text:
After a great deal of anticipation and a painfully long wait in the certification line, Ikaruga finally arrived on Xbox Live Arcade last week. Boasting new high-definition graphics, online co-op, and the ability to save and share game session replays, it's not difficult to understand why so many 360 owners have been eagerly awaiting this classic title's rebirth.
As most of our readers know, I am certainly no exception. My love for Ikaruga runs deep, and thusly makes this simultaneously the easiest and most difficult review I've ever written for Destructoid. On one hand, I know this title inside out, and I'm both thrilled and honored to be writing about it. On the other, I'm faced with a dilemma. How does a man objectively review his favorite game of all time?
My intention, therefore, is not to review Ikaruga, but to review the XBLA version of Ikaruga. I'll do just that after the jump.
Ikaruga (
Developed by Treasure
Published by Treasure
Released on
When booting up the game for the first time on an Xbox 360, there is one aspect that immediately stands out to an experienced player: the graphics. To see Ikaruga in 720p might give seasoned veterans the same sense of awe they felt upon first laying eyes on it almost a decade ago, and should serve to lure newcomers into its deadly embrace with promise of more stunning visuals.
As a game that made its debut reasonably late in the Dreamcast's life cycle (or what is commonly accepted as its life cycle), Ikaruga has always been exceptionally beautiful. 3D graphics coupled with 2D gameplay was a relatively unique thing to see in 2001, and Treasure's choice of color palette made it stand out even further among the rainbow-laden shmups of its time, like Mars Matrix or DoDonPachi.
The high-definition graphics can make the game a bit easier to play, as hitboxes are more clearly defined and players might find it easier to navigate the constantly changing landscape and curtains of enemy fire. At the same time, however, you might become so preoccupied with ogling everything on screen that your attention is is drawn away from the fact that it's all there to kill you. This certainly takes some time to get used to, and it might require a few days of regular play before you can sink in and truly focus on gameplay. That's not a gripe, it's a compliment.
Speaking of gameplay, this is the one aspect of Ikaruga that has, thankfully, remained almost entirely unchanged. Experienced players will find that it's but a short few runs before they can settle in and find their old groove, cruising through each level in the very same way they would have on Dreamcast, GameCube, or in the arcade. I say "almost unchanged" because there is one thing that has been tampered with, and those of you who are familiar with Chapter 3 know exactly what I'm talking about.
It's called the Shigi Chase, and it's one of the most notoriously difficult parts of the game. Shigi is the miniboss who shows up toward the end of chapter 3, and chases your ship through a series of quickly closing gates. Provided you can survive this maze (the gates close at random within a tunnel filled with smaller enemies), and survive Shigi barreling past you to the top of the screen, you're faced with the challenge of defeating him while he fires a steady stream of dual-colored bullets from the center, surrounded by 4 rotating lasers, also of both polarities. It's the part of the game where even the best players are apt to lose a life or two, and in the XBLA version …
It's backward.
This was difficult enough in the older versions of the game, and to finally conquer it and learn to come out of it unscathed was a very satisfying feeling. Newcomers won't know the difference, but experienced players will have to relive the forgotten horror that is Shigi until they manage to learn this mirrored section. I have to wonder why this was changed when the rest of the game is entirely untouched. Part of me wants to be angry about the fact that someone has tampered with the formula, but at the same time, I can appreciate the desire to add new challenge to a new version of the game. Looking at the XBLA leaderboards, there are screen names I recognize from Ikaruga forums like the one found at Ikaruga.co.uk, and it's apparent that everyone's score is suffering while we get accustomed to this.
In addition to keeping an eye on each other's scores, the other new feature in this version is the inclusion of an online co-op mode. It's the thing we were all hoping for when it was announced that the game would be ported to XBLA, and it's wonderful … when it works. Ikaruga's co-op mode suffers from lag at times, and that lag can range from slightly annoying to downright game-breaking. I've played with several people on my friends list, and this normally amounts to nothing more than some minor slowdown on some of the more manic levels, but there have been sessions in which I could press a direction on the D-pad and fully count two seconds before my ship even twitched. This kind of delay made it thoroughly impossible to play the game, and while the online is funtional in most cases, I wouldn't recommend pairing up with anyone who doesn't have a lightning-fast internet connection. It's simply not going to happen.
The other thing that hasn't changed much in this port is the game's audio, and I'm delighted to be able to say so. The game's Director and BGM Composer, Hiroshi Iuchi, put together one of the most beautiful and memorable soundtracks ever found in a shooter, and it has remained intact down to every note. Also unchanged are the robust explosions heard whenever something is destroyed, whether it be an enemy ship, a boss, or you. When the game originally launched, it was hailed for its magnificent explosions (which were awesome enough to feel like a fair reward for beating each boss), and the sound each enemy makes when it's blown into oblivion is just as satisfying as ever. The only thing that could have made them any better would be to hear them in surround sound, and that's exactly what the team at Treasure did by including support for a 5.1-channel audio system.
In short, this is Ikaruga. This is Ikaruga as it should be, as it was meant to be. The visuals are in high-def, but unchanged. The audio is in surround sound, but unchanged. Treasure did something amazing when they created this game. Even more amazing is that it was built from the ground up by a team of only 4 people. Ikaruga is a glorious work of art; one rich with spiritual metaphors and a storyline that encourages players to counquer themselves and press on toward victory. It combines haunting music with gameplay that is nothing short of beautiful in its difficulty and visuals that blend feminine grace with sharp, hard-edged masculinity, and it somehow manages to deliver all of this in the form of a vertical shooter.
There is nothing I can say that will do justice to my love and appreciation for this game. This makes it hard for me to have to demean it with a numbered score, because I cannot give it a 99/10. As a journalist, it is my job to take into account things like the lag problem, things that could lower the game's overall score. However, by the same token, I must also consider things like the XBLA library and where this game fits. What is its place? How does it rank among the other titles available on its respective platform? Ultimately, what you want to know is whether or not the game is worth your money. Why you should choose it above another option. It is my hope that I have succeeded in helping you make that decision. As for the number, I have to take into account Destructoid's stance on reviews, and our use of a true 1-10 scale when it comes to scoring a game. There was a lot to consider, and believe it or not, I actually had a very hard time deciding what that number should be.
After deliberating, I cannot, in good conscience, give this game anything but a perfect score. Whether you enjoy shooters or not, it is simply something that must be played. Treasure created a wonderful experience, and has delivered that very same experience to the 360, perfectly intact, accomplishing far more than it aspires to do, and offering much more than just a shmup.
Please. Play Ikaruga.
Score: 10 (Incredible. As close to perfection as we've yet seen in in the genre or gaming on the whole. A polished, unparalleled experience.)
Verdict: Editor's Choice


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Miami, FL – Gregor Blanco went 2-for-4 with a two-run triple as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Miami Marlins, 6-4, in the middle test of a three-game set.
Pablo Sandoval also knocked in two runs and Andres Torres had an RBI for the Giants, who have won three straight.
Matt Cain (8-8) gave up a home run -- a two-run shot by Giancarlo Stanton -- plus three hits and a pair of walks over seven innings to earn the win. The 28-year-old right-hander has allowed three earned runs or less in his last seven starts.
"I felt good," Cain said. "We were letting the defense work and then they were able to put up four runs in that one inning which was big to get a lead and keep it moving that way and keep the momentum on our side is always beneficial as a starter."
Henderson Alvarez (2-2) got the start for the Marlins and also went seven innings. He gave up four runs on four hits and four walks.
The Giants scored four runs in the fourth to take the lead. Brandon Belt drew a one-out walk and Buster Posey singled to center before both advanced on a wild pitch as Hunter Pence struck out. Sandoval scored Belt with an infield single, but he collided with Miami first baseman Logan Morrison and Alvarez as he slid to first. Sandoval was shaken up, but all three players remained in the game.
A balk by Alvarez allowed Posey to cross home and after Roger Kieschnick walked, Blanco drove in two runs with a triple to center to give the Giants a 4-0 lead.
"We kind of gave that one away," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. "We didn't execute and that cost us."
Stanton got the Marlins on the board when he crushed a two-run homer in the sixth. Donovan Solano hit a leadoff single prior to the shot.
San Francisco added two more runs in the eighth. Miami reliever A.J. Ramos walked Brandon Crawford, Belt and Posey with one out before being replaced by Mike Dunn. However, Dunn walked Sandoval to allow Crawford to score. Pinch- hitter Andres Torres then plated Belt with an infield single.
Miami answered in the home half. With Santiago Casilla pitching for San Francisco, Christian Yelich walked to start the frame. Solano grounded into a fielder's choice, but a throwing error by Crawford allowed Yelich to reach third. After Stanton struck out, Morrison knocked a two-RBI double to right.
However, Casilla was able to stop the rally by striking out Ed Lucas and getting Adeiny Hechavarria to fly out.
Sergio Romo threw a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his 30th save.
Game Notes
Cain has a 2.41 ERA since the All-Star break. However, he has allowed 19 home runs this season, tied for fifth-most in the National League ... Belt went 0- for-2 with two walks, which snapped 11-game hit streak ... Stanton's last home run came on July 28 ... San Francisco's Madison Bumgarner is scheduled to face Miami's Tom Koehler in Sunday's series finale.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- One set of Confluence, Crowd and Jira for the FudgeMsg project running in one Tomcat container on one VM
- One set of Crowd and Jira for our corporate use running in one Tomcat container on one VM
- Bamboo and FishEye for OpenGamma corporate use running behind our firewall in their own standalone implementations in their own VMs.
Reindexing Requires Crowd
If you're running your applications with Crowd, the application delegates user-related information to Crowd and uses a RESTful approach to loading the data. So far, so good. However, when Jira attempts to in-situ upgrade an installation (which again they don't recommend), it will do its database wrangling, and then reindex the system with the new functionality (in our case, going from 4.0 to 4.1.1 to allow searches based on votes and watches on issues). All this upgrading it does in the application startup logic, which happens in the Tomcat main thread. When it gets to reindexing, it then attempts about 10 different RESTful calls to your Crowd instance, as it doesn't have any caches populated on user data. However, while Tomcat has opened up port 80 (or 8080 or whatever) for Crowd, it hasn't enabled application dispatch to the Crowd servlets yet. This means that all 10 remote calls (which are actually local to the single Tomcat instance since both apps are co-hosted) hang, and the entire server startup process fails. The only workaround is to launch Crowd in its own servlet container, change your Jira'scrowd.properties
to refer to the new one, startup, and then undo what you've done.


