text:
Devilish looks, Heavenly charm.
Children are a precious gift. Every parent hopes that their children are born
healthy without any complications. In a country village of a fantasy world, parents
have an even deeper hope that their child will not be "the one" – the one in every
generation born with horns. This, it seems, marks a damnation against the village.
Curse upon curses!
And wouldn't you know it, a child is born with horns. His name? Ico. His story?
That's for you to find out.
On his
12th birthday, Ico is taken to an ancient castle to be sacrificed, entombed
away from the living world. By some twist of fate, Ico's rocky coffin has broken
open. Trapped behind stone walls, Ico finds someone that shares his sad fate,
the ghostly princess Yorda. Together, they must find their way to freedom.
I would speak of ICO the game in the same sentence as Flashback
and Panzer Dragoon Saga, two groundbreaking games of their relative eras.
The realism of ICO's animation and the strategic maneuvering remind me
of Flashback. Panzer Dragoon Saga and ICO share the mysterious
girl, newly invented language and terrific atmosphere. Unfortunately, they also
share the pains of being short games.
The story is simple, but is carried through by the atmosphere and characters.
There's a woeful vulnerability to Ico, the horned boy. You can't help but empathize
with the poor kid.
Yorda is a non-playable character, your only friend and the key to freedom, and she has the power to open magically locked doors. Oh, and by the way, she's blind. Guiding her by hand and calling out to her are the only ways to direct her towards the locked gates of the castle. You must also protect her from the shadowy spirits that want to pull Yorda back into the darkness.
For those of you looking for white-knuckle action, you won킹t find it here.
There's no life bar or any other traditional video game meter. At its heart,
ICO is in the vein of classic adventure/puzzle games. Thankfully, the
puzzles in ICO aren't key hunts or irritating platform jumps. Rather,
traditional goals of puzzle games are still employed, such as the ever-present
crates and switches, but the gameplay is fresh and new.
Real physics help differentiate ICO from its puzzle game predecessors.
There's everything from torque (greater radius increases power) to the momentum
of swinging from chains.
While action is not Ico's forte, there are still battles to fight against the shadowy spirits. Keeping these spirits at bay requires no more skill than a pulsating thumb and keeping tabs on Yorda's safety. The fights are essentially button mashing trials, which makes the fighter in me long for some deeper swordplay. Arguably, Ico is just a little kid without any training, but even an added variation of the attack would have juiced up the battles.
The learning
curve is steady and the third-person camera lends itself towards solving the
different puzzles. The camera will strategically align you with the details
you'll need in order to figure out the different problems.
In one area, I overthought the problem and figured I was supposed to jump
off a cliff into a giant watery chasm. While the right answer was much simpler,
the watery chasm would be revisited later in the game. The way the environments
mesh together as you revisit different sections of the castle in your adventures
really adds a lot to the realism of the environment. From atop a rocky promontory
high in the sky, you could look down to see the grassy foyer you ran through
The castle grounds teem with aging bricks and mortar, bridges cast against
a waning sun, and even a tired old windmill, yet interestingly enough, the inside
is littered with swank upholstered sofas, the save points of the game. Not your
run of the mill medieval castle furniture, but what the hey.
The graphics are unique, somewhat reminiscent of an old oil painting. Colors
glow as if floating on a canvas (in technical terms, when a medium like linseed
oil or Liquin is used to gloss the base pigments. For the interested art nerds,
here.) The textures unfortunately look to be on the low-res side, lending
a light haze to the game. However, the water is perhaps the best yet seen in
a video game. When Ico passes behind a steady waterfall, there's even a refracted
image. Way cool.
The characters animate with eerie realism. When Ico hastens Yorda to follow,
Yorda's empty trailing hand swings back and forth in her tiring efforts to keep
up. It looks like a real kid dragging his mom in excitement. Subtle touches
like these lend unparalleled beauty to the game.
For the most part, ICO uses environmental noise. The chilly melody
trickles forth when the spirits return to snatch Yorda away. It킹s like a cue
to hightail it away. The real world sounds of birds chirping, echoing footsteps,
and tiny gasps for breath add nifty audio touches that flesh out the atmosphere.
For everything that it is, ICO is a painfully short game. I finished
in about 7 hours. The game really begs the argument: Would you rather have less
fun drawn out across more hours, or highly concentrated fun in a scant few hours?
After all, would I still be drawn to block pushing and rope swinging after 80
hours? Not likely. The 7 hours that I enjoyed were fun and well paced. I just
didn't want it to end. Too bad there's no replay outside of self-imposed challenges.
ICO is definitely a cool experience, albeit a short one. Accordingly,
a rental seems perfect. Take it slow and just enjoy the beauty.


