text:
The Department of Education's (DOE) push for City Council approval of the project was slowed last week when Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley struck a rare agreement with the DOE to extend the review process for the school one more month.
The last-minute power play buys the councilwoman added time to continue her negotiation for changes to the current school proposal to ensure that local teenagers are given enrollment priority. Crowley will have to move fast, however.
Just three days after the Council's Land Use Committee decided to postpone voting on the school, on February 26 the education department's School Construction Authority (SCA) went ahead with a previously scheduled public hearing to inform residents of the agency's plans to use eminent domain to acquire the proposed site for the school. The hearing indicated the DOE's desire to move forward with the project despite the stalled City Council approval process.
The SCA, the DOE's division in charge of school construction, plans to tear down a building at 74th Street and 57th Avenue in Maspeth to build the proposed 1,100-seat high school.
Crowley and Community Board 5 members have strongly opposed the project unless it is zoned to give local students enrollment priority over students from other neighborhoods and school districts in Queens, where many high schools are already overcrowded.
The DOE, which has a standing policy against locally zoning high schools, has offered to give priority to District 24 students. DOE spokesman Will Havemann said this would ensure that a majority of students at the new school would come from the district, if not specifically from Maspeth.
"We have an opportunity to build a great school that will benefit our community and help alleviate the dire overcrowding in public high schools throughout Queens," Crowley said in a statement after winning the extended review period for the school. "However, by refusing neighborhood preference to local students, the DOE's proposed plans for the new Maspeth high school do not address the infrastructure and education needs of our community."
Crowley said the extra month allows for renewed dialogue between the city, DOE and the Maspeth community to reach an agreement on the school.
"I look forward to working with parents, community leaders and DOE in the coming weeks on a new plan that is the best possible solution for our community and kids," Crowley said.
At the SCA's February 26th public hearing, dozens of Maspeth residents, as well as several members of community boards 4 and 5, opposed the authority's plans to seize the property through eminent domain, and harshly criticized the DOE for not locally zoning the school.
"We are sick and tired of the city coming and eminent domain-ing property to build schools and other city services," said Nick Pennachio, a member of CB4.
Anthony Moreno, another CB4 member, said the new school would strain a neighborhood that already has too many public schools concentrated within blocks of each other.
"Why does Maspeth have to be the school campus for school district 24?" Moreno asked at the hearing. "Maspeth is not the dumping grounds for all the kids in New York City. Yes they need an education, but they don't have to have it here in Maspeth."
A much smaller contingent of parents and educators spoke in favor of the school, arguing it would alleviate overcrowding in neighboring Grover Cleveland and Newtown High Schools if the new school is locally zoned.
"Queens high schools are busting at the seams," said Dermot Smyth, a Maspeth public school teacher who spoke on behalf of the United Federation of Teachers. "The children of this community of Queens have a right to the seats in this high school."
A majority of those opposed to the school that spoke at the hearing were older residents without school-aged children, but parents of students said they would welcome a new school.
"I need that high school in this neighborhood for my child to be safe," said Tricia Puleo, whose young child currently commutes to a school in another part of Queens. If the high school isn't built, Puleo wondered, "Where am I going to put him?"
Marge Kolb, president of District 24's PTA president's council, an organization representing all the PTA groups in the school district, defended the city's decision to use eminent domain to build the school.
"I'm not a fan of random eminent domain, but certainly for a public use such as a school," said Kolb, "that's an excellent use." Kolb said if local students are given priority, there are more than enough Maspeth families ready and waiting to enroll their children the new school. "We can fill this high school with kids that live in the area," Kolb said. "There is a need for the high school."
As Kolb spoke, the contentious hearing, punctuated by rude exchanges between advocates and opponents of the school, erupted as one enraged, out-of-control community board member shouted Kolb down for her support. The SCA representative threatened to close the hearing, and CB5 District Manager Gary Giordano had to step in to restore order.
Havemann said DOE exhausted all other options before turning to eminent domain law to try and purchase the selected school site.
Havemann said the DOE would work on the school proposal with Crowley over the next month, but he stressed that by decreasing the school's proposed size from 1,600 to 1,100 students and offering district enrollment priority, the DOE has already addressed many of the community's concerns and is eager to build the school.
"We believe it's essential that we get this done," Havemann said.


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How are your rates?
How hard is it to get a 3-phase drop for your new business?
Are you really going to have a shortage this winter?
Do the tax dollars you've put into this feel like they were decently spent?
People with less-progressive powergirds would like to know.
German here.
For private households, rates in 2011 were (on average) approx. 0.25 €/kWh (= 31 US $ / kWh). 0.036 € of this (0.045 US $) goes to renewable energy sources (mostly wind and solar), which is subsidized by the electricity consumers (NOT by the goverment, as some seem to think). In total, around 45% of the price is taxes and subsidies. Remember that we use less than US households though - the average 3 person household uses approx. 3500 kWh/a.
No idea about the 3-phase drops for new businesses... but I never heard of anyone not getting connected. New buildings _always_ get connected (by law). Germany is a pretty densly packed country, which helps a lot when doing infrastructure.
There will not be a shortage in the winter. There are still plenty of reserve plants, and the european grid is pretty well connected. Some 5 GW less will not make it collapse.
now there's another difference. am I correct in reading that as a portion of everyones bill goes to renewable costs? probably in a weighted contribution/costs manner (ie, logical manner)
cause that's way different than most of the US (in fact not heard of anywhere in us doing it that way, though could be wrong).
what they tend to do here (least the places i've lived) instead is you pay the normal rate for juice, however its made locally. and then if you want it from a "green source" cause youre "environmental
Your electric company is required to buy a proportion of its energy from renewable sources. That costs more than fossil electricity, hence the indirect subsidy.
Pretty sure my electric company isnt required to do any such thing. For one they dont purchase any energy.
They produce and supply all the juice around here, and only just recently completed a massive windfarm in west OK.
Your electric company is required to buy a proportion of its energy from renewable sources. That costs more than fossil electricity, hence the indirect subsidy.
Just remember that EU recognizes burning freshly cut TREES as Biofuel. Burning trees in Coal plant is a "clever" way of bypassing regulations and becoming an eco plant (you only need fixed percentage of biofuel in coal plant to become green).
what they tend to do here (least the places i've lived) instead is you pay the normal rate for juice, however its made locally. and then if you want it from a "green source" cause youre "environmentally conscious", you can pay extra for electricy that comes from a green source...cause it's somehow different from normal electricity. and there was a big scandal recently cause someone found out they were paying the premium and it couldnt be determined just how much of their juice was from the regular old power plant down the road, cause the systems arent seperate.
Since it's all one big grid, you don't need to know where *your* electricity is generated to know that you're taking advantage of "green" energy. If people are paying for 1MWh of "green" power and some green plant somewhere is injecting 1MWh of green energy into the grid, then they are getting what they are paying for.
It doesn't matter if most of the power to your house comes from the coal plant down the street and most of the power from the green goes to the industrial plant next door to the "green" plant. Your higher "green" rates are paying for that "green" generator to be hooked into the grid and generating power, reducing demand from non-green sources.
It's called "voting with your wallet." There's only one power carrying wire going into your house, and it's owned and operated by one company. But that company can still offer you the choice of supporting renewable or more environmentally friendly sources. If they aren't balancing their energy purchases accordingly it's fraud and should be punished.
The situation is the same as buying a domestically made product. There's probably nothing really different other than the price, but you might do it to supp
I keep my house at 74 in Texas, which ranges to 100+ (Fahrenheit) in the summer, and I rarely ever go above 3500. Are you sure you're 3 person house is lower than the average here in the U.S.?
As to whether or not it's worth it, the value is realized when oil availability decreases. Any new investments will have a very large up-front cost, as well as a higher cost for any new technologies (solar is a good example here where the ROI is rather low).
Wind is a different story though, and solar is rapidly changin
You're way under the average for the U.S. then. In 2010, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,496 kWh [eia.gov]
Wow! I just got my yearly bill yesterday, my consumption in the last 12 months was 959 kWh. (I'm in Germany, this is electricity from pure renewable sources (mostly hydroelectric), I'm paying 22 Euro a month). OK, no AC here, no electrical heating either (except for water). I've been fairly power-conscient since moving last year though, mostly LED lighting, hardly any standby power for anything and I got rid of nearly all electrically powered kitchen utilities etc.
Germany has a very high standard of living, and is a fairly cold climate. Every time someone mentions the future of energy some American always says that no matter what the only acceptable option is the only that does not involve them reducing energy consumption at all because somehow watts = quality of life.
The US needs to get its act together on energy efficiency and catch up with the rest of the world. Maybe then people will take energy policy suggestions from the US seriously.
European houses tend to be much better insulated than American houses. Certainly in the UK, very few people have air conditioning. In southern Europe it is probably more common, but I don't think it is that common in Germany.
European houses tend to be much better insulated than American houses. Certainly in the UK, very few people have air conditioning. In southern Europe it is probably more common, but I don't think it is that common in Germany.
Looking at Wikipedia, the average temperatures in the UK (Belfast) are around 30f lower than they are here (Florida). I'm sure that has a much larger effect than insulation. If temps were 30 degrees cooler here, I probably would never use my air conditioner (or my pool!). Those two are the biggest hitters on my electric usage by a wide margin.
Then explain to me, why, in years that we have a somewhat long period where temperatures range pretty close to 60 here in Florida, does my power bill go to almost nothing? And, when I cover my windows in the dead of winter, the heat runs a lot less? It may get pretty hot in Florida, but it also gets pretty cold in Germany. I also used to live in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. With a well-insulated house up there, your heat or AC ran very little. If you had a badly insulated house (as my friend's
rates in 2011 were (on average) approx. 0.25 â/kWh (= 0.31 US $ / kWh) [corrected]. 0.036 â of this (0.045 US $) goes to renewable energy sources (mostly wind and solar), which is subsidized by the electricity consumers (NOT by the goverment, as some seem to think). In total, around 45% of the price is taxes and subsidies.