text:
Mariposa County Fire Department provides fire protection throughout most of the County.
The mission of Mariposa County Fire Department is the preservation of human life, the protection of real and personal property, to provide basic life support, advanced First Aid, and patient care in emergency medical situations, to respond to calls for public service, to provide assistance in time of need.
Putting our communities first, understanding they deserve nothing less!


text:
After dinner Alex and I retired to the den. We compared our precious smart phones. Alex alternately played games with my phone and watched TV. I played with "the baby" and got
the fine details of youth culture (emphasis on the most modern incarnation of the Green Lantern).
the fine details of youth culture (emphasis on the most modern incarnation of the Green Lantern).
When Vivian first started to come over for Grandma play dates I picked up a few basic toys:
a couple of baby dolls with a little "moses basket", a rhythm band, a few balls and little cars, and a set of blocks. I added a Sit N Spin a little later. That's all there is to Grandma's toy box. It seems that's all there needs to be. Each toy changes in function from time to time . At first she poked at the eyes of the baby dolls; now she hugs them and pats their little bums. First she tried climbing into the baby basket; now she carries the babies around in it after tucking them in. The babies' blanket gets used to put Grandma down for a nap. Blocks were at first just stacked, now they become birthday cakes or dinner tables, remotes controls or cell phones. These are pretty much the same toys I had when I was a child - basic, inexpensive, and classic. In spite of the wonderful electronics available today some things don't change a bit.


text:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Chinese military continues to increase spending on efforts to break into U.S. military computer systems, expand its Navy, and invest in intercontinental nuclear missiles and weapons to destroy satellites, according to the latest U.S report on China's military power.
Chinese military officers after a meeting about the People's Liberation Army in 2007.
The annual report from the Pentagon to Congress says China's total military spending in 2007 was between $97 billion and $139 billion, but it is hard to tell exactly how much was spent and on what.
In comparison, the U.S. military budget request for 2008 is $481.4 billion, not including war requests.
Pentagon officials said a chunk of China's spending went to cyberwarfare, because 2007 saw several "intrusions" believed to be from the Peoples Liberation Army. In the incidents, unclassified U.S. military computer systems were broken into and information was taken, according to Pentagon officials.
While the information taken was not classified, Pentagon officials said the worry is the Chinese hacking required many of the skills and capabilities that would also be required for a computer network attack.
Last summer, a cyber-attack on Department of Defense computer systems took down the e-mail capability of hundreds of staffers for weeks, but the Pentagon still will not comment on who initiated the attack. It is widely believed among the military to have been the Peoples Liberation Army.
China is also investing heavily in and fielding improved nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles and antisatellite missiles, according to the report.
The United States expressed its concern last year after China fired a missile at one of its old satellites and destroyed it, sending thousands of dangerous pieces of space debris into orbit.
The United States conducted a similar strike last month on a broken U.S. spy satellite before it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. U.S. officials said the satellite was hit and broke into thousands of small pieces that burned up as they re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
The United States is also concerned about the purchase of more submarines by the Chinese navy as well as plans for more aircraft carriers. The Chinese once had a small Navy. Now the United States is keeping an eye on the growing service amid concerns over Taiwan.
The concerns include "China's near-term focus on preparing for contingencies in the Taiwan Strait, including the possibility of U.S. intervention, which is an important driver of its modernization," the report says.
Additionally, the Chinese have placed about 100 more short-range missiles on the shore opposite Taiwan in the past year, it says.
Pentagon officials worry the continued increase in Chinese military spending is slowly tipping the balance of power between China and Taiwan in China's favor. The United States has said it would help defend Taiwan if China invaded.
The report also says the Peoples Liberation Army is "pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning short-duration, high-intensity conflicts along its periphery against high-tech adversaries."
Such an army, the report says, would have "the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that could, over time, offset traditional U.S. military advantages."
The United States says the lack of transparency by the Chinese on its spending poses "risks to stability by increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation," and that China has yet to explain to the international community the purpose of its military expansion, Pentagon officials said. E-mail to a friend
All About China • The Pentagon


text:
Product Description
The made in Canada NANUK 920 UNI MAG from the MEDIUM series is ideal universal magazine carrying case. It will accommodate 8 AR type magazines as well as 6 universal handgun single or double stack magazines.
PowerClaw Latching System
The PowerClaw Latching System (US Patent No. 8,297,464) used on all NANUK cases is engineered to keep your case closed during the toughest of missions. The PowerClaw clamps the case tightly closed using compressive force while the integrated slide lock prevents the case from opening during transport or when dropped. Polycarbonate construction ensures your precious items remain safely inside the case no matter where the journey takes you.
Waterproof – IP67 Rated
NANUK Waterproof Cases IP67 Rated (Submersion at 3ft for 30 min) The waterproofing seal used in all NANUK watertight cases is custom designed to fit our products. The seal is designed to resist deformation and fatigue, ensuring a long lasting watertight seal. Our waterproof cases are ideal for applications such as search and rescue, marine transportation / storage and diving. Any of our many dealers can easily outfit you with one of our waterproof cases, accessories or other products. NANUK equipment cases and transportation products are complete with a lifetime guarantee in materials and workmanship for the life of the products.
Impact Resistant NK-7 Resin
Impact Resistant Hard Sided Cases
NANUK tough cases were designed with one objective in mind: survival. With rounded corners, thick wall construction and oversized details, NANUK durable hard sided cases are built to absorb the shocks without damaging the case or more importantly your contents. Based on Plasticase's years of experience in the plastics industry, our new NK-7 resin durable cases were developed specifically for the demanding conditions that NANUK will be exposed to. Highly impact resistant, lightweight, and rugged, our NK-7 resin tough hard sided cases can withstand nature's extremes. No matter the application, NANUK durable protective cases clearly offer superior performance. Rugged, dependable, and efficient; NANUK impact resistant and tough hard sided cases will never let you down.
Handle Stay
NANUK is tough and durable, but it does have a soft side. The handle structure is molded with our specially formulated high impact NK-7 resin but is over molded with a soft touch rubber for comfort. The soft shock absorbing material reduces fatigue when carrying heavy loads.
Every NANUK case come equipped with two padlockable hasps moulded directly into the case for superior strength. High quality TSA approved combination padlocks are available as an option to keep your items secure within your case.
Shoulder Strap Attachment
The NANUK neoprene shoulder strap incorporates Aircell™ comfort technology to reduce fatigue when transporting your case. The shoulder strap can easily be attached to all NANUK cases without any additional hardware..
Removable Lid
Top and Bottom Panel Mount
Each NANUK case is stackable with other cases of the same size. Integrated feet on the rear of the case interlock with the front of the case, allowing for multiple cases to be safely stacked on top of each other to save space or for transport.
Additional Information
Additional Information
Interior dimensions | No |
Exterior dimensions | No |
Lid depth | No |
Base depth | No |


