a human and Edward's a vampire, their love was looked down upon by the other Twilight vampires. Who knew Jay-Z was a Twilight fan?
Did we miss any of your fave "vampire" themed songs? Let us know in the comments!
~ A.H. |
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Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic
General Discussion » Status of the game
3 posts found
Apprentice Member
Joined: 5/02/08
Posts: 1974
OP 1/13/12 8:43:33 PM#1
Found this post really well done and certainly a good view on the satus of the game.
By RolyartNala,
For a brand new MMO, the leveling game is quite polished and very enjoyable; however, high level content and systems need some serious love. If you're rushing to 50 to get a taste of endgame, stop and smell the roses instead, because you aren't missing much right now.
Okay, all the ADHD kids are gone. Now let's talk.
Overall, I was and remain blown away by this game. It's a massive undertaking and one of the most incredibly complex entertainment projects in history. Kudos to BioWare on the engaging class story that kept me struggling up through the levels so that I could continually see what was next. Like a good book, I couldn't stop reading (or listening, as the case may be.) But now that I am done, I do have some criticisms of certain portions of the game. Before I mention that, let me speak to the good.
Absolutely Epic Story
I decided to level a Smuggler (Gunslinger) as my first 50, and without spoiling the story, let me just say that it was, for the most part, fantastic. The dialogue choices and voice work for my character often left me feeling like cheering or giggling with childish glee. There are several surprising options available if you unlock them, including hidden titles, strange romances, and startling revelations. As a (male) Smuggler, one can choose to be (1) the charming rogue, (2) the space gigolo, (3) the cold-hearted killer, the (4) clever criminal, (5) the courageous privateer and many other things. You can be many of these things at the same time. You have many, many romance options, both short- and long-term. The story is always fast-paced and twists and turns with great frequency all the way to the end. Eschewing gear concerns (I'll get back to this later), you feel empowered to be whomever you choose, and you will marvel at times that the crazy choices you make are fully supported by the actions and reactions of the non-player characters around you. No matter how you decide to play, BioWare planned for it. It's very, very entertaining.
Gorgeous Worlds
BioWare, give your environment artists a raise. They deserve it. From the war-torn plains of Balmorra to the industrial sprawl of Corellia, each world's distinct aesthetic stands out as a truly unique environment. Interior art assets are reused enough to notice, but not so much that it really bothers you. Exterior art assets seem, for the most part, unique to each planet. BioWare has done a very good job of making each world actually feel like a completely different planet. The decision to not include day/night cycles or weather effects, while disappointing, makes sense given the goal of ensuring that each planet (1) feels Star Wars-y and (2) is unique and alien in its own way. You did a good job here, BW.
Novel Crafting System
BioWare has done the impossible—it has made me care about crafting in an MMO. I have dumped roughly half a million credits into crafting and maxed all three skills (crafting, mission, gathering.) I love that I don’t have to sit around the forge making sword hilts all day if I want to level my skill, and I love that once you have gathered the materials, construction of an item is guaranteed. I love that you can get skillups even on failures to find materials, and I love that you can reverse engineer green items to get blue, and blue to get purple. On the balance, the crafting system is fundamentally sound.
Mirrored Classes, Mirrored Skills
By mirroring the classes and skills, BioWare has, I imagine, significantly reduced class balancing difficulties. Every class has (1) an interrupt, (2) a stun, (3) an escape mechanism, (4) defensive cooldowns, and (5) some form of CC, be it a snare, a root, a mezz, and so on. From 1-49, skill is the major factor in a PVP victory, all things being equal. This is good design. There are significant problems once level 50 PVP gear comes into play, however, as it is far and away better than leveling gear, even for bolstered characters.
Combat is Hard
What, you ask? Hard is good? Yes. Unlike in many other games, you cannot sleepwalk through leveling, relying on autoattack and spamming AOEs to see you through. Combat requires focus and smart applications of your skills. Even monsters you’ve fought dozens of times can still present a challenge for the unwary or lazy player. Also, as you level up, the higher-level monsters become a titch more challenging. Not enough to always be overwhelming, but enough such that you end up relying on your whole toolkit of skills to win, rather than simply pressing the same one or two keys over and over. Pull too many mobs? You’re probably dead. Backpedal into a pat? Dead. Ride through a big group, hoping to rely on your speeder to whisk you past them? No, sorry, you’re likely dead. And that’s all to the good, because it forces you to remain engaged with the environment. Even in your class quest, there are moments when you are forced to dig deep into your skill reservoir (not to mention, your cooldowns) to pull out a win.
Companions and Personal Starships
I’m happy with both of these systems, on the balance. I love that you get a variety of companions to satisfy any playstyle within each class, and that each companion can be further fine-tuned to support a specific style of play. I love that companions can be customized appearance-wise, both through gear and customization kits, and I especially like that I can give them my hand-me-downs when I upgrade. I also love that the companions are distinct individuals with different concerns, and that you can gain or lose massive affections with them if you say or do the right or wrong thing (protip: Don’t flirt with other girls once you have a main squeeze). I love that I have a personal instance in which I can hang out and invite friends (in other words, my starship), and that I can use it to travel from planet to planet and also to engage in space combat.
Other Things of Which I Am Fond
The idea of social gear, jukeboxes, appearance customization with orange-quality moddable items, my A-300 Heavy Sonic Needler (or, as I call it, the Dirty Harry gun), space cowboy hats and coats, my character’s epic sideburns, Jawas, hating on my protocol droid, companion storylines that are unlocked as their affection for you increases, starship upgrades, datacrons/easter eggs (anyone for a 45-minute hot air balloon ride on Tatooine?), and that crazy puzzle with the power transformers and the planetary defense cannon on Balmorra. Seriously, it took an engineer, a scientist and a college professor nearly an hour to figure it out, so kudos.
I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been thorough in outlining what I find appealing about the game. As you can see, it’s a long list. I love SWTOR, and in the broad strokes I find playing it to be a very engaging experience. But now I want to get to the actual point of this post, which is this:
There are many broken or frustrating things that need to be fixed.
Since the devil is in the details, let’s devil it up.
Dear God, the Load Screens
BW has never been shy about loading screens. Having played through Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and both Mass Effects, I can’t say I was surprised that they are in SWTOR. The problem is there are so freaking many of them, and they are inordinately, inexplicably long. Look, I have a sweet gaming rig. It’s a big, new computer that I bought specifically to play SWTOR, and I spent too much money on it. SWTOR doesn’t seem to care—I load, and I load, and I sit there loading some more. Every ten meters, it seems, is a load screen that takes thirty seconds (or more!) to resolve. Let’s say you’re on Carrack Station and you want to fly to Tatooine. You load into the Smuggler’s hangar bay, and then you load onto your freighter (cutscene), and then you walk to the cockpit, input coordinates for Tatooine (cut to galaxy map), then hit enter (cutscene as you enter and exit hyperspace), then you walk back to the airlock to exit the ship, where you load onto Tatooine (cutscene), which puts you in the Tatooine Smuggler phase hangar bay, which you then have to load to exit, and finally you’re in the Tatooine spaceport and can walk outside and go “ooh” and “aah” at Anchorhead. Repeat the process in reverse if you want to fly back to Carrack Station. If you’re flying to most higher-level worlds, there’s an additional process—you don’t land on the planet, but dock at a space station in orbit, which means that you also have to load through an airlock and a shuttle ride down to the planet! BioWare! Come on! This is ridiculous! And forget about loading from instance to instance within a world—if you’re on Coruscant [1] and you’re buddy’s on Coruscant [2], it’s a loadscreen to switch between the two.
Gear Customization Ends at 50
All those cool outfits you’ve meticulously collected over the course of leveling? You might as well vendor them, because endgame gear is miles better than anything you could throw level 50 mods into. That’s right, you’re encouraged by the gearing system from levels 1 to 49 to customize, be unique, find a look that you like and wear that. And then at 50, you’re encouraged to throw all that stuff in the trash and wear the exact same gear as everyone else. In and of itself, this is disappointing. What makes it worse, however, is the fact that the level 50 gear is not unique to advanced classes—though BW makes a big show about the uniqueness of the ACs, let’s be real; all Smugglers have the same storyline regardless of whether or not they are Scoundrels or Gunslingers, and all Smugglers wear the exact same level 50 gear. Scoundrels in healing specs and Gunslingers in sharpshooter specs look exactly the same when fully geared, with the only visual distinction being the fact that one has one blaster and the other has two. Worse, the epic gear sets are all identical except for minor color variations. So as you earn better and better endgame gear, your look doesn’t change at all, just its color scheme. BioWare, broskis, after designing a robust system during leveling that encourages individuality and customization, endgame gear is an epic fail.
At 50, Crafting Seems Irrelevant
This is one of the biggest fails I can see in the game right now. I worked hard, dumped all my money into leveling Armstech, and then I discover at 50 that the first tier of PVP weapons is miles—leagues—better than the best thing I can craft with 400 skill. That PVP weapon is rewarded RNG from playing warzones, which means you could get it in a day or a month. But either way, when we’re looking at effort vs. reward, I’m pretty frustrated. I had to scrounge to afford all my skills the last ten levels or so, I put off buying level 40 speeder training until level 50, and I busted out Armstech to the tune of half a million credits and dozens of hours of companion missions only to discover that all of my effort is completely irrelevant. Operations bosses drop better weapons, PVP RNG drops better weapons. So now, at 50, the smart thing to do is to set Armstech aside and PVP all the time until the RNG gods favor me with a deuce of blasters. I’m sure glad I’m still dinking around on this level 40 speeder and getting no benefit from all that time and money spent crafting.
Completing a Flashpoint With a Full Group is an Epic Quest In and of Itself
You can’t just zone into a dungeon in SWTOR. First, you need the feeder quest, which takes you to an NPC who wants to talk to you. You are not allowed to zone in and start the FP until you this. If one of your party members doesn’t have the quest, he can’t zone in until everyone drops the feeder quest, picks it up again, and does the talky talk with the NPC guy. If you’re midway through a run and someone has to drop group, and the new guy doesn’t have the feeder quest, guess what? You have to go back and do it rather than just zone in to replace the guy who left. Then you pick up where you left off inside the FP. If you’ve already killed some bosses, though, replacement guy might not get credit for running the FP and will have to do it again. If you delete the feeder quest before completing the FP, you don’t get credit for completing the FP and will have to do it all over again. Once inside the FP, if you kill the final boss and leave, you won’t get credit for completing the FP since you left before the dénouement, and you’ll have to run it again for credit. BW, for the love of all that is holy, make it easier to run FPs. I know story is king, but in this case, a fun, no-hassle play experience should take precedence. FPs should not be armadas of obstructions, but something you should be able to just jump in and do from anywhere, at anytime. Right now, honestly, they are more of a pain in the pazooka than they are worth. That’s a shame, since the few I’ve run were epic. Except, you know, for the crippling bugs, disconnects, and random resets.
Social Ranks Unlock Social Gear, and…?
So far, as near as I can tell, the only purpose of gaining social points (and, thus, ranks) is to unlock special “social” gear sets that are sold by various vendors in cantinas across the galaxy. In concept, this is cool, if limited. In practice, it’s something of a bummer. For starters, all social gear is light armor, so it’s clearly not intended for anyone but Consulars/Inquisitors to actually use in combat. I suppose it’s a good thing that we won’t be seeing Troopers with miniguns in slave girl bikinis, but that means that social gear, since it’s of little practical use (and, by extension, Social ranks are of little practical use), should be simply amazingly cool to look at, right? I mean, this gear should be far out, wild, awesome stuff, aesthetically dynamite, since you’re grinding for it and it has no use for almost everyone. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Most social gear sets are actually pretty lame, just variations on the uniforms worn by local NPCs on those worlds your visiting. There’s a Leia slave girl outfit, and a Tusken Raider outfit, and then half a dozen drab uniforms with inexplicably high Social ranks required to purchase them. This feels like an unfinished, half-realized system. And, of course, it’s subject to the same limitations described above as leveling gear. Thus, I have to ask: What is the point?
The Major Milestone in Your Class Quest is at 30, Not 50
This one baffled me. I leveled my Jedi Consular to 32, completing Chapter 1, to be made a Jedi Master and have accolades fall from the sky. On my Smuggler, I got a cool title and an even cooler blaster pistol. In contrast, the end of Chapter 3 on my Smuggler was quite a letdown—no new title, no sweet piece of gear, nothing new or unique or special. The ending was simply that, an ending. Having been conditioned by fifty levels of being rewarded for completing things, it was a big letdown. But then I got to thinking. Where do you go after Jedi Master, exactly? What greater accolade could the galaxy bestow upon you? None, really—you play a Jedi to become a Master. Why, then, was this awesome final gift bestowed at the end of the first chapter rather than the last? Was it decided that fifty levels was too long to wait for the greatest honor a Jedi could get? Were the other classes’ stories then designed to follow suit? Why exactly was there no “Welcome to endgame” package for characters completing their class storylines? BioWare, I loved the story, but I would have loved a Cool Thing™ as well. Why didn’t I get one?
Entering a Warzone Removes You From Group
This is more of an annoyance than anything, but if you PVP with your friends a lot, it’ll go to the top of your “MUST FIX NOW” list. Say you’re grouped. You queue for a warzone together. You enter the warzone, and the group is disbanded. When you complete the warzone, you have to manually group again and queue again—the game does not remember that you were grouped. I’m sorry, but WoW had this one figured out years ago; if you’re group and enter a battleground together, you leave the battleground together. It’s a no-brainer, so why can’t SWTOR do this?
Auto-Follow Doesn’t Work
Speaking of minor things SWTOR can’t do, there’s autofollow. It doesn’t work. You click it, follow for ten or twenty meters, and then stop following. So much for letting your buddy get you both to the quest phase while you take a leak.
A Host of Other Bugs, Some Crippling, Some Not, That I Know Are Being Working On
Too many to list, really. The most annoying to me personally are the random disappearance of your companion after zoning, mounting or dismounting; the companion’s inability to sell trash items; Corso Riggs and his stupid Harpoon Shot that you can’t turn off; the Cover bug for smugglers; the lack of a targeting reticule during the cannon phase of the Colocoid War Games flashpoint; random disconnects; and random graphics glitches.
On the balance, I love the game. It has potential for great longevity. My gripes are the gripes of a dedicated player who wants to see the game he loves improve. What will determine SWTOR’s longevity are the decisions BW makes over the next few months regarding endgame, and the speed at which they lay out new content. Right now, endgame and the systems that support it need a lot of work. This is not unexpected in a new MMO, but it is still disappointing. Oh well, I know the leveling is good, so off I go again to level my Consular. Hopefully by the time he’s 50 these issues will have been addressed. "
If I had to add something to the above it would be the lacking UI.
Kudos's to the OP. People like him are indeed helping the game to be better in the long term as such posts are indeed read by the devs.
Advanced Member
Joined: 4/08/05
Posts: 1857
1/13/12 8:55:35 PM#2
some good points.. but really don't agree with the crafting system comments becuase crafting is a mess right now... also hard combat? really? then he goes on to say how mirriored classes are a good thing... I dunno for me class variety is one of the things that keeps MMO's afloat for month after month... I enjoy class variety and talent build choices.. but they really went WAY the other way in giving you almost no class customization choices in this game
Novice Member
Joined: 3/10/07
Posts: 685
1/13/12 10:44:26 PM#3
Hard to belive that is not bioware sponsored with no mention of 2 two hottest SWTOR issues atm:
Ability delay
High resolution graphics abscent
and this made me LOL:
Comments that mirrored classes are good ? What happened to diverse unique classes were good ? So we are happy about less real content ? |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41005 | Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars (Windows)
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
5 point score based on user ratings.
Not an American user?
The sequel to Cossacks, Cossacks 2: Napoleonic Wars is set in the 18th–19th century and involves Europe and parts of Africa. Surprisingly it has little to do with Napoleon. You can play as six nations, all of which have their own units and available tactics (the British can use congreve rockets, the Egyptians can use Taureg mercenaries, etc). There are over 140 different unit types available.
Some of the changes from the original Cossacks are that the economic and empire-building parts of the game have been de-emphasised and combat is given a higher priority. Also, there's the inclusion of factors such as morale and fatigue. If your troops are exhausted and you force them to fight a battle, they'll have weak morale and will probably break ranks and run after suffering a few casualties. Terrain also has a big impact, trees will shield your men against bullets and shrapnel and if your men are firing from a hill they'll receive an attack bonus.
There's a campaign mode, a series of pre-set battles, a Conquer Europe mode, and the traditional start-from-scratch mode in the original Cossacks.
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars Windows A gold mine
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars Windows A cavalry charge in the right place can be a decisive battle-winner
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars Windows Cossacks 2's buildings really are to scale
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars Windows Napoleon's forces in Russia
Alternate Titles
• "哥萨克II：拿破仑战争" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
• "Казаки II: Наполеоновские войны" -- Russian spelling
• "Kozacy II: Wojny Napoleońskie" -- Polish title
• "Kasakad II: Napoleoni sõjad" -- Estonian title
• "Cossacks 2: Napoleonské války" -- Czech title
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
The game that killed the franchise Maw (849) 2.67 Stars2.67 Stars2.67 Stars2.67 Stars2.67 Stars
The Press Says
Absolute Games ( Jun 06, 2005 81 out of 100 81 Apr 15, 2005 16 out of 20 80
GameZone May 20, 2005 7.9 out of 10 79
GameSpot Apr 26, 2005 7.9 out of 10 79
GameStar (Germany) May, 2005 77 out of 100 77 PC Gaming May 18, 2005 7.6 out of 10 76
1UP May 24, 2005 7.5 out of 10 75
GamingExcellence May 15, 2005 7.2 out of 10 72
PC Powerplay May, 2005 63 out of 100 63
JustPressPlay Mar 03, 2005 5 out of 10 50
There are currently no topics for this game.
Historic anniversary
2005 is the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar, which is regarded by many historians as the turning point of the Napoleonic Wars. Fitting, eh?
Maw (849) added Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars (Windows) on Jun 29, 2005 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41006 | Double Cross (DOS)
Published by
Developed by
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
5 point score based on user ratings.
Not an American user?
Double Cross is a puzzle-solving game for two players. The aim is to build a solid bridge from one side of the board to the other while preventing the opponent from doing same connection.
The board is composed of an array of dots - each one representing a valid place for playing piece. There are two sets of finish lines on the board (horizontal, vertical), each painted in the color that represents the player that must connect them.
Each player takes a turn and places a piece with their color on one of the dots on the board. You may place your piece on any dot, except those that are on the outside of on one of your opponent's finish lines. The game continues until the construction of the bridge is completed or there is insufficient space on the board.
Double Cross DOS Building the bridge [CGA]
Double Cross DOS Game start-up [CGA]
Double Cross DOS Bridge completed
Double Cross DOS Building the bridge
User Reviews
There are no reviews for this game.
The Press Says
There are no rankings for this game.
There are currently no topics for this game.
There is no trivia on file for this game.
Karsa Orlong (43917) added Double Cross (DOS) on Aug 27, 2013 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41007 | Serious Sam (Game Boy Advance)
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
5 point score based on user ratings.
Advertising Blurbs
Time for mayhem.
Don't be Mental, now.
• Relentless first-person shooter
• Weapons include chainsaw, pistol and shotgun
• Multi-Pak action for one to four players
Like Serious Sam: Next Encounter for the GCN, Serious Sam Advance dispenses with traditional lock-and-key puzzle elements, focusing instead on relentless action as Sam rewrites history in his time-traveling pursuit of Mental's minions. You'll find plenty of weapons, ammo and health power-ups. You'll need them all, as the bad guys charge like so many art lovers at a $1.99 Picasso sale.
Controls are extremely basic. You can't jump and there's no inventory. The manual aiming makes strafing tough, as you'll constantly have to re-aim as you sidle sideways.
Bottom Line
Serious Sam Advance may be a weaker entry in the robust GBA FPS lineup, but don't hold that against the equally basic but very fun Serious Sam: Next Encounter.
Contributed by Evil Ryu (51758) on Aug 07, 2006. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41008 | R-Type III: The Third Lightning
Published by
Developed by
MobyRank MobyScore
Game Boy Advance
Not an American user?
Gameplay is still the classic R-Type way with huge levels and bosses. With your detachable laser unit, you can fire in front or behind your ship. R-Type III now features three different kinds of laser unit, selectable at the start of a game. Each offers different laser types depending on the power-ups collected.
R-Type III: The Third Lightning SNES Stage 1: Space Garbage
R-Type III: The Third Lightning Game Boy Advance Eliminating an enemy squadron.
R-Type III: The Third Lightning Game Boy Advance Title screen.
R-Type III: The Third Lightning SNES Title Screen (Blast off and strike the evil Bydo Empire!)
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
There are no reviews for this game.
The Press Says
Nintendo Magazine System UK SNES Jan, 1994 93 out of 100 93
Video Games SNES Apr, 1994 90 out of 100 90
Game Players SNES Sep, 1994 83 out of 100 83
Nintendo Life Wii Jan 16, 2007 8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars8 Stars 80
Game Informer Magazine Game Boy Advance May, 2004 6.25 out of 10 62
Pocket Magazine / Pockett Videogames Game Boy Advance Oct 01, 2004 2 Stars2 Stars2 Stars2 Stars2 Stars 40
Jeuxvideo.com Game Boy Advance Aug 25, 2006 8 out of 20 40
Cyber Gaming Network (CGN) Game Boy Advance Apr 27, 2004 1.25 out of 5 25
There are currently no topics for this game.
