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Locked out of home ownership – the housing affordability debate
Opinion from NZ Centre For Political Research
Housing affordability is shaping up as a defining political issue – probably an election issue in 2014. The problem is that housing costs in Auckland in particular are rising so rapidly that many low income families are being locked out of home ownership. While the reasons are complex, a major burden of the responsibility must lie with central government.
Over the years, governments have committed the country to smart growth, a planning ideology that is part of the United Nations sustainable development agenda. Smart growth restricts housing development to within urban boundaries, and while some local authorities have only paid lip service to the concept, Auckland has embraced it. Within the Auckland city boundary the average price of a section is 60 percent of the cost of a new home, compared with 40 percent around the rest of the country. Not only that, but outside the metropolitan urban limit, land costs only 12 percent of that inside.[1]
The Resource Management Act has contributed to the problem as well. Introduced as "enabling" legislation to replace prescriptive town and country planning laws, the RMA has been used successfully by opponents to delay progress on developments such as subdivisions.
Then there is the escalating cost of government regulation. Whenever a government tries to show that it is resolving a problem, it over-regulates. The restrictions that have been imposed on the building industry as a result of leaky buildings, the earthquakes, and energy efficiency concerns are a case in point – taken together, they have significantly forced up the cost of housing.
In addition, the regulation of builders – one of the law changes to emerge from the mix – has had the effect of driving tradesmen out of the industry and out of the country, rather than having to go through the hassle of registration. This is forcing up the cost of labour as well, creating a double whammy for low income families aspiring to build their own home.
One of the biggest housing cost increases arose as a result of changes made by Labour in 2002 to the Local Government Act, which allowed councils to impose a new tax on developers. Ostensibly to recover the cost of providing water, sewerage, footpaths, roading and other services to new subdivisions, councils were meant to offset these tax gains by reducing rates. The problem is that most forgot that side of the equation, viewing development contribution fees as an easy way to generate extra income.
This week's NZCPR Guest Commentator, investment analyst and former councillor Frank Newman, has researched these issues and quantified the impact of some of these central government costs on the price of building a home:
"The Resource Management Act has imposed significant costs and lengthy delays on new developments. The Long Bay residential project in Auckland is an example of a development 'where environmental factors were put ahead of people's housing needs'. Planning for the estate began in about 1998 but work did not start until 2011. From my experience as a councillor on the Whangarei District Council I can say that delays measured in years, rather than months, is not unusual.
"Here's a quick example to show how delays inflate property prices. Let's make three assumptions:
1. An investor needs to make say 10% p.a. on their investment to make it
2. The all up cost to develop a section is $100,000, and
3. The time between buying and selling the section is one year.
"Under that scenario the developer would price the section at $110,000.
"Change the third assumption from one to 10 years then they would have to sell the same section at $260,000 to achieve the same annual return! In other words, reducing the consenting time from 10 years to one year would reduce land prices by more than half!
"Council staff and politicians (local and central) simply do not understand the numbers. They need to if they are going to be part of the solution rather than the problem. Reducing excessive time delays alone could reduce the land costs by many tens of thousands of dollars. The simple fact is greenies and iwi have used the RMA to advance their own agendas and that has cost homeowners dearly.
"The Local Government Act 2002 gave councils the power to impose development fees. The fees are nothing more than a new tax on those building a new home. If Mr English were to repeal the fees the cost of housing would fall by about 10%."
Frank mentions other government-controlled factors that are driving up the cost of housing such as GST, which now adds 15 percent to the price of a dwelling, and the registration of builders.
"In addition building material costs have risen faster than wages. This is not surprising given the new costs central government has imposed on the business sector. The extra week's holiday added another 2% on company wage costs and holidays and other paid entitlements like KiwiSaver add at least 10% onto wage costs; and the nonsensical emissions trading scheme has increased fuel and power prices. These costs hit building manufacturers hard because they are energy, labour and transport intensive." To read the full article, please click HERE.
While these factors have all contributed to the rising cost of housing, the ability to save also plays a major role in housing affordability. Saving a deposit can be tough for those on low incomes, especially as the prevailing culture is not as aligned to saving as it once was. However, KiwiSaver now provides a cost-effective pathway to first home ownership.
In addition to the generous benefits of KiwiSaver – which include an initial contribution by the government of $1040 and annual payments of up to $520, along with employer subsidies – registered first home buyers are entitled to receive a government grant of $1,000 a year for up to 5 years towards their deposit. For a working couple saving for their first home, that amounts to an extremely generous $10,000 'gift' from the government towards their deposit – on top of all of the other KiwiSaver benefits.
Last year the government asked the Productivity Commission to conduct an inquiry into housing affordability, in order to suggest changes that would improve the situation and remove impediments to home ownership. The Commission found that tax advantages were not a key driver of house price increases, as claimed by some. It found that 'smart growth' and 'metropolitan urban limit' planning policies were having an adverse effect by restraining the availability of land for housing and that council delays were exacerbating the problem. The commission recommended that councils and developers should work together to ensure the availability of sections at prices that would allow the building of affordable homes.[2]
Last month Finance Minister Bill English responded to the Productivity Commission's suggestions with a plan that will focus on four key areas: increasing land supply, reducing the delays and costs of the Resource Management Act processes associated with housing, improving the timely provision of infrastructure to support new housing, and improving the productivity in the construction sector.
Here are a few practical steps Mr English could take to make housing more affordable:
• Immediately repeal council development impact fees.
• Reject the baseless notion that investment in housing is taking money away from the productive sector. At $13 billion and growing, KiwiSaver will soon provide a more than adequate savings fund for investment into New Zealand's productive sector.
• Reduce taxes so households have greater disposable income, which by definition, would improve house affordability.
• Undertake an urgent audit of the regulations and red tape associated with the housing sector to bring land and building costs down to affordable levels. In particular focus on forcing local authorities to become more efficient.
In response to the debate about housing affordability, Tony Alexander, the Chief Economist of the BNZ, has come up with 19 reasons why he believes housing costs in the Auckland area will keep on rising! These include:
• Auckland's population is growing at a faster rate than building consents;
• Those living in temporary accommodation are now looking to buy;
• Increasing construction costs;
• The shortage of builders;
• The reticence of banks to lend as freely for mortgages as they once did; and
• "Members of the Opposition believe monetary fairies can make the exchange rate settle permanently lower by forcing interest rate cuts and printing money while letting inflation therefore go up. Given the non-zero possibility that such economically ignorant policies get introduced it is worth getting inflation protection by investing more in property – not less."
He also soundly condemns the idea that a capital gains tax – the flagship housing policy of both Labour and the Greens – would have any impact at all on improving housing affordability, saying that there is absolutely no evidence to support such claims.[3]
Those who agree with Labour and the Greens that a capital gains tax should be introduced seem to ignore the fact that there already is a capital gains tax in place for anyone who trades property or assets with the intention of making capital gains. Not only that, but supporters of a new capital gains tax regime are naive if they think that the family home would remain exempt in the long term – especially as critics already say that such a scheme would not raise significant revenue without the family home being included. The very existence of a new capital gains tax regime would place every New Zealand home-owner into an extremely vulnerable position, since there would be an enormous temptation for any cash-strapped government in the future to bring the family home into the scheme with just a stroke of the pen. In fact, when considering such issues it is advisable to remember the wise counsel of President Ronald Reagan: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help"!
Meanwhile, David Shearer, at his last conference address as leader of the Labour Party, focussed on housing. In addition to reaffirming a capital gains tax, he announced a plan to force private landlords to comply with new insulation and heating standards in their rental properties.
However his major policy announcement was a plan to borrow up to $2 billion to build 100,000 homes over a 10 year period. With the biggest housing rebuild in New Zealand's history already underway in Christchurch, one wonders whether the Labour team thought to ask where the builders are expected to come from!
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
Original url


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Folding Chairs Handsome Enough for the Great Indoors
- Najib Benouar
The folding chair is the ultimate summer accomplice—at the ready for a jaunt to the beach or a fireside chat while camping and easily movable to whichever side of the terrace is getting the most sun.
But usually, once summer ends, you're honor-bound to fold them up and pack them away till it warms up again.
Unless, that is, you get one of the following folding chairs that have been upcycled with handsome leathers, canvas and hardwoods that will take you outdoors in high style while still being handsome enough to transition indoors for the rest of the seasons...
Herewith, the folding chairs handsome enough for the great indoors.»

