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With Street Fighter's 25th anniversary wrapping up, and Mega Man's about to begin, Capcom is celebrating the two with Street Fighter X Mega Man, a fan-made free cross-over game. Or, more accurately, it's wisely choosing not to shut down a fan project as so many publishers would, and supporting the platformatron as a free "official" release.
Made by Seow Zong Hui with music from A_Rival, SFXMM is a new Mega Man platformer pitting the jumpy android against Street Fighter characters, stealing their powers like some sort of robovampire. Capcom's offered feedback and approval, but that pair did the heavy lifting.
Street Fighter X Mega Man is coming free to PC on December 17. Check out Capcom's announcement blog post for more, and peep this trailer:
BOOM video 14355


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Circa-1795 Eli Terry tall case clock, one of only three whose movement and case were both crafted by Terry himself, est. $20,000-$30,000. Morphy Auctions image.
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Copyright 2018

subset: commoncrawl


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2005 Women's Soccer
2005 Preview
Beavers look to contend with young team on field in 2005
By Kate Barringer, sports information intern
September 1, 2005
Head coach Steve Smucker returns to his third year with women's soccer and a good number of new faces in 2005. With the addition of nine new athletes, communication on and off the field will be crucial.
Bluffton saw great improvement last year and will look to newcomers to help them improve their 5-11 overall record from 2004.
"Last season we made tremendous strides in improving the level of women's soccer at Bluffton," Sumcker said. "The team also improved in scoring, tallying 21 goals in the 2004 season. This was a significant improvement from the 2003 season where we only scored 4 times"
With the addition of nine new players (seven freshmen and two sophomores) it will be imperative that everyone gets on the same page. Leadership will be looked up from the two seniors, Rachael Stine (Dayton/Milton Union) and Gina Berelsman (Delphos/Jefferson) to share their knowledge from the past three years.
Sophomore Kenzey Meyer (Hilliard/Hilliard Darby) returns for the squad as she saw action in 10 games as a freshman and will be looked upon for her finishing ability. Sophomore Lauren Fairchild (Toledo/Whitmer) also saw action in 13 games along with sophomore Ashley Bloom (Tiffin/Calvert) who will step in as goalkeeper taking over for graduate Rochelle Saccomen who protected the goal over the last four years.
"Some of our goals will be to stay together, stay connected on the field, and keep things simple in our play," Smucker said. "Defensively we will need to work at limiting the number of scoring opportunities of our opponents, and offensively we want to create even more scoring chances than we had last year. Also, our team will need to learn as much as possible in the coming weeks so that when our conference games begin, we're ready to contend for a tournament spot."


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LANSING - Michigan's Supreme Court and 12 trial court judges are being honored for their efforts to help jurors at the Capitol Tuesday. The National Center for State Courts was highlighting its program that eventually allowed jurors to take notes, submit questions for witnesses, and discuss evidence amongst themselves before final deliberations. Those changes were adopted by the State Supreme court in September 2011.
One of the men awarded Tuesday, Judge Tom Boyd of the 55th District Court in Lansing, says these changes were long overdue. "Jurors ask good questions. Jurors discussed amongst themselves the evidence and understood it in a deeper, more meaningful way, Boyd says. "That's the beautiful part of these changes, is the jurors can engage as adult learners and make the right decision."
Judge Boyd says he and others are always on the lookout for more ways to improve the court system.


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|SHS graduate receives scholarship from Association of Counties and SRI, Inc.
|Written by Administrator
|Tuesday, 12 November 2013 00:00
Salem High School graduate Trent Pennington is the recipient of a $500 scholarship presented by the Association of Indiana Counties (AIC) and sponsored by SRI, Inc. The AIC presented the scholarship to Pennington in Washington County on Oct. 15.
Pennington was a three-sport athlete and participated in football, basketball and baseball. He served as treasurer of the National Honor Society and was a member of Student Council. He was also a member of the Science Club, Friends Against Bullying and Business Professionals of America.
Pennington attends Indiana University. He plans to study Sports Marketing and Management and hopes to one day work for a college or professional organization within the sports realm.
Four students from across the state were awarded $500 scholarships. Scholarship recipients are spring 2013 graduates from Indiana high schools who planned to attend a school of higher education in Indiana in the fall of 2013. Eligibility required applicants to be an employee of or the custodial child of an Indiana county employee of an AIC Affiliate Office.
The Association of Indiana Counties, Inc. is a nonprofit organization established in 1957 for the betterment of county government. The various functions of the AIC include lobbying the Indiana General Assembly on behalf of counties, serving as liaison among counties, state and federal agencies as well as providing technical assistance and training to county officials and employees.


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Submission + - What We Don't Know About Windows 8
adeelarshad82 writes: Over the past few months Microsoft has released some exciting information on Windows 8 including details on the fresh new look, metro interface, an app store and that it will run on non-Intel-standard chips. However tech industry expert, Michael J. Miller, ponders over the crucial features whch are yet to be revealed. For instance, Microsoft is yet to release details on how the new metro interface will co-exist with the existing. Also how the existing applications will migrate to the new UI. Moreover and maybe the biggest question of them all is how strong is Windows on ARM.


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Press Release: Office of Governor Scott
TALLAHASSEE – Today, Governor Rick Scott announced the appointment of Esther Jacobo as interim Secretary of the Department of Children and Families. Esther Jacobo replaces David Wilkins who resigned to pursue opportunities in the private sector and to provide more attention to his foundation.
Governor Scott said, "David did a great job in leading the state's top child protection agency and his service is deeply appreciated. I have no doubt that Esther will increase accountability in the Department and enhance child protective services in order to protect the most vulnerable among us."
Esther Jacobo, of Miami, most recently served as the Regional Managing Director for the Southern Region of the Florida Department of Children and Families, which is comprised of Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. Under the position, Jacobo supervised the delivery of an array of Child Welfare services to children and young adults, including foster care, adoptions, support services, prevention initiatives, child protective investigations, and young adults on the road to independence. Jacobo also oversaw the Department's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Program, which is dedicated to the development of a comprehensive system of prevention, emergency/detoxification, and treatment services. Other services within the Department's portfolio include funding of programs for refugees and the homeless.
In February of 2008, Jacobo began serving at DCF as Statewide Deputy Director of Children's Legal Services (CLS) where she was responsible for statewide litigation practices of CLS in Miami Dade and across the state.
In January 2001, she served as the Division Chief of the Domestic Crimes Unit at the State Attorney's office. There, Jacobo supervised all domestic violence prosecutions in Miami-Dade County, participated in community-based initiatives to assist victims of domestic violence and developed protocol to be used in both the felony and misdemeanor courts with regard to these cases. During that time, she also prosecuted several domestic violence homicides.
Jacobo received her Law Degree from St. Thomas University in Miami in 1992. That same year she was appointed as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County by Janet Reno and remained in that office until April 2007.
Associated Press Release
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The head of Florida's child welfare agency is stepping down.
Thursday's sudden announcement comes after the Department of Children and Families has been under fire recently for a handful of child deaths.
Secretary David Wilkins said he is leaving to pursue opportunities in the private sector and to provide more attention to his foundation. Miami's regional managing director Esther Jacobo will fill in as interim secretary.
DCF recently fired a child protective investigator for forging documents about a mother's substance abuse program in the months before a child's death.
The private contractors that oversee foster care have also criticized Wilkins lately, accusing him of trying to exert too much control over them, which they claim undermined the goals of the privatized system.


