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Lime green with white polka dots fold over elastic
5/8" width x 5 yards.
Great for making your own headbands or hair ties - DIY.
Also used to embellish projects, scrapbooking, sewing and more!
FOE is very useful in lots of craft projects, so get those creative juices flowing!
All prices are in USD


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Staré Mesto, Prague
The Staré Město will leave you starry-eyed with its rich fabric of spires and chimneys, frilly facades, fairytale forms and dark gothic charm. In short, an unrivalled central European dreamscape
Prague's Old Town hosts its most celebrated sights; the famed Astronomical Clock, Old Town Square, awesome Powder Tower, elegant Charles Bridge and countless other landmarks that will leave you giddy. Wind down in the myriad of cobblestoned back streets, where the beauty is in the detail.
0.2 km
Havel's Market (Havelský trh)
0.4 km
Old Town Square
0.5 km
Charles Bridge
0.6 km
Old Jewish Cemetery
0.6 km
0.7 km
0.7 km
Wenceslas Square
1.1 km
National Museum (Národní muzeum)
1.1 km
Wallenstein Palace
1.3 km
Golden Lane
1.5 km
Prague Castle
1.5 km
National Technical Museum
1.6 km
+1 646 810 8678
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- Customer service before, during and after your stay
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New York Rangers Mens Ice Series
Brand: GameTime
Product Code: NHL-ICE-NYR
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Product Code: NHL-ICE-NYR
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The Ice Series New York Rangers Men's watch shows off your team spirit. This is the perfect watch to wear on game day.
The Ice Series New York Rangers watch includes a nylon and leather strap with a black face. A full color logo sits in the center of the dial. A scratch resistant crystal lens keeps your watch looking new. The watch includes Japanese quartz movement. It is water resistant to 3 ATM and shock resistant.
When you need to add a great accessory to your gameday wear it's time to check out the Ice Series watch.
The Men's Ice Series features;
- Nylon and leather strap
- Black sunray dial
- Scratch resistant mineral crystal lens
- Japan quartz movement
- Stainless steel caseback
- Shock resistant/water resistant (3 ATM)
- Officially licensed team logos and colors
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Today Facebook officially announced that it has sealed the deal for acquiring the face-recognition software company Face.com for an undisclosed sum. A move that's hardly surprising as we've been hearing about it for a while now.
The deal is expected to go through in the coming weeks. There's no telling what Facebook's plans about Face.com are, but the company's services are already widely used around the world's largest social network.
Face.com released an article in its official blog, stating the company plans to continue supporting its developers and that it will disclose more information about the progress of the deal as it becomes available.
With Instagram and Face.com in check it seems the social network giant is planning something huge on the mobile front.


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Greg Kessler
Photographer: Kevin Riddell
Jul 14, 2010
By Monica Chapman
OHIO students training to teach English as a second language (ESL) are in for a treat when Greg Kessler is facilitating the technology instruction.
An assistant professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and the director of the Language Resource Center, Kessler was recently named the 2010 Outstanding Graduate Faculty based on teaching excellence and an overall dedication to graduate education.
In presenting the award at the Graduate Commencement ceremony in June, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit described Kessler as enthusiastic, creative, supportive, engaged and dedicated to interdisciplinary teaching and graduate education. She praised his active role in developing instructional materials for use with new technologies and preparing teachers and students to use these materials in ways appropriate to their teaching contexts.
"Anyone who visits Gordy Hall's labs can see Dr. Kessler's impact," said Benoit. "From Flip video cameras to iPod Touches and the new iPad, he ensures students and faculty have the opportunity to receive a hands-on learning experience with the newest technologies and the latest software."
Established in 1972, the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award honors a professor who has demonstrated exemplary performance as an instructor, a researcher and a faculty member. Each graduate department nominates one of its faculty members for the award, and the recipient serves as the graduate commencement speaker the following year.
"This award came as such a surprise to me. I had no idea I was even nominated until it was announced that I was chosen," said Kessler. "It is particularly important to me since it is initiated by graduate students. I think my job is always focused upon the future of my students and what I can do to prepare them for the opportunities that they will encounter."
Jeff Kuhn, a graduate student in linguistics, headed up Kessler's nomination. Kessler said his recommendation letter received unanimous support from the linguistics graduate body and approximately 30 supporting signatures.
Kuhn, who spent six years teaching English in Japan and Mongolia, praised Kessler for his practical approach to education – focusing on free, web-based instructional tools, including YouTube, Skype, Google Documents, and a barrage of social networking sites. These kinds of programs, said Kuhn, are easily-accessed by most teachers, regardless of resources and funding.
"A lot of teachers are not going to teach in perfect situations," said Kuhn. "They're going to teach in places where there's a lack of money and a lack of experience. It's a 'Do what you can, where you are, with what you have' sort of thing."
According to Kuhn, Kessler's constructivist approach and emphasis on the learning process ensure that teachers walk away with applicable classroom skills. His open-door policies, resourcefulness and rank – at the forefront of the growing field of CALL – further validate the award, said Kuhn.
"You can go to him with an idea that seems difficult, and he'll say, 'If you just do these steps, it's completely possible.' And he does that with everything you approach him with," said Kuhn. "He takes the impractical of academia and makes it very realistic, and so you feel involved."
Kessler's dedication to teaching extends beyond Ohio University. He has taught CALL teacher preparation courses and programs across the United States, as well as around the world in countries such as China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, and Kazakhstan, just to name a few.
He is widely published, has authored software, made numerous presentations at major academic conferences, and consulted internationally with organizations including Chubu University, Ohio University, and Arabian Educational Training Group, and the U.S. State Department English Language Specialist.
In addition to his professional accomplishments and contributions, he has served on university-wide committees, advisory councils, and professional boards including his current service on the executive board of The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium.
Despite his broad background, Kessler said he is most interested in the way that CALL, and the larger world of social networking, helps people improve their connections with one another, their communication, and ultimately their learning of language and culture.
"Some people anticipate a future of technology based learning that removes people from the equation," he said. "But I am always trying to focus upon the role of people, including teachers, students, learners and others, in the communication and learning process."
In the coming year, Kessler said he will focus on several online language teaching programs as well as programs with Chubu University (OHIO's Japanese sister school) and Al-Baha University (OHIO's emerging Saudi Arabian sister school). He is also enthusiastic about the switch to semesters, which will allow himKessler the ability to redefine the curriculum and develop a master's degree in CALL.
Kessler said working with graduate students and the excitement of new pedagogical possibilities that accompany new technologies are among his job's highlights. And if his nomination is any indication, Kessler's excitement is catching on.
"He's very inspiring to students and builds their confidence," said colleague Dawn Bikowski, director of the English Language Improvement program within the Linguistics Department. "He really sees technology as a way to kind of immerse students … and to be creative and innovative. He somehow challenges people and gets them to do things they never thought they could do."


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BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say gunmen have killed a provincial election candidate in a drive-by shooting in a restive northern city.
A police official said the attack on Muhanad Ghazi occurred Friday as he was walking home in the city of Mosul.
Ghazi was running as a member of a party supported by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
A hospital official confirmed the death. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Iraqi authorities earlier delayed the provincial council voting in two Sunni dominated provinces — Anbar and Ninevah — citing security concerns. The elections in these two provinces are due in June 20.
The attack came just a day after a failed assassination attempt on Ninevah governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi.


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Yung Lokee - Send Me Sum Mo [KingIce Submitted]
KingIce artist Yung Lokee reppin Brighton, Alabama
Flood The City Mixtape Coming Oct.26 on DatPiff. com
Hosted By Dj Bobby Black & Dj Ken Twitter:
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For Booking or Mixtape Hosting Call 678-667-0101
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Make a custom font from your own handwriting!
Posted on October 14, 2009by JUSTEN HONG
This is awesome, easy and FREE! You can create your own custom font out of your own handwriting. All you need is a piece of paper, a printer, a pen and a scanner. Just click here: www.fontcapture.com to get started. You can also click here to download my font called Justen.


