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subset: commoncrawl


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Possible Duplicate:
Is there a true alternative to using CAPTCHA images?
Since everyone hates captchas what are good alternatives? I'm looking to prevent the automated creation of accounts on a website but I'm also concerned about people. If the registration is too easy there would be nothing stopping people from creating accounts haphazardly but at the same time the registration process should be easy. What to do?


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Welcome To Brosnan Apartments
The Brosnan Apartments and the Willow Grand Condominium Community in South San Francisco are family built and operated by the Brosnan family. Maurice and Nancy Brosnan had a vision to develop top quality but affordable housing for their local community. They built all of their buildings with pride from the ground up; always taking extra steps to make the buildings strong and quiet. The family still oversees the daily operations of all the properties, and are involved in the condominium associations.
The main complex is located at the corner of Willow Avenue and Grand Avenue is made up of 222 units in 20 separate buildings, building 20 is the Club House, and all of which is the Willow & Grand Master Condominium Association. There are over 90 individually owned condominiums in the complex.


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Make Your Own 'Best of 2013′ Instagram Slideshow Instantly with #Memostatigram
If you're on Instagram as much as I am, no doubt you've seen your friends and family have these slideshows that feature their best photos from this past year. Statigram can make yours for free just by signing in. It'll generate your best pics based on likes.


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Whether it is individual drug therapy, catheterization procedures or complex surgery, thousands of adults and children with acquired and congenital diseases of the heart and vessels are successfully treated each year at the Heart Center and at the Center for Vascular Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital.
Established experts implement the most modern and innovative procedures in order to provide the best diagnosis and therapy and the highest level of safety and quality of life for all patients. The aboveaverage quality of our services is demonstrated, for example, in the quality of our bypass surgery. In a Germany-wide comparison, the Heidelberg surgeons received the best ratings. Patients who underwent surgery in Heidelberg showed outstanding treatment results.
Selected Areas of Expertise:
» Diagnostic Cardiology
» Interventional Cardiology / Cardiac Catheterization
» Neuroradiological Diagnosis and Intervention
» Neurosurgical Treatments of Vascular Diseases / Malformations
If you do not find the information you are seeking, please contact us.


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Mobile apps to generate untold riches for developers
Even when they're free, says analyst
Smartphone owners will together spend a staggering $6.2bn on applications this year, market watcher Gartner has forecast.
The company calculates that, in 2009, we spent $4.24bn, and with analysts unanimously anticipating yet more iPhones, BlackBerries, Palms and Android handsets to be purchased in 2010, Gartners' predicted revenue jump of almost 60 per cent doesn't sound unreasonable.
More amazing, perhaps, is the fact that all that cash will come from just 18 per cent of the applications we download. The remaining 82 per cent of apps are freeware. Now, Gartner said some 4.5bn apps will be downloaded in 2010, so that means just under 810m of them will require paying for.
That's an average price of $7.65 per app.
Most mobile apps cost rather less than that, which just goes to show why the likes of TomTom, CoPilot developer ALK and everyone else making iPhone satnav applications - which typically cost rather more than $7.65 - were all running around Las Vegas earlier this month hosting gigs in exclusive nightclubs and generally spending money like it's going out of fashion.
They are, in short, rolling in the stuff, and it's all thanks to their new mobile apps.
And the Croesus-style excess will continue. In 2013, Gartner reckons, global app store revenues will total $29.48bn.
Even the free apps will be pumping money into their developers' bank accounts, thanks to the advertising they will inevitably present to the users. In 2010, this kind of advertising will generate $600m - almost nine per cent of the total - rising to $7.38bn - 25 per cent of total app revenue - in 2013.
It's not all good news for developers, mind. Gartner warns that, as smartphones go mainstream, they'll be bought and used by less tech-savvy punters, folk less likely to spend willy-nilly on new apps.
Maybe, but we reckon they won't be able to resist the free stuff, and so the balance of revenue will shift from application purchases to in-app advertising. ®
Sponsored: Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business


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Company: Sysco Atlanta
Location: US-GA-College Park
Zip Code: 30337
Minimum Level of Education: Not Applicable
Minimum Years of Experience: 0-1
Position Type: Non-Exempt
Travel Percentage: 0
More information about this job:
$5,000 Sign on Bonus
This position is located at 2225 Riverdale Rd, College Park, GA, 30337.
We offer our associates the opportunity to grow personally and professionally, to contribute to the success of a dynamic organization, and to serve others in a manner that exceeds their expectations. We're looking for talented, hard-working individuals to join our team. Come grow with us and let us show you why we're at the heart of food and service.
To assist Fleet Technicians in providing safe, reliable and cost efficient vehicles by learning to perform quality preventive maintenance inspections and repairs as well as learning to perform diagnosis and repair as required to prevent breakdowns on road, reduce vehicle down time and improve total fleet reliability.
- Perform required inspections and preventive maintenance on vehicles and equipment (Tractors, Trailers, Convertor Dollies, Lift Gates, Light Duty Vehicles) to maximize the safety, reliability, and cost efficiency throughout the life cycle of the fleet to include, but not limited to FAI/CVI (Annual) Inspections, Perform quality preventive maintenance inspections per company methods on all fleet vehicles including tractors, trailers, converter dollies, lift-gates, light duty vehicles and any other company owned equipment, perform quality maintenance repairs as required to maximize safety and reliability on all fleet vehicles including tractors, trailers, converter dollies, lift-gates, light duty vehicles and any company owned equipment.
- Perform maintenance repairs on all vehicles such as inspections, scheduled repairs, malfunctions and road-call repairs in a safe, efficient, and quality manner, addressing all Driver Vehicle Inspection Report write ups timely, efficiently and correctly the first time, diagnose cause of any malfunction and perform repairs to manufacturer specifications including but not limited to engines, transmissions and clutches, drive-line, differential, steering and suspension, fuel and ignition system, exhaust systems (including regeneration systems), intake systems, electrical systems, brake systems, HVAC systems and lift-gate hydraulic, mechanical and electrical systems.
- Document all work performed on Work Order (SAP) using Complaint, Cause, and Correction Format
- Learn & develop efficiency in all Maintenance Relates Sysco Computer programs
Education and / or Experience:
- High school diploma or Equivalent
- Medium/Heavy Duty truck technical training 2 year school
- Annual Inspector Certification Knowledge Skills and Abilities
- Brake Inspector Certification Knowledge Skills and Abilities
- Working knowledge of Computer based diagnostic software for OEM & component mfg
- Either 1 Year Experience with 2 Year Technical Degree or 3 years experience in Fleet Maintenance and Repair
Professional Skills:
- Basic Knowledge and skill of all vehicle systems and Components
- Basic knowledge and skill in diagnosis and repair of electrical systems on all equipment
- Basic knowledge and skill in welding and cutting (gas, electric, MIG, TIG)
Certificates, Licenses and Registrations:
- ASE Certification ' Automotive or Medium/Heavy Duty
- Current and Valid Drivers License, CDL-A Preferred
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
- Physical demands to stand, walk, use hands to finger, handle or feel, reach with hands and arms, talk and hear, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, bend and crawl
- Vision abilities to include Close & Distance vision, color, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus
Working Conditions:
The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by associates within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of associates assigned to this job.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States.
Sysco Atlanta is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer, and considers qualified applicants without regard to race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected factor under federal, state or local law.
This opportunity is available through Sysco Corporation, its subsidiaries and affiliates.Employment Type: Full Time


