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European Commission - Press release
Maritime policy: new strategy for growth and jobs in the Atlantic Ocean area
Brussels, 25 November 2011 – On Monday 28 November, in Lisbon, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, will present a new maritime strategy for growth and jobs in the Atlantic Ocean area, just adopted by the European Commission. The strategy identifies challenges and opportunities in the region and takes stock of existing initiatives that can support growth and job creation. The strategy will be implemented through an Action Plan in 2013. The Commission calls on stakeholders to help design concrete projects which would be able to benefit from EU funding. The Commission will facilitate the development of this Action Plan through a series of workshops and discussion groups that will be open to a wide array of participants - the 'Atlantic Forum'. The new strategy is developed under the EU's Integrated Maritime Policy and follows similar strategies for the Baltic, the Arctic and the Mediterranean areas. Commissioner Damanaki will present the strategy at the high-level Lisbon Atlantic Conference and Stakeholder Day, on 28-29 November, where a first discussion will take place.
Commissioner Maria Damanaki, in charge of maritime affairs and fisheries, said: "Europe urgently needs new far-sighted strands of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in a new low-carbon 'blue economy'. Emerging maritime industries have every chance to become one of the pillars of Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs. The collaborative platform offered through our Integrated Maritime Policy can help make the Atlantic region internationally renowned for its maritime excellence."
The Commission invites all stakeholders - national, regional and local authorities, the industry, civil society, and think tanks – to contribute their expertise and ideas to the Action Plan through the 'Atlantic Forum'. It will comprise a set of workshops focused on the challenges and opportunities outlined in the strategy, and an online discussion forum. The Forum will be launched in 2012 and dissolved in 2013, after it will have contributed to the Action Plan. The strategy does not foresee additional funding for its implementation: actions will be supported from existing and future EU funds.
Great potential for 'blue growth'
The Atlantic Ocean has high potential for wind, wave and tidal energy. It is estimated that by 2020 around 20% of Europe's offshore wind capacity could be located in the Atlantic region. Sea-bed mining could help meet some of the EU's demand for raw materials. Offshore aquaculture is a promising sector, and one third of all the fish caught by the EU's fishing fleet is landed in the Atlantic ports.
But most of these opportunities are still in their infancy and need to be nurtured to grow into self-sustained industries. That is where the public authorities and other stakeholders in the region step in; and the EU can help ensure synergies on a transnational level. Much is already being done, but these actions need to be streamlined and reinforced through efficient use of existing and future EU funds.
For example, maritime spatial planning can boost aquaculture, as it gives investors greater legal certainty and prevents conflicts for marine space. Marine knowledge and the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODNET) can provide marine data that are indispensable for taking informed decisions. Better integration of maritime surveillance can help respond faster to threats and emergencies, from natural disasters to piracy, making the Atlantic Ocean safer.
New industries, however, cannot develop without a skilled workforce. Clusters of academia and maritime industries should be supported and workers need assistance and re-training to help them move from declining industries, such as fisheries, to emerging ones. As regards tourism, the Atlantic region has a lot to offer to holidaymakers. Its culture, cuisine and natural beauty are assets to further exploit.
Coasts, territorial and jurisdictional waters of five EU member states (France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, and their overseas territories, i.e. the Azores, the Canary Islands, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Madeira, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin), as well as international waters fall within the strategy's scope. The strategy does not cover the North Sea or the Arctic Ocean. A separate strategy exists for the latter.
The development of the Atlantic Strategy dovetails with the Integrated Maritime Policy for the EU, which aims to coordinate all EU policies with a maritime dimension to ensure environmental sustainability and the quality of living conditions in coastal regions while promoting the growth potential of maritime industries. Strategies have already been adopted for the Baltic Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
More information:
Integrated Maritime Policy pages on the Atlantic Ocean
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott is strongly warning universities that he will fight against any tuition hikes this year.
Scott made the warning in a letter sent out Friday to the heads of the boards that oversee the state's 12 public universities. He urged university boards to join him in a "worthy battle" to keep tuition rates flat.
The letter could be a prelude to a legal challenge. The governor on Monday vetoed a three percent hike included in this year's budget.
But tuition could still go up. University boards have the power to raise tuition.
A separate law states tuition goes up automatically by the rate of inflation is there is no increase in the budget. That law, however, is silent on what happens if the governor vetoes the hike.

subset: commoncrawl


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Other than a lack of overall talent, there's never just one reason why a team fails to win. The Mets began the season projected for the basement, with some corners speculating 100 losses.
So, at 74-88, 14 games below .500, and in fourth place, the Mets did better than expected, but in the end were still disappointing and kicked a promising season away with a dismal second half.
The Mets were 46-40 at the break, but ended the first half on a sour note by losing two of three at Citi Field to the Cubs. This coming after losing two of three to the Cubs at Wrigley Field a short time earlier.
You can't consider yourself a serious contender when you lose consecutive series to a team that lost 100 games. You just can't do it.
So, what went wrong?
STREAKY BAD: The Mets' longest winning streak in the second half was four, accomplished twice. Conversely, they had five such losing streaks, including dropping six straight three times. When a team is streaky bad like that players begin to press, which is what happened in July and August.
STAYING WITH A PAT HAND: GM Sandy Alderson said several times the team had the resources to add talent if they were in contention at the trade deadline. But, that doesn't meaning waiting until July 31. The bullpen had shown signs of breaking down in late June and early July, and there was a woeful lack of power with Ike Davis, Jason Bay and Lucas Duda doing nothing, but Alderson was content to believe things would get better and was satisfied at the break with a 46-40 record. The Mets opened the second half with two losing streaks of at least five games and by that time it was too late.
INJURIES: All teams have them and the Mets were no exception. It's hard to win when three-fifths of your rotation goes down. First, Mike Pelfrey, then Dillon Gee and Johan Santana. The Mets simply didn't have the replacement parts they needed, although the got more from R.A. Dickey than they could have wished for and Matt Harvey made a good first impression.
THE BULLPEN COLLAPSED AGAIN: The wasn't bad in April, but was non-existent in the second half. The pen's failures can be summarized by just 36 saves, and a 20-22 record in one-run games and 3-7 in extra innings. Clearly, they couldn't slam the door late. The problem wasn't really the closer as much as it was the bridge leading to the closer.
NO OFFENSE: The Mets had three players with 20-plus homers, but that's not enough. The Mets went 15 straight home games in the second half where they scored three or fewer runs which lead to a minus-56 runs differential. If Davis had any kind of a first half he might have finished with 40. David Wright couldn't carry the team from July on and one wonders if he'll be a 30-homer player again. The Mets received very little from Bay, Duda, Josh Thole and Andres Torres. Who would have thought Scott Hairston would lead the outfield with 20 homers?


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Farkas chosen to lead Purdue's Department of Food Science
March 25, 2013
Brian Farkas
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Brian E. Farkas, professor of food science at North Carolina State University since 1994, has been appointed professor and head of Purdue University's Department of Food Science.
The appointment, effective July 1, was announced Monday (March 25) by Jay Akridge, Glenn W. Sample Dean of Purdue's College of Agriculture.
Farkas succeeds Suzanne Nielsen, who is returning to the College of Agriculture faculty after serving 10 years as department head.
Akridge said Farkas has an exceptional record of accomplishment in all of Purdue Agriculture's mission areas: teaching, discovery and engagement.
"He is a proven leader, and I am very excited about the vision, passion and energy he will bring to the food science department," Akridge said.
Farkas said he is honored to be following in the footsteps of the department's first two leaders - Nielsen, and, before her, Philip E. Nelson. He said the department's faculty and staff and the college's administration are leaders in their field.
"Their reputation for excellence in the land-grant mission is widely known, from developing students as scientists and professionals to addressing critical issues of global interest and facilitating Indiana's economic growth," he said.
Farkas will continue his research in transport phenomena as applied to food and agriculture, with a current focus on high-temperature interfacial science. In this, his laboratory seeks to develop a better understanding of the flow of mass and energy across solid-liquid-gas interfaces during processing at elevated temperatures.
Farkas has been alumni distinguished undergraduate professor and undergraduate coordinator of food science at North Carolina State since 2009. He began his work at the university as an assistant professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences and rose to professor and associate department head in 2006 before taking on his current duties. Farkas also has had a graduate faculty appointment at Purdue since 2010.
He worked in the freeze-drying industry as a process engineer and alternate shift supervisor at Innovative Foods Inc. of South San Francisco, Calif., from 1985-1987 and held research and teaching positions at the University of California at Davis from 1992-1994.
Farkas received his doctorate in engineering and a master's degree in food science from the University of California Davis and a bachelor's degree in food science from the University of Delaware.
Akridge thanked Nielsen for her work as the food science department head.
"I want to express my deepest appreciation to Dr. Nielsen for a decade of leadership of one of the nation's top food science departments," he said.
Writer: Keith Robinson, 765-494-2722, email@example.com
Sources: Jay Akridge, 765-494-8391, firstname.lastname@example.com
Brian Farkas, 919-513-2096, email@example.com
Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Keith Robinson, email@example.com
Agriculture News Page


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Sponsored By
Comparison: NFL to UEFA Champions LeagueFor the past few years, I have put together this fun article to compare America's favorite sports league, the National Football League (NFL), and the world's favorite league, the UEFA Champions League (UCL). The original idea for this exercise was to help get my friends who aren't soccer fans into the sport by giving them an easier way to understand the biggest club competition on the planet. So with each league featuring 32 teams broken up into eight groups of four teams apiece, the following are the comparisons between each NFL Division and Champions League Group.
Upper 90 Soccer Show: Premier League Wrap Up, CL Final Preview, DC United This time on the Upper 90 Soccer Show, Robert Bode and fill-in hosts Brendan Darr and Scott Graham take a look back at the wild final matchday of the Barclay's Premier League, with Manchester City dramatically hoisting their first BPL trophy and their first top-flight title since 1968.
Upper 90 Soccer Show: Dave Johnson, Jason Davis, Manchester City vs. Manchester UnitedIn the first full episode of the Upper 90 Soccer Show on 1067thefandc.com, the hosts Robert Bode, Austin Sanders and Justin McMahan interviewed Dave Johnson, the TV play-by-play voice of DC United, and Jason Davis, the co-host of "The Best Soccer Show."