text:
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Book Signing Pics!
Posted by ilima at 12:00 AM 22 comments
Monday, January 28, 2013
Re-Introduce Myself Blog Hop
Basically, it's an opportunity to re-introduce myself to readers both old and new...share something interesting about myself. See that picture on the right, there >>>that's me. Hi.
In an attempt to keep this brief, I will say I love movies (not TV shows), books (not non-fiction), avocados (not bread pudding), Cricket (not Etienne, okay...just not as much as I love Cricket), music (not country) and ice cream (oh please, there are no 'nots' in this category). Of course I have exceptions to all of those 'nots'--I'm not a monster. (Ha! See what I did there?) These are just general guidelines of what make up me, I suppose.
What do you (or do you not) love?
And since I usually end my posts with a song, I thought I'd treat you to one of my favorite clips (it's short!) of not liking something but maybe kind of liking it. Bonus points if you can finish this line from Easy A in the comments: There is a higher power that will judge you for your indecency...
Posted by ilima at 12:27 AM 53 comments
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Nothing Is Impossible
I want to leave you with one of my favorite songs, in hopes that you too are inspired to reach for your dreams. Because maybe I'm just a little girl, but I'm a little girl with great big plans.
What are your biggest dreams?
Posted by ilima at 12:00 AM 27 comments
Monday, January 21, 2013
My Personality
You can find detailed results here, but basically I like my solitude, am intuitive, and I like to help others with their problems or nurture their potential. I don't like superficial interactions, am concerned with how others feel, and have a talent for poetic language. Ha! And the best jobs for my personality: clergy, social worker, teacher, or novelist. Seeing how I have a teaching degree and, well--write, I think I'm doing pretty good.
How about you...have you ever taken a personality test? Like to be alone or around others? Do you work at a job you love?
Bonus: it turns out my personality is prone to psychic ability. I feel it in my bones :)
Posted by ilima at 12:47 AM 29 comments
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Write What You Know?
And isn't all fiction fiction? It's not real. Yet when we utilize things we've seen and bring in a taste of what we know, it feels real. I may not know what it feels like to kiss the prince, but I sure remember how nervous I was with my first kiss...and I can use that for sure.
Posted by ilima at 12:00 AM 26 comments
Monday, January 14, 2013
Writer Friends
I had an amazing week last week.
I hosted a book discussion at my house for BONDED by Michelle Davidson Argyle, and Michelle even came (and blogged about it!). How cool is that?
I had dinner with her and my CP, Kathryn (who mentioned me in her blog this week, too).
And then on a last minute crazy whim, I bought a plane ticket late Thursday afternoon to California and flew there a few hours later to spend the weekend with another CP, Emily. So. Much. Fun.
It took me a year and a half after starting to write before I even met another writer let alone become friends with one. Fast forward to today, and not a day goes by that I don't talk on the phone with, email, text, social media-ize or read other writers' blogs. OR, apparently, fly to their hometown and eat all their food. :) And though I am super-tight with my critique group and a few other writers, I've never met most of those I consider my writer friends.
What started out for me as a fulfilling yet lonely hobby has become a huge network of the biggest support group any writer could wish for, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Do you have writer friends? Have you ever met them in person? Any surprises from your weekend?
This song's dedicated to Taryn and Robin who I didn't get to see last week but really wish I did, because we own the sky...
Posted by ilima at 12:00 AM 33 comments
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Best Fake Book Cover Ever
Here's a fake cover for the book I'm revising, These Empty Spaces (my Nano). I'm not entirely sold on the title but I'm rolling with it for now. But I love the cover. It's one of the many reasons I love having a husband with design skillz. :)
This makes me wonder, how much does a book's cover affect your reading choices? We all know that old mantra...never judge a book by its cover, but I know I do, more often than I'd like to admit. For you e-reader peeps out there, does the cover have any sway on you?
And because I need all the positive vibes I can get at the start of this crazy year, I want to say: you and me together, we could do anything, baby.
Posted by ilima at 12:00 AM 22 comments
Monday, January 7, 2013
Bring It On, 2013!
I'm back from spending the holidays in Hawaii with the fam to consistent subzero temperatures at home...but that's okay. I'm refreshed and ready for the new year and everything it will bring.
I've been reflecting on all I've accomplished last year and what I hope to this year. I even found this post with my 2012 writing goals. Here's how I did:
1. Read 50 books--Yep. Got that one in just in time.
2. Query 2 books--Yes. And the second one landed me an agent, so yay!
3. Draft 1 book--Done. In fact, I ended up drafting 2! :)
4. Study/read writing craft books 1 hr. a week--Um...no. I only read 4 craft books in all. BUT I attended 3 writers conferences, critiqued tons of manuscripts, and spent an embarrassing amount of time online honing my craft, so I don't feel so bad about this one.
Not too shabby, I think. My writing goals this year are simple:
1. Revise my Nano book.
2. Draft 1 book.
That's it. No specific reading goals (except to try and not feel so guilty when I take time out to read). I already signed up for the Storymakers conference in May...so excited for that! Since I'll probably be going on submission some time this year, I'd LOVE to get a book deal, but since I can't really control that, I'm gonna focus on writing and enjoying it.
What are some of your goals for 2013? I hope your dreams come true--Bruddah Iz style...
Posted by ilima at 12:00 AM 35 comments


text:
You are cordially invited to the 7th Bi-Annual Student Technology Showcase. Located in Newport at the Sebasticook Valley Middle School on Saturday, January 16th. This event features the technology projects of fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students from throughtout the year.
From 10:00 to 1:30 please tour the school and experiment with many of the technological tools our students use every day. Watch digital animated movies, view galleries of skateboards and hand built artwork, see a computer lab custom built by students, try your hand at anchoring in our News Studio, assemble and program robots, scan through student blogs, wikis and web portfolios, or take a virtual tour of the school.
If you are unable to attend physically, please consider attending virtually. You can use Skype in and get a personal live tour of the events going on during the showcase. The Skype name is studentshowcase and you can sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/ststour
The awards ceremony begins at 1:30 where participants can win prizes of iPod Touches or a MacBook. Please come and see the work of some amazing students! If you have any questions or want more information, please check out the website: www.studentshowcase.org or contact Kern Kelley at email@example.com / 368-4592.
Hope to see you there!
For an additional viewpoint, please check our Cheryl Oakes' blog post from last year's event:


text:
Use svnnotify in post-commit:
svnnotify --repos-path "$1" --revision "$2" \ --to [email protected] --handler HTML::ColorDiff [options]
Use the class in a custom script:
use SVN::Notify::HTML::ColorDiff; my $notifier = SVN::Notify::HTML::ColorDiff->new(%params); $notifier->prepare; $notifier->execute;
This subclass of SVN::Notify::HTML sends HTML formatted email messages for Subversion activity, and if the "with_diff" parameter is specified (but not "attach_diff"), then a pretty colorized version of the diff will be included, rather than the plain text diff output by SVN::Notify::HTML.Usage
To use SVN::Notify::HTML::ColorDiff, simply follow the instructions in SVN::Notify, but when using svnnotify, specify "--handler HTML::ColorDiff".Instance Interface
Instance Methods
This method starts outputs the CSS for the HTML message. SVN::Notify::HTML::ColorDiff adds extra CSS to its output so that it can nicely style the diff.
$notifier->output_diff($out_file_handle, $diff_file_handle);
Reads the diff data from $diff_file_handle and prints it to $out_file_handle for inclusion in the notification message. The diff is output with nice colorized HTML markup. Each line of the diff file is escaped by "HTML::Entities::encode_entities()".
If there are any "diff" filters, this method will do no HTML formatting, but redispatch to SVN::Notify::output_diff. See Writing Output Filters for details on filters.
See Also
- SVN::Notify
- SVN::Notify::HTML
- CVSspam <http://www.badgers-in-foil.co.uk/projects/cvsspam/>
To Do
- Add inline emphasis just on the text that changed between two lines, like this: <http://www.badgers-in-foil.co.uk/projects/cvsspam/example.html>.
- Add links to To Do stuff to the top of the email, as pulled in from the diff. This might be tricky, since the diff is currently output after the message body. Maybe use absolute positioning CSS?
David E. Wheeler <[email protected]>Copyright and License
Copyright (c) 2004-2016 David E. Wheeler. Some Rights Reserved.This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.


text:
This website uses cookies. Read about how we use cookies. OK
Oil from the Deepwater Horizon well remained visible on the Gulf of Mexico's surface on July 11, 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this natural-color image the same day. An especially bright patch appears southeast of the Mississippi Delta, near the approximate location of the oil rig.
© Image from NASA's Terra satellite - courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team
The oil owes its visibility to sunglint. Water bodies reflect sunlight, and water slicked with oil reflects sunlight even better because oil smoothes the water surface. This means that oil-coated water is brighter nearer the Sun's reflection, and darker farther away from the Sun's reflection, than is oil-free water.
Only when the Sun is at the correct angle relative to the satellite does an oil slick appear in MODIS imagery. Moreover, different angles of sunlight highlight different parts of the oil slick. On July 9, 2010, sunglint highlighted oil west of the Mississippi Delta, even though that oil is not apparent in this image.
© Earth Observatory
Jul 30 2010
Jul 20 2010
Jul 11 2010
Jul 09 2010
Jul 06 2010


text:
August 18, 2010
Version 7.5.3 of OpenCms is now ready and available for download.
OpenCms is one of the most popular Open Source Content Management Solutions. This new version was developed by Alkacon Software GmbH with the support of the international OpenCms developer community.
With OpenCms 7.5.3, a number of issues that persisted in the 7.5.2 release have been fixed. Some new features have been added as well.
Please check out the release notes for further details of the changes in this release.
OpenCms 7.5.3 is fully backward compatible to all prior 7 versions. We recommend everyone who uses an earlier version of OpenCms to update to the 7.5.3 release. OpenCms 7.5 is largely backward compatible with version 6. An easy to use update wizard for OpenCms Version 6 and prior 7 installations for MySQL, Oracle and PostgreSQL is available.
Notice for users of Alkacon OCEE: OpenCms version 7.5.3 requires Alkacon OCEE version 2.1.3 or later. In case you want to update your OpenCms installation to 7.5.3, please make sure you update Alkacon OCEE to 2.1.3 or later first!
Independent research has shown OpenCms to be a market leading solution amongst Open Source CMS systems. The software has been in continuous development for the last 9 years and has an active community of Open Source developers.
More than 100 international IT companies have been registered as official OpenCms Solution Provider on the OpenCms website. A steadily growing list of reference sites also shows the increasing use of OpenCms.
OpenCms is an enterprise - ready web content management solution build in Java and XML from open source components. OpenCms can easily be deployed on almost any existing IT infrastructure and provides powerful features especially suited for medium and large enterprise internet or intranet applications. OpenCms is open source software distributed under the LGPL licence.
Alkacon Software GmbH is the company responsible for the development of OpenCms. Today OpenCms is a leading open source CMS solution in widespread use all over the world. Many businesses and organizations use OpenCms as a cost effective, professional alternative to expensive license products.
Alkacon Software GmbH offers its customers training, support and add-on products for OpenCms. This gives our customers a layer of security and convenience often required for mission critical OpenCms installations. Please see the Alkacon product overview for more details.
The team at Alkacon Software - The OpenCms Experts wants to thank everyone who has contributed to this release of OpenCms.
OpenCms 16 brings the new app "Unused contents" that allows to find and delete content that is not actively used on any container page. It is now possible to select between several individual detail pages in the same website based on categories of the detail content. It can now be enforced that all content managers must set a new password after the next login. The default Mercury template brings several new features, e.g. the "Image tile display" formatter for the "Tabs / accordion" element.
Do you want to take a quick test drive of OpenCms to get an impression of its great features? Try out the OpenCms Live Demo website available at http://demo.opencms.org
The Alkacon OpenCms Enterprise Extensions (also called OCEE) are a commercial extension for OpenCms. Alkacon OCEE adds features to OpenCms that are often required for running OpenCms in a medium or large Enterprise, where data consistency, security and failover are highly important.
© Alkacon Software GmbH & Co. KG - http://www.alkacon.com - Terms of use - Impressum - Privacy policy


