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... from the real-estate con-men. They must be really excited by the thought of billions of Earth-like planets to sell to the marks.
and here we have a desirable waterfront location in the southern part of the galaxy, perfect for building to suit your retirement bungalow.
I guess we'll start loading up the 'B' Ark soon enough. The Real Estate Agents can get warmed up by selling spots on that before their trip to the new worlds.
Well, there's a 71% chance that if you're on the Earth, you'll drown.
If space is infinite, but particle position is finite, there is a 100% chance you exist in that state in infinite places.
Don't be stupid. There are infinite non-repeating patterns.
There's a near-zero chance that your exact genetic sequence would ever come into existence during the course of the universe as we understand it, and yet you exist. The same is true for basically everyone else, yet identical twins exist which doubly-defy the odds! You're more likely to bit struck by lightning than to jackpot a big lottery, yet those lottery winners exist too. So do people struck by lightning, as a matter of fact.
By definition, the planet we arose on is Earth-like because that's the prototype to which all other planets are compared for Earth-likeness. There is a 100% chance that the planet we arose on is Earth-like. Also, there's nearly 100% chance that the first non-Earth planet that we inhabit to the same degree that we inhabit Earth now is also Earth-like, since we'll likely aim for the Earth-like ones, since, again pretty much by definition, we are biologically adapted to live in Earth-like planets.
There's a 78% chance we're not living on an earth-like planet. It does however support life. Are their models really that good?
Their models are <wolf-whistle> totally hawt!
If the speed of light is the absolute max speed in the universe, with no shortcuts in practice, getting somewhere outside of local star group won't be ever possible, and the same will be for everyone else, no matter how advanced they are, and how much similarities are between their culture and ours (at least, our culture willingness to go to space and communicate with others). And, of course, there is time, they should be at the right stage of their civilization, of the 4.5billon years of this planet just in the last 100 we were sending and trying to hear signals to/from somewhere else, and not sure for how much time we will be around. And if well could be earth-like planets "close", sending an expedition even to the closest solar system to just plant a flag is outside our reach, maybe for centuries (and getting there and back will take even more centuries)
The universe may be full of life and advanced civilizations, and we probably won't ever know that someone else is out there. Nor them.
Unless, of course, y'know, we don't know everything there is to know about physics.
Which means they *could* be right.... Or not.
Exactly. We don't know what we don't know. So yes, at the moment, the best we can do is find these planets, see if we can recognize the signatures of life (the discovery of which would be monumental whether we can ever get there or not), and bequeath that information to future generations who may have far greater technical and scientific capabilities than we do.
I dono... I'd be on very safe ground to agree with Einstein's theories... I think it's pretty clear, C is going to be the galactic speed limit, relatively speaking.
Even if that turns out to be the case, the one thing we may develop in the future are better ways of harnessing energy. Even if the speed of light remains the limit, and no feasible way around it (ie. wormholes, warp, whatever), we could still conceivably accelerate spacecraft to a reasonably high fraction of c which would, while not helping out observers on Earth, allow voyagers, one way or the other, to reach other stars in far less time. Tens of thousands of years to the nearest possible lifebearing solar systems could be dropped to a few centuries.
So we can get there in 5-10 generations of space travelers? Just making a self contained system that can support life that long without resupply is going to be some feat. Staying alive in the harsh radiation environment of space for 200 years will be quite another. Keeping the equipment working that long will be even more unthinkable if there is any kind of complexity to the technology used.
We are stuck in this solar system, and the future does not look good. Eventually the sun will make the earth into s
If we're postulating that in the next few centuries we come up with energy sources that could accelerate us to something like 20% of c, then I'd say we probably have the tech to build the shielding. We'd have to, as moving at such a high fraction of c means radiation approaching us going to be blue shifted, and thus more intense.
But hey, if it makes you feel special to imagine we're doomed and that there is some sort of limit on the kinds of technologies that we can develop to deal with what would still remain problems of physics as we understand it now, be my guest.
What you want is a "starwisp". Accelerating meat to near-c and then trying to shield it is silly. Accelerate a 1 kg computer carrying AI instead. AI is no more of a reach than the idea of harnessing that much power, so why not?
If we're postulating that in the next few centuries we come up with energy sources that could accelerate us to something like 20% of c, then I'd say we probably have the tech to build the shielding.
I'm going to further postulate that if we somehow manage to devise such technology, we've probably also significantly extended the human lifespan, and therefore the institutional attention span, and we'll be able to start thinking about robotic precursor missions well before we start flinging people across inters
The physics of this betray you.
Long term low level radiation exposure is deadly to life of all kinds. The simpler the life form, the better is survives, but the more complex forms are much less resistant. Human life is one of the most complex, so it will be more easily damaged by the radiation in space. This will make it necessary to provide radiation levels close to those on earth's surface or the occupants of the craft will not survive the 100+ year one way trip.
Physics says that effective shielding req
Which means they *could* be right.... Or not.
Just remember, statistically there's still no intelligent life in the universe - near infinite number of worlds divided by those with (allegedly) intelligent life and you get zero.
In my math, anytime you divide a non-zero real number by zero, you do NOT get zero but a really large number.
But you where making a joke.....Right?
No intelligent life here... Ok.. So it's mostly true.
Based on what we *know* right now, our best-bet is to build a series of self-sustainable "generation ships"; (very-large spacecraft, capable of sustaining human life over the course of several generations, including the necessary ecosystems to support such life.)
Such technology is at least theoretically do-able, from a technical standpoint.
From an ECONOMIC standpoint, of course, it is as impossible as faster-than-light travel. To expend the money required for such an enterprise, to send-off one or more suc
is not something that can be done with a civilization that does not even want to invest the money to educate their own children. And this would only happen if we knew, for certain, that the destination worlds were inhabitable.
Well, I can probably come up with some scenarios that would be sufficiently motivating for a generation ship to be built - but they basically all involve imminent global catastrophe and decades of authoritarian government, central planning, and slave labor (or close to it). After all
If you have the technology to build generation ships, then you essentially have the technology to build self-replicating space habitats which can duplicate themselves using sunlight and asteroidal ores. (See JD Bernal's ideas form the 1920s or GK O'Neill's from the 1970s or MT Savage's ideas from the 1990s). WIth such technology, there woudl be enough living space for quadrillions of humans in just this one solar system.
Of course, in a thousand years or so, we may be bumping into such limits for the solar s
Unless, of course, y'know, we don't know everything there is to know about physics.
We don't know everything, but we know the broad strokes to a staggering level of accuracy. There's dark corners and more than enough details to go around for aspiring PhDs, but its just wishful thinking and imagination to believe there are major swaths of physics we're so completely and totally wrong about.
Didn't we discovee an entire newuforce (technocolor or something?) Less than 2 years ago? And do you know any detail of gravity for certain? What about dark matter and possibly the WIMPS? Supersymmetry? M-theory?
The standard model has over 50 fudge factors...its broken. What If there are particles and/or forces outside of our little sphere that would enable this?
I don't think we've even scratched the surface yet.
The standard model has over 50 fudge factors...its broken. What If there are particles and/or forces outside of our little sphere that would enable this?
I don't think we've even scratched the surface yet.
You might as well claim that magical pixie dust and the hand of Jesus will push spaceships faster.
The standard model, except on quackery websites, isn't broken. There are no particles found that don't match it, and the ones it predicts get found. That's the point -- there's plenty of room to fill in details but something fundamentally breaking special relativity is not hiding in those cracks. The whole shebang is completely and totally wrong from the ground up, if so... and theories that are accurate to thi
1) What about the very real possibility of the technicolour force? Granted, that doesn't break the standard model, but it's something previously unknown, recently discovered, most likely exists, and has very odd properties. This proves there can be extremely large discoveries, even now. They have thought the exact same as you at various points in history.
2) The energy scales that we are able to experiment on are 10s of orders of magnitude less than what nature provides. The energy scales are utterly unimagi
Actually, if you go fast enough, you don't need life-extension. The stuff you left behind may be 50,000 years out of reach, but you might only have experienced a couple of dozen years.
Unfortunately, we're probably at least as far from the necessary accelerations (and cushioning) as we are from the necessary life-extension techniques, so it's probably a moot point, but I value completeness.
Accelerating at a constant 1G would take something like a year to reach 99% light-speed..
Actually, if you go fast enough, you don't need life-extension.
I remember reading, somewhere, that if we could just reach something like 99% of the speed of light, the entire universe is only a year away, due to time dilation. I read that a long time ago, though, so it may be out of date.
Of course, I'd much rather find a way around having to accelerate, at all, like wormholes, or something. Between the acceleration time, the radiation issues, etc., there are many more problems with lightspeed, than just get
If worse comes to worse, if we ever create energy sources capable of accelerating us to a reasonably large fraction of c, even if, in Earth time, visiting another solar system might tens or hundreds of thousands of years at non-relativistic speeds, the occupants of such a craft would experience time dilation, and for them it would be a much shorter ride.
Going faster than light in a vacuum would violate causality. Going faster than light from point A to point B is trivial if you can take a shortcut. For instance, via wormhole. Light following the same path you do would still beat you, but you still get there in a reasonable amount of time.
Several hundred years ago, gravity was a similar looking, insurmountable barrier, and that has proven to be be trivial to 'get around' provided you are willing to make the proper engineering choices.
I'm not sure this is a fair comparison. Several hundred years ago, we at least had the example of birds and insects as proof that gravity was not an insurmountable obstacle. We also had plenty of experience making objects briefly shoot upwards, we just didn't know how to keep them there. As a result, it reall
Maybe the things faster than light are weakly interacting and moving too rapidly to detect.
Think about the magnitudes of difference between objects at non-relativistic speeds and light....what about that same difference taken in the other direction?
If the spacetime interp is wrong (recent evidence i believe) then maybe gravity has a speed ?
I don't believe we need to go faster than light to get somewhere. Toss in a good fraction of that, say 20% or as little as 10% and things begin to appear a little closer. Within 16 light years there are 53 other stars. At 10% of light speed that is 160 years traveling time, and arguably we could do it now with the proper resources and political will. At 20% - not far off - that is 80 years. Now consider genetic modification or other advances in medical science to prolong human life. If we do so much as doub
As for E.T. I wouldn't give up quite yet: http://xkcd.com/638/ [xkcd.com]
I have to admit, I was secretly of hoping that when we got LIGO online, we'd see stuff that was clearly transmissions from intelligent beings...
I am just glad there are still some very smart people out there still working on the physics of the universe. There may very well be no way to realistically travel to far way star systems but we will never know if we claim universal understanding of everything and then just stop investigating.
If the speed of light is the absolute max speed in the universe, with no shortcuts in practice
That's a pretty big "if", though, isn't it? We aren't nearly qualified to even speculate on the answer to that question. If you consider the distances even in our own solar system, where the planets are enormous distances from each other compared with the scale we know, our experience of manned exploration goes from the Earth to the Moon, no farther. We still have a lot to learn. We'll blow ourselves up long before we learn it, but still, there's a lot we don't know.
We've recently celebrated the accomplishments of the Voyager probes. The Flight Data System computers on both Voyager spacecraft are 16-bit machines with a whopping 16KB of memory. Each spacecraft had a total of 6 computers, with a total memory of around 68KB. The CPU clock speeds are around 250KHz, although since it takes around 80 microseconds to execute an instruction, that makes around 8,000 instructions per second.
The phone in my pocket has 2GB of memory and 4 CPUs running at 1.7GHz. So my phone has around 30,000 times as much memory as Voyager, and the CPU is
Anyway, we're pretty stupid around this planet. That's my point. I think I made it.
We still have a lot to learn. We'll blow ourselves up long before we learn it, but still, there's a lot we don't know.
+5 Sad But True.
Nuclear weapons have arguably kept Humanity from going to war on a global scale again since the end of WWII. However, for the rest of us the story didn't end there. The A-Bomb Club may have started out pretty exclusive but there are a whole lot more members as of 2013 and more hopefuls are hammering at the clubhouse door wanting in.
It's well known that the push now is for smaller and smaller-yield tacnukes, ultimately serving to blur the lines between nuclear and conventional weapons. This m
no signal that escape an atmosphere is ever truly lost.
You just need a big enough antenna to tease out the signal.
For example. if we wanted to see if any plant withing 100 lights year has sent a tv signal in the lsat 100+ years we would need a micro-antenna ares the size of Rhode Island. And just add more micro antennas for more distance.
If the speed of light is the absolute max speed in the universe, with no shortcuts in practice, getting somewhere outside of local star group won't be ever possible, and the same will be for everyone else, no matter how advanced they are, and how much similarities are between their culture and ours (at least, our culture willingness to go to space and communicate with others).
you seem to have forgotten relativity. if you get to really close to C then you could travel millions of parsecs in what would seem like an hour. it would seem like most of your trip was spent accelerating and slowing down when really that hour took you much further than anything else. then again, you may want to put yourself into solid or suspended state to avoid issues with acceleration and you could travel slower if you wanted. interstellar and even intergalactic travel is completely possible. the o
The local group? Thinking a bit far out aren't we, that is over 17 million light years encompassing probably tens of trillions of stars. I think our own galaxy (~110,000 light years in diameter, ~300 billion stars) has more than enough to keep us busy and is not excessively outside of our reach even if light speed shortcuts are unavailable ("Randevu with Rama" gives I think a pretty reasonable advanced space travel method).
I think you underestimate the patience of some people. See C.J. Cherryh's Earth-Union stories.
if we're so far along the process to colonizing the galaxy, why haven't one of the countless probable civilizations beaten us to it? Or if they had, why is there no trace of their colonies? That's at the core of the Fermi paradox.
Maybe they did, and maybe we are the evidence of it? I can imagine a robotic probe that seeds DNA to hospitable worlds is possible, but that would just be the seeding of life, not any society/culture (and evolutionary pressures may well make the resulting beings look very different to the original). I see no difference to claiming life was brought to this earth by comets, space dust or alien robotic spacecraft (except plausibility, but we will never really know)
I guess it depends on what your goals are as a
The notion that intelligence will continue to be meat-based (and thus subject to aging and death) for the indefinite future is quaint.
This is what I was thinking. We will evolve ourselves into machines and I guess we could always maintain DNA cultures and grow bodies if we need. I just wonder what would become of our humanity if we could do the Ghost In The Shell thing. It would mess with your mind to change bodies and basically be around indefinitely. Nothing is impossible, it's just not possible now. I can see humans as the Borg... taking over the universe like the plague we are on Earth
Let's suppose that we're limited to 1% of the speed of light for practical purposes. I think that's more realistic.
Now, suppose we establish self-sufficient habitats built out of planetoids and similar stuff. At some point, some group may decide to collect lots of fuel from a handy gas giant, and head on out. There's a lot of reasons why people might want to do that (although many, many more why not). So, somebody does that and moves to a system maybe 10 light-years away. That takes a thousand years
Our (written) history goes back to 10k years ago. What make you think we will survive as a civilization as we have now (or more advanced) for a long time? You are talking about millon years from now. *IF* we don't get setbacks, we probably won't be humans in 200-500 years. But knowing what happened every time we got something that could be used as weapon, from fire to internet, including possibly damaging for all the planet like nuclear ones, The most immediate threat to our survival is in us, not in climat
A roughly earth-sided rocky world, sitting well within the star's "goldilocks zone" throughout its orbit, and spectrographically identified to contain both oxygen and water.
Although even if we find one... what are we going to do about it? It's not like we can even send a probe that far which has a likely chance of reaching it before it experiences mechanical failure.
We spend the next few centuries analyzing it with ever better optical and spectroscopic technology, and maybe, if we're really bloody lucky, we figure out some new physics and end up going there.
What cracks me up is that not twenty years ago, I had a long discussion with a physics teacher who must not have listened to his own material and kept on arguing that we were probably the only star with a planetary system.
I remember being very small but already a scifi fanatic, and my (single at the time) mother who had been taking some college courses remarked once, appropos of nothing much, that stars were little bits of fire that weren't that far away.
I asked her where she had heard that. She said in one of her college courses.
After a long while, I asked "are you sure it was a science course?"
It was a few years later that I got around to reading Orwell, and understanding that she was probably misremembering a discussion
I can just see, wherever he is, his wicked-fine smile at partial affirmation of some of his speculation.
One of the beauties of Universe is the slew of un-answered questions; that so few seem to give a damn, one of its uglies.
Five in five sun-like starts may have an earth-like planet!
Or it could be one in billions.
I predict it will be somewhere between. Do I get a cookie? How about a web hit?
Seriously - this isn't news. It's conjecture to fill space.
.... so lots of Earth-Mars (EM-class) planets. So Gene Roddenberry was right....
The vast number of potential exoplanets could never be detected by Kepler. Kepler worked by detecting occultations, and the chances of a planet at 1AU distance actually occulting a G0 star 10+ LY away would be
The fact that the Kepler telescope discovered as many exoplanets as it did, given the geometric odds against it,
"I shall expect a chemical cure for psychopathic behavior by 10 A.M. tomorrow, or I'll have your guts for spaghetti." -- a comic panel by Cotham