text:
- "A first-world global communications company with third-world cell phone coverage."
- ― Description at Bawsaq.com.
Badger is a Mobile Phone company in the HD Universe. The player can buy stocks from then in the Bawsaq.com website in GTA V.
It is based on T-Mobile while the name is based on Fido Solutions, a company only operating in Canada. It benefits of some of the largest stock increases. Despite this, the actions' prices are very low compared to other businesses.
Grand Theft Auto IVIt is Niko Bellic's first cell phone provider The Ballad of Gay Tony DLC, Luis's owns a more modern phone, a Badger Touchscreen Phone for the entire game. It is more advanced than the previous Badger Cellphone, with the ability to take pictures and add ringtones and themes.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
The PDA present on the touch screen runs on the Badger network. The software is apparently known as BadgerOS, and gives the player access to the game's menus and features. While mobile phone conversations are not present, the PDA (as well as the computer found in safehouses) can be used to receive email. On the PSP version of the game, there are three themes selectable from the Settings menu (which can be found inside the System application), the default is Badger's skin, but one for "Sprunk" and another for "Tw@ Internet Cafe" can also be chosen.
Grand Theft Auto V
Badger continues to grow on BAWSAQ. The company benefits of some of the largest stock increases, although the actions' prices are very low. Its main office, the Badger Building, is located in Vinewood, Los Santos. Badger's ads are now more aggressive towards its main competitor, stating that they offer "wider coverage than Tinkle".
Known Users
- The Badger network, like the Whiz network, is capable of sending photos, as shown by Ray Boccino sending you a picture of a target in the mission A Long Way To Fall, which means that perhaps Niko's inability to use themes, ring tones and to take and send pictures is due not to the network but to the cell phone he used at the time.
- Ray Boccino owns a Badger phone, however it is shown as a Whiz phone, and also in the cutsene for the mission Late Checkout, he is seen throwing his phone at the waiter in the restaurant, which is used in an Whiz Wireless television commercial demonstrating "Enjoy Robust, Durable Handsets".
- In the Ballad of Gay Tony, though the player has a Badger phone, if they go into the "Themes" menu, they may select a Whiz Wireless wallpaper.
- Badger is used as another term to fart in some parts of the UK, to keep up with Rockstar's crude humour.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
This therefore that, uh, no
Just type in Thomas Pynchon and see what comes up.
I mean David Sedaris is a wonderful writer and I love his work, but putting him closer to Pynchon than say Bill Vollmann...well...no, just no.
And Wayne Dyer on the same page as Laura Lippman? No, no, really no.
19 comments:
- Ishmael said...
Yew type Richard Yates and it don't say Richard Ford - nowhere. Yew type Richard Ford and it don't say Richard Yates neither. This thing got a few bugs to work out.
- 5/13/2007
- Dan Leo said...
What crap.
- 5/13/2007
This thingie only tells that readers of Author X are likely to read these other authors -- kind of like Amazon's "People who ordered this book also..." deal. It doesn't tell you whether the other authors are comparable in stature, quality or even type of book.
Who knows where they got their data -- obviously a limited sample -- but even so, I thought it was interesting, and kind of nifty.
- 5/13/2007
But Diana Wynne Jones (world's greatest living fantasy writer for children, YA, and adults, I kid you not) was placed closer to Marguerite Henry (classic horse books) than to E. Nesbit (founding mother of modern children's fantasy).
And Rowling, who regardless of her faults has placed children's fantasy in the public consciousness and been the entry drug for many readers, is always way out on the fringes.
There's something profoundly wrong with the engine, or the data sample. The obvious solution is to ask for input from browsers, but I didn't see any place for that.
- 5/13/2007
Anyone else notice multiples of the same author? There are three Anne Lamotts on one map--the correctly spelled one near Rainer Maria Rilke (!), "Annie" Lamott near Lorrie Moore, and Anne Lammott halfway between two different Flannery O'Connors....
- 5/13/2007
- Andrew said...
I don't think this claims to be anything it's not. It's not saying that writers are similar, but that people who read A are likely to read B. You read both Pynchon and Sedaris, so you can't exactly claim that the site is incorrect to put them on the same page. I think it's more interesting to see these unexpected connections than to link writers of the same genre or school. That is, it's not at all surprising that Kerouac readers also read Burroughs, but I wonder why Bill Bryson would be so popular with them.
- 5/13/2007
This can only be called "artificial intelligence" in the most inclusive possible definition of that term. Nobody who works in AI would consider this to be part of the field. It's just presenting the results from a survey of self-selected participants in a somewhat novel way.
If you want to see where the data comes from, click on Literature in the upper left corner, and then on Gnod's suggestions. They do the same for music and movies.
- 5/13/2007
Try Quentin Crisp! Only two authors, the close one being Fay Weldon. Huh?
- 5/13/2007
- DeadlyAccurate said...
I typed in Dean Koontz and got Janet Evanovich. I like both writers, a lot, but to think their writings bear any similarities to one another is absurd.
- 5/13/2007
The thing that got me is I typed in Lynn Flewelling - and found both Terry Pratchett and Diana Gabaldon's names misspelled.
But hey, it's a free amusement. Why get in a twist about it?
- 5/13/2007
- Kanani said...
The people I know who read Thomas Pynchon also read Thomas McGuane, Umberto Eco and a few others.
But I can't call them necessarily similiar. I mean... Michael Chabon had some memorable characters, but isn't as gritty as Pychon.
- 5/13/2007
- L.A. Howe said...
i am so glad you mentioned william vollmann. i have been following his writing with interest since the eighties and think he is one of this country's great writers on so many different levels. it was about time he got a major award these last couple of years.
- 5/13/2007
Wow. What is particularly amazing is if you search for "Emily Bronte," one of the authors that appears is "Jane Eyre." Although...if I were saying this to my English class, they wouldn't understand why that is so hilarious, which is kind of sad.
- 5/13/2007
It certainly shows the limits of this kind of networkind site, at any rate.
The closest author to Tom Holt is Fyodor Dostoyevski (with Pratchett on the outside), which I find hard to believe under any circumstances.
That's probably just lack of data, though, becausew I'm pretty sure thaI remember thinking that the music version worked quite well.
- 5/13/2007
- Rei said...
fqsaLol. Enter "Paris Hilton". J.R.R. Tolkein comes up ;)
- 5/13/2007
Enter John Barth and the closest to him is Charles Darwin, and not far away is Jesus.
- 5/13/2007
- Twill said...
Cool -
I enter my two current faves and get, in each case, a page full of people I've never heard of.
So many books, so little time.
- 5/13/2007
When you enter in Arthur Conan Doyle, God hovers around quite close...I think works perfectly!
- 5/14/2007
It needs some data cleaning, too. I typed in "Robertson Davies" and found "Rovertson Davies" floating around there. Just to be sure, I googled "Rovertson Davies" and it appears several times, but each time it's clearly a mis-spelling of "Robertson Davies".
- 5/14/2007


