text:
WEST WINDSOR — Someone give Ryan Zegarski a step ladder.
He needs a lot of people to step up on his Mercer County Community College softball team.
The Vikings have 10 freshmen on their 14-woman roster, and obviously several of them have to show they can immediately do the job at the junior college level. More importantly, Zegarski needs a couple pitchers to step up after it was discovered last Friday that prospective No. 1 hurler Kiele Eichlen from Delaware Valley a torn labrum.
"It just came from wear and tear over time, it's very common for softball and baseball players," Zegarski said. "She's played high level travel and high school, and she was working out here. It could have happened any day, in a way it was a blessing in disguise that it happened before the year and not in April. At least now she has the option of red-shirting.
"We'll know more at the end of the week about whether she will come back or just get surgery and redshirt if she has to. We still have a ton of talent here, but they all have to step up. That's the bottom line."
The other hurlers are two Ewing grads — sophomore Stephanie Canulli and freshman Erica Benedetti — and two Conwell Egan grads — sophomore Cynthia Page and freshman Stacie Denucci. Canulli was 15-7 with a 3.52 ERA last year and Page was 11-8/3.47.
All four will rotate between pitching, playing first base and serving as designated player until the situation works itself out. They all pitched in last Saturday's 16-0 and 9-1 sweep of Suffolk in the season-opener and combined to allow just two walks while MCCC did not make an error.
If the Vikings continue to limit free chances for the opponents, anything is possible this year.
"That was fantastic," Zegarski said. "It was good to just get out there and play. Some people don't like to start early so we had to wait and wait and wait."
Mercer returns with a home doubleheader against Cumberland Saturday and visits Camden Tuesday before leaving for its trip to Myrtle Beach.
"We'll learn a lot from our southern trip," Zegarski said. "Once we get back these girls won't be freshmen anymore and we'll have a better idea of what we have. Right now we're a young team with a lot of talent."
A key returnee in the middle of the lineup is rightfielder Chelsea Arnold of Ewing, who hit .432 with 50 RBI and 37 runs scored last season.
Freshman Kelly Murphy will catch, while rounding out the infield are freshman Morgan Cullen (Bristol) at second, Courtney Clee (Neshaminy) at short and Alyssa Bauer (Hunterdon Central) at third.
Freshman Michelle Anderson (Ewing) will see some time in right, while freshmen Brianna Castellano (Hamilton) and Dana Knapp (Neshaminy) will flip back and forth between center and left "until we see what works best for us."
"Our goal is still to win the Region 19 championship," Zegarski said. "Del Tech Owens has been the leader of the pack the last three years, we're looking to bump them off.
"We finished third last year. We have a deeper team and a better overall team than last year, and the chemistry and camaraderie is a lot better."
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores and on fish4scores.com.


text:
Another small Panhandle hospital is in turmoil and it's not Gulf Pines in Port St. Joe. The Campbellton-Graceville Hospital is in such bad financial shape it's in danger of closing.
A former hospital board member is blaming current management for the problems.
Pam Rimes recently resigned from the Campbellton-Graceville Hospital's board of directors, but she says she's not giving up on the hospital itself. She wants Gov. Bush to consider a petition she started and remove the hospital's interim administrator and all but one of the remaining board members.
"Our hope is that the governor will step in and will take a serious look at what's taking place at our hospital and will take action to remedy some of this and to bring in an audit. Let's have some one come in and have a good sound look and let's remove those members who are not looking out for the best interest of our community."
Rimes isn't alone in her efforts. Several former doctors say they left the hospital because of its problems and its leadership.
The three board members targeted by Rime's petition were not available for an on-camera interview Thursday, but the hospital's interim administrator, also targeted by the petition, says Rimes is making a personal issue out of past disagreements with board members.
"There's a conflicting interests and I think they have different opinions and I think a lot of the questions that came up concerning the conflict came up while Mrs. Rimes was on the board," says hospital administrator Tom Meadows.
The Campbellton-Graceville Hospital has room for about 25 patients, but Thursday it's only serving four patients and Wednesday it was only serving one.
Administrator Tom Meadows says the low number of patients may mean the hospital can close as early as August.
Hospital administrators say a major reason for their poor financial condition is because the hospital has lost state and federal funding, but Rimes and her supporters blame bad management for the losses.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Charming stories of charming children
Charming stories of charming children
Haile, Ellen. The Two Gray Girls. New York, London & Paris: Cassell & Co., 1880.
Catalog Record | Enlarge Image | Adopt a Book Home
This is a delightful collection of stories about neighborhood children (both rich and poor) living in a pastoral country village, a theme that would have played well either in America or England.


text:
TFA said it looks like a b-movie photo not that it IS from a movie.
Its just an experimental UAV.
So they built a tricopter/hexacopter (hey it has six blades)? That's quite believable, any RC enthusiast with a few hundred bucks can do that. For a few thousand you can have a quadcopter like Google uses for low-altitude aerial photography.
But the title of the Fars article is "Iran Unveils Flying Saucer", so it's more like Slashdot having an article called "Bill Gates gets cybernetic implants" and showing a convincingly* photorealistic version of picture you mentioned.
(*for certain values of "convincingly")
I notice other subtle attempts to discredit Iranian domestically produced equipment in the US/western press
And I note totally non-subtle attempts to glorify Iran coming from many segments of US/Western press.
The reasoning seems to go like this: "I hate the US government, Iran hates the US government, therefore Iran can do nothing wrong"
I actually read the articles (yes, I know it's a sin) and I didn't see any reference to the picture they released ACTUALLY coming from a movie. The headlines *joke* that it *looks* like something from a B-movie, but the summary seems to take that seriously.
The picture may be a mock-up, and the claimed craft may be a bunch of bullshit (with some of the crazy claims coming from Iran lately, who knows), but I don't see any news sources saying they actually stole the picture from a specific movie. I will say though, that, for a country completely devoid of homosexuals, they sure do have an unusual bent for the theatrical.
+5 Informative.
Damn, I haven't had mod points since the update.
I haven't had mod points in like 3 years.
I've been getting 15 almost every 3 days
I used to get mod points about twice a month, back when you could only get 5 points. Then suddenly nothing. It's annoying that the system is so opaque. I suppose I should try making a new account and seeing if that one gets points.
So, 15 points was an introduction with the new system? I thought it was some weird type of bug.
I've been granted multiple bunches of 15 mod points for over a year now and occasionally a bunch of 5
I metamoderate and post not very often, but when I do post, my posts generally are modded up and I think THAT's the key.
I emailed Taco about that, he said that the 15 points are given to the top percentage of moderators whose mods are generally "accurate", I guess meaning that other mods typically agree with them.
As rwa2 says - something of a chore. There have been times when I had to choose between moderating or commenting. I used up 15 points just Saturday, and here it is Tuesday, with 5 more points waiting to be used. They show up frequently, and sometimes I just let them go unused. Don't ask me how to get mod points! Mostly, I just blather away with my personal opinion, and rarely back it up with any kind of reference or citation. Phht.
It's often been said that the mod system is broken. I can't argue that
Didn't know they gave out 15. I've been getting 5 about twice a week. I usually don't use all of them (3 left right now).
I have modpoints avaliable roughly 50% of the time..
But I almost never use them (Only if I see something very good with low rating), and I never meta-moderate.
Since I still use the old comment layout still, its kinda pain in the ass, since you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to click on the "Moderate" button (and if I don't do it rightaway, I forget it)
I haven't had mod points in 7 or 8 years. No idea what my crime was, but I wasn't even able to meta-mod for a few years.
Maybe if I did now I'd get mod points again, but frankly I don't feel like it.
Me too. No points for weeks (months?).
The actual photo is of a DraganFlyer X6 built by DraganFly in Saskatoon, Canada. I imagine the folks at DraganFly are busy answering questions this morning.
including the actual photo being taken directly from their site:
So when they say they "built" a UAV, what they mean is that they ordered one from Canada, got the kit, and assembled it?
Good catch, but still doesn't look like the correct photo was used. The articles describe the Iranian device as a quad rotor... that stock picture of the DraganFlyer X6 has 6 rotors.
Anyway, here's a real picture of an Iranian UAV from last year:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11052023 [bbc.co.uk]
The actual photo is of a DraganFlyer X6 built by DraganFly in Saskatoon, Canada. I imagine the folks at DraganFly are busy answering questions this morning.
As of 12:09 EDT, no mention of Zohal on the draganfly website.
The actual photo is of a DraganFlyer X6 built by DraganFly in Saskatoon, Canada. I imagine the folks at DraganFly are busy answering questions this morning.
This article
http://nycaviation.com/2011/03/iran-shows-off-flying-saucer-uav-which-is-not-round-looks-nothing-like-a-saucer/ [nycaviation.com]
claims the drone will be made by Dorna Aerospace Company [hfdorna.com]
I had mod points recently, but it was the first time post Slashdot update. By design, I'm guessing they're given out more sparsely.
Well, that's boring. And that picture doesn't look like a saucer at all!
It looks like they strapped a couple blades to a charcoal grill.
I'm wondering if this isn't a translation error - the real reference calls is a "cuadrotour" - not speaking whatever language it's supposed to be in (? Farsi) it's hard to interpret but it sure looks like "quad rotor" which is a much better description of the picture than 'flying saucer'.
Any idea if that was the original image used, or if they changed it after people started laughing at them? The whole 'flying saucer' thing in the text seems like an odd way to put things if they were just talking about a normal drone.
That's a UK police drone reported by BBC years ago: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/6676809.stm
I'm pretty sure that picture is of a draganflyer X6 [draganfly.com].
Not impossible they've installed custom additions (custom autopilot, radio links, etc)
Perhaps the "flying saucer" is a mis-translation on FARS' part..
Oh no! The Iranians have discovered RC helicopter technology!
What the deuce?
Not only does it look nothing like at B-Movie spacecraft, but it's not even a saucer! It's a freaking remote controlled helicopter!
Is FARS the Fox News equivalent in Iran?
LOL. You mean how Slashdot editors use stock photos for their articles? The irony.
A more "real" link has a photo of a more helicopter looking thing, rather than that UFO deal.
I do like the fact "Fars News Agency" is registered out of Vancouver, Washington.. maybe another government shill office?!
Our contributors never sully themselves with reading the article they are writing about, news at 11.
...so can we consider this an update of a 'flying carpet'?
...so can we consider this an update of a 'flying carpet'?
holy crap! it just struck me that the so called flying carpet was some advanced alien technology and that the conspiracy theorists are right about alien contact in ancient times!
Well, in Islam, animals must be slaughtered according to halal standards, which requires the animal to be drained of blood through the carotid and jugular (similar to kosher laws).
I think this explains all the dead cows drained of blood we saw on the X-Files.
According to christian laws it is the same! We only allow the animal (or force it by law) to hit unconscious before it is slaughtered.
The problem with tractor beams is when they are used from too great a distance. They have a tendency to merely pull up the skirts of women revealing...gasp...ankles. No self-respecting Ayatollah would want to see them.
Well the blog author makes a tongue-in-cheek shout out to Richard Dreyfuss, so I'm pretty sure he is making a reference to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The picture is not from that movie. It certainly appears to be from something crappy, perhaps just the now legendary Iranian Photoshop Labs.
That thing looks like something out Terminator.
Iran has scientists and engineers. They can build nuclear power plants, and other advanced technologies. The US would have you believe they are trying to build a nuclear bomb. Iran engineers and manufactures their own long range missiles, so they have the proverbial "rocket scientists" and apparently "competent" ones too.
What's the point of all this?
If you think, Iran, or any other country is unable to design and make their own "UAV", you have GOT to be drinking some serious kool-aid. They aren't stupid and they aren't dumb. Whoever from Iran reporting this story probably isn't allowed access to real photos, so they grab something from their little scrapbook and publish the story. Here in the US, we are so stupid to think that Iran scientists and government have nothing better to do than sit around a table and come up with stories to tell the world; for no purpose or goal at all?
Stop acting retarded people. You want stupid stuff printed in American stories, look at Popular Mechanics. "Oh, but those are artists renditions..." what's the difference!?
Here in the US, we are so stupid to think that Iran scientists and government have nothing better to do than sit around a table and come up with stories to tell the world; for no purpose or goal at all?
*snicker* Ok. I'll bite. How's that cure for AIDS [farsnews.com] coming along?
A a killer robot sentry [wikimedia.org].
I just checked out the pictures, and it looks really, really fishy. All you can see is several angles of the same 4 cabinets with 16 1U servers each and one big-ass storage array: 12 disks/cage x 8 cages/cabinet x 8 cabinets = 768 disks; at 135 GB each TOPS with 1+1 mirroring, that'd be ~ 72 TB.
Either they have a notoriously incompetent photographer, or it's the grownup version of a hastily put together science-fair mockup.
So, they're no strangers to silly attempts at faking news, or they're really bad at illustrating real ones. Either way these journalists suck at whatever they're doing.
The unmanned flying saucer, named "Zohal", was unveiled in a ceremony attended by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
They stole this from L. Ron Hubbard, didn't they?
This is what they "built:"
http://www.draganfly.com/uav-helicopter/draganflyer-x6/ [draganfly.com]
"Iranian aerospace scientists have built an unmanned flying saucer..." Or just copied a picture from a website from a company that actually does.
Anyone know how to say "like," in Arabic?
Information is the inverse of entropy.


