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June 11th, June 12th and June 13th from 9am-5pm at the Holiday Inn in Sparks next to Denny's off the I-80/McCarran exit in the Victorian Ballroom.
SPARKS, NV - For more than 4 years, a corner of Victorian Square in Sparks has been in the dark. Once the Silver Club, in 2009, it closed its doors, leaving employees to look for other lines of work. Rumors have circulated for years about the fate of the building. But this week those rumors have been replaced by fact.
"People want it to be open. This is it this is the real deal," says Nancy Darcy, Chief Operating Officer with Nevada Casino Holdings. The company is in the process of renovating the Silver Club.
For the first time in years there's activity on the outside, and inside of the Silver Club in Sparks.
At one entrance the lights are on, and YESCO workers are in the process of changing out the signs around the block
Inside workers are stripping counter tops and redesigning areas of the casino floor.
Darcy says the number one priority is getting the first floor in modern shape.
With a Bourbon Street theme she says some of the design has been left over from the former Silver Club.
"We will be hiring a little over 100 people and we are doing it through a series of job fairs. People can also visit our website and put in an application now if the like. We are looking for 100 to start about 100," says Darcy.
Darcy says the casino will be starting small in hopes of attracting former customers along with those new to the property.
She says she'd like Bourbon Street to be a locals casino where people can meet their friends and family, have a drink, a nice meal, gamble and feel comfortable in their surroundings.
"So I think there is really that spirit of community in Sparks and I think that's what drives the interest in this particular building," says Darcy.
For employment opportunities at the Bourbon Street Casino you can go to kolotv.com and click on Hot Topics.


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by Katie Parker, sports information graduate assistant
>>>boxscore game one
>>>boxscore game two
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga.- The Georgia College & State University softball team (20-12, 7-1 PBC) swept Peach Belt Conference (PBC) foe Lander University (12-18, 1-7 PBC) 2-0 and 5-2 in today's (March 20) doubleheader at the Peeler Complex. Head coach Ginger Chaffinch and starting pitcher Mandy Chandler (Covington, Ga.) each had record-setting days in the twinbill.
Bobcat ace Chandler broke another PBC pitching record today. Going into game one, the senior was tied for most career wins in the conference. After game two's victory, Chandler now owns the Peach Belt career wins record with 88.
The two wins today also put coach Chaffinch atop the Georgia College record books, making her the winningest skipper in program history. She passed Windy Thees with the game two triumph, tallying 164 W's.
In game one, Georgia College out hit Lander eight to one in the 2-0 shutout. The Bobcats got a run in the first and an insurance score in the bottom of the sixth. Freshman Stephanie Lezcano (Columbus, Ga.) started the bottom of the first with a double to left center for her lone hit of the game, eventually scoring on a Sherquita Bostick (Florence, S.C.) double. Bostick finished 2-for-3.
In the sixth, senior first baseman Tonya Medders (Bascom, Fla.) led off with a single, scoring on a double from designated player Haley Burnett (Columbus, Ga.).
Chandler, the record slasher, pitched all seven innings while fanning 12 Bearcat batters and giving up only one hit. The shutout was her sixth of the season. Sara Senn spoiled the no-hitter for Chandler, claiming the only hit for Lander with two out in the sixth.
Nikki Brown took the loss for the Bearcats giving up four hits and one run with one strikeout while walking two over 1.1 innings pitched. She fell to 1-1 for the season.
The Bobcats continued to out hit the Bearcats in game two 10 to four in the 5-1 victory. The second contest required a come-from-behind effort out of GCSU, as they put up four big runs to overtake the lead in the fourth. Utilizing the single, the Bobcats got the rally using just one extra-base hit.
The fourth started with four consecutive singles, the fourth being a rip through the right side by shortstop Lindsey Swanson (Kennesaw, Ga.) scoring two. The Bobcats then had back-to-back sacrifice flies for the other two runs.
Lead-off hitter Lezcano went 3-for-4 for Georgia College with one run. Bostick went 1-for-3 with an RBI while right fielder Kati Pickowitz (Keller, Texas) also went 1-for-3 scoring twice. Senior second baseman Allison Schwimer (Cumming, Ga.) posted one run and plated another going 2-for-3 at the plate.
In the circle, Liessner claimed the loss for Lander falling to 7-13 on the season. She threw six innings, allowing 10 hits and five runs while striking out three batters. For the Bobcats, Chandler gave up four hits and two runs while sitting down six Bearcat batters for a complete game effort, improving to 18-6 for the season.
Georgia College ends an eight-game homestand with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Sunday, March 22 against No. 2 University of Alabama-Huntsville (18-0).
Visit www.GCSUBobcats.com to nominate your favorite former Bobcats and Colonials to the GCSU Athletics Hall of Fame. The GCSU Department of Athletics sponsors 10 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, GCSU prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the Bobcats' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement.

subset: commoncrawl


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Youth is synonymous with inexperience, but in athletic competition it's not tolerated as an excuse nor does it offer any type of mercy from opponents. That's something the Dover Senators boys' basketball squad is suffering through now as the season comes to a close.
On Saturday, a young Dover team dropped their fourth game in a row, and five of their last six, in a 58-43 loss to the Middletown Cavaliers.
With just two seniors on the team this season for Dover, a learning curve was expected. However, entering play Saturday the Senators still had a glimmer of hope of making it to the field of 24 in the state tournament.
Middletown came into play Saturday on the opposite spectrum of the Senators' situation, having won five in a row catapulting their record above .500 for the first time this season.
The game stayed relatively close as the teams played to a stale-mate after a quarter before the Cavaliers took a four-point lead into the half thanks to a last second layup at the buzzer.
The same held true in the third quarter, as Middletown upped their small lead to five heading into the final quarter of play.
In the quarter, the Dover defense became a victim of the Cavaliers pace, giving up 23 points in the stanza to fall by 15.
Middletown came at Dover with a well-rounded attack, whether it was running the floor after a turnover, or rotating the ball in a half-court offense, everything clicked for the Cavs in the fourth. The Cavaliers were led by four players scoring in double-figures Saturday, Donivan Roy lead the way with 14 while Matt Pinkett, Caylab Herrera and Chad Poarch all finished with 11 apiece.
Sophomore's Terrence Woodlin and Jordan Allen helped lead the Dover offense, each scoring 13 points while senior Shekiem Yarbray added eight of his own. And while Dover's 13 points in the fourth was their highest quarter total of the game, they weren't able to find the rhythm to try and pace the Cavaliers.


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Teen pleads not guilty to bomb threat
A judge Saturday freed an Islip teenager charged with a felony for tweeting what police considered a threat to bomb a rival school's basketball game.
Steven S. Taggart, a junior at Islip High School, admitted posting on Twitter that he was preparing to blow up "The Kingdome" -- the nickname of rival Kings Park High School's gym, according to court papers.
Through his attorney, Taggart pleaded not guilty Saturday to falsely reporting an incident on school grounds. The teen is charged as an adult.
"I believe this incident was fairly overblown," the attorney, James Polk of Garden City, told Judge G. Ann Spelman of District Court in Central Islip.
His parents were in the courtroom as Polk told Spelman that Taggart is a junior volunteer firefighter, plays sports and works part time at a fish market.
According to a law enforcement source, Taggart tweeted at 10:23 p.m. Thursday: "just got the bomb dropped off at my house. Getting ready to blow the Kingdom up!"
The post was part of what police called "one-upsmanship" among students the night before a boys basketball game between the schools.
The tweet was later deleted and an apology posted Friday by Taggart, but police arrested him later that day.
Suffolk County police have characterized the incident as "teenage bravado," but said they have to take all such threats seriously.
Taggart, released without bail, left court Saturday with the hood of his coat pulled over his head.