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Thursday, January 12, 2006
LSU Tigers Still Peeved about '03 Split (Yes, it was a split)
Also, they get pretty testy about it on their own boards. Here is a link to a run on TigerDroppings.com (The Poop on LSU Sports) about the '03 title.
Hey, forget the '03 title talk for a sec -- TigerDroppings? Guys, it's really hard to take your complaints and rants seriously on site named after animal crap. What, was TigerTurds.org already taken?
16 comments:
Hey Michigan Fag,
You have two reasons to prop up the AP and USC.
First, the AP is your only claim to fame in 97. It was obvious to everyone else in the CFB world except the Michigan loving media that Nebraska would have waxed yo ass, with Turtle Wax no less.
Second, losing to what you call champ USC in 03 makes your embarrassment of a performance more palatable. Remember how yall lost to unranked Oregon that year, too? Man, the PAC 0 owns you.
Hope you had a great year! LOL, how many unranked teams beat you! 5 losses? LOL.
- January 12, 2006 4:41 AM
- Benny Friedman said...
I hate to engage anonymous above, and possibly take him away from his banjo playing duties for Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty, but if you LSU fans don't agree with the rankings to determine at least one of the national champions, then you can't rip on Michigan for losing to unranked teams this year. Besides, they lost to the same number of unranked teams as LSU did: one. Why don't we ask how many non-bowl teams Michigan lost to. That would be zero. What about LSU? One.
- January 12, 2006 10:04 AM
- Yost said...
Hey Anon,
No, we just thought, you know, with a war waging and half your state wiped out by a Hurricane, maybe their were better things in the world to spend $10,000 than putting up a billboard because the egos of guys who didn't even play in the game are somehow still bruised over a game from three years ago.
Hope the F-150 is running well.
- January 12, 2006 10:39 AM
- BaggyPantsDevil said...
Yikes! That is some serious anger there. Wow! And no one here was even suggesting that LSU wasn't good that year, just that maybe it's time to get over that miscarriage of justice and horrible tragedy of only splitting a national championship.
Don't taunt LSU fans about the 2003 split national championship either.
- January 12, 2006 11:18 AM
- IC said...
Hey LSU Hetero,
You miss the implicit and important point from my comment made in the Pete/Re-Pete post: that polls are useless in assessing which team is truly the best in college football.
I believe USC would have beaten LSU in '03 and Michigan would have beaten Nebraska in '97 had the teams met on the field. But these games were never played so we'll never know. I do know that I wouldn't spend $10,000 (or $1) for a billboard or 10 hours composing a creepy justification for why my team should be the undisputed champion.
Michigan's five loss season does leave a pretty lousy feeling with Wolverines fans. A very unfamiliar feeling. Michigan is an elite football program, which has lost five or more games in a season only twice in the last thirty-eight years. During that same time span, LSU has lost five or more games in a season fourteen times.
The next time the Tigers again lose five or more games in a season, college football fans around the country will shrug, because LSU is just another good football program.
- January 12, 2006 11:28 AM
- Yost said...
Nice stats, IG.
- January 12, 2006 11:33 AM
- Wangs said...
Fourteen 5-or more-loss seasons in the last 38 years? I'm surprised this guy hasn't jumped off a roof (they do have roofs in Louisiana, don't they) into the swamp, yet.
I can't imagine how horrible he must feel, rooting for such a mediocre team. His poor wife.
- January 12, 2006 11:37 AM
- Benny Friedman said...
LSU fans, just enjoy your title. You had a great season in '03 and deserved to have at least a share of the MYTHICAL national championship. USC did too. Unfortunately, there's no playoff (sorry, Yost) so there are years where a split title is appropriate. '03 was one of those years. It doesn't take away from what LSU accomplished.
What does take away from it is wasting 10 grand on a stupid billboard to try to justify your team in the eyes of who, the blowhards at ESPN? Who cares about them? I don't let Stuart Scott and Chris Berman define me. I don't even watch those guys.
You have to admit, USC had a great run. Back to back titles, 34 wins in a row - that's incredible in this day and age. Best ever? Probably not, but pretty damn good. Plus, they're USC. There's a lot of glamour with that program. They're going to get a lot more publicity than they should even if they deserved a lot of it. Accept that. It doesn't take away from what your team did in 2003. Neither does saying USC shared the championship.
- January 12, 2006 11:44 AM
I'm an LSU fan and I will agree with what most of you have had to say. I would ask that you would first excuse the ignorant comments made by anonymous (every team has ignorant and obnoxious fans) and secondly remind yourselves how ignorant you are being when mentioning banjo playing or whatever cheap shot those wish throw at "us over yonder down here on the bayou."
There are many of us that are both competent enough to have an intelligent conversation about football and are grateful that our football team has been doing well over the last decade.
Although I have never posted before, I enjoy this site and look forward to other discussions.
- January 12, 2006 12:19 PM
(Still the same guy as above)
By the way, the vast majority of us are disgusted with whoever the guy is putting up this sign. With as much tragedy as we have been through recently, bull**** like that makes us truly sick that the money (if it really is for real) is being put to use in such a manner.
- January 12, 2006 12:23 PM
- Wangs said...
WHEW, I was worried that LSU was The THE (see note below) of the South.
The THE (pronounced "tha Thee") is my new nickname for Tosu (also known as THE ohio state university" by Monday night football viewers).
This Jan. 12 anonymous blogger seems thoughtful and reasonable. Two characteristics one would never find in a Buckeye. Not sure how he found this site - but looking forward to his reports from the bayou.
- January 12, 2006 12:30 PM
- Yost said...
We hear ya and agree. Hey, I have nothing against LSU. Always respected them (they were my video game team way back when, lol). I just couldn't believe some REALLY wanted to spend that coin on a billboard. It was HILARIOUS when it was sent to me as something making the Internet rounds a couple days ago. And made an interesting comment on all the 3-peat talk prior to this year's Rose Bowl.
But when I saw there was a site and the person was SERIOUSLY trying to do this, like you, it made me go, uh, really?
Thanks for checking out the site. We always appreciate the comments.
- January 12, 2006 12:35 PM
- Benny Friedman said...
Anonymous LSU Guy,
I agree. That's why I'm embarassed that my twin, Denny Friedman, was able to hack onto Blogger using my name to make that uncalled for crack about the banjo and Ned Beatty...My apologies.
Thanks for the comments.
- January 12, 2006 12:48 PM
I like LSU, but we have to quit talking about this. Blogs are just pimping the guy's google numbers and increasing his fundraising success. In the last couple of days he's almost tripled his haul, from less than $1000 to nearly $2500. Disturbing.
- January 12, 2006 2:08 PM
As posted in the other thread, LSU was both more meritorious and the legitimate champion. USC? Lost to as many unranked six loss teams as beat ranked teams. To say I use rankings to back my argument that is anti-ranking is a red herring. Rankings are normally close to accurate. They are a convenient way, therefore, to show that LSU played what was a real schedule while USC played NO ONE (Michigan sucked that year). I could say LSU beat X number of 9 win teams that had a SOS of such and such. You catch my drift.
Why is onepeat.com such a bad idea? The people of Louisiana need something like this, to lift the spirits of a state. You throw money at problems and usually you get no solutions. But here is an opportunity to provide hope for a community. It is an opportunity to remind the state that we are champions, and not a bunch of lawless losers as we were portrayed in the media.
We need something like this.
Those who say you shouldnt spend money on this spend money on the most trivial matters. A lunch out when a cheaper lunch could be made at home. A beer in a bar. A video game. Anything that isn't essential could be criticized as buying something when there are great needs in the world. Your computer could have saved how many lives in another country?
Texas fans are the major financial contributors to this cause.
Michigan sucks.
- January 12, 2006 3:59 PM
- Wangs said...
On this billboard, are you also going to mention that you have had fourteen 5-OR MORE-loss seasons in the past 30 some years?
If you say something like:
LSU - 1/2 of a mythical national title 2 or 3 years ago, but 14 real losing seasons.
Then I'll give you some beer money.
- January 12, 2006 4:10 PM


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Greenville Police say a gang-related shooting resulted in the death of and Ayden man, but his family claims it was police who might have delayed medical care that could have saved his life.
Deloris Haddock filed a complaint to the City of Greenville through the NAACP about the June 30th murder of her son in downtown Greenville. She says 21-year-old Dontae Haddock did not get medical treatment quick enough when he was shot on 4th and Evans Street and she believes it's because he was black. She says witnesses told her it took EMS 45 minutes to a hour to treat him. Interim Greenville City Manager Thom Moton says records from that night show police and EMS responded within 7 minutes and Haddock was at Vidant Medical Center in 16 minutes.
"If they were already down there, Dontae would have been saved if the police had let them go over there and help them," said Deloris Haddock.
"There are a range of emotions when you lose a loved one to contend with. It's important that individual know our officers respond and care about what they're doing and regardless of race we're going to give them the very best possible care as possible," said Moton
The NAACP and Moton met July 2nd and the family hopes the city continues to investigate any wrongdoing. Three people were charged in connection with this crime. Leonard Williams is charged with Haddock's murder.


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Mark your calendars. July 14th will be a big day for Evernote.
We're making an announcement about something new. Something we've been working on for a little while. Something that will change the way you interact with Evernote, and, maybe even, change how you think about Evernote.
What is it? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.
Party down
To celebrate our big announcement, we're throwing a party in San Francisco. Come out and join us. You'll get to see what's new, meet the team, check out some really cool stuff, and unwind with a drink. What could be better? Oh, and there may be some fun giveaways and surprises, too.
Event details
July 14th, 6pm – 9pm
111 Minna in San Francisco [map]
RSVP today to get a free ticket. We will be charging at the door, so make sure to pre-register.


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Three offensive coordinators and one head coach have lost their jobs waiting for Jay Cutler to develop into the franchise quarterback the Bears thought they were getting four years ago.
Not that it's all Cutler's fault, but some people are just saying
Bears general manager Phil Emery isn't among those blaming Cutler. He insists he still believes Cutler is the answer at quarterback, and says Cutler needs a better supporting cast to play like a franchise quarterback.
Cutler was 20th in the NFL this season with an 81.3 passer rating, the second-lowest mark of his seven-year career. Only his first season with the Bears in 2009 (76.8) was worse.
"I see Jay as a franchise quarterback," Emery said. "We've got to build around him. That's been the goal from the beginning, to build around Jay and to build our team toward championships."
According to Emery, the next head coach in Chicago will be someone who can get more out the offense, and that starts with getting more out of Cutler.
"Jay being our quarterback, and that being a franchise position in terms of importance, it's very important that that person, either himself or staff wise, has the right person to help Jay develop," Emery said. "But it's also very important that they help everyone develop."
To that end, the Bears have asked for and received permission to interview Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Tom Clements for their vacant head-coaching position.
Two other offensive coordinators -- the Denver Broncos' Mike McCoy and the Tampa Bay Bucs' Mike Sullivan -- already are in the interview mix, along with special-teams coordinators Keith Armstrong (Atlanta Falcons) and Joe DeCamillis (Dallas Cowboys).
The winning candidate will be someone Emery believes can improve Cutler, or he will have someone on his staff who can.
Asked if the Bears can be consistently successful with Cutler playing at the level he has for the past four seasons, Emery hedged.
"Jay has won a lot of games," the Bears GM said. "The important thing is that we continue to build around him."
The Bears are 34-22 when Cutler starts and 2-6 when he doesn't. But Cutler is 1-6 against the Packers; 1-7 if you include the 2010 NFC title game. He's 9-8 in December and January, including 1-1 in the 2010 postseason.
Emery contends all those numbers would be better with an improved offensive line and better players at the skill positions.
While the Bears added the most productive receiver in franchise history last off-season in Brandon Marshall, the passing game dropped from 26th to 28th in the NFL.
Asked about the offensive line, Emery responded with a 1,401-word reply. The gist was that the O-line needs to get better, but it wasn't a complete disaster and it might not have been the biggest factor in the offense's failures.
According to Emery, STATS Inc. rated the Bears 26th in pass protection, and there were three playoffs teams lower. The 49ers were just .1 percent better than the Bears.
The Bears also were 22nd in dropped passes.
"Are sacks and drops a factor?" Emery said. "Yes, but it doesn't look like they are the ultimate determining factor. I still think it comes down to how many playmakers do you have as opposed to the team you're playing. And are they making plays that are game-changing in the moment of truth?"
Emery highlighted offensive areas he believes must improve under the Bears' next coach. The common thread is play-calling and use of personnel, although he said he wasn't looking to blame offensive coordinator Mike Tice.
"We've got to get better at making plays in the middle of the field," Emery said. "Matt (Forte) was brought back, and I was excited about his signing (four years for $30.4 million) because a big part of that is him as a pass receiver. For whatever reason we didn't fully utilize Matt."
Forte's 44 catches and 340 receiving yards were career lows, although he did rush for 1,094 yards.
For the second straight season, the Bears had fewer catches from tight ends than any team in the league. Possession receiver Earl Bennett saw his receiving yards drop for the third straight season.
"We need to get more consistent in that midfield area to provide midfield targets for our quarterback," Emery said. "Because in the NFL today you're going to get pressure on the quarterback.
"You have to give him reliable targets in all field areas if you're going to solve that situation."