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OR WAIT null SECS
© 2024 MJH Life Sciences™ and Pharmaceutical Technology. All rights reserved.
Data integrity in the analytical laboratory is an area of increasing focus for regulators such as FDA.
Most companies have experienced being audited and, where necessary, "defending" the work carried out in their analytical laboratories during audits. Historically, laboratories have tended to provide information about the validation of their methods and procedures, the qualification and suitability of their analytical equipment, and information about training of their laboratory staff as justification for the validity of the analytical results.
Nonetheless, the focus on data integrity by FDA, the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and other regulatory bodies during audits may mean that historical approaches to laboratory audit preparation and audit "defense" is simply not enough. In a data integrity-focussed audit, the emphasis has moved away from providing information based on technical justification and scientific rationale towards providing evidence that the analytical results are not fraudulent. This is almost a "guilty until proven innocent" approach and can be very different to historical audits. For any laboratories that are not prepared for this change, the audit will at best be "uncomfortable" and at worst may present a potential high risk to the organization.
FDA warning letters (1-3) and the recent announcement of MHRA (4) have highlighted the increasing focus on data integrity in the laboratory. Data integrity is a subject that many laboratories currently have significant concerns about (5). To add to those concerns, even the term "data integrity" can have widely differing meanings or interpretation, and there are currently few definitive reference sources available on the subject.
What is ALCOA?
The acronym ALCOA has been widely associated with data integrity by FDA and was first used by Stan Woollen when he worked for the agency to help him remember compliance terms relevant to data quality (6). The good automated manufacturing practice (GAMP) guide "A Risk-Based Approach to GxP Complaint Laboratory Computerized Systems" (7) includes an appendix (Appendix 3) on data integrity. The terms used in the appendix are sometimes referred to as "ALCOA +" because they incorporate additional terms based on the European Medicines Agency's concept paper on electronic data in clinical trials (8). The terms associated with ALCOA + are described as Attributable, Legible, Contemporaneous, Original, Accurate, complete, consistent, enduring, and available (see Table I).
Table I: Terms associated with ALCOA +
"ALCOA" abbreviation
Description / Explanation
Who performed an action and when? If a record is changed, who did it and why? Link to the source data.
Who did it?Source data
Data must be recorded permanently in a durable medium and be readable.
Can you read it?Permanently recorded
The data should be recorded at the time the work is performed and date / time stamps should follow in order.
Was it done in "real time"?
Is the information the original record or a certified true copy?
Is it original or true copy?
No errors or editing performed without documented amendments.
Is it accurate?
All data including repeat or reanalysis performed on the sample.
Consistent application of data time stamps in the expected sequence.
Date time stamps
Recorded on controlled worksheets, laboratory notebooks or electronic media.
Medium used to record data
Available / accessible for review / audit for the life time of the record.
For the life time of the record
Comparisons are often made between secure electronic data and data that are available in paper format. The comparison results in similar conclusions that electronic data are more secure, more difficult to manipulate or change, and any changes are easier to detect (assuming that the software is technically compliant to 21 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 11 (9) and technical controls are appropriately implemented). On the other hand, changes to paper data, such as a printed chromatogram, are simpler to make, but much harder to detect. FDA has previously advised that defining paper records as "raw data" (the so-called typewriter rule) does not satisfy the predicate rules, that the industry has misinterpreted the 2003 21 CFR Part 11 Scope and Applications Guidance (10) and that "the printed paper copy of the chromatogram would not be considered a true copy" (11). Although this comment was made about chromatographic data, the principles have much wider implications.
The available evidence and the regulatory data integrity focus implies that paper is "bad" and that laboratories should implement fully electronic systems that move away from paper or even hybrid systems as soon as possible. However, with many laboratories concerned about data integrity and unsure what to do, this implementation strategy could be a potentially dangerous over-simplification. It could result in an over-concentration of resource "only" on ensuring security of electronic systems when there may be other significant risks.
FDA observations around computer security, sharing passwords, and/or not activating audit trails are not new, and certainly, if a laboratory finds itself in this situation, it should act immediately. For most laboratories, however, implementing a fully electronic approach may represent a significant change from what they actually do now. To put into perspective the scale of the change that might be required, many laboratories currently still define printed copies as their raw data despite FDA's clarification in its guidance on records and reports (11). Additionally, many laboratories perform chromatography calculations manually or using software such as Microsoft Excel, rather than the chromatography data system (CDS). Manual calculations present one of the highest data integrity risks, even where traceability to the "source" data used is unambiguous. In extreme cases, FDA have identified instances where sample weighing practices could mean laboratories have calculated and entered the sample weight after the injections so that the result would pass specifications (12). Therefore, laboratories need to take a strategic approach to implementing data-integrity improvements.
Common data-integrity issues
Where should the laboratory start preparing for data integrity? Some of the common issues that repeatedly come up in FDA warning letters are:
Process flow mapping in data integrity
To balance the focus on electronic data that data integrity tends to drive, a useful approach is to map the workflow within the laboratory, to identify and list all of the steps performed for each analytical technique (from sample receipt to approval of results) and each laboratory operation. For each step, the mapping should identify:
In some instances, this type of mapping may have already been performed (e.g., Lean Sigma, Six Sigma). Even if this is the case, it should be reviewed. One of the purposes of data-integrity auditing is to actively look for evidence of fraud, and previous mapping exercises may not support the change in focus.
Identification by infrared
Using infrared identification as an example of an analytical technique, the steps, decisions, and actions performed when an analyst completes material identification by infrared spectroscopy have to be identified. For infrared, the high-level process steps associated with performing material identification are shown in Figure 1 and appear relatively simple.
Nevertheless, when these steps are examined in detail, it soon becomes apparent that many of the steps have data integrity and/or scientific compliance risks associated with them. Figure 2 shows an expanded representation of the flow chart shown in Figure 1. Fundamentally, the way the sample is prepared for examination by infrared has a significant influence on the quality of the spectrum obtained.
Historically, laboratories may have "rejected" a spectrum before comparison with the reference based on sample preparation (provided this was documented in the analysts infrared training). However, in the data-integrity world, this approach would now be interpreted as the spectroscopic equivalent to a laboratory performing "test injections" on an HPLC system (1-2, 12) and will, therefore, be difficult to defend. Hence, although warning letters have been issued because the laboratory was renaming infrared spectra, there are also warning letters associated with poor use of the technique (see reference 15 and warning letter review).
For the software used to control the instrument and record the spectra, the system administrator may be required to show the auditor the "live" system and answer detailed questions about how audit trails are implemented, provide information on the security features of the software, and explain the system configuration options. Consequently, the choice of system administrator is no longer just a technical decision—they must be confident under the pressure of a data-integrity audit.
The laboratory must be able to defend the conditions it uses to record spectra relative to pharmacopoeia requirements and explain how any differences found between spectra are managed. Subjective tests need careful monitoring. If this is an electronic comparison, the software algorithm performing the comparison must be validated, while a manual comparison of spectra must be included in a documented training process.
Finally, are the electronic files secure or is the laboratory defining the print out as raw data? How can the audit trail be applied to detect changes to the spectra, and are the electronic files being examined when quality decisions are being made?
Even for something as apparently simple as identification by infrared spectroscopy, when the process is mapped, a number of additional potential compliance risks can be identified, which might not be the case if the focus is only on the management of electronic data. Process mapping can, therefore, help identify "scientific validity" concerns from a data-integrity perspective, as well as highlight areas of high data-integrity risks.
1. FDA, FDA Warning Letter WL:320-13-21, July 2013, accessed Apr. 9, 2014.
2. FDA, FDA Warning Letter WL:320-14-005, Mar. 2014, accessed Apr. 9, 2014.
3. FDA, FDA Warning Letter WL:320-13-26, Sept. 2013, accessed Apr. 9, 2014.
4. MHRA, "MHRA expectation regarding self-inspection and data integrity," accessed Apr. 9, 2014.
5. Agilent compliance seminar, "La conformità del laboratorio" (Milan, Italy, Apr. 2014).
6. S.W. Woollen, "Data Quality and the Origin of ALCOA," in Newsletter of the Southern Regional Chapter Society of Quality Assurance, Summer 2010, accessed Apr. 9, 2014.
7. ISPE GAMP Good Practice Guide, "A Risk-Based Approach to GxP Compliant Laboratory Computerized Systems," Second Edition, ISBN 978-1-936379-48-4, ISPE Publication, 2012.
8. EMA, GCP Inspectors Working Group publication, Reflection paper on expectations for electronic source data and data transcribed to electronic data collection tools in clinical trials, (London, June 2010).
9. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Food and Drugs (Government Printing Office, Washington DC,) Part 11, accessed Apr. 11, 2014.
10. FDA, Guidance for Industry, Part 11; Electronic Records, Electronic Signatures, Scope and Application, (Rockville, MD, Aug. 2003).
11. FDA, Guidance and Answers on Current Good Manufacturing Practices, Level 2 Guidance--Records and Reports, Question 3, accessed Apr. 9, 2014.
12. FDA, FDA Warning Letter WL:320-13-22, July 2013, accessed Apr. 9, 2014.
13. R. D. McDowall, LC-GC Eur. 26 (6) 338-343 (2013).
14. R. D. McDowall, LC-GC Eur. 26 (7) 389-392 (2013).
15. P.A. Smith and J. Sellers, Pharm. Technol. Eur. 23 (9) 85-89 (2011).
About the Author
Paul Smith is EMEAI laboratory compliance productivity specialist at Agilent Technologies UK Ltd, 610 Wharefedale Road, IQ Winnersh, Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 5TP, United Kingdom, [email protected]


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Banana Chocolate Chip Souffle
- Yield: 4 servings
- Cook: 15-18 minutes
Perfect use for leftover brown bananas. Try it with warm caramel sauce.
- 2tablespoons butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/3cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/2cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, divided
- 1/2pound ripe bananas (about 3), chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2tablespoons dark rum
- 8 egg whites
- 1/2teaspoon cream of tartar
- 4ounces semisweet chocolate chips
- Powdered sugar (optional)
- Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until butter browns, about 3 minutes. Add brown sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar; cook about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until bubbly.
- Add bananas and cook 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in rum. (Take care: rum is flammable.) Return to low heat and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Remove from heat. Spoon into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate until cool.
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Lightly butter four 8-ounce ramekins and sprinkle each with 1/4 teaspoon sugar. Place egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup granulated sugar; beat until medium-stiff peaks form.
- Pour chilled banana mixture into a large bowl. Add chocolate chips. Fold in egg whites. Spoon into baking dishes, piling mixture above the rims. Bake 15 to 18 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar if using.
Recipe adapted from The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts by Sherry Yard. © 2003. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


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I am looking for data on market participants at a particular moment (or some proxy/approximation). For example, how can I tell whether mostly big players and HFTs are dominating the market in particular time frame or whether there is a considerable amount of "human" trading. I would like this data at as high a frequency as possible.
Any ideas/explanations/consideration/pointers to data providers would be highly appreciated.


