text:
With an industry tax credit in jeopardy and new projects at a virtual standstill in the U.S., you might have expected the wind industry to come limping into RETECH2012. Instead, the audience heard from a sector that's honing in on what it can control — namely cost reductions and innovation.
"We haven't placed any orders for turbines for 2013," said First Wind's Julia Bovey in the opening remarks. That's been the norm in 2012 for wind developers and turbine manufacturers as utilities and power purchasers have adopted a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the Production Tax Credit (PTC).
As a result, she added, three primary drivers have taken hold: reducing costs, improving turbine technology, and accessing capital in different ways.
Life Beyond The PTC
While the PTC has taken up much of the industry's focus, wind proponents like Bovey and other green advocates are pushing for other ways to access capital. Two that have captured the discussion recently are master limited partnerships (MLPs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs). Both are used by oil and gas companies and have driven more than $300 billion in private investment. Here's the way it was described in a NYT Op-Ed piece.
"Some economists and green tech entrepreneurs have advocated a change in federal tax law to allow renewable energy companies to use a tax-advantaged investment device known as a master limited partnership, which has attracted $350 billion in private investment but is limited to oil and gas extraction and pipeline projects. Another proposal is to allow real estate investment trusts, which are like mutual funds for real estate, to cover energy transmission networks and renewable energy generation."
The wind industry says the subsidy discussion is really about equal footing. An LA Times report showed how lopsided it can seem depending on the data being analyzed.
"Fossil-fuel producers reap tax accounting breaks such as the depletion allowance, which is worth an estimated $1 billion a year, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a Washington think tank created to advise Congress on energy policy. Tax-expensing options for drillers bring them $1.9 billion a year. Relief on royalty payments due to drillers on government property: $53 billion over the lifetime of the leases."
However the subsidies play out, panelists agreed something similar to the current renewable portfolio standard should be a goal. As much of a hot potato that it might be politically, more than thirty states are already enrolled to spark renewable growth. As one of the speakers mentioned, RPS is the closest thing we have to a national clean energy standard.
Innovation Brings Multiple Benefits
The pace of innovation in the wind business was certainly one of the bright spots. Taylor Geer, with energy consultancy Garrad Hassan, said turbine efficiency and reliability have improved dramatically over the last five years, something he attributes to better manufacturing processes and more R&D earmarked for things like forecasting and storage.
"We definitely have a better idea of what we need to look like within three-to-five years," said Geer. "Not to mention we're getting a better sense of what our cost of energy will be, and that's a big lift." Like other panelists, Greer emphasized the impact that energy storage would have on levelizing electricity costs. As the storage infrastructure improves, most agreed wind farms would likely resemble a generation model closer to conventional power plants.
To get a sense of how fast turbine technology is evolving, you can look at "repowering" efforts, which replace older turbines with new ones. According to Jeff Schlichting at wind developer Sustainable Legacy, one turbine can now replace up to five others as wind farms are upgraded.
Taking Costs Out Of The System
Cost reduction was another area where technology improvements are having an impact. But it's not just better rotor technology or lighter materials that are helping, it's supply chain efficiencies and the way wind farms are commissioned. "As the industry has matured, we've gotten better at everything from construction to logistics," said Schlichting. "
And perhaps a sign of that maturity was the fact that IBM was on hand to address the operations and management (O&M) market for wind. According to Biren Gandhi of IBM Global Business Services, O&M costs can approach one-third of the total capital expenditures for a wind farm.
The company was pitching its IT-driven approach to managing large-scale wind operations, experience that it's gained from running big servers and cloud applications for customers in the automotive industry and other manufacturing-intensive operations. IBM projects the O&M market could grow by as much as $6 billion over the next decade.


text:
Northern Virginia Writers Guild - November 9, 2014
On November 9th I will be attending a meeting of the Northern Virginia Writer's Guild. I am looking forward to connecting with other writers in the area. I look forward to a sharing tips, techniques, roadblocks, and successes. I am looking forward to an interesting meeting. I hope to see you there.
The guild meets once a month in one of Fairfax County Public Libraries, normally the Centreville Library. They do not collect any dues.
The Writers Meetup exists to review work, trade literary tips, make friends and have fun!
All writers -- and would-be writers -- are welcome!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
BISMARCK – North Dakota School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said North Dakota's newly revamped student loan forgiveness program for teachers may offer up to four years' worth of debt relief, which school districts may use to recruit or retain teachers.
Teachers who benefit from the program could have from $12,000 to $26,000 in student loan debt forgiven over four years, depending on their position and location, Baesler said.
The 2017 Legislature made major changes to the teacher loan forgiveness program. Applications now must come from school districts, rather than individual teachers. Teachers will no longer receive benefits under the state's former program.
Districts may seek loan forgiveness for positions in areas where the Department of Public Instruction has determined that a teacher shortage or critical need exists. School districts may apply for debt relief for no more than two teaching jobs at any one time.
The critical need teaching positions that qualify for teacher student loan relief are science, business and office technology, agricultural


text:
KINGSPORT – Every day, Holston Valley Medical Center helps some of the tiniest and youngest babies not only survive but also grow into strong and healthy children and young adults.
It's an achievement worth celebrating.
On Sunday, May 5, graduates from Holston Valley's neonatal intensive care unit will participate in a special tradition, as they join their former caregivers at the hospital's annual NICU reunion. Graduates' families are also invited.
The event will be held from 2-4 p.m. at the Holston Valley Outpatient Center on the Eastman Outpatient Campus at 103 W. Stone Drive.
A graduate is anyone who has been treated in Holston Valley's NICU during its 26-year history. During the celebration, visitors can enjoy activities, games, door prizes, desserts and refreshments.
"Nurses, patients and families in the NICU tend to be bonded in a special way," said Laurie Kaudewitz, Holston Valley's director of women's and children's services. "It goes so far beyond the days, weeks, months they're in the hospital – we form a lifelong attachment with these babies.
"Nothing is more incredible than catching up with these graduates – some of our patients are in their mid-20s now – and remembering a time when they could quite literally fit in the palm of your hand."
The NICU has meant so much to Holston Valley that the hospital recently created a calendar that highlights how far these babies have progressed since they received innovative care in the hospital. The first calendar was issued for 2013, and a second one is planned for 2014.
Patients as young as 24 weeks of age – newborns requiring the very highest level of care – have excelled in Holston Valley's Level III NICU, which has 15 dedicated beds. A specially certified NICU medical team and skilled nursing staff provide essential services to ensure the safety and well-being of newborns, including hearing screenings and other tests for babies prior to leaving the hospital.
The NICU is a beneficiary of Wellmont Health System's Children's Miracle Network Hospitals funds. Wellmont has been the regional affiliate of Children's Miracle Network since 1987 and uses those funds to buy state-of-the-art equipment for its pediatric and neonatal intensive care programs, fund lifesaving research and support community education programs.
"We are grateful to Children's Miracle Network for the beneficial assistance it has provided Wellmont for a generation," said Todd Norris, Wellmont's senior vice president of system advancement. "Some of the equipment and treatment options we have are a direct result of Children's Miracle Network, which has helped improve and save the lives of thousands of children over the years."
To learn more about the NICU reunion, please call 423-224-6280. Pledges to Children's Miracle Network can be made at any time by visiting www.wellmont.org and clicking the link for giving. More information is also available at www.childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org.


text:
London Pre Engagement | Christie & Angus
For the last 3 weekends we have been trying to arrange a pre engagement shoot in London and the weather haven't been on our side, however today was the day that it did not rain, hooray!!!
It was beautiful warm day, we spent an hour walking around London shooting at Christie & Angus favourite spot.
Here is the highlight from today shoot, thanks for being so awesome guys!. I can't wait to share the full gallery with you soon. x
no comments


