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Dragon Quest Monster Joker may not be as a very good experience on Nintendo DS, but it is playable. Production value and monster battles may not be the best, but it catches up with other RPG games. For first time players it is easy to play and it can be worthy to play.
Super Gamer Dude
Nintendo DS
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker makes its come-back to US for quite a long period of time. As originated from Dragon Quest Monster, this is one unique and hard to forget game. Monster collecting games, just like its counterpart Pokemon, is really an exciting game to play! This Nintendo DS game will allow you to play as a young boy whose father is imprisoned by a mysterious organization called CELL. He is involved with this organization and indeed part of it. Your father then asks you to do missions for the organization. Forcibly then you participate in different battles and a secret mission for CELL. And after clips, and a brief introduction, and detailed instructions, you head for the adventure. Then the game begins.
With the previous Dragon Quest Monster go through dungeon, battle, fight bad guys, collect monster, and as other RPG games must do. With Dragon Quest: Joker, you'd feel a great level of adventure. The experience is mostly about battle, which the series lack before.
The game has over 200 monsters and some of these creatures are new. Because it is an RPG game, you can carry up to three (3) members in your team at a time. Each should be able to level up, upgrade skill, and equipped with. With other monster-collecting RPG games, Joker has a non-violent way of persuading monsters to join the team.
Monster scouting and conversion is made in percentage where a dice roll is stimulated. To convert monsters and turn them into members, you have an impossible 2% chance to convert them. This is how thin your chance can be. It can be quite frustrating though.
You can try new strategies with your team with Joker. You can control monsters in different categories, breed and train them. With battles, you can easily say Fight and watch them battle with opponents. Switching up strategies is easy and quick making it more natural to move.
The bad thing about this game is its graphic and presentation. Oftentimes the control is a problem too. Technicality can be a big problem at times. Characters and monsters often pop out of nowhere and fade instantly. The 3D action isn't good and it is often disturbing. Touch buttons become a problem as it is used for maps and battle menus, they are small.
Dragon Quest Monster: Joker may not be as a very good experience on Nintendo DS, but it is playable. Production value and monster battles may not be the best, but it catches up with other RPG games. For first time players it is easy to play and it can be worthy to play with. Because this is a Dragon Monster Quest series, the experience and adventure is still the same. 3D work may not be so impressive and grandiose but it is surprisingly fun. The technical quality may be a problem, but somewhat it can hook you still in your chair for a long time. Monster-collecting lovers will love this game for sure.
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Stairway to Heaven
I have to be honest: I've never really understood the whole wedding-cake-plastic-staircase thing. I mean, who first decided the wedding figurines might need to take a stroll down to one of the side cakes?
"Ok, what you have to do is, hop over the leaf-shrooms, collect the heart rings, and then duke it out with the Moopa-Moosers down at the bottom. Oh, and watch out for the barrels."
Then, after providing this thoughtful pathway, the decorators go and make it completely inaccessible!
Granted, I can't think of a better place to put your plastic deer collection.
You know what, though? These cakes still don't have enough going on. What do you say in addition to the stairs, tiers, figurines, and light-up fountain, we cover everything in Louis Vuitton?
But it's STILL not enough. Can we get a few dozen miniature bridal party dolls, a Barbie cake, a few bolts of tulle, and the Amazon rain forest in here now, guys?
No, no, don't take away the stairs, fountain, or multiple topper figurines; we need those.
All set? Alrighty, let's take a look.

subset: commoncrawl


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England's first match since Euro 2012 did not quite amount to a brave new world but they can at least reflect on a satisfying evening's work. Their debutants should be better for the experience and Roy Hodgson's team, experimenting with a new formation, are entitled to enjoy beating the nation that had outplayed them in the Euro 2012 quarter-final.
This was a far more gentle workout against what was, in essence, an Italy B team, but England recovered well once Daniele de Rossi's goal, after a quarter of an hour, had threatened another ordeal. Phil Jagielka equalised after 27 minutes, emulating De Rossi with a header straight from a corner, and England won the match with a wonderful strike from Jermain Defoe, one of their six substitutes.
Another, Ryan Bertrand, had stopped England from going behind with a goal-line clearance only seconds before and this was a good night for the players winning their first caps. Tom Cleverley coped ably after going straight into the starting line-up, and Jack Butland is now the youngest goalkeeper in England's history, beating a record that had lasted 124 years. Butland started the match, suggesting he is now officially Joe Hart's understudy, before John Ruddy replaced him at the interval. Within 10 minutes, Ruddy had made the outstanding save of the match, in a second half also notable for Jake Livermore's debut.
An international friendly three days before the start of the new Premier League season is never going to be remembered with any great fondness, particularly one that is staged in a two-thirds empty stadium in Switzerland. But there was certainly more good than bad, even if it is still a work in progress. If nothing else, it is encouraging that Hodgson is willing to move away from the 4-4-2 formation that he favoured in Euro 2012 and that has been the cornerstone for most of his managerial career.
England have taken their time catching up with most of the successful teams in Europe and the 4-2-3-1 system has brought them their first victory over Italy in 15 years. Hodgson started with Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick as deep-lying midfielders, collecting the ball from the defence and setting the tempo.
Cleverley was in a more advanced position, with Ashley Young and Adam Johnson coming in from wide positions to support Andy Carroll as the spearhead of attack. Carroll had a disappointing 45 minutes before his withdrawal at half-time and James Milner, a substitute, was more penetrative in wide positions than either Johnson or Young. Yet there were some good performances, too. Lampard's was an impressive riposte for those who have suggested it is a retrograde step to bring the 34-year-old back into the team. Carrick's return ended with him wearing the captain's armband and Defoe was sharp and confident after replacing Carroll, scoring with a peach of a strike.
At least this time it was not an object lesson in how to pass the ball, as had been witnessed when these sides met in Kiev seven and a half weeks ago. England, however, had a difficult opening 25 minutes. De Rossi's header was a soft goal to concede, and an unimpressive start from Carrick given that he was the player who was out-jumped in the process.
Carrick's return to the team, after a two-year absence, was designed so England could start taking better care of the ball, rather than because of his ability to make clearing headers inside his own penalty area. All the same, it is part of a midfielder's job to do the muck-and-nettles stuff and Carrick, who is taller than De Rossi, will not enjoy the replays of what happened after Alessandro Diamanti's corner.
Italy will have similar complaints about Jagielka's goal but the Everton defender deserves a lot of credit for the way he attacked the ball and read the trajectory of Lampard's corner. Jagielka was simply quicker and more decisive than his nearest opponent, Federico Balzaretti, throwing himself at the ball to flash a diving header past Salvatore Sirigu, playing instead of Gianluigi Buffon in Italy's goal.
The second half featured more chances, even if there were times when the frequency with which both teams made substitutes interrupted the flow.
Italy began well, Ruddy diving to his right to block Mattia Destro's low shot splendidly, followed shortly afterwards by Federico Peluso shooting into the side-netting.
For the most part though, it was an evenly contested game played at times with the feel of the pre-season encounter that it was. Carrick looked nice on the ball, as he always does, even if Lampard was more influential. If there was a criticism, it was that England might have carried more threat going forwards if Kyle Walker and Leighton Baines had been more willing to break forward from their full-back positions, as they do for their clubs.
Before anyone gets too carried away, it should also be noted this was an Italy side featuring eight debutants, two starting the match and another half a dozen coming on from the bench. England do deserve credit, though, for not letting the game drift to an uneventful conclusion.
Shortly before the winning goal, another of the substitutes, Joleon Lescott, bundled Milner's cross against the post from almost point-blank range but could not turn in the rebound. Bertrand then headed out Manolo Gabbiadini's goalbound effort and, moments later, the ball was at Defoe's feet. The striker's turn gave him a yard on the nearest opponent, Ignazio Abate, and his diagonal shot from 25 yards went into the top corner, via Sirigu's fingertips.


