text:
Satisfied - Not Overwhelmed.
Game Of Thrones Season 2 Episode 10 recap
I've always been open about the fact that I'm greedy where TV is concerned - the more episodes the better. But I might be transferring to the 10-episode system. It's like a roller coaster, you know? The long pull upward and then the big rush of going down - I can't believe we're already finished season 2.
Having said that, while I felt satisfied with the finale, it didn't blow me away. We're pacing ourselves through the story (and the books) so not everything can be revealed at once but certain stories marched in place for too long relative to the payoff. The biggest offender here, of course, is Daenerys and her band of Dothraki followers. Can it really be possible that she pouted through eight or so of the 10 episodes, only to kick Qarth's collective ass with relative ease once she bothered to do so? I certainly love seeing her gain more steeliness and resolve, but given that the episodes before this one didn't point that out as a deficit, her triumphs last night seemed a little too easy. Wrapped in chains? Dragons can help! Crazy terrifying sorcerer man who multiplies? He's no match for her firepower! It's the only real misstep: she hasn't seemed to struggle to get her dragons back, just went and did it, nor did she struggle with loyalty (didn't you feel like she shouldn't have had so many Dothraki left? I thought most were slaughtered. Or was that supposed to be magic?) once she easily disposed of Xaro. The only redeeming feature here - other than the really incredible scenery- was the beautiful scene with Khal Drogo (and that baby!). I could believe that he's where she draws her steel, from his love or the memory of it, but she's still only a teenage girl. A little reminder that she's facing opposition that will truly trouble her would have been great. Oh, and can we please soon give Jorah some dimension? (Lainey: um, no, because he's vile and pervy and I hope he dies.)
My other eye-roll came from the wedding of Robb Stark and Talisa (though I liked those vows). I get it - a man falls in love and can think of nothing else but we haven't seen enough to be worried for him that he's breaking his promise or elated that he's loving this woman forever. When he could easily be killed long before his next birthday, is it really such a deal? Obviously for Catelyn Stark (and I'm putting this parenthesis here so Lainey can rage about her - thank you because she is such a f-cking waste of time and I hate her cheekbones ), but other than basic rebellion, is this really going to affect the march of the troops, which would seem to be the most top-of-mind concern right now?
While by and large the stories were compelling and dramatic I was also delighted with the amount of humor here. Theon Greyjoy no longer laments his own certain death, he just wants to figure out how to cut the head off the horn blower. I have to pause and point out how excellent I think Alfie Allen has been here - Theon is a snivelling idiot who, as Luwin points out, is only pretending to be the demonic hardass he's posturing as (and if he had any intelligence at all, he'd see that Luwin's lack of total devastation over the losses of Bran and Rickon would indicate that the jig is, in fact, up) and knows he's reached the end of his rope in terms of anyone's tolerance. Though he was hooded and dragged, presumably to be flagellated in front of his father, I was quite interested in Luwin's inference that he should go to the Wall - his presence there would be a whole new level of softness for the Night's Watch to deal with.
So our other Winterfell originals are sprung far and wide. It's arguably a good thing Sansa didn't go with The Hound (where was he?) since there's not much there any longer. I hope she does stay in King's Landing, not only for her own physical safety in the moment, but because she hasn't been educated by Cersei for months for nothing. Margaery Tyrell may be the new queen, but Sansa knows a few things. I'd love to see who she is without that obligatory "love" for Joffrey hanging around her neck - and so would she. It was fleeting, but was anything so wonderful as that smile of joyous relief that burst across her face? I'm not sure we've ever seen that from Sansa, even when she was first promised to Joffrey, before she knew what that meant. (Oh, and I'm willing to bet Jack Gleeson had a tremendous cold - Joffrey sounded more than a little congested, no?) So she'll stay, at least long enough to hear Littlefinger out, but she's grown so much wiser in her short stay that I suspect she has a few interesting cards to play yet.
Speaking of interesting cards who knew my favourite coupling was going to be Brienne and Jamie Lannister? Of all things I wouldn't have predicted, the two of them being a fantastic duo who can easily outwit any idiots they come across was not high on the list. Of course, Jamie's as surprised as I was and Brienne may be as well but she's not the one who's changing; she'll do what she has to to give those women a proper burial and isn't above vengeance. He's the one who's reorganizing his opinions of what this woman warrior must be like. (Lainey: I totally want to see them do it. Don't lie - you totally do too.)
And we cannot mention women warriors without discussing Arya Stark. She's made a friend of Jaqen - whomever that man was - and can contact him again. Can maybe learn to be like him. Can subvert her destiny as a once-noble now-fugitive daughter of a traitor? I don't know. She's more intelligent than anyone gives her credit for (though, possibly to her detriment, she's not good at hiding it) and has bigger ambitions. How big, of course, we won't know until she learns what she's up against in a world where she has no home and those who would claim Winterfell as their own are on the run.
I've mentioned that I'm completely unspoiled so I don't know what's to become of Tyrion Lannister, but I can't help thinking that Varys' painted picture is maybe just a little bleak. That nobody will remember him when they discuss why King's Landing didn't fall. Once Tywin gets full scope of just how insane Joffrey is, won't he have to think a little about what role his youngest son played, even if it didn't end in his triumph in battle? I love that Shae is so sure he should never go back to the battlefield - she's quite comfortable pointing out his weaknesses. That's a truer relationship than so many here. Does it have a chance at survival? It's particularly interesting when you contrast it with Melisandre and Stannis Baratheon: that's not a man who needs support, that's a man who is grasping at straws and has already betrayed the entirety of himself. No matter how long he looks for the god in the fire, can he really overcome the human failings he's undertaken so far?
And then, at last, there are our friends in the North. We knew that Jon Snow would have to prove himself sooner or later, and all it took was a little assassination that would have come sooner or later. Now he's to meet the King beyond the Wall.
But speaking of beyond the wall - let's discuss the white walkers. They have been terrorizing us in absentia since the very beginning of this show, and certainly the spectre of them approaching Sam, thousands strong, was ominous. The three strong blasts, and then the approach. Terrifying ...
....Until we saw that one guy's face. The zombie horse was gruesome and evocative. The muscled, animated corpses of the zombified masses, chilling. The one man's wizened face and bright blue eyes:
Am I wrong? Though most of the special effects on this show are done reasonably well - the dragons mean a lot to me - this just didn't land. He didn't look scary, he looked animatronic. Almost cute, in fact. It took me out of what should have been a really terrifying moment, and I got scolded for pausing the PVR and laughing. But if this was the desired effect of the SFX team, I'll need to know why. If it wasn't, I'll need to know why they weren't fired, or the shot wasn't changed. Had we seen the same man at medium distance the effect might not have been so...cuddly ... but I couldn't scare up the chill I knew I was supposed to feel.
Whereas Varys asking Ros to be a spy - that was troubling. Gleeful and exciting too, maybe, but chilling nonetheless.
The long wait begins. Luwin is dead, long live Luwin. Osha is charged with protecting the two little lords. Arya travels. Robb will travel. Brienne and Jamie Lannister travel. Cersei does not travel, though Dylan texted last night that she needs to get the f-ck out of dodge. Blood is indeed thicker than water when everyone's far flung and fighting for the family name. Let's see what happens when they're all under the same roof.
Winter is upon us. See you next year.
Attached - Kit Harington at Guys Choice on Saturday.


text:
ST. LOUIS (AP) - The St. Louis Rams wore throwback jerseys from their Super Bowl title season, then Robert Quinn outdid one of those former stars.
Quinn got three of St. Louis' seven sacks and set a franchise season record in a 23-13 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
The Rams won without left tackle Jake Long, who injured his knee on the first series. Coach Jeff Fisher believes Long tore a knee ligament.
Quinn leads the NFC with 18 sacks. He broke Kevin Carter's franchise record of 17 sacks in that 1999 Super Bowl title season.
Zac Stacy rushed for 104 yards on 33 carries and a touchdown, and two other rookies also had big games for the Rams (7-8), who matched their victory total from last year. Stedman Bailey scored on a 27-yard reverse, and Alec Ogletree forced two fumbles.
Ogletree stripped Bobby Rainey early in the second quarter. Bailey scored his first career touchdown on the next snap on the reverse to put the Rams up for good at 14-7.
The Buccaneers (4-11) managed just 170 total yards, setting a season low for the second straight week. Vincent Jackson had five catches for 98 yards.
Rainey opened the scoring with a 1-yard run in the first quarter and Stacy scored on a 1-yard run early in the second quarter.
There were thousands of empty seats for an unattractive matchup with attendance announced at 54,423 - about 12,000 shy of capacity.
James Laurinaitis added two sacks and Greg Zuerlein kicked three field goals, including a season-best 54-yarder in the third quarter after Tampa Bay had cut the deficit to a point.
The Buccaneers are 1-6 on the road, the lone win in overtime at Seattle after an 0-8 start to the season. Tampa Bay finishes at New Orleans next week.
Quinn's first sack helped force the Bucs to settle for a 35-yard field goal by Rian Lindell to cut the Rams' lead to 14-10 at the half.
Bailey has gotten involved in the offense the last few weeks and stepped up with Tavon Austin, his former teammate at West Virginia, sidelined for a second straight week by a left ankle injury. The reverse was his first career NFL TD and first rushing at least before college, and he had three catches for 44 yards.
Bailey was just as prolific as Austin in college, scoring 27 touchdowns as a senior.
Sloppy play helped the Bucs keep it close in the first half. Quarterback Kellen Clemens fumbled on a scramble at the Tampa Bay 4 to burn a scoring opportunity, with Gerald McCoy knocking it loose and Keith Tandy recovering. On the Rams' next snap, Dekoda Watson stripped Stacy and Lavonte David recovered at the Bucs 47.
Tampa Bay had first and goal at the Rams 9 near the end of the half before sacks by Laurinaitis and Quinn on consecutive plays pushed the Buccaneers back 16 yards.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Submission + - Oracle launches NoSQL database (techworld.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "After announcing the technology at its OpenWorld conference last month, Oracle has launched its much anticipated NoSQL database. The Oracle NoSQL Database can now be downloaded from the Oracle Technology Network. The software will also be a key component the Oracle Big Data Appliance, due to be shipped in the first three months of 2012. The database, based on the Berkeley DB database, would be of interest to "customers who are acquiring massive amounts of data who are unsure about the schema, who want more fluid capture of the data," said Marie-Anne Neimat, vice president of database development at Oracle."