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Helps Accelerate Deployment of Applications and Cost Benefits of NFVIRVINE, Calif., Feb. 20, 2014 — (PRNewswire) — Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced its Open Network Function Virtualization (NFV) platform. This platform is designed to accelerate NFV adoption by allowing implementation of applications across multiple system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor solutions based on diverse Instruction Set Architectures (ISA). Broadcom will showcase its mobile innovations at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 24 - 27. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.
Using Broadcom's new Open NFV platform, OEMs and ecosystem vendors can easily migrate virtual functions (VF) between platforms based on various vendor solutions. A proof of concept (PoC) demonstrating a live VF state migration between multiple ISAs has been approved by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) NFV Industry Specification Group (ISG)1.
"As more organizations move toward an NFV model, they will need an easy way to migrate virtual functions across platforms," said Werner Schaefer, Hewlett Packard Vice President, Network Functions Virtualization. "Industry collaboration via open standards, like those supported by Broadcom and HP, enable customers to move NFV forward from concept into reality through tight interoperability between all of the components needed to rollout an Open NFV platform."
"Customers have been asking for an ISA-independent solution to migrate virtual functions across diverse platforms, something they didn't previously have," said Ron Jankov, Broadcom Senior Vice president and General Manager, Processors and Wireless Infrastructure. "Broadcom's partnership with ARM and other third party vendors helps advance our NFV goals and meet the workload flexibility and scalability needs of our customers, while maintaining our commitment to a truly open ecosystem."
In partnership with ARM, Broadcom is working to enable equipment manufacturers designing NFV solutions to meet next-generation carrier-class requirements utilizing open standards that enhance code portability and reduce development time. "Broadcom and ARM have been working together within ETSI and Linaro to standardize programming models, tools, APIs and network-specific libraries to create a truly open software environment," said Charlene Marini, ARM Vice President of Marketing, Embedded Segment. "NFV platforms such as Broadcom's are a key building block in enabling network operators to deploy flexible high-performance, energy-efficient network architectures based on a consistent software platform."
As telecom providers and network operators move to a carrier cloud architecture, they are looking for cost effective solutions to virtualize workloads on industry standard servers. Broadcom's Open NFV platform provides scalability, workload flexibility and interoperability for the successful implementation of NFV. The basis of Broadcom's Open NFV platform is open source components such as Linux, KVM and OVS giving customers a consistent platform independent of the target SoC's ISA, thus allowing vendors to develop NFV applications that are highly portable. "We are very pleased to see the industry driving NFV implementation according to the ETSI NFV ISG PoC Framework," said Don Clarke, British Telecom Head of Network Evolution Innovation. "Portability and flexibility will make a significant contribution to the successful rollout of new solutions based on NFV."
Broadcom's platform supports open Application Programming Interface (API) standards such as Linaro's Open Data Plane (ODP) to access acceleration components for scaling critical functionality and reducing time-to-market delays. By supporting open API standards it ensures that customers can take advantage of the market leading capabilities that Broadcom has put into three generations of multi-core processor SoCs while still maintaining the desired platform portability. Accelerators, a mainstay in today's infrastructure equipment, are critical for scaling networking, storage and security functions to useful performance levels in NFV platforms. For the successful implementation of NFV, Broadcom provides a fully virtualized high performance multi-core processor SoC with tightly coupled accelerators that will be available in a wide range of server form factors as well as standardized Open Compute Platforms (OCP).
In Broadcom's Virtual Function State Migration and Interoperability PoC, recently accepted by ETSI NFV ISG, Broadcom is demonstrating a Tieto implementation of an Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) and migrating the VF state from operating on one ISA to a different ISA. This portability is imperative to the future success of any NFV implementation. Using standard APIs, Broadcom's software partners take advantage of the XLP data plane accelerators such as Central Messaging Station (CMS) and Network Accelerator Engines (NAE) that are unique to Broadcom, to offer unparalleled application performance, workload flexibility and scalability.
In addition to the platform, Event Machine, the underlying technology for ODP from ENEA along with application ID from QOSMOS and data plane acceleration from 6WIND, will be demonstrated at Broadcom's booth during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 24 - 27.
For ongoing Broadcom news visit our Newsroom, read our B-Connected Blog, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to our RSS Feed.
Broadcom will demonstrate the Open NFV platform at Mobile World Congress, Hybrid Hall 3, Booth #C30, Feb. 24 – 27, 2014
1 This NFV Proof of Concept has been developed according to the ETSI NFV ISG Proof of Concept Framework. NFV Proofs of Concept are intended to demonstrate NFV as a viable technology. Results are fed back to the NFV Industry Specification Group. Neither ETSI, its NFV Industry Specification Group, nor their members make any endorsement of any product or implementation claiming to demonstrate or conform to NFV. No verification or test has been performed by ETSI on any part of this NFV Proof of Concept.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®,and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Chris Zegarelli
Jyotsna Grover
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Infrastructure & Networking
|Broadcom Corporation
BRCM Infrastructure & Networking
Web: http://www.broadcom.com


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Nestled in a corner of Monument Square sits an almost life-sized reproduction of Michelangelo's Pieta of St. Peter's Basilica in Italy, a rare sculpture in this corner of the world. After nearly 50 years of winter weather, tree sap and rain, the Pieta practically blended in with its surroundings, covered in moss and unkempt. But because of one Concord resident's personal experience of the Pieta, the sculpture is now eye-catching upon entering Monument Square.
Nestled in a corner of Monument Square, between the rectory of Holy Family Parish and the war memorial, sits an almost life-sized reproduction of Michelangelo's Pieta of St. Peter's Basilica in Italy, a rare sculpture in this corner of the world.
If the location of the statue is still difficult to recall or the name does not ring a bell, you are not alone.
Often overlooked by passing tourists and traffic, the replica is situated beneath a cover of trees. After nearly 50 years of winter weather, tree sap and rain, the Pieta practically blended in with its surroundings, covered in moss and unkempt.
However, because of one Concord resident's personal experience of the Pieta, the sculpture is now eye-catching upon entering Monument Square. A gleaming white, the depiction of Mary cradling the body of Jesus Christ has once again attracted onlookers and questions.
"I do not think you have to be religious to be struck by this statue," said Robin Masi, the woman behind the restoration of Concord's Pieta.
More interestingly, the company hired to do the restoration work has confirmed the statue has an artistic significance as well.
According to Miroslav Maler of Building Monument Conservation, the statue is made from Carerra marble, which is only found in the same area of Italy where Michelangelo obtained the one block of marble for the original and many other Renaissance sculptures.
"This is an interesting project," said Maler. "I have seen the original a long time ago."
Maler is not the only one who remembers being inspired by the original.
As a girl, Masi spent time in Italy, alongside her family as her Air Force father was stationed there. On the weekends and dragging her heels, Masi accompanied her family to tourist spots, many of which were cathedrals.
On a particular afternoon, her parents brought her to St. Peter's Basilica.
"This experience is very vivid," said Masi. "It was quite an experience seeing it for the first time."
The beauty of Mary and her youthful appearance immediately struck Masi. As she stepped closer to the Pieta, she was drawn to the intricate folds of the fabric and the way the marble sculpture appeared soft to the touch.
When her family left the cathedral, Masi was still thinking about the sculpture. Her father asked what her favorite part of the day was and instead of choosing the chocolate they had stopped for afterward, Masi said it was the Pieta.
Since then, "I've always been drawn to it," said Masi. Coming from an Italian family who shared a love for Michelangelo, "the statue is one that has a lot of meaning for my family."
As an artist, Masi has routinely drawn from photographs of the Pieta. Michelangelo's work has almost become an obsession for her.
After moving to Concord, and discovering the Pieta in the center of town, Masi has been a regular visitor of the statue.
"There was such a strong connection and it was kind of coincidental I moved to a town with the statue," she said. Even though it was dark and covered with moss, it was still beautiful, she said.
Then, her father became ill. Before passing away, Masi penned and illustrated a book, titled "Dad, The Pieta and Me." She feverishly worked on the book last winter, completing it in time to give it to her father before he died this past May. "The statue became a way for he and I to connect," he said.But still, she wanted to do more.
So she spoke with the Rev. Austin Fleming of Holy Family Parish, where she is a member. He was supportive of her idea to restore the replica in honor of her father.
Masi had heard of Building Monument Conservation. The company, which is owned by Ivan Myjer, has reconstructed parts of St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City and the Plymouth Monument, to name a few.
Using the money left to her by her father, Masi paid for the three-week restoration on her own.
A finger of Mary's had broken off. Using a piece of similar granite, a mold was made and the finger reattached.
Covered and damaged with moss and acid rain, the Pieta required the restoration artists to chemically clean and then apply several coats of a protective layer.
At the end of last week, Maler was completing the final stages of restoring and protecting the reproduction.
"The marble has become so porous in many areas," said Maler. "This kind of a chemical penetrates the marble and strengthens the surface."
Donning a ventilation mask, Maler worked on Friday afternoon with complete concentration. Almost like an artist himself, he was busy applying a clear chemical to Michelangelo's replication with a paintbrush and dabbing off excess.
"He's the master and I am just futzing around," said Maler with a chuckle.
Now, since the Pieta is clean, it has been attracting more visitors, said Masi. She would like to create a more welcoming area around the statue and place a restoration plaque in honor of her father.
However, because the church has no records of how the statue arrived in its place, the plaque may have to wait.
"They do not know how the statue got here," said Masi. "They have been going back and looking at records."
Until that time, the statue now sits in the corner attracting more visitors with an air of mystery.
"I think he would be proud and very appreciative," said Masi of her father Joseph.
Described as quiet and dignified, she said, "He would not want to call much attention to himself."Almost like Concord's version of the Pieta.


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By Steve Harmic, Penn State DuBois
DUBOIS – Three Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) students from Penn State DuBois recently made a presentation on their circular and extra circular work at the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association's (POTA) annual conference in Lancaster. It provided the students with opportunities to showcase their accomplishments and to network with professionals in the occupational therapy field.
Accompanied by LuAnn Demi, instructor and campus coordinator of the OTA program, the students presented a poster session featuring photos and information about the hands-on learning experiences they've had while enrolled in the campus program. Their presentation focused on CarFit, a clinic-styled program that students offer periodically. During CarFit clinics, students work with other health care professionals to help senior citizen drivers stay safe and comfortable behind the wheel. Seniors who attend the clinic receive help adjusting their seats, steering wheels and mirrors for maximum comfort and safety, in a way that best suits each individual. Through their presentation, the students were able to show OT professionals the impact that real-world learning opportunities have had on their education.
"This was a great opportunity for students to take knowledge they have gained during their education to a new level," Demi said. "The students shared information and experiences they've had serving the community through CarFit with occupational therapy professionals in the field who hadn't even heard of the program. I think presenting a poster at a professional conference gave the students confidence and experience that will continue to benefit them in their future careers in occupational therapy."
The students said that they couldn't agree more. OTA student Colleen Prechtl said, "Getting to be a part of the CarFit POTA presentation was a great experience. It allowed us to educate others in the OT field about this great program for senior drivers and how they can also get out in their communities to spread the word of how OT can help make this world a better place."
"I feel that the POTA Conference was a great experience for me because I was able to spread the word about the program, CarFit, as well as mingle with some other people of the OT profession," said student Katrina Anderson.


