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ALCS Game 6 pregame
BOSTON — Welp, I'm back in Boston. Had an interesting time getting here yesterday, too. I had to fly from Cleveland to Baltimore and then connect to Boston from there. My first flight was fine, got to Baltimore early even, but the second flight was not so good.
I feel asleep before we took off and woke up about an hour later, flipped open the window shade, only to see that we were still parked on the ground. Finally, a lady comes up the plane and announces that there are too many people on the flight — that the plane was overweight. She asked for volunteers to come off the jet, but no one did.
So, she played her version of Russian roulette with us, literally looking up and down a list of our names and randomly picking two people to kick off the plane. Luckily, I wasn't one of the chosen ones. Talk about a raw deal, though. But, I got to Boston and now it's nearly time for Game 6 here at Fenway.
The reason I have a picture of our friend Manny Ramirez up there is I'm just about sick of hearing about his recent comments about "not caring" whether or not the Red Sox won this series. Get over it people. What Manny said was not that big of a deal. Here's what he said after Boston dropped Game 4:
"It doesn't matter how things go for you. We're not going to give up. We're just going to go and play the game, like I've said, and move on. If it doesn't happen, so who cares? There's always next year. It's not like the end of the world or something. Why should we panic?"
All Manny said was it wasn't the end of the world, life goes on. Can you argue with that? He didn't say he didn't care — and his numbers should be ample evidence to the point that the dude does care. Manny's teammates also didn't see what the big deal was about what he said. Here's Mike Lowell on Thursday night:
"We know him. He talks to us more than he talks to you guys. We know Manny the person better than you do. I really don't have a problem with what he said. When we take it in a baseball sense, that it's not the end of the world, everyone is up in arms, because it sounds like he doesn't care about the game. But, the way you see him play, you know he cares about the game. I think he was trying to convey that maybe there's other things in the world that may be more important than baseball. You can't fault him for that."
No, you can't. But, there's no question that the media will jump all over a quote like Manny's, especially when it's coming from such a character. There was another fantastic Manny moment after Boston's Game 5 win. Manny, once again, was entertaining a pack of media, lounging on a couch and fielding a barrage of questions.
While he talked, David Ortiz pushed through the crowd and asked for a microphone, grabbing one from an NBC reporter. Ramirez, wearing a suit with a bright purple tie, looked up and Ortiz asked: "Hey, everybody wants to know, where's the funeral?" Everyone busted up and Manny responded with: "Hey, I'm going to try to take this tie to Colorado." Classic.
Anyone watch Joe Torre's press conference yesterday? I caught some of it after I finally got to my hotel here in Beantown. I've got to say that he handled it with class and I was happy to see he didn't hold back in calling New York's offer an insult. Once again, good for you, Joe.
Cleveland (3-2) at Boston (2-3)
at 8:21 p.m. ET at Fenway Park
Grady Sizemore, CF
Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B
Travis Hafner, DH
Victor Martinez, C
Ryan Garko, 1B
Jhonny Peralta, SS
Kenny Lofton, LF
Trot Nixon, RF
Casey Blake, 3B
PITCHING: RHP Fausto Carmona
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
David Ortiz, DH
Manny Ramirez, LF
Mike Lowell, 3B
J.D. Drew, RF
Jason Varitek, C
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Julio Lugo, SS
PITCHING: RHP Curt Schilling
Go Green…
4 Comments
Your Spartans almost played spoiler today. I guess you could say it was the "Spartans being the Spartans".
If I ever see you on a flight I might get off. You have some bad luck.
I can't believe Carmona and Sabathia both got bombed AGAIN. Are they tired or just cracking under the playoff pressure?
And Schilling definitely proved the "he's over the hill" crowd wrong. He didn't have his "A" game last night, but he still battled through. I enjoy watching him pitch, even though he seems like a real jerk.
Game 7 seems up-in-the-air. Dice-K seems like an emotional disaster, but maybe he can pull off a big one tonight? And Westbrook's slop fooled the Sox once, but can he do it again? And Trot Nixon better be playing in RF. He's got the hot bat…..
And is there anyone in baseball who DIDN'T use HGH?


text:
Jon is the co-founder of Secret Lab, the world's least not-evil mobile development studio. Jon heads up the development team at Secret Lab, develops mobile applications for Meebo, and is a PhD student at the University of Tasmania in Australia.
For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at the conference, contact Sharon Cordesse at (707) 827-7065 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
View a complete list of OSCON contacts

subset: commoncrawl


text:
New York - The whole wide world in one city
Fran?oise Sagan once wrote that New York drives the people who live there to addiction. It's hard to disagree.
And New York has everything to offer: a unique skyline sprinkled with skyscrapers, a fantastic art and culture scene, endless shopping pleasure, enormous green spaces, countless cafés, restaurants, bars and clubs. New York, it's the city of superlatives. New York doesn't sleep; it's loud, bright and full of contradictions. You'll find a corner store next to the ?in? business, both located in an industrial building.
It doesn't matter if you wonder at all the colourful lighted advertising on Times Square or admire the gleaming skyline from East River State Park in Williamsburg as the sun sets. New York fascinates everyone. During your day, take a moment to pop into one of the many restaurants and cafés, like the Epistrophy. And whether you visit a second, third or fourth time, you'll always discover something new about the Big Apple.
City Facts
- Location
Most populous city in the U.S. on the east coast of the United States.
- Population
8.2 million
- Size
1 214 km2
- Public transport
New York has an extensive underground network (the subway), which is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to get around. Bus lines cover the rest of the city.
- Climate
A moderate climate with very warm summers and cold, damp winters. In summer it can climb up to 40°C (104°F) and in winter drop down to minus 20°C (-4°F).
- Best time to visit
Between April and June as well as in September and October.
- Good to know
New York is divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
- Nice to know
In New York, 170 languages are spoken by immigrants from more than 100 different countries.
- Airport
John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK); about 25 km away from Manhattan and Newark Liberty International Airport about 17 km away from Manhattan.
- Bus
New York has many bus lines, including those offering sightseeing tours.
- Railway
The entire city is well connected through the subway. Most New Yorkers use the subway, because it's the fastest way to get from A to B.
- Taxi
There are more than 13 000 taxis in New York. Taking one from the airport into the city is an expensive option. The flat rate comes to $ 50-60. Once in the Big Apple, taking the taxi is cheaper, but not necessarily fast depending on the traffic.
Distance1120 km


text:
Stamford Hex Incense Sticks Patchouli
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O'Reilly Fluent spotlights the emerging methods, tools, and technologies of the Web Platform: JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, and much more. Developers, UX/UI designers, and project teams come to Fluent to share their experiences and expertise—and to learn what they need to know to stay competitive.
For exhibition and sponsorship opportunities, contact Sharon Cordesse at email@example.com
For information on trade opportunities with O'Reilly conferences, email firstname.lastname@example.com
For media-related inquiries, contact Maureen Jennings at email@example.com
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text:
I'm trying to create a DLL that the other program can get data and set settings to my program by dll in the same PC.
schematic diagram:
A.exe -> xxx.DLL -> B.exe
xxx.dll and B.exe are the program which I can modify.
There are 2 ways below, I'm not sure which way is feasible, please advise. Thank you very much!
1.Using function pointers that DLL can call function in B.exe
2.Using VCL SocketClient in DLL and B.exe to communicate.


text:
Which 'Gossip Girl' Couple Does Kelly Rutherford Want Back Together?
HollywoodLife.com caught up with Kelly to discuss which couple she thinks should get back together!
Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford attended FURLA's Exclusive Handbag Collection for Saks Fifth Avenue on Oct. 26 and sat down exclusively with HollywoodLife.com to discuss the latest season, the potential end of the series, and which couple she wishes would reunite.
Kelly opened up about the shocking moment on the October 24 episode when Serena (Blake Lively) told Dan (Penn Badgley), "You're the love of my life." Kelly said, "There's a lot of twists… I'm always amazed at how they do it and tell the story, it keeps us in suspense and yet it makes a lot of sense. There's a realness to it."
When asked who she thinks Blair belongs with, Kelly admitted, "I like Blair and Chuck together a lot… other than that, I don't know. The way they've written the script is so interesting. It's a hard decision. I think sometimes it's that way in life when you meet someone and you're trying to make it work and things happen yet you sort of know you're meant to be together so I don't know."
As Gossip Girl is contracted until season 6 (next season!), Kelly discusses what she thinks for the future of the show. "I think the good news is they keep writing a really good show. We've been fortunate as actors to have that happen so I think everyone has really kept interest in it. I can say personally it's still really so much fun to go to work so I do hope they continue it."
Which couple do you think should reunite HollywoodLifers? Are you hoping for a Chair, Dair or another reunion?