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Meetings are open to non-members, so don't be shy. Consider yourself invited. Monthly meetings are reserved for technical talks, with one exception; the Annual Meeting in December of each year is an opportunity to hear from the Board of Directors and for members to voice their ideas. Between Annual Meetings, the business of the organization is conducted by the Board.
Monthly meetings are usually held on the second Thursday of each month, starting at 7:30 PM at the Dolley Madison Library, 1244 Oak Ridge Avenue, McLean, VA. (Map and directions) See home page for current dates/times and locations.
Saturday luncheons (also known as Tacos) are held every week around Noon at Tippy's Taco House 8632 Lee Highway (US Rte 29) near Cedar Lane, Merrifield, (Fairfax), VA (Map and directions)
FM talk-in is on the AMRAD repeater (W4CIA) near Tysons Corner, VA. The input frequency is 147.81, the output is 147.21 MHz.


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Threat and Vulnerability Mitigation (Reporting Services)
This topic describes techniques and strategies to reduce threats to a Reporting Services deployment.
A report server is a stateless server that stores content and application data externally. One of the largest threats to a report server installation is unauthorized access to or tampering of the report server database and configuration files. A less obvious but equally important threat is in how you create reports and who has permission to publish content to a report server. Report definitions are assemblies that run in full trust on a server computer. Report definitions can contain other custom assemblies that also run on the server. If the report or a custom assembly contains malicious code, that code will run on the report server computer under the credentials of the user who requested the report. Other subtle threats can accrue through a report design that unintentionally exposes sensitive data. For example, if an employee runs a report that uses an employee ID as a parameter, he or she should not be able to view information about another employee by inserting a random ID into a report URL. Finally, consider the report distribution practices in your organization. You can configure a report server to minimize the possibility of delivering reports outside the organization. You can also use permissions on the file system and report server permissions to ensure that only authorized users can open a report.
The following sections in this topic describe additional threats and how you can minimize the risks of an actual exploit.
Mitigating an Attack on a Report Server
The following table describes threats and mitigations that affect server components and configuration settings.
Feature or operation
Configuration settings are stored in Web.config and in application configuration files on the report server computer.
An attacker might gain access to the computer, locate an unencrypted or unprotected configuration file, and tamper with the file.
Set permissions on the file. By default, permissions are granted to Reporting Services security groups that are created during Setup.
Report Server Web service processes on-demand requests sent over TCP/IP connections.
An attacker might launch a denial of service attack that takes the following forms:
Multiple unauthenticated requests are directed at a target server.
Incomplete requests are directed at a target server but never completed.
Requests are excessively large; the attacker starts a request and then sends a large payload to the server.
The report server drops all unauthenticated requests within two minutes, which can minimize some of the effects of a denial of service attack. The two-minute interval is fixed; you cannot shorten it.
If the attack is based on upload operations to the report server, you can reduce the value for maxRequestLength element in the Machine.config file. By default, ASP.NET places a megabytes (MB) limit on items that can be uploaded to a server application. Note that lowering the value for maxRequestLength should be a temporary measure. You should change the value back to its previous value if uploading large files (such as models) is a common practice. For more information about setting maxRequestLength in a Reporting Services installation, see Report and Snapshot Size Limits.
Reporting Services supports an extensible architecture that lets you deploy third-party data processing, rendering, and delivery extensions. You can also deploy custom query designers. Extensions must run in Full Trust.
An attacker might include malicious code in a custom extension.
Only deploy extensions from users or organizations that you trust.
Mitigating Threats to Reports Definitions and Report Models
The following table describes threats and mitigations that affect report definitions and model files.
Feature or operation
Publishing reports, models, and shared data sources to a report server.
Reports and models connect to and query external data sources.
Intercepting reports, models, and shared data sources during a publish operation.
Intercepting requests that are in transit to an external computer.
Use a secure, encrypted channel, such as SSL/TLS/IPSec, for connection. Encryption technologies must be used to protect a channel.
Inform users before sending that the channel is not secured.
Authentication tokens or credentials are used to connect to remote computers and data sources.
Intercepting authentication data when processing a request.
Use a secure, encrypted channel.
Inform the user if the channel is not secured.
Follow the principle of least permission. Retrieving data used in a report requires read-only permissions on data sources.
Report URLs show parameter values in the address bar of the browser window.
If a report contains confidential data, do not add parameter values that can be tampered with on the URL. For example, if a parameterized report includes an employee ID, a user can insert a random employee ID on the URL to view data intended for other users.
Before publishing a report for final distribution, check its URL to verify whether parameter values can be replaced with random values.
When you design your reports, remember that there are no permissions associated with setting parameters. There are a couple of possible mitigations:
Reports and models contain data source information and queries.
Disclosing information about a data source or its structure provides an attacker with internal information that could be exploited.
Before letting a user to modify a report model, set model item security to restrict access to model items that you do not want the user to see in Model Designer.
Set permissions on files. Files include .rdl, .rds, .smdl, .ds, .dsv, and .smgl files.
By default, files that are stored locally in a user's folder are accessible only to user groups and accounts defined on the local computer if the operating system is Windows XP or later.
Report definitions and shared data sources contain data source connection strings. It is possible to include credentials in a connection string.
An attacker might access database credentials stored in the database connection strings if the report files are compromised.
Store credentials separately from the connection string. You can use the stored credentials option in the data source property pages to encrypt and store a user account and password.
Reports and models are processed on demand.
Reports can reference or contain custom assemblies.
Reports can contain custom report items or third-party controls. Custom report item controls require Full Trust.
An attacker convinces a user to run a report that exploits embedded Visual Basic code or database queries to execute arbitrary code with the user's permissions.
Running a report or model that has been tampered with can cause buffer overruns, crash a server, or worse.
Limit the number of users who have permission to publish reports and models.
Ensure that only authenticated users have permission to upload files.
Ensure that users who author reports understand how to create scripts that can withstand SQL injection, script injection, and HTML injection attacks.
Only upload or publish reports and models from people you trust.
Only install or use a custom report item control from people you trust.
Review files before uploading them to verify that any references to custom assemblies are valid.
Set file permissions on assemblies so that they cannot be overwritten by malicious users.
Previewing a report or model in the Preview tab in Report Designer creates cached data that is retrieved using the credentials of the author.
Other users who preview a report on a report author's computer might be able to view report data that he or she would not otherwise see.
Deploy reports to a test server or location when finishing a report design.
For more information, see Securing Reports and Resources.
General Steps to Mitigate Threats and Vulnerabilities
Apply the following best practice recommendations to enhance the overall security of any report server deployment:
Turn off unused features to reduce the surface area of attack. For more information, see How to: Turn Reporting Services Features On or Off.
Use SSL for report server connections. For more information, see Configuring a Report Server for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Connections.
Create a folder hierarchy that supports robust permission policies by placing sensitive or confidential reports in folders at the furthest branches of the folder hierarchy in folders that are accessible to a restricted set of users. Reports, models, shared data sources, and resources that you publish to a report server are secured through role assignments that you create on folders and specific items on the report server site. Because the folder hierarchy is fully user-defined, it is up to you to create a folder hierarchy that groups together any items that have similar user access permissions. For more information, see Securing Folders.
Understand that on-demand reports are compiled assemblies that run in full trust on a report server under the credentials of the user who opens the report. Report users who log on using local or domain administrator credentials and subsequently open a report that contains malicious script will inadvertently run that script with administrator permissions. Encourage users to use least-privilege accounts when viewing reports. For more information, see Integrated Security and Elevated Permissions.
Understand how data is retrieved and used in a report. If a report contains sensitive data, consider using models as a data source so that you can apply security filters and model item security. For more information, see Tutorial: Applying Security Filters to Report Model Items.
Understand how the report is distributed. Subscription and delivery features are powerful techniques for automating report processing and distributing a generated report, but to avoid unauthorized access you will want to monitor who has share permissions on network folders and evaluate report server e-mail configuration settings to determine whether you need to restrict e-mail distribution. For more information, see Controlling Report Distribution.


