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The interesting question will be GPL viral. So far, Monsanto et. al. have invoked a viral clause to protect the genes of their products that are literally carried by the wind to non-purchaser's fields who happen to grow their own seed crop. Imagine the impact of having genes carried the other way! Sorry Monsanto, the hybrid crop is now GPL, unless you take steps to prevent e.g. corn pollen from blowing in the wind.
Never work, of course, but it is a nice fantasy.
no, just tell them by saying "hello" they accept your EULA...
We bought a lemon tree, then we were told we had to destroy it because it wasn't licensed. Got a letter from the feds no less (well, the USDA or something like that, but anyway.) What did that poor tree ever do to anyone? It just wanted to self-replicate and make us free food.
This is absolutely needed. Because yes, the world has gone mad. For thousands of fucking years: It's called dominion.
We bought a lemon tree, then we were told we had to destroy it because it wasn't licensed.
This implies that you brought a ready-grown tree. Maybe only a few kilos, but that still takes a year or so to achieve, so they're relatively expensive. (This reminds me to water the 2m tall lemon tree sitting in the living room window, which we started from a seed in 2006. With pot and soil, it's over 30kilos.)
It just wanted to self-replicate and make us free food.
This, on the other hand, implies that you grew the tr
It doesn't *have* to be done. There's a gigantic number of seeds which are commercially available already, there's many government and private organizations safeguarding these seeds, and the amount of patented seeds is comparatively insignificant. In addition, modern farming operations don't save seeds for future crops.
In fact, the basic idea behind Monsanto controlling the seed supply has been standard industry practice for 50+ years. Most vegetables commercially grown are F1 hybrids. In 1960, 99% of corn grown was an F1 hybrid. If you buy a Better Boy Tomato, an F1 hybrid also popular for home gardening, there will be little variation between the plants grown. However, the seed from these plants will be unusable. Peas and beans pollinate their own flowers, so for these plants such a strategy isn't practical. However, that doesn't mean the death of the species - even if most commercially grown tomatoes are F1 hybrids where the seeds are unusable, of course there's still a million variety of tomatoes which may be planted from seed (with a little care) and are easily available [heirloomseeds.com].
This is a symbolic marketing/propaganda move against Monsanto. Monsanto developed a soybean that is invulnerable to the safe, cheap, and environmentally benign herbicide Round-Up. They sell seeds with a contract stipulation that the seeds not be re-sown (again, normal farming practice is to buy all seed anyway), and won a lawsuit against a farmer who intentionally grow a Monsanto crop without paying Monsanto- he would buy the Monsanto crop for the first planting of the year, and use saved seed for the second planting of the year.
This group imagines that it's hard to find seeds that aren't patented, or at least that it will be in the future, to make some point that you shouldn't be allowed to patent seeds because think of how horrible it would be if you needed to deal with Monsanto to plant a carrot. However, if that future does come to pass, this wouldn't really help - you'd need something with the infrastructure to supply huge amounts of seeds, not just supply fun little seed packets to home gardeners.
Just to clarify. The lawsuit that I'm aware of entailed a farmer using roundup on his field and discovering that some things didn't die. These were volunteers from a neighbouring farmer's field that blew into his. He collected that seed and grew a subsequent crop of roundup resistant plants. While the farmer was not obliged under contract not to replant these seeds, the act of planting was considered patent infringement.
Personally I'm not a fan of the laws that allow this to happen, but probably this was a good legal judgement. It is important to get the fact right, though. I would have no problem with a seed company selling seed under a contract. I have a fairly big problem with the concept that planting a seed is patent infringement. But that's what the law allows right now.
What really should have happened is that all his Monsanto-using neighbors should have gotten in trouble for allowing their seeds to escape. Since they were the ones who were parties to the agreement with Monsanto, they were the ones who broke that agreement.
Of course, Monsanto suing its own customers would be bad for business, so it went after the innocent third-party instead...
Because he knowingly went out of his way to make copies of seeds that he knew were protected by patent law. I hate Monsanto's business strategy, more because I think it completely undermines the potential for genetically modified seeds than anything else. But the guy knew exactly what he was doing. Just because he did it with a field and a bottle of round up instead of a genetics lab doesn't change the facts.
The problem is, to make that suit go, they claimed (and the court accepted) that there was no way to breed resistance without using their patented gene. That has been disproved. There are a number of weeds that evolved their own independent resistance and at least one researcher bread a food plant that has resistance without using Monsanto's gene or GM techniques.
Just to clarify. The lawsuit that I'm aware of entailed a farmer using roundup on his field and discovering that some things didn't die.
The farmer was Percy Schmeiser [wikipedia.org]. He intentionally isolated and reused Monsanto's "Roundup-Ready" seeds, over several years, and openly admitted doing so. There was a documentary about him, that got nearly all the facts completely wrong, thus leading to many misconceptions. It is funny that this guy turned into a poster child for the anti-GMO movement.
Soon this particular issue will be moot. Glyphosate, the herbicide in Roundup, is already off patent, and many of the "Roundup-Ready" seeds go off patent ne
Yep, seems to be about that way. I've got some blue tomato seed that has no patents on it (Dancing With Smurfs, actual name), and no one makes a fuss about it. I don't see what their point is here. I was about to mod you up but since I actually work with plant breeding think I'll give my own 2 cents instead.
The claim in TFA about being worried about no more germplasm is totally ridiculous. With my blue tomatoes I've got a bunch of heirloom varieties of things (Blue Jade sweet corn, Dragon Tongue bean, Red Kuri squash, Giant Prague celeriac, Star of David okra, and lots more) that can in no way be patented. They are there, and as long as people keep propagating them they'll always be there, free to use. Furthermore, the patents on plants do expire; Honeycrisp apples used to be pateneted, but they're not anymore (by the way, that patent brought in tons of money to the program that developed it, allowing them to develop some other pretty amazing varieties [umn.edu]). And Monsanto (because everyone brings up Monsanto) is not an exception here; their first Roundup Ready soybean goes off patent [nytimes.com] in a few months. That means this very year, farmers can, if they choose, save that variety and plant it for the 2015 crop. I really can't see the problem people have with these sorts of patents, isn't that how things are supposed to work? Develop, patent, recoup losses, then the invention falls to the public domain, and the profit is reinvested for new innovations (ex. SnowSweet apples and DroughtGard corn). Don't like patented plants? Fine, don't grow them, problem solved. And with the 'farmers sued for cross pollination' thing being a myth (no, accidental cross pollination is not the same as intentional selection any more than making a home movie is the same as recording a film in a theater and selling it), so I really don't get the Monsanto hate people are inevitably going to flame up with this. The vast majority of the reasons they are demonized for are nothing but lies, and yet somehow, Monsanto is still the bad guy here, not the weasels lying and being emotionally manipulative to make an extremely important technology look evil via guilt by proxy.
Additionally, I am envious of these guys if they have a program that has enough money to release things for free, although reading TFA it seems like they will be picking and choosing which is released for free and which is patented, indicating this is just a way to get some good publicity out of things that would otherwise be discarded. I work with a breeding project and you can bet whatever comes out of it will be patented, not because I'm out to get rich (we'd all go corporate if money was the prime concern) but because there is not enough funding for public agriculture research. You think we want to? We don't, but breeding programs need funding. That's a fact of life. Times are hard for funding, and sometimes it seems the only time the public stops long enough to pay attention is to demonize us for saying GMOs don't cause cancer, or autism, or whatever the hell the denialists and conspiracy theorists are prattling on about today. Maybe if everyone called up their local congresscritters and other politicians and demanded more funding for their land grant universities and public agriculture research that wouldn't be the case. Ever been to a corporate lab? Well I have, and it'd be great to have the equipment they can afford. But hey, go on attacking Monsanto and other private breeders for trying to support themselves (anyone think pluots just magically appeared? Someone [wikipedia.org] spend a hell of a lot of time and effort developing those, nice to hear from the anti-plant patent crowd that they deserve to get screwed over for it), I'm sure hurting them will make all the actual problems magically disappear.
All that aside, its damned cool that they're working with quinoa bree
How the hell did that get modded informative, that's blatantly false.
They planted Roundup-resistant plants
'They' here being farmers, do you have any idea how supply chains work?
all over while saying "the resistance will never spread to other plants" without actually bothering to check whether that was the case, as if they had never heard of plasmids.
Yes, your degree from Google University means you know more than all the scientists at Monsanto. And what the hell do plasmids have to do with anything?
Roundup-resistant weeds with the Monsanto gene in them were found IN THE NEXT FIELD BELONGING TO A DIFFERENT LANDOWNER four months after the first crops were planted
Man, if horizontal gene transfer happened that easily we'd be living in a very different world, however, that didn't happen. This is evolution 101 here; apply a strong selective pressure over a large area upon a fast r
A lot of the animosity towards Monsanto comes from their overall behavior. Creating the terminator gene is first to mind. Next are the numerous allegations about misconduct: complaints that they do inadequate studies, they hire certain researchers expecting certain study outcomes, that they tamper with study results, and that they have bribed government officials. However, most of those reports come from the wacko anti-GMO crowd (who are really a bunch of anti-anything idiots), so it's hard to know if th
Creating the terminator gene is first to mind.
They didn't create the terminator gene, they bought the company (Delta & Pine Land Co.) that did. They then promised not to use it when people got angry about it, and have never commercialized it, although people are also angry that GE crops can cross pollinate with non-GE crops (like every other outcrossing plant species on the planet). They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
The biggest gripe I have is their drive to produce pest- and herbicide-resistant crops
That's a bit complicated. I believe you have been mislead by the anti-GE propaganda because within the proper cont
Thank you for your answer. There is almost no end to the FUD stream, and as I said, it's hard to pick out the signal from the noise.
And one other thing I forgot to add:
Had they focused their modifications only on creating high yield and high nutrition crops
There is no single gene for yield. Yield is a factor of weather, soil fertility, moisture, biotic conditions like disease, pest and weed pressure, ect. You take away pest pressure, and you don't think yield won't go up? well, it kind of doesn't, not in developed countries anyway, where we were spraying pesticides to control pests. But in developed countries, things [ifpri.org] are [wiley.com] very [sciencedirect.com] different. [sciencedirect.com] So, you really can't say they don't improve yield, or sustainability. Even the mu
"This is a symbolic marketing/propaganda move against Monsanto"
Good. Death to Monsanto.
Yeah, accusations equal guilt! Who cares to stop to do some fact checking to see if they are actually doing anything people claim they do? And while we're at it, death to Merck for their autism causing vaccines!
safe, cheap, and environmentally benign herbicide Round-Up
It should be noted that it is only Glyphosate that has been tested to be safe and benign (breaks down fast), not Round-Up which includes various untested surfactants (especially bad for skin though generally low LD50 levels) and such. Not only that, if you look at the price of Round-up in comparison to some other herbicides such as 2-4-D it's arguable about the cheap part.
I knew someone in Los Angeles who had disposed of some tired storebought tomatoes by tossing them into the front yard for the birds to eat. The seeds volunteered all over the place and after a few years of benign neglect, their yard was one big self-renewing tomato patch -- producing perfectly edible tomatoes, all of the same variety. Apparently whatever they'd bought at the grocery were not hybrids.
Yeah, fuck them for blocking important technological advances like insect resistant crops and lifesaving Golden Rice! And fuck them for suing farmers for unknowingly having their crops cross pollinated, even though that never actually happened. Oh wait...what are we angry about again? You know, before you start damning folks to hell (it wouldn't be the first time I've gotten that one), maybe you should check to see that you're not being lied to and emotionally manipulated by people out to advance their own social, political, and economic agendas.
And the fact that this bullshit is being exported through corrupt politicians to 3rd world countries where people starve every day.
Well, I agree with that, but I think we're talking about very different bullshits. I'm talking about the fact that, if the field of plant improvement had not been set back by 15 years by activists using Monsanto as a generic boogeyman, we'd be awash in all sorts of beneficial crop traits. Instead, publicly funded GE crops stopped with the extremely successful Rainbow papaya. Bangladesh is just now getting Bt eggplant, and its about time (and just wait, when it inevitability makes it to India, there's going to be a shitstorm among idiot activists who've never stepped food in either a farm or a lab). Golden Rice still has yet to be released. Something is very wrong here, and this time it isn't the big corporation.
Preventing lifeforms to be patented would solve most of the problems. For me, it's not the GE plants themselves but the misuse of artificial scarcity (aka "intellectual property) laws to monopolize them.
For me, it's not the GE plants themselves but the misuse of artificial scarcity (aka "intellectual property) laws to monopolize them.
They're not monopolized though. That's not how patents work (that's like saying Sony has a monopoly on Playstations, it is kind of true, but a monopoly is controlling all of a thing, not all of a particular type of a thing), and anyway, don't like Monsanto, there's Syngenta, or Pioneer, or Bayer. A much more important problem is the over-regulation preventing publicly funded projects from being commercialized. Ending patents won't do much of benefit.
Preventing lifeforms to be patented would solve most of the problems.
Yep, sure would.
Because noone would bother to develop new plants when they can't even recover the cost of development....
That's better than artificial monopolies. And if we as society feel such development usefull we can fund it with public money.
That's going to take awhile.
Even the DNA of your plants and your own body. You are vassals of Lord Rothschild. This Universe belongs to the Chosen. Not you, goyim. Now get out of our Universe.
The license used is:
"It basically says these seeds are free to use in any way you want. They can't be legally protected. Enjoy them."
This is a GPL type license. There is nothing to stop Monsanto from going to a farmer who is using these seeds and saying:
Pollen from one of our products blew in last year and so these seeds now contain some of our genes, so you now owe us for using these seeds and can't give it away to anyone.
The only way to deal with Monsanto is to beat them at their own game. One way would be to develop a seed with some novel genes (call them NoGe) and copyright these under something like the GPL. Then grow these seeds upwind of a Monsanto development facility; when, later, Monsanto then sue someone for illegal use of their seeds a NoGe 'owner' could testify that the Monsanto seeds must be allowed free to everyone use due to the 'viral nature' of the GPL. That legal punch up would be interesting to watch!
One thing that's sort of buried in the article is this movement is also anti-hybrid, which is not all that surprising. But hybrids offer a definite, measurable benefit to the farmer - not only are they more uniform (important for commercial harvesting), they are invariably more vigorous than open pollinated varieties. Greater vigor per plant means greater profit per plant.
As a gardener I understand and applaud attempts to develop and improve open pollinated varieties of vegetables and fruits. It's fun to save your own seeds, and OPs have more diverse genes - so they are important to the continued existence of plant species. But it's going to be an uphill battle trying to convince farmers to give up hybrids, if that's really the movement's goal. And I don't think it's really what they should be focussing on. But plant purists can be every bit as inflexible as the most ardent GPL zealot, so I expect philosophy will win out over practicality.
I can see this working very similarly to the free software movement. As you correctly point out, there are already plenty of gardeners who are passionate about seed sharing. The internet allowed free software to be an efficient method of software development and distribution. 30 years on, it has even reached mainstream development. Just look at the percentage of teams using free software development tools (especially in web development).
In the past, it was difficult for an individual (dare I say hobbyis
What if you all agreed that nobody could restrict the future use of these seeds.
Then the seed companies would lobby for laws to make sharing seeds illegal. If you think that is being paranoid: it's already happened. http://permaculturenews.org/20... [permaculturenews.org] (it didn't pass - that time).
The EU law (not passed) referenced in the article you link to is a good example of IP rent-seeking, corporations trying to suppress competition to their patented products by writing laws and getting legislators to pass them.
The best way to get the gist of the proposed EU law, is to read the FAQ [europa.eu] the law proponents wrote to defend it. Critics hardly need to add much to the "defense" to show how damning it is.
Basically it states that no commercial operation (unless small enough to be a "micro-enterprise") can
(micro- enterprises are enterprises employing no more than ten persons with an annual turnover or balance sheet not exceeding EUR 2 million).
Material marketed in small quantities by non-professionals or by micro-enterprises ('niche market material') will be exempted from the registration obligation.
More specifically, micro-enterprises will be released from the obligation to pay any fees for the registration of their varieties, or for the issuance of official labels for certification. Moreover, micro-enterprises may market niche market material without the obligation to register the concerned plant material.
Really not seeing anything to support PP's description here. Devil may be in details elsewhere, but PP chose to link this as "support". PP's description of what this FAQ says is simple falsehood.
Well,not quite. It is anti-unstabalized-hybrid. In many cases, a single additional cross will stablize a hybrid. Seed companies don't, because it serves as built-in license enforcement. The reason Monsanto has so much trouble with soy beans is that there is no such thing as an unstable hybrid soy bean. With maize, OTOH, this works great, you can create an unstable hybrid and sell that as the seed companies do now, or with a single additonal cross, stabilize the hybrid.
A truly "stabilized" hybrid is usually considered open pollinated - no longer a hybrid. The loss of hybrid vigor is a recognized byproduct of stabilization.
However, as you allude to, for many varieties of legume the flowers self-pollinate. With soybeans and snap beans in particular, the flowers pollinate themselves before they're even open - which incidentally makes it much more difficult to develop new varieties (whether the goal is a hybrid or the development of a new OP). Species like that have developed
Happened to Trainwreck.
IT's called Heriloom and all of them are not patent encumbered.
Eliminate any and all patents and copyrights on living things is the only answer, Devices that were common on farms, seed cleaners, are illegal because of Monsanto, they target farmers that have them, they go after ANY farmer that does not buy their product, because their GM garbage will cross pollinate to your field and suddenly your GM free crops are now tainted with Monsanto IP and now the property of Monsanto.
Eliminate the patent possibil
The releases should be patented like monsanto with an open license that ensures that if their genetics recombine with anything else it bears the license as well. It should be planted around all monsanto fields, so we slowly chip away at the insanity of proprietary food genetics.
Except for the EULA printed on their packets this is very similar to what the very well established Seed Savers Exchange [seedsavers.org] has been doing for decades.
For reference the actual operative text of the EULA is:
"By opening this packet, you pledge that you will not restrict others' use of these seeds and their derivatives by patents, licenses, or any other means. You pledge that if you transfer these seeds or their derivatives you will acknowledge the source of these seeds and accompany your transfer with this pledge."
It is the actual work of the seed savers group - saving, reproducing, distributing seed - that is preserving these varieties for future generations. Imposing this transfer clause seems to make these OSSI varieties less likely to be redistributed, so it may actually have a negative effect on their propagation. I don't see that having someone taking an heirloom variety and developing a patented variety from it is impeding seed saving and exchanging.
Heirloom varieties are under threat - the number of them in circulation is dropping, and strains are being lost since they do need to be periodically "grown out" to preserve the seed stock. But it is not being caused by heirloom varieties being patented - it is because commercially produced seed is being used by most gardeners for very real conveniences they provide.
Hey, your snark totally helps us feed the world. Thanks.
I'm guessing you don't know squat about this. Yes, those seeds are developed to oh say, be resistant to Roundup herbacide. Funnily enough after a few generations of insects, so are the insects, and now the farmers are stuck with expensive patented seeds AND a giant herbacide bill, AND it doesn't work anyway because the insects evolved.
It's a real problem. Liberals DO care about it, because we're fucking smarter than you are, and we care more about
Yes, those seeds are developed to oh say, be resistant to Roundup herbacide. Funnily enough after a few generations of insects, so are the insects
I am 100% certain that we don't need to worry about INSECTS developing a resistance to a HERBACIDE. I could continue to discuss the pros and con
I hold no pride in my mistake. I fixed it above. Despite my brain fart, the problem is still real.
I am not ignorant. Just tired.... The contempt is very real though. I don't hold it with pride, but it is there.
Frankly, seeds should be harvested from a region, and kept in a region. Let evolution do the work of keeping them healthy in a particular environment.
Logic is the chastity belt of the mind!


