text:
Bayern updates
Bob Baffert takes blinkers off speedy Bayern for Preakness
May 18 -- Kaleem Shah's Bayern, who finished ninth in Saturday's Preakness, boarded an early Sunday morning flight to Louisville, Ky.
May 16 -- Assistant trainer Jim Barnes sent Kaleem Shah's Bayern out to the track for a 1 1/2 mile gallop in the rain Friday morning at Pimlico.
Barnes said the Offlee Wild colt was fine and ready for the Preakness.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert ran Bayern in the Derby Trial on April 26 at Churchill Downs rather than wait five days to see if he would have enough points to get into the field for the Kentucky Derby. Bayern finished first in the Trial but was disqualified and placed second for interference in the stretch. He worked twice at Churchill Downs before shipping to Pimlico on Wednesday.
Rosie Napravnik, who rode Bayern in the Derby Trial, will be aboard in the Preakness.
May 15 -- Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, seeking his sixth Preakness victory, said he would relish having Bayern's rider, Rosie Napravnik, make history as the first female jockey to win Maryland's signature race.
"It was like when Chantal Sutherland was riding Game On Dude," Baffert said. "I got so much joy out of winning a big race that had never been done before with a female rider. It brought an extra flair to it."
Napravnik, who won her career debut at Pimlico in 2005, is making her second appearance in the Preakness. She was third on Mylute last year. Bayern and Napravnik finished first in the Derby Trial (G3) at Churchill Downs on April 26, but were disqualified and placed second for interference in the stretch. Baffert kept her on the speedy Bayern for the Preakness.
"I've had a lot of success with her, but I've put her on a lot of live horses," Baffert said. "She helps me out at Churchill. She's got the right attitude. She knows that I could bring somebody in from California to ride a horse at any time, and she has no problem with that. When she breezes my horses she knows what I want, what I expect. She works really well with us."
According to Equibase stats, Napravnik has eight wins, three seconds and earnings of $1,045,434 with 15 mounts on Baffert horses. Five of those victories have come in stakes, topped by three Grade 1 triumphs. In addition to Bayern, Napravnik has two other stakes mounts on Baffert horses at Pimlico this weekend: Jojo Warrior in the Miss Preakness and Cat Burglar in the Pimlico Special.
"I ride her because she's a great rider and I think she's getting better and better," Baffert said. "She's better this year than she was last year. I've seen her really changing a lot. Once you have it, you still need the horse underneath you. A great jockey like her keeps a good horse from getting beat."
Baffert said Napravnik is focused and fiercely competitive.
"A lot of jockeys are intimidated when they ride for me. She's not," he said. "She just rides her horse. I never say hardly a word to her. I just throw her on there, that's it, and I just leave her alone. She does her homework and I don't have to say too much to her."
Baffert acknowledged Napravnik's connection to Pimlico and Maryland racing, but said a win in the Preakness would be special, period.
"I think if she was from Alaska it would mean a big deal to her," he said. "Believe me, when you cross the wire and you win the Preakness or a classic race, it doesn't matter where you're from, it's huge."
Under the direction of Baffert's assistant, Jim Barnes, Bayern galloped on the track at Pimlico Thursday morning. The son of Offlee Wild shipped from Kentucky to Baltimore Wednesday.
May 14 -- Kaleem Shah's Bayern was one of the first horses on the track at Churchill Downs Wednesday morning, jogging a mile under exercise rider Jorge Alvarez before shipping to Baltimore.
Bayern has shown signs of brilliance in his four races this year and Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said he is ready for the Preakness test. After a 15-length allowance victory in his second start on Feb. 13, Baffert thought he might have a horse similar to Bodemeister, who won the Arkansas Derby in 2012, then finished second in both the Derby and Preakness. Bayern finished third as the favorite in the Arkansas Derby and Baffert opted to send him into the one-mile Derby Trial on April 26 instead of the Kentucky Derby.
Baffert entered Bayern and Chitu in the Trial, but scratched Chitu and sent him to the Derby, in which he was on the pace but finished ninth. In the Trial, Bayern finished first under jockey Rosie Napravnik, who will be back aboard in the Preakness, but was disqualified and placed second for interference in the stretch.
"I was thinking Derby when I went to Arkansas," Baffert said. "I was hoping for a Bodemeister, coming out of the same type of race. He ran well, but he got a little tired there at the end. He ran an incredible race. But then I saw that we were not looking good for the points (to get into the Derby field.)"
Baffert settled on the Derby Trial as the proper next step for the colt.
"After the Derby Trial I was thinking Preakness. I wasn't going to get him back in a week and run him," Baffert said. "I was a little bit disappointed the he couldn't separate himself from those horses. He still won, but I was looking for a bigger effort out of him. Then he came back well, so maybe he just needed some seasoning, some racing. I wasn't going to just throw him to the wolves a week later."
Baffert has decided to make an equipment change and take the blinkers off for the Preakness. He ran in them in his winning debut on Jan. 4 but did not wear them in his next two starts, only to be equipped with them again for the Derby Trial.
"I've been going back and forth and I just think that if he's going to lay off horses, I think he's going to be better off without blinkers," Baffert said. "He actually has a pretty good mind."
Baffert said he likes how Bayern has come out of the Derby Trial.
"He came back -- he didn't really shut it down -- and he trained well right after that," Baffert said. "He wasn't exhausted when he came back. He was tired in Arkansas. I think his training at Churchill Downs has helped him a lot."
Even with the blinkers off, Baffert said that Bayern will be prominently placed in the Preakness.
"He has a lot of speed and is going to be up close. We're not taking him back," Baffert said.
"This is time to find out. He's ready for it now and I feel good about him going in. If he's good enough, he's good enough. If he's not, we'll find out more about him after the race. Is he going to have distance limitations? Is this going to be the right spot? You don't know until the gate comes open. That's going to be up to Rosie. Rosie knows the horse pretty well now. I think she has him figured out."
Bayern, along with Preakness hopefuls Dynamic Impact, Ria Antonia and Pablo Del Monte, boarded a plane at Louisville International Airport for a 1:20 p.m. departure.
May 13 -- Kaleem Shah's Bayern walked the shedrow at Barn 33 at Churchill Downs and received a visit from jockey Rosie Napravnik Tuesday morning.
Never worse than third in four career starts, Bayern had worked five furlongs in company Monday with Napravnik up in 1:02 3/5.
"He came out of the work fine and we are ready for Baltimore," said Jim Barnes, assistant to trainer Bob Baffert.
Bayern, along with Preakness hopefuls Dynamic Impact and Ria Antonia, is scheduled to be loaded onto a van at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday for the short ride to Louisville International Airport to make a Tex Sutton charter flight to Baltimore scheduled to arrive at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in early afternoon.
May 12 -- Trainer Bob Baffert's hope for a sixth Preakness victory, Bayern, worked five furlongs over a fast track at Churchill Downs early Monday morning in 1:02 3/5 in company.
Owned by Kaleem Shah, Bayern and jockey Rosie Napravnik stepped onto the track shortly after 6 a.m. Starting about a length back on the outside of 5-year-old multiple graded-stakes winner Drill with Jorge Alvarez up, Bayern produced fractions of :13 3/5, :26 2/5, :38 4/5 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:15 1/5.
The five-furlong move was the ninth fastest of 17 at the distance.
"I love that horse," Napravnik said of Bayern. "He always relaxes for me and does what you ask."
Napravnik rode Bayern for the first time in a race in the Derby Trial (G3), finishing first but disqualified to second for interference in the stretch. She also has been aboard for three workouts at Churchill Downs and is ready to tackle Kentucky Derby (G1) winner California Chrome in the Preakness.
"California Chrome is very impressive," said Napravnik, who finished third in last year's Preakness on Mylute. "But he (Bayern) definitely will be a challenge for him."
May 11 -- Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has decided to take the blinkers off speedy Bayern for Saturday's 139th Preakness Stakes.
The son of Offlee Wild has pressed the pace in all four of his career starts. He broke his maiden on Jan. 4 wearing blinkers but didn't have them on for an allowance victory by 15 lengths on Feb. 13 or his third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby (G1) on April 12. The blinkers were back on for the Derby Trial (G3) on April 26, when he finished first but was disqualified and placed second.
There appears to be plenty of speed in the Preakness: Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome, Pablo Del Monte, Ring Weekend, Social Inclusion and Dynamic Impact have all been prominently placed in their recent races. After the Derby Trial DQ, Baffert said that the colt had to be able to stalk the pace, hence the decision to make the equipment change.
"If we're going to get him to track horses, track the speed, he needs them off," Baffert said Sunday.
Bayern, purchased by Kaleem Shah at a 2-year-old in training sale for $320,000 last year, galloped 1 1/2 miles after the morning renovation break at Churchill Downs with exercise rider Jorge Alvarez aboard. The Baffert trainee, who later schooled in the paddock with the horses in Churchill's first race, is scheduled to have his final work for the Preakness Monday morning and ship to Baltimore on Wednesday.