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Papa on the father's day gift! LOL
That's right, I named my giant bear Papa. <3 Coz it's huge and warm and it's cute like my dad.
Told my parents about it and my dad was like "so qin qie(not sure about the direct translate of this word but it's kinda like close and warm. I think. lol) this name!"
I love my Papa! (Bear and human. lol)
Monday, June 21, 2010
Posted by kurokei at 10:49 PM 1 comments
Had a family photoshoot yesterday.
Thanks Kame for borrowing me the graduation robe!
P/S: The lady in the shop ask if we are twins and we was like wtf? lol
Posted by kurokei at 10:46 PM 0 comments
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Currently devouring:
Been looking for this since I watched the TV series, and the book is very fine indeed.
Aquarius wrote:I was also looking online for his published work and found his first edition books from 1818 and 1820 are going for around 14,000 dollars for a single book. WOW.
BrokenLyre wrote:Excellent choices. I don't know the first one you mentioned
BrokenLyre wrote:Thanks Malia! I will look for it. I probably should read the books I have now in my collection. Problem is, so little time to read with my job, family - the angst of middle class! I do appreciate the heads up - now I have a Christmas wish.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests


text:
The Evolution of Dance
Labels: silliness
I love stories. I'm the one at social functions with a dozen new anecdotes. But I worry about hogging the conversation. Sometimes I tell myself that I'll be quiet and let others do the talking. But no matter how hard I try, my stories insist on bursting out! Here I can let my stories (the classics that I tell again and again, as well as new ones that unfold along the way) run free. I'm a professional writer and editor, and sole proprietor of The Word Cellar. I write for a variety of publications and clients on everything from green buildings and nuclear reactors to entrepreneurship and the arts. If you need words written, edited, or enlivened, I can help. Contact me.
Labels: silliness


text:
Message Board
Kathleen Morgan Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Morgan has written!
Author Morgan's Book Reviews
Wings of Morning
The story takes place in the 1500s Scotland. Regan, a 17 year old orphan girl, has been raised by the clan of MacLaren. It is decided that she must now marry one of the young men in the clan, Roddy. Roddy is her best friend, so Regan has no objections. They are wed, but on the wedding night Roddy gets drunk, which scares Regan; she has never seen him so rough before. She runs away to sleep outside. Roddy passes out, and when he awakes and sees that his n...


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I was in an apartment not far from Greenmarket Square in Cape Town when Nelson Mandela gave the first speech to his country and the world, upon his release from prison in February 1990.
White South Africans were nervous, Black South Africans were ecstatic. Everyone wondered what the future would bring.
Instead of joining the sea of people, I watched the speech on TV, relieved that Mr. Mandela did not call for an uprising. I, along with the world, breathed a sigh of relief.
It was a tumultuous time in the country and in my life.
Many whites, especially Jews, had already left the country for Australia, the US and Canada, and of course, Israel. They included many of my generation who were beginning their careers and who decided the risk of staying was too great. In many cases it meant leaving close family behind.
I would leave two years later, on a quest that had begun a few years earlier.
Rugby was my religion.
I was raised in Port Elizabeth, on the Southern coast of Africa, during apartheid years. The only Blacks I knew were servants who worked in our house. I grew up in a system and culture that was prejudiced against Blacks. I went to an all White school. Although I grew up in a very traditional Reform home where we went to synagogue every Friday night and had Shabbat dinner, rugby was my religion. I loved rugby as most young boys did. We dreamed of playing for the Springboks, the national rugby team, the source of great pride to all white South Africans.
The author (left) playing rugby
Most of my friends were rugby players, and since not many Jews played rugby, most of my friends were not Jewish.
I was a good player, playing all the way through school and into my years at the University of Cape Town. During this time the country was buckling under international sanctions. There was censorship in the newspapers, political protest in the theaters around campus. I remember tear gas on campus.
At the peak of my rugby career, I was fortunate to be picked to play for the South African Jewish rugby team at the Maccabi Games in Israel in 1985. Despite the sanctions, the South African contingent was invited to compete.
In the summer of 1985 I visited Israel for the first time, and saw Jews from all over the world. There were only four rugby teams (the US, Israel, Australia and us). After playing each team once, we faced our arch-rivals, Australia, in the final. With the entire South African and Australian contingent in attendance, we beat Australia to win the Gold medal.
I came back to South Africa, proud to be Jewish, to find the country crumbling. There was also a lot of anti-Israel propaganda on campus, due to Israel's support, militarily and economically, of the South African government. I joined the board of SAUJS (South African Union of Jewish Students), the equivalent of the Hillel organization in the US. Six months after my first trip to Israel, I was back again, this time on a SAUJS educational trip. I was introduced to Rabbi Dr. Dovid Gottlieb and got my first taste of the intellectual side of Judaism. That began a spiritual search that coincided with a revival among many young Jewish South Africans and the dramatic growth of Ohr Somayach in Johannesburg, a branch of the yeshiva based in Jerusalem. I subsequently visited Israel two more times, participating in another Maccabiah, and winning another gold medal.
By this time, I had lost interest in the career path I had chosen (actuarial science) and was now in love with Israel and Judaism.
And then Nelson Mandela was released.
Rabbi Warren Goldstein, the current Chief Rabbi of South Africa, said in a eulogy of Nelson Mandela that when he came out of prison, the whole country was freed.
Over the years, I have seen my prejudices disappear. Racist jokes are not funny; they offend me. I remember my first black friend, a fellow rugby player I met in Madison, Wisconsin, when I spent time travelling around the US. In many ways, I and many other White South Africans were also freed.
Yet I was freed in a far more fundamental way. I moved to Johannesburg after quitting my job at a big insurance company in Cape Town. I became a part of the Ohr Somayach family there, going to classes by Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz and to Shabbat meals to many families. I became free to explore my Jewish heritage and I grabbed it with open arms.
In 1992, at the age of 28, I moved to Israel. I studied at Ohr Somayach for six years, got married, and became a rabbi with the goal of doing outreach to college students just like me. I found employment in Chicago and soon after my arrival was called the Rugby Rabbi. I founded an organization, JET – Jewish Education Team, that reaches out to Jewish college students and young professionals in Illinois.
I look back to my days in South Africa, to my sheltered upbringing, to my Jewish background, my rugby career and the crumbling of apartheid amidst the resurgence of interest in Judaism.
Rabbi Zev Kahn and his family
I am not as positive about Mandela's legacy as many around the world are, in particular Jews in South Africa. But I left South Africa in 1992, two years before Mandela was elected as President. I have visited South Africa only three times in the 20 years since I left. So I don't feel it is my place to pass judgment on him. Yet Nelson Mandela, no doubt, had a different relationship with Israel than he did with the Jews in South Africa, and his support of the some of the worst enemies of Israel with much Jewish blood on their hands leaves many Jews ambivalent, at best, if not dismissive of much of his legacy of making the world a more peaceful and just one.
South Africa is a different country than the one I grew up in. It has been transformed into "the Rainbow nation," due in large part to Nelson Mandela's courage to forgive and reconcile.
And I am a different person than the one I was in South Africa. I have a new home, a new spiritual home, in the Jewish tradition of our ancestors, going back 3,000 years, which I am now passing on to my own children, and hundreds of searching Jewish students.
I have taken my walk to freedom.