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Helping Friends
Some friends called me to arrange to come over for some genealogy help.
They brought over their genealogy database on their laptop.
I helped Neil to recover a username and password he had forgotten.
I helped Judy to register on familysearch.org.
Then we had a bit more fun as we explored which of Judy's ancestors were in the FS Family Tree.
We found that FT had many more of her ancestors than she had in her personal database.
She asked "Is there was a way to download my additional ancestors?"
Fortunately there was at least two ways to do it. My first attempt was using my trusty AncestralQuest to sync to FS. In two attempts AQ quit twice. Hmm... I switched to "Plan B".
I used the free GetMyAncestors software from Ohanasoftware.com
It completed the download, but now I needed to join these new branches to Judy's Haltiner line on their computer.
I opened the download file in PAF, and exported the data in gedcom format.
Then I imported the gedcom file into a copy of Neil and Judy's database, and merged the duplicate records.
Mission accomplished! They were able to return home with additional genealogy.
They felt the 2.5 hours were well spent. So did I.
This is a favorite online newsletter, partly because of the new ideas it offers.
Five Great Productivity Tools for Genealogy
Check a Name
Convert Images to Text
Decipher Partial Names
Recognize Old File Extensions
Trace Old Photographs
Take a few minutes to read it, and I don't think you will be disappointed.


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You can contact our head-office directly, also you can contact our agent which is near you. Of course, free live-chat is available and you can get help immediately.
Spend a small amount of money to buy the most practical products.
WPC decking manufactured with recycled wood and plastic lumber are not only non-toxic, but they're...Place an order
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S-Trust PVC fencing(railing) line combines the best of wood and plastic using state...Place an order


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2 injured when cable on Ohio amusement park ride snaps
SANDUSKY, Ohio — An amusement park ride in Ohio that swings riders into the air is closed indefinitely after a cable snapped, injuring two people.
About 10 p.m. Saturday, a cable attached to one of the Skyhawk ride's carriages disconnected. One rider was treated at a hospital and released, while the other rider was treated at the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.
Skyhawk has two giant arms that swing riders at speeds of up to 60 mph. The park said the ride was temporarily closed in 2013 for an unrelated reason.
STORY:Bigger, faster rides may be hitting a peak
Season ticket holder Tom Achtziger and his two children were on the ride when the cable snapped.
"It was awful," said Achtziger in an e-mail. "When the cable broke they didn't stop the ride. They shut down the power and the ride kept swinging, letting gravity take over ... meanwhile the cable was whipping around smacking the ride and destroying things on the ground. We are all lucky that there were no more serious injuries."
Achtziger took a few photos from his seat on the ride.
"Some of these pictures were taken while we were still trapped in our seats as the ride would not release the safety belts," he said.
Cedar Point spokesman Bryan Edwards said the ride will remain closed until the park completes an investigation.
"Safety is our top priority," he said.
This is not the first time the ride has experienced problems. Skyhawk was shut down less than a day after it first opened in 2006. In 2013, it also was closed. Both previous shut downs were for unrelated technical problems.
Cedar Point is the flagship park of Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., the fourth-largest U.S. amusement park company.
Contributing: The Associated Press