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To kick off the examination on the effectiveness of Predefined TA Screener, Young Investors would start to create infographics based on this feature. On Monday morning of each week, two stocks with the most Buy & Sell signals respectively would be chosen (based on last Friday's results). The infographic would include the basic information of both stocks and the TA signals produced by the screener.
For the fourth week:
By the Young Investors Team


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ClearSpace Keeps Prefab Simple in Austin
Austin-based ClearSpace Homes has been around for several years, but recently I noticed the founder, Hayden Lindley, was working on some new designs. One of those is the 504-square-foot efficiency unit, pictured, which is finished on the outside with lap siding and cement board. Lindley is noodling this prefab design and others and wants to produce some new in-house plans with an accurate ballpark cost attached.


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Calendar | Community
| Family & Friends in the Armed Forces
| Milestones
Community Action |
Humane Society | YMCA
Mount Pulaski Township Park District
seeks community support for funding pool repairs
Send a link to a friend
[June 10, 2014]
MOUNT PULASKI - The Mount Pulaski
Township Park District is accepting pledges for the purpose of
refurbishing much of the swimming pool. The current pool was built
in 1984 with a life expectancy of 25 years. The pool is currently in
its 30th year of operation and it could be its last.
Major renovation is necessary to keep the pool operational.
Installation of a pool liner to stop leakage and preventing the
settling of the pool deck; new piping; raising the pool decks; as
well as construction of a new wading pool and replacing the
bathhouse must be done. These repairs should ensure another 25 years
of swimming in our community. A new pool could cost in excess of 3
million dollars, while the above repair work can be done for roughly
10-15 percent of that cost.
The Park Board cost estimate for the entire project is in the range
of $550,000. Unfortunately, the park district does not have
sufficient funds to cover the cost. The Board will pursue grant
funding from the State of Illinois Department of Natural Resources
and a pledge drive to determine our ability to move forward with the
project. The Board is now accepting pledges only for the Pool
Project. They are asking that cash not be sent at this time, but
just the pledge to show support of the project.
The pool has been a staple of the community and surrounding area for
the past 30 years. The park district is asking that everyone help
with this project so the local swimming pool may be operational for
years to come.
[to top of second column]
A Public Meeting will held on June 25, 2014 at Mount Pulaski
High School Cafeteria. To further discuss this. In the meantime,
anyone who is willing to pledge their support, is asked to fill
out and submit the attached pledge form.
Pledge Form (PDF)
[Text received; MOUNT PULASKI
Back to top


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A new study, sponsored by Hellmann's and Best Foods Mayonnaise, suggests that your sandwich choice is not simply about whether you like the taste of tuna or ham, but whether you are uptight and anal or a "universal romantic."
The study was conducted by the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation and required their 2,747 participants to fill out a series of personality tests before asking them choose from eight different sandwiches. The researchers then matched up the personality types with the various lunch orders, and found that most tuna salad-lovers are competitive perfectionists, while ham and cheese-eaters are curious and intuitive.
In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Dr. Alan R. Hirsch, a researcher from the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, says that the sandwich test is similar to a Roscharch test:
"You look at ink blots, and what you see gives you insight into personality. We basically did the same thing, only with sandwich preferences... Literally every little thing we do — the way we walk, the way we talk, the color tie we pick — reflects our personality; we leave behind 'personality fingerprints' in everything we do," he says. "The question is, are we smart enough to figure out what it means?"
Hirsch certainly thinks so. The Chicago Tribune includes a video of Hirsch discussing his sandwich theory (while sitting behind trays of sandwiches with a carefully-placed jar of Hellmann's mayo), and he appears fully convinced that the choices we make, even in insignificant matters, reflects our "true, underlying personality." However, as the Tribune points out, Hirsch is missing a few important sandwiches, including the classic PB&J. Furthermore, only one of the sandwiches they include, egg salad, is vegetarian. Does this mean that everyone who skips meat is entertaining, lively, and energetic? And what about vegans? Do they not get a sandwich-based personality?
Apparently not. And apparently, as a lover of all sandwiches, I don't either. When asked about those of us who order different foods based on our different moods, Hirsh argues that we all have an underlying favorite, and that that is the sandwich that reveals our inner souls. After searching my soul, I realized that I don't have favorite sandwich—at least, not among the choices given, which all look delicious—so I clearly have multiple personalities. Or, more likely, this research is bogus.
However, even if it is foolish, studies like this do seem to say something about ourselves, not so much our romantic style or how introverted we are, but about the need to fall into one of eight simple categories. They remind me of the quizzes that were so popular in junior high, which promised to tell you your "true color," or figure out which animal best represents you. I loved these tests at the time, but years later, the desire to have myself labeled and defined seems odd. This need, to be categorized according to character traits, to have the ineffable substance of an individual's personality reduced down to a single mammal or vegetable or mineral, seems particular to the cutthroat world of middle school, where labels seemed both permanent and paramount. In these times of stress, maybe it is comforting to know whether you are an ambitious BLT or an easy going chicken salad. But since there isn't a sandwich-personality ready for me to step into, I am going to have to do what I did in junior high: make it up. I'm an avocado, Swiss cheese, and spinach. How about you?
Your Sandwich Choice May Reveal Your Personality, Compatibility [Chicago Tribune]
Which Sandwich Are You? [Chicago Tribune]
Related: You Don't Have To Have A Personality If Your Glass Has One For You
Image via amanky's photostream


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Advanced Pilates
Advanced 1-on-1 Sessions
Make it personal. Work 1-on-1 with an instructor as you discover how these mindful movements can change the way you look and feel.
Reservation Required
Power Up
Once you've mastered the foundational work and secured a thumbs-up from your instructor, it's time to take your practice to the next level.
Pilates 1
Build on the knowledge that you gained from the introductory private sessions or small group series. Add exercises that improve strength, endurance and quality of movement.
Reservation Required
Pilates 2
Continue your work with advanced exercises. You'll not only need your instructor's blessing for this level, but also mastery of the discipline's foundational concepts.
Reservation Required
Pilates 3
Focus on greater precision, flow and concentration while increasing strength, stamina and control. Check with your instructor before progressing to this level.
Reservation Required
Pilates 4
Challenge yourself to all that Pilates has to offer. But first, get a thumbs-up from your instructor that you're both physically and mentally ready for these advanced exercises.
Reservation Required


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On January 28, 1813, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was published for the first time. After two centuries, Austen's story of beautiful, clever and poor Elizabeth Bennett and arrogant Mr. Darcy continues to persist as both a canonical and popular novel.
Proof of the lasting influence of Pride and Prejudice is its impressive number of film and literary adaptations. There are movie and television versions, including the 1940 release starring Laurence Olivier, the 1995 BBC series starring Colin Firth, and the 2005 film starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. There are also numerous novels that continue the story or tell it faithfully from another character's point of view, such as Pemberley by Emma Tennant and Lydia Bennet's Story by Jane Odiwe.
Then there are the more imaginative departures. There are mystery adaptations, including P.D. James' recent Death comes to Pemberley, and horror spin-offs such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange. Austenland by Shannon Hale, a popular 2007 novel about a Darcy-obsessed young woman vacationing at a Pride and Prejudice-themed resort, has recently been adapted into a film that debuted last month at Sundance. There are sexier versions (Pride/Prejudice by Ann Herendeen), young adult offshoots (Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik), and even a Bollywood film (Bride and Prejudice). This list of adaptations on Wikipedia is enough to make your head spin.
Of course, you can celebrate this milestone by reading or re-reading the original. You can find various editions in our catalog here, here, here, and here.
Happy Anniversary!
Posted on 2/15/2013 by Christy Thomas, Librarian, Main Library


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You, Only Better
Edited by: Ann Colville Somma of Holier than Now
It's a strange culture we live in: we're always told Just be yourself!, yet the bestseller list is chock-full of self-help books and memoirs depicting radical change. Finding the balance between total transformation and chilling in our pajamas is difficult, but that's why I love the blogosphere. Here, inspiration is served up one manageable bite at a time. Want to save the world? Start with vintage beachwear – the purchase benefits disaster victims. Hoping your man evolves into a sharp-dressed diaper-changer? Let's begin with a chic- and sustainable- Dad's day gift. Looking for your dream job? Take baby steps by revamping your work wardrobe and taking notes from inspiring entrepreneurs.
Links a la Mode: June 17th
- A la Modest A Uniform Response to Chaos: Janelle Monáe
- Amateur Couture Art-inspired looks
- Awakened Aesthetic Men are notoriously hard to shop for… these gifts are all sustainable.
- Despising Life is So Passe A reminder that no gain is found without work put forth
- Dramatis Personae 10 Things Carrie Bradshaw Taught Me About Fashion
- Fabulous Finds Karl Lagerfeld says the crowd at AMfar is real and Oscar fashion is fake
- Fassonaburu Vyque looks back at five months of trying to follow strict fashion rules
- Grit and Glamour Meet Amanda of Amanda Deer Jewelry
- Holier than Now Rethinking a previously rejected look
- Hundy & Undy Casual doesn't have to be so casual
- Market Publique Market Publique & ModCloth auction vintage beachwear to benefit disaster victims
- M.I.S.S. Interview with IFB founder Jennine Jacob
- On the Racks Finding summer outfit inspiration in the strangest of places
- Style with Benefits Father's Day stylish gift guide by Esquire's Best Dressed Real Man in America
- Stylish Thought How to ban boring business attire from your work wardrobe
- Tale Teller What famous designers said about fashion
- The Greyest Ghost Art meets fashion at the Whitney's 2010 Art Party
- The Seventeen Magazine Project One high school senior lives by the dictates of Seventeen Magazine for 30 days
- Tog and Trappings Les flâneurie: How observation of life can inspire creativity


