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I was reading in an online forum that Judaism advocates that a rapist marry his victim. This sounds so backward and oppressive, and difficult to reconcile with the compassionate Judaism that I know and love. Is what I read accurate?
The Aish Rabbi Replies:
Highly inaccurate. (Are you surprised?)
Judaism takes a strong position against rape, with the Talmud comparing it to murder. As such, Judaism permits one to kill a rapist who is in pursuit of a woman, in order to save her from attack.
Rape of a married woman is a capital crime. (Deuteronomy 22:25)
Rape of a single woman carries a heavy monetary fine (depending on the age of the victim), plus the rapist has to pay reparation for damages, as well as for her suffering, embarrassment and emotional anguish. The rapist also incurs lashes. This is all intended as both a deterrent and a punishment (Deuteronomy 22:28-29, see also Rambam Rotzai'ach 2:4-5).
As regards to what you read, it is true that the Torah states that the rapist must marry (and may never divorce) his victim (actually only if she is at a certain young age at the time), but both she and her father can refuse the "match" – which they are extremely likely to do. I believe the message of the Torah is not that the rapist can have whom he wants, but quite the opposite. If he wants to enjoy another human being, he cannot just do so and split. He becomes responsible for her – for the rest of his life.
Feel free to post this response on that online forum.


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The cast of Downton Abbey poked fun of the production's mistake of including a plastic water bottle in an official cast photo by turning it into a way to make money for a charitable organization.
On top of the fireplace mantle behind the two is a modern plastic water bottle.
Oh dear. Someone left a waterbottle in this press photo from @DowntonAbbey #PhotoFail pic.twitter.com/EdZxc8Xlj7— Darren Bell (@darren_bell) August 14, 2014
The cast poked fun at the photo by releasing another photo of several cast members - in their modern clothing - all holding plastic water bottles and making goofy faces.
The photo was part of a promotion to encourage fans to donate to WaterAid, an international organization devoted to providing clean drinking water to those who need it.
"After seeing the reaction the picture caused earlier this week, the cast and crew came up with the idea of turning some of this attention towards an issue around water that really matters. They hope that by posing for this picture they will be able to raise awareness and amplify the work of international charity - WaterAid," an ITV spokesperson said in a release on the WaterAid website.
"It brought a really big smile to my face when the cast of Downton Abbey said that they wanted to support WaterAid's work," said Barbara Frost, chief executive of WaterAid. "How fantastic that the attention created over one water bottle ends up benefiting some of the world's poorest communities through access to safe, clean water today.

subset: commoncrawl


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Try telling Dale Olsson that hat-wearing is a dying trend, and you'll get a sharp rebuke.
"If you spoke to the millinery teachers at TAFE, they would tell you they have more and more people learning to make hats," says the owner of The Hatbox, in the Brisbane Arcade.
"It's really making a comeback. Ever since the royal wedding, women are wearing hats more and more frequently."
The former high school teacher bought The Hatbox eight years ago after being a faithful client for many years. She now has 15 milliners working for her, providing both off-the-shelf and custom designed high fashion headpieces.
Her own choice for today's Tattersall's Melbourne Cup lunch was an aqua creation, reminiscent of a wave cresting towards a tropical beach.
"I wouldn't dream of going to the races, or a wedding or even just to lunches without a hat," Ms Olsson said.
"The British milliner Stephen Jones once told me that a hat is the cherry on the cake, and it really is.
"If you want your outfit to look absolutely fabulous, you wear a hat with it."
Over at Post Office Square, fascinators were the order of the day, either in black, or a bold colour worn to contrast a dress.
The Melbourne Cup in the Park event, hosted by Rush restaurant, was the first in the city central space, and is set to become an annual event.
Today's function raised funds for the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Foundation, with guests sipping on champagne and nibbling oysters, while enjoying live coverage from Flemington in the spring sunshine.
Get ahead of the hat game - tips from Dale Olsson:
- If you're new to hat-wearing, start small. You'll grow more daring as the years progress.
- Taller women should wear larger hats; petite women smaller ones.
- Women with long hair should pull it back off their neck. Let the hat make the statement, not your hair.
- Consult a professional. They're not that much more expensive than mass-produced imported hats, and you'll wind up with a far better result.
- Melbourne Cup Day is the one day of the year you can truly dress like a lady – take advantage of it!
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FISHERS ISLAND, N.Y. – MIT sailing head coach Matt Lindblad along with former team captain Bill Widnall '58 and Riley Schutt '08 won the International One Design (IOD) 2013 World Championship hosted by Fishers Island Yacht Club last week. The contingent, which also included Jonathan Farrar and Richard Feeney, captured the title with a one-point edge and was three points ahead of the third-place boat.
Teams qualify from fleets around the world to compete in the annual event. Representatives of the Marblehead, Mass. fleet, Lindblad's team squared off against a 10-boat field that featured many former world champions. In the 10 rotations that were held, the IOD champions won the eighth race, finished second on three occasions, and secured the crown with a third-place performance in the last outing.
"We had a phenomenal team that battled all the way through the event against great competition," said Lindblad. "Jonathan, Richard, and Riley made all the difference to Bill and I."


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ClubCorp's La Cima Club raised more than $40,000 during "A Night in Tuscany" to benefit local and national charities
Last Friday, August 24, 2012, La Cima Club in Irving, Texas participated in the sixth annual ClubCorp Charity Classic with "A Night in Tuscany", a fun-filled philanthropic night of auctions and wine-tasting that raised more than $40,000 for three different charities.
Twenty-six floors above the historic Mustangs of Las Colinas, with a stunning panoramic view of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, La Cima Club was bustling during the event, which was open to the public and welcomed more than 300 attendees.
"We're thrilled to be able to open our club to the community during this exciting event," said Mike Goff, general manager at the Club. "It is an honor to be a part of this ClubCorp tradition."
After the elevator doors opened, attendees were given a passport to fill with stamps from the six tasting stations. Each station had two Italian wines from different regions, one red and one white, and once your passport was filled, your name was entered into a raffle.
According to Lauren Waddell, member relations director for La Cima, the chefs who prepared the hor d'oeuvres were given the wines in advance and paired them with the various dishes to be served that evening, such as flat-breads, seafood and cheeses.
Another element of the event was the silent and live auction, which Waddell said was extremely successful and competitive, with a very animated auctioneer and participants outbidding each other up until the very last second. Included in the items up for auction were all-inclusive trips to resorts and vacation destinations.
But it wasn't all wine and vacations, gourmet cake, a sweet addition to the tasting, was also up for auction. Nothing Bundt Cakes, a bakery with locations nationwide was at the event, letting attendees taste their cakes and donating a year of monthly cakes as an item for the auction.
As part of ClubCorp's Charity Classic, the money raised during the event was donated to three charities: the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Augie's Quest, ClubCorp's Employee Partners Care Foundation and the local charity SpiritHorse Therapeutic Riding Center.
SpiritHorse, out of Corinth, Texas, is the only center in the nation providing free private horseback-riding therapy to hundreds of people in need, namely those diagnosed with autism. However, their services, which make an impacting difference in the lives of over 400 families weekly, depend solely on donations like the ones made by "A Night in Tuscany" attendees.
Since its inception in 2007, ClubCorp's Charity Classic has raised close to $8 million for multiple charities. This year's Charity Classic combines the efforts of more than 125 of our golf, country, business and sports clubs nationwide for a wonderful variety of philanthropic events like "A Night in Tuscany".