text:
In its early days, the Eurozone was seen as a powerful competitor to the United States for economic dominance—perhaps especially to American tourists attempting to navigate unfavorable exchange rates during the early 2000s. Real tests of strength, however, come at times of crisis. As the Eurozone stumbles out of the turmoil brought about by the Great Recession of 2008 and the European debt crisis, fractures there are becoming more apparent. Not only is the Eurozone imperiled by periodic rumors of a 'Grexit', but many of the nations that make up the Eurozone are having their own existential difficulties, as subnational independence movements are posing a challenge to the very idea of the nation state.
Source: wordpress.com
To put the issues that the EU and the Eurozone are facing into perspective, imagine a rope that is being wound tightly together at one end, while simultaneously causing an unraveling at the other. As supranational authority in Europe grows, the concept of the traditional nation state is being challenged by the rise of institutions like the European Council, the European Parliament, and the European Central Bank.
As the Eurozone continues to be mired in a period of low economic growth, economic stagnation, economic malaise, and high unemployment, many have begun to question the utility of remaining in the Eurozone. In places like Greece, for example, where membership in a currency union has prevented currency devaluation that could have helped to jumpstart their struggling economy, there is growing frustration with the constraints of supra-national authority.
However, in addition to outright conflicts between national and supra-national authority, there are also independence movements within the nation states themselves. There are citizens, for example, within the EU who wish to secede from the nation state in which their region is embedded but who still wish to remain inside the EU or inside the Eurozone.
In the EU, citizens are generally able to travel freely from one country to another in search of work. The flow of labor tends to go from the lesser-developed countries in the EU to the more developed countries. In good economic times, we hear less rhetoric about immigrants "stealing jobs", but as economic conditions worsen and pressures mount, resentment between countries and cultures builds. The concept of the social welfare state, of course, is deeply entrenched in Europe, but when the economic pie shrinks, it generally becomes more difficult to share.
There is growing discontent about the transfers of money from the haves to the have-nots of the EU. It is seen in Germany's reluctance to lend to the so-called PIGS, but is increasingly being seen within the constituent nation states and wealthier regions now facing economic headwinds, who are less inclined to transfer to poorer regions.
While ethnic and cultural conflicts are often cited as the root cause of independence movements, we see that many of the problems boil down to something baser: Simple economics.
When it comes to wealth transfers, the sentiment across the board seems to be: "We don't like it in the good times—and we hate it in the bad times." Let's take a look now at some of the country specific problems, and explore what these independence movements may mean for the future of the EU and the Eurozone.
Belgium, a nation of 11 million people on the North Sea, borders the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and Germany. Though it is situated in the more prosperous, northern portion of the Eurozone, Belgium has faced internal cultural clashes for decades between the Flemish in the north and the French in the south. The French part of Belgium has largely been based on industry and manufacturing while the Flemish part of the country has been more successful in converting their economy to higher value added industries such as technology, healthcare, and the manufacture of luxury goods.
Despite differences in culture, the two regions were able to coexist and perhaps even balance each other out – at least in economic terms. However, now that traditional manufacturing has fallen by the wayside due to technology and globalization, the French side is no longer well balanced against the Flemish. Unlike some areas of the Eurozone where there is economic disparity, the problems in French-Belgium are not merely cyclical, they are structural which has the Flemish wondering why and for how long they will have to support their weaker countrymen.
Even a casual student of European history will recall that until the late nineteenth century, Italy existed not as a unified nation but as a collection of independent autonomous regions loosely connected by similar cultures and a common language base. (Travelers to Italy today will notice that the Italian spoken in different regions can still sound quite different.) While unifying into a modern nation state brought many of the benefits of being a large country with centralized authority, unification hasn't been a panacea. Regional conflicts still exist—and have, in many ways, intensified since the Great Recession.
The highly industrialized and economically well-developed north has been transferring resources to the south since unification—and that one-sided transfer has only grown in recent decades. As a result, the Northern League party has emerged as a growing political party in the last 25 years. With economic problems in Italy intensifying, one of the key policy platforms of the Northern League is to return Italy to a federalist system, where the wealth generated in the north stays in the north instead of being transferred to a central government, and then re-routed to the south.
As with many political parties, there are differences of opinion—in the case of the Northern League, there are differences among party members about the extent of separation being sought. For some, the party platform represents a forum for airing grievances, while other members seek radical change. For example, on one end of the spectrum are party members who wish to limit regional transfer payments in Italy, while at the more extreme end are members of the Northern League who want to break up Italy's territorial sovereignty and secede from the country.
One of the best documented independence movements in Europe is that of the Catalonians in Spain. Visitors to Barcelona may lament that their high school Spanish is of little help in the region as many residents of the region speak the Catalan language. What is interesting about this independence movement is that it is often portrayed as a clash of cultures and identities when, in fact, the primary source of contention today is economic.
Catalonia has historically been one of the wealthiest regions in Spain. It has a diverse economy that benefits from tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, and increasingly from financial services and technology. An independent Catalonia can certainly seem attractive by economic measures. Factoring in history and the clash of cultures and languages, along with the economic concerns, makes an independent Catalonia seem inevitable to some partisans of secession.
As in Italy, the degree to which independence is sought varies. Some people are pleased saying: "Instead of the 4 or 5% GDP we transfer from us to the center, we should transfer only 2 or 3%, half as much, keep the rest to ourselves, and then we'll be happy. We will stay in the union."
Among the people who share that conciliatory view is Andreu Mas-Colell, the incumbent Finance Minister of Catalonia—and, incidentally, my professor during my first year of grad school. On the other end of the spectrum, are the more revolutionary separatist elements, who seek full independence from Spain.
The global financial crisis highlighted the divisions within Spain. Output collapsed, unemployment rose, and taxes rose higher. As a result, everyone feels squeezed – even those who are marginally better off in the wealthier regions. As I alluded to in my opening, the transfer union is tolerated when times are good, when times are bad it is despised — and sometimes a battle cry for independence.
It would be a serious omission to discuss independence movements in Europe without examining the Scottish referendum for independence, which took place last fall. Despite some early polling that called for a close vote, the Scots overwhelmingly voted to stay in the United Kingdom.
The Scottish vote could not have come at a more interesting time. An independent Scotland would likely be a net exporter of oil, while the rest of the United Kingdom would remain a net importer. Much of the support for independence was predicated on Scotland's wealth of oil reserves, with many in Scotland seeing the price of oil only going up. Independence was voted down when Brent crude oil was near $100. With Brent hovering around $50, as of the the time of this writing, Scotland is now seeking tax breaks to bail out the oil industry. Perhaps now some of the most fervent supporters of Scottish independence can see the utility of staying in the UK.


text:
Day of Challenges
Season 9 • Episode 16
Shari looks for a 30 year anniversary vow renewal dress with her high maintenance hubby. Bride-to-be Alex must find a gown in twenty-four hours before returning home to Canada. New bride Ebony is nervous for a fitting after having lost thirty pounds.
21 min|TV-PG|Premiered 02/16/2013


text:
I had the chance to collaborate with them and this was what I picked out - Pråper (in Navy & Brown):
- Expandable Metal hook closure
- Inner 13" laptop sleeve and two pockets
- Passport pocket
- Adjustable shoulder straps
Thank you Gaston Luga! :D
For all my readers, quote "lovethekisses15" at checkout to enjoy 15% off products on gastonluga.com!
Also you get the enjoy free shipping all year round + 20% off as tax rebate!


text:
You may still be sinking into this semester at school and looking for a few good tools to get stuff done this year. One of the things that you will be doing the most is taking notes (and hopefully, good ones) during classes, group meetings, reading, etc. Rather than look and try out every single note taking app there is, we've filtered them down for you so you can make a more informed decision on where you will store all of your stuff this year.
Here are the top 12 note taking apps for getting things done in school.
1. Evernote (Web, OS X, Windows, Android, iOS, Blackberry)
With Evernote being avaailable for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows, it's no wonder that it is still considered by many to be the world's best note taking application and utility.
Where Evernote excels in a school context is its ubiquity as well as cool features like allowing for photos, location, and voice recording (which is great for recording lectures).
2. Google Docs / Drive (Web, Android, iOS)
Without Google Docs, collaboration on papers, spreadsheets, and other files with groups is a difficult (and annoying) thing todo. I remember painfully emailing documents back and forth to fellow students who weren't on the Google Docs "kick" and losing track of which version was the current version of any document or file.
With Google Docs you can invite all of your partners to a document and collaborate and keep things in sync.
3. Simplenote (Web, iOS, third-party Android)
If you want to take, well, simple notes, then Simplenote is the tool to do it with. You can easily capture your ideas, tasks, and assignments in a plain text form and have it sync with your iPhone or Android (with a third party app, Flick Note).
You can also export your Simplenote database to plain text, CSV, JSON, XML, and even Evernote.
4. Catch (Web, iOS, Android)
Catch is another web based note capturing ideas while on the go. Catch brings a unique a different type of mobile interface to the user and rather than tapping a tiny "plus" button and adding a new note, you can use Catch's "capture wheel" to create a voice note, date, text note, task, or picture. You can also use hash tags to organize your notes.
5. Fetchnotes (Web, iOS, Android)
Fetchnotes is a newcomer to the online note taking arena but is a great way to take a bunch of quick notes and tag them as well as attach documents and files from a slew of different web apps like Dropbox, Box, Evernote, Instagram, Github, Google Drive, and much more. You can also invite schoolmates to share notes with.
In fact, if you sign up today for Fetchnotes and open a new Box account, you can get 25GB of free storage for your files.
6. Springpad (Web, iOS, Android)
Springpad is another way to store photos, to-dos, notes, links, locations, and more as well as share them with fellow students. The app is available for iOS and Android and can be used on the web. Springpad also gives you some notebook ideas to start with like Team Projects, Quick Notes, To-do lists and more.
7. TopXNotes (OS X)
TopXNotes is a native note taking app for Mac that allows you to create rich text notes as well as have multiple notes opened at the same time. The ability to have multiple notes open in one interface during a class may be beneficial for making an outline and adding to a class summary at the same time.
TopXNotes is available now through Lifehack Deals for half off.
8. OneNote (Windows, web, iPhone)
OneNote is the most integrated and feature rich note taking application on Windows not to mention that it now sports an online interface through Office.com where users can sync all of their OneNote notebooks and an iOS app.
Notebooks can be shared and collaborated on natively or in the cloud. It's not necessarily the cheapest note taking application, but its integration and usefulness is worth the price if you are on Windows.
9. Circus Ponies Notebook (OS X, iPad)
If you like OneNote but want something on the Mac, then Circus Ponies Notebook is the app you are looking for. One of the coolest features for students is the ability to create detailed indexes of your notes as well as export your notebooks as full-fledged websites. With some free server space from your school and Circus Ponies Notebook, you are going to be everyone's friend whe you sharing your notes. Oh, and there is an attractive iPad app that syncs with your Mac.
10. FoldingText (OS X)
FoldingText is an cool new way to use Markdown to create "foldable" headings, bulleted lists, clickable links, etc. Instead of the standard "static" nature of a plain text file with Markdown syntax, FoldingText for Mac allows the user to type in Markdown and the syntax is instantly converted to the proper format. You can also make to-do lists and even timers by using a special syntax.
11. Epistle (Android)
If you need to edit plain text and Markdown on an Android and sync it with Dropbox, then Epistle is the app you are looking for. You can create notes, edit them, sync them with Dropbox, preview Markdown, and send the text to any app on Android that will accept text. This is a great app to create a quick outline or to-do list and send it to a classmate or view all of your plain text notes on.
12. Notesy (iOS)
Now, if you want to do plain text on iOS, Notesy is one of the best apps to do it in. There are many others, but in my experience Notesy seems the fastest and easiest to use. Also, Notesy has superior filtering and navigation of your Dropbox synced notes.