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***UPDATED to fix Tressie's twitter handle. Cuz that was embarrassing.***
Men sabotaging women's birth control is A Thing.
It's a form of abuse, an act of taking control over her own body away from a woman. Women suffering from domestic violence are often additionally victim to this as well as other forms of abuse, by men trying to keep them from leaving the relationship (which for obvious reasons is much harder when you're pregnant or have children in the house), or sometimes just because it's another form of control and DV is all about control. It is obvious therefore that sabotaging women's birth control and other forms of reproductive coercion need to end, victims of this need to be able to seek justice, and perpetrators need to be made accountable.
Which of course means that now that a Canadian case has made a lot of people notice that this is A Thing, they want to criminalize it, based on the argument that the sexual assault laws in the U.S. would never suffice by themselves to persecute abusers for it*. Sounds sensible: if you think that the criminal justice system works even remotely well, then it makes sense to think that if someone commits an act of violence, they need to be sent throught the CJS for it. But this really does require the assumption that the U.S. legal system is just (or at least "close enough" to just to make it work more often than not)and therefore that criminalization will work as intended.
I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical, because when I read this twitter exchange between Lauren Chief Elk (@ChiefElk) and Brienne of Snarth (@femme_esq), I couldn't help but acknowledge the truth of many of the points, if not necessarily their immediate applicability to the wider U.S. culture**. I'm skeptical, because I tend to come at these things from a harm-reduction-based perspective, and I'm not convinced that this will actually reduce rather than increase harm. I'm skeptical, because cultural myths play a huge role in the ways laws actually end up being applied.
For example, the Stand Your Ground laws don't actually allow victims greater leeway in self-defense (see: Marissa Alexander***) but rather allow already privileged people to get away with violence even more. This is because cultural myths are such that black men and women are always seen as the danger, and white men and women always as the defenders of civilization. And how does this work with birth control sabotage? Our cultural myths claim that women are baby-crazy, and men don't actually want kids; that women are more likely to be ok with an unplanned pregnancy than men (there's how many movies with that plot? The one where an uncomplicated het-relationship gets derailed by pregnancy that switches the woman into "settling&nesting" mode while giving the guy a midlife crisis?); that women are more invested in committed relationships than men (see: ball-and-chain), and thus more likely to use desperate measures to prevent a breakup; etc. Hell, google "tricking into pregnancy" and see how that works out. As Brienne points out in the twitter dialogue, the cultural narrative is of a woman trapping a man rather than vice versa. Even the Daily Beast article linked at the beginning of this essay acknowledges this with a link to an article discussing NBA orientation for rookie players, in which the following quote appears:
They wanted us to see the dangers out there. They warned us about groupies poking holes in condoms, having hidden cameras and stuff like that. The temptations are hard to turn down, but if you don't, you are subject to big problems.
And remember, we live in a society in which there are people convinced that women stealing sperm out of discarded condoms is some sort of epidemic (google "spermjacking" if you really want to know more about this; I wouldn't recommend it tho).
So what I'm saying is this: when you're operating within an extremely unjust legal system, you have to be exceedingly careful how you use it; in this case, the question is: how likely is it that criminalizing BC sabotage will be effectively used against actual abusers, rather than against women by e.g. dudes not wanting to pay child support?
BC sabotage is going to be a situation of he-said-she-said almost always, and "he said" will be always given more weight than "she said", especially when other oppressions like race and class also work against the woman. I can imagine this even leading to greater reproductive coercion, if a guy who doesn't want a kid threatens the pregnant woman to either get an abortion or be accused of spermjacking or some shit like that. I can also imagine that many women won't report BC sabotage: consider the stigma BC has in this country (Sandra Fluke anyone? And she was a very privileged woman); consider the cultural myths about who sabotages BC; consider the "bitches be lyin'" trope. Basically, all the reasons ever mentioned in #IDidNotReport will figure in here as well, and we might well be increasing the potential for legal harassment of victims of DV, by giving their abusers another tool to subvert for their own needs.
Mind you, harm reduction is not the sole reason to criminalize something. The main other uses of criminalization in justice are punishment, normalization, process, and deterrence.
I reject the idea of punishment as a goal of justice, in general. Punishment of an offender as a goal of criminalization/incarceration (rather than a means towards another goal) relies on the notion that responsibility lies solely and entirely with the offender; it requires belief in a self-causing will, in the notion that an action is entirely and solely caused by the offender's creation of a desire and opportunity to act as they did. I don't accept this belief, because it goes against the evidence that shows us that the world outside our heads shapes our desires, priorities, and opportunities. Punishment for the offender and only for the offender (because how to you incarcerate social structures?) is an individualist erasure of the structural causes of violence.
So while accountability for the harm caused by an action is a sensible part of justice, punishment for its own sake is not. Making someone "pay the price" for a crime to society or to the victims has to actually be of value to society or the victims, and locking someone up does not, per-se, produce any value to society/victims. It can only do so as a means to a goal. Which brings us to the other aspects.
Despite the saying "morality cannot be legislated", a law actually is a normative statement. And the fact that plenty of people can't tell the difference between legal and moral (nor the difference between illegal and immoral)seems to indicate that normalization happens, if not immediately than into the next generation at least. Basically, if you allow or forbid something and the world doesn't come crashing down (or significantly inconvenience anyone with social visilibity), people get used to it and start thinking of this as the new normal. So folks saying that it would make a statement that society doesn't condone reproductive coercion if it were criminalized do have a point. But as a main reason to criminalize it, it seems not enough, given that it would also be a weak normative statement. Not because a law is a weak normative statement per-se, but because laws that go against strongly entrenched cultural myths have their normative function subverted. E.g. rape being illegal does mean the cultural idea is that rape is bad, but it's entirely abstract; not only do some actual rapes get defined out of the rape category, the culture also creates a lot of exceptions (the most jarring example is prison-rape: people generally don't deny it's rape, but they treat it like a joke or a deserved punishment). I suspect the same will happen with these situations: even if we'd achieve a normalization of the belief that reproductive sabotage is a thing and a bad thing, the cultural mythology around it will subvert it so that real instances will be treated as not-it, or as exceptions where it's somehow ok.
Process means simply giving someone a clear, pre-set way of dealing with something. Now, I don't think any engagement with the American CJS is easily understandable, simple, etc. but having a set process and a set of legal tools to deal with something is usually preferable to no procedure at all. This is likely the strongest case for criminalization, because it's useful and helpful to be able to take out restraining orders, have a concrete, codified thing to accuse your abuser of, and have other rules you can lean on when it's hard to try to think your way out of a situation. But acknowledging this absolutely requires remembering that this will be useful primarily to those with educational and class**** privilege; who don't make up the majority of DV victims.
Deterrence is/can be an acknowledgement of the way social structures shape choices. To deter means to change the environment in which a choice is made, and introduce a desire (the desire to avoid being held accountable) to hopefully outcompete the desire that would be satisfied by the criminal action. These changes can lead to reductions in the occurrence of a harmful act, and can therefore be actually useful. As such, deterrence is not inherently flawed the way punishment is; but it needs to actually accomplish the environmental and internal changes, or else it's bullshit. A law as deterrent tends to only work if the likelihood of getting caught & convicted is high, or at least thought of as high. Laws that have low rates of perpetrators getting caught and getting convicted make lousy deterrents: if you get away with it sometimes, you learn that you can get away with it always, even if it's not true. Works like that for texting-and-driving, for underage drinking, for pot-smoking-while-white, and because of rape culture it also works like that on rape. My suspicion is that given the difficulty to prove sabotage and the power-disparity in literal he-said-she-said situations, arrest and conviction rates would be low. So, not an effective deterrent in the long run.
So to sum up: there are positive things that criminalization could possibly accomplish, but these effects seem to be overall fairly small and doubtful given the current cultural narratives. And the way selective application of these protective laws protects aggressors more than victims, there are potentially many negative consequences to victims. The potential for abuse, for being directed against victims of domestic violence, and for even increasing some forms of reproductive coercion is pretty big given the current social narratives. I worry that the negative effects far outweigh any positive ones.
Not that I'm saying we shouldn't do anything about this problem, but I'm more and more thinking that putting the tools for defense in victims' hands rather than in a severely broken, anti-woman, anti-poor, anti-PoC criminal justice system is the better approach at harm-reduction and empowerment at this time. So, some suggestions along those lines, to help free women from reproductive coercion without risking anti-woman side effects:
1)increase free and gatekeeper-free access to as many form of birth control (both the contraceptive and post-conceptive kinds): controlling women's reproduction happens often with the cooperation of laws on birth control which make access complicated, time intensive, expensive etc, thus preventing women in DV situation from discreetly controlling their reproduction and from choosing options that would be less manipulable by a violent and controlling partner. Give women more options and access for BC, and in many cases you take away the means by which an abuser can coerce their reproduction.
2)Destroy the cultural myths that harm victims of reproductive coercion: these would the the ideas that consent to sex is consent to pregnancy; that reproductive coercion is something women do, rather than something abusive men do; etc.
3)Provide better safety nets and community support for single pregnant women and single women with children. When pregnancy and children no longer function as traps keeping the women from leaving (e.g. because there's no women's shelter that will accept all her kids), the utility of reproductive sabotage as insurance against leaving will diminish, and with it the value of this action to abusers.
None of those will stop all or even many cases of reproductive sabotage immediately; but neither would criminalization. I just think that the suggestions above would also have fewer negative side effects on already victimized women.
– – – – – – – – –
*it's complicated, but basically Canada has some stricter ideas about what is or isn't legally consent than the U.S. does. The Canadian case that kicked off this interest in criminalizing reproductive coercion was one in which the sabotage was treated as aggravated sexual assault because even though the woman consented to sex, she didn't consent to unprotected sex. Basically, at least in Nova Scotia, it's (as the case stands now) legally true that consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy. As this legal article explains, that's not true in the U.S. because of that nasty thing called "generalized consent", plus legal-structural shit that went over my head because IANAL.
**the conversation includes the following tweets:
[Lauren Chief Elk @ChiefElk
Decolonizing Anti-Rape Law and Strategizing Accountability in Native American Communities via @andrea366 http://communityaccountability.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/decolonizing-antirape-law.pdf ]
[Lauren Chief Elk @ChiefElk
Decolonizing Rape Law: A Native Feminist Synthesis of Safety and Sovereignty via @sarahdeer http://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/deer-decolonizing-rape-law.pdf ]
The papers deal with the question of sexual assaults and tribal courts. They're amazing and I find these immensely interesting and good material for thinking about anarchist communities, because not being able to deal with sexual violence is a major flaw of every idea (and praxis) of anarchist community I've ever encountered. But most women in the U.S. don't at the moment live in the kinds of communities that would allow for analogues to tribal court justice.
***relevant and timely, on Friday there will be a discussion on Marissa Alexander and how DV laws backfire on minority women:
So on Friday we're going to talk about shifting anti-violence, criminalization of DV, & Marissa Alexander w/#FreeMarissa. Get ready to join.
— Lauren Chief Elk (@ChiefElk) December 18, 2013
[Lauren Chief Elk @ChiefElk
So on Friday we're going to talk about shifting anti-violence, criminalization of DV, & Marissa Alexander w/#FreeMarissa. Get ready to join.]
****class privilege is very relevant, even if you "fake" it. In this essay on poor people and expensive stuff, Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) recounts the story of her mother helping people in the community with bureaucracy; and how her mother had an expensive outfit to do it which seemed to gain her "respectability" from the office folks, at least enough to make it possible to get stuff done where the people her mom was helping couldn't.


