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Vermont Genealogy
This guide contains a sample of The Newberry's resources on this topic. To locate additional resources, please check our catalog or consult a reference librarian.
Guides and Bibliographies
Basset, T.D. Seymour (editor). Vermont: A Bibliography of its History. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1981. Call # Local History Ref Z1343.V37 (2nd floor open shelf). Committee for a New England Bibliography series. Consult both "Entries for Counties" and "Entries for Cities, Towns, and Unorganized Places."
Eichholz, Alice. Collecting Vermont Ancestors. Montpelier, VT: 1986. Call # Local History Ref F48 .E33 (2nd floor open shelf). Provides a historical overview of the population of Vermont and a list of research resources in New England.
Hanson, Edward W. "Vermont Genealogy: A Study in Migration" in Genealogical Research in New England. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984. Call # Local History Ref F3.G46 (2nd floor open shelf). Features a table of Vermont probate districts, as well as a bibliography of town histories containing genealogical sections.
Leppman, John A. A Bibliography For Vermont Genealogy. St. Albans, VT: 2000. Call # Local History Ref Z1343.L45 (2nd floor open shelf). Notably includes lists of State Papers publications, and historical pre-statehood sources.
Hemenway, Abby M. (editor). Vermont Historical Gazetteer: A Magazine. Burlington, VT: 1867-1891. Call # Local History Ref F46V583 (2nd floor open shelf). Much of the material was obtained from interviews with early settlers. An index was published in 1923 and is contained in the last volume in the series.
Swift, Esther Munroe. Vermont Place-Names: Footprints of History. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Greene, 1977. Call # Local History Ref F47.S84 (2nd floor open shelf). Towns listed under county. Entries include historical sketches.
All federal census population schedules for Vermont are available online through Ancestry.com. Microfilm holdings complete through 1850 plus indexes. Scattered holdings 1860, 1870, and 1880. Also see Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Vermont (Call # F48 .C45 2nd floor open shelf), and Heads of Families at the Second Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1800: Vermont (Call # folio E6991.91).
Source Manuals and Local Histories
Search the online catalog for local histories, vital records, "cemetery books," etc. under the name of the town (and sometimes county) as a subject heading.
Bartley, Scott A (editor). Vermont Families in 1791. Camden, ME: Picton, 1992. Call # Local History Ref F48.V5 (2nd floor open shelf).
Comstock, John M. The Congregational Churches of Vermont and Their Ministry, 1762-1914, Historical and Statistical. St. Johnsbury, VT: 1915. Call # D619.18. Lists various congregations by geographical location and date of organization.
Holbrook, Jay Mack. Vermont's First Settlers. Oxford, MA: Holbrook Research Institute, 1976. Call # Local History Ref F47.5.H6 (2nd floor open shelf). Contains over six thousand alphabetical listings of some 4,483 persons who received land grants from 1763 to 1803. References are to page numbers in Volume 2 of the State Papers of Vermont (see below).
Murphy, Robert M (compiler). Vermont City Directories in Vermont Repositories. Montpelier, VT: 1999. Call # folio Z1343 .M87. Lists Vermont city directories dating from the mid-nineteenth century onward and their current location. The Newberry has selected Vermont city directories in its collection. Inquire at second floor reference desk.
Rollins, Alden M (compiler). Vermont Religious Certificates. Rockport, ME: Picton, 2003. Call # Local History Ref F48 .R637 (2nd floor open shelf). Volume compiled from diverse church and city records. Dates range from pre-Revolutionary War to about 1807.
Rollins, Alden M. Warnings Out. Rockport, ME: Picton, 1995. Call # Local History Ref F48.R64 (2nd floor open shelf). This collection of "Warning Out of Town" records from the early nineteenth century is split into two volumes: volume one deals with northern Vermont, and volume two deals with southern Vermont. Note: "Warning out of town" was a mechanism that many places in New England used to force socially unacceptable/ unwanted people out of small cities and towns.
State Papers of Vermont. Montpelier: 1939-1962. Call # Local History Ref F49.V4 (2nd floor open shelf). Each volume indexed. Of particular genealogical interest are: "New York Land Patents 1688-1786 Covering Land now Included in the State of Vermont" (volume 6, part 1) and "Petitions for Grants of Land, 1778-1811" (volume 5).
Fisher, Carleton E. Soldiers, Sailors, and Patriots of the Revolutionary War- Vermont. Camden, ME: Picton Press, 1992. Call # Local History Ref E263.V5F58 (2nd floor open shelf).
Goodrich, John E. State of Vermont: Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War 1775 to 1783. Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1904. Call # Local History Ref E263.V5R6 (2nd floor open shelf).
Vermont. Adjutant General. Revised Roster of Vermont Volunteers and Lists of Vermonters Who Served in the Army and Navy in the United States During the War of the Rebellion. Montpelier, VT: Watchman, 1892. Call # folio F843.935.


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Welcome to Tyler Products Sales!
Tyler Products Sales, Inc. is a family owned business that is committed to manufacturing high-quality precast concrete products. Since our beginning in 1981, we have grown into one of the leading manufacturers in the State of Texas for approved septic tanks; we also take much pride in the manufacturing of aerobic systems, sanitary manholes and a wide variety of storm water structures. It is our commitment to you our customer, to deliver products of the highest quality and unmatched customer satisfaction.

subset: commoncrawl


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LivingSocial's customers received some bad news on Friday: The popular daily deal site had been hacked, compromising some 50 million members' customer data.
There was some good news — credit card data was not affected, the company promised in its notice to customers. Also, the Facebook credentials of users who connected to LivingSocial using Facebook Connect were not compromised.
The bad news is that the data the thieves did obtain almost certainly will be used in phishing attempts and other tactics to try to access users' financial accounts. The information obtained includes names, email addresses, some birth dates and encrypted passwords.
LivingSocial said it was actively working with law enforcement to investigate the breach.
What Happened
Little has been revealed to the public about the mechanics of the hack, other than it made it past LivingSocial's security protections.
The site's passwords were hashed with SHA1 using a random 40 byte salt, LivingSocial said in its FAQ about the event — meaning its system took the passwords entered by customers and used an algorithm to change them into a unique data string. Then the password was elongated. LivingSocial has switched its hashing algorithm from SHA1 to bcrypt.
Most probably, the breach was the result of an SQL Injection vulnerability, speculated Chris Eng, vice president of research at Veracode.
"It's likely they've identified the root cause by now and are ensuring they understand the extent of the damage," he told the E-Commerce Times.
LivingSocial obviously had the appropriate network-monitoring procedures in place to confirm that the databases containing customer credit cards and merchant information were unaffected.
"Keeping that information segmented to begin with was a good move on their part," Eng said.
What Consumers Can Do
That will be little comfort to users who have to go through the trouble of changing their password — as LivingSocial advises — or several passwords if they use the same one for multiple accounts.
That must be done, though, said Grace Zeng, research analyst at SilverSky.
"Now that 50 million peoples' names associated with email addresses and even birthdates are in the wrong hands, I would expect to see waves of spamming — especially phishing attacks — coming to affected customers," she told the E-Commerce Times.
Enterprise Concerns
It is not just consumers who have to be worried, said Tom Cross, director of security research at Lancope.
Enterprises should consider the possibility that employees may have used the same password on LivingSocial that they use to access their work email and VPN accounts, he told the E-Commerce Times.
"IT security teams should be proactively hunting for weak passwords in their networks, and they should assess the capabilities that they have for identifying compromised accounts," Cross advised.
The bigger concern for enterprises is making sure their own customer databases are not hacked in a similar manner.
"While we do not have details regarding how the hackers were able to access this data, it is revealing that so many hacks and breaches are occurring, even for companies that held mature security policies," noted Seth Goldhammer, director of product management at LogRhythm.
"Companies need to reevaluate their security strategies and ensure they have a well-rounded approach that assumes that it is no longer a question of if they will be hacked, but when," he told the E-Commerce Times.
Besides investing in prevention and hardening their policies and systems, companies should invest in technologies that help them discover what happened after the fact, Goldhammer suggested. "Technologies that can not only monitor but provide both real-time analytics and tools for historic forensic investigation will allow companies better insight to discover these breaches before it could be too late."


text:
Welcome back to our Wednesday challenge here at Stampotique. We are thrilled that you are joining us again this week at Stampotique Designer's Challenge and we have a fun challenge for you.
Today we want to see you try your hand at some fabulous folds. Use more than one fold on your card, get all fancy on us and use multiple folds.
Need some ideas? Here's a board I pulled off pinterest with lots of fold ideas. Do a google search and you'll see some magnificent ideas pop up.
**Please read new rule instituted with this challenge-we will no longer be accepting digi stamp creations as part of our challenges. Stampotique is a red rubber stamp company and we prefer to see creations with stamps versus those with digital creations. These entries will be deleted and will not be eligible for the prize. Thank you for understanding.**
Please read ALL RULES on the linkz page before linking your creation.
If you didn't follow the rules posted, you may have been deleted.
Feel free to relink your creation with the correct information for a chance to win.
*No digi stamp creations please*
There are some fabulous showcases of how you can use fabric or lace on your creations from our last challenge and France's favorites are:
(please e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com if you would like the badge to display)
71 Susan really pushed the challenge to the limits in a beautiful way!
69 Shilpa made a gorgeous spread, soft yet striking and with amazinglayering.
67 Amanda's creation is simply over the top fun. A tutu? Seriously? Lolll
69 Shilpa made a gorgeous spread, soft yet striking and with amazinglayering.
67 Amanda's creation is simply over the top fun. A tutu? Seriously? Lolll
Thanks for playing along and can't wait to see how you fold those cards this week!


