text:
I aint trollin...
What? No Lotus notes and a machine gun?
If it came with Lotus Notes the users would only need one bullet.
You mean that you'd leave your loved ones to face it alone?
You mean that you'd leave your loved ones to face it alone?
You mean your mom when she comes down to the basement?
This will never sell. It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm. It looks like a puzzle box and a toy.
What were you hoping to stack on top of a box that's about 5cm wide?
His iPod
It's cute as a button!!! Uhhhh, gimme the standard entertainment system form factor so I can stack the damn thing on top of the DVD player please. I got nowhere to put that crazy cute thing.
This will never sell. It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm. It looks like a puzzle box and a toy.
I don't think it looks like crap, but it definitely doesn't look like it belongs in my A/V cabinet. Just make it look like a DVD player or something close and I think it would have a better chance of taking off. But, then again, the only people who will be buying this to begin with already know what Boxee is, which means this thing was never going to sell well anyways.
the only people who will be buying this to begin with already know what Boxee is
You may turn out to be right if D-Link doesn't market this properly, but your underlying assumption is false. By way of example, most people who buy Nokia phones didn't already know what Symbian is. All people have to know to buy it is that it can stream "CNN, Hulu, CBS, YouTube, MLB.TV, Netflix (coming soon), Comedy Central, and more!"
and more
It's given that the killer feature is porn, right?
Marketing? Yeah right. The REAL issue will be SUPPORT. Having had to deal with D-Link support (both consumer and professional), I'd much rather be slowly eviscerated with a knitting needle.
And if it's something that can't be reduced to a cookie-cutter firmware setting with no options available, D-Link will fuck it up.
It looks "interesting", but also useless. I can't stack anything on top of it, like my remotes, or game controllers, or a stack of DVDs. I'm unlikely to buy one so strange shaped.
You are being too kind, merely using "crap" to describe it. Start with "fugly" and go from there. It needs a copious beating with an Apple beauty stick.
It needs a copious beating with an Apple "fashionista" stick.
It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm.
FFS, it doesn't fit into an entertainment center, period. [dlink.com] Nor can anything be stacked on top of it. Plus it's needlessly hard to manufacture, find components for, and assemble. This is quite possibly the most horribly designed piece of consumer gear I've ever seen in my life.
ATTENTION LOSERS WHO WANT TO COPY APPLE: Design doesn't just mean making it look neat. Apple's stuff looks flashy but it actually works. (Most of the time, anyway.) [google.com] And if your design only looks "neat" to 14-year-old males, you should throw it right the fuck away and never venture down that path again. Seriously, this thing looks like a prop from a bad SciFi (excuse me, SyFy) movie-of-the-week, or maybe a Roomba from Eureka [wikipedia.org] that gains sentience and starts causing problems.
No kidding - it didn't take but 1 quick glance at this thing to determine "Nope, I'm not buying that.".
Then again we may see "corner addons" appear on Ebay to make the thing into an actual box shape . . .
I don't think it's ugl, but it ain't
I see lots of reboxing mods.
My TV is on the wall
I have a set top box, DVD player and a TiVo stacked.
It can replace my TiVo for playback, but I probably still want to stack it.....
This will never sell. It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm. It looks like a puzzle box and a toy.
I hit the page for comments, and the first 5 amount to "It'll never work, get off my lawn". I'm reminded that when Apple came out with their first iPod, comments here on slashdork were loaded with downer reviews. Here's a couple of them
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
This, btw, was in the article summary. A little further down:
Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.
Or, next comment down:
Since when is Apple concerned about market share? They do what capitalism was born to do. Cater to a small market, and do it the right way.
Sure, not everyone was downer, but being pissy because you can't stick a remote
Too bad that thing is formed to take as much as space as possible, there is no way I get a permission from the mrs. to purchase one.
Rest assured the Boxee Box will fit into your entertainment center. If the look doesn't quite fit with your decor, not to worry. The RF remote means you can place the box out of sight and still control it. Of course, the Boxee Box prefers being on top : )
...anything interesting hardware-wise most certainly has binary proprietary drivers with no interfaces available for hackers or non-corporate programmers.
OTOH, you can just get yourself an ION nettop and it won't look like some sort of an attempt at modern art.
Does anybody know about HD support, I know it has it but curious if it's limited to only 720p like the AppleTV or if it will display 1080i/p.
And is there anything to stop me from installing XBMC on there. (I doubt there is but I'm not a big fan of boxee)
I was looking for a high definition media player and ended up purchasing a Popcornhour Model C200 networked media player after ruling out Apple TV. http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/ [popcornhour.com]
The C200 accommodates 1 or 2 internal hard drives and has a 3.5" bay for a Blue Ray or DVD player as well. 1080P playback is not a problem. There are very few file formats that won't work with this player.
Here are the C200 technical specifications: http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=productspec [popcornhour.com]
The Popcord box doesn't support Hulu, which seems to be the way the networks are working to now a days.
A Flash player is presently under development for the C-200.
First thought. Gimmicky, not stackable and this is something that Tivo should have already done. Seems like a bunch of us had the same first impression too. Won't bode well.
Finally, Ronen notes that with the Beta release, Boxee's graphical engine has migrated from from OpenGL to DirectX, allowing it to take advantage of Direct X video acceleration.
So the "officially supported" OS X and Ubuntu versions will be running on OpenGL, but the Windows version gets full hardware acceleration by using DirectX?
In what sense is OpenGL not "full hardware accelleration"? I'm legitimately curious, not snarking. Are we talking hardware video decoding?
Yes, they re talking about DXVA support.
The Ubuntu version (and I assume the OS X version) use OpenGL solely for the menus and overlays. VDPAU is used for decoding video on the GPU, and it works exceptionally well.
Up until now though, this meant Windows users were SOL when it came to hardware accelerated video decoding - I'm guessing DirectX gives them this functionality.
The amusing part though is that the original project (XMBC) used DirectX since it only ran on the original XBox, and the XBMC project ported to OpenGL to support other platforms
Is there anything out there like this that also does DTV/PVR?
I don't want to have multiple computers to maintain sitting around my TV set.
Oh, yeah, and it has to run Linux.
Yes, it's called a Linux box running MythTV (or some other PVR software) and Boxee.
Yeah, I tried setting all that up. Got mythtv installed, got the database going, got the client going, got the programming service going, got the recording going, etc, etc. Then I tried to play a video that I recorded and... blank screen. I could play the video directly with mplayer, xine, kaffiene, etc. etc, but no go with Mythtv.
I'm sure I have the ability to diagnose and fix the problem, but I am at a time in my life where I now have significantly more cash than time. I am willing to blow the latter
Have fun waiting...
Meanwhile, the rest of us will be using DIY franken-systems and spending the vast majority of our time simply using what you can't be bothered to spend a little time to build.
I'm in the same position.. I tried XBMC / Plex / Boxee as "the one true frontend". But, had no end of problems getting MythTV working with it. I got tantalizing glimpses of it working well, but it never stayed working.
I also have been using a Mac Mini as an HTPC that can do most everything I need between Front Row / iTunes, Plex/Boxee, and MythTV Frontend. It works passably well. But, I ran into too many oddities with the Mac OS X version of MythFrontend (others claim it's rock solid for them, so Y
Yes, for example TViX PVR M-6640N or DreamBox. I don't know where you live, those probably do not work in USA as they use DVB-S/C/T.
It would seem that WD TV Live Full HD might be better than the "advertised". YMMV.
Why do you want this thing? Just get over it and build your own.
That's too bad. Otherwise this would have been a serious contender for my next media box.
It seems there's no "do-it-all" media center on the market. Games, Blu-Ray, XBMC. Pick any two. I'm waiting for someone to get XBMC going on a PS3. When that happens, I will have chosen my corner in this fight.
Don't buy Blu-Ray until the DRM gets more fully defeated. When Blu-Ray becomes ready, there will be some BD library that developers will be able to use to read the discs, and people will be able to implement players without getting licenses that specify that the product is required to suck (which is why there currently aren't any good players), and then good players (all-in-one boxes, MythTV, etc) will finally appear on the market.
Until then, if you want high-definition movies, just let pirates deal with the hassles of Blu-Ray's flakiness, and you can download them with bittorrent. You'll end up with movies that just work, including with your own all-in-one box.
Save your money until Blu-Ray becomes a serious consumer-friendly product. Right now, it's a problem-plagued scam for suckers only.
Don't buy blu-ray at all. It's a transition format. Just enough to showcase the higher resolution screens we were trying to push (to get the digital terrestrial broadcast rollout going), but the rough edges are very visible. For instance, high-contrast regions frequently show visible fringing, and low contrast regions show blockiness on the disks I've tried so far.
Go ahead and rent, but blu-ray isn't going to be long-term for a number of reasons. In terms of picture quality, it's not like VHS where ther
No, just my own experience. I suppose it could just be that the people responsible for the tailoring the compression aren't being as thorough as they could be: it might take six times as long to properly look over the details, time they're just not given. Possibly they're using tiny monitors with bad eyes, or worse, monitors whose resolution is less than the target resolution in scaling mode.
I really don't have a good explanation for why something with six times the data capacity as DVD, and a target outp
In my experience, it depends a lot on the material.
I've got a reasonably well-calibrated 52" Samsung 1080p LCD, which I sit about 9 feet from.
The biggest problem I've noticed with Blu-Ray is that some (mostly older) releases are badly transferred, as if someone simply took some 480p DVD video and scaled it up. The picture is too soft.
Usually, though, things look (and sound!) rather nice. And I consider myself quite a picky bastard when it comes to encoding errors.
Perhaps your display is just set up poorly
If you could find a USB blu-ray drive, you should be able to just plug it right in there. The wikipedia page on it says something about it being licensed for use in blu-ray players, so that should work, in theory. Though XBMC (or Boxee, comparing it to this box; it's built off of XBMC) on a PS3 would kick this thing's ass, easily.
This box runs Linux. Plugging in the Bluray drive won't get you anywhere towards watching Bluray movies.
I'm waiting for someone to get XBMC going on a PS3.
But don't hold your breath. It's technically possible, but it's going to be a lot difficult.
You see the PS3 isn't closed to homebrew development. Quite the countrary. You can even install Linux on it and develop whatever you want.
But there's a restriction, when running homebrew software, the hypervisor doesn't give access to the GPU.
You can program all the scientific number-crunching application you want, you have full access to the CELL SPU units for some crazy parallel computing. But no 3D GFX only limite
The PS3 used to be able to rip Bluray DVDs merely by using dd. I assume that Sony put a stop to that, however.
I might have failed to express myself correctly
I wasn't speaking about obtaining the files from a Blueray. That's also easy to do on PC.
I was speaking about the decryption of Bluerays' DRM (AACS encryption and BD+) with which the content of said files is encrypted.
As the PS3 plays Bluerays, it must have valid device keys into its firmware (or into some dedicated TPM-like chip).
(Just like, on PC, WinDVD and PowerDVD have similar keys).
Or do you mean that the way the PS3 is build, the Blueray drive can decr
Sorry, my mistake then!
You're right, Sony would almost certainly not want to allow that.
You do not want a consumer device with an optical drive built in, unless the drive is the device. It's always the first thing to fail. That's not a big deal on computers, where such drives are commodity OEM products, so replacing them is not an expensive send-it-back-to-the-factory process. But everybody I know who's bought a TV, VCR, or game console with a blu-ray built in has regretted it.
Since this box looks extremely hackable, you could probably add a blu-ray drive to it. Problem solved.
'm waiting for someone to get XBMC going on a PS3.
Why does it have
Doesn't Netflix use SILVERLIGHT?
Let's see:
1). BoxeeBox uses Linux.
2). Linux doesn't run Silverlight.
3). You need Silverlight to run Netflix
Now fill in the missing word:
Therefore, BoxeeBox will never be able to run ____________.
The truth is that I've given up on standard Linux distros when it comes to multimedia. It simply isn't as good as Windows or Mac OS X. For about a year, we tried to run Mythbuntu, then Ubuntu w/ MythTV and Boxee. It simply never worked very well. Incompatibility issues with drivers an
Doesn't Netflix use SILVERLIGHT?
Let's see:
1). BoxeeBox uses Linux. 2). Linux doesn't run Silverlight. 3). You need Silverlight to run Netflix
Now fill in the missing word:
Therefore, BoxeeBox will never be able to run ____________.
Roku runs Linux, and does Netflix. Now... Doesn't do much of anything else, but it does run Netflix.
The truth is that I've given up on standard Linux distros when it comes to multimedia. It simply isn't as good as Windows or Mac OS X. For about a year, we tried to run Mythbuntu, then Ubuntu w/ MythTV and Boxee. It simply never worked very well. Incompatibility issues with drivers and configuration problems drove us up the wall. When Windows 7 came out, we "upgraded" to Windows 7. (Why not?, it was originally a Windows Vista box).
I have Linux on several personal PCs, my media center, lots of systems at work, and some provate clients. Other than WiFi, I have no driver issues, and other than Netflix, no multimedia issues. While DVR functionality is lacking, if you are having multimedia problems, you are having problems, not Linux.
The problem I see with the Boxee Box is that it is competing against HDTVs that can connect with Netflix right out of the box. Plus, these HDTVs are better at displaying video than what Boxee will be able to do.
Boxxee can do 1080p. What TV do you have that can do better? The rest of your comment is dead on... As
Flash is just bad on all operating systems, not just linux. It has the advantage of doing something on a lot of different machines, but it's a braindead least-common-denominator to do it. Flash video is just bog standard other kinds of video, but because it's encapsulated in flash, it has to be decoded in flash, which only uses the CPU. Why the heck should Hulu, which isn't even SD in resolution, require "2.0 ghz Core Duo" as a minimum when better-resolution video plays just fine on an iPod.
moonlight is a linux implementation of silverlight. It has at least some support from microsoft.
moonlight is a linux implementation of silverlight. It has at least some support from microsoft.
But it has none of the MS DRM, so it will not do any secure Silverlight stuff, like NetFlix.
That could be part of the "eventual" aspect. It may be implemented in moonlight at some point.
Tivos runs Linux. Tivos support Netflix. Therefore, BoxeeBox might just be able to run Netflix.
It's still ugly, though. Maybe someone will offer a 3rd party case for it.
You've got it the wrong way around - once D-Link contrives a Linux solution for Netflix streaming, then we'll be able to stream Netflix to any Linux platform we like.
Yes, it's not possible now, but the Netflix streaming overlords might be more persuaded by a potential corporate partner than they are by the unwashed masses. I wish D-Link the best of luck in this effort!
You've got it the wrong way around - once D-Link contrives a Linux solution for Netflix streaming, then we'll be able to stream Netflix to any Linux platform we like.
Yes, it's not possible now, but the Netflix streaming overlords might be more persuaded by a potential corporate partner than they are by the unwashed masses. I wish D-Link the best of luck in this effort!
Roku and Tivo both have Netflix on Linux. But it is not open source, so we still do not have it...
The technology Netflix uses for streaming movies on your computer (and by that, I mean "your x86 box that runs Mac OS or a modern version of Windows," unfortunately) is, in fact, Silverlight.
But Netflix is, and has been, pushing hard for more device adoption of streaming -- at this point, you can stream Netflix on Roku boxes, Samsung and LG players, some Sony TVs, PS3s, XBoxes, etc. It's not the case -- and you should not assume -- all these systems are using Silverlight to do aforementioned streaming.
My main multimedia machine runs Linux and is connected to a 47" TV via HDMI. I have no problem running any program and playing back any sort of multimedia. Now, I fix computers for a living and I know there are all levels of comfort when it comes to what people expect. My thoughts here are just that, that it is the end-user perspective on what you think should or should not work. We work pretty hard in the Linux community to satisfy people's demands and things get fixed pretty quick.
What we ask more tha
Popcorn Hour still looks better
Take a look at the pics of that device. No, really: RTFA. That is one of the dumbest designs for consumer electronics gear I've ever seen. I looks like someone took a cube and hacked off about half of it at a completely random angle, and then laid it awkwardly on its cut side. I don't care what kind of multimedia experience this thing offers, I would not buy this thing simply for its stupid looks.
I wouldn't be caught dead with this thing in my living room and that's saying a lot since my entertainment cente
The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable. -- John Kenneth Galbraith