Western version
In the Western version, the shots of the end boss of level 2 were coloured to look like eyeballs. In the original version, they could be remotely confused with sperm.
• GameFan
• 1994 (Vol. 3, Iss. 1) - Best SNES Shooter Game of the Year
Contributed to by Corn Popper (69529) and Terok Nor (17720) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41009 | Reversi (Sinclair QL)
missing cover art
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
5 point score based on user ratings.
This is a computer conversion of the popular board game. You can play against the computer with a choice of nine skill levels or against a friend with the computer acting as umpire.
There's a few extra features, including an action replay enabling the player to cycle backwards or forwards through each move, resuming play from any point and the option of setting up custom starting positions.
There are no Sinclair QL screenshots for this game.
Alternate Titles
• "Reversi: Also known as Othello" -- ZX81 tag-lined title
• "QL Reversi" -- Sinclair QL title
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
There are no reviews for this game.
The Press Says
There are no rankings for this game.
There are currently no topics for this game.
There is no trivia on file for this game.
Rola (6430) added Reversi (Sinclair QL) on Jul 17, 2012
Other platforms contributed by Kabushi (114907) and Jack Lightbeard (2653) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41027 | or Connect
Mothering › Mothering Forums › Mom › Parenting › For those who take their kids to McDonalds...
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For those who take their kids to McDonalds...
post #1 of 142
Thread Starter
I know not everybody here let's their kids have McDonalds, but I have a question for those who do. We eat McD's occasionally, usually just when travelling but every now and again....just because.
Today I took dd in for lunch as we were running errands. We sat down, I opened her super fabulous toy , and we ate. She alternated between playing with her toy and eating. In comes a mom and her little boy. Now, I have no idea what their day had been like before they got there, have no idea what she might have told this child before coming in, and so on. They sat down, she wouldn't let him have the toy until he had eaten, and he proceeded to throw a ballistic fit. Now, having been part of tantrums in public before, I do have some symathy. But, I guess I don't get it. This is certainly not the first time I have seen this. And, to me, seems like an easily prevented problem.
So, my question is, do you make your child eat their food before giving them the toy? Why do you do this?
post #2 of 142
Mine aren't here yet, but my SIL did this when my niece was 3-ish and we were on a road trip. Now, that must've "just been the way it worked" for her, because she didn't flip out or tantrum over it, and I think the idea was that then she wouldn't piddle-putz around toy-fry-toy-fry-toy-nugget when FIL was already tapping his foot to get back on the road?
If it were something that was going to cause *more* heartache and possibly cost more time when you're pressed (like a tantrum) then, yeah, I totally understand your point.
post #3 of 142
I don't go to McDs, but I always bring a toy into restaurants to keep my son entertained. It's always small and non-obtrusive, quiet, like a car or animal figure. I also have a few books. So I would give him the McD toy at the beginning.
Maybe the kid plays with the toys too loudly or throws them? Gets distracted and won't eat? Is likely to throw a fit if it's the "wrong" version of a toy? There could be a reason, but it does seem odd at first.
post #4 of 142
no, I hand over their happy meal with all the contents. They eat and open their toy at the same time. If we sit in the play area, I usually don't even make them finish their food before hopping off to go down the slide. They can come and go as they please. I know other moms are strict about having them eat, then play. My mom used to hide our french fries from us until we ate our burger. I can't recall if she did the same with our toys, but I sure remember having to wait for the dang fries!
We don't go to mcdonalds very often, though, b/c no one besides DH and my youngest two boys even like the food. So, when we do go it's usually more for the playing in the playplace aspect which is probably why I don't care if they have a bite and run off.
post #5 of 142
I just hand each kid their bag. They're usually equally excited about the food and the toy so I have no problem letting them play and eat at the same time.
post #6 of 142
I've been known to hold back the toy until after eating. I've had toys dipped in ketchup and then used as a comb... But DD doesn't throw a fit about it.
Our most recent toy was a sweet little American Girls book with paper dolls. That definitely didn't get opened until we were home.
post #7 of 142
DD is only 6 months old, so I haven't had this issue with her. I'm sure she will at some point have MD's. I'm a fast food person, especially when we're out and about, so it'll happen at some point.
Anyway, this was my mom's rule when I was a kid. I could have the toy after I ate my meal. I never thought twice about it and happily ate my meal and even more happily got my toy after eating. I don't know what her reasoning was, but I don't remember throwing a fit about it. I just knew that's how it went.
post #8 of 142
I don't give DS the toy until we are done eating, mainly because he would get really excited about the toy and not eat anything. But, we don't go often and he's still young enough to where he doesn't realize that there is a toy in the bag.
post #9 of 142
A little different, but at Chic-fil-a I won't let my DD go play in the play area until she's finished eating her chicken and fruit. I guess that's the same sort of idea.
post #10 of 142
Originally Posted by Mal85 View Post
This was my mom's rule too when I was young. I'm pretty sure had we thrown a fit we wouldn't have received the toy at all, and there wouldn't be any trips to McDonalds for a long time.
post #11 of 142
No. That's just silly. Also, I have friends who don't let their kids play in the play land until they've eaten. I consider the play to be healthier than the food, so I let mine play away.
post #12 of 142
I take my kids to McDonald's. I always open the toy for them as soon as I open their food, and the first time I did it, I actually felt like I was breaking some kind of parenting rule. I've always seen: "You can have your toy when you finish ALL of your food", maybe its just a straight-up bribe to get their kids to eat. (?) Just a thought.
No offense to people who wait to give the toy, but thats a feeling I got from some moms I've seen there.
I can understand wanting to wait if you're in a hurry to get back on the road, etc.
post #13 of 142
It just depends. If the kids are already distracted and acting up then I make them wait till they are done eating. If they are being very focused and eating then I let them have it then.
post #14 of 142
I ask that the kids not play with the toy until they have made a significant dent in their food because: 1) it inevitabily gets covered in condiment goo, 2) it is distracting from the food, which gets cold and gross quickly, and 3) we aren't there for the "free" toy, we are there to eat. I am not a total hard-ass about it, but it is my standing expectation and the kids understand that.
post #15 of 142
I think it falls into the category of she's the mom and that's the way she's chosen to do it, so we have no place to pass any judgment (not that I think you were). Having no idea what her prior experiences have been at McDonald's, it's impossible to know the reason.
post #16 of 142
We don't 'save' toys for after eating. I understand why some parents do that, but we don't.
post #17 of 142
I wouldn't make my ds eat a McDonalds meal. Usually when we go to McDonalds is because we're running errands and don't have the time to get home; I figure if he's really hungry he'll eat something. Now, if he got a toy in a restaurant, I might ask him to eat before playing.
post #18 of 142
My kids are all too old for happy meals now but, when we did get them one.
They got the toy with the meal. Opened the toy and set the toy down and ate their meal. If one got too distracted by his/her toy i would hold it until
said child finished their meal. That rarely happened though.
post #19 of 142
I just give them the whole bag .
It's a major deal to them to get a Happy Meal, well the 'idea' of it is anyway, as we rarely ever go. Where we are it's a lot of money for what you get (McDonald's 'food') , so we really have to think of our other options for the money involved. Happy Meals run close to $6 with tax, so times that by three, plus a $6 (or more!!) salad for me and a meal for DH, and we could buy groceries for a few days, or take the kids downtown to the blues bar and feast on ribs all afternoon plus hear great music..... In other words, my kids really only get them if we have gift certificates or someone else is buying.
So in the very rare occurance that they actually get a Happy Meal I just say go for it, enjoy, and not place any rules or restrictions on it.
post #20 of 142
I have recently started suggesting a milkshake in lieu of a kids meal (aka toy) on the rare occasions we go out for fast food. The toys are such garbage. But, I admit to keeping the toys in the bag (not letting the kids see them) until they have eaten some of their meal.
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Unnatural Pursuits
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Alan Bates stars as Hamish Partt an alcoholic writer in the made-for-TV Unnatural Pursuits. Simon Gray's teleplay contrives to have Partt begin singing boisterously whenever confronted by a crisis. Read More
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In the made-for-television film Web of Deceit, a West coast lawyer (Linda Purl) returns to her hometown of Atlanta to defend an unfairly accused teenager (Paul de Souza) of rape and murder. Read More
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On DVD: Now | On Blu-ray: Now
Humanoids from the Deep
This gory, scary low-budget shocker from the Roger Corman stable concerns the battle over a salmon cannery in a Pacific Northwest town. Genetically treated salmon escape the plant and are eaten by coelacanths, who mutate into humanoid monsters with giant craniums and sharp claws. The creatures begin attacking teen couples, killing the boys and mating with the girls (in some pretty graphic monster-rape scenes). Eventually, a bunch of them create total pandemonium at the annual salmon festival. Barbara...more |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41047 | Dave's Rating:
Building a better Twilight
Once, when I was 16, the assistant youth minister at my Baptist church told me I should stop reading The Catcher in the Rye because it was "ungodly." At that point in my bookish adolescent snottiness I decided that not only was I absolutely going to finish it, but I also needed to seek out all the other banned and controversial books I could find. Of course, now that I'm a thousand years old I don't need a similarly rebellious, book-starved, teenage movie protagonist like Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) to validate my experience, but it's good that the movies throw a bone to the underrepresented minority of grumpy adolescent readers every once in a blue moon.
Ethan lives in a sleepy Southern town full of self-righteous know-nothings ("a town of buttermilk minds" declares writer-director Richard LaGravanese's script, an apparently very loose adaptation of Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia's novel) where he consumes forbidden books like Slaughterhouse-Five, Tropic of Cancer and Howl. He's bored and he wants out as soon as possible, but not before he gets to know the intriguingly odd new girl in school, the Charles Bukowski-reading Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert). Lena lives with her even odder uncle (Jeffery Irons, wearing brocaded capes and hamming it up like a boss) in a creepy old mansion and everyone in town thinks they're witches. They are.
In fact, Lena is about to learn if she's to become a good witch or a bad witch, a fate that may not be in her own hands thanks to a curse that's got her supernaturally tied up in knots. Her bad cousin (Emmy Rossum, wearing a succession of insane Cher-meets-Maleficent get-ups) and badder mother Sarafine (Emma Thompson, currently possessing the body of the churchiest Church Lady in town) beckon her to the dark. But Lena's uncle and a wild collection of character actor relatives (including British stage legend Eileen Atkins and Margo Martindale, holding a live peacock) will do everything they can to save her from that fate, even if it means interfering with the budding makeout sessions she's got going with Ethan.
If it sounds too post-Twilight for you, you're right. Star-crossed kids, one mortal and one not, an emphasis on outlandish obstacle, played for both maximum angst and total silliness, it fits that formula. But also not. Its staggeringly popular predecessor was ultimately about a kind of cloistering chastity and obedience, a critique echoed when Thompson's Sarafine spits, "Love was created to give females something to play with instead of power." For a goofy -- and occasionally flat-out confusing -- pop culture product aimed at the same audience, Beautiful Creatures is much weirder, cooler and knowing, more in league with something like The Perks of Being a Wallflower than anything Stephenie Meyer will ever create. It doesn't aim higher; it aims in several competing, uncharted directions.
Just don't let the empty, muddled, what's-this-thing-about-again? trailer fool you. It feels like the kind of marketing campaign meant to hide the story's strangeness when it should rightfully be using that stuff to beckon its intended audience. You know who you are. And when you leave the theater you should go find something by Bukowski, no matter what any adult tells you, because that guy was one of the last century's most amazing literary alcoholics. You'll learn a lot of crazy stuff from him. If you get nothing else from watching this movie then that's the takeaway that really ought to stick.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41051 | No '80s television fans, JamisonParker has nothing to do with the Simon & Simon star. Besides, he spells his first name with an "E." Instead, they're a sprightly emo-rock duo made up of Jamison Covington (vocals, guitars) and Parker Case (guitars, bass, drums, vocals). Covington and Case met through a mutual friend a few days before Covington was moving from California back to his homestate of Kentucky. Covington had already been a fan of Case's onetime band Astoria, so the two kept in touch and traded demo tapes via snail mail. Eight months later, Covington left behind his country boy roots and returned to California to officially form JamisonParker in early 2003. The band played around town, mostly for friends. Then the promoter of the Asbury Park, New Jersey Surf and Skate Fest caught one of JP's "guerilla" sets (they were playing by the event's merch booths and at offsite hotels) and invited them to play on the Skate Fest stage the following day. Seven-hundred people witnessed one of the band's first shows. JamisonParker eventually connected with Interscope Records, which issued the band's Notes & Photographs EP in late 2003. Co-produced with Dave Trumfio, it reflected both JamisonParker's pop sensibilities and their lyrical emo tinges. The duo did well with the MySpace and Purevolume nations, and by the 2005 of their full-length Sleepwalker they'd developed quite a following. That July and August JP toured with Motion City Soundtrack and An Angle in support of the album. Live, Covington and Case were joined by drummer Jarrod Alexander and bassist Ted Vega. ~ Christina Fuoco, Rovi |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41061 | How can you dream before you even fall asleep properly?
(74 Posts)
Having loads and loads of memorable dreams at the moment, many of them frankly bonkers. I thought dreams occurred during REM and that REM was during deep sleep. So how come my dreams are starting before I think I'm even asleep?
MakeHayIsAWhaleNow Sun 08-Sep-13 19:46:57
Empross yes! One very memorable time (slightly not really what the thread's about but similar) when I managed to fall asleep with my legs crossed - both legs also went to sleep and when I awoke with no feeling in my legs, in that in-between state, I was convinced I was paralysed! I even got out of bed and collapsed on the floor, hysterical! It was only when pins and needles kicked in that I realised....
I hate the not being able to run in dreams thing, so frustrating. Ds giggles in his sleep, which is unbelievably cute!
Blimey nightsky!!!!!
thenightsky Sun 08-Sep-13 21:21:46
MakeHay I've had the paralysis thing too... woke up with a cold hand pressed against my face and screamed the place down, only to find I'd fallen asleep with my own arm over the top of my head and my fingers against the opposite cheek grin
furfoxsake Mon 09-Sep-13 08:34:19
This might fall into the tmi category but does anyone else have an orgasm when they're in that semi-awake but dreaming state? I get it about once a fortnight and it happened this morning after the 3am feed hence why I'm posting it now.
It's so strange - I'm never sure if I had the orgasm, or if I just dreamt I had one, but I'm pretty sure it's real at the time!
oinktopus Mon 09-Sep-13 15:24:57
Yoni Pretty much. Because I've always had sleep problems, I took to filming myself while asleep to see if I could pick up on anything that would help. I'd had the running through custard dreams and noticed they didn't happen when my legs were clear of the blankets. I did, however, injure my feet by banging them into each other.
Also scary is how often I'd sit bolt upright and look straight at the camera despite thinking I'd had unbroken sleep.
I am a rubbish sleeper.
YoniBottsBumgina Mon 09-Sep-13 19:42:49
YY I get sleep orgasms. Usually when I'm just waking up. Or they wake me up. Either way.
I never actually get sex in my dreams though sad They just happen randomly - I remember once I was dreaming about buying pick n mix and it happened! If ever I dream about sex it's either remembering some sex that happened beforehand or it's a situation which I can tell is about to turn into sex but never gets to that stage.
Like last night I dreamt that I was pregnant but I had to tell my DP that it might be another man's child. He was devastated and broke up with me and then I realised that I couldn't actually remember whether the whole having sex with another man thing had actually happened or not and by the time I realised it hadn't it was too late and he thought I was making it up! sad
alcibiades Mon 09-Sep-13 20:37:25
I occasionally get sleep orgasms, too. And I also don't know whether they happen as I'm waking or whether they wake me up. But, I never recall any dreams associated with them.
I do occasionally have another dream phenomenon. Sometimes I wake up from a dream where I somehow know that the dream has become ridiculous. It's as though there's a logical bit of my brain that's monitoring my dreams, and steps in. It's a bit like the Colonel in Monty Python who used to walk into sketches and stop them because they were getting too silly. grin
I've mentioned elsewhere that I buy lecture-courses-on-DVD from a US company. They've got one on sleep, so I might get that next time I'm buying.
Edendance Mon 09-Sep-13 20:38:44
According to my sister (who's in the know of such things) it's self hypnotherapy- just a very very relaxed state of being which can being on dream- like feelings!
YoniBottsBumgina Mon 09-Sep-13 23:28:24
Alcibiades, I get that too! We must be dream twins grin usually when I'm asleep I don't realise I'm dreaming but then sometimes I will just suddenly think "Wait a minute, I should have just got shot but instead I was able to dodge right out of the way. Hey, I can control stuff! Ohhhhh, this is a dream, oh that's good, that means it doesn't matter if I..." and then as soon as I realise I'm dreaming I'm awake.
Apparently a good way to "teach yourself" to lucid dream (where you're aware you are dreaming and can control the dream) is to get into the habit of constantly checking you're awake, either by checking there is only one sun/moon in the sky, or looking at something like a clock face/digital display, looking away, then looking back to see if it changes illogically. If you are dreaming then you will see multiple moons/suns (if you're looking for them) and displays, clocks etc will wildly change from one viewing of them to the next even if it's a split second apart. Basically, get into the habit of checking something impossible isn't happening, and when you're dreaming you will repeat your usual habit but the impossible thing will happen because you are dreaming. Hence you are immediately alerted to the fact you are dreaming and then you can control the environment around you. The first few times you do it it usually wakes you up, though. I've always woken up a few minutes after seeing the impossibly changing clock or whatever though.
greenbananas Tue 10-Sep-13 00:19:07
Yes, ALWAYS look at the clock twice when you are awake, to check it says the same thing. This becomes a habit when you are asleep too - a useful trick that has saved me from many horrible nightmares!
I have very vivid and sometimes frightening dreams. Last night, I had a vile and confusing dream that went on for ages, and I went back to the same nasty dream even after I had rolled over to feed the baby - but eventually I realised I was dreaming and was able to control it - such a relief!!
Why do some of us get such weird dreams? Is it something to do with the way or brains are hardwired?
Thistledew Tue 10-Sep-13 07:27:36
I get all this too!
Dreams starting before I am properly asleep, especially if I am falling asleep on the train or similar.
Dreaming about the content of a tv or radio show if I fall asleep listening to it.
Lucid dreams. Dreams that I go straight back to even if I wake.
I would be interested to have my brain activity monitored whilst I am sleeping as I am never aware of not having been dreaming when I wake, even if I am woken suddenly from a deep sleep. I usually remember my dreams very clearly when I wake- probably not a whole 7 hrs worth but certainly enough for a couple of hours. I remember them for ages as well- some I remember clearly years later.
I also get this weird déjà vu type thing where a sight or sound I hear whilst awake triggers a flashback to a memory of a dream I have had.
I also have dreamscapes that I return to time and time again. It's not the same dream as different things always happen, but it is the same landscape. I once was berated by a shopkeeper who apparently owns a shop in my dreamscape, for not having visited more frequently! It was nothing to do with the scenario of the dream.
DH never ever remembers his dreams, although he says he is conscious of having dreamt. He listens to my explanations of my dreams with bemusement.
YoniBottsBumgina Tue 10-Sep-13 09:00:05
My dreams quite often reference each other although I never dream about the same place twice. But I might remember something that had happened in another dream but just think it had happened in real life.
Lazysuzanne Tue 10-Sep-13 10:40:35
I've had dreams about dreams, and dreams where I wake up into another dream.
Dreams can get very entertaining if you play close attention,but they are slippery and hard to control
I reckon we need a dreams topic in mn - there's enough in here to fuel one!
Lazysuzanne Tue 10-Sep-13 18:12:15
hmm, I dunno, it's an interesting subject in many ways, I spend quite alot of time recording my own dreams and thinking about what they refer to but I'd not want to subject anyone else to what'd seem like a boring load of nonsense!
alcibiades Tue 10-Sep-13 18:36:44
Kitten - maybe this thread could be moved over to the Science & Nature Club, or perhaps start a new thread there? Dreams are fascinating.
I'm not really sure why we have them - I know there's the hypothesis that they're a kind of filing system, and another hypothesis that it's the subconscious getting a word in because our conscious brain during the day is focussed on things like 'where the heck did I put my keys'. But there are also the dreams that don't seem to have any point to them at all.
Lazysuzanne Tue 10-Sep-13 19:03:25
there is no consensus on why we dream, whether they are useful in any way or to use Dan Dennetts phrase 'evolutionary spandrels'
I favour a mystical interpretation
Will ask mn if it can be moved alci smile
JulieMumsnet (MNHQ) Thu 12-Sep-13 13:56:13
We've been asked to find a new home for this so that it doesn't vanish.
Thank you Julie smile
alcibiades Fri 13-Sep-13 20:26:18
Lazysuzanne: I'd be interested in reading more about your ideas about dreams being mystical. Although I tend towards scientific explanations for almost everything, I do find it difficult to move from the biological/chemical makeup of the human brain to thinking about what is going on when I have weird dreams.