By way of comparison, average retail electricity rate in the U.S. is about 0.11 USD / kWh. It varies by region but that's the national average,
> How are your rates?
~ 0.22 Euro-cents/kWh
> How hard is it to get a 3-phase drop for your new business?
3-phase is standard, every home has it.
>Are you really going to have a shortage this winter?
I don't thinks so. The grid here is rock-stable and there are reserves in the European grid.
> Do the tax dollars you've put into this feel like they were decently spent?
The government is not spening, the bill is payed by the (private) consumers.
Rates: on average €0.25/kWh
3-phase drop: is standard for every premise, even a 1-bedroom apartment has it
shortage in winter: no, Germany has been a net exporter of electricity for ages. Talks about shortages are usually corporate FUD.
To clarify: there is no tax euro spent on the electrical infrastructure. The conversion to renewable energy is financed by payment guarantees, which in turn are financed by the consumer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Renewable_Energy_Act [wikipedia.org].
3-phase question -> funny . In Slovakia (old east block - 150miles from GER) you get 3-phase to 95% of apartments/houses so its no isue( germany will be propably the same)
I see you are from US by your question. US power is mess as your Internet and Telecom providers. (blakout in NYC-dowtown - single point of failure.14th st)
Our power distribution is different then yours. We dont have transformers for every house, but only for bigger areas transformers owned by power company and therefore by default its
I'm not intimate with all the details of US power distribution, but my understanding is that the norm is that the long-distance lines operate very high voltage from the generating plants to the local substations, the local substations step it down to high voltage and distribute it to neighbourhoods, and the neighbourhoods have multiple transformers that step down to consumer voltage, with 1 local transformer per every 10 houses (give or take). No transformers on the house, just split-phase to provide 110 an
...usage rates compare with other nations?
How much usage do they have compared to what's generated?
Actually I wasnt making a point per se. Just the first thing my engineer brain latched onto cause thats how I analyze things: how to quantify the statements in relation to others. For all I knew they could be generating trillions of watts and using none cause everyone uses coal. I know thats not really the case, but just saying, having never been to Germany I have no idea, though I am told europe in general uses far less energy per household than we in the US do.
Two usage examples I know of off top my head:
Ask, and the internet provides:
which has exceeded 3 trillion dollars. I'd gladly trade the money spent on war for a stable power grid that doesn't go down at the drop of a leaf
which has exceeded 3 trillion dollars. I'd gladly trade the money spent on war for a stable power grid that doesn't go down at the drop of a leaf
Source? Last I saw it was just under $1.4 trillion cumulative for the last 11 years...
Hundreds of billions for something that you can sell and gives the country a renewable supply of energy?
That's a bargain compared to all the wars, bailouts, pork projects, mansions for the few, etc. the rest of the world is "buying" with it's tax money.
mansions for the few
What makes you think that spending hundreds of billions of dollars on something won't involve at least some real success stories among the thousands of businesses with whom that money is spent? Why do you not want people to be successful in an industry that everyone says they wish was more attractive?
Actually, most of the European bailouts is paid by Germany. Also, total costs are not comparable, only per capita ones.
Actually, Germany is somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of the percentage of renewable sources in the electricity mix. The problem is that they also consume a lot of electricity (industry and population), so their consumption really matters in absolute terms. That's why it is an important country -- if they can pull it off, it means that other large industrial producers like France and the UK also can.
Keep in mind that that report
This is not a victory for renewables, but for democracy. German citizens want to go renewable enough that they are willing to swallow the costs. Germany is a rich enough country to do that, and rich countries can accomplish amazing things when they have the will to do so. That doesn't mean renewable became any more viable economically, or that other poorer countries have any chance of replicating this feat.
Renewables are economically viable, compared to other energy sources like nuclear. The tired old claim that they are not is just FUD, unless you are willing to state that in fact nuclear and perhaps coal (if you include healthcare costs) are as well.
This is not a victory for renewables, but for democracy. German citizens want to go renewable enough that they are willing to swallow the costs. Germany is a rich enough country to do that, and rich countries can accomplish amazing things when they have the will to do so. That doesn't mean renewable became any more viable economically, or that other poorer countries have any chance of replicating this feat.
I agree with the first part of what you wrote, but not the second. Germany has purchased so much solar PV that it has pushed the PV industry far down the experience curve. This results in far lower PV prices for everyone else.
I've been saying for years now that basically the entire world should be sending a Christmas card to Germany every year. The Germans took a HUGE economic hit that wound up making solar PV much more cost effective for everyone.
No, they are not an example of good, forward looking policy. They are a horrible example.
They are replacing established, 0 carbon emission, nuclear power plants with other sources that have either higher emissions because of their construction (wind, solar) or with sources that just plain have carbon emissions from their operation (natural gas). I know natural gas is way better than coal, but they're replacing nuclear with gas which increases carbon emissions.
If we want to impact global warming we have to
Wind power is the best thing ever happened to Gas powerstations manufacturers.
For every wind farm, you need a gas powerstation of the same size to compensate when the wind is not blowing.
So, over one year, wind power rejects more CO2 than a nuclear plant of same capacity.
"For every wind farm, you need a gas powerstation of the same size to compensate when the wind is not blowing.
that's a complete lack of understanding energy distribution.
I mean, it's simply..stupid.
Wind and solar don't have the capacity and it will take a loooooong road of building for them to even come close to replacing other forms of electricity generation.
That's exactly what we are trying to disprove. Yes, there are immense engineering challenges, but germany has a long and distiguished history of great engineers and I believe we can do it. It's like the moon landing in the 60s for the US, the goal is distant and we're not exactly sure how we are going to reach it, but the fact that the target stands is inspiring a whole generation of engineers to do what seems impossible. Now, the political challenges are a completly different topic...
If we want to impact global warming we have to use nuclear power. Wind and solar don't have the capacity and it will take a loooooong road of building for them to even come close to replacing other forms of electricity generation.
This is utterly wrong. Solar is one of the ONLY technologies that will make it possible to continue energy usage trends for the next century. We couldn't practically build nuclear power plants fast enough to keep up with growing demand. Wind is also a very good option, which should be exploited as much as possible.
While I support nuclear power plants in general, I'm not so sure Germany made the wrong decision. They made the decision in the wake of the Fukishima disaster, and *if* their investigation determined their own nuclear plants are vulnerable to some natural disaster or another, shutting them down BEFORE a disaster happens is ideal. Waiting until AFTER a disaster happens, and only *then* shutting them down, is the worst possible outcome for everyone.
The decision was not just because of Fukushima, it was for economic reasons as well. Nuclear is expensive. It costs a lot to build, a lot to operate safely, a lot to insure, a lot to decommission and a lot to deal with the waste. You can argue that it shouldn't cost that much but the fact is it does. I don't know the history in Germany but the UK government tried to sell the fully functional nuclear plants it built in the early 80s and no one would buy them. In the end they couldn't give them away, they actually had to pay companies to take them and agree to pay all the decommissioning and clean-up costs too.
There is also the opportunity to get ahead with renewables. The market is rapidly expanding and Germany wants to be one of the big players. High end engineering is their thing.
With regards to Fukushima the issue is not so much that German plants are vulnerable to large earthquakes or tsunami, it is that even in a modern first world country you just can't trust the guys running the plants. They will grow complacent after decades of safe operation, and they will put profit before safety, and they will probably screw up their handling of a disaster as well.
Exporting all those MWh is great, but are they just importing it back at night?
Of course not, they use solar power at night.
No, they all go to sleep precisely at 8pm. This is Germany we're talking about.
1) Based on the summary numbers, Germany basically has the equivalent of 1.4 Gigawatts of spare capacity. Likely more as I'm sure they don't sell 100% of their excess capacity. This works out to enough to power about 1 million American homes.
2) The cost of the renewable energy looks like it will cost less than the war in Iraq did for the United States.
Draw your own conclusions.
What are those exports? It's the solar power and wind power that can't be used for lack of domestic power transmission and simple lack of demand in the areas where it is generated. This power must be exported, because it cannot be consumed. Despite all that, wind turbines still have be shut down at peak generation - leading to a steady decline in actual capacity factors of wind turbines. (Don't worry about you money, of course feed-in tariffs are still being paid when turbines are shut down
The most important question on those exports is hidden by the phrasing of those propaganda news: How much did germany get in return for those exports and how much did it cost to produce them? It doesn't take much in the way of imagination to conclude that it isn't much at all. Domestic power prices regularly drop to a fraction of the feed-in tariffs being paid for wind and solar power (occasionally dropping into negative territory) and exports are unlikely to offer better rates.
The result of all that? Germans will pay an average of 0.28 Euro - or about $0.40 per kWh next year, up from 0.25 Euro this year. With a clear trend upwards, as more and more wind turbines and solar cells that produce useless electricity come online. With the recent push for off-shore wind generation that will be 50-100% more expensive than solar power (depending on the scale of the solar power plant), this will only rise. Germany will catch up with the very highest electricity prices in Europe next year (Danemark) and is set to surpass them right thereafter.
Meanwhile, the need for transmission lines is still seen as a conspiracy of the electricity utilities by most "greens" in Germany. The need for serious storage capacity, which is already rather giant, is still not recognized.
This is what you call a bubble - worth on the order of $350bn and rising - paid by electricity consumers through their bills. The only people who profit from it are those who have enough money to pay for solar cells or wind turbines and the more money they spend on them, the more they get. A classic transfer of money from the poor to the richest of our society - all brought to you by massive lobbying of the Green party.
When the wind is not blowing, either you need to activate a CO2 generating natural gas power plant (with increasing price of natural gas) or import from other countries that would gladly charge you top money for this energy you need and can't produce.
it's STILL less CO2.
Of course, this assume they aren't using a water reservoir to maintain a balanced load. Some location in the world are always windy.
AND just becasue it isn't windy where you farms happen to be, doesn't mean it isn't windy ion other places that could sell you their surplus from wind.
I'm not a big fan of wind as a base load supply for several reason, but what you list is simply short sighted and ignorant.
France: 0.12 Euro per kWh.
"Hundreds of Billions" over 20 years? That seems to be pretty inexpensive.
