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Speed. Superior technology. Superior Sailors. Long-range, accurate weapons. Superior training.
From LCS to DDG-1000, we are all told that these are the key to victory at sea. They make up for inferior numbers. They are Transformational. War has changed. We own them.
All that came to mind when I thought of three ships, HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax, and HMNZS Achilles.
The Graf Spee was, well, the Graf Spee. With memories of the SMS Emden in mind, she was the terror of the seas.
To go after her you had three old, under armed, and relatively unarmored cruisers. On paper, there should be no contest. But the combined British and New Zealand Force had a plan. They had what you cannot put on paper or PowePoint - but that which wins almost all battles at sea; audacity.
13th. of December 1939.At 0520 ( 5.20 AM ) the squadron was in position 34 degrees 34 minutes South, 49 degrees 17 minutes West, on a course of 060 degrees, at a speed of 14 knots, cruising in line ahead Ajax, Achilles and Exeter. Smoke bearing 320 degrees, ie to the South West from the force, was sighted at 0610 ( 6.10 AM ) and Exeter was ordered to investigate, she soon replied:Fullbore.
"I think it is a pocket Battleship!"It did not take long for Graf Spee to act, in only two minutes she opened fire with her 11 inch turrets, one firing at Exeter, and one at Ajax.
The first division altered course to 340 degrees to close the range to the enemy, whilst Captain Bell hauled out of the line, altering course to the west, so he might attack Graf Spee from a widely different angle. All ships increased speed, now it should be noted that the enemy armament had almost twice the power of the British
cruisers, both Ajax and Achilles were light cruisers mounting 6 inch guns in their turrets, whilst Exeter was the lone ship of her class, mounting 6 by 8 inch guns in three twin turrets, A and B turrets forward, and a single Y turret mounted aft.
By 0623 ( 6.23 AM ) all ships had opened fire, and an enemy report was broadcast.Graf Spee straddled Exeter ( that means shells in a salvo fall both sides of the target ), one shell burst short, and killed the starboard torpedo tube crews, riddled the searchlights and the aircraft on the catapult, which was manhandled over the side, leaving the ship without any spotting capability from that source. The enemy ship seemed undecided about her gunnery policy, as she shifted targets several times before concentrating both turrets upon Exeter. The third salvo from
By 0624 ( 6.24 AM ) Exeter sent off 8 salvoes against the enemy, but on the incoming path, she received a direct hit from an 11 shell in the fore part of the B turret, putting it out of action, as splinters from this shell burst swept the bridge it killed or wounded all personnel there except for the Captain and two others. It also demolished the wheel house communications, leaving Captain Bell without any means of giving wheel orders to enable course changes, or orders to the engine room regarding speed changes. He decided to fight his ship from the after conning position, but the communication system here was also damaged from the shell burst earlier that effected the torpedo tube crews etc. A chain of messengers was set up to pass orders to the after steering position.
Now two further 11 inch shell hits registerd in the fore part of the cruiser, and Graf Spee shifted one 11 inch turret onto Ajax, who was straddled three times. The secondary armament of the German ship now took on Ajax and Achilles alternately, but to little effect.
During all of this intensive engagement, Ajax achieved a minor miracle by being able to catapult her aircraft for spotting purposes.
Exeter had fired off her torpedoes at 0632 ( 6.32 AM, ) but did not achieve any result, now at 0637 ( 6.37 AM ) Graf Spee altered course some 150 degrees, steering to the North West under cover of smoke.
0638 to 0650 ( 6.38 to 6.50 AM )At about 0638 ( 6.38 AM ) Exeter altered course to Straboard to allow the firing of her starboard torpedoes, then took off to the North East to close the First Division, at 0645 ( 6.45 AM ) she turned westerly to keep within range.
Two more 11 inch hits fell upon Exeter, one put A turret out of action, and another started a fierce fire in the Chief Petty Officer's flat amidships, the 4 inch magazine was flooded through a burst water main. All the compass repeaters were out of action, the Captain had to rely on a simple boat's compass to allow him to keep the ship pointed so that Y turret might keep up her firing at the enemy, locally controlled, with the Gunnery Officer taking control from the searchlight platform.
At 0640 ( 6.40. AM ) an 11 inch shell fell just short of Achilles in line with her bridge, it burst at the waterline, with splinters killing four sailors, stunning the Gunnery Officer, ( many unkind Officers might comment, But that is but the normal condition for most Gunnery Officers. ) and slightly wounding the Captain and his Chief Yeoman of Signals.
0650 to 0708. ( 6.50 to 7.08 AM )Achilles with her guns firing in local control could not find the right line with her gun fire, her salvoes falling short. The aircraft from Ajax, reporting that the salvoes were all falling short, but in Achilles, their gun control officer was unaware that Ajax was not still in concentrated firing, he therefore wrongly concluded it was his fall of shot being reported as short, and corrected accordingly, this had the effect of all his gunfire falling way over the enemy pocket battleship. A real mix up at a time when to achieve hits on the enemy was crucial. With all the smoke added to the general confusion, direct spotting was quite hard.
Graf Spee made frequent course alterations trying to throw off the British ship's gunfire, she also made skilful use of the smoke she generated.
Exeter valiently kept up firing her Y turret in local control, but she now had developed a 7 degree list to starboard, adding to the difficulties of keeping Y turret firing. She was still a target for fire from Graf Spee, but shots fell consistantly over.
0708 to 0728. ( 7.08 to 7.28 AM )Graf Spee was still 16,000 yards from theFirst Division, and they were ordered to close the enemy at speed, accepting they would lose the benefit of having their guns bear on the enemy whilst they steamed closer to the German ship.
At 0708 ( 7. 08 AM ) Graf Spee made a dramatic alteration of course to port under cover of her smoke, and at 0720 ( 7. 20 AM ) she turned back to the North West to bring her guns to bear, and Ajax was very quickly straddled three times from a range of 11,000 yards.
At the same time, the First Division turned to starboard to bring all their main armament bearing on Graf Spee, their fire appeared to most effective with Graf Spee on fire amidships. But at 0725 ( 7. 25 AM ) Ajax was hit by an 11 inch delayed action shell on the after superstructure, its passed through some cabins, wrecking them, then it went through X turret trunk, wrecking all the turret machinery below the gun house, a part of this shell base then struck Y turret barbette, close to the turret training rack, and jammed the turret. Thus one shell was responsible for putting both X and Y turrets out of action, for killing four, and wounding another six of X turret's crew.
It appeared that Graf Spee was neglecting Exeter, as she steered North West to close on the First Division, with Ajax assuming that the German ship would hold this course, she decided to fire off a broadside of her torpedoes. At 0724 ( 7. 24 A M ) she turned to starboard, and let go four torpedoes at a range of 9,000 yards, but without result.
Graf Spee must have seen them coming, and quickly took avoiding action by turning 130 degrees to port, and then returned to the North West after about three minutes.
Exeter was slowly dropping astern of the action, the forward damage taking it's toll. At 0740 ( 7. 40 A M ) Y turret still in local control stopped firing, this was due to a power failure caused by flooding. At 0740 ( 7. 40 A M ) Exeter was steering South East at a very slow speed, she needed to both make repairs and herself seaworthy again.
Now Ajax and Achilles altered course to 260 degrees so that the range to the enemy was reduced even more, then at 0721 ( 7.21 A M ) the spotting aircraft reported "Torpedoes approaching, they will pass ahead of you." The two cruisers decided to make sure they missed, and altered course to 180 degrees.
At 0732 ( 7.32 AM ) Graf Spee turned away to the West and started to zig zag, and Ajax seemed to be making good use of her three available guns, one of the hoists had failed in B turret, and both X and Y turrets were out of action.
Suddenly at 0736, ( 7.36 AM ) Graf Spee altered course to the South West to again bring all her armament to bear on the First Division, the range now down to 8,000 yards.
Ajax reported she had only 20% of her ammunition left.
The shooting by Graf Spee was accurate, and Commodore Harwood did not think she had suffered much damage from the salvoes from the British ships, so he decided to break off the action, at least till after dark. One of the last salvoes from the enemy had demolished Ajax's top mast, and with it all of her aerials, so jury aerials were rigged as quickly as possible. As the British ships turned away, Graf Spee did not follow them, but then altered course to 270 degrees, her speed 22 knots, this course would take her directly to the River Plate. The First Division, now turned to place themselves in shadowing positions on both quarters of the German ship, at a distance of about 15 miles.
British shipping in the area was alerted to Graf Spee's position, course and speed, this information was also sent off to the British Admiralty.
At 0912 ( 9.12 AM ) Ajax recovered her aircraft, then at 0916 ( 9.16 AM ) Harwood ordered Cumberland from the Falkland Islands to close the River Plate at full speed, he was in dire need of reinforcements to his force.
At 1104 ( 11.04 AM ) a merchant ship close to Graf Spee was stopped and blowing off clouds of steam, a signal from the pocket battleship read: "Please pick up lifeboats of English steamer." When coming up to the British ship, SS Shakespeare, all her boats were hoisted, and she reported that she was not in need of any assistance.
At 1105 ( 11.05 AM ) Exeter signalled that all her turrets were out of action, she was flooded up to No. 14 bulkhead, but could proceed at 18 knots, she was ordered to sail to the Falkland Islands at her best speed without placing strain on her bulkheads.
At 1342 ( 1.42 PM ) the British Naval Attache at Buenos Airies was informed that Graf Spee was making for the Plate. The shadowing of Graf Spee continued, and at 1915 ( 7.15 PM ) she suddenly fired off two salvoes at Ajax who turned away under smoke, the first salvo fell in line, the second in her wake as she turned, the range 26,000 yards.
It now seemed that Graf Spee intended to enter the Plate, and Achilles was told to follow her if she went West of Lobos, now Ajax was to proceed South of the English Bank, just in case the German doubled back that way.
Just after sunset, Graf Spee fired off three salvoes at Achilles, the third lobbed very close, in return, AchillesGraf Spee now proceeded North of the English Bank, and anchored in Montevideo roads at 0050. ( 00.50 AM ) fired 5 salvoes that seemed to straddle the enemy ship.
Harwood now reports that his main concern was how long Graf Spee intended to stay here.
At 2350 ( 11.50 PM ) Ajax and Achilles were ordered to withdraw from the Plate, Harwood did not want to risk them having to face Graf Spee silhouetted by the rising sun behind them. Achilles was to patrol the area from the Urugayan coast to a line 120 degrees from English Bank, whilst Ajax was to look after the Southern area. Both cruisers were to move back to the mouth of the Plate after the threat posed by the dawn had passed.
UPDATE: Reader Oyster sends along the radio report. Cool.
UPDATE II, Electric Boogaloo: Since the first posting, even more is available.
Did you know that HMS Achilles flew the New Zealand flag ... the first time that flag flew in battle? You can also find the Y-turret from HMS Achilles on display at Devonport Naval Base in Auckland.
To understand the battle more, click the 80th anniversary link at the top, and this video is helpful.