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Mucho Mas Macho Gearing Up for Pan American
Shug McGaughey isn't one to be afflicted with Derby Fever, but the Hall of Fame trainer admits that he's excited about the prospect of running Fountain of Youth (G2) victor Orb in the Kentucky Derby (G1) on May 4.
"Like I said after the Fountain of Youth, I wake up every morning thinking of winning the Kentucky Derby. I wish I'd won it a long time ago so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore," McGaughey said Thursday morning. "The reason I don't get Derby Fever is that I want to take the right horse. Maybe I made a mistake or two not taking them, but I really can't look back and say that I did. I'm looking forward to the experience. I'm looking forward to two Saturdays from now."
Orb, who earned enough qualifying points (50) in the Fountain of Youth to make it into the 20-horse Kentucky Derby field, is training for a start in the $1 million Besilu Stables Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 30. The son of Malibu Moon, who breezed a half-mile on Monday at Payson Park in 48 2/5 seconds (second fastest of 16 recorded at the distance), will seek his fourth straight victory (third at Gulfstream) in the Florida Derby.
"Not that I didn't think that he had a chance to be a decent horse, but it's just how quick he's become a decent horse," McGaughey said. "After he broke his maiden, he just put it all together. Winning and growing up and getting his gate experience behind him, it just sort of mentally came together."
After breaking his maiden at Aqueduct on Nov. 24 in his fourth start, Orb captured a 1 1/8-mile allowance, followed by his half-length upset over heavily favored Violence in the Fountain of Youth on Feb. 23.
McGaughey had a similar experience of a 3-year-old suddenly coming into its own at Gulfstream Park in 1997. "I had a filly one time who had finished second and third in stakes as a 2-year-old and when I put blinkers on her and brought her down here, she won everything she ran in," McGaughey said.
Glitter Woman captured the Forward Gal (G3), Davona Dale (G3) and the Bonnie Miss (G2) at Gulfstream before capturing the Ashland (G1) at Keeneland.
McGaughey has saddled only six horses for starts in the Derby since 1984 and none since 2002, when Saarland finished 10th. Easy Goer finished second behind Sunday Silence in both the Derby and Preakness before winning the Belmont in 1989.
Mucho Mas Macho Gearing Up for Pan American
Trainer Henry Collazo is scheduled to ship Mucho Mas Macho from Calder to Gulfstream Park Sunday for a workout over the turf course in preparation for a start in the $150,000 Pan American (G2) on March 23.
Mucho Mas Macho hasn't run since Jan. 12, when he closed from far off the pace at odds of $41.60-1 to win the $150,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2) by a neck at Gulfstream. Collazo opted to skip the Mac Diarmida (G2) in favor of waiting for the Pan American.
"I'd rather concentrate on spacing my races out, so I can get to the end-of-the-year goal," said Collazo, superstitiously avoiding the words: Breeders' Cup Turf (G1). "I just want to take everything one race at a time."
Collazo shipped the 4-year-old gelding to Gulfstream on Feb. 17 for a five-furlong workout over the turf course.
"I like to work him on the grass because I think he gets more out of the works when I do work him on the grass. I can maintain him over the track at Calder," he said.
Mucho Mas Macho has won four of nine starts on grass and finished a strong second in the 1 ½-mile McKnight (G2) at Calder on Nov. 24 before cutting back to 1 1/16 miles for the Fort Lauderdale, in which he closed from ninth in mid-stretch to capture his first graded stakes.
"He's a push-button horse and the rapport (jockey) Juan Leyva has with him makes him a lot more versatile. He's the kind of horse who could probably go two miles and then give you a quarter mile or go a mile and give you a quarter mile," Collazo said. "He always has something in the tank when you ask him to give it to you."
Collazo expects the 4-year-old son of Macho Uno to continue to improve. "I've been doing this for a long time and I've been around a lot of nice horses, and he's special," Collazo said.


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CEDAR FALLS (UNI) — The UNI mens basketball team won its 10th straight game at the McLeod Center on Wednesday night, defeating North Colorado 76-59.
Jake Koch led all scorers with 17 points on a 6-for-8 shooting night from the floor. As a team, UNI (5-3) dished out a season-high 21 assists.
The Panthers wasted no time building a lead, as an early 21-2 run led to a 27-6 lead in the first half. UNI hit six of its first nine 3-pointers and made a total of 12 in the game. Seven different Panthers connected from downtown.


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Ryan Harris back for Brisbane Heat's Big Bash League clash with Adelaide Strikers
Australian paceman Ryan Harris will return to action for the Brisbane Heat in Saturday's Big Bash League match against the Adelaide Strikers.
Harris trained with the Heat on Wednesday and was given the all-clear to resume his summer following a short break after Australia's 5-0 Ashes triumph.
It will be Harris's first domestic T20 match for the Heat in more than a year after missing all of last summer's championship-winning campaign with injury.
"I'm feeling pretty good and looking forward to stepping up my bowling again after a bit of a break," he said.
"It's an important game for the Heat. I've been keeping a close eye on them during the BBL so far and the boys have been a bit unlucky not to win some of those close games.
"I reckon we can finish strongly though, as we did last season."
While Harris is a confirmed starter, the Heat are still sweating on the fitness of spin duo Dan Vettori (back) and Nathan Hauritz (calf), while all-rounder Dan Christian has been called into Australia's one-day squad and will miss Saturday's game.
Results elsewhere mean the Heat travel to Adelaide still with a slim chance of reaching the finals but anything less than a win over the Strikers will end their campaign.


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After a couple of you listed them as comments to our post of this picture below, we decided to hold the first ever M Zone Caption Contest for this picture of the Buckeye fan "romancing" his girl:
Here are a few we've come up with so far...
"Honey, where'd you say you dropped your-- HEY!"
"See, the QB slides up under center like this..."
"I wish I knew how to quit you, A.J. Hawk."
Have anything better? Let's hear 'em!


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Having made a career snaking to the basket with his patented multi-step dribble, Manu Ginobili is no stranger to the hard foul. Game 2 of the Western Conference finals found him in the unusual position of being forced to dish one out, grabbing Tony Allen's left arm in mid-air to prevent what would have been a sure layup with less than a minute remaining in regulation. (Video below) The split-second decision backfired after Ginobili was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul, leading to a four-point possession that tied the game and forced overtime. (Flagrant 1s are defined as "unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent" per the NBA rule book.) Catastrophic as the call might have been, Ginobili said he had no major problem with the call a day after the Spurs escaped with a 93-89 victory to take a 2-0 series lead. "It was sort of a 2 on 1 or 1 against 0, and I tried to foul him," he said. "I thought I had him well in the arm. It was not like a dangerous play or anything like that. But I guess it was. "Yeah, I was surprised. I know I grabbed his arm. I kind of hold him…but I guess he fell awkwardly. When you have three refs watching a replay 1,000 times, I guess they made the right call." Allen tumbled to the court on the foul, holding his head despite clearly not having made contact. It seemed to be an obvious attempt to accentuate what was already a hard spill — and not a particularly good one at that — but Ginobili shrugged that off as well. "Even if you exaggerate the fall, when you watch it 10 times with three sets of eyes, it's not a matter of exaggerating," he said. "I guess I did too much of a hard foul, and that was a factor."
NBA Headlines
Ginobili has no complaint with flagrant foul
San Antonio Express-News | May 22


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My name is Andres, and I have been sponsored for six years through CFCA in Colombia.
My father works as a bricklayer and my mother is a housekeeper. My father works by seasons, and sometimes we do not have any income to sustain our family.
One day I had a great idea. I went with my mother to the CFCA office where she met with her mothers group. I like to go and help her during the meetings. At the meeting, I met a mother who knows how to make crafts. She was making many things with plastic, and I was very curious about it. Read more of Andres' story


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"Klout and Microsoft announced on Thursday a partnership that could provide a better insight into social influence through search.
This new agreement allows Microsoft to include more social data (Klout scores and influential topics) in the 'People You Know' sidebar of Bing, its search engine."
Via Cendrine Marrouat - cendrinemarrouat.com


text:
Watch The ::God Is Imaginary Videos On YouTube ::
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Don't forget to pray to the magical hamster (my personal lord and savior) to make sure you wake in the morning. If you do, that is proof that my magical hamster is god himself.
I always say what I mean. But sometimes I'm a sarcastic prick whose tone can't be properly communicated via text.