I had to look up "spandrels": I knew the term was slightly familiar to me, but it was in terms of the original meaning. It's a rather neat co-opting of the original, I think.
I'm now wondering about the energy required for dreams. Apparently, the brain uses around 20% of the daily intake of fuel, and one hypothesis is that sleep is a means of conserving energy. I guess there's no point being awake and using energy during the hours of darkness (for diurnal creatures), so shutting down non-essential systems is a good idea. But there are times when I wake up from weird or convoluted dreams, feeling as though I'd just done a full shift of more than just filing the day's inputs.
Kitten: I hope you're getting some help with your sleep. Whatever the reason for sleep, it is well known that stress can cause disrupted sleep, and in turn that disrupted sleep can cause stress. Could your strange dreams be a side-effect of medications that you're on, or were on recently?
Lazysuzanne Fri 13-Sep-13 21:51:46
Alcibiades, I think dreaming is what your mind does when uncoupled from external input, but within that there is room for all sort of stuff, from problem solving to lucid dreaming and out of body experiences.
It seems to me that elements from the future as well as from the past get randomly woven into dreams.
Of course I cant prove anything, I wouldnt even see any point in arguing for what I believe but I have had experiences where dreams pointed strongly towards future events.
I strongly suspect there is something 'mystical' (for want of a better word) going on grin
ModeratelyObvious Mon 16-Sep-13 23:51:06
Isn't that your mind making odd connections when the future event happens though?
Lazysuzanne Mon 16-Sep-13 23:59:31
Who knows...
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41076 | Go Back CurlTalk > Hair > General Discussion about Curly Hair
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Default cheapo low protein conditioner
Hi, have tried searching on boards and the web for this but havent quite found an answer. Does anyone know of a cheapo conditioner (hopefully one i can buy in the UK) that has no or very low protein, that i can mix with oils and honey to make a decent deep treatment. i think the problem is that is that i just dont know what they label protein as in ingredients because every time i find a condish i think fits the criterea it ends up making my hair dry (after hennaing) Thanks in advance
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Old 04-06-2009, 12:30 PM #3
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This link http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlre...-care-products tells you what ingredients are proteins.
Hair type: 2c-M-ii with extra frizz
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aww thanks for the responses ladies. will check up those brands auntnett and will defo have a look in boots kema1v, actually i saw a boots brand conditioner that has henna i might check that out too and thanks a mil for the list, now i can do my own detective work lol
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41125 | The Mathematics of Mozart's Music
Author Mario Livio has studied the relationship between art and mathematics. He tells Michele Norris most of us are attracted to symmetry spiced by some elements of surprise... and that combo is the essence of Mozart's music.
And I'm Michele Norris. You may have noticed that we heard a lot of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during our program. It's our way of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth. But what makes Mozart's music so special? Why does great music endure?
Mario Livio has given that some thought. He's an author and an astrophysicist. And when he listens to Mozart, he hears the language of symmetry.
(Soundbite of music)
Mr. MARIO LIVIO (Author and Astrophysicist): So, you notice that, you know, it goes up and then down, and then up again in the same way, and down again in the same way. And then the same thing repeats itself twice. So this is the same type of symmetry you would see in maybe wallpaper design. You know, where you walk a certain distance and you see the same pattern again. Here you wait a little bit, and you hear the same pattern again. Sometimes, you know, it's changed a little bit not to make this boring. So, you know, he changes one note, or he moves a half a note up or down, you know, and so on. In music they call this, transposition. We call this symmetry under translation, which means you move from place to place, you see the same thing.
(Soundbite of music)
NORRIS: Mozart was fascinated with Mathematics. Did that inform his music, or was it actually quite the opposite?
Mr. LIVIO: Not directly. But, you know, his sister, Nanneril, said that when he was a kid at school he could talk about nothing else other than numbers, and he filled the walls of their house with numbers. And in his music, you see, indeed, all these symmetries. You also see, occasionally he writes numbers, you know, at the margin of the pieces of music. There is one piece where he actually calculates the probability of winning the lottery in the margin of the music. But you see the symmetry in his music. It's not just the symmetry that I indicated, the one of like a wall pattern. It's symmetry also of rotation. You know, like a snowflake that you rotate looks the same, sometimes when you look at the score of his music, it looks a bit like, if you take the letter S and turn it on its side.
So you see precisely that symmetry where something is coming down and then going up in precisely the same way.
NORRIS: And so, when you listen to something like Symphony #40, and you sort of pull the lens back and look at the entire composition, you start to see all kinds of symmetry in different forms and different ways.
Mr. LIVIO: That's right. And in many of his pieces, you see that. In fact, in most, I would say, you see this.
(Soundbite of music)
NORRIS: What explains Mozart's total fascination with symmetry?
Mr. LIVIO: We don't know that, of course, but we are aware of the fact that there are some connections between talent in music and in mathematics. For example, there are many prodigies. You know, Mozart was, of course, a prodigy. You know, he composed things at age 8. And he loved mathematics. Similarly, there are many prodigies in mathematics who do their best work, you know, when they are extraordinarily young. It appears that both in music and in mathematics, you know, you don't need to read entire encyclopedias before you become creative. You can, you know, just know a little bit about this, and with the talent that you have, you can immediately generate breakthroughs. And this is what happened with Mozart, or it happened with a number of mathematicians like the French Evariste Galois who, you know, Mozart died at 35, Evariste died at 20. You know, they both did all their best work, you know, when they were teenagers, essentially.
(Soundbite of music)
NORRIS: The symmetry, does that explain why certain kinds of music, certain forms of music are pleasing to our ear?
Mr. LIVIO: It's part of that. It turns out that the music we like best, in all forms of music, not just classical music, is of the type that is kind of in the middle between, you know, being predictable and, and being surprising. I mean, We don't like it to be completely predictable. We definitely don't like to be surprised all the time.
NORRIS: And the surprise in his music, in Mozart's music, in fact, writers often refer to it as the Mozart effect, doing exactly the opposite of what you expect the artist to do.
Mr. LIVIO: Right. So, right, so that's the element of surprise, indeed. I must say, I find myself that as I grow older, I like things to be a little bit more predictable than I used to when I was younger.
NORRIS: I wonder if artists instinctively try to achieve this. It's almost like they're drawn to it; it's almost then within our DNA, our artistic DNA.
Mr. LIVIO: It is. But artists also know that we have this. So occasionally, for example, especially in 20th century art, when they actually want indeed to surprise us or to shock us, they especially, you know, get away from symmetry. You know, if I wear my glasses in a way that they are completely tilted, you will really have a hard time sitting with me for a long time. You will find this very, very disturbing. And artists sometimes use that, both in music and in other arts, you know, where they deviate from the symmetry just to shock us.
NORRIS: You think about the sort of canon of Mozart music. What would be the most complex example of symmetry within the sort of the body of the composition?
Mr. LIVIO: Just in terms of pure mathematics, perhaps his most surprising piece is the one that's called the Musical Dice Game. It's a minuet with 16 measures. He fixed the last measure, and for one measure he gave two possibilities of how to play it. But then he actually wrote 11 other different measures, and you're supposed to roll two dice to decide which one to choose to play. Now, if you roll two dice, you know, and you get the number, you get two and three, so you take number five. So now you play number five. Then you roll the dice again, it turns out to be eight. So now you play, in the next measure you play number eight, you know, and so on. There are literally hundreds of trillions of possibilities to choose from to play this.
So, in fact, if you'd like, I mean, nobody has yet heard all the possibilities of this particular minuet. You know, but he wrote it in such a way that no matter which one you choose by rolling the dice, it still sounds very, very nice.
NORRIS: What we're talking about though is random selection, not symmetry.
Mr. LIVIO: Right, right. But mathematics, still mathematics.
NORRIS: Well, Mario, it's been wonderful talking to you. Thanks so much for coming in to speak to us.
Mr. LIVIO: Thank you very much, Michele.
NORRIS: Mario Livio's latest book is called The Equation that Couldn't be Solved: How A Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry.
(Soundbite of music)
|
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Old 11-14-07, 06:52 PM #2
Son Goku
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Default Re: Druid Talent specs
My druid is feral, in large measure because I don't really care to heal. It's an important role, and I like having them along for obvious reasons. It's just not for me though.
In the end, it can be a tough call; and there are pros/cons. On the up side, feral druids can have more health/armor then a warrior, but on the downside, many I have seen thus far don't have the defence rating, or where with all to withstand crushing blows. They do have the obvious benefit of being unable to be polymorphed, which makes them a good choice wrt tanking a mob that sheeps. The shamy on the first boss in Gruul's can be done with 2 hunters using range attacks and off tanking each other, or some methods mention that a druid tank can be used to avoid sheep. This said, we're progressing there, haven't downed that boss just yet (getting closer though).
The tough call, and I'd ask someone if they were still around, is there's one person on my horde realm, who before the last druid nerfs could solo BRD at lvl 64 or 65 as feral spec. However, when we tried using a feral druid as OT in kara, the health/armor is nice, but the crushing blows are what got him. Putting this person on Julliet in Opera also had the added disadvantage of no interupts, and we were then (didn't have rogues that week), relying on 3 mages to sort out the interuption of the heal. Put the druid in bear on Romulo, and the crushing blows brought the person from almost full health to almost no health in a single hit, the healers couldn't keep up. The person only has 405 def rating, or something like that though. The warriors closer to 500. Got a DPS actually, warrior who was on a dif night, to come with that kara group latter in week, Romulo and Juls were downed first attempt without fuss.
Could something be worked? Yeah, possibly, and gear could help also. Though from what I gather, feral druids largely just have their tier sets, arena sets, and faction rewards? If you go this way, plan on hitting Cenarion Expedition exalted, for the staff. The same person in question though, has successfully tanked some heroics though. This said, there's also cat form, and the feral druid I mentioned on my horde realm, had previously raided up through BWL, MC, AQ40. If he was still around, I'd ask him about what I'm seeing with this other feral druid in kara. There is also cat form though...
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RE[6]: porn destroys cultures
by WereCatf on Sat 15th Dec 2012 07:51 UTC in reply to "RE[5]: porn destroys cultures"
Member since:
Porn doesn't turn anyone into a sexual predator or rapist or whatever. These guys (because it's usually guys) were fucked up long before they got to porn. Abusive parents is quite the common denominator.
In fact, porn might actually keep these guys from doing even more damage by keeping their needs satisfied artificially (ok, probably not but it's an interesting thought)
Well, it's really the exact same thing as violent video-games or TV-shows/movies: they do not really cause someone to become a homicidal maniac, the person who does go on a killing-spree because of these is already mentally disturbed from before and the trigger could just as well be something entirely different if such video-games or TV-shows/movies didn't exist.
Most people seem to have completely forgotten the fact that there was the exact same kind of controversy regarding the radio and porn magazines back in the day; take a step back, look at the history, and you'll see the same pattern repeating itself. That is, people like to blame whatever delivery systems and phenomenons that are then-current instead of just blaming the people themselves.
As for the claim about the existence of these kinds of contents preventing people from taking their fantasies out in the real world: it's been proven several times by studies that this does actually apply to video-games. I can't be arsed to google around for those papers as you're adults and can do that for yourselves, but the point is that being able to live one's fantasies in a virtual world where the most harm that can be done is verbal does work as a stress-reliever and does take off some of the pressure for trying to enact these fantasies for real. Heck, I can attest to this myself, too: I can fire up a game, go slaughter hundreds of people in various, imaginative ways, torture them if I feel like it, and so on, and I come off the game feeling satisfaction, not unfulfillment.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41194 |
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RE: Apparently its just an option.
by lemur2 on Fri 23rd Sep 2011 01:41 UTC in reply to "Apparently its just an option."
Member since:
It is an "option" that OEMs are required to include if the OEMs wish to put a "designed for Windows 8" sticker on their hardware.
No UEFI Secure boot, no "designed for Windows 8" sticker.
Optional. Sure.
Reply Parent Score: 3
shmerl Member since:
+1. Microsoft tries to wash hands as usual. Same garbage argument as in case of Windows tax, when MS says that manufacturers aren't forced to bundle anything, and if they do - refund can be claimed. In reality not only the vast majority bundle - to get a refund is close to impossible in most cases.
Same thing here. Microsoft will claim that OEM can give an option to disable the "secured" boot, but in reality OEMs won't do it and there will be no normal way for users to do it.
Edited 2011-09-23 04:18 UTC
Reply Parent Score: 3 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41214 | Increase your automobile overall performance by basically improving the procedures of your engine-support assemblies. It is the trend when the internal combustion engine is forced to operate more, pressing the exhaust out of your system and to the exhaust pipework. This emission support system is among the ‘users' of your vehicle power; but when effectively operating, particularly the Lincoln Navigator exhaust manifold in scavenging exhaust out of the system, it could prevent backpressure from happening.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41216 | What A "War on Terror" Should Mean vs. What it Has Meant
Princeton’s emeritus philosophy professor Michael Walzer is co-editor of Dissent. He is not a George W. Bush yes-man. But he thinks that “war on terror” is a legitimate concept even as many leftish thinkers oppose it as a confusion. People argue that terrorism is a tactic, not a specific enemy you can target. In “Terrorism [Read More...] |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41232 | note moritz <p>If your code base now runs on perl 5.8 only, eventually you will have to upgrade. At some point in the future you'll have new hardware on which the legacy OS that come with legacy perl won't boot anymore, so it's not a question whether you upgrade, but when.</p> <p>With that in mind, advice of the form "Upgrade to at least perl 5.12 because it fixes your $problem" is actually quite valuable, because it gives you reason not delay the upgrade any longer.</p> <p>Also the more incentive you have to upgrade, the easier it becomes to convince your manager that now would be a good time to spend your resources on upgrading to a newer version of perl. And a list of issues that would be much easier to fix with a newer version of perl is exactly the kind of incentive that convinces managers.</p> <!-- Node text goes above. Div tags should contain sig only --> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-616540"> [|Perl 6 - the future is here, just unevenly distributed] </div></div> 1051742 1051742 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41233 | perlquestion iHutch105 <p>Hey all. First time poster and new to Perl so go easy. ;-)</p> <p>I'm having trouble sorting a hash. Basically, I have a class, which contains a hash, as such:</p> <code> sub new { my $self = {}; my $class = shift; bless($self, $class); $self->{'_counts'} = {}; return $self; } </code> <p>Basically, a few of these class may be created and each one will go through a bunch of files which contain dates and counts for those dates. Since multiple dates can span across the files, the counts for the dates as added to the hash entry for that date (where the date is the key and the count is the value). This is all working fine.</p> <p>Now, I want to sort the hash by values. Undoubtedly there's a nicer way to do it than my code, but this is what I have at the moment:</p> <code> sub SortValues { my $self = shift; my $key; foreach $key ( sort{ ${self->{'_counts'}}{$a}} <=> ${self->{'_counts'}}{$b}} } keys %{$self->{'_counts'}}) { # Print out stuff } } </code> <p>The code works but, as far as I can tell, it's (quite understandably) sorting the values numerically by their reference number.</p> <p>I've tried dereferencing the values $a and $b so that they look like this:</p> <code> #e.g for $a, $b would be the same ${${self->{'_counts'}}{$a}}} </code> <p>However, I get a "Can't use string ("nnnn") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use at etc, where "nnnn" is the value in the hash.</p> <p>I'm kind of going in circles a little trying to solve it now and I've had a search around to see if I can find a similar scenario, which I can't (or at least I don't have the knowledge to be able to apply anything I've found to my problem).</p> <p>Does anyone with a better knowledge of this (that's most of you) have any idea on how I can solve this?</p> <p>Many thanks in advance,</p> <p>iHutch</p> |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41234 | Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks Frank
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Less error prone? Five studies cited by McConnel found that routine size was either inversely correlated with error frequency, or not correlated at all
The studies could be right.
Less changes required? Another study finds that code needs to be changed least when routines average 100 - 150 lines.
The study could be right.
On the other hand, we have your unsupported opinion.
Yeah. Unsupported. Maybe even wrong.
But I have found small things to be easier to maintain. More flexible. Easier to change, even though more lines change. Easier to re-use. Small subs are usually easier to read and understand.
Easier to document. This is worth a lot.
Whether or not short subs work for you depends on more than Perl alone. Short subs are better than long subs, much like how short sentences are better than long sentences. The long ones may seem more brilliant and more intelligent, but the shorter ones are clearer and much easier to read.
Guess why books for children use short sentences. Guess why most programming introductions start with printing Hello, world.
Of course, programs/modules with short subroutines are harder to create (since it requires more design) and slower.
I do not know of any study that supports my opinion.
I do not know of any study. I don't care much about studies either, since few are done using the right context and variables.
in thread Short routines matter more in OO? by tilly
and: <code> code here </code>
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That problem is avoided in Perl 5.10.0 with my $d = $description{$char} // $description{default}; # check for undefined rather than false As for getting one's head around the logical or, it's really quite simple: $a || $b || $c || ... yields the first value that is true (or false if none are). Perl didn't invent it; it's a common operator in many languages, dating back to Snobol, I think.
In reply to Re^4: Default Hash Key by Anonymous Monk
in thread Default Hash Key by tford
and: <code> code here </code>
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Thank you, that did it. It works like a champ now.
As far as what it does, this piece of code is part of a large script that generates configuration files for network elements based on numerous inputs by the user. Some of these inputs include identifiers for various elements, ip addresses, etc. The longest 'final' output i had received thus far was about 29 pages in a word document.
In reply to Re^3: running multiple loops by ddrew78
in thread running multiple loops by ddrew78
and: <code> code here </code>
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UPDATE: I was being brain dead, but leaving this question up because I see no way to delete it...
If I have 3 tables (league, team and league_team), with the following relationships:
league has one to many league_team
team has one to many league_team
with league,team being the PK on the league_team table.
What I want to build is so the following will work (say) for a league):
while (my $team = $league->teams->next ) { ... }
With my current relationship across the three tables though, I have to use this:
while (my $team_league = $league->team_league->next ) { my $team = $team_league->team; ... }
I'm guessing also, that there's going to need to be an implicit create on the league_team entry wrapped in the term:
I can easily hack the interface I want, but I'm assuming that there is a correct way to do this in DBIx::Class. What is it? Anyone got a working example I can look at for inspiration?
Oh, I found this module, but I'm not quite getting it, if that is indeed the solution.
Note, refactoring the tables is not something I have access to right now.
Edit: I think I've found the term I was looking for - relationship_bridge. Now I just need to find an example, heh. The hardest part of any quest is working out what you're looking for, heh
In reply to DBIx::Class - shortcutting relationships [resolved] by cLive ;-)
and: <code> code here </code>
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Re^15: Waiting for a Product, not a Compiler
by Anonymous Monk
on Nov 30, 2011 at 21:50 UTC ( #940944=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
in reply to Re^14: Waiting for a Product, not a Compiler
in thread Moose - my new religion
That's partly due to Larry's wish for the re-write to be community driven rather than dictated by himself. There are a lot of conflicting points of view to discuss and aggregate and ideas keep changing. If anything so far the extended development period has achieved little but prove the general programming populace are unable to achieve a consensus with each other as to what they want 6 to be.
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Re: Re: Re: Array in Array
by CombatSquirrel (Hermit)
on Oct 06, 2003 at 14:40 UTC ( #296958=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
in reply to Re: Re: Array in Array
in thread Array in Array
Your $rec variable is actually a reference to an array. You should dereference it, for example by writing my @rray = @$rec;, or, TIMTOWTDI:
#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my @accounts = ("A x1 B y1 C z1 D v1 E w1 F", "A x2 B y2 C zzz2 D v2 E w2 F", "A x3 B y3 C z3 D v3 E w3 F", "A x4 B y4 C z4 D v4 E wwww4 F", "A x5 B y5 C z5 D v5 E w5 F", "A x6 B y6 C z6 D v6 E F"); my @fields = ("A", "B", "C", "D", "E"); sub tweezers_sub { my @accounts_2 = map { [@{{/([A-Z])\s+([a-z]+\d|\s)/g}}{@fields} ] +} @accounts; for my $rec (@accounts_2) { print "'" . join("' - '", @$rec) . "'\n"; } } tweezers_sub;
This uses a RegEx instead of a split, but you can still see how $rec is dereferenced by writing @$rec.
Hope this helped.
Update: Mixed up referencing and dereferencing. Fixed.
Entropy is the tendency of everything going to hell.
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Re: BEGIN block and prototyped subroutines
by ikegami (Pope)
on Apr 18, 2010 at 08:30 UTC ( #835319=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
in reply to BEGIN block and prototyped subroutines
You seem to misunderstand both BEGIN and prototypes.
Let's look at BEGIN first. It causes the enclosed code to be executed as soon as it is compiled.
For the following code:
print "a"; BEGIN { print "b"; } print "c";
the following happens:
• print "a"; is compiled.
• BEGIN { ... } is compiled.
• print "b"; is compiled.
• BEGIN { ... } is executed.
• print "b"; is executed.
• print "c"; is compiled.
• Compilation finished. Execution begins.
• print "a"; is executed.
• print "c"; is executed.
BEGIN is completely useless around a sub definition because a sub definition doesn't produce any runnable code.
