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Skift Take
U.S. officers are required by law to let an embassy know about any potential threat they come across, which has led embassies to over-share information while following a better-safe-than-sorry policy.
A U.S. Embassy warning to U.S. tourists of a potential kidnapping threat in the Cuzco region, including the famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, drew vehement objections from Peruvian officials Friday.
But a U.S. Embassy official said credible evidence exists of a threat from a Peruvian terrorist group.
The official confirmed a report in the Peruvian newspaper La Republica that said leaders of the cocaine-financed Shining Path outlaw band discussed kidnapping foreigners, principally Americans, in intercepted communications. Tens of thousands of Americans visit Peru each year.
The official agreed to discuss the report only if not quoted by name due to the political sensitivity of the warning.
La Republica cited sources about the interceptions including members of Peru's military high command, but the country's military chief, Adm. Jose Cueto, told The Associated Press that he had no such information.
"Perhaps it is information that they alone have and have not shared," Cueto said of the U.S. government.
The embassy warning that mentioned Peru's biggest tourist draw was posted on the U.S. Embassy's Facebook page Thursday. Dated Feb. 13, it was also posted on the embassy's website.
It says a "criminal organization may be planning to kidnap U.S. citizen tourists in the Cuzco and Machu Picchu area. Possible targets and methods are not known and the threat is credible at least through the end of February 2013."
The warning says U.S. Embassy personnel are barred from visiting Machu Picchu and nearby Cuzco unless on official business, which is restricted.
"It's very rare that it would be so pointed to us," the U.S. official said of the threat.
The mayor of Cuzco, Luis Florez, called on U.S. Ambassador Rose Likins to retract the warning.
"Tourism is an incredibly sensitive topic and they would be damaging a big source of earnings at the national level," he told reporters after a group of mayors met with President Ollanta Humala.
But Likins said the U.S. government is obliged by law to inform its citizens of any information regarding their security. "In this case we received information that we consider reliable," she told RPP radio, without going into the details outlined by the embassy official to the AP.
The Maoist-inspired Shining Path was all but decimated by the time the U.S. State Department designated it as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Its remnants now number about 500 and have become an increasingly potent and disciplined fighting force, funding itself by taxing drug traffickers in Peru's coca-growing heartland.
Shining Path's radius of action has in recent years expanded to include the northern jungle Convencion region of Cuzco state, where La Republica said the conversations were intercepted and where the Camisea natural gas project is located.
In that region, a rugged 100 miles north of Machu Picchu, Shining Path fighters last April briefly kidnapped 36 construction workers near a Camisea site. All were released unharmed but the rebels killed eight soldiers and police officers sent to rescue them. The group has killed more than 80 Peruvian soldiers since 2008, mostly in ambushes.
The Convencion district also includes Choquequirao, another set of Incan ruins increasingly popular with tourists but reachable only on foot or horseback.
U.S. law enforcement and the Pentagon have been assisting Peru in pursuing Shining Path, which Humala's government considers its chief security threat.
Associated Press writer Carla Salazar contributed to this report.
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Tags: peru, safety, travel warning
Photo credit: The Pisac Market is located in the Sacred Valley in the region of Cusco, Peru. Miguel Vera / Flickr


