text:
Bloomberg, Mike
|Michael Rubens Bloomberg
|born on
|14 February 1942 at 15:40 (= 3:40 PM )
|Brighton, Massachusetts, 42n21, 71w09
|EWT h4w (is war time)
|Data source
|Astrology data
|25°30' 17°47 Asc. 26°22'
American businessman, billionaire and politician, elected the 108th Mayor of New York City on November 6, 2001, succeeding Rudy Giuliani. After spending up to $70 million of his own money on his campaign, he was sworn in by his predecessor in Times Square, just minutes after midnight on January 1, 2002. Later that day, he took the oath of office at 12:21 PM EST in a short, no-frills ceremony at the city clerk's office. He lives in his five-story, art filled brownstone on Manhattan's Upper East Side rather than the Governor's Gracie mansion.
In the worlds of finance and financial journalism, Michael Bloomberg is a phenomenon. The 25th richest American with an estimated net worth of $11.5 billion (Forbes September 2007), he runs a vast communications empire that takes in $4.7 billion a year in revenue and employs more than 10,000 people in more than 125 offices worldwide. As his business empire solidified, he became more interested in philanthropy and civic involvement. A proven salesman, legendary motivator and disciplined manager, he built a global conglomerate basically from scratch.
From a modest background, the son of a bookkeeper and a homemaker, Bloomberg was so interested in technology as a kid that he attended lectures at the local museum on the weekends and spent his summers working for a small electronics company. With student loans and a part time job of parking cars, he earned an engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1964 and continued on to Harvard Business School for two years. He began work as a bond trader at Salomon Brothers firm in 1966, becoming a partner in 1972. He was soon supervising all of Salomon's stock trading, sales and later, its information systems. But his relationship with Salomon ended abruptly after the company was purchased by the Phibro Corporation in 1981 and he was fired, a move he called political back-stabbing.
Bloomberg used his $10 million severance package to start his own firm. He persuaded Merrill-Lynch to back his plan to build a system that supplied data and data analysis. Prior to then, trading information was found in bookkeeping ledgers and past issues of financial journals, and sometimes on mainframe computers with limited access. Tapping into the capacity of electronics, Bloomberg established a financial service that allowed the business community to obtain current and past information quickly and easily. Two Merrill traders even helped him figure out what to put on the system. Once he delivered, the firm put up a critical $30 million for a 30% stake. Later, Merrill Chief Executive Daniel P. Tully waived Bloomberg's exclusive contract with Merrill so he could market his service to others. Bloomberg's service company proved indispensable to the financial world.
By 2000, Bloomberg L.P. had nearly 160,000 subscribers worldwide. Bloomberg News was launched in 1990, providing economic, business, political and sports stories to leading corporations, financial institutions and newspapers throughout the world. Bloomberg Radio followed in 1993, a general news station with an emphasis on business and the markets. The following year, Bloomberg TV made a debut and has expanded to multiple networks broadcasting in several languages worldwide.
A ruthless competitor, he is noted for his hot temper and vivid profanity. Ferocious, he is not without compassion; flippant, he is deeply serious about the social responsibilities of wealth and privilege. His philanthropy has amounted to $100 million a year for some time. His adventures include two near-crashes in aircraft he was piloting, one a helicopter and the other a small plane. At one time he saved a friend's life in an avalanche on the ski slopes: he argued with skeptics and obstinately refused to leave the spot where his friend turned out to be buried. Though driven in business, he is always up for a good party or a ski vacation. At times breezy and given to malapropisms and silly comments, he is a fun target for the late-show comedians. In the spring of 1997, he published his autobiography, "Bloomberg by Bloomberg," written with journalist Matthew Winkler. The bio has been called an exciting story, with anecdotes about breaking into the news business in Washington and Tokyo. Reviewers have also called it pompous and ego-centric, which might be understandable qualities in a self-made man who has achieved a position of world acclaim. Forbes magazine listed him as the richest American politician in October 2002. In early 2007 he was ranked 142nd on Forbes' list of the world's billionaires.
Bloomberg is a divorced father of two who switched to the Republican ticket in 2000, aiming for his present job of New York City Mayor. He and Susan Brown married in 1976 and divorced in 1993 when he wanted to go out and party. Their daughters are Emmy, born in 1979 (who worked in her dad's campaign) and Georgina, born in 1983. His ex-wife is still his good friend and was a helpmate on his mayoral campaign. Bloomberg now dates Diana Taylor, a brainy, successful and attractive investment banker. She is usually seen with him at his official functions.
New York's mayor announced on June 19, 2007 that he was ending his affiliation with the Republican Party. He declared himself an Independent, sparking speculation that he might run for US President in 2008.
He became a grandfather on 24 December 2013, at 4.34 pm, when his daughter Georgina gave birth to a boy, Jasper Michael Brown Quintana.
Link to Astrodienst discussion forum
- Social : End a program of study 1964 (John Hopkins University)
- Relationship : Marriage 1976 (Susan Brown, 17 years, divorced)
- Financial : Gain significant money 1981 ($10 million severance pay)
- Work : Retired 31 December 2013 (end of his period as mayor of New Your City.)
chart Placidus Equal_H.
Source Notes
Frances McEvoy quotes B.C. volume 13, page 30, Massachusetts birth records for 1942.
- Traits : Personality : Ambitious
- Traits : Personality : Personality robust
- Traits : Personality : Practical/ Realistic
- Family : Relationship : Number of Marriages (One)
- Family : Parenting : Kids 1-3 (Two daughters)
- Lifestyle : Financial : Wealthy (41st richest American in 2000)
- Vocation : Business : Entrepreneur (Communications empire)
- Vocation : Politics : Public office (Mayor of N.Y.)
- 1942 births
- Birthday 14 February
- Birthplace Brighton, MA (US)
- Sun 25 Aquarius
- Moon 17 Aquarius
- Asc 26 Cancer
- Traits : Personality : Ambitious
- Traits : Personality : Personality robust
- Traits : Personality : Practical/ Realistic
- Family : Relationship : Number of Marriages
- Family : Parenting : Kids 1-3
- Lifestyle : Financial : Wealthy
- Vocation : Business : Entrepreneur
- Vocation : Politics : Public office


