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May 20, 2018
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Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener
Summer 2007
Gardening for Monarchs
Gardening for Monarchs
Monarch butterfly adults feed on
(and many other species), while larvae require milkweed leaves. Planting for Monarchs can help these animals as they face habitat destruction and limited food sources in industrial-agricultural monocultures. Photo by Larry Lack.
by Larry Lack and Lee Ann Ward
Shortly after moving to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, five years ago, while visiting friends in Carleton County, we learned that the exquisitely beautiful Monarch butterfly, threatened in much of its North American range by over-development, chemical agriculture and habitat destruction, was also struggling in New Brunswick, where milkweed, its favorite and necessary food, has been eliminated from many farm fields where herbicides are used. Our friends showed us their milkweed patch and told us this attractive weed, with its striking, feathery-filmy seed pods, had enabled them to draw, feed and sustain a modest population of monarchs, whose bold black and orange wing design, splashed with white dots and highlights, more than justifies the species' regal name.
Over the next few years our garden was visited by a various butterflies, including Painted Ladies, Tiger Swallowtails, and even a few noisy Sphinx Moths that often are mistaken for hummingbirds as they hover, buzz and extract nectar with their long proboscis. Several times in those years we thought we glimpsed Monarchs, but they were far away, and we could not be sure.
Milkweed grows in coastal Charlotte County, but it's more common inland, where summer temperatures are higher. So we asked our friends, whose farm slopes down to the St. John River near Woodstock, to send us some milkweed seed. A fat envelope full of pods and seeds arrived, and quite late in the fall, we spread the seeds on a 3- x 4-foot plot in the garden and covered them lightly with soil. The following spring they popped up and grew enthusiastically, crowding one another so that we had to thin them several times.
Meanwhile our bed of
(purple coneflowers) had hit its stride, and by June it was producing scores of showy pink and purple, long-lasting, pollen- and nectar-laden blooms. We didn't know that
is a favorite nectar source for Monarchs until, soon after its cone-shaped flowers started opening, we began seeing adult Monarchs perched, wings folded, feeding hungrily, sometimes for several minutes, on one coneflower after another.
About the same time we started noticing that Monarchs were beating their wings, pushing against the mesh of the deer fence around part of the garden that includes the milkweed patch. After some valiant efforts to get through the mesh, some Monarchs found the top of the fence, flew over it and headed straight to the milkweed. Several weeks later I discovered the results of their visits to these plants, which were not yet in flower, but which the Monarchs had obviously sensed and honed in on.
Monarch caterpillar feeding on milkweed leaves. Photo by Larry Lack.
In mid-July I thinned the milkweed again, and when I went back a few days later to see if the plants had responded to the thinning and the subsequent rain, for the first time I saw the Monarch caterpillars.
They are as unusual and elegant as the adults they will become, about 3 ½ inches long, with a series of black, white and yellow stripes and shiny black "horns" at either end, behind each of their "heads." (Their real heads are mimicked by false ones at their tail ends.) These striking features warn predators that the caterpillar will sicken them, with glycosides absorbed from the milkweed.
Despite the similar appearance of their paired "front and rear" heads, it wasn't hard to tell which head was real. These fat "worms" are very active, swinging, squirming and crawling from branch to branch with prominent mouth parts moving rapidly from side to side, cutting jagged slices of the foliage as they move along the milkweed stems and leaves. Within four or five days, a dozen of these busy, clown-clad creatures had devoured almost half the milkweed foliage and left the decimated patch for parts unknown.
A few weeks later we found two Monarch chrysalises, or pupae, one attached to a broccoli stem, the other to the bottom of a leaf lying on a compost pile. These are among the most amazing insect life forms we've ever seen. One of our garden helpers, a young jeweler, remarked: "This thing is like a precious jewel."
The iridescent, almost glowing, pale green pupa case is shaped like a blunt cylinder or bullet about half the size of a human thumb, with a small hook at one end. It features tiny spots of gold flashing against the green, and an amazing and delicate dotted line of gold, like stitched gold thread running halfway around the circumference of the cylinder near the top. Add to all this beauty the fact that the pupae were gently throbbing, likely close to releasing the folded butterflies inside, and this discovery nearly knocked our socks off, presenting us with an intense, almost paranormal revelation of the miraculous pulsing heart of nature, the diverse and teeming insect world that secretly coexists with ours in the grassy, leafy shadows hidden in the glare of our narrow, half-conscious human preoccupations.
Monarchs east of the Rockies migrate in huge flocks to a mountain range in central Mexico, to hibernate suspended in great bunches from certain trees. In spring, they take a second, shorter, northward flight, laying eggs en route to start the cycle over.
The lowly milkweed is the key to attracting these extraordinary animals. Try it yourself. Monarchs are among the most beautiful and inspiring visitors you will ever get the chance to host.
Plants to Attract Butterflies
In addition to
Echinacea purpurea,
Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
(1992) lists, among others, the following plants to attract butterflies:
Herbaceous flowers:
hollyhock, milkweed, butterfly weed, aster, oxeye daisy, rudbekia (black-eyed Susans), sunflower, daylily, lavender, mints, phlox, bee balm, sage, goldenrod, French marigold, thyme, verbena and zinnia.
Woody plants:
honeysuckle (don't plant invasive species!), sumac, willow, lilac, basswood (linden) and blueberry.
To this list we'd add flowering tobacco; false spirea – a hardy shrub native to the Maritimes; and anise hyssop – a handsome herb with large, rodlike blue blooms. Anise hyssop leaves make a great licorice/mint tea, while the flowers draw butterflies and, like false spirea and tobacco, feed dozens of species of pollinators.
With plants like these and a good insect identification guide, you'll have hours of happy backyard bug observing in store when your gardens bloom.
– LL and LAW
This article was originally published in
Rural Delivery.
Larry and Lee Ann live in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
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subset: commoncrawl


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One thing I noted is all 61 AF points Dual Crossed are not available on all lenses. The manual has a list of compatible lenses and breaks them down into groups as to what lenses do what with this camera.
You seriously spent $3500 on your first camera? That's ballsy. If this is your first camera then you should check out everything, read the whole manual and take about 10,000 pictures and you'll get the hang of it.
Quote from: Axilrod on May 18, 2012, 10:37:49 AMYou seriously spent $3500 on your first camera? That's ballsy. If this is your first camera then you should check out everything, read the whole manual and take about 10,000 pictures and you'll get the hang of it. That ain't so hard, I bought 7D as my very first DSLR and after 2K shots I started to get hang of it really nicely and learned to use it properly.But it was only body out there what filled my needs from camera.
Hmmm..I'm not so sure about putting the camera on P for the first 10k shots and everything on center focus - I beg to differ with Mt. Spokane. That's what my neighbor did and is afraid to try anything else since he bought the camera years ago. He spent $3k on a 20D, kit lens and flash a the time of release and shoots everything in P. Of course this is all a matter of matter of opinion but you could have bought a G12 for that type of stuff.The camera has loads of features - I might suggest you explore the hell out of that camera and take note of what you've chosen and your results to revert back if need be or alter. Then you can improve from there. Overtime try, sample and play with most if not all settings - it's got the versatility of a one man band and will offer creativity for all. Read a lot and check out some of the videos on B&H and usa.canon.com - that's where I got some great tips from Canon's experts such as Rudy when I first acquired the 7D. He actually speaks of how to break away from recomposing from center focus which I have and how to use each of the AF groups & points within the camera and their unique purposes. You can always reset back your settings to something more conventional or factory defaults if dissatisfied with any of your results.
I'd suggest reading a photography as an art form book first- Like Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure".It's a great read and the information is timeless. The foundation explained in the book will help you understand how to see & think about light and exposure in a more organic way.


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Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 7:00 AM Pacific on January 29, 2013. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 1 hour. This will impact the following services:
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We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.
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- Home /
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100% Natural Sea Sponge ... because your baby's bath shouldn't be a toxic one.
No plastic, petroleum, chemical toxins or polymers in this sponge for your baby! And this one won't sit in our landfills for the next 500+ years. Incredibly gentle + absorbent, a natural sea sponge is the most natural choice for bathing newborns and babies. Hand-picked for size and quality, the natural silk sponge creates a luxuriant lather with just a drop of baby wash or soap.
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Now, this time between seasons, is when garden plots everywhere are brimming over with bounty — and choices. Use this golden moment to experiment with all that growing greenery. Don't relegate vegetables to side dishes, let 'em be the stars of dinner.
There's plenty of inspiration out there that you can reap for your own dietary advantage, however you define it. Cooks, chefs and cookbook authors are expanding the boundaries of what it means to enjoy a vegetable-centric diet. At one end, it might be all about going vegan — no animal products at all, including honey or dairy. At the other, it might be cooking just one dinner a week where meat or fish or poultry isn't the star protein.