text:
Red, White and Barbara's
Memorial Day may mark the beginning of the vacation season for you and your clients, but the 4th of July is when summer really blasts off (literally!) for most. Independence Day is traditionally a time for the five Fs: friends, family, fun, fireworks, and food. Your clients can handle the first four, but we'd like to pitch in on the food ideas with some heart-healthy suggestions for the remainder of the summer.
If your clients like meat, make sure they look for hamburgers and hot dogs without antibiotics or added hormones. Grass fed or organic meats are a terrific option. If they're looking for a meat alternative, I recommend grilling wild salmon with a side of veggie kabobs. Salmon is rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and easy to make. Simply marinate one-inch thick salmon steaks in your favorite marinade (I love San-J's Asian cooking sauces), grill over medium-hot charcoal 4 to 6 minutes per side, and serve with lime.
Make your veggie kabobs colorful and healthy! Cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper slices, white mushroom caps, and purple eggplant squares serve as the perfect lineup and provide heart friendly nutrients. Simply brush the veggies with marinade and grill your kabobs alongside the salmon.
Instead of potato salad, have your clients try a quinoa salad with roasted cherry tomatoes. Quinoa is an easy-to-prepare grain that's also a complete protein and a great source of heart-healthy nutrients: magnesium, phosphorus, folate, and fiber. The tomatoes provide lycopene (an antioxidant) and other nutrients. For the dressing, use the juices from the tomatoes and add a squirt of lime juice.
Beverages can be good for the heart as well if you make a batch of iced green tea with lemon slices and fresh mint. Green tea (my go-to brand is Bigelow) is a super source of catechins, plant nutrients shown to possess cardiovascular (and weight loss!) benefits.
Keeping the young ones busy by having them make their own Snackimals Banana Roll Ups is fun and easy. It has just four simple ingredients—Barbara's Vanilla Snackimals, bananas, whole-wheat tortillas, and peanut butter.
For the adults, a variation of Barbara's Peaches and Crème Dessert Shots is a fun choice. Substitute holiday-appropriate berries (blueberries, strawberries, boysenberries, raspberries) for the peaches.
Wishing all of you a safe and heart-healthy summer!


text:
motorola has given their chip unit an ultimatum. if it doesn't make some profits in an "undisclosed time period," it will be cut loose. possible bidders for the unit that makes powerpc chips for apple's macintosh line include ibm and amd, according to zdnet uk. another possibility is splitting the semiconductor unit off and having an ipo for it. motorola's semiconductor division lost us$381 million in q2 2001. once again, the spectre looms for apple to be dependent on ibm, the creator of the ibm pc, to power their computers with powerpc chips. that would certainly be ironic. i'd imagine that apple is getting a better deal now from motorola than they would with the hard-driving ibm. ibm is still big enough that they feel that they can dictate policy, as opposed to negotiating a fair price on anything. we've seen transmeta flee ibm's fabs recently due to the high prices, and cyrix was injured by their dependence on ibm as well, where ibm took half of the chips coming off the line and undercut cyrix prices with their own chips. my recommendation to apple: take care.
user comments 11 comment(s)
|g3 (2:19pm est thu aug 23 2001)
if they do stop producing them and apple has to lean on ibm who is still using the g3 architectre instead of the g4 which is superior and runs at higher clock speeds. motorola has to find a way to cut costs in their chip production and get a ghz g4 out! – by jason o.
|squeeze of the market (3:25pm est thu aug 23 2001)
from the article, motorola has already cut people and plants, but is still bleeding almost .4 bigbucks a year. it's hard to see motorola inc putting any significant bucks into development in this kind of computer market, so it appears like motorola semiconductor is soon to exit, stage left. amd might buy out the dresden fab and ibm might buy the rest. spin-off? of a red-ink gusher? lots of luck on that! – by rdn
|this is what intel needs (4:10pm est thu aug 23 2001)
we make the mac chip so are pc chips share the same "superior design" – by real bs
|apple (4:17pm est thu aug 23 2001)
why not apple as the possible buyer? makes more sence than anyone else. they need mot more than anyone. – by truthsayer
|price (5:08pm est thu aug 23 2001)
apple may have some coin, but they'll go through it pretty quick if they buy something losing $381m a year – and they don't have any other production lines to "consolidate" with the motorola line. – by rdn
|apple's future (8:41am est fri aug 24 2001)
if motorola spins off the chip division, from whom will they buy the chips for their phone line?
secondly, where does this put apple?
currently apple is reaping profits from filemaker pro, inc. and pixar. those successes are keeping the momma corporation afloat.
now apple wants to spend $200+ megabucks [$80 mb this year] to adopt the failed gateway sales model and are at risk to lose their chip source.
meanwhile dell is stealing apple's education income. also dell is aggressively positioning hp's dvd+rw technology, competing against apple's media tech.
will apple likely be here as a consumer computer manufacturer by the end of 2002? – by jj brannon
|jj brandon (12:21pm est fri aug 24 2001)
correction dell has just lost its market share in education to apple. so this puts apple back to #1 in education.
tell michael dell… better luck next year!!! – by belinux
|apple losing money on the chips… (1:34pm est fri aug 24 2001)
well just because mot loses so much money via the chips does not mean apple will…
first of all… if apple purchases the chip producing area…
apple can cut there chip buying department…
apple can cut ex-mots's sales department
the mark up on the chip would not have to be paid…. im sure apple paid more to mot then mot lost on the chip.. so apple could possible reduce its losses on the proccessor parts, thus in all reality gain money…
just an example
you can spend 1 billion purchasing them…
lose 50 million making them….
at the end who has more money?
i wish economics was this simple but from the data so far… well it does make sence…. – by clanjade
|an answer for clanjade (1:51pm est fri aug 24 2001)
microsoft – by rede duh numbahs
|financial buyers (2:08pm est fri aug 24 2001)
in addition to apple, amd and ibm as motorola semi buyers, don't forget financial buyers. just before the economy went south, a group of new private equity firms that buy ailing technology companies were formed. in addition, one firm, texas pacific group, made a ton of money trailblazing in the tech sector for pe firms. another buyer is kkr-accel partners, the joint venture between pe firm kkr and venture firm accel partners. kkr-accel is well suited for such a buy because of kkr's turn around experience and accel's tech successes. – by webpilot
|what about sgi (10:59pm est fri aug 24 2001)
why not buy sgi instead of motorola? sgi is a better buy, they can also buy the mips technology too. and apple can enter the supercomputing world with a mature version of unix(irix) intead of the buggy ox. – by aha


text:
Shimuk provides training leading to various global certifications:
- PMP® Certification Preparation:-
- Project Management Professional
- PMP-Classroom-Boot Camp
Agile-Scrum Certification Preparation:-
- SFCTM– Scrum Fundamentals Certified
- SDCTM – Scrum Developer Certified
- SMCTM – Scrum Master Certified
- SAMCTM – Scrum study Agile Master Certified
- SPOC™TM – Scrum Product Owner Certified
- ITILCertification
- PRINCE2 Certification
- Six Sigma Certification
- Besides this Shimuk also conducts training for:-
- Contract Management & FIDIC,
- MS Project, Primavera,
- Advance Excel,
- Soft Skills,
- Other tailor-made training as required by the clients.
- Shimuk is an A.T.P. (Authorized Training Partner) of VMEdu to provide their various Project Management courses pan-India.
VMEdu is a US-based leader in Training and Certification Industry having brands like SCRUM Study, PM Study, My IT Study and much more.


text:
An unexpected credit...March 31st, 2014 at 01:43 pm
First off, thanks for the info about taking food on the plane....I knew you couldn't take liquids (until passing security) so I have no idea why I thought you couldn't take food. Our last few vacations have been long flying times and I can't believe I didn't know this.....this really helps a lot and I am excited to be able to bring some healthy snacks and food!
I received an email awhile back from Barnes and Noble about a settlement and that I would be receiving a credit soon. It has something to do with the Nook (and possibly other e-readers) so I was pleasantly surprised to receive my credit this weekend of $16.00! I loaded it on my account along with a $25 gift card from my birthday so I have $41 to spend. Obviously, this comes as a great time with several long planes rides coming up. I found a couple of books I loaded last night and have a few more in mind to finish up the credit. Yipee!


text:
Anand Dave
Anand Dave
I am working as a Business Manager/Project Analyst in I.T Industry, I have a throughout experience as a Business Analyst in the same field more than 3+ years. Currently i am providing I.T based solutions to the client over the different technologies platform considered as Web based Project Development (.Net/PHP/OpenSource/eCommerce Technology Platform) | Mobile Application Development (iOS/Android/Windows Mobile/Blackberry).
"...Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and recommend solutions that enable organizations to achieve its goals..."