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Host Protection Attributes and CLR Integration Programming
New: 14 April 2006
The common language runtime (CLR) provides a mechanism to annotate managed application programming interfaces (APIs) that are part of the .NET Framework with certain attributes that may be of interest to a host of the CLR, such as Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Examples of such host protection attributes (HPAs) include:
- SharedState, which indicates whether the API exposes the ability to create or manage shared state (for example, static class fields).
- Synchronization, which indicates whether the API exposes the ability to perform synchronization between threads.
- ExternalProcessMgmt, which indicates whether the API exposes a way to control the host process.
Given these attributes, SQL Server 2005 specifies a list of HPAs that are disallowed in the hosted environment through code access security (CAS). The CAS requirements are specified by one of three SQL Server permission sets: SAFE, EXTERNAL_ACCESS, or UNSAFE. One of these three security levels is specified when the assembly is registered on the server, using the CREATE ASSEMBLY statement. Code executing within the SAFE or EXTERNAL_ACCESS permission sets must avoid certain types or members that have the System.Security.Permissions.HostProtectionAttribute attribute applied. For more information, see CLR Integration Code Access Security and CLR Integration Programming Model Restrictions.
The HostProtectionAttribute is not a security permission as much as a way to improve reliability, in that it identifies specific code constructs, either types or methods, that the host may disallow. The use of the HostProtectionAttribute enforces a programming model that helps protect the stability of the host.
Host Protection Attributes
HPAs identify types or members that do not fit the host programming model and represent the following increasing levels of reliability threat:
- Are otherwise benign.
- Could lead to destabilization of server-managed user code.
- Could lead to destabilization of the server process itself.
SQL Server disallows the use of a type or member that has a HostProtectionAttribute that specifies a System.Security.Permissions.HostProtectionResource enumeration with a value of ExternalProcessMgmt, ExternalThreading, MayLeakOnAbort, SecurityInfrastructure, SelfAffectingProcessMgmnt, SelfAffectingThreading, SharedState, Synchronization, or UI. This prevents the assemblies from calling members that enable sharing state, perform synchronization, might cause a resource leak on termination, or affect the integrity of the SQL Server process.
Disallowed Types and Members
The following topics identify types and members whose HostProtectionResource values are disallowed by SQL Server.
The lists in these topics were generated from the supported assemblies of version 2.0.50727 of the .NET Framework. For more information, see Supported .NET Framework Libraries.
Lists the types and members in Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll whose HPA values are disallowed.
Lists the types and members in mscorlib.dll whose HPA values are disallowed.
Lists the types and members in System.dll whose HPA values are disallowed.
Lists the types and members in System.Data.dll whose HPA values are disallowed.
See Also
CLR Integration Code Access Security
CLR Integration Programming Model Restrictions
Creating an Assembly