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Via: TV Guide
Nothing will keep Elementary's Sherlock Holmes from solving a mystery — even if that means he has to risk his own health to do so.
Elementary Scoop: What happens when Watson's job ends?
That's exactly what Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) will do on Thursday's episode when faced with possibility of not working a case because he has a terrible cold. Will Watson (Lucy Liu) be able to stop him from risking his well-being?
Check out the exclusive sneak peek below to find out…
Other Links From TVGuide.com
Read full story at: TV Guide
Posted: December 5th, 2012


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It is a beautiful day in South Florida, perfect for football. There were not a thousand Cleveland Browns fans outside the stadium as a drove in -- defined as people wearing a Browns jersey or dog faces.
So stuff is good so far!
It's time to have some fun, folks. Let us hope the Dolphins have some fun. The Dolphins did not have much fun earlier in the season, but I write in my column today that Tony Sparano's team has focused on having some fun while on the field the last couple of weeks.
Brandon Marshall, prominent in that he's eager to have fun, is not expected to play today. He is questionable, which raises questions about his availability, but he was on the field and running around. Curious.
He seems to be ready to go but the Dolphins may hold him out for preventative measures. He missed last week's game with a hamstring injury.
[Update: Marshall is inactive.]
I do not believe Channing Crowder plays today. He was doubtful with a knee injury this week. Al Harris is also not likely to play today as he is doubtful with a hamstring injury.
{Update: Crowder is inactive.]
I'll give you the update on those guys 90 minutes prior to kickoff when the team announces the active roster and its inactive players.
[Update: the full list of inactives is Brandon Marshall, Al Harris, Crowder, Ryan Baker, Chris Baker, Eric Ghiaciuc, Mikey Shuler, and Matt Kopa.]
And, of course, there is a live blog on this site today. We start below in the comments section.
Let's have fun!


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PETA Condemns Pokemon For Promoting Animal Abuse 418
SchrodingerZ writes "PETA, the same group that last November protested Mario for 'wearing fur,' has condemned the Pokémon media franchise and video game series. In light of the recent release of Pokemon Black and White Versions 2, the activist group is protesting that the Pokemon game series 'paints a rosy picture of what amounts to thinly veiled animal abuse.' As many of us know Pokemon is about young children who capture wild animals for the sole purpose of having them battle in non-fatal sparing matches. 'Much like animals in the real world, Pokémon are treated as unfeeling objects and used for such things as human entertainment and as subjects in experiments. The way that Pokémon are stuffed into pokéballs is similar to how circuses chain elephants inside railroad cars and let them out only to perform confusing and often painful tricks that were taught using sharp steel-tipped bullhooks and electric shock prods,' says a statement from the group. Ironically within Pokemon B/W 2 there an organization known as Team Plasma , which deals with taking Pokemon and retuning them to the wild. PETA is so up in arms that they have even created an anti-pokemon parody game in which you play as an escaped Pokemon battling your trainer. I recommend trying it, just for the laughs."


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The 24-year-old striker has been heavily linked with a move to the Swans with midfielder Leon Britton already admitting the transfer would be a massive "statement of intent" by the club. That statement now appears to have been made with Bony having been pictured with a Swansea shirt and a deal taking the player to the Welsh club is expected to be finalised on Wednesday. The transfer was also confirmed by Bony's agent Dalibor Lacina, who revealed that his client was looking forward to the chance to work with Michael Laudrup. "We are glad that Bony has made the next step in his career after playing for Sparta Prague and Vitesse Arnhem," said Lacina, quoted in CTK. "The transfer to the Premier League he has made his dream come true. Swansea is a big move for him and he is looking forward to working with the coach Michael Laudrup." The fee is thought to be in the region of £12million
Soccer Headlines
Swansea agree deal for Ivory Coast international Wilfried Bony
Football 365 | Jul 10


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We've set up two ways to download our MP3 files:
Users with Lynx and browsers that don't support streaming audio can download the files and play them locally. Select the file marked "L".
Users with faster connections and support for streaming audio select the file marked "S".
- 10 / 02 / 12 -
The whole theme plays, Emmanuel discovers that nickels look different now, Mr. Edison tells why the station is in dire straits, the premiums being offered tonight, Emmanuel tries to explain biennial versus biannual, some of the talks being included in the DVD set, an excerpt from the Steve Rambam talk at HOPE Number Nine, Finn helps to get people to call in, how WUSB was where 2600 got its start, memories of previous Steve Rambam talks at HOPE conferences, Finn thanks tonight's pledgers. This show includes fundraising.
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- 10 / 09 / 12 -
Emmanuel tells Finn how to turn the speakers on in another room, Kyle is on the phone from Seattle where a long rain-free period continues, Kyle discusses the ongoing road construction projects in Seattle, Emmanuel remembers a particularly bad traffic jam in New York City, the application form for a concealed carry permit in Washington is frighteningly simple, New York City is ranked ahead of Seattle as a bike-friendly city, why Emmanuel thinks Seattle bicyclists are more intelligent, Kyle explains how to ride safely, examples of bad road planning, why this kind of spontaneous radio is worth supporting, yet another FM sports station is coming to New York, how organized sports mania seems to be taking over, Emmanuel wants the Yankees to stop winning, ideas on how to make things more well-rounded, Emmanuel recalls the Seattle Pilots, trying to remember where the Pilots relocated to, other Seattle teams and trivia, a rundown of the premiums being offered tonight, some of the history of WUSB, the absence of such stations on Long Island, the station's new slogan, the signs that campus buses have in the back, Kyle explains space diving and the postponed dive of Felix Baumgartner, the balloon he was supposed to go up in is 55 stories tall, a new SpaceX vehicle is on its way to the space station, the Mars rover has discovered something bright on the ground, remembering John Lennon. This show includes fundraising.
Download It Now!
- 10 / 16 / 12 -
The second presidential debate is happening on Long Island tonight, reasons not to be too negative about the whole thing, Emmanuel's challenge to people who believe there's little difference between the two candidates, how the vice presidential debate went, explaining why Joe Biden won that debate, the strange results of initial polls, Google News wipes out a story Emmanuel was trying to read, Fox News reports that Romney continues to hold a lead over Obama, the fundraiser continues, a gigantic eyeball washes up on shore in Florida, a story about a man stealing a bottle of liquor in September runs in Newsday, trying to figure out how such a story made the paper, Emmanuel apologizes for a misstatement last week, the FBI reports a heist of 100 dollar bills that haven't even been released yet, a tragic story of online bullying and how this reflects on society, why social media shouldn't be used as a primary means of communication, the things that don't change. This show includes fundraising.
Download It Now!
- 10 / 23 / 12 -
Emmanuel and Finn work around a failing CD player, Emmanuel discovers the word "belay," how using such a word could get confusing, debating whether it's wrong to read a Facebook page that's left logged in at the station, Emmanuel has been watching old episodes of "Twilight Zone" on DVD, looking up the fate of old actors, questioning how the presidential candidates manage to have spontaneous exchanges with individuals that they later recount, Finn explains why he doesn't want to watch the debates, what Emmanuel finds interesting about organized sports, analyzing last night's debate, Finn confesses to reading the news at work, Emmanuel's issue with the way Starbucks indicates sizes, why Cold Stone Creamery is a cult, how people seem to go along with things too easily, Emmanuel's involvement with Kindle, how it's now impossible to buy an MP3 from a foreign country through Amazon, the fundraiser is continuing, examples of local radio stations that are no longer community stations, how noncommercial radio stations can become less relevant over time, why every pledge counts, a Soyuz rocket launches with aquatic life aboard, Tom Hanks drops the F-bomb on "Good Morning America," the reaction of the Parents Television Council, trying to find out what a baby hippopotamus is called, what Finn has planned for his show tonight, some of the people Finn has interviewed on his show over the years. This show includes fundraising.
Download It Now!
- 10 / 30 / 12 -
The university is one of the few places in the area that has power, Hurricane Sandy hit yesterday, Finn made it out from Queens, Emmanuel has no connectivity or power, over one hundred homes in Breezy Point were reportedly lost in a fire, Kyle is the link to the outside world, the phone systems have been tied up, what Emmanuel had to go through to make a phone call earlier in the day, cell phones aren't working in most places, noting how certain aspects of technology failed, around 90 percent of the area has no power, where listeners can find places with power, Emmanuel had a real adventure driving the Smart car through detours to get to the 2600 van, Kyle tries to get the station's stream, what Finn's drive out to Long Island was like in the morning, every road in Nassau County was closed overnight, debris is still falling from trees, why being outside was a really bad idea, the damage that a single branch of a tree was able to do to Emmanuel's house, opening up the phone lines, Finn describes what the East River was like in Astoria, Alphabet City was hit hard by flooding, how this is unprecedented in the area, giving authorities the benefit of the doubt when it comes to rerouting traffic, how listeners are faring, how losing old trees really affects people, there has been some progress in restoring power already, drivers have been very courteous without traffic lights, Spiney Norman makes an appearance, Internet connectivity was only recently restored to the campus, why it was a mistake to only allow one company to serve the university, Kyle reports on the reaction to the storm in the rest of the country, this may have been the biggest storm in the nation's history, the station is not streaming, trying to figure out how many people actually don't have power, why this storm was much worse than Hurricane Irene, how people can stay safe in the aftermath, last words of advice, a song about Sandy.
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Businesspeople in the Hudson Valley see the glass as half-empty, according to a survey by First Niagara Bank.
Businesspeople in the Hudson Valley see the glass as half-empty, according to a survey by First Niagara Bank.
CEOs, chief financial officers and senior managers from private companies in the Hudson Valley region, which spans from Westchester County to Columbia County, were only slightly less pessimistic about the economy than their counterparts in Buffalo, according to the survey.
About 38 percent of those surveyed in the Hudson Valley expect business conditions to worsen this year, according to the survey. Government regulation, followed by bad economic conditions, are identified as the biggest challenges for businesses in the region.
Businesspeople in Albany, Rochester and Syracuse were more optimistic about the economy than those in the Hudson Valley.
Overall, businesspeople in all upstate counties outside of New York City and Long Island said economic conditions in New York state have taken a step backward.
David Ring, managing director of enterprise banking for First Niagara, said the bank was surprised about the Hudson Valley's pessimism. The bank entered the region last year when it acquired about 100 branches in New York and Connecticut from HSBC. The bank acquired the branches, many of which are in the Hudson Valley, because it sees the area as a "very vital" part of New York state that quickly bounces back from economic hardships, Ring said.
This is the first time the bank has included the Hudson Valley in the survey.