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Direct Edge CEO William O'Brien (photo: Direct Edge)
A painting of the New York Stock Exchange in its heyday, depicting men buzzing around trading posts, hangs in the Jersey City office of William O'Brien. An inheritance from his father, it represents a way of life the Direct Edge Holdings LLC chief executive officer has spent a career helping to dismantle.
Now that Direct Edge has completed its merger with Bats Global Markets Inc., the combined company will vie with NYSE to be the biggest operator of U.S. stock exchanges, with both using computer servers instead of all those floor traders. Responding to a Twitter post last month that recalled an 1829 NYSE session that ended with no trading, the 43-year-old O'Brien wrote, "Trying to make this happen again real soon!"
Meant as a joke, the tweet still underscores the ferocity of competition between companies that operate in a space dominated by the Big Board for two centuries where yesterday 9.6 billion shares worth more than $429 billion traded. Buyers and sellers of U.S. stocks are now matched on more than 50 electronic venues, lowering costs and boosting speed for investors while increasing the need for exchanges to adapt to ever-changing demands from computerized traders.
"There's certainly a psychological boost" that comes with having the biggest market share, O'Brien said in an interview Jan. 16, wearing his wedding band on his left hand and his University of Notre Dame class ring on the right. "Does it inherently change the value proposition? I'm not sure. We can't rest on that."
Changing Picture
The portrait of the market in which O'Brien operates is harder to paint than it was in the era of his dad, who was born in 1936 and a Big Board member in the 1960s and 1970s. Instead of a landmark building on Wall Street with its own raw bar and barber, stock trades are matched in data centers with few windows tucked away in places like Secaucus, New Jersey, where palm-print scanners and other security measures await the few humans who enter.
Instead of people crowding around open-outcry pits, trading firms bunch computer servers around exchange machines in a process known as co-location. While clerks and pneumatic tubes once ferried order slips to floor traders, today fiber-optic networks and microwave transmissions connect the data centers of various exchanges in the suburbs of New York and Chicago. It's all in an effort to shave microseconds from the time it takes to move information and be the first to trade on it.
The emergence of a challenger to the NYSE shows how much high-frequency trading has done to reshape the industry. Rule changes over the last 15 years opened the business to competition and spread trading across more than 50 electronic venues. Even as the regulations cut costs, they alarm some investors, who say the market has become too complicated, ripe for abuse and prone to malfunctions such as the "flash crash" of 2010, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 998 points.
Fragmented Market
While the merger of Bats and Direct Edge reduces exchange owners, it won't reduce the number of exchanges. They plan to keep operating all four of theirs, missing an opportunity to reduce fragmentation in the market, according to Dave Lauer, who helped develop rival market IEX Group Inc. IEX is owned by a group of mutual funds and other investors and makes efforts to mitigate the effect of HFT firms capable of pumping out thousands of orders per second.
"Almost everyone wants some reduction in complexity and fragmentation," said Lauer. "And when you have two pairs of venues with identical business models and very similar pricing structures, why wouldn't you merge?"
Academics have scoured market data to determine if the proliferation of venues and automated, high-speed trading has improved markets. Most conclude it has, according to Charles M. Jones, professor at Columbia University.
'More Efficient'
"Every time there has been a market structure change that results in more HFT, liquidity and overall market quality have improved," Jones wrote in a paper supported by a grant from hedge-fund manager Citadel LLC. "Based on the vast majority of the empirical work to date, HFT and automated, competing markets improve market liquidity, reduce trading costs, and make stock prices more efficient.'
Direct Edge is combining with Bats at a time when the HFT firms that helped spur their growth are making less money. Profits in the industry fell to as little as $810 million in 2012 from $4.9 billion in 2009, according to estimates from Rosenblatt Securities Inc. HFT was involved in about half of trade volume in 2012, the most recent data available, compared with 66 percent in 2009, according to the firm.
'Land Grab'
Exchanges, which profit when buyers are matched with sellers, are carving up a shrinking pie. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, operates a venue called Tradebook. U.S. stock trading has declined 28 percent, from an average of 9.8 billion shares a day in 2009 to 7 billion this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
As with many questions he's asked, O'Brien had an analogy to explain what happened.
''The way to build a business or wealth in the United States from 1650 to 1900 was a lot different than from 1900 on," O'Brien said. "You just keep going west, and you can't do that anymore. The land grab era is over."
Technology also has pushed the debate about market fairness off the exchange floor and onto the Internet for all to see, said O'Brien, who relinquished the CEO title to Bats's Joe Ratterman after the merger closed yesterday as the Direct Edge brand is slowly phased out. O'Brien's advocacy for the markets "lines up with our DNA and is why this merger is a natural fit," Ratterman said in a Jan. 24 e-mailed statement.
'Bad Actors'
O'Brien, who is staying on as president of Bats, often points to the past imperfections of the market to bolster his case that criticism of its current state is overblown.
"There were bad actors in 1980, there were bad actors in 1880," he said. "We really haven't had to change the rules of what conduct is not allowed because of the rise of automated trading. But there are certainly new ways to break the old rules. And we have to be better, continually strive to get better, to make sure that the way we surveil, the way we deter, detect and punish the bad guys, is done more effectively over time."
One of O'Brien's sparring partners on Twitter is Sal Arnuk, the co-founder of Themis Trading, a 10-person shop in Chatham, New Jersey. Arnuk and partner Joe Saluzzi are among the most vocal critics of today's market structure.
Next page: 'Biggest Beef'
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DURHAM, N.C. – Two weeks ago, the Blue Devils dropped a 13-10 decision to the Quakers in Philadelphia, but No. 5 Duke did not waste the opportunity to exact revenge in the opening round of the 2011 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship, defeating ninth-ranked Penn 12-9 Sunday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium.
The Blue Devils, now 14-4 on the year, move on to a second round bout with No. 4 Florida next weekend, while the Quakers conclude their season with an 11-6 ledger.
"In our first Penn game, we had a lot of turnovers," head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "We typically do not turn the ball over much, so really we didn't really change anything strategically. The one difference is that defensively, our kids at Penn were very antsy; they were jumping double teams and that was not part of our game plan. So today, we really wanted to plan a very settled, disciplined style and that served us well. I was really, really proud of our kids and the way we executed today."
Prior to today's contest, the Quakers had taken three-of-five decisions from the Blue Devils in the all-time series, including NCAA Tournament games in 2008 and 2009 and the regular season finale this season, but a determined Blue Devil squad was not to be stopped by the Quakers again, controlling possession with a 14-9 advantage on the draw.
Duke's upperclassmen led the way for the Blue Devils with junior Kat Thomas (4g) and senior Sarah Bullard (3g) pacing the offense with a combined seven goals. Junior Kim Wenger and redshirt junior Emma Hamm both chipped in with a goal and two assists each, and senior Christie Kaestner bolstered her team-leading total to 43 assists this season after dishing out three today.
"We're approaching this postseason as a whole new season," added Thomas. "You go into every game playing against a nameless, faceless opponent, and that's what we wanted to do against Penn. We knew their players and their strategy, but we wanted to approach today as a brand new game. What I really like is that we focused on us. We went back to basics and focused on the little things to be the Duke team we knew we could be. Move the ball, have each others backs, pride ourselves on the little things and believe that we can do it, [if we did those things] then we knew we would come out victorious in this game."
Penn struck first to start the game, breaking a scoreless tie at the 2:30 mark with a free position goal from Bridget Waclawik, but the Quakers' lead was short-lived after a 4-0 Duke run over the next seven minutes. Thomas registered an unassisted tally to tie things up at one-all before freshman Molly Quirke scored the first of her two goals on the day to give Duke the lead less than a minute later. Duke would never trail again the rest of the way with Thomas adding her second score and Bullard getting into the action to cap Duke's four-goal streak.
Penn ended the Devils' run after Meredith Cain, who led the Quakers with four goals and an assist, found the back of the cage at the 11:53 mark. Duke responded with goals from Bullard and Quirke to go up 6-2 halfway through the opening period.
Looking to shift the momentum in their direction prior to halftime, the Quakers netted two unanswered scores to pull within two with 8:29 to play in the opening stanza. However, sophomore Makenzie Hommel's goal, her 18th of the season, on a free position shot with 7:22 to go gave Duke the 7-4 margin it would take into the intermission.
The first half belonged to the Blue Devils with Duke outshooting Penn 18-7 in the opening period. Duke also dominated the draw, 9-3.
Duke picked up where it left off to start the second half, notching back-to-back goals in the first 3:03 to extend its lead to 9-4 with just under 27 minutes left on the clock. Thomas picked up her third goal of the game just 44 seconds into the second stanza and Hamm followed with her team-leading 46th goal of the season 3:20 later.
Cain struck for the Quakers to cut Duke's margin to 9-5, but Kim Wenger found Bullard for a score with 21:27 left to increase Duke's lead to five goals.
Despite the deficit, a pesky Penn squad kept fighting as Cain scored two unanswered for the Quakers to cut Duke's advantage to three with 16:26 to play. Duke and Penn would trade two goals each over the final half of the second period, starting with Wenger's free position tally which put the Blue Devils up by four.
Penn's Erin Brennan scored the last two goals of the game for the Quakers, and Thomas added another for the Blue Devils as Penn could not cut Duke's lead under three the rest of the way.
Duke goalie Mollie Mackler finished the game with eight saves and the Blue Devils' defense caused 11 Penn turnovers on the afternoon. Quaker goaltender Emily Leitner tied a career-high with nine stops in the loss.
With the win, the Blue Devils advance to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament for the seventh consecutive season and will face No. 4 Florida Saturday, May 21 in Gainesville, Fla. Duke is in search of its sixth trip to the national semifinals and first since making four consecutive appearances at the final weekend from 2005-08..


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Tattoo Prohibition
My husband wants to get a tattoo, but I said that if he does, he could not be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Is that true? He wants me to show him proof, and if this is true, he promises not to get one.
The Aish Rabbi Replies:
The Torah states explicitly: "You should not put a tattoo on your body" (Leviticus 19:28). This is accepted Jewish practice, as recorded in the Code of Jewish Law (Yoreh Deah 180:1).
If someone already has a tattoo, he does not have to have it removed, though many people will have them removed because they feel uncomfortable about it.
Although after the fact a person with a tattoo will not be denied burial in a Jewish cemetery, this is not even a question in your husband's case. Since Jewish law prohibits tattooing in the first place, surely he should not get one.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (19th century, Germany) explains the reason for this prohibition. God made man in the image of God Himself (Genesis 1:26). Of course, this doesn't mean that God looks like us, but it does mean that our body is a finite expression of God's infinite wisdom. One Midrash even says that Abraham figured out all the mitzvahs by looking at different parts of his body! And as Job said, "In my flesh, I see God" (Job 19:26).
Imagine that you own a house with a huge glass window overlooking the beautiful mountainside. Imagine how clearly you see the trees, the snow, even the deer running down the mountain. Now imagine a toddler full of dirt and chocolate smears his hands all over your window. When you look out the window, what do you see? Nothing but a glaze of dirt, chocolate, and a fuzzy mountain in the background.
The body is a window to the soul, which is a spark of the Infinite. Tell your husband: Don't muddy up the window with handprints.


