text:
Don't try anything new.
Having worked in one HPC startup (Lightfleet), I can say that one of the biggest dangers any startup faces is its own management. Good ideas don't make themselves into good products or turn themselves into good profits by selling. Good ideas don't even make it easier - you only have to look at how many products that are both defective by design AND sell astronomically well to see that.
I can't speak for SiCortex' case, but it looks to me like they had a great idea but lacked the support system needed to get very far in the market. It's not a unique story - Inmos didn't fail on technological grounds. Transmeta probably didn't, either.
Really, it would be great if there could be some effort into examining the inventions of the past to see what ideas are worth trying to recreate. For example, would there be any value in Content Addressable Memory? Cray got an MPI stack into RAM, but could some sort of hardware message-passing be useful in general? Although SCI and Infiniband are not extinct, they're not prospering too well either - could they be redone in a way that didn't hurt performance but did bring them into the mass market?
Then, there's all sorts of ideas that have died (or are dying - Netcraft confirms it) that probably should be dead. Bulk Synchronous Processing is fading, distributed shared memory is now only available in spiritualist workshops, CORBA was mortally wounded by its own specification committee and parallel languages like PARLOG and UPC are not running rampant even though there are huge problems with getting programs to run well on SMP and/or multicore systems.
The damn pity of it is that IBM and DARPA tend not to sponsor small-scale efforts in DSM and parallel languages. Otherwise, I'd be doing that rather than working where I am. (I'm being paid less now than I was 12 years ago, for longer hours.)
The greater pity is that the grants tend to go to large-scale corporations that are going to make money off their compilers anyway and don't need the grants, but whose work is so locked up in IP that nobody really sees the benefit other than said corporations.
(I'll excu
I would argue that a big "lesson learned" to hardware innovators is that your awesome new hardware needs to have a total ecosystem that it can be easily used in. This means a good, cheap development tool chain, and preferable a port of Linux and some major applications.
For example, let's consider Itanium. Despite all the naysayers, the Itanium architecture is beautiful and has tremendous potential, but there isn't any good compiler support for Itanium. (Some would argue that good compilers for Itanium ca
I think we're pretty much saying the same thing, as I'd consider what you describe as the ecosystem as being essentially what I call the support system, only I included non-tech examples and you included tech examples.
The original Itanium had some serious design flaws, but the Itanium 2 seems to be a perfectly good chip and I'm reasonably sure that's what you're referring to.
Sure, there isn't a good compiler for the Itanium 2 yet. C compilers are only just now approaching the code-generation quality of Fort
I'd like to agree with this one. The bulk of the market is in the low-end, but the low end is going to be reluctant to embrace anything unusual. Sicortex uses mips processors, which means you can't use your off-the-shelf applications. Even if the rack of intel blades uses more power, and takes up more space, a low end cluster still isn't that large, or that power-hungry. You're not talking about building a whole new building to house the machine.
The high end, where custom applications rule, is more likely t
The thing is, industries like these are already really, really dominated by single players and everyone uses them. It's the same with Windows too - it's own marketshare will keeps it having that marketshare. In airplane industry all the European companies had to merge so that they could compete with Boeing.
When something becomes like a standard, it's really hard to break in.
Single player? Have you looked at the top 100? It's equal parts Intel (x86), AMD (x86) and IBM (Power related), with a smattering of others: Cell - mostly SPU, Itanium, SPARC, NEC and others.
There's certaqinly no dominanint player and not even much of a dominant instruction set. The thing is, supercomputers are so expensice and unique that porting to a different instruction set is usually the least of the work, except for Roadrunner which is fast but rather hard to use.
looking at the top 100 is pretty misleading, however. The TAM for a low end cluster is still several times larger than the market for massive supers. A very small number of customers can still adapt to weird architectures and everyone else uses x86 + linux. Also, just about everything non-x86 has failed to gain much market, apart from IBM. IBM manages to keep this going by sharing their development costs with non-HPC products. Cell is a video game processor; Power6 is the foundation of their database server
They didn't die because their customers abandoned them for something cheaper. They died because they had a cashflow crisis due to investors pulling out of a planned round of fundraising. They had millions of dollars of sales in the pipeline.
The lesson isn't "Don't compete with Intel", it's "When you run out of money, you're out of business". Or perhaps, "The financial crisis killed lots of otherwise sound businesses". Luck, as the OP pointed out, played a large part.
Lesson learned: there is no market for proprietary CPUs on MPP supercomputers. It's gone. If Cray and SGI couldn't do it, how are a couple guys from DEC and Novell going to pull it off?
It's always sad when someone's dream fails, but come'on guys. You're pursuing a 15-years-ago market, just like DEC and Novell did when they died (okay, Novell exists, but it is irrelevant).
Supercomputers are commodity processors increasingly in commodity boxes running commodity open-source software. A supercomputer running sl
Orion? Long gone.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/14/orion_shuts_down/ [theregister.co.uk]
The weird thing here is that the Register quotes Bill Gates as calling Orion's deskside supercomputers as part of a "key trend". Now, I've always though Bill's understanding of the marketplace was overrated. But you'd think that somebody whose immense fortune comes almost entirely from the triumph of commodity processors would know that this kind of effort is doomed.
Some people are just in love with these fancy RISC architectures and
You're thinking of Transmeta's LongRun technology, which reduces clock speed (and thus power consumption) when the system isn't working hard. Similar features are actually quite standard in the current generation of CPUs. There's no impact on performance, because when the system's busy, it's always running at maximum speed. There is some hassle with system software that gets confused when the CPU its running on goes into idle mode.
Most of the supposed power savings for a Transmeta cpu comes from the fact th
I dislike intensely saying bad about companies I've worked for, but it's not bad to simply say outright that Lightfleet is (for all practical purposes) clinically dead. It is possible that it could be revived, I suppose. Some of the early design work was ingenious and has a lot of merit. At this time, though, Count Dracula has better vital signs.
Why not use something based of the Atom chip but massively parallel.
You can create something that is unique but you reduce the buying base of your systems....
I would like to see a super computer based off of Laptop type low power components.
Why not use something based of the Atom chip but massively parallel.
You are probably one of those guys that thinks that if you can get 36 women working together on making a baby, it will be ready in 1 week.
Not all problems can scale out to many cpus (or wombs, for that matter). Threading overhead, network latency/bandwidth, mutual exclusion (or the overhead on atomic data types) all conspire to defeat attempts to scale. This is, of course, if your problem is one that is even amenable to straightforward parallelization in the first place -- many problems (for instance, lattice simulations of Monte Carlo) are excruciating to scale to even 2 cpus.
In my own (informal) tests on our HPC (x64, Linux, see my post above for details), I concluded that you need to be able to discretize your work into independent (and NONBLOCKING) chunks of ~5ms in order to make spawning a pthread worth it. Of course, "worth it" is a relative term -- some people would be glad to double the cpu-time required for a 25% reduction in wall-clock time while others might not, so I'll concede that my measurement is biased. IIRC, I required a net-efficiency (versus the single-core version) of no worse than 85% -- e.g. spend less than 15% of your cpu-time dealing with thread overhead or waiting for a mutex. This was for 8 cores on the same motherboard by the way, if you are spawning MPI jobs over a network socket, expect much much worse.
You are probably one of those guys that thinks that if you can get 36 women working together on making a baby, it will be ready in 1 week.
And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids!
You are probably one of those guys that thinks that if you can get 36 women working together on making a baby, it will be ready in 1 week.
It'd certainly be fun trying, though.;)
Not all problems can scale out to many cpus (or wombs, for that matter). Threading overhead, network latency/bandwidth, mutual exclusion (or the overhead on atomic data types) all conspire to defeat attempts to scale.
It's not my skill set, but I remember years ago seeing a fascinating show on how blindly adding more resources can make something SLOWER. To translate the case study (involving editing individual segments for a news show on limited editing equipment) into geek speak, they demonstrated that unless you do things right, you might wind up with cores 2-8 zipping through their parts just to wait for core 1, which has unceremoniously had all the long tasks scheduled to run on
You are probably one of those guys that thinks that if you can get 36 women working together on making a baby, it will be ready in 1 week.
I think I'd be sore for a week, and have 36 kids 9 months later.
Low-power CPUs could be useful if you've the bandwidth. Ultimately, though, you're limited to how parallelizable the problem is - a fundamentally sequential problem will remain a fundamentally sequential problem, for example.
If the problem can be parallelized, you're then limited by the nature of the CPU vs. the nature of the problem. A problem that is essentially SIMD is going to do great on a cluster of identical processors. A problem that is essentially MIMD is not. MIMD problems will always do better on
That said, there are a lot of task that do parallelize well. There's a large market for machines with >5k cores. Often with a significant share of the jobs running on >1k cores. The big HPC sites (weather, energy, defense, research, seismic) have invested the last 3 decades into making parallel algorithms to solve their problems; first with shared memory parallel, but massively parallel has been the name of the game for at least 15 years.
Because your algorithm doesn't scale, does not mean that there i
If energy efficiency was their main pitch, perhaps starting it when they did was just bad luck or being too far ahead of the curve.
Wait a couple 5-10-20 years or so. As people use less energy and the companies raise their rates to compensate, perhaps these types of solutions will become more appetizing.
OTOH I don't have any numbers data to back it all up, though, such as cost of a new HPC system from a different vendor versus Intel and all the energy, support, and training that go with each.
unfortunately thats not sufficient. you also need the us govt to throw you tens of millions in
'research contracts' that dont amount to anything, and have them agree to buy your overpriced
machines even though they dont really do anything useful
even then its a pretty difficult market
Basing a supercomputer on MIPs was short-sighted; even if it offers a a price/performance or power/performance advantage now, in a couple years it won't, because x86 is being improved at a much faster rate. Where is Sequent now?
Uh, Sequent never used MIPs chips. In fact, the vast majority of the system that they sold were Intel based.
Maybe you mean SGI? Their problems seemed to coincided with their moves to Intel chips (SGI PCs that flopped and then later the wholesale move to ia64). Not to say that the problems were caused by those moves - maybe they were, maybe they weren't, but it certainly didn't make the problems go away.
I think IBM's entry into the multi-processor Unix machines with the RS/6000 was the death knell in Sequent and Pyramid. The both had their day in the Sun. Now Sun is gone too.
He is wrong.
Have you looked at the top100 recently? x86 is certainly not the only game in town.
Yeah, it's only 95%...
Seriously, what is wrong with you? Read the list and understand that PPC is not x86.
Might I suggest you learn to read? It's hard to claim that there is only one IBM machine in the top 100 when there are 5 IBM in the top 10. That's 50%, not 95%, by the way.
Right now x86 has only two viable competitors.
-Whatever IBM can design. (but IBM's stuff is expensive)
ARM CPUs tend to be cheap, power efficient, and pack a ton of performance for the price - and the company has enough cash to keep developing for years and years. Other companies fab, so that lets them keep focused on what they're good at. It's a relationship that mirrors GPU makers - ATI/nVidia/TSMC. However, ARM has a very low performance cap compared to x86, so that limits usage scenarios. Good for lo
Everybody knows x86 is poor foundation for high speed computing
Not really - it's got massive economy of scale and currently dominates the top100. Sure, the ISA is ugle, but the architecture is fine.
Specialty processors can offer temporary advantages, but within a few years Intel engineers will do their best to integrate any new ideas into their latest designs.
This may be going away soon - linear performance scaling hasn't been going up all that fast, so x86 is going multicore. You can build a specialty chip and not worry about it being overshot by a $5 chip in 5 years.
Sorry but Nehalem has more than twice the performance per socket than Power6, and it is much cheaper.
http://tiny.cc/nuabU [tiny.cc]
http://tiny.cc/sQ1fT [tiny.cc]
When building processors, you tend to be around 300mm2 in size, nomather what fab you are in, becouse is the size that gets you the best relationship between yield in 300mm waffer and cost to package. Depending on the fab you get more or less transistor. Is up to each vendor to create as much or as little cores, threads, etc. as he wants.
A extreme versi
Sorry, I wasn't too clear. As a gamer, my first measure of performance is how fast a single core is, and my second is how many cores it scales well to.
You are correct that for multi-core multi-socket systems running server tasks, Nehalem is likely the best.
I'm glad that Nehalem beats an old architecture like Power6.
Basing a supercomputer on MIPs was short-sighted; even if it offers a a price/performance or power/performance advantage now, in a couple years it won't, because x86 is being improved at a much faster rate.
It wasn't even MIPS. From TFA:
But SiCortex went against conventional wisdom by building its own processors and this decision limited the company's market to early adopters, Conway says. In building its chips, SiCortex obtained intellectual property from several vendors, including MIPS Technologies, and tweaked the design to meet its own needs.
An HPC start-up going into the microprocessor design business now? That really is a fool's errand. Mind you, that's sort of how the ARM processor came to be, but that was a loooonnng time ago.
In a lot of ways x86 processors suck. Newer processors make great PCs and parallel processing can work wonders for some tasks but there are some things that require a whole lot more power on a clock by clock basis. There are lots of problems where parallel efforts are a wast of time. Some problems are sequential and can only be solved one node, tile or element at a time. Those are the problems for HPC rigs. Some architectures scale a lot better than Intel for similar problems and MIPS is one of the first to
I don't think you meant sequent, but they are a doubly bad example, since they were purchased by IBM for a very large sum, They had some very killer tech, and it was later incorporated into many of the Power Systems designs. IBM was desperate in those times to stop losing UNIX machines to Sun and HP.
... is almost always wrong. As one of the principals on a large-ish (not large by world standards, 1000 cores, mainly Nehalem so approximately 100 GFLOPS) cluster, I've been very pleased that we've done things as simply as possible. Sun Grid Engine and ROCKS running on commodity 1Us delivers an economical and effective solution (no, I don't work for Sun).
Most importantly, the environment does not unduly restrict what kind of compute jobs can be run. If it can be compiled on *nix, we can probably run it. We lose to specialized hardware (GPU-based, Cell-based,
Ultimately, I feel like it's not worth paying extra in hardware and software-dev costs to save few dollars on cooling and power. Sure, you get credibility of running a "green" cluster (nevermind that you have to pay to feed and house those extra developers, which should legitimately come out of your carbon budget) but you end with with a far less useful product.
Long Live X86(_64)!
What are you using to benchmark your cluster? I benchmarked a pair of nehalem Xeons(the 2,0Ghz ones, i.e. the cheapest quad cores) at 90GFLOPS with linpack. Individually ~57Gflops.
Exactly right. I've got >10K cores and >10M LOC. "Hardware fault" typically means a datacenter caught fire, or was flooded, or an undersea cable got cut.
If someone pitches a cheaper solution (e.g. power savings,) I'm happy to listen for 10 minutes. Then I just want to know how fast I can see results: a dev costs $50K/month here, so I'll give it a week or two: if you don't have a test farm ready to go with full compilers, a data security plan, etc, I'm going to just reject. If you can get traction with universities, great, come back and pitch again in a year.
That's what they designed: it's basically a bog-ordinary Linux-with-MPI cluster in a box. They had a custom internal fabric that was far more efficient than ordinary switches and even had on-die MPI accelerators. They also shipped with compilers for C, C++ and Fortran.
It was meant to be a drop-in replacement for room-sized clusters for a fraction of the space and heat. Basically what killed them was cashflow.
Yep, cashflow is a bitch: if I need to spend $25K to even look at the product, and they need $20M to run a demo datacenter, they need something like $100M in capital to avoid dying on the vine
Well, that $50K includes the cost of the developer, plus associated costs of the auditors, lawyers, etc, that she will have to call on to get a project like this moving. So, knock off a chunk in chargebacks. Of the remaining money, figure a standard breakdown of 50% compensation to the dev and 50% overhead.
Doing the math, the dev is getting paid pretty well, but it isn't a code monkey job: it's analysis, implementation, presentation, making a business case, etc.
Actually, we don't call our developers "dev
By your logic, General Motors should be crushing Ferrari. After all, GM spends much more on their car development than Ferrari does.
Whenever I hear a story about some new type of "super" computer, I think of an old Road Runner cartoon. Wile E Coyote, Genius, is mixing chemical explosives in his little shack, which he doesn't know was moved onto the train tracks.
He says to himself, "Wile E. Coyote SUPER genius. I like the sound of that." He then gets hit by the train.
Some of these companies remind me a LOT of good, old Wile E. Coyote. The one in this article just found the train.
x86 is certainly entrenched in the desktop, but in supercomputing? In the top 10, it's maybe half x86. There's a strong showing from Power (BlueGene) and of course the #1 spot held by an x86/Cell hybrid (which gest most fo the FLOPS from the SPU, not PPC or x86)
Hardly entrenched.
Looking down further, there is mainly x86, but still a strong showing from Power (IBM) but also SPARC, NEC's vector processor (kind of PPC), Itanium and a few randoms.
So, the to 100 is dominated by AMD, Intel and IBM in roughly equa
First, the HPC world has a lot of commodity computers, but it also has a lot of very special-purpose computers.
Second, the odds of someone buying an HPC machine and then running pre-compiled generically-optimized code on it is virtually zero.
Third, HPC computers (as compared to loosely-clustered "pile-of-PCs" systems) are expensive and almost invariably use components that aren't "run-of-the-mill" (such as Infiniband or SCI for the interconnect).
In consequence, not only is the ix86 not "entrenched", it can'
"It is possible for a small company to compete in the computer systems business," Reilly wrote. "There are some who will say that nobody can compete against 'commodity manufacturers.' Ignore them.
... There are only two true commodities in the computer business: DRAMs and wafer area. Everybody pretty much pays the same price for DRAMs. Wafer area is what you make of it. If you insist on building giant 100W chips, life will be tough. But if you use the silicon wafer area for something new, different an
it may damage your brains.
Apparently to the point where grammar and spelling skills are lost and delusions of having multiple brains set in!
Points (made above) about non-x86 processors are doomed aside, the Si-cortex had an interesting interconnect design. Their kautz graph based interconnect was fairly (at least to me) innovative.
Personally I'm sorry to see them go, we never had a chance to benchmark our software on their system but I was suspicious it might have behaved very well per $. Even if the underlying system disappears their interconnect ideas may survive.
FLOPS / Watt is the future. No doubt. Tesla (NVIDIA) has the edge on the low end now. Low power per cycle will win in the long term. Multi core x64 bit for now. But to the powers that be, 32 / 64
Somebody is going to crack the market--and it won't be one of the people who sit at home and cry in their beer about how Intel rules the world and that nobody has any hope of success!!
Thank goodness for the entrepreneurs who spit on lassitude and take their shot! Those wozniaks are the people who end up delivering really cool stuff for the rest of humanity, and leave the conventional wisdom people in the dust.
To be clear: this was not a failure due to the economics of competing against Intel/x86. This was a failure due to not being lucky. It takes sustained funding to make your way from start-up to profit in most technical businesses. HPC is more technical and thus more expensive than most.
I work as a sysadmin at a Boston-based university, and one of my jobs is managing an HPC cluster. We actually had SiCortex come give us a demo of one of their systems a little over a year ago and were rather impressed from a basic technology standpoint. However the biggest drawback we saw, which was a significant one, was that their cluster wasn't x86 based. We run a number of well known commercial apps on our cluster like Matlab, Mathematica, Fluent, Abaqus, and many others. Without those vendors all actively supporting MIPS, SciCortex was simply a non-starter for us when we were researching our next generation cluster. And by actively I mean rolling out MIPS versions of their products on a schedule comparable to their x86 product releases. Having to wait 6 months or more for MIPS versions simply isn't acceptable. If they could get firm commitments from those commercial vendors then we might have pursued SciCortex, but that simply wasn't the case. Even the inability to run a standard commercial linux distro was a huge drawback, since many commercial software vendors specifically require a commercial distro like Red Hat or SUSE if you're trying to get support from them.
So all these companies like Matlab, Mathematica, Fluent, Abaqus would rather have you waste more power per CPU cycle, and help harm the environment, by limiting you to lesser efficient machines, just because they have no idea how to compile their application on another architecture, and have no idea how to make the application portable across even different distributions of Linux? It's the app vendors that need to be in the hall of shame.
That Sun pissed away one billion dollars on MySQL instead of buying out SiCortex. Smart move, Sun!
Having actually used a SiCortex machine, I can tell you that the problem wasn't the VC, or the compilers, or even really the hardware.
The problem was the market.
There are two types of x86-based small clusters (the market that SiCortex was aiming for): clusters with Gigabit Ethernet and clusters with expensive interconnects (Mirinet, InfiniBand, or 10G Ethernet).
Gigabit Ethernet clusters do a good job with problems that are embarrassingly parallel (or at least have minimal communication demands). $150k gets you 300 Nehalem cores and a lot of memory. SiCortex fails here because their competition (the SC1458) is much more expensive and much slower. The fact that the SC1458 uses less power (around 5kW instead of 10kW) is impressive, but unless you're very power or cooling constrained, it's simply more cost effective to deal with the extra power and cooling cost.
SiCortex hardware was more cost effective against clusters with expensive interconnects. The problem is, the people who buy clusters with expensive interconnects do so because their problem is interconnect heavy. Unfortunately, despite all of the cool CS behind SiCortex's interconnect, the fact is that it just didn't do that well against InfiniBand. That's partly because the SiCortex system has more nodes, which means that more messages have to use the interconnect. It's partly because for very small clusters, it's possible to use a single IB switch that connects every node to every other node. And it's partly because SiCortex didn't have the kind of mature hardware/software stack that someone like Mellanox has.
So, there you have it. For the problems that ran well on SiCortex hardware, you could get the same performance at dramatically lower cost using Gigabit Ethernet. For the problems that require an expensive interconnect, the SiCortex approach of "more, smaller nodes" results in dramatically more overhead compared with the "fewer, faster nodes" strategy.
Today is a good day for information-gathering. Read someone else's mail file.