text:
La Habana Vieja
A World Heritage Site since 1982, Old Havana is a fascinating mix of Baroque, neoclassical monuments, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco architecture interspersed with private homes decorated with balconies, wrought-iron gates, and inside courtyards.
Havana was founded in 1519 by the Spanish, and became an important harbor for Spanish galleons as they plied the seas from the Old World to the New World.
The city suffered little damage in the country's wars and revolutions, and stands today much as it was built 100 years ago except for decay and neglect combined with damage from the degenerative effects of the tropical salt-air climate. Hurricane Ike battered Havana in 2008 which caused extensive damage to some of the colonial buildings.
Cuba was a major importer of American cars until the Revolution in 1959, when many wealthy Cubans left the country and their cars behind. To keep these ancient cars running for fifty years requires loving care and skill that would be difficult to find anywhere else.
Eusebio Leal, the city's historian, has played a major role in preservation activities in Old Havana. In 1994, Leal created Habaguanex, a joint venture-for-profit-firm. It operates by generating hard currency through tourism and related services in Habana Vieja and then uses these funds for historic preservation and the development of community projects.
I was in Cuba for only a week in 2010, and am looking forward to going back to capture many more people and places.


text:
The_Computer_Wizard wrote:See here, it is obvious person a is well aware of b's beliefs, however they are ok with living how they are.
Both person A and person B are sinners. The difference is that person B is repentant (or at least he should be), while person A is convinced he has done nothing wrong.
The_Computer_Wizard wrote:The question that i was asking was why do people insist on persisting? that they cant say "ok thats their choice" or "well thats not what i believe, but to each his own"
Christians are supposed to spread the word. Also, it would be rather heartless, if you believed someone to be condemned to hell, to not tell them when they still have a chance to be saved. There are other reasons for Christians, I'm sure, but these are the two things I consider when deciding if I should tell someone about God.
For a non-Christian perspective, I'll discuss one of my best friends, an atheist, who insists on trying to disprove my beliefs. While he has never stated his motivations out loud, from our discussions I am led to believe that he wishes to help me rise above what I have been told to believe, and to see the true world as it really is. The fact that he can't seem to accept that my belief is not based on childhood indoctrination is a matter for another discussion, and is a personal fault of his, not a fault of his world view.
The_Computer_Wizard wrote:while you say any intelligent minister would say that sins are sins and all that, there are MANY ministers that are regarded as "intelligent" that commonly speak against these issues, that even protest and feel it should be made law.
It should not be made law, unless it is in a country that is run by a religion, which is not what the United States is supposed to be. Law is rules set down by the government. I am a firm believer in the separation of church and state, and so I believe that the government should not base its laws on the morals of any one religion, but instead on what is best for its people (in a non-religious sense, most religions will make claims about what is truly best for a people, but governments shouldn't have to listen to those claims).
However, I also believe that the Bible speaks clearly against some things, such as homosexuality. While I am not against homosexuals, I am against homosexuals who claim to be good Christians, when the act of homosexuality is a sin according to Christianity.*
I have a friend who gets caught up in the issue of gay marriage. He says that civil unions are ok, but that marriage is supposed to be a holy bond between a man an a woman, according to the Bible. I like to throw back at him the argument that, by his logic, only Christians should be allowed to be married, and non-Christians should all have to get civil unions, because they aren't getting married in the sense of the Christian Bible. So while I believe that homosexuality is a sin, and that gay marriage is therefor wrong, I don't think that it should be illegal, because the law of the government should not be forced to comply with the law of God. Why do I think that way?
This goes back to the childhood indoctrination issue that my atheist friend likes to bring up. We are put here in order to make the choice to follow God or not. If the government tells us what to believe, have we really made our own choice? How many people would truly believe? For most of my life I doubted my faith without realizing it. It wasn't until the atheist friend I keep mentioning began challenging me that I began to truly think about my beliefs. I was indoctrinated to Christianity as a child, and because of that I never truly believed, I just went through the motions. If I wasn't living in a culture where people could challenge my beliefs, I never would have looked at them seriously, and I would have gone through the motions all the way to hell.
The_Computer_Wizard wrote:But what im saying is theres a difference between teaching and force feeding
Yes, a big difference. When you force-feed something to someone, you either drive them away, or convince them to lie to you just so you'll go away. When you teach you help to show them knowledge that they are seeking. I'm against force-feeding simply because I believe we are all supposed to make our own choice in whether we will follow God or not.
DenyTheTruth wrote:It's a mixture of both and allows for his infinite wisdom and our ability to choose. I honestly believe there is no other possibility due to what we believe about God. So, in my logic, God intended for this path to be allowed, but not to be chosen. Therefore, unintended.
While I'm not sure about the specifics of your belief, I do agree that God allows us many paths, and we must choose which one to follow.
radicool_systemite wrote:we have the authority to point out things like greed, hypocrisy, and hate
I would say we not only have the authority, but the moral responsibility. The important thing is to remember that we are supposed to point it out, not to better ourselves, but to give the greedy, hypocritical, or hateful person the chance to better themselves. There is no point in telling someone that they are greedy if they already know that they are greedy and that greed is wrong, it only serves to give the appearance of a "holier-than-thou" attitude.
radicool_systemite wrote:Why are you challenging, right now?
He isn't, he's asking for our motivations. If he was challenging (in the sense that he is using the word), then he would be trying to make us stop, instead he is only asking why.
radicool_systemite wrote:I think compwiz is asking about where the line between the two is drawn
I draw the line at whether or not the person is interested in listening to me.
* Reading through this thread has led me to think that maybe the Bible does no condemn homosexuality as harshly as I had thought. I'll have to do some reading and discussing on this subject. Thanks for convincing me to take another look at this issue, guys, even if you didn't mean to do it.
This grew into a very long post... it wasn't meant to be half this size when I started it. Sorry guys.