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text: Almost-Daily Diary http://www.chainreactionblogs.com/diary Ride reports & bike news from Chain Reaction's Mike J Mon May 28 9:23:05 2018 / +0000 GMT Universal Post Manager 1.1.2 [ www.ProfProjects.com ] As far as you can go without a passport http://chainreactionblogs.com/diary/?p=4597 Mon May 28 9:23:05 2018 / +0000 GMT http://chainreactionblogs.com/diary/?p=4597 How often do we take for granted that we can easily ride to the end of the earth, where the Pacific Ocean meets land? Bike+legs+desire and you're there. That's pretty amazing if you think about it. This was one of those days where you were very thankful the weather folk screwed up! No rain, light breeze, moderate temperatures. Sure, if we'd left a 9am it would have been wet out there from last night's rain, but that's not our style. Not Kevin's anyway; we got out around 10:45 this morning, which, for my family, is early. Today was a mild variant of the "Coastal Classic"- the usual up Old LaHonda, over Haskins, but then, instead of Stage Road north to Tunitas, we rode the coast the entire way. Kevin doesn't like Stage Road, probably because it's one of those rare climbs that he can't ride me into the ground. The Old LaHonda section became a bit more stressful than normal when Kevin had a seizure about 3/4 of the way up and wanted to turn back; he wasn't very happy with my insistence that we continue on. Experience has shown that he's pretty much back to normal within 20 minutes, and today was no exception. It's not fun debating the merits of continuing with him, and I'm obviously sympathetic to what he goes through, but epilepsy can't run his life. He probably had his best time yet up Haskins, but his Garmin apparently cut out on him somewhere during that segment so Strava doesn't show it. And if Strava doesn't show it, then it didn't happen. Hate that! Later Kevin made a comment that he was only going to use Strava for another 20 years. An odd remark that I asked for elaboration on. "From 40 on, Strava's only going to give you bad news." Ouch. Kevin gives me "The Look" just before the infamous Bridge of Death on Tunitas CreekAn unusual event at the mandatory Pescadero bakery stop- no other cyclists! Beautiful day and nobody out there. Guess they must have been scared off by the weather reports. The run north on the coast (instead of the usual Stage Road) was interesting mostly because it was different; I prefer Stage Road for its quietness and changing terrain, but it was nice to do something different for a change. And thankfully, there was a rare mild tailwind in that direction too! As for Tunitas, what can you say that hasn't been said? It wasn't a fast day on the climb, nor a completely-dreadful one either. Kevin was a bit ahead of me on the steepest sections, with me catching up where it leveled out. Got to admit the effort felt a lot faster than the time indicated! And yes, I'm sure it was more difficult because I missed riding Thursday. ]]> 4597 2012-11-18 20:47:36 2012-11-19 04:47:36


text:
Chris, a senior accounting major at RMU, livened up his four years of active duty in the 82nd Airborne's finance office by earning his wings with 22 jumps.
While he's had a couple close calls with trees and electric fences, Chris was relieved to discover that enrolling at RMU was a low-stress activity. The university counted his military training and other classes for 18 credit hours.
"I didn't think it'd be that much, but it was. That's one less semester I have to take classes before I graduate," Chris said.
At Robert Morris University, we understand veterans need a university to be a little bit flexible. Our admissions specialists will make sure you get credit for the non-traditional learning you've absorbed, whether it's running payroll for 15,000 enlisted personnel or doing a rapid descent from 1,000 feet.
RMU offers generous veterans college benefits, closing any gap between the post 9/11 veteran's education benefits allotment and our tuition for qualifying veterans
Robert Morris University. All rights reserved.