text:
The lights are on
The idea of perspective is complex when it comes to video games. More often than not, the player sees the story through the eyes of one main character. Although the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V will have one of the highest profile instances of character switching, this concept has been around in video games for a while, and is being used more frequently than ever.
Throwing in another playable character, or even the same character as a child, can offer more depth to the plot because it highlights a different angle of the story. Here's a look at some of the best uses of this storytelling method.
[SPOILER WARNING: This article has spoilers for Shadow of the Colossus, Chrono Cross, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, and Mass Effect 2. While other titles' stories are mentioned throughout, the reveals are early in the game or are not likely to negatively alter the experience playing the game or appreciating the story.]
Children and Other Powerless Characters
Switching up the player's experience doesn't have to mean a different character entirely is used. A fresh look can mean adding in a child's viewpoint as well. This can even enhance the experience when characters are constantly switching.
Heavy Rain has the player constantly switching between characters trying to find the Origami Killer, but there is one switch in particular that is used heartbreakingly to tell the story.
The perspective switches to a young boy trying to save his brother, John, who has become trapped in a pipe rapidly filling with water as heavy rain begins to fall. The player must navigate the boy to his father for help.
The father is too drunk to save his son. Out of options, the boy returns to his trapped brother and explains to John that their father won't be coming. The water overtakes John and he drowns.
The young boy that the player controls is Scott Shelby. The trauma of witnessing his brother's death later leads to him becoming the Origami Killer.
If the information had been simply relayed to the player through a cutscene, the effect would not have been as strong as it is experiencing the trauma while playing as young Scott. Scott is already a hard-to-understand character because of his unforgivable actions. But his homicidal drive to find a father willing to sacrifice everything for his son would be a far larger stretch of the imagination to accept without seeing what leads up to it.
A younger version of a character can be used to show backstory rather than tell it. One of the more rewarding aspects of Uncharted 3 is seeing the origin of Nate and Sully. The pair has been together since the start of the series— though Sully has always seemed more like a buddy than a father figure. The switch in the third installment to the story, however, adds more dimension to the relationship through flashbacks.
By playing Nathan Drake as a teenager, the player is able to see him in a more vulnerable state. Not only is he not able to take on assailants, he is shown as a lonely orphan rather than a hardened treasure hunter.
Controlling Joker in Mass Effect 2 for a brief period is another instance of conveying vulnerability through a perspective shift. Although he is not a child, Joker is unable to physically take on enemies because of a rare bone condition. The only reason he is able to get through the Normandy to EDI's core is because Collectors are too distracted by capturing and killing other crew members to take notice of him. Although his actions in giving EDI control of the ship lead the Normandy to safety, it's not a pleasant victory.
Part of the joy in gaming is the fake power trip possible through fiction and an unlimited amount of do-overs. But there are some titles that want to the player to feel powerless. Feeling knocked down helps to empathize with the character and the situation. Feeling the suspense of playing a character who cannot fight back adds uncertainty to the player's experience.
For other examples of this trend of playing as a younger or powerless character be sure to check out The Last of Us and The Walking Dead. The upcoming title Among the Sleep is also based entirely around this premise.
In Red Dead Redemption, John Marston tries to turn around years of mistakes as an outlaw by tracking down former comrades for the government. When those he worked for turn against him, he gives up his own life for the sake of his family by walking into a rain of bullets. Becoming an honest man is impossible for John after his bloody past. He never had a chance to return to a peaceful life as a family man, and only found redemption for his past in his death.
After John Marston's death, there is a playable epilogue portion in which the player gains control of his son, Jack. Jack wants to avenge his father's death for his own redemption. While Jack is an odd switch after spending hours playing as his father, it is vital to getting retribution for John.
While it has a far stronger presence in Red Dead Redemption, death as a means to a new character is used most consistently in the Karateka remake. The player must save the captured Mariko. But every time the player dies, a new character takes over. Rather than the classic, figurative idea of having a certain amount of "lives," each character is a literal "life" that the player must treat as precious if they want the perfect ending. For example, if the player can make it through without dying, then Mariko will be saved by her true love. But if the true love is defeated while playing, someone else will take his place. That hero may not be who Mariko is hoping for.
Unlike in other switched perspectives where characters can die (for example, the aforementioned Heavy Rain) it is possible to play through the short title without switching to another character even once. The deaths have even more impact to the outcome as a result. The title is so short that the player is not likely to have a different perspective while switching from suitor to suitor. However, the men's differing reasons for why they are seeking to save Mariko add more dimension to their deaths.
Death of a playable character doesn't have to mean the story ends. With every closed chapter a new one opens, offering a new take on the world for the player.
Next Page: Transformation and other avenues to new playable characters...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Incoming 1Ls / Re: Can lawyers be outsourced?« on: June 28, 2005, 11:26:11 AM »
already said--illegal immigrants.
it's not like those jobs afford much security anyway--what's stopping any old joe from getting a job as a mover? nothing. construction at least requires some kind of trade skill, but even those are easily acquired (my friend just got a job building log cabins for rich bastards--and he's never built homes before.) sure, he makes good money (25dlrs an hr with no prior experience), but the work busts his ass and probably shortens his lifespan.
1. illegal immigrants are not outsourcing.
2. nobody ever said they were good jobs.
3. the minute you get hurt you're just out of luck.
4. women need not apply.


text:
Michael S. Boley, 68
Michael S. Boley, 68, of Corinth, Miss., formerly of Mendon, died on Monday, Feb. 27, 2012, at Centennial Hospital in Ashland City, Tenn.
He was born on Sept. 6, 1943, in Piqua, to Roger M. Boley and Grace I. Shane Boley, and his father preceded him in death. His mother survives in Celina.
On April 29, 1967, he married Cheryl Adams, and she survives.
He is also survived by a daughter, Julie (George) Huttick of Clarksville, Tenn.; a brother-in-law; a grandson.
Funeral services are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Mendon United Methodist Church, with the Rev. David Howell and the Rev. Don Clinger officiating.
Following the service, the family will receive friends in the church fellowship hall at a celebration of life dinner.
Memorials may be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society or to the American Red Cross. Condolences may be made at DickAndSonsHellwarthfh.com.
Arrangements are being handled by W.H. Dick & Sons - Hellwarth Funeral Home.


text:
Berkowitz Family Foundation Funds Lecture Highlighting Humanism in Medicine
First annual lecture, March 5th, brings Art Caplan, PhD, back to Philadelphia
Thomas Jefferson University has received a generous gift from Mr. Edwin Berkowitz and The Berkowitz Family Foundation of Merion, PA to fund an annual program on humanism in medicine that will attract nationally known speakers. A similar gift was given to The Foundation of Cooper University Hospital, with the request that the two institutions collaborate annually on this educational event.
Renowned bioethicist Arthur Caplan, PhD, the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor and head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City, and former head of the Department of Bioethics at Penn, will deliver the inaugural Berkowitz lecture, Why Do We Make it so Difficult to Die Well in American Health Care Institutions? at 4 PM, on March 5th in the Connelly Auditorium in Dorrance H. Hamilton Building on the Jefferson campus. A similar lecture will take place earlier in the day at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.
"We are grateful for the Berkowitz family's generosity and are thrilled to welcome Dr. Caplan to campus to talk with our students," says John Spandorfer, MD, the Rogers B. Daniels Associate Dean of Professionalism in Medicine at Jefferson Medical College.
Dr. Caplan's interactive lecture will discuss the personal and ethical decisions involved with end-of-life care and the financial implications of taking every possible measure to extend life. If the patient on life support were your mother, how long would you let her live and to what extent would you try to prolong life? Dr. Caplan will discuss these very difficult decisions and the physicians' role.
Mr. Berkowitz is the Chairman of the Board of JE Berkowitz Glass Company, founded in 1920. The company currently operates in a 200,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility that he designed and built in Pedricktown, NJ. It has provided glass for many prestigious buildings including the Comcast Center in Philadelphia and Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte, NC.
Mr. Berkowitz has been a philanthropic leader in the Delaware Valley and around the world. He has served as President of the Uptown Home for the Aged and the Golden Slipper Center for Seniors. Internationally, he is a past president of the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce. He has also served on the board of the Bioethics Department of the University of Pennsylvania, under the leadership of Dr. Caplan.
Mr. Edwin Berkowitz, his wife Barbara and their four children all take an active role in the operations of the Family Foundation.
For more information, contact: Lee-Ann Landis, Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals, 833 Chestnut Street, Suite 1140, Philadelphia, PA 19107, (215) 955-5291, (215) 955-5008 fax or email email@example.com.


text:
Popular Shows
SheKnows.com Lifestyles
© Copyright 2003-2016 SheKnows, LLC.
All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, November 13th, 2012
Sami calls Lucas a bigot, Will and Sonny make-up, and Nicole sees someone from her past.
At the pub, Gabi passes out in Nick's arms. Eddie gets her some water and when she comes to she feels fine. She skipped breakfast. Nick forces her to go to the ER.
Will stands in front of the mirror at home practicing his apology.
In Sami's office, Lucas asks for her thoughts on Nicole's drama. Sami's not surprised. Nicole has done similar things in the past. She remembers how Nicole dumped Lucas for 5 million dollars in order to be with Eric. They discuss Lucas' issues with Will when he walks in. They get into it about trusting Sonny. Will leaves and says if his relationship with Sonny is screwed up, Lucas is to blame. Sami comments that she's not a bigot. Lucas denies being one. "If the shoe fits," Sami snarks.
Hope walks into Nicole's hospital room. "You're free and you have Jennifer to thank for that," Hope says. They get into it. Hope sees this as a second chance for Nicole. So does Nicole and she will be sure not to waste it.
Outside Jenn's, she gets a hug from Daniel after telling him she asked the DA not to press charges against Nicole. He's impressed by her generosity. He flashes to professing his love to Jenn when she assumes he still has feelings for Nicole. He leaves and Hope arrives. Jenn whines that Nicole's got a rough road ahead of her. Nicole may not be in a jail cell but she's in prison just the same. Jenn decides to take care of something and leaves.
Sonny serves Cameron at the coffee shop. They discuss how Sonny's hoping to get his personal life on track today. He checks his hair just as Will walks in. Will apologizes for letting what his dad said get to him. They missed each other. Sonny's sorry for getting so angry and for not giving him a chance to explain. He hasn't been a monk but he also hasn't found a connection with anyone except Will. He admits he did lure Will to his apartment that day. He felt they were taking things monumentally slowly. He hoped that things would happen naturally. Will sighs. Lucas was right. They kiss and Will says he wanted to be there as much as Sonny wanted him there. They go back to Sonny's apartment.
Sami heads into the pub to see Nick but Eddie tells her he took Gabi to the hospital. She leaves a message for Rafe and runs off.
At the hospital, Gabi has had blood taken. Cameron examines her. In another room, Nicole dresses. Daniel learns she is being let out. She has to see a shrink. Things are awkward. He thinks she should be thankful to Jennifer but she thought Jennifer hated her. "Do you?" He doesn't but she knows he also doesn't love her. Where will she go? She's not sure where she'll end up. Maybe she'll visit Taylor. Daniel offers his help if she needs anything. She notices he's wearing his necklace and flashes to noticing it missing. She realizes he found it when he learned what she had done. He tells her he saw the baby clothes and put two and two together. She cries. It was a terrible moment for him. She sobs that she did this all to herself. He tries to hug her but she pushes him away and runs off. Sami arrives and finds Nick. He tells her what happened and she barges into Gabi's room. Cameron tells Sami Gabi's fine. Gabi freaks after hearing Rafe knows. They discuss how cute it is that Nick brought her there. Sami says they must be serious. Love can make one light-headed. They giggle. Cameron returns. They're surprised to hear Gabi is pregnant. Later, Jenn finds Daniel. She asks to be friends again. They shake hands.
Nicole walks through the square yelling at people to stop staring at her. "I'm not a freak show!" She mopes about ruining everything and looks up and spots Eric Brady!
Sonny and Will wind up at Sonny's. They start kissing and the clothes start coming off.
Sneak peek!
Kristen lets John know she's stepping down at CW.
Marlena receives a mysterious text.
Nicole tracks down Eric Brady and finds him at the pub.
Please abide by the Soaps.com guidelines when posting and contact a moderator if one is required to handle comment issues. Feel Free to check out DOOL's late breaking news, Days of our Lives spoilers and the Days of our Lives Comings and Goings.
Join Soaps.com on Twitter @soapoperafan, "like" Soaps.com on Facebook to dish on "Days of our Lives," all the other soap operas, "Dallas," "Glee," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Vampire Diaries."
Screen shots courtesy of NBC Universal Inc.
- Christine Fix
Previous in Recaps Breaking Point.
Next in Recaps That's Some News, Huh?
© Copyright 2003-2016 SheKnows,LLC. All Rights Reserved.