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France: Paris
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MOMO Prototipo Steering Wheel and Hub Kit for Volkswagen Golf (MK2)
One of the most popular wheels in the MOMO tuning steering wheel range, the Prototipo is a classic-look wheel made in a combination of the finest modern materials giving it the perfect blend between old and new. Made from top grain leather with white stitching, and a choice of either black or silver cut-out spokes with the classic MOMO Arrow horn button, the MOMO Prototipo is the ultimate choice for those wishing to retain the character of their vehicle whilst refreshing the interior.Specification
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Please note: If Part No. ends with 'R', the hub kit includes an airbag resistor. If not you can find the resistor you need here MOMO Airbag Resistor
Shipping and Returns
All Car Parts are sent via a tracked delivery service or courier, depending on the size and weight of the shipment.
Shipping to the UK can vary depending on manufacturer, but we advise customers to expect delivery of their order within 3-5 working days.
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Volkswagen Golf (MK2) aftermarket parts and accessories
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Loughner returned to Missouri until sentencing
(AP) PHOENIX - The man who pleaded guilty in the Arizona mass shooting that wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has returned to the Missouri federal prison where he is being treated for a mental illness.
U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Chris DeRosa says Jared Lee Loughner left Tucson on Friday and is at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.
DeRosa says he will remain there until his sentencing Nov. 15.
Jared Lee Loughner's long term prison home unclear
Loughner found competent, pleads guilty in Tucson rampage
Loughner was in Tucson this week for a hearing in which a judge allowed him to plead guilty to 19 counts stemming from the shooting. The plea agreement guarantees he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Six people died and 13 others, including the congresswoman, were wounded in the Jan. 8 shooting outside a Tucson supermarket.


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This blog has been contributed by Hannah Harding, Partnership and Strategy Manager at Nutricia. Hannah recently attended i2i "Frailty in Older People" workshops aimed at GP Practice Pharmacists. She noticed real vigour and enthusiasm from the GP Pharmacists on integrating nutrition into the management of frail older people.
What is the i2i Network?
The i2i Network is an insight to implementation network designed to help Practice Pharmacists implement best practice in their surgeries. Developed by Soar Beyond, the i2i Network provides innovative, interactive, specialist workshops, tailored for Practice Pharmacists. It includes an online platform containing a suite of specific tools and resources which help support the practical implementation to manage specific patient groups and disease areas.
Why are Practice Pharmacists and the i2i Network important?
This is significant because the role of Practice Pharmacists in general practice has never been more important. NHS England's General Practice Forward View has recognised this by committing to a vision for funding 1,500 practice pharmacists by 2020. Practice Pharmacists are set to become as instrumental to GP practices as the current role of Practice Nurses.
What's more, the patient populations that pharmacists are most likely to be working with are older people and those with frailty and long-term conditions. They will therefore be ideally placed to recognise the importance of treating malnutrition with these high risk groups to improve and maintain better health. Practice Pharmacists will also be seeing many of these patients through the long-term condition clinics they run or through their over 75's medicine reviews.
i2i workshops are helping GP Practice Pharmacists improve nutritional care for frail older patients
In the latest i2i workshops in London & Manchester, accomplished speakers including expert pharmacists in older care, GPs and dietetic experts provided insights into the physiology of older people and the implications for this on treatment and management. The informative workshops examined what frailty means and the challenges in health and well-being provision to support these patients. They emphasised the importance of embedding nutritional care into the holistic management programme and doing so in a structured manner. The insight sessions were complemented by illustrative, interactive case studies which demonstrated and supported the use of practical tools such as the Managing Adult Malnutrition in the Community Pathway to identify and manage malnutrition appropriately. This combination will provide the pharmacists with the knowledge and confidence to manage frail older patients with complex needs more effectively.
It was great to see that by the end of the workshop the pharmacists could understand the value of including nutrition in the management of frailty. They were keen to continue to develop their expertise, and will have an important role in influencing and achieving appropriate identification and management of malnutrition in the community.
To find out more about the i2i Network and the resources available to practice pharmacists, visit their website.
Click here to see their upcoming workshops.
To read other Malnutrition Task Force blogs, click here.


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Highways Agency plans new speed cameras
Plus over £100m to go on traffic database
England's road agency will spend around £58m over four years on digital cameras, primarily to monitor variable speed limits.
The cameras ordered may also be used to measure average speeds, as well as monitor hard shoulder running, closed lanes and temporary speed enforcement.
Equipment will have to undergo "extensive prototyping and proving," according to a tender notice published on 18 September 2009 in the Official Journal of the European Union. This will include Home Office Type Approval, the process by which cameras are certified for measuring speeds for use in issuing penalties.
Suppliers to the framework agreement are likely to spend two years on the design and approval of equipment, then four years on supplying, installing, commissioning and further developing. This will be followed by a decade of operational support and maintenance.
The Highways Agency is planning to increase its use of active traffic management, already in place on London's M25 motorway as well as motorways to the east and north of Birmingham, where speed limits and use of hard shoulders are heavily managed and monitored to minimise congestion.
Such management, which the government sees as a way of allowing more capacity without building new roads or lanes, relies on extensive use of cameras, both for checking the variable speed limits used and to monitor usage.
The agency has also issued tenders recently for a National Traffic Information Service, valued at £100m to £200m, and an asset management system worth up to £80m.
This article was originally published at Kable.
Kable's GC weekly is a free email newsletter covering the latest news and analysis of public sector technology. To register click here.