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Alpha wins Whitney Handicap at Saratoga
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Alpha held off Flat Out by a head Saturday in the $750,000 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course.
Trained by Kieran McLaughlin and ridden by John Velazquez, the 4-year-old Alpha ran 1 1/8 miles over a sloppy track in 1:49.28 and paid $17.40, $6.30 and $3.40. He earned $450,000 for Godolphin Stable.
"I talked to (Velazquez) and said, 'If he breaks well and you can clear Paynter, let's go,'" McLaughlin said. "Maybe I didn't have him fit enough for his first two races (of 2013), but he loves it here and it's one of the biggest wins of our career."
Alpha has three victories in two seasons at Saratoga. Last year, he won the 2012 Jim Dandy and finished in a dead heat for win in the Travers.
Flat Out returned $3.50 and $2.20, and Successful Dan, third of five, paid $2.80 to show.
Earlier on the Saratoga program, Strapping Groom led wire-to-wire in the $500,000 Forego Handicap, and Silver Max won the $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap by two lengths on the turf over Paris Vegas.

subset: commoncrawl


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THE perception that universities are turning out low-quality teachers and that strict ATAR cut-offs should be imposed on teaching courses is wrong, an education expert has warned the federal government.
Professor Rob Tierney, dean of the faculty of education and social work at the University of Sydney, told a parliamentary inquiry that setting high, inflexible entry standards to university courses would be a mistake and risked limiting the diversity of teachers.
The current inquiry is examining the Australian Education Bill, which was drawn up in response to the Gonski review of school funding and includes a broad objective to lift teacher quality.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pledged that as part of the reforms, ''teacher trainees will be among the best and brightest'' and that they would meet ''rigorous professional standards''.
Professor Tierney rejected a suggestion from a committee member that university entry requirements were too low and said the average Australian Tertiary Admission Rank to get into a bachelor of primary education at his university this year was 95.
''That really concerns me. What am I looking at then relative to the diversity of students that are going to be going into primary education?'' he said.
Professor Tierney said poor-performing students did not graduate, and while he did not mind ATARs as a guideline, governments needed to give universities the discretion to assess suitability via other means such as interviews.


