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A huge thank you for all your donations towards #ChildrenInNeed, we raised a whopping £108! #togetherwearestronger
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Our Blogs
06/03/2020: Spring has arrived, following interests, position and directions, World Wildlife Day, World Book Day and online safety
28/02/2020: Journey of the Antarctic flag, shrinking puddles, positional language, stories from the library...and lots of pancakes!
13/02/2020: STEAMing ahead with a fabulous activity day!
14/02/20: Days of the Week with Jasper, A visit from a real paramedic, E Safety for National Online Safety Day, STEAM learning and thinking about who we love and why on Valentines Day.
04/02/2020: Celebrating ECO Schools success
07/02/20: Counting and cardinality, African culture and Keeping our minds healthy for Children's Mental Health Week.
31/01/20: Walking Through Antarctica, Engineering, Chinese New Year and feeding the birds during winter
24/01/20: Liketobe scientist friends taking flags to Antarctica, Martin Luther King Jnr fighting for rights, patterns, sequencing and algorithms.
17/01/2020: Back to nursery. Welcoming new friends, Walking Through the Jungle, asking and answering questions, deconstructed role play and re-cycling and up-cycling.
20/12/19: A busy run up to Christmas. Our very own democratic vote, Christmas stories, Christmas lunch, A lovely Christmas concert and a party to remember.
06/12/19: Learning about the traditions of Christmas, decorating our very own tree, concert preparations, rhymes and rhyming and role modelling for our new children
29/11/19: Decorating the South Normanton Church Christmas tree, Learning how to save electricity for switch off fortnight, Online safety, problem solving in the nursery garden and exploring new toys in nursery!
25/11/19: World Nursery Rhyme Week. Sharing our rhymes with the whole world!!
22/11/19: Our Reading Activity Day was a fabulous occasion!
22/11/19: Learning this week. World Nursery Rhyme Week, practising routines and rules to keep us safe and a very special Rights Respecting Promise.
15/11/19: Learning this week. Remembrance Day reflections, Anti- Bullying week and the importance of being friendly, making and delivering decorations for the Postmill in South Normanton, surprise flooding and raising money for BBC Children in Need.
08/11/19: Our first learning of the new term. Bonfire night fun, sounds and safety, recalling our half term experiences, discussing the local flooding and starting to learn about Remembrance Day.
28/10/19: Willow lopping and weaving....What a productive start to half term! Fabulous teamwork and an amazing impact on the nursery garden.
25/10/19: Learning in our final week. Learning about the festival of light, E-safety with a very smart penguin, extending our physical and cooperative skills and practising our counting
18/10/19: This weeks learning. Run, run as fast as you can, counting all sorts of things, safe pathways around the nursery garden and Jackson Pollock poppies
11/10/19: A Mentally Healthy Week at Nursery
04/10/19: This weeks learning. Composting and learning not to be wasteful, adding to our Identity Tree, nursery rhymes and beginning to use words, expressions and signs to show our feelings
27/09/19: This weeks learning. Harvesting, helping the homeless, being re-cycling superheros, celbrating similarities and differences and raining money for MacMillan
20/09/19: This weeks learning. Our right to our identity, keeping safe in nursery and digging out some tyres!
13/09/19: Welcome back to nursery everyone...what a great start to the new year
Time to say goodbye: 19/07/19
Sports Day excitement and some surprizzzzzzze visitors: 03/07/19
An Open Day to celebrate our outstanding nursery: 22/06/19
Farmyard Fun, Nursery trips to Chatsworth Farm Park: 20 & 21/ 06/ 19
Today we were all artists! Creating a nursery art installation for the Ofton Festival: 18/06/19
Heathy Eating Week and our Soccer Aid Playground Challenge to raise money for UNICEF and defend every child's right to play: 14/06/19
Term 6. Week 1. Some of our learning this week: 07/06/19
Term 5. Week 4. Some of our learning this week: 24/06/19
Bidiversity Day: 22/05/19
A Busy Term for Eco Schools: Spring 2019
A Celebration to Remember: 30 Outstanding Years: 01.05.19
The Next Steps for Nursery: 29/04/19
PANTS. Learning about staying safe, keeping our private parts private and respecting the right to privacy - supported by content from NSPCC: 04/19
Charity Fundraising for Comic Relief: 15/03/19
World Book Day. Special Story-tellers and our 'Favourite Book Photo Booth' : 07/03/19
Learning about other cultures and celebrations - Japanese Girls' Day 03/03/19
Pancake Day Antics - Learning about Shrove Tuesday: 05/03/19
Learning about Chinese New Year...the year of the pig: 05/02/19
Healthy Inside and Out. Children's Mental Health Week 2019: 04-10/02/19
Safer Internet Day 2019 - Together for a Better Internet: 05/02/19
RSPB Big Bird Watch Week and helping the birds in winter: January & February 2019
Learning about Martin Luther King Junior - a Rights Respecting Hero: 21/01/19
Remembering a very Merry Christmas and a very sad goodbye: 12/18
A Lantern Parade to remember: 10/12/18
The start of celebrating Christmas with our Christmas Crafts Activity Day: 03/12/18
Learning About St Andrews Day; 30/11/18
PANTS. Learning about staying safe, keeping our private parts private and respecting the right to privacy - supported by content from NSPCC: 30/11/18
World Children's Day 2018: 20/11/18
National Anti-Bullying Week: 19/11/18
Our Rights Respecting Superhero posters will help us with our ongoing learning: 16/11/18
Fudraising for Children in Need and Learning about the Rights of Every Child: 16/11/18
Remembrance Day 2018. One Hundred Years since the end of World War One: 09/11/18
Bonfire Night Celebrations: 05/11/18
Learning about Diwali Celebrations: 08/11/18
A glance at some of this week's learning: 26/10/18
Autumn Harvest Activity Day and a Rights Respecting Promise: 24/10/18
We've had some new signs at nursery: 10/18
National Eye Health Week and the importance of looking after our eyes: 24-30/09/18
Charity Support. Taking part in The World's Biggest Coffee Morning for MacMillan Cancer Research: 28/09/18
New members of the South Normanton Nursery School community and adding to our Identity Tree: 09/19
End of term circus fun with Captain Splat! 18/07/18
Mud is Good. It's International Mud Day; 29/06/18
We could be life savers...even though we're only little. Learning the basics of First Aid with Barry and Flat Stan: 28/06/18
It's HOT, HOT, HOT...and we're all Sun Safe Superstars! 29/06/18
World Cup Fever at Nursery: 29/06/18
Healthy Eating Week, a focus on positive mental health and wellbeing and a Sports Day to remember! 15/06/18
Scoot at nursery day- reinforcing learning about road safety: 23/05/18
Royal Wedding Celebration Day. Getting ready for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: 18/05/18
Another busy week of playing and learning at nursery:18/05/18
A Rainbow Activity Day to celebrate National Children's Day and some of our own very special achievements: 11/05/18
Everyone has a RIGHT to clean water. Learning on World Water Day 2018:22/03/18
Respecting our world by taking part in The Great British Spring Clean 2018: 22/03/18
PANTS & The Underwear Rule. Learning about staying safe, keeping our private parts private and respecting the right to privacy - supported by content from NSPCC: 21/03/18
Learning through Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths for British Science Week 2018: 12-16/03/18
A successful Open Day...Spreading the word about our outstanding nursery school: 10/03/18
World Book Day...snow and potato character fun: 01/03/18
Mixing, whisking, flipping Pancake Fun! 13.02.18
Children's Mental Health Week: 05-09/02/18
Safer Internet Day 2018: 06/02/18
Lots of Learning at Nursery this Week: 02/02/18
We're Adding to our Identity Tree: 28/01/18
An Activity Day to celebrate the New Year...and prepare for Chinese New Year too: 26/01/18
What a busy few weeks: 19/01/18
A Christmas Party to Remember: 19/12/17
What a Wonderful Nativity: 19/12/17
Changes in the nursery garden...we'll be climbing to new heights! 11-15/12/17
Christmas Jumper Day to raise money for Save the Children: 15/12/17
Let It Snow! 11/12/17
Yum! What a Delicious Christmas Dinner: 08/12/17
Family Christmas Craft Experience...and a Special Visitor: 06/12/17
What a Wonderful Lantern Parade: 04/12/17
World Children's Day 20/11/17
National Anti-Bullying Week 13-17/11/17
Poppy Rocks. 'Let's Remember' with the village of South Normanton 10/11/17
Some of this week's learning shared: 03/11/17
The success of 'Food Drop Friday' continues...Helping the homeless in collaboration with Gears of Goodwill: 10/17
Some of our learning this week: 10/11/17
Our learning last week and the start of Christmas celebrations: 01/11/17
This Week's Really Important Learning 13/10/17
Some of last week's important and exciting learning: 20/10/17
We're Adding to Our Identity Tree: 10/2017
World Animal Day: 04/10/17
Taking part in 'The World's Biggest Coffee Morning' and raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support: 29/09/17
Autumn Harvest Activity Day Fun: 26/09/17
Learning and Celebration: International Peace Day: 21/09/17
Our exciting Nursery Open Day...with a very special visitor: 15/07/17
Mud is Good, fun and learning to celebrate International Mud Day: 30/06/17
Everybody has the right to vote...make yours count. Our Nursery General Election: 08/06/17
Wildlife Workshop Fun and Learning: 26/05/17
We Are All Sun-Safe Superheroes! 26/05/17
Learning How to be Fantastic First Aiders with Barry and Flat Stan: 17/05/17
Supporting Your Child's Learning at Home: 14/04/17
PANTS & The Underwear Rule. Learning about staying safe, keeping our private parts private and respecting privacy - supported by content from NSPCC: 05/04/17
An Activity Day Packed with Learning...Respecting Rights and Water. 22/03/17
The Culture and Traditions of St Patrick's Day: 17/03/17
Great British Spring Clean: 06-10/03/17
World Book Day: 02/03/17
Flipping Good Fun on Pancake Day/ Shrove Tuesday: 28/02/17
Learning About Chinese New Year...The Year of the Rooster: 27/01/17
A Special Invite to The South Normanton COOP Re-launch:24/02/17
Our Identity Tree has Some New Additions: 11/02/17
Bring your Scooter to Nursery Day. Learning about scooter skills and road safety:08/02/17
Safer Internet Day 2017: 07/02/17
A Visit from the Police and a Special Vehicle in our Nursery Car Park: 06/02/17
ROAD SAFETY. A visit from Eileen, our Local Crossing Patrol Person: 02/02/17
Continuing Our Friendships with Our International School in Missouri USA. Update: 02/02/17
Our First FOOD DROP FRIDAY. Supporting the homeless people of Derby in collaboration with Gears of Goodwill: 22/09/17
Nursery Trip to the Tropical Butterfly House: 06 and 07/ 07/ 2017
Our Blogs Archive
'Time to Say Goodbye'. An End of Year Musical Extravaganza...Celebrating Outstanding Progress! 24/07/15
Yum Strawberries! Our First Fruit of the Summer.