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Utah Gay Couples Sue State for Right to Marry
Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has started hearing arguments on the legality of same-sex marriages, three gay couples in Utah are suing the state in federal court, seeking the right to marry.
The lawsuit, filed on March 25, asks the court to declare the Utah Amendment 3 law unconstitutional under the due process and equal protections clauses of the 14th Amendment. It seeks a permanent injunction preventing the state from enforcing its ban on same-sex marriage, according to Deseret News.
Derek Kitchen and Moudi Sbiety and Laurie Wood and Kody Partridge are challenging the law's definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. Karen Archer and Kate Call are suing to have their marriage recognized. The pair was married in Iowa.
Besides their lawsuit, the couples are joined by Restore Our Humanity in the fight against Amendment 3. According to GaySaltLake.com, the group's efforts are still in the beginning phases and many details, such as the exact lawyers and firms participating in the challenge, are not ready to be released.
Restore Our Humanity spokesperson, Matt Spencer told GaySaltLake.com that their fight is with Utah.
"This is a Utah issue, period," Spencer said. "It's so great to see what's happening around the country and there is so much movement and energy behind this movement."
The group plans of having their first fundraiser on April 7.


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AoE looting, redux
AoE corpse looting is the new hotness, and it's here to stay. The fact that Blizzard has not found a way to even make AoE looting an option in WoW yet goes beyond my capacity to understand. Rift made the concept part of the mainstream, and The Old Republic is solidifying the feature as a Day One expectation.
In both of these games, players can choose to loot all corpses in an area around them at once instead of having to click on each corpse individually. Not only is this a great quality-of-life change for players, since less clicking is usually a good thing, but it also helps many players with disabilities who have trouble finding that one corpse under a hundred.


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BOSTON -- The Blackhawks' power play continues to come under some serious scrutiny.
The Hawks are 0-for-6 in the first two games and lost momentum off the special team in Game 2, which they ultimately lost 2-1 in overtime.
"I know that both sides, they're looking for their power play to get some production because there's not a lot of high-quality chances 5-on-5," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "But at the same time we've got to look to, you know, maybe simplify it and play anything at the net, the second and third opportunities around there.
"The pretty plays aren't there. If we think the pretty plays are there with power plays, they evaporate quickly."
Defenseman Duncan Keith thinks you have to give the Bruins and their penalty killers some credit.
"They've played good on the penalty kill," Keith said. "Obviously that's a point, the power play, it's an area that we're trying to get better at. We did some good things. I think we had some really good chances there, that first power play especially.
"Sometimes it's just a fine line between scoring and not scoring. I think the more times we can get pucks at the net and keeping it simple when things aren't going well, I think the better off we're going to be."
Patrick Kane said you could feel the momentum shift after the Hawks failed on their second power play in Game 2.
"I think that's one thing on the power play, if you're not going to score, you always want to at least build momentum somehow by getting chances," Kane said. "You see with special teams in this playoffs, you can either get a lot of momentum off a big kill or some momentum off a good power play or scoring a goal on the power play.
"Our penalty kill's been great all year, to the point where we've won a lot of games because of it. It's given us a lot of momentum. It would be nice to see the power play return that."
Big minutemen:
Duncan Keith has played almost 81 minutes in the first two games of the series, with Niklas Hjalmarsson right behind at 69.
"I think as players we've gone through things like that before," Keith said. "It's just a lot about getting your rest. It's not rocket science. You just get sleep, try to eat as best you can, do all those little things so you feel good and are ready to go."
Hjalmarsson said the physical pounding he is taking is nothing new.
"I mean, I'm used to getting hit back there quite a lot," Hjalmarsson said. "I know how to take a hit or two. I think for the most case, we might not be the most physical defense core in the league, but we're trying to move the puck quick. Sometimes you have to take a good hit to deliver a pass. Just try to keep your head up and not to get hit too hard."
Bruins vs. Kings:
Joel Quenneville said it was hard to gauge the differences between the Bruins and the Kings team the Hawks beat in the Western Conference finals.
"You've got certain guys that are more physical than others," Quenneville said. "I think we've got to be harder to play against than we were (Saturday) night.
"L.A. is a physical team. Boston, they're a big team. At the same time we can't get distracted knowing if we get out-hit, it makes a difference."
Lineup change?
Joel Quenneville was asked if Viktor Stalberg might get back in the lineup considering Brandon Bollig's misplay along the boards before Daniel Paille's winning goal in overtime.
"He could play," Quenneville said.
For those who have been around Quenneville since he got to Chicago, could play usually means he will play.
Stalberg has been a healthy scratch for the first two games of the Final.
Garden party:
The scene shifts from one loud building to another in TD Garden.
"We've played a lot of games on the road in playoffs and we know this one is going to be as loud as ever," Duncan Keith said. "We go into these games knowing that everybody in the building is going to be against us. We stick together and just try and block everything out.
"Hockey is the same game no matter what building we're in. The ice doesn't change. Nothing changes but the fans in the stands cheering against you."


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I always thought On Star had the most effective commercials. If I'm ever in the market for a new car I'm getting one with On Star. The one that really gave me chills was when the On Star guy says something like "Mr Smith I have been notified that your airbag has deployed. Is everything ok." Silence. "Mr Smith are you there?" Silence. "Mr. Smith I'm contacting emergency services." Its awesome.
And the one that really sold me on On Star is when a woman calls them and tells them she's been in a wreck. Shes obviously upset but holding it together. So they contact 911 and then get her husband on the line and when he says "Are you ok?" She starts to cry and says "No I'm hurt." I really felt for the woman and thought it was great that they could contact her with her husband so quickly. I would want to be able to talk to my husband immediately too.
I always thought whoever came up with that ad campaign deserved to win what ever awards it is they give to commercials.


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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 25th Jul 2012 22:18 UTC
The article I'm about to link to, by Oliver Reichenstein, is pretty terrible, but it's a good way for me to bring up something I've been meaning to talk about. First, the article: "Apple has been working on its file system and with iOS it had almost killed the concept of folders - before reintroducing them with a peculiar restriction: only one level! With Mountain Lion it brings its one folder level logic to OSX. What could be the reason for such a restrictive measure?" So, where does this crusade against directory structures (not file systems, as the article aggravatingly keeps stating) come from?
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RE: To the point
by OSNevvs on Thu 26th Jul 2012 06:49 UTC in reply to "To the point"
And what about opening a directory with 15 MP3 files (an album)? Should I remember all tune file names? And search for them individually to add them to my playlist? How convenient is that?
Always reinventing the wheel. Always inventing non-existent problems. Always trying to look "inovative". It reminds those who always try to "reinvent" the email concept. I just wish the Linux folks (and MS) don't jump into this bandwagon like blind sheeps.