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LOL. Guess he won't get things straightened out.
WOW the trifecta in the first quarter from the HOF QB.
LOL. Guess he won't get things straightened out.
Manning is blowing it up
Fox trying to cover for Peyton with a bad challenge. The interference happened way before the ball was tipped
Wow are these officials serious?
Why r they running deep patterns for stokley and tamme? Those guys cant get deep.
overturned, shows you what I know, lol
LOL. Leonhard is $$$ catching punts.
Good thing for Peyton the Falcons offense looks surprisingly inept
This game is a disaster.
Personal foul, #93, RED
This is embarassing.
I really think these 10 minute delays to sort things out the replacement refs keep doing adds to the viewing experience
Bring back the regular refs... I'm falling asleep here...
ESPN's mics picking up audible F-Bombs from field level lol
Julio Jones is single handedly determined to make me go 0-3 in fantasy this week
WTF bro, catch the baseball.
These refs are terrible.
I can't take the pace of these games

subset: commoncrawl


text:
All the parts in J. C. Karich's Low-Fi Hi-Tech headphones were either 3D printed or made from scratch from basic materials.
Scooped by
Henrik Safegaard - Cloneartist
onto Machinimania
A new form of getting your headphones personalized.
Even though the quality isn't the best it's a huge jump for the 3D printer, because now not only you can print interesting forms and everything you want, now you can have an object that is more complex and it works!
The only to-do now is to get a better quality audio.
Good thing: Explains how it works
Bad thing: Poor audio quality


text:
A powerful God,
Is accessible via,
An honest prayer.
#Haiku a Day (No. 151) on the power of prayer
A powerful God,
Perpetuating my thoughts thru creative writing
A powerful God,
Is accessible via,
An honest prayer.
Musings Out Loud!
Observe. Imagine. Believe. Write.
She plants seeds of word into the sands of mind and waters them with ink to grow on paper... She writes; she cultivates...
Elimu ya Ukombozi | Revolutionary Education
Hudhurungi by Karwitha
The other Africans
A reflection of a mirror
"Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back." ... these are my songs and whispers.
tactical analysis of +254 football
Candid, Wholesome, Heartfelt Conversations on 21st Century Parenting
Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.
for the works I've written and those to come.
the Global Magazine of News and Ideas
Fact Based Critical Examination and Analysis of Leadership, Governance, Politics and Societal Issues
The one-stop site for "trailing spouses."
I'm the last words of a slain poet