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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A municipal court judge has sentenced WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder to 60 hours of community service for misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Judge Ricky McKinney found Wilder, 32, guilty Thursday and ordered him to perform the community service at a local YMCA. Wilder received a 30-day suspended sentence and two years of probation.
Wilder was arrested in Tuscaloosa in June after police found marijuana in his Cadillac Escalade. He was initially stopped for a window tint violation.
Officers searched the car after smelling marijuana and found a small amount in the vehicle's console.
Attorney Paul Patterson has said the marijuana didn't belong to Wilder. Patterson says the boxer had just returned from a trip and others had access to the Escalade.
Wilder, an Olympic bronze medalist, is 39-0 with 38 knockouts.
© Copyright 2018 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Monitor your pedaling cadence as you ride with this easy-to-install wireless sensor.
The cadence sensor fastens to any crank arm size and measures pedal strokes per minute so you can get the most out of your training.
Simply attach the sensor and ride. With no magnets or other exposed parts to line up, this sensor is easy to install, maintain and move between bikes.


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Being John Malkovich...'s Face
So let's say you've got a webcam, some photos of a celebrity, and a Computer Science degree. Why not make a celebrity facial puppeteering system? In this 2010 research demonstration, several University of Washington researchers demonstrate a Being John Malkovitch Malkovich-style puppeteering method, in which a webcam watches the puppeteer's face and the computer selects similar frames from another face, causing the virtual "puppet" to act along. Given a sufficiently large database of frames, presumably this could get pretty smooth. Here's the abstract:
Given a photo of person A, we seek a photo of person B with similar pose and expression. Solving this problem enables a form of puppetry, in which one person appears to control the face of another. When deployed on a webcam-equipped computer, our approach enables a user to control another person's face in real-time. This image-retrieval-inspired approach employs a fully-automated pipeline of face analysis techniques, and is extremely general—we can puppet anyone directly from their photo collection or videos in which they appear. We show several examples using images and videos of celebrities from the Internet.
Now let's get all
Malkovich* up in here:
Being John Malkovich - ECCV 2010 from Ira Kemelmacher on Vimeo.
* = If you haven't seen Being John Malkovich, this isn't really a spoiler, but it has to do with issues of puppetry, identity, and inhabiting other people. The film includes a famous sequence involving a room full of Malkoviches, though they were done with prosthetics (if Adaptation is to be believed).
(Via the always-dependable Kottke.org.)


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Failure is an unavoidable fact of life. Its devilish claws knock you down when you least expect it, but it's how you react to disappointment that's important. Super Meat Boy is the digital embodiment of the idea that pleasure can spring from pain, but although death is pervasive in this 2D platformer, it does not define the experience. There is an incredible sense of satisfaction when you clear a particularly nasty level that makes the setbacks you endured to reach that lofty goal well worth it. It's the feeling you get when you miraculously squeeze through two slicing blades unscathed or leap in the air to snatch a dangling bandage that seemed impossible to reach only moments earlier that continually pushes you forward to tackle the next challenge. Super Meat Boy is an extraordinary game that makes you work for every inch you gain, which makes success taste so much sweeter when you finally get there.
Everything in Super Meat Boy begins with the controls. Within seconds of diving into the first few levels of this daunting adventure, it's clear that your onscreen movement is amazingly responsive. The titular hero jumps with such precision that you're always in complete command of your actions. Wall jumping is particularly impressive. The extreme nimbleness of your character makes it a cinch to quickly leap straight up one wall, bounce smoothly between two adjacent ones, and even contort your trajectory in midair to avoid an obstacle while you make your ascent. Super Meat Boy can sprint with the best of them, and though it might seem crazy to hurl yourself at breakneck speeds through these deadly traps, it's not a problem here. Because he responds to your every command immediately, you can tear through levels as fast as Meat can run without worrying about the controls slowing you down.
And you need ultraprecise controls to get through the deadly dangers that await you. Super Meat Boy is one of the most difficult games around, but it starts out innocently enough. You learn your basic moves in punishment-free levels to get accustomed to how your movement feels before the real trouble begins. The difficulty curve is incredibly smooth, giving you a taste of upcoming dangers early on but making sure you can pass these stages without much trouble. The execution is brilliant because it introduces you to everything you need to know while giving you the confidence to overcome any obstacle that stands in your path. If Super Meat Boy started out harder, or if the difficulty spiked rapidly, it would serve as a slap in the face to all but the most determined players. But because the game holds your hand early on, you build up the skills you need to tackle anything the tricky later levels throw at you.
The level design in Super Meat Boy is absolutely stunning. The usual tricks you would expect in a 2D platformer are here--such as spinning saws, lava pits, and shooting blades--but they are positioned in such intelligent ways that the game is extremely challenging without ever feeling cheap. There is a delicate balance on display that ensures you're pushed to the limits of your skill without becoming frustrated. One of the most impressive aspects of Super Meat Boy is how you learn and adapt while you play. The first time you enter a level, you may be presented with a jump that seems impossible. You may try and fail a few times, maybe even a few dozen times, without any idea what you're supposed to do. But once you figure out the timing to succeed, you can pull off even the toughest moves with a good degree of consistency. Being able to conquer levels that previously seemed impossible is an exhilarating feeling, and the ease with which you become proficient is a testament to how precise the controls are and how meticulously designed the levels are.
Death is commonplace in Super Meat Boy. When you reach the harder levels, you may end up dying a dozen times before you pass the first pit, and more than a hundred before you reach the end. With failure such an expected occurrence, you might think this game is frustrating. It rarely is. Although you will inevitably be frustrated at times, Super Meat Boy goes a long way toward lessening your irritation. The precise controls and imaginative level design go a long way toward alleviating any throw-your-controller reactions, but the reason frustration is avoided goes even deeper than that. The upbeat soundtrack does a great job of keeping your energy at a high level without ever distracting you from the carnage that lies ahead. Each song also changes slightly, so even if you're stuck at a particularly wicked stage for an hour or more, the catchy riff never gets repetitive. The lack of extreme punishment also helps a lot. Although you die if any obstacle hits you, you do have infinite lives. Also, because levels usually last less than 30 seconds, even though you have to start from the beginning each time, you never have to retrace much ground. Finally, the extreme focus needed to pass these difficult stages ensures that your energy is zeroed in on completing your task rather than beating yourself up for falling short. This is an amazingly well designed game that avoids the frustration of failure by insulating you from your own aggravation.
The core mechanics and level design are absolutely superb in Super Meat Boy, and the wealth of content ensures you'll be playing this excellent platformer for quite a long time. There are more than 300 levels in all, most of them optional, and many of them are hidden. To reach the end you need to play through all of the light world levels, which include traditional platforming challenges along with a few clever boss fights. You have as much time as you need to pass each level, but if you reach the end under a specific mark, you unlock a dark version of that same level. This is when things get really difficult. The dark world puts a cruel twist on the light levels, and it can take all of your determination to rise above these daunting tests. It's a good thing the dark world is optional, so you can play through the slightly easier light world before you dive into the furnace. But the bonus content doesn't stop there. There are warp zones hidden in certain levels that whisk you to a three-level obstacle course that's a bit easier than standard levels but gives you a finite number of lives to make it through alive. On top of that are glitch world levels, which are as hard to unlock as they are to finish, and the goofily named Teh Internets, which is updated periodically with new levels. It takes lots of hours to plow through all this content, and you'll be glued to the edge of your seat the whole time.
On top of the optional levels are unlockable characters, which feel much different from the speedy Meat Boy, and each has a unique move as well. These extra heroes have been pulled from other indie platformers, so you may find Commander Video from Bit.Trip.Runner. He's pretty slow, but he can glide horizontally, which can be handy in a pinch. You have the option to switch to any of these characters at the beginning of most levels, and they provide a different strategy to reach the end. Alien Hominid can slow his descent by firing his gun straight down, which allows you to fit into crevices that Meat Boy could never reach. Although every level can be completed just by playing as Meat Boy, you may have to dip into your roster to nab the hidden collectibles. There are bandages strewn about certain levels, and you need to grab these to unlock some characters. But Meat Boy doesn't have the ability to get them all, which forces you to try out each character to see how they can help you succeed. These special characters add even more replay to a game that's already bursting with it, and they're a great shout-out to the independent gaming scene.
Time is a factor if you want to unlock the dark levels, but it goes even deeper than that. The leaderboard ranks your best score on each level, and it's an addictive challenge to try to figure out how someone posted a better score than your near-perfect run. It's just unfortunate that you aren't able to view those replays. Other downloadable games, such as Trials HD and Hydro Thunder Hurricane, let you check out the top runs on the leaderboard, and it's entertaining and educational to view what the best in the world can do. This would have worked really well in Super Meat Boy, a game in which skill is pushed to the forefront, so it's a shame that it's not an option. There is still a replay system in place, though. Your deaths are recorded in each level, so when you finally reach the end, you can see all of your failed attempts play out simultaneously. It's not only empowering to see the progress you made, but it's a great reward for persevering. It's brutally exhilarating to see dozens of Meat Boys burst into bloody balls of death all at once.
Super Meat Boy is an extremely difficult game, but that doesn't mean it lacks a sense of humor. The setup is just as preposterous as the traps you have to overcome, setting the stage for a daunting adventure that always has a smile on its lips. Meat Boy's girlfriend, Bandage Girl, has been kidnapped by Dr. Fetus. You may wonder how an unborn baby could possibly have a medical degree, but the bigger question is: What is he wearing? He struts around in a mechanical suit clad in a spiffy tuxedo with a top hat on his dome. Certainly the sign of an evil individual. At the completion of each boss fight, a cartoony cinematic rolls, and these are a great reward for your hard work. The cutscenes are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but always entertaining. It's amazing how many emotions play out without any dialogue, but that's part of the beauty of this incredible game. It never lets its simplicity hold it back from greatness.
It's impossible to point to just one element that makes Super Meat Boy such an extraordinary game. From the intense-though-always-fair difficulty and the inspired level design, to the pinpoint controls and catchy soundtrack, all of the different aspects converge into something that is truly outstanding. When you hear stories of the unrepentant dangers that stand in your path, it's easy to get intimidated by such a daunting prospect. But don't be. The beauty of Super Meat Boy is that it always plays within the rules, and the smooth difficulty curve gives you plenty of time to become acquainted with everything before the true tests are unleashed. Death is always just one misstep away in Super Meat Boy, but the rush of winning is so supremely rewarding that you won't be able to tear yourself away.