text:
1520s, from Middle Dutch wagen, waghen, from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz (cf. Old English wægn, Modern English wain, Old Saxon and Old High German wagan, Old Norse vagn, Old Frisian wein, German Wagen), from PIE *woghnos, from *wegh- "to carry, to move" (cf. Sanskrit vahanam "vessel, ship," Greek okhos, Latin vehiculum, Old Church Slavonic vozu "carriage, chariot," Russian povozka, Lithuanian vazis "a small sledge," Old Irish fen, Welsh gwain "carriage, cart;" see weigh).
In Dutch and German, the general word for "a wheel vehicle;" English use is a result of contact through Flemish immigration, Dutch trade, or the Continental wars. It has largely displaced the native cognate, wain. Spelling preference varied randomly between -g- and -gg- from mid-18c., before American English settled on the etymological wagon, while waggon remained common in Great Britain. Wagon train is attested from 1810. Phrase on the wagon "abstaining from alcohol" is 1904, originally on the water cart.
adjective phrase
Abstaining from liquor; teetotal, at least temporarily: Monty didn't drink, and Clifton James went on the wagon
[1904+; first attested as on the water cart in 1902]
A naval vessel (Navy fr WWI)
Related Terms
covered wagon, dead wagon, dog-wagon, fall off the wagon, fix someone's wagon, honey wagon, meat wagon, milk wagon, off the wagon, on the wagon, paddy wagon, pie wagon, rubberneck wagon, sex wagon