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Welcome to NTY2011
Not quite sure what NTY2011 is exactly? My guess is that most people outside of this bumpy, beautifully beleaguered country don't either, but I'd love to be proved wrong. NTY2011 stands for Nepal Tourism Year 2011 - this wee hill state aims to attract over 1million visitors this year - a mere tripling of the present numbers.
Have you seen the ads, watched the promo clips or spoken to your local Nepali tourism rep? Hmmm, thought not. In typical fashion the Very Good Idea has turned into a Slightly Wobbly Plan that no one is really in charge of or has any idea of how it will actually happen. NTY2011 was due to start on January 14th (perhaps a two week warm up was necessary, or they didn't want to ruin the party by celebrating on NYE?). Having known for over a year that NTY2011 was definitely happening, only on the afternoon of January 13th did our gracious leaders announce a Public Holiday (for the following day) - take the day off work tomorrow and come and celebrate with us, they said. Employees rejoiced, employers wailed. A few hours later there was a change of heart and on the evening of the 13th the New Public Holiday was abandoned - stay at work and we'll celebrate with our mates, the leaders said. So on January 14th the Powers That Be had a wonderfully self-congratulatory opening ceremony, closing the major roads around the city for the VIP blue-plated limos and land cruisers to get to the event stadium unimpeded. The rest of us road-users sat in a whole-day jam: a first even for Kathmandu. What a marvellous way to welcome friendly foreigners! Mind you anyone attempting to get into the capital on that auspicious occasion would have needed all of the 13 million gods on their side: high winds shut Lukla, the Terai was cloaked in dense fog closing roads and runways and Tribhuvan Airport was under siege -'a simian invasion', said the newspapers (some monkeys swung too high and hard from the electricity cables and everything came tumbling down). Only in Nepal!
So if you've heard of NTY2011 and have changed your travel plans as a result I'd be delighted to hear from you! If you were already planning to come to the land of happy chaos for some wild and wonderful adventures then enjoy the extra services and warm welcome anyway.
Over the last couple of months, whilst many people were soaking up sherry and other festive spirits, I had the pleasure of leading a happy band of trekkers out in to the hills for a Christmas Carry On up the Khumbu: Everest Base Camp (and back). We had a chilly, but wonderful trip on near empty trails under big blue skies and the towering peaks of some very impressive mountains. For many people it was their first venture into the world of trekking, and for one or two, their first experience of hill-walking - a steep learning curve coming to the world's highest mountain range in the middle of winter, but good on em! As we walked and talked we discussed some of the things we've learnt about life on trek and what can help make it more comfortable and enjoyable. So I thought I'd share with you the fruits of our womblings: some top tips for first time trekkers. Please feel free to comment and particularly to add any useful tips you've picked up along the way.
Happy New Year from Nepal!
Top tips for first time trekkers
You can't have too much water when on trek - but what's the best way to carry and consume this essential liquor? We recommend carrying at least one 1-litre water bottle plus either another of the same or a Camelback, Platypus or similar bladder system.
Bringing bladders
Camelback type systems are great for being able to sip water constantly whilst on the move, but need lots of careful managing to prevent the mouth piece and pipe becoming a home for lots of happy, but harmful bacteria. Popping that mouthpiece in and out of sunscreen coated lips, to wash nicely sugary bits of chocolate, power bar and other tasty treats away not to mention the odd dangle in the dust in warm and sunny conditions are all excellent for stimulating microbial growth. Be ready to sterilise every other day. And if it's not warm and sunny it'll doubtless be freezing cold and you'll be sucking up ice crystals unless you invest in a tube insulator. The biggest hazard for plastic bladders though is our refill system. On trek our kitchen teams will be boiling up bucketfuls of water getting it safe for you to drink. Just boiled water tends have a deleterious effect on bladder seals - they pop and burst all over the place. So if you're using a bladder, bring a bottle too to put the hot water in, let it cool down for a few hours then top your plastic pouch up.
A lot of bottle
Using bottles? Simple, safe and they double up as a hot water bottle for toasty toes on those chilly evenings. On the trail find a way to hang them / stash them so you can reach for them easily without having to take your 'sac off. Net pockets on the side of sacs (and a friend if you've stiff shoulders) or an insulated pouch attached to your rucksack waist-belt are ideal. Wide necked Nalgene are the best and most reliable in our experience.
One of the effects of exertion, dehydration and adjusting to new altitudes can be a headache. Your first action should be to drink a good dose of water (1L +) but if that doesn't sort it some pain relief will be effective. We've found paracetamol (Tylenol) to be the safest and most effective. Brufen based drugs (ibuprofen, nurofen etc) are less useful when going up high and aspirin or codeine based ones are a no-no.
Ups and downs to expect
As well as lots of physical ups and downs expect to have a few emotional ones too: some days you'll be tired / homesick / missing your loved ones/ aching for a hot shower and other days will be stuffed full of the best ever moments, where every twist and turn of the trail fills you with elation. Life is a rollercoaster (as that Ronan fella once said) - and so is trek. Come prepared!
To bring for treats and to make life brighter in tough timesI find sugar free chewing gum can really help if you're feeling a bit sickly and it's also great for keeping your throat wet in the dry and dusty air. Some people like to bring their own drink concoctions with them for days when you're done with tea or hot juice- herbal tea bags, your favourite drink powders are good or effervescent Vit C or NUUMs are good for when you're bored of water but need to drink. Chocolate, jelly babies, nice sweets to keep in your pocket always help on big uphills - I find chocolate helps with most things in life but that's probably just me! (KE supply all clients with a bar of chocolate each day on most of our trips). A small tub of Vaseline is excellent for applying to chapped lips and raw noses at night or dabbing on your toes to prevent blisters in the day. Talc tipped liberally into clothing and socks keeps bad smells at bay and reduces scratchiness. A thick moisturiser such as Nivea or cold cream is excellent for cracked fingers and dry skin.
Coughs and colds
Puffing and panting a bit in the cold, super-dry mountain air of higher altitudes can really tickle your airway linings in a non-too funny way. The cold, dry air can irritate your nasal, sinus, throat and lungs causing coughs (the dreaded Khumbu cough for example) and leaving you open to colds and infections. To reduce irritation we've found wearing a Buff or scarf wrapped round the mouth and nose helps: it keeps the dust out and, most importantly, catches moisture from exhalations making the inhaled air more moist and slightly warmer. It can help to suck menthol sweets or chew sugarfree gum, particularly the Airway clearing type. Some people swear by Fisherman's Friends! You'll also find throat sweets like Strepsils are good for soothing itchy, dry throats and reducing coughing and a honey based cough syrup may be worth having along too.
Clean set of clothes for camp / lodge
Bring a set of warm clothes with you that you only wear in camp / lodge. Even if you wear exactly the same things each night and sleep in them too at least you'll always have something (relatively) clean and dust free to change into at the end of each day. Fleecy trousers are ace for cold trips and fleece or down booties are amazing when it's really nippy.
Keeping clean
Up high and at colder times of year the prospect of a long hot shower is a wonderful thing. Sadly it's unlikely to happen (in the way that the fantasy plays in your mind) until you get back to Kathmandu, Leh or wherever your base city is. On lodge trips you'll probably be able to buy a hot shower - often a big bucket of hot water, sometimes an overhead nozzle mostly in a chilly floored outhouse (bring flip flops). From the KE crew on camping and lodge trips you'll be provided with a bowl of warm water to wash with. I've found having a small bar of soap and facecloth to hand is the best way to 'squaddy wash' in your tent porch or lodge room. Some people bring wet wipes that can be really handy but then need to be disposed of somewhere - if you're bringing them make sure they are bio disposable.
Dry bags for everything
Trek bags and rucksacks are not 100% waterproof so make sure everything you have is also stored in a dry bag, sack liner or thick plastic bag. It can and does rain, it may snow, sometimes pack animals, porters or even you may slip and slide into a river. The last thing anyone needs is damp or even wet spare clothes and personal items and you absolutely do not need a wet sleeping bag or down jacket. So keep everything well wrapped up and bring some spare bags for storing dirty clothes too.
Random stuff
Pegs - small, plastic ones can be useful for getting hand-washed socks etc dry on tent guy ropes and other bits of string. Bring some cord if you want to create your own line as well. Small karabiners are dead handy for hanging stuff, attaching things, holding things in place and even keeping trousers up. Gaffer tape - solves most breakage type problems (especially in combination with super glue or stretchy boot glue). A needle and thread are useful for tears, rips and loose buttons.
Psychic leaders
Contrary to popular opinion (amongst trekkers and leaders alike) most KE Leaders are sadly lacking in psychic abilities: they almost certainly wont know the exact temperature at the top of the mountain (whilst sitting in a valley lodge), nor the exact time taken to get to location X if they've never been to the area before and are using a country scale map. Equally they are unlikely to know where the toilet / bar is on a first time visit to a lodge (although they should be able to sniff both out fairly quickly) or how much a coke costs on those particular premises. Most importantly, although they can take a good guess using the usual facial and bodily clues, your leader won't know how you are feeling unless you tell them. So do speak up if you are in discomfort, unwell or indeed overjoyed!
Coming soon...
Living and being in a group
Rucksack types - what to buy
Typical dress for many days on the trail
Mountain flights - an unpredictable but spectacular way to travel
Diamox myths and altitude expectations
Again, please feel free to add your comments and particularly to add any useful tips you've picked up along the way.


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Some officers officially told their superiors they were leaving, police officials said. Others worked for a while and then stopped showing up. Still others, for reasons not always clear, never made it in after the storm.
From the Superintendent of Police Eddie Compass:
"If I put you out on the street and made you get into gun battles all day with no place to urinate and no place to defecate, I don't think you would be too happy either... Our vehicles can't get any gas. The water in the street is contaminated. My officers are walking around in wet shoes."
Would the NY Police have reacted to adversity that way? Think what they did after 9/11.
IN THE COMMENTS: I want to quote something I wrote in there:
Let me just say that I think my post is too harsh. I understand the pressure these people face. I doubt that I would do better. But I wish there were more stories of heroics after Katrina. I keep thinking of 9/11 because there were so many positive stories to counterweight the horrible then. 9/11 was a story of great evil and great good in human beings. Katrina is more of a story of ordinary things: nature and imperfect people.


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TULSA, Okla. (AP) — The head of Oklahoma's dental board says her office wants prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against a Tulsa oral surgeon at the center of a health scare.
Susan Rogers told The Associated Press that she met with Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris on Monday to discuss whether Dr. W. Scott Harrington is criminally liable. The complaint filed last week called Harrington a "menace to the public health."
Inspectors said they found unsafe practices at Harrington's Tulsa-area clinics and letters were sent to 7,000 patients, urging them to be screened for hepatitis and the virus that causes AIDS.
Court records also show that Harrington has been sued for medical malpractice and negligence. He was also named in a paternity suit in 1997. Many cases were settled out of court.