text:
Uh, Zee
I got waiting haze, my customers ho's, sleep with me
We have small beef, I still sell them O's for three fifty
They know in big beef, I pop a hundred times
Be like roadkill, I live nigga's brains on one and nines
And my down bitches, they be ready to kill
I be like chill, they be like..
That's my nigga for real (Yea, uh huh, I'm from the Bricks, we be like)
That's my nigga for real (Yea, Young Zee, all my niggas from the hood, they be like)
That's my nigga for real (Yea, B-Boy, you my nigga, talk to 'em).
Yo, I don't give a f***k if we don't sell a record
We still gon' get this money in the Bricks
Spill it, Zee.
[Young Zee]
Yea, uh, yea, yea
I'm like, Santa Claus, I deliver niggas grams a raw
Straight from Panama, fiends eat it up like canavaugh
And my dimes disappear like magic wands
I sell 'em, 'til the crack of dawn and destroy every track I'm on
Plus I have a clam packed in the back of vans
More royal than the Taliban murk you for a half a gram
(What?) I get B-Boy to drop your truck in the river
F***k some dough, we be like..
[Chorus + Young Zee ad libs].
[Young Zee]
Yea, jeah, Uh-huh-ha, yea
Scarecrow (what?), I'm trying to walk before I crawl
I want it all ever since I came out of my mama's walls
I'm trying to make so much dough when I write a song
I can write 'em all why y'all clique on the corner selling final calls
Yea, niggas mad at us, gladiators like Maximas, we fabulous
While you fall off like Canibus's managers
My man Dee U, keep the nina peelin'
(Point 'em out, and watch me).
[Chorus + Young Zee ad libs].
[Young Zee]
Zee need Buddha, E-user, beef pre Lugers
Spittin' from our PT cruisers
My tape don't drop, I still got dough to make
Got little niggas on roller skates holding my coke and weight
Blow paper, ho chaser, dough raiser, Joe Fraizer
Sixteen cellys and four pagers
Go hype up your squad that they might f***k with ours
I just, light up cigars, go by bikes, trucks, and cars
I got (?) In Atlanta deep, 'round the street, ten grand a week
I give 'em one word to put your man to sleep
And I love my Jersey live bitches
They'll leave a nigga face, with thirty five stitches
They'll help my tie cinder blocks and push your kids
So deep in the ocean, they'll see where octopuses live
Jeah, this label deal is for Raz, Pace, and Chill
I know mad chicks, but still.
[Chorus + Young Zee ad libs].
[Young Zee]
What, Bricks (Bricks, Bricks)


text: Former Kiwanis Club of Greater Ocean Pines-Ocean City President Al Kastner, second from right, was formally recognized by the Board of Education of Worcester County for his service to the youth of Worcester County when he was recently presented with a Certificate of Recognition. He serves as the liaison for the parent Kiwanis Club to the Kiwanis Key Club at Stephen Decatur High School. He has also been instrumental in the establishment of the Kiwanis K-Kids Club at Buckingham Elementary School and the Kiwanis Builders Club at Berlin Intermediate School as well as another Key Club at The Salisbury School. Pictured, from left, are Board President Robert Hulburd, Stephen Decatur High School Principal Louis Taylor and Superintendent Dr. Jon Andes.


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"Life of Pi" is a movie that has the proverbial cast of thousands… of animals, that is. In one shot set on the ocean, there are 40,000 flying fish. In another one set on a floating island, there are 60,000 meerkats. And not one of them was living and breathing, of course.
"No real meerkats were used," senior animation supervisor Erik-Jan De Boer told the audience at an effects-themed Q&A following TheWrap's screening of the movie at the Landmark Theatre on Monday night. "Except of course we went to meerkat sanctuaries and zoos to shoot a lot of reference footage…"
"And the two of us watched every episode of 'Meerkat Manor,'" interrupted visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer. "We were gonna watch one, but it gets addictive."
That was about all the time these two had to indulge in reality TV during the long gestation and post-production of Pi, which establishes a new benchmark for awe-inspiring digital trickery — particularly in 3D, or "stereo," as Westenhofer and De Boer refer to the effects-complicating process.
"In total," De Boer told TheWrap's editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman, "we animated 580 animals in about 290 shots for the movie, which includes a giraffe, a fox, a fish, and of course the hyena and orangutan." Not to mention the little matter of the tiger, "Richard Parker," whose appearances as one of the movie's co-leads are 15 percent real, 85 percent digital.
That's not including the aforementioned meerkat and flying fish extras, brought to life via a software program appropriately titled Massive. (If only it had been around in Cecil B. DeMille's day.)
"The flying fish sequence is where we start to take some artistic liberties, since Pi's telling you a tale," said Westenhofer. "Maybe there were a thousand flying fish in reality, or even a hundred, but you're seeing his mind's eye, which saw this multitude, so we have 40,000 in one particular spot. The Massive software is almost artificial intelligence, where you write a little program that's the brain for each individual fish, and it decides if it's going to hop out of the water, and how long it's going to fly; if it sees someone in its path, it does avoidance."
But before any of that was animated, there was the live-action filming that took place on a 70 meter-by-30 meter wave tank that director Ang Lee had specially built for the film. And there, said Westenhofer, "you had (star) Suraj Sharma on a boat with two guys in rubber rafts just chucking rubber fish at him as hard as they possibly can. It's a good mixture of the low-tech and the high-tech."
Of course, it wasn't fish but previous experience with big cats that got Rhythm & Hues the assignment from Lee to go from lions to tigers and Pi. "He knew we had done the lion in the first Narnia movie. He asked, 'Does a digital character look more or less real in 3D?' We looked at each other and thought that was a pretty good question." As well as a leading one, since Lee had already made the decision at that point, in 2009, to shoot in 3D. "We took one of the shots and rendered it in stereo and said 'Yeah, it gives it a little more presence and makes it more real.'" Good answer! "That was the start of our relationship with him."
Although "Life of Pi" doesn't exactly go for documentary-style realism, every effort was made to keep the tiger's actions and reactions to what experts and trainers told them a creature would really do in those situations. Not having him spout any Aslan-style aphorisms was a nice start on that de-anthropomorphizing.
"We always strive for photorealism," said De Boer—even when they're working on a Narnia or Cats and Dogs. "Motion-wise we strive for perfect physicality and try to get that animal to behave as characteristically as possible — and then we always have to make them talk or dance or do something really weird, and the realism goes out the window and everybody knows that we were there. For me what was really cool about this movie is not only do we stick with the real animal but we also have to intercut it with a live-action animal, so that made the challenge for us that much bigger."
Added Westenhofer, "We told the crew we wanted to work ourselves out of any recognition by making it look as real as possible."
It was at least as big of a challenge, as far as Westenhofer was concerned, to make the digital waves match or amplify the real tank waves—and to create the film's skies completely from scratch. "There's not many films where we spend this much time on the water. I think 'Old Man and the Sea' harkens back! But even with 'Titanic,' you'll see the water and then go inside." For much of "Life of Pi," "inside" amounts to a few furtive peeks under a tarp.
Hence what, on a project like this, becomes a fine line where digital effects providers are also, to some extent, taking over the role of cinematography and art direction. Going to work on filling up these blue-screen shots, the Rhythm & Hues people might well have been humming Bruce Springsteen's "Empty Sky" to themselves.
"What I'm absolutely most proud of is with these visual effects is that we were given a blank slate for a lot of these shots," Westenhofer told the audience. "We were given a boat in front of a blue screen, and it was the visual effects team who really were a lot of the creative innovators on the movie. Certainly it was Ang's vision we were creating. But we'd start a shot, and though Ang absolutely knows what he wants, his communication is sometimes not as specific as you want. Instead of saying 'I want a three-quarters cloudy sky with yellow over here and some blue,' he'd say 'I want a pensive sky.' Or, 'I want it to be operatic.' So it would be our job to go translate that, and the team did a great job of supplying that.
"And Claudio Miranda did an awesome, awesome job on the cinematography, but a lot of the cinematography on the ocean is digital effects."


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Friday, April 13, 2007
Birthday night out
We had a lovely evening out last night to celebrate my birthday. First, Robin and I went to the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury for the launch of blogger Natalie d'Arbeloff's book The God Interviews. It was lovely to meet a great bunch of people, Natalie, Natalie's relatives and friends and to come away with my signed copy of her book. Then we went to nearby restaurant Salaam Namaste on the strength of a good review in the Guardian. The food was just as good as the review said, but the evening was slightly marred by the nearby large table of ghastly, drunk, noisy people who queried the bill and then tried to get it reduced by complaining about the service – saying that it was over-attentive. The poor bloody waiters, struggling with serving a full to bursting point restaurant, having some idiot berating the management because he thought they had tried too hard!