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Oil and tradition try life together in far north Alaska
BARROW, Alaska - Minutes after the hunters' harpoon pierced the flesh of a bowhead whale, the call went out.
By cellphone and radio, native Alaskans were beckoned to the beach. Dozens worked furiously in the dark to carve the 40-ton beast and distribute the meat before it could spoil.
The resulting harvest in early October was stashed in cellars tunneled into the tundra. It will supply the delicacy muktuk for holiday celebrations and put food on the table of native Alaskans in far-flung villages for months to come.
The ritual has been going on for centuries in this small town at the northern tip of Alaska: twice-yearly hunts and harvests, with celebrations centered on the prized bowhead whale.
Some Inupiats fear that this tradition - and their subsistence way of life - could be jeopardized by offshore oil drilling, as Shell Oil Co. conducts a fresh search for Arctic crude and other companies plan similar pursuits. But others have adopted a more pragmatic approach.
They know that life on the barren, snow-packed land is sustained as much by the oil money that flows through the North Slope as by whale, seal and caribou.
The roadways, indoor plumbing, high school and community center have all been financed by Alaska's oil wealth, notes Oliver Leavitt, a former vice president of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and one of the patriarchs of a prominent Barrow whaling clan.
"The infrastructure that you see in Barrow is what was brought in by oil," Leavitt says as he slowly flips over playing cards during a game of solitaire in the local search and rescue office. "Before the discovery of oil, there was no education past eighth grade. This place has been transformed because of oil."
Leavitt, a gruff man who measures out his words carefully, scoffs at some natives' boasts that they could forgo oil money and return to living solely on hunting and fishing.
"A lot of the young say they will go back to the old ways. They don't know the old way," Leavitt says. "They grew up with the oil money."
The oil economy
Barrow is the biggest community in the North Slope Borough, a 95,000-square mile area about the size of Michigan, with eight villages that aren't linked by roads. While satellite dishes dot the flat expanse of the slope, some of the villages only recently have gotten indoor plumbing.
Change has come courtesy of the Prudhoe Bay oil field and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System that sends crude 800 miles south to Valdez, where it is shipped by tankers to the lower 48 states. The Native Alaskan-owned Arctic Slope Regional Corp. leases drilling rights to companies and owns a suite of oil field service, construction and refining companies, with profits distributed as dividends to shareholders.
Taxes on oil developments also funnel money into municipal coffers - ensuring a steady stream of cash that pays for education, government services and infrastructure in the villages.
Many are worried that the money will dry up, as surely as declining Prudhoe Bay oil production is starving the pipeline, threatening to make it unusable if its flow drops too low. New oil development - whether offshore in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas or on land - offers the promise of new crude supplies for the pipeline and a fresh source of revenue for the region.
Oil dividends help blunt the high cost of living on the United States' northernmost edge, where commodities are flown and barged in at great cost.
In Barrow's grocery store, hothouse tomatoes were selling for $6.29 per pound in October, milk ran $9.99 per gallon, and a package of romaine hearts was $4.59.
"That's our garden out there," says whaler Ron Saganna, gesturing to the Beaufort Sea and repeating a refrain commonly heard on the North Slope, where nearly year-round snow and cold preclude farming. "Over 50 percent of our food source comes from the ocean."
The Gulf spill
For locals, the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill painted fresh images of the potential destruction to their Arctic harvest of whales, salmon and seal - even eclipsing memories of oiled birds and other environmental damage when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground near Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.
"If they have a catastrophe like in the Gulf of Mexico and that stuff seeps up in the ice and it floats up all around the Northern Hemisphere, it's going to hurt our hunting. It's going to ruin our source of food," Saganna says. "Who knows how many years it would take to get back to normal, for us to go back to hunting?"
A cultural touchstone
Saganna, a member of the Patkotak whaling crew, was one of dozens of men who helped haul in and butcher the whale captured last month.
During the hunt, whaling crews - sometimes numbering up to 25 - camp on the edge of the ice, waiting for bowhead to pass close by as the animals migrate through the area in fall and spring. When they see one, they approach in umiaks, wooden frame boats covered in seal skin.
If they are close enough to a surfacing whale, a designated crew member throws or shoots a whaling harpoon loaded with an explosive dart that detonates on impact. The target is just behind the whale's eye, but there almost always are follow-up shots with a whaling gun and other weapons.
Dead whales are towed in and butchered onshore, with half of the meat generally distributed to the crew that brought down the beast, and the remainder distributed to villagers and those who helped carve up the creature.
The entire hunt is fraught with danger - including the risk that ice will break off from shore and carry a whaling crew out to sea.
"Once you're out there, if you see dark water in the back of you, then you've got to back up," said Perry Anashugak, a 48-year-old Inupiat who has been whaling since he was a teenager. "You can't drift out. You have to go back and get onto solid ice."
The bowhead is endangered, and while subsistence hunts are allowed, they are strictly limited by the International Whaling Commission, which allotted 74 strikes to Alaskans this year.
Even as it is hunted, the whale is revered as a source of food and life. One crew wears jackets emblazoned with a Bible verse: "And God created great whales … and God saw that it was good."
Thomas Napageak Jr., former mayor of Nuiqsut, a village of 400 people 150 miles east of Barrow, says even Inupiats who support oil development onshore and off are concerned that noise from seismic research and boat engines could scare off the whales, driving them farther from shore and making the annual hunts even more dangerous.
"We live off the land. We live off the ocean," Napageak said. "That's our natural resource. We want to protect what we eat."
Behind the skepticism are years of mistreatment and marginalization at the hands of outsiders, including policymakers in Washington. Older residents remember being shipped off to boarding schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the late 1950s, the government sought to detonate nuclear bombs to excavate a deep-water harbor 30 miles from the northwest Alaskan village of Point Hope. The project was abandoned in the face of public criticism, but not until after federal scientists sprinkled radioactive material in the area to simulate nuclear fallout and test its effects on local drinking water.
Shell has spent years trying to counter those memories - and the fears that even without a spill, ocean life could be harmed by the engine noise and drilling chemicals that come with a new search for oil.
Pete Slaiby, the executive vice president of Shell Alaska, has been the public face of that effort, courting native Alaskans and making concessions designed to assuage their biggest concerns.
For instance, Shell agreed to halt work and move out of the way during the bowhead migration, although whaling captains this year agreed to let the company begin work before the hunt was finished. Slaiby also promised not to discharge drilling fluids and waste into the Beaufort Sea, though Shell did not extend the same pledge to the Chukchi Sea.
Reducing the footprint
Slaiby said Shell has worked hard to minimize its footprint in Barrow and Wainwright, where the company stationed camps and workers during its preliminary drilling last summer. Shell's crew camp in Barrow is on the outskirts of town; workers living there were discouraged from shopping at the local grocery store, or participating in whale harvests or even using local taxis to travel around town.
"What we're really trying to do is make sure we are not disrupting people's lives," Slaiby says, adding that charter flights and Shell-provided groceries were designed to ensure the influx of workers didn't inflate prices for food and travel.
Native Alaskans know that offshore oil exploration - and the potential for eventual year-round production - could change their culture and customs.
Leavitt, the former Arctic Slope executive, remembers similar fears surfacing when oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968 and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was built in the 1970s.
"There was a big flurry of activities up here," Leavitt recalls. "Even then, people squawked about the discovery of oil, saying, 'There goes our caribou, our fish,' in the building of the pipeline. But the caribou are still there - right in the field."
Onshore preference
Even oil development skeptics in the area say they would rather see it happen onshore - in the 22.8-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve- Alaska or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - than in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
Napageak, the former mayor, said onshore development is less risky and offers more benefits for Nuiqsut and other villages near the reserve.
Leavitt agrees that it's safer to search for oil on land. "The more the environmentalists lock up the land where the oil may be, the more they're going to have to go offshore," Leavitt says. "And there's more danger there."
firstname.lastname@example.com twitter.com/jendlouhyhc