text:
I'm in Big D – the Lone Star State. The state with the motto "Don't mess with us." I saw real cowboys in the hotel lobby this morning. With spurs and chaps and hats and everything. My breakfast waffle was in the shape of Texas. I have to admire their brand. Very few states can sell stepping stones at Home Depot in their likeness. But Texas – very proud.
I'm a transplant to New Mexico. Sometimes I feel like we're not even on the map. When the national weather is on, the forecaster dude/chick usually parks their caboose in front of us and points to their left (your right) to Texas' amazing heat wave, wind, monsoons, etc. and to their right (your left) at the heat, wind, dust storms, monsoons, in Arizona.
Contrary to popular belief you DON'T need a passport to come visit me. We are in the continental US – the lower 48 – the 5th largest state by land mass wedged between TX and AZ.
Oh, and we don't have to say "Don't Mess with New Mexico." Instead, we prefer to be known as the Land of Enchantment.
Our state capital is a mile and a HALF high.
Our state flower is a cactus.
Our state bird can kill a rattle snake.
Enough said.


text:
I always found humor in literature overrated.
Just because everyone praises the Emporer's new clothes, it doesn't mean he's wearing any.
Also, the new
An early review of part of the Eoin Colfer-penned seque
On the plus side, Eoin Colfer has won the Ambiguously Pronounced Name Award!
What was left unsaid, unexplored, unpadded, etc. in the original Doug Adams volumes? As a series, they were one book too long as it stood, really.
The creme was in the two BBC radio series, and the material was presented it its most delightful and appealing way in this format.
The books were little more than these programmes, padded with the narrative required to contextualize in written form. It's my belief that they suffered under this treatment. Certainly, they labored the humor - without the excellent timing and auditory cues, which were integral.
So. A good author now contributes a mediocre and unnecessary addition to an entertaining body of work, derived with some encumbrance from a superior and lively original radio play. To reiterate my original question, what had not yet been mined from that vein? What had not yet been wrung and worried from that corpus?
Oh, yes. More publishing revenues.
I think the Python's were quite good at satirizing this sort of thing - and Adams would have a good turn at it, himself: "The Contractual Obligation Beyond the Reasonable End of the Universe", or so.
I agree that the radio series is the best format of taking in the books. I even tried watching the TV series which has pretty much the same crew, and I just couldn't stand it. The books are great, the radio series is simply awesome.
I am a book, "Contractual Obligation to end 5 book trilogy", Mark 2. I have been activated. I will explode into outlet bookstores and recycling programs in 7 days. 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 45 seconds. 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 30 seconds. 6 days...
"Oh, Dear." uttered the ghost of Douglas. The ghosts of the other authors twittered behind him. "We told you this would happen" spat Tolkien, who had assumed a rather ungainly set of almost holographic elven ears...
Absolutely. Everyone's crazy except you.
I always found spinach in food overrated. A few tasty bits in any dish is fine, but to eat an entire dish that was suppose to be spinach. I dunno I can't see myself enjoying it that much. Even if the spinach was quality and well prepared.
the best spinach i ever ate turned out be be fennel...
I always found humor in literature overrated. A few funny bits in any book is fine, but to read an entire book that was suppose to be funny. I dunno I can't see myself enjoying it that much. Even if the jokes were intelligent and witty.
Tell me about it, I hate when I read a really good book that keeps me entertained for hours.
I enjoy listening to reruns of classic "My Word" episodes; laughing an=t the verbal antics of Denis Norden and Frank Muir, while punctuating the pauses in in banter by loudly breaking wind.
But I wouldn't want to do so for very long at a time. Surely the weekend is sufficient for this!
You didn't read Discworld, then?
Depends which ones: The first couple of Discworld books were very much a series of set-piece jokes tied together by a loose plot - very much like the Hitch-Hikers Guide but with wizzards and dragons instead of robots and space ships... However, as the books went on the emphasis shifted from comedy towards plot and character.
The recent City Watch books are more hard-boiled detective and social commentary. Pratchett's most recent book, "Nation" was decidedly not a comedy.
Mind you, I get the distinct impress
> A few funny bits in any book is fine, but to read an entire book that was suppose to be funny. I dunno I can't see myself enjoying it that much. Even if the jokes were intelligent and witty.
Normally I would agree with you, except Douglas Adams was the guy who introduced me to the pleasure of laughing. After all, he was the guy who figured out humour for the geek.
Douglas Adams was the guy who introduced me to the pleasure of laughing.
My endocrinologist performed that function for me. Turned out I had an inflamed spleen, and once that was treated it no longer hurt to laugh.
A few funny bits in any book is fine, but to read an entire book that was suppose to be funny.
I'm not sure how we're supposed to take your opinion on literature seriously, after you wrote that sentence.
I always found humor in literature overrated. A few funny bits in any book is fine, but to read an entire book that was suppose to be funny. I dunno I can't see myself enjoying it that much. Even if the jokes were intelligent and witty.
Humor in literature is in fact vastly underrated because a lot of insecure people have the primitive feeling that if it is fun, then it can only be inferior art. Humorous books aren't wall-to-wall jokes, but often subtle literary works employing a wide array of literary devices to convey the authors intentions. Joseph Heller's "Catch 22", Cervantes' "Don Quixote", Jaroslav Hasek's "The Good Soldier Svejk", Franz Kafka's "The Castle", Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" are all humorous works of the highest literary grade.
Try a funny book someday, you may like it.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Funny, geeky, fantasy.
He told me he was a page. "Go on," I said, "You ain't no more than a paragraph!"
Humor in literature is in fact vastly underrated because a lot of insecure people have the primitive feeling that if it is fun, then it can only be inferior art.
Cue the Calvin and Hobbes comic contrasting 'high art' and 'low art':
Calvin: A painting. Moving. Spiritually enriching. Sublime. "High" art!
Calvin: The comic strip. Vapid. Juvenile. Commercial hack work. "Low" art.
Calvin: A painting of a comic strip panel. Sophisticated irony. Philosophically challenging. "High" art.
Hobbes: Suppose I draw a cartoon of a painting of a comic strip?
Calvin: Sophomoric, intellectually sterile. "Low" art.
This is no troll. Humour in books doesn't work as well as it does on film, TV or live.
There are few books I've found to be really funny, and I read 30+ books a year. Douglas Adams' books along with say Catch-22 and maybe Running with Scissors are about the only ones that come to mind.
Humour works better when you can have the jokes delivered with timing. I've found audio books make some books much funnier when it's done well.
Even film has it's weaknesses for humour. Film tends to want a narrative to drive th
The Hitchhiker's Guide was meant to be funny? No one told me that all those decades ago. I read it like any good student - as if it were a history book!!
Next thing, you'll be telling me that L. Ron Hubbard made up his religion.
Man, you slashdotters have a lot of nerve......
They said the same thing about the Hollywood movie, and look how that turned...
Oh, CRAP!
However, all the major changes in the movie script were penned by Adams himself.
The radio, book and movie versions of HHGTTG were all supposed to be different in their own way.
But it was still funny and entertaining in the same way that I expected a Douglass Adams work to be.
It was funny and entertaining in the same way I expected a movie version of a book to be.
Much of the fun in the books come from the unique descriptions Mr. Adams used. Trying to preserve those on screen felt forced at best, and broke the film into small pieces connected with long pauses. Not good.
Also, I found the Vogons to be more pathetic than ugly and scary.
Much of the fun in the books come from the unique descriptions Mr. Adams used.
Exactly. How do you film a spaceship that hangs in the sky in much the same way that a brick doesn't?
Correct me if I'm wrong here but I also remember Adams saying that he never thought the HHGTTG could really work in anything but print. And because of a lack of trying on his part either. Just that whenever he worked at trying to make the whole idea behind HHGTTG in another medium even he thought it was lacking.
Even when I was watching the movie I tried to keep an open mind because I knew it could not be the same as the book(s). But even with me trying to accept it on that different format and what I tho
That would seem like an odd thing for him to have said, since the book came AFTER the radio series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy [wikipedia.org]
And, let's not forget about the text adventure game! Possibly one of my favourite ways to enjoy the story, and you can play online too:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml [bbc.co.uk]
I liked the movie actually.
It wasn't really the guide, though what the guide is is a little bit fluid, there's the tv mini series, the two different radio series, the books in print, the books on tape read by Adam's himself, as well as the movie. They're all very different, and all funny in their own way. A bit like Monty Python in a sense, the best sketches were done so many times and always involved at least some improvisation so those lines embedded in your brain may not actually be in the version you read/watch.
It was however, at least I thought, in the spirit of the guide. It's a little less bitter and twisted than the originals were, but if Douglas Adams himself was a lot less cynical and bitter towards the end so that's not really all that surprising. My understanding is that the whole thing started because Douglas Adams used to make a tv show where the world exploded at the end of every episode and he wondered what it would be like to start a story with the world exploding instead. The Douglas Adams of later years was not that same person.
The biggest problem with the movie was that most people seem to only believe that one of the many formats is the true guide. Some people don't even know there was a radio drama, or a tv mini series, and they don't realize that the universe was different every single time, and so they expect the movie to be the books, but on film, which it wasn't and wasn't supposed to be. The fact that Douglas Adams died before the movie was released, just adds to things because those same people can blame Hollywood for ruining the story, when the reality is that Douglas Adams was heavily involved with the process and the result would likely have been very similar had he survived.
For all the criticisms I've heard about the film - some of them justifiable, some just uninformed fan-boy ranting - there is one aspect in which the film excelled: The Book.
Perfectly quirky, simple-looking, clean animation, a "please remain calm" backing track, and the narration masterfully voiced by a calm, eloquent Stephen Fry. Just about the only person who could've done it better than the two radio-series narrators. I feel confident in saying it will never be done better.
>The radio, book and movie versions of HHGTTG were all supposed to be different in their own way.
Mission accomplished.
However, all the major changes in the movie script were penned by Adams himself.
The problem is that it was the minor changes (ie. removing all the funny bits) that made it unwatchable.
The radio, book and movie versions of HHGTTG were all supposed to be different in their own way.
So you're trying to tell me that Adams decided that he didn't want the movie to be funny?
I suppose it could be some last practical joke of his, but somehow, I doubt it.
I think it's more pertinent to point out that one person has said that he didn't find it funny. Now, call me old-fashioned, but since when did it warrant an entire Slashdot story based on one person's opinion of a book that hasn't even been released yet? Maybe I'm not with the times.
So, in a bit of an experiment, I did try and tell the BBC that I watched a pre-release version of 'Avatar' and I thought it was average, but oddly enough they didn't want to screen my interview...
They said the same thing about the Hollywood movie, and look how that turned...
You know, the movie is definitely not as _funny_ as the books, but I think they definitely made the main characters more _likeable_, especially Arthur. If you paid attention, they showed Ford using a towel in many of the appropriate ways, they just didn't call attention to it, which, to me, wasted a great opportunity.
For me, the funniest parts of the books are the excerpts from the Guide (especially the part about how the Babel Fish has been used for the non-existence of God). If they had added just a couple of minutes to put those into the movie, I think I would've liked it much, much more.