text:
Events Calendar - Legacy [x], Medical Center [x], School of Medicine [x]
- day:
- Wednesday
- date:
- 11/20/2013
- time:
- event:
- LSP Conference: "Let's Talk Turkey"
- location:
- Newcomb Hall
- type:
- Conference
- department:
- Medical Center School of Medicine
- audience:
- details:
- When: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Where: Newcomb
Cost: Free
See: Event Website
Description: The LSP fall conference, while aimed at IT Professionals around UVa, is open to interested members of the public as well, so share this information with anyone who might be interested in attending.
Take a look at the schedule and register for the conference. Come for the day or just for the sessions that interest you. Brief descriptions of the sessions are available on the website.
In addition to sessions…
• Bryan Pfaffenberger, an emeritus professor of Science, Technology, and Society in the School of Engineering and Applied Science will be our keynote speaker.
• There is a VP/CIO Panel to answer questions submitted by November 11th.
• External vendors will be in attendance. More about them soon.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Follow us on Twitter #lspconf
Contact: ITS, firstname.lastname@example.com
Topical Areas: Information Technology Services (ITS), Information Sessions, Training, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Information Security, Policy, and Records Office (ISPRO), Speakers and Lectures, Featured Event
- isCME:
- No
- registration:
- Website
- contact:
- Raymond Nedzel email@example.com


text:
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Khalil and his Kiosk of Solitude
His name might be similar, but this Metro employee is no Superman.
On Saturday night at about 8:45 p.m., we began a trip at East Falls Church station. We were with a friend from out of town who needed to buy a farecard. After trying several machines using cash, it appeared none of them were working. Other customers were having the same difficulty.
There were no signs about any problems so everyone was going from machine to machine.
We went to the station manager and politely said "None of the machines seem to be working correctly, and the last one (an older model) doesn't even appear to be on."
Mr. Khalil (Superman's "real" name is Kal-El), who was engrossed in something else, sighed and said, "they all work" and looked back down at whatever he was reading.
Flabbergasted, we pointed to the growing crowd and said, "No, they don't."
"They're all working," said Khalil rather lethargically, giving off a strong get-the-hell-out-of-my-face vibe.
Stunned by Khalil's attitude, we walked back to the ticket machines to see if our friend had struck it lucky on another machine.
They had not, but others had figured out that the machines were only accepting credit or debit cards.
A sign would have been nice.
So we went back to Khalil and suggested some signage was in order.
Acting like he'd just awoken from a nap, he stuck with his "they're all fine" line.
It was obvious that getting him to move was going to be more difficult than reversing the spin of the planet, but at last, he relented and slowly emerged from his kiosk of solitude, again exhaling as if he were really being put out.
Donning his fluorescent orange and green WMATA cape, he first walked very slowly over to the machine that appeared to be off.
Khalil gave it a few short punches like people used to do with a TV on the blink, and voila, the machine came to life!
"You just don't have as much experience as I do," he said with a smug grin as he sauntered back to his hideout.
Here's one Metro employee who should probably be taken up, up and away from front line customer "service," because customers seem to have much the same effect kryptonite has on Superman.
Other items:
Metro takes rare plaintiff position in lawsuit (Examiner)
Metro needs more 'bottom-up' thinking (GGW)
18 comments:
- Dan Franzen said...
- September 30, 2009 at 8:27 AM
- Brian said...
Oh, HIM? You're lucky you got him to respond to you at all- my last time out there, my Smartrip card was being a pain in the butt, so I went to ask him for help. He wouldn't even look at me- he was too busy reading a newspaper. I figured eventually that he was either A) deaf, or B) an asshole, with 'B' being most likely (this IS Metro, after all). I finally gave up and got a cab home.
- September 30, 2009 at 8:35 AM
- Anonymous said...
I've had the anti-attendants yell at the top of their lungs at me from across the station, simply to avoid getting off their kiosk-keisters. Bus drivers are worse - they got a ton of steel and they will run you down.
- September 30, 2009 at 8:59 AM
- Kara said...
So does metro want all of their customers to hit any and all metro equipment that does not work for them now?
- September 30, 2009 at 9:15 AM
- Anonymous said...
It might hurt to hit a train.
- September 30, 2009 at 9:54 AM
- Brian said...
Well, if we're going to start hitting things in the Metro system to make them work, Catoe is a good place to start...
- September 30, 2009 at 11:35 AM
- WMATA said...
Anytime you have a complaint about your Metro experience, please let US know about it directly. That way we can document it, investigate the complaint and come to a resolution. We make that easy enough to do by internet and e-mail (http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/contact_us/ridercomment.cfm ) and telephone and postal mail (http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/contact.cfm)
We want to provide exceptional service, and you can help us do that by reporting issues to us via the customer service line. When there is a formal record, we can identify trends, and put fixes in place. Please help us by providing as much information about the problem as you are comfortable with and telling us directly when you find something wrong.
- September 30, 2009 at 11:40 AM
- Anonymous said...
oh wow. i had sent this post to wmata through the customer complaint form and told them to fire this guy. i wonder if that 11:40am comment is because they actually read that complaint? I was expecting not to hear anything from them because, as we all know, wmata doesn't read complaints.
- September 30, 2009 at 12:45 PM
- Anonymous said...
"Khalil" is a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689. Nothing will ever happen to him. You're tilting at windmills complaining about him.
I bet dollars to donuts his car was parked in a handicapped or 15-minute-waiting spot rigth outside the entrance, too. You know, even though Metro goes directly to his place of work. WMATA employees don't use the system - it's too unreliable!
...and ignore "WMATA's" advice to use their system. Even if they investigate, and initiate an action, it will be set aside one the union gets involved. The employee will probably even get a bonus in the form of some back overtime, too.
This system is rotten to the core, and it will NEVER be fixed.
- September 30, 2009 at 12:48 PM
- Anonymous said...
Hey WMATA - I HAVE reported the horrid actions and attitudes of the attendants many times over the years - to NO avail. Please try again and thank you for posting about Metro!
- September 30, 2009 at 12:57 PM
- Dan D said...
But you don't do anything about it. What's the point of filing a complaint with you when nothing every happens.
- September 30, 2009 at 1:52 PM
- Brian said...
And therein lies the problem. Reporting problems is nice. But nothing ever comes of it. Remember my complaint about the rude bus driver a month or so ago, on the 22A from the Pentagon? The driver didn't have the right info on the light-display on the side of the bus and got sarcastic and rude when I asked what route the bus was? It was even posted here as an example of poor customer service. Want to bet how long it took Metro to get back to me about it? Never. I haven't heard a damned thing. Which is standard procedure- as long as Metro doesn't admit there's a problem, there's no problem. Classic ostrich-head-in-the-sand behavior.
Don't blow smoke up our asses about 'report problems to us' if the plan at that point is to politely ignore the issue and hope we'll just go away.
- September 30, 2009 at 2:50 PM
- Tim said...
I'm not taking WMATA's side, and I think it is great to have a place to vent our frustrations like these. I have sent a complaint about a station manager to WMATA before (and never received a response). That being said, what do you expect to hear from Metro? Do you want them to tell you the employee has been reprimanded or fired? Let's say you complained about bad customer service from a rep from your insurance company or phone company. Would you expect a follow-up call to update you on what action has been taken against that employee? I'm sure Metro, like most any other company - especially with a union - has to follow progressive discipline (which is why they need complaints with as much info as possible). You got bad customer service and you sent a complaint - and that's the end of the story. Whatever action WMATA takes against that employee isn't really your business.
- September 30, 2009 at 4:01 PM
- Brian said...
Dear WMATA,
I too wrote about a bad exprience and was promised a reply "as soon as possible."
That was in January, I'm still waiting. And you wonder why we all hate you.
- September 30, 2009 at 4:31 PM
- Dan Franzen said...
A big thank you to Shady Grove Metro, which finally removed piles and piles of horse poop from the sidewalk between the station and one of the surface lots. I mean, it took only a week or two - good work! Minor quibble - you left a little there. I guess to remind us of what had been ...
- October 1, 2009 at 1:16 PM
- DC rider said...
I have reported a compliaint to metro - a bus driver closed a door on me, it actually hurt, when I tried to get on the bus, even though more than one person was getting off the bus. None ever responded. No point in reporting complaints to WMATA they suck and have no customer service at all. I wish they'd fire half their slacker staff and give the jobs to people who are looking right now and would try to do a good job. Thanks for posting this.
- October 1, 2009 at 6:07 PM
- Kara said...
I had about the same happen to me. A train door opened for a fraction of a second then closed ... just enough time for my head to go through it. Luckily my neck had not reached the opening yet or I could have been another statistic.
The people on the platform could not believe what they had just seen and helped get the door open. I reported the incident to metro. I was too shell-shocked to get the train number, but knew what time it had been dispatched from Huntington (it was after rush-hour, so it would be trivial to pinpoint what train # and conductor from their logs).
Of course metro never resolved the incident. Claiming that they were unable to determine who was running that train.
- October 5, 2009 at 9:34 AM
- Anonymous said...
Tim, I do not need to know nor care about the dirty laundry of whether an employee was fired or not. I care about seeing improvement in attitude and action. Telling me someone got fired does nothing for me. Don't tell me. Show me. Show me the other employees improving.
- October 5, 2009 at 9:47 AM


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JEFFERSON CITY, MO -- Yoga studios in Missouri are now required to charge sales tax for their services, a move that has yogis statewide arguing that that their practices are a spiritual pursuit protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
In mid-October, the Missouri Department of Revenue sent a letter to 140 yoga and Pilates studios ordering them to pay a 4 percent sales tax on their services. The state said yoga classes are subject to a statute requiring sales tax on places of "amusement, entertainment or recreation," and that the recent request was based on a 2008 Missouri Supreme Court case that stated the tax should apply to all fitness facility services.
"The Missouri Supreme Court has held that athletic and fitness clubs are places of recreation and therefore fees paid to these types of businesses are subject to sales tax," David Zanone, manager of the Missouri Department of Revenue's taxation division, wrote in the letter to studios. "Yoga centers offer the same types of fitness services that the Missouri Supreme Court has held are taxable."
But yoga instructors maintain that their services aren't merely recreational and actually are a form of meditation with the goal of attaining spiritual enlightenment.
Recently, a group of yoga instructors and businesses gathered to meet and organize under the The Spirit of Yoga Saint Louis umbrella to lobby state politicians for exemption from the sales tax. Representatives from the group said they will encourage legislators to clarify the definition of "places of amusement, entertainment or recreation" in hopes of having their studios recognized as spiritual in nature.