text:
DETROIT (AP) — Tigers manager Brad Ausmus quickly apologized for making a sarcastic remark after Detroit's latest loss when he told reporters that he beats his wife when his team isn't playing well.
Ausmus was asked after Detroit's 2-1 loss to Kansas City how his mood is when he heads home from the ballpark these days. The Tigers have dropped 20 of 29.
Ausmus, clearly trying to joke, said: "I beat my wife." After a brief pause, he said: "I'm just kidding around. No, luckily my wife and kids are fantastic. I do get a little mopey at home, but my wife and kids are good."
About a minute later, without being prompted, Ausmus said: "I didn't want to make light of battered women. I didn't mean to make light of that, so I apologize for that if that offended anyone."
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


text:
Thursday, Feb. 14
Valentine's Day at the Noble Winery
Celebrate Valentine's Day with a night at the Noble Winery. Wine tasting and appetizers plus entertainment by singer Pat Cook and her Patsy Cline show are included in the price of $12.50 per person. Call the library at 736-3913 to make reservations. Tickets are on sale now.
The Big Read begins at
Ripley library
The Big Read group will meet every Thursday evening throughout the month of February at the Ripley Free Library at 6:30 p.m., with this year's selection of "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London.
Westfield Senior Citizens
The Westfield Senior Citizens meet on the second Thursday of the month at the YWCA Westfield at noon. Everyone is asked to bring a signed valentine for distribution to the rest of the members in attendance.
Parkinson's support group at Absolut Care in Westfield
The Absolut Care of Westfield's Parkinson's Disease Support Group Meeting is held the second Thursday of the month in the Absolut Care Activity Room from 4 to 5 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 15
Cabin Fever Used Book Sale in Mayville
The Mayville Library will hold its annual Cabin Fever Used Book Sale during President's Day weekend. The sale will be held at the library. On Friday, Feb. 15, the sale will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturday, Feb. 16, the sale will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Phone the library at 753-7362 for more information.
Tuesday, Feb. 19
T.O.P.S NY 1337 meeting in Mayville
Mayville TOPS meets every Tuesday at the Mayville United Methodist Church on South Erie St. Weigh in starts at 5 p.m., with program starting at 5:30 p.m. Join in to Take Off Pounds Sensibly with a great support group, fun contests and awards. Any questions, call 753-3419 or 386-6075.
Thursday, Feb. 21
Chicken and biscuit dinner in Westfield
The Kiwanis Club of Westfield-Ripley will hold a chicken and biscuit dinner on Thursday, Feb. 21 from 5 to 7 p.m. at St. Dominic's Church in Westfield. The chef for the dinner will be Ron Powers. Cost for the dinner is $7 for adults and children over 12, $5 for children age 4 through 12 and free for children under 4. Proceeds will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Mayville Senior Citizens
The Mayville Senior Citizens Club meet on the first and third Thursdays of the month at the Mayville VFW at noon. All area seniors 55 or older are welcome. Bring a dish to pass and personal table service.
Friday, Feb. 22
Beginner quilt classes at
Ripley library
Beginner quilt classes will meet every two weeks at 1 p.m. Learn the basics of quilting while creating beautiful additions for the home with instructor Sylvia Lanphere.
Sunday, Feb. 24
Vietnam Veterans monthly meeting in Dunkirk
Chapter No. 459 Vietnam Veterans of America will hold its monthly meeting on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 11 a.m., at John T. Murray VFW Post No. 1017, 113 Deer St., Dunkirk. This will be the only meeting for February. All Vietnam and Vietnam-era personnel are invited.
Thursday, Feb. 28
Apple devices distance
learning class in Brocton,
Cool Things to Do with Your iPad, iPhone, and iPod, a non-credit distance learning course, will be offered from 6 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 28. The course, conducted by Jamestown Community College, will be available at the Brocton, and Westfield high schools. The cost is $15. To register, call 338-1005. Participants will learn how to download useful, fun and inexpensive applications to their Apple devices.
Thursday, March 7
Parkinson's support group at Westfield Memorial Hospital
Westfield Memorial Hospital's Parkinson's Disease Support Group Meeting is held the first Thursday of every month from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 12
Republican meet and greet in Westfield
A spaghetti dinner meet and greet of Republican candidates for Westfield village offices will be held at the Lakeshore Assembly of God on Tuesday, March 12 from 5 to 7 p.m.


text:
The Washington State Redistricting Commission has concluded its public forums and is generating first drafts of commissioner plans for redrawing congressional and legislative districts statewide.
The plans will be unveiled for the first time on Sept. 13, in Olympia. Development of the plans follows three months of input from the public about where the lines should go. The forums were conducted to help the commissioners better understand the potential effects of changing the boundaries of legislative and congressional voting districts in those regions.
"I'm pleased to say that we heard from hundreds of people who gave us very thoughtful and useful feedback," said Commission chair, Lura Powell. "It impressed me to see the time and effort many had taken to inform their opinions about redrawing district lines in their communities. This input is important to the work of the Commission as we develop new congressional and legislative district boundaries."
From May through August, the commission hosted 18 public forums statewide. About 1,000 people attended the forums in all. Attendance ranged from 25 people to more than 160, with average attendance around 50.
In addition to the public testimony given at the forums, the commission received more than 170 written comments by email, postal mail and comment forms. Staff mailed 38 "do-it-yourself" map kits and received 21 third-party plans by the Aug. 15 deadline.
All written comments received and the submitted third-party plans may be viewed on the Commission's website, www.redistricting.wa.gov.
At its monthly meeting in Olympia, on Sept. 13, the commissioners will each make public their proposed plans for congressional and legislative districts. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 of the Cherberg Building on the Capitol Campus.
The meeting will be webcast and broadcast live by TVW, the state's non-profit public affairs television network.
The unveiling of the plans marks the opening of the public comment period to collect peoples' reactions to the draft plans. Large-format versions of the plans will be on display in the Cherberg Building immediately following the meeting on Sept. 13 and will also be posted to the commission's website by 2 p.m. that day.
The commission is taking comment on the draft plans through Oct. 11. The comment period will wrap up with a public meeting in Olympia on Oct. 11. The commission has set a goal of early November for release of the final congressional and legislative redistricting plan.
Washington voters established the Washington State Redistricting Commission in 1983 to ensure voting boundaries are established through a fair and bipartisan process. The Commission includes two Democrats and two Republicans as voting members and a non-voting, nonpartisan chair.
Lura Powell, from Richland, serves as the commission chair. Democratic appointees to the Commission are Tim Ceis, Seattle; and Dean Foster, Olympia. Republican members are former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, Bellevue; and Tom Huff, Gig Harbor.
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Information from the News and our advertisers (Want to add your business to this to this feed?)


text:
Clippers 109, Lakers 95 (end of regulation)
The Clippers completed their first season series sweep of the Lakers since owner Donald Sterling purchased the team with a 109-95 victory Sunday at Staples Center. With the win, the Clippers clinched the Pacific Division title.
The Lakers lost all four quarters as the Clippers shot 50% from the field. The Clippers also dominated the boards, 50-36, including a 16-10 advantage on the offensive glass.
Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard led all scorers with 25 points apiece but Bryant shot only 6-of-19 from the field. He dished 10 assists and was just three rebounds short of a triple-double in the defeat.


text:
thought this was pretty cool promotionQuote:
Hamilton Radio Shack offers free gun with new Dish Network service
By WHITNEY BERMES - Ravalli Republic | Posted: Friday, March 25, 2011 9:45 pm
When driving down U.S. Highway 93 through Hamilton, there's no need to do a double-take when you see the sign hanging above the Radio Shack Super Store.
You read it right. Customers who buy Dish Network will be rewarded with a firearm.
"I think it really, really fits the Bitterroot Valley," said Steve Strand, who has owned Hamilton's Radio Shack for about seven years.
Strand, along with store manager Fabian Levy, wanted to generate more foot traffic at their location. So far, the gun giveaway has worked like a charm.
"It's been really successful," Levy said.
According to Strand, it has tripled his business since the promotion started last October. And, he said, easily hundreds of people have stopped in to see what the sign is all about. "Protect yourself with Dish Network. Sign up now, get free gun," the sign reads.
"We have people literally stop in to take pictures of the sign," Levy said.
Qualifying customers have the choice between a Hi Point 380 pistol or a 20-gauge shotgun.
The deal is only good for new Dish Network customers and they must buy a certain amount of equipment to qualify for the free gun.
After the customer signs a service contract and sets up an install date, they are given a gift certificate for their gun. They can also opt for a $50 gift card from Pizza Hut if they prefer, Strand said. And customers who purchase new Dish Network service that don't qualify for a firearm are still given the Pizza Hut gift card.