Now, let's look at prototypes. Prototypes affect how sub calls are parsed and they affect the code into which a sub call is compiled. Obviously, that means the prototype of a sub must be known at the time a call to the sub is encountered.
For the following code:
foo('bar'); sub foo($) { print "foo called: @_\n"; }
the following happens:
• foo('bar') is compiled. foo hasn't been declared, so a stub with no prototype is created. No prototype exists, so parsing is not affected, and no check is done on the args.
• sub foo($) { ... } is compiled. The prototype doesn't match the one that was previously declared, which means Perl used the wrong prototype when generating earlier calls to foo, so a warning is issued.
• Compilation finished. Execution begins.
• ...
You need to declare the sub before any calls to the sub are compiled. It's the only way the sub call can be affected by the prototype.
sob foo($); foo('bar'); sub foo($) { print "foo called: @_\n"; }
By the way, prototypes are by and large discouraged in Perl. They are not a good way to check the validity of arguments.
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Re^5: Performance problem with Clone Method
by dcmertens (Beadle)
on Jul 27, 2011 at 20:41 UTC ( #917129=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
in reply to Re^4: Performance problem with Clone Method
in thread Performance problem with Clone Method
Unfortunately I don't know anything about the OP's problem and an internet search has not proved forthcoming with a simple explanation, in matrix terms, of the Ullmann algorithm. If Commandosupremo could spell out his implementation of the algorithm, giving a list of the operations needed, I could say PDL is the right tool or not. As to your specific points, PDL may be able to handle the operations you pose, depending on what you mean.
PDL supports a whole slew of operations including bitwise boolean operations, as mentioned here: For counting the set bits, that's just a sum; you can perform that and many other row or whole-piddle operations as discussed here: The implementations of the Ufuncs use simple accumulators, which loses precision when you're summing over thousands or millions of floating-point values, but will work just fine if you're summing a few hundred integers, as is the case (I believe) of the OP.
I am note very experienced at exchanging whole rows or columns using PDL, though I know it is something that PDL manages to do with data flow. In other words, when you generate piddle $b from piddle $a with a row exchanged, you can modify piddle $a and it'll show up in piddle $b, and vice versa. Put differently, exchanges lead to different 'views' of the same data. This can be very powerful, but for the OP it may simply lead to inefficiencies in the back-end.
I will pose posed this question to the PDL mailing list shortly to see if anybody can help. It would be much more useful if Commandosupremo could post the actual algorithm. At any rate, interchanging whole rows in 2D arrays, and whole columns in 2D arrays, is more difficult than I had expected, and there might be more efficient ways to do it using PDL.To exchange rows or columns, you can use the dice_axis function, like so:
use warnings; use PDL; use PDL::NiceSlice; # Here is my matrix: my $data = sequence(5,5); print "Original:\n$data\n"; # In order to permute columns, I need a *column* vector with the # column numbers that I want. (You'd think a *row* vector would be # more appropriate, but that's not how it works. Alas.) my $indices = sequence(5); # Set up to exchange the second and the third column: #$indices(1:2) .= $indices(2:1); ### should work but doesn't for me $indices(1:2) .= $indices(pdl [2,1]); # Perform the exchange: my $rearranged = $data->dice_axis(0, $indices); print "Column swap:\n$rearranged\n"; # Start over and exchange the fourth and fifth rows: $indices = sequence(5); $indices(3:4) .= $indices(pdl[4,3]); my $further_rearranged = $rearranged->dice_axis(1, $indices); print "Column and row swap:\n$further_rearranged\n";
The output I get from that looks like this:
Original: [ [ 0 1 2 3 4] [ 5 6 7 8 9] [10 11 12 13 14] [15 16 17 18 19] [20 21 22 23 24] ] Column swap: [ [ 0 2 1 3 4] [ 5 7 6 8 9] [10 12 11 13 14] [15 17 16 18 19] [20 22 21 23 24] ] Column and row swap: [ [ 0 2 1 3 4] [ 5 7 6 8 9] [10 12 11 13 14] [20 22 21 23 24] [15 17 16 18 19] ]
Edit: updated to use dice_axis
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Re^6: Performance problem with Clone Method
by BrowserUk (Pope) on Jul 27, 2011 at 23:55 UTC
Please see Re^4: Performance problem with Clone Method.
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See other posts from October 2007
Headshot of Emily Lakdawalla
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla
2007/10/22 12:24 CDT
Sorry it has taken me so long to get to these images. I guess it was too much for me to swallow all at once! On September 10, Cassini flew by Iapetus. Two weeks ago, on the first day of the Division of Planetary Sciences meeeting, several of the science teams released beautiful products that give an early look at some of the science results from the encounter.
The images are spectacular, of course. I've already posted an amateur grayscale version of this one; here, now, is an enhanced-color view of the trailing side of Iapetus in all its detailed glory.
Iapetus' trailing hemisphere
Iapetus' trailing hemisphere
As Cassini departed Iapetus on September 10, 2007, it turned back to capture this 15-frame false-color mosaic on the moon. The image shows Iapetus' trailing side, which is mostly covered with the bright white ice common to outer solar system icy satellites. But the surface is stained with the dark material that covers Iapetus' leading side. The dark material fills some fissures, appears on the flanks of large basins, and even falls in linear chains in the upper left of this image. Also noteworthy are two enormous, unnamed, overlapping impact basins at the lower left.
You can really see that the dark material that discolors Iapetus' leading hemisphere (the backside of this view) wraps right around Iapetus' equator as a light stain on the bright surface of the trailing side. If it's a stain, we should see some areas that appear in between black and white, but of course when Cassini looked at areas that are transitional between dark and light up close, it saw this:
High-resolution mosaic of Iapetus' equatorial transitional zone
High-resolution mosaic of Iapetus' equatorial transitional zone
The 21 images for this mosaic were captured by Cassini as it receded from its close flyby of Iapetus on September 10, 2007. The mosaic covers the equatorial region on Iapetus' trailing side, including the Voyager mountains on the right. The mountains continue as a line of approximately eight peaks all the way across the image. This area is transitional between the dark terrain of Iapetus' leading side (to the right) and the bright terrain of its trailing side (to the left). In this high-resolution view, it appears that there are no "gray" areas; all areas are either bright or dark. Most crater floors are dark, while rims are brighter. This view has been cropped and reduced to 50% of its original size.
There's dark stuff, there's white stuff, but no gray. Everything on Iapetus appears to be either dark or light, with nothing in between. That's an important clue to what's going on to make Iapetus look as strange as it does. Here's another clue: in the highest-resolution images that Cassini captured as it was flying over Iapetus' equator, you can see quite a few tiny (a few tens of meters across, smaller than football fields), fresh, bright-rayed craters have punched through the dark material. It was a bit hard to figure out what we were looking at in this image, so I dug up the wide-angle shot that was taken at the same time as the narrow-angle views to show you that the narrow-angle mosaic is on one flank of one of the Voyager mountains along Iapetus' equator. One presenter at DPS calculated that, based upon the abundance of these little craters, whatever process it is that darkens the leading side of Iapetus does so on a very short time scale, less than 8 million years (and possibly less than 50,000 years!) The range in age dates is because there are two competing models for impact cratering rates in the outer solar system, and they are pretty substantially different.
Highest-resolution images of Iapetus
Highest-resolution images of Iapetus
This panorama cuts across the northern flank of one of the Voyager mountains along Iapetus' equator within the dark terrain on the leading side, and (when enlarged) shows features as small as 10 meters across. The most striking thing about this mosaic are tiny bright splotches, which represent small, relatively recent impact craters that punched through a very thin dark layer to bright ice below; some of the little craters have bright, icy rays. The fresh craters are so much brighter than the dark terrain that some of them required special contrast adjustment so that they would not appear saturated in this image.
At the DPS meeting, imaging team associate Tilmann Denk presented these images and also talked about some of the geometry of the Voyager mountains. He said that in Cassini images they measured maximum heights of 18 kilometers and widths of about 70 kilometers, but those were just measured relative to the break in slope at the mountain bases; he said that, when measured relative to the "reference ellipsoid" that represents the global average shape of the moon, the mountains are even taller. He also looked to see how far into the trailing side the Voyager mountains went. It's a bit hard to spot them -- Tilmann used stereo imaging techniques to see them -- but he found at least seven more bright mountain peaks marching along the equator into Iapetus' trailing hemisphere. In the east-centeral portion of the trailing hemisphere, there is no stereo image coverage, so he isn't sure about whether there are mountains in that region. Then, from the center of the trailing hemisphere west to the center of the sub-Saturnian hemisphere, or in other words, for one quarter of Iapetus' surface, there are no mountains at all. Whatever mechanism created these equatorial mountains somehow missed doing it to at least one quarter of Iapetus. Tilmann concluded that the images support the following story for the formation of the bright-dark dichotomy on Iapetus: dark, reddish outer satellite dust gets deposited onto Iapetus, preferentially on the leading hemisphere, which causes a global color dichotomy where the leading side is redder than the trailing side. The slight imbalance in brightness and color causes a thermal redistribution (more on that in John Spencer's presentation below), which removes water ice from low latitudes and deposits it in polar latitudes.
OK. Next, here's an image of Iapetus from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS. I think it's quite notable that the stuff on Iapetus appears almost as segregated to VIMS as it does to the cameras. The news at DPS from this instrument team is the discovery of "Rayleigh scattering" in Iapetus' bright ice. This indicates, the VIMS team says, that there are extremely tiny, widely separated particles buried in Iapetus' ice on the trailing side. The Rayleigh effect is strongest where there is the least amount of pollution of the ice, near Iapetus' poles, again pointing to cleaner ice near the poles and dirtier ice near the equator.
Compositional segregation on Iapetus
NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / USGS
Compositional segregation on Iapetus
These images of the transitional area on the west side of Iapetus' dark region, including the Voyager Mountains, were taken by Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer as the spacecraft sped away from its September 10, 2007 encounter with Iapetus. The left image in the figure shows the amount of reflected light at an infrared wavelength of 1.75 microns, and is similar to visible-wavelength albedo images. The color image on the right shows the results of mapping for three components of Iapetus' surface: carbon dioxide that is trapped or adsorbed in the surface (red), water in the form of ice (green), and a newly-discovered effect due to trace amount of dark particles in the ice creating what scientists call Rayleigh scattering (blue). The Rayleigh scattering effect is the main reason why the Earth's sky appears blue. The Rayleigh scattering effect on Iapetus provides evidence that tiny grains, smaller than the wavelength of visible light (less than 0.5 microns) have been embedded in the surface of Iapetus. The tiny grains must be well-separated for the Rayleigh effect to become prominent, so the abundance of particles must be less than about 2 percent. The Rayleigh scattering effect shows in all areas, although weakly in dark regions (the red carbon dioxide dominates the color image), and it appears stronger away from the equator. Investigating the trend from dark to bright areas, the Rayleigh effect changes with the amount of dark material in the ice, and becomes weaker as more dark material is added. This points to cleaner ice as one moves north or south from the equator and away from the dark leading side of the moon (toward the right in the image).
During his presentation at DPS, VIMS team member Roger Clark also reported the same Rayleigh scattering effect on Phoebe, Dione, and in Saturn's rings and the small ringmoons. He said that this implies a common origin for the tiny particulate material, and that it's pervasive throughout the Saturn system. He suggested that this material comes from elsewhere; not only is its origin external to the moons, it may be external to the Saturn system.
OK, next, here's an image from another spectrometer, CIRS, that looks at part of the electromagnetic spectrum even longer than the cameras or VIMS. Once again, I think it's quite unusual how well you can match features visible in the CIRS image to the camera (ISS) image. You can see temperature differences between crater walls and floors. Everwhere you see dark material, you see warm temperatures in CIRS, and everywhere you see bright material, you see cool temperatures.
Warm spots on Iapetus
Warm spots on Iapetus
Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) maps the thermal radiation emitted by cold surfaces in the Saturn system. By examining the shape of the emitted spectrum at relatively long wavelengths of 9 to 16 microns (roughly 20 times longer-wavelength than the human eye can see), the CIRS team can determine the temperature on the surface. Here, a CIRS measurement cuts across light, dark, and transitional terrains on Iapetus. The temperatures in the dark areas are, at 128 Kelvin (minus 229 degrees Fahrenheit), considerably warmer than the temperatures in the bright areas (113 Kelvin or minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit). Both temperatures are very cold, but ice is much more likely to sublimate at temperatures of 128 Kelvin than 113 Kelvin. In fact, over a period of a billion years, about 20 meters of ice is expected to sublimate at those temperatures. The cooler bright regions would only lose about 0.1 meters of ice in the same period. Ice sublimating from warmer, dark areas would re-condense to the surface all over the moon, but would be "trapped" on the cooler, brighter regions, a process called thermal segregation. This process is most likely responsible for the presently extreme segregation of bright and dark areas on Iapetus, but it doesn't explain how the dark part of Iapetus was darkened in the first place.
At the DPS meeting, John Spencer reported that CIRS got close enough that it was able to sample, in some places, pure bright material, and in other places, pure dark material, so they can really figure out the contrasts between the two. Because the dark stuff is so much warmer, the ice there is much more mobile, sublimating to vapor 200 times faster than ice in the bright areas. John said, "When you have dark ice that can sublime, sublimed ice is trapped on bright areas, and you get a thermal runaway process. Small initial variations become very large final variations. We saw this in the late 1990s on Callisto. Thermal segregation happens whenever the ice is warm enough. This is presumably what is happening on Iapetus, and why we don't get any shades of gray." So, John's model goes like this: "Assume Iapetus is covered in ice. Infalling material darkens the leading side. Dark, warm ice evaporates and recondenses elsewhere. Evaporation stops when a millimeter of ice has been evaporated." He showed a computer model he has developed, the same one he presented at DPS in 2005. Unfortunately for John, he hasn't managed to sit down and write a paper for publication on his model yet, so I am guessing it will appear in print first on the CIRS paper that is published in an upcoming special issue of Science about the Iapetus encounter, on which John will not be the first author.
So the Cassini team seems to be converging on agreement on an explanation for how Iapetus came to look the way it does. It's a combination of two factors: external pollution by a small amount of fine, dark particulate material being preferentially deposited on the leading hemisphere, and Iapetus' unusually slow rotation rate. Slow rotation means that its dayside gets much hotter than the daysides of others of Saturn's icy moons, which can help get the ball rolling with John Spencer's runaway thermal segregation model. And once that gets started, it's just a positive feedback cycle; ice is sublimed from the equatorial regions of the leading side, which darkens the leading side, which makes it warm even more during the long day.
If the Cassini team is reaching consensus, though, the rest of the outer planets community is not. I talked with two different outer planets people not involved in the Cassini mission who told me they think the model is no good. And one of them mentioned something that's been a topic of broader conversation about Iapetus: is Iapetus' surface white-on-black or black-on-white? I mentioned this question to Tilmann Denk, who laughed and proposed the following experiment. Take a look at the images below. They represent the same area on Iapetus. One shows the image as it was taken by Cassini's camera; the other has been inverted -- it's a photo negative. Which one is which? Can you tell?
Iapetus: Black on white or white on black?
NASA / JPL / SSI / Emily Lakdawalla
Iapetus: Black on white or white on black?
The high-resolution images of Iapetus' transitional region captured by Cassini on September 10, 2007 opened up a water-cooler debate about Iapetus: is the black stuff on the white stuff, or is the white stuff on top of the black stuff? Many people opine that despite scientists' explanations of an Iapetian iceball that has been dirtied by deposites of dark stuff, it looks very much like the white stuff is on top. Cassini imaging team member Tilmann Denk suggested this exercise: take an image of Iapetus' transitional region, where the white stuff and black stuff are intimately mixed, and invert it, making white black and vice versa. Which did you think was on top before? Which do you think is on top in the inverted image? Which is the original, and which the inverted one? (The answer to the last question is that the top image is the original, the bottom one inverted.)
I actually think this is not a useful question. To run with the Cassini team's model, Iapetus' dichotomy may have been started by a small amount of dark material being deposited in the ice, making the bright ice just slightly less bright. So it may have started with dark being deposited on bright, but the dark deposits weren't anything as dark as what we see on Iapetus now. Then, it was darkened when ice sublimated from underneath the warm, dark deposits. That ice got redeposited elsewhere, so in those places, you have white on black. Iapetus may not be either white-on-black or black-on-white; it may be white-on-black-on-white, or even white-on-black-on-gray.
So now I've written too much; but there'll be much more to come, I'm sure!
For more images from this encounter, here's the page on which I collected all the raw Iapetus images...
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[30 July 2013]
By Jeremy Estes
Let’s go ahead and assume you’re not going to get that jet pack or flying car you’ve always wanted. While we’re at it, let’s also assume that the likelihood of a sports hero becoming an accidental astronaut is basically nil. In many ways, the fantastic future imagined by the great minds of 20th century science fiction hasn’t come to pass. Thirty years removed from the real 1984, the darkest dystopias have been proven wrong. (Well, mostly. I’m looking at you, NSA.) The sky is still blue, still devoid of any verifiable UFOs, and Earth remains humanity’s base of operations rather than its jumping off point.
Progress has been slow, hampered by politics and practicality. Does it matter, though? The future in which we find ourselves is filled with strange gadgets and people wearing strange clothes. It’s a weird and fun world, even if we’re not all flying around in jumpsuits and jet packs.
In his introduction to this collection of Flash Gordon comics, Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons writes that, more than any other genre, science fiction is “an almost evolutionary method of accustoming us to novelty and change [that] gets as much wrong as it ever gets right.”
Flash Gordon prepared its readers for Star Wars, and hand-held communicators, but its primary mission was escape. Speculating, extrapolating, and completely abandoning the principles of logic and physics ruled Flash’s world, especially when the world went to war.
And so it was that in September of 1942, Flash Gordon’s world turned upside down. While fleeing the army of “Bloody” Brazor, King of Tropica, Flash, along with Dale Arden, Hans Zarkov, and the exiled Tropican Queen Desira, enter a cave whose gravitational field has been altered by a meteorite on the surface. Or something. It’s fuzzy comic strip science and wouldn’t likely hold up to any peer review, but it’s the effect which counts.
As they travel deeper into the cave, gravity is weakened, then reversed, and our heroes end up walking on the ceiling. The text retains its normal orientation, but Flash and company hang from the ceiling like stalactites, their faces mirroring the expressions likely found on the strip’s readers upon its publication. This wasn’t the first time readers’ jaws might have dropped, or formed wordless O’s of delight.
Since he first appeared in 1934, Flash Gordon’s popularity spread from the funny papers to radio and movie serials. Much of this was due to Raymond’s incredible art featuring equal parts graceful action and bonkers pre-space age design. There’s plenty to marvel at here in Titan’s third collection of Flash Gordon reprints. These stories, the last Alex Raymond would do for the character he made famous, carry the same visual flair, the same dramatic poses, and breathtaking fantasy landscapes.
At the same time, there seems to be something missing, the great heart beating at the center of the strip. It’s more than just the loss of its central villain. Ming, the Merciless, is finally defeated (in this iteration, at least), and Flash, Dale, and Zarkov soon return to Earth, only to find their world at war. Raymond and writer Don Moore substitute with an amalgam of the Axis powers called the Red Sword.
Though the set up is the same as the stories set on Mongo—there’s a woman who’s sweet on Flash, some sort of traitor, and Flash saves the day—on Earth, Flash is kind of boring. It reads like Raymond and Moore wanted to give their readers a story of real world heroics, but realized their skills were better suited to fantasy. Their story doesn’t mirror the real world so much as it weakens their own. After all, in 1942 the real world was in more trouble than even Flash could handle.
Flash and his friends have to go back to Mongo, not only to fetch radium to power ray beams which “would make freedom forever safe against attack”, but because without Mongo there is no Flash. At home he’s beholden to the chain of command of whatever branch of the military he falls into, but on Mongo he is a legend. Things pick up again after our hero’s return, as Flash and company fight to help Queen Desira regain her throne from “Bloody” Brazor.
Again, Raymond and Moore inject their story with real world elements like concentration camps and secret police, and they linger on their horrors. Prisoners are made to stand half-slumped in tiny cells, and dissenters against Brazor’s government are rounded up and killed. Instead of the obvious, flat portrayals of fascism on Earth, Brazor’s tyranny reaches the level of true villainy, and once again rises to face it.
Alex Raymond left the strip in 1944, but neither the character nor the strip died. His nine years on the strip created the template for every iteration of the character to come after, from monthly comics and the 1980 feature film to the short-lived TV series in 2007. Raymond’s art is Flash Gordon: heroic, beautiful, and not quite at home on this planet.
Published at: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/173439-flash-gordon-the-fall-of-ming-by-alex-raymond/ |
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41319 | Homeward Bound
Why women are embracing the new domesticity
Do You Believe in "Slow Living"?
Would you like to slow your life down?
For some of us, DIY domesticity is just for fun, or a way to have a hobby that’s in line with our beliefs about sustainability or the importance of good food – we knit to pass time on the subway, we garden with our kids on the weekend to teach them where veggies come from. But for others, DIY domesticity is connected to larger lifestyle philosophies. As I’ve been researching my book, I’ve kept hearing terms like “Frugal Living” and “Voluntary Simplicity” and “Radical Homemaking.” These lifestyles, which stress anti-consumerism, localism, self-sufficiency and family, lend themselves to all kinds of old-fashioned domestic work – DIY soap, sewing your own clothes, homeschooling, etc.