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I am so excited that I found this group. I've been looking for something like this for a while :-)
I've been heavily indoctrinated into just about everything related to paganism and also the occult, too. It's gotten to a point where it's terrifying for me, it feels too real, and I think I'm confusing my own imagination with the spiritual (which I now think is imaginary too, so maybe I'm not confusing it after all). I'm not sure if atheism is my true nature or not, but I know it's what I aspire to be, what feels safe for me, and that my rational mind embraces it.
But my emotional side is still really attached to pagan and occult beliefs. It was fun. I had a sense of belonging, feeling special, having 'special powers,' license to be silly, wild and crazy, and many of my friends I feel most attached to are into it. Also, I seem to be drawn to people, and then find out they're pagan.
Yet, I also feel out-of-control and afraid of these things, too. I'm afraid of the darker side of it. The people who think they can make energy balls and manipulate energy. The people who claim to read my mind (and coincidentally actually did say the sentence I was thinking even though they'd just met me a few hours prior). The law of attraction freaks me out, too, because if I can manifest good things, then I get scared I'm going to accidentally manifest bad things if my mind isn't always thinking positively. I seem to have accumulated every "bad luck" superstition from every religion I've ever studied, so that drives me crazy too, because with so many of them, it's bad luck if I do something and bad luck if I don't. It doesn't just happen randomly, it's because people I care about in my life keep convincing me that it's so.
I gave way too much power to people who claimed to be healers and psychics. But that's because they seemed to know me upon meeting me. They told me things about myself. They could "sense" certain things about me, and most of them usually said the same things about me, even though they didn't know each other. So that made me think they really could see spirits around me or something.
It's not like I thought everything was real. I knew that there are a lot of illusionists and con artists out there. But I "knew" that there were people who were practicing the "real thing." Magic was fake Disney crap, but magick was real. The psychics at the fair were phonies, but the one I went to was "real." The way I could "tell the difference" was if someone asked me my birthdate I knew they were a fake and were just going to make something up based on my astrology sign. If they asked a bunch of questions they were fake. But if I walked in there and they seemed to understand me right away, and connect with me, and tell me true things about myself without me having to say anything, that's when I "knew" that they were "real." Also I thought I could feel it, could sense it, when they were "real." I got this feeling of warmth, a sense of awe, my whole body filled up with love, it even felt like my energy was moving differently when I went to the healer, like something was swirling around in my head.
For all the good and fun that I had, right now the fears have gotten way too out of control and I really want to feel comfortable being an atheist. I've always looked up to atheists, thinking they were some of the smartest people in the world, but I never felt like I could be one because I've always been such a "true believer" no matter what path I follow, until I became a true believer in everything I've ever read, which are way too many rules to have to follow. I'm at a point where I have to be my own person. I have to trust that I can make up my own rules. And nothing bad is going to punish me (threefold or otherwise) for not following the rules.
Are there any good sites, arguments, discussions, etc. that debunk a lot of these types of beliefs? This has always seemed more real to me as opposed to other belief systems because of the spirits not being far away but right here on earth. It kind of freaks me out and makes me feel like I'm being constantly watched or stalked or something. Something following me waiting to hurt me in some way, or blocking me from doing things that I want and not being able to reach my full potential.
One reason the rational side of me stopped believing is because as soon as I started to get freaked out and was afraid of the evil spirts trying to harm me, that's when most of the psychics and healers and believers would say that they don't sense anything or see anything. (Well there was one guy from a cultish thing who said he saw two demons with me, that I brought them in with me, and blamed me for it saying that it's because my family has practiced witchcraft and black magic for generations and that's why I'm 'haunted.') They didn't know why I was freaking out and suggested I see a therapist. I do have post traumatic stress disorder, and rationally I know that's why I thought I could see/sense all these things, and why my fear is such a phobia.
Even though I know all this, it still feels so real. And whenever I am around people who encourage me to have these beliefs, all it takes is one conversation to undo months of therapy. Because that part of me, the true believer part of me is in conflict with my rational atheist side. It's so confusing, and that's why looking at sites and hearing arguments would be very helpful for me, to reinforce the rational way of thinking.
Thanks! Nice to meet all of you!
Views: 419
@ Allison......right on! this is most concise...I wish I had your brevity!!!! ...good post!
being a sensitive myself (and [always speaking just for myself], we [sensitives] are drawn [or at least I was] to the pagan and Wicca/occult community because they seemed to "match" the feelings that I was experiencing...the occult/wiccan/pagan community professed to 1.) understand and 2.) be able to teach ...this sensitivity...so I was drawn to a community that[I believed] was had answers for me [I was different from my siblings]....it was heart breaking to experience, that when I had my breakdowns, that my friends tried to cleanse me in the ocean, sacrifice animals (my husband converted to Santeria, as well as my best friend) and to leave a dime and a penny on street corners (to ask the trickster goddess for help)...Rather than do the right thing by TAKING ME TO THE FRIGGIN Hospital!!!! Granted we were on the cutting edge of Punk Rock Neo-Paganism-Shamanic Performance Art culture [ghetto and no one wants to call 'the man"]...but "Just sayin'"....why the freak didn't my husband give me a Valium and a sandwich (and call in sick for me at my job), rather than try to do voodoo spells on me? I may never know...I still suffer PTSD from this and it has been 30 years...
I may be a radical weirdo...but ....
...like I said....
wish I had your brevity...
OMG Lu, that is so funny and sad at the same time! gah! not sure whether to laugh or cry for you! I find it funny that the whole time I was a pagan, I was also taking advantage of my medical benefits to get treatment for depression (not to mention all physical illnesses). Either I believed the people who said magick "doesn't work like that" (ie, doesn't work) or I was hedging my bets... I don't know....
thanks for commenting! :) Good to meet you!
Good to meet you too! I'm 56 years old and have weathered the pagan/occult/underground & gay communities since the late 1960s (in the Bay Area)...one of my best friends, who is transgendered ...and everyone was astounded that zhe (once a lesbian) is now a (he/heterosexual man) WTF???? (how could that be????) [and I have to admit that I was in the WTF? category, with them, for awhile....over the last few months...finding that I HAD to come out of the closet as a nontheist (but still interested in the cool mindsets that peeps could get into [and as an artist who the freak cares, anyway])...I feel just as weird as I think he was perceived to be......
weird!!!! Atheism Imitating Life!
like I said...I have no brevity in me....
--- Lu
P.S. catch you all in a few days.
Hi Lu, I totally know what you mean about getting every far out treatment imaginable except the logical rational one. When I started to get pretty bad PTSD symptoms what I really needed was a good counsellor and a support group to deal with my trauma that I'd "forgotten about." But instead I was shoved from person to person who kept trying to tell me if I didn't get better I was somehow to blame, and all of this fear got lumped together with what I was already afraid of and so I developed these pretty intense phobias.
I'm tag teaming onto New Atheists discussion for my own poirpose! [reference to "Alice in Wonderland" book 'no smart fish would go anywhere without a poirpose]
@New Atheist, please do not be offended that I have crashed the party...R!
In deepest respect and in with the intent to learn and grow....
- Lu
Thanks! That response was totally helpful and timely too! :-) because I was just coming on to mention that I have the craziest static electricity all over my hair right now, lol! My body seems to be more affected by electrical charges than other people that I've noticed, for example sometimes if I feel like I"m "sending out" really strong signals of "I don't want to do this" sometimes there will be an electrical interference or malfunction (if I'm on the computer maybe the page won't load, or maybe a light bulb near me will flicker or something) as if my body is sending out fear in electricity waves through the air. At this point I recognize that there must be some logical explanation that hasn't been discovered yet. Or perhaps just a lot of coincidences, but it does seem that when I relax and think to myself to calm down that the electrical thing stops the malfunction as if I caused it.
LOVE the link especially the "That's why when a kitten encounters a dog, it turns into a little hissing puffball." LOL!! Yeah, it was interesting how it explained about why you get them when you're emotional, too.
So glad I found this group. Thank you again :-)
I decided, five years ago....after trying to play it straight (in all manners)..and came back to my art and "magick" aka creativity...that I would not 'tune in' or be surreal UNLESS I got a real live manifestation out of the mix ...so now, when I am in a way out mode..I draw. That is what helped me....I wish you all the best in your journey!!! I even make crafts when I am out there...(rather than trying to create "art")..I find that doing anything that MANIFESTS the strange and wonderful helps me.....I'm on the run tonight...it is our "Friday Night"..and i'm making dinner, pulling goose feathers tied to strings tied to chop sticks for my cats, and being here all at once...so 'cuze my odd bits here.
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Public Comment
Should Berkeley be Thinking About an Earthquake?
Richard Schwartz's report on the October 17, 1868 Hayward Fault Quake should be a must-read for everyone living in Berkeley during what seems to be earthquake season. If/when there is another huge quake here, it will be worthwhile to be prepared by joining in the Great Shakeout earthquake drill scheduled for October 18. Last year's drill on October 20 was followed by the two largest quakes of 2011(longer?) to shake Berkeley, as if to suggest that the Hayward fault is under such stress that even our thinking about an earthquake can set it off. Thank God that the 2011 quakes were small enough to be harmless while still releasing at least a little stress off the Hayward fault.
To me, they felt like possibly the largest quakes here in over 20 years, and there were two more within weeks. Strangely enough, 2011's third largest local quake on the Hayward fault was Nov. 5, hours after a nationally reported Associated Press story about a false earthquake prediction email circulating in Berkeley. If only the candidates would take this as a sign that Berkeley is at such risk that we should have more drills. We could be reminded on the anniversary of EACH of last year's quakes to be prepared for something worse: Keep emergency supplies of water, food etc. as long as the Hayward fault is under such stress.
We have other reminders. This month there has been a lot of comment about the 1989 Loma Prieta quake at 5:04 pm Friday October 17, just as the As and Giants were about to play in the World Series. If the bay was to be shaken that bad, it seemed like a miracle that almost everyone was off work and home from school when it happened. The other coincidence was that possibly more people/viewers than ever before at the same time were thinking about San Francisco's earthquake history, just before the quake was seen live on national television. If our teams face-off again this year, I hope that more people are thinking of harmless 2011-sized quakes than what happened in 1868.
I'm still waiting for Shakti Gawain, the author of the book Creative Visualization, to comment on last fall's quake history. Her previous writings would explain why thousands of Berkeley residents thinking about earthquakes at once could have initiated these harmless small quakes that were in the best interest of everyone involved. Our 2011 quakes reduced the stress on the Hayward Fault, if even a tiny bit. There are so many other religious leaders already in Berkeley that can also comment, why the silence?
Hopefully the city will help remind us not to forget that this is Hayward fault territory as much as it is Bear territory. Besides the 7.1 magnitude Loma Prieta quake on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m., we should also be aware of these Hayward fault quakes:
October 20, 2011 at 2:41 and 8:16 pm, magnitudes 4.0 and 3.8
October 21, 1868, at 7:54 am (magnitude unknown, but very destructive)
November 5, 2011 at 2:52 pm, magnitude 3.2
There was also an interesting 2.5 magnitude earthquake at 8:40 pm July 4, 2012 that shook the Berkeley Marina as thousands of residents were waiting for our firework display to start, coincidentally following publicity efforts that the July 4 holiday may be the ideal day for a local earthquake drill.