We are Sun Safe Superstars!
Nursery Trips to the Tropical Butterfly House. 18/06 & 19/06 2015
Wildlife Workshop. 22/05/15
Our Frozen Open Day: 09/05/15
A word from the Head - settling in!
Onwards and Upwards...A New Door Opens.
Spring/ Easter Activity Day: 23/03/15
Re-cycling Walk: 26/02/15
kung hei fat choy - Learning About Chinese New Year: 19/02/15
Mix, Stir, Fry, Toss, Catch...Pancake Day Fun! 17/02/15
'Stranger Danger' and the important job that the police do - A visit from Barry Thacker: 23/01/15
Yum! Jam Tarts...Baking Fun at Nursery
A Visit From Lindsey, A Veterinary Nurse: 16/01/15
It's Cold for Chickens...
Thank You for your Christmas Generosity
Welcome, Welcome back and a Very Special Birthday...
Christmas Party Fun with Santa and Goodbye to our Headteacher Angela 19/12/14
Our Christmas concerts have moved to the next level! 18/12/14
A Visit from Olaf! 12/12/14
Wear a Christmas Jumper to nursery Day...Christmas Cheer with Jazzy Jumpers and Festive Knits! 12/12/14
A Lovely Lantern Parade 08/12/14
Christmas Activity Day and Sensory Room Opening: 03/12/14
South Normanton Lantern Parade Concert Songs
Splash, Drip, Dribble…A Wonderful Water Wall!
Fantastic Fireworks!
Remembrance Day
Tesco Visit (Farm to Fork Project): 24/10/14
Exciting News! Our New Multi-Sensory Room Has Arrived.
Harvest/ Autumn Activity Day: 23/10/14
One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four...
'New Look' Climbing Frame
Microcephaly Awareness Day: 01/10/14
Flowers, Fruit, Veg and a Lick of Paint!
Welcome and Welcome Back
Leavers Concert 2014. Audio Files
Multi-Sensory Room...Coming soon!
Goodbye and Good Luck
Leavers Parties and Concerts: 22/07/14
Anniversary Celebration and Activity Day: 14/07/14
Summer time at Nursery
Fun at the Farm: 26 & 27/ 07/14
Beautiful Butterflies!
New Baby Chicks!
Waiting for Hatch Day
06/06/14: Tesco Farm to Fork Project
Brigg/ Green Staff Visits
Talent Tree
Welcome Back Debra
Wildlife Workshop 2014
Our New Outdoor Sand Pit
Mud is Good!
Nursery Open Day Success!
02/05/14: African Ark
Welcome to Our New Staff
Easter/ Spring Activity Day: 06/04/14
Winter at Nursery
Christmas Activity Day: 12/12/12
Children in Need Fundraising Day: 16/11/12
Half term for our animals too!... 29/10/12
Bear and Giraffe group visit to the library in South Normanton: 10th & 11th/ 10/ 12
Jeans for Genes Activity Day: 05/10/12
Breaking News...Cracker and Lilly: 17/09/12
Arial & Cindy: 10/09/12
Welcome Back: 05/09/12
Olympic Activity Day: July 2012
Nursery Trips to Chatsworth Farm: 28 & 29/ 06/12
Look at our wonderful new stepping stones, plaque and Royal Oak tree: June 2012
Jubilee Activity Day: June 2012
In the Garden: June 2012
Hot, hot, hot! June 2012
Visit from Wildlife Workshop: 22/05/12
Pets: 30/04/12
The chickens are back: 08/03/12
Willow weaving in the nursery garden: 23/02/12
A word from the Head - our new website! 12.10.15
Fun and Learning at the Autumn/ Harvest Activity Day. 22/10/15
Learning About Diwali: 12/11/15
Supporting Children in Need: 13/11/15
Anti-bullying Week:16-20/11/15
Singing in the village...it's nearly Christmas now! 21/11/15
Christmas Craft Activity Day. 03/12/15
Lantern Parade Fun: 07/12/15
Christmas Dinner...Yum! 09/12/15
Text Santa - Charity Fund Raising Day. Wear a Christmas Jumper to Nursery: 11/12/15
How Exciting! A Letter From Santa: 14/12/15
Watching the Tim Peake Space Launch: 15/12/15
Christmas party fun 18/12/15
How Exciting!...We're Hatching Chicks. 20/01/16
Learning About Chinese New Year. Kung Hei Fat Choy: 08/02/16
Safer Internet Day: 09/02/16
World Book Day 2016: 03/03/16
'Guess How Much I Love You' Themed Activity Day: 04/03/16
African Ark: Creative Expression: 16/03/16
Sports Relief:18/03/16
Learning About Saint Patrick's Day: 17/03/16
Orange Phonics group trip to the Library 14/4/16
The Queen is 90!...Happy Birthday Your Majesty. 21/04/16
Learning Through the Story of Monkey Puzzle. 29/04/16
Learning about staying safe, keeping our private parts private - supported by content from NSPCC - The Underwear Rule 29/04/16
Learning Through the Story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar: 06/05/16
LOOK at all the fun we've had learning in our opticians role play area: 13/05/16
A trip to the Opticians 23/05/16
Wonderful Fun and Learning at The Wildlife Workshops: 27/05/16
Forest Schools Fun: (Term 5. 2015.16) 10/06/16
Finger Exercising Fun on International Disco Dough Day: 09/06/16
Sports and Healthy Eating Week: 13-17/06/16.
Your Vote Counts: European Referendum: 23/06/16
Learning About and Celebrating the Culture and Traditions of Nigeria: 01/07/16
Splats Circus Day. Fun and Learning New Skills with our Children and Families: 22/07/16
Harvest and Autumn Activity Day: 18/10/16
Learning About Remembrance Day: 11/11/16
Anti-Bullying Week 2016: 14- 18/11/16
Charity Fund Raising for Children in Need 2016: 18/11/16
Celebrating Our OUTSTANDING OFSTED Achievement: 25.11.16
Learning About St Andrews Day: 30/11/16
Community Lantern Parade Fun: 05/12/16
A Christmas Themed Craft Activity Day: 08/12/16
Saying Goodbye: 02/12/16
Christmas Party Fun: 16/12/16
SNNS Nativity 2016: 20/12/16
Changes at nursery.
Summer Concert: Audio Files
Goodbye and Good Luck
Update: Nursery Rhyme Ramble
End of Year Musical Celebration: 17/07/13
ECO Activity Day
Hot, Hot, Hot!
Nursery Rhyme Ramble
Summer Sports
Fun at the Farm
ECO Award Success
Springtime at Nursery
Nursery Open Day Success!
Tutti Fruitti Theatre company: Hue Boy
Wildlife Workshop: May 2013
Celebration/ Easter & Spring Activity Day
Snack Money Table
OFSTED 'OUTSTANDING'...Third in a row!
SAVE ELECTRICITY...Switch off the lights
OFSTED REPORT...Coming soon
Re-Cycling Walk to South Normanton
A Visit from Barry the Police Officer
Knitted Santa/ Snowmen
Bags2School Fundraiser
Snowy Weather
Winter time for our animals
Christmas Concerts: 18 & 19/12/12
A visit from Uncle Michael the Clown: 17/12/12
Community Lantern Parade in South Normanton: 10/12/12
Let's Remember. Thinking about Remembrance Day: 11/11/15
Tia Ten is coming soon to Ten Town
The Nursery Garden is Evolving!
Worm Savers!
First Egg of the Year...Welcome Back Chickens
Bags2School Success
Reach for the Stars!
Wanted! Diggers & Planters, Seeds & Plants
Signing is fun!
Ten Town Log Ons Now Available
Ten Town Update
Growing numbers...welcome new staff
Nanyuki Preparatory School Kenya...Thank you
Check out Ten Town
It's Cold for Chickens
Wow! A Willow Dome!
Christmas Concert 2013. Audio Files
Christmas Activity Day: 06/12/13
Lantern Parade Success!
It's cold for chickens too!...
Christmas at Nursery
Playground Markings
We've been making lanterns...
Thanks for supporting BBC 'Children in Need'
Yoga Fun!
Remembrance Day
the 'Trim Trail' is complete.
