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JUPITER, Fla. — In the most exclusive travel team tournament in the baseball world — one that features Perfect Game All-Americans, top Division-I commits and likely future first-round picks —a few pleasant surprises have emerged from the diamonds this weekend at the Roger Dean Stadium Complex, the Spring Training home of the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins.
In front of dozens of scouts — college and pro — on the Marlins Quad Sunday afternoon at the WWBA World Championship, right-hander Gabriel Gonzalez (2014, Las Vegas, Nev.) made his debut on the national stage for the Ohio Warhawks, showcasing his hidden talent.
After firing his first 16 pitches in the 85-91 mph range, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Gonzalez popped his catcher's glove with six consecutive pitches at 92-94 mph, grabbing the attention of everyone in attendance.
"Gonzalez is one of the faster arms in the class," said Perfect Game Scouting Supervisor and Director of High School Coverage, Todd Gold, who watched among the countless number of golf carts behind the backstop. "He gets good extension to the plate, so even though his velocity generally sits in the low-90s, it plays up even more."
Gonzalez touched 94 mph twice on Sunday, but that's not his top velocity. He peaked at 96 mph two weeks ago, but eased up under the pressure of the big stage on Sunday.
"I felt good coming into the game," Gonzalez told Perfect Game moments after the Warhawks' 3-1 loss to Palm Beach PAL. "I felt really confident in my stuff. They weren't going to touch me if I threw as hard as I could've, but I had to ease up to make sure I threw strikes."
Gonzalez felt the heat in his first exposure to the pressure-packed atmosphere in Jupiter, and it wasn't just from the mid-80 degree temperatures in late October. The high school senior is still adjusting to the attention that his right arm attracts, which is understandable given that he's still very new to pitching.
"The last two years in high school, I didn't play," Gonzalez said. "My junior year on varsity (at Arbor View in Las Vegas, Nev.), I only pitched 11 innings. But I came out and worked my butt off over the summer, and now I'm here."
Gonzalez credits his high school coach, Jay Guest, with many of the opportunities he's been afforded, such as playing for Ron Slusher's Ohio Warhawks in Jupiter. Coach Guest also introduced Gonzalez to the baseball staff at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where Gonzalez has since verbally committed to.
And even though pro scouts are salivating over Gonzalez's potential after seeing him pitch on Sunday, he's focused on getting his education.
"The draft is an after-thought," he said. "I just want to focus on what I have now. And if I get the opportunity to go (pro) one day, I'll be happy to play."
Despite this, Gold believes pro teams will consider Gonzalez in June's MLB draft.
"In terms of raw ingredients, and the things you're looking for as a scout, there's a lot of potential and upside with him," Gold said. "Pitching in front of the crowd he did in Jupiter helped his stock, and he's really established himself on the radar of a lot of (pro) teams."
Although he threw only four-seam fastballs on Sunday, Gonzalez also throws a two-seam fastball, a changeup and a curveball. His best secondary offering is his curve, one Gonzalez calls his go-to pitch.
He's nowhere near a finished product, but if drafted by the right team one day, Gonzalez could flourish.
"There are a lot of things he needs to work on mechanically," Gold said. "But those are things that can be done in the player development system after he's drafted. In terms of raw talent, he has everything you're looking for."
It also helps that he has former major league pitcher Eddie Guardado on his side. The former first-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 1990 — who saved 187 games while playing with four different teams in his 17-year big league career — took Gonzalez under his wing at the Area Code Games in August. "Everyday Eddie" gave Gonzalez a place to stay during the tournament, and offered him a few valuable tips.
"Stay with your game," Gonzalez said when asked what Guardado taught him. "If something is working, don't change it."
That advice worked well for Gonzalez in his 1.1 innings of relief on Sunday, an opportunity that leaves him better prepared for the next time he takes the mound in front of dozens of eager talent evaluators.
"I think now that I've seen all the scouts that are here to watch me, I won't be as nervous next time," he said. "I can go out and do my thing: Just focus on the glove."
Gonzalez wasn't the only pleasant surprise who emerged this weekend in Jupiter. Right-hander Brad Deppermann (2014, Palm Harbor, Fla.) fanned five batters in 3.1 innings Saturday afternoon for Chandler Baseball. The No. 22-ranked right-handed pitching prospect in Florida's 2014 high school class pounded the strike zone at 90-92 mph while flashing a late-breaking slider in the low-80s with tight rotation.
Vanderbilt commit Brendan Spagnuolo (2014, Messapequa, N.Y.) also lit up the radar gun with his pitching performance Sunday morning. The right-hander fanned four batters in four scoreless innings, touching 94 mph while showcasing an impressive repertoire that also included a low-80s changeup with good sink and a low-80s breaking pitch.
To understand the opportunities playing in Jupiter can provide young players, one should look no further than right-hander Carlos Salazar. At the 2012 WWBA World Championship, Salazar, like Gonzalez, pitched for the Ohio Warhawks and went from relatively unknown to No. 34 overall in his class by dazzling opposing batters with his 96 mph heat. Eight months later, Salazar was drafted in the third round by the Atlanta Braves, signing with them in exchange for a $625,000 bonus.
Now that Gonzalez understands the significance of his performance in Jupiter, he's better prepared for what lies ahead.
"This was a great opportunity," he said. "Now I just have to keep working out, stay with my program and do everything I can to get to the big leagues."


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Hedge funds and many other institutional investors are required to file 13Fs within six to seven weeks after the end of each quarter. While the overwhelming majority of these filings occur close to the end of that period, some funds file their documents earlier and this means that we can get a fairly recent picture of a large share of a fund's long equity positions. Libra Advisors, a hedge fund founded in 2000 by Ranjan Tandon which has tended toward basic materials investments, recently filed its 13F and so it may be of use to see which stocks it likes as either a source of ideas or as a way to understand what the investment team is thinking. Here are the five largest holdings from Libra's 13F portfolio (see the full list of stock picks) as of the end of December 2012:
Libra owned about 590,000 shares of China Mobile CHL, -0.97% making it the largest position in the 13F portfolio. The mobile telephone company had about 650 million customers at the end of 2011. The trailing earnings multiple is only about 11; recent growth numbers have not been particularly strong, many investors are worried about Chinese macro conditions, and recent episodes of accounting fraud at other Chinese companies have hurt valuations generally. Billionaire Ken Fisher's Fisher Asset Management had initiated a position of almost 4 million shares in the third quarter of 2012 (check out more stocks Fisher was buying).
Another of the fund's top picks was Microsoft MSFT, -0.38% with a position of 1.2 million shares. Even though this was down significantly from three months earlier, the tech company remained Libra's second largest holding by market value. Microsoft had made our list of the ten most popular stocks among hedge funds for the third quarter of the year (find more of the ten most popular stocks). Microsoft trades at 9 times forward earnings estimates (for the fiscal year ending in June 2014) and does pay a dividend yield above 3%, though we think that investors should wait for more data on the Windows 8 release before considering it.
Tandon and his team cut their stake in Newmont Mining NEM, +0.57% a $22 billion market cap gold and copper miner, to about 440,000 shares but the company was still one of Libra's largest positions. Point State Capital, which is managed by former employees of billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Capital, owned about 930,000 shares at the beginning of October (research more stocks Point State owned). Newmont's numbers have been down due to lower commodity prices, and the stock has fallen 25% in the last year. Analysts expect a strong 2013 but the company is certainly closely tied to the gold and copper markets.
Libra increased its stake in Gran Tierra Energy GTE, -1.34% from 3 million to 3.4 million shares. Gran Tierra is a $1.5 billion market cap oil and gas company operating in South America, with most of its acreage in Peru. The stock trades at 18 times trailing earnings, though Wall Street expectations are for a very good year and so the P/E based on 2013 consensus is only 9. We would be wary of a company with such high growth expectations. Amber Capital had most of its 13F funds invested in Gran Tierra.
Another stock the fund owned was Goldcorp GG, +3.35% another large-cap (the current market capitalization is $30 billion) gold and copper miner. Goldcorp actually reported double-digit growth rates in revenue and earnings in the third quarter of 2012 versus a year earlier, though its pricing does account for some future growth with a trailing P/E of 20. We also expect that recent performance has been anomalous and long-term the company will depend on commodity prices. As with many gold miners, the stock price is down in the last year (17% in this case).
Click here to learn more about the Insider Monkey's Hedge Fund Newsletter.
Insider Monkey's small-cap strategy returned 14.3% between September and December versus 2.1% for the S&P 500 index. Follow it on Twitter @insidermonkey

subset: commoncrawl


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I love it here in Europe, just the other day a colleague of mine surprised me by wanting to install Ubuntu.
People here are less resistant to change and have a tiny bit more of patience to adapt to new things. They do not equate "new/unknown" with "crap" as other countries do.
I love it here in Europe, just the other day a colleague of mine surprised me by wanting to install Ubuntu.
People here are less resistant to change and have a tiny bit more of patience to adapt to new things. They do not equate "new/unknown" with "crap" as other countries do.
Europe is not a country, yet.
About your sig: Ubuntu actually means "I can't be bothered to configure Debian". Messing with Slackware was fun, but since I was going to let apt do all the hard work for me, Ubuntu seemed like the logical next step.
I don't give a fuck. I use adblock, of course, so the Internet looks completely different to me than it looks for everyone else.
I hate ads and would be perfectly happy without them. I'm not in the business of providing revenue for websites. If there were more of me the current business model would disappear, but not the Internet. They would just find another business model.
Sites must find ways to profit. The mission of a browser (or any app) is providing the best user experience, and ad block is part of this. You cannot stop technology development and adoption just because some guys don't know how to make money.
Piss on them. I don't use an adblocker, I place em in my hosts file from my proxy server app called Cookie Cop. If they try to set a cookie and I don't need em, then I look into what site was trying to do that. If it's an advert or other garbage like intelitext, I block em permanently because I have no use for the idjits.
It's getting harder and harder for Steve Ballmer to point to his resume and be able to justify his work over the past decade. While Microsoft has pushed out upgrades to all its software, the big picture is gloomy enough to make him sweat at upcoming board meetings: total loss to the ipod in the music market, total catastrophe in Microsoft's internally-competing music formats and platforms (Plays for Sure?), impending catastrophe in smart phones as RIM, Apple, and now Android eat his lunch, and growing irrelevance of desktop office software. Yes, they skirted disaster with Vista and pushed out Windows 7 which is generally well liked. But Microsoft is slipping behind in key growth markets and lack of vision and leadership is a big part of that.
If I were on the Board, I'd be telling Ballmer to go work on his golf game, and bring in new leadership. Microsoft has lots of talented developers and engineers. But upper management is sinking the ship.
If Oracle keeps acting like retards. I work for an engineering college at a university. If you know anything about engineering they it'll come as no surprise we are a Solaris and Windows shop. Solaris has a heavy legacy, it was doing high end work before other things could, and even today there are products that are Solaris only (though they could be ported to other OSes, they just aren't). While I won't say Solaris is problem free, I see the value in it. There is a difference between a real enterprise UNIX and Linux, loathe though Linux heads might be to admit it.
However we are currently in the process of getting rid of as much of it as we can. We are cutting it down to 4 essential servers and that number will likely go down further, perhaps to just one. Why? Because Oracle has decided to be complete fucks when it comes to licensing. So you already pay heavy maintenance on these SPARC systems. We could buy a new x86 server per year for the cost of maintenance on most of these things. Now that's not enough, they want to charge for Solaris patches, and they want to charge a lot. Oh, and should you ever stop paying they not only do you no longer get patches you are required, and I'm not making this up, to UNINSTALL all patches you've installed.
That's right, they are extorting you: You have to pay a yearly per server fee, or have a vulnerable system.
Well fuck that. We are getting rid of that shit post haste. Going to be Windows and Linux for as much as we can do. In the end I expect we'll need a single SPARC system to run the few apps that run on nothing else but that's it.
Guess what? If Oracle continues strategies like that with regards to other products, you'll find that MS will just gain more marketshare.
Oracle is seriously screiny us around as well.
I hate to say this but DB2 looks more attractive from a pricing point of view every day.
That coupled with the insance price increases in WebLogic and Solaris, makes us seriously consider not buying anything more from Oracle/BEA/Sun.
We are already moving many critical systems to Linux on X86-64 Blades (Currently HP but maybe IBM in the future).
Oracle don't give a toss. All they want is more and more every month.
You can get some amazingly high end MSSQL servers these days. I've never had occasion but I do have a couple friend who work at places that do. You can get an HP Superdome 2 with 2TB of RAM and MSSQL will use it, given a large enough database. When you get the Datacenter versions of Windows and SQL Server you find that it has all the heavy hitting features you expect from a high end database. It scales to obscene levels and can handle massive reliability requirements.
I'm told that Oracle can go further stil
The fact that your company only has had
What planet are you on?
in terms of 000,000's spent - J2EE massively outweighs
The london stock exchange problems with tradelect (see article here [computerworld.com]) demonstrated that even a well funded and supported closely by top MS engineers and consultants - the system could not scale or perform to enterprise standards. This sent a real message across the financial industry (here in the UK) with many architects shunning MS. I also had to do the same when my client, a large life assurer, is having to spend over £10m to replace a perfectly functioning MS VB6/ASP sales platform because there is no upgrade path to
What you point out is niche markets for MS. The core business is still office, followed by the OS. The xbox is also coming around slowly, if I remember correctly it is even starting to make back its investment, though at the current rate it'll be a century or two before it breaks even.
When some other office suit tops 50% market share, that is when the Microsoft ship starts sinking. And, as it goes with ships, once it starts sinking, the rest goes fairly quickly. Losing the document format lock-in would put a huge hole in the hull. Browsers, music format, smart phones - all that stuff is just water that's come over the railing. It sucks, but it doesn't endanger the ship.
As for Balmer - MS had already lost its edge when he took over. I'm quite sure he becoming the fallboy was part of the deal. Does anyone here really think Gates stepped down because he didn't like being boss anymore? He stepped down because he knew that the star was fading, and he had to build an image seperate from MS or he'd go down with it. All the good that the Gates Foundation does has the purpose of washing his image clean. Even that idea is stolen from the robber barons. (note that I don't want to diminish the good the foundation does. I just point out it's not pure altruism but has a purpose.)
When some other office suit tops 50% market share, that is when the Microsoft ship starts sinking. And, as it goes with ships, once it starts sinking, the rest goes fairly quickly. Losing the document format lock-in would put a huge hole in the hull.
I dont agree on the
The music and smartphone markets are not the main Microsoft markets. Microsoft's game is at home and office desktops, office applications, development environment, database and servers. Microsoft is by far the dominant force in most of these domains.
5 years? Most CEOs do not stay 5 years. So this won't be their problem. People want to make money now, not in 5 years. Shareholders want return now, not in 5 years.
In Germany, Firefox has a 61% market share, while IE has only 25%.
And a huge part of that is companies that are suffering from Microsoft lock-in. Seriously, when I see people's private computers, be it friends or people at the airport, etc. - it is probably 80% or more Firefox. In most of the companies, however, IE is still the corporate standard, and quite often the only allowed browser.
Firefox portable anyone?
This is because of the deployment system and profile-settings for IE. Official Firefox doesn't have them. They are working on MSI's for Firefox 4 though. That's the first step.
It's actually quite trivial to set up a silent proxy with firewall rules that automatically redirect all network traffic on web ports through the proxy. Once all your web traffic is going through a proxy, you can control who can view what on the web with ease.
In other words, it's quite easy to lock down users' web experiences without the user ever knowing it's happening. It just requires a little more effort than most management types are willing to put in.
Is this home users? Business users? How's the data collected?
My experience of home users that the majority certainly aren't downloading alternative browsers. My experience of business users is that you get some IT types hating IE but others wanting the enterprise integration IE offers, the balance being those apathetic who leave IE on. So, assuming the stats are representative, what is triggering this switch?
I've done the extended family + friend IT support thing and left some people on IE. Neither these guys nor the ones with FF seem to end up virus-laden once I've taken over the job. They've learnt to follow my eloquent speeches about how to behave online and enjoyed an appropriate level of anti-malware installation.
Today it's almost impossible to find straight up-to-date IE on a machine with good anti-malware installed being used as a vehicle for automagic malware installation. The guys who download a trojan
I didn't want to install software on my win7 running netbook but IE annoyed me so much, it became usable and smooth only after installing Firefox.
Today the first thing you do, you simply install Firefox, don't use IE, it is a pain.
Could this be highly related to the fact that in Europe, as part of an anti-trust settlement, when you first log into a new Windows machine you are presented with a choice of internet browsers [microsoft.com] and no longer default to MSIE?
No, this has always been the trend. The settlement didn't have a big impact as I see it.
How many people actually install Windows these days? Most corporations have a ghost image they roll onto every laptop, and I wouldn't be surprised most small tech firms do the same. Leaves Dell and supermarket computers, which are usually not used by the brightest of techies.
I'm guessing that I'd choose for "Microsoft" rather than "Mozilla" or "Opera" if I were to select a question I don't understand in the first place -- just because there's Microsoft branding all over the screen.
Well it stopped the EU from extorting money from Microsoft. Never mind, they still have ongoing antitrusts with Google and Oracle to keep the coffers filled (and Greece in the black).
Funny how the customers / businesses were the ones who felt the pain, yet Brussels gets to keep all the money for themselves.
Nope, the Firefox usage numbers have always been higher in Europe than elsewhere. This has been a tendency for years. And Germany also has a historical aversion for Microsoft software and was in the past a big Linux proponent (think SuSE) and StarOffice (now OpenOffice) was bigger than Microsoft Office for years IIRC. I wouldn't be surprised if also OS/2 had a larger following to elsewhere (or at least US).
All this predates any anti-trust settlement, but I am sure that change will make a difference too, but
Well, old in the computer world at any rate. IE 8 came out in March of last year. It more or less has not been updated since then. It's been patched, of course, and gotten some compatibility view updates and such but the browser, the rendering engine, all that is nearly a year and a half old.
Lot has changed since then, there are new features people want that IE does not offer. Stagnation can cause people to switch. I switched from Netscape to IE back in the day for that reason. Netscape hit 4.7 and just sto
I believe the slashdot crowd has already debunked these people effecting the numbers numerous times. People who don't have a browser can't get a browser to get on the internet. Furthermore, this must have caused all of the nuclear plants in Europe to blow up leading the continent to a fate not unlike Atlantis.
And even in the unlikely event a there were number of refuges... the sample group would be too small for anything meaningful plus correlation does not necessary equal causation. Many would be like
Have you noticed that Europe has a much bigger uptake of Linux, Firefox and in the older days Amiga?
I've often wondered if this is Europe being "open minded"....
I would love to be able to say the same about Australia...
Seems clear that the people of Europe are generally unsatisfied and I am willing to bet that other changes, not related to Microsoft or MSIE are occurring at the same time and I would venture to guess that it is anti-American at its hearts. Not that I blame the people of Europe in the least. In a way, it might help the people of the U.S. become better people.
If my experience counts (I live in a small country in Europe), people are not anti-US, not by a long shot. And if they were anti-US, they'd use other OS, not just switch browsers.
You really shouldn't try to pin everything on anti-Americanism.
If anything, people here in Europe like the US more since the end of the Bush era (even if many of us probably expected mor from Obama than he delivered).
If we shun the products of American companies, it's not because they're American, but because their products or their attitude sucks.
Vitamin C deficiency is apauling.


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Maryland coach John Tillman, left, with Loyola coach Charley Toomey
Fact: Maryland shot 10 percent against Loyola in the NCAA title game in 2012. Last weekend in their 12-10 win over the then-No. 1 Greyhounds, the Terps shot 12-for-36 (33 percent). Opinion: Maryland picked on Loyola's defensive midfielders. A defense is only as good as its shorties. The Greyhounds' defense doesn't look the same without midfield stopper Josh Hawkins, whose suspension for a violation of team rules has been costly. The Terps spent considerable time in the offseason on their dodging technique and leverage, and it paid off.
Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun
Copyright © 2018, Sun Sentinel


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Journal Linuxathome's Journal: Protester pees her pants trying to save cars
Trying to save a pristine batch of electric cars made by GM from going to the crusher, actress Alexandra Paul and her friends pulled a 23 day vigil which culminated in the arrest of Paul and a friend. Apparently she was so caught up in moment that she did not have time to go to the restroom and peed her pants (at least that what it looks like in the photo). I'd wish USA Today used a better photo. It doesn't look like the police officer could do much to avoid the wet area when frisking her.


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A comment, just now, on the Intrade market "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to win the 5 June 2012 recall election," which just hit 94.5%.
Hey, remember the new civility? The weird thing is: Tom Barrett (Walker's opponent) has made his main issue the prospect of restoring civility — ending what he repeatedly calls "the civil war." But I'm only seeing incivility from the anti-Walkerites. Walker fixed the budget, and (some) people flipped out, mainly over an issue that Tom Barrett doesn't even want to talk about anymore (because the clear majority of Wisconsinites agree with Walker).
Check out what happened over at the Isthmus forum (Isthmus is our local "alternative" newspaper) when Meade — responding to a guy who'd said "What do you know personally about the rest of Wisconsin? Little, I think." — said:
Tell you what, Mr. Henry. A week from tomorrow, June 6, if your guy Tom Barrett has more votes than Governor Walker - you name the place. Anywhere on Monroe Street. I will buy you a beer. And I'll listen to anything you feel like teaching me about Wisconsin.Incivility ensues.
ADDED: Sorry about leaving out that last link until just now.


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The Creators Project San Francisco Pictures
Intel's The Creators Project Brings Tech, Art, and Music to San Francisco
Intel's The Creators Project Brings Tech, Art, and Music to San Francisco
The Creators Project, a revolutionary partnership between Intel and Vice magazine, invaded San Francisco's waterfront Fort Mason Center this weekend with an extravaganza of tech-driven art, film, music, artist talks, panel discussions, and creative workshops. Dedicated to supporting artists in realizing their creative visions through technology, the event was an astounding showcase of mind-tripping, interactive installations that entertained geeks and art lovers alike. And since no good fest is complete without dance-demanding, fist-pumping beats, much-anticipated LCD Soundsystem alumni James Murphy, Pat Mahoney, and Nancy Whang, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Squarepusher also headlined a 10-act musical lineup. The project, which has united more than 150 artists from around the world in its three-year history, drew more than 25,000 attendees over two days.
Didn't make it to the event? Watch out for it this year when it returns to Paris, São Paulo, Beijing, Seoul, and New York. But first, experience it all vicariously with a few awe-inspiring photos and glimpse some of the impressive artwork that was shown.
Photos courtesy Bryan Derballa and Jason Henry


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In the end, without visibly tanking, without losing the culture established after six years of resounding success, and without the instruction and vision of coach Brad Stevens being tuned out, the Celtics are right where they want to be.
They are headed for a premium draft pick. They spent the season playing youngsters and receiving answers to some lingering questions about veterans while Stevens was allowed to learn the league and himself in a non-pressure environment.
The mission was accomplished in this transition season and most notably, no one accused the Celtics of giving up. The worst fears about Stevens's message being disregarded by the Celtics' veterans because of his inexperience never materialized.
Stevens galvanized the locker room and, after a couple of early obstacles such as playing time confusion, maintained his authority.
And it wasn't easy. The Celtics began the year 12-14, looking like a playoff contender in the junior varsity-like Eastern Conference, then lost 43 of the last 56 games. There have been low points, awful losing streaks, fourth-quarter collapses, and myriad injuries, but the Celtics accomplished their goals.
President of basketball operations Danny Ainge said early in the season that the playoffs were not in the immediate thoughts. The goal was not to shoot for the playoffs. Ainge sought assets for Jordan Crawford — two second-round picks — and ridded the club of the remaining two years of Courtney Lee's contract.
Ainge allowed Crawford and Lee to increase their value so they could be moved because neither were part of the team's long-term plans. Ainge essentially worked his roster as if this season was an afterthought, besides the development of rookies and younger players.
Although Ainge has criticized those who have praised this draft as one of the best since 2003, he realizes the importance of having at least one lottery pick to foster the rebuilding plan. It would have been possible to ramp up the roster to try for the eighth seed, but that would have put the organization in long-term purgatory with two mid-first-round picks (the Celtics also have Brooklyn's selection). Avoiding the playoffs without benching veterans, signing subpar NBA players to 10-day contracts, and trading valuable players was Ainge's most astute move since the organization decided to reload.
"Yeah, I've been very happy with how hard they've played," Ainge said. "[But] sure, this has been very hard. Losing is not fun and we knew the possibility of our team not being a playoff team. We knew the possibility existed but it's still really a challenge to live and to go through. These kids put in a lot of work. Our coaching staff works really hard and you want to see them get rewards and [the losing] is never fun."
There has been a vocal group of Celtics fans who have rooted for the team to lose to improve their chances at a higher lottery pick. Their voices have only risen in the past few weeks as the end of the season has approached and those prized freshman players such as Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, and Joel Embiid have declared for the draft.
The pleas followed the Celtics all the way to Wednesday, where a loss would give them a chance to tie Utah for the fourth-worst record. Mission accomplished after the Celtics lost and the Jazz won in OT.
Those sentiments have been heard by Ainge, who has had his share of history banking on the draft lottery to save his organization — Google the 1997 and 2007 draft lotteries.
"There's all sorts of different opinions on all issues," Ainge said of the pro-tankers. "And that seems to be a hot topic and I don't get frustrated or get mad at people with different opinions. Anybody that watches our team play [knows we play hard] and you've got to give a lot of credit to Coach Stevens. He's instilled as much positivity as you can in a [tough] situation, even though I do think there are a lot of positives and a lot of things to build on. I think Brad has done a good job managing a difficult situation."
The situation is over. The Celtics can't lose again this season. While 2014-15 may be another rebuilding season, it is the next step in rebuilding. The organization has advanced from the beginning stages and the next step in constructing a successful model will begin Thursday.
So the Celtics can rise from being knocked to the deck, dust themselves off, and move forward from this forgettable season. This year was a necessary part of the process, but it was unquestionably arduous and disappointing.
"We have a lot of work to do this summer," Ainge said. "There's always a lot of unanswered questions. This offseason, there's going to be a lot of work and I've been anticipating that all year. It's important we keep expectations realistic, we don't panic and that we don't try to do something to make a splash and win a press conference and that we actually try to do things that are good long term for the Celtics."
That's been his plan the whole time.Gary Washburn can be reached at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.


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The mission of Dallas Theological Seminary is to
glorify God by equipping godly servant-leaders
for the proclamation of His Word and the
building up of the body of Christ worldwide.
Musician Jeff Eenigenburg gives his father, DTS grad Larry Eenigenburg (Th.M.), credit for his passion for ministry. Having grown up as a pastor's son in Roanoke, Virginia, he said it was his father's example as a pastor and a dad that led him to Dallas Theological Seminary.
"He played a big role in my life as a model and a discipler," he said. "He was always there at all my basketball games, and we did lots of activities together. I miss him greatly."
His dad passed away just before Jeff began seminary, and less than six weeks after he and his wife Caroline were married.
"It was a 'deep' time, in the sense that I experienced a deep sadness mixed with the deep joy and hope of the Christian life—I knew I would see him again in heaven."
He said this also significantly impacted his mindset as he began school. The courses were even more spiritually enriching for him as he felt his loss so strongly.
"The truth seemed deeper, like there was more at stake. My sense of loss gave me a sense of how much could be gained."
Both of Jeff's parents were musical—his father directed the choir at his church, as well as pastoring. Jeff took piano lessons from the age of five, began the cello in sixth grade, and started the guitar in ninth grade. He eventually stopped playing the cello in high school because, he said jokingly, in order to graduate his credit hours were required for "the lesser things of the world."
In college at Moody, Jeff originally pursued an education degree with a minor in music, but after the first year he decided to focus on education. His reason was two-fold: his allergy problems were making music practice challenging, and he was somewhat frustrated with his competitive nature comparing himself to others in the music program.
His sophomore year, he and Caroline met in a Greek study group. The group started with five people, but quickly dwindled to just to the two of them. They began dating a semester later.
Jeff and Caroline were married after college and came to DTS right after their honeymoon. Along with his class work, Jeff also began to lead music for their youth group at North Highlands Bible Church.
His vision for his future ministry at that point was to be a pastor and also a music minister, along the same lines as his father's ministry. But as they got involved in a spiritual formation group, this idea was challenged, and God used this to clarify their vision. He realized that the idea of putting a sermon together every week was exhausting to him, while he found music ministry energizing. He now calls music ministry his "heart's passion."
"I've found from my experience with the youth that leading music offers plenty of opportunities to pastor, it's just that the medium is different—songs instead of sermons."
He sees a great need for music to advance the systematic theology of the church, which is where his seminary training comes in.
"A lot of praise songs are focused on a few particular themes, but don't represent the full breadth of Christian doctrine and practice."
With this switch of focus, Jeff changed his track last May to Media Arts in Ministry, which has been a welcomed change of pace. Because DTS doesn't have many course offerings in music, Jeff has been the first student to initiate a cooperative music program with the University of North Texas and Southwestern Seminary. Music courses he has taken at the other two schools have replaced media arts core courses and electives.
And as for the preaching courses he had already taken, he said, "I know they won't be wasted. Even as a music minister, you need to be able to have a pastoral presence with the congregation, like you would in a sermon."
In the future, he sees himself using technology to produce musical tools that are beneficial to the church, such as a CD of songs written to reinforce a pastor's sermon series.
Jeff has already put together one CD as his internship. Together with Henry Rogers, corporate chaplain at Interstate Batteries, he created a Christmas CD called "Shepherd's Song," which combines original music with a spoken message about the meaning of Christmas.
"The quality of the CD exceeded my highest expectations," Henry said. "And the response was amazing—people were even requesting additional copies to send to friends and family."
"Jeff was a joy to work with. He has such a passion for what he does," he said.
The following two songs from Jeff's CD "Shepherd's Song" are available for download:


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Episode Details
series: Ed Sullivan's Top Performers 1966-1969 (my Music)
air date: 3/09/13 5:00 PM
Live from New York, it's Ed Sullivan's Top Rock Performers from the mid to late 60s together in an all new made for PBS pledge presentation. This program is the sequel to "Ed Sullivan's Rock and Roll Classics" and features an amazing line-up of original 60s performers singing their biggest hits from 1966 - 1969. Hosted by Ed Sullivan and Jay Thomas.
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Monday marked the first time Batavia's Lupe Castellanos observed the Batavia-Geneva softball rivalry as a varsity head coach.
A longtime former assistant before taking over for Ashley Szymski entering the 2013 season, Castellanos noticed a difference, he said.
"You know, it's a little bit more intense, the rivalry. Batavia-Geneva, it's always one of the bigger matchups," Castellanos said. "That's one of the games the girls look forward to all year, trying to come out and get a victory. It's just a little bit more intense at the varsity level, and especially now being the head coach."
Check out Tuesday's Chronicle for more on the Vikings' 9-4 road win.


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The state of Illinois will step in where Uncle Sam would not regarding disaster relief for local governments hit hard by the Nov. 17 tornado, with Gov. Pat Quinn promising $45 million in grants and low interest loans to municipalities in nine Illinois counties, most notably the hardest hit, the Tazewell County town of Washington.
Washington Mayor Gary Manier did not mask his disappointment at being turned down a second time by the feds on Tuesday, with his community facing an estimated $26 million bill in debris removal, road repair and other infrastructure costs — new curbs and sidewalks, a functional water/sewer treatment plant, etc. — before all is said and done. Whatever the ultimate price tag, a city budget that reached $18.7 million this year is facing quite an added burden.
"The federal government has failed us. The FEMA system is broken," Manier said. "Downstate Illinois doesn't have a chance of getting aid from the federal government." He also was critical of President Obama, who "didn't come to see the devastation. He chose not to help out his own state." Other central Illinoisans sounded some of the same sentiments, noting that just this week, the U.S. government offered $1 billion in aid to the besieged nation of Ukraine. As one letter writer put it, "It seems to me we can help everyone except our own."
We appreciate the frustration from those who took Mother Nature's punch directly here and who have the formidable task of rebuilding in front of them. But in fairness, it's important to point out that FEMA's denial applies only to relief for units of government, not to the individual help that residents are getting through outright federal assistance and/or Small Business Administration loans. We cannot fault FEMA for adhering to its own rules, which include meeting a storm damage threshold established by congressional formula.
Any president is a busy guy, and to some degree faces a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. Make an exception to the rules for your home state, and you're accused of playing favorites, imposing politics where they don't belong. Then everybody wants the same treatment, and it's harder to say no because you've established a precedent that displeases another segment of the population that thinks Uncle Sam is a little too easy with other people's money in the first place. Foreign aid and disaster relief are two very different issues, with motivations and goals that are not always comparable.
That said, Manier is quite right that the FEMA formula is flawed, and that small and rural communities — like Washington, like Harrisburg in southern Illinois, which suffered a devastating tornado in 2012 — cannot get a fair shake from it. In a state such as Illinois that has a large metropolitan area in Chicago, the population-based threshold is so high that an entire burg could be wiped out without meeting it. Federal legislators in Illinois have pledged to try to address that in Congress, and they should.
To be sure, we've heard from more than a few — usually conservatives — who don't believe the federal government should have much of any obligation here, arguing that storm recovery efforts are a private sector responsibility — insurance companies — and a local and state duty where taxpayer dollars are concerned. Manier acknowledges that debris removal could have been left to the State Farms and Allstates who sold homeowner insurance policies to the affected residents — which in part is FEMA's point — but says "we didn't have the luxury to wait for our citizens to get it done because of the weather" that winter soon promised. Beyond that, after conferring with Joplin, Mo. leaders who saw their community obliterated by a killer twister in 2011, he recognized that "the only way you can rebuild is to have the debris out of the way."
We might add that the you're-on-your-own position adopted by some doesn't take into account the fact that a community Washington's size can't generate the revenue to rebuild when so much of its tax base — some 1,000 homes, in this case — is gone, for now. You're asking darn near the impossible. "I said from day one I wasn't going to bankrupt this city to fix it up," said Manier, who is quite right about not wanting to punish residents who've already suffered enough, with significantly higher taxes for an event that was beyond their control.
For now, local leaders are just grateful that it is Quinn to the rescue. "He's vowed to help us. I trust him, I really do," said Manier. In fact the Democratic governor has been a frequent visitor to a community that, dare we say, is not exactly a Democratic bastion. Obviously we appreciate that state government doesn't have a lot of money lying around, either, but in the grand picture, this doesn't break the bank, it's spread across multiple agencies, some of it will be repaid, and frankly it's the only realistic option left for these communities.
Is that good politics in an election year? Sure. Is it also the right thing to do? It's that, too. It's not such a bad thing when those dovetail with a good result.
Our View: Relieved by rescue of tornado-ravaged communities
The state of Illinois will step in where Uncle Sam would not regarding disaster relief for local governments hit hard by the Nov. 17 tornado, with Gov. Pat Quinn promising $45 million in grants and low interest loans to municipalities in nine Illinois counties, most notably the hardest hit, the Tazewell County town of Washington.


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TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -- An electrical malfunction in the attic of a home at 3308 SE Massachusetts Ave. may be to blame for a fire that cost the homeowners an estimated $39,000.
Fire crews responded to a report of a structure fire shortly after 11:45 p.m. Thursday, March 1. Crews reported the fire out at 12:45 a.m. Friday.
When firefighters got to the scene they said heavy fire was showing from the roof of the home, which crews found to be the attic spaces. Everyone inside the home was able to make it safely out before crews arrived.
Officials say the fire was contained to the attic area. A Topeka Fire Department Investigation Unit responded to the scene and reported a preliminary investigation suggests the fire cause was accidental, likely associated with an electrical malfunction in the attic.
The estimated dollar loss was $26,000 in structural damage and $13,000 in content damage.
Three engine companies and two truck companies responded to the fire, along with one battalion chief, one shift commander, one safety officer and one fire investigator.
The Kansas Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross also responded to help the two adults and one child who reside in the home with any immediate needs.


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Not entirely happy with the upcoming set bonuses for tier 13 in patch 4.3? It's all right, they're still in the process of being tweaked. Community Manager Zarhym just posted some changes that will be going into affect for both two-piece and four-piece T13 set bonuses for the druid, hunter, mage, paladin, priest, shaman, warlock and warrior classes.
- For feral druids, Pulverize now also grants your Bear Form Mangle critical strikes a 100% chance to trigger Savage Defense.
- For shadow priests, Shadow Word: Death deals an additional 55% damage, but it also reduces the damage you take from your own SW:D when the target fails to die by 95%.
- For DPS warriors, your Raging Blow and Mortal Strike abilities have a 13% chance to apply the Colossus Smash effect on your target for 6 seconds.
Follow after the break for the full list of changes.


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Music Box has announced two new upcoming CDs -- the first-ever release of the score to the Meryl Streep-Roseanne Barr comedy SHE-DEVIL, composed by Howard Shore (Remember when Shore used to score comedies? Big, Mrs. Doubtfire, Analyze This...); and a disc pairing two Pierre Jansen scores, L'ETAT SAUVAGE and LE GRAND FRERE.
Quartet has just announced their four latest releases. Along with their previously announced release of Georges Delerue's PARTNERS (with a wealth of score not featured in the final film), they will also release Gabriel Yared's score for TOM AT THE FARM, the new psychological thriller from critically acclaimed Canadian twink auteur Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways); an expanded version of Angelo Badalamenti's score for Paul Schrader's film of Ian McEwan's thriller THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS, starring Natasha Richardson, Rupert Everett, Helen Mirren and Christopher Walken; and Fernando Velazquez' score for the romantic comedy OCHO APELLIDOS VASCOS.
Danza Macabra - Riz Ortolani - Digitmovies
Donna Leon - Ulrich Reuter, Florial Appl, Andre Rieu - Alhambra
Geminus - Bruno Nicolai - Beat
Grazie...Nonna - Enrico Simonetti - Beat
Inspektor Jury - Marcel Barsotti - Alhambra
La Casa Delle Donne - Radicanto - Intermezzo Media
La Regina dei Tartari - Bruno Canfora - Digitmovies
La Seconda Moglie - Aldo de Scalzi, Pivio de Scalzi - Intermezzo Media
L'Odore Delle Nozze - Aldo de Scalzi, Pivio de Scalzi - Intermezzo Media
Luana, The Girl Tarzan - Stelvio Cipriani - Beat
Once Is Not Enough - Henry Mancini - Intrada Special Collection
Rob the Mob - Stephen Endelman - Lakeshore [CD-R]
Secret Sharer/Tsotsi - Guy Farley - Caldera
7 KM Da Gerusalemme - Aldo de Scalzi, Pivio de Scalzi, Transcendental - Intermezzo Media
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - Sol Kaplan - Intrada Special Collection
Steam: The Turkish Bath - Transcendental - Intermezzo Media
Trinita E Sartana Figli Di... - Carlo Savina - Digitmovies
Tulpa - The Alvarius - Beat
Veronica Mars - Josh Kramon - Watertower [CD-R]
Viva La Liberta - Marco Betta - Beat
Anita - Lili Haydn
A Birder's Guide to Everything - Jeremy Turner
Blood Ties - Yodelilce
Cheap Thrills - Mads Heltdberg
Devil's Knot - Mychael Danna
Divergent - Junkie XL - Score CD due April 15 on Interscope
Enemy - Saunder Jurriaans, Danny Bensi - Score CD on Milan
Falcon Song - Jason Corgan Brown
Finding Vivian Maier - J. Ralph
Jodorowsky's Dune - Kurt Stenzel
Maladies - J. Ralph
McCanick - Johann Johnannsson - Score CD on Milan
Muppets Most Wanted - Christophe Beck - Score CD due April 15 on Intrada
Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 - no original score
On My Way - no original score
Stay - Robert Marcel Lepage
Teenage - Bradford Cox
March 25
Breathe In - Dustin O'Halloran - Milan
Creepshow - John Harrison, various - La-La Land
The Film Music of Miklos Rozsa - Miklos Rozsa - Chandos
Noah - Clint Mansell - Nonesuch
The Right King of Wrong - Rachel Portman - Varese Sarabande
April 1
Draft Day - John Debney - Lakeshore
Under the Skin - Mica Levi - Milan
April 8
Immagini Di Un Convento - Nico Fidenco - Kronos
Only Lovers Left Alive - Josef Van Wissem, Squrl - ATP
Rio 2 - John Powell - Sony
Sette Baschi Rossi - Gianni Marchetti - Kronos
Vita Di Michelangelo - Bruno Nicolai - Kronos
April 15
Divergent - Junkie XL - Interscope
Need for Speed - Nathan Furst - Varese Sarabande
Walk of Shame - John Debney - Lakeshore
April 22
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Hans Zimmer - Sony
Bates Motel - Chris Bacon - Varese Sarabande
House of Cards: Season Two - Jeff Beal - Varese Sarabande
Joe - Jeff McIlwain, David Wingo - Milan
April 29
Grand Piano - Victor Reyes - MovieScore Media/Kronos
The Raid 2 - Joseph Trapanese - Spacelab2
Date Unknown
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Henry Jackman - Intrada
The Comfort of Strangers - Angelo Badalamenti - Quartet
Il Mio Nome E' Shanghai Joe - Bruno Nicolai - GDM
Il Pistolero Dell'Avemaria - Franco Micalizzo, Roberto Pregadio
In Einem Wilden Land [In A Wild Country] - Karim Sebastian Elias - Alhambra
L'Etat Sauvage/Le Grand Frere - Pierre Jansen - Music Box
Ocho Apellidos Vascos - Fernando Velazquez - Quartet
Partners - Georges Delerue - Quartet
Placido Rizzotto - Agricanto - Intermezzo Media
Professione Figlio - Ennio Morricone - GDM
7 Volte 7 - Armando Trovajoli - GDM
She-Devil - Howard Shore - Music Box
Three Days (of Hamlet) - Jonathan Beard - Buysoundtrax
Tom at the Farm - Gabriel Yared - Quartet
Victor Young at Paramount - Victor Young - Kritzerland
March 21 - Antony Hopkins born (1921)
March 21 - Mort Lindsey born (1923)
March 21 - Alfred Newman wins his seventh Oscar, his second for Score, for Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1956)
March 21 - Alex North begins recording his score for Spartacus (1960)
March 21 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score to The Green Berets (1968)
March 21 - John Williams wins his fifth Oscar, for his Schindler's List score (1994)
March 21 - Nicola Piovani wins his first Oscar, for Life is Beautiful; Stephen Warbeck wins the final Comedy or Musical Score Oscar for Shakespeare in Love (1999)
March 22 - Stephen Sondheim born (1930)
March 22 - Angelo Badalamenti born (1937)
March 22 - Andrew Lloyd Webber born (1948)
March 22 - Goran Bregovic born (1950)
March 22 - Wally Badarou born (1955)
March 22 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Time After Time (1979)
March 23 - Michael Nyman born (1944)
March 23 - David Grisman born (1945)
March 23 - Trevor Jones born (1949)
March 23 - Aaron Copland wins his only Oscar, for The Heiress score (1950)
March 23 - Philip Judd born (1953)
March 23 - Hal Mooney died (1995)
March 23 - Michael Linn died (1995)
March 23 - James Horner wins his first two Oscars, for Titanic's score and song; Anne Dudley wins the third Comedy or Musical Score Oscar, for The Full Monty (1998)
March 23 - Elliot Goldenthal wins his first Oscar, for the Frida score (2003)
March 24 - Brian Easdale wins only Oscar, for The Red Shoes score (1949)
March 24 - Fred Steiner's score for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" is recorded (1967)
March 24 - John Barry begins recording his score for The Deep (1977)
March 24 - Arthur B. Rubinstein begins recording his score for WarGames (1983)
March 24 - Alex North wins an Honorary Oscar, "in recognition of his brilliant artistry in the creation of memorable music for a host of distinguished motion pictures; " John Barry wins his fourth Oscar, for the Out of Africa score (1986)
March 24 - Gabriel Yared wins Dramatic Score Oscar for The English Patient; Rachel Portman wins the second Comedy or Musical Score Oscar, for Emma (1997)
March 25 - Bronislau Kaper wins his only Oscar, for the Lili score (1954)
March 25 - Ken Thorne begins recording his score for Superman II (1980)
March 25 - Maurice Jarre wins his third Oscar, for the A Passage to India score (1985)
March 25 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Royale" (1989)
March 25 - John Barry wins his fifth and final Oscar, for the Dances With Wolves score; Stephen Sondheim wins first Oscar, for the song "Sooner or Later" from Dick Tracy (1991)
March 25 - Luis Bacalov wins his first Oscar, for Il Postino; James Horner, nominated for both Apollo 13 and Best Picture winner Braveheart, is unavailable for comment, but ultimately decides that his heart will go on; Alan Menken wins the first Comedy or Musical Score Oscar, as well as Best Song, for Pocahonatas (1996)
March 25 - Tan Dun wins his first score Oscar, for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001)
March 26 - Leigh Harline born (1907)
March 26 - Alan Silvestri born (1950)
March 26 - Louis Silvers died (1954)
March 26 - Malcolm Arnold wins his only Oscar, for The Bridge on the River Kwai score (1958)
March 26 - The Fall of the Roman Empire opens in New York (1964)
March 26 - Noel Coward died (1973)
March 26 - John Williams begins recording his score for SpaceCamp (1986)
March 26 - Alan Menken wins Oscars for The Little Mermaid score and its song "Under the Sea" (1990)
March 26 - John Corigliano wins his first Oscar, for The Red Violin score (2000)
March 26 - Fred Karlin died (2004)
March 27 - Ferde Grofe born (1892)
March 27 - Tony Banks born (1950)
March 27 - Victor Young wins posthumous Best Score Oscar for Around the World in 80 Days (1957)
March 27 - Charlie Chaplin et al win score Oscar for Limelight (1973)
March 27 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Winter Kill (1974)
March 27 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
March 27 - Hans Zimmer wins his first Oscar, for The Lion King score (1995)
March 27 - Dudley Moore died (2002)
March 27 - Recording sessions begin for Nathan Barr's score to Hostel Part II (2007)
THE ART OF THE STEAL - Grayson Matthews
"[Writer-director Jonathan] Sobol doesn't go full Guy Ritchie, but early on there are nicknames and textual overlays that introduce Nicky as 'the Idea Man,' Paddy as 'the Rolodex,' and so on. Once the movie hits its stride, the split screens subside a bit, but 'The Art of the Steal' exercises a light stylishness throughout, never betraying its essential moviedom. Cinematographer Adam Swica and production designer Matthew Davies embrace ironic splashes of color in monochromatic settings, and make nice contrast of open and contained spaces. Meanwhile, it's also clear that composer Grayson Matthews studied the 'Ocean's Eleven' score.
Brent Simon, Paste Magazine
GRAND PIANO - Victor Reyes
"As loathe as I am to describe the music in the film as 'another character,' the pieces selected by the filmmaker are absolutely essential, providing a (no pun intended) meticulously-orchestrated through line that frames and enhances each new development in the story even as it serves as a ubiquitous reminder of Selznick's past failures. That it occasionally allows him to depart the stage mid-performance constitutes great planning on Mira's part, but the fact that it provides a parallel line for Selznick's emotional state as he embarks on this unexpected roller coaster is truly masterful. There are few modern examples of music being truly integrated into storytelling, certainly as well as this film does, and even without an appreciation for classical composition, there's much to admire about its use and effectiveness."
Todd Gilchrist, The Playlist
"[Director Eugenio] Mira may be chasing after Hitchcock's ghost, but he does so in the key of the master auteur's acolytes. In a delicious graphic match between the slicing of a woman's throat and the bow stroke of a cello, and in one use of split screen that rather flimsily contrasts performance and murder, De Palma's influence is especially felt (the opening tour of a piano's innards is even set to music evocative of Ennio Morricone's 'Untouchables' score)."
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
"Mira isn't content to have Tom simply sit on his bench and suffer, however. Instead, there are breaks between movements, allowing him to race backstage to his dressing room or down the stairs to the bowels of the hall. A suspenseful intermission occurs right before he is forced to fulfill a request by the fiend in his ear to perform, yes, the unplayable piece. It's a pleasant and effective surprise that the original composition heard on the soundtrack (written by Spain's Victor Reyes) actually fits that imposing description."
Susan Wloszczyna , RogerEbert.com
"The movie belongs to the race-against-time formula that produced 'Phone Booth' and 'Speed.' It also has a distant kinship with 'The Man Who Knew Too Much.' The supposed masterwork Tom plays is the kind of fake classical music (composed by Victor Reyes) that movies often substitute for the real thing. It's all flourishes and no substance."
Stephen Holden, New York Times
"The story embraces elements of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much,' particularly in the way Mira -- who has composed movie music himself -- uses the fractured score as a kind of murder weapon, all treacherous shards of sound. (It's by Spanish composer Victor Reyes, and parts of it actually do sound unplayable.)
Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice
"Tech credits on the mostly Spanish-shot production are uniformly pro. Production designer Javier Alvarino's velvet-draped, modernist concert-hall interior sets just the right lurid tone for the hijinks it houses, while Victor Reyes' score -- incorporating originals and furious arrangements of existing pieces by Beethoven and others -- is, needless to say, a relentless asset."
Guy Lodge, Variety
MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN - Danny Elfman
"And director Rob Minkoff -- who also helmed 'The Lion King' and 'Stuart Little' -- moves things along briskly. Actually, too briskly, for my taste; whatever the period, whatever the crisis, every segment ends with an all-out, Spielberg-esque chase, with breakneck turns, hairbreadth escapes and always-soaring music. It's a little exhausting. Fifty years ago, animated entertainment was a lot quieter."
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
"When Danny Elfman's sprightly-bombastic score swells and Mr. Peabody and Sherman zoom through snaky time-space wormholes a la 'Star Trek' or 'Contact,' or race out of a collapsing tomb, or body surf through a network of sewer tunnels just ahead of raging flood waters or flame-clouds, it's as if rather slight source material had been injected with a hyper-dose of steroids that made it balloon grotesquely, creating bulges where bulges shouldn't be."
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"Danny Elfman's score, like much else here, is zippy in the moment but not especially distinctive."
Guy Lodge, Variety
THE SINGLE MOMS CLUB - Christopher Young
"As usual, the direction is amateurish, using the constantly blaring, syrupy musical score to compensate for the flat television-style visuals and editing. Even the typical flubs on display during the end credit outtakes fail to provide amusement."
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
VERONICA MARS - Josh Kramon
"There's something semi-watchable about seeing these semi-attractive people say semi-amusing, self-aware things, such as TV was in that post-Buffy, post-Dawson moment before the paunchy antiheroes muscled in, but anyone preferring novelty to nostalgia may be let down by a film shot, scored and scaled like a feature-length special: a James Franco cameo does not a real movie make."
Mike McCahill, The Guardian
Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.
March 21
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (Carter Burwell), ALMOST FAMOUS (Nancy Wilson) [Cinematheque: Aero]
CAT PEOPLE (Roy Webb), I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (Roy Webb) [New Beverly]
RAZORBACK (Iva Davies) [Silent Movie Theater]
TOO LATE FOR TEARS (Dale Butts), LARCENY (Leith Stevens) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
March 22
BORN TO BE BAD (Frederick Hollander), IVY (Daniele Amfitheatrof) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
CAT PEOPLE (Roy Webb), I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (Roy Webb) [New Beverly]
THE RAID: REDEMPTION (Joseph Trapanese, Mike Shinoda) [New Beverly]
TREMORS (Ernest Troost) [Cinematheque: Aero]
March 23
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THE MUMMY [New Beverly]
MAGNOLIA (Jon Brion) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (Danny Elfman) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE THIEF OF BAGDAD [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
March 24
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THE MUMMY [New Beverly]
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Francis Seyrig) [Arclight Hollywood]
March 25
BONNIE AND CLYDE (Charles Strouse) [Arclight Hollywood]
DIE HARD (Michael Kamen) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE SPIRAL ROAD (Jerry Goldsmith) [LACMA]
STRANGE BEHAVIOR (Tangerine Dream), PATRICK (Brian May) [New Beverly]
March 26
IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY (George Auric), BRIGHTON ROCK (Hans May) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (Frank Skinner), BETTY BLUE (Gabriel Yared) [New Beverly]
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (Jon Brion) [Cinematheque: Aero]
March 27
CAGED (Max Steiner), DETECTIVE STORY [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
CAPOTE (Mychael Danna), THE SAVAGES (Stephen Trask) [Cinematheque: Aero]
MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (Frank Skinner), BETTY BLUE (Gabriel Yared) [New Beverly]
STARSHIP TROOPERS (Basil Poledouris) [Arclight Hollywood]
March 28
AKIRA (Shoji Yamashiro) [Nuart]
JENNY LAMOUR (Francis Lopez), ANGELS OVER BROADWAY (George Antheil) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (Stelvio Cipriani) [Silent Movie Theater]
March 29
GYMKATA (Alfi Kabiljo) [Silent Movie Theater]
SOUTHSIDE 1-1000 (Paul Sawtell), ROADBLOCK (Paul Sawtell) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE TOXIC AVENGER, CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH (Michael Lattanzi), TROMEO AND JULIET (Willie Wisely), RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH VOL. 1 (Kurt Dirt) [Cinematheque: Aero]
AN UNMARRIED WOMAN (Bill Conti) [Silent Movie Theater]
March 30
DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (Oliver Wallace), THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER (Bernard Herrmann) [New Beverly]
IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (Ernest Gold) [Cinematheque: Aero]
MAN OF THE WEST (Leigh Harline), THE TIN STAR (Elmer Bernstein) [UCLA]
TENSION (Andre Previn), ALIAS NICK BEAL (Franz Waxman) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]


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Surely if the specification lists the data in a structured way, they don't need to be hard-coded. Can't you just stick them all in a database and do lookups? Can't the authority give that the requisite structure?
I'm not so sure of that - one of the big problems would be how do you integrate 9 and 10 digit data so historical records are accurate as well as what happens when systems expecting 9 digits now see 10? There's a huge set of 9 digit data that won't simply go away and systems need to be redone to account for two separate data types. Data entry also needs to still account for 9 digit codes as service delivery and data entry dates could be far apart.
I guess you could simply add a digit to the 9 digit codes to
They're versions, not digits. ICD-9 diagnosis codes (for some reason the International Classification of Diseases also has a set of procedure codes) use up to 5 digits in the form [0-9VE]##.##. ICD-10 is of the form X##.###X, except for some codes that have a "placeholder" to pad the middle of the code [wikipedia.org] out to seven digits.
The real problem here is that insurance claim submission is real design-by-committee bullshit of the highest degree. It's an ANSI standard, a submember of ASC X12 so half the shit in there is unused crap needed for the other things X12 is used for, like wholesalers restocking their shelves or boats reporting their cargo, because apparently code reuse is so damn important to these people that the claim form has a section (completely unused for claims) for reporting credit card details. Of course, the insurance companies all took this design under advice and did their own shit with it. There's a code that identifies whether the insurance company is blue cross, medicare, medicaid and so on (that you have to put on the claim just in case blue cross forgot, and they apparently forget a lot, since if the clinic forgets to set this code properly, the insurance company uses every excuse possible to refuse to pay). Simple enough, right? Well when I started, we had an insurance company that used blue cross's servers for processing claims, so even though they weren't blue cross, this code had to be blue cross or BC's servers would shit themselves. Setting that aside, there's a completely separate code for what kind of provider ID you're sending (blue cross, medicare, medicaid and so on) because of course people are going to bill blue cross using medicaid IDs. Fortunately, the NPI did away with that bullshit (for the most part... medicaid here still demands provider IDs for checkups because they refuse to give up any hoops for doctors to jump through, and one of those was that the doctor had to use a different provider ID for checkups versus treating someone sick. Their computer system apparently cannot sort these claims out themselves... and yet if you bill a checkup on the wrong provider ID, the computer system can easily reject it. Hmmm...)
Ahem.... Anyways, instead of just adding a code to identify whether the diagnosis in question is using ICD-9 or ICD-10 (in the box the committee already created for the purpose of identifying the code being used), the committee got together and pretty much rewrote the whole damn thing. This is where IT got gummed up (it's getting better now). And believe me, you can talk about "legacy equipment" and other stuff til you're blue in the face, but claim submission is how doctors and hospitals get paid, that's where IT has been spending all of its time freaking out.
Shut up, you have no idea what you are talking about.
how do you integrate 9 and 10 digit data
ICD-9 and ICD-10 are revisions of the standard, not field lengths.
ICD-9 is 3-5 characters in length, ICD-10 is 3-7 characters.
IIRC, ICD-9 will start with 'E' or 'V', else it's ICD-10.
simple, run date check, add a leading zero if before set date. If data is modified prompt for new code before saving. Not all old data will have enough information to be moved to the new system but this makes migration pretty simple. Only thing left is correlate old and new code categories which is probably tedious, but should be pretty straight forward.
While in theory data migration sounds easy; in practice it is far more complicated. I did a project for a financial migration where SSN's were used as employee ids (US company); so the IT types used that as the key to create the new records. After they did that they discovered so many duplicate records that manual analysis took forever. At first they did not believe my rule of 10's when it come to data migration - it will take 10x as long, cost 10x as much as in the plan and you will delete at least 10% o
You don't work in the medical field do you? ICD codes are built into a lot of medical applications. For a famous slash dot car analogy, this is like trying to convert a U.S. car manufacturing plant over to use all metric.
So it's something sensible that should have been done a long time ago?
I actually do work in the "medical field", and more specifically, "medical informatics". ICD-10 has been coming for a LONG LONG time. It didn't take anyone by surprise.
How about code that interfaces the db? If existing code is hard-coded, how would you change that?
So thats it, its embedded in the core of the system so it is to never change again for the rest of mankinds existence?
Uhm, no - you eat the cost of changing over from poor prior decisions and design a system that is resilient to change this time.
The question isn't so much whether or not to design a system to be resilient to change, it's about exactly how resilient it should be.
In Y2K, many year fields were update from 2 to 4 digits. When the year 10,000 comes, we'll have to eat the cost of our poor design choices again.
Obviously, it completely unrealistic to expect any current software to run in the year 10,000. Just as it was completely realistic back in the 70's and 80's to expect any current software to run in the year 2000.
Perhaps a bit extreme
this is why we use XML and full-word data types. it doesn't matter then how many digits the year has as long as the hardware can accommodate.
nobody cares if we have a new calendar if we store time_t
You mean the time_t about to end in 2038?
Also, time_t (even the 64-bit one) is a bit troublesome to use when storing DOB's before 1970.
And again; the problem isn't simply making a field bigger, it's about suddenly having to deal with two incompatible codes at the same time instead of one.
You mean the time_t about to end in 2038?
Also, time_t (even the 64-bit one) is a bit troublesome to use when storing DOB's before 1970.
so store a negative offset that looks like it
My desktop is 64 bit now... one of my notebooks could be but isn't, a laptop here could be but isn't... probably should be since it's running Linux.
Anyway it was a bit TIC but seriously, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!
The article is actually pretty comprehensive and gives specific examples. I can easily see how this can turn into a nightmare. Everything in the hospital has to understand the new language. It has to be in the administrators excel spreadsheets, and the laptops used by the ambulance drivers, and the x-ray equipment. All the interfaces need to be validated because fuckups cost lives.
My thoughts exactly. It would only be a burden if you had to update the old records.
That being said, however, I'm sure that shit is hardcoded all over the damn place.
Medicare, like any insurer may change it's paperwork in an effort to make the process more accountable. As it's an international standard that has already progressed to ICD-10-CM, it's probably about time.
the people who dreamt up the new coding system didn't even try to make it backward-compatible with the old one, hence the headaches and waste of money.
If ICD-10 was a superset of ICD-9, in a way similar to how UTF-8 is a superset of ASCII, the transition would be perfectly seamless and painless...
the people who dreamt up the new coding system didn't even try to make it backward-compatible with the old one, hence the opportunity for systems houses and consultants to make a lot of money.
There, fixed that for you.
". However, with this system it will be tough to find doctors who overbill or put in information that is untrue."
no it won't, in fact it will be easier.
Kind of like the IPv6 transition, eh?
It's almost always impossible to super set when you are doing a refinements of a dataset of that reflects real world messy 'objects'
Most people don't understand that. Sadly, A lot of 'software people' don't get it either.
Except it's not possible. I suggest looking into why it isn't.
An 'unfunded mandate,' the change over to ICD-10 codes is a multi-year project for hospitals, state Medicaid organizations, and insurance providers. The effort, which affects dozens of core systems, is taxing IT operational budgets at a time when shops are already under the gun to implement electronic health records."
This is good as well. Insurance company profits are ridiculous and hopefully this will force them to invest a lot of those profits in the American economy to do this work. Complaining about expense when replacing systems in a organization that is fraught with malpractice (misdiagnosis, amputating the wrong limb, dispensing the wrong medication) is ridiculous. This is akin to the government complaining about the cost of replacing infrastru
Actually Insurance companies wont be involved in re-engineering the medical coding. They just get the bill.
Not true. The insurance company I worked for had a 3 year project to implement ICD-10 and it went relatively smoothly, and was not any more difficult than any of our other IT projects. It's just a project like any other project. Planned, budgeted, executed. Nothing to see here.
What TFA and other commentors don't seem to get is that the health industry is *massively regulated* and beurocratic. They have to deal with things like this *all the time*.
Between Medicare/Medicaid requirements, HIPAA, Health
The misattribution of the reason for rising costs in health care is unfortunate. The fact that government as a payor is in this system is one of the main reasons costs rise as such a rate.
I work on the revenue side at a fairly large health system, and due to our population we have approximately 50% of our patients privately insured, and close to 50% are government insured. (There are very few people coming in the doors who truly have no coverage, despite what the politicians would have you believe). The privately insured generally repay approximately what's billed, but for the government paid accounts, we would do well to recover 50%, 40% is a better guess. This is because the government solves its own budgetary problems by withholding increases to its medical payouts. In this area, we're still being paid at 2002 rates in 2011. We never withhold a needed service, so we just eat the cost.
But we have to make the books balance somehow. We're non-profit, but we still have to keep the lights on. Charge rates have to go up across the board, and the money lost on literally every government paid patient who walks in the door is then made up by the privately insured. You hear about $8 tylenol being billed, well, tylenol has to cost $8 because you're actually buying a whole bottle and sharing it with everyone else.
I think we're going to continue to have a huge gap of misunderstanding while people continue to emote over "big business" and "fat cats" and "obscene profits" without understanding what the real financial issues are on the ground.
Posted as AC due to PHB concerns.
This is a misconception. The United States has the ighest share of private spending per individual on health care, yet it has the highest costs and only middling health outcomes [washingtonpost.com].
Every system in the developed world has a private spending component, usually through insurance and copays just like here, but most also have a government payer either as the single payer or more commonly as a backstop, last resort payer; all systems more firmly regulate costs and practices and all systems at least have independent boards to assure efficacy of treatments (we call those "death panels.") There's no empirical evidence that people make rational decisions about their own health care spending.
This is overlooked time and again.
". The fact that government as a payor is in this system is one of the main reasons costs rise as such a rate."
no, it is not. In fact, it's cheaper.
Do you know why Canada gets cheap Meds? because the government is the payor? do you know why the VA gets meds cheaper then Canada? the government is the payor.
"(There are very few people coming in the doors who truly have no coverage, despite what the politicians would have you believe)."
Wow, you don't see the fallacy there? really?
What nonsense.
"You hear about
The insurance companies will only use this as a reason to raise rates. I presume in the long run it will make the system more efficient, but I do not believe it will make it cheaper simply because the insurance companies will eat any efficiencies and fail to pass them on to the consumer or the taxpayer.
If insurance companies were good for the health system, it would be fixed by now. They aren't and they need to be kneecapped.
As a quick note, misdiagnosis and malpractice are very rarely related. The other two things you list are gross misconduct. The wrong amputation is pretty rare but a devastating event. The wrong medication is much more common, but is rapidly becoming LESS common at least in hospitals with multiple error checks in the system to prevent it. Many modern medication administration records software systems force the administrator to verify identify via barcode scanners etc and then verify the drug using the sa
This is good as well. Insurance company profits are ridiculous and hopefully this will force them to invest a lot of those profits in the American economy to do this work. Complaining about expense when replacing systems in a organization that is fraught with malpractice (misdiagnosis, amputating the wrong limb, dispensing the wrong medication) is ridiculous. This is akin to the government complaining about the cost of replacing infrastructure when the alternative is your car plunging in the river on your morning commute.
Insurance companies are not the villains making an obscene 5% profit, they will probably increase profit once this system is in place as they only have to change a few programs, over billing and other risks will be mitigated due to better identification of injuries. Hospitals and other health care providers are the one's who will feel the pain as they have to update all their systems many of which hard coded the values in and so every program has to be updated and tested to the medical standards (which is w
Insurance companies make more the 5% profit, it's Pharma that makes around 5%
Also, that profit is after bonuses, and other expenses that don't exist in a government system.
Insurance company profits are ridiculous
Insurance company profits are less than 4%.
Which means that the only reason to invest in their stock is that they're not likely to tank anytime soon. It's not because of the huge profits they make.
Insurance companies (or their subcontractors) will invest exactly enough money to make their systems find any inconsistency or miscoding in the insurance claim and reject the entire claim on that basis. They will not help hospitals or other care providers update their systems.
For example, my mother works in a small town pharmacy. One insurance claim was rejected by an insurance auditor because the date that the patient picked up the prescription was written on the back of a form rather than the front. It
It may be an "unfunded mandate", but it will probably help eliminate thousands of medical errors (mistaken amputations, incorrect medicine given to patients, etc.)
Not really - the mistakes are made prior to the coding. Now you can just be more accurate about what was mistakenly done so you get paid for it.
No. Not at all.
Coding, is just a manner of recording in a concise format, what diagnosis was made, and what treatment was given. This way the data can be used for billing and statistics.
I have never, ever seen medical codes (be them ICD9, ICD10, SNOMED) ever used by doctors, medical technologists, or anyone with any direct influence over patient care. They aren't used in X-ray equipment (so there's no risk of incorrect examinations or incorrect interpretation), blood-work analysis machines, etc.
Being an MD, and part-time software developer, I've done a lot of work with medical databases. I looked at coding of educational files, and being able to import selected educational cases directly out of the hospital's electronic record system, in anonymised fasion, into an educational system. The first thing I noticed was that the coding (in this case ICD9) was extremely inaccurate, and often wildly misleading - fewer than half the codes I looked at were correct. The reason was that the coding was done by clerical staff, who read through the charts, and worked out what codes to use. These clerical staff weren't doctors, nurses, or other people trained in medical diagnosis. As a result, they would frequently misinterpret the charts and the wrong codes would be sent to billing and for government health statistics.
"Being an MD, and part-time software developer,"
Dear lord, stop. I worked with a lot of MDs who said that to me. Stop doing it. Stick to proper medical care.
Do you know why IDC9 is such a mess? because it had a bunch of "Being an MD, and part-time software developer," involved in its creation.
I know I know, you know what you are doing, those other MDs and part time Software developers don't.
The effort, which affects dozens of core systems, is taxing IT operational budgets at a time when shops are already under the gun to implement electronic health records.
For the most part, this isn't my problem.
ICD-10 has been on the radar for a while now. At least a couple years. And it's Federally mandated. So we didn't have any problem adding the necessary funds to our budget this year.
Each of our HIS vendors has already got ICD-10 stuff ready to go. We'll have to pay them for their time, or a software release, or whatever... But, as far as my own labor is concerned, it'll basically involve giving them remote access or throwing a disc in the drive.
Most of the labor involved is in our coding department. They're going to have to send folks out to get (re)trained in the ICD-10 stuff. They are, understandably, a little stressed. But they've been working on this for a while, too.
He is just repeating what Drs bitch about' Too busy, too busy. What they mean is 'It's beneath me.'
Your problems is in the input method and tracking.
Also, OF COURSE THE DR SHOULD DO THIS. They just don't want to and like to bitch and moan.
It's a small trade off in overall time. Yeah, slower up fronts, but more accuracy and speed down the line.
If they don't have the time, then they are understaffed and should deal with it appropriately.
You know what? there was a time where doctors where too busy to wash there hands.
being compared to Y2K as an IT project that is nearly impossible to complete on time.
That sounds like good copy to a lowly journalist, but as someone "who was there" during Y2K, what was "nearly impossible"? We knew it was coming, we planned, the bosses mostly used it as an excuse to semi-fraudulently ram upgrades thru and as a powerful weapon to grab more budget money. It was way, big time, trivial.
Besides, just think about it. The entire world's IT department, all those guys who can't close open relays, blah blah blah all somehow 100% successfully did the nearly impossible... yeah uh h
While this is definitely a huge pain, I have little sympathy for those complaining about the timing of this when the standard was finalized in 1992.
ICD-10 has been out for nearly 20 years. There was a 5 year timeline to get ICD-10 implemented, and there was likely a few years of discussion with major Medi* billers before that to let them know this was coming along.
Much like the FCC and HDTV, health care companies must have ignored the mandates until it was too late, whined and cried about how they couldn't meet such a strict deadline and pretty please can we extend it for another 5 years. Repeat until our health care records system is completely unusable.
Though, wow, I would have thought VistA would have ICD-10, but it's being bolted on now. Strange.
"Quite frankly, the hold up is it's a big undertaking and it took them a while to get under way. Everybody's started, but a large percentage of hospitals are in the heavy analysis stage or they're just starting," said Casey Corcoran, vice president commercial solutions for healthcare at General Dynamics Information Technology, a vendor offering ICD-10 consulting services.
"heavy analysis": heavy procrastination
More and more I keep hearing "unfunded mandate" or "harsh deadline", but experience is translating it as "I waited till the last minute and now I'm screwed."
Do you have any idea how some medical centers operate? The small ones are usually nimble enough to change on a drop of a hat. It's the big ones that use many, many closed source, proprietary software for records and then hire loads of contractors to write more closed, proprietary middleware to link them all together that are going to have the problems. Most of these medical software companies go out of business after having sold their 'product' to about 2-5 large clients so finding somebody that understands
When I left the hospital IT in the last decade, they were still writing everything in a niche language developed in-house by a power company in the next state. Nothing in the way of data integrity developed since the 60's with relational databases, and all of the productivity of a 40 year old language. This was the largest healthcare organization in the state.
Oh, they were going to upgrade to Visual Basic for some of the new code when I bolted for the door. Those who understood computer science were revi
See, that attitude is the problem.
When I worked in healthcare, I used good software design. If a MD wanted to change things, or wanted me to do it differently, I just asked them if they would personally take the liability if it cause someone to die.
Yes I pissed off a lot of MDS. and they stayed pissed all the way up until the started using my software; At which point they get a lot friendly, and on TWO separate times I got an apology. Wish was quite shocking.
Bottom line: Know software, and explain exactly w
maybe we can use this to pinpoint where you assholes waste so much cash
is that why you whine about it?
On the golf course?
Not directly but by buying whatever sales guy got chummy with the PHB and insists will fix everything. It generally cost more does less, is a giant pita to make work and follows no standards even there own.
I thought the 2009 stimulus package had $30 Billion which was to be paid to hospitals to update their systems? The only backup I have for this is an I, Cringley [cringely.com] article I read over the weekend but I'd feel he'd of all IT writers would be a reasonably reliable and impartial source. Definitely a far more reliable source than the average Slashdot submission.
The party adjourned to a hot tub, yes. Fully clothed, I might add. -- IBM employee, testifying in California State Supreme Court


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Have you come across aspects of work which seem ridiculous to you? I guess a common example could be procedures that are followed seemingly blindly, often because it's the way it's always been done. If you have, you've almost certainly had some great ideas about how to improve things…yet may have been left with the thought: "but I just don't have the power to change it"
Via Kevin Watson


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Same here.
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3903/milkywaycentercomp.jpg [imageshack.us]
I looked hard, but I still can't find the black hole....
For a while there, they tried to change the pronunciation of Uranus 'Your Anus' to 'Urinous' But that didn't help much...
It's probably a shit planet anyway. No beaches or discos, bad service, high tipping fees etc.
A printed map? Don't they know that this is already obsolete? [space.com]
Can't we get this electronically on a Tom Tom, so we can find our way home?
You can, but the GPS might not behave as expected.
Astronomy [feeddistiller.com] Feed @ Feed Distiller [feeddistiller.com]
and yet, somehow darkly disturbing.
What has been seen...
I can't but I can see a giant mutant star-goat!
and yet, somehow darkly disturbing.
Well yeah, probably because just to the upper right of the center of the image, you can see what is clearly either the Death Star or Unicron heading right for us!
You can download much larger versions of this image from the following link:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/28/image/b/warn/ [hubblesite.org]
I'm downloading the 50 MB TIFF at the moment.
Wow, what resolution is your desktop to use that as the wallpaper?
Maybe he wants to print it poster-sized. At 300 dpi, the largest image would be 32"x16"
Wow, what resolution is your desktop to use that as the wallpaper?
One day, big enough.
. . . there's no sign at all of Wisdom Chits.
(I wonder how many people will get that reference without having to Google.)
and how many will still not get it after Googling it !!
(did you Google it yourself?)
Where's the Great Barrier?
The Keck I telescope quietly pouts. "We're pretty great," it says. "We're a great observatory."
"I know, I know," says the Keck II consolingly. "It's just a name; don't let it get you down. We'd beat them in a second if we weren't too big to put in orbit."
"Are you saying I'm fat?" Keck I cries.
"Come on, that's a good thing for a telescope, am I right?" the Keck says encouragingly. "We're the fattest!"
"Yeah!" Keck I says brightly, spirits seemingly lifted. But as Keck II returns to observations, Keck I still feels the sting of not being in the spotlight.
Later, scientists analyzing data from Keck I find minor anomalies, caused by unexplained water droplets on the primary.
does anyone know where can I download huge versions of these kind of images? I always wanted to make a poster, I thought of getting a big enough one to make it 300 or 600 dpi at a large size (at least 1 meter width), and have it printed.
Posted already, but in case you missed it: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/28/image/b/warn/ [hubblesite.org]
I have been thinking about trying to get a Milky Way composite photo large enough to print and mount as a false-ceiling in my home office. Then have it backlit so the night lighting in the room is worth kicking back every now and then to stare at in wonder.
Blacklight paint!
1 cm = 1 megafuckload kilometers = 0.621371192 megafuckload miles
Fixed that for you
Depends on how far away they are.
There's an annotated image here [hubblesite.org], which inexplicably has a scale in light years/parsecs. I mean, it must be talking about at a particular depth, maybe the dust cloud the Hubble imaged? The arc-minutes/seconds scale, at least, makes perfect sense.
Where's the black hole in this picture?
The Universe is flat, fool!
"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space...
Pfft. From TV I know we should be able to enhance the image enough so that we can see individual aliens by enhancing that pixel enough.
The entire picture appears about 45 arcminutes across. So if the full Moon drifted in front of this picture, it would cover all but the outer edges.
Anyone know where the area of the supermassive black hole at the center of the milky way is supposed to be located in this photo? Anyone with a version of this pointing out various popularly known astronomical bodies in the field? Some perspective would be cool to see on this starmap.
right next to the super stargate that was photo shopped out.
[...] to commemorate the 400 years since 1609, when Galileo looked up.
Galileo was born in 1564 [wikipedia.org]. I'm pretty sure that in 45 years he had at least one chance to look up...
Anyway, pretty picture. Now, in a few years when pollution and terrestrial lights has hidden the details of the night sky even in the remote, uninhabited regions, our grandchildren will say:
Grandad, did the sky really look so beautiful back then?
And we will bring out a wide, warm smile and say:
Not even remotely!
If so, it's already happened... we just don't know it yet.
Quick! Sell the location to the Melnorme before our Ur-Quan overlords detect our shields aren't working!!
Any idea where, on this map, the bagel birds live?
I browse
I weep for the future.
For what it's worth, I agree entirely. I try to avoid commenting on articles where I can't add anything informative, and I'd certainly prefer it if more people would do the same.
If you suspect a man, don't employ him.


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Dr. Elena Koles is an allergist / immunologist treating patients near Skokie that suffer from allergies and other diseases affecting the immune system.
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Dr. Elena Koles graduated from Other in 1972.
Dr. Koles has one office in Illinois where she specializes in Allergy / Immunology and Internal Medicine.
As an allergist / immunologist in Skokie, Dr. Elena Koles offers specialized care for allergic reactions and immunological disorders in patients of all ages. Dr. Koles may treat and manage conditions like asthma, hives, and a range of allergic reactions like environmental or food allergies. She may also treat rhinitis & sinusitis, as well as other disorders that affect the body's immune system.
The specialty of internal medicine is an area of primary care for adults. Dr. Koles specializes in diagnosing and treating cross-system illnesses that may affect multiple organ systems. When necessary, Dr. Koles can also refer patients to specialists when medically needed. As an example, patients with severe allergies could be referred to an allergist for added diagnostic tests or treatment options.
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To the editor:
Collier County has announced that on Feb. 28, the traffic light cameras will be coming down. Collier County has ended a 10-year contract and much controversy. They claim that the only function of the traffic light cameras was to monitor traffic and improve the flow. However there was 40,000 citations given out during this period even though Florida law prohibits the use of cameras to enforce speed violations or any other law.
One of the local news agencies did an investigation regarding the number of accidents at these traffic lights and found that the cameras had in no way reduced them. The cameras were debated in Lee County and I, for one, am thankful that we avoided another money-wasting endeavor for 10 years.
Mary West
Cape Cora