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Dir: Andrew Adamson. New Zealand. 2012. 130mins
Charles Dickens is digested in Bougainville in Mr. Pip, Andrew Adamson's ambitious re-telling of Great Expectations by way of adapting Lloyd Jones's novel. It's ambitious, it's bloody and it's confusing. This sprawling dramatisation is sure to be a curiosity, if not more, among Dickens devotees, and there are many, but there are many retellings of Dickens classics in the marketplace – in and out of other works of literature – and their natural destiny is usually television rather than the big screen. Outside the English-speaking world, the market for Mr. Pip may be small.
Laurie as a teacher attempting the impossible, taking a community from pre-history into circumstances beyond their control, bares the helplessness of the outside world as the horror of history unfold.
Adamson's film reaches far and wide to capture the scope of Jones's novel, following a young girl from her initiation to Dickens by a British ex-pat teacher (Hugh Laurie as the last white man in war-ravaged Bougainville), to the viciously brutal murder of her mother and others by Papuan troops, to her reconnection with a long absent father and a final stop in England. And that's just the itinerary.
At the center of the coming of age story, if a genre has to be assigned to it, is young Matilda, a beautiful Bougainvillean whose mind at 14 goes into high gear when she imagines her version of Dickens's world. Those reveries are staged as period pieces with Bougainvillean characters in costumes of hallucinatory colors.
Idyllic Bougainville is nothing like paradise, however, as poor uneducated peasants try to survive between the local starving rebels and cutthroat troops who arrive by helicopter to terrorize them. As Mr. Watts, the teacher who fled London for the tropics, Hugh Laurie is anything but a romantic in this year's twist on the To Sir With Love role. The distrust of the locals and the savagery of the army are scratched into lines on his face as the story progresses.
Yet coherence erodes over the course of that same story, with blocks of narrative in one location lumped after sections in another place, and book-ended with visions of Great Expectations pageantry. You get the feeling that the choppy sectioning of narrative parts came from an urgency to keep the film short - at 130 minutes. Had it been longer, or had it been a mini-series, more scenes would have made more sense.
Still, Laurie as a teacher attempting the impossible, taking a community from pre-history into circumstances beyond their control, bares the helplessness of the outside world as the horror of history unfolds. Scenes of grotesquery – in body parts alone – could be lifted into Saw. Vivid cinematography by cinematographer John Toon ensures that you don't miss the brutal or the beautiful. Part of Toon's brief is to show that the most breathtaking landscapes can be the backdrops for atrocities.
And beautiful is the appropriate description for Xzannjah Matsi, who metamorphoses in Mr. Pip from a shy village girl into a young woman of composure, by way of Dickens, a burned village and some ghastly public executions. The actress (and her director) chose wisely not to compete in histrionics with the horrors of the story. Less in Matsi's approach to acting is very much more here.
Despite his over-abbreviated adaptation, Andrew Adamson (Shrek 1 and 2, Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian) can probably take credit for bringing potential readers, the new Matildas, to Lloyd Jones and Charles Dickens. Xzannjah Matsi probably doesn't have to worry about her audience.
Production companies: New Zealand Film Commission, New Zealand on Air, Strange Weather, Eyeworks, Daydream Productions, Olympus Pictures
International Sales: Focus Features International, www.focusfeatures.com
Producers: Leslie Urdang, Robin Scholes, Andrew Adamson, Dean Vanech
Executive producers: Tim Coddington, Timothy White, Dan Revers, James Dean, Julie Christie
Cinematography: John Toon
Editor: Sim Evan-Jones
Music: Tim Finn, Harry Gregson-Williams
Production designer: Grant Major
Main cast: Hugh Laurie, Xzannjah Matsi, Healesville Joel, Eka Darville, Kerry Fox

subset: commoncrawl


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WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. House Saturday night approved a rule outlining the course the debate and votes on the government funding bill will take.
The vote was 231-191, with two Democrats siding with Republicans, The Hill reported.
Advertisement |
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. House Saturday night approved a rule outlining the course the debate and votes on the government funding bill will take. The vote was 231-191, with two Democrats siding with Republicans, The Hill reported.
Under the rule, there will be an hour of debate on a motion to accept the Senate-passed spending bill along with amendments to defund the Affordable Care Act for a year and eliminate a new 2.7 percent medical device tax, the Washington publication said.
House members will then vote on the two amendments. If they pass, as expected, the continuing resolution then votes back to the Senate without a final vote.
The rule also provides for 40 minutes of debate and a separate vot on H.R. 3210, which provides continued funding for the military along with related civilian personnel and contractors should there be a government shutdown, The Hill said.
The measure would fund the federal government operations through Dec. 15, rather than through Nov. 15 as the Senate bill calls for.
"Today Republicans in the House of Representatives moved to shut down the government," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a prepared statement. "Congress has two jobs to do: pass budgets and pay the bills it has racked up. Republicans in Congress had the opportunity to pass a routine, simple continuing resolution that keeps the government running for a few more weeks. But instead, Republicans decided they would rather make an ideological point by demanding the sabotage of the healthcare law."
Carney said congressional Republicans have "tried and failed to defund or delay the healthcare law more than 40 times, and they know this demand is reckless and irresponsible."
"The president has shown that he is willing to improve the healthcare law and meet Republicans more than halfway to deal with our fiscal challenges, but he will not do so under threats of a government shutdown that will hurt our economy.
"Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown," Carney said.
The task of avoiding a shutdown is complicated by a desire among conservatives to repeal or delay implementation of the ACA -- commonly known as Obamacare -- which has become tightly woven into negotiations about raising the national debt ceiling limit, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The Senate passed a stopgap spending measure Friday and then adjourned for the weekend. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scheduled members to return at 2 p.m. Monday, leaving the Republican-controlled House scant opportunity at act before the fiscal year ends at midnight Sept. 30.
Reid has repeatedly said a House bill with any provision defunding healthcare reform will not pass in the Senate.
Hard-line conservatives say they won't approve any measure that doesn't delay the healthcare law but Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said he is trying to find a workable compromise.
"I do not support shutting the government down," Dent said. "I do not support default -- under any circumstances."
In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, President Barack Obama said "a group of far-right Republicans in Congress might choose to shut down the government and potentially damage the economy just because they don't like this law."
Reid said Friday the GOP had been "infected by a small destructive faction" that he said was "more interested in putting on a show" than passing legislation.
"We've passed the only bill that can avert a government shutdown Monday night," Reid said Friday after the party line 54-44 Senate vote.
House leaders delayed until next week a vote on their existing proposal after some members complained it only cut spending about $200 billion over the next 10 years. At the same time, it would suspend the debt limit through the end of next year, allowing the government to borrow $1 trillion more.
The controversy has put House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in the gun sights of both House Republicans and Senate Democrats, The Hill reported.
Conservatives in the lower chamber say Boehner could be out as speaker if he allows funding of the ACA to be included in the debt limit resolution. Reid says Boehner will be responsible for any government shutdown.
Congress and the White House were able to reach a last-second compromise agreement on raising the debt limit in 2011. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., isn't hopeful the same thing can happen this year.
"Reading the tea leaves is more difficult. I think it is going to be difficult on the [funding bill] and it may be even more difficult on the debt ceiling," Corker said.