I love how they slipped the Marvin costume from the old tv show into the scene where there're a lot of people standing in line. Plus you've got to admit Alan Rickman *IS* Marvin. Who knew Marvin and Professor Snape had so much in common?
For me, the funniest parts of the books are the excerpts from the Guide (especially the part about how the Babel Fish has been used for the non-existence of God). If they had added just a couple of minutes to put those into the movie, I think I would've liked it much, much more.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I specifically remember excerpts from the book being presented in the movie. Didn't they have a voice over by Stephen Fry?
You know, the movie is definitely not as _funny_ as the books, but I think they definitely made the main characters more _likeable_, especially Arthur.
The movie not being "as funny" is an understatement among the lines of "you know, being hit in the balls with a 5 pound sledge hammer is definitely not as _pleasant_ as a blowjob, but it's easier to get."
Yes, the characters were more likeable. Unfortunately, they did it at the expense of making the movie as a whole unlikable. They could have made the characters more sympathetic without removing the humor, instead they chose to do both, to the detriment of all.
I borrowed the movie from my local library. I
No matter what author at any level of talent that had picked up the books and decided to continue them would be met with heresy or at very least a review of "not as good as the original".
As a writer I know how to mimic the words of others, but it doesn't mean that a person with a significant and highly educated fan base wouldn't pick up on the subtle differences, because no matter how good someone try's to imitate another person, in writing, it's just not the same.
Besides the fact that the expectations, especially those of slashdot's community, are so high you have little chance of being honored with anyone other than "mainstream" media who may have water on the brain, but enough money to throw at people to make them happy, even if slashdot or many fans don't approve.
Adams was a genius and having someone else pick up where he left off with anything makes no sense. If they are that good - they should be writing their own stuff.
I'll never forget the night I was baby-sitting some neighbor kids. They were in bed and I was watching PBS. A show came on and it was hilarious - that's how I found out about HHG - and once I got the books it was all over - I loved reading everything he wrote, even the unedited bits published after his death.
Agreed. Douglas Adams was a very unique writer, in terms of his sense of humor. It's an insanely difficult act to follow.
And to be honest, I'm not sure I really want to read any attempts to do so. Why can't they just let a great series be a great series, instead of trying to extend it?
And to be honest, I'm not sure I really want to read any attempts to do so. Why can't they just let a great series be a great series, instead of trying to extend it?
If that thought were applied to movies, we'd have never had DS9 or the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. Why is it OK for TV and movies but not novels? It's a common thought and I don't get it.
Perhaps it would have been for the best had we not had the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie.
If that thought were applied to movies, we'd have never had DS9 or the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. Why is it OK for TV and movies but not novels?
Who said it was ok for TV and Movies? Few sequels in those media are any good. As your examples prove.
It's an insanely difficult act to follow
Adams' gift (or one of them) was the unexpected. I think anyone trying to write "as" Adams will inevitably fail because no matter how good a writer they are in their own right if they try write as they 'expect' Adams to write then it will be expected by the reader too.
If case any one reading this likes HHGTG and hasn't read Adam's Dirk Gently novels I can only recommend to get them and read them.
The weird thing is that Adams himself said he spent the early part of his life trying to be John Cleese, until he realized that John Cleese was John Cleese, and that Adams should try being himself.
Someone literally stole my copy of Salmon of Doubt from a coffee shop before I could finish reading it. I am a little curious. This new book, is it a continuation of what he started there, or something completely else?
I'm also not sure the series needs continuation. The plot was never good. Adams never wanted more
Exactly. I'm going to record the next Jimi Hendrix album AND paint the next Picasso.
The reason these guys are so successful is that their views of the world are so skewed from everyone else's and we love them for it.
Hey, just because *you're* not as good as Jimi Hendrix or Picasso doesn't mean that there is NOBODY in a planet with approx 6 Billion people that could make music in the same style as Jimi Hendrix, and do a good job of it. Or paint in a similar style to Picasso and be brilliant at it.
The difference here is that, with music, there's no point is calling your album the "next Jimi Hendrix" album (unless you just want to be ridiculed by people), because music is essentially stand-alone. With fiction, you can ce
I hear there are some pretty good Star Wars books that weren't written by George Lucas. I also hear there are some good Star Trek books which weren't written by Gene Roddenberry. Go to any bookstore, and you will find a whole shelf full of Forgotten Realms books, by a cadre of different authors, and they seems to be, for the most part, well received by fans of Forgotten Realms.
There weren't any good Star Wars books written by George Lucas, nor Star Trek books by Gene Roddenberry. As for Forgotten Realms, as novels they were conceived as a sort of shared world. I'm not a Douglas Adams fan, but none of the Star Wars, Star Trek or Forgotten Realms books are in the same class as The Hitchhikers' Guide series.
I expect that there may be a few people in the world better at telling a consistent and coherent story than George Lucas.
I don't understand what drives people so crazy about the ending of Mostly Harmless. Even Adams said he didn't like the bleak ending. Am I alone in thinking this was the best ending of a book I have ever read?
Sure it's bleak. I don't care. Nearly every other novel I've read that I enjoyed the ending always has seemed abrupt. I get attached to the characters and now the story just 'ends'. Mostly Harmless fixed that. Their dead. The Earth is gone. All of them. There are no 'what now?' questions left. The end of Mostly Harmless had closure - somthing I have failed to find in any story since.
Now comes this crap, off to ruin it.
Orson Scott Card said he battled with this when he finished the Ender's Game quartet. People wanted more sequels. He killed the main character, but others felt he still left a door open. Orson Scott Card said in future series he would have to make sure the door was firmly closed shut when he ended something so that people knew it was over.
I realize there is plenty of dry and black humor, in the most British sense of the words, but the triumph, in my opinion, was that he told a compelling story in spite of that, not because of it. Obviously if you found them humorous as well, then that probably lent something to the subjective quality of the novels. But the HHGTTG series had a much wider audience than British comedy does, so clearly it wasn't the humor alone that drove the popularity, and I think that focusing on that alone is missing the appeal of the books. It's missing the forest for the trees, the way George Lucas did with his prequels, assuming that the popularity of the series had something to do with the special effects, when they were really just a footnote in a story and universe (ok, galaxy) that we loved.
Sorry, but the LAST HHGTTG book, "Mostly Harmless", wasn't all that funny, either - and that WAS written by Douglas himself.
Considering that it ended with the destruction of pretty much EVERYTHING, I don't see how the new book could even BE - let alone BE FUNNY, unless the do a complete reboot of the HHGTTG universe.
("...with younger, edgier characters!")
Maybe the reviewer didn't appreciate the type of humor in the book. I read Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy years ago and didn't find it to be very funny, so maybe I will find this one funny instead.
If you read Hitchhiker to have a good laugh, maybe you're going to be disappointed,"
So its like books 4 and 5 then. I thought book 4 was the best in the series, though I think I'm in the minority since lots of people didn't like it because it didn't have a laugh a sentence.
I disliked the 5th book so much I seem to have successfully suppressed it in my memory to the point where I don't even remember what it was about. Perhaps there wasn't even a 5th book and I'm just confused.
The first few books were so happenstance that I honestly wonder if Douglas Adams had any idea of what was going to happen next. He said when writing the radio show, he had no major thought towards the direction of the show. I think in books 4 and 5, he did seem to have more plot in mind. The books move with more of a purpose. It is entirely possible that people prefered the madcap style of the first 3.
Seriously, if you want more Adams humor, and haven't done so already, go read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and the sequel "The Long, Dark, Tea-time of the Soul". H2G2 isn't the only great series Adams made.
They are great books, and probably way better than anything in this new book.
I think Gently's humour is a bit less accessible - I've had both series since my childhood and only recently did I really start to like Gently. Adams' writing for Dr Who was even more subtly funny.
dig out a copy of last chance to see. that has some of adam's best work...
Sleeping in Labuan Bajo, however, is something of an endurance test.
Being woken at dawn by the cockerels is not in itself a problem. The problem arises when the cockerels get confused as to when dawn actually is. They suddenly explode into life squawking and screaming at about one o'clock in the morning. At about one-thirty they eventually realise their mistake and shut up, just as the major dog-fights of the evening are getting under way. These usually start with a few minor bouts between the more enthusiastic youngsters, and then the full chorus of heavyweights weighs in with a fine impression of what it might be like to fall into the pit of hell with the London Symphony Orchestra.
It is then quite an education to learn that two cats fighting can make easily as much noise as forty dogs. It is a pity to have to learn this at two-fifteen in the morning, but then the cats have a lot to complain about in Labuan Bajo. They all have their tails docked at birth, which is supposed to bring good luck, though presumably not to the cats.
Once the cats have concluded their reflections on this, the cockerels suddenly get the idea that it's dawn again and let rip. It isn't, of course. Dawn is still two hours away, and you still have the delivery van horn-blowing competition to get through to the accompaniment of the major divorce proceedings that have suddenly erupted in the room next door.
At last things calm down and your eyelids begin to slide thankfully together in the blessed predawn hush, and then, about five minutes later, the cockerels finally get it right.
Mostly Humorless.
The last Adams penned HHG2G was not really funny either. Cool, but not funny.
We all define our own notion of the canon - we may orbit around the publisher or primary author, but we're not limited to that. I don't consider any Dr Who after the 7th Doctor to be canon, some of my friends consider everything but the movie to be canon, and there is disagreement about the books as well. People don't hold the same canon on Zelazny, Lovecraft, and plenty of others. I'm sure it'll be likewise with HHGTtG and this book. I don't think we should become too upset over new content unless we reall
Prolific British writer and comedian Adams
Is this the same Douglas Adams we're talking about?
so long and thanks for all the fiction.
I think Mostly Harmless made it pretty clear that Douglas Adams was more than done with the series. If any further proof was necessary, I had an opportunity to talk with Adams shortly before his death, and got the same impression -- he was sick of the series, and wrote Mostly Harmless because he had to.
I would much rather have read a third Dirk Gentley novel than a half-hearted Hitchhiker novel, and might have but for rabid Hitchhiker fans. Not that I'm bitter.
It doesn't really matter what the new novel is like. I'm done with that.
Look, when I was 12 (in 1984), I though the first 2 books were funny. The third wasn't. The fourth was terrible. I didn't bother with the rest.
And you know what? Not even the first 2 books are funny anymore. They haven't held up. At the time of their publication, they were fairly ground-breaking, but that style of humor just hasn't aged well at all (which tends to happen to all kinds of humor). It's juvenile and obvious, really. Nothing wrong with that, but it means the books have a shelf-life, and the HHGTTG books are about 20 years past their expiration date. They are cultural artifacts, not "classics".
To quote the man himself,
"This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Profanity is the one language all programmers know best.