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At some point the Cincinnati Bengals will be forced to make a decision on Andy Dalton's future.
Dalton enters the final year of his rookie contract this season. Owner Mike Brown and coach Marvin Lewis have several options:
1) Give Dalton an extension this summer, paying decent starting quarterback money (between $14 million and $15 million per season) for a young quarterback who has been stellar in the regular season but a disaster in three playoff appearances.
2) Wait out the season and see what it will cost after this year (the Joe Flacco option).
3) Wait until next season and move forward with another young, cheap option.
Speaking at the NFL Annual Meeting on Sunday, Brown said the cost of a starting quarterback is a "dilemma" for NFL teams, regardless of how much the salary cap increases.
"When you go forward in this league, it is not clear which is the better way to go," Brown said, per the team's official website. "Do you have a high-priced quarterback and less elsewhere or do you try to have as many guys as you can have and maybe a quarterback that is young and not so highly paid?
"Seattle, for example of that. In fact, you look at the statistics it is rather surprising how few quarterbacks that are old in recent years -- saying over 30 -- have won the Super Bowl. They've gotten there but they haven't won it. I don't know is that (a) better formula to go with a younger guy and spread the money around? That's a dilemma for us. We are trying to work through it. It's slow going. I can't predict when we are going to get that matter resolved."
One thing we do know is that A.J. Green won't be leaving Cincinnati anytime soon. The team will exercise the fifth year for the dynamic wide receiver (in the new collective bargaining agreement, teams hold a fifth-year option on first-round draft picks). Putting off that big contract will allow the Bengals to focus on Dalton.
"(Green is) going to be here for not one more year, but two more years," Brown said. "Even though we haven't tendered him yet our intention is to do that and put ourselves in position to turn to others such as Dalton and we would like to turn to a couple more as well."
How fierce the team turns toward giving a new contract to Dalton will be something to watch as the spring progresses.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" analyzes all the DeSean Jackson trade rumors, plays running back roulette and welcomes Lance Briggs to the studio.


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Callisto Voyager / Galileo Image Mosaic Globe
The images used for the base of this globe were chosen from the best image quality and moderate resolution coverage supplied by Galileo SSI and Voyager 1 and 2 (Batson, 1987; Becker and others, 1998; Becker and others, 1999; Becker and others, 2001). The digital map was produced using Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) (Eliason, 1997; Gaddis and others, 1997; Torson and Becker, 1997). The individual images were radiometrically calibrated and photometrically normalized using a Lunar-Lambert function with empirically derived values (McEwen, 1991; Kirk and others, 2000). A linear correction based on the statistics of all overlapping areas was then applied to minimize image brightness variations. The image data were selected on the basis of overall image quality, reasonable original input resolution (from 20 km/pixel for gap fill to as much as 150 m/pixel), and availability of moderate emission/incidence angles for topography. Although consistency was achieved where possible, different filters were included for global image coverage as necessary: clear for Voyager 1 and 2; clear and green (559 nm) for Galileo SSI. Individual images were projected to a Sinusoidal Equal-Area projection at an image resolution of 1.0 kilometer/pixel, and a final global mosaic was constructed in this same projection. The final mosaic was enhanced using commercial software.
The global mosaic was then reprojected so that the entire surface of Callisto is portrayed in a manner suitable for the production of a globe. A specialized program was used to create the "flower petal" appearance of the images; the area of each petal from 0 to 75 degrees latitude is in the Transverse Mercator projection, and the area from 75 to 90 degrees latitude is in the Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection. The projections for adjacent petals overlap by 2 degrees of longitude, so that some features are shown twice.
Names shown on the globe are approved by the International Astronomical Union. The number, size, and placement of text were chosen for a 9-inch globe. A complete list of Callisto nomenclature can be found at the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. In the image, the northern hemisphere is shown on the left, and the southern hemisphere is shown on the right.
- Mimetype
- application/pdf
- Filename
- callisto_globe.pdf
- Originator
- Group
- Added to Astropedia
- 14 October 2011
- Modified
- 3 November 2017
- Geospatial Data Presentation Form
- Global Mosaic, Globe
Geospatial Information
- Lines (pixels)
- 5100
- Samples (pixels)
- 2700
- Quad Name


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Sean Hannity Annoyed At Colleague's Ethical Disclosure About Ties To Mitt Romney
Sean Hannity has been railing about Media Matters' supposed lapses in ethics for allegedly working with the White House and other media. But when it comes to ethical issues between the Republican Party and Fox News it's an entirely different story, apparently. During the Great American Panel segment on Friday (2/17/12), when the subject turned to the 2012 presidential campaign, Fox News contributor Nina Easton made a point of disclosing that her husband is a paid advisor to Mitt Romney's campaign. Hannity not only disagreed with the need to disclose that information, he was outright peeved at her doing so.
Read moreFox News Downplays Salacious Details Of Sheriff Babeu's Gay Love Scandal With A Possible Illegal
In a previous post, I questioned whether Fox News would cover the scandal of one of its favorite anti-immigration "experts" involved in a gay scandal with a possible illegal immigrant. The answer is "yes, but." UPDATED.
Read morePeter Johnson, Jr. Has No Problem With Uterus Free Hearing On Birth Control Mandate
The question, "where are the women," has become a rallying cry for those who advocate for women's reproductive rights and who are opposed to the efforts, by the GOP and leaders of anti-choice religious organizations, to avoid having to cover birth control for their employees. This question was asked by NY Democratic Rep., Carolyn Maloney who wanted to know why GOP Congressman Darell Issa didn't include any women on his congressional panel which was convened in order to provide testimony on the HHS contraceptive mandate. But rather than including those who would be directly affected by the policy, the morning session included only males, several of them clergy, one of them a Catholic bishop, and all of them anti-choice opponents of the HHS policy. (The second hearing had two women, both Christian opponents of the policy). Three Democrats, two of them women, walked out of the hearing in protest. The outrage spread to the greater community of those who support women's rights except for one place. In the bizarro world of Fox & Friends, Fox host and unofficial liaison with Timothy Dolan, head of the US Council of Catholic Bishops, Peter Johnson Jr., had no problem with the sexist nature of the panel - but he did have a problem with those who protested.
Read moreWill Fox News Report On "Border Expert" Sheriff Babeu's Gay Love Scandal With Possible Illegal?
Well, well, well. It looks like Fox News' favorite Arizona "border expert," Sheriff Paul Babeu has some 'splaining to do. If reporting in the Phoenix New Times is correct, it turns out this anti-immigration sheriff-turned-Congressional-candidate had an affair with a Mexican man Babeu has threatened to deport. Oh, and there was some texting/emailing of the sort that led Fox Newsies to clamor for Anthony Weiner's downfall. UPDATED.
Read moreHannity Tries But Fails To Sanitize Buchanan's Bigotry
Chalk up Pat Buchanan as the latest white bigot to find a sympathetic platform on the Hannity show. Buchanan was recently fired from MSNBC in a move that Sean Hannity desperately tried to paint as an unjustified, ideological purging by intolerant liberals hell-bent on destroying conservatives. But that argument was undercut by Buchanan himself as he quite explicitly argued that having an ethnic majority made a country strong and that "one of the strengths of this country" was its predominantly western and European ethnicity when there were (only) 10% African Americans. Not even Hannity seemed able to spin that.
Read moreHannity And Bozell Throw Stones At Media Matters From The Very Thin Walls Of Their Glass House
Those perpetual victims, Sean Hannity and Brent Bozell, predictably used the Hannity show's weekly liberal-media-bias whine session last night to attack Media Matters in the wake of Daily Caller hit pieces on it this week. But the whine session was a cornucopia of distortions, hypocrisy and, most of all, distractions. Neither Hannity nor Bozell offered up a single Media Matters report that was false. In short, Hannity and Bozell were every bit as guilty of media malpractice as they accused anyone else of being.
Read moreFox and Friends Continues Personal Attack on Media Matters' David Brock
They're not haiku. Nor are they poems. However, in this modern Twitterverse where thoughts can be no longer than 140 characters, the Fox and Friends chyron writer reigns supreme in an English language niche in which there are few competitors. If one were deaf—and didn't have closed captioning—everything Fox "News" wants you to know is delivered in these short blasts, each less than a half-a-tweet. It's a gift.
Read moreVan Susteren And Fox Help Whitewash Allen West's Comments That Democrats Practice "The Most Insidious Form Of Slavery"
Allen West has been hate mongering again. And Fox News is helping to whitewash it again. A few nights ago, West characterized Democratic support for social safety nets as "the most insidious form of slavery remaining in the world today." This, just a few weeks after he announced that liberals should "get the hell out of the U.S." But he got a warm welcome from "liberal" Greta Van Susteren on On The Record last night, followed by friendly questions that helped legitimize the kind of rhetoric that would have been soundly denounced had it come from a Democrat.
Read moreFox & Friends Provides Partisan Guest, Kyle Olson, With Platform For School Choice
Fox & Friends is the go to place for attacks on public schools, public school teachers, public school teachers unions, and public school textbooks. Their newest "authority" on the "trouble with schools" is Kyle Olson, head of the right wing "Education Action Group" which is "opposed to teachers unions and committed to privatizing public education." Earlier this month, Olson, who also writes for Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government," appeared on Fox & Friends where he accused those who support healthier school lunches of being part of a "federal power grab." Any semblance of his being objective about education is dispelled by his book, pimped by Fox & Friends on two occasions, which is titled "Indoctrination" - a screed about how public schools are subverting American "exceptionalism." Once again, he was warmly welcomed on yesterday's Fox & Friends where he provided more of the same old, same old biased agitprop.
Read moreHannity Lectures "The Obamas" Author Jodi Kantor For Not Portraying Obama As A Secret Radical
Most likely author Jodi Kantor had never spent a moment watching Hannity before she agreed to appear on the show to discuss her big-selling book, The Obamas. Otherwise, she would not have looked so utterly bewildered last night as Sean Hannity first praised her work then argued that she had missed the "hidden," radical Obama and lectured her to "do your investigative work in the future."
Read more