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Hotels.com is offering stays in the most fetch pink suites every Wednesday during October for some really pretty prices!
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With a wide range of fetch properties, Hotels.com offers the hottest pink rooms around, so the accommodation experts are celebrating by staying pink on Wednesdays this October.
To celebrate social media's Mean Girls Day, on October 3 Hotels.com will release a very limited selection of pink hotel rooms, available for one-night stays on Wednesdays throughout the month of October, with all rooms costing under £60 including taxes and fees*.
If you fancy a night in pink plushness with your gang, hop over to Hotels.com and use the below coupon code for selected pink stays*: https://uk.hotels.com/page/staypink/
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The offer is valid for stays only in the 'Pink Stays'* room category at each of these five fabulous hotels. Very limited quality available:
The offer is valid for stays only in the 'Pink Stays'* room category at each of these five fabulous hotels. Very limited quality available:
- The May Fair, a Radisson Collection Hotel, London, UK: The hot pink Schiaparelli Suite is a room fit for the Queen Bee. Perfect for when you want to feel regal and sassy all at the same time. One suite available on 20th and 27th October only.
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This oh-so-groom offer is valid this October only on Hotels.com, who make it ridiculously easy to find the right place to stay. And you even get rewarded** for it.


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HowTo:Be Homeless in America
HowTo: Be Homeless in America This article is part of Uncyclopedia's HowTo series. See more HowTos |
This article is being provided as a public service by the Uncyclopedia Ministry of Health and Human Welfare.
Did some governmental guru just release a 500-page report claiming the latest recession is over? Funny how that doesn't translate too well when your work hours have been cut, your wages have been reduced, and your smelly goat-faced boss is hinting at how you can make a little extra money kneeling behind his desk. Or are you struggling to meet the rising cost of your high-wheeling, crack cocaine lifestyle? Or perhaps you're just worried about the impending arrival of head-hunting extraterrestrials from Uranus?
Whatever hole you've fallen into, does it seem like you'll never be able to crawl out? Well, now you can! There's a very simple method to escape all your debts, financial obligations, angry creditors, collection agencies, double-dealing drug dealers, and hostile space aliens: go homeless! With this handy guide, we'll show you HowTo:Be Homeless in America, and you can learn it all in the comfort of your own home.
What kind of homeless person are you?
The first step to starting your debt-free, carefree lifestyle is learning what type of homeless person you have the potential to become. You may think all homeless people are on the street because of poverty--not true! A 2009 study by the Department of Sociology of the University of California, Sanderson, showed that 50 percent are homeless due to poverty; 50 percent due to alcohol or drug problems; and 50 percent due to mental disorders.[1]
And did you know that many famous people were homeless for at least part of their lives? These include such luminaries as Fargo the Homeless, Madonna, David Letterman, Kelly Clarkson, Jim Morrison, Jesus of Nazareth, and Adolf Hitler. You could be one of them!
This simple, three-question quiz will tell you how to determine what type of homeless candidate you are.
1) When you're at home at night, you suddenly see a bright light through your front window. You believe:
- A. it's the last surge of electricity before they shut down my power because I haven't paid my bills.
- B. it's an agent from the Drug Enforcement Agency here to question me about my pusher.
- C. it's hostile space aliens who've come to eat my brain!
2) I can't buy groceries for the rest of this month because:
- A. prices have shot so high I can't afford them.
- B. there's no money left after I get my daily fix of heroin.
- C. hostile space aliens hiding in the cabbage bin will follow me home to eat my brain!
3) You find a "dime" in the locked metal box hidden in your closet. This is:
- A. what I'm down to my last one of.
- B. a bag containing ten dollar's worth of marijuana.
- C. something that can transform into a hostile space alien to eat my brain!
Now total your score. If you have more A's than anything else, you're a candidate for homeless poverty. If you have more B's, you're a candidate for homeless drug addiction. And if you have more C's, your home is about to be invaded by hostile space aliens who are coming to eat your brain! You'd better escape and run into the street quick![2]
Where to be homeless
This section applies to all three types of homeless people, poor, drug addicts, and the mentally ill. Even homeless people want to live in a nice place!
Some people think you can be homeless anywhere. Not true! Would you want to be homeless in Nome, Alaska in winter? In Death Valley in summer? Or at any time of the year in New York City? Of course not! And did you know that some cities (Sarasota, Florida) actually have laws that prohibit homeless people from living outside a home?[3]
You want to go where the weather's sunny all year long, where strangers are welcomed, and where the people dress so weirdly nobody will even notice you're homeless. Of course we're talking about Southern California. But not Watts! No, the places you want to be are Venice Beach, San Diego, Beverly Hills, or, anytime other than summer, Palm Springs. Have you seen the valuables people in Palm Springs just throw away? And on spring break, hundreds of partying college students toss away their money and their clothes! Trust us, you want to be homeless where people have money.
Making money
Speaking of money, do you know how to make it when you're on the street with no income? Get a job! Surprisingly, about 30 percent of homeless people work. But who can get together enough money at one time for first and last month's rent, security deposit, phone service, electricity, gas, water, the Internet, and your 20 favorite membership-only online porn sites? If you're homeless you can't, so don't even try. But here's some ways how you can make a living on the street.
A surprising number of homeless people make a meager living working at fast food restaurants. You didn't think those fast food workers earned enough to afford a home, did you? Wasn't working for their meager wage the reason you became homeless? This is the best choice for A's (poor homeless).
Social Services
Are you a female, or a male with a nice bum? If so, you can earn money as a social worker! And if you're a high school girl or younger? Within six hours of hitting the street, you'll be found by a helpful social work supervisor who's just aching for a girl like you. Social services pays better than babysitting, and you won't have to change smelly diapers! Well, not most of the time. And if you're looking for some booze, or even horse or grass or cheese, your supervisor can connect you. This is the best choice for B's (drug addict homeless).
If you don't want to work for someone else and are an entrepreneurial type who wants to be your own boss, consider begging. Can you imagine making hundreds of dollars a day begging? You can? Well, we can imagine being CEO of Disney, but that's not happening either. But if you're delusional enough, you can become a self-employed CEO! This is the best choice for C's (mentally ill homeless).
How can you find a place to live? You don't have a house; you're homeless, remember? But you can easily find or improvise living quarters for yourself.[4]
A Bridge makes a great place to live under. Rent is free, and you're sheltered from both bird droppings and the rain. (Provided, of course, you don't have high winds that blow it in horizontally, and if it doesn't rain enough to flood you out. You didn't really believe it never rains in Southern California, did you?) This is the best choice for A's (poor homeless).
It's not as great for shelter, but a Dumpster can be a wonderful place to live in. When you get the munchies, you won't be begging for garbage to eat; people will throw it at you! You can also find used clothing, shoes, an occasional syringe, and an endless supply of cigarette butts (nobody throws those in a Dumpster, but you'll find dozens on the ground six inches away). This is the best choice for B's (drug addict homeless).
Cardboard Box
A Cardboard Box won't shelter you much when it rains, but you really believe it never rains in Southern California, don't you? It also has the advantage of being completely portable. Want to pick up and move? Simply pick up and move! And you can imagine your box to be anything you want: a Hollywood mansion, a medieval castle, or even Mariah Carey's boxer shorts. This is the best choice for C's (mentally ill homeless).
There's a worry that strikes soon-to-be homeless of all three types: How can I avoid being the victim of a crime? Don't worry! If you have a four-bedroom home, this year's Ford Mustang, and two dozen credit cards, there are professionals out there just waiting to break in, steal your car and your identity. But who's going to steal from a homeless person? And if they do take your cardboard box, no problem! You can easily find another under a bridge or in a Dumpster. And if you're worried about being sexually molested or raped, don't worry! Would you want to have sex with some dirty, smelly, unshaven street scum? Of course not! People will be afraid of you. They'll back away, turn away, and try to get away from you as quickly as possible. Half the time, they'll look away and pretend you aren't even there. What could be safer?
But what if you're a suspect in a crime and get arrested? Again, no problem! You'll get taken to a clean cell with heating and air conditioning and three square meals a day. True, in some places like the Willacy County Detention Center, you could be forced to live in a tent city where people are fed spoiled food, are sexually abused, and occasionally die from freezing or heat stroke. But you aren't in Texas, are you? You're in Southern California! What could possibly go wrong there?
What if I change my mind?
Surprisingly, some people find that the carefree homeless life is not for them. They may become saturated with too many nights lived under the stars, too many free dinners, and too many people who literally won't give them the time of day.[6] No problem! Returning to a home is easy. Just follow this simple, three-step process and you can be off the streets and back in debt in no time.
First, simply save enough for first and last month's rent, security deposit, phone service, electricity, water, medical needs, and other necessities. It's that simple! And if you haven't earned quite enough from your homeless profession, just return to your old place of employment, and kneel behind your ex-bosses' desk.
Second, fill out an application for an apartment or rented house. All you'll need is the name, address and phone number of your current employer; three current references; and your current phone number and residential address.
Third, realize neither of these is possible, and you'll be homeless for the rest of your life. But don't worry! You won't be homeless for long, because hungry space aliens are coming right now to eat your brain![7]
So join the fun, and be homeless today!
This article has been provided as a public service by the Uncyclopedia Ministry of Health and Human Welfare. If you discover any inconsistencies in this article, we will not accept responsibility. If you have any complaints, please consult our Uncyclopedian Minister of Complaints, <insert name here>.
- ↑ If these percentages seem to indicate a total higher than 100 percent, please remember that this study was performed by the university's Sociology Department, not by the Math Department.
- ↑ If you have an equal number of A's, B's and C's, please take the quiz again, only this time pay attention. Official government statistics have shown it's impossible to have more than one reason to become homeless.
- ↑ Because two Sarasota anti-lodging laws were tossed out as unconstitutional, they made another law banning living outdoors if the person "has no other place to live." Those lawmakers are so funny!
- ↑ Stay away from shelters. These are full of smelly, icky, impoverished, mentally ill drug addicts.
- ↑ This is only a simulation. If you know either of these people, please do not take offense. And do not call our lawyers. They aren't home right now. And they won't be home for a long, long time.
- ↑ According to Fargo the Homeless, many people turn away when he asks them what time it is. So time is one less thing you'll have to worry about!
- ↑ Space alien brain eating is not guaranteed. Absolutely no refunds.
- A Dream Fulfilled: The Celebration of Homelessness in U.S. Cities, National Coalition for Homelessness
- Promoting Homelessness in America, University of Richmond. (2003)
- Same River Twice: The Wonders of Mental Illness, Fargo the Homeless and Wandering John, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (1999).
- StreetConnect, Comprehensive resource site for locating homeless youth for the purpose of supervised employment
- PBS, Homeless at Last!, "Topic: What will most help people escape the home-bound fabric of society?" (February 2, 2007)
- National Policy and Advocacy Council for Homelessness, American council for promoting homelessness
- FirstStep Guide to getting help to become homeless, Guide by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, United States Department of UnHousing and Urban Underdevelopment, and Substance Abuse Promotion and Mental Health Reduction Services Administration
Featured Article (read another featured article) | Featured version: 1 December 2009 |
This article has been featured on the main page. — You can vote for or nominate your favourite articles at Uncyclopedia:VFH. |