text:
The defense attorney for a parolee associated with rapper Chief Keef filed statements today from several people claiming the man did not have a gun police say they found him with early Wednesday—including one from a convicted felon who claims it was his gun.
But Criminal Court Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Durk Banks, 20, aka Lil Durk, held in lieu of $100,000 bail in a hearing midday today.
According to court records, police responded to a call of a person with a gun about 3 a.m. Wednesday in the 7200 block of South Green Street. Officers arrived and saw Banks, of Melrose Park, toss a handgun through the open window of a parked Hyunda Sonata and walk away quickly. The gun – a blue steel Glock 9mm with 14 live rounds -- was found in the back seat.
A records search showed that it was reported stolen on April 10, according to the police report.
At the time of his arrest, Banks was weeks away from finishing parole in a 2011 aggravated unlawful use of a weapon case, in which he was caught in the 6400 block of South Eggleston Avenue on Oct. 9, 2011, with a gun that had had its serial numbers defaced.
Banks' lawyer, Sam Adam Jr., filed a memorandum asking for a signature bond, stating that Banks is engaged, has one child and another that is due on Tuesday. He said Banks has signed with a major record label but has yet to make a significant amount of money and therefore has little means to post bond.
Attached to the memorandum are handwritten statements from several alleged witnesses to the incident, all claiming that Banks did not own the gun.
One of the statements is from a 20-year-old man who claimed it was his gun, and that he told police he was the one who threw it in the car. The man, who is a convicted felon acquitted of attempted murder in March, claimed in his statement that "police did not want to listen to him."
Banks performs under the name Lil Durk. He is a friend and associate of South Side rapper Chief Keef, who also has been under public scrutiny since the September 2012 shooting death of aspiring rapper Joseph Coleman, 18, not far from his boyhood home in Englewood.
The slaying of Coleman – known as Lil Jojo – garnered national attention following reports that Chicago police were looking into whether a war of words in the hip-hop community between him and Chief Keef's crew played a role in the slaying. Hours after Coleman's death, a taunting tweet was sent on Chief Keef's account mocking Lil Jojo.
Law enforcement sources said Lil Durk is part of the same crew that had been at odds with Coleman, a feud that investigators have documented from YouTube videos and Twitter feeds.
The sources have also said the slaying might be tied to a conflict between the Brick Squad faction of the Gangster Disciples and the Lamron faction of the Black Disciples.
No one has been charged in Coleman's slaying.
In March, Chief Keef -- whose real name is Keith Cozart -- completed a 60-day stay in a juvenile prison for violating his probation on a gun conviction. Since then, he's been arrested twice.
On May 20, he was arrested in the Atlanta area when police allegedly found him smoking marijuana in a hotel room. A week later, he was arrested on suspicion of speeding at 110 mph on the Edens Expressway in Chicago's northern suburbs, police said.
Tribune reporter Liam Ford contributed
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking


text:
Select a topic or year
Today's digital-savvy consumers are driving companies to re-engineer their business models. New products are expected to integrate into the lives of consumers and adapt to their individual needs. In response to these dynamic buyer behaviours, companies are accelerating innovation in the embedded software that makes products smarter, and in the back-end software services connecting these products. This requires a technology skills base for companies to draw from.
Stellenbosch University in collaboration with IBM, is addressing the need for students to build strong software development skills. A first-of-its-kind centre of excellence in South Africa, which includes a post-graduate computer laboratory in the SU Computer Science Division, with advanced software including the Rational development environment, will provide a fully-fledged software production environment for students to hone their technology skills.
The Centre is intended to significantly boost the training and support of computer science professionals at the University. Students will also benefit from an on-going training and development programme offered by IBM.
"It is important for us to energise the classroom and that calls for integrating the latest technology into our curriculum in order to prepare students for high-value job opportunities," says Prof Ingrid Rewitzky, Vice-Dean: Teaching of the SU Faculty of Science and chair of the SU Department of Mathematical Sciences (including Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science).
The COE opening is part of a long term relationship between the University and IBM. The company has regularly supported postgraduate courses in Computer Science.
"In order to nurture sufficient highly skilled computer professionals to support our growing technological environment, we need to match high-quality education with exposure to state-of-the-art and emerging technologies that matter to business," says Sean McLean, University Relations for IBM. "We expect the COE at Stellenbosch and others like it to be fully independent in the next five years."
IBM is already supporting similar centres at other colleges and universities worldwide, including Nigeria and India, to develop graduates with business and technology skills.
"IBM's provision of state-of-the-art software and technology makes it possible for our academics and postgraduate students to use the latest technology in their teaching, learning and research initiatives," adds Prof Rewitzky. "This supports our efforts to train highly skilled computer scientists, and to meet the industry demands for such skills in South Africa and beyond."
IBM's Academic Initiative is a global programme that facilitates the collaboration between IBM and educators to teach students the information technology skills they need to be competitive and keep pace with changes in the workplace.
For more about Stellenbosch University Division of Division of Computer Sciences, Stellenbosch University Department of Mathematical Sciences (including Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science), visit http://www.cs.sun.ac.za/
For more information about IBM's university programs, visit www.ibm.com/press/university or http://www.ibm.com/academicinitiative
|XML feeds
News about IBM solutions for K-12 and higher education
Information Management, Lotus, Tivoli, Rational, WebSphere, Open standards, open source


text: Day two As promised, here's the new trip report. As I said earlier, today started off pretty early. We were, as the Americans say, "up and at 'em", before most people and having breakfast by 7.30. Managed to find our favourite waitress, Analina, who remembered us from last time and managed a few warm hugs. Bless. Off to Typhoon Lagoon where we had our first fun injection with a few trips on Crush N Gusher and then off to the lazy river. Followed by every other water slide (twice) , rubber ring ride and raft ride we could find before racing off back to the hotel for lunch. And breathe. Then off again to MK to say "hello", where we meandered through the shops trying on half the hats we could find (see other post) and seeing what they've updated this time round. View attachment 12612 Any clues what's it for? Keep it clean, people! Raced off to Space Mountain and did that twice. Both of us spectacularly pulled off a grumpy face on the pictures they take at the weirdest moment. Quick round of Buzz Lightyear where I trounced Jeff's score spectacularly. As you can see from the picture though he's not impressed. I kept swinging the car around to get the best shots before he'd managed to fire any off. I'm not competitive, much. Not really.... Just because I have 'that look' on my face doesn't mean a thing. View attachment 12613 Honest. Off to Epcot.... Found our picture on the legend wall. Picture faces directly across from Spaceship Earth., which we then pelted across to as the heavens opened. View attachment 12614 People scurried off like so many ants and Disney instantly made ten grand profit when everyone started to buy the plastic ponchos. Still raining, so we did even more shops, trying not to drop kick any of the knee high children when they came bouncing across in front of me. Rain eased off a bit so we headed off to China to scan the shops there before our dinner at Nine Dragons. Both of us in hysterics when we saw the following item: placement of the 'fortune cookie' is a little unfortunate, don't you think? View attachment 12615 Time for dinner; steak and shrimp for me (always yummy) tofu stir fried plants and rabbit food for his nibs which apparently was very bland, poor thing. You'd think they'd be a little more creative with their flavouring.... I had another moment of hilarity scaring future patrons of the restaurant by making the crayon 'toxic'. View attachment 12616 Dinner done, walked outside, still raining (grr) so ran over to Mexico so Jeff can do a Louis Spence impression in a sombrero. (if you don't know who Louis Spence is google it). View attachment 12617 Fed up of the rain and getting tired so decided to forego Illuminations. We are here for two weeks so one evening without fireworks won't kill us. And now back at the hotel, having a lovely cuppa. Typically British. Oh. And does anyone think these look a bit evil. Like they could audition for a new "Bride of Chucky" film? (shudder). View attachment 12618 Sent from my iPad Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