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The Church of Scientology has received numerous calls asking what we think about Lawrence Wright's book, "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief." The answer is we believe it is blatantly bigoted. It is also filled with inaccuracies and misstatements of fact. Case in point: both its Canadian and UK publishers have chosen not to publish the book because of reported legal concerns.
Mr. Wright refused our assistance, offered in 15 letters, to ensure his book was factually accurate. His fact checking consisted of about a dozen esoteric and obtuse questions, six of which concerned the brand of cigarettes L. Ron Hubbard smoked. Then there is his reliance on sources who have proven time and again to be untruthful. One admitted on network television to lying to the media, and in newspapers to suborning perjury; another was asked on network television, "If you lied before how do we know you're telling the truth now?"
The Church was provided no advance copy, despite five requests to Mr. Wright and his publisher Knopf to do so. We were, however, able to read certain passages from the Amazon.com website. Here is what we found:
—The date of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes wedding is off by an entire year (page 303).
—The date of David Miscavige's marriage is off by more than two years (page 176).
—Mr. Wright claims that L. Ron Hubbard and the Church wrote Mr. Hubbard's parents out of Mr. Hubbard's biography (page 23). The 16-volume biographical encyclopedia of Mr. Hubbard's life published by the Church shows otherwise, with references to and photographs of Mr. Hubbard's parents and Mr. Hubbard's own words about them throughout.
—Mr. Wright wrote that Mr. Hubbard spent only 10 days in China during two brief trips to the orient to visit his parents (pages 23-24). There is documented evidence that he spent months during multiple trips including a ships manifest.
—Mr. Wright says he interviewed something like 200 Scientologists—past and current (page 370), When the Church checked the list, only about a dozen are current Scientologists, none of whom were interviewed for the book; they were interviewed for Mr. Wright's New Yorker article. Not one current Scientologist was interviewed for the book.
—Mr. Wright lists 22 people he claims he interviewed regarding a series of incidents. The first one on the list, John Aczel has issued a sworn affidavit that he has never spoken with Mr. Wright, corresponded with him or provided him any information to him whatsoever.
—Mr. Wright includes a claim in the book (page 281) that a "Scientologist who was a bank teller says he was told to comply with a robbery in order to pay off his debt to the church; the robbers took $4,000." Mr. Wright attributes this film-noir fantasy to Garry Scarff, who was never a Scientologist. Mr. Wright fails to mention that Mr. Scarff admitted under oath that he is a self-admitted inveterate liar. In fact, in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Mr. Scarff ingratiated himself with the now-defunct Cult Awareness Network with his tragic account of how his father and his young son were lost at the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana. CAN promoted his story to raise funds and to gain media exposure. In 1988, Mr. Scarff's tale was revealed to be a fabrication. (See http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JonestownReport/Volume7/rem2.htm) He later admitted this was false, he had no family at Jonestown and never had a son. Mr. Wright does not share this fact with his readers. Nor does he say who did the robbery, when and who was involved. He also never asked the Church about this.
—Mr. Wright also doesn't inform his readers about the sources in the book. Space allows us to provide just three examples:
● Marty Rathbun, one of the main sources for both the New Yorker article and the book, admitted both on ABC and on NBC that he lied to the media about the same allegations he is making in the book; he admitted in the St. Petersburg Times he suborned perjury; a respected Florida judge filed evidence in federal court of Mr. Rathbun's most recent instance of perjury. How can Mr. Wright claim Mr. Rathbun is a credible source? If this was not enough, the Church has video footage of his slamming a car door repeatedly into a reporter. He was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in New Orleans. He paints himself as the former head of legal affairs, but he is not a lawyer. He was basically the head of administration for legal affairs. He was removed from any position of authority for malfeasance a decade ago.
● Mike Rinder is on record stating the same allegations he now is asserting were "rubbish" and when questioned on network television asking "If you lied before how do we know you're telling the truth now?" to which Rinder responded, "You don't." He walked out on his wife and his family six years ago. When his ex-wife, brother and daughter came to see him some years later, he physically attacked his former wife resulting in severe nerve damage to her arm and a dislocated shoulder that required surgery to repair. There are EMT, doctor reports and photographic evidence of this. He was removed from the Church for malfeasance.
● Marc Headley, the primary source of the tabloid story that alleges the Church gave auditions to help Tom Cruise in his search for a wife, has changed this fabrication three times: one version appears in his self-published book and two other versions which are different from both the first version and each other, were made in media interviews. Not exactly the most reliable source. Mr. Headley was recently compelled by a federal court to pay the Church $40,000 to cover its legal costs in defending against a frivolous lawsuit filed by Mr. Headley and his wife.
The point is if Mr. Wright got these things—and more—wrong on the little that we have been able to see, what else is wrong—or more accurately, what—if anything did he get right? And if he used sources who have admitted to lying to the media, suborning perjury and have changing their story three times, how can one rely on any of his sources?
Mr. Wright may have won a Pulitzer for his last book, The Looming Tower – Al Qaeda's Road to 9/11, but in this one he didn't seem to get anything right.
Millions of Scientologists around the world embrace the Scientology religion. Their generous support and participation in the Church's activities and humanitarian programs are enabling the church to enjoy its greatest period of expansion: opening new Scientology Churches in more than 30 major metropolitan areas and cultural centers.
Mr. Wright could have found out the true story of Scientology and its Founder, by simply logging onto the website www.scientology.org, www.lronhubbard.org.


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UMX F4F Wildcat BNF Basic (EFLU3650) - E-flite | RC-LEADER
Key Features
- 3000Kv 180-size brushless outrunner motor
- Stability and precision of AS3X® technology
- Incredibly scale outline
- Clear canopy with pilot figure
- Cowl flap and panel-line details
- Trim scheme of aircraft flown by U.S. Navy ace, Butch O'Hare
- Performance linear servos
- Proportional 4-channel control
- Realistic, removable landing gear and steerable tail wheel
- Realistic-looking 3-blade propeller
- Full-range, 4+ channel DSMX®/DSM2® transmitter
- 200-280mAh 2S LiPo flight battery
- 2S LiPo charger
- (1) UMX F4F Wildcat BNF™ Basic
- (1) User Manual
From Pearl Harbor through 1942 the F4F Wildcat was the only U.S. fighter in the Pacific capable of thwarting Japan's naval air forces. Although slower and less maneuverable than the vaunted Zero, its heavier armor, self-sealing fuel tanks and rugged airframe could often help a skilled pilot overcome this performance gap and live to fight another day. Edward "Butch" O'Hare was just such a pilot. He distinguished himself in a Wildcat by becoming the U.S. Navy's first fighter ace and earning the Congressional Medal of Honor. This ultra-micro recreation bears the markings of O'Hare's aircraft and is a tribute to him and all the other Wildcat pilots who faced the might of an empire and prevailed.
Powerful 3000Kv 180-Size Brushless Motor with a 3-Blade Prop
In addition to the speed and climb performance of a brushless motor, you also get the realism of a 3-blade propeller that perfectly complements the model's other scale details. The power system is designed for use with a 200-280mAh 2S 7.4V LiPo battery (sold separately). An E-flite® 280mAh 2S 7.4V 30C pack is recommended.
AS3X Stabilization Technology
The AS3X technology built into the receiver works behind the scenes to smooth out the effects of wind and turbulence. It does so using a combination of 3-axis sensing and exclusive flight control software tuned by expert RC pilots. Best of all, it feels completely natural. There is no delay in control response or limits on the model's agility. You will simply feel like you are flying a larger, expertly tuned model that goes right where you point it.
Unrivaled Scale Detail
The outline of the model is designed to look incredibly scale from any angle. The trim scheme and markings are that of the aircraft flown by Butch O'Hare during World War II. Other details include a clear canopy with pilot figure, cowl flaps, molded panel lines and more.
Realistic Removable Landing Gear and Steerable Tail Wheel
The main landing gear models the intricate design of the full-scale gear with incredible detail. A molded cover is included that makes it look like the landing gear is retracted when the main gear is removed. Even the steerable tailwheel is positioned to match the appearance of the full-scale version.
Product Specifications
Completion Level | Bind-N-Fly Basic |
Power Type | Electric |
Material | Foam |
Motor Size | 180 BL 3000kV |
Product Length | 394mm (15.5 in) |
Radio | 4 channel |
Wing Area | 73.0 sq In (4.7 sq Dm) |
Wingspan | 515mm (20.3 in) |