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what do you think?
So there is this very cute web site i found called "mango ink". they make custom greeting card with your photo's. or you can use one of their photographers and use those photo's on the card. the only problem is, you have to order 8 or more cards. perfect for invitations or thank you's. not so perfect for fathers day where there is only one dad and therefore, only one card. so i made my own..what do you think? be honest..i feel like it needs something but i'm not sure what.
haven't done the inside yet.
Very cute!
If it were me...here's what I would change:
1. The "Happy Father's Day" font...that different of fonts looks clashing to me (but it does make it stand out)
2. I would move the Papa to the lower right corner (over that guys feet...the corner looks bare, comparatively...so it draws your eye.
3. The spacing on "I Love You"...it kinda blends together like one long, over-spaced word (I L O V E Y O U)
4. I would either make the "I love you" font smaller, or change it to "Love You" as you lose the "I" behind the "Happy Fathers Day"
But nothing NEEDS fixed...just my personal opinion. No matter what, he will LOVE it!
Cute card. I agree the I LOVE YOU is hard to make out. I had to keep looking at it to figure it out. Nice job!
Very nice card. I agree about the I love you. I had to look for it. I would move the Papa to the other side too, that way it would not crowd the I love you.
I agree with #1's opinions and agree that you have done a great job - just ideas.
I would add the year in the same lettering as the love you on the other side of the card and then center Papa
Let us see what you end up with. I'm working on something for my hubbers. Thanks for the inspiration!
I have to agree the I Love You is hard to read. I might make the PaPA the same color as the heading.


text:
Panel to call for changes in state gun laws
Hartford - The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission is planning, among other things, to recommend prohibiting the sale or possession of any firearm capable of firing more than 10 rounds of ammunition without reloading, commission chairman and Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson said on Friday.
The purpose is to define an assault-style weapon by how it works rather than how it looks, said Bernard Sullivan, commission member and former Hartford chief of police. The recommendation and other proposals will be passed on to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on March 15.
But the recommendation was met with some resistance.
"I think it will go too far," said Barbara O'Conner, commission member and chief of police at the University of Connecticut. She said it would make too many guns that people currently possess illegal.
"The question in my mind is, are we really serious in our society about dealing with the amount of firepower on our streets?" Sullivan said.
The commission agreed on gun control and school safety recommendations on Friday. But Jackson said more work is needed to flesh out the proposals. The commission has yet to fully discuss recommendations for mental health services, he said.
The commission also plans to recommend "mandatory background checks on the sale or transfer of any weapon, including long guns and private sales," according the commission's document listing items for consideration.
Even someone who gave a firearm as a gift to a family member would have to go through a background check, Sullivan said.
One way to enforce a background check during a private sale would be to have the sale processed with a gun dealer who has a federal firearms license, said Wayne Sandford, commission member and former deputy commissioner of the state's Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS).
The commission also wants "mandatory registration, including a certificate of registration, for any weapon, to be issued subsequent to the completion of a background check," according to its document.
Commission members said they planned to exempt law enforcement and military personnel from many of their recommendations.
Emergency response plans
The commission will propose that school districts be required to develop emergency response plans.
Commission member and Norwalk Fire Chief Denis McCarthy said that in Norwalk, a 25-person team is in the process of updating its school district's plan. The group meets about once every two weeks, and participants include representatives from the elementary, middle and high schools as well as police department representatives, firefighters and public health officials.
Currently, universities have to send their emergency response plans to DEMHS, but the commission wants to require the same of preschools and K-12 schools. It also wants DEMHS to be required to approve the plans, Jackson said.
DEMHS Deputy Commissioner William Shea said Friday that state agencies worked well together in response to the Dec. 14 Newtown shooting. As soon as DEMHS heard of the shooting, its regional officer in Waterbury was sent down there, he said.
McCarthy said he thought DEMHS and the state's immediate response to Newtown set the bar, but that Connecticut needs to make sure every community has the same level of preparedness.
State lawmakers target violent video games in wake of Newtown shootings
Sandy Hook commission focuses on improving state response to tragedy
Malloy touts 'common-sense' approach to curbing gun violence
Three decades later, Desiree Michaud's friends and family still seek closure


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December 6, 1932 - May 2, 2013
Myrtle Beach, SC
Janet DuBois, beloved wife of George, passed away on May 2, 2013, at her home, after a brief illness. Jan was born on December 6, 1932 to the late Carl and Grace (Smith) Ramstrom in Framingham, MA. She spent her childhood in Sudbury, MA and also lived in Fryeburg, ME, where she graduated from Fryeburg Academy in 1951.
In 1954, Jan met her true love and life partner, George DuBois, at Lake Mohonk in New Paltz, NY and they were married May 28, 1955. They began their life together in New York, where they raised three children. She treasured her family and friends and brought life and laughter to everyone who was fortunate to be part of her life. Jan also loved her career as a bank teller in New Windsor and enjoyed the many customers she served who became a part of her large circle of friends.
In 1999, Jan and George moved to Myrtle Beach, where they could enjoy their retirement on the many golf courses with many loving friends.
Jan is survived by her husband, George of Myrtle Beach; daughter, Deborah Hamel (Michael) of Vermont; son, Douglas DuBois (Susan) of Maine; grandchildren: Jennifer (Chris) Jarvis, Robert Hamel, Nicole and Alec Zgrodek and Steven (Ana) DuBois; sister, Dorothy Harring. She is also survived by great-grandchildren: Chelsea and Michael Jarvis, Mary Presley DuBois. Jan was predeceased by her daughter, Brenda Zgrodek; granddaughter, Mary Catherine DuBois Reddan; her parents; sister, Gertrude, and brothers: Kenneth and Stanley.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Salvation Army or to Mercy Care Hospice, 8216 Devon Ct, Myrtle Beach, SC 29572. We are so appreciative to the compassionate staff who provided Jan and her family all the support we needed so she could be at home for her final days.
Arrangements and cremation are being provided by the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home. A Guest Book is available at MyrtleBeachFuneralHome.com


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It is a political constant in life at City Hall for Memphis City Council members to complain that they get critical information much too late in the decision-making process and then are pressured by the mayor to make a decision then and there.
The complaints have spanned generations of council members and mayors who have come and gone.
In some cases, mayors have sought quick council votes close to a "deadline" to minimize debate and doubts that could cause necessary votes to waiver. In other cases, council members have stretched legitimate deadlines to win concessions on other issues from the administration.
It is a long-time part of the relationship between the two major tenants of City Hall.
But the complaints from the current council about the administration of Mayor A C Wharton Jr. reached a critical mass this week.
It came on a day when the council considered $15 million in city financing for the Crosstown redevelopment project, a complex deal in which the city of Memphis would buy AutoZone Park for $25 million and what was to be a briefing from Wharton on how the city intended to fund more of its unfunded pension liability or risk state officials ordering the city to take certain steps.
The council approved the Crosstown financing but delayed, until Monday, Dec. 9, a decision on the ballpark deal in which the St. Louis Cardinals would also buy the Memphis Redbirds franchise as well as delaying Wharton's briefing on the pension.
Earlier in the day, Wharton and Housing and Community Development Director Robert Lipscomb gave council members an update on the Heritage Trails project that set the tone.
The city submitted its application for a federal Choice Neighborhoods grant in October and could have some word on that part of the funding in February.
After Lipscomb described Heritage Trails as "the most important project for the inner-city of Memphis," council member Wanda Halbert said the administration has described numerous projects in similar terms.
"It just appears that we are all over the place," she said. "Where is the plan and how do we connect the dots to all of these projects and programs? The Fairgrounds is one of the most important projects in the city. Crosstown is one of the most important."
"The only way we are going to balance the books is to grow," Wharton responded. "All these dots will be connected. … We're never going to prosper unless we have a growth plan."
But Halbert said other projects disappear from the city's list of priorities with little or no word on what has become of them.
"We need to start pulling that together," she said. "Otherwise it keeps looking like we are pulling a bunch of projects out of the sky."
About two hours after the council's update on the Heritage Trails project, Lipscomb opened a presentation on the Crosstown project by describing it too as "one of the most important projects in the city of Memphis."
There were some audible groans from several council members.
That was followed by frustration as the council committee room was standing room only with those involved in the Crosstown project and its supporters.
"When are you going to pass out the documents that you've got in that box for us," council member Harold Collins said. "And the people who support this project who are supposed to be some of the best minds in the community business-wise, ought to be appalled. You wouldn't go to your board of directors … and ask them to vote for it. I'm sure they had plenty of time to digest the gravity of purchasing a building like Crosstown. They didn't make the decision in two hours. Why should you ask us to do it?"
"We are ready to go," Collins continued. "The problem is we go in so many different directions. Right after this we are going to take on another project you want us to vote on that we got information on less than 48 hours ago."
The late arrival of details about the more complex ballpark deal drew criticism from council member Reid Hedgepeth still later in the council's long day. Even at that point, Hedgepeth said he couldn't vote for it.
"None of us know what is going on with this bond deal. We don't have a clue," he said Tuesday evening. "We've had all of this thrown on us today. Given our past performance in sports arenas … I think we need to be very careful on this."
Council member Janis Fullilove thought the predictions of foreclosure and an auction of the ballpark and the Redbirds franchise without an immediate vote weren't true.
"I do not believe for one moment that this is the eleventh hour," she said. "I believe you are lying to me. That's just me. … I'm insulted."