text:
Humble Mercury hurls out more Cell kit
Promises big wins
SC06 Mercury Computer Systems continues to astound us with its pragmatic, humble approach to the high performance computing market.
Many of you likely only know Mercury because of its Cell processor partnership with IBM. Mercury has been selling a dual-socket Cell-based blade server that slots into IBM's Blade Center chassis, and IBM has since resold the same system as its QS20 blade.
Playing in the Cell market brings a lot of baggage, especially when you're the only real IBM Cell server partner in town. Reporters – yours included – have heaped press upon Mercury, tying the company to the glory and hype that follows the unique gaming to supercomputing Cell chip.
"We don't mind the attention, but that's not what we're all about," said Joel Radford, a Mercury VP, in an interview here at the Supercomputing conference.
Mercury has embraced the HPC market in all its current shapes and sizes. The company has FPGA gear and calls GPGPU (general purpose GPU) kit "old hat," having sealed a deal with Ziehm Imaging around the technology. Now Mercury hopes to see what ATI/AMD and Nvidia have to offer on the GPGPU front.
Mercury tells us that it's not tied to Cell at all and will focus on finding the best overall performance and performance per watt products.
That said, it has a number of new Cell systems coming in 2007.
Starting in January, customers will see a dual-socket 1U rackmount server that's aimed at HPC customers. For the first time, users will be able to create Cell-based clusters with relative ease and by using a form factor they're used to.
In addition, Mercury will ship a Cell Accelerator Board (CAB) that plugs into a PCI Express slot. University lab, media and medical imaging types are the target audience for this meaty board that chews through 210 watts – more on that later.
Then, in the middle of next year, Mercury will ship a ruggedized Cell-based server for the military.
Rivals have knocked the Cell chip for being tied to single precision floating point and for its heat consumption.
Sticking to its pragmatic roots, Mercury admits the single precision floating point limitation hurts its broader market chances for the moment. "But there are a heck of a lot of customers working with single precision floating point that can use our help now," Radford said. The Cell chip should also show a "dramatic improvement" in double precision floating point performance by mid-2008.
On the heat front, Mercury dismisses critics. The company argues that Cell boards – while toasty – show a dramatic performance per watt edge over general purpose chips, especially when you begin clustering large numbers of systems.
Moving to Cell systems can also give customers more flexibility. Researchers at Boston University, for example, had been dependent on sharing time on a large cluster. Now, however, part of the Biomedical Engineering group has moved off the cluster and onto a single Cell-based server that's all their own. Beside convenience, the group has seen a dramatic speed up as its jobs now finish in three minutes rather than three weeks.
To prove that its Cell pitch is starting to pay off, Mercury plans to announce "two to three big design wins" in the next couple of months. The wins should be for 1,000s of units, Radford said. ®
Sponsored: Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open


text:
Academic Integrity - Importance of properly citing sources for scholarship and accurracy
Evaluating your sources
Defining Plagiarism
According to the MLA Handbook, Seventh Ed (p 52):
"Plagiarism involves two kind of wrongs. Using another person's ideas, information, or expressions without acknowledging that person's work constitutes intellectual theft. Passing off another person's ideas, information, or expressions as your own to get a better grade or gain some advantage constitutes fraud."
Incidence of Plagiarism - Is it Increasing?
Types of Cheating -- McCabe (2005)- Cheating on Written Assignments
Ellison, Jerome. "American Disgrace: COLLEGE CHEATING." Saturday Evening Post 232.28 (????) -
- Any idea when the following was published?
Cheating is Widespread in College, but Why? - NPR Talk of the Nation
Plagiarism Infractions
Scale of Infractions – Rate the following for seriousness of the Infraction
Minor 1 .. ……………………………………………………………>>>> 10 Major
Paper Mill _____
Paraphrase but don't cite source _____
(Self-plagiarism) Borrower borrows from their own previous work ______
Using information from Wikipedia but not citing the source as it is "common knowledge"_____
Copying and pasting from the web (and not citing) _______
Getting confused, can't find the source and cites incorrectly ______
Student mentions writer's name, but doesn't give specifics of the source ________
Copying and pasting from a web site's frequently asked questions page about homelessness and not citing the source because no author was given _______
Putting an ad on Craigslist for someone to write your paper _______
Working with others on an assignment when asked for individual work __________
You have a discussion with your neigbor - an expert on middle east studies - and use that discussion as a basis for your thesis paper - without acknowledging that discussion. (hot mike)
Question to Consider
Lovett-Hooper, Gwena, et al. "Is Plagiarism a Forerunner of Other Deviance? Imagined Futures of Academically Dishonest Students." Ethics & Behavior 17.3 (2007): 323-336. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 8 Oct. 2009.
McCabe, Donald L. "Cheating among college and university students: A North American perspective." International Journal for Educational Integrity, 1.1( 2005): 15 Oct. 2008 http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/view/14
McCabe, Donald L. Interview. Cheating In College Is Widespread — But Why? Talk of the Nation NPR 19 Jul. 2010. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5205929
McCabe, D.L. and L.K. Tevino. Honor Codes and other Contextual Influences. Journal of Higher Education 1993 64 (5): 522-38
Perez-Pera, Richard. "Studies Find More Students Cheating, With High Achievers No Exception." The New York Times 2012: 14. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
Roberts, Jeffrey, and David Wasieleski. "Moral Reasoning In Computer-Based Task Environments: Exploring The Interplay Between Cognitive And Technological Factors On Individuals' Propensity To Break Rules." Journal Of Business Ethics 110.3 (2012): 355-376. Business Source Complete. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.
Scanlon, Patrick M. "Student Online Plagiarism." College Teaching 51.4 (2003): 161-165. Academic Search Premier. 5 October 2006. http://search.ebscohost.com.
Scanlon Patrick M, Neumann David R. "Internet plagiarism among
college students." Journal of College Student Development 43.3 (2002): 374. ProQuest Education Journals. ProQuest. 5 Oct. 2006 http://www.proquest.com/
Saint Michael's College Academic Integrity Policy
Citing Sources
MLA Handbook Seventh Edition
Example Citations Below: New York Times article:
"Guilty of Plagiarism." New York Times 8 Mar. 1889: 1. Print.
Web - From a database
"Guilty of Plagiarism." New York Times (1857-1922): 1. Mar 08 1889. ProQuest. Web. 16 Oct. 2014 .
"Guilty of Plagiarism." New York Times 8 Mar. 1889: 1. Microfilm.


text:
Tennessee Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Gene Davidson announced last week that the Tennessee FSA will conduct a four-week Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up beginning May 20 and ending on June 14, 2013.
"It continues to be our goal to ensure that we use CRP to address our most critical resource issues," said Davidson. "In 2012, many states experienced the worst drought in 60 years. CRP protected environmentally sensitive lands from washing or blowing away. It gave ranchers extra grazing land when they needed it.
"I expect there will be strong competition to enroll or re-enroll acres into CRP, so I urge Tennessee's producers to maximize their environmental benefits and make sure their offers are cost-effective."
In addition to erosion control, CRP provides significant water quality benefits including reduced nutrients and sediment loadings and adverse consequences associated with floods as well as expanded and enhanced wildlife habitat.
Currently, about 27 million acres are enrolled in CRP nationwide, 176,806 acres in Tennessee. CRP is a voluntary program available to agricultural producers to help them safeguard environmentally sensitive land. Producers enrolled in CRP plant long-term, resource-conserving covers to improve the quality of water, control soil erosion and enhance wildlife habitat.
Contracts on an estimated 3.3 million acres of CRP are set to expire on September 30, 2013, 51,181 of those acres in Tennessee. Producers with expiring contracts or producers with environmentally sensitive land are encouraged to evaluate their options under CRP.
Producers who are accepted in the sign-up can receive cost-share assistance for planting covers and receive an annual rental payment for the length of the contract (10-15 years). Producers also are encouraged to look into CRP's other enrollment opportunities offered on a continuous, non-competitive, sign-up basis. Continuous sign-ups often provide additional financial assistance. Those sign-up dates will be announced later.
For more information on CRP and other FSA programs, visit your local FSA county office or www.fsa.usda.gov.