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Nine Big 12 teams open the 2012 season over Labor Day weekend while TCU opens its renovated stadium the following week on Sept. 8.
Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas, TCU, Oklahoma State and Kansas State enter the season ranked nationally in both the coaches and media polls. Baylor received votes in each.
Including bowl games, the Big 12 was a nation-leading 33-5 (.868) in games outside the conference in 2011, including a 27-3 (.900) mark in non-conference regular season games. The .900 winning percentage was the best among all conferences since 1996.
The Big 12 has made seven appearances in the BCS national championship game.
Six Big 12 teams won 10 or more games in 2011.
Since 1996, the Big 12 has been home to more Heisman winners than any other league with five honorees.
The Conference has had a Heisman finalist (top four in the final voting) 11 out of 16 seasons.
The Big 12 leads all conferences with 77 NCAA-recognized national award winners. All-time the Big 12 has produced 97 individual award winners.
The Big 12 has ranked in the top eight nationally in scoring offense every season; with a team in the top five 13 of 16 years.
Defensively, the Conference has had a team finish among the top eight in the NCAA in scoring defense 12 of 16 seasons.


text:
Police arrested a transient man found sleeping in the laundry room of an apartment building on the 500 block of Atwood Street on Sunday with a 40-ounce bottle of beer at his side, according to reports. The man had two outstanding warrants.
Two men were arrested on suspicion of breaking into cars on the 100 block of Primrose Court on Sunday, police reported.
A man was referred to the city's restorative justice program Sunday after assaulting his juvenile sister during an argument on the 1600 block of Longs Peak Avenue.
A woman called police Sunday and reported that her ex-boyfriend called her at her home on the 1100 block of Judson Street and threatened her, police reported. The case is closed for lack of evidence.


text:
Unless Congress intervenes, interest rates on new government-subsidized Stafford Loans will double on July 1, leaving low-income students to foot an extra charge of roughly $1,000. Republicans, congressional Democrats, and the Obama administration have competing proposals to head off the hike. A bipartisan deal to find a market-based fix would be preferable to what happened last June, when the decision was simply pushed off by a year.
The best answer may require some give-and-take. The first priority should go to taking control of rates out of the hands of Congress. Pegging interest to a market rate — for instance, the 10-year Treasury note, as President Obama and House Republicans have proposed — would prevent what has become a frustrating annual standoff.
Under the House-passed bill, the rate of each student loan could rise or fall over time, as the 10-year Treasury rate fluctuated. Under Obama's proposal, the going rate for new loans would vary, but an individual borrower could lock in a rate for the life of the loan. More certainty about rates would help borrowers make life decisions, such as buying a home or getting married. But the GOP plan has an advantage: It caps rates at 8.5 percent, while Obama's has no cap.
A third bill, backed by Democrats including Massachusetts Representative John Tierney, would reset rates annually to the 3-month Treasury bill — considerably lower than the 10-year note — plus a percentage, estimated to be about 2 percent, to cover the government's costs. That would keep rates lower than the House version — the government subsidy effectively would be higher — but ultimately wouldn't do enough to reduce volatility.
In practice, the government actually profits from its subsidized-loan plans. Senator Elizabeth Warren has rightly questioned whether it's fair for the government to make some $50 billion from student borrowers. Her proposal to set the rate at 0.75 percent for one year, to imitate a rate that the Federal Reserve charges banks for emergency loans, raises a provocative question: Does the government care more about banks or students? But as a policy prescription, it mixes apples and oranges: Students aren't banks, and the Education Department isn't the Federal Reserve.
Ideally, a compromise would provide for a rate that is pegged to the market but has an upper limit, and give students an option to lock in a low rate. Instinctively, most Democrats would be just as happy for Congress to simply write a fixed rate into law. Many prefer yet another Senate bill to keep the interest rate fixed at 3.4 percent for at least two more years. Yet that would cost over $8 billion, while once again leaving families in limbo.
Students need more certainty. Only a market-based rate will provide that assurance — and a long-term solution to a complex debate.


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Cliff Lee was placed on the 15-day disabled list yesterday, three days after straining his left oblique in San Francisco, where he went 10 scoreless innings in a 1-0 loss to the Giants, thanks to the thoughtless Philadelphia bats.
In the interest of creating a story, people will be looking to point the finger at Charlie Manuel for leaving him in too long, but Lee threw 102 pitches. It's not like we're talking about an Al Leiter, 137-pitch special here, so let's all do our best to get a grip.
Nonetheless, the addition of Lee to the DL brings the tally of the Phillies' payroll serving as inactive dead weight to a whopping $56 million. The team is currently a game under .500 and tied for last place with the Marlins. The hope is that Lee will only missing a couple starts. That's the hope.
In mean time, enjoy the work of starter Kyle Kendrick and Joe Savery.
[via Fox News]