text: QRL Intrust Super Cup Preview - Finals Week 1 | SUNSHINE COAST (3) v MACKAY CUTTERS (6)Saturday, September 4 @ Stockland Park, 2pm * Live on ABC TV The Sea Eagles and Cutters collide for the second time in the space of a week at the same venue. In last week's encounter, an under-strength Sunshine Coast team recorded a strong 40-12 win over the Cutters. But it was hard to know what to make of the Cutters' performance after their spot in the top six was already sealed following Burleigh's loss to the Pride the day before. The general consensus is that Mackay will be a much tougher proposition this time around. That theory is supported by the likely return of Cowboys pair Shannon Gallant and Isaak Ah Mau for the Cutters' maiden appearance in the Queensland Cup finals. Another ace the Cutters have up their sleeves is their coach Paul Bramley, who knows what it takes to succeed at this time of the year. The Sea Eagles have an established coach in their corner as well, with Brandon Costin on the hunt for back-to-back premierships. Costin's outfit will be installed as favourites for this clash, despite the likely absence of several of the Manly-contracted stars who have helped the Sunshine Coast get this far. The Sea Eagles have won an incredible eight straight games to soar into the September play-offs and another victory over Mackay would leave them just one win away from a second grand final appearance. SOUTHS LOGAN (1) v NORTHS DEVILS (2)Sunday, September 5 @ Davies Park, 3pm The two Brisbane big guns cross paths in what could be a dress rehearsal for the September 19 grand final at Suncorp Stadium. Although both teams are assured of a passage through to the second week of the finals, the losing side could find it difficult to regain its momentum in a cut-throat preliminary final. On paper, this game shapes as a very evenly matched affair. If the opposing packs cancel each other out, then the spotlight will fall on the playmakers. The Norths halves pairing of Shane Perry and Matt Smith has a formidable look to it, while there is also a lot to like about Magpies duo Phil Dennis and Mick Picker. Both camps have speed and class outwide, but it is the Devils who have the


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By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Benjamin J. Matwey
Special to American Forces Press Service
July 8, 2009 - The remains of seven American troops killed July 6 during combat operations in Afghanistan returned to their nation during a dignified transfer this afternoon at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Twenty-six family members from every region of the country stood on the tarmac witnessing their loved one's return.
Subdued voices of the carry team leaders directed their teams to perform precise movements as they transferred their comrades-in-arms from the C-17 aircraft to a waiting vehicle. A six-person Navy team carried the transfer case of the single sailor into one vehicle, followed by a six-person U.S. Army team who then carried each transfer case for the six soldiers into a second vehicle.
The wind picked-up on this warm summer day as the last transfer case holding the sixth soldier was placed in the transfer vehicle, and all present rendered a final salute.
As the second and final transfer vehicle with the remains of the six Army soldiers left the flight line, the U.S. Navy carry team joined a dozen troops standing at attention outside the passenger terminal as they rendered a salute. The transfer vehicle passed in front, followed by the Army carry team and the senior officers.
Today's dignified returns were of the following seven servicemembers:
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Tony M. Randolph, of Henryetta, Okla., assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Eight, Sigonella, Italy.
U.S. Army Capt. Mark A. Garner, of State Road, N.C., assigned to Company B, 1-4th Infantry Battalion, Hohensfels, Germany.
U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Derwin I. Williams, of Glenwood, Ill., assigned to Troop B, 2nd Squadron, 106th Cavalry, Dixon, Ill., Illinois Army National Guard.
U.S. Army Sgt. Brock H. Chavers, of Bulloch, Ga., assigned to Company D, 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry, Americus, Ga., Georgia Army National Guard.
U.S. Army Spc. Chester W. Hosford, of Hastings, Minn, assigned to Troop B, 2nd Squadron, 106th Cavalry, Dixon, Ill., U.S. Army National Guard.
U.S. Army Spc. Issac L. Johnson, of Columbus, Ga., assigned to Company A, 48th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, Statesboro, Ga.
U.S. Army Pfc. Nicholas Gideon, of Murrieta, Calif., assigned to the 40th Armored Squadron, Fort Richardson, Ark.
Minutes after the transfer was complete and family members exited the flight line the sound of retreat followed by the National Anthem broadcast across the air base.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attended today's dignified transfers, as he has for several previous transfers.
Mullen spoke with family members assembled in a base chapel before the transfer . Afterwards, the chairman spoke briefly with each of the carry teams and with more than 20 other servicemembers involved in the transfer operations.
Earlier in the day, Mullen responded to a question at the National Press Club about the impact he has seen from the policy change to allow the press to cover the return of fallen service members.
"It's been very well done," Mullen said. "I've been up there and observed the process. I personally believe it was a very important decision.
"And what I've seen is that that dignity and that respect has been -- has been very, very much supported in the time that certainly the press has been there," he said. And I'm very encouraged by that. I think it's important that all of us understand the sacrifices that these young men and women make."
U.S. Navy Rear Admiral James J. Shannon, commander, Naval Surface Warfare Center, and U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michael T. Harrison Sr., director, Joint and Futures, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G8, Headquarters, Department of the Army, also attended the transfer. U.S. Air Force Col. Manson O. Morris, commander, 436th Airlift Wing, Dover Air Force Base, Del., was the dignified transfer officer.
Dignified transfers have occurred over 4,000 times at Dover Air Force Base since 2001 in virtually the same manner. A policy change on April 5 of this year allowed news media to be present with the approval of the primary next of kin of the fallen service member. In about 70 percent of cases the families approve the presence of news media. Family members have been present in the same percentage.
(Tech. Sgt. Benjamin J. Matwey is assigned to Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center Public Affairs)
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Remains of Seven U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan Returned Home
Posted by Raymond Foster at 6:42 PM
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What Anna Maria Island and other municipalities can learn from one city's legal wranglings
Venice city attorney Bob Anderson told officials on Anna Maria Island what they were getting into when they passed restrictions on short-term rentals.
He didn't call them. They called him. By then, it was too late. They had already put the law into place.
Three weeks later, they rescinded it, threatened with legal action from property owners. Those owners say they counted on short-term rental income when they bought their properties and that depriving them of it impedes their rights.
At least Anna Maria hasn't spent at least $700,000 or so in legal wrangling. Venice has, ever since the city passed a restriction on renting vacation homes in residential neighborhoods.
The law is still on the books, but the city council can't change a word or it loses the grandfathered status granted in a 2011 state law that now prohibits cities and counties from that type of legislation.
And, Venice has never enforced the rules since their passage in 2009. It settled one challenge for $300,000 and won another on a narrow ruling focused on proving damages.
The city still faces a constitutional challenge from a group of owners who argues that the prohibition amounts to a taking of property without compensation.
The meter continues to tick on that defense. The city is paying the Fowler White law firm, one of the finalists for city attorney, as much as $415 an hour to deal with the case.
That cost does not include staff time or the time of city attorney Bob Anderson.
On the bright side, much of the angst over the use of vacation rentals seems to have subsided, perhaps because neighbors can call the police or code enforcement to handle problems — such as parking, trash and noise — that sometimes arise from short-term renters.
Taxes already cover those services.
Buffett and Hugh knew all along that the Baltimore Ravens would win the Super Bowl. They predicted it three days ahead of time by swimming to special targets marked with the team's logo while ignoring the corresponding San Francisco 49ers logo.
You won't hear them saying "We told you so," however — because Hugh and Buffett are manatees. They live at Mote Marine Laboratory where they participate in sensory research designed to determine how their species navigates under water.
The yearly Super Bowl promotion gives them a break from their more serious work.
It started with the New England Patriots-New York Giants game in 2008, to settle some friendly ribbing among staff and volunteers.
"Overall, I might hesitantly admit it was my idea," says the manatees' trainer, Joe Gaspard, a New York native. What initially involved no more than a diversion for a few Mote workers has received more attention each year.
It's turned into good publicity for the lab, which this year earned a mention on The Today Show as part of a segment on animal prognosticators.
Buffett seems to have a sixth sense for the Big Game. He's predicted the winner five years in a row. Hugh has a more human three-out-of-five success rate.
Both have had the good sense not to wager on their intuition.
Eric Ernst's column runs Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at firstname.lastname@example.com or (941) 486-3073.