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At least the federal government is consistent.
When this nation embarked on its two latest wars � Iraq and Afghanistan � it could be said, with a degree of reasonable certainty, that the powers that be failed to provide the necessary resources to ensure optimal outcomes of those conflicts.
There were countless stories of U.S. troops having to ask friends and family to send them essential items, items necessary for their safety and ability to wage war effectively � such as body armor. There were also countless stories about the number of U.S. troops being insufficient to secure stability in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And now that a lot of the veterans of those wars need our help the most, the resources needed to make sure they get it are wanting.
And shameful.
The backlog of cases being processed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is unacceptable. Hundreds of thousands of veterans, many of them living with debilitating injuries, have to wait months, sometimes years, for the VA to decide whether they qualify for assistance.
It�s getting better. The VA has cleared 97 percent of its backlogged claims that are more than two years old. And locally, at least the anecdotal evidence suggests it�s not as bad it could be.
But still, the situation is dire for the veterans awaiting help.
Claims filed by veterans from southeastern Pennsylvania are handled by the VA�s Philadelphia regional office, which, according to recent data, has a backlog of 16,281 pending claims. The average claim has been pending for 242 days.
That�s not so bad when you consider that veterans served by the Washington, D.C., regional office are looking at an average wait of 442 days � the worst in the country. The Baltimore and Pittsburgh offices also have very long waits.
It�s not that the VA is being negligent, said one county director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, an advocacy agency for local veterans, not affiliated with the federal government.
�The VA�s crushed,� he said. �We fought a lot of wars.�
It�s a matter of resources, and the lack of them. The VA simply doesn�t have the staff or money to keep up with the crush of claims.
Congress, for all of its ineptitude in other areas, appears prepared to do something about it. An amendment to the VA appropriation bill for 2014 would shift $44 million for overtime to VA offices with the worst backlogs. The bill has passed the House and it is pending in the Senate.
One legislator lauded that effort, but said, accurately enough, �It is not good enough in the long run. They are going to have to continue to do better.�
That they will.
The amendment, while it could help address the worst backlogs, does not provide additional resources, or money, to the VA to get the job done. In the long run, that�s what might be needed.
There is a long, shameful tradition in this country of veterans complaining about the VA � and rightly so. The VA has, over the years, been consistent in being underfunded and understaffed to handle the needs of the men and woman who gave their country so much.
It has improved greatly.
But, it�s not good enough.
This is one instance where consistency is not a good thing.
-- 21st Century Media:
Delaware County Daily Times


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BRUNSWICK >> A driver angry at another vehicle for turning too slowly was arrested Tuesday night, June, 24, in the Town of Brunswick, according to State Police.
John J. Perricone Jr. of Troy got out of his vehicle and kicked the complainant's vehicle numerous times, according to police, causing damage to two separate areas. The complainant had to get out of his vehicle and restrain Perricone in order for him to stop, they added.
State Police responded to the scene and arrested Perricone for driving while intoxicated and criminal mischief for damaging the vehicle. Perricone was released on an appearance ticket and is due back in court in July.


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Luminous is a powerful and modern syntax highlighter written in PHP. It supports a range of popular languages, including C, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, XML/HTML, and many more. Luminous is separate from many similar PHP (and JavaScript) based highlighters in that it implements hand-written language scanners to better understand complex languages. It aims to output high quality highlighting in HTML and LaTeX, which can be themed by CSS.
pgFormatter is a SQL formatter/beautifier which supports keywords from SQL-92, SQL-99, SQL-2003, SQL-2008, and SQL-2011, and PostgreSQL-specific keywords. It can work as a console program or as a CGI system. It will automatically detect its environment and output as text or as HTML according to the context.
Extracts useful information (title, bitrate, playtime, etc.) from MP3s and more.
A backend for the Core Five file manager.


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PlayhouseSquare's 2013-14 Broadway Series gets underway Oct. 1 by putting on its dancing shoes.
Its ballet slippers, to be specific.
"Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty," which blends the acclaimed Bourne's choreography with Tchaikovsky's 19th century music for the ballet production of "Sleeping Beauty" of that time, runs through Oct. 13 at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland.
"Sleeping Beauty," which debuted last year, completes a trio of the choreographer's works that began with "Nutcracker!" in 1992 and continued in 1995 with "Swan Lake."
"This production of 'Sleeping Beauty' is the fulfillment of a great ambition, to choreograph the three great Tchaikovsky ballets and was created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my company, New Adventures, last year," Bourne says in a news release provided by PlayhouseSquare.
"I am so grateful to have this opportunity to bring this glorious production to American audiences, who have always been so welcoming of my work."
According to the release, Bourne — called "Britain's most famed choreographer — takes Charles Perrault's enduring fairy tale about a young girl cursed to sleep for 100 years and turns it into the tale of "the christening of Aurora, the story's heroine, at the height of the fin-de-siecle period, when fairies and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination. As Aurora grows into a young woman, we move forward in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era — a mythical golden age of long summer afternoons, croquet on the lawn and new dance crazes.
"Years later," the release continues, "awakening from her century-long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day, a world more mysterious and wonderful than any fairy tale."
Bourne's adaptation introduces a number of new characters, including a royal gamekeeper, Leo, Aurora's love interest; the Dark Fairy Carabosse; and Caradoc, the sinister but charming son of Carabosse.
What: "Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty."
When: Oct. 1 through 13.
Where: Palace Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland.
Tickets: $10 to $75.
Info: 216-241-6000 or www.playhousesquare.org.


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New & NowProfiles
Kmartinelli -- an expat food and travel writer living in Be'er Sheva, Israel -- originally hails from New York, where she learned to cook from her father, who made dinner from scratch every night. From those early childhood experiences in the kitchen, she developed what can best be described as an easy sophistication in her own original dishes.
A relative newcomer to food52, kmartinelli has shared -- in just over a month's time -- seven incredibly tantalizing recipes (along with mouthwatering photos!). Take, for example, her lovely Garlicky Beet, Chickpea and Almond Dip, Tagliatelle with Shrimp and Champagne Butter Sauce, Mussels in Arak, and most recently, Spiced Chocolate Pots de Creme with Candied Bacon and Maple Cream -- all scream out, "Try me now!"
For more of kmartinelli's delicious recipes, see her profile page and fan her here, and be sure to check out her blog.
Read kmartinelli's profile Q&A below:
What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
Duck heart pastrami. Or foie gras profiteroles - also one of the best desserts I have ever eaten.
What do you cook when home alone?
Pasta or eggs. Sometimes both.
Your most treasured kitchen possession:
Right now my Cuisinart 3-in-1 mini prep, immersion blender, and whisk. It travels with me everywhere.
Your ideal meal:
Any meal with good friends, family, and conversation.
Something you'd like a chance to eat or cook:
I would like to eat a tagine in Morocco, and I have been meaning to make Kubbe, a Jewish-Iraqi dumpling soup.
The number of bottles of wine you own:
We're down to 4.
The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
Kitchen pet peeve:
Not enough counter space!
Your favorite cookbook:
The Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Lo Pinto (1950, out of print; it was my grandmother's)


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Things I can't say no to – cream eyeshadows, egg tarts and a Nars Makeover.
Should you ever be in Nars Manchester, find Leena. She does the most amazing make up on you. But I digress!
As if there's anything else I need from Nars! Nevertheless, Leena showed me some tightlining techniques she had learned at the Clothes show.
1 – Brush the eyeliner on the top of the lashes, and brush in the lash.
2 – The do under the lashes.
3 – Apply to the waterline.
Yeah yeah, we all know about tightlining – wasn't it a Laura Mercier thing? I actually bought the LM Push Brush and Caviar Black Cake Eyeliner at the time but couldn't be bothered with mixing up the eyeliner to use day to day, plus I found that cake liner tends to run on me.
Anyway, I was so happy with the result I got with the Nars Liquid Eyeliner!
The pure black (and it is a very true black) is called Angel Heart – you get a tiny brush with it.
This is the effect I got (eyeshadow use is Habanera):
Swatches of Habanera, Copacobana (used under the eyes as a highligter) and Luster blush:
Copacobana is a little too light on my NC35 skintone but really lifts the face under the eye.
Habanera is GORGEOUS! The minty green is a perfect highlight and the dark side is a very sparkly true grey-green.
Luster is a medium light peach – it is STUNNING. But this is Nars blusher after all.
Since I already had a ton of black eyeliner I passed on the black and got a gorgeous metallic grey-steel-black, Eqqus and a metallic Brown, Silkwood:
I actually went back for black the next day – it' the classic after all!
What I was suprised about it the lasting power of the liner – I had it on til 2am and it was still there, a little smudged but in a sexy way. My eyes water and water like crazy so I was surprised that a liquid liner could last for so long.
Also the shade is perfect – it is BLACK, not a muddly black-grey, a true black which will go with anything.
The other things which really stood out for me is the texture. For lining under the lashes it is perfect. The usual choices are a pencil liner, cake liner, gel or liquid.
I have tried tightlining with pencil – because my eyes are watery pencils that are waxy will not apply nicely plus its not having something as thick as a pencil poking in your eye!
I like the Cake Liner because there is control, but there is less staying powder and it requires work to mix up the liner.
Gel varies – I think that with a Gel liner you have the control, but it can almost be too dry depending on what formula you use, to tightline with it. Lasting powder can vary too.
The Nars liner is a good balance between all of them – it gives true colour and is liquid enough to be easy to apply but dries quickly. Also, it is not too thick or cakey (ever tried Shiseido Black Cream liner? Urgh its like cold butter). But the RIGHT colour and the RIGHT texture.
Only bummer is you need to get a brush and warm up the product a bit to get if flowing as I found it can be a bit thick if u don't give it a quick roll in the hands. But you do that already, right?!
I love everything I got from this make over! It may well be my Christmas Day look!


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Wake up your savings with these piping-hot tips, inspired by Stacy Johnson's Top 10 list on Money Talks News. Our three faves:
- Avoid buying new. Okay, certain things you must buy new (underwear comes to mind)—but the bigger point is that most consumer goods lose value the minute you purchase them.
You know that's true for cars—but look around your home: the $400 table that might be worth $50 at a yard sale—ditto for dishes, coats, rugs. This doesn't mean buying ragged items from your local thrift to save, but rather tapping into the growing network of consignment shops, auctions, swap sites.
- Don't take the first offer. The initial price—for a hotel room, delivery fee or doctor's visit—is set high, Johnson asserts. Although a Consumer Reports study found that 46% of women hate to negotiate, Johnson points out that just asking (not bickering) can net you steady savings on multiples fronts, throughout the year.
- Set a higher deductible. The standard deductible offered by your home, health or car insurance plan is typically set low—and requires you to pay higher premiums. Hmm, guess who gains there? Raise your car insurance deductible to $1,000, for example, and save 10%-20% on premiums.
Waste not, want not. Where can you stop throwing away cash?