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On the Viva64.com site they've posted the results of their own evaluation of PHP 7 in terms of both the source of the language itself and the libraries it makes use of.
Sometimes checking a project one more time can be quite amusing. It helps to see which errors were fixed, and which ones got into the code since the time it was last checked. My colleague has already written an article about PHP analysis. As there was a new version released, I decided to check the source code of the interpreter once again, and I wasn't disappointed - the project had a lot of interesting fragments to look at.
They start with a brief look at PHP 7 including when it was released, some of the features/functionality included and the tool they used to do the analysis. They talk about some of the difficulties in the analysis process and how the widespread user of macros tripped it up a bit. They includes some code examples from PHP's source and the warnings that their PVS-Studio returned. The post ends with a brief look at the third-party libraries PHP uses and the responsibility the project takes in including them.


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Tobias Jesso Jr.
Hey Tobias, where are you today?
I'm in LA, but it's foggy and cloudy.
What's up with that?
I know, right?! That's not what they sold me in all the pop culture ads.
So, let's start at the beginning – what's your earliest musical memory?
Oh man, I've never been asked that before. I mean, I'm sure most people would say listening to Beethoven in my mother's tummy or something, but probably when I was 12, and I was probably listening to the Fugees or something like that. That first musical moment when I was like, "Wow, this is really good," was listening to the Fugees or Tracy Chapman.
Are you from a musical family?
No, not at all. Everyone is tone deaf in my family, including me.
How did you get into songwriting, then?
I don't know. I think I probably got into it just to impress a girl or something; I picked up a guitar and said, "Look what I can do." But I've always been a big fan of melody, and writing songs. You know when you're browsing your interests as a kid, and you find out what you're good at and what you're terrible at? Well, I was not very good at math for instance, but songwriting, and just being able to follow melodies, I thought I was good at it. So I just kept going.
You were in a band called The Sessions?
I was, yeah. I was the latest addition. I came onboard to play bass – the easiest of all instruments in a band – and then I was in that band for a couple of years. Then I moved from Vancouver to Hollywood to play bass again – slacker – for a pop singer.
Which is obviously where the inspiration for the song 'Hollywood' came from...
...Well, 'Hollywood' was more of a loser's take on time spent there. So yeah, it's about the whole time there and how I ended up feeling after a few years of the deep grind.
Did that experience leave you disillusioned with the music industry?
No, not really disillusioned, because I wasn't in touch with the music industry at all. I didn't know which door to open to even see the music industry. It's a strange thing because, as soon as that door did open, and JR took my demos and started showing people, it was like I knew everybody in the matter of a couple months. But, before that, it was a closed door. I was just showing my friends and artists my songs, but I had no ties to the music industry; I mean, I didn't really know any producers. But it just blew wide open as soon as I started doing the piano thing, and I was like, "Oh, here it is! Right under my nose."
You took up piano when you moved back to Vancouver, right? How much piano had you played before that?
I mean, I'd played 'Chopsticks' and stuff, but I definitely wasn't – and I'm still not – proficient at the piano. Instead of knowing a couple chords on guitar and being able to play the next chord, on the piano it was a lot harder; I had to really find out where I was. I was starting with one finger in the bass clef and then just three fingers; that's all I could handle. You find yourself teaching your brain the hand-eye coordination for chords, and then I just started practising that way.
It's funny, because if you listen to the demos in order, they grow in difficulty. There will be 10 songs with me playing one bass note and three chords, and then all of a sudden in the 11th song you hear an octave in the bass and I'm just like, "Oh yeah baby, next step." I only ever took one lesson, and that was two weeks ago.
Did you always intend to share these songs with other people?
I mean – to be real – it was at the back of my mind to share it. Obviously, I thought it was good enough, but in the moment I was thinking maybe it was something I would look back at in 10 years, or pull out on my anniversary with my future wife to be like, "Here is a mix CD," or something. I wasn't thinking much more than that, realistically. But I put them on YouTube and Facebook afterwards because I was like, "You know what, I'm really happy with these."
How long did it take for people to bite once you uploaded 'Just A Dream' to YouTube?
It was instant. I had a video of a song that I put up the year before that probably remained at 20 views the entire time – and it was probably my 20 views – but when I put up these demos, everyday it would be another 40 views. And then there would be a comment from somebody I didn't know, saying, "Oh man, this is great,' or something. Then people I hadn't talked to in a while and musician friends started reaching out, and I gained a bit of confidence. So I just wanted to keep writing because – for the first time – I felt like I was doing something good..
The demos are pretty sparse in comparison to the versions that appear on Goon. Did you always intend to flesh them out eventually?
Not necessarily; they were just me being selfish in my room. But when I met JR and we started talking about the album, he pointed out the different routes I could go, rather than just being a piano man. He had a lot of good advice, and also he is a producer so he wanted to put his flavour on it, and I'm a big fan of his production. By the time I went [into the studio] the idea of being able to explore lots of things – without pigeonholing each song to just piano – was exciting and I wanted to see what he could do... And this is where you tell me he either nailed it or he sucked.
It's a good album!
(Laughs) Thank you.
You've picked up a lot of comparisons to songwriters like Nilsson, Todd Rundgren and Emitt Rhodes. But they weren't reference points at the time, right?
For the album recording, yeah they definitely were, but not for the writing of it. When I wrote 'Just A Dream' and the next four tracks, I hadn't heard Nilsson or Rundgren. But when JR came on board and I sent him my demos, he was reaching out to recommend [those artists]. The funny thing is, I didn't even think they were all from the same era; I'm not that musically-cultured so I didn't know what the 70s sound even was. But as soon as I heard them I was like, "Holy crap, these chords are amazing."
I think, just like clothes, chords can go in and out of style, and I don't think those Carole King-style changes were around in recent years that much. So when I play a seventh chord on 'Just A Dream', people might have thought it was new but it really was just a resurfacing of something previously thought to be very cheesy. Who knows, maybe they're coming back into style now, and I'm going to have to figure something else for the next album.
You explained the album title to the NME as being about "a hopeless dumb guy who can't express love". On the album you actually seem pretty good at articulating emotion so...
How dare you! (Laughs) I was trying to figure out really what the album title was about just the other day, and I think I just liked the word, especially because having an album called "Goon" is sort-of self deprecating. That way, people wouldn't be like, "Oh here is some sad, sad boy with some serious album title who is taking all this very seriously."
I wanted to show the difference between how people perceive me and how I am in real life, because I am generally a happy guy, and kind-of a goof. Having a romantic, sad, serious album called "Goon" was just a good way to express it.
Lyrically, are the songs autobiographical?
Oh yeah, they're pretty much mostly autobiographical. I tried to play around with stories and stuff but I'm just not that creative. I can't really think of too many situations that I personally haven't been in to talk about. And when I talk about other people it takes me forever to write lyrics, whereas when I talk about myself it's just easy.
Considering the personal subject matter, how uncomfortable is it performing them live?
Well, it's uncomfortable to just get used to performing, period. I haven't performed very much so I'm still getting used to my voice, and trying to make it do what I want it to do. I mean, I'm not crying on stage, head-over-heel with emotion because they are older songs for me now. It's definitely more nerve-wracking trying to get it right in the live setting, but I'm going to get used to it hopefully.
We actually saw your first ever live show, at Pitchfork Paris...
Oh my goodness!
How was it for you?
I don't remember it, I blacked out. (Laughs) I was on autopilot or something
So we can't not ask you about Adele. She broke her Twitter silence to recommend your track, right?
Yeah! Unprecedented, unprecedented the whole thing!
You're a big fan aren't you?
Are you kidding? I'm the biggest fan. She's like one of my favourite of all time.
So have you been in touch with her since?
I haven't, no, but I definitely have bragged about that tweet.
Have you noticed a lot more attention because of it?
I've given myself a lot more attention because of it... (Laughs) No, nothing much has changed; I didn't walk outside of my house and there's 50 Adele fans or anything like that. It was just a personal thing; it made me feel really warm and fuzzy.
So could we expect a collaboration in the future?
Would I be up for it? Yeah, of course I would! I mean I don't think there is a single person in the entire music world who would not be up for a collaboration with Adele.
Finally, what would you like listeners to take away from Goon?
Whatever they want, really. If they can attach themselves to it emotionally for three minutes – or whatever the song length is – and have their experiences be brought out in it or feel sad or happy or anything at all, that's great. The goal for the songwriter is just to have other people that you don't know relating to your music. I'd just like listeners to feel deeply about something I'm singing.
March 2015