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Is that with hindsight or without?
How many "models" are going unreported because they didn't work out too well?
Its worse then that, their little graph only shows a handful of riots that they want to be on their.
I dont see any riots that do not meet their own agenda on it, hell the french riot a few times every year, I see none of the Australian riots I know of.
Total BS
I dont see any riots that do not meet their own agenda on it
Or, they're simply trying to demonstrate that lack of food security causes riots, not that all riots are caused by lack of food security.
I don't think the intent was to provide for all riots, just ones that met their criteriA when the fao index climbed above 210.
In essence, they are saying when X happens, Y follows. Not that all of Y is created by X. In a car anology, it would be like a new person shows up in New York City. We know when people cross the George Wahongton bridge in their car fro. West to east, they end up in NYC. But we also know they can fly in and enter from other routes by car too.so while X is true for Y, but Y is not limi
Well the popular "hampster uprising" has not happened, but a lot of the doomsayers are still holding out for it to happen. It has become one of the most desirable outcomes.
Who wouldn't want a cute fuzzy wuzzy supreme leader?
That's how one should work with models. Create lots of them, throw away the ones that didn't work, test the ones that work again and again to confirm that it wasn't just by chance.
We are at the second step here, and have a model to pay attention now.
hari seldon did that first with psychohistory I seem to recall..
But even he was unable to forsee the Mule.
That is the problem with random mutations. They are unpredictable, both in when they will appear and in how they will affect society.
But even [Seldon] was unable to forsee the Mule.
Dunno -- my vote is still that the Mule was another leftover positronic-brain-based robot with a (bad pun alert!) chip on his shoulder.
Seldon probably correctly assumed that all such robots had been lost or destroyed millennia earlier.
What worries me about this sort of knowledge, is that it could make it possible for political leaders to keep the masses working their asses off just above the breadline. But they can avoid pushing it so far that they get the kind of political activism that might result in regime change.
it could ???
"Bread and circuses" is a 2000 years old expression.
You mean to say it's a 2000 year old *system*, not just an expression.
"make it possible for industrial leaders and bankers to keep the masses working their asses off just above the breadline."
The problem with these uprisings, particularly in Ukraine and Venezuela, is that they're not fueled by food prices. I don't know the fine details about the Ukrainian case but I've been reading quite a lot about Venezuela. And I happen to live in Argentina so I see a lot of parallels between the Venezuelan case and the Argentinian (Venezuela is a little window to the future for us Argentinians).
Basically, Chavez got to power through a coup in the 90s. Since then, Venezuela has been going downhill. Like all "
He attempted a coup in 1992, but that failed.
He gained the presidency though legitimate elections in 1998.
Though he certainly wasn't very committed to democracy while in power.
What worries me about this sort of knowledge, is that it could make it possible for political leaders to keep the masses working their asses off just above the breadline.
"Just above breadline" is also known as "living wage", and is a bleeding heart liberal position, verging on outright communism. Why do you hate freedom so much, comrade?
But they can avoid pushing it so far that they get the kind of political activism that might result in regime change.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. There are plenty o
I've read a lot of those old "doomsaying" articles and in general they're interesting. But the Malthusians have been preaching the same apocalypses for a long time now and they've generally failed to come true.
I agree resource scarcity is essentially at the root of most of our problems, and over at http://www.dictatorshandbook.n... [dictatorshandbook.net] the discussion basically revolves around the idea that religious wars are a proxy for resource grabs, while bad governments either prevent more violence or promote it to achieve
I've read a lot of those old "doomsaying" articles and in general they're interesting. But the Malthusians have been preaching the same apocalypses for a long time now and they've generally failed to come true.
Except this guy predicted riots which then did not fail to come true. So uh, what does that have to do with this?
Getting it right is easy. Not getting it wrong is hard. What is the false positive rate for this model? How many uprisings did it miss?
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day...
AngryPeople + BadGovernment = Uprising
No, there must be something else in the mix. Or do we just get no reports about the riots all over the US?
Do we really need complex systems theorists to tell us that "if food prices continued to climb, so too would the likelihood that there would be riots across the globe"?!?
Okay then, where do I apply for D.O.T.O.M.O.O. (Department of the Obvious Made Obviously Obvious)?
Racist much? Maybe not. Islamaphobic much, though?
If you mean hating an ideology that wants to subdue or kill all others then I suppose I am just as islamaphobic as the allies in WWII were naziphobic.
Actually, most Muslims are by no means radical. Quite a few are pissed at the radical asshats who give the whole bunch a bad name. And bluntly, most of the "radicals" don't give a shit about Islam actually. They just noticed that this is how they get us to listen. Just say "I'm gonna bomb your $place" and suddenly the "Westener" shuts up and listens. They found out that this works. Not only that, but that we start apologizing for "insulting" them. So anything we do or say is suddenly an insult.
Fuck it!
If you don't wanna see caricatures of your prophet, you can do what I did because I didn't like "2 girls 1 cup". I simply didn't look. Yes, whoever looks at it is a sicko, or for you, dear Islamist, a heretic but guess what, it's none of your business. I will not apologize for not being like you want me to be. Why? Because in my country where I live I can be the way I want to be! If I come to some country where the Islam is considered the state religion, I will of course heed the laws there and yes, that means that I will certainly not show around caricatures of your Prophet, because that's not allowed there. No problem. Your country, your rules.
But my country, my rules! And it's gonna be a very cold day in HELL before I let some radical, religious idiot rule my country.
(which is, btw, also a reason why I'd rather not move to the US)
The rational response was not to hate Nazism per se, but the things that made it vicious. Xenophobia and scapegoating are high on that list. Once you are committed against xenophobia and ultra-nationalism in general, it automatically follows that you're committed against Nazism in particular.
Likewise it makes no sense for you to fear Islam per se, but rather the vicious things you associate with Islam.
If you knew more about Islam, you would see that those things are not universal in people who consider them
I call BS. For a decade I've lived in a predominantly Muslim area of Brooklyn, NY and not once has anyone tried to subdue or kill me.
There have been nights where something wonky happened in another neighborhood and I breathed a sigh of relief when I got back here and felt safe again.
If you mean hating an ideology that wants to subdue or kill all others
It certainly isn't impossible to find stuff that implies that in the Koran. However, it isn't impossible to find stuff that implies that in The Bible either. Cherry-pick a verse here or there, and it can look pretty bad. It misses the point of the religion completely to do that, but I've seen it done.
So out of curiosity, do you hate Christianity too, or are you just being selective about which religion you apply those standards to?
For any Christian reading the parent and thinking perhaps its fine to throw
The so called bread price was always a key trigger for uprisings. If the price climbed faster than the actual income of the people, hunger was unavoidable. And of course people tend to become violent when they have suddenly not enough to eat.
In 2006, the food index was only 127. Yet, there were 15 large scale riots, 9 large scale strikes, 6 wars, of which at least 2 new wars in 2006, and countless other conflicts not mentioned on the wikipedia page about conflicts in 2006. And I just picked a random year.
Conflicts (general): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
Strikes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
Riots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
Food index: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsi... [fao.org]
While I suspect that yes, food costs and shortages certainly make such uprisings more likely (hungry people tend to get a little crabby and short tempered) the causality of this is highly suspect.
I'd suspect that yes, at extreme values, hunger can drive civil issues. Otherwise it's more of an aggravating factor, as the uprisings around the world in 2013 were - at least as far as the news covered them - largely political and opportunistic. Note in particular the sort of 'infectious' pattern, where o
Indeed. With a world as large and complex as we have, there are virtually always conflicts that can be cited as happening at any given time. Being able to point out that some happened when a particular trigger condition was met does not in an of itself even demonstrate correlation, let alone causation.
We need a model to tell us that food shortages increase the risk of uprisings? How about one that tells us the probability of riots when the temperature increases. Sounds like someone got funding, and produced a study proving the obvious.
And, I may be completely off base since I didn't read TFA.
Shocking! Who would have ever guessed before the advent of complicated math models that food riots tend to occur when food prices go up !
Next up, complicated fluid dynamics models that show that when it rains, you may get wet.
The FAO food price index doesn't appear to be especially "up" right now:
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsi... [fao.org]
So how does this model work again?
Obviously you haven't been paying attention [autoblog.com]. The same ones that move our food to our local grocery stores. Diesel trucks already are pretty damn efficient for what they do. And being that fuel prices already cut into barely-living wage standards (and unsafe sleepless driving), it's to their advantage to increase MPG through market forces on their own. The main goal of Obama isn't to increase the MPG standards, but reduce greenhouse emissions from semi trucks. The goals may be one-in-the-same, but the premis
If you suspect a man, don't employ him.