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Miscellaneous Attributes : Printer
Supports a printer.
Printer is part of the Miscellaneous Attributes category.
You are currently viewing games for DOS that are marked as Miscellaneous Attributes : Printer. Games for other platforms are also tracked by this attribute. You can restrict the list of games below to any of the following platforms:
All Platforms, Amiga, Amstrad PCW, Apple II, Apple IIgs, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Casio Loopy, Commodore PET/CBM, DOS, Linux, Mainframe, PC Booter, Spectravideo, Terminal, Timex Sinclair 2068, Windows, Windows 3.x, ZX Spectrum
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Well I'm a PC gamer and PC's are the far superior platform, as any real gamer like me knows. Anyone who doesn't use a mouse and keyboard is clearly inferior to me and lacks my intelligence and superior taste in gaming. If you want to know more on the subject, just come to the videogame store where I work sometime. I regularly spend hours there snobbishly berating console game buying customers and informing them of my superiority.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play the pompous villain in an 80's teen flick. Ferrari is the ONLY car to drive, you know.
The mouse is a superior controller for anything that involves aiming (FPS) or pointing (RTS). The PC can have superior graphics to any console (at the price of a $300 GPU). That said, PC gamers still aren't justified in claiming the overall superiority of their platform because certain types of controllers aren't really there for PC gaming yet.
If one of the major game publishers (EA or Valve?) were to start selling Bluetooth-enabled motion sensor style controllers, and supporting them on multiple titles, we
The mouse is a superior controller for anything that involves aiming (FPS) or pointing (RTS).
I don't think the mouse is superior to the light gun for aiming/pointing. It's just too bad the light gun isn't very common except for with coin-ops.
I don't think the mouse is superior to the light gun for aiming/pointing.
But how many PC gamers are going to buy a Bluetooth adapter, a Wii Remote (the only widely available light gun that works with LCD monitors), and a wireless sensor bar? And given that figure, would it be worthwhile for major label video game developers to spend the time==money to support them? I'm not too optimistic.
Besides, how do you use a light gun to turn your character from side to side in order to shoot off-screen targets?
I suppose the light gun is better for FPS games with controlled movement along a path
As I understand the common understanding of the term "first-person shooter", games like Duck Hunt, Area 51, and Time Crisis series are called "light gun shooters" or "shooting galleries", not "first-person shooters". Taken literally, they would qualify, but ordinarily, FPS encompasses "games with full freedom of movement" at least to the extent seen in Battlezone (1980).
They're often called "rail shooters."
Well I'm a PC gamer and PC's are the far superior platform, as any real gamer like me knows. Anyone who doesn't use a mouse and keyboard is clearly inferior to me and lacks my intelligence and superior taste in gaming.
The Wii can use a mouse and keyboard (for surfing the net
Since the vast majority of developers can achieve the vast majority of technical feats with enough time and effort. The problem is the fact time and effort costs money. The Guitar Hero 3 port was crap because no-one put any real money behind it, simply because chances are, no-one would buy it. That only makes sense.
I understand a lot of what the devs are saying, but if I'm going to be really negative about this I couldn't help get an uneasy feeling reading about Dead Space. So, essentially he's saying "don'
Yes, it's really fucking hard to have redefinable keyboard layouts. I don't know much about console programming, but if there's an event loop capable of calling a buttonpressed routine, you have no excuse.
Yes, it's really fucking hard to have redefinable keyboard layouts. I don't know much about console programming, but if there's an event loop capable of calling a buttonpressed routine, you have no excuse.
Microsoft has a blanket ban on the use of USB keyboards as game controllers in Xbox 360 games; any game that does so doesn't get digitally signed for use on retail consoles. If step 1 involves hostilely taking over the parent company of the console maker so that it will make an exception to this ban, would that be an excuse?
Final Fantasy XI on the 360 allows you to use a USB keyboard as a controller, to include full WASD movement and not just typing messages.
Making an interface that actually works properly on both Mouse+keyboard and gamepad(never mind wii stick) falls into the "squaring the circle with world peace" pile.
Personally, since I bought the Xbox 360 Controller, I don't mind playing ports which skimp on Mouse+keyboard
The Prince of Persia: Sands of Times trilogy (haven't played the new PoP game) was awesome with the gamepad on the PC. In fact I'd say that a dual analog stick gamepad is by far the best method of control for these types of games, jus
If I had a nickel for every time someone purchased a terrible port...
Oh wait, someone IS making that... and making alot of Nickels...
Oh course, I suppose having the entire original PC dev team involved along with some Wiiware developers helps.
"...only PC gamers use the word 'port' with such a fervent degree of repulsion"??
How about Mac OS X users!!?
Every time they give us a "port" these days, it's just someone repackaging the PC game code around the Cider engine, tweaking some of Cider's parameters until it appears to "basically run ok" and then they turn around and charge full retail price for it, AFTER it's been out at least 3 months for the PC already!
Never-mind the PC version might ALREADY have just been ported from a console.....
Mac is also a PC.
But I thought that once software was exposed to the healing rays of Steve it would "Just Work".
How can anything that runs on The Holy Mac be bad?
For a game, it's not like it matters if it's using the native platform look and feel, so don't care if it's using X11 or e
Isn't a poor port evidence of a poorly engineered original software product? There ought to be a separation of the game logic layers from the actual hardware implementation of the details.
I'm not in that industry, but, I've come across hearsay that game development these days is pretty shoddy for the average title since all the money is poured into asset development (sound and visuals) and the software part of it is an afterthought.
Actually these days middleware and the use of thirdparty engines is becoming hugely important. Thus the software part isn't an afterthought so much as outsourced to someone more competent. The biggest problem in porting tends to be when someone tries to bring a game developed for consoles to the PC, or vice versa. Essentially the console is dramatically underpowered versus contemporary PCs. So console games are developed "close to the metal" to gain as much power as possible from coding tricks, and therefor
Essentially the console is dramatically underpowered versus contemporary PCs.
A tri-core 3.2ghz PowerPC powered Xbox360 is underpowered? Yeah, maybe compared to PCs that cost 10 times as much, but it's far more powerful than most desktops people are buying even today.
The CPU's pretty nippy, still, but RAM is comparatively limited and the graphics card's showing its age. It's just the tradeoff you get for the benefits of a fixed platform.
Actually these days middleware and the use of thirdparty engines is becoming hugely important. Thus the software part isn't an afterthought so much as outsourced to someone more competent. The biggest problem in porting tends to be when someone tries to bring a game developed for consoles to the PC, or vice versa. Essentially the console is dramatically underpowered versus contemporary PCs. So console games are developed "close to the metal" to gain as much power as possible from coding tricks, and therefor
Bear in mind, a 'contemporary' PC is six years old with on-board graphics. And that the biggest selling PC titles are things like WoW and the Sims which don't use much graphical power at all.
Maybe PC gaming would be in a better state if they made more games like those, and fewer like Crysis and Oblivion which are pretty much just graphic-card bench-tests.
The structure of the engine itself might vary considerably - consider the situation of the PS3 vs the PC.
With the PS3, you know every user has around 6 free cores, each of which is somewhat less powerful than one core of a C2D for certain kinds of data. So if you want a high end product that performs well, you parallelize. Massively.
Now consider the PC, where you can't even guarantee the user's got 2 cores, and even if you do, they might have 2-4, you've got a division of labor problem. You could spawn to
If done right, almost any FPS should be portable from console to PC, and be FAR better on PC. (Mouse + keyboard is a superior control mechanism for FPS games.)
Most RPGs aren't too bad either, especially if you plug in a joypad to the PC.
Of course, frequently ports are NOT done right - the PC port of Final Fantasy VII is a notorious example of a port being done so lazily as to break compatibility very rapidly within about a generation of hardware releases. Nowadays it's often easier to get the PSX version
If done right, almost any FPS should be portable from console to PC, and be FAR better on PC. (Mouse + keyboard is a superior control mechanism for FPS games.)
Most RPGs aren't too bad either, especially if you plug in a joypad to the PC.
Of course, frequently ports are NOT done right - the PC port of Final Fantasy VII is a notorious example of a port being done so lazily as to break compatibility very rapidly within about a generation of hardware releases. Nowadays it's often easier to get the PSX version running in an emulator than to get the PC port working.
Even after you just use these game types you still end up with far too many good games that you can't change the controls. The most recent example of this is the pc version of Arkham Asylum (batman game). A standard usb analog stick logitech pad messes up and has the up be down, down be up. And there is no way to fix it. Every pc game should either have customizable controls or tested well enough so they know that all devices are going to work with it. Sigh...
If it feels like it should be on a console, then one is likely to consider it a port, even if the development was done primarily on a PC, for a PC.
In other words, whilst not being particularly technically accurate, 'port' is a word that gets thrown around precisely because it is obvious that not all the pieces fit.
If you want to see porting done wrong, you should look no further than Valve's partnership with EA. I don't think anyone can argue that Valve makes some very good games. Half life 2, L4D, TF2, Portal, etc... are all excellent games. But their console versions are a crying shame. They range from passably mediocre (Orange box for 360) to downright awful unsupported shovelware (Orange Box for PS3). The only product that actually can be called good is L4D on the 360, and even that is a pale imitator to the PC v
It's not like linux doesn't run great on high end hardware or anything. So, don't worry about the poor little consoles for a moment and PORT to Linux!!
Yeah, clearly Bungie was stupid for targeting Halo 3 for that crappy 360 and selling 8 million copies in 3 months when they could have gone straight for the Linux gaming market and have garnered 15 sales in a year.
It's very important to point out that the porting task has everything to do with where you start. The PC is simply not the best development environment anymore, the Xbox 360 is-- and even Carmack would agree with me, here. You can get a game going really fast on 360, then it's a bit less difficult to go to PC. We can call this the best case scenario. Rapid time to market with superior development tools on 360 with familiar API's for cross-platform development on PC, along with similar TCR requirements between GFW and 360.
Let's say you started on the PS3, though. Maybe you took the time to learn the architecture and really take advantage of the cell architecture, so your game is basically hardcoded around the flexible pipeline and mass pararllelization, now it does things that even PC games cannot. Porting it to the 360 might not be so bad, but going to the PC is going to be a rough letdown. It feels like a dog when porting a console game.
So maybe your game started out nicely organized and clean in design, but in that last few months before release while your publisher is driving you up a wall to release, you're going to have so many hacks and messy revisions to the model to ship within your ridiculous timeframe- plus all the devs are tired and need vacations and such. Suddenly, the game is not so portable. It's the same for any platform, really- you go balls to the wall optimizing our game for the platform and you're going to spend a lot of your smooth portability.
Pay no attention to the "specs" of consoles vs. PC, it's basically meaningless. Consoles often run games almost directly, plus they have all sorts of architecture enhancements and little hardware tricks you don't find in PC's. A PC needs to have brutally more power to really match the sort of speed and power you can squeeze out of a console.
Let's say you developed on nintendo wii first... well, it's game over already, you just developed a last-gen, almost Xbox-looking game and tied it to the wiimote. Good luck porting that. That's part of why American studios don't throw big games at it, because it's too limited in power and the publishers just don't want to risk it. There are too many "hardcore" games, which need to push the envelope. The Wii is basically doomed to casual games and childrens' games because of this, because the marketing figures will always point it in that direction--and that's what really runs the game industry.
Technically speaking, you can probably see why people like the Unreal Engine or Source Engine, given the fact that all the porting work is done for you... well you still have to deal with the insane, i mean ABSOLUTELY insane requirements each console has for release... everything from trademarks to menu formats to the way control is expressed in the interface. The amount of attention to detail necessary blows away months of work. Consoles are not a free-for-all, you have to use the hardware in a very specified way.
In short.. yeah, it's rough. More difficult than most people will ever really know.
They are all PowerPC variants.
Some of us have to ship the same product on x86, MIPS, PowerPC and ARM from the same source base. ex: Cisco's CUE. While I admit the APIs for the graphics architectures of the different consoles are radically different, sometimes I can't help but wonder if some of the complaints from game developers are the typical exaggerations that everyone makes about how hard their job is.
Someone has to write the game engine, if it is shit on certain platforms because it wasn't ported well then the games using it will suffer obviously. Even between the three game consoles the ports can be pretty dramatically different, not even compared to a PC port.
PCs have a bunch of additional problems in that you cannot easily predict what combination of features customers will have on a PC. Many popular PC games run on video cards that are inferior to the capabilities of the Xbox360 and PS3. Inferior in
All three consoles now have USB ports. Let us use a mouse and keyboard with games that are appropriate for this kind of setup (FPS, RTS, etc).
You don't play MegaMan with a godamn keyboard and mouse and you don't play Starcraft with a godamn gamepad.
Or if you have a PS3, you can use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Either way, it would be nice to see keyboard/mouse support in more games.
I'll back you on that. I worked on a port of a PC game to the DS a few years ago. Basically the budget and schedule was the minimum possible to get a successful project. For about half the project we were doing 70+ hour weeks. The lead programmer did significantly more than the rest of us. The final candidate milestone was about a week after the beta milestone. We basically got everything working in the minimum acceptable state just days before we hit the beta milestone. We had enough time for just a little
Would as soon see 10 great pc games a year as another 100 ports with absolutely SHITTY controls. I can live with poor graphics. occasional bad camera. Controls MUST be designed well and with ALL options for a PC.
For example. I believe Devil May Cry "or a similar port" Had a GAMES FOR WINDOWS logo on it. I attempted to play it with Keyboard/mouse and it was horrid "unable to play game breaking." So I got my PS3 controller and plugged it in. The Assholes who developed it only allowed a Xbox Controller scheme
One of the reasons I stopped taking the Mac even remotely seriously as a games platform - the butchered ports of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.
BG lost multiplayer and voice sample customization, required all four CDs and swapped continually, even on fast-for-the-time hardware.
Bioware or whatever company was subcontracted to do the dirty work couldn't be bothered to port the DM toolset.
iD and Blizzard games are feature-complete between platforms. The problem is obviously on the developer (or the port
Cry me a river
I find it amusing that the final paragraph states that PCs is being taken at least as serious as consoles for gaming. Remember when this generation of consoles was first introduced? The talk then was that PC gaming was doomed.
It's been the same sort of nonsense the last few generations. People get excited about these new consoles and because they offer a technological leap over the previous generation they start expecting some sort of revolution. Once the consoles have been around a while people start noticing PCs again.
Consoles naturally have to offer a clear technological leaps given their relatively long life expectancies. PCs, however, never stop progressing so that within months they surpass anything consoles are capable of. And actually, at least with this generation it was more consoles caught up to the capability of PCs than that they actually surpassed them.
I expect that eventually the market will move towards a more unified platform. Given how complex games are getting developers will be pushing hard for something like this. And hardware makers are being put into a difficult spot where they basically have need to be confident their console will be successful because if it isn't developers will abandon them. Look at the challenges facing would-be competitors the handheld market. And it's almost pointless to even compete on hardware at least for consoles. I say competition will come from the games themselves and motion-control peripherals. Perhaps not for the next generation of consoles, but eventually.
The problems with ported software exist with all software, they are just much harder to hide in games.
An awful lot of software that appears to be available on more than one platform is smooth, sweet, and stable on one of those platforms, and weird, clunky, and unreliable on another. Things like odd screen refresh bugs. Sometimes, applications that just don't look or act like good citizens of the world then run in. Sometimes, the application will seem to run all right but there's some difference in buffering or caching or memory management strategy, and on the "bad" platform it will have a tendency to freeze up mysteriously for unpleasantly long periods of time, or crash. Or work fine when installed in the exact place the installer puts it by default but act funny if you put it somewhere else. Or fail to follow the proper OS conventions for where preferences and configuration settings and other persistent program "state" should be placed. Or show you a literal view of your disk volume and directory structure instead of the slightly abstract view that "normal" programs show (e.g. "Desktop" at the top, root level in Windows).
I think it's wonderful that gamers are able to yell and scream and try to exercise some market discipline about this. I think it's because a game you don't enjoy is valueless. Alas, when it comes to "productivity" software it's hard to quantify things like "feels klunky."
Marvelous! The super-user's going to boot me! What a finely tuned response to the situation!