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|Photo by CP
Every year in December, a group of my ordination classmates gets together for a reunion dinner. This year's gathering was this past Thursday evening. We've been hosted for many years now by one of our number who provides a feast that keeps us coming back.
The candle above was on a coffee table around which we gathered for drinks by the fire place in the living room. Part of our evening always includes going around the circle with each man having an opportunity to share how he's doing and where his life is heading. Most of us are now 65 years old and our 40th ordination anniversary will be in May 2013. Add to that the advent of a new pastoral plan for the archdiocese wherein most of us will become pastor of at least two and maybe three parishes and you can begin to imagine some of this year's conversation!
A great evening for the seven of us who gathered! I'm grateful to John, Lenny, Tony, Ron, Rod and Paul for their company, conversation, support and fraternity.
Ad multos annos!
O, quam bonum et jucundum est...
- Psalm 133: 1
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PSG reach the Coupe de France quarter-finals after beating Marseille
Two goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic saw PSG through to the last eight of the Coupe de France at the expense of Marseille.
Last Updated: 28/02/13 7:13am
It was the second meeting between the two teams in a matter of days, with PSG winning 2-0 in the league fixture on Sunday.
That match saw David Beckham make his debut from the bench for the capital club, and on Wednesday night he made his first start after joining on a five-month deal last month.
But if the pre-match headlines had focused on the former England international, Ibrahimovic turned the attention his way with the opening goal after 34 minutes from Clement Chantome's pass.
Marseille were not without their chances and the match became heated at times as they pushed for an equaliser.
However, Sweden international Ibrahimovic made sure of PSG's place in the last eight with a 65th-minute penalty after he was brought down in the area by left-back Jeremy Morel.
Beckham's appearance lasted 86 minutes and he left to warm applause to be replaced by Christophe Jallet.
Bordeaux also progressed through to the quarter-finals but it was a far less comfortable affair for the Ligue 1 club, who beat fourth-tier side Raon-L'Etape in a penalty shootout.
The scores were 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes after Ludovic Obraniak's 59th-minute opener was cancelled out by Jean-Philippe Dje six minutes later.
Amara Keita then gave Raon the edge in extra-time but Cheick Diabate replied from the penalty spot to take the match into a shootout.
Les Girondins were successful with all of their spot-kicks but Tresor Nyamwisi missed for the home side to deny them a famous win.
Nancy also survived a scare against amateur opposition, seeing off Minguettes 2-0 after extra-time. Having failed to score during normal time, goals from Benjamin Moukandjo Bile (106) and Thomas Ayasse (120) eventually saw Nancy through to the next round.
Lorient had few worries booking their place in the last eight, seeing off Ligue 1 rivals Brest 3-0 with second-half goals from Jeremie Aliadiere (two) and Bruno Ecuele Manga.


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Android Ice Cream Sandwich SDK Released 309
Hitting the front page for the first time, ttong writes "The highly anticipated Android 4.0 (codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich) has been released and finally brings the features of 3.x Honeycomb to smaller devices. Some of the highlights include: a revamped UI, a much faster browser, face unlock, a vastly improved camera app, improved task switching, streaming voice recognition, Wi-Fi Direct, and Bluetooth Health Device Profile. ... The API level is 14, download the new SDK here." calc noted that the source code has yet to be released (Google account required) except to legally required GPL components. Supposedly progress is being made toward getting AOSP back online: "We're working on it and we're making good progress, but we're not ready to announce any additional details yet." How many of the new features will remain proprietary and tied to Google services remains to be seen.


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Meridian, Miss. More efforts are being made to improve state test scores within the Meridian Public School District. In all, three of the district's thirteen schools received a failing grade on state testing last year.
Those schools were: Carver Middle, Parkview Elementary and Crestwood Elementary.
According to data from regular assessment tests, district officials are confident that the results will be different this year.
"I think we're in good shape towards moving out of having failing schools," says MPSD assistant superintendent of curriculum, Robin Miles. "We're close enough based on our data right now that we should be able to end the year, and start the next year with no failing schools. And that's our goal right now."
A key part of the strategy to improve test scores at failing schools has been the hiring of instructional specialists.
"Before we had consultants who would only be in the district for a couple of months, but these people are there every single day," says Carver Middle School principal, Tiffany Plott.
"These were classroom teachers within our district," says Miles. "They had a proven track record of student performance. So, they have come in and they're in the classrooms daily. They model for teachers; they provide resources for them. They give them someone to talk to. They work with students if they need to do that."
Last month the Mississippi Board of Education voted to change the accountability model, or grading scale, for state testing for schools.
Although making these type changes mid-year can create some challenges, officials with the Meridian Public School District say that their schools have been, and continue to be, prepared to pass state tests this year.
"At Carver we were so far behind when we started that it has taken us a few years, but we've gained on an average about 10 points every year. And if we can get ten points this year we will be above that failing mark," says Plott.
"We're making improvements. Y'all hang in there because the best is yet to come," says Miles.
When the current superintendent took over the district three years ago, seven Meridian schools were rated as failing. Each year that number continues to drop. In all, there are 13 schools within the Meridian Public School District. This includes: seven elementary schools, three middle schools, one high school, one vocational center and one alternative school.


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"Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." Winston Churchill
"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." Inscription on the Liberty Bell
Monthly Archives: August 2004
And to All a Good Night
This has been one of the longer days in recent memory, beginning with a blogger breakfast at 8:00. The day included technical problems with our internet connections; our first video post; interviews with a number of luminaries including Ed Koch, Ken Mehlman, Ari Fleischer, and, most memorably, recent Miss America Erika Herold; a National Review party at which I met Rich Lowry and Byron York; an appearance on Hugh Hewitt's »
You know the Republicans have had a good night
when Chris Matthews and his mostly liberal panel can't think of anything negative to say about the proceedings. I'm sure the spin has started by now, but immediately after the one-two combination of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani was administered, Matthews and company could only express awe at what they had witnessed. Finally, good old Andrea Mitchell was able to get in a shot at Bush. Mitchell opined that McCain »
The power of love
We may be witnessing two of the most emotional political conventions ever to take place in the same year. But the emotions in question are very different. The primary emotion at the Democratic convention was hatred, the hatred Democrats feel towards President Bush. The primary emotion at the Repubican convention, at least tonight, was love — love for our country, love for our fallen heroes, and love for freedom. The »
"It's like fuggin' 9/11 never happened."
That's what one New York City cop told Roger Simon yesterday, during an anti-Bush protests. The overriding purpose of tonight's session of the Republican convention — from Ron Silver's speech, to John McCain's, to the tributes from the loved ones of the 9/11 heroes, to Guiliani's remarkable address — was to remind us that 9/11 did happen. We know in our hearts, and the polls confirm, that if Americans really »
America's unsettled score
God bless Rudy Giuliani for invoking the memory of the slain Israeli athletes and of Leon Klinghoffer in his declamation on the genesis of the war in which we are engaged. I waited in vain, however, for Rudy to note that the leader of the operation that resulted in Klinghoffer's murder — Mohammed (Abu or "Daddy") Abbas — had been holed up in Baghdad and sheltered by Saddam Hussein until »
The night of the moderates
The list of Republican convention speakers for tonight and tomorrow is dominated by moderate and liberal Republicans. Although I'm eager to hear John McCain, I'm not thrilled with the moderate tenor of the proceedings because I'm a conservative. The MSM isn't thrilled either, but its leading lights offer a different reason — they contend that the Republicans are concealing the true, conservative face of the party. I hope the MSM »
Gandhi then and now
In "Won't get fooled again?" I somewhat angrily noted the family lineage involved in the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson to assist in the destruction of Israel. This article from tomorrow's The Age provides additional evidence: "March home, urges Gandhi grandson." »
Video-Blogging Bloggers' Corner
If you're interested in what our little corner of the convention looks like, I've done a quick video that shows Radio Row and Bloggers' Corner. A few celebrities and near-celebrities make appearances, including Roger Simon, Ed Morrissey, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved and Gereralissimo Duane. The video is here. Hopefully, as the convention goes on the video footage will be a little more newsworthy. »
The Bell Tolls
As our readers know, we are fresh from a bruising battle with Jim Boyd, assistant editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. So John Podhoretz's piece in today's New York Post seems timely to us: This democratization of the news [through blogs and talk radio] is clearly a good thing, if only because it increases available sources of information in a democracy. But it isn't a good thing if you're a »
Live from bloggers' row
Captain Ed catches Rocket Man (left) in mid-keystroke when he should be networking with Roger L. Simon (center) and Tom Bevan (right) of RealClearPolitics. (Photo by Ed Morrissey courtesy of Kevin Aylward and Wizbang.) »
Happy Days are Here Again
Finally, the convention staff has our internet connections up and running. I've felt like a fish out of water, being cut off from the internet. On the other hand, nothing significant has been happening, so it's not as if I would have had anything to report anyway. The action won't really start until tonight, when McCain and Giuliani speak. In the meantime, for the curious, here is what Bloggers' Corner »
A Slight Technical Problem
Well, I'm here at Bloggers' Corner at Madison Square Garden, ready to start blogging. But there is one small hitch: no internet access. This rather basic requirement for Bloggers' Corner seems to have been overlooked. They are working on fixing the problem, and I'm sure it will be up and running before anything very interesting happens. In the meantime, a few of the bloggers have been able to pick up »
Sanity check
I think it's a good sign, from a mental health perspective, if one can say of some politicians, "I disagree with him/her most of the time, but I have great respect for him/her." Unfortunately, there are very few politicians about whom I can presently make that statement. Maybe it's the times; maybe it's me. Probably it's a bit of both. Fortunately, there is John McCain. Although I agree with him »
The lesson of 1944
Fred Barnes compares this Republican convention to that of 1944. At that time, "President Franklin Roosevelt was a commander in chief whose popularity had been worn down by nine years of economic downturn and three of world war. He was politically vulnerable. But he rallied the natural Democratic majority in the country with a convention speech vigorously defending his war record and presenting an attractive vision of a new term. »
Democratic camouflage
In today's Wall Street, Journal James Taranto follows up on Deacon's "Truth and consequences" with "The Democrats' patriotism problem." Taranto's column also bears on our report from Thomas Lipscomb immediately below regarding the masks of John Kerry. Taranto observes that this year the Democrats have both decried imaginary Republican attacks on their patriotism and falsely impugned the patriotism of their Republican adversaries. The column places the campaign in the context »
Thomas Lipscomb reports
Over the weekend we took note of the fact that the Washington Post's Saturday story on John Kerry's days as the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War blurrily retraced the reporting of Thomas Lipscomb six months ago: "The Post picks up the scent." In recent days Lipscomb has been breaking new ground in the coverage of John Kerry's medals and citations. We are huge fans of Lipscomb and »
Via RSS, RNCBloggers is picking up all new posts from the Web logs reporting from the Republican convention. You might want to bookmark it for handy reference over this week. On the other hand, given the indiscriminate RSS feed from our site, RNCBloggers will also be picking up my reports from the other dramatic convention taking place this week — the annual convention of the American Political Science Association starting »