text:
The online news site Voice of OC has an important scoop: an unethical -- and possibly illegal -- attempt to delete public records in the Orange County city.
The context: The Voice of OC had sought certain public records in Anaheim in pursuit of stories. But it also learned of an email from a planning department staffer that attempted to short-circuit this and other public records requests by deleting old records.
Such deletion would seem to violate procedures and laws requiring preservation of public records, and a public process for disposing of old records.
U.S. & World
This sort of ignorance of public records laws is common in cities, but it's rare to see such violations clearly exposed. Which is why it's so important that a vigorous investigation be launched -- to make it plain that violations of the public's right to know won't be tolerated. In this case, Voice of OC's reporting suggests that deletion of records might have been sought to cover up other misbehavior by local officials. So any investigation should examine criminal violations.
If local prosecutors won't get involved, the state attorney general should.
Let us know what you think. Comment below, send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Senate Republicans and the National Rifle Association are preparing to side with the likes of Iran and North Korea in opposition to a U.N. Arms Trade Treaty that would help prevent weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists and human rights violators.
The United Nations General Assembly passed the international treaty by a vote of 154-3 with 23 nations abstaining from voting. The Tuesday vote marked the first time the U.N. has attempted to regulate the global arms trade in an effort to keep weapons of war from those who would commit acts of terror and human rights violations. The only three countries to oppose the treaty were Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
According to Reuters:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the vote, saying the treaty "will make it more difficult for deadly weapons to be diverted into the illicit market and … will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement praising the treaty:
"A strong, effective and implementable Arms Trade Treaty that can strengthen global security while protecting the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade."
Kerry also reassured Americans that ratifying it would not affect domestic gun ownership protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution.
"Nothing in this treaty could ever infringe on the rights of American citizens under our domestic law or the Constitution, including the Second Amendment," Kerry said.
But despite assurances from Secretary Kerry, the American government, the treaty itself, and pretty much the rest of the world that the treaty only seeks to regulate exports of weapons such as tanks, helicopters, rocket launchers, etc, to prevent terrorists and other evil people from getting the latest killing machines on the market, the National Rifle Association is prepared to force their puppets in the U.S. Senate to oppose the treaty. Those loyal puppets, of course, are Republicans, with the exception of a couple conservative Democrats.
Reuters reports:
"The NRA opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification by the U.S. Senate when it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty will undermine domestic gun rights, a view the U.S. government has strongly rejected."
In order for a U.N. treaty to be ratified in the United States, 67 senators are required to vote in favor. As we all know, getting any domestic legislation to pass the Senate with just 60 votes has been nearly impossible over the last four and half years due to Republican obstruction. That means getting a sane and responsible international treaty that will help keep Americans safe could be dead in the water if the NRA and Republicans have their way.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained on her show on Thursday night that Senate Republicans oppose the treaty because they believe an NRA conspiracy theory that this treaty allows the United Nations to take guns away from American citizens. The treaty, in fact, only regulates arms EXPORTS. In other words, guns that America ships to other nations. The treaty doesn't affect domestic ownership of guns at all. It simply prevents traded weapons from ending up in the hands of soldiers from Iran or North Korea, terrorists, mercenaries, dictators, etc… Why would any American oppose that? Watch Rachel Maddow explain the situation in the following video via The Raw Story.
If Senate Republicans agree to stand with the NRA in opposition to this treaty, they would effectively be allying themselves with Iran and North Korea, enemies of America who harbor terrorist groups. America is the top weapons exporter on earth. If we don't ratify this treaty, it becomes pointless and powerless. You would think all Americans would support a treaty that keeps weapons we trade away from terrorists and other hostile individuals and groups that want to kill us. But that, sadly, isn't the case.
It makes one wonder if Republicans are serious about keeping Americans safe at all. Here is an international treaty that makes perfect sense if you really want to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons they would use to kill Americans. To think that half the U.S. Senate would stand with Iran and North Korea because they believe a ridiculous right-wing conspiracy theory is jaw dropping. The patriotism of every Republican in the Senate should be questioned if they oppose this treaty. Do they want Americans to really be safe? Or do they want terrorists to have the weaponry they want to kill Americans with? It's that simple.


text:
Test Instructions :
Before you start the test here are few things to remember.
- This test comprises of two types of questions - multiple choice questions (MCQ) and numerical answer questions.
- MCQ will have only 1 of the available options as the correct answer.
- For 1-mark multiple-choice questions, 1/3 marks will be deducted for a wrong answer. Likewise, for 2-marks multiple-choice questions, 2/3 marks will be deducted for a wrong answer.
- There is no negative marking for numerical answer type questions and unattempted questions.
- You can write this test only once so for best results do not try to guess answers.
- In case the test does not load completely or becomes un-responsive, click on browser's refresh button to reload.
- You are advised not to close the browser window before submitting the test.


text:
NEW YORK (AP) — A.C. Crispin, a science fiction author who wrote popular tie-in novels to "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" and helped run the online watchdog "Writer Beware" that alerted authors to literary scams, has died.
Crispin died of cancer Friday at age 63, according to an announcement on the Web site of the publisher Tor Books, and on the site for Writer Beware.
Starting in 1983, she wrote more than 20 novels, many of them based on movies and TV series, including "Star Trek," ''Star Wars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean."
Other novels by Crispin, whose full name was Ann Carol Crispin, included "Storms of Destiny," ''Sylvester" and an original series, "Starbridge."
In 1998, Crispin and Victoria Strauss founded Writer Beware, which provides warnings about everything from poetry contests to vanity presses.


text:
SAN ANTONIO, TX — Virgin Life Care may have created the missing link connecting health clubs, health care and corporations, said Matthew Stevens, president of Spectrum Clubs. And he has jumped on board to be a part of it.
Spectrum is teaming with Virgin Life Care and insurer Humana Inc. to offer certificates for goods and services to individuals who work out. The program also is in place at some Gold's Gyms in Tampa, FL, and at the Louisville Athletic Club in Louisville, KY. Virgin Life Care plans to roll out the program nationwide this year.
Participants in the program earn Virgin Life Care HealthMile points by exercising or taking measurements at a Virgin Life Care HealthZone, a free service to participants. Points earned can later be converted to Virgin Cash, which can be used to purchase a variety of products and services offered by 40 partnering merchants including Amazon.com, Bath & Body Works and Target.
The HealthZone allows fitness facilities to connect health care companies and corporations with data that tracks the health progress of employees. While many of the HealthZone elements are available in the industry, this is the first time all of the elements have been integrated, said Stephen Thornton, CEO of Virgin Life Care.
"There are kiosks that exist where users can check blood pressure, but they aren't integrated and linked as part of a single, turnkey system which allows you to get online and track your results, get on the Web site and track your health and nutrition, access incentives for the application and effort," he said. "It's the integrated nature of the program that's unique."
Some corporate fitness facilities have similar programs , Stevens said, but smaller fitness facilities hadn't been able to afford them, leading Stevens to believe that the Virgin Life Care program could change the way clubs do business.
"It will be a major step for our industry," Stevens said. If corporations sign up their employees for the program, sales reps would work to get a set percentage of those employees participating rather than selling individual memberships.
"It's going to be a big win for the industry," Stevens said.
In late February, two months after the first HealthZone installation, Virgin Life Care had installed approximately 30 HealthZones. The company plans to expand that number to 5,000-8,000 during the next few years. As of late February, Virgin Life Care had 28,000-29,000 log ins to the HealthZone systems.
A similar program in place in South Africa for five years has attracted 500,000 members.
"I would suppose if you did a comparable in terms of market size and penetration that would equate to 4 million members [in the United States]," said Thornton.
Spectrum members have been using the system since Jan. 10. Of Spectrum's 40,000 adult members at its 10 San Antonio clubs, 6,000 had registered on the HealthZone after 45 days and are using the zones more than four times a month. Stevens' goal is for half of his adult members to be registered and using the HealthZone regularly, something that he hopes will help him reach his membership goals. He plans to implement the program at Spectrum's California clubs soon.
While Spectrum members have used the HealthZone to get their measurements and track their progress on the Web site, they have not been able to earn rewards because they are not part of the corporate HealthMiles program, which is offered to employees of corporations that have signed up for the program.
However, Stevens is working with Virgin Life Care to develop a ClubMiles reward program that would be similar to the HealthMiles program but designed for club members. While the HealthMiles benefits are funded in part by Virgin Life Care and in part by employers, club owners would pay the cost of the Club Miles benefit.
"The concept would be that those are dollars well invested into my membership," Stevens said.
Stevens and Thornton hope to make the ClubMiles program turnkey for use by other interested health clubs.
Health clubs won't be the only hosts for the HealthZones. Virgin Life Care also plans to install them at corporations and retail outlets. However, the company is looking for more health club hosts who can deliver the Virgin experience — service, fun and value for their money — to the member.
Fitness facilities interested in hosting a HealthZone must adhere to a set of reciprocal service level agreements. The facilities also must offer connectivity, visibility and accessibility for the HealthZones.
Clubs pay a fee to lease the HealthZones, but Thornton declined to provide the leasing fee. Instead, he said the program "provides good value" for the clubs and offers them several benefits.
"We are enlarging the number of people who might normally be health club goers," said Thornton. "When people have additional motivation and incentives, it gets more people moving. We like to think we can get more foot flow into health clubs. We also provide an accountable system that allows one to track what one is doing."
The costs associated with being a HealthZone provider are worth it, Stevens said.
"If everyone who comes through my door can track their progress, get rewards and have a Web site that gives them a tracking system that is a motivator pushing them to be proactive, they'll stay with me longer," he said.
Stevens expects the program to entice corporations to sign up their employees at his gyms. He's already working on packages for interested corporations.
Thornton would like other companies to offer programs similar to HealthZone, making the term HealthMiles as generic a term as air miles and adding validation to the concept. However, Thornton plans for Virgin Life Care to be the gold standard in terms of reward programs.
"I'd like for us to be the benchmark that other programs are measured by," he said.


text:
King's Resort
King's Resort offers entertainment, poker and casino games, dining, hotel luxury, events, and relaxation. Based in Rozvadov, Czech Republic (near the Czech-German-border), it is only a 90-minute drive from Prague and a two-hour drive from Munich. It houses the largest poker room in all of Europe with 160 poker tables and has been home to the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) since 2017.
The complex consists of around 400 hotel rooms, a casino, event-spaces (for special events, conferences and business meetings), a new Wellness and Spa Center, and two restaurants including the Radimský.
King's is inspired by the luxurious décor of the casino hotels in Las Vegas. An absolute highlight is its Fabergé-inspired event space with its opulent strikes of royal blue, gold and white, decorative lighting, high ceilings, and golden bar, which create a truly unforgettable atmosphere. The event space was also among the finalists for the SDIB International Design Excellence Awards in 2018.
It's recently opened luxury Wellness and Spa Center offers a view of the Bohemian forest and is equipped with a swimming pool, fitness studio, steam bath, aroma-therapy steam bath, a Finnish sauna, relaxation area, and a Thai massage salon.
King's offers a wide range of services for events, conferences, and business meetings. Its conference room is equipped with modern sound systems, LCD monitors, video projectors, air-conditioning, high-speed Wi-Fi internet, and has fibre-optic internet for multi-stream HD video channels. Catering equipment and services are also available to ensure you have everything you need. We have capacities for up to 1,500 attendees and customizable conference facilities up to 1500 sqm. The space is suitable for conferences, team-building events, meetings, presentations, product launches, exhibitions, gala award dinners, and more. Our services are also provided in three languages as our staff speaks English, German, and Czech.