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Pakistani soldiers are posted on hilltops, in dry river beds, behind rocky cliffs, and even in surrounding bushes and trees along the dusty road from Peshawar to Datha Khail - near the border of Afghanistan.
They search each incoming vehicle from Afghanistan and check the identities of all male passengers, while helicopters hover in the skies above.
This was the scene as a reporter was taken on a five-hour drive yesterday to this remote region to meet with Qari Ahmadullah, the Taliban's chief of intelligence and a top negotiator for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
At 1 p.m. local time, we reach a village called Datha Khail, just eight miles from the Afghan border, where the intelligence chief has been living for the past two weeks. The compound is mud-walled and includes five covered, wood-walled rooms, with a small mosque situated in an inside courtyard. It is one mile away from a Pakistani security post.
The owner of the house, Malik Gulmarjan, warmly welcomes us, guiding us to his guesthouse near the entrance at the main gate of the compound. Three men armed with Kalashnikovs are seated on the floor, offering afternoon prayers. Pictures of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Fazal Rehman, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Pakistan's largest and most influential religious party, hang on the walls. There are also calendars published by Al Rashid Trust, a Karachi-based charity.
While we were taking tea and biscuits, a portly man with a bushy brown beard and a pukhol cap on his head entered the room. The armed men stand up in respect. I am told that this is Qari Ahmadullah.
After a moment of silence, Mr. Ahmadullah asks his driver about me, and his driver introduces me as a reporter for the local Pashto newspaper Shariat, which has a reputation for being a Taliban sympathizer.
This journalist is certain of Ahmadullah's identity from years of experience reporting about Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders. But it is impossible to know the intelligence chief's motives for meeting and talking to a reporter, or to independently corroborate any of his statements.
Ahmadullah reportedly first escaped from Jalalabad to Tora Bora when the Taliban fled the region on Nov. 14. Then, Ahmadullah says, he and several other Afghans - ethnic Pashtuns - were able to flee to Parachinar, inside Pakistan. Ahmadullah and several others later made their way to this mountainous region called Waziristan, in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan.
Ahmadullah says he is willing to speak openly, but says he wants to be cautious about giving detailed information about Mullah Omar or the movement of Mr. bin Ladin.
When I ask him how he was able to enter Pakistan while the Pakistani Army had strictly sealed the border, he points his right hand to the owner of the house who is sitting near me and says: "We still have a lot of loyal friends and well-wishers. They help us with whatever they can."
"It was really difficult to come into Pakistan," Ahmadullah continues. "But the cordial cooperation of our tribal Muslim brethren helped us come here. They even offered their own residential compounds to us to stay for a while, may Allah reward them in paradise!"
Ahmadullah says he's been in contact with Mullah Omar. "Amirul Momineen [Omar] is living in a safe and hidden area somewhere in the northeast of Kandahar," Ahmadullah says.
"He called me twice to come to Kandahar. But I cannot go there easily, because a lot of people know me, and I am frightened they will capture me somewhere on the road. So I sent my assistant Mullah Abdul Haq Wasiq to Kandahar. Unfortunately he was captured by American agents in Ghazni."
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported this past weekend that Mr. Wasiq, identified as the Taliban's deputy chief of intelligence, was arrested by American forces near the southern town of Ghazni. But the US has not confirmed that report.
During the interview with Ahmadullah, another bearded man rushes into the room carrying a satellite phone. "There is a call for you, sir," he says.
Ahmadullah takes the phone and goes out of the room. While we calmly sit in the room, we could hear some of Ahamadullah's part of the conversation with the person on the other end of the phone.
"No, it is impossible right now," he says. "Everywhere there are soldiers and spies. I will manage to come out before Saturday.... He called me three times and told me to stay here.... OK. Sir, if you wish, I would take the risk and come there."
He speaks for about seven minutes, then comes back to the room. He is asked about various statements circulating, that bin Laden is dead.
"That is baseless, absolutely baseless," Ahmadullah says. "Osama is alive, healthy, and safe. Last night our friends in Urozgan informed me by phone that he had met Osama somewhere near the border, and he said Osama was safe. He is always in close contact with Mullah Omar.
"I am personally requested by Mullah Omar and Sheikh Osama to go to Urozgan and take the command of new guerrilla war preparations, which will start as soon as possible, and you will hear the news in papers and on BBC," he adds. "We withdrew from major cities and provinces because the ruthless bombing of Americans had killed a lot of civilians as well as our holy warriors. We took that tactical step for our safety, and we will start our guerrilla campaign against our enemies as soon as we regroup."
Somewhere around 3:15 p.m., some tribal chiefs and several religious scholars from JUI come into the guesthouse. After they exchange greetings, Ahmadullah very politely asks the reporter to leave. "If you don't mind, please leave the room with our friends here. I have an important meeting with these people."
We leave as the sun is going down behind the sandy hills and drive back to Miran Shah and then to Peshawar.