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Beware the shrubbery! 1951's Day Of The Triffids is one of the most beloved science fiction books of all time, telling the story about the collapse of a civilization in the wake of collective blindness prompted by dangerous unknown plants. The story was a product of its time and environment, and the politics were clumsily adapted for a camp classic 1962 film, but John Wyndham's original story seems ripe for a re-imagining - one much grislier than the other interpretations of the story. Now that new adaptation has found a director.
Deadline reports that Mike Newell is onboard to helm a new interpretation of the classic for Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures and producers Mark Gordon, Don Murphy and Michael Preger, with Murphy's partner at Angry Films Susan Montford executive producing. This would be Newell's first foray into the horror genre and science fiction - unless you count the serial killer procedural Bad Blood from 1981. Newell's spent his career hovering between "no style" and "versatile journeyman," getting his big break when Four Wedding And A Funeral became the unlikely fifth Best Picture nominee among a group that included Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption and Quiz Show back in 1995. He had a respectable but anonymous run after that until Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, which wound up being his biggest financial success. Unfortunately, this goodwill was put towards what was ultimately an unwatchable adaptation of Love In The Time of Cholera and the dodgy Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time.
Producer Don Murphy has an assured moneymaker coming this year with Transformers: Age Of Extinction, though his recent/upcoming credits also include the questionable-looking Vampire Academy, the dim robot boxing actioner Real Steel, and the ludicrous jokefest Shoot 'Em Up. He and Montford, his wife, at least collaborated on the surprisingly nasty horror picture While She Was Out, which Montford directed, though that hack-and-slash mentality probably isn't the best approach for something like Day of the Triffids.
They'll be working with a script from Neil Cross. In the film world, Cross was a co-writer on last year's horror hit Mama, but Anglophiles might know him better as a writer series such as MI5 and Doctor Who, while also creating the slick Idris Elba cop procedural Luther. Cross was apparently brought on to work on the remake back in 2012, but Murphy and Raimi have been interested in a 3D retelling of the property since 2010 (though mention of 3D isn't a part of this latest announcement).
Newell has recently been working on Reykjavik, a new political drama that features Christoph Waltz as Mikhail Gorbachev and Michael Douglas as Ronald Reagan - a project that sounds pretty darn tasteful. Beyond that, he should be free to tackle this theoretical tentpole. Deadline doesn't say if this new adaptation will hew closer to the books, given that in the source material the plants are earthbound, but in the original film they are malicious aliens. There is an opportunity here to produce a version of the story closer to the book, but another, more commercial chance to one-up the spectacle of the 1962 version seems more likely.
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NCAA March Madness 75-Year Celebration: Best Players, Teams, Moments From the Big 12
Posted by KoryCarpenter on December 12th, 2012The NCAA may be butchering another investigation, but they did something right on Tuesday. They are celebrating 75 years of March Madness with a list of all-time greats: the best players, teams, and moments in NCAA Tournament history. They aren't ranked (wouldn't that be a fun argument?) but there are plenty of arguments to be had by fans, and plenty of memories — good and bad — brought back to life in the lists. This note isn't Big 12 related but I thought the same thing as our own editors said when I read the list for the first time:
"Shelvin Mack, really?"
With that out of the way, here's how the Big 12 was represented:
- C Bob Kurland, Oklahoma A&M 1943-46 (now Oklahoma State): Kurland played in the 1945 and 1946 NCAA Tournaments, winning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award in 1946. He was a three-time All-American (1944-46) and led Oklahoma A&M to back-to-back NCAA titles in 1945 and 1946, also winning two gold medals as a player.
- F Clyde Lovellette, Kansas 1949-52: Lovellette tells a story about his recruitment in high school. Kansas coach Phog Allen told the Indiana native that if he came to Kansas, the Jayhawks would win the 1952 national title and a gold medal in the Olympics. In 1952, Kansas beat St. John's for the NCAA title then won a gold medal a few months later. Lovellette was an All-American and led the Big 7 in scoring each of his three seasons.
- C Wilt Chamberlain, Kansas 1956-58: He averaged 29.9 PPG in two seasons in Lawrence and is considered one of the greatest players of all time, making this one of the easier choices for the committee. Chamberlain was named the 1957 tournament's Most Outstanding Player even though Kansas lost a three-overtime championship game to North Carolina, 54-53.
- F Danny Manning, Kansas 1984-88: Manning's injury-ridden NBA career sometimes overshadows how great he was in college. He was the 1987-88 Player of the Year as well as the 1988 tournament MOP. He left Kansas as the Big 8's all-time leading scorer with 2,951 points.


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Gordon Johnson, Extension Vegetable & Fruit Specialist; email@example.com
The following was modified from a 2011 article from Bob Mulrooney, Extension Plant Pathologist (now retired), University of Delaware
As we move into late August and September, cooler temperatures, heavy dews and fogs, and the potential for heavy rains from tropical storms can be favorable for development of downy mildew in lima beans. Conditions are most favorable when fields receive 1.2 inches or more of rain within 7 days and when average daily temperature during this period is 78°F or less (heavy dews and fogs reduce the amount of rainfall necessary to start infection). Temperatures over 90°F will break the infection cycle. Lima bean fields should be scouted in the next 4 weeks for the presence of downy mildew as well as white mold. Race F of Phythophthora phaseoli was the only race of downy mildew identified from 2008 to 2011.
Preventative applications of 2 lbs fixed copper such as Kocide 3000 (1.3 lbs/A), Champ DP, or other coppers; 2 lbs Ridomil Gold/Copper; or 3- 4 pts Prophyt have provided control of downy mildew in the past. The best controls continue to be Ridomil/Gold Copper, and Prophyt, or other labeled phosphonate fungicides when disease pressure is high. Application at flowering or when pods are first forming is recommended if weather is favorable for disease. If disease is present Ridomil/Gold Copper and phosphonate fungicides have shown to provide some curative activity if applied when downy mildew is first seen. If downy is present in the field do not use copper fungicides alone for curative control, they will not provide control. Another product that is labeled on lima beans for white mold control is Omega and while not specifically labeled for downy mildew, three years of data has shown that it has excellent control of downy mildew at 5.5 fl oz and 8.0 fl oz/A as a preventative application before disease is found in the field. In DE this would be a 2ee use since the fungicide is labeled on lima beans and is appropriate where a mix of white mold and downy mildew are in the field. Omega has a 30 day preharvest interval. Headline from BASF is also labeled for downy mildew. It has been tested in Delaware and it has provided good control of downy when applied on a 10 day schedule at 6.0 fl oz. /A. It does not give as good disease control as Ridomil Gold/Copper or the phosphonates preventatively but the yields have been comparable. It is also labeled for anthracnose which the other products do not control. See the 2012 DE Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations for more information on fungicides for lima beans.
We would appreciate samples and reports of lima bean downy mildew this season. Samples should be fresh and packaged in a zip lock plastic bag with dry paper towels. Samples can be dropped off at any of the county Extension offices or delivered directly to Nancy Gregory at Townsend Hall in Newark. Reports should be made to Nancy Gregory at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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LiveJournal is an internationally-acclaimed news service, with contributing writers that represent a nascent force in the modern media, called "citizen journalists." They are widely regarded by experts as some of the most talented, professional, mature, and non-biased expert journalists on the Internet, astounding readers with their novel mix of emotional neutrality and critical integrity. The Internet offers no better source of information regarding crucial and profound issues such as "OMFG Lydia iz soooo like GAY and shit lyk tat" or balanced commentary on "the darkness engulfs my soul" and "NO MOM I DONT WANT TO GO TOO BED YOUR GAY."
Concerned masses are content to find the LiveJournal Project to be an exemplary bastion of propriety and proficiency on the frontiers of grammar. It is a reassuring fact that in a world of commas, colons and clauses, we will always have the LiveJournal contributors, using their intricate combination of poor spelling, worse grammar, and occasionally 1337 to balance the world.
The LiveJournal project, started in 1976 by Linus Torvalds (who was German until he moved) was originally started as a search engine service. However, with the help of EFF (Enrico Fermi Flagellum) free speech advocate John Ashcroft, it blossomed into the widely respected news service it is today.
Former-President Bill Clinton has praised LiveJournal as a place "where like-minded young boys and men can meet and have a good time." Interestingly, Jerry Falwell and Clinton met on LiveJournal before getting married in 2004.
According to a controlled study by a prominent research team at the Haverford College, LiveJournal and competing news agency Xanga possess radically diverse writing staffs.
You can see that the writers at LiveJournal.com come from a wide variety of backgrounds, with 16% minorities, 84% Goth and a full 0% writers of African descent.
Edit: There are at least four black people in LJ. I swear it!
See also
External links
Featured Article (read another featured article) | Featured version: 11 April 2005 |
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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Related links:
The constellation Pisces is known as the fish. Almost every ancient civilization saw this figure. Some saw the figure as a single fish, others saw it as a pair. Pisces can be found during the months of September through January.
In Greek mythology, the two fish represent Aphrodite and her son, Eros. One day they were fleeing the giant Typhon, when they jumped into a stream, turned to fish and swam away. It is said they tied a string to their tails so they could stay together. Even the constellation shows this long string shared between them.
The easternmost fish is located just below Andromeda. The westernmost is below Pegasus. The string starts with the eastern fish and travels south towards Cetus before heading west to connect with the other fish.


