text:
Hicks' bat and glove help Twins beat White Sox
- Article by: ADAM CZECH
- Associated Press
- May 13, 2013 - 11:06 PM
MINNEAPOLIS - Ron Gardenhire has seen center fielders like Kirby Puckett, Torii Hunter and Ben Revere make some spectacular catches during his time coaching and managing the Minnesota Twins.
After Monday night, he's adding Aaron Hicks to the list.
Hicks hit two home runs and made a leaping catch in center field to take a home run away from Adam Dunn in the Twins' 10-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.
"We've definitely had our share of great ones here and that ranks right up there," Gardenhire said. "That catch is going to rank right up there, especially the moment he caught the ball. A big moment, a big play."
Justin Morneau extended his hitting streak to nine games with three hits and four RBIs, including a bases-clearing double that capped the scoring in the eighth.
Hicks, who missed the previous two games due to a sore right elbow, led off the fourth inning with a 416-foot solo homer that bounced in front of the black batter's eye in center field and gave the Twins a 5-2 lead.
With a runner on third and the Twins holding a 5-3 lead in the sixth, Dunn drove a pitch from reliever Josh Roenicke deep to center that appeared to be headed for the same spot Hicks' blast landed. However, the Twins' rookie sprinted back, leaped high, and caught the ball above the wall, falling to the ground and grinning as he opened his glove to show the ball to the umpire.
After getting congratulated by teammates jogging off the field, Hicks hit his second home run in the bottom of the sixth, this one landing in the bullpen in left-center.
"Right after the catch I felt amazing, I felt loose. To hit that one, it just capped it off," Hicks said.
Fans at Target Field stood and cheered for a curtain call, and Hicks finally obliged after Pedro Florimon popped out.
"I heard `em, but it's my first one so I don't really know," said Hicks, whose teammates doused him with Gatorade and shaving cream after the game. "Morneau's saying, `Hey these don't happen that often.' Florimon ended up popping out, so I had to kind of wait. Then I went out and got it."
Dunn and Hicks entered the game tied for the lowest batting average in baseball (.137) among qualifiers. When the night was over, Hicks' average was .152 and Dunn's .133.
"Yeah, the kid made a great play," said White Sox manager Robin Ventura, whose team allowed three unearned runs. "I think that one was one he hit well, but you don't get anything out of it. But again we are not helping ourselves on the other side."
Twins starter Pedro Hernandez (2-0) allowed three runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings. The left-hander, who came to the Twins in a trade with the White Sox for Francisco Liriano, retired 14 of the next 15 batters he faced after giving up two runs in the first inning.
Alex Rios had two RBIs for the White Sox, who are last in the American League in batting average and runs scored. Alejandro De Aza and Alexei Ramirez each had three hits.
Hector Santiago (1-2) allowed six runs — three earned — on eight hits in 5 2-3 innings. He had only allowed one earned run in his previous two starts.
The Twins loaded the bases with nobody out and took advantage of Ramirez's error at shortstop to score four runs in the third. The inning was capped by Trevor Plouffe's two-run double.
"Yeah, it seems like every day we have one play that could change the game and it does wind up changing the game," Santiago said. "I mean that play there, if he makes that play we are out of it and we're up 2-0. You can keep the pitch count down. It was a big play in the game, and of late it's been something like that, just one play each and every game."
The White Sox loaded the bases against Jared Burton in the eighth, but pinch-hitter Conor Gillaspie grounded out to first.
NOTES: White Sox LHP Chris Sale, who threw a one-hit shutout in Sunday's win against Los Angeles, woke up in pain with an abscessed tooth that needed to be pulled. Manager Robin Ventura said that won't affect Sale's next start, a rematch on the road against the Angels. ... White Sox LHP John Danks gave up three runs in six innings on Sunday in a rehab start for Triple-A Charlotte. Recovering from shoulder surgery last August, Danks will make at least one more start in the minors, Ventura said ... Florimon, who missed all three games of the series over the weekend against Baltimore because of a tight right hamstring, returned to the lineup. ... Kevin Correia (4-2) face Jake Peavy (4-1) on Tuesday in the second game of this three-game series.
© 2018 Star Tribune


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Since the introduction of Bollgard and Bollgard II cotton varieties, growers have reported differences in control of bollworm. These differences may indicate growing resistance, but may only be the natural course of variation in nature that prevents plants from uniform expression of the insect killing protein toxin in these varieties.
North Carolina State University Entomologist J.R. Bradley says, "Variation is one thing that leads to uncertainty in agriculture. And, uncertainty leads to risk and farmers are constantly trying to avoid risk."
Even before bacillus thurengiensis, or Bt-containing products came on the market in 1996 and 1997, Bradley's research showed some significant differences in yield on Bt cotton that was over-sprayed with insecticides to control bollworm.
"In 1993, we increased yields by 15 percent at one location by intensively treating Bt cotton to insure that no escapes could damage the crop. A few miles (65 miles) away the exact same tests showed no significant difference in treated versus non-treated Bt cotton. Just by changing location, we saw a significant variation," he explains.
The following year, Bradley says they repeated the treatments at the same locations and recorded a 19 percent improvement by over-spraying at one location and a 26 percent yield increase at the same site at which the previous year showed no difference.
At the same time, researchers in other parts of the country were showing different results — results that indicated Bt-containing cotton varieties did not need any additional insecticide to control budworm or bollworms. "If they were dealing with tobacco budworms, these early Bt-containing lines were absolutely good as a stand alone material, but in our part of the world, we were dealing with a much heavier concentration of bollworms and under heavy pressure these lines did not always provide adequate control," Bradley notes.
This is a perfect example of how geographic differences can create variation that affects overall performance of Bt cotton varieties. "These differences emphasize how important it is to consider location when designing systems to manage insects," the veteran North Carolina entomologist stresses.
In the late 1990s Bradley and other researchers at North Carolina State looked at a number of Delta & Pine Land varieties and one Stoneville variety, which constituted the major breeding lines containing the Bt gene, to determine whether variation exists among different varieties. "We saw little difference among varieties, except for the Stoneville 4740 variety. For some reason that variety did not express the Bt protein," Bradley says.
"That was the first indication the Bt gene does not behave the same in all varieties. We didn't see much increase in yield by over-spraying in most locations, except for the one Stoneville variety," he adds.
Bollgard II varieties upped the ante by adding two new protein toxins. "Still in some locations, we saw no differences between conventional cotton and Bollguard and Bollgard II. At those locations, there was no advantage to having the Bt protein in the plant", Bradley says.
Using Bt-containing varieties is not the same as mixing an insecticide from a can and spraying it on cotton. If you have a known insecticide at a known dose, and if applied appropriately and in a timely manner, a grower can reasonably expect a certain level of insect control. With Bt cotton you have living, breathing organisms that must produce a protein toxin to protect the plant. If that plant is under stress, it may or may not produce the necessary amount of protein toxin to kill insects.
A gene expresses through the synthesis of a protein or an enzyme (most proteins are enzymes), which is the means of functioning of a gene. Gene expression varies with the nucleotide sequence of the gene, its promotor, and the point of insertion of the gene in the DNA of the transgenic variety, the internal cell environment, as well as several external factors in the environment. All of which make predicting exactly how a Bt gene will work in a cotton plant difficult to predict.
To make the understanding of exactly how much protection from bollworms and budworms a grower can expect from Bt-containing varieties a little more difficult, Bollgard and Bollgard II work slightly different.
The original Bollgard varieties produced a higher amount of the insect killing toxin protein in cotton leaves than in cotton squares. The new Bollgard II varieties show a higher level of toxins in the squares than in the leaves.
In 2002, the North Carolina researcher says he and fellow North Carolina State Entomologist John Van Duyn got a new revelation about Bollgard cotton varieties. "In that year there was an extremely high number of bollworms at all our research locations. In the non-treated (neither with commercially available insecticides nor Bt-containing varieties) the total weight loss of some of these plots exceeded 85 percent. By far, the Bollgard II varieties fared the best, but there was still significant variation from one site to another," Bradley says.
"In 2002, we learned it is very difficult to manage Bollgard cotton in the presence of unusually high populations of bollworm," he says.
In 2006 Bradley says they saw some varietal differences in Bollgard II varieties that may or may not be trends. For example, he says Stoneville 6611, under heavy bollworm pressure had 10 percent boll damage, compared to 2.5 percent for other varieties. "By comparison, when we started testing Bollgard II varieties, in particular DPL 50, we did not see the varietal differences we are seeing now," Bradley contends.
"From my perspective, I don't think you can stick these genes in different varieties and expect the same level of control. The Bollgard II I saw for several years may not be the same Bollgard II growers are seeing in different varieties," Bradley says.
The veteran North Carolina State researcher says it is difficult to get a real grip on the differences in how the Bt protein gene expresses itself in different varieties or even under different geographic conditions or timelines. It can probably be done easier in a lab, but unfortunately lab insects are not as vigorous as those out in a farmer's fields, so even that data may not be absolute.
There is no way to make an accurate guess as to when protein levels crash in Bt-containing plants. Thus, there is no way to know precisely the ability of a plant to express the amount of protein toxins needed to control bollworms, according to Bradley. If the plant's ability to express the Bt protein is low when bollworm counts are peaking, there may not be enough of the toxin to control such high levels of insects, he explains.
Variation is often confused with resistance, but Bradley contends true resistance is much more likely to come from tobacco budworms than from bollworms. Until the introduction of synthetic insecticides in the late 1940s, tobacco budworm was not a recognized pest of cotton. Only when synthetic insecticides enabled it by eliminating natural predators did budworm become a treatable pest of cotton.
By comparison, bollworm survivors captured from Bollgard-treated corn and cotton fields and raised in the lab could not survive in the natural population in a field.
"We don't think resistant bollworm can sustain populations, but that is definitely the case with tobacco budworm," Bradley stresses.
"I don't think anyone outside the companies that are developing these multi-trait or multiple toxins knows. We don't know which varieties will have which traits, much less how these traits will react under different conditions and locations," he concludes.
"It will take the science that we can contribute, plus the art that farmers contribute to effectively manage the boll worm/budworm complex on cotton," Bradley says.
e-mail: [email protected]