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Now, I gotta say right off - I might be really stepping in it here: writing a tutorial on how to write a tutorial?! Who do I think I am? Well, I'm just someone who loves and appreciates a good craft tutorial and would like to see more of them in the world!
I've been involved in craft blogging for 3½ years now and have seen many, many tutorials in the blog world; also, since starting The Crafty Crow two months ago, I have been on a one-woman mission looking at children's craft tutorials and have seen 100's just in the last few months. Besides writing my own tutorials here at Bella Dia, I've had experience in contributing patterns and instructions to books and all this leads me to tell you - a good tutorial takes a lot of work and is hard to do! So this tutorial about how to write a tutorial is well, double jeopardy?! Mostly, I am trying to share what I look for in a tutorial and what I think makes a good tutorial. I sure don't want to sound like I'm the know all end all here - it's just my opinion and what I've learned from my last few years of doing this.
So here goes!
Note: I am going to be using
a new tutorial of mine about how to make a daisy chain for my example (in blue). Since I don't have any daisies but I do have lots (and lots and lots) of dandelions
I'll be using them as my flower of choice.
How To Write A Tutorial
1. Specific Title. Be specific in the title of your tutorial versus a cute but mysterious title that no one will know what you are talking about until they read the post.
How To Make A Daisy Chain instead of Daisy Daisy Give Me Your Answer Do
Optionally: Give a cute title but with a specific subtitle.
Daisy Daisy Give Me Your Answer Do: How To Make A Daisy Chain
By naming your tutorial in the title it will make it easier for people to search for it in your blog archives and easier for search engines to find it too.
2. Begin with a picture of the completed project. Yep, right at the beginning so everyone can see what they are
going to make :)
3. Give an overall description of the project. How long did it take (hours, minutes, days), what is it good for (gifts, recycling, just plain fun, etc.), age range or ages of who did the project (adults, kids with adult help, 3+, etc.) and the difficulty level, any tips (messy, outside, ventilate, etc.), any materials that are hard to find or unusual and where to find them.
Daisy (dandelion) chains are a fun last minute activity that children of almost any age can make. I didn't have any daisies on hand but any sturdy-stemmed flower will do and if you're lucky like me you'll have a whole backyard full of dandelions just waiting to be made into beautiful garlands! ;)
4. Materials and tools list. Make a list of everything you will need to complete the project. If you use a particular brand I'd love to know that too. You know what makes a materials and tools list even better? A picture!
Materials: as many sturdy-stemmed flowers as you want
Tools: fingernails
Special Note Regarding Pictures: The more pictures in your tutorial the better but you need to have at least one for each different step. Clear pictures with a clean and contrasting background. Close-up views and sometimes a picture of the whole work space for perspective.
*click on pictures for a larger view*
5. Procedure. This is the hardest part. Depending on how complicated the tutorial is, try to break it down into clear easy steps, numbering is helpful, and add the obligatory picture for each step. Using bold and italic typefaces can indicate new steps or important tips. Different colors can be helpful too but don't go overboard because it will make it more confusing. Definitely add any precautions or pointers or "don't do what I did" kind of help. Watch your vocabulary and try to be consistent with
the words you use.
Step 1: Gather your flowers; stems need to be thick enough and strong enough to hold together after making a vertical cut within the stem.
Step 2: Make a small split in the stem with your fingernails. It only needs to be big enough to slide in another flower stem. The split pictured is about one inch below the flower head but you can vary this as you please. The closer the split to the flower head then the closer together the flowers will be on the garland and the further away from the flower head then the further away the flowers will be from each other on the garland.
Step 3: Slide the stem end of another flower through the split until it stops at the flower head. You may trim off the first stem about 1/2" behind the split.
Step 4: Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until your daisy chain is the length you want or you run out of flowers.
Step 5: If you want to make a crown then slide the very last stem through the split of the very first flower and pull so the circle is complete.
6. Review. Check for errors. Read it through several times to see that it makes sense and proceeds logically. If possible, have someone else read it and give you some feedback.
Here are some examples of
great tutorials:
Crafty Pod's button pendant
Sycamore Stirring's coffee filter butterflies
Future Girl's fabric lining for a crocheted bag
If you have any other suggestions
for what you think makes a great tutorial please leave them in the comments. Thanks so much for indulging me here and I hope this helps some of you put together your own tutorials :)
Now I'm off to check out the tutorials
in my archives...


text: This first comprehensive selection of McAuley's prose and verse is arranged by the editor, McAuley's friend and colleague Leonie Kramer, into eight sections, 'each representing aspects of James McAuley's interests and experience ... Within each section the poetry is chronologically arranged; the prose is introduced in such a way as to suggest the relationship between McAuley's poetic preoccupations and his critical and intellectual position.' (Note pp.xxix-xxx). Each section is accompanied by a brief editorial note and extensive end-notes, including McAuley's own notes.


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The tradition of Long Island baseball continues to grow as more local young men are making themselves known around the minor leagues. Huntington's own Cam Maron joins the list.
After graduating from Hicksville High School, Maron was drafted by the New York Mets in the 34th round of the 2009 MLB Draft. Ironically, he grew up a Mets fan, so he says he relishes the opportunity to play for his favorite team.
"It's a dream come true from the start," said Maron, 20. "A lot of it happened so quickly, and eventually you're on the field wearing a Met uniform."
Not only is Maron playing in the Mets system, but he's also playing well. For the Rookie Ball affiliate Kingsport (Tenn.) Mets, the catcher's .410 on-base percentage ranks him fourth in the entire Mets organization, while his .303 batting average ranks him tied for ninth.
"I've put in my time and work in the cages," Maron said. "I attribute a lot of success to my hitting coach down here, Luis Rivera. I expect only the best from myself which I always have."
Growing up in the fast-paced atmosphere of Long Island, living in Tennessee has been quite the experience for Maron.
"It's a drastic change from Long Island," said Maron. "It's a completely different world and atmosphere down here. But it's a nice experience to meet new people and live a new lifestyle."
While in high school, Maron realized that he had a shot to play professional baseball. Scouts noticed his work ethic and versatility. In addition to catching, Maron can play first base and the outfield.
"I could tell from the first time I met him that he was going to be special," said Jeff Rusoff, Maron's coach for the Long Island Astros summer team for five years.
So far, the pitchers in the Mets organization have enjoyed throwing to Maron. Building this sense of trust is an essential quality, especially for a young catcher.
In addition to batting left-handed, Maron's game is similar to that of current Mets catcher Josh Thole. Both are contact hitters who rarely strikeout and exhibit strong defensive skills.
"People put us in the same category," Maron said. "I haven't really gotten a chance to sit down and speak with him which is something I want to do."
Maron's attitude and passion for the game have allowed him to become a legitimate prospect. In fact, he was one of the only Mets minor leaguers during spring training to have a smile on his face during 7 a.m. workouts in Port St. Lucie.
He still has a long road to get to the Major Leagues, but Rusoff says Maron's leadership skills and maturity will get him where he wants to be.
"I'm sure that one day he'll be playing over at Citi Field for the New York Mets," said Rusoff.
Though his former coach has high hopes for him, Maron is concentrated on finishing this season strong at Kingsport and possibly moving onto the Brooklyn Cyclones—the Mets Single-A short season affiliate—next year. If so, Maron's family and friends will be mainstays next summer at MCU Park on Coney Island.


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Hand Lettering Guide
What is hand lettering, anyway?
Hand lettering is the creation of artistic lettering. It's more to do with drawing or painting letters than with traditional handwriting. Every letter is formed from different repeating shapes, requiring a great deal of patience, precision and creativity. From different variations of block letters to cursive script to advanced lettering techniques such as faux calligraphy, bounce lettering and brush lettering, there is a wide variety of alphabet and hand lettering styles. Different hand lettering styles can be combined with each other, embellished, supplemented with decorative features and assembled to form complete phrases. This means there are no limits to your creativity with hand lettering, as long as you stick to a couple of basic rules. Here, we tell you everything you need to know: what materials you will require as a beginner, what to consider when you're hand lettering and how to learn the different lettering alphabets. We've collected together all the hand lettering guides and practice sheets for you to download, to help you work step by step towards becoming a hand lettering pro.
An article by Lea
What should I consider when I'm hand lettering?
In principle, when you're hand lettering you can do pretty much anything that helps you create artistic designs with letters. But to make sure you get beautiful results, it's important to observe a few specific rules. It's practice that makes perfect and lettering is all about practice, especially when you're just starting out. That's why we're giving you a few tips for beginners – rules you should follow right from the start:
- The right environment: make sure that you always have enough space and light! A well-lit and tidy desk will get your creative juices flowing and help you practise for longer.
- Posture: since you'll be needing to do a lot of practice, particularly at the start, it's important that you cultivate a good posture right from the beginning. Sitting up straight not only prevents unnecessary back pain, it will also help you maintain the right distance from your paper and ensure you have an overview of your hand lettering.
- How you hold your pen or pencil: get used straight away to holding your pen or pencil between your thumb and forefinger, and to keeping the point at some distance (about a finger's width) between the point and your fingers. This way you will prevent your fingers from cramping too quickly and ensure you have enough control.
- Take your time: approach every letter with lots of patience. Hand lettering stands or falls by the precision and symmetry of the image created by your letters. With regular practice, you'll soon see improvements!
What do I need for hand lettering?
It's crucial to have the right materials if you want to be successful with hand lettering. If you use the wrong paper or an unsuitable pen, you won't enjoy practising and you'll end up with disappointing results. That's why we've listed here all the hand lettering materials you'll need as a hand lettering newbie, to enable you to practise different styles and design great phrases.
Basic equipment for creating phrases
- Coated paper: your hand lettering pencils, fineliners and markers will always perform best on coated paper. A smooth surface allows your pencil to glide fluidly and makes it easier to draw straight and precise lines. We recommend that you use coated paper for printing, even when you're printing out practice sheets from our downloads section.
- Geometry set square and ruler (Mars geometry set square 568 36 / Aluminium ruler 30cm 563 30): a geometry set square and/or ruler will help you draw in guide lines and grids, to ensure that your phrase looks straight and symmetrical.
- Pencil (Mars Lumograph 100 HB pencil for drawing and sketching): an HB pencil is the right hardness grade sketching your phrase. Take care not to press too hard when you're sketching, so that you don't leave unsightly pressure marks behind when you rub out your sketch lines.
- Eraser (Mars plastic eraser 526 50): an eraser allows you to rub out your sketched lines, grids and letters once you've finished your piece. Only do this when the ink from your coloured lettering pens is completely dry, so as to avoid creating ugly streaks.
Hand lettering pens and pencils
pigment liners
pigment liners are your best friends when it comes to designing hand lettered cursive alphabets and more advanced variants such as faux calligraphy or bounce lettering. The black pigment liner is available in 12 different line widths, so you can choose the appropriate width for your desired final image. The finer the tip of your pigment liner and the narrower the line width, the greater the filigree effect you will create with your lettering! In addition to black, the pigment liner is available in 12 other colours.
metallic markers
metallic markers are suitable for any decorative embellishment you might want to add to your lettering. They allow you to add a touch of colour to faux calligraphy lettering or creative alphabets, for example. Opaque metallic markers, which come in 10 different colours, are especially eye-catching when you use them on dark paper.
triplus color
triplus color fibre-tip pens are wonderful for practising hand lettered block letters. Their ergonomic triangular shape means they're very comfortable to hold. Their stable, pressure-resistant tips are perfect for newcomers to hand lettering and make it easy to draw straight lines. triplus color fibre-tip pens are available in 48 different colours, which also makes them wonderful for designing creative hand lettered alphabets. Their water-based ink means you can also use them to create fantastic blending effects.
triplus fineliners
With a delicate line width of 0.3 mm, triplus fineliners are your best friends when it comes to creating decorative designs and little illustrations to embellish your lettering. And since they come in 48 colours, you can really go wild drawing banners, scrolls, arrows and garlands!