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Posted 7 years ago
(224 items)
With the initials "BDG" this did not belong to a member of my family that I know of. The hanging pin portion of the Elgin watch does not appear to be gold but the watch is. I just though it looked kinda cool and wanted to share it. Thanks for taking a look.


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NORWALK, Ohio --
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Based in the Jupiter, Florida office of IRG Sports + Entertainment™, Donaldson can be reached at 561.578.5613 or email@example.com.
Copyright ©2018 AUTOSALES INC, dba Summit Racing Equipment
Ready to take your order at 1-800-230-3030 | Customer Service 1-800-517-1035


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ViewsClass Class
Office 2010
This is a .NET class or a member of a .NET class created when processing a COM coclass that is required by managed code for interoperability with the corresponding COM object. Use this class only when you have to access an earlier event in this class that has been subsequently extended in a later version of Outlook. Otherwise, use the .NET interface derived from the COM coclass. For information about the .NET interface, see Views.
Namespace: Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook
Assembly: Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook (in Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.dll)


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Glenn Danzig Pulls in Runaways Singer Cherie Currie for Duet
It's been mostly quiet on the Danzig front of late. The singer made headlines earlier this year for confronting a photographer at Bonnaroo, but for the most part he's kept to himself over the last few months.
However, proof that singer Glenn Danzig is alive and well and recording came from an unexpected source over the weekend, as the Runaways' Cherie Currie posted a photo from the studio where she just finished recording a part of Danzig's upcoming album.
Currie stated, "Glenn Danzig and I at the studio recording a duet for his new album out this fall. GREAT GUY!" It is not known where Currie's contribution will turn up, though earlier this year Danzig was said to be working on a covers album.
Back in early May, the hard-rock singer hinted at a new collection titled 'Devil's Angels,' in which he planned to cover songs by such wide-ranging artists as Elvis Presley and Black Sabbath. "[I'm] just having a good time taking songs and giving them a different life or a different dimension," said Danzig at the time. "I just do what I feel like doing, as long as I don't just cover it, because that's boring to me. I wanna take it and change it and give it some other kind of thing. Otherwise just leave it alone."
Danzig issued the title track to 'Devil's Angels' earlier this year.