text:
It will be no surprise to hear Hurricane Sandy has kept Southborough emergency responders, town employees, and volunteers busy: from the preparations last week, to storm response on Monday, and now to the aftermath and clean up.
Chairman of the Board of Selectmen John Rooney spent much of Monday in the town's Emergency Operations Center as the storm raged outside, and observed the response efforts first-hand. In a comment on My Southborough yesterday, he offered up his thanks.
Although I should wait to send out a "thank you" message until all efforts are completed, I wanted to inform the town of some of the efforts I witnessed and participated in during this historic storm. In addition to the numerous conferences over the weekend, the performance of the Southborough Emergency Management Agency, all town department heads, town employees, and numerous town volunteers was truly beyond all expectation and it was sincerely an honor to be a participant.
On behalf of the BOS, I want to personally thank every individual who selfishly dedicated their entire day caring for our town. I recognize that there is a risk in failing to note the names of many that may not have passed through my radar. I apologize in advance to those individuals, but wanted to thank the following, and certainly in no particular order: Selectman Boland, Mark Purple, Chiefs Mauro and Moran, former Chief John Mauro, Lieutenant Neal Aspesi, Karen Galligan, Phil Rinehart, Doreen Ferguson, Sherri Lajeunesse, Carol Willoughby, Steve Whynot, Matt Braccio, Robert Lagasse, Carol Yazzo, E.J. Purcell, David Docksteader, Tom Muise, and Mark Spruill. Thank you especially to each and every police officer, firefighter and DPW employee who worked throughout the day and into the night. The town's employees evinced a commitment reflective of their dedication to public service.
Special recognition goes out to the dedicated volunteerism of Steve Whynot and Matt Braccio. Steve and Matt acted as proverbial pin balls, chainsaw in hand, going from one fallen tree in the roadway to the next – again, and again, and again. Their efforts in conjunction with the crew from the DPW kept most roadways passable, excepting those roadways where we are required to yield to the utilities. Covered with gas, oil and sawdust, sweat dripping from the faces, they performed their efforts not for any compensation or recognition; their sole motivation was to help the residents in town, and for that we should all be extremely thankful.
The quantity and quality of work performed by all of these people, often unasked and generally unseen, was a true testament to what makes our town such a great place to live and work. Every resident concern was immediately addressed and the town did everything in our power to lessen the magnitude of this powerful storm. When a call came into to the Operations Center, it was immediately routed to the individual or individuals assigned to that particular task; when those individuals were not available, others immediately jumped in. No one sat around and did nothing: Mr. Purple could be seen moving downed trees on the roadway with Chief Mauro, Phil Rinehart was personally inspecting town building damage and a leak on the fire station roof during the height of the storm, while Chiefs Mauro and Moran orchestrated the moves of their entire departments without ever once requesting additional assistance. Ms. Galligan's coordination of her department was amazing, never hesitating or thinking twice about what needed to be done to help the town. As Ms. Galligan left the Operations Center last night, finally on her way home to her family, the skies opened up once again and a deluge of rain greeted her departure. That was the type of day it was. And all of this activity was overseen and systematically managed in a professional and calm manner by our Director of Operations, Lieutenant Neal Aspesi of the Southborough Fire Department.
Our town's Emergency Operations have become a model now being emulated by other towns. This is not something that just falls into place or is developed over night. It is a process that has been years in the making and it is a process that I did not know existed. I do know that it is something that we as a town are incredibly lucky to have.
Thank you again everyone for your unselfish approach to your town, your dedication to your job, and your unparalleled commitment to our residents.
John Rooney