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|2011-01-10, 14:40
|Link #21441
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
|2011-01-10, 15:22
|Link #21442
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
I have not seen such a theory nor do I believe that such a theory can be crafted given what we currently have.
Hypothetical: Would the epitaph solution have been shown to us if no one had come close to solving it?
I remember him saying in interviews that the full solution to the epitaph would be revealed. However, that was only after the taiwan theory was made.
|2011-01-10, 15:32
|Link #21443
The True Culprit
Also, lots of people were guessing Shkanontrice by EP3 so like lol.
Honestly, I may not agree with the story's aesop about keeping the catbox closed, but I'm able to realize that this conclusion was foreshadowed, so I'm able to be happy with it. The catbox is closed precisely so that the games can continue forever (Ryukishi seems pretty fond of the fact that people write forgeries irl).
|2011-01-10, 15:40
|Link #21444
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
|2011-01-10, 15:51
|Link #21445
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Meta-Meta-Meta-Space
HOLD IT because you've pretty much ignored what I posted until now.
This will be my third time saying this, but I'm not talking about the majority that believed in an answer to the Beatrice Mysteries... show me the majority that believed we would get an answer to Rokkenjima Prime.
My position is that I'm fine with Rokkenjima Prime never exposing the incident. This is not ANSWERS. The list you gave earlier were about the Beatrice Mysteries. I'd like this list answered too, although I'm not going to complain very much if I didn't get the answers in EP8.
Please... don't deny this basic evident and blatant truth. <-- Please, keep your intellectual violence to yourself. There is absolutely nothing to imply we were supposed to figure out what happened on Rokkenjima Prime, in addition to it being impossible.
If you're talking about figuring out the mysteries? Well...
HOLD IT I was never talking about the mysteries in my first post!
And in fact, if you're talking about the mysteries, then I agree with you, we ARE supposed to discover those. I just love it when people argue against you while you agree with them. It's very indicative of some sort of hatred directed elsewhere and a very close minded attitude.
But you know, you're free to think this. However, spare us from your own personal theories, if we've already argued against them.
I love how you turned this conversation to about whether he gave YOU answers or whether YOU are satisified. But, honestly, I started this post, which was not even directed at you, to talk about how the Rokkenjima Prime incident isn't one of the answers of the Mysteries he's told us to try and solve.
I don't know why you had to argue with me, because your counter arguments are about something else entirely!
Now let's all use bold and italics and blink text to pretend we are communicating.
|2011-01-10, 16:20
|Link #21446
Join Date: May 2009
|2011-01-10, 16:23
|Link #21447
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
It would be a lot better if the public opinion believed innocent the innocents and guilty the guilty.
So how exactly can you tell that we were supposed to speculate only to the point of what kind of event happened and not on what caused it?
This is completely unreasonable.
I gave it for granted because it seems a logical conclusion. Now I know that it isn't so for you.
But can you prove that all those people that expected answers for Beatrice's mysteries didn't expect an answer for the Rokkenjima's prime incident as well?
Maybe you're the odd one here, and not me.
If you think it would be okay to see them in an interview then I don't agree with you again.
As far as I know I was the only one that understood the actual extension of the Rokkenjima disaster. And when I explained why it couldn't be a bomb, I explained that it had to be a small nuclear bomb to do that kind of damage.
Most people that believed it was a bomb, believed it was so because they didn't understand how big that "bomb" was. In fact I can argue that calling 900 tons of explosives packed together "a bomb" is technically incorrect.
And I can still argue that given the fact of a 1km wide crater, assuming that it was done by explosive was not the most reasonable conclusion.
Prove me wrong: Show me a human made explosion that created a crater as big as that, that wasn't caused by a nuclear device or a military test meant to simulate a nuclear explosion
I saw a lot of people agreeing with me.
Last edited by Jan-Poo; 2011-01-10 at 17:44.
|2011-01-10, 16:25
|Link #21448
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
"This is a game between myself and the readers."
I wonder if we would have received better answers if he felt most of his readers had solved it.
Looking at the goats from episode 8, I don't think he felt many readers had reached the right conclusion. So he then decides to mock them? Maybe not the best decision there.
|2011-01-10, 16:26
|Link #21449
Join Date: May 2009
Keeping the catbox closed is evil, because it benefits those who did evil and clouds the reputation of those who did not in order to protect those who did.
|2011-01-10, 16:36
|Link #21450
The True Culprit
Beatrice's actions throughout the story have made me suspect for a long time that exposing the truth would cause people to treat a good and decent person as a heartless monster, or that the truth being revealed will cause an even greater evil to happen, or something like that.
|2011-01-10, 16:40
|Link #21451
Zero of the roulette
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Finland
Age: 24
|2011-01-10, 16:47
|Link #21452
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
Wait, I'm okay with almost all the points you've made. But I don't think that Mulholland drive and Lost Highways actually have a completely plausible explanation.
You can explain "some things", but you always find some pieces of the puzzle that do not match completely. And I think David Lynch himself admitted so.
I consider David Lynch an author that doesn't really care about giving a perfect explanation of all the strange events that narrates, but as you said, he never have that pretense.
|2011-01-10, 17:13
|Link #21453
Join Date: May 2009
But more to the point, I think I can advance the argument that it's always evil. If Battler, Ange, and Eva believed they were doing a greater good by concealing what they knew, they were simply incorrect (even if innocently so).
There are only two ways to resolve the "cat box" situation as presented in the Rokkenjima Incident:
Any other solution resolves nothing, allows the goats to keep goating, and condemns both the innocent and guilty to an eternal purgatory where, as someone aptly put just a few posts ago, essentially allows them (or their memory) to be tormented endlessly. Everyone suffers. This includes, of course, any guilty parties (provided those parties did not escape, anyway) but also any innocents.
You know the old expression, "better a thousand guilty men go free than one innocent man be punished?" It's sort of that, except revealing the truth in no way assures that the guilty party goes free. Indeed, assuming the entire truth is discoverable (which, admittedly, is not a known quantity), the guilty party will be identified and "punished" in memory.
"But they were protecting Ange!" Well, no they weren't; not knowing did irreparable harm to Ange (the adult Ange we see, at least, for whatever little we know of Ange-Prime may be different) psychologically. They may have believed Ange was better off not knowing, especially if the truth was difficult to handle, but ultimately it hurts her just as much and probably more not to know. Remember, the ol' goat squad can speculate on horrible things (your mother/father/brother are murderers!) just as much as they can soothe her mind. Ultimately, Ange is better off with the truth. If she'd know from the start she would have suffered at first, but she would not have developed a complex which complicated her future reasoning based in paranoia and survivor guilt.
Concealment is, ultimately, a cowardly act. It's the act of a person who fears confronting evil and enduring temporary suffering in order to do the right thing for themselves, others, and the world in general. There's a reason that "harmless" lies can compound into something festering and inescapable. There's a reason some churches encourage confession even though they don't actually punish acts confessed to (it's fairly rare that, say, a priest would turn you in for a crime you admit to in confession, though you might be encouraged to give yourself up). Sometimes just telling the truth and realizing that someone knows it is cathartic unto itself. Oh, there's consequences and pain, but consequences are the medicine. Sometimes you swallow 'em.
In the end you're dealing with the sin of a handful of people that is being spread around among everybody so it doesn't seem so bad. But in actuality, it's only making things worse. Everyone is equally guilty in the closed-off universe. To say "well, everyone's also innocent" misses the point that some people deserve to be innocent and some people deserve to be guilty. It was their own actions that put them there, and those actions are important to praise or condemn.
Finally, consider some wicked mastermind who knew this sort of thing would happen, and set up exactly this sort of scenario to posthumously eliminate any chance of blame falling on him/herself while also tormenting his/her victims even beyond the grave. That's simply depraved. Could you side with such a person? He/she can exist in a closed world. In a world of truth, this villain is powerless, even if some unsavory things come up about the victims. Is that unfortunate? Yes, but at least they're being maligned for their own sins, not those of someone else trying to make them look bad. Truth is certainly not harmless, but it is the greatest good in just about any value system you could apply to Rokkenjima-Prime.
Is there something, somewhere, that could be a greater good than this, such that concealing the truth is the only ethical and moral act? Yes. Can you think of one that would actually apply here? I didn't think so, and I doubt very much Ryukishi can think of one either. Of course, he need only do one thing to prove otherwise.
And honestly I thought Mulholland Drive was pretty straightforward.
|2011-01-10, 17:30
|Link #21454
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
I re-read EPs 1-6 before EP8 was released, and at the very least, by EP5 the mood still was that reaching the truth was the proper thing to do. Of course, something that was explained further was that the method to solve this was important as well, and this was mainly shown in EP5 on how you're supposed to take on a mystery, in addition to try to understand the fantasy as part of solving the mystery. Moreover, we have the whole issue about trust between reader and writer having more emphasis than ever. And, by the end of EP5, Battler reached the truth - not merely ShKanontrice and what happened in the fictions, but what actually happened in Rokkenjima (this is supported by EP7 and EP8). Thus, I don't find it odd some readers expected to be able to find the core truth of the mystery. Fun enough, there was much "love" in this.
|2011-01-11, 01:13
|Link #21455
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Meta-Meta-Meta-Space
Ok, wait. Maybe I should redefine my terms. I'm still getting the feeling you're not understanding what I'm saying...
There's the Beatrice Mystery... which does not include "what" happened on Rokkenjima but *does* include the "why." This is the thing we've been trying to reach since way back in EP1 when 'Maria' told us to try to find 'the truth.'
Then there's the What Happened on Rokkenjima Prime. This doesn't include the machinations of Beatrice, which includes stuff about the gold, the epitaph, the faking and the explosion. Those are all part of her mystery. This only includes things like Eva, Kyrie, Rudolf, Natsuhi or Rosa running around shooting each other. It also doesn't include the Mastermind if there is one.
Basically it doesn't include the things that Beatrice planned because those are part of her mystery. But it does include the random stuff that happened.
As for why I don't care about what happened that day; it's not that I don't care, but it is one of the central challenges and theme of this whole story. A great event occurred that destroyed information and, without knowing the specifics that day, we are given clues to the truth behind it. Our job was to reach in and find that truth. In the end the specifics of the day were not important, only the reason and cause.
Imagine what Umineko would be like if he started off with what really happened... then Beatrice comes on and challenges you to find the truth.
However, I think he might give it to us in a shortened novel form, or a long TIPS-like posting. This Rei may be what he has in mind, since Rei is supposed to be things that take place after the main story conclues. Maybe this is why he left Erika alive and floating around... he could drag her out and have her explain to us what's going on, all the while insulting us. 8) Maybe he can do something with Will and Dlanor too.
Spoiler for An aside about Krauss...:
Therefore I don't see the need find some other source of the explosion. A carefully planned system of 900T of TNT can get the job done. In fact.. probably much less than 900T of TNT...
Spoiler for Long, long discussion about Da Bomb:
|2011-01-11, 03:58
|Link #21458
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
But I still argue that the nature and the extension of the Rokkenjima incident could only be reasoned using the 1998 perspective.
There are really not enough hints in the Beatrice's mystery to reasonably conclude that such an event even happened. The last riddle of EP4 could be simply explained with a trap.
Therefore this is something that isn't part of Beatrice's mysteries that Ryuukishi expected us to reason about. And he did left a lot of hints about that.
There is also another thing that I would like to point out.
So far I heard justifications about catboxes and how the truth can't be known.
But there has to be an official explanation of what caused that explosion. And that explanation must be known to the public.
And barring conspiracy theories that is probably the truth.
I think that we, the readers, deserve to know at least that much.
Let me make an example. Suppose that an author decides to introduce a dinosaur in his story, a story set in our age.
That's quite odd, isn't it? But I think it could work, if an explanation on how that dinosaur still exists after his species was supposedly extinct millions of years ago was provided.
What really wouldn't work would be an author pulling a dinosaur in his story, without it being a central element of his story, and without any kind of explanation. There is just this dinosaur that passes by.
Maybe it would work in a Mel Brooks movie but not in a serious one. This huge explosion is definitely a very odd event. You can't throw it like that without explaining how it happened.
the first is the fact that the incident wouldn't be an explosion but a landslide. and the victims wouldn't die in an explosion. This contradicts the EP6 TIPS that said that Erika died in an explosion.
The second is the fact that the crater was several dozen meters deep. So something around 30-60m. That's about the height of a Manhattan skyscraper.
A simple implosion cannot vaporize matter or throw it in the ocean. therefore to justify that depth you'd need to speculate that the tunnels were that high, or the sum of several tunnels one above the other can make that height.
So what is originally explained as a single tunnel becomes the mines of Moria under Rokkenjima. Where such a thing was hinted?
As for the explosions you showed me, all interesting stuff, but let me introduce you the largest man-made explosion crater in the U.S.A. (the wiki says it isn't the world's largest but I haven't found who beat that record. This is still reported as the world's largest on several sites.)
1280 feet = 390 m
In other words if that story of the 900t is true then Ryuukishi introduced in his story a non nuclear explosion that created a crater that more than doubled the one in this nuclear test.
And with less than 1 hundredth of the kilotons involved
Last edited by Jan-Poo; 2011-01-11 at 04:26.
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text:
O-M-G!! I just saw Star Trek and Zachary Quinto was the best. He definitely gets me hot and bothered and this pic makes it all worth while!!!
O-M-G!! I just saw Star Trek and Zachary Quinto was the best. He definitely gets me hot and bothered and this pic makes it all worth while!!!
You never know how many miles you might have to run while you're chasing a dream.
A couple more
This just puts my imagination into warp drive.
Loved him the moment I saw him.
I love all the gay pics of him wearing hats and pastel shorts. He's practically on fire!!! lol. Is that his new Hero power? And what's with that youtube video? He has constipation face while giants cum all over him? Brought the lol's big time!
Zach is not JUST hot... he is a GOD!!!!! I'd DEFINITELY go with him... HELL YEAH!
I agree, he is hot.
where r all this pictures with him in pastel shorts and hats?
he is one sexy MF
You know you want him. . .
Yes!! If I were in that sauna, I'd be all over him like a fat kid on a cupcake!
Lol Oh i would eat him.
hot (literally). What's that from?
It's from her TV show So NoTORIous.
I wish he were gay.
He dresses very camp in real life
i want him ^_^
Tough titty cmizer!
Zachary Quinto belongs to me lol.
You can have the other one in the video
I've seen this before very nice!..like Zachary something sexy about him...
i hear he's gay too. he looks kind of like my aunt in a weird way so I try not to see him as attractive.
I don't find Zachary Quinto attractive at all.
boo hiss boo! lol
In the last hour of last night's 2-hour "Heroes", the tattoo chick is seducing Sylar (Zachary Quinto) by running her hands up his naked upper torso starting at the top of his pants. The camera showed her moving up his hairy trail past his abs and then onto and through his v-shaped chest hair. Very sexy! I thought I was gonna blow a nut!!
Lol he is so cute to me. I saw it.
Add me on myspace! myspace.com/ruggedtwinkethanstorm!!
And the best of all: Zachary Quinto is gay according to the rumors. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out though. He has never had a girlfriend, and he has never denied being gay. I also love the fact that he supports LGBT rights.
He has never SAID he was gay, but he has never said he was NOT either. His life/action/associations, speak for themselves. Yeah, so I DO think it's cool to have a gay actor like him, playing such a tough, mean, "bad guy" like Sylar, and being able to pull it off.
on a side note....he seemed to live his life as a gay man pretty openly---even during the start of HEROES---before Star Trek became such a hit, and made him an even bigger star. It was after that, that he seemed to creep back into the closet a bit.
yeah Quinto is a sexy bitch.
I'd let him get it.
New pictures of Zachary at Comic Con...
Don't like that hair cut though!
Are there still gay rumors of him lately? I know he's good friends witH Matt Bomer.
This is not an exit
I want to fuck him. His thick eyebrows turn me on. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know that's weird.
Zachary Quinto is all smiles on his first day of rehearsal for Angels in America in New York City.
The 33-year-old actor plays a frightened and unfaithful lover to a young gay man with AIDS (played by Christian Borle).
Angels is set in late 1985 as Ronald Reagan is elected to his second term as President and the AIDS epidemic begins to spiral out of control in America.
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, August 3 at SignatureTheatre.org. Performances begin September 14 in NYC!
Read more: http://justjared.buzznet.com/page/2/#ixzz0upgeKRW3
He is so sexy...but that HAIR! What was he thinking?! Put a hat on or something, lol.
So tell me, are those cookies made with real Girl Scouts?
if there was EVER a question of his sexuality....that bra strap headband is the gayest thing ever...lol
Isn't he 'in character' with that headband?
Take it for what it's worth but my best friend supposedly sat next to him on a flight to New York sometime before pride week which is why he was supposedly going there but who knows.
Wow!! I would LOVE to see the play on stage! It's a six hour play, if both parts are performed. I am wondering how they will accommodate this and if they will split them across different days, or different sessions!!
Seriously, seriously contemplating a plane ticket to NYC at the end of the year to see the play!!
For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, 'It might have been.'
For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, 'It might have been.'
I still love the HBO special. Definately one of the best mini-series they put out.
Also, I believe Louis is Jewish and he really doesn't "look the part" in the pictures.
I think Zachary will really do justice on that role. The head band reminds me of Paris though...for some reasons...
Question about his sexuality? Didn't he date Levi Poulter? I remember seeing pics of them together about a year or so together.
im glad. he needs to open up. he is so gay. how can anyone think otherwise? maybe this role will make him feel more comfortable with coming out.
got cum, i mean milk.
Tickets for Angels in America, in which Zachary Quinto plays a gay man and has some sex scenes with hottie Bill Heck, go on sale Tuesday August 3 at 10AM. This play is SOO good, and I can't wait to see some Zach/Bill man-on-man action.
Tickets are onsale starting Tuesday at signaturetheatre.org/angels
Would LOVE to see the play but I don't think I can muster up the $1500 to get a plane ticket there.
For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, 'It might have been.'
That Bill guy is cute as heck.
Someone had to say it.


