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STRANGE BUT TRUE- Swallowed up: Hanging around for lunch
Q. Can't say why anybody'd want to, but could you eat while hanging upside down? –D. Fledermaus
Q. The game sure would be different if played with a plain old spheroid instead of a "prolate spheroid." How so? And where does "specular reflection" fit into it? –J. Unitis
A. That's the shape of a football, and as you fans well know, its pointy elongatedness renders it easier to throw than if it were a simple sphere, says Timothy Gay in Football Physics: The Science of the Game. (A true prolate spheroid has more rounded ends, but a football is close.) Because of its shape, the ball is easier to carry, tucked between arm and rib cage to make fumbling less likely. "Finally, the football's unique shape gives it an exceptionally erratic bounce that has unpredictable consequences over the course of the game," Gay says.
Specular reflection is what a laser beam does when it bounces off a mirror–its angle coming in equals its angle going out, close to the way a soccer ball bounces. However, a football will have none of this sort of predictability. For punt and kickoff returners, this means the ball may land at their feet and proceed to bounce out of their grasp. Some fumble-it is victims are even asked by coaches to carry the football with them all week, but a better bet, says Gay, is to keep a low center of body mass and hold the ball four- point style: Vectors, torques and techniques triumphing amid all the black-and-blue.
Q. Time to pop the really big question: Where is human love taking our species? –Casanova
As the world's populations mix, damaged-gene diseases such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia, striking Whites and Blacks respectively, will abate. "Only if a child inherits two copies of either of these will it suffer from an inborn disease. Because cystic fibrosis is unknown in Africans and sickle cell in Whites, the child of a Black- White mating is safe from both illnesses."
In time many recessive genes hidden in the descendants of mixed marriages will reappear, but this could take thousands of years. Meanwhile, ever more open-minded Cupid just may be improving the human lot.
Q. Can a 70-year-old woman have a baby? May be coming someday to a fertility clinic near you. –E. Sanger
Now a woman can theoretically freeze her eggs when young, then have her own genetic offspring when she is... 50, 60, or even older, says Newman. There are, of course, ethical quandaries, such as a 60-year-old having a newborn who could easily be motherless by age 15. But the technology could prove a godsend for cancer survivors, who can freeze their eggs before treatment damages their ovaries. By one method, eggs are plunged into liquid nitrogen and cooled at a rate of 36,000 degrees F per minute to 385 degrees F below zero. The thawed eggs have a survival rate of about 90 percent.
"It's too soon to tell if lots of women will actually end up using egg-freezing to delay having families," says Dr. Grifo, "but at least it gives them the possibility."
Send Strange questions to brothers Bill and Rich at firstname.lastname@example.com, coauthors of "Can a Guy Get Pregnant? Scientific Answers to Everyday (and Not-So- Everyday) Questions," from Pi Press.


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I'm Betsy Leong, Secondary Science Education Coordinator.
As a Wheaton Alumna and graduate of the science secondary education program in 2007, I am honored and excited to be back at Wheaton. I love science, a lot. I also love teaching, a lot. Having taught ninth grade Biology and Physical Science for 6 years. I am excited to be sharing my love of both with our students.*
Students who choose the Science Teacher Education major and/or the Master of Arts in Teaching program will study with award winning faculty in both the science department of their choice and the Wheaton Department of Education. You will also be given opportunities for grants, scholarships, and research in both your field of science and education.
Wheaton is among the group of 50 liberal arts colleges that produce the best science graduates in the nation. I am here to ensure that you are successful during your time at Wheaton and to help you navigate your way into a classroom once you graduate. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Welcome to Wheaton.
Betsy Leong
Science Center Room 208

subset: commoncrawl


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An Iron Masterpiece!
Transform your baby's nursery into a room full of opulence and elegance with this magnificent Treasures Iron Canopy Crib. Tall and graceful, this beautiful crib features an elegant straight canopy, lovely rosettes at the connections, splendid hand sculpted scrollwork and pure brass accents. Meticulously hand crafted of iron with love and care, this crib is a statement of splendor. It is sure to outlast all others and become a family heirloom to be treasured for generations.
Shipping: FREE


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Because here in Quebec, backwoods is where it's at. And to underline that, Marois spent time on the campaign trail today defending her party's proposal to secularize the province's civil servants' appearance, lest it offend the non-believers of whatever faith is projected by the bearer's attire (sacred or not).
Unless, of course, the bearer's faith happens to be Christianity (the "good", or at least, "officially-sanctioned" faith, apparently).
Bravo, I say. I mean, I don't know about you, but when I go down to the S.A.A.Q. to renew my driver's license, the last thing I want to see is a fully-bilingual, smiling civil servant wearing a Scottish kilt. I don't want to think about what's behind that Sporran, thank you very much. There is nothing Catholic about the Scots, after all.
And it's not just them, but those snooty Saudi-Arabian immigrant women - you know, the ones who aren't even allowed to drive in their country of origin - but when they come here to pursue a better life pursuant to the United Nations declaration of Universal Human Rights, think they can go on following their Muslim faith and shit anyway. I mean, come on!
And I suppose there are other creeds with their ceremonial daggers and headscarves and other horrifyingly provocative faith-based attire. I just shudder to think. I mean, where did these Muslim people get the idea to have their women-folk cover up their hair with cloth anyway?Filles du Roi (yowza!).
Now that, my friends, was an inspired immigration policy. See, this is why it's so important to wrest that from Ottawa. Oh, wait, I suppose that's already happened. Shhh! Don't tell them that until AFTER the election.
Seriously, any Péquiste with the slightest bit of self-respect - or respect for their visionary founder, Rene Levesque, and his strong sense of democracy - should be voting for either Solidarité Québec, or Option Québec. The PQ has gone so Backwoods, the only sound their pollsters will hear is the distinctive August buzz of mosquitoes and blackflies.


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Protest in support of the hunger strking prisoners. Photo by Lazar Simeonov.
"They win a lot of battles and they are happy," said Palestinian Prisoners Society Chairman Qadura Fares about the Likud and Jewish Home parties' reactions to the end of the hunger strike. "They don't understand that step by step, they will bring their state as an isolated appartheid state."
Fares believes there are many lessons to be learned from the failed strike, which aimed to achieve the release of the approximately 200 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons without charges under administrative detention.
Not least of those lessons, he feels, is that harsh Israeli policies on prisoners are doing significant damage to Israel's reputation abroad.
"Israelis will be the main winner if they stop activating [harsh policies on Palestinians] and prepare a special law that respects international parameters. Then [Palestinians] will be the second side that will have an achievement," said Fares.
The hunger strike—at 63 days it is the longest mass strike in Palestinian history—ended Wednesday. Specific terms of the agreement between the prisoners and the Israeli Prison Service will not be released until prisoners have a chance to prepare a statement together in a democratic process, following the restoriation of their health, according to Fares. A statement delineating these terms is expected to be released in the next three to four days.
Though Fares would not concede any specific details of the agreement, he did suggest the media blitz surrounding the three missing settler teens and the expected passage of a bill to legalize the force-feeding of prisoners were factors in the prisoners' decision to end the strike.
The bill, slated to go to vote on Monday, is highly controversial. Force-feeding is considered to be a form of torture under international law. The Israeli Medical Association passionately opposed the bill, imploring doctors to refuse to force-feed regardless of legality.
While the bill is thought to have played a significant role in ending the strike, Fares holds that the prisoners are not viewing the circumstances in such a localized way, suggesting implications of the strike and its end operate on an international level, as well.
"In their decision they had in mind several elements: the Palestinian situation, international situation, regional situation. They don't deal with the hunger strike as a local activity, that will only take place with local elements," said Fares.
Fares doesn't count the end of strike as complete loss either.
"It will mean that in the future the prisoners will have a white flag... if [Israel doesn't] respect the international parameters or recognize that Palestinian prisoners are human and they have to receive all their rights," Fares said.
Two prisoners are still continuing the strike, Ayman Tbeish, who has been striking for three months, and Moussa Raed, who has been striking for one month.
There are currently more than 5,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, of which approximately 200 are in administrative detainees. The number of administrative detainees is expected double as arrests recently made in the crackdown on the West Bank are processed, according to a representative of prisoner and human rights and advocacy group, Addameer.
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During its 50 years of independence, Argentina became a new home to many Italian farmers, who migrated in order to earn extra money for their families during the off-season. Some chose to stay, but missed their precious Parmigiano Reggiano and began making it locally using traditional methods.
Reggianito means little Reggiano because the wheel has been reduced to 15 lbs. from the enormous 80 lb. drum the Italians produce. The Argentinian wheels are smaller because it was too difficult for oxen to move enormous wheels great distances. Reggianito is cured longer than any other South American hard cheese, resulting in a rich, bountiful flavor. This cheese is slightly saltier than its namesake, but the white crystals in the cheese are not salt grains; they are crystallized free amino acids, which give the cheese its lovely grainy texture. Reggianito is perfect for cooking or grating over pasta. If you like Parmigiano Reggiano, be sure to try the Argentinian version.