text:
The track Persuasive Communication of the Master's in Communication Science addresses communication processes that are intended to achieve specific persuasive goals in marketing and health communication.
In this Master's, you will study a variety of marketing and health communication theories, and learn how to apply these theories to challenging problems of consumer and health-related behaviour. By using the latest scientific insights, you will learn how and under which conditions communication can be used as a strategic tool to inform and influence people. Particular attention is paid to communication through new media and technologies, including interactive and social media.
This track teaches you how to systematically develop and evaluate marketing and health communication messages and campaigns in a rapidly changing digital society. You will learn how people use media to fulfil their needs and how you can target your audience, choose appropriate channels and tools, use new media in an innovative way and evaluate the success of your messages and campaigns. Next to a firm theoretical base, we also closely collaborate with professionals in the field to assure an excellent preparation for your professional life. It is a fascinating and creative track with highly qualified and enthusiastic lecturers who provide students with the skills they need for a successful career in the communication departments of advertising, marketing or health organisations.
Amsterdam is a fascinating, media-saturated, multicultural environment. Studying in a major European center for media research and development provides you with a network of (international) contacts that helps you find work after graduation, both in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Many of the programme's lecturers are researchers at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCOR) at the UvA's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Furthermore, ASCoR has over 50 permanent senior researchers and its international English-taught PhD programme has more than 30 young researchers working on their dissertation.
Persuasive Communication is a track of the accredited degree programme Communication Science. After successful completion of this programme, you will receive a legally accredited Master's degree in Communication Science and the title Master's of Science (MSc). You will graduate from an internationally consistently high ranked university. The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019 lists Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam as the best (no.1) ranked programme worldwide.
If you did not obtain a Bachelor's degree in Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam, you are required to apply for admission to the Master's programme. The sub-site on application and admission will walk you through the steps necessary to apply.
|Degree programme
|MSc Communication Science
|Regular study programme
|60 ECTS, 12 months
|Language of instruction
|Starts in
|February, September
|CROHO code


text:
Sports + Fitness
From baseball and rock climbing to lacrosse and fencing, our Sports + Fitness directory covers every possible sport your child may be interested in. Search by county or sport to fine tune your results.
To submit a free listing, create an account on our website and follow the prompts, or fill out this form. To find out how you can place a premium or featured listing, please contact our sales team. You must create an account on our website to submit a premium and/or featured listing.
Note: Many listings are self submissions. Please check businesses' websites for updated information.