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Eileen Chadnick, PCC, ACPC, ABC
(Haven't met yet? Check out my bios here)


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Johns Hopkins scientists report the discovery of a protein found only in cerebrospinal fluid that they say might be useful in identifying a subgroup of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) or identifying those at risk for the debilitating autoimmune disorder.
MS strikes over 10,000 Americans each year, most of whom are women, and causes weakness, numbness, a loss of muscle coordination, and problems with vision, speech, and bladder control. It is a disorder in which the immune system destroys myelin, the covering of nerves that helps transmit signals. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is the watery fluid that surrounds and cushions the brain and spinal cord.
The federally funded Hopkins research, reported in the February issue of the Annals of Neurology, is important, the researchers say, because unlike other autoimmune diseases in which the body attacks its own tissues, MS cannot be diagnosed with a simple blood or other test.
While it is recognized that there might be several forms of MS, laboratory-based tests need to be developed to diagnose these subtypes.
"There is the possibility now that the protein we identified, 12.5 kDa cystatin, can be used to diagnose MS, perhaps in its earliest stages, and also to monitor treatment by measuring its levels in CSF," says Avindra Nath, M.D., a professor in the Department of Neurology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
Working with human CSF, the Hopkins team showed that 12.5 kDa cystatin is a breakdown product of a larger protein called cystatin C or 13.4kDa, which in turn blocks activity of some enzymes, including cathepsin B. Cathepsin B has been linked to demyelination-the destruction of the nerve sheath. The term kDa refers to Kilodalton, the weight of one molecule of a substance.
"In fact, those patients who had more of the breakdown product of 12.5 kDa cystatin also seemed to have the highest cathepsin B inhibition," Nath said.
The investigators made their finding using a sophisticated technique called SELDI-time-of-flight mass spectroscopy that can find one specific protein in a complex mixture based on its weight. They used it to examine CSF samples from 29 patients with MS or pre-MS symptoms such as numbness on one side; 27 patients with transverse myelitis, a painful inflammation of spinal cord nerves; 50 infected with the AIDS virus (which can cause nerve damage); and 27 with other neurological diseases. The Hopkins scientists analyzed CSF instead of blood samples because CSF better represents local events in the brain than does blood, according to Nath. And the high concentrations of many proteins in the blood can mask proteins that might be biomarkers for MS, he added.
The team found that the 12.5kDa fragment of cystatin C occurred in CSF samples from two-thirds of patients with MS or the pre-MS conditions. Moreover, although total cystatin C levels in MS patients were not different from control patients without the disease, patients with MS had a larger proportion of the 12.5 kDa compared to 13.4 kDa cystatin C than did other patients. Thus, the presence of the 12.5 kDa fragment might identify a subgroup of MS patients.
The other authors of this study include Daniel N. Irani and Douglas A. Kerr, departments of Neurology and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology; Caroline Anderson, Justin C. McArthur, Ned Sacktor, Melina Jones and Peter Calabresi, Department of Neurology; Rebekah Gundry and Robert Cotter, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences; Stacy Moore, Ciphergen Biosystems Inc., Freemont, Calif.; Carlos A. Pardo, Departments of Neurology and Pathology.
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and by a Collaborative Center Grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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The last post in this series of blogs will be focused on the Frogmore Estate. The estate comprises 33 acres of private gardens within the grounds of Windsor Great Park which adjoins Windsor Castle.
It is the location of Frogmore House, a royal retreat; however, it is also the site of three royal burial places of the British Royal Family. They are the Royal Mausoleum, the Duchess of Kent Mausoleum and the Royal Burial Ground.
As before, I was astounded as to just who was buried at the site. Many readers will know the obvious two; nonetheless, there are many listed who I did not know were buried at Frogmore.
The Royal Mausoleum
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert- Queen Victoria and her husband had long intended to construct a special resting place for them both instead of being buried in the traditional royal resting places, Westminster Abbey and St George's Chapel being prime examples of this.
Prince Albert died in December 1861, and within days of his death, proposals for the mausoleum were being drawn up. Work commenced on the building in March 1862, and the new site was consecrated in December of the same year.
The mausoleum takes the form of a Greek cross; the exterior of the building was inspired by Italian Romanesque buildings, while the interior decoration is in the style of Albert's favourite painter, Renaissance genius Raphael.
As readers will know, Queen Victoria remained in mourning for her husband for the rest of her life, choosing to seclude herself from public life for a prolonged period of time. She spent many months at either Osborne House or at Frogmore, presumably to be closer to her husband.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, husband and wife were finally reunited as Victoria was interred into the mausoleum alongside Albert. While only Victoria and Albert are interred in this mausoleum, it does contain other memorials. Princess Alice and Princess May, two of Victoria's daughters, have monuments to them inside the mausoleum. There is also a monument to Edward, Duke of Kent, Victoria's father who died in 1820, and is buried at St George's Chapel.
Duchess of Kent Mausoleum
Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld- This mausoleum within the Frogmore Gardens is the burial place of Queen Victoria's mother Victoria, The Duchess of Kent. The mausoleum was designed by architect A J Humbert to a concept design by Prince Albert's favourite artist, Professor Ludwig Gruner.
The Duchess actually lived at Frogmore House in the latter years of her life. The top portion of the finished building was intended to serve as a summer house for The Duchess during her lifetime. This was never to be, as The Duchess of Kent died on 16th March 1861, before the summer house was completed; hence, the upper chamber became a part of the mausoleum, and now houses a statue of The Duchess.
Royal Burial Ground
If I was to mention every member of the Royal Family who are buried at the Royal Burial Ground, this would be a very long piece indeed. I will however pick out the most notable members, and share them with you.
Prince George, Duke of Kent- Prince George was the fourth son and fifth child of King George V and Queen Mary. Born on the 20 December 1902 at York Cottage, he was the younger brother of two future kings, Edward VIII and George VI. In 1937, George was granted a commission in the Royal Air Force as a group captain and, at the height of the second world war, George, along with 14 others, was killed while on board RAF Short Sunderland flying boat W4026. The flying boat crashed into a hillside near Dunbeath. His remains lay initially at St George's Chapel before being moved to Frogmore.
Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor- Edward was the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary. Born on the 23rd June 1894 at White Lodge, Edward did inherit the throne in 1936 when his father died. King Edward VIII's kingship did not last long, however: The abdication crisis of 1936 was caused by Edward's desire to marry American socialite and divorcée Wallis Simpson.
As readers will know, Edward gave up the throne, and it was passed to his younger brother who became King George VI. After the Second World War, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor spent most of their lives in retirement, and effectively took on the role of celebrities.
The Duke died on 28th May 1972 at his home in Paris, and his body was returned to Britain, lying in state at St George's Chapel. The coffin was buried at Frogmore behind the Royal Mausoleum. Edward's wife, Wallis Simpson died in April 1986, and she is buried next to her husband at the site.
Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone- Princess Alice was the daughter of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and Princess Helena. She was also the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, being as Prince Leopold was their youngest son.
She was born on 25th February 1883 at Windsor Castle. She was married to Prince Alexander of Teck, the brother of the future Queen Mary. Alice was also godmother to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who is the granddaughter of her first cousin, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.
In 1981, at the age of 97, Princess Alice passed away at Kensington Palace, and her funeral was attended by all members of the British Royal Family. She is buried beside her husband and son at Frogmore. Alice had lived through the reigns of six monarchs, Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester- Princess Alice was the wife and widow of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester who was the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. Born on Christmas in 1901, Alice was the daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Scotland's largest landowner. It was in August 1935 that she became engaged to Prince Henry, and they were married in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 6th November that year.
On 10th June 1974, Prince Henry died, and Alice was widowed. Queen Elizabeth II still allowed her aunt to be styled as HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. In 1975, Alice was the first woman to be appointed a Dame, Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Princess Alice died on the 29th October 2004 at the age of 102, and she was interred in the Royal Burial Ground.
Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom- Princess Victoria was the fourth child and second daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Born on 6th July 1868 at Marlborough House, she was a granddaughter of the reigning Queen Victoria and deceased Prince Albert.
She was known to her family as Toria, and although she had a number of suitors throughout her life, Victoria never married nor did she ever have any children. It is believed that her mother actually discouraged her from marrying.
The Princess died at her own home in Buckinghamshire on 3rd December 1935, and she was initially buried at St George's Chapel. Her remains were later moved to Frogmore, however. Her death is said to have greatly affected King George V, who died just over one month later.
Other royals to be buried in the Royal Burial Ground include, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, Prince William of Gloucester, Lady May Abel Smith and Sir Angus Ogilvy.
So there we have it: Over three posts, we have covered over a thousand years worth of royals, from the major to the minor. Nevertheless, each one of them is an important part of the country's history. If you can think of any more royals buried in other places than the three featured, then please feel free to let us know.
photo credits: fatinandreanna via photopin cc, Timelapsed via photopin cc, WyrdLight.com via Wikimedia Commons cc and Tour Scotland Photographs via photopin cc]]>


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Here is the link to my site:
What I'd like to know is where in the CSS file would I find how to widen the space in the description part of the channel box? What I want to do is where it says "Any videos to do with .... " it cuts off at the bottom. I used to be able to do this in Vshare2.9 by editing the templates/css/black/black.css file. Is it the same in 3.2.0?
Thanks in advance.