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Friday, September 16, 2011
Open Friday: Creating D&D Player Characters
And that's most of what I knew about my new character before I started playing him. Since he might not survive to see 2nd level (never mind higher), I figured it most practical to let his personality and other details evolve through play. Plus, that gave me a lot more leeway to make things up as I went along, which is always fun.
So, my question for today is this: how do you go about creating a new, 1st-level D&D character?
59 comments:
Depends on the edition, but for basic editions, I'd roll straight up, see what I can score-wise and then decide on the class, and go from there. Keep it simple, let the rest turn out in play.
For my new D&D game, I had the players roll 3d6 in order, then pick their class; then we used a random background table to give some basic info, and a random hat... the rest is coming out nicely in play :)- AnonymousSeptember 16, 2011 at 9:33 AM
So, just because you had a 16 for Wisdom you went for Cleric?
You're such a min/max munchkin. I hope your fellow players are prepared for that. The number of dice or the number of times I roll changes depending upon whim, but I have come to insist upon in order. This particular method consistently results in more compelling characters because explaining the scores in order requires more creativity on my part than coming up with a character concept prior to rolling anything.
ReplyDeleteMuch the same method as Joseph, except:
I'm playing a character for the first time in a long while, joining an already established Pathfinder group. So . . .
They needed a Magic User, which I enjoy playing. After getting the initial rolls in, the DM changed two stats; Intelligence and Strength. Raising Intelligence +2 to 17 and Strength +1 to 14.I think you hit on the best way - 3d6 in order. It's the approach that best supports emergent characters and discovering the character through play. I loathe rearranging stats and the creation of "dump stats"; we don't allow dice fudging during the game, why allow it during character generation? (Pretty much echo what FrDave said).
I can understand the need for 4d6 in AD&D because the goal posts were moved - characters need a much higher stat to get any kind of in-game bonus. I still don't like rearranging the scores, even in that context. I'd rather let a player roll a series of attribute groups (still keeping the dice rolls in order) to get a more palatable character than an artificial approach.Mine is also similar to Joseph. We roll 3 sets of stats (4d6, drop lowest, arrange as desired within each set). Players keep the extra two sets as either henchmen, or their backup characters. That way, when someone dies, they have another PC instantly ready to go.
James - Just out of curiosity, is your new game on Google+?I have to admit, I'm not a random guy. I mean-- I can go with it, it doesn't make me mad, but my "lets think of a character" scheme isn't usually random, unless someone says "lets roll up random characters," or "lets roll up TMNT mutants!"
I guess what I do is start jamming pieces together? Either I take something otherwise banal & try to put a spin on it-- "okay, so how could I make a cool Dragonborn dude?"-- or I put things that seem out of place together-- "So...dwarf ninja/paladin. Now...how can I make that make sense?"I can use just about any of the methods to make a character. Which specific one depends on my inclination. Whether I have a specific concept in mine or not. I would be pretty unhappy if the only system I had was 3d6 in order.
I think it should be left up to the player, within limits.
As a referee I allows 3d6 rolled six times, arranged accordingly for Swords & Wizardry. Stats are not that important in OD&D.
For AD&D I was pretty generous, 4d6 drop the lowest, reroll 1s. Do this seven times, drop the lowest, and then rearrange. This produce above average attribute without a slew of 18s appearing. Plus it generosity cut down on the amount of cheater characters as few players could refuse me when I insist they roll in front of me.
Cheater characters were a problem in my years of refereeing during high school. The most common situation was the guy who rolled a 100 times before he got a set of six he was happy with.- AnonymousSeptember 16, 2011 at 11:30 AM
Yeah. Yeah. The 16 was a typo on my part. Seppuku shall commence as soon as I find a Second who will decapitate me before I do anything unseemly after disemboweling myself.
I didn't mention the CON 14 because I didn't think you'd be playing in a game with one of those newfangled classes, such as Fitness Trainer. I admit that most D&D characters I have made were decided before stats were rolled. When I made my first LotFP character though, I decided to roll stats first. For the first time ever I rolled a character with a 3 in a stat (in this case Dex), so I decided I would play as a Dwarf to get my HP up as high as possible. Thus Velekar the dwarf of Chaos was born!
ReplyDeleteFor Boog my most recent character, I was allowed 4d6, drop the lowest, arrange to taste. I figured on playing either a druid (human or 1/2 elf), a ranger, or a half-orc fighter.
For all of these characters I had a basic idea of the personality and background of what I wanted
So I rolled a 18,12, 7, 15, 12, and 13. I decided on the half-orc fighter. Party because had some interesting ideas for a half-orc fighter and party because I could min-max to 18/00 strength if exceptional strength roll worked out.
Sure enough I rolled a 92 on exceptional strength, with the +1 strength of an orc that enough for the coveted 18/00 strength.
So Boog was born.3d6 in order, no point swapping. This is how I roll my characters and how I ask my players to roll theirs.
Does this result in some underpowered, weak, and potentially very dead characters? Yes. Does it reduce the fun in playing an underpowered character who still wants to be an adventurer and survive? I dont think so.We use 3d6 in order, swap two. I personally don't like to swap, as that's just always an automatic 'swap highest stat into prime attribute of the class I want to play'. I much prefer to let the dice tell me about the PC rather than me build them.
I think I'll insist on 3d6 in order for 6 characters next time. Then I choose who becomes my avatar.For the OSR variant I'm designing for personal use (My wife says to call it "DaD's RPG") it's 4d6, drop the lowest, and place the scores where-ever. Although the in-sequence idea is suddenly very appealing.
Back in the day I rememeber rolling up a character via the old 3d6 in sequence method. We didn't have any pre-printed character sheets so I rolled up my attributes, wrote them in sequence as a column on my scratch pad and then /wrote the attributes next to them in the order I liked most/.Depends on the DM as to whether it is 4d6/best 3 or just 3d6, but it's almost always rolled in a strict order (Stinwicodexch! - as for OD&D rather than AD&D) with no swapsies or trading in of points. And it's invariably a case of rolling up only one character and then playing that. Rolling badly tended to define a more interesting character. Class was generally what suited the rolled characteristics most though.
And you played the character, even if it was pathetic. There was no thought of trying to kill off a badly rolled character. After all, just because you (the player) aren't the strongest person in your neighbourhood doesn't mean you feel compelled to commit suicide, does it?
[As for selection of class, well my RQ character from a long running game (from raw character sheet to rune lord status) rolled Siz 18 and Int 9 (both on 2d6+6), so he obviously was a Storm Bull cultist...]Well, typically when I create a character, I usually roll 4D6 removing the lowest die, once for each stat. Also, I don't really like to have super crummy stats, as in a bunch of singles digits or 10's to 12's. Some are ok, but if it is overwhelmingly mediocre bordering on bad, then I scrap the stats, and generally roll until I come up with something I am happy to play; let me be clear, not a super character mind you but something that is decent and in line with the type of PC I have in mind to play. I don't personally believe a player should play a character they are not happy with (as long as the player is not shooting for all 18's or something equally ridiculous). Then I arrange them according to what I want to play, i.e. I want to make a ranger let's say, so I will put my highest scores in strength, dexterity & constitution most likely.
At any rate, that is just the nuts and bolts of the character though. I think ahead of time what class & personality I want to play, before I roll any dice (but I do try to allow for some wiggle room in this regard through play, as that is I think where the best parts are usually developed based on the things the PC runs into during the course of a campaign). I also like to know what type of setting I am in, be it Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms or a home-made world.We usually roll 4d6 drop the lowest or 3d6 re-roll ones, assign-where-you-will.
If I don't already have a concept in mind, I prefer 3d6 in order. After I have my numbers, it's a question of "What sort of life events would cause a dude to end up like that" and then I pick whichever class makes sense/is allowable.
After rolling a character, I usually come to the game with a pretty firm idea of who my character is, but I have to remain flexible enough to let him grow and develop as he adventures.
Also, I love to have one really bad stat. Mayhaps it comes from rolling 4d6 for most of my roleplaying career, but these days it seems I'd rather have a 3 than an 18.Started with 3d6 in order (D&D Basic Set), moved to '4d6 drop lowest' system and then a system that involved rolling a bunch of dice and allocating them when we moved to a D&D/AD&D2e hybrid. Since returning to D&D (BECMI/Cyclopedia), it has been been a 3d6 in order. But then there are no such things a dump stats for players in my games, as, after playing WFRP and other games, I make use of characteristic tests quite frequently - Chr 6? Well, you can try to persuade Lord Grim, and if you come up with a convincing argument you might get a modifier, but when you've done, roll a d20...
ReplyDeleteWhen I run, I typically go with 4d6 drop the low, as I play with a bunch of min-maxers. :( There's not a lot of room for minmaxing in Basic (as opposed to 2nd Ed S&P, which is our typical system) and I've long been the sort of player who likes to see a nice mix of stats. Low stats give me something to RP to, in addition to whatever personality or background the character might have. I must admit I've caved as a player with char generation a time or two - placing the 18 in the PR even though I intend to play the character as comic relief. Such pressure!
ReplyDeleteFor old school I like the pure 3d6 in order.
For more modern systems, I'm now a fierce advocate for the 'deck' method: (18 cards varying from 1 to 6 that add up to the desired average, minus two, plus an extra '2' that the player can add to any stat after the fact).
It merges the point-equality of point-buy with the suprise and randomness of pure rolling.I use a slightly askew system in everything up to OS/2 Warped (my 2e house system)
Players have 3 choices
#1 They can use Hill Canton's "background system" with 1 extra free die
#2 4d6 drop 1 arrange as desired
#3 My favorite, select race and class, set minimum stats, 4d6 drop lowest in order. This allows people to play what they like but provides for a decent selection of oddball characters.
Also I am pretty generous with mulligans. If people are unhappy with what they get, make another guy. I haven't had any abuse issues as I trust my players and they actually don't mind the occasional mediocre stat.
As for later editions (3x and up) those are point buy (30+1d6 in 3.5 or choose 32, and either 20/25 point or 18/22 +1d4 in Pathfinder) or 4d6 drop lowest arrange as desired.
I am not messing with 4e as of yet but as it looks fiddly, I think I'd go by the book.When we started the current Lab Lord campaign it was 4d6 drop the lowest, arrange in order, as Carter I think wanted to be a generous to people totally new to the game (and maybe beefing up the players used to 3e and 4e). I recently started rolling up some characters as you did, but I was trying to get a thief to go along with a cool name I had. As the stable grew I noticed three characters that would be entertaining fighting sisters: the oldest was all around good, the middle one had 3s in DEX and WIS; and the youngest was strongest but slightly dim. I call them Gina, Lola, and Brigida, and can see them as charming 3 Stooges type dungeon crew.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is, roll 3d6 nine times. Scratch off any three scores. The remaining numbers become your stats, in the order they're written. I like this because it's quick, it lets players have some control while still imposing rigidity, and it sometimes forces a player to make a tough choice, such as scratching off a 12 and keeping an 8 in order to get the 16 into Intelligence instead of Con.
ReplyDeleteI usually like to have some idea of the game I'm playing in (no point in making a super diplomatic character in a hack and slash game) and some idea of what everyone else is going to play (I don't want to be the 3rd dwarf or second fighter unless there is a good reason.)
Plus as a group we should try and have all the bases covered.
Then I look through the classes and races, trying to find something that really sparks my interest. The other day I made a new character to save for future use. I decided I wanted to be a monk because I had just remembered how much I used to like Dragonball Z. Then I decided on Halfling, both because they make good monks and I haven't gotten to play one in forever.
Then I made all the technical choices- pointy buy ability scores, skills, feats, powers, gear, etc. I let those choices fill in the character details in my mind. He was going to be talkative and friendly but not very persuasive (8 Charisma), his master was going to be Fat Aloysius the renowned traveling monk and amazing chef (Falling Needle powers), he was going to in many ways cling to halfling racial stereotypes (skills and feat choices, etc.
And thus Wilkie Widebottom was born into the world, being sassy and throwing ki energy around.I roll 12d6. Then, with the sort of character I want to play in mind, I arrange the dice like this:
1) Apply 1d6 to all of the attributes affected by a character's physicality: Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity & Strength. (This eliminates the possibility that any of those attributes will be more than 10 points different from each other -- which is hard to rationalize.)
2) Apply 1d6 to all of the attributes affected by a character's mentality: Charisma, Intelligence & Wisdom. (This eliminates the possibility that any of those attributes will be more than 10 points different from each other -- which is hard to rationalize.)
3) Apply 1d6 to Constitution & Strength. (This eliminates the possibility that Constitution & Strength will be more than 5 points different from each other -- which is hard to rationalize.)
4) Apply the rest of the dice to bring each attribute up to 3d6 -- 1d6 to Charisma, 1d6 to Constitution, 2d6 to Dexterity, 2d6 to Intelligence, 1d6 to Strength, and 2d6 to Wisdom.
Then it's hit points, starting money, equipment and, possibly, spells.
Done!So, my question for today is this: how do you go about creating a new, 1st-level D&D character?
From a player perspective, exactly like you do. i.e., whatever the rules allow for randomness and just that amount of detail as to PC identity going in.
As DM, I do allow players to pick 2 ability scores and swap them. So the process (esp. for brand-new players) appears as in the LBB order: pick class first, then roll abilities (and make one swap as desired).Currently, I went back to what I did in the 80's : 3d6 in order, then pick class and/or race (i mix both class-as-race and split class/race without problems). I used B/X blackrazor table on "how do they know each other method" to create links between starting characters - and it generaly provides a background, alternatively using some others random tables for the same background purpose.
ReplyDeleteHowever the GM says I should. Which is probably 4d6, drop the low die, put the stats where you want them.
I agree with you about the value of emergent personality and letting your character's self emerge as time passes. For me, though, "as time passes" is usually less than 15 minutes. By then my character has a name, some kind of personality, some sense of history, and maybe even a personal goal or two. They just kinda show up as I'm filling out the character sheet.Depends on the game; if I'm playing with folks who want equal points, I copped this method from someone:
Roll 3d6, re-roll any below 9. Assign that stat. Assign the next stat at 27 - previous.
Then roll 3d6, re-roll any below 7. Assign that stat. Assign next stat at 25 - previous.
Then roll 3d6, re-roll any below 5. Assign that stat. Final stat is 23 - previous.
@Ed Dove: it is all too easy to imagine STR and CON being more than 5 points apart. Slow, heavy labor and the wrong food can make you strong but fat, unable to run for long distances and prone to illness. I've met several truck drivers who could lift well over 200 pounds, but who weighed well over that as well. People can also be healthy except for a chronic illness such as asthma or hemophilia. It isn't that hard to explain.- AnonymousSeptember 16, 2011 at 7:22 PM
Gremlin just ate my post...
"Str 12, Int 9, Wis 13, Dex 12, Con 14, Cha 10" - James
I would have gone with Dwarf (back when Dwarf was a class and a Race at the same time) simply because this guy has just enough wisdom to give a Saving throw bonus vs magic.
As a Cleric he isnt awesome. Though his wisdom is above average he is not some wise Guru whose self meditations will reveal some great insight, and his health is better than his brains. His Charisma says he is not leadership material - at least for the church - but he might be a Friar Tuck.
For me Stats are Personality: In the church hierarchy with above average health and Wisdom He is trapped in the ranks of the Church Enforcement Division. 'The Inquisition is In' with this guy. His favourite phrase is going to be "Tell it to the High Priest!" For my current "Stonehell on the Borderlands" game using modified B/X, I make the players roll 3d6 in order, then they may swap any two of the first four stats. There are only three players, and their characters die fairly often. If one of them wants to play a fighter, I'm not going to make him play a crap fighter.
By far the most important and highly anticipated stage of chargen, though, is rolling random hats.I just like to roll 3d6 straight down the column and figure out what would be the most appropriate type of character they are depending on the stats. So if my fighter's best stat is a str of 7, so be it. It's all the more reason why he would of learned how to use a short sword then a two handed one.
ReplyDelete"...it is all too easy to imagine STR and CON being more than 5 points apart. Slow, heavy labor and the wrong food can make you strong but fat, unable to run for long distances and prone to illness. I've met several truck drivers who could lift well over 200 pounds, but who weighed well over that as well. People can also be healthy except for a chronic illness such as asthma or hemophilia. It isn't that hard to explain."--amp108
Thanks for the critique.
I thought about things like those (and lots of other things) while I was working out the character generation system I use now. And things like the examples you gave are certainly true for post-industrial settings with:
1) Lots of occupations in which people can get away with physically exerting themselves only momentarily at most.
2) An abundance of cheap food, so it's easy to get fat enough to develop health problems.
3) Modern medicine that keeps people with chronic illnesses alive beyond childhood.
So, my character generation system for post-industrial settings would link Constitution & Strength by only 1d6 -- allowing them to differ by up to 10 points.
But none of that is true for pre-industrial settings. In those:
1) Occupations in which people can get away with physically exerting themselves only momentarily at most are extremely rare.
2) Food is scarce & expensive, so it's extremely difficult to get fat enough to develop health problems.
3) People with chronic illnesses very rarely live beyond childhood.
So, in pre-industrial settings, it's extremely unlikely that any adult will be either very healthy but very weak or very strong but very unhealthy. And I think it's probably even less likely than randomly rolling Constitution & Strength more than 5 points different from each other is. That's why my character generation system for pre-industrial settings links Constitution & Strength by 2d6 -- allowing them to differ by only 5 points.
Does that make sense to you now or do you still see problems with it?I do 3d6 in order and let folks follow the 2 for 1 rule in b/x. Then I generally encourage folks to come up with a one or two word description for the character. For your cleric for example is he a evangelical crusader, idealistic pilgrim, simple minded preacher. I think I got the idea from dyson a while ago with the descriptions it keeps all fighters from being the same.
I want to the see the random starting hat table!- AnonymousSeptember 16, 2011 at 10:42 PM
Len Lakofka once wrote an excellent article on starting AD&D campaigns in his "Leomund's Tiny Hut" column. He advocated a system that rolled 4d6, dropping the lowest. Seven rolls were generated (the player decided which roll to drop: It didn't have to be the lowest) and two stats could be swapped. This system gave enough choice that the player could build a wide variety of characters but it didn't give enough latitude to encourage optimization.
ReplyDelete If I am the player, then i do as the DM allows for his or her campaign. But if I had my druthers I would use the Elite Array from the 3rd Ed. DM's Guide.
15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8, put 'em where you want 'em. This way every character starts out with the same potential.
I have run games where we used 4d6-drop the lowest and had a guy get three 18's and nothing below a 12. Another player in the same campaign got a high stat of 13 and most of them below 10. I know some of you are thinking "too bad, he rolled what he rolled", but the lucky player consistently rolled well (he used the same dice as everyone else) and he tore through my monsters while the rest of the party were fairly ineffective, the low-roller being all but useless. Luckily the RP was still good and it helped make the game interesting, but I'd rather have the players have characters that they can get into. The game provides enough random elements to kill a player.- AnonymousSeptember 17, 2011 at 1:14 AM
I (not so) recently had a moment where I had been the DM for some time and got the chance to finally play in a Lamentations game run by PCB. All the people who usually play were ready with names, but I wasn't, and being first to the left of the DM I was first to announce mine... err... "Geoff!" No surname, no titles, just Geoff. Geoff the M-U. Still had a great game though! It's nice to be on the other side.
ReplyDelete Great thread.
Sir Yobgod Ababua the Handless re:
"For more modern systems, I'm now a fierce advocate for the 'deck' method: (18 cards varying from 1 to 6 that add up to the desired average, minus two, plus an extra '2' that the player can add to any stat after the fact)."
I like this. So, using a 3.5 average, I would shuffle three aces, 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's with four 4's and two 6's, deal them into six piles and add 2 points to one. Is this correct? Thanks for any help.H-Town said...
I want to the see the random starting hat table!
I use JB's chart, available here: http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/08/bx-headgear-new-charts-to-gear-up-your.html
It's the first page in my DM binder. Not only is it fun in itself, but it takes some of the sting out of PC mortality. "Bah. My elf is dead. Now I have to roll up a new character... But I also get to roll for a new hat! Huzzah!"3d6 in order for 6 characters (drop 2 raise 1 allowed for purposes of xp bonus only). The other 5 are hirelings/henchmen npcs, that may turn into the PC if the primary one bites the dust.
Imagine a god forming 6 PC's from clay...substitute "dice" for "clay". "Play 'em how the gods made 'em."I use a different system. Players can play any character class they choose (to improve the game texture). I have trabsposed the probabilities from the 3d6 bell curve onto percentile dice, and have anumber of tables, where you roll percentile dice to get results 13-18, 14-18, 15-18 etc. Player rolls 3d6 against each ability. When s/he is satisfied with the chardcater stats (they can re-roll as many times as they like, but all six stats). When they are ready, and if by then a certain prime requisite (such as Paladin't Charisma) is not met, they roll percentile dice to get them into that class. I balance the game by taking all of the players rejected charaters. These will become NPC Antagonists, who will go aftre the PC throughout the campaign, and do their best to kill that palyer character. The better and more carefully selected PC, the harder s/he will have to fight to stay alive.
A word of explanation. I run a sandbox without any signposts or railroading. I accomplish this by embedding he character into the back story. Simply put, the player writes a brief bio describing who the character is and how charadter came to be. I re-write the bio and effectively write the character into the story. Of course, all characters must be affliated with guilds, warrior houses, knights and temples in order to grow in level. Time spent adventuring represents only a small part of the PC's time, the rest of their lives, PC's are invlved with whatever guilds and retinues they belong to. More powerful NPC's, whom the Player Characters serve and who ultimately train them, can send players on various errands, missions and quests on behalf of the organisations they serve. The whole campaign is predicated on chaacters exploring and discovering the campaign world and taking parts and influencing certain events unfolding with or without the player involvement. Players success or failure will be judged at the end of the campaign based on whether they will be able to save the world in which the campaign is set from the doom that awaits it. No boss monsters. No linearity, and errands handed down by the guild will not put the players on the trail of the main quest."I balance the game by taking all of the player's rejected charaters. These will become NPC Antagonists, who will go after the PC throughout the campaign, and do their best to kill that player character. The better and more carefully selected the PC, the harder s/he will have to fight to stay alive."
That's brilliant! I'm going to start doing that too!Roll 3d6 6 times, in order. Rinse, repeat, write down next to them. Pick best of the two rolls for each of the ordered stats. Then, if you want, you get 1 reroll on any stat.
Seems generous, but ultimately forcing players to play a conception they don't like is pointless because they'll get him killed or just not enjoy the experience. Not everyone enjoys that challenge.
Another thing I don't do is audit XP, GP, or anything like that. If players want to cheat each other, it is their game they are gutting. Since I play with people with 2-3 decades at the game table, this tends to work fine.