text:
Sign Permits
Before they are issued, sign permits must be approved by the Zoning Administration office. Contractors wishing to check on the status of a sign permit should contact the Zoning office by calling (612) 673-3000.
Sign Permits are only issued to Sign Contractors licensed by the City of Minneapolis. Contractors wishing to be licensed to do business in the City of Minneapolis should contact the Licenses & Consumer Services Division at (612) 673-2080.
View the Sign Contractor List (pdf).
Fee Schedule – Effective April 1, 2015
Last updated May 18, 2015


text:
Mall name:
W Hampden Ave at Santa Fe Dr, Englewood, Colorado - CO 80110
Phone number to City Center Englewood mall
303 801 370
Hours (mall)
Please call to City Center Englewood for shopping hours.
Driving directions
Other stores in City Center Englewood:
Looking for another location of GNC store?
Go to GNC store locator to see all GNC stores


text:
Kieran Gibbs to miss Besiktas tie
Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs will miss both legs of the Champions League playoff against Besiktas after being ruled out for up three weeks with a hamstring injury.
The left-back was hurt in Saturday's 2-1 win over Crystal Palace, Arsenal's opening match of the Premier League season.
Nacho Monreal will likely come on as a replacement.
Centre-back Laurent Koscielny has shrugged off an Achilles problem and midfielder Mathieu Flamini returns after missing the Palace match, but forward Yaya Sanogo (hamstring) did not travel.
German World Cup winners Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski are all not yet to be involved, while goalkeeper David Ospina (thigh), Theo Walcott and Serge Gnabry (both knee) continue their rehabilitation.
Arsenal are looking to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League for a 17th straight season.
Provisional Squad: Szczesny, Monreal, Chambers, Koscielny, Debuchy, Cazorla, Sanchez, Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta, Giroud, Martinez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Campbell, Coquelin, Flamini, Bellerin.
Use a Facebook account to add a comment, subject to Facebook's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your Facebook name, photo & other personal information you make public on Facebook will appear with your comment, and may be used on ESPN's media platforms. Learn more.


text:
Responsibility Centered Management (RCM) and Responsibility Centered Budgeting (RCB) are approaches to provide incentives to increase efficiency and promote revenue growth. They allow academic units to become more entrepreneurial and to benefit from it. Academic units will be held accountable for financial decisions.
View the following presentations to learn more.


text:
The first posting about this historic outhouse was made last Sunday. After that post I found out that the building was to be delivered on Monday morning. So, since it is a family heirloom, sort of, I decided to document its delivery to the Whitley County Historical Museum. I got there just before it arrived but missed it coming through downtown.
The owners, Greg and Jan Anthes, referred to it as the "Little Brick House" and contacted the Whitley County Historical Museum in early June to see if they would be interested in it. Greg and Jan offered to pay for getting the site ready and transporting the building as well as setting up an endowment fund for its maintenance. Of course, the Museum accepted. Thus, on a hot and very humid Monday morning the building arrived with Greg and Jan along to ensure that it was safely established in its new home.
Its journey actually started four years ago. According to Greg and Jan, they purchased it when they found out it was going to be torn down. Greg's grandparents had owned the little brick house when he was growing up and he had very fond memories of the times spent playing there with his grandmother. Of course, at that time, the little house was no longer used as an outhouse. The "facilities" had been removed many years before and the holes covered over.
According to Jan, the project was purely a labor of love. It couldn't have been otherwise. It turned out that moving the little house to their home in Springfield, Ohio was no easy task. The brick foundation went twenty feet into the ground. The only way it could be moved was by taking it apart. So that is what they did. They carefully removed the doors and windows and trim, marking each piece so it could be put back in its proper place. Then the bricks were removed. The walls were two-bricks thick so it was double the work. But they got it apart and safely moved.
Then they spent the next few months cleaning the brick, scraping off the mortar and dirt. By hand. One brick at a time. Greg prepared the site with a three-foot thick concrete foundation and then started putting the little house back together again. Some of the brick had been damaged. There wasn't enough of it to make the walls two-bricks thick so a wooden frame was made with a plywood facing and the outer walls of brick were laid. The windows and doors were put back on and the interior was dry walled and plastered. The outside of the trim was painted but the inside was left as it was since there was some graffiti and small drawings that they wanted to save. After nearly two years of hard work, the little house was completed. Greg and Jan used it as a garden shed and within it they also displayed some of the items that his grandmother had used.
Why were they donating it to the Whitley County Historical Museum? Well, when they bought the little house they thought they would remain in Springfield for the rest of their lives, but things change and opportunities come along that can't be passed up and a move to New Hampshire is on the horizon. They didn't want to leave the little brick house in Springfield and didn't think it had any business being in New Hampshire so they decided that it should go home again. It's not exactly in the same spot where it resided for over 130 years but it's close enough.
The journey from Springfield back to Columbia City began when the little house was literally cut from its foundation. A 12" section of the foundation was left attached to the building. It was moved from its site by a moving company in the same way that a house would be moved, very carefully, then put upon a trailer used for hauling excavation equipment. The trip was mostly uneventful, except for a flat tire on the truck near Ohio City. And a portion of the roofing material came off as it was moving along at 55 mph down the highway. Just a little worse for the wear. But it made it without any major damage.
Its final journey, off the truck and onto its new site, took about five hours. It wasn't rushed, it needed to be done slowly and carefully. It arrived a few minutes after 9 a.m. and was sitting on its new foundation by 3 p.m.
10:20 a.m. on a hot and humid Monday morning. Backing into the driveway of the Whitley County Historical Museum.
10:40 a.m. Greg Anthes, in khaki pants and owner of "The Little Brick House", talks with the movers checking out the new site.
11:20 a.m. Almost set up. The sun came out, but it's still very hot and humid.
11:30 a.m. The building has been lifted a little and the dollies are being set in place.
12:30 p.m. After a lunch break. It's moving. Slowly but surely.
12:45 p.m. About half-way there.
1:10 p.m. Getting closer. It took a while to readjust the equipment.
1:35 p.m. Preparing to lower the building.
1:45 p.m. Lowering it down gradually, like a seesaw, one end, then the other.
2:30 p.m. That's as far as it goes.
3:15 p.m. Some work will need to be done to attach the building to the footing but it isn't going anywhere anytime soon, it weighs 12,000 pounds!
3:30 p.m. Greg and Jan Anthes. The plaque reads: "The Little Brick House" / Built in 1866 / By Columbia City, Indiana banker / Franklin H. Foust / Purchased in 1915 / By John C. & Fanny Myers / Gifted in 1936 / To their daughter, / Mary B. Anthes / 2003 - 2005 / Saved from destruction, / Moved, & rebuilt / By her grandson & his wife, / Greg & Jan Anthes
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
An Historic Outhouse - Part 2
Posted by Becky Wiseman at 12:50 AM
Labels: Foust, miscellaneous
3 comments:
- Janice said...
What a great story! I've never seen such a sturdily built outhouse.
- August 8, 2007 at 7:30 PM
- Becky said...
Thanks Janice. This was the first brick outhouse that I had ever heard of, let alone seen. Mr. Foust left his mark in the community in more ways than one. Bet he never thought he'd be known for having the best outhouse in the county, or perhaps even the state!
- August 10, 2007 at 9:09 AM
What a great photo but this is the privy to end all privies. Thanks for sharing
- July 24, 2012 at 7:44 PM


text:
Veterinary hospital marks 25 years
After working for other veterinary offices in Lincoln County, Donald Whitener decided to open his own practice. Conover Veterinary Hospital opened in 1988 with Whitener and one assistant receptionist.
Twenty five years later Whitener employs 14 full- and part-time employees and has gone through three renovations to grow his business.
Whitener said when he decided to open his own practice 25 years ago there wasn't a veterinarian in Conover.
To read more of this story, pick up the Thursday edition of Catawba County's community newspaper, The Observer News Enterprise, at newsstands throughout the county.


text:
M'Vila move nears completion
Rennes expect Yann M'Vila to have left the club before the weekend, though the French international midfielder's final destination is yet to be resolved with a mystery English club joining the race to sign him.
M'Vila, 22, started last weekend's Ligue 1 game against Bastia on the bench, only coming off it as a consequence of an injury to a team-mate, and will no longer be with the club when Marseille arrive in Brittany on Saturday, despite talks with prospective buyers dragging on.
"It's complicated. I'm still in negotiations. It's not progressing with the clubs. There's no agreement. There are the payment deadlines and all that to discuss. I hope we'll strike a deal during the evening, during the night," Rennes general manager Pierre Dreossi told RMC radio. "In any case, M'Vila is going to leave. It'll be finished before Saturday's game."
Russian club Rubin Kazan currently lead the race to sign M'Vila after upping their offer for the French international to €11.5 million, some €1.5 million more than Rennes had hoped to receive, according to L'Equipe.
Rubin do have competition though. Dreossi admitted having "a long meeting" with Queens Park Rangers representatives on Monday evening, but added: "I think they're going to pull out. I haven't heard from them since." He revealed, however, another Premier League side have made a bid for M'Vila, who has also been linked to both Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur.
"A new offer arrived a little while ago from England. It could be interesting, but I'm talking to Rubin Kazan right now. It's not Newcastle."
Dreossi said M'Vila was talking to Rubin officials on Tuesday to thrash out personal terms on a four-year contract worth an initial €4 million after tax annually. "I'm waiting to hear from the player so I can conclude negotiations," Dreossi added.
Use a Facebook account to add a comment, subject to Facebook's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your Facebook name, photo & other personal information you make public on Facebook will appear with your comment, and may be used on ESPN's media platforms. Learn more.