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Executive Overview Atomic layer deposition (ALD) will be used in multiple areas of the 22nm logic process flow despite initial concerns about the technology's viability for high-volume manufacturing. Each application space creates a unique need for manufacturing equipment configuration and technology variations – from single-wafer ALD systems for extremely tight process control, batch ALD systems for low COO operation, to mini-batch systems for a meld of COO and process control for multi-layer applications. Selection of the appropriate manufacturing toolset is as critical to eventual technology adoption as the process itself, and final implementation will require the correct toolsets to ensure that the ALD films can be deposited in a cost efficient manner. |
M. Verghese, ASM, Phoenix, AZ USA; J. W. Maes, ASM, Leuven, Belgium; N. Kobayashi, ASM, Tokyo, Japan
Since its invention in the 1970s, atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been used in a variety of applications ranging from electroluminescence display manufacturing to industrial coatings [1]. Over the last decade, the semiconductor industry has slowly been adopting ALD reactors for critical layers where the benefits of ALD enable scaling and improved performance. With the upcoming transition to 22nm, process flows are being adapted to allow ever more ALD layers. As a variant of chemical vapor deposition (CVD), ALD techniques capitalize on surface saturation reactions to deposit extremely smooth, dense, and highly conformal films through a process that is relatively insensitive to fluctuations in process temperature and reactant flux. The ALD process relies on sequential introduction of the reactants into the reaction space, separated by inert gas purges, such that repetition of the ALD cycles results in a monolayer by monolayer growth of the deposited film. Thickness of the film can then be precisely controlled by adjusting the number of ALD cycles.
Process considerations for single-wafer tools
DRAM manufacturers were the first to use ALD to ensure conformal deposition of high-k dielectrics in high aspect ratio capacitor structures. Aggressive scaling of device dimensions and the subsequent requirement of low thermal budgets to control dopant diffusion continue to push the entire semiconductor industry to displace conventional CVD, plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD), and sputtering techniques with novel ALD processes in critical areas such as transistor gate stack formation and spacer defined double patterning. The low throughputs that are typically associated with ALD techniques have been a barrier to its adoption in mainstream production flows. However, these concerns are being addressed by intelligent equipment design to optimize the ALD process and hardware for individual application spaces. At the 22nm node, the logic industry will use ALD in several key process steps – both in front end transistor formation and in back end metallization and interconnect. Each application has highly specific requirements and calls for different hardware configurations for the optimal production solution.
Single-wafer ALD chambers are ideal when the application demands extremely thin films with precise thickness and uniformity control. Single-wafer systems can also most easily handle difficult precursor chemistries such as low vapor pressure, decomposition prone liquids and solids since ALD cycle times are typically short (in the order of a few seconds) and the source delivery systems can be placed in close proximity to the reaction chamber. Purge efficiency can be optimized relatively easily in single-wafer systems and as a result, these chambers are ideal for pure ALD deposition.
Figure 1. Need for complete ALD high-k/metal gate solution in 22nm logic transistors. |
Single-wafer ALD systems also have high precursor utilization efficiencies and hence, are a good fit for processes that use expensive precursor materials. For example, high-k dielectrics and metal gates for transistor gate oxide and electrodes require deposition of films as thin as 10Å while maintaining within wafer uniformities of <1%, 1σ. Hafnium-based high-k gate oxides typically use hafnium chloride, a solid precursor, for its excellent electrical performance when compared to metal organic chemistries [2]. Single-wafer systems tend to be the best choice for gate oxide deposition as they are very capable of delivering this highly condensable precursor. Furthermore, replacement gate devices require multiple, conformal metal films <50Å thick to ensure that space remains for a gate contact fill (Fig. 1). Single-wafer plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) is also used for the deposition of silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and silicon carbon nitride gate spacers. PEALD enables low-temperature deposition (<400°C), excellent conformality, and lower wet etch rates than films deposited by plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD). Film stress can also be varied from compressive to tensile by varying plasma processing conditions [3]. Techniques such as PVD and CVD are unable to attain the step coverage, thickness control, and cross-wafer uniformities required for such an application; single-wafer ALD has been gradually replacing these techniques in high performance logic gate structures since the 45nm node [4]. By the 22nm node, all primary gate stack materials will be deposited by ALD processes. The advent of three-dimensional architectures such as FinFETs, and the film conformality requirements that come therewith, will ensure that ALD will be the deposition technique of choice for the next several generations of advanced logic gate stack structures.
Batch tools for thicker films/high-aspect ratios
When film thicknesses are less than one hundred angstroms thick, ALD process times are typically no longer than a few minutes. Single-wafer tools then give acceptable throughput performance and short turn-around times. However, for some applications, the process times are inevitably longer. This can occur when thicker layers are required or when films have to be deposited in high-aspect ratio structures. Substrates with high-aspect ratio structures have a larger surface area than planar wafers and usually require a higher precursor dose and subsequently need longer pulses and purge times to enable effective gas transport into and out of the structures. Also, some ALD chemistries can have lower growth rates than others and some processes may require relatively long pulses to ensure complete surface reactions to achieve the desired film quality.
The throughput and cost-of-ownership (COO) performance of batch ALD approaches with ~100 wafer loads in one reactor can be substantially better than that of single-wafer systems. Pulse and purge times have to be longer in batch reactors because the volume of the reactor is larger and the gas transport depends more on diffusion (rather than forced convection) than in single-wafer systems. However, the total increase in cycle time is smaller than a factor of 100, more on the order of 10-50. Process optimization in a batch system is more complex than in a single-wafer system but for ALD chemistries that result in self-limiting ALD surface reactions, relatively good uniformities and step coverage can still be achieved. The precursor flow and total dose that is delivered to the batch reactor is typically much larger than in single-wafer applications, especially when high aspect ratio device structures are involved. However, techniques such as direct liquid injection (DLI) can be used to mitigate precursor dose delivery issues as long as the vapor pressure of the precursor is sufficiently high. Low vapor pressure precursors (which also can be solid powders) are more troublesome in batch equipment due to risk of condensation and decomposition associated with the high residence time in the reactors.
ALD titanium nitride using titanium chloride and ammonia meet all the criteria required to make batch processing an attractive option. Titanium nitride films are used in several applications in logic devices: electrodes for replacement gates, electrodes for embedded DRAM devices, barrier films in tungsten contacts, and through- silicon-via (TSV) structures. Required film thicknesses are in the range of 20−150Å.
Figure 2. Step coverage of batch pulsed CVD TiN film in 32:1 trenches. |
The process can be run in two modes: a strict ALD mode where completely separated titanium chloride and ammonia pulses are used (resulting in a growth rate of ~0.3Å/cycle), but also in a second mode in which one of the two pulses is actually a CVD pulse. In the pulsed CVD mode, a higher (3-5x) growth rate can be achieved. Batch reactors are able to run ALD-like processes such as pulsed CVD, with good results. The resulting film resistivity is a function of deposition temperature. In the ALD mode, one can use about 100°C lower deposition temperature to achieve the same resistivity as films deposited by the pulsed CVD mode [5]. Figure 2 shows an example of the deposition of a thicker layer of titanium nitride in a high aspect ratio structure. A highly conformal film is achieved, with step coverage of better than 95%, using the ALD-like pulsed CVD process mode in a batch reactor. Batch reactors can run at a throughput of greater than 30wph per reactor for 10nm films. These results demonstrate that batch-type ALD reactors are an attractive tool choice for some of the new ALD applications in future logic devices.
Mini-batch or multi-wafer ALD systems
When deposition of thicker films using complex precursors is required at reasonable throughputs and with short turn around times, a mini-batch or multi-single-wafer ALD system is the most appropriate. Mini-batch and multi-single-wafer ALD reactors meld the flexibility of single-wafer systems with the productivity of batch reactors. Typically, a mini-batch reactor processes four to five wafers together in one reactor and a multi-single-wafer system processes four to five wafers in individual reactors packaged in one module. These types of reactors can result in improved COO when compared to single-wafer systems as they occupy less floor space and rely on fewer, shared sub-systems. For example, gas panels, RF systems, and pumps can be combined for use on a mini-batch system whereas single-wafer tools would require multiple individual sub-systems. In addition, creative design of mini-batch systems can allow the use of direct plasma to enable plasma-enhanced ALD processes.
Spacer-defined double-patterning (SDDP) will likely be introduced to manufacture highly scaled lines and spacers for 22nm logic devices. In this technology, a conformal, ALD silicon oxide (SiO2) film is deposited directly on photoresist at extremely low temperatures. This is followed by an anisotropic etch-back process that results in the formation of SiO2 spacers that act as hard masks with smaller pitches. For this application, a mini-batch (multi-single-wafer) system is useful - ensuring high throughput in a system that can utilize direct plasma to enable deposition at near room temperatures. PEALD SiO2 using a mini-batch system results in conformal deposition at low-temperatures (<100°C) with within-wafer and wafer-to-wafer uniformity < 1%, three sigma. Throughputs can be achieved at >45wph per reactor at 20nm film thickness with high equipment utilization due to in situ remote plasma cleaning capability.
One cycle of PEALD SiO2 consists of 3 steps: chemisorption of an aminosilane precursor on the substrate, purging the precursor by inert gas flow, and plasma-assisted surface reaction of chemisorbed precursor with reactant gas. The RF-based plasma pulse is <400ms in length. Growth per cycle (GPC) of PEALD SiO2 increases with decreasing deposition temperature [6]. This GPC temperature dependence indicates the ALD reaction is limited by the desorption rate of the physisorbed precursor, which increases with increasing deposition temperature. Because this is an ALD process, film thickness is proportional to cycle number and thickness can be precisely controlled. These PEALD films have been confirmed to not cause plasma damage to the underlying substrate/films as the RF power during the deposition process is much smaller (<50W) than that of conventional PECVD.
Figure 3. PEALD SiO2 deposition on resist at 50ºC. |
As shown in Fig. 3a, 300Å of a conformal SiO2 film can be deposited directly on resist at 50°C without any damage. Furthermore, in situ treatments can be used to widen the space between lines and/or reform the resist shape. Figure 3b shows an example of in situ treatment before SiO2 deposition. In this case, the resist is slimmed isotropically by ~65Å. Within wafer uniformity of the treatment process is typically <2%, 3σ. This is a good example showing the process flexibility gained by using a mini-batch system, while sustaining the high throughputs required for manufacturing.
Overcoming the initial barriers to adoption has required the creation of several toolset configurations to address the unique issues in specific applications. Single-wafer, batch and mini-batch ALD solutions are available, each with thermal and plasma enhanced capabilities, and selection of the appropriate manufacturing toolset is as critical to eventual technology adoption as the process itself. In very cost sensitive markets such as memories, cost-of-ownership (COO) will be a main driver for equipment selection. In foundry or other logic applications, equipment choice is more a mix between COO, turn-around time and process performance considerations and choices of equipment type have to be made with careful regard to the specific application.
1. C. Goodman, et al., "Atomic Layer Epitaxy," Jour. of Appl. Physics, R65-R81, 1986.
2. D. Triyoso, et al., "Physical and Electrical Characteristics of Atomic-Layer-Deposited Hafnium Oxide Formed Using Hafnium Tetrachloride and Tetrakis(ethylmethylaminohafnium)," Jour. of Appl. Physics, Vol. 97, 124107, 2005.
3. H. P. W. Hey et. al., "Ion Bombardment: A Determining Factor in Plasma CVD," Solid State Technology, pp. 139-144, April, 1990.
4 . L. Niinistö, et. al., "Advanced Electronic and Optoelectronic Materials by Atomic Layer Deposition: An Overview with Special Emphasis on Recent Progress in Processing of High-k Dielectrics and Other Oxide Materials," Physica Status Solidi (a), 201, p. 1443–1452, 2004
5. E. Granneman, et al., Batch ALD: Characteristics, Comparison with Single-wafer ALD, and Examples, Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 201, p. 8899 – 8907, 2007.
6 . A. Kobayashi, et al., Temperature Dependence of GPC with PEALD-SiO," Proc. 10th Inter. Conf. on Atomic Layer Deposition, p. 31, 2010.
Mohith Verghese earned a BS in chemical engineering from the U. of Texas at Austin and a MS in chemical engineering from the U. of Arizona. He is technical product manager of ALD technologies at ASM America, Phoenix, AZ, USA; ph: +1-602-470-2736, email: [email protected]
Jan Willem Maes received his PhD in applied physics from Delft U. of Technology and works at ASM Belgium on ALD and EPI process application development projects.
Nobuyoshi Kobayashi earned a BS, a MS, and a PhD in solid state physics from the U. of Tokyo. He is director of PECVD and PEALD technologies at ASM Japan, Tama in Tokyo.
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What is the equity risk premium?
While it is always foolhardy to talk about "one" number encapsulating the stock market, I think the equity risk premium comes closest to meeting the requirements for such a number. The equity risk premium is the "extra return" that investors collectively demand for investing their money in stocks instead of holding it in a risk less or close to risk less investment. As a consequence, it reflects both their hopes and fears about stocks, rising as the fear factor increases.
Why does the equity risk premium matter?
The equity risk premium is used by almost everyone in finance, though it is often either taken as a given or used implicitly. Thus, a portfolio manager who decides to pull out of the stock market because she feels are stocks are over priced is telling you that she thinks that equity risk premiums will increase in the future. Investors who estimate the intrinsic value of assets or stocks are making explicit judgments about the equity risk premium (when they use DCF models) or implicit judgments (when they use book value or multiples). The costs of equity and capital that firms use to decide whether to invest in a project are built on equity risk premiums, as is all discounted cash flow valuation. Legislators and pension administrators decide how much to set aside to meet future pension obligations, based upon assessments of equity risk premiums.
What determines the equity risk premium?
Since the equity risk premium (ERP is a number for the entire stock market, it is determined by the overall characteristics of the investor population and macroeconomic factors. In particular:
a. The ERP should increase as investors become more risk averse and/or prefer current consumption more.
b. As uncertainty about economic growth, inflation and other macroeconomic variables increases, the ERP will rise.
c. Since investors are dependent upon the flow of information from firms (accounting or other), the ERP will rise as information becomes less reliable or less available.
d. The fear of catastrophe always hangs over equity investments and as that fear rises, the ERP will go up as well.
Since all of these factors can change over time, you should expect the equity risk premium to vary across time as well.
How do you measure the equity risk premium?
There are three broad approaches to estimating the equity risk premium and they can yield very different values:
- Surveys: You can ask investors or analysts what they think stocks will generate as returns in the future and net out the risk free rate from this value to get to a equity risk premium. For instance, Merrill Lynch surveys global portfolio managers and reports a survey premium of 4.08% in early 2012, i.e., portfolio managers expect stocks to earn 4.08% more than the risk free rate. A survey of CFOs by Harvey and Graham yields a 3.50% equity risk premium but another one by Fernandez yields higher numbers (5-5.5% for the US and higher values for emerging markets). I distrust survey premiums because they often represent hopes (more than expectations) and are more reflective of the past than the future.
- Historical premium: You can look at the past and estimate the premium you would have earned investing in stocks over a risk free investment. Thus, if you look at the 1928-2011 time period for the US, you would have earned an annual compounded return of 9.23% if you had invested in stocks, over this period, but an annual return of only 5.13%, investing in treasury bonds. The difference (4.10%) would be your historical risk premium. Even with historical data, you can get different numbers using different time periods, treasury bills instead of bonds as your risk free investment, and computing an arithmetic average instead of a compounded average. The values, for the US markets, range from 7.55% (arithmetic average premium for stocks over T.Bills from 1928-2011) to -3.61% (geometric average premiums for stocks versus T.Bonds from 2002-2011). Given the volatility in stock returns, you should be wary of equity risk premiums computed with less than 40 or 50 years of data (almost always the case with emerging markets) and be skeptical even when longer periods are used (the standard error, even with the 1928-2011 data, is about 2.36%). Implicitly, no matter which of these numbers you decide to use, you are assuming that the equity risk premium for the US market has not changed in any material fashion over the last century and that they will revert back to historical norms sooner or later. If I had to use a historical risk premium, I would go with the 4.10%, since it is long term, a compounded average and over a long term risk free rate. However, I am much more uncomfortable with the assumption of mean reversion in the US market than I used to be. since, in my view, the structural shifts that have come out of globalization have changed the rules of the game. As a consequence, I no longer use historical premiums in either valuation or corporate finance.
- Implied premium: Just as you can compute a yield to maturity (a forward looking value) for a bond, based upon the price you pay and the expected cash flows on the bond (coupons and face value), you can compute an expected return on stocks, based upon the price you pay and the expected cash flows on stocks (dividends and buybacks). On January 1, 2012, for instance, with the S&P 500 at 1257.60, I estimated an expected return on stocks of about 7.88%, which yielded an equity risk premium of 6.01% over the treasury bond rate of 1.87% on that day. It is true that this premium is a function of my assumptions about expected cash flows in the future, but there are two reasons why I trust it more than the historical premium. First, it is forward looking since it is based upon expected cash flows in the future. Second, there is real money backing up this number, since it is based on what investors are paying for stocks today (rather than what they are saying). Third, the error on your estimate (arising from your errors on expected cash flows) will be far lower than the standard error on a historical risk premium. Given the dynamic and shifting price of risk that characterizes markets today, I think it makes sense to compute and use an updated implied equity risk premium in valuation and corporate finance.
Looking at the correlations, the implied equity risk premium performs best, yielding the best predictor of not only next year's equity risk premium but also of actual returns on stocks over the next decade. The historical premium performs worst, often moving in the wrong direction.
How is the equity risk premium related to risk premiums in other markets (bonds and real estate, for instance)?
In the corporate bond market, the price of risk is measured with the default spread, i.e., the difference between the yield to maturity on a risky bond and the risk free rate at the time. Even in the real estate market, the capitalization rate operates as a measure of expected return and the difference between that rate and the risk free rate is a measure of the risk premium in real estate. In the figure below, we graph all three numbers (the implied equity risk premium, the default spread on a Baa rated bond and the cap rate premium for the US from 1980 to 2011.
Note that real estate behaves like a very different asset class in the 1980s, with the cap rate premium often in negative territory. This was the basis for the advice that many of us got in that period that investing in a house or real estate provided diversification benefits, especially if the bulk of our wealth was tied up in financial assets. Starting in the 1990s, real estate has begun to look more like a financial asset, a finding that hit home with many in the last few years, as housing prices collapsed just as stock prices and corporate bond prices declined. If these trend lines continue to hold, we may need to find a new asset class to get the benefits of diversification in the future.
It is also worth noting that when the risk premiums in the three asset classes diverge, it is a sign that one market or the other is in a bubble. Note that in early 2000, the equity risk premium dropped to almost the level of the Baa default spread, reflecting the dot com bubble. In the 2004-207 period, default spreads and the cap rat premium plummeted, relative to the ERP, reflecting the housing and credit market bubble in that period.
What is the "right" equity risk premium to use in corporate finance and valuation?
So, what is the risk risk premium to use in today's markets? The answer depends upon what you are trying to do.
- If you are making a judgment on asset allocation, i.e., the percent of your wealth that you want to invest in equities, bonds, real estate or other asset classes, you can bring your point of view into play. Thus, if you feel that the current implied premium of 6% is too high (low) and will thus come down (go up), you should invest more (less) in equities than you normally would (given your age, cash flow needs and risk aversion).
- If you are valuing companies or assets, you generally should stick close to the current implied premium, notwithstanding your views in the asset allocation component. The reason is simple. Using an equity risk premium that is significantly different from the current implied premium brings in a market view into your valuation and thus confounds your final conclusion. To illustrate, if you use a 4% equity risk premium to value a stock in January 2012, you are effectively assuming that the S&P 500 is undervalued by about 25%. As a consequence, if you find your stock to be cheap, based on the 4% ERP, it is not clear whether you did so because the stock is in fact cheap or because of your market views.
- If you are a business, using the ERP to estimate your costs of equity and capital, you have a little more leeway. You can use an average implied equity risk premium over time (it has been about 5% over the last decade) in your estimation, built on the premise that there is mean reversion even in implied premiums and that your projects are long term.
- If you are a legislator or pension fund administrator, you also have some leeway. If you do not want your contributions to the fund to be volatile, you should use the average implied equity risk premium as well.