text:
Friday, February 6, 2009
Eclipse: Part 4 - My thoughts
For those of you that don't like reading math, please feel free to skip to the bottom for my TL:DR version of the post.
The Summary:
In part one I took at a look at the two potential buffs, and tried to determine which had the greater impact on our DPS.
What I found was that an Eclipse buffed Starfire did very similar DPS to an Eclipse buffed Wrath, and in several cases actually did a little more DPS. Eclipse buff Starfire by 25% to 30%, but buffs Wrath by only 16%. On top of that, since the Starfire buff is a crit buff it also increases the mana efficiency of Starfire very dramatically.
Since Wrath and Starfire have similar DPS with the Eclipse buff, then the debate drops to other issues like mana efficiency. In this area Starfire is the clear winner. (i.e. spam wrath to get the SF buff)
In part two I tried to put a value on Eclipse. I found that investing 3 points into Eclipse can increase a moonkin's DPS by 8% to 13% under ideal circumstances. In reality this number will be reduced due to fight mechanics and the randomness of the talent. However, even if the value is cut in half, it is a significant increase to our DPS.
I also ran the evaluation with only 1 or 2 points in Eclipse. The results showed that you can receive 75% to 90% of the benefit by investing just 1 point in the talent. I however will continue to invest 3 to reduce the randomness on an already very random talent.
In part three, I looked at what we should do about DoTs during Eclipse. I found that it was technically possible to increase your DPS by refreshing Insect Swarm at the beginning of Eclipse but the benefit is so small that it is not worth the effort. For Moonfire the affect can be more significant. I found that it was a DPS increase to refresh Moonfire at the very beginning of Eclipse, but lost its value about 5 or 6 seconds into the buff's duration. In short, don't refresh Insect Swarm. Only refresh Moonfire at the very beginning of the buff.
My Thoughts:
As a community we have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Eclipse. It was widely criticized when it was originally announced and Blizzard had to buff it several times before it was accepted by the community. Now, everyone agrees that it is a must have talent, but that doesn't mean we all like it. In my opinion Eclipse has two main issues that stem from the randomness of the talent.
The first issue is that it is inconsistent. Since most DPS classes rely on crit to some extent, we can all fall victim to the RNG at times. However, Eclipse increase our exposure to that devil.
Look at the Starfire Eclipse for example. First it procs off of Wrath critical hits. Second, the Wrath critical hit only has a 60% chance to proc Eclipse. Third, once Eclipse procs the buff improves our crit rate, another RNG calculation. This is what is disturbing about Eclipse. Our DPS depends on 3 RNG calculations.
We all have stories of when we caught the bad end of an RNG. Last night for example, we were fighting Malygos. At the very start of the fight I put up FF, IS, and MF. I then started to Wrath spam. I had 4 wrath crits in a row, but none of them procced Eclipse. Of course, I'm not QQing about the times that I procced Eclipse off the first Wrath cast and then when on to get 6 critical hits in a row (but on one of those situations I did pull aggro and wipe the raid).
Of course this all averages out in the end, but the inconsistency has other consequences. Raid Leaders don't like inconsistency. The two main goals my guild is working on currently are the 6 minute Malygos achievement and Sarth 3D on 10 man level. These are both DPS races to some extent and we've had great attempts were we get really close and the next attempt we are far behind. Obviously that is not all me, but it is part of the problem.
On top of that the inconsistancy makes me look like a slacker if the Raid Leader doesn't know any better. It is possible for me to play my class perfectly and have 4K DPS on both Patchwerk and Grobbulus. If I was a Raid Leader and didn't know the class, I would wonder why I was slacking on Patchwerk.
I realize my opinion is worth a grain of salt here, but in my opinion, Eclipse makes moonkin one of the most difficult DPS specs to play in WoW.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying all of the other classes are easy. In BC I always said Shadow Priests were one of the hardest classes to play with with 2 DoTs and 2 long cooldowns. Affliction locks also have it rough with 5 DoTs and one long cooldown. However, they have one advantage that we don't.
Their rotations are completely predictable. A Warlock knows exactly when his Unstable Affliction is going to run out. A Shadow Priest knows exactly when the cooldown on his Mind Blast is up. They can calculate in their heads when they can nuke and when they need to refresh DoTs. This is not the case for moonkin. I am rarely 100% sure of what I will be casting next, or if I am going to refresh my DoTs.
The really issue here is that I have only so much attention span to spread out among all the things I need to pay attention to and mistakes are costly. Watching for a buff lowers my situational awareness and makes me more likely to stand in a void zone and die. If I miss that my cooldown is up I don't lose jsut a tick or two of a DoT. I miss my buff for 30 - 35 seconds.
How would I fix it?
To be honest I'm not sure what the best way is to fix it. The two popular suggestions are to either make it an activated ability like a trinket or to give it charges instead of a duration.
I don't really like the idea of making it an activated ability. We have enough of those, and it just feels kind of cheap to me. The charges idea sounds interesting. It will definitely reduce the number of wasted buffs, but you still have to watch for the proc and such.
The idea I had won't help eclipse directly but I think it will help our playability in general. I think they should revert the Glyph of Starfire back to its original form. It basically takes a DoT out of our rotation which is something Blizzard has been trying to do for Shadow Priests and Affliction Locks. Why not us?
Anyway as you can see I don't have any great suggestions. Please feel free to lend me your thoughts or suggestions in the comments.
18 comments:
- Diermaker said...
"This is what is disturbing about Eclipse. Our DPS depends on 3 RNGcalculations."
Better words have never been spoken. Great job talking about this talent.
I will have to pass this on to my buddy who ask why I can go from 3K to 5k on different tries on 3 Drakes.
- February 6, 2009 at 6:08 PM
Hello Graylo. Thanks for the nice serie of posts, it provides a great insight into the talent. I agree with your summary and honestly I don't like the talent at all: since when it was introduced I find raiding so much more demanding, I don't have time anymore to decurse or depoison or throw that critical heal that can save someone because I'm looking at procs. And after 4 hours of raiding I'm tired like it were 10.
Anyway I write to give my advice: I think on harder fights where a lot of situational awareness is needed, it's far easier to use the Wrath eclipse. As you showed the damage boost is similar, but I find it way easier to proc and manage: basically I only have to cast starfire, at the first crit I know the buff procced, I switch to wrath and as soon as the buff ends I go back to starfire and can ignore the cooldown since I'm already casting the correct spell to proc the buff. With this rotation I guess the best idol would be again the raven goddes one, since the damage is made by 50% starfire and 50% wrath, isn't it?
Ebonhorn of Argent Dawn EU
- February 7, 2009 at 5:00 AM
Not to mention our rotation is already dependant on so much RNG calculations, but so are the majority of our trinkets!
Dying Curse and the Sundial trinkets are always proccing when I can use them, its retarded.
- February 7, 2009 at 9:05 AM
The devs have announced they'd like skill>gear etc. and it seems one of the ways they are implementing this idea is by favoring more and more complex rotations. Feral Cat dps mirrors many of the problems we have; look at some of the Hunter nerfs as well as what has happened to warlocks and their rotations. The days of Sac/Destro 1 button spam being the 'best dps' solution are gone I'm afraid, so I don't believe there will be any 'relief' from these contortions we have to go through to max our contributions.
Get your RL an antacid and remind him/her of the realities of dps for most classes in WotLK. As an aside. I think the older devs still cling to their original vanilla release vision of our class as a viable 'tank or healer' and they make dps as difficult as possible for us. Thankfully enough folks enjoy 'killing stuff' in raids and pvp with their droods that at least we are able to do that now...even if it can be a struggle compared to other classes.
- February 7, 2009 at 10:12 AM
- Boukev said...
I have to say, I personally love the eclipse talents, it really takes concentration and skill to get the best DPS possible. I always feel so good when i have done well and maximized my DPS. If I could do this all the time (like some DPS classes) then I would get bored soon and reroll Tree again.
- February 7, 2009 at 10:35 AM
- Diermaker said...
From a design standpoint the talent does not seem to fit what they are going for. The whole bring the player and not the class really goes out the window here.
I can not see any raid bringing more than one Boomkin. I can be top dps or dead last on a given boss. No reason to sit a mage for a second Boomkin.
- February 7, 2009 at 3:19 PM
Thanks for an excellent series of posts on Eclipse. It tallies with my own calculations and qualms but it's nice to see it written out in a clear and concise manner.
I like eclipse, it adds extra challenge, and rewards you if you pay attention. Most of the time.
However, watching closely for procs does take away from situational awareness. Like Ebonhorn I feel worn out after raiding. I'm so busy watching SquawkandAwe, timers on boss abilities, voidzones, etc, at my feet, I end up not actually seeing half the instance. And it's pretty frustrating when even having played as best I can, if I get smacked by the RGN, meters make it look as if I need to learn my class.
Having Eclipse be a proc ability would probably make life too easy for us ('s not hard to write a macro that tries to proc it every time a spell is cast). I do like the idea of having Eclipse be charges. That makes the decision to reapply dots a bit easier and if you're keeping IFF up for the raid, makes you want to kill fewer people (on seeing aforementioned meters). Having the SF glyph revert to its original form would be very helpful. I reeeeally hope a dev somewhere is reading this blog.
Bottom line: overall Eclipse is a good thing, I do not wish the good old days of MF, SFx4 back. But there are few other classes that have to watch their abilities as closely and lose quite as much dps if they make a mistake. And let's face it, when someone is performing worse than their gear suggests they should, we seldom look to the RGN as the first explanation.
Eclipse would not f___n' proc... honestly, I don't suck. Really.
- February 7, 2009 at 3:28 PM
- Unknown said...
I am a new 80 balance druid, and I read your posts, and the elitist jerk forum posts, and still found I was getting better dps on the training dummy and during fights by using Starfire to proc my eclipse then spamming wrath.
I was thinking this could be due to a few things. One of them is that this only gives you one rng calculation. So its a LOT more dependable. I would get 2 eclipse procs before I went oom consistantly. As opposed to wrath spamming for the proc when I went oom a lot quicker and usually only got 1 proc.
So thats just the target dummy, and I don't go oom during 25 man fights, but the consistancy also helps alot during boss fights. Its much easier to maximize the benefit from the wrath proc since the casting time is quicker allowing you movement in between casts.
Anyways, during boss fights I am also getting better dps using starfire to proc eclipse.
Perhaps its just my gear level. I have about 1600sp and 24% crit self buffed in moonkin form. Also I don't have the starfire idol.
- February 8, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Very nice series.
Just an idea I had and found that if increases my DPS by quite a bit on training dummies.
When shaman casts BL, I will cast Starfall. This gives me all that BL Haste as well as (nearly) a static NG from all the starfall crits. Ill spam SF until Wrath Eclipse (usually 4-5 1 second casts) I now have 2-3 seconds left on starfall and ~20 seconds left on BL. This is when i spam now Imp Wrath (from eclipse) and pop my spell power trinket. with all that haste, ill be getting .2 second wraths and my GCD works fine. Only very rarely will i get a "spell not ready yet" error message.
Thanks again,
Beefiest, Moonkin
- February 9, 2009 at 11:13 AM
- Unknown said...
I have to say that I agree with Ebonhorn. On fights with movement/ decursing duties it is much easier to use a Wrath Eclipse without it being wasted. Even on movement intensive fights you can get a couple of wraths off during your move if Eclipse has just procced. It also helps knowing when the buff is going up instead of relying on RNG.
Mana becomes a bit more of an issue, but is still not usually that problematic.
And I'm sure most of us know that if a Wrath Eclipse DOES happen- just go with it :-P It's not that bad.
- February 10, 2009 at 9:24 AM
- Stephanie said...
This is great... Thank you for posting it... I also had a question about idols... I currently have the Naxx25 Starfire idol, but I was wondering about with the rotation that I currently use, which is the one that you suggest, should I get the badge one that buffs wrath? Any suggestions would be great!
Have a delicious day!
- February 11, 2009 at 12:17 AM
"On top of that the inconsistancy makes me look like a slacker if the Raid Leader doesn't know any better. It is possible for me to play my class perfectly and have 4K DPS on both Patchwerk and Grobbulus. If I was a Raid Leader and didn't know the class, I would wonder why I was slacking on Patchwerk."
Agh, my worst fear right there. Sometimes I can top the meters, or stay in the top 5 with a lucky string of crits. Other times it seems to take forever to get an Eclipse proc and I'm bottom 10 or worse. I also worry about the arcane mage with a little bit worse gear than me but can sometimes do way more damage (~500 dps) on bosses. Unfortunately my feral and leafy friends have been MIA with school these past several weeks and I've been stuck with applying FF.
Quick question... sometimes with 2 or 3 seconds left of the Eclipse internal cooldown, I try to get off 1 last starfire and it crits (yay!) but procs Wrath Ecplipse. Should I keep spamming SF until the cooldown is over again, or use the buff and spam Wrath?
- February 11, 2009 at 10:33 AM
- Merlot said...
Druid dps certainly looks a lot more complicated in Wrath, but isn't that part of the attraction? Taking the mf dot out of the picture might make it easier to manage eclipse, but I think you'd get bored :)
So I like the idea of charges - or at least something that enables you to perform more consistently without dumbing down. The arcane mage system seems the most elegant and applicable, but I'm sure nobody wants just a clone of that for moonkins.
- February 11, 2009 at 10:45 AM
- Hotball said...
I think we certainly need a less random Eclipse for Starfire. Wrath Eclipse is less random, but it also doesn't have the benefit of mana return on crits. It can be troublesome on long fights.
A way to remove the randomization of Starfire Eclipse would be dramatically increasing it's crits rate. For example, if, when proced, it increases crit rate by, say, 60%, then a lot of randomness will be gone with reasonable equipments. Of course, this will be overpowered, so the internal cooldown may have to be increased too, for example, maybe the internal cd increases from 15 seconds to 30 seconds (it would need some simulation to make sure that the benefit stays more or less the same).
- February 12, 2009 at 3:12 AM
- Graylo said...
The SF idol improves SF more then the Wrath Idol improves Wrath. So, Unless your using Wrath for 60 - 70% of your damage the SF idol is better.
Go with what ever buff you have. The Wrath Eclipse is good, just not as good as Starfire Eclipse.
We're all different, but I wouldn't get bored. I didn't get bored during BC after 3.0.2 when all we had to do was spam SF.
Pushing buttons isn't the fun part of raiding for me, because Ideally we shouldn't even be really thinking about what buttons we are pushing. It should be second nature.
I get more into the positioning and optimizing my performance in that way. However we are all different.
- February 12, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Ok, I'm willing to give Eclipse rotation and spec one last shot before I chuck it and all your advice right out the window.
I did spec for it the other night and practiced on the boss dummies. Result = Eclipse rotation 1000dps less than my current wrath spam spec on average.
Under my current spec (minus eclipse), I average between 3000 - 5000dps on bosses - depending on the fight. I want to consistantly be in the 4k+ range.
I saw a mention of an addon that tracks cooldowns, but I cannot seem to find it. Can you provide the name/link again? I'll try the rotation with the addon and if it still blows moonkin dingleberries, then I'll never use it again and you'll lose a reader...
JK - you have a great blog, I just don't know if I agree with some of your calculations.
Thank you.
Hoots - Alexstraza
- February 13, 2009 at 3:08 PM
I just had to add my comment because i can't agree more. I have exactly the same thoughts as you about Eclipse being so RND.
Sometimes i can push up to 5k DPS and sometimes i'm down to 3k DPS, my guild already achieved Sartharion 3D but we're still trying Malygos 6min (got a very close try once tho, 9 sec over the timer) and some trys i do very nice dps others i do shit :<.
Annoys me so much we 'can't' really choose when to proc eclipse, on complex fights like Sartharion 3D where you have to move quite a lot sucks to get an Eclipse proc and "oh, flame tsunami coming i have to move :<" same goes for Malygos with the vortex... Also about when shamans use heroism/bloodlust, ok most of the time you will get an Eclipse there but sometimes you wont (another RND).
With patch 3.1.0 i was really hoping a change to Eclipse, i was thinking about making it an Active skill (like mages got Combustion or Icy Veins) also the Glyph of Starfall should go back to its first version... i think letting us remove one DoT from rotation will help a lot about our already a bit complex rotation.
Quetzal from Ravencrest (EU).
- February 15, 2009 at 8:40 PM
I couldn't agree more about the difficulty of the class to play. Being forced to watch procc, using mods to be able to view internal cooldowns and having to adapt your spell rotation on the fly all while making sure you don't get yourself gibbed makes raiding quite a chore at times.
I also don't see why they nerfed the starfire glyph, it made the class much more enjoyable and didn't really have that big an impact on the class's DPS
- February 25, 2009 at 6:27 AM


