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Journal of Evolution and Technology. 1998.
Vol. 1 -
(Received Dec. 1997)
(Received Dec. 1997)
(Received Dec. 1997)
(Received Dec. 1997)
This paper describes how the performance of AI machines
tends to improve at the same pace that AI researchers get
access to faster hardware. The processing power and memory
capacity necessary to match general intellectual performance
of the human brain are estimated. Based on extrapolation of
past trends and on examination of technologies under
development, it is predicted that the required hardware will
be available in cheap machines in the 2020s.
This paper describes how the performance of AI machines
tends to improve at the same pace that AI researchers get
access to faster hardware. The processing power and memory
capacity necessary to match general intellectual performance
of the human brain are estimated. Based on extrapolation of
past trends and on examination of technologies under
development, it is predicted that the required hardware will
be available in cheap machines in the 2020s.
By our estimate, today's very biggest supercomputers are
within a factor of a hundred of having the power to mimic a human
mind. Their successors a decade hence will be more than powerful
enough. Yet, it is unlikely that machines costing tens of
millions of dollars will be wasted doing what any human can do,
when they could instead be solving urgent physical and
mathematical problems nothing else can touch. Machines with
human-like performance will make economic sense only when they
cost less than humans, say when their "brains" cost
about $1,000. When will that day arrive?
The expense of computation has fallen rapidly and persistently
for a century. Steady improvements in mechanical and
electromechanical calculators before World War II had increased
the speed of calculation a thousandfold over hand calculation.
The pace quickened with the appearance of electronic computers
during the war--from 1940 to 1980 the amount of computation
available at a given cost increased a millionfold. Vacuum tubes
were replaced by transistors, and transistors by integrated
circuits, whose components became ever smaller and more numerous.
During the 1980s microcomputers reached the consumer market, and
the industry became more diverse and competitive. Powerful,
inexpensive computer workstations replaced the drafting boards of
circuit and computer designers, and an increasing number of
design steps were automated. The time to bring a new generation
of computer to market shrank from two years at the beginning of
the 1980s to less than nine months. The computer and
communication industries grew into the largest on earth.
Computers doubled in capacity every two years after the war, a
pace that became an industry given: companies that wished to grow
sought to exceed it, companies that failed to keep up lost
business. In the 1980s the doubling time contracted to 18 months,
and computer performance in the late 1990s seems to be doubling
every 12 months.
Faster than Exponential Growth in
Computing Power. The number of MIPS in $1000 of
computer from 1900 to the present. Steady improvements in
mechanical and electromechanical calculators before World War II
had increased the speed of calculation a thousandfold over manual
methods from 1900 to 1940. The pace quickened with the appearance
of electronic computers during the war, and 1940 to 1980 saw a
millionfold increase. The pace has been even quicker since then,
a pace which would make humanlike robots possible before the
middle of the next century. The vertical scale is logarithmic,
the major divisions represent thousandfold increases in computer
performance. Exponential growth would show as a straight line,
the upward curve indicates faster than exponential growth, or,
equivalently, an accelerating rate of innovation. The reduced
spread of the data in the 1990s is probably the result of
intensified competition: underperforming machines are more
rapidly squeezed out. The numerical data for this power curve are
presented in the appendix.
At the present rate, computers suitable for humanlike robots will
appear in the 2020s. Can the pace be sustained for another three
decades? The graph shows no sign of abatement. If anything, it
hints that further contractions in time scale are in store. But,
one often encounters thoughtful articles by knowledgeable people
in the semiconductor industry giving detailed reasons why the
decades of phenomenal growth must soon come to an end.
The keynote for advancing computation is miniaturization: smaller
components have less inertia and operate more quickly with less
energy, and more of them can be packed in a given space. First
the moving parts shrunk, from the gears in mechanical
calculators, to small contacts in electromechanical machines, to
bunches of electrons in electronic computers. Next, the switches'
supporting structure underwent a vanishing act, from thumb-sized
vacuum tubes, to fly-sized transistors, to ever-diminishing
flyspecks on integrated circuit chips. Similar to printed
circuits before them, integrated circuits were made by a
photographic process. The desired pattern was projected onto a
silicon chip, and subtle chemistry used to add or remove the
right sorts of matter in the exposed areas.
In the mid-1970s, integrated circuits, age 15, hit a crisis of
adolescence. They then held ten thousand components, just enough
for an entire computer, and their finest details were approaching
3 micrometers in size. Experienced engineers wrote many articles
warning that the end was near. Three micrometers was barely
larger than the wavelength of the light used to sculpt the chip.
The number of impurity atoms defining the tiny components had
grown so small that statistical scatter would soon render most
components out of spec, a problem aggravated by a similar effect
in the diminishing number of signaling electrons. Increasing
electrical gradients across diminishing gaps caused atoms to
creep through the crystal, degrading the circuit. Interactions
between ever-closer wires were about to ruin the signals. Chips
would soon generate too much heat to remove, and require too many
external connections to fit. The smaller memory cells were
suffering radiation-induced forgetfulness.
A look at the computer growth graph shows that the problems were
overcome, with a vengeance. Chip progress not only continued, it
sped up. Shorter-wavelength light was substituted, a more precise
way of implanting impurities was devised, voltages were reduced,
better insulators, shielding designs, more efficient transistor
designs, better heat sinks, denser pin patterns and
non-radioactive packaging materials were found. Where there is
sufficient financial incentive, there is a way. In fact,
solutions had been waiting in research labs for years, barely
noticed by the engineers in the field, who were perfecting
established processes, and worrying in print as those ran out of
steam. As the need became acute, enormous resources were
redirected to draft laboratory possibilities into production
In the intervening years many problems were met and solved, and
innovations introduced, but now, nearing a mid-life 40, the
anxieties seem again to have crested. In 1996 major articles
appeared in scientific magazines and major national newspapers
worrying that electronics progress might be a decade from ending.
The cost of building new integrated circuit plants was
approaching a prohibitive billion dollars. Feature sizes were
reaching 0.1 micrometers, the wavelength of the sculpting
ultraviolet light. Their transistors, scaled down steadily from
1970s designs, would soon be so small that electrons would
quantum "tunnel" out of them. Wiring was becoming so
dense it would crowd out the components, and slow down and leak
signals. Heat was increasing.
The articles didn't mention that less expensive plants could make
the same integrated circuits, if less cheaply and in smaller
quantities. Scale was necessary because the industry had grown so
large and competitive. Rather than signaling impending doom, it
indicated free-market success, a battle of titans driving down
costs to the users. They also failed to mention new contenders,
waiting on lab benches to step in should the leader fall.
The wave-like nature of matter at very small scales is a problem
for conventional transistors, which depend on the smooth flow of
masses of electrons. But, it is a property exploited by a radical
new class of components known as single-electron transistors and
quantum dots, which work by the interference of electron waves.
These new devices work better as they grow smaller. At the scale
of today's circuits, the interference patterns are so fine that
it takes only a little heat energy to bump electrons from crest
to crest, scrambling their operation. Thus, these circuits have
been demonstrated mostly at a few degrees above absolute zero.
But, as the devices are reduced, the interference patterns widen,
and it takes ever larger energy to disrupt them. Scaled to about
0.01 micrometers, quantum interference switching works at room
temperature. It promises more than a thousand times higher
density than today's circuits, possibly a thousand times the
speed, and much lower power consumption, since it moves a few
electrons across small quantum bumps, rather than pushing them in
large masses through resistive material. In place of much wiring,
quantum interference logic may use chains of switching devices.
It could be manufactured by advanced descendants of today's chip
fabrication machinery (Goldhaber-Gordon et al. 1997). Proposals
abound in the research literature, and the industry has the
resources to perfect the circuits and their manufacture, when the
time comes.
Wilder possibilities are brewing. Switches and memory cells made
of single molecules have been demonstrated, which might enable a
volume to hold a billion times more circuitry than today.