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Recipe Swap: Sweet Corn & Herb Hush Puppies
Oh, life is funny sometimes. And by funny, I mean this: Life is abolutely, positively never dull. Let me explain…
So, I've been thinking about this particular recipe/post for a few weeks now. As you may recall, CM (from Burwell General Store) and I did a recipe swap not too long ago, wherein we made our own interpretations of a recipe from Autumn Spiced Pudding from an old cookbook/hymnal called All Day Singin and Dinner on the Ground. We had such a good time with the swap, that we decided to do another – and this time we invited Toni at Boulder Locavore to join in on the fun. CM selected another recipe from the same cookbook, and we've had the last couple weeks to dream up ideas and interpretations.
For this swap, CM selected a very simple recipe: Fern's Fried Apple Fritters.
She gave us no restrictions for our interpretations – the only stipulation was that our creations had to be somewhere in the fritter family (and that we had to have fun!). As soon as I heard that we were making fritters, I knew that I wanted to make Green Papata Fritters. I got the idea from one of Nich and I's absolute favorite places to eat – The Whisky Soda Lounge. The WSL is the sister restaurant of the acclaimed Thai restaurant, Pok Pok. Originally created as an overflow space for Pok Pok, the WSL was designed to be a place for diners to get a drink and snack while waiting for a table across the street. However, Nich and I don't even bother with Pok Pok anymore, we just go to the WSL for the Green Papaya Fritters. They are just so ridiculously good. That being said, I decided that since I love these particular fritters so very much, I would use this opportunity to make my own version of the beloved green papaya fritter.
And then, plans changed. On Friday night I ate some particularly spicy Chinese food…and let's just say that it didn't sit well with me. I will spare you the details, but it was a rough weekend. My original plan was to make my papaya fritters on Sunday night with my dear friend Mari, but my stomach had other plans. After a miserable day curled up in a ball on the couch, I couldn't stomach the thought (no pun intended!) of eating anything remotely related to Asian food. Green Papaya fritters were out of the question.
So, then, I did what any other reasonable person would do when feeling ill: I went ahead and made fritters. I simply made a different kind of fritter. I needed a fritter that would be nice to my angry stomach; a fritter that was decidedly un-complicated; and a fritter that could be classified as 'comfort food'. For me, that fritter was a classic cornmeal fritter — otherwise known as the "hush puppy".
Since I didn't have the energy to go to the store, my hush puppies were limited to what I had on hand. Thankfully, I had an interesting array of ingredients on hand and so I happily went about 'inventing' my version of this classic cornmeal fritter. In the end, I made Sweet Corn and Herb Hush Puppies with a Lemon Parsley Yogurt Sauce. They were everything I hoped for: simple to make, delicious to eat, and easy on the stomach. They may not be the fanciest fritters on the planet – but given the circumstances, I think they turned out rather well.
My fellow recipe swappers came up with some remarkable interpretations of the apple fritter. CM (Burwell General Store) made a "Trio of Truffle Fritters", as she scored an amazing selection of truffles at her local farmers market. Toni (Boulder Locavore) decided to stay true to the apple portion of the original fritter recipe, and reinvented the fritter as Apple Pork Empanadas (and they're gluten free!). I love that the 3 of us took a simple fritter recipe and ran in such different directions with it. Such is the beauty of a recipe swap!
So here's to another successful swap. And even though life (aka my stomach) threw me a bit of a curveball this past weekend, I just had to roll with it. Sometimes culinary 'accidents' are the best kind! In this case, my haphazard, last-minute, illness-induced fritters were fabulous!
Sweet Corn & Herb Hush Puppies
(Makes 15-20)
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup white flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
Black pepper to taste
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 small shallot, minced
1 baby sweet bell pepper, diced
1 small jalapeno, diced and seeds removed
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
3/4 cup corn kernels (I only had frozen corn on hand, as corn isn't exactly in season right now. But if making this in the summertime, I could imagine that roasted corn would be delicious in this!)
1 tsp fresh thyme
Canola oil for frying
1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, cayenne, sugar, pepper) together in a medium sized bowl.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and the egg. Add corn, herbs, shallot, and peppers to the egg and milk mixture. Using a spatula, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, folding until completely combined. For best results, let this mixture sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before frying.
3. Next, heat 2-3 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pan or skillet until it reaches 350 degrees.
4. Using a tablespoon to measure, drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil (I use a second spoon to scoop out the batter and keep its round shape). Fry until golden brown on all sides, turning every so often. Using a slotted spoon, remove from oil and transfer to paper towels. Let cool slightly, but they are best served warm! Serve with Lemon Parsley Yogurt Sauce.
Lemon Parsley Yogurt Sauce
1 cup Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup parsley leaves
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
A couple mint leaves
The juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
Method: Combine all ingredients in a food processor until well blended. For best results, chill for 1 hour before serving. Serve with hush puppies (and a dash of hot sauce!).
6 CommentsLeave a Comment
The Kettle Corn Guy / Jan 11 2011 4:31 am
Good lord, this looks amazing. I'll beg my wife to see if she can make this. 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
Mari / Jan 11 2011 9:35 am
Yum! Well done Linds. Glad your bum tum didn't stop you from making these. And holy crap Toni's apple/pork empanadas look to DIE for! Do you read Food and Wine Mag? Their Feb issues has some really goooood looking recipes in them. We need to reschedule our wine tasting and dinner date ASAP!
C.M. Reinhardt / Jan 11 2011 9:42 am
Lindsay, as always, I love your writing and your process! It's interesting how you made the dough, I completely went French technique on it! It's what I love so much about this project, every last detail is up for our own interpretation. Lovely work, and I hope you're up for it again.
Boulder Locavore / Jan 11 2011 2:54 pm
Hi Lindsay!
I've been on the run all day and am just at a computer! Beautiful post and these sound great. I will definitely make them (GF, of course). What a trooper to pull this out in your compromised condition this weekend. I probably would have left tear stains on my post and a 'gone fishin' sign. You are my hero…
grammie / Jan 13 2011 2:02 pm
You are amazing!