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Angela Vera - Operations Supervisor for foodservices in the healthcare sector, Sodexo Chile
"At the end of the day, what makes a difference in people's Quality of Life is to be recognized for doing a good job! "
Angela is a Sodexo Operations Supervisor for foodservices in the healthcare sector, in Chile. She says it's a great job with a wide range of responsibilities, including logistics, consumers services and people management.
Angela believes that a good Quality of Life starts with a feeling of inner well-being. She reckons it is not an easy thing to achieve! Quality of Life also depends on your work environment. What helps Angela find a healthy balance is on-going communication with her colleagues but also with her partner in life: her husband.
For Angela, the number one rule to ensure a better Quality of Life is very simple: get out of the office! Staying all day behind a desk as if it were an airfield control tower is not a good thing for the well-being of her team. So Angela makes sure to go on sites, meet people face-to-face and take time to listen to everyone.
Angela stresses that it is critical that everyone feel appreciated. At the end of the day, what makes a difference in people's Quality of Life is to be recognized for doing a good job!
Isabelle Coltier - Communications Director of Cheval Français, France
"Quality of Life comes from the collective strength of the team."
Isabelle is the Communications Director of Cheval Français, an organization that promotes trotting races in France and also protects the uniqueness of the French Trotter breed. It's a job she enjoys thoroughly.
In her work environment, Isabelle believes that Quality of Life comes from the collective strength of the team. If success is limited to the manager's own happiness, it is pointless. Quality of Life means working as a team for greater satisfaction. Big events of Cheval Français are successful because they are true team efforts!
Isabelle enjoys working with high expectations and she strives for excellence, but she always stays cool. Her experience has taught her to manage stressful situations: "when you have spent weeks working hard on a great event but that on D-Day it is pouring rain, it is vital to keep your sense of humor!
Isabelle knows that a positive attitude is critical in ensuring a good Quality of Life with her team. She even has a little tip to foster this state of mind: a piggy bank right in the middle of the office! Anyone who forgets to stay positive has to drop a coin in the piggy bank!
Yvonne Johnson - General Manager at Cambridge Health Alliance Hospitals, USA
"Quality of life means being able to balance work and personal needs."
Yvonne works at Sodexo as a General Manager at Cambridge Health Alliance hospitals in the United States. She is in charge for the day-to-day food and nutrition services for the staff, patients and family members.
For Yvonne, quality of life means being able to balance work and personal needs. It all starts by having a regular work schedule to get oneself organized. Yvonne adds she often talks to her staff about internal state balance as well; people need to enjoy what they're doing. When people achieve a satisfying and well-balanced life, they work better; they are more focus as a result.
Yvonne believes it's important to have a positive impact on the Quality of Life of others. She works hard at providing excellent food services, by bringing quality and variety to the menus. Many people from different cultures work within the hospital. She occasionally asks them what their traditional food is. Then she asks for the recipe and the ingredients to showcase the recipe in the cafeteria. As Yvonne says, cooking food is a great way to make people feel comfortable and welcome!
Serena Romano - Consultant on gender issues and President of Corrente Rosa, Italy
"We must join forces to promote a better Quality of Life and make make a difference for everyone!"
Serena lives in Rome where she works as a consultant on gender issues for private companies, public institutions and civil society.
Serena is also the president of Corrente Rosa, an organization aimed at ensuring equal opportunities between women and men in the workplace.
She believes her activism is a way of promoting a better Quality of Life for everyone: a fairer and more effective society where women and men have equal rights. And today she feels optimistic: more and more people are joining forces to make a difference in their Quality of Life!
Serena is thrilled to see the question of equality once more on the agenda in Italy. So when politicians or employers take positive actions for women's rights, Corrente Rosa congratulates them for going in the right direction but of course keeps an eye on their progress. In Serena's opinion, that's what an active citizen needs to do in a healthy democracy.
That's the percentage of women on Boards of Directors in listed companies. Norway is the only country where the percentage of women on Boards of Directors is superior to 20.
(Source: OECD Gender Data Portal 2009)
Interview of Martine Durand
Martine Durand, Chief Statistician and Director of Statistics Directorate, OECD, explains to which extent there are differences between female and male when it comes to life satisfaction.
The Better Life Initiative is a major effort to provide policy and decision-makers with a broad range of statistics relevant to understand today's societies and economies. The Better Life Index is an important innovative tool that the OECD launched to respond to the need of developing measures that are directly relevant to people's well-being.
Working towards equality
Women represent 54 of Sodexo's workforce. Convinced of the need to promote their advancement, nurture talent and, more generally, foster diversity, Sodexo has long given high priority to gender equality.


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With the PDP67 modules Pilz offers solutions for decentralised applications directly in the field. Thanks to protection type IP67 the modules are resistant to dirt and water. The decentralised modules reduce installation and wiring requirements. They save time, money and space in the control cabinet.
Thanks to their integration in dirt and water-repellent IP67 housings, the PDP67 modules can also be used for applications with high demands on hygiene.


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Bobby Bones Show Replay proposed to Bobby Bones that he should be getting paid for some extra time of work. Lately, the show has had to put in some extra hours due to Bones busy schedule with new projects. Sometimes events and meetings happen later at night and the show members have to come in at different hours then the normal morning show time of 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. Because of that, Lunchbox has had to have sitters come to his house to watch his new baby when he has to come into work. This only happens when his wife isn't able to watch Baby Box, but it happens more often than not.
So he proposed that the show gets money to pay babysitters for their kids when they have to come to work outside of normal work hours. Bones said no initially, but then told him to go ask our bosses with a hidden microphone to see what they would say. Everyone thought they'd laugh him out of the office, but turns out Lunchbox's ask was kind of valid. Listen below!


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"Spencer Wells takes us on an exciting tour of the last ten thousand years of our history in order to forewarn us of what we shall have to deal with in the next fifty years."—Jared Diamond, professor of geography at UCLA and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
"An important book for our times . . . If Spencer Wells continues producing books like this, he has the potential to become a pop anthropology guru like Margaret Mead, whose work engendered much good. The world needs to know not only how to want less, but also about how to want the things that will take us into the next ten millennia."—New York Journal of Books
"Civilisation is the problem, not the solution. . . . Wells combines a cogent account of human evolution with an urgent call for global cultural reform."—The Times (London)
"The seed from Pandora's box is spread far and wide in this stimulating and enjoyable book."—Financial Times
"Wells's writing combines a deep knowledge of the history of human evolution with a most engaging and lively manner of making that story come alive."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and author of Tradition and the Black Atlantic
"Well written . . . full of detail and fascinating anecdotes."—New Scientist


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Rules for Participation in AAVSO Forums, Chat Rooms and Discussion Groups
The AAVSO online forums, chat room and e-mail discussion groups are available to the public (except where otherwise noted). However, we ask all participants to adhere to the following rules:
Use appropriate languge. If it cannot be said on public TV or family environments, it can't be said here either.
No posting from a false or anonymous address or ID. You must be willing to accept private correspondence concerning your posts. Many times clarification can be made privately, or a person may feel insecure in posting a public question in response.
No personal attacks. It is ok to say "Henden's photometry has errors." That kind of personal opinion is likely to result in a post or two asking for clarification. To say instead: "Henden's photometry is garbage and useless," is insulting. Sometimes there is a fine line. The basic rule is that if you could not give the identical comment to a person face-to-face, then it should not be said here either.
These guidelines apply to personal respect as well. It's not enough to not directly insult someone. We ask that everyone treat each other with personal respect as well. Indirect insults can often be just as counterproductive as direct insults.
No commercial posts unless prior approval is given by the Director. This will usually be given after some editing of the post. This is also a grey area: a posting by someone on a scientific result from a commercial telescope service, for example, is an implicit ad for the service. We will handle each case on an individual basis.
No political topics. Policy discussions that are directly related to astronomy may be allowed, but must be approved by the Director before posting.
Do not consistently crosspost from other mailing lists. Do not routinely post summaries, newsletters, etc. that are available via other mailing lists/forums/web sites/etc. An occasional message reminding people of the other content or service is okay, as is reposting individual messages that are of interest to the greater community.
Do not post the same topic more than once. Please find the best forum for your topic and post it there only, so all discussion of that topic is kept in a single place. If you would like to post the same topic in multiple places, please contact the AAVSO for permission before doing so.
A variety of staff and members will act as moderators for the forums, chat rooms and e-mail discussion groups. If they find a questionable post, they will unpublish or block it (where applicable) and contact the author to discuss its appropriateness and make whatever changes are needed to adhere to these rules. The moderators reserve the right to reject a post completely when the two sides are unable to agree. The rejection can be appealed to the Director of the AAVSO. However, we plan to take a common sense approach to moderation and will make every attempt to satisfy both sides in such a situation.
To report inappropriate content e-mail email@example.com.