Potentially blowing everything else away are "quantum
computers," in which a whole computer, not just individual
signals, acts in a wavelike manner. Like a conventional computer,
a quantum computer consists of a number of memory cells whose
contents are modified in a sequence of logical transformations.
Unlike a conventional computer, whose memory cells are either 1
or 0, each cell in a quantum computer is started in a quantum
superposition of both 1 and 0. The whole machine is a
superposition of all possible combinations of memory states. As
the computation proceeds, each component of the superposition
individually undergoes the logic operations. It is as if an
exponential number of computers, each starting with a different
pattern in memory, were working on the problem simultaneously.
When the computation is finished, the memory cells are examined,
and an answer emerges from the wavelike interference of all the
possibilities. The trick is to devise the computation so that the
desired answers reinforce, while the others cancel. In the last
several years, quantum algorithms have been devised that factor
numbers and search for encryption keys much faster than any
classical computer. Toy quantum computers, with three or four
"qubits" stored as states of single atoms or photons,
have been demonstrated, but they can do only short computations
before their delicate superpositions are scrambled by outside
interactions. More promising are computers using nuclear magnetic
resonance, as in hospital scanners. There, quantum bits are
encoded as the spins of atomic nuclei, and gently nudged by
external magnetic and radio fields into magnetic interactions
with neighboring nuclei. The heavy nuclei, swaddled in diffuse
orbiting electron clouds, can maintain their quantum coherence
for hours or longer. A quantum computer with a thousand or more
qubits could tackle problems astronomically beyond the reach of
any conceivable classical computer.
Molecular and quantum computers will be important sooner or
later, but humanlike robots are likely to arrive without their
help. Research within semiconductor companies, including working
prototype chips, makes it quite clear that existing techniques
can be nursed along for another decade, to chip features below
0.1 micrometers, memory chips with tens of billions of bits and
multiprocessor chips with over 100,000 MIPS. Towards the end of
that period, the circuitry will probably incorporate a growing
number of quantum interference components. As production
techniques for those tiny components are perfected, they will
begin to take over the chips, and the pace of computer progress
may steepen further. The 100 million MIPS to match human brain
power will then arrive in home computers before 2030.
It may seem rash to expect fully intelligent machines in a few
decades, when the computers have barely matched insect mentality
in a half-century of development. Indeed, for that reason, many
long-time artificial intelligence researchers scoff at the
suggestion, and offer a few centuries as a more believable
period. But there are very good reasons why things will go much
faster in the next fifty years than they have in the last fifty.
The stupendous growth and competitiveness of the computer
industry is one reason. A less appreciated one is that
intelligent machine research did not make steady progress in its
first fifty years, it marked time for thirty of them! Though
general computer power grew a hundred thousand fold from 1960 to
1990, the computer power available to AI programs barely budged
from 1 MIPS during those three decades.
In the 1950s, the pioneers of AI viewed computers as locomotives
of thought, which might outperform humans in higher mental work
as prodigiously as they outperformed them in arithmetic, if they
were harnessed to the right programs. Success in the endeavor
would bring enormous benefits to national defense, commerce and
government. The promise warranted significant public and private
investment. For instance, there was a large project to develop
machines to automatically translate scientific and other
literature from Russian to English. There were only a few AI
centers, but those had the largest computers of the day,
comparable in cost to today's supercomputers. A common one was
the IBM 704, which provided a good fraction of a MIPS.
By 1960 the unspectacular performance of the first reasoning and
translation programs had taken the bloom off the rose, but the
unexpected launching by the Soviet Union of Sputnik, the first
satellite in 1957, had substituted a paranoia. Artificial
Intelligence may not have delivered on its first promise, but
what if it were to suddenly succeed after all? To avoid another
nasty technological surprise from the enemy, it behooved the US
to support the work, moderately, just in case. Moderation paid
for medium scale machines costing a few million dollars, no
longer supercomputers. In the 1960s that price provided a good
fraction of a MIPS in thrifty machines like Digital Equipment
Corp's innovative PDP-1 and PDP-6.
The field looked even less promising by 1970, and support for
military-related research declined sharply with the end of the
Vietnam war. Artificial Intelligence research was forced to
tighten its belt and beg for unaccustomed small grants and
contracts from science agencies and industry. The major research
centers survived, but became a little shabby as they made do with
aging equipment. For almost the entire decade AI research was
done with PDP-10 computers, that provided just under 1 MIPS.
Because it had contributed to the design, the Stanford AI Lab
received a 1.5 MIPS KL-10 in the late 1970s from Digital, as a
Funding improved somewhat in the early 1980s, but the number of
research groups had grown, and the amount available for computers
was modest. Many groups purchased Digital's new Vax computers,
costing $100,000 and providing 1 MIPS. By mid-decade, personal
computer workstations had appeared. Individual researchers
reveled in the luxury of having their own computers, avoiding the
delays of time-shared machines. A typical workstation was a
Sun-3, costing about $10,000, and providing about 1 MIPS.
By 1990, entire careers had passed in the frozen winter of 1-MIPS
computers, mainly from necessity, but partly from habit and a
lingering opinion that the early machines really should have been
powerful enough. In 1990, 1 MIPS cost $1,000 in a low-end
personal computer. There was no need to go any lower. Finally
spring thaw has come. Since 1990, the power available to
individual AI and robotics programs has doubled yearly, to 30
MIPS by 1994 and 500 MIPS by 1998. Seeds long ago alleged barren
are suddenly sprouting. Machines read text, recognize speech,
even translate languages. Robots drive cross-country, crawl
across Mars, and trundle down office corridors. In 1996 a
theorem-proving program called EQP running five weeks on a 50
MIPS computer at Argonne National Laboratory found a proof of a
boolean algebra conjecture by Herbert Robbins that had eluded
mathematicians for sixty years. And it is still only spring. Wait
until summer.
The big freeze. From
1960 to 1990 the cost of computers used in AI research declined,
as their numbers dilution absorbed computer-efficiency gains
during the period, and the power available to individual AI
programs remained almost unchanged at 1 MIPS, barely insect
power. AI computer cost bottomed in 1990, and since then power
has doubled yearly, to several hundred MIPS by 1998. The major
visible exception is computer chess (shown by a progression of
knights), whose prestige lured the resources of major computer
companies and the talents of programmers and machine designers.
Exceptions also exist in less public competitions, like petroleum
exploration and intelligence gathering, whose high return on
investment gave them regular access to the largest computers.
A summerlike air already pervades the few applications of
artificial intelligence that retained access to the largest
computers. Some of these, like pattern analysis for satellite
images and other kinds of spying, and in seismic oil exploration,
are closely held secrets. Another, though, basks in the
limelight. The best chess-playing computers are so interesting
they generate millions of dollars of free advertising for the
winners, and consequently have enticed a series of computer
companies to donate time on their best machines and other
resources to the cause. Since 1960 IBM, Control Data, AT&T,
Cray, Intel and now again IBM have been sponsors of computer
chess. The "knights" in the AI power graph show the
effect of this largesse, relative to mainstream AI research. The
top chess programs have competed in tournaments powered by
supercomputers, or specialized machines whose chess power is
comparable. In 1958 IBM had both the first checker program, by
Arthur Samuel, and the first full chess program, by Alex
Bernstein. They ran on an IBM 704, the biggest and last
vacuum-tube computer. The Bernstein program played atrociously,
but Samuel's program, which automatically learned its board
scoring parameters, was able to beat Connecticut checkers
champion Robert Nealey. Since 1994, Chinook, a program written by
Jonathan Schaeffer of the University of Alberta, has consistently
bested the world's human checker champion. But checkers isn't
very glamorous, and this portent received little notice.