Also think of all the jobs for installing/servicing/billing that are being created.
With more adoption of solar/wind/tidal generation, the initial price of the equipment should go down, once
the Chinese market undercutting is "fixed"
"it still relies on imports for its natural gas needs"
There is a limited supply of natural gas (I'm not talking about stocks and how long we could sustain on reserves of natural gas but on the limited bandwidth of existing and soon to be activated pipelines).
Natural gas is used for 2 usages in Europe: electricy production and home heating.
Germany is currently at the end of majors pipelines coming from Russia, the largery biggest provider of natural gas to Europe. So Germany can prioritized its own usages of
The country's rapid expansion into renewable energy is credited with the growth.
That is so bogus. Germany relies on coal. It's replacing its nuclear generators with coal powered generators. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Germany The thing about renewable generation is mostly a lie.
Well, according to this article [bloomberg.com], the neighbors don't want that exported electricity and it's causing problems with their grids.
When Germany need all of their power is during the winter, when temperature is well below zero degrees. During this period they will not export a single watt of energy out of Germany.
12.3 Twh = 12 300 Gwh = 12 300 000 Mwh.
12 300 000 Mwh / 273 days / 24 hours = 1 877 Mw per hour.
...just wait until you see how much those non-renewable alternatives like tar sands and coal-to-gas will cost you. And that's before you figure in the cost to clean up the mess they make.
Remember: deepwater horizon had a wellhead as far beneath the waves as Denver is above them, and the oil itself was farther below the seafloor than the peak of Everest is above sea level. Loooooooong gone are the days when you had to be careful with a pickaxe in Texas lest you set off a gusher.
Oh -- and it's petroleum that fertilizes our crops and powers our transportation infrastructure, and we've already burned up half of the planet's total reserves. The easy-to-get-to and high-quality half, of course.
Like it or not, the days of cheap energy are done and gone with. If we're smart, we'll bootstrap ourselves to a solar-based energy system, which won't be cheap, but it will give us more power than any of us can imagine. There's enough insolation just on America's residential rooftops to power the entire planet, for example. If we invest wisely, as Germany is doing, we'll sacrifice a little bit of short-term comfort for a lifetime of luxury. If we invest poorly, as Obama will have us do with his "Drill, baby! Drill!" energy plan...
I have a friend who works in a German power plant, in the back end handling coal orders, deliveries, etc.
Never been so busy, apparently.
There's a lot of talk about wind energy in Germany, but in truth most of our energy stems from coal and natural gas plants. And that's not going to change in the foreseeable future. Check out the up-to-date statistics on power production in Germany [eex.com] that eex provides.
You are in a maze of little twisting passages, all different.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Among the nationally-ranked for the first time in nearly three months, the 20th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers will play a pivotal Big Ten Conference game on Thursday night against the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Wisconsin won three games last week, the last two coming in overtime, and the most recent of which in upset fashion versus No. 3 Michigan (65-62). As a result, the Badgers now sit at 17-7 overall and 8-3 in conference, the latter of which has the team in third place in the Big Ten, not far off the pace set by front runners Indiana (10-2) and Michigan State (10-2). Despite its impressive overall record, UW is just 3-4 in true road games.
Minnesota had spent a considerable amount of time among the nationally-ranked, but losses in two straight and six of their last eight games has the team on the outside looking in this week. The Gophers fell to visiting Illinois last Sunday, 57-53, and it was only their second setback in 14 home games this season.
These same two teams met in Madison on Jan. 26, and the Badgers prevailed in a 45-44 final to give them four straight wins over the Golden Gophers. Despite its recent struggles, Minnesota owns a 94-88 lead in the all-time series.
Wisconsin is known much more for its efforts at the defensive end of the court, the team yielding a mere 56.5 ppg behind typical shooting efforts of 40.0 percent overall, which includes a .304 showing from 3-point range. The Badgers own favorable margins in both rebounding (+4.4) and turnovers (+2.5), and they crank out 67.4 ppg behind 42.7 percent efficiency from the field and 34.7 percent from long distance, all of which have the team ranked in the middle of the Big Ten pack. Jared Berggren heads the club with 11.9 ppg, and he grabs 6.8 rpg for good measure, which is almost as many as Ryan Evans (7.7 rpg) pulls down on a nightly basis. Ben Brust (11.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and Evans (10.8 ppg) are the club's only other double-digit scorers, and it was Brust who played the role of hero in the recent win over Michigan after he hit a 3- pointer at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime. In all, Brust nailed four treys to finish with 14 points, Berggren had 13, Sam Dekker tallied 12 off the bench and Evans chipped in 11 while grabbing a game-high nine rebounds. In all, the Badgers were successful on 10 3-point attempts while limiting the Wolverines to just 1-of-2 at the free-throw line.
Despite its favorable record, Minnesota is a middle-of-the-pack club in the Big Ten in terms of both scoring offense (71.4 ppg) and scoring defense (61.2 ppg). The team does a tremendous job coming up with loose balls, ranking second in the conference in rebounding margin (+9.3), and it leads the league in blocked shots (145, 6.0 bpg). Second-place ratings apply in both assists (15.5 apg) and steals (8.6 spg). Andre Hollins paces the club with 13.8 ppg, and he has a team-high 85 assists as well. Rodney Williams is next with 11.9 ppg, while Austin Hollins rounds out the double-digit scorers with 11.2 ppg. Two others net 9.7 (Joe Coleman) and 9.6 ppg (Trevor Mbakwe), respectively, with the latter leading the club in both rebounding (8.8 rpg) and blocks (41). Austin Hollins scored 16 points and Mbakwe tallied 13 points and 10 rebounds, but UM dropped a four-point decision at home to Illinois last weekend. The Gophers shot just 38 percent from the field, missing 12 of their 17 3-point tries along the way, while the Fighting Illini made good on just 36.7 percent of their total shots, but were 11-of-23 from beyond the arc. Minnesota easily won the rebounding battle (39-26), but committed nearly twice as many turnovers (13-7).


text:
The lights are on
Do you like Star Wars? are you a megafan who feels strongly about a particular movie or character? or are you just into the starfighters and lightsabers?. Whatever category you fall into, you'll find something here.
Hey, all! This is Azure Moon, and I am going to write more reviews for you guys! This time, I'm going to start from the VERY BEGINNING. I'm going to start with the Clone Wars Movie and then I will go in order from there so that I don't confuse everyone. I hope you enjoy!
As with my previous reviews, these are MY OPINIONS and you can feel free to agree or disagree with me. You might also run into some spoilers if you haven't seen some of these episodes, SO BE WARNED.
Alright! I hope you guys will tune in! Within a week or two I'm going to start us off with The Clone Wars Movie!
I can't wait! This will give me something to look forward to until Episode VII:)
WARNING! This review may contain spoilers!
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Movie
Main Character Focus: Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Captain Rex, Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, and Padme Amidala
Overview: Movie. The Galaxy is at war! This current strife and turmoil is called "The Clone War" and as the Grand Army of the Republic's clone troopers and the Confederacy of Independent Systems' battle droids battle for supremacy, a heinous crime is committed! Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta, has been kidnapped, and whoever finds him will gain access to key routes in the Outer Rim. Now, both the Jedi and the Sith are in a race to gain Jabba the Hutt's favor and those key routes!
Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars was the movie that started one of the best series of all time (at least in my opinion). This show had it all: Great characters, amazing battles, many different exotic locales, incredible music, an intricate storyline and plot, and unique graphics. There was little that was wrong with this movie, however it was not perfect.
I'll start us off with the pros. This show was mainly an intro to the series that would soon air on Cartoon Network, and it did not disappoint. I admit, I didn't get into this show until the second season, but when I saw this, I regretted not seeing it in theaters. This explained A LOT about what happened in the show. I think the most important part of the entire show was not only the fact that it laid the groundwork for the times that these events occurred, as shown by the Battle of Christophsis at the beginning of the movie, but also the groundwork for the characters of the series. Not only were they bringing very familiar heroes and villains, such as Yoda, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Dooku, and Ventress into the story, but they were also bringing in new characters such as Captain Rex (the gruff, awesome Clone Captain) and the much anticipated "Ani's new Padawan", Ahsoka Tano (the young Togrutan spitfire) into the mix. That, to me, was the most important aspect of the show. Ahsoka's introduction was THE big thing with this movie and I believe it was handled fairly well.
It was a bit of a rocky start, but there is definitely some promise of a great partnership here!
As far as the other good aspects of the show go, there were many other things that made it great. For one, you are hardly ever bored with this movie. There are battles all over, ranging from full-scale land battles, to starship dogfights, to incredible lightsaber duals (namely the ones between Obi-Wan and Ventress on Teth and the battle between Dooku and Anakin on Tatooine). Speaking of Teth and Tatooine, those are two of a few different places that the story takes place in. This story also takes place on Christophsis, Coruscant, and various orbits in space. The soundtrack was AMAZING. Not only did it have the iconic John Williams-like music from the movies, but it also had very unique pieces with exotic instruments to give it that little extra something to set it apart (I REALLY want this soundtrack!). I also enjoyed the intricate storylines and plotlines. Even though this series is named after a galactic civil war, it doesn't JUST focus on that ALL THE TIME. I appreciated the fact that it had the typical war-type of plotlines, but I also appreciated the fact that it had the whole "kidnapping" plot and the insight into the complex world of politics. It also threw in a bit of familial politics and intrigue with the Desilijic Hutt Clan, which gave the show a little more flavor. Last but not least, another thing that this show had going for it was the fact that it had very....unique graphics. It's definitely not like other shows, and whether that's a good or bad thing has been a subject of debate.