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Ante Portas
Ante Portas is an apartment hotel located in a pleasant residential area not far from Salzburg city centre.
Housed in a historic building, we have 14 modern holiday homes equipped with a bathroom, a kitchenette, internet access and television. Parking is available and we enjoy direct public transport links to the centre.
Disponibilità e tariffePer visualizzare la disponibilità e i prezzi, seleziona le date e fai clic su "Aggiorna date"
Appartamento Servizi & Politiche
- Fornello
- Carte di credito accettate
- Parcheggio gratuito
- Wi-Fi gratuito
- Frigo/Congelatore
- Asciugacapelli
- Accesso a Internet
- Biancheria inclusa
- Forno a microonde
- Vietato fumare
- Si accettano animali
- Tasse non comprese
Politica di cancellazioneQuesta proprietà ha una politica di cancellazione di 1. La mancata cancellazione entro questo intervallo di tempo si tradurrà in una penale pari alla prima notte di pernottamento.
IndicazioniMostra mappaNascondi mappa
You will find me in the center of an historic district of Salzburg, in a nice and safe residential area, close to the city center.
- Conveniently reachable via the motorway A1, with easy access to the Salzburg airport, to the Central Railway Station Salzburg, the Football-Stadium, to various shopping centers and venues as the Salzburg Congress, the MGC (Salzburg Mode- und Eventcenter) and the exhibition center.
Arrival by car:
- Coming from direction Vienna or Munich on the motorway A1 you take the exit Salzburg-Nord following the signs Salzburg-Zentrum (city center).
- At the first trafific lights after the railway-underpass turn left direction Gnigl. At the following traffic lights turn right to the Ziegeleistrasse.
- Follow the Ziegeleistrasse until you reach another railway-underpass, after this you turn left into the Warwitzstrasse.
- After approx. 200 m turn right into the Bachstrasse, after approx. 800 m at the traffic lights you turn right into the Linzer-Bundesstrasse and after approx. 160 m you are before the gates ANTE PORTAS (Linzer-Bundesstrasse 49).
Driving time from exit motorway: approx. 6min. / 4 km
Arrival by plane:
- If you want the easiest way, take a taxi. Driving time from the airport: approx. 12 min. / 10 km
If you rent a car at the airport you take the motorway A1 direction Vienna. After approx. 6 km you take the exit Salzburg Nord and follow the steps of the above description- Arrival by car-
Driving time from the airport: approx. 12 min. / 10 km
Public busses, they are the busses no. 2 and 20 departing from the bus-terminal at the airport which will bring you to me.
Arrival by rail:
- You arrive at the Main Railway station Salzburg (Hauptbahnhof Salzburg). In front of the station building you will find the bus terminal from where several busses go into direction Gnigl.


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View all Films
High school students from the predominantly Aboriginal North End, with the support of their peers from the Francophone district of St. Boniface, work to produce a play on the origins of the Metis--a theme which links both groups to Louis Riel's dream of a society in which respect for difference is a founding principle.
How do these youths foresee their role and place within their respective communities? How do these minority communities co-exist with the predominant culture? How are prevailing intolerance and racism dealt with from both sides of the river? Victims of discrimination, these two groups share their experiences in view of better understanding themselves and others.
Director: Martin Duckworth
Photography: Martin Duckworth
Editing: Martin Duckworth
Producer: Jacques Vallée
Producer: Joe MacDonald
Sound: Norman Dugas
Sound: André Chaput
Sound: Serge Boivin
Voice and Narration: Henri Bergeron
Music: Larry Crosley
Cast or Participant: Norman Dugas
Riel Country
1996, Duckworth, Martin
81 min 45 s
Internet connection
Each film on this site is available for viewing at low speed or high speed.
- Low speed: recommended if your Internet connection uses a dial-up modem (56 kbps or slower). Low-speed viewing results in lower quality image and sound.
- High speed: recommended if you have high-speed Internet (DSL, cable modem) or are connected to an institutional network. Viewing in high-speed mode may cause occasional jerky images and sound interruptions if the speed of your connection is not fast enough.
If you're not sure which speed to use for viewing the films, try high speed first. If the results are not satisfactory, switch to low speed.
Films can be available for viewing in either Macromedia Flash or QuickTime. Image and sound quality are similar for all these formats.
- Flash: lets you view the film directly in the Web page without launching an external application. Requires the Flash plug-in (download for free at Macromedia Flash Player).
- QuickTime (alternative format): requires QuickTime, version 7 or more recent (download for free at QuickTime).
Closed captions (CC)
Translation of the audio portion of a film into subtitles, for example, dialogue, narration, sound effects, etc. These captions let hearing-impaired viewers read what they cannot hear. Closed captions are available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With closed captions (under Accessibility).
Described video (DV)
A narrated description of a film's key visual elements to enable the vision-impaired to form a mental picture of what is happening on screen. Described video is available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With described video (under Accessibility).