subset: commoncrawl


text:
TEL AVIV – Leaders of Syrian rebel militias are planning to hold an immediate meeting between the borders of Syria and Lebanon, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.
The meeting, which has been described as unusual, includes members of the Al-Nusra Front jihadist group as well as militants from the al-Qaida-aligned Jihadiya Salafiya who have been fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the sources said.
Salafiya elements from Egypt, Jordan, Gaza and northern Lebanon will participate in the meeting, the sources added.
It was not immediately clear whether the confab was related to the insurgency against Assad, the border clashes with Israel or the growing clashes near the Syria-Lebanon border, where Sunni groups have been battling Iranian-backed Shiite factions.
The purported meeting comes as fighting in Syria on Sunday spread to the Israeli border.
A top Syrian official told WND early Sunday that it was the Syrian opposition and not the Syrian government that was behind the weekend firing at the Israeli border.
The Syrian official accused the jihadist opposition of attempting to draw Israel into the conflict to aid the rebels by targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"Why would we fire at Israel?" asked the official, speaking on condition his name be withheld. "We have no interest in getting Israel to attack the Syrian military."
The rebels are backed by the U.S. and international community.
The border incidents began Saturday, when a round of gunfire coming from the Syrian side hit an Israeli Defense Forces jeep on routine patrol in the northern Golan Heights. Another round fired from Syria targeted the same area in Israel Sunday.
The gunfire came from a region on the Syrian side of the border where rebels have been attempting to seize control of a border town the last few days.
Israel on Sunday responded with a missile attack that destroyed a Syrian army machine-gun position despite questions about whether the Syrian army was behind the fire into Israel.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon made clear he views Assad bearing the ultimate responsibility for any attacks from his side of the border.
Yaálon's office released this statement: "We view the fire from Syria last night and this morning at IDF troops in Israeli territory as severe. The IDF responded in accordance with government policy. Every breach of Israeli sovereignty and each firing from the Syrian side will be met with an immediate response to silence the source of fire as we identify them. We see the Syrian regime as being responsible for every violation of our sovereignty."
Today's round of violence comes as the rebels are reportedly being fingered in last week's alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Khan al-Assal, west of Aleppo.
The London Telegraph reported Sunday the Syrian military is said to believe a home-made, locally manufactured rocket was fire by rebels, containing a form of chlorine known as CL17, easily available as a swimming pool cleaner. Syria claims the warhead contained a quantity of the gas, dissolved in saline solution.
Informed Mideast security officials speaking to WND further blamed the rebels for the chemical attack.
The officials said it appears that the rebels are attempting to create a humanitarian crisis to precipitate the deployment of NATO to fight the Assad regime.


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I've been known to complain too much, and this really is a minor thing. Still...
My son's quiz question:
Why is voting a good way to have a voice in your community?
a. Voting is easy
b. Voting helps make towns and cities better places
c. Voters choose who will help make decisions for the community
The answer guide of course says c, but you could easily argue b. That's what my son chose. And, he got it marked wrong.
It's not that he got it wrong that bothers me. It's that he didn't get a chance to explain why he chose that answer, as he told me. They never went over the questions as a class. This is a golden opportunity for students to justify their answers with rationale and logic. At the very least, the teacher should explain why a given answer is correct and others wrong. But instead, students won't have a chance to learn and engage in dialectic discussion.
The answer sheet said c.