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VAL DI FIEMME, Italy (Feb. 24) - Veteran Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) anchored a solid full team performance to lead the USA to bronze in the nordic combined team event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme. A strong day on the jumps set the U.S. up for it's first ever medal in the team event at World Championships in which each of the four team athletes performed both on the jump and on the cross country track.
QUOTESTaylor FlectcherIt was a really tough race and we certainly had some work to do. It started on the jump hill and I think together as a team we performed as good as we needed to on the jump hill today. We all put down a solid effort on the racecourse - we hung tough. Bill came through on the end with a good sprint to take third.
We came in this knowing that we were going to be close for the cross country, knowing the jumping had put ourselves in position. We don't come to this competition to lose so we did our best to fight for the podium and fight for the victory. I give it up to our staff, teammates, coaches and, of course, the mustache was the deciding factor in this. We had a lot of fun with it and it brought our team together.
Billy DemongIt was great. Honestly, going into the last leg I had a goal to just ski a smart race and not lead it all. I ended up leading almost the whole thing. In the end I was a little unsure if the other guys were really going to be fresh, and coming down the last hill I'm like, 'Don't look back, you don't want to know. Just keep chasing Magnus and Jason.' So I think it was really a relief to come within five meters of the finish line and just glance and say, 'Okay, yea. We've got this.'
Dave Jarrett, U.S. Nordic Team CoachIt was a good day; especially Taylor on the jumping hill did an amazing job from going down six gates and then having difficult conditions. Then to go back up, do it again and have the jump like he had; to do that for the team was awesome. Todd has been a little bit sick and maybe not in the best shape and he also rallied really hard in the cross country.
On Taylor's strong first jump and jump orderWe definitely needed that. He jumped pretty good yesterday and certainly wanted to start off on the right note. So that helped. We knew that it would be better for Todd, and Bryan too, to have some people around them. It was pretty windy from the bottom of the hill all the way up to the top. That was our strategy, to put Taylor first and have him go as hard as he could to close as much time between the front and us.
In the team events, the guys tend to rally for each more than they may do individually. So it's good to see, and it's good to be a part of.
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.By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN Associated Press
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) _ A woman disfigured by a friend's pet chimpanzee in 2009 plans to appeal a decision denying her permission to sue the state for $150 million on her claim that officials knew the chimp was dangerous but didn't do anything about it, her attorney told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The state claims commissioner on Friday approved the state's motion to dismiss Charla Nash's claim, saying the law at the time allowed private ownership of chimpanzees and didn't require officials to seize legal animals. The state generally is immune to lawsuits, unless allowed by the claims commissioner.
Nash's lawyer, Charles Willinger Jr., said he plans to appeal the decision by Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. to the state legislature. Willinger says the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection should be held responsible for not seizing the chimpanzee before the attack because it had been warned that the chimp was dangerous.
"We think the decision is wrong and flawed, and we hope to convince the members of the Judiciary Committee that our position has a solid legal basis and would represent a just and reasonable resolution for the massive injuries Charla sustained as a direct result of the DEP's negligence and failure to adhere to the statutory mandate to seize and dispose of the chimp," said Willinger, of the Bridgeport law firm Willinger, Willinger & Bucci.
Nash was blinded, lost both hands and underwent a face transplant after being mauled in Stamford. She reached a $4 million settlement last year with the estate of the chimp's owner, Sandra Herold, who died in 2010.
State Attorney General George Jepsen's office declined to comment on Tuesday. But a spokeswoman agreed with the decision on Friday.
"While we have the utmost sympathy for Charla Nash, we agree with the claims commission that a regulatory statute does not provide a basis to sue the state," Jepsen spokeswoman Jaclyn Falkowski said then.
Nash had gone to Herold's home on Feb. 16, 2009, to help lure her friend's 200-pound chimpanzee, named Travis, back inside. But the chimp went berserk and ripped off Nash's nose, lips, eyelids and hands before being shot to death by a police officer.
Travis had starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola and made an appearance on "The Maury Povich Show." The chimpanzee was fed steak, lobster and ice cream and could drink wine from a stemmed glass, use the toilet and bathe and dress itself.
It previously had bitten another woman's hand and tried to drag her into a car in 1996, had bitten a man's thumb two years later and had escaped from Herold's home and roamed downtown Stamford for hours in 2003 before being captured, according to Nash's lawsuit against Herold.
Nash, 59, now lives in a nursing home outside Boston.
Several months before the attack, a state biologist warned state officials in a memo that the chimpanzee could seriously hurt someone if it felt threatened, saying "it is an accident waiting to happen."
Jepsen has acknowledged that the biologist had warned that the chimp was dangerous. But he said state law on the issue was ambiguous and difficult to enforce and there was no guarantee a court hearing would have led to a seizure order.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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For Beth Ingram, owner of Ingram's Candies in Troy, her dreams often become reality.
Ingram thinks up new recipes which eventually appear on her store's shelves, and one of her recipes has even won an award.
At last year's Taste of Troy, Ingram won best desert with her Movie Mix — a mixture of melted caramel and dark, white and milk chocolate chips poured on top of pretzels. This year, she hopes to win again with her salted caramel brownies.
Expected to bring in between 750 to 1,000 people, the 22nd-annual Taste of Troy will feature more than 30 restaurants from the Troy area, all of whom will serve different food. All proceeds from the event will go to the non-profit Boys & Girls Club of Troy.
The Boys & Girls Club provides services such as its after school program and gives "local youth a platform which allows them to develop into self-reliant, responsible, contributing members of the community," according to its website.
"I love what they're supporting," Ingram said. "My son went to Boys & Girls Club, and that's what this supports and it's an awesome cause."
Amid Michigan's freezing winter, the Taste of Troy's theme is a garden party.
Ingram plans to showcase an Easter-themed booth, complete with eggs and baskets.
Easter is one of the more popular times of year for her store: She makes solid chocolate bunnies, chocolate peeps, and custom-made Easter baskets. All of the candy in her store is made fresh, without preservatives or trans fats.
Baking chocolate and candy right in the store keeps customers coming back.
"Nobody does this anymore," she said, " and I think that's why we're popular. People want us to do well and support us because they want to keep artisan businesses like this around."
A former account executive for Ford Motor Co., Ingram said she started making chocolates as a hobby more than a decade ago. Then, she began selling her candies to Nino Salvaggio and Henry Ford and Beaumont hospitals.
She began renting commercial space to make the candy, and that's when she decided to open Ingram's, now a year and a half old.
Among the Taste of Troy's attractions include a live auction, hosted by WDIV-TV meteorologist Andrew Humphrey, and a special appearance by Detroit Lions running back Joique Bell.
"I take great pride in having the opportunity to reach out to young people in this community and encourage them to follow their dreams and become good people with positive attitudes and a willingness to help others," Bell said in a statement.
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"I didn't really know what to expect (after the race was moved from turf to the main track because of rain earlier in the day). The only time he'd run on the Polytrack was in his (third start, in October 2011 at Keeneland). He was a fast-closing second that day. We thought he'd handle it. He's trained all summer long on it.
James Graham (winning rider)
"Great trip. Saved all the ground. Rode to instructions perfectly by Danny Peitz (with a laugh). Got through on the inside. He quickened up smartly. (The win was) pretty handy.
"They were drawn outside last time (in which he ran third in the American St. Leger on Aug. 17 at Arlington Park) and couldn't get really proper cover like today. He needs a target to run at. He got it today, he finished off perfect."
Joe Rocco Jr. (rider of runner-up Eagle Poise)
"They went extremely slow. From the one hole my horse broke well, kinda was behind and then got a little eager as slow as they were going. It was a weirdly run race, with them going so slow up front and the way everything happened. So we were lucky to find a seam, and he was able to run on a little bit. We turned for home, and he switched leads and kicked strong for me and really followed out to the wire. The other horse just had a little bit more of a punch."
Rosie Napravnik (rider of third-place finisher Tricky Hat [CHI])
"He ran good. He's kind of a funny little horse, a grouchy little horse, so I wonder if he hung a little in between horses there at the end. I had a good trip. We went pretty slow, and he's the kind of horse you have to keep his attention the whole way."