text:
Jump to navigation Jump to search
|Look up Carib in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Carib may refer to:
People and languages[edit]
- Kalina people, or Caribs, an indigenous people of South America
- Carib language, also known as Kalina, the language of the South American Caribs
- Island Caribs, or simply Caribs, an indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean
- Island Carib language, or simply Carib, the language of the Island Caribs
- Cariban languages, the wider family of languages that includes Carib (but not Island Carib)
- Black Carib, indigenous people from the island of Saint Vincent, descended from Island Caribs and black slaves
- Garifuna people, Central American people descended from Saint Vincent's Black Caribs
- Eulampis, a genus of hummingbird with the following species:
- Carib grackle, a New World tropical blackbird
Other uses[edit]
- Carib Aviation, a former airline based in Antigua and Barbuda
- Carib Brewery, a brewery headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago
- Carib Territory, a district in the Caribbean island-nation of Dominica
- Caribes de Anzoátegui, a professional baseball team from Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela
- USS Carib, several United States Navy vessels
See also[edit]
- All pages with titles beginning with Carib
- All pages with titles containing Carib
- Cari (disambiguation)
- Carob
- Caribbean (disambiguation)
| disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Carib.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.


text:
• Two outputs that can be controlled separately with a simple click
• Digital LED display
• 12 massage modes: Kneading Acupuncture Tapping Scraping Cupping Combination Swedish massage Thai massage Korean massage Shiatsu massage Foot massage and Sport massage
• Adjustable timer for your convenience (10-60 minutes)
• 20 levels of strength
• Extremely small dimensions (smaller than an Ipod!)
• Rechargeable Lithium battery
• Five year warranty
Maintenance and Care:
• Always remember to apply a few drops of water on the sticky surface of both pads before and after use.
• To maintain the cleanliness of the massage pads, always apply a few drops of water and cover them with protective films after use.
• Turn off the instrument when not in use.
• Depending on usage, each pair of massage pads usually last for more than 2 months.
• When the massage pads completely lose their adhesiveness, extra massage pads can be ordered.
• Avoid applying the massage pads near the heart, above the neck, on the head, in the mouth or pubic region, or over scars.
• Avoid touching the massage pads directly with fingers when power is on.
• Pregnant women should avoid using this massager.
• Patients who use a pacemaker or life support equipment, such as an artificial heart-lung devices and respirators should avoid using this massager.
• Keep out of reach of children.
• Do not open the chassis of the control unit.
* Consult with your doctor before using IQ Massager if you have:
• Skin problems
• Acute disease
• Malignant tumor
• Infectious disease
• Cardiac dysfunction
• High blood pressure
• High fever
It is the newest version, which excels with all its features, high performance and comfort!
Product portability has come to its best. Now you can use it anywhere: indoors, outdoors and it will fit easily even in your pocket! It's a fantastic product and a unique gift to your family, friends or co-workers.
Since its production, the IQ Massager has won great attention and high praise.