text:
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Michael Clarke Duncan's fiancee, Omarosa Manigault, said the actor died Monday in a Los Angeles hospital, nearly two months after suffering a heart attack.
The bodyguard-turned-film-star was 54. His credits include "The Green Mile," "Armageddon," "The Whole Nine Yards," "Brother Bear" and "Sin City."
"Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time," a representative for reality TV personality Manigault said in a statement People.com. "Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date."
"I am terribly saddened at the loss of Big Mike," People.com quoted Tom Hanks, Duncan's "Green Mile" co-star, as saying Monday. "He was the treasure we all discovered on the set of 'The Green Mile.' He was magic. He was a big love of man and his passing leaves us stunned."
Duncan, who was 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, went into full cardiac arrest July 13, but was revived when Manigault performed CPR on him and transported him to a hospital where he was treated until Monday when he died.
The exact cause of his death was not immediately reported.


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I just did an installation from the 10.10 Desktop LiveCD, making the root volume an LVM LV.
Apparently this is not supported; I managed it by taking these steps before starting the GUI installer app:
- installing the
lvm2package on the running system
- creating an LVM-type partition on the system hard drive
- creating a physical volume, a volume group and a root LV using the LVM tools. I also created a second LV for
/var; this I don't think is relevant.
- creating a filesystem (ext4) on each of the two LVs.
After taking these steps, the GUI installer offered the two LVs as installation targets; I gladly accepted, also putting
/boot on a primary partition separate from the LVM partition.
Installation seemed to go smoothly, and I've verified that both the root and var volumes do contain acceptable-looking directory structures.
However, booting fails; if I understood correctly what happened, I was dropped into a busybox running in the initrd filesystem.
Although I haven't worked through the entirety of the grub2 docs yet, it looks like the entry that tries to boot my new system is correct:
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set $UUID_OF_BOOT_FILESYSTEM
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=/dev/mapper/$LVM_VOLUME_GROUP-root ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
Note that $VARS are replaced in the actual
grub.cfg with their corresponding values.
I rebooted back into the livecd and have unpacked the initrd image into a temp directory. It looks like the initrd image lacks LVM functionality. For example, if I'm reading
/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/lvm2 (installed with
lvm2 on the livecd-booted system, not present on the installed one) correctly, an
lvm executable should be situated in
/sbin; that is not the case.
What's the best way to remedy this situation? I realize that it would be easier to just use the alternate install CD, which apparently supports LVM, but I don't want to wait for it to download and then have to reinstall.