subset: commoncrawl


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Again I have kept the quilting really simple; clean straight lines, outlining just the seam lines that run from edge to edge both vertically and horizontally. That sure sounds like less work than what it actually is. I estimate that the quilting alone took approximately 6 hours; some things cannot be rushed.
Fabrics Used:
- Modern quilting cottons - most are florals on a white/light background.
- Vintage reclaimed linens in excellent condition - again florals on a white background.
- Large rectangles (floral print): Cut 5 inches x 3.5 inches
- Small rectangles (solid white fabric): Cut 2 inches x 3.5 inches
- Sew a large rectangle and small rectangle together to make a unit measuring 6.5 inches x 3.5 inches
- Make 240 units. Sew units into 12 rows of 20, alternating the unit (ie turn every second unit up side down). Press seams in one direction, alternating the direction with each row so that seams nest together when joining rows.
- Join together the 12 rows to make a quilt top.
- Add top and bottom borders if so desired; my pieced border patches each measure 3.5 inches x 4 inches (including seam allowances). I have alternated a solid white fabric with a printed fabric.
I have listed this quilt in my Etsy Store:
You can find the Etsy Listing here.


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- Chad Billingsley: 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K
- Matt Kemp: 3 for 4, WALK-OFF 2-RUN HR
Dodgers avoid the four-game sweep by the Cardinals. The Legend of the Bison grows.
photos by Harry How/Getty Images
Random rantings and ravings about the Los Angeles Dodgers, written by a small consortium of rabid Dodger fans. With occasional comments on baseball, entertainment, pop culture, and life in general.
We make party??? We make party!!!
I really needed this win.
(makes party)
Looks like you really needed a dry hump as well.
Dusty always needs a dry hump.
Im gonna need a new broom.
Blanco (Spanish Version) Pitbull featuring Pharrell
I'm gonna need a bigger tumbler of gin.
What is that little hand on Karina's new avatar?
Walk [off] - Foo Fighters
Talk to the hand.
@NicJ it's my unborn niece hand :)
I missed the end. Stoopid eye appointment.
Oh, Congrats Karina!
She looks pretty smart too. She is obviously predicting what place she thinks the Dodgers will end the season in The NL West standings.
She is holding up one finger for every World Series title we have.
Thanks Nic! we're all very excited and happy. I don't have any doubts she'll be very smart but I agree with Dusty,she's showing Dodgers WS rings instead :)
I'll try to make her to love the Dodgers, even if her dad is a hardcore Braves fan.
Tias don't let nieces support Braves.
Karina's Son with a 2-run bomb to tie the game at 3 in Yankmes vs Rangers. Even though I think I should be rooting for him, I actually am of the opposite mindset; the better he does, the more I know the talent was there but that he was just dogging it all last year (and probably longer).
Beltre is just stroking that ball. Has driven all 4 runs in the Rangers' 4-3 scoreline. Looks like he's taking BP out there.
I really need a transistor radio if my kid is going to keep playing baseball on Sundays.
Alas. Oh look! A beer!
killKillKILL Suzyn Waldman!!!!
Fuck you too, Jon Sterling.
Dusty, I thought I didn't know u when I found out u weren't black. But a foo fan, wow, I have found my people.
Love the Fighters of the Foo. Their best drummer is the front man. Kind of like when your best hitter is the catcher.
Pretty cool.
We're in the same room re: Martin. Dog to get out of dodge. Hustle after being paroled.
Just got home.
Looking over Martin's spray charts ive noticed that he is still doing the thing that made him suck in the first place. I think the pitchers in the AL East will figure out soon that he is just trying to pull the shit out of the ball and they will adjust.
ESPN stole your song Dusty.
Heh Ive got a spray chart for my ex favorite Dodger!
Give us some of your favs Paulie
My current favorite ex-player is Werth, I saw him play one of his first games in Arizona. He looked awesome, could hit, throw, and run. We would of lost him this past summer to FA, but Werth, Kemp and Either would a been a good outfield.
My bad Paul I read favorite ex Dodgers.
I like Werth a lot. He always could hit. He just couldn't stay healthy in Blue.
Konerko is probably my favorite.
Martin was my favorite Dodger. Darth Martin is not.
No problem it was an interesting question.
Konerko, sucked balls with us, but u knew he was going to be good. I cried when they traded him, just like I will cry when they trade Sands.
I lost my faith on Martin, but one day my wife asked where is that guy that tries real hard and looks like he has a black mom or day, not both.
black mom or dad, not both.(damn Autocorrect). I miss his hustle.
Agree with the Werth comments. I watched him just fucking job the Brewaz today.Made an incredible catch to save run(s) and was all over the damn ball offensively. This is just one cool, scroungy lookin' dude and I wish he still played for us.
I just saw ESPN Sportscenter and they used that Foo song, as Paul mentioned. Dammit, I had that first!
East coast always pulling in from the West. Even if they call it the LA sports center.
Btw Martin's homerun tonight at the Ravine would have been one of those frustrating fly ball outs he had the last two seasons.
I was at the game. I admit it. I teared up when Bison got mobbed at home.
Wish I could trade the futility of the last few games I've gone to with the euphoria that you experienced tonight, Greg.
Although I was pretty euphoric when it happened and yelled enough to disturb my neighbors.
That outing is tied for third best pitching performance so far this year. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/topperformers/_/type/pitching
Just got the "Hey Jimbo!" website out of my company's cache. I can finally see the real stuff again. Great game yesterday!
2011 Russell Martin=Karina's heartbreak.
Dusty, certainly so, good tias do that :)
4/3 vs. SF (W, 5-4): Sax