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|Millet is WAC Swimmer of the Week
University of Idaho freshman Rachel Millet won her second Western Athletic Conference Swimmer of the Week honor after sweeping to three victories in last week's meet at New Mexico State University.
Millet, who just last year was a student at Spokane's Ferris High School and competing for the Spokane Waves Aquatic Team, won the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events as well as swimming a leg of the winning 400 free relay. She was timed in 24.61 seconds in the 50, 52.64 in the 100 free, and 1:52.46 in the 200 free. She swam the lead-off leg in joining forces with Megan Venlos, Erica Anderson and Si Jia Pang to win the 400 free relay.
Already this season, Millet has set four Idaho swimming records – the 50, 100 and 200 free as well as the 100 butterfly. She also is on the record-setting 800 free relay.
The Vandals are at home for the first time this season when they play host to Oregon State University at the UI Swim Center Saturday at 11 a.m. There is no admission charge and pom poms will be handed out to Vandal fans.


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Hi everyone. I just fought my way into the Post building on 15th Street -- there is a huge mob out there wanting to buy copies of today's paper as a souvenir. Somehow they are not content to stand at the window and gaze admiringly on our new flat screens in the lobby showing our WaPo Media family of web sites.I don't know what Hank Stuever looks like, but I'm picturing this:
In: Newspapers!
Seriously, you could probably get a few bucks for your copy, if you're done with it, if you are cool enough to read the actual paper. Of course, some hipster who looks like Mac Guy could go out there and suggest to this crowd that they could just bookmark a web page and save it for posterity! On their 3g iPhone! If so, I hope they pummel him to death.
And I'm assuming he writes out letters to loved ones longhand, because if he's emailing and IM-ing, they're just going to have a digital file-folder on some cold, sad hard drive.
IN THE COMMENTS: Pogo writes:
Several years ago I was reading about researchers and archivists who were worried about the lack of permanence embedded in modern technology.
Things written with pencil and paper last a really long time. We auction off the original manuscript scroll for Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' and search for copies of a first edition novel, signed.
Historians have discovered to their horror that electroinc data fades quickly, or becomes impossible to use because the hardware that created it no longer exists. Floppy discs, for example.
The tyranny of the modern affects voting in real time as well. Paper ballots can be scrutinized. Electronic ones fail to be recorded, are easily manipulated, and can be erased in a flash.
High tech communication is alot like writing in sand on the beach.
I am no luddite, but my conservative philosophy extends even here. Mocking letters to loved ones written in longhand betrays the hubris of the modern, who do not see how evanescent they have become, how easily they disappear, like so many electrons.
I have some cold, sad hard drives that died and cannot be read. What they contained is now forever lost. So, too IMs and e-mails.
Similarly, with one small error by some Google techie, this blog can disappear completely and irretrievably.
It's one thing to believe that building your house on a rock means it will last forever, but quite another to build it on sand, thinking it makes no difference at all, that the house on the rock is just for laughable squares in cheap and ill-fitting suits.


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2004 Football
Bluffton University 35, Manchester College 13
Beavers open up HCAC action with win over Manchester College
By Ben Risinger, Sports Information Director
October 2, 2004
Game Statistics, Game Pictures
BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Bluffton University football team (3-2, 1-0 HCAC) defeated Manchester College (0-5, 0-1 HCAC) 35-13 on Saturday afternoon. The win is the first Heartland Conference opening victory for the Beavers since the 2000 season. Bluffton has now won more games in the 2004 campaign than their entire 2003 season total.
Leading the way for the Beavers victory was junior tailback Ben Dodds (West Liberty/Bellefontaine) who scored two touchdowns (31 yards, 14 yards) on the
ground for 123 total yards. Freshman Terence Clayton (Napoleon/Napoleon) also posted two touchdowns rushing (2 yards, 5 yards) for 52
yards on the contest. The Beavers other score came from sophomore cornerback Jeremy Anderson (South Richwood/Airport) who ran back a 62 yard interception for the touchdown. Junior
kicker Seth Burkholder (Pandora/Bluffton) booted in all five point after touchdown kicks to help solidify
the Bluffton win.
Defensively, the Beavers were led by senior linebacker Scott Steiner (Berne, Ind./South Adams) who posted 17 tackles (7 solo, 10 assisted) and two pass break ups. Freshman Sam McCullough (Bluffton/Bluffton) recorded eight tackles (5 solo, 3 assisted) and one forced fumble. Senior Matt Chiles (Sidney/Sidney) also had eight tackles (4 solo, 4 assisted) and one pass break up.
The Beavers capitalized the football in the red zone as they posted three scores in
three chances deep in Spartan territory. Bluffton would end the day with three interceptions
and ran one back for the touchdown. Freshman Taylor Iceman would post one interception
with Jeremy Anderson grabbing the other two. Both teams matched statistically as Manchester
and Bluffton had 19 first downs. Manchester posted 387 total yards of offense (103
rushing, 284 passing) to the Beavers 314 total yards (106 passing, 208 rushing). The
Spartans committed five penalties for 35 yards with Bluffton showing four penalties
for 28 yards.
The Beavers have one week off before traveling to Anderson University for another HCAC contest on October 16. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.


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Let's see a copy of that letter, eh? The only links in that post were to other, "similar" letters. If they really are sending letters to people for dinking around with their own hardware, that's a new level of ridiculous. But I'd like to see confirmation of that before I fly off the handle.
I wish I could.. but they never sent me one, so I can't complain yet.
In 20/20 hindsite, I think they should have built the thing only supporting their slanted code. Then it would only have been useful only for it's intended purpose. Then only those who want to get into the user tracking game are free to participate and the rest of us that would really like to index the cd's etc. would get a real scanner. Only book and CD sellers paying DC would then print a slanted bar code on their products. Nobody would have an interest in hijacking it.
Hmm. You might ask him about the obvious conflict between his statements and the EULA posted on their web site.
The guy's been around the block. Several times. He knows what's what in intellectual property law. In particular, he should know better than to send cease and desist letters without being specific about just what the infringement is. Doing that pretty much defeats one of the two purposes of sending such a letter: showing the court that you gave the defendant a chance to mend his ways before suing him. That makes winning a case in court quite a bit more difficult.
Rosini, presumably, knows this. That means that he's hiding something: either he's got some new and novel legal theory that he's just waiting to spring on some poor slob who'll be the defendant in a case lawyers will cite for the next 50 years, or else he has no case and is just rattling sabers.
I've set up a mirror of HaveBlue's page at http://www.i-foo.com/cuecat [i-foo.com]. I await my very own FedEx delivery with bated breath.
You must be fairly young to believe that you can take on a company in a legal battle, without VERY competent representation. Even if you win, you are going to end up paying out lots of cash out of your very pocket. A company with millions of dollars can tie up a legal case for months... years... and you still have to pay your lawyer during that time.
Marketing opportunity for lawyers:
Set up a lawyer firm specialized in fighting frivolous lawsuits for people who can't pay. People go to the office and explain what kind of harassment they're being subject to, the lawyers examine the case and, if it holds the possibility of a profitable countersuit, they pick the case without the harassed person having to pay legal fees.
The firm's profits come from the countersuits and legal fees the other side has to pay if they win. Careful risk analysis has to be made, but I'm talking about a VERY professional enterprise. It should be possible.
Of course, IANAL and IHNBS (I Have Never been Sued), so if someone in the know spots some flaw in my reasoning, please point it out.
...I unscrewed my CueCat a while ago just to see what was in it: One Circuit board with a connector for the "tail". There was also a plastic piece that apparently served no purpose other than to help hold the light steady. Then when I snapped it back together, the little lense that focuses the light onto the sensor came out. So, it's basicly 3 pieces inside -- PC board, plastic retainer, and lens. The sensor is held to the PC board with a strip of copper tape. I did not remove the sensor or the copper tape, because I wanted it to remain intact.
As far as hacking stuff off the PC board goes, it's way beyond me, since there are a lot of tiny surface mount components, and I haven't dabbled with a soldering iron in years.
The lens assembly was intriguing. It got me thinking that perhaps you could turn this thing into a scanner that could scan more than barcodes. Maybe it could even scan text. Maybe somebody else can provide some insight as to whether or not retrofitting a bar code scanner to scan in 2-dimensions is practical or not.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
"New York, Sept. 28, 2000
Digital Convergence, a firm specializing in the manufacture and distribution of 'barcode' scanners called the "Cue Cat", has sent out cease and decist letters to the manufacturers of convinience and grocery store equipment. A 'barcode' is a series of parallel lines of various thickness that Digital Convergence has developed for the use of uniquely identifying an item.
"We have spent five years coming up with the idea of letting people identify an item by a 'bar code' printed on it", said the company's Vice President of Technology, "And now, these costly years of research are in danger of being wasted because of all these companies trying to profit from our great idea"
The official further noted that by allowing the scanning of these 'barcodes' by third party hardware, the manufacturers of these machines are effectively undermining Digital Convergence's revenue stream, and "stealing away [our] market share".
No comment could be obtained from the companies that received the Cease and Desist letters, and no request for an interview was answered by press time."
To unduly harrass someone is to subject the attorney to a Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 11 sanction. If a judge decides that there is an abuse worthy of Rule 11, there are significant reprocussions to the attorney's career. It is more likely that K&K is working within the confines of what the Federal Rules permit.
See Rule 11. [cornell.edu]
To prevent firms, or more accurately, clients of those firms from taking legal action against possible patent/copyright infringers or trade secret misappropriators for cases like this is to impose a draconian overbroad prohibition likely to impede the protection of those with "real" intellectual property.
Com'on it's life. It's not perfect and it's sometimes abuses, but it works and may be the best way.
Well, I've had this site lying around for a few months doing nothing so it's about time it was put to good use. The mirror is on dirtywhitekitty.com/dirtycat/ [dirtywhitekitty.com]. This is the hardware site that was originally located here. [matrixpm.com]
Thanks for reminding me of that. Maybe I can take advantage of the large donations I give my congressbeing to get the CueCat info put in the Congressional Record. May as well add DeCSS while I'm about it
Failure to use this device
in the manner for which it was
originally intended will result
in us suing your pants off! So don't
even think about it! Bad! We really
mean it! Don't be naughty! Just
say No!
Also, removal of this tag will
result in a very stern letter to
your parents, dead or alive.
Have a take, don't suck, or don't talk to me.
Just a friendly tip!
I posted this earlier and it got eaten. Anyway, here are *TWO* ideas for screwing Digital Convergence:
Idea #1: Digital Convergence just announced an IPO. [yahoo.com] We can do our part on internet investment discussion boards to make sure that their potential investors are well-informed about this company... every day until the IPO!
Be sure to relay only FACTS on internet discussion boards-- that will suffice. Of course, wouldn't it be a shame if frank and extensive discussion of these facts cut a few percent off their $100 million IPO?
Idea #2: Since Digital Convergence plans to build a database of demographic data [digitaldemographics.com], how about a little program that pulls random items out of the UBC database, encodes them, and ships them off to the DC servers every couple minutes? This would irreparably corrupt their database, making it worthless-- weeding out fake scans would be essentially impossible. If you're worried about legality, print out 10 pages of barcodes for obscure items you'd never own or desire and scan them again and again whenever you have an idly thinking about something else. That way, you're using their product exactly as intended, yet still corrupting their database. What can they do?
IANAL, so I would appreciate it if anyone with substantial relevant expertise could tell us:
As has been explained multiple times before...
In a contractual transaction, the receiving party has to be given an opportunity to read and understand and agree to a contract (which is what a license agreement is) in order for it to be binding. I've gotten two of these little scanners so far, and neither has come with any kind of license agreement that I could see. There might have been something on the CDs, but I didn't need them, so I pitched them. There certainly wasn't anything on the package telling me that the hardware was being given to me under terms of any kind of contract or license.
Therefore, it appears that there is no contract is in force between Digital Convergence and myself. Any hardware that was given to me freely, with no conditions stated, is mine to do with AS I WILL, provided I don't violate anybody's copyrights or patents. (Copyrights and patents are binding on me no matter if I've signed a contract or not. There is no doubt a copyright on any microcode contained in the processor of the bar code reader, but I'm not attempting to do anything with that code, so I'm OK there. There have been no indications of patent violations, so I'll continue to do as I please until notified that I'm violating a patent. Note that this is different from a trade secret, which requires a contract between the secret owner and other parties. Without a signed contract, I'm under no obligation to keep private any trade secrets that may belong to Digital Convergence.)
I also understand that there might be something on a web site somewhere that talks about restricting what I can do with something that was given to me freely. Since I have not had the opportunity or desire or obligation to go to the web site, any words there are hearsay as far as I'm concerned, which also means they have no legal affect on me. It's also hard to see how terms could be imposed ex post facto, and I believe a court would agree.
So. License? What license?
obDisclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
Actually, isn't harrassment by baseless legal threats barratry? And isn't that enough to get lawyers disciplined by the bar? Perhaps the Texas bar would be interested to hear about these letters...p.s. since it's legal to send a cease and desist letter for anything, can we get a slash lawyer to write a cease-and-desist letter to DC that asks them to cease and desist being assholes? Then all of us can mail them a copy...
The Uniform Code Council assigns the company codes on the UPC. The first part of the code is unique to the company manufacturing the product. The end of the code is determined by the company. Therefore, there shouldn't be any duplicate bar codes (unless the same company produced both or someone created unauthorized codes).
Want a UPC code of your own? Check out The Uniform Code Council [uc-council.org]'s instructions.
Let me predict the next cycle of the arms race.
Hal Duston
I mean really what are we going to do, switch to one of the other bar code readers? Of course not, but we've all gone out and got a CueCat!
Whoever put together this plan has got to be sitting in his chair rocking back and forth laughing his butt off at how we fell for it hook, line and sinker! All the while churning out invoices to the CueCat enabled advertisors who signed deals at a rate of
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out Taco was a principle over at DC!
I've taunted the RIAA, the MPAA, I've denounced the christian coalition, NOW (national organization of women), and I have yet to receive a single letter of reprisal.
Hmmm. Interesting.
Watch for a page soon that taunts mad pit bulls with RIAA-approved Christian Coalition cease-and-letters to NOW for hacking the CueCat with the help of the MPAA to secretly send information to Digital Convergence about anti-feminist movies from open-source MPEG4-based DVD-ripper programs powered by DeCSS.
That should stir up a nicely amusing unholy mess, not to mention a very confusing one.
Digital Convergence
Loose bits sink chips.