text:
(this post also appears at Subculture for the Cultured)
(By the way, before this post, let me put in a plug for my friend Johann Roduit, who has submitted an entry to have his thesis illustrated. His entry is entitled, Becoming a Superhero:The Ethics of Human Enhancement and the Ideal Self, and can be found at PhD Comics.)
Welcome back fellow heroes!
Before we go on, this is a piece on The Dark Knight Rises and the ethics surrounding the end of the movie. You've seen the movie by now, right? If you, for whatever reason, plan to see this movie without spoilers, you shouldn't read this. The main ethical dilemma arises at the end of the movie, and that's what we're discussing. Still here? Good.
Viewed from a wholly practical point of view, Batman's final decision in The Dark Knight Rises is as irrational as they come. At first glance he "sacrifices" himself in the classic, desperate hero's death in order to save the city, so forgetting a few loose ends can be forgiven. But wait, he survives? He's right there in Italy with Anne Hathaway the whole time? Well, then his action was premature. Did he forget that Bane and Scarecrow are still on the loose? Did he leave the city with no bridge for supplies and no source of law and order beyond a depleted police force? Why did he turn over the persona of Batman, a role he filled after years of training, to an ex-cop with no training or experience outside of the police academy? If Wayne needed to quit being Batman, fine, but he left plenty undone.
But there's something else here. As Jim Emerson said, "when a movie shows blatant disregard for story logic, it may be a (bat-)signal that it means to be read on some other level. That's definitely the case here. On the level of plot, it's as preposterous and irrational as any of its predecessors, maybe more. But Nolan is more interested in implanting thematic ideas — even if he doesn't do anything with them." So what other themes are present in Nolan's story? What common threads can be pulled together to make something that makes sense?
Comparing the struggles of the protagonist and the antagonist yields a helpful parallel. Wayne has spent the last several years as a recluse, and on his dresser are two sets photos, one of his parents and one of his dead love, Rachel Dawes. These two sets of characters led Wayne to withdraw from society and essentially stop his life. Wayne never finished college due to his plan to murder his parents' murderer, and once his chance to avenge his parents was taken from him, he kept their memory close. But recall Alfred's hope: that he would see Wayne, living a life far away, in a healthy relationship and maybe even with children. But Wayne could not have that, not so long as the memory of his parents' death consumed him. Wayne sought to stop his parents' death retroactively, by becoming a symbol.
Now consider the primary antagonist (major spoiler!): Talia al Ghul (aka Miranda Tate, aka that crazy lady from Inception). She's trying to blow up Gotham, mostly to fulfill the dreams of her father, Ra's al Ghul. She changes her identity, sleeps with he hated enemy, and lives the life of deception, only to fulfill her father's life work: the destruction of Gotham.
Wait, we see a trend. Is this movie about the dreams of the characters' fathers?
The movie is not the story of Bruce Wayne's heroic sacrifice: as we've already established, for Wayne, there is no sacrifice. This is a story about growing up. Bruce never grew past the night his family died, and his only attempt to grow further through a relationship with Rachel was cut short by her death and Alfred refusing to share the she had chosen someone else. Afterwards, Bruce never formed new, trusting relationships outside of being Batman, and he never developed new interests and skills. Batman wasn't a means of progress: he was a roadblock to Wayne's growth. Batman existed to exacerbate the pain of Bruce's losses over and over again. Wayne became Batman at the cost of becoming an adult.
- Emotionally, nearly the entire trilogy takes place at this moment.
From: http://integral-options.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-we-fall-down-suffering-and-parts.html
Gaining practical experience and becoming more mature is referred to in ethics as gaining phronesis—moral or practical wisdom. This is why the generosity of adults usually does more good than the generosity of children- because the adult knows how to effectively use charity and good intentions, while the child may do more harm than good. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Aristotle makes a number of specific remarks about phronesis that are the subject of much scholarly debate, but the (related) modern concept is best understood by thinking of what the virtuous morally mature adult has that nice children, including nice adolescents, lack. Both the virtuous adult and the nice child have good intentions, but the child is much more prone to mess things up because he is ignorant of what he needs to know in order to do what he intends.
Which brings us to back to Batman: Batman allowed Wayne to express the remorse of his parents' death, but stopped his path to gaining more phronesis. Batman then died, so Wayne could live.
As a sort of proof, the scene in which Bruce escapes the well is full of references to Wayne's father. When Bruce first encountered the bats, it was at the bottom of a well. He was rescued by his father, who both asked him "Why do we fall down? So we can learn to get back up" and told him "Don't be afraid", the exact two phrases he needed to escape. So once again, metaphorically, Bruce's father allows him to escape a prison of his fear. Exiting the well indicated that Wayne finally learned the lessons his father tried to impart years before.
Moreover, Batman also allowed Wayne to do something he was never able to do as Batman, fulfill the legacy of his father. Thomas Wayne was the symbol Batman always strove to be: the first movie specified that Thomas Wayne's death galvanized the fight against poverty which saved the city from the League of Shadow's original assault. Batman repeated the act: through his sacrifice, Batman not only repelled the attack of the League twice, but he also became the symbol the city needed: evidenced by a statue in city hall. Batman's "death" allowed Bruce to do the thing being Batman could never do: live up to the sterling reputation of his father, then move on with life and raise a family.
That's why this movie is entitled The Dark Knight Rises. Batman finally rises to become the symbol Bruce wanted him to be-by dying. And, of course, Wayne is now able to move past his parents' death and, as all children must do, leave his parents' shadow and start a new life. Having emulated his parents' work as Batman, Bruce is free grow, not as Batman, but as an ordinary hero, living life one day at a time, gaining phronesis and growing towards a happiness and a well being, a "happiness worth striving for" referred to as eudaimonia by many neo-Aristotelian philosophers.
Hence, Batman's sacrifice at the end of TDKR may have been somewhat premature. But, once all the villains are defeated, Batman also won the fight to free Wayne from the past, a victory both spectacular as well as long, long overdue.


text:
Why hello people !
My name is Fred, and I'm 19 years old (in July actually..) and I am here mostly cause of getting help figuring out some java related errors and to learn how to add fixes to codes and how to "search-and-destroy" java errors within massive ammount of code.
I will be using the help and tips that I get, to improve my Java knowledge and to improve my game servers code.
Thanks in advance if you're the one that helps me out


text:
Inside OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion GM: Dictation & speechIn Mountain Lion, Macs are getting system-wide speech recognition, the same "Dictation" feature Apple gave the new iPad at the beginning of the year. While it works well, it does require a network connection.
Apple's cloud-based Dictation feature, currently supported on the new iPad and as part of the broader Siri voice assistant feature of iPhone 4S, converts speech to text virtually anywhere.
It works by sending audio recordings of captured speech to Apple's servers, which respond with plain text. While it doesn't go as far as the more intelligent Siri, Dictation does intelligently cross reference the names and assigned nicknames of your contacts in order to better understand what you are saying.
Similar to Siri or Dictation on the new iPad, Dictation on Macs running OS X Mountain Lion pops up a simple mic icon when activated, which listens until you click or type the key to finish.
Just as with Siri or dictation on the new iPad, Dictation under Mountain Lion is quite fast and highly accurate, but does require a network connection to function. If you don't have a network connection, the Dictation input icon will simply shake, indicating that it is not available.
Anything you say can be used to improve your dictation
Apple appears to be exercising great caution in highlighting the privacy issues related to using Dictation. The service is turned off by default, and turning it on from System Preferences requires clicking through a notice that various types of local data, including Contacts, are sent to Apple's servers in order to recognize the speech you're trying to convert to text.
Privacy on parade
For an even longer discussion of what's involved, you can click the "About Dictation & Privacy" button, which presents the following explanation:
"When you use the keyboard dictation feature on your computer, the things you dictate will be recorded and sent to Apple to convert what you say into text. Your computer will also send Apple other information, such as your first name and nickname; and the names, nicknames, and relationship with you (for example, my dad) of your address book contacts. All of this data is used to help the dictation feature understand you better and recognize what you say. Your User Data is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services.
"Information collected by Apple will be treated in accordance with Apple's Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy.
"You can choose to turn off the dictation feature at any time. To do so, open System Preferences, click Dictation & Speech, and then click Off in the Dictation section. If you turn off Dictation, Apple will delete your User Data, as well as your recent voice input data. Older voice input data that has been disassociated from you may be retained for a period of time to generally improve Dictation and other Apple products and services. This voice input data may include audio files and transcripts of what you said and related diagnostic data, such as hardware and operating system specifications and performance statistics.
"You can restrict access to the Dictation feature on your computer in the Parental Controls pane of System Preferences."