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This report is from Sporting News writer Ryan Fagan.
As we head to the 2012 Final Four this weekend in New Orleans, there have been 1,779 NCAA Tournament games in the expanded bracket era and 27 champions crowned. The '92 Kentucky-Duke game, most famous for the Christian Laettner shot, in the East Region final is undoubtedly the No. 1 game in the expanded bracket era.
Here is a look at Nos. 2-10 on Sporting News' list of the top NCAA Tournament games of the era:
2. No. 8 Villanova 66, No. 1 Georgetown 64
1985 national championship game (April 1)
The Hoyas were the defending national champions and the overwhelming favorites in this game, but history told the Wildcats they had a chance, even if nobody else thought they did. Coach Rollie Massimino's team had held Big East rival Georgetown under 60 points twice during the regular season, and although both games had been losses for Villanova, they were close, which proved the slow-down approach could work. And it did on the big stage, when the Wildcats played what would become known as the Perfect Game.
In the championship game in Lexington, Ky., against the Hoyas, who had lost only twice during the regular season, the Wildcats made an incredible 22-of-28 shots—including 9-of-10 in the second half—while controlling the tempo. They took the lead for good on a jumper by Harold Jensen with 2:37 left in the game, then made enough free throws down the stretch to pull off the unthinkable upset.
3. No. 2 Duke 79, No. 1 UNLV 77
1991 Final Four (March 29)
One year earlier, in the 1990 national championship game, UNLV had absolutely pummeled Duke by 30 points. Nobody expected the Blue Devils to lose by 30 again, but not many people were betting on them to win the rematch in Indianapolis, either.
The high-flying Runnin' Rebels were attempting to become the first team to win back-to-back championships since UCLA ended its run of seven straight in 1973 and the first team to finish undefeated since Indiana in 1976. But coach Mike Krzyzewski's squad kept UNLV from rattling off the game-altering runs that had turned the previous meeting into a blowout, and the game stayed tight throughout—there were 17 ties and 25 lead changes.
Christian Laettner made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left to put Duke ahead by two points, and the upset was sealed when Anderson Hunt's last-ditch 3-pointer was off the mark. Duke went on to win its first of consecutive national titles.
4. No. 1 Illinois 90, No. 3 Arizona 89 (OT)
2005 Chicago Region final (March 26)
Illinois entered the NCAA Tournament with a 32-1 record and a No. 1 seed, but the Illini found themselves trailing third-seeded Arizona by 15 points with just 4:02 remaining. That's when the best backcourt in the country took over the game—the combination of Dee Brown, Deron Williams and Luther Head scored 20 points down the stretch to send the game to overtime.
Williams buried the 3-pointer that started the comeback and the 3-pointer that tied the game and then knocked down a pair of triples in the overtime session. The win sent the Illini to the Final Four, where they knocked off Louisville before falling to North Carolina in the championship game.
5. No. 6 Kansas 83, No. 1 Oklahoma 79
1988 national championship game (April 4)
With their 11 losses, the Jayhawks might have been the most unlikely championship game participant ever. They had faced the Big Eight rival Sooners twice during the regular season, with Oklahoma winning by eight points each time.
In the first half of the title game in Kansas City, the Jayhawks went toe to toe with the high-octane Sooners—a team that averaged 102.9 points per game—and went into halftime tied at 50. The Jayhawks slowed the tempo in the second half, but Oklahoma took a 65-60 lead with a little more than 12 minutes left on a jumper in the paint by Stacey King.
Kansas rallied, though, and Danny Manning—who had 31 points, 18 rebounds and five steals in the game—hit four free throws in the final 15 seconds to help seal the upset.
6. No. 1 Kansas 75, No. 1 Memphis 68 (OT)
2008 national championship game (April 7)
These two No. 1 seeds had a combined 74-4 record entering the championship game in San Antonio. Kansas held a five-point lead at halftime, but with future No. 1 NBA Draft pick Derrick Rose, a freshman, leading the charge, Memphis took control in the second half.
The Tigers built a nine-point lead as the clock slipped near two minutes, but a jumper by Darrell Arthur and a steal and 3-pointer by Sherron Collins sliced five points off the lead in about eight seconds.
Memphis missed 4-of-5 free throws down the stretch, and Mario Chalmers delivered one of the most clutch shots in the history of the NCAA Tournament—a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left—to send the game to overtime. The Jayhawks took a quick lead in OT and never looked back.
7. No. 1 Indiana 74, No. 2 Syracuse 73
1987 national championship game (March 30)
The eternal memory of this great back-and-forth game in New Orleans is the floating jumper Indiana's Keith Smart made with four seconds left on the clock. But that wasn't his only contribution to the Hoosiers' victory.
With Syracuse's defense smothering star guard Steve Alford—who still made 7-of-10 3-point attempts in the game—down the stretch, Smart stepped up and scored 12 of Indiana's final 15 points. The oft-replayed jumper was just the final dagger.
Syracuse had one final chance with one second left, but Derrick Coleman's long pass was picked off by the Hoosiers—Smart grabbed it, of course—and coach Bob Knight had his third national championship.
8. No. 11 George Mason 86, No. 1 UConn 84 (OT)
2006 Washington, D.C. Region final (March 26)
This was supposed to be where the magical run ended. The 11th-seeded Patriots had knocked off Michigan State, North Carolina and Wichita State en route to the Elite Eight, but they were facing a Connecticut team that was a favorite to win the championship.
UConn had a nine-point lead at halftime, but George Mason fought back—in one stretch, the Patriots made six consecutive 3-point attempts—and had a four-point lead with less than 10 seconds left. The Huskies erased that deficit to send the game to overtime, where everyone expected them to run away with it.
Unfazed, George Mason made 5-of-6 shots in the extra period and finished off the stunning upset. The Patriots were finally beaten by eventual national champion Florida in the Final Four.
9. No. 2 UCLA 73, No. 3 Gonzaga 71
2006 Oakland Region semifinals (March 23)
Gonzaga dominated the Bruins for most of this Sweet 16 matchup. The Bulldogs led 37-20 in the first half, 42-29 at halftime and still had a commanding 71-62 advantage when Gonzaga star Adam Morrison made a pair of free throws with 3:26 left in the game. But UCLA scored the game's final 11 points, taking the lead for the first time with 10 seconds remaining on a bucket by Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.
The lasting image of this game was Morrison—the floppy-haired, wispy-mustachioed scorer—collapsing in tears on the floor as UCLA celebrated.
10. No. 1 Georgetown 50, No. 16 Princeton 49
1989 first round (March 17)
The Tigers were oh-so-close to becoming the first No. 16 seed ever to win an NCAA Tournament game. They controlled the tempo throughout the contest in Providence, R.I., and didn't relinquish the lead until midway through the second half.
Trailing by one with 15 seconds left in the game, Princeton had an opportunity to pull off the upset, but Georgetown freshman center Alonzo Mourning blocked a long jumper by Bob Scrabis and then recorded a block of Kit Mueller at the buzzer to help the Hoyas move on to the second round.
-Story originally appeared on SportingNews.com.
Get full coverage of the NCAA tournament at syracuse.com.


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By Ben Levisohn
Shares of Vale (VALE) have surged today after the company reported better-than-forecast earnings on lower costs.
Bloomberg has the details:
Vale SA rose the most among major iron-ore producers after profit beat analysts' estimates for the first time in two years on cost reductions and higher copper sales that offset lower prices for the steel ingredient…
First-quarter net income of $3.11 billion, or 60 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.7 billion, or 52 cents, in the previous three-month period, according to a statement after the close of trading yesterday. Vale was expected to post per-share profit excluding items of 55.8 cents, the average of 13 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Vale, the worst- performing major mining stock this year, is seeking to bolster investor confidence by putting lower-return projects on hold, selling assets and cutting costs.
Cowen's Anthony Rizzuto, Joseph Giordano and Novid Rassouli comment:
Overall, we were impressed by the quarterly results, which were primarily cost driven in
the iron ore and base metals segments. It is interesting to note, however, that EBITDA
contribution of the base metals, coal, fertilizers, and logistics segments combined only
represents about 7.5% of segment EBITDA. Continued underperformance, particularly
in coal (which has only had positive EBITDA twice in the previous 9 quarters), makes us
question the segment's importance to Vale's core business.
Bloomberg quotes Goldman Sachs:
"Vale reported a much stronger-than-expected 1Q13, driven by lower costs and expenses and a stronger performance from the base metals business," Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts Marcelo Aguiar and Diogo Miura wrote in a note to clients. "These drivers should provide a strong catalyst to consensus earnings upgrades and reduce the bearish sentiment towards Vale."
Vale's been receiving good news recently, as a "special-participation tax" looks DOA and analysts take a more positive viewon the company. Vale's stock has jumped 2.8% to $17.22 today, and has gained 7.5% this week. It's down 18% this year. The iShares MSCI Brazil Capped Index ETF (EWZ) has gained 0.3% today $54.43.


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To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
I don't mind innovation and I don't like all this license/IP/patent stuff. But considering we do have those it is no surprise companies sue each other and as Google & friends are "BIG" they become a target. And companies shoot at them, that doesn't mean/prove there is an axis of evil formed to attack Google.
The Android idea is innovative, but the execution is not. It's mostly not innovation, but copying. Before Samsung copied Apple's stuff they copied stuff from others.
Other companies do this too and it's not difficult to understand way, the enormous success and public image of Apple. Even little things like sticking an S behind your latest product is probably inspired by the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S. It's all about saying "well, it's not an iPhone, but it's roughly the same and cheaper so buy me instead".