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Menu Labeling Urged for Montgomery County, Md., and DC
Statement of CSPI Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson at Joint Press Conference
I'm pleased to be here with District of Columbia Councilmember Phil Mendelson and Montgomery Council Councilmember George Leventhal to talk about the need for nutrition information at chain restaurants.
I should say at the outset that Phil Mendelson has been championing the idea of putting nutrition information on chain restaurant menus since 2003, long before any other jurisdiction actually enacted such a measure. Though it has not yet come to pass in D.C., this movement that he helped start has spread to New York City on one coast, and to Seattle on the other. I hope this is the year that your bill, the DC Menu Education and Labeling, or DC MEAL Act, has the full hearing and the fair, up-or-down vote that it deserves.
The Montgomery County Council, whose Health Committee George Leventhal chairs, was one of the first in the country to protect restaurant diners from secondhand smoke, and recently became the first county council in the country to prohibit the use of artificial trans fat in restaurants. We commend Councilmembers Leventhal and also Duchy Trachtenberg for introducing their menu labeling proposal and urge its adoption by the full council. Consider for a moment that the McDonald's behind me offers some 8 burgers, ranging from a 250-calorie hamburger to a 740-calorie Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Drinks range from zero calories for diet soda to 1,160 calories in the case of a Triple Thick Shake. At McDonald's you can have a 500-calorie meal or a 2,000-calorie meal. (I bet most people wouldn't have guessed they could eat about two Big Macs for the calories in that shake.) With calorie counts on McDonald's and others' menu boards, consumers would at least have that one important piece of nutrition information to compare item to item and make an informed choice.
Some in the industry have claimed that there simply isn't enough room for calorie counts on menu boards. In fact, the industry is actually suing the New York City Board of Health to prevent it from enforcing the new menu labeling rule there, which the city intends to start enforcing in earnest this fall. However, that argument was dealt a rather fatal blow by Subway, which without a lot of fuss was able to design perfectly attractive and uncluttered menu boards that list calories quite clearly. You can see what it looks like here.
But take Wendy's. Their burgers may be square, but when it comes to menu labeling, they talk in circles. Recently Wendy's made the laughable claim that one reason they couldn't comply with menu labeling in New York is that their food is "made to order." But of course they list all these numbers on their web site. Heck, on their web site they list that a slice of tomato has 5 calories, but that's not what these sensible menu labeling proposals are all about. To help put Wendy's mind at ease we Photoshopped calorie counts into a picture of one of their menu boards. As you can see, it's not that hard to do.
A #4 Big Bacon Classic small combo meal is going to have 1,090 calories whether it's served up at Wendy's on Georgia Avenue or in Gaithersburg. And I hope diners at chain restaurants everywhere in Washington and in Montgomery County soon will have this important information when they place their orders.
Contact Jeff Cronin (jcronin[at]cspinet.org) or Ariana Stone (astone[at]cspinet.org).


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More information
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University students/graduates and the titles of the essays they wrote for the "Encyclopedia of the U.S. Government and the Environment: History, Policy, and Politics."
Shannon Conk (CSB Class of 2010), "Biodiversity;" "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;" "U.S. Geological Survey."
Grant Cook (SJU senior), "Sustainable Forestry."
Maude Cooper (CSB Class of 2011), "Office of Toxic Substances."
Madeline Dragich (CSB Class of 2011), "Glen Canyon Dam;" "Grand Canyon."
Trevor Drake (SJU Class of 2010), "A Sand County Almanac;" "Alternative Farming Systems Information System."
Brenna Finley (CSB senior), "Mineral Leasing Act;" "Pollution Protection Act of 1990."
Amy Hoeschen (CSB Class of 2010), "Nuclear Energy Institute."
Joe Kane (SJU Class of 2009), "Introduction: Environmental Politics and Policy in the United States."
Matt Magnan (SJU Class of 2010), "Commerce Clause;" "Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy."
Anna Schumacher (CSB Class of 2010), "American Farmland Trust;" "Energy Star Program."
Valentin Sierra (SJU Class of 2010), assisted editor Matt Lindstrom with the introduction and some of the editing.
Kelsey Thorkelson (CSB Class of 2011), "National Wildlife Federation;" "U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System."
Kersten Welch (CSB senior), "Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (1992);" "Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc."
Brittany Werner (CSB senior), "Office of the Federal Environmental Executive."
Dan Wolgamott (SJU senior), "Office of Management and Budget."
In addition to the students/graduates, four faculty members contributed essays to the encyclopedia. They are:
Larry Davis, professor of biology and geology at CSB and SJU.
Claire Haeg, associate professor of political science at CSB and SJU.
James Read, professor of political science at CSB and SJU.
Parker Wheatley, associate professor of economics at CSB and SJU.


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Let's take a look at some offensive stats and splits...you can take the word "offensive" any way you wish. This does not include today's game.
NL Ranks:
13th - OBP .308
13th - AVG .242
7th - OPS .720
14th - K/BB 2.64
Road Only
10th - OBP .303
10th - AVG .237
10th - OPS .682
12th - K/BB 2.75
Minus Votto - All Games
.233 / .287 / .390 / .677
That line above is pathetic. I think that is the best way to put it. The bottom line is that even with playing half our games at GABP, our overall numbers are BAD. We are barely top of the pack in runs scored at home. So it's not like we are dominating offensively there.
Something has to be done or else we'll be wasting our good pitching (that sounds weird to say, but refreshing.)
Overall, I'd say this is a better problem than having no pitching. Though I think our pitching depth is a problem too, but that's for another day.
Anyway, just wanted to spread the good news.


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From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell
Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet is apparently unhappy with the Democratic leadership's plan for the lame duck session.
Bennet, who was first appointed to the Senate and narrowly won election to hold that seat in November, was heard on an open microphone today while presiding during a vote.
Bennet's distinctive voice was picked up on a microphone that is typically off while votes are being recorded. On the C-SPAN feed, you can see someone react and signal to Bennet that the mic was hot.
Bennet was speaking to a colleague who appeared to be and sounded like Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar when Bennet said of this lame duck session, "It's all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don't get to a discussion before the break about what we're going to do in the lame duck. It's just rigged."
When contacted for a comment on the hot mic, Bennet's staff responded, "Michael was telling the same truths on the Senate floor that he tells folks back home in Colorado."
Bennet aide Adam Bozzi added, "For almost two years, he has talked about needing to fix a broken Washington. We can't move forward on major issues facing our country because of a broken system that is rigged to prevent progress. We are now in the second week of this session and haven't begun debating Defense Authorization or tax cuts that will expire at the end of the year. Colorado and the rest of our country deserve better which is why he has proposed overhauling the way Washington works, including filibuster and lobbying reforms."


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Instant messaging overtakes the humble SMS text
Use of instant messaging via services like WhatsApp and iMessage has overtaken regular SMS text messages.
The research has been published by Informa, which said the nearly 19 billion messages sent on chat apps outweighed the 17.6 billion sent by SMS during 2012. It is the first time that instant messaging has account for more traffic than traditional text messages.
While the free services benefit users, it is likely to have a large impact of mobile operators which rely on SMS text messages as key revenue, according to the BBC.
Pamela Clark-Dickson from Informa said some operators are already "seeing a decline in their messaging revenues" while research firm Ovum calculates that more than $23bn revenue from SMS was lost in 2012 thanks to instant messaging apps.
Looking forward, Informa thinks that instant messaging will continue to grow but this doesn't mean the imminent end to SMS messaging. It predicts that 50 billion instant messages will be sent per day by 2014 compared to around 21 billion text messages.
Nokia has even announced a budget handset, the Asha 210, with a dedicated WhatsApp button for instant access to the messaging app.
"There is a lot of life still in SMS," added Clark-Dickson, explaining that instant messaging app users own smartphones but a large number of consumers with feature phones still reply on the reliable text message.
"They don't have mobile data plans, so there is an awfully big base of mobile phone users who are going to still find that SMS is the best messaging experience for them for a while," she said.
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Hooray! The PASS Summit is upon us (finally)! Here's what my plans look like for next week:
My week starts with the cross country flight from Orlando to Seattle-Tacoma International, arriving at 1:30 PM (Want to split the fare for a ride into town? Drop a comment, send me an email, or tweet me and let me know. Otherwise I'm planning on trying out Seattle's illustrious public transportation to make my way downtown). After checking into the Sheraton I'm heading to Don Gabor's "Networking to Build Business Contacts" pre-con at 4:30 PM, followed by the welcome reception and quiz bowl at 6:30 PM. I'm finishing up the night at the SQLServerCentral party, then back to the hotel where I will presumably collapse from exhaustion before the first full day even begins.
I'm assuming I'll be up bright and early since my body will still be on east coast time. I'm shooting for the welcome breakfast at 7:30 AM and the keynotes afterwards. I'll be at the Birds-of-a-Feather lunch (no idea what table I'll sit at though, there's lots of interesting topics and people to choose from!), and throughout the day I'll try to hit as many technical sessions as I can. I'm headed to a by-invitation sponsor dinner\event Tuesday night.
The day starts at 7:00 AM with a breakfast sponsored by Quest where the topic will be "Simplify SQL Server Management with DMVs". I'll try to make the keynotes and as many technical sessions as I can fit in. No firm plans for lunch, but I'm leaning towards going to the Women In Technology luncheon. The title alone suggests that this would be for women only, but as was pointed out to me earlier this week it's open to all; Since my sister works for NASA and I've got a daughter who's as smart as a whip there's some interest in this for me. Wednesday night you'll probably find me at the SQL Server Appreciation Event from 7-10 PM.
No plans for breakfast (maybe the Quest breakfast again?) and I may hit the keynotes. Otherwise it's technical sessions all day. I'll probably go to the Chapter Lunch, or maybe venture outside the conference for once to grab something nearby. The big event of the day for me is my session - Transactional Replication: Beyond The Basics - at 4 PM in room 606-607. I'll finish the night at another by-invitation sponsor dinner.
By now my brain will be complete mush, so I'm leaving the day open to do whatever comes my way. That probably means shopping for gifts for the family back home and some kind of sightseeing. My flight leaves at 10:20 PM, and since I don't get home until 9:30 AM Saturday morning I'll likely spend the flight catching up on all the sleep I missed during the week.
Other Things I'm Doing During The Week
I have no idea when they'll happen, but these things are on my list of to-dos:
- Meet people. The list of people I want to meet up with is too long to go into detail here, so I'll just put it this way: If you follow me on Twitter, or I follow you, or you read my blog, or come to my session I want to meet you.
- SQLCAT Clinic. I've got a few things I need to talk to these folks about.
- Visit the expo hall. There are a couple of vendors I want to meet with for product demos and to just say hello.
- SQL Saturday tweetup? There was was some talk about a tweetup with people who have presented at SQL Saturday events. If it happens I'll try to be there. I'm bringing my shirt from SQL Saturday #1 (for bragging rights) just in case.
- Find some really good coffee. I love good coffee and I hear there's a shop or two in Seattle worth visiting.
Finally, a quick mention that I'm a square in SQLServerPedia's Twitter Bingo contest. If you play it could be worth a $50 Amex gift card (2 winners per day!). Read the rules, print out a card, and see if you can find me next week!