text:
Monday, January 16, 2012
Cuba ~ Tobacco Farm
This is Viñales Valley, about 2-1/2 hours drive from Havana. We visited Concha and Paco Ramirez and their extended family. Paco grew up on this family farm, went to college, and then returned to continue his family's 100 year tradition of farming tobacco.
He grows tobacco, on the 40 acres, along with rice, beans, tomatoes and lettuce. There are also cows (we had pork for lunch) and an assortment of animals. He explained (through our guide) that he 'gives' 90% of the tobacco to the government, and in return they provide the equipment, fertilizer etc to farm. When asked by one of our group, what does he do with the other 10%? He smiled, told us he saves the best for himself, and rolls his own cigars. At the point, he lit one up, from the pocket full he carried.
Hand rolled cigars (20 for 20 pesos) and the 100 year old cigar mold he uses.
That's the Ramirez house, dwarfed by our tour bus.
Nothing like a good cigar a a cup of sweet coffee after lunch!
They had neighbors to entertain us then fed us a delicious lunch (pork, rice and beans) and dessert was mango jam and a slice of cheese. (quite good!)
Tomorrow, textures and trains in Cuba.
5 comments:
- Barbara L.1/16/2012 8:54 AM
I am so loving this tour of Cuba. Thanks so much for sharing. Of course I love seeing your journal too.ReplyDelete
This has been a wonderful week of posts from you--tanks for the pictoral tour of Cuba, Jane--second best to being able to travel there in person! Also, Love the pictures of you and hubby, expecially that last one; you two look so happy and really comfortable in each others arms--nice to see!ReplyDelete
*thanks* =)ReplyDelete
Un beau voyage... Des photos splendides... Merci pour cette magnifique publication.ReplyDelete
Gros bisous
Jane, I am in love with your Cuba trip! I am now adding this to the list of MUST see places! I love salsa, architecture, mojitos and cuban food. I must must MUST go!ReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Stranger By The Lake
Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), the boyish protagonist in "Stranger By The Lake," comes to a lakeside cruising area looking for something more than just sex. Early on, he sees a hunk (named Michel played by Christophe Paou, an actor with a marked resemblance to Tom Selleck) and follows him into the woods behind the beach where the sex takes place. His plans are thwarted, though, when he sees Michel rimming another man. Franck is a bit startled, but not Michel - he notices Franck and smiles.
Already Alain Guiraudie's suspense drama does something that you wouldn't see in an American film: explicit gay sex. As the film continues these outdoor trysts include shots of men performing hardcore. Guiraudie never dwells on the sex - the shots are quick (blink and you may miss them) - but they give this story, completely set in this kind-of sexual utopia during high summer, an unflinching naturalism. Guiraudie's rigorous style even eschews music, instead it is the natural sounds that make an effective alternative soundtrack.
To achieve that end, Guiraudie maintains a cool distance from his characters, offering an almost anthropological look into the quirks and rituals of gay men cruising. That Franck and Michel appear destined to meet may have something to do with the fact that both actors have sexy movie actor good looks while most of the other men stalking the wooded trails are more average looking. Deladonchamps is lean and a bit pretty; Paou has a rougher, more rugged look; together they have chemistry.
What brings them together, though, turns out to be something more perverse than love at first sight. (Spoiler alert: the following reveals a crucial plot point.) Early in the film Franck lingers in the woods late in the day; there in twilight he watches Michel and his current boyfriend playing in the water; but their hijinks turn deadly as Franck appears to witness Michel drowning the other man, then swimming to shore in nothing less than a triumphant gesture. The next day, Michel turns his attention on Franck, who, a bit inexplicably, succumbs. Sex turns out to level the playing field.
Such is the dynamic of this taut, psychological thriller, which isn't as much a 'whodunit' than a game of desire and death played in the most serene of settings. Punctuating the action are shots of the woods, the hilly terrain, the sky and the water that combine to suggest a dreamlike world. (Guiraudie has said that the film that most influenced him is "Night of the Hunter," Charles Laughton's 1955 thriller about children being stalked by a murderer in the woods, and that influence is apparent.)
In fact, the film is a romantic fantasy up to the point when a pesky police detective (Jérôme Chappatte) arrives on the scene to interrogate the men after a man's body is found in the water. That the detective looks so out-of-place as he wanders through the underbrush and approaches the cruisers with his inquiries only underscores the dry humor that punctuates the film.
The detective represents a straight point-of-view, even at one point admonishing Franck for the casual anonymous sex that he doesn't understand. He also is not the only straight character; before he sees Michel, Franck meets Henri (Patrick d'Assumçao) on the beach and begins a chaste, though palpable romance. Henri is an odd duck, setting apart from the other men, never taking off his shirt, going in the water or cruising the woods. Franck learns Henri has recently broken up with a woman, which may account for his sad demeanor. Like Franck, he's searching for something more than getting off, but what it is remains pretty much a mystery. Is he the stranger by the lake?
Or is it the charismatic Michel? As played by Paou, Michel has swagger to spare and a creepy coolness that makes him irresistible and repellent at the same time. Paou conveys Michel's duality with exacting conviction and has great rapport with Deladonchamps, who ably suggests Franck's quivering ambivalence.
That ambivalence gives the film its tension, one that cleverly moves between the seeming calm of the setting and the potential violence that can erupt at any moment. Late in the film when Michel asks Franck to take a swim, you're likely to have an uncomfortable laugh: he's assuredly pushing the limits of Franck's desire, but the question remains why would Franck decide to go in the water?
What makes "Stranger By The Lake" such a fascinating and disturbing movie is how brilliantly Guiraudie mixes romantic fantasy and cold reality. Fassbinder once said love is colder than death; Guiraudie shows how that love can lead to death with a kind of formal brashness that Fassbinder would likely have admired.


text:
Xbox 360 primarily used for gaming, PS3 used mostly for media
With a rapidly growing number of non-gaming apps on Xbox Live, Microsoft has cultivated an image that it is the entertainment console of choice. However, a new report from Nielsen shows that PlayStation gamers are more likely to stream media than their Xbox counterparts.
In fact, PS3 owners are more likely to watch movies or use the internet than actually play games on their console. Game playing only makes up 46% of the time spent on Sony's box, while the remaining 54% is spent watching movies, listening to music, and more.
In comparison, Xbox 360 owners spend two-thirds of their time gaming on their console, split evenly between online and offline gaming.
Nielsen's report doesn't offer any reason for the discrepancy. One explanation could be the requirement of a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription to access many of the media features offered on Xbox 360. PS3, on the other hand, has no additional paywall to access streaming services like Netflix and YouTube.
Still, these figures are surprising given Sony and Microsoft's positioning of their next-gen consoles. PS4 is being targeted heavily at core gamers, while Microsoft has been keen on making its next Xbox less of a games machine, and more of a general entertainment device.