text:
Wow. I want to always remember everything about this run. Who knows when I'll have an experience like this again? This is going to be a long report. There, I've warned you. I'm not even sure where to start. Friday afternoon, I guess...
For dinner, my mom was insistent on eating at the "Evergreen Supper Club." She vouched for its great food and great service and had been there many times with her parents. In typical Monica (my mom) fashion, she had the name wrong--it was actually called the Greenwood Supper Club. After hearing this, I was really hoping to hear some "Proud to Be an American" as we walked in, but no such luck.
Me, Ellie, Doug, Curt, Gretchen (aka "Human Debris")
"...its so demoralizing to think that he's going to run faster than my team...I
mean, there are four of us...three of us are younger, two of us are much better
looking, and I even shaved my legs...does that not count for anything!"
Think Reggae
The past week had been spent reading as much as I could about strategy in a 50 miler. I was all over the world wide web (to quote Ellie, "thanks Al Gore") like crazy. One particular post on http://www.runningandrambling.com/ really resonated with me. It talked about the differences between an Ironman and a 100-mile Ultramarathon. The analogy the author uses considers Iroman events much like rock concerts--adrenaline-laced, jam-packed, lots of people in close confines--and thinks of Ultras as, in his words, a "reggae festival." Ultras last a lot longer, everyone is really relaxed, and you become one with nature (occasionally in the form of marijuana).
I slept terribly on Friday night. My mind was racing through subjects from the politics (that'll keep you awake at night) to what song Ellie, Doug, Josh (a friend of mine), and I should perform at an upcoming Lip-Synching Fundraiser for a local charity (I'm really hoping we perform a number by 2ge+her, but we'll see). Fortunately my alarm FINALLY went off at exactly 4:51 AM. I hopped out of bed and hit the shower, then had my normal Breakfast of Champions, Chicken & Stars. I also had some protein dissolved in water and a banana, and topped it off with some coffee. The Fall 50 uses a "wave start," where the solo runners start at 7:00 AM, and the teams follow, based on expected finish times, on the hour from 8:00 to 10:00. Our hotel was near the finish line, so my parents (who were picking me up) and I had about an hour-long drive to get to the start line. My mom and dad are, to say the least, dependable. I had given them a schedule of when I wanted to be at the start line, when I hoped to be at each aid station, and anything at all I may want, from a gel, to some ice cubes, to perhaps some weed (JOKE) at any particular time throughout the day. I wasn't asking all that much, right?
In a word, Mom and Dad are AWESOME.
I walked out of our cottage at 5:30, into the darkness, and was welcomed by two small bucks who were hanging out in the lawn. They took off, and I took that as another sign it was going to be a good day. My parents werewere staying at a different hotel, so a quick call to them to make sure they were on their way to pick me up (I was freaking out about not being at the start!) assured me they were minutes away, but they had to stop for several deer to cross the highway. Five minutes later, my stuff (3 backpacks full!) was in the car and we were on our way to the start line...Gill's Rock.
"50 miles...50 miles...Think Reggae..."
[Map and Elevation can be seen here.] It was dark and cold when we arrived at the top of Door County, and I was a nervous wreck. Whether it was the cold or my nerves, I was shaking like crazy. My mom gave me a blanket and my dad broke the ice by pointing out that he wanted to get a picture of the phone booth. "Don't see that every day any more," he said. I couldn't help but laugh. Of all the places for a phone booth to stand, Gills Rock, at the tip of Door County?
Shortly before the start, Ross from RunAway Shoes said hello. He was staying at a hotel at the start line and wanted to wish me luck before I started this journey. He's been a great help for me in my 1month100miles journey. I was wearing shoes and a shirt from his store and had a stockpile of Gels and ClifShots for the journey. Thanks again, Ross!
Minutes before the start. I'm the two little reflections on the left.
Sean Ryan (the race director extraordinaire) quoted Hebrews (I think, or was it Ephesians? I was so emotional and nervous at this point my mind wasn't working at optimal levels) and told us to "beware of left turns" because if we end up at Lake Michigan, it's "gonna be a long day." With that, I was on my way. I'm not sure what to say about Leg 1, besides the fact my pace was right around 9:00/mile and my heartrate was in Zone 17. I did whatever I could to stay as calm as possible, and I even walked some of the uphills.
Leg 2 (map and elevation here) is where it starts to get interesting. It starts with a big climb outside of Ellison Bay, which at 7:45 AM was still sleeping and fogged over. So sleepy, in fact, that several runners completely missed the first aid station, and consequently their drop bags. One such runner asked me where the first aid station was after we had already climbed the first hill out of Ellison Bay. I broke the news to her and promised that my parents would give her water and gels and anything she needed. Despite that, she wasn't happy. I apologized and continued. The route then follows Hwy 42, the main highway through Door County. It's pretty plain, especially at that time of the morning, but the best part is the passing of the relay teams on their way to the start line. Horns, cowbells, and painted cars keep the solo runners moving!
Finally, a big downhill welcomes you to Sister Bay and after making your way through the downtown (which includes Al Johnson's Grass-roofed restaurant), leg 2 ends with a climb up and up and up. I chose to walk it. I commented to Kurt, a fellow solo runner, that I ran this thing last year when Ellie and I were on a Pairs Team, and it was a bad idea then. There's no way I'm running a single step this year! Finally, at the top of the hill is the next aid station. My dad was waiting to write down my split time, and my mom was scrambling to get the next gel and bottle of nuun ready. She told me later she felt terrible for not having things ready for me when I arrived. I was speechless--I hope I never gave her the impression I was disappointed. My crew was amazing! I hope they'll come back next year!
My dad writing down my split for Leg 2
Leg 3 - Sister Bay to Peninsula State Park (10.4-15.4)
[Map and Elevation HERE] Along Hwy 42 the relay teams continued to honk and cheer and hang out the windows ringing cowbells. I can't explain how fun this race is! I did a lot of "yo-yo-ing" with Kurt through this part, where I'd catch him, we'd talk, the conversation would dry up, I'd run ahead, then he'd catch me, and so on. Every time I ran away from him, a single thought crossed my mind. Kurt finished third in this event--behind Stu Kolb and Roy Pirrung--in its first year. What in the hell am I doing passing him?!
This leg features some hills and also makes its way through downtown Ephraim, which provides beautiful views of the harbor.
After an uneventful, keep-the-pace-steady leg, I made a right turn into Peninsula State Park and completed leg three.
[Map and Elevation HERE] This is, hands down, the prettiest leg of the event. It takes place over 7 miles entirely in Peninsula State Park, right on the coastline, on a narrow road that has a canopy of trees over you. While the colors were about a week past peak at this point, it was still gorgeous. Throughout the park I traded in my yo-yo-ing with Kurt for yo-yo-ing with Mike, another 2-time Fall 50 veteran who I should NOT be passing. I continued to tell myself, "Think Reggae," and keep things loose. I really concentrated on making my stride as much as a shuffle as possible. I also wanted to take in the scenery...it doesn't get much better than Peninsula State Park in October. Last year, I gave Ellie this leg because I had an idea it was going to be stunning, and I think I was right, especially considering last year's weather was blue skies and sunshine, and this year it was overcast and about a week past autumn's peak colors.
Kurt and I yo-yo-ing through Peninsula State Park.
As you can see by the elevation profile and map found here, Leg 5 is a doozy. Despite the hill (complete with switchbacks..see the top left photo on this page), Leg 5 also produces 3 inspiring points. Mile 25 is in Leg 5. The Marathon Distance is in Leg 5. And Leg 5 ends at the "Half Way Buffet" Aid station! I was starting to feel the aches of 20+ miles, and reaching these points really helped! I stopped, took a couple pictures, and then emailed them out to my family to let them know where I was. This also gave me a great reason to walk "the hill."
Feeling good! See that left-turn sign behind me? That's "the hill."
Marathon Split: 3:52
Leg 6 - Juddville to Egg Harbor (27.6-31.5)
[Map and Elevation HERE] As I descended the hill out of the aid station, I was starting to pick people off. I knew I had started too fast, but there were obviously people who had started way too fast, and it was now their time to work through a rough patch. I continued on and enjoyed running past some of the most massive houses and contemporary architecture Door County has to offer. If you like looking at trendy houses right on the lakefront, Leg 6 is for you.
About a mile from the next aid station, I could hear something. It was the sound of a xylophone ("klink klink klink" with every step) and I had no idea where it was coming from. My water bottle? I emptied it and stuffed it into the back of my shirt. But I still heard the sound. Then I realized it was my gut. Uh oh.
The last time I heard that noise I was puking at Mile 25.5 of the Madison Marathon. I immediately slowed down and assessed the situation. I was really putting down the water. I wasn't really sweating at all. I had already determined my pace was too fast. That, ladies and gents, is what you call a bad combination and a good way to delay gastric emptying.
For the remainder (about a mile) of Leg 6 I jogged slowly and walked. I did NOT want to puke. Humans almost always make decisions in life for one of two reasons: (1) To move towards pleasure or (2) To move away from Pain. In this case, moving towards "pleasure" (finish line) was severely hindered by moving away from pain (throwing up).
When I got to the next aid station in Egg Harbor, my dad was way ahead of me. As I walked up to him, I knelt down and began to explain my current situation. Before I got a word out, however, he looked at me, raised his eyebrows, and said, "You need to slow down."
The look on our faces says it all--I've been running too fast.He knew I was in trouble because I was about 1/2 hour ahead of my "optimal goal" of 8:10, and blowing the doors off of my "realistic goal" of 8:30. The sound of his voice and the look in his eye reminded me of so many times growing up...I looked at him like I'm sure I've looked at him a hundred (okay, a thousand) times before: I'm in trouble. :)
I asked my mom for some her homemade chicken broth (secret weapon!) and I started to walk out of aid station. I remember explaining to my parents that if I didn't get some salt in, I was going to puke. I remember looking at a young woman in the aid station and saying to her, "too much information?" She laughed and told me its part of running an ultra. She was apparently waiting for her boyfriend, another ultra veteran that I was running wayyy too far in front of. Great.
Leg 7 - Into the Wind (31.5-35.5)
[Map and Elevation HERE] As I walked out of the aid station, my dad came running up behind me to walk with me. Have I mentioned how awesome my crew was?! We talked a bit and I sipped on my secret weapon broth and my stomach started to come around. I can remember telling my dad about S Caps and Salt Tablets and how I never really was interested in them. At this particular moment, however, I would have drop-kicked a puppy for them. The broth was good, but it was simply more liquid into an already-full-of-liquid stomach, and its effect on emptying was minimized a bit. Still, I was feeling better after the walk with my pops and the broth, and it was time to get moving.
Earlier in the week, the forecast for the event was rainy. Fortunately, that passed through earlier than expected. Unfortunately, the forecast then included a 25-30 mph WSW wind. For those of you not following, that means a HEADWIND. Hello, Leg 7.
On a bad stomach and into a relatively boring and flat portion of the run, I hit the wind. I was in my first low spot of the run, and it was getting ugly. At one point Mike, who was still yo-yo-ing with me, said to his wife, "F*&%ing Wind." My sentiments exactly. What I needed now was some good news, and it came when Ellie called to find out how I was doing. She had already texted me that she was a little worried and really didn't like being removed from my progress. When I saw her calling, I knew it was time to act.
"Hey, Ellie! How are things going!?" I gave it my best effort, and she bought it. Her team was doing great and she was hoping to be able to drive down and see me finish at some point later in the afternoon. I told her I felt amazing and things were going wayyyy better than expected and that I was having a blast (all said with a big dumb grin on my face for effect). I said goodbye and dry heaved a couple times. It was literally that close. But I pulled it together and continued along the road...the straight, flat, boring road...
...finally, Aid Station 7.
All I wanted was an S Cap. Or a Salt Tablet. Okay, I'd settle for some pretzels. Unfortunately, this aid station was 0 for 3. I left with a bottle of only ice cubes and some saltines. That seemed to hit the spot in the beginning, but Leg 8 is over 6 miles long and a bit boring. "Think Reggae," I decided. Along this leg I had some real low points, but they were lifted by a red van full of relay team members. One member, her name I never actually caught, got out of the van and ran with me. "You're famous, aren't you?" She asked. I responded with a chuckle and a "No."
Leg 8 - Unfortunately, More of the Same, Only Longer (35.5-41.6)
"Yes you are. You're running for your friend, right?"
Wow. Talk about a boost to the spirits! I shared the story of why I was running this ultra, and why I run for the NF Endurance Team, and I talked about my best friend, Brock. Soon enough I was clipping off sub 9-minute miles again. What a lift! If only I knew her name...
Soon enough I arrived at Aid Station 9. The stomach was still in pretty rough shape, but the goal was so close!
I squatted down (painfully) thinking I was about to throw up.
Leg 9 - The Quarry (41.6-44.6)[Map and Elevation HERE] After a long and less-than-exciting leg, I could feel the anticipation building. Leg 9 is less than 3 miles in length, and although it travels along the same (boring) road as the previous leg, I was feeling better and moving a lot faster. I really can't say I remember much about this leg, outside of a BMW driving towards me near the end of the leg. I recognized this car, and was overjoyed when Ellie hopped out and came running towards me. She had made a special sign, just for me...
Wow. How inspiring. (Ellie thanks Nitmos for the idea)
[Map and Elevation HERE] Again, I was in a rough spot not long after getting to the aid station. In fact, I even bent over, thinking I was going to puke (again). Getting into a squatted position was torture enough. Fortunately, I pulled it together and began a power walk/run combo. The wind had really chilled me and I was almost shivering at times, so I got my jacket from my mom and put it back on. I can remember noticing that my brow was tense, and my steps were purposeful. As cheesy as it sounds, I remember thinking "F*ck Reggae, lets get this thing over with."
At mile 46 I was greeted, once again, by the relay team girl, who started running with me again and told me I wasn't looking so good. I told her I could use a beer and a running partner, and she shuffled along with me for about a mile. At mile 47 (ish) we caught up to her relay team car and she told me good luck, as she was going to wait for their anchor to come past. I once again thanked her and once again forgot to get her name. I do remember that their team name was "Going for the Gold(baba)."
At 48.5 I was moving decent again. I was at the point that my stomach issues didn't matter anymore, and I was more pissed at this damn headwind. Ellie joined me and we ran to the final stretch together...past the enormous ship-building crane, into downtown Sturgeon Bay, and finally down the finishing chute. At this point Ellie pulled off the course, knowing this was my big moment. I came down the cute in typical Nic fashion...with a sprint. I came across the line to big cheers and...
What a feeling!
...it was AMAZING.
I crossed the line (7:59:13, for 13th place overall), received my "bling bling" medal, and walked through to an area all by myself. I took a deep breath and my eyes welled up a little. (Okay, more than a little.) 50 miles.
There really isn't a feeling like entering an area you've never been before. Maybe that's why we all crave vacations and new places. On this Saturday I went someplace that I was honestly a little afraid to go. I hadn't felt the nerves of a race since my first marathon. It really was amazing.
You can tell by the stupid grin on my face I was experiencing the "running high."
Time for beer.
When "Going for the Gold" came through the finishing chute, I was right there to congratulate them (I'm talking to my "pacer" in the picture) and thank them for getting me through the rough spots.Into party tent I entered, and I grabbed my drop bag and hit the shower. I was incredibly sore but loved every painful moment of changing clothes. I returned to the party tent and immediately requested a beer. Soon enough, I had a beer in my hand and was watching a relay team pour each other beer bongs--no kidding! What an event!
When "Human Debris" finished, I once again was waiting for them at the finish line, with beers in hand. After handing a beer to Curt and Doug, I said, "Welcome to the Mile 51 Aid Station! Drink up!"
The party continued until about 6:30, when we finally headed back to our hotel to enjoy some of Ellie's mom's Lasagna and, of course, some Spotted Cow (my personal request). I can't say I slept all that well on Saturday night, but it was mostly because I was re-living what may be the peak of my running career.
I can't say enough about this event. To my family and everyone else reading this, you've got to join us next year. It really is an event built for every level of runner, and it's so much fun! I honestly feel it's a greater accomplishment for the relay team members who haven't run very much to complete this event, than it is for a marathon runner to jump to the 50 mile distance and finish. I think the accomplishment that comes with this event is what makes it so special, at least to me. From the course, to the comraderie that develops between fellow participants, to the after-party, it's an A+ event all the way!
I'm already thinking about how I can improve my time next year...although I'm not sure I can improve the experience.