text:
866 362 8970
Educational Licenses
Rhino & Plugins
AEC - Architectural Software
M&E - 3D Artists
Mechanical CAD Systems
Industrial Design
Hardware - Workstations & 3D Devices
About Us
Privacy & Security
Terms & Conditions
Best Price Guarantee
Industrial Design
New Releases
Maya 2020
3‑Year Subscription
Government License
Add to Cart
Write a
Product Review
Request a Competitive
Quote by eMail Now
Available in
USA only
Best Price
Maya 2020
is covered by the
Novedge Best Price Guarantee
We guarantee that our price is the lowest price you'll find anywhere online. And if you happen to find a better price online, and meet our
Best Price Guarantee Terms & Conditions
, we'll refund you the difference up to
3D Design & Modeling
3D Rendering
3D Animation
Motion Graphics
Digital Compositing
Autodesk Products
Request Custom Quote
Maya 2020
This is a Rental of Maya 2020
Write a Review
Begin your journey into the world of 3D graphics and animation
Building on its foundation at the core of many modern production pipelines,
Maya 2020
3-Year Subscription
software offers next-generation display technology, accelerated modeling workflows, robust new systems for handling complex data, and inspiring new creative toolsets to help content creators stay ahead of their competition.
With an expanded, integrated modeling feature set that helps increase modeling efficiency; an intuitive new Grease Pencil for blocking out and marking up animation; and innovative new Paint Effects surface and volume attributes,
Maya 2020
helps both improve productivity and put creativity back at the artists' fingertips. Moreover, the
Maya 2020
Shader, together with enhancements to Viewport 2.0, enable artists to work in a high- quality real-time environment that closely matches final output. And, with the Scene Assembly tools, File Path Editor, and URI support that make building and managing large and complex worlds easier,
Maya 2020
helps artists, TDs, and developers create the stunning content they need to exceed the expectations of today's sophisticated audiences.
What's New
Maya 2020 adds new tools that empower artists throughout the production pipeline. Whether you're focused on animation, rigging, modeling, or effects, we've packed a lot into this release to help you work faster and without creative limits, including over 60 animation updates, new simulation features in Bifrost, and the latest version of Arnold with the option to render on both the GPU and CPU.
Cached Playback
First introduced with Maya 2019, Cached Playback is a background process which drastically increases the speed of animation playback, enabling you to evaluate iterations of animation right in the viewport, rather than producing multiple playblasts. Maya 2020 further refines Cached Playback with support for dynamics, image planes, smooth mesh previews, and custom plugins, as well as a new Ghosting preview.
Layered dynamics caching separates background processing of dynamics and the core animation within a scene. With dynamics caching on a secondary layer, you can continue working and see simulations like cloth and muscles running in real-time as you animate.
Image planes are now cached the same way as animation through Cached Playback. If a scene has a sequence of images applied onto an image plane, rather than loading the images during playback, Maya now stores the images directly in the evaluation cache, allowing for much faster playback.
Smooth Mesh Preview now uses less memory and runs previews on the GPU when possible. This is especially useful when working with dense, asset-heavy scenes where memory limits can be reached quickly.
Technical users can now set custom configurations for Cached Playback for the nodes they build. Different configurations and presets can be written to take full advantage of the flexibility of Cached Playback, allowing you to prioritize what gets cached and what doesn't.
The new Ghosting preview allows you to see the appearance of past and future movements. This is useful when actively working on a scene that requires nuanced performance. Based directly on feedback from animators, we've also included the ability to tint your meshes and remove textures for clearer silhouettes.
Animation Bookmarks
Using new Animation bookmarks, you can now mark, navigate through, and organize specific events in time as well as easily zoom into playback ranges in the Time Slider. You can select start and end frames and assign different colors to bookmarks to identify them. Hovering over a bookmark clearly highlights the time it occupies in the Time Slider and displays any notes you've created.
Arnold 6 is included with Maya 2020 and can now be used for production rendering on both the CPU and GPU. From look development to final frame rendering, Arnold 6 with Arnold GPU simplifies the process of creating and iterating on content, giving you the speed and flexibility to adapt to the ebbs and flows of production. Arnold's intuitive interface makes it easy to toggle between CPU and GPU rendering, maintaining the same settings with a single click. Arnold GPU is based on NVIDIA's OptiX framework and optimized to take advantage of NVIDIA RTX technology. You can even drag a box in the viewport and watch your render update as you work.
Serious Effects
THot on the heels of the first release of Bifrost for Maya at SIGGRAPH 2019, this latest update adds even more power to the new visual programming environment, including significant performance and stability improvements, support for Cached Playback, improved Arnold support, new MPM cloth constraints, more pre-built graphs to help artists get started, and over 100 bug fixes driven by user feedback.
Viewport Improvements
It is now faster to interact with or select dense geometry or work with large numbers of smaller meshes in the viewport and UV editors. These changes result in a noticeable performance improvement that will help you see preselection faster and navigate more easily. Other common scenarios like relying on Isolate Select have also been sped up.
A new Remesh tool allows you to specify exactly where you need extra detail on a model by redefining the topology of any area on the mesh. With this update, you are also able to evenly re-triangulate the mesh at different densities, ensuring uniform distribution of faces.
The perfect companion to the Remesh tool, Retopologize makes it quick and easy to clean up meshes. Retopologize generates clean, new topology that preserves the original mesh shape while reconstructing the surface topology into evenly-distributed quads. The result is a deformable, production- friendly mesh that can continue moving down the pipeline.
New matrix-driven transform and operation nodes help reduce node and connection clutter in your scenes. Before this update, constraints in Maya did most computation as matrix math, then decomposed the result into scale, rotation, and translation channels to drive another transform. The driven transform then took those values and composed a matrix to compute its position. This new matrix-driven workflow allows you to skip the decomposition and composition steps, while also keeping the scale, rotation, and translation channels available for animation. As a result, riggers no longer have to create as many DAG nodes to give animators access to animate-able channels. As you can imagine, there's a lot to this concept - make sure to check our documentation for more information. Proximity and UV Pin nodes can be used to precisely track positions on deforming geometry. These nodes are especially useful for tasks like adding a prop to a character, such as sticking a button on a shirt, or setting up a simple constraint rig.
The new GPU-accelerated Proximity Wrap deformer brings better memory use and a significant performance boost to your workflows, making it easier to achieve smooth results.
Cached Playback
Cached Playback lets you see changes made to your animation without the need to create a playblast. It appears as a blue stripe running along the bottom of the Time Slider. Previously, each time you modified a scene, Maya would need to update and redraw. To see your edits, you often had to Playblast. Depending on the size of the scene and changes made, these updates were time-consuming. Now, your scene is automatically cached as you work and Maya only recomputes the part of the animation that's changed, rather than redrawing the whole scene.
Graph Editor filters
Two new key reducer filters have been added to the Graph Editor Curve menu to help you refine animation curves. The Butterworth and Key Reducer filters are similar to their counterparts in MotionBuilder, but there are differences, for example, the MotionBuilder filters attempt to match tangents to maintain their shape, where Maya only compares error tolerance to ensure a predictable result. Both filters have useful features that are not available to other Graph Editor filters, such as the ability to select only a portion of a curve for filtering (Time range: Selection), a preview feature that lets you view the effect that filtering will have on your curve before you hit Apply (Preview), and a way to exclude specific tangents from the filtering process (Preserve Keys by Tangent).
Render Setup
A new preference has been added that allows you to control whether lights are automatically included in each render layer by default. A new preference has been added that allows you to control whether new objects created while in an active render layer should be saved to an untitled collection.
UV editor workflow, look, and feel
The UV Editor interface has been overhauled, and includes a new UV Toolkit with better tools and functionality.
Clump modifier for interactive grooming
Generate realistic clumping effects in hair and fur for more natural-looking hair.
After Effects live link
Create a live link between Maya and Adobe After Effects to make real-time changes and view scenes simultaneously.
Additional MASH nodes
The MASH toolset gives you new nodes (curve, signal, world, placer, and more), as well as updates to existing nodes.
Motion Graphics
3D Type - Create branding, flying logos, title sequences, and other projects that require text.
Improved vector graphics workflow - Import or copy and paste SVG files into Maya.
Motion Graphics toolset - Quickly create complex procedural effects and animations with instanced objects.
3D Animation
Parallel rig evaluation - New system speeds rig playback and manipulation.
Geodesic voxel binding - Produce high-quality, production-ready bound characters in less time.
General animation tools - Toolset for keyframe, procedural, and scripted animation.
Time Editor - Make high-level animation edits with a nondestructive, clip-based, nonlinear editor.
Shape authoring workflow - Fine-tune your characters and animation more quickly and easily.
Animation performance - Speed enhancements make your scenes even faster.
Animation Workflow in Maya
3D Modeling
Symmetry modeling - Mirror enhancements and tool symmetry improvements make symmetrical modeling easier.
Revamped sculpting toolset - Sculpt and shape models more artistically and intuitively.
Polygon modeling - Efficient library enables faster, more consistent Boolean operations on polygon geometry.
OpenSubdiv support - Accelerate performance with interactive workflows.
Modeling Workflow in Maya
Dynamics and Effects
Deep adaptive fluid simulation - Simulate high-level details just where you need them with the new adaptive solver for Bifrost liquids.
Faster, easier-to-use XGen - Updated workflow, presets, sculpting, and preview.
Adaptive aero solver in Bifrost - Create atmospheric effects such as smoke and mist.
Bifrost procedural effects platform - Simulate and render photorealistic liquids.
Bullet Physics - Create realistic rigid and soft-body simulations.
Maya nCloth - Create realistic deformable materials.
Interactive hair grooming (XGen) - Intuitive brush-based grooming tools give you greater control and accuracy for styling and posing hair and fur.
Bifrost Ocean Simulation System - Create realistic ocean surfaces with waves, ripples, and wakes.
3D Rendering and Shading
Additional look development shading nodes - Shade complex scenes more easily.
Enhanced look development workflow - Sculpt and shape models more artistically and intuitively.
Color management - Efficient library enables faster, more consistent Boolean operations on polygon geometry.
Next-gen Viewport display and shading - Work in a higher-fidelity, high-performance interactive environment to edit assets and images in less time.
Arnold integrated with Maya - Use Arnold RenderView to view scene changes in real time, including lighting, materials, and camera.
Render setup - Quickly render and manage complex scenes. Generate templates for the setup of a shot for easy reuse.
Pipeline Integration
Scripting and API - Create Maya scripts and write plug-ins in Maya Embedded Language (MEL) or Python scripting language.
Data and scene management tools - Manage large data sets and heavy scenes with specialized tools and workflows.
Scene Assembly tools for smarter data - Create large, complex worlds more easily, and manage production assets as discrete elements.
Open Table
Compare Maya Versions
Game Modeling
Maya LT
Maya Full
Primitive creation
Mesh creation tools
Polygon/mesh refinement tools
Brush-based surface manipulation
Sculpt geometry tool
Polygon reduction tool
True soft selection
Edge and ring loops display and editing
Streamlined texturing workflow
Multiple UV set support
Per-instance UV sets
Multiple sets/color-per-vertex
Multiple-editing modeling toolkit
Topology-based symmetry tools
Quad draw tool
Multicut tool
Maya LT
Maya Full
ShaderFX graph-based real-time shader editor
HLSL and CgFX support
Turtle texture baking
3D paint tool (texture)
PSD file support
HyperShade and visor tools
Phong and hardware shaders
Advanced software shaders
Basic 2D and 3D procedural textures
Advanced 2D and 3D procedural textures
Substance procedural textures
Maya paint effects
Game Animation
Maya LT
Maya Full
Keyframe animation
Graph and dope sheet editors
Editable motion trails
Animation layers
Trax nonlinear animation editor
Live animation retargeting
ATOM animation file save and load
Camera sequencer
Grease pencil
Autodesk HumanIK full-body IK animation system
General constraints
Geometry constraints
Set driven key tool
Spline IK, spring IK
Maya muscle deformation system
Complete set of geometry deformers
Subset of geometry deformers
Substitute geometry tool for skin
Heat map skinning
Paint skin weights
Create centered joints/joint chains
Game Pipeline and Workflow
Maya LT
Maya Full
Viewport 2.0
Microsoft DirectX 11 enabled viewport
MEL and Python scripting
Write custom plugins with SDK
File interaction with Adobe Illustrator
Read/write Alembic framework format
Scene assembly tools for smarter data
File path editor for fixing broken file paths
Export assets up to 25,000 polygons with FBX technology
Save work-in-progress to Maya LT format
Dynamics and Effects
Maya LT
Maya Full
Dynamics and effects features
Rendering & Compositing
Maya LT
Maya Full
Scene rendering
Advanced software shaders
Maya composite
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought...
Architecture Engineering Construction Collection
3-Year Multi-user Subscription — Government License
One essential set of BIM tools for building design, civil infrastructure, and construction
Add to Cart
AutoCAD Architecture
3-Year Multi-user Subscription Renewal — Government License
Create designs and documents more efficiently, in the familiar AutoCAD software environment built specifically for architects
Add to Cart
Architecture Engineering Construction Collection
3-Year Subscription — Government License
One essential set of BIM tools for building design, civil infrastructure, and construction
Add to Cart


text:
Two Plays, Between Two Mediums
Leslye Headland is on a serious roll, generating buzz in theatre, film and TV. Assistance, slotted for TV adaptation at NBC, leaves audiences in stitches. The film adaptation of her critically-acclaimed play Bachelorette premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which Leslye directed, was hailed by the New York Times as "viciously funny satire…with the crackling intensity of machine-gun fire." Bachelorette received wide release in September and is currently available to rent.
Like Assistance, Bachelorette belongs to Leslye's Seven Deadly Sins series; the former treats greed, the latter gluttony. Both plays take an unflinching look at Millennials, treating Leslye's generation with her signature snark. Bachelorette follows a trio of single women (played by Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan) as they grudgingly play bridesmaids to their overweight friend, Becky (Rebel Wilson). The women arrange an epic bacchanal for Becky's bachelorette party, but queen bee Regan (Kirsten Dunst) can't resist instructing the male stripper to call Becky by her high school nickname – Pigface. Old tensions flare, spurring a series of events that includes the ripping of Becky's wedding dress.
Bachelorette was produced on film by Will Ferrell and Philadelphia native Adam McKay, the team behind NBC's Assistance pilot. In adapting her stage plays for the screen, Leslye makes big changes. "When you change mediums, you change mediums," she told the Wilma. "The first thing to change is the plot." As a film, for instance, Bachelorette examines Gena's (Lizzy Caplan) pain as the wedding brings her face to face with her ex Clyde (Adam Scott). On stage, Clyde is left unseen, a symbol of Gena's past happiness.
Leslye, who is beginning work on the Assistance pilot now, doesn't yet know how this play will change across mediums, but, she told the Wilma, "I'm a slave to my characters. I'm excited to let them dictate what this new medium is going to mean. What's so exciting is that I get to live with the characters again. Nick and Nora are people that I could hang out with forever."


text:
Happy Thanksgiving to my American followers!! I hope your turkey was delicious & moist and that no one described it as moist.
So I spent most of my day
setting up a YouTube account!
So exciting!!!! I finally got over how
horrible I think I sound in narration and just did it. There is only
4 videos up so far, one video tutorial for each of my carved pumpkin
face nails but that seems fitting seeing as I've heard pumpkins are a
thanksgiving thing too!!
If you want to check it out my channel is here. Your subscriptions and likes will guarantee a free puppy or kitten (depending on your preference).