text:
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Led by Abby Hodgen's third goal of the season and a clutch performance by goalkeeper Kassadie Stade, the Oklahoma soccer team posted a 1-0 victory over conference opponent TCU on Friday evening. The win over the Horned Frogs (5-8-3, 1-4-1 Big 12) marked the Sooners' (4-10-1, 1-4-0 Big 12) first conference victory of the season and OU's fourth shutout win this fall.
"We will enjoy this win tonight, and more importantly, I believe we can be motivated by the performance," head coach Matt Potter said. "We played a good TCU team tonight. I felt that we did a wonderful job from start to finish in both our possession and in our collective defending."
Oklahoma opened the match ready to put up an offensive challenge against TCU's defense. The Sooners posted a 5-1 shot advantage in the first half, but the Horned Frog defense held fast to set the score at a 0-0 tie by halftime.
Daisy Cardona had one of OU's best looks of the first half when the junior created an advantageous one-on-one matchup with TCU goalkeeper Vittoria Arnold. Cardona's shot sailed just high of the goal, however, keeping the Sooners off the board.
It took Oklahoma under ten minutes to break their scoring drought in the second half. OU took advantage of a free kick to line up Abby Hodgen in hopes of putting the Sooners in scoring position. Hodgen more than delivered, burying a free kick in the left side of the goal to give the junior her third goal of the season and put OU up 1-0.
The defensive battle continued following the Sooner goal, but OU continued to prevent TCU from getting solid looks offensively. Not even the frantic pace of the match's final 10 minutes could shake Oklahoma and Stade as the defensive continued to clear the ball and take away Horned Frog scoring opportunities.
Stade quietly put together an outstanding match herself, notching four saves (including two key snags in the final six minutes of play) while foiling multiple TCU set pieces to secure the Sooner victory.
OU's victory will keep the Sooners' Big 12 Championship hopes alive as the team turns their focus to the final three matches of the season. Oklahoma now sits in eighth overall in league play at 1-4-0.
"We know all too well how you can be humbled from the high of a win if you don't refocus for the next game," Potter said. "We will enjoy the moment and then prepare appropriately for Sunday and Texas."
Oklahoma will wrap up the weekend on Sunday in a rivalry contest with the Texas Longhorns. OU and UT are set to face off at 1 p.m. CT, with a live broadcast available on The Longhorn Network.