text:
Top Horses Entered at Belmont, Delaware
Top horses are entered in two races May 11, with several in a $60,000 sprint stakes at Belmont Park and another in a $41,000 allowance race at Delaware Park.
Top horses are entered in two races May 11, with several in a $60,000 sprint stakes at Belmont Park and another in a $41,000 allowance race at Delaware Park.
Most of the Blue Grass field needs a win to make the Derby; can Crimson China do it?
The Factor has been installed as the solid 7-5 favorite in the Arkansas Derby (gr. I) as 13 3-year-olds were entered for the $1 million race April 16.
Will The Factor reign again? It is rebound time for Brethren? Will Elite Alex break through?
Lots of movement, as we have a new No. 1 for the first time. Presented by Pauls Mill
Elite Alex turned in a sharp six-furlong work at Oaklawn for the Arkansas Derby.
There are several changes to Steve's Derby Dozen this week, including a very tight race for the final spot.
If Elite Alex doesn't make the Derby, Calvin Borel is available.
Astrology hangs on while a few other horses are shifted in the mix. Presented by Pauls Mill
Looking for a potential Derby contender coming out of this weekend's races? You might want to look outside the winner's circle.
Pants On Fire, the lesser-regarded half of a coupled entry for George and Lori Hall and trainer Kelly Breen, outdueled favored Mucho Macho Man and held off longshot Nehro to win the $1 million Louisiana Derby (gr. II).
There are several under-the-radar horses who could run big in this weekend's 3-year-old stakes
Who will win the 2011 Louisiana Derby? Who will complete the exacta? The tri? Is it all Mucho Macho Man? Will Machen or Elite Alex make some noise? Is it time for a new horse to enter the Triple Crown picture?
The addition of The Factor and some juggling highlight this week's Dozen.
Risen Star Stakes (gr. II) winner Mucho Macho Man has been installed as the 9-5 favorite for the $1 million Louisiana Derby (gr. II) at Fair Grounds March 26.
Mucho Macho Man breezed an easy five furlongs in 1:02 3/5 for trainer Kathy Ritvo and is the likely favorite in the $1 million Louisiana Derby (gr. II) on March. 26.
Who will win the 2011 Rebel Stakes? Who will finish last? Will The Factor take them all the way? Is it time for Elite Alex or Sway Away to shine?
J P's Gusto tries to take down The Factor in crowded Rebel Stakes.
The Factor ships in from California to take on a dozen rivals in a wide-open edition of the $300,000 Rebel Stakes (gr. II) at Oaklawn Park.
A large field, led by California shipper The Factor and Southwest (gr. III) winner Archarcharch, is expected for the $300,000 Rebel Stakes (gr. II) March 19 at Oaklawn Park.
This is not about who is going to win the Kentucky Derby, as much as who so far has the look of a Derby winner--who is on track to peak on Derby Day, who looks eager to do more than they already have.
With just under two weeks until the $300,000 Rebel Stakes (gr. II), several leading contenders based at Oaklawn Park posted workouts March 6.
Two days after a rough running of the Southwest Stakes (gr. III) at Oaklawn Park on Presidents' Day, connections for the top four finishers are making tentative plans to join the next dance in the Rebel Stakes (gr. II).
Robert Yagos' Archarcharch finished first in a scramble in the grade III Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park Feb. 21 to earn his first graded-stakes victory and move forward on the Triple Crown trail.
Recent Oaklawn Park arrival J P's Gusto will be the one to beat when he faces 10 fellow 3-year-olds in the $250,000 Southwest Stakes (gr. III) Feb. 21 at the Hot Springs, Ark. track.
The track at Oaklawn Park was busy Feb. 14, with some of the top contenders for the Feb. 21, $250,000 Southwest Stakes (gr. III) turning in their final workouts.
Over the past decade or so, racing has seen a new breed of owner enter the sport, many with a corporate philosophy.
Debuting this week is the Derby Dozen. But what are the chances even half of those horses listed will even make it to Churchill Downs? And what are the chances the Derby winner is among them?
Placing Kentucky Derby future bets is part of the fun in Las Vegas.


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R. David Jones has resigned from the Sports Car Club of America Board of Directors as its Area 7 representative. The Board voted to approve Dan Helman as his replacement.
A former Chairman and a member of the SCCA Hall of Fame, Jones was re-elected to his second term as the Area 7 representative in November, but has since reconsidered his service for the next three years. Helman was runner-up to Jones in that election, and accepted the Board's nomination, per the SCCA bylaws.
"Over the last three years spent on the Board of Directors, I haven't been feeling particularly effective," Jones said. "I feel that Dan's background and experience might do a better job at this point than I can.
"I'm 75 years old, and have spent a lot of time with this Club, and I will continue to do that in some capacity. I've spent 18 years total on the Board of Directors and another two in an ad-hoc position. I've been the Club's treasurer, vice chairman and the chairman for nine years. The Club has been kind enough to even present me with the Woolf Barnato Award and elect me into its Hall of Fame. But the time has come for me to step aside and allow someone like Dan the opportunity to further contribute to the Club."
Under Jones' leadership as its Chairman, SCCA reached some important milestones, including the creation of the Spec Racer and the purchase of ProSolo. In 1986, Jones was presented the Woolf Barnato Award, the highest individual honor in the Club. He was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2010. R. David Jones continues as an active racer in the Club, currently campaigning a Formula Mazda and a Formula Vee.
Helman, of Huffman, Texas, is a member of the Houston Region. He recently served as chairman for the SCCA Insurance Committee. Under his direction, the Committee delivered an insurance program for 2013 at a considerable savings to the organization, with a positive financial effect on the Regions and participants.
Helman will serve Area 7 of the Club, which represents the Southwest Division. He will serve a three-year term, through 2015.
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2012 Hercules Murder, West Coast Crime Spree Suspect Accused Of Attempting Jail EscapeA man accused of slaying of a retired San Francisco Bay area schoolteacher attempted an escape from jail by trying to carve his way out of a cell window, Contra Costa County prosecutors said.
Couple Charged In Retired Hercules Teacher's Murder Plead Not GuiltyA Southern California couple accused of fatally stabbing a retired schoolteacher in her Hercules home in a multi-state crime spree pleaded not guilty Friday to murder charges and enhancements.
Couple Accused Of Murdering Retired Hercules Teacher Delay PleasThe couple accused of murdering retired schoolteacher Susie Ko in her Hercules home last month appeared together for the first time in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Richmond Friday afternoon.
Couple Charged In Killing Of Retired Hercules TeacherAuthorities say a husband and wife accused of the killing of a retired Northern California school teacher and wanted for a Southern California crime spree are a step closer to being returned to California to face charges.
Hundreds Gather At Funeral For Slain Hercules TeacherHundreds of mourners packed a church in Rodeo Friday morning to celebrate the life of retired teacher Susie Ko, 55, who was violently stabbed to death in her Hercules home earlier this month.
Suspected Crime Spree Couple To Be Charged In Hercules Woman's MurderPolice confirmed Friday a married couple is suspected in the killing last week of a Hercules woman after the pair were arrested in Washington state Wednesday with the woman's stolen car following an alleged month-long crime spree.
2 Arrested In Connection With Hercules Woman's Murder, West Coast Crime SpreeTwo suspects have been arrested and the stolen vehicle of a murdered Hercules woman has been recovered in the Seattle area, according to police.


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After a national search, Sheila Rose Purcell, UC Hastings '86, has been selected as the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR)'s new Director, effective July 30, 2012. Purcell succeeds Grande Lum, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as Director of Community Relations Services at the Department of Justice.
Known nationally as one of the "godmothers" of court-connected ADR, Purcell has been ADR Director of the San Mateo County (CA) Superior Court Multi-Option ADR Project (MAP) since 1996. Starting with a one-year grant for a civil mediation program, Purcell developed MAP to include individually designed ADR programs in the family law, small claims, probate, juvenile delinquency, juvenile dependency and complex civil divisions of the court, providing referrals and ADR services in approximately 1,500-2,000 cases a year. Purcell has taught ADR Systems Design and ADR Survey at Hastings, and in 2010-11 she co-developed and now teaches CNDR's groundbreaking Court ADR Systems Design Institute for foreign judges and lawyers.
"CNDR has a great program that I look forward to growing and offering both to our students and to the international community," says Purcell.
Says Professor Melissa Nelken, CNDR's Acting Director and Faculty Chair: "I am delighted to have Sheila Purcell join UC Hastings as the new CNDR Director and look forward to working with her on improving existing programs and developing new ones, both at UC Hastings and abroad."
The Center for Negotiation & Dispute Resolution (CNDR) at UC Hastings College of the Law is committed to offering superior education and cutting edge scholarship in dispute resolution to law students, attorneys, practitioners, and international visitors. In 2012, US News & World Report ranked UC Hastings #9 among the top law school dispute resolution programs in the country.
CNDR professors break new ground in the study of implicit bias in mediation and the psychological dynamics of negotiation and lie detection. CNDR hosts a biennial symposium, conferences, and workshops at which scholars and practitioners share research, case studies, and teaching techniques in the field.
Every year, 500 UC Hastings students – over a third of the total enrollment – take a dispute resolution course through CNDR. Students also master practical skills outside the classroom through CNDR's Mediation Clinic, its ADR Externship Program, and its award- winning Negotiation and Mediation Team.
In the heart of San Francisco, steps from both Federal and State courts, CNDR utilizes its central location to collaborate with local community organizations, commercial alternative dispute resolution providers, and government agencies. Leading ADR practitioners in the San Francisco Bay Area add depth and breadth to our program as adjunct professors.


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The game that really put Zynga on the map has returned. Three years after the original, FarmVille 2 has launched. Like it's predecessor, it invites Facebook and Zynga.com players to cultivate their own farms, all whilst getting support from friends. However, FarmVille 2 also marks the first of Zynga's "next generation" game offerings: it's the first Zynga game to be built entirely in 3D, the first to run in Adobe Flash Player 11, and the first to offer a right-click option.
FarmVille promises to have more "meaningful" social interactions than the first game. For example, you can now assign "Farm Helpers" and designate how friends will be able to help out on their farm. Friends will be able to harvest crops, feed animals, and collect resources for each other as well.
Designing your farm will be far more versatile this time around, as you'll be able to "paint" seeds, water crops, and move items. And because the game is 3D, you'll be able to move and rotate objects as well.
Of course, many players that are still attached to their virtual farms may not want to abandon the original FarmVille. Zynga promises that both the original and its sequel will continue to get updated, as each have "dedicated teams" working on regular content updates. You can play FarmVille 2 at zynga.com or on Facebook.


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The Wellesley High girls' and Stonehill College women's basketball teams lost their most loyal fan Wednesday, with the passing of 90-year-old Elisa Parsons of Sharon from pneumonia.
Affectionately called "Aunt Lisa," Parsons was featured in the Globe South Sports section Dec. 16. The story, she said afterwards, was a special memento.
The Wellesley girls' team is coached by her great-niece, Kristin Cieri, who coached current Stonehill junior captain Mary Louise Dixon.
Dixon's parents, Tom and Pauline, picked up Parsons — a basketball and field hockey star at Stoughton High in the late 1930s — so she could follow both teams.
Parsons, nee Carrara, also rode on the Wellesley High team bus for a scrimmage at Oliver Ames in Easton.
When Wellesley High, with Dixon and her older sister, Eleni, starting in the backcourt, defeated Millbury for the state girls title in 2008, Parsons joined in the celebration.
And on the night Dixon and Wellesley teammate Blake Dietrick each scored their 1,000th career points, she posed for a photo with them.
"Aunt Lisa has such a wonderful spirit that draws you to her,'' said Stonehill head coach Trisha Brown in the Globe story. "We should all have Aunt Lisas in our lives.''Marvin Pave can be reached at email@example.com.