text:
During the last seven years, we have seen a real renaissance in programming languages on the JVM platform: Groovy, Scala, Clojure, JRuby, Jython, and Mirah to name a few. As a result, for many people today, the real meaning of word Java is not the programming language, as such, but the JVM as a platform: It allows software components written in all these different languages to interoperate as parts of the same application. We programmers have great freedom to choose the right tool for the job.
Of course, each language has its own benefits and downsides. Scala brings a lot of very interesting ideas on combining object-oriented and functional programming together with a much more powerful (but complex) type system, and a very different syntax from Java. Clojure, JRuby/Mirah, and Jython bring a charming taste of Lisp, Ruby, and Python respectively to JVM, which makes it easier for developers from these worlds run on the JVM.
Groovy brings Java developers a familiar, more convenient, and less verbose syntax along with a very powerful library for everyday work. Groovy is our personal favorite, but we might be biased as we are both members of the Groovy core development team.
Unfortunately for Groovy users, because Groovy is a fully dynamically typed language, it runs slowly, does not allow compile-time type checking, and limits the usefulness of static code analysis. This is where Groovy++ changes the game. Let's compare Groovy with Groovy++.
Groovy and Groovy++
Groovy is a popular and successful dynamic scripting language for the JVM. It has extended the Java platform in many exciting ways and brought powerful language features and frameworks to Java developers while remaining very close to Java at syntax and semantic levels. Groovy's powerful language features combined with its ease of use can soon become an addiction, and once you are addicted to it, going back and writing Java code can be a difficult thing to do.
The Groovy project website is a great source of information and references about the rich ecosystem around Groovy.
Groovy++ is a statically typed extension to the Groovy programming language (it's just one jar file to add to your project). It provides:
- compile-time checking of code
- performance equal to compiled Java code (see Table 1)
- easy mixing of statically and dynamically typed code
- powerful type inference
- tail recursion
- traits (interfaces with default implementation)
- extension methods (compile time categories)
- standard library of utilities for functional programming, concurrency and distributed computing
Both Groovy and Groovy++ try to achieve the same goal — letting Java developers be more productive without going too far from the syntax, tools, and technologies they already know. Groovy approaches this goal from a dynamically typed angle and Groovy++ completes the picture by providing the statically typed part of the story with the ability to mix both dynamic and static parts together.
If the Java programming language had evolved faster over the last five years, then it very well might look and feel similar to Groovy and Groovy++ combined.
Type inference and implicit casts
Although Groovy++ needs the type information for its static type checking, it uses local type inference technique and implicit type casts. This is a fundamental part of Groovy++ and acts as a guiding principle for everything else.
Type inference
Type inference reconstructs omitted type annotations (like String or List<String>) and aims at providing the same concise feel as dynamic Groovy. Because the goal of Groovy++ is to provide the static semantics as close as possible to the dynamic semantics, type inference differs from that found in most statically-typed languages.
There are many cases where Groovy++ infers your program's types:
- variable declaration
- closure parameters types
- types of variables used in certain switch/case
- method call arguments represented by list/map/closure expressions
- parameters of overridden methods
Groovy++ does not allow the method return types or parameter types to be inferred, since they are considered an important part of the method contract and should be visually apparent.
Implicit casts
At times, the Groovy++ compiler complements type inference by doing the opposite operation: inserting implicit casts into the code when needed. This is done in the following cases:
- assignment to typed variables/fields/properties
- return statements (including implicit ones)
- method arguments represented by list/map/closure expression
- brunches of ternary expression, which are implicitly or explicitly cast to a type
In all cases, the compiler creates an error if the types are not convertible. Note that the convertibility rules are a bit more relaxed than in Java.
Listing One demonstrates implicit casts and type inference working together. The comments describe what is going on.
Listing One import java.util.concurrent.Callable import java.util.concurrent.Executors @Typed String foo() { // typeof(executor) == ExecutorService inferred def executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2) // typeof(res) == List<String> inferred // we first found method matching closure // then use calculated return type of closure // to improve closure type to Callable<List<String>> // then we find type of call to method submit // to be Future<List<String>> // Finally, method get gives us List<String> def res = executor.submit( // closure expression transformed to class implementing Callable // we need explicit cast here as method submit is // ambiguous otherwise (Callable) { // Callable<List<String>> inferred def substring = 'y' // typeof(substring) == String inferred def results = [''] // typeof(results) === List<String> inferred results << substring.toUpperCase() assert results[1].toLowerCase() == substring results << 1 // implicit cast to String inserted assert results[2] instanceof String for(el in ['yellow', 'red', 'blue']) { // typeof(el) == String inferred if (el.toUpperCase ().contains(substring.toUpperCase())) { results << (el != 'yellow' ? el : 239) // note: implicit cast of int to String inserted } } assert results[3] == '239' // implicit return here, which effects typeof closure // which becomes Callable<List<String>> results } ).get() res.each{ // typeof(it) == String inferred println it.toUpperCase () } // implicit return and implicit cast to String here because // of method return type res } assert foo() == '[, Y, 1, 239]'
The @Typed annotation is a Groovy++ statement that tells the compiler that the whole script should be compiled statically.
Additional Productivity Features
There is more to improving Java than just type inference and implicit casts. Groovy++ strives to make development enjoyable and pleasant by adding more visible features to the language, extending not only Java, but Groovy as well.
List/map/closure expressions
There are three special types of expressions in Groovy++ that make the language more expressive to both Java and Groovy programmers:
list expression - [a, b, c] map expression - [k1:v1, ...] closure expression - { -> ... }
Each of these expressions has the same meaning in Groovy and Groovy++: They create an ArrayList, LinkedHashMap, or groovy.lang.Closure, respectively. But in the situation of a type cast (including implicit casts) the meaning of the respective expressions are different and represent new instances of the required type. Any such transformations can lead to transformations of nested elements as well.
Let's explain this with a few examples without going into a lot of detail. Given this code,
[a, b, c] as T[] means: new T[]{(T)a, (T)b, (T)c}
the compiler verifies and checks each element of the list to tries to make sure that the elements are of the correct type. This is one example of how static typing is being brought into the dynamic Groovy language.
[a, b, c] as LinkedList<X>
means something similar to:
new LinkedList<X>().addAll((X)a, (X)b, (X)c)
Again, each element of the list is type-checked. This happens at compile time, not at run time, which catches many type errors earlier.
(Type)[a, b, c] means new Type(a, b, c)
Lists can be implicitly cast into constructor calls. This option opens interesting opportunities in combination with implicit casts. For example, CountDownLatch cdl = [1] is equivalent to CountDownLatch cdl = new CountDownLatch(1).
Here is an example using map expression
def map = (SortedMap)[a:10, b:12, toString: { "I don't support it" } ] means TreeMap map = new TreeMap () { { map.put('a', 10) map.put('b',12) } public String toString () { return "I don't support it" } }
Here is one more example showing single method interfaces. Too see real gain compare to Java, we also translate this sample to Java. We believe difference speaks for itself.
// Groovy++ version def executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2) Executor delegatingExecutor = { executor.execute (it) } delegatingExecutor.execute { println "done" } // Java version final ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2); Executor delegatingExecutor = new Executor() { public void execute(Runnable it) { executor.execute(it); } }; delegatingExecutor.execute(new Runnable(){ public void run () { System.out.println("done") } });