Now into the cons. There were relatively few cons when it came to this show, but I think the biggest is the fact that after I saw it, I really had a hard time believing that this came out in THEATERS. It's a good show, but I feel that it was a more of a "series intro" rather than a full-blown movie. It also had a bit of a "diamond in the rough" feel to it. To me, the movie was more of a showing of the series' potential for greatness, rather than a showing of it, if that makes sense. It's hard to explain, other than "diamond in the rough". Another thing that was odd was getting used to the unique animation. It was definitely not like anything I had ever seen and I think that's what turned me off initially to the show. It just looked...weird. The characters, especially! I admit, the aliens look AWESOME, but the human characters look really...angular, and sharp-featured. For me, it took a long time to get over the strange CG animation. Other than those things, there were just little miscellaneous things that I thought were odd or not so great, like the dialogue was sometimes a little cheesy, or there were parts of the story that seemed kind of added in in a strange place, or my main one was that IMMEDIATELY after Christophsis, Anakin and Ahsoka seemed REALLY chummy. There were just little things like that that sometimes got to me.
In general, this show is great. It has its flaws and it did seem to be more of a "glorified episode" rather than a full-length theatrical release, but it was a fantastic way to pave the road to a magnificent series that we have all come to know and love :) .
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
Sorry for the late reply, Azure, but this is great stuff!
I particularly enjoyed the depth of your review, and the bit about the facial features. (I had the same reaction:)
How was it writing a review for a movie that's almost five years old? Was it harder or easier?
Thanks! It was a bit of both actually. It was easier in the sense that because I've written some reviews before, I have a bit of a system going. It was harder in the sense that, yes, it is older and for the fact that it was a movie instead of an episode. It's also harder because this movie and the whole first season were some that I had seen well after they were first aired. I won't get into "new" episodes until the second season.
So, to answer your question, yes and no.
BTW, Warrior just joined the group and he's commented on two forums but nobody can see them. I got an email with his comments and the forums were updated to say that he commented, but they aren't actually IN the forums. Queso was seeing the same thing, too. If I remember correctly Warrior commented on this thread and the Intro thread.
Warrior, it still looks like we can't see your comments. I got the email, but it's not HERE.
@Azure I thought as much. I think you did a good job of weighing the movie on it's own merits rather than let the future success and failures of the series influence the score.
I can't wait for the next one:) (Ambush, I presume?)
Azure is a freaking amazing writer. She should become a video game writer like me AND become a author. Her professionalism, level of maturity, and personality keeps her writing material very entertaining. I'm looking more forward to her stuff, too! ^.^
Thanks you guys. I'm going to go right now and watch the next episode. I'll put the review up in a little while (and I really hope you can see this post! It seems to be going around...)
Episode: Season 1, Episode 1, "Ambush"
Moral: "Great leaders inspire greatness in others."
Main Character Focus: Yoda, Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku
Overview: Stand-alone. As the Clone Wars rage, each side rushes to gain alliances with neutral systems! One such system, inhabited by the Toydarians, wishes to negotiate an alliance with the Galactic Republic. King Katuunko, leader of the Toydarians, and Master Yoda, Grand Master of the Jedi Order, are to meet on the neutral moon of Rugosa, but little do they know, another party is interested in striking an alliance with the Toydarians!
Review: This was a...perfect episode. Yes, you heard me right, a perfect episode. As I was watching it, I soon found that I had no doubt in my mind that this was perfect. The main reasons were because it starred Yoda, you get to see the clones in a way that you had never really seen before, the locale was beautifully alien, there was a perfect balance of humor and action, it was a great story, and best of all, there were NO CONS.
First off, I want you to raise your hand if you DON'T like Yoda..........yeah, that's what I thought. It was a great move on their part to make Yoda the main focus of the official first episode of the series, because NO ONE dislikes Yoda. He's kinda like R2-D2, there is no Star Wars fan that HATES R2-D2 and Yoda. With that being said, did the writers make Yoda carry the episode? The answer is no. There were 3 clones that were with him the entire time, not to mention the fact that Count Dooku and Ventress were there opposite him and the clones, so even though Yoda was the FOCUS of the episode, he didn't CARRY the episode. They also did a great job in portraying Yoda. I felt that he was very well balanced in this episode. You got to see the hardcore warrior from the Prequel Trilogy, the wise teacher from the Original Trilogy, you got to see him perform amazing force powers, and you even got to see a little bit of his mischievous side ;) . This episode definitely showed us the reason why he is the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. The best part of all though, was that they portrayed him for what he really is: a mentor. When he and the clones took refuge in the cave, the clones were having some confidence issues about their current situation and Yoda gave each of them counsel. That, to me, was magic. Out of the entire episode, that was the greatest part that Yoda played. THIS was the Yoda that we all know and love, and I immensely respect the writers for that.
"Rys, always focused on the enemy are you. For inspiration, look to yourself and those beside you. Jjeck, concerned about weapons you are. Weapons do not win battles. Your mind, powerful it is. Outthink the droids you can. Thire, rush not into fights. Long is the war. Only by surviving it will you prevail. Yes. Clones you may be, but the Force resides in all life forms. Use it you can to quiet your mind."
Now, to the clones. One thing that always bothered me about the movies and the animated series before this one was the fact that the clones seemed to have no personality. They were just...there. I think the writers finally figured out that it was called the CLONE War. The clones in this series, as shown in this episode, were not mindless cannon fodder. I loved that the clone troopers finally seemed to be RELATABLE. I admit, though, you really don't get to see it until "Rookies". The backdrop to this story was absolutely STUNNING. Rugosa is a beautiful coral moon that once had vast oceans, but has now dried up. It was a great setting for the first episode. As far as balancing out action and humor, it was masterfully done. This episode had great action sequences ranging from a space battle, to Yoda doing what he does best (which is BEING AWESOME), to the clones and droids shooting it out. The humor was great to break or enhance the great action sequences. The remarks the clones make and the dumbness of the battle droids was flipping hilarious! Overall, they were both done in a way that balanced each other out. There wasn't too much action and there wasn't too much humor. It was just right. I also thought the story itself was very strong. I think that it was great for a single episode. That's what I liked about the first season. They didn't shy away from short, simple story arcs. And some, like this one, were fantastic. This episode was living proof that you didn't have to go 4 episodes in order to have a great story.
Last, but not least, the cons.............yeah, like I said before, I got nuthin'. There is absolutely NOTHING that I would change about this episode.
Overall this was a great, no, perfect episode. If there is any episode in the series that I would suggest someone watch, this would be one of the few that I would suggest.
Rating: 10 out of 10.
WHOAAAAA! Man, I luv your writing style. Another great job, Azure!
Thank you! I'm just ecstatic that you can see it! With you having problems and now Luis with posting stuff, I was really afraid it was "going around". I was really afraid that this review would be hidden for some strange reason. If that happened, I would probably have cried for 10 days straight :,( . It may not look it, but I put A LOT of work and time into these things.


text:
|By Business Wire
Article Rating:
|November 14, 2012 08:37 AM EST
Genesys, a leading provider of customer service solutions, today announced Genesys One – a transformative customer service solution for the broader enterprise market. As part of a single software solution, Genesys One uniquely packages Genesys' world-class contact center capabilities with innovative customer service best practices in the form of templates and applications, making it fast and easy to deploy a next generation contact center. For the first time, companies across the broader enterprise market can benefit from advanced technology combined with innovative customer service strategies developed by Genesys over more than 20 years of working with the world's leading brands.
Key Facts:
- All-in-One Solution Leverages Leading Genesys 8 Software – Genesys One is built upon the industry-leading Genesys 8 software suite, including the SIP-based Genesys Customer Interaction Management Platform. The solution delivers advanced customer service capabilities as part of a single software package, including best-in-class routing, agent desktop, and reporting. Genesys One leverages the Genesys SIP Select ecosystem to provide a complete solution, including telephony and end points.
- Innovative Rapid Deployment Approach– Genesys One features a fixed-price installation for deployment in 30 days or less. It leverages Genesys' patent-pending orchestration technology to package customer service best practices into pre-defined strategies and applications that dramatically reduce the time and cost needed to deploy an advanced contact center. Genesys One features the Rapid Installer application, which instantly populates customer service routing strategies and reporting, using an intuitive application interface and easy-to-use templates.
- Simplified Management for Low TCO – Putting more control in the hands of the enterprise business user, the Genesys One reporting capabilities and role-based applications allow customer service executives and line of business managers to monitor and modify customer service strategies on the fly as business conditions change – without requiring IT support.
- Foundation for Growth with Genesys' Open and Scalable Approach – Genesys One supports up to 300 agents on a single server and can scale up on a fully virtualized infrastructure. Genesys One can be expanded to include additional Genesys applications based on a company's future customer service needs.
- Availability – Genesys One is available worldwide starting in December 2012.
Supporting Quotes:
"Until now only the largest, most sophisticated companies have benefited from the world's most advanced customer service solutions," said Paul Segre, President and CEO at Genesys. "With Genesys One, we are delivering more than a new product. The broader enterprise market now has access to a transformative solution that gives them instant access to industry-leading technology and years of customer service expertise and best practices – packaged together for rapid deployment and low TCO."
"Genesys One meets a very clear market need for an advanced, versatile, feature-rich, on-premise contact center solution," said Stephen Loynd, Global Program Manager, Frost & Sullivan. "Companies across the broader enterprise market for contact centers should take note that Genesys is now bringing a quicker to deploy, lower TCO solution to market."
Genesys Partner Quotes:
"Genesys has long been recognized as the leading provider of software for saving the world from bad customer service," said Rob Church, President and CEO at Aria Solutions. "With Genesys One, Genesys has created a packaged approach for quickly deploying a great customer experience. Building on more than fifteen years of experience working with Genesys, Aria Solutions can now deploy the world's best contact center solution to our customers faster than ever before and with a lower TCO."
"Genesys One is redefining the customer experience across the enterprise for agents, supervisors, CXOs – and ultimately the customer," said Scott Walker, CEO at ethosIQ. "As a partner, ethosIQ can leverage Genesys One along with our own unique suite of tools that help small to mid-market companies compete with the same support, power and control enterprise companies utilize."
"Mediu is proud to be a partner of Genesys One," said Mike Berichon, CEO at Mediu. "Through a simplified business user interface, customer segmentation templates, and rapid deployment capabilities, Genesys One fulfills a critical business need for customer-centric organizations, regardless of size. Mediu is committed to teaming with Genesys to help drive this innovative solution into the marketplace."