text:
You've got it, and it's even in the title, Helping Students to Learn: A Guide to Learner Autonomy (London, Richmond Publishing).
I can send you what I have used in the past. It's not much (about 10 pages), but you're welcome to it. Send me a PM and I'll email you the doc. Generally speaking it should be covered as part of a first lesson although teachers can refer to it throughout acourse as a means of reminding students of their learning responsibilities and shortfalls in their individual progress.
Here's a bit:
What is learning to learn?
Both student and teacher have expectations in the classroom and ideas as to what the prescribed learning process should be. Communication can break down and learning fails when the students training preferences and those of the teacher have not been aligned. Whenever you are training you have information and ideas that you want students to understand and learn effectively and efficiently.
Students need to be aware of their own natural training preference to expand on the way that they learn, the way in which they think they should be taught and ultimately to accept other ways of learning (not just their preferred or habitual style). They can be stretched beyond their learning preferences and develop a more balanced approach.
What is the advantage of Learning to Learn for the teacher?
In addition to establishing learning styles, learning to learn also permits the teacher to draw up a type of unwritten contract with the students the aim being to encourage autonomous learning in which students accept responsibility for their individual performance and motivation level.
Teachers can establish a certain number of ground rules in the classroom by making students understand that the learning process is a two way street and that it is insufficient for students to simply expect the teacher to feed them.
English Teacher


text:
BOSTON (AP) -- Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points and won his rematch with Kevin Garnett as the New York Knicks ended an 11-game losing streak in Boston with an 89-86 victory over the Celtics on Thursday night.
Knicks 89, C's 86
It came 17 days after a verbal clash between the All-Star forwards following Boston's 102-96 victory in New York led to Anthony's one-game suspension.
Anthony was booed frequently Thursday but there was no sign of hostility with Garnett. At one point, Anthony even extended his hand to a fallen Garnett and helped the Celtic to his feet.
Rajon Rondo led the Celtics with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, his fourth triple-double of the season. Paul Pierce added 22 points. Garnett had only eight points but finished with a game-high 12 rebounds as Boston lost its fifth straight game.
There were 17 lead changes in the game but none in the fourth quarter.
In the first half, Anthony was booed nearly every time he touched the ball and cheered when he was called for fouls as fans reacted to the last meeting between the star forwards. One of the biggest cheers came when Garnett blocked Anthony's layup attempt with 3:15 left in the second quarter.


text:
BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron had one last chance to convince Selke Trophy voters he should take home that hardware this season.
And in a completely meaningless game at TD Garden, the Bruins center produced two fantastic defensive plays that led directly to Boston goals in addition to several others and dished off for three assists in a 4-3 shootout win against Buffalo. Bergeron also scored the lone goal of the post-overtime skills competition.
Bergeron came up short in the league faceoff races, as his 5-for-10 showing against the Sabres put him at 59.3 percent, one tenth of a point behind Chicago's Jonathan Toews. But he won the plus/minus race at a plus-36 and continued to impress his head coach.
"Well, to me, that was a perfect example of what we've been talking about Patrice. And I keep saying this guy shows up every day with a purpose, and if it's practice, he'll be the best practice player. If it's a game, he wants to be the best player in the game, and today was no exception," said head coach Claude Julien. "It would have been easy for him to throw in the towel like a lot of people do, and just say, 'I'm just going to go out there and just be OK. I don't want to get hurt. I want to make sure I'm fresh for the playoffs.' But he went out there again today, led by example, wanted to be the best player out there, and that's what you get out of him every day. Not just every game, but every day, and that's why he's such a great leader and a great example for any young player that comes into our dressing room because we've got a few of those players that are like that, and he's certainly one of the top ones."
•Ottawa lost in regulation against New Jersey, Washington beat the New York Rangers and Florida prevailed against Carolina today. So that left the Capitals as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and the Bruins' first-round opponent. The complete schedule for the series will be released Sunday by the NHL.
The Bruins dropped three of their four meetings with the Caps this season.
•With two goals, Tyler Seguin finished on top of the Bruins' charts in that department with 29 and in points with 67. He's the youngest Bruins scoring leader in team history. Brad Marchand finished second in goals with 28. Bergeron led the team with 42 assists.
•Julien offered the following update on Adam McQuaid's status. The blueliner left Thursday's game in Ottawa because he wasn't feeling right in his first game back after a head injury from the loss the Washington a week earlier.
"I think his situation — he's got to feel good. He's just a little off right now, and as long as he's a little off, we're not moving forward with him," said Julien. "So he might be OK for Thursday, which I anticipate when it's going to start, but if he's not, we've got some other guys. I think the reason we've got that depth was for that reason, that we need players to be able to step in whenever needed. So Johnny [Boychuk]'s looking good right now, and McQuaid right now is day to day, and that could change from one day to the other."