text:
Actually, that's what happens when you take huge amounts of air and loft them tens of thousands of feet; they expand and cool (even as they drop moisture and release heat to power the lift process) and get very cold at their tops.During its transit of Florida, satellite photos showed that areas of the high clouds of Wilma covering more than 1/3 of the state were below -135 F. (The lowest temperature for the IR satellite chart). It was actually close in a large area to -175. Some areas exceeded that. This is what happens when you dump the arctic into the tropics. Explosions happen! The forecast of a weak Cat 1 became a strong Cat 3 due to this temperature shock.
None of this is strange physics. All of it is accounted for by current weather models. Talk of "particle accelerators" and "capacitor banks" is silly; there's a lot of energy converted to lightning in thunderstorms, but it's small and secondary compared to the heat engine which drives it.
The authors of this piece are first-class cranks.
On a more personal note, some years ago I sustained a back injury due to an auto accident, which appears to have made me more sensitive to coming weather changes. In the week before these storms I start swallowing Tylenol or similar painkillers because the symptoms make it hard for me to sleep. This was not barometric because at the time there nothing of that sort had yet been detected in my area. It is electromagnetic.
Here is a clue for the detection of the process. The capacitance charge was forming that set up the storm, and it was this charge causes me pain! It is known as dielectric stress. Because this concept is outside the reductionistic-chemical paradigm that governs the drug industry, this not usually discussed by medical science. But those who work with cellular bio-electricity will understand this concept. This dielectric stress clearly affects chemical reactions and energy conversions in bodily cells, in addition to being well known to engineers for its effects on electrical systems and materials used in electronic devices.
A good indicator for scientific and commercial development is the discovery of a natural process like this. If the number of "hits" from doing a search on "dielectric stress" is any indication, the control and measurement of this process is a subject of great interest for scientists and engineers working in technology development and quality control.
Quite an interesting mix of websites he administers there...
That's an understatement. Check out some of his articles:
George W. Bush was Complicit with the 911 Attack on America [patriotsaints.com].
Was President Bush Behind Katrina? [greaterthings.com]. Lest the title fool you into thinking Allan considers this a question:
U.S. Black Ops and other colluding extra-governmental shadow-entities have obtained significant mastery of weather engineering after decades of practice. The same cabal that brought us 911 has now brought us Katri
The thing he's wrong about is the causes of these electrical phenomena. It's definitely Russian-made electromagnetic generators operated by the Yakuza [mosnews.com]. If we really want to harness the power of hurricanes, we simply need to find these generators and either (a) destroy them or (b) sell them to Third World dictators to destroy each other with.
So what this guy is trying to say is that we should attach a piece of wire with a key on the end to a kite and fly it into the storm thus tapping the stored enegry. This will not only provide us with a huge amount of free energy but disapate the storm as well. Cool.
I'll wait while this numb skull goes and tries his ideas out.
The "Harmonic Protector" (ref) did not register any activity using an "orgone meter" (ref). However, a reading taken using a sophisticated software package known as "Life Assessment" technology (ref), which is designed to analyze the balance of energies in the meridians, indicated a modest beneficial effect from this HP when it is interacting with a human body. (Ref)
Since when did Slashdot become home to new age nutcases? Orgone Accumulators make great songs for Hawkwind and Kate Bush, but as physics it's not a basis for anything other than providing something to laugh at.
Hey, me too. New Age girls are easy.
Best understatement for a major hurricane hitting a populated area... EVER.
The proper role of an editor is to properly categorize material which is suitable for the publication, and reject that which is not. Taco's judgement in this case is, shall we say, questionable. The source website is full of logical and scientific garbage, so it doesn't belong in the science category. The talk of "particle accelerators" is bunkum too, unless you are talking about phenomena like sprites and jets [alaska.edu] which also occur in thunderstorms (and are at least somewhat understood but still under research), or perhaps if you are talking about particles from shingles and 4x8 sheets of plywood up to whole trees accelerated to 150 knots. Thus it doesn't belong in the hardware category either. And it takes itself far too seriously to be funny.
There really is no legitimate Slashdot heading under which this piece fits. Accordingly, I suggest a new one: the duncecap. This is for articles (or editorial decisions to post articles) which are too stupid for words, and to properly categorize such errors in judgement rather than throwing them down the memory hole.
Any editor posting a mis-categorized article which really ought to be filed in "It's stupid. Ask your editor why this is here" should have to wear a real duncecap during the performance of their duties for the next 24 hours. That sort of reminder is necessary to keep editors from shirking their responsibility to be, you know, editors.
"An open mind has but one disadvantage: it collects dirt." -- a saying at RPI


text:
RICHMOND – District 157 is looking to move its transportation offsite.
The district closed Monday on the purchase of 4213 Route 12 for $950,000, Superintendent Dan Oest said.
The plan is to relocate the district's transportation department, including offices, service area and the housing of the buses to the Route 12 property, though a timeline hasn't been set, he said.
The District 157 school board had bought another property for the same purpose in December 2008 for $535,000, but the property, a farm at 5215 W. Solon Road, would have cost $1 million to renovate.
Because the Route 12 property is designed to house something like this, it will require little renovation, he said. Nippersink Landscape Supply moved from the location last fall.
The board voted at its last meeting to enter into a sealed bid process on the West Solon Road property. That means interested buyers can submit sealed offers to the district.
The board does not have to accept those offers when it makes its decision in mid- to late-August and instead can choose to go through a traditional sale process.
"Certainly one hopes to recoup [the cost]," Oest said. "I can't speculate right now. I'm not certain what the property will bring."
The district has enough money in the bank to cover the cost of buying and renovating the Route 12 property, he said.
District 157 provides busing for the one school it contains, Richmond-Burton Community High School, as well as Nippersink District 2, which covers the same geographic area. The two districts have several shared services agreement and share many of its district staff.
The transportation department currently is housed at the high school, and any development or expansion would require it to be moved, Oest said.
The board has looking at options for many years as part of its long-range planning, he said.


text:
PRINCETON — The Coffee Cup in Princeton reopened this week after undergoing a month-long renovation of the restaurant.
"We wanted to have a better environment for those people coming here," said Fatmir Jusufi, the son of owner Brahim Jusufi. "We have never shut down for a month in the 20 years we have owned the place.
"We put in new lights, a new roof, new bathrooms, new ceiling tiles and new carpet," Jusufi said. "We also put in new tables and new counters.
"We did a lot of cleaning and maintenance to make it a better environment," he said. "We wanted to keep the feel of the original, but to make it a better environment."
In addition to the physical improvement, the Coffee Cup's menu was also updated with more modern items to appeal to more people, reported Jusufi.
The Coffee Cup's hours are from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It is located at 628 W. Railroad Ave. at the intersection of North Main Street and Railroad Avenue. It can seat about 150 people and has space for about 50 vehicles.
"We are a family-run and family-owned restaurant," he added.
Jusufi's father, Brahim, his mother, Lutfije, and his wife, Argjente, also help to operate The Coffee Cup.
Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.


text:
Puppy Love: What Your Dog Says About Your Relationship
I've been begging my boyfriend for a puppy all year.
We've discussed the financial and social implications, and have finally come to an agreement about the particulars. But while we have decided to eventually get a dog (in three years), the breed is still up in the air. There's a lot of pressure! The dog you choose says a lot about your relationship. There are stereotypes associated with all kinds of dogs, from the stuck-up toy breeds to the family-friendly labs. And when you finally choose a dog, how do you decide what to name him?
Click through for a squeal-inducing slideshow of puppies, ridiculous relationship generalizations and dog names!
We at the Gloss do not take adorable puppies lightly! If you decide to adopt, please consider your local animal shelter — and don't forget to have your pet spayed or neutered. For more information, please visit the ASPCA.[ITPGallery]


text:
WESTERVILLE, OHIO -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology opened the 2013 volleyball season with a split of two matches at Otterbein University on Friday.
In the opening match, nationally ranked Otterbein earned a 25-12, 25-13, 25-12 victory over the Fightin' Engineers. Rose-Hulman bounced back to top Kenyon College 25-10, 25-15, 25-14 in the nightcap.
In the Otterbein match, sophomore Sarah Jensen (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley Northwest) led the Fightin' Engineers with six kills. Freshman Morgan Dreyer (Batesville) had a team-high 10 assists, and senior Casey Levitt (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake) paced Rose-Hulman with nine digs.
Against Kenyon, Jensen again led the offensive effort with 12 kills and a .579 hitting percentage. Levitt contributed eight kills, and freshman Katie Ward (Marengo, Ill.) pitched in with seven kills. Dreyer helped facilitate the offense with 19 assists.
Defensively, Levitt led the Engineers with 12 digs and senior Kate Dangel (Upper Arlington, Ohio) added 11. Three players added two blocks each.
Rose-Hulman stands 1-1 on the season and returns to action against Denison and Capital in Columbus on Saturday.


text:
Schadenfreude -- joy at the misfortune of others -- is a bad thing.
Very little in life is truly inevitable. When briefing policy makers, I would try to point out that a lot of it wasn't even predictable (at least in any scientific sense). But surely what is happening in Iraq, the increasingly darkening clouds of sectarian division, can hardly be described as unexpected.


text:
GAINSVILLE, Fla. – The King University cycling team opened their road season this weekend at the University of Florida race. The Tornado turned in a good performance on Saturday, but Sunday the Tornado faced some adversity in rainy conditions for the criterium.
On Saturday, the quartet of Drew Bailey, Reuben Dupre, Zach Maness and Blake Adams turned a stellar performance to take third place in the team time trial event on Saturday. The Tornado also had solid performances from Keely Easterling and T.J. Killelea in the road race and time trial events.
Easterling placed fifth in the road race, and took 3rd in the time trial while Killelea finish eighth in the road race and fifth in the time trial.
Sunday did not go as well for the Tornado as the course was wet for the criterium. Reid Yoder highlighted the day as he raced in the first race of the day, when the conditions were the toughest. He fought through some adversity, but came in with a 10th place finish on the day.
King will be in action again on March 1-2 at the University of Georgia race.