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William Cheselden
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- Born:
- Oct. 19, 1688, Somerby, Leicestershire, Eng.
- Died:
- April 10, 1752, Bath, Somersetshire (aged 63)
- Subjects Of Study:
- anatomy
William Cheselden (born Oct. 19, 1688, Somerby, Leicestershire, Eng.—died April 10, 1752, Bath, Somersetshire) was a British surgeon and teacher of anatomy and surgery who wrote Anatomy of the Human Body (1713) and Osteographia, or the Anatomy of the Bones (1733). The former was used as a text by anatomy students for nearly a century.
Cheselden was apprenticed to a Mr. Wilkes, surgeon of Leicester. He also studied under the anatomist William Cowper in 1703 and under James Ferne, a surgeon and lithotomist (specialist in removal of bladder stones) at St. Thomas' Hospital. By 1711 he was already established as a lecturer in anatomy. Cheselden was named assistant surgeon at St. Thomas' in 1718 and was elected one of the institution's principal surgeons the following year. Queen Caroline appointed him to be her surgeon in 1727. In 1733 he published Osteographia, an atlas of the bones of the human body that was widely celebrated for the beauty and accuracy of its illustrations.
Cheselden was known for his swift and skillful operations; it was reported that he could perform a lithotomy in 54 seconds. He was, in 1727, the first surgeon to extract bladder stones using the lateral (rather than the suprapubic) approach, a technique invented by him and soon used by surgeons throughout Europe. The following year he surgically restored a blind man's vision and devised a method of treatment for some forms of blindness in which an opening, created by surgery, functioned as an "artificial pupil."


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ESA missions gear up for transit of Venus
ESA's Venus Express and Proba-2 space missions, along with the international SOHO, Hinode, and Hubble spacecraft, are preparing to monitor Venus and the Sun during the transit of Earth's sister planet during 5-6 June.
ESA's Venus Express is the only spacecraft orbiting Venus at the moment and while the transit is being watched from Earth, it too will use light from the Sun to study the planet's atmosphere. As sunlight filters through the atmosphere it reveals the concentration of different gas molecules at different altitudes.
This technique is also used to probe the atmospheres of planets outside our Solar System – exoplanets – to determine their potential habitability.
Simultaneous measurements are planned during the transit from ground-based observatories around the world to compare with the Venus Express results.
Exoplanet scientists can then test their techniques for looking at the characteristics of rocky Earth-sized planets.
Because Venus Express is in orbit around the planet, it will not notice any difference while the transit is being observed from Earth. But the spacecraft will be watching the Sun setting through the atmosphere of Venus, and its data will be compared to measurements made at the Earth at the same time.
These will include data from ESA's Proba-2 microsatellite and Japan's Hinode solar satellite, which will have ringside seats in low-Earth orbit to watch as Venus passes in front of the Sun. "Proba-2 is expected to see a dip in the solar brightness as soon as the thick atmosphere of Venus makes first contact with the solar disc, which is an important measurement for exoplanet scientists," says Joe Zender, ESA's Proba-2 mission manager.
There is also the possibility that if Venus passes exactly in front of an active region on the Sun we can obtain information about the energy emitted by that region.
"This is important for space weather studies that help us to understand the Sun and its influence on Earth."
Hinode will be watching the transit in visible, X-ray, and ultraviolet wavelengths to study phenomena such as the 'black drop effect' – the small black teardrop shape that appears to connect Venus to the limb of the Sun just after it has fully entered the solar disc and again later, when it begins to leave the disc.
It will also observe the aureole, an arc of light seen around the planet's disc during the first and last minutes of the transit. "The most spectacular images and movies should come from Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope, which has by far the highest resolution of any solar instrument in space," says Bernhard Fleck, ESA's Hinode and SOHO project scientist.
"Unfortunately, SOHO will not be well placed to observe the transit. However, it has one thing that no other spacecraft can provide: views of Venus as it approaches the Sun days before the actual transit, and then moves away from the Sun for several days after the transit."
Meanwhile, NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope will use the Moon as a giant mirror to capture diffuse, reflected sunlight: a small fraction of that light will have passed through the atmosphere of Venus en-route to the Moon.
This will test techniques aimed at measuring the atmospheres of Earth-sized rocky exoplanets that could potentially reveal traces of life on planets outside our Solar System.


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Trivia & Kids Eat Free Night at the OCC Cafe!
March 21, 2017 @ 12:00 am - 3:00 am
Every Monday Night at the OCC Cafe
7-9 is Trivia Night with the Hudson Valley Trivia Company!!
Grand prizes given away to winning teams (like special event tickets, gift card ect)
Kids eat free on Monday, 1 child per adult meal, they also get to bowl for free. Kids eat free starts at 4pm.
The OCC Café is Orange County NY's premier dining, nightlife & live music destination. Come for the food, stay for the experience! http://www.occcafe.com


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Parallelism to plug space leaks
It is not too difficult (scroll to "Non sequitur") to create a combinator which combines two folds into a single fold that operates on a single input list in one pass. This is pretty important if your input list is pretty big, since doing the folds separately could result in a space leak, as might be seen in the famous "average" space leak:
import Data.List big = [1..10000000] sum' = foldl' (+) 0 average xs = fromIntegral (sum' xs) / fromIntegral (length xs) main = print (average big)
(I've redefined sum so we don't stack overflow.) I used to think combining functions for folds were pretty modular, since they had a fairly regular interface, could be combined together, and really represented the core notion of when it was possible to eliminate such a space leak: obviously, if you have two functions that require random access to elements of the list, they'll retain the entirety of it all the way through.
Of course, a coworker of mine complained, "No! That's not actually modular!" He wanted to write the nice version of the code, not some horrible gigantic fold function. This got me thinking: is it actually true that the compiler can't figure out when two computations on a streaming data structure can be run in parallel?
But wait! We can tell the compiler to run these in parallel:
import Data.List import Control.Parallel big = [1..10000000] sum' = foldl' (+) 0 average' xs = let s = sum' xs l = length xs in s `par` l `par` fromIntegral s / fromIntegral l main = print (average big)
And lo and behold, the space leak goes away (don't forget to compile with -threaded and run with at least -N2. With the power of multiple threads, both operations can run at the same time, and thus there is no unnecessary retention.
It is perhaps not too surprising that par can plug space leaks, given that seq can do so too. But seq has denotational content; par does not, and indeed, does nothing when you are single-threaded. This makes this solution very fragile: at runtime, we may or may not decide to evaluate the other thunk in parallel depending on core availability. But we can still profitably use par in a single-threaded context, if it can manage pre-emptive switching between two consumers of a stream. This would be a pretty interesting primitive to have, and it would also be interesting to see some sort of semantics which makes clear the beneficial space effects of such a function. Another unbaked idea is that we already have a notion of good producers and consumers for stream fusion. It doesn't seem like too far a stretch that we could use this analysis to determine when consumers could be merged together, improving space usage.


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Gina's Banana Cupcakes
Yield: 12 cupcakes
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Molasses Frosting:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, add the butter and granulated sugar. Beat with a handheld mixer until combined. Add the sour cream and vanilla. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time. Incorporate the dry mixture and wet mixture together until thoroughly combined. Add the bananas and 1/2 cup walnuts, being careful not to overmix.
Using an ice cream scoop, fill each cupcake liner three-quarters of the way full. Bake in the oven until the tops turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the oven to a wire rack and let cool before frosting.
For the frosting: In a large bowl, add the cream cheese and butter. Beat together until incorporated. Add the molasses and mix well. Stir in the confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla.
To assemble: Heavily frost the cupcakes and garnish with the remaining 1/4 cup walnuts.