text:
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Find Savings & Credit Cards
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text:
Jini: Out of the Bottle and Into the Boxby Daniel H. Steinberg
What if a Jini lookup service was available in every shipping JVM? What if Java was linked to networking in the same way that marketing tried to link Java to XML a few years back, and not just for enterprise applications--where Jini is a natural fit--but also in every J2SE and J2ME distribution. Jini is Java's secret weapon. It is so secret, however, that other technologies have been invented and adopted to solve problems that Jini already addresses.
This is not just another article championing a niche technology; it is a tempered rant on why Jini could be seen as central to the future health of Java. We can draw many lessons from the success of web services and from Apple's (soon to be renamed) Rendezvous technology, and we can find many opportunities on the desktop, in the enterprise, and on devices. Everywhere you see a JVM, picture a Jini-enabled device. The result is that every computer is networked and the network really is the computer.
Let's start with a handful of what ifs.
- Jini everywhere: What if every device capable of running Java applications could communicate with other devices running Java applications?
- Local grids: What if, whenever your coworker's machines aren't working on a computationally intensive task, they make themselves available to help out with whatever task you are working on?
- Web services: What if we continue to participate in web services because we have to, but we also truly unleash the power we already have by using Java on servers, clients, and micro-devices?
- Rendezvous: What if we looked carefully at what has made Rendezvous become so widely adopted so quickly, and made sure that every JVM had at least as much networking power built in as an operating system designed for end users?
- No choices: What if we didn't insist that only one technology be included, and made sure that Jini, JXTA, Rendezvous, etc. were all shipped as part of the JVM?
- Killer app: What if we had the demo to beat all demos that combined the best of Swing and Jini into an application that flipped on the "Oh, now I get it" switch in managers and engineers everywhere?
- Fundamental networking: What if we could differentiate Java from all other technologies by making ubiquitous networking and distributed computing part of the platform itself?
- Compete: What if the answer to "Why program in Java?" was obvious?
In the Past, Jini Was the Future
Every day you interact firsthand with more and more computing devices. It would require too much of your time and an assumption of training and expertise if each of these devices required a human to be involved each time they communicated with one another. The integration of devices and of applications cannot depend on us. There are many ways of accomplishing this. The one getting all the press right now is web services, but there are other alternatives.
Agreeing on Something
A year and a half ago at BEA's eWorld conference in Orlando, Florida, then-CTO Scott Dietzen considered what would be required of web enabling an application. Currently, for the most part, web enabling an application means that you can run it with a browser. Dietzen posited that where the current Web is concerned with UI, the next generation of the Web will center around integration.
Dietzen argued that before web services, the choices were to either agree to use a shared data model or a shared object model between applications. In other words, you needed to either agree on what was being sent over the wire, or you needed to agree on the type system at both ends. He predicted that Java would be used for intra-application communication and XML web services would be used for communication between applications.
For many, the web services core standards (SOAP, HTTP, SSL, URI, UDDI, and WSDL) enable applications that know little about each other to collaborate and communicate. At issue, however, is that SOAP-based web services are being used inappropriately for applications that require only a socket or two. This is reminiscent of the way in which EJBs were adopted in settings that required little more than a servlet.
With web services, the agreement centers around the protocol of the data being sent back and forth. There is no need to worry about whether the applications at each end of the wire are written in the same language or are running on the same platform. When Google, or eBay, or Amazon wants to expose some of their functionality to you as a developer without telling you anything about their implementation, they can expose a set of web services and say, "This is how you initiate a request, and this is the format in which the results will be returned."
The Choice of Axioms
So is Jini right and web services wrong, or is web services wrong and Jini right?
In his recent address to the eighth Jini Community Meeting, Brian Murphy reminded the audience of the importance of axioms. His motivating metaphor was non-Euclidean geometry. What happens if you remove the assumption of the parallel postulate? In Euclidean geometry, this amounts to the statement that given a line and a point not on the line, there is exactly one line through the given point parallel to the given line. If you replace that assumption with the statement that ... there are no lines through the given point ... you end up with the geometry of the sphere. If you instead assume that ... there are two lines through the given point ... you end up with hyperbolic geometry.
One reaction is to look at the world around us and we say that Euclidean geometry is right, and therefore the other geometries must be wrong. Another reaction is to dismiss this all as fanciful arguments about things that don't matter. But Murphy pointed out that Reimmanian geometry provided the support for Einstein's theories. Euclidean geometry was sufficient for describing the world modeled by Newtonian physics, but other geometries were required to describe the world as modern science now understands it.
Brian's address struck a chord with me. Math for me was much like playing elaborate games: read through the rules and then move your way around the board (i.e., prove some theorems). That was Brian's point when it came to distributed computing. It isn't that Jini or any other technology is right or wrong. You need to understand the fundamental assumptions of that technology and apply it where appropriate.
Badges? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!
If you own both sides of the wire, you should not be using SOAP and friends. In "I'd Rather Use a Socket," Robert C. Martin writes that he thinks "industry should join frameworks anonymous and swear off gratuitous framework adoption. We should all start using sockets and flat files instead of huge middleware and enormous databases--at least for those applications where the frameworks and databases aren't obviously necessary."
If you need to send and receive an integral value, you can create a SOAP message to contain your message and prepare to receive and unwrap a SOAP message containing the response. What if you or your company created both the client and the server for this particular application? Uncle Bob's point is that you could probably open up a socket on the client end and send the integer to the server. If you like, you could even encrypt the message. Open up another socket and wait for the response.
This SOAP/WSDL-based overkill phenomenon is not restricted to the software industry. There are few things easier to make than pancake batter, and yet millions of prepackaged powders and liquid mixes are sold each year. Freshly made caramel sauce can be yours in about fifteen minutes with nothing more than sugar, water, and cream. It's not that we've gotten lazy. Many of us have no idea that making some of these storebought items ourselves could be so easy. We're heading the same way with distributed computing. We're buying into the notion that we need all of these WS-* initiatives and can't imagine that we can send a message "from scratch" with our "easy-bake socket."
In particular, if we are writing applications that assume Java at both ends of the wire, then we can take advantage of the Java-based type system. What is being sent as a message can be serialized Java objects that can be reconstituted at the other end. Those who are not interested in standardizing on Java need to reject this axiom. What happens when we do not agree that Java will be present on both ends? You end up in a CORBA-like world, or in a world that agrees to standardize on web services. If you assume Java is present at both ends of the wire, you are mostly set up to take advantage of Jini technology.
Lessons from Rendezvous
At their core, Jini and Rendezvous each enable service discovery. They do so in different ways and can be used to complement each other. Their differences, however, extend beyond their core set of APIs. The Java community should look at the ways in which Rendezvous was introduced and the speed with which it has been adopted. Most important is for Jini lookup services to be ever present and for them to not need any configuration or setup on the part of the enduser.
Related Reading
Java Network Programming
First Impressions
When Jini was introduced, the initial emphasis seemed to be on devices communicating with each other. There was the futuristic notion that your coffeemaker and refrigerator could talk to each other so that if your milk was outdated, your coffeemaker would know not to make coffee for you, because you never drink coffee without milk. The Jini team emphasized that Jini was more than this, but the message got lost. They explained that Jini was all about distributed objects and networked devices, and the assumptions that needed to be made to robustly provide services on an unreliable network. Much of that message got lost. As Apple CEO Steve Jobs said to Sun CEO Scott McNealy on the JavaOne stage, "You were busy Java-enabling light bulbs." In addition to the conceptual hurdle that was placed around Jini, there were actual hurdles to adoption. If it was to be adopted by printers, then printer manufacturers had to include a JVM in their printers and the industry had to agree on a Java-based printing protocol.
Contrast this with Apple's introduction of Rendezvous. Rendezvous is an IP-based network technology for advertising and browsing services. In the introductory demo at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, Steve Jobs displayed a music application by browsing through his available music. Someone joined him onstage and opened up a laptop. The second laptop joined the same network as Jobs' computer, and on the screen the audience could see the music from the laptop was now available to be played on Jobs' computer. The laptop was then closed and the additional music was no longer available to be played. Thousands of developers walked away understanding what Rendezvous was all about.
Perhaps ironically, it was the device manufacturers who first embraced Rendezvous. Printer manufacturers Rendezvous-enabled their printers. Any printer that could be accessed using IP over Ethernet could easily be Rendezvous-enabled. This meant that as you wandered into a new environment, you could automatically discover and print to printers you previously didn't know existed. It was the Jini value proposition. Although Jini and Rendezvous were largely orthogonal technologies, developers left the Jobs demonstration saying "Rendezvous is French for Jini."
Get It in the Box
Rendezvous has been adopted fairly quickly. In addition to the printers, cameras, and other devices that manufacturers that have incorporated Rendezvous into, Apple has Rendezvous-enabled many of their software offerings, and third-party software houses have found interesting ways of taking advantage of dynamically discovered devices.
The keys for Rendezvous were:
- The concept is simple.
- The daemon that enables Rendezvous shipped with every Mac and was on.
- Rendezvous required nothing of the user.
- There were killer apps such as iChat, iPhoto, and iTunes that demonstrated the power of Rendezvous.
Each of these are important for Jini, as well. For example, the concept is simple, but it must be communicated in a way that matters.
