text:
- "She whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered something, and sent a jet of the same bluebell flames she had used on Snape at the plant. In a matter of seconds, the two boys felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth."
- —Hermione using the spell against the Devil's Snare[src]
Bluebell Flames, also known as Cold Fire or Blue Flames,[2] (incantation unknown) is a magical fire that is produced by a charm of unknown Incantation, flowing from the caster's Wand in a stream or jet, which then condenses into a body of fire on a nearby object, similar to Incendio.
The flames produced are described as being bright blue, waterproof, and radiating heat only to objects held directly above it. The fire can also be touched, penetrated and held without it burning the holder, though it is known to burn materials such as clothing and plants. As such, it may be safely carried in small objects, e.g. a jar, without the object being damaged. These unique flames can also be directed to a desired location by its caster, and return to its original position.
Known uses
|Hermione Granger
|Hermione cast a bluebell flame that could be carried around in a jar.
|She used it to set Snape's robes on fire during the first Quidditch match of her first year.
|4 June, 1992
|Hermione used this spell against Devil's Snare when she, Harry, and Ron worked through the challenges surrounding the Philosopher's Stone.
Known practitioners
- Hermione Granger
- Remus Lupin (Possibly)[3]
Behind the scenes
- In the film, this spell was replaced by Lacarnum Inflamarae when Hermione attempted to distract Snape, and Lumos Solem to attack the sunlight-sensitive Devil's snare.
- In the seventh film, Ron tells Harry that he always liked these flames. In that film, the flames are depicted as normal, reddish-orange fire which levitate without a surface to burn on, though in the book they appear blue, as in the other books.
- The video game adaptions of Harry Potter depict this fire as similar to the Incendio. However, these appearances must not be considered valid, as Incendio produces normal fire, not the blue magical fire that this spell creates.
- Hand-held flames may be a variation of this spell, as both produce flames that can be safely carried.
- This spell may have been Incendio Tria, which produces blue fire, too.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
- Pottermore
- Harry Potter Trading Card Game
- Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (mentioned only)
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone It is said, when casting this spell, Hermione "said a few well chosen words", so the incantation must have plural words
- ↑ See this script
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban


text:
Coronado Brewing Company
170 Orange Ave, Coronado CA 92118 (map); 619-437-4452; coronadobrewingcompany.com
Cooking method: Grilled
Short Order: Two types of sausage burgers that strive to be tasty and unusual, but only really succeed at the second goal
Want Fries With That? The fries aren't great, but I'd still choose them over any of the other options
Price: Banh-Mi Burger, $12.50; Bratwurst Burger, $11.50
When a longtime AHT reader tipped me off to a must-try burger in Coronado, I was so intrigued, I made landing one my top priority. It wasn't a classic burger that was being hyped, but a banh mi-style burger ($12.50) made from coconut-curry sausage topped with pickled veggies, cilantro, and chili-lime aioli from Coronado Brewing Company. Closer inspection of the menu revealed that it's not their only burger made with a sausage patty. There's also a bratwurst burger topped with caramelized onions and melted Swiss cheese on a pretzel bun. I knew what I had to do.
The brew pub makes the sausage patties in-house, from scratch, and cooks them on a wickedly hot grill. They emerge striped with hash marks, flecked with char, and glistening with fat. Both have potential to be great, if unusual, burgers, if not for some pretty major missteps.
I was hoping the banh mi burger would be something like the pork meatball banh mi sandwich from Lardo, and while it did have a passing similarity in terms of seasoning and toppings, it was taken down by the chili-lime aioli. Properly prepared (and portioned) it would have been awesome, but this version was muddled, weirdly sweet, and much too heavily applied. This had two main repercussions: the pickled veggies on top were transformed into a creamy coleslaw-type topping, and any flavor the beef and pork patty brought to the party was completely washed away.
The end result was a burger that had some great textures (crunchy veggies and a patty that was both moist and nicely charred), but the only flavor that really stood out was that perplexing sauce. If you're curious about this burger and want to give it a shot, definitely get the aioli on the side.
Admittedly, I'm not big on bratwurst, so I let my brat-loving husband do the heavy lifting on the bratwurst burger ($11.50). Like the banh mi, it showed some promise. Where it was charred, the patty was tasty, but it was too heavily salted and the onions were out of control. It came without the customary spicy mustard, and the only option at the table was Dijon, which, even applied in gobs, wasn't quite doing it. The uniqueness of the pretzel bun, and the sausage burgers in general, faded after two bites.
After giving up on both burgers, I hoped the fries would fill my hunger gap, but they were the biggest bust of all. Anemic, under-cooked, unsalted, and fried in oil way past its prime, they weren't edible past a few courtesy bites. I left the same way I came in: hungry.
Love hamburgers? Then you'll Like AHT on Facebook! And go follow us on Twitter and Pinterest while you're at it!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Many is the venue that screens its acts before allowing them to grace the main stage. But a band taking to a stage to help procure a new screen for a venue is surely a first, as far as the Crawler can recall.
"Shelburne Falls Memorial Hall is quite a special place, and we are happy to give back to the community," says Garrett Lechowski, guitarist for The Who tribute band Who Are You, who perform a benefit at said Memorial Hall Feb. 15 aimed at raising funds to purchase a "badly-needed" new screen for the main theater.
To up the audio ante for the post-Valentine's Day show, Lechowski and company have decided to tackle The Who's epic Tommy en toto, too—with a little help from a local friend.
"I was disappointed with the Broadway version of Tommy defining the story with an ending," he explains. "We were fortunate enough to hook up with Berkshire artist/painter Dun Riddell who has created amazing, high-definition visuals that subtly clarify the story while leaving the audience the opportunity to formulate its own conclusions."
Tix to see the Tommy-boys in action are $20 and available at Boswell's Books, Mocha Maya's in Shelburne Falls and the World Eye Bookshop in Greenfield. Doors open at 8 p.m.
In other news… scene stalwart Keith Hopkinson checked in to reveal that his Thirty Stones have been skipping into the studio whenever possible to finally record the follow-up to 2003's critically acclaimed Canvas.
"It's challenging with [guitarist] Andy Freeman also performing the Raiding The Rock Vault show in Vegas, but we're getting it done," he notes with a laugh. "But it's been 10 years after our signed, then failed record deal, and we're finally ready to move on with the ultimate plan of holding a CD release party here in Western Mass. by year's end."
For those keeping score at home, Thirty Stones' Freeman has also shredded fretboards for George Lynch's Lynch Mob and The Offspring during the Thirty Stones hiatus.
And speaking of nationally known rockers, the genre's baddest of bad boys, Motley Crue, are certainly no strangers to the legal system.
In fact, after wearing their spiky outfits through customs, stuffing their luggage with porn and throwing a television set through a hotel window, the musicians are banned for life from the city of Edmonton.
But on Tuesday, Jan. 28 it was Crue founders Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars doling out the legal docs. At a press conference held in L.A., the band signed papers that could leave them open to damage suits should they hit the road any time after their upcoming 72-city farewell tour. In the weeks that followed, the band did clarify that the tombstone-laden media event was more to commemorate a "cessation of touring agreement" than a death sentence for the band.
"Motley's not breaking up," singer Vince Neil told Phoenix, Ariz.'s KDKB days later. "We're still gonna be making music and selling merchandise, just not on the road."
So would this ban even prevent the Crue from performing should they be inducted into rock and roll's hallowed Hall of Fame?
"We'd probably play that," Neil allowed. "But that would be it."
In the meantime, the Motley Crue Final Tour is scheduled to stop at Mansfield's Xfinity Center (livenation.com) Aug. 24 and Connecticut's Mohegan Sun (mohegansun.com) Oct. 26. Shock rock godfather Alice Cooper opens both shows.
Last but not least, folk-rock icons Aztec Two-Step will utilize the occasion of their Feb. 15 Iron Horse engagement to send a sonic love note to two of their favorite performers. In addition to Two-Step staples, Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman say they will tackle selections from the Simon & Garfunkel songbook and pay to tribute to The Everly Brothers. Tix are $25 in advance, $30 at the door and available at iheg.com.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email email@example.com.


text:
My Secret Photos
Downloads: 1,000 - 5,000
Price: FREE
Votes: 3
Author: Dominion Computers
Screenshots for My Secret Photos
Description for My Secret Photos
Trick your friends. Make them believe they have discovered your secret private photos on your phone...
Do your friends borrow your phone and look at your stuff? Teach them a lesson...
They will be very disappointed when they will see what happens!
For adult only!
This application does NOT contain pornography, sex content, nudity or any other provocative graphical material. This app is a great joke to play with or to prank your friends and family.
Tags: pranks, joke, joke porn, pranxxx, secret photo, hide photo


text:
NorthWood ends Columbia City title bid, again
AKRON — The Columbia City Lady Eagles traveled back to Tippecanoe Valley Saturday in an attempt to take home a sectional title.
After a quick 3-0 semifinal game against West Noble, the Lady Eagles prepared to face NorthWood in the finals for the second year in a row.
"They wanted it bad after last year," Lady Eagle Head Coach Trish Hinen said.
Last year Columbia City fell to NorthWood and came up with the same results this time around, losing 3-0.
NorthWood started out the match dominating the Lady Eagles, coming out to a 13-1 lead.
The first game finished quickly, with the Lady Panthers taking a 25-5 win over Columbia City.
But the Lady Eagles weren't going to go down without a fight, taking game two into extra points.
"The first game I don't know what got into us, we seemed shell-shocked, but the next games we battled well," Hinen said.
The second game started out similar to the first, with the Lady Eagles trailing 8-3.
After a fire-starting kill by freshman Kalisha Goree, Columbia City began its comeback outscoring the Lady Panthers 6-1 and tying the game at 9-9.
Goree had seven kills against the Panthers.
The Lady Eagles carried their momentum far enough to take the lead. However, the Lady Panthers' height advantage was more than Columbia City could handle.
"They had a very big height advantage on us," Hinen said.
NorthWood had three players over 5'11" and Columbia City's tallest player is Paige Moore at 5'10."
After three strong kills over the fingertips of the Lady Eagle front line, the Lady Panthers held a 29-27 win over Columbia City.
The Lady Eagles kicked off game three with a 4-3 lead, but NorthWood took over the lead and carried it to a 25-18 win.
Junior Samara Qureshi collected 11 assists for the Lady Eagles and senior Hailey Woll had four blocks.
"We have a lot of seniors that are very good leaders, there's a whole group of juniors that haven't had a chance to play a lot of varsity, we'll be looking to them to step up next season," Hinen said.
Senior Maddie Hinen finished out her career with a team high 11 digs.