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Book Review: The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood 44
|The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
|James Gleick
|A wandering well-written historical who's who of Information Theory salted with references to hot topics.
Chapter one provided me a piece of anecdotal information that I had actually never come across. It concerns the talking drums of Africa, an apparently ill-documented form of communication that existed in Africa. Rather, I had heard of the talking drums but never considered it in a context of information theory. It appears to be one of the earliest forms of long distance communication, predating all telegraphs. A drummer in one village would drum out the syllables and nuances in a lengthy sentence and often repeat it a few times. Drummers in distant villages would hear this and try to parse out what the drums were saying. As a result of this, they wouldn't just say 'moon' they would say something like 'the shiny white face that rises in the night' or something lengthier to ensure that the message was interpreted correctly. An ingenuous method of communicating, the chapter oddly never mentions parity bits or error detection, two things I basically equated with the additional words that were redundant. It does, of course, return to our hero Shannon who would later investigate the redundancy in the English language.
The next chapter concerns Walter J. Ong and his work concerning the persistence of information. Gleick discusses the find at Uruk and the subsequent deciphering of the cuneiform tablets. What was interesting about these tablets, however, is that they were inane things like bills and recipes. But when Donald Knuth saw one at a museum, he called what he read 'an algorithm.' The third chapter jumps to 1604 and the publishing of the very first dictionaries. Although amusing, this chapter merely extrapolates how difficult it was for us to codify our language (and still is nigh impossible). At the end Gleick translates this effort to cyberspace and similar problems.
The next chapter introduces Charles Babbage and his difference engine. To keep it interesting, Gleick includes excerpts from Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Lord Byron. And oddly enough there was some mentor relationship between Charles Babbage and Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace. Concerning Babbage, Gleick calls Ada 'first his acolyte and then his muse' for some reason this odd relationship is preserved in The Information. Lady Lovelace had many intuitions into how symbolic logic and algorithms would work in the future but I found much of this chapter to be concerning relationships and excerpts from letters. To give you an example of what I'm talking about, I learned that Ada died many years before Babbage of cancer of the womb and she took laudanum and cannabis to ease the pain. What does this have to do with The Information? You also learn that Babbage told a friend before his death that he would gladly give up whatever time he had left if he could spend three days five centuries in the future. Only one of the many stories of foolishly optimistic hope this book sells to the reader.
The next chapter involves the evolution of the telegraph. And the bulk of it concentrated on a telegraph that was quite unknown to me. The French Telegraph — or rather system of signs from high buildings — that could send messages by signaling from village to village. Aside from being an extrapolation of a binary signal from ages of yore like the lighting of fires on elevated land or smoke signals, I didn't really understand why the politics and problems of these devices were explored so in depth. When we finally get to the electric telegraph, we get some odd (albeit interesting) details about it instead of the theory. From the abbreviation of common sentences down to codewords to the fight of patenting the signaling mechanism, Gleick again avoids any sort of real numerical or even technical analysis of how humans were progressing from one bandwidth level to another. Cost per letter drove some odd advancements like acronyms and the investigation of how words could be encoded into less symbols. It ends with a reference to George Boole and logic as these symbolic representations lead the way for words to be replaced and turned into equations.
The book moves on to Claude Shannon and briefly touches on his work on signal noise. It jumps around to Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica and Gödel's subsequent destruction of any dreams of representing everything with symbols by way of his famous Incompleteness Theorem. It goes on to talk about Weyl, Nyquist, Hartley, etc continuing the veritable who's who while providing very little actual knowledge of their work. Who could mention Gödel without also talking about Nazis? Certainly not Gleick. The politics of the time, the references back to Lovelace and Babbage dominate this chapter leaving very little room for any actual Information Theory. On page 201 you'll find H = n log s. Although you won't find more than a paragraph of explanation nor any extrapolations on that formula. Thsi chapter did yield something interesting — a piece of paper from Shannon's estimates of data storage on a logarithmic scale. While some estimates are close, others are very far off but he was already thinking of DNA as information storage. The anecdotes and quotations from peers of the time are impressively researched and cross referenced but at what cost?
The next chapter concentrates on the enemy: Norbert Wiener from MIT. He comes across as a cigar smoking, condescending, self involved, snobby professor who's primary contribution is a now defunct 'science' once called Cybernetics. He's quick to identify other's works as derivatives as his own and is presented as the antithesis to Claude Shannon who is portrayed as modest, cautious, well spoken. On top of that, not only is Shannon's work not defunct it is the basis of so much of everything that is useful today. Gleick portrays Wiener so negatively I almost wondered if the condescending label 'wiener' was somehow related to Norbert. This chapter delves into conferences once held and the interactions between the participants. While it lead for great humor in Shannon/Wiener interactions, I don't understand why they were relayed to the reader. Shannon's rat and its demonstration resulted in interesting remarks but I don't understand why the reader is given so much insight into these proceedings of Cybernetics when the field turned out to be little more than buzzwords. An interesting note, however, is how some of the members would let the media run away with phrases that the scientist had never actually said. They would do this almost strategically to both validate this new field and provide interest from Universities and funding sources ... but should anyone corner them and ask for clarifications they could always truthfully say that they never said that verbatim. I wonder how often this happens today?
This next chapter on Maxwell's demon and entropy was actually a little enlightening in that it provided a fairly clear discussion of entropy (physics) and entropy (information). In addition to this correlation, it discusses why it's often negentropy or negative entropy. Leo Szilárd's work is discussed as well as this concept that 'information is not free.' Although Maxwell's demon is simply a exercise in physics philosophy, this chapter begins what will be finished later: an English explanation of how information is fundamentally tied to matter and the universe.
Gleick now reaches biological information: DNA. He spends a chapter on the origins of DNA and how contemporaries of information theory approached it upon its inception. Of course Dawkins and Gould had interesting things to say in this chapter but also Hofstadtler and Gamow had perhaps the most interesting things to add. That DNA is essentially a number and that number represents a machine that can replicate and say things about itself. One thing this book does well is build this sort of interesting relationship between information and humans. This chapter takes a stab at establishing that we are all at our cores just information in the universe. As biological beings we are feeding off of negative entropy.
The book takes a bizarre twist now into memes. That's right, chain letters and lolcats. And how they replicate and infect our brain despite being nothing more than information. I found this chapter to be obvious and boring — worthy of complete removal from the text. This interjection is out of place entirely and I'm still scratching my head wondering what merit it had in this book. Since it is such an odd assortment and arrangement of the history of information, this could be skipped by the reader.
The chapter on randomness opens with an individual I've never heard of before: Gregory Chaitin. Gleick seems to imply that Incompleteness and Quantum Physics are somehow tied together by way of Turing's Uncomputability Proof — or so Chaitin (once?) thought. Because they were both related to entropy (the word I guess) and the connection was randomness. I didn't understand why this was in here if not to mislead the reader. What follows are some of the giants work and quotes about randomness and random numbers. While mildly interesting, there's not a whole lot to be gleaned from this chapter. I did appreciate the references to Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov who did some original and even parallel work on information theory behind the iron curtain. Of course the text is rife with political situations and anecdotes (i.e. Kolmogorov's run in with one of Stalin's favorite pseudo-scientists). Oh and what book on information would be complete without G. H. Hardy visiting Srinivasa Ramanujan and remarking on the boring number of his taxi? The oft repeated story of the number 1,729. This anecdote feels out of place but Gleick uses it to probe the reader deeper into what randomness really means. Throw in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and I almost wondered if Gleick had re-read Gödel, Escher, Bach before writing this chapter.
The next chapter did actually touch on work that ties information to physics in that very basic sense of information is unable to be destroyed in our universe. The famous Preskill Hawking wager is discussed as well as the thermodynamics of computation and the resulting implications for quantum mechanics. The chapter wanders around to quantum cryptography (feeling a bit out of place) to qubits to RSA to ... well, it all (as it does throughout the book) comes back to Shannon. The chapter does end with an interesting quote from John Wheeler who apparently advocated translating the quantum versions of string theory and Einstein's geometrodynamics 'from the language of the continuum to the language of bit.' Sounds pretty interesting, right? Too bad all you get is the quote.
Was that chapter too technical for you? Don't worry, the text moves back to Wikipedia (shouldn't this have been addressed in the early chapters of dictionaries?) and actually talks about deletionism versus inclusionism and the Wikipedia debates on Pokemon articles. Of course, our old friends Babbage, Turing, Shannon, et al are brought back to somehow comment on this modern encyclopedia with quotes from Gleick like 'The universe is computing its own destiny' (for added drama that sentence is its own paragraph on page 377). Strangely enough there is no reference to Edward Fredkin throughout this book. Gleick jumps to domain name saturation on the internet and hits up 'the cloud' at the very end. I almost marvel at how many bases he can touch in one chapter. The penultimate chapter covers our inundation with news every single day of our lives probably from now to eternity. Unsurprisingly, Gleick conjures up quotes of ages long past (almost to the dark ages) of people complaining of the printing press or telegraph or newspaper or internet ruining their lives by assaulting them with information and news. Turns out 'Information Overload' is not a new concept. A chapter devoted to people complaining about too much information in a book on information seems to be too much credit for them, in my opinion.
The book really fizzles out as it tries to wrap up. Far from finalizing anything, the reader is given the concept of 'the library of babel' alongside the famous six degrees of separation. We are now more interconnected than ever before thanks to ... information!
Luckily this book has almost fifty pages of references to other books that contain far more complete and far more organized thoughts on information. I would not recommend this book to any of my colleagues unless they never went to college and never once picked up another book on Information. That said, I felt it was very well written and will no doubt continue to be sold en masse in bookstores. If anyone else read this book and came away with some very deep and profound understanding of the subject matter, I would love to hear it. Right now, the audience for this book is very small in my mind. It might best be given to a young engineer who has yet to go to college but has the vim and vigor to track down the real sources of The Information.
You can purchase The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.


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Sleeping Dogs is a love letter to Hong Kong cinema. And to help "capture the tone" of its inspirations, Square Enix has hired quite an all-star cast to voice the game. Will Yun Lee (Die Another Day) will play the main character, Wei Shen. He'll be accompanied by a supporting cast that includes Edison Chen (Infernal Affairs), Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill), and Kelly Hu (X2).
"Sleeping Dogs features over two hours of rich dialogue in a story inspired by some of Hong Kong's finest films," United Front Games' Stephen van der Mescht said in a press release. "As huge fans of the genre we knew exactly who we wanted."
Other cast members include Tom Wilkinson, Parry Shen, Robin Shou, Terence Yin, James Hong, Tzi-Ma, and Yunjin Kim.
BOOM video 13367