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Carpenter Bee season is coming up.
Carpeter bees are large (1 inch) yellow and black bees which become active in early spring. They resemble bumble bees but do not live in colonies, have fewer hairs and no pollen sacs one the hind legs. They appear around homes and are a nuisance. Although it is rare to be stung by one, their sheer size is scary and people stay clear of them.
Their nest is much more of concern. These nests, if left untreated, will result in extensive structural damage and will result in costly repairs within a few years.
The female will go in and out of the nest so patience will show where the entrance is. Killing the individual bees with a liquid insecticide will not destroy the bee's young.
BIOLOGY-- Carpenter bees get their name from their ability to drill through wood and nest in it. Their drilling will create a near perfect hole approximately 1/2 inch in diameter. This hole usually located on the underside of any wood surface including logs, siding, soffits, overhangs, deks, fence post, facial boards, and window frames.
Although the hole appears to be only and inch or two deep, it doesn't end there.
The female will turn 90 degrees and bore a channel from 6 inches to as long as 4 feet.
The channel serves as a main corridor form which she will drill small chambers a few inches deep. These chambers become egg holders. She will deposit and egg, bring some food, and then seal it off to ensure the egg's development.
The male spends most of his time flying around the nest playing guard. This is ironic as nature has left him ill prepared; he has NOT STINGER! Only the female can sting. Simply killing the male will not solve your problem.
Treating the carpenter bee holes is simple, easy and safe. The best and most effective product to use is DRIONE DUST, and a Crusader Duster. If you are appling yourself please use goggles, gloves, and a dust mask. You can also call a pesticide company in your area to also come and treat the holes.
We hear all kinds of stories how people kill them.
Badmitten racks, baseball bats, tennis racketts.
We had a grandfather who paid the grandkids a quarter everytime they killed a Carpenter Bee! HA HA
Trying to help the consumer out there!
Views: 7256
I have been fighting these carpenter bees for years, this year Iam trying carpenter bee traps, available on ebay and film footage on you tube shows how they work, I have learned a few things, my log home is ten years old and still dripping sap, I find the bees are not attracted to the logs themselves (too much goo and sap) they are attracted to my soft pine tongue and groove soffits under the roof overhang and cedar trim. I have yet to find a good pesticide that works well and I have tried many. They are also attracted to the hottest portions of the roof soffit. The black smooth larger female does the drilling and can sting, the male however is smaller and has fur acts very aggresive but has no stinger so you can forget about him,he also does not drill. They both are slow flyers, with a gallon sprayer you can pick them off in mid air, but I have yet to find a pesticide that really works, in fact one exterminater advised me to double the dose of cyphomethrin due to thier hardiness against pesticides. I have yet to see one actually drill into a log, though homes made of cedar or cypress may not be as sappish.With the traps you get them before they drill your home. Here in Michigan they are only active for about two weeks on hot days in Spring....... Hope this helps Regards Don
Iam working on a pharamone recipe (that i got from a beekeeper) to get them to the trap faster. Will let you all know how this works out, Carpenters have not showed yet here. Regards Don
Hi Don,
I would like the recipe to your carpenter bee's
Hi Kelly. the pharamone recipe goes like this according to a beekeeper I spoke with....10 drops lemongrass oil, 5 drops geranium oil, 1 drop lime oil. He said this generally works for all bees that are pollinaters.... I'm assuming your using a carpenter bee trap that is hung (covered) under your eaves and roof soffits. I was told the bee trap should be stationary and not moving.(Wearing rubber gloves...these oils are very potent) Using a cotton ball, saturate it with the oil and staple near the entrance of your carpenter bee trap. Beekeepers place this in the hive to make the bees work harder sensing pollen that is not there.I found these items at a local health food store for about 10.00. Carpenters have not shown up here yet in Mi....but I know they are coming....Iam also using Bayer termite and carpenter ant killer in a liquid spray, but don't spray near your traps..... Best Regards Don (you can see the traps on UTube and buy them on Ebay)
Thanks Don for sharing. Will have to try this!
Is it Carpenter Bee Season again!
Oh My!
Update, I had no luck with the pheramone recipe, none , zero, Additionally after buying 6 carpenter bee traps they had no effect at all , zero, not one catch. What Iam using that has worked is Bayer Termite and Carpenter Ant Killer, 3oz. per 0ne half gallon. Resperator, rubber gloves. eye goggles needed
Thanks Don,
Good to know! It is always good to know what is new out there!
I know the Drione Dust works great also with the crusader duster.
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So I've been writing here for a while, and I plan to continue writing for a long time. I really want to thank everyone who's been reading and providing feedback - you've been so inspirational and as a result I'm seriously contemplating a major goal shift (at the very least, a side-by-side concerted effort) along the lines of taking more active steps to get the word out about transportation planning in Los Angeles.
On that note, I've been thinking of some changes to make to this blog, which will largely include the addition of photo galleries. One, this will give me more reason to take my camera with me everywhere, and two, I've grown to love Los Angeles so much in the last year. I swear I didn't love it five years ago, but now? There's so much to do, to see, to eat, to experience here. There are so many people and so many stories - I friggin' I love LA. Also, there must be some kind of adventure bug that bites you at some point in life if not merely in your twenties, and I decided I wasn't going to let not having a car get in the way of it. How easily it can be to forget how much room there is to explore. Thankfully, interested parties frequently correct my thinking.
The Metro Red Line goes through LA from North Hollywood to Union Station and back many times a day, and one of its highlights is its stations. What makes them stand out one from the other is their individual artwork and construction. Also, I have a thing for station entrances and exits, their overall construction. In the rare instance that I'm not bounding down the steps to catch the last train, I've been able to stop and admire the artwork, and in many cases I'm surprised that I haven't noticed it before. (Well, not really. Catching the last train is more often than not the highest priority.)
Also, a friend and I were walking around downtown a couple of weeks ago and stumbled upon some artwork on Grand Ave that I swear to some deity took us both by surprise. I demanded he photograph it because, per the rule of 2011 it seems, I forgot my camera at home. If I can locate the photo I will, partly because I'm leaping and making a silly face but that's somewhat besides the point...
...the point being that very soon I will color up the joint with what Los Angeles has to offer in a visual sense, on bicycle, via transit. With this, perhaps the thought that expanding our reaches or at least working towards it with more wide-reaching public transportation (hello, high speed rail proposals and, of course, the Chatsworth Orange Line and Westside subway extenstions), better bikeways and better roads will follow even more.
ONTD Original: Stevie Nicks turns 70!
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Option 1: A-Rod to Marlins, Yanks pick up most of the remaining $114+MM
Option 2: A-Rod to Marlins straight up for Heath Bell, to 'soften' the salary difference.
Those 'sauces' of Fatty.........
edit: under a 'Dan Duquette byline', whatever that means.
Fatty says all rumors of this are false per Cashman, as 32 said.
Where there's smoke.........?
at work so i can't listen.
Assuming this as soon as the world series is over?
Marlins make sense b.c he is from Miami. However, it would be an awful deal for the Marlins even if the Yanks pick up most of the tab. No DH in NL. How many more years can he play the field?
This is a bunch of BS IMO. But if the Yanks were ever able to unload him AND get a pitcher it would be miracle, even if they keep most of the salary obligations.
this thread title made me laugh so hard
Keith Olbermann is the source? lol What the hell is going on? First Donald Trump is talking baseball on ESPN like he's former big leaguer now Olbermann is the new Jon Heyman?
As someone who followed Keith on Twitter until recently I can assure you this man has zero credibility. He's just dying for attention.
Last edited by 21st Amendment; 10-17-2012 at 05:58 PM.
Sounds like sources are saying Randy Levine and the Marlins owner had a brig conversation.
That's all the Yankees Ned. A the like Levine running the show. I get a feeling they may clean house.
Gotta think the Yankees think they can trade him otherwise there's no way they'd make him the scapegoat for the whole team. There's no good reason to sit him tonight for Eric Chavez.
Make it happen Tanny...
He probably has at least 2 years of quality play left in him at third and he can move to 1st or OF after that.
And maybe getting out of NYC will help his fragile psyche at the plate.
I don't care how much of his salary they have to pick up. It's not coming out of my pocket. Dude has to go.
what is the purpose of trading him if you still have to eat the remaining 150 million dollars due him on his contract?
2. At this point he's done with the Yankees. He can't come back next year now. You can't bench him like this and then bring him back. He's done in NY.
If A-Rod joins the Marlins at least he won't have to worry about his post season batting average.
I am pretty sure every Yankee fan was throwing up in their collective mouths when his new contract was worked out.
I'm actually feeling sick just talking about it.


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Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced tonight that he will run for New York City comptroller, confirming in a Twitter message: "Yes, I'm running for NYC Comptroller. Office is ripe for greater & more exciting use of the office's jurisdiction."
Spitzer has viewed the role of comptroller as similar to that as his two terms as attorney general: the ability to pressure Wall Street into reforming its practices. He was known as the Sheriff of Wall Street before he ran for governor in 2006, only to resign in a prostitution scandal in March 2008.
In an interview with Gannett's Albany Bureau in March — on the five-year anniversary of his resignation — Spitzer provided detailed insight into his thinking about the comptroller's position — albeit about rumors he might run for state comptroller.
He said at the time that he had an "intellectual fascination" with the comptroller's job. His thinking would certainly apply to the city's seat — which controls some of the largest pension funds in the country.
"Ownership trumps regulation as a way to change the way corporations behave," Spitzer said. He said that, "only wise judgment can lead you to the right choices, and wise judgment is a consequence of pressure from ownership. And ownership is controlled by shareholders. Shareholders are the comptrollers, those who control the pension funds, the mutual funds."
He said shareholders, particularly large ones like state comptrollers, could even force changes to the controversial Citizens United federal decision, which allows for big corporate contributions to political campaigns.
"The answer to Citizens United is shareholders saying don't waste your time, energy and money playing politics. Leave that to individuals. You focus on building a better widget," Spitzer said.
Even then Spitzer didn't rule out a run for office.
"I think if you ask anybody who's been in elective office, there is always a desire to get back into an arena that is fascinating, rewarding, full of excitement and tension," Spitzer said. "It's somewhat like athletes: rarely do they know exactly when it's best to leave."
He continued: "It doesn't mean you succumb to that temptation. It doesn't mean that you do get back in. It doesn't necessarily mean that you don't do it either."


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Results 1 to 10 of 12
#1 How porn is rewiring men's brains
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Interesting article that starts out as an ad for a movie. There is actual scientific evidence for this effect, however.
Don Jon: how porn is rewiring men's brains
Theres a scene in Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitts new comedy about a womanising New Jersey stud with a rabid porn habit, in which Julianne Moores character gently breaks it to Jon that the sex they had was, well, not that good. That, actually, she felt like Jon was pretty much masturbating using her instead of his hand. Jon is stunned, mortified and finally completely confused by his sex life. Because, the truth is, hes not enjoying it much either. Porn is what he really loves. Porn, porn and more porn.
Jons not alone in his love of porn. Statistics are superfluous we all know it, dont we? but here are some anyway: 97% of boys and 80% of girls who responded to a University of East London survey targeting those aged between 16 and 20 said they had viewed porn. In America, one in three women regularly watch porn and 70% of men aged 18 to 24 visit porn sites at least once a month. (And the English-speaking West isnt even pornographys most enthusiastic market that honour goes to Pakistan.)
The question is: does it matter? If were all getting our kicks and having a good time, whats the problem? Its a disconnection from whats really in front of you, says Gordon-Levitt, who directed, wrote and stars in the film. Rather than engaging with a unique individual and listening to what the other has to say, right at this moment, we put people in boxes with labels. We objectify each other.
The consequences of this are worse than you might think. The thin end of the wedge is less enjoyment during sex. Jons dissatisfaction with real life sex is something he has in common with a lot of habitual porn users. In his book, The Brain That Changes Itself, the psychiatrist Norman Doidge writes about a phenomenon he began to notice among his male patients in the mid 1990s. They watched porn everybody does, they told Doidge and were experiencing increasing difficulty in being turned on by their actual sexual partners, though they still considered them attractive. They found themselves having to fantastise about porn scenes to get turned on.
Thats because, along with a great number of porn users, they had rewired the arousal pathways in their brains. Pornography, writes Doidge, satisfies every one of the prerequisites for neuroplastic change, that is, the brains ability to form new neural circuitry. The most important condition is the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that gives us a feeling of exciting pleasure, which porn triggers. The more often you watch porn and get the dopamine hit it delivers, the more the activity and the sensation become entwined in your brain.
Doidge puts it like this: since neurons that fire together wire together, these men got massive amounts of practice wiring these images into the pleasure centres of the brain. And, because plasticity is competitive, the brain maps for new, exciting images increased at the expense of what had previously attracted them.
A related problem is what addiction experts call tolerance, in other words the need for more of a given stimulant (harder and weirder porn) for the same amount of dopamine. In the end, the result is what Doidge politely calls potency problems. Compulsive pornography users become unable to maintain erections. ...
More at the link.
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Most porn is stupid. I have a laundry list of complaints about most porn. However, there are people out there who are producing a higher quality of porn when one is in the mood for it. There are still "art film" producers, it's just that they float around in a sea of trash. The consumer is fickle, sometimes he wants art and sometimes he wants trash. Even people who read are like this.
11-15-2013, 11:47 PMWoe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight! Isaiah 5:20-21 NASB
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I have seen 1 porn flick in my life (2 if you count Caligula). It was lame and pathetic, and I walked out when Debby's aunt the madam instructed her employees to take her niece up and give her a bath.
This was after the first scene, with Debbie hitchhiking and first getting picked up by two squirrely cops, then rescued/arrested by the Sheriff (John Holmes), who then made her earn her release from jail the hard way.
I don't know if she ever did make it to Dallas.
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Every whacko wants his stab at fame. Watch for this to happen more and more.
A Cedar Lake, Ind. man who police said had 47 guns and ammunition hidden in his home was arrested after threatening to set his wife on fire and "kill as many people as he could" at an elementary school near his home Friday, police said.
Early Friday morning, police were called to the home of Von I. Meyer, 60, in 9300 block of West 133rd Avenue, after it was reported that he threatened to set his wife on fire after she fell asleep, according to a statement from Cedar Lake police.
Meyer also said he was going to enter the Jane Ball Elementary School – less than 1,000 feet from his home – and "kill as many people as he could before police could stop him," the statement said.
Hidden in his 2-story, "historic" home, authorities found 47 guns and ammunition with an estimated value of over $100,000, the statement said. Many of the guns seized during the search were collector's items, the statement said.