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VBScript or Perl?
The Windows Sys Admin's Scripting Dilemmaby Robbie Allen, coauthor of Active Directory, 2nd Edition, and author of the recently released Active Directory Cookbook
As I was working on Active Directory Cookbook, I had to make a decision that many Windows system administrators face at one point or another: whether to use VBScript or Perl? I'm a long-time Perl guy, but unfortunately, no matter how much I preach the benefits of Perl, the Windows sysadmin community hasn't embraced Perl the way it has been embraced on the Unix side. Ultimately I decided to use VBScript because it is the least common denominator as far as scripting languages go on the Windows platform (besides batch files, of course). I did, however, include Perl examples on my web site so as not to leave out the Perl coders.
I was able to take the easy way out by using both in this case, but most system admins only need one, but which one? I've already stated my preference towards Perl, but I want to outline the pros and cons of each because both languages have their place. You can accomplish most of the basic system admin tasks with either language. For this reason you'll need to look at the other advantages and disadvantages of each language to determine which works best for you.
Overview of VBScript
VBScript is a subset of the Visual Basic programming language. You can run VBScript code using a Windows Scripting Host interpreter (wscript.exe or cscript.exe) or from within Active Server Pages (ASP).
Advantages of VBScript
No installation required
This is the number one reason VBScript is so widely used. Since you can run VBScript code on any Windows 2000 and later computer without needing to install anything, this makes it much easier to support on a lot of computers.
Popular on Windows
Because VBScript comes out of the box with Windows and was developed by Microsoft, naturally there is better support for it; not only by Microsoft, which documents VBScript extensively on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), but also on other non-Microsoft web sites. Generally, it is much easier to find VBScript examples than Perl examples (for Windows).
Built-in support for COM Automation and WSH
To do much of anything with Windows, you need to use a COM-based API, such as ADSI or WMI. For scripting languages, a subset of COM is supported, which is called the COM automation interface. VBScript can use this directly with the GetObject and CreateObject functions. With Perl, you have to use Win32::OLE module to access COM objects. Here is an example that uses the VBScript
set colUsers = GetObject("LDAP://cn=users,dc=rallencorp,dc=com")
And here is the same thing using Perl:
use Win32::OLE; $colUsers = Win32::OLE->GetObject("LDAP://cn=users,dc=rallencorp,dc=com")
VBScript code is generally very readable. Here is some sample VBScript code that should be pretty easy for even non-programmers to decipher:
set colUsers = GetObject("LDAP://cn=users,dc=rallencorp,dc=com") for each objUser in colUsers WScript.Echo objUser.Name next
Here is the equivalent Perl code, which is slightly less readable:
use Win32::OLE 'in'; $colUsers = Win32::OLE->GetObject("LDAP://cn=users,dc=rallencorp,dc=com") foreach $objUser (in $colUsers) { print $objUser->Name,"\n"; }
Easy transition for VB programmers
VBScript is a derivative of Visual Basic (VB) so if you know a little VB, it is easy to pick up VBScript.
Disadvantages of VBScript
Limited command-line parsing and GUI support
The built-in support for parsing command-line options and generating graphical interfaces (such as a password prompt) are pretty limited in VBScript.
Awkward and wordy language constructs
I mentioned that VBScript is very readable, but this also makes VBScript wordy in comparison to Perl. Because VBScript treats everything like an object, it often results in awkward language constructs. Perhaps the worst offender is VBScript regular expressions. Here is a simple example that tests if a string contains the letters "www" in it:
strMatch = "www.rallencorp.com" set objRegEx = New RegExp with objRegEx .Pattern = "www" .IgnoreCase = True .Global = True end with if objRegEx.Test(strMatch) then WScript.Echo "Matched" else WScript.Echo "Did not match" end if
Now here is the same example in Perl:
$match = "www.rallencorp.com"; if ($match =~ /www/i) { print "Matched\n"; } else { print "Did not match\n"; }
Limited third-party module/add-on support
This is one of the biggest issues with VBScript. Unlike Perl, there is no large VBScript repository where programmers freely contribute and share code in the form of packaged modules or components. There are many repositories that contain sample scripts, but none that I've seen that are on the same scale as CPAN for Perl.
No command-line code execution support
Being able to execute and test code from a command-line is an extremely useful feature of a scripting language. With Perl you can use the -e switch and execute code directly. Here is an example that prints the current time:
C:\> perl -e "print scalar localtime"
There is no counterpart to this in VBScript.
Uncertain future
At this point, it is hard to tell what will become of VBScript. Microsoft did not provide native support for VBScript within the .NET Framework, choosing to support JScript instead. And there are already rumors flying that in the next major release of Windows, codename Longhorn, there will be a new Microsoft Shell (MSH) that will include a new scripting language. If that happens, more than likely VBScript will start to fade away.
Related Reading
VBScript in a Nutshell
Overview of Perl on Windows
Perl has a long history dating back to 1987 when Larry Wall released the first version. Now, an army of dedicated Perl hackers actively maintain Perl, and ports exist for virtually every modern operating system.
Advantages of Perl
As far as scripting languages go, Perl ranks at or near the top for being the most robust and full-featured.
Extensive module support
If I had to give one reason to choose Perl over VBScript, this would be it. The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) contains an extensive collection of Perl modules that you can use to do just about anything you can think of. As far as Microsoft technologies go, the Win32:: module namespace contains modules for manipulating the registry, generating GUIs, manipulating files, using the Win32 API, and much more. If you've wondered if someone has already written code to do a particular function, odds are it is in a module somewhere in CPAN. Visit http://www.cpan.org/ for more.
If you work in an environment that has a mix of Microsoft and non-Microsoft operating systems, Perl is your best bet. And depending on what you need to do, you can even write Perl code that works cross-platform.
Actively developed
A large effort has been underway since 1999 to develop the next major version of Perl, Perl 6, which is a complete rewrite of the language.
Disadvantages of Perl
Requires installation
This isn't a big deal, but it is something you have to consider if you want to use Perl across a large number of systems. You can download Perl for free from the ActiveState site. ActiveState provides a number of extras that you can buy if you want to build .NET components, run Perl scripts as services, create executables from Perl scripts, and so on.
Daunting for newcomers
I hear this one quite a bit. Often when people see Perl code for the first time, they write it off as being too complicated to learn without a programming background. It is true that Perl can be extremely hard to read if not written well, but that is due more to the flexibility and capabilities of the language. You can write readable Perl code just as easy as you can write unreadable Perl code.
Limited support by Microsoft
I debated whether to include this as a disadvantage or not, but after several years of developing large Perl applications on Windows, it is apparent to me that Microsoft doesn't like to deal with problems that arise through the use of Perl. Often when I'd find an apparent bug in a Microsoft API, they wouldn't look at the Perl code, but instead required that the error be duplicated using VBScript or VB. It is unlikely you'll find something you can't workaround, but just be aware that if you do encounter a potential bug, you may want to show it to Microsoft in one of their languages to get quicker resolution.
If you want to get serious about automation in the Windows environment, I recommend using Perl because of its extensive module support and the overall robustness of the language. If you only want to do something quick and dirty or you don't have any programming experience, VBScript is probably your better bet.
As far as other scripting languages go, a case could be made for using JScript because of its integration with the .NET Framework, but I don't find many people using JScript for system admin tasks. I'll leave that for someone else to argue.
O'Reilly & Associates recently released (September 2003) Active Directory Cookbook for Windows Server 2003 & Windows 2000.
Sample Chapter 8, Computers, is available free online.
You can also look at the Table of Contents, the Index, and the Full Description of the book.
For more information, or to order the book, click here.
Robbie Allen is the coauthor of Active Directory, 2nd Edition and the author of the Active Directory Cookbook.
Return to the O'Reilly Network.


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The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department has three confirmed cases of hepatitis A and one probable case. Health department officials are working to control the spread of the virus.
One of the confirmed cases worked briefly at O'Charley's restaurant, 2895 Richmond Road. The health department's investigation to this point indicates this person had a low risk of transmitting the disease. The risk is low because the person was not working there during the most infectious period and did not work there very long.
To be on the safe side, people who ate at the restaurant between May 22 and June 1 should monitor for signs and symptoms of hepatitis A until July 21. Signs and symptoms of hepatitis A include jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes), dark-colored urine, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea and fever. Anyone with symptoms should contact his or her physician and the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department at 288-7529.
The restaurant's management has done everything the health department has requested, including taking extra sanitary precautions to further ensure safety and protect the public's health.
The health department is also providing Immune Globulin and hepatitis A vaccine to those who had close personal contact with confirmed cases to reduce the chances that they get sick.
The hepatitis A virus is found in the stool of people infected with hepatitis A and is usually spread from person to person by putting something in the mouth (even though it might look clean) that has been contaminated with the stool of a person infected with hepatitis A. It is often transmitted when people do not wash their hands properly or by eating uncooked or undercooked food.
The best way to keep from getting hepatitis A is to wash your hands using warm water and soap, to handle uncooked food appropriately and to fully cook food. Always wash your hands before touching or eating food, after using the toilet and after changing a diaper. When soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers.


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Pool Attendant
Position Summary
The Pool Attendant's role is to maintain the cleanliness and tidiness around the pool and common area.
Key Responsibilities
- Collecting the used towels from guests
- Prepare and serve food and beverages to guests at the poolside
Talent Profile
- Prior experience in a similar capacity is an advantage
- Good command of spoken and written English
- Service oriented and with good personality
Please note a recent scam involves soliciting individuals for international employment via e-mail using various internet based e-mail accounts that use the Pan Pacific name. Individuals are then asked to provide copies of their personal identification and to send money in order to process the application.
Pan Pacific Hotels Group has not authorized this form of communication and no such recruitment program is being offered or sanctioned by our company. These offers are fraudulent. Pan Pacific Hotels Group has notified the authorities to investigate.
If you receive an offer of employment but are unsure if it is legitimate, please contact us.
If you have been a victim of this scheme, please contact your local police department to report the matter.