"Genesys One looks very interesting in terms of maturity and promising in terms of deployment effectiveness," said Luc Verhoeven, Director, Contact Center Europe at NextiraOne. "This is the right solution for mid-size contact centers looking for best-of-breed, sustainability and endless integration capabilities."
"Now, with Genesys One we are able to bring the world a Genesys solution for businesses of all sizes on a single server that is quick to deploy, flexible and simple," said Martha Toledo, General Director at Toga Solutions. "Never before has there been such an attractive contact center solution. At Toga, we are ready to offer Genesys One to the market."
Supporting Resources:
For more information, visit http://www.genesyslab.com/products/genesys-one/overview.aspx.
About Genesys:
Genesys is the world's leading provider of customer service and contact center software and services — with a 100% focus on customer experience and mission to save the world from bad customer service. With more than 2,000 customers in 80 countries, Genesys is uniquely positioned to help companies bring their people, insights and customer channels together to drive today's new customer conversation. Genesys software directs more than 100 million interactions every day from the contact center to the back office, helping companies deliver fast, simple service and a highly personalized cross-channel customer experience. Genesys software also optimizes processes and the performance of customer-facing employees across the enterprise.
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text:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An adult online degree program promoted by Gov. Bill Haslam opens today in Tennessee.
WPLN-FM reports legislators were hesitant to spend $5 million to open an office of Western Governors University, which targets people who have some college credit but never finished a degree.
Lawmakers argued that Tennessee's existing public colleges could start a similar program, but Haslam convinced them to go with the Salt Lake City-based nonprofit.
Rich Rhoda, who heads the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, said a local WGU branch is a "small and very worthwhile investment."
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The state has set a goal to graduate 55 percent of residents from college, meaning as many as 100,000 adult Tennesseans need to finish school.


text:
And Intel ones don't? Who are you kidding?
Bad Axe
Bad Axe 2
Batman's Revenge
Big Laurel
Black Pine (a cute name for anal sex I guess)
Black Rapids (I don't want to know)
Cougar Canyon
Tanglewood (sounds bi to me)
Warm Springs
and last, but never least, the
Windmill (also known as "Helicopter Dick")
Things like hitting the 1GHz mark first, and making a workable 64bit chip that also speaks x86 only get you so far. AMD needs to come up with something cool, else they're doomed to play catch-up.
CPUs don't really drive software development that much. Or else we would have migrated off x86 years ago. If intel can get the same/similar performance without a paradigm shift in development methodology, developers won't bother.
The migration from x86 has already started, actually - the architecture they're moving to is ARM. (After all, there are more ARM-based SoCs shipped than x86 CPUs - every PC includes one or more ARM cores doing something).
But on a more user level - tablets, smartphones are becoming the computing platforms of the day, all running ARM processors. Regardless of whether they run iOS or Android. Developers have embraced it and cranking out tons of apps and games and other stuff for this. It's so scary that Intel's investing a lot of money bringing Android to x86 because the writing's on the wall (when more phones and tablets ship than PCs...)
But x86 won't die - it has a raw performance advantage that ARM has yet to reach, so for computation-heavy operations like databases, it'll be the heavy lifter. Perhaps serving an entire array of ARM frontend webservers.
This is just so weird. 20 years ago it was Alpha, MIPS, SPARC, PA-RISC, etc. that were the ones counted to do all the heavy lifting backend, HPC stuff. x86 was kind of a joke that everyone frowned upon but tolerated because it was cheap and did the job adequately for the price. Then x86 steamrolled through. Now no more Alpha or PA-RISC. MIPS is relagated to low-power applications (my router has one).
I think AMD's work here will provide some great evolutionary speedups that will be significant to many people. Unfortunately for them, at the same time AMD is bringing out these small "free lunch" general improvements, Intel will be bringing out Haswell -- which in addition to such evolutionary improvements has some really fantastic, significant new features that'll provide remarkable performance boosts.
These are all pretty specialized features, yes, but they service some very high-profile benchmark areas: video processing and concurrency are always on the list, and AMD will get absolutely crushed when apps start taking advantage of it.
I'm a developer, a major optimization geek both micro- and macro-. I thrive playing with instruction latencies, execution units, and cache usage until my code eeks out as much performance as possible. Of course we'll never know until the CPUs are released for everyone to play with, but right now my money is on Intel.
AMD is in serious trouble here. I hope I'm wrong.
I'm a developer, a major optimization geek both micro- and macro-. I thrive playing with instruction latencies, execution units, and cache usage until my code eeks out as much performance as possible. Of course we'll never know until the CPUs are released for everyone to play with, but right now my money is on Intel.
Yeah, I'm a developer too. However, my simulations run on desktops not super computers so it doesn't matter how optimal the code is on a single particular piece of hardware... Wake me up when there's a cross platform intermediary "object code" I can distribute that gets optimised and linked/compiled at installation time for the exact hardware my games will be running on.
We need software innovation (OS's and Compilers) otherwise I'm coding tons of cases for specific hardware features that aren't available on every platform, and are outpaced by the doubly powerful machine that comes out 18 months later... In short: It's not worth doing all that code optimisation for each and every chip released. This is also why Free Software is so nice: I release the cross platform source code, you compile it, and it's optimised for your hardware... However, most folks actually just download the generic architecture binary, defeating the per processor optimisation benefits.
Like I said: In addition to hardware improvements we need a better cross platform intermediary binary format (so that both closed and open projects benefit). You know, kind of like how Android's Davlik bytecode works (processed at installation), except without needing a VM when you're done. I've got one of my toy languages doing this, but it requires a compiler/interpreter to be already installed (which is fine for me, but in general suffers the same problems as Java). MS is going with
Besides, I thought it was rule #2: Never optimise prematurely?
(I guess the exception is: Unless you're only developing for yourself...)
*Looks around* AAAAAAAnd, how does this AVX-256 compare to OpenCl transcoding of video?
*Looks around* AAAAAAAnd, how does this AVX-256 compare to OpenCl transcoding of video?
That's a stupid question. OpenCL by itself does nothing whatsoever to improve video transcoding. OpenCL is an API, so the performance of an OpenCL kernel for video transcoding highly depends on which hardware you're running it on. On Intel CPUs supporting AVX-256, OpenCL kernels will be compiled to use those instructions (if Intel keeps updating its OpenCL SDK), on GPUs and APUs it will use whatever the respective platforms use. What OpenCL does is make it easier to exploit AVX-256, just as it makes it eas
I believe the point is that an OpenCL transcoding algorithm running on a typical GPU will make doing it on a CPU look silly and pointless, so who cares how fast the CPU can do it when you're going to do it on the GPU anyway?
That is like asking "What colour do you want this database in?" OpenCL doesn't do anything for transcoding video, it is an API for talking to graphics cards. Now, GPUs can be used for video transcoding, of course, using OpenCL or other APIs (CUDA, DirectCompute). However how well they do depends on what the graphics card is. An AMD 7970, that'll throw down some serious performance. An ATi 3400 doesn't even have driver support for OpenCL and if it did would be very slow.
So there isn't going to be any way to
+10 for being pedantic (the best kind of correct, technically correct), -1000 for knowing exactly what I was groping for, but choosing to be pedantic.
Just got back from a late-night concert, and my head hasn't stopped pounding yet (and there is some question of sobriety -> Jimmy Buffet with margaritas). Besides, and I am summoning my inner BOFH here, who teh f*ck would run OpenCl code on a CPU? I've tried, and the only thing I've succeeded in doing is giving my laptop a grand mal seizure.
And no one sane
+10 for being pedantic (the best kind of correct, technically correct), -1000 for knowing exactly what I was groping for, but choosing to be pedantic.
Welcome to Slashdot!
And if you look at the reviews you'll also see that doing video transcoding on the GPU? Really kinda shoddy. Every test I've seen had some okay, some lousy, but none of them did as good a picture quality or as small a file size as pure CPU.
This is why I'm happy with with my Thuban, 6 cores let me chew through transcodes without any trouble and with great picture quality. While I'm all for using GPUs for decode, my E350 really saves battery life by using the GPU, but transcodes? The tech just isn't there
Your question is a bit... difficult.
GPUs can definitely excel at many forms of video processing. Encoding, thus far, hasn't proved to be one of them. Currently, CPU-based encoders are faster and of significantly higher quality. I'm sure someone smart will make a fantastic GPU-based encoder eventually, but so far nobody has come close. A few companies have lied and/or used faulty benchmarking to help people believe they have, though!
What can you get me with Intel offerings that can do the same, at that price?
Probably nothing. The problem is that AMD hardly makes anything on selling you that whole setup, and there are too few of you who need something like that to make it up in selling huge volumes.
It's not that their stuff is awful. It's just that they can't sell the cheap stuff at enough of a profit, and they don't have expensive stuff to make up for it.
The business side of the company is failing.
Intel completely dominates AMD in terms of process tech, but due to antitrust concerns, they tweak their prices so that AMD can stay barely alive in the "budget segment".
In the last 20 years, AMD had the best parts for only 2 years, and were in the running for maybe another 3-4 years. The game has always been rigged in Intel's favor.
That may be true in the consumer space, but is not anywhere close in the server space.
We specced recently a pair of Dell servers, (poweredge 810 and 815). Both with 256G of ram. Difference between the 810, with dual 6-core CPU's, and the dual AMD 16 cores? About $7500 per server. Both the CPU, and the RAM are much, much cheaper. The Ram might run slightly slower, but since were mainly using it for "buffer" space in Oracle, we don't care.. its still 1000X faster than disk. And our software doesn't need
Not to mention there is a BIG rotting elephant in the room that nobody is talking about which is this: If you don't like Windows 8? You're screwed if you buy a new AMD chip. You see the braintrust at AMD didn't bother to keep MSFT in the loop about what they were cooking up with their "half core" design and now that BD and soon SR will be out there MSFT has made it clear that the scheduler bug is a WILL NOT FIX except in Windows 8.