text:
787-9 Maiden Flight
I was tasked by Airchive.com to provide some secondary coverage of the Boeing 787-9 first flight. It was my first opporrunity to cover a Boeing event from the press area. After a few minor delays, the 787-9 took to the air as planned and made a 5 hour flight without event and touched down at the flight testing center at Boeing Field.
Ptarmigan Ridge Hike
Along with my son and good hiking friend Trent, we set off to Artists' Point near Mount Baker for an overnight hike to Ptarmigan Ridge. The USFS service station indicated that there was snow on the trail and route finding required and they were right. Though only about 10% of the trail was snow-covered, the spots that were were usually deep and fairly steep. The views began immediately and only got better as we progressed.
The Brake Equation
Driving in traffic the other day I was trying to name all of the instant warning signs on seeing another driver that will cause me grief on my drive. I know it's not a true mathematical representation but I thought it might be fun to present my findings like the Drake Equation, the equation designed to calculate the number of extaterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.
Supermoon from Seattle 2012
Another break in the usual Seattle spring weather gave me the oppurtunity to photography the Supermoon rising behind something interesting in the area. My first choice was Three Fingers.
Japan Airlines 787 Double Delivery
Japan Airlines took delivery of their first two 787's, the first powered by GE engines.
A few days ago, Gizmodo featured a story about a a photographer that turned a vintage camera into a lens for his DSLR. Well, heck, I can do that!
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Aurora Borealis - May 8, 2012
A March 7 X5-class flare delivered a glancing blow to our ionosphere and led to over 24 hours of auroral activity. I headed south to avoid the clouds over Seattle and ended up near Black Diamond and captured the dim, but active display.
The aurora, as visible from our area, rarely get the waving and curling arms you see in photos from Norway and the Yukon, but we do get to see the full extent of the rays, from the green base to the violet and red tops.
Video details:


text:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweeping immigration legislation taking shape in the Senate will aim to overhaul the nation's agriculture worker program to create a steady supply of labor for farmers and growers, who rely more than any other industry on workers who have come to the country illegally.
Farm workers already here would get a speedier path to legal status than other immigrants in the country illegally, and a likely new visa program would make it easier for foreign workers to come to the U.S. Policymakers aim to install such workers in place of the half or more of the nation's farm labor workforce estimated to be in the country illegally.
Negotiators have been working to finalize an agreement in time for the measure to be included in bipartisan legislation expected to be released next week, but disagreements on wages and numbers of visas are proving tough to solve.
Labor groups are accusing growers of pushing to lower farmworkers' wages, while growers dispute that and say they want to pay a fair wage. Meanwhile, labor is resisting growers' attempts to increase the potential numbers of new workers who would come in, as growers argue their industry's viability depends on a strong new labor supply.
"It comes down to either we're importing our labor or we're importing our food, and if we don't have access to a legal supply of labor we will start going offshore," said Kristi Boswell, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The issue has gotten little public attention in an immigration debate focused on securing the border, creating a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally, and designing a new visa program for low-skilled workers outside of agriculture. But for states from California to Georgia to Florida with booming agriculture industries, it's a critical part of the puzzle.
At least 50 percent and as much as 70 or 80 percent of the nation's farm workers arrived illegally, according to labor and industry estimates. Growers say they need a better way to hire labor legally, and advocates say workers can be exploited and need better protections and a way to earn permanent residence.
"One thing that we know is that there's not an industry that will benefit more from a new immigration program than agriculture," said Giev Kashkooli, United Farm Workers vice president. "The problem is industry needs people who are both willing and able to do the work. And it's difficult work."
The reason agriculture uses so much illegal labor has to do with the need for workers, but also the inadequacy of current immigration programs. There is a 10-month visa program for farm workers, called the H2A visa, but growers argue it's so hard to use that once they've completed the paperwork whatever crop they needed picked may well have withered.
There were about 55,000 H2A visas issued in 2011, representing a small percentage of the nation's approximately 2 million farm workers.
Part of the solution, growers and unions say, is to create a more permanent agricultural workforce. Senators would likely accomplish this by giving a new "blue card" visa granting legal status to farm workers who've worked in the industry for at least two years and intend to remain in it for at least five years more.
At that point, potentially, these workers could become eligible for green cards, which allow permanent residency and eventual citizenship — faster than the 10-year path to a green card that other immigrants in the country illegally are expected to face under the Senate immigration bill.
Separately, growers are pushing to replace the H2A visa program with an entirely new program with visas offering multiyear stays. But there is disagreement over how many such visas would be offered and how much money workers would make — the same issues that hung up a deal between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO over nonagricultural low-skilled workers before a resolution was reached over the weekend.
The UFW contends that growers are trying to push farm workers below their current average wage of $10.80 an hour, but growers say that wage is skewed by a small number of high earners and that most farm workers make less. In light of the dispute, the UFW has begun to argue that a new visa program may not be necessary at all.
The two-pronged structure of the emerging deal is similar to legislation called AgJobs negotiated in years past that never became law. Because of that history, the agriculture issue is being handled differently from other parts of the Senate immigration bill. It's being negotiated by four senators — Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo. — only two of whom, Rubio and Bennet, are part of the so-called Gang of Eight senators writing the overall bill.
All involved hope for a resolution of an issue that has been in need of one for years, ever since the last major immigration overhaul, in 1986, failed to establish a workable visa program for farmworkers and others.
"We made our bed and have been lying in it ever since so this is a chance to get it right and not repeat those failures," said Craig J. Regelbrugge, co-chair of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform.


text:
Without a doubt there were pleasant surprises awaiting me in New York City. I spent a day riding around the city, trying to see as much as I could on my limited schedule.It was a pleasure cycling around the city. I felt safe the entire time and, compared to other cities I've cycled in like Moscow, New York is not the hell on earth people try to make it out to be. Then again, I don't ride like a moron, trying to break landspeed records. I just ride like most people do in most cities.There are pockets of good bicycle planning, like the painted infrastructure pictured above and below, complete with a bike box.
Approaching Times Square from the north, down Broadway, there is a fine bike lane/cycle track separated from the traffic, as well as a slice of street painted with funky circles, quite like sections in Copenhagen. Graphic design meets urban landscape:
So, the experience in New York was, by and large, positive. There are still various issues that need to be addressed. Of course the bike lanes need to connect and form a larger network which, I assume, they will over time.One thing that I just don't understand is that there are stretches of bike lane that are not placed along the sidewalk. Parked cars line the sidewalk and the bike lane runs between them and the traffic. So instead of only keeping a sharp eye on opening doors, I had to watch for doors, parked cars pulling out AND the moving traffic.You'd think that this most basic of Best Practice principles for bicycle infrastructure was the very first thing that would be adhered to. It is clear that in almost all the cities in the world that enjoy high levels of urban cycling and that reap the economic and societal benefits of these levels, the Sidewalk/Bike Lane/Parking/Traffic model is firmly in place. Here's me wondering if the bus lanes of New York should be designated as shared bike lanes on the stretches where separated infrastructure is lacking. Brooklyn was a treat. I'd heard so much about the borough and while I lament the fact that I didn't get to Williamsburg, riding around Brooklyn was a positive experience. If I had to commute early enough, riding over the Brooklyn Bridge would be a very aesthetic route. But the tourists are out in force early on on the bridge so it really is a fine traffic calmed stretch during the day. Here's the entrance to the separated path over the bridge. There were a number of bikes crossing the bridge when I went over it. Locals and tourists alike. Two of the highlights for me were riding across the Manhattan Bridge in the morning light, along a brilliant stretch of bike infrastructure.
And the transformation of Times Square to a pedestrian friendly urban plaza. Tables and chairs everywhere and people using them, even on a drizzly Sunday night like above. Brilliant stuff.