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The lights are on
Me (top) strangling my brother: (not really, lol)
@Orpheus: Nice pic, should have went for a blue icey for color contrast though. j/k
@Orpheus: Nice pic, should have went for a blue icey for color contrast though. j/k
Maybe, but everyone knows cherry is the most excellent flavor of anything and everything
Cherry red?
My favorite drink to start the day.
You should too.
Good point Orpheus....
My three babies
Morbidbystandard... what exactly is that drink?
Yeah I hope you really don't drink that.
I've been drinking it every day for nine years.
This is my modern cup that I take to work every day. The drink is called Yerba Mate' and if you are interested check out http://www.guayaki.com/index.php?p=view_category.
hmm not the best pic as i did not take it but found wondering around the web......am the black guy........the one with the mask......heh
I'm a Legendary GI member.
Oh, I thought you were kidding about that.
no...no i wasnt lol. no but really am the one with the mask lol if you knew me well i make a lot of jokes like that.
Meta77, I meant Morbidbystandard and his drink. Forgive me, I forgot to quote lolz.
sniff T.T for shame for shame
I think the website on the back of the gourd is a funny marriage of ancient culture and the modern cyber world. No joke I love this plant and owe much of my health to it (both physical and mental). It healed very fast after surgery.
Yeah the website on the gourd is pretty ironic.
King Süshi:
The door to the shop this morning.
The door to the shop this morning.
Hahaha, you have more snow than I do and I live in Canada!! :)


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During my years as a newspaper reporter, I used to love digging up public records. I learned early in my career that it is one thing to be told information, but it is even better to sift through public documents when you want to know what is really going on in government.
I never forgot the importance of that lesson when I moved into elected office. It is why as a member of the Illinois General Assembly, I was an early sponsor of our state's first Freedom of Information laws. It is why as state treasurer, and now as comptroller, I have instructed my staff to promptly fulfill any records requests. And it is why I most recently launched the Ledger (www.ledger.illinoiscomptroller.com), an online financial database.
In recent weeks some have suggested that as comptroller I should also produce a "state checkbook" that documents every dime taxed and spent by Illinois government. In fact, that information request to our office asked for a complete data dump of state financial records. But the state database includes confidential information that the law prohibits from being given out -- Social Security numbers and information about tax refunds, public aid and foster care payments, workers' comp and unemployment checks.
Ledger makes public every state transaction that is allowable under the law. Specifically, the Ledger allows taxpayers to click their way through everything from daily receipts and bill backlog numbers to agency budgets, contracts and expenses. The site also contains a state employee database listing public salaries and new hires.
I encourage Illinois residents to check out the Ledger and let me know what other information would be helpful. It's not enough for the taxpayers to "hear" from government -- they rightly want to see the proof. As a former reporter, I appreciate that.
Judy Baar Topinka
Illinois comptroller


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Anthony Kies, 36, Fort Morgan, domestic violence and assault, 522 Lake St., Jan. 3, 8 p.m., held at Morgan County Jail without bond.
Jacob Sprague, 22, Fort Morgan, driving while under the influence of alcohol, careless driving and lack of obedience to police officers, 600 block of West Seventh Avenue, Dec. 30, 2:01 a.m., held without bond.
Christopher Mora, 19, Fort Morgan, Weld County Court warrant arrest and obstructing police, 400 block of Southridge Road, Dec. 30, 2:55 a.m., held without bond.
Carrie Smith, 29, Fort Morgan, violation of protection order and violation of bail bond conditions, 1201 E. Eighth Ave., Dec. 29, 7:15 p.m., held without bond; and Morgan County District Court warrant arrest, same address, Jan. 2, 8:38 p.m., held on $5,000 bond.
Juan Baltazar, 20, Fort Morgan, underage consumption of alcohol and possession of drug paraphernalia, 105 Gateway Ave., Jan. 1, 12:21 a.m., held without bond.
Pablo Zavala-Medrano, 26, Fort Morgan, driving while license revoked, 500 block of West Kiowa Avenue, Dec. 31, 11:49 p.m., held on $5,000 bond.
Albert Zink, 38, Sterling, shoplifting and a warrant arrest, Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply, Dec. 29, 5:55 p.m., held on $1,000 bond.
Nicole Zamora, 21, Fort Morgan, DUI, Gateway Apartments, Dec. 30, 2:56 a.m., held on $1,00 bond.
Jose Becerra, 20, Fort Morgan, DUI, underage possession of alcohol, driving without a license, leaving the scene of an accident and careless driving, 500 block of Circle Drive, Dec. 31, 2:38 a.m., held on $1,000 bond.
Angela Gonzalez, 45, Log Lane village, DUI, 1000 block of Ensign Street, Dec. 29, 1:30 a.m., held on $1,000 bond.
Juan Garcia-Morales, 23, Fort Morgan, DUI, driving an uninsured vehicle and no driver's license, 400 block of East Railroad Avenue, Dec. 30, 12:06 a.m., held on $2,500 bond.
Thomas Fenn, 37, Fort Morgan, restraining order violation, 1005 Main St., Dec. 31, 4:18 p.m., held on $1,000 bond.
Adrian Reyes-Delgado, 18, Greeley, DUI and underage consumption of alcohol, 200 block of East Eighth Avenue, Jan. 1, 2:41 a.m., held on $1,000 bond.
Mary Jane Marrufo, 33, Fort Morgan, DUI, 19000 block of Highway 34, Jan. 1, 12:44 a.m., held on $1,000 bond.


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Originally Posted by wombat2u2004
Not exactly generalizing, well yes, maybe I am....I just think 16 is way too young in this day and age. Again, not that I am condemning them for doing wrong. Just think that life still has a lot to offer kids of that age today. And education is so much more important today than it was a century ago. But I do wish them happiness and hope it does last.


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Note on the use of cookies
Cookies facilitate the provision of our services. By using our services, you agree that we use cookies. For more information on privacy, please visit the following link Data protection statement
RFID refers to methods for automatic identification of objects via radio. The use of RFID systems is suitable basically wherever tagging, identifying, registering, storing, monitoring or transport is necessary.
RFID systems come in multiple variations. Despite the wide range of RFID solutions every RFID system is defined by the following three characteristics:
From a technological point of view, an RFID system consists of two components, a transponder and a reader:
RFID systems use different frequency ranges from long wave to the microwave range. Another distinguishing feature of RFID systems is the storage technology used. This distinction is made between read-only and read-write systems.
The type of energy supply of the transponder and the resulting distinction between active transponders with their own power source or passive transponders, that are supplied with energy by the reader, is of fundamental importance. Because of these characteristics, groups of RFID systems can be formed and distinguished by the performance of their respective components in low-end systems, systems of medium performance and high-end systems.
RFID systems can also be grouped according to their respective ranges - that is, the maximum possible distance between transponder and reader.
Usually close-coupling, remote coupling and long-range systems are distinguished.
The design of transponders ranges from glass-injection fluid via the electronic ear mark to credit card formats, different slice designs as well as impact-resistant and heat-resistant (up to 200° Celsius) storage media for the paint lines of the automotive industry. The flexible lay-out of the identification points, size, shape and field pattern of the antenna make RFID systems an extremely versatile automatic identification technology. These groupings provide both a classification of RFID systems based on potential applications and provide an evaluation of the related issues concerning information security and data protection.


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I can't believe it's already Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon & ½ Marathon weekend!
The Savannah Health and Fitness Expo starts Nov. 1 as thousands join us in Savannah for the big race. The expo is free and open to everyone, whether you're racing this time or not. For two days, more than 60 exhibitors will offer free samples, showcase the latest in running gear, sports apparel, health and nutritional information and much more. The expo is a great opportunity to pick up some cool new kicks for one of the other upcoming races this year. A few on my radar include the United Way Turkey Trot, Enmark Savannah River Bridge Run, Color Vibe 5K and the 3rd Annual Reindeer Run.
'Johnny and Me'
There are a number of opportunities on the local art scene coming up. "Johnny Mercer and Me," a musical based on the music of Johnny Mercer, will be at Muse Arts Warehouse on Nov. 9-11 and 15-18. Tickets are $20, and there's a great cast including Jeff Hall, Sandra Nix and Grace Diaz Tootle. Tickets available at showclix.com/events/15680.
Telfair Art Fair
The 18th Annual Telfair Art Fair is Nov. 10-11 in Telfair Square, and there will be an Opening Night Preview on Nov. 9. This popular Southern open-air festival attracts thousands of high-end art collectors, tourists, area residents and families and is open to artists displaying and selling works in various artistic disciplines including painting, printmaking, drawing/pastel, digital media, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics/pottery, photography, furniture, glass, textiles/fiber and mixed media.
About 115 artists will be featured this year. I've previewed some of the art that will be available, and it is a real treat! I've already got my eye on a piece by Atlanta artist Michelle Prahler. You can preview the artists and purchase tickets to the Arty Party preview event at telfair.org.
Moonlight museum
Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum will host their annual "Museum in the Moonlight" event 7-9 p.m. Nov. 10. Enjoy touring the brand new North Garden while enjoying the Assembly Dancers, who will entertain with period dances from the 1800s. The event is free and open to the public. Beverages and dessert will be available for purchase. For more info, check out their Facebook event page.
Kids book fest
Have you ever heard of the book "How Rocket Learned to Read?" It's a favorite in my house, and there's a certain munchkin excited about the upcoming Children's Book Festival presented by Live Oak Public Libraries, where author Tad Hills will read this sweet book to hundreds of people in Forsyth Park. The free Nov. 10 festival also will include authors and illustrators from throughout the Lowcountry and the Southeast, arts and crafts, costumed characters, a graphic/comics area and a variety of food and entertainment. For more info, visit liveoakpl.org.
Amy Brock is the social media voice of Visit Savannah. Have an event or idea for her?
Tweet to @Amy_Brock or
@VisitSavannah or email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Salute to Vienna
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Price: $60.00
"Salute To Vienna," narrated by the late Academy Award-winning actor Gregory Peck, features an all-star cast of Austrian and American soloists and the inspired pairing of the Vienna Boys Choir and the Boys Choir of Harlem.
Taped at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna in 1999, the program marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Vienna's renowned "Waltz King," whose prolific library of music consists of over 400 compositions.
Combo Pack includes:
- CD - A Salute to Vienna: The Gala Concert for Public Television
- DVD - A Salute to Vienna: The Gala Concert for Public Television
- CD - A Salute to Vienna: Live from the Konzerthaus