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Polona Sepe - Ambikananda
Ambikananda, film director and screenwriter by profession, has dedicated her life to study of Tantra and esoterics, and has been running Kriya Tantra Yoga Mystery School for more than 20 years. She is initiated into traditional Tantric practices, Kriya Yoga and Western esoteric schools.
TANTRA - She owes her understanding of Tantra to her guru Swami Anandakapila Saraswati (dr. Jonn Mumford) who's bestselling book Ecstasy Through Tantra was among the very first books in 1970s to introduce Westerners to traditional, left-hand Tantra from the perspective of an initiate. He initiated Ambikananda into Tantric Kriyas, Tantric Mantra Sadhanas, Kali worship, Tattwa Shuddhi, and other advanced tantric meditations. She also studied Ank Jyotish with him in India, and still visits him twice a year in Sydney for private studies. She dedicated her esoteric school to preserving his legacy.
Ambikananda received Nama Darshana from his Gurubhai Swami Umeshanand Saraswati (Mark A. Michaels) who was named a lineage holder of Swami Anandakapila Saraswati. He and Devi Veenanad (Patricia Johnson) were invited twice as guest teachers to the Kriya Tantra Yoga School. On this occasion Swami Umeshanand authorised Ambikananda for initiations into Naga Pranayama Kriya (Cobra Breath) and she is very grateful to both of them for their support.
Dr. Robert Svoboda was the second most important influence for Ambikananda. They have met only few times, but his gifts were priceless and his influence profound.
She began her studies with Taoist tantric practices in the late 1980s with Mantak Chia. She completed teacher's training for Ipsalu Tantra with Bodhi Avinasha, and continued studies with Sunyata Saraswati who has authorised her to teach Tantric Spiritual Rebirthing (Tantric Chakra Re-balancing). Bodhi and Sunyata are authors of the book Jewel in the Lotus. In 2002, she was initiated into Kalachakra by the Dalai Lama in Graz. She keeps studying regularly in India; she was initiated into Kaula Tantra and Kamakhya worship by Shri Kapalik Mahakaal Bhairavanand Saraswati. Naga Baba and aghori Satyanand Giri initiated her into Kundalini practices.
WESTERN ESOTERICS – she set on her path in the 1980s as a member of LUXOR Mystery School of Aristid Havliček – Tili and his Spiritual Family. At that time, Benjamin Creme initiated her into personal esoteric meditation and she was also initiated a deaconess in the Liberal Catholic Church. When LKC in Slovenia joined Youngrite, she completed the training and initiation process to become authorised celebrant of LKC. She founded the CIRCLE OF ISIS, which operates within the LKC Slovenia.. Polona Sepe is currently a member of two Western esoteric schools, and leads her own esoteric lodge.
Last Updated (Sunday, 10 December 2017 18:02)


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Original article here
I've broken down every single claim I think is provably wrong, and listed them below. I'll post citations for my claims in the comments to follow this post.
The Democrats in general and President Obama in particular, have discovered all too late a political liability in the continuing unemployment figures. As the possibility of losing control of the House and Senate has crept towards probability, the Democrats have finally begun to consider how to address the problems their own policies made.
Incorrect Claims:
1. Democrats haven't realized unemployment figures being high would be a problem.
2. Democrats might lose control because of this alone, rather than it being an off-election year, in which the party in the white house typically loses seats
3. The Democrats are responsible for unemployment, as a consequence of *their own policies* (as opposed to Republican policies which have created the recession and the unemployment)
...recessions happen from time to time, and a review of the past shows that neither Republicans nor Democrats have been able to prevent their occurrence. However, it is possible to reduce the length and severity of a recession sometimes, and to make it worse as well. The best example of this would be the Great Depression, a serious recession made worse by the foolish policies of both President Hoover and President Roosevelt (each chose an extreme solution that led to unintended consequences). The mistakes made by Hoover were built on the assumption that government did not need to do anything, while Roosevelt's mistake was that anything government did would help.
Incorrect Claims:
4. That Hoover's mistakes were based on the assumption that government did not need to do anything - his mistakes were based on the notion that government *shouldn't* do anything, that it was morally wrong for government to interfere.
5. That Roosevelt's policies involved any mistakes that were near the magnitude of Hoover's
6. That Roosevelt's policies made worse OR prolonged the depression, instead of easing and shortening it.
President Obama inherited a recession, this is true. However, the recession was relatively mild, and most economists (the serious ones, not the ones who chase television stations and go hunting for book deals) say the recession itself actually ended earlier this year. The problem is that the jobs never came back, and we have to ask why. For that, we go back to the Depression era. The Depression is not often examined carefully for cause. Most people assume it was due to the stock market crash of 1929, but if so you would have to ask why....When a whole industry loses stock value, the effect is magnified subjectively even though the company is still level with its competitors; if the public believes the industry is sound it will continue to support it, but if they lose confidence the entire industry will suffer.
Incorrect Claims:
7. that the recession Obama inherited was relatively mild. This is the worst recession since the Great Depression.
8. the cause of the Great Depression was not merely a stock crash.
The present economic condition was created through three principle causes - the housing market bubble burst, the financial market crisis from CDOs, and stagnant strategy from the U.S. government....If consumers stop buying, the economy slows, and that is too strong a force to ignore or imagine that government can control. It should be noted at this point, that nothing done by the Obama Administration has been directed at improving consumer confidence. What improvement has occurred, has happened in spite of his policies.
Incorrect Claims:
9. Stimulus spending and unemployment extensions are each a "stagnant strategy", when in fact it is exactly the same strategy pursued by FDR which helped get us out of the Great Depession - because it enables consumers to continue buying what they need, rather than being forced to stop.
10. That Obama could somehow speed up the recovery by increasing "consumer confidence".
The problem in restoring jobs, is that this needs corporate confidence, ...When government actions threaten higher taxes, obstruction of business opportunity, penalties for apparent political orientation or simply being a target for a politician's campaign strategy, businesses will choose to avoid the risk and control costs.
Incorrect implications:
11. The implication that Obama's economic policies at all, EVER, include penalties purely for political orientation
12. That higher taxes ALWAYS threaten job growth more than stimulus spending can increase job growth - as increased spending shows businesses **actual money** - as opposed to "increasing their confidence" that if they start hiring now, they'll make more money someday.
There are three driving forces at work in the present situation regarding unemployment. The first is the obvious fact that President Obama's actions have ignored unemployment, or made conditions worse by attacking major potential employers. The second is that Republicans, sensing significant opportunity in the fall midterm elections and bitter about the contemptible treatment they have received from the most partisan President since Nixon, have for the most part decided to let Obama and the Democrats receive the due consequences of their decision. And the third force is the nature of the economy itself. The American economy in general has been shifting from manufacturing to service for decades, and we are now seeing the effects of that transition in the lack of ability of many workers to transition to the new demand.
Incorrect Claims:
13. That Obama's actions have "attacked" major potential employers AT ALL. I'd love to see some specific companies that have been attacked by Obama's economic policies.
14. That Obama's actions have ignored unemployment, rather than being focused on repairing it
15. That there is some "new demand" for services that workers are showing a "lack of ability" to transition too. (This last one is especially weird).
The most recent bill of debate has been the option to extend the amount of unemployment benefits. Those in favor of the bill argue for it on compassionate grounds...such a bill increases costs for employers and therefore further reduces the opportunity for companies to hire new employees. The bill then is largely superficial in effect, and may be said to do more harm than good to the nation as a whole.
Incorrect Claims:
16. That those who argue in favor of extending unemployment due so solely on "compassionate grounds".
17. That because such a bill may increase costs for employers, which can't be outweighed by the increase in consumer spending that unemployment benefits make possible.
...Money has to come from someplace, and so benefits paid by government agencies must come from public revenues....holistically the government action is parasitic and does more harm than good by definition.
Incorrect Claims:
18. that "money has to come from some place" means it can't come from credit.
19. that government money coming from taxes somehow means that it can ONLY be parasitical - i.e. that government money can't be spent in a way that **increases** value
20. that, again, there is not also a **pragmatic** reason to continue unemployment spending - that it keeps the economy afloat in times of trouble so that it can fully recover.
Neither liberals or conservatives, Republicans nor Democrats, enjoy perfect knowledge of how government should operate in all cases and situations. It is therefore vital for a discussion, even debate, to continue on specific actions the government may take or consider, in ever aspect of the public welfare. We should be able to agree that as situations change, perspectives on all the major issues develop from former positions to more considered or sometimes evolved opinions. Accordingly, for all the strong emotion present in our debates, it is important to listen to the other side and consider what they offer. Even if rejected, the dialogue and respectful consideration of alternatives is a quality much in need and short in supply.
A statement which I agree with wholeheartedly.


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I've been trying to make wasabi and soy sauce almonds, like the ones you find at the store (Blue Diamond) but the only recipe I've found (food.com) is very underwhelming. Despite using varying increasing amounts of wasabi, the spicy factor is non-existant.
I suspect the heat from baking causes wasabi flavor to lose it's intensity, so it must be added at the end. But, I haven't been able to find anything to coat the almonds to the outer shell and maintain the roasted/crunchy almond exterior.
Since wasabi powder is "matured" [and activated] with water and a short (covered) resting period, refining it into more powdery makes it stick better but still not spicy.
How do I get my wasabi almonds to come out spicy?
Note: I have also tried horseradish on almonds (which is just wasabi without food coloring) and baking it off.


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The secret to Jessica Biel & Justin Timberlake's happy marriage
LOS ANGELES - Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake have been together since 2007 and married since 2012.
And the actress is now revealing the secret to their happy relationship.
"We believe in loyalty, honesty. We like to have fun. We like a lot of the same things," she told Marie Claire. "Also, in the business, we're all very career-oriented, and you have to be a little selfish. I understand that about my peers — about being focused and driven — and if you can find that and someone who shares the same values as you, it's like: Score!"
It also doesn't hurt to be gorgeous, successful and talented.
Celebrities, they're just like us!


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Since 1998, the Gloucester County Commissioner Board has been working to improve the services that are available to our Veterans and their families. To that end, we have increased our Office of Veterans Affairs from a part-time office to a full-time office.
We continually work with the Veterans Administration to offer more convenient services at the Veterans Affairs Health care Clinic at the County Complex at Five Points in Sewell, we opened the beautiful Gloucester County Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Monroe Township and had the first interment on October 6, 2004, and we continue to proudly honor our Veterans with the Gloucester County Military Service Medal at an annual ceremony to show our deep appreciation for their sacrifices.