text: Each wheel of Dorothea (only 4,000 are made per year) is pampered with the optimum aging conditions. Humidity and temperature are meticulously adjusted every few days to assure proper maturation. This wonderfully delicious cheese is made from pasteurized milk, but retains all of the taste for which goat's milk is famous. It is aged over 60 days to develop a full, nutty flavor and a body that is firm, but not hard enough to grate. Dorothea has an aroma reminiscent of the fresh outdoors and an unforgettable flavor.


text:
Source: BusinessInsider.com
With today's update of Existing Home Sales, Calculated Risk has updated the always-useful chart showing how many months of household inventory remains on the market.
The important line here is the red line: Months of housing supply on the market.
The months of supply is down to 5.4 months, which is down from last month, and sharply down from a year ago.
Everybody who is trying to sell their house should be thrilled that the balance between sellers and buyers is coming back into balance.
Says Nomura, with respect to today's housing news:
The housing data revealed today are quite positive, reflecting the sustained recovery in the housing market that began earlier this year. Housing data for the months of November and December might reflect a slowdown mainly due to Hurricane Sandy. This slowdown would be temporary as people look to rebuild their homes that were destroyed during the hurricane and as transactions affected by Sandy are completed.


text:
7/52: Pastel
This week's theme was pastel and there's not a whole lot of pastel in our house, much less with my black-eyed, black-haired Korean gal. However, she gave me about 10 minutes of cooperation in 10 degree weather and we attempted a pastel snow picture. The first one is my official pastel picture, but I included the other attempts because it was pretty darn fun.
This is a new face I'm seeing often these days.
By the way, she has 3 shirts underneath this dress, a pair of pajama pants and a pair of hot pink sweat pants. LOL


text:
LOS ANGELES (AP) Zack Greinke showed up alone to a mid-November meeting at Dodger Stadium, asking as many questions as he answered. When he left three hours later, the pitcher thought he may have found his new team while the Los Angeles Dodgers brass knew they had to land the top arm on the open market.
They did, signing Greinke to a $147 million, six-year deal that is the richest for a right-hander in baseball history. The Dodgers beat out Texas and the rival Los Angeles Angels, for whom Greinke pitched last season.
``He's the one we wanted,'' said Magic Johnson, a partner in Guggenheim Baseball Management, which bought the team last spring. ``A guy of Zack's ability and also his commitment to his craft, they don't come on the market too many times. We're so thrilled to have him. Dodger pride is on the way back.''
Greinke's introduction on Tuesday culminated a more than $200 million spending spree by the Dodgers in which they also signed South Korean left-hander Ryu Hyun-jin, who got a $36 million, six-year deal. The club also spent $25.7 million on a posting fee that gave the Dodgers exclusive negotiating rights with Ryu.
``Nobody worried about the Yankees when they were doing this and winning,'' Johnson said. ``We're here to win.''
The Dodgers haven't won the World Series since 1988, but that didn't discourage Greinke.
``Besides the money, the No. 1 (reason) was they have a team that could win a World Series for several years,'' he said.
Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner, and Ryu give the Dodgers eight starting pitchers under contract for next season, joining 2011 NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Josh Beckett, Ted Lilly, Chris Capuano and Aaron Harang.
The Dodgers were eager to bolster their pitching this winter knowing that Billingsley (elbow) and Lilly (shoulder) are coming off operations.
``A lot of things have to come together,'' Greinke said. ``You can't just throw names on a team and be good. If everyone comes back healthy it should be a good ride. They could be good for every year of my contract, so there is no rebuilding.''
With Greinke locked up, the Dodgers plan to discuss a contract extension with Kershaw, who can become a free agent after the 2014 season.
Casey Close, Greinke's agent, said Texas was in the hunt for his client until the end.
``At one point, I was favoring Texas,'' Greinke said before the negotiations made him change his mind.
The Angels didn't make it that far, according to Greinke, who said his former team ``never really got into it when the details came.''
``There's a point where every team has to have a stopping point and they obviously reached it,'' he said. ``I'm not mad at them. I don't think they're mad at how I went about things.''
The 29-year-old righty started last season with Milwaukee and was later traded to the Angels, going a combined 15-5 with a 3.48 ERA. He is 91-78 with a 3.77 ERA in nine seasons with the Brewers, Dodgers and Angels.
In 2009, Greinke went 16-8 with a major league-leading 2.16 ERA for Kansas City, and he'd like to recapture that form.
``I was consistent that whole entire year,'' he said. ``Most years I'll start strong and hit a roadblock.''
Greinke impressed Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, president and CEO Stan Kasten and manager Don Mattingly simply by showing up alone to their meeting.
``He was stunning. It was probably the best free-agent meeting I've ever had,'' Colletti said. ``I can't remember one that didn't bring an agent or friends. If the questioning got a little tough, they had a fallback.''
Greinke showed he'd done his homework on the Dodgers, discussing younger players in their system, his strategies for retiring everyone in the team's lineup, and what the club would be like in three years. He saw Dodger Stadium as the kind of park that would allow him to be a fly ball pitcher.
``This was always a place I wanted to play,'' he said. ``I loved it there (in Anaheim), so I assume this will be just as good.''
Kasten impressed Greinke with his plans for the organization and what the pitcher said was ``his ability to keep so many things under control.''
``I don't want to make his head too big, but I thought Stan was the smartest person I ever talked to,'' Greinke said. ``With him in charge, I thought they had a chance to keep things going good.''


text:
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SEIMA is the voice of the Environmental Industry in Saskatchewan. We provide networking, communication and educational opportunities to our members, and our goal is to foster the growth of Saskatchewan's environmental sector through promotion and support of our members and their operations.