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arid barren blue sky clouds
Posted on by M. R. Foti
Author: M. R. Foti
Hi! I am an author. I've published my debut novel in 2015 in Poland ("Dokąd teraz popłynę?"). My main genre is fantasy and magical realism. I often discuss socially difficult topics in my works and try to pass on a message of hope. I am always inspired and I never stop writing. My writing inspirations are Bruno Schulz, Pablo Neruda, Kiran Desai and Haruki Murakami. In my private life I am a polyglot. I believe in the Law Of Attraction and I write about it on UltimateManifester at Wordpress. View All Posts


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To work efficiently, every professional understands the importance of knowing the exact location of tools so that they can be instantly found when they are needed. Distrelec offers a wide selection of tool storage solutions so tools can be kept neat, tidy and protected, without any fuss. Choose from tool bags and tool boxes from Raaco, Proskit and C.K.Tools. There are styles to meet all requirements, from tough polyester hold-all style bags, with numerous pockets and compartments that are suitable for taking to work, or out and about on jobs, to open toolboxes with a convenient central handle. There are ergonomically designed tools bags designed to be worn across the body - an ideal solution for electricians working at height, when it is important to have both hands free. Distrelec also offers a superb selection of tool workstations and trolleys, from great value models for the home workshop to professional tool chests and mobile tool cabinets with roller-bearing drawers. There is also a variety of different workshop trolley related accessories from Facom and other manufacturers. Distrelec also supplies many different types of tool pouches and carrying systems ideal for use in the garage or workshop.
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Fans of eggs -- scrambled, soft boiled or steaming in your breakfast burrito -- must now contend with a new report saying that the lecithin in this frequently vilified food raises the risk of heart disease due to its effect on intestinal bacteria.
And eggs aren't the only culprit. Liver, beef and pork have a similar effect. What?! Not my bacon!
Will we be saying goodbye to our bacon-and-eggs breakfast forever? Chances are, no.
PHOTOS: 17 outrageous ways to use garlic
Stanley Hazen, researcher on the new study, reportedly is not recommending "dietary restrictions of entire food groups." Eggs, meat and other animal products are "integral," he noted, to most people's diet.
Yet, he said, his study showed "when digesting these foods, gut flora can generate a chemical mediator ... that may contribute to cardiovascular disease."
Perhaps the silver lining for egg lovers is that the lecithin risk involves the egg yolk -- that dietary villain slammed by doctors and scientists in the past for its high cholesterol content. We can avoid that by eating egg whites, right? Yet, as Harvard's School of Public Health has noted, the yolk has protein, vitamins B12 and D, riboflavin and folate, great nutrients for lowering the risk of heart disease.
It's a mixed message, and the new study seems to cloud the picture further. The research, published in the April 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on microbes in the gut and blood levels of that chemical mediator, a substance called TMAO (trimethylamine-N-oxide). When you eat an egg, bacteria in the gut help convert the lecithin to TMAO.
In the study, those with the highest levels of TMAO in their blood had a "2.5-fold higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events" than those with the lowest amount of TMAO, MedPage Today reported.
Even among people with no traditional risk factors for heart disease, Mother Nature Network said, high levels of TMAO were linked with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
More studies are needed to confirm the results. In the meantime, common sense rules. So far, experts aren't saying "eliminate," they're sticking to the usual advice: Cut back on foods high in fat and cholesterol -- which also will reduce the amount of TMAO in the blood.
Psy needs a personal chef: How about Gordon Ramsay?
Order from Pizza Hut through your XBox: Really, why get up?
For love at the airport, go no farther than LAX's Encounter restaurant


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Advanced Host Controller Interface
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the operation of Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers in a non-implementation-specific manner in its motherboard chipsets.
|Advanced Host Controller Interface
The specification describes a system memory structure for computer hardware vendors to exchange data between host system memory and attached storage devices. AHCI gives software developers and hardware designers a standard method for detecting, configuring, and programming SATA/AHCI adapters. AHCI is separate from the SATA 3 Gbit/s standard, although it exposes SATA's advanced capabilities (such as hot swapping and native command queuing) such that host systems can utilize them.
As of March 2014[update], the current version of the specification is 1.3.1.
Operating ModesEdit
Many SATA controllers offer selectable modes of operation: legacy Parallel ATA emulation (more commonly called IDE Mode), standard AHCI mode (also known as Native Mode), or vendor-specific RAID (which generally enables AHCI in order to take advantage of its capabilities). Intel recommends choosing RAID mode on their motherboards (which also enables AHCI) rather than AHCI/SATA mode for maximum flexibility.[1] Legacy mode is a software backward-compatibility mechanism intended to allow the SATA controller to run in legacy operating systems which are not SATA-aware or where a driver does not exist to make the operating system SATA-aware.
When a SATA controller is configured to operate in Legacy Mode, the number of storage devices per controller is usually limited to four (two IDE channels, primary and secondary, with up to two devices per channel), compared to the maximum of 32 devices/ports when configured in AHCI mode.[2][3]
Operating System SupportEdit
AHCI is supported out of the box on Windows Vista and later, Linux-based operating systems (since version 2.6.19 of the kernel), OpenBSD (since version 4.1), NetBSD (since version 4.0), FreeBSD (since version 8.0), macOS, eComStation (since version 2.1), and Solaris 10 (since version 8/07).[4] DragonFlyBSD based its AHCI implementation on OpenBSD's and added extended features such as port multiplier support. Older versions of operating systems require hardware-specific drivers in order to support AHCI. Windows XP and older do not provide AHCI support out of the box.
System Drive Boot IssuesEdit
Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA controller was not in AHCI mode at the time the operating system was installed. Although this is an easily rectifiable condition, it remains an ongoing issue with the AHCI standard.
The most prevalent symptom for an operating system (or systems) that are installed in IDE mode (in some BIOS firmware implementations otherwise called 'Combined IDE mode'), is that the system drive typically fails to boot, with an ensuing error message, if the SATA controller (in BIOS) is inadvertently switched to AHCI mode after OS installation. In Microsoft Windows the symptom is a boot loop which begins with a Blue Screen error, if not rectified - and through no fault of the Windows OS.
Technically speaking, this is an implementation bug with AHCI that can be avoided, but it has not been fixed yet. As an interim resolution, Intel recommends changing the drive controller to AHCI or RAID before installing an operating system.[1] (It may also be necessary to load chipset-specific AHCI or RAID drivers at installation time, for example from a USB flash drive).
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, this can be fixed by configuring the
msahci device driver to start at boot time (rather than on-demand). Setting non-AHCI mode (i.e. IDE or Combined mode) in the BIOS will allow the user to boot into Windows, and thereby the required registry change can be performed. Consequently, the user then has the option of continuing to use the system in Combined mode or switching to AHCI mode.[5]
With Windows 10, this can be fixed by forcing the correct drivers to reload during Safe Mode.[6]
In Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012, the name of the controller has changed from
msahci to
storahci,[7] and the procedures to upgrade to the new controller is similar to that of Windows 7.[8] On Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows Server 2012, changing from SATA mode to AHCI mode without first updating the registry will make the boot drive inaccessible (i.e. resulting in a recurring boot loop, which begins with a Blue Screen error).
A similar problem can occur on Linux systems if the AHCI driver is compiled as a kernel module rather than built into the kernel image, as it may not be included in the initrd (initial RAM disk) created when the controller is configured to run in Legacy Mode. The solution is either to build a new initrd containing the AHCI module, or to build the AHCI driver into the kernel image.[9]
Power managementEdit
Power management is handled by the Aggressive Link Power Management (ALPM) protocol.
See alsoEdit
- ^ a b "Intel Matrix Storage Technology - Changing and/or choosing Serial ATA Modes". Intel. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
- ^ "PCI IDE Controller Specification 1.0" (PDF). Berg Software Design. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
- ^ "Serial ATA AHCI: Specification, Rev. 1.3.1". Intel Corp. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
- ^ "What's New in the Solaris 10 8/07 Release - Driver Enhancements". Oracle. Retrieved 2010-10-20.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Error Message when you start a Windows 7 or Windows Vista-based computer after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive: "STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE"". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
- ^ "Enabling AHCI mode AFTER Windows 10 installation". tenforums.com user Toobad. Retrieved 2015-12-19.
- ^ "StorAHCI replaces MSAHCI (Windows)". Microsoft.
- ^ "Improving performance of SATA drives on Windows 2012".
- ^ "Support | How to enable AHCI support after install". Novell.com. Retrieved 2014-05-11.
External linksEdit
- "AHCI Specification". Intel.
- "AHCI". OSDev Wiki


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2005 :: workshop tutorial, hydro hose trimming ...
This gallery is designed to go alongside the workshop article on trimming a hyraulic hose. While the overall task is easy, a few simple tips can make all the difference. Read the comments to go with the pictures for a guide to shorten your hydraulic hoses.
You are viewing the thumbnail index - click a pic to enlarge.
All images in this gallery are © [ gravity-slaves ] and may not be reproduced without permission.