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Finally the patch has come. Whether part of you is cheering or booing, it's happening regardless. But what is a poor Hunter to do? What will change about our play style? Let's just jump in shall we?
Obviously we can talk about the elephant in the room. The change to Bestial Wrath and Readiness. This was intended to be a PvE adjustment, as a way of slowing down 50/21 DPS. Getting rid of back-to-back Bestial Wrath also has the far-reaching effects to hit Arena as well. Variations of the Readiness spec is also the most successful Hunter PvP spec for Arena at the moment. Perhaps it will still be. We might lose the extra 18 seconds of Bestial Wrath, but double trap, Intimidation, and Deterrence are still a pleasant dish to serve up.
But as it's intent to nerf PvE damage, Blizzard felt the need to take a few more steps to tone down Hunters as well. Steady Shot took a huge hit to it's scaling coefficient. Instead of receiving a bonus from 20% of our Attack Power it is now only receiving 10%. So instead of the calculation looking like Weapon Damage + Ammo + [RAP * 0.2 + 252] we are getting that .2 change to .1. What exactly does that do to our Steady Shot? A lot actually. Given 4400 Attack Power and Frostbite Bullets our Steady Shot like this:
584 + 46.5 + (4400 * 0.2 + 252) = 1762.5
With the scaling changed our Steady Shot now looks like this:
584 + 46.5 + (4400 * 0.1 + 252) = 1322.5
Ouch. In fact my Steady Shot won't be hitting for 1762.5 again until I reach 8800 Attack Power. So that is a monster change we also have to live with until Blizzard thinks it was much too much.
Now we also have to remember that Beast Mastery isn't the only Hunter talent tree. The Steady Shot change is going to hurt Marksmanship and Survival just as well. In fact Marksmanship received no notable buffs to compensate for the beating they took with Steady Shot. Survival can probably take comfort in knowing that Explosive Shot was buffed but had the AoE portion removed. The final change Blizzard decided on is doubling the Attack Power coefficient from .08 to .16. So with 4147 Attack Power (which is what I used in this post), expect Explosive Shot to come in just under 1100 damage a tick.
And all that Explosive Shot goodness came with a price. And that was Lock and Load having a 30 second cooldown. So the trap-dancing idea was run, you technically still could if you wanted to, to insure LnL, but the effectiveness of is diminished since you won't be able to trigger it repeatedly from traps and Serpent Sting.
Jumping back to BM changes for a second, you'll remember that cats and scorpids were all getting a nerf to "to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power." Blizzard's words. In fact, Scorpid Poison doesn't stack anymore. You'll get a single application of the poison. And this also has Arena effects with the new dispel changes, that being that no offensive spell will receive spell resistance. Hammer of Justice, Poisons, etc. All gone on the first try. Sure, if there is more than one debuff they have a chance to get something else, but now they will always get something.
Kindred Spirits and Unleashed Fury had their pet damage bonus reduced by 5% each, and Serpent's Swiftness also had the attack speed bonus for pet's reduced to 10% instead of 20.
It's going to be a rough day as specs are re-evaluated, numbers are re-crunched, and we figure out which spec is coming out on top for PvE DPS. I hope Lunchmoneyy didn't plan on doing Arena tonight because I have a date with a target dummy.
Thoughts, opinions, the spec you think is going to come out on top, post it here.