text:
Even with the Bruins in the midst of a three-game winning streak and getting ready for a big rematch with Atlanta tonight, it's worth looking at how Toronto is faring and the status of that first-round pick the Bruins will receive to complete the Phil Kessel trade this June.
If you read Mark Spector's column on Sportsnet.ca yesterday, you know that pick almost seems destined to be in the top five. Yes, the Kessel trade just keeps on getting better for the Bruins.
The Leafs wake up this morning 27th in the overall NHL standings, which would mean the fourth pick overall should the lottery balls not affect the draft order. They also wake up without prospects Nazem Kadri and Keith Aulie on their NHL roster, as both have been returned to the AHL Toronto Marlies after unimpressive first-time NHL auditions. To Spector, this smells of the Leafs, led by general manager Brian Burke, not having a plan for handling their young talent.
He writes:
Well, Kadri was sent back to serve that suspension Dec. 29, five days after Aulie's premature NHL debut been ended by the Leafs. Like placing first-line center pressure on the shoulders of the inexperienced [Tyler] Bozak, it was classic mishandling of an organization's top prospects.
Bozak was thrust into the first-line center's role at the outset of the season with less than half an NHL season of experience under his belt and has since bounced up and down the lineup. He has produced just 12 points in 35 games. In 17 NHL games, Kadri registered six assists with no goals. And Aulie didn't record a point in 12 games with the Leafs.
So it would seem that the Leafs are not only a lost cause for the rest of this season, but they might now have even more problems going forward depending on how their prospects bounce back. It might benefit the Bruins in the long run to have a struggling franchise in the division, but for the here and now it's all about the draft pick. Tongue firmly in cheek, Spector puts a positive spin on the bounty the Leafs paid the Bruins for Kessel.
He writes:
Three prospects and three forgettable debuts by an organization that put more on their plate than they were able to handle.
Maybe it's a good thing Burke dealt away all those draft picks to Boston.
It doesn't appear this team knows what to do with young players anyhow.


text:
Mark Thomson
Director General, Her Majesty's Passport Office; Registrar General for England and Wales
HM Passport Office is the sole issuer of UK passports and responsible for civil registration services through the General Register Office.
HM Passport Office is part of the Home Office.
Director General, Her Majesty's Passport Office; Registrar General for England and Wales
HM Passport Office
PO Box 767
Contact form https://eforms.homeoff...
Telephone 0300 222 0000
For journalists only 020 7035 3535
This service is for members of the media only. The Home Office press office handles all media enquiries for HM Passport Office.
Contact form https://eforms.homeoff...
Passport advice 0300 222 0000
The line is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 5.30pm weekends and public holidays. Calls to 0300 numbers are charged at your network provider's standard national rate.
General Register Office 0300 123 1837
The line is open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 4pm on Saturday.
Parliamentary and diplomatic enquiries team
Her Majesty's Passport Office
Globe House
89 Eccleston Square
Email firstname.lastname@example.com
Please only use for Freedom of information requests
Read about the types of information we routinely publish in our Publication scheme.


text:
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text:
YachtWorld�.com, the dominant Internet resource for yacht buyers and brokers, has recently expanded its staff to include a new general manager, accounting administrator, customer care facilitator, and a sales consultant.
Building on the success created by Jessica Muffett, YachtWorld's Publisher, who started the business in 1995 with just a handful of boat brokers and several hundred boats, to over 420 of the countries most prominent marine brokers listing more than 13,500 boats today.
In order to handle the explosive growth, the team has expanded and named Neil McCurdy as its new General Manager. McCurdy will spearhead the development of new business opportunities for the site, focusing on strategic marketing initiatives, new product development and operational as well as logistical support.
"YachtWorld is rapidly becoming an online yachting destination site and its success is the direct result of our publisher, Jessica Muffett," said Geof Barker, co-CEO of The Cobalt Group, Inc. which owns and operates YachtWorld.com.
"Looking ahead, we are going to extend our service and product offerings into new areas and I am pleased to announce the addition of Neil as General Manager to support this growth. His skills in marketing and business development in a high-tech environment fit perfectly with the company's needs," added Barker.
McCurdy formerly was Director of Marketing and Business Development for The Walter Group, Inc., a Seattle-based company that provides strategic counsel and implementation expertise to telecommunications companies worldwide. He also worked in sales and marketing for Nextel Communications and for Fisher Broadcasting, Inc., and was CEO and founder of Group Two Industries, Inc.
In addition to McCurdy, YachtWorld.com has recently hired marine industry advertising veteran Julie McGown as Sales Consultant. McGown, with over 14 years experience in the print and publication industry, is also joined by newly appointed Customer Care Specialist, Dalin Overbay, and new Accounting Administrator, Johanna Morlock.
"Our team is growing, service and product offerings are expanding, and the popularity of YachtWorld is achieving record viewership. We're in the business of making it easy for boat buyers to shop on the Internet, while at the same time teaching brokers how to cater to this new type of buyer." Said Jessica Muffett, Publisher of YachtWorld.com.
As the team continues to expand, so too will the service offerings. "In addition to growing our base of boat brokers and adding hundreds of new listings, we will be launching a premium online marine hardware store, redesigning our Web site, and adding new features to the Multiple Listing System (MLS) in order to meet customer demand," said McCurdy. "This is an exciting time for YachtWorld and The Cobalt Group and I am thrilled to be a part of this great company," he added.
YachtWorld.com (www.yachtworld.com) provides yacht brokers and builders a cost-effective way to target qualified new and used boat buyers over the Internet while utilizing a web site management system allowing brokers and dealers to control their own inventory. YachtWorld.com operates more than 400 client Web sites, with links to over 13,000 new and used power and sailboats for sale. The site also includes the Boating Yellow Pages with over 18,000 business listings and links to marine products and services, Boats for Sale, Boats for Charter, Power & Motoryacht magazine and a Discussion Forum.
About The Cobalt Group The Cobalt Group (www.cobaltgroup.com) is the nation's largest provider and manager of Internet marketing systems and products to automotive dealerships. Founded in March 1995, The Cobalt Group pioneered the development of menu-based, cost-effective dealer Web sites and provides and supports more than 6,500 dealer Web sites on the Internet today. It also owns and operates DealerNet� (www.dealernet.com), one of the most popular consumer-oriented automotive sites on the Internet. The Cobalt Group is headquartered in Seattle.
# # #
The Cobalt Group, Inc. and Cobalt are trademarks of The Cobalt Group, Inc.
Yachtworld and DealerNet are registered trademarks of The Cobalt Group, Inc.