So if you run XP, Vista, or Windows 7 with one of the new AMD chips you eith
or Windows will treat it as hyperthreading and tie a nice boat anchor to your new chip.
Actually it's the opposite, the system SHOULD be treating the co-cores like HT units and not scheduling demanding jobs on adjacent cores (at least not ones that both need the FP unit or lots of decode operations). The problem is that AMD basically lied to the OS and told it that every core is the same and that it can go ahead and schedule anything wherever it wants. If they had just marked the second portion of each co-core as an HT unit the normal scheduler optimizations would have basically handled 99% of cases correctly. In reality BD's problem wasn't so much the gaff with the co-cores (though that certainly didn't help things), but that Global Foundry is more than a process node behind Intel (one node plus 3D transistors).
In ANY case, which your description does make sense, the problem is NOT with GloFlo but squarely with AMD.
If they would have let MSFT in on the idea from the start (and no point not telling them, it isn't like Intel was gonna gut their superior performing Core line to completely re-engineer their chips to steal an AMD idea) then they could have written the scheduler to recognize the AMD chips and treat them as modules instead of cores but they kept MSFT in the dark and now frankly everyone is getting punis
Personally I thought the whole idea was retarded except for the mobile chips like Brazos, on the desktop the idea was completely stupid and on the server even more so. For those that don't know the original plan was to go "Full APU" and have the GPU take the place of the FP on chip, which would be a much simpler and weaker design than in years past thus freeing up more TDP for more cores. Why is this dumb? Well what if you want to use the GPU AND do some floating point heavy task? Or what if you don't want the integrated GPU because you can't OC worth a crap with the GPU built in?
All correct, but I could live with those aspects. I usually don't OC, and if I know I want the GPU AND do some floating point heavy task, I could get an additional discrete GPU. There is, however, a worse one:
Memory bandwidth congestion. A typical lower midrange graphics card with 128 bit data bus and GDDR3 is significantly slower than the same model with GDDR5. In an APU, the GPU part has to share the even lower bandwidth of the DDR3 main memory with the CPU part.
When the LLano was new, Anandtech published
Wow...ouch. Thanks for the heads up, I knew they were having bandwidth problems (the net is filled with advice and tutorials on getting the absolute fastest memory your Brazos or Liano will take because it seriously boosts performance, which I can attest to when I swapped the stock 1066 for 1333 in my Brazos netbook) but I hadn't thought ahead to what it would take to feed an 8 core AND a GPU on the same die...ouch.
But that just proves my point though, that in any place other than mobile situations it is a
>I'm sure AMD fanboys will....
There are still AMD fanboys? Where?
"After all who is gonna want to buy a system that has to get stuck with Win 8 just to have it run correctly?"
Guess it depends on what one wants to do. I was under the impression that the patches for BD had been included in the last Linux kernel or two (not that it'll help AMD's bottom line viz. market percentage.) As for Win8, if nothing else a third-party dev will have a 'Metro' app with a "click/touch/punch/yell here to get to a real desktop" icon.
I like a lot of what Intel has been doing recently with
Piledriver you mean. Steamroller will be the next generation after Piledriver(which is due in October of 2012).
Man, I just gotta ask....WTF are you doing on your desktop that 6 cores won't cut the mustard? Because i'm sitting here with a 1035T, which was strictly the MOR Thuban chip, and it just chews through anything I throw at it with plenty of cycles left over. No problem with some of the latest games like Saints Row 3 or Deus Ex:HR, just tears through video transcodes like nobody's business, I'm even running multitrack audio editing with effects and not a skip nor a hang one.
This is why me and mine are gonna sit
otherwise AMD is stuck with a chip that will only run correctly on an OS that looks to be the most hated Windows since MS Bob.
WTF are you talking about? Nearly all OSes work just fine with Bulldozer modules. You just happened to cherry-pick three example that don't, and one that does but which you happen to not like.
Interesting that all 4 OSes you mentioned, just happen to be from one team/company.
You remind me of the kind of people who complain about Democrats and Republicans, and then go out and vote
Dude, let go of the crack pipe. Would you like to see the data [netmarketshare.com] for yourself? By cutting out XP,Vista, and 7 you are losing 83.24% of the market and the rest of the market? Apple products which don't use AMD chips. Might want to look at where Linux is on that chart friend, its at....0.97%.
Now if you think a global chip company can survive by giving the finger to 83% of the market and catering to 0.97% of the market I have some magic beans you might be interested in, blessed by RMS himself I swear!
AMD boards have better PCI-E lanes then intel chips.
With Intel you need to go high end to get more then 16 lanes + DMI
Sorry but lots of PCIe lanes are just not the kind of thing that matters to non-high end users or people who focus on stats rather than real world performance. To even have a situation on a desktop board where it could theoretically matter you have to have multiple graphics cards. The 1x slots hang off the southbridge and have their own bandwidth separate from the lanes on the CPU for the video card. So if you stick on two GPUs then yes, you don't have enough to give them both 16 lanes.
However it turns out
What kind of workload needs more than 16 PCIe lanes, but doesn't similarly need a higher-end processor?
I am guessing those who want to do more GPGPU type stuff, so if you get a supported video card or multiple video cards, then you can potentially get some great performance. Of course, if running dual-GPU stuff is what you want, you should NOT be bothering with a cheap motherboard.
I don't buy MSI or ECS as a general rule for any chip... additionally theres pretty much feature parity for price in AMD vs Intel boards. Not sure where you're shopping
I just got a gigabyte with dual PCI-e 4 ram slots (1833 and if you OC it a little 2000) with all the latest buzzwords for like 70 bucks
You have missed the difference between the higher end "expensive" boards and the lower end consumer boards. Things have changed a fair bit over the past two years since consumer level processors from AMD are the A series(E and C make no sense on the desktop) with the GPU built into the CPU. The socket AM3 and AM3+ boards are intended for machines that will be higher performing(video card, not integrated video), so you end up paying more in that segment these days.
You can find cheap boards that support w
Intel's integrated GPUs are now "good enough" for most people. Those who game won't want integrated AMD if integrated intel isn't good enough...
AMD is Intel's only direct competition in the desktop market, they are not going anywhere
AMD doesn't own any fabs, that was spun off to Global Foundry, and AMD has made some noise about moving to TSMC for their next CPU despite TSMC having their own problems at the current process node and the fact that AMD will take a hit on the stock they own in GF.
The AMD APU chips are pretty damn good. I used one for my HTPC, and it runs Diablo 3 and WoW, and most anything else I throw at it more than acceptably. Now, for me, acceptably, on an HTPC, doesnt mean everything maxxed. But its an HTPC, in the living room. a 2nd machine to complement my other rig. So I dont care about being maxxed.
I -love- AMD. I havent used Intel since my first system I built with a pentium3, and that system gave me nothing but grief. My current rig machine uses a black chip, forget which
You are dealing with some outdated information. The AMD three core processors mostly were gone by the time the Phenom 2 generation came out and once the process technology was a bit more mature. New designs are always problematic, so more "failures" are expected. The Bulldozer issues are the same way, initial batch of a new design was a bit problematic, which Piledriver will fix.
Notice that the A10 parts from AMD have NOT had production issues, and those are based on Piledriver, so now it is just abou
Wait a minute... weren't all the ATI (now AMD) fanboys claiming a couple years ago that because ATI was developing more "open" drivers that they would rule the linux landscape?
While AMD is releasing documentation, Intel is releasing actual open source drivers. And now that Intel's graphics hardware is no longer a complete joke, Intel is becoming a real alternative for some users.
AMD is still better than NVIDIA, which doesn't release documentation.
Maybe in principle, but in my experience using the hardware, the drivers that NVIDIA is providing are far superior to the AMD drivers available for all but the most basic uses. This seems to be the general consensus, at least where I tend to spend my time.
If you're more concerned about software freedom than I am, maybe you'd rather have AMD. My Linux boxes are much happier with NVIDIA, especially my HTPC. If I get enough cash to throw at it, I might try a low power Ivy Bridge or one of the new Atoms for
but i like my GPUs to draw 3D things (mostly via wine) so i got a nvidia.
weren't all the ATI (now AMD) fanboys claiming a couple years ago that because ATI was developing more "open" drivers that they would rule the linux landscape?
That merely killed Nvidia. Intel dodged that bullet and then shot it right back at AMD, better aimed and with an explosive warhead attached. It passed through AMD (wounding them) and and then exploded inside Nvidia's skull.
Open is necessary, but if you intend to open (AMD) while your competitor (Intel) actually does it and then also writes the dri
This story is regarding AMD CPUs, not AMD GPUs.
Currently Linux supports the features of AMD's current CPUs better than it is supported on the Windows side of things.
What 4Ghz barrier? I have an Intel i7 3700k at 4.6Ghz, and before that I had a Bulldozer at 4.5Ghz(which I promptly returned due to it's horribleness.)
Overclocking compared to the stock speed of 4GHz is two different things. There WERE some issues that held back overclocking in older chips(4GHz was almost a hard limit for some reason), but that has been fixed in the newer chips. Still, the AMD FX 8350 running a stock 4GHz with turbo mode to 4.2GHz should be interesting with the new Piledriver improvements over Bulldozer. That is something that should be interesting to see, just because it may fix all the performance problems with Bulldozer.
Having dedicated decoders for the IPU is definitely on the right rrack, but a shared fetch is still means there is a bottleneck in getting those cores fed.Also, apparently, the changes hit the L1 performance, so they had to add some cache to make up for it. So, there is some room for improvement, and this does help, However, I just don't see it as the big step that AMD needs against Intel. Intel's dies are smaller, they are making better use of space, and this is a huge advantage. Intel has 10 core dies, an
Bah, what AMD needs to do is just keep doubling cores on the Phenom-line of chips. A 12-core Phenom III, in the next 12 months, could keep them going for another two years or so. Of course, then they'd think that it might impact their server offerings, but lets be honest, I've looked at their server offerings, and while I love the number of cores, I need at least 3 Ghz cores; the 2.1 Ghz cores make me question whether it's worth just buying multiple machines with Phenoms, as opposed to buying Magny-Cours (o
Piledriver(not in an APU) comes out in October of THIS year(2012) with the 8350 set to be released at 4GHz and a turbo mode to 4.2GHz speed without overclocking. Steamroller will be the next step after Piledriver for next year. It is almost a given that improvements to performance per watt will happen every YEAR, so what comes out in a 125 watt max this year will be a 90 watt chip next year for the same performance, possibly even going below that level depending on improvements in the process technology
Have you ever noticed that the people who are always trying to tell you `there's a time for work and a time for play' never find the time for play?