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But here goes anyway. Basically, a transistor only allows you to use one signal to switch on and off a current. One transistor isn't enough for computations. There's a certain minimal number, but I'm not into hardware so I don't know what that would be.
Nanotech Advances Forward
Just let us know when it starts advancing backwards, OK?
The tiny device can be toggled on and off using a single electron. The experiment could eventually lead to vast power savings over today's transistors, which require several hundred to millions of electrons to perform the same function.
"And our backyards aren't filled with antibodies and other same-sized life forms looking to kill stuff. "
What is influenza? It may not be intentially looking to kill stuff. But the end result is that is does, based on the directives it follows.
Logic is powerful - no matter how simple. Apply logic and a map for a device to follow and complex tasks can be carried out.
Think outside the norm for a little while and apply some general knowledge. Of course a backhoe will have difficulty building another backhoe, but imagine an enzyme which when combined with correct substrates creates devices capable of performing tasks of verying nature (kinetic, chemical, electrical, magnetic etc.) and the enzyme is not destroyed during the process.
Why bother trying to split the atom. It is a known fact that an atom cannot be split.
To answer your question "Is it just me, or are hopes for nano-tech out of whack with any actual possible reality? "
Who knows until you try? People who achieve the impossible either are too ignorant to know it can't be done, or they watched a lot of the Muppet Babies as a kid and applied a little imagination and lateral thinking.
Makes the smallest web server [umass.edu] seem pretty huge, hunh?
But seriously, the ramifications of nanotechnology are pretty scary. I thought the Foresight Institute [foresight.org] was supposed to be about becoming aware of them, and keeping the scary ones from becoming reality. Now it seems like they just push the science forward as fast as possible. Did they get so much resistance to the idea of nanotechnology being real that they got permanently distracted into proving that it is?
This is one technology which might not let us clean up the mess afterwards (like what's happening now with genetic modification).
No troll. The idea of some "minimum number" is I guess what I was wondering about. I didn't mean a single transistor. Only that 100 or 1000 of them -- or whatever the number -- is really all that appears to be needed for useful application. While I'm sure research is needed on how to assemble even two of these things on a chip, it just seemed to me that the performance characteristics of the invention meant that manufacture could be simplified more than the parent post implied.
As I mentioned, though, I'm not entirely sure if these things actually are the fabled 0-time quantum chips or if they're just really small, or what they are. Sorry to be unclear.
As for realestate.....well, I plan on moving offworld, inside the first O'Neil Cylinder. There, I can design my own waterfront property (or dissapear into a fantasy reality of utility fog just as real).
What happened to those? Are they being made but covered up by NDAs? Did they jump ahead too far, then had to go back to do more basic research on the properties of materials at that? Surely SOMEONE on Slashdot works at a materials lab and can clue me in.
Nope. The Visual Quantum Mechanics Asst [ksu.edu] brought all the tiny pieces to my High School where a student inadvertantly knocked them from the tech's hand. The entire class has spent the last 6 years picking them up. Sorry about that, we'll return them to the science community real soon.
Hardware is constructed inside a sugar cube.
Bill, hates ants. Really hates ants.
Ants deserve death, death, death, death, and more death, until they are dead!
A company called Zyvex plans to build such micro-scaled machines. Check out their website [zyvex.com] for details
Ugh. I was hoping nobody would waste band-width with that lame logic, but I guess I'll deal with it:
Nanotech is massively inferior to the living micro-organisms which already populate the world.
Nanotech is all about micro-robotics; manipulating the world through kinetics. KINETICS. Little motors running little legs and pincers. Not. . , I repeat, NOT molecule modifying enzymes and chemicals. I seriously doubt that tiny metalic bugs with microscopic CanadaArms are going to to be able to unlock atoms which have been covalently bonded to other atoms. If you can't pull apart a diamond with your fingers, then how can you expect a robotic bug to have any better luck?
Now, Bio-engineering. . , that's a whole other ball of wax. Biotech is powerful. Nanotech is just the retarded younger brother which will never catch up to the millions of years of evolution which brought us living things.
All I'm saying is that little tiny robots are going to be far more limited in their power and application than popular fiction suggests. -Sorry to dash the hopes and dreams, (saccharine delusions), of a wonder/terror-world future based on nano-tech, cuz it's just plain dumb and misdirected. There are far more important things going on!
Why the heck can't geeks just get over their inferiority complexes and face the fact that the world around us right now is already massively complex and that it is the one we ought to concentrate on living in? Digital is a powerful tool at best and a hallucinogenic false hope at worst.
Remember your Star Wars: The Dark Path is always easier.
Learn to manipulate reality; not a bunch of ones and zeros, or you'll end up looking all pasty like the Emperor.
-Fantastic Lad
Okay, this may sound like a troll, but it's honest ignorance.
Isn't one of the huge advantages of quantum computing supposed to be to zero or near zero switching time? And if that's the case, couldn't you just take a couple of these things and architect around "as if parallel" rather than today's "as if serial"?
IANACD, and my knowledge of chip design could probably fit on one of these quantum transistors, but my understanding is that the high transistor count of today's processors goes to supporting parallelism rather than preserving state. Insofar as that is true, a chip cycling a million times faster could use one-millionth of the transistors to achieve the same performance -- you'd wind up with the same number of logical operations per second. Manufacturing problem...if not solved, enormously simplified.
BTW, I'd love it if someone could post some "intermediate level" links on quantum chips. Between the gee whiz popular press and page-length equations, there has to be some good stuff.
My whole life I've scoffed at those simpletons who can't tell the difference between science and science fiction. Now I'm one of them.
If you think that people are eagerly researching "self-reproduction," you are wrong. Most robots are created to assist humans in a specific function. There's simply no money in "self-reproduction," even of a limited sort-- hence few people, if any, are working on it. It took nature millions of years to design even primitive self-reproducing chemicals, yet you believe we will do it in a thousand or a hundred thousand?
Moreover, nature's "motivation" is a lot different from ours. We create machines for specific tasks, but in nature things exist only to propogate themselves. Why should we want to duplicate the waste, the inaccuracy, and the general sloppiness of nature? Aren't a million forms of bacteria enough for you?
What the future will bring, nobody can say, but I believe that "gray goo" fantasies are as far removed from reality as artificial intelligence or cold fusion. They've never been proved impossible, but damn near close. We already have sciences that deal with matter on a small scale. They're called chemistry and physics, and the engineering disciplines for these are chemical engineering and mechanical engineering. Stop living in a fantasy world and do something that will matter in 50 years.
Yeah, this story should have been:
from the dept.-of-redundancy dept.
The only advances that we will ever see is if we begin to manipulate protien structures w/different bonds so that they form the shape that we want them to, and do the work required of them. That will solve the whole friction problem, as well as release their own energy, and all we have to do is give them a couple of pre fabricated weak phosphate chains!
Once we use the hydrogen chain and proton pumps to "shoot" hydorgen atoms across the membrane potential, we will be doing the same work as micromachines in a completely organic solution, and we will have created the beginnings of sentient life in one step.
I've heard about these micro/nano machines for years. They just don't do the job they're supposed to.
Protien is the way to go.
Or like suggesting that one bacterium could build another bacterium. Ridiculous! That could never happen.
Not that we really need to have it legalized, since obviously the people who need it can get access to it, as evidenced by the fact that we have ice cream cookie sandwhiches, and transisters one molecule wide, dude .
I can only imagine the brainstorming sessions.
Dude, what if we had a transister so small, you could fit a million of them into, like, a screen, and they would know how to let only the primo molecules through?
No way, man... I got even better idea. How 'bout we make a single molecule into a transister, and it would be all bio-enhanced to go right to the pre-frontal stonal gyrus?
dude, that is an awesome idea...and we could run the whole thing off a nine volt...er, 9 millivolt, er...pico, er...
Man, we could run it off of the breath of a spirit butterfly!
Micromachines are currently in practical use, at least very simple ones. The most common application (to my limited knowledge) is airbag acceleration sensors. A small silicon cantilever bends under acceleration and a resulting electrical signal sets off the air bag. I very simple micromachine.
Other applications are in the works, but progress on complex machines is difficult since most devices are built with lithography, and lithography naturally produces two-dimensional structures, not three. For example, microfluidics is a potential application, where small tubes and pumps analyze microscopic amounts of fluid for various e.g. chemical/biological assays, etc.
It's a long way from "I can build a gear" to "I can build a gear and a motor and a shaft and connect them to a couple hundred other parts with minimal frictional losses, a power supply, etc. in three dimensions." Interesting things will be coming, but it'll be very incremental as researchers built up a toolset.
I mean. . . Building a car out of a pile of rocks? Don't think so. Cars are made from certain elements which a pile of rocks just can't provide no matter how smart your nanotech is. Plus. . . I haven't read, 'Diamond Age', (Snow Crash was more than enough lousy, nihilistic story telling B.S. for me.), but I understand one of the main principles Neal was pushing was that things in the future would be built primarily out of diamond.
Please. Nanites will be able to stuff on the molecular level? I mean, stacking all those carbon atoms one at a time just so. . . Give me a break. That would require robot pincers FAR smaller than the scale nanites are projected to be constructed at. Think about it! If the smallest transistor you can get is one molecule big, and you need several thousand just to make a nanite brain, then the nanite itself is going to be a behemoth by comparison to a single carbon atom.
Plus, nanites will still have to navigate around the treacherous micro terrain. We can barely build robots today that can handle a stupid backyard 'Mars Terrain' without some serious human assistance. And our backyards aren't filled with antibodies and other same-sized life forms looking to kill stuff.
Argh! And another thing. . ! One nanite Will Not be able to build another nanite. -That's like suggesting that a backhoe can build another backhoe. Retarded. Maybe a bunch of different nanites all working together, being fed all the right elements and micro lego bricks, will be able build a machine which can build nanites. Maybe. But that's a whole other proposition.
The basis of most Nanotech dreams/nightmares is that the technology will prove to be self-sustaining and unstoppable. Nonsense! (See above.) Sure, nanotech will probably work, but I doubt it will instantly transform humanity into something utterly unrecognizable. Nanites are just going to be another dumb technology which costs too much and won't work reliably without a ton of tech support. --Like every other stupid high-tech product or service in the world. (Cars. Phones. Airplanes. You name it. Pull people out of the equation, and everything grinds to a halt.)
Nanotech is not a panacea. Plus, if it works right, guaranteed, it won't work in the favor of the public.
Fantastic Lad
--Stephenson started out as a bloody Mac-user. Think about it! Mac-users are the least creative & intuitive people on the planet. --I mean, they drive the new Volkswagon Bugs and think they're being cool. Yeesh!
Will Foresight [foresight.org] succeed in educating people, or will the public inflate nanotech companies with their hopes and dreams, in the same way as biotech/internet companies, expecting another [stock appreciation] revolution in a "new-new economy?" Of course, we'll get the revolution [of abundance], but I wonder how long it will take people to figure out that there will be even more FuckedCompany's [fuckedcompany.com] when it finally sinks in what it means to be able to manipulate matter with the same ease as bits of data.
Give me some molecules, some sunlight, a molecular blueprint, the magic nano bootstrap process, and I'm in business!.........unless someone claims a monopoly on atoms or sunlight that is.
They turned out to be far more problematic than anticipated, like most new technologies. Gears stick together, levers bend, everything wears out. It turns out that microsurfaces are different enough from macrosurfaces that the basic mechanisms that work on the macroscale fail on the microscale.
Unfortunately, it's not online except for subscribers, but the always interesting Science News [sciencenews.org] did an article [sciencenews.org] on the problem last year:
Unexpectedly strong friction and other surface forces are hindering development of some microscopic machines, such as these microgears with teeth 9 micrometers long. Researchers are turning to a new frontier of surface science for answers about sticking and wear.
There are micromachines that work, as other posters have noted, but the idea that larger-scale mechanical engineering could be easily projected into the microworld has now been discredited. Nanotechnology will present even greater challenges.
Tim Maroney
I don't see why these scientists insist on making everything function at room temperature. At this rate liquid nitrogen will never gain household acceptance. Potentially very useful; you can use it to inflate tires, turn bananas into hammers, and cryogenically store your goldfish when you go on vacation. If this is the future, I'm not sure I want to be here.
Evolution is a million line computer program falling into place by accident.