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An officer shot and seriously wounded an occupant of a car that hit two elderly pedestrians as it fled from police in the city's northwest on Tuesday afternoon.
The incident unfolded in the parking lot of a Bank of Montreal branch on Crowfoot Way N.W., but investigators said it didn't involve an attempt to rob the bank.
A police spokesman said police were investigating a suspicious vehicle in the area and a uniformed officer was walking up to the vehicle in the parking lot at about 3:40 p.m.
"As he was approaching the vehicle, the vehicle sped off and, in fact, in doing so, mounted the sidewalk and struck two elderly pedestrians," Kevin Brookwell said.
At that point, Brookwell said, uniformed officers challenged the vehicle and opened fire.
Brookwell was unable to say if the officer who fired is the same one who initially approached the car or a different officer.
One of the occupants of the car was wounded and taken to hospital, where his condition is unknown.
EMS spokesman Stuart Brideaux said an ambulance took the female pedestrian to hospital in serious but stable condition. Her male companion, who was less seriously injured, was driven to hospital by a police officer.
It's believed police took two additional occupants of the car into custody and are questioning several witnesses.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, a provincial agency that investigates events involving police that result in death or serious injury, is now heading a probe of the shooting.
One thing that's not immediately clear is what led police to approach the suspects' vehicle.
Brookwell wasn't able to say if the occupants of the vehicle had been under surveillance prior to the confrontation or if officers approached the car for a different reason.
However, witnesses remarked that several police officers descended on the scene almost immediately.
"Within seconds, there was police everywhere," said Stefan Danylo, who was waiting for a bus nearby.
Danylo didn't see the shooting, but he and a friend ran toward the scene after hearing a loud impact followed by what he believed were two gunshots.
When they got there, Danylo saw a group of officers cutting off the wounded man's shirt and tending to him.
"He wasn't moving, Danylo said.
"I saw shattered glass all over the ground."
The ASIRT investigation will now centre on whether police were justified in opening fire on the car.
Calgary police have a policy against firing on moving vehicles, but an officer who shot and killed a fleeing car thief in 2009 was exonerated for doing so because it was believed he prevented others from being hurt or killed.
Sgt. Dave Jennings shot Travis Oakes, who was behind the wheel of a stolen car and ramming police vehicles that had boxed him inside a car wash on Richmond Road S.W. At the conclusion of a provincial fatality inquiry into the case, Judge Sharon Van de Veen ruled Jennings' actions were justified and necessary to prevent Oakes from killing or seriously hurting anyone.
An ASIRT investigation also determined the shooting was justified.


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Please note: You are viewing an archived Bucknell University news story. It is possible that information found on this page has become outdated or inaccurate, and links and images contained within are not guaranteed to function correctly.
LEWISBURG, Pa. — Computer scientist Chris Johnson will give the talk, "Visual Computing: Making sense of a complex world," Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. in the Gallery Theatre of the Elaine Langone Center at Bucknell University.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, is the first event in the series, "Emerging Minds: Seeking Meaning in a Physical World."
SCI founder and director
Founder and director of the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute at the University of Utah, Johnson is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science with faculty appointments in the departments of physics and bioengineering. His research interests are in the areas of scientific computing and scientific visualization.
"Visual computing, which relies on and takes advantage of, the interplay among techniques of visualization, computer graphics, virtual reality, and imaging and vision, is fundamental to understanding models of complex phenomena, which are often multi-disciplinary in nature," said Johnson. "In fact, to effectively understand and make use of the vast amounts of information being produced is one of the greatest scientific challenges of the 21st century."
In his talk, he will provide examples of interdisciplinary visual computing and imaging research at the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute as applied to problems in science, engineering and medicine, and discuss their relationships to art, film and architecture.
Johnson serves on several international journal editorial boards, as well as on advisory boards to several national and international research centers. He is the recipient of several awards, including the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow award from President Clinton in 1995 and the Governor's Medal for Science and Technology from Governor Michael Leavitt in 1999.
He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Last year, he received the Utah Cyber Pioneer Award and earlier this year the Rosenblatt Award from the University of Utah.
Key scholars, new perspectives
"This yearlong series will explore the nature of the mind with talks by key scholars," said series coordinator Joseph Tranquillo, assistant professor of biomedical and electrical engineering at Bucknell.
"Questions about the nature of our minds and identities have been posed for millennia. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, technological and scientific advances have enabled the ancient questions about mind and self to be revisited in new ways," Tranquillo said.
"The result of these cross-disciplinary studies has been the emergence of new perspectives on a wide range of issues including the relationship between the brain as an organ and the mind as a concept, the existence of a universal human nature, the production and appreciation of art, the boundaries of our free will, the goals of our health and education systems, and the extent to which our behavior is motivated by evolutionary imperatives."
Other speakers in the Social Science Colloquium series are:
· Lera Boroditsky, who on Nov. 18 will examine how the languages we speak shape the ways we think. An assistant professor of psychology, neuroscience and symbolic systems at Stanford University, Boroditsky will present data from around the world showing how the structures in languages profoundly shape how people construct reality.
· Jose Carmena, who on Feb. 22 will discuss neural adaptations to a brain-machine interface. Carmena is principal investigator with the Brain-Machine Interface Systems laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley, where he also serves as assistant professor of electrical engineering, cognitive science and neuroscience. Carmena will give an introduction to the field of cortical BMIs, a summary of lab results showing that the brain can consolidate prosthetic motor skill in a way that resembles that of natural motor learning, and an outline on the emerging directions the field is taking towards the development of neuroprosthetic devices for the impaired.
· David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and author who on March 10 will speak about neuroscience and the law. Eagleman holds a joint appointment in the departments of neuroscience and psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine. His research areas include time perception, vision, synesthesia and the intersection of neuroscience with the legal system.
Contact: Division of Communications
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The Roma integration/inclusion had to be treated as one of the most important tasks of the country upon EU accession (2004). Right after, Europe served as a general framework, at least on the level of the imaginary: ―...Yes, here we are, member of the EU, we have to think differently from now on, we have to change the routines we are used to‖ More concretely, the EU Education Ministers, in a declaration made in 1990 stated that the main form is integration. Everything that is not integrated is of secondary importance, it can exist and be maintained even permanently but it cannot be of primary choice. Symmetrically, the EU ministers called for the transfer of pedagogical knowledges from special education to mainstream education (Halász 2004). Also, Hungary, in order to meet European expectations transferred SEN issues from the health sector to the educational sector, and, in order to build a lifelong model for treatment and integration, the Ministry for Social Affairs and Labour has become involved as well. This change in international conceptualisations of disability can be called a process of institutional ―Europeanization‖. But in fact, there is no such thing as a single European model: ―If you look at the different European educational systems, there is no such thing as a European model. In the middle belt of the European Union, so to say the Benelux states, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the ex-socialist countries follow the tradition of separated education, even today [...] in the North and in the South 91 there is integration though done differently. Basically because there are a lot of scarcely inhabited territories, from where they still have to go to school. And this is what they call integration.‖ The limits of benchmarks, or the (ab)use of the European good practice argumentare not only recognised by scholars, but also by key officials: "Before, the ministerial communication was the following: the rate of SEN is much higher in Hungary than in any other European countries. But this is not always a defensible argument in itself. For example what counts as SEN and what not is upon the countries' own decision: in Great Britain it is 30%. To that extent the Hungarian rate of 7 is relatively low. Or Finland which has the most successful educational system has a SEN rate of 17 %. In brackets, the difference is that in higher grades the rate is much lower because of effective early intervention; it is high around the beginning of the school ages. [...] Our problem with the high rate is that the rate of Roma children is extremely high in it. Practically they are all Roma" (Public Officer, Ministry of Education, member of the ―mixed tank).
Europe became a precious resource rather than a reference. While the initiation of the From Last Desk Program itself was financed by an improvised budget voted for the ministerial commissioner by the ministry, and was thus unrelated to EU funded programs originally, a few months later, the financial support of the EU Structural Founds (National Development Plans, HDR OP and SR OP projects) ensured the entire SEN integration/inclusion projects (test adaptation, trainings, etc.), just like the Roma/SDS programs. However, since EU-financed programs denote high amounts of money, they are often suspicious (like every big project) or criticised. European-level professional networks and forums also play a growing role, special education scholars participate and publish (Kőpatakiné Mészáros 2002) at the European Academy of Childhood Disability, Hungary as a country joined the European Agency European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education and exchange data, as well as ideas with European partners (European Agency 2008 and others). In addition, the elaboration of Local Public Education Equal Opportunity Programs (LPEEOP) became a pre-condition of receiving EU-support (in the framework of the HRD OP or the Regional Operative Programs, administered by the National Development Agency). This was an initiative of former ministerial commissioner G. Daróczi and his staff. The LPEEOP must include a Public Education Equal Opportunity Action Plan75, which consists itself of an analysis part and of an action plan part. It must obligatory deal with the SEN-issue; it should aim (1) a ―measurable decrease‖ in the number of SEN-students within one year if their number exceeds the national average (7%), (2) the access tosecondary education for SEN, and also the (3a) legal and (3b) quality control of SEN-education and SEN-services. ‗NATIONAL' KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSED THROUGHOUT EUROPE. National knowledge about the segregation of Roma children as falsely categorised SEN students was a message which was successfully disseminated in Europe by Hungarian activists and politicians, as it is reflected in the European coverage of the issue. V. Mohácsi, the former ministerial commissioner to initiate the FLDP became a Member of the EP in 2004, and considered it her task to disseminate information on the issue at international conferences and meetings. (From her EU allowances as a MP she paid the camp fees for children taking part in the test cases [Public interest litigations]). The Budapest based civil organisations (esp. OSI) had a similar role. The limit of such an influence is obviously the closure of post-communist central-European countries, their functioning as semi-closed knowledge-regimes.
Eröss Gábor, Kende Anna (2009), All against misdiagnosis - Sociologists, neurologists, economists, psychologists and special educators for inclusion, KNOWandPOL report, 90-92