The most important requirement for Jini is that it gets to live "in the box." When Jini was introduced, the reach of Java was tiny compared to now. Jini needs to be inside of every JVM. Jini needs to ship as a part of the core Java platform. In addition, when a JVM launches, there needs to be a check that there is some number of lookup services available, or the local JVM must launch one. The launching and maintenance of the network on which the Jini services run must be transparent to the user. There are Java mechanisms such as Java WebStart that can be exploited to easily distribute Jini-based applications that can be used to discover required services without requiring user configuration.
Key for Java or Key for Jini?
Certainly having Jini distributed with every JVM is beneficial to the Jini community and should enable and encourage the use of the technology. Having support for mobile objects built into the platform is also good for Java. Remember that Java is three things: a platform, a language, and a set of libraries. Java as a platform benefits when you can assume that whenever a Java application is running, an infrastructure that supports distributed programming is available. Jini helps answer the question, "What's so special about Java?"
While you read this article, the act of displaying the HTML in a browser does not require much of the available cycles in your computer. Imagine the aggregate advantage if you and your coworkers agree to participate in local grids when your individual usage is below a certain amount. If Java developers could count on the availability of Jini, they could partition computing-intensive tasks to take advantage of other cooperating devices.
As you move with your laptop through time or space, Java applications that are built with the expectation of Jini everywhere can take advantage of self-configuring, self-healing network applications. Perhaps your machine can't handle a particular type of calculation. You know that at work, there are several machines set up to perform that task. As you arrive at work, your laptop handshakes with one of the available machines, and the task is completed and waiting for you before you've had your morning coffee.
What we learned in the case of Rendezvous is that having the supporting structure always available leads developers to take advantage of the technology in ways that cannot be anticipated.
Contrast this with the application-by-application way in which Jini tends to be supported. Someone creates a Jini-enabled application. Now they must ensure that everyone who needs to run it, can. This means configuring and running a lookup service and making sure that there are comprehensive instructions on how to start up and run the clients.
In the case of Rendezvous, it has been clear for a while that it worked on the Windows operating system, as there were Windows versions of the iTunes music application. But this doesn't help a second application that wants to take advantage of Rendezvous on Windows. The best solution is to have a single daemon on each device. Apple has produced Rendezvous daemons for Windows, Linux, and Unix distributions. With Jini, the advantage is that Jini requires Java, and that there is little that would need to change in a JVM and standard distribution to support Jini.
The advantage of supporting Jini at the VM level is, therefore, that you can "assume a network." But there is a second advantage to the Java community to making sure that Jini is built in. Since Jini requires Java, as people begin to understand the power of Jini and JavaSpaces, this helps raise the bar for or even fend off possible replacements for Java.
The Highlander Principle
Jim Waldo often speaks of the Highlander principle with regards to the adoption of Jini or other core technologies. As Wikipedia explains, the Highlander is a series of movies about an immortal who does "not age and cannot die unless he is decapitated. When only one Immortal is left, he or she will gain 'The Prize' ... The phrase 'There can be only one!' is used frequently in promoting the movies, resulting in 'highlander' also being a generic phrase for computer programming solutions that involve exclusive access to a resource."
Waldo applies this concept of "there can be only one" to technologies that appear to solve the same problem. If you think of Jini as a technology for enabling enterprise applications, then it must die if other applications are to live. For different reasons, companies would like us to choose one true solution and swear allegiance to it. It is as if we could not program in Java when appropriate and Perl when the need arises.
One of the most appealing aspects of Apple's Rendezvous technology is the fundamental rejection of the Highlander principle. The rules are simple--you need an IP address to communicate using IP. One alternative is to use Rendezvous to obtain this IP address. On the other hand, if a device has obtained a legitimate IP address either through manual assignment or using DHCP, that device can fully participate in a Rendezvous network. At the second step, the device needs to obtain a user-friendly name that resolves to the address. Again, Rendezvous provides its own mechanism for doing so, while still respecting those devices that have access to a DNS server. The third step is Rendezvous-specific for advertising and browsing services--but there is no requirement that "you are all Rendezvous or not at all Rendezvous."
Jini and other Sun-sponsored Java technologies should take the same attitude. Jini is a wonderful technology that solves many of today's most interesting problems. But perhaps there are clients that can take advantage of a combination of Jini and JXTA so that the Jini Lookup Service can be exposed as a JXTA peer, as Bruno Souza and others demonstrated at JavaOne 2003. Perhaps a Jini Lookup Service can be Rendezvous enabled so that Jini can take advantage of Rendezvous' reach and ease of setup.
Applying the Highlander principle, I'm not suggesting that only Jini should be included in the box. I'd be happy to see support for JXTA and Rendezvous built in as well. Make Java a platform that embraces and enables ubiquitous networking.
Where Does Jini Belong?
In the early days, people associated Java with applets. Then there was a transition to a focus on Java as a tool for the enterprise. Similarly, Jini has been tagged with the enterprise label and it has had to fight a war on two fronts. Within enterprise applications, it has taken a back seat to EJBs, web services, and other enterprise frameworks of choice. Outside of the enterprise, it has never found much of a foothold with desktop and J2ME applications. The landscape is currently particularly friendly to reintroducing Jini into SE, ME, and EE applications.
Distributed Computing on the Desktop
What we need here is a killer app.
Take a look at some of the better-known Rendezvous applications. An instant messaging client is often tied to a central server. The only people who appear on your buddy list are people you have placed there. Use the Rendezvous version at a conference, and discover the people online who may be watching the same talk you are. Rendezvous-enable iPhoto and you can share your pictures. Even unlikely applications can be Rendezvous-enabled with powerful results. Add Rendezvous features to a simple text editor and you end up with Sub-Etha-Edit, a powerful collaboration tool.
As you consider creating a desktop application, think about what features could be added if one instance of your application could communicate with other instances of the application. It's not just applications that can benefit from Jini. Rather than wait for Jini to be added to standard J2SE distributions, Sun could quickly add Jini to the Java Desktop System and further distinguish it from other Linux distributions.
Embracing POJOs in the Enterprise
Take a look at the recent push towards Spring, Hibernate, Pico Container, and other lightweight frameworks. Consider the rethinking of EJB 3.0 to embrace their lessons. JDO has sufficient support to lead us to rethink some of the "early wisdom" with regards to the Enterprise stack. We have returned to a world that embraces POJOs.
Jini applications are built around these plain old Java objects. In fact, this could be why the full J2EE stack was promoted over the use of Jini in distributed applications. Jini does not require expensive application servers and complicated containers. This makes Jini a compelling choice for clients but not for application tool vendors, who benefit from sales and support of certified J2EE app servers. Jini applications are also platform-independent. At deployment time, it is nice not to have to worry about which version of which app server is being supported on each machine.
Web services send XML-based "objects" over the wire. You then need to discover the structure of the message being sent, so that it can be read and a response can be generated. After the messaging mechanism is agreed upon, you need to be concerned with supporting security and transactions. For Java developers, this support has been present in Jini for a while. Programmers need to acknowledge and code for potential problems on the network, but the patterns for working with Jini and JavaSpaces are not nearly as complex as the problems with working with EJBs.
Finally, in the enterprise there is a lot of interest in grid computing and in what is called autonomic computing. Lessons from Google on the power of running large clusters of inexpensive machines have helped to generate interest in the power of a grid. JavaSpaces is the forgotten first cousin of Jini. It provides support for grid-style computing and is being used in many settings where machines need to move in and out of a compute cluster to meet needs when demand peaks, and to provide load balancing. At the recent Jini Community Meetings, Nigel Warren demonstrated a video application of JavaSpaces and John McClain described some of the upcoming additions to the JavaSpaces APIs (including support for FIFO). This is a technology ripe for adoption.
Jini in Your Pocket
The mobile device that fits inside of your pocket has considerably more power and memory than when Jini was first introduced. Although J2ME should, perhaps, still appropriately address the input and output constraints of such devices, there is no reason not to support Jini and other distributed computing technologies as a core part of J2ME. RMI is not part of the J2ME stack--but what would it take to include it and the Jini .jar files?
The surrogate architecture may not be required for any but the most resource-constrained devices. As we can count on Java being included in phones and other mobile devices, we create a more robust environment for our devices if Jini (and JXTA, and even Rendezvous) is present as well. Consider, for example, a Jini-enabled presentation tool that allows you to view the slides being presented in a different room on your cell phone. That same application could be used by you to deliver a presentation from your cell phone that others could view on their phones, laptops, or on a projected image in an auditorium.
This is an important time for the adoption of Jini. Opportunities abound on the desktop, in the enterprise, and in mobile devices. There are many efforts to enable distributed computing in each of these settings that could be aided by the presence of Jini. Jini is not the answer in every situation, but it is a potential solution that is often overlooked.
Some of the reasons that Jini has been ignored can be rectified. It is difficult to get started with a Jini application. The "out-of-the-box" experience must be improved. There needs to be an ease of use for end users that would require a Jini lookup service be present without requiring any action on their part.
Brian Murphy asked how we can, or should, measure the success of Jini. We can't measure it by the number of developers working on Jini code. Even at a large application such as Orbitz, there is only a small core of developers who write Jini-specific code. Hundreds of developers work on the entire application, and millions of end users take advantage of Jini without knowing it. How should we measure the success of Jini?
Daniel H. Steinberg is the editor for the new series of Mac Developer titles for the Pragmatic Programmers. He writes feature articles for Apple's ADC web site and is a regular contributor to Mac Devcenter. He has presented at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, MacWorld, MacHack and other Mac developer conferences.
Return to ONJava.com.