text:
Japan's surge at the Women's World Cup. El Salvador's incredible revival after an 11-2 thrashing in their opening match of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Ravenna/Italy 2011. Brazil's 18-goal haul at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia. These are just some of the incredible performances fans enjoyed at the various FIFA tournaments held throughout the year. With so many fantastic displays of football at the many FIFA tournaments held in 2011 it's hard to pick a favourite.
We'd like to know which performance at a FIFA tournament surprised you the most in 2011 and why?
Share your thoughts with fellow club members. Have Your Say by using the 'Add your comment' feature at the bottom of this article.
Have you participated in our FIFA/FIFPro World XI Predictor? One lucky winner will receive an exclusive FIFA/FIFPro World XI signed jersey. Find out more!


text:
Business Associations (LAW-611-002)
(Professor Mary Siegel is also known as Mary Trotter.)
The state laws governing business entities with an analysis of legal and business considerations, including basic tax questions, leading to business associations in corporate and unincorporated form. Topics include the creation of general and limited partnerships, LLPs and LLCs, as well as agency principles relating to the relationship of the owners inter se and to third parties; the creation, form, and nature of the closely held corporation; rights and duties of shareholders, directors, and officers; rules relating to dividends and dissolution; and an introduction to applicable provisions of the federal securities laws.
Textbooks and Other Materials
The textbook information on this page was provided by the instructor. Students should use this information when considering purchases from the AU Campus Store or other vendors. Students may check to determine if books are currently available for purchase online.
. M. Eisenberg and J. Cox, Corporations and Other Business Associations: Cases and Materials, 10th edition unabridged ("Eisenberg"); 9781599414621 2. Corporations and Business Associations - Statutes, Rules and Forms (M. Eisenberg, ed.) (2013) ("Statutory Supp."); 9781609303754
First Class Readings
Not available at this time.


text:
PARK CITY, UT (July 24) – The title of U.S. Champion is on the line in the upcoming U.S. Ski Jumping Championships at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) in Park City Sunday, Aug. 4. The event on the HS134 meter large hill, taking place in the summer for the sixth straight year, will be part of the Utah Olympic Park's annual Springer Tournee. Among the favorites will be World Champion Sarah Hendrickson (Park City, UT), who sat out last year's event while recovering from knee surgery, and large hill women's titlist from 2012 Jessica Jerome (Park City, UT). Defending champs Anders Johnson (Park City, UT) and Peter Frenette (Saranac Lake, NY), who tied for the title last year, are expected to compete for the men. Jumping Championships are set to start with the trial round at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 4, at the UOP.
Defending ChampionsMen's Large HillPeter Frenette, Saranac Lake, NY (4 titles), and Anders Johnson, Park City, UT (4 titles)Women's Large HillJessica Jerome, Park City, UT (10 titles)Men's Normal HillAnders Johnson, Park City, UT (4 titles)Women's Normal HillJessica Jerome, Park City, UT (10 titles)
QUOTESAnders Johnson, Park City, UT (defending large hill champ, 4-time U.S. Champion)I love being able to compete on my home hills and it's a great time of year where we have almost every ski jumper in North America in Park City competing on all hill sizes at all ages. It's also a great chance for us to see where our competitive level is before we head over to Europe for the Grand Prix circuit that begins in just a few weeks.
Jessica Jerome, Park City, UT (defending large and normal hill champ, 10-time U.S Champion)U.S. Championships is always important to us just as any competition is important to us. Just because it's an Olympic year does not make me want to win any more; I always aim to win. It will be interesting to see what happens this year. I know Lindsey [Van] and Sarah [Hendrickson] are really great fliers, and Alissa [Johnson] and Abby [Hughes] have made some strong improvements this summer, so it will definitely be a fun competition.
ScheduleSunday, August 4th8:00 a.m. U.S. Ski Jumping Championships (men and women HS 134-large hill)


text:
i've been playing around with my car... you know... sit for a few hours taking things off and messing with stuff...
and i noticed how easy it would be to put in a brace in the rear of my brat... tons of people at school and stuff use them and i've seen some pretty good results... i know the rear is a torsion bar suspension but would using a brace help to stiffen it up at all??? anybody done it???
the front is a harder one to deal with... with the spare tire sitting square in the middle of the strut towers... and no room to go overtop... i was thinking of just using that one when rallying or something along those lines and having the spare strapped down in the rear... because hey i don't want to be fumbling with a spare under the hood when i'm trying to meet a deadline...
and for the rear... you wouldn't even be able to see it... it would be tucked really close to the jump seats...
thanks all...
Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, my lurker friend!
|Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, an unparalleled Subaru community full of the greatest Subaru gurus and modders on the planet! We offer technical information and discussion about all things Subaru, the best and most popular all wheel drive vehicles ever created.
We offer all this information for free to everyone, even lurkers like you! All we ask in return is that you sign up and give back some of what you get out - without our awesome registered users none of this would be possible! Plus, you get way more great stuff as a member! Lurk to lose, participate to WIN*!
* The joy of participation and being generally awesome constitutes winning
** Not an actual guarantee, but seriously, you probably won't regret it!
Serving the Subaru Community since May 18th, 1998!
Guest Message by DevFuse
strut tower braces... anybody use em???
Started by Zefy , Aug 13 2005 09:05 PM
5 replies to this topic
Posted 13 August 2005 - 09:05 PM
Posted 14 August 2005 - 12:16 AM
I am planning on whipping up a nice one for my '73 coupe.Other than dreaming I'm as curious as you are to see some gen I tower bracing.
Posted 14 August 2005 - 12:30 AM
for the rear i was just planning on using a straight tube and squishing the ends then drilling a hole in either end... then connect it to the tops of the shock mounts...
Posted 14 August 2005 - 01:47 AM
No point in bracing those rear points - they are only shock absorbers and dont take any sideways load.
Posted 06 April 2011 - 05:15 AM
Since I have relocated the spare tire to the trunk it was easy enough to do this with some alloy tubing.
I was surprised to feel such a dramatic improvement to the handling. I would reccomend this mod for sure.
Since I have relocated the spare tire to the trunk it was easy enough to do this with some alloy tubing.
I was surprised to feel such a dramatic improvement to the handling. I would reccomend this mod for sure.
Posted 06 April 2011 - 05:17 AM
Has anyone considered making up a sway bar for the rear end?
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users


text:
ELMO - Roy Eugene Oviatt, age 83, passed away on Jan. 22, 2012 in Elmo. Roy was born on Sept. 20, 1928 in Elmo to Charles and Ada Olsen Oviatt. He married Celia McArthur on March 3, 1951.
Roy enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 16, where he was stationed in Guam during World War II. He worked on the Railroad and the U.S. Fuel Hiawatha Coal Mine. He was also a member of the Local 6363. Roy loved having his family together and spending time with them, watching the Jazz and the PBR. He spent his days tending water and watching his calves in the pasture and he loved riding his tractor and four-wheelers.
He is survived by his wife Celia, son Roy (MaryAnn) Oviatt, Elmo; daughters:
Jenine (Chuck) Bentley, Elmo; Mitzi (Keith Barker) Zserai, Miller Creek; nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
Preceded in death by son, Chet K. Oviatt, parents, brothers: Harv, Rex, Que, and Clint, sisters: Helen and
Memorial services will be held Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 at 1 p.m. at the Elmo LDS Chapel (199 E. Main). Family will receive friends from 12:00 to 12:45 p.m. at the church prior to the services. Interment will be in the Elmo City Cemetery. Services are in the care of Fausett Mortuary. Friends and family may sign the guest book and share memories of Roy at www.fausettmortuary.com.