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Budget Battles
Medical Costs Drove 8 Million into Poverty Last Year
US Employer Health Costs Projected to Rise 6.5% in 2020
Democratic Debate Again Centers on Deep Divides Over Health Care
Chart of the Day: A Record Jump in Health Insurance Prices
Two Experts Debunk Four Big Health Care Fallacies
States Pass Record Number Of Laws To Reel In Drug Prices
Number of Uninsured Jumps 2 Million Under Trump
Get Ready to Rumble! Funding Fights Loom Large in the Senate
The House is expected to consider a short-term stopgap spending bill this week to fund the government until shortly before Thanksgiving and avoid a government shutdown when the new fiscal year starts...
Are Tax Cuts or Spending Hikes Driving the Deficit?By Michael Rainey
Republican tax cut enthusiasts are generally unwilling to link the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to the rapidly growing federal deficit, preferring instead to point the finger at spending increases that...
Germany Mulls a 'Shadow Budget' to Add DebtBy Michael Rainey
With its economy on the verge of recession and interest rates at historical lows, German officials are looking into ways to evade the strict limits placed on federal spending. Germany's so-called "...
Senate Spending Talks Go Off the Rails Amid Disagreements on Abortion, Border Wall
Senators racing to move appropriations bills for fiscal year 2020 stumbled out of the gate Tuesday, tripped up by disagreements over abortion-related "poison pills" and funding for President Trump's...
Deficit Tops $1 TrillionBy The Fiscal Times Staff
The annual federal budget deficit rose above $1 trillion in August, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday. The deficit reached $1,067 billion in the first 11 months of the 2019 fiscal year,...
Is Trump's Farmer Bailout Legal?By Michael Rainey
Senior Trump administration officials are reportedly concerned that the president's $28 billion bailout for farmers hurt by his trade war exceeds the limits of the Commodity Credit Corporation, the...
Trump Gets a Fiscally Focused ChallengerBy Michael Rainey
Mark Sanford announced Sunday that he is running for president, becoming the third Republican to challenge President Trump for the nomination in 2020. The former South Carolina congressman said he...
Billions in Disaster Aid Still Waiting to Be SpentBy Michael Rainey
The U.S. has allocated more than $100 billion since 2017 to help cities and states rebuild after natural disasters, but most of the money remains unspent. "As of June 30, the government had spent...
Op-Ed of the Day: Fighting the Next Recession NowBy The Fiscal Times Staff
Jason Furman, the former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama, has some advice for Congress: Start preparing for the next recession now. In a Wall Street...
With Shutdown Deadline Approaching, Congress Has Lots of Budget Work to Do
The Senate's sprint to the end of September will start next week. When lawmakers return from their recess, they'll have a long to-do list, and relatively little time to deal with some key items —...
Does Trump Have an Agenda for 2020 Besides Winning Re-election?
In a tweet earlier this week, President Trump urged the Democratic-controlled House to move past what he calls "witch hunt" investigations and "get back to work on drug prices, healthcare,...
Trump's Raid on Pentagon Funds Could Spark Another Shutdown ShowdownBy Michael Rainey
The Pentagon's announcement that it will shift $3.6 billion from military construction projects to fund the repair and construction of barriers on the border with Mexico is meeting bipartisan...
Trump Diverting $3.6 Billion from Military to Build Border WallBy Michael Rainey
The Department of Defense has approved a plan to divert $3.6 billion to pay for the construction of parts of President Trump's border wall, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday. The money will...
Chart of the Day: Comparing Debt CostsBy The Fiscal Times Staff
The U.S. stands out from other developed countries when it comes to the cost of its government debt. Bloomberg's Justin Fox says that the interest burden of government debt is both larger in the U.S...
Should the US Issue 100-Year Bonds?By Michael Rainey
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that the U.S. is considering issuing ultra-long U.S. bonds – debt in 50- or 100-year durations. "If the conditions are right, then I would anticipate...
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User login
The World of Mediterranean Cheese
Image courtesy of Karoun Cheese
Talking about "Mediterranean cheese" as if it's a distinct variety is problematic for two reasons. First of all, almost all of the best cheese-producing countries in the world surround the Mediterranean Sea: Spain, France, Italy. Second of all, cheese originated in the nomadic sheepherding cultures that lived in the region east of the Mediterranean, so to some extent all cheese is Mediterranean.
Still, when we use the term "Mediterranean cheese," we are typically referring to a select group of eastern European and Middle Eastern cheeses, typically made from goat or sheep's milk, typically fresh or pickled (but not aged), and typically really delicious. Here are some of my favorites.
Feta is probably the most famous of the mediterranean cheeses. It is made from sheep or goat's milk, and pickled in brine (saltwater) for a period of several weeks. The best feta will have a distinct "gamy" flavor, which, in my mind, is offset a bit by the high levels of salt in the cheese. I love cooking with Feta, since it crumbles really easily (no grating!), doesn't really melt, and adds lots of umami to your food. Feta also pairs really nicely with fruit that's sweet and juicy, like watermelon.
I've been a big fan of String cheese ever since I was a kid. And I'm not talking Polly-O here, I'm talking about Middle Eastern-style braided String cheese, usually studded with black cumin seeds. The cheese is made in a way similar to Mozzarella cheese, by pulling and stretching the curds like taffy. My favorite way to serve this cheese is to spend wayyyy too much time pulling all the little strands apart and placing them in a serving bowl. Trust me, it tastes better that way.
Pulling String Cheese. Image courtesy of Karoun Cheese
Labne is a cheese made from strained yogurt, which renders it much thicker, more spreadable, and closer to cream cheese (but without cream cheese's fatty heft). I love serving labne with olive oil and za'atar, and eating it up on a piece of pita. It's also a really good lighter substitute for sour cream.
Thanks to the fine folks at Karoun Dairies for providing samples for me to taste in writing this post.


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For a limited time we are offering a FREE PDF copy of The Real World of Pencil Portraits for anyone that chooses to help support this site. Click on the Donate button now.
For the liberal gay atheist in all of us. New comics each weekday at 12:01 AM.
I was once a Evangelical Christian. I did the whole laying on of hands, speaking in tongues and general spouting of hate. Of course I didn't realize that is what I was doing. I thought what I was doing was spreading love. I consider myself blessed that I was able to break free of the bondage of religion and can now express my true self.
A great man once said, "You must be the change that you want to see in the world." I hope to change every day.


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More Popular Issues
See how voters are siding on other popular political issues...
Results from Free Voters
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Distribution of answers submitted by Free Voters.
Data includes total votes submitted by visitors since May 4, 2017. For users that answer more than once (yes we know), only their most recent answer is counted in the total results. Total percentages may not add up to exactly 100% as we allow users to submit "grey area" stances that may not be categorized into yes/no stances.
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Learn more about Dual Citizenship
Multiple citizenship, also called dual citizenship is a person's citizenship status, in which a person is concurrently regarded as a citizen of more than one state under the laws of those states. There is no international convention which determines the nationality or citizen status of a person, which is defined exclusively by national laws, which vary and can be inconsistent with each other. Some countries do not permit dual citizenship. Most countries that permit dual citizenship still may not recognize the other citizenship of its nationals within its own territory, for example, in relation to entry into the country, national service, duty to vote, etc. See recent Dual Citizenship news


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LOS ANGELES - Telltale Games is going back in time for a new series of video games.
The developer is creating episodic titles based on the "Back to the Future" and "Jurassic Park" franchises. The popular Universal Studios film trilogies spawned several games in their heyday in the '80s and '90s but have been absent from the interactive realm. The as-yet-untitled Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC and Mac games are set to be released this winter.
"I think it's a prime time to reintroduce these properties in the digital world," said Dan Connors, CEO at Telltale Games. "Telltale Games has always set out to be a great storytelling company. We've been honing our chops over the past six years, and we're ready to take on these two iconic properties and continue to advance storytelling in games."
Telltale Games previously created episodic games based on Aardman Animations' Oscar-winning animated film series "Wallace and Gromit," Steve Purcell's comic series "Sam and Max" and Matt Chapman's online cartoon "Homestar Runner." The San Rafael, Calif.-based developer approached Universal Studios when looking for inspiration for their next game series.
"'Jurassic Park' and 'Back to the Future' are two of our broadest and most beloved properties," said Bill Kispert, interactive vice president at Universal Studios. "We were very interested in bringing them into the interactive space, but they're not exactly the kind of properties that lend themselves to the stereotypical shoot-'em-up style of gameplay."
Connors said the games, which are in the early stages of development, would tell new stories extending the "Back to the Future" and "Jurassic Park" lore. He teased that the "Back to the Future" games may include a DeLorean ride back to the 1970s while the "Jurassic Park" games would be intense and add new backstories to the series' man-versus-dinosaur mythology.
"The games are going to exist within these worlds," said Connors. "I wouldn't call these games sequels per se but a new interpretation of their worlds for a new medium. For one generation, it's an introduction to these series. For another generation, it's a thing they can look back on and something they can share warmly with their family and friends."
'Back to Future,' 'Jurassic Park' to become games
LOS ANGELES - Telltale Games is going back in time for a new series of video games.