By contrast, it was nearly impossible to overlook the epic
battles between world chess champion Garry Kasparov and IBM's
Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997. Deep Blue is a scaled-up version of a
machine called Deep Thought, built by Carnegie Mellon University
students ten years earlier. Deep Thought, in turn, depended on
special-purpose chips, each wired like the Belle chess computer
built by Ken Thompson at AT&T Bell Labs in the 1970s. Belle,
organized like a chessboard, circuitry on the squares, wires
running like chess moves, could evaluate and find all legal moves
from a position in one electronic flash. In 1997 Deep Blue had
256 such chips, orchestrated by a 32 processor
mini-supercomputer. It examined 200 million chess positions a
second. Chess programs, on unaided general-purpose computers,
average about 16,000 instructions per position examined. Deep
Blue, when playing chess (and only then), was thus worth about 3
million MIPS, 1/30 of our estimate for human intelligence.
Deep Blue, in a first for machinekind, won the first game of the
1996 match. But, Kasparov quickly found the machine's weaknesses,
and drew two and won three of the remaining games.
In May 1997 he met an improved version of the machine. That
February, Kasparov had triumphed over a field of grandmasters in
a prestigious tournament in Linares, Spain, reinforcing his
reputation as the best player ever, and boosting his chess rating
past 2800, uncharted territory. He prepared for the computer
match in the intervening months, in part by playing against other
machines. Kasparov won a long first game against Deep Blue, but
lost next day to masterly moves by the machine. Then came three
grueling draws, and a final game, in which a visibly shaken and
angry Kasparov resigned early, with a weak position. It was the
first competition match he had ever lost.
The event was notable for many reasons, but one especially is of
interest here. Several times during both matches, Kasparov
reported signs of mind in the machine. At times in the second
tournament, he worried there might be humans behind the scenes,
feeding Deep Blue strategic insights!
Bobby Fischer, the US chess great of the 1970s, is reputed to
have played each game as if against God, simply making the best
moves. Kasparov, on the other hand, claims to see into opponents'
minds during play, intuiting and exploiting their plans, insights
and oversights. In all other chess computers, he reports a
mechanical predictability stemming from their undiscriminating
but limited lookahead, and absence of long-term strategy. In Deep
Blue, to his consternation, he saw instead an "alien
In this paper-thin slice of mentality, a computer seems to have
not only outperformed the best human, but to have transcended its
machinehood. Who better to judge than Garry Kasparov?
Mathematicians who examined EQP's proof of the Robbins
conjecture, mentioned earlier, report a similar impression of
creativity and intelligence. In both cases, the evidence for an
intelligent mind lies in the machine's performance, not its
Now, the team that built Deep Blue claim no
"intelligence" in it, only a large database of opening
and end games, scoring and deepening functions tuned with
consulting grandmasters, and, especially, raw speed that allows
the machine to look ahead an average of fourteen half-moves per
turn. Unlike some earlier, less successful, chess programs, Deep
Blue was not designed to think like a human, to form abstract
strategies or see patterns as it races through the
move/countermove tree as fast as possible.
Deep Blue's creators know its quantitative
superiority over other chess machines intimately, but lack the
chess understanding to share Kasparov's deep appreciation of the
difference in the quality of its play. I think this
dichotomy will show up increasingly in coming years. Engineers
who know the mechanism of advanced robots most intimately will be
the last to admit they have real minds. From the inside, robots
will indisputably be machines, acting according to mechanical
principles, however elaborately layered. Only on the outside,
where they can be appreciated as a whole, will the impression of
intelligence emerge. A human brain, too, does not exhibit the
intelligence under a neurobiologist's microscope that it does
participating in a lively conversation.
Agony to ecstasy. In
forty years, computer chess progressed from the lowest depth to
the highest peak of human chess performance. It took a handful of
good ideas, culled by trial and error from a larger number of
possibilities, an accumulation of previously evaluated game
openings and endings, good adjustment of position scores, and
especially a ten-million-fold increase in the number of
alternative move sequences the machines can explore. Note that
chess machines reached world champion performance as their
(specialized) processing power reached about 1/30 human, by our
brain to computer measure. Since it is plausible that Garry
Kasparov (but hardly anyone else) can apply his brainpower to the
problems of chess with an efficiency of 1/30, the result supports
that retina-based extrapolation. In coming decades, as
general-purpose computer power grows beyond Deep Blue's
specialized strength, machines will begin to match humans in more
common skills.
Computers are universal machines, their potential extends
uniformly over a boundless expanse of tasks. Human potentials, on
the other hand, are strong in areas long important for survival,
but weak in things far removed. Imagine a "landscape of
human competence," having lowlands with labels like
"arithmetic" and "rote memorization",
foothills like "theorem proving" and "chess
playing," and high mountain peaks labeled
"locomotion," "hand-eye coordination" and
"social interaction." We all live in the solid
mountaintops, but it takes great effort to reach the rest of the
terrain, and only a few of us work each patch.
Advancing computer performance is like water slowly flooding the
landscape. A half century ago it began to drown the lowlands,
driving out human calculators and record clerks, but leaving most
of us dry. Now the flood has reached the foothills, and our
outposts there are contemplating retreat. We feel safe on our
peaks, but, at the present rate, those too will be submerged
within another half century. I propose (Moravec 1998) that we
build Arks as that day nears, and adopt a seafaring life! For
now, though, we must rely on our representatives in the lowlands
to tell us what water is really like.
Our representatives on the foothills of chess and theorem-proving
report signs of intelligence. Why didn't we get similar reports
decades before, from the lowlands, as computers surpassed humans
in arithmetic and rote memorization? Actually, we did, at the
time. Computers that calculated like thousands of mathematicians
were hailed as "giant brains," and inspired the first
generation of AI research. After all, the machines were doing
something beyond any animal, that needed human intelligence,
concentration and years of training. But it is hard to recapture
that magic now. One reason is that computers' demonstrated
stupidity in other areas biases our judgment. Another relates to
our own ineptitude. We do arithmetic or keep records so
painstakingly and externally, that the small mechanical steps in
a long calculation are obvious, while the big picture often
escapes us. Like Deep Blue's builders, we see the process too
much from the inside to appreciate the subtlety that it may have
on the outside. But there is a non-obviousness in snowstorms or
tornadoes that emerge from the repetitive arithmetic of weather
simulations, or in rippling tyrannosaur skin from movie animation
calculations. We rarely call it intelligence, but
"artificial reality" may be an even more profound
concept than artificial intelligence (Moravec 1998).
The mental steps underlying good human chess playing and theorem
proving are complex and hidden, putting a mechanical
interpretation out of reach. Those who can follow the play
naturally describe it instead in mentalistic language, using
terms like strategy, understanding and creativity. When a machine
manages to be simultaneously meaningful and surprising in the
same rich way, it too compels a mentalistic interpretation. Of
course, somewhere behind the scenes, there are programmers who,
in principle, have a mechanical interpretation. But even for
them, that interpretation loses its grip as the working program
fills its memory with details too voluminous for them to grasp.
As the rising flood reaches more populated heights, machines will
begin to do well in areas a greater number can appreciate. The
visceral sense of a thinking presence in machinery will become
increasingly widespread. When the highest peaks are covered,
there will be machines than can interact as intelligently as any
human on any subject. The presence of minds in machines will then
become self-evident.
Goldhaber-Gordon, D. J. et al. (1997) "Overview of
Nanoelectronic Devices", Proceedings of the IEEE,
April 1997.
Moravec, H. (1998) Robot, Being: mere machine to
transcendent mind. (forthcoming) Oxford University Press.
Peer Commentaries
TABLE of CONTENTS |
© 2004 Journal of Evolution and Technology.
All Rights Reserved.