text:
Here's a longer version of my feature on filmmaker Robert Rodriguez from today's Sunday Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times.
It was not your typical Hollywood creative meeting. Instead of sparkling water and ahi salad, the Four Seasons conference room was provided with Sprite, French fries and a tray of chocolate lollipops. Magic markers and paper were piled up on the table for doodling and with good reason — most of the people in the room weren't old enough to drive.
Clearly, the Rodriguez boys were back in town.
"We have our way of doing things and, so far, Hollywood seems pretty happy with it," said Texas-based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, who was sitting with two of his sons, Rebel and Racer, both of whom contributed to their father's newest feature, "Shorts," which arrives in theaters this weekend.
The contributions weren't small, either: Rebel, 10, shrugged and nodded when asked if he was the one who came up with the name of the film. "Yes. It's called 'Shorts' because the kids in it are short, they wear shorts and the movie is made up of all these really short stories."
Who needs a marketing consultant when you have that sort of logic?
"Shorts" is a collection of interlocking vignettes about kids, a sort of 21st century revival of the "Our Gang" comedies, but with a wishing rock, crocodile men and a giant killer booger. As interesting as all that might sound, the most compelling aspect of the film is how it was made: Shot entirely in dusty Texas on a lean budget, "Shorts" is being distributed by Warner Bros. but could hardly be further removed from the corporate culture.
Rodriguez was the writer, director, producer, cinematographer, visual effects supervisor and editor, and even collaborated on the music. The film's plot was cooked up by his sons, who also appear in the film. Essentially, the Rodriguez household put together "Shorts" the way other families set up lemonade stands, and, after the success of his "Spy Kids" franchise, there are hopes that "Shorts" will click with its similarly zany, hyper-real sensibility.
"This whole thing started with me and the kids watching old episodes of the Little Rascals, which I loved when I was a kid," he said. "They just laughed and laughed. We took that, and it eventually became 'Shorts.' "
Rodriguez has five children, all with Elizabeth Avellán, the Venezuela-born producer. The couple split in 2006 after 15 years but remain business partners in Troublemaker Studios — no mean feat considering the spasm of rumors that accompanied Rodriguez's romance with Rose McGowan, star of his last blood-splattered film, 2007's "Grindhouse."
Despite the gossip-page intrigue, Rodriguez is shy and fills conversational lulls with a nervous laugh. Born in San Antonio, he loves his western wear. Frank Miller, the creator of "Sin City," likes to tell the story of how he first met Rodriguez at a New York diner: "He's the only straight guy," Miller says, "who ever wore a cowboy hat into Hell's Kitchen."
He is also consumed with fatherhood and, even before parenthood, daydreamed about making home movies with a large brood. "Shorts" was supposed to be just that.
The movie started with sibling envy. Rebel was tired of hearing how his older brother, Racer, came up with the premise for his dad's 2005 movie "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D," so he decided that he would mine the "Our Gang" model for a movie. These are big thoughts for a kid, but life at the 100-acre ranch is geared toward creative fun, with hidden rooms in the main house and cedar-lined ridgelines dotted with ancient arrowheads and the occasional rattlesnake.
That terrain inspired Rebel to come up with the idea of a rainbow rock that grants wishes and Crocodile Canyon, a nasty pit of reptile danger. The film's unforgettable snot monster, meanwhile, was a leftover idea from Rodriguez's short "Bedhead," written when he was 19. The family fashioned a homemade trailer and when Warners saw it, the lark abruptly became a feature-film property. Rodriguez financed it himself. He declined to specify the budget but said it's "very, very low."
"It's rare for the studios to find a filmmaker who wants to make a family film," he said. "To find someone that has an idea, embraces it, has kids and wants to make something exciting — well, they don't see that too often."
He chuckled when asked if the studio suits ever get antsy with his let's-put-on-a-show approach. "They actually like that," the 41-year-old said. "You're making it less expensive than they could ever make it
here. And they get a movie that they can sell as a big movie, they make money off of it, I get to keep it locked down creatively."
Rodriguez's filmography has a split personality. He might be best known for action films with a lurid, roadhouse edge — "Sin City" (which was co-directed with Miller), "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," "Desperado" and his startling 1992 indie breakthrough, "El Mariachi" — but his greatest commercial success has been in cheeky family films. His three "Spy Kids" movies, all fluorescent-bright espionage fantasies, pulled in a collective $465 million worldwide despite being made on budgets of less than $39 million.
After 13 feature films, Rodriguez still has the puppy-dog enthusiasm that got "El Mariachi" made for $7,000, which he earned as a paid patient in medical trials. Sitting at the Four Seasons, he stared down at his cowboy boots as he tried to remember all the things he is working on, which include a "Predator" reboot, the B-movie-minded "Machete," a "Red Sonja" film, a "Sin City" sequel, a live-action version of "The Jetsons" and a fourth "Spy Kids" entry. The plan is to make all of those far from the Hollywood machine.
"It's almost like they get protected from themselves," he said of the studios. "They know that when some things get taken through the machine they end up overspending and making it worse. The movie's not allowed to breathe."
Rodriguez still has something to prove, of course. His last youth-audience film, "Sharkboy and Lavagirl," cost $39 million and pulled in $69 million worldwide. "Shorts" is being watched as a bellwether of his ability to cut through to family audiences without the "Spy Kids" brand.
Like the "Our Gang" comedies that began almost 90 years ago, "Shorts" presents a gaggle of neighborhood kids who in brief, frenetic episodes crack wise in the face of conflict, caste indignities and hopelessly stiff adults. (The grown-ups, by the way, include a gleefully greedy James Spader and William H. Macy in lab-coat nut mode.) They make big plans, as kids often do in comedies, but they are never belittled or patronized, which is rare.
There's also the hyper-reality swirl of "Shorts" that might make it a cinematic nephew to Bob Clark's wonderfully daft 1983 film "A Christmas Story," where the world bends and twists to the physics of childhood memory and imagination. It's a reference not lost on Rodriguez, who, of course, is immersed in pop culture and creates collages of movie trailers, music videos and famous scenes from cinema into tailor-made feed for the family television.
"You can just let it wash over you," the filmmaker said with a dreamy expression. "It's big fun."
"Shorts" is told out of order, but it's not some funhouse ode to Christopher Nolan's "Memento." Instead, it's a bit of craft the children taught their father.
"We grew up with very linear storytelling, but now with the way they watch television and play games, they're used to seeing part of something and then seeing another part later, out of order," Rodriguez said. "They show me something from the Cartoon Network and they'll show me the best part and then back up to the beginning–"
Just then the filmmaker was interrupted by Racer, who held up his finished drawing. "It's a tarantula-grasshopper-wasp," he said. His father leaned over and gave the drawing his undivided attention. And with good reason. You never know where the next movie might be lurking.
— Geoff Boucher
Robert Rodriguez has a "crazy, intense" script for "Predator" reboot
LAT REVIEW: "Shorts" fizzles — the tall tales feel very, very long
Rose McGowan says "Red Sonja" costume is "um, visually impactful"
SILLY: Charlie Brown in "Sin City"? Good grief!
Frank Miller searches for "The Spirit" of Will Eisner
Frank Miller: Imagine Stallone in "The Dark Knight Returns"
Photo credits: Portrait of Robert Rodriguez by Ana Johannson for The Times. Johannson also shot the family photo, which shows, clockwise from top, father Robert with Rocket, Rogue, Rhiannon, Rebel and Racer. "Shorts" image courtesy of Warner Bros. "Sin City" image courtesy of Dimension Films. Photo of Antonio Banderas and Rodriguez on the set in 1994 by Rico Torres / Columbia Pictures.


text:
The Toy Industry Association (TIA) and the Toy Industry Foundation (TIF) are showcasing a collection of toys and games that teach children about charity and social responsibility during a month-long "Christmas in July" media campaign. The toys and games shown below were featured in a television segment that aired this week on "6 In the Mix" on WTVJ (NBC) Miami.
- Hearts for Hearts, from Playmates Toys, features nine dolls from around the world that each have a story to share about female empowerment. Every doll purchased results in a donation to a program that helps girls around the world.
- Wonder Glow Blocks, from Wonderworld Toys, are environmentally-friendly solid wood blocks that support a year-round program called the Tree Plus Project, a tree planting initiative.
- Happy Nappers, from Jay at Play, are plush play pillows whose proceeds support the Home Sweet Home Fund benefitting the Children's Brain Tumor Foundation.
- Harness the Healing Power of Horses, from Breyer, are pink horses. $1 from the sale of each will go to two breast cancer research organizations: Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
- True Hope Dolls, from MGA Entertainment, consist of three Bratz dolls that support young girls and boys who suffer from hair loss or who are watching loved ones lose their hair from cancer treatments. $1 for every doll sold supports cancer research, treatment, and education at City of Hope.
This post was originally written by Sierra McCleary-Harris and published by ToyBook.com. For more news, visit www.toybook.com, follow The Toy Book on Twitter, and like The Toy Book on Facebook. The Toy Book is a bimonthly trade magazine covering the toy industry, published by Adventure Publishing Group.


text:
NEWPORT NEWS — Liebherr Mining Equipment — a longtime Newport News manufacturer — will undergo a major expansion, adding 174 jobs to the Peninsula workforce over the next four years, the company announced Tuesday.
A video played at an announcement luncheon showed the giant-sized equipment moving voluminous piles of dirt and rocks, with pounding, triumphant music in the background. The mining equipment, including 400-ton dump trucks, is manufactured in Newport News.


text:
MACs purpose is to help families achieve and maximize their potential.
Mother and Children Success (MACS) is a diverse mentoring program for mothers in the community. At 10 a.m. Saturday, they will be meeting at the Grand Prairie Center, located at 2709 Hwy. 165 in Stuttgart, and they are inviting the public to attend.
"Women have united to provide a resourceful support system to embrace your concerns and needs," Denise Thomas, with MACS, said. "We are devoted to meeting you where your are in life at this time."
MACs purpose is to help families achieve and maximize their potential.
"We invite you to join us for an introductory session to the program Saturday," she explained.
For more information contact (870) 830-1242 or (870) 830-0031.


text:
Beautiful Code Video, Round 1
One of the highlights at the recent SD West 2008 conference was the panel discussion on "Beautiful Code" that I had the honor of moderating.
Based on the book of the same name, the Beautiful Code the panel was made up of six of the 33 contributors to the book -- Michael Feathers, Jim Kent, Christopher Seiwald, Elliotte Harold, Ron Mak, and Alberto Savoia. As I previously said, my job was to make sure the panel had plenty of bottled water.
To give you a flavor of the panel discussion, here's a video excerpt of the event. We'll have more clips in the near future.


text:
Todd A. Maynard, 26, of Manlius was involved in a single-vehicle crash at 10:10 a.m. April 4 while traveling on the Wyanet/Walnut Road, one-half mile south of 2100 North Avenue in Bureau Township.
Kyle G. Pikula, 19, of Spring Valley and a 16-year-old Spring Valley girl were involved in a crash at 11:48 p.m. April 4 while traveling on 1600 North Avenue, one-half mile west of 3200 East Street in Hall Township. Pikula was charged with driving too fast for conditions. The girl was charged with driving without a valid driver's license.
A 17-year-old Bradford boy was involved in a single-vehicle crash at 7:55 p.m. March 31 while traveling on 300 North Avenue, 100 feet east of 1525 East Street in Milo Township.
Deer accidents
John F. Ryan, 33, of LaMoille was traveling at 12:47 a.m. March 3 on 3000 East Street, one-half mile north of 2800 North Avenue in Clarion Township, when his vehicle hit a deer.
Melissa Junis, 44, of Sheffield was traveling at 8:26 p.m. March 6 on Route 6, 150 east of 1845 East Street in Princeton Township, when her vehicle hit a deer.
Ryan S. Kepner, 39, of Walnut was traveling at 8:41 p.m. April 8 on Route 92, at the intersection of 1600 East Street in Walnut Township, when his vehicle hit a deer.
Nikki L. Jeanguenat, 18, of Kewanee was charged with battery following an incident at 8:11 p.m. April 3 in Hollowayville.
Alexis M. Nowakowski, 19, of LaSalle was charged with theft of $500 and under on March 1, relating to a Feb. 7 incident in Dalzell.
Illegal consumption
A 17-year-old boy was charged with illegal consumption of alcohol on April 13 while a passenger of a vehicle stopped on Route 6, at the intersection of 1600 East Street.
Criminal damage to property
Cody N. Gray, 21, of Somonauk was charged with criminal damage to property at 12:10 a.m. April 12 on Marquette Bottom Road.
Failure to report
Randy J. Templeton, Jr., 22, of LaSalle was charged with failure to report to the Bureau County Jail for his 30-day sentence at 6 p.m. April 8.
Domestic battery
Randy L. Peterson, 34, of Bradford was charged with domestic battery at 6 p.m. April 10 following a rural Bradford incident.
James V. Jacobs, 63, of Neponset was charged with driving under the influence of drugs and with improper lane usage following a traffic stop at 7:38 p.m. April 9 on 300 East Street, south of Route 34.