text:
X-post from the Washington forum, hence the local references for both locations and hominids...
By some miracle I managed to get a weekend where husby & kidlet were gone AND my parents could take care of the dogs. However, being a holiday weekend, I really wanted to keep things on the down-low if I was going to be heading out solo... which made the newly-state-purchased purchased Teanaway basin an ideal destination. Nobody but locals and Borneo even know how to find their way in and out of vast swaths of the west fork/middle fork, much less make the effort to go there, so I figured solitude was more likely there than most places. The plan was to drop over the ridge from work on Friday night and just get as far as I could, then continue on to explore the official Forest Circus West Fork trail for a few miles and camp again, then turn and burn for home more or less the way I came in.
My prediction was spot-on... after Friday night, the first human discussion I had was when I ran into warmonkey & crew while hoisting back over the ridge Sunday.
Every adventure starts with a pile of gear.
The pile lashed up to the bike at my office. Sleeping bag + cook set + a few bits of clothing in the Revelate seat pack, hammock/tarp + sleeping pad + some more odds and sods in the front dry bag lashed on w/ a Bedrock Pags Molle panel, food + water + tools + water shoes in the Octane 14+ "camelbak of doom". There's a mountain feed bag w/ phone and snacks on the right hand side of the stem also.
First night's camp just behind lunch rocks. Got here late, set up while it was still light, ended up cooking/eating after dark. BLEH. Slope was as bad or worse as it appears in pic- hardest part was keeping gear from rolling down the hill. !!! Slept fine though, sheltered from nuclear wind.
My morning view from the hammock... sunrise on this hoodoo.
Making breakfast at lunch rocks. OH stove working a hecka lot better when it isn't gusting 40+ (even with me trying to shield it). Coffee = everything's gonna be all right....
MAD FLOW on the West Fork Teanaway trail... holy crap, borneo and happy trails TOTALLY failed to inform me about the gnar on this one! Blow downs only sawed out just past this creek crossing, which itself was knee deep and strewn with large, slick, round rocks waiting to break an ankle and current definitely pushing the bike firmly sideways where it got a hold of the tires. The river shoes I brought as my one and only 'luxury' really earned their keep on this trip!
More gnar. In places this trail appears to have been literally blasted into a basalt cliff face, leaving the 'tread' a pile of shale conveniently slanted downhill. Once or twice it necked down to maybe 6" wide tops, and the rear tire of my loaded bike I was fighting with for room was kicking rocks at least 50' down into the river. And dudes take MOTOS through this- !!!!! SERIOUSLY questioning my sanity at this point, lunch rocks was the last place I could get even a bar or two on the cell phone so if I screw the pooch in here either I'm going to self-rescue or hope that warmonkey at some point gets curious and starts looking for the circling vultures.
Kids, you're not at Duthie any more...
Aw crapsnacks... really?!? Second creek crossing, at least as dodgy as the first. I figured this rocky slot canyon might widen out a bit where a tributary came in ~2 miles up so I had a goal just beyond this, otherwise I'd be camping right on a moto trail. Although given the blow-downs I was having to herf the bike over, I figured I'd probably have the place to myself anyway... which I did, but of course I only know this now... in any case, I was getting fed up and a little freaked out at the thought of pressing my luck much farther. Just had to find a fekking camp site SOON and call 'er good.
ALL TEH STUPIDZ FINALLY PAID OFF BIG MON-NEH! When I spied this campsite well off the trail, I pinched myself. A table, a pole to hang stuff from, clear ground, all tucked into a grove of giant cedars right next to the river (note the tiny bit of 10' tree straps left after getting around the trunks for the hammock). HEAVEN!
My camp from up above on the trail. The route down was hairball enough that I just left the bike parked off to the side and hauled gear in.
Never did see anyone... had the whole place to myself all day. Played in the river, ate, napped... management even said river was clothing optional... life is good...
Life's great ironies: one co-worker was SO worried about what I'd do if I encountered a bear or a cougar.
"Where's your bear spray?"
"Uh... don't have any, never needed it. Could use a little air horn, but kinda late for that now."
"So what are you going to do if you see a bear or a cougar?!?"
"Um.... go like this?" *I raise my hands above my head and make a loud ROWR!* "So far that's worked...."
Honestly I was more worried about breaking a leg in a river crossing or getting flooded out by some ugly looking thunderheads that built that afternoon. And as it turned out, the trail conditions were the worst of it. Even the bugs weren't bad.
The only wildlife that got me was this stupid caterpiller/inchworm thing that fanged the crap out of my ankle, spawning brilliant ideas about a new children's book series: "The Violent Little Caterpillar".
Dawn on the West Fork Teanaway, thankful the thunderheads never built to anything. Whole trip was dry. I was up at 4:30 getting breakfast (coffee, hot chocolate, clif bar) and rolled out a few hours later, trying to cross while the river was hopefully down a bit and to beat the afternoon heat on the climb back out to Roslyn.
Where do you want to go today? Ibis Mojo performed exceedingly well, especially after I added 30+ lbs of pressure to the rear shock and screwed down compression on the fork. The only noticeable handling difference was trying to hold back downhill, otherwise she was actually still a mean trail-eatin-machine.
First light on some basalt ramparts above WF. Fortunately all my creek crossings, trail sketch, and blow-down haul-arounds worked well.
OK, so West Fork Teanaway has to take the prize as "The Most Spectacularly Unsigned Official Forest Service Trailhead Evar".
The road comes in behind me and curves to the left, and the trail is right in front.
This is it. Seriously.
I considered going back on what turns into the main Middle Fork road, then turning up WF to the bridge and up by BST... but kept hearing borneo in my mind: "YOU TOOK THE ROAD?!?" So instead I scooted back more or less the way I'd come in, cutting across the WF drainage and crossing the upper bridge, going over lunch rocks again, and working my way back up The Big Sandy. SO... total tally of pavement for the weekend is only what I needed to get in/out of Roslyn.
Grunting back I finally got a pic of this sign off the back side of lunch rocks... this is obviously a joke, even a rally car couldn't hit 45 on this old logging road without asploding. Certainly zero concerns for my own speed!
Final thoughts:
- Stuff sacks suck. Got so sick of looking at a lumpy front roll the first day. Saturday morning I chucked the sacks for the the sleeping pad and SOL bivy (modded into a blanket to shove between the hammock layers for some side protection/potential ground sheet if I have to biv) into the bottom of the roll and did the 'just shove it in' method instead, which actually cut down on the size of the roll substantially not to mention improving the shape.
- SteriPen is brilliant when it works, but finked out on me again late Saturday. Fortunately I'd already treated enough water, and I later discovered I had more replacement batteries so I could have kept going. Jury's still out on that one.
- HAMMOCK FTW. Make camping in marginal areas like my first night a snap, not to mention ridiculously comfortable. Between a luxurious nap and going to bed early on Saturday I actually returned more rested in some ways than how I left. OK.. sort of... lol.
- If you're interested in bikepacking, just take the bike you have and GO FOR IT. I see so many folks on-line saying they have to get a new bike with this-and-that... the Mojo isn't ideal in that I can't get a frame bag on, but it performed so well I'm having a hard time faulting it anyway. Having a minimal kit + decent bags + lightweight bike made those dodgy creek crossings manageable in one go on the way out, which for a gal lugging all that stuff is saying something.
- If you're interesting in bikepacking and you're a woman and/or you can't find anyone to go with you, just build some skills over some daytime 'dry runs' and GO FOR IT. It's a toss-up if those creek crossings were any more dangerous than driving heavy Seattle rush hour IMO which is about the worst case scenario. In any case, going alone requires some careful thinking but it definitely has it's own rewards. If nothing else I'll certainly have more chops for future outings with husby, having done everything myself.
- Bikepacking is just so totally awesome.... Can't wait to do it again.


text:
The second day of the season produced the same result as the first for the University of South Carolina Beaufort baseball team.
USCB split a doubleheader with Shawnee State (Ohio) for the second consecutive day Sunday at Richard Gray Sports Complex.
The Sand Sharks won Sunday's first game 7-4 behind a solid USCB debut from junior right-hander Hunter Englehart. But the Bears rebounded to claim the final game 15-9 to salvage a split of the four-game series.
After falling behind early in both games on opening day, the Sand Sharks struck first Sunday. Blake Cilwick's RBI single and Terry McClinton's run-scoring double off the right-field fence staked Englehart to a 2-0 lead after one inning.
The Bears tied it at 2 with a pair of runs in the fourth, but USCB broke it open with five runs in the bottom of the inning. Cilwick beat out an infield single to give the Sand Sharks the lead, Erik Armstrong busted it open with a three-run double to left-center and McClinton added an insurance run with a triple down the left-field line.
Englehart worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first and settled in to pitch five solid innings, striking out seven and allowing two runs on three hits with four walks. Junior right-hander Stephen Richards pitched the final two innings for USCB.
USCB also took an early lead in the second game, going up 1-0 on junior Jon Andrews' RBI triple to center, but Shawnee State rallied for six runs in the third and the Sand Sharks were never able to get back into it.
The Sand Sharks open Sun Conference play this week with a three-game series at Webber International. The first game is set for 7 p.m. Friday, and the series concludes with a doubleheader starting at noon Saturday.


text:
I've started my CS course at Cardiff and am about to delve in to the wonderful world of assembly language. We haven't started coding yet but I'm wondering what tools are available for writing and debugging assembly language in Linux. We will be using the UCR standard library at some point (maybe, its been mentioned but its not a certainty).
I've been told that despite the fact there are portability issues between Windows and a decent OS we won't be going deep enough at this point to uncover any of them so decided I may as well look at the Linux tools and avoid rebooting.


text:
Manual on livestock ticks for Animal Disease Eradication Division personnel
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 1965 - Ticks - 142 pages
From inside the book
14 pages matching eggs Max in this book
Where's the rest of this book?
Results 1-3 of 14
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Common terms and phrases
ADULTS Eggs deposited albipictus Amblyomma Amblyomma cajennense American dog tick anaplasmosis andersoni animals annulatus Argasidae basis capituli Boophilus bovine anaplasmosis cajennense capitulum cattle fever tick causative agent Cayenne tick Chitinized Colorado tick fever coxa CYCLE SUMMARY LARVAE Days Days Days deer deposited Oviposition Incubation Dermacentor dorsal drop ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE Eggs deposited Oviposition eggs Max feed fowl tick genus goat hard ticks HOST Larvae hypostome Incubation of eggs infected Ixodes Ixodidae Larvae and nymphs LARVAE NYMPHS Longevity LOCATION ON HOST male mate ment Preovi Mexico Mountain spotted fever mule nitens Number Number Days Number Number Number NYMPHS Longevity unfed one-host tick Ornithodoros Otobius Palpi parasites piroplasmosis position ADULTS Eggs Q fever red tick relapsing fever Rhipicephalus rickettsia Rocky Mountain Rocky Mountain spotted screwworm scutum sheep soft ticks species of ticks spinose ear tick Spiracular plate SUMMARY LARVAE NYMPHS three-host tick Tick HABITAT tick paralysis transmitted tularemia variabilis vector ventral venustus