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The WSJ is flat out wrong in where the paper was published. Science and Nature are the two highest impact journals in the field today. This paper was published by Scientific Reports, an open access [wikipedia.org] spinoff of Nature. This is a relatively new journal, composed mostly of rejections to Nature, that touts "peer review by at least one member of the academic community" (peer review more typically includes 3-5 reviewers).
I also find it disturbing that none of the paper's authors are releated to the field of linguists or even humanities (e.g. English), though they do cite a number of papers from those who are. I hope the "at least one member of the academic community" to review the paper included a linguist and somebody versed in statistical models.
Hugh Pickens is also a bit off: "Dark matter" (or even the word "dark" or the word "half") is not mentioned in the linked PDF, which appears to be either a draft or an earlier conference proceeding. Since Scientific Reports is open access, you can find the full paper for free at http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120315/srep00313/full/srep00313.html [nature.com]
Many many thanks for the useful link !!
As I read the submission I myself was curious what caused Physicists to carry out this research
Perhaps the Linguists are being too busy checking typos, I guess?
I've got a bad feeling about this.


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Seven Low-Cost Ways to Improve Legacy Codeby Robert Simmons, Jr., author of Hardcore Java
Author's note: This article presents seven techniques I've developed and used in my consulting work that are designed to improve legacy code. You can apply some of these techniques using either freely available tools or with scripts. You'll apply the others manually, but they shouldn't represent a significant investment in time. Be forewarned, however, that all of these techniques may reveal other issues in the code base, such as hidden bugs, which could take a significant amount of time to fix.
1. Use a Stronger Compiler for Your Code
This technique calls for a tool change to a stronger compiler. While there are many Java IDEs on the market, most of them use the default Sun compiler. Unfortunately, this compiler is not as strict as it could be. Many common programming errors slip through the cracks. The following code illustrates one of these errors:
public class SomeClass {
private String someValue;
public SomeClass(final String someValue) {
this.someValue = someValue;
public void setFirstName(final String value) {
this.someValue = someValue;
In this example, the developer meant to change the name of the property from
value to
someValue. The developer did a good job in changing the instance
variable and the constructor, but he didn't change the name of the parameter to the
setter. The resulting error is that the assignment in the method
setFirstName() has no effect since it merely sets
this.someValue to whatever it currently is. As a result,
SomeClass has a difficult-to-find logic bug. Unfortunately, the standard JDK compiler will not find this problem, but there are other compilers that will. The compiler that comes with the free Eclipse platform can be configured to look for problems such as
these. It can check for assignments that have no effect, variables that are unused,
and a host of other issues. Not even the expensive JBuilder product can do many of the
things Eclipse does for free. For example, I had a client who was using the JBuilder IDE. When
I imported the project into Eclipse, it detected some 200 bugs in 700
classes that JBuilder didn't find. Although this led to long
debugging sessions, the project's code became more stable and the client's customers
much happier. Today this company uses Eclipse as its main tool. (For more on Eclipse, check out
O'Reilly's just-released book on mastering
the Eclipse platform.)
Related Reading
2. Use a Code Formatter to Reformat Your Code
One of the most important things any IT department can do is to create coding standards. Things such as spacing, bracket placement, and commenting guidelines may seem trivial. Without these standards, however, your developers will have a hard time reading each other's code. What's more, the ramp-up time of consultants and new employees can easily triple. If that isn't enough to convince you, think of what would happen if one of your critical developers left the company, leaving behind a large amount of uncommented, obfuscated code. At that point, it may be cheaper just to redesign the product than to figure it out. Unfortunately, these are not hypothetical examples, as I have seen them repeatedly in my work. Coding standards make all of these problems much easier to manage.
However, coding standards are meaningless if they aren't enforced. A great way to enforce them is with code-formatting tools such as Jalopy or Eclipse. These tools will reformat legacy code and turn it into something more readable. Jalopy can even be configured to insert special tags to alert developers of missing documentation (which is not inexpensive to fix, but definitely worth it). These tools are easy to use and, once you've decided on the configuration, can be passed to all departments. What's more, source-code formatters can be hooked up to version-control systems to automatically format the code upon check-in.
One common objection I hear to code formatting is that "It messes up the diffs with the source control management (SCM) system." It is true that the first time you format your code, it is likely to generate heavy diffs. However, if your developers depend on diffs instead of code documentation to determine problems, then you probably already have a serious problem in your code base. Furthermore, since your data objects don't require that the listeners be explicitly removed, the user of these data objects need not worry about managing the addition and removal of listeners. The removal of this management task makes code much easier to maintain.
3. Introduce
final All Over Your Code
Those of you who have read Chapter 2
("The Final Story") of Hardcore Java know that
final is one of the most useful and underused keywords in the Java language. Many of my colleagues see
final all over the place in my code and are startled by it.
However, once I explain that
final causes logic errors to be turned into compiler
errors, they quickly become converts.
If you have junior developers, the best tack is to simply be firm. At first, they
might complain and grumble a bit, but they will quickly get used to it. Every parameter to a method should be declared
final unless the parameter is intended to be an out or in-out parameter. In addition,
final should be used on all
variables in immutable classes and whenever you declare a local variable that
you don't intend to change throughout the method. You can even use it inside of
loops, as shown here:
public int find(final List domain, final SomeClass target) {
final String targetValue = target.value;
for (final Iterator iter = domain.iterator(); iter.hasNext();) {
final SomeClass element = (SomeClass)iter.next();
if (element.value == targetValue) {
return domain.indexOf(element);
return -1;
Notice all of the places
final is used in this code. It makes
the code unbelievably solid. However, be prepared for your compiler to
complain when you apply it to your code base. You will most likely find quite a
few hidden bugs. Regardless, I recommend you start using
final today. And every time
you are editing legacy code, add it into code.
(Unfortunately, I know of no tool that will automate this conversion for you, though that would be a great feature to add to tools such as Eclipse, Checkstyle, or Jalopy. If anyone knows of a tool or writes one to do it, I would love to hear about it.)
4. Remove Commented-Out Code
Often I am confronted with legacy code that contains good-sized portions of commented-out code. Usually, this code was commented out long ago by a developer unwilling to delete the code, "just in case." The problem here is that the rest of the code base has had ongoing development, but the commented code hasn't. So if you were to uncomment the code, you would have big problems.
You should go in and delete all commented-out code. Not only does it make code hard to read, but it could be disastrous if some eager-to-please junior developer sees the "for later use" comment and decides to uncomment the code. Just remove it and save yourself the hassle.
In fact, I recommend you remove old code rather than commenting it out. Rarely are things commented out and put back in later. The only time I can think of this happening routinely is in the case of commenting for very short-term debugging. Other than that, the best policy is "don't be afraid of the delete key." If you have some great algorithm in the code, copy it into a junk file, and rip it out of the code. The result will be less lint in your code.
5. Refactor Classes to Remove Anonymous Classes
In Chapter 4 ("Collections") of Hardcore Java, I explore the realm of nested classes in detail. One of the most commonly used nested classes is the anonymous class. However, the fact that anonymous classes can't be reused at all generally makes using them a bad idea. In addition, anonymous classes make code harder to read and bloat up the class declaration space of your program.
You should remove these classes, and instead either convert the anonymous classes to inner classes or, better yet, just implement that listener interface yourself. Although it involves a bit of typing and cut-and-paste code, the resulting code will be easier to read and understand.
Pages: 1, 2