text: All our mechanical items carry a 90 day warranty against defect for normal use/ wear & tear in the application that they are designed to be used in. Items should be fitted in accordance with manufacturers instructions. Warranty is for a refund of the purchase price of the part only or a replacement part at our discretion. All items should be returned to us within the warranty date with a written report and full vehicle details


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|XP is just a number
Re: Maintaining a CPAN Module.by MidLifeXis (Monsignor)
|on Jan 23, 2013 at 10:53 UTC ( #1014876=note: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
If you (and the co-maintainer) already have a source repo that meets your needs (especially if it is publicly available), I would just stick with that. Just gathering bug reports, IMO, is not reason enough to push an unmaintained copy (assumption) of your source to github. IMO, it is better to have one canonical source, and use the rest as automatically updating child repositories. Changes can flow up from the child to the parent, but without the automatically updating (or just a lack of communicating that XYZ is the master repo) part, there will be a question as to which is the authoritative source.
However, if you are planning on setting up synchronization between the two repos, or if RT does not meet your needs, or if GitHub provides some whiz-bang feature that you just need to have, then it may make sense to look at GitHub for hosting your source.
GitHub also supports a subset of svn operations.
There is more value to GitHub than just that it uses git. There are pulls, issue tracking and management, project wiki, and a few other tools that I am not familiar with. It comes down (at least to me) to if the tool does the job you need. It seems to me that if the provider of your source repo is doing everything you need, change for the sake of change is not a good thing.
In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom


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Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers told thousands of Cisco partners Tuesday that the networking titan's massive restructuring effort was paying off with a tighter focus, better systems and processes, and more investment in partner programs. Cisco is the best partner a solution provider can have, Chambers asserted, because the company spots market transitions and enables partners to capitalize on them better than any other.
Chambers' keynote kicked off this year's Cisco Partner Summit, where among other major moves, Cisco is launching a new program specific to services opportunities -- ideally, partners stand to make $5 in services for every $1 in Cisco product, Chambers noted -- and also expanding its Partner-Led strategy for SMB and midmarket accounts.
Chambers' message to about 4,000 attendees representing 90 countries in person -- and another 7,000 virtual attendees -- was that Cisco is a leaner, fitter organization that would continue to lead market transitions. To be a leader, the company has no choice but to outgun its competitors and be ahead of the curve in every way it can, he said.
[Related: How Cisco Got Its Groove Back]
Cisco's major rivals -- Chambers called out Juniper and HP by name -- aren't as tough as they were a year ago, he said, but it's crucial for Cisco to continue to reinvent itself and embrace "mega trends" like cloud, mobility and video.
"Companies fail almost always because they became overconfident, lost their healthy paranoia and didn't listen [to customers]," Chambers said.
The speech included many familiar Chambers touchpoints, including the framing of video as "the next voice," and the discussion of Cisco's track record identifying -- and profiting from -- market transitions as they happen.
NEXT: Cisco Heading Into 2012


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NASHVILLE (AP) - A federal appeals court has overturned an $11 million judgment against an Atlanta-based health care company with diagnostic testing facilities in 13 states.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday that the fine a lower court leveled against MedQuest Associates in 2011 was excessive and should be overturned.
The lower court had found that three of the company's subsidiaries based in Nashville had violated some regulations required when they filed for reimbursement under Medicare. It found the company had used physicians that were not approved by Medicare and had been billing under a code used previously by a business that MedQuest later purchased.
The appeals court said these infractions were not violations of the federal False Claims Act and the company shouldn't have to pay the fines.
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Gameplay: the Missing Ingredient In Most Games 308
An anonymous reader writes "Game designer Tadhg Kelly has an article discussing the direction the games industry has taken over the past several years. Gaming has become more of a business, and in doing so, become more of a science as well. When maximizing revenue is a primary concern, development studios try to reduce successful game designs to individual elements, then naively seek to add those elements to whatever game they're working on, like throwing spices into a stew. Kelly points out that indie developers who are willing to experiment often succeed because they understand something more fundamental about games: fun. Quoting: 'The guy who invented Minecraft (Markus "Notch" Persson) didn't just create a giant virtual world in which you could make stuff, he made it challenging. When Will Wright created the Sims, he didn't just make a game about living in a virtual house. He made it difficult to live successfully. That's why both of those franchises have sold millions of copies. The fun factor is about more than making a game is amusing or full of pretty rewards. If your game is a dynamic system to be mastered and won, then you can go nuts. If you can give the player real fun then you can afford to break some of those format rules, and that's how you get to lead rather than follow the market. If not then be prepared to pay through the nose to acquire and retain players.'"


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Six people arrested at Millwall on Saturday have been released on bail
Six people arrested after an offensive banner was unfurled at Millwall on Saturday have all been released on bail.
Last Updated: 13/11/12 12:16pm
A sign directed at Bolton striker Marvin Sordell, who was verbally abused by one of the club's fans last month, was unveiled at The Den during the 2-1 win over Derby.
The banner related to complaints made by Sordell after he was abused by fans while warming up for a match on 6 October, leading to a 13-year-old boy being banned from Millwall's ground.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said six men were arrested on suspicion of public order offences and have been bailed until early December.
The banner on display was swiftly removed by Millwall staff.
The club has so far refused to comment on the incident, and assistant manager Joe Gallen - standing in for manager Kenny Jackett, who missed the game with flu - also opted not to discuss the matter.


text: Meta Rate My Team PokéBase - Pokémon Q&A Login Register All Activity Questions Unanswered Tags Users Ask a Question Rules Chat Any tips for beating Red? 7 votes 4,213 views I've made it all the way to Red. But I just can't beat him. Any pokemon reccomendations? Any Tms I should use? Help!!!! My team is currently: Graveler lvl 62 with Stone edge, Earthquake, Double Edge, Strength (Graveler also has The Rock Head Ability which prevents recoil) Ampharos lvl 68 with Thunder, Discharge, Thunderpunch, Rock climb Gyrados lvl 67 with Hydro pump, Ice fang, Waterfall, Surf Ho-oh lvl 72 with Fire Bast, Sacred Fire, Ancientpower, Fly Lugia lvl 70 with Extrasensory, Hydro pump, Areoblast, Rain Dance Typhlosion lvl 72 with Eruption, Flamethrower, Swift, Lava Plume soulsilver heartgold red tips asked May 12, 2010 by Swampert edited May 15, 2010 by Swampert 1. Use thief to take pikachu's light ball to make pikachu 1/2 stronger 2. use stat raising moves like dragon dance few times while pikachu attacks you 3. KILL ALL OF HIS POKEMON!!!!!! commented May 5, 2012 by MiniNinetales what is really funny is that you could beat one of them with a LVL 1 STARLY! What you would do is give it a focus sash, then use eavandour. So the opponents hp would probable be 1. then you use quick attack, flooring them. THis also works with pidgey or spearor or most flying types. (PS. Imagine all the exp points...) commented Nov 7, 2012 by Emolgasquirrel345 That's called the FEAR strategy. commented Mar 1, 2013 by Conixcomix Please log in or register to add a comment. Please log in or register to answer this question. 5 Answers 14 votes Best answer Your average team level: lvl 72 Like Blue, Red has a great mix of Pokémon types wich means you're going to need to have a well-raised team with multitude of attacking options. Don't be scared of his lvl 88 Pikachu - it can certainly hit hard, but it's no match for a strong good Physical attack. In fact, it's possible to take him down with one hit of this type. The samme aplies Snorlax - Physical will win out, especially as it has good resistance to elemental specials. Next up, make sure you have a strong Eletric type - this will make light of two of Red's team, his Lapras and his Blastoise. Finnaly. Venusaur will struggle against a Fire type with a decent defense. One golden rule to remember for this battle is to pack plenty of Full Heals, as many of Red's team can knock you for 60-70% of your HP. Use potions and be patience, as beating Red will bring you plenty of rewards in the end of the game. answered May 15, 2010 by anapipasv My mewtwo lvl 71 OHKOed pikachu with psychic and basically beat red for me dispite being under leveled Ho-oh helped but it was mainly mewtwo. commented Dec 20, 2010 by Speed freak how did you get Mewtwo? commented May 8, 2013 by Aurasphere Mewtwo can be caught in cerulean cave commented May 8, 2013 by Dudeicolo Do you need a master ball for that? commented May 8, 2013 by Aurasphere No. Just weaken it. You don't need to use a Master Ball. commented May 8, 2013 by Fizz Good because I already used my master ball commented May 8, 2013 by Aurasphere an electric type would also help against charizard because its part flying type commented Jul 23, 2013 by Turtle99 Please log in or register to add a comment. 10 votes Red's pokemon are all at least level 80 so you're WAY off being able to tackle him. You need to level up your pokemon at least 15 levels, maybe 20. I would level up your Ampharos loads because electric moves will help, and maybe Graveler since he has some great moves (evolve him to Golem if possible). answered May 12, 2010 by Pokemaster Well, Actually, I got all the way to his Charizard, But it Creamed my Graveler. commented May 12, 2010 by Swampert Please log in or register to add a comment. 0 votes you can get a good fighting pokemon to beat lapras and snorlax (machamp is the BEST!!!) answered Mar 18, 2012 by nojo01 Please log in or register to add a comment. 0 votes for lapras and snorlax machamp agreed cath him with the (no guard) abilety and lern him dynamic punch i say USEFULL answered Apr 8, 2012 by dave and traain your graveler his moveset helps you trough most of his pokemon (earthquake super effective against pikachu) not much agree but stone edge is super effective against charizard and lapras wich makes him have only 3 pokeon left wich your team at the apopriait lvl will take down. commented Apr 8, 2012 by dave oh and switch your ho-oh or typlosion for a fghting type hqvig difrince in type inparty always helps commented Apr 8, 2012 by dave Please log in or register to add a comment. 0 votes I beat him with level 50-52 and one level 49 so it just depends how good you are and if you know what to do. My team was: Heracross level 49(counter and reversal to take down snorlax) Tyhplosion lvl 52(Flame wheel and thunderpunch for venausaur and charizard) Espeon lvl 52(knows bite to take down espeon, high special attack) Lapras lvl 50(surf and ice beam for venasaur and charizard) Piloswine lvl 51(Earthquake and icy wind for pikachu and venasaur) Snorlax lvl 51(Thunderpunch for blastoise/charizard) answered May 5, 2012 by tchinsky Please log in or register to add a comment. Related questions Does Red Call me for a rematch in HG and SS? Any tips on beating Lance in HG/SS? Why does Red not speak in Pokemon Hg and Ss and only use Dots? Is the Lavender Town music in Gold and Silver different than the music in Red and Blue? Tips on beating the Battle Frontier? Tips on beating Palkia in Pokemon Explorers of Sky? Any tips for shiny hunting in Pokemon White/Black? Any Tips For The Masuda Method Useful Meta Posts How to change your username How to add a user avatar Why was my post hidden? 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This Saturday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation opens its public visitor center at its swish new headquarters across the street from Seattle Center (440 Fifth Ave. N). Seattle mag editors got to tour the beautiful space on Wednesday with chief admin officer Martha Choe.