text:
To all young, horny, self-absorbed, invincible little gods of the internet: you're never too young. The cosmos cares not for you.
Value your health. Value your safety.
Accomplish something while you still can, just as Ilya did.
Very true words... health is one of those things that gets stolen away from you almost literally overnight and from there it's a major struggle to get back to normality. Most of us as kids would screw up our faces when our parents would say "You've got your health" when we moaned about not having anything - sadly, as with so many things, you don't realise how true that is until you're older.
The trouble is, you trip up with something, that later causes something else...and so on... you find yourself snowballing down into the pit of death .
Most of us as kids would screw up our faces when our parents would say "You've got your health" when we moaned about not having anything - sadly, as with so many things, you don't realise how true that is until you're older.
Mostly because it's being used in the same way as "think of the starving children in Africa". Of course there are people that are much, much worse off than us but if any comparison should always be towards the lowest possible bar then you'll lose every time. Particularly if you throw in history on how growing up today is much better than most children through history, probably including your own parents and grandparents. After all, most people - certainly kids and other young people you identify with - do h
Mostly because it's being used in the same way as "think of the starving children in Africa". Of course there are people that are much, much worse off than us but if any comparison should always be towards the lowest possible bar then you'll lose every time. Particularly if you throw in history on how growing up today is much better than most children through history, probably including your own parents and grandparents. After all, most people - certainly kids and other young people you identify with - do have their health.
Also it's sometimes used as a poor man's equalizer, it doesn't matter that you're Steve Jobs you can still die a long drawn out death of cancer. In that yes your health is important and your health can't really be bought for money, but just because there's a variable you can't control doesn't mean poor and (good|bad) health beats rich and (good|bad) health. It's a just a way to mentally put a few people in the (rich, bad health) below you (poor, good health) in the feelgood hierarchy.
If this is intended to make you feel good about making poor choices, then carry on.
However, I'll tell you now that most people under 30 are typically living in a dream world. "Poor health" is a concept to most such "youngsters." When I was that age I'd been ill and I'd been injured, and I thought I understood. But, now, with the mild aches and pains of age creeping up on me slowly, I realize how big that gun is that I'm looking down the barrel of. Poor health isn't about being hit by a taxi-cab at 9 and get
Value your health. Value your safety.
Accomplish something while you still can, just as Ilya did.
Value your mental health.
Working flat-out at all costs to accomplish something can be extremely detrimental to both your physical and mental health. The line between sane and insane is much narrower than many imagine. Whilst you may write some cool code, what use is that if you end up losing your sanity, or worse your life?
...the blog sites can't decide if he was 21 or 22. Most copy blindly off each other - and that includes Zdnet who should know better. Given that his work was in social networking and thus communication, I can't help but feel that he has been let down by the poor quality of communication surrounding his death.
His final posting on Diaspora was of a translucent butterfly [joindiaspora.com] on the 7th. There was nothing that really stood out to be in his other postings as being suicidal, so I'm not going to go with that theory until there's something a bit more solid than the rumourmill. However, if it does turn out that that was what happened, it would alter how this image should be seen and therefore show that this was no sudden thing.
When someone commits suicide, it's not always the case that they're going to smother the Internet with cries for help -- introverted especially, especially the geeky kind, tend to bundle up their emotions. Suicides can and do happen out of the blue.
As an educated (BS in SE), 25 year old male who has attempted suicide twice (and failed by chance/luck/bad luck), in general we do send out cries for help. They get dismissed or go unnoticed. They aren't "I'm going to kill myself tonight. Don't try to stop me." but more like "I don't really care" or "I just cause problems" along with a passive shrug cause you don't want to make the other person feel bad too.
Personally if someone had noticed my attempts, I think I would've been better off. The ones that are vocal about it get help, the ones that are discovered before death get help, but the ones that are barely strong enough to keep from going all the way just linger on in quiet misery without being able to get help or end it.
My respect to the guy. Humans die easily, but it takes a lot to kill yourself. He was stronger than me.
You really didn't want to commit suicide or you would have. Truth is that it is easy to commit a successful suicide. That being said I hope you are now getting some help. Depression is a terrible thing and can effect anyone. I am dealing with it now over the death of my mother.
Hey, AC, even if your're not ready to go the full 'counseling' step, consider calling one of the hotlines for 'just a chat'. A five minute committment is worthwhile to just be able to talk to someone who doesn't know you and won't judge you.
And I make no pretense to know what it is like to want to commit suicide.
But I've always wanted to say to someone who was considering taking their life: why not just take your "life" instead?
And what I mean by that is, your situation in life. It obviously is not working, so abandon it. Take a plane to a far flung location on the globe, without any money or means of support, change your name, dissolve all ties to your previous existence, preemptively sabotage any way anyone could trace you, and live off trash or stolen mangoes from a tree, until something better comes along.
And become another person. Someone who might be happy someday.
Effectively "kill" yourself: all the identities you have with your current existence, the sum of all your relationships that aren't working, the job that fills you with nothing but misery, all of the reality around you that cages you about how you think about yourself. "Kill" all of the signifiers about who you currently are and how you think about your place in life.
And maybe the challenge and novelty of that will put you in a new frame of mind. And then you can be happy someday.
Of course, I know, the fear is you carry the seed of your depression around inside you, and even in a new life, the despondency will return. But I think, for many people, it is a combination of nature and nurture, and you, who you are, had your life gone another path, you might not be so depressed. We all are depressed at times, we all carry the seed of depression, and major depression too, were the situations in our life and how we come to think about ourselves had evolved a different way. So write a new story. Yes, you carry a seed of it inside you. We all do, and we aren't committing suicide because our seed never grew. So cut down the tree your seed has grown into, and move to new soil where the seed can't grow.
So restart the story. A lot of people talk about reinventing themselves, in ways they consider major, but are really minor. Consider the most radical reinvention possible, instead of suicide.
A few thoughts.
If someone is convinced that everything in life is meaningless, they are unlikely to have the perspective you present. It seems a little like telling someone who is depressed from a week of no sleep that they just need to "buck up"-- their mental state at that point will make your suggestion an impossibility. Depression can be like that-- you may understand objectively your depression, but that does not make it easy to simply say "Im going to stop being depressed now".
Also, a lot of people
Suicides don't happen out of the blue. It might be a surprise for everyone but the subject, but it's not "out of the blue".
Paradoxically, some depressives seem like they're improving just before they commit suicide. Deciding on and planning out the deed, knowing that the end to their suffering is at hand can make them seem happier. This adds to the "out of the blue" perception.
A lot of time they don't want "help". A great many of them happen when someone is just coming out of the "too depressed to get out of bed" phase of cyclical depression, and they just don't ever want to go through that again.
Just demonstrates the cynical, borderline sociopathic nature of most
It may be related to this message: https://joindiaspora.com/posts/721055 [joindiaspora.com]
where he announces that he just started an intimate relation, less than 2 weeks ago.
The relation has probably been broken, as his heart
Please, guys, I know only a moron like myself doesn't know what this Diaspora project is, but couldn't you put a link or a two-word explanation? Yes, I know Google is my friend. Feel free to mod me down now.
Open Source Facebook Clone
Google is my friend, too, yet I would have been ever so grateful for the tiniest social grace of sparing me yet another Google result set.
I'm pretty sure Lewis Thomas in Lives of a Cell (or possibly Et Cetera, Et Cetera: Notes of a Word-Watcher) comments about the sad decline of the elder statesmen: he hasn't forgotten anything so much as piled it so deep in the attic he can't find it without a substantial jog.
For about five minutes a year ago I knew what Diaspora was. Then it went directly to the Lewis Thomas attic of things I can only possibly remember once reminded.
Hard to understand, I guess, when you're twenty two.
One area of particular appeal I see for the project is in serving enterprises. I can see Diaspora being pretty useful for places that want a facebook like application to serve an internal audience. e.g. you have 20,000 people in the company you might use aspects and the wall for general team and company level chitchat. Perhaps that's how the project ultimately intends to make money, selling support to these places.
Anyway I think it's early days for the project. It got a lot of bad press about 12 months back but its really rolling out in alpha form. It's still slow (and currently suffering from a bit of a Slashdotting), but it shows a lot of promise.
Condolences to his family and friends.
May not have been much of a movie, but it seems it got many predictions right.
Don't kill yourself. Just don't.
Throw away all your stuff, shave your head, leave your home and your hometown, and start walking, heading in one direction. Drop your job. Stand and pee on the desk of your Boss. Run away from school. Do whatever you must, but do *not* kill yourself. It's about the stupidest thing you can do.
My Grandpa who dug the whole Nazi-Wehrmacht thing back then and went on to invade and fight on the eastern front in WW2 as a Waffen-SS Officer (Kompanieführer) gave me this advice he took home after the war: If everything you believed in is gone, the 3rd Reich, the Wehrmacht, your hometown and half of your homeland burned and lost to the russians of which a few million are now rightfull super-pissed and heading straight your way, raping and killing their way through whatever is left of the eastern german population, if your entire Kompanie is dead (two assistants aside, which got captured a few days ago) if the beloved Führer is dead (*his* beloved Füher - not mine (emphasis mine!)), Berlin is falling and you're hearing the gunfire, the Stalinorgel and their bombshells crashing in near Zossen just a few Kilometers away, your injured and they are coming to get you and they will tear you to tiny bits and pieces, and the maggots are eating away at the festering wound in your leg, your career and your life and everything you've ever believed in is basically over and out with no stone on another in bombed out Berlin for Kilometers in each direction
He crawled on, found a deserted Wehrmacht horse, crawled on to its back sideways. The horse eventually rode to a gathering-camp. The nurses picked him up and the russians didn't deport him because his injuries were to severe - the lucky bastard.
Long story short, he lives to this very day (age 97) to tell us this advice. Old Type-A nazi or not, that actually *is* a very valuable advice. If *he* in that situation decided *not* to kill himself, so can you.
Bottom line:
Don't kill yourself. It's that simple.
My 2 cents.
"If it's not loud, it doesn't work!" -- Blank Reg, from "Max Headroom"


text:
SOURCE: Supertex
December 06, 2012 19:00 ET
HV2809 Reduces PCB Area and Increases System Reliability
HV2809 Reduces PCB Area and Increases System Reliability
SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - Dec 6, 2012) - Supertex (NASDAQ: SUPX), a recognized leader in high voltage analog and mixed signal integrated circuits (ICs), today introduced the HV2809, a thirty-two channel, high voltage, analog switch IC designed for use in medical ultrasound imaging systems as a probe selection device. It replaces the typical electromechanical relays performing the probe selection function and takes up less printed circuit board (PCB) area, emits no audible noise and increases system reliability.
The HV2809 serves as a sixteen-pole, double throw (16PDT), high voltage switch array. Using Supertex's proprietary HVCMOS technology, the IC efficiently controls analog signals with low power CMOS logic and high voltage bilateral DMOS switches. It features a very low quiescent current of 10µA for low power dissipation and a bandwidth frequency of up to 50MHz. The HV2809 also has an enable logic control, which allows it to be configured for 2:1 or 4:1 ultrasound probe select.
"Using the HV2809 to control medical ultrasound probes offers a number of advantages over electromechanical relays," states Jimes Lei, Director of Application Engineering for Supertex. "As technology moves forward and medical ultrasound systems become more compact, replacing the mechanical relays with the HV2809s will reduce board area, component height, and system weight."
The HV2809 is available in an 8x8x1mm 56-lead QFN package (HV2809K6-G). The part is RoHS compliant. Samples are available from stock. Lead-time for production quantities is 4-6 weeks ARO. Pricing is US$14.51 each for the HV2809K6-G in 1K quantities.
About Supertex
Supertex, Inc. is a publicly held mixed signal semiconductor manufacturer, focused on high voltage analog and mixed signal products for use in the medical, LED lighting, printer and display, industrial and telecommunications industries. Supertex product, corporate and financial information is readily available at www.supertex.com.
Corporate Headquarters:Christine Mahiya
MarCom Manager
Corporate Headquarters:Christine Mahiya
MarCom Manager
See all RSS Newsfeeds