text:
Game: Breath of Fire IVブレスオブファイアIV うつろわざるもの
Published 2000 by Capcom for PlayStation
Role-Playing, Developed by Capcom
Music by Yoshino Aoki
View All
No records.
breath-of-fire-iv-ps1-[PSF-ID12076].zip (59 Songs)12.72MB
- "2000 Treasures If You Win"
- "A Bitter Atmosphere"
- "A Little After the Dream"
- "A Man ~Man~"
- "A Raging Emperor's Banquet"
- "A Raging Emperor's Banquet ~Remix~"
- "A Single Feather, From the Sky 1"
- "A Twisted Face"
- "Also Working Today"
- "Bastard Sword"
- "Beast of God"
- "Brave Heart"
- "Brave When Facing Death"
- "Breath of Fire IV ~Opening Animation~"
- "Capital (Slow & Tense)"
- "Capital 2"
- "Caught a Big One"
- "Curse"
- "Darkness"
- "Destruction"
- "Dragon's Blood"
- "Dying Wish"
- "Echo"
- "First Emperor"
- "Floating Along"
- "Floating Along Song"
- "Flutter (Butterfly)"
- "Freefall"
- "Game Over" (Game Over)
- "Get the Fish"
- "Go by Ship!"
- "God of War"
- "How Long Will the Rain Last"
- "It's a Fairy"
- "It's an Easy Win"
- "Like the Sun, Like the Moon"
- "Maybe I'll Even Buy a Sheep"
- "Men of War"
- "No No No"
- "Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte"
- "Prayer"
- "Rap a Tap Tap"
- "Replay"
- "Run Straight"
- "Seagull Flies"
- "Softly"
- "Song of the Plains"
- "Sound of a Little Zenny"
- "Stripes on the Rear (Buzz Buzz Buzz)"
- "Take the Winnings and Run"
- "The End and the Beginning"1
- "The End and the Beginning 3"
- "The End and the Beginning ~Main Theme~"
- "The Landscape"
- "The Unchanging Ones"
- "The World Beneath Your Feet"
- "Thousand Winds"
- "Tiny Village in the Desert"
- "To the Distant Holy Land"
- "Truth and Dreams"
- "Turismo"
- "Turn Round and Round"
- "Under Pressure"
- "Watch Your Step"
- "What the Samba?"
- "Whirlpools Inside (The Frog's Song)"
- "Yet the Merchants Will Go"
View All
View All
Latest Albums
View All
Latest ReMixes
Content Policy
(Submission Agreement and Terms of Use)
Page generated Wed, 22 Jan 2020 01:43:35 +0000 in 0.8621 seconds
All compositions, arrangements, images, and trademarks are copyright their
respective owners. Original content is copyright OverClocked ReMix, LLC. For information on RSS and
JavaScript news feeds, linking to us, etc. please refer to resources for webmasters. Please refer to the Info section of the site
and the FAQ available there for information about the
site's history, features, and policies. Contact David W.
Lloyd (djpretzel), webmaster, with feedback or questions not answered there.


text:
Service Learning
The mission of Humble ISD Service Learning is to make service learning a distinctive part of the education and life experiences of ALL students. By integrating service and reflection with education, students gain valuable experience as they apply academic skills to empower those in need through mutually beneficial activities for both campus and community.
Humble ISD will be a national leader in innovative service learning by…
- Empowering students and faculty to exceed academic and personal goals through connecting curricular content to meaningful service
- Encouraging students to actively and reflectively make a difference in themselves and society through civic engagement.
- Contextualizing education for students and faculty beyond the classroom, situating their learning within the needs of local and global communities
Humble ISD Service Learning values…
- Appreciation of the academic and social value of community engagement
- Collaboration with community partners fostering mutually beneficial relationships
- Innovation in both educational strategies and system structures to facilitate powerful learning experiences
- Preparation of educators for service learning initiatives through meaningful, applicable, and practical professional development
- Reflection and Celebration of service to all stakeholders within the district and community
- Documentation of qualitative and quantitative impact of service


text:
California's Republican Party is at "death's door," new Assembly GOP leader Rod Pacheco told a group of Orange County faithful on Jan. 22. "Our feet are right on the edge of the precipice. We can't afford to lose one more step. We're moving in the direction of irrelevancy in the state." Pacheco, a Riverside Republican and the state's first Hispanic Assembly GOP leader, called for Republicans to set aside their differences on abortion, immigration and other divisive issues and instead build consensus around things an overwhelming majority of voters favor, such as lower taxes. "When we are [at] death's door, we don't have the luxury of fighting over our philosophical differences," he said. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," a party insider didn't say (yet could have, under his breath, if listening devices existed to record such things), "but we still get to bash Mexicans, build more prisons, and further enrich our rich friends who got us here, right?"
GANG OF FOUR While Republicans tried to figure out how to reconstruct their state party, nine Democratic legislators on Jan. 20 urged Governor Gray Davis to reconstruct his Republican predecessor's California Coastal Commission. Davis was reportedly asked to fire four members that the former governor, Lil' Petey Wilson, appointed to the panel charged with protecting our precious coastline. One of the Sacramento Nine, state Senator Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), warned that should Davis fail to act swiftly in helping the 12-member panel achieve a pro-environmental majority, the "governor of California is still going to be Pete Wilson when it comes to Coastal Commission decisions."
GIMME SHELTERIn another refreshing sign of compassion possibly oozing out of the governor's office, Davis set aside $1 million in his proposed budget to keep National Guard armories open to the homeless on cold nights, it was reported on Jan. 21. Under a law Ebenezer Wilson pushed for during his final term, the armories-including those in Fullerton and Santa Ana-were to shut their doors to the less fortunate beginning next winter. Judy Kampmann, who runs Orange County's cold-weather shelter program, reportedly told The Orange County Register: "This would be an enormous weight off our shoulders. I think it's a strong, strong hint that the governor wants to see that people out there have a place to go."
I'VE GOT A SECRET Citing "persistent and defiant misconduct" in violating the state open-meeting law, an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered the South Orange County Community College District to tape-record its closed-door meetings for two years, it was reported on Jan. 21. Judge Tully H. Seymour also reportedly referred the case and prior findings of Brown Act violations by the college district's board of trustees to the district attorney's office for possible criminal prosecution. Each violation of the Brown Act (the law requiring open public meetings) can result in a $1,000 fine and jail time. The college district's lawyer, who denied violations occurred, apparently encouraged the board to appeal. Tully's decision came as a result of a lawsuit filed by Roy Bauer, an Irvine Valley College (IVC) philosophy professor and constant board critic, who claimed the appointment of IVC president Raghu Mather and a 1997 administrative shake-up were accomplished in secret. The Brown Act requires public officials to let the public know when (and on what matters) an elected panel is going to vote in closed session and, afterward, what action was taken.
TRIVIAL PURSUITGet up, go to your bookcase, and grab that dusty copy of the New Testament. We mean now! Don't worry; we'll wait. . . . Got it? Good. Now flip back, way back to the end, to the part about the seven signs of the apocalypse. There yet? Good. You'll notice that sandwiched between frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon and darkness engulfing the Earth is the ditty about people paying for beepers that alert them when a police chase is on television. Well, the end is near, as the Reg reported on Jan. 21 that 200 future Jerry Springer pugilists have signed up for the PursuitWatch pager service since its New Year's Day launch. Excuse us as we go lie down for a while. Our brain hurts.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before "graduating" to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly's first calendar editor.


text:
Author Janine Vangool traces the surprising history of the typewriter
Even before she lovingly wrote and designed a book on the subject, Calgary's Janine Vangool was known locally as "the typewriter lady."
Over the years, the graphic designer and editor of the award-winning UPPERCASE magazine has given talks about her obsession with what she affectionately calls "the machine." It has been mentioned once or twice in articles about her.
So it's not unusual for Vangool to get phone calls from "little old ladies" looking to help bolster her collection and declutter at the same time.
"Which is quite sweet," says Vangool. "I don't have a home for them all. They are out there, but those are usually ones that are less desirable. They are electric machines, maybe from the '70s or '80s, and don't have the esthetic appeal that the old-fashioned ones have."
Vangool is apparently a discerning collector with specific typewriter tastes. She has 12, although some are on loan from her in-laws, in a collection that also includes typewriter-related items. Much of this gets space in The Typewriter: A Graphic History of the Beloved Machine, a beautifully rendered book that traces the evolution of the office machine from the 1900s to the 1980s.
Vangool outlines her own modest history with the typewriter, beginning when she was a frustrated would-be aficionado whose pleas to Santa Claus for one were routinely ignored.
"It goes back to my childhood, when I used to play on my mother's machines," she says. "I always found it appealing, the sound and the visual effect of writing your own letters. I really loved that for a young age. I didn't actually have a typewriter until I was an adult and shopkeeper. When UPPERCASE first started it was a gallery and bookstore in Art Central. So I had that as an excuse to purchase a machine for the shop. It opened the floodgates and I realized there were so many other things I loved about typewriters and it just sort of snowballed."
But while the book traces Vangool's personal obsession, it also paints a much bigger picture of the typewriter's history and influence. Its evolution mirrored bigger trends, whether they be in graphic design or how women were treated in the workplace and portrayed in advertising.
The latter offers some of the book's most enlightening, and occasionally darkly comic, segments. Examples include everything from a faded black-and-white photo of an assembly line of dour, typing women at the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio in 1902; to early 20th-Century humour postcards, where women are shown as either sexy distractions for earnest working men or lazy secretaries who sit in front of typewriters reading books, eating bonbons and daydreaming about their wedding day.
There's even a page dedicated to "Pin-up Girls," which shows how the typewriter was often used as a prop in tame erotica featuring leggy secretaries.
"You can see the progression of how women are depicted with the machine, and women in general in advertising," says Vangool.
A Saskatoon native and Alberta College of Art & Design graduate, Vangool in 2009 launched UPPERCASE, a quarterly, subscription-sponsored magazine dedicated to graphic design and illustration. Among the books she has published is The Shatner Show, based on the 2007 exhibition she organized that showcased depictions of William Shatner by 76 different artists in what was the actor's 76th year. The Typewriter: A Graphic History of the Beloved Machine was released late last year and has garnered Vangool more than a few fan letters, including some that were, not surprisingly, typed old-school.
As for Vangool's own collection of typewriters — which date back as far as 1915 and as recently as the 1980s — she admits she doesn't have a lot of room left to display them.
The pride-and-joy of her collection are five typewriters — all the 1956 Royal Quiet Deluxe model — in teal, pink, turquoise, grey and red.
"I just need the yellow one and my collection will be complete," she says. "I have not come across a yellow one for any affordable price so I think it will remain something to keep aspiring to."