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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wants to know: "What is the FCC thinking?" So should every Internet user who values net neutrality, the core principle that holds that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.
Hastings posed the question on his Facebook page in response to Federal Communication Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to let Internet service providers charge content companies higher fees for faster access for their users.
The FCC will take a preliminary vote May 15 on Wheeler's proposal. If it passes, it's the death of the Internet as we know it. Consumers everywhere need to rise up and demand that net neutrality be preserved.
Consumer advocates were nervous from the start over President Barack Obama's appointment of Wheeler to head the FCC in 2013. Instead of someone who would protect users' interests, the president was offering up a fox to watch over the FCC henhouse. Wheeler is a former cable-industry lobbyist who earned a living for more than a decade offering campaign donations in exchange for congressional favors for big corporations.
Wheeler last week strongly disputed the notion that his proposal would imperil net neutrality. He insisted that it would restrict broadband providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, from blocking or slowing any individual website; instead, it would merely allow providers to make deals with Internet companies for premium speeds. Wheeler said the FCC would examine deals on a case-by-case basis to guarantee the preservation of an open Internet.
Skepticism of Wheeler and the FCC's ability to police this brave new world of Internet rules is well-deserved.
The frightening consolidation of the broadband provider market is no secret. The proposed merger of Time Warner Cable and Comcast would bring together the two largest Internet providers in the nation. The pressure on the FCC to approve any premium deals would be enormous.
The beauty of the Internet and net neutrality is users' ability to access sites and materials with equal ease and without regard to price. Preserving equal access for consumers, not creating new profit opportunities for service providers, should be the top priority of the FCC.-- By the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News editorial board, Digital First Media


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Denizens of Sacred Grove are entertained by Halloween Harry this month as Super Spooktacular returns once again. He seeks the help of candy-loving adventurers to help play some tricks, flush out some ghosts and assist others with many more fun tasks!
This year a new TCG bundle is available in the Marketplace, which includes two Baron Von Darkcheat and Heroes booster packs, as well as a Pumpkin Prince promo card. Keep an eye out for additional updates that may add more spookiness to the Marketplace.
Hop onto Free Realms today and enjoy the limited time Super Spooktacular event!


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Watch The ::God Is Imaginary Videos On YouTube ::
But at the time of the choice, Adam was missing some critical information. Knowledge of good and evil was supposedly not there until the forbidden fruit was actually eaten, so hypothetically neither Adam nor Eve would not know whether eating the fruit was good or bad, or whether disobedience was good or bad, or even what "good" and "bad" meant. There's certainly nothing in Genesis 3 itself that suggests that Adam or Eve were warned about the potential effects on future generations, and IIRC the only Old Testament allusion to Original Sin is Psalm 51:5.From a non-Christian point of view, at very least it appears that the Biblical god used questionable methods for teaching morality to his two brand-new humans. The idea of "Do what I command, because to disobey is wrong" also seems a bit subjective.


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Noelle Khare's science lab was abuzz Thursday at Brevard Middle School. About 20 sixth-graders were laughing and giggling while learning about the scientific method, experimental variables and the value of collaborative learning.
Noelle Khare's science lab was abuzz Thursday at Brevard Middle School. About 20 sixth-graders were laughing and giggling while learning about the scientific method, experimental variables and the value of collaborative learning.
Khare had the kids excited yet focused on the day's experiment, which involved termites. Termites use pheromones to help other termites follow a certain direction, Khare explained. The same chemicals are found in a drying agent in some brands of ballpoint pens. Thus, the termites will follow a ballpoint pen line as though they're following other termites.
At one of several group tables, Mary Jacques announced her team's hypothesis: "If the ink on the paper is fresh, the termite will follow it better" than older ink that's lost some of its chemical scent in the drying process. Along with students Shane Owen, Shannon Morris and Destiny Robinson, the team set out to test its hypothesis.
Khare guided the students as they formulated their experiment. They would need three sheets of paper: one with an ink line that was drawn 15 minutes prior, one with a line drawn five minutes prior and one blank sheet awaiting the fresh ink. Picking up a tiny termite with a paintbrush, Jacques set it on the blank sheet while Shane Owen drew a line in front of the insect.
The termite quickly followed the line, rarely deviating from the inky path. But when it came to the ink line that was five minutes old, the termite strayed multiple times and took much longer to reach the end. For the 15-minute-old ink line, the critter randomly meandered around the sheet of paper, seemingly unaware the ink was there.
"The smell has drifted off of the 15-minute line, so they're not following it," concluded Morris.
"We've had a lot of fun doing this experiment," Jacques said once the results were in. "I learned a lot about termites and the reasons why they will follow the ink if it's fresh — because of the pheromones."
Owen added that there are different types of pheromones, including danger pheromones that warn other termites to stay away.
"There are also food pheromones and attack pheromones!" Morris chimed in.
Robinson said she liked science class and had fun with the experiment, then winced a bit and declared, "But I don't like the bugs."
At a nearby table, Dakota Barton wasn't squeamish.
"This was a lot of fun!" he said. "Mrs. Khare makes a lot of stuff fun."
Did his team have the same results as the Jacques' team?
"Yes," he said. "When the ink dried up, the termite sort of got confused."
Once every table had finished, Khare explained how there was more to the scientific method than just designing and executing an experiment. The kids also needed to make sure their data were complete, summarize the experiment and data collected in writing, and state a conclusion.
"You need to identify if your original hypothesis was correct and interpret the outcome," she said, as the students got to work with smiles on their faces.
Khane started using the termite experiment four years ago, after finding out about it at workshop for high school science teachers. Two other Brevard Middle science teachers also use the experiment in their labs.
Khare described it as one of her favorite lessons and said she fooled her students into thinking it was their idea.
"I made them think we were going to be learning about insects," she explained. "I wrote a story that the class read called 'Termie the Termite.' He moves into people's homes by finding fresh ink. I let the kids convince me to let them do an experiment, thinking it was their idea. They think they're learning about pheromones and insect behavior, but they're really learning about the scientific method, how to design an experiment and how to work together to pull it off. They're learning to think, communicate and problem-solve."
Student Adlai Marquez said the termite experiment was "really fun and cool. It was funny because sometimes the termite would get all turned around and not know when to stop following the line — especially when we drew a circle," he said with a laugh.
Reach Tanker at 828-694-7871 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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I have to write this somewhere to get it off my chest and this was as good a place as any. I didn't want to write it on facebook in case people I mention happen to read it. This post is completely off topic, so I put it here. Feel free to delete it if it's too off topic. This is purely for me to vent.
I'm always amazed how people you've never met can show more compassion and generosity than the people you're closest to.
One example of this generosity:
When my son was a baby, he had this problem where he used to be able to crap right up to his hairline in less than a second. We'd be out and suddenly the smell would hit us or we'd hear him, and it'd be full change time. We went out to the Trafford Centre for the day and he did it 3 times and wasted his all but one of his spares. I was just changing him into his last outfit when he blasted that. I was out of clothes in the baby change area of the shops. I phoned my wife and asked her to buy him a new outfit, when this nice lady insisted I take a spare outfit of her son's.
What's sparked this thread though:
We lost our daughter in childbirth over christmas. It was a bad time for all, but we are starting to put our lives back together again.
We had to go last week and sort a headstone for her grave. We had quotes for the stone ranging from £950 up to over £2000. I wouldn't mind, but it's not even a big or particularly fancy one. It's also nice to know that places like the co-op can charge 100% more and seem respectable. Anyhow, we put £150 down and said we'd pay the rest off bit by bit. My wife mentioned it on her mums forum and within 24 hours people I'd never met had donated over £180.
And my own mother hasn't even replied to a text saying we'd ordered it.
Anyhow... rant / rave over. Thanks if you listened to me witter on.


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Trend is the New Black
As the equestrian movement starts to hit its stride, it's useful to remember just how much energy goes into chasing down trends, sartorial and otherwise. Helped along by some well-placed press, it's now a full-fledged wing of the consulting industry, with its titans, its upstarts and apparently its detractors as well.
Piers Fawkes, trend-watcher and blogosphere compatriot at PSFK, has posted a 1500 word analysis of what's wrong with the trends business, singling out offenders like WSGN and IGN's Cassandra Report. The critique is pretty straightforward—more money, more authority, less oversight, fewer good ideas—but it's still a young industry's first j'accuse, and may be relevant for far longer than Fawkes imagines.