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This fruited honey spread is a delicious topping for pancakes or French toast. It's also good served over roasted chicken or pork. If you prefer, use pears, apricots, plums or nectarines instead of peaches.
In a large bowl, add the peaches, honey and cinnamon. Using a fork, mash until the mixture is a consistency of chunky applesauce. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
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Description of the Brewer Company Exam Stool Grey Taupe
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School Girl Linen Bow Hair Clip - 3pc Pack - Frangipani
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We've put together a pack of 3 best-selling colours of our linen school girl bow headbands so you can mix and match with adorable little outfit of hers.
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Microsoft Reminds Everyone: You Do Not Own Your Software
from the don't-hit-the-nuke-button deptWith the proliferation of smartphones and other portable electronic devices such as tablet computers and e-readers, we are often left wondering, "Do we really own the books, games and other apps we pay money for?" Now that question has spread to your computer as well. PC World has revealed that Microsoft's terms of service for its Windows 8 app store gives it the right to not only disable but also remove apps Windows 8 device owners paid money to own. In Microsoft's own words:
In cases where your security is at risk, or where we're required to do so for legal reasons, you may not be able to run apps or access content that you previously acquired or purchased a license for.This is probably nothing new to users of the Amazon Kindle who had their copies of the book 1984 remotely deleted or to people who bought music from Rhapsody who had their DRM'ed tracks reduced to nothing over night. Nor is this unique to these businesses. As PC World also notes, both Apple and Google retain the right to remove software users of their devices "bought". Businesses have been calling to question the ownership of digital products for quite some time. If we cannot prevent the loss of legally purchased products from those which sold these products to us, how can we really claim ownership?
If it is any consolation to you, Microsoft has told PC Mag that it will refund buyers of apps it deletes. However, any data you may have saved using the app will be completely lost. So not even the work that you put into this software is yours to claim ownership.
While Microsoft claims that it will primarily remove software in the case of security violations, it also retains this power for cases of "legal or contractual requirements." This is quite the broad opening left here. With the looming threat of increased enforcement of Copyright through SOPA and PIPA, the idea that an app can be removed via a "legal requirement" creates yet another question over ownership. If an app we purchase ends up infringing some company's copyright, patent or trademark, they could theoretically use that as a tool to remove that app from our devices.
We are moving further and further into a digital landscape for everything from movies, music, books, games and software. With this transition, companies that produce these products are working overtime to remind consumers that they are not owners of these products but merely licensees. We will not have the luxury of physical media on which we can claim ownership rights for much longer. Consumers for the last few years have been clamoring for more digital content. They have been the primary drivers of this transition. The only real question left is, do they realize the consequences that come with this change, and will they demand the right to claim ownership?
Filed Under: deletions, ownership, software
Companies: microsoft


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Welp, it looks like Adam Jones can amend his Scared Straight syllabus. A jury has awarded the victims in that Las Vegas shooting case $11 million in damages. Predictably, the opposing attorneys each have a different take.
Jones's lawyer: good luck collecting on such an absurd amount, my client doesn't even get paid until September.
She said Jones, who has played five years in the NFL, didn't have the cash to cover the award because he won't receive his first paycheck of the season until September.
"It's obviously a devastating amount for him financially," Rasmussen said. "He has really worked hard to make a comeback with his NFL career. He doesn't make enough money to pay that judgment."
The attorney for one of the victims, injured bouncer Aaron Cudworth, thinks this is a victory for the little guy over celebrities.
"I am pleased that Mr. Jones has finally been held accountable," Schonfeld said, adding that his client "is pleased to have closure."
Schonfeld said he wasn't worried about an appeal or Jones' alleged inability to pay the award.
"If he is making money, I am going to be there trying to collect," Schonfeld said.
He added, "They've got to clean up their acts. All of them."
Pacman's attorney said they will be appealing the verdict. So, the victims get a taste of what an NFL contract is like. "Here's $11 million (just kidding, though, not really!)."