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Wheel-lock key
Wheel locks help to ensure that someone won't walk off with your car's pricey wheels, but you won't be able to change a flat tire without the wheel-lock key. If your car has wheel locks, keep the key in the glove box next to the tire pressure gauge.
Cars.com photo
Copyright © 2018, CT Now


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Atlanta, GA (SportsNetwork.com) - Wednesday's game between the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks was postponed because of severe weather in the Southeast.
A makeup date has not yet been determined.
If the game is rescheduled for Thursday, an off day for both teams, it would also give the Hawks three games in three nights. Atlanta is already scheduled to visit Philadelphia on Friday and return home for a Saturday night game against Minnesota.
A state of emergency is in effect for the area, as snow and ice has stranded motorists in Atlanta and forced students to sleep at schools.
Detroit's travel plans also apparently factored into the decision.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Pistons were unable to travel from Detroit to Atlanta following Tuesday night's 103-87 home win over Orlando.
Detroit, in addition to Thursday, is also off Friday before returning to the court with a Saturday home matchup against Philadelphia.


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President Barack Obama, back from a Florida golfing weekend, warned Tuesday that "people will lose their jobs" if Congress doesn't act. But lawmakers weren't in session to hear his appeal, and they aren't coming back to work until next week.
Still dividing the two sides are sharp differences over whether tax increases, which Obama wants and Republicans oppose, should be part of a budget deal.
Obama cautioned that if the immediate spending cuts -- known as sequestration -- occur, the full range of government will feel the effects. Among those he listed: furloughed FBI agents, reductions in spending for communities to pay police, firefighters and teachers, and decreased ability to respond to threats around the world.
"So far at least, the ideas that the Republicans have proposed ask nothing of the wealthiest Americans or the biggest corporations," Obama said at a White House event against a backdrop of firefighters and other emergency personnel. "So the burden is all on the first responders, or seniors or middle class families.
Aides say Obama is ready to take his case more directly to the public in an effort to pressure Republicans, either by traveling to vulnerable states or, as the White House often does, through local media interviews. They say neither Obama nor White House officials are now engaged in direct negotiations with Republican leaders.
The spending cuts, however, aren't perceived to be as calamitous as the threatened results of recent fights over the nation's borrowing authority and the "fiscal cliff" that would have cut spending and increased tax rates on all Americans paying income taxes. Failure to raise the debt ceiling would have left the government with no money to spend on myriad programs and could have precipitated an unprecedented default. The fiscal cliff had the potential of setting back the economic recovery.
In fact, many Republicans now see the automatic cuts in spending as the only way to tackle the federal deficit. Some liberals won't balk either because they want cuts in Pentagon spending. And many Democrats believe the cuts will have to materialize before Republicans agree to some increase in taxes.
"Some Democrats want it because of the defense cuts, and Republicans want it because they want to do anything to cut domestic spending," said Brendan Daly, a former top aide to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and now Democratic leader. "And politically, it's difficult to oppose because the impact won't be so severe right away."
Democratic consultant Jim Manley, a former Senate leadership aide who periodically consults with Obama officials, added: "Not only do I expect the sequester to kick in, but unfortunately it will take a couple of temporary government shutdowns before Republicans realize they need to sit down and negotiate in good faith."
White House officials say they believe Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio will ultimately relent in his opposition to additional taxes. They note that despite his initial stand against increasing tax rates in December, he eventually allowed a House vote to proceed raising the top rate on the wealthiest taxpayers.
Not this time, he said Tuesday: "The American people understand that the revenue debate is now closed."
House Republicans have proposed an alternative to the broad, immediate budget cuts, targeting specific spending and extending some of the reductions over a longer period of time. They also have said they are willing to undertake changes in the tax code and eliminate loopholes and tax subsidies. But they have said they would overhaul the tax system to reduce rates, not to raise revenue.
Boehner said in a statement following Obama's remarks: "Tax reform is a once-in-a generation opportunity to boost job creation in America. It should not be squandered to enable more Washington spending. Spending is the problem, spending must be the focus."


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Methodists Urged to Debate Marriage Equality, Gay Clergy
Several LGBT activists recently attended the United Methodist Church's General Conference in Tampa, Fla., in order to argue that the United Methodist Church (UMC) should lift the ban on homosexuality in the church, which prohibits gay clergy and same-sex marriage, the Washington Post reported.
Nearly 1,000 delegates from around the world attended the conference while gay activists handed out pamphlets in five languages to promote their cause.
General Conference legislates attend the event, which is held every four years, to make decisions on a number of important issues, including pensions and prayer books. One hot issue that has been discussed since 1972 is the homosexuality debate. That same year, a phrase calling gay activity "incompatible with Christian teaching" was added to the Book of Discipline -- a law and doctrine of the UMC.
LGBT activists say that the UMC "must become more inclusive to attract young Americans who view the sexuality prohibitions as hypocritical," the Post points out. Conservatives, however, claim that churches that are sticking to traditional doctrines are thriving.
The newspaper says that United Methodists who back gay rights have proposed about 100 resolutions this year that would lift the phrase and say that more people are coming around to gays in the church.
Last year a UMC court barely punished a Wisconsin minister who authorized a gay marriage. More than 1,200 retired and active UMC clergy have vowed to perform same-sex marriages as well and surveys show that young Christians support gay rights. In addition, Episcopalian, Lutherans, Presbyterians have started using gay-friendly policies -- but conservatives say those churches have split from traditionalist congregations.
"Our structure is different, so that has impacted how we move on these concerns," said Ann Craig, a United Methodist and gay activist. "We're going to move together when we move," Craig said of her own UMC.
Some Methodists believe that policies should be created by regional conferences. Pastors who live in states or countries where marriage equality is recognized should be allowed to sanction same-sex marriages, according to Rev. Dean Snyder, senior pastor of Washington's Foundry United Methodist Church.
Snyder's church proposed a resolution that would allow Methodist churches in gay friendly states (and D.C.) to recognize gay marriage. The church sent 50 volunteers to the conference to lobby for it.
Snyder said his church has welcomed 10 gay marriages since D.C. legalized same-sex marriage in 2010.
"We are really praying that General Conference makes some movement," Snyder said. "It's going to be very disappointing if there is no movement at all."
Methodism began as a protest movement within the "established" (now Anglican) Church of England by John Wesley. The "dissenters," as they were known, wanted a more direct communion with God, more aggressive missionary work to Britain's colonies, and a radically direct approach to prayer. The organization was thus originally considered radical, but in the United States, it is considered one of the most mainstream of Protestant denominations.


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ACC Team Previews: Wake Forest Demon DeaconsPosted by ARowe on October 22nd, 2012
Throughout the preseason, the ACC microsite will release a preview for each of the 12 teams. Today's victim: the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest basketball took a step back last season under third-year coach Jeff Bzdelik. While Wake was on top of the basketball world in January 2009 (undefeated and ranked #1), the Demon Deacons' program has fallen on hard times ever since. From October 2010 to April 2012, Tony Woods, J.T. Terrell, Ty Walker, Ari Stewart, Carson Desrosiers, Anthony Fields, Tony Chennault and Melvin Tabb all left the school, either by choice or by force. As a result, the Deacs have won only five ACC games since March 7, 2010. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is a phrase that comes to mind.
Bzdelik certainly has his detractors. And his record since arriving in Winston-Salem speaks for itself. When a program has as rich of a basketball history (at least over the last three decades) as Wake Forest does, losing records and mass exoduses of players over a two-year period will not be tolerated very long at all. Although athletic director Ron Wellman has put his support thoroughly behind Bzdelik at some point he has to look out for his own job. Fortunately for both of them, help is on the way.
"Baby Deacs" is the name of the freshman class entering Winston-Salem this year to try and turn this program around. Madison Jones, Tyler Cavanaugh, Aaron Rountree, Codi Miller-McIntyre, Arnaud William Adala Moto, Devin Thomas and Andre Washington make up the seven freshmen expected to get Wake Forest basketball back to their winning ways. The class was ranked #21 in the country by ESPN and #23 by Scout.com.