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Labor and birth require a lot of physical and mental preparation. As you get ready for your upcoming birth, you will want to have a variety of comfort measures and coping techniques in your labor toolbox so that you and your support team can be as prepared as possible. Learning helpful labor positions and strategies to promote labor progress will allow your body to work with your baby toward a safe and healthy birth.
Prepare yourself and receive guidance on how to prepare your team to support you!
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Green Tea with Roasted Brown Rice from Yamamotoyama is perfectly combined with green tea to create Genmai-cha. Each tea in YAMAMOTOYAMA's fine selection is pure and natural with no preservatives or additives.
The even-flow tea bag are hermetically sealed in individual foil envelopes to ensure freshness and
delicate flavors. The distinctive mix of flavors and aromas make this tea a soothing choice after meals and through out the day. For best flavor, steep 1-3 minutes or to desired taste. One box contains 16 tea bags. Ingredients: Green tea, roasted brown rice. Net weight: 48.00 grams. Product of USA.
Copyright © 2004 - 2019 GroceryThai.com


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LONGMONT — Nearly a year after the new handicap-friendly path was constructed at Niwot United Methodist Church, the congregation is planning to expand fellowship events at the now accessible facility.
Martin DuBois, a Longmont resident and member of the Niwot church, which has a weekly attendance of about 70, designed and constructed the gravel paths with the help of his troop in search of his Eagle Scout rank, the highest honor for a Boy Scout.
"When I was looking for a project, my goal was to be as helpful as possible and this seemed like it met that," DuBois, 17, said.
Before the path was built, Ted Barna, a member of the congregation's board of trustees, said the lower level of the church and the playground had limited access for older or handicapped members.
Classrooms, a nursery, a meeting space and a playground where events are often held are on the lower level, making it difficult for some members to participate, Barna said.
The path, which was completed last summer, has made it easier for church members to access events and added landscaping to the building, he said.
After positive response from church members, the congregation is expanding its summer activities and planning to add additional handicapped access throughout the building.
The church is holding its first Church Camp Out Night this summer now that the path has provided easy access to the playground and expanding its annual fellowship picnic, which will also use the path.
Inspired by DuBois' project, Barna said the church is looking at plans to expand handicapped access, including a lift for wheelchairs and more paths and ramps.
Whitney Bryen can be reached at 303-684-5274 or email@example.com.


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The topic for the 63rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is New Year's Resolutions.
Resolutions? I've got a million of them. They include organizing my office, labeling my photos, and solving about a dozen research problems. So the challenge for me is to narrow it down to my top few resolutions for 2009. Here goes:
1. I will share more photos and documents, both online and with my cousins. I've received alot of photos from older relatives, and I want to share the wealth.
2. I will catch up with my filing and data entry. I know if I do this it will help me with my research. I'm sure I have some fascinating discoveries in those piles!
3. I will write more. I will continue to write for my blog and for local genealogical society quarterlies. I will also submit writing to other genealogy publications. I enjoy writing and I will do more of it in 2009.
And here are a few more resolutions, by surname:
4. Bestick. For 2009, I will focus on my collateral lines, including John and Robert Bestick, who were possible siblings of my ancestor Timothy. I will also focus on discovering which Bestick played baseball in Brooklyn in 1872.
5. Whelan. I will concentrate on the Chicago Whelans, both mine and unrelated ones. I will continue to analyze, summarize and publish the data that I have collected. I hope to eventually document the Irish origins of the Whelans who settled in Chicago in the 1800s.
6. Skrabulis. I will share more of the bits of information that I've collected on my Skrabulis ancestors and related lines. I hope to make more connections and keep in touch with cousins that I have.
That's enough resolutions for now.
Happy New Year! May 2009 bring good news for us all.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
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text: Here's the fossil… what can you tell about how this animal lived? Matteo De Stefano/MUSE-Science Museum June 21, 2017 Reverse engineering mysterious 500-million-year-old fossils that confound our tree of life Simon Darroch, Vanderbilt University and Imran Rahman, University of Oxford With no identifiable body parts, it's hard to know how these fossilized creatures lived. A new approach models how the ocean's water would interact with their unique shapes – hinting at their lifestyle.


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Tooling Article
In-Die Fastening Along a Tandem Press Line
BMW doubled production output of wheelhouse reinforcements by producing the reinforcements complete in this 2500-ton tandem press, including in-die fastener insertion, at maximum press speed of 25 strokes/min.
For high-volume production of wheelhouse reinforcements, BMW had been stamping the reinforcement one-out, in a line-die process with robotic station transferring. Then, during a secondary operation eight rivet nuts were inserted into each stamped part. In 2008 the plant initiated a project with the following goals:
• Increase stamping throughput; and
• Reduce semifinished parts inventory
Specifically, it hoped to double production output by producing the reinforcements complete in a 2500-ton tandem press at maximum press speed of 25 strokes/min. Additionally, the specification stated that downtime due to the integration of the fastener-joining technology should be "negligible," and not require press modification. The die was to be reconfigured for two-out production, designed to deliver—in the die—the 16 rivet nuts simultaneously to the parts.
One of the fundamental challenges of integrating fastener insertion into the stamping process was locating the sorting and feeding (S-F) equipment on the press bolster, to minimize die-change time. Also, fastener insertion required an additional die station—the last station.
Project Engineering
Tackling the project, a tool layout was first created to determine the space available for the S-F equipment in the insertion station with the insertion die. Then the electrical and pneumatic scheme was planned, including the infrastructure needed to foster communication between the in-die tooling (piercing heads), S-F equipment and press control. Key was ensuring that the press only receives an enable signal when the nuts are correctly positioned in the pierce heads, achieved by locating sensors in the pierce heads and die.
A Mechanical-Fastener Primer
Mechanically mounted threaded fasteners in automotive sheetmetal applications typically fall into three categories: self pierce and rivet, rivet forming, and pressed insert. Self-piercing fasteners incorporate a cutting edge that, together with the insertion tool's bottom die, pierce a hole for the fastener to be located and riveted in position. Rivet-type nuts and studs are inserted into preformed holes and have their shanks formed into a rivet head by the lower tool. Insert-type fasteners do not deform during installation, but rely on the base material flowing into undercuts and recesses in the fastener to achieve the required location and retention.
Thread sizes range from M6 to M14. At the lower end of this spread, applications in the automotive sector include non-structural brackets to retain trim pieces. M10 fasteners find use in medium-duty applications, while M12 parts are used in suspension and subframe assemblies.
Performance criteria include vibration and fatigue resistance. Here, welded fasteners can suffer significant failures due to thermal disruption of the sheetmetal structure, corrosion and from weld-heat damage to coated or plated surfaces. By contrast, mechanically attached nuts and studs prove ideal for use with corrosion-resistant finishes and materials such as the galvanized steel.
Standard mechanical fasteners are available in grade 8.8 steel studs and 8 steel nuts, a full strength-grade higher than welded equivalents. In addition, they can be heattreated to grade 10.9 (or 12.9 in the case of studs), and 10 or 12 for nuts. An extensive range of mechanically attached aluminum nuts and studs also is available.
Finally, in-die fasteners are making their into stampings of advanced high-strength steels. Examples include the insertion of class 10 RND nuts in Land-Rover Freelander 2 'A' posts, which are produced from 600-MPa steel; class 12.9 studs in 850-MPa seat rails and seatbelt anchorage points in the company's Freelander 2 and latest Discovery models; and Class 10 M8 RND nuts are inserted in 1200-MPa-steel side-impact beams used by Mercedes.
In the specified solution, the nuts were required to feed from two sides. Accordingly, two S-F units are located on the bolster, one on each side of the insertion die. Each unit provides the required air and electrical connectors. Also, the S-F equipment connects through a data bus line so they can communicate with each other and the press control. The connection with the press control initiates automatically at press startup.
With the support of stamping-sequence simulation software, the customer viewed how the die-protection system would function, ensuring that nuts would only feed when sensors signaled the presence of a stamped panel in the correct position in the insertion station. Also, no parts can leave the press without nuts properly inserted. Through sensors in the pierce heads, only after nuts are positioned and inserted correctly is the press-enable communication signal sent. The system ensures the avoidance of scrap and tool breakage.
Custom Sort-Feed Equipment
With little space available around the press, the S-F equipment had to be customized based on standardized modules. The magazine for the nuts was integrated into the S-F equipment and sized to supply enough nuts for a full production run. Also, since the press housing prohibits the use of an overhead crane for positioning the S-F equipment on the press bolster, a mobile baseframe scissor table gets the call. The S-F units are positioned and secured with a chain and rolling crank on the bolster. Then the units are connected to electrical and air supply lines and the feed tubes manually filled with nuts. When the pierce heads give the signal that a nut is correctly positioned in the head, the preliminary setup is complete.
After the units are prepared, the bolster drives into the press. With the bolster in position, the S-F controller signals the press control indicating that the device can be switched from manual to automatic mode. The pierce heads remain closed while a nut feeds into position, but is not released—to avoid a false feed. With the help of sensors in the die and the grippers, the S-F control monitors the in-feed of the fasteners and, when the panel is placed in the die, opens the feeder channels.
All Objectives Achieved
In four years of production, more than two million parts have been manufactured with the system described above. Press rate has doubled to 25 strokes/min., and the productivity targets prescribed have been fully realized. In fact, the system (provided by Profil System) has been standardized and now is used at five transfer-press lines operating at the OEM.
In contrast to weld-on fasteners, the use of mechanical joining in the die allowed the customer to increase the value added in its stamping plant, and boost overall efficiency. Compared to thermal joining, in-die fastener technology is mechanically less expensive, requires no intermediate part transport, eliminates work in process and reduces quality costs.
Comparative analyses show that mechanical joining can be 30 percent less expensive than conventional joining methods. In-die tolerances typically are half that of weld-on fasteners, and mechanical joining does not impair the stamped part's microstructure, as might a weld-on fastener.
Additional advantages of mechanical joining include the ability to fasten to difficult-to-weld materials, as well as to surface-treated or prepainted sheetmetal, laminate steel, aluminum and fiber-reinforced plastic. Also, the full spectrum of sheetmetal materials can be joined through fully automated processes with standard fasteners in a wide range of sheet thickness. MF
Article submitted by Profil System Inc., Farmington Hills, MI: 248/860-2909; www.profil.eu.
See also: Schuler Incorporated, Profil System Inc.
Related Enterprise Zones: Presses, Tool & Die
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"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." –George Orwell
Books on the topic of this essay may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore.
We hope you will join us in The Imaginative Conservative community. The Imaginative Conservative is an on-line journal for those who seek the True, the Good and the Beautiful. We address culture, liberal learning, politics, political economy, literature, the arts and the American Republic in the tradition of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Edmund Burke, Irving Babbitt, Wilhelm Roepke, Robert Nisbet, Richard Weaver, M.E. Bradford, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson, Paul Elmer More and other leaders of Imaginative Conservatism. Some conservatives may look at the state of Western culture and the American Republic and see a huge dark cloud which seems ready to unleash a storm that may well wash away what we most treasure of our inherited ways. Others focus on the silver lining which may be found in the next generation of traditional conservatives who have been inspired by Dr. Kirk and his like. We hope that The Imaginative Conservative answers T.S. Eliot's call to "redeem the time, redeem the dream." The Imaginative Conservative offers to our families, our communities, and the Republic, a conservatism of hope, grace, charity, gratitude and prayer.