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Hello. I was wondering if the DOHC heads off my outback will fit a 2.5 block that originally was SOHC? Thanks for your time.
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EJ25 DOHC Heads on SOHC block?
Started by [HTi]Johnson , May 23 2007 02:30 PM
4 replies to this topic
Posted 23 May 2007 - 02:30 PM
Posted 24 May 2007 - 10:03 PM
Yes. Direct swap no problem.
Posted 24 May 2007 - 10:07 PM
I think the combustion chamber is smaller on the dohc, so you'd have somewhat higher compression ratio after the swap.
Posted 24 May 2007 - 11:57 PM
Nope just a difference in the pistons themselves but compatible all the same. SOHC pistons are higher compression.
Posted 25 May 2007 - 12:39 PM
Your new compression ratio will depend on the gasket you use. I suggest a cometic 60 thousands. Should be around 10.6:1. should be good on 89 octane.
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text: privacy Drones: New High Plains Hunting Sport? By Cindee Talley • Oct 23, 2013 denverpost.com There could be a new kind of hunting season on the high plains, and the object of the hunter's focus? Drones. Drones are flying objects, typically equipped with cameras. They range in size, up to several feet across. The number of blades vary, and they are built and operated primarily by hobbyists and others for personal use. Video is a large part of the appeal, allowing life to be seen from another perspective.


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Your book was recommended to me through a friend of a friend. I haven't had a chance to read it but I looked at the chapter contents and I still have a rather big question/dilemma. My first pregnancy was awesome. I loved every minute of it and I cannot remember any sort of complications… that is until I was about 38 weeks. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and as I got up, I felt fluid b/w my legs. I thought my water had broke but when I got to the bathroom I was bleeding profusely. We called the ambulance and I was taken to our nearby hospital (but not the hospital I wanted to give birth in) I had partially abrupted, the bleeding had stopped on its own but I was admitted to the delivery floor. I was induced first with Cervadil (? Spelling) which did not work. Then it was encouraged to me that I induce labor. I was induced with Pitocin, my water was broken and labor came fast and furious so I received an Epidural. When I was ready to push we pushed for about 2 hrs… my dtr would not come … forceps were used multiple times and the vacuum was used even more. The pain was unbearable. I also received an episiotomy. My dtr's heart rate dropped dangerously low and all of sudden we were going for an emergency c-section. I passed out b/w the DR and the OR, I was tubed for the section and my dtr was born. Her apgar was 3-4, she had swallowed meconium and an ultrasound of her head showed a small bld in her head as a result of the vacuum.
My dtr was in hospital for just over a week and was released home with no ill effects and is now thriving normally at the age of two (thank god!!) I required 2 units of bld and a week in hospital.
I am now pregnant again and terrified of a repeat performance.
What are the chances of another abruption (partial or complete)? Am I at higher risk?
My mother was unable to delivery her babies vaginally… is there a correlation?
Is a VBAC possible? I almost don't even want to try and my husband is understandably very afraid for us.
I am hoping for any and all information I can get!
Thank you for reading this and any reply.
We appreciate it!


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March 6, 2010
STANFORD, Calif. - For the second straight game, the UC Santa Barbara baseball team saw No. 24 Stanford come back to tie things late in the game and then enjoy another walk-off victory.
Jake Schlander's home run to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning gave Stanford the 5-4 win as the Cardinal again rallied against UCSB's bullpen following a walk-off win in the ninth inning on Friday.
Pinch-hitter Adam Gaylord's one-out single in the eighth inning vs. reliever Kevin Gelinas drove in Stephen Piscotty with the tying run. Marty Mullins ripped a two-out double down the left-field line in the 11th inning but Trevor Whyte struck out to end the threat.
Schlander greeted David Meals (0-3) with a homer to left field to open the Cardinal's 11th inning, handing the Gauchos their second straight heartbreaking defeat. UCSB falls to 3-4 overall while No. 24 Stanford improves to 6-3.
UCSB got off to another 2-0 lead in the first inning for the second straight game. With two out, Matt Valaika singled and Mark Haddow walked before Beck Wheeler smashed a two-run double to left center, providing Gaucho starter Nick Loredo with an early lead.
Loredo, making his second start in the blue and gold, pitched well, allowing just one earned run in his seven innings. However another error opened the door for a Stanford rally in the fifth inning.
With two outs, Kellen Kiilsgaard reached on Whyte's fielding error and after a walk, another error by Whyte allowed Kiilsgaard to score. Another base hit scored Stanford's second unearned run of the inning, bringing the Cardinal within a run at 4-3.
UCSB scored a pair of runs in the fourth to take a 4-1 lead. Whyte's double scored Mullins, who singled, and Sean Williams hit a sacrifice fly to give UCSB the three-run lead.
On Monday the Gauchos will host Waseda University out of Japan in a 2 p.m. game at UCSB's Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. UCSB will use wood bats for the first time since the NCAA made the move to metal bats over 30 years ago.
To purchase tickets, please call (805) 893-UCSB, visit the Ticket Office located inside the Intercollegiate Athletics building on campus or click here.
The Gauchos open their first regular-season weekend series the weekend following the Waseda University game, hosting a four-game set vs. Northern Illinois. The first game is scheduled for Friday, Mar. 12 at 2 p.m.
Season tickets are still available for UCSB baseball games with season plans starting as low as $50! Plus, all fans who purchase a season ticket will receive a free UCSB hat! Click here for more information.
Back again for the 2010 season is the Baseball Buddies program which allows youth teams to come to weekend Gaucho games and take the field with the Gauchos! The teams will also receive autographs from their favorite players and sing the 7th Inning Stretch. Please contact Alan Cassinelli in the Marketing office at (805) 893-4629 for more information or e-mail him email@example.com.


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AOL's Patch local news sites hit by staff layoffs
AOL Inc. began laying off editors at its Patch community news websites Friday, including some in eastern Connecticut and throughout the state.
The New York-based company, which eventually is expected to shed up to half of its 1,000 employees, also will shut down many of its 900 websites and seek partnerships for those that remain.
Decisions about which sites would be removed from the Internet had yet to be made, or at least had yet to be communicated to all employees, Patch sources said.
Employees learned their fates Friday by dialing in to conference calls, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Employees told to call at a certain hour were informed they were being let go immediately, while those instructed to call at another time were told they would be laid off in October, the source said. Those told to call at a third time were told they would be keeping their jobs.
Editors of some local sites revealed their status on social media.
Patch's eastern Connecticut region comprises 42 websites.
AOL Inc. CEO Tim Armstrong co-founded Patch, an ambitious experiment in local news meant to compete with newspapers, in 2007. AOL bought it in 2009 after Armstrong had taken over the helm of the New York-based Internet company.
Patch ran into the same problems that newspapers had already discovered — that it's expensive to cover local news. For about an 18-month period in 2010 and 2011, Patch was the biggest hirer of journalists, just as they were being laid off from struggling U.S. newspapers, media analyst Ken Doctor of Outsell Inc. said.
AOL does not break out Patch's finances in its earnings reports, but Doctor said it was obviously "a financial drag on earnings." He estimates that AOL has invested more than $100 million into Patch over time.
In a statement, AOL said that "Patch's strategy will be to focus resources against core sites and partner in sites that need additional resources."
Shares of AOL, which also owns the Huffington Post and TechCrunch, fell 31 cents to $35.14 in midday trading.
Full game: Stonington 12, East Lyme 10 in ECC girls' lacrosse final
Three decades later, Desiree Michaud's friends and family still seek closure