text:
Something smells like fish.
Why do you guys keep reminding me of old jokes, which I'm then compelled to share?
The snake tempts Eve, who shares the apple with Adam before having wild, passionate sex. A while later God walks up and Adam's wearing an apron made of fig leaves.
"You ate the apple, didn't you?" God asks accusingly.
"Uh, yeah, we... uh, well, she kinda talked me into it."
"Ok, where is she?"
"She's down at the river washing up."
God says "Damn, I'll never get the smell out of all those fish!"
are you kidding?
celebs using twitter or instagram is a direct connection to fans. unlike 30 years ago when the only connection was a fan club you had to pay for or the trade magazines
unlike most geeks, celebs aren't crazy like my dad and don't care if someone makes money off them in a symbiotic business relationship.
That name has always bugged me. Wouldn't you expect a Trojan to be something that covertly carries a multitude of soldiers to the inside of the gates and then releases them? That's the absolute last thing you want from a condom.
Take a good picture eating out with friends at an Italian restaurant? FB's marketing dept. will call the owner selling a FB marketing campaign based on your image. Later, FB ads with your picture will say 'Smitty loves Tony's Italian restaurant, you will too.'
The process will be automated using geo-tags in the images and the popularity of images posted.
Thank you for further crowd sourcing the last of the marketing materials we used to pay for...
If they use facial recognition to identify and use only pictures of instagram users, doesn't that free them from any worries about model releases given these contract terms?
Riiiiight. Instagram is going to hire marketing people whose sole job is to scan through the photo streams of literally tens of millions of active users to find the "absolutely killer" photos you took at Applebee's last week, and propose a worldwide marketing campaign featuring YOUR photos, showing how badly-lit, badly-focused, poorly dressed, average-to-downright-ugly people get down with some Jalapeno Poppers, Loaded Fiesta Nachos, and Shrimp Slammers in grainy cell phone images.
Except that would be the worst business idea ever.
What's going to happen is, Applebee's is going to make an ad buy on Facebook - "We're opening a new restaurant in Bohunk, Iowa. We'd like to target people ages 21-50 in the area with the news, and let them know we have a special "$17 dollar SUMMER SHRIMP SLAMMER SPECIAL!" Facebook & Instagram, when targeting you for the ad, will find people in your network who have taken photos at other Applebee's (geo-tagged, or checked-in, or #-tagged, likes, +1's, etc.), and put an ad using a photo of your friend, Mike, (or maybe one he took at Applebee's some unfortunate evening), with ad copy saying, "Your friend Mike loves Applebee's too! Why not get together at our new Bohunk location, and enjoy our new $17 SUMMER SHRIMP SLAMMER SPECIAL?!"
Wil Wheaton posted about this. Suppose he or another celebrity is spotted shopping somewhere. He's spotted and a photo is posted on Instagram. So far, so good. He's in a public place and thus has no expectation of privacy. If that user's photo is sold by Instagram for the store and used in an ad campaign implying that Wil Wheaton (or the other celebrity) endorses that store, they could be in for a serious lawsuit. Same for any other individual who hasn't signed a model release, but a celebrity would make for a more high profile case.
Coming soon:
Take a good picture eating out with friends at an Italian restaurant? FB's marketing dept. will call the owner selling a FB marketing campaign based on your image. Later, FB ads with your picture will say 'Smitty loves Tony's Italian restaurant, you will too.'
That isn't legal.
Just because they have the right to use your picture, doesn't mean they have a right to use your image, and name.
If these are used for promotional purposes, it will be pictures with no one in them, or pictures of crowds.
Your list is missing my favorite description: Instagram is Twitter for illiterates.
Is it still a joke if it's true?
Now now, there's no need to insult illiterate people by linking them to instagram.
I'm thinking wieners, but flowers works.
A second section allows Facebook to charge money. It says that "a business or other entity may pay us to display your... photos... in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you." That language does not exist in the current terms of use.
This reminds me of the Judge Judy case where a promoter used a young woman's semi-provocative facebook pictures on flyers to advertise a new strip joint.
You just lost points for admitting you watch Judge Judy...
Fortunately the game's made up and the points don't matter.
I'd much rather they nicked my spur-of-the-moment snaps than used me to defraud lonely and desperate people.
I know. I mean, it's so unfair that these lonely and desperate people might see a picture of my sexy ass, which will prompt them to sign up for some crappy dating site. Then they'll spend hours and hours searching for my profile on the dating site to no avail. It's not easy being sexy, everyone's always looking to exploit me.
In all seriousness, this probably explains why FB was willing to fork over so much cash for Instagram. While it's good that they actually had a plan in place to monetize their purchase, the plan itself is very objectionable. I'm sure their lawyers found some way to make it legal, but I find this practice unsettling. It seems unethical. Even if it's not, I'm sure many of their users wouldn't approve. The sad thing is most will never know.
I'm sure their lawyers found some way to make it legal, but I find this practice unsettling. It seems unethical
I"m curious what they're going about what most photographers have to do...a model release form, signed for each person appearing in the image, if it is to be used to generate $$$.
I don't think/EM> a blanket statement will do it....possibly would cover the owner of the instagram account as part of their TOS, but for other people in the image, I'm not thinking that will fly legally?
Of course, IANAL......
I"m curious what they're going about what most photographers have to do...a model release form, signed for each person appearing in the image, if it is to be used to generate $$$.
I am wondering that, too.
A professional photographer produces a product for which the licensing is clear. If I am a paid model, I signed the releases as a condition for employment, and I know what to expect.
But what if a friend snaps a photo of me, FB grabs it, and another party creates an advertisement that implies I am endorsing a product/service? Removing the professional photographer from the picture does not change my reasonable expectations as a private citizen while, say, dining in a random restaur
It's not like there's any real competitors to Instagram. I mean, we never uploaded pictures to the internet before them, right?
Who needs the internet, I've got Facebook!
you can always run your own web server from home with your pictures
i'm sure thousands of people will be looking at them
"That seems narcissistic"
I've never seen it used for anything other than
Just when I thought I could never want to use Instagram less, this happens.
They want to sell shitty pictures, taken by shitty camera phones, that have shitty filters applied to them? Great business model there.
This is nothing about using them for general advertising. This is about using them to
1) Work out where you've been, what you've done, and where you're likely to go for targetted adverts
2) Using your pictures in adverts targeted to you and your friends. "Hay Bob, Dave just got back from Rome (with photo of Dave in the Colosseum), click here to book a flight!"
They can already do 1) and 2) is not going to happen, its just too loaded with pitfalls. Dave was going for his mother's funeral, whoops, lawsuit. I don't think people appreciate the demand for even low quality stock photos out there.
Instagram has apparently a billion odd photos uploaded. Lets say that optimistically 1% of those are saleable at all. That's 10 million photos, now lets say 10% of those earn a dollar a month in sales between them, that's a million bucks a month. Not too shabby, and quite possible, one photo in a thousand earning a dollar a month. That they'd have to do it for around a century just to break even is beside the point, I've no idea what the hell they were thinking spending that much money on a photo upload service in the first place.
Still, its an all round scummy move by facebook and probably illegal too. Maybe if they offered an opt-in profit sharing system instead, or something, that might be good.
They can already do 1) and 2) is not going to happen, its just too loaded with pitfalls. Dave was going for his mother's funeral, whoops, lawsuit.
Except the TOS no doubt says you must submit to binding arbitration, so good luck with that.
Except loss making Internet scam Facebook, has the details of who your close friends, not so close friends, relatives and enemies are. Of those, you may only have Instagram'd your photo to your close friends, but the rest would pay to see it, particularly your unfrienermies.
Facebook recently stopped letting Instagram photos be posted around freely, starting with Twitter. So it's only a matter of time before they sell access to your photos. The only people interested are friends, former friends and stalkers
Normally I would dismiss your concerns as paranoid, but this summer Facebook asked for my phone number so I could restore my account if I ever forgot my password or got locked out. Then this fall FB made my phone number searchable, so anyone could enter my digits in the FB search bar and pull up my name, complete list of FB friends, and other details. I keep my cell number unlisted for a reason, and for FB to constantly change privacy settings without warning with default setting to "public", I wouldn't trust FB to sweep my sidewalks, let alone manage my interpersonal relationships. Of course, FB makes these sort of drastic changes every three months, so I should have known better.
Recently I just unfriended most of my FB "friends", such as ex-classmates I barely knew as a teenager and don't really want to know now. I have maximum privacy settings in place, but again I don't trust FB to keep anything private anyway, so now I only keep a FB page as a beacon for acquaintances and colleagues to find me so I can exchange real contact info like email or maybe phone numbers, while screening out the weirdos I want nothing to do with. I have family that wouldn't understand my valid reasons for dropping them from FB, so I just keep them there as "friends" for their own amusement, but I do not post status updates and my profile is very watered down so as not to present all my personal life to the whole world, advertising companies, or governments.
There was a time when it was explicitly understood NEVER to give away personal details, such as your real name, birthday, age, or location over the internet. I'm shocked and amazed how FB totally flipped that concept and now controls everybody's personal address book.
I played around with instagram for a few days, but I never really saw the point of it. I can take and post pictures with the camera that came with my phone. If I want to play around with the picture I have other apps for that, and they do not send the picture back to a mother ship.
BTW, does Instagram give user's a cut of their profits???
No - I believe that you are explicitly denied any compensation for them using your photos.
at what point is enough, enough. When are people going to quit Facebook/Instagram/whatever en masse as these deliberate and calculated abuses continue?
These are your pictures. You own them. No corporation has the right to use them without your permission just because they are holding them.
Sure, one can always not put up pictures, but that defeats the whole point of Instagram, doesn't it?
There are options. One could always upload the picture with a big watermark on it or plaster a copyright symbol and your name on it, but knowing these shysters, they would just remove those things and still claim it's theirs.
Just another reason why I don't use any of these "services".
most people don't care, like me
once in a while i'll take a decent photo. if instagram uses it i'll be happy and will probably upload more
Better make sure you have permission from subjects in the picture, else you could very well find yourself on the wrong side of a lawsuit, since it's your responsibility to make sure your models are paid for published work.
But shouldn't they sue the people who actually PUBLISHED the picture?
Putting pictures on the Internet are publishing them. By uploading the picture on instagram or facebook you are in essence publishing the pictures.
So then it's your fault.
But shouldn't they sue the people who actually PUBLISHED the picture?
I am not a lawyer, but I guarantee they have this covered. The terms of service almost certainly say that you irrevocably represent that you have the full permission of any subjects of your photos, and agree to indemnify (i.e. pay for the entire legal defense of) the service provider in cases where it is revealed that any representations you made in agreeing to the EULA are false.
So if they sue Facebook, Facebook points out the Terms of Service areas where you agreed to these things, then sues you to pay a
These are your pictures. You own them. No corporation has the right to use them without your permission just because they are holding them.
Yes they do, you agreed to it in the terms-of-service
No, they won't own them.
In the EU terms of services like this are void.
And I would guess also in the US such terms would contradict copyright laws
In the EU an author needs to be compensated for his work. General terms like that are void.
They won't own them, as the Terms make explicitly clear. At the same time, you "grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service".
So, yes, you still own your photos, and yes, they can do anything they want with them.
These are your pictures. You own them. No corporation has the right to use them without your permission just because they are holding them.
Yes they do, you agreed to it in the terms-of-service
So... if I take a picture of a copyrighted photo, then upload that picture to Instagram, Instagram subsequently owns the copyright?
I find that dubious, at best.
These are your pictures. You own them. No corporation has the right to use them without your permission just because they are holding them.
Their point would be that you *did* agree to give them permission when you agreed to their terms and conditions.
Not entirely sure if I'm playing devil's advocate or not here, because while I have nothing but contempt for this move by Facebook (or any similar "land grab"), people *do* have the choice whether or not to use their shitty, worthless service and did agree to terms and conditions, supposedly.
The question is to what extent people are made aware of these terms and to what extent they can truly be ex
These are your pictures. You own them. No corporation has the right to use them without your permission just because they are holding them.
Of course they don't. They have the right to use them with your permission, which you grant when you accept the ToS. I think it's stupid, too, but that's how it works.
People have gotten used to the notion that people will throw a useful service out there and let you use it for free forever. Frankly, that's stupid and we should all know better. They're either going to
but knowing these shysters, they would just remove those things and still claim it's theirs.
There's a difference between being given ownership of a copyrighted work, and being granted a license to it. If you read the new terms closely, you'll see that you (the user) still own the copyright to the photos, but are giving Instagram/Facebook the rights to distribute your works and to make a profit from them without giving you a cut. They aren't claiming that the images are their property, just that you have given them a royalty-free license to use them however they want to. Essentially you are grantin
Yes, this is a shitty thing to do. So don't use Instagram or Facebook or any of the other "services" that are constantly trying to screw you for their profit. We got along just fine for a very long time without Facebook or Instagram. Time to grow up and move on.
....aaaaaaaaaaaaand switch.
For all that parents get up in arms about digital services abusing the privacy rights of their children (resulting in support of laws such as the US's COPPA), they continue to volunteer for services which violate their own privacy rights.
Adults have more to lose in this battle than children.
Shocked? Really? Facebook owns them and does similar stuff with your photos there. Why would this shock you? On top of that, 99.999% of IG's users will never have their shitty photo used in this manner.
But, if you're really all that concerned (and you're not because you probably haven't quit FB for the same things) you'd use http://instaport.me/ [instaport.me] to download all of your photos and move to Flickr with their new Marissa Mayer Themed App which does the same things IG did for $24.95/year.
Please note: I am an avi
For the record, does Instagram's TOS have the usual "we can change this policy at our discretion without notice at any time" famous clause? Because this strikes me as a huge Contract Law grab. Last I knew from when Contract Law almost made sense, EULA/TOS type agreements are supposedly agreements between both vendor and the user, and being generous enough to say the user actually read the legalese.
However a policy change like this then becomes something our user *specifically did not agree to*. In particular, our hypothetical careful user probably looked at the original policy, decided it was okay, and then posted his pictures. No rational user can expect to use a service allowing for *unlimited* unilateral policy changes that may occur at random points in the future. You might as well say "we have the right to come to your house and take additional pictures of you to verify your Instagram identity with the police" or some nonsense.
I doubt most people on instagram have current model releases for their photographs, so using these commercially could get any number of people sued, but based on the instagram policy, it very well could be the user who took them initially, then "gave instagram permission to use them commercially."
from the new policy:
you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your
I grew up in a semi-pro photography household and learning by osmosis I can tell you this is a horrifying legal minefield for anyone who doesn't have well documented model releases.
Its exactly like a photo processor reserving the right to sell your photos to anyone they want if you develop film there, or a word processor author demanding the right to sell anything you type into the word processor to anyone they want. Crazy talk.
I recognize you're using language so as not to be convicted
EFF's Opsahl says the new policy runs afoul of his group's voluntary best practices for social networks. He added: "Hopefully at some point we'll get greater clarity from Facebook and Instagram."
Could they be any more clear? "We own everything, bwaa-haa-haa"?
I'm sure this is just a polite way of saying, "What the f*ck do you think you are doing? Stop this sh*t now!".
This is despicable of course. And Instagram/Facebook needs to clearly and loudly (e.g. a click through notice when you login, and every day later until the 16th) explains this change in the ToS, and explains what it means (in plain English, not lawyer speak). But I bet they don't.
Anyway, any pictures with identifiable images of people in them could be a problem for whichever company purchases the image. Because of model rights you know? If an ad is run which has a person who is clearly identifiable, then in most places a model release is required. And I bet you that Instragram doesn't require that photographers have people sign model releases...
Oh, and the blog post [instagram.com]:
Our community has grown a lot since we wrote our original terms of service. To get things up to date for the millions of people now using Instagram, we're bringing you new versions of our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Here are a few key updates:
- Nothing has changed about your photos' ownership or who can see them.
- Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups. This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used.
- Our updated terms of service help protect you, and prevent spam and abuse as we grow.
This is just a small preview. Our new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service will be effective on January 16, 2013.
We know these documents are a little dry, but they're very important. Please take a moment to read through them so you keep feeling comfortable sharing your beautiful photos on Instagram.
A bit of a lie really. The key point from the various articles is:
Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, except that you can control who can view certain of your Content and activities on the Service as described in the Service's Privacy Policy, available here: http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/ [instagram.com].
Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.
http://instagram.com/about/legal/terms/updated/ [instagram.com]
You can express your disapproval of these changes by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com [mailto].
Anyway, any pictures with identifiable images of people in them could be a problem for whichever company purchases the image. Because of model rights you know? If an ad is run which has a person who is clearly identifiable, then in most places a model release is required. And I bet you that Instragram doesn't require that photographers have people sign model releases...
Actually their terms covers them...
Under Basic Terms (7, 8)...
and under Rights (4, 8)...
Basically they are saying that all the pictures you've posted are supposed to be free of any issues. If they are not, they are not responsible... you are.
Basically, if they get sued, you get left holding the bag.
So not only they can make money off of you, they give you all the risk.
But I posted that disclaimer on Facebook expressly forbidding them to do that
How can Instagram casually assume that the uploader even HAS the right to assign republishing rights to them? OK, fine... the TOS requires that uploaders have the rights. We all know that a certain percentage won't comply. How many times does Instagram really want to spin the roulette wheel and risk getting nailed by a lawsuit from someone who owns the copyright on a wrongly-uploaded photo... in a strict-liability jurisdiction with joint and several liability? In English, that means Jim might, under Instagram TOS, be 100% liable for infringement if he uploads a photo and gets Instagram sued when they republish it, but at the end of the day, Jim isn't going to pay that million-dollar lawsuit... Instagram will, because Jim is likely to be judgment-proof, and any halfway-competent attorney could get the judgment to adhere to Instagram regardless of what they might claim.
Not to mention, model releases. If Jim posts pictures taken at a birthday party his child attends, Instagram would legally need releases from every person (or their legal guardian) recognizable in the picture (with a few exceptions, but it's still a minefield).
Did I mention the legal suicide mission of using pics that have anything to DO with kids from Europe? I think in Germany, it's not even legal to use kids in an advertisement for anything, period... consent from fame-whoring parents or not. Or for that matter, the fact that fucked up French copyright law allows you to copyright the image of buildings and structures, even structures that dominate the horizon and are visible from literally miles away (like the Eiffel Tower and the Millau Viaduct), and (in legal theory, at least) make it almost impossible to publish photos taken almost anywhere in Paris (due to the large number of "historically and/or architecturally-significant structures") if they show a complete building facade of one or more buildings in the background? Granted, the French situation is slightly unique, and is used mainly by the French government as a tool for censorship of unflattering and politically-sensitive images, but that's just one country out of hundreds.
There's a reason why big corporations get all of their public photos from companies like Getty Images -- it lets their management and lawyers sleep at night knowing that the copyright clearances and model releases have all been taken care of, and the image vendor itself is big enough to pay any lawsuit that might arise from the photo's licensed use. It's also why some people have had so much fun showing the same clip-art models really getting around, and showing up in everything from ads to "happy employee" photos to patients at STD clinics.
These so called "social" websites are a fraud. Nobody reads these terms of service and they know it. They don't have any legitimate way of making money so they steal what you upload and sell it. Nice business model. Just because they give me a few megs of space on their server should not mean that they retain full ownership rights to my pictures. If that's their terms of service fine, but I'm not playing that game.
I never understood why Instagram is supposedly worth so much
Could someone explain this to me?
I can see why FB are trying to claw that back by douchebag moves like this.
If you read a little further down in the EULA, it also says they have the right to perform medical experiments on you, including making you part of a human centipede...
Folks can forget about deleting all their pictures from the site. I guarantee they were archived before the announcement was made. They probably have the ever-popular "Only individual binding arbitration" agreement as well.
The internet stopped being the "Wild West" and became feudal Europe a long time ago.
"The following is not for the weak of heart or Fundamentalists." -- Dave Barry