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Building The Community Web Around an Artist/
Today's guest post (part 1 of 2) is by 2010 Brave Thinker Of Indie Film Sheri Candler.
I think I have been promising this post for a while, ever since I wrote the New Independent Filmmaker's Business Model. If you haven't read that post, give it a little peruse so you can see what I am on about. The key premise is that all artists should be building a tribe (a Seth Godin term as it relates to marketing) or an engaged audience for their work. One that transitions from one project to the next throughout your career and indeed your life. These supporters will be your friends, your evangelists, your patrons and if you cultivate this relationship, you will not have need to reach a mass in order to make a comfortable living. I have been thinking though that maybe the idea should be compared to a web.
In looking through some other advice on this, I can see why some can be turned off by the idea. It seems most of the advice focuses only on how to lure people in just so you can sell them something, kind of like how the spider spins her web. It's a strategy I guess, but that isn't what I am going to tell you to do here. I am a firm believer that self promotion is about helping other people. What I propose is offering value, sharing knowledge and genuinely wanting to connect with people and connect people you know who should know each other. Perhaps it is better described as a web, an interconnected community. One that you lead, but is dependent on everyone's interactivity. To me that is much more palatable to an artist because it is authentic, no ulterior motive, which is refreshing in today's society. But reciprocity does happen because it is really human nature to help someone who has helped you, in fact in this scenario, it is expected.
First elements to understand when constructing you community web:
Permission-You must have permission to talk to people. Permission? Yes, you will only be talking to people who have opted in to hear what you have to say. You will NOT be eblasting everyone you ever met once a week. You will NOT be spamming hundreds of strangers who don't want to hear from you. You will have "the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them." (Seth Godin). How do you get permission? It starts simply by communicating with people on a one to one level. Aren't you doing that now? You should be, that's what social media is for. Not automated, canned message, advertising social media but real conversations. So think of what online services you can use, that you feel comfortable using for communicating every day. It doesn't have to be hours every day, but some amount of time every day.
Trust-We need to trust you. We need to know you are listening, you understand us, you will help us as we will help you and each other. We need NOT to feel that you are using us.
It's not you, it's we-Although this post is directed at building the web around yourself, it is really more about taking a leadership role that is missing from a community. There are lots of people in the world with similar interests and outlooks on life. Artists can contribute a lot to bringing these people together around ideas and creativity. Without leadership, they are just a crowd, unconnected to one another. You and your work are the catalysts that bring them together, if you actively step up to that role.
Building it, getting them to come
I have been reading a book this weekend by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan called "Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead" and it has helped me to think of how you should be looking at building your web. No one can tell you "do these 10 things and you will have a community," but you can start by setting goals for yourself and thinking through the small steps you can take to achieve them. A goal could be to start building an email list of names so that you can speak directly with your community. This is exactly what The Dead did starting in 1971, long before social media made it easy. They placed a call to action postcard in the album sleeve of the famous "Skull and Roses" asking "Dead Freaks Unite!" by sending in their addresses. The band used this list to communicate directly, gauge where the tours would be booked, offer exclusive content, they even gave priority ticket offers for the live shows to list members. Their list of hundreds of thousands was built over 30 years and continues to this day, despite the fact that the official band no longer exists. The community lives on.
First start with you. What's your story? What can you share with us that helps us to know if we are kindreds? This clearly means that you will not be attracting everybody. Everybody should not be your goal. Everybody isn't loyal. Trying to attract everybody is like cat wrangling, way more trouble than it is worth. You want the RIGHT people, those who are most open to wanting to contribute to something greater than themselves. Those are the people who are going to enlarge the web, to help you weave it.
Give us the genuine signals that you care and are passionate about what you do. We can sniff out the disingenuous; those who are only in this for money and fame. Make us believe in you and that you want to know us as people, not as targets. We won't join you if you want to manipulate us. We have everything we need. We don't need yet another commodity, another product. Make us different people for having known you and your stories.
Then, find us. If you know yourself and what you are interested in, you can figure out where we live. Think about your throughline. Many people say that they are interested in many different things, but if they really analyzed all of those seemingly different areas, they will find a commonality. That's your throughline and those most likely to connect with you will have the same. When you know what characteristics those are, it will be easier to find your community. Start to embed yourself in the places where we already gather.
I have heard some say that it is difficult to move people from one community to another. I personally have found this isn't the case once they know you and I have advised people on how to embed themselves and have seen their personal community numbers grow. It takes time and constant attention, but it will work. Your web will become intertwined in others so the goal isn't to move people, it is to become an extension.
Build the platform. Give yourself a place to speak from and a place for the community to gather. This may be an interactive website, it may just be a blog, it may start with a Facebook page (though ideally you'll want your own dedicated platform!). You may grow your community by starting in another one, but eventually you need a place of your own, a little place your community can grow and thrive.
Think of ways to delight us, to keep us coming back. As the propagator of your web, you need that connection to stay strong. Sometimes community members are lazy and forget to check back in. There should be a fresh serving of something noteworthy on your site at regular intervals. I saw a great reminder email the other day from a community with which I am involved. Just a message telling me what was going on over there, new discussions that were happening, new members who had joined and an invitation to check back in. It was very effective in catching my attention and letting me know that they had missed me, like they actually know I have been out for a while. Was it somewhat automated? Probably, but it still made me want to check back in and see what was happening. Someone should be thinking up and executing content that will keep the community engaged and involved.
This PMD person, how is this going to help?
This is the person who can keep the content on track and keep the community interested. I don't think you should turn your personal identity over to a PMD (Producer of Marketing and Distribution), but a PMD can have access your community while helping to spread the web to other influential individuals and groups and help to figure out the best way to get your film out to them. Ideally, the person you choose to help you is either already in your web or someone you introduce to them as a helper to you. Back to the Grateful Dead example, it was Eileen Law who became the community manager for the Dead's fans. She was one of the band's earliest fans. Eileen put together the newsletters, collected and organized the fan list, her voice was the one fans would hear on the message machine when they called for priority tickets. The Dead had a record label, but the label wasn't talking to the fans and much of the turnout to their shows came by word of mouth from the band. You still must keep engaged, but this person will serve as your liaison while you are in the creative process. All in the community must be kept aware of what is happening, transparency is important here. Believe me, once you start getting a community built up who expect regular interaction, this person will be vital.
Next post: Artists who are doing this and a roadmap…
Sheri Candler is an inbound marketing strategist who helps independent filmmakers build identities for themselves and their films. Through the use of online tools such as social networking, podcasts, blogs, online media publications and radio, she assists filmmakers in building an engaged and robust online community for their work that can be used to monetize effectively.
She can be found online at www.shericandler.com, on Twitter @shericandler and on Facebook at Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity.