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DIXON – Betty L. Kyker, 84, of Oregon, died Thursday, April 18, 2013, at KSB Hospital in Dixon, after a brief illness. She retired from Raynor Garage Doors in December 2004, after 36 years of service.
She was born Oct. 6, 1928, in Rockford, the daughter of Pearl and Gladys Runyan.
Survivors include a daughter, Roberta Kyker of Grand Detour.
She was preceded in death by one brother.
The memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Chapel Hill Funeral Home in Dixon, with the Rev. Robert Cristobal of St. Bride Episcopal Church in Oregon officiating.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Bride Episcopal Church.


text:
By Michael Aneiro
Faced with miserably low yields, investors are basically just trying to get as much blood as they can from the stone that is the bond market before its three-decade bull run is officially, finally, bled completely dry. That day, credit investors say, is most likely sometime next year.
Last month Bank of America Merrill Lynch. floated the specter of a "great rotation" out of bonds and into stocks, saying it could start as early as 2013. In its November credit survey, BAML put the question to investors, and they concur. Thirty-six percent of the survey's 99 respondents believe the rotation will start in 2013, versus 33% who say 2014 and 21% who think it will start at some unspecified later date. Interestingly, 5% see it starting before the end of 2012, while 4% think it will never happen. This blog suggests you do not invest your money with that 4%. From BAML:
Thus clearly the great rotation is well anticipated by investors. But not surprisingly the precise timing – which depends crucially on when interest rates start to rise – is more uncertain. Our baseline is that the rotation starts in 2014 but if interest rates start increasing that may push the trade into 2013.
Two-thirds of survey respondents are money managers, with the rest a mix of insurance companies, hedge funds, banks and pension funds. All manage either high-grade or high-yield corporate bonds, or both.
Elsewhere in the survey, BAML says the majority of high-grade investors continue to prefer their own asset class (24%), with leveraged loans coming in a close second (22%). In terms of changes, high grade investors have switched their preference away from high yield bonds (down to 15% in November from 23% in September) to leveraged loans (up to 22% in November from 11% in September). High yield investors continue to prefer leveraged loans (40%) and high yield bonds (29%), similar to their views from September.
Meanwhile, only 4% of investors in November expected Agency MBS to outperform over the next 12 months, down from 21% in September.


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Merry Christmas, or happy Christmas/merry Crimbo, for those in the U.K. Whether you are celebrating the occasion or not, here's hoping the festivities, or at least the associated time off, are bringing you peace and wellbeing.
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A weekend for the boys
Over the weekend, boys across Catawba County came together at the 2013 Boy Scout Lakeland District Spring Camporee that was hosted by Dr. Bob Hart and his wife, Becky, at historic Hart Square in western Catawba County.
The weekend long event focused on American heritage featuring more than 20 different educational venues where the scouts learned about various aspects of traditional early american life.
To read more of this story, pick up the Tuesday edition of Catawba County's community newspaper, The Observer News Enterprise, at newsstands throughout the county.


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[Photo by Smilla]
I can't resist posting Helga once again courtesy of Smilla. This woman is daring and vibrant and and always has a unique way of putting an outfit together. Smilla calls her the "Queen of Charm", which definitely is expressed with each new photo of this fantastic lady.