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I have foreseen that outcome....
Funny how it's the skeptics who 'claim' they knew the results of this beforehand.
Oh, and by the way, when you do an experiment like that, make sure you use a proper random number generator. (one that has a *tested* uniform distribution - if you're expecting a uniform distribution of course, otherwise, test for the distribution you're expecting)
Most failures in 'randomizing' data are not difficult to detect (once you look at it)
Two examples.
1 - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/12/the-danger-of-naivete.html [codinghorror.com]
2 - (this happened to me) program works on one compiler, in the other it gives strange results (this is a simulation of signal transmission over noise conditions). Turns out on compiler 'a' random() doesn't return a value from 0 to the maximum value of a long, but returns up to a value less than the maximum value
Exactly! If there were psychic powers, it would be a world where those with average intellects would control vast fortunes, where hard work and study didn't pay off, and where people mindlessly followed trivial events while ignoring important events.
Nothing like the real world.
Look at the available evidence - if there was any psychic ability then the chances are that it would already be well documented.
No, that's backwards, because:
Even a slight statistical ability would have big impacts in warfare, commerce and many other areas of life.
Whatever real psychics are out there, they either a) are getting rich in the stock market (etc.) and not talking about it, or b) have all been sucked into various intelligence agencies.
The only way an ordinary member of the ballast like yourself would hear of proven psychic powers, is if they were so common that they could not be kept under wraps.
Like the sceptics who 'claim' that they knew subsequent tests will show neutrinos don't travel faster than light!
You use past results and experience to predict the future. That a single study showing positive results for ESP was flawed in some way, is a natural starting position. If this study had backed it up, then I'd still assume both are flawed in some way, just with a little less confidence.
That a single study showing positive results for ESP was flawed in some way, is a natural starting position.
Ah, but Bem's 2011 paper [dbem.ws] was not flawed at all. He successfully and convincingly demonstrated his lack of understanding [wikipedia.org] of statistical techniques and his ineptitude in application of said techniques. He also illustrated the failings of the peer review process [physicstoday.org] in minor fields. His incompetent attempt [csicop.org] at "validation" of ESP was the most persuasive evidence of all, in fact.
This overwhelming ignorance of statistics is prevalent throughout the social "sciences" and is almost as widespread in medical fields. Bem is not the first to misunderstand and misuse t-tests or to fail to distinguish exploratory and confirmatory [ejwagenmakers.com] analysis. Those in fundamentally innumerate fields should not play with numbers (especially using packaged statistical software) except under supervision of a qualified adult. They are emphatically not qualified [wikipedia.org] to certify themselves as competent in statistics or any other area outside their specialization.
You mean like this experiment?
"I. Human-Machine Anomalies"
http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/experiments.html [princeton.edu]
Funny how it's the skeptics who 'claim' they knew the results of this beforehand.
Funny how it's the skeptics who 'claim' that an apple is going to fall towards the earth.
Actually, I believe there was a cable problem...
If ESP is ever proven real, the ones that will be most interested are the physicists.
ESP is already proven to those using it on a daily basis. Physicists shouldn't ever ignore aspects of reality, b/c what they aim to do is to describe reality. They haven't done imaging of electromagnetic fields around brains yet (which are the antennae for our consciousnesses which are located outside our bodies beyond time and space). The brain is a sequencer unit for the sole purpose of serializing perception. There's also a relationship between subatomic particles and their respective consciousness-lets, there's a transitional state between consciousness and matter called not-yet-matter. An Electromagnetic Unit is smaller than the smallest subatomic particle. It will all be proven with scientific studies one day when instruments have become even better. Physicists should use mathematics properly. Math is not a toy, it's a tool.
^This is how crazy you have to be to actually believe in ESP.
You don't have to be crazy. Uncritical or uneducated is enough. Keep in mind that the amount of logical and mathematical education most of the
There are a couple proven psychological traps at work here, such as confirmation bias, our inability to correctly estimate non-trivial probabilities, and more.
Or religion
Everything we know about consciousness (and at this point we know a rather lot)...
We may know a lot about how to describe consciousness and the parameters around it, but there is still a lot we don't know about it to include the core aspect of what it actually is and why it arises.
Dr. Gene Ray, I presume.
wishing is making it so
How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together http://www.paradigm-sys.com/ [paradigm-sys.com]
"Charles T. Tart is internationally known for his more than 50 years of research on the nature of consciousness, altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and parapsychology, and is one of the founders of the field of Transpersonal (spiritual) Psychology. His and other scientists' work convinced him that there is a real and vitally important sense in which we are spiritual beings, but the too dominant, scientisti
> if physicists are so interested why are they not researching it?
Because it is easier to ignore the evidence then to be honest and admit there is something here we don't understand.
http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/publications.html [princeton.edu]
Awww, that's cute! The best thing out of PEAR was the name "Strip Mind Media". The only stuff coming out of there that isn't understood is the fact that someone thought that it should have been funded in the first place.
Biologists too. They'd be interested in demonstrating the unknown biological mechanism that makes the new sense work.
A new study has failed to find evidence that psychic ability is real. Skeptics may scoff at the finding as obvious
No, sceptics may consider the finding plausible but will question whether the evidence supports it.
The peer review was not a double-blind study.
Ergo: No scientific evidence, any finite conclusion is worthless.
You fail. Thank you very much.
End of discussion.
Then again, as far as I can read out of the article, the initial experiment wasn't a double blind test either.
However, the experiments setup looks interesting and - in a fully controlled environment - could statistically prove the existence of clairvoyance.
Bottom line:
We're just as smart as before.
You do realize Non-locality of Mind has already been proven, right?
See the documentary "The Quantum Activist". It features Dr. Amit Goswami, Ph.D, retired, Professor of physics at the University of Oregon's Institute of Theoretical Science for 30 years, so its not like it features some unknown nut-job.
Well worth watching.
This guy apparently stars in "science" videos for nut job cults:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit_Goswami [wikipedia.org]
So he supports and probably is some nut job.
What the hell is a 'retired' PhD? Did he have to give his sheepskin back? It's not like the military where you resign your commission.
And, looking at his Wikipedia page, I'd have to agree with you that he's not 'some unknown nut-job'. He appears to be a well known nutjob.
Non-locality of Mind
Ah, is that the meaning of the phrase "He's not quite all 'there'" -points to head with a twirly finger- ?
The peer review was not a double-blind study.
Ergo: No scientific evidence, any finite conclusion is worthless.
I'm not sure what you mean by a "finite" conclusion, but if you think that only double-blind studies count as scientific evidence, then I suppose you don't think astronomy or particle physics or paleontology are scientific fields?
A double-blind study, when possible, is a great way -- perhaps the best way -- to investigate certain questions. That does not make it the only form of scientific evidence
I bet psychics did not see that coming
Yeah, if psychic powers were real you'd think that they wouldn't be slinging tarot cards in their little one room shop under the adult video store.
As bad as those people are, a huge majority of psychics pray on the grieving. I hate cocksuckers like John Edwards and whatever the name of the fat one with the bad haircut and mustache is. Honestly, every time I see a psychic hawking their "services" I want to punch them in the face and ask them why they didn't see it coming.
"retroactive facilitation of recall', which examines whether performance on a memory test can be influenced by a post-test exercise."
All they are testing is pre-cognition, aka time travel of the mind, and really the least likely psychic power to exist. The ability to do this would pretty much break science.
This is the really interesting (and shocking) bit of the story. One has to wonder how much real understanding of the scientific method the editors of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology really have. If they don't understand the value of independent replication - then what are they publishing ? Interesting anecdotes ?
Journals not publishing null results or replications is a widespread problem that many reserches lament.
I've thought for a while that there should be a journal just for replication or null results to be published im. Even if the goverment has to fund it.
Damn. Thanks for ruining my day.
You can, but only in a galaxy far, far away. (assuming Jedi powers haven't degraded since "long ago..")
Don't feel too bad. These aren't the Jedi powers you were looking for, anyway.
The past 100 years hasn't produced any repeatable high quality studies showing any psi effects exist.
If psi was a drug, the results are so terrible there is no way it would ever be considered for use.
But they will continue to go around in circles data mining to find anomalies to study then abandoning that modality once it cant be replicated.
If psi was real, the mechanism would be truely astounding. Physists would really have their work cut out for themselves. Strange they have never seen anything that could
The PEAR studies were discredited, which I'm sure is what you're referring to.
The PEAR studies were discredited...
They might have been on the list, but I'd have to pull out the research folder. Some of the studies have been outright discredited over the years, but others are a bit more of a question mark and are just "inconclusive." As a whole it makes for some interesting reading at times, but I doubt we are going to get a satisfactory answer any time soon.
... which I'm sure is what you're referring to.
Please don't assume you know what people are thinking as it tends to be quite off putting.
You won't find a real psychic that way. The real ones have long retired on their winnings.
In my mind's eye I see you writing a run-on sentence in the very near future.
That will be five dollars.
All the real psychics never admit to being psychic. They win in vegas or the lottery or the stock market and keep their mouths shut.
Because they can also see being cut up into little slices and studied by someone if the world ever really gets proof they are psychic.
You know, Callahan's is a peaceable bar, but if you ask that dog what his favorite formatter is, and he says "roff! roff!", well, I'll just have to...