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Shona Husk is celebrating the release of the third book in her Shadowlands series For the Love of a Goblin Warrior. She stopped by the virtual offices to chat about her book and she brought along a copy of For the Love of a Goblin Warrior for one of you to win!
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.
[Shona Husk] Reader, writer, dark chocolate lover. I love a challenge and enjoy making up stories.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about For the Love of a Goblin Warrior?
[Shona Husk] Two thousand years ago six Celtic warriors were cursed to be goblins. Meryn gave into the curse and has been running with the goblin horde in the Shadowlands ever since. When the curse broke he became human again and now he has a second chance at living. But he has to adapt to the modern world and keep his past, both as a man in Celtic Britain and as a goblin, a secret from Nadine, the woman he is falling for. Nadine has her own family secrets and knows far more about goblins than she says.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?
[Shona Husk] For the Love of a Goblin Warrior is the third book in the Shadowlands series, and also the last. When I started writing The Goblin King, the ideas for the other two stories appeared. I knew Meryn's story would be last one. He's fought Romans and goblins, loved and lost so as a hero he brought a lot of past to the story. However it was nice to write about a guy who knew what love was, had been hurt and yet was willing to try again. Nadine has her own history with goblins, she's quite closed off and doesn't really believe in love. Sometimes it's really hard to pinpoint where characters come from. I'm not sure where Nadine came from, she just kind of appeared and yet once she was there I couldn't imagine Meryn with anyone else.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words best describe Meryn?
[Shona Husk] Wounded, recovering goblin
[Manga Maniac Cafe] If Nadine had a theme song, what would it be?
[Shona Husk] This one's easy as I always have songs for every book Nadine's song is 'Left Outside Alone' by Anastacia.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing Nadine won't leave the house without.
[Shona Husk] Her mother's necklace. She always wears it as it's all she has left of her mother.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in Meryn's pockets?
[Shona Husk] A cell phone, condoms and a wallet, for the simple reason he doesn't know what they are as they weren't around in Celtic Britain which was the last time he was human.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is Nadine's greatest regret?
[Shona Husk] Not doing more to save her mother, she was only a child but it's haunted her and given her nightmares all her life.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What are your greatest creative influences?
[Shona Husk] I grew up reading fantasy novels, so I'm sure they all had an impact. I love slipping away to other worlds. I find these days I read fantasy, paranormal or historical romances, yet I love watching action/adventure TV all of which are purely escapist and yet fun in their own way. I like warrior heroes be they elves with swords or military guys. I also love listening to music and going to concerts. Basically anything that takes me away from the everyday.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write?
[Shona Husk] Chocolate…something to write with and on…that's about it. I can write pretty much anywhere. I've plotted in airports (Lunar Exposure) and written a novel by the pool while my kids did swimming lessons (Dark Vow).
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off?
[Shona Husk] Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry and War by Sebastian Junger. I don't read a lot of YA but Pushing the Limits was excellent. And War was a brutal, eye opening read.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?
[Shona Husk] Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr. I'd read lots of books before this one, but it sucked me into a world of elves and battles and magic like no other. I still have a soft spot for Rhodry the hot half-elf.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren't writing?
[Shona Husk] I swim, run, read, cross-stitch, drive the kids around, cook, eat more chocolate (everyone allowed 1 vice right?). I also catch up on TV shows that I missed while meeting deadlines.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] How can readers connect with you?
[Shona Husk] I'm twitter www.twitter.com/ShonaHusk
Facebook www.facebook.com/shonahusk
And I have a monthly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/lySiD
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!
About the book:
In a Faraway Land…
There lived a man who was trapped—his only companions a horde of goblins consumed by their lust for gold. He thought he was lost forever, thought that no one would ever remember he'd been noble.
A Fearless Warrior…
Now he has been thrust into the human world once again, but so much has changed. How can he ever be rid of the darkness after so long in the Shadowlands?
It Starts with Dreams of a Castle…
And a woman who takes his breath away and makes him forget the pain of his past. He knows he must protect her at all costs. And perhaps in saving her, he can finally learn to love again.
Praise for The Goblin King:
"Steamy, sensual, and dangerous…Dark and delicious." —Fresh Fiction
"Shona Husk put together an amazing story about loss, love, redemption, and discovery." —Night Owl Reviews Top Pick
"A wonderfully dark and sensual fairy tale." —Jessa Slade, author of Seduced by Shadows
A civil designer by day and an author by night, Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Drawing on history, myth, and imagination, she writes about heroes who are armed and dangerous but have a heart of gold–sometimes literally. Look for the other books in the Shadowlands Series, The Goblin King and Kiss of the Goblin Prince, available now. In July 2013, Shona will begin another dark paranormal series with The Outcast Prince! For more information, please visit www.shonahusk.com.
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Larry Fitzgerald was back in Arizona Tuesday after a week at the Super Bowl and made an appearance at the team's Tempe facility.
The Pro Bowl wide receiver made it a business visit.
With the Cardinals facing Fitzgerald's bulky salary cap number for the 2014 season, Fitzgerald officially restructured his contract, easing the impact of his deal on the cap and giving the Cards much more flexibility in which to maneuver this offseason.
Back in AZ from #SB48 & the 1st order of business this AM was signing a restructured contract to help the @AZCardinals get better for 2014!— Larry Fitzgerald (@LarryFitzgerald) February 4, 2014
Specific details of the restructuring were not immediate available, nor how much cap space was created. However, Fitzgerald's cap number had been scheduled to be more than $18 million, and the Cardinals were expected before a restructuring to have less than $2 million of cap space once the new league year commenced in March.
Fitzgerald had been scheduled to make $12.75 million in salary for 2014. The easiest way to create cap space would be to convert some of that into a signing bonus that could be pro-rated cap-wise over the life of the contract. Fitzgerald's deal runs through the 2018 season.
UPDATE: Multiple reports list Fitzgerald as getting a $11.75 million bonus in March, lowering his salary to $1 million in 2014 and saving the Cardinals about $9.4 million on the salary cap. Fitzgerald's cap number for 2015 is scheduled to be more than $23 million, however, and will have to be dealt with again a year from now.
Just last week, team president Michael Bidwill had said he was confident Fitzgerald's contract
"When those discussions come I will do what I need to do," Fitzgerald told Arizona Sports 98.7 last week. "I have a great relationship with (GM) Steve Keim, he drafted me in Arizona. I understand his vision and what he is trying to do and the direction he is taking this ballclub. I understand at 30 years old there are things that need to change. That's part of football, that's part of being an older veteran.
"I want to see this team do well. I love this group of guys. Patrick (Peterson's) deal is coming up and he needs to be compensated as the best corner in the game, which I feel he is. We've got to take care of
Keim was unavailable for comment.
Fitzgerald, who will be 31 before the start of the 2014 season, is coming off his eighth Pro Bowl appearance. He had a team-best 82 receptions in 2013 for 954 yards and a team-high 10 touchdowns.
Settling the contract not only gives the Cardinals the ability to sign needed free agents and re-sign some of their own players, but it also removes the distraction of Fitzgerald's situation. His looming cap number had been a subject of constant speculation, as had the ways the Cardinals might deal with it.
During the season, one national report said an eventual Fitzgerald trade was all but inevitable. During Super Bowl week, a report surfaced that last offseason, the Patriots wanted to trade for Fitzgerald. But Bidwill and Keim had long held firm the plan was for Fitzgerald to remain a Cardinal for his entire career, and Tuesday's news underscores that desire.
"I can tell you two things, and I want to make this clear and simple: I have not had one conversation with another NFL team regarding a trade with Larry Fitzgerald," Keim said in October. "Number two, starting with Michael Bidwill on down, it is our intent for Larry Fitzgerald to retire a Cardinal. Period.
"If there is any grey area there, let me know, and we can get that out."