text:
The right approach for desktop virtualisation
Looking for a way to go
Webcast Tomorrow, Friday 26th November at 11:00 GMT, our studio will bristle with virtualisation chatter as we challenge two alleged experts to thrash out which way to go with desktop virtualisation.
Tony Lock from our chums Freeform Dynamics will join Ian Moulster from Microsoft and El Reg's effervescent Tim Phillips to explore the desktop virtualisation methods and their respective benefits, challenges and applicability.
This will include:
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
• Client Hosted Desktop
• Shared Hosted Desktop (Session Virtualisation)
• Application Streaming
If you can think of anymore, or have an opinion on this, join us. The panel will welcome your input and questions, which you can throw at them live, from the comfort of your office chair.
The event is one hour long, free to attend and hopefully pretty interesting. We're trying to make sure you're getting value for your time. If that sounds good, you can register here. If you can't make it that day, you can still register and we'll send you the recorded version of the show when it's ready.
Sponsored: Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open


text:
On this day: 40 years ago
17 July 1969
At 12:54 a.m. CEST (7:54 p.m. EDT), Apollo 11 is reported as 47 700 km from Earth and traveling at 3.9 km/s. Crew members are busy with housekeeping duties.
1:52 a.m. Mission Control in Houston, Texas, says good night to the crew as they prepare to go to sleep two hours early.
3:59 a.m. Because of the pull of Earth's gravity, the spacecraft has slowed to 2.2 km/s at a distance of 116 700 km from Earth.
1:48 p.m. Mission Control wakes the crew with a brief review of the morning news, including sports developments. They are informed about the progress of the Russian spacecraft Luna 15 and that Vice-President Spiro Agnew called for putting a man on Mars by the year 2000.
5:17 p.m. A midcourse correction is made with a 3-second engine burn, sharpening the course of the spacecraft and testing the engine that must get them in and out of lunar orbit.
More information:
ESA celebrates the 40th anniversary of mankind first setting foot on the Moon and pays tribute to the men and women who took part in this endeavour, some of whom are still active in NASA, ESA and international space programmes. A series of articles chronicles each day of the historic mission 40 years ago, from launch to landing, with many rarely-seen archive photographs and highlights of some fascinating European contributions to lunar exploration.


text:
One of the dating services for meeting local people is Harrells speed dating. Based on a series of short planned introductions Harrells speed dating allow singles to quickly meet people face to face in a safe and fun environment. Imagine meeting people online in a similar fashion through matchmaker.com'sinnovative new Cupid feature which emails you introductions of singles in the Harrells speed dating area without ever having to leave your home.
HarrellsJoin Now Free!
Harrells Girls | Harrells Men | Harrells Gay | Harrells Lesbians
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
More Harrells Links:
Harrells Dating | Harrells Personals | Harrells Chat | Harrells Singles | Harrells Love
Senior Dating | Catholic Dating | Christian Dating | Muslim Dating
Black Singles | Asian Singles | Latin Dating
Meet people from all different backgrounds and lifestyles around the world or someone in the local Harrells neighborhood at matchmaker.com. There are thousands of singles from the around the world looking for a long term relationship. Find love and romance with a Harrells speed dating style of matchmaking.


text:
The Ithacan has been named a finalist to receive a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists Northeast Region (Region 1) at the group's annual meeting, to be held at Rutgers University's New Brunswick, N.J., campus on April 12–13.
The award is for overall excellence. The actual place awarded will be announced at the ceremony. The winner of the regional competition will go on to compete against the winners in SPJ's other 11 regions for the national Mark of Excellence Award.
The Ithacan received the national Mark of Excellence Award for Best Non-Daily Newspaper in the country from SPJ in 2012.


text:
by Angela Hahn
When designing a knitwear pattern, I often start with a stitch I really like, but in the case of Primrose Path, I first had the idea of creating a sleeveless tank, worked in the round, with a lace band winding diagonally around the body from the hem up. With this in mind, I searched through stitch dictionaries until I found a few different lace patterns I thought might work -- patterns in which the lace repeat had some sort of diagonal element.
I ended up using a stitch pattern from a Japanese book, #138 from Knitting Patterns 300. The angle of the diagonal seemed right-- it wasn't too steep nor too flat (I was trying to get the lace band to start somewhere on the front, curve around one side, across the upper back, and end on the top of the shoulder). I also realized that this pattern flowed perfectly into a k2, p3 rib, and I thought that using this rib for the body of the tank would be a great way to give it some shaping without using decreases and increases. After making a fairly large swatch, I wondered if the band might be too suggestive of a beauty contestant sash-- not good! So I added a few scattered lace flowers to soften the edges of the band. Finally, a wide U neck seemed a good choice-- I thought the lines of a V-neck might compete with the diagonal line of the lace band.
I have to be honest: the idea of adding optional sleeves came from Kate! Once we decided to do sleeves, it was time to fine-tune the placement of the lace band for all sizes, and to decide how to echo the lace band on the sleeves. Spiraling it up the sleeves didn't work because the sleeves are too narrow-- the band would have crossed the entire sleeve width well before reaching the top of the sleeve. Instead I decided to make the lace band on the sleeves into an upside down "V" which could be adapted for all sizes fairly easily.
Calculating the band placement on the body for all sizes was trickier; I didn't want the band to fall across the armhole edge, but continue unbroken to the shoulder. I realized that to do this, the band would need to start closer to the side seam in the larger sizes; unfortunately this means that as the sizes get larger, less of the lace accent is visible on the front of the sweater, but I think in all sizes, the lace really accents the back of the sweater nicely. I also decided that some knitters might prefer the clean look of the lace band without extra lace flowers, so I wrote that option into the pattern.
Finally, in keeping with the inherent asymmetry of the stitch pattern in this sweater, for the sample I decided to work the left sleeve with the optional scattered lace flowers, and the right sleeve without (with lace band only). I'm very happy with the overall effect, and with the fact that there are several options included in this pattern: with or without sleeves, with or without extra lace flowers on the body, and with or without extra lace flowers on one or both sleeves.
(The low camera angle in photos is due to the short stature of the 5-year-old photographer, not an artistic decision!)
Want to know more about Angela's design? Read her blog post about Primrose Path here.


text:
A book about social movements with a particularly apt title is Social Movements: Between the Balcony and the Barricade by Ron Roberts and Robert Marsh Kloss, published almost 40 years ago. The book's title describes in a nutshell the divide that exists today between Taiwan's governing authorities and the popular forces opposing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The balcony represents a certain social class, together with the power and influence that members of that class enjoy. It is also a symbol of the security and comfort in which they live. The barricade, on the other hand, suggests conflict. The barricade divides one group of people who live a separate existence, enjoy specific interests and want to maintain the existing social order from another group of people who want to change this social order.
Consider the scene in Taipei on Oct. 10, Double Ten National Day. On the one hand, there were the VIPs in their neatly pressed suits and glamorous dresses, securely seated in their balcony boxes. On the other, there were the crowds of protesters wearing headbands, holding banners and placards and shouting slogans over on the other side of barricades that had been erected to keep them out.
This was probably not the kind of National Day celebration that would make most people in Taiwan proud of their country.
While the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is notorious for ignoring public opinion, its members are experts at securing their interests within the existing power structures. The president whose approval rating recently fell as low as 9.2 percent, is also KMT chairman, thus enjoying undisputed leadership over the party.
The KMT's rigid Leninist structure and the lure of its huge ill-gotten assets are two factors that persuade the great majority of its members — from the members of its Central Standing Committee and legislative caucus at the top, down to party delegates and party workers, to sit comfortably in their allotted balcony seats. They know that that is the way to maintain their vested interests. This is what props up the KMT's seemingly rock-solid and impregnable ruling machine.
However, because of the KMT's control structure, in which its members all share common interests and fear the party's iron discipline, it lacks any forces that might speak out critically and carry out internal reform. This flaw means that the party's destiny must be to drift further and further away from public opinion.
That is why, starting from the visit of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) to Taiwan in 2008, the KMT regime found that the only way to keep feeling good about the way it was running the country was to keep the crowds of protesters well away, outside razor-wire barricades.
This theme has been taken even further this year with the advent of the "October siege" in response to naked political struggle, to the extent that the KMT has had to exclude the protesting masses even more thoroughly by delaying its national congress and finding a new venue that it hopes will allow delegates to sit securely in their balcony seats, without being disturbed by the crowds beyond the barricades.
What is certain is that, as the Ma regime becomes increasingly inclined to sit safely inside a circle of barricades, the people outside those barricades will have to resort to shouting through megaphones and throwing shoes to reach across the fence and communicate with the rulers in their balcony seats. Other channels of communication that would normally be available in a civil society will no longer be an option. This change for the worse may be what eventually defines Ma's place in history.