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It's really quite simple to open an IRA account -- easy as 1-2-3, as a matter of fact.
1. Find a discount broker
If you don't already have one, we suggest that you look into opening a discount brokerage account. In selecting a broker, there are a couple of things to consider:
Pay attention to fees: By law, an IRA trustee (which is what your broker will be) can charge an annual fee to maintain your IRA. Many charge around $30 a year to maintain an IRA, but some do not charge anything (which sounds pretty good to us Fools).
Consider trading commissions: How much are you paying each time you buy or sell a stock? Even if you employ a long-term buy-and-hold strategy, you've still got to fund your account. Make sure the bulk of your contribution is going toward your retirement nest egg, not commissions.
The reason for such a parsimonious attitude toward your IRA account is that your contributions are limited to $5,000. An extra $50 a year in transaction fees will, over time, reduce your account balance by thousands of dollars.
In other words, it pays to shop around. In retirement, those fees could mean the difference between serving festive drinks on your beachfront property in Tahiti, or sipping generic beer at your timeshare in Toledo.
For those eager to start saving for their slice of retirement paradise right now, we've put together a table that compares the IRA offerings of some popular discount brokerages. Compare their fees and services. And if you find a broker that looks good to you, go ahead and open an account or get more information!
2. Open and fund your account
So you've settled on a discount broker, and now you're ready to open your account. In most cases, your broker will have an online application you can complete. Sometimes you'll need to print this form out and mail it in with a check. A few brokers allow you to complete the entire application online, then electronically transfer funds from your checking or savings account.
3. Invest it!
Once your check or electronic transfer has cleared, you're ready to start investing. That means deciding which stocks or mutual funds you want to buy. (Hint: If you're new at this, or you just don't have the time to critically evaluate individual stocks, you might want to consider using an asset allocation strategy.)
When you decide what you're going to buy, you'll need to allow for any commissions. Let's say you're investing $5,000, and your broker charges $12 a trade. You decide to buy shares of a stock that's priced at $20 per share. Sure, you'd love to buy 250 shares and hit that $5,000 mark right on the nose. But you can't. You have to buy 249 shares, which comes to $4,980. That leaves you $20 ($5,000 - $4,980), out of which you'll pay your commission. Then you'll have $8 left in cash that you can include in your next trade.
By the way, if you already have an IRA set up with a more expensive broker or mutual fund company, or if you are rolling over a 401(k) to an IRA, your new broker will be happy (really, really happy) to assist you in transferring your funds to your new account.
And as always, if you're not sure you're getting the best deal, or just want to double-check, come on over to Rule Your Retirement and ask there. We'd love to see you there!


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Revealed: 64 Drone Bases on American Soil
By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
June 13, 2012
We like to think of the drone war as something far away, fought in the deserts of Yemen or the mountains of Afghanistan. But we now know it's closer than we thought. There are 64 drone bases on American soil. That includes 12 locations housing Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, which can be armed.
Public Intelligence, a non-profit that advocates for free access to information, released a map of military UAV activities in the United States on Tuesday. Assembled from military sources — especially this little-known June 2011 Air Force presentation (.pdf) – it is arguably the most comprehensive map so far of the spread of the Pentagon's unmanned fleet. What exact missions are performed at those locations, however, is not clear. Some bases might be used as remote cockpits to control the robotic aircraft overseas, some for drone pilot training. Others may also serve as imagery analysis depots.
The medium-size Shadow is used in 22 bases, the smaller Raven in 20 and the miniature Wasp in 11. California and Texas lead the pack, with 10 and six sites, respectively, and there are also 22 planned locations for future bases. "It is very likely that there are more domestic drone activities not included in the map, but it is designed to provide an approximate overview of the widespread nature of Department of Defense activities throughout the US," Michael Haynes from Public Intelligence tells Danger Room.
The possibility of military drones (as well as those controlled by police departments and universities) flying over American skies have raised concerns among privacy activists. As the American Civil Liberties Union explained in its December 2011 report, the machines potentially could be used to spy on American citizens. The drones' presence in our skies "threatens to eradicate existing practical limits on aerial monitoring and allow for pervasive surveillance, police fishing expeditions, and abusive use of these tools in a way that could eventually eliminate the privacy Americans have traditionally enjoyed in their movements and activities."
The Rest…HERE


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reinkefj has shared a video with you on YouTube:
Least valuable team … love it.
# – # – #
Many a true word is said in a jest.
Maybe the yes way to turn back Socialism is to make people laugh at it. If it's not take seriously, then every time a politician makes a promise the TV will play a laugh track.
Many moons ago, Rush proposed a frame around the tv that just say "He's Lying". Seems appropriate for ALL politicians and bureaucrats!
Is that to cynical?
# – # – # – # – #