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Just felt like posting pics of matt [new&old]
Just felt like posting pics of matt [new&old]
he looks soooo hot in those pics
A very brief shirtless scene from episodes. why couldnt they show more!?
Matt on a hike!
^OMG! So hotttt! The first pic w/ the bulge... amazing! The second pic with his see through underwear and huge ass bending over... Yum! Then that final pic with the nipples showing the tight yellow shirt!!
Dreams do come true after all!
He is definintely shaving! Look at both his arms and legs... They are totally hairless and he's what, 40ish?! That is not normal for someone his age and I'm not complaining either.
AMAZING!!!! THESE PICS ARE WOW!!! the second pic of him bending over, omg hotness!!!!!!
oh...look at those arms!!!
Whats the above video about? Where did you find it? Is it available for screen caps because his ass looks great in this
Can anyone make screenshots of that gif
god im in love with this man, stunning!!
That photo of him with Lisa Kudrow is cute...glad to see they are still F.R.I.E.N.D.S (lol)
Anway, some news.... Episodes Season 3 -
"Comedy Episodes, now in its second season: "We're now working details but I expect it to come back," Nevins said, noting that the show has been "irregular," with longer gaps between seasons, but said that was by design as creators David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik want to write and edit every episode."
I've discovered some beautiful moments in the bloopers of friends. I would do everything matthew is doing, but for real.
I know right, i bet matthew perry got to see matts naked bum when they went into joeys bedroom in that scene/blooper with the dart board! The lucky man!!
you can see that matt was wearing olive underwear
Matt showing his ass to the camera getting out of a car on set. Seriously Matt, you just killed me. I love him too much! sorry for the poor quality, the gif wasnt working originally.
- - - Updated - - -
Matt showing his ass to the camera getting out of a car on set. Seriously Matt, you just killed me. I love him too much! sorry for the poor quality, the gif wasnt working originally.
jamieaaron you are amazing!! That gif is sooooo good!!! Loook at his hot bubble butt!!!! wow!!!
Matt always had a really nice ass
Jamieaaron, would you be able to make screen caps from the ET video so we can see his beautiful ass in full high quality please
beautiful wow
Just new pics of my favorite hunky silver fox.
this was naughty but someone made a gif of matt in friends and originally he was singing a song, but I knew it I cut some parts out and slowed it down it would be a whole new gif
hahaha that gif is amazing, soooo hot!!
new pics of matt
love the 1st pic, his ass looks great, i wana spank it lol
Saw this on tumblr, the post said its a rumored leaked photo of a nude matt leblanc. I dont think its real, b&w is always too skeptical and honestly I feel like there r no real ones of him
He have a small one, but i want to suck it.
Just found this posted on tumblr
Wanna sniff his bum!!!!
Matt is one of the hottest guys ever! Point blank, period.
Great pics (like always) JamieAaron!
Matt went to the us grand prix. many new gorgeous photos!
also patrick dempsey was there, there aren't many pics of them together unfortunately but heres a gif someone made
this man has got better with age, he is more attractive than ever!!! i cant wait for the next series of episodes to air so we can hopefully catch a scene or two of matt in his underwear!!! fingers crossed!!! DILF!!!
He looks the same as he did on Friends just older w/grey hair. Obviously, he's in excellent shape.
In which episode of "Episode" does Matt gets a bj? can't find it anywhere :S, great thread btw!
It's episode three, season 2
Does he have a hairy chest ?
I'm surprised no ones' posted the pic of him peeing while walking his dog.
Wish it showed more.
Just thinking I really hope we get more underwear scenes in season 3 btw matt confirmed in the Improper Bostonian Magazine that he does wear boxer briefs which makes me happy
oh that picture
just found a lovely gif


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Elizabeth Romero/Carrie Riggin
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Tel: 919-844-2714/919-844-2729


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Friday, January 06, 2006
Matt Leinart Pictures - I Was Wrong
If you recall, in my post last December 16th about the "controversial" Matt Leinart pictures, I said that the pissed off friend in the background of this photo was upset because Leinart wasn't into her. I said she was trying to run c-block and get her friend to go home. I said she was bitchy. I said a lot of things.
And I was wrong.
"The Blonde Grenade" isn't the bad guy here. She was looking out for her friend. She was doing the right thing. Because I now think I know what she was really saying to her friend:
"Don't slum it with this guy. You should hold out for for the best...
Vince F*cking Young!"
P.S. Yes, I know my photo editing skills blow. But you get the idea.
12 comments:
I'm sure after tonights performance, Vince is having his way with both girls
- January 05, 2006 4:55 AM
leinert and bush should give vince their heisman's...better yet, those choades that vote on the heisman each year should just stick to selling used cars because it is clearly just a popularity contest and no longer has any meaning whatsoever.
- January 05, 2006 10:35 AM
- Benny Friedman said...
Anon, the Heisman's been a load of crap since at least 1952 when "The Golden Boy" Paul Hornung won the award with a 2-8 Notre Dame team over the far more deserving, but much more under-publicized Johnny Majors of Tennessee.
And do I have to remind you of Gino Toretta, Chris Weinke, and Eric Crouch?
The Heisman, like all popularity contests such as MVP awards, Hall of Fame voting, the Oscars, and senior class president, are worthless and detract from society. Why people care about them is beyond me.
- January 05, 2006 10:49 AM
- BaggyPantsDevil said...
LOL! Your mad skillz at PhotoShopping are just part of what makes that so funny.
I'm sure men all over Texas right now would willingly line up their daughters and wives to be impregnated by Vince Young to ensure a steady supply of Vince's offspring to Texas football.
I wonder if all those Heisman voters are so sure about the "most outstanding college football player" now. I'm sure Vince Young coming in a distant second and then everyone acting like he was nuts to think he stood a chance just added to his motivation last night.
- January 05, 2006 10:57 AM
- Wangs said...
Hornung, aka the Pete Rose of football except he's in both the college and NFL hall of fames, actually won the Heisman in 1956.
Majors was runner up.
There was also this other guy, Jim Brown, who had a strong case for the trophy his senior season in '56, too. He came in 6th in the voting!!!!!
Ron Kramer was 7th.
- January 05, 2006 12:04 PM
- IC said...
This is hilarious. It looks like tBG just finished a sundae without using a spoon.
- January 05, 2006 2:02 PM
- The King said...
The best part of this whole thing is we no longer have to listen to any of this totally inane bullshit from USC fans:
-We're the best team of all time (this, by the way, is a surefire way to lose the national Title game. Oklahoma was saying this last year, and before that, Miami was saying it in 2002)
-Reggie Bush is the best RB of all time - they actually said that during the game last night. I passed out from it, so I don't know how they backed it up...
- January 05, 2006 2:44 PM
- surrounded in columbus said...
to pile on about the over hype on Bush/Leinart, was i the only viewer who thought the most impressive RB was LenDale White? Bush certainly has speed and moves, but if you were an NFL GM, wouldn't you want White running between the tackles 30 times a game instead?
- January 05, 2006 3:42 PM
- Yost said...
Yeah, he was a bruiser. Wow! Very impressive. And from what he's saying, he'll be leaving for the NFL next year, too. Interesting to see how they reload in '06.
- January 05, 2006 4:38 PM
- im lauf der zeit. said...
nice work...hook em!
- January 05, 2006 5:10 PM
- ojdidntdoitlouholtzdid said...
- October 26, 2006 3:19 PM
Car Mechanic to tBG: "Looks like you blew a seal."
tBG: "No, I just had an ice cream cone."
- November 17, 2006 1:23 PM


text:
Not long ago, CIOs faced an uphill battle trying to convince their organizations of the need for enterprise spam protection. Today you'd be hard-pressed to find even a small organization that hasn't implemented some sort of integrated spam/virus protection strategy.
Antivirus protection is crucial, but the growing list of very public data leaks and their often-expensive aftermath show that stopping external attacks isn't the last word in protecting valuable information. The need for more safeguards has spawned a new class of protection, dubbed data-loss prevention, or DLP.
Granted, only a small percentage of businesses have to worry about safeguarding millions of records containing credit card data. But every organization holds confidential data of some sort that must be protected--whether it's a spreadsheet with payroll data or the design for a top-secret weapon being built by a defense contractor. Therefore, all organizations have significant motivation to protect key digital assets.
End-To-End Awareness
However, if the need for safer data is clear, the definition of DLP isn't. What constitutes DLP? Any piece of backup software, disk encryption software, firewall, network access control appliance, virus scanner, security event and incident management appliance, network behavior analysis appliance--you name it--can be loosely defined as a product that facilitates DLP.
For the purposes of this Rolling Review, we will define enterprise DLP offerings as those that take a holistic, multitiered approach to stopping data loss, including the ability to apply policies and quarantine information as it rests on a PC (data in use), as it rests on network file systems (data at rest), and as it traverses the LAN or leaves the corporate boundary via some communication protocol (data in motion).
Locking down access to USB ports or preventing files from being printed or screen-captured isn't enough anymore; organizations require true content awareness across all channels of communication and across all systems.
In an environment where IT is expected to beef up security while users demand increasingly liberal usage policies, how are IT managers supposed to ensure data integrity? Clearly, most corporate IT departments are in no position to implement strict usage policies. Implementing DLP at the endpoint only is the most practical approach. Most organizations, however, live in a big house with many open windows, so an increasing number of organizations are turning to vendors that offer protection and awareness of data as it moves through the network as well.
Prices for DLP run the gamut, ranging from around $30 per seat for endpoint encryption products to six figures and beyond for end-to-end systems.