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A movie that the Vatican doesn't want you to see!
About the film:
In 1989, emergency responders received a 9-1-1 call from Maria Rossi confessing that she had brutally killed three people. 20 years later, her daughter Isabella seeks to understand the truth about what happened that night. She travels to the Centrino Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Italy where her mother has been locked away to determine if her mother is mentally ill or demonically possessed. When she recruits two young exorcists to cure her mom using unconventional methods combining both science and religion, they come face-to-face with pure evil in the form of four powerful demons possessing Maria (Devilinsidemovie.com, 2012)


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Chef Frank Magana Spokane Wine Dinner at Nectar
Prepare your palate for culinary pleasure. Nectar is pleased to announce the visit of the popular and acclaimed chef Frank Magana on January 29 for our first dinner of 2012. If you love wine and amazing food, you won't be disappointed in this fabulous five course dinner.
Chef Magana gained a stellar reputation as the premier wine country chef in the Columbia Basin, Prosser and Yakima with his winery event catering and restaurant Picazo 717. Frank's newest venture, Chef Magana Catering, continues that tradition and gets Frank back to his roots of working directly with wineries.
Visit Chef Magana's web site for some great recipes and LIKE his Facebook page for great wine and food information.
Wine and Dine with Chef Frank Magana January 29
This exclusive engagement is limited to 40 people at the beautiful Nectar Tasting Room at 120 N Stevens. Ticket prices include tax and 18% gratuity for Frank and his staff (small event processing fee added to ticket price).
$85 / $75 for Club Nectar members (and their guests)
Tapas Served Family Style
Tosta con Sardinas, Roasted Garlic Mushrooms, Cherry Chipotle Pork Empanadas
WINE: NW Cellars Unoaked Chardonnay or NW Cellars Brut Rose
Winter Salad
Mixed Field Greens, Apples, Craisins, Grape Tomatoes,
Brown Butter Croutons and a White Balsamic Vinaigrette
WINE: Skylite Cellars 2010 Viognier
Pan Seared Shellfish Cakes with a Tangy Thai Aioli
(Scallops, Crab & Prawns)
WINE: Hard Row to Hoe Petit Verdot
Porcini Crusted Flat Iron Steak,
Gorgonzola Butter, Pancetta-Caramelized Onions
Sautéed Yukon Potato Gnocchi
WINE: 2009 Anelare Cabernet Sauvignon
Duet of Dessert:
Dried Cherry & Apricot Bread Pudding
WINE: Terra Blanca Port Forte


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Joyful Living
Congrats! Pop the Champagne!
Sweet illustration and a sentimental greeting. A blank interior lets you add your own personal touch. Hand printed in the USA.
3.5" x 4.875
Clean Fragrance Without:
- Carcinogens
- Mutagens
- Reproductive Toxins
- Organ Toxins
- Acute Toxins
- Phthalates
Better Wax
- 100% Soy
- Vegan
- Kosher
- Non-GMO
- Toxin Free
- Paraben Free
- Phthalate Free
- Gluten Free
- Ethically Sourced
Wick: 100% Cotton (Lead and Zinc Free)
Candles are approximately 5" x 9" x 2" (though they do vary due to the hand carved nature of the bowl) and holds approximately 14 ounces of wax.
Made in the USA | Hand-poured in Hugo, Minnesota
Joy - Bright notes of sugared citrus, and bursting greenery blend with honey and milk for a happy fragrance that will uplift you any time of year.
Peace - Sage, rosemary, and chamomile awaken the earthiness of lavender, while hints of sandalwood and cedar in the base are reinforced by clove, lavandin, and cedarwood essential oils.
Love - A rich, earthy sandalwood scent with a full range of warm spice notes grounded with vanilla and amber. This one is a favorite year-round.
Grace - Cozy and warm, this one is in memory of my grandma Grace. Hints of sweet leaf greens, fresh pines, dewy spiced florals, and earthen musk combine with spiced apples, pecans and just a touch of vanilla to create a warm scent.
Apple Picking - Just what a day at the orchard smells like, bright greens and bursting apples with warm notes of cinnamon, vanilla and maple.
Bonfire - A reminiscent fragrance of autumn nights by the fire. Smokey, earthy cedar and pine are accompanied perfectly with hints of brown sugar and vanilla.
White Pumpkin - A comforting, inviting fall blend of cinnamon, pumpkin and vanilla highlighted with hints of smoked nutmeg.
Cozy Flannel - This fragrance has a fresh feel with beautiful notes of mint that intertwine with subtle undertones of green apples and peaches on a base of musk and moss. This one is cozy and inviting in autumn and winter.
Christmastime - A warm and inviting holiday blend of spicy cinnamon, bayberry, pine and hints of orange zest blended with camphor and smoke.
Fraser Fir - The quintessential Christmas tree smell - fir, cedarwood and sandalwood combine with notes of lemon, amber and moss.
Gingerbread - A warm, nostalgic holiday blend of freshly baked gingerbread with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon.
Peppermint - A bright, refreshing blend of pure peppermint with hints of crisp mint and sweet vanilla.
Care information
Care information
Always Trim Your Wick to 1/4" Before Candle is Lit Each Time to Avoid Any SootBurn Candle so Wax Pool Reaches the Jar Edge Each Time to Prevent Wax TunnelingBurn Candle No More Than 4 Hours at a Time and Do Not Burn Candle with Less Than a 1/2" of Wax RemainingKeep Candle Away from Fans, Open Windows, Hot Surfaces, Children, PetsNever Leave a Burning Candle Unattended


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Pinochet Nemesis Garzón May Help Edward Snowden Find Refuge
Though the whereabouts of PRISM whistle-blower Edward Snowden remain unknown, his plight has found its way to the doorstep of former Spanish prosecutor Baltasar Garzón, who famously attempted to bring former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet to justice in the 1990s.
Garzón, now the legal head of WikiLeaks, said Monday that he was considering offering assistance to Snowden as the former NSA contractor attempts to find a country that will not deport him to the United States to face espionage charges.
Snowden, who left Hong Kong on Sunday and was supposedly en route to Moscow, has been offered asylum by Ecuador, but as yet his location is unknown.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange currently resides in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London as he fights against his extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault. Assange fears Sweden will send him to the U.S., where he believes the government will prosecute him for assisting in the publication of diplomatic cables.
According to a Reuters report, Garzón has been a go-between for Ecuador and Snowden.
"I have requested more information that will allow me to study and assess the case in-depth as well as to speak to Mr. Snowden. Therefore, I do not currently represent Mr. Edward Snowden," Garzón said in the emailed statement.
"I do defend the right of freedom of expression and freedom of information. The same rights I defend in the Assange and WikiLeaks cases and in other cases where the release of information that reveals criminality is met with the persecution of those who expose it," he said.
Garzón is currently banned from the legal profession in Spain because he wiretapped a defense attorney's phone during a corruption case. Since his 11-year ban began in 2010, he has worked for the International Criminal Court in the Hague, advising the chief prosecutor there, and advised Colombia's government on human rights issues.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.


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Tomorrow students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will unveil four new exhibitions in the Sullivan Galleries, including Having and Being Had, a show that explores "the ritual of curatorial practice and meaning-making in museums." The latter exhibition also includes a website featuring Q&As on curatorial practice with Chicago curators, cultural practitioners, and me, whose 'practice,' such as it is, falls into neither category. All four shows look really interesting – an opening reception for them all will take place tomorrow evening, Friday, December 11, from 4:30-7:00 p.m. in the Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State St., 7th floor. Read on below for details on Having and Being Had, along with descriptions of the three other shows on view. All shows run through January 22nd (note that the galleries will be closed for the holidays from December 24 – January 2nd).
Having and Being Had
Having and Being Had stages a performance on the ritual of curatorial practice and meaning-making in museums. As the title suggests, curators and audiences are as much authors of a legitimizing narrative as they are framed by it. The curators of this exhibition complicate our expectations of museum display by inviting the dynamic participation and active imaginings of the viewer. Having and Being Had invites audiences to reconsider the ways in which language, collections, object value, and display technique seduce audiences with illusions of access and objectivity. Art exhibitions educate and entertain, but do they also mislead and deceive the viewer? Having and Being Had exposes curatorial hierarchy, dismantles curatorial voice, and manipulates display space to engage audiences in the power of their own experiences. On display are the ethics of curatorial practice and the viewers' imagination.
All the best,
This exhibition features new work by the artists and writers in Text Off the Page 2010, including collaborative projects, performances, installations, and language-based projects.
Featured artists: Shanita Bigelow, Troy Briggs, Annette Elliot, Sarah Jones, Nazafarin Lotfi, J.M. Lowe, Joel Parsons, David Scheier, Corkey Sinks, Jillian Soto, Hurmat Ul Ain, and Colin Winnette.
An evening of Readings/Performances in response to works in the exhibition will be held on Saturday, December 11 at 6:00 p.m. in the Sullivan Galleries.
Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel
The eight artists participating in the Video Installation course attempt to investigate, analyze, and confront various aspects of this practice by focusing on issues of separation and contact. Their work tackles formal questions emerging from constructing multichannel installation, as well as from the intersection of a single-channel, time-based medium with a given space and performed actions.
Featured artists: Emilie Crowe, Lindsay Denniberg, Marco Godoy, Mikey McPariane, Brianne Milder, MZL, Wang Ye-Feng, and Courtney Bird Ziegler.
Stories of Relativity
How do we relate to one another? The nine artists in this exhibition explore the complex nature of human connectivity, considering how time, identity, and interpersonal tensions shape our relationships and affect our interactions.
Featuring recent work by: Hope Esser, Jang soon Im, Je Je Je Jiyeon Lim, Zihan Loo, Cheryl Pope, Casilda Sanchez, Chryssa Tsampazi, Andrew Norman Wilson, and Wei-Hsuan Vicky Yen.
Curated by Amelia Love (MA 2013), Curatorial Assistant, Department of Exhibitions
- Michelle Grabner, Anthony Elms, Stuart Comer Named Curators of 2014 Whitney Biennial - November 29, 2012
- New Fielding Practice Podcast on the Art21 Blog! Episode 16: Summer Review-O-Rama! - July 19, 2012
- Tom Sanford is a Busy Man…Here's Why - June 12, 2012