Published by the
Institute for Ethics and
Emerging Technologies
Mailing Address: James Hughes Ph.D., Williams 229B,
Trinity College, 300 Summit St., Hartford CT 06106 USA
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text:
Gulf Crayfish Snake
* Currently accepted name
* scientific names used through time
- Coluber rigidus – SAY 1825
- Tropidonotus rigidus – HOLBROOK 1842
- Regina rigida – BAIRD & GIRARD 1853
- Tropidonotus leberis, var. rigidus – JAN 1865
- Natrix rigida – COPE 1892
- Natrix rigida sinicola – HUHEEY 1959
- Regina rigida sinicola – CONANT & COLLINS 1991
Description: Average adult size is 20 inches (50.8 cm), record is 31.5 inches (80 cm). Adults are glossy chocolate brown, there may be a faint darker stripe on each side of the body. The extreme lower sides are yellowish-tan. The throat is yellow and unpatterned. The belly is yellowish with two rows of black spots, but a single row exists near the head and tail. The scales are keeled and there are 19 dorsal scale rows at midbody. The pupil is round. Juvenile color is similar to that of adults.
A. Top of the head
B. Underside of the head (chin and throat)
C. Front (face view) of the head
D. Side of the head
E. Smooth scales
F. Elongated scales below the tail (subcaudal scales) are typically divided
Range: In Florida, the Gulf Crayfish Snake occurs in the western panhandle. Outside of Florida, it occurs from southern Georgia to eastern Texas.
Habitat: Uncommon, found in cypress strands, sloughs, sphagnum bogs, swamps, creeks, streams, ponds, prairies, and ditches.
Comments: HARMLESS (Non-Venomous). The Gulf Crayfish Snake is aquatic. It is mainly nocturnal and is occasionally found crossing roads after heavy rains. It is mostly active from March-November. Adults feed primarily on crayfish, fishes, sirens, frogs, and salamanders. Juveniles may also feed on aquatic invertebrates such as dragonfly larvae. It is live-bearing. Newborns measuring between 7-8.5 inches (17.7-21.5 cm) have been reported.
Comparison with other species: The Striped Crayfish Snake (Regina alleni) has an unpatterned belly and smooth scales. The Glossy crayfish snake (Regina rigida rigida) has faint, dusky stripes on the sides of the throat. The Queen Snake (Regina septemvittata) has four stripes on the belly.

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
I am liking the embroidery format. It's a bit of a change from the usual flat rectangular shape that I am used to and it's really fun! =) If you are curious as to what is behind the patterned paper, I used a piece of kraft cardstock as the base. Just cut a circle slightly larger than the inner hoop and cut slits around it so it is easier to insert into the hoop.
Mr. Fox, Miss Dear and Mr. Acorn are from Lawn Fawn's Into The Woods set and the log is from Critters in the Forest set. They are colored with Copic markers then fussy cut out.
The patterned paper is from Into The Woods 6x6 Petite Paper Pack also by Lawn Fawn and the speech bubble sentiments are included in the Into The Woods stamp set. Even though Into The Woods is a fall collection, I think they are pretty cute for Spring, too. Don't you think? Although I am not sure if regular acorns would last in the Spring, Mr. Acorn definitely lives happily in my springy little wonderland! =)
That's all for now. Have a beautiful day, my friends! =)
Thanks for stopping by!
cardstock: (white, kraft) Papertrey Ink
clear stamp: Lawn Fawn
patterned paper: Lawn Fawn
dye inks: (Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko, (Orange Soda, Tide Pool, Butter Bar) Hero Arts
color medium: Copic
other: (foam tape) 3M, (embroidery hoop) Michaels
project size: 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"


text:
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Arid regions are their habitat. They move rhythmically, making a sound similar to maracas.
It uses an up-tempo song and dance to drive away the bird Pokémon that prey on its flower seeds.
Boosts the Pokémon's Speed stat in sunshine.
Restores HP if hit by a Water-type move.
This Pokémon does not evolve.
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Steel Buildings IL
Steel buildings in IL are prefabricated engineered structures that can increase the value of your home, add space, and cost about half as much as regular construction. Their stylish design can blend in with existing buildings or stand out as a showpiece.
These buildings are incredibly versatile, come in many colors and styles, and can be used for almost anything, from livestock shelter to aircraft hangar space. There are multiple options for roof type, overall building shape, and interior features such as walls and doors, making the design options endless.
Roofing Styles of Steel Buildings in Illinois
All of our roofs are made from durable American-made steel.
This roofing style has a curved, rounded shape on the ends. The metal roof panels run with the ridges parallel to the ground for a clean aesthetic line.
Boxed Eave
The roof panels run with the ridges and parallel to the ground and the boxed eave improves the curb appeal.
The roof panels go straight to the edge of the metal building frame, perpendicular to the ground. Water, snow, and other debris slide off easily. This is the strongest of the roof designs.
Building Styles and Applications
Our Illinois metal buildings are versatile and stylish. Customizable features include interior and exterior walls, doors, windows, transparent panels, and roll-up doors. Buildings come in many structural styles, including gambrel, colonial, and A-frame.
Steel buildings can be used for many different applications:
Steel Garages
Store vehicles, boats, watercraft, or extra stuff from your house
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An add-on to your house without the added footprint
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Use them for warehouses, offices, aircraft hangars, auto shops, paint rooms, etc.
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Take your hobby to the next level by adding it to your house as a studio or a workshop
Steel RV Covers
Protect your luxury RV investment from the sun, wind, and rain with a sturdy steel structure.
Steel Buildings Illinois Prices
There are so many customization variations that can affect the price of a steel building, such as size, roof type, frame outs like doors and windows and many others. Generally, metal buildings are less expensive to maintain than other construction types. Please contact one of our customer representatives for an exact quote for the location where you live.
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Affordable – With a prefabricated structure, installation time and cost is less, and the overall cost is usually less than other construction.
Durable – Our Illinois steel buildings are engineered to meet state structural requirements. Our galvanized steel framework is durable and virtually maintenance-free. And we offer a 20-year replacement warranty on all our buildings.
Easy to Install – You can install these buildings yourself or have us do it and sit back and enjoy. Delivery & Installation are included in the price.
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The Seattle Times had a story today about a change in the law we've proposed.
The background: Washington's three major health insurers -- all of whom are non-profit companies -- have amassed surpluses totalling more than $2.4 billion.
Commissioner Kreidler is asking lawmakers to let him consider those surpluses when the companies propose increases in health insurance premiums. The That, hopefully, could ease future premium hikes. In the individual and small group markets, insurance premiums, on average, have more than doubled since 2005.
The bill is SB 5247. It has cleared a key committee and is currently in the Senate's Rules Committee.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
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Genesee County Black Foot Soldiers have reportedly issued a statement condemning the parents a sixteen year old generational race criminal, identified as Joshua Steppe, for failing to teach him what his kind owe today's generations of blacks for the white on black (WOB) race crimes they committed against them in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Reportedly, they are also condemning the sixteen year old for allegedly turning the protest violent through apparent Holocaust denial.
Reportedly, the family has been told it will cost $2,000 to embalm the body and return it to Pennsylvania via airplane. According to Pennsylvania Yakub Muslims contacts, however, Steppe's body is forbidden to be returned to the State and likewise forbidden to be buried in the earth. "His corpse should be burned or cast out into the streets for dogs to maul." A Pennsylvania Yakub Muslim contact is reported as saying. "For, the Sun of God despised his flesh."


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You can use them to specify who the target will be, or to combine multiple spells into one button to take up less space, and more. This, in turn, declutters your screen and can take out several clicks between you choosing your spell and it landing where you want it to go!
To create a macro, type /macro to bring up your macro panel.
- The General Macros tab is available to all of your characters on your account.
- The macros you create in the Name-Specific tab are only going to be available to that specific character.
When you are done selecting a name and icon, click "OK." The text box at the bottom of the main macro window is where you will type in the commands for the macro itself.
A macro in its rawest form is written as follows:
|/cast Spellname
That is the form that each spell or ability you take from your spellbook follows. The spellname must be typed exactly as it appears in your spellbook, though ranks can be omitted if you choose. From here, you have many choices on how to alter this simple spell cast. You can add specific requirements in [brackets] that tell the game specifically how you want it to handle that spell, and when to ignore it.