text:
The KOffice team is proud to announce KOffice version 1.5. With this release, KOffice starts its ascent into the office suite hall of fame. This version sports OpenDocument as the default file format, accessibility, a new project planning tool KPlato, professional color support and adjustment layers in Krita and the long awaited Kexi 1.0. You can read more about it in the press release and the full announcement. Packages are available for Kubuntu and SUSE.
KOffice was the first to support, and now with 1.5 the second office suite to announce full support for OpenDocument (ODF) as the default file format. With two independent implementations of ODF now available it is now a true industry standard. KOffice 1.5 is therefore the version that lets enterprises and organisations all over the world choose the office suite that fits their needs best.
Great care has been taken to ensure interoperability with other office software that supports OpenDocument, most notably OpenOffice.org. We acknowledge, however, that the ODF support and interoperability is not yet perfect. We hope to be able to quickly identify and fix the incompatibilities that do exist in the upcoming 1.5.1 and 1.5.2 bugfix releases.
KOffice is already the most comprehensive office suite in existence. In addition to the basic productivity applications mentioned above, it also includes a creativity application suite featuring Krita, a paint application with lots of image manipulation features, Karbon, a vector graphics application and Kivio, a flowcharting application. Other components are Kexi, an integrated environment for creating database applications and KPlato, a program for project management.
Thank you for this. I love Koffice, its usabilty, speed and general niceness.
Whuhuu, Debian unstable has also packages already. Good work everyone!
The i18n packages will be uploaded soon too :)
Best regards
Day started with good news! It's really great day, IMHO:)). I love KOffice for it's stability on mypreferred platform (i386-OpenBSD) and I'm glad that now I have truely KDE-integrated stable (I hope... I believe!:)) office suite! THank you, guys, and thanks again!
Together with other KOffice developers I have put together a comprehensive tour through new features and improvements of the KOffice 1.5 release - the most exciting highlights, check it out here:
Brilliant! Thank you!
I dont really understand the purpose of koshell. Its in the way and unbelievable cluttered - its not any help at all. In fact i dont uderstand why much else than kword is included as they are hardly usable. Please concentrate on kword and dump the rest.
Ah the smell of troll in the afternoon.
How childish of you to take the easy way out, ziggy boy. The lack of quality of koffice is no secret due to the lack of developers. It would simply be a better idea to concentrate on kword - an excellent and different type of editor- instead of wasting ressources on kpresenter, kexi or whatever. At least reduce koffice to two or three official apps and get the others out of the way - nobody uses them anyway and they lower the overrall quality. And dump koshell - it does not serve any purpose when its implementet so lousy.
c'mon... the lack of quality... that's not true! you might say Koffice doesn't have all features MS office or OO.o have, but it certainly is not bad, it's already very complete, and even has some points in which it surpasses both mentioned office suites. Krita is a wonderfull app, goin' for world domination. kpresenter is very decent, and so are most other components. plus, there is no office suite that has half the integration Koffice has.
There is an obvious lack of quality even in kword. I dont complain about that - i just complain about the fact that kword is so much better than the other apps in the suit, that the other apps are not in the same league. Since they obviously lack developers - a complaint koffice devs often air - the solution is clear - dump anything other than kword!
I use word daily at work and dont miss any features in kword og oowriter.
Koshells problem is the GUI - its really unfriendly the besides being butt-ugly. I really fail to see the purpose for it - as someone else pointet out -there is kicker why is that shell needed?
Putting aside the ridiculous nature of your conclusions, you make the incorrect assumption that many others have made about open source software which is that if developers weren't working on something you don't want then they would automatically start working on the stuff that you do want.
Open source developers tend to work on things that they are personally interested in. I'd imagine that many of the KOffice developers would not be as keen to work on KOffice if it only included KWord, so nothing would really be solved by "dumping" the other applications.
I dont make any assumptions. I just conclude that anything else than kword, that i have tryed, does not live up to kwords quality. Its not that kword is that good either but its usable and fullfills the needs i have with it.
Exactly the same conclusions have been made by others here and in other places. I think its a bad idea to join half-baked apps to a suit just to have a suit.
Your ridiculous conclusions about what i want do not matter since I did not mention what i want. I dont intend to formulate "demands" to people that develop for free.
Why don't you *try* some apps before trolling? Get the new release and try, let's say, Kexi and Krita, and tell me they are not good apps.
Then we can talk. The only app I can say is not really up to speed is KSpread. It is not fast and reliable enough for large spreadsheets. But it is getting better, and I would encourage its developers, never say it is crap.
One of the main advantages of KOffice is the wide range of apps. Different people have different interests. A developer may want to work on the formula engine of KSpread, other in Krita's tablet support and another in KWord footnote support. If you kill the other apps, you will end up with less developers, not more, as they will not automagically change their interests.
I'm not trolling. I've been using Koffice since the beginning and KDE since the summer of 98. Some of you guys here seem to think that any critique is an attack. Sad for you.
The thing im saying is dump koffice and concentrate only on a few apps. The only app that works fine is kword so concentrate on that one - the others are an enbaressement.
I dont use krita - i find it ugly and unpleasent to use. I prefer inkscape and the old killustrator. Kexi i dont see the purpose for it. I dont even know anyone that uses those type of apps. Is access really used that much in offices?
>I've been using Koffice since the beginning and KDE since the summer of 98.
So you use it since it was actually unusable...
>The thing im saying is dump koffice and concentrate only on a few apps. The >only app that works fine is kword so concentrate on that one - the others are >an enbaressement.
If you think they are bad then don't use them. To say to a developer to drop
some apps not even caring to tell him why is simply stupid. You say krita and
kexi are an embarassment. Care to explain why? How do you think they could
improve? If you don't have anything constructive to say other than "I don't know anyone that uses it" then, better shut up.
>I dont use krita - i find it ugly and unpleasent to use.
And who cares what YOU find ugly and umpleasant?
>I prefer inkscape and the old killustrator.
And who cares what YOU prefer? KOffice developers keep you from using the
software you prefer?
>Kexi i dont see the purpose for it.
Amusing. You have the nerve to criticise a program you don't even know the
purpose of it. If the fact that "Josel don't see the purpose of it" were
enough reason to force devs to drop their apps, I'm afraid that 99% of the
software in the world would disappear in a fortnight.
>I dont even know anyone that uses those type of apps.
And, obviously, you believe that the fact that YOU don't know anyone that uses
an app is more than enough reason for the developers of that app to drop it.
>Is access really used that much in offices?
Go tell Microsoft to drop Access an concentrate on Word because "Josel don't
see the point of that kind of app".
You are a laugh my friend.
> So you use it since it was actually unusable...
I used it since before version 1.0. You dont find any complaints from me prior to that. And you wont even find many complaints after that. I just get frustrated with the stupid marketing speek.
>you think they are bad then don't use them. To say to a developer to drop
>some apps not even caring to tell him why is simply stupid. You say krita and
>kexi are an embarassment. Care to explain why? How do you think they could
>improve? If you don't have anything constructive to say other than "I don't know >anyone that uses it" then, better shut up.
I dont use them them because i find them bad and their equivalents superior and not so krash prone. I couldnt even open karbon whithout running kbuildsysca - hey im no developer. So no i dont shut up
>And who cares what YOU find ugly and umpleasant?
>And who cares what YOU prefer?
I do!
>Amusing.... bla bla bla
Relax. Thats just my opinion. Im not that important
>You are a laugh my friend.
No you are. Im just expressing my opinion. You go bananas because of it? Go eat your pill.
>>And who cares what YOU find ugly and umpleasant?
>>And who cares what YOU prefer?
>I do!
>>Amusing.... bla bla bla
>Relax. Thats just my opinion. Im not that important
Well, I see you got the point: Nobody cares about your opinion.
That could be different if you were an informed user who actually knows
what he is talking about. Unfortunately that's not the case...
> Kexi i dont see the purpose for it. I dont even know anyone
> that uses those type of apps. Is access really used that much in offices?
Here you show your ignorance. Access is widely used by businesses who in many cases don't have in-house professional developers, and find Access much easier to deal with than something like VB for developing simple data-driven applications. Users have been clamouring for a long time now for an open-source Access replacement, and IMO until Kexi came along there wasn't really one piece of software that satisfied that need. In fact Kexi goes further than Access in many areas and may even be easier to use in many respects.
Wow. I would like to see some numbers for "users" that want Access and especially for end-users in buzinezzzzz that are able to make anything interesting with Access and dont have a developer/geek background. The last cathegory i dont think exist.
There is lots of in-house developed Excel stuff but praticaly no Access stuff. I only ever came ocross one Access app - and not developed by business people.
But this discussion is pointless. Developer develop whatever they want. I simply think that there should be no Koffice since the quality of software other than kword is too low.
Josel, your experience is very, very limited. If you have seen only one Access application you simply haven't seen much of the world. In the fourteen years since I translated the first edition of the Access Bible into Dutch I've seen scores of Access applications created by secretaries, sales people, but also engineers and scholars. And programmers, yes, them too. Not to mention the number of Access frontends to Excel spreadsheets. In the real world, both get a lot of use.
As for thinking that there should be no KOffice, well, make a noise like a hoop and roll away, will you? This silly nonsense is getting tiresome.
I am an Oracle developer, but I use Access every day. I have to process data from many different sources, and Access is the lingua franca for all of them. I can write a complex query in just a few seconds and get the results in an editable recordset. I can write custom functions using regular expressions, xml, and all the VB6 and VBA functions. I can quickly create interfaces using tree-views, drop-downs, sub-forms etc. People that denigrate Access just haven't seen it used competently. My only complaint is that Microsoft has neglected it lately in order to promote sqlsvr and dot-net. Will KOffice ever provide a coding interface comparable to VBA?
Comparable to is one of our goals, same as not. Kross is really cool in that it makes it easy to create an object-oriented interface to an application or library then that interface is available from all languages for which there's a Kross interpreter. That's Python and Ruby for now, but there have already been people interested in doing a Basic interpreter or a Javascript interpreter.
But the object model will in all probability always be different from VBA, because the object model of the underlying application is different.
In fact, some people would be surprised to know the amount of people who actually earns a living with MS Access.
Just because you don't use or want a presentation or database application that is nicely integrated with KDE, doesn't mean that everyone else shares that view.
Very strange of you to use Kexi as an example. Kexi is the program that is truly unique in KOffice, and the one that very many people have been waiting for. Besides, one of the main strengths of KOffice is its breadth and integration, something that many mention as the direct reason to use KOffice from the beginning.
Regarding koshell, we would be interested in hearing how you think it could be improved.
> Regarding koshell, we would be interested in hearing how you think it could be improved.
Drop it. It's crappy and useless. :)
The problem is that it was the result of users -- just like you -- complaining "I'd use KOffice if it were more like Outlook". (Seriously -- go back in the mailing lists and even on this board). That integration that you dislike so much? That's the result of listening to users.
So, you're a user, eh?
> So, you're a user, eh?
Sure. You aren't!? ;) I'm not interested digging into the history of koshell, but always assumed it should become something similar to the dead old MS Office toolbar. If there was a well defined goal to reach with koshell (no, the Outlook quote doesn't count imho), the result failed to deliver.
> "I'd use KOffice if it were more like Outlook".
Probably an example, that it's not always fruitful to listen to every weird wish/opinion. An office suite simply isn't a PIM.
> That integration that you dislike so much?
No. Koshell is just wasted space on the desktop. When I want be able to start an applicaton quickly, I add it to Kicker. When I want to insert another (KOffice) object I do it from within the application. I haven't even a clue what you mean with the integration stanza in context of koshell. To me it's a weird, unusable thing I never have used and never heard or read that anyone is using it.
if there is something you don't like about any aspect of koffice or any kde application you are more than welcome to change it to fit your needs our kde developers code for them selfs and the community as a selfless act something they do not have to do.
Another option is to pay a developer to implament the changes you wish to be made im sure there is a c++/Qt developer more than willing to take your money.
You really should not speak bad of the koffice project it is free.
If you wish to learn about the resources you will need to be able to contribute
to the koffice project there are to very good books you can get.
1. C++ without fear
2. C++ GUI Programming with QT3
3. Just google for all the free c++ and kde/qt tutorials.
Untill you have the motivation to find out what it is like to be in there shoes
i wouldn't complain about koffices quality.
Last but not least have just a little bit more respect when you post here all
your doing is showing everyone the type of jackass you really are :).
I can't hear this sort of blah, blah anymore. Everyone has an opinion on everything. Calling one to hold his mouth, because he gets something for free is extremely stupid, but unfortunately not uncommon in the FOSS world, when someone isn't able to grok opinions of others.
> You really should not speak bad of the koffice project it is free.
I haven't done so. I spoke about a single, minor, unusable part of it. I haven't even a problem with koshell being a part of KOffice. It's just not worth developers time / maintenance.
And just how can YOU tell a developer what is worth his/her time? If they are developing it, it is obviously worth the time to THEM. Especially given the fact that they are working on it for free and aren't being mandated by a company to do it. Just because you see no value in it does not mean there is no value in it.
So you're another one, who doesn't know what an opinion is. I tell no one what to do. I simply answered Inge's question from my point of view. What the KOffice developers do is up to them.
Oh I know what an opinion is. I also know that most people don't mind criticism or advice if it's viewed as constructive. Saying someone's work is a waste of time just comes across badly. I personally never use Koshell, but I won't trash the developers efforts if they choose to develop it.
Well if koshell is the part of koffice you do not like then remove it from your copy.
And upload the changes somewhere others can also make use of your changes better yet supply the community with a patch.
Enought said.
You can install KOffice without koshell already (when the distributor supports it or when you compile from source). This wasn't my point anyways.
No i get your point.
But i cant bring myself to agree, see i think ms windows is a useless peice of software and a huge waist of time i fought windows users for years trying to show them alternatives but in the end people just get mad and i learned a valuble lesson if even 1 person finds value in something then everything that had to be endured in the process of its creation was worth it.
Even if the only person that found any usefullness for say koshell was a single developer then it creation has been justifyed. no matter what!
I am having all kinds of broken dependencies when trying to install this on Suse 10.0.
libmysqlclient.so.14 is needed by koffice-database-mysql-1.5.0-2
libpqxx-2.2.7.so is needed by koffice-database-psql-1.5.0-2
kdelibs3-devel is needed by koffice-devel-1.5.0-2
libruby.so.1.8 is needed by koffice-ruby-1.5.0-2
libgsf-1.so.113 is needed by koffice-wordprocessing-1.5.0-2
libwv2.so.1 is needed by koffice-wordprocessing-1.5.0-2
libgsf-1.so.113 is needed by libwpd-0.8.4-3
libgsf-devel is needed by libwpd-devel-0.8.4-3
glib2-devel is needed by libwpd-devel-0.8.4-3
libgsf-devel is needed by libwpd-tools-0.8.4-3
glib2-devel is needed by libwpd-tools-0.8.4-3
libgsf-1.so.113 is needed by libwpd-tools-0.8.4-3
Anybody have any tips?
Broken dependencies? kdelibs3-devel etc.? You must be joking.
> Anybody have any tips?
Install the required rpms? Skip packages you don't need (devel, mysql, pysql)?
Use a packet manager like YaST to resolve/install dependencies?
Did You upgrade via YaST? I did, and all dependencies were resolved (SUSE 10.0, AMD64.
I am having the exact same problem installing Koffice write. YAST does not resolve the problems. I have also tried separately installing the missing links but seem to be in an endless loop of one requiring the other (i.e., libgsf-1.s0o.113 and libwpd-0.8 are both broken links needing each other).
One reply here hints that only stupid people would have trouble. Well, it really doesn't matter because I am another user who cannot get Koffice to work and if the Koffice people really want to develop any loyalty they should fix the difficulty. I've spent several hours trying to get this to work and there is high likelihood that I will not get back to this in the near future. I'm left with the feeling that Koffice is not worth the bother and I wonder how many other people will feel the same way.
By the way, I have been programming in many languages and operating systems beginning with IBM 1620 in 1965 so I can usually hack my way through problems.
Paul Thomas
You have to install KDE 3.5.2 from supplementary repository.
Sorry, but try to understand: the KOffice people (meaning me, David, Thomas, Rob, Laurent, Thorsten, Peter, Alfredo, Ariya, Tomas, Jaroslaw and a host of other people) cannot do a thing to fix the SuSE packages. We don't make those packages, creating packages is a whole different kind of expertise, one that a developer doesn't have, in general.
You're not stupid for not getting the SuSE packages to work, in fact, I, and I'm a KOffice developer, cannot get Krita not to crash when doing color adjustment under SuSE. It works perfectly with Kubuntu...
That said, SuSE is a great distribution and the distribution I prefer to use on my server and I simply wouldn't be able to create better packages. I can code nor do documentation; I cannot create packages. Other people cannot code; they do documentation, other people can do packages.
But things get broken, errors do occur. It's impossible to develop software and not depend on external libraries -- unless you're a one hundred man strong team, paid to do development fulltime, and do everything yourself, like the OpenOffice team -- and even then, I would question the wisdom of doing without libraries. Libraries are a fact of life: and outside our control. Sorry for that.
I'm a recent "switcher" sort of, from Windows to Linux Suse 10. I am having trouble installing anything on Suse then finding it, and making it work. It is so much easier in Windows to install a program.
I am otherwise very impressed with Suse Linux. I also have high hopes that Linux will soon offer an everyday user a alternative to Windows. I think Linux is close but for me at least installing "stuff" on Linux Suse is a complete puzzle.
Thanks much,
Very good news. Anybody offering package for Tomahawk Desktop?
With Tomahawk Desktop, you don't have to wait until somebody package it for you. Just do following:
1. Open a Konsole, type su and login as root
2. su koffice
3. uninstall_package koffice
4. (a) Copy the new koffice-1.5.0.tar.bz2 to your current directory (/usr/src/koffice/) if you have already downloaded the source package. OR
(b) If you have not downloaded the source package, just type following and press Enter:
wget ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/koffice-1.5.0/src/koffice-1.5.0.tar.bz2
5. Check the md5sum:
md5sum koffice-1.5.0.tar.bz2
it should be: 220b6bde28b5ebd5c6621bc87ca2c05f
6. bunzip2 koffice-1.5.0.tar.bz2
7. tar xf koffice-1.5.0.tar
8. cd koffice-1.5.0
9. ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --disable-debug
10. make >& koffice-make.log
11. make install >& koffice-install.log
12. exit
13. exit
14. exit
Its the same concept to upgrade any other package.
Good luck!
> With Tomahawk Desktop, you don't have to wait until somebody package it for you.
> 9. ./configure
> 10. make
> 11. make install
What a quite unique feature of Tomahawk Desktop!
well, as Tomahawk installs Koffice now as a user (Koffice) you can just remove all files from this user, and Koffice is removed. or package all files of this user, and you have a package. so it is a bit more clever than the normal 'configure/make/make install', and very unix-like. no central database that can be broken, or stuff like that...
tough i still prefer a decent package management like debian or gentoo have :D
and you package your .tar.gz to a .run, you have a Nvidia style package :)
If you're going to compile anyway, I prefer the Gentoo way:
emerge -av koffice
Looks a lot simpler than this Tomahawk thing that keeps getting spamvertised here.