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Many Fear Alzheimer's, Want to be Tested -- Survey
Alzheimer's is the second-most feared disease after cancer and many people say they would seek testing for themselves or a loved one even if they did not have symptoms, U.S. and European researchers said Wednesday.
The findings, presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Paris Wednesday, reflect concern about the swelling ranks of people with the most common form of dementia. Alzheimer's now affects nearly 36 million people worldwide.
Recent studies suggest the disease starts developing at least a decade before symptoms appear and many scientists and patient advocates believe earlier testing will play an important role in getting people treated and in preparing families for the burden ahead.
The telephone survey of 2,678 adults aged 18 and older in the United States, France, Germany, Spain and Poland was conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Alzheimer Europe, with funding by Bayer AG, which is developing an imaging test for early signs of the disease.
It found that more than 85% of respondents said they would see a doctor if they had symptoms of confusion and memory loss. And more than 94% said they would want the same for a family member.
When asked to identify the most feared disease out of a list of seven that included cancer, heart disease and stroke, nearly a quarter of respondents from four of the five countries said they most fear getting Alzheimer's.
Many in the survey said they know or have known someone with Alzheimer's, including 72% of those in France, 73% in Germany, 77% in Spain, 73% in the United States and 54% in Poland.
And about three out of 10 people in the study said they have a family member who has had the disease.
Despite high levels of anxiety in the study, as many as 40% of people said they did not know Alzheimer's is fatal and many said they thought there were effective treatments that could slow its progression.
Current drugs only treat Alzheimer's symptoms, but none have been shown to delay the advance of the disease, which slowly robs its victims of the ability to think and care for themselves.
Nearly half of the people in the study believe there is a reliable medical test that can determine whether a person suffering from confusion and memory loss is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
And even healthy people with no symptoms are interested in testing, with about two-thirds of respondents saying they would get tested to see if they were likely to develop the disease.
"A very significant number of people appear at this stage to want to know if they are at significant risk even without symptoms," Blendon said in an interview.
While companies such as Eli Lilly and Co, General Electric Co and Bayer are getting close to developing imaging that can spot early signs of Alzheimer's in the brain, as yet there are no reliable medical tests.
Blendon said many countries are pushing for earlier testing and evaluation in people who have symptoms, but he worries that this might raise expectations for treatments that are not yet available.
Dr. Gary Kennedy of the division of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, who was not involved with the survey, said early testing is well worth it for people who have symptoms.
He said earlier diagnosis allows families to prepare and make their wishes known about how they want to be cared for while they are still capable. And while currently approved drugs do not work for everyone, about 2 in 10 people do have some benefit.
"The chances are not great that the family is going to see anything from treating them," Kennedy added.
He often recommends treatments in case they get lucky.


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The colors of war.
this is a pin up Ba did for a comic book here in Brasil. I think it looks great, but I'm a suspect on this particular matter.
It's funny how it relates events that happened here, but it could easily be about the civil war in the US.
Another weekend.
Enjoy your weekend. May it bring that special look from someone you love, or from someone you're dying to meet, there at night, staring from across the room. Happy halloween for all with another one of my old zine covers, which remains to this day one of my favorites.
May of 1997.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Posted by Fábio Moon at 3:53 PM 0 comments
Thursday, October 28, 2004
She shot me down.
Smoke and Guns sketch. The character, however, is feeling kinda sad in this one, and she is everything but sad. She's the girl with an attitude, the one you look and know right away she's not not to messed with.
Do you want to dance?
The comic book artist should be like a dancer, with attitude, confidence and initiative. The dancer walks across the floor and asks the girl to dance with him, he does not wait for somebody to discover him, to ask him, to lead.
You are the storyteller. Your story is up to you.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 6:26 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Silence, you fool!
Doing comics has a lot to do with talking. When you're working with someone else, be it the writer you're drawing the story for or the artist you're writing for, you have to tell the other exactly what you want, what you have in mind and what don't like. You can tell what you like as well, but that is more or less obvious if the other looks at the stuff you've already done.
Don't think anyone will think you're stupid if you don't understand what's the writer hidden purposes for a certain scene. Always ask away every single question you might come up with while reading the script. Remember that everything you don't know the answer for (and that needs an answer for the story to be told) won't be rightfully portrayed if you don't know what's the story you're telling.
I talk a lot with my brother about our comics. Maybe we talk too much, but it seems to help our work, so we just keep on talking. Sometimes, we argue, we fight and shout at each other.
Some answers just won't come quietly.
Just a little something else...
People are now talking about the new DEMO, which I believe is already issue 11. Another great cover in what I believe will be a series of really well crafted covers that will enter the history of comics, right there with the Watchmen covers and the Sandman covers.
I just had a conversation about covers during my coffee break (yes, I take coffee breaks, I'm human and brazilian coffee is delicious) with an artist friend of mine, in which we were talking about how different covers are from the interior art, not necessarily in style, but in weight and in the amount of density it needs to sell the book. Great covers will tell a story on it's own, a little tale curious enough to make everybody feel that need to open the book and start reading it.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 3:02 PM 0 comments
Monday, October 25, 2004
The bell ringed at the studio and I answered.
"Hi, is this the place where I can find Fabio Moon or Gabriel Ba?", said the voice of a man who certainly wasn't from the city.
"Who may I say is asking?", I replied, suspiciously.
"I'm a cartoonist and I wanted to talk to them about the market and to show my work."
Market? Does he think I'm selling fish over here?
As I opened the door and let the guy in, I noticed he didn't smell nice at all, reinforcing the image of a fish market in my mind.
I prayed for rain.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 8:21 PM 0 comments
Friday, October 22, 2004
At the end of this week...
How to be inspired by great work.
I live in Brasil, as many of you know. As a result of that (and, let's face it, on account of too much work on my table right now), only last wednesday I had a chance to see Kill Bill volume 2. On the same day, also as a result of the lateness of arrivals around here, I finally read The League of Extraordinary Gentleman volume 2.
Both were great.
It's amazing how they both work the audience. That's their job, and they're really good at it. Perfect timing, good dialogue, the mood and the twists and the great and interesting characters. They both remind us creators that you should do your best and that your best should be fun.
It was a long week, I'll be back on Monday.
Go have fun.
as a weekend bonus, a old cover from my mini-comic days (eventhough, when I was doing them, they were called fanzines).
April or May, 1997
Posted by Fábio Moon at 6:06 PM 0 comments
Monday, October 18, 2004
When you know what you want, you know where to go.
What's the first step to our addiction? Reading. We all start as comic book readers, one way or another, and there's not a single artist or writer in comics who never read a comic in his life. And, for the time we remember kindly in our minds, we loved the comics we read.
Okay. Time passes, we grow up - to the eyes of some, anyway - and we decide to do comics. When that happens, we probably don't even know how a comic book is done. If we're lucky, we already know there's a person, or a bunch of people, creating the stuff, but we may not know their names at first. When we do, it's always puzzling who does what. To me, it still is kinda blurry what's really the artist's part, what's the writer's function and so on.
That's the point where many people get lost in their quest: they don't really know what they want to do in comics. Mostly all begin with the hope to become the famous artist, even if only famous among the small comic book market. Those who discover very early their complete inaptitude to draw will think about becoming writers, but if you follow these ones from early on on their lives, you'll probably see that they were bound to become writers all along. But what about the rest of us? What about the guy who draws something, even if it's not pretty? What about the guy who can do a great Jim Lee page, and a great Mike Mignola page, but can't do a dozen of any? What about the guy who just can't write any good stories, can't draw well enough to be a super-hero artist, can't draw enough to tell his own stories, and still wants to do comics?
Many colorists in the industry are failed pencillers or failed artists. Many letterers are failed artists. Okay, you can say that lettering is an art in itself (and it really is), and that there are great colorists out there, that's not the point.
So what's the point, really?
I don't know. What I do know is that I see many artists who love comics and they just don't know what they want to do in the business. I don't think it's good for an artist to have many different styles and try many different types of comics, from the super hero type to the newly born kid's comics. You can work in any type of comics, but you don't really need to change your style, or try to create a different style for every comic you're trying to get a job in, because that may distance the artist from his own personal style, which is his most important skill, in my opinion. The artist, no matter what he draws, must have a style clearly his own to translate everything he shows in the page with it.
How do one gets there?
That's the question everybody wants to know the answer. All I can say is that, even if you don't know, the only way you can get anywhere is working it. If you want to draw, go draw. You may not be fit to draw super heroes, but if you keep drawing you may find out what's really the stuff you SHOULD be drawing, what stories you should be telling, who you should be.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 10:35 AM 0 comments
Monday, October 11, 2004
Not just anybody's help.
The best feedback an comic book artist (and writer, for that matter) can have comes from the reader. He's your target audience to begin with, and he will eventually buy (or fail to buy it, in case you suck) your book.
Comics should, at first, work as a medium where a story is told. If you give your work to someone to read and he (I'm sticking with the "he" bit 'cause most comic book readers are male, even if my most avid fans aren't) does not understand your story, even if it's only a part of it, your story has a problem. It's easy to assume he "didn't get it", but it's always good to stop and think about "why didn't he get it?" in the first place.
When I was beginning, my audience consisted mainly of my friends at college and most had never read a comic book before. That was a great bouncing board for me, as they would ask me questions I took for granted and made me think about all aspects of making good comic book that everybody can understand.
Do my comics got dumber because of that? No, they did not. They just started working on another level. For me, the joy of creating a new story consists in layering several levels in the story, so there'll be something there for everybody.
A late farewell.
Scott Kurtz put this over at his site.
Beautiful image.
Coincidentally (or not, for those who believe in this type of stuff), we did a Superman-like character last week for our weekly children's magazine's job.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 11:40 PM 0 comments
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Falling in love all over again.
Newsarama talked with Steve Hamaker about coloring Bone for it's new Scholastic edition. All I can say is that the color previews look very nice.
In fact. That's not true. Yes, the colors look nice, but I have MORE to say about it. Bone was, in my mind, probably the best realized comic-book in the hands of one artist. In the same way Sin City was created to work in black and white, so was the adventures of those three Bone cousins, and Jeff Smith succeeded effortlessly at making that colorless world come to life in front of us. Now, in a way I think Sin City wouldn't work, Bone gets a color version that's also very beautiful to look at and doesn't diminish the accomplishment of the first version.
It take a very god artist to tell the best story he can tell in black and white, and that goes to say that he only have himself to rely on. And, if he's really that good an artist, his work will remain his even if somebody works over it, and that's what's happening with the colored Bones.
Steve Oliff had this slogan for his Olioptics company: "the better you draw, the better we color", which tells the core of my argument. Coloring something is easier if the drawing in back and white is well realized.
Today, I think artists got used to colored comic-books, so they're leaving a lot of the work for the color: notions of light and shadow, of mood, hour of day, foreground and background definition and even texture. These artists, when working only n black and white, will fail in telling a story that require stuff that they don't do anymore, let alone stuff that they never learned or tried to do.
I love working in black and white. There's a classical feel in black and white stories that I love, and I do my best to tell my story using only that. If I put any consideration about color in my work, it's the one I learned with Jeff Smith: do the best black and white you can, but make sure it will ALSO look great in color. After all, you never know.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 1:05 PM 0 comments
Monday, October 04, 2004
Crazy person.
Sometimes, I picture myself writing - if not thinking - like a crazy person, and it reads a lot like Rorschach:
Fell out of bed today. Woke up and went to work. Been working since. Can't stop.
I suppose I should be eating cold beans from a can with a spoon to complete the picture.
. . .
Now, really, about the work.
At the end of August, I wrote a script for a short film. Later this week, we'll start shooting it. Last week brought a delightful round of actors and actresses for our casting test, and we met wonderful new friends. I already learned a lot from then. I just hope they'll be able to learn something from me as well, just so everybody can leave this new experience with another story to tell.
You meant COMICS?
It's time to show something so I don't upset my readers (what readers, you crazy fool? Get back to the dungeon!).
My new brazilian book is ready. It's gorgeous. I'm proud. Now, all I have in my drawing board is Smoke and Guns. I'm sure those girls missed me while I was away.
I missed them.
My brother and I have been asked to be part of an anthology to be released next year. We'll probably work on two different stories, just so we have more to show. It's fun when we realize two can do twice the work.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 7:40 PM 0 comments
Sunday, October 03, 2004
The horror
Last month, one of the most exciting things we did was a bunch of drawings for the opening animation of Gravity Games. It all went well, despite some ill slept nights. If you click here, you can watch a quicktime version of the opening.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 1:02 PM 0 comments
Friday, October 01, 2004
Smoke signals.
When I started drawing Smoke and Guns, I set myself to try and write down the process behind creating a comic book. Of course, some twenty pages down the line, and some eighty still to go, you can tell I haven't really started writing a single line about it. What can I say? Life happened. But it's a good life, so I can't complain.
My brother and I have a new book to be published in Brazil, and the final touches of it are taking huge amounts of our time. It's going to be a great book, I believe, different from everything we did before, and when I finish the cover I'll post it here. But let's go back to the smoky new book.
I can't remember exactly when Larry sent me the script, asking if I wanted to draw it, or when I finally said yes, but I remember the sensation of reading the script for two nights and thinking how visual the story was, and how much fun it would be for anybody who turned out to be the artist. Turns out the artist will be one of the brazilian twins, after all, but I really had no idea how I was going to approach the story visually.
That's something artists will go through: the images they have while reading a script and the sensation that it's a very visual story won't always translate well for certain styles, which poses the question: How do you know which style is best for the story?
Of course, most questions asked inside the crazy deranged mind of the comic book artists don't have an answer. What they have is a door, or a variety of doors, that open a great number of possibilities in front of then. Luckily for me, Smoke and Guns opened a door in which I could see myself drawing the book, and doing it in a way I always wanted to do: with class.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 10:56 PM 0 comments
Don't you hate that horn?
Newsarama has an interview with Bruno D'Angelo and Shane Amaya about their very cool new book, Horns of Hattin. Check it out for the cool pictures and for some very serious words.
Posted by Fábio Moon at 8:52 PM 0 comments