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An elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease escaped her burning Old Town Lafayette home early Saturday morning, minutes before the roof collapsed and rendered the property a total loss.
Peggy Guanella, 81, was the lone occupant in the two-story home at 600 E.Emma St., which family described as her "dream house," built in 2003 after Guanella spent 10 years designing it.
"It's pretty much devastating. There's all kinds of family heirlooms in there," said son Paul Guanella, who lives in the house next-door to his mother's, and has been taking care of her since the Alzheimer's diagnosis five years ago.
"She doesn't remember at all how (the fire) started," Paul added.
A Boulder County multi-agency fire investigation team isn't sure, either. Lafayette Fire Department Batallion Chief Mark Murray said a "lengthy" probe will likely be needed, as most of the residence is covered in debris.
Murray said that at 5:38 a.m., the Boulder Communications Center received 911 calls referencing smoke coming from the residence. Lafayette Police were the first units on scene, and they reported being met by heavy smoke. When Lafayette fire crews arrived roughly five minutes later, Guanella was already out of the home.
By that time, Murray said, the roof and attic space were "fully involved." The roof collapsed within minutes of the fire crew's arrival, and the blaze was completely extinguished by 6 a.m..
Paul said his mother may have been awake at the time the fire started, as possibly evidenced by the fact that a neighbor found her fully clothed on the front porch while flames were still raging.
The neighbor broke down the front gate to the home and escorted Guanella off the property, according to Paul, who expressed great gratitude for the neighbor's actions.
Around 7:30 a.m., Guanella's cat, Nelly, was rescued from the home.
"That's the only positive thing that came out of this fire," Lafayette deputy fire chief David Friedel said.
"I can't believe the fire didn't suck the oxygen out and suffocate (Nelly)," Paul said. "I can't believe she got out. It's a miracle."
Guanella is staying with family now, and, according to her son, recalls very little of the event, other than the television being on before it happened.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Alex Burness at 303-473-1389, email@example.com or twitter.com /alex_burness.


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Keystone pipeline
To the editor: Thank you for the weekly pairing of opposing opinion pieces that gives readers an intelligent discussion on a current issue. On Feb. 16, Doyle McManus presented the most reasonable proposal to the question on the president's authorizing the Keystone pipeline. That would be to save it until America's need for oil is urgent.
To the editor: Thank you for the weekly pairing of opposing opinion pieces that gives readers an intelligent discussion on a current issue. On Feb. 16, Doyle McManus presented the most reasonable proposal to the question on the president's authorizing the Keystone pipeline. That would be to save it until America's need for oil is urgent.
The opposing view, written by an executive of the American Petroleum Institute, argues that creating the pipeline would bring immediate jobs and bring oil to the Gulf coasts where oil refineries already exist. The pipeline would enrich the existing oil producers, but what else would it do? It would cut across 1,600 miles of mostly farmland, risking spills.
Earlier discussions had noted that the oil was to be shipped to China instead of being processed here. But China's oil needs are not presently urgent. Does the U.S. want to become the largest exporter of oil in the world? Does the world's atmosphere need the increase in pollution from burning this oil?
Fortunately, the president can have the opinions of the most broadly informed advisers in the country. At this time, the best advice calls for delaying the use of the Canadian tar sands.
James Gailey
To the editor: I am a 60-year-old American male who would describe himself as a God-fearing, patriotic family man. I have watched the federal government and followed its actions closely for the past couple of years. Anyone who pays any attention at all will quickly realize our country is in serious trouble.
I am not talking about the looming economic crisis. I believe it is real and only has one logical conclusion (not good). I am talking about a bigger, more dangerous crisis — our constitutional crisis. Our constitutional freedoms are quickly disappearing.
What is our duty as born-again American citizens? Are we supposed to pray and only pray? As Christians, we are taught to obey our civil authorities (Romans 13). Does this mean no matter what? People are afraid of their government right now in America.
What is the church's role? Should we not even entertain a discussion on these questions? Christian citizens deserve to be taught what their pastors believe about these issues — right now.
May the Lord grant us discernment and courage as we seek His will.
Tom Leonard
To the editor: A recent letter extolled the platform of the tea party in a vague way. Let's examine its educational plank. Fact: Our public education system is the best in the world. Look at the progress we have made in the past 100 years. What stands out is the opportunity everyone has for a higher education. Foreign countries restrict higher education to a select few fast learners.
What would the tea party do to improve our public education system? It would privatize it, and it would become selective, ungoverned education. What is it doing to achieve this? It is pushing vouchers. What is a voucher? It is money to send a student to a private school. This money is taken from public education, which weakens our system.
It is your tax money. Do you want your taxes to pay for private schools that are not subject to any supervision and can teach a religion, creationism instead of evolution? I think not! The two-year trial in Washington, D.C., failed.
This is only one goal of the tea party. Its entire agenda of extreme conservatism is even rejected by most Republicans.
Mark A. Young


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This podcast is brought to you by Ukwazi - Bringing relevant mining engineering consultancy services to dynamic industry.
Thursday, January 22, 2009.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.
Making headlines today:
On Wednesday, the shareholders of JSE-listed gold company Aflease approved the company's proposed merger with Australia-based BMA Gold, to form Gold One.
Aflease would now have to discuss the merger with its bondholders. It would also have to get final approval from South African competition authorities.
The merger would be completely finalised by the end of next month. It will see the formation of a dual-listed midtier gold-miner.
The portfolio of Gold One will include operations from a near-production gold mine in South Africa, to gold exploration activities in Australia.
Aflease CEO Neal Froneman:
(audio clip)
On Wednesday, diversified miner BHP Billiton said it would cut about 6 000 jobs at a number of operations by the end of June. The miner employs just over 100 000 people worldwide.
BHP Billiton head of communications for South Africa Bronwyn Wilkinson said that about 70% of this reduction would be contractor jobs. The majority of cuts would be made at its Australian operations. The miner's South African operations have escaped this round of job cuts.
BHP Billiton CFO Alex Vanselow said that the group didn't take these decisions lightly, but that they were necessary.
Also making headlines:
Gold producer Gold Fields may lay off 1 500 workers.
Diamond giant De Beers says the market faces a 'difficult' time.
TSX- and Aim-listed African Copper closes its Botswana mine and seeks to raise $15-million.
And, Toronto-based Kinross Gold will raise up to $414,6-million in a share sale.
That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit miningweekly.com.


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B Town Salt-Bowl-a-Thon set for Aug. 9
The second annual B Town Salt-Bowl-a-Thon is set for Friday, Aug. 9. at Enterprise Lanes in Benton.
Put on this year by the Bryant Area Chamber of Commerce, the event is a gathering of all Saline County residents.
"The idea is for one office to challenge another office or branch in another Saline County town, or for one competitor to challenge another competitor in another town," said Julie Roltsch, chairman for the event.
Included will be a DJ, food, gift card prizes and music, said Rae Ann Fields, executive director of the chamber. "The day will be a great get-away from the office for fellowship with fellow workers and even friendly competitors."
Bowling will begin at 1 p.m. Trophies will be awarded to the individual who scores the highest and also to the first-, second- and third-place teams.
Entry fee is $200 per team. Lane sponsorships for the event are $100 each. The registration form is available online at www.bryantchamber.com under events.
For more information, call the chamber at 501-847-4702. Registration forms are due by Aug. 1.
Last year's winner was Saline Memorial Hospital. The city of Bryant placed second and the city of Benton placed third.
"This event last year was a lot of high-energy fun," Fields said. "We want to see if we can do that again."
Sponsors for the event include First Electric Cooperative Corp. and Entergy.


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Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Spot the BCS Bowl Contender
And while you could (rightfully) argue that a 10-2 Michigan doesn't deserve a BCS bowl bid, does the team in contention below?
See if you can spot the BCS bowl game contender based on their schedule thus far:
UCLA 38-34 Western Illinois 20-6
North Texas 48-23 Central Arkansas 31-10
Louisiana Tech 35-34 New Mexico 48-45
Georgia State 56-0 Texas-San Antonio 22-7
UTEP 49-42 Stephen F. Austin 45-10
East Carolina 56-3 Nicholls 47-7
Marshall 63-28 McNeese State 38-14
Rice 73-34 Lamar 66-0
UAB 56-13 Southeastern Louisiana 38-9
Tulane 73-17 Northwestern State 43-17
Gee, both have a regional Texas opponents on there. Both have a victory against a small Louisiana on there. Hmmm.
So who is the BCS contender? Well, if you guessed "Houston," you're only half right. Team "A" is the University of Houston. Team "B" is the 3rd ranked school in 1-AA, Sam Houston State. U-H will most likely "qualify" for the non-Big 6 BCS auto bid if they finish undefeated due to their ranking.
But, hey, when you've beaten a 5-5 Rick Neuheisal-coached UCLA team (at Houston, by the way) for your marque victory, why not?
Sure, Michigan hasn't exactly played a murder's row. But did you know that the only team Michigan has played thus far with a losing record is Minnesota?
And Houston? The only team they've played thus far with a winning record is Louisiana Tech.
Hell, forget Michigan. If I were Sam Houston State, I'd be pissed.
5 comments:
- surrounded in columbus said...
well, if michigan would get an at large bid, we could very easily end up playing Stanford, Bama, or OU. i'm not sure this isn't a good year to play the Cap One or Outback Bowls.
i'm not saying, i'm just saying.
- November 16, 2011 12:05 PM
- Rigby said...
I really hope we don't get a bid for a BCS bowl. I just don't see anything positive to it from a football perspective (yes we get the huge cash earnings. Stop drooling Dave Brandon). I'm happy with our showing this year, happy with the progress (DE-FENSE!). I don't think getting spanked for the second year in a row in a bowl game is a momentum builder for recruiting and going into next year. We're not at the BCS level yet. I am hoping for an even matchup and a hard fought game, win or lose (hopefully win).
- November 16, 2011 4:05 PM
- Mikoyan said...
Sam Houston can't get into a BCS bowl because not only are they not from one of the annointed conferences, they aren't even in the annointed Division.
And yeah, it might be a good year for one of the lower tier bowls. Maybe they can face EMU in the Motor City bowl...:)
- November 16, 2011 5:02 PM
- surrounded in columbus said...
for the record, i wouldn't mind playing the big east or acc champs. and i'm not afraid of us losing, per se (this is michigan, fergodsakes- losing bowl games is a tradition).
but we already have to play Bama to start next season. hate to get plowed by them in a bowl & then have to get off the mat & do it again in Dallas.
i'm not saying, i'm just saying
- November 16, 2011 7:42 PM
- Bigasshammm said...
Yea we already have a BCS bowl game in Dallas next Sept. We're good for this season.
Gimme a New Years day bowl and I'll be happy.
- November 17, 2011 9:34 AM