text:
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 3rd May 2012 22:36 UTC
It's here: the GIMP 2.8. Its biggest feature is something that many, many people have been requesting for as long as I can remember: single-window mode. No longer do you have to fiddle with a gazillion palette and dialog windows (unless you choose to do so, of course). Great work by the team.
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RE[4]: Comment
by pandronic on Sat 5th May 2012 12:29 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Comment"
If the free tool does everything you want, the way you want, but doesn't look the way you want, you'd spend non trivial money on something that did?
Again it's not just about the looks, it's about the interface as a whole.
You could do some of the things you do in Photoshop using Imagemagick from the command line, which is also free. You could also use a flat rock to drive a nail through a plank. Finally you'd probably get the work done, but not before losing some time or maybe even making some compromises (I don't need to drive the nail all the way, it will hold even if it's half way out). Time=money, Quality of your work=money, so by getting the superior tool, in the long run you actually save money.
As for helping the devs, it's not my hobby to contribute to open source projects. If one of them stumbles by and reads my posts, then great, otherwise I don't care that much. If they want my help, raise the money and hire me to rework the UI. I don't want to sound cold hearted, I appreciate the amount of work they put into the project, but coding or designing for free is something that I do only for close friends.
The bottom line is that since they offer their software for the public to use, I think I'm allowed to rant all I want, especially when I feel that people are spreading wrong opinions (like GIMP's UI is any good or that it even remotely competes with Photoshop for professional work).
Edited 2012-05-05 12:42 UTC


text:
The City of Boulder is planning to shell out $4 million to clean up the environmental contamination left by the gas plant that operated for decades on the property that is now home to the Dushanbe Teahouse and 13th Street Plaza.
But one of the nation's experts on such projects says the remediation does not go far enough and leaves the taxpayers holding the bag because there is no plan currently in place for Xcel Energy to share the costs. However, city officials say they do plan to eventually attempt to recover money from the company.
The contamination of the 13th Street Plaza property, which was the focus of a series of Boulder Weekly articles earlier this year, was caused by a coal gasification plant operated by the Federal Gas Company from 1902 until the early 1950s. The Environmental Protection Agency noti fied city officials of the contamination in the mid-1990s, but the city built the teahouse at the site anyway, directly on top of old coal-gas lines that will not be unearthed as part of the planned remediation because they have been deemed a minor health threat.
The city began to gain an understanding of the full extent of the problem over the past couple of years, after complaints arose in 2009 about contamination roughly 300 feet southeast of the gas plant site, at the former location of a dry cleaner where elevated levels of certain chemicals associated with coal gasification plants were detected. The city and its consultants have insisted that the 13th Street property is not the source of that contamination, claiming that groundwater under the property flows to the northeast, away from a nearby ditch and Boulder Creek, an assertion that experts have questioned because groundwater must eventually flow to Boulder Creek and therefore likely turns back to the southeast shortly after leaving the property.
As it did with the much-maligned Valmont Butte cleanup, the city is remediating the property through the state's Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCUP). The VCUP is an arrangement between the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency that permits parties to perform their own remediation of contaminated sites when they aren't serious enough to qualify for the Superfund National Priorities List. According to a memorandum of agreement between the CDPHE and EPA, the VCUP is encouraged "due to limited resources, the need to prioritize sites and the need to expedite cleanup action" in cases where facilities are being transferred, redeveloped or reused. The VCUP "is tasked to operate quickly and with a minimum of administrative processes and cost," the agreement states.
Officials from the CDPHE, the city and Xcel have denied that the VCUP is a way to fast-track cleanups on the cheap, to avoid cumbersome and expensive EPA procedures as well as limit the EPA's ability to require additional cleanup in the future.
But Allen Hatheway, who wrote a 1,400-page book titled Remediation of Former Manufactured Gas Plants and Other Coal-Tar Sites and is considered one of the nation's top authorities on the topic, has been an outspoken critic of the VCUP approach. After being provided a copy of the city's remediation plan, he responded with a fou-rpage letter lambasting the city for not doing a more thorough cleanup and questioning why the Public Service Company of Colorado is not helping fund the project. (Public Service owned the Federal Gas Company from the 1920s until 1963, and Xcel Energy now owns Public Service, but Xcel officials have attempted to separate themselves from liability even while gaining approval from the Public Utilities Commission to pass along any future cleanup or legal costs associated with the site to ratepayers.)
"It's kind of the same thing with Valmont, not that either of them are pleasant, but the city goes and does what it needs to do to get the VCUP and deals with the regulatory agencies," Mayor Matt Appelbaum told BW. "I know people may have some concerns about that process, but it's the process we have to follow, or else we're on the hook for eternity, plus it gets it cleaned up."
The city's VCUP application was filed on Oct. 18 and approved by Mark Rudolph of the CDPHE four days later. In his approval letter, Rudolph says that "if fully and properly implemented," the plan "will attain a degree of cleanup and control of hazardous substances and gases, such that the property does not present an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment based on the property's proposed future use, which is commercial."
Hatheway says that the quick turnaround in and of itself should be a red flag, because usually the state asks follow-up questions as the slow wheels of bureaucracy turn.
"No one ever does that," he says of the hasty approval. "This thing was greased. It's very unusual that within a week they just sign it off. Normally, that would take a couple of months."
Rudolph did not respond to a request for comment.
The plan The cleanup is scheduled to begin in early January, with project completion in "approximately April 2014," according to city spokesperson Mike Bañuelos. The Boulder County Farmers' Market, which is held along 13th Street next to the property, opens on the first Saturday in April, and officials hope the project is completed before then.
In its 93-page application, prepared by consultant USA Environment, L.P., the city details how it will excavate the contaminated soil, water and underground elements of the gasification plant, including pipes, oil tanks and gas holders. It also describes findings from additional soil bore tests and ground water monitoring wells since March. (City officials refused to discuss those findings with BW until the VCUP application was filed.)
In the months of March, April, June and September, the city took soil boring samples at 11 different locations, turning two of those bore holes into additional groundwater monitoring wells, bringing the total to 10 wells on the property.
The testing confirmed what many suspected, that there are multiple volatile organic compounds and semi-volatile organic compounds in the soil and groundwater at the site, typical of what is found at former manufactured gas plants. The primary contaminant, as expected, is naphthalene. That and several of the other contaminants at the site are classified by the EPA as probable human carcinogens capable of causing cancer and other serious health issues in humans and animals.
The VCUP application also includes an analysis of the 74 wells located within a half-mile of the site, accompanied by assurances that most of the wells have been abandoned or are not in operation, and that all addresses around the wells are hooked up to the city's water supply. The study concludes that "it is not likely that these locations would be affected by the groundwater conditions related to the historic [manufactured gas plant] operations at the site."
The application outlines the city's plans to excavate and "dewater" seven feet of soil across an 18,600-square-foot rectangle encompassing the entire plaza along the north side of the teahouse as well as most of the teahouse parking lot. In some areas, like around the highly contaminated "relief holder" that was partially excavated for the first time in March, up to 18 feet of soil will be removed. The plan says between 7,000 and 8,000 cubic yards of earth is expected to be dug up and hauled off to "an approved facility," to be replaced with clean fill dirt. Workers will set up a "ventilated structure to control odors and vapor emissions during excavation and removal activities" as a way "to optimize protection of workers and the general public," according to the plan.
The plan also calls for the deepest excavations to include removal of groundwater.
"Dewatering efforts will be sustained during the deeper excavation activities to maintain a lowered groundwater table at the site, as well as to create an inward gradient for the removal of impacted groundwater," the application states. "Groundwater recovered during the dewatering activities will be containerized temporarily on-site for subsequent disposal to the city's sewer system in accordance with city waste-water utility guidelines."
After the project is complete, the city plans to check groundwater through the monitoring wells quarterly "for a period of up to two years" and thereafter on "a semi-annual basis, as needed, to confirm a stable or declining trend in [contaminants of concern] concentrations at the site."
New questions New maps in the VCUP raise questions about the city's assertion that groundwater flows to the northeast at the site. One illustration (see map on page 13) shows the most contaminated soil extending from the relief holder to the east, suggesting that the plume spreads more toward Boulder Creek than to the northeast. In addition, a cross-section in the VCUP shows the plume working its way downward. Hatheway confirms that gas plant contamination spreads down-gradient, like groundwater should.
"It has to," he says. In response to a request for comment, city spokesperson Bañuelos says the consultant told him the reason for excavating in that area is due to contaminated soil being in that area, but that there are "other factors, in addition to groundwater flow direction, that would impact subsurface [non-aqueous phase liquids] distribution."
In his Dec. 13 letter to responding to the VCUP application at the request of BW, Hatheway says the city has "sold its citizens down the river" because by filing the VCUP, it has legally become the "responsible party" for the eventual cleanup, letting Xcel and Public Service off the hook for their potential liability.
"That is not our understanding," Mayor Appelbaum says.
Bañuelos confirmed that "at this time, there is no agreed split between the city and Xcel," and that "costs will initially be absorbed by the city, with cost sharing to be pursued with other responsible parties."
But Hatheway says the city should have gained a commitment from Xcel to share in the cleanup costs.
"Approval of the city's application to take responsibility from Xcel … grants only that the city has formalized its mortgage on the community resources of its own citizenry," Hatheway writes.
He chastises the city for glossing over the site's history and disregarding BW's series "as a body of evidence that should be considered part of the public record." He questions why the reputable and respected consultant Environmental Resources Management, which had previously done work for the city at the site, was supplanted by USA Environmental. He also criticizes USA Environmental for claiming that there is some "attenuation," or natural reduction, of contaminants at the site over time, saying the contamination is not degrading, but spreading.
He renews his previous call for the Dushanbe Teahouse to be disassembled and put in storage, on Xcel's dime, while an exhaustive remediation of the entire property is conducted.
"It seems quite odd indeed, that Boulder's well-known environmentally sensitive citizenry are not incensed over the declaratory actions of the city to protect Xcel from its rightful fiscal liability in remediation, on the one hand, and to place its own citizens at some unknown degree of real health risks, in order to protect the interests of the utility company," Hatheway writes. "If the city stands for absolving Xcel of its rightful responsibility, then actions such as would bring about a referendum vote might be appropriate. … The public does not deserve to be sacrificed at the altar of the forthcoming remedial-taxation burden for special interests, and surely not while it is protected healthwise only by the self-serving 'not to worry' risk assessments brought forth by unidentified consultant parties or unknown academic, technical and experiential qualifications."
In response to Hatheway's letter, the city issued the following prepared statement: "The City of Boulder's process and decision-making relative to the 13th Street Plaza remediation work has been and remains open and transparent. The city's Voluntary Cleanup Plan (Plan) is aggressive. The Plan requires, in the next few months, the excavation of the remaining manufactured gas plant (MGP) source material and infrastructure, as needed. This will accelerate the cleanup, while limiting disruptions to public access to the heavily used Plaza area, particularly during the busy Farmer's Market season. USA Environmental's scientists and engineers have considerable experience with the Colorado Voluntary Cleanup Program and MGP site cleanups. There is no requirement that a VCUP application be signed by a registered engineer or other environmental professional. As required by the VCUP program, at the completion of remediation, the city will submit a certification from a qualified environmental professional that the Plan has been fully implemented. Cleanup funding is part of the city's ongoing discussions with Xcel about the cleanup planning."
'Do it right' In a subsequent phone interview, Hatheway says the city has left itself plenty of wiggle room to avoid fully remediating the property, using terms in the application like "to the extent possible" and leaving the door open to on-site assessments at the time of the cleanup.
"There is a certain imprecision built into the wording to allow wide latitude in its response," he says. "Do it right, do it once, and protect the health and solvency of the citizens of Boulder."
Mayor Appelbaum says the question of how much Xcel will be required to contribute to the remediation is still an open one, and it will be decided later.
"Both parties agree it's got to be cleaned up, so you go ahead and you clean it up, and the city usually puts in the lion's share of that funding, just to get it done," he says. "After all, it's on city property. Then you negotiate, once you know the final cost, you negotiate who has to pay what, and then, the worst circumstance, I guess, you litigate it. It would be nice if it didn't have to get to that, but we're talking about several million dollars. I wouldn't be shocked if there was some disagreement."
But Appelbaum adds that if the gas company was primarily responsible for the contamination, Xcel should pay for the majority of the cleanup.
"If you buy a company that's being sued for something, you inherit the liability," he says. "It needs to be fair. Who caused it? If the city is part of the cause, as clearly we were at Valmont, yeah, we're going to pay for part of that. … I have no doubt we'll pay for part of it. At 13th Street it's a little less clear what our role is."
Appelbaum acknowledged that while he hasn't heard that the BW series played a role in the city's approach to the cleanup, it's "possible that because of some stuff you wrote people looked at it a little more carefully or a little differently."
Xcel spokesperson Michelle Aguayo told BW that her company initially wanted to take the lead on cleaning up the property, but city officials declined. She says the city has awarded the contract for the cleanup to an environmental remediation contractor called Envirocon.
In response to a question about the extent to which her company would acknowledge liability and help share the costs of the project, she told BW, "What I can tell you is Xcel has contributed resources and financial assistance to the city for the project to date.
The city as the property owner has decided to move forward with the project at its own cost for now but the city continues to seek technical input and other assistance from Xcel. We intend to continue to work cooperatively with the city on this project."
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Kunal Agarwal and Shivnath Babu, Founders
Unravel isn't afraid to admit big data can be complicated. Founders Kunal Agarwal and Shivnath Babu (pictured) realize, for instance, how easy it is for organizations to get caught up trying to find the optimal configuration settings for Hadoop applications and wanted to do something to help.
So, in January they launched Unravel, a startup that provides optimization tools to help users spend less time worrying about their Hadoop infrastructures and focus instead on the true value of big data: making better business decisions.
Unravel does this through a series of visualization tools like Profiler, which maps out data flows and warns users when their configuration settings look off. Another tool, the What-If Engine, lets users see how the performance of their applications would be impacted if those configuration settings, or other parameters, are changed.