text:
The Enchanted World of Alpine Flowers
Pinguin Verlag, 1970 - Mountain plants - 88 pages
From inside the book
7 pages matching aromatic in this book
Where's the rest of this book?
Results 1-3 of 7
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Are You a Flower Friend or a Flower Lover?
Forest in Miniature Dwarf Stone Pines stand guard
High Alpine Lawns
6 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
Alder Algae Allium victorialis Alpine flora Alpine flowers Alpine meadow Alpine plants Alpine Rose Alps Arctic aromatic Auricula beautiful blooms blossoms blue cattle Christmas Rose climate colour crevices Crowberry cushions Cyclamen damp delicate Dwarf Pine dwarf shrub Edelweiss Erica evergreen feet flowering plants fragrant frost Gentian G glaciers golden yellow grasses grazing green Green Alder ground grow habitat hairy height herb high Alpine high mountain humus Ice Age Lady's Lady's Mantle lawn leaves Lichens Lily limestone lovely Moss Campion Mountain Avens mountain forest mountain ranges Nigritella Nigritella nigra Orchid pastures plains plant-life Poppy Primula auricula Primula Primula protection regions resistance Rhododendron Rhododendron hirsutum rock roots rosettes rubble Saxifrage Saxifraga scree Sempervivum shelter shining slopes soil Soldanella spread spring stemless Gentian stems Stone Pine summer summits tall-stalked thick Thistle tiny trees types unfold vegetation violet weather Willow wind winter woods


