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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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Cross-cultural Comparison of Gratitude Expressions in Persian, Chinese and American English
Granted the fact that different cultures have different speaking styles, knowledge of these styles can help people grasp the essence of social cultural knowledge to communicate with others more successfully. In this regard, the present paper aims at comparing the use of speech act of gratitude in Persian and Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers performances to identify the existing pattern among them. For this purpose, the participants were asked to complete a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) designed by Eisenstein and Bodman (1993). The results revealed that although thanking is regarded as the most favorite strategy among all three groups, there are significant differences in the ways Persian and Chinese learners of English, and also native speakers of English use the speech act of thanking.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n1p117
Copyright (c) 2012 Reza Pishghadam, Sima Zarei
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
English Language Teaching ISSN 1916-4742 (Print) ISSN 1916-4750 (Online)
Copyright © Canadian Center of Science and Education
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TracySW on Family Tree Circles
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Journals and Posts
Category: RODGER
Marks from Wales
I am looking for any information on my great grandmother Annie Marks b.1865 Carmarthenshire, Wales. I believe she died before 1911 as William was a widower in the 1911 census, but I can't be certain. I am not sure if Annie was a pet name or her actual name.
Annie married William Robert EMERY b.1862 in Cardiff (or maybe wasn't married at all as I think Wm was still married to a previous wife) They had 4 children, Reginald, Douglas, Gertrude (died before 1911) and Cecil. All born in Bristol. I don't know if Annie was the mother of four four.
I have tried to obtain birth and death records but my money keeps being refunded as no information can be found.
I remember hearing my grandfather Reg saying his father had been married a few times and there were about 13 kids. Wm married Lucy Lawrence in 1912
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So I am now learning the third declension and am looking for advice about how to best memorize it. Which of these two ways would you recommend? ONE: My current tactic is to memorize the basic endings chart, and have as good a grasp on the various laws of phonetic combination as possible. Is this naive? TWO: Is it better to just memorize the various sub-classes of consonant declension nouns? My book (Mastronarde) suggests that there are six such classes, and they sort of overwhelm me:
1) labial/velar plosive stems
2) dental plosive stems:
a) masculine/feminines with a nominative in -is
b) masculine nouns with stem in -vt-
c) neuter nouns with stem in t
3) suffix -mat-
4) consonant stems ending in liquid (l, r) or nasal (n)
5) irregular stems in r
6) stems in s
Even if you think "TWO" is the way to go, I still really do like knowing the various phonetic laws of combination, but would appreciate reviewing them and knowing which apply to third declension changes.
Obviously, there are vowel contractions. But what of other combinations?
intervocalic sigma (sigma between two vowels often disappears)
is there a name for the times when sigma sucks into consonants to make psi out of pi, etc.? sigmatic elision or some such something?
And if you think "ONE" is the better approach, would you recommend a different way of creating the various sub-classes?


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Each year, children in south Louisiana's bayou communities are visited by a special Santa — one who wears a headdress instead of the traditional red cap.
Each year, children in south Louisiana's bayou communities are visited by a special Santa — one who wears a headdress instead of the traditional red cap.
United Houma Nation Chief Thomas Dardar dons his regalia each year and drives countless miles along the bayous to make sure each child he visits has a toy for Christmas. He's now the subject of a documentary by two native Louisiana filmmakers that has been screened in festivals in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Alabama and San Francisco. The filmmakers, Rex New and David Lee, are hoping to work with the United Houma Nation to use their documentary to raise money to help sustain and expand the Indian Santa program.
Last year, Indian Santa visited close to 1,500 children in nine communities affected by the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
Sites include Lafitte, Golden Meadow, Grand Bois, Bayou Blue, Isle de Jean Charles, Montegut, Dularge and Dulac, with Dardar and his wife Noreen hitting the road for 14 hours at a time. This year, Dardar hopes to expand his efforts once again to include communities, such as Braithwaite, that were damaged by Hurricane Isaac in August.
Indian Santa began in 1985 after Hurricane Juan caused widespread damage in Terrebonne Parish. Dardar's uncle, Joe Dardard, saw the need for something to help and pick up the spirits of families on Isle de Jean Charles, the Native American community he'd grown up in as a kid.
"He took it upon himself, and he started the drive, got the toys, made the regalia and handed the toys out to the kids," Dardar said.
Indian Santa became a beloved tradition and expanded to include a number of bayou communities. After helping with the toy giveaway for a number of years, Joe Dardard passed the mantle of Indian Santa on to his nephew.
The filmmakers were looking for their next project when a friend of New's, United Houma Nation member Adam Crapelle, suggested they look at the Indian Santa program.
They met with Dardar and eventually ended up following him with their cameras on a number of Indian Santa visits.
"You can tell how much it meant to people and how much people look forward to seeing him every year," New said.
Even in San Francisco, he said, he met a member of the United Houma Nation who said both she and her daughter had sat on Indian Santa's lap.
"I didn't realize how important it was for people. But when you meet Chief, just talking to him, you can tell why people respect him so much. He cares so much for the people," New said.
Times have been tough in the bayou communities that Indian Santa visits each year. These communities have suffered from years of devastating storms. The oil spill, which closed and damaged fishing grounds, had a severe economic impact on many families that they're still recovering from.
"The people are so resilient, and the money they do make has to go to repairs, kids' clothes, lunches and bills," Dardar said. "The one gift you bring (the kids) is maybe the only gift they'll get this year. Once you give it to them and you see them smile, you're giving them the world right there."
That happiness spreads to their parents and grandparents, Dardar said.
The filmmaking duo were initially just along to make the documentary but soon enough decided that they wanted to help the cause. So in addition to screening the documentary at film festivals, they've posted it online where it can reach thousands more people who might be inspired to contribute. You can see the documentary at www.indiegogo.com/indiansanta.
"We're very thankful for the avenues we have to get donations because the need grows with every hurricane and disaster we have," Noreen Dardar said.
The Indian Santa program gets donations, including those from an annual Toys for Tots drive in Houma, but that effort only provides toys for Terrebonne Parish children. A number of other drives, donations, friends and family come together to make Indian Santa happen at stops outside of Terrebonne, with the Dardars sometimes paying out of pocket.
Initially, Lee said, they set a fundraising limit of $500 to pay for toys beyond the ones that are donated. But less than two weeks after posting the documentary online, viewers had already chipped in $1,255.
Lee said they're still raising money, and they hope to collect up to $2,000, enough to pay for Indian Santa for a few years.
"It's incredible. (Dardar) has such a big picture for what he wants this to be," Lee said. "We're trying to raise our goal of $2,000 so they can be funded for a few more years."
There will be a Toys for Tots drive that will benefit Indian Santa from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the Houma Walmart at 1633 Martin Luther King Blvd.
You can make monetary donations to an account set up for Indian Santa at any South Louisiana Bank location or online at www.indiegogo.com/indiansanta. You can also visit the Indian Santa Facebook page at www.facebook.com/IndianSantaLa.
Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or email@example.com.


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How international law shapes the world
6 February 2013
The world should abandon many international environmental treaties and start afresh if it wishes to deal with the myriad of environmental issues it faces in the 21st century, environmental lawyer Associate Professor Tim Stephens from the Sydney Law School suggests.
Associate Professor Stephens is one of four international lawyers from the Sydney Centre for International Law (SCIL) who has prepared a short video presentation (above) summarising his thoughts on how the law should deal with the environment to mark the centre's 10th anniversary.
The videos - rolling out in the lead up to SCIL's inaugural International Law Year in Review conference and the tenth anniversary of SCIL's founding - present succinct and engaging takes on some key international law issues facing the world.
"SCIL is a hub for an extraordinary cross-section of ideas about contemporary global affairs, and different ways of approaching them", says Associate Professor Fleur Johns, SCIL Co-Director, "and we wanted to give people a taste of these".
"These videos venture into hotly debated terrain," Johns continues, "climate change, political resistance, the way that we think about global violence and human displacement for development. The range of expertise and professional experience among SCIL associates has allowed us to develop thoughtful, well-informed perspectives".
Aside from Associate Professor Stephens' proposition to radically overhaul international environmental pacts, Professor Ben Saul posits that international law post 9/11 has eroded the human right to resist oppressive governments.
Elsewhere, Associate Professor Fleur Johns uses the example of a sub-machine gun's legal crafting to demonstrate how international law shapes our understandings of violence, technology and politics. Irene Baghoomians' presentation discusses how the law should do more to address the plight of forced evictees in Nepal, drawing attention to the human costs of development.
"Those working at SCIL are in regular dialogue with governments, NGOs and others working in the international arena," Johns says. "At the same time, we want to engage people in a broader public conversation about what international law does do, what it doesn't do, and what it might do in the future. We hope that these videos will elicit some new entrants into that conversation".
The International Law Year in Review conference is on Friday 22 February.
|Follow University of Sydney Media on Twitter
Media enquiries: Jocelyn Prasad, 02 9114 1382, firstname.lastname@example.com
Rachel Gleeson, 0481 004 782, firstname.lastname@example.com


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Blending science and real-world product development, Sram builds a better XC wheel
Quicker acceleration. Effortless climbing. Pinpoint cornering precision and more controlled descending. it's no secret—these are the traits that make you a smoother and faster off-road rider. they're also the reason SRAM created Rise, an all-new off-road wheelset that optimizes performance for the XC rider and racer.
To create Rise, the SRAM product development team took a scientific approach to engineering a better wheel. they focused on six fundamental factors that affect the way you ride: weight, inertia, engagement, lateral stiffness, frontal stiffness and efficiency.
"A lot of wheel companies tend to focus on one design attribute on their wheels, such as low weight or lateral stiffness," said SRAM wheel product Manager Bastien donzé. "our goal from the start was to design a wheel that offers all the best possible ride characteristics."
Knowing that light weight is a good thing, but not the only thing, SRAM focused on finding the perfect balance of weight and strength. they engineered, tested and finetuned rim designs for both the 26-inch and 29-inch Rise wheelsets to achieve lower inertia for snappier acceleration and increased efficiency.
The result was two final formulas—one for the Rise 60 carbon wheel, aimed at XC racers and performance-obsessed riders, and the other for the RiSe 40, the aluminum wheel which targets versatile XC all-arounders.
Taking the science a few steps further, engineers also studied the affects of various hub and rim materials, flange designs, spoke angles, as well as rim thickness and shapes, to create optimal all-around stiffness. Both Rise 60 and Rise 40 hubs are beautifully carved from aluminum for optimal weight and energy transfer. encased in the Rise 60 hub is a unique pawl design that maximizes efficiency and power, making the most of every pedal stroke.
The sum of these efforts—the blending of engineering knowhow and real-world product testing and development—can be felt in the ride. More powerful bursts of speed. Confident cornering. Smoother descents and softer landings.
Every wheel connects you to the ground. But only Rise wheels can carry you to new heights.
Rise 60
The Rise 60 wheelset was designed with the performance XC and marathon rider in mind. Trademark asymmetric carbon fiber rims, Sapim CX-Ray spokes and exclusive hub and pawl designs integrate seamlessly with your ride to boost speed, strength and engagement while ensuring low inertia and explosive acceleration.
Weight per pair* 26": 1330g 29": 1420g
Rim material Carbon fiber and HS resin
Spoke count (front and rear) 24 – stainless steel – 2 cross
Axle compatibility Front: QR and 15×100 Rear: QR and 12×142
Rise 40
For the practiced XC rider with the next level in sight, Rise 40 offers the optimal balance of performance factors—and price. From the lightweight aluminum rim to the uncommonly durable hub, each component of the system brings out the best in the rest to activate the full potential of every ride and every rider.
Weight per pair* 26": 1710g 29": 1840g
Rim material Aluminum s-6000
Spoke count (front and rear) 24 – stainless steel – 2 cross
Axle compatibility Front: QR or 15×100 Rear: QR or 12×142
Source: Morgan Meredith
Photo Thumbnails (click to enlarge)


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Mark Jackson was defiant following his team's 100-99 win over the Clippers — and he had reason to be. After all the questions raised about his coaching this season — or "all the lies, all the adversity, all the sources," as Jackson put it — the Warriors extended the series in Jacksonesque fashion. There were surprisingly heavy and productive minutes for much-maligned bench players Marreese Speights and Jordan Crawford. David Lee was left in with five fouls and made some big plays, then fouled out with nearly 10 minutes left in the game. The fourth quarter was full of isolation plays, including a few resulting in crucial buckets. The Warriors rode the rollercoaster of their confidence to a crunch time lead, and almost to a collapse. But they won. And Jackson — who warned his players before the game that they don't know what changes will shape next year's roster — added at least one more game to his odyssey of a season.
How exactly did the Warriors manage to prevail in a game where they shot 39%, were out-rebounded and lost their only healthy center to an injury? In short, Draymond Green's presence and Chris Paul's absence.
Of all the storylines from the Warriors' 13-14 season, there's nothing I've enjoyed more than watching Draymond Green develop as a player. Thursday's 14 point, 14 rebound, 4 assist, 5 steal game may be his masterpiece (so far). His mastery over Blake Griffin appears to be growing by the game (Griffin was 8-24). As Geoff Lepper noted in a post-game tweet, Griffin's dismissive attempt to blame his troubles on "missing easy shots" shows just how much Green is now in the Clippers' star's head. But Green's impact stretched beyond just slowing down Griffin. When there was a rebound to be snagged in traffic, it was Green going up strong. When there was a smaller player roaming free on the perimeter, Green was the guy to close on him. When there was a 50/50 ball on the court, no one was working harder than Green to get it. His toughness and energy proved to be infectious. His initial burst of intense defense shook the Warriors out of the first-quarter doldrums, and his final hustle plays in the fourth quarter helped to secure the win. When Green stepped to the line with the game on the line, the Arena crowd greeted him with "MVP" chants typically reserved for Steph Curry. Given Green's all-around performance in Game 6, it's hard to make a case that those chanting were wrong.
The Warriors won the other marquee match-up — Chris Paul vs. Stephen Curry — but in a different way than Green's smothering of Griffin. Paul clearly isn't at full strength, with hamstring issues and now an apparent hand injury. Curry took advantage of Paul being a step slow and torched the Clippers' guard for 14 first quarter points. With less regular physical pressure from Paul, Curry seemed more at ease passing out of the Clippers' traps and pulling up against single coverage. At the other end, Paul's penetration was limited, relieving some pressure on the Warriors' defense to switch and adjust in response to probing slashes through the paint. Paul finished the night 3-10 — a testament to how hard he was struggling to get in a position to score. There's no complaining about injuries in the playoffs, because nearly every team has them, but the Clippers are a far less dangerous team when Paul is hobbled.
So with Mark Jackson's motivation skills, Draymond Green's tenacious defense and Stephen Curry's resurgent offense, do the Warriors have what it takes to emerge from Saturday's win-or-go-home game? We'll find out soon enough, but there are several encouraging signs:
- The Warriors had 8 turnovers in Game 6 — the same amount Curry on his own had in Game 5. By taking care of the ball and generally valuing possession (looking at you Jordan Crawford), the team dramatically increased their margin for error. Given the team's poor shooting, they needed to maximize their opportunities. It was an inefficient game from the field, but an efficient one when it came to moving the ball around the floor.
- The Warriors found ways to get into the paint, outscoring the Clippers 42-24. One of the ways they earned the high-percentage looks was by pushing the tempo off both made and missed baskets (as well as steals). Curry had a beautifully opportunistic coast-to-coast run resulting in a lay-up. Other players hustled out ahead of the pack and received the ball thanks to heady passing. So long as Paul is hobbled, the Warriors should attempt to get up and down as quickly as they can without losing control.
- As shaky as the Clippers' defense looked with Paul in the game, they were even worse off with his back-up. Paul was a +8 for the night, while Darren Collison was a -12. The Warriors' decisive third-quarter run came as Paul went to the bench with foul trouble. Like Game 1, the Clippers struggled to adapt to foul trouble. When players like Collison and Glen Davis aren't on their best games — and they rarely have been during this series — the gap between the Warriors' and Clippers' bench talent seems less insurmountable.
While Jackson used the post-game press conference to sing the praises of "my guys," there's at least one more person who should have felt vindicated. Last off-season, Bob Myers signed Iguodala, who hit several huge late-game shots, and Speights, who scored 7 crucial 4th-quarter points in limited minutes. Myers also traded for Crawford who, shot selection aside, helped move Curry off the ball for a period on Thursday, freeing him to run more routes. The Warriors' GM also drafted Green, shaping into one of the league's biggest steals. At least for one night, all of these moves seemed like the right ones, as the players meshed seamlessly (just don't mention trade-deadline acquisition Steve Blake, who logged a DNP-CD for the evening).
It was impossible to tell whether the passion Jackson showed after this win was him fighting to keep his job or auditioning for the next one. But there's no denying the tremendous effort he's getting from the Warriors' players. This deep into a series, when everyone is banged up, sometimes that extra effort can be the difference in the game. If Green had been unable to snag one of his boards away from DeAndre Jordan or if Thompson and Iguodala hadn't closed so aggressively on shooters, the Warriors' season very well could have ended 100-101. "At the end of the day," as Jackson says, we'll learn about the coach's fate. But the sun hasn't set yet on the Warriors' season.


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Matthew Paris :: Xiccarph :: View topic - Calder Quartet at the New School
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Matthew Paris
Posts: 109
Fri Jan 30, 2004 8:25 pm
- Calder Quartet at the New School
On November 16th I attended a matinee of the Calder Quartet playing a program of Joseph Haydn, Christopher Rouse and Ludwig van Beethoven. The still living if not overly talented Rouse was in the audience, a bearded grey haired man with a professorial air, apparently happy to hear his Second Quartet; yet he hurried away afterwards with some haste and alacrity as if he had mooned people. Perhaps he was unhappy with becoming compared with Haydn and Beethoven. I would hope so. If one writes string quartets such things happen to one. One does better writing English horn concerti or quaintest for five slightly out of tune vibraphones.
Race says in his Episcopally sober notes his quartet was dedicated to the Soviet people, written in 1988, after the late Soviet Union had fallen. He also claimed its material was banned on DASH, letters in the name of Dmitri Shostakovitch. Notwithstanding this initial choice of material for initial inspiration, if the work was as expected properly dismal, it wasnt depressing in an intriguing way. When people sadden us we expect them to be at least a little amusing while they are running their vaporous corteges at us.
Rouses eclectic score could not have been written without a close study of Bartoks Quartets, particular the first two; one would be at a loss to say what inspired much of the language of Bartoks work for the same forces but that is the difference between Christopher Rouse and Bartok. When we can explain everything about a composer he is probably worthless.
I felt sorry for Rouse, not merely because he was billed in this musical vaudeville between Haydn and Beethoven. He is an Academic; he apparently teaches at the Peabody Consecratory in Baltimore. In Europe they sensibly don't play much music by their didacts. One might hear an occasional requiem by Cherubini. Here we think our professors are likely to give us achievements that will be in the league with our performing artists.
Since there is no evidence for the truth of such a faith one can only shrug and call it a local religion like the worship of Scythian gods on the Asian plain of yesteryear. Professors here get lots of premieres at the colleges, an occasional playing by gourds like this Calder Quartet, a bunch of young men of twenty two from USC and apparently still impressed by big quotes about being miserable about large matters and other pretentious attempts to be august footnotes to a legitimate necropolis as part of the local pitch from minor markgrafins of the college scene. The Caldera play impeccably, seemingly make no mistakes, have perfect intonation, an elegance and ferocity that will probably at some point take them a long way from the echo chambers of Christopher Rouse.
The horrible truth is that theres no reason besides the professorial career of the composer of such anaerobic etudes that Sanely might confide were he a good whistler to Livingston, locked into a familiar paradox of trying to be interesting on an asteroid. Its a burden one should consign to the local barons of these sylvan spas to listen to these stillborn fuilletons.
Most of their time in their minds professors like Christopher Rouse are in Europe if their bodes are lamentably in America. We might sympathize with the sufferings of the so-called Soviet people from afar (let us remember that a Soviet is a kind of syndicalist union, hardly a description of the late Russian empire in practice); we have lots of troubles here too. Rouse might have done better writing dour music about our national dilemmas as we wrestle with suburban obesity.
Quartets and other chamber groups feel they have an obligation to present what they call modern music, usually pieces composed by the imported or local deducts on tenure. Its understandable. Their programs are otherwise not notable for featuring any work written after 1920 or so. Yet whom do they ask to write for them? Danny Elfman. Johnny Mandel, Ornette Coleman, Clint Eastwood, Randy Newman? Sting or Elvis Costello, both of whom are real musicians? No sirree. Its some zombie from the boondocks.
If theyre playing Haydn and Beethoven in particular, they should instead be asking composers to write music that can stand in talent and interest with the perished geniuses whom they are also playing. If they can't do it, they should stop playing modern music. They owe their audience not posture or mere competence but genius. Nothing else will do. Looking for it is the first step to finding it. After all the people in the seats are paying for their tickets, not the professors.
There is plenty of music written in the fairly dense and uncompromising manner we call high art that can stand with Haydn and Beethoven. If they had programs any of the quartets of Milton Babbitt, even a professor, nobody would say in a very different way he wasnt ready to be on the same program with Joe and Lou. Like them, Milton Babbitt is an original who redefines what music is and is always intriguing. Love him or hate him, he isnt refried beans.
Luckily the Callers, nice young men, had the sense to program Haydn and Beethoven. The Haydn G Minor Quartet, Op, 74, No. 3, really in many ways harkens back to the middies period of sturm und drang quartets of Op. 20 through Op. 45 for sheer wild sensation and odd use of jagged phrases and even weirdly placed silence.
One almost never hears it because it is too weird. Its opening phrases as well as its eerie finale could have been written by Mahler; it slow movement has some of the quality of midnight vigil one associates with late Beethoven. Even the minuet has strange turns and ingenious directions.
There is a kind of imploded quality in this phase of Haydns musical language that isnt easy for us, used to move expansive and leisurely executions, to take in easily. Like the C Minor Sonata and about ten of the middle period symphonies it works as much by what it doesnt say but implies as what it states directly.
The sense of the tragic in this and other Haydn works comes from a broken vocal utterance with some model of ambience if not rhetoric in KPE Bachs keyboard works that moves in an overlay with the very Euclidian character of musical extension that Haydn seems to have invented if everyone else after him from Beethoven through Chausson, Dvorak and Bartok imitated to forge their own manner of logic. It might even be said that Schoenbergs twelve tone system is a kind of severe version of Haydns talent for making infinite amounts of extended music out of a short initial idea.
In this quartet the supposedly contrasting materials often have a structural basis in the initial phrases that Beethoven picked up on. Haydn like Mozart never seems to have written even in passing anything but brilliant music; there is seemingly no bad Haydn extant. This quartet even for him is pretty startling. It may remind one in its use of asymmetrical silence in is language of a kind of pithy emotional fatigue of the G Minor Symphony, Haydns 39th. Yet this measured and mature man is polite. With Haydn one always feels at the end that one hasnt heard enough.
Beethoven C Major Rasmofsky Carotid both looks forward and back in its construction. Beethoven is sometimes masterful in doing this witty look both ways; most of us are lucky if we can focus one way and be amusing. The introduction without a tonal base may remind one of Mozarts Dissonant Quartet in the same key. The way Beethoven plays with a tritone, then a chromatic move a half step upward in the subsequent allegro vivace clearly in C Major is more harmonic fun that probably is another gloss on Mozarts Quartets dedicated to Haydn. Perhaps these two men discussed these quartets together as an apogee of the craft.
The weird and ghostly second movement with its eerie pizzicatti in the cello may remend as well one of similar ghostly effects in a D minor set of versions in a Mozart Divertimento but with Beethoven these references arent eclectic; they are points of intrepid departure. The C Major fugal finale probably takes a passing nod at a similar last movement in Haydns C Major Quartet in the Op. 20 series but Haydn is elegant and witty in his propulsive manner.
Beethoven is no less suave and entertaining but the drive of his music is more obviously primal, almost a antral force like a powerful torrent of mountain water. In fact the layout of that Harden C Major Quartet generally might have served Beethoven as one of his initial ideas as well as Marts work in the same key form which Beethoven produced this very original work.
Beyond that one can't help thinking that in the emotional character of the last three movements Beethovens quartet isnt totally dissimilar to the Eroica Symphony, written around the same time.
This being said, there is still nothing like this quartet. Beethoven had a particular affinity for the cello; its too bad he didnt write more for it. This quartet like many other of his has a very independent cello part that frees that instrument often from merely adding a bottom to its vertical harmony; in Beethovens quartets the cello becomes not merely an equal instrument with the others but a central champion of polyphonic thinking in the quartet as four very different equal instruments speak to each other sort of the way Elliot Carter writes in a different idiom for strings.
Considering that as an instrumentalist Beethoven was mostly a pianist, though he did play the violin and viola, that felicity in string writing he has is quite a stretch. Of course by his 30s Beethoven was writing work in all forms of a much more expansive length than anybody had before him; l this Quartet is probably twice as long as Haydns. It isnt formally any less strictly rigorous in structure.
The aim in this C Major Quartet from first to last is balance. The atonal introduction without a tonal base floating in the ether like the opening of Haydns Creation or that Mozart C Major Quartet is resolved by the solid C Major statement of the following answering allegro vivace; the bizarre and frightening character of the slow movement is answered by the very sedate minuet, itself cloven by a very brilliant nervous trio. The minuet itself is a prelude to the very rigorous finale taken attaca. Its as if this quartet is preaching a contrapuntal diversity in nature that gracefully juggles all seeming polarities.
Like Haydn Beethoven plays with familiarity, using it as a presumptive set of expositions that set up his many surprises. Familiarity for both men is a kind of illusion offered and then withdrawn. It is an appearance of hard edged substance that when turning vaporous shows a more complex reality. This quartet, the last of the Rasomofsky series, is witty and amusing in a way the other two more sober quartets arent. Its final fugue might have been in the back of Verdis mind when he wrote his own witty tutti il mondo concluding fugue in Falstaff.
As Falstaff says, quoted by Boito and Verdi setting off that final fugue, he is both a wit and a source of wit. It is this kind of metaphysical paradox that animates this Beethoven quartet from first to last. Like many of Beethovens works, it is the development of a celestial sermon as much as it is music.
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News Feature
Originally published in The Weekly Packet, May 15, 2014
Invasive green crabs inundate area waters, decimate clam flats
by Ruby Nash
In late March, Abby Barrows of the Blue Hill-based Maine Environmental Research Institute presented sobering news to a small, but concerned group of clammers, lobstermen, and fishermen in Stonington.
The topic of the presentation: the explosion of the green crab population, which has been of increasing concern over the past 18 months.
It shows no sign of abatement.
In August 2013, the Maine Department of Marine Resources conducted a one-day green crab trapping survey along the entire Maine coast. Twenty-eight towns participated, resulting in 193 traps collected coast-wide. A variety of traps were used, but the results were the same: green crabs have inundated the Maine Coastline. Stockton Springs reported an average of 191 crabs per trap, with many other towns reporting similar or higher numbers.
The peninsula area was under-represented in the study, so Barrows and Carla Guenther, the Fisheries, Science and Leadership Advisor at Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington, organized their own version of the survey in November 2013. The Penobscot Bay area reported much lower numbers—only 133 crabs in seven traps total—but this has since been attributed to the crabs seasonal migration to deeper waters as cold weather approaches.
Bailey Bowden of the Penobscot Shellfish Conservation Committee was at the presentation on Thursday night, and he provided his own numbers on green crabs in Northern Penobscot Bay. In the summer of 2012, Bailey and others set traps for crabs. When they returned 12 hours later, every trap was full. That catch was 10 bushels of crabs, at 350 crabs per bushel. They reset the traps, and returned after four hours to find another 10 bushels of crabs. After resetting again, they returned in two hours to find the same result: 350 green crabs in each of their ten traps for a total of 3,500 crabs captured.
"Our summer's trapping effort didn't even keep up with reproduction," said Bowden. The explosion of crabs is due to a shift in temperature throughout the coast of Maine. Last year was one of the warmest winters on record for regional waters. Green crab females carry at least 165,000 eggs per mating cycle. With the influx of warm waters, more and more of the larvae are reaching maturity.
The green crabs, which Barrows described as akin to a cockroach, are hardy and omnivorous. They like a variety of environments (marshes, eelgrass beds, inter-tidal, and rocky areas), can survive in low salinity (they have been seen in the same environment as frogs) and will eat just about anything (juvenile lobster, scallops, clams, quahogs, and algae to name a few).
This does not bode well for species in the area. Early research at the nearby Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory shows that the green crab appears to be decimating eelgrass beds. Eelgrass is a natural habitat for many important native species such as cod, hake, lobster, clams, and mussels. The crabs rip up or cut out the grass in their relentless search for food.
During her presentation, Barrows provided an example of their appetite: an adult crab can eat three dozen mussels in one day. Bowden confirmed that the Northern Penobscot Bay clam population has been decimated by the infestation.
"In 2012 we were making $150,000 to $200,000 in clams out of the flats in Penobscot, and in six months the green crab ate every clam," Bowden said. "We now have an average of one half of a clam per square foot, and it should be 20 clams per square foot."
There are a variety of efforts to curb the tide of green crabs, but so far the major hurdle is incentive. "There really is no green crab market in Maine," Barrows said.
There was talk of using them as lobster bait, people eating them in Europe, chefs in the U.S. specializing in invasive species, making them into compost, or possible uses as vitamin supplements in cat food or aquaculture. The Department of Marine Resources plans to list potential buyers and markets on its webpage.
As the DMR has recognized the problem, some hurdles to fishing the crab have been overcome. Initially lobstermen could trap for the crabs for personal use (such as baiting), but they could not sell them. Now, with an additional $10 license, lobstermen can trap and sell them. Still, there is little incentive to do so without a market.
"If those little crabs were $20 a piece, we would fish them to extinction," Bowden said. "It's an incentive issue."
As the problem progresses and the impacts of green crabs on generations of lobster, fish, and shellfish begin to take shape, the pressure for a solution will increase.
"[The problem is] not just affecting some clammers in Maine," said Barrows. "It's everywhere and it's very real. It's going to have a large impact on our fisheries and inter-tidal environments."
The entire region faces the problem, and solutions are being tested everywhere, including netting in the Freeport area, and trapping efforts to the north. For example, Newfoundland held mitigation workshops during which 25,000 pounds of green crabs were caught in 22 days of intense trapping.
"It's going to take consistent pressure in order to control the resource at this point," said Guenther. "Unless we have a bunch of really cold winters that wipe them out."


text:
Random number generator. The method is attributed to B.A. Wichmann and I.D.Hill, in 'An efficient and portable pseudo-random number generator', Journal of Applied Statistics. AS183. 1982. Also Byte March 1987.
The current algorithm is a modification of the version attributed to Richard A O'Keefe in the standard Prolog library.
seed() -> ran()
Seeds random number generation with default (fixed) values.
seed(A1, A2, A3) -> ran()
A1 = A2 = A3 = int()
Seeds random number generation with integer values.
uniform() -> float()
Returns a random float uniformly distributed between
uniform(N) -> int()
N = int()
Given an integer
uniform(N) returns a
random integer uniformly distributed between
1 and
Uses the process dictionary variable
random_seed to
remember the current seed.
Before a process calls
uniform/0 or
uniform/1 for
the first time, it must call one of the seeding functions.


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As mentioned the other day, BaggyPantsDevil has joined our staff. Below is his look back on the roadtrip he took to see Michigan play Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl. Oh, and if you're from El Paso, you might want to scroll past this story. Might we suggest the hot Ohio State co-ed stripping below.
As many of you know, I made the journey to San Antonio to attend the Alamo Bowl. I sure can pick 'em when it comes to selecting my first ever Michigan game, can't I? A disappointing game to cap off a disappointing season. Still, it was a worthwhile experience and I'm glad I was able to attend and support the Wolverines. I figured I'd post this to report on something other than the awful officiating involved with the game. Nothing particularly interesting happened to me at the game so I have to really reach here to come up with something, thus my odyssey to the Alamo Bowl.
Although these were less than ideal circumstances for my first Michigan game, I just haven't lived any place close to where Michigan has played. This one was the closest since I moved from Michigan back in the early 80's. So, I figured I should jump at the opportunity. Plus—and this angle is always important—my wife and I have friends in Texas so I wouldn't be dragging her on a trip to ONLY watch a football game.
Although many Michigan fans—and Lloyd Carr himself—were disappointed by Michigan's invite to the Alamo Bowl, there is a worse destination for mediocre Big Ten teams, it's called the Sun Bowl. My trip to San Antonio took me through El Paso, the home of this bowl game. If you've driven through El Paso, you know what I mean and if you haven't, be grateful you haven't experienced first hand the ugliness that is El Paso.
The area probably once had that unique beauty of the desert with wide open spaces interspersed with jagged mountain ranges and brilliant blue skies. Not anymore. The first thing one notices about El Paso is that at about 40 miles out, the brown smog that shrouds the city becomes visible on the horizon. From there it only gets worse. The tangle of on ramps, off ramps, and overpasses plunging through oil refineries and unregulated Mexican factories led my wife—who is from New Jersey—to observe that El Paso is simply Newark in the desert. All that's missing are toll booths.
There's no way for a traveler to avoid El Paso's ugliness. Interstate 10 can't bypass the city since Mexico is to the south and Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range extend at least 200 miles to the north. Nothing for a traveller to do except plow on through as quickly as possible.
Sun Bowl Stadium is perched up in mountains that overlook El Paso and would be a beautiful stadium if a quick glance to its left didn't reveal hills covered in Mexican slums sprinkled with huge smokestacks. Not that the American side of the border is much better.
In addition to being ugly and polluted, El Paso is also tawdry. Strip joints and porn shops are wedged alongside motels, the usual chain restaurants, and car dealerships all along Interstate 10. Now, I have nothing against adult entertainment and thought it was kind of cool that it can be found in abundance in all the Texas cities I visited—El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, and Galveston—it just doesn't make for attractive cityscapes. I'm sure Mike Price digs it, though.
One such establishment was Gateway News and Video. Why do these places always have 'news and video' in their names? The video part I get, it's the news part that baffles me. Who do they think they're fooling? Will I be able to stop in and get the latest updates on the war in Iraq? What about the Patriot Act and intelligence collection in the US? Maybe the latest on genetic engineering and cloning? I'm willing to bet that the only mention of tsunami I'll find there will be referring to female ejaculation. Then there's the Adult Warehouse—yes boys and girls an entire warehouse!--and its sign that read "GET YOUR X MAS GIFTS HERE." Oh yeah, nothing taps into the true spirit of Christmas like an 18 inch double-dong and a DVD titled 'Backdoor Babes Volume 16.'
So, Michigan fans, please, no more complaining about bowls that involve going to San Antonio, Tampa, or Orlando; we could just as well wind up in this place for a bowl game. And standard disclaimer: I have met and worked with many folks from El Paso, including a detachment of Air National Guardsmen who were all full time El Paso police officers, and found them all to be first rate individuals. So, the people sure seem to be wonderful, I just think the place has been trashed.
Fortunately, it doesn't take too long to race through the swirling eddies of plastic bags and snack food wrappers that drift along the interstate and get back to the wide open desert. Unfortunately, my trip still had approximately 12,823 more miles to go. Anyone who's ever crossed Texas will know that west Texas is a Mad Max-like wasteland. This barren, monotonous landscape features tumbleweeds blowing across the highway—I should know, I ran right into one—driven by gusts that buffet your car as you try to escape the bleakness as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, that's not really posible given the distances involved. Stopping for gas in this part of the state is an experience right of of a Sergio Leone movie with banging sun-bleached screen doors, creaking metal signs, and dust squalls.
One of these tiny, gas stops is Fort Hancock. The 1800's era water tower of Fort Hancock boasted of multiple 6-Man Football State Championships back in the late 1980's. Yes, that's how sparsely populated this area is; they can't field full football teams. Some of the specifics of 6-man football are: the field is 40 yards by 80 yards, it's 15 yards for a first down, all players are eligible receivers, field goals are worth four points, kicked extra points worth two and a run or pass extra point is worth one. As bizzare and alien as this game sounds, it's nice to see that the lack of a sufficient population can't stifle Texan's love of football. I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps Vince Young played 6-Man football as a child and that's how he got so used to doing everything on the field.
Eventually, I made it to San Antonio and civilization. For those who have never been there, San Antonio is a lovely, prosperous city and actually does make a fine bowl game destination. Any city with a Ferrari dealership and a Mercedes Benz dealership that's the size of one of those mega-GM superstores is prosperous in my book. The Riverwalk area downtown—within walking distance of the Alamo Bowl—is gorgeous and a great place to hang out and appease spouses with shopping prior to the game and enjoy celebratory drinks after the game if one's team actually manages to win.On the day of the game, I learned that three hours prior to kickoff is NOT early enough to arrive at the game. The Alamodome parking lots were full and I had to spend some time in traffic before finding a place to park just down the street from the Alamo itself. I took this shot as we walked to the stadium. It was a lovely scene--historic landmark, setting sun, holiday decorations--and I was feeling optimistic and excited about the game. But, we all know how that thing turned out.
Next up will be my slavish praise of Nebraska fans.
Ed. Note: All pissed off El Paso city officials are free to send their emails to BaggyPantsDevil care of the M Zone. BaggyPantsDevil is free to send "Backdoor Babes, Vol. 16" to Yost (only because he wants to see how they tied up all the loose ends from volumes 1-15).


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The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation tells us 78-year-old Thomas Culwell and his sister 80-year-old Marion Culwell were found dead in the 3200 block of Pompa Horse Friday night around 10:40 p.m.
"The medical examiner got here, he discovered what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the male victim and then we thought the female might have possibly had a heart attack," said Love County Sheriff Joe Russell. "He went to bag her up and they rolled her over and went to bag her up and noticed another gunshot wound in her."
Investigators said the two were working on their fence Friday evening. Sheriff Russel said Marion's son got worried when they didn't come home.
"There was some coon hunters down there hunting and knew they were down there hunting so he called them and asked if they'd go check this area where they were supposed to be working," added Russell.
Jessica Brown with the OSBI said at this time there are no suspects.
"We're in the process of interviewing people as well as collecting evidence and sending it to our laboratory, hoping we can get some information from that," she said.
Both agencies are still investigating and ask anyone with information to come forward.
"If they saw something that's unusual," said Brown. "If they saw anything unusual yesterday, in the area where this happened, please call OSBI. We need that information."


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During our weekly "In Or Out" segment Friday on "The Reality Check" on AM1570 WNST.net, we discussed the recent Maxim Hot 100 list. The list included "Manti Te'o's Fake Girlfriend" at #69 and was topped by now 20 year old pop singer/actress Miley Cyrus.
Al from Jarrettsville called in quickly to let us know that personally he felt it was "creepy" for the young star to be #1 on the list due to her age. He suggested Catherine Zeta-Jones should be #1, to which I responded "but isn't she like 50?" He said back, "that's fine-I'm 64!"
Within moments, our planning began for a "Champions Tour" style version of the Maxim Hot 100. We decided to make the list of women who were all 40+ years old, so we also trimmed our list to 40 honorees. We solicited votes from callers, e-mailers (firstname.lastname@example.com), Twitter followers (@WNST or @GlennClarkWNST) and Facebook friends ("WNST.net" or "Glenn Clark").
(For those female listeners-or male listeners who aren't quite as much into females-we're more than willing to listen to suggestions for a male list. If you put it together I'll post it. Promise.)
Here's the list…
40. Mary Joe Fernandez (41)
Admittedly, this was simply a case of "I have such a crush on her that I want her on the list." So she made it. Everything else (mostly) is on the up and up.
39. Gabrielle Reece (43)
Truth be told, that magazine cover was from more than a year ago-but Reece had already passed 40. Also to be truthful, we all know that recent magazine cover or not, the former volleyball star certainly looks great.
38. Cheryl Hines (47)
This was an actual screenshot from an episode of ABC's "Suburgatory." I couldn't tell you anything more. Other than that it's fantastic.
37. Kelly Hu (45)
There's a local connection here, as Hu is the longtime girlfriend of Baltimore's own (and former SR-71 frontman) Mitch Allan. She also looks great and will be in the upcoming TMNT movie. So that should peak the interest of those who enjoy Ryan Chell's daily "Nerds' Corner" segment.
36. Rachael Ray (44)
Admittedly, I've always found Rachael Ray sexier than a lot of others. I would have put her higher on the list. That's what I get for listening to you jerks and caring what you think.
35. Katarina Witt (47)
Comcast SportsNet's Bo Smolka particularly went to bat for the former Olympic figure skater. We're so glad he did.
34. Brooke Burke (42)
Presumably there are few more people in this area who have been reminded of Burke (who is actually now Brooke Burke-Charvet sadly) because of Jacoby Jones' involvement with Dancing With The Stars. In the words of Robert Randolph, "ain't nothing wrong with that."
33. Vanna White (56)
There is absolutely no way that Vanna White is 56 years old. I refuse to believe it. REFUSE I tell you.
32. Helen Hunt (49)
As a few people who nominated Helen Hunt pointed out, the "Sessions" star deserves more credit simply for her willingness to show…frankly…everything.
31. Toni Braxton (45)
A local nod, as the Anne Arundel County native has stayed in the spotlight well in recent years due to Las Vegas appearances and reality shows. We've all benefitted from that.
(Continued on Page 2…)


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Users of Windows 2000 may experience problems due to the absence of msvcp60.dll. Install the Windows 2000 Support Tools from your setup CD or consult the Windows Update website.
Finally I'm using Opera 11.64¹ that, amazingly performs better than Gecko engine built with 1.5.4 (1.8). More than better, lighter for my P 233 MMX. Also has better HTML5 and CSS3 support than Gecko 1.8 so somes pages don't look messed up.That feels as a traitor, but I need to use what my system lets me ;) while I'm on this emergency PC.¹ 11.64 it's an "old" version but I can't run higher versions because they relay on hardware acceleration and I'm on a S3 virge DX/GX only. I miss my broken TNT2 that I had in this system configuration


text:
PreparedStatement is usually preferred over Statement for these reasons:
- in general, it's more secure. When a Statement is constructed dynamically from user input, it's vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. PreparedStatement is less vulnerable in this way (see below).
- there is usually no need to worry about escaping special characters.
- if repeated compilation is avoided, its performance is usually better.
In general, it seems safest to use a Statement only when the SQL is of fixed, known form, with no parameters.
SQL Injection
If PreparedStatement is used correctly, then it does indeed provide complete protection against SQL Injection attacks. However, if it's used incorrectly, then it's still wide open to such attacks.
The SQL statement passed to PreparedStatment is simply an unvalidated String, in the sense that there's no checking for '?' values. If the String has been constructed using '?' placeholders for all dynamic data, then it has indeed been constructed correctly.
But PreparedStatement has no built-in mechanism to prevent the inexperienced or inattentive
programmer from passing a
String which, by mistake, does not always use a '?' placeholder where it should.
Such Strings are wide open to SQL Injection attacks.


text:
I am very grateful to Nelz and purplepenguin for their kind advice which I pass on.
My BIOS decided to go into SAFE mode and would not save my changes to the default settings, which meant that it defaulted to booting only from the HD.
My entry to BIOS had been via ¨Del¨ from the splash screen.
The splash screen also offered F12, which I had always ignored since I did not wish for possible probs.
However, pressing F12 offers you a choice of booting from HD OR CD.
I chose CD and was able to run Memtest from LXF166 to show my RAM is fine.
Thank you, gents.


text:
The Institute communicates its scientific and educational information in a number of ways. One major outlet is peer-reviewed publications and reports. Cary Institute staff regularly publish in the best-rated journals in their respective fields.
Export 3 results:Sort by: Author Title Type [ Year]
Filters: Author is Smith, W.H. [Clear All Filters]
Investigations on the decay resistance of elm wetwood", Can. J. Plant Pathol., vol. 7, p. 151-154, 1985., "
The effect of ozone on cottonwood-leaf rust interactions: independence of abiotic stress, genotype and leaf ontogeny", Can. J. Bot., vol. 65, p. 949-953, 1987., "
Interactions between an acute ozone dose, eastern cottonwood, and Marssonina leaf spot: implications for pathogen community dynamics", Can. J. Bot., vol. 66, p. 863-868, 1988., "


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Maybe because Slashdot finally realizes that no one else in the world but hopeless Linux fanbois associate Gates with Microsoft for about the last five years.
Could Slashdot finally be ready to grow up? Let's hope so. Steps in the right direction was getting KDawson and CmdrTaco out of here, maybe this is a good next step to moving back to being a tech site and not a garbage dumb for raving lunatics with a chip on their shoulder.
Yeah, we want Borg Ballmer.
I suggest we replace Bill's icon not with a generic suit, but with a chair.
As long as it's a flying chair, I'll second that.
Uhhh...how EXACTLY is this flamebait? Gates hasn't been the guy in the big chair in a decade, hasn't even been showing up for much of anything in half a decade. Sure he still has a title but he has made it clear he's too busy with his charity and he's NEVER coming back...which is a damned shame since his hand picked little buddy is a PHB right out of Dilbert but there you go.
I've said several times its time to update the icon, I'll even happily give you a more appropriate image. Picture Ballmer with his tongue sticking out and a MSFT Beanie on, now THAT would pretty much nail what MSFT under Ballmer is like, a "we don't give a shit" attitude with kiddie designs. If you wanted to add delicious icing to that moist cake simply add his bust instead of just his head so you can see his T-Shirt reads "I Heart tablets and phones" which shows all they really seem to give a crap about now.
But Gates is long gone, having the Gates borg makes about as much sense as bitching about Jobs and Apple when he was running NeXT and Scully was at the helm, he just ain't there anymore. Hell anybody who saw Gates coy remarks about Vista before release knows the man ain't in charge anymore or else he wouldn't have let that stinker out the door.
Yeah, everyone new Scully couldn't run Apple without Mulder... The OS-X Files... lovin' it...
This is the "Businesses" icon, not the Microsoft one.
If you liked Microsoft Tax you're going to love Microsoft Rent.
Indeed. MS has tried this before with their software assurance scheme, and the customers got burned.
The customer thinks "Oh, this way if there's an upgrade that year, I automatically get upgraded for free!"
MS thinks "Once I have you paying for software as a service, I don't need to push out upgrades as often to maintain my revenues."
Upgrades become a rebranding of the previous year's, with minor usability tweaks / new logos / icons. MS needs to go on a diet, and get its mojo back...sticking it in front of t
What Microsoft really appears to fear is the fact that MS Office versions N-1,N-2, and often even N-3 also take care of everything most people need to do.
They aren't simply adding a subscription option, they are nontrivially bumping the price of the perpetual license options...
LibreOffice is fine by itself, but it is not sufficiently compatible with MS products to allow you to share files in a MS dominated environment. I made several attempts over the years to get by with StarOffice, OpenOffice, LibreOffice and just couldn't manage it - I wasted too much of my and my coworkers time dealing with file incompatibility issues.
Software is a strong natural monopoly and MS has a very strong position in the desktop office market. I don't blame them for trying to milk this position for a
Yeah, but how often do you need to share files in a mixed environment like that. I think a business that is currently MS Office will either stay with Office, or they will put one of the OO.org forks on every machine and internal sharing will just switch to ODF instead of OOXML and the old documents/templates will be converted/recreated and deprecated over time.
You only need to be able to share documents while you're collaboratively working on them. Once finished, they should be baked into PDF or paper anyway.
It's not just migrating the office suite, it's everything. At school every major piece of software I use (Matlab, MathCAD, & Solidworks) integrates with Excel. This means that to migrate away from MS Office I have to have all three of these programs work with the replacement. Good luck getting people to migrate until you have that compatibility. This does seem to be something that I don't see brought up all that often, and yes it is important.
It is happening in both consumer, small business and enterprise. Many stats have the OO family around 18% marketshare.
Find another 50m people who agree with you about being will to pay and talk to Microsoft.
Going back to the time-sharing days is not something most of us would like. The PC revolution was all about empowering the user, the subscription/cloud model is all about giving control back to big companies.
I hope it won't happen, but after seeing the queues to buy a overrated, expensive toy this Friday and assuming there are that many ready to part with their money in exchange for a locked system, I really don't expect it to fail. There are many that will trade freedom for (assumed) convenience too easily.
When the PC revolution started getting PCs working was far more expensive and far more difficult than getting the developer SDK working on that expensive locked down toy. Maybe the people in line aren't the only ones you should be looking at regarding trading convenience for freedom.
The last Microsoft Office product I bought was Word 97. I've been using OpenOffice, then LIbreOffice, since about 2002. It's a OK word processor, a mediocre but adequate spreadsheet, and a better draw program than Office. What's in Microsoft Office that a home user would need, let alone pay for monthly?
It's a OK word processor, a mediocre but adequate spreadsheet
With a shining endorsement like that, who wouldn't want to use it?
Google Apps has an "OK" word processor and a "mediocre but adequate" spreadsheet, and both work well enough for most things I want to do with them.
LibreOffice is well beyond what 90% of business and home users need... except that the outside world demands all "interchangeable" documents to be in MS-only file formats.
You might be surprised. Many people do more with their home computers than just Farmville and porn.
People volunteer for non-profit organizations, join the board of the PTA or their homeowners' assocation, start a small business, help with their kid's little league, work on a master's degree, and more.
Google Apps, Libre Office, and the other suites out there... like you said, are mediocre. Yes, you can write a letter and track your DVD collection. And it's also true that a ton of people barely use 5% of what Word, Excel, and the rest of Office can do.
But then you have this whole subset of "home users" who are professionals using Office at the home for more than just their shopping lists. They need the features (and ease of use, and support, and templates, and clip art, and and and) that Office offers. The features that they use when they're at work -- creating complex budgets, slideshows, long documents -- all get used at the home as well.
And so I don't buy the argument that Office doesn't have anything that a home user needs. Because for a lot of people, home users are doing a lot more than you're giving them credit for.
So, my Office suite was purchased back in the latter half of 2000 (maybe first half of 2001, don't exactly remember). It still works fine, and I haven't spent a dime on it since then.
Back in the bad old days, when we were forever reaching for that next release of the OS or that next release of Word in the hopes that it would crash less often and we could actually get some work done, Microsoft built a business model based on expensive incremental releases (a similar game to what Apple is playing now with hardware) and we all went along with it because we needed something that worked.
To a certain extent, Microsoft is now a prisoner of their own success. For the great majority of users, Office stopped progressing over a decade ago, and Windows stopped progressing in 2002 (xp sp1). There is no longer any need to go out and buy every new version. Hasn't been for awhile.
The problem is, Microsoft relies on that new release income to function, and I'm sure they're worried. Now comes a new paradigm -- software rental -- that guarantees it. I'm sure that seemed like a great idea, and I'm sure the person who came up with the idea of jacking up the prices of their non-subscription products got a big ol' raise.
The thing is, there are fewer and fewer reasons to stick with Microsoft products, and more and more ways to migrate off them while maintaining backwards compatibility. If you stick with the mindset that "we are microsoft, and people will buy from us for that reason only", the strategy makes sense. But I wonder if the premise is true anymore. Personally, if and when I can't use my old crufty copy of Office anymore, I will actively seek one of the free solutions before allowing myself to be locked into a Microsoft solution. It's just self-preservation.
Interesting idea - that the document applications are basically mature, and not much more is needed/desired on the part of users.
In a world like that, you would expect development of new office suits to slow, and the department sizes to shrink. Ongoing development for the trickle of new features and bugs that need to be corrected, but on a much smaller scale than originally. Same as with operating systems.
I think maybe it is unreasonable to assume that a company in an expanding market would forever grow or even never contract. Surely as computers become ubiquitous, the purchases will only be for replacements, which one would expect would be lower than the peak where new units and replacements were being purchased.
You hit the nail on the head. Office reached good-enough stability, and good-enough feature set, several years ago. They have more recently gotten into the "change for the sake of change" phase, and have been redoing GUI, etc, just to have something to promote with the product. Now imagine if customers like you and I (I'm using Office 2003 on my Windows 7 laptop - as my primary work machine has died and been replaced several times over the years, I've just moved my Office license along with me) didn't have the opportunity to have "bought" and owned Office a decade ago. Instead we had to pay a never-ending recurring fee. I think it's exactly users like us that Microsoft no longer makes money off of, and going with a subscription model is the only way they can try and prevent this from happening in the future.
Granted, they aren't going to get many of us in on this new scheme - we already demand a "fair" method of owning software licenses that have value in the long term future, and most of us will simply switch to other alternatives. However there is a new generation of users coming of age, who are more "plugged in" and used to things being connected to the "cloud", or totally web based, or software at least checking online for "updates" and "synchronizing" when it starts up. There are a large number of iOS / Android games which, even though they SHOULD be able to run happily 100% offline, will only function when they have network connectivity and the user is signed in. What this is doing is conditioning a new generation of software consumers to a new level of control, connectivity and oppressive DRM.
I have to agree with you on the progression in Office - the feature set has been there since probably Office 97 for most of the apps, but 2003 for Outlook. While Office 2007 is a huge progression in UI (argument over backwards vs. forwards aside) it does not add much of anything functionally for me, with the exception perhaps being the mouse over menu popup and the context sensitive toolbars, which are significant as far as usability goes but don't necessarily add additional function.
However, I think you'v
You should take a look at the last decade of server support for Office. Office as a product line is way, way ahead of where it was 10 years ago. You don't use those features though which means you probably should be dropping down from a premium office suite.
If you aren't a demanding user and thus aren't willing to pay much... why should Microsoft care if they lose you?
If such a scheme is introduced, it will cause/fuel a renewed proliferation of Crack and Hacks that will really cost M$ serious money in the long run.
Since older versions still abound, and I am quite confident that there are more than a few of us that will simply hold on to those versions until it is simply impossible to do so any more. By then, there will be a Free alternative, and M$ may have learned its lesson.
Microsoft owns the OS. They can handle hacked versions of Office rather easily.
If they are already getting monthly/yearly fees from customers, what's the incentive to produce good products? Now we get to vote by not buying that version and continuing to use an old one. With this new model they'll get money either way.
Their hard core users will probably pay, but many people are occasional users. Free and/or cheaper products will make out big on this. Word processing and spreadsheets aren't exactly cutting edge applications anymore.
Sure they are. There are wonderful BI features in spreadsheets today that didn't exist 10 years ago. There are wonderful multimedia and collaboration features in word processing that didn't exist 10 years ago. You just don't use those features. Which means you shouldn't be running a premium suite.
As a long term MS user. I find this as a mistake. I don't like cloud computing BTW and i'll keep my stuff here at home not on someones server. Why should i pay someone to keep my files when i can do just as carefully here?
Adobe started the "rent" thing a couple years ago. I guess it works IF you need to upgrade all the time. But if you feel you can skip an upgrade you're SOL.
I have a personal technet subscription, which is effectively renting MS products (annual fee, access to latest software, and other goodies)
Work has enterprise licencing, which is not much different.
so... some of us have been renting MS software for years.
...unless I keep getting the $10 versions from work home use program (HUP). The problem with HUP is I can select (currently) either Office 2010 or Office 2011, but not both (just in case it's not obvious, the former is Windows, and the latter is Mac OS). And yes, I want and need both.
My company uses Windows workstations, but I prefer Mac OS at home. Most of the time, Office:Mac is just fine. Except, you know, the glaring omissions of Access and OneNote, which cause me to have to boot up Parallels (less of a
Considering what a pile of substandard trash things like Office are, that they still have not caught up with open standards and are lagging behind badly on the OS front, I would think that people are morons and MS marketing realizes that and knows how to play them well.
Therefore I predict this will be a huge commercial success.
Despite having technet, I still use LibreOffice more than Office
If I have friends / family that ask about this
If you can write off the subscription cost in your business, then you can have some justification.
But for a home users? The vast majority would likely be happy with the office version they bought with their computer, and using on their next computer if they could. They need to upgrade just about never.
Getting roped into annual fees makes absolutely no sense in this case.
They have been on this sort of model for a long time with large customers.
Nothing really new.
But i do find it humorous as in the old days they were fighting against IBM's similar model with the big iron, and now we are coming full circle.
Guess it wasn't so bad after all
They should have released office applications for iOS at 2x the price of their iWork equivalents. Then they should have moved all that into the metro style, and released basically the same metro designs for Windows 8.
That might have cost them more than it produced in revenue, but now the result is that millions of people have been delightedly using their iPads for a couple years, and they're doing ok without MS Office. Even enterprise users. And MS still doesn't have an announced plan to bring Office to Met
But customers compare Microsoft's apples to Google's apples and apples from other vendors. The subscription based Ms-Office will live and die by its comparison to other subscription based document suites. Mainly google. Microsoft might bring in more backward compatibility with old office documents. ( on paper. In reality I find Ope
The trick to make it work is to offer the subscription at a really low price, for example, $5 per month.
And they can use upselling by providing online backups, for example at $10 per month.
This way, customers will think it's a great deal, because it adds real value.
However, I'm sure it won't work, for several reasons:
1) Microsoft will maintain their basic offer at $12.5 per month, which is too high. Come on, an Internet connection is cheap, and it's even more useful than Office !
2) most of the users don't r
In the days before the personal computer revolution, all software* was by subscription. Companies and universities bought hardware form the IBMs, Honeywells, DECs, and Amdahls of the world, but then paid a subscription fee for support in the form of maintenance and upgrades.
Then the microcomputer came along, and there was no software for it at first, so people wrote what they needed. Some of it was good enough that people were willing to buy it, at retail, just like milk or bread. Some software vendors would support purchased software with upgrades, either free for a time or for small fees, but it wasn't subscription-based.
Microsoft was one of the biggest forces in the world of boxed retail software. Remember the Windows 95 midnight release?
A couple of decades or more later, and now Microsoft decides that the "pay forever" model of the giants it supplanted is the right path. While it is something of a regression to old ways, it's also an outgrowth of the absurd situation we've come to in copyright and licensing laws.
What other models are there now? Apple sells you the hardware (computer or phone) and you get the patches and minor updates for free, but they push you to upgrade your hardware relatively frequently -- iPhone 6 anyone? Ubuntu gives you the OS, but they have deals with corporate partners and will probably be pushing ads into the os soon. A number of vendors give you the software, upgrades, and source, but charge you for the kind of "call up somebody and get this fixed now" support that management likes.
The situation Microsoft is in may be unique, however, because they can no longer convince consumers -- or most corporations -- to get on the upgrade treadmill, thus they've lost their steady income stream. MS can't get their customers to cough up more money on a regular basis for the next version. Who can blame the customers when the difference between Office 2010 and Office 2013 is, well, what exactly is different, other than Metro? Why should anyone upgrade?
This inability to keep pumping their customers for additional money to upgrade is the main driving force behind the subscription model. With a copyright regime which increasingly says the user only "rents" the software, and declining revenue from the Office cash cow, Microsoft really has only once way out: charging you a monthly fee for the privilege of editing your letters and calculating your spreadsheets.
*footnote: except software you (the company, the university) wrote yourself.
Evolution is a million line computer program falling into place by accident.


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Brandon Lee leads the way on the mound for USC Upstate
USC Upstate used a great pitching performance from Brandon Lee and a trio of well-placed RBI singles to send the Spartans to a 3-0 victory over Marshall University Friday afternoon at Harley Park.
The Spartans (6-2) were led by another impressive outing from Lee (3-0), who picked up his third victory in as many starts to open the season.
The senior scattered eight hits over nine innings, tallied seven strikeouts and benefited from three double plays to stifle the Marshall offense.
Upstate manufactured a run in the third inning, when Brody Greer coaxed a lead-off walk and advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by AJ Mackey. Jordan Stampler then stepped in the box and turned on the first pitch he saw and laced a single down the left field line to plate Greer and give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
Greer was at it again in the fifth inning, this time singling through the right side to bring Brandon Patterson racing home and giving Upstate a 2-0 lead. The single from Greer extended his hitting streak to eight games to open the season.
The Spartans added one more insurance run in the fifth inning when Tyler Lesch singled home Greer to give Upstate a 3-0 lead and create the final margin of victory.
Limestone 8, No. 10 Coker 7: In Hartsville, Limestone (10-4, 2-1) erased an early six-run deficit, rallying for a win in Game 1 of a three-game series against No. 10 Coker (10-5, 3-1). The Saints had a five-run fourth inning and scored three in the fifth to take the lead.
Caleb Shelley earned the win for Limestone, pitching 4 1/3 innings of relief while allowing three runs. Julian Bridges did most of the damage at the plate for the Saints, finishing 4-for-5.
Dayton 5, Wofford 4, 10 innings: Wofford was defeated in extra innings by Dayton at Russell C. King Field. The Terriers had a 4-3 lead after six innings, but the Flyers scored once in the eighth to tie the game and plated the winning run in the 10th. Wofford (4-5) was led by Josh Hyman (Woodruff) who had three hits.
North Greenville 4-5, West Virginia State 1-3: In Tigerville, the Crusaders used late rallies in both games to sweep a doubleheader.
Allen Staton and Bradley Scruggs earned wins for North Greenville. Staton went 3-for-4 with three RBIs to lead the Crusaders at the plate in Game 1, while Wheeler Smith went 3-for-3 in Game 2.


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Skip to comments.Cuban prisoners say they shared cells with rats
Posted on 07/15/2010 12:33:29 PM PDT by jackspyder
Rats and diseases infested Cuban prison cells so badly that some inmates tried to kill themselves and other did themselves harm, according to freed political prisoners who spoke Thursday in Spain.
Those who spoke were among 11 political prisoners released this week and flown to Spain to start new lives. At a press conference in Madrid, they painted a squalid picture of the prison conditions they had endured.
"The hygiene and health situations in prisons throughout the island of Cuba are not terrible, they are worse than terrible," freed dissident Julio Cesar Galvez said.
"We had to live with rats and cockroaches ... with excrement. It's not a lie," he said...
He said that in the prison of Villa Clara there were more than 1,500 inmates with up to 40 prisoners in cells measuring 3 square meters (32 sq. feet)...
(Excerpt) Read more at onenewsnow.com ...
We could invite the Prison Authority in Cuba to observe how a proper, clean prison is run... at Gitmo. Maybe they, and some of the country's leaders, could take a short vacation there as well.
Maybe some of our country's leaders could fly down there and they could make it a conference, International Gitmo Prison Conference, duration 10-20 years.
Sounds perfect for some of the Hollywood lefties who admire Castro and Cuba so much.
Let's sent Sean Penn there for a decade or two to help him discover how little he really knows about things he believes himself to be an expert on.
Maybe the Congressional Black Caucus who came home raving about what a great guy Castro is will volunteer to move in?
In the protein short society modern Cuba has become you'd think the prisoners would be delighted to find fresh meat in their cells.
here, it is typical the rats and cockroaches that commit the crimes, so why should they not do the time? BTW, I would like to see a lot more RATs in prison, lots more.
I feel their pain. Here the rats even vote.
Here even the dead rats vote.
Time to make Cuba the head of some kind of prisoner human rights commission for the UN isn't it? With work like that, they have to be rewarded.
Perhaps they dream of being in a similar position of power.
That's less than the average elevator. Physically impossible to fit 40 persons on that small an area. No doubt a Cuban prison is hell on earth, but this type of reporting shows yet again that the media are utterly stupid and worthless these days. Never ever believe a single word these idiots write. (Waiting for someone to post a pic of a "stuffed" phone booth or VW bug...:-))
AND the communist government DEMANDS them to happy..
-OR- go to jail...
But this can't be Cuba is a liberal utopia!!
The dream is getting closer to reality.
Cuban prisoners say they shared cells with rats.
Hummm, protein, taste like chicken.
Pffffht! So what? We share the White House and Congress with a bunch......................
it also said that was the equivalent of 32 square feet, so they obviously meant a room with dimensions of 3 meters x 3 meters
Are they the only ones allowed to have rats as pets?
1m = 3.3ft. 3m = 10ft. 3mx3m = 10ftx10ft = 100sqft. (appr. values) 3m^2 = 32sqft. The meant what they wrote. Only, they're idiots.
You might want to stop hurting your head with "math". ;-)
some people are good with math some are good with poetry some are great musicians ... we all have our strengths and weaknesses, maybe you can be a little more gracious to those who fall short of your strengths
Sorry, didn't mean to insult you. Should've just left it at presenting the calculation.
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Local artist, child entertainer and 15-year island resident Tara Phillips is proud to announce her debut art show, scheduled Saturday, Jan. 8, at the Palms Bar and Grill, within the Holiday Inn, downtown Fort Myers, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Tara, good friends with fellow colleague and artist Alan Mishaga, loves the fact that her debut show will be raising funds and toys for charity, recently receiving a plaque of recognition for her efforts during a Southwest Florida fund-raiser for language disorders.
"I am thrilled to pieces for the Holiday Inn to host a reception celebrating my artwork, and we will be raising funds for Toys for Tots simultaneously," she said. "I like to be able to get involved with charities I can donate profits to any time I can. Other benefits I've helped with are the recent autism concert at Nervous Nellie's, a Breakfast with Santa, and the American Cancer Society. Anytime I can help local charities, I do it."
Article Photos
'Purple Flower'
The Fort Myers Beach artist tells us a little about what types of media she works with.
"I do abstract style acrylic on canvas," she explained. "I also do black light art done with black light paint and actually painted in the black light. It's a unique style that comes out really cool. I've been producing whimsical artwork on canvases for over 10 years on Fort Myers Beach. When I learned about Henna tattoos and face and body-painting, I attended workshops and seminars, and I just started a children's entertainment business."
Aside from her painting projects, Tara dabbles in art of many forms, from entertaining children to wrapping and braiding hair, to her mentioned children's entertainment business and even designing her own website.
"I certainly like to keep busy," she laughed. "I do Henna tattoos, hair-braiding and hair wraps at Twisted Scissors (behind Hooters, by appointment), and also do character acting for children's entertainment and enjoyment at parties, get-togethers, birthday parties and more. I've dressed up as anything from pirates and princesses to clowns and fairies. They're totally theme-oriented while we do face-painting, glitter art, temporary and Henna tattoos, balloon animals, hair-braiding and wrapping, and all types of fun things for the kids big and small."
Be sure to visit TarasArtAnd
Entertainment.com to see some of her most recent work.
"When I made my website (TarasArtAndEntertainment.com), I included a page for my canvas artwork, some of which will be on display at The Holiday Inn. They liked my art so much, they've been requesting I cover more walls of their restaurant. I'm so excited!"
During her debut show Saturday, Jan. 8, from 7 to 9 p.m., there will be complimentary hors d'oeuvres and drink specials available, face and body-painted models showing some of her work, and Tara's art will be available for purchase.
An unwrapped toy or donation for the Toys for Tots charity will be graciously welcomed, but not necessary. For more information on Tara's art and other creative ventures, visit her website, TarasArtAndEntertainment.com.


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UK Paraplegic Woman First To Take Robotic Suit Home 116
An anonymous reader writes "It might be a ways off, but every day we get closer to the possibility of William Gibson's short story The Winter Market becoming a plausible reality. Viable consumer exoskeleton for the paralyzed? Check, finally. Quoting Reuters: 'The exoskeleton is activated by the wearer tilting their balance to indicate the desire to take a step. It supports the body's weight and also allows the person to go up or down stairs, as well as sit or stand up independently. It costs 45,000 pounds and although clinical studies are ongoing that could back a case for health authorities to fund purchases of the device, the developers argue that savings on the treatment of ailments related to inactivity could offset the cost.'"


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Oct. 21, 2013
RICHMOND, Va.--Villanova University sophomore quarterback John Robertson has been named the CAA Co-Offensive Player of the Week. He shares the honor with Maine quarterback Marcus Wasilewski. Robertson earns the award for his play in last Saturday's 29-28 loss at No. 25 New Hampshire.
In the New Hampshire game, Robertson tallied 27 carries for a career-high 256 yards and three touchdowns to go with a 15-of-17 passing effort for 122 yards. The 256 yard rushing effort ranks as the second best single game total in school history. Robertson has rushed for over 100 yards in three consecutive games and he now has seven career 100-yard rushing games to his credit.
Robertson has put up amazing numbers the last two weeks. In back-to-back games versus Towson and New Hampshire, he has completed 32-of-35 for 304 yards and two touchdowns and he has rushed 59 times for 406 yards and six scores. All total, he has amassed 710 yards of total offense in the two games.
Villanova returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 26, when the Wildcats host nationally ranked Maine at 1 p.m.


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Student or Learner
Are the following all right? What about "I'm grade seven in middle school"(Canada) or "I'm seventh grade in middle school"(US). Is all "of" interchangeable with "in" in this context?
ex)I'm in the first year of middle school./I'm in the sixth(seventh) grade.
When I was in Canada, I heard my native speaker coworker saying "I learned Taekwondo when I was grade 2", but probably I misheard what she said.


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On Positive Integer Powers of Toeplitz Matrices
In this paper, we restate a necessary and sufficient condition for all positive integer powers of a Toeplitz matrix to be still Toeplitz matrices which was ever studied by T. N. E. Greville (1983) and Tamir Shalom (1987), and our new proof is clear and self-contained. We also derive some identities involving the entries of the Toeplitz matrix and those of its positive integer powers in case that the powers are still Toeplitz matrices.
Full Text:PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5539/jmr.v5n4p52
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Journal of Mathematics Research ISSN 1916-9795 (Print) ISSN 1916-9809 (Online)
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Dallas beats KC 26-20 in OT on Austin's 60-yard TD
By DOUG TUCKER, AP Sports Writer 3 hours, 59 minutes ago
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—Miles Austin looked nothing like a backup making his first career start.
Stepping in for injured wide receiver Roy Williams, Austin caught 10 passes for a franchise-record 250 yards and scored the winning touchdown in overtime of the Cowboys' 26-20 victory Sunday over the winless Kansas City Chiefs.
In dooming the Chiefs to their 28th loss in 30 games, Austin erased the record of 246 yards that Hall of Famer "Bullet" Bob Hayes set against Washington almost 39 years ago.
"It's a feeling that's unbelievable," he said. "It's amazing. I never seen that coming today. I was ready today, but you never expect a huge game like that."
Austin's tackle-breaking 59-yard catch-and-run from Tony Romo gave the mistake-prone Cowboys a 20-13 lead over the Chiefs with 2:16 left. Then after Matt Cassel's 16-yard TD pass to Dwayne Bowe tied it 20-20 with 24 seconds to go in regulation, Austin got free on a 60-yard scoring play on Dallas' second possession in overtime.
Each time, he broke the tackle of cornerback Maurice Leggett.
"It's very frustrating," Leggett said. "But we also have to focus on the bigger stuff so we can get better each and every day. Don't take big jumps and focus on getting 2 percent better every day."
Kansas City (0-5) is winless for 315 days and has lost eight in a row at Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs were nearly invincible during the 1990s.
"I thought the guys fought hard in all phases," said coach Todd Haley. "I know the guys are hurting."
Austin is the third Cowboys receiver when Williams is healthy. But he was unstoppable against the Chiefs, who led most of the game but couldn't take advantage of the many opportunities the Cowboys kept handing them.
"I just wanted to show people I'm ready to play. I wanted to show my teammates that I want to contribute as much as I can," he said. "I was able to do that."
Dallas (3-2) was penalized 13 times for 90 yards and Romo overthrew several open receivers. Other passes were dropped. Dallas also muffed a punt and missed a field goal attempt.
"Our guys fought the whole game but we didn't do all the right things," said coach Wade Phillips. "There are things we need to work on, but the bottom line is winning and guys coming through."
"We are going to try and keep him playing," Phillips said. "There is no doubt about that."
Late in the fourth quarter, Austin caught Romo's pass, broke loose from tackles by Leggett and safety Mike Brown(notes), and sped 59 yards to give the Cowboys their first lead of the day.
Then Cassel swept the Chiefs down the field, hitting Bowe in the end zone on fourth-and-7. Ryan Succop(notes), who had a 53-yard field goal attempt blocked by Jay Ratliff(notes) right before Dallas' last TD in regulation, kicked the extra point for the tie.
Romo was 20 for 34 for 351 yards and two TDs. Cassel, still winless since being traded from New England, was 23 for 41 for 263 yards.
Romo said he noticed on the last play that the defensive back was "really tight on Miles."
"He tried to jump it, so I had to keep it outside a little more than you'd normally want to, but Miles did a good job of continuing to come back," Romo said. "If you take that chance as a corner, the possibility is there. I was glad to see Miles take off. It was really exciting and rewarding."
After Brown recovered Romo's fumble on the Dallas 16 in the second quarter, Mike Vrabel(notes), a 13-year veteran linebacker, caught a 1-yard TD pass, giving him 11 touchdowns in 11 career catches.
The Chiefs won the coin toss and received in the overtime but failed to get close enough for a field goal attempt.
"You fight so long for that victory and it comes down to the wire and you end up losing. It's like it kills everything," said Chiefs defensive lineman Tank Tyler(notes).
NOTES: Neither quarterback threw an interception. … Umpire Bill Schuster left the field for several plays in the first half. Schuster was standing in front of the pile when Kansas City LB Tamba Hali(notes) rolled up on him from behind, knocking him flat. … Cassel has thrown a TD pass in four straight games and gone 100 consecutive throws without an interception.
Dallas beats KC 26-20 in OT on Austin's 60-yard TD - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
Originally Posted by blaze24k
with a 7 year gap between championships they're called team of the Decade, thats pretty funny, but whatever.
I Love our 3 titles this decade and making the Lakers cry on national TV in 2003!
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Not much else to add except that the linked WSJ article seemed rather... well... brief (available to subscribers only)
Not much else to add except that the linked WSJ article seemed rather... well... brief
Not many of the people who pay to subscribe to the WSJ could follow more than a brief overview article.
As others have said, this is rocket science, and rocket science has the reputation it does for a reason.
... hundred of millions of taxpayer funds.
Bring the main hyperbole cannon on line! Maybe you could dial back the rhetoric to 11.
As others have said, this is rocket science, and rocket science has the reputation it does for a reason.
Building something that gets into orbit successfully, much less performing a rendezvous with another object already in orbit, is something that has such a thin margin of error that almost anything can prevent success and a whole lot of things can cause a failure.
I see this more as a glass is half-full kind of thing where it is just freaking amazing that Orbital has been able to get this far and even get near the ISS, much less be in a position to actually dock. Not only that, but this is the very first time that this launch vehicle + spacecraft has done something like this. And you expect it to be perfect on the very first try?
The cargo itself isn't all that valuable BTW, so "hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds" are not on the line. Orbital is only going to be paid for cargo delivered, although NASA did send them some money earlier for meeting previous manufacturing objectives. It should also be pointed out that Orbital wasn't even the original contractor [wikipedia.org] who was supposed to be taking cargo into space, but rather Kistler Aerospace [wikipedia.org]. NASA justifiably dumped that service contract and awarded it instead to Orbital after some pretty stiff competition from some other very worthy alternatives.
If anything, it sure is a heck of a lot cheaper in terms of the few hundred million dumped into the COTS program than the tens of billions that have been wasted on Constellation and SLS, where there has yet to be anything even close to flying. Those were both programs that were supposed to be operational before the Space Shuttle flights ended, but instead won't even be considered for an initial flight before 2017, and likely will be delayed well past 2020. Without this program, the $100+ billion dumped on the ISS would be wasted because the ISS would have to be splashed by now. That 1000x difference in orders of magnitude for these programs really makes the amount spent by NASA on Orbital to be real chump change and insignificant, especially with the results that have already been earned by Orbital.
I should add that the items in the Cygnus spacecraft [orbital.com] is mainly a bunch of food, what amounts to be toilet paper for the sanitary facilities in the ISS, personal items for the astronauts on this and future missions, and a new computer printer to replace one that broke down on board the station as well as some minor spare parts needed for station maintenance.
You would be hard pressed to find this whole load of cargo to be worth more than a hundred thousand dollars, although its value is important for the people on the ISS and the fact that it is so expensive to haul anything up to that altitude. Hopefully a competitive cargo delivery service can improve that cost as an issue.
Well, this is a test run. As such nothing critical is on board. The first Dragon payload was the same thing – low priority stuff that would not be missed in case of failure.
"We have the glitch fixed!"
"Outstanding! Resume ramming speed!"
So a company who is launching satellites for the military is also delivering cargo to the International Space Station. Did I miss something?
Or do you really think that the ISS is a part of some global conspiracy to conquer the Earth?
So a company who is launching satellites for the military is also delivering cargo to the International Space Station. Did I miss something?
Or do you really think that the ISS is a part of some global conspiracy to conquer the Earth?
I think what djupedal is saying is, why conquer the Earth when you can hold the nations hostage and demand ONE... MILLION... DOLLARS?
There's a data link between the ISS and docking vehicles. A new version of that was developed recently. [businesswire.com] Here's the presentation on that. [nasaspaceflight.com] But it doesn't seem to be operational yet. NASA has been talking about the new C2V2 system for years, and commercial spacecraft were supposed to be designed to use it. But it's not ready yet.
So Space-X and Orbital Sciences had to also develop a temporary capability to use the old automated docking system, which, I think, is derived from the Soviet-era Kursk system.
iirc OS capsule just goes close enough and then they dock it with the robot arm.
Did you hear that two rabbits escaped from the zoo and so far they have only recaptured 116 of them?