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West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has called on MTV to pull the plug on new reality series "Buckwild." Set to debut in January, the show follows the lives of nine childhood friends in Sissonville, West Virginia, who have a love for small-town America and live by the carefree motto, "whatever happens, happens."
The series is being compared to an Appalachian version of the defunct hit "Jersey Shore," which left New Jersey lawmakers fuming over what they called demeaning ethnic stereotypes.
Manchin only caught previews for "Buckwild" but was outraged enough to write MTV president Stephen Friedman, asking that the network "put a stop to the travesty called 'Buckwild.'"
MTV had no comment at this time.
Parkersburg resident Eugene, a proud born and raised West Virginian says he disagrees with the senator and does not think "Buckwild" would make the state look bad.
"There are a lot of good people here, a lot of good kids -- and I would definitely watch the show anytime it's on."
"As a U.S. Senator, I am repulsed at this business venture, where some Americans are making money off of the poor decisions of our youth. I cannot imagine that anyone who loves this country would feel proud about profiting off of "Buckwild."
"Instead of showcasing the beauty of our people and our state, you preyed on young people, coaxed them into displaying shameful behavior – and now you are profiting from it. That is just wrong."
"This show plays to ugly, inaccurate stereotypes about the people of West Virginia. Let me tell you: our people have given their all for this great country. They've done the heavy lifting to produce the energy that is needed to produce the steel that builds our factories and cities. The proud veterans of our state have shed more blood and made more sacrifices than most other states to keep America free. We're proud of all we do to make America strong and secure the cherished freedoms that you seem so determined to abuse."
"Your program offers nothing about the major issues of our time: how we move our country forward, how we prepare young people to lead this country and take responsibility for themselves and how we put our finances in better shape for the next generation. I am writing to urge you to reconsider airing this show. I hope that as you consider your decision, that you would consider your own state, your own community and your own children. Would you try to portray them in this light?"
Share your thoughts in the comments section below.


text:
Quick list: some experience selecting the most appropriate virtualization scheme for a particular application (or the counterpart, NOT selecting the worst environment); Hardware selection for virtualization (the HE); P2V migrations; V2V migrations (including from one virtualization system to another); HA Virtualization (like vmotion & storage vmotion); networking within a virtual environment, storage within a virtual environment, an understanding of resource oversubscription vs performance...
What he said plus the most important of all: The ability to cause a box to be checked on an HR form.
In other words, in many cases they just know virtualization is good (or at least trendy) and want to get some.
Doesn't everyone know there's a serious disconnect between HR's expectations ("10 years experience developing for Windows 8"), and the real world?
Meeting one set of expectations gets you hired; meeting the other set keeps you from getting fired.
in many cases they just know virtualization is good (or at least trendy) and want to get some.
There are situations are when they know it's trendy, want to get some, and need to be talked out of it. It's probably beneficial for your reputation if you can recognize those in advance, and opt out if you're not up to the task.
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.


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It's the age-old dilemma about how to re-create or capture the magic of your live sound when in the relatively sterile studio environment. In several cases during my recording career I have benefitted from incredible recording "spaces", where this has been less of a problem for sure. Most recently, recording my "Toolin'Around Woodstock" album with the late, great Levon Helm was a true joy, as we recorded in his famous "barn" studio, also the home of his legendary "Midnight Ramble" concerts. This is a room designed more primarily for live concerts, and when we finally went to record actual tracks there, it proved to be really great in terms of preserving the "live" aspects and nuances of my music.
This studio was also a great one for my guitar and other overdubs, as the bigness of the room really also helped lend a live quality to those tracks. What was good was the engineer was incredibly comfortable with the particular setting we were in, and was very used to getting the best out of this particular room. Then again, there were other overdubs I did for this album later that were handled by my usual engineer, and he was able to get just as big a sound from the right microphones in a tiny little studio in a cabin. It's hard to ever know if those overdubs would have had the same integrity if I had used the first engineer who was tracking at Levon's.
It really boils down to the skill of the engineer and his comfort level with the particular room, and of course your own ears! After all, you still have to be the one to make the final decisions, and that can be at times, a very perplexing thing for sure. In my case, I first want to make sure that the performance itself that I have recorded is the actual one I want to live with. If that is the case, then we must "hunt down" the right sounds and the right overall "vibe" that we really need for that particular recording. Many times, a good part of what you're looking for may already be there in the "grooves", but you still may need to give the track a little more "TLC" to make it totally right. The sounds available to us today in this digital age are just incredible, and basically anything can be re-created. Say, for example, the piano you want is an 1860 Steinway played in a church in Spain….well, odds are you can find that one and dial it up! There are an incredible amount of wonderful and natural-sounding echo and reverbs as well, from all kinds of sources! The possibilities are so endless that we must always be careful to simultaneously stay "focused" on what we want, while keeping an open mind to new creative sound ideas. That is truly the greatest benefit of all that is available to us these days for sure, and if you can have your music well-honed enough so that you can come in the studio and maximize all that is available to you, you'll already be well ahead of the game! Remember to keep it "live" and "fresh" sounding to begin with, and then be sure to maintain that musical and sonic integrity!