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The Sports Complex on the campus of Michigan State University is underwater Monday.
The baseball, softball and soccer fields on Old College Field behind the Jenison Fieldhouse are flooded from an overflowing Red Cedar River.
As of 9:30am Monday, the Red Cedar is at 7.12 feet. Flood stage is at 7 feet. According the National Weather Service, the river is expected to drop below flood stage at 8pm Monday.


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Related Links
The Bridgeport Sound Tigers lost the Manchester Monarchs Sunday afternoon by a final score of 3-1. Sean Wiles had the lone Sound Tigers goal, but a hat trick from Tanner Pearson was the difference in the contest. Anders Nilsson saw 21 shots in the game and made 19 saves, with one empty-net goal scored, as well.
Manchester scored just 2:29 into the contest on the first of Pearson's three goals. A Monarchs shot from the point went wide, but Pearson picked up the puck behind the net. He came out front towards the near post and banked it in off of Nilsson for the opening goal of the game.
Pearson struck again early in the second period to make it a 2-0 Monarchs lead. He found the puck down low and, once again, put it in from close range. That was his ninth goal of the season, though he added another later on in the game. Incidentally, both teams had the same amount of shots at the end of each of the first two periods. They had five in the first period and nine shots on goal in the second for a total of 14 apiece.
The Sound Tigers got it to within one with less than two minutes gone by in the third period on Sean Wiles' first goal of the season. After an extended shift in the Monarchs end, the Sound Tigers started a partial line change, which put Wiles on the ice with Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Alan Quine. Bouchard slid a pass towards the circle for Wiles, who was just coming on the ice. Wiles blasted the shot past Jean-Francois Berube to make it a 2-1 game.
The Sound Tigers managed more chances through the third, but Berube did not let another puck get by him. With less than two minutes to go, the Sound Tigers pulled Nilsson in favor of the extra attacker, which gave Pearson a chance to complete his hat trick. After skating the puck to center ice, he sent a backhand into the open net for his third goal of the game to seal the win for Manchester.
The Sound Tigers are back in action Friday night in Hartford to face the Wolf Pack before returning home for another game against Manchester Saturday at 7 p.m.
3rd star: Jean-Francois Berube (MAN)
2nd star: Vincent LoVerde (MAN)
1st star: Tanner Pearson (MAN)
Gone for the Game: Less than 24 hours after his first career AHL goal, Mike Cornell was assessed a match penalty in the second period for an illegal check to the head.
Getting Them Out of the Way: This was the third of six matchups between the Sound Tigers and the Monarchs, who lead the Eastern Conference with 43 points. They'll play once again next Saturday at Webster Bank Arena.
Three-in-Three: The Sound Tigers are now 1-3-0-0 in the final leg of a three-games-in-three-days stretch.
9 Anders Lee-19 Riley Wetmore-26 Mike Halmo
96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard-22 Alan Quine-77 Kirill Kabanov
24 Sean Wiles-54 Chris Langkow-16 Chris Bruton
44 Brett Gallant-17 Matt Lowry-49 Justin Johnson
46 Matt Donovan-4 Mike Cornell
10 Scott Mayfield-5 Mike Keenan
21 Dallas Jackson-7 Scooter Vaughan
45 Anders Nilsson
35 Kenny Reiter