text:
Dark Fantasy Art tutorial called "Sleeping Sun" by Lorelei (me!) was originally posted on www.loreleiweb.com The tutorial remains a copyright property of Lorelei © 2009, however, now it has moved to PSwish.com due to technical / server reasons. We invite all our LoreleiWeb community to subsribe to our feed and make sure you don't miss any tutorial written by your favorite authors.
Despite been classed as fantasy art, this is a mere photo manipulation – make a fairy and your own mystic scenery; creating a landscape from scrap is now possible! I was inspired by the huge success of my previous fantasy art tut, which I posted in this forum last week… I got quite a few emails thanking me for it and many PS blogs featured it, so I decided to give in to repeated requests from millions of loving fans and do one more fantasy / scenery tut…
This is basically a mix of whats we call "fantasy art" and "dark/ gothic art"
I want to mention in advance that this tutorial is mostly for more experienced users, here we will need to use a lot of "hand work" and common sense; you will be working with your own images, and would need to adjust to the "needs" of your landscape.
So, lets get started… make a new canvas – 600* 400.
Fill your background layer with any dark colour, we chose to do it with blue, but you can use black as well.
Take a picture of a girl… we used this one, from Liam Stock, free photo resource.. ( http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39058232/ <– Full resolution image)
This would depend on the image you use, but try to crop the figure accurately and remove the background.
Select the cropped girl from your canvas, and paste it unto the blue fantasy canvas we will create.
Place her in the middle, not to close to the edge, as she will be our leitmotif.
Next step, you will need different photos in order to combine a landscape.
First off, a photo of a shore. We took a pic offered free by ~gladly.
Press ctrl + a to select the entire water scape, Ctrl + c to copy it, and then , when you go to the fantasy canvas – press Ctrl + V to paste it.


text:
Miami, FL (PRWEB) September 07, 2012
Royal Caribbean International today announced that the cruise line has won 15 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards for the year – 10 of which are Gold. Revitalized Radiance of the Seas, also known as the culinary ship, was singly recognized with the Gold Magellan Award for Overall Contemporary Ship, while Oasis of the Seas won its second consecutive Gold for Eco-Friendly "Green" Cruise Ship. Royal Caribbean's new brand campaign "The Sea is Calling. Answer it Royally." also was recognized with Gold, as were the campaign's TV commercial and print ad.
"We are much honored to be recognized again by Travel Weekly's distinguished panel of industry experts and judges," said Lisa Bauer, senior vice president of Global Sales and Marketing, Royal Caribbean International. "We are particularly encouraged that revitalized Radiance of the Seas won Gold for Overall Contemporary Ship. Radiance of the Seas is a glowing example of our ongoing ship revitalizations to introduce some of the most popular Oasis-class amenities across the fleet and make every ship our best ship for vacationers to enjoy."
Royal Caribbean's Travel Weekly Gold Magellan Awards include:
Radiance of the Seas - Overall - Contemporary Ship
Oasis of the Seas - Overall - Eco-Friendly "Green" Cruise Ship
The Sea is Calling - Advertising/Marketing Campaign
The Sea is Calling - TV Commercial
The Sea is Calling... - Vicki Print Advertising
Oasis' 150 Central Park - Contemporary Ship - Restaurant Design
DreamWorks Experience - Contemporary Ship - Entertainment
Hairspray - Contemporary Ship - Entertainment
Royal Promenade -Contemporary Ship - Atrium Design
Royal Loft Suites - Contemporary Ship - Suite Design
The cruise line's Silver Magellan Awards include:
Allure of the Seas - Overall - Contemporary Ship
Sea Views - Overall - Blog
Crown & Anchor Society - Overall - Loyalty Program
Vitality at Sea Spa - Contemporary Ship - Spa Design
Madagascar 3 - Web Marketing/Advertising
The Magellan Awards is the premier award for the travel industry. From design to marketing to services, the Travel Weekly Magellan Awards honors the best in travel and salutes the outstanding travel professionals behind it all.
Royal Caribbean International is a global cruise brand with 22 innovative ships, calling on more than 270 destinations in 72 countries across six continents. The line also offers unique cruise tour land packages in Alaska, Canada, Dubai, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand.
Royal Caribbean provides a world-class vacation experience with a wide range of signature onboard amenities, entertainment, and award-winning family programming. The cruise line has a 40-year history of giving guests the Royal Advantage – the most innovative cruise ships, exciting itineraries to popular destinations, and world-renowned friendly and engaging Gold Anchor Service. Royal Caribbean has been voted "Best Cruise Line Overall" for nine consecutive years in the Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards. For additional information or to make reservations, call your travel agent, visit http://www.RoyalCaribbean.com or call (800) ROYAL-CARIBBEAN. Follow Royal Caribbean on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/RoyalCaribbean or on Twitter, @RoyalCaribbean. Travel professionals should visit http://www.cruisingpower.com or call (800) 327-2056. Media can find information at http://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE/OSX: RCL) is a global cruise vacation company that owns Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur, Azamara Club Cruises and CDF Croisières de France, as well as TUI Cruises through a 50 percent joint venture. Together, these six brands operate a combined total of 40 ships with four under construction.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/9/prweb9879655.htm