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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) Giants starting right cornerback Prince Amukamara missed practice Thursday with a strained hamstring and could miss New York's game at Atlanta Sunday.
Amukamara, who has played in 10 straight games and suffered his injury in the fourth quarter against New Orleans last Sunday, has battled back problems and a broken toe since his rookie season last year.
``I was trying to stay on a streak, but I couldn't do it,'' Amukamara said, adding the injury did not feel like a complete tear.
Still, he anticipates a decision on his availability will be made well before kickoff.
``I don't know the plan,'' he said. ``I'm preparing with film as if I'm going to go. So, if I do go back, I know what to do.''
Running back Ahmad Bradshaw (knee) and safety Kenny Phillips (knee) also missed practice. Coach Tom Coughlin continued to maintain that the medical staff will determine whether Bradshaw will be available for the Giants (8-5) vs. the Falcons (11-2).
``He'll tell you he can go anytime,'' Coughlin said of Bradshaw. ``It's between the medical people and Ahmad in terms of how he feels.''
Bradshaw has battled through foot problems much of his career, but Coughlin warned that this injury is much different.
``You have a little different aspect of it,'' Coughlin said. ``You have the knee, and you have a foot as well.''
Coughlin sounded frustrated with Phillips' aggravation after missing the New Orleans game. Phillips, who has a right knee sprain, returned vs. Washington the week before, but suffered a setback during the loss.
``I really don't know what to comment about that,'' Coughlin said. ``He was back, then he had a setback. Now he's working his way back again. The nature of the injury is such.''
Online:http://pro32.ap.org/poll andhttp://twitter.com/AP-NFL


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Apprenticeship Reboot Extension Appropriate
Apprenticeship Reboot Extension Appropriate
6 May 2014
The Industry Training Federation believes the Government's announcement today to extend the reboot subsidy for eligible apprentices and trainees by another 6,000 places is appropriate.
"This is an appropriate adjustment by the Government to extend the reboot scheme as it has proved to be successful" say the Industry Training Federation Chief Executive Mark Oldershaw.
"From the Government's perspective industry training represents exceptional value for their investment, given that industry contributes a direct cash contribution of around 30 percent. It is also acknowledged that apprentices and trainees are earning a wage whilst completing their qualifications, thus contributing to the New Zealand economy rather than building up a student loan" said Mr Oldershaw.
"With the New Zealand economy starting to show some sure signs of improvement it is expected that industry trainee and apprentice numbers will improve as employment numbers grow. The industry training sector has had a significant amount of funding re-appropriated to other tertiary education providers over the last 5 years so now is the time to look at an increase in base-line funding for ITOs."
"Over the last 2 years the ITO sector has gone through a significant structural change and is working with employers to ensure that the right skill sets are being provided to industry to continue to lift workplace productivity."
Mr Oldershaw did remark that it is disappointing that Government is still referring to the notion of 'phantom trainees' being funded within the industry training system. "The ITO sector is forward looking. We all acknowledge that there have been discrepancies in the distant past in relation to funding non-existent trainees however those days are well and truly behind us. It would be refreshing if the Government could also move on from these references and focus on the value that ITOs provide within the wider vocational education and training sector."
The Industry Training Federation is a voluntary membership organisation representing all of New Zealand's Industry Training Organisations.


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Posts Tagged 'ragut'
Rumah Anak Teater, Street Theater: RAGUT
I cut it off during the embedded heckler intervention — nice touch to the skit. Shame I didn't record it until the end.
I got a problem uploading HD file on youtube and vimeo only have 500 MB limit per week. I try to reduce the 1080p to 640, but it got blocky artifacts even with 5000 bit rate. Exporting to 720p turns out decent.
Raw upload, no colour grading.
Shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II, wide open f/2.0 with Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM, 29.97fps, 1/30 s, ISO 1600.
Mounted on Manfrotto monopod. Internal microphone.
Here's Malaysiakini viceo clip, that captured the ending of the skit.
Women Reclaim the Night @ Arab Square
Amnesty International Malaysia's "Women Reclaim the Night" on 9 March 2010 to celebrate International Women's Day 100th anniversary.
I've been a paid member of Amnesty International Malaysia since 2007. I'm not a volunteer that day. Just joining in for the sake of human right (and some noise at the gig) — Women's Right are Human Right! (Hillary Clinton, Beijing, China: 5 September 1995).
Growing a pair of moobs and being a bra burner (I don't wear one), qualified me as a bona fide participant.
Dina Zaman launched the event with Kartini (Tini) & Rafidah (Rafa) of 3R as the host. The other 3R host, Celina, is asleep. No, she's being undercover for some crime investigation tv production. I've to google for the host name (three of them), since it's been awhile I watch terrestrial tv — well, I hardly watch tv for the past 5 years. Did I ever watch 3R? Maybe a gist, mostly the commercial.
Dina Zaman just arrived from Jakarta and had to leave early (with entourage from Marie Claire). Rafidah too had to leave for Penang that night for another International Women's Day event at USM.
There's a short speech by Dina Zaman as the police hovering around the perimeter, at one point, a police patrol car drove real slowly by the Arab Square — but not intimidating enough. The ambiance was electrifying even with the small crowd. Maybe it's the static and the warm hot night.
Hot ecstatic females that's aesthetic — that too gave me static (and statics to the ground and statistics in my mind).
Is that sexist? It's International Women's Day after all.
Women with intellectual is sexy.
Han mesmerize us with poetry reading.
Nora of Amnesty International Malaysia summarize the event and proceed with Solidarity Walk afterward to Cloth and Clef along Changkat Bukit Bintang.
But not after Rumah Anak Teater's street theater skit: RAGUT — on snatch crime and marginalized sexy women that became the victim of opportunistic criminal. Sexy women is a victim too.
This sexy woman is a victim too — of our tropical and global warm weather that's shrinking the polar ice caps. And the trend is in tandem with the minimalist fashion sense.
Yes, it's that hot (pun intended).
RAGUT, a street theater by Rumah Anak Teater held true to the intention of the event:
Women on a daily basis were forced to negotiate their fundamental rights to movement and personal security due to the climate of impunity, discrimination and lack of gender consideration in development issues.
Women continue to find themselves left out and be reminded that the Night is not a time for Women to be on the Street due to the risk of personal safety and violence. We choose to end this circle of Discrimination and the Culture of Fear that women are raised into and threatened by the possibility of violence to walk the streets at Night.
The rest of the night — is noise.
The Solidarity Walk is a whistle-blowing march towards the mosh pit of Cloth & Clef. We really annoyed those Indonesian makcik warung and Caucassian binge-drinker along the Changkat Bukit Bintang road.
Wow, I just proved that I'm not only sexist. I'm also a chauvinistic keris-welding Malay-Siamese-Arab-Yunnan-Chinese.
Take that #yorais!
I'll change my mode now (this joke won't get old — and getting old is never as old with #yorais).
That's Rafidah on Malaysiakini webtv — "It's an eventful night, I can't wait to join the mosh pit! Look at my spiraling-rainbow skirt! Wee!"
The mosh pit came later after midnight, and Rafidah never did join us among The Punk and the Rastafarian. The blue collar worker was headed by Joe Kidd of Ricecooker.
Joe, mu masok doh dalang bloglines rolls gua, natam.
Gallery of lo-fi female performers; poetry-reading; experimental sound of barf, tweeting and saxophonist-challenge tune (which is avant-garde); punkish mosh pit and hardcore feminism with middle-finger gig — is at the next entry.