text:
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NComputing Validates American Institutes for Research's Online Test Delivery System
NComputing's Validation of AIR's Online Test Delivery System Makes Online Testing Easier, Simpler and More Affordable for U.S. Schools
By: Marketwired .
Jan. 31, 2013 08:30 AM
SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/31/13 -- NComputing, the leader in accelerating the adoption of desktop virtualization, today announced it has formally validated the American Institutes for Research's (AIR) online Test Delivery System. AIR's Test Delivery System has been used successfully since 2010 in NComputing environments, which enable schools to meet online testing requirements more easily and affordably.
NComputing desktop virtualization solutions provide more computing resources in classrooms, allowing students and teachers more access to the testing platform. As opposed to weeks and months, classrooms can now complete their assessments within days. This is particularly important as the move to online testing is increasingly being mandated by State governments throughout the U.S.
AIR's Test Delivery System is used in multiple states, including those that currently deliver statewide online, adaptive assessments. It is compatible with the wide range of technology used in schools -- including computers, laptops, and tablets -- requiring only a secure Internet browser for administration. The AIR system has the smallest technology footprint; can work on less expensive, older hardware with the smallest bandwidth, memory, and disk requirements; and is accessible for all students, including those with disabilities.
"AIR is one of the nation's leading providers of academic assessments and has been delivering accessible, standards-based statewide adaptive testing services since 2007," said Jon Cohen, Executive Vice President of AIR and Director of the Assessment Program. "NComputing's virtual desktop solutions provide a great platform for these assessments. They work nicely and securely with the assessments and really ease the administration and maintenance burden for schools."
AIR is partnering with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced), a state-led consortium developing next-generation assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics. Smarter Balanced is delivering their 2013 Pilot and 2014 Field Tests using AIR's Test Delivery System. AIR is developing an open-source testing platform for delivering the Consortium's online, computer-adaptive summative and interim assessments to students. The system will be optimized for release in its open source version in fall 2014.
"NComputing's thin-client virtual desktop solution has enabled us to make technology much more accessible and cost-effective in our classrooms," said Kevin Flies, Information Systems Director at Winoma Area Public Schools in Minnesota. "NComputing's thin-client devices have proven to be reliable as we widely deploy state-wide, online testing. The deployment of AIR's online testing platform on thin-client solutions from NComputing was simple and seamless."
"Desktop virtualization has become an essential part of education around the world, and its use extends beyond stretching IT budgets and enabling shared computing," said Raj Dhingra, CEO at NComputing. "It is used in a variety of ways to deliver high quality computing at every level of education from the students to the administrators and faculty. NComputing's AIR validation gives educational institutions a cost-effective way to embrace the benefits of virtual desktop and thin clients for online testing."
NComputing has a long history in serving educational institutions around the globe ranging from individual schools to providing the computing infrastructure for entire school districts, states and countries. In taking advantage of NComputing's desktop virtualization solutions, schools and districts can provide easy access to shared resources using either high performance thin clients or with existing PCs and other Windows-based devices with the vSpace Client for Windows. With the ability to serve as many as 100 users from a single, central PC, NComputing customers greatly increase computer access for users, while reducing hardware and maintenance costs by 75 percent.
The validation testing was conducted with AIR and NComputing's vSpace platform for desktop and application virtualization along with the company's L300, M300 and X350/550 access devices.
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text:
SIAP's focus is to help shortlines improve tracks and better serve industries in primarily rural areas. The grants support rural economic development by helping maintain connections to the national rail network, ensuring that industries can receive and ship materials and products across the country.
Twenty-one shortlines currently operate about 930 miles or 29 percent of freight railroads in North Carolina.
Eligible projects include rehabilitation, improvements to and construction of railroad track and other railroad infrastructure, as well as engineering inspection of bridges. NCDOT will reimburse up to 50 percent of project costs. Grant funding may also be used to help defray the costs of preparing or obtaining a Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan from the Federal Railroad Administration.
Grant awards will be based on need and the project's economic and transportation benefits to North Carolina.


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Today's featured relative in my database is my maternal 9th-great grandfather, James Bennett.
James was born February 14, 1651/52 in Tenterden, Kent, England, the son of Francis & Alice (________) Bennett. James married on February 18, 1674/75 in Northampton, MA to Mary Broughton, daughter of John and Hannah (Bascom) Broughton. Mary was born February 18, 1653/54 and died August 2, 1689 in Deerfield, Hampshire Co., MA. James died August 2, 1689 in Northfield, Hampshire Co., MA.
I do not know the date nor the ship by which they emigrated to America.
Known children of James and Mary (Broughton) Bennett are as follows :
i. Mary Bennett b. December 10. 1675 Northampton, MA., m. John Field
I descend from James and Mary (Broughton) Bennett through their daughter, Mary, as follows :
James Bennett and Mary Broughton
Mary Bennett and John Field
Bennett Field and Elizabeth Spofford
Bethiah Field and Seth Pierce
Gordon Pierce and Thirsa Smalley
Francis S. Pierce and Rebecca Page
Edmund G. Pierce and Catherine Groenendyke
William Francis Pierce and Clara Pennisten
Edna Muriel Pierce and Virgil Lee Wright (my great-grandparents)


text:
No one could fault you for assuming that sometime after Street Fighter X Tekken hits, we'll see an expanded roster and balance tweaks hitting stores as the new Ultimate Hyper Turbo edition. But Capcom's Yoshinori Ono has said that SFxT won't get the usual Capcom fighter treatment -- though he didn't rule out the possibility of large-scale DLC.
"If we decide to create a new version of the game, we will go with the Street Fighter IV series route, by providing online update patches for the game," Ono told Gematsu (via PushSquare). "So I would say that you don't really need to worry about a new version of the game coming out. If we choose to update the game, it will be done in the same fashion as Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition."
Of course, Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition actually did have a full retail release, but Ono is clearly referring only to the update DLC that players could get at a cheaper price. That means SFxT might see revisions, and you might have to pay for them, but it won't be on a disc at your local game store.
At least, that's Ono's promise for the time being. We have to wonder if Capcom will ultimately decide release a disc for players who can't download large bits of DLC, like Xbox 360 owners without hard drives. Plus, releasing retail-based updates is a long and proud tradition for Capcom. It's sort of their thing.


text:
Wood | Metal | Plastics | Composites
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text:
Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/02/nokia_bicycle_charger_kit/
Nokia's pedal-powered charger rolls into stores
Ring a bell?
Posted in Personal Tech, 2nd February 2011 15:11 GMT
Nokia has finally pedalled out its mobile phone charger for bicycles. The gadget is now available to buy in the UK.
Connect one up, get riding, and the dynamo uses the movement of the wheels to charge your Nokia handset.
The charger kit may ring a bell from its announcement last summer, but the eco-friendly device is finally here and ready to turn kinetic energy into battery life.
The Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit is on sale for £25, a tad more than originally expected. There's also a small delivery charge - perhaps two if it's couriered by bicycle. ®


text:
'The Book of Mormon' features star-crossed Grey Henson
Grey Henson was a senior, working on his Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting and musical theatre at Pittsburgh's acclaimed Carnegie Mellon in 2012 when he auditioned for the role of Elder McKinley in the upcoming road show of "The Book of Mormon."
"I was a little nervous," the Georgia native said. "I was half way through my senior year and rehearsals would be starting that May. I was able to graduate, rehearse for my role, open the tour and get my equity card right after graduation.
"I was also very lucky," the 23-year-old Henson said. "The timing was perfect. I've been totally spoiled. Since then, we've done over 700 shows across the country."
No waiting on tables, endless auditions or the usual traumas of a graduating actor, Henson hit the ground running and has not stopped yet.
"I felt like I had been shot out of a cannon," he said.
"The Book of Mormon" has been playing to sold-out audiences from California through the Midwest to their four-week run in Boston. The winner of nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, opens in Providence April 29 and runs for two weeks, an unusual feat after a month run only an hour up the road.
Boston is the first city to have the hilarious musical back for the second time, having played there at the same time last year during the horror of the Boston Marathon shootings.
"I've been literally homeless since graduation, with little time off to get back home," Grey said. "The good news is that I'm seeing places I would never have a chance to see. I'm like a tourist in my little time off. There's not a lot of time to do much. The show is exhausting and we all need our rest."
Henson's role as a Mormon missionary in Uganda gives him a chance to sing one of the musical's big hits, "Turn It Off."
"While the show is about Mormons, it could be about any religion," he said. "We all have certain feelings, and in the case of the missionary we have to smile when we try to turn them off."
You'll also have many moments to smile and laugh out loud at this hilarious musical, which audiences and critics have called the funniest they have ever seen.
Tickets are going fast. Call 421-ARTS for reservations. Check them out at info@


text:
Two days ago, TheWrap reported that Sony's long-running Gran Turismo series would be turned into a movie. It was a rumor that was so bizarre that we decided against reporting it when it broke. Given Polyphony Digital's car racing franchise has never featured a basic shred of story ever, we thought it absurd.
Well, Hollywood sure likes to surprise.
Sony Pictures is definitely working on the film, as a separate Sony representative confirmed development to Joystiq. Attached to the film are producers Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who are currently working on Fifty Shades of Grey.
A Gran Turismo film would help Sony compete in the big-budget car-racing movie genre, which has become the-next-big-thing due to the success of The Fast & The Furious franchise. For example, EA has licensed its Need for Speed brand for a movie, due next year.


text:
12th May 2009, 07:16 PM
Hello every one i lost the last one of my beautiful furbabies on 13/3/09. his name was billy. I lost his brother ben on 2/16/2008 it felt liked my heart had been ripped out.I lost them too mvd at such a young age 9 and 10 years of age . After my husband and i parted they were my soulmates they were before but so much more after.They k new when i was sad and they were there for me its so hard to carry on without them i loved them so much.Cavaliers are the most loving dogs u can have maybe im not being nice to the other breeds but they were my breed of dog.They were so funny as babies we loved them so much. I've had cavaliers since 1980 so i would like everyone to remember Charlie, Chas a rescue baby , Buster, Ben + Billy who were brothers all waiting for me at rainbow bridge.To be honest i can't stop crying i miss them so much it really hurts and i'm telling this to strangers please forgive me.