text:
Helen Hunt stars as Mary-Clare King, a geneticist who spent years researching the breast-cancer gene, in the film "Decoding Annie Parker."
Angelina Jolie's revelation in Tuesday's New York Times that she had a preventive double mastectomy stirred many to think about something they may be mostly unfamiliar with: The existence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that reveal an increased risk of breast cancer.
But a group of actors and filmmakers were already immersed in that realm. Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt stars in "Decoding Annie Parker," an upcoming film about the discovery of BRCA1.
Hunt plays geneticist Mary-Claire King, who spent years researching families with histories of cancer and identified BRCA1 in 1990.
The film's trailer shows that it wasn't an easy road for King. In its opening scene, King is asked, "You believe there may be a genetic link to some breast cancers?"
"I do," she says.
"Even though virtually no one else believes this to be true?"
"That's correct," King responds.
The film tells not only King's story, but that of Annie Parker (played by Samantha Morton) who lost her mother and sister to cancer before being diagnosed herself at age 29.
"Your family did have a bit of bad luck, but there are many complex factors--" a doctor in the film tells Parker.
"It's not bad luck," she responds from her hospital bed.
The film's topic may make it a hard sell for some when other screens are showing light entertainment such as "Iron Man 3" and "Fast and Furious 6," but the filmmakers knew that going in.
"We knew there were going to be serious obstacles to getting people to watch (the film)," director Steven Bernstein said at the Dallas International Film Festival. "People's first reaction would be 'Oh, it's a film about cancer, I don't want to see it.' So we had to get the word out the film was about something bigger than that -- although cancer's a very, very big thing indeed -- but it's something about the human condition that we were trying to express. Something that people could actually come and see and feel uplifted by rather than depressed by."
"Decoding Annie Parker" has been playing at film festivals around the nation and will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in France this month, with a general release expected in the fall. Aaron Paul, Rashida Jones, Bradley Whitford and Maggie Grace also star in the movie.


text:
With Halloween upon us and October about to give way to November, it seems like a good time to take a look at the first month of the 2011-12 season. In today's edition, we'll take a look at players who are on "scary good" starts and see if they can keep it up. Tuesday's column will focus on scary bad starts and see who might snap out of them.
Can Phil Kessel and other top scorers maintain their fearsome paces?
The Toronto Maple Leafs sniper leads all players with goals (10) and points (18) in what is starting to look like a revenge tour for the hockey world's shared laughter when he was selected last in the All-Star fantasy draft.
(If you ask me, Kessel got hosed by the selection rules anyway. Defensemen and goalies had mandatory deadlines for their picks; I'm pretty sure that someone like NHL assists leader Erik Karlsson [12 helpers] would have gone last if those restrictions weren't in place.)
The question is: will Kessel keep it up?
My guess is that it depends on what you define "it" as. If "it" means leading the league, then I'd still bet against it. One of the biggest indicators of an unsustainable run is a high shooting percentage and Kessel carries that; he's connected on 26.3 percent of his shots so far. Even if he's raising his game to a new level, it's hard to imagine him being that much higher than his 10.9 percent career average over the long haul.
Still, Kessel has been a guy who delivers buckets of goals, tons of SOG (325 in 2010-11; 34 already this season) and respectable assist numbers. If he stays healthy, he should score at least 40 goals for the first time and has a great chance at 50, too.
The league's top ranks are full of guys who are off to hot starts who will probably fizzle off at least a little bit. It's not until you get to 9th highest scorer Daniel Sedin (4 goals, 11.4 shooting percentage) that you see a player who's likely to maintain his current pace.
Of the surprising starters, James Neal might be an increasingly realistic Maurice Richard Trophy threat, though. His 52 SOG lead the league and he scored those 9 goals with Sidney Crosby on the shelf and Evgeni Malkin in and out of the lineup.
Monsters with a purpose
A lot of people have mixed feelings about penalty minutes as a "positive" stat in fantasy, and with good reason. After all, there are few things more awkward than pumping your fist when Todd Bertuzzi takes a bonehead obstruction penalty, right?
Still, the beauty of PIMs is that they test your decision-making mettle. Can you find a guy who gets in the penalty box but also does something when he's on the ice? Will you show off your savvy by just "punting" the category altogether?
Here are some of the best guys who pile up PIMs but can actually play a little. (Note: you already know about guys like Zdeno Chara, so this list focuses on players who might be a bit more "marginal.")
Chris Neil - points: 5; PIM: 46; shots: 28
Steve Downie: pts - 2; PIM - 42;
Brandon Dubinsky: pts - 3; PIM - 41
David Clarkson: pts - 3; PIM - 30
Brad Marchand: pts - 4; PIM - 29
Sheldon Souray: pts - 8; PIM - 27
Steve Ott: pts - 8; 25
This is just a short list of a very satisfying group of players who will make you happy in fantasy leagues even if they don't score a point. Neil, Souray, Clarkson and Ott are especially interesting to watch because they're playing under new coaches. They're taking a lot of shots and generally justifying their existences on traditionally high-finesse lines.
Keep an eye on Downie, as well. His low SOG total (8) implies either ill health or low confidence, but he's one of those rare guys who gets a ton of PIMs but can legitimately flirt with 20+ goals and 60+ points. Downie might be an excellent "buy low" candidate in a PIM league right now, so snatch him up if a fellow owner already lost patience with him.
Are the top 5 goalies for real?
Stat nerds hate the win stat for goalies because it attributes team successes to that individual, but the bottom line is that it's a big deal to fantasy owners. Here's a look at the top 5 goalies so far, according to the most common stats of W, GAA, save percentage and shutouts – ordered by wins first.
Kari Lehtonen: 8-1-0; 1.75 GAA; .947 save percentage and 0 shutouts (287 saves in 9 games)
Marc-Andre Fleury: 7-2-0; 1.86 GAA; .934 save percentage and 1 SO (239 saves in 9 games)
Jonathan Quick: 6-1-2; 1.52 GAA; .947 save percentage and 3 SOs (248 saves in 9 games)
Tomas Vokoun: 6-1-0; 2.15 GAA; .932 save percentage and 1 SO (218 saves in 8 games)
Nikolai Khabibulin: 5-0-2; 1.12 GAA; .960 save percentage and 1 SO (191 saves in 7 games)
(Pekka Rinne leads the "just outside the top 5"pack and will likely supplant one of these goalies.)
Generally speaking, Fleury, Quick and Vokoun should stay in the picture as high-end fantasy netminders. They have the talent, track records, team support and should get the starts to dominate more often than not. Lehtonen and Khabibulin are bigger wild cards, though. Here's the most important consideration, however: both have shown talent before, even if one is in his prime (Lehtonen) while the other was believed to be past his due date (Khabibulin).
The number one shared concern for both goalies is the teams in front of them.
The Stars' defense is operating under a newfound "bend but don't break philosophy" that will allow a high volume of shots but (if things go to plan) very few quality chances. That's great from a game-to-game standpoint, but considering Lehtonen's expected workload and injury history, that strategy might bring out your inner worry wart.
"The Bulin Wall" has had it pretty easy so far, as the Oilers have only allowed about 27.3 shots per game in his starts while giving him solid goal support. It's still too small of a sample to trust that Edmonton's defense really is better than it looks on paper, though. Unlike clear number one Lehtonen, Khabibulin also faces a surprisingly strong backup in Devan Dubnyk, who could usurp the elder netminder if he stumbles.
Again, Lehtonen and Khabibulin are looking great, have shown the talent before and their teams are surprisingly solid early on. Still, those two goalies are the riskiest bets in the top 5 so far.
There was a time when Dan Carcillo's mammoth PIM numbers made him go very early in drafts, but even his fantasy use his waning. He was suspended for 2 games … Wojtek Wolski won't sit out any games for his hit, but he's been hovering around healthy scratch status early this season anyway … Andy Sutton could face a 6+ game suspension. If that depresses you from a fantasy standpoint, then your league is too big … Speaking of defenseman of marginal fantasy value, Francois Beauchemin probably won't miss any time for his check on Mike Fisher.
Tyler Seguin's supposedly injury prone hips were a big (and odd) story this weekend, but he's not dealing with current issues. Even keeper league owners probably shouldn't break a sweat over that bit … Concussion or not, it sounds like Fisher's going to miss some time after that hard hit … Simon Gagne being injured his hardly news, but the fact that it's being called a "middle-body injury" is quirky enough to raise a few eyebrows … Jordan Staal is day-to-day with an injury, and no, he's not suffering from peer pressure to get injured in Pittsburgh … Danny Briere's dealing with an upper-body issue, which is a bummer. On the bright side, he probably won't torment often-tormented Buffalo fans because of that ailment … Daniel Alfredsson is day-to-day with what might be a head injury suffered from that Wolski elbow … John Tortorella called Mike Rupp's knee "cranky," which doesn't really seem like an appropriate adjective to describe a body part unless you're discussing someone's stomach after a late night trip to Taco Bell. (Click here for the full injury list.)


text:
Is this the New Economics, the lost dream of IT visioneers?
BTW this Monday my company network was badly infected with yet unknown worm. It created about 15 registry values named 'Microsoft System Backup' to make itself start at lot of occasions. Still can't find anything about it on the internet.
Despite our admins, I've installed personal firewall...
Since the market share for a non-Microsoft OS is so small, it isn't worth the malware author's time to attack them. A successful attack (if possible) would yeild little or no damage in a collective sense.
You could also use a non-Microsoft, niche product like the ISS personal firewall to help protect yourself if you must use Windows.
And then you can get nailed with something like Witty [caida.org].
There were only about 12,000 Black Ice systems out there. There are over 10 million OS X systems deployed in the
What are these people gaining, anyway?
Automated access to large numbers of systems inside big corporations and government, where they collect passwords, account names, scan for vulnerabilities and gather information from PC disk drives for evaluation and sale (corporate espionage). Use of thousands of home systems for spambots and DDoS attack fleets. It's all about organized crime and money to be made these days.
No, it ain't just kiddies seeing who they can 0wn anymore. They are playing for keeps now.
Wouldn't this be a successful argument for platform diversity? They have the motivation to write complex malware, but do they have the motivation to write complex and cross-platform malware?
Say what you want about Microsoft, and while much of it's true, the users are to a degree at fault as well. If I leave my keys in my car and the doors unlocked, I can't very well blame the manufacturer for it being stolen.
The problem with this analogy is that you are implying that Microsoft actually provides the door locks which the users are neglecting to use. While things have gotten better with respect to default services and firewalling, it is still de riguer to add on third-party software to any Mic
The failure option will be available in the next release as a standard feature.
I'd also like to point out that even corporations don't have perfectly homogenous environments. Servers, desktops, workstations for various tasks such as artists, marketers, developers, etc., all have different needs and usually have different OS and application configurations.
However, you're right in that commonality in
Depends on who "these people" are.
Anti viral company: Creating a greater need for their product.
Support desk: More support calls to them.
Someone with a grudge against a particular o.s: They can say that their o.s isn't as vunerable.
Script kiddie: They do it for their ego after watching hackers and getting all hot and sweaty by the site of the davinci code
Admin: Do it to get the Product Manager to allow upgrades on their networks and more staff and $$$
About 9 pounds a week, on their staple diet of cheetos and Moutain Dew?
The whole problem is twofold. The first is stupid users... The second is privilege escalation at the binary level.
Human stupidity is greatly amplified by weak architectures. If one lucky user gets a malicious email and executes the attachment (after unlocking the password protected zip and clicking on "Natalie_Portman_Naked.zip") that's bad enough. But cleaning up dozens or hundreds of PC systems clobbered by the resulting worm infestation is catastrophic. The industry is only starting to realize that we need better tools to fix stupid.
How can you possibly secure a network against attacks if your users are constantly undermining your lockdown efforts?
This really isn't that hard. I run 8 university computer labs, and in the last 2 years I have had 1 machine get infected. That machine was in a faculty member's office, and he had formatted it and reinstalled windows in order to undo my lockdown.
Between good imaging tools (ghost, etc.), setting policies, using industry lock down tools (deep freeze, driveshield, etc.), and creative u
Some comments: I haven't read Beyond Fear yet, but I have read Applied Cryptography. The San Francisco Public Library kept it in a back room and asked me to surrender my ID to look at it. I have no idea why. Maybe it's a terrorism manual.
What about my situation? I mean, my boss is pretty big, but I don't know if he has any attachments...
Oh yeah, and that worm icon - come on, timothy, it's a caterpillar, surely.
Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do the work. -- John G. Pollard


text:
Want to remind yourself or a friend about this program? Fill out this simple form and klru will email you a reminder on the day that it will air.
"look At Me!" Narcissism Or Self-esteem?
series: Inner Compass
air date: 3/04/13 10:00 AM
Are teens posting risque photos on the internet because they are starved for attention, or because they are convinced they're HOT? Should EVERYONE on the team get a trophy? Jean Twenge of the San Diego State University psychology department, and author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, warns that our culture of extreme encouragement may have gone too far. Shirley Hoogstra hosts.
WARNING: Email reminders for this program have already been sent out. Your reminder may not reach the intended address in time for this program's airing.
Back to TV Schedule


text:
With Thanksgiving dinners behind us, sights are set on another big holiday meal.
Instead of worrying about having to buy the next belt or pants size up, you might want to try some strategies offered by the weight-loss support organization, TOPS; that stands for Taking Off Pounds Sensibly. Continue reading


text: Warwick school officials said they are investigating why some Gorton Junior High School students had to wait nearly three hours for a bus home from field trip to Boston last week. The school district's director of secondary education, Dennis Mullen, told the Providence Journal that the students traveled to the Museum of Science in Boston Friday on a bus operated by First Student, which has the contract for Warwick's school bus service. Mullen said school officials are looking into where the bus parked after dropping off the students and any other issues that would have caused it to be so late.


text:
With deepest sadness and very heavy heart I am sorry to inform you that Al Edwards - our beloved friend, age developer and member of GoWIZ - WAMDUSKASAPA - passed away Febuary 7 2017.
His intelligence, knowledge and above all - kind heart - will always be remembered. Al was a very special friend, always there for me and everyone who needed him.
I will never forget you my buddy. You will be sorely missed.
May your Spirit and Soul have a continued and enjoyable walk on the Road Of Life and Exploration beloved buddy. May you fly free of pain with your totem - Raven.
( please visit the age he co-created in Deep Island shard - R'Oshanhnin Korvahkhn as well as his site here: http://www.wamduskasapa.com/)


text:
It appears North Korea's enigmatic leader Kim Jong Un may need to push the decaf button on the old coffee machine. The caffeine might just be getting to him.
The man who runs a country as if he were a character in a Lewis Carroll novel has apparently approved -- because everything must be approved in North Korea -- a vicious personal attack on President Barack Obama by the Korean Central News Agency. It is an attack that the president should dismiss.
The bizarre assault, which was published May 2, was apparently intended to be read only by Koreans because it was not translated into English as is standard practice. But noted North Korea blogger Josh Stanton uncovered the screed as well as a second attack and he republished them.
The rant refers to Obama as a "clown" and a "dirty fellow." And if it had stopped there, it wouldn't even be news. After all, any president of the United States has heard worse from his own constituents.
But it did not stop there. It went on to insist that Obama "does not even have the basic appearances of a human being" and then said, "He is a crossbreed with unclear blood."
Later it rails that Obama, "still has the figure of monkey while the human race has evolved through millions of years." And that, "It would be perfect for Obama to live with a group of monkeys in the world's largest African natural zoo and lick the bread crumbs thrown by spectators."
The second piece, which was translated into English, referred to the president as a "wicked black monkey," among other things.
Wow! Not exactly diplomacy's finest hour.
As a nation, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has never been shy about speaking its, ahem, mind. But this is over the top even for Pyongyang. Granted, North Korean official speech often carries racial overtones and the nation is obsessed with "preserving its racial purity." Also, we realize we don't have to go to North Korea to find such vile name-calling. It is all over the Internet and, yes, much of it comes from the bowels of this country. But such personal attacks from the leadership of a sovereign nation are extremely rare.
Trying to divine what prompted the attack is a fool's errand. Pyongyang's logical construct for behavior often operates outside the bounds of the known universe. Our best guess is that Kim is jealous of Ukraine's international headlines. If that sounds a little weird, just remember this is a world leader who lists famous NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman as one of his buddies.
The worst punishment for a megalomaniac is to be ignored. We think that's perfect policy in this case.-- By Contra Costa (Calif.) Times editorial board, Digital First Media


text:
Ten Students Vie for $100,000 in Scholarships and Prizes
Cleveland, Ohio (March 19, 2012) – This year more than 1,800 students from 126 schools shared their solutions to stop hatred and discrimination by entering the fourth annual Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage "Stop the Hate: Youth Speak Out" essay contest. 10 of those students have risen to the top and will compete for $100,000 in scholarship prizes. Their essays address a variety of issues, from racism and ethnic discrimination to sexuality, mental illness, special needs and cyberbullying.
Essays have been read and scored by more than 200 community volunteers. "We are so proud of these young people. Their sensitivity and commitment to making a difference in the lives of others is a testament to the activism of their generation." said Lynda A. Bender, Director of Education and Public Programs. More than 6,500 entries have been received in the contest's first four years, an astonishing number that evidences the depth of concern among the youth of our region.
These 10 student finalists were narrowed down from 24 semi-finalists after a panel of select judges read their essays. Judges this year include US Attorney for Northern Ohio Steven Dettelbach, Ideastream Reporter and Program Host Rick Jackson, The Plain Dealer Editor Debra Adams Simmons, and Grand Prize "Stop the Hate" Scholarship Winner 2011 Alexander Stojsavljevic.
These finalists will compete for three college scholarships by giving oral presentations at the awards ceremony on April 22 at Severance Hall.
- Gabrielle Jones – Martin Luther King, Jr. High School, Cleveland
- Telayne Keith – Our Lady of the Elms High School, Akron
- Jane Kim – Beaumont High School, Cleveland Heights
- Sarah Krafcik – Padua Franciscan High School, Parma
- Rachel Lieberman – Orange High School
- Bryan Naelitz – Marion L. Steele High School, Amherst
- Hannah Schmidt – Brush High School, Lyndhurst
- Zachary Schwartz – Solon High School
- Ciera L. West – Whitney Young High School, Cleveland
- Allyson Zabell – Orange High School
The contest was open to public, private and home schooled students in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit Counties. Juniors and seniors complete for three, four-year college scholarships (one each $50,000, $25,000 and $15,000); they and younger students compete for cash prizes, class visits to the Museum and resource materials for their schools. Finalists in grades 6-10 were announced in February (read the full story).
"Stop The Hate: Youth Speak Out" is generously sponsored by Dealer Tire and KeyBank.


text:
THE hub of activity this Australia Day will be Victoria Park, with the program boasting a variety of entertainment, activities and awards sure to appeal to just about everyone.
The fun kicks off bright and early with a free BBQ breakfast in Victoria Park from 7:30am.
Live music from Steve Ruddell and Corby-Lee Hunt at 10am will keep the crowds entertained before the official ceremony begins at 10:45 with a sky-diver landing in the park carrying the Australian Flag.
Following the acknowledgement of country and welcome by Mayor Geoff Kettle, the manager of Woolworths Goulburn Danny Jackson will speak before handing over the mic to Goulburn's Australia Day Ambassador Jacinta Tynan.
Jacinta is the presenter of the daily and evening bulletins on Sky News and is also an accomplished author of two books, a columnist and the mother of two beautiful boys.
Her writing on the worries of motherhood has resulted in some healthy debate in recent times- including a story reminding us all to celebrate the gift of motherhood, which she says 'every mother in Australia seems to have an opinion on'.
Her first book 'Good Man Hunting' , about the hardships of looking for love, published in 2005, earned her the accolade of 'Australia's answer to Carrie Bradshaw', and her second book, published in 2007, entitled 'Some Girls Do: My Life as A Teenager' is an anthology of female writers sharing true stories of their adolescence.
She is also the patron of SISTER2Sistera mentor program for disadvantaged teenage girls.
Jacinta is a regular on Channel 7's Sunrise and Weekend Sunrise and also writes a regular column for Sunday Life magazine, along with blogging for dailylife.com.au.
She is an accomplished reporter and newsreader for Sky News, and previously worked at the ABC for seven years as a presenter for ABC Asia Pacific and the late edition news. She was also a fill-in presenter for the 7pm bulletins, 7:30 Report and the World at Noon. She has reported for the Seven Network, and also as a weather presenter and Thredbo snow reporter for the WIN Network.
Invited as a guest of honour, Jacinta will deliver the keynote address, capturing the true spirit of being Australian.
An impressive nomination list for citizen of the year, young citizen of the year and event of the year will make for tight competition when the winners are announced during the proceedings. (See full list p.7) Seven new Australian Citizens will participate in the citizenship ceremony before the official presentation concludes with the Australian Anthem, performed by Ellie Beckman.
Rounding off the scheduled events will be the prize draw at 1pm, a performance by Desiree's Dance Academy and the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium.
There will be free entry into the Goulburn Aquatic Centre on the day, as well as a jumping castle, giant slide, an animal farm, vintage car displays, billy cart derby, canoeing, parachute games, market stalls, food stalls and more to keep the celebrations rolling into the afternoon.
For more information on the events, please see www.igoulburn.com or www.goulburn.nsw.gov.au.