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Tizzies Erupt Over Kissing Men
Two men on a first date locked lips over a pub table in London's gay-friendly Soho--and found themselves ejected from the premises by a woman who identified herself as the landlady.
Jonathan Williams and James Bull shared a "snog" at their table at the John Snow pub in the trendy London neighborhood, but, they say, they were not behaving in an "obscene" manner, as the landlady claimed they were.
"We weren't being over the top; there wasn't anything that would be deemed unseemly," Williams told British newspaper the Guardian, which published an article on the incident on April 15. "I'm not the kind of person to do that kind of thing in public."
A witness verified this, telling the Guardian that the men were "snogging, but it wasn't heavy petting." Nonetheless, another man who was drinking nearby told them to stop kissing and said that he was the landlord.
The two rejoined that they were simply kissing, and went back to their evening. Later, as Bull was getting ready to leave, he gave Williams another kiss--which he described as "a peck on the lips"--and the woman claiming to be the landlady accosted them.
"She said we had to leave because we were being obscene," Bull recounted. "Then the other guy from earlier came over again and said we had to leave now, we 'weren't allowed to do that.' "The men said that the man took hold of Williams' coat by the lapels as he was speaking to him. Other patrons called for the pair to be left in peace.
"I was totally shocked," said Lucy Clements, who was at a nearby table when the situation unfolded. "Dumbfounded, really. From a pub in the middle of Soho you just don't expect it."
When Clements talked to pub staff, she was told that the man who had grasped Williams by the lapels was the landlord--and then she and her companion were told to leave, as well.
Bull, upset, went home and called the police to make a complaint, the article said.
"I felt so belittled, and to be made to feel so dirty and cheap over something like that--it's just wrong," Bull told the newspaper.
Meantime, Williams took his complaint public via Twitter.
"Seven years in London & I've never been made to feel bad for being gay," he tweeted on the night of April 13. "45 min ago the John Snow pub, W1F had me removed for kissing a date." W1F refers to the pub's London locale.
London's gay community was outraged. The tweet was picked up and passed around, two Facebook pages were established, and it wasn't long before two kiss-ins were scheduled to take place at the pub in protest, one of them slated for April 15 and the follow-up for about a week later. Hundreds signed up for the events.
The John Snow pub is not a gay bar, although it is located in a neighborhood popular with the gay crowd. British law allows landlords to tell customers to leave if they are acting in an unacceptable manner, but members of one demographic cannot be tossed out of an establishment for the same conduct that brings no such action against members of other demographics. In other words, the pub's landlord remains within his rights to ask a gay couple to leave for kissing as long as he enforces the same rule when heterosexual couples also kiss.
The pub's management did not welcome inquiries from the press. The Associated Press reported on April 15 that no one answered the phone at the pub. The Guardian article related that the newspaper called the pub twice for comment and was threatened with legal action.
"Can you just stop calling this number please, or we'll have you done for harassment," the person on the other end of the line, a woman, told the caller from the newspaper.
"Police are investigating an incident," a spokesperson for the London police force stated. "There have been no arrests and inquiries are ongoing."
A crowd of protesters coalesced before the pub on Friday, April 15. The establishment did not open its doors for business, so the kiss-in participants carried out their protest in front of the business. The Associated Press reported that someone had hung a rainbow flag in the pub's doorway.
The men's ejection from the pub "struck me as the kind of thing I would see in a small town in the States, not in the capital of the U.K..." said organizer Paul Shetler, originally from New York.
Though British gay and lesbian families enjoy legal recognition in the form of civil partnerships, and public services and accommodations may not refuse service because of sexual orientation, gays are still sometimes targeted for discriminatory treatment or harassment, sometimes even deadly violence.
"Recently, a Christian couple was fined for refusing to allow a gay couple the use of a double room at their hotel in southern England, a case which drew national attention," the AP article recalled. "More dramatically, a gay man was stamped and kicked to death on Trafalgar Square in 2009--a brutal hate crime which shocked the city."
"If that can happen in Trafalgar Square, meters from Soho, on a Saturday night then this sort of thing can happen anywhere," Gary Nunn, of the British GLBT advocacy group Stonewall, told the AP.
Across the Atlantic, in the first of America's fifty states to allow marriage equality, an anti-gay group posted an April 12 article claiming that "young homosexual activists" target establishments by staging public displays of affection. If they are reprimanded or ordered to leave, claimed MassResistance, the "activists" call in the media as a form of punishment.
"Of course, the natural reaction to two men kissing each other is revulsion," the article asserted. "But these days businesses know they have to endure it. Thanks to the state's sexual orientation laws which cover public accommodations (which, sadly, conservatives often support) homosexual activists can and do strike back with impunity. It's how they force acceptance of their behaviors on society."
Here's a Sky News report on the April 15 "Snog-in" that resulted from the incident.
Next: It's 3 a.m., Do You Know Where Your Lips Are?


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By Tiernan Ray
Shares of Netflix (NFLX) are down $6.91, or 2%, at $306.15 after BTIG Research's Rich Greenfield this morning cut his rating on the stock to Neutral from Buy as the stock has crossed the $250 price target he had set, writing "We believe Netflix is becoming an increasingly appealing consumer proposition as wired/wireless bandwidth improves and we move toward a personalized entertainment world where everyone has their own device."
"However, the catalysts we were looking for now appear appropriately reflected in the current stock price."
(Free registration required to read BTIG reports.)
To Greenfield's thinking, everything is going Netflix's way: the raft of proposed or existing "over-the-top" video services, such as Apple's (AAPL) Apple TV, Intel's (INTC) work in progress, and especially Amazon.com's (AMZN) "Prime," have not been as aggressive as he would have thought; pay TV providers are "waking up" to Netflix, such as the deal with Virgin Media announced Monday; the service is in more and more devices; and the original programming such as "House of Cards" has turned out better than he thought they would be.
The only problem is valuation, says Greenfield:
Netflix is now trading at 31x our estimated 2015 EV/EBITDA. If we took away the losses from international, which will remain in investment mode for the foreseeable future, the EV/EBITDA multiple on 2015 drops to 26.8x. Even if we go a step further and give intentional credit for a positive 20% contribution margin in 2015 to reflect their international business at future scale (which compares to our new 2015 domestic contribution margin estimate of 29%), Netflix would still be trading at 19x 2015 EV/EBITDA. We believe this is a reasonably full valuation at this point in time.


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My ****ing idol!
At least he is good at something:
My ****ing idol!
how many times does this genius Joe W get to start the same dumb thread
What a dumb society we have become if this is news worthy.
That chick looks so hot with that little bit of smoke coming out. Little madison ivy in her😀
C'mon everyone...
If you were young, had all that money that Mark stole..err, "earned"(yeah right), wouldn't you be living it up with some hot broads?
Anyway, all we can do is laugh because nothing Mark does should surprise us anymore.
I got no problem with it, I just hope hes not their gay buddy
This makes me like him more.
Hot broads?
Let me know when he shoots his friend, ditches the rental car, destroys the home security system and the cell phone.
Then again on second thought, he would probably miss that target as well.
Too early???


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Coming off a season in which the Eagles made the state playoffs for the first time since 1993, expectations have been raised this season.
The Eagles lost some height and some passing skills with the graduations of Melanie Siegrist and Katie Wood, but are figuring to make up for it with a big group of returning players.
The loss of Siegrist means that the Eagles are not exactly big in height, but the whole team spent the summer focusing on being better blockers on the front line.
"We're lacking height but we are quick and scrappy," said senior setter Tracy Mok.
The Eagles spent part of their summer attending a camp at Arizona State University, and they spent the bulk of the camp learning to be better blockers.
"Other than our blocking we are really strong," senior Courtney Harvey said.
To be fair to the Eagles, while they may not be tall, they still have several players who can crush the ball when given the chance.
Kaillie Duffy and Meagan Frazier are two of the more athletic hitters in the Columbia River Conference. Logan Bailey and Harvey are also competent at the net.
In the Columbia River Conference the Eagles also do not need to field a starting lineup of girls 5'10 and above to have a shot at the state playoffs.
The Eagles were in the running for a conference championship until the final game of the season when they lost to The Dalles.
The Eagles went on to win a play-in game and then lost to Churchill in the first round of the state playoffs.
This season they don't want to lose focus down the stretch, because the goal isn't simply to have a winning season, it's to make it the state finals tournament at Liberty High School in Hillsboro.
"We learned that you've got to focus on every game," said Bailey.
"We know we so could have beat The Dalles," Mok added.
Coach Scott Walker felt the team was a little starry-eyed with its state playoff appearance in Eugene last fall, and spent the offseason raising the expectation level.
The team had most of its members playing club volleyball throughout the year and the numbers at the sub-varsity level are way up.
"Our goal is Liberty High School," he said. "Anything less would be a disappointment."
Hermiston again figured to be the favorite to win the league, but HRV is not far behind the Bulldogs, and with improvement to the Pendleton and TDW squads, anyone can truly beat anyone else on any given night in CRC play.
That figures to happen plenty with each team playing 12 league games - four against each team.
"It can get really old," Walker said.
Which is why the league playoff spots may not be decided until the final week again, when teams are facing each other for the final time and must maintain their focus.
With all their experience playing together, and the lessons learned from last season, the Eagles don't think that will be a problem this go-around.
"We've been playing together since seventh grade," Harvey said. "We have a chemistry you can't replace."
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CICERO – Three men masquerading as lawn care workers were seen stealing an outside central air conditioning unit at 11:30 a.m. June 4, police reported.
A witness saw two men cutting a lawn in the 3400 block of South 59th Court while another man stayed in a pick up truck in front of the residence. The witness was suspicious because the mowers were doing such a fast and sloppy job. He then heard the man waiting in the truck say "that's enough" at which time he drove his truck to the alley. He then exited and walked up to the air conditioning unit, cut the cables and then he and one of the other men put it in back of the truck, along with the two mowers and drove off.
The residence is in foreclosure and is maintained by an unknown contractor. Detectives attempted to go through all the layers of responsibility, but found no one knows who is actually responsible for the property, or the persons hired to maintain it. Police said thefts like these are becoming a common occurrence with vacant properties in the town, especially with foreclosures. Many times the actual owner of the property is a corporation outside of the U.S.
While police often apprehend the thieves, they are unable to prosecute because no one can be found to sign complaints.