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A special committee examining changes to how Boston assigns students to schools is expected to vote on its recommendations Monday night, potentially ushering in the most dramatic overhaul in more than two decades.
The 27 members of the External Advisory Committee — following a year of public outreach, research, and deliberations — will recommend one of four student assignment proposals, each of which aims to let more students attend schools closer to their homes.
The winning proposal must receive a simple majority vote. But reaching that point is likely to involve considerable debate, and the meeting could last several hours, said Helen Dajer, the committee's cochairwoman.
"I think we are headed in the right direction," Dajer said. "Change is due. We need a new assignment system."
If the advisory committee approves a proposal, Superintendent Carol R. Johnson could present the recommendations to the School Committee as soon as Wednesday night, kicking off another round of deliberations.
The School Committee has final say on any changes to student assignment, and it is unclear when its members will vote.
But some observers believe the advisory committee is voting on the proposals prematurely. They say a more comprehensive plan to overhaul lackluster schools needs to be developed first so all children can receive a strong education.
"The advisory committee is pushing the school district to come up with some quality and academic interventions, but right now what I see [being proposed] is very vague," said Kim Janey of Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a Boston nonprofit.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino is seeking a change in state law that would allow the School Department to extend the school day, shake up teaching staffs, and make other changes with less interference from the city's teachers' union. He has proposed spending millions of additional dollars.
Menino, who appoints the School Committee, has been pushing for overhauling the student assignment system and set up the advisory committee to vet potential changes. The mayor hopes a new system will allow more children from the same neighborhood to attend the same school.
Under the current system, students on the same street often head off each morning to schools many miles apart. That is because the city is divided into three massive student assignment zones, each offering families a choice of about two dozen schools.
The four proposals under consideration would, for the most part, greatly reduce the number of choices as well as the average distance from home to school — from nearly 2 miles to a little more than a mile.
The closer proximity has sparked a lively debate on the advisory committee about whether students who live in a school's so-called "walk zone" — within about a mile of a school — should still have a priority in school assignments.
The advisory committee is expected to make a recommendation on the walk zone Monday night in addition to endorsing one of the student assignment proposals.
The advisory committee appears to be largely split among two proposals developed by a professor and doctoral student at MIT and specialists from other institutions. Those two proposals are somewhat similar and each would represent the most dramatic change from the current system.
The two proposals would do away with the standard practice of drawing student assignment boundaries on a map. Instead, a complex algorithm would generate a list of schools from which parents can choose based on a variety of factors, such as distance from home, school capacity, and MCAS performance.
One proposal would offer students as few as seven school choices and as many as 18 choices, depending on the area of the city. The other would offer nine to 23 choices.
Some advisory committee members are leaning toward the two more traditional proposals, which would divide the city into 10 or 11 assignment zones. The 10-zone plan would offer three to 14 choices, depending on the zone. Choices under the 11-zone plan would range between three and nine.
The 10-zone plan had been removed from consideration earlier this month, but was revived last week.
Interest in the MIT proposals extends beyond the advisory committee.
The two proposals by the MIT academics won a ringing endorsement last week from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, after it researched all the proposals.
"It's the most balanced approach," said Marc Draisen, the council's executive director. "It doesn't focus just on proximity. It takes into account equitable access to quality schools."
Quest, a grass-roots parents' group, also released a position paper last week saying that the MIT proposals hold the greatest promise of ensuring that all children have access to quality schools.
But the group decided against endorsing those proposals or any of the other ones. Among their concerns: The city has a dearth of quality schools and has failed to develop an adequate way of measuring school quality.
"How you assign seats doesn't matter if there are not enough quality seats for everyone," said Sai Samant, a Jamaica Plain mother and Quest member. "It's a tough problem."
James Vaznis can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @globevaznis.


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Trying to decide where to apply? We take a look at the 12 most competitive universities in the UK, based on the average UCAS points scores of accepted students. Calculate your own UCAS points – or predicted scores – with the Telegraph's UCAS Calculator.
Average UCAS points: 443
The University of Exeter has invested £380 million into its three campuses and is one of nine in the UK to have indoor tennis facilities to national competition standards. It is also currently ranked in the top 10 in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Championships.
Clearing 2014 vacancies published on Results Day
Results are based on the HESA student records for university entrance in academic years 2010/11 and 2011/12. Data provided by BestCourse4MePicture: Alamy


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We Try Dairy Queen's Choco Covered Strawberry Blizzard
Is there a food more closely associated with love and romance than chocolate-covered strawberries? Whether you and your significant other are feeding them to one another over flutes of champagne or, ahem, enjoying them in ways better suited to a NSFW blog, they're kind of the quintessentially-amorous treat this time of year. And just in time for Valentine's Day, Dairy Queen has unwrapped the Choco Covered Strawberry Blizzard as February's Blizzard of the Month.
Sounds enrapturing, right? Plump, red, juicy berries, coated in decadent, exquisite chocolate, mixed up in rich soft-serve vanilla ice cream: What's not to love?
Sadly, like Valentine's Day itself for so many of us, that ultra-romantic imagery doesn't quite live up to cold reality. For starters, the strawberries in my Blizzard were scooped out of the metal canister of sundae toppings. Pre-chopped and swimming in heavy syrup, they were unceremoniously dropped in a cup, to be followed by a scoop of what the chain calls "choco chunks." Most recognizable as what encases a Dilly Bar or chocolate-dipped cone, it's basically Magic Shell that's already shattered into bits. I was under no illusions about DQ using actual hand-dipped berries, but the assembly-line approach sure ruined some of the allure for me.
Taste-wise, it unquestionably evoked the classic Valentine's Day sweet. What I actually wrote down in my tasting notes was, "tastes like VD in a cup," an admittedly unfortunate but pretty funny bit of shorthand.
Still, the flavor, though not off-base, tasted fake to me. The Blizzard's blending process effectively purees any large pieces of real berry that might be in there to begin with; I didn't encounter a single recognizable chunk of strawberry in an entire Large. Instead, I got an overpowering blast of that cloyingly sweet syrup in every single spoonful. It was an artificial sensation, at best.
Still the Choco Covered Strawberry Blizzard should certainly get you and your Valentine through in a pinch. Whether—or how—you choose to incorporate this frozen 'fection into your bow-chicka-wow-wow celebration, though? That's entirely up to you. No judging here.
About the Author: Todd Brock lives the glamorous life of a stay-at-home freelance writer in the suburbs of Atlanta. Besides being paid to eat cheeseburgers for AHT, pizzas for Slice, and desserts for Sweets, he's written and produced over 1,000 hours of television and penned Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. When he grows up, he wants to be either the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or the drummer for Hootie & the Blowfish. Or both.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Books: Evangelism
HeartCry does not actively raise funds but will benefit from any sales made through our Amazon.com affiliate link. You can either browse some of the titles from our "Reading List" below, or bookmark this link to use when you do any of your regular shopping through Amazon. Thank you.
This page is no longer functioning due to changes in Amazon's services, please refer to the recommended reading list instead.


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LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Requests[ NDS ]
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Scientists unveiled the most detailed view of what the Earth looks like at night at a news conference at the American Geophysical Union meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 5.
The unprecedented nighttime view of Earth's city lights is compiled from hundreds of images that come from a new NASA and NOAA satellite, called Suomi NPP.
Suomi NPP is special because it's equipped with a new sensor, called VIIRS, that can capture images at night even without moonlight, distinguishing night lights with six times better spatial resolution and 250 times better resolution of lighting levels than before.
This means Sumoi NPP can detect faint light down to the scale of something like a highway lamp or a fishing boat.
The result is a much crisper global view than the last Earth at Night picture, which has become a popular poster.
"It's like having three simultaneous low-light cameras operating at once and we pick the best of various cameras, depending on where we're looking in the scene," Steve Miller, an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University, said in a statement.
Researchers can use the image to locate and study wildfires, gas flares, auroras, major population centers, and more.
You can see more fantastic views of Earth at Night at NASA's Earth observatory website.