text:
Prepare your trip
Cash movement limits
Travelling with money? Know when you're required to declare it.
You are allowed to travel with any amount of money. However, if you are entering or leaving the European Union carrying an amount over 10,000 euros, or its equivalent in a different currency, you are under a legal obligation to declare it at Customs. Know the rules and always travel within the law.
What is the minimum amount that I am obliged to declare at Customs?
All passengers entering or leaving the European Union carrying an amount equal to or above 10,000 euros, or its equivalent in a different currency, in cash or convertible securities, such as bonds, shares or traveller's checks, must declare it at Customs.
Some EU Member States have implemented extraordinary control and reporting measures for the circulation of money within the EU. These will be implemented alongside the European regulations presented here.
Where do I declare cash or cash equivalents?
The declaration form, duly filled in, must be submitted at Customs, inside the airport, in the Arrivals area.
Why must I submit the declaration? And what happens if I don't?
Declaring cash or cash amounts equal to or greater than 10 thousand euros is a legal obligation for all passengers entering or leaving the European Union.
By doing so, you will not only be complying with European law, but you will also be contributing to combating money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as other illegal activities.
Moreover, declaring your valuables prevents you from having your money retained or seized, or from being subject to a penalty, which may happen in the event of a failure to declare or false declaration.
For more information on the restrictions imposed on the circulation of money within the European Union, visit ec.europa.eu/eucashcontrols .