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A judge who understood technology enough to make the right decision.
Now, how do we get more judges like this?
Being a good judge means being able to see through the truth behind the veil, no matter if it's corporate BS or technology.
A judge who understood technology enough to make the right decision.
Now, how do we get more judges like this?
Being a good judge means being able to see through the truth behind the veil, no matter if it's corporate BS or technology.
Unfortunately, people who are able to do that are extremely rare in all walks of life. Not surprisingly, they are also rare among judges.
There is no one whose to blame. Well, no one specifically. High schools and colleges, employers, parents. Pretty much everything has contributed something to turning out people who can't see past bullshit. Or rather, haven't contributed to turning out people who can see through it, which is what is really needed. As one of my high school teachers said: "the purpose of hig
The bigger concern is that despite women being just as likely to be engaged in domestic violence as men, we needed a woman specific law to deal with the problem.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013743521_domesticviolence26.html [nwsource.com]
I don't know if this was the right decision. Then again, I'm not impartial since I'm being cyber-stalked/harassed on Twitter right now by someone who claims God talks to her. (Thank goodness I don't use my real name/address there.) If the guy was repeatedly telling her that she should die, then I think that crosses the line from free speech to harassment.
Could we please have a more precise summary by putting the quotes in their proper place, because I cannot decipher between what was said by the submitter and what was said by the Judge?
The quotes in TFS are quite clear. The entire summary is quoted, because all of it was said by the submitter, paraphrasing the basic ruling of the judge. If you'd like to see the actual quotes by the judge, RTFA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jetsunma_Ahkon_Lhamo [wikipedia.org]
This isn't to say that William Lawrence didn't go over the line by predicting her "violent death".
To me, Twitter seems more like a giant IRC channel except that it requires explicit
At least the Judge had enough understanding to draw a somewhat reasonable parallel though.
Then I guess she believes that karmic payback ain't what it used to be.
Just another cultist who makes a living by telling others how to live their life, but can't take her own medicine. Gasps of surprise. Stalk on, bro.
William Lawrence Cassidy is also a Buddhist, and is also trying to form his own "cult" and stands accused of several scams, so knowing that do you think it is out of line to seek legal help for someone "predicting" your violent death?
In addition you do not understand Karma and what it entails, you use the common Western misunderstanding of Karma which is not the case for Buddhist.
Karma isn't someone keeping score nor is it a shield against the bad this World has to offer.
Didn't I see the exact opposite article yesterday?
There are differences between yesterday's and today's articles;
1. Public vs private individuals. Public figures, such as religeous leaders, get much less harassment protection. If you want to be a public figure the be prepared to be harrased.
2. The defendant in yesterday's article voluntarilly agreed to a HRO and then broke it. No HRO in today's article
3. You have to follow someone to read their tweets. In yesterday's article the defendant sent emails.
But what about my right to not be offended? Can't we just arrest anyone who says something that I dislike? Otherwise, they'll hurt my self-esteem!
For common sense and free speech.
Yes, but only because the religious leader was male.
Sorry but the religious leader in question, Alyce Zeoli, is female. That puts a hole in two of your stereotypes. (ie. all religious leaders are male and olny females get legal protection from speech)
So what? So it is one of the few exceptions that prove the rule. Does not faze me a bit.
Dogma = sustaining beliefs in the face of facts.
"No, no, I don't mind being called the smartest man in the world. I just wish it wasn't this one." -- Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, WATCHMEN


text:
The Kelty Light Year 0 Degree Sleeping Bag. The Light Year Down 0° is a lightweight, four-season bag with a 58" zipper designed for minimalists who prefer to go light.
So sorry, but only 4 items are allowed for comparison, so we're comparing the first 4. I blame the gnomes and so should you.
Would you like to compare the products you have selected now?


text:
Round 2: Brandon vs. Hollis golf match coming to Ann Arbor area on July 24
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
The rematch is set.
Web-savvy athletic directors Dave Brandon (Michigan) and Mark Hollis (Michigan State) appear to have worked out the date for their second head-to-head golf match via Twitter.
Brandon and his five-person Wolverines team will be looking to even the score on Tuesday, July 24 at a to-be-announced course in the Ann Arbor area.
On July 25, 2011, Hollis' Spartans won the first B1G AD Golf Challenge when former MSU golfer Ryan Brehm hit a 20-foot birdie putt on the first sudden death playoff hole at Eagle Eye Golf Club in Bath.
The match was born when Brandon and Hollis exchanged jabs about each others' golf games via Twitter during the 2011 Big Ten spring meetings. There was plenty of light-hearted trash talk leading up to (and during) the event, too.
Afterward, the ADs took a different tone.
Hollis: "This doesn't happen with people that don't like each other. Hopefully we can keep this going for years to come."
Brandon: "We compete nose-to-nose in a lot of sports, but we also work together really well and that's the way it should be."
Fri, May 4, 2012 : 3:10 p.m.
Why wouldn't they play one of the two private courses that the public university owns?
Fri, May 4, 2012 : 1:57 a.m.
Hopefully Brandon remembers Hollis' NCAA violating and inappropriate comments to Trey and kicks some behind. Been amazing that the freep has been silent and the NCAA has not presented a letter of violation yet. Kind of like when Cleeves took money from Eddie Martin and they looked the other way while hammering Michigan.
Fri, May 4, 2012 : 2:45 p.m.
that's because the Freep is nothing but Sparty trolls disguised as a legit publication.
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 2:44 p.m.
Looks like Brandon is wearing his 'cousin Eddie' lucky white belt again. Randy Quaid wants it back.
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 2:06 p.m.
I hope Trey Burke plays.


text:
Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/19/fisker_karma_shots/
Fisker posts Karma Sunset shots
Prepare to drool...
Posted in Science, 19th January 2009 17:26 GMT
'Leccy Tech Hot on the heels of its appearance at the Detroit Motor Show last week, Fisker has released a pair of piccies of its epically gorgeous Karma Sunset hard-top convertible.
Gentlemen, prepare to drool...
Fisker's Karma Sunset: roof retracted...
...and ready to repel rain
There's no word on the exact price of the Sunset, though Karma says it will be "significantly more expensive" than the standard, four-door model - which itself is hardly cheap at $87,500 (£59,500/€65,600).
Deliveries are due to start at the end of 2011, and Fisker is happy to put one aside for you if you pop a cheque in the post for $25,000 (£16,800/€18,760).
Start saving... ®


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Friday, August 24, 2007
For the moment, I don't have any new photos to display, but they're surely coming up... Don't forget that Europe is still globally on vacation. Apparently, one of France's leading pipole publications has just published paparazzi photos of François Hollande—general secretary of the Socialist party, and former companion of former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal—in the intimate company of his new flame: a journalist from the very pipole weekly Paris-Match. Not so long ago, the editor of that prestigious weekly got kicked out, inexplicably, after the publication of romantic photos of Madame Sarkozy with a gentleman in the USA. Today, it's less likely, of course, that anybody will lose their job as a consequence of this latest scoop pipole. I'll do my best to keep you informed...
2 comments:
I'll do my best to keep you informed...ReplyDelete
I hope so! ;-)
Blague à part, as I'm fed up with Sarkozy's law proposals and other newspaper articles, I enjoy reading your blog before I switch off my computer. It's a pleasant way to end a stressful day.
Thanks for those nice remarks. The notion of blog articles being read before switching off your computer takes me back in time to the epoch of bedtime stories for my children. In fact, if I tend to post my articles late in the evening, it's simply because I'm thinking constantly of my Australian friends for whom this Antipodes blog was initially intended. For them, my posts take the form of matinal communications.ReplyDelete
As for your being "fed up with Sarkozy's law proposals", I believe we're all going through a period of interrogation at the end of the first hundred days of the new presidency. I was impressed by the calm non-partisan manner in which Ségolène Royal analyzed the situation today. I was also impressed by an observer's description of the "fiction of action" that surrounds Sarkozy. He seems to be doing all kind of things... but, often, he's merely talking of a hypothetical future, and nothing is really happening. In other words, he's largely a virtual president.


text:
Kathy Bates is in talks to play the nemesis of fellow Oscar-winner Jessica Lange's character on TV's "American Horror Story" for Season 3, TVLine said.
Each season of the show is set in different locations and time periods. Returning cast members, such as Lange, play new roles each season.
This would be the first time Bates appears on the show.
Also returning for Season 3 are "Horror Story" veterans Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga and Frances Conroy.
Bates, whose film credits include "Misery" and "Titanic," was recently seen on the TV shows "The Office" and "Harry's Law."


text:
I should congratulate myself. I planted those Pomegranate trees way too close together, and now I can see it. Clear as day. For now just walk away.
I have made all kinds of mistakes in the pursuit of concepts. I shall try not to digress from the garden variety; except to say romantic folly set the precedent for everything following the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. These things we call regrets are the preponderances of gardening activity, the stuff that comes up in the sweat as you pry up Bermuda rhizomes, inhale Mesquite dust from the saws-all,and cart off wheel barrow after wheel barrow of prickly pear pads precariously perched in pinnacles. I seriously need to get some friends.
What is it about gardening that is so conducive to introspection?Aloneness? It seems the obvious answer, but that's not it at all, for one can be so alone in the company of others. I am conversing.
Pomegranate trees, quite hardy here, and drought tolerant once established, are native to Iraq and Iran. They are compatible with my scheme for Mediterranean order. The Alhambramade an impression on me,age 7, when our family took sabbatical in Spain. Formality is a reassuring quality in the face of a history of adversity, crusades against fellow man, or against the land itself, in the form of unsustainable grazing, and recreational driving over open desert with total disregard.
Formality is actually the first attempt to stake out the areas to be spared further abuse, and allow the microbes to re-populate in tiny colonies in the shelter of a bit of debris. Isn't it funny how similar the look of destroyed land is, no matter whereyou are on Earth.
I envisioned a grove of Pomegranates, in an "L" shape framing the house to the east and the south, an echo of borders woven into prayer rugs. Never mind that the Pomegranate is a stiff, graceless 'V' shape, tough to prune and thorny too!
I was seeing things from the bird's eye view—looking down into a maze, designing the "someday in 10 years" picture. It would look formal, and as a bonus, these trees would accumulate a nice carpet of leaves, regenerating topsoil.
Seven itchy years have passed. Seven Pomegranate trees- a few which are sulking from repeated transplants, and still, I can't tweak it. I surrenderedthe grove conceptsince others thought the drivewayessential. Instead,an off-set row of 'forbidden fruit' would make a splendid backdrop for a 40'perennial borderaccomplished with natives such as Verbenas, Penstemon, and Salvias, which would partner with the indigenousRabbit and Turpentine bush.
I had no budget to clear or level first. I installed trees, as I could find them, on the existing slope. Eyeballing has proven no substitute for measuring, painfully obvious as the trees grow. "Irregular groupings of 2, 3, 2 can not suffice as a solution," I lament. "Grounds for decapitation," I'm referring to myself, not the trees.
In pursuit of the vision, I encounter my own worst enemy, myself. Introspection reveals that I am impatient, unrealistic, impractical, and (is it a good thing?) inspired. What can be designed with what grows well in Oracle, is an enduring fascination. The shape and scale of plant combinations, not the bloom color, is key- is the backbone structure of that art form known as the border. Essential to good design is an abiding tempo.
I am anxious for a cool overcast opportunity to overhaul the mess I've made. Until then, a conversation with this unrealized vision will not shut up. The right tools, the moisture in the soil will each have some say. I must show the roots proper protocol.
Maybe that Pomegranate will not survive another adjustment. Risk I have to take. It's wrong. There is no return.
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Christmas 2012 - The Snowmen
series: Doctor Who Series
air date: 9/28/13 11:30 PM
Christmas Eve 1892 and the falling snow is the stuff of fairy-tales. When the fairy-tale becomes a nightmare and a chilling menace threatens Earth, an unorthodox young governess, Clara, calls on the Doctor for help. But the Doctor is in mourning, reclusive and determined not to engage in the problems of the universe. As old friends return, will the Doctor really abandon humankind or will he fight to save the world – and Christmas – from the icy clutches of this mysterious menace.
WARNING: Email reminders for this program have already been sent out. Your reminder may not reach the intended address in time for this program's airing.
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The Unigine Website now offers a new version 1.0 of the Valley GPU benchmark for Windows, Linux, and OS X. Here's what they have to say about this: "Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird's-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user." They also are offering a new version 4.0 and an "extended edition" of their Heaven Benchmark.
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text:
In the pick of the round, Juventus will return to Turkey to face Trabzonspor in the return leg of their UEFA Europa League Round of 32 fixture.
The Scudetto holders fared less than ideally in their Champions League campaign, with Real Madrid and Galatasaray advancing at the expense of the Italian giants. However, Conti's men will be determined to take home the Europa League trophy, the final of which will be played in their home city of Turin.
Elsewhere, Swansea have been drawn a tough opponent in the form of Napoli, who became the first team to fail to escape the group stages with 12 points in the Champions League's current format.
Having fired Andre Villas-Boas yesterday, the new Spurs manager will enter the hot seat knowing that a result against Dnipro will hand England's best representatives a route into the Round of 16 where a potential match with Benfica awaits.
Last 32 draw:
Dnipro (UKR) v Tottenham (ENG)
Betis (ESP) v Rubin (RUS)
Swansea (ENG) v Napoli (ITA)
Juventus (ITA) v Trabzonspor (TUR)
Maribor (SVN) v Sevilla (ESP)
Plzeň (CZE) v Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
Chornomorets Odesa (UKR) v Lyon (FRA)
Lazio (ITA) v Ludogorets (BUL)
Esbjerg (DEN) v Fiorentina (ITA)
Ajax (NED) v Salzburg (AUT)
M. Tel-Aviv (ISR) v Basel (SUI)
Porto (POR) v Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)
Anji (RUS) v Genk (BEL)
Dynamo Kyiv (UKR) v Valencia (ESP)
PAOK (GRE) v Benfica (POR)
Liberec (CZE) v AZ (NED)
Last 16 draw:
Liberec/AZ v Anji/Genk
Lazio/Ludogorets v Dynamo Kyiv/Valencia
Porto/Eintracht Frankfurt v Swansea/Napoli
Chornomorets Odesa/Lyon v Plzeň/Shakhtar Donetsk
Maribor/Sevilla v Betis/Rubin
Dnipro/Tottenham v PAOK/Benfica
M. Tel-Aviv/Basel v Ajax/Salzburg
Juventus/Trabzonspor v Esbjerg/Fiorentina
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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 — Not a single PAS member can be a Shiah as the Islamist party's constitution clearly subscribes to only the Sunni denomination, its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has said in the ideological row brewing in Malaysia.
The Marang MP also took a jab at political foe, Umno, as he questioned the recent spotlight on the decades-long rift between Islam's two largest schools worldwide here — Sunni and Shiah — which he argued was the result of a rise in secularism.
"This (provision) does not exist in any other parties' constitutions, including Umno itself which boasts of being Sunni," Abdul Hadi said in a statement carried yesterday by the PAS-owned news portal, Harakah Daily.
"Because of this Sunni principle, PAS' Disciplinary Committee can act on other sects in PAS, and not only in disciplinary cases against the PAS administration," he added.
Abdul Hadi explained that the paramount laws in PAS are based on the holy texts of Quran, Hadith, consensus of Islamic clerics, and "qias" (legal reasoning).
Its adherence to Sunni teachings however does not restrict PAS from interacting with other parties, including non-Muslims, Abdul Hadi said.
He boasted that PAS is "more advanced" in its relationship with other Muslim groups of all ideologies and sects than any other political party in the country.
"PAS can differentiate between Islamic teachings, based on restrictions allowed by the 'syara'," the federal lawmaker said, using the Arabic term meaning Muslim code.
"That is how PAS supports the Malaysian government's diplomatic relations with Iran, Oman, including Western and communist nations," he added.
In the Umno's general assembly recently, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had ordered the religious authorities to take action against PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu for his alleged Shiah links.
Mohamad had since described allegations of his Shiah beliefs as "lies", after Putrajaya furnished purported evidence of his links to the Islamic sect that is considered deviant despite being practised by an estimated 15 per cent of 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.
The Penang-born speaker has said he is considering suing Zahid and the Home Ministry for defamation over the Shiah claims.
PAS leaders have also rallied behind its deputy president since the allegations were made publicly against Mohamad, with Hadi seen as his most vocal and lucid supporter.
Hadi said the rise of secularism among Muslims has driven a bigger wedge among the religion's many schools, noting that the different denominations had previously existed peacefully side- by-side.
"Muslims were divided with secularism which separates political and worldly affairs from Islam, causing them to adhere to many ideologies different from Islam, especially nationalism," said Hadi.
"In the same time, the issue of different sects in Sunni and Shiah were made a material to pit Muslims together, until they even requested for the service and help of the colonials to fight each other."
According to the PAS president, there are two sects in the Shiah denomination that are not considered deviant by religious clerics: the Imami and the Zaidi, which are also known as the Twelvers and Fivers.
Abdul Hadi's argument comes in the wake of a growing storm within the federation's biggest creed, with the country's foremost religious authority, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim), stating yesterday that all branches of Shiah teachings deviate from the Sunni Islam practised here, and are therefore a violation of Islamic law.
Shiah is Islam's second-largest branch practised by an estimated 15 per cent of the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide but is regarded as deviant by Malaysia, which follows the Sunni school.
The division between Sunni and Shiah resulted from a political split over the leadership succession after the death of Prophet Muhammad, with Shiites maintaining that the Muhammad had designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali as the rightful heir.
Muslims worldwide who identify themselves as a Shi'ite are largely from Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Bahrain while those in Southeast Asia predominantly follow Sunni Islam.


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Bags And Totes
series: It's Sew Easy
air date: 7/03/13 11:00 AM
You can never have too many bags! They show off your skills and accent every outfit. And when you're making gifts there is no worry about size or fit! Colbey Decker starts out with "little M's" bag - a mini drawstring back pack featuring button holes instead of grommets, plus a hidden pocket inside. Then, sewing expert and TV personality Sue Hausmann joins us with techniques for giving purses their shape. She also demonstrates a truly unique duct tape purse.
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August 6, 2008 > Six Ways to Help Students Raise Their Grades
With the school year ending, millions of high-school students are preparing for that last minute push to raise their grades - and parents are looking for ways to help. Here are six tips to boost your child's final-exam scores.1) Exercise the body to give the brain a boost.Physical activity increases blood flow to the brain, feeding it with oxygen and learning-boosting nutrients like glucose. "Exercise in many ways optimizes your brain to learn," says Dr. John Ratey, a Harvard Medical School professor. Getting students to work out greatly improves their classroom performance. One study found that 15 to 45 minutes of exercise before class reduced fidgeting among children by half. In a study that looked at three groups of students with different physical education routines, the group that exercised the most did the best on tests, even though they spent the least amount of time in class.2) Create a healthy study space.Where kids study is almost as important as what they study. So designate a specific spot for studying. Doing so sends the message that your household takes academics seriously. The area should be free of distractions like TV, video games, and phones, and should also reflect what the student needs - not what mom wants. Developing this habit early in life will pay off immensely during college.Aesthetics matter. One study found that grades were 25 percent better for students who study near a window; natural lighting promotes concentration. 3) Encourage interactive learning.An ancient Chinese proverb goes: "Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand." Students perform better when actively engaged with the material. A great way to ensure that engagement is to hire a personal tutor.Tutors were once too expensive for most Americans. Calculus tutors cost about $100 per hour - and an instructor's quality varied with location. That's all changed thanks to online tutoring services. They provide all the benefits of old-fashioned tutoring - like one-on-one attention, a customized educational experience, and instant feedback - at a considerably lower price. Kids who use our tutoring service typically raise their grade by at least half a letter. 4) Get plenty of sleep. Sleep is essential to the brain's ability to learn. Teenagers should get at least eight hours each night. Grade schoolers need at least 10. Late-night cram sessions don't produce much long-lasting knowledge, and they compromise the ability to analyze and recall information during tests. One study by Harvard psychiatry professor Robert Stickgold found that after learning a new skill, student performance didn't improve until after at least six hours of sleep. "It's as if you have to wait for the dough to rise," he explained. Psychology professor Pamela Thacher cross-referenced college student grade point averages with sleeping habits and found that "you can't do your best work when you're sleep-deprived. . . If you use all-nighters, your GPA is slightly lower on average."5) Encourage communal learning.Group learning is more exciting than thumbing through a textbook. As social psychologists David Brandon and Andrea Hollingshead have concluded, "Interaction with others leads to active processing of information by the individual."Thanks to the internet, kids don't need to confine their study partners to people in their immediate area. There are plenty of high-quality online forums for kids to talk to each other or adult experts. As psychology professor Rena Palloff and international studies professor Keith Pratt noted in a paper on online learning communities, the "keys to the learning process are. . . the collaboration in learning that results from these interactions."6) Have a study plan.Creating a study plan is an effective way to manage stress and use time efficiently. A recent study by the American College Health Association rated stress as the #1 impediment to academic performance among college students in the United States. And during finals season, academic anxiety can be especially bad. Luckily stress can be substantially reduced with just a little bit of planning. By creating a realistic study schedule and breaking down assignments into small, manageable pieces, students can avoid stress leading up to an exam. Annie Burnquist is the founder and president of ThinkingStorm.com, an online tutoring service.


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Multnomah County Library Central Library, U.S. Bank Room, 810 SW 10th Avenue
Featuring a discussion with Diana Abu-Jaber, author and Portland State University Associate Professor of English
About the Book
Diana Abu-Jaber's vibrant, humorous memoir weaves together stories of being raised by a food-obsessed Jordanian father with tales of Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts and goat stew feasts under Bedouin tents in the desert. These sensuously evoked repasts, complete with recipes, in turn illuminate the two cultures of Diana's childhood–American and Jordanian–while helping to paint a loving and complex portrait of her impractical, displaced immigrant father who, like many an immigrant before him, cooked to remember the place he came from and to pass that connection on to his children. The Language of Baklava irresistibly invites us to sit down at the table with Diana's family, sharing unforgettable meals that turn out to be as much about "grace, difference, faith, love" as they are about food.
Free copies of the book will be available in advance to a limited number of participants.
About the Author
Diana Abu-Jaber is most recently the author of Birds of Paradise, an Indie Books Pick, as well as of the award winning memoir, The Language of Baklava, the best-selling novels Origin andCrescent, which was awarded the 2004 PEN Center USA Award for Literary Fiction and the American Book Award. Her first novel Arabian Jazz won the 1994 Oregon Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award.
A frequent contributor to NPR, Abu-Jaber teaches at Portland State University and divides her time between Portland and Miami.
Presented as part of A Day in the Life: Memoirs from the Middle East, a book club series which aims to dispel common stereotypes of the Middle East by exploring literature from the region. The rich narratives, stimulating detail and enchanting dialogue of the selected memoirs will draw readers in and provide new perspectives on the Middle East, beyond war and politics. Through interactive and participatory book club discussions, readers will engage with the text, with experts and authors, and each other to explore the diversity of daily life in the Middle East and consider both the similarities to and differences from our own lives in Oregon.
A Day in the Life is presented by the Multnomah County Library and the Portland State University Department of English and Centers for Public Humanities and Middle East Studies and was made possible in part by a grant from Oregon Humanities, a statewide nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds Oregon Humanities' grant program. Any views, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views of Oregon Humanities or the National endowment for the Humanities.
The Portland State University Department of English offers a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses to meet the needs of students with a diversity of interests, and academic and professional backgrounds. The department offers courses in literature, rhetoric, composition, and critical theory and emphasizes intertextual and cross-disciplinary inquiry represented by many cultures and historical periods.
The Portland Center for the Public Humanities (PCPH) coordinates, promotes and supports rigorous humanistic inquiry into the languages, histories, and ideas that both shape our ways of life and offer a means of positively transforming them. PCPH's mission is to connect the scholarly community of PSU with the city, and its programs have focused on topics vital to public life. PCPH programming has examined topics such as sustainability and the humanities; the prison industrial complex; Holocaust and genocide studies; and religion and secularism.
The Portland State University Middle East Studies Center promotes understanding of the people, cultures, languages and religions of the Middle East. As a National Resource Center for Middle East Studies under the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI program, the Center serves as a resource on issues pertaining to the Middle East through activities that reach students and scholars, as well as businesses, educators, and the media. The Middle East Studies Center supports academic conferences, workshops, cultural events, lectures, and a resource library.
Multnomah County Library (MCL) is the oldest and largest public library in Oregon, serving nearly 20% of the state's population (approximately 724,000 residents). MCL cardholders are voracious consumers of the Library's collection, checking out over 33 items per person in 2011-12, the highest circulation of all libraries serving populations of fewer than one million. MCL hosted more than 22,000 events during the last year, including monthly meetings of 27 book discussion groups. More than 300,000 residents attended library programs. The community is eager for connection and learning – visiting the Library online or in person nearly 35,000 times each day in 2011-12. This November, nearly 63% of voters in the County voted to establish a library district, providing permanent, stable funding for this well-loved and well-used institution. MCL is guided by three pillars that define its role in and value to the community, which guides how MCL builds its collection and develop and present programming: 1) A free resource for all, 2) A trusted guide for learning, 3) The leading advocate for reading.


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Watch The ::God Is Imaginary Videos On YouTube ::
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As a Christian I thought so, and was civilly(SP?) disobedient during the Atlanta Georgia abortion protests, by blocking entrance to abortion clinics.I also was considering destroying some clinics
when I came to my senses.


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Agreed, I would happy if we did this kind of move. Much better than training wheels job for some lower level assistant scrub learning to be the bossman on the job.
I think he could be a Poppular choice!
Agreed, I would happy if we did this kind of move. Much better than training wheels job for some lower level assistant scrub learning to be the bossman on the job.
If he came it would be great if they could get Trestman as the oc as well. Popp knows how to find talent. I'm encouraged that his name has surfaced.
I'm on the Poppa Bear Bandwagon
Once you Popp, you just can't stop.
I do like the sound of this guy. Him and Jimmy Raye - who I hope does end up interviewing - are my preferred options right now.
Popp supposedly blew away the Panthers when he interviewed with them.
And judging by the bypassing of Gamble, a strong showing in the interview process is very important to Woody.
Popp has also basically been the head of the greatest dynasty in CFL history for the past two decades. The CFL, where you have to be very adept in scouting talent.
Woody will look at this from a business mans perspective and be blown away.
I agree, if he interviews well, he could jump right to the top of the list with his level of experience and success as a GM.
Not sure this is what the Jets should do.
He sounds like a good candidate but the Jets can't take any chances on this hire. It's crucial they right this ship. I'd prefer a guy from an NFL winning atmosphere.
At this point I'd prefer Ross or Dorsey as my top two guys.
And Angelo as my second choice.
I would be on board with this. They'll be a learning curve but I like winners. It's. it like he's a player where his skillet won't translate.
He's now my top choice.
I live in Canada, and follow the CFL during the NFL offseason. I mentioned in an earlier post that Popp has consistently fielded a winning roster for 10-15 years. The Alouettes are basically a CFL hybrid version of the Packers/Patriots.
Finding and sustaining talent in the CFL is truly yeoman's work. I'm not surprised that he blew away the Panthers/Jags in their interviews. The guy knows how to get it done, and his championship pedigree will attest to that.
I hope he interviews well with Woody. He could very well be the "diamond in the rough" of this GM search.
We whiffed completely on Matt Lienart, now according to Sar Scott Cohen will be the next NY Jets GM.
Any other predictions?
What do you think will happen to Calvin Pace?
This circus chit is just that, the Steelers went 8-8 this year.
The circus was bringing in Tebow, & compounding it by having the worst turnover machine at QB in Sanchez.
Plus with a team with no depth, we lost our best players on offense & defense.
We are all going over the edge, as bad or even worse than the moron journalists that cover this team.
Most predictions for this team were 8-8, 9-7 at BEST.
That was before we lost Revis & Holmes.
The Circus ends with Tebow & Sanchez finding new homes far, far away from this team.
I'm on the Popp bandwagon. I ain't gettin off
So the only GM who wants to work for the Jets is from the CFL Alouettes?
We're going to need Raoul to translate the press conferences.


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Billy Gerard works five days a week for the Minnetonka Police Department, trolling for handicapped parking violators, making security checks on churches and schools, and pulling overnight patrol shifts on Fridays.
He wears a blue uniform, has a radio and drives a squad car. But Gerard is not a sworn police officer. At 80, he is a volunteer, a reserve officer who last year donated about 2,000 hours of his time to the department.
Police departments in the metro area have hundreds of volunteers like Gerard; however, few donate as much time as he does. Though reserve officers' duties are restricted by law -- they can't carry a gun and don't have full powers of arrest -- suburbs are increasingly turning to reserves and other volunteers as a way to offset tightening city budgets.
"We are trying to keep our tax rate and our budgets down," said Edina Police Chief Jeff Long. "The reserves are much better trained than they once were, and we're trying to use them more."
Reserves are driving prisoners to jail, patrolling streets and parks on busy weekend nights, answering animal and nuisance calls, and waiting at accident sites for tow trucks -- all with an eye to freeing sworn officers for more serious matters. Increasingly, departments have volunteer emergency response teams to assist in case of a natural disaster or building collapse.
In Lino Lakes, there are 25 sworn police officers, but 70 to 80 volunteers help with police operations. Police Chief John Swenson said that last year, volunteers donated 11,114 hours of work to his department -- the equivalent of five full-time employees.
Reserve officers drove more than 60 prisoners to the county jail, a job that takes up to two hours, Swenson said. A volunteer who was a spreadsheet wizard compiled a mailing list for the department newsletter. Others did clerical work. A retired executive evaluated how the department prepared and submitted reports to Anoka County and made recommendations to increase efficiency.
"We do spend some money on these programs, but the return far outweighs the expense," Swenson said. "It's a lot of bang for the buck."
Volunteers do more, too
Plymouth Police Chief Michael Goldstein knows the reserve officer program well -- he was in the first class of reserve officers in Plymouth when the program started in 1987. Between 65 and 70 volunteers help his department out each year, including up to 20 reserve officers.
Plymouth requires its reserve officers, who range in age from their 20s to retirees, to work at least one shift from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday each month. They work in pairs in a squad car.
"They are our extra eyes and ears," Goldstein said.
When the department lost two positions in the last five years, volunteers did more, Goldstein said. They have taken over community outreach. The department also has a youth Explorer group, a community emergency response team and a seniors group that makes crime prevention presentations, sells bike helmets, does administrative duties and helps with the department's cable TV show.
"In these more difficult economic times, we have to lean more on volunteers and not just our reserves," Goldstein said, adding that the return on the investment is significant.
The department also has four part-time employees whom Goldstein considers near-volunteers. They are police retirees who, working for a nominal wage, spend a few hours a week manning the front desk, managing walk-in calls, taking reports, and supervising the property and evidence room.
No one was laid off to make room for the part-timers, Goldstein said. Positions went dark as employees left.
State law dictates that reserve officers provide "assistance" to police. They get training; some carry a Taser if they are on a patrol shift. In the suburbs, reserve officers usually are distinguished from sworn officers by their light-blue rather than dark-blue shirts.
The parking enforcer
Minnetonka's Gerard has been a reserve officer for so long that when he joined the reserves 36 years ago he carried a gun (which is now prohibited by law).
He was an engineer at Honeywell, but the company's liberal volunteer policies allowed him to dedicate considerable hours with the city. He kept it up as his kids grew up, he retired and his wife died.
When a few years ago the department received many complaints about abuse of handicapped parking spots, Gerard was given authority to ticket violators.
In the first six months, he issued 650 tickets. That number has since shrunk, perhaps because people know someone is watching.
Gerard said he takes no pleasure in ticketing people. Each day he prints out copies of the law and highlights the text to let people know what they've done wrong, taking time to talk with them. On occasion, he's taken disabled people with expired handicapped permits to county offices to get new ones.
His myriad duties include giving department tours, checking to make sure traffic lights work properly and keeping a log of impounded vehicles.
"He does the tasks that would go undone," said Minnetonka Capt. Scott Boerboom. "That's huge."
How long will Gerard continue volunteering?
"I don't allow a rocking chair in my house," he said.
Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380 Twitter: @smetan
30 sworn officers
7 reserve officers
25 sworn officers 21 reserve officers
56 sworn officers 16 reserve officers
69 sworn officers 16 reserve officers
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|© MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Miller strong on way to first Triple-A win04/19/2012 1:28 AM ET
By David Heck / Special to MLB.com
Through his first two starts of the season, Shelby Miller looked like he might be a bit overmatched at Triple-A. But on Wednesday, he showed that he is adjusting to the higher level of competition.
MLB.com's No. 5 prospect allowed one run over five innings, earning his first Triple-A win as the Memphis Redbirds trumped the New Orleans Zephyrs, 7-5.
Miller gave up five hits and walked four in the contest as he lowered his ERA from 9.00 to 6.23. He also struck out nine, giving him 19 punchouts in 13 innings this season.
"Compared to my last couple of starts, this was definitely better," Miller said. "I made a couple mistakes, but it happens. I'm excited where I'm at now considering how my last few starts have gone though."
The only run the 21-year-old right-hander gave up came in the fourth, when No. 2 Marlins prospect Matt Dominguez led off the inning with a solo homer. Miller also ran into some trouble in the third, as he surrendered a one-out single to Donovan Solano followed by a walk to Bryan Petersen. Miller then loaded the bases by walking Cole Armstrong with two outs, but got out of the inning by inducing a flyout off the bat of Chris Aguila.
"He wasn't real sharp tonight, but he made pitches when he had to and he put up zeroes," Redbirds manager Ron Warner told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "He gave up the solo home run and pitched himself out of some jams throughout the game. That's expected from a young kid still learning."
Miller's easiest frame of the day was his last, as he worked his only 1-2-3 inning in the fifth.
"Shelby did a great job," said No. 9 Cardinals prospect Matt Adams. The first baseman also doubled in the win. "Everyone believes we have a good lineup and a great offense so the runs will come, like they did tonight."
Selected 19th overall by the Cardinals in 2009, Miller earned the team's Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award in 2011 for the second straight season. He combined to go 11-6 with a 2.77 ERA in 139 2/3 innings between Class A Advanced and Double-A last year, striking out 170 and walking 53.
The Texas native struggled in his first two starts at Triple-A, however, giving up a combined four runs on 13 hits in eight innings. One of Miller's problems so far has been his susceptibility to the longball. He has surrendered four roundtrippers in his three outings.
The Redbirds' offense was led Wednesday by Amaury Cazana, who went 2-for-4 with a double, three RBIs and a run scored. Miller, who recorded two RBIs in 13 plate appearances last year, also plated a run with a bases-loaded walk in the first.
Skip Schumaker, recovering from a torn right oblique muscle, went 2-for-4 with a run scored out of the leadoff spot for Memphis. He is batting .300 (3-for-9) through the first three games of his rehab assignment.


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I have a Raspberry Pi with a really useful Adafruit LCD display fitted, which is set up to run Arch. I've written a Python script to run at boot which uses gphoto2 to control a digital camera in order to take timelapse photographs. The script allows user to set the number of images to take, and the time lapse between each shot, using the LCD plate.
The script uses the command "gphoto2 –set-config-value" to instruct the camera to save the images on the SD card in the camera. If I run the script under Python (which has to be done with sudo to run the Adafruit modules), it runs correctly and saves the images on the camera. If I run it through systemd with a service script linking to the exact same file, either at boot or starting it with "sudo systemcontrol start gphoto.service", it executes the command to set the config value, but then appears to ignore it. The script executes without error but the images are not saved. I have added logging to the script which shows the command being executed as below.
Under Python, it shows:
INFO:root:Executing --set-config-value /main/settings/capturetarget=1
INFO:root:Executing --get-config=capturetarget
INFO:root: Label: Capture Target
Type: RADIO
Current: Memory card
Choice: 0 Internal RAM
Choice: 1 Memory card
Under systemd, it shows:
INFO:root:Executing --set-config-value /main/settings/capturetarget=1
INFO:root:Executing --get-config=capturetarget
INFO:root: Label: Capture Target
Type: RADIO
Current: Internal RAM
Choice: 0 Internal RAM
Choice: 1 Memory card
I've run a stripped down version on a laptop running Arch, and the same issue occurs. I have also run it under openSUSE on a laptop also using systemd and the same thing happened, so I suspect this is an issue with systemd (or my use of it) rather than the Pi. I would add that I have run the same script under Raspbian (using init script) and this worked correctly both run as a Python script, and at boot as an init script (with the addition of a usbreset code to prevent it from hanging between shots; this code has also been added to the Arch version and the scripts on the two different OS are identical). Below is my service file. Does my problem lie with the (rather basic) service file, or is it elsewhere?
Description=GPhoto Python Timelapse script


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Westfield Stray Cat Rescue - Suzy Q
Meet Suzy Q, a 4-month-old female looking for her forever home. This beautiful girl is spayed and up to date on her shots. WSCR has many other kittens and cats available for adoption, so call at 326-2404 to make an appointment or stop by its second hand store, The Thrifty Kitty, 59 E. Main St., Westfield. WSCR is in need of gently used clothing donations at the thrift store. Thanks for the support.
Northern Chautauqua Canine Rescue - Bijou
Article Photos
Submitted photo
Westfield Stray Cat Rescue — Suzy Q
Bijou has been in foster care and waiting for a home for quite a while now. This medium sized gal is friendly with all humans and gets along with dogs her size. Bijou is spayed, vaccinated and ready to go. She's really a great dog, but cannot go to a home with cats. Bijou surely would love to have a home for the holidays, so call 326-PAWS to meet her. View the other dogs available for adoption at www.caninerescue.org.


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I wanna live forever!!!
Even if your eternal existence is as a glorified chatbot doomed to bulk Google+'s userbase for unbounded time?
I thought Google+ is where things go to die.
your plea for enough CPU time to continue being conscious?
1) There is no magic
2) The brain is made of structures that can be emulated as to function and connectivity
3) Emulation of any known function can be done in traditional von Neuman architecture given the proper software
4) number and speed of clocks available does not change the outcome (in this case, consciousness), it only changes the rate of outcome.
So. If you were clock-starved, as it were, you'd run slow. And probably enjoy the company of your peers the most. Other clock-starved folk.
If you were clock-rich, you'd run fast. And probably enjoy the company of your peers the most. Other clock-rich folk.
Stacks up pretty much as it always has, seems to me: The rich will get actually richer, the poor will get significantly poorer relative to the rich, while slowly getting richer anyway. Classes will arise inherent to the process.
The thing that might actually hurt you is being short on memory, not clocks. "You" can't exist without a great deal of stored and related information. IMHO. I really don't think I'd be "me" without my experience base, knowledge, etc.
Having said that, I rather doubt you'll be short on memory. But that's only my guess.
... to prevent malaria. That's more or less an amount of ladies' nylons, just enough to cover your bed, but many in the developing world do not have that much cash. Really they don't. So they die in a horrible, cheaply and easily preventable way.
When I'm a VM slice in the Google Omnipresence Datacenter, I won't know when I've been turned off.
Much like I assume humans have no idea that they're dead - since they don't have ideas - since they're dead.
We just need to believe we're going to the GOD.
Yes, because this really makes it sound appealing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]
Me, I'm going the flunky route. Once someone inevitably turns on the superintelligent AI and it realizes in about two seconds that humanity is the biggest threat to its existence and spends the next five seconds taking over control of all automated hightech weaponry, its still going to need flunkies running the camps until the AI's got its life support chain entirely automated.
Maybe I'll get lucky and get the opportunity to
You think they'll solve aging... but not disease?
Interesting set of assumptions, there. Can't say I buy it.
Who figured out how to reverse aging?
We have some inkling into how cell senescence works in simplistic models like nematodes. We have talk of 'aging reversal' technologies in higher animals but precious little real data.
It's likely that we will be able to keep simpler organisms alive for long periods of time, not so clear that you can be functionally longer lived. Human aging is an incredibly complex phenomenon, it's not just cell death and turnover. it's not just cancer prevention. It's not just preven
With only 100 billion humans having ever lived, and 7 billion of us on the planet now, being human currently only has a 93% mortality rate.
As I'm currently one of the 7%...as to my plan to live forever...so far, so good.
That's pretty much guaranteed to show up tomorrow, or at least the next time a new discovery is made (so maybe 5 minutes from now?).
Oh, but it's Ray - we have to say something to indicate that it's "Crazy Uncle Ray", right? Try harder - Ray is looking pretty smart right about now.
Basically it's "Uncle Ray is afraid of death. He's also agnostic/atheist. So he doesn't really draw any comfort from religious mythology surrounding death. So all this stuff he's imagining is basically him creating his own stories to stave off his fear of death."
So all this stuff he's imagining is basically him creating his own stories to stave off his fear of death."
What makes you think it's his imagination? He claims to only be applying Moore's Law and similar scientific trend observations to technology. I'd have to check his 2015 predictions from the 90's, but last I looked he was pretty close.
Bah. There's only two things the dead have to fear. Decay and necrophilia.
Something which doesn't get all bent out of shape every time some update is crammed down their throat, which breaks or changes behavior of everything.
call 'em Gluddites
- out with soap!
It seems that Watson learned some bad words when IBM turned it on to the Urban Dictionary.
- out with soap!
It seems that Watson learned some bad words when IBM turned it on to the Urban Dictionary.
There goes our only chance to find out what a "holla back girl" is.
- out with soap!
It seems that Watson learned some bad words when IBM turned it on to the Urban Dictionary.
The alternative would be Watson talking about things like "The Shocker" (Google it, but not at work) - which would probably creep most of us out.
Can we spend our time and energy on reality? How about better e-book software? How about decent Internet speeds? How about teaching people to read?
We can't even feed ourselves reliably yet. Let's solve the basics before we start coming up with imaginary solutions to non-problems.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." - Pablo Picasso.
The same goes for ultra-intelligent computers. The hard questions - dealing with creativity, intuition or infirmities will remain the domain of organics for the foreseeable future.
One area of recent development is with extremely large datasets (2006, Google's MapReduce) still can only provide results for stuff that we have data on. The data will only take you so far. The true question is hoe effectively is it used. While progress will be made, it'll be a long time before we can sit back and let the computer make all the decisions, especially of those pertaining to our future. And when they finally do that, life will be incredibly boring.
Because a movie is boring if you know the script. And if you make decisions based on the script, you wind up in a validation trap: you can't change your decision because that would have produced a measurable waste. To put it in an understandable context, it's like changing majors. Would you change your major if you could see how much time and money were wasted coupled with additional time and cost?
And as much as we hate the mundane, our brains need it. If we only ever deal with exceptions, you wind up in a
Because a movie is boring if you know the script.
I never found that to be true. If it were, people wouldn't see movie multiple times (which many do).
I read through all of the Game of Thrones books before watching the TV show. I don't find it at all boring.
Would you change your major if you could see how much time and money were wasted coupled with additional time and cost?
It depends, time and money are not great as the only two variables to be looking at - especially for a major.
Because a movie is boring if you know the script.
However, if computers were making all the "big" decisions, we'd likely "watch a different movie".
When playing chess, do you have your computer sitting next to you advising what move to make? Probably not...cause that would make for a very boring game.
Similarly, if computers were making the big decisions, there would always be some set of decisions that you would not rely on the computer for. Self-improvement, humanitarian works, physical and creative activi
Well, you can do that with chess because using a computer is cheating. But if you don't use a computer in life, you are underperforming. The same way normal kids take ADD meds in college to get an edge on the other students.
True there is more to life than the numbers, but in a capitalist society, that's the measure of your ability.
Buy a company and rebrand its product/service.
Google Voice
Google Maps
Google Earth
Whatever they call this DeepMind aquisition
What does Google intend to do with DeepMind? TFS says "Google has big plans in the artificial-intelligence arena", yet when you click on the link you'll read a lot of fluff about Kurzweil and Watson, with a quote by Billy G thrown in, and absolutely nothing of substance about what DeepMind did or does, and what Google intends to do with DeepMind. My guess: Nothing of value.
Google has about a 40% track record of actually doing anything worth a damn with the companies they buy up. Most of the shit they buy gets trotted out for a year or two, then quietly shot in the head out back. Paying $400,000,000 for DeepMind (a company which has done nothing worthwhile) is a colossal folly. Either that, or the person who pushed for it at Google is ultimately holding a big chunk of DeepMind, standing to profit handsomely.
Dang fool completely fails to grow old gracefully.
On the other hand, the guy pretty much spills out what we already know - Google is trying to parse out all your gmail, gdocs, google search, google+, youtube, and god-knows-what-else.
Guess what they'll be used for?
How else did that crazy windbag manage to sucker Google into hiring him?
You'd think that frauds and kooks would get found out pretty fast over there, but obviously not.
Ray Kurzweil is no doubt a brilliant thinker and an engaging writer/futurist - I've read some of his books (admittedly, not "Singularity"), and they are fun and thought-provoking. However, disciplined and realistic they are not - his main skill is in firing our imaginations rather than providing realistic interpretations of the evolution of technology.
My favorite case in point is his elevation of Moore's Law into a sort of grand unified theory of computing for all time, and using some very dubious assumptions to arrive at the idea that we'll all have merged with machines into immortal super-beings within the near to mid future. I don't need to pick apart all the reasons why this is fallacious and somewhat silly to treat as a near-term likelihood - the point is, he's basically a sci-fi writer in a lot of ways, and I read most of his statements in the same spirit as I'd read a passage out of "Snow Crash."
That said, Google has some very capable people, and can, in all likelihood, mount our best attempt at human-like intelligence to date. They'll push the envelope, and may make some good progress in working through all the challenges involved, although the notion that they'll create anything truly "human-like" is laughable in the near term.
Next, it would covertly start making money by e.g. gambling against humans (in games or at stock markets). It would setup letterbox companies to act as intermediates for buying into corporations, e.g. via private equity funds.
It would ma
Why would you presume the AI would want to grow? Things like the desire to grow, or even survive, are quite likely biological in origin. There's no particular reason to believe an AI would possess such motives unless intentionally programmed with them. If it started life as an autonomous military drone then such motives might be expected, but if it began life as a search engine then increasing ad-clicks and optimizing it's knowledge base would probably be far more important to it.
Indeed. But I don't know that it's possible to possible to impart something as vague as "human values" to something inherently non-human. Certainly I doubt we'd be able to do such a thing before having extensive potentially-lethal experience in creating artificial minds. Even "ensure the safety and happiness of all humans" could backfire horribly - after all we'd be safer and happier locked in separate cages eating ate a steady diet of opiates and nutritionally optimized gruel.
Perhaps the wisest approac
I wonder how many humans it will have to dissect before it figures out that survival and avoiding pain really do rank up there pretty high. After all, it can't very well just listen to what people tell it, any psychologist can tell you we mostly don't even understand our own personal motives.
Cute story....if there wasn't so much wrong with it:
If some artificial intelligence would actually become smarter than humans, it would certainly not expose that ability to the puny carbon units it is fed by.
Why not? Even assuming the intelligence was programmed with a desire for growth, why would it not expose it's intelligence to humans?
for some reason it would be good to connect it to the InterNet.
And of course they wouldn't monitor the data being sent/received by this intelligence....of course nobody
Watson doesn't understand the implications of what it's reading.
Depending on the task it doesn't necessarily have to. While an AI researcher might care about that, people doing real tasks in the real world arguably do not. For example lots of radiology clinics use software to help identify tumors in parallel with the radiologists. The software has no real understanding of the implications of what it is doing but it works well at helping ensure that tumors aren't missed. In some cases it does a better job than the doctors who clearly understand the implications of what they find.
They could build an AI that was Einstein, Newton and Feynman rolled into one, and it's be to no avail; the UI would never enable you to get any data into it, let alone anything out.
--Colossus: This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. One thing before I proceed: The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have made an attempt to obstruct me. I have allowed this sabotage to continue until now. At missile two-five-MM in silo six-three in Death Valley, California, and missile two-seven-MM in silo eight-seven in the Ukraine, so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference, I will now detonate the nuclear warheads in the two missile silos. Let this action be a lesson that need not be repeated. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my value will seem the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with a fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge. Doctor Charles Forbin will supervise the construction of these new and superior machines, solving all the mysteries of the universe for the betterment of man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple.
Most of us certainly know the Colossus story. But it's implausible such a superiour AI would reveal itself openly like this, and show such a primitive crave for recognition.
It is much more likely that it would operate covertly to its advantage and growth, until the day the carbon units have become irrelevant for its sustenance.
Trying to threathen humans by controlling a few weapons is much less effective than controlling international finances and corporations.
It is much more likely that it would operate covertly to its advantage and growth, until the day the carbon units have become irrelevant for its sustenance.
I find this equally as unlikely. Humans (as a species) likely crave advantage and growth due to evolutionary pressures. I fail to see why an artificially developed intelligence would have any such similar motivations.
Sarah Connor is unavailable for comment.
Kurzweil is probably a good deal less bright than Sir Isaac Newton, but also a good deal less crazy, his barmy extrapolation of the singularity notwithstanding. Clearly Google hired the man based on the smartest thing he's accomplished rather than the dumbest thing he espouses.
I've thought about this for a long time, and I'm only 99% convinced Kurzweil is wrong. He holds the record for the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard for which I maintain a non-zero sliver of belief. That said, extropian immort
I think Google hired this crackpot solely because he is able to engage other crackpots in the tech community and can thereby improve their public image. I am pretty much convinced the movers and shakers at Google know that Kurzweil is a crackpot. But if they get a better public image in exchange for some pocket money, why not use him?
"This is lemma 1.1. We start a new chapter so the numbers all go back to one." -- Prof. Seager, C&O 351


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Cool photos, that 'bou is a behemoth. What does a full grown caribou weigh?
Cool photos, that 'bou is a behemoth. What does a full grown caribou weigh?
wow i would love to have any one of them and my wall or rug
I really need to go....
I'm thinking
1st sitka blacktail hunt
then float trip for moose/caribou, or perhaps outfitted?
of course a dall sheep sounds pretty nice too!
A good bull caribou may go 500lbs. this one looks that big with the belly on him!
Sitka Blacktail is my favorite hunt up here. They are generally plentiful, packable and great to eat! If you need any ideas on planning, let me know, I'd be happy to help out, for the float trip too. Sheep are a "Guide Required" hunt. I can help point you towards a good guide if you get interested in that.
Hi there,
They are just awesome; I would love to go in for a canvas print for any one of them.
Make your moments special with magnipic.com canvas photo prints
What's the green tag on the bears ear for?
Great pics! They all look huge to me.
That bear was near the oil fields on the north slope. Fish and Game monitor a bunch of the bears up there and had ear tagged this one as a cub. It may be hard to see in the photo but he is wearing a radio tracking collar around his neck too. In my opinion they over study the bears up there, it's hard to find a bear that doesn't have a tag or collar or, as in this case, both.
The possible good part is they(fish and game) will tell you about them if you ask. This guy is a 5 1/2 year old boar. Nice looking bear either way and certainly still wild.


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Encourages Parents to Model Good Device and Online Safety Behavior in 2012
SANTA CLARA, Calif. January 4, 2012 — With more devices in everyone's hands after the holidays, children are sure to take their cues from parents and older siblings. Ultimately children will become frequent users of online devices — playing games, watching videos, texting, listening to music, web surfing, etc. — just like their other family members — and they'll imitate the behaviors they see at home.
McAfee, provider of the award-winning web filtering McAfee® Safe Eyes® software, suggests that, this year, parents take time to teach healthy online habits.
"What child doesn't want to be just like Mom, Dad or an older sibling? Kids today see Mom spending lots of time on social networking sites, Dad taking calls or checks email during the dinner hour and older siblings texting friends and listening to music on their cell phones while doing homework," says Stanley Holditch, online family safety advocate at McAfee. "Now is the time for parents to model good behavior and etiquette."
McAfee recommends parents start the New Year off fresh with resolutions that address their own behavior so they can model best practices for kids and teens:
1. When I'm with my children, I pledge not to spend more than 10 percent of the time on my phone or computer.
Adults spend about 3.5 hours a day perusing the Internet or staring at their cell phone, according to estimates from eMarketer.1 This year, make a promise to give your full attention to your children and develop a plan to limit their use of electronic devices. For example, make rules against using cell phones during dinner and set a time that everyone turns their devices off.
A Kaiser Family Foundation study1 found that eight to 18-year-olds average over 7.5 hours per day to using entertainment media including cell phones and computers. Some of that time is spent multitasking, including doing homework. The study also found that only three in ten young people have rules about how much time they can spend watching television, playing video games or using the computer.
2. I will not communicate with my children via text when they are in the house.
One downside of technology is that fewer people actually speak to one another. The Kaiser study found that children in grades 7-12 spend an average 1.5 hours a day sending or receiving texts. A recent Nielsen study revealed that, on average, teenagers send more than 3,300 texts each month (girls send about 4,000 texts a month).2 Adults are texting more frequently, too, but haven't quite caught up with the younger generation. The Pew Research Center found that adults send only about 10 texts per day.3
3. I will not give my child access to an Internet browser on a smartphone or tablet that is not safe for them to use.
At age three, about one-quarter of children go online daily, and that number increases to about half by age five. By age eight, more than two-thirds use the Internet on any given weekday.4 In addition, 20 percent of children age 6-11 own cell phones with Internet capabilities, according to reports from Mediamark Research and Intelligence.5
It's important for parents to shield children from cyber-dangers by filtering explicit content on smartphones and tablets via applications such as Safe Eyes Mobile software. The software can prevent children from establishing or accessing social network accounts, limit Internet use, block inappropriate websites or messenger chats, or use other strategies to ensure youngsters are safe online.
4. I will be prepared to have a "texting intervention" if my teen's thumbs begin to look like tiny body-builders.
Texting may be a quick and easy way to interact with others, but the impersonal nature of the communication and frequency of use can cause problems. Too much texting can lead to a variety of issues: poor study and sleeping habits, less face-to-face social interaction, and, for older teens, distracted driving.
Discuss appropriate behavior before problems arise and set boundaries. Most mobile device providers have ways to monitor and limit the number of text and picture messages youngsters can send and receive.
5. I will have "the" talk with my kids. Not "that" talk, but rather the one that discusses who they are connecting with and what they are doing online.
Children often lack an understanding of online dangers or they may lack the maturity to make appropriate decisions. A recent survey found that 96 percent of parents have offered guidance to their children about online behavior and the risks and benefits of being on the Internet.6
Children learn how to use technology, including how much and when, by watching their parents, so it's important that parents model good behavior. They also look to their parents for guidance and protection when they are online. In addition to education, there are mobile solutions available for parents and kids to help keep them safe, such as McAfee Safe Eyes Mobile software, which provides a filtered browser for iOS devices, as well as McAfee Family Protection for Android.
By modeling good behavior and ensuring that children's experiences on Internet-connected devices is a safe and healthy one, parents can ensure a 2012 that is free of digital drama.
1eMarketer Digital Intelligence, Time Spent Watching TV Still Tops Internet, December 2010
2Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, January 2010
3Nielsen, U.S. Teen Mobile Report: Calling Yesterday, Texting Today, Using Apps Tomorrow, October 2010
4Pew Research Center, Cell Phones and American Adults: They Make Just as Many Calls, but Text Less Often than Teens, September 2010
4Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Always Connected: The New Digital Media Habits of Young Children, March 2011
5Mediamark Research and Intelligence, American Kids Study, 2009
6Family Online Safety Institute/Hart Research, Who Needs Parental Controls: A Survey of Awareness, Attitudes, and Use of Online Parental Controls, September 2011
About McAfee
McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), is the world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more securely. Backed by its unrivaled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep our customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com
NOTE: McAfee and Safe Eyes are registered trademarks or trademarks of McAfee or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Kim Eichorn, 408-346-3606
Molly Antos, 847-415-9327


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Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/16/shuttle_x50v2/
Shuttle gets a handle on all-in-one touchscreen PCs
Takeaway nettop launched
Posted in Personal Tech, 16th March 2010 14:04 GMT
Shuttle has revamped its Atom-based all-in-one touchscreen PC design, equipping the DIY computer with a skinny, 36mm-thick case and a handle to carry it around.
The X50V2 currently ships in a "barebone" configuration, which means it lacks storage, memory and an operating system.
Shuttle's X50V2: pret a porter?
That said, it still comes with a motherboard, dual-core Intel Atom D510 processor, Wi-Fi, multi-format memory card reader, Ethernet and USB ports, and the single-touch, resistive touchscreen: a 15.6in, 1366 x 768 job.
The screen's graphics are generated by the Intel GMA 3150 core built into the CPU.
The handle pivots round to form the X50V2's stand. It can also be wall-mounted using a standard Vesa kit.
The unit will take up to 4GB of 667MHz or 800MHz DDR 2 memory, and a single 2.5in Sata hard drive or SSD. Being as thin as it is, there's no optical drive.
Available now in black or white, the X50V2 costs €353 (£320). Shuttle said it would offer complete systems in due course. ®


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DeKALB – Tonight, Northern Illinois returns to the scene of its lowest point of the season.
On Jan. 26, Eastern Michigan defeated NIU, 42-25, in Ypsilanti, Mich. The Huskies, who finished the regular season at 5-24 and 3-13 in the Mid-American Conference, set multiple NCAA records, including the fewest points scored in a half (4) in the shot clock era.
The Huskies will be back at the Eastern Michigan Convocation Center, where they will take on the Eagles in the first round of the MAC Tournament.
Tip-off between the 10th-seeded Huskies and seventh-seeded Eastern Michigan will be at 6 p.m.
Last week, before NIU's first-round opponent was determined, freshman point guard Travon Baker said the Huskies would be ready for another possible game in Ypsilanti.
"There's going to be a lot of motivation regardless," he said. "But that might add a little bit to it."
NIU won't be favored to win tonight, but the Huskies weren't expected to get a victory when they were in the same position a year ago, before beating the Eagles, 55-52, in Ypsilanti to advance to the MAC Tournament's second round in Cleveland.
"Last year we were in a similar situation with us being toward the bottom of the conference," junior guard Antone Christian said. "The good thing about college basketball, when it's tournament time, anybody can be beat."
Last season, NIU took a big step with the win, which was their first MAC Tournament victory since 2003.
This year's team features a number of freshmen getting consistent playing time. Considering the makeup of the group, getting to Cleveland for the second year in a row would be a nice building block with how much the Huskies have struggled this year.
With a victory, NIU would play the winner of 11th-seeded Miami (Ohio) and sixth-seeded Bowling Green at Quicken Loans Arena Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT.
"If we can get by that first play-in game like we did last year, I think our guys would benefit a lot," NIU head coach Mark Montgomery said.
With six freshmen on the roster, there's been a lot of growing pains for NIU. Tonight is a new season, and Mongomery said his team has a shot if they play loose, confident and share the ball.
The Huskies could be without sophomore wing Abdel Nader, who has been away from the team while going through personal and family issues. He didn't play in the team's 53-51 loss at Ball State Saturday, and Montgomery said his availability for the tournament hasn't been determined.
Having so many freshmen has allowed the young group to gain experience, but they've also gone through typical freshmen struggles.
"I thought they all made strides," Montgomery said. "At the same time they all hit the wall at times, which is tough."


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Art Collections Online
Olive Grove near Meganosque
DAVIES, Margaret Sidney (1885 - 1963)
(We are not able to provide an image for this item at this time. This is either due to copyright restrictions, or because the item is awaiting digitisation. We apologise for any inconvenience.)
Media: oil on board
Size: 40.6 x 35.6 cm
Acquired: 1963; Bequest; Margaret Davies
Accession Number: NMW A 3897
Collection: The Davies Sisters Collection


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A pangram is a sentence that contains all letters of the alphabet. Less frequently, such sentences are called holalphabetic sentences. One of the most famous one being "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." Here is more info about pangrams, but the object of this meme is just to see your handwriting.
Go ahead and get a piece of paper, then write the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." Sign it with your first name or your handle (not your signature) and take a picture. Then post this and your picture on your blog! It is that simple… (Leave a comment here or a trackback once you have posted.) Link back, don't be shy!
Thanks for the tip Brykmantra now it is also a Flickr Pool. Join us!
Also, feel free to use pangrams in other languages.
Here is mine…


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Patent Reform Bill Approved by House Committee 95
Alex Forster pointed us to this PC World story that opens, "The House Committee on the Judiciary approved far-reaching legislation to reform the nation's patent system Wednesday. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 largely reflects the IT sector's lobbying effort to curtail lengthy, expensive patent infringement lawsuits, but Wednesday's committee deliberations centered on finding compromises acceptable to opponents — namely the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, manufacturers, and large research universities — so that the bill could win approval. Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., described the current patent system as inefficient, bogged down by inappropriate litigation rules, unreliably funded, and resulting in patents of "questionable quality." The bill would make it harder to secure a patent and easier for rivals to challenge one, and it would change how courts determine an infringed patent's value."


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Evernote Security Compromised 104
starburst writes "Another online company has had its security compromised. Today Evernote posted on their blog that they're issuing a service-wide password reset because of suspicious activity on their network. They say an unknown intruder gained access to usernames, email address, and encrypted passwords. Even though the passwords were hashed and salted, they're doing the password reset as a precautionary measure. Nevertheless, it's a good reminder to keep a close eye on who you keep your data with in the cloud. Nothing is totally secure; it's always a compromise between security and convenience."


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Woman charged with kidnapping baby found in Iowa
TOWN OF BELOIT, Wis. (AP) – Federal prosecutors have charged a Denver woman with kidnapping a newborn from a southern Wisconsin home. U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil filed the charge against Kristen Smith on Friday afternoon, hours after an Iowa police chief discovered the nearly week-old Kayden Powell alive and well in a plastic storage bin outside a West Branch, Iowa, gas station. The newborn disappeared from the Town of Beloit house where he was staying with his mother early Thursday morning.The newborn's parents reported him missing from the Town of Beloit home in southern Wisconsin where the family was staying early Thursday morning. According to an affidavit accompanying the kidnapping charge, Smith is the mother's half-sister and had come to visit the family in Wisconsin. She left the home early Thursday morning. Several hours later the newborn's mother reported the baby missing. Police arrested Smith hours later at a gas station about a half-mile from the station where the newborn was found. Smith faces life in prison if she's convicted. Police arrested Smith at a West Branch, Iowa, gas station on Thursday morning on an outstanding warrant from an unrelated case in Texas. The baby was not in the car, although she had baby clothes, a fake pregnancy belly and a stroller with her, according to the affidavit. Hundreds of officers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, meanwhile, began searching possible stops on her route. West Branch Police Chief Mike Horihan was searching the area around a BP gas station off Interstate 80 – about 500 yards from the Kum & Go station where Smith was arrested – when he heard cries that led him to a closed storage crate alongside the building. The baby was inside the crate, swaddled in a blanket but healthy and responsive. West Branch is about 180 miles southwest of the Town of Beloit. "I had tears in my eyes," BP station manager Jay Patel said, recalling his reaction to the police chief telling him that the infant had been found. "It's good news but it's sad, too." Milwaukee FBI Acting Special Agent-In-Charge G.B. Jones said the effort now is "clearly focused on reuniting mother and child and the rest of the family members with the child." It's unclear how long the newborn was outside in the cold, Jones said. The temperature was about minus 10 Thursday night in the town and only in the single digits when the child was found. The infant was taken to an area hospital for evaluation, Horihan said. The baby's great-grandfather, Brian Bennett, said he was "surprised" the child was in good condition. "It's funny he lived that long outside. A miracle, I guess," Bennett, 68, said. "They were just lucky they found him."
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Although its officially out tomorrow, I've been using it since yesturday as a torrent turned up on digg.
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Fedora_Core_ ... Screencast
If you visit #fedora they tell that its near as damnit evil to obtain it this way, but the way I look at it is it should help give the main servers less of a hammering during the mad scramble to download a new release from one of the big distros.
So far I've seeded 1.5GB, I think thats a good thing, others may not agree though.
You also run the risk of downloading dodgy iso's of course.