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British GP: Sunday Quotes
Lewis Hamilton (16th): "I gave it my all today. Despite fighting for the lower positions, I was absolutely on the limit for the whole race. We knew it would be difficult, and I enjoyed my battle with Fernando, but we didn't have the pace today to get into the points. The best thing about this weekend has been the fans: they really gave me some consolation by cheering me on throughout the race. I would love to have given them a result to make them happy and my country proud, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us before that will be realistic."
Heikki Kovalainen (DNF, Damage): "Of course, it's disappointing not to finish the team's home race. Until my retirement, the car had been working fine and the strategy was working for me too: we were on target. Then Bourdais just ran into the back of me and damaged the left-rear corner. I had to stop because the damage had made the car undriveable: we decided to retire for safety reasons."
Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: "This weekend has been a very difficult one for everyone at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. No-one in our team likes not winning, and it goes without saying that we all remain utterly determined to return to our winning ways. That may not be a realistic prospect for this season - although significant improvements are in the pipeline - but the team is doing a huge amount of work in an effort to gain a full understanding of the performance issues our car is currently facing, with a view to developing next year's car as well as improving this year's car. Sometimes you have to go backwards before you can begin going forwards - and, painful as it was for all of us, this weekend was an example of that."
Norbert Haug, Mercedes Motorsport Director: "A race to forget. Our performance was by far not where it has to be and where it was when we won five of the last 10 races here on this classic racetrack. We should not talk a lot now but rather work a lot. Congratulations to our German friend Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing and Mark Webber for a very impressive performance and a clearly very dominant one-two today. This was the most impressive performance of the season so far."
Felipe Massa (4th): "I almost feel as though I won the race! To start eleventh and finish fourth is a really great result. We weren't expecting it and so we are doubly happy. We had a good strategy and I pushed to the maximum at the key moments. Today, the KERS was a great help, especially at the start, but the whole car was also working well. The team did a great job and the results speak for themselves. We have to continue down this route. It will be interesting to understand how the car's performance improved from one day to the next. Maybe it just needed those few extra degrees of track temperature to get the tires working better."
Kimi Raikkonen (8th): "I got a good start, but then I was unable to push as much as I could have done because I was always in traffic. Obviously, my grid position, given my fuel load, penalized me in terms of strategy. After the first run of pit stops, I found myself right behind Trulli and from then on, my race was pretty much over. I tried to pass him getting very close sometimes, but it wasn't really on as overtaking is still very difficult. I ended up fighting with Glock but I could defend my position comfortably, both thanks to the KERS and to the fact that I actually had quite a good pace. It's a shame, because given where I was at the end of the first lap, I could have got a better result. A single point is definitely nothing to get excited about, but it's better than nothing. The car wasn't bad today, much better than it had been in qualifying yesterday."
Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: "After the less than brilliant qualifying yesterday, our aim was to get both cars home in the points and we did it. Felipe drove a fantastic race: starting eleventh and finishing fourth with no one in front of him on the grid retiring is a great performance. Kimi got a great start, making the most of the KERS, but after that he was unable to make the most of having moved up the order, because of traffic. Today, we saw one team clearly ahead of the rest, but we showed we could match the pace of all the others, including those who only two weeks ago, were clearly better. We will have to study in depth everything that happened this weekend to understand how the performance level can change so suddenly, one way or the other, without there having been any changes made to the cars."
Chris Dyer: "We got the most out of a weekend that was definitely not brilliant in terms of performance. Both our drivers had great starts, getting the most of out the KERS. Then Felipe picked up a good pace that, along with the strategy, allowed him to move up quite a few places. As for Kimi, he was slowed by traffic and the key moment in his race was when Trulli came out on track ahead of him when he made his first pit stop. He was unable to pass him on the track and then, during the run of pit stops, other drivers were able to get ahead of him. Yesterday, we were rather disappointed both with our result and with our performance, but today things were definitely better: however, we have to admit there is still a great deal of work to do to be competitive at the highest level, which is where we want to be."
BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica (13th): "This was a very difficult race for me. Starting from P12 it was clear under normal circumstances we couldn't achieve much, therefore we decided to take a risk and start the race with a high fuel load and on the prime tires. But it didn't pay off, because I had big problems heating up the tires at the start, and I lost ground. We have to accept that 13th is just what was possible today."
Nick Heidfeld (15th): "I'd say given our poor qualifying results the race result was what we expected. There wasn't much we could come away with. At the start I risked a lot when I went for a rather small gap. I damaged my front wing but I was happy it wasn't worse than that. Of course it significantly affected the aerodynamics, but we decided to wait until the scheduled pit stop so not to lose even more time. For the second stint I had to use the harder tire compound, but the softer ones were clearly the better ones."
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director: "For us the race reflects the performance we showed in yesterday's qualifying. Overall it was a disappointing weekend for our team. We will speed up our development program. The only out of the ordinary situation from our point of view today was when Nick touched another car on the first lap and damaged his front wing. Although he was able to continue until the scheduled pit stop he lost a lot of time."
Willy Rampf, Technical Director: "We are obviously not happy with this result, but unfortunately it reflects our qualifying performance. In the race we were struggling to get the tires into the window when they were working at their best. Both drivers complained about lack of grip on the hard compound. With the softer tire, the pace was acceptable. But at the end of the day here the car was just not competitive. At the Nurburgring we will introduce the next aerodynamic update."
Nelson Piquet (12th): "The overall result is disappointing today, but I think I had a solid race. It's clear that we must continue to work hard and hopefully introduce some new upgrades in time for the next race in a few weeks' time. I know that I can be competitive if the car is good, however it's down to me to improve my performance in qualifying."
Fernando Alonso (14th): "Our chance to score points today was over at the start as we lost two positions and I was stuck behind Heidfeld who was heavy on fuel, which cost us a lot of time. Although I had some good fights around the track, I'm obviously frustrated with the poor result and it's clear we need to improve on all fronts before Germany."
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: "Fernando's poor start put him in a position that was hard to recover from and equally Nelson was caught in traffic, which made it difficult to see his true pace. The team switched Nelson to a one-stop strategy, which gained him four places, nevertheless we must improve the pace of the car very rapidly."
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "Our performance today did not meet the expectations that we had after qualifying and so we leave Silverstone disappointed. The poor start for Fernando compromised his race and losing so much time in his first stint made it impossible to score points. Nelson's one-stop strategy worked well, but it's clear that we weren't quick enough today. We need to regroup and improve before Germany."
Remi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations: "Unfortunately we just weren't fast enough today. We didn't have a great start to the race, which meant we were caught in traffic, and with the strategies we were running that made it difficult to move forward. Both drivers drove well and gave their maximum. We must now concentrate on the next race in Germany."
Jarno Trulli (7th): "It was a very hard race for me. I had a difficult start because the car didn't pull away as fast as normal, so I lost a couple of positions. I was trying to fight back all through the race but it was not easy and the car was sliding around quite a lot; maybe this was because of the aero set-up I chose yesterday. I expected the weather today to be a little warmer than it was and I was struggling a bit with my set-up, especially on long runs. Our strategy was okay but we expected more from this race so I am determined to make up for it in Germany."
Timo Glock (9th): "It's a pity to miss out on the points, especially as I was really quick out of traffic and at the end I was able to catch Kimi (Raikkonen) quite easily. The problem was at the first corner when I lost a few positions; that left me in traffic and compromised my race. Still, I didn't give up and I was fighting with (Giancarlo) Fisichella in the middle stint when there was a chance to get in the points. On the hard tires at the end the car felt good and I very quickly caught Kimi but I had no chance to overtake. I tried into the final corner on the last lap but it didn't work out. Now I am looking to the next Grand Prix, which is a home race for me and the team. I hope it will be a bit warmer there which would suit our car more than the low temperatures today."
John Howett, Team Principal: "We expected a better result than this but the race didn't turn out as we hoped. Qualifying was very promising and we genuinely expected to fight for the podium but Jarno lost positions at the start and Timo was squeezed going into the first corner. Two points is far less than we expected after the qualifying result but this will motivate us to develop further and come back stronger for one of our home Grands Prix at the Nurburgring."
Toro Rosso-Ferrari
Sebastien Buemi (18th): "It was a very tough race and we struggled to be on the pace and now we must try and work out why, as we have been quicker than this earlier in the weekend. On worn tires especially, the car was very difficult to drive. Nurburgring will be another difficult weekend, but we are due to get some updates for Hungary, which will allow us to be more competitive and perform much better."
Sebastien Bourdais (DNF, Damage): "Regarding my collision with Kovalainen, he changed line twice. At the exit to Stowe, I was on the normal line and he went to the inside, I moved to the outside, then he moved over so I moved across to the other side and he changed again. He braked early, because he'd only just left the pits on full tanks and cold tires. I was trying to out-brake him, but he should not have changed line like that. It was frustrating and then at the end I lost water pressure and had to stop in the garage."
Franz Tost, Team Principal: "First of all, well done to Red Bull for a fantastic job, especially the drivers, Vettel showing incredible pace in the early stages, with he and Webber easily controlling the race. For our part, we were off the pace this weekend and apart from some small technical problems, we were not at the level at which we expected to be. One of the reasons is that we suffer from the lack of new specification aero parts. We will have these for Hungary, when I expect and hope that this will bring us back to the front end of the mid-field."
Red Bull-Renault
Sebastian Vettel (1st): "This is such a fantastic circuit. I think all the drivers enjoy it with its fast corners, it's a dream really - so to stay focused and keep your eyes open all the time during the race is not easy! The start was very important, then in the first stint I tried to pull away and make a gap, as I knew it would be crucial for the whole race. The car was fantastic, just unbelievable. I was able to push more and more and the tires were very consistent. The second stint wasn't so easy; there were a lot of lapped cars that were battling with each other, so the team told me to be careful. From the last pit stop I was in clean air and from then on I was just counting down each lap. I had quite a big gap to Mark and was controlling the race from that point on. Everyone in the team has been working so hard, both in the factory and at the track. The way the team has brought the car to where it is now is fantastic - and we've proven it's a step in the right direction, so I'm very pleased. I also want to thank Silverstone. I enjoyed this race so much - when I looked in the grandstands everyone was standing up and clapping and when I took the chequered flag the atmosphere was so great. This is what I was dreaming of when I watched British grands prix when I was younger when Mansell was driving. It's almost unreal now to think that I'm here and I've made it. I've won this grand prix and I'm very happy."
Mark Webber (2nd): "It's a great day for the team. I'm disappointed not to take the win, but I think I lost my chance for victory yesterday during qualifying. I should have been on the front row and, if so, I would have tried to make Sebastian work a bit harder in the first stint when I was behind Rubens. I saved a lot of fuel in the first stint, which meant we were able to jump Rubens at the first pit stop. I don't think I could have done much more today and congratulations to Sebastian, he did a good first stint, which is what laid the foundations for his win. And the team? Well, the guys have buried themselves recently with night shifts and the attention to detail that they go to is a credit to them. They're being led very well and they're responding to that. Results help and it's an incredible injection for them to get the top result, a one-two on local turf. I enjoyed it today. Silverstone is an amazing track and it's incredible to go through that first sector, lap after lap. It's a great place to drive a Formula One car and the British fans are always fantastic, so it was great today."
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: "What a fantastic team result, a one-two, with both guys totally dominating the race. There were so many members of the team here today and, for them to see what their cars can do, when they have put in so much effort, is just incredible. I'm thrilled for everyone at Red Bull, they've done a brilliant job. This track suits our car and the drivers have been in fantastic form all weekend. Sebastian was outstanding today and Mark also did a brilliant job - he was very patient when he needed to be behind Rubens in the first stint. It was a great team result. We've still got a long way to go to catch Brawn GP, but we're definitely moving in the right direction."
Fabrice Lom, Renault: "Wow, a magic result - first and second at the British Grand Prix. The team is so happy and, for the guys in Milton Keynes, this victory is so deserved - they worked like hell to prepare this new package. It's a great result for them. For us as the engine partner to be part of this adventure is a great pleasure - so congratulations to everyone back in the factories and let's enjoy this fantastic result."
Nico Rosberg (5th): "I am very pleased for the whole team, and for myself, that we had another good race. We still didn't get the result that we are capable of today, but Barrichello was slow in the middle stint and I was stuck behind him and that cost me the place to Massa. If that hadn't happened, we would have had a solid fourth place. I have to say a big well done to the team because everyone is doing a really great job and we are moving ahead in terms of development. We are consistent on every track so I'm looking forward to the races to come."
Kazuki Nakajima (11th): "That result was not ideal for me. There weren't any particular reasons for it. I was pleased with my start and I thought it was going to be a good race for me, but I was held up by the car in front before my first stop and then it was difficult to keep up with the cars ahead of me for the rest of the race."
Sam Michael, Technical Director: "It was great for the team to pick up more points today with Nico's fifth place and it shows we're still heading in the right direction with development. Nico drove well, it was just a shame he was caught up in traffic for the majority of the race as I think he could have done more. He showed that he was quick by setting the third fastest lap time in the race, only behind the two Red Bulls. With his strategy, it was always going to be difficult for Kazuki to score points, but he is definitely improving, and he really helped the team with set-up direction this weekend."
Force India-Mercedes
Giancarlo Fisichella (10th): "A top 10 finish was our target this weekend. We thought it would be difficult but actually today was a very good race for me and we achieved the maximum we could do. It was a fun race. I had a good start and then on the first lap I overtook many drivers and even on the second lap I overtook Kubica and the two Renaults, so I was very focused at the beginning. It was very important with my strategy to do this as we didn't have such a great starting position because of the red flag yesterday in qualifying. Perhaps we could have scored points if we'd started higher as eighth was just in front of me and at the end I was quicker than Kimi (Raikkonen) and Timo (Glock). It's a great step forward and I'm really looking forward to the next races now. The team did a fantastic job so we need to continue this."
Adrian Sutil (17th): "We rebuilt the spare car after the crash yesterday caused too much damage to my race car, but then we had a problem on the formation lap with the fuel pressure. We could fix it and at least start but it was really disappointing today. We missed a big opportunity to qualify well because of the crash and the race was not spectacular as a result. I was really just driving around without much chance of overtaking anyone so it was a little boring, but it's another finish at least. Let's move onto Germany where I hope I can really take advantage of the new parts we had this weekend."
Dr. Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: "It was a very impressive race performance today from Force India. We had our fair share of bad luck in qualifying yesterday with Adrian's shunt, which unfortunately ruined Fisi's lap as well. Who knows, if we had started further up the grid as we had hoped maybe points would have been in reach today. Nevertheless I am very happy both cars finished: reliability is good, we're competitive and keeping pace with all the others and we beat some top teams as well. Obviously I am delighted that we are getting there, slowly but steadily. I'm very hopeful for the next few races."
Rubens Barrichello (3rd): "I'm really proud of the third place that we achieved at Silverstone today. It's been a tough weekend for the team and we knew that if the track temperatures didn't increase, then it would be incredibly difficult to beat the Red Bulls. The car has been well balanced and we certainly haven't lost performance since the last race, it's just that we have suffered badly in the cool conditions with our tire temperatures. I had a good start to maintain second but Sebastian then disappeared in front of me and we knew that we were competing for third. There's been very little difference between the two tire compounds this weekend but the softer tire was definitely better in the race so it was tough for us to do the long middle stint on the harder tire. Still to come away with third and the best position that the team could have achieved this weekend is very satisfying and I'm happy to have taken some points out of Jenson's lead."
Jenson Button (6th): "All points are important at this stage of the season and to come away with three from this weekend is therefore ok but it's been a very frustrating home Grand Prix for us. I had a bad start as Trulli was slow off the line in front of me which left nowhere to go. I tried the inside and then the outside but everyone shot by me. From ninth place it was never going to be an easy race. I was stuck behind Trulli for the first stint which was really frustrating as the car felt good on the softer tire and I was much quicker than him but couldn't overtake. We then had a long middle stint on the harder tire and both Rubens and I struggled to get the tires into their working range in the cool conditions with a heavy fuel load. On the softer rubber at the end of the race, I was able to close right up to Rosberg and Massa very easily so the pace of the car was actually pretty good but it is so difficult to overtake that I couldn't make any improvement on sixth position with only a few laps left. We need to understand why our car doesn't work so well at low temperatures and hope for warmer races to come."
Ross Brawn, Team Principal: "Today's result was a pleasing outcome to what has been a challenging home race for the team this weekend. Rubens drove a very composed race to achieve his second consecutive podium finish at Silverstone whilst Jenson recovered well from a poor start to score valuable points for our Championship challenge. We knew from the outset that our car does not work particularly well with the tires at lower track temperatures and this was clearly evident at Shanghai earlier in the season. The balance of the car and the pace shown by Jenson in the last few laps of the race are however encouraging and we will be taking a close look at the issues that we experienced with the tires to see what countermeasures can be taken. Congratulations to Red Bull for a superb one-two finish today and we look forward to taking the fight to them in Germany."
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John Mahoney was everyone's favorite father figure in "Frazier" and plays a kindly grandfather in the new movie "Flipped."
But Mahoney admits to PopcornBiz that he likes being dark, much like his appearances on the USA Network's "Burn Notice."
"I love to play bad," he tells us from the press event for "Flipped."
He ticks off a few of his favorite bad moments, such as 1987's "Suspect."
"I tried to eviscerate Cher," he says, never losing his trademark eye-twinkle. "And In 'Primal Fear,' I was a rotten character. "
"I've done some pretty bad things," he admits with a wink. "I have to dig a little bit…but not too much."
As far as "Burn Notice," Mahoney is thrilled to be on his "favorite show" even if his character is a shadowy type only known as "Management." He recalls talking to his agent about his love of the show "and then two days after we talked my agent got a call from the 'Burn Notice' people asking if I'd be interested."
He jumped at the part and plans to continue with his character which has shown every sign of playing a bigger role in seasons to come.
"I'm sure I'll be going back once we're done with hiatus," says Mahoney. "I just don't know when."
Lest it appear that the world has flipped, Mahoney's "Flipped" character is wise and kind and the "moral compass" of the story in the words of director Rob Reiner. Needless to say, he doesn't wear the shades in this story.