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NVIDIA's GF100: Architected for Gamingby Ryan Smith on January 17, 2010 2:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- GPUs
At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, NVIDIA had several things going on. In a public press conference they announced 3D Vision Surround and Tegra 2, while on the showfloor they had products o'plenty, including a GF100 setup showcasing 3D Vision Surround.
But if you're here, then what you're most interested in is what wasn't talked about in public, and that was GF100. With the Fermi-based GF100 GPU finally in full production, NVIDIA was ready to talk to the press about the rest of GF100, and at the tail-end of CES we got our first look at GF100's gaming abilities, along with a hands-on look at some unknown GF100 products in action. The message NVIDIA was trying to send: GF100 is going to be here soon, and it's going to be fast.
Fermi/GF100 as announced in September of 2009
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves though, let's talk about what we know and what we don't know.
During CES, NVIDIA held deep dive sessions for the hardware press. At these deep dives, NVIDIA focused on 3 things: Discussing GF100's architecture as is relevant for a gaming/consumer GPU, discussing their developer relations program (including the infamous Batman: Arkham Asylum anti-aliasing situation), and finally demonstrating GF100 in action on some games and some productivity applications.
Many of you have likely already seen the demos, as videos of what we saw have already been on YouTube for a few days now. What you haven't seen and what we'll be focusing on today, is what we've learned about GF100 as a gaming GPU. We now know everything about what makes GF100 tick, and we're going to share it all with you.
With that said, while NVIDIA is showing off GF100, they aren't showing off the final products. As such we can talk about the GPU, but we don't know anything about the final cards. All of that will be announced at a later time – and no, we don't know that either. In short, here's what we still don't know and will not be able to cover today:
- Die size
- What cards will be made from the GF100
- Clock speeds
- Power usage (we only know that it's more than GT200)
- Pricing
- Performance
At this point the final products and pricing are going to heavily depend on what the final GF100 chips are like. The clockspeeds NVIDIA can get away with will determine power usage and performance, and by extension of that, pricing. Make no mistake though, NVIDIA is clearly aiming to be faster than AMD's Radeon HD 5870, so form your expectations accordingly.
For performance in particular, we have seen one benchmark: Far Cry 2, running the Ranch Small demo, with NVIDIA running it on both their unnamed GF100 card and a GTX285. The GF100 card was faster (84fps vs. 50fps), but as Ranch Small is a semi-randomized benchmark (certain objects are in some runs and not others) and we've seen Far Cry 2 to be CPU-limited in other situations, we don't put much faith in this specific benchmark. When it comes to performance, we're content to wait until we can test GF100 cards ourselves.
With that out of the way, let's get started on GF100.
115 Comments
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Stas - Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - linkall that hype just sounds awful for nVidia. I hope they don't leave us for good. I like AMD but I like competition more :) Reply
SmCaudata - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkThe 50% larger die size will kill them. Even if the reports of lower yields are false they will have to get a much smaller profit margin on their cards than AMD to stay competetive. As it is the 5870 can run nearly any game on a 30" monitor with everything turned up at a playable rate. The target audience for anything more than a 5870 is absurdly small. If Nvidia does not release a mainstream card the only people that are going to buy this beast are the people that have been looking for a reason not to buy and AMD card all along.
In the end I think Nvidia will loose even more market share this generation. Across the board AMD is the fastest card at every price point. That will not change and with the dual GPU card already out from ATI it will be a long time before Nvidia has the highest performing card because I doubt they will release a dual GPU card at launch if they are having thermal issues with a single GPU card.
BTW... I've only ever owned Nvidia cards but that will likely change at my next system build even after this "information." Reply
Yojimbo - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkwhat do you mean by "information"? Reply
SmCaudata - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkHeh. Just that it was hyped up so much and we really didn't get much other than some architectural changes. I suppose that maybe this is really interesting to some, but I've seen a lot of hardware underperform early spec based guesses.
The Anandtech article was great. The information revealed by Nvidia was just okay. Reply
qwertymac93 - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkI really hope fermi doesn't turn into "nvidias 2900xt". late, hot, and expensive. while i doubt it will be slow by any stretch of the imagination, i hope it isn't TOO hot and heavy to be feasible. i like amd, but nvidia failing is not good for anybody. higher prices(as we've seen) and slower advancements in technology hurt EVERYONE. Reply
alvin3486 - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkNvidia GF100 pulls 280W and is unmanufacturable , details it wont talk about publicly
swaaye - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkRemember that they talked all about how wondrous NV30 was going to be too. This is marketing folks. They can have the most amazing eye popping theoretical paper specs in the universe, but if it can't be turned into something affordable and highly competitive, it simply doesn't matter.
Put another way, they haven't been delaying it because it's so awesome the world isn't ready for it. Look deeper. :D Reply
blowfish - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkThis was a great read, but it made my head hurt!
I wonder how it will scale, since the bulk of the market is for more mainstream cards. (the article mentioned lesser derivatives having less polymorph engines)
Can't wait to see reviews of actual hardware. Reply
Zool - Monday, January 18, 2010 - linkIam still curious why is nvidia pushing this geometry so hard. With 850 Mhz the cypress should be able to make 850mil polygons/s with one triangel/clock speed. Now thats 14 mil per single frame max at 60fps which is quite unrealistic. Thats more than 7 triangels per single pixel in 1920*1050. Making that amount of geometry in single pixel is quite waste and also botlenecks performance. U just wont see the diference.
Thats why amd/ati is pushing also adaptive tesselation which can reduce the tesselation level with copute shader lod to fit a reasonable amount of triangels per pixel.
I can push teselation factor to 14 in the dx9 ATI tesselation sdk demo and reach 100fps or put it on 3 and reach 700+ fps with almost zero difference.
Zool - Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - linkAlso want to note that just tesselation is not enough and u always use displacement mapping too. Not to mention u change the whole rendering scene to more shader demanding(shadows,lightning) so to much tesselation (like in uniengine heaven on almost everything, when without tesselation even stairs are flat) can realy make big shader hit.
If u compare the graphic quality before tesselation and after in uniengine heaven i would rather ask what the hell is taken away that much performance without tesselation as everything looks so flat like in a 10y old engine.
The increased geometry setup should bring litle to no performance advantage for gf100, the main fps push are the much more eficience shaders with new cache architecture and the more than double the shaders of course.


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The best Shoe storage solution and 6 of the best shoe storage ideas 2014, for each one asking How can store shoes at home , today i offer 6 of the great shoe storage solution, creative shoe storage, hanging shoe storage, shoe storage box and boxes, shoe storage rack and shoe storage shelves
Good shoes has never been cheap pleasure, neither in the era of shoe storage or now - during binge competition. Nevertheless, we have learned to understand the quality and benefit from it a real pleasure. Now another problem: where to place it. The most expensive and favorite, as well as everything else, more democratic and everyday. Agree, not too pleasant for 5 minutes before leaving the house to find that the weather has changed dramatically, and the desired pair of shoes is in the depths of the cabinet, in one of the boxes, similar to each other as twins.
Meanwhile, there are several convenient ways to shoe storage ideas and many shoe storage solution so that it can be easy to find, and keep in decent form. Meet: our new collection for anyone who loves the shoe storage ideas and shoe storage solution 2014 .
|the best shoe storage solution and ideas 2014
Shoe storage box:
One of the shoe storage solution that we are familiar - shoeboxes or shoe storage box ,You can use the factory or buy special. In the second case, they are specially made with transparent side to without taking shoes, you can easily discover what's inside.
If you are using shoe storage box bought - you can also facilitate the process of finding the right pair. Option 1 - labels describing (the "what" and "whose"), option 2 - mini-pictures that you can do yourself, and print on the printer and plain paper. shoe storage box is one of the best way of shoe storage solution and one of the original shoe storage ideas
|shoe storage boxes ,shoe storage solution ideas
|shoe storage boxes ,shoe storage solution ideas
Shoe storage rack:
Shoe storage rack - the first "civilized" way to shoe storing, which has gained popularity due to the low price and a minimum of space for accommodation. Could be put in the lobby and in the locker room. There are totally open models of metal and doors - MDF. Racks are good for shoe storage for the season, it is not too roomy. this is the second way of shoe storage solutions and ideas .
|shoe storage rack ,shoe storage solution ideas
Shoe storage shelves:
Shoe storage shelves ,Optimally, of course, retractable shelves and special compartments in cloakrooms. If space is enough - it's the ideal way to shoe storage. Shelves are good and that is - almost the only way to comfortably accommodate boots (except the box).
|shoe storage shelves ,shoe storage solution ideas
Shoe storage boxes:
Shoe storage boxes may be an ordinary chest drawers or special containers with a handle that you can hide, such as under bed shoe storage. And if you have a private home - you can be creative and make steps stairs storage space, including - unseasonal shoes. it's good way of shoe storage ideas and solution.
|shoe storage drawer ,shoe storage solution ideas
|under bed shoe storage ,shoe storage solution ideas
Shoe storage ideas:
Hanging shoe storage, The most famous manufacturer like us hanging " pockets-shelf " on the basis of tissue - it's Ikea . Plus - at a low price and the possibility to hang on even ordinary post in the wardrobe. There is a flat pattern, in which the footwear is placed vertically, they can even be hung on a door. The only disadvantage of this Shoe storage solution - that they get dirty quickly and fairly narrow, so in our opinion, are best suited for summer shoes and slippers replacement.
|shoe storage ideas,shoe storage solution
Creative shoe storage ideas:
A more creative shoe storage individuals come to mind quite unusual ideas. For example, look at your most beautiful shoes (dress shoes) as the art object and hung on the wall cornice, stumbled against the heel. To enhance the effect cornice can be painted in a bright color or paint with metallic effect.
|creative shoe storage ideas,shoe storage solution
|creative shoe storage ideas,shoe storage solution


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Seahawks picked up on Broncos' tendencies,' hand signals in Super Bowl XLVIII
With two weeks to prepare for Super Bowl XLVIII, the Seattle Seahawks obviously took complete advantage. Not only were they physically superior to the Denver Broncos, they also were ready for everything Denver threw at the defense.
In short, they knew what was coming.
TUCKER: Russell Wilson's race becomes irrelevant | Seahawks' D best ever? | Super Bowl images
"We picked up a lot of stuff," Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said on "NFL AM" Tuesday. "When you get two weeks to study, we picked up a lot of tendencies."
While the Broncos were rattled by the crowd noise, the Seahawks were tuned in to everything, even hand signals. Cornerback Richard Sherman, who sustained an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, suggested as much.
"We know what route concepts they liked on different downs, so we jumped all the routes," Sherman told Robert Klemko of TheMMQB. "Then we figured out the hand signals for a few of the route audibles in the first half. … Now, if Peyton had thrown in some double moves, if he had gone out of character, we could've been exposed."
The Denver linemen didn't give Manning much time in the pocket, but with defensive backs jumping routes, Manning's job was doubly difficult. That's how you end up losing, 43-8.