One of these lifestyle philosophies, the Slow Movement, is particularly far-reaching. Since it began with Slow Food in the late 1980s, it’s been growing by leaps and bounds – there’s now Slow Cities, Slow Parenting, Slow Money, even Slow Books. The basic premise is this: our modern world moves too fast, and life would be more sustainable and more fulfilling if we slowed everything down a LOT.
The growing popularity of these movements helps explain the rise of New Domesticity – a parent inspired by Slow Parenting might choose to unschool their kids. A person interested in Slow Food might start growing their own strawberries and canning their own jam.
As the kind of person who likes to go fastfastfast, I wonder if I’d make a terrible candidate for the Slow Living lifestyle. As someone who likes to see EVERYTHING when I go somewhere new, Slow Travel might be a challenge. As a person who loves 24-hour grocery stores and midnight movies at the megaplex (and Super-Target!), I might find living in a Slow City somewhat…slow.
But I get these Slow Living movements. They’re reactions to a high-tech, sped-up world. They all offer a connection to local tradition in an era of globalism and mass culture. They all claim to offer a path to a more reflective, more fulfilling life. And who wouldn’t want that?
Have you heard of Slow Living? To you follow any particular lifestyle philosophy?
Emily Matchar is the author of Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41339 | ESSAY- Unthinkable? Who really destroyed the towers?
Maybe we all need counseling.
When my family sits around the dinner table, as we did a few weeks ago at my birthday party, we talk about nearly anything: current events, scientific breakthroughs, and even about, um, you know, s-e-x.
We were having a swell time that day, and then I had to go and introduce a brand-new topic.
"I want to know what really happened on September 11. I've found some Internet sites about it that are just riveting."
Everyone stopped what they were doing– forks full of birthday cake poised in mid-air as they cast sideways glances at one another, wondering when I would stop.
I stammered a little and said, "You know, how the World Trade Center buildings collapsed the way buildings do when it's a planned demolition, into their own footprint."
Nobody said anything.
I continued, "Even building seven, which wasn't hit by a plane, collapsed like old buildings you see on the news, in Las Vegas or wherever, ones they're bringing down on purpose."
That's when the sighing and eye-rolling began. You would think I was talking about something intimate and embarrassing, something too tender for examination. Genital warts, perhaps.
"Mum," my son said, "they have names for people who talk like that: tin hat people, moonbats, wingnuts. You get lumped in with people who think the federal government is hiding information about space aliens."
"What are you saying, then? That nobody can talk about it?"
He said, "The conspiracy theories were all debunked in Popular Mechanics a few months ago. They went into a lot of detail."
"Then what caused the buildings to collapse like that? It looked just like a planned demolition, with planted explosives."
"It was the fires, the burning jet fuel that melted the steel, so the buildings collapsed."
Not having looked too deeply into the subject at the time, I had no response. What bugged me then, and bugs me still, is the prohibition against talking about it. Judging by what I've since found online, a lot of people are furiously typing about it, posting messages on discussion boards and putting up websites questioning the official government explanation.
But I never hear conversations about it, and very seldom do I see the topic discussed on TV. And, come to think of it, I listen to progressive radio shows on WVAX, and they never broach this subject.
A huge cultural phenomenon is seething just below the surface: lots of Americans are growing ever more suspicious that what we were told, in whole or in part, may be a lie. I'm not the only one who wonders how building seven– which was neither hit by a plane nor doused with jet fuel– was subject to the uniform, swift, and total collapse of a planned demolition.
What we have on our hands may literally be an unspeakable crime, the worst in the history of our country: evidence that may be construed as pointing toward the attacks of September 11, 2001 being an "inside job," i.e., one perpetrated by individuals in our own government.
I know, I know– you're cringing for me, aren't you? Thinking that ol' Janis has stepped right over the edge.
But consider this: I have lots of company in my quest for answers. According to a May 2006, Zogby poll, 42 percent of American adults polled think that our government and the 9/11 Commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts the official explanation of the attacks." And 45 percent think a new investigation is called for.
So, people, why can't we talk about this?
If it's true, if it was an "inside job," then I can tell you that I have no idea how to wrap my mind around that particular conclusion. I would have to re-think everything I know about this country and my place in it.
Such a scenario seems about as plausible as the events in a movie I saw when I was a kid, Invaders from Mars. Aliens take over the bodies of a boy's parents, and he can't understand why the people who are supposed to protect him no longer care whether he lives or dies. This movie scared the hell out of me.
Our confidence in this administration is collapsing– in free-fall, like those buildings in the World Trade Center– and re-thinking everything that has happened seems like the responsible thing to do if we hope to pass a democracy along to our children and grandchildren.
A large chunk of the American public has unanswered questions about the attacks of September 11, 2001. The sooner we can talk openly about those concerns– around the dinner table and around the country– and have our questions answered regarding exactly what happened that day, the sooner we can return to some degree of trust in the people who have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Wow. I guess I can cross Janis off of the list of people to give credence to...
I find Stunned's reaction to this piece to be frightenly ironic. It seems to me that the major point of Janis's essay is that "nobody can talk about it". Even her own family is rendered speechless when she questions what really happened on September 11th.
I applaud Janis' bravery in asking the questions that nobody else dares ask publicly. She doesn't pretend to know the answers. It's a shame to have her credibility doubted because she dares to wonder.
I agree with Harry that the point of the essay seems to be "nobody can talk about it". I think you proved that anyone can talk about it.
You will have to present some real evidence and arguments for your side if you want the conversation to be substantial. Otherwise you are only one person whining about nobody being able to talk about it when you actually have a forum and could publish something substantial on this topic.
I welcome the discussion and look forward to seeing your next essay actually have some meaty arguments and evidence regarding your theory of the Twin Towers & Building 7 collapse.
At last, MSM is allowing in some fresh air! Kudos to the hook for printing this and kudos to Miss J. for her bravery. Our Founding Fathers would be proud. Questioning authority (which includes questioning the Official Version of History)is bedrock Patriotism.
Excellent! Why such a resistance to look at facts and have a thorough investigation. Exactly why are people afread of this?
Nobody was afraid to talk about Clinton's sexual practices.
It irks me that so much energy and money was spent investigating Clinton for lying about something that's not even illegal, and then for something of this magnitude (fires bring down steel skyscrapers for God's sake!!!) to get so little attention.
9/11 was an inside job, plain & simple! Watch Loose Change free on Google video & start to wake up!
In my opinion, many of the theories put forth in "Loose Change" (and elsewhere on numerous websites) serve only to muddy the waters. (e.g., the absurd declaration that there were no airplanes involved in the September 11th attacks.)
What I've discovered in my own reading is that there are many unanswered questions. I don't claim to have answers to any of these questions. I merely ask that we open the subject for discussion and examination.
Should you have an interest in pursuing this matter, I would suggest starting with a brief article that appeared on (a website featuring content from three San Francisco-area newsweeklies).
It's an interview with theologian David Ray Griffin, the author of "The New Pearl Harbor." Do a Google search for "bohemian" and "David Ray Griffin" to find the article.
(Apparently, these comments can't be posted to The Hook using direct links. I tried, and the post was rejected. So, I'm improvising.)
For a more in-depth look at these unanswered questions, I would direct your attention to a long article by David Ray Griffin: "The Destruction of the World Trade Center: Why the Official Account Cannot Be True."
The URL is: 911 review dot com slash articles slash griffin slash nyc1 dot html.
(According to Wikipedia: Dr. David Ray Griffin is a longtime resident of Santa Barbara, California, a full-time academic from 1973 until April 2004, and is currently a co-director of the Center for Process Studies, and one of the foremost contemporary exponents of process theology, founded on the process philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne.)
If you're looking for a website devoted to this subject, have a look at 911 research dot wtc7 dot net.
(Again, sorry for these ugly quasi-URLs. I'd link if I could.)
Bravo for Janis asking questions. No harm in an open discussion. Theories, however, about 9/11 are simply that. No one has come up with concrete proof that it was a conspiracy perpetrated by Washington, or Jews, or whatever. Some people believe conspiracies behind every major event. Remember the JFK assination? The conspiracy theories made a lot of money for people on the rubber chicken circuit, publishing books, talking heads on TV ..........some even with newspaper columns!
It is strange how these two huge towers collapsed straight down "the way buildings do when it's a planned demolition, into their own footprint." If one were to suggest that the government had a part in the 9/11 disaster, one must assume (due to the pattern of the demolished buildings) that the government had these buildings wired for demolition charges before the fact. They must assume that the government encouraged someone to fly airplanes into the buildings to start the chain reaction. Well, a conspiracy theorist might be able to make these arguments, but.... they also must prove a couple of points that can't be believed- and are impossible.
1. The buildings must have been partially detroyed beforehand; charges placed for demolition require a great deal of work before the demolition takes place. There is a great deal of metal work done to partially weaken key structural supports the keep the building from falling one way or another. Is the author suggesting that this work was completed while approximately 10-15000 people followed their normal work routines? Is it not ludicrous to think that people who work day in and day out in this building would not notice walls that were altered throughout the entirety of their floors, where the charges were placed? Remember, the World Trade Center Bldgs. were known for having an "exoskeleton" versus a typically constructed steel structure; the strength of the buildings came from the outer steel walls versus interior steel structural beams. Work on such a structure would be pretty obvious!
2. No one disputes the fact that each building's demise began at the point of the impact of the planes. If the government planned this, they would have had to know exactly where the planes would hit. They would also have to find a way to keep the demo charges from exploding while the building and contents burned. Last thing I heard was that explosives react to heat- and rather quickly. Also, as hard as it is to be able to fly a plane such as the 767 into a building, it would be close to impossible to fly an airplane traveling ~ 500-600 mph into a specific, predetermined floor. Think about it! If the conspiracy theories were to hold water, they would have to deal with real facts- not just some dreamy thoughts about why a building fell into its own footprint. Maybe the government had planned on attacking Building 7, and it just so happened to coincide with the plans of a group of terrorists.
I guess it's fine to ask questions, but when will Americans decide to stop such foolish attacks on the political entities that they despise. 9/11 has nothing in common with Clinton and his sexual proclivities. Do I read much about then Pres. Clinton allowing the Sudanese government to release Bin Laden? Do I read much about past administration's failures in Bosnia, the wasted lives in Somalia? Based on his article, I would call David Ray Griffin an anti-government apologist versus an academic. What bothers me the most is that most of these theories simply attack the current administration and the Republican led Congress; what did/n't they do to allow this disaster, or as the some radicals suggest, how they planned the disaster. When the current administrations is gone, and the Democrats assume the position of power again, who will the radicals that entertain such theories seek to destroy next- the evil Protestants, Catholics, etc.?
Tom - If you wonder why some people think there could have been explosives planted in the towers, you could read Griffin's "The Destruction of the World Trade Center: Why the Official Account Cannot Be True." The URL is: 911 review dot com slash articles slash griffin slash nyc1 dot html.
Thank you, Janis Jaquith, for having the courage to publicly broach this topic!
Americans deserve precise, detailed answers to questions they might have about the events of 9/11 that have not been explained to their satisfaction. Questions from lay persons without specific technical expertise are not necessarily foolish and should not be automatically dismissed or relegated to the realm of UFO’s and ESP. Given the (thankfully) infrequent occurrence of jets being crashed into skyscrapers, relatively little contextually specific (real-world) data exist to serve as a reference points for analysis. Even the most qualified experts, officially designated or not, might disagree over the relative merits of available sources of reference data, as well as the best way to design and execute laboratory experiments and computer simulations. The possibility that the NIST expert investigators had incomplete access to the evidence further complicates matters.
Scientific analysis has been developed to be an emotionally neutral tool for describing natural and man-made materials and predicting their behavior under a variety of conditions. No single scientist or group of scientists has "the answer" to any question – the definitive answer of the moment is still provisional in the sense of being “open to question”. Continued scrutiny of a problem, including point-by-point specific refutation (or acceptance) of any and all issues raised, is necessary to obtain better and better solutions. Perhaps most important of all is knowing when to admit that not enough reference data exist to give a definitive answer, in which case the most likely scenarios are presented along with their relative probabilities.
Of course, scientists and engineers are fallible humans, and faithful adherence to scientific objectivity can be difficult even in relatively esoteric situations. Remaining objective in emotionally and politically charged situations can be nearly impossible. The key to maintaining maximum objectivity is brutal honesty and relentless re-examination and re-evaluation of the evidence at hand. Legal decisions are of course subject to deadlines – they can’t be eternally open-ended like purely scientific questions. A panel of expert peers who are best-qualified to evaluate the available evidence need to reach some sort of consensus within a fixed period of time. But this doesn’t mean that valid questions can’t (or shouldn’t) continue to be raised, by technical experts who are not members of the panel, as well as by the general public.
How can the “general public” differentiate between a 9/11 “wacko conspiracy theory” and a “valid concern”? The first step, as noted by Ms. Jaquith, is to stop suppressing open discussions of non-official possibilities for the events of 9/11. The next step might be an admission that each non-official explanation is not equally plausible, and that some could merit further investigation. Once open discussion commences and a critical, yet open-minded attitude toward alternatives is established, one can begin a comparative evaluation. A good starting point for evaluating these possibilities is the NIST web site, which includes a “FAQ” list. Popular Mechanics published a feature article (available online) which is informative but is deliberately biased in favor of official explanations. One summary of non-official alternatives can be found on the “9-ll research” website, which includes an editorial critique of the NIST report. With some effort, a lay person can at least find basic information on disputed issues and begin to compare the competing opinions. But most non-engineers will not have the education and expertise to make an individually informed judgment. One satisfying method for addressing possible deficiencies and/or ambiguities in the official NIST report might be one-on-one debates, either live or web-based, between an NIST committee member and a dissenting expert (Shyam Sunder vs. Steven Jones, for example). This would require a neutral referee or referees who would moderate the debate and provide an accessible summary for the interested public. Even if definitive answers didn’t materialize, the direct, public arguing of specific points by acknowledged (or at least highly qualified) authorities would certainly help clarify the overall picture. Unfortunately, the likelihood of such a debate being held is low.
As Ms. Jaquith expressed eloquently in her essay, the attacks were emotionally devastating to those directly involved and to our nation as a whole - a unique and unprecedented horror. The very thought that anyone in our government might have allowed or even staged any part of this tragedy is supremely threatening. Denial and dismissal of this frightening possibility, along with stigmatization of those who raise it, do offer short-term comfort and perhaps the illusion of greater safety. But do we not owe the 9/11 victims, their families and friends, and ourselves – the U.S.A. – the unvarnished truth? If the leaders of our country are not guilty, then they should not fear continued investigation of the events of 9/11, including expert examination (or any necessary re-examination) and open re-evaluation of all available evidence. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41341 | Open Climate 101 Online
99 comments on this post.
1. John P. Reisman (OSS Foundation):
[Response:I'm just getting to learn "moodle" myself, but, yes, it does seem to remember where you are in a quiz from last time. On weird thing I've found is that if you blow the first attempt and then pass the second, the system knows you passed and will give you the certificate, but the gradebook doesn't show the updated score. David]
2. Edward Greisch:
[Response:Apologies for that sticker shock, that's what they do to textbooks. But you can get the same information for free from the video lectures. David]
3. Hengist McStone:
[Response:A few people have signed on already, but I don't see your name. There's a link "Create a new account" under the login prompt, let me know if you have problems. The class is a non-trivial amount of work to get through. The students here do it in 10 weeks, coming to three lectures (some of them) and on 90 minute "lab session" a week. They take maybe four classes at a time. They're non-science majors but they still go through some pretty technical stuff. David]
4. Barton Paul Levenson:
5. Tom Mellis:
6. Harry Kal:
Another scaremongering scenario I guess?
[Response:The class discusses the Ultraviolet Catastrophe and the Collapse of the Wave Function, scary stuff. Actually the scary stuff is in the lecture about Lynas' book Six Degrees, the stuff also known as "impacts" and "working group II" in IPCC-speak. David]
7. Snapple:
8. Paul Gee:
Harry Kal
Why guess?
Sign up, do the course and find out for yourself
9. Radge Havers:
Harry Kal @ 6
10. Jim Eager:
11. Jan Galkowski:
I am definitely checking out and recommending the course.
12. Frank Grober:
13. Sphaerica (Bob):
[Response:I just figured out how to enable a multimedia plugin which brings the videos up embedded in the pages, except for the intro lecture, and I also figured out that the intro lecture link wasn't working. Fixed now, tested and works in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox (which seems to be bizarrely slow). David]
14. Spencer:
15. Salamano:
[Response:The enrolled students at UC do get individual attention from graduate student TA's in lab sections of 20. I use scantron forms to give quizzes and exams; actually the questions for the on-line class came from compiling old exams for the last couple of years. Most students do well on the labs if they care enough to work at it, which pulls their grades up some from the exams, which do differentiate between students. Yeah, grading written answers is really hard and time consuming, we used to do that. I'd divide up the exam questions, one per TA, and everyone had to sit and read hundreds of answers. Scantron rules. David]
16. Dave Rado:
17. Richard Pauli:
18. Isotopious:
Here is the youtube version:
Uploaded by UChicago on Apr 6, 2010
19. Lynn Vincentnathan:
20. Wanda Ballentine:
Hopefully! But – look,0,2808837.story
Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms
21. Chris McGrath:
Thanks so much David, this is a wonderful resource.
Dr Chris McGrath
Senior Lecturer (Environmental Regulation)
The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
[Response:I remember thinking, as I read Weart's book, how could he know all that stuff? It was like he was there. The magic of the historian. I agree, a great book. David]
22. Bill:
Thank you for doing this.
23. Ernst K:
24. danny bloom:
In related news, in the distant
Europe will see millions of climate refugees from southern lands
scary scarcity of food, fuel and shelter.
professor in Anchorage.)
25. Thomas Bleakney:
26. Edward Greisch:
[Response:Seems to me interesting ideas about how energy issues fit with other global sociopolitical trends. Maybe the first chapter wasn't the best, it's been a while. David]
27. Trent1492:
28. CM:
[Response:That's weird. I don't get that in my student account. You do show up as enrolled. Can you take a quiz etc? David]
Video lectures: working in Firefox.
29. Alexandre:
I second Ernst K above.
Thanks David!
30. Warren Hendricks:
31. John Atkeison:
John ClimateHawk Atkeison
32. Christoph Rose:
33. CM:
David, re #28,
34. Jeff Rubinoff:
35. BillC:
looking forward to it. many thanks.
36. Chris Colose:
37. Peter Bellin:
38. Edward Greisch:
39. Edward Greisch:
So where do I register?
40. Barton Paul Levenson:
41. Barton Paul Levenson:
Thanks, Jeff! I appreciate it.
42. Tony:
signed up last night!
43. Septic Matthew:
I think that making this available online is a great idea.
44. Septic Matthew:
45. Daniel C Goodwin:
[Response:Yes, either will be fine. The layout etc are the same. The 1st edition makes me cringe a bit, but it'll do. David]
46. CM:
Hi, BPL,
47. Lee Norton:
48. John E. Pearson:
49. Barton Paul Levenson:
50. Barton Paul Levenson:
CM, John, thanks!
51. Barton Paul Levenson:
Okay, that’s 3 attempts to post the same damn message, all with “That reCAPTCHA response was incorrect.” Did you guys step it up as soon as I said it was okay, on the theory that if I can get past, it’s not tight enough? RealClimate maintains its record as the hardest climate blog to post on, and once again, I am out of here. CM, John, thanks for buying the book, and CM, you’re right about the typo.
[Response:We have nothing to do with that thing.--Jim]
52. Daniela:
Thank you for the class. Can you please explain why “Choose the approximate time scale for the CO2 weathering thermostat” gives as wrong the answer > 1000 years which I believe to be the correct one? From time to time I encountered a few bugs or at least so it seemed. Thank you.
[Response:I think it's longer than that. But do alert me if you think there are other errors. David]
53. Daniela:
Thank you a lot for your kind answer, I got (twice) the following choice of options (select one or more):
a. one year
b. 1000 years
c. 100 years
d. > 1000 years
e. ten years
There is no option in the timescale of some hundreds of thousand years or so, and the automated grading system did not give a correct answer after I finished.
Unfortunately it does not allow me to review the labs I have already done. There were a few answers obtained by the models webapps that were marked as wrong, and it puzzled me. I will post if I find any in the future.
I appreciate very much the class which is giving me an insight into a field which is very distant from my professionality and expertise and which I wished to learn more about, as it concerns all of us and our future.
Thanks again
[Response:You are correct, I missed the ">" sign in your question, and the question in the system was wrong, fixed now. Apologies for not reading your query more closely. David]
54. Sarah:
In the question Daniela mentioned, “>1000 years” was the largest option available.
55. Sarah:
Some of the issues I’ve come across are below. There were others but I don’t remember which questions, and I don’t know if it’s an error in the marking script or an error in my thinking. (Some at the end of lab 3, and a question on ears of corn in an earlier lab.)
From the link in Lab 4: The Lapse Rate and the Skin Altitude, NCAR Radiation Code starts up from the “Run me” but when the “Do it!” button is pressed, I get “Internal Server Error”.