Key Modifiers
Modifiers are keys that act as a toggle, and include Shift, Alt, and Ctrl. You use a modifier key every time you toggle a letter between uppercase and lowercase! For a macro, these modifier keys are held while clicking on a macro in order for the game to cast the spell. You can specify the particular modifier key you wish to use, such as with [mod:shift], or you can use [mod] to let it respond to any of the three modifier keys.
|/cast [mod:shift] Lifebloom
The game reads the above macro as "cast (if they are holding down the shift key when this macro runs) a lifebloom." The game will not cast the spell if the shift key is not held down. What this means is that you can then add a second spell to the macro: a second spell that will be cast if the first spell is not cast. Different spells and actions are separated by a semicolon ;
|/cast [mod:shift] Lifebloom; Regrowth
The game reads this macro as "cast (if shift is held) Lifebloom, else cast Regrowth." You can add more spells and abilities by adding additional requirements for each spell to cast.
Combat Requirements
[combat] and [nocombat] are modifiers that tell the game to only use the following ability if you are in or out of combat, as applicable.
|/cast [nocombat] Flight Form; [combat] Travel Form
The above macro will check first to see if you are out of combat, and if so, it will use Flight Form. If you are in combat, it will skip the first spell and use Travel Form (cheetah).
Now, since the combat requirement is a simple yes/no check (are we in combat, or aren't we?), if we know that the first action of [nocombat] is false, then the only other option is that you are in [combat] instead. Thus, we don't necessarily have to write [combat] on the second spell, because if the game has passed by the first spell because the [nocombat] requirement was not met, then the only other option is that you are in combat. So,
|/cast [nocombat] Flight Form; Travel Form
This macro will do the exact same thing as the previous macro. It doesn't really make a difference if you include [combat] with the second spell in this macro or not.
Target Directions
Targets can be chosen by use of the [target=x] parameter, where "x" may be any of the following: player, pet, pettarget, focus, focustarget, target, targettarget, party# (1-5), party#target, partypet#, partypet#target, raid# (1-40), raid#target, raidpet#, raidpet#target, mouseover, mouseovertarget, and none. These are not requirements for the spell to cast, but rather are directions for the game on how you want it to cast the following spell.
[target=none] will place the spell on your cursor, where you can then cast it on the next person you click.
Mouseover is particularly useful for being able to choose whatever target your mouse cursor is currently hovering over, be it a person or mob on the screen, or a unit frame or health bar.
|/cast [target=mouseover] Lifebloom
The above macro will attempt to cast lifebloom on whoever you are currently hovering your mouse over. In order to use such a macro, you will need to keybind it to a keypress on your keyboard, since clicking it on your action bar means your mouse is hovering over the macro and not a person.
If a target direction is not included, then the game will cast the spell using the default targeting procedures.
Multiple Requirements
Multiple requirements are separated by commas , and are all within the same brackets together; they must all be met in order for the game to cast the spell.
|/cast [nocombat,mod:shift] Flight Form
This macro will cast flight form only if you are out of combat, AND you are pressing shift when you fire off the macro. You can use this to toggle between different actions that you may wish to use, like follows:
|/cast [nocombat,mod:shift] Flight Form; [nocombat] Mount Name; Travel Form
If you are out of combat and pressing shift, then cast flight form; else if you are out of combat, use a mount; else cast travel form (cheetah).
You can combine requirements and directions in the same pair of brackets in order to specify how you want a spell to be cast if the requirements are met. There can only be one target= direction per bracket pair, however. The order of requirements and directions within the brackets does not matter, since all "requirements" in the brackets must be met in order for the spell to be cast with the given direction. For example,
|/cast [combat,target=mouseover,exists,dead] Rebirth; [dead,nocombat,exists,target=target] Revive
Other Requirements
- Combat, nocombat
- Stealth, nostealth
- Flyable, noflyable
- Flying, noflying
- Swimming, noswimming
- Exists, noexists
- Dead, nodead
- Mounted, nomounted
- Help, nohelp
- Harm, noharm (simple opposite of the above, same idea)
- Modifier:x or Mod:x (where x is shift, alt, or ctrl)
- Modifier, Nomodifier or Mod, Nomod (Any modifier is held, or none at all)
- Stance:x or Form:X (where x is the number of your stance, 1-6. The number usually corresponds to the order in which you learned the stances. Bear form, for example, is stance:1)
- Stance, Nostance or Form, noform (any stance, or not in any stance. Nostance is typically viewed as caster form)
- Button:x or btn:x (where x is the mouse button number that was used to click the spell. Typically, left-click is 1, right-click is 2, and the scroll-wheel is button:3)
- Spec:x, nospec:x (where x = 1 for your primary spec, and 2 is your 2nd spec)
- Equipped:x or Worn:x (where x is an item name or item ID)
- Actionbar:x or Bar:x (where x is the number of the action bar that the macro is on)
Multiple Parameters
You can also create different sets of requirements for the same spell by adding additional [bracketed requirement lists], like follows:
|/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] [target=target,exists,help] [target=player] Lifebloom
This macro will first attempt to cast lifebloom on the target you are currently mousing over, if they exist and they are friendly. Else, it will cast it on your current target, if you have a target and they are friendly. Otherwise, it will cast lifebloom on yourself. This is the same idea as if you had written the macro as
|/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] Lifebloom; [target=target,exists,help] Lifebloom; [target=player] Lifebloom
...it's just much shorter, which can be important since macros have a 255 character limit.
The important things to keep in mind are:
- The order you put the spells in; the game will use the first spell it comes across in the macro that it is allowed to cast based on the requirements you gave.
- The game cannot cast multiple spells at the same time if each sets off a global cooldown (GCD). There are a few spells which do not set off a GCD, so these CAN be tied to cast at the same time as another spell.
|/cast Nature's Swiftness
/use Trinketname
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help][target=target,exists,help][target=player] Healing Touch
Other Slash Commands
The /cast is a slash command for casting. Additional /commands exist that can include their own requirements or do unique things. Many you will find familiar from using them in your chat box.
- #showtooltip (adds the tooltip of the spell the macro will cast under the current conditions. Specific Spellnames can be given)
- #show Spellname (shows the icon for the given spell. If no spell is given, it shows the first available spell in the macro. Useful for monitoring cooldowns.)
- /castsequence reset=n Spellname1,Spellname2,Spellname3 (after casting the first spell, the next time you press the macro it will cast the next spell in the sequence. It will reset to the first spell after n seconds. Replace n with the number of seconds. Alternatively, you can tell it to reset on combat)
- /use Itemname
- /use # (uses item equipped in the numbered slot on your person)
- /use 13 (uses top trinket)
- /use 14 (bottom trinket)
- /use 16 (weapon click-use)
- /use # # (uses item located in bag #, slot #)
- /use 0 1 (uses the toprightmost item located in your backpack)
- /equip Itemname
- /equipslot # Itemname (specifies slot when equipping the item)
- /s (talk in the say channel)
- /p (party)
- /ra (raid)
- /rw (raid warning)
- /target [requirements] or /tar
- /targetlasttarget
- /targetenemy
- /targetfriend
- /assist or /a
- /follow
- /focus
- /clearfocus
- /cancelform (takes you out of stance to your default caster form)
- /cancelaura BuffName (cancels a buff from your buffbar)
- /stopcasting (will stop whatever is currently casting)
- /stopmacro [requirements] (ignores the rest of the macro if requirements are met)
- /script or /run (a special command that is far more advanced, using different rules for its requirements)
A very complex macro can look like this:
|/clearfocus [mod:shift]
/focus [mod:shift] target
/stopmacro [mod:shift]
/assist [target=focus]
/startattack [nostealth]
/cast [form:3,nostealth] Mangle - Cat; [stealth] Pounce; [noform:1] Wrath
The above macro does the following:
- Clear the current focus target if shift is held.
- Then focus on the current target if shift is held.
- Then stop the macro if shift is held and read nothing else below this line; do not stop if shift is not being pressed.
- Then assist the focus.
- Then enable auto-attack if not in stealth.