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The weather is getting warmer, trees are starting to grow leaves and officially - spring has sprung. That means that summer, in all its vacation glory, is almost upon us. Don't let a tight budget make summer vacation a thing of the past. You can still spend a summer break outside your cubicle and focused on a memorable vacation that you and your wallet won't regret, you just have to get a little creative about it.
Take Luxury Down a Notch
If you are used to taking lavish vacations in luxury resorts during your summer vacation, you may still be able to do this even if your budget is much lower than it was in prior summers. The trick is to enjoy your luxurious stay for only a short period of time. By choosing a two- or three-day stay midweek instead of an entire week-long vacation, you can take advantage of lower rates while also reducing the overall cost. If you stay in a luxury resort that's close to home, you'll also save on travel expenses.
Break Your Vacation Up
If you have a week's vacation time coming to you, but no money to go away and no desire to sit at home for seven days, then reconsider how you allocate your time. If your employer will allow you to break the days up you can take one day off per week for five weeks. This will give you more than a month of extended weekends to relax and you can enjoy them without feeling as though you are missing out or wasting vacation time sitting at home. It also allows you to spread out vacation spending so it isn't hyper-focused on a single week.
It's All About the Schedule
Many cities host different festivals, carnivals and events to celebrate summer. These events offer cheap and no-cost ways of having fun and breaking out of your daily rut. Whenever possible, schedule your vacation during a week when your area has many free events. Then, you can stay home during your vacation, take advantage of all the free and cheap fun and still feel as though you had an eventful week off.
Learn Something New
Vacation doesn't have to be about lounging by the pool in order for it to rejuvenate and reinvigorate you. Instead you can consider immersing yourself in educational pursuits during your time off. You could learn a new language, study history or art, or focus on any subject that has interested you for years, but that you've never had time to dedicate toward learning. This can even open up new career possibilities by increasing your skills. Look into cheap and free classes locally and take out library books that help support your lessons. You can even create a schedule for yourself with educational goals and accomplishments if that helps you stay focused.
Focus on Simple Pleasures
Vacation doesn't have to be lavish and flashy to be worthwhile. Simply having time to sleep-in, take walks in the park, grab a mid-afternoon cup of coffee a with friend, and enjoy your children can be more valuable than an expensive trip to a tropical island. Use your limited budget on vacation as an excuse to reinvest yourself in the simple pleasures around you and think about how you can incorporate them into your everyday life.
The Bottom Line
You can't wait until you have money to enjoy yourself. Putting your life on hold until your budget allows you to devote more toward discretionary spending is an irresponsible way to treat yourself. Instead of focusing on what you can't do during your vacation, learn how to be creative about what you can do and develop a different kind of dream vacation - one that's all about quality of life not quantity of money.
More From Investopedia


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Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want.
Thus turning the console into - dun dun dunnnnnn - a desktop?
You know, when I think back on my first Linux install way back in 1993 or so with Slackware, who would have thought that Linus's project would end up on hundreds of millions of servers, smartphones, tablets, game systems, embedded hardware and the like. I find the whole thing rather breathtaking. Linux really is one of the great successes of the computer age.
You think it's breathtaking that the new Steam box runs linux? Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of them!
And yet it could be so much more.
Linux games that run well across multiple distributions have been out since when, the original Unreal Tournament? Perhaps even earlier? I'm talking about commercial games of course, if you go to the free software offerings the list gets larger.
Now all of a sudden in 2013, it seems impossible to produce a binary of ANY of the games on Steam that run well across any other distribution than Ubuntu...in fact I tried it -on- Ubuntu and had problems with Amnesia starting, whereas
Can't speak for everyone, obviously, but why would I want a dual-boot setup just to run games? To me it's a hassle to have to re-boot just to get a particular environment. My preference is use Wine (CrossOver, actually) or if necessary a virtual machine. I play my games in a window anyway; I prefer to have convenient access to my computer. Then it becomes another hassle viz. Wine compatibility, of course. Having money and space for several systems would not displease me but that's not in the cards.
Linux really is one of the great successes of the computer age.
But there sure is an astonishing contrast between how much it has enriched Linus' personal fortunes vs., say, Steve Ballmer (never mind Bill Gates), or for that matter Stephen Elop [slate.com] or Carly Fiorina [cnn.com].
Let us never confuse creating value with capturing value; somehow we have to get them better aligned.
Let us never confuse creating value with capturing value; somehow we have to get them better aligned.
Do we?
Because you know, I was under the impression that not everybody measured value and success by the fatness of one's wallet.
You can't enforce DRM effectively until you lock down the device completely. So, of course Steam wants to control the OS. SteamOS sounds exactly like Microsoft's strategy of embracing, extending, and then extinguishing open standards.
So, yes, SteamOS will bring the Linux kernel to the masses, but as to the actual *benefits* of Linux -- transparency and freedom -- Valve is going to kill those.
DRM will work fine, just as it does on Windows, and it won't be unbreakable, just like its not unbreakable on Windows. It just needs to work well enough to be more of a hassle than simply buying the legal copy on Steam.
There will be cracks and patches for Steam games on Linux just as there are for Windows, and you'll get them from the same seedy corners of the internet with the same risks of getting pwned ("yes this crack absolutely needs root to work, trust us").
So basically, no difference.
It just needs to work well enough to be more of a hassle than simply buying the legal copy on Steam.
And given the ease of paying on steam, as well as the low cost, you don't need to have much of a barrier for it to be effective.
You can see this same phenomenon at work on Android. There are lots of GPL apps that are sold on the Play store and earn the maintainer a couple of bucks an install for the work they did in the port. However, being GPL software you can download the source and build the
People still buy the Play store version even though there is a free and (unlike in the Steam case) legal alternative. Make it easy and they will come, and likely pay you.
There will be cracks and patches for Steam games on Linux just as there are for Windows, and you'll get them from the same seedy corners of the internet with the same risks of getting pwned. ("yes this crack absolutely needs root to work, trust us").
So when the crack demands root access that's just fine, chroot has very good performance
So all of the older windows game work as. There are some open source ones that will need a lot of work to have them run on mac or Linux.
Now open mac os that run no non apple hardware can be even better.
Microsoft doesn't move quickly, and over the last couple years, they don't move intelligently.
With the change of management pending, and the fact that some of top contenders for the top spot are...um...remarkably surprising...I wouldn't expect a technical response to this, but rather a legal one.
Given the stated support for remote streaming of media, you might not need XBMC. And there's no word on the base platform, yet.
If it's just a different distro, you shouldn't have trouble building XBMC for it.
"Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three."
I'm assuming Wednesday is the Steambox announcement. You guys *really* need something with with a "3" in it for a launch. I don't think "Half-Life: Source" is gonna cut it.
ou guys *really* need something with with a "3" in it for a launch. I don't think "Half-Life: Source" is gonna cut it.
Like 3 new hats?
"Introducing the Samsung Galaxy Gamer, with SteamOS and Gesture Sense UI overlay"
You guys *really* need something with with a "3" in it for a launch.
Holy shit! Left3Dead! Hat Fortress 3! DOTA3! Portal 3! CounterStr... Nevermind, nobody wants yet another counterstrike.
The icons appear to be...
"O" - A gaming OS
"[O ]" - A box running the gaming OS?
"O + O" - A gaming network?
I wonder if the third icon is a "Cloud play" system similar to Gaikai and onLive.
"O + O" - A gaming network?
My bet on the third icon (from the page);
The creative energy of Steam users takes shape in the Workshop - your one-stop shop for the best add-ons available. Here you can create, discover, and download a nearly endless supply of top-quality user-created content.
Actually, when I saw this, I thought:
"O" - Single player
"[O ]" - Multiplayer with remote, internet, co-players.
"[O + O]" - In-person multiplayer, console style.
Sounds like that's what they're going for- an "open" OS that can be used for any gaming device. It's a neat idea, but...
It will fail spectacularly. There is no money to be made on console hardware. Who is going to bother building a SteamOS device besides Valve? No one, because Valve is going to be making all the money.
Valve would've been smarter to go all-out, and just build a new proprietary console, but one that is supremely developer and consume friendly. Maybe that is what they are doing, but they are d
It will fail spectacularly. There is no money to be made on console hardware. Who is going to bother building a SteamOS device besides Valve? No one, because Valve is going to be making all the money.
I predict that you will see at least one or two companies selling small form factor PCs intended for the living room and with SteamOS pre-installed.
There are companies now selling PCs. Why wouldn't those companies sell those same PCs as "SteamBoxes"?
I want a SteamBox in my living room. I usually build my own
Here's what this will mean: game developers will test their games on SteamOS and nothing else, making SteamOS the gold standard for Linux gaming. (In fact there will probably be a single "reference" SteamBox used for the development and testing.)
The distros will need to include compatible versions of all the libraries used in SteamOS, to get the games to run. Users will be able to file bugs that say "$GAME runs perfectly on SteamOS but does not run correctly on $DISTRO."
Since SteamOS is just Linux with a particular set of libraries installed, this is feasible. All the distros will have a clear target for which to aim.
Overall I think this is a win for gaming on Linux. The current situation is far too fragmented for Linux ports to be profitable for the game developers. SteamOS will defragment "Linux gaming" to a single platform.
Linux is the future of gaming because Valve created their own version of Linux.
BTW, its not living room ready if I have to set up a big PC shoebox with liquid cooling to play the same content I get on a console.
Still waiting for the actual SteamBox, but apparently I now have to give Valve suggestions on who to design it.
A modern console isn't that far removed from a PC shoebox with liquid cooling.
If anything, the shoebox would likely have the advantage of not cooking itself. The consumer mentality can be a double edged sword when it comes to electronics.
The main thing that keeps bog standard PC parts from being living room friendly is the fact that most of the defined form factors are too deep.
I've been wanting to stop dual booting for nearly two decades. The purists complain that locking you out of the OS (DRM) components is vehemently prohibited in the spirit of Open Source and basically creates the very problem OSS was designed to get away from.
On the other hand, software companies complain they need to lock you out in order to combat piracy and protect their digital assets. Without doing so, they have no way to protect their revenue stream.
I have never found a good solution to this problem. It's been a good 20 years, and nobody else has either so those of us who straddle the fence between purity and utility still dual boot.
I do not like the idea of SteamOS. I would really like the entire computer industry to be based on open formats, source and standards but that is a crack dream that will never happen. Something needs to give. Maybe this is it. I prefer to believe I trust Valve more than anyone else with something like this.
This is unclear now: is it just a GNU/Linux distro (like Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, etc.), or a vastly different OS that happens to use the Linux kernel (like Android and Sailfish)?
This could have a lot of ripple effects.
1) Improved Wine support.
2) Better cross platform libraries/tools.
3) Linux distro optimized for gaming.
The interesting thing to consider is that Valve doesn't need to turn a profit right away. It's a private company and Gabe is looking at the long game here. He sees his reliance on Windows as a weakness and he intends to change that.
"With SteamOS, 'openness' means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they've been able to."
"Iterate in the living room"... I love marketing-speak.
Come to think of it, if I remember correctly, "iterate in the living room" is something my wife and I used to do before our daughter was born.
Logic is the chastity belt of the mind!