text: The Cars Area has been awarded one million pounds to be spent over 10 years on what you the community want to spend it on. We need your suggestions and help from the community on what you feel the area needs to make it better for everyone. Let's do this together!


text:
Grahame Soden
Photographer in Lycksele, Västerbotten, Sweden, available for photographic assignments.
I am an English photographer on tour for the next year or so in Scandinavia, currently in Sweden, and I am an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society (ARPS). I have been published in the Society's journals and exhibited regularly.
For the last few years I have been the photographer for an art studio & gallery whilst continuing my own interests in street, reportage and macro photography. I also have an interest in the holocaust memorials in Germany and have extensive experience in photographing them.
I am a skilled digital print maker and can produce exhibition quality prints up to A2 size.
Any commissions whilst I am on tour will be considered
Recent Clients
- Studio of Fine Art
- Folio Society
- Bulgaria the Jewellers
- Associate of the RPS
- Exhibition Berlin 2010
- Exhibition Germany various locations 2009
- Galerie Kunsttick, Potsdam 2008
Portfolios of example work from photograhame:


text:
Divorce attorneys do more than divide by two.
Pursuant Virginia law, when property is "equitably" divided, parties must first identify what property they have and then classify that property as either marital or separate. Generally speaking, assets acquired prior to the marriage or assets acquired by inheritance or gift (from someone other than your spouse) are separate property, while assets acquired during the marriage are considered marital. After the marital estate has been identified, the assets making up the estate are valued and then divided.
Both Amy & Jonathan Kales are informed of the law as it related to the equitable distribution of property. Whether your assets reach well into the millions or if your marital estate is more on the modest end, we will work our hardest to make sure the division of property is fair. If you have any questions about Equitable Distribution of Property, please contact us online to discuss your case. We would be happy to meet with you at our Fairfax office or one of our other Northern Virginia meeting locations.


text:
6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site
The load time of websites is one of the most important factors affecting its usability; most Internet users will just skip a site altogether if it fails to load within a couple of seconds. Below you will find the summary of the "Speed Up Your Site" series. Those are simple yet effective ways to make sure that your website is running fast. You can click on each point to read the article with comments from the readers.
- Optimize Images: always use the "Save for the web" feature included on image editing software. Images represent the heavier load on virtually any website so make sure you are optimizing them. Alternatively you can also turn to an online image optimizer.
- Image Formats: apart from optimizing images it is important that you choose the right format. JPEG format is suitable for photographs or true-color images. The GIF format should be used with flat-color images like logos or buttons. PNG works very similar to GIF but it supports more colors.
- Optimize Your CSS: most websites are designed with CSS nowadays. Make sure to aggregate and clean your CSS. CleanCSS is an online tool that will merge similar selectors, remove useless properties and remove the whitespace from your code.
- Use a Slash on Your Links: when a user opens a link on the form "http://www.domain.com/about" the server will need to figure what kind of file or page is contained on that address. If you include a slash (/) at the end of the link the server will already know that this is a directory page, reducing the load time of the site.
- Use the Height and Width Tags: many people forget to add the Height and Width tags on image codes. Those tags will make sure that the browser knows the size of the image before loading it. The result is that it will reserve a spot for the images while loading the rest of the page, speeding up the whole process.
- Reduce the HTTP Requests: when opening a web page every object (images, scripts and the line) will require a round trip to the server. This latency can add several seconds to the load time of your site. Make sure to reduce the number of objects and to combine CSS files and scripts together.
Browse all articles on the Blog Design category or check the recommended articles for you below:
88 Responses to "6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site"
Jeff Faldalen
Hi Daniel,
I am so glad I come across this post. There are a lot of great tips here
I have been looking into different cache plugins, trying to speed up how fast my site loads.
Do you have any suggestions?
I was suggest to use W3 super cache, but setting that baby up is a little
beyond my understanding at this point
Thank you for your contribution,
Jeff Faldalen
Rison Simon
I think you can also minify javascript and css files into one so that they load faster. It is also great to use a cdn.
Quick tip for WordPress users. Try a combination of Hyper Cache + DB Cache Reloaded instead of WP Super Cache. I had much better results with this combo. It sped my site up quite a bit. Almost seems like its using flat HTML files now, its that much quicker. Super Cache didn't really seem to do anything.
Awesome post Daniel…We all knows that the loading time of websites is one of the most important factors ans we can't ignore it…Thanks a lot for such nice valuable tips..It will definitely help a lot to come up with better speed..
Chotrul SEO
Great tips indeed. I would add in response to the comment about turning on http compression (to compress the html, javascript and css on the site) that you may or may not have access to this on the server. If you are using shared hosting – as the majority of small sites do, then you are sharing an IP address on a server, and don't therefore have this option. It'll either already be on, or you are stuck with it being off. Hope that helps.
Belize Real Estate Expert
Hi Daniel,
I've been reading your blog since the beginning…when you had less than 3000 subscribers. I remember when you crossed the 3000 number…you were quite happy!
Anyhow, I had some extra time this morning and have been re-reading some of these classic posts….many of which are still very important today.
I was wondering if you were going to do a re-fresh or update of some of these?
Please keep up the great work, I attribute a lot of my current success to the tips I've picked up on your blog over the years.
Warm Regards,
David Gobeil
Amal Roy
Thanks so much Daniel, i am have implemented all those steps in my blog except a few. Much appreciated if you could add some more ways.
Thanks for all the great tips
henry damanik
thanks for this thing… can i get link to your web…
and can i take this to my web….
thank a lot for your kindness….
great tips.. i got complain from partner and i'm looking for great tips to speed up my blog
thank you
Bang Kritikus
How to speed up my blogspot ??
Thanks for the tips. I really didn't know about the backslash. I will try the JavaScript thing in my blog. It takes a lot of time to load.
Thanks anyway… 🙂
I would also recommend this online free tool: http://Site-Perf.com/
It measure loading speed of page and it's requisites (images/js/css) like browsers do and shows nice detailed chart – so you can easily spot bottlenecks.
Also very useful thing is that this tool is able to verify network quality of your server (packet loss level and ping delays).
website design
very good tips. One of my blogs loads very slow because of scripts put into it. I will follow your tips and I hope to speed up my blog. Thanks
Thanks Will, I check out Site Stalker and found out my web server performance was terrible. They had outtages every night for over an hour. I also noticed since my sight is now getting stalked that the performance has improved when first going to my site!
- will
one million euro blog
very usefull post really.
Thanks alot.
seo traffic tips
Thanks for these great tips.!
Call me an idiot? Where am I supposed to add the slash(/)/
at the end of the image Ie dog.gif/
Trouble with all the tips everyone always writes is that they are targeted at people that know website design etc
Help would be great…
Web design tips tutorials
Im not sure about this certain "rule" or tip. Is it true that having your CSS on a totally new file is better?
As in, reducing your main .html file by separating the CSS section on a stylesheet file on its own..
this is nice tuts
thanx for your good ideas…..really helpful in future..
My blog is loading pretty slow especially because of the javascripts that i use..Thanks for the tips..
Website Promotion – Frederrick
Very useful tips and the methods suggested are effective and workable. Loading time is important as most of Internet users today are still on dial ups.
Speeding Ticket Lawyer
Your tips on speeding up your site are dead on, thanks for the info.
Comments are closed.


text:
Nov 11, 2013 – Eze Walter Vows To Expose Emeka Obasi Of Hallmark Newspaper
Months after exposing the relationship between herself and COZA Pastor Biodun, popular runs girl, Eze Walter has vowed to expose more men she dated in the past.
Few hours ago, she took her Twitter page to blast her past lovers.
She additionally vows to expose Mr Emeka Obasi, the founder of Hallmark Newspaper.
Check out her tweets below:
A source said, Eze Walter's claim should not be taken seriously.
"She is a pathetic f**l and a serial liar" – said a source from Abuja
Eze Walter came into spotlight after she wrote a lengthy article about her relationship with Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of the COZA church some months ago, a claim that was later denied by the MOG in question.
I no know wetin to call this girl, an attention seeker or what.?
Must Eze Walter sleep with every men in town… abi she be professional ashewo.