text:
What are the keys to victory for Junior dos Santos this Saturday in his UFC 155 main event against Cain Velasquez? Michael DiSanto breaks them down...
Four days after Christmas, reigning UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos puts his title on the line against the man he took it from 13 months ago, Cain Velasquez.
It is the perfect end to what has been an interesting year for the UFC.
Looking back for a moment, 2012 saw the successful return of the sport's favorite son, Georges St-Pierre. Pound-for-pound kingpin Anderson Silva fought and won two bouts—one against heated rival Chael Sonnen and another on short notice 20 pounds north of his typical home to save a fight card from cancellation.
Four new champions were crowned. Well, three full champions and one, Renan Barao, who is of the interim type. Benson Henderson won and successfully defended the lightweight belt. Demetrious Johnson became the inaugural flyweight champ. And Ronda Rousey made history earlier this month by being crowned the first female champion (and first female to sign a fight contract with the UFC) when UFC President Dana White decided to convert her Strikeforce title into a shiny, new UFC belt.
That is one heck of a year. Saturday's rematch between arguably the two best heavyweights of the last decade takes it over the top.
If that doesn't get your pay-per-view purchasing finger a bit trigger happy, then someone needs to check your pulse.
Yesterday, we examined the keys to victory for the challenger. He needs to mix it up on the feet just enough to create the opportunity for a takedown and then sell out like there is no tomorrow. For the champion, his two biggest keys to victory are to remain active and fire his big right uppercut.
Velasquez is a high-octane fighter who uses lots of good footwork and lateral movement to create openings for his excellent strikes. When he gets comfortable on the feet, he is as dangerous as anyone with his punches and kicks, particularly when leading the action.
He might not be a truly devastating one-strike knockout artist like dos Santos, but he can stop anyone when he throws punches in bunches. Remember, we are talking about a 240-pound world-class athlete. When he hits, it hurts. Period.
Because Velasquez isn't a great counterstriker, one of the best ways to keep him off balance is to take the fight to him. Dos Santos should walk him down with punches from bell to bell, always moving forward to the extent practical.
He largely did that in their first bout, and the results speak for themselves. The Brazilian won by knockout in just 64 seconds. It was a jaw-dropping performance by dos Santos, one that I quite honestly never saw coming.
In retrospect, however, it should have been somewhat obvious that a standup-only fight would favor dos Santos. After all, he is the best boxer in the heavyweight division—bar none. And his most effective weapon is the right uppercut.
Make no mistake about it. Dos Santos can turn out the lights with a variety of strikes. He dropped Velasquez in their first bout with an overhand right that landed behind the ear. But he shouldn't count on landing that strike again. Velasquez will be focused on taking it away by keeping his left hand very high and circling to his own right.
The high guard should neutralize the overhand right, but it leaves the challenger vulnerable to the right uppercut. The question is how to go about landing it.
The first, and most obvious, way is to fire it off the heels of a left hand. The Brazilian bomber has one of the best jabs in the division. He snaps it like a professional boxer, though unlike most boxers, it is not a range finder. Dos Santos' jab causes very real damage, so it is a weapon in and of itself.
Dos Santos can jab and quickly fire a right uppercut up the middle. Velasquez will be so focused on keeping his left hand high that it is unlikely he will drop it to defend the jab.
The champion can also double up on the jab or throw one of his slick jab-left hook combinations before immediately cleaning up with his money punch. Those combinations should be particularly effective because the champion does not retreat straight back in the face of incoming fire, like most mixed martial artists. He instead stays in the pocket and moves his head and upper body like a pendulum to slip shots.
Like a pendulum, Velasquez returns to center after slipping a shot. Thus, if the double jab or jab-left hook miss, he could very well be front and center by the time the uppercut arrives.
But that isn't the end of the challenger's options with his favorite strike. He can also lead with the punch. As crazy as it sounds, dos Santos is extremely effective leading with his right uppercut. Most fighters don't try that technique because it requires elite hand speed. Otherwise, it is fairly easy to counter by slipping left and firing a left hook.
Of course, dos Santos possesses elite hand speed, so he can effectively lead with a right uppercut without too much concern. He routinely lands that punch in just about every bout. I don't see why Saturday night will be any different.
The one time that he may want to forget the right uppercut is when he is timing a Velasquez kick. In that instance, he is better served firing his right straight down the middle.
Velasquez is an extremely slick kickboxer, with very few tell signs associated with his deep arsenal of strikes. The one notable exception is when he throws a left kick, whether to the inside of his opponent's lead leg, body or head. The American Kickboxing Academy superstar always steps forward with his right foot before firing a kick with his left leg in order to set his hips to generate speed and power with the strike.
It is a quick shuffle step. But he does it every time. He doesn't fire any other strike, other than a left kick, when he shuffle steps forward with his right foot.
Dos Santos can try to time Velasquez by stepping in and firing the right hand down the middle the second he sees the champion shuffle stepping forward. He must do it instantly in order to arrive at the target first. And he had better hope that Velasquez isn't uncorking a high kick, because things could get ugly in that instance.
Nevertheless, the risk is worth the reward. Velasquez is a very durable, high-energy fighter that can go for days. It is unlikely that dos Santos will outlast Velasquez in a grueling five-round war, so he should be thinking stoppage within the first three rounds—or the first 64 seconds—just like in their last bout.
Defensively, dos Santos needs to always be mindful of defending the takedown. Velasquez is a former two-time Division I All-American collegiate wrestler. His wrestling chops are so strong that he was able to take down Brock Lesnar in his title winning affair, something very few people in the world can do.
He can remain in good position to defend the takedown by not over committing on his power punches. Selling out with haymakers is the best way to open the door for a takedown. Dos Santos should keep a solid base with his feet and focus on throwing fast, not necessarily hard, punches. If he does that, then he can rely on his biggest strength, his boxing skills.
I'm honestly not sure who should be the rightful favorite going into the rematch. Conventional wisdom suggests that the man who won the first fight by knockout tends to win the rematch as well. Velasquez might be hesitant because he will remember what happened the last time, and hesitation is the arch enemy of a fighter.
Then again, dos Santos might come out overconfident. Or maybe the first fight was a fluke.
We will all find out soon enough.
Junior dos Santos
• 15-1
• 6'4, 240 lbs
• 77-inch reach
• 28 years old
• 10-fight winning streak (last loss on November 10, 2007)
• 73.3% of wins ended by strikes
• 13.3% of wins by submission, other than from strikes
• 13.3% of wins by decision
• Knockout of the Night 3x
• Current layoff is 217 days
• Career long layoff is 308 days
UFC 117 Fight Between Anderson Silva And Chael Sonnen…


text:
AODHAN LS007 18X9 +30 5X114.3 Matte Gun Metal
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The team at AodHan Wheels has more than 10+ years in design, manufacturing and marketing of luxury customized wheels for the automotive industry. With leading edge style and precision engineering, their unique designs and wheel fitments support applications of performance, luxury and standard vehicles. they have created dedicated and highly educated team that focus on unique design, functionality and industry leading performance of our products. Quality is the base of development for AodHan Wheels. The quality management center is established to manage the implementation of a quality standardized system. The professional department was brought in to carry out the verification tests on new products. The test production and verification process is carried out strictly according to the condition of test production: CMM dimensional inspection, leak detection inspection and imbalance inspection as well as Impact, bending and rolling test. All of their wheels exceed fatigue, rolling resistance and CASS corrosion testing standards. Aodhan uses industry leading methods to manufacture and produce their wheels. The low pressure casting process allows for a monoblock design while being strong, durable and affordable to the consumer without compromising quality. Their newest manufacturing process "Flow Form" would be the next tier up in quality. This process allows for an outstandingly robust wheel while being lighter than a monoblock cast wheel.
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text: When a young aardvark accidentally becomes a stowaway in Chris's backpack, the Wild Kratts team sets off on a "door to door" search to return him to his home burrow. Along the way, they discover the incredible (and valuable) service the aardvark provides to all the burrow-living creatures of Africa. Science Concept: Aardvarks manipulate earth materials and alter landscapes.


text:
Posts tagged as:
Using the internet to make government more interesting
Posts tagged as:
by Dave on March 12, 2008
A blog about technology, culture and the bits in between, with a focus on government and public services. Written and curated by Dave Briggs, Learning Pool's Community Evangelist. Find out more.
You can subscribe using RSS or email, using the links below...
Get smart with the Thesis WordPress Theme from DIYthemes.


text:
Number of Items:1
This Climax Metal setscrew shaft collar is made of stainless steel 303. It is a setscrew-type shaft collar for applications supporting low axial loads and simple positioning. Setscrew collars have improved holding power when the shaft material is softer than the setscrew material. It is made of stainless steel 303 for greater resistance to corrosion than steel or aluminum. This collar comes with a socket setscrew for securing the collar onto the shaft. The operating temperatures for this collar range from -40 to 426 degrees C (-40 to 800 degrees F).This shaft collar is suitable for use in various applications, including in the automotive industry to situate components in automobile power steering assemblies, the manufacturing industry to locate components on a conveyor belt system, and the hobby craft industry to hold wheels on axles in remote control vehicles, among others.
Shaft collars are ring-shaped devices primarily used to secure components onto shafts. They also serve as locators, mechanical stops, and spacers between other components. The two basic types of shaft collars are clamping (or split) collars, which come in one- or two-piece designs, and setscrew collars. In both types, one or more screws hold the collars in place on the shaft. In setscrew collars, screws are tightened through the collar until they press directly against the shaft, and in clamping collars, screws are tightened to uniformly compress the collar around the shaft without impinging or marring it. Setscrew collars and one-piece clamping collars must be installed by sliding the collar over the end of the shaft, while two-piece clamping collars separate into two halves and can be installed between components on the shaft. Shaft collars are made from a wide range of materials including zinc-plated steel, aluminum, nylon, and neoprene. Found in nearly every type of machinery and industry, shaft collars are used in applications including gearbox assemblies, motor bases, machine tools, drive shafts, agricultural implements, medical equipment, and paper and steel mill equipment, among others.
Climax Metal Products Company (CLIMAX) manufactures shaft collars, rigid couplings, keyless locking devices, pulleys, keyless bushings, and bearings for the power transmission industry and industrial maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) markets. The company, founded in 1946, and headquartered in Mentor, OH, meets International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008 quality assurance standards.
- Setscrew shaft collar for applications supporting low axial loads and simple positioning
- Effective on shafts made of softer material than the setscrew material
- Stainless steel 303 for greater corrosion resistance than steel or aluminum
- Includes a socket setscrew for securing the collar onto the shaft
- Operating temperatures range from -40 to 426 degrees C (-40 to 800 degrees F)