Running it from the “On-line Models” tab works, but then the answer given by the program 16.0C (with no settings changed) is not the one required in Lab 4 question 1. Maybe I misunderstood what the lab wanted.
On the next question, setting the lapse rate to 0, I got the right answer but some mess in the output:
qneg! 1 1 8 qneg! 1 1 9 qneg! 1 1 10 qneg! 1 1 11 qneg! 1 1 12 qneg! 1 1 13 qneg! 1 1 14 qneg! 1 1 15 qneg! 1 1 16 qneg! 1 1 17 qneg! 1 1 18 qneg! 1 1 19 qneg! 1 1 20 qneg! 1 1 21 qneg! 1 1 22 qneg! 1 1 23 qneg! 1 1 24 qneg! 1 1 25 Equilibrium near-surface air temperature is -11.1 degC (262.0 K)
The= next question says to set the lapse rate to 10. I tried both -10 (and got “A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.” and so on) and +10 and I got “qneg! 1 1 10 qneg! 1 1 11 qneg! 1 1 12 qneg! 1 1 13 qneg! 1 1 14 qneg! 1 1 15 qneg! 1 1 16 qneg! 1 1 17 qneg! 1 1 18 qneg! 1 1 19 qneg! 1 1 20 qneg! 1 1 21 qneg! 1 1 22 qneg! 1 1 23 qneg! 1 1 24 qneg! 1 1 25 qneg! 1 1 26
Equilibrium surface temperature less than -100 oC.”
Lab 5 has the same problem with the link to the program in question 1.
[Response:Yikes. I got the links from the labs fixed, but it sounds like there is some code problem, I'll get it fixed. Appreciate the feedback. David]
56. Sarah:
For a long time, I’ve been aware of my ignorance in this field but my efforts to correct that ignorance have failed since the material I’ve seen has assumed more than I’ve known. This course is filling an important gap in my knowledge, at a level I can understand, and giving me quite a few “Aha!” moments as things suddenly become clear. Having exercises and labs, as opposed to just watching videos, is helpful in showing me where I haven’t quite understood. Thank you for the opportunity to study this, and the effort you’ve put in to bring this course to us.
57. Hank Roberts:
> The 1st edition makes me cringe a bit, but it’ll do. David]
David, do you have an errata list for the 1st ed., so those of us with more time than money can buy cheap and mark up an old first edition with corrections?
[Response:My document of shame, yes, I'll email it to you. David]
58. J Althauser:
Thanks for reminding everyone of this resource David. But none of the video links to individual lectures work for me – Mac OS X 10.4.11, Safari v 4.3.1. Nor did they work in 2009, only show scrambled characters.
The Youtube lecture are nice, via #18. Thanks for linking them Isotopious.
I am currently reading Ruddiman’s Earth’s Climate: Past and Future ca 2001. An overview with emphasis on geologic processes, a narrative of the search for the causes of climate change.
J Althauser
[Response:There are multiple options. The embedded links in the quizzes come from youtube edu, which you can also go to directly (search for my name and a lecture name or number). They are also served as mp4 files from a server at UChicago with links from here. Or iTunes University is probably the easiest way to download and watch off-line, from a tablet or phone or laptop. David]
59. Rob:
Does the learning material state what the rate of warming will be as a result of the Greenhouse effect in the real world? Does it state what the impact of the warming will be on other factors such as rainfall?
60. Hank Roberts:
For Rob — projections and details vary; here,for example:
“the best estimate (solid bar) and likely range (grey bar) for six SRES scenarios, based on both the model results in the left part of the figure and expert judgment derived from a variety of additional information. Note that this figure illustrates the uncertainties arising from different greenhouse gas scenarios and climate models, but almost certainly underestimates the uncertainty associated with carbon-cycle feedbacks.”
61. Sarah:
Further to my comment on Lab 5, question 1 links the wrong program. I believe it should link to
[Response:fixed, thanks, d]
I answered question 1, got no feedback as I have in previous questions, and it went immediately to question 2. From my score I now see that means it was correct. I actually prefer no feedback when the answer is correct as it speeds up the process.
[Response:I agree, found the option in the setup, and set all of the labs to work that way. d]
Question 2 links to the correct program but again I get the internal server error.
Questions 3 and 4 I get wrong. On question 3, the only figure I changed from question 2 was the TOA radiative imbalance until I got exactly 30.0. This was obtained at -65.4 W/m^2. I continued to question 4, changed insolation and suface albedo as indicated (just like in question 2, which was marked right), and set TOA radiative inbalance back to 0. I got -53.1 W/m^2 which was again wrong. I have no idea what I might be doing wrong as it seems a simple task.
[Response:Yep, you're right again, I had the question set up wrong. Fixed now. Your comments are extremely helpful, thank you for documenting so clearly. David]
62. John E. Pearson:
J Althauser says:
20 Jan 2012 at 11:14 AM
I watch them on a Mac running 10.6.7 and version 5.0.4 of Safari
63. Hank Roberts:
Safari 5.1.2 and OSX 10.7.2, opens the videos OK in Safari for me
Firefox downloads them as .mp4s for Quicktime to open.
64. Sharon Black Hawkins-Fauster:
Thanks, David, for offering the online course for non-science majors. I had given books to friends and family on global warming and they said they were unable to understand the technical language. This course has really been needed — I’ll pass on the info that this is available.
65. Sarah:
It seems that a lot of the questions which involve multiple tick boxes do not give a correct answer after a wrong answer.
Furthermore, in ‘The Present in the Bosom of the Past’ both of the answers in the following question are marked wrong.
Which of these is an example of climate change mitgation
Select one or more:
a. switching from air conditioning to fans
b. adding air conditioning
66. Daniela:
Is it possible to check “Oil and Methane” questions? I got 0 correct and it does not give me the correct answers. Thank you again!
[Response:Yes, it looks like those questions didn't import correctly, any of them, how frustrating for the student. My apologies and thanks, fixed now. David]
67. Daniela:
There may be a bug with the “Oil and Methane” questions: I got 0 correct and it does not give me the correct solutions after submitting. Thank you again!
68. Daniela:
David thank you a lot and no problem at all. I am writing to remark that the set of questions “Six Degrees” tell me the following message. Thank you again!
Attempts allowed: 2
Grading method: Highest grade
No questions have been added yet
[Response:Oops. Fixed now. Thanks! David]
69. Daniela:
Thank you a lot! Can you please check, in “Six degrees” the question that asks to explain the faint young sun paradox? It gave me wrong answers to what I clicked, and it did not gave me the correct answers after submission. I really appreciate.
70. Daniela:
Thank you again and apologize for pestering :) I retried “Six degrees” and I got wrong my answer for the following question, with no correct answer given.
The air at the top of the troposphere is colder than the air at the ground because of
a. water vapor
b. expansion of gas
c. light energy
d. ozone
Also, even though I completed everything and have 85% or something, the homepage says:
Open Climate 101 Certificate of Completion
Not available until you achieve a required score in Course total.
Thank you so very much. Daniela
[Response:You're absolutely not pestering, you're helping me out, and I appreciate it. I reviewed all the questions and rooted out this error and the last one you found. I'm less sure about the certificate issue. I made a tweak, can you have another try and let me know? Thanks again David]
71. Daniela:
More precisely this is the message I get, if I check the status on the webpage (everything else has a “Yes”)
Course grade Passing grade 65% 85.83537% No 21 January
72. Chris Colose:
I also have a problem with a pair of questions in Lab 3 on greenhouse gases, that contrasts the constant vapor mixing ratio and constant relative humidity MODTRAN cases. One question is “Now repeat the calculation but at constant relative humidity. (Starting from a base case, record the total outgoing IR flux. Now increase pCO2 by 30 ppm. The IR flux goes down. Increase the Temperature Offset until you get the original IR flux back again.) How much temperature change do you need this time?”
Starting from the base case, the IR flux is 287.844 W/m2, which decreases to 287.498 W/m2 at 405 ppm CO2. I only need to make the Ground T offset 0.09 degrees for constant mixing ratio (or 0.16 C for const. relative humidity, consistent with an enhanced sensitivity). Neither of those answers appear correct. That seems hard to screw up, but I could have missed something.
[Response:Yep, I'm not sure where the numbers I had in there came from. Thanks, fixed now. David]
73. Daniela:
Thank you a lot for your overwhelming kindness. I still get the same error messages as above in msgs 70 and 71, both on the main page and on the status page, where, however, it marks the course as “Complete”, yet gives me the error message I posted in 71. Thank you again. Daniela
[Response:Congratulations, you and Sarah (who has also been great about posting feedback) are the first students to complete the class. I had to move the certificate link into the class site, beneath all the lectures and labs. I think it will work now. Congrats again, and thanks. David]
74. Sarah:
Thank you so much for the course, David, and for your rapid responses to all the issues. It’s been a pleasure doing the course. Are there any more planned?
The certificate link is now working.
75. Daniela:
I confirm the certificate works, and if I may add, it is very nice. I hope the info about this class gets around and many people take advantage of it, as it is really an awesome course and fruitfully enjoyable by a very diverse audience. One thing (and already difficult enough) is teaching Physics 2 to students all of whom have just followed Physics 1 and all of whom are interested in the skill to tackle Physics 3 coming up next; but to teach a subject from the very basic foundations and to be appealing to people with all sorts of professionalities and backgrounds, has all of my admiration. Thanks again. Daniela
76. Daniela:
I second the comment 74 by Sarah. It has been a pleasure and please if possible, consider offering more classes in the future. I know time is never enough, but the subject, which is crucial to our future, is all too often discussed without knowledge, holding on to prejudices and unscientific ideas. Please consider offering more. Thanks again.
77. Matt Bequette:
I highly recommend David’s course. The Linus and Friedman books are worth the read too. Thanks David!
78. Daniela:
@Matt and other fellow students who already completed the class (I don’t have anyone’s email except for Sarah’s): the previous Lab 1 has been broken in three parts. Feel free to take again the ones that appear not-yet-taken, especially if you found bugs the first time around. Enjoy!
And again a big thank you to David for this improvement.
[Response:There were so many questions in the lab before, without any notice of how many there were, that it seemed daunting, and it was a problem because the system isn't very good at remembering a student's progress, if they make it part way through a lab, stop, and come back. So I broke it up into nicer-sized chunks. David]
79. Alastair MDonald:
Hi David,
I am enjoying your course but I am having a problem with Lab 4. When I set the lapse rate to -10 as required in Exercise 3 I get the messages appended below.
When I set the lapse rate to -9 I get the answer 16.4 C, but -9.1 and -9.9 give similar results as -10.
[Response:This does seem weird, I'll alert the guy who supports this particular model. For now I "dropped 10 and punted" and just deleted the question. When all else fails, lower your expectations. David]
There is a second problem because when I enter 16.4 as the answer it corectly says I am wrong but when I select “No, I just want to go to the next question” it takes me back to try again, as it does if I select “Yes, I’d like to try again”. That means I am stuck at that exercise and cannot move on to the others. Would it be possible to fix that problem as well which I think applies to all the other exercises?
[Response:Yeah, actually, that is weird, not how moodle is supposed to work. I've tried changing the options, to allowing the user to re-try, or not, and either way it seems impossible to get through a lab if you can't get one of the questions. I'll keep chewing on it, this isn't right. Thanks much for the detailed feedback, very helpful. David]
Cheers, Alastair.
Python 2.5.5: /usr/bin/python2.5
Sat Jan 28 10:30:01 2012
/var/www/forecast/cgi-bin/ in ()
517 try:
519 Teq = climt.mathutil.ridder_root(TOAFlux, (173.15,403.15), accuracy=0.1)
521 except climt.mathutil.BracketingException, err:
Teq undefined, climt = , climt.mathutil = , climt.mathutil.ridder_root = , TOAFlux = , accuracy undefined
/home/mcguire/lib/python2.5/site-packages/climt/ in ridder_root(f=, bracket=(173.15000000000001, 403.14999999999998), fnvals=None, accuracy=0.10000000000000001, max_iterations=50)
94 if min(abs(x1-x2),abs(x4-x4old))<accuracy or temp==0:
95 return x4
96 raise RootFindingException("too many iterations")
98 def root(f, interval=(0.,1.), accuracy=1e-4, max_iterations=50):
global RootFindingException =
: too many iterations
args = (‘too many iterations’,)
message = ‘too many iterations’
80. Edward Greisch:
I have watched all but the last 2 lectures. I still don’t see any labs or quizzes or homework assignments or exams. Are those only for paying students?
81. Alastair McDonald:
Re #80
Hi Edward,
I did not pay but I did register which is free.
Cheers, Alastair.
82. Hank Roberts:
I would suggest creating a separate forum — entry upon passing the course — for climate discussions.
It might help the noise level.
[Response:That's a great idea, so I've set up so that when a user passes the 10% mark (like a down payment) they see a link to a discussion forum. It's up in the "syllabus" box, up at the top. David]
83. Alastair mcDonald:
Re #80 again
I now reckon that you must be using the ITunes library here but to get to the exercises and get a certificate you have to register and go in through here
For others who have registered then the ITunes link gets you to other goodies such as stuff from Cambridge University.
Cheers, Alastair.
84. Alastair mcDonald:
Hi again Edward,
You register here:
Cheers, Alastair.
85. Sarah:
I’m not sure what you mean about noise levels, Hank, but it would be nice to have somewhere to have discussions. I’ve certainly got questions that I’d like to ask/discuss but don’t know where to ask them.
86. Edward Greisch:
83 Alastair mcDonald: I did the register thing.
87. Alastair mcDonald:
Hi Edward,
But are you logging in to see the videos?
Cheers, Alastair.
88. Alastair mcDonald:
Hi again Edward,
I think I now know where you are going wrong :-) When you log in there is a page headed “Open Climate Science 101″. On the menu bar for that page one item is “Video Lectures”, but that is NOT what you should use. Instead click below where it says “My Courses” on the “Open Climate 101″ hyper link. That will take you to a list of the videos and exercises.
Hoping I have got it right this time,
Cheers, Alastair.
89. Hank Roberts:
> questions that I’d like to ask/discuss but don’t know where to ask them.
For Gavin and Dave Archer — offering a discussion area — limiting access to those who _pass_ the class — might be helpful to all concerned.
90. Daniela:
Thank you for the discussion area and please restore the question about high and low clouds! In regards to the labs, I have had the impression that, if a student gets wrong an answer for the first time, we will be forced to redo the question (and if correct, it’s marked correctly). After two incorrect tries, one may proceed to the next by clicking “No thanks”. Sort of wierd but has a logic. Just my hypotesis as I don’t have any experience with moodle. Thank you again for the continuing improvements. Daniela
[Response:I'm having the same trouble as Alastair, in particular on the questions in the lessons that require a numerical answer. So lab 1a starts out with one of these, and the lab which he was working on. What kind of questions are you getting the "No thanks" button on? David]
91. Edward Greisch:
Alastair mcDonald: It says “all courses” not “my courses.” That doesn’t work either. Mac OS 10.6.8 with Safari 5.1 and Firefox 9.0.1
92. Alastair McDonald:
Re #90
I have put my question on clouds back again. I had deleted it temporarily while I checked what the models did. They give a surface temperature of >100C for 100% Cirrus cloud which I can’t believe is what would occur in real life.
Although I had that problem with Lab 4 I managed to get through Lab 6 with mistakes. I did not report this earlier as I am not sure it will be any help.
[Response:I think I fixed the issue with numerical questions not allowing the user to pass until they got it right. In case anyone cares, the numerical question type (Moodle 2.1) had to be told that a numerical answer outside the "correct" range (#1) was wrong, by setting a range #2 of -1E18:1E18, and giving that a score of 0 but moving to the next page. Let me know if any more weirdness ensues. With the NCAR model, that is one of the few on the site that I don't deal with. Hopefully we'll get it right soon. David]
I see now that all the pages are entitled “Open Climate Science 101″ so that was not much help :-(
The page I was referring to has a heading on the left column saying “My courses” (not “All courses”), and below that two hyperlinks “Open Climate 101″ and “All courses”. Below that is another heading saying “Settings” below which is a hyperlink to “My profile settings”.
The URL for that webpage is .
But the page you want to get to is:
But to get to it you may have to log in first, or it may force you to log in if you haven’t already.
I am using Firefox and Windows XP. I would have thought that Moodle would have worked with Firefox on a Mac.
Hope that helps this time :-)
Cheers, Alastair.
93. Daniela:
Sorry for the delay in answering. I am not sure if now it is changed, when I first did the labs, they sent me back to the same question (whatever I answered) after the first mistake; but the second time had different statement (something like “Not quite”) and it was possible for me to click continue if I wanted to, and move on to the next question. I also noticed that some answers, which I had gotten right at attempt 2, were counted as correct.
Now is much nicer, with automatical transition to next question if the previous one was correct.
Please let me know if debugging is useful, I’ll surely find a few minutes. The class was very helpful to me and I again express my thanks.
@Alastair: thank you for restoring the Q. It has been puzzling me as well.
94. Edward Greisch:
92 Alastair McDonald: Thanks! Now I see something labeled “lab.”
95. Edward Greisch:
Use the “back” button on your browser to do the question over.
96. Alastair McDonald:
Hi David,
Thanks for fixing that. I have completed Lab 4 now with 100%, but…
I think it is now accepting wrong numerical answers as correct, and allowing second and third attempts at multiple choice questions to be treated as first attempts and the mark being counted.
With the multiple choice questions, one can find out what the correct answer is by trying all the choices, but with numerical questions that is not true. It would be better if the question following a numerical contained the answer to the previous question. Then if one is not able to find the correct answer, there would be a clue to where one had gone wrong. It would also be nice if each question included a line saying “Question x of y” so we had some idea of how far we had got through the Lab, and it would also help us to report problems with which we are having difficulty.
That seems a lot of work so maybe you could get a student to help you with it.
Thanks again for providing it. I am finding it very useful.
Cheers, Alastair.
97. Alastair McDonald:
Hi Edward,
Glad to hear to have found the labs, but there are also quizzes associated with the lectures. You won’t have to watch the lectures again, just do the quizzes to get more marks.
My problem was not that I wanted to do the question over. It was that I didn’t want to do it over! But that’s been fixed now :-)
Cheers, Alastair.
98. Edward Greisch:
It won’t let me take the quizzes. It says I’m not registered. I did the chapter 1 labs.
[Response:The site lists you as a use, but you're right, it doesn't have you "enroled" in the class (the weird spelling of "enrol" is apparently British). You need to click on a link that says "enrol me in this class". My recollection is that it's on the left side once you enter the class. David]
99. Klaus Flemløse:
Dear David,
I am following your video lectures on global warming and I have bought the text book. It has been a great pleasure for me.
However, I have found one case where I do not think you are right, and where a corrections may be needed.
In you lecture dealing with Chapter 9, after 21 minutes, you are talking about Danish wind energy. You mention that “50% of the wind power is exported …”. This figure is not correct.
The information you are referring to originates from misinformation published by oil funded groups in USA via the Danish 3rd party organization CEPOS with links to Bjørn Lomborg.
It is not possible to determine the share of exported wind in the way CEPOS does, simply because it is not possible to separate electricity produced by wind from electricity produced by coal. If one should give a figure using pro rata production it is around 20%.
The CEPOS report can be found here:
A reply from a group of scientists from University of Aalborg can be found here:
The controversy is also discussed on Wikipedia:
The present Danish government wants to increase the share of electricity produced by wind from 20% today to 50% in 2020.
[Response:I am getting lots of great feedback on the class, your comment among many. Thanks, David] |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41400 |
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Audio Commentary MP3s you sync with your copy of the movie!
18 December 2007
Available formats:
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Average: 4.2 (117 votes)
The Fantastic Four are back! Or the Fantastic Four is back! Depending upon whether one is referring to the title of the film, the four individuals who are fantastic and number four, or the group of four fantastic people who use that title! The point is, they're back! And this time, unlike the first, there's a surfer made out of silver and he rises! It's fantastic!
And if you're a fan of repulsive, waxy-faced Australian Prime Minister's sons as ineffectual villains, then you're in clover, because this film is packed with them (well, it has one, total). But FF:ROTSS has much more going for it.
The fact that we can't think of a single thing does not in the least bit undermine our claim that it has a lot more going for it, because it does. Have a LOT more going for it. SO BUY OR RENT IT TODAY! IT'S FANTASTIC TIMES FOUR (rising of silver surfer included with every purchase).*
*You might want to buy the RiffTrax that Mike, Kevin and Bill made to accompany the film because to watch it sans RiffTrax is to commit an act of monstrous, suicidal recklessness.
The reviews are in!
Pain will not hurt you if you add these to your cart
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41434 | Archive - Sep 10, 2006
SCAdians Participate in "Ohio's Oldest Fair"
Animal Sacrifices or Something the Cat Dragged in?
A new study of burial cairns and brochs has led researchers to question whether animal remains found at the sites were offerings to the dead or merely "something the cat dragged in."
CSI Needed for Roman Crime?
An archaeological team working near Sedgeford,England may need the help of criminal investigators to solve a 1500-year-old mystery: was the skeleton found pushed into the oven of a Roman farm murdered?