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|2011-05-03, 23:28
|Link #21
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Singapore
We probably shouldn't be too concerned about getting an explanation regarding the stigma; it doesn't matter if it's powered by magic or gobbledygook. The most we're getting is a more concrete definition of the stigma's powers, but at this point I don't think we'll be seeing any further exploration on the stigma. Rin's experiments in the early chapters seem to have the stigma's powers pretty well defined.
|2011-05-04, 02:33
|Link #22
Join Date: Dec 2003
|2011-05-04, 04:13
|Link #23
from head to heel
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 36
Yes they did, but it was practically inconsequential in the bigger scheme of things. In fact, it was only explained after the whole resolution to the drama has been said and done. The spouse-matching program in Ore x Yome doesn't even get explained aside from the fact it's what allows the main characters to meet each other, while the regressing age disease/condition—while rather macguffin-ish—could at least be said to be metaphorical of the relationship issue central in the story. (As for the second Ore x Yome story, well... I didn't really bother with that one.)
With that said, I wouldn't consider a full explanation for the stigma as a direct indication of whether this story is nearing its close or not. It could still be possibly explained, but I'm not going to expect it to be a thorough one... which really might not matter anyway depending on how the story plays out.
Spoiler for raws:
Last edited by kujoe; 2011-05-04 at 04:41.
|2011-05-04, 04:44
|Link #24
Join Date: May 2011
This one look interesting but it's a bit hard to find
I hope it's better than sakuranbo syndrome.
btw just a bit off topic..... Can anyone spoiled Sakuranbo syndrome ending for me, please?
I already read Vol. 11 raw but got a bit confuse in the end. Thanks in advance.
|2011-05-04, 15:54
|Link #25
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Didn't even remember Sakuranbo Syndrome was 11 volumes. I'm guessing that's probably a good thing.
I can see Kono S o, Mi yo! going past volume 7, but really since the start the end game has always been Rin x Chizuru. That's the only happy ending IMO.
|2011-05-04, 19:46
|Link #26
Join Date: Dec 2003
As for the direction of the manga currently.
Last edited by Shouta; 2011-05-04 at 22:24.
|2011-05-04, 21:46
|Link #27
from head to heel
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 36
|2011-07-11, 22:05
|Link #31
Join Date: Dec 2003
So Vol 7 is out in Japan for about a week or two now.
So it starts off where it left off last time.
It's amazing how great Kitazaki is at making these situations so damn cute and funny. There's a lot of good exposition in there too about the characters feelings and etc. I don't have the book on me and I'm a bit too lazy to sum that information down at the moment though
|2011-10-15, 21:41
|Link #32
~Nyan Nyan~
The other day, I started reading Kono. I read all five volumes that have been translated, as well as the v6-7 RAWs; with the help of the summaries posted in this thread. (Cheers!)
Not content to leave it there before on-holding for months, I then searched to see if anyone had uploaded chapters from the yet to be released 8th volume. I then ran into a c75-80 download. And then the author trolled me...
Spoiler for c75-80:
...Can anyone give a summary of 75-80, or at least explain wtf is going on with Chizuru's thought process? She moves back to be near Rin ASAP, leads him on, gives him the option of taking her virginity... yet she's intent on marrying some other guy, no matter what; just so her grandma can stay at the hospital when she's clearly hardly broke?... DOES NOT COMPUTE. Now that the end drama has come around and it's no longer lighthearted fun, Chizuru is seriously giving Kyoko from a Maison Ikkoku a run for her money in the indecisive bitch league.
Also: the manga IS now clearly winding down--the change of tone is proof enough of that as drama has now taken over. The endless foreplay without penetration, as well as Rin only ever loving and wanting Chizuru, make it near enough certain that she's going to pair-up with him, come the end... unless the author pulls an Ichigo 100% in order to troll everyone for lulz purposes. Usually there'd be a decent argument for the other childhood friend character in a manga like this, but even after getting... arse'd by Rin, Makoto still made it clear she didn't view him as a man/have romantic feelings for him. Unless the manga is extended to 15-20 volumes, there's no way any other ending but RinxChizuru would work. There isn't even another proper love interest for Chizuru since rich dick has started making sinister faces and doing nasty things.
PS: Here's an indirect link to the RAWs, as well as more of my thoughts - http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=353047
PS2: In case I'm breaking some rule even by going indirect, Google jcafe24 for the 75-80 RAWs /
|2011-10-16, 20:22
|Link #33
Join Date: Dec 2003
I havn't picked up Vol 8 so I can't tell and I'm at work right now so yeah...
I'll post a summary when I get the chance.
Also, I don't think the story will end until Kitazaki has resolved some issues with the Stigma. In particular, Makoto's issue hasn't been resolved yet, Takako's still scheming probably, and there's a few folks still afflicted with the Stigma.
We may end up with a Nijidama situation though, I think the author is pretty good about doing this sort of thing so it'll remain to be seen. As I mentioned in my previous post, Makoto's situation is a little muddled and we won't know what's true until it's been cleared some. Also, should the crazy thing happen, Chizuru not having another love interest doesn't matter.
|2011-10-17, 07:17
|Link #34
~Nyan Nyan~
Still not getting my head around the whole grandma thing. Why is marrying a playboy rich doctor she has no feelings for vital to the happiness of her senile nan? She's an adult woman who's had a stable, well-paying job for a number of years... surely she can cover the expenses of her nan on her own?
I've only read the first volume of Cupid, so my knowledge of that is limited, but there's a key difference between the supernatual problems in that and Kono: Cupid's issue is far more serious and problematic than having women accidently lust after the lead, after seeing his naked arse. For a young man, the threat of only being able to act like a man for five more times would ruin his life. The same isn't true when it comes to the risk of accidently instigating gang-rape sessions with a crowd of overly horny women. If anything, that's a positive ability to have for a hot-blooded guy!
My point? Cupid's "Rainbow Balls" issue had to be dealt with for it to end happily. The same isn't true of Rin's arse seduction method. I mean, how many women can he expect will see his naked arse, aside from his future beloved? One his waifu sees his bum and goes lust-crazy once, all would be well.
Until Makoto saw Rin's arse, there wasn't anything between the two other than friendship--nothing whatsoever. Neither party had any sexual interest in the other, resulting in zero sexual tension, and Makoto even stated that Rin's weak-minded personality was a turn-off for her--as well as later confirming, post-arsing, that she only wanted to do it with him once and didn't see him as a man--STILL.
I said the length of the series would need to double for a satisfying RinxMakoto ending because, up to yet, it's been ALL Rin>>>Chizuru. Some serious groundwork needs to be put in place for any other decent ending. Up to yet, it would appear that the author only had Makoto be arse'd for comic relief (/wetting her panties and orgasming when around Rin, with him unaware) and to have more chances to draw her in erotic situations. It doesn't strike me that he's planning on having her fall for him, after having sex once.
...Is Takako the lesbian? If so, her part in the story is already over, as far as Rin is concerned. She's now only around to talk with Makoto and occasionally 'ease her suffering' through lesbian activity. Once Rin discovered that she was playing him, she went bye-bye as far as the main plot went.
If the author is going to end the series with either the ninth (possible, since c80 isn't the final chapter of v8) or tenth volumes as I believe, there are only two things that really need dealing with... and he could very well avoid covering them. The first is Makoto's lust (he might just leave her suffer, for comedy purposes) and the second is Chizuru's wedding, which he may not feel the need to show. All I can say is that, if I were a betting man, I'd put money on this sinister rich dick NTR business being the endgame drama.
It seems you're more in the Makoto camp than Chizuru, and that's fair enough--even I like her personality. The thing is, unless the author is intent on fucking with the readers, 99% of the time it's obvious who the leads woman in a romance is going to be.
I haven't read much of Cupid, as mentioned before, but I got the distinct impression that the childhood friend would be the lead's choice, come the end. Why? Because the lead cummed on her face (/first intimate moment with a female) and he got with the long-haired rival at the start. I've read enough romance manga to know how it goes with first kiss/cum girls + early relationships.
In the case of Kono, Chizuru took Rin's first kiss, he remained a virgin for her for 22+ years and has only ever loved her. She's only ever loved him, in return. Throw-in the amount of foreplay/teasing without penetration, compared to the other girls, and his love rival having quickly turned into some kind of pantomime villain and I just cannot see anything other than a RinxChizuru ending. ONLY the main girl in a romance is allowed to mess around the lead as much as Chuzuru has.
...I'll end by saying this: if Rin doesn't white knight rich dick and he takes Chizuru's virginity/marries her, I'm dropping this with a score of 1/10. Seriously. I'm fine with the author not going with the obvious pairing but having the villain steal the woman from the lead of a romance is too far into trolling territory for me to handle.
I was ok with Chizuru inexplicably being set to marry a man she hasn't slept with and doesn't like, back when Kono was nearly all lighthearted goodness + sex. Now, though? I'm not liking how a 30-year-old woman is acting like an indecisve slut without a will of her own. My rage meter is currently high.
/end rambling
|2011-10-17, 16:04
|Link #35
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Hamburg
Age: 48
I tried the story based on your hints and reviews. I fought hard, I honestly did, but after 6 chapters I gave up.
My question to you: Is Rin going to grow something like a spine real soon? To be honest, he's ruining the show for me. He is the picture-perfect definition of a total coward, intellectually he's on the level of a juvenile, and I can see absolutely no redeeming qualities in him whatsoever.
Is this going to change, or is this farce going to continue longer like that? Because if it does...
|2011-10-18, 09:42
|Link #36
Join Date: Dec 2003
Finally picked up Vol 8.
Kitazaki is also a very good writer and has made his twists and turns work well.
Spoiler for Big Spoiler for Rainbow Balls:
FYI Cupid's Prank is the entire series of manga including Kono S, Cherry Syndrome, Ore x Yome, and Rainbow Balls. It's easier to figure out what you're talking about if you refer to the subtitle of each.
Spoiler for More big spoilers for Rainbow Balls, don't read if you're going to check out the series:
Personally, I think Rin is like any protagonist as he's continually growing and changing. So starting off as he has is kind of the usual starting point. The difference is that his background is usually more fleshed out and his problems are generally a lot more real than say a shounen lead. I mean it's a seinen series so the level of writing and issues tackled are generally totally different.
His attitude starts to change a bit in Vol 2 and his first real epiphany hits in Vol 3. He's a bit more confident and a lot less cowardly as a result of the first 3 volumes and he's kind of a different guy from there on.
I'd say Vol 3 is the cutoff point in whether or not to continue reading the series. Seems like a lot but a lot of what happens in the first 3 volumes are a bit connected so seeing it until the end is kind of a good idea. Plus, it shouldn't take you that long to get through 3 vols.
Cherry Syndrome, Kitazaki's previous Cupid manga is a little easier to get into as it has a little more of an offbeat set-up and the main male protagonist is a bit older and of a different cut compared to most. If you can read Japanese, I think Rainbow Balls is the best of his 3 big Cupid mangas. He starts off a little like Rin though but some of his coolness comes out a little faster, plus I <3 Asami.
|2011-10-24, 19:11
|Link #38
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: USA
Age: 31
Just read volume six and it was excellent.
Spoiler for Vollume 6:
|2011-11-11, 01:41
|Link #39
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Connecticut
Holy shit is Rin an annoying person . I can't stand him at all , but the plot development and all the characters make up for it so freaking well . I couldn't stop reading because of the chapters always leading me on '-' .
it looks really good , clearly needs more publicity .
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text:
"He that loveth not knoweth not God," declares 1 John 4:8, "for God is love."
"For God so loved the world," explains John 3:16, "that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
In Acts 10:38, the evangelist Luke recounts "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."
Indeed, says the apostle Paul, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Many scriptural passages witness to the love of God. They represent an indispensable truth about him. But not the only truth. Some misread such statements about the love of Father and Son to mean that God, properly understood, is non-judgmental and always accepting, that he would never condemn nor exclude anybody.
Non-LDS sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton have identified what they call "moralistic therapeutic deism," a watered-down form of Christianity that they see as very common in America today, in which God is "something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he's always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process."
They identify five characteristics of MTD:
1. A god exists who created the world, orders it, and watches over human life on the earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught by most world religions.
3. The principal purpose of life is to be happy and to feel good about yourself.
4. God doesn't have to be particularly involved in your life except when he's needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people (and, except for those who are mean and judgmental, most of us are pretty good folks) go to heaven when they die.
However, the scriptures don't support MTD. In the Hebrew Bible, God banished Adam and Eve from Eden, killed Uzzah for steadying the ark, destroyed the worshipers of the golden calf, sent horrendous plagues upon Egypt and smote Gehazi with leprosy (to choose a few examples). To which some will respond that, of course, that's just the vengeful God of the Old Testament.
So let's look at the New Testament, which teaches that "our God is a consuming fire" and that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (see Hebrews 12:29, 10:31).
All four of the gospels mention the incident in which Jesus carefully braids a whip and then overturns the tables of the moneychangers and drives them from the temple.
In the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-41), the patience of the vineyard's owner is considerable, but not infinite. In Acts 5:1-11, Annas and Sapphira are struck dead for attempting to deceive the apostles. And it's plainly Jesus who, according to John the Revelator, will come in a robe "dipped in blood" to "judge and make war" at the last day (Revelation 19:11-16).
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth," says the biblical Jesus. "I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matthew 10:34-36).
The biblical God isn't a comfortable, always-affirming pal. Time after time, the first words of even angelic appearances are "Fear not!" And one of Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision recalls that, as the pillar of light descended, he feared that the forest surrounding him would burst into flame.
The Old Testament story of Jonah memorably depicts God's love for all the world's peoples, but it also sends that prophet to Nineveh with the warning that its inhabitants must repent or be destroyed. And in the episode of the woman taken in adultery, Jesus (to see whom is to see the Father) forgives her, but also commands her to "go, and sin no more" (see John 8:11). He doesn't say that adultery isn't a sin.
To portray God's judgments as unloving is a grievous distortion; to depict his love as wholly non-judgmental is a dangerous one. He is both merciful and just.
Daniel Peterson teaches Arabic studies, founded BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, directs MormonScholarsTestify.org, chairs www.mormoninterpreter.com, blogs daily at www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson, and speaks only for himself.