Harvest Activity Day: 14/10/2013
'Trim Trail' -coming soon
Community Events and Links
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Letters Home
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I Understand


text:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (27 February 1807 – 24 March 1882 / Portland, Maine)
» Click to list general statistics » OR, select a date :
The Song Of Hiawatha Xix: The Ghosts
Never stoops the soaring vulture
On his quarry in the desert,
On the sick or wounded bison,
read more >>
- Hits: Number of visitors who read the poem on the given date.
- Posts: Number of visitors who posted the poem to a friend (via e-mail) on the given date.
- Dates that have "0" hits may not be shown on the list.
- Dates, poems and poets that have "0" hits may not be shown on the list. Statistics are generated daily.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Apple Fixes Safari WebKit Flaws
Apple released an update addressing multiple security vulnerabilities in its Safari Web browser and iOS 6 mobile platform.
The iOS 6 update fixed four security bugs in the kernel, WebKit and Passcode, according to Apple's security advisory released Thursday. The two WebKit flaws fixed in iOS 6.0.1 were also present and fixed in Safari 6.0.2. One of the WebKit flaws was publicly disclosed during the Hack in the Box Kuala Lumpur conference in early October.
Users should considering upgrading to iOS 6 if they hadn't already done so, as the new version of the operating system patched a "whopping 197 CVE-numbered vulnerabilities in 41 system components," Ducklin said. The issues fixed in iOS 6 included six security bypasses, one denial of service condition, one privilege escalation flaws, 15 data leakage issues, 11 remote code execution holes, and seven spoofing flaws. Released a little over a month later, iOS 6.0.1 includes "improvements and bug fixes," of which four were security related, Apple said.
iOS 6.0.1 Fixes
The new iOS 6.0.1 addressed an information disclosure issue in the way APIs related to kernel extensions (CVE-2012-3749) were being handled which may have helped attacker bypass address space layout randomization protection, Apple said. ASLR is deliberately intended to make it hard for attackers to know where to go, making remote control execution exploits less likely to succeed.
A person with physical device may be able to access Passbook passes (CVE-2012-3750) without entering a password because of a state management issue in the way Passbook passes were being handled, Apple said.
"Since Passbook can store coupons, loyalty programme details and even airline boarding cards, having your Passbook unlocked even when your device is locked presents a rather obvious personal security risk," Paul Ducklin, head of technology for the Asia Pacific group at Sophos, wrote on Naked Security.
The final two vulnerabilities were located in WebKit. The first Webkit flaw was a "time of check to time of use issue" which existed in how JavaScript arrays were being handled (CVE-2012-3748). The other WebKit issue was a "use-after-free" issue in the way SVG images were handled (CVE-2012-5112), and was originally disclosed by Pinkie Pie during Google's recent pwnium2 contest at HITB Kuala Lumpur.
"One of these bugs can be triggered by deliberately-dodgy Javascript; the other by a craftily-tweaked SVG (scalable vector graphics) file," wrote Ducklin. These types of vulnerabilities can be used in drive-by attacks, and are "highly regarded" by cyber-criminals, he said.
Safari 6.0.2 Fixes
The update for Safari 6.0.2 is available for Mac OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion, according to Apple.
Apple closed a use-after-free vulnerability in the SVG implementation of WebKit (CVE-2012-5112), Apple said. If successfully exploited, remote attackers would be able to execute arbitrary code "via unspecified vectors," Apple said. Another security flaw, if left unpatched, could potentially result in an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution (CVE-2012-3748) if a user landed on a malicious Website. The use-after-free flaw was the same one disclosed by Pie during the HITB Kuala Lumpur.
Apple's new iOs version 6.0.2. addresses four vulnerabilities, including the above CVE-2012-5112 in WebKit and an ASLR bypass described by Mark Dowd and Tarjei Mandt also at HITB Kuala Lumpur 2012.
"A time of check to time of use issue existed in the handling of JavaScript arrays. This issue was addressed through additional validation of JavaScript arrays," Apple said in its advisory.
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text:
How to Stage a Sword Battle With Your Kids, Percy Jackson Style
Want to bring the mythical world of Percy Jackson to life in your own backyard?
Do your kids turn anything they get their hands on into a weapon?
Here's a sword that won't hurt.
This one won't turn into a pen, but you can use it to stage an epic battle of good vs. evil, hero vs. monster or just kids vs. Dad.
In this article I'll show you how to make an inexpensive (and safe) sword out of PVC and pool noodles so you can duel with your kids. Recreate battles from Percy Jackson and the Olympians books or make up your own family sword-fighting adventure—you and your kids will have lots of fun either way.
Why Stage a Sword Battle?
Heroes and their swords are a classic theme in adventure stories—from King Arthur and Excalibur to Luke Skywalker and his lightsaber and even Percy Jackson and Riptide. Sword battles have been used in literature and movies throughout time to represent the struggle and eventual triumph of good over evil.
And as long as kids have been picking up sticks from the ground, they have been staging their own versions of these fantastic battles of will and swordplay. It's even better when Mom or Dad plays the role of the big ugly monster!
It's great fun until someone gets hurt.
They won't get hurt with the padded sword I'll teach you how to make below, so you can let your kids' imaginations run wild. All you need is a little time, some inexpensive supplies and a space to do battle.


text:
To use Live Listen with your AirPods or Powerbeats Pro, your iOS device needs iOS 12 or later. You also need to connect your AirPods or Powerbeats Pro to your device.
Add Live Listen to Control Center
To use Live Listen, you need to add it to Control Center:
- Go to Settings > Control Center.
- Tap Customize Controls.
- Scroll down and tap next to Hearing .
- Tap Back to save the setting.
Use Live Listen
- Open Control Center.
- Tap .
- Tap Live Listen.
- Place your device in front of the person that you want to hear. Make sure to adjust the volume on your device if you can't hear well enough.
If you can't connect to your AirPods or Powerbeats Pro or if Live listen won't turn on, make sure that Bluetooth is on and that your headphones are charged.
Learn about Live Listen with Made for iPhone hearing aids.


text:
You need to use #SD and #SD1 for the default functionality. #SD2 is something I have planned to add but have not done so yet. Can you tell if both #SD and #SD1 are active what kind of errors you get.
Be aware that I am compiling using a different setup where i program using VisualCode with PlatformIO installed on multiple platforms. PlatformIO has a rather different setup/functionality . Next to that I am also working under linux instead of windows which also can lead to difference when compiling sources.


text:
From October 10th through October 16th, 2011, Chicago will host Chicago Ideas Week, its inaugural seven-day public platform of ideas and innovation. Chicago Ideas Week brings together many of the world's brightest minds, positioning Chicago at the center of innovation and global connectivity.
Over the week, there will be over 60 events including CIW Talks, CIW Labs and CIW Megatalks.
Eli's Cheesecake is delighted to be hosting a CIW Lab on Thursday, October 14th. Limited registration is available through the CIW Web site at http://www.chicagoideas.com.


text:
This Week in God
First up from the God Machine this week is a look at some remarkable comments from a religious right activist named Gary Cass, a former Republican Party official in San Diego who now heads a group called the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission.
In this clip, Cass shares his vision at a Texas conference called "Deliver Us From Evil" where he was a featured speaker.
My friend Kyle Mantyla summarized:
Cass, who normally spends most of his time attacking President Obama, Muslims,gays, and Mormons, spent an hour and a half blasting America for having a "broken moral compass" for electing politicians who support things like reproductive choice and marriage equality. Cass went on to declare that the nation's colleges and universities have "now become perverted factories of unfaithfulness," especially Harvard which is now "animated by the spirit of Antichrist," before attacking "progressive Christians" as ones who "have murdered their own souls, destroyed their own churches, and have undermined our nation."
Finally, Cass explained to the audience that "you can't be a Christian if you don't own a gun."
For the record, that last part wasn't a joke. Cass' read on the New Testament leads him to believe Christianity and firearm ownership are inextricably linked.
Also from the God Machine this week:
* As if Florida voters didn't have enough important races to consider, there will also be an initiative on the ballot on whether to change the state constitution to allow public funding of religious ministries. The right considers this critically important to the larger goal of privatizing public education.
* Evangelical author Rachel Held Evans' new book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, is due to reach shelves this week, detailing her year-long experience trying to closely follow the Bible's rules for women. She's having trouble with some Christian bookstores, however, who refuse to sell a book that includes the word "vagina" (thanks to reader R.P. for the tip).
* The Public Religion Research Institute published an interesting report this week on the religious coalitions supporting President Obama and Mitt Romney.
* Following up on an item we recently discussed, Mormon blogger David Twede has resigned his membership in his faith, rather than wait for possible excommunication. Twede was accused of apostasy for writing critical online essays about LDS traditions.
* And the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami was hit this week with a new round of sexual-abuse allegations including Father Rolando Garcia, who was the target of related charges from other alleged victims in 2009.


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[Elections 2008: Reverend Wright Revisited]
Too bad, Rev. Jeremiah Wright did not end his campaign to rehabilitate his reputation with the Bill Moyer's PBS interview which was a public relations success.
Looked at through my professional PR lens, The Freedom Fund Dinner and the Press Club event could have been better. That's the good assessment.
On the other hand, Reverend Wright's Q&A session at the National Press Club was a bit more than flippant and poorly thought out, given the seriousness of the event.
Moreover, some of his anthropological theories are debatable and controversial, and in general, easily exploitable by those of ill will.
That is not the type of the stuff one can or should try to vigorously defend in a press conference without the benefit of irrefutable fact. My apologies to those who share all of the Reverend's views, but unproven academic theories, published or not, should never be presented as a basis for policy or political positions-when you are trying to convince people of the soundness of you position.