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A limited guardianship is a voluntary arrangement by a court order when the parents want someone else to assume parental duties. A parent must consent to a limited guardianship.
The parent agrees to the custody of the child by the guardian and abides by plan drawn up that includes visitation and support. This is a mutually agreeable document that is reviewed annually in a written report the limited guardian files with the court. The guardianship does not exempt the parent from liability. In other words, if the child does something that the parent could be held legally responsible for in terms of money, the guardianship does not allow the parent to avoid that responsibility.
The placement plan explains to the court why the parent wants someone else to provide care for the minor. It also provides for parenting time and financial support for the minor. It further states the length of the guardianship and any other provisions needed for the minor's care and custody.
A placement plan can only be changed through a court hearing. The parent(s) must be made be aware that parental rights could be terminated for failure to comply with the plan.
The authority of a guardian is more likely to be accepted as a legal caretaker. For instance, a guardian can apply for benefits due to the minor, such as SSI, insurance, etc.
A limited guardian may not consent to adoption, release a minor for adoption, or consent to the marriage of a minor.
Full guardianship provides the minor with stability and more certainty when the parents cannot or are unable to provide that environment.
A guardian has the powers and responsibilities of a parent. The guardian must provide for the minor's education, social activities, and authorize medical or other professional care and/or treatment for the minor
The guardian must submit an annual report to the court on condition of the minor. It includes but not limited to medical care, mental health treatment, educational status of the child. It should clearly state the reasons to continue the guardianship.
The guardian is not responsible for 3rd party liability (such as a suit for damages incurred by the minor, result of an automobile accident where the minor was at fault, etc.). A parent can be ordered to supply monetary support for the child.
In a limited guardianship the parent and guardian have a mutual agreement regarding visitation, child support; and the parent must sign the petition allowing the guardianship.
Full guardianship does not require the consent of a parent. It most frequently provides the minor with a more stable environment and longer-term relationship.
A full guardianship allows the guardian to give consent to a minor to marry, and with the court's permission, can consent to the adoption of a minor.
The guardianship may be terminated by the filing of a petition with the court, or the minor becomes 18 years old.
The judge may terminate the guardianship at a review hearing.
If you have questions that are not answered, you should seek the advice of an attorney.