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miami beach weddings
MIAMI WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER: Sally & Brett | Wedding Photography | Miami, FL
10 years ago, August to be precise, Unique Design Studios opened its first storefront. As you would expect, after a decade and over 500 weddings, we've heard some pretty amazing stories of LOVE. Sally and Brett shared their story with us this past week during their wedding shoot and I felt I …


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Townhouse Kitchen + Bar, which opened in Harbor East the spring of 2012, was the first entry into the Baltimore market for the Chicago-area Restaurants-America group, a multi-concept restaurant operator.
On Friday, the restaurant's website was down for maintenance and calls placed to its published phone number were redericted to an unspecified extension.
Signs that have been taped to its doors since Wednesday say simply "Townhouse Kitchen + Bar is Closed Today."
Still, it is not clear if the Harbor East restaurant, which occupies a retail space in the Eden Building, is closed permanently.
Calls made to Restaurants-America were not returned.
A representative for Artios Retail, the Bel Air-based firm that leases retail space in the Eden Building, directed questions to lawyer Roger Sullivan. Sullivan, whose office is in Bel Air, did not return calls or emails seeking comment.
Last year, Restaurants-America closed three of its restaurants in Dallas, including a Townhouse Kitchen + Bar, within days of each other without warning or explanation, according to reporting by the Dallas Business Journal.


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Rufus Wainwright's 15-year recording career has, at times, been brilliant and utterly unique — utilizing the singer's personal idiosyncrasies as fuel for grandiose statements of artistic intent. He has always maintained a distinct voice as a pop songwriter, blending elements of opera, cabaret, folk rock and orchestral music into a fully-realized sound and vision. But Wainwright has consistently tempered his successes (2001's "Poses," standing greatest among them) with indulgent exercises ("Release The Stars"), bizarre conceptual turns ("All Days Are Night: Songs for Lulu") and a charming, if unnecessary set of live albums ("Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall," "Milwaukee at Last!!!").
With new release "Out of the Game," Wainwright returns to whip-smart, pop craftsmanship with a few stylistic upgrades courtesy of U.K. super-producer Mark Ronson. The music is very much in the Wainwright wheelhouse, but with more direction and focus than anything he's done in years. Saturday's concert at the Orpheum drew heavily from "Game," and fleshed out a selection of well-worn material with powerful full-band arrangements.
As the lights dimmed, Wainwright took to the stage and launched into an a capella rendering of "Candles." The power and dynamic range of his voice allowed for the melody to grow and shift through eight minutes of repetition, while slowly unfolding some of the best lyrical work from the new album. As the last bit of melody died out, the stage lights snapped on revealing Wainwright dressed in a tuxedo coat with tails and a set of sparkling gold pants. He and his band — all donning dark sunglasses — immediately dug into the retro lite-pop of "Barbara."
Most of the new album cuts are steeped in a '70s soft rock blend of lightly-effected guitars, strutting drum beats and sweetly sentimental melodies. During the set, these tunes contrasted well with the more emotional, ambitious material of Wainwright's past. "Song of You," a waltzing doo-wop number, sat perfectly alongside the pentatonic exoticism of 2001's "Greek Song." The shuffling funk of "Perfect Man" was met by a delicately stripped down reading of "One Man Guy," which saw Wainwright trading verses with guitarist Teddy Thompson and backing singer Charysse Blackman.
Though very much focused upon the straightforward pop of his new record, the evening began to drag during its middle section. A lack of sonic contrast and a handful of lilting ballads made for a musical palette that was sleepy and, at times, downright boring. After this forgettable detour, Thompson and backing vocalist Krystle Warren performed a moving, two-song tribute to Wainwright's mother, songwriter Kate McGarrigle, who died two years ago.
As the evening came to a close, Wainwright took to the stage for a selection of solo piano renditions mixed in with a few full-band tunes. "The Art Teacher," McGarrigle's "On My Way to Town" and the set-closing "Poses" were breathtaking examples of the sheer talent Wainwright is capable of exhibiting on his own. In many ways, these solo renditions trumped all of the concert's prior pomp and circumstance, revealing all of his strengths without dilution or distraction.


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Its done! And I could not be happier... After months and months, 11 to be exact and a pretty penny .... Its done.... This wasnt my only project by any means, and for a while I left it alone. Long while, while building more Trucks, a workspace, bashing, and life. My own run on a 100mph Mamba Monster Rustler. I took my precious time, and could not be more happy with the outcome.
For the FULL build thread, with all details..Visit this link
*** The AbSoLooT Mamba Monster Rustler ***
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Triple M's
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
For a quick Review… (more info on full build thread) It's a 6S Mamba Monster Powered 100mph plus on road only vehicle, with the works. 34/34 gearing… Savox Servo, Gyro, Garmin GPS, and Lots of Bling, and touches to complete the package.
On the body, The headlights are covered with Carbon Fiber Eye Lids…
One Done, vs one not.
Carbon Fiber to Match on the Asian Decals.. Like a lot of people who have Asian symbols as Tattoos, who knows what It means. Lol.
GD-4 Drift Pro Gyro, A lot of Wire Braiding, 6S power…
New Garmin Forerunner 101 sitting on top of a Custom Carbon Fiber "box" type wrap to cover 1 pound .5 ounces of weight to keep the front end down at the ridiculous high speeds…
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Without the GPS to show the Carbon "box"
What the Weights looked like
Prior to finishing the Decals. Looked awesome this way too..
How its held together. Industrial strength double sided tape… This is prior to the top piece being placed
Low Fo sho
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Custom Made Nobs To hold the battery in, Wire braiding, and the two wire extensions that were added to the ESC, to be able to install the switch on the opposite end.
Good look at the MONSTER Motor without the Fan. Gives a real good idea of the size of this thing… That and the Swami RC wheelie Bar
Mamba Monster ESC, Braided Wires, and NOS Bottle ( A signature of all my trucks )
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Custom Done RPM Front Bumper. Didnt just flip it around.. Reformed to keep its top side
HR X- Long Alum Slipper Clutch Pads
With XO Wheels and Tires. I have them, The GRPS, and Jacos..
AKA 17mm Hexs
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Slash/Stampede 4x4 Drive Shafts
Custom Elongated Bottom Slide to fit the Monster Motor, and gearing..
Swami RC Laid Back Wheelie Bar with Traxxas Upgraded wheels
And Last but not Least……
Massive 34 – 34 Gearing. Metal Pinion + Metal Spur = LOUD! Awesome.. 34T pinion from the XO1.
*******Thanks for Checking it out… Make sure to check the FULL build thread*********
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Sweet brotha! But youre not done yet...not until you hit the 100mph mark with it! I cant wait to see it. Good job man and super sweet ride.
Never trust an "Atom", they make up everything.
Finally! Congrats! When is the run ?
1 Slash 3 Rustys & visits with my old P4de/SC8
WOW! What a clean build, speed runs aren't my thing but I sure appreciate it when someone creates such a beautiful and clean machine.
That looks sick! I wonder how much the can alone adds to its weight?
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
I can't wait. Weather is finally cooling down here and I plan on throwing in a bigger pinion just for kicks. Summer is to hot to play with rc's lol
I want you to know in advance I'm gonna cry if you hit a curb
1 Slash 3 Rustys & visits with my old P4de/SC8
Looks great Loot, I'm liking the black,red and white. Was planning on a white lid myself, to match the custom bottom plate I put on mine. May have to go back to the drawing board with that.. Already looked to much alike with the red and black lid we had on them to start with.. I truly hope you meet your goal without crashing that beauty... I say after you reach your goal.. Shelf it!!!! Lol.
Very nice machine, Sir LooT!
Looking forward to see the results. If you can manage to reach that 100mph, you wont be the first, but you will definately have done it with the best looking Rustler.
Nobody is born with experience
Oooooooh lala!!!! Fantastic build my friend. As always you are the ABSOLOOT finest to perfection of details. Keep up the work my friend!! I can't wait to see some video on speed runs and what you top out at. Im way jealous.
Weak Revenge
Strong Forgive
Intelligent Ignore
Nice touch using the msc mount to mount the Nos bottle...
Ya can't polish fertilizer...
Also, I think I will cry too I am gonna do Runs on places with no curbs.... That way I cant hit a Curb, cuz at 100mph, that would be nasty!
Thanks man. U too.! And ur bottom u speak of looks fantastic! I totally will be very careful how often it comes out, thats for sure.
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Loot will be the first to hold a traxxas fashion show, thats for sure... I'm to sexy for my truck, to sexy for my truck...
Loot, you just may be the bling master of everything traxxas. Have seen some killer builds over the years on the scaler boards, and you are right up there with top guys when it comes to attention to detail... Ever though of scratch building? You would be good at it...
Ya can't polish fertilizer...
ultra clean and beautiful looking . Now time to post it hitting the triple digit line.
Btw.. So I brought it to my families house on Sunday. One at a time a member of my family came out, and wanted to see it rev... Ive had it at full throttle, on a dry run before, A. Its NUTZ, and B. Its AWESOME! I think either this time around it was more powerful cuz it was heated to a more optimal temp, since I was driving it around (around 5 mph for adjustments) or... I was looking at it top side, so lost my depth perseption, and barely knicked the ground... I dont think of that, because it didnt jump forward, But also 3 happens happened at once, so I think it must have been... But this happened....
Can I also just say it was AWESOME! It was like BOOM! Only shame was I didnt have it on camera. I put a skid mark on my shoe, that is a nice permant black scar on my new white shoes Since it came from This hobby, I like it Cuz its a battle scar! and If i look down, il know what happened...
Easy fix I could have repaired right then and there since I had some Jacos, and Extra driveshafts, Since I blew a yolk from the force, but I ended up just getting involved with the Stampedes.. I could have just thrown on the Jacos, and the Xo1s were at home. But I wasnt there to drive it anyways... it was a small neighborhood street.
But I tell ya, It was awesome! this thing is a MONSTER!
2wd + 6S + Mamba Monster = Something else!
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
The car looks great man!
Last edited by Baltim0re28; 10-09-2012 at 05:34 PM. Reason: Not using my brain.
Like everyone else I am anxious to see this car running, looking forward to seeing some video of it!!!
Last edited by Dadx2mj; 10-09-2012 at 05:48 PM.
BlindMan Racing
Rusty - MERV - Pede 4x4-Alias
SPC Lipo Power
WOW SO CLEAN that's one nice looking rustler.
Slash 2wd, Slash 4x4, 30th digger, Rustler VXL
Looks amazing. You just inspired me to make a 100MPH Rustler. What did you use to wrap the wires? Where can it be bought on ebay?
To the men and women of the US military, thank you
Will be interesting to see acceleration, ESC performance & heat results
Conventional thinking is that 1:1 gearing may not be a reliable starting point because of among other issues, the load it exerts on the ESC at start up
Will this fit normal wires that plug into the receiver?
The ammount of failures it takes to get an rc car up to these speeds, good luck. Is that a belted tire blowing apart???
Ya can't polish fertilizer...
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
See this is good though You had your BOOM BREAK moment already All clear for speed runs now lol.
Can't wait ! I think that car deserves the flats to run it to it's true potential lol. Oh if only.
1 Slash 3 Rustys & visits with my old P4de/SC8
Ive already ran it slow, and it does wonderful. Not a hint of cogging or the motor struggeling....Its insane power... Unreal. It will blow off all paper on the desk behind it, and creat a mini hurricane! lol
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..
Hope it works out the way you're anticipating. Good luck
Very nice! I'm surprised to see stockish axles but I trust your judgement! Have fun and good luck
X-Maxx Max6 | EB48.3 | ET48.3 | Axial Grave Digger
thanks PBO, and SLW. I appreciate it! Il be in close touch with how it goes!
As for the Salt Flats... Ive driven on em..(friend driving) At night, pitch black at about 70mph with the headlights turned off, without being able to see a thing... Its NUTZ! but there is so much room, and its all the way flat. Its impossible to hit anything. Well, except for the one big island in the middle, Other than that.. Nada Its intense ! And Massive too...
Build, Bash, Clean, Repair, Repeat..