- Then cast Mangle – Cat if in form:3 (catform) and not in stealth; else cast Pounce if in stealth; else cast wrath if not in bear form.
Other macros I use will be added in another post at a later date.


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Germany's Jews and Muslims will not be punished for breaking the law if they carry out circumcisions on young boys, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesperson said last week.
"For everyone in the government it is absolutely clear that we want to have Jewish and Muslim religious life in Germany," Merkel's spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, said on June 13, according to Reuters. "Circumcision carried out in a responsible manner must be possible in this country without punishment."
Last week, Europe's main Orthodox rabbinical body held an emergency meeting in Berlin after a Cologne court ruled that the religious ritual could be considered a criminal act. Regardless, the rabbis urged Jews in Germany to uphold the commandment to circumcise newborn sons.
The court decision came in the case of a Muslim boy taken to a doctor with bleeding after circumcision. The Cologne court said the practice inflicts bodily harm and should not be carried out on young boys, but could be practiced on older males who give consent. The ruling by the Cologne Regional Court applies to the city and surrounding districts.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, welcomed Merkel's decision.
"This statement will come as a great comfort to Jewish communities not only in Germany, but also to communities right across Europe who felt deeply troubled by the court's decision," he said. "I am grateful to Chancellor Merkel for making it clear that religious freedom will not be compromised in Germany."
In a news conference held July 12 at the Amano Hotel in Berlin, Rabbi Goldschmidt said his organization was ready to back Jews in challenging the court decision, which Jewish groups see as symptomatic of a trend across Europe against some Jewish rituals.
The rabbinical conference also announced that it is joining with the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany to create an association of mohels, or ritual circumcisers, to be supervised by the Association of Jewish Doctors and Psychologists.
Rabbi Goldschmidt, who is chief rabbi of Moscow, told JTA he didn't think "that 70 years after the Holocaust a German court would put a parent or a mohel in jail for performing a Jewish religious commandment."
The Central Council of Jews in Germany condemned the court's decision and promised to work with German lawmakers to reverse the ruling. Muslim groups have also proposed bringing a test case to German courts.
The German Medical Association has advised doctors not to perform circumcisions until the legal questions are resolved, according to Reuters.
This week, Canadian and American Jewish groups also thanked Merkel for her comments.
Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), said his organization was "encouraged" by the German leader's remarks and her support of circumcision rights.
"The fact that this issue was raised in the first place reflects a small but alarming trend among some Western countries, in which religious freedoms are facing odious restrictions unworthy of a modern democracy," he said in a statement. "Along with issues related to kashrut rights, the right of parents to observe brit milah is very much a litmus test for the future of Jewish communities – and indeed other religious minorities – in these countries."
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations also praised Merkel's stance.
In a joint statement earlier this week, conference chair Richard Stone and executive vice chair Malcolm Hoenlein said they believed the Cologne court had "overstepped its bounds" on this issue.
"Circumcision of newborn boys is a fundamental component of the Jewish religion, as it is of Islam, and the choice of many other parents and has been performed from time immemorial. This right is respected around the world. In the past, a ban on circumcision was a means to attack or drive out Jewish communities.
"Striking down the ill-conceived Cologne court ruling should clarify any legal uncertainty and not allow such ideas to spread."
With files from Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf


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Penny Black in Greenhill has disabled facilities. The pub is a family friendly pub, it serves food. Penny Black serves real ale. The pub has free WiFi, it is a member of Cask Marque.
latest pub news, offers & events
Tax Equality Day
Valid on 13/09/2018 [Expired]
In a bid to highlight the benefits of a VAT reduction across the hospitality industry, all J.D Wetherspoon outlets in England, Wales and Northern Ireland* will be cutting the price of all food and drink by 7.5% for one day only!
*Offer includes only food and soft drinks in Scotland.
Beer Day Britain 2018
Happening on 15/06/2018 [Expired]
Friday 15th June marks the annual celebration of the nation's best-loved bevvy - real ale! So why not come down and join us in raising a glass of the good stuff and say #CheersToBeer!
Punk IPA Now Available on Draught
Published on 18/04/2018 [Expired]
Punk IPA was the beer which kick-started BrewDog's revolution – and now it's being rolled out on draught across our pubs.
Come and celebrate the arrival of one of the nation's favourite craft beers on tap at your local Wetherspoon!


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Jim Jones & Skull Gang Present A Tribute To Bad Santa Starring Mike Epps Part 2
A Look At A New Mixtape "A Tribute To Bad Santa" Starring Mike Epps Presented By Jim Jones & Skull Gang. Available Tuesday November 25th, 2008 Includes 15 soon-to-be Christmas "Hood Classics"
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A Pair of 1950's Chairs
I immediately fell in love with their unique shape, quirky style and great condition. The silhouette of the chairs when placed side by side reminded me of the settee I have in my office – one of my favorite pieces of furniture. I kept envisioning them painted white and upholstered in linen at the foot of my bed with a small table in between.
Needless to say, it didn't take long to convince myself the chairs should come home with me. I was not sure how Mr. RDH was going to react to my unusual purchase but was pleasantly surprised when he liked them. Hurray!
Although my initial thought was to paint and reupholster the chairs to a more neutral color palette, for the time being they will be staying orange. I have found a home for them in a surprising location and will be sharing it with you soon.
47 comments:
- A Vintage Vine said...
Oh my! Those could be the best chairs I have ever seen! You are one lucky girl and I am sure after they receive your TLC they will look even more amazing!
- March 15, 2011 at 6:24 AM
- Tanya from Dans le Lakehouse said...
Those are gorgeous! Love the unusual shape (and the colour is quirky too - although I'm sure you'll do a lovely makeover). Great find!
- March 15, 2011 at 6:35 AM
- Morgan said...
Woah! I have never seen anything like them! Well, except for maybe at my grandmother's old house. She had a lot of 'mod' furniture (I guess that's what you'd call it) and there were so many pieces that were orange like that. Brings back memories. =]
- March 15, 2011 at 6:36 AM
- Angie - Big Bears Wife said...
what neat looking chairs!
- March 15, 2011 at 6:41 AM
Great chairs. I love them and I kinda like the orange for now.
- March 15, 2011 at 6:43 AM
- Becky said...
Those chairs are AWESOME! Love the shape.
- March 15, 2011 at 6:46 AM
- Rachael West said...
Stacy, I love them I can't wait to see where you've put them :+)
- March 15, 2011 at 6:47 AM
- The Country Nest said...
You have a great eye! I think they are wonderful and will look great the way they are or redone.
- March 15, 2011 at 7:08 AM
- lisaroy said...
wow - those chairs are awesome!! And while they would look nice painted and redone, I'm really loving the orange. what a great score! :)
- March 15, 2011 at 7:19 AM
- firstname.lastname@example.com said...
Those are a scream! I love them and I love that they are orange. Now this is something I can't wait to see you use :)
- March 15, 2011 at 8:14 AM
- Sonya@Beyond the Screen Door said...
OH MY WORD!!! I love those chairs! And I can see them reupholstered just as you described! What a find, Stacy! Good for you!
- March 15, 2011 at 8:16 AM
- Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions said...
The upholstery looks like it's in excellent condition, Stacy! I love the shape of them. Orange is back, too, you know. I'm curious to see where you've put them.
- March 15, 2011 at 8:24 AM
- WhisperWood Cottage said...
Great lines and great color!
- March 15, 2011 at 9:59 AM
- Joy@aVintageGreen said...
Great chairs, even in orange they are amazing. Very interested to see where they go from now.
- Joy
- March 15, 2011 at 10:22 AM
I think the chairs are gorgeous!! I would have taken them home too!!
- March 15, 2011 at 10:24 AM
- Deb @ Lavender Garden Cottage said...
Stunning chairs! Love them!
- March 15, 2011 at 10:54 AM
- The enchanted home said...
Those are really neat looking..and great conversation pieces! Since I love orange I happen to love them as they are and look forward to seeing where you put them!