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A new television ad by a national Republican group blasts independent U.S. Senate candidate Angus King and Democrat Cynthia Dill for their support of industrial wind power.
The 30-second spot is part of a reported $600,000 ad buy from the National Republican Senatorial Committee to support the GOP's Senate candidate, Charlie Summers.
The ad, titled "Caught," builds off recent statements by Republicans who say King benefited from a federal loan guarantee program that invested billions of dollars in wind power projects.
The ad says King, a former partner in Independence Wind, used his "political connections" to win a taxpayer-backed $102 million federal loan guarantee for the 22-turbine, 50-megawatt Record Hill project last year.
The ad goes on to say that the loan program came under scrutiny by the House Oversight Committee, an investigative panel on which Republicans hold the majority of seats.
The King campaign fired back at the ad Thursday, partly by saying King sold his interest in the Record Hill project in January 2011, before the project received federal financing.
The ad also criticizes Dill for her "liberal policies," saying she supports President Obama's "tax increases" and stimulus spending.
Dill criticized the ad in an email Wednesday, even before the commercial aired. "Let's tell these charlatans that they cannot 'purchase' the U.S. Senate election in Maine," she said.
The two-pronged attack by Republicans is an apparent attempt to lump King and Dill as the two liberal candidates in the race.
The new ad's attack on King's involvement in the wind power industry was not unexpected. Republicans have taken aim at King's career in wind power since he entered the race.
Shortly after announcing his candidacy in March, King transferred his stake in Independence Wind to his business partner, Rob Gardiner, former president of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.
King said he wanted to avoid any conflict of interest while discussing federal energy policy. Republicans said King sold his interest because of the Oversight Committee investigation, which was sparked by the bankruptcy of a federally subsidized solar company named Solyndra.
The committee's staff issued a report in March questioning whether Record Hill and other projects in the loan guarantee program received federal help they did not need or deserve. The committee review continues, a spokesman said.
Republicans said King's sale of his wind power interests two days before the report was issued suggested he wanted to distance himself from the project.
King has said that the release of the report was a coincidence and that he had decided to sell his stake before he knew anything about the congressional investigation.
King has denied using influence to win financing for the project. He also said taxpayers and consumers are benefiting from the electricity being generated by Record Hill and the owners are repaying the loan as promised.
On Thursday, King spokeswoman Crystal Canney said King actually sold his stake in the Record Hill project in January 2011. His payment was contingent on the successful completion of the project, which started generating power this spring.
King remained a partner in Independence Wind, which is developing a second wind farm project, until this spring, when he decided to run for the Senate.
As for the new ad, Canney said, "Clearly the Republicans don't think they have a candidate that brings much to the table because they're spending an awful lot of money running pro-Democratic ads and then anti-Democratic and anti-independent ads."
"As Angus said today, the people running these ads don't give a damn about Maine, and he's absolutely right," she added.
Some political observers have wondered whether the National Republican Senatorial Committee's involvement indicates that the race between King and Summers is tightening. No independent polling has been done to measure the current status of the race.
Others have suggested that the committee's attempt to influence the race reflects growing concern among Republican strategists that the party is losing its advantage to gain a 51-seat majority in the U.S. Senate. The committee is running ads in Maine, North Dakota and Montana.
The King campaign had been bracing for the ad and readying a response. The campaign has been promoting a spot in which King tells viewers "that some folks from away" are spending big money to cast him as a Godzilla-like monster.
"They may think we were born at night up here, but it wasn't last night," King says.
— Staff Writer John Richardson contributed to this report.
Staff Writer Steve Mistler can be contacted at 791-6345 or at:
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Obituary: Richard "Dick" Brooks
Obituary: Michael Joseph Willett
Obituary: Hollis McLaughlin Jr.
Obituary: Barbara (Mater) Douglas
Obituary: Mary "Agnes" St. Pierre


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Our current office holders are:
President: Renée St. Jacques (Cameroon; 2014-2016)
Vice President: David Gittelman (Zaire (DR Congo); 1982-84)
Treasurer: Anthony Swingruber (Paraguay; 2015-2017)
Advocacy Coordinators: Sue Senecah (Western Samoa; 1973-76) and Anthony Swingruber
Many thanks to Kathy Sanderson, Maseeh Mukhtar, Sarah Janeski, Sara Poggi, Eliot Cresswell, Jeanette Gottlieb, Joe Doherty, Diane Peapus, Augusta Field, Steve Hoyt, Bill Batt, and all our former office holders.
Anyone interested in helping with membership or web/Facebook duties, please contact us.
Our members are involved in a lot of great projects, events, companies, and other stuff. Find out more below.
Friends of Akuffo Tom School Complex is dedicated to the support, improvement, expansion, and enrichment of education at the Akuffo Tom School Complex in Akropong-Akuapem, Eastern Region, Ghana, West Africa.
A free trade boutique in Saratoga Springs, NY. Mango Tree is run by Chris and Kim Anderson.
Owned by Chris Morrow, Northshire is the sister store to Southshire Bookstore in Vermont.
Founded by Mary Cinadr (originally from Clifton Park), Circle of Writers teaches the art of writing, while expanding the whole person, through an experimental and comfortable online environment. We help both new and experienced writers discover and hone their unique writing "voices," learn to give and receive constructive feedback, and craft their life experiences into meaningful pieces of writing.
Quolaquoe Mountain Connections
Peace Corp Volunteer Lynn Minderman served in the Qholaqhoe Mountain region of Lesotho in 2007-2008 and was witness to the abject poverty, devastating effects of HIV/AIDS, high unemployment, constant hunger of the population of orphans in the region and the barriers to education experienced by the high school aged population due, in part, to a tuition based system.
Qholaqhoe Mountains Connections is a response to Lynn's experiences there. It is, quite simply, an effort to improve the lives of children orphaned by the ravages of AIDS and to help lift the country's young people out of abject poverty through educational opportunities.
Our mission is to benefit the people of Qholaqhoe, Lesotho by providing financial grants to fund education, cultivate sustainable farming practices, and to alleviate hunger.


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Hungry, as usual, we decided to grab a quick bite and headed straight to the booth of perhaps the biggest name of the event- 3-Michelin-starred Alain Passard's L'Arpege.
This is his Sweet and Sour Tomato with orange blossom. Tangy, sweet and really fresh-tasting heirloom tomatoes. The course sea salt really brought out the flavours of the tomatoes!
The Chaud Froid of Egg with maple syrup and xeres vinegar was deceptively simple. Initially, I thought it was underwhelming. But soon the hot and cold contrast and the savoury-sweet-tart flavours tingled amidst the creamy texture.
Then I turned up at Air France's pavilion. Air France was the official airline sponsor of Savour 2012 and they were celebrating the launch of their new A380 Singapore-Paris route.
Available for tasting that evening were the wines served onboard Air France's Business Class. Pity I wasn't able to sample them fully due to time constraints. Oh by the way, I learnt that champagne is available across all seating sections onboard Air France. Even Economy Class passengers get to enjoy bubbly! Yay.
Next, I attended a Nespresso Coffee Atelier event. I think Nespresso has made coffee machines chic and sexy! The handy capsules also make it convenient and easy to operate. Just plonk one capsule into the slot, close the cover, press a button and ...
Viola! Fresh espresso comes streaming out.
Check out the 3 layers. Apparently a good coffee has these 3 layers when freshly pulled. The top crema is also a sign of quality.
Akin to tasting wine, we were encouraged to slurp to introduce air and propel the coffee to the back palate. But moost be careful. Hot espresso! Different parts of the tongue are more receptive to different flavours.
After tasting through 4 out of the 16 Grand Crus, we were give an additional capsule which has cherry coffee. This was combined with vanilla ice cream for a delicious affogato. Such a simple dessert! :)
Tasting 5 espressos within 30 minutes at 8pm+ got me a bit worried. Moohehehe. But surprisingly I didn't struggle to get to sleep that night. Apparently with the smaller volumes of espressos, they contain less caffeine than a regular mug of coffee!
Ok, it's time for moo-re food! Next we checked out Bo Innovation's Alvin Leung's Molecular Xiao Long Bao. This looked nothing like a xlb. Had a texture of nothing like a xlb. But tasted exactly like a xlb! The gel skin encased a pork broth and biting into that strip of ginger completed the xlb taste profile. Intriguing to experience but I certainly would prefer a non-molecular xlb on a more regular basis. :p
The Har Mei Lo Mein with har mei oil and powder was pretty tasty albeit a wee bit dry, and was packed with the umami-ness from the dried shrimp oil and powder. I could eat a BIG bowl of this! Moohaha. Hey, I haven't seen the words "Lo Mein" since Cornell days!
To end the night (before chomping down Popeye's fried chicken at the Singapore Flyer later), we tried Mexican Chef Enrique Olvera's Vuelve a la Vida shrimp, scallop and octopus, with chipotle and coriander emulsion. It was fresh, tangy burst of flavours.
A quick stop at the Wine Theatre for a Spanish wine class. We both think the ang moh presenter could be a Hugo Boss model. LOL. Sorry moost be the wines. Moohahaha.
Day 2 was a different scene. Bright and sunny, it was better to see things and people.
We visited the Gourmet Market in the cooling air-con comforts of the F1 building.
Fans of Almaviva can get the 2008 vintage here.
An attractive display of fishes. With a sashimi counter, people were buying sashimi and enjoying it with wines and other gourmet food.
I was over the moon (hahahaha!) when I spotted Beemster's XO cheese. I first discovered them while working at a fair in Raffles Town Club. The 26 months matured XO cheese had a rich, nutty and complex flavour.
Ok, those squeamish about raw animal parts and baby oink oinks should skip the next pig-ture.
Green Grocer had a very interesting array of cuts. I have had beef tongue but not lamb tongue. Wonder how the latter tastes like...
Then it's back out in the sun for some food. Good thing there's ice cold beer! This Russian brew wasn't very tasty but given the heat, it was mooch welcome.
Here's Gunther's Carpaccio of Wagyu Beef tartare-style, crispy potato. Very delicate tasting. Got to eat this quick before the super crispy potato at the bottom becomes soft.
For dessert, we opted for Chez Dominique's Potato and Malt. Fronted by Chef Hans Valimaki, this Finnish restaurant served up one very intriguing dessert that looks like a potato. Crack through the white chocolate shell and the inside reveals a potato ice cream that is both savoury and sweet. Nice textures too.
Moo thoughts on Savour. I like the concept and the feel of the event. The opportunity to try the signature dishes of many famed chefs in one place is great! If only the food prices were scaled back a bit. Portions were small, it's self-service and disposable plates/bowls were used after all. The other thing being the duration of the sessions could have been longer. I mean with the choice of so many classes to attend, an array of booths to visit and a good number of wines to taste, one can't and should not have to rush through it all....especially on a weekend.
Thanks to Nespresso, CROWD and Savour for inviting me over.
30 March - 1 April 2012
Chew On This: Savour 2012 featured 15 award-winning chefs, including chefs from the world's top 100 restaurants and Michelin-star recipients, and 50 of their signature dishes to sample from $6–$21!
Chew On This: Savour 2012 featured 15 award-winning chefs, including chefs from the world's top 100 restaurants and Michelin-star recipients, and 50 of their signature dishes to sample from $6–$21!