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According to NJBiz, the Formula One Grand Prix race, slated for the streets of Weehawken and West New York, may be postponed for a third time. Rather than coming to the area in the summer of 2015, it may land only in 2016.
The story says: "As new rumors swirled that organizers had stumbled yet again, the owner of the proposed racing site told The Record on Thursday that there was 'no possibility' that the race would happen by next summer ... The comment to The Record by Carl Goldberg, of Mack-Cali Realty Corp.'s Roseland subsidiary, came after Formula One commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone reignited doubts about the New Jersey race. In a story published Thursday afternoon, Ecclestone told Forbes that 2015 was now off the table."


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2012 Chevrolet Volt
Base Hatchback
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Road Test
2012 Chevrolet Volt Review
A glimpse of things to come
Reviewed by Automotive on
The Chevrolet Volt is considered by many as one of the most important developments in the automotive market since the Toyota Prius. The Volt, like the Prius, has its engine as the heart of this innovation. The Chevy Volt uses a regular 1.4-liter inline-4 gasoline engine coupled with an electric motor to move about, a basic description of most hybrids as well. However, unlike full hybrids such as the Prius, which alternates between a gasoline engine and an electric motor, or "mild" hybrids which move primarily by their gasoline engine with a boost now and then from the electric motor, the Chevrolet Volt reverses the paradigm and moves primarily via its electric motor with the gasoline engine acting as a recharger for the batteries. The Volt can also draw upon standard electric current via a plug with the entire set-up making it, essentially, a plug-in hybrid, though General Motors prefers the term, "range extender." Fuel economy of the Chevrolet Volt relies heavily on the driver's regular range and driving habits. The Volt can travel up to 50 miles on battery power alone before the gasoline engine kicks in to recharge, so theoretically anyone whose round trip is within those miles will never need a fill up as long as they recharge the battery nightly. The EPA estimates the Volt has a total range of around 375 miles between fillips with a combined city/highway fuel economy of 93 mpg under pure electric power, or an estimated 60 mpg using both motors. The Chevrolet Volt debut in late 2010 as a 2011 model, and won Motor Trend's Car of the Year.
The Range
Body style: Hatchback
Engine: 1.4-liter inline-4, 16 kWh Li-Ion battery pack
Transmission: Single reduction ratio
Model: Base
Engine: 1.4-liter inline-4, 16 kWh Li-Ion battery pack
Transmission: Single reduction ratio
Model: Base
What's New
The Chevrolet Volt debuted last year so expect few changes for 2012. New standard features include keyless entry, OnStar, and Chevrolet's new MyLink connectivity system. The Chevy Volt gets two new exterior colors -- Blue Topaz Metallic and Summit White -- and two additional interior color accents (spiced red and white). Finally, 17-inch wheels are available as an option.
Though it looks like a compact sedan, the 2012 Chevrolet Volt is actually a hatchback, its fifth door blending seamlessly with the rear. The Volt is built lower to the ground compared to other sedans, almost like a sports car, but it improves the Volt's aerodynamics, which is one of the best in this class. Except for the availability of the two new additional exterior colors and new (optional) wheels, the Chevrolet Volt carries over into the new model year essentially unchanged.
The Chevrolet Volt carries over into the new model year essentially unchanged. Interior space of the 2012 Chevrolet Volt is on the tight side and the bucket seats in the front and rear maximize room for driver and up to three passengers. Interior space is further reduced due to the batteries and the Volt's swoopy design: rear seat adults will feel cramped and cargo capacity is scarcely more than 10 cubic feet. Design-wise, the Volt's instrument cluster and center stack are as unique as its engine though we found it easy enough to see and use the controls under normal conditions.
Performance & Handling
Engine noise is nil under the 2012 Chevrolet Volt's electric motor, and the changeover when the gasoline engine kicks in to recharge the batteries is nearly imperceptible. Road and wind noise are well controlled, though not luxury-car quiet, and handling is competent. The brakes, on the other hand, can sometimes be touchy. Finally, the 2012 Chevy Volt feels substantial due to its lowered design and battery weight.
Standard safety features include front, side, and side curtain airbags; anti-lock brakes (ABS); GM's StabiliTrak electronic stability control system; and traction control. Optional safety equipment includes a rearview backup camera.
EPA Fuel Economy
Chevrolet Volt: Combined city/highway: 93 mpg electric only; 37 mpg gas engine only; 60 mpg combined
You'll Like
- Fuel economy
- Styling
You Won't Like
- Interior design
- Strictly four-seater
- Price
Sum UpA glimpse of things to come
If You Like This Vehicle
- Ford Focus Electric
- Mitsubishi i
- Nissan Leaf
- Toyota Prius
See the New 2018 Volt.


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Sandra Lee's Baked Mashed Potatoes
An Inexpensive and Delicious Side
This side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving and won't break the bank.
Cooking Directions
In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp. Drain on brown paper. remover all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan. (Reserve 1 cup bread crumbs for Round 2 Recipe). Add the remaining bread crumbs and cook until they are lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Preheat the over to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the milk and butter.
Wash the potatoes well, cut them into 1-inch cubes, and put them into a large pot. Cover the potatoes with water, add salt, put the pot over high heat, and bring it to a boil. When the potatoes are cooked through, about 20 minutes, strain them, put them back into the pot, and mash them. (Reserve 2 cups mashed potatoes for Round 2 Recipe).
Add the cream cheese to the potatoes and continue to mash. Slowly stir in the warm milk just until incorporated and fold in the grated cheese. Over-mixing the potatoes will cause them to become gluey. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Put the potatoes into the prepared baking dish, crumble the bacon over the top, and sprinkle evenly with the bread crumbs. Bake until heated through and golden brown on top, about 25-30 minutes. Serve garnished with chives.
This recipe was styled by chef Karen Pickus for Good Morning America.
Recipe courtesy of Sandra Lee's cookbook, "Money Saving Meals and Round 2 Recipes".
Recipe Summary
Main Ingredients: bacon, butter, potatoes, chives
Course: Side Dish
More Info: Kids Friendly


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A Miami police sergeant who headed a drug-fighting squad testified in his federal corruption trial Monday, denying ever planting drugs on a suspect or stealing drugs and money from dope dealers.
Sgt. Raul Iglesias, 40, accused of being a dirty cop, also denied ever asking detectives in his unit for "throw-down dope'' to plant on the suspect in a downtown Miami parking lot in early 2010.
"Absolutely not,'' Iglesias testified, disputing the recent testimony of two detectives who accused him of asking them for throw-down drugs. "That's a ridiculous statement.''
Iglesias further testified that he never told a third detective that it was OK to pay confidential informants with drugs. That detective testified that he did that once in 2010, with Iglesias sitting by his side in an unmarked police vehicle, but Iglesias denied that the confidential informant was paid with a small amount of cocaine.
"I have no knowledge that he ever paid [the informant] with drugs,'' Iglesias testified during direct examination as the first defense witness. The government rested its case on Friday.
Iglesias, who is scheduled to continue testifying, faces nine counts of conspiracy to possess cocaine, violating suspects' civil rights, obstruction of justice and making false statements. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.


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Hello all:
I am a Ph.D. student in a molecular biology program at a major academic research institution in the US and expect to graduate in the Fall of 2013. Thus far, I am in reasonably good standing with both advisor and committee members.
After 5.5 years of graduate school, I have finally concluded that I enjoy teaching more than lab bench research. Thus, I am strongly considering teaching at a small liberal arts college (SLAC). A teaching position at a smaller college has the benefits of smaller class sizes that are more conducive to personalized instruction and tend to provide better work/life balance than research professor. I also went to a SLAC as an undergrad and found it very rewarding.
In terms of teaching experience, I served as a TA for 2 undergraduate microbiology labs and supervised the research endeavors of several undergraduates in my advisor's laboratory. I am aware that academic teaching jobs require dense teaching experience that involves managing full lecture courses. To overcome this, I would have to do adjunct work or find a postdoc opportunity that would allow me to teach lecture courses on the side (I am not allowed to teach a lecture as a graduate student). However, I would prefer not to do a postdoc unless the PERFECT opportunity arose, and I'm not sure many PIs would allow postdocs to "sneak away" and do teaching.
Thus, my question is: Should I try to gain additional experience by becoming an adjunct or visiting assistant professor immediately after graduation or would it be better to find an integrated teaching/research postdoctoral position?
Many thanks.


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The Bruins didn't set off any fireworks yesterday on trade-deadline day.
They swung just one minor-league deal and will now go through the final 20 games of the regular season, plus playoffs, with the team that carries a five-game winning streak into tonight's game at Ottawa.
In case you're disappointed with the way things went for Boston yesterday, here's something to cheer you up: it's Nathan Horton's knockout of Edmonton's Theo Peckham from Sunday night:
Now it's worth showing some sympathy for Peckham, who left the game and didn't even skate on Monday. Hopefully, he'll come around. But Horton's rage was sparked by Peckham's decision to hit David Krejci up high, and now we know what happens when you mess with Horton's center.