Glad to have discovered your lovely blog...please visit mine, www.theenchantedhome.blogspot.com....
its about the building of our home and my passion for decor/design..hope you will stop by:)
- March 15, 2011 at 1:18 PM
- Shaunna said...
gorgeous!! Can't wait to see where they end up.
- March 15, 2011 at 2:24 PM
- Gail Peterson said...
Stacy, I think the ORANGE chairs are cool. They could be fun in Black and White ticking!!!
I love that you bought them..
You will find the perfect way to give them new life!
Thanks for being my newest Follower!
I am a follower of yours as well!
- March 15, 2011 at 2:29 PM
- Steph. :) said...
I kind of like them in orange. :)
- March 15, 2011 at 3:45 PM
- The Polka Dot Closet said...
I love them, I can't wait to see the after photo's!!!
- March 15, 2011 at 7:03 PM
- Patricia @ 9th and Denver said...
Wow! how 'bout that orange,huh?
Those chairs are so cool looking.
Glad they're orange for now.
Super glad for you MR. RDH likes...
...couldn't make that kind of purchase (maybe) Pat
- March 15, 2011 at 7:17 PM
- sistersue said...
I am in love with those chairs, even though I hate orange. Wish I would have found them :)
- March 15, 2011 at 8:55 PM
- Unknown said...
I am in LOVE! I would have snatched those up in a heartbeat - they are cool and funky and I cannot wait to see how you make them your own!
- March 15, 2011 at 9:54 PM
- Nancy's Notes said...
Love them! I'll be back, I have to see where you end up putting them, they are awesome!
- March 16, 2011 at 4:08 AM
- {darlene} said...
to say that those chairs make my heart skip a beat would be an understatement!!!!!!
more like palpitations.
are those orange velvet. holy cow. bestill my beating heart!
For the love of all things... I hope they stay orange!!!!! GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!
- March 16, 2011 at 8:07 AM
- {darlene} said...
what I really wanted to say in my comment was:
how much for them, Stacy. name your price!
- March 16, 2011 at 8:08 AM
- Leah said...
those are GORGEOUS!!! (well..minus the orange)..but still GORGEOUS!
- March 16, 2011 at 2:39 PM
- Sherry @ No Minimalist Here said...
Stacy, The chairs are fabulous! Thank you so much for joining my new party. I really appreciate it.
- March 16, 2011 at 3:21 PM
- Paula@SweetPea said...
These retro chairs are awesome! I know that you are going to really enjoy them. I can't wait for you to show us more.
- March 16, 2011 at 3:28 PM
- Deneen@dreaming-n-color said...
These are fabulous! They would look great in a navy room! The orange is in!
- March 16, 2011 at 3:38 PM
- c.w.frosting said...
What a unique find & a pair none the less! Looking forward to seeing them in your home!
- March 16, 2011 at 8:15 PM
- Happy To Be/ Gl♥ria said...
I heart this style and don't paint them like everyone else does..the finish is so pretty and white is going out of style...Hugs and smiles Gloria
- March 16, 2011 at 9:47 PM
- Anita @ GoingALittleCoastal said...
Those are a unique shape. I think they would look great painted. They do look oh so comfy too.
- March 16, 2011 at 11:52 PM
- Chari at Happy To Design said...
Hi Stacey...
Ohhh my goodness...your chairs are GORGEOUS, my friend! They truly are unique...I love the curvy lines and I love the orange!!! Thank you for sharing your beautiful chairs with us today!
Happy Spring!
Chari @Happy To Design
- March 17, 2011 at 8:45 AM
- Unknown said...
They are AMAZING. Wowzers. Find of the year. I think the orange is super striking. Can't wait to see where they are.
- March 17, 2011 at 3:09 PM
- Pamela said...
Wow! Gorgeous chairs and I don't even
mind the orange!
- March 17, 2011 at 8:49 PM
- tree-shades said...
LOVE those chairs! curvy in all the right places. can't wait for their transformation. you are so blessed to have found them!
- March 18, 2011 at 7:00 AM
- Emily@LovelyBeasts said...
I've never seen chairs like that before! I can understand why you couldn't walk away from them. I love that it came with pillows too!
- March 18, 2011 at 7:44 AM
- Be Colorful Coastal said...
I'm swooning. How fun are those colorful beauties.
Pam @ BeColorful
- March 18, 2011 at 11:45 AM
- Marigene said...
Love the shape of the chairs...even the color makes them rather delightful!
- March 20, 2011 at 7:46 AM
- Allison said...
I think these chairs are amazing! What a lucky find! I actually like them in the orange but your idea of white and linen sounds lovely, too. How fun!
- March 21, 2011 at 12:34 AM
Be still my heart...OOOOOOO, I love those chairs...lucky girl!
Romantic Domestic
- March 24, 2011 at 7:23 PM
- Abby M. Interiors said...
HOLY WOW! These are a dream find!
- March 27, 2011 at 9:29 PM
- for the love of a house said...
these chairs are FABULOUS!!! so happy Mr. RDH loves them too!
great find!
- April 1, 2011 at 8:49 AM
- Rose by Any Other Name said...
Ooooh leave them orange! Part of what makes them unique is their color/fabric, which looks to be in great condition. These ladies should not be fading into the background whith all the other white linnen - they should be accent peices in your lovely neutral home!
- April 7, 2011 at 9:36 AM
- jvw home said...
they are the cutest!!!!
- April 11, 2011 at 5:00 PM


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Nov 30, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – Many countries have improved their responses to H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in poultry in the past year, but the disease remains entrenched in six countries, according to a new report from the United Nations and the World Bank.
Amid the persisting threat that the H5N1 virus will spark a human flu pandemic, governments need to do more to coordinate their pandemic planning efforts, according to a UN news release about the report. The report itself was not released online.
"The pandemic threat has led most Governments to improve services to detect, contain and lessen the impact of dangerous pathogens," the UN statement says. "Many national pandemic plans, however, are not sufficiently operational and the coordination of pandemic planning between countries needs greater attention."
Dr. David Nabarro, the UN's senior influenza coordinator, commented in the statement, "The most urgent need, now, is for the Governments of different countries to work together. First, they must contain avian influenza and other animal diseases that might affect humans. Second, they must prepare for influenza and other possible pandemics."
The report was released in advance of a global conference on avian and pandemic flu, scheduled Dec 4 to 6 in New Delhi. The document comes a week after a World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Geneva made little headway toward solving a dispute over the international sharing of H5N1 virus samples and in the wake of poultry outbreaks in Romania, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The report says H5N1 avian flu has been reported in 60 countries since 2003, according to a Nov 29 Reuters story. The UN statement does not list the six countries in which the virus remains well established, but the Reuters story quotes the report as saying the virus "is currently entrenched in Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria, and possibly in some locations in China and Bangladesh."
Nabarro said H5N1 is being "continuously transmitted" in at least half the districts of Indonesia, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report .
"Intensive control efforts—including vaccination of poultry—are being mounted in these settings [countries where the virus is entrenched] to get the disease under control and eliminate outbreaks when they occur," the UN said. "Under present conditions, most other countries are able to control outbreaks when they occur in other settings."
Reuters quoted the report as saying, "Outbreaks are being detected more rapidly and the response is more effective. However, animal health services are still substandard in most countries—they lack necessary regulatory frameworks, budgets, laboratory capacity and implementation of biosecurity measures."
In regard to governmental responses to poultry outbreaks, the report largely echoes a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statement issued in June. At that point the FAO said responses to H5N1 outbreaks had improved significantly in the preceding 3 years but that the virus remained entrenched in several countries and would continue to spread.
The UN said nations that initially treated avian flu as an emergency are now developing "longer-term sustainable strategies for the healthy rearing and management of waterfowl, and investing in animal health, including better-run veterinary services."
The document also calls on countries to share H5N1 virus samples. Indonesia, the country hit hardest by avian flu, has shared very few samples over the past year, contending that the long-standing international system for flu surveillance is unfair because rich countries use virus samples from poor countries to develop vaccines that the poor countries can't afford.