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The Colorado River system, rendered as an urban transit network. Here, I first encountered intermittent rivers, and so I depicted them with dashed lines, much as you might see a limited-service route on a transit map.
Click the image below to view/download a free PDF, which you may use according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you wish, you can pay me what you think my work is worth, via PayPal.


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HTC has told TechRadar that it may roll out the Facebook integration from its recently unveiled HTC ChaCha and Salsa to other devices.
Jon French, executive director of HTC UK, Ireland and South Africa, said that HTC had worked on making the Facebook integration as simple as possible and the same features could be brought to more devices in the future:
"It's no secret that we don't mind developers plugging into our Sense UI in the same way we worked with Facebook on [the ChaCha and Salsa] - it would be a relatively easy thing to take a third-party application and make sure it's integrated well into Sense."
Different directions
"We could have implemented what we did on those devices on higher-end smartphones, but we're trying to target a different demographic; those that pick up their smartphone even before out of bed.
"However, there's nothing to say we won't expand that offering into different areas of our portfolio going forward - or even expand it to offer different services."
While French refused to be drawn on which services that could be, the offer is clearly open for another big name to come in and make the same impression - could the Spotify phone be up next?


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The Sound of Music 45th Anniversary celebration continues! Tuesday night was the second night of the Sound of Music Sing-Alongs at 500 theaters nationwide, and we hope that all of you who won tickets here last week had a fantastic time.
Today, October 28th, the entire cast of the movie will reunite on the Oprah Show and the 45th Anniversary Blu-ray DVD and soundtrack CD both go on sale next Tuesday, Nov 2nd!
As I hinted last week, we have another contest to celebrate the 45th Anniversary. In honor of the book that inspired the musical, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, we are giving away a gift certificate* for a two-night stay for two people at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont! The Trapp Family Lodge is a gorgeous mountain resort that is still owned and operated by the von Trapp family. But that's not all! The prize package also includes the new Blu-ray DVD and CD of the film, and of course, a copy of the book that started it all, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.
To enter to win the Sound of Music 45th Anniversary Celebration Prize Pack, comment here (one time only) that you'd like to win the prize, and I'll choose one random winner from all the entries received by midnight EST, Friday, October 29th.
Make sure to check out the official Sound of Music site and Facebook, browse inside The Story of the Trapp Family Singers and don't forget to watch Oprah today!
*Gift certificate includes lodging, breakfast, and 3-course dinner, gift, family history tour by a von Trapp family member (tours on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 11am) and all applicable taxes (does not include alcoholic beverages or tax).Valid until December 20, 2011. Not valid over holiday periods.


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Notebooks Guide
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The Origins & Evolution of AMD's Turion 64 Mobile Technology
The Origins of AMD's Turion 64 Mobile Technology
By now you must be more than well aware of AMD's immense success of their K8 architecture - a design that propelled AMD right in the center of processor technology spotlights and it has managed to remain that way ever since with highly competitive if not, industry leading processors that kept its rival on its toes. This architecture first debuted in the high-end workstation and server space in the form of the Opteron lineup and has since garnered major industry support and acknowledgement thanks to its excellent performance scaling, high performance per unit power consumption, easy implementation (such as x86-64 ISA) and other benefits brought about within its platform. Not to mention are the well-entrenched Sempron, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon 64 FX processor series that followed suit soon after and catered to every possible price and performance envelop in the desktop user segment.
Where once AMD was playing second fiddle to Intel, they have managed to turn the boat around full swing and are now paving their own path to meet market needs and demands. While AMD has been battling hard and setting the pace in both the server and desktop segments for the past three years, they had unfortunately neglected the mobile segment where their offerings were far outmatched by Intel's Centrino Technology. While we all acknowledge that AMD is certainly not the giant that Intel is, they could have made plans earlier for a proper counterattack on the mobile front. Intel's Centrino Technology's early inception of tackling many verticals such as performance, power and mobility really made a deep impact among both consumers and AMD's already small mobile segment. While Mobile Athlon 64 processors did crop up to retain the performance crown on the mobile front, it was most suitable only as a Desktop Replacement (DTR) notebook for it had a much higher thermal envelope and guzzled power as well. Needless to say, they were mostly bulky. Lacking the refinements seen on the Intel Centrino Technology, naturally, AMD was not a convincing alternative on the mobile front in the early days.
The Evolution of Turion 64 Mobile Technology
To douse that once and for all, AMD outlined and debuted the Turion 64 Mobile Technology in the first quarter of 2005. Similar to Intel's Centrino Mobile Technology, the Turion 64 Mobile technology was a platform consisting of AMD's new mainstream mobile CPU, the Turion 64, along with an ecosystem of industry partners supplying mobile system chipsets and wireless LAN connectivity. While the Intel approach restricts a notebook's components to Intel's own variety to be validated as a Centiro-class notebook, AMD's approach classifies a notebook as being Turion 64 Mobile Technology compliant as long as the many recognized industry players by AMD supply the necessary chipsets (and of course utilizing the Turion 64 processor).
So while AMD's model provides a far greater notebook variety and consumer choice, it is also much more difficult to fine-tune each notebook since the component possibilities are vast. This is the reason why we encountered many Turion 64 Mobile Technology based notebooks that were unrefined in both performance and power consumption in the early days. It wasn't till towards the end of 2005 when we came across much more formidable Turion 64 notebooks that were able to hold their own in performance to price and mobility quotients commendably. In fact, AMD's mobile market share had increased with the help of the Turion 64 Mobile Technology unlike the stagnant state it was a year earlier.
The Turion 64 process itself was basically made of the same ingredients as their desktop-class Athlon 64 processors except that they were toned down and were manufactured with the then-new 90nm SOI process technology. Consequently, AMD managed to obtain smaller, more affordable CPUs that consumed less power and had reduced heat dissipation - giving rise to smaller profile notebooks bearing decently powerful mobile CPUs of the K8 architecture that happened to both power efficient and affordable. However, Intel upped the ante once again in early 2006 with the first dual-core CPUs to hit the notebook scene - Core Duo. Any limelight and momentum buildup on AMD's mobile parts were quickly snatched as Intel's marketing machine hammered away their new Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology platform. However this time round, AMD was in a much better position than it had been earlier and it wasn't long before they retaliated with the Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology, ala dual-core Turion. However, there's more to it than just the core doubling; so read on for the details.
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Kate Middleton Conceals Baby Bump in Red
|Posted by on Sun Apr 07, 2013
|Update News >>
Kate Middleton is positively ravishing in red! The pregnant Duchess of Cambridge stepped out in Scotland on Friday, April 5, for another round of royal engagements with her husband, and -- as has been the case so often recently -- she kept her growing baby bump mostly hidden under a chic coat.
PHOTOS: Kate's motherhood prep
But this was not just any coat. This was a red Versace coat -- the same red Versace coat, in fact, that she wore to Prince William's passing-out parade at Sandhurst back in 2006. (A passing-out parade is a military tradition commemorating a recruit's completion of basic training.) At the time, Middleton's attendance at the event was a big deal; it was one of her highest-profile appearances yet as the Prince's girlfriend, and she was there as an official royal guest.
PHOTOS: Kate's childhood album
Flash forward to a little more than six years later, and the couple are now married and expecting their first child in July. A lot of things have changed -- but Middleton's classic style is not one of them. For her 2006 outing in the coat, the future Duchess wore black tights, black heeled boots, and a festive black hat. For her 2013 outing, she kept the black tights and black heeled boots but traded the headpiece for a Strathearn Tartan silk scarf and black Cornelia James gloves.
As Us Weekly previously reported, the royal couple stopped by the Dumfries House in Scotland on April 5. There, the soon-to-be first-time mom was greeted with a startling sight -- herself in doll form.
PHOTOS: Royal pregnancies
"No! Oh no, is that me? Is that meant to be me?" she asked when 11-year-old Dayna Miller approached her with the lookalike figurine. "Does my hair really look like that?"
Miller assured the Duchess that she was significantly better-looking. "I told her she was much prettier than the doll and her hair was not nearly so big, and she laughed and seemed happy," the young girl said later. "I think she was a bit shocked by the doll, though. I can't believe how nice she was. She was just lovely. This has been the best day ever."
This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Kate Middleton Conceals Baby Bump in Red Coat Recycled From 2006: Picture
Last changed: Sun Apr 07, 2013 at 10:49 am


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If Facebook is any indication, new parents love to take photos of their partners happily dozing with a sleeping baby. But while this moment may be picturesque, how safe is it?
The practice of having infants sleep in the same bed as mom and dad is known as bed-sharing. Sometimes done deliberately and sometimes done out of sheer exhaustion, it has become a hot-button issue among child sleep experts and parents alike.
The American Academy of Pediatrics frowns on bed-sharing and called it "hazardous" in a 2005 policy statement. The main concern is that it increases the risk of death for the child, either by being smothered or from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Advocates of the practice say that when done correctly, sharing a bed helps parents — particularly nursing mothers — bond with their infants and even get a better night's sleep.
Read on for two views on the topic.
Bed-sharing is dangerous and should be avoided in the interest of the baby's safety.
Dr. Marian Willinger is the special assistant for SIDS at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
There's simply no scientific evidence that says bed-sharing is safe. There is scientific evidence, though, that bed-sharing increases the risk for SIDS, as well as the child's risk of suffocation. The baby can be overlain by the parent, they can get entrapped between the mattress and the box spring or under the pillow, or they can be suffocated by heavy bedding.
A baby is diagnosed as dying from SIDS if — after a complete review of the medical history, an autopsy and examination of the death scene — no other cause of death can be found. Studies have found that the risk of SIDS increases anywhere from two to tenfold when parents bed-share, depending on the bed-sharing situation and the age of the baby. We don't know exactly why that is, but we do know that babies who die of SIDS often have brainstem deficits associated with their ability to regulate their breathing and heart rate, specifically when faced with reduced carbon dioxide and elevated temperatures. In a bed-sharing environment, given that the baby is sleeping with other bodies and potentially with blankets, we can hypothesize that SIDS would be consistent with these potential environmental stresses.
When we talk about the potential risk for overlay, entrapment and suffocation, it's a little more clear-cut. Parents can't always be awake and can't always be watching their baby. Babies have very compressible chests when they're little, as well as tiny little heads and tiny noses and tiny mouths. If these get covered, it's very dangerous.
In our day and age, when everybody is working just to make ends meet and new parents don't have a lot of time to spend with their baby, I completely understand that there are a lot of reasons why parents would want to bring their baby in bed. And that's fine, as long as they're awake. When it's time for the parent or the baby to go to sleep, the baby needs its own separate place.
The best sleeping environment for babies is to have their bed or crib in the parents' room. We don't really know why, but we do have evidence that room-sharing reduces the risk of SIDS. It's good for the baby and a wonderful way to bond.
But bed-sharing is dangerous. I've seen what SIDS or overlaying has done to the families of parents who have overlain their children — some families do well and some families fall apart. But I can tell you one thing, they never forget that baby. I know that there are bed-sharing advocates that say they've always done this and they've never lost a baby, but this is about probabilities.
When parents and babies share a bed, it promotes bonding, good sleep and wellness for the whole family.
Dr. William Sears is a pediatrician in Dana Point and the author of the book "The Baby Sleep Book: The Complete Guide to a Good Night's Rest for the Whole Family."
What I tell patients is that the best place for a baby to sleep is wherever the parents and baby get the best night's sleep. Research has shown, though, that it's best for babies to be within sensory distance from mom, so they could be in a co-sleeper that's attached to or near the bed, or safely placed in the bed with the parents. I don't think bed-sharing is right for everyone, but I do think that it can be very beneficial.
First of all, bed-sharing makes nighttimebreast-feedingeasier.Breast-fedbabies wake up more often, since breast milk is digested faster. When a baby and mother share a bed, the mother often wakes up just when, or even just before, the baby is ready to wake up, and she is able to easily nurse the baby with a minimal disruption to her own sleep. Babies get more milk this way, which helps them thrive. Many moms even find that despite the baby waking up more to breastfeed, both baby and mother are better rested.
Many mothers also work outside the house during the day. When they share a bed with their babies at night, it gives them the closeness and touch that they miss during the day. That is also beneficial to the baby's development.
Latest Health
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have even speculated that bed-sharing may have a protective mechanism. Because of what might be an increased sensitivity to one another in a bed-sharing situation, the mother may instinctively awaken if the baby's breathing changes.
There are some potential downfalls to parents and babies sleeping separately. When a baby is unattended to at night or sleeps apart from its mother, its stress hormones may become higher. When the baby has high stress hormones, it depletes the immune system, raises the heart rate and can even damage the brain, particularly since babies don't yet have the cerebral maturity to detoxify excess stress hormones.
When babies and moms are closer together, on the other hand, the baby's stress hormones have been shown to go down and its oxygen intake is more stable.
Not all parents should bed-share. Parents who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol should not sleep in the same bed with their babies, nor should very obese parents or parents who smoke. Mothers, who have a heightened awareness of the baby, should sleep next to the infant while bed-sharing rather than fathers, and no baby-sitters, aunts, uncles or other caregivers should bed-share. Parents should not sleep with their infants on a couch, beanbag or water bed — only a safe, firm mattress with light bedding and no excess pillows, stuffed animals or throws.


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A "major showdown" at the UK's Supreme Court has been predicted after Scotland's highest civil court ruled Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament is unlawful.
It comes after three judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Wednesday found in favour of a cross-party group of politicians who are challenging the Prime Minister's move.
Last week, Judge Lord Doherty had dismissed a challenge against the suspension of Parliament, saying it was for politicians and not the courts to decide.
The UK Government plans to appeal against the ruling and Nick McKerrell, a lecturer in law at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) now expects a showdown at the Supreme Court.
"This was a pretty unexpected judgment from the Inner House of the Court of Session and strongly overrules the findings of Lord Doherty's ruling last week," he said.
"The Lord President – the top judge in Scotland – said the decision to suspend Parliament could only be reviewed if its purpose was to 'stymie parliamentary scrutiny'. He believed this was the true reason.
"This was because of the length of time and the documents released showing the political discussions around prorogation that took place.
"The other two judges supported this. Significantly, all argued that in most normal circumstances the decision to prorogue could not be reviewed by the Courts which shows how exceptional this situation is.
"Ultimately then the court said the decision to suspend Parliament is 'null and is of no effect'.
"However, this will now be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in London next Tuesday. This will now be a major showdown."
Former Tory Attorney General Dominic Grieve said Boris Johnson's position would be "untenable" and he should resign "very swiftly" if it turns out the Queen had been misled over the reasons for proroguing Parliament.
Speaking to BBC News, he said: "If it were to be the case that the Government had misled the Queen about the reasons for suspending Parliament and the motives for it, that would be a very serious matter indeed.
"Indeed in my view, it would then be the moment for Mr Johnson to resign – and very swiftly."
He added: "I think that if that were to be the case that this had happened, Boris Johnson would find himself in an untenable position in Parliament.
"And I hope it would be untenable not just because of the opposition, but because actually every member of the Conservative Party that believes in our constitution would simply say it's over."
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, commenting after reports a Downing Street source had suggested the Scottish judges were "politically biased", said: "Our judges are renowned around the world for their excellence and impartiality and I have total confidence in their independence in every case."
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said: "Today's Court of Session judgment is of huge constitutional significance – but the immediate political implications are clear.
"Court says prorogation was unlawful and null and void – so Parliament must be recalled immediately to allow the essential work of scrutiny to continue."
Scottish Greens Parliamentary co-leader Patrick Harvie said: "We'll all need to study the detail of this ruling but it seems clear that the criticism of Boris Johnson's decision to shut down Parliament has been vindicated, and we therefore support the demand to recall Parliament.
"It's extraordinary that the UK Government – even one which has descended ever further into minority status – should have the power to replace the Prime Minister, set the parliamentary agenda and even force MPs to pack up and go home to avoid being held to account.
"No Scottish Government would have the legal ability to act in this dictatorial manner.
"The present crisis has highlighted the urgent need for a modern, democratic constitution which prevents the abuse of power by dangerous extremists like Boris Johnson."


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Hi everyone,
I was unable to see the board last Java class so I have a quick/easy question. I was asked to write a basic program with mathematical expressions so I wrote the following:
public class Assign01 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// creating my int variables here
int num1=0,num2=0,sumvalue=0,diffvalue=0,productvalue= 0,quotvalue=0,remaindervalue=0;
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
// straight forward
System.out.println("Please choose your first number: ");
num1 = sc.nextInt();
System.out.println("Please choose your second number: ");
num2 = sc.nextInt();
// straight forward
sumvalue = num1+num2;
diffvalue = num1-num2;
productvalue = num1*num2;
quotvalue = num1/num2;
remaindervalue = num1%num2
Under this I wrote "System.out.println ..." to write the answers and explain tips about math.
Can someone explain where can I add something like this?
int subtract(){
int result;
if (num1 > num2)
result = num1-num2;
result = num2-num1;
return result;
and something like this for division: "divide = if 15 divided by 0 = zero then return the value 0 as a result". Where would I add this in my program?
Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated.


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Bulk Quantities
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On July 10th we rolled out an update to Kickstarter's Project Guidelines prohibiting rewards in bulk quantities. This update was in response to a trend we've seen in recent months of projects offering rewards in quantities upwards of 20, 50, and even 100 of an item. When we introduced this change we weren't specific about how many of a reward constitutes a "bulk quantity." This caused unnecessary confusion, and we want to address that question today.As of today, we're defining "bulk quantity" as a reward that offers more than ten of a single item. We feel that a limit of ten will prevent bulk commercial transactions while still allowing independent stores (the most frequent backers of these rewards) to back projects and share them with their communities. Projects are welcome to offer rewards intended for stores so long as they are in quantities of ten or less.
Backing a project has always been about joining a community just as much as it is getting stuff. That's one of Kickstarter's defining traits, and we want that to always be true. We're incredibly proud of the ways that Kickstarter has helped creators bring their work to life and get it out into the world. Watching independent stores use Kickstarter to promote the work of independent creators has been amazing, and we hope it continues.
Sorry for causing confusion, and thanks as always for your support.
Fred Hicks / Evil Hat ProductionsSuperbackeron
I am relieved! Thanks for getting specific and responding to the issue with all due speed. :)
Daniel Berg on
But what about those companies like Top Cow, which is a independent comicbook company, that wants to offer incentives for other companies through a medium like kickstarter? I just don't see the problem with that. There are companies that want to distribute in large quantities to independent companies. Isn't that still in the spirit of kickstarter? Why turn away that business?
Angus Abranson / Chronicle CitySuperbackeron
Thank you so much for the clarification. Great news :)
Jason PitreSuperbackeron
Thank you very much for your clarification and support for creatives. That appears to be a reasonable approach.
Anon K. Adderlan on
And what about things that are designed to be USED in bulk, like dice or miniatures?
Also, is it permitted for a retailer to contact creators through their Kickstarter campaigns directly to request bulk prices instead of pledging? Because while I specifically avoided retailer levels in my project (sometimes my instincts pay off), I expected and received such inquiries. It actually feels a little unfair to Kickstarter to do business this way, but I didn't throw a Kickstarter to simply produce a product. I threw a Kickstarter to ESTABLISH A BUSINESS! And doing that MUST take into account retailer relations.
Modern Myths, Inc. on
I take back everything I have said in the last 48 hours. Thanks very, very much!
Vickey & Bob Beaver/Obatron Productions on
Thanks for the swift response! I thought I was going to have to go to IndieGoGo when I'm ready for crowdfunding. This gives me a chance to work with the better-known company when that time comes.
Brian DalrympleSuperbackeron
Great news, thank you!
Yancey StricklerSuperbackeron
This comment has been removed by Kickstarter.
Yancey StricklerSuperbackeron
@Fred Thanks Fred!
@Daniel It's possible that this rule will turn away some projects that would be financially beneficial to Kickstarter but that's not how we approach things. We went with what we felt made the most sense for the Kickstarter community.
@Anon Things like dice or miniatures that come in sets aren't affected by this. If your project is to produce a set of 50 miniatures we would view each set as a distinct item, so a project could offer ten of those sets. Same with dice and similar products. In terms of reaching out directly to creators that's totally fine. This rule is just about what's listed as a reward on the Kickstarter project page.
@Angus @Jason @Jim @Vickey Thanks!
John Kaufeld on
Thanks for the quick response, Kickstarter. It's appreciated!!!
At the same time, send the person who runs your Facebook page to social media customer service training. Throwing people off of your page for *asking* about policy changes is NOT cool in social media marketing. Having a Facebook page means keeping the discussion open, not burning customers for asking questions.
Andy KitkowskiSuperbackeron
Thanks for the clarification!
EndGame - Chris HanrahanSuperbackeron
Thanks a ton for getting out in front of this. Very, very much appreciate it.
Kickstarter: Can you clarify how you would apply these new rules in some common situations.
For example, consider the recently finished "PennyGems II" project. There were levels that varied from 1 sheet of PennyGems to 24 sheets. Were some of these levels "bulk quantities"? Because I purchased 8 for personal use (and was seriously considering 16), do you consider me to be a retailer?
Or, consider the "Your Art Card Sleeves" project. This project had levels from 60 card sleeves (in one custom design) to 3000 (up to 50 designs). Were some of these levels bulk quantities? Is someone who owns and wants to protect 600 cards (much less 3000 cards) a retailer by your definition? [For reference, note that there are some 12,000 different Magic: the Gathering cards.]
An ongoing project offers one D14 or D18 die for $8, but eight of each (16 dice total) for $29. Is the $29 level a bulk level?
[No link to avoid promotion.]
Overall, I have concerns that this new policy is going to be damaging to artists who produce small items (dice, cards, headbands, USB drives, etc.). Some of their backers might want only one item, but many backers might want a dozen or more for personal use. If they can only offer pledge levels from 1 "set" to 10 "sets", should they choose to disappoint their small backers (setting the first level at, say, 3 or 5 items) or should they disappoint their main users (setting the largest level at 10)?
Tyler Tinsley on
thanks, i feel this will work. i suppose distribution level stuff should be handled elsewhere.
Matthew J. Hanson on
Thank you for the clarification.
benjamin diem on
I recently launched a campaign for NOTEBLOX - [ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1582711633/noteblox-magnetic-stackable-ipad-journal ] and my campaign was rejected because i had quantities of 25, 50, 100 and 500... my point in offering larger rewards was an effort to maximize my potential to reach my MOQ with the factory. even if i was breaking even with a quantity of 100, i was lowering my risk of not meeting the MOQ.
Also the price point of the NOTEBLOX is low ($15) and the value of the product is exponential because they are made to work together, and multiple BLOX are designed to interact with each other.
I see where the guideline was born, but i think a case by case analysis is important too.
Steve EllisSuperbackeron
Thanks for the clarification. As a brick & mortar hobby game store owner I feel this is a viable solution. It allows me the opportunity to directly support game creators by bringing in product early for my most excited customers. In addition, it will encourage me to promote the product to my regular distribution partners who will see opportunity going forward with innovative products.
C. W. Marshall on
Good answer -- and the right one!
Cindy Au on
Good questions -- both the PennyGems and card sleeves are similar to dice, miniatures, puzzle pieces, or anything else that comes in a set. Those would be treated like any other single item, and projects can offer up to 10 sets. Whether a backer is an individual, a store, a classroom, or a game group isn't an issue.
Thanks to you and everyone else for the feedback -- it's much appreciated!
Gamescape North on
I hear all these people saying "good answer." What I don't see is any justification of why this was a question. Who cares if there is a reward group at 50 or 100. Isn't Kickstarter about starting a business. Businesses sell products to customers. For many businesses their costomers are other businesses who want to resell the product. They need quantities. That is good for the seller and good for the buyer. Where is there a problem? If I am missing something obvious I apologize, but I just don't see the problem in the first place.
Marshall Gatten on
I can't understand why Kickstarter would want to "prevent bulk commercial transactions". There's some impication here that because Kickstarter is a community, we're somehow above being commercial. Well, we're a community that includes some people hoping to launch products into a commercial success. If a retailer is willing to buy 100 of my widgets, then that retailer will be doing as much for my project as 100 other donors getting 1 widget each. How is that a bad thing? By limiting reward quantities, you curtail the donations that can do the most to help your Kickstarters. Kickstarter is shooting itself in the foot while simultaneously shooting it's users in their collective foot. It makes no sense.
Levi Mote on
I would argue that KS is about Crowdfunding. Which has created an avenue for creative individuals who cannot generate the capital for traditional distribution channels. If larger scale distribution for huge numbers of items is what you need, there are a plethora of options available to meet those needs. Without this Project Guideline KS would become just another online distributor and lose the spirit of what has quickly made it a cultural phenomenon. Let's also remember that this is a guideline and appeals can be made on an individual basis should a project like some of those mentioned above warrant further accommodations.
Tim RodriguezSuperbackeron
The clarification is much appreciated.
Patrick Brower on
Thank you for the clarification. This will ensure our continued pledging of KickStarter campaigns.
Echelon Game DesignSuperbackeron
@Cindy Au
Setting aside the question of supporting commercial customers such as retail stores, I think benjamin diem has a point. Some products work best in a set, and that set might be larger than ten items.
PennyGems is a perfect example. _Each sheet_ contains enough components to make 40 PennyGems, and I just bought a set of 16 sheets _for personal use_. 40 of each auxiliary-color PennyGem, plus an assortment of others for other purposes (120 wound markers, 120 dichotomy, plus two sheets of other stuff). This is 16 sheets.
Do I have to order two eight-sheet packages next time? This increases cost and inconvenience to both me (the person with the money) and Dave (the guy who will be processing these to get money from me).
I believe I understand why Kickstarter wants to not deal with commercial bulk orders (though I think it's a silly decision), but I think there really should be some human oversight and exception processes involved for when a customer could legitimately want a bunch of pieces.
Now, Dave may have an out in that the pieces could be packaged -- four-sheet, eight-sheet, sixteen-sheet packages -- and sold, possibly in multiples, just as I could be four six-packs of beer rather than a proper case. However, this just becomes a packaging issue to get around the rule against how many items can be bought. benjamin's notebooks are kind of similar, he could bundle them into groups of 1, 2, or 5, then people could buy multiple bundles, but again it's just a packaging issue to get around a rule.
While it is good to have clarification on the new guideline, I think the guideline itself could use a little more thought, especially with regard to products that lend themselves to single customers ordering large numbers.
Cindy Au on
@Keith Davies
There are definitely types of items that make sense as a set, like game pieces, dice, and so forth. This guideline doesn't affect that. Rewards that come as a set would count as one item, even if the component items amount to more than 10 (e.g. nobody wants a 100-piece puzzle with only 10 pieces, or a set of miniatures missing the 11th battalion).
Good to see lots of interesting examples coming up, and know that when we review project submissions, it's a human process and there's always room for discussion.
Echelon Game DesignSuperbackeron
I agree, breaking up a natural set in order to meet an arbitrary guideline would be silly.
However, to use PennyGems as an example again, the natural set size is one sheet (of 40 individual 'gems', 80 piece in total because there are two per gem). There is in fact a reward level consisting of a single sheet... and reward levels consisting 16, 24, or 25+arbitrary numbers of sheets. This would seem to be contrary to the new guidelines.
I find it encouraging that the review process may make exceptions, but this is not obvious in what I have read so far.
Perhaps a statement along the lines of "rewards where it would be sensible for a single person to have a large set of the product may not be subject to this restriction" (PennyGems is a specific example, as would be Poker Chips Designed for Board Gamers). Boardgames or specific written works (or movies, etc.) it does not seem as sensible; limiting them to 10 copies should not restrict consumer-level purchases. benjamin's NOTEBLOX might be borderline; I might use more than 10 such books over time, but I would more likely buy more as I needed them unless I thought purchasing opportunities were very limited... but I could see buying a larger stack of them for family use, or even a huge stack if I were making them available to a class full of students.
Anyway, I think a little more refinement of the statement would help. Ten is a good number for most things, but making it clear that cases where more than ten could make sense can be excluded would be helpful.
Actually, I would suspect that in many cases simply having a declared guideline: "this is not intended as a large-scale retail pre-ordering system, please keep reward levels to ten copies or fewer unless it makes sense for a person to order a slew of them", without enforcement or with easy exception handling, might do what you're looking for. You are providing a service, most people are pretty reasonable, so it would probably work out fairly well. I suspect you wouldn't find many projects trying to game the system, and the guideline as written there makes it clear that it is a guideline and not a hard rule, and provides some indication of the sorts of exceptions that may be made.
David Anderson on
What about software licenses? We offered bulk licenses (upwards of 50) because if a corporation or software firm donates a large amount, we want to equip their entire team with the software. Would love to hear a response back about this.
Michael Formby on
I see a few more issues with bulk pricing.
I've been looking at some of the projects that have been listed with the bulk pricing and it seems to me that the projects and companies looking for funding are aiming for retail customers and not distributors.
If you think about it they are source, so when they decide a price (they do not have to take into account the costs incurred for a secondary seller) for example.
They sell 1 product at $40 (They offer bulk pricing and you can buy say 50 and they work out at $32)
Now after the project has been funded, they continue to allow pre-ordering on there websites, now if your looking to resell there products, you have to take into account shipping from them to you, then from you to your customer, import duty if your not in america, (VAT) if your in the uk so a product there retailing after there kickstarter project on there website for $40 kills any chance for a distributor to get a decent return on there investment.
Because by the time the product gets to you, your going to be close to there retail price and if your customers Google the product name and they see they can get it for $40 why would they buy from you.
So in my opinion if there projects are looking for distributors to carry there product after the quick exposure during there kickstarter project, they need to stop retailing it on there own website and allow distributours to pick it up off them because there either a manufacturer or a retailer, you cant have it both ways.
Anyway that was my 2 cents,
Yaron DavidsonSuperbackeron
Looking at projects I backed, and it's all just as an individual, I did reach 10 items (for things that were also rewarded at a single item level with no relevancy to "sets") at least once, and was borderline to get there, or even pass it, on a few more times.
Some things are useful enough in multiple amounts. And some things strike the "that would make a terrific gift" nerve. So now if I see something that I want to give some of my friends/relatives as gifts, it will be against the rules? Isn't "I like this thing enough to want all/most of my friends to have it too" exactly in the crowdsourcing corner?
I understand what you're trying to do with this rule, but I get the feeling you need to really raise the count, and absolutely make this more... flexible, depending on context.
Echelon Game DesignSuperbackeron
I think Michael Formby makes a good point.
Unless the bulk discounts are quite big, there is little gain for retailers to purchase through Kickstarter. Once a project is funded, if the product becomes available through standard retail channels -- which is to say via whole distributors to retailers -- it tends to become cheaper for the retailer to buy through channels than through the Kickstarter.
For that matter, at the consumer level this can be true. There have been products funded that would have cost me half again as much going through the Kickstarter than they did going through my FLGS after the project closed.
I reckon that depending on the product, if a 'retailer' can 'bulk order' at even a 25% discount he is unlikely to net much on selling the product, probably less than if he was able to get it through normal channels.
I think Yaron Davidson has a point too. I've seen things where I've thought they would make good general-purpose gifts.
I am starting to think that perhaps the concern that Kickstarter is becoming an alternate order and delivery mechanism for retailers might be unwarranted, as long as there are no deep discounts for bulk orders. 20-25% is probably enough for larger orders to make larger orders attractive to individuals or groups (I've expanded my orders for some products for friends, so they could get the extra bits), and to make them attractive enough for retailers who want to back a project to warrant it (but not so much that it becomes an alternate order and fulfilment system -- they just are unlikely to lose money on the deal if they sell the product they order, at normal price).
I have seen bulk pricing make a difference of about 25% ($8 per unit to $6 per unit, at the consumer level rather than retail level). At the consumer level this is pretty good, but it's not a very good wholesale price for retail. Stores wanting to order would be better served by going directly to the project owner and dealing directly, or possibly through a distributor.
There is a wrinkle in that if larger orders must go directly to the project owner, they are not reflected in the Kickstarter project, which may then fail. If that happens then nobody gets anything. The backers don't, and the stores don't, even if together they easily cleared the amount needed by the project owner.
Perhaps a better rule than "no bulk orders" might be "bulk orders offer no more than 25% off base price".
This rewards people who want to back in a big way, and it rewards retailers (if they do back the project -- I've qualified on at least one project for 'retail-sized reward' just by myself, by the now-published guideline) who choose to back the project rather than pursue potentially more cost-effective means. The project is a one-time thing, so if a product is popular enough to continue sales after the project is complete and rewards fulfilled it will be necessary to go to other channels.
This kick starts the product line, if not the business, and sounds like it would not become a general order and delivery system. It would be untenable and unprofitable for the retailers to continue to use it, I think, if the discounts from achievable through Kickstarter were less than they could get via normal distribution channels.
Limiting the discount possible for bulk ordering, rather than the size of the order, might solve the problem, and allow backers who come to back in a big way to do so.
Komoda on
I don't get this new policy. Kickstarter my be a great community, and that is all well and good, but why would it be less of a community if I sold a million widgets rather than a hundred thousand widgets?
I for one like the appeal of the money that I may be able to make. I am not looking for yet another social networking site to find new friends. As a designer and prototype fabricator I have been involved with many people that have great ideas and just never knew how to fund them. Isn't the funding what Kickstarter is all about?
As to the concept of community, I spend more time with the people that I work with, the ones that I do business with, than anyone else in the world, including my wife. That is the community that I believe Kickstarter should be working to develop. The business community that makes us all more money.
Isn't Kickstarter really an alternative marketing company? For roughly 10% of my sales, Kickstarter brings my project to it's community. Is there really any sound reason to limit the ability of my sales? The community will change with each new member, each new project and every new employee of Kickstarter. While I agree there is a cool feeling to help people get their projects off the ground, isn't the purpose of this whole program for Kickstarter and me (the project manager) to make as much money as we can? Isn't that how all three sides (Kickstarter, the project manager and the backer) all come together to see these wonderful projects flourish?
Jude M on
The need for your set clarification in the comments points out a lack of thinking implications through when you made the decision to rewrite a poorly worded new policy. That's... troubling. In any case, your set clarification turns the rule into: quantities available through a project's different reward levels cannot vary by more than a factor of 10.
That's just silly for many things, most definitely still including dice, counters, and card sleeves. Even a dozen decks of cards also available individually isn't a particularly odd thing to want, if you wanted to run 3 tables of casino-style multi-deck shoes at a game night. Sets of artwork are yet another example; offering both a 1-print level and a dozen-prints level from a pool of choices with repeats allowed is a violation, and that's currently offered by at least one project. Sheets of handmade origami paper could be reasonably offered in 10-sheet and 200-sheet levels but would violate this policy. A bottle of artisan root beer and a 12-pack are violations. A line of earrings with 6 styles of pairs and an option to buy singles or 6 pairs (with repeats allowed) is ruled out. Bangle-type bracelets available singly or in a dozen are a violation. A new doughnut shop opening in my hometown with a $1 reward featuring a free doughnut on your first visit and a higher reward featuring a subscription to a dozen a week for the first year is an outrageous factor-of-624 violator.
Please stop and think this policy through carefully and then fix it. It is broken in many cases.
Hans Isaacson on