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WASHINGTON - Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, is resigning, ending a stormy five-year tenure marred by the disastrous rollout of President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.
WASHINGTON � Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, is resigning, ending a stormy five-year tenure marred by the disastrous rollout of President Barack Obama�s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.
Obama accepted Sebelius� resignation this week, and this morning he will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her, officials said.
Officials said Sebelius, 65, made the decision to resign and was not forced out. But the frustration at the White House over her performance had become increasingly clear, as administration aides worried that the crippling problems at HealthCare.gov, the website set up to enroll Americans in insurance exchanges, would result in lasting damage to the president�s legacy.
Even last week, as Obama triumphantly announced that enrollments in the exchanges had exceeded 7 million, she did not appear next to him for the news conference in the Rose Garden.
The president is hoping that Burwell, 48, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated West Virginia native with a background in economic policy, will bring an intense focus and management acumen to the department. The budget office, which she has overseen since April of last year, is deeply involved in developing and carrying out health-care policy.
�The president wants to make sure we have a proven manager and relentless implementer in the job over there, which is why he is going to nominate Sylvia,� said Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff.
Last month, Sebelius approached Obama and began a series of conversations about her future, McDonough said. The secretary told the president that the
March 31 deadline for sign-ups under the health-care law � and the rising enrollment numbers � provided an opportunity for change and that he would be best served by someone who was not the target of so much political ire, McDonough said.
�What was clear is that she thought that it was time to transition the leadership to somebody else,� he said. �She�s made clear in other comments publicly that she recognizes that she takes a lot of the incoming. She does hope � all of us hope � that we can get beyond the partisan sniping."
The resignation is a low point in what has been a remarkable career for Sebelius, the daughter of Ohio�s late Gov. John J. Gilligan.
As governor of Kansas, Sebelius was named by Time magazine as one of the five best governors in the country and even was mentioned as a possible Obama running mate in 2008.
The two had bonded when Sebelius endorsed his presidential bid early in 2008, becoming one of the highest-profile Democratic women to back him over Hillary Clinton and helping him to deliver a big win in the Kansas caucus.
�The millions of Americans who can now live healthier lives without the fear of financial devastation are a testament to the work and dedication of Secretary Sebelius,� Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a statement yesterday.
�She helped implement landmark legislation that, among other benefits, outlaws discrimination against children and adults with pre-existing conditions, and ends lifetime caps on insurance coverage. I thank Secretary Sebelius both for her service � and efforts � to ensure the health of every American.�
White House officials were quick to point out the many successes during Sebelius� tenure: the end to pre-existing conditions as a bar to insurance, the ability for young people to stay on their parents� insurance and the reduction in the growth of health-care costs.
In addition, Sebelius helped push through mental-health parity in insurance plans and worked with the Department of Education to promote early childhood education.
Sebelius said in an interview yesterday that she always knew she wouldn�t �be here to turn out the lights in 2017.�
�My balance has always been, when do you make that decision?� she said.
Reporter Jack Torry of the Dispatch Washington Bureau contributed this story.


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A handy little outing for the Englishmen. Bairstow did his cause no harm with a century in the 1st innings while Samit Patel has all but sealed the No. 6 spot with an all-round effort. They will be worried about the bowlers though with Broad suffering a heel injury. Scans have shown that he should be available for the 1st Test and England will certainly hope so. They play a 4 day game against Haryana starting on the 8th before the start of the much anticipated series. Do join us for the final practise game on the 8th. For now, cheers and bye..
England XI won the toss and elected to bat
Mumbai A (From): Suryakumar Yadav(c), Sufiyan Shaikh(w), Sagar Gorivale, Neelkanth Parab, Cheteshwar Pujara, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Bhavin Thakkar, Kshemal Makarand Waingankar, Shikhar Dhawan, Javed Khan, Nikhil Anant Patil, Abhishek Raut, Hiken Naresh Shah, Bravish Shetty, Shardul Thakur
England XI (From): Alastair Cook(c), Matt Prior(w), Jonathan Bairstow, Tim Bresnan, Nick Compton, Graham Onions, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Joseph Root, Jonathan Trott