text:
Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/10/cisco_server_routers/
Cisco rewards bit twiddlers in router-to-server contest
Cash for Linux-module customization
Posted in The Channel, 10th October 2009 02:18 GMT
If you're an IT shop using one of the seven million AXP routers from Cisco Systems and you have some time on your hands, then you just missed an opportunity to make some coin.
Cisco has announced the winners of a contest, called Think Inside The Box, that asked bit-twiddlers and server tweakers to come up with interesting server applications to run on the routers.
The contest, says senior manager for enterprise marketing Shashi Kiran, was to have real IT people come up with some uses for the embedded Linux module that is tucked up inside the AXP routers. AXP is short for Application Extension Platform, and these routers were intended to have embedded applications in them.
Like other Cisco routers, the AXP routers run IOS - Cisco's routing operating system. The AXPs also have a tiny x64-based server module that supports 2GB of memory and a 160GB disk drive that runs a hardened variant of Linux that is cooked up by Cisco. This Linux has a development environment that includes APIs that let it hook into the IOS router operating system.
In the past, Cisco and its partners have used the Linux module to provide DNS serving, voice recording, or various security applications. There are about 20 different applications available for the AXPs, but Cisco wants that base to grow much larger. Hence, the contest.
Over 900 people applied to the contest, which was launched last October. All the proposals were in by February of this year, and by May Cisco and its outside judges (including Brian Proffitt of the Linux Developer Network) whittled the entries down 110 different teams, who were then cut back to 10 teams that were invited to do their projects.
Most of them did their projects while moonlighting at work (what do you expect, in this economy?), and they did so because there was a $100,000 purse. Cisco does not own the resulting entries, but it will probably be debatable if individuals who won or their companies own the IP.
Third prize, for $20,000, was lead by Bernhard Beckham of Germany, who created a Linux application that ran on the AXPs that interfaced with VoIP software and IP phones to do security and remote audio monitoring in offices.
A team lead by Rajesh Kotagiri of India tweaked the AXP routers so they could be used to drive in-store rich media advertising inside of retail outlets that use the routers to link back to the central offices; this project was awarded second prize and $30,000.
The first place prize winner, a team lead by David Perez from Spain, was awarded $50,000 for creating a building automation system that controlled air conditioning, lighting, plumbing, and other systems.
Where will Cisco stick a server next? ®


text:
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, today introduced a "Restitution for Local Government Act of 2010" to help counties and other public entities get back some of the more than $1.7 billion they lost when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.
Eshoo's bill would require the Treasury Department to buy Lehman's assets from these municipalities using profits from the sale of any future Troubled Asset Relief Program assets.
"The purpose of TARP was to prevent the collapse of financial institutions and mitigate the damage of their reckless behavior on the American people. More than 40 municipalities, including San Mateo County in my Congressional District, invested over a billion dollars in the purportedly stable and safe financial products of Lehman Brothers," she said in her news release. "When Lehman collapsed, San Mateo County and other public agencies across the country were crippled, and we owe them some relief."
Across California, 28 cities and counties lost a total of about $250 million, with San Mateo County's loss by far the biggest – $155 million between the county, its cities and its school districts – resulting in teachers being laid off, road and school repairs being canceled, and construction of new buildings being halted. A report commissioned by the county estimated more than 1,500 jobs were lost or not created because of the loss of taxpayer dollars.
The East Bay saw losses too, including Alameda County's $5 million and Fremont's $4 million.
"By selling TARP assets, the federal government has already made more than ten times the amount of money that public institutions lost when Lehman collapsed," Eshoo said. "My legislation will require the Secretary of the Treasury to provide relief to these institutions with any future profit."
The Treasury Department has earned $15.4 billion from dividends, interest, and the sale of bank stock which it bought through TARP, and expects another $7.5 billion from the sale of its 27-percent stake in Citigroup. Eshoo's bill would use some future TARP profits to buy up Lehman securities, bonds and other instruments held by dozens of local governments across the nation when the global financial-services firm went belly up in 2008. Local governments receiving these funds would have to report back to the federal government on how the money is used and to show job creation, retention, and economic activity equal to the amount of funds they received.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, is the bill's first cosponsor. "Lehman Brothers' financial practices were mired in deceit and deception," Speier said in Eshoo's release. "The ensuing investment losses have fallen directly on the shoulders of my constituents who have to bear the burden of reduced educational, health and public safety services. It is imperative that this measure be enacted to protect the welfare of residents of all the municipalities stung by the Lehman Brothers' shell game."


text:
Want to remind yourself or a friend about this program? Fill out this simple form and klru will email you a reminder on the day that it will air.
The Himalayas
series: Nature
air date: 5/29/13 7:00 PM
The Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to the world's highest peaks. NATURE explores the diversity of wildlife and habitats of this mountain chain starring the mysterious snow leopard.
WARNING: Email reminders for this program have already been sent out. Your reminder may not reach the intended address in time for this program's airing.
Back to TV Schedule


text:
The Village of Crossville Board of Trustees came together for a short meeting Tuesday, June 25, with the theme of the meeting dedicated to updates on current projects.
The Village of Crossville Board of Trustees came together for a short meeting Tuesday, June 25, with the theme of the meeting dedicated to updates on current projects.
Mayor Henry Feldmann informed the board another meeting would be held Wednesday, June 26 concerning the Hamill Street Bridge. He noted the contractor will assemble the culvert in Carmi before transporting it to Crossville, so that it will be ready to go once construction begins in mid July.
Mayor Feldmann also said he will have Bobby Grider and a few of the firefighters to attend the next meeting to discuss the most pertinent needs of their department so that the grant money that has been received can be best utilized. One grant in the amount of $23,000 has already been received and a second grant, which requires the village to spend $6,000 toward the earmarked project first, will come in as soon as that money has been committed.
The board was also updated on the new concrete project going in from the Phillips Township office to the hardware store. The concrete work will replace existing material that has been in disrepair. The board voted to approve the project, which will include 1,200 square feet at a cost of $7,200 and will be paid for with the motor fuel funds.
Trustee Konnie Harrington pointed out a recent letter distributed to residents of Crossville concerning the future of the Crossville Post Office. The letter outlines a few options moving forward, and only one includes retaining the post office. Harrington noted how important it is for local residents to attend the meeting set for 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 23 to voice their opinion about the need for the current post office as well as to show their support of the village.
Mayor Feldmann said he had an inquiry about the fence that is rolled up and currently stored at Tiger Park. He said the individual wanted to know if it was for sale. The board noted this fencing was taken down with the understanding it would be put back up and additional fencing would be added to it, so the fencing is not for sale.
The board discussed upcoming Fourth of July activities for residents concerning the personal use of fireworks. Although the Village will not actively pursue those who shoot off fireworks, they are discouraging the use of them. Mayor Feldmann noted that common sense should come into play and those that use personal fireworks carelessly or recklessly will be addressed. Village Police Officer Paul Beam will also shut down any fireworks that are fired off after 10 p.m.
A complaint about mosquitoes was also addressed. Mayor Feldmann said they have been out spraying but it is too expensive to run the truck every evening.
Also, Harrington relayed a message from the first responders concerning the lack of numbers on several houses in the village. She said the group is encouraging residents to either repair their current numbers or to place numbers on their residence so that first responders can easily find houses in case of an emergency.
Mayor Feldmann also told the group a meeting will be held in July in Crossville concerning the Wabash Bridge at New Harmony, Ind. Feldmann urged area residents to attend the meeting to show support of reopening the bridge with the proper repairs.
With no building permits or other business items on the agenda, the meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m. The next meeting for the Village of Crossville Trustees will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 9.


text:
SARANAC LAKE - Hundreds of cyclists visited the region last weekend for the Adirondack North Country Race Weekend.
The annual event kicked off in Wilmington on Saturday, June 9 with the Wilmington-Whiteface Road Race and finished Sunday, June 10 with the New York State Criterium Championships in downtown Saranac Lake. This was the fifth year of the road races and fourth of the criterium.
Race organizer Jimmy Walker said Saturday's race drew about 260 cyclists while the race in Saranac Lake was expected to draw about 200, though he didn't have the final tally for the Saranac Lake race when interviewed by the Lake Placid News. The races were sponsored by Team Placid Planet.
Article Photos
Lou Reuter/Lake Placid News
Rosanne Van Dorn of Team Placid Planet won the pro division in women's criterium race Sunday, June 10 in Saranac Lake to take home a state championship.
"Our registration numbers are a little off from last year, but our actual racers that are here are more because more of the ones that registered came because a good many got scared off by the really bad weather last year," Walker said. "So we're actually going to have more people here this year. But we're still looking for ways to build it up bigger to help the communities here as well as make the races bigger and have more competitors in each race."
The weather may have been a little wet last year, but this year's conditions were nearly perfect with sunny days for both races. The good weather was conducive to good races. Walker himself was involved in one of them.
Racing for Team Placid Planet, Walker took home the New York state criterium championship in the 17-mile Category 3 race Sunday. Walker easily beat out Theodor Schnauder of Avon and Kyle Gagnier of Peru. Times were unavailable as of press time in this particular race.
Winning the criterium race, means Walker will wear the championship jersey in criterium races for the rest of the year.
Although Walker finished first in his category, he actually finished fifth overall in this race, which included Category 3 participants and out-of-state racers.
The Category 4 race was won by Timothy Bouchard of TBS Racing in Buffalo, who barely edged out Walker. Bouchard finished fourth overall.
"I'm upgrading to a three after this so it was my last hurrah," Bouchard said. "No one on our team has had a jersey before for New York state championships, so it's a real cool moment for me."
Overall, the race was won by Brendan Rhim, who finished in 35 minutes and 48 seconds. Rhim lapped most of the competition and won easily. Because the Category 3 cyclist is from Vermont, he wasn't eligible for the New York championship. Second place went to Ansel Dickey, who like Rhim is a member of the Killington Mountain Cycling Team in Vermont. Joseph Wells of St. Albans finished third.
The lead pack actually lucked out because the race featured a big crash at the start of the final lap that included about a half dozen cyclists. The crash gave the crowd a scare, but all the participants walked away from it. It appeared no one was seriously injured, although some people did receive some scrapes and bruises.
"I didn't even know it happened," Walker said. "My friends and family told me it was immediately behind me. The next guy behind me was the guy who crashed and took other people down."
In addition to Walker, there were a number of other local residents who placed well in the races this weekend. Lake Placid resident Rosanne Van Dorn of Team Placid Planet took home a state championship in the women's pro race. She finished in 41:06 for 17 miles to edge Amy Miner of South Burlington, Vt. - who wasn't eligible for the state championship - and Jenny Ives of Saratoga Springs. Nicole LaPlant of Peru took fourth overall and third in the state championship.
The men's pro race was won by Allan Rego of New York City. He finished the 30-mile race in 57.48. Andrew McCullough of Montpelier, Vt. took second overall and Brendan Housler of Rochester took third overall and second in the state race. Waclaw Godycki of Ithaca took third in the state championship race.
Another local to do well Sunday was Colin Delaney of High Peaks Cyclery in Lake Placid. He took second in the 12 mile Category 5 race, finishing in 28:30.
The only other local winner was Donna Moody of Lake Placid, who took first in the 11-mile women's master race with a time of 27:27. Moody also took first in a women's master race Saturday, finishing 28 miles in 1:38:08.
Moody said she enjoyed Saturday's race, which had her in a group with Category 4 cyclists and some juniors.
"I felt pretty good for most of it and I stayed with the lead group until the big hill in Silver Lake when I got dropped," she said. "But it was a fun. It was a good race and safe race."
Saturday's 82-mile men's pro race was won by McCullough, who finished in 3:41:53. He beat Bobby Bailey of Essex Vermont and Rhim.
The women's pro race was won by Ives, who finished the 55-mile course in 2:56:07. Van Dorn came in second in 2:56:42. Kelly Knowles of Ottawa, Ontario came in third.