text:
- scissors
- adhesive
- paper leaves
- 2 red die cut daisies (red patterned paper looks cool too)
- a little scrap from the red paper that's bigger than the daisy center
- yellow or gold bling. They could be stickers or little brads.
2. Take the second flower (I'm using a blue flower for the tutorial but this one is red too.) and from half-way down each petal, cut the petals into a point.
3. Fold each of the flower petals from both of the flowers toward you. Then, use your adhesive and layer first with your scrap piece, then your larger flower, then your smaller flower.
The smaller flower petals should go between the larger. This will hide your scrap piece.
4. Add your bling to the center and adhere flower to card. Glue a couple paper leaves under the poinsettia.
Here's my example:
Paper Leaves: Prima
Sentiment: Hero Arts ClearDesigns mounted on K and Co paper
Cardstock: Bazzill
Background Paper: Cosmo Cricket
Ink: StaZon
Bling: Me And My Big Ideas Icons
Thank you for visiting We Grow By Our Dreams today. I have lots more projects and tutorials here and on my other blog, The Vintage Sheet Blog.


text:
An international team of scientists have banded tens of thousands of shorebirds since the mid 1990's. The vast majority of these birds are red knots, semipalmated sandpipers, ruddy turnstones, and sanderlings. Color-marking these birds has resulted in a growing database of sightings along the Atlantic Flyway describing their migration routes, nesting and wintering areas. Your observations will contribute greatly to this important information.
Click below to enter your resightings:
Once you have entered all of your data, you can simply click on Public Search, choose the correct species and flag color, then enter the marker code to see where your bird was banded and where else it has been resighted.
Sponsored by:
Clear into the Future: a DuPont Delaware Estuary Initiative is an ongoing commitment to maintain and improve the Delaware River Estuary. The initiative focuses on using DuPont science, volunteerism, education and special projects to help preserve and protect the estuary. To learn more about "Clear into the Future", go to www.clearintothefuture.com.


text:
Some lab tests (especially antibody and antigen tests) report
results in titers. A titer is a measure of how much the sample can be diluted
before the antibodies or antigens can no longer be detected.
titer of 1 to 8 (1:8) means that antibodies or antigens can still be found when
1 part of the blood sample is diluted by 8 parts of a salt solution (saline),
but they can no longer be found at a dilution of 1 to 16 (1:16). A larger
second number means there are more antibodies or antigens in the sample. So a
titer of 1 to 128 (1:128) means more antibodies or antigens in the sample than
a titer of 1 to 32 (1:32).
Last Revised:
May 6, 2011
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine & Thomas M. Bailey, MD - Family Medicine
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
It's quite possible that over the last year or so you've heard me muttering about a secret project that I've been working on. Well, this morning I can finally reveal what it is.
Do you ever wish that the Perl community had a centralised blogging site where anyone could set up a blog for free? Something, perhaps, that allows you to use modern blogging features like images in your posts or tags.
If you've ever wished for something like that, then can I suggest that you take a look at blogs.perl.org. I think it might be just what you're looking for.
The site is built using Movable Type and we were lucky enough to get some people from Six Apart to build it for us. I'd like to particularly thank Steve Cook of their professional services division who has done a lot of the actual work. Thanks also go to Jeremy King who designed the site and David Jacobs who is their manager and allowed them to work on the project on company time.
From the Perl community I need to thanks Aaron Crane who is hosting the site and Curtis Poe and Aristotle Pagaltzis who have both been involved in planning this project. Many other people have given invaluable advice or have been early testers of the site. Thanks to everyone who has been involved.
All that remains now is for you to try it out. You should regard it as a beta test version, so some of you will find problems. When you do, please just let me know and we'll fix them.
I hope you enjoy the site and find it useful.
Update: Yes, there seems to be one quite glaring problem with it. That's the web server errors that are generated occasionally when someone tries to log in (or out). Seems to be a resource allocation issue with the server. We're looking into it. Please bear with me.


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Why Mortgage Modifications Aren't Working
As covered in both today's Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, the Obama administration has called 25 of the largest mortgage servicing companies to Washington to try to figure out why the Obama efforts to stem foreclosures has been a failure.
The reason such efforts, as well as those of the Bush Administration and the FDIC, have been a failure is that such efforts have grossly misdiagnosed the causes of mortgage defaults. An implicit assumption behind former Treasury Secretary Paulson's HOPE NOW, FDIC Chair Sheila Bair's IndyMac model, and the Obama Administration's current foreclosure efforts is that the current wave of foreclosures is almost exclusively the result of predatory lending practices and "exploding" adjustable rate mortgages, where large payment shocks upon the rate re‐set cause mortgage payment to become "unaffordable."
The simple truth is that the vast majority of mortgage defaults are being driven by the same factors that have always driven mortgage defaults: generally a negative equity position on the part of the homeowner coupled with a life event that results in a substantial shock to their income, most often a job loss or reduction in earnings. Until both of these components, negative equity and a negative income shock are addressed, foreclosures will remain at highly elevated levels.
Sadly the Obama Administration is likely to use today's meeting as simply an excuse to deflect blame from themselves onto "greedy" lenders. Instead the Administration should be focusing on avenues for increasing employment and getting our economy growing again. Then of course, this Administration has from the start been more focused on re‐distributing wealth rather than creating it, which explains why it views mortgage modifications as simply a game of taking from lenders (in reality investors — like pension funds) and giving to delinquent homeowners.