A Nov 29 story from the UN News Service says the report calls for the urgent creation of a 3- to 5-year road map to drive intergovernmental action to control avian flu and improve global readiness for other health crises.
The UN report is based on data provided by 143 countries, the UN said. Ninety-five percent of the countries said they are planning for a pandemic. Some of these have taken steps to ensure continuity of vital infrastructure in a pandemic, and some have tested their plans in simulation exercises.
See also:
Nov 29 UN press release
Nov 29 story from UN News Service
Jun 27 CIDRAP News story "FAO says avian flu entrenched as new outbreaks appear"


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- Rachel over at P.S. I Quilt has opened up her new bee, called bee inspired. Cute name, huh? And get this: just for letting her pick my brain about running a virtual quilting bee, Rachel surprised me with a new (and much needed) blog header. Isn't it great?? If you're reading this on Google Reader or Bloglines or something, click over and take a look. Thanks so much, Rachel! (Rachel was also thrilled to hear that my wife has been bugging me to read the Twilight series, and I finally caved. I'm about done with book 2 already). This one looks like it's filling up fast (if it hasn't already).
- Sarah from Sarah's Corner is also looking for a few good quilters to round out her new group. Head on over and say "hi" to Sarah for me.
If you're at all interested in joining one of these groups, check out Rachel & Sarah's pages for more info. Of course, I'd highly encourage joining up -- they're a great way to try new things, practice new skills, meet amazing and inspiring people and, oh yeah, they're a ton of fun, too!


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We are excited to offer this 2014 Chevrolet Equinox. Drive home in your new pre-owned vehicle with the knowledge you're fully backed by the CARFAX Buyback Guarantee. Want more room? Want more style? This Chevrolet Equinox LT is the vehicle for you. Navigate through all the icky weather with ease in this AWD-equipped Chevrolet Equinox, and even get non-stop traction for your non-stop lifestyle! In addition to the amazing traction control, you may even qualify for an insurance reduction with this AWD vehicle. More information about the 2014 Chevrolet Equinox: Starting at under $25,000, the 2014 Chevy Equinox is one of the most affordable crossover vehicles in its class, rivaling Honda's CR-V and the Toyota RAV4. The interior features a dual-cockpit design, ice-blue ambient lighting and sophisticated, classy appearance touches that makes it look much more expensive than it is. With available V6 power under the hood, the Equinox makes an attractive family and cargo hauler. Interesting features of this model are Powerful and efficient engine selection and sharp styling inside and out We look forward to seeing you soon! Please call us for more information.
BMW of Tulsa invites you to visit our fantastic BMW new and used car dealership in Tulsa, OK. Our knowledgeable team members are ready to provide you with the best customer service you would expect from a luxury car dealer. If you are in the market for a new BMW, then come to BMW of Tulsa, serving Tulsa, Muskogee, Broken Arrow and Owasso, OK
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We invite you to see us in person at 9702 S Memorial Dr, Tulsa, OK 74133. or call 918-416-4943 today for BMW pricing, availability, service, parts, accessories, and more!
If you're looking for only the best deals on new & used BMW Luxury Cars & SUVs in the Tulsa area, then stop by today to test drive one of our latest models. We offer a great selection of new and used 5-Series, 3-Series, X5s, and many other popular models.
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CHARTPAK® AD™ Marker Color Set 25/GREYS
Chartpak brings you its permanent color AD marker with three distinct line widths in one nib. Brilliant, sparkling color delivered in fine point, medium width or broad strokes - with just a twist of the wrist.
Regular Price: $127.50
Buz-Line Price: $119.99


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Dysfunctional uterine bleeding is a type of irregular bleeding from the uterus. For example, your periods may be less than 21 days or more than 35 days apart. They may last longer than 7 days, or they may be very heavy. This type of bleeding isn't serious, but it can be annoying and can disrupt your life.
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October 9, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Sarah Marshall, MD - Family Medicine & Kirtly Jones, MD - Obstetrics and Gynecology
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To learn more visit Healthwise.org
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Cable and network news overlooked Bush's environment rule changes
On December 22, the Bush administration issued controversial new regulations governing national forests. While newspapers across the country covered the change extensively, the new rules, which are expected to take effect next week, were not mentioned on network evening news (ABC, CBS, and NBC) or on cable primetime news (CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News). This pre-Christmas announcement continues a Bush administration pattern of issuing controversial changes to environmental regulations just before holidays and weekends, in a largely successful effort to keep them under the public's radar screen.
As the Los Angeles Times reported on December 23, the new rules contain two major changes to the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service planning regulations. The first change puts an end to requiring environmental impact statements when management plans for individual national forests are developed or revised. The Times referred to the 25-year-old requirement, now dropped by the new rules, as "a cornerstone of public involvement in environmental decisions." The second major change drops a 1982 Reagan-instituted mandate that fish and wildlife be managed in a way that maintains "viable populations of existing native and desired nonnative vertebrate species." The new rules instead direct managers to provide "ecological conditions to support diversity of native plant and animal species."
Environmental groups, including the National Resources Defense Council, the Wilderness Society, and the Sierra Club, oppose the new rules as favoring industry over wildlife and the public. Former Agriculture undersecretary Jim Lyons, who oversaw the U.S. Forest Service during the Clinton administration, told the Los Angeles Times: "It is really a clandestine effort in my mind to subvert much of what the national forests stand for." Current U.S. Forest Service officials, meanwhile, said the changes "would free them from wasteful and time-consuming paperwork and give them the latitude to more quickly respond to evolving forest conditions and scientific research" ; representatives of the timber industry also favored the rule changes, as the Times noted.
The Bush administration's December 22 issuance is in line with an apparent strategy to minimize attention paid to contentious actions. In 2003, the administration announced on Christmas Eve that they had opened up backcountry trails on federal land to state, county, and municipal governments. A September 21, 2003, USA Today article titled "It's TGIF for the White House when it has bad news" noted: "The week between Christmas and New Year's and the day before national holidays also are popular times to try to slip controversial news under the radar." The article detailed numerous other controversial announcements made on Fridays or before holidays, including the following environmental policy changes:
- A November 2002 Friday announcement regarding relaxed enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
- A Thanksgiving eve 2002 announcement that the administration would give managers of national forests more authority to approve logging with less study of potential environmental problems.


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NORMAN, Okla. (AP) No. 12 Oklahoma has suspended defensive tackle Stacy McGee after he was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol on Christmas Eve.
Coach Bob Stoops announced Friday that McGee wouldn't travel with the Sooners (10-2) for the Cotton Bowl or play against No. 10 Texas A&M (10-2) in the Jan. 4 game. McGee was previously suspended for the first six games of the regular season.
Stoops also says that receiver Jalen Saunders will play in the Cotton Bowl despite being charged this month with misdemeanor marijuana possession.
The university released a statement saying that the information surrounding the two players' arrests and their history are unique and resulted in the different decisions.


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Items where Person is "Drache, Michel"
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Li, Rong and Zhen, Quiang and Drache, Michel and Rubbens, Annick and Estournès, Claude and Vannier, Rose-Noëlle. Synthesis and ion conductivity of (Bi2O3)0.75(Dy2O3)0.25 ceramics with grain sizes from the nano to the micro scale. (2011) Solid State Ionics, 198 (1). 6-15. ISSN 0167-2738


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China Pictures
My best Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing photos, including the Great Wall. These pictures can be purchased as prints or stock images. Click on this photo below for a larger presentation.Read More
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China - Hong Kong at Sunset
Best Hong Kong ImagesBest Hong Kong PhotosBest Hong Kong PicturesChinaHongKongSunset3403


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Okay to start, this is my homework assignment that I am struggling on. I do not want it done for me, I am just looking for a direction because I am really struggling with these 'for' loops.
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Thank you so much for any help, I am very new to java.