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Strategic Account Executive
- New York, NY, USA
- Full-time
- Department: Sales
Company Description
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Job Description
It is our job to acquire and cultivate relationships with our most strategic customers through proactive targeted efforts by effectively aligning internal resources to their needs. In the Strategic role we work with Fortune 500 organizations who spend upwards of 25-200M in digital advertising.
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Brooke Burke Charvet "Dancing Beauty" In New 2014 Spring Issue Of New You Magazine
Dancing With The Stars Brooke Burke Charvet is gracing the cover of the new Spring 2014 issue of New You Magazine. If you visit their official Facebook page, you can see the cover as well as other photos of her for what's featured inside. The Daily Mail also has a sneak peek of Brooke in the new issue. She chats about her marriage and children and how important it is to have "a team" behind you, aging, and lots more. The new issue of New You Magazine hit news stands this week. Be sure to pick up a copy!!


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Historic Sites Gain Recognition In South Dakota
Three South Dakota properties have been to the National Register of Historic Places, according to the South Dakota State Historical Society.
They are the Sievers School in rural Faulk County, the Nansen Store in Howard and Iron Nation's Gravesite on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in Lyman County.
According to a media release from the State Historical Society:
"The National Register is the official federal list of properties identified as important in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering and culture. The State Historic Preservation Office of the State Historical Society works in conjunction with the National Park Service, which oversees the National Register program, to list the properties. "
Jay Vogt, director of the State Historical Society stated:
"South Dakota's history is rich in American Indian culture, pioneer life and change. Properties listed on the National Register are important for their role in South Dakota's culture, heritage and history. And when properties get listed, it shows that their owners take pride in their role in preserving that culture, heritage and history."
Sievers School, located between Miranda and Rockham, was listed for its local significance to the history of education and rural school construction. The one-room school, which retains its original location and materials, was built in 1886 on an acre of donated land. Remembered locally as Sievers School, the schoolhouse was also known at times as Grabinski School No. 10 and Von Ahn School. It is thought to have been called Sievers School because the Sievers family homesteaded in the township in 1884, owned land just south of the school, and boarded most of the teachers at their home. In addition to classes, Sievers School also hosted early church services and community gatherings.
The Nansen Store in Howard has been listed for its significance to the history of rural commerce in Miner County. The store was built around 1903 and was in operation under the Skaar, Wall and Hegdahl families until about 1961. Country stores provided access to material goods, were a point of trade with larger markets, a post for announcements and debate, a meeting place, and a place of socialization and entertainment. The current owner has recently undertaken restorative work to uncover and rebuild historic features of the building.
Iron Nation's Gravesite, Lower Brule Indian Reservation, Lyman County
Written accounts of Iron Nation's life are scant. He was born in what is now South Dakota, west of the Missouri River, in 1805. No personal accounts of his youth exist, but he grew up at a time when the Sioux were a powerful people on the northern plains. By the 1860s, Iron Nation was a chief of the Lower Brule and signed many treaties on behalf of the tribe. With the treaties signed, Iron Nation settled into life on the Lower Brule Reservation. He died in 1894 and was buried at the cemetery adjoining Messiah Episcopal Church. In 1934, the Lower Brule erected a commemorative obelisk grave marker. This is worthy of listing because it is the first known marker for a Lakota (Sioux) chief erected by a tribe in South Dakota.
For more information on the National Register or other historic preservation programs, contact the State Historic Preservation Office at the Cultural Heritage Center, 900 Governors Drive, Pierre, SD 57501-2217; telephone (605) 773-3458 or website history.sd.gov/Preservation, click on National Register of Historic Places in the right column.


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If you heard a collective cheer in West Hollywood recently, it was most likely the tenants in Chris Brown's former condo building celebrating after the R&B singer and songwriter vacated his apartment.
For months, Chris Brown reportedly waged an all out war with the tenants in his West Hollywood building. Brown is said to have infuriated his neighbors by parking his multiple luxury cars in handicapped parking spots, blasting music all hours of the day, and racing dogs (yep, you heard right, dogs) in the building's hallways. TMZ even reports that the cops were called to the high-end building after "someone" carved "C.B." on the elevator door back in June.
Brown is packing up his luxury digs, his swanky cars, and racing dogs and likely decamping to a home with a bit more privacy, less tenants, and soundproof walls. However, the twenty-two year old hasn't cut ties completely with the condo--he hasn't even sold, or even officially listed, the unit yet.


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Asoke Chakravarty
A poet, writer, painter & musician Asoke Chakravarty has lived in Canada for over 40 years. He is a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA. His first short story was published when he was 18. He has published 10 books of poems, stage plays, rhymes, and other works. His work is published in Kolkata's most high profile magazines. His English poems can be found in many Canadian & USA anthologies. In 2004 he received the UTSAV-BOOKFAIR Award. He studied Tabla with maestro Kanai Dutta & played with leading classical musicians. He has a Diploma in Fine Arts & has studied with European & Canadian teachers. He has had 18 solo shows. His work is collected in Scandinavia, Europe, USA, Canada & India. He has curated exhibitions on Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurasawa, Ingmer Bergman, Indian renaissance, and Theatre. He has organized Literary seminars & Art exhibits of International artists; sponsored by Universities. Founder-director: KRITTIBAS Toronto literary group. Chief Guest: International Bengali poet's conference, 2006 & 2007 Keynote speaker: Shakespeare Society of India & Tagore-Gandhi Institute of India 2008. In 2009 he chaired & organized International Festival of Poetry of Resistance in Toronto.
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Dear all,
unless explicitly asked for, the eigenvalue routines for general matrices (for example xGEES, xGEEV) do not sort the eigenvalues. However, I have noticed in many applications (with matrices of various structure) that typically the larger eigenvalues come first, i.e. that the eigenvalues are typically almost sorted in descending order.
Now, if the eigenvalues were calculated using a power method, the fact that the largest eigenvalue comes first is somewhat obvious. As far as I understand, xGEES/xGEEV is based on the Francis QR algorithm, and while still related to the power method, the shifts used there make the order far less obvious. In fact, Golub and van Loan state in "Matrix computations" (Chap 7.5.6): The order of the eigenvalues along the diagonal of T is somewhat arbitrary (T is the triangular matrix of the Schur decomposition).
Can one still in general expect the behavior of LAPACK I was describing, i.e. that the eigenvalues are almost ordered? Do you have some insight why this is?
Some background: I'm asking this question also because of some practical matter. We have a problem where we need the invariant subspace for some eigenvalues, which we can get by reordering the Schur decomposition. This reordering is faster, if the eigenvalues are already close to the top of the triangular matrix T. It turns out that we can formulate our problem such that the desired eigenvalues are either the smallest or the largest. From my observation mentioned above, it would seem that making them largest is best for our application, but I'm wondering how general this is.


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I found this to be a perfect alternative to the MaxDB special drivers of version 7.5.00. Just weren't that easy to install on *nix. Windows seems fine. Anyway The ODBC is a perfect alternative for connecting the SAPDB/MaxDB towards PHP.
Installation guide for the odbc alternative (instead of the MAXDB-php driver) can be found here:


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Hi Chris,
Call me an old stick-in-the-mud, but I don't like the new tune-search thingy as much as the old one. I found the old one much easier to see whether a result was the one I wanted. Is there some advantage to the new one?
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text: By day, Linden Gledhill develops pharmaceuticals. After hours, he pushes the limits of high-speed, up-close and on-the-cheap digital photography. The British native's latest science-inspired shots of insects in midflight, splattering paint droplets and butterfly wing scales are made possible by a small photographic-accessories company in Michigan. When Gledhill hits a barrier to his artistic will, he calls up Cognisys co-founder Paul DeZeeuw for help. "Our mission is to help photographers capture what they wouldn't normally be able to, and for cheap," DeZeeuw said. Some of the equipment Cognisys sells for a few hundred dollars can cost tens of thousands of dollars from other companies. "My friend and I started this whole thing in a basement, and Linden was one of our first customers. He's been suggesting features and accessories and all sorts of things since then." The two have already created a high-speed handheld photography rig and are joining forces on other devices to capture Gledhill's impossible shots, including a shutter system that can actuate in about 5 milliseconds from pushing the button to recording a photo. That's about 12-13 times faster than systems built into today's consumer digital cameras. "This collaboration has opened up a whole new world for me. It's enabling me to do professional work," he said. Despite taking on such professional work — including a recent contract to create images for Canon — Gledhill still describes himself as an amateur. His modesty runs so deep that, if you let him, he attempts to hide his engineering prowess behind soft-spoken statements about overcoming "slight" technical barriers. But this is a man who went out to the garage and built a high-speed camera shutter from an old hard drive when his camera wasn't fast enough to capture images of flying bugs. "My dad was an engineer, mechanical-maintenance kind of guy, so we built things together. But he was also interested in photography, and I picked up the hobby with him," Gledhill said. "Even in those days, when I was 11 or 12, we built an infrared trigger system for a camera" and a made-from-scratch telescope. Gledhill cultivates his passions from the home he shares with his wife and three children, uploading his work (along with images of his do-it-yourself camera rigs in the living room) to Flickr. We share some of his favorite images here, plus some of the technological magic behind their creation. Images: Wasps in flight. Credit: Flickr/Linden Gledhill (top pane, bottom pane).Honeybee Gledhill started using Cognisys equipment when he wanted to capture flying insects, such as the honeybee above. "I have a problem with killing them, plus they don't fly when they're dead," Gledhill said. He didn't want to pay a hefty sum to get the job done, so he picked up StopShot in 2008. The unit designed by DeZeeuw is made of a laser-based sensor hooked up to a timing computer, which then plugs into a digital SLR camera. When the beam is broken, it instantly instructs the camera to take a picture. "A flying insect is in your field of view for maybe 10 milliseconds. That's way too fast for human systems to respond," DeZeeuw said. "That's why we use electronics. It's a whole lot faster and far less frustrating to capture what you want." The one-beam StopShot system was good for immobile objects, Gledhill says, but a bug could trigger the camera shutter when off-frame. To resolve the problem, he prototyped a new two-laser unit (below) with Cognisys. It triggers a photograph only when both beams are broken, giving complete control over where a subject appears in a camera's view. The yellow cylinders attached to the front of the aluminum frame are lasers pointing to mirrors (bottom left, bottom right), ultimately guiding the beams to receiving sensors within the frame. When both beams are simultaneously broken, the computer triggers the camera (center) as well as any attached flash units (right, left). One has to wonder how many times Gledhill gets stung while taking photos only a few inches away from wasp and bee nests. The dual-beam StopShot system is programmable and more or less fully automated, however, allowing "hundreds of images" to be taken while he's watching from a safe distance. Images: Flickr/Linden Gledhill (top pane, bottom pane)Fruit Flies Leave sweet or sour food to fester on a warm day, and chances are tiny fruit flies will flock to it like miners to a gold rush. Gledhill used his custom dual-beam rig to create the above composite. "I've been pushing the boundaries of StopShot's sensitivity, and it's a very fine dot maybe a couple millimeters across," he said. "It can detect very small objects like fruit flies." Some of the fastest dSLR cameras have a delay of 60-70 milliseconds, which still wasn't speedy enough for Gledhill to capture especially fast insects. So he created a high-speed shutter from a hard drive (below) and attached it to the front of his camera, giving his equipment a response time of 11 milliseconds. "The drive's arm pivots on a coiled magnet, which allows it to move very rapidly with some current. I put a shutter blade onto the arm, made a casing for it, made a power supply and hooked StopShot up to the thing," Gledhill said. DeZeeuw and Gledhill are now collaborating on a production version of the shutter boasting a mere 6-millisecond delay. Images: Flickr/Linden Gledhill (top pane, bottom pane)Water Figure on Leaves Another interest of Gledhill's is capturing the hidden dynamics of liquids. "As soon as a drop hits the water's surface, you have about 5 milliseconds to react. You could photograph it all day and maybe get a few keeper photos," DeZeeuw said. Using a high-speed system vastly increases the number of good images a photographer can get, which DeZeeuw says allows more time to focus on the creative process instead of technical limitations. Gledhill captures dancing water and paint with advanced yet surprisingly low-budget setups. At the far right of the rig below is a StopShot computer, which has three input ports for flexibility in triggering photographs. Infrared beams and sensors (grey L-shaped devices, bottom left and middle right) await a falling drop, telling the computer to engage the camera shutter and flash unit (left center) as the liquid splashes upward. Hidden behind three reflectors (center) is a stage where pump-controlled drops of liquid (top) arrive. Everything here (minus the flash unit) costs about $400 and provides "priceless" hours of entertainment, Gledhill says. Images: Flickr/Linden Gledhill (top pane, bottom pane)Crown Jewels To make this jewel-studded crown, Gledhill used his water-figures rig and a touch of glitter. "It's a different spin on the classic water-drop crown," Gledhill said. "This also demonstrates the use of StopShot for triggering flash units based on the position of a falling water drop." Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillTriple Exposure One of Gledhill's most famous series is his paint-splattered figures, inspired by Flickr user fotoopa's work. Gledhill makes the images by dribbling paint over a rubber membrane stretched onto a speaker. When he pumps sound through the speaker, the paint shoots upward and a microphone triggers the computer. Adopting a "no Photoshop" approach for this image, Gledhill designed an advanced rig (below) to capture three separate instances of the same splash, spaced 10 milliseconds apart, in a single shot. "A spinning mirror was used to displace the image across the camera sensor while the flash guns were strobed three times," Gledhill said. A variable resistor controls a DC motor (left), driving the belt around an axle (bottom). On top of the axle is a high-grade mirror. By trial and error, Gledhill tuned the resistor and his flash unit to paint the three evenly spaced images onto his camera's sensor. Images: Flickr/Linden Gledhill (top pane, bottom pane)Canon Advertisement Gledhill's colorful water figures eventually landed him a contract to help Canon with a new Pixma printer advertising campaign. To bring the splashes of color to life in video, he teamed up with design agency Dentsu London and used a 5,400-frames-per-second video camera attached to a rotating platform. (By comparison, a typical video camera captures images at 60 frames per second.) Gledhill says it was an a amazing experience, but finds it even more amazing that amateurs can do similar work "without hundreds of thousands of dollars of extremely heavy equipment." Video: Vimeo/Dentsu London Image: A water figure. Credit: Flickr/Linden GledhillJumping Spider Another photographic interest of Gledhill's is capturing images of tiny insects in stunning detail. Taking such shots requires a high-magnification camera setup, including extension tubes and teleconverters to boost a lens' magnification power. Luck and patience are other necessary ingredients. Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillTobacco Hornworm One serious challenge of shooting objects at high magnification is working with an increasingly limited plane of focus, also called depth-of-field. "Normally you get only a slice of your subject in-focus," DeZeeuw said. "The rest is fuzzy," he says, because of the physics of light traveling through a lens with a wide aperture. Using a process called focus stacking, however, photographers can merge digital images to expand their depth of field. Gledhill combined five separate images of the tobacco hornworm (above) to widen the in-focus portion of the image. Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillHarlequin Cabbage Bugs Hatching From the underside of a leaf, tiny harlequin cabbage bugs hatch from their hinged egg cases. Gledhill says digital photography allows him to take images the film cameras of his childhood couldn't. "Film is precious. Now you can take thousands of photos and learn more quickly," Gledhill said. In addition, the low-light sensitivity of good digital cameras "has gotten to point where it exceeds film," he said. Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillMold on a Raspberry At 7x magnification, this "alien landscape" of sprouting mold spores looks much less fuzzy. Gledhill used 35 individual shots taken in 40-micron steps to create this photograph. To create similar focus-stacked macrophotography, Gledhill first used a homemade, hand-powered macro rail with a camera mount attached to it. By turning a dial attached to a fine-pitch screw, he nudged his camera closer to tiny subjects and snapped one in-focus slice at a time. After the shoot, he merged the photographs with software. It was tedious work, so Gledhill now uses Cognisys' StackShot macro rail — another computer-controlled piece of equipment that he pushed DeZeeuw to create. With a bit of programming, its stepping motor can inch a camera along in movements as small as 10 microns. "You're basically building a master image one slice at a time," DeZeeuw said. "If you try to go out and get a microscope with [focus] stacking, you're looking at tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now we can get that capability with several hundred dollars." Gledhill's setup (below) uses two StackShot computers to control the vertical and horizontal movement of his camera, lens and flash units. Images: Flickr/Linden Gledhill (top pane, bottom pane)Peruvian Lily Nectar Using StackShot, Gledhill compiled this image of an Alstroemeria stigma. Tiny grains of pollen, some sprouting tubes to deliver their genetic cargo, are trapped in the nectar dripping off the flower's female reproductive organ. The shot is composed of 40 separate images taken at 17x magnification. Each image was taken in 20-micron (1/50 millimeter) steps. Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillSmall Spider It's not often that a live subject will stay still enough for macrophotography, but this patient spider played her role well for Gledhill. He stacked 10 images at approximately 4.5x magnification to create this photograph. Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillButterfly Wing Scales Gledhill also uses his computer-controlled setup to photograph structures normally hidden to human eyes. The blue and white scales of a butterfly wing in this cropped image made of seven focus-stacked images, for example, pop out in clear detail next to veins. Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillSunset Moth Wing Scales The iridescent scales of a sunset moth's wing show up in stunning detail, thanks to focus-stacking work by Gledhill. This 17x-magnified image covers a 1.3-millimeter-wide section of the wing. Gledhill says the higher magnification you use, the more physics works against good image quality. "If you want to see the scales on a moth or butterfly wing, you have to stack images," he said. "It allows you to reduce diffraction and circumvent the natural blur from your optics." Image: Flickr/Linden GledhillMagnetic Ferrofluids In the presence of a magnet, tiny particles of iron suspended in liquid, called a ferrofluid, morph into impossible shapes. Gledhill took the impossibility of the material a step further by combining multiple images of ferrofluids at high magnification. The above crop is a 7x-magnified shot made of 20 separate images, and below is a 1.5x-magnified photo showing the twists and turns of the magnetic field. It's easy to assume Gledhill's work is driven by a geeky passion for high-tech toys, but he says that's only a small part of it. Weighing in most heavily are deep appreciations for science, engineering and nature. To be more productive, focus on creativity and cut out frustration without busting his wallet, he turns to DeZeeuw to prototype new tools. Their collaboration has created real-world applications other than pure aesthetic satisfaction. A new deal with the U.S. Army, for example, will give soldiers StopShot systems to photograph disease-carrying bugs. "Scientists can get the right information very rapidly to identify insects," DeZeeuw said. Scientists are also reaping benefits from the machines in other ways. "Some of our biggest customers are now museums and entomologists," DeZeeuw said, noting they use the StackShot system to convert fragile insect collections into digital archives. "One guy's ultimate goal is to use products like ours to do away with hand drawings of bugs. He wants to rapidly create digital 3-D models of them." Images: Flickr/Linden Gledhill (top pane, bottom pane)All images © Linden Gledhill.See Also:Zoom In on Top 8 Ultrahigh-Resolution Science Panoramas35 Years of the World's Best Microscope PhotographyTop 20 Microscope Photos of the Year6 Super Close-Ups of Crazy Bug EyesMicroscope Shows Cells in 3-D