Roman Village Found Near Bonn, Germany
Archaeologists working near Bonn, Germany have found the remains of a Roman village complete with baths. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41440 | London Chessboxing
London Chessboxing Tickets
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What people are saying about London Chessboxing
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Andrew Bullock
Chessboxing, now there's a hybrid sport everyone should watch, nothing better than shouting over a game of chess, then cheering as the greatest minds try and out box each other in a ring of combat and or chess... don't bother with theater, watch chessboxing instead!
Posted on: 2013-03-10T19:27:05+0000
Likes: 2
Adele de Bruyn
Brainy Brawn!
Posted on: 2013-03-11T09:20:53+0000
Likes: 2
Tim Woolgar
Group discounts are now available for this show.
Posted on: 2013-02-28T11:15:55+0000
Likes: 2
Jordi Sinclair
Chessboxing is arguably the most all round tactical sport in the world! How many other sports combine the mental toughness needed before rapidly switching into something that is physically draining yet mentally exhausting at the same time? RESPECT!
Posted on: 2013-03-17T20:23:00+0000
Likes: 1
George Coote
Chessboxing: The only sport that allows you to totally annihilate your opponent both intellectually and physically, and then share a pint afterwards. The ultimate gentleman's pursuit!
Posted on: 2013-03-15T11:52:00+0000
Likes: 1
Harry Stiffen
The greatest invention since sliced bread!
Posted on: 2013-03-10T21:07:28+0000
Likes: 1
Phee Urbanest
Absolutely mental!
Posted on: 2013-03-07T18:48:51+0000
Likes: 1
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41447 | Open the windows and get fresh
Get fresh! Clear germs by opening the windows and letting the sunshine in. Not only does the sun feel great, but it's ultraviolet rays kill mico-organisms, too. Also, don't forget to insert new air-vent filters.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41458 | EPA decisions overturn policies on chemical risks, air-quality standards
05/26/2009 | Chemical & Engineering News
The EPA has overturned two policies put into place by President George W. Bush's administration that involved the assessment of chemical risks and air-quality standards. The new policies are designed to bring more scientific integrity to the Integrated Risk Information System, and more science into the process of reviewing and setting health-based air-quality standards under the Clean Air Act.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41461 | AICPA takes stand against cash basis limitation proposal in House
11/14/2013 | AICPA Insights
The House Ways and Means Committee has issued a small-business tax reform discussion draft that, in the name of simplifying the tax code, would use the accrual method to accelerate revenue collection from CPA firms and other small businesses. The AICPA strongly opposes this proposed limitation on the use of the cash basis method, as it would force all business owners, except sole proprietorships, to pay taxes before collecting payment from customers and clients if the business exceeds $10 million in average gross receipts. This is unfair, the AICPA believes, because it treats these people different from other individual taxpayers.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41500 | Click here to monitor SSC
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Row count and space used for all tables in database (update)
By Rafal Skotak,
This procedure works like the sp_spaceused (part of code is taken from it) procedure but this one shows statistics for all tables in the selected database or for all databases (excluding tempdb and model).
Now there are two versions: for SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41509 | A onetime farmer in Bajor's Dahkur Province, Shakaar returned to his fields in 2369 after 25 years of fighting the Cardassian occupiers -- only to find himself in politics as his world's secular leader in 2371. As the head and namesake of Kira's resistance cell, he agreed to let her go on her first raid at age 13 to fill in a vacancy in the ranks, and ironically found himself reteamed with her years later during a near-violent showdown with Kai Winn over the return of promised soil reclamators.
After that encounter, and the support he received for his handling of it, Shakaar handily won the position as Bajor's second post-occupation First Minister, edging Winn out of her acting role. Even after knowing Kira for 10 years, he realizes he has fallen in love with her a year after his election, during his successful push to cut Bajor's UFP admission timetable in half -- though that act was later postponed by Emissary Sisko's pagh-tem-far that advised against it. As he and Kira's affair played out, he had a hard time accepting her carrying the O'Brien's transplanted second child to term after an accident, and made a fool of himself during her delivery in mid-2373.
Soon afterward, he and Kira parted ways romantically, although she still respects him as Bajor's best leader. Shakaar is used to death threats and he routinely ignores them, but a True Way alien operative nearly killed him twice during the Federation conference on DS9 by sending his turbolift car into free fall, then almost getting his quarters depressurized. According to Dukat, anyway, he slept with every woman in the cell except Kira -- but Dukat's jealousy of the major should be taken into account.
Shakaar's relationship with Kira ended in 2373 after a visit to the Kenda shrine on Bajor revealed that they were not meant to walk the same path. |
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But Peumans says that the technology has a trade-off: because the heated material and solar cell are placed so close together, it’s not possible to put a filter between them to help tune the wavelengths of light that reach the solar cell. This could limit the ultimate efficiencies that the system can reach.
DiMatteo first published work on the MTPV concept in the late 1990s, but it has taken until now to engineer prototypes large enough to be practical. One main challenge has been finding ways to create a gap that’s just one-tenth of a micrometer across and yet can be maintained over the relatively large areas needed for a practical device. DiMatteo says that the company will improve the performance of the devices by making the gap steadily smaller, which computer models suggest will improve efficiency.
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Listen to this.
It’s the music created by the human protein thymidylate synthase A (ThyA). Really. At least, it’s the notes created to “play” the music of this string of amino acids, with each amino acid assigned a chord.
Rie Takahashi, a graduate student at UCLA, dreamed up the idea of making music out of proteins when she read about a blind meteorology student at Cornell who converted the colors of a contoured weather map into tones corresponding to different hues.
Takahashi hopes her creation will help disabled geneticists “read” sequences using sound, she writes in a report in Genome Biology. “We wanted to be able to move away from a two-dimensional string of letters across a sheet of paper, and to see if adding another dimension–sound–would help,” Takahashi told
Helping blind biologists “hear” DNA is laudable, but I’m also finding the notion of amino acids as chords strung together to be something eerie and wonderful, like putting my ear to a seashell and hearing the ocean. In addition, the idea makes sense, given that music is essentially digital–a series of precise calibrations of sound that the ancient Greeks thought of as a form of mathematics. For instance, the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras developed “The Music of the Spheres” to describe the proportional movements of the planets, moon, and sun in what he believed to be whole-number ratios identical to musical intervals.
Checking out Takahashi’s Gene2Music website, I discover that other musically inclined scientists have applied notes and sounds to biological activities, such as the functions of a cell. You really need to check out these strange, compelling tunes.
Takahashi’s website also allows you to enter any amino-acid sequence and have it translated into music. Try it, and listen to the slightly dissonant but curiously soothing sounds of protein sequences that are in a sense singing.
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Tagged: DNA, genetics, music, protein
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41558 | TED Conversations
David Roemer
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Evolution only applies to the bodies of humans, not their souls. Natural selection only explains the adaptation of species.
The science of biology includes the metaphysical concepts of form (soul) and matter (body) because it is necessary to exclude free will and other functions of the human mind from evolutionary biology. Materialists think that the soul is just an idea, but religious people think the human soul is spiritual.
Many laymen think that natural selection explains common descent, but PhDs in biology know the limits of Darwinism. In my narrated YouTube video/slideshow (“The Truth About Evolution and Religion” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKaF8vX6HXQ) I give quotes from peer-reviewed articles to prove my point.
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Jan 7 2012: I'm a biologist (and a PhD). What is a soul? I've never seen one or seen any evidence that we have one. I'm pretty sure that dead people have influence - e.g. Socrates, Darwin, Jesus, Mohammed but when you are dead, you are dead.
What is free will? Organisms (such as we are) move through life being faced with choices. What they choose is infuenced by their internal state, the options available, advice from, or actions of, those around them and societal norms. Christianity is just one big norm, one of many that influence the way in which people behave. Christianity is a product of humanity and the codes of behaviour that it espouses are common to many other civilizations across the world.
There are no gods, no life after death and no such thing as a soul. Get over it and get on with your wonderful life.
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Jan 7 2012: Body (matter) and soul (form) are correlative metaphysical principles that explain why humans are equal to each other, but superior to animals.
Free will can't be defined. It is not a scientific concept. We know we have free will because we can make ourselves the subject of our own knowledge. Hence, humans are embodied spirits and the human soul is spiritual.
Humans are also finite beings because other humans exist. Finite beings need a cause. If every being in the universe needed a cause, the universe would not be intelligible. Hence, an infinite being exists. In the West, we call the infinite being God.
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Jan 7 2012: . . and so it starts. Step 1) We are superior to animals because of some fairy-tale and a book of stories chosen by politicians a long time ago. Step 2) We (theists) are superior to other people who don't think like we do or believe in our fairy tales. Step 3) Righteous war (or Jihad).
If it can't be defined to all intents and purposes, it doesn't exist. Science is the fundamental language of explanation of facts. You like to think you have free will. You have options. The last sentence isn't a logical progression. The problem is that science is hard and that when you use it to define concepts such as love or beauty you have to go back to first principles (it gets a bit boring if you try to do that for everything - our cultural shorthand for these things is easier). I love Bach and Leo Kottke but while I'm aware that there will be a scientific explanation, I don't feel the need to delve that deep. I'm happy just to sit back and enjoy the music.
Your cause is to survive and reproduce. The rest of paragraph three is gobbledegook. My advice, not based on any fairy tales - give your kids a good start in life and be nice to people so that your kids have a chance of growing up in a nice world.
George Carlin has a great take on this stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o
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Jan 7 2012: Wow, so animals don't have souls and you feel your superior to a non-discrimatory, non-egoic animal ,like a dolphin or an amoeba or that squirrel outside your window shaking his head....
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Jan 11 2012: Do animals or humans have free will? I guess there has been plenty written on the former.
At the outset I would suggest free will (or not) in no way implies there are souls or spirits (or not). Although there are perhaps some contradictions with religious type beliefs if there is not free will.
Humans make apparently conscious choices at a practical level. Are they predetermined. If we had a great enough understanding of the brain, biology, physics, chemistry, behaviour, psychology etc could we predict every decision and action an individual would make. Perhaps. But this may require understanding every relevant experience a person has had that has shaped their brain or consciousness and unconsciousness involved in the decision, their current state etc. These experiences may involve other conscious beings. Suggest we are a long way from being able to identify and predict every conscious and unconscious action/decision.
We can already make gross predictions. Mock a prophet - predict a response.
On a simple human scale I make choices and have practical free will. It really doesn't matter that much to me if which enough knowledge down to a quantum level my decisions are predictable.
If we photocopied the universe as it is today a 1000 times, would the human copies all make the same choices? Would the physical environment, every blade of grass, every atom, every electron, every subatomic particle or string, be exactly the same in a years time in every copy?
I don't know but at a quantum level, chaos and all that make me lean towards divergence.
Suggest there is a continuum of animal free will. A single cell organism is probably incapable of making conscious decisions and choices. But suggest different individual dogs of the same species will make different decisions in the same situation, again dependent in part of their experience and current state etc.
Of course our brain/intellect opens up more choices to us. A wider world of free choice
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Jan 10 2012: Metaphysics looks like the remnants of a pre scientific time to me.
My opinion, we are animals, just with a more developed brain than the others on this planet, no such thing as a soul or spirit. When our brain stops working and our body dies, no more consciousness, no more us, oblivion, just like other animals.
Suggest if we somehow had only current scientific and no left over religious concepts floating around society from our more ignorant past we wouldn't develop such widely held belief in immortal, non matter, non energy, spirits.
Agree, that no one knows anything for sure on this topic but souls/spirits, just in humans, seems more speculative than a biological approach.
David, if they did exist, how would you know that souls don't evolve. Without relying on a particular religious dogma, how do you know the soul creator didn't create the first souls and all the others are derivative with a soul DNA.
Suggest some belief systems indicate souls can learn and develop in repeating carnations. How do you know the some souls aren't living many times.
Are the souls sitting around in a waiting room waiting for our birth or do they come into being on conception. Do souls only exist while we live or do they go on.
How do you know we have souls. How do you know other animals don't. How do you know how souls work other than fitting your metaphysical world view.
Curious where/how you think the concept of souls originated? I mean we can see our bodies, play around and understand our our brains work, emotions, personality, perceptions etc. We can detect energy. Again the whole concept of a soul and most of metaphysics seems to relate back to old belief systems developed in relative ignorance and never with any evidence. A whole framework related to imaginary concepts that can not be proven, measured etc just ideas.
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Jan 10 2012: I wouldn't call Dave's proposals metaphysics anymore than I would call any tinkering physics.
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Jan 10 2012: Do animals have free will? If yes, how do you know? If no, what is free will? Rational people judge that we have free will because of three bits of evidence:
2) People who say it is an illusion, live their lives as if they had free will.
3) People who say it is an illusion have poor reasoning skills. They are like a person who is collecting minerals and arranging them according to their color. He builds a chest of drawers and labels the drawers one of the colors of the rainbow. He puts a red mineral in the red drawer, the green mineral in the green drawer, etc. One day he finds a white mineral, and he says, "White minerals don't exist."
• Jan 7 2012: Magnus, " I'm a biologist (and a PhD). What is a soul?" Your degrees are proof of knowledge, not wisdom..
The soul is the psyche. The mind. It can be seen as the electromagnetic field; it has been seen as the aura and photographed via Kirlian methods. Though it is not tangible, you experience it nonetheless. Emotions aren't tangible, yet we experience them, do we not?
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Jan 7 2012: I'm not sure that letters before or after your name prove anything except (in the case of a Phd) perhaps tenacity - I was merely making a point in response to Davids initial note.
You contradict yourself Ethan - you tell me that we can see the electromagnetic field of the brain and then tell me its not tangible. Is the soul an electromagnetic field then? Can we detect how much of a sinner someone is using a magnet? Could be useful at airports I guess.
Emotions are tangible - biochemically and made obvious via our bodily and facial expressions. Guilt for example is a chemical response to deviation from a norm.
Using your implicit definition of tangible, a vacuum is not tangible (nor an electron, proton, atom etc) but we can prove its existence using science. If anyone proves the existence of some all powerful deity that gives a jot about humanity using logic and science I'll start saving for an asbestos coffin.
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Jan 7 2012: QUOTE: "The soul is the psyche."
The etymology may coincide but, in common parlance, the soul and the psyche are no longer considered the same thing. Of course, they CAN mean the same thing but often do not.
The psyche refers to the mind (conscious and unconscious) and the soul has come to mean that part of a being, human or not, that would be "immaterial" and is often considered to be eternal.
• Jan 10 2012: The soul is the psyche.
Common parlance be damned.
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Jan 10 2012: QUOTE: "The soul is the psyche."
As long as you clarify your terms.
I suppose it depends on how precise you need your communication to be.
I know that when I use the word "psyche" I am not referring to the soul.
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Jan 7 2012: Hi Magnus,
You say, "There are no gods, no life after death and no such thing as a soul. Get over it and get on with your wonderful life."
There is no way you can know what happens after we die, unless you have died and come back [this is exactly what I say to people who say there is life after death.]
We cannot prove there is no God.
Nor can we prove there is no soul.
I'm not quite sure why we tend to "need" certainty. The religious/spiritual/metaphysical folks, for the most part, think they know there is life after death. They don't.
Rationalist, in large part, think they know there is no life after death. They don't.
You also say, "If it can't be defined to all intents and purposes, it doesn't exist." This is not valid. There are things that cannot be defined and yet exist; and there are things that can be defined and do not exist.
Does consciousness exist? Can it be defined?
Does a thought exist?
God and soul have both been defined. Do they exist?
Why is it we have such a hard time saying, "I don't know?"
This is good advise: "Get over it and get on with your wonderful life."
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Jan 7 2012: Hi Thomas,
I completely agree, "Why do we have such a problem with ""I don't know"" . Trying to explain "I don't knows" with mythology is what irritates me.
I watched our living-room fire go out tonight, while my wife and I chatted. It went out. The fire is dead. Do you have a problem understanding that? So why have a problem with an organism dying? Chemically, its a pretty similar process.
cheers and peace, Magnus
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Jan 8 2012: QUOTE: "Trying to explain "I don't knows" with mythology is what irritates me."
Hi Magnus,
It irritates me too. Maybe "irritates" is too strong a word but, for example, I do tend to respond to assertions that the Bible is inerrant, or that we know what happens after we die, and so on.
I have no problem when people say they believe this or that; but when they say this or that is absolutely true, then I often take exception and challenge the belief.
When it comes to the "I don't knows" ... I accept anything as at least possible. Even the "weird stuff" like the possibility I could walk through a wall.
It IS possible (according to the laws of quantum mechanics) but the probability of it happening is so remote that to have any real chance of it happening once, we would have to wait for much, much longer than the universe has existed.
So is it possible there is something that survives death?
Does anyone know?
It's possible. But extremely unlikely.
When questioned, anyone I have ever asked has ultimately said they believe they know. However, some have elevated their belief to the realm of "knowing."
They might base their belief on a near death experience, or on some interpretation of religious doctrine, or on remembered past lives, and so on.
There are much better, and more plausible, explanations for all of these than having to postulate a life after death.
But, no matter ...
We simply do not know one way or the other.
[Unless we do, and as I have said, I hold that open as a possibility too.]
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41618 | The logic of colonial rule
The Iranian mullahs, meanwhile, are chuckling - literally. Some months ago, when the Iranian vice-president visited the United Arab Emirates for a regional summit, he was asked by the sheikhs whether he feared a US intervention in Iran. The Iranian leader roared with laughter: "Without us, the US could never have occupied Afghanistan or Iraq. They know that and we know that invading Iran would mean they would be driven out of those two countries."
Meanwhile, there is the war at home. A war against civil liberties masked as a defence against terror. In the face of terror attacks one particular mantra, shrouded in untruth, is repeated: "We shall not permit these attacks to change our way of life." But they do. "Oh, may no more a foreign master's rage/ With wrongs yet legal, curse a future age!" wrote Alexander Pope. Three centuries later, we have Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and Britain's own state security prison, Belmarsh, in which some of those held indefinitely without trial have been driven mad and transferred to Broadmoor. Nor should one forget the public execution of Jean Charles de Menezes and the attempted cover-up that followed.
There will be no progress towards peace so long as Tony Blair remains prime minister. He was re-elected with only 35 % of the popular vote and barely a fifth of the overall electorate - the lowest percentage secured by any governing party in recent European history. Britain is undergoing a crisis of representation: a majority of the population opposed the war in Iraq; a majority favours withdrawing British troops; 66% believe that the attacks on London were a direct result of Blair's decision to send troops to Iraq. All good reasons why we march and demand an end to war, occupation and terror on Saturday.
· Tariq Ali is a vice-president of the Stop the War Coalition, whose peace and liberty demonstration will take place in London tomorrow; his new book, Rough Music:Blair/Bombs/Baghdad/London/Terror, is published by Verso next month.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41667 | Horizon: The Secret Life of the Cat
Thu Jun 13, 9-10pm, BBC2
Time Out Ratings
<strong>Rating: </strong>4/5
Cats are the most enigmatic of domestic animals. They’re beautiful creatures, but would we really want them sitting on our laps if we knew where they’d been? This film – part of BBC2’s feline mini season – centres around a great, simple idea. Why not track the moggies of a single locality (in this case, Shamley Green in Surrey) using GPS and collar-cam? What mouse-bothering, bird-pouncing, territorial pissings might ensue?
Fascinatingly, the main conclusion is that cats, like most of us, do the bare minimum and no more. The cats of Shamley Green are comparatively ineffectual hunters. But they are very keen on sneaking into each others houses and stealing bits of each other’s food. The moral? Surrey cats are pussies; posh, jaded and spoiled. Track the cats of Hackney if you want some real thrills and spills. Still, it’s good fun, emphasising the wildness that still co-exists uneasily with feline domesticity.
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Computer boots- no graphics... sometimes
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Please help me.
I built my own system (2.4Ghz quad overclocked to 2.8, 8600 nvidia dual-link, asus P5K deluxe wifi) and normally it works like a dream!
But sometimes I boot it and the system and hdd lights stay lit.... but no POST beep occurs and no graphics show up. This morning that happened and I turned it off and flipped the power in the back off and back on... and now it keeps rebooting at the point it SHOULD be turning on my monitors once they get a signal.
This happened before when I was building it and a motherboard reset did it. But what can I do to help prevent this from continuing??!
Thanks so much,
I'd clock everything back to factory speeds and see if the problem goes away. If that solves your problems, you'll need to verify that your RAM is capable of the increased speeds and that your PSU can handle the extra load.
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I'd do all above and add to that the possibility your RAM or CPU might need a voltage tweak - although with such a modest OC I really doubt it - but still, maybe take them up a tad.
Also be sure your RAM is seated all the way down.
Also, what model power supply are you using?
I've tried all of the above. Resetting my motherboard, reseating my video card and ram. The strange thing about this is that my computer worked just fine last night. It's just sometimes (and usually in the morning :|) that it doesn't boot the first time. this morning it did it twice in a row. And after waiting for it, I decided to cut the power in the back and try again. So I did that and now it's just restarting after it starts.
I have a rosewill 550w PSU.
I had sorta the same problem with my Asus A8N-VM CSM motherboard. To fix it, I had to update the bios, then turn off Cool 'n Quiet as well as QFan. Seems the CPU fan was spinning too slow to register because the CPU wasnt warm/hot and the system thought it was a fan failure and would reboot or shutdown (or sometimes not even post) on me on a cold boot.