I attended a very reserved and contemplative Church as a child -it shaped my sense of Church decorum. Still to my mother's bemusement 40 years later, we briefly lived, or so it seemed at times, practically next door to a Church whose members seemingly possessed a very big bass drum and a vocabulary which still befuddles my comprehension on many levels.
That's not an assessment I'm proud of - so I'm aware of that religious bias I have, among others, including my revulsion at putting women in subservient roles as a part of Church dogma; a revulsion I proudly hold.
Moreover, the Reverend Wright controversy reminds me of why I started, as a teenager, mentally plotting theologians along a continuum that runs from snake oil purveyors on one end, to public intellectuals on the other.
To be clear, at the snake oil end, I put the Jim Jones', Reverend Ikes', Jim Bakers' and pedophiles masking as clergy; and it ain't just Catholics. At the public intellectual end, I put Martin Luther King Jr., the original Martin Luther, William Sloan Coffin, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and Rev. Eugene Rivers, to name a few whose work I'm familiar with.
To be fair, Reverend Wright has many aspects of a public intellectual, but he is not my idea of a rigorous and thoughtful theologian, particularly in view of his recent remarks and tone. I judge his views as I do any other person who expresses them, clergy or not –that's my principle standard.
Moreover, I would ask of those who label Wright as very intelligent to broaden the definition of intelligent. In my view, intelligence goes well beyond the ability to digest and recite history, anthropological theory and religious dogma. Intelligence also, incorporates understanding the world and situation that surrounds you, your relationship to it and how you impact that environment - here Wright has excelled in many respects.
But - most salient for this discussion, intelligence also includes understanding when that environment has changed and how you respond to it - here Reverend Wright failed.
Rev. Wright might be OK on IQ but he seems a bit wanting on EQ --emotional quota-- especially so, beyond his circle of friends and supporters. Like some CEO's of major corporations, recent Presidents and other political leaders - some theologians are accustomed to having their views reinforced by their environment, a sort of echo chamber effect. Like, CEO's and Politicians, they lose touch on the impact, soundness and acceptance of their views beyond their acolytes, friends and sycophants. Wright strikes me as a man out of touch beyond his environment.
One of our biggest challenges as humans is to remain humble in the face of personal success – Wright has been successful and some of the accolades he has received are obviously well deserved.
Relatedly, the world sometimes beats us down when we fail and strokes us when we succeed. The trick is to take both situations with a grain of salt; that is, not to get down on yourself when you fail and too full of yourself when you are enjoying success, both can be harmful, as many of us know.
Knowing the above wisdom is common to some or at least familiar- that's the relatively easy part. Living it test the best among us.
Finally, we expect Theologians to be steadfast in their principles - but that does not give them license to ignore the impact and soundness of their words anymore than it does the rest of us.
Wright obviously struggles with the impact and soundness of his words, and how they refract differently in the glaring light of the national stage.
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Cole Hamels admitted late last night that he threw at Nats wunderkind Bryce Harper in the first inning of Sunday's game, and the fallout's coming fast and steady.
Nats GM Mike Rizzo talked to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post, and he is not pleased:
"Players take care of themselves," Rizzo said after I called him this morning. "I've never seen a more classless, gutless chicken [bleep] act in my 30 years in baseball.
"Cole Hamels says he's old school? He's the polar opposite of old school. He's fake tough. He thinks he's going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year rookie who's eight games into the big leagues? He doesn't know who he's dealing with."
Rizzo also told Kilgore that the commissioner's office should respond to Hamels because of "all the bounty [stuff] in professional football." We've got ourselves a Category 2 shitstorm, everyone, and it's building strength. Finally, some summer fun.
Mike Rizzo calls Cole Hamels 'fake tough,' calls for suspension after 'classless, gutless' act [Washington Post]


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Today is Felix's last day at Reuters. Here's the link to his mega-million word blog archive (start from the beginning, in March 2009, if you like). Because we're source-agnostic, you can also find some of his best stuff from the Reuters era at Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, News Genius, CJR, the NYT, and NY Mag. There's also Felix TV, his personal site, his Tumblr, his Medium archive, and, of course, the Twitter feed we all aspire to.
Felix Salmon
The Piketty pessimist
This chart comes from the World Economic Forum's 2014 Global Risks Report, which came out just before Thomas Piketty's book started becoming the topic of discussion in economic and plutocratic circles.* You can clearly see what you might call the rise of inequality-as-an issue: before 2012 it's nowhere to be found, but since then it's been consistently in the top spot. My prediction is that in 2015, thanks to Piketty, the WEF will start talking less about income inequality, and more about wealth inequality.
The most expensive lottery ticket in the world
No Exit, the new book from Gideon Lewis-Kraus, should be required reading for anybody who thinks it might be a good idea to found a startup in Silicon Valley. It shows just how miserable the startup founder's life is, and raises the question of why anybody would voluntarily subject themselves to such a thing.
The problems of HFT, Joe Stiglitz edition
Never mind Michael Lewis. The most interesting and provocative thing to be written of late about financial innovation in general, and high-frequency trading in particular, comes from Joe Stiglitz. The Nobel prize-winning economist delivered a wonderful and fascinating speech at the Atlanta Fed's 2014 Financial Markets Conference today; here's a shorter version of what Stiglitz is saying.
Private equity math, Nuveen edition
The WSJ has the details of today's big asset-management news: TIAA-CREF is buying Nuveen Investments for $6.25 billion.
Five explanations for Greece's bond yield
The biggest news in the sovereign debt world this week has come from Greece, which managed to sell some €3 billion in new 5-year bonds at a yield of just 4.95%. This is not what you might expect, given the macroeconomic situation:
The utility of switching lanes
Josiah Neeley has an evil, hour-long commute. But unlike most of us with traffic issues, he actually decided to do something constructive with it: according to the flip of a coin, he either commutes normally, switching lanes when doing so seems sensible, or else sticking religiously to the left-hand lane and just sweating it out, no matter how fast or slow it goes.
Yes, the SEC was colluding with banks on CDO prosecutions
Back in 2011, I asked whether the SEC was colluding with banks on CDO prosecutions. And now, thanks to an American Lawyer Freedom of Information Request, we have the answer: yes, they were.
My article on the wonk bubble, at Politico, came out not only at the same time as the launch of Vox.com, but also, coincidentally, with the release of comments from both Michael Wolff and Marty Baron on the same subject.


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Game Room
The Campus Rec game room is furnished with billiard tables available for use during normal operating hours. Additionally, ping pong tables are available for use in our upstairs lobby area. Please request additional materials (i.e. paddles, balls) from the front desk.
Policies and Procedures:
- The Recreation Center's game room is for the use of SSU Students and Campus Rec members
- Game-related equipment is available for check-out through the front desk of the Recreation Center (please refer to the Equipment Check-Out Policies and Procedures for specific policies and procedures).
- Proper utilization of the games provided by the game room is required. Basic rules for each game are available at the front desk.
- Food and beverages are prohibited except closed, plastic containers of water. Cans and glasses are not allowed in the game room.
- Chewing gum and sunflowers seeds are not permitted. Smoking and other tobacco products are prohibited.
- Coats, books, all bags, etc. cannot be left near game room equipment or carried throughout the game room. All personal belongings must be placed in the game room cubbies. The Sonoma Student Union and Sonoma State University are not responsible for personal articles left inthe game room. Day-use lockers are available in each locker room (please refer to Locker Services for more specific policies and procedures).
- Sitting or leaning on the tables is prohibited.
- Gambling is not allowed.
- Profanity, abusive language, or flagrant behavior will not be tolerated. Persistent use of such behavior as deemed unacceptable by the Recreation Center staff will result in forfeiture of utilization privileges.
- Damaged or defective equipment should be reported immediately to the front desk staff.
- Please do not remove any signage from damaged or out of order equipment.
- Users will be responsible for damaged or broken equipment.
- Physical abuse to equipment deemed unacceptable by the Recreation Center staff will result in forfeiture of utilization privileges.


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Though inceptions of comic book superheroes might be flailing in other mediums, the story of the Green Hornet is alive and well. Moviegoers flocked to see the revamped "Hornet," earning it the top slot, with over $34 million in ticket sales.
The New York Times' Arts Beat blog reports that the film was in all kinds of trouble after a sneak peek last summer where fans were less than receptive. And so, Sony Pictures Entertainment came in to revamp the movie, based in parts from the 1930's radio show and the television series from the 1960's, and improved it greatly. Though, as Entertainment Weekly notes, the film cost $110 million to produce, and fell flat of the $40 million goal they had.
Things weren't so good for the other main contender this weekend, the Ron Howard-directed comedy "The Dilemma." The movie, about a guy who finds out his best buddy's wife is having an affair, made $17.4 million, coming in a distant second to "Green Hornet." In third place was "True Grit," with approximately $11.2 million in ticket sales.
U.S. & World
Of course, these numbers are all libel to change after the Golden Globes name their top choices on Sunday evening.


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'Where the Dead Smiled'
St. Petersburg: A Cultural History
On October 1, 1991, the city of Leningrad officially regained its original name: Sankt-Peterburg. This marked the end of a tense debate that began in the early years of glasnost. Supporters of the change were accused of monarchism and a lack of patriotism (it was pointed out that the name "St. Petersburg" had been on the maps of Hitler's commanders who intended to rename the city immediately after they had taken it). Alexander Solzhenitsyn had recommended a Russified rendering: Svyato-Petrograd.