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Bill - aka taniwha
Agreed. Imangine there is a civizization 10,000 light years from Earth devolping at the same rate and time as humans. We would be unable to detect their television even if their transmitters were more powerful then ours and on and ideal frequency for communicating between star systems. Those television shows are still 9,920 years from reaching earth. Now if they are just as war like as us you can assume that nobody on either planet will be able to detect them. A war big enough to destroy civilization in the next 9,000 years isn't exactly unlikely.
It is possibal that many civilizations have rose and fell over the years, and earthlings arrived at radio reception too late to detect the transmissions from the last one, but too soon for the next one. Note that because of the slow speed of light it is possibal for the transmission of the first civilization to not reach earth yet, while the transmissions from a latter one have gone by, and all three civilizations have missed each other.
Of course if someone devolps enough space travel to havea self sufficant colinies in different star systems it is less likely that we have missed them. (Then you have to account for the possibility that earth is a self sufficant colony of a now long gone civialization, though that lack of remains tends to rule that out.
It is only because so many places do not have life, that this small possibility gets people excited. I really don't know why people are so excited. This doesn't prove anything, it just isn't a disproof. Find me a planet with Internet access, and then we'll talk about signs of life.
If so.. no, this doesn't expand to other locations in space. The first reason, there isn't bacteria there. Bacteria is life, and bacteria is what causes mold and fungi to form on coffee. If that isn't there, then there is no mold. And, as far as I know, this piece is missing.
I could just be missing your argument completely though.
A survey of middle-aged stars within 350 light years found that half of them were emitting light that showed metals were present in the top layers of the stars. That suggests that metallic dust, asteroids, and planets fell into the star. Not all that stuff falls in, so there are planets around a bunch of those. Planets that formed a long time ago.
There was something like this in Babylon-5, where all known intelligent species had all produced something, though by different names, that was basically a sweedish meatballs dish.
That was a minor throwaway joke, of course. On the other hand, the Crusade episode "The Needs of Earth" noted the distinction between scientific knowledge (which is inherent to reality and can be discovered by any intelligence using the right tools) and culture (which is an irreproducable result).
Yup. Same-old-same-old.
Wanna impress me? Gimme some insanely-long-baseline-interferometry capable of getting a spectrum from a planetary body and show me a big pile of diatomic oxygen.
Until then, it's good research, but it doesn't change the big picture (the building blocks of life are everywhere) we've been aware of for a long time.
So far, no one has brought this up in this thread, although a lot of people have kind of circled the mark. The Star Wars FORCE is not as close to the Western view of God as people seem to think. It is, however, pretty much equivalent to the Eastern concept of the Tao (procounced "dough", not "tau").
Lucas was and is fascinated by Asian culture, and Japanese culture in particular. Note, for instance, the design of the snowtroopers from Empire and Amidala's costuming from Phantom. However, consider something more important than any of these design issues: the lightsaber. The lightsaber duels in all the movies (or at least the first three... I'm not sure about Phantom) were performed using kenjutsu, essentially modelling the Jedi after the ancient samurai. It therefore was natural for Lucas to choose an Eastern type of mysticism as the basis of his Jedi's beliefs. (Although traditionally, I believe the samurai were more Buddhist than they were Taoist, but I could be wrong.)
that's where random lightning strikes come into play... stir things up and make them more interesting...
I hate to be the voice of the devils advocate, but we need a lot more than animo acids to show that there is life on other worlds. Simple organic chem experiments show that given the right elements, its pretty easy to get animo acids. Finding them is actually no big surprise.
The hardest part of the whole abiogenesis equation that we need is the formation of simple life from its ubiquitous amino acid building blocks. We essentially need some way for the building blocks to logically result in the creation of a castle through either random collisions or some other mechanism. This is the difficult part and some advances have been made in looking at organic chemistry in Zero-G. The problem is that we are still orders of magnitude away from getting a living and more importantly reproducing cell that natural selection requires for further evolution.
In short, don't count your eggs before their hatched because we still have a long way to go. We really don't know how abiogenesis occured on earth yet, so to start saying that its occuring all over the universe may be a bit of a stretch.
Actually, there's little evidence to back this up. I'm one of the team members on the project that tries to monitor a few hundred "solar-like" stars to test (among other things) how "normal" the Sun really is. Macroscopically, you can argue that it's on the Main Sequence, and doesn't do anything strange compared to other stars.
However, if you change the problem around to looking for stars that are almost identical to the Sun in every way (working out of the assumption that if the Sun is "ordinary" then there should be a lot of other stars that are also "ordinary", out of a carefully-chosen sample, you come up with a very VERY short list --- it's in the single digits, and even then I keep finding reasons to exclude those stars from the list. One could almost claim at that point that there are no "average" stars.
I hope to have a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal later this year on this topic.
As for Earth being "average", again the evidence so far is that Solar System-like systems is not the norm. At this point we should be detecting Jupiters (5 AU orbiting planets with 1 Jupiter mass) around solar-like stars, yet the zoophony of extra-solar planetary systems favors either 51 Peg-like planets, or systems with planets that have highly eccentric orbits (e.g., the planet orbiting 16 Cyg B). There's a selection effect present, of course (it's easier to detect the ones with higher mass and shorter periods), but the surveys are reaching completion levels with long enough time series that we should be making up the difference *if* system configurations like ours are normal.
(The implication here is that in neither the 51 Peg-like system or the 16 Cyg B-like system is it likely [possible?] to end up with an Earth-like planet --- they'll either get bounced our or the proto-planetary matter will be swept up.)
In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Operator: Somebody set up us the bomb
Operator: We get signal
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on
Captain: It's You !!
Cats: How are you gentlemen !!
Cats: All your base are belong to us
Cats: You are on the way to destruction
Captain: What you say !!
Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time
Cats: HA HA HA HA
Cats: Take off every 'zig'
Captain: You know what you doing
Captain: Move 'zig'
Captain: For great justice
I love it when scientists speak to reporters as if the reporters were 7th graders in an earth sciences lab.
"That's what we in the scientific community like to call, 'a beaker' Johnny. Now please put it down before you break something."
The Guts of the Pentium 4! [lostbrain.com]
Dont' click here unless you want stock photos. [lostbrain.com]
Hehe.. there's some well-documented research that shows that foreign life forms exist right here on Earth! Of course, 'foreign' sorta depends on what country you originate from...
I sigh in your general direction.
Secondly, they're not the same. They can be treated similarly, but they are not the same. Science is about gaining knowledge from first principles. Religion (in my view) is about relationship. When studying science, you have to make certain assumptions (effectively materialism, as in "the only things that exist are the physical, material things"), otherwise things don't make sense. What sort of use would science be if we all sat down and said "oh, God makes the plants grow" and left it at that? Equally, saying "God doesn't exist because Science says so" is a circular argument.
To the person who talked about skills, you are partly right. However, Religion and Science (cooking and programming) require different skills as well, and work from different assumptions.
Finally, the person who talked about the same knowledge domains, yeah, it's kinda true. However, still it's different. Science and Religion both touch on the creation of the universe, but they cover different aspects of it. As long as you don't screw up your basic assumtions, you get practically useful info about processes that are happening now from science, and you get your knowledge about your relationship with God from Religion.
Hence, Science and Religion are not related at all. I personally beleive in evolution, big bang and so on, as well as beleiving that God created the world ~6000 years ago as written in the bible. I see no conflict, as the scientific view is based on a materialist world view, and is useful for learning about how things work, changing things, building things, and so on, and the religious veiw is based on my relationship with god, and is useful for living my life.
I think I'll stop here, as it's getting OT -- feel free to email me to carry on...
Besides, all this interstellar poltics doesn't matter now, Earth is slated to be demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. The plans have been in the Alpha Centauri office for hundreds of years.
Time to start looking for the hitchhiker's guide.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Thank you very much.
The column is brilliant, and the writer deserves appropriate credit.
Everyone should check out his other columns while we are at it. Reward him with a few hits.
This week, a million fraternity brothers rushed to join NASA. The reason: scientists have discovered beer in space.
Well, not beer exactly. But they did find alcohol: ethyl alcohol, to be precise, the active ingredient in all major alcoholic drinks (antifreeze Jell-O shots, quite obviously, are exempted from this category). Three British scientists, Drs. Tom Millar, Geoffrey MacDonald and Rolf Habing, discovered this interstellar Everclear floating in a gas cloud in the contellation of Aquila (sign of the Eagle, the mascot of Anheuser-Busch! Hmmmmm).
Millar and his compatriots have estimated the size of this gas cloud at approximately 1,000 times the diameter of our own solar system; there's enough alcohol out there, they say, to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer. These guys are British, mind you; if you were to translate this in terms of American beer (which the British, with some justification, regard as fermented club soda), the amount of potential brewski just about doubles.
In human terms: remember that double-keg party you threw at the end of your Junior year in college (the second Junior year)? Imagine throwing that same party, every eight hours, for the next 30 billion years. You'd STILL have beer left over. And boy, would YOUR bathroom be a mess! Simply put, no one could ever drink 400 trillion trillion pints of beer, except maybe Buffalo Bills fans.
The sheer volume of all this alcohol begs the question of how it managed to get out there in the first place. Despite the simplifying effect it has on the human brain, ethyl alcohol is a reasonably complex molecule: two carbon atoms, five hydrogen atoms, and a hydroxyl radical, all cavorting together in beery camaraderie. It's not a compund that is going to spontaneously arise out of the cold depths of space. It can lead to speculation: What is this cloud?
1. It's God's beer. After all, He worked for six days creating the universe, and on the seventh day, He rested. And after you've had a hard week at the office, don't YOU grab a beer? Since man is made in God's image, it could be that this cloud is the remaining evidence of the first, and best, Miller Time.
2. It's Purgatory ("400 trillion trillion bottles of beer on the wall, 400 trillion trillion bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, three hundred ninety-nine septillion, nine hundred ninety-nine sextillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine, bottles of beer on the wall!")
3. Proof of an undeniably highly advanced but chronically dipsomaniac alien society. This particular theory is shaky, however: it's reasonable to assume that if the aliens were going to construct a nebula of alcohol, they'd also have large clouds of Beer Nuts and pretzels nearby for snacking. Advanced spectral analysis has yet to locate them.
The truth of the matter, however, is far more prosaic. In the middle of this gas cloud is a young and no doubt quite inebriated star. As the star heats up and contracts, sucking the dust and gas of the cloud into a smaller area, complex molecules form as a result of greater interaction between the elements. Ethyl alcohol forms on small motes of dust in the cloud, and then, as the motes angle in closer towards the star and heat up, the alcohol is released from the motes in gaseous form. And there you have it: an alcohol cloud. Or, as Dave Bowman might say, "My God! It's full of booze!"
Enough with the science lesson, you say. Just tell me how to GET there! Sorry, Chuckles. You can't get there from here. The gas cloud (which, by the way, has the utterly romantic name of "G34.3") is 10,000 light years away: 58 quadrillion miles. Even if you hijacked the shuttle and headed out with thrusters on full, by the time you got there, the guy in Purgatory would be done with his tune. You'd have had time to work up a powerful thirst, but you'd also be, in a word, dead.
No, the Space Beer Cloud will have to wait for the far future, when men can leap through the universe at warp speed. One can only imagine what they will do when they get there:
Captain Kirk: My....GOD! Sulu! What....is....THAT?
Sulu: It's a free floating cloud of alcohol, sir.
Kirk: And we've just run out of Romulan Ale! Could it be a trap, Bones?
Bones: Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a distiller of fine spirits!
Kirk: We need that booze! But if we fly through that cloud, we'll be too drunk to drive!
Spock: May I remind you, Captain, that I am a Vulcan. We are a race of designated drivers.
Kirk: Well, all righty, then. Spock, drive us through! Bones and I will be out on the hull. With our mouths... open!
To boldly drink what no man has drunk before.
Your thought-experiment suffers from a sample size which is far too low to make it relevant
For the record, I agree with you. It's almost
meaningless to conclude anything based on
the information we have, but I'm just not going to
let that stop me from having an opinion.
However, for the sake of argument...
It's like me looking at my apartment of 6 rooms and noticing that, as far as I can see, there's only a computer in my dining room. "This is suggestive," I might say, "that dining-room like conditions really are the only situations in which computers can exist."
OTOH, staying with that analogy, moving your
computer to your bedroom won't cause it to
malfunction. But move a human being to any other
planet on the solar system (without any
technological aids), and his life expectancy will
be greatly shortened.
A number of people have commented that these types of molecules are only the key ingredients for life as we currently know it. This is fair enough.
However, here's my point of view. In our own solar system, right here in our back yard, there is a very wide variety of different environments: the surface of every planet and moon is, in places subtly, and in places completely, different from each other.
As far as we can see (so far) only Earth has life in our solar system. To me, this is suggestive. If you really believe that life can form in completely different environments, why didn't they form in any of the completely different environments that exist right next door?
Of course, this is not proof; it's perhaps not even corroborating evidence. However, it's enough to make me believe (tentatively) that Earth-like conditions really are the only kind of conditions in which life can form in our universe.
I'm open to the possibility that wildly
different life could form elsewhere in the
universe, and I know that there must be places in
the universe that have environments that are so
different as to be incomprehensible, but hey, we
have to base our opinions on what we know
currently. If we totally throw open the gates of
possibility, then we can never come to any
conclusion about anything.
Now, my theory, nay, proven fact is that the large number of crashes [cseti.org] is due to interstellar drunken driving. Kids go to these clouds and get seriously pissed. It is well known in the Galactic Community (just ask any alien!) that the parties on earth take off, so the alien kids can't stop after inhaling a cloud, but continue to earth, where they are caught in our strong gravitional field with the inevitable result, a crash.
But it is kind of funny on an irony scale.
Accountants in space. It all makes sense now.
How quantum gravity affects tax withholding and other actuarial issues... [ridiculopathy.com]
Yes, it is a shame that people read the absurd things that they write on sites like infidels.org. They always seem to quote sources that the majority of Muslims agree are unauthentic or they quote some translation which are far from the original meaning. What the Muslims have always been strict on is that the Quran is in Arabic and that you can attempt to translate the meaning of the words but you can't translate the Quran itself. As a result, I can take-up your challenge because I have access to the Quranic Arabic and can clearly see the mistakes that they make on infidel.org. I can only presume that the poeple who wrote the articles on infidel.org a). don't know Arabic and b). haven't read any of the books of the scholars from where we take our explanation of the verses in the Qur'an.
As best as we can tell human-type intelligence is not a notably desirable evolutionary trait. Most of the obvious benefits of a versatile intelligence can be better met by evolution for strength and a few specific instincts. For pre-Agrarian (hunter-gatherer) societies of, say, Ape-like creatures the pressure to develop into something that has an intellect capable of devising radio, inter-steller space travel and Classical music is very low. On the other hand, the pressure to develop of thick skull, big arms and the ability to tell by instinct which berries are poisonous is quite high.
Human intelligence, if a coincidence at all, would seem to be something of an environmental fluke. The chances of life on any given Earth-sized planet are low; the chances of "intelligent life" are very low.
One thought came to mind: I wonder about the possibility of life (defined loosely as collections of molecules that reproduce) is possible in the stellar medium, without having to have a planet as a substrate? Admittedly, there are problems (such as not having sufficient local gravity to pack the interesting molecules together under correct pressure/temperature conditions to react), but if you have a mix of water and organic molecules, it does beg the question.
Any thoughts?
Insert obligatory Andromeda Strain reference here.
It is difficult to fully imagine what other non-carbon-based forms of life are like. We're somewhat aware of what makes up our life and what signals and indications to look for. We understand that complex organic molecules can be chained together in a water-borne environment to form simple chemically active proto-cells and so forth. This provides us with a proven set of search parameters. It works here, so it could work elsewhere.
While we can conjecture about life-forms made from silicon or whatever, it remains purely theoretical. There isn't too much concrete evidence about what we should look for from a silicon-based life-form.
Think of it as a go-with-what-you-know strategy.
This is a slightly misleading analogy, as the components of a car cannot "automatically" assemble themselves in the right order, alignment, and torque. Molecules can, just by being placed near each other.
Stanley Miller's experiments proved that having the right component materials in 'ideal' circumstances doesn't even give the building blocks of life.
No. At best, his experiments proved that the building blocks of life do not appear (relatively) instantaneously. No one ever said they did. Give him a few billion years, and a beaker as big as the Earth, and I think you would see different results.
Complex carbon molecules have been found for ages in space. I recall some 10-20 years ago when they found glycine (an amino acid) and trumpeted that as an advance. Now more recently they've found signs of benzene in space, so I guess it's time for the ol' hip hip hurrah again.
Water is a common element in space. No news there.
In the 1960's, a well respected russian astronomer known as N Kardashev came up with the Kardashev system of determining alien civilisations.
The scary thing is that a Dyson Sphere would look almost exactly like a red dwarve star. It could well be that many phenomena we see in space and interpret as natural phenomena are in fact megascale engineering projects of distant civilisations.
Another possibility is that these distant civilisations use Matrioshka Brains, big computers in the form of Dyson Spheres, surrounding a star. Everybody would be uploaded into this environment, and would become as gods.
Problem is, we are pumping out radiation all the time, from our television transmitters and our mobile phones and so on. It is like the cheeping of a new born bird, we are alone and naked and letting everyone know where we are. There is no reason to suppose that such civilisations would be friendly. I think we should take enormous and difficult steps to quiet down out interstellar emissions. It is time to start playing interstellar politics.
More info can be found here [plantetp.cc], a very interesting page on this subject by an esteemed author.
Clarity does not require the absence of impurities,
Nondeterminism means never having to say you are wrong.