text:
Results 1 to 2 of 2
#1 Was Fast and Furious Meant to Flood the U.S. With Mexican Refugees?
- Join Date
- Aug 2005
- Posts
- 22,891
We may never know all the actors and angles which played a part in the ATFs Fast and Furious racket, but one thing is certain; with new information breaking almost daily, the reach of this lurid administration scheme may extend beyond anything imagined by even the most dedicated conspiracy theorist.
Bridgit at Hillbuzz believes it possible that thousands of weapons were shipped across the border in order to escalate the Mexican drug wars, thereby making it easier for illegal immigrants here in the US to seek asylum.
In order to seek asylum in the United States, one must be declared a refugee. And although the numbers of refugees accepted into the United States each year must be agreed upon in consultation between Congress and the President, those with the power to confer refugee status are our illegal vote loving President and the Secretary of State, who do not need the consent of Congress to confer such status.
Thanks to Fast and Furious, the ATF shipped thousands of firearms across the border where many thousands of Mexicans were killed in drug wars, their deaths blamed on the influx of these weapons.
So as illegals stream into the US, what better way for Obama to confer refugee status than to portray the Mexican homeland as unsafe, thanks of course to weak American gun laws which permitted this dangerous flow of weapons into the country.
And the real kicker? By sheer COINCIDENCE of course, in March of this year Senator Patrick Leahy and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren submitted their Refugee Protection Act.
Among its principle provisions:that asylum seekers no longer have to make their claim within one year of entry into the US; that claims can be filed even without proof of prosecution; that free counsel will be provided; and that refugees will receive a settlement grant along with cost of living increases and adjustments for inflation!
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- Southwest Michigan (in Exile)
- Posts
- 8,757
This administration is really fucking lucky. The Mexican Government could easily have seen this as and act of war and would have been fully in their right to attack the US over it. (I'm NOT saying Mexico could or would, just that they would have the legal right)."Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings..." Patrick Henry
|« Previous Thread | Next Thread »


text:
Mikimoto 6mm A+ Akoya Pearl Floral Ring With Diamond Accents in 18kt Yellow Gold
Item#: 819058
With this ring, Mikimoto combines a silky 6mm cultured Akoya pearl with a diamond accented flower for a delightful design full of playful whimsy. 18kt yellow gold ring. Mikimoto has graded this pearl as A+.
Ross-Simons is pleased to provide Free Shipping on this item in the US. However, no additional discounts apply.
Product Details (for Mikimoto 6mm A+ Akoya Pearl Floral Ring With Diamond Accents in 18kt Yellow Gold. Size 6)
1/4 inch
18kt close 18KT: Karat (abbreviated kt or K) is a unit that indicates the purity of gold in the metal. 18kt is 75% gold. In Europe, 18K yellow gold is most favored and used in jewelry. Yellow Gold close YELLOW GOLD: Gold is a precious metal with a natural yellow color. It is quite soft and often alloyed with other metals to increase its strength. The purity of the metal is indicated by a unit called a "karat," with 24kt having the highest percentage of natural gold.
Polished close POLISHED: A buffed-out finish used to produce a mirror-like shine.
Gemstone 1:
Cultured Akoya Pearl close AKOYA PEARLS: a true classic, the akoya pearl was the first pearl to be cultured in the salt waters of Japan. Smooth, round and highly lustrous, akoya pearls captivate in traditional pearl jewelry designs, such as necklaces, bracelets and stud earrings. Pearl is the traditional birthstone for June. (Color: White, Quantity: 1, Shape & Cutting Style: Round, Size: 6 mm)
Gemstone 2:
Diamond close Diamond: The hardest and most brilliant of all gemstones, a diamond can make the heart race with its pure and fiery spark. An ancient symbol of love, a diamond is the preferred gemstone for tokens of affection, such as rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Diamond is the birthstone for April. (Quantity: 4, Shape & Cutting Style: Round Brilliant close BRILLIANT: A gemstone cut to enhance brilliance without sacrificing much carat weight. Typically has 58 facets. , Color Grade: F-G close Color Grade F-G: Colorless to near-colorless , Clarity: VS1-VS2 close Clarity VS1-VS2: Very slightly included. Inclusions are observed with effort under 10x magnification, but can be characterized as minor. , Weight: 0.02 ct. t.w.)
All weights and measures are approximate.
Ross-Simons Presentation Box Your purchase includes an elegant Ross-Simons presentation box.
100% Moneyback Guarantee every item, every order, every day
Free Shipping on orders $250 or more
Only $7.95 Flat Rate for any order under $250
24/7 Live Help toll free at 1-800-835-0919
100% Secure Checkout verified by Norton Security
Recently Viewed Items:
Learn More About Mikimoto Pearls Jewelry Pearls Akoya Pearls Yellow Gold Diamond Free Ring Sizer


text:
Point Blue/PRBO Alumni Program
Welcome to the Point Blue/PRBO alumni program. This program is focused on former interns, volunteers, and staff from the Palomarin Field Station (Palo) and Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), but all Point Blue/PRBO alumni are invited to participate.
Please take a moment to fill out the online membership form.
Who is eligible? Anyone who has worked and/or volunteered (officially or unofficially) at Point Blue (including under the name PRBO), especially at Palo and/or SEFI.
What does Alumni membership get you? Invitations to special events, electronic newsletter updates for Palo or SEFI alumni, access to an Alumni Directory so you can get in touch with old friends, networking opportunities, and a one-year special reduced rate Point Blue membership.


text:
Content count17
Last visited
About TitchyTash89
- Birthday 01/09/1989
Profile Information
First Name
Ford Model
Fiesta Metal (Frozen White)
Ford Year
UK/Ireland Location
General Automotive
Motorsport & Racing
Car Modification
Road Trips
Food & Drink
Computers & Electronics
Arts & Crafts
Sports & Leisure
Health & Beauty
Thanks DanGull, some good comments there, i dont wax my car as this 'coating' requires you not to (i got it added to the car for free) so should i still wax it every now and again?
When's The New Fiesta St Coming Out?
TitchyTash89 replied to metal-liam's topic in Ford Fiesta ClubWhen i brought my Metal a month or so back the salesman (happenss to be a friend of a friend) advised me that they have delayed the release of the new ST untill the first quarter of 2013 as the 1l focus is coming out
TitchyTash89 started following Hey My Name Is Eric, When's The New Fiesta St Coming Out?, Fiesta In The Park and and 3 others
I think i am going to do the same, bit of a longer trip for me but my friend says that you can pay on the 'door'. Spose we wont find out untill we get there!!
Hi, I would also like to know whether you have to pay on the day or pre-order tickets as i am going and only just found out from this chat that you may have to pre-order tickets?
I have bever cleaned my exhaust so i can comment on that, sorry. With regards to the clay bars ive just read that they remove the dirt from the paint to leave a nice clean surface to apply the wax on...dont supose this would cause a problem but if you were removing a hard peice of dirt it could scratch the paint whilst doing so. However if the car is new i dont see the point in using them really just wax everytime you wash if needed and wash the car regularly to stop brake dust and dirt from building up (if you have silver alloys brake dust will break down the alloy and you will have permanent black marks on them) At the end of the day it is up to you how much and to what quality you want to wash and keep ypu car clean so go with what you feel comfortable and to keep the car in excellent condition! :D
Thanks iNath
Thanks TheRangers
Thanks :D
Thanks for you help fordieashx, i thought it was a limited edition but was just curious as i have just purchased one brand new but i was looking on the net and noticed that they came out last yearish? (possibly the year before but I cant remember) and was also confused as you can configure them and order them on the ford website? When i declared it to my insurance it states that it is a limited edition but if you can configure them online surely loads of people can get them? or do they cap the once registered Metal's reach 1000?
Hey My Name Is Eric
TitchyTash89 replied to eillouz's topic in New Member IntroductionsIt will be a mk7, the mk6 is the same shape as the fiesta st and i there isnt a mk8 out yet that i am aware of in the UK?
I have the coating and when you have it applied its suppose to come with a cleaning kit! which is quite handy. (you can have this coating applied after purchase if you are interested) I used turtle wax products on my last car (you can buy the set with shampoo, wax, wheel clearner, interior cleaner and cloths from halfords) . I start by washing the car with a bucket of soapy water and then agian with a bucket of plain water, after this i use a ringed out shammy and give the car a once over to remove water streaks. When using the shampoo water wash the alloys after the car and the same process applies for the clean water and shammying. Other people might have better ways to clean cars but thats how i do it, but im open for other iseas too!!
Thanks for your help guys!! TheRangers - Where is this badge?
Hi, Have you had the smart guard coating applied to the car by ford?
I have a Fiesta and am only 5ft tall im not sure if you can make the pedals longer but i don not have an issue driving the car without my heels on the floor. This doesnt answer your original question but it might put put your wifes mind at rest about driving the fiesta.
Fiesta Metal Green Arrow
TitchyTash89 replied to Froggy72's topic in Ford Fiesta ClubI have a Metal and my car doesnt have the gear change indicator and no option to turn it on either, so it must not come with the car...


text:
I'm going to double post this question! Hope that doesn't break any of the rules!
First of all, I'd like a critique of the site itself, which is why I'm posting it here.
Secondly, I just did a revision of a lot of the pages on this site and I noticed that my browser had cached some of the older pages which required me to refresh the pages as I came to them so I could see the new changes. Is there a way to force a browser to reload a new page? This may have occurred on page that I had changed only a few minutes before and changed again! Does the browser cache only work off of the date of the file, not the date and time?
Well, it is looking good, simple and user friendly to me, the design is really excellent.