As Solomon Volkov observes in St. Petersburg, the passions aroused by this debate reveal the symbolic importance Russians attach to a name that evokes one of the most controversial periods of their history. To some current Russian nationalists the name denotes the showpiece of a project of Europeanization that cut the nation off from its traditional values, subjecting it to corrosive cosmopolitan influences. Other, more liberal, political groups see the return to the old name as a symbol of national regeneration, in which they hope the city will regain the cultural leadership bestowed on it by its foundation, nearly three centuries ago, as Russia's "window on the West." As the then-Mayor Anatoly Sobchak declared (alluding to the city's growing economic importance as a port after the Baltic republics broke off from the new Russian nation), Petersburg was once again "the only Russian door to Europe."
These discussions have attracted attention in the West as indicators of the new Russia's future political direction; but their cultural significance is no less important. For the intellectuals and creative artists of pre-revolutionary Russia, Petersburg symbolized and reflected painful divisions in the national psyche. Dostoevsky's exploration of those conflicts in Notes from Underground has profoundly influenced the way in which our century has interpreted the predicament of human beings torn between opposing values and confronted at every turn with the absurd. Under the Soviet regime Petersburg's fate inspired writing, art, and music on these themes (little of which could be published, exhibited, or performed). The city's renaming has given new prominence to this body of work, which includes attempts to comprehend and transcend the horror of Stalin's dictatorship that have great artistic power. These, as well as the new work that they have inspired, may come to affect our understanding of this century as much as the reflections of Dostoevsky's man from the (Petersburg) underground.
In one sense, Petersburg is like all other great cities. As Burton Pike has pointed out, throughout the history of Western culture the image of the city stands as "the great reification of ambivalence." 1 It has served to crystallize anxieties about man's relation to his created world: Babylon, Babel, Rome, Sodom, the New Jerusalem furnished the Christian imagination with images of power and perversion, heaven and hell. The destruction of cities has exercised a hypnotic power over the imagination, while from the late nineteenth century the literary image of the modern city has been explored as a source of new ways of conveying and transcending states…
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If we're going to bring up the Witcher games, make sure to look at how the second game did it. The first game's collectable card game mechanic is something we can do without.
Writing is 5% talent and 95% not being distracted by the internet.
And, opifex, I understand what you're saying, it's just that for me gaming is mostly about strategic decisions, and in the case of RPG, choices and consequences. Paperdolls and how you dress them, not so much.
I think most of the discussion here though has revolved around the hope that the romance elements of the story will not play out like you are winning some arm candy for your character though. I think pretty much everyone here has been interested in seeing a romance option that will actually effect plot and outcome, not just a side quest for some cheep thrills.
We can weave romance, gameplay and plot. Maybe the choice of partner gives more options in clan management. If you marry a sorceress, you get magic effects, more magical units / spells and magic-related plots and sidequests, if you marry a noble/wildling/giantess you get different options, bonuses and difficulties.
This way, people who want to enjoy romance for the sake of romance can choose the partner they like most, people who love plot will get a romance with interesting implications and more stories, and people who are into it for gameplay get more choices ("marrying X will get me extra armoured huskarls, but if I marry Y instead I can unlock aelfar archers, choices, choices!")
my two cents
If it really is the end of their world, then they are probably past the point of most of their culture's more restrictive conventions and doing what it takes to survive. Instead of women being inferior or just property, the day comes when it's all-hands-on-deck despite age and/or gender. If you've got a useable limb you get a sword or 2 working hands you get a bow.
As for romance, the end of the world scenario throws all kinds of things out the window. Depending on how far gone their world is, when, why, how, or even if one gets married or involved with each other can be radically different.
Just my thoughts on this.
Lots of really interesting opinions on this, and part of what is fascinating about it is I think nobody would have mentioned "romance" in a viking strategy game if we hadn't come from BioWare.
Let me first be up-front and say that I find few things more out-of-place, awkward and distracting than an unnecessary romance in a game. There aren't many games that have done it "right" (in a way that I felt added to the game instead of detracted from it). Shadow of the Colossus was a love story, and the best example I can think of.
Anyway, to come out and say it: you can't convince other characters in your party into sleeping with you. In fact, there's no sex in the game, forced or otherwise. At the end of the day, the story isn't about shacking up before some big finale.
Something we haven't talked about much is the character that you play. You can't create your own main character but we're doing something uncommon in that you hop around between a few major characters throughout the course of the game when coming across key points in the story, like a miniseries such as Game of Thrones, or in games like Final Fantasy 3 (The US #3 - with Locke and Terra). You'll experience the major events going on from different perspectives, and you'll play both male and female leads, which may inspire you to deal with situations differently depending on who you're playing.
On that note, we do have some love themes throughout the game that are pretty prominent to the story: love between father and daughter, grief over the loss of loved ones and the traditional romantic love. But we really want these to be just a part of the characters' motivation, not the driving force behind playing the game. You should make a decisions because you want to protect someone you love, not because you want to bang an alien, if that makes sense. I'm not against sex in a mature story, we're just not going that route for TBS. It's never an easy thing to get right, but we're pretty dedicated to approaching it from an angle people can relate to in their own lives and hope that resonates. Here's another take: you may find, for example, that one of the characters in your party is romantically interested in your aforementioned daughter. How do you advise your daughter or confront the suitor? That to me is a more interesting scenario than talking to someone repeatedly until they finally agree to sleep with you. All the romantic themes throughout the game will be an important part of the main story, not a tacked-on achievement. That's the goal, anyway!
To address a few specifics that have come up: relationships won't be very strict in terms of emulating viking culture. While I'm not offended by the idea that there once existed a male-dominated society with arranged marriage, we're making a game that we want players to enjoy on a personal level as well, and have characters that they connect with is an important part of that. I'm a huge proponent of having strong female characters and I think there are ways to include a believable viking culture without the female population being outright oppressed. Look at King of Dragon Pass, I think they walked that line perfectly.
As for marriage, don't be surprised if it does come up, but again, as mentioned by others we're taking a King of Dragon Pass approach to it. People in you caravan may wish to get married, there may be political intrigue involved, but its not the main characters top priority with doomsday on the horizon and honestly it's not very relevant to the game in general.
Last edited by Alex; 05-07-2012 at 05:56 PM.
I was worried for a second at the start when you mentioned this:Fortunately you covered the matter more than that.Let me first be up-front and say that I find few things more out-of-place, awkward and distracting than an unnecessary romance in a game.
The love themes can be great motivators for characters and they bring a lot of depth to stories. On gameplay point of view they can offer a lot of interesting choices(if you need to decide who to save for example) and sometimes even gameplay mechanics(alliances for example). All in all I think Alex's post covered the bases quite well and I feel that they have the right idea on how to do this.
On the subject of Norse women I think that by the standards of that age they had it better than in many other cultures. The women "--were often left in charge when their husbands were away or dead", which I think is more than what can be said in most cases. Here's a good read on the matter for those interested: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient...women_01.shtml
Last edited by lamaz; 05-07-2012 at 06:26 PM.
Alex, thank you for providing information on that. I think your approach to the game makes a lot of sense--I agree that most games fumble with romance, and that it often becomes about sex or some kind of material reward instead of actually caring about the characters. Thanks for explaining the switching perspectives, as well; that sounds like it will certainly color some of my story decisions.
As for the position of women in society, I think that no matter if you present the role of women as strong (or go for the "Gender? What's that?" approach) or go for a realistic viking setting, as long as it's written well it will be fun to play And I've got full faith and confidence that you can deliver on that.
I think that the multiple perspectives approach is interesting, both for gameplay and for story development. And I can't say enough how I'm pleased to hear about KoDP's influence. An thanks Alex, Arnie and John for making a mature game !
Last edited by Skitnik; 05-07-2012 at 07:20 PM.
Awesome. Will you be revealing who these characters are and what positions/situations they're in before the game releases? I'd like to start planning some personalities for them all ASAP before we get to play.Something we haven't talked about much is the character that you play. You can't create your own main character but we're doing something uncommon in that you hop around between a few major characters throughout the course of the game when coming across key points in the story, like a miniseries such as Game of Thrones, or in games like Final Fantasy 3 (The US #3 - with Locke and Terra). You'll experience the major events going on from different perspectives, and you'll play both male and female leads, which may inspire you to deal with situations differently depending on who you're playing.
of course i'm not against romance embedded in the story, but against flirting with every NPC as a feature of the game. i guess it works for the big companies because the majority of their gamers are teenagers. the problem is they develop games with the dumbest of those kids as their target audience. much like big cinema producers, and probably big everything in business.
By that I don't mean that you should be able to put yourself in the shoes of a trek of humans, centaurs and giants who have to hack, slash and worry their way towards an uncertain future. How could anyone attempt to relate to such an abstract setting?
It's the core aspects of the experience which fascinates the player and draws him/her in, the personal matters that need solving and the troubling decisions that need to be made. I believe that the devs will do their best do try and cover as much of these aspects as they can in order to provide the player with an engrossing experience that is as relatable as it is abstract.
You mentioned that you don't want a game which provides you experiences which you already know from your everyday life. Aren't exactly those experiences the only thing that could possibly connect you with the story? Not the killing of countless baddies, but rather the relatable (and thus exciting!), human interactions.
That of course includes one of the most important and defining facets of human interaction - love. I think you might misunderstand the way that this (most likely?) will be implemented in the game. The term "love simulator" that you use indicates that. Think of the implementation more as a natural part of the game, not something that it tries to force on the player, or which it accentuates as a "feature", so to speak. Also try to free yourself from the idea of pursuing some virtual love interest on a railway, which leads to a (predictable, and solely sexual) outcome. Instead think of the other aspects of love, such as the love for siblings (which a lot of people don't like to admit :P) and parents. According to what I understand from Alex' post, that's the experience Stoic is going for.