text:
In a rebroadcast from April 28, 2012, host Florence Schwein talks with Mary Haskins, widow of El Paso basketball coaching legend, Don Haskins. Mary Haskins talks about meeting Don Haskins while they were both students at Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater, Oklahoma. After they were married 1951, they moved to Artesia NM, and later traveled to Texas where Don not only taught basketball, but drove a school bus and served as school principle in Benjamin TX and Hedley TX. After an additional basketball coaching stint in Dumas TX, the Haskins ended up in El Paso in 1961, where Don Haskins led Texas Western to a historic win over the University of Kentucky at the 1966 NCAA Championships. Mary Haskins also shares more stories about the 2006 film about that groundbreaking basketball game, having dinner at the White House with President George W. Bush and the First Lady Laura Bush, and about her 50+ years living in El Paso.
Aired Dec. 1, 2012.


text:
This has no connection to Linux as far as I know, but as usual ......Who knows?
Quite a good number of weeks ago I found that Google maps had a facility for viewing "Real Estate" for sale. It was not only on "/maps.google.co.uk/" but also on "/maps.google.com/" (this latter listing property in very many countries). Suddenly a couple of days ago this facility just disappeared. All other functions seem to work as well before.
Is there anyone in Linux Format land who can shed any light on this. Was it just an experimental thing?


text:
Well, if you didn't mind screwing around with ffmpeg, ffserver, and VLC Media Player, you could have done audioconferencing and videoconferencing already. Be warned, it isn't for the people who stray away from compiling and documentation.
Ctrl+Alt+Esc and click the screen. Because the video was fullscreen, you could not miss it. This just would not work if the Xorg has crashed so the input devices does not work.
Be warned, it isn't for the people who stray away from compiling and documentation.
I think you meant "shy away". Being an unfaithful dog has nothing to do with it... I mean... so I hear.
Being an unfaithful dog has nothing to do with it... I mean... so I hear.
When you're responding to a user named TrisexualPuppy, it has everything to do with it.
Adobe Flash has been working on Linux for many years now. Only on some platforms like Ubuntu 10.04, Flash is a bit flaky. I'm running RHEL 5, and on that, Flash runs perfectly stable (the original ATI driver as well, btw).
I see your anecdotal evidence and raise you my anecdotal evidence. I've always had issues using the 64bit flash plugin on linux (on Fedora, Gentoo, and Ubuntu) with errant npviewer.bin processes using 100% cpu or crashing.
The 64-bit Flash Player also has hardware acceleration disabled. The 32-bit player uses OpenGL for acceleration (though sometimes you have to convince it that your video card actually can handle it with a simple config file).
I have no issues in Ubuntu 10.04 with 32-bit Flash running in a 64-bit Firefox/Chrome (this is the default config and you only have to install the flashplugin-installer package and it "just works", at least on my system. ymmv of course). I'd rather have the hardware acceleration (smooth
We have been waiting for years and can't even get a decently-working version of flash for Linux.
Yes such a blessing Linux is! Years before iphone/ipad didn't have flash. We didn't have it first!
Yes such a blessing Linux is! Years before iphone/ipad didn't have flash. We didn't have it first!
This is probably more true than you'd think. Linux users were clamouring for Flash for years, as were Linux/PPC and Linux/AMD64 users. Linux and Linux/AMD64 Flash, at least, actually happened. So they probably all contributed to Flash's portability, paving the way for Flash on mobiles etc.
Empathy has already supported XMPP video chats for years! And has been compatible with Google non-standard variant almost since it was announced.
But now, you can read the Google ads while chatting... (which is essential for them)
Google already has the technology to suggest ads during chats
http://www.theonion.com/video/new-google-phone-service-whispers-targeted-ads-dir,17470/ [theonion.com]
So does Pidgin, and has done for at least a few months. I'm not sure what the author of the summary was on about, I've had Gmail video chats between a Windows box and my wife's Linux box several times, her using Pidgin and me using the video chat client in Firefox.
Her eeePC has some microphone driver oddities we had to overcome in Linux (my one and only reason to drop to the command line in that install, turns out the eeePC identifies itself as having a stereo mic but only a mono is installed, and if signal comes in on both channels they cancel each other out, so you have to mute one of them), but the camera worked right out of the box in Linux Mint, and turning on video chat support in Pidgin was a matter of enabling the extension and using it, all in the Pidgin GUI.
In any case, it's nice to see it coming straight to the browser chat client.
There's a wiki out there that I contributed to some time ago - and coincidentally I got a notice that someone posted the solution in some detail to that page just today:
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/asus+eee+pc+1005pe#comment_daacb79590433e3b0a2ffdf557f1c2ea [linlap.com]
When I solved it, you couldn't unlink the two channels in the default GUI, so I had to download a more detailed control package (forget what it is) and solve it that way. That was in Mint 8, though, and Mint 9 probably has the more detailed controls as def
turns out the eeePC identifies itself as having a stereo mic but only a mono is installed, and if signal comes in on both channels they cancel each other out
I'm pretty sure that there are actually two mics, but they're designed for background noise cancellation rather than stereo, and the linux drivers are doing it wrong (I have the same problem with my 1201n -- in linux, I can disable one channel to have the other channel and no noise cancellation which is very noisy; in windows, both channels are active, but it does noise cancellation properly, so the sound is crystal clear)
You mind giving us a link to that extension? I couldn't see anything on the official plugins page, and if no one can find it then it might as well not exist...
Sorry, wrong term. It's a Plugin, and they are located under Tools/Plugins on the Pidgin menu, the plugin you want is called "Voice/Video Settings".
Once you set up your webcam and mic, set up the account as XMPP, with your Gmail username (the bit before the @ only) as the user and gmail.com as the domain, and I have mine set up to force SSL and the connect port is 5222.
Hope this helps.
Unless your are behind a proxy server:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=602824 [gnome.org]
and Kopete. In fact are there any linux chat clients that doesn't already support this?
hopefully it'll work in Firefox too? I mean, Iceweasel?
It work too. I tested it with firefox right now.
While nice that this feature is coming to Linux , I really wish that they would have released a tarball, bunzip, or whatever so non Debian/Ubuntu users can also try it out.
Because they don't have the license to?
Or BSD the code so it can be used in clients that matter. Or better still
I don't want to use some other shitty client like Pidgin because Google doesn't want to follow the standard for some retarded reason.
% mkdir ~/temp
% dpkg -x somepackage.deb ~/temp/
Then move stuff to wherever you need it?
If they're not on a debianlike, they don't have dpkg
That said,
thanks , I will try this .
# emerge -pv dpkg
These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild U ] app-arch/dpkg-188.8.131.52 [1.15.2] USE="bzip2 nls unicode zlib -dselect% -test (-selinux%)" LINGUAS="-de% -es% -fr% -hu% -ja% -pl% -ru% -sv%" 4,729 kB
Total: 1 package (1 upgrade), Size of downloads: 4,729 kB
Maybe you won't have dpkg in your default install, but it surely will be available. Just like rpm is available in every distro.
$ alien -t google-talkplugin_current_i386.deb
Warning: alien is not running as root!
Warning: Ownerships of files in the generated packages will probably be wrong.
tar: Record size = 8 blocks
Warning: Skipping conversion of scripts in package google-talkplugin: postinst postrm
Warning: Use the --scripts parameter to include the scripts.
google-talkplugin-126.96.36.199.tgz generated
tar xvfz google-talkplugin-184.108.40.206.tgz
Now if only Pidgin could provide solid video chat functionality in their client..."
Forget (just) video chat! How about file & photo sharing (Yahoo I'm looking at you!), better social media integration and a stock appearance that wasn't fugly?
Frankly, if Kopete wasn't such a POS in *buntu-land for the past year, I would have ditched Pidgin a long time ago.
``Now if only Pidgin could provide solid video chat functionality in their client...''
I honestly think the Pidgin team isn't that interested in such features. Video chat was coded for it years ago (back when it was still called Gaim), but that code was never adopted. I guess it just isn't a very big deal, or else I expect people would have switched to software that does do video chat, like the gaim-vv fork, Kopete, or AMSN. I don't see that happening, though. And Skype got by without video support for years, too. The world at large doesn't really seem to care about video chat.
A FaceTime plugin for Pidgin/Adium would be very cool.
And if not a tarball, at least a LSB compatible binary!
I, and any of my friends or schoolmates do not use Ubuntu. We use OpenSUSE, Mandriva and some has the Fedora. Deb package is not enough at all and it actually is insult towards Linux users! Maybe Ubuntu fans does not care it, but when they actually would care about the whole F/OSS community instead only their own?
Thats why we do have LSB (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/lsb) so we can all choose the distribution what to use, instea
It would also be a "nice to have" if google could see to porting some version of their talk client so that I don't have to use my web-browser for the "official" plugin, that would be nice (though I've heard that empathy can do VV, I haven't had an opportunity to test that yet).
Oh, and while they're busy porting... how about a voice+video version for the Android, or at least voice.
Pidgin does Google Voice (including video) just fine. Others have reported that Empathy is also good at it.
Easy enough to install
Load the deb file into file-roller. Extract the data.tgz and control.tgz files. Move the files in the data.tgz file to their right places and run the postinst script from the control.tgz file.
Hmm, seems Google installs a daily cron job to check to see if there is an update for their plugin. Nice of them to do, but I'm not sure I'd want software updates until I decide to do them.
using the alien utility
alien -r google-talkplugin_current_amd64.deb
creates google-talkplugin-188.8.131.52-2.x86_64.rpm
rpm -i google-talkplugin-126.96.36.199-2.x86_64.rpm
a few dependency issues
libcrypto.so.0.9.8 is needed by google-talkplugin-18.104.22.168-2.x86_64
libcrypto.so.0.9.8(OPENSSL_0.9.8) is needed by google-talkplugin-184.108.40.206-2.x86_64
libssl.so.0.9.8 is needed by google-talkplugin-184.108.40.206-2.x86_64
libssl.so.0.9.8(OPENSSL_0.9.8) is needed by google-talkplug
I think it's silly that one of Google's communication products doesn't work on their communication OS. It's especially raw now that Fring and Skype are splitsville.
Thus spake the master programmer: "When a program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"