text:
North Carolina
Survey of 500 Likely Voters
Conducted October 17, 2012
By Rasmussen Reports
*Please note that we split the survey to rotate the order of the candidates, so while half will hear the Republican first, the other half hears the Democrat mentioned first.
1* If the 2012 election for governor were held today, would you vote for Republican Pat McCrory or Democrat Walter Dalton?
2* I'm going to read you a short list of people in the news. For each, please let me know if you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, or very unfavorable impression.
Walter Dalton
3* How would you rate your personal finances these days? Excellent, good, fair, or poor?
4* Are your personal finances getting better or worse?
5* Sometimes, unexpected things come up that prevent people from voting on Election Day. Are you certain that you will vote in this year's elections, or is it possible that something could come up that would prevent you from voting?
6* How would you rate the job Bev Perdue has been doing as governor…do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove of the job she's been doing?
*NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence


text:
This is a *brand new* private market. We need competition. So far who do we have? SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. And even Virgin only go Sub-orbital and is mostly publicity runs.
There's alot of players missing at the moment. For example: Where's Boeing? One of the biggest Government contractors for aircraft hasn't thought to invest in their own space vehicles?
I get the feeling that when SpaceX actually has a proper, reliable, regular launch schedule that the market for private space launches will absoloutly boom.
Boeing is in it. They are designing a capsule called CST-100, together with Bigelow Aerospace. There is also a more direct competitor to SpaceX, the Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences and also scheduled to launch this year. Not to mention many smaller but ambitious players like XCOR that work on upper stage engines with ULA.
The European Arianespace is commercial since 1980. They launch their Ariane rockets on a regular basis. You want competition? You got it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianespace [wikipedia.org]
No, see, it's not proper rocketry unless you read about it in a NASA press release.
Which is the problem here: why are we hearing about this from NASA? Screw those lumbering dinosaurs and their thousand-dollar hammers, I'd love to see SpaceX, Virgin or any other player just go ahead and send a surprise cheap dumb booster up to the ISS for so little outlay that they can say "Oh hai, say, do you guys you want these supplies or not? Doesn't bother us much either way, we'll just leave them in orbit here in c
Which is the problem here: why are we hearing about this from NASA? Screw those lumbering dinosaurs and their thousand-dollar hammers,
If they had bought five thousand dollar hand tools instead, tested for space operations, instead of listening to those short-sighted people who want to pinch pennies whenever they see them, we might not have hand tools floating in space [wikipedia.org].
The big issue for NASA is station safety. Do you really want an untested vehicle near your 100billion dollar station? One that if there is an error in coding could easily ram it?
One that if there is an error in coding could easily ram it?
Define easily. Even Low Earth Orbit is pretty big.
Define easily.
"Mostly correct in the sense of plotting a course that intersects the ISS as intended, but not correct enough to finish the delicate procedure of docking without incident."
Sounds pretty easy to me, at least if you don't do proper diligence.
100billion dollar station
That's 150 billion. You were out by 69 days in Iraq.
I'd love to see SpaceX, Virgin or any other player just go ahead and send a surprise cheap dumb booster up to the ISS for so little outlay that they can say "Oh hai, say, do you guys you want these supplies or not?
i guess if you pay for it you probably can, but at the moment nasa calls the shots because it pays the money. that's why spacex is more a government contractor than a commercial enterprise. difference being that a commercial enterprise would be servicing multiple clients. as long as nasa is its only customer, it is the boss, not spacex. if spacex goes space cowboy, nasa may well just say "Oh hai, say, do you guys want to do as we tell you, or do you want us to pay space-y/ruskies instead; we're not averse
SpaceX has already put up satellites (on Falcon 1) for people other than NASA. Second flight of Falcon 1 carried a satellite on spec, as I recall.
In addition, SpaceX already has contracts over the next couple of years to put up satellites for MDA (Canada), SES (Europe), Thaicom (Thailand), NSPO (Taiwan), Asiasat (two launches), CONAE (Argentina).
Among others.
Yes, just like Grumman, Martin, McDonnell and others relied on NASA back on the 60's, or like all their predecessors relied on NACA [wikipedia.org] in the 30's and 40's. The big difference is that SpaceX is selling launches at a guaranteed price, rather than the usual "cost-plus" contracts that have plagued the space program for decades. And SpaceX is hardly without competition... Orbital is running their first ISS re-supply mission this summer. Frankly, this is a step in the right direction. And when you get down to brass
>> "...I'd love to see SpaceX, Virgin or any other player just go ahead and send a surprise cheap dumb booster up to the ISS for so little outlay that they can say "Oh hai, say, do you guys you want these supplies or not?..."
I understand your point and share your frustrations, but rockets pass through controlled commercial airspace as they launch. None of the carriers you mentioned want to get on FAA's bad side. Making feds pissed off is a bad way to kickstart a business.
The new commercial space car
Which is the problem here: why are we hearing about this from NASA?
Because NASA is going to use them to send supplies to the ISS, and probably a few other things as well.
Mod parent up. I found it really striking that SpaceX posts prices [spacex.com] on their website. It remains to be seen how this plays out, but they are talking some serious shit over there at SpaceX. I'd love to see them back it up.
As for the need for a thousand dollar hammer, I call shenanigans. That hand tools in space link doesn't prove anything except carelessness.
Sure. But the cost of an Ariane launch is 10000 per Kg whereas the cost of a Falcon 9 is 5000 per Kg.
From the article:
Other companies in the private space race include aerospace giant Boeing, the Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Washington state-based BlueOrigin LLC.
More [ibtimes.com] info about their private space plans.
Considering that the Chinese have said that SpaceX is flying at a price point cheaper than they can provide launch services, I'm sort of curious who this "cheap knockoff" might be? The Mexican Space Agency?
This is but one of several articles about this topic:
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2011/05/spacex-explains.html [nasawatch.com]
You can do some web searches on the topic if you want as well to get some other opinions on the topic, but it was in the news awhile back. Or perhaps Aviation Week is a two bit blog that doesn't matter much and is an unreliable source?
Sounds like Chinese whispers to me (pardon the pun.)
In any case, which Long March rockets is this (supposedly authoritative) guy allegedly talking about? The current ones, or the ones that are in development?
China's rocket fleet currently uses hypergolic propellants, which are expensive to buy, use, and clean up. Their next generation use LOx/RP-1 like sensible people, and will utilize the industrial base of modern China rather than legacy ICBM manufacturing from the 1970s.
I'm fairly skeptical of this claim
It may be that the Chinese business leaders being quoted here were more upset that their profit margin was going to be cut on future flights and become something of a cost war between themselves and SpaceX rather than necessarily being unable to meet the price that SpaceX has been publishing on its websites for the cost of Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launches. It is remarkable at how much cheaper SpaceX has made launches already with their price point something that is generally viewed within the launch industry
Considering that the Chinese have said that SpaceX is flying at a price point cheaper than they can provide launch services, I'm sort of curious who this "cheap knockoff" might be? The Mexican Space Agency?
Probably. Did you ever see the documentary about it [southparkstudios.com]?
American rocket builders have all but given up trying to seek private commercial spaceflight launches, even though America was where the concept originated. I am not talking about joy rides such as the "space tourism" flights done by the "rich dick swingers" (I presume such a reference is to Richard Gariott who is rich but not really a swinger and his dickhood is of personal opinion that I disagree with even if you may think he is one), but rather for businesses that already are making a profit off of acti
don't worry, once the financial risk is low enough (after someone else has already put in the high risk hard yards - most likely funded by taxpayers), the cheap knockoffs will begin to appear, ready to kill off the cheapskate idiots who decide to fly with them, probably doing the world a favor.
Given that the massively expensive space shuttle destroyed itself and killed the crew about one time in sixty, a 'cheapskate' doesn't have to try too hard to kill their crew less often.
Even the Soyuz capsules, which have almost no redundant systems whatsoever, have a reputation as being reliable.
And, oddly enough, have had loss-of-crew accidents twice, just like Shuttle (which translates to a higher percentage loss rate, since there have been fewer Soyuz missions than Shuttle missions, in spite of Shuttle being developed a decade later).
Well let's hope they aren't knocking off the space shuttle -- you might recall that 33.3% of them exploded catastrophically, killing all their crew members.
All American rockets today that can deliver payload to orbit are made by private companies. They just happen to be under contract for government agencies like the air force, or even NASA. None of these rockets are man-rated, though, which is something SpaceX is gunning for in a big way. I'm definitely excited. Even if they are the only ones who can do it for a while, that's okay too. It's unlikely that a monopoly situation will lead to prices any higher than they are now!
You forgot Blue Origin [blueorigin.com] (run by Amazon's Jeff Bezos) and the quaintly named but feisty Armadillo Aerospace [armadilloaerospace.com]. Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop Grumman -- I believe those companies have been contracting to NASA and the defense department for years but prefer to suck the government's massive teats by going through NASA, the DOD, and all those other agencies. In fact, Northrop more or less purchased Scaled Composites [space.com].
These new companies are fresh faces on the scene that has been dominated by aerospace heavy weights for
What I love about Armadillo Aerospace is that they are one of the few companies whose budget for rocket fuel is larger than the budget for the construction of the vehicles they fly. They also are not afraid to admit they've gone down a blind alley and try something completely different, like completely different fuels, injector systems, and pretty much every part of their rockets. Of any group of rocket developers around today, I'd dare say they have more experience actually using rocket engines and comin
Bad idea.
Two words: Space junk.
The Invisible Hand has a bad record for picking up after itself.
Space junk is a bit different to the normal polluting behaviour though, since it will directly and literally impact the polluter's future operations. Also, its not like publicly funded endeavours have that great a record when it comes to space junk either.
I wonder what the insurance is for something like that? A dent in the ISS must cost an arm and a leg to fix.
It's OK. Flo told them that they could just plug "snapshot" into their spaceship and get a huge discount!
Actually what makes westerners, you and me included, to buy new items instead of fixing them is the just cost of repair. Let's say a reasonably well-performing nondescript toaster from your local hypermarket costs $50 or $100 for a "high end" one. Let's also suppose that you get $20 an hour. You basically have three choices:
1. Find out what is broken, get a replacement part, and replace it yourself.
Sounds easy, but if it's anything except the heating element, you need more than a multimeter to figure out wh
Option 4: Do NOT buy or repair your toaster oven until you can afford a much higher quality replacement.
This seems to me like the soundest decision, but with consumerism, people want instant gratification and the quality converges to the lowest that producers can get away with.
How do you buy a much higher quality toaster? On occasion I have tried to buy higher quality appliances. Price is no indicator. Brand is only a weak indicator. Reviews are only a weak indicator, because product lines are constantly being churned, even if the name has remained the same.
Look at the warranty. Anything less than 5 years is cheap crap, 10 years is good. Some German and Japanese manufacturers offer them.
As an example, I have a Maytag washing machine which cost about $1100. Maytag is the one with the commercials of the repairman sitting around doing nothing because nobody ever calls in. Well, it has broken down on me about 5 times. Twice, it has been the circuitboard, which has to be replaced in its entirety and costs well over $100. The most recent item was a cracked outflow pump housing. How did it crack? Why, pennies got into the housing.
I hate to tell you, but at $1100 you're still in the cheap consumer territory - you've paid for features, not quality. Higher end consumer washers are more in the $2000 range.
You won't find a $1100 Maytag at a professional cleaner or tailor's - they need quality, and are willing to pay for it. Consumers aren't, and when comparing items, will either pick the cheaper, the one with more features, or the one that looks best.
But how can that be? They've been in the business 100 years.
I hate to tell you this too, but Maytag went out of business in 2006, after consumer
Actually what makes westerners, you and me included, to buy new items instead of fixing them is the just cost of repair.
That's why repair is a hobby (DIY). That way your time is basically free and you're doing it for fun or experience. (It's just like people who admin Linux machines for fun).
Now, a toaster is actually a very simple product and a poor example - anyone competent with electricity can rapidly fix it.
Take something that doesn't cost a lot more - say a computer monitor - you can pick up a 20" or
The failure of NASA, speaks to a much deeper issue growing in US culture.
What failure in NASA? Not providing Buck Rogers for your entertainment and amusement? (As opposed to actually getting on with the hard and mostly boring bits, which they have done.) Failing to meet some abstract standard of cost and performance? (Which borders on the ludicrous - it's like complaining about the low performance and high cost of a 8008 in 1971. There's simply no track record on which to base such a standard.)
Basically, you're remembering a golden era that never existed
The young are prone to doing that. We who have been around a while know how bad the past sucked; we were there.
I glanced over the article... hoping to find some pictures.. didn't find any. Boring. Then I read some of the words. Someone was in there whining "the space station is moving faster than a bullet!!!" Yeah? So? It's orbital space. That's how it works and speed is "relative." That's why it's not such a big deal to negotiate an exit from a freeway moving at 70MPH... the other cars are moving at that speed too! I'm not saying that docking to something in orbital space is child's play, but to talk about
Here is an article with pictures. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/04/frr-sets-april-30-dragons-first-flight-fully-prepared-iss/
I'm not saying that docking to something in orbital space is child's play, but to talk about the station's speed relative to the earth is ridiculous and irrelevant. Only two things seem relevant to me. The first is the speed of the two objects relative to each other. The second is the possibility of space junk getting in the way.
All this stuff is interesting but it's not rocket science... well... okay, so it IS rocket science... but rocket science is not so new and awesome any more you know?
Those two objects are not just moving in a straight line, they're in a orbit. This means the one object moving faster than the other (to close up to it) can't be and won't be in the same orbit as the other object. Getting one object near enough to another with no or very little relative motion between them (rendezvous) requires some totally non-intuitive ways of maneuvering.
Not that this is the hard thing about that mission. What SpaceX did here is building a launcher and a spacecraft to get into orbit and
I've been saying it for a while now.. rocket science is easy. It, and the associated orbital mechanics, are governed by a relatively small handful of equations, and most problems have been solved already. Rocket engineering, on the other hand, is still a very tricky and complicated business.
rocket science is not so new and awesome any more you know
the risk of significant R&D investment by any company far outweighs the benefits. its much cheaper to ripoff little innovators who can't defend their IP rights.
if courthouses were only allowed to be in space, we would have a huge space transportation industry funded by big corporate clients of
... but rocket science is not so new and awesome any more you know?
Maybe not so new. Still awesome though.
While I will admit that the ISS is doing some very impressive things, is it really worth the $100 Billion price tag to get it built? That is roughly the cost of about 4-5 nuclear powered aircraft carriers, and certainly more than has ever been spent on the entire cost of exploring Antarctica since Americans first went to that continent combined.
Then again there are several members of congress that would like to simply splash the thing into the Pacific Ocean and forget it ever existed in the first place. I
I call shotgun seat.
A little perspective is needed here.
SpaceX is doing something that the US managed during the Gemini program, the USSR perfected in the 1970's with the Salyut stations, and the Chinese have just done. The first two of those national programs did so without any help or prior knowledge to draw on, and the Chinese had less help from the Russians than is commonly acknowledged.
SpaceX has had their hand held every step of the way by NASA, and have benefitted greatly from NASAs expertise, experience and technology - as have all commercial space launch companies in the US. The people running these companies freely admit this, but the libertarian fanboys simply refuse to, and demand NASA "get out of the way". This is like a teenage, entirely dependent on his parents income to live, demanding they "get out of the way" of his life.
Secondly, the "commercial" label is quite a stretch. These companies are offering a service that is almost exclusively used by a government agency (the very one that fanboys want to die right now quickly please) - they are not catering to a market. The artificial generation of demand that they are exploiting is pure Keynesian. No wonder the space libertarian crowd don't want to talk about this aspect of it.
It is nice that the US is working towards a Shuttle replacement, regardless of how it achieves this - but it is wrong to take this as a sign of the Ultimate Capitalist Triumph In Space, or as a cue to tear apart NASA in the name of ideology.
The reality at present is this; you can support the Libertarian Party, Ron Paul, and any other markets-above-all nuts - OR you can support the continued presence of the US in space. You cannot do both, at least not honestly.
SpaceX has over 40 booked launches for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, that qualifies for commercial in my books. It's one of the reasons they are looking for an additional launch site.
We are talking about manned spaceflight. I am well aware that SpaceX has attracted commercial clients for satellite launches; that you can make money putting communication satellites up is not news.
But their flagship program, the one that is being discussed here and touted as evidence that the glorious Invisible Hand will take us all to the stars, is what I am saying is completely dependent on NASA, and I'm, right.
Furthermore, the development of SpaceX launch technology, whilst commercial in its operation,
And your point is? Elon Musk has never been shy about the help they got from NASA and all the pioneers that went before. Since SpaceX is selling launches they are now more than "just" an engineering company. If all they were doing was NASA related activities I'd agree with you; but that is not all they are doing.
If you are looking for big dreams Mr. Musk's stated goal is to retire on Mars. You can't get much bigger than that.
My point is, it isn't likely. More likely is a successful but unremarkable existence as a LEO launch service provider.
Launching satellites, and even manned spacecraft, IS just engineering. That is not meant in a dismissive way, by the way. I just object to the ideological spin (only a fraction of which emanates from Musk himself.
An engineering company would not be gearing up for volume production of their primary product. They would be shopping around trying to sell their design after having proven it.
The definition of "just engineering" depends on what the goal of engineering is. Musk's stated goal with SpaceX is to make life multi-planetary, and he has identified the most crucial enabler of that goal as rockets that are rapidly and completely reusable (IOW, what the shuttle was supposed to be). They are already selling launches (Falcon Heavy) for less than $1000/lb to LEO, but the big break will come when they crack the reusability barrier. That will open up a whole new range of possibilities and marke
I think this is in fact an ideological development as much as a commercial development. For this launch, SpaceX can claim the glory or the blame depending on the success / failure of the mission. NASA, for its part seems perfectly willing to share all their expertise in exchange for a guaranteed rate for space launches -- an accountability that their traditional funding patterns seem to lack entirely. And, if the mission fails, NASA can always blame SpaceX and keep themselves nice and squeaky clean.
So then, we're not actually entering an era of commercial space - we've been there for decades... Because Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, etc... have frickin' well blown up more private launches than SpaceX has booked - and they've flown successfully an order of magnitude more.
As a libertarian-leaning person myself, you are right on so many levels. SpaceX is entering into a heavily subsidized field. But the jury is still out on what they do after get through the POC. That will be new ground.
Will the "international government" allow for colonization on the moon? Mars? If they do these and issue Moon/Mars property rights, they could actually create quite a tourism market. Rich people would spend oodles of money on a day or two luxury vacation on the Moon.
But until the concept
Why do people in spaceflight always resort to hyperbole when describing docking maneuvers? Example from this article:
Then there is the complicated matter of latching on to the space station, which Musk described as moving faster than a speeding bullet. "I think it is important to appreciate that this is pretty tricky," Musk told reporters. "The public out there, they may not realize that the space station is zooming around the Earth every 90 minutes, and it is going 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers) an h
We can't get computers to drive autonomously on earth, but we can program computers to automatically dock with the space station, that tells me it's EASIER than driving.
Your analogy immediately took a nosedive when you compared driving a car with parking a spacecraft. Computers are already somewhat decent at parking cars. However, if a computer had to navigate a spacecraft safely through a congested orbit of spacecraft piloted by humans it would likely be just as bad as it would be driving a car.
Put simply, you've overlooked the reason computers can't drive cars autonomously - it's impossible to predict with 100% certainty what the humans driving around the computer will
Thus spake the master programmer: "When a program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"