text:
Tag Archives: Heineman
Can Chinese Market Reforms Help American Companies?
By Ben W. Heineman, Jr. (This article first appeared on TheAtlantic.com, where Ben Heineman is a frequent contributor) At the recent Third Plenum political gathering, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made headlines around the world by committing to a greater … Continue reading
Name the Trade Rep, Mr. President
(This article first appeared in Harvard Business Review Blog Network, where Ben Heineman is a frequent contributor)
In President Obama's second term, the United States has an ambitious and challenging Atlantic and Pacific trade agenda which could significantly alter the architecture of the global economy.
But the President has yet to designate someone to fill the crucial Cabinet level position of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The stakes, both internationally and domestically, are extremely high and Mr. Obama should immediately send to the Senate for confirmation a nominee of prominence and stature.
Doing so would show that he places the highest priority on both the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations — started in 2011 and slated to end this year — and the newly launched free trade negotiations between the US and EU which are scheduled (optimistically) to be completed before the 2016 election. He should simultaneously push hard for Congressional renewal of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) which gives the Executive the power to negotiate trade agreements subject only to a prompt up or down vote in the House and Senate with no amendments. This authority expired in 2007. Continue reading
Why Egypt's Economy Matters
By Ben W. Heineman Jr. Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Note: This commentary first appeared on TheAtlantic.com. The economy was an important cause of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow. The Mubarak regime failed to deal with … Continue reading
Failing to get to corporate accountability in Gulf disaster
By Ben W. Heineman, Jr. Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (A longer version this column first appeared on the Harvard Business Review blog on Sept. 22, 2011) The last official report on the April 2010 explosion … Continue reading
In China, corruption and unrest threaten autocratic rule
By Ben Heineman Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (A longer version of this post appeared first on TheAtlantic.com) In recent days, the Western media separately reported two events –-one on corruption and a second on a … Continue reading
Can women be a catalyst for Japanese renewal?
Japan faces the daunting task of rebuilding after the earthquake and the tsunami. But these natural disasters struck a nation with deep structural issues, including a slow-growth economy, an aging population, often sclerotic political, bureaucratic, and business leadership — and significant workplace discrimination against women.
Many commentators have speculated that Japan's response to the immediate crisis creates the possibility — though hardly the certainty — of broader, longer-term renewal. And, if such a renewal occurred, an important dimension could be to redress serious gender inequality in the workplace which is more pronounced than in other industrialized nations.
• Employment rates for Japanese men are 20 percent higher than for women, the greatest disparity in the industrialized world. On average, women only earn 60 to 70 percent of compensation paid to men.
• A 2006 UN study found that Japan was last among industrialized nation in economic empowerment of women, with women holding only 10.7 percent of managerial positions in government and business (compared with 42 percent in the U.S.).
• Japanese women are often put on an "administrative" job track, not a "career" job track by Japanese companies with nearly 70 percent of Japanese women leaving the work force permanently after having their first child (in contrast to the U.S. where only one-third don't return to work after having a child).
• Japan again is last in the league rankings among industrialized nations for representation of women in the national legislature.
• The rates of participation in the job market of Japanese college-educated women are 5 to 15 percent less than other developed nations. And, at the elite Tokyo University, women only make up 20 percent of the student body. Continue reading
The Quest for Economic Legitimacy in Egypt
Since Anwar Sadat took over from Gamal Abdel Nasser more than 40 years ago, Egypt has gone through episodic waves of economic liberalization, from privatization to changes in fiscal/monetary policy to sectoral restructuring.
However, during this period of start-stop economic reform, there was no meaningful reform of the constitutional structure and the political system.
A closed, unaccountable polity led to the cries for freedom, demands for constitutional change and insistence on legitimate governmental institutions in Tahrir Square.
But, so, too, many Egyptians viewed the economic system as illegitimate, imposed upon them by corrupt and profligate elites for their own benefit and not affirmed through transparent processes secured by societal consensus.
Although the media have recently refocused on protests and conflicts arising in other Mid-East nations, the post-Mubarak transition, now not the stuff of front-page stories, is of surpassing importance to the future of the region. This transition will involve both a revision of the constitution to increase legitimacy and formation of a government after new elections, which will seek to adopt social and economic policies with greater transparency and wider acceptance. Continue reading


text:
Jaden Smith is making a film based on his new album 'SYRE', which is a coming of age story, although the production will not include "any rapping".Jaden Smith is making a film based on his new album.
The 19-year-old actor – who is the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith – recently released his debut album 'SYRE', and the star has admitted his efforts will not stop there as he is currently directing a movie based on the compilation, which will explore a boy's journey to manhood.
Speaking to Billboard about the coming of age film, the 'Fallen' hitmaker said: "It's an actual film that plays out that has characters. There's no rapping, really, in the whole movie. It's just about the story of Syre.
"It's really just become a legacy of this guy, this kid, who chases the sunset. And then one day, it chases him back and he can't get away."
However, 'The Karate Kid' star has yet confirmed whether he has cast any actors or actresses in the production yet, although it has been rumoured Jaden will take on the lead role as the story is based on him and his struggles.
He said: "It really is the story of me coming to be a young adult, and it wasn't easy at all."
Jaden has revealed the one person he aspires to be like is the South African billionaire Elon Musk, because he wants to be a person who simply wants to help in "any way [he] can".
Speaking about his inspiration, he said: "[I want to be seen as] a person that is trying their hardest to be like Elon Musk – somebody that's trying to be an artist, and somebody that's trying to help in any way I can.
"When people think of me, I want them to think of the person that is always giving back to something, or someone."
Despite Jaden's famous parents, he still takes his celebrity status seriously and knows the entertainment business is "not a game".


text:
From Time Magazine
Q: Do you Twitter?
A: No, because I drink in the evening and I don't want anything that I write at midnight to end my career–"You can kiss my ass" all spelled wrong.
From Time Magazine
Q: Do you Twitter?
A: No, because I drink in the evening and I don't want anything that I write at midnight to end my career–"You can kiss my ass" all spelled wrong.
As the AntLab plows through our collections, hoping to construct photographic catalogues, we have to experiment with lighting. Lots of experiments. Turns out, JelenaB has discovered the curse of ant photography, little yellowish ants, can at least partially be tamed by the use of grey points (the little triangles upon which the ant is glued, which is then run through with a pin, suspending the little gal for eternity with legs dangling downward) against a dark grey background. I particularly like this image of Pheidole tysoni suspended. She would look good wandering in the fruit bowl of Carravagio's Supper at Emmaus.
Alan Rickman is a writing coach in a new play, The Seminar. He is also the senior actor, with four young actors playing his students. Says the The Seminar's author (via the New York Times):
"Somebody said to me once, 'Talent is a double-edged sword,' and you really see that with Alan. He holds himself to extremely high standards. Because of that he holds us to those standards as well. It's a serious business being in a working relationship with him."
Through flashes of insight into Leonard's own history and his unorthodox teaching methods, Mr. Rickman invites a deeper understanding of the man and of the complicated process of guiding young writers. Merciless though his approach might be, he's there to steer the students in the right direction.
Sound like someone you know?
From the brilliant xkcd. Read the rest of this entry »
A nice little article in Forbes magazine on improving your writing, part of a continuing series. Business mags are full of useful tips. After all, they work in the real world, they expect results**.
Takehomes? Read the rest of this entry »
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rationale mind is a faithful servant.
I had a colleague for a while, a neuroscientist, who, while normally very pleasant, would occasionally turn red, her eyes would grow wide, and a frown would race over her face. The cause of this transformation was usually some version of the phrase "the right brain" or the "the left brain". Indeed a fair bit of pseudoscience rose from early studies of patients who suffered injuries to one hemisphere or the other: conclusions that revolved around the left brain as the seat of logic, and the right brain as the seat of creativity, science vs. art, yada yada yada. Yet differences exist in the morphology and behavior of both hemispheres, differences found among vertebrate brains.
In this wonderfully animated lecture, psychologist Ian McGilchrist, gives an updated overview of what we know about the functions of the hemispheres. In this evolving view, the left brain specializes in giving narrowly focused attention on what is already known to be important; while the right is broadly interested in watching out for the novel and making connections between disparate parts. The left brain abstracts away exceptions and sees the world as simplified verbal models or pictorial maps; the right brain is always looking for the new, and interpreting the new as metaphors of what is already known. The left is about categories and generalizations; the right is about individuals and exceptions.
As we struggle to be creative, it is worth keeping in mind the wonderful balancing act embodied in our hemispheric brain. Scientific creativity is about collecting data and building simple mind models to explain the data; about using both our intuition and logic to see which of these models works best; in the words of Alfred North Whitehead. seeking simplicity and distrusting it.
While McGilchrist's short lecture does not provide an easy roadmap for success in academia, it does add interest to the journey.
From Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine
We're often told that young people tend to be the most tech-savvy among us. But just how savvy are they? A group of researchers led by College of Charleston business professor Bing Pan tried to find out. Specifically, Pan wanted to know how skillful young folks are at online search. His team gathered a group of college students and asked them to look up the answers to a handful of questions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the students generally relied on the web pages at the top of Google's results list.
But Pan pulled a trick: He changed the order of the results for some students. More often than not, those kids went for the bait and also used the (falsely) top-ranked pages. Pan grimly concluded that students aren't assessing information sources on their own merit—they're putting too much trust in the machine.
Now I'm a *huge* fan of Google Scholar. When I am writing a paper or grant, Google Scholar, my university library's page, and my second brain DevonThink all stand at the ready. This is because I do much of my reading while in the process of writing. Writing exposes the holes in my understanding. So when I go to Google Scholar to find out what's what, and I get the inevitable list of 3000 entries for, say, "thermal ecology ants", which ones do I pay attention to? Read the rest of this entry »