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ZZ Top Kick Off 'Gang of Outlaws Tour' – Exclusive Photo Gallery
Friday night, May 25, that little ol' band from Texas rolled into the East Coast to kick off their 'Gang of Outlaws Tour' at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H. The tour trifecta features headliners ZZ Top in addition to the unique pairing of 3 Doors Down and Gretchen Wilson as show openers.
The sharp-dressed men took to the stage with their signature mic stands front and center, decked out in head-to-toe black with their trademark hats and sunglasses (probably not of the cheap variety either, but who's to say?).
The band, which arrived in N.H. a few days earlier to rehearse, posted on their Facebook page that they were "looking forward to dusting off some ZZ classics that have not been played live in some time." For a band that's been at it for four decades with 14 albums to their credit, that leaves a wide variety of options -- but you'll have to check out a show to find out exactly which rarities they tap into.
But casual fans can rest easy -- on Friday night, the trio kept plenty of hits in the mix, including 'Legs,' 'Gimme All Your Lovin'' and 'Tush.'
As you wait for the new ZZ Top album that's been recorded and is in the hands of producer Rick Rubin, you can at least get a live dose of the legendary band as they take the tour across the US. Have a look at the remaining dates for the 'Gang of Outlaws Tour' to find out when they'll be in your neck of the woods.
And in the meantime, be sure to check out our exclusive photos from the opening night above.


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McLean VA Pest Control Exterminator
Mclean is located in Fairfax County, VA and is located 8 miles from Washington D.C. McLean includes the communities of Langley, Lewinsville, and West McLean. A well known fact about McLean is that it is home to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Environmental Pest Control is a professional exterminator that protects families and businesses from a variety of pests, with some common issues being: ants, spiders, bees, mosquitoes & ticks, termites, and wildlife removal.
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Our industry-leading Residential Pest Control Plans keep your home and your family safe and pest free in every season. We believe that successful pest control is more than a one-time visit to a customer's home (reactive approach). That is why our pest programs protect your home from the most common and dangerous pests and rodents in every season. We treat the home for the current conditions but also preparing for a pest- free home 60-90 days in advance (proactive approach). All plans come with our 100% guarantee where we will come back for free until the problem is resolved!
McLean Bed Bug Removal
Plain and simple, bed bugs are bad for your home and your business, and there has been an increase of infestations in our region in the past few years. Bed bugs are an issue we hope to never face in a lifetime, however if you are ever struck by an infestation of these pesky characters Environmental Pest Control can help to remove them quickly and effectively.
In addition to homes in McLean, VA, places like hotels, schools, libraries, movie theaters, college dorms, even restaurants have all been victims of bed bugs, causing annoyance for business owners. While it is almost impossible to prevent a bed bug infestation, if and when they do strike we can remove bed bugs as quickly and painlessly as possible.
An Environmental Pest Control, we will perform a thorough free inspection of the property establishing the most effective treatment option for your needs.
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Termites are a problem no home or business owner wants to face during their lifetime. These wood-chewing pests can cause thousands of dollars in damage to a structure with little or no warning. Virginia, Maryland and Eastern West Virginia are in a moderate to heavy risk zone for termites making their prevention even more important to protect your home investment In fact, real estate contract law requires that a termite or "wood destroying insect" inspection be conducted within 90 days of the settlement or closing of a home sale. This is why at Environmental Pest Control our goal is to give our clients peace of mind when it comes to the detection of, and control of, termites.
- We use ADVANCE Termite Baiting Systems for Termite Baiting
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Our systems allow for quicker detection and protection from the damaging effects of termites. In addition, we provide an annual termite warranty program where a state certified technician will come onsite for a thorough inspection and you have peace of mind that we warranty your home for 365 days in the event there is any termite activity.
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Our company specializes in both interior and exterior commercial pest control services. We service landlord/property managers, large shopping centers, restaurants, bars, warehouses and inline retail tenants. We can customize a monthly treatment plan to meet the needs – and budget – of your Sterling commercial property. We have a long track record of serving national landlords and individual businesses alike. We will make sure your properties stay pest free so you can focus on running a successful business.
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Mold spores exist everywhere; however, when mold spores are present in large quantities, they can present a health hazard to humans, potentially causing allergic reactions and respiratory problems. Mold issues are usually found in damp, dark areas where there is poor ventilation. Common issue areas are basements, crawl spaces, air ducts, and attics. Symptoms include discolored walls or ceilings, visible mold growth, musty odor, and water damage to the property. Environmental is a professional mold remediation & removal company in McLean, VA. Environmental's Mold Remediation Program is a comprehensive 4-step program that will clean and remove existing mold, make the area safe again, and prevent future mold from returning. Environmental also provides annual service contracts that come with a 1 year warranty that guarantees the treated area will stay mold free!
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Good Morning, hope you all had a good weekend.
Another Kanban make, this time from The Steam Punk Collection:
Kanban items used: DL Scalloped Card Blank, Damask Kandi Core Mocha CRD1849, Gold Mirri Card, Cream Card A4220CR, Foam Pads FOAM2, Pearls PRL3MM, Gentlemens Adventure Toppers PCT1885, Delphine Toppers PCT2121.
Other items: Tonic Studios Border Punch.
Thanks for stopping by.


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UTS Library asked about
What is the meaning of this message in the Catalogue?
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The catalogue uses a range of terms to display information about what an item is and where it is located. We've tried to use 'plain English' for all our messages in the new catalogue, but in case something isn't clear we've included a few definitions below:


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Event Calendar
"FCCJ Tokyo gubernatorial candidate series"
Kenji Utsunomiya,
Tokyo Gubernatorial Candidate
Language: The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation
Kenji Utsunomiya travelled an unusual road to his candidacy for Governor of Tokyo. He was born and raised in a farming family in remote Ehime Prefecture and later Oita Prefecture.His family survived and prospered only through enormously hard work, and through perseverance the young Utsunomiya entered the super-elite Tokyo University Law School in 1968.
His long career has been marked by a deep concern for social justice and defending the downtrodden. From 2010 to 2012 he was the head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, at the pinnacle of his legal profession.
In December 2012, Utsunomiya made his first run at the office of Tokyo Governor with the backing of several liberal-left political parties. He emerged as runner-up to Naoki Inose, but the margin was a very wide one.
With Inose's rapid and unexpected fall from grace, Kenji Utsunomiya was the first to throw his hat in the ring. Come and hear from a man who calls with a powerful and credible voice for the interests of the weak and needy to be protected.
Please reserve in advance, 3211-3161 or on the website (still & TV cameras inclusive). Reservations and cancellations are not complete without confirmation.
Professional Activities Committee


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Watch Novak Djokovic Play Tennis on the Wings of a Flying Plane [VIDEO]
Sure, he's won the Australian Open and currently ranks as the No. 2 tennis player in the world, but we weren't truly impressed by Novak Djokovic's game until we saw this epic new video, in which the pro athlete can be seen playing tennis from — wait for it — the wings of a flying airplane.
It's the latest video from HEAD Tennis' viral campaign (via YouTube), a slick set of videos that give new meaning to the term "high flying."
The actual flight begins around the 2:30 mark in the video posted below. Check it out now to find out why Federer and Nadal may want to re-think their game strategy.


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by Clark Groome
Reviews of the New York production of David Mamet's latest, "Race," were mixed. From the evidence visible at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, where it runs through Feb. 20, I can't imagine why.
Mamet, no question, uses language like a club, and for some that can be off-putting I guess. Too bad, since his understanding of the power of words makes his best work stunningly insightful and thought-provoking.
Mamet sets his plays in very ordinary places: a junk shop in "American Buffalo," a real estate office in "Glengarry Glen Ross," a movie agent's office in "Speed-the-Plow," and a law firm's conference room in "Race."
The issue in "Race" is just how hard it is to really know what blacks and whites think of each other and whether or not, if the client is a white man accused of raping a black woman, as is the case here, whether a black lawyer can give the client a vigorous defense.
The lawyers in question are partners Jack Lawson (Jordan Lage), who's white; Henry Brown (Ray Anthony Thomas), who's black; and their young, pretty black female associate Susan (Nicole Lewis).
While the seriously rich and arrogant Charles Strickland (John Preston) is the client about whom all the conversations allegedly apply, racial issues and trust among the lawyers is really the center of Mamet's often funny, often shocking play.
What's not important, at least not to the two partners, is whether or not the guy is innocent. That is important to Susan. Without revealing any details of the convoluted and sometimes contradictory debates among the lawyers, suffice it to say that acres of ground are covered in the 105-minute "Race."
Director Scott Ziegler's PTC production is powerful and admirable. The acting is first-rate throughout. The entire affair captures both the passion and complexity of the issues at hand, and does so in a way that seems natural and honest.
Mamet's "Race" is a play that once again confirms the playwright's place as one of our theater's most important voices. It also reminds us just how much words, when used carefully, can define issues and individuals.
"Race" is really good theater. While it may be rawer than some would like, it is, as much as anything, a play that will leave you wondering if the ideas you had going into the theater need to be changed because of what you saw before you left.
For tickets to the Philadelphia Theatre Company's Philadelphia premiere of David Mamet's "Race," which plays through Feb. 20 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, call 215-985-0420 or visit www.philadelphiatheatrecompny.org