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Thread: Pic of my trip to Japan.
04-14-2007, 11:17 PM #1Pic of my trip to Japan.
I finally got around to resizing some of the pictures I took while vacationing in Japan. I hope ya'll enjoy them. If you get an opportunity to go to Japan, DO IT. You won't regret it. I'm lucky that I'm married to a sweet Japanese girl (now American) who has some pretty cool parents.
Here is the picture of Mount Fuji I showed earlier in the week. This picture was taken from the back window of my In-law's home. I got to enjoy this view while enjoying my morning coffee everyday. My Mother In Law wouldn't let me do anything for myself. She was shocked that I actually knew how to turn the coffee pot off. She does all of the house work and she has a part time job at the post office. My Father In Law doesn't have to do much around the house. Its not that he's lazy, its just a typical old school Japanese household.
This is what passes for a birthday cake, I think. Our 2nd day there, we had a little birthday party for my 12 year old nephew. He is the only child for my Brother and Sister in Law so he's spoiled. The great thing is that this is the most polite and courteous kid you'll ever meet. I gave him a US Open tennis bag and some other tennis gear as well as one of my Nintendo DS video games.
This is an example of Japanese Marquetry woodworking from the down of Hakone. We visited this place on the 3rd day and checked out some of the skills needed to make the paper thing veneers that decorate this chest of drawers.
This is the glued up lumber that is planed into veneers. I'm pretty good at woodworking, but it would take years for me to do this kind of work.
Here are some cherry blossoms that were starting to bloom in Odawara.
This is Odawara Castle. Japan has several castles, some of which date back to the 14th century. This castle was originally built in 1495. It lasted through the Edo period in Japan history until it was partly destroyed in the Meji era. It was rebuilt in 1960. Inside were several examples of Japanese weaponry from Samurai and Ninja that lived in the area.
Another pic of Odawara Castle from its entrance. Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside. I think the guard in there didn't like me much because he kept following this gaikoku-jin around the building.
Being the geek that I am, I had to stop at the Apple Store in Ginza. Nothing to see here, it is exactly the same as the Apple store in Southlake or Plano, just bigger. 5 stories bigger.
This is the Fujimi Yagura keep at Kokyo, which is the Japanese Imperial Palace. This is the oldest structure on the premises and the only part of the original Palace that still exists. It was built in the 14th Century and even survived the fire bombings in WWII.
This is the actual palace, known as Kyuden. It doesn't look like much but the picture really doesn't do this place any justice. It is quite large and has a regal look to it. I think the little tower you see there is called Kita-Kurumayose.
This is the Fuhimi Yagura keep on the western side of the palace grounds.
BTW, if you ever find yourself going to Tokyo, you can go to this website and make a reservation to tour the palace.
During late March and early April, the cherry blossoms are in bloom and the place looks incredible. Unfortunately for me, the blossoms were not yet blooming. My wife is getting back to Texas tomorrow and should have several pictures of the cherry blossoms in Kamakura.
This is the Kaminarimon "Thunder Gate" in Asakusa (part of Tokyo) past this gate is a market place and a Buddhist temple.
This is the actual temple.
This is the shrines Pagoda tower.
The following day, we went to Yokohama. Part of that day was spent checking out Yokohama's China town. This is one of Chinatowns Gates. I think this one is called Zenrin-Mon Gate.
Here is Temple in Yokohama Chinatown.
And here we have the world famous Landmark area of Yokohama along the harbor. That ferris wheel makes the Texas State Fair ferris wheel look puny. Rides are about a half hour long. The gondolas are supposedly very nice and have glass windows instead of the cage we would see at the TSF. Unfortunately we were heading home at the time and didn't get a chance to ride it.
This is the Landmark Tower. I remember flying over this tower on a regular basis as it was being built back in 1992. By the time my tour ended in 1993, the tower was finished. The bottom floors hold a shopping mall. The middle floors are condos and the upper floors are all luxury hotel suites. Until a few days ago, the Landmark Tower was the highest building in Japan.
This is the Nippon Maru. It is a training ship for Japanese Merchant Marines before WWII. During WWII it was used as a transport. It also transported over 25000 Japanese soldiers back home after the war. She is also known as the "Swan of the Pacific"
The next day we went to Tokyo Disneyland Sea. Most Japanese wouldn't think of doing this at the Indiana Jones ride, but it got a lot of laughs from them. My Nephew took the picture.
This was taken during the Grand Finale show at the end of the day. The timing was perfect because as soon as the show ended, it starting raining pretty hard. The park became a sea of umbrellas almost immediately.
This was a huge German cake for sale in the basement of one of the Odakyu department stores. It seems that all of the major train stations around Tokyo have rather large department stores attached to them. In the basement floors of each of these stores are all kinds of sweets and snacks. The cake was delicious. I also had several Manjuu which are small buns filled with sweet bean paste. Now most Americans would run when hearing those words but I swear that you have to try them if you get the chance. They are good eatin'
So that covers most of my trip. I also spent time shopping in Shibuya and Akihabara. Akihabara is known for being the worlds largest shopping area for electronic, computer, camera, anime, and other otaku stuff. I was in nerdvana. Unfortunately I found that its reputation for low prices was unfounded. At least that was the case when it came to the Olympus DSLR camera I bought there. That camera retails for about 800 bucks in the US. I've found it at Circuit City for $669 with two lenses. However I only found it for about 700 bucks in Akihabara. However when I went to department store in rural Hadano, I found that camera with the lenses for just a hair over $500.
If you are looking to pickup Japanese chicks, then Shibuya is your place. I think about half the women in Japan are in Shibuya at any given moment. Whats the attraction? Clothing stores as far as the eye can see. And nothing that would fit me
Next time I hope to attend a Sumo Wresting match, go to Harajyuku, and check out Osaka. Time to start saving those frequent flyer miles again
Japan is a beautiful country. I would love to go there one day. Japanese is the language i most want to learn.
Nice pictures!"I asked who i am to her, and she yelled god"
great virtual tour man! great pics! loved the descriptions. looked like a great time.Please participate in our Member of the Month polls. Every vote counts! And remember to use the user reputation system!
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I want to go to japan badly. I want to explore the country and culture, but more so because its sooo clean.
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Great shots! I went there on vacation last year and absolutely loved it. Japan was an amazing place to visit and I hope to get back there again some day.
Thanks for not only the pictures - but the commentary. Like a virtual trip. I spent some time there in the late 60s and early 70s and I loved it.
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I am flabbergasted. I feel like I had just visited there.
I know what you mean about the intricate woodwork, though. I truly appreciate the old school, hard work and patience type, handiwork."Do all the good you can... In all the ways you can... In all the places you can... At all the times you can... To all the people you can... As long as you ever can..." ~ Rules of Conduct
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Thanks for the tour!
I'd like to go sometime as well...
Thanks for sharing those pictures, Japan is one of those places i really want to visit in my lifetime.[is pointless to click here]
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Sgt Beavis, thanks for sharing such beauty. Really makes me want to visit Japan.
I've only been to Korea and Tiawan which were also lovely (some parts, that is )
You took some very nice pictures."We have enough youth, what we need is a fountain of smart"! - Unknown
Great thread man and thanks for sharing. I love Japan and could easily see myself living there.
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