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7. Whitman Meets The HP Channel
Whitman struck an ebullient tone in her channel debut at HP's Global Partner Conference in February, vowing to rid HP of the drama that had been hovering stubbornly over the company. "I want to be a steady hand on the tiller for this company," said in her keynote. "We're going to return to being the reliable, trusted partner you can count on to build your businesses."
Whitman pledged to bring the "swagger" back to HP and talked of boosting R&D and innovation in order to restore the company to its past glory. She also reiterated that HP is a hardware company first and she would not seek to follow the path to software that her predecessor, Leo Apotheker, had charted during his brief tenure at the helm.


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In 1936, philosopher John Dewey stated that the aims of liberal education must be about more than preparing students for lives of personal fulfillment and professional accomplishment. The ultimate rationale for liberal education, he claimed, is to make democracy work. That means institutions must be actively engaged in the problems of their communities and must model the qualities of citizenship they hope to inculcate in their students.
—from The Civic Mission of Higher Education: From Outreach to Engagement, Kettering Foundation, 2001
Others maintain that the objective of a liberal education is to cultivate intellect and values through reading and reflecting on great works, preferably in a climate free of worldly distractions. At the start then of a new millennium are our ivory towers to remain set apart or is the academy to be a shaper of public culture? Are we teaching critical thinking, promoting collective responsibility, and cultivating productive citizens as our founders proposed?
Many lament the apparent student apathy on campus. National surveys indicate that today's college students are less politically engaged than their predecessors of the past four decades. A smaller percentage of youth vote and many students entering and leaving college are uninterested in influencing the political structure, keeping up with public affairs, or becoming community leaders. At the same time, political polarization alienates some students and keeps groups from working together on common goals. Many students believe it's too hard for one person to make significant change and so never get involved in social causes.
Still, young people are volunteering at a higher rate than previous generations. Mistrustful of government and skeptical of bureaucracy, they feel they have a greater chance of making a difference through community service. The success of the Bucknell Brigade to Nicaragua, the popularity of Management 101, the number of volunteers at the local community center, and ongoing student philanthropy are just a few examples of how hungry students are for meaningful experiences.
Granted, voluntary participation can be beneficial and personally rewarding; but how do we revise public policy or bring about structural change if tomorrow's citizens are not formally learning how to dialogue across differences, practice civic responsibility, or participate in community decision-making? While it is laudable that our students choose to help at a soup kitchen or tutor a struggling youngster, are we guiding their reflections so that they ask and understand why people are hungry, or seek better ways to help Johnny read? If educational institutions are not helping them make the connections, what does this imply for the future of America's public sphere? Is the trend toward ultimate individualism continuing while we witness the demise of civic participation?
Or are new initiatives by the academy - those that support service-learning, encourage community-based research, and reward innovative teaching and engaged scholarship - helping us to use social capital, academic resources, and disciplinary knowledge for the public good? What strategies can schools employ to promote civic responsibility and build a generation of engaged citizens? Dewey obviously believed in the power of education. At the same time, he argued that the life of the mind by itself was insufficient in meeting the challenges of U.S. democracy. Civic engagement as part of education, he argued, is required to address the needs of our communities and fulfill the potential of our citizens.
Our first speaker, Paul Loeb, will share his findings from interviews with citizens who are dedicated to a variety of social causes, documenting what helped them get involved and maintain their commitment despite challenges. Theda Skocpol will review the historical development and decline of voluntary associations and discuss implications for our civic future. Hal Saunders will bring a wealth of public experience to a discussion of conflict-resolution strategies and the need for sustained dialogue across racial, ethnic, and religious lines. Harry Boyte will argue that our institutions need to engage in public service not on behalf of the community, but instead, in partnership with the community. Finally, Gary Delgado will address concerns about how lack of citizen empowerment can put our civil liberties at risk, especially in times of turmoil. Please join us for what promises to be some lively discussions.
Janice Butler, Colloquium Coordinator
Director of Service-Learning
570 577-3973
121 Taylor Hall
The following links are virtual breadcrumbs marking the 27 most recent pages you have visited in Bucknell.edu. If you want to remember a specific page forever click the pin in the top right corner and we will be sure not to replace it. Close this message.


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Niagara pulls away from Buffalo in 92-81 win
LEWISTON, N.Y. (AP) -- Antoine Mason scored 25 points to lift Niagara to a 92-81 win over Buffalo on Wednesday night.
Mason, who was eight of 14 from the field with two 3-pointers, got help from Ramone Snowden and Tahjere McCall, who each scored 15 points and snagged eight rebounds for the Purple Eagles (1-1). Marcus Ware also hit double digits with 11 points.
Buffalo's Javon McCrea scored 31 points and hauled in 14 rebounds, the game's only double-double.
Niagara led 47-36 at the break, but Buffalo (0-2) charged back in the second half, closing the gap to 71-66 on a pair of back-to-back dunks by Jarod Oldham and Josh Freelove with about 8 minutes remaining and triggering a Purple Eagles timeout.
Niagara preserved its lead when it returned to the court, then began pulling away with 5:13 left on a Marvin Jordan steal that set up a Cameron Fowler layup.


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East Hampton Town Board members responded vehemently, and a Republican Party leader lamented a lack of decorum, after two Amagansett residents, both prominent Democratic Party members, pressed the board at its meeting last Thursday about its response to a lawsuit that could privatize a stretch of Napeague beach.
"Some in the town . . . would like to approach things from a very negative basis," said Trace Duryea, the chairwoman of the town Republican Committee, in her turn at the microphone.
The town board has neither mentioned nor discussed the lawsuit at any of its recent public meetings, although a request for an immediate judgment banning all but emergency vehicles from a 4,000-foot stretch of ocean beach is pending before a State Supreme Court justice. The judge is also to decide whether the beach is owned by the East Hampton Town Trustees on behalf of the public, as has been assumed for more than 300 years, or if it is privately owned, as the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit was filed in 2009 against both the town trustees and the town board by a number of Napeague property owners disturbed by heavy use of the ocean beach there by owners of four-wheel-drive vehicles, some of whom drive onto and park on the beach for all-day outings.
Betty Mazur and Jeanne Frankl, who chairs the town Democratic Committee, appeared before the board at the meeting to express their concern about the public access that is at stake, and to ascertain what the town is doing to protect citizens' traditional rights.
"The largest jewel in the crown of East Hampton may be stolen from us, the citizens of East Hampton," Ms. Mazur said to the board at the meeting, referring to the ability for residents to traverse all of the town's waterfront stretches. "I'm very nervous about it, because I'm not sure that we're going to be able to stop the robbers or the thieves — I'm talking about the group of landowners on Napeague who are looking to control a [long] stretch of our incredible beach, and that of course is the jewel in the crown."
"It's terrifying when you consider the precedent that may be set if these homeowners succeed. I'm concerned because I have not heard any signs of anxiety or excitement or any form of leadership from this board," she added.
That is rightly so, said Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who is an attorney. "We don't discuss lawsuits publicly. We are fully aware of the issue and are working behind the scenes with the attorneys every day. There are significant fact questions."
"I don't think there is anyone more supportive, more concerned, more passionate about beach fires, fishing, and beach driving," said Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson.
But, he said, the East Hampton Town Trustees have jurisdiction over the stretch of beach in question. "There is nobody that is more understanding of the jurisdictions of the government in East Hampton," he said. "We respect their independence. We respect their accountabilities."
"I think you'll find that we respect jurisdictions. This is a trustee case that is on their table, and we will wait respectfully for their request to sit down with us."
Ms. Mazur urged the board to be "proactive" and to communicate with the trustees about the case. "Even though it may not be strictly your jurisdiction, there is a responsibility," she said.
"You are assuming there hasn't been communication," Mr. Wilkinson said.
According to Ken Silverman, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who spoke at the meeting, its aim is not to restrict pedestrian access to the beach. It grew out of a frustration, he said, that "these beaches have been treated differently than all the beaches during daytime hours."
The East Hampton Town Code specifies several areas in the town where beach driving is allowed, including during the daytime in the summer, but access to these is through restricted areas, which vehicles may not traverse between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. from the Thursday before Memorial Day until Sept. 15.
"The important thing is not to lose the access, not to lose the ownership — above and beyond how you regulate the use of trucks and other things," Ms. Frankl told the board. "What I don't understand is why this board has not been a voice," she continued.
"We as a board indeed take this very seriously," Ms. Quigley said. "It's engraved in all of us, the right we have to the beaches and to the sea, and all of it."
"What I am interested in knowing is what is being done," Ms. Frankl said. "I think you hold the idea of litigation too close to the vest," she told the board. "I've been in government; I've been a litigator. Usually the people know who the lawyers are, what their position is, what the papers are that are being filed, and how they can see them."
"This board has been exaggerating its rights under the Open Meetings Law. I don't think it's true that the public does not get to hear how strongly you're defending, what your position is," she said. "We are the citizens, and you are responsible to us in this regard."
She cited a previous comment by Mr. Wilkinson that the public will not be apprised of 99 percent of what he or other board members do. "That's not okay," Ms. Frankl said.
"I can only add that this is my 27th straight day," the supervisor told her. "You're not going to hear everything. You're not going to be able to keep up with it."
Because the board has not issued information to the public on the lawsuit, or discussed it in an open forum, both Ms. Frankl and Ms. Mazur said, the only way they have been able to learn about it is through stories in the press.
Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley both expressed the opinion that the information in news stories cannot be trusted.
Ms. Mazur's and Ms. Frankl's comments unleashed a lengthy, heated response from Ms. Quigley. She accused the two speakers of "making this our problem" and "making it a political issue."
"I would really like to have a change in this town," said Ms. Duryea, the Republican Committee chairwoman. "We may disagree, but I don't like the attacks. I don't like the personalization. I don't like the politicization of situations that occur. Let's maintain some sort of decorum."
"I don't much appreciate the invictus or the slander and libel that we've heard here tonight, and I take it very, very seriously," Mr. Silverman said to the board, apparently referring to Ms. Mazur's comment that a jewel in the crown of East Hampton "may be stolen."
Dominick Stanzione, a town board member elected in 2009 along with Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley on the Republican ticket, said he was "disappointed at the rhetoric that was exchanged earlier," and apologized to Mr. Silverman on behalf of the board. "I'm very, very proud of the personal interest and leadership that Bill [Wilkinson] has provided on this," he said.
According to New York State Board of Election records, Mr. Silverman contributed $2,050 to the East Hampton Town Republican Committee in the last quarter of 2010, almost a quarter of the $8,535 total in donations that the committee received.
"I don't much appreciate the invictus or the slander and libel that we've heard here tonight, and I take it very, very seriously," Mr. Silverman said to the board, apparently referring to Ms. Mazur's comment that a jewel in the crown of East Hampton "may be stolen."
How in the world can that be taken as anything related to Libel? It certainly can be stolen.. because virtually the only way to reach that beach in the first place is by driving on it. By shutting down driving access, they're shutting down pretty much all beach access to that area in general.. and the selfish people behind the suit know this. Winning through a loophole is their main goal, and the Town Board better be intelligent enough to see through that.
And Mr. Wilkinson, all your constituents want is a nod of support and some of piece of mind over the matter. Most of us are well aware that you guys can't discuss all of the details in this legal matter, but any action that can make us feel better will be greatly appreciated. If anything, let your residents know that you guys are fighting and not sweeping the matter under the rug; that's all we need; and we'll do what we can on our end to help you.
I like the comment by yesyesbub. I am from Southampton and strongly feel we eastenders must stand together on "the access to the beach" problem. I have done a lot of research in the history books and Town records as to our right to free and easy access to the Town waters. That has been proven in the courts over many years of cases.I'm wondering if we are not in the fight of our lives on our right to our ancient traditions. People have ridden on the beach for genterations. We have pictures of folks, our ancestors, ridding on the beach in their horse and wagons back in the 1800's.I think one of the problems might lie in the way realators sell beach front. The newcomers are probably not told about the ruling and the public's right to ride on the beach.It seems too bad to have to always fight to retain our rights to the beach.
@Junie. We all love tradition but somehow I am having trouble equating a horse and wagon to a 4x4. It is not fair to compare the two. If you want to claim access on foot I agree....but stop equating horses to trucks. It is just not the same thing. When is the last time town officials permitted horses on 27?
Hey beachwalker, I love your answer but I was speaking to those folks who have no idea of the history of riding on the beach. On the other hand perhaps you are one of those newcommers. As for acutally comparing, the 4x4 is cleaner it does not leave road apples behind! As far as I know horses are still allowed on the roads.