text:
When I was at the grocery store I noticed that they still had a lot of cheap pineapples and I remembered that I had recently come across a recipe for a Thai pineapple fried rice in my bookmarks that sounded really good. I had not thought of adding sweet, juicy and tangy pineapple to a fried rice dish but the idea immediately stuck in my mind. I also noticed that the recipe called for a healthy dose of curry powder and combo'd with the pineapple it kind of reminded me of the curried pineapple banana bread that I had recently made and really enjoyed. I was already sold on the dish and the shrimp, cashews and raisins just took it over the edge! I only made a few changes including using brown rice and fresh peas since I had already picked some up at the farmers market. Whenever I make stir-fries, I clean, slice, chop and make sure that I have everything ready and on hand before turning the heat on as things move quickly after you start. The Thai pineapple rice was pretty easy to make after the prep work was done and the results were fantastic. The finished dish was so vibrantly colourful and the curry gave it an amazing aroma. The juicy pineapple and succulent shrimp worked really well with the curry flavours in this fried rice. The curry and chilies added the perfect amount of heat that was balanced by the pineapple and the raisins while the cashews added a nice contrasting texture. I have been raving about how good this fried rice was since I made it. I have a feeling that this dish will enter my regular rotation and given that you could easily use canned pineapple you could easily make this dish year round. You could also easily make a vegetarian version by omitting the shrimp and making a few ingredient swaps.
Thai Pineapple Fried Rice
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 shallots (sliced)
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 red chili (chopped)
- 1 red pepper (diced)
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 3 tablespoons chicken stock (or vegetable broth)
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 cup cashews (roasted)
- 3 cups cooked rice (preferably a day old)
- 1 cup pineapple (cut into bite sized pieces)
- 1/2 pound shrimp (cooked, optional)
- 1/4 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
- 1/4 cup currants (or raisins)
- 2 green onions (sliced)
- 1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
- Heat the oil in a pan.
- Add the shallots, garlic, chillies and red pepper and stir-fry until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the egg and stir-fry for a minute.
- Add the chicken stock, fish sauce, curry powder and sugar and stir-fry.
- Add the cashews and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
- Add the rice, break up any clumps and stir-fry for a few minutes.
- Add the pineapple, shrimp, peas and raisins and stir-fry to mix them in.
- Remove from heat and serve garnished with chopped green onions and cilantro.


text:
VORZA, Apache C1/SC
Enhance the tuning potential of the VORZA, Apache C1 and Apache SC with this fully-featured Turnbuckle Set! Turnbuckles allow you to make quick and effective tuning changes to the car, letting you change settings like front and rear camber, which make a real difference to how the vehicle handles in a turn. You can also make easy adjustments to the front toe angle, which can affect how quickly the vehicles steer into and out of a corner.
These are the same adjustments racers make to their buggies and trucks, and now you can give them a try!


text:
PRK Surgery
Established in 2015, Liv Duna Medical Center is Hungary's premier private healthcare facility, offering outpatient, inpatient, and diagnostic services. With dedicated professionals, modern diagnostics, consultations in 45 specialties, advanced surgical infrastructure, obstetrics center, and patient-
upon request
The OPTIK-MED Laser Eye Centre is one of the busiest laser centres in Europe focuses on PRK, Lasik, Lasek and other eye treatments for both local and international patients.
This information is intended for general information only and should not be considered as medical advice on the part of Health-Tourism.com. Any decision on medical treatments, after-care or recovery should be done solely upon proper consultation and advice of a qualified physician.
What is PRK Surgery? PRK surgery, or PhotoRefractive Keratectomy, is a type of laser surgery to correct moderate nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. PRK surgery reshapes the cornea with a laser so that light is more effectively focused on the retina to improve vision. How is PRK Surgery carried out? PRK surgery, unlike LASIK eye surgery, does not use a knife or cutting laser to create a flap in the cornea. Instead, PRK surgery removes a thin layer of the cornea's surface and reshapes the surface of the cornea to correct the vision. What are the chances of success with PRK Surgery? According to WebMD, PRK surgery is accurate in correcting cases of nearsightedness and around 80 percent of PRK participants have 20/20 vision one year after surgery. How popular is PRK in comparison to LASIK? PRK surgery is less popular than LASIK eye surgery as LASIK generally results in faster, more comfortable and more predictable healing.
Copyright © 2008 - 2024 Health-Tourism.com, All Rights Reserved


text:
Item name | Catalog Item Number | Price | Tags | Lists |
Band Together Cling Stamp Set | 149231 (Retired) | $23.00 | ||
Show someone how much they mean to you with the Band Together Stamp Set. This beautiful flower can't wait to be stamped and handed over as a token of love! Stampin' Up!'s cling stamps * Are premium rubber stamps. * Have deeply etched images so you get a superior stamped impression each time. * Are precut so you don't have to trim. * Are repositionable; temporarily mount them on clear blocks for stamping, then remove them for storage. * Save space—you need only one set of blocks for all | ||||
Category: Stamps | Coordinates with: | Band Together Bundle Detailed Bands Dies |


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Dhaka, Bangladesh - Four Christian families in southeastern Bangladesh left their village yesterday under mounting pressure by Buddhist extremists to give up their faith in Christ.
Sources told Compass that 20 to 25 Buddhists brandishing sticks and bamboo clubs in Jamindhonpara village, 340 kilometres (211 miles) southeast of Dhaka, began patrolling streets on Friday (April 30) to keep the 11 members of the Lotiban Baptist Church from gathering for their weekly prayer meetings. On Saturday, the Buddhist extremists captured four men and beat one woman who had gathered in a home, threatening to kill them if they did not become Buddhists within 24 hours.
Yesterday, the Buddhist extremists attacked the homes of the Baptists two hours before their 1 p.m. worship service, sources said.
"Just two hours before our church service, a group of people swooped into our houses and drove all of us out so we could not attend the church service," said one church member who requested anonymity.
The Christians captured Saturday night were released after the extremists, who ripped crosses off the walls of their homes, threatened to kill them if they continued praying and worshipping in the area. After yesterday's attacks, all Christians in Jamindhonpara fled, taking shelter in another village, source said. Jamindhonpara is located in the Lotiban area, Panchari sub-district of Khagrachari district.
"When they come, they do not listen to us," said the church member. "They arbitrarily do whatever they like. The situation is indescribable – they hunt us down the same way that one hunts down a mad dog to kill it."
On Saturday the Buddhist villagers chanted anti-Christian slogans as they formed a procession that snaked through the village.
"They chanted in the demonstration, 'We will not allow any Christian to live in this area,' 'We will not allow them to build a church here,' and 'Christians cannot live in Buddhists' areas,'" said one source. "We did not inform the police or army. Informing them is very dangerous. They could even kill us if we complained about them to police and army or the local administration."
Local Buddhists were infuriated when Christians established a church in the Lotiban area in December; since then, they have been trying to stop all Christian activities. In the campaign to uproot Christianity, they have tried to expel the pastor of Lotiban Baptist Church by means of various threats, source said.
One of the Christians who fled yesterday, 65-year-old Biraj Kumar Chakma, told Compass that they would not go back to Buddhism whatever pressure might come.
"We left everything," Chakma said. "We can go through any kind of ordeal, but we will not leave Jesus, even in the face of death. I have not seen in my life a book like the Bible. To stick to it, I left my ancestral house under huge pressure of the Buddhists. They applied much force to give up our faith."
Chakma said that since his daughter became a Christian, she has not been able to live in the village.
"She is living in a hideout for her safety," he said.
The Rev. Sushil Jibon Tripura, president of Khagrachari district Baptist Fellowship Church, told Compass that the daily life of the Christian villagers has become intolerable, as they have sacrificed their livelihood for their faith.
"Buddhists are not giving them any work," Tripura said. "They are not allowed to collect drinking water from local deep tube wells. Nobody mixes with them. They are not allowed to shop in the village market. So the Buddhist villagers have ostracized them."
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) runs various projects in the area for the development of tribal people, but most the committee members are Buddhists who deprive the Christians of UNDP assistance, he said. The aid includes financial help for ginger cultivation and small cattle farming and cooperative money given through a committee selected from among the villagers.
"When they were Buddhist, they used to get all the aid provided by the UNDP," Tripura said. "But when they became Christians, they started facing problems. Recently the committee members took away eight passbooks from Christian villagers given by the UNDP for getting financial help."
Tripura said he informed the district UNDP office, and officials there said they would look into it.
The United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), an armed group in the hill districts that is also a political party, is active in the area. Tripura said some area Buddhists have mobilized only mid-level activists of the UPDF against the Christians.
"Being an inhabitant of this area, I can say that the high-command of the UPDF is not involved here," he said.
The tribal people of the area share common ancestors and the same social/cultural milieu, he added.
"We are brothers. But the undercurrent of the hatred is religion," Tripura said. "We are trying to sit with the Buddhist leaders along with the UPDF leaders for resolving the matter in a peaceful manner."
The UPDF is one of two main tribal organizations in the hill districts, the other being the United People's Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, or PCJSS). The PCJSS, formed in 1973, had fought for autonomy in the region for 25 years, leaving nearly 8,500 troops, rebels and civilians killed. After signing a peace accord in 1997 with the Bangladesh government, the PCJSS laid down arms.
But the UPDF, founded in 1998 and based in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, has strong and serious reservations against the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord signed in 1997. Claiming that the agreement failed to address fundamental demands of the indigenous Jumma people, the UPDF has pledged to fight for their full autonomy.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts region comprises three districts: Bandarban, Khagrachuri and Rangamati. The region is surrounded by the Indian states of Tripura on the north and Mizoram on the east, Myanmar on the south and east.