text:
Yeah, but a voice T1 hardly qualifies as an analog phone line.
You are failing to consider large-scale campus and satellite office type situations. Two terrific examples being Enormous State University and Maximegalon Consolidated, Inc.. Each of them is just dying to get VOIP going, just to save on long-distance charges between the disparate campuses where they do business. Flat rates is always preferable to toll-based rates. Especially business rates.That said, I really don't see VoIP on a large scale taking off for a while.
What amazes me is that most post here that I've read are considering freedom from evesdropping as the only inmportant aspect of security. Far more important in this situation is theft-of-service.
Some folks have brought up the obvious aspect of this by pointing out that live, unsupervised network jacks are not exactly uncommon on large university campuses, often also in many corporations. Throw unsecured wireless nets in and the networks become very porous indeed. While those ARE potential disabling factors in VOIP security, they aren't the true achilles heel. Those are the issues that are already known from the regular computing-over-IP security regimen. There are well known security regimens to handle tham. Those may or may not exist at any given location, depending on the diligence of the security professionals.
What few people are considering is something that is built right into VOIP, as an aspect of adapting private-network telephony to the public-network internet: VOIP call signaling is IN-BAND. I'll say it again: Voice-Over-IP signalling is IN-BAND.
You can encrypt the content of the call all you want, but the information necessary to get the calls through on VOIP has to be accessible to the devices that route the call. Encryption (at current tech) of the signalling will slow down the call enough to impact quality of service.
If you can eavesdrop on signalling info, you can pretty easily spoof it. Spoof it, and you get a free net-dail-tone. Spammers like open mail relays; hacking/phreaking college students will LOVE open out-bound lines to ANYWHERE.
Regular phone networks encode data at 64 kbps (that's bits per second, not bytes) - 8000 samples/seconds, 8 bits per sample.
Cell phones use more extreme compression, and can transmit at less than 16 kbps. Ever noticed how they sound worse, though?
Any stream has a built in delay - you have to buffer up enough sound in a packet before you send it off. So a 1 ms delay means 1000 packets a seconds, which is inefficient for voice. Buffering in voice calls is usually tens of milliseconds.
Delays of under 100 ms are usually not noticable. Delays of 500 ms will bug the crap out of you.
And, of course, there is the speed of light limitation, (5 milliseconds for 1000 miles - once you route that through a fiber optic cable, it can be a few times that, depending on the dielectric constant of the fiber.).
As an example, look at ppp: your ping time over a 56k modem to your ppp server is going to be around 100ms but it takes about 250ms for a 1500 byte packet to get transfered which is why modem users often see around 200-300ms ping times when playing online games (depending on the size of the packets). Even with that 100ms delay, you will still get about 4 packets per second even though 350*4=1400 (or 325*4=1300 if you're going to split the ping).
I always measured voice delay from the microphone at the input to the speaker at the output. Your definition is also reasonable.
But if I'm using one of these things, it's the end to end delay that matters to me.
The laws for VoIP are the same. The problem is that the user agents (phones) are prone to initiating direct UA-UA media streams. Such a media stream is not easily tapped and routed to law enforcement officials.The current laws do not protect security or privacy...
Well, there is a flaw in the laws regarding IP networks.
...nor do they allow law enforcement access for wiretaps
Again, I'd say this is a flaw in the law.
The article points out that older analog telephone lines are covered by laws that prevent people from tapping the lines unless it is someone with the authority and authorization to do so. The article makes it look like the laws regarding VoIP are less advanced, and desperately need updated.
VoIP is currently early-stage, however, the standards are definately in place and/or maturing to support full encryption and this aspect of the protocol is certainly being taken seriously. Check out RFC3261 [ietf.org] for a discussion on SIP and the security measures that are being proposed.Legal things aside, I would have thought that by now, in this day and age, people would consider security when providing a new service that runs over a computer network. I'm dissapointed in the comapnies who have disregarded security here.
Not the media. The media streams (presently) are mostly UDP streams. This will change once the end-to-end encryption has been implemented by the proxy and UA manufacturers.Is there no easy way to make it all tunnel through SSH?
Not much stopping someone from climbing a pole with a butt phone and tapping another line, etc..
Just be sure you take the time to note the difference between a phone cable and a power cable. That's one thing you don't want to learn the hard way.
Most ethernet chipsets will accept new MAC addresses from the ISA/PCI bus. MAC addresses and IP addresses are both trivial to fake. A single box dropped between the switch for the R&D dept and the next highest-up switch will net you all of the phone calls to and from R&D. Cryptographic methods are the only robust ways to get confidentiality and/or authentication. Public key systems (like SSL) are usually easier to set up than symetric key systems (like Kerberos).
I agree with many people that it's retarded to come up with a new protocol and say "run this on top of a secure layer if you want". The truth is that 99% of the population won't. It's like saying "yeah, there is this exploding gas tank problem, so weld a tank full of fire fighting foam to the back of your Pinto if you want." It's trivial to say in the standard "this must be run on top of SSL/TLS". In this case, SSL setup times are most likely faster than POTS circuit setup times, so the user going from an analog phone to an SSL/TLS IP phone won't notice any dfference.
Remember GSM handsets do encryption/decryption in real-time (not very strong, but it could be better without overloading the CPU).
My university just recently overhauled the on-campus phone system. They replaced the old (working) system with IP phones. They did the whole job in a matter of months, despite very vocal opposition by the CS department faculty. These Cisco IP phones cost $700 a pop.
They hooked the central hub of the phone system up to generators in the event of a power failure. Unfortunately, all our phones depend on switches and routers scattered throughout campus, and the phones themselves have DC power adapters. In the event of a power outage, the central hub will stays on-line, but all the phones throughout campus go out!
When asked what students and faculty should do in the event of an emergency during a power outage, our IT services department responded, "Try to find someone with a cell phone!"
Worse yet, switches have a mean time to failure of 100,000 hours. With 2,000 switches throughout campus, sections of the phone system go out once every 50 hours. The current average time for IT services to replace a down switch is 2 weeks.
These phone have web servers, and a few other goodies. I'm just waiting until an IP phone worm takes out our entire campus's network and telecommunications infrastructure.
I work for a VoIP company, doing it with a pure Cisco solution and T1 data lines. The traffic is split at the end router on the customer's site (which has a UPS for itself and the T1 equipment). Their lan plugs into one jack, their phone system (POTS or digital PBX) block into another. The voice traffic goes over the same T1 and DS3's as the data, but on a different "private" network using IPs in the "unroutable" range, until it gets the the voice switch, where it is merged with the national POTS network. The data goes through the same channels, but on publicly accessable IP ranges. All the routers have standard Cisco access security, limiting access via another private network to only machines authed to do so. Also with traffic split in that way, DOS attacks only clog the data line, as the bandwidth for the voice portion is partially reserved.
As for down-time, the most common cause is the data line itself going down. And being provided by the same company as standard phone service (baby bells), gives the same down-time, or better.
Also worthy of mention is that standard POTS lines are not the same old analog lines back to the telco as most people believe. They too get digitized along the way and are sent out on T1/DS1 T3/DS3 lines(DS3=28*DS1's, DS1=24*DS0 lines = 672POTS lines/DS3 using TDM/PCM).
"Beyond the monetary risks, there is also a very serious privacy threat as we have become accustomed to government regulation that at least protects our privacy from everyone outside government."
Who goeth a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing. -- Thomas Tusser


text:
Perfect. I am all ears, and eyes. That chart shows 18 clear stops.
BTW... that chart shows 18 stops.
Sorry, Roberto said it 1st.
Best part is that it is motion and not just a still!
That's kinda fun. (understatement...)
Any response to where it gains the extra stops, if the Epic MX allows for more light, too?
That's truly amazing, Jim. We can't wait to order our stage 3 EPIC.
I was wondering what you meant with "Or there is a "normal" way to deal with motion blur."?
Can motion blur be a problem with HDR?
film = game over
|« Previous Thread | Next Thread »


text:
Mortgage bill hits floor
A new bill before Congress is aimed at keeping homeowners in their homes longer and focuses on helping banks with their at-risk mortgages — thus strengthening the economy for future growth.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown recently introduced the Foreclosure Fraud and Homeowner Abuse Prevention Act in an attempt to keep people from losing their homes and to help stabilize the housing market in an effort to right the sputtering U.S. economy.
"We know one of the best ways to get our economy on track is to address the housing crisis," Brown said Wednesday in a media teleconference. "To rebuild our economy, it is about manufacturing and about housing — manufacturing has been faring much better after 10 years of job losses, we have seen two years of manufacturing job gains every month.
"Housing is still another story," the first-term senator said. "Too many homeowners cannot afford their mortgage costs, are behind in their payments or owe more than their house is worth."
While the housing crisis in Ohio was caused less by speculation and more by job losses, housing problems have been exacerbated by banks and mortgage servicers ignoring their customers' calls for assistance and seeking foreclosures over modification of the home loans.
The director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COOHIO), who has been dealing with the foreclosure crisis for many years and after 15 years of record levels of foreclosures, said he finally saw a decline in the number of foreclosures in the past year.
COOHIO Director Bill Faith said the decline may have been short-lived because the biggest mortgage servicers were being sued at the federal level, but he has noticed an increase in the past several months since the case has been settled.
Faith said he believes Brown's bill is worth backing.
"This bill is important to us because servicers are simply not regulated," Faith said. "People would think with names like Wells, Bank of America, Chase, Citi, that these companies would be regulated, but the servicing arms of these companies are not sufficiently regulated. There are only a few states with laws and regulations in place to control some of the abuses that Brown talks about and Ohio is not one of those states.
"It is very important that there be some types of controls on servicers," he said. "It is not just to protect the homeowners, which is our primary concern, but servicers only work in the best interest of servicers. They get paid to collect payments and to foreclose on the homeowner and that is not always in the best interest of the investors. I think Senator Brown's bill tries to strike a balance, to be true to those that will lose — which includes both investors and homeowners."
Brown compared the current practices used by banks to the unethical predatory practices that led to the sub-prime crisis in the past decade.
Some of the current practices include servicers proceeding to foreclosure without considering modification of the loan. Servicers also have been known to file for, or continue, foreclosures against homeowners participating in the modification process.
Two other practices resulting in problems are inadequate staffing and resources and lost and missing paperwork.
"Big banks tell us that their mistakes are isolated and are harmless, but these problems are not new," Brown said. "They are well documented and part of a long-standing, ugly pattern of homeowner abuse and that is why I introduced the Foreclosure Fraud and Homeowner Abuse Prevention Act which would address some of the most common problems with the servicing industry."
Some of the fixes were included in a previous bill which passed, but this bill would make those requirements permanent.
The bill requires servicers to participate in sustainable loan modifications when it is in the investors' best interest and the homeowner's best interest and not the servicers' procedural step to seek a foreclosure.
The bill bars "dual track" while a homeowner is participating in a modification process. Servicers are permitted to proceed with foreclosures only after working with borrowers on a modification.
The bill also requires more appropriate levels of staffing and additional training. It also requires a single electronic record for each borrower, the designation of a single contact for each stage of the mortgage process from loan servicing to loan modification and bankruptcy.
"Servicers claim that homeowners don't meet their legal obligation so they don't deserve to stay in their homes, they claim homeowners lack personal responsibility," Brown said, "we think there is some institutional responsibility that should be in play here to hold them to the same standards they hold homeowners."


text:
We'll need to take down the servers for ~15 minutes the coming Thursday (October 25th) starting at 1PM CET to do another shot at migrating from our old SAN infrastructure. We're sorry about the unforeseen troubles during our last two attempts at the same, but we should be better prepared this time.
We'll update this blog post and our status site as we proceed.
- 13:04: We're taking down the servers
- 13:15: We're bringing up the first server temporarily, will be rebooted again afterwards
- 13:28: We're back up


text:
It was a dark day for a a handful of now former Dolphins.
Aside from the termination of Ernest Wilford (see post below), the Dolphins are announcing they have cut RB Anthony Kimble, LBs Tearrius George and Orion Martin, NT Joe Cohen and WR-Return specialist Chris Williams.
I have also confirmed via an NFL source that guard Andy Alleman has been traded to Kansas City for an undisclosed late-round pick in 2010. He is part of an offensive line exchange to the Chiefs. The Alleman story was first reported by Scouts.com.
The rest of the exchange? Jeff Darlington is reporting that Ikechuku Ndukwe went in the same package to the Chiefs as Alleman. Ndukwe started 15 games at right guard last year but was moved to right tackle this year and was languishing on third team during camp.
Williams was waived injured as he actually injured his wrist and hand during that fateful punt that hit him in the facemask and he fumbled Saturday night. That play sealed the Williams experiment in Miami.
I'd like to tell you any of these cuts are significant because that would warrant an explanation on how they affect other roster decisions.
But the truth is all of these players were long-shots to make the team -- even Wilford -- and have no significant impact on future roster decisions.
The only sliver of impact out of all this is that, with only three nose tackles on the roster following Cohen's departure, the possibility the Dolphins keep Louis Ellis improves -- even if it is as a practice squad type player.
The Dolphins now have 70 players on their roster, including Matt Roth, who is on the Non-Football Injury list. It will be interesting to see if Miami adds anyone in the coming days as the team is already below the 75-man limit it must reach by Sept. 1. The 53-man roster must be established by Sept. 5.
Check out the post below to get the explanation on what Wilford's termination means to the salary cap. A hint: It's not great news.


text:
Well, I have bough the tamagotchi board game about 4 years before
here's a pic if you don't know about it:
oups, too big... I may make a revew about if it's not well known...
Anyways it was realised in Greece. It has many cards!!!!! One kind of them, is... is... IS!!!!!!!!! CHARACTER CARDS!!!!!! It contains most of v4 characters and many additional...I've seen a strange charrie though I have never heard about him existing in tamagotchi! Oyajitchi the younger his card says:
This boy, loves so much Oyajitchi that ended up looking like him.
It can't resist not making the famous " Oyaji jokes"
scaring many tamagotchis! --> transilation made by me to english
So, what do you think? Have you seen this charrie in tamagotchi of any version? How do you get him?
I found a pixel pic of him on google:


text:
With his body telling him it was time to retire at the age of 39, long-snapper Patrick Mannelly thanked the Bears organization for "an incredible 16 years."
The longest playing career in Bears history officially ended Friday when long-snapper Patrick Mannelly announced his retirement.
Veteran long-snapper Patrick Mannelly was honored as the Bears' recipient of the prestigious Ed Block Courage Award Tuesday at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines.
Patrick Mannelly hopes to return to the Bears for a 17th season, but the veteran long-snapper isn't sure whether his surgically-repaired hip will allow that to happen.
Patrick Mannelly spent 16 seasons with the Bears, more than any other player in team history. The recently retired long snapper talked about his career and his plans for life after football.
ChicagoBears.com caught up with former Bears long-snapper Patrick Mannelly at kicker Robbie Gould's charity golf tournament Monday morning.
Long-snapper Patrick Mannelly spoke with the media during a conference call Friday morning to address his recent retirement from the NFL after a record 16 seasons with the Bears.
Patrick Mannelly is presented the Ed Block Courage Award after his teammates voted for the veteran long snapper. The honor is awarded annually to one player on all 32 NFL teams


text:
Any suggestions on a good place to have an insepction done on the east metro. I'm hoping to not spend more than 60.
I am lookng at a 2005 outback with 82 k miles. does this sound safe. Do they start breaking down at 100K.
Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, my lurker friend!
|Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, an unparalleled Subaru community full of the greatest Subaru gurus and modders on the planet! We offer technical information and discussion about all things Subaru, the best and most popular all wheel drive vehicles ever created.
We offer all this information for free to everyone, even lurkers like you! All we ask in return is that you sign up and give back some of what you get out - without our awesome registered users none of this would be possible! Plus, you get way more great stuff as a member! Lurk to lose, participate to WIN*!
* The joy of participation and being generally awesome constitutes winning
** Not an actual guarantee, but seriously, you probably won't regret it!
Serving the Subaru Community since May 18th, 1998!
Guest Message by DevFuse
twin cities subaru people in the know.
Started by gritle , Mar 13 2009 03:02 PM
4 replies to this topic
Posted 13 March 2009 - 03:02 PM
Posted 13 March 2009 - 06:20 PM
Just remember, the ones that don't make it can be taken quietly out of state to SD and sold to me for ridiculously low prices
Posted 14 March 2009 - 07:16 PM
It's not unheard of to get 200,000 miles on a Subaru! After 100,000 mile, you will want to think about replacing your timing belt. Other than that, its just normal matinance items like any other car. And you will love the AWD in the Minnesota winters! Good luck! Kurt
Posted 15 March 2009 - 01:13 AM
I have had subarus that have lasted well over 300k, as long as you do the routine maintenance. I currently have a 93 legacy wagon with 265k, a 94 legacy wagon with 302k, a 1998 legacy gt wagon with 225k, a 2002 legacy with 235k and a 2001 legacy wagon with 157k (my wifes, she babies it). All were bought by us used, but i am particular about doing the maintenance at least 500 miles before it is due, and except for the 98, which needs head gaskets again because i am, as my wife says, too rough with it, i havent had to do any major repairs to any of them. I also make it a habit to change the timing belts 10000 miles before the recommendation in the owners manual.
Posted 15 March 2009 - 08:23 PM
Anything that's a 2005 is gonna last well past 100,000. Of course Subaru is no exception. As a matter of fact they're as far from that exception as vehicularly possible.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users


text:
I've looked a bit into it from what you've said, and while I still never found any decent tutorials, I think I see what you mean, and why there's no tutorials around for it. Looks like some of the schools use it for a simple introduction to Java, because it's fairly easy to catch on too (basically thinks for you half the time, kinda like VB.) Sounds like it's more hassle than it's worth once you get into anything more advanced though.
I think I'm just going to suck it up and learn real Java. Sounds like it's more practical at the end of the day. I'd honestly never really looked into how the two formats worked in the long run (sounds like HSA doesn't very well)
I'm actually not working on anything at the moment. I managed to pretty well self-teach myself Visual Basic inside and out (no fantastic feat there) a few years ago, and have made a few small games in it previously. But I've never really expanded on my high-school knowledge of Java. I've let my programming lapse at this point in general, and want to get back into it; especially learning Java.
Thanks for the heads up. Got me looking into whether it was even worth bothering with the HSA console...guess not!


text:
LA JOLLA, Calif. - For the 12th time in the last 13 seasons, the UC San Diego men's tennis team has qualified to compete at the NCAA Division II Championships. The official selections were announced by the NCAA Tuesday evening.
"The team has been watching and waiting for the official announcement and we are excited to get ready and go," said first-year UCSD head coach Timmer Willing. "We've been planning for it for the whole year and achieving the goals that we've been setting and now we have the opportunity to really see where we stand."
UCSD is one of 48 teams nationwide that will continue on to postseason play. Along with Hawaii Pacific, the Tritons will represent the West Region and advance directly to the 16-team NCAA Finals, which will be contested May 8-11 in Surprise, Ariz.
The other 14 teams advancing to Arizona will be determined by preliminary round results. The top-two finishers from each of the seven other regions (Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast) will join UCSD and HPU at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Club.
The Tritons go in as the second seed from the West, while the Sea Warriors are the No. 1 seed. UCSD is currently ranked 28th nationally and HPU is fifth.
In its first round match-up, UCSD will play the winner of the Midwest 1 Regional on Wednesday, May 8 at 10 a.m. (PT). No. 34 Ferris State (17-5), No. 45 Rockhurst (13-7) and 40th-ranked Southern Indiana (16-4) will compete in that regional April 27 and 28, with SIU serving as the host school.
The quarterfinals are slated for May 9, the seminfinals will be May 10 and the final will close out the Division II season on May 11 in Arizona.
This year, UCSD has already faced four of the teams selected for NCAA postseason play, including Hawaii Pacific (9-0 loss, 5-0 loss), Rollins (6-3 loss), West Florida (5-4 loss) and Western New Mexico (7-2 win).
The Tritons finished their regular season with a 12-10 overall record, winning five of their final eight matches.
"We will really be intensifying practices this week," said Willing. "Since we won't be playing a match until we get to Arizona, we will try to simulate real matches the best we can. The other teams will be competing in regional play and fighting to get out of their region, so we need to keep up our intensity like they will be."
UC San Diego returns to the NCAA Championships after missing the cut in 2012 for the first time since moving to Division II status in 2001.
The Tritons also went directly to the Finals in 2011, where they were defeated, 5-0, by Columbus State in the Round of 16. Junior Max Jiganti is the only current Triton that competed during the 2011 postseason.
Armstrong Atlantic is the defending national champion and has won three of the last five titles.
-- UCSDtritons.com --