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EA and the new Danger Close studio are giving Medal of Honor another try this year with Medal of Honor Warfighter. And like any challenger to the throne of first-person shooters, it's making its bones on the multiplayer modes. A new trailer gives us a peek at some of the frenetic action in the jungles of the Philippines.
The game looks very fast-paced, similar to a certain other annualized multiplayer shooter that currently rules the roost. Our preview was fairly positive, so we'll have to see how the whole thing turns out when it releases on October 23.
BOOM video 13279


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Oh, stick it in your hat!
It's interesting how I just know I disagree with what the guy's saying even though I don't speak a word of Turkish.
... and translation software isn't much help if you can't produce umlauts, cedillas and dotless i's for it. After some time I was able to produce (with the character map):
Allah'ın belaşı kafirleri islam şiddet dolu ve haşgörüsüz dedikleri için taciz etmeli ve korkut-malıyız
which yielded
is the will of God because kafirleri hasgorusuz Islamic violence and harassment and should they call for Korkut-malıyız
so obviously I didn't transcribe it correctly, but enough came through to confirm the guy is full of shit.


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The Kansas City Public Library welcomes the chamber music ensemble Summerfest for two "informances" on Thursday, July 9, and Thursday, July 23, at 7 p.m. at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St. Each "informance" is designed to help newcomers and experienced concertgoers develop a new appreciation for the intricacies and beauty of chamber music from the Baroque era to the present day.
On July 9, Summerfest presents excerpts from Handel's Gloria—a work lost for almost three centuries—with guest soprano Gwendolyn Coleman Detwiler. Also on the program is Tempê te de Sable (Storm of Sand), written in 2003 by young American composer Alexandra du Bois.
On July 23, Summerfest examines a rare string quartet by famed opera composer Puccini and a woodwind quintet by little-known Hungarian composer Endre Szervánszky.
Admission is free for both performances. Click here or call 816.701.3407 to RSVP.
Summerfest has enriched the cultural life of Kansas City since 1991 through the performance of a variety of chamber music in a setting that fosters interaction between musicians and audience.


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Inside Jenna Bush Hager's Baby Shower
Leave it to the former teacher and children's author (not to mention daughter of a former librarian) to have a book shower.
When Today contributor Jenna Bush Hager — expecting her first child in early May — was fêted by her NBC co-workers on April 2 at the Peter Callahan Catering studio in New York, the gift table was piled not with onesies and receiving blankets, but with dozens of her colleagues' favorite kiddie reads, each inscribed with parenting advice.
"Get a nap anytime you can," advised former co-anchor Meredith Viera in a copy of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, while Hoda Kotb said Bush Hager only had to do whatever her own mom did.
Christopher Kolk
But Bush Hager's parents — Laura and George W. Bush, the 43rd president — have been more than role models through this pregnancy. Mom swept into the lower Manhattan apartment Bush Hager shares with husband Henry Hager last month to whip the nursery together.
"Put us all to work!" Bush Hager tells PEOPLE exclusively, describing a neutral seafoam-green color scheme because they do not know if they're having a boy or a girl. (Shower guests wrote guesses on rolled-up cloth diapers; "Boy" was the majority pick.)
And Dad, who's taken up painting in his post-White House life, contributed the artwork: a portrait of the Hagers' cat, Bernadette, for over the crib; a landscape featuring a "baby tree" on his Texas ranch; and a still life of nightfall over the ranch's stone cross where the Hagers were married in 2008. He titled that one "Goodnight Moon," notes Bush Hager, 31, with a smile. "He's become an artiste. There's a whole new side of him and he's so excited about the baby."
Christopher Kolk
Goodnight Moon, the book, was also among Bush Hager's shower gifts — this one from news anchor Natalie Morales, who said she made up a song to the repetitive bedtime story to keep it from getting boring as she read it "so many darn times" to her own two children.
And to really keep the boredom out of bedtime, Today producer Jackie Levin had a little something for Mom's nightstand, too: E.L. James' best-selling erotica, Fifty Shades of Gray. Hager laughed and glanced over at her husband: "That's baby number two material!"
Christopher Kolk
Hager's surprise cameo at the afternoon women's soirée was greeted by a chorus of "Awwwww's" that beat even the cooing over Callahan's baby-sized vittles, that included caviar-topped cracker rings shaped like pacifiers and pizzas no bigger than checkers.
Bush Hager, who toasted her pals with one of Callahan's teensie Coca-Cola bottles, told them she felt "empowered" by their parenting wisdom and promised to be back in the studio after a summer maternity leave.
"I'll bring this baby to work — on the subway, I guess," she said. "I haven't figured that part out yet."
Christopher Kolk
Mini Pizzas Recipe
makes two dozen
- 1 14-ounce store bought pizza dough
- all-purpose flour for rolling dough
- 24 slices small mozzarella balls (6 balls bocconcini, cut into 4 slices each)
- 48 slices small red tomatoes
- 48 slices small yellow tomatoes
- 24 small basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- sea salt
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll the pizza dough to 1/16th inch thick.
- Using a 1 1/2 inch round cutter, cut 24 circles from dough.
- Place the circles on a cookie sheet and prick each one with a fork a few times. bake until slightly golden, 3-5 minutes.
- Remove from oven, set aside and reduce the temperature to 350 degrees.
- Brush each pizza crust with olive oil.
- Top each crust with 2 slices red tomato and 3 slices yellow tomato and 1 slice fresh mozzarella on each pizza.
- Bake for 2 minutes, until warmed through and cheese just starts to melt. Sprinkle with sea salt and garnish with a small basil leaf.
- Serve immediately.
Christopher Kolk
— Sandra Sobieraj Westfall