The center was conceived as a gateway where individuals can better connect with the important, but often distant, work the Gates foundation does. We were somewhat skeptical going in; would this be a self-serving congrats center? But the vibe is upbeat, empowering and very absorbing. More "It Takes a Village" than "Look What We've Done!" In a way, it seems to take cues from social media SOP and informs at the same time that it invites a din of comments and contributions from its followers-er-guests. In other words—it's an educational setting that listens as much as it talks.
Here are a few highlights:
1. "Voices," and impactful display which features recordings and photos of foundation employees, grantees, beneficiaries and more:
2. The world's least-boring timeline is in the "Family & Foundation" room, where Choe is demonstrating how to spin wooden panels—a la Vanna White—to reveal important dates in the Gates Foundation's history (including Bill and Melinda's wedding).
3. A floor-to-ceiling list of all the grants made by the foundation, which revolves on a conveyor belt to give each entry equal "face time":
4. Choe demonstrates how a wooden globe acts as a joy stick for a giant screen displaying Foundation projects dedicated to countries around the world:
5. Empathy patrol: heft these two 16-pound buckets to get a sense of what children in water-challenged countries do every day to get fresh water
6. Even the restrooms are designed to remind us that many people do not have access to even the basic facilities we take for granted. In this picture posted on the Vistor Center's Twitter page, one of the restroom stall door illustrates what kind of bathrooms other people in the world are forced to use.
7. Finally, the center tries to inspire visitors to articulate their own ideas for addressing the world's problems in almost any medium you can think of: typing it and seeing it display instantly on a virtual billboard; answering a prompt with a sculpture made of pipe cleaners, or writing it on and old-fashioned piece of paper. At the end of your visit, you're invited to write down a pledge, a promise or a declaration, leave it on a metal "tree" (shown below) and also take someone else's for inspiration to carry with you beyond the walls of the center. All of this isn't just paying lip service to "hands-on" learning: the center's content will be updated throughout the year, based on visitors' feedback and contributions.
Clearly a wonderful destination for school field trips, it's also safe to say that the center is high-tech and beautiful enough to interest even the most cynical grown-ups. The space is full of natural light and impressive green building materials, including locally-sourced reclaimed wood and wall insulation made from recycled blue jeans. If these walls could talk, they would nag you loudly about sustainable building practices!
The only opportunity for interaction this place is missing is a fair-trade coffee cart (if you let a local place brew it, Bill and Melinda, Seattleites will come!).
But even sans the call of caffeine, stop by the Visitor Center next time you're in the neighborhood. You will definitely learn something here—if only another reason to appreciate that such an organization exists in our city...and our world.
Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Free admission. The Gates Foundation Visitor Center, 440 Fifth Ave. N; 206.709.3100; gatesfoundation.org
Corporate and school tours are available. Call the number above or contact: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Lesson of the Evil ("Aku no Kyoten")
Sponsored by SuperClub Vidéotron & Japan Foundation
Canadian Premiere
- Japan
- 2012
- 129 mins
- Japanese
- English (subtitles)
Official Selection, Rome International Film Festival 2012
Official Selection, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2013
Official Selection, Los Angeles Film Festival 2013
Official Selection, New York Asian Film Festival 2013
Official Selection, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2013
Official Selection, Los Angeles Film Festival 2013
Official Selection, New York Asian Film Festival 2013
"A deranged and insanely violent black comedy... a triumphantly bloody and humourous slice of exploitation" - James Marsh, TWITCHFILM
The Shinko Academy is a school like every other. The teenagers who go there do stupid things — they fight, and try to deal with their hormonal awakening under the watchful eye of a faculty that does its best to maintain order. Amidst it, Mr. Hasumi proves to be the most popular, both among the students and his peers. He is young, handsome, kind and strangely, he seems to possess a sixth sense allowing him to solve any problem. Students cheat during an exam? A case of bullying poisons the school's atmosphere? A teacher is suspected of sexual harassment? Hasumi is the solution. But all of this turns out to be too good to be true. Underneath it all, he weaves his web, deftly manipulating some, mercilessly blackmailing others. He even maintains an affair with one of his students. The truth is, Hasumi is a psychopath, and he's chose Shinko Academy as his new playing ground. When "incidents" pile on and some direct their suspicions at him, they magically vanish. Whoever stands in his way will die. In fact, death looms over the entire school, because Hasumi has a plan: methodically eliminate every single one of his students.
We prefer to warn you, LESSON OF THE EVIL could very well be the most shocking and provocative film directed by Takashi Miike to this day, which is saying something. A story built around a teacher planning on killing dozens of adolescents on school property may raise eyebrows, but the hunting-rifle carnage that occurs near the end of this will evoke the worst tragedies that have made the headlines recently. Let's just say that Miike's return to exploitation cinema, after a few forays into more accessible genres (think of ACE ATTORNEY, FOR LOVE'S SAKE and 13 ASSASSINS) led him to be in Competition at Cannes, shows no half measures or fear of ripping everything apart. Miike remains Miike and for his hordes of fans, it's perfect like that. For LESSON OF THE EVIL, he himself adapts the Yusuke Kishi novel, in the process creating one of the most terrifying psychopaths seen on screen. It's a role perfectly inhabited by Hideaki Ito (SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO) who executes his students with blood-curling, icy detachment. LESSON OF THE EVIL is a horror film with no compromises that will bruise your soul and make you teeth grind. After this screening, you will also never listen to the song "Mack The Knife" the same way…
— Nicolas Archambault


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Hazel Koontz Sink, 95, of Abbotts Creek Care and Rehabilitation, formerly of Conrad Street, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, at Abbotts Creek.
Hazel Koontz Sink, 95, of Abbotts Creek Care and Rehabilitation, formerly of Conrad Street, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, at Abbotts Creek.
A funeral will be at noon Saturday at Pilgrim Lutheran Church, where she was a member, by the Rev. Craig Saltzer. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 11 a.m. to noon prior to the service at the church.
Mrs. Sink was born April 15, 1917, in Davidson County to David Luther Koontz and Dica Evans Koontz. She was retired from Parkdale Mills. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Druid Odell Sink; brother Boyd Koontz; and sisters Agnes Miller, Pauline Lanier, Naomi Shoaf and Allie Veigh Hartley.
Surviving are her son, Druid Wayne Sink of Lexington; four grandchildren, Robin Sink of High Point and Ronald Sink and wife Margaret, Martha Lineback and Chad Sink, all of Lexington; eight great-grandchildren, Brent Lineback, Kendra Barker, Justin Sink, Geoffery Sink, Aimee Sink, Caleb Sink, Haley LeBeau and Landon LeBeau; and three great-great-grandchildren, Carter Lineback, Brayden Barker and Reilly Sink.
Memorials may be made to Pilgrim Lutheran Church, 823 Ridge Road, Lexington, NC 27295.
The family would like to extend special thanks to Abbotts Creek Care for all the love and care shown to Hazel and her family.
Davidson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Online condolences may be made at www.davidsonfuneralhome.net.


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June 30, 1943 - July 31, 2013
Blooming Grove, NY
Edmund A. Fares, of Blooming Grove, NY entered into rest July 31, 2013 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in NYC; he was 70 years old.
Edmund was born in Brooklyn, NY on June 30, 1943 to Edmund and Cecile LaFlame Fares.
Edmund was a man who was larger than life, he enjoyed hunting, photography, and he was a chef and a musician. He was past commissioner of Orange County Public Works, past engineer for both the Town of Blooming Grove as well as the Village of Washingtonville, past chairman of the NYS Bridge Authority and President and owner of Garrison Construction Company.
He is survived by his wife, Christine Fares of Blooming Grove; daughters, Michelle and her husband, Marc Scanlon of Blooming Grove, NY and Vanessa and her husband, Kevin Gordon of Saranac Lake, NY; grandchildren: Camilla, Natalie and Charlotte Scanlon as well as many cousins. He was predeceased by his brother, Robert Fares.
Visitation will be from 1 to 3 & 5 to 8 p.m. on Sunday August 4th, at the David T. Ferguson Funeral Home. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 5th at the Sacred Heart Chapel on Still Rd. in Monroe, NY. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery in Washingtonville, NY.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Ed's name can be made to The Garden of the Child, P.O. Box 658 Monroe, NY 10949.
Arrangements under the care of Thomas A. Murray of David T. Ferguson Funeral Home, 20 North St., Washingtonville, NY 10992, 845-496-9106.