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Hello ATC lovers! It's Wednesday again and that means we have another fun ATC challenge for you all! First things first, though - let's pick a winner for this gorgeous image from last week's sponsor, Michelle Perkett Studio, called Stella the Summer Storyteller.
And that winner would be....
And that winner would be....
Congratulations heiki! Please shoot me an e-mail at email@example.com with "WW Books/Reading ATC Winner" in the subject line and I'll get your "Stella the Summer Storyteller" digi out to you ASAP!
Congratulations! Please send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com with "WW Books/Reading ATC Top 3" in the subject line, and I'll send you along your Top 3 badge (unless you already have it)! (I checked to be sure the winner and top 3 had followed the rules before posting, thank you for doing so.)
Instead of a sponsor this week, I have a little prize package to send along to our random winner - it's a package of 6x6 Designer Series Patterned Paper from Stampin' Up! and a little mini clear rubber "Girl's Night Out" stamp set from Studio g:
So here's some eye candy to hopefully inspire you to play along!
So here's some eye candy to hopefully inspire you to play along!
I made my first ATC with a Prickley Pear stamp set that I won for playing along in one of their challenges - I have a "thing" for owls, and I just love the way you stamp the different elements for this one and then piece them together:
This next ATC is really simple - you can see my blog for details:
Megan used her own Dilly Beans image called Zombie Christmas Elf - I LOVE the way Megan incorporates white into everything to give it dimension and make it pop, like the candy on the hat - it looks all 3D, super cool:
Pauline's beautiful bow with sparkle all over it is just simple and elegant, isn't it?
Doesn't my Design Team rock? Well, we've got some awesome artists who are submitting every single week faithfully, too, and I hope you're all checking out the fabulous talent and leaving them some comments, letting them know how wonderful they are! :) Thank you, ladies, I appreciate your loyalty and I hope you're having fun. xoxo
OK - you're off - go create a black and white ATC and link it up here! Remember to check the rules and guidelines before submitting and link up below by next Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. EST. Can't wait to see what you all come up with for this one. Peace.


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Ok hackers, it is time to show what you are made of. [Michael] has issued a challenge. He is willing to pay for hacked together science tools that meet some accuracy and price requirements. You could win money for doing what most of you are already doing. He needs a few specific things, so go to his site to see what he's looking for. The goal here is to bring scientific equipment down to a price level that allows a broader audience to access it. Come on guys, it's for science!
[via Makezine]


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Vatican (Holy See)
The Committee was informed of the various actions undertaken by the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS in collaboration with the Holy See authorities following a certain number of protests concerning a new building on the site of the Hospice of Santa Marta.
The Director of the World Heritage Centre as well as ICOMOS were able to ascertain at the site that the allegations reported mainly by the press were groundless. They commended the spirit of co-operation with which this problem had been approached by the authorities of the Vatican. One delegate congratulated ICOMOS on the quality of his report and raised a point regarding the use of appropriate terminology by the Secretariat in presenting questions to the Bureau or the Committee. The Representative from the Holy See then took the floor to express his satisfaction with the way in which this matter was settled and read a statement which was annexed to the report.


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Membership questions? Log in issues? Email email@example.com
There were kegs from MI last year at San Diego. Those were collected and shipped by Adventures in Homebrewing (shameless plug for my LHBS), and were cold when dropped off and kept in a tight group when in the shop. They were then wrapped with plastic wrap on the shipping pallet. The truck was not refrigerated, and they said it was hot in the trailer when the kegs were loaded. The truck had to drive through the desert Southwest.
That's only 1300 miles. Must be Union Drivers. Maybe a couple of single guy members should do it. Less the 24 hours on the road. Doesn't get warm till western Idaho.


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Asvin Balloo has posted a quick look at making the URLs of your website a bit more "pretty" and SEO-friendly.
When I started implementing mod_rewrite in websites I had a problem in PHP as how to make a SEO friendly URL. All tutorials were geared towards how to implement mod_rewrite, about modifying .htaccess files, but none treated how to make the urls friendly with dynamic content.
He shares a function that he found that helped him a great deal - a method called friendlyURL. It changes a bit of text into a more friendly version of itself ("this is a test" becomes "this-is-a-test") that can be used in anything you'd want. An example could be in automatically generating links to other pages on your site that search engines can easily follow.


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Browse the Collection
Whether you or someone you know was born with a cleft, you are a hospital or medical professional trained in cleft treatment, or you are a passionate supporter of Smile Train's work, we have resources for you!
You Have Questions, We Have Answers
We have assembled a selection of cleft care resources tailored to fit the needs of those with an interest in Smile Train's work. Among the resources you will find information and materials on cleft treatment options and support groups, education and training technology and programs, safety and quality initiatives and assets, and several ways to engage with Smile Train and show your support.