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I believe Ripley's Believe It or Not, the TV show, already did a story on people who could do this.
I read about this about 40 years ago. I've practiced it a little, myself, and I've always assumed that blind people used the technique all the time. I'm surprised that anyone considers this new.
Incidentally, for near-distance location, a hiss works better than 'shh'.
Actually an earlier and probably more impressive example would be the case of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Holman [wikipedia.org] who in the early and mid 19th century travelled around the world using echolocation.
That's also been done for a while.
I'm not sure if this is the boy you're referring to, but here [youtube.com] is a documentary about a young boy named Ben Underwood [wikipedia.org] who is blind and has taught himself echo location [wikipedia.org]. It is pretty amazing.
It's going to be real fucking useful on the internet. This is an idea whose time has come and gone.
I noticed I unconsciouly tongue-click when looking for stuff. Shrug.
"Now where did I put it <click> <click> <click>"
Shook head, looked at calendar....
Nope. Wrong date...
Got to be true!
Are you the governor of New York state?
Seems only fair that if California gets the Terminator New York would get superhero - although I would have expected it to be Batman.
radioactive cylinder
Actually, it was a cylinder of biological waste.
Yes, and in the Indian version he gets it from a supernatural yogi or something. *shrug* There's no accounting for taste.
There's no accounting for taste.
Or hearing.
Radioactive stuff stopped being cool for super heroes when we learned that the only thing radiation did was give cancer. One day we'll stop the biochemical origin story too (I think).
You too can have superpowers but there is a sacrifice to be made. You must avoid Windows.
Is that you, Steve Jobs?
He uses his sonar to make up for lack of site.
Has he ever considered just trying Facebook?
This is exactly what I've been looking for: Something else to do while I'm sitting alone in the dark.
Great, now you might be able to tell which direction the grue is coming from.
Yes, sneaking around the dark house at night screaming at the walls to find your way around. The epitome of stealth!
...you insensitive clod.
Which is why we have flashlights and IR cameras mounted on our helmets.
Echolocation can be learned, just not applied in every low-light environment.
...you insensitive clod.
Not to mention very bad form. One thing is taking someones stuff, but waking them in the middle of the night is terrible uncouth.
At least she doesn't start barking when she thinks there may be someone within a quarter mile of your house. I was walking a gravel road yesterday and some damn dog barked itself out of breath, as apparently I was a threat. Stupid owner.
While I am not sure I could pull off flying at night, I know I could easily use it to avoid walking into walls at night... I've done it. It's far from a big deal. The method of sound generation I used was snapping my fingers, though, and not clicking my mouth which I think would confuse my ears even more since my mouth is connected to my ears. But repeatedly snapping my fingers around my head while stepping forward allowed me to appreciate the changes in acoustics well enough to know where walls and other large objects were. On the other hand, it's not quite good enough to avoid stepping on toys left out by my two year old.
The picture we get from such a technique is no picture at all. To create a picture, we would need a dense array of ears of great sensitivity not unlike a retina. At best you can sense that something is there and perhaps how solid it may be. After all, a curtain would mask echoes while walls do a nice job of bouncing the signals.
Still, I am quite certain that blind people already do this without thinking about it. While they may not intentionally send out "pings" in the form of clicks or snaps, they quite likely hear other signals such as the brush of their feet on the carpet, the knock of their feet on the floor or even the rustling of their clothes or the sound of the air flowing from the HVAC system. All of these things generate enough noise signal the allow the notice of the change of acoustic feedback as one to detect changes in the surroundings.
But repeatedly snapping my fingers around my head while stepping forward allowed me to appreciate the changes in acoustics well enough to know where walls and other large objects were. On the other hand, it's not quite good enough to avoid stepping on toys left out by my two year old.
Normally one would just turn on the lights, as it's less likely to wake the two year old than incessant clicking or snapping of fingers.
Normally one would just turn on the lights, as it's less likely to wake the two year old than incessant clicking or snapping of fingers.
I don't know about everyone, but my father absolutely HATES turning on the light in the middle of the night, I think because it wakes him up. It certainly was creepy finding him on the toilet in total darkness... but in those cases other senses would alert me to his presense.
Doing it for large objects is between easy and effortless.
Doing it for small objects is hard.
I keep colliding into small, hard objects I don't know the location of if I try to navigate by sound in the dark.
And after that I usually swear, so others can locate me in the dark.
Exactly. I can hear my bedpost if I'm pointed the right direction, but it is variable. Hearing the walls is easy. Hearing that barbell you accidentally left on the floor, however. is really hard. Fortunately, your feet have no problem "locating" such things....
The biggest problem with echolocation for humans is not hearing sensitivity or mental ability. It's the fact that our feet don't follow behind our heads except when we're swimming.... We would need a second set of ears on our ankles for echoloca
A simple and profound observation... it somewhat matches the observations of others such as myself citing my son's toys, however, I like the way you put it better
We would need a second set of ears on our ankles for echolocation to be practical.
The delivery room doctor told my mother it was a "defect".
Back in the 70s or 80s, there was a study published by the Scientific American investigating the source of the ability that had developed in some blind to perceive the locations of objects, or at least get an idea of their environment. The subjects themselves had many thoughts about the source of their abilities, some describing it as a pressure they felt on their forehead, but all lost their rudimentary abilities when their ears were covered.
My parents have a copy of the study, but unfortunately, I do not
On the other hand, it's not quite good enough to avoid stepping on toys left out by my two year old.
Acoustic expert Juan Antonio Martinez at the University of Alcalà de Henares in Spain says it takes 'Two hours per day for a couple of weeks' to learn echolocation. On the other had, we have the toddler, for which it takes at least 18 years to learn to clean up his garbage after him.
The picture we get from such a technique is no picture at all. To create a picture, we would need a dense array of ears of great sensitivity not unlike a retina.
As I understand it, the picture we get from such a technique is exactly a picture -- it's formulated in the same areas of our brain, and subject to the same mental operations. As others have pointed out, we get a lot more information from our ears than we would get from two single-pixel image sensors. (Think about how you can tell, from a pair of receptors at opposite sides of your head, whether a sound is coming from ahead or behind, above or below.)
The method of sound generation I used was snapping my fingers, though, and not clicking my mouth which I think would confuse my ears even more since my mouth is connected to my ears.
By using your mouth for clicking, the clicks resonate in frequencies tuned to your internal structures and the returns are also in resonance with your internal structures. This cause a much greater increase in sensitivity and resolution than non-resonant returns would cause, at least that's what I'd imagine from reported research on bats.
I do this, too. In a familiar environment I've always been very good at pitch-dark navigation. It's immediately difficult after turning off the lights (seems it takes a moment or three for the brain to switch over), but I'll use the sounds of the creaking floor (and so on) for navigation.
When I was a teen I used to walk around in our basement in the dark. I didn't use a clicking or 'shh' sound, I used more of a guttural, deep grunt (a throat growl, if you will). I've got very high frequency sensitivity, so
>Still, I am quite certain that blind people already do this without thinking about it.
Not quite without thinking about it. However, my uncle (and no doubt many, many more) have been teaching the blind to do this with the taps of their cane for (at least) decades.
This would be utterly useless for firefighters as they all wear SCBA which requires a full face mask. Further more your ability to hear those clicks are again reduced by gear over your ears, radio chatter and the often very dense smoke around you soaks up large volumes of noise.
This would take serious adaptation to make it even remotely feasible for someone in that scenario. If you're on a hose crew you can just outright forget it all together.
I think if you wanted to, you could just project something onto the mask using a sort of a portable imaging system.
If you are going to go that far, it makes much more sense to just put a damned IR camera [google.com] on there.
I'd go for a technical solution. An emitter for ultrasonic sound, a receiver, a computer to visualize it and a display to show it. Sounds more useful.
Provided you want to haul that thing around in a situation where you're already lugging half a ton of other stuff around, of course.
Maybe Robert Johnson really did sell his soul to the Devil.
The apocryphal part of that legend isn't that Robert Johnson sold his soul, it's that he sold his soul to the devil. He actually sold it to a nerdy little dweeb with blue hair for $5. After that he had a hard time going through automatic doors.
Who was blind had a documentary about him (before he passed,MHRIP) called
Extraordinary People - The boy who sees without eyes [youtube.com]
truly amazing, but then is it ? he learned this from an early age and didnt think it was anything special same as most of us take seeing light reflected off objects for granted
Iam more in awe of programmers who are blind (like this guy [gamesfortheblind.com], now that takes a special kind of mind.
Of course actually knowing the answer to the question itself may not help address the philosophical issues raised by the question.
Instead of relying on sound made from ones own mouth, why not rely on a simple emitter around your neck making the clicks for you? sounds silly but resolution would become a problem pretty quick.
still, very cool.
why not rely on a simple emitter around your neck
You would need to mount it to your head for best performance, e.g. at the temples, because it needs to be directional, like turning your head and clicking. Because of the reduced frequency emission of the human mouth and the reduced sensitivity of our hearing organs compared to a bat, you'll want to be able to move your head freely.
read Slashdot on LCD by using Echolocation....never success yet, and found that listen to the RSS clip read aloud by the robotic overload works much better.
There's a rather more informative article about it here [sciencedaily.com].
Actually, I'd becurious to know whether lots of people clicking produced interference, or instead produced better coverage of the environment; I suspect the latter, so long as the different people are not producing identical clicks at exactly the same time.
What about chirping instead of clicking? Clicking is good because it's short, but because it's short it's low powered, whereas if you chirp then you have more power coming out. I wonder how that'd work out for human echolocation too.
Well they explained the ease of use issues, but chirping only produces a certain frequency at a time while clicks cover a broader and higher frequency range.
I doubt your statement that clicks are low powered because they are short btw.
However, now that I'm thinking about chirps, if you could chirp at high frequencies and had good frequency resolution you could use this while moving and use the Doppler effect, to locate objects.
If you think about using correlation to get better time resolution by processing
This seems to be an interesting book on the topic:
Title: Blip, ping & buzz: making sense of radar and sonar
Author: Mark Denny
Edition: illustrated
Publisher: JHU Press, 2007
Length: 274 pages
Google books offers a preview.
I doubt your statement that clicks are low powered because they are short btw.
I don't see how anyone can "doubt" this, I mean if you can only make a noise so loud with your mouth it matters whether it lasts a thousandth of a second or half a second.
So yeah as for chirps, chirps only produce a frequency at a time but the freuqnecy it produces at a time is very transient, i.e. a chirp is constantly moving. So if you have an echo, you'll hear distinctively if it's a chirp, when you wouldn't if you just
I'm always clicking away as I stumble downstairs and don't want to wake up the wife and kids.
"The number of Unix installations has grown to 10, with more expected." -- The Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June, 1972