text:
Dear Sir
concerning Fairway leather grips made by Balmforth England.
$20.00 per grips is pretty high price.
i do sell them, the last stock i bought from Balmforth, for £7.00 each.
they are available in Beige colour, 50 inch long, 19/24 inch wide, first quality branded in gold.not many left.about 7 dozens left.
i also have Tan colour, first quality, 44inch long, 19/24 inch wide, first quality branded in gold.about 20 dozens left. they are also £7.00 each.
£7.00 uk sterling is about $14.00 us dollars.
they have stopped production about two years ago. there is a new production in Japan, but not as good as the original one, that is what i was told.they are also very expensive in Japan.
Fairwy leather grips can be maintained and treated and last for years.
israel gefen


text:
Experiments have shown that subatomic particles act very funny when you try to describe or figure them out. Basically, these particles act like particles half the time, and like waves the other half of the time, but never both at the same time. Certain well known experiments (like the banding described in the article, which are due to wave interference of light particles) have shown that particles can somehow seem to act is if they are in multiple places at once, yet they cannot be observed in multiple places at once. This has led a lot of physicists to surmise that there are 'multiple parallel universes' where that exist simultaneously. The rationale is that since the inherent particles that make up our universe are in multiple states at the same time, these inherently MPD (multiple personality disorder) particles make up a sort of multi-verse that exists at the same time in different states, thereby creating different realities/parallel universes.
...and I will reiterate, IANAQP, but it seems to me that there is a lot of going from A, B, C to X, Y, Z with nothing in the middle with that notion. We cant observe the quantum weirdness at our human-sized perceivable universe, and to assume that this quantum weirdness can cause other realities where GWBush is in Mensa seems to be a far step of logic.
If there are any quantum experts out there, and see a problem with my reasoning, or just want to educate the ignorant masses (please leave out the math, its just boring), I urge you to help.
There are other interpetations besides Many Worlds, like transactional, which basically says that QM is really non-local. It has invisible waves propagating backwards in time from everywhere to everywhere, and photons and other waves happen when there's a forward wave in the opposite direction on top of invisble backwards waves.
I.e., for the slit experiment, it's not photons interfering with photons in other universes, like Many Worlds, or 'probablity waves' interfering with other waves, it's the advanced waves that interfere with each other (While, of course, going backwards in time), and to have a photon, it has to be following one of these backwards waves.
And anyone who knows anything about electromagnetic radiation is nodding their head at this point, because they already learned about these hypothetical 'advanced waves' when learning Maxwell's equations, which do not take QP into account. The transactional interpetation just says that even non-existent waves have advanced waves going the other way, and it's those waves that are interfering with each other.
In other words, they're using the term "parallel universe" to get people to read this. They found a neat effect with photons, yes. Might as well just call it a Terroristic Particle Exploitation, and then maybe the real media will examine it at that point. Nothing to see here, move along.It should be added that most physicists disagree with Deutsch's conclusion that what is detected in this experiment is another universe. For brevity's sake, the argument against can be summarized as, there is something interfering with the light in this experiment, why does it have to be a parallel universe? Why can't it be just be left to something that we don't yet understand?
To be fair, the other scientists may be right in a parallel universe. Just not this one.
Basically, light behaves as a wave, and since waves can constructively and destructively interfere with one another (cast two stones simultaneously in a pond and oberve the resulting interference pattern) light will form a funny looking pattern that one would not intuitively expect on a screen some distance from the slit.
Because light isn't a standard classical wave -- it's made up of discrete particles. But you get the standard wave diffraction pattern built up, even if you only let through one photon at a time...
It's the fact that light is made up of discrete particles and yet can still behave like a wave, that's like nothing we see in the large-scale world, and that leads directly to QM.
I believe the explanation for the double-slit experiment in the many-worlds interpretation of QM boils down to the photon interfering with all the corresponding photons in all the other universes...
After passing through the first filter the light has been polarized in some direction- all of the perpendicular components have been removed by the filter.
In the first case, there is only one other filter, oriented at 90 to the first one. This will only allow the components of light polarized 90 to the first screen's orientation to pass. But all of those components were removed, so nothing gets thru. In the second case, your filter is not oriented at 90, but at 45 to the first filter. Hence it will only components of light at 45 to the first filter's orientation to pass. But using vector analysis, we can break that orientation up into two vector components (that match up with the orientations of the first and third screens), and see that some light will get thru. How much? Well, cosine of 45 is 1/sqrt[2], and the intensity of the transmitted light goes as the square of that, so 1/2 of the light coming from the first filter gets through the 2nd filter.
Also, 1/2 of the original light went thru the first filter- this assumes a random distribution of polarizations of incoming light, i.e. unpolarized light.
Since the third filter is oriented at 45 to the second, we get another factor of 1/2. Totaling up all 3, we get 1/8 of the original intensity. I hope this makes sense. It probably won't unless you are comfortable with vectors.
The reason being that even with single photons you get the same pattern on the wall.
Well, That's not completely correct. You only get the same pattern on the wall if you plot the statistical distribution for the photons. Although SINGLE photon won't make an interesting interference pattern, the probability of where the photon hits follows that pattern (thus a statistical record of many photons will produce the image).
I'm just preemptively clairifying this point, since this confused me years ago when I first learned about the experiment.
Well, the double slit experiment, technically, shows that light behaves as a wave. It's the double slit experiment that had people convinced for a couple hundred years that light was a wave. The weirdness comes in when you send out what we believe to be a "particle" of light, and it still behaves like a wave by demonstrating interference patterns, which implies that the "particle" has somehow travelled through both slits.
It actually gets weirder than that: If you, in any way, detect which slit the photon
Well, whatever. All I know is that when I tried it my cat died....
Well, whatever. All I know is that when I tried it my cat died....
Are you sure?
This kind of pseudoscientific articles are one of the worst things on the internet!
This is a classic optics experiment to show that light has wave properties, and it has NOTHING to do with parallell universes. It is all explained here:
diffraction [wikipedia.org]
And if you want to show any quantum mechanical effects you need to make sure that only one photon leaves the laser at any given moment, and that is not happening here.
Second of all, he credits David Deutsch with an idea that most certainly is not his. Both the notion of wave functions (what this article is talking about) and the idea that this somehow relates to parallel universes are older than I am.
This is not a revolutionary idea, and it is not really a controversial one either, as the author of the article seems to indicate. This is just one explanation of a curious quantum mechanical effect. There are other explanations, and they all describe what happens quite accurately. They may each have their own proponents, but really none of them is wrong--they are just different interpretations.
I generally do not like griping, but this write up is positively abysmal. It is no offense to David Deutsch--I am sure he is a quite competent individual. But I do not think the author of this paper actually read his book. It sounds too much like the BS I would string together from reading the first few chapters and the epilogue when I had a book assignment in schoool.
Go here [higgo.com] for a decent, intuitive, layman's introduction to various quantum mechanical oddities.
There are two sets of universes, each containing a version of our photon, one set in which the photon passes through the left slit and one set in which it passes through the right. (Actually there are an even greater number of universes in which the experiment is never carried out in the first place, but we are ignoring those.) The photons are particles that carry a property called "quantum phase" which oscillates as they travel. Two universes which are identical except for the photon arriving at a certain point on the film with opposite phases, cancel each other out. Neither one is "real". Maybe it is more correct to say that the multiverse cannot contain two such contradictory universes in the first place, rather than to imagine them existing, and then meeting and going "poof".
Well, how do you know if you live in such a "multiverse"? The answer was proposed by Max Tegmark just a few years back:
Take a gun, put it to your head, and pull the trigger. Repeat several times. If the multiverse model is correct, then your "self" will continue to exist only in those universes where the gun does not fire. So if you try and pull it a bunch of times and nothing happens, you must be one of the many parallel yous who happens to live in a universe where, in spite of probability, the gun did not fire.
Of course, I would not recommend trying it. If the MWI is correct, well, then in another universe you already have tried.
Is that the only book you've read? I ask only because there's been a great many books before Timeline that have made that claim. In fact, many of them were Deutsch's own books.
Keyword- freelance
Q: How many IBM CPU's does it take to execute a job? A: Four; three to hold it down, and one to rip its head off.