text:
Black high school students in Florida have made marked improvements in reducing sexual risk behaviors, mirroring progress seen nationally among black youths. Nationally, racial disparities for risk behaviors between blacks and youths of other ethnicities persisted but narrowed, CDC reported during the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington.
Between 1991 and 2011 nationally, black students in ninth through 12th grades showed a 26.8 percent decline for those reporting ever having had sex, a 30.5 percent drop in the number who reported being sexually active, a 41.8 percent decline for having multiple partners, and a 35.4 percent increase for condom use.
Florida Department of Health statistics for black teen sexual activity only go back to 2001, but the state saw a similar, less dramatic trend, said Meredith Jagger, the department's youth survey coordinator. Over a 10-year period in Florida, black high school students reported a 10.9 percent drop in the number who had had sex, a 15.4 percent decline in those with multiple partners, and an 18.2 percent drop in ongoing sexual activity. There was no statistical change for condom use, Jagger said.
In Florida, progress among white and Hispanic students stalled, though white students showed a 4.9 percent gain in reported condom use.
"I think what's going on in the African-American community as a whole is that they've just been bombarded with education and what's going on with the AIDS epidemic," said Larry Lamb, clinical director for The Pantry of Broward. It took longer to mobilize resources and information for the black community, which may be why black students now are doing better while progress among their peers has stagnated, he said.


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text:
Michelle at The Turning of Generations doing a series of posts on Christmas. Later when Dr.Bill Smith commented at my blog, doing a followup, I found out there was a Christmas Advent Calender series. [His comment does not refer to that site, though]
It makes sense to call it Advent, because it is like the German heritage children would hang about twenty five pictures pertaining to Christmas in their room or a room. This would help them for the count down for Christmas. It is like my children would do every day, keeping track of Christmas, they would open these shutters of a window to see a day of Christmas on an Advent Calender, thus knowing when Christmas was nearly there. Much less expensive than receiving a gift everyday. [Grin]
Looking more at a comment from Random Relatives, I see other geneabloggers doing the a great job doing the same thing. Since I haven't figured out how to do this yet, I haven't participated. Partly too because I missed the start. I did however start a series of Christmas of the Meyer house at Sunnyslope Farm in Lewisville, Minnesota. You can read them at the link. I did a half hearted series, because as you know my 'stuff' is still in boxes. I have so few days off this month before christmas. I am Still Not organized in the office. And the scanner is blinking some warning as I write. It won't shut off. [Grin]
I really want to do a good job on those memories, so I will be adding to them as certain items are located. Then it will be fun in a sense of relaxed posting.
I'd like to do something on European Christmas too, but I know so little.
However, right now it does keep me from making today's Christmas memories with my family. And I would like to be able to do that for my loved ones for Christmas.
Be sure to read other Christmas Advent blog postings too here. They are really entertaining to read, even just to see the diverseness we have in America cause were all of so many very different heritages. You can find them on my links list at the side.
See you later, if I don't before Christmas comes, have a Merry Christmas!


text:
Playing this video requires the latest flash player from Adobe.
Download link (right click and 'save-as') for playing in VLC or other compatible player.
An introduction to a few of the major scientists who applied Einstein's ideas to better understand the life cycle of various stars.
Learning Outcomes:
• How Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar resolved the paradox of the white dwarf star, and how Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky described the dynamics of neutron stars.
• Yakov Zel'dovich develops the nuclear chain reaction that is the engine that keeps stars burning.
• The roles Robert J. Oppenheimer , John Wheeler, and Roger Penrose played in moving the concept of a black hole from a object of pure theory to a physical object in the universe.


text:
2009-07-02 / Birth Announcements
Baby Girl Izabella Precious Corkery was born June 17, 2009, weighing 6 lbs. 7 oz., to parents Arielle Corkery and Fredrick Jackson of Carmel and to maternal grandparents Angela Corkery and Leonard Corcoran of Carmel.
The full version of this story is available only to subscribers. Subscribe now to access to full versions of news stories in our archive of over 12,000 stories going back to 1999.


text:
Wilfred Owen: A New Biography by Dominic Hibberd
Read by: Anna/Central Teen Room
Wilfred Owen was a young poet who believed that ones personal experiences made for the best poetry. He was born in 1893 and spent a good portion of his teenage years teaching English in France. His mother was Evangelical in her religion and so was Wilfred for most of his life. He began to question the beliefs of the church after spending a year as a parish assistant, eventually cutting the job short and moving to France. In a new country, he learned a good deal more about the ways of life, however, the Great War was just starting up and he began to feel guilty for not serving his country. In October 1915, he joined the British Army in a regiment known as The Artists' Rifles, which had begun life as a Volunteer Corps for actual artists. There, they trained him to become an officer. In joining the Army, he met other poets who were able to put him in touch with bookstores and publishers. He began to write more and more poetry, basing it on his new experiences in the army and on some of the work by his new friends. His work grew steadily better and everyone was talking about the new promising poet. A few of his poems were published in magazines. He also spent a good deal of time with suspected homosexuals such as Oscar Wilde and Scott Moncrieff, the latter being attracted to Wilfred enough to write him poems. And though Wilfred doesn't seem to return the affection toward Scott Moncrieff, he does send his affection and hero-worship toward another male poet and soldier, Siegfried Sassoon. Yet, there is nothing to suggest that any of his relationships were of a sexual nature. Wilfred was in and out of action during the war, suffering from shell shock, or what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His poetry reflects what he has seen and cuts no corners. They are as truthfully written as ever they could be. However, in 1918, in the middle of the very last battle, when Wilfred had finally made up his mind to be a full-time poet after the war, the unthinkable happened. Wilfred was helping his men cross a canal when he was shot and killed. He was only 25. He may have died an early death, but his poetry still lives on, and is still just as relevant nearly 100 years later, as it was when he first put it down on paper.
There are many things we will never know about Wilfred. When he went into the Army, he gave his mother a sack of papers, presumably letters to friends and family and drafts of poems too private to show anyone. He told her to burn the sack should anything happen to him and she did. Also, his younger brother, Harold, held many grudges against Wilfred and went through the surviving letters and other papers, editing them to suit his needs. Never-the-less, this biography is the most complete biography of Wilfred Owen, to date, though Hibberd does acknowledge that there may be other papers of Wilfred's in an attic or two between England and France, waiting to be discovered. Before this book was published there were several others, though Hibberd notes that they were distinctly lacking in many facts, mostly due to family interference. (There appears to be a new biography published in March 2014, though how it compares to this one, I cannot say, as I have not read it yet.)
I enjoyed this biography a lot. It's very long and detailed, going over every inch of Wilfred's life. But by the end, I felt as if I had met him and had time to chat with him awhile over a cup of tea. Finishing the book felt like leaving a good friend. I did my best to read this one chapter a day, so yes, it took me awhile to get through it. But it was totally worth it in my opinion. The only thing I would have liked the author to do, was to have given translations to the French. There were several lines copied from French poems that were not translated into English, so what they said, I do not know. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this biography, especially as it included many pictures of Wilfred, his family and friends, and others mentioned within the text. It also included several maps of the battles Wilfred was involved with to help the reader orient themselves while reading the details of what was going on. All in all, this was a very well researched and well written book. If you have need to read a biography and have the time to get through this one, I highly recommend it.
I also recommend getting a copy of Wilfred's poems, so that you can read them as they are mentioned in the biography. One should not read the biography without having some knowledge of his poetry. I recommend The Poems of Wilfred Owen edited by Jon Stallworthy, as it contains most of the poems mentioned in the biography. Below, I have included one of his most popular poems that speaks on the horror of war.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
By Wilfred Owen
Source: The Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by Jon Stallworthy (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1986)


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Win a Nexus 7 with reed.co.uk and The Register
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