And lastly, most importantly, remember - it's a game. Games with an emphasis on story, just like novels, aim to engross the player/reader in the situation displayed on the monitor/pages. In my opinion (which I don't claim to be universally true at all), it's not about imagining oneself in the shoes of the character(s), but rather relating to them from a separate, though nonetheless compassionate standpoint.
I hope that I got my thoughts across, kinda struggling with English today...
Also: Thanks for the input Alex, what especially excites me about this is the revelation about having more than one playable character. So many possibilities and interesting viewpoints. Looking forward to it!
First off, Great thread! I did not think it was going to be nearly as interesting as it was, so thanks for a grate read everyone!
Secondly I have to say the yellow post pretty much gave me all the answers I was hoping for in terms of love/relationships. Personally I've never really cared for the "suggestive cutscene" take on relationships that is usually the case in computer games. Having a slightly broader perspective on these themes and what they are about is a great. I mean, a relationship between two friends can be as interesting, or even more interesting, than one between two lovers.
The only thing I got a bit nervous about was splitting the narrative between different characters. As long as I don't have to interact with other characters that I normally control I'm perfectly fine, but if I'm speaking to a character that I usually control and he/she makes choices/says things that I definitely would not do in that given situation I will be very… well… disappointed I guess. This is by no means any criticism though. If the Dudes at Stoic can make these sorts of things work im am all for it.
Ok, what Alex said is pretty much how I hoped they would handle the whole romance thing. Sounds great!
on the latter (and also in other posts from before) i believe i made it clear that i'm much of the same opinion you expressed. and others have commented here in the same vein, or with a very similar opinion at least.
also i don't misunderstand the way this will be implemented in THIS game, i'm pretty sure they'll do it right. i wouldn't have put money in if i didn't have good expectations; but on this thread we were talking about how for every romance well done in a game nowadays, there are probably ten that we all can label as plain cheap.
now for something completely different ..or rather not. i was thinking that most videogames like these have two parts: the game per se which needs nothing else, take Pong as an example. just pure game.
and then the everything else part, which could hopefully consist of some good literature to back up the game part. i want my romance to go in the literature, not in the game part. probably because i have not yet seen much good romance in the game parts until now. one day maybe.
also i may be wrong (sure i am) but this "everything else part" seems as if it's dangerously growing in size in VGs lately, to the point where some RPGs and FPS are blending together into a watch-hours-of-cutscenes-peppered-with-some-lame-gameplay genre. of course this has to do with money, and people who invest money in videogames for the same reason they could invest it on frying pans, or cars, or movies: to gain more money while not really caring about the medium.
and it's only fair you know, that big companies mass produce games that feel "samey" for the people who watch "samey" films, listen to "samey" music etc, for those are most of the consumers.
and i suppose this will happen even more frequently, since the VG industry surpassed music and film in terms of revenues this is where the money is.
as i said, i've got nothing against that. not my cup of tea but that's the way the world is. luckily for me it's a big world and there are more options where i put my money and my interest, and i assume most of the fellow backers who felt attracted by stoic's offer and promises share my opinion.
now enough with my incoherent ramblings. i think i let myself go there, sorry.
see i struggle with my english too, not today but everyday on every message. this makes for great language practice though i lived in london for a few years, but since i came back to Spain i don't get to practice it so much.


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What's your name & Your Company Name: My name is Patti Page, owner of Aromatherapy Naturals-Natural Aromatherapy Home Cleaning Products.
Owning a cleaning service business for over 14 years and cleaning hundreds of homes, I know a lot about cleaning products. I know what cleans well and what doesn't. Believe me I have tried dozens of cleaning products!
I have taken this experience and knowledge and developed a line of natural aromatherapy cleaning products that not only smell good, but are superior in performance as well.
Tested and Proven: Aromatherapy Naturals Products were not created in a lab. They were created in a small rural town in Indiana by a Cleaning Service Owner with 14 years experience in the cleaning industry by fusing together the art of aromatherapy and the science of cleaning.
Making the Switch: In 2006 after using harsh cleaning chemicals on a daily basis for years I decided to start using only natural cleaning products to clean our clients homes. I wanted a natural product that not only cleaned well, but would leave our clients homes with a pleasant scent. After extensive research I found a company that made Natural Cleaning Products using essential oils. I started purchasing the products from this company and using them in my cleaning service. That was when Aromatherapy House Cleaning was born!
Everything was going well and we continued to use the products from this company. Then the company I was purchasing the products from sold out to another company. The other company changed the formulas and scents and only offered a few products. I was not interested in purchasing the products from this company after they had changed the formulas and scents. By this time I had completely based my cleaning service on these products. I wasn't sure what to do at this point since no one else sold this type of product. I tried other products but did not care for them.
After much consideration and prayer I took the leap of faith and decided to go forward and make a product line myself to use in my cleaning business. After countless hours of research and many nights spent working on the formulas and praying for God's assistance to help with the formulas, Aromatherapy Naturals was conceived. I couldn't have done it without the help of the Lord.
After using the natural aromatherapy products in my cleaning business, I started getting requests from cleaning companies who had visited my website and saw that I was using these products asking for information about purchasing the products we were using. In 2008 I started Aromatherapy Naturals and started selling the products to home owners and cleaning services all over the United States and Canada. Since then I have added several products to offer everything needed to clean homes naturally.
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Educational initiative to be renamed for UTSA prof
The UTSA Convocation Center, a facility no stranger to raucous cheering, might have had its fill last Tuesday when 1,200 middle and high school students converged there for closing ceremonies of the Prefreshman Engineering Program.
PREP was celebrating its 34th summer program, which might have been enough to prompt the whooping and hollering among youths who spent seven rigorous weeks exploring science, technology, engineering and math, now a phenom called STEM education.
They rooted for teammates, teachers and themselves. But no one received quite the sustained ovation as the tall, gangly 81-year-old in a powder-blue seersucker suit, who stooped a bit as he smiled widely and waved back.
It was Manuel P. Berriozábal, a University of Texas at San Antonio mathematics professor who in 1979 founded the nationally recognized summer enrichment program. It was STEM before STEM was cool — and way before it became a response to a national crisis in the 1990s, as U.S. students fell further behind in earning such degrees.
Berriozábal already had noticed it — and something more. Too few Latino students were taking his classes, too ill-prepared to succeed as math and science majors.
PREP has helped alter the landscape. Almost 33,000 middle school and high school students, the great majority of them Latinos, have attended at least eight local colleges and universities and 23 campuses across the state and now nationally.
For PREP and a lifetime of achievements, the San Antonio City Council is expected to vote Aug. 30 to pay Berriozábal another tribute — perhaps his biggest yet — by renaming a city educational initiative the Dr. Manuel P. Berriozábal Café College.
Operated by the San Antonio Education Partnership, Café College offers preparation and advice to get San Antonio students into higher education. If there's any opposition to the name change, none appeared at a city hearing last week, where speaker after speaker supported it. San Antonio resident Emma Chapa read letters from her daughters who are former PREP students — one is a San Antonio physician, the other holds a doctorate in environmental public health.
Other Latino professionals lent their voices, including Acción Texas CEO Janie Barrera, Sister Carmen Sánchez of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence and UTSA chemistry professor George R. Negrete, co-founder with "Dr. B," as Berriozábal is called on campus, of a new program called Ph.D. PREP.
Berriozábal and his wife, former Councilwoman María Antonietta Berriozábal, stayed away, saying it was the community's chance to comment.
The renaming idea came from Mayor Julián Castro's office. Castro noted in a prepared statement that Berriozábal "has helped shepherd thousands of young people into higher education and made our city more prosperous in the process."
The professor is used to such accolades. He has had a big, long life that started by being good with numbers.
Berriozábal was born in San Antonio in 1931 of Mexican and German ancestry. His father came from Mexico in 1910, at the start of the Mexican Revolution. Berriozábal's mother was from Kansas City, Mo.
Growing up in Missouri with his mother and a sister after his parents divorced, he excelled at academics.
At Rockhurst College, a Jesuit school that's now a university, the priests who taught him urged him to go further than his goal of becoming a high school math teacher. Finally, Berriozábal told one, "Look, Father, I can't afford to go to graduate school."
They helped him get a full scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, where he earned his master's in mathematics. Berriozábal earned his Ph.D. at the University of California in Los Angeles and taught at Loyola-Marymout University, UCLA, Tulane University and the University of New Orleans.
But he was watching an emerging UTSA, and got a job there in 1976. On an earlier visit to San Antonio, he met a "sweet young thing" to whom he now has been married for 37 years.
In his classes, "there just weren't any (Latinos) to speak of," Berriozábal said. "I started thinking, 'What do these kids need? What did I get?'"
"I took all the mathematics I could get in high school," he recalled, which helped develop abstract reasoning and problem-solving skills. "So maybe what I could do," he said, is "identify achieving kids and have them come to UTSA in the summer and catch up on these skills."
He had 44 students that first summer, most of them Latinos and African Americans. Renée Watson, now program director for the Bexar County Small, Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise Program, was among them.
The Sam Houston High School student had one other option that summer: hanging out at a recreation center. Choosing PREP "probably changed my life," she said.
Several episodes kept PREP growing. There was a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board who in the late 1970s said UTSA didn't need an engineering program. "When asked why, he said, 'The Mexican American community is not where engineers come from anyway.'"
"Even though I'm only half Mexican, I still felt insulted by that," Berriozábal said, and vowed to make PREP eat his words.
"And we did," he said, adding, "During these years, I was never given much help from UTSA." That relationship reached its nadir in the early 2000s, when he was demoted from the program and accused of assault by UTSA vice president for community services Jude Valdez.