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Prosecutor sought 'KKK,' 'Uncle Tom' jurors in historic trialBy Cash Michaels The Wilmington Journal | Last updated: Nov 14, 2012 - 10:49:01 AM
What's your opinion on this article?
Legal experts say pardons deserved in 40-year-old Wilmington Ten Case
WILMINGTON, N.C. (NNPA) - Revelations about former Assistant New Hanover County District Attorney James "Jay" Stroud Jr.'s racial jury gerrymandering, and his plot to cause a mistrial to impanel a "KKK" type jury in the Wilmington Ten case 40-years-ago were "stunning and beyond outrage," say two veteran civil rights attorneys.
Those facts alone, they add, justify individual pardons of innocence from N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue for the Wilmington Ten.
"It is stunning, and beyond outrage, to learn the level of prosecutorial abuse that dominated, infected, and ultimately drove the outcome in the Wilmington Ten trials," says Prof. Gene R. Nichol, Boyd Tinsley Distinguished professor at the UNC School of Law at UNC-Chapel Hill, after reviewing portions of what is now known as "the Stroud files."
"This intense abuse of governmental authority, prosecutorial misconduct—both professional and racial—casts a long shadow over the North Carolina system of justice, Prof. Nichol continued. "It also, of course, worked massive and unforgivable constitutional injury on the lives of ten North Carolinians."
"The prosecutor made mockery of his high office by knowingly, intentionally, and purposefully placing perjured testimony at the heart of the trial. It is also clear now, in ways not demonstrated by documentary evidence before, that he tainted the trial initiation process and vital jury selection through patent, overt, and outcome-determinative racism."
"It is crucial that North Carolina act to admit and concede such a potent and defining abuse of power," Prof. Nichol maintains. "To allow public servants to behave in such a fashion, without remedy, is literally intolerable."
Al McSurely, a veteran Chapel Hill civil rights attorney and NCNAACP Executive Committee member, also expressed his "outrage."
"The prosecutor's notes are clear and convincing evidence that race was not just a factor in his selection of the ten Whites and two Blacks on the Pender jury that convicted the Wilmington Ten," attorney McSurely said. "Race was the only factor. Forty years later, we know his real motives. I believe when the governor studies this evidence, she will do the right thing and sign the pardons."
"I can barely contain my outrage at the blatant racism of an officer of the court," attorney McSurely added.
This stinging legal analysis comes after the 40th anniversary of the convictions of the 10 civil rights activists for crimes they maintain they did not commit.
On Oct. 17th, 1972, nine young Black males and one White female—all led by the Rev. Benjamin Chavis of the United Church of Christ—were falsely convicted during their second trial of conspiracy in connection with racial violence that gripped Wilmington in February 1971.
The Stroud files now cast a large shadow over those convictions.
"The Ten," as some call them, were all sentenced collectively to 282 years in prison, some of which they all served before worldwide public pressure forced early releases. In 1976, Amnesty International, a respected international social justice agency, labeled the Wilmington Ten "political prisoners" because they were targeted only after they protested racial discrimination in their local public school system five years earlier.
In 1977, the three witnesses on whose testimony the Wilmington Ten were convicted recanted their testimonies before a grand jury, saying that state prosecutor Jay Stroud paid them to lie with gifts and privileges. The CBS News program "60 Minutes" broadcast an expose' on the fabrication of evidence in the case, strongly suggesting a false prosecution.
And in 1980, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, citing prosecutorial misconduct on Mr. Stroud's part, among other issues, overturned all 10 convictions. But the state of North Carolina has upheld those convictions for the past 32 years.
It was not until 2011, when the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)—an association of over 200 Black newspapers across the nation—voted to officially seek pardons of innocence for the Wilmington Ten, did the effort to legally address the issue begin in earnest, and the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project was born.
On May 17 of this year, a legal petition of pardons of actual innocence was formally submitted to Gov. Beverly Perdue's Office of Executive Clemency on behalf of Dr. Benjamin Chavis; Wayne Moore; Marvin "Chili" Patrick; Reginald Epps; James "Bun" McKoy; Willie Earl Vereen; William "Joe" Wright; Jerry Jacobs; Ann Shepard and Connie Tindall.
Wilmington 10 members Wright, Jacobs, Shepard and Tindall are deceased. Ms. Tindall, 62, died in August.
During the course of researching the case, the original files of Wilmington Ten state prosecutor Jay Stroud were found, and evidence of extraordinary prosecutorial misconduct uncovered. North Carolina Central University School of Law Professor Irving Joyner, and James Ferguson, original lead defense attorney for the Wilmington Ten—both of whom filed the petition papers with the state—spent last summer researching and authenticating handwritten jury selection notes by prosecutor Stroud which indicated during the first trial in June 1972 in Pender County how he sought to impanel a "KKK" type jury to guarantee convictions.
Mr. Stroud's notes also document how he plotted to cause a mistrial in the first June 1972 Wilmington Ten trial because there were 10 blacks and two whites on the jury, his star false witness against the Ten, Allen Hall, was not cooperating, and it looked very unlikely that Mr. Stroud could win the case given the lack of evidence.
History shows that prosecutor Stroud told the presiding judge in the first June 1972 trial that he had become "ill," and could not continue.
A mistrial was ultimately declared.
It was during the second trial in Pender County, which began Sept. 11, 1972, that Stroud got a jury more to his liking – ten whites and two black domestic workers – and a different judge who was arguably biased against the defense.
This time, the Wilmington Ten were convicted, sentenced, and sent away to prison.
It was during a Sept. 5th forum at NCCU's School of Law, that defense attorney James Ferguson said his examination of the Stroud files was revealing.
"There was a fair amount of confirmation of things we suspected at the time that race was the central strategy of the prosecution," attorney Ferguson maintained, singling out a legal pad that prosecutor Stroud used during jury selection of the first trial to track Ferguson's questioning of potential jurors in Pender County, a neighboring county the case had been moved to in June 1972.
Stroud's handwritten notes on his legal pad revealed how he wanted to "stay away from black men" in jury selection; didn't want to impanel blacks from certain parts of the county; placed a "B" in front of the names of potential black jurors, would scribble remarks like "no," "stay away from" and "leave off."
If it was a black whom he thought he could convince the Wilmington Ten were guilty, however, Stroud wrote, "knows; sensible; Uncle Tom type."
And prosecutor Stroud had unmistakable codes for white jurors he felt he had to have.
On that same legal pad sheet tracking juror interviews, when Stroud was impressed with a white interviewee's answers, he'd write down the three letters of the alphabet most commonly associated with the most feared white supremacist group in the South at the time – the Ku Klux Klan.
"KKK?…good" is what Stroud wrote for juror Number 1 known as "Pridgen." For Number 6 named "Heath," the reverse, "O.K." then "KKK?". Number 75 on a subsequent page was "Fine – probably KKK!!" and on Number 99 Stroud writes, "does not have a record – KKK!!"
Stroud was apparently also concerned if potential black jurors in the June trial read about the case in The Wilmington Journal, the local African-American newspaper and NNPA member. Stroud considered the Journal a subversive publication that supported the Wilmington Ten.
"Blacks – you get Wilmington Journal or read it – view sympathetic to letters from Chavis," Stroud wrote in the column of his legal pad, making note of question would ask of potential black jurors.
The notation is chilling because the following year, The Journal was firebombed by a white supremacist in June 1973. Historically, another Wilmington black newspaper, The Daily Record, was burned to the ground by white supremacists during the November 10, 1898 racial uprising, demonstrating a long held fear of the Black Press in Wilmington.
"Race infused the jury selection strategy in that June trial," attorney Ferguson said of Stroud's jury selection notes.
The sheer number of prospective Pender County Black jurors for the first Wilmington Ten trial resulted in a panel of ten Blacks, and two whites.
"We were able to position ourselves in a way that we were headed towards getting what appeared to be a jury that might be fair," defense attorney Ferguson said.
"But at that time, as they say, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum."
On the cardboard back of that jury selection legal pad Mr. Stroud used, the Stroud files show, the prosecutor listed the advantages and disadvantages of mistrial, seemingly to devise some sort of strategy as to what his next move should be.
Among Stroud's "Advantages of Mistrial," the prosecutor listed, "1 – different judge; 2 – better prepared to select jury and to handle motions/more organized," as his top reasons.
Prosecutor Stroud apparently decided to cause the mistrial, attorney Ferguson says.
After reviewing the same materials, UNC law Professor Gene Nichol was deeply concerned.
"The Stroud memo reveals that the most cynical and stunning use of racial antagonism and hostility drove the prosecutor's decisions in launching, and re-launching the Wilmington Ten trials," Prof. Nichol says. "No justification exists, or could exist, for such bald constitutional transgression. It is vital that the state officially declare, as it would through a pardon of innocence, the flat rejection of the use of racial hatred in the exercise of criminal prosecution. Ignoring such outrageous misbehavior, once revealed, would be a fundamental breach of duty."
In reaction to the Stroud Files prior to Election Day, Barbara Howe, a Libertarian candidate for N.C. governor, said in a press release, "The evidence that has been revealed over the years since the (Wilmington Ten) convictions paints a very gloomy picture of the North Carolina judicial system. The recanting of witness statements and the prosecutorial misconduct that has come to light with the release of the Stroud files clearly demonstrate the need for action (by Gov. Perdue).
A pardon of innocence for the Wilmington Ten would show a renewed commitment by the State of North Carolina to the cause of justice."
Ms. Howe added that until those pardons of innocence are granted, the Wilmington Ten remain convicted felons in the state of North Carolina.
Prof. Nichol, who has also written a letter of support directly to Gov. Perdue for the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project, wrote, "I am confident that the prosecutor's rank, grotesque abuse of authority merits a pardon of innocence. There are surely no circumstances to seek a 'pardon of forgiveness.' It would be stunning to say to a group of defendants subjected to such breathtaking misconduct that we now 'forgive' you.' "
Meanwhile, the North Carolina chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is formally supporting the pardons of innocence effort for the Wilmington Ten.
Dr. Benjamin Chavis, leader of the Ten and NNPA columnist, was on hand for the announcement.
(Readers wishing to support NNPA's Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project can sign the Change.Org petition at https://www.change.org/petitions/nc-governor-bev-perdue-pardon-the-wilmington-ten)
Related news:
Black Press to push pardon for Wilmington Ten (FCN, 04-03-2011)