text:
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
So What Are We Celebrating?
"Happy Winter Event"
"And Happy Winter Event to you."
Or this?
"Happy Winter Solstice"
Or how about Channuka and Christmas?
Happy Channuka and Merry Christmas everybody.
And as for all you ACLU types that don't like it-enjoy your snowplows.
22 comments:
- Findalis said...
Have friends who celebrate Winter Solstice (nothing like Pagans to teach the world that moonshine, nudity and outdoors in -3 weather do not mix).
Celebrating the snowplow for keeping the road clear these past 48 hours (I don't think it will ever stop snowing. So much for Global Warming!).
Have a Merry Christmas Gary.
- December 24, 2008 at 12:53 PM
- Lance Christian Johnson said...
Gary, I just got back from a four day cruise where I couldn't escape from Christmas music - and I'm not just talking the religiously neutral "Jingle Bells" type of songs - all sorts of stuff about Christ being our savior and all that stuff. (And no, I'm not opposed to Christmas music - just opposed to hearing nothing BUT Christmas music, including a lot of songs that simply aren't very good. There are plenty of Christmas tunes that I enjoy just fine - like Elvis's "Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me".)
Christmas is alive and well. Just because auto dealers call it a Winter Event, and the schools call it Winter Break, it's not going anywhere. Please stop perpetuating Fox News's "War on Christmas" myth. Remember, most of O'Reilly's examples turned out to be completely bogus. Personally, I have an easier time believing that a carpenter walked on water than believing that there's some sort of a war on the holiday.
Oh, and Merry Christmas - that's what I say to people, despite the fact that I'm one of those "secular progressives".
- December 24, 2008 at 1:42 PM
- Linnea Hannigan said...
Festivus! Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us!
Merry Christmas, Gary!
Enjoy a memory of the good old days:
- December 24, 2008 at 3:51 PM
- Gary Fouse said...
And to Linnea, Findalis and Lance,
Merry Christmas.
- December 24, 2008 at 5:11 PM
- Lance Christian Johnson said...
Wow, Findalis - you sure do have a clear grasp on the concept of global warming, don't you? It's cold in winter, ergo it's not happening.
C'mon, you guys, even the Republicans are starting to see the handwriting on the wall with this one. While the specifics regarding global climate change are still debatable, you guys are starting to come off as flat-earthers.
- December 24, 2008 at 6:33 PM
- Gary Fouse said...
Don't be so quick to judge who will go down in history as the "Flatearthers". Remember 30 years ago, they were warning us a new ice age was on the way. Remember also that the hottest years in the past century were in the 1930s.
I am not taking a position on this stuff, but I still say the issue has not yet been decided-except for buffoons like Al Gore.
Final point: Refer to my home page-upper right hand corner.
- December 24, 2008 at 8:04 PM
- Lance Christian Johnson said...
Remember 30 years ago, they were warning us a new ice age was on the way. Remember also that the hottest years in the past century were in the 1930s.
Gary, the whole "they were warning us about an ice age" argument is totally bogus. There was one article in a magazine from what I understand. That's hardly the same thing as what's going on with the warnings about global climate change (a more accurate term).
And the whole example from the 1930s misses the point as well. It's not like the Earth is only 100 years old. We're talking about average temperatures over many centuries here. Of course, there are bound to be a few anomolies here and there. (Of course, this is a bit out of my field of expertise - you should ask a science teacher that I work with - he had some pretty quick and thorough responses to those points.)
If those are your two best arguments, you really need to do some reading. I suggest something like Scientific American instead of listening to right-wing pundits - who are pretty much on the whole scientifically illiterate. (A bold statement to be sure, but considering how many of them don't understand that Intelligent Design isn't science, it's a rather fitting statement.)
And you guys REALLY need to drop the whole Al Gore thing. He was using his celebrity to bring attention to an issue that he feels is important. It's not like he was just making stuff up. Sure, there is some debate as to just how much of an impact humans are having and just how drastic things can get, but facts are facts. The only debate is his conclusions (which aren't really his conclusions - just the ones that certain scientists have predicted.)
Final point: Refer to my home page-upper right hand corner.
That is to what I was referring. I recently read that the North Pole had less ice this summer than has ever been recorded. Sure, penguins live in the South Pole, but you are aware of how the ice caps are melting, right? I mean, that's not even debatable. Perhaps you should interview some actual penguins.
Anyway, this whole thing just confirms my belief that "conservatives" are, by and large, ignorant of the scientific process at best, anti-science at worst.
Still, you've gotta wonder about the whole thing when even the Republicans are starting to jump on the bandwagon now. Sure, Sarah Palin tried to have her cake and eat it too by saying that we don't need to know what causes it, but she said that it was something that she was very aware of as a governor of Alaska.
I'm not saying that you need to go out and buy a canoe for your commute, but when you flippantly dismiss the whole thing...well, there's no nice way to say it - it just comes off as ignorant.
- December 24, 2008 at 9:12 PM
- Findalis said...
Lance you forget that the Earth is billions of years old and at one time both Antarctica and the Arctic were totally ice free all year round. Trees grew at the South Pole and animals thrived there.
The Earth is in no danger of being destroyed. It will not shatter into a million pieces, there is no black hole coming out of CERN. The Earth will recover from whatever man does to her. After all Earth has recovered from worse ecological disasters than a bit of so-called global warming.
- December 24, 2008 at 9:44 PM
- Gary Fouse said...
How did we get onto this global warming thing? That was not the premise of my piece. Anyway, like I say, I don't know what the truth is. I just say that there is disagreement out there. When Al Gore says that the debate is over-that is a misstatement. When he tells us all to ride our bikes to work while he flies around the world in a private jet, I say he is a hypocrite.
I would also say that before we jump on the UN bandwagen and pass all kinds of laws that inhibit our development-while leaving countries like China and India to sail merrily along- we had better be sure of what we are talking about.
I have no problem with doing whatever we can to have a cleaner environment. I'm all for it. But I do think some of these radical environmentalists out there have a hidden agenda, which is to drag America down to the level of the rest of the world-economically and politically. (I know. I found one of them under my bed just last night.)
And don't worry about hurting my feelings when you call me ignorant. I will have the last laugh when you go to the North Pole in your swimsuit.
BTW, how did you like my ball park piece? Pretty environmentally-friendly, wouldn't you say?
- December 24, 2008 at 9:46 PM
- Gary Fouse said...
Good point, Findalis.
Those volcano eruptions, like Krakatoa put more bad things in the air that all of mankind combined*.
* Rush Limbaugh (or maybe it was Sean Hannity)
- December 24, 2008 at 9:54 PM
- Lance Christian Johnson said...
Wow...quoting Limbaugh and/or Hannity on science. What are their qualifications again? It's not like they just make stuff up - oh wait, it IS just like that.
- December 25, 2008 at 6:22 AM
- Ingrid said...
Gary, I just have to comment on this. You cannot be a Christian and wish a happy Chanukka. The Jews hate Jesus Christ, as I was told by a Jew, and Chanukka has nothing to do with Jesus. By straddling the fence, you are not serving Christ and the God of the Bible. You cannot serve two masters. Either you are a Christian or you are not. That doesn't mean that you have to hate other people or their religion, but you have to take a stand. Either you believe that Christ is the son of God or you don't. The Jews don't believe he is. Make up your mind who you believe in.
- December 25, 2008 at 10:53 AM
- Gary Fouse said...
Lots of Christians wish Jews a Happy Channuka. It is merely an expression of respect. While I am not one of those super-sensitive people, it wouldn't really be proper to wish someone a Merry Christmas if you know they are not Christian. I just want to see "Merry Christmas" banned, thats' all.
As for me, the major difference between Christianity and Judaism is the Person of Jesus Christ as son of God and savior. But that doesn't mean that I can't respect Judaism-though I may not ascribe to it as a religion.
And I don't believe that Jews hate Christ.
- December 25, 2008 at 11:25 AM
- Findalis said...
Jews don't hate Christ. He was a Jew. It was the perversion of that fact that has led to this impression.
As a Jew I wish my Christian friends a Merry Christmas, and they in turn wish me a Happy Chanukah. It is done in respect for each of ours religion.
- December 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM
- Ingrid said...
Christ wasn't born on Christmas, so whatever one wishes on this particular pagan holiday is just a friendly gesture. I am just saying, as a Christian, one needs to take a stand for the son of God or call oneself something else.
Findalis, you might not hate Jesus, but your religion doesn't recognize him as the son of God, neither do many other religions.
I was told by a Jew that Jews believe Jesus was an impostor, a liar, definitely not the Messiah. How do you feel about a person like that? Do you respect him? Do you not despise him? Maybe you are not taking your religion very seriously. Just asking, not judging.
- December 25, 2008 at 2:51 PM
- Findalis said...
Jews didn't and still do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. And neither do I, for he didn't fulfill every prophecy that the Messiah is suppose to. One being that the Ark is suppose to return to Jerusalem before the Messiah arrives. Nor in Judaism does one need to be saved. It is not a tenet of our faith (nor ever was). That is a Greco-Roman idea.
It it not my views on the divinity of Jesus that you are questioning, Ingrid, but your own anger at those who will not accept your religion as the truth.
- December 25, 2008 at 3:40 PM
- Lance Christian Johnson said...
While it's true that Jews don't hate Jesus, it is true that: Scots hate Odin, Zoroastrians hate Ganesha, Mexicans hate Achilles, and Samoans hate Superman.
In all seriousness though, I'd like to respond to the following:
As for me, the major difference between Christianity and Judaism is the Person of Jesus Christ as son of God and savior.
There's a lot more to it than that. I once used to see Judaism as kinda being like a Jesus-less Christianity, but there's a whole lot more to it than that. Generally speaking, Jews have a completely different way of viewing God. Also, Jews tend to emphasize traditions and rituals moreso than Christians, who emphasize that what you believe is what's most important. That's why you get a lot of Jews who don't necessarily even believe all of the supernatural aspects of their religion, but they still observe all of the holidays and whatnot.
At least, that's my understanding. Findalis, please correct me if I'm wrong. (Although another thing I know is that with Jews, it's the same as any other group, y'all don't agree on absolutely everything!)
- December 25, 2008 at 10:38 PM
- Lance Christian Johnson said...
By straddling the fence, you are not serving Christ and the God of the Bible. You cannot serve two masters. Either you are a Christian or you are not.
See, this is why not believing in any of it is just so darned easy!
- December 25, 2008 at 10:39 PM
- Ingrid said...
Findalis, I am really not angry at all. I only believe, I don't know if I am right. I just think that people should stick up for what they believe in, if they claim to be Christian, they should act accordingly, if at all possible. Many so called Christians don't know what that means. I think I do.
- December 26, 2008 at 2:52 AM
- Findalis said...
There's a lot more to it than that. I once used to see Judaism as kinda being like a Jesus-less Christianity, but there's a whole lot more to it than that. Generally speaking, Jews have a completely different way of viewing God. Also, Jews tend to emphasize traditions and rituals moreso than Christians, who emphasize that what you believe is what's most important. That's why you get a lot of Jews who don't necessarily even believe all of the supernatural aspects of their religion, but they still observe all of the holidays and whatnot.
We emphasize our traditions and rituals for they have sustained us through out the years and preserved our faith in times of persecution. But they are not the basis of our faith.
We believe that you have a personal relationship with God. You don't need a intermediary to have this relationship. That it is a one-on-one basis. For each of us, Judaism is a personal, spiritual growth. One that is started in childhood and never ends until death.
We are commanded to follow the 613 unwritten commandments or rules from God. You can find a list of them at 613 Commandments.
Judaism is a religion of love. God's love for us, and our love for each other. In the 10 Commandments, God commands us to love our neighbor. There are no conditions on that love. Very few religions on Earth actually have that commandment. And yet God has told the Hebrew people to wipe out your neighbor too (See the Book of Joshua). I sometimes wonder about God.
I hope this was helpful.
- December 26, 2008 at 10:55 AM
- Lance Christian Johnson said...
Good stuff, I recommend the book The Year of Living Biblically to anybody, despite their religious affiliations. In it, the author, who's basically an agnostic Jew, tries to live life according to The Bible - as literally as possible. One of his dilemmas is trying to follow the 613 Commandments that you mentioned.
In the 10 Commandments, God commands us to love our neighbor.
Really? Not to be a stickler, but I know the 10 Commandments, and that's not one of them. Perhaps it's one of the 613. (I know that Jesus said that, but obviously it is not that to which you were referring.)
- December 26, 2008 at 1:03 PM
- Findalis said...
You're right, but God's injunction of Exodus 20:
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Or Deuteronomy 5:
20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour.
21 Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Is the a Commandment of love. The Talmud teaches us:
Nachmanides on "Be Loving to Your Neighbor"
The reason behind, "be-loving to your neighbor (as one) like yourself" is in fact an exaggeration for no human's heart can accept loving one's fellow as one loves one's own soul, and furthermore Rabbi Akiva already learned that "your life comes before the life of your friend."
It means that it is a mitzvah to love one's friend through all the good things that he loves himself, and it is possible that since the verse says "to your neighbor" (instead of merely stating "loving one's neighbor like yourself") The verse is comparing this love to the commandment to love the sojourner (Leviticus 19:34 where it says that you should be-loving to him as yourself) i.e., to make the love of both comparable in his mind. For sometimes one loves his neighbor with the things that are known to enhance his material happiness, but not with wisdom, and qualities that are similar to it. If, however, he loves him and wishes him well with everything he desires. And that his beloved friend should be blessed with happiness, property, honor, knowledge and wisdom, while not comparing himself to his friend, by wishing in his heart that he himself should be more than his friend in all that is good. For there should not be this kind of petty jealousy, as the verse commands, "like one does for one's self", and thus he should not make limits to his love. Thus it says of Jonathan (regarding David) "He loved him as he loved his soul." (I Samuel 20:17) How? Because he had removed the attribute of jealousy from his heart, and thus the following verse promises , "And you will rule over Israel."
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a
Once there was a gentile who came before Shammai, and said to him: "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot. Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding. The same fellow came before Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."
I hope this has been helpful.
- December 26, 2008 at 1:51 PM