Does a CMOS reset do anything at this point? If so you can try BIOS updtae and\or adjustments suggested.
If not I guess you better check the PSU and then assume a bad mobo.
My p5b deluxe sometimes fails to POST too. Not sure what causes it but thankfully it's very occasional and a cold boot usually fixes it on the first try.
Maybe try booting with 1 stick of RAM. Just a hope.
I replaced the power supply with an Antec 550w... no good. So then I did a bunch of motherboard resets and stuff.
I now seem to have it back up and running. How would I know if the mobo is dead? It's working now... is that a good sign or indeterminable?
Make sure that you don't have any screws floating around in your case. Also, make sure that your power connections to your motherboard and GPU are correct.
Best of Luck |
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Minolta pagepro 1100 drivers win7
Last response: in Windows 7
i have problem for printing in win7 becouse my printer software is Minolta PagePro 1100, i dont have its software for win7 64bit i cant print documents in win7 please help my to find its software!!!!!
That is an ANCIENT printer. Minolta released that model in.... 2001? I remember that printer having problems under XP because the drivers were only released for 98/ME. Under XP, it would continuously report "cover open" errors for no reason. If you called Minolta back in the day with that problem, they'd replace the printer no questions asked with a 1250W. It's a well documented problem, and someone released a fix for it, but it never worked quite right. I still have one somewhere, but it's useless with the driver bug. I seriously doubt you're going to get a Win 7 X64 driver for it, being it's a software driven printer, and was released in 2001.
Here's a forum thread from 2002 with people complaining about it. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41677 | Touchstone Magazine Home
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A Literary Tapestry by Graeme Hunter
A Literary Tapestry
Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief
by Joseph Pearce
San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999
(452 pages; $24.95, cloth)
by Graeme Hunter
Is the English literature of the twentieth century demonic? The French poet Paul Claudel thought so. But most English critics would settle for calling it merely secular. Enter Joseph Pearce and his Literary Converts, turning upside down both the complacency of the secular English and the asperity of the pious French. In this unusual and insightful book, Pearce draws attention to a powerful stream of orthodox Christian literature that has flowed through and, in times of spate, well-nigh flooded, the much-misunderstood twentieth century. This book concerns the influence and power of a certain group of “literary converts” in shaping the intellectual landscape of the past hundred years.
Pearce is bad news for certain kinds of authors, the kind that wish to operate as public intellectual figures and yet to remain behind a veil of anonymity in their private lives. Literary Converts promiscuously mixes lives and letters. It thrusts the reader into a complex maze of personalities and writings, initially offering only its subtitle, “spiritual inspiration in an age of unbelief,” as a clue to its labyrinthine plan. We meet major and minor writers who converted to Christianity and whose lives and works were affected by the change. We see the chain reaction that conversion often causes, tracing its influence through an expanding network of other writers’ works and days. By the book’s final chapter we see spun before us a complex web of influences extending across the whole of the last ten decades. It is only when the web is complete that the reader begins to see the unsuspected pattern that it is the book’s primary achievement to suggest.
But the road between page 1 and page 445 has occasional obstacles. At first, I was a little bothered by the principle of selection. The book is almost only about writers, but not quite. The actor Sir Alec Guinness, for example, comes in for extended treatment. It is almost all about British poets and novelists, but not quite. The émigré economist, E. F. Schumacher, gets extended treatment because of his connection with the economic and social principles of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, two of the central figures of the story. I do not say that Pearce is arbitrary in his inclusions and exclusions, but only that it is difficult to find any other justification for the choices than is provided by the book as a whole.
Most puzzling in this respect is the fact that no American authors figure in the story, though America can furnish her own impressive list of Christian writers. The suspicion of arbitrariness that is inevitably aroused is best dispelled, however, as I have already suggested, by further reading. Pearce’s intent, we gradually see, is to gather together certain strands of recent literary history that we are accustomed to treating in isolation, when we mention them at all, and then to follow them through the tapestry of the century, showing how they are responsible for one of its dominant motifs. In this way the reader is led to discover lines of literary influence connecting, for example, the theologian Ronald Knox to the historian Christopher Dawson and the economist E. F. Schumacher.
No doubt different choices could have led to different and perhaps equally interesting results. But it is not so surprising that readers of such an ambitious book should only come to see its larger picture when the whole tapestry has been laid before them. The author alone sees it all from the beginning. In this reviewer’s opinion, the big picture not only helps explain Pearce’s choices, but also in large measure justifies them.
Pearce is a veteran literary biographer, with previous works on Tolkien and Chesterton. He compares his subjects’ lives and contexts with the more narrowly literary influences to which they were exposed to form a sketch of their mature mind and works. In borrowed words, Pearce describes his project as an attempt to display “a network of minds energizing each other.” Later he puts it this way:
The story of how these giants of literature exerted a profound influence on each other and on the age in which they lived represents more than merely a study of one important aspect of twentieth-century literature. It is an adventure story in which belief and unbelief clash in creative collision.
Pearce begins his story with the figure of Oscar Wilde. Strict chronology places Wilde in the nineteenth century, but many would agree that that flamboyantly homosexual and hilariously trivial man is a better symbol of the direction literature would take in the twentieth. One familiar picture of the twentieth century would have it begin in the hypocrisy of Wilde’s trial and end in the dirty stream of “pink ink,” leftish politics, and literary chaos of radical feminism and deconstruction. Pearce jolts us awake with an inspiring alternative to that conventional picture. The same hundred years began with Wilde’s deathbed conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1900 and ended in 1997 with an overwhelming popular endorsement of another work brimming with Christian themes, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, as “the greatest book of the twentieth century.” So begins Pearce’s welcome sketch of the neglected “other” face of our time. Pearce shows why the historian Paul Johnson could say in a tribute to Malcolm Muggeridge in 1995: “His life and example help to explain why, at the end of the twentieth century, religion, far from disappearing, is alive and well and flourishing in the hearts of sophisticated men and women.”
Wilde’s deathbed conversion is also a harbinger of the arrival on the literary scene of a strange literary monster, christened by George Bernard Shaw as “the Chesterbelloc.” By the force of their personalities, as much as through the power of their poetry and prose, G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc became two of the three principal founts of Christian literary influence in the early part of the twentieth century. Their brilliant styles and fascinating lives provide a thematic continuo for Pearce’s engrossing tale.
One of the decisive works in the early years of the last century was Chesterton’s witty piece of rearguard criticism entitled Heretics (1905). Against the then prevailing wisdom, it stressed the necessity of writing out of a definite point of view and exposed with characteristically Chestertonian aplomb the then fashionable triviality of the “art for art’s sake” movement. Chesterton’s broadside against the fin-de-siècle literary establishment—and he takes on the best of them—proved to be influential on those who were looking for an alternative to the seeming tendency of the age to drift away from Christian principle.
Chesterton was perfectly able to concede that men like Shaw, Wells, Kipling, and Ibsen were literary lions, even while he bearded them in their dens. To them, he must have seemed quixotic, as he brought against them the seemingly outmoded charge of being wrong metaphysically, which is to say, wrong about how the world is. But though scoffing at metaphysics was no less fashionable a pastime then than it remains today, Chesterton was able to win over more than a few of the significant writers of that age. He enabled them to see why being wrong about reality means, in the end, having nothing of significance to say. Chesterton had an old-fashioned name for wrongheaded intellectuals. He called them “heretics,” and challenged them to consider the alternative of “orthodoxy.”
What, then, was the orthodoxy Chesterton would offer in exchange? In 1905 even Chesterton himself could not have told us. But three years later the word orthodoxy became the title of another of his publications, one that has been in print ever since and taken its place among the enduring landmarks of Christian apologetics. Heretics (1905) and Orthodoxy (1908) were central components of the reading list that nourished Christian minds in the coming decades. Among the writers and thinkers who fell under their spell, Pearce discusses Ronald Knox, Christopher Dawson, Evelyn Waugh, C. S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Graham Greene.
Chesterton and Belloc together also influenced a movement of thought that was not primarily literary, but rather social and economic. They advocated the “small is beautiful” idea under the less evocative name of “Distributism.” Belloc was the prime mover of Distributism, explaining and defending it in numerous writings during the first three decades of the century. Chesterton pitched in using the vehicle of GK’s Weekly. Brocard Sewell characterizes Distributism as simply “putting into practice the ideas of small ownership and responsible craftsmanship.” It was intended to be more than that, however. In the tense and titanic struggle between socialism and capitalism that was the defining economic reality of the twentieth century, Chesterton and Belloc looked for an alternative that could offer something superior to the different, but equally low, conceptions of human life those two systems embodied. A later convert, Arthur Lunn, characterizes the alternative as follows:
The Distributist believes in the distribution of property and the means of production. He insists that the love of property, particularly property in land, is a sane and enduring instinct which needs both to be fostered and controlled. . . . He is opposed to the subordination of the producer to the financier, and of the countryman to the townsman, and he would agree with Burke and Spengler that modern democracy is too often a mask for securing the dominion of the urban proletariat over the peasant. He is convinced that the health of the nation depends very largely on the proportion of men owning their own land or their own small businesses, and he resents the tendency to transform the small owner into the employee of the State or of the chain stores.
Although it did not create any tidal wave of support, Distributism excited some interest in the English-speaking world, mainly in Catholic circles. It influenced organizations like Canada’s “Antigonish Movement,” which attempted to give the tools of self-sufficiency to rural men and women during the Great Depression, and it lives on in its successor, St. Francis Xavier University’s Coady Institute, which now aims largely at encouraging sustainable businesses in the third world. But the principles of Distributism achieved their greatest following under another name, in the aftermath of E. F. Schumacher’s best-seller, Small is Beautiful (1973).
The third literary convert was the American-born poet T. S. Eliot. In two chapters, “War and the Waste Land” and “Poetry in Commotion,” Pearce brilliantly tells the way in which Eliot absentmindedly seduced and then jilted the anti-Christian literati of the first half of the century.
The First World War kicked all the props out from under what George Santayana called “the comfortable liberal world” of the Victorian fin de siècle. It also put an end to the complacent, sentimental Christianity that the likes of Kierkegaard had satirized so mercilessly. Wartime and postwar literature abounds with attestations of that grim awakening. As an example, Pearce quotes from a letter written while the Great War was still in progress by one of the intimate friends of the Chesterbelloc, Maurice Baring:
Scaffolding falls about one daily, one’s old friends and one’s new friends are killed or disappear like flies; the floor of life seems to have gone, and one seems to live in a permanent eclipse and a seasonless world—a world with no summer and no winter, only a long, gray, neutral-tinted Limbo.
Eliot definitively articulated the anxiety and gloom of the postwar age with the publication of The Waste Land in 1922. As Eliot’s obituary in the Times would later put it: “[The Waste Land’s] presentation of disillusionment and the disintegration of values, catching the mood of the time, made it the poetic gospel of the postwar intelligentsia.”
The same obituary, written from the vantage point of 1965, is also able to report with cool neutrality on another aspect of the “Waste Land” that had inflamed the passions of the intelligentsia thirty years before: “Few . . . saw through the surface innovations and the language of despair to the deep respect for tradition and keen moral sense which underlay them.”
Even The Waste Land was spoiled for the progressivists, atheists, and agnostics who had hailed it in 1922. It was not the fact that some tradition or other was upheld by Eliot that annoyed; it was the more disturbing fact that he upheld in particular the “tradition and keen moral sense” of the Christian Church. Eliot converted to the Church of England in 1927.
Eliot’s conversion can also be used to illustrate one of the tangles in the skein of interdependencies Pearce helps us to grasp. Among the shapers of Eliot’s thought was the historian Christopher Dawson. Although Dawson was profoundly influenced by Chesterton, Eliot himself remained aloof, “singularly unimpressed” by Chesterton.
The fact that Eliot’s conversion in 1927 was to Anglo-Catholicism rather than to Roman Catholicism will strike many ecumenically minded Christians today as a relatively minor point. But denominations have a somewhat old-fashioned importance in Pearce’s narrative. Eliot stands with other luminaries in this book, including C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers, as part of an Anglo-Catholic minority, and Pearce stresses their eccentricity within the galaxy of writers he assembles. Pearce is visibly more at home with and more interested in the writers who followed what Belloc in his 1908 book called The Path to Rome. If Literary Converts has anything like a defect, it is that Pearce seems to assess Roman Catholic converts more generously and hence more convincingly. For example, given that the book is not only about Roman Catholic writers, it is hard to understand why a relatively minor figure such as Roy Campbell gets more than ten times the coverage of a major one such as John Betjeman. Poet laureate from 1972 to the time of his death in 1984, Betjeman is mentioned only in connection with Waugh’s failed attempt to win him for Rome.
Still, by anyone’s reckoning, the list of Roman Catholic writers (mainly converts) is impressive, including as it does Siegfried Sassoon, Evelyn Waugh, Edith Sitwell, Graham Greene, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Malcolm Muggeridge, as well as many other less famous names. And Pearce makes no attempt to conceal their struggles with the faith as they found it. This becomes particularly clear in the reactions of the converts to the reforms of Vatican II later in the century.
The different degrees of disapproval expressed by Evelyn Waugh, Christopher Dawson, Hugh Ross Williamson, David Jones, Graham Greene, Robert Speaight, and Malcolm Muggeridge are all faithfully recorded. For Waugh and Williamson the diluted vernacular liturgy taxed them almost past enduring, and Pearce hints that the reforms may have been factors in Greene’s drift toward the margins of Roman Catholic faith in his later years. But if they delayed the conversion of writers like Muggeridge, they at least did not make it impossible.
The closing chapter of this remarkable book, “Celtic Sunset,” describes the way in which the Orkney poet, George Mackay Brown, fought his way out of the provincial Calvinism of his upbringing into a richer Roman Catholic faith. This Scottish poet lived and died far from the madding crowd, in Luddite seclusion among crofters and fishermen, coming closer than most to living by Distributionist ideals. The chapter title is meant to suggest to the reader a question: Whether Brown’s life, which closed with the century, may have symbolized a greater and more disturbing sunset, the fading into night of orthodox Christianity? For in the eyes of many of today’s sophisticated, urban intelligentsia, Christianity is even quainter and less practical than Distributism. But this book answers the implied question in the negative. If Pearce has any single point to make, it is that Christianity is far from a spent literary force.
It is hard to convey very much of the richness of Literary Converts, packed as it is with detail, or to capture its fast-paced energy. But perhaps its most captivating feature is the way in which it enables the reader to discern the shape emerging from the tapestry of our time and the many writers and thinkers who have contributed to it. We learn to see something new and encouraging in the last hundred years of literature. As the twentieth century takes its place beside its nineteen predecessors, we are amazed to see in it, as we are accustomed to see in them, the unmistakable features of our Lord.
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“A Literary Tapestry” first appeared in the October 2000 issue of Touchstone. If you enjoyed this article, you'll find more of the same in every issue.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41712 | Greg Gutfeld
It seems that some Fox News commentators won't be setting their DVRs when HBO's The Newsroom launches its second season later this summer.
The Five host Greg Gutfield slammed Aaron Sorkin's series in a segment Friday, calling it a "left-wing loon bin" and taking issue with the show's coverage of political subjects like Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party (as indicated by the recently-released Season 2 trailer).
Never miss an episode! Add new fall shows to your Watchlist
"Hollywood gets everything wrong again. If Newsroom covered Roman Polanski's crimes, they'd change the 13-year-old girl to 13-year-old scotch," Gutfield says. "It's a liberal fantasy."
Gutfield maintains there are "no sympathetic Conservative characters on TV" and speculates that the show will eventually recast figures like serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and accused Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro as mere eccentrics.
Check out the trailer for The Newsroom Season 2
Watch the hosts of The Five discuss The Newsroom below. Do you agree with their criticisms? |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41716 | When Jeff Richards got the call to audition for Saturday Night Live, he was shaken. Literally. The comic had just been in a car accident driving from Los Angeles to San Diego for another standup gig. "I was surprised I didn't crash again," he admits. These days, however, life for the man behind Drunk Girl (an overly intoxicated co-ed) and Baby K (an 18-month-old rapper), is looking far less bumpy. Even our Seven Silly Questions couldn't slow him down.
TV Guide Online: Our offices are literally two blocks apart. Why are we doing this interview over the phone?
Jeff Richards:
That's a question? Oh, 'cause that's how you're asking me out, in a really weird way...
TVGO: You got me. You grew up in California and went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That's a tough school to get into. You must be pretty smart, eh?
Yeah, that's why I majored in communications. (laughing) I had football players and basketball players in my class, and I knew it was going to be okay. I asked Antawn Jamison for a pencil once, and he gave me a Hello Kitty pencil.
TVGO: When Drunk Girl stops by Weekend Update, the tension between her and Jimmy Fallon is well, palpable. What's the real story there?
I don't know if you know this, but muscle weighs twice as much as fat, and she's very muscular, 250 lbs. So what happened was, Drunk Girl fell asleep on Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy couldn't get up. When she woke up, she thought they had both woken up after having, you know...
TVGO: Sex?
Right. At that point, for her, the connection was as strong as having sex. So she's always felt betrayed, I think.
TVGO: I've noticed that Jimmy Fallon seems to be the go-to guy every time a female host needs to be kissed. What are you the go-to guy for?
I'm the go-to guy if they need someone to just stand there and not kiss the host.
TVGO: Why wasn't Baby K on the show last week when Bernie Mac hosted?
Why, because [Bernie's] a black guy? How dare you!
TVGO: Well every other sketch was Bernie playing an angry black guy.
He's on the line right now, you know.
TVGO: Fine. Try this Baby K question: If he were on an episode of MTV's Cribs, what would we see?
I think Annie Lennox would be there. Something tells me they would hang out. And a lot of apple juice containers and Candy Buttons. Remember those little candies on paper? He shouldn't have those — and that's what makes him bad.
TVGO: You first got into standup doing impressions. Have you gotten any response from someone you've done on the show?
Louie Anderson called me once. He was like, "You should do me more often. I know I'm not on Family Feud anymore, but you could do a thing where I'm like on the street, and I'm trying to get people to play the Feud!" |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41736 | my jewish site my art kind of website my example page for a site i want to get hosted
I like brinkster. i started using them when i saw hackermind used it awhile back. sounds pretty cool also. You get 60 megs, as far as I know there is no ads. They say there are ads but i haven't see any on my accounts there. They don't support anything (though they were listed as a php host somewhere) but you get kinda like subaccounts where you add virtual hosts. I think it all comes out of the same 60 megs though. I don't mean to plug, just saying since moff covered brinkster. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41740 | The Urinals of Marazzo's Thriftway
Marazzo's Thriftway is a grocery store in Robbinsville, NJ.
Filed under: Business
This picture was sent in by MS. He writes: "[This picture] was taken from the men's room by the Cafe... This Thriftway serves 50 cent hamburgers on Saturdays between Memorial Day and October, [2004]". |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41755 | Arizona Lost $900,000 on Jay-Z Concert
Student leaders attribute shortfall to economy-induced poor ticket sales.
A Jay-Z concert hosted by the University of Arizona student government lost the organization more than $900,000, the Daily Wildcat reports. The concert cost $1.4 million (with $750,000 going to Jay-Z), but the student government collected just $500,000 through ticket sales and merchandising. The organization had hoped to sell 30,000 tickets but instead sold 6,100. (About 5,000 more were given away in newspaper, radio, and student government promotions.) Student leaders partly blamed the sour economy for the slow sales.
In order to offset the loss, ASUA must empty out the entire $350,000 from its emergency reserve fund. This still leaves the student government with $567,000 to cover, which it will accomplish via an agreement with the U of A Bookstore. ASUA will pay the bookstore back in increments over the next five years. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/41779 | Belvaux's Trilogy: Intricately woven but separately worn
To recap: Lucas Belvaux's precocious trifecta is an adventure in simultaneity rather than progression; the three films can be viewed in any order (although their U.S.-release arrangement works nicely, and some sequences are less rewarding than others); but each film depends upon the two others not only for narrative depth and clarification but for its very raison d'être ("Triple Thread," January 28-February 3). The whole of The Trilogy is self-defined as being much larger than the sum of its parts, and to see only one or even two of the films is to squander your month's art-film dollars. Genuinely trilateral, the movies—the third of which opens this week—are satellites without a central hub, chasing each other.
Close for comfort in After the Life
photo: Magnolia Pictures
Close for comfort in After the Life
The Trilogy: On the Run, An Amazing Couple, After the Life
Written and directed by Lucas Belvaux
After the Life opens February 13, Angelika
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Belvaux has mentioned Lawrence Durrell, and he makes implicit reference in the films to Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Doulos and Le Cercle Rouge, but The Trilogy might just be unique. Whether or not the three-ticket investment is worth it to you depends upon your capacity for appreciating how the material is knitted together, not the material itself. Belvaux's characters and scenarios flirt with TV-drama cliché. Still, the structure should be catnip for audiences happily besotted with the relatively banal plot twists of The Usual Suspects, The Hours, and 21 Grams. Belvaux's hardier, more complex creation in effect creates a fourth movie in your skull that overshadows the first three, and runs for weeks.
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