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Published: 2013/03/27
Cold War Kids Join Gov Ball Lineup
Cold War Kids have joined the lineup for the third annual Governors Ball Music Festival. The LA indie group will replace Miguel, who has cancelled his appearance at the event due to a scheduling conflict. Cold War Kids are touring in support of their new album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, which is out April 2 via Downtown. They join a lineup that already includes Kings Of Leon, Guns N' Roses, Kanye West, Pretty Lights, NAS, The Avett Brothers, Grizzly Bear, The xx, Feist, Animal Collective, The Lumineers, Beach House, Cut Copy, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Of Monsters & Men, Local Natives and many others. Gov Ball will return to New York's Randall's Island from June 7-9.


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University News
The French Conversation Tuesdays at WIU
January 30, 2014
MACOMB, IL – The French Conversation will be held at Western Illinois University Tuesdays throughout the spring semester. La Table Française, or The French Conversation Hour, will be held in Morgan Hall, room 309A, from 3-4 p.m. each Tuesday.
According to Instructor Edmund Asare of the WIU Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, La Table Française allows time for practice among "people with a passion for the French language and francophone culture, and members of the French speaking community on and around campus." All levels of speakers are welcome.
"Attendees have an opportunity to practice French in a relaxed atmosphere and to share their experiences about French/Francophone culture," Asare said. "We also learn about the different cultures of the Francophone world."
For more information, contact Asare at email@example.com.
Posted By: WIU News (email@example.com)
Office of University Relations


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Craftsman 4-pc. Barbecue Gift Set
$19.99 $21.99Shop Now
4-pc. Barbecue Gift Set Will Handle All Your Favorite Outdoor Cooking MasterpiecesThe perfect gift for your favorite outdoor chef, the Craftsman 4-pc. barbecue gift set is made of stainless steel, with tool-style handles and wrench-shaped cutouts on the fork, tongs and turner. Or pick these up as a special treat for yourself. The Craftsman name guarantees quality and durability, and the whimsical styling means you'll love them for more than just their convenient usability.With the 4-pc. barbecue gift set, you can be assured your latest barbecue masterpiece will turn out perfectly, whether it's burgers, chicken, hot dogs, grilled vegetables, or another BBQ combo unique to your recipe book. You'll love the strength and flexibility of these tools. The set includes a brush, flipper, tongs and fork to meet all your barbecue needs. Craftsman 4-pc. barbecue gift set includes a flipper, tongs, brush and fork, so it's everything you need to get cooking right away Craftsman tool handles provide a secure grip as you work Flipper, tongs and fork feature wrench-shaped cutouts for a touch of whimsy and humor Stainless steel tools are flexible, durable and strong Tools set carries a Craftsman guarantee so you know you'll be cooking with this set for a long time The perfect gift for your outdoor barbecue enthusiast or a great way to treat yourself


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April 03, 2013
All event times are Eastern Time Zone unless otherwise specified.
Wednesday Religious Chapel: Center Hall Tuttle Chapel, 10:00AM
Each Wednesday that classes are in session, a brief Christian service is held in Tuttle Chapel, second floor of Center Hall. It runs from 10:00 am. until 10:10 am. All are welcome.
Wabash Wellness Biggest Loser: Allen Athletics and Recreation Center Servies Wrestling Room, 11:00AM - 12:45PM
Weigh-ins will be held in the wrestling room in the Allen Center on every Wednesday from 11:00 A.M. until 12:45 P.M. from January 30 to April 24.
Baseball vs. Rose-Hulman: Goodrich Ballpark, Crawfordsville, 4:00PM
Baseball vs Rose-Hulman: Allen Athletics and Recreation Center Goodrich Ballpark, 4:00PM
APO Meeting: Baxter Hall 101 (Lovell Lecture Room), 7:00PM
Wamidan Concert: Fine Arts Center Salter Concert Hall, 7:30PM - 7:30PM
Wamidan, the Wabash College World Music ensemble will be celebrating its 13th anniversary since its foundation in July 2000. We invite you to be part of this vibrant celebration in the Fine Arts Center, Salter Hall starting at 7:30 PM.
The 50 minutes concert program celebration will cover instrumental music, dances, songs and poems from multiple music cultures including those from Argentina, Brazil, North America, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Taiwan, and Uganda. The musical instruments featured will range from fiddles and guitars, to xylophones, lyres, rattles and drums.
This concert will feature two types of presenters: Wabash College students, faculty, and staff as well as Wamidan Children's Ensemble.
This presentation is free and open to the public.
AMC Classic Cinema 8 Show Schedule: 205 Dry Branch Drive


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Sea Turtles are protected by the US Endangered Species Act of 1973 and Florida Statute Chapter 370. It is illegal to harm or harass sea turtles, their nests or hatchlings. The City of Miami Beach is a nesting habitat for three species of protected sea turtles; the Loggerhead, Green, and Leatherback. Annually, beginning in April and extending through early November, the native sea turtles come to nest on our beaches. Sea turtles lay around 100 eggs in a nest and lay between 3 and 7 nests during the summer nesting season. It is important not to disturb hatchlings, eggs or nests since hatchlings need to crawl to the sea unimpeded. Touching nesting females, taking flash pictures of nesting females or hatchlings, or digging into nests is prohibited by law. If you observe someone harassing a nesting or hatchling sea turtle, contact FWC Law Enforcement at 888.404.FWCC (3922) or *FWC on cellular phones.
Turtle nesting season in State of Florida occurs between May 1st and October 31st. However, Turtle nesting season occurs begins on April 1 for Miami Beach to account for the earlier leatherback nesting season. Other areas of the state do not experience sea turtle nesting until approximately May 1st. Although turtles prefer dark beaches, many nest on lighted shores due to lack of dark beaches. This jeopardizes hatchlings, which are instinctively attracted to bright lights. Normally, the light that they travel towards is created by the reflection of the moon or stars off the surf. However, beachfront artificial lighting poses a serious threat to hatchlings by disorienting the hatchlings, causing them to crawl away from the ocean and toward the artificial light. On beaches where artificial lighting is visible, nesting females may be deterred from nesting and the hatchlings' important journey to the sea can be disrupted. To prevent disorientation and adverse impacts on nesting turtles, installation of oceanfront exterior lighting that is disruptive to sea turtles is prohibited by state law (Chapter 62B-55, Florida Administrative Code). The City of Miami Beach has adopted a Turtle Nesting Protection Ordinance to minimize the impact of artificial lighting on hatchlings and nesting sea turtles and thereby protect the endangered species which frequently visits its beaches. The Ordinance encourages light management on private and public lands, preventing light pollution that is problematic for sea turtles and other nocturnal animals.
Chelonia mydas
DESCRIPTION: Green Turtles are easily distinguished from other sea turtles because of a single – rather than double – pair of scales in front of its eyes. The head of a Green Turtle is small and blunt with a serrated jaw. Shells are oval and color varies from pale to dark green, plain to brilliant yellow, and brown and green with stripes. Hatchlings are dark olive green or nearly black with a white underbelly.
SIZE: Adults are 3.5 – 4 feet long, weighing between 300 – 400 pounds.
NESTING: Each female nests 3 to 5 times every other year and lays an average of 115 eggs in each nest. Eggs incubate in about 60 days.
STATUS: Endangered: This species is in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future.
Caretta caretta
DESCRIPTION: Loggerheads have large heads with strong, heavy jaws and heart-shaped, ridgeless shells. Shell color is usually reddish-brown with a yellowish-brown underbelly. Hatchlings are typically dark brown with a pale brown border on their flippers.
SIZE: Adults are 2.5 – 3.5 feet in length, weighing up to 350 pounds.
NESTING: Each female nests 5 to 7 times every 2-3 years and lays an average of 80-120 eggs in each nest. Eggs incubate in about 55 days. Loggerheads are the species of sea turtle that nests most frequently in Florida.
STATUS: Threatened: This species is likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future.
Dermochelys coriacea
DESCRIPTION: Leatherbacks are the largest turtles and the largest living reptiles in the world. Leatherbacks are the only sea turtle that lack a bony outer shell. Adults are primarily black with a pinkish-white mottled laterally ridged shell and have a pale white and pink spotting on the head. Hatchlings have white striping along their backs, are about 3-4 inches in length and weigh between 1.04-1.08 ounces.
SIZE: Adults are between 6- 6.5 feet in length and weigh about 1500-2000 pounds.
NESTING: Each female nests multiple times during a season and lays an average of 80-100 eggs in each nest. Eggs incubate in about 70 days.
STATUS: ENDANGERED: This species is in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future.
touch the turtles. We understand many residents are passionate about this issue
and want to assist, particularly in saving disoriented hatchlings.
Unfortunately, sea turtle protection laws in Florida strictly limit the ability
of non-permit holders to participate in sea turtle conservation efforts. It is
illegal for the public to pick-up sea turtle hatchlings even if they are disoriented.
residents who are passionate about this issue should report sea turtle
incidents to (888) 404-FWCC (3922) or *FWC on cellular phones. We have
requested guidance from the County, FWC, and USFWS regarding how we can better
involve our residents as we work to improve sea turtle protection initiatives
in Miami Beach and encourage all interested to sign-up for the city's
Sustainability & Environmental e-newsletter to receive more information as
it becomes available.
Check out the Letter to Commission that was distributed on August 04, 2017:Sea Turtle Letter
City of Miami Beach Marine Turtle Protection Ordinance
Miami-Dade County Sea Turtle Program
Florida Sea Turtle License Plate
Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute