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SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) increased its quarterly net profit by 13 percent to $2 billion, squeezing overseas capacity to keep sales going despite damaging labor strikes at home.
The South Korean firm, which with affiliate Kia Motors (000270.KS) is the world's fifth-biggest car maker, has outperformed in an industry battered by Europe's debt crisis - even Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and Daimler (DAIGn.DE) are feeling the pinch - but investors are concerned about a go-slow strategy on expanding capacity.
Hyundai has not announced plans for a new plant for at least two years, as it focuses on brand and quality rather than aggressively chasing market share - but this has left it short of cars to sell into a recovering U.S. market, where Japanese rivals have muscled back in, as well as in emerging markets.
In a summary note this week, Standard & Poor's forecast Hyundai and Kia would lose global market share by 2014.
"With its growth rate moderating on limited capacity and the global economy weakening, it'll be a challenge for Hyundai to come up with a magic growth formula," said Ohm Joon-o, a fund manager at Kiwoom Asset Management, which holds Hyundai stock.
On Thursday, hours after a bleak day for European brands - with Ford (F.N) announcing a plant closure, Peugeot (PEUP.PA) accepting state aid and Volkswagen posting a big drop in profits - Hyundai said its July-September net profit rose to 2.17 trillion won, a touch above market forecasts and up on last year's 1.92 trillion won.
Hyundai, led by founding family member Chung Mong-koo, bucked the industry slump in Europe and drove up sales in China as Japanese rivals were hit by a popular backlash in a dispute over islands in the East China Sea. Chief Financial Officer Lee Won-hee acknowledged Hyundai benefited from the Japan-China dispute, and would this year report higher-than-expected sales in the world's biggest autos market.
"Hyundai will return to record earnings in the current quarter," said Kim Seung-hwan, analyst at Golden Bridge Investment & Securities. "But the problem is next year. Investors are concerned that Hyundai's growth momentum will stall, which is reflected in the recent share price slump."
Hyundai shares closed up 3.9 percent on Thursday - their biggest one-day gain in 6 weeks - but have slumped 10 percent this month, underperforming the KOSPI index .KS11 and Japanese rivals Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T), Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T) and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), as investors fret over the group's long-term growth strategy.
Hyundai expects the global autos market will grow at 3.6 percent next year, slowing from an expected 5.1 percent this year. The European market will shrink by 8 percent this year, but by less than 2 percent next year, it said. Hyundai last month slashed its European targets for this year and next, in no way immune from the chill winds of the region's debt crisis.
Overall, Lee said Hyundai would beat its global sales target of 4.29 million vehicles this year.
Analysts warned of a potential earnings hit from an appreciating won currency, which on Thursday broke through the 1,100 level versus the dollar - its strongest in more than a year.
"If the won appreciates further, Hyundai's earnings will decrease," said Jung Sang-jin, a fund manager at Dongbu Asset Management, adding Hyundai's earnings will dip next year as the autos market sees ever tougher competition.
While earnings should pick up speed in the current quarter as buyers like the value-for-money a Hyundai car offers in a weak economy, the company's reluctance to expand capacity significantly has investors worried about its ability to sustain strong profit growth over the long-term.
Global sales growth this year and next will be some way below the double-digit growth in 2009 to 2011, according to analysts' estimates compiled by Reuters, and net profit growth is seen slowing to 8 percent next year, from an estimated 14 percent this year and 35 percent last year.
Hyundai is the first of Asia's global automakers to report quarterly earnings. Honda comes out on Monday, with Toyota and Nissan due on November 5 and November 6, respectively.
($1 = 1103.6500 Korean won)
Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim and Daum Kim; Editing by Ian Geoghegan


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Joshua 24:14-24 New International Version (NIV)
14 "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God."
19 Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you."
21 But the people said to Joshua, "No! We will serve the Lord."
22 Then Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord."
"Yes, we are witnesses," they replied.
23 "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel."
24 And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord our God and obey him."
Cross references:
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.
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Vocational Nursing
Promoting compassion in Nursing
The mission of the Panola College Vocational Nursing Program is to prepare competent, vocational nurses that are knowledgeable, safe and demonstrate a positive and caring attitude. Graduates should be able to care for individual clients across the lifespan within a standard legal/ethical framework.
The Vocational Nursing Program is committed to the preparation of individuals who will assume the role of vocational nurse and collaborate with the registered professional nurse and other health care professionals in the delivery of quality health care. The Program is approved by the Texas Board of Nursing.
The VN Program offers two extension locations:
- Carthage program begins in August (Deadline is March 1st)
- Center program begins in January (Deadline is October 1st)


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- Border
- 2 updates
Speed cameras vandalised
Two speed cameras on the A68 between Huntford and Camptown in the Scottish Borders were the target of vandals over the weekend.
Live updates
Full report: Police hunt for speed camera vandals
The hunt is on for speed camera saboteurs responsible for a string of attacks across the Scottish Borders, that could be putting lives at risk.
Six have now been vandalised - and it is thought the same person or people could be responsible.
Hannah McNulty reports:
Sixth speed camera sabotaged in Borders
Two speed cameras on the A68 between Huntford and Camptown in the Scottish Borders were the target of vandals over the weekend.
Both cameras were destroyed with a saw, bringing the total number of speed cameras sabotaged with a saw to six.
Lothian and Borders Police are investigating the incident as it is theft, vandalism and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Superintendent Denise Mulvaney from Lothian and Borders Police, said:
"There appears to be a systemic campaign of violence aimed at safety cameras.
"The method used to attack the cameras is highly dangerous, the people responsible for these actions are putting their own lives at risk as well as the safety of others.
"Anyone who comes into close contact with a camera that has been attacked in this fashion could be electrocuted.
"I'm urging any member of the public who has information they think might relate to any of the crimes aimed at safety cameras to contact the police."


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Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99...
A Liberal Protestant sect found chiefly in North America whose distinctive tenet is the belief in the final salvation of all souls. The doctrine of universal salvation found favor among members of various Christian Churches (see APOCATASTASIS for its treatment anterior to the foundation of the Universalist Church). The present article will exclusively consider Universalism as a separate denomination.
The historic creed of this religious body is the profession of belief adopted by the General Convention at Winchester, New Hampshire, in 1803. It contains the following articles:
To meet the objections raised by some Universalists to parts of the foregoing articles, a briefer statement of essential principles was adopted in 1899 by the General Convention held at Boston. It required for admission to fellowship the belief in the following articles:
The first Universalist congregation was organized in 1750 in London by Rev. James Relly, who ministered to its spiritual needs until his death (1778). In spite of this early establishment few Universalist churches exist at present in Europe; but Universalism is undoubtedly believed in outside of the denomination. The stronghold of the sect is in America, where the first church was established by Rev. John Murray. He landed in New Jersey in September, 1770, preached the doctrine of Universalism along the Atlantic seaboard, and in 1779 formed with fifteen other persons the first American congregation of that faith at Gloucester, Massachusetts. Other preachers of the same doctrine arose about this time: Elhanan Winchester, a former Baptist minister, taught Universalism at Philadelphia, and Adams Streeter and Caleb Rich spread it in New England. More marked in its success and wider in the range of its influence was the propaganda of the Rev. Hosea Ballou (1771-1852), whose Unitarian views triumphed in the denomination over the Sabellian conception of the Trinity taught by Murray. His teaching of universal salvation immediately after death, however did not meet with unanimous approval, and caused the secession of eight ministers and some members who, under the name of Restorationists, founded a separate sect. But the existence of this new creation was short-lived (1831-41), while the parent body spread during Ballou's lifetime not only in the United States but also to Canada. Its progress was slowed by the Civil War, but the propaganda subsequently carried on, chiefly under the direction of the board of trustees and the state conventions, was crowned with some success, and the denomination spread throughout the United States.
The denomination founded the following educational institutions:
APA citation. (1912). Universalists. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15181a.htm
MLA citation. "Universalists." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15181a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Tomas Hancil.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.


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Thursday, August 12, 2010
Vacation Break
Coming next week: Hilo Eats.
Pictured above top: The beautiful Waipi'o Valley on the north of the Island of Hawaii.
Pictured above bottom: Smoke billowing from Kilauea Volcano.
Labels: Hawaii
1 comment:
- oddlyme said...
Oh you are so MEAN.
- August 12, 2010 at 9:20 PM
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Subscribe to Acres U.S.A. Magazine for just $29/year. That's more than 50 percent off the cover price!
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Facebook Creeping Immortalized in Song [VIDEO]
Let's face it. We've all Facebook-stalked somebody we used to date, or somebody we'd like to date, or even somebody we're currently dating. YouTube personality Jessica Frech has immortalized this cultural touchstone in her song "Facebook Creeping."
It's part of Frech's "Song Challenge," in which she writes tunes about the topics her fans request (previous inspirations include peeing in traffic and airport security).
Watch the results below:
[via BuzzFeed]


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Tuna, which is hearty enough to stand up to strong Spanish flavors, is particularly popular on the Iberian Peninsula. Dusted with paprika and served atop a sauce of tomatoes with bell peppers and ham, the kebabs make outstanding summertime eating. Pour a Spanish Rioja throughout, and present a caramel flan with berries to finish.
- Yield
- Serves 6
- 18 small red-skinned potatoes
- 2 1/2 pounds ahi tuna, cut into 1 1/2 x 1 x 1-inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons sweet paprika
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 12 skewers
- 2 cups hickory smoke chips, soaked in water 30 minutes, drained
- Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain. Cool completely.
- Cut potatoes in half. Combine potatoes, tuna, paprika and oil in large bowl. Sprinkle with salt. Toss to coat. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.) Alternate potato halves and tuna on skewers.
- Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Place smoke chips in 8 x 6-inch foil packet with open top. Set atop coals 5 minutes before grilling kebabs. Grill kebabs until tuna is just cooked through, turning occasionally, about 8 minutes.
- Spoon Basque Tomato Sauce onto plates. Arrange kebabs atop sauce; serve.


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Stare Miasto, Krakow
Stare Miasto or the old town of Krakow is the most famous district of Krakow, it includes the Wawel Castle Hill, the Main Market Square and the Krakow Barbican. A must do in the area is to take a walk down the Royal Route that enters the area from Barbican in the north and leads its way up to the Wawel through the Floriańska Street. Floriańska Street is the most well-known high street in the city with plenty of shops, cafes and bars scattered all over the medieval buildings.
0.2 km
Czartoryski Museum
0.2 km
Florianska Street
0.3 km
St. Mary´s Basilica
0.3 km
Main Square
0.3 km
Krakow Barbican
0.5 km
Planty Park
1 km
Church of St. Francis of Assisi
1.1 km
National Museum
1.1 km
St. Andrew's Church
1.1 km
1.6 km
Old Synagogue
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- Customer service before, during and after your stay
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- Real-time booking with automatic email confirmation


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Our work environment is unmatched with our kind, caring faculty staff. BRIA Health Services is truly a great place to work.
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an addendum, at one-year intervals, of your interest to remain an active candidate for employment. Falsification of information or failure to
fully disclose information may result in the rejection of the application or dismissal if you become employed. All previous arrests,
convictions or misdemeanors will be looked into before any position may be agreed upon.
BRIA Health Services does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, gender, religion,
disability, age, veteran status, or citizenship status (except in those special circumstances permitted or mandated by law ). All positions
require a pre-employment criminal background investigation and employer/professional reference check. Some positions additionally require a motor
vehicle record search, credit history, and drug screen.
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opportunity protections. To view the "EEO is the Law" poster,
please click this link. EEO Is The Law
If you have a disability and need accommodations, please contact us at: BRIA Health Services HR Department.
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Guests of the 2018 Emerald Coast Cattle Barons Ball will enjoy a unique, upscale event complete with live entertainment, dinner, dancing, auctions and other special attractions including: [sample schedule of events]
For more than a 100 years, The American Cancer Society has been leading the fight to end cancer. With your support, we have helped usher in an era where more people survive cancer than ever before. By translating our research findings into action, we've seen a 20% decline in US cancer death rates since the early 1990s.
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Undefeated NC Fillies Trounce Cheyenne East
As State Basketball kicks off, the NC girls continue to remain undefeated, as they picked off Cheyenne East with relative ease, beating them 64-36. Despite the score, it was a hard fought win, and the Cheyenne East girls have nothing to be ashamed of. The Fillies, however, have everything to be proud of. They worked hard, they played hard, and they won…hard. To see pics from the game, check out Am1400espn.com


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A next-generation guided ammunition system for intercepting enemy fire that Lockheed Martin is developing for the Army has hit its targets in an initial series of tests by the company. Lockheed's Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) hit-to-kill interceptor is a ground-mounted gun system meant to stop and destroy enemy rockets, artillery shells, and mortars by tracking fired targets before they reach their intended mark.
The weapon -- which has a 360-degree range of protection -- represents a new direction in anti-artillery fire aimed at keeping Army ground forces safe from enemy weapons after they are launched, a capability that is currently limited, according to the Army.
During recent tests, the EAPS system's fire control sensors were able to track targets for a full target engagement sequence, from launch of an enemy projectile to a simulated launch of an EAPS missile to interception of the enemy weapon, according to Lockheed.
The company collaborated with the US Army Research Development & Engineering Command/Aviation Missile Research Development & Engineering Center (AMRDEC) to conduct the tests, which demonstrated the system's ability to track and intercept an enemy weapon from the time it's been launched during its entire trajectory. "The data collected is being analyzed so that the program learns as much as possible and we can incorporate improvements and changes where needed," said Loretta Painter, AMRDEC EAPS program director, in a press statement.
Lockheed has designed the EAPS system to be small and agile. Its interceptors, or bullets, weigh about 3kg and are less than 50mm in diameter and less than 1m long. In addition to the interceptor, the system also features a radar-sensing system for tracking its targets. The system was also built to be modular, supporting existing and multiple launchers and fire control sensors that the Army already has been using.
Affordability is also a key design goal for the system, which Lockheed said will meet the AMRDEC's goals for average unit production costs at specified quantities. The initial series of EAPS tests is a precursor to several more Integrated Demonstration flight tests of the system Lockheed has scheduled, including a non-targeted test flight later this month and several guided flights against tactical targets later in the summer.
Related posts:
- 'Ironman' Ammunition Carrier Lightens Soldiers' Loads
- Military Designs Artillery Shells With Reactive Materials
- Army Concept Vehicle Can Double as Electricity Generator
- Robotic Bugs Tested for Tactical Operations
- Navy Eyes Unmanned Vehicles for Dangerous Missions
- Uniform Would Detect Wounds on the Battlefield


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After many delays, Windows Home Server (WHS) Power Pack 1 (PP1) finally hit the RTM milestone (build 1800) last month. That was only the English version, and now there are three more languages of PP1 available: French, German, and Spanish. This means French, German, and Spanish users can get support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup Home Server Shared Folders, and get improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption, improved performance, and the long-awaited file corruption bug fix.
Users who have "Update Now…" enabled in the Settings tab of the Windows Home Server Console will receive the PP1 update (for English, German, French and Spanish) via Windows Update on August 12, 2008 (Patch Tuesday). The Chinese and Japanese versions are also expected to arrive this month, and the team says that it has just "signed off on the Japanese language build and the 3 Chinese language builds" (Simplified, Chinese Traditional, and Chinese Traditional Hong Kong).
More information regarding PP1 is available on the WHS homepage. If you have questions on PP1, post in the comments below or use the WHS forums.
Further reading:
- Microsoft: German, French and Spanish ... (oh my)


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Fresh Décor and Project Ideas
Energize your home with these fresh décor ideas! Easter marks the start of spring, a time of regrowth from the long winter months where flowers are in full bloom, temperatures begin to warm up, and the days are filled with more daylight, fun and laughter. Whether you're looking for an inspiring craft for your little one or some inspiration to set the perfect Easter table, these DIY decorating ideas and projects will invigorate your home as well as help you enjoy the wonderful Easter holiday.
Easter Eggs:
For more Easter inspiration, head on over to our Easter Decor & Projects Pinterest Board!


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Interested in Language
Dear Teachers / Moderators
Could the Instant Mail Notification be modified such that when a user has selected INSTANT MAIL NOTIFICATION, it remains unchanged unless the user reset it.
I often forget to click on the above button before posting
Furthermore, the choice, once selected, moves easily so that the choice is changed as I move the cursor.
Other forums have this 'permanent' feature.
I hope my request could be implemented for the benefit of other users as well.
I thank you very much.
I hope this forum will expand with more and more members.
With best regards
You can set that in Default Thread Subscription Mode in the User Control Panel.


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It feels like a new DAC comes out every day. For $4000 I would expect this DAC to look nice and sound pretty good but why do I have to spend that much? And what is so new about this DAC? They pretty much say it uses the sabre chip to do most everything. Doesn't the Wyred for Sound DAC use the same chip and cost 70% less? I like that they galvonically isolate things, but I would expect that from any electronic device that's sensitive to electrical fields. I get it these guys worked at ESS and perhaps there is something going on besides getting a good deal on the DAC chips. But that OLED display, and the fine metal work, etc., that all costs money and does nothing for the sound. And what are their jitter numbers? Unless I see jitter numbers I can't really compare this to other DAC's that are designed to minimize jitter. They spent a lot of time on their webiste with technical nuances about quantization noise and op amps, but nothing on jitter, as far as I can tell. And I have to say there is something too artificial about upsampling to 50MHZ, and give me some latitude here, but I'm starting to think that too much processing is taking things in the wrong direction. I think the love of vinyl, still very strange to me, is about minimal processing, and the fact that minimal provides a clearer picture of the original intent. I'm strill trying to understand the argument that 44khz is all we ever need since it's twice the Nyquist frequency. What advantage do we get with 32 bit processing - and "processing" is the important word here - and 50MHZ upsampling if it takes us further from the truth? Big questions, I know, but I'm trying to make sense of everything that's new, or is it just a version of what we already have which still has a long way to go before it sounds analog.
Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC
Input: Asynchronous USB, (2) BNC, AES/EBU, Toslink, SD Card reader (supports AIFF and WAV files on SD and SDHC cards)
Output: (1) pair RCA line level pre-outputs (controlled by volume) (1) pair XLR pre-outputs (controlled by volume), Toslink, HDMI video output. (2) headphone out
Dimensions (W x H x D): 22.0cm x 5.0cm x 11.10cm (8.66" x 1.97" x 11.10")
Weight: 2.9kg (6.4 lbs)
User Manual: download
Availability: Direct and through Authorized Dealers
Warranty: "We warranty the Invicta hardware to be free from defects in workmanship and materials for three years." Details
Price: $3,995.00
Website: www.resonessencelabs.com
Megahertz Tickles
The Invicta DAC is the first product from Resonessence Labs. The main man behind Resonnessence is Mark Mallinson, former Operations Director for ESS Technology and if you know about ESS Technology you'll know they make, among other things, the line of ESS Sabre DACs that you find inside a number of DACs from companies including Peachtree Audio, Weiss, Wavelength Audio, Wyred 4 Sound, Mytek Digital and many more. And now you can also find them inside the Resonessence Labs Invicta.
I don't think it's necessarily a stretch to suggest that people who worked on designing and developing a DAC chip would know pretty much everything there is to know about how that chip works as well as any strengths and weaknesses it may posses. On the other hand, I do think its a stretch to suggest that any DAC built with a specific chip is necessarily "the best" simply because it uses that chip. If you prefer an analogy, you can give Anthony Bourdain and I the exact same ingredients to make a meal and I know where I'd eat (hint: not my house). Yes, even if I know more about one of the ingredients. But to get back to what I consider the germane point, a number of the people responsible for the ESS Sabre chips are also responsible for the Invicta DAC.
What Makes Invicta Tick?
Let's start out by pointing out three unusual features of the Invicta DAC—a front-mounted SD Card reader and a rear-mounted HDMI output. These two are in fact related in that you can play music from an SD card (WAV or FLAC format on SD and SDHC cards), and you navigate its contents through the front panel display or on a big-ass monitor (actually the size is up to you. I was just having fun) connected to the Invicta via an HDMI cable.
And the third? From the Invicta User Guide which I highly recommend reading under the "Digital Input" section, "Invicta accepts only uncompressed stereo data and mutes in the presence of compressed data." It mutes in the presence of compressed data! My first reaction was wow, good for you! But then I tried playing some compressed music via Toslink and it...played. It turns out this restriction is limited to the SD Card reader which will in fact refuse to play compressed music even if you ask nicely.
I should mention that some parts of the Invicta User Guide are out of date. For example the section that describes how to go about Firmware Updates begins with, "1. Connect the power cord to the unit and a USB cable to the MSWindows computer." Mac users do what? Firmware updates are now handled through the SD Card—download the update to your PC or Mac, copy it to the SD Card and "play" it on the Invitca. Mark Mailinson not only offered this correction but assured me that updates are forthcoming.
In terms of inputs we're looking at a "proprietary" Asynchronous USB interface (the USB receiver chip is from Cypress Semiconductor), (2) S/PDIF BNC, AES/EBU and Toslink all capable of handling up to 24-bit/192kHz data. There's another BNC input which is currently reserved for future use. Another aspect of the Invicta design that's worth noting is that Async USB input auto-detects what its connected to. If the answer it gets back is a Mac, the Invicta defaults to outputting USB 2.0 (supports up to 24/192). If the answer is PC, it defaults to USB 1.0 (supports up to 24/96) unless and until you install the included custom Thesycon USB Audio 2.0 Driver for Windows. I'd imagine the idea here is for those users who don't want to mess with installing drivers, the Invicta is plug and play and if the day ever comes when Microsoft decides to join the 21st Century, the Invicta is ready and waiting.
Another feature and option that some may find worth exploring is those two BNC inputs can be reprogrammed as outputs or for "Word Sync, Clock and Data" if you'd like to use an external Word Clock. And the HDMI connector "is also there for a future upgrade, at the hardware level it can do any of these features: I2S over HDMI, HD OSD output, even ultimately HDMI Audio input. Currently it does none of these, because our software team have not yet completed firmware/software for these features to our satisfaction." Resonessence also encourages users to send in requests for additional functionality.
Outputs include pairs of balanced XLRs, single-ended RCAs and a single S/PDIF Toslink that outputs the SD Card or USB inputs in digital format. There are also not one but two headphone jacks around front with individual "trim level" controls meaning you can adjust the level down from the main volume setting to match the sensitivity of your cans and you can save these levels in the User Settings. To set headphone input levels, depress the associated button above the headphone jack and spin the volume knob. Nice and easy and perhaps the perfect solution for headphone loving lovers. A couple that listens together listens together.
The front panel OLED display shows you the output level (0.0 to -127.5db), input source, source selection option menu, and user settings. User settings include left and right channel phase, startup source, startup volume level for the XLR outputs, headphone A and B offset, max volume level, OLED and LED brightness levels, USB speed setting, and oversampling filter type. This last option allows you to choose between a fast or slow roll off filter and I'd recommend using the one you like listening to best.
There are also a series of blue LEDs on the right side illuminating the associated incoming sample rate. And now's as good a time as any to mention the build quality of the Invicta DAC which I find to be fairly exceptional especially in a tactile way. It feels good to use. Obvious care (and expense) went into the industrial design and I use that term to highlight design that conforms to function as opposed to design that conforms to fashion. Of course this also falls into the highly subjective arena of taste in terms of how much you cozy up to the looks of the Invicta. I find it inviting with a "use me" kinda vibe. Something I did not use but you could since its available—you can control the USB input's track selection (play/pause, fast forward/next, rewind/back) with the front panel controls or the remote. I preferred Apple's free Remote app for the iPad.
Back to more binary matters, the DAC in the output stage is the ESS Sabre ES9018 (in quad mode), while the headphones get their own dedicated ES9016 DAC. But what about the outgoing sample rate? I'm glad you asked! From the Invicta website:
The Invicta DAC brings all source content from its native sampling rate up to the 50MHz domain. This step is completed in the Sabre32 chip.Megahertz. And the reason for this relatively stratospheric level? I like to think of upsampling as a pasture; the higher the same rate, the more room to separate the good from the bad. But I tend to oversimplify so I asked Resonessence Labs President Mark Mallinson to explain. Here's what he had to say (I thought it worth including the entire response):
The Invicta uses the Sabre DAC (in fact there are two Sabre DAC chips in each Invicta unit) and the Sabre DAC takes care of the oversampling. The question of oversampling is a legitimate and meaningful one since audiophiles have correctly concluded that processes of oversampling can often introduce a perceptible degradation. Oversampling can be simplistic and not mathematically sound, although such a simple failing is rare in modern DSP processing. But oversampling generally implies an effort on the DAC designer's part to improve performance by questionable means - by moving noise out of band and perhaps by "noise shaping".While we're hanging out in tech-ville, let's cover another aspect of the Invicta's design—galvanic isolation. From the Resonessence website, "Galvanic isolation is more than just separate [power] supplies: it is separate grounds as well, and it prevents any unwanted current flow causing a ground drop. Signals pass over specific isolation devices between these galvanic domains and noise in one domain simply cannot affect another domain because the return current is in the domain where the noise is generated." The USB cable's power is also galvanically isolated from the system and audio power supplies. If you prefer, think of galvanic isolation as a grazing pasture where you want to keep the water supply separate from the waste runoff otherwise you end up with crappy tasting water.
The audio community is rightly suspicious of oversampling (i.e note-NOS DACs. NOS means Non-OverSampling). Such oversampling DACs can sound worse despite measuring very well in conventional lab tests. But it is not the oversampling as such (at least when oversampling is done mathematically accurately to a very low noise floor), rather it is the dynamics of the noise shaping loop that the audiophile can hear. [It is the non-periodic steady state dynamics that cause the problem - refer to various presentations by ESS technical staff for more details].
The Sabre DAC is unique in that the designers have addressed (and solved) the issue of disturbing non-periodic-steady state noise in the loop. There are a number of patents of ESS in this area - search for all ESS Technology Patents from the Kelowna design center of ESS to find them. Given the absence of non-periodic-steady state noise, is oversampling itself a bad thing?
The answer is no, in fact it is an essential aspect of any high performance DAC. Without oversampling, the filtering of the alias signals present in the music content (there is utterly no way that aliases are not present in digital data - it is a mathematical necessity) has to be done by analog components. And as amazingly well done as analog filters can be, they still cannot come close to a precision digital filter on the oversampled data stream. Remarkably perhaps, it is also a mathematical necessity that even an oversampled data stream has aliases in it.
It works like this: a 44.1khz signal has spurious and unwanted alias signals in the "upper half" - that is from 22.05k up to 44.1k. Any desired signal in the 0 to 20k band carries with it an undesired signal "mirrored" in the 44.1k down to 24.1k band. Sony and Philips, the pioneers in the digital music field knew this, and still put the potential 24.1k alias very close to the maximum 20khz signal. They had to do this to make sure that the digital medium (CD's) could record enough time to hold a vinyl album. This has been a difficulty for all future digital music: in the Sony/Philips proposal a complex analog filter did its best to let through 20k and suppress 24.1k, but you can see that this is not easy! (20k is much too close to 24k). This is where oversampling comes to the aid of the modern audio designer: a good digital oversampling filter can really get in there and let 20k through while pushing 24.1k down to say -110db. Such a filter is present in the Sabre DAC.
But I mentioned that even an oversampled data stream has aliases in it - what about that? The aliases are as in the 44.1k case: the aliases are all counted downward from the sample rate as far as the audio bandwidth. For example, if a 44.1k signal is oversampled to say 176.4k (4x) then aliases are present in the 176.4k down to 156.4k, (176.4k - 20k) even if the oversampling filter is perfect. But you can see that the analog filter is now easier: it must now let through 20k and suppress 156.4k and higher.
The Sabre DAC does more: it samples into the 50Mhz clock domain! Now the alias is from 49.98Mhz to 50Mhz and the analog filter is required to let through 20k and suppress 49Mhz - this is very straight forward and no phase distortion, level imperfection or noise is introduced by such an analog filter: it can be very precise and very simple of the first or second order type (Sony/Philips mandated a 7th order analog filter!). In fact we need to add a little more: the above discussion explained the oversampling from 44.1k to 50Mhz, but of course, modern digital data is sampled up to 192k (or even 384k) and has far more than just 0 - 20k in the audio content: 384Ks/s could capture almost 200k of audio information. You can see that because the Sabre DAC oversamples to a surprising 50MS/s that it can easily handle even 100k (192ks/s) or higher.
The Invicta electronics is well capable of implementing an oversampling in its powerful FPGA digital engines, but it turns out that it does not. Rather the Invicta activates the oversampling filters in the Sabre DAC. They are quite configurable and more than adequate to deliver exceptional performance.
I would also highly recommend reading the pages listed under "Invicta" on the Resonessence website which is something I don't typically recommend but in this case there's real information to sink your teeth into and its presented in a very readable fashion. Here you'll learn about why the Analog Devices AD797 op amp was selected for the preamplifier section (spoiler alert - it sounded best) as well as the reasons behind and justification for the Invicta's digital volume control (hint - it did not sound worse). I would also highly recommend watching "Noise Shaping Sigma Delta Based Dacs" presented by Martin Mallison, CTO, ESS Technology at RMAF 2011 (I asked but I suppose I could have just guessed that Martin and Mark Mallinson are brothers). Within this hour-long presentation you'll get a peek into the technology behind the ESS Sabre DACs, their Hyperstream technology, egg laying, martians and leap years (no joke). I found this hour-long video interesting, informative, and exceptionally entertaining.
Behind every great DAC there's a great DAC
Perhaps you can already tell that beyond the faceplate, specifications, ins and outs, and ultra-upsampling I found the Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC to be a thoroughly good-sounding DAC. And this fact struck me within moments of sitting and listening. This was before I dove into the details of what makes it tick which doesn't discount these important details but it does reinforce what matters most when we talk about any piece of hi-fi gear, which is how much we like listening through it.
And the Invicta DAC hardly sounds like anything at all beyond what you feed it. There's a purity to the overall presentation, from bottom to tippy top (I also noted that notes in the upper registers sounded sweet), from macro movement to micro details and everything in between that just screams music. In other words there was nothing about the Invicta's presentation that distracted from the music. Occasionally I would note something like, "Wow, Ron Carter is so fluid" or "Don Cherry's pocket trumpet lives on a very different plane compared to James Clay's sax" or "damn, Bob Dylan sure is clever". I was thinking about the music, the music making, the space, time and mood of the recording, and to my real delight at times I wasn't thinking about anything at all.
Most of my listening was done through the USB input fed from my MacBook Pro running Pure Music but I also loaded the custom Thesycon USB Audio 2.0 drivers (from the included SD Card) for Windows and spent some time doing PC-listening via JRiver. I also brought up my Shindo Cortese amplifier from my library system to run the Invicta as preamp/DAC and from that experience I'd suggest that if you have a digital-only setup the Invicta can certainly function as a fully musical DAC and preamplifier.
The BNC input also got a workout thanks to the review sample Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 USB-S/PDIF converter along with Toslink sent from my MacBook Pro (and also through the V-Link 192 just for fun) and I generally liked each of them but for simplicity's sake going straight USB makes the most sense to me and the MacBook's Toslink output is limited to 24/96 whereas USB isn't.
As you may already know I do not spend much time listening to headphones but I did spend some time listening through my Audio-Technica ATH-W1000s and I'd apply everything I said so far here as well. Nothing but music, nothing but pleasure unless you find being slapped in the face with the benefits of higher resolution audio to be unpleasant. I compared a CD rip at 16/44.1 to a 24/96 HD Tracks download of Ella & Louis and the distance between me and them was foreshortened dramatically by the greater bit depth and higher sample rate version. I also played a recent vinyl rip at 24/192 to a lossy copy of Rickie Lee Jones' Girl At Her Volcano and while I didn't require any convincing this just reinforced the fact that I'd never pay for a lossy download unless there was absolutely no other way to obtain a particular piece of music.
I do wonder how useful people will find that SD Card reader as a means to play back their music. I copied a bunch of tracks onto one, clicked it in and played 'em but for my way of living and listening, I'd imagine I'd spend 99.99% of my time with the Invicta streaming music from my NAS or listening to Internet radio. Sonically I did not detect any night and day differences and the only thing I did notice was my eagerness to get back to my full music library for extended listening.
On that note I had an exchange with Mark Mallinson about this very subject and his response is worth sharing:
Our decision to include the SD card is based upon our belief that over time this technology will gain a lot of momentum. Shortly we will be implementing the SDXC spec for the card reader. This specification allows cards to reach 2 terabytes in capacity. At these kind of levels you will no longer need a computer or music server in the loop for playback as your entire music library can be stored on the SD card.
A Rave In The Right Direction
Sometimes during the review process listening can feel like work. I know this sounds jaded but I'm not complaining just pointing out the human side of things. And this human never once felt that listening to music through the Invicta DAC was anything but pure pleasure.
There's obviously a lot to like about the Invicta DAC. As a matter of fact I'd be hard pressed to note anything worth criticizing beyond offering up the usual caveat that how much you enjoy how something sounds will ultimately fall onto your ears ideally when listening to your system in your room. Of course there's the question of budget and value, issues and answers that exist in your wallet and between your ears. If I can add any value to this process, its in pointing you to things you may otherwise have missed in your search or on your journey by ideally providing a glimpse into those features and aspects of performance that may tickle your fancy. Sometimes I'll even go a step further.
Which is to say if you're looking for a DAC (and preamp and dual headphone amp) to connect you to your music in a wonderfully transparent and engrossing way, I would point you to the Resonnessence Labs Invicta without reserve or hesitation.
Associated Equipment
Also on hand and in use during the Invicta review: Bladelius USB DAC, Wadia 121Decoding Computer, Wavelength Audio Brick v3, Acoustic Plan DigiMaster DAC
This thing oozes original thinking.
Thanks for the RMAF link, that was very good. Reminds me I've got to check out the others from 2011.
Great review Michael - I enjoyed reading it and found myself in agreement. I had the pleasure of having a pre-production Invicta for review http://www.head-fi.org/t/559407/review-resonessence-labs-invicta-new-high-end-dac-amp-playback-system and I gotta say - this thing is the real deal. In my experience it competes with some of the best digital playback out there, for any price. $4k is certainly a lot of money, but you should see (and hear!) some of the wacky stuff that passes for $9k or $14k DACs or CD players these days.... Browse the digital section of Audiogon and you'll see a bunch of them, still overpriced at half off.
In my mind the Invicta stands with an elite few (Meitner, Anedio, Weiss, Berkeley) who do digital true justice without going bonkers in terms of price.
I watched the presentation given by Martin Mallison and read the 70 page user guide. The user guide is pretty over the top considering its length and did not give specific jitter numbers or expand really at all on the type of precision clock they're using, and whether or not they use multiple clocks. I'm also utterly lost as to the reason Martin calls them Sigma Delta DAC's instead of Delta Sigma DAC's. I thought the latter was the acceptable naming convention? I must have missed where he explained the name change. Great article on the MSB website about how DAC's work, which discusses Delta Sigma DAC's - http://www.msbtech.com/support/How_DACs_Work.php?Page=supportHome
I see they're using the Audio Precision Model 2722 to conduct all their measurements. It is my understanding that measuring jitter, typically in the pico second domain, requires equipment like the WaveCrest DTS timing analyzer and the TSC 5120A phase noise analyzer which could give you both period and phase jitter numbers, both important, at least to me.
It seems to me the Invicta engineers went down the path of maximum processing. Oversampling and upsampling do more harm than good in a high resolution system, of course if you have a Delta Sigma DAC there is no option to not oversample. It's my understanding that Delta Sigma DAC's require a filter to reduce the audible effect of DAC errors inherent in the Delta Sigma design. Requiring filters, programmed by engineers with their own biases, is not the best case, and I think that's fairly self-evident.
I've been doing AB testing on a NOS DAC and a 24/192 DAC and the differences are stunning. As soon as you upsample you inject more data into the stream than was there initially - and that has an effect. And that data is a best guess anyway since it didn't exist in the first place. An engineer had to come up with a program to determine how the extra data would be added to the stream. There's just too much room for bias in a system like that. The NOS approach is much cleaner.
But it's true that one Delta Sigma DAC sounds different than another, and of course some of that has to do with materials chosen, but also a not so trivial amount is due to the work done by the design engineers who build programs to execute the upsampling and the filters for oversampling. Take that out of the chain and you get a more accurate result. And making things simpler should lower the cost as well.
It is my contention that $2000 will buy you a complete digital front end, including a computer to serve the music, that performs at least equal, and in many cases far better, than systems costing many mulitples more. I would really like to see a competition evolve that pits overly expensive systems against far less expensive alternatives.
I've got the invicta and used to own the weiss 202 dac as well. In my opinion, the invicta is the better overall dac and thus I sold the weiss. If you buy the invicta, you're not only buying the dac but also the superb pre-amp and the extremely impressive headphone amp. The built-in headphone amp of the weiss 202 is a plus and is only comparable to a $100 dedicated headphone amp while the headphone amp of the invicta is comparable to headphone amps that are in the $1000+ range. The weiss is a brighter dac and sometimes you could hear sibilance if the recording is bad.
The invicta has the brightness better controlled and yet it's detailed. The Weiss has a little more overall resolution and deeper soundstaging with the mid-range a few rows back than the invicta. Therefore, the all-important vocals sounds more distant on the Weiss. The invicta is a slightly warmer dac and a more balance dac than the Weiss. Although Weiss has more body to the sound and the bass is rounder, it's just not as fast, tight and impactful as the invicta.
The invicta dac is the fastest dac I've heard and the bass it produces is the tightest, fastest and very impactful. Yes, $4000 is a lot of money. But with so much the invicta has to offer, I think the pricing is appropriate.
I had also asked someone who owned the invicta about how they liked the dac and they found the invicta more impressive than the antelope zodiac+, calyx dac and the perfect wave dac as well.
Vince, that you?
I did find it better than the Calyx, PWD, and Antelope offerings (although I've never owned the Gold.) From memory I liked it more than the 202 although aural memory is a fickle thing. I agree about the headamp of the Invicta - although the Gilmore acolytes may chafe at the mention of opamps (even an AD797) I thought it performed admirably against most other amps I had in the $500-3000 range excluding the Eddie Current Balancing Act.
I'd also like to mention that in person the fit and finish on this unit is quite good and I have never seen pictures really capture it properly. If and when they get SDXC support and DSD over USB I think they will have an unbeatable product at their price point. The 30-day trial makes it a must-try if you are in the US or Canada.
Listened to the Invicta at RMAF...
This is a very very good product at a reasonable price point for what they are doing. I'd be more inclined to compare it with products at much higher price points.
This DAC sounds great - wish I could afford it.
I think the inclusion of the SDXC feature is the killer feature of the future. I think the Invicta people are a little ahead of the curve, as the high capacity cards don't exist, and won't be at a price people will want to pay anytime soon.
But I can definitely see diching my dedicated music server for a high capacity card holding my entire music library. Love to be able to do it, in fact.
I have one unit at home today for evaluation, and I'm really enjoying it.
However there is a point that is kind of disapointing, which is about future inclusion of DoP support. I've emailed Resonessence:
"Are you planning to include the DSD over PCM (DoP) v1.0 standard on one of the next firmware upgrades for the Invicta DAC?
If so, what's the expected released date?"
Reply from Mark Mallinson:
"We have DSD on the back burner at the moment" "We will address it when it becomes mainstream."
It's a pity. One less step towards "perfection"...
I chafe a little at Mr. Mallinson's "mainstream" connotation in a hobby that's anything but mainstream. "Not invented here" syndrome? Let's hope not.
DSD over PCM is about as new as new gets, still, and there are lots more companies that aren't yet looking into it yet.
"and in a future release we will add DSD over USB and DSD from the SD Card"
Great news for present (yes, I bought my evaluation unit) and future owners of the INVICTA.
If I'm not mistaken The latest Software Release is 4.2.0, gives you Playback of DSF and DFF files via SD card and support for DoP via USB.
Michael, how about a comparison with a well-known DAC that has more or less the very same feature set, such as the Wyred4Sound DAC-2? According to some pundits who had in the past compared the DAC-2 with the Weiss, the W4S seems to have similar sonic characteristics to the Invicta as you had described its sound here. That is, the W4S is smoother, about as detailed and more musical than the Weiss. Just wondering, as such a comparison would be of great benefit to readers who are about to spend their big bucks and would need to make an intelligent choice. I hear BTW, by the time one orders the newer W4S DAC-2, it'll have been substantially upgraded to DSD/DXD and improvements elsewhere. So things are indeed, in flux.
One more thing. There is not a system out there, speaker-based, headphone-based or whatever, that does not benefit dramatically from judicious use of parametric equalization. You don't hear flat; your ears are not flat, your rooms are far from flat, and some good digital players like FIDELIA have Parametric EQ capabilities, as well as at extra cost, headphone module. FIDELIA uses iZotope engine, the same as Amarra's. I'm not sure I can tell the two apart.
No matter how great your DAC and systems are, without you actually hearing what I'm speaking about, a properly equalized system/room, you are not hearing your system anywhere near its best.
Don't be aftaid of using EQ. It's not witchcraft, and as ML has pointed out, everything has been already EQ'd.
Hello Michael,
If one is looking for a great DAC/Preamp to use with a MacMini as a source 90% of the time and can afford up to $4,000, which of these units do you recommend? Of course it is always better to save some bucks if difference is subtle.


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text: Hope you guys can join us on Sunday for this event for Aspins, or Asong Pinoy (formerly askals), and will be hosting the event for PAWS. It's for a good cause, and it'll be lots of fun for animal lovers! Hope to see you there, 3-6pm! Bring your doggies, they'll enjoy it too.


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Enter to win a Silhouette Cameo! Return to Dine & Dish on November 28th for an Exclusive BLACK FRIDAY coupon for Dine & Dish readers from Silhouette America. You won't want to miss it!
Friends!! I'm so excited to share this giveaway with you today because I know over on the Dine & Dish Facebook page so many of you said the Silhouette Cameo is on your holiday wish list! Well, this week I have a fantastic giveaway for you to enter to win a Silhouette Cameo AND I have an announcement about a HUGE Black Friday deal for Dine & Dish readers from Silhouette America!
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Can you imagine all the fun holiday projects and gifts you could create if you won a Silhouette Cameo today? You may remember the quotable artwork I made or the homemade grape jelly labels I posted about, both made using the Silhouette Cameo? Well those projects merely touched the surface of what the Cameo can do!! If you are crafty at all, or a crafty wannabe, you'll want this machine!
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Thanks for entering and good luck!!


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Emily is going to the dentist for the first time! She is not quite sure what to expect until she meets "Tara the Terrific Tooth Fairy". Tara comes to Emily in a dream and explains each step of a first-time dental checkup. In a magical twist, Tara appears at the office where Emily is having her first visit. This book is a delightful way to prepare children for a dental office visit, enhanced by heartwarming characters and adorable illustrations. Read more
About Judi Snyder
Judi Snyder has been a Registered Dental Hygienist for 26 years, working many in a pediatric practice. She has witnessed first-hand the fear of young children in a dental setting and has long dreamed about a book that would help prepare them, in a fun way, for this experience. She is a mother, loving wife and a volunteer in her community. This is her first foray as an author. Read more
Excerpt from the Book
"What will it be like Mommy?" asked Emily...
Read more


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Book Blurb for The Order of Curse-Bound Knights
(book 4 in The Fateful Series)
A dying knight, the infamous Sir Maximilian…
He is saved by a curse. That curse makes him even more dangerous…and he likes it. To him, a new life as a vampire is an appealing thing.
The man who turned him into this great, fearsome warrior tasks him to watch over and protect his mortal daughter, Nadia. But the beautiful Nadia puts Max's skills as a knight to the test, captures his heart, and bewitches him with eyes of emerald green. A power more potent than any magical curse.
Inspired by ballads of Robin Hood, Nadia is a bit too rebellious for her own good. And with a kind heart, she is much too trusting and forgiving for Max's peace of mind, because those attributes get her into a great deal of peril. Deadly creatures surround her—some of them are there to protect her and some want to lure her into a trap—and she has no idea…
But can a knight in shining armor heal a lady's heart when her love for the legend of Robin Hood is used against her?
Author Cheri Schmidt
BioCheri is the bestselling author
of Fateful. Think "The Vampire Diaries meets Jane Austen." Fateful is
followed by Fractured, Forever, and The Order of Curse-Bound Knights.
And she has one other book in another series out entitled, Fair Maiden.
Fateful Series has been a bestseller ever since she published it, and
well over a 150 thousand copies have been downloaded worldwide.
will say that her head is a very crowded place, and she wishes she
could write faster. She will also tell you that if you do not like
glittering fairies, hot vampires with British accents, knights in
shining armor, the dashing Mr. Darcy, girly-girls who wear skirts,
modern-day vigilantes, or large amounts of snogging, then perhaps her
stories are not for you.
Currently she is working on
The Trapping Club, a sequel to Fair Maiden, a contemporary/spy romance
series, and a Steampunk series.


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Must say that this weekend was superb.
On Saturday, we headed out on our maiden voyage in our new boat. Mini-DD and Mr. D fished while I took pictures and listened to my "Boat" playlist CD on the on-board CD player (pretty cool).
We were on the water early and the scenery was just extraordinary.
I can get used to this.
Today, we decided to pick up some steamed seafood from one of the local seafood houses. It was crabs and crawfish abound….
A few days ago, my friend, Pat from Cocoderie (Amy's Dad) made me aware of an old song from Elvis' homage to New Orleans' King Creole. Knowing that I'm a huge fan of 'The King', Pat passed along this song from the movie.
Crawfish, Elvis Presley
I absolutely love this clip. The street scene is so vintage New Orleans and that street basically looks the same today.
Very cool.
I hope you all had as great a weekend as I did.


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Boys of Summer
Bed and Breakfast have an opportunity to see the real "boys of summer", the college athletes that play in the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). The league just wrapped up their season with the Harwich Mariners defeating the Falmouth Commodores for the 2011 Cape League Championship.
As the wooden bats are stowed, the concession stands boarded up, and hundreds of volunteers and fans look forward to next year, another great summer of baseball comes to a close. For the Cape League, this was its 126 season since its' founding in 1885. The league attracts the best of the today's college players who are destined to become the major league baseball stars of tomorrow. In 2010, 217 CCBL alumni were playing in the majors or one in seven of the current major league players spent time honing their skills on Cape Cod.
The ten Cape Cod Baseball League teams cover the Cape, making it easy for visitors to catch a game almost every night of the summer. Teams are located in Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Cotuit, Falmouth, Harwich, Hyannis, Orleans, Wareham, and Yarmouth-Dennis. The Bourne Braves play at the new Doran Park, just six miles from our Sandwich Bed and Breakfast.
If you are a baseball fan, consider the great baseball you can see when you come and stay on Cape Cod. As you plan your next summers vacation, check out the 2012 Cape Cod Baseball League schedule. If you stay with us, I'll take you to cheer for my Bourne Braves who finished out of the money this year but, as in all sports, there is always next year.
Charlie Preus, the Innkeepers Assistant and Wine Steward at the 1750 Inn at Sandwich Center, Sandwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts


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When director Peter Jackson touted the high frame rate of 48 frames per second for his upcoming fantasy epic, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we were understandably excited. However, the reality of the technology had the unexpected consequence of looking too real, as if one were standing on set watching a movie being filmed. While Warner Bros. still believes that 48fps is the way of cinematic future, they're being careful with their first major release by limiting the sites that will screen The Hobbit at the higher frame rate. There is talk of expanding the release of future installments in 48fps dependent on audience reaction. Hit the jump for more.
In response to the criticism of the first look at The Hobbit in 48fps, Jackson came out in defense of the technology. That being said, Variety is reporting that the new footage looks much more polished and less jarring. The footage from CinemaCon was rather raw and hadn't seen any post-production treatment. I was under the impression that the screened footage was the finished product, but perhaps I was misinformed (or this is a smoke screen to temper any doubts).
There was no report of a list of which theaters will feature the 48fps The Hobbit, but it looks like it won't appear in all major cities, at least not initially. While the report goes on to say that, currently, no theaters are ready for the high frame rate presentation, some of them only require a software upgrade that will be available starting in September. Some good news: if audiences respond positively to the 48fps version of The Hobbit, the studio is open to expanding the showings when the other two films in the planned trilogy are released. Fingers crossed that all the bugs have been worked out and we get to see the new wave of cinematic technology from the director of some of the greatest films of all time.
Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, and Stephen Fry, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released on December 14, 2012.


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3-28-2012 Tokyo Dome
Oh, man! Where do I begin!? I still can not believe I made a trip out to Tokyo Japan to watch the Mariners and the Athletics play the 2012 season opener! And while I'm typing this blog entry, I'm still in Japan! Okay, so I guess I should start at the beginning so you can read why I came out to Japan in the first place. Well, for obvious reasons I absolutely love baseball. And I will literally travel to the ends of the earth to watch a baseball game. I've been a Seattle Mariners fan since 1989 but I really don't give a crap who plays. I just want to see some baseball and shag some balls in the bleachers. The reason why I want to shag baseballs is because I have a new charity I've managed to put together with the help of the Seattle Humane Society called Snagging Baseballs for Puppies. I'm not going to get into full detail of how my charity got started or why I do it because I have so much to blog about.
So there I am at the Sea-tac airport. I took a quick flight to Los Angeles which eventually I'd take a connecting flight to Narita International Airport outside of Tokyo about 80km. Tokyo has an airport (which would have made this trip way less stressful if I landed there) but its way more expensive and pretty hard to get a flight in. So I had to settle for Narita. Which was fine. Here comes the interesting part. While I was sitting in LAX minding my own business and chowing down on some outrageously overpriced cheese sticks, I realized I had left my baseball tickets to the game in Tokyo at home. I sat there for a moment in complete awe of how stupid I could be. I didn't bother to search my bags because I knew where I had left them. I didn't want to panic either because that never accomplished anything. I immediately sent a tweet out to the Mariners on Twitter and asked if anyone had an extra ticket lying around that they could leave at will call or something. I knew it would be a long shot and to be honest, I really wasn't counting on them to come through like that. I jumped on the phone and called the Mariners ticketing office and explained the crisis. After being put on hold several times, the end result was unless I could come up with some kind of conformation number from whoever I bought the tickets through, there was little they could do. Still not in panic mode. I figured I'd buy a ticket from a someone on the street once I got there or I'd just sight see for several days. On the other hand, I really didn't want to go to Tokyo Japan unless I was more or less guaranteed a ticket to the game. After sitting around and not really knowing what I was going to do, another person from the Mariners staff called me. She explained that there wasn't much they could do and I nearly cut her off and told her I understand blah blah. But that little nagging voice in my head told me to let her finish.
It was probably a good thing too because we actually made some headway on the ticket crisis issue. I remembered taking a picture of my ticket and posting it on my blog under this blog entry many months ago when the actual ticket arrived in the mail. She requested that I send that picture to her via email and she'd correspond with me through email until the crisis was resolved. So I reluctantly boarded the plane to Japan and waited patiently for 14 hours to get some kind of confirmation from her. When I got to Japan, of course, my cellphone didn't work and I had no way to check my email. I had made a couple of friends that I sat by on the plane over, and I piggy backed off of his wi-fi from his phone to my phone. I checked my email and to my surprise this is what the email said…
Thanks. Glad you had the photo. I'm just waiting for confirmation from my guy in Tokyo that he can leave you a ticket for Wednesday's game. When I get that I'll email you back. Happy travels. Hope the rest of the trip is uneventful, in a good way.
Wow. Just wow. It's like the Mariners staff are into some kind of wizardry to get things done for their fans. And just on a side note, when I was going to Cardinals games at Busch Stadium, the staff there treated their fans like absolute crap. It is the complete opposite at Safeco Field. Yeah, sure. I get into the occasional run-in with security, but that's because I'm having fun. And security doesn't want anyone having fun.
I immediately email her back and told her how much I appreciate her help and how much I appreciate her handling this situation and then I get this email…
The ticket will be at will call (under Gate 22, near Vicky's restaurant). Hope that makes sense when you get to the Tokyo Dome have fun.
Holy. Crap. It went from "there isn't a whole lot we can do…" to THIS! I was literally jumping around my hotel room when I saw this email! Like, how do they do these kinds of things?! I'm thinking the Mariners staff are some kind of mafia. Like, all they had to do was pick up the phone, call some dude in Tokyo Japan and be like, "Hey. I got some guy that bought a ticket and left it at home. I don't think I need to explain further." and they're all, "Oh, of course! Already taken care of!"
Oh, and by the way. Here are some things I learned very quickly about Japan. Well, at least in the area I'm staying in. It's a town or a city or a province or a neighborhood or whatever they call it, called Ueno. It's a 10 minute walk to the Tokyo Dome and a short 2-4 kilometers from every other major tourist attraction like the Tsukiji Market, the Sony Building, and the Ginza Brand Street. All worth seeing. Taxi drivers are almost useless. Very few actually can read a map and many have very limited english vocabulary. On top of that, they're very expensive. Use as a last resort. Also, don't rely on other Americans to help you out. They're about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. At least the ones that I encountered. Some guy walked up to me while I had my face stuck in a map and asked me where I was trying to go. I told him the name of my hotel and this was after I had spent ten minutes trying to explain where I needed to go to about 14 different cab drivers. You could imagine how irritated I was at this point. He insisted that Japanese people can understand english. They just can't speak english. Or they'd rather speak Japanese instead because they're too embarrassed that their english sucks. Or something like that. Anyway. They guy was a complete jerk, he kept interrupting me when I was trying to explain that his logic was flawed…finally I just stared at him until he told me "good luck" and walked away.
When I got to my hotel room it was about 1am Tokyo time so it was immediately lights out for me. When I woke up the next day it would be about 13 hours before opening day and about nine hours before I'd be at the Tokyo Dome. I spent the good part of the morning dinking around in my hotel room, trying to figure things out like the air conditioner heater thingy in the corner of the room. I got it to turn on but it kept turning off and then back on. It was weird but whatever. Tv was extra yen and breakfast wasn't free either. So I decided to grab an egg mcmuffin at McDonalds around the corner because there was literally nothing open until about 11am. Yeah, how American of me. Eating at McDonalds in a country that serves squid and octopus and clams and anything else you can think up. And I eat an egg Mcmuffin. After my breakfast, I ventured out in search of the Tokyo Dome. Side note; the Tokyo Dome will be my 14th stadium at which I snag a Major League baseball, providing I get inside in-time for BP and all that other junk. Here are some random pictures I took of Ueno and Tokyo as I walked towards the Dome:
Here is another random picture of some shrine I passed by…
…and then a random vending machine full of drinks:
These vending machines are everywhere, by the way. As I continued walking towards Tokyo I could start to see the amusement park rides peeking over the tops of some skyscrapers. The Tokyo Dome area is actually called, Tokyo Dome City and it really is a city inside of a city. I was supposed to meet up with Zack Hample at the dome closer to the late afternoon so I had plenty of time to explore the surrounding area. Here's a picture of the Tokyo Dome City peeking out:
And here is the Tokyo Dome in full view:
This thing is gigantic, to say the least. They call it the "Big Egg" and for good reason. From the air it resembles a giant egg. Naturally, I couldn't get a picture of it from the sky so you'll just have to take my word for it. Remember how I said that the Tokyo Dome is like a little city? Well, here is further proof:
This is the shopping district. They have a Starbucks, a bunch of Japanese shops, great places to eat and this:
Yup! Even an Eddie Bauer! I didn't bother to go inside because, well, I wasn't too interested in it. What I was interested in was eating some food! I stopped at this place to try what they had on their menu:
I didn't get anything really off the wall like a plate of squid or live octopus tentacles. I ordered a very delicious plate of chicken and penne pasta in tomato sauce with parmesan cheese. And it was awesome! Here, take a look…
…doesn't that look fantastic? I'm telling you. It was so good I wanted to order another. It cost about 1,000 yen which is about, what, ten bucks in USD? It was so worth it, though. Also, another side note. Yen goes fast in Japan. Especially Tokyo. It's very expensive to buy things in this city so it's best to try to be frugal if you're going to stay for a long period of time.
I did a little bit more window shopping and then I finally met up with Zack Hample. Zack is known for snagging over 5,000 baseballs over a span of like, twenty years. I expected him to have a good couple of days at the Tokyo Dome because from what I saw in pictures from the Mariners, the Tokyo Dome is virtually pretty much open to run around in. Other than the high walls in the outfield, it seems like a great stadium to ballhawk in. I could be wrong though. I haven't ever been inside the stadium but my opportunity was right around the corner.
Zack and I did a little catching up inside a restaurant while he got something to eat and then soon after if was back to exploring and taking pictures. Here are a couple random pictures around the Tokyo Dome:
Here's one more of a statue of the coach for the Tokyo Giants outside a sports memorabilia store that sold everything regarding Japanese players and Yu Darvish:
Like Ichiro, Yu Darvish is huge in Japan too. For obvious reasons. Alright, so back to the ticket crisis for a moment. When Zack and I parted ways to go get into our respective lines to enter the stadium, I was without a ticket, right? And in that email it said to go to will call which was located under gate 22. I wasn't quite sure where "under gate 22" was located and with a huge disadvantage with the language barrier, it made things extra tough. I talked to multiple guards and asked them if they spoke english before I engaged in conversation to explain my dilemma. My major response? "Let me see your ticket!" I tried very hard to explain that the Tokyo Dome was in possession of my ticket. But to no avail…until a Japanese/American that spoke fluent english overheard my problem. He became my translator and my new best friend. After about five minutes of going back and forth with the security guard, I was instructed to go see a ticket booth located in the court-yard. When I went over there I had to explain my problem all over again to the ticket booth window girl who didn't speak english either. Somehow she understood what I was telling and she literally walked me to the area underneath gate 22. It was all making sense now. And to make things even better, she brought me to a guard that spoke english as well. So I explained the whole situation and he explained that they'd have a ticket ready for me….at 6pm. GAH! The Gates opened at 4pm to the Tokyo Dome and I pleaded to the guard that I needed to get in sooner than 6pm. I needed to get inside at 4pm! I could not miss batting practice! The guard kind of just shrugged at me and told me to come back at 6pm. If I did come back at 6pm, would I have to explain the whole situation again to someone else that didn't speak english? I mean, what was going to happen? Chances are I'd have to go see another ticket booth and explain the whole fiasco again and again, losing valuable time inside. I decided to wait it out.
I walked back to gate 11 where Zack was sitting and explained to him what had happened. Zack was a little more prepared that I was, apparently. He busted out an extra ticket and told me he wanted the ticket stub back in pristine condition. I happily obliged and thanked him. The reason why Zack had two tickets was because like a few stadiums in the United States like Dodger Stadium and Wrigley, you need a ticket to get into the lower seating bowl and the outfield. The Tokyo Dome may have worked the same way. We wouldn't know anything until we got inside. My plan was this, though; I'd go inside with Zack's ticket, pass it off to him once inside, attending batting practice, leave at 6pm, go seek out my will call ticket, re-enter, and watch the game. It seemed solid. But I was concerned about thing. What if I couldn't get back inside? What if when I explained my situation to someone who didn't speak english, I'd be forever locked outside? I wanted to see at least one baseball game in the Tokyo Dome. And why leave when I'm already inside? My mentality was I'd just cross that bridge when I had to. Not force myself to cross it prematurely. So I stayed inside. I also want to state that my deepest gratitude goes out to the Mariners staff that worked hard to get my ticket to will call. I will never forget this trip.
When the gates opened up, I had a ticket to gate 22. Zack's ticket was to gate 11. And since we were at gate 11, I wasn't sure if I'd even gain access to the stadium from this gate. They might make me walk all the way around to gate 22. Here's two photos of the line. This is in front of us…
…and this is behind us…
…and when the gates opened, we had to have our bags checked and we had to have our persons searched with a metal detector. They required all keys, wallets, cellphones and lighters to be placed either in your personal bag or a clear plastic bag so they could view the contents. It was truly the security from hell. And when I showed the guard my ticket, he started explaining to me that I couldn't enter here and blah blah and I continued to say things like "I'm sorry, I didn't know." and "I won't do it again, I'll go in and walk around." and that seemed to have done the trick! He let me inside and Zack and I were off towards left field!
I wasn't sure how security would react to two crazy America boys running amuck in the Tokyo Dome snagging baseballs, but I didn't care! Here we were inside the Tokyo Dome snagging baseballs in Tokyo Japan! And my first baseball game from Johnny Gomes!
unfortunately, it wasn't one of those fancy commemorative Japan baseballs I've been hoping to get and it wasn't the first baseball of the 2012 season either. Zack had snagged a baseball moments prior to my Johnny Gomes toss-up. So props to Zack for snagging the first baseball of the 2012 Major League Baseball season! And props to me for snagging the second! Zack and I decided to stay out of each others way during BP, and I knew he'd put up strong numbers. My whole goal was to snag at least two baseballs a game and attend 50 games this season. I thought about trying to snag three a game which would give me a total of 150 on the season but I wanted to keep it simple this season. Last year, I snagged a total of 135 baseballs and the year before that I snagged a total of 87. So to snag 150 baseballs this season would be awesome, indeed. And it sure would help my charity. But it's all good. I want to have fun and not really stress about numbers this year, anyway.
The thing about the Tokyo Dome is this; it's really easy to catch baseballs here. I mean, really easy. And the security guards that roam the bleachers like this guy…
…has a whistle and every time a baseball comes within his vicinity of the bleachers, he starts blowing on that thing like no tomorrow. And then all his other security guard buddies start doing the same. So even if you don't see the baseball initially off the bat of the player that hit it, you can bet one is coming your way when the security guard of your section starts blowing his whistle. The downside to all of this is, if you physically catch one of these baseballs that's hit into the stands, that security guard that was blowing on his whistle will come down and take the baseball away from you and throw it back onto the field. But any player that throws a baseball to you, you get to keep. Make sense? And Zack had to find all of this out the hard way when he caught a baseball and the guard snatched it right from his grip! Zack put up quite a fight about it, too. And I just stood by laughing.
I got a chance to ask Jerry Blevins how spring training went for him and he kind of shook his hand in response at me. "It was alright, I guess. I feel pretty good." he finally said. Jerry Blevins is one of my favorites just because he's so nice to fans and so goofy on the field some times.
There were a few things I wanted to accomplish at the Tokyo Dome while I was there. The first thing was to get a toss-up from a player that I've never received a toss-up from before. Be it come from the Athletics or the Mariners, I didn't really care. Another thing I wanted to accomplish was reach my two ball minimum snagging goal. Which at this point I was just one more ball away from accomplishing that. The third thing on my list was to get Felix Hernandez to toss me a baseball. But since he was starting tonight, that wasn't going to happen. I also wanted to get Shawn Kelley to toss me a baseball as well. I had plenty of opportunity to snag some home run baseballs, but the reason why I really didn't pursue them that hard was because I didn't want it to turn out to be a commemorative baseball and then one of those pesky guards takes it away from me. I'd be pissed! So I left the majority of the home run baseballs alone. I figured Major League teams don't come to Japan very often, and some of these other local fans would probably like to make a few catches. Have at it, I say!
When the Mariners finally came onto the field as the Athletics were finishing up their portion of batting practice, I made my way over to the foul line to watch:
I was pretty excited to see the Mariners for the first time this season. I'm not going to lie. Tom was there, Charlie, Brandon, Coach Navarro (even though he hates me) and Shawn were all lining up to play long toss and warm up. It was a sight to see!
I tried to get one of the Mariners attention to toss me a baseball, but I was out of range. I was too deep in the stands and the Tokyo Dome really isn't like the US stadiums. The stairs don't allow for maximum height to see over the row in front of you and there is pesky netting that covers most of foul ground to keep fans that aren't paying any attention to batted baseballs, safe. I immediately took off and ran the concourse to set up in right center field. I saw Shawn Kelley and a few other players wander out that way, so I followed suit.
Here's a quick picture I took of Charlie Furbush and Tom Wilhelmson:
I kept track of the time because I had about an hour to catch my second baseball. I wanted to get it done and finally sit down too. My feet were killing me from walking around Tokyo all day. When I finally found my spot out in right center, I called to Shawn and George every time they caught a baseball. At one point, I climbed down to about the third row, made eye contact with Shawn, flapped my glove at him, called his name, and asked politely for the baseball. I was shocked when he didn't toss it my way. I mean, a white guy in a foreign land asking for a baseball from another white guy? I thought it was the perfect secret weapon. Apparently not. But I was cool with it because I had all season to get a baseball from Shawn Kelley. And eventually it would happen. Maybe not in Tokyo and maybe not even in Seattle.
Over the PA system in the Dome they announced that Mariners batting practice was going to end in about five minutes. I was still without my second baseball at this point. I noticed Zack had scored a baseball from Jesus Montero fairly easily. It was time to switch gears and go after the rookie. I climbed through the rows and found my opportunity. Montero had thrown about five or six baseballs into the crowd at this point, so I thought my chances were pretty slim. I called to Montero like nobodies business! "JEEESSSUUUUSSSS!!!" I yelled. He looked through the crowd and I was jumping up and down in the row waving my arms like a wild man! He gave me one of those quirky little smirks and then reared back his arm to launch the baseball. I wasn't sure if he was going to air mail me or throw it right to me, so I took a step back in anticipation for a high throw. The ball sailed my way…
…and the ball landed snuggly into my baseball glove! Awesome! I just caught a toss-up from the newly acquired rookie of the Seattle Mariners! I guess that makes things a little bit better about the trade for Pineda to the Yankees.
And that pretty much concluded batting practice. I snagged my two baseballs, and I think Zack snagged like twelve or something like that. It was a pretty successful day here at the Tokyo Dome and now it was time to venture off and find food!
When I hit the concourse, it was so packed it was hard to move around. And Japanese people really don't have one of those space bubble thingies that Americans have. They'll get right up on you and have no problem with it. I really didn't like it much but since I was probably the biggest and most tallest person inside the Tokyo Dome at the time, I really didn't let it bother me. Plus, Japanese people are very honest people. I always worry about being pick pocketed in large crowds but I heard that crime in Japan is virtually non-existent. Well, whatever. I was hungry. Here are some photos of the food concession stands inside the Dome:
And here's a picture of Zack trying to get some food:
We ended up ordering a chicken thingy on a stick. I think it was the only safe thing to really eat there. And of course, a cup of water. It came to about 500 yen which is pretty expensive. There were no water fountains inside the Dome so we had to buy water from the concession stands. That sorta sucked. After we ate, Zack and I started to wander the stadium. We found a stair case that we literally talked our way up since it was being blocked by a security guard. And when we got to the top, we continued to go up even though it looked like we weren't supposed to be up there. And this was the end result:
It was a door that led out to the third deck of the stadium! Haha! Eventually, a security guard came running up to us and told us in hand gestures to come down and find a seat. We didn't get scolded or yelled at or even ejected from the stadium. I was kind of relieved at the fact that nothing happened. The guard didn't even ask for our tickets. And since I didn't technically have one on my person, I could have been in some trouble, I suppose. But it was all in good fun. Here are a few pictures of the Tokyo Dome from that door before the security guard shut us down:
And another:
Pretty awesome, huh..? Yeah, I thought so too.
After that little adventure, the pre-game ceremony was about to start. I took a few pictures of the field as both the Japanese flag and the American flag were brought out onto the field by both respective countries color guard. It was pretty awesome, really.
And finally when the baseball game got under way, Zack and I sort of just wandered the stadium. We sat in various seats and the only time security really hassled us was when we stood for long periods of time. The security inside the Dome is very observant and quick reacting when someone is blocking someone elses view. Which I totally understand having to watch baseball games in America where no one really cares if they're blocking each others view. It was kind of nice. Here are some more various photos from around the stadium:
And one more:
Felix Hernandez threw a pretty good game and so did Brandon McCarthy. Every time Ichiro came up to bat the flash bulbs would start flashing and everyone would go nuts. And since Ichiro went 5-4 on opening night, that was pretty special for Japan. Ichiro seemed to be back in true form which would make this season pretty awesome if he was able to gain over 200 hits again. Dustin Ackley put one in the seats in the fourth inning but the Athletics answered right back with a run of their own. The game eventually went to extra innings with the Mariners winning 3-1 with the help of another Dustin Ackley RBI and Ichiro bashing a single up the middle to score Ackley from second base. The game was exciting and after the game, no one wanted to leave. I guess it being opening day and all…but I wanted to get the hell out of there and get some sleep! I took one last photo and see if maybe you can recognize who they are. Ready?
And then, of course, this blog wouldn't be complete without a few pictures me, right?
Here is a picture of me holding up my Gomes and Montero snags:
That pretty much concludes day one in Japan! Well, actually I've been in country for about a day and a half. At this point, maybe two days. It's been really fun with times of frustration. But that's only because of the language barrier and is definitely expected. Everything I want to see and do is pretty much within walking distance and the food is pretty awesome to try. Tomorrow I plan to wake up early and make it to the fish market. I'm pretty excited about that! So until then…
I'm snagging baseballs for puppies again this season for the Seattle Humane Society! If you want to check out my charity information, just click here!
Last season, with the help of all of you, we were able to raise over $250 dollars! This year I'd like to break $300!
Today's game snagging Highlights: Oakland Athletics Vs. Seattle Mariners- attendance 44,227 Baseballs snagged: two (toss-up from Johnny Gomes and Jesus Montero )
Total baseballs snagged this season: 2
Total baseballs snagged last season: 135
Total dollars raised for Snagging Baseballs for Puppies this season: $1.48
Total dollars raised for Snagging Baseballs for Puppies last season: $257.00
Total number of donors this season: 4
Total number of donors last season: 7
If you'd like to join my official Snagging Baseballs for Puppies Facebook page, just click here! And if you want to like Collection of Baseball on Facebook, click here!


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