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A few weeks back I alluded to some pending changes for me around work and career.
I am elated to announce that I will be helping to bring health and wellness to Glam.com, the largest women's website in the U.S., as it's new Wellness Editor. Look for wellness content (After Aug 7th) in the Lifestyle section of the site.
I will also be the author of a new blog called GlamSpirit. GlamSpirit is a blog dedicated to nourishing mind, body and spirit.
Please come visit me there. I look forward to hearing from you and continuing our conversations.
Update on 7/31: I will be focusing on GlamSpirit and will stop posting here for now. If you're interested in updating the link it's: http://blogs.glam.com/glamspirit/


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Texas Web Design - New Braunfels
New Braunfels Web Design, SEO, & Digital Marketing Company
Howdy! Texas Web Design is focused on providing clients with the marketing solutions they need for their business. We are a homegrown Web Design Texas-based company and have established roots in the community.
New Braunfels ( BRAWN-fəlz) is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the seat of Comal County. The city covers 44.9 square miles (116 km2) and had a population of 90,403 as of the 2020 Census. A suburb just north of San Antonio, and part of the Greater San Antonio metropolitan area, it was the third-fastest-growing city in the United States from 2010 to 2020. As of 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates its population at 104,707.New Braunfels is known for its German Texan heritage.
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No investigation of Woody Allen pending, Connecticut says
(Reuters) - State prosecutors in Connecticut do not have an open investigation of Woody Allen, a spokesman said on Monday, after the filmmaker's adult adopted daughter renewed allegations that he sexually abused her at age 7.
A prosecutor decided after an investigation in 1993 not to charge Allen, who has denied the allegations. Legal experts have said the statute of limitations on the case probably has run out.
"We have no pending investigation. If we were to receive a complaint, we would review it, as we do with any complaint, and take the appropriate action," Mark Dupuis, a spokesman for Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice, told Reuters.
A complaint would need to precede any criminal charges, Dupuis added.
Dylan Farrow, now 28, detailed the alleged abuse by Allen, now 78, in a letter published by the New York Times. She said the incident occurred at the Connecticut home of her mother, the actress and former Allen girlfriend Mia Farrow.
On Sunday, a spokeswoman for Allen called Dylan Farrow's letter untrue and disgraceful.
Under Connecticut law, a prosecutor who receives an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor generally has five years to bring charges. Farrow said she was abused in 1992.


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Republicans claim that that Pres. Obama's plan to establish temporary legal status for undocumented immigrants by executive order is illegal.
Read the full report from the American Immigration Council: Executive Grants of Temporary Immigration Relief, 1956-Present
They have issued a series of threats against the president if he signs the order to stand up the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, including blocking the nomination of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch, shutting down the government again and/or impeaching him.
According to a detailed report from the American Immigration Council, however, presidents have routinely altered immigration policies by executive order, including 18 such changes by five recent Republican presidents — Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. None of these presidents was threatened with political reprisal for signing the orders, of course.
Here is an overview based on the AIC report:
Pres. Dwight Eisenhower:
By executive order, circumvented immigration quotas to allow 900 orphans to join their adoptive families in the U.S.
By executive order, allowed 31,000 Hungarian anti-Soviet insurgents to emigrate.
By executive order, allowed 600,000 Cubans fleeing Castro to emigrate. [PDF]
Pres. Gerald Ford:
By executive order, allowed 360,000 refugees, mostly from from Vietnam, to emigrate.
By executive order, allowed 14,000 Lebanese nationals to emigrate.
Pres. Ronald Reagan:
By executive order, allowed 7,000 Polish anti-Communists to emigrate.
Allowed 15,000-plus Ethiopians to emigrate.
By executive order, rescinded deportation of 200,000 Nicaraguans.
By executive order, deferred deportation of undocumented children of 100,000 families. [JSTOR]
George H.W. Bush:
By executive order, deferred deportations of Chinese students.
By executive order, reversed visa denials of 7,000 Soviets, Indochinese.
By executive order, deferred deporations of previously amnestied citizens' 1.5 million spouses and children.
By executive order, deferred deportation of 2,000 Gulf War evacuees.
By executive order, deferred deportations of 190,000 El Salvadorans.
George W. Bush:
By executive order, expedited naturalization for green-card holders who joined military.
By executive order, deferred deportation of students affected by Hurricane Katrina.
By executive order, enabled 1,500 Cuban physicians to seek asylum at US embassies.
By executive order, deferred deportation of 3,600 Liberians.