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Put down the budget axe
The election season is fast approaching and the rhetorical ammunition no doubt being stockpiled. This month will begin something Washington is describing as budget negotiation with an eye on the guns of August, when the government will have to raise the debt ceiling and all-out war declared. Debate over the next federal budget promises to be profoundly bitter and dysfunctional. Democrats say they will put higher taxes and defense cuts on the negotiating table, positions most Republicans reject out of hand. Republicans are again holding up the possibility of a government shutdown and seeking deep cuts in social spending. The Ryan budget includes such a substantial rewrite of the role of Medicare in American life that it appears a nonstarter.
The parties seem far apart, and it's unclear if anyone has a practical plan for containing the unsustainable path of spending and returning the nation to fiscal sobriety. As a pundit (well, some says so), I know I should be happy about all the column fodder being marched my way, but as a citizen I feel a deep depression descending. Is there any way around this inevitable debacle? Probably not, but if there's any hope, it may be found buried deep inside a recent Catholic Charities USA press release. In it, CCUSA President Father Fred Snyder holds up an interesting statistic. "Data has shown that as much as 40 cents of every dollar allocated to existing government initiatives that provide a variety of assistance to the American people struggling through the economic recovery are lost in the bureaucratic red tape associated with those programs," he says.
Snyder adds, "A key ingredient is missing in the proposed prescriptions for America's economic future; the focus on a much needed larger conversation regarding efficacy and efficiency in the spending of taxpayer dollars, whether that be through state or federal government."
It's not clear how Father Fred arrived at that figure or what data he is using to back it up, but even if the number is wrong, his suggestion is worth pondering. Snyder is arguing that before we begin the bloody spring offensive on the budget, the nation might be better off first taking a step back and a deep calming breath and launching a serious initiative aimed at reducing the waste and redundancy in existing federal programs, squeezing every dollar as tight as we can before we begin squashing assistance programs for the poor or increasing burdens on middle class taxpayers. And let's not forget that while we shine that high beam on the cost-effectiveness of social services, it would be foolish not to do the same for other large-scale federal expenditures, particularly the Pentagon budget, long a source of epic escapades in wasteful spending. We may not permanently escape a day of complete fiscal reckoning—that's probably for the good—but we may be able to put it off a little longer until a time when the nation is on a more secure fiscal and economic footing—perhaps a time when the budget negotiations resemble more the adult discussion they ought to be than the partisan battle promised for this spring season of fiscal discontent.


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It never ceases to amaze me that not a single linux distribution can get my monitor setup working correctly. And it's not like it's a weird setup, it's a laptop with an external monitor (and a r300 gfxcard) And if i can't get it working with me 5 years of gentoo and systems administrator experience, then it's definitely not ready for the general public.
All i want is to be able to use my external monitor (1680x1050) when im at home and my internal monitor (1400x1050) when im at school, preferably without having to restart X to switch.
The fact that my external monitor has a larger resolution than my internal monitor seems to be the first big problem, often i choose 1680x1050 in the display settings but still only get 1400x1050 on the external monitor. This applies even when i have set it to not display any picture on the internal.
And there also seems to a bug in the driver or xrandr that makes it only see my external monitor as 1024x768, if i'm lucky enough that it sees it at all.
And in OpenSuSE there is no way of choosing which display i want the output on if i do not want to use both at the same time (that doesn't work correctly either btw).
The YaST Display Settings thing detects my Samsung 1680x1050 external monitor and sets the correct settings for it. Only problem is that the picture is displayed on the internal monitor.
With the next newest fglrx driver i was actually able to switch display and resolution on the fly, only problem is that that driver ruins suspend.
With r300/xorg/xrandr svn in gentoo i was also able to switch on the fly, though not that one worked perfectly either.
I will continue to try out new linux distros, but until the problem is fixed im not going to run linux anymore, i've grown tired of trying to fix the problem.
When it comes to OpenSuSE 10.3 except for that problem it seems great. I've only tried the KDE version but it's vanilla enough to still be good, not watered down like kubuntus kde. The Kickoff menu works great, i never normally use the kmenu in regular kde but this one i might actually use, so absolutely an improvement. The bootup was fast (but not THAT fast). The package manager seems alot faster.
The YaST Display Settings thing detects my Samsung 1680x1050 external monitor and sets the correct settings for it. Only problem is that the picture is displayed on the internal monitor.
On my system the monitor was detected as it should but after a reboot i had to maually run sax2 and save the configuration. Otherwise command prompt only.


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Although there were few surprises in President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) New Year message this year, it made it difficult for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to pick a fight. In the end, Ma resorted to playing the economy card, but this fell flat, as it was totally irrelevant. Chen himself had said all along that this New Year's address was just as important as his speech upon winning the election, and much can be read into this.
The speech was basically a reiteration of the principle of the sovereignty of Taiwan and a restatement of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) core values. By putting Taiwan back in the spotlight, the speech was a blow to the pan-blue camp and an antidote to the pan-green camp's blues. Chen opened the speech by alluding to the ideas of Taiwan's image, Taiwan's hopes, Taiwan's spirit and Taiwan consciousness. Having focused on the theme of national identity, he pointed out that the main driving force behind Taiwan's historical development was the 23 million people who live here. This was clearly an appeal by the president to the people of Taiwan, looking to them for backing as he tried to distinguish Taiwan from the party-state and from China.
Chen continued, saying that the KMT government of the past 60 years had been an "immigrant regime," a point that was not lost on Ma, who was sitting right there in the room. Chen also alluded to the long period of martial law that the KMT regime oversaw, and rather impertinently used the term "foreign power," from which the new KMT chairman has sought to disassociate his party. Chen went on with his theme, highlighting the significance to Taiwan's democracy of the handover of political power from the KMT to the DPP, saying that this placed sovereignty in the hands of the people and contrasting the idea of power in the hands of the people with power in the hands of an immigrant regime. This is not a path that Taiwan should tread again.
Without naming names, Chen implied that Ma was promoting the return of the "immigrant regime" under the guise of "uniting Taiwan" and "establishing a normal democratic society." The distinction between power in the hands of the people and a foreign regime is the difference between who is in control and whose word counts. Ma has said to the foreign press that he sees unification with China as the KMT's ultimate goal, and he has always viewed pro-independence activity as an unpardonable offence. In the past, Ma has been anti-communist, but now we see him in a new incarnation, "anti-communist but not anti-China." This means that he adheres to the policy of uniting with the communists against the pro-independence factions in Taiwan, which is tantamount to removing freedom of choice from the Taiwanese people. Not only does this go against the idea of putting power in the hands of the people, it shows quite clearly that Ma hasn't changed much since the days of martial law.
What this all means is that the difference between the DPP and the KMT, or between Chen and Ma, is the distinction between democracy and its absence.
With this as his foundation, the president then continued to make distinctions based on the ideas of sovereignty, democracy, peace and equality, emphasizing the differences between the pan-green and pan-blue camps. On one side there is Chen and the support of the majority of Taiwanese, and on the other is a complete lack of democracy with the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party. Chen's point in all this is that Taiwan's problems are not the result of the struggle between the pan-greens and the pan-blues, but the struggle between the greens and the reds. And isn't the failure of the passage of the arms procurement budget a direct result of this?