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Wanna cut Defense? Cut the SMA
The El Paso Times has an article on the Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss which reminds me of how much I dislike sergeant majors. If ever there was a waste of money, it's that God-awful "school" for police call inspectors. I've seen perfectly good first sergeants (or should call them firsts sergeant?) attend and come back utter morons.
Most of the work is classroom-based with seminars, lectures and small-group studies. Students also go on a field trip to Columbus, N.M., and study Pancho Villa's infamous raid into the United States.
To graduate, Malloy said, soldiers have to get at least an 80 percent in the leadership part of the course and 70 percent in the other four areas to graduate.
"We're recognized as the pinnacle of noncommissioned officer education throughout the world," Malloy said. "That's why we get a lot of international students."
Why would a sergeant major go on a staff ride? Did Pancho Villa leave cigarette butts on his trail? Yeah, it's my considered opinion that sergeant major is the most useless rank and position in the Army. I know they think they're the senior enlisted adviser to their commander, but what do they really do?
The turd with whom I went to Desert Storm was nothing but the headquarters company E-4 Mafia's enforcer. He'd be out of breath walking out to battalion PT and of course we'd all have to run at his pace in formation and I could crawl faster. He had his favorites and protected them from any amount of discipline and work. He busted his ass to make sure that "NCO Time" was a complete waste of training schedule. And why make the E7s and E8s at battalion headquarters do anything commensurate with their rank when you can jerk a line platoon sergeant away from his troops to do it?
Yeah, if the Army wants to cut personnel, cut out Master Sergeant and staff Sergeant Major ranks, tell those staff pukes they have to take over a line unit and watch them beat feet towards retirement. Manpower problem solved.
Category: Big Army


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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 14th Feb 2009 12:55 UTC
A major complaint about Google's Chrome web browser has been that so far, it is still not available on anything other than Windows. Google promised to deliver Chrome to Mac OS X and Linux as well, but as it turns out, this is a little harder than they anticipated, Ben Goodger, Google's Chrome interface lead, has explained in an email. It has also been revealed what toolkit the Linux version of Chrome will use: Gtk+.
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RE[3]: Yes!
by dnas.dnas on Sat 14th Feb 2009 21:51 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Yes!"
Another thing to add to that point: Qt 4.5 will come with QGtkStyle which directly calls into GTK+ to handle the drawing (which involves quite a few hoops to jump through. GTK+'s drawing API is awful). For older Qt, you can compile it separately with some fiddling. It does its job incredibly well. Native GTK+ file dialogs, the widgets look right, etc.
There is an equivalent for GTK+, but it's hacked together by one guy, unstable, and rather badly lacking in areas, whereas QGtkStyle is officially maintained by Trolltech.
RE[4]: Yes!
by stestagg on Sun 15th Feb 2009 16:50 in reply to "RE[3]: Yes!"


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Unimaginable as it sounds, he said, "We really didn't even think, hey, we should go to Boston and meet these Harmonix guys and see what they're up to." He explained that while they knew of their music games, the perception of Harmonix was that their games weren't commercially viable.
Kotick also took something of an odd stance on Neversoft's work on the series since then. He said that Activision expected great games from them but had they instead turned to Harmonix "it would probably be a profitable opportunity for both of us." Whether there would be that much difference is a tough question. Current music game sales slump notwithstanding, Neversoft's entries in the series have amassed a sizable treasure chest of profits for the publisher.


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PDXLAN is here in Portland Oregon.This happens to be the 10th year anniversary of the PDXLAN events. For those who are not aware PDXLAN comes about 3 times a year and is always at the convention center across from Holiday Inn Airport located just minutes from the PDX airport. The day started with the participants lining up in droves to get their pass and in the venue to get their rigs setup.PDXLAN is a BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) LAN event where a group of up to 550 gamers get together to Frag hard for 4 full days of almost nonstop gaming.After getting admittance the crowd quickly found each of their gaming seats where they setup their rigs and prepared for battle.A little time was given for the crowd to get setup before the opening ceremony started which was a quick PowerPoint presentation by PDXLAN leader Matt "Vector" Conwell. Rules of the LAN were covered along with some basic etiquette then thanks the multitude of sponsors was given.
Speaking of sponsors PDXLAN had a total of over 100K in prizing for the LAN event this go around which is absolutely amazing with Sapphire taking the top spot with over 40K in prize sponsorship. After the Opening Ceremony was completed gamers quickly dispersed to get running.One of the sponsors of PDXLAN is Monster Energy which there was no shirt supply as a very large Ice filled tub was full with Ice cold monster which was quickly depleted and refilled many times over to ensure many hours of nonstop energy drink fueled gaming sessions It is not nearing 3AM as many hours have passed and there are no signs of letting up but with the new PDXLAN rules the venue closes at 4AM and re-opens at 10 AM therefore the gamers will be forced to get some shut eye or at the least vacate the gaming area for some rest. With that in mind Tomorrow will be some pretty cool tournaments and competitions and we can't wait to see them! Look for day 2 Next.


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23rd Annual Portland Bridal Show | News
PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The 23rd Annual Portland bridal show took place Sunday at Holiday Inn by the Bay.
More than 120 local and national wedding vendors showed up to the two-day show featuring bridal fashions, venues, caterers, and photographers to put together a unique Maine wedding.
The event is put on by the Maine Wedding Association who had a drawing for couples to win one of four grand prizes.
A pair of wedding bands, a Carnival Cruise, an adventure getaway, or two tickets to the winner's choice from Waterfront Concerts.
Real Maine Weddings Magazine partnered with the Maine Wedding Association to give out an even bigger prize while helping couples narrow down the choices.
The Editor for Real Maine Weddings Magazine, Melanie Brooks says, "it's kind of a benefit for going to the show. Real Maine Weddings every year gives away $100,000 wedding, and we just opened up our contest this weekend for the Kennebunkport area. So we'll be giving away $100,000 wedding in Kennebunkport in 2013."
Other Maine Wedding Association Bridal Shows are scheduled for January 12 and 13 in Bangor, January 20 in Augusta, March 3 in Auburn, and March 24 in Freeport.


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Reviewed By Douglas M (Elyria, OH) Reviewed for a 2001 Jeep Cherokee —11/22/2010 7:40 AM
The instalation was eay and the the results came soon after. I didnt think I would noticed a difference but I have and Im cool with that. She got a 153,000miles on her but she stills peels out and now she is get more HP and better gas mileage. SSG M US ARMY