text:
Monday, February 11, 2008
Pan Pacific coverage
Incidentally, I heard an explanation last week about the participating teams. Supposedly it was to be the US champs (Houston), the Japanese champs (Gamba Osaka), an Australian team (Sydney FC) and the SuperLiga champs (Pachuca). But since Pachuca supposedly declined to participate, the SuperLiga runners-up were chosen to go, and thus we have the LA Galaxy.
Sydney FC, by the way, aren't the Aussie champs but they are a finalist for the A-League championship.
As far as the Galaxy's participation, how convenient...
18 comments:
Wasn't Gamba Osaka the champs of the Nabisco Cup? I believe that is different from the regular season champions.
- February 11, 2008 at 12:21 PM
Based on the timing of this, I can definitely see Pachuca declining.
- February 11, 2008 at 12:44 PM
- tippo said...
I hope something will be done with the timing to allow A-League champions to participate in future.
- February 11, 2008 at 1:02 PM
dont tell me you believe the story that pachuca declined (making the superliga runner-up galaxy the fill-in team).
you have to remember rules are bent for the galaxy. pachuca was probably never even informed of the tournament.
- February 11, 2008 at 1:05 PM
It makes sense. UNAM has apparently declined the SuperLiga for next year. If it's not an "official" tournament, which it's not, then clubs can be invited and choose to turn down the invitation.
Are you goats really that upset over a pre-season tournament?
- February 11, 2008 at 1:18 PM
- CACuzcatlan said...
the Australian team is the loser of the minor semi-final (or something like that). Ends up being the 4th place team in the league. This was announced previously, although originally it was supposed to be the 3rd place team. Either way, it wasn't just chosen arbitrarily.
- February 11, 2008 at 1:27 PM
Luis, you've got to get over whining about the Galaxy participating in this nothing "tournament" So what if it's called a championship? It's a marketing thing, it's a couple of friendlies, it probably wouldn't be taking place at all if the Galaxy weren't participating. Would you be happier if every game outside of the MLS regular season was played by either Houston or DC? C'mon, I can see someone like Simers or someone similarly ignorant complaining about this, but you don't have that ignorance excuse.
- February 11, 2008 at 1:52 PM
- L.B. said...
anon, this is completely marketing, you are right. I guess what bugs me is that it's being passed off as some sort of meaningful tournament and it's being promoted heavily.
I understand, it's great for Hawaii and if I lived in Hawaii and was starved for soccer, I'd be anticipating these games a great deal. But to try and pass this off as a tournament where you have to qualify for, come on.
I think for the Galaxy I'd be a bit concerned about the timing of this, right smack at the start of training camp. The Galaxy is going to spend quite a few weeks in Hawaii and Asia while others will prepare for the season with much less travel. They just better hope their team is able to come together despite their travel itinerary.
- February 11, 2008 at 2:56 PM
I think the likes of DCU, Houston, and New England are glade they don't have to travel to Hawaii for this thing. With the likes of Champions Cup, Champions League, USOC, and Superliga not to mention league games I don't think they were looking forward to trip out into the middle of the Pacific.
The Galaxy should be worried that Becks doesn't pick up an injury on the turf at the stadium I believe this is being held at. Then the Gals are traveling to Asia, which is likely going to have tire some players before the preseason. I'm sure Becks is crossing his fingers that he is not hurt before being called into a friendly for England.
- February 11, 2008 at 3:49 PM
If it weren't for the Galaxy, this tournament wouldn't even exist.
- February 11, 2008 at 3:56 PM
- just another one of you said...
Luis, I understand your disappointment over the Galaxy's inclusion, but I think you are being short sighted. This 'tournament' has the potential of being more important as it provides an avenue for second/third tier leagues to gauge themselves better against each other and receive cross-pacific exposure. Let's just focus on getting the tournament popular (i.e. increase ad $'s) then try to legitimize it. Pachuca is ridiculous for turning this down, but not as ridiculous as those who believe that Garber is out there pushing hard for the Galaxy to be included. The Gals can make their own crowds and aren't starving for exhibition matches. Everyone benefits by their inclusion the first year, so get over the sour grapes.
- February 11, 2008 at 6:31 PM
I would say the Gals are starved for exhibitations. They need those games to generate the sales of Galaxy gear and products inorder for them to make a profit on the Beckham contract. This Pan-Pacific exposure maintains people's awareness of Beckham and who he plays for. This was AEG's plan all along. This exposure however is done in the economic interest of MLS who despite AEG's operating rights is still the owner of LA Galaxy. Remember MLS owns LAG and AEG owns the rights to operate LAG. So MLS has a vested interest in making sure the Galaxy is in this tournament until the Beckham interest is milked dry.
It should be said though that it takes time for every tournament to gain respect and this one if continued over time will gain respect once the sneaky ways to get money generating teams is ended.
- February 11, 2008 at 8:00 PM
- Joseph D'Hippolito said...
The Galaxy only cares about being the first club to generate $10 billion in revenue. They don't care about anything else, really.
- February 11, 2008 at 9:54 PM
To East River:
"They need those games to generate the sales of Galaxy gear and products inorder for them to make a profit on the Beckham contract."
HA! You really believe AEG hasn't already recovered their investment in the Beckham contract?
I'm surprised that people are taking this tournament seriously though... it's a pre-season deal. Much like Pachuca has one at Estadio Hidalgo every season. 4 teams, big shiny cup, not really THAT important.
Real Madrid also has the Teresa Herrera thing where the cup is shaped like the Santiago Bernabeu.
Finally, allow me to disagree on one thing: The timing for this is perfect. The team gets back to LA with a month or so to prepare for pre-season. The travel's not a huge deal. If I remember correctly, some Mexican teams did their pre-season in Argentina, I believe some MLS teams have as well.
If anything, it'll help the youngsters shake off the "Beckhamania"
- February 11, 2008 at 10:38 PM
Oh I believe they may have recouped all of their investment. But they are simply trying to milk it for all its worth. If you can make the money then you better do it while the product is still hot.
- February 12, 2008 at 4:05 AM
However said Houston is probably glad they don't have to travel to Hawaii.....um, Houston is in this tournament.
- February 12, 2008 at 9:58 AM
- FC Uptown said...
Should be interesting to watch - and do we really have any idea who will win this thing? Big teams in the EPL and Spain travel far distances in the preseason all the time and they do alright. Becks wants his quarter-billion anyways too - and let's help his Asian fans get a look. No need to take this super seriously, LB, just tune in. The Becks thing is huge - don't buy a Porsche and then complain when you get speeding tickets.
- February 12, 2008 at 7:47 PM
I think the problem here is that the goats are upset that the neighbor got a Porsche. It may be an old Porsche that's kept in the garage for a while, and they get to rule the streets for a couple of days more but at the end of the day, it's still a Porsche.
And even if it's an old Porsche, the hot milfs in the neighborhood are still gonna drool over it and the neighbor, and not them.
Then again, when your name is Chivas USA, it doesn't matter what you buy, nobody's drooling over you.
- February 13, 2008 at 8:32 AM