Berriozábal was eventually cleared. Some of his friends and colleagues bristle at the mention of the painful episode. Several even rejected as unnecessary the use of the word "vindication" to describe the Café College renaming proposal. "Nothing tarnishes his legacy," said longtime friend Rosie Castro, Palo Alto College's new interim dean of student affairs and the mayor's mother. "To me, there was never anything to be vindicated from."
Berriozábal is still at work. This summer, three promising PREP students took his Foundations of Analysis class, an intense upper-division course that met five days a week for five weeks, part of Ph.D. PREP, whose mission is to create doctoral STEM candidates.
The professor has no plans to retire. "I'm too young, and I enjoy it very much."


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Quickie Questions - Sun - Effects of the Sun
|Date Answered
|Questioner (age, location)
|March 10, 2010
|sriya (tx/usa)
|How can the sun be harmful
|Long exposure to the Sun damages the human skin. Looking directly to the Sun will damage your eyes, to the point to completely loose your vision. There are also negative effects on technology, like damage to satellites solar pannels during Sun active periods.
|December 17, 2009
|Robert (Australia)
|Considering that the sun is halway through its life, how long will it take before the average temparature on earth reaches 60 - 70 degrees and Mercury and venus explode ?
My theory is that it may be possible that mars becomes habitable if there is a change in gravity and atmosphere as the sun expands and gets closer to mars. Is this plausible ?
|A star with a mass similar to our Sun and in the last phase of its life is a red giant. At this point, the Sun will have expanded to cover all the interior planets, including the Earth. But before that, in about 1.1 Gyr (1 100 000 000 years) from today) the Sun will be 10% brighter and this extra solar energy will cause the Earth's atmosphere to dry out.
|January 21, 2008
|Richard (California)
|Has the Diameter of our Sun increased over the past 300 years? If yes by how much? What is the % of gain in the Suns radiation on the earths surface over the past 300 years?
I believe some part of the global warming problem is due to the increase size of our sun which brings earth a little closer to the Suns surface, increasing the affect of the increased radiation on the earths surface. Therefor not all of the global warming problem is MANS FAULT! AM I wrong?
|Although there are no direct measurements of the longer-term variation and interpretations of proxy measures of variations differ; recent results suggest that the amount of solar radiation received at the outer surface of Earth's atmosphere has suffered about 0.1% variation over the last 2000 years. A 2006 study and review of existing literature, published in Nature, determined that changes in solar output within the past 400 years are unlikely to have played a major part in global warming.
|April 13, 2007
|uma (India)
|what is the use to study coronal mass ejection and flares emit in sun
|CME's can seriously disrupt the Earth's environment. Intense radiation from the Sun, which arrives only 8 minutes after being released, can alter the Earth's outer atmosphere, disrupting long-distance radio communications. Very energetic particles pushed along by the shock wave of the CME can endanger astronauts or fry satellite electronics. These energetic particles arrive at the Earth (or Moon) about an hour later. The actual coronal mass ejection arrives at the Earth one to four days after the initial eruption, resulting in strong geomagnetic storms, aurorae and electrical power blackouts. More information in our web page Coronal Mass Ejections.
|February 13, 2007
|bob (mississippi,united states)
|will the sun some day swallow earth
|In about 5 billion years, the hydrogen in the center of the Sun will start to run out, the helium will get squeezed, and this will speed up the hydrogen burning. Our star will slowly puff into a red giant and will eventually eat all of the inner planets, even the Earth.
|February 13, 2007
|andrew (Texas)
|Can the sun threaten the universe
|Well, the Sun, and the rest of the Solar System, is just an extremely small part of our galaxy the Milky Way. Not big enough to have an effect on the whole universe. But it is different for our Solar System. In about 5 billion years, the hydrogen in the center of the Sun will start to run out, the helium will get squeezed, and this will speed up the hydrogen burning. Our star will slowly puff into a red giant and will eventually eat all of the inner planets, even the Earth.
|November 27, 2006
|Ashley (UK)
|The sun is a star among millions, but why is it the only one which lights up the earth?
|The Sun, at an average distance of 149 000 000 km (92.8 000 000 miles) to the Earth, is the closest star to our planet. The next closest star is Proxima Centauri, at 4.2 light years (39 700 000 000 000 kilometers or 24 700 000 000 000 miles) of distance, is too far away!
|March 12, 2003
|Mary (New Mexico, USA)
|What are sunrays?
|The Sun's rays (or rays of sunlight) are radiation that comes from the Sun. This radiation is important for life on Earth because it keeps our planet warm. However, too much exposure to the Sun's rays can be harmful to your skin so remember to wear sunblock or keep your skin covered whenever you are catching some rays!
|November 19, 2002
|David (New Jersey, USA)
|What is the name of the longest day of the year anywhere on earth?
|The longest day of the year is the summer solstice.
|June 27, 2002
|Bob (New York, USA)
|At what time will the sunset on July 20, 2002 in Zip code 12764?
|The Weather Underground site is a great place to find sunset and sunrise information. It looks like the sun will set at 8:32 p.m. on July 20, 2002 in zip code 12764.
|June 5, 2002
|Chris (Africa)
|Name the day that celebrates the Sun, space around the Earth [geospace] and how these things affect life on our planet.
|Sun-Earth Day! It looks like the next Sun-Earth Day is scheduled for March 18, 2003.
|August 8, 2001
|Margery (Maryland, USA)
|Do sunspots affect the Earth?
|Sunspots don't directly affect the Earth, but they are directly related to the Solar activity cycle, which definitely does affect the Earth. One example in which this happens is through another type of Solar activity called Coronal Mass Ejections. These bursts of particles from the sun can disrupt radio communications on Earth, endanger astronauts, fry electronics, and even cause electrical blackouts.
|July 23, 2001
|When is the next summer solstice in 2002?
|The exact time and date for the summer solstice in 2002 is June 21st at 1:24 UT.
|July 16, 2001
|Lauren (10, United Kingdom)
|What is the easiest way to explain why we have night and day?
|We have night and day because the Earth is rotating and the Sun only shines on the side that is facing toward it. It might be simpler to think of a person standing a short distance from a lit lamp. If that person spins in place, one side of them is lit up, while the other side (the side away from the lamp) is dark. In this case, the side of the person toward the lamp will be in "daylight", and the side away from the lamp will be in "night".
|June 20, 2001
|John (16, Maine, USA)
|Where does the sun rise first in the US (which mountain or city sees it first)? (In Maine? Mars Hill? Mount Katahdin?)
|I believe Cadillac Mountain in Maine holds that claim to fame! Cadillac Mountain is in Acadia National Park and is the highest peak on the Atlantic coast. People gather there each day to be the first to see the Sun rise over the United States.
|June 20, 2001
|Drew (6, Virginia, USA)
|When is the longest day (most daylight) this year 2001?
|June 21 is the longest day this year for those in the northern hemisphere. The Navy provides a great page that tells the exact dates of solstices and equinoxes.
|April 24, 2001
|Tony (11, Florida, USA)
|How is Earth like a magnet?
|The conditions in the interior of the Earth actually create a magnetic field. So, it's like the Earth has a bar magnet inside of it, creating a magnetic field. The magnetic field of the Earth is surrounded by the magnetosphere.
|February 5, 2001
|Melissa (South Carolina, USA)
|Does our wind come from solar wind?
|Though the solar wind does drive some processes that affect life on Earth, it is not responsible for the wind. Most simply, winds on Earth are due to differences in pressure within the atmosphere.
|July 12, 2000
|Anna (Michigan, USA )
|Do x-rays come from the sun?
|Yup, x-rays come from the Sun all the time. X-rays from the Sun are emitted mainly from the corona layer of the Sun. When there is a solar flare, there could be a bigger amount of x-rays coming towards the Earth. And it only takes x-rays about 8 minutes to reach Earth!
|June 30, 2000
|Ray (Canada )
|Does the sun have a shadow?
In order for the Sun to even have a shadow, there would have to be a larger source of light nearby. Since there isn't a larger star close enough that the light from it would actually surround the Sun, then no, the Sun doesn't have a shadow.
|June 30, 2000
|Ryan (Texas, USA )
|How much does sunlight weigh (on Earth)?
Sunlight does not have mass, therefore it doesn't weigh anything, on Earth or anywhere else in the Universe!
|June 27, 2000
|Marque (Texas, USA )
|Does the sun lose heat or does it decrease in any way per year?
The size and temperature of the Sun change very, very little over time, to the point that they are considered constant.
|June 16, 2000
|Ryan (Texas, USA )
|What does a magnetosphere do?
|A magnetosphere protects a planet from potentially harmful particles coming from the Sun.
|May 10, 2000
|Robert (Utah, USA)
|If you traveled the speed fo light toward the sun would it speed you up by the gravity's pull?
This is a rather interesting question! It seems that the answer would be no. If you are going the speed of light, you are then travelling at the fastest speed possible.
The force of gravity from the Sun could not pull hard enough to make you reach a speed even close to that. You wouldn't even know the Sun was pulling on you.
Here's a great example. Let's say you have a toy car and you want it to go down a ramp you made. Tie a string to the car and pull it down. Soon, the car will be traveling faster than you can pull, and the string will go limp. You're pulling isn't making a difference anymore!
|August 31, 1999
|Danny (Virginia)
|What causes the Sun to appear red during sunsets?
The Sun looks red during a sunset because of Earth's atmosphere. When the Sun goes down, we see it through gases and dust that are in the sky.