text:
What a surprise! Carrie Ann Inaba left the set of "Regis and Kelly" with a rock on her finger Thursday morning.
The "Dancing with the Stars" judge was proposed to on the ABC talk show by long-time boyfriend Jesse Sloan while she was covering for host Kelly Ripa.
At the beginning of the show, Inaba had played down rumors that she was engaged to her beau of two years, People reports. Show guest Jake Gyllenhaal brought up the topic again by presenting the 43-year-old dancer with a mock engagement ring.
But Inaba was about to get a real one. At the very end of the show, Regis presented a fake viewer's question on how he should propose to his girlfriend. Lights dimmed, violinists appeared, and Sloan, 39, came on camera.
"Will you marry me?" he asked, presenting her with the sparkler. People reported it was a 2 1/2-carat, D-color, princess-cut diamond solitaire ring in platinum from Rafinity that contained both the bride and groom's birthstones.
And Inaba's response? "Yes, I will marry you" she said with a teary eye. At the end of the show, Gyllenhaal and guest Howie Mandel gathered with Regis and the couple for a champagne toast.
It seems like everyone but Inaba was in on the stunt. "Don't miss the HUGE surprise for Carrie Ann Inaba!!!!" read the show's official Twitter account, @Regis_and_Kelly, midshow.
Inaba has spoken about having a summer wedding before. She told Prevention magazine that "we want everyone to jump in the water with us after our vows."
Selected Reading: People, Prevention, Carrie Ann Inaba on ABC


text:
work in process(redirected from Works-in-Process)
Also found in: Encyclopedia.
Work in Process
Products of a company that are in inventory but are incomplete. They are held in inventory while they are completed and made ready for sale. In the accounting of inventory, work in process is recorded under assets and is valued at its cost or realizable value, whichever is less. Just as commonly, works in process are called goods in process.
work in process
The partially finished goods that are held in inventory for completion and eventual sale. Also called goods in process.


text:
Bowls banish bees
Regarding Gimme Shelter, "The buzz on bees," August 18, an environmentally sound way to remove yellow jacket nests in the ground is to wait until well after dark and cover the hole with a clear glass bowl (it needs to lie flat on the ground).
When morning comes, the wasps will not comprehend why they cannot get out and will exhaust themselves trying. They will become dehydrated and die. When you see no more activity under the bowl, you can remove it.
Placing insecticide in the ground can harm other kinds of animals that may come into direct contact with it and kill the creatures that will come to feed upon the dead wasps as well as the wasp larvae and pupae that remain in the underground nest.
One should always try to remove only the animals that are problematic and in a way that is the most humane and safe for wildlife, people, and the environment.
Marlene A. Condon


text:
Email to a Friend
Availability: In stock
Product code: CRBT1810SP
The little frog, with a smile on her face, is loved across the world. A symbol of prosperity and wealth they also represent friendship. Wear your Frog bangle to attract true friends and long-lasting love.Product details:• Available in 14kt rose gold flash plate or rhodium flash plate• One size fits all • Each Chrysalis piece purchased is supplied with a branded Chrysalis paper gift pouch as shown.
* Required Fields
Double click on above image to view full picture


text:
Change is never easy, but sometimes parting with the past is the first step in moving forward.
As the Crew ushers in a new era under Investor-Operator and Chairman Anthony Precourt and Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter, the Black & Gold have parted ways with the only remaining player from their 2008 MLS Cup-winning side by trading longtime defender Chad Marshall to Seattle Sounders FC in exchange for allocation money and a 2015 MLS SuperDraft selection. Marshall's departure follows Eddie Gaven's retirement in October, while conversations with Danny O'Rouke – whose option was declined in November – and out-of-contract goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum are ongoing. With neither player currently on the club's roster, Marshall's departure is another step in a new direction for Berhalter's Black & Gold side.
Yet with change comes opportunity, and following today's deal Berhalter has secured a significant amount of resources to continue building the Crew's 2014 roster.
"Unfortunately in our League in order to get something of value you have to make difficult decisions," Berhalter explained. "This deal gives us significant flexibility to continue building our roster. We feel that this is the perfect time to maximize Chad's value, and by us doing this trade, we have received that and additional resources."
Selected second overall in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft by the Crew, Marshall is one of three players in League history to win the MLS Defender of the Year Award twice and departs as Columbus' all-time leader in matches and minutes played. Without a doubt, Marshall will always have a prominent place in the club's history as the anchor of the Crew's backline the past 10 seasons.
READ: Marshall's road to the 20,000-minute milestone
"Certainly, I think Chad's resume speaks for itself," club President Mark McCullers said. "Like Eddie Gaven – who we also lost this year – he's been an anchor for this team. It's tough, having Chad Marshall back there gives you a sense of comfort. For me, he's been one of the best defenders in this League for the past 10 years and is still one of the best defenders going forward.
"Chad in his own way kept the locker room loose, continued McCullers. "He was somebody who had a lot of experience as part of that championship team in 2008. Over the course of time, he'd grown to be somebody that the younger guys looked up to, wearing the captain's armband for a couple of years. He commanded a lot of respect. His performance on the field spoke for itself."
Marshall scored the equalizer against the Chicago Fire in the 2008 Eastern Conference Final at Crew Stadium before netting the match-winner in MLS Cup 10 days later. In addition his two MLS Defender of the Year honors, Marshall was an MLS All-Star in 2009 and 2010 as well as an MLS Best XI selection in 2008 and 2009.
A fan favorite during his time in Columbus, today's move may be difficult to process for some members of Black & Gold Nation. However, when taking a deeper dive into the stringent nature of MLS' salary cap restrictions, the Marshall deal provides the Crew with a significant amount of flexibility for future roster decisions. According to the MLS Players' Union, Marshall was the Crew's second-highest paid player in 2013 behind Designated Player Federico Higuaín. With Marshall's salary off the books for 2014, combined with the allocation money the club receives from Seattle in exchange for the defender, Berhalter could be gaining over $500,000 in salary cap flexibility to continue building his roster for next season. That news is especially important as it relates to new offseason signings.
"When we're targeting players, when we're targeting building a team and getting a core group of players, this [trade] will give us the ability to go after some targets that we potentially couldn't before," Berhalter stated. "This deal has given us that flexibility. We talk about the availability of funds and this accomplishes that in a big way."
Marshall's vacancy leaves the newly re-signed Josh Williams as the Crew's longest-tenured player. Additionally, Dominic Oduro and Tyson Wahl each hold the most MLS experience on the Black & Gold's roster with eight years of service in the League. At age 30, defender Agustín Viana is the most senior player employed by the club.
With 21 players already signed for 2014 and a strong core in place, Berhalter will use the weeks ahead to address his most pressing roster needs for next season.
"It's been no secret that we've been looking at attacking targets, we've been looking at people that can help us on the attacking side of the game, but losing Chad is going to create a void in the back," the former U.S. Men's National Team centerback said. "So we have to be aware of all of these positions that we need to fill and do it in a smart way.
"We have some targets that we're looking at. It's doing the due diligence, doing the research, doing the communication and hopefully getting the right guy."
READ: 2013 MLS Re-Entry Process flooded with talent
Thursday's MLS Re-Entry Process could be the first opportunity to land another piece to bolster the Crew backline, while trading within MLS and the international market remain options for acquiring talent ahead of the 2014 season.


text: You're not going to find a sexier exotic bitch that craves hard cock and a sweet load of creamy cum more than our very own Lulu Sex Bomb. This Thai beauty is smoking hot and loves to satisfy hard cocks and have her sweet pink slit packed deep with pulsating rod before she's offered a boat load of warm cum either in her face or down her hungry mouth. Come check out LuluSexBomb.com and see for yourself just how gorgeous this Thai sweet heart is and just how hungry she is to have a stiff rod bang away at her hot tight holes!


text:
Serving Singapore and the surrounding area for over a century, Ang Yew Seng continues to meet the evolving needs of today's families through caring expertise and innovative ideas that promise more than you may expect from a funeral home.
Whether you're making arrangements in advance or require caring assistance at a time of need, our experienced, friendly professionals can answer all your questions about funeral planning and cremation. They will explain without pressure or obligation the wide range of options available to help you create a fitting and poignant tribute, perfectly suited to the individual.


text:
Local Blogs
By Paul Losch
Baseball MudUploaded: Jun 12, 2010
We are well into baseball season, Our Little League and Babe Ruth players are into their season's ends and the championships that
follow on.
In the major leagues, there is this new pticher for the Washington Nationals. Goood start with 14 SO's in his seven innings. Not a career yet.
There is an obscure aspect of the game to which I was reminded today. Baseball mud.
There is a mud that comes from somewhere in the Cheasapeke Bay area and is used to rub down new baseballs before a pitcher gets them. Every baseball all over the country.