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Indie gaming fans are all probably aware of the top-down, half-strategy, half-platformer, half-puzzler (yes, that's three halves) Monaco. The game rocketed to widespread attention when an early build won the grand prize at the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Its premise is instantly graspable to those who have been bathed in Hollywood from a young age—there are things to be stolen, and it's up to you and your crack team to pull off the heist. Coupled with a slick retro style and controls that appeared quick to learn, Monaco stole the show—and we've been waiting for it ever since.
Pocketwatch Games has shown the game several times since then, notably at a Penny Arcade Expo or two, and there are many gameplay videos available. We know that the game will be available on XBox Live Arcade, Windows, and OS X, but solid information on when it might actually slip out of closed beta and into our hot little hands has been difficult to come by. This is in no small part because lead developer Andy Schatz is absolutely firm about releasing the game when it's done, and not a moment before.
However, things are looking up: Schatz and the Pocketwatch Games crew began taking preorders for Monaco today on the game's website. Ars spent a bit of time talking with Schatz to find out what's been taking so long, and what kind of a crew we might need to take with us when we break into the museum.
Garnering attention
Thanks in no small part to smash indie successes like Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Fez, being an indie game developer these days can be a bit like being an indie rock star. Gaming conventions like PAX put developers in front of a hungry community of gamers, and not all developers appreciate the tremendous amount of attention that a promising game showing can bring. After all, for many indie devs, their games are deeply personal things—the amount of blood, sweat, tears, and self that devs like Jonathan Blow pour into games like Braid is undeniable, and suddenly having your baby released out into the wild can be stressful.
Not so for Andy Schatz. As lead developer, graphic designer, and all-around public relations guy for Monaco, he's as much of the face of the company and the game as anyone could be, and a lot of the publicity focuses on him. "I don't pay attention to the visibility," he replied when I asked about the limelight. He's an enthusiastic guy and I found myself nodding along as he talked, even though he couldn't see me over Skype. "The way I see it, there are only two things that matter: making a fucking awesome game, and building a relationship with your fans and customers." The megawatt spotlight shining on an IGF-winning game like Monaco means more opportunities to connect with the players, and Schatz seems positively energized by this.
"With Monaco, I think I've built a fan base who enjoys being on the journey with me and the rest of the team," he says. He notes that unlike other more reclusive indie developers, the Monaco team has embraced pre-release fame and actively involved its fan community with the game. Fans run forums for Monaco and are even invited to contribute code for bug fixes if they're able. The Pocketwatch crew is in constant contact with the approximately 250 people in the game's closed beta, interacting with them every day, and Schatz says that the community has had a huge effect on the direction the game has taken during its long development cycle. Even some of the game's dialog has been sourced from fans—the French spoken during some segments of the game was contributed entirely by beta players who are native speakers.
Schatz's eight
Though the version available for pre-order and featured in the linked videos is a bit different in appearance from its IGF-winning 2010 form, the game remains at heart a top-down, tile-based, real-time strategy game...sort of. "Real-time strategy" brings forth thoughts of Starcraft, but Monaco isn't like that at all—instead, picture a crime-caper flavored combination of Splinter Cell and Pac-Man. Schatz himself described the game to me as something akin to being able to play the entirety of Hitman from within the game's mini-map.
The game unfolds as a series of heists. Each heist takes place in a different setting and has different main and secondary objectives, but in each case you need to steal something—sometimes, several things. One, two, three, or four players choose their characters from an assortment of eight thieves, each with different special abilities that can be employed to make the mission easier:
- The Cleaner, who can sneak-attack guards from the rear with a chloroform-soaked cloth.
- The Gentleman, a master of disguise who can wander slowly through the level and calm agitated guards.
- The Lookout, who has the ability to see all the guards and traps on the map.
- The Locksmith, who can open safes and locked doors faster than any other character.
- The Pickpocket, which Schatz described as "a hobo with a monkey"—the monkey can sneak through traps and grab loot without anyone noticing.
- The Mole, who has the ability to dig through walls and who can create interesting and inventive solutions to some of the game's traps.
- The Hacker, master of computer viruses who can disable cameras and traps.
- The Redhead, the seductress, who can charm guards and get them to do her bidding, including making them open otherwise locked doors and preventing them from firing on the rest of your party.
The ingrained cultural cues behind the different characters are strong. As Schatz was describing the Pickpocket and his pet monkey that sneaks about and steals things, I started laughing and commented that it sounded like he was describing the little Nazi monkey from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Schatz laughed back and said that was exactly what he had in mind; in fact, it was a Capuchin monkey in the movie, and he'd made the little blocky monkey in the game look as much like a Capuchin as possible to reinforce the link.
Some of the characters have been slow to come into focus—the Cleaner, the Redhead, and the Mole were undergoing heavy tweaks even up until a few months ago. Still, Schatz and the testers aren't operating in a vacuum; the list of player-character choices is extensive and touches on all of the heist movie archetypes we've been trained to expect. Plus, the game's cooperative experience means that while the roles are all finely polished, they don't have to be perfectly balanced against each other—players work together in Monaco, and their abilities are meant to complement, not level out a scale. For instance, the Gentleman has the ability to reduce aggression in guards, and can calm a situation down while the Hacker busily disables the level's security cameras and the Pickpocket's monkey snatches coins from under everyone's noses.
In between heists, players pick up bits of the story; the missions themselves are told as flashbacks by the Locksmith. In an interesting narrative twist, "cleaning out" missions (that is, fully completing all of a mission's main and bonus objectives) unlocks more missions in an additional parallel campaign, with the same scenarios told from the Pickpocket's perspective. As with two different tellings of the same story by two different people, things are different—map layouts are similar but not identical, objectives are different, and things might unfold in a completely different manner.
This secondary campaign is meant to increase the game's replayability and give completionist players something to shoot for, and the Rashomon-style alternate retelling is a neat hook. Schatz was mum on the plot points in the game, but emphasized that the eight individual player characters each have a distinct personality, and the story element of the game gives players the chance to get closer to them and their world.
The big hit
The missions themselves can be slow methodical sneakfests or fast-paced shotgun romps (emphasis on the shotgun). Schatz likens a typical mission to a rising and falling wave, alternating tension with action and relief as you're spotted and then you evade (or engage and destroy!).
He's quick to point out that Monaco is not a traditional stealth game like Hitman or Thief; while some earlier levels can be "ghosted" (that is, completed without being detected by any guards or cameras), later levels are packed with bad guys and are impossible to get through without being seen. Monaco isn't a stealth game—it's a heist game. Over the two years of development time, Schatz has noted some broad trends. Single-player Monaco runs tend to go more like a traditional stealth game, whereas two-player games are typically the most managed and coordinated, with the players usually working closely together to plan and step through the mechanics of the heist. Four-player games, though, tend to devolve into madness. "In any bank robbery, there's always the loose cannon," he laughs. "It's like, 'OK, who brought the shotgun?' There's always the Leroy Jenkins in the group."
There's no optimal number of players, though, and any player combination can complete any mission. Players playing alone do get four extra lives, though, to make up for not having any backup. The game doesn't force any particular play style, though it does reward some—there are trophies to be earned from ghosting the earlier missions, and others to be earned by killing all of a level's guards or completing a mission without a single death.
Once the players have entered the level, they must make their way to the MacGuffin they're there to steal, avoiding or dealing with guards, civilians, security cameras, pressure plates, locked doors, and other obstacles various and sundry. In keeping with Schatz's description of the game as a series of waves, discovery and violence tends to be sudden and overwhelming, and working your way out of a sudden mess can alternate between nerve-wracking and hilarious. Missions don't tend to take terribly long—perhaps five to ten intense minutes—and though the maps themselves don't change on replay, guard and loot positions are randomized on each run, so memorizing a map won't guarantee success—rather, you'll be in the same position as a would-be thief who's studied the target building's layout but isn't quite sure who's waiting inside.
Schatz points out that the game isn't about twitch reflexes—though they don't hurt, they'll only get you so far. Rather, Monaco is a game that requires improvisation. Being able to adapt and think quickly will carry you much further than simply being able to squeeze the trigger.
The game will be available for Windows and OS X, and also for XBox Live Arcade; Schatz has tried to make the computer and console experiences as similar as possible. XBox Live Arcade players will be able to play on a single screen ("couch co-op"), but Schatz wants the LAN play to be just as good as the couch play; the game includes built-in voice chat, and your heist buddies' abilities show up on your screen just as they would on a communal TV.
Indeed, even single- and multiplayer leaderboards will be shared across all of the game's platforms. You won't just be able to compare your scores with others on the same system, but rather with all the players on all systems.
The score
Schatz is the public face of Monaco, but he's not the only person developing the game. Level designer and producer Andy Nguyen is in the office several times a week as well, and composer Austin Wintory has been nominated for a Grammy for his work on the Playstation 3 title Journey (Wintory is also scoring the crowdfunded strategy game The Banner Saga, and he's even getting ready to start work on music for a remake of Leisure Suit Larry). However, as the coder and art director, Schatz carries the lion's share of the work on his shoulders, and he has done so for seven days a week for more than two years.
For all its strengths, indie games like Monaco sometimes languish without promotion. Schatz is hoping that his heavy engagement with the most vocal players will pay off in transforming those players into evangelists for the game. Much like how technology companies rely on early adopters to bring their friends and family to adopt a device or software, Schatz hopes that the players currently helping to make Monaco good in prerelease will help drive its success by getting others to try it.
"When the game comes out, the goal is to turn the snowball into an avalanche," he says. "You gotta make sure the snowball is big enough...and you gotta make sure it's packed tightly with folks who love the game. Once that's packed, the snowball will turn into an avalanche."


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