text:
Text Size Large SizeMedium SizeSmall Size Color Scheme Black SchemeWhite SchemeGrey SchemePaper Scheme
Dream on through the eyes of a moonsugar addict
Spin off from Charmingals story. This follows me and my two friends when en route to Forks we end up in Texas.
1. Chapter 1
Rating 5/5 Word Count 624 Review this Chapter
"Are we there yet?" I moan. I've been sat here for at least two hours and my bum's starting to go numb.
"You asked that 10 minutes ago" My friend Catkin replies, "and we're still in the airport.
"Oh yeah so we are" I look around at the glass ceiling and windows. It's raining outside so they're making funny shadows on the marble floor.
"God Tash I thought you were supposed to be good at travelling" Kordelia, who we all call Kordy or Delia, says sounding tired 'cause I think I might have woken her up.
"I am good! I just don't like waiting"
"We wouldn't have to wait if we hadn't missed the plane with the others" Catkin looks at me like it's my fault.
"Hey! I said it would take a long time to get my boats through the revolving doors and it's not my fault we couldn't find a trolley" I protest looking at my bright pink kayak sitting on the trolley beside me.
"I'm just saying maybe if you had left your stupid boat back at the house you could buy a new one when we get there and save us all this trouble!" She yells back at me.
I'm shocked. How dare she suggest that I leave my boat? Thankfully before a full scale argument starts Kordy quickly cuts in.
"How about we go see if our flight is putting the bags on yet?"
We all stand up with Kordy and Catkin taking the two trolleys with our luggage on and me taking the trolley with the boat and all my paddling kit on it. Ignoring the strange looks we're being given by other people we walk to the line. Well I ignore the looks, Catkins stormed on ahead but it's beginning to scare Kordy.
"Taaash. They're all looking at us." She looks around paranoid.
I'm used to this so I smile at the few people who make eye contact. I think of how we must look. Kordy skinny as ever with her skinny jeans and hoodie. And me in my chunky vans, board shorts and hoodie saying GB team. I'd taken a tip from a friend and worn my GB kit so that they didn't just assume I was an amateur and would hopefully look after my kayak.
"Yeah don't worry about it. It's the boat" I reply smiling at a boyfriend and girlfriend who both look away.
"Can we eat them?" She asks
"No because then they would think that all kayakers eat people and they would hate everyone" I'm always careful to look happy and approachable when I'm kayaking and with my boat. One of the rules my sponsors have. Even when I've had a bad day on the water I always smile to people until I find a quiet spot to generally cry and get angry.
We finally catch up with Catkin who is standing thinking looking at the screen above the person taking the bags.
"Do you think that this is the place?" She asks all signs of her anger gone.
The television screen says Forks USA.
"Sure" I say " How many other Forks can there be?"
We join the queue. It takes a while to get to the front. We load our bags on before being directed to the heavy luggage section to put my boat on.
"I still feel like something's wrong" Catkin says. Kordy nods in agreement."Oh come on what's the worst that can happen?" I say lifting my boat, heavy with all the kit I've shoved inside it on the conveyer belt. " We end up somewhere stupid like Texas? We'll find our way to Forks eventually" I shrug.


text:
How socially responsible is your investing?
Is your investment ethically sound and socially responsible?
A new survey by consulting firm Mercer finds that only 9% of more than 5,000 investment strategies achieve the highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings.
Socially responsible investing (SRI) involves buying shares in companies that manage ESG risks. For example, firms that make clean technologies are favoured, while businesses which pollute the environment, are complicit in human rights abuses or nuclear arms production are shunned. All this sounds good, but the performance of such investments has been somewhat mixed — meaning being good doesn't always mean doing well. But the SRI industry is hoping that greater involvement of funds, especially long-term ones such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds — may generate flows into the sector and lead to better performance.
Of the 5,175 strategies assigned ESG ratings, 57% are in listed equities, 20% fixed income and the remaining 23% across real estate, private equity, hedge funds and others.
Private equity has the highest proportion of highly rated ESG strategies, while hedge funds and fixed income had the fewest. From a geographic perspective, emerging markets and Asia-Pacific have the highest proportion of top ratings, while Canada — and this may come as a surprise to some — has the least.
"There is still much work to be done by the investment community to fully integrate responsible investment practices. We would expect the number of highly rated strategies to increase over the next few years as more and more investment professionals come to recognise the sound investment and competitive reasons for active ownership," said Andrew Kirton, Mercer's global chief investment officer.
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/


text:
The dating world is strange and competitive: I've had enough bad Saturday nights to fill a book. But what's more shocking is how expensive it can be.
Putting aside the who-pays-when politics, the dating lifestyle alone is pricey–and every single woman should have a separate dating budget. Here's the breakdown for a city gal like me:
|Mani-pedis, waxing
|$50–$100 per month
|Date-worthy clothes, shoes, accessories
|$500+ per year (My writer's budget means no Carrie Bradshaw closet!)
|$10+ per late-night cab ride (about $30 a week)
|Online dating fees
|Match.com: $21+ per month for 6 months
|Going out—to a bar, classes, wherever men are
|$50 per month
|Approx. $300 per month
Is my quote-unquote love life worth $300 a month? Shouldn't I put that into my retirement account or emergency fund?
In fact, I do put 10% of every paycheck into savings. But dating is a necessity. Spending this money is an investment in my (happily coupled) future and it adds value to my life.
How can I afford it? Sometimes I can't—and my budget will force me into a dating break. Then my wallet and I spend a cozy night at home, together.
Kiss & tell. How much does your love life cost you?
Simone Grant is a writer/blogger and social media consultant in New York City. She blogs regularly at Sex, Lies and Dating in the City.


text:
How-To: Fake Short Hair Like Rosario Dawson
I can't say enough about the hairstyle (and gorgeous earrings) we saw on Rosario Dawson at the premiere for Seven Pounds in LA. At first glance, it looked like a chopped change from her recent Lucky cover but, once I zoomed in, I realized it was a nip and tuck.This style's a baby step for commitmentphobes who want a cut, but aren't quiiite there yet. The trick to the illusion of short hair: large hair pins. Taking a mix of the classic pins (the ones that are rigidly straight with ridges) and the ones that look more like a bendy "v", tuck sections of your hair starting with the bottom and loosely layer the top until it's all pinned under.
Why jumbo? Find out when you
Back when I chatted with the stylist who created Molly Sims messy updo, he told me that "a girl's necessity is always five long hair pins in the bottom of her purse, just in case." It totally makes sense now – why do with 20 what you can do with five – and, if oversized pins can make me go from long to short without the scissors, then I'm attached to the products below.