Perhaps I don't know the true mission statement of Kickstarter, but it seems to me that putting limits on offerings only hampers the potential success of projects. If Kickstarter's primary goal is to help enterprises get off of the ground by providing funding, then overtly limiting commercial investments is poor policy. Seriously, businesses have more money to invest than the average Kickstarter user. 10 copies might be plenty for a single store, but what if there are more stores? I still represent a small business, but I have put a few thousand dollars through projects with legitimate retailer options. Allowing businesses to invest in projects for there own gain also allows the project to test the water for a further print run. Moderate commercial interest in a Kickstarter project may give the producer enough feedback to both justify and seek private investors. This policy is a disservice to the community that Kickstarter created.
Zorak on
Having just seen this in a project I have been watching, I feel this is silly. I applaud Kickstarter for wanting to bring people together, but that does not feed the Kickstarter's children. If this was honestly the goal of Kickstarter, there would be no rewards and merely forums where people can congregate to support a project. An arbitrary limit of 10 items really means the possibility of less projects getting funded, which is less money for Kickstarter. In a capitalistic society, offering more rewards in return for higher donations is only natural and should be encouraged. Further, why is the limit on the number of items and not the cost of the donation? You could have 10 items that might for for $100 but have single donations for single items for $1,500. If higher donations are allowed, why not limit based on the donation, rather than the quantity? Again, the whole thing is very arbitrary and really makes no sense, even in the clarification. If the goal is really bringing together people, attacking quantities over donation levels seems the wrong way to go. Which says community more: A project funded with no donations over $500 or feasibly unlimited donation levels but no one gets more than one thing? That's my two cents at least.
Ash ArnoldSuperbackeron
I'm also on the side of 'Why?" for this new policy. Kickstarter's "We are a community" is a little odd of a reasoning to use, since by and large, we don't really interact with each other beyond the occasional comments on each other's projects. I've backed 91 projects, and rarely have I interacted with anyone beyond poking the creators about why they are not posting shipping updates. (Too many projects vanish.)
Looking over the 91 I've sponsored, there's several playing card decks, some bottles of hot sauce, rolls of 'seed money' you can plant, two different custom pens that you can shove random refills into, a shirts & underwear project, rolls of barrier tape, little cardboard critters, and the penny gems that everyone above has commented on. So out of 91 projects, I see at least 18 where I could (or DID) order more than 10x of. Either for myself (penny gems) or as gifts for others (I ordered 24 decks of cards that I liked and gave them all away). In all of these cases I see no reason at all why being able to offer such quantities in any way harmed the "kickstarter community".
On the reverse, I've seen projects that just barely made their goal, in part due to larger donors such as myself. (Some of my donations have been significant.) So some of these projects would surely fail if not allowed to get at least some of their funding from larger sponsors who may have very legitimate reasons for wanting 12 or 20 of something. So from that side, I would think this new policy actively hurts the "kickstarter community", since a unsuccessful project doesn't benefit anyone. (In my opinion.)
Please consider reversing this policy. I've not seen anyone really in favor of it, and lots of people against it. The 'sets' loophole is just silly, as this means nothing will change and people can just create a 'retail set' of 50x of an item I suppose. (Or do things like a $5 level that is 1x for every $5 you donate. So just donate $60 at the $5 level to get 12x.)
So, final analysis: new silly 'set' rule makes no sense, limit of 10x is silly and/or absurd for many projects, and there doesn't seem to be anyone in the community who likes or wants this policy.
Kirk BauerSuperbackeron
I agree completely. The original definition (no more than 10 of an item) would have prevented several great projects I backed as a regular person (I'm not bulk ordering, just for my personal use). The "set" workaround is just a pain because we don't know who can define what makes up a "set". Here are the projects in the past that I think were great and would have been impacted by this change:
Custom dice: I can't order more than 10 dice? I have one game that needs 24 dice alone... and I have 300 games:
Custom coins (for games): http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1095993227/realm-coins
Card sleeves (since again, most games have at least 50 cards in them, why would I want only 10)?: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maydaygames/50-types-sizes-of-board-card-game-sleeves-from-swa…
Jenn Topliff on
I'm looking at setting up a project to fund some baking equipment. Part of my rewards (a big part) is the actual product (a cookie). Typically, this product is sold in an 8-pack. For smaller donors, I'd like to give 2 or 4 individual cookies. For mid-range I might offer 1, 2 or 4 8-packs. For bigger donors, I want to offer 1 catering pack for their event that could be 50 or 100 individual cookies. What in this is allowed or disallowed according to your policy?
Michael Carver on
I would like to add my opinion to this old blog post. This rule is arbitrary, stupid, and without any redeeming quality whatsoever. There isn't a single logical or good explanation to why any company would want to limit its users creativity so blatantly by discouraging them from pursuing the proper funding to achieve their dreams.
Again, Stupid Rule...
theodorelogan on
Agreed Michael. I have no idea why this rule has been implemented, and the end result is going to be that fewer projects succeed, and Kickstarter makes less money.
Marcel Ferlendi on
Pointless rule
Dave Howell on
Wow. I had no idea my Kickstarter campaign (PennyGems) had been such a heavily used example for this discussion. I think there's a particular quality that nobody seems to have picked up on. It's still not a bright line, but I think it's relevant.
There is a functional difference between getting one sheet of PennyGems vs. 16 sheets (at a lower cost per sheet), and getting, say, one PEBL watch and sixteen of them. It is quite easy to come up with a situation where you will use all sixteen sheets' worth of 'Gems at the same time. One sheet is "one small set of PennyGems," and sixteen sheets is "one large set of PennyGems." But you only have two wrists. If you're a wealthy avante-guarde artist, maybe you're going to wear all your watches at the same time strapped to your arm as some kind of scrolling billboard, but for most people, the *maximum* useful quantity for watches is "one."
One bottle of artisan root-beer, or twelve bottles? That's one bottle, or a pair of six-packs. Root beer is primarily *sold* as six-packs because many people want to buy more than one or two servings at a time; for their own use or the use of their household.
Price point is another significant characteristic. Labels for a single PennyGem cost about $0.40. That's an impractically small amount. So I (somewhat arbitrarily) created 40-unit sets as my smallest Kickstarter unit. Except for the samplers, where you could get just eight. On the other hand, if the object in question is a $60 desk lamp, or a $100 article of clothing, it becomes far less likely that somebody is looking to have twelve of them for their own use.
My third campaign got tangled briefly in this new policy, for leather dice bags. I had levels for individual bags, but I also had some pledge levels for sets of eight. Somebody pledging for a set of eight medium bags *did* have a lot of room for selecting the characteristics of those bags, but this level was not the same as a level that would allow for the one-bag award eight times. (In one of my updates, I speculated that this campaign may have effectively offered the largest number of possible awards to backers ever seen on Kickstarter) The difference between "eight bags" and "one set of eight bags" was, among other things, that all eight bags in the set had to be the same size.
Now, as it happens, I didn't have a pledge reward that was "two sets of {specific size} bags" aka 16 bags, although I suspect I could have. It is definitely an edge case, though, and would be a judgement call for Kickstarter. Since this policy was posted after my first campaign, I didn't actually re-read the project guidelines for my second and third campaigns, so I didn't even know about this until a retailer asked me to create a reward specifically for retailers to get a large quantity of bags. I did, and then Kickstarter suspended it. Oops.
I'm okay with that. Kickstarter's goal isn't to vacuum up as much money as they can; it's to enable and assist people to create beautiful things. I'm not really sure how this policy advances that goal, but that's their decision. Protesting the policy will hinder some projects and that Kickstarter won't make as much money is missing the point.
Food for thought.
Dave Howell on
Oh, yes, another thing about my leather dice bag campaign. Although I did not have a *reward* level for 16, or 50, or {indefinite} bags, since Kickstarter allows you to pledge any amount you like, and then select any reward level you desire that has a minimum pledge value at or below the amount you pledged, some of my backers pledged enough to be able to receive 50+ bags. Doing so did not secure them a further discount over the individual levels. Nevertheless, does that constitute "offering a reward in bulk quantities?" I have no idea, but if I do another campaign that could have a similar situation, I'm definitely going to run it by Kickstarter management first.
Stuart Harrison on
You want to keep commercial transactions out because this site is a community? Aren't the people who run the local shops part of your real-world community?
I know Kickstarters primary role is to get community funding for projects that might otherwise never get off the ground, but isn't there an obvious benefit in not stifling the other aspects of successfully starting a business? Isn't building a distribution network by establishing a relationship with retailers and even wholesalers vital to continued success of a product in New York?
I could understand it if this limit was being applied to pre-existing product lines offered in conjunction with the project, but to arbitrarily limit the success of the new product strikes me as sabotaging your "creators" - aren't they part of the community too?
Dr. T. Boult on
I've read through this but am still confused by what is a "set" vs bulk. And trying to decided if we do our project on kickstarter or Indiegogo. We are developing a creativity "card deck" which can be played as a game just for fun but also with special modes/cards for use in classrooms (we are a university). We are planning on campaign where one of the rewards would be a "classroom set", with special material for use in a classroom plus 25 sets of basic material that would be part of lower level rewards. So is that a "bulk" reward or is it a set? if its bulk, how about if I don't do normal decks for classrooms, and instead go with school boxed sets with 1000 cards? When does kickstarter make the determination if its a set or bulk? I don't want to waste time setting up a kickstarter campaign if we cannot have rewards aimed at one of the primary targets for our campaign.
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