text:
With Space Chimps officially the most anticipated monkey movie of the summer, it's time to take a serious look at our spacefaring simian cousins. (Especially after we discovered our readers are as obsessed with monkeys as we are.) And it turns out there are way more of them than we'd realized, including space-monkey entrepreneurs, superheroes, supervillains and half-monkey half-robot killers. Click through for the complete list of space-faring simians!
Usually when we throw together a list of "the best this" or "the definitive that," we're willing to concede that we might have missed something. But this time, we're screeching and flinging our own feces with the total confidence that we have covered all of the space monkeys in history. Mostly thanks to the obsessive-compulsive maniacs at Monkey Conspiracy, who compiled an exhaustive list of monkey films. Plus Mr. Monkey's List of Famous Monkeys. Top image from Adrian Platts.
First of all, of course, there are the Planet of the Apes movies, which are almost their own genre. (We won't even get into the thorny question of whether apes are monkeys.) it's the distant future, except in the Burton version where maybe it's an alternate Earth, and apes have taken over, and humans can't talk. It's all part of some bizarro analogy for race relations in America.
Space Chimps, coming this summer, is an animated movie about the grandson of the first chimp in space. Ham III gets blasted into space by an unscrupulous senator. Then, somehow, he gets zapped to a faraway star system, where he has to help overthrow the evil ruler of another inhabited planet. Good thing two other smart, resourceful chimps are on board his spaceship.
Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys. An animated show from the mid-1990s, and yet another story about astronaut monkeys. This time, a monkey-naut in the 1960s gets lost in the outer reaches of space, only to get picked up by a race so advanced, nobody can pronounce their name. The monkey gets an upgrade, including enhanced intelligence and high tech, and recruits a squad of other monkeys to fight a villain who's half-human, half-black hole (and who wants to destroy the universe.)
Lost In Space. The TV show and the movie had many important differences, but one central element remained constant: Penny's space monkey. In the TV show, she befriends a weird alien monkey with long ears named Debbie, or Bloop, after the funny noise she makes. In the movie, the monkey's named Blarp, and instead of being a real chimpanzee with a funny hat, she's CGI mixed with animatronic:
Star Trek: Voyager. In one of the most memorable episodes of Voyager, "Resolutions," Captain Janeway and Chakotay get bitten by an insect, so they can never leave a particular planet. Voyager has to go warping off without them, leaving Janeway and Chakotay to put on funny vests and take up gardening and pandering to J/C shippers. But there's a complication: Janeway meets a cute-ass monkey, who threatens to steal her affections away from Chakotay. Which one will she choose? Luckily, Voyager comes back with a miracle cure before Janeway has to decide. That was close!
2001: A Space Odyssey. There are some apes tossing a bone around on a lazy Sunday, and then a big obelisk/monolith thingy shows up. I don't think the apes ever get into space in this film, but space comes to them. So I'm including it.
Monkeys In Space. A twice-weekly webcomic about a group of monkeys zipping around the galaxy and trying to wipe out the remnants of the human race. And score some bananas:
Moon Pilot. Another movie about chimp astronauts, this 1962 Disney comedy features a space chimp who makes contact with a race of telepathic aliens, who just happen to look like hawt babes. No human astronaut wants to follow in the path of the alien-crazed chimp, until he sticks a fork in a young trainee's ass at a dinner party, prompting the man to volunteer by mistake.
The Right Stuff. NASA wants to send monkeys up into space before it sends up any trained astronauts, prompting the classic line: "The issue here ain't pussy, it's monkey." But why can't it be both?
Robot Monster. An alien invader, looking suspiciously like a man in a gorilla suit with a diving helmet on his head, manages to kill everyone on Earth... except for six people. The film was such a huge disaster, the director reportedly attempted suicide (unsuccessfully.) Here's a clip:
Rocket Man. A spaceship full of humans blasts off into deep space, with the humans in suspended animation. But the ship's resident chimp (you have to have one, it's regulations) accidentally wakes one of the humans up, and he has to spend months entertaining himself while the other humans sleep. Good thing he's got a chimp to keep him company.
Space Ghost. In the original 1967 cartoon, Space Ghost had twin sidekicks, Jan and Jace. (Not unlike the wonder twins in Superfriends.) And Jan and Jace had a pet monkey, Blip. Similarly, the Wonder Twins had their pet blue monkey, Gleek.
The Existential Adventures of ASTRO-CHIMP, First Monkey In Space. An animated program on the Sci Fi Channel, this is yet another astronaut chimp show, which supposedly is incredibly boring and pointless despite its cool name.
The Monkey In The Rocket by Jean Bethell. A children's book about monkeys in the space program. Sample lines: "Sam and Bam are Monkeys. They are very special monkeys that live in a very special place... at the Blue Sky Rocket Base." Sam is the bravest little monkey, who volunteers (sort of) for a one-way trip to the farthest reaches of the universe... and oxygen starvation!
The Scary/Angry Monkey Show. On Invader Zim, Zim's robot servant Gir is obsessed with a TV show that's either called Scary Monkey or Angry Monkey. It seems to consist of a monkey, sometimes wearing a band-aid, looking somewhat pissy or freaky. He's obviously in outer space, or why would he be in such cramped quarters?
Dexter's Laboratory. The monkey Simion gets shot into space and becomes hyper-intelligent (of course) and then becomes a supervillain. His dastardly scheme: Invade Earth to get revenge on all the humans who helped make him the megalomaniac he is.
Monkey Business by J. Otto Sebold and Vivian Walsh. The first monkey in space, conveniently called Space Monkey, comes back to Earth and starts a business to capitalize on his fame: he builds a supercomputer that turns out objects that look like cubist cupcakes. Nobody's sure what they are, but they're tremendously popular. Then it turns out if you point a TV remote control at the objects, they open up into tiny apartments.


text:
There are so many different angles to Billy Cundiff's doomed field goal attempt from Sunday's AFC title game that the entire sequence has begun to take on a mythical quality. The rush out to the field. The bad hold. The scoreboard incident.
The kick has become more than a kick; it's become a narrative. That happens with a decisive play in an important playoff game. When it happens, all you can say is HOLY SMOKES HE MISSED IT!
And then the days go by and the enormity of it all sinks in, and the little details from the incident begin coming out, adding layers and context to the original play. Twenty years from now, you will see NFL Films quality replays of that kick over and over again any time the Ravens are in an important game. You can sense the legend around it being constructed as we speak.
Of course, this wouldn't be the first time that a missed kick quickly became etched into the collective football consciousness. There are other notorious botched kicks in NFL history. Were any of them bigger than the 32-yarder that Cundiff missed? Here is a list of five (NOTE: I only included kicks that were actually kicked, and not failed snaps like in the 2003 Giants/Niners Wild Card game). I think you know who gets top billing.
1. Scott Norwood, Super Bowl, 1991. Norwood's kick was much longer than Cundiff's (47 yards). In fact, it's hard to blame him for missing a kick that long under such strenuous circumstances. But Norwood's fate served to enhance the tragedy. He was never the same after missing what is still the only game-losing field goal miss in Super Bowl history.
2. Billy Cundiff, AFC Championship Game, 2012. This is the right spot for this kick. If it had happened in the Super Bowl, it would have been No. 1, easily.
3. Gary Anderson, NFC Championship Game, 1999. The Vikings were leading 27-20 in this game with five minutes left when Anderson attempted his ill-fated 38-yarder. This wasn't a situation where the kick would have literally won the game for Minnesota. It was merely for critical insurance points. Anderson, who hadn't missed a field goal all season, hit it wide left, and then the Falcons scored the tying touchdown. The Vikings' defense had been overrated that entire season, and that's what did them in more than Anderson's gaffe.
4. Nate Kaeding, AFC Playoffs, 2010. Kaeding's failure was compounded by the fact that he missed THREE field goals that would have tied the game and kept the Chargers from choking at home against the Jets in the divisional round. The good news about missing three critical field goals is that you can't lock in one just one to immortalize for all time. The bad news about missing critical three field goals is that YOU MISSED THREE CRITICAL FIELD GOALS.
5. Doug Brien, AFC Playoffs, 2005. He could have beaten the Steelers twice. First, he missed a kick from 47 yards out. And then the Jets got a gift interception of Big Ben and had a chance to win at the very end, and Brien missed 43-yarder. Again, the fact that Brien missed TWO field goals means you don't remember one of them quite so vividly. That's why Cundiff has already cracked the top two on this list, and why he may be No. 1 once the full story has been told.


text:
The Miami Dolphins started off the legislative season 1-and-0 in their attempt to get lawmakers to approve a multi-million dollar deal to upgrade its 25-year-old stadium.
Lawmakers in the Florida Senate Commerce Committee gave unanimous support to a bill that would clear the way for higher hotel bed taxes and a new sales tax rebate to help fund a $400 million renovation of the Fins' digs.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, has cleared its first hurdle, but it still faces an uphill climb. There will be several more committee stops and the bill also has to clear the Florida House, where Braynon acknowledged that there's still some heavy lifting to do.
"In the Senate, I don't think that we're going to have as many problems as we're going to have in the House," he said.
The bill would allow the Dolphins to collect an annual $3 million in sales tax rebates from the state for 30 years, as well as millions more in new bed taxes.
Several stakeholders came up to Tallahassee to support the bill at its first committee hearing, including Miami Gardens mayor Oliver Gilbert, SunLife stadium CEO Mike Dee and Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce President Bill Diggs.
All supporters pitched the same message: This tax deal is a smart economic move for the state, and would lead to Super Bowls, college championships and other major tourism events.
Several Senators lined up behind that idea, giving the measure unanimous support after a lengthy period of questions and commentary. The Senators' openness could bode well for other sports teams across Florida that are considering taxpayer funded stadium deals.
"You have a sure deal here," said Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami. "You know that they're going to employ more people. You know that it's going to bring in more money."None of the supporters brought up the Miami Marlins deal, which has been criticized as a poorly designed taxpayer giveaway.


text:
Is Uncompensated Commercial Use Of An Artist's Content Really That Bad?
from the free-promotion deptWe've discussed a few times how the whole distinction between "commercial use" and "non-commercial use" can be somewhat arbitrary. Even though many Creative Commons supporters insist that a "non-commercial" license is the way to go, there are some good arguments as to why such a limitation isn't a good idea either.
Long-time Techdirt reader SteelWolf sent in a blog post he recently did on the subject, where he makes the argument that uncompensated commercial use of an artist's work isn't something to worry about. The idea that some company will come along and "profit" from your work without giving you a cent is misguided, because there are all sorts of opportunities for you to take advantage of such a use directly yourself:
A budding musical artist writes and records a song, putting it into the Public Domain/copyleft on his website for his fans to share and enjoy how they wish. Somebody from a major television network finds the song and use it in a new show without even giving credit. The show goes on to become a hit, making the network millions while the musician remains poor. How should he respond?On top of that, we've seen over and over again, that when a company makes use of someone else's work for such uses without properly crediting the artist, it usually doesn't take much for that word to spread, and get more attention drawn to the artist. The artist can put up a blog post, noting that the TV show didn't credit him or her, and that even helps the story spread as well. It's yet another case where social mores work better than not just copyright, but non-commercial Creative Commons license as well.
First of all one has to understand that it is highly unlikely that the show was successful solely because of the inclusion of the song. Commercial success does not suddenly mean money is owed. While it may have been nice to get free money (royalties and the like) from repeated airings of the show, it is not that but the lack of proper attribution that is the real cause for frustration.
Assuming the network will never deign to correct its mistake, I think one of the most important things to do is use the internet connect the song and show back to the artist. If the song really brought that many people to the show, they are likely to start searching for it online. Something like a post on the artist's website will show up clearly in search results, and it gives the artist an opportunity to direct new visitors to free downloads of the song, concert dates, and his other reasons to buy (perhaps tweaked to appeal to fans of the show). It's also a good idea to have a way for people to send donations.
Granted, these things aren't going to make you rich, but then neither are royalties. What it does do is save the artist tons of money in legal costs trying to fight the network, and help build his name as somebody who creates quality music and expand his fanbase -- all despite the network's "oversight" in crediting the person behind the work.
And, with that, we'll leave the last word to Nina Paley:
Filed Under: commercial use, noncommercial use