The color it appears to be depends on what is in the air. If you see red, it is because all the other colors are being absorbed by the particles, but the color red is being reflected.
|July 27, 1999
|Chelsi (California)
|What is the difference between a solar eclipse, and a lunar eclipse?
|A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun, so the light from the Sun is blocked. A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth comes between the Moon and the Sun, so that when we look at the Moon we see the shadow of the Earth on the Moon.
|July 8, 1999
|Ashley (Canada)
|How many Earths could fit in the Sun?
|Over 1.3 million Earths could fit inside of the Sun. The Sun actually contains about 99% of the mass in the solar system, so it makes sense. It still blows me away every time I think about it though.
|June 15, 1999
|Gary (North Carolina)
|What causes the time of sunrise at a given point to change?
|Day length is related to the tilt of the Earth's axis (23.5 degrees) and where on the Earth's surface you are. For you in North Carolina days are longer when the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun because sunlight is more direct. The more extreme north or south on Earth, the more exaggerated the day lengths. In fact, the North pole has sunrise on March 20th, and it doesn't set again for six months on September 22nd. If it weren't for the tilt of the Earth's axis every latitude on Earth would have exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 of night each day of the year.
Check out the picture on our new SPARC page for when sunrise and sunset occur.
|June 3, 1999
|Justin (New York, USA)
|I wanted to know, why when I measure the length of a shadow the same time every day, why doesn't the length of the shadow change the same amount every day?
|If you measure the length of an object's shadow every day at the same time and same place...it should change by getting longer as you approach winter! This is due to the motion of the Earth around the Sun.
|June 1, 1999
|Sunday (Michigan, USA)
|How is it that the sun can give people energy?
|The sun can give people energy in a couple ways. When sunshine warms your body it is giving you some heat energy through radiation. The most important way the sun gives us energy is through the food we eat. Plants can convert the suns energy into food for itself, which we can eat. In fact, all the food we eat relies somehow on the sun. Kinda makes me hungry.
|May 25, 1999
|Yan (Texas, USA)
|In our sun, the nuclei of hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms. Where do the electrons go?
|The electrons are thrown out into space. They become part of the solar wind.
|May 25, 1999
|David (Tennessee, USA)
|Does the shadow cast by the moon during a solar eclipse stay in one place on the earth? If it does move, what would the different positions look like if you charted them every 30 minutes?
|During a total solar eclipse, a large shadow is cast onto the Earth. Even though a solar eclipse can only last a little more than 5 minutes for one location, the shadow does move across the Earth. During an annular eclipse, the Moon is farther away, so it doesn't cover the Sun completely. During this type of eclipse, there is no shadow.
|May 24, 1999
|Nancy (Michigan, USA)
|My friends and I watched a ring around the sun on Saturday, May 22 for several hours. Looked much like a rainbow, but very odd. Is this an unusual occurrence?
|Actually, this isn't as unusual as it would appear to be. The halo you saw was caused by the refraction of light. Ice crystals in clouds refract the light, usually producing a halo at 22.5 degrees around the sun. The crystals have to be around 20 microns in size, and should be falling through the atmosphere. A similar halo occurs around the moon.
|May 24, 1999
|Devin (New York, USA)
|When will the next solar eclipse occur?
|The next solar eclipse will occur on August 11, 1999. It will be total in Europe, the Middle East and India. It will last 2 minutes and 22 seconds.
|March 3, 1999
|Brandy (Pennsylvania, USA)
|What links can I go to to receive info on solar energy?
|Try looking at our Solar News and Discovery page for more information about the Sun. It includes my favorite source for solar energy information.
|January 5, 1999
|Why do coronal mass ejections occur? What causes the Sun to eject a CME? In other words, how does it all start?
|Coronal mass ejections are driven by the energy released from the Sun's magnetic field. You see, it is believed that the Sun's magnetic field gets twisted or bunched up. When it gets too twisted, sometimes it forces itself free. This releases energy that ejects material off of the Sun. This event is called a coronal mass ejection or a CME.
|November 9, 1998
|Valen (Pennsylvania, USA)
|How many Sun Spots are there?
|The number of sunspots varies from year to year. You'll find that near a solar maximum, the number for that year will be over 100. During a solar minimum, you'll find under 15! In 1989, the last solar maximum, there were 158 sunspots.
|October 13, 1998
|Lex (Pennsylvania, USA)
|What is the closest you could get to the sun without it being deadly?
|Actually, the only thing which protects us from being killed by the Sun right now is our atmosphere. The Sun's rays are very powerful, and if the atmosphere did not exist, we would very quickly get a sunburn so bad it would kill us!
|August 28, 1998
|Robert (Michigan, USA)
|I know that the Northern Lights are just gases in the atmosphere, but what makes them glow?
|When energetic particles from the Sun reach the Earth's upper atmosphere, they can cause the gases to glow. Here are the details.
|June 22, 1998
|Genevieve (New Jersey, USA)
|I've heard that in the future, the Sun will turn into a red giant and swallow the first three planets (Earth being one of them). I know this will happen in about 5 or 6 billion years but is there any chance of life on earth moving to another location? What do you suppose will happen?
|If humans are still around then, I think it would be completely reasonable to think that they could move to a different location. Some of the outer moons of Jupiter and Saturn would be a lot warmer then. They might even have liquid oceans at that point.
My guess is that Earthlings will have figured out faster forms of travel by then so they could go to a completely different solar system...knowing how much has been accomplished in just 100 years on Earth, things beyond our imagination will be done in 5 billion years!
|May 8, 1998
|Abhinav (India)
|On which side of the Sun are the sun spots?
|Well, sunspots are found on all sides of the Sun. They move with the Sun as the Sun rotates. Very often, sunspots are found near the middle of the Sun (around the equator). Don't look directly at the Sun to see this though - it can hurt your eyes!
|May 4, 1998
|Nicolas (Ontario, Canada)
|What would happen if Earth moved closer to the Sun?
|If the Earth moved closer to the sun, the atmosphere would disappear, the oceans would boil and evaporate, and every living thing on Earth would die!
|March 31, 1998
|Lauren (Virginia, USA)
|Can you give a description of the surface of the Sun?
|The photosphere looks somewhat boring at first glance: a disk with some dark spots. However, these sunspots are the site of strong magnetic fields. Also, if yo u look closely, you can see granulation on the surface of the Sun. This happens because of the tremendous heat coming from the solar core. The solar interior below the photosphere (the convection zone) bubble s like a pot of boiling water. The bubbles of hot material welling up from below are seen at the photosphere, as slightly brighter regions. Darker regions occur where cooler plasma is sinking to the interior.
|March 3, 1998
|Kristen (Wyoming, USA)
|As the Sun matures, what effect will it have on the Earth?
|In about 5 billion years, the Sun will start running out of fuel. When that happens, the Sun will start to collapse, getting hotter and hotter, then expanding again. It will then be called a red giant. When this happens, the Earth will probably be engulfed by the Sun, and certainly charred to a cinder. But there's quite a bit of time left before we need to worry about it!
|February 12, 1998
|Alberto (Spain)
|Could you tell me anything about the North Atlantic Anomaly in the Earth's magnetosphere?
|The Earth's magnetosphere has regions of unusually high radiation. These regions are called the Van Allen Belts. You can think of them (in a loose sense!) as concentric rings of trapped radiation. Because of the way that the Earth's magnetic field is offset from its rotational axis, the Van Allen Radiation Belts come closest to the Earth's surface over the South Atlantic ocean. This area is referred to as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). Astronauts/Cosmonauts in spacecraft try to avoid this area of the magnetosphere because radiation is so intense. Anyhow, you'd think there would be a corresponding anomaly (area of intense radiation) in the Northern hemisphere...but because of the offset of the magnetic axis with respect to the rotational axis, there is no symmetry involved.
|February 6, 1998
|Damon (California, USA)
|If our sun were surrounded by a bright nebula, would we see it at night as an aurora-type phenomena?
|Let's look at how the aurora are formed. Charged particles from the Sun (if they get near enough) can get trapped in the Earth's magnetic field. These particles spiral down the Earth's magnetic field lines until they run into atmospheric gases. These collisions give off energy that we perceive as different colored light. So, it seems reasonable to say that if there were more charged particles surrounding/leaving the Sun (in the nebula you described), we'd have an increase in the aurora we see!
|January 6, 1998
|Steve (Maine, USA)
|What is a sundog?
|Also called mock suns or parhelia, sun dogs are bright spots which appear on either side of the Sun when it is near the horizon. They are caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere which refract light in a certain way. Sun dogs usually appear 22 degrees to either side of the Sun. Also, moon dogs can form at night the same way sun dogs form during the day.
|January 5, 1998
|Scot (Georgia, USA)
|Do sunspots have any affect on the daily temperatures here on Earth?
|The studies that have been done so far indicate that the influence of sunspots on Earth's temperature is very small. The most we can say is that sunspots may have some influence on major storm cycles, but that is all.


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The world depends on mariners. Mariners depend on SCI. And we depend on you.
Photos of the simulator and classrooms in SCI's Center for Maritime Education in Houston, TX, taken in November 2012.
Photos by David Rider, President & Executive Director.
SCI's Center for Maritime Education provides career development opportunities for mariners through cutting-edge training.


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Adobe Illustrator CS6 Sneak Peek: Gradients on Strokes
Strokes are core to drawing in Illustrator, and for Illustrator CS6, the ability to apply gradients on strokes will let designers transform simple paths into visually complex and compelling shapes. And the beauty of this approach, beyond the imaginative artwork, is that the shape that's created is an easily edited stroke – not a typical shape that's defined by many points.
In Illustrator CS6, gradients on strokes can be applied along the length, across the width, or within a stroke, but the real magic happens when these new gradients are combined with the variable width stroke feature introduced in CS5.
Join Illustrator product manager Brenda Sutherland as she shares this exciting new creative tool coming in Illustrator CS6. Remember, Adobe Illustrator will be included in the upcoming Adobe Creative Cloud Membership!