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As the presidential race heats up, the rhetoric also heats up. And the language being used on the issue of war and national defense is becoming very warm indeed.
And very, very morally troubling.
Just yesterday, a scientist who is allegedly working on the Iranian nuclear program was killed when his got into his car and was blown up by an explosive that was attached to it by unknown parties. It was the latest incident in an ongoing covert war being conducted against the Iranian regime and their suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons.
In response, one of the candidates for the Presidency of the United States said this:
any nuclear scientist, particularly any foreign nuclear scientist, who's cooperating with the Iranians in developing a nuclear weapon program would be considered an enemy combatant… this is the most serious threat to the security and stability of the world that we have today, and we should be using all types of methodologies to stop that, including taking out people
Now, I'm certainly no pacifist. I strongly support the ability of a national government to defend itself and its citizens against unjust aggression. And I have no doubt that the current regime in Iran is oppressive to its own people and dangerous to its neighbors, particularly Israel.
But there is no way that one can justify the rhetoric I just quoted. Leave aside for a moment the question of legality under American and international law — which would involve answering the question, "when did we declare war on Iran?"
Killing this scientist was utterly inconsistent with the principles of the divine and natural law. It is clearly not morally permissible to kill another human being because one believes that he may be working on a scientific program that may, at some point, pose a threat to our nation.
Pope John Paul, in his great encyclical, the Gospel of Life, said this very plainly:
"The deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of his life is always morally evil and can never be licit either as an end in itself or as a means to a good end. It is in fact a grave act of disobedience to the moral law, and indeed to God himself, the author and guarantor of that law; it contradicts the fundamental virtues of justice and charity" (57)
Assuming we can trust in the accuracy of our intelligence community (a dubious proposition, in any event) and consider this scientist not to be "innocent", a preemptive use of deadly force is still unjustified. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, in the context of the death penalty:
"If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person." (CCC 2267)
Killing a man because his work may prove a threat to the United States at some undefined point in the future is consequentialism at its most blatant — doing evil so that good may come of it.
Christians must be better than that.


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The Supreme Court has thankfully relegated both the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as well as California's Proposition 8 to the trash heap of American intolerance.
Unfortunately, there are still people who imagine that their religious freedom is impinged upon now that federal law can no longer discriminate against a minority of married couples.
For instance, the front page of the Daily Camera's website prominently links to a blog of former Camera editorial advisor Shirley Scoville. She is a publicly proud adherent (see http://mormon.org/me/594m) of a religious belief system known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The Mormon Church was the primary, under-the-radar, out-of-state, financial benefactor of the Prop 8 forces in California. More recently, LDS lawyers drafted a lengthy Supreme Court amicus brief (ultimately ignored) on behalf of a variety of conservative religious groups in support of resurrecting the constitutionally dead Prop 8. All this effort was a giant, misguided waste of time, money and goodwill.
As a Mormon in good standing who no doubt doesn't want to be excommunicated (see, e.g., what happened to Sonia Johnson when she publicly supported the Equal Rights Amendment), Scoville does a standup job towing her church's party line. Which is to say, she cannot accept that a pair of committed monogamous same-sex partners should be legally treated as truly equal to so many other pairs of married couples.
The crux of her problem is that same-sex marriage conflicts with her particular Christian faith that — post-Utah statehood — defines the word "marriage" to have a private symbolic meaning that applies solely to a man and a woman.
Fair enough; but one wonders why. Could it be because observant Mormons are required to believe that marriage is so sacred that it can be "sealed" to last into the afterlife, where spirit children continue to be conceived and born forever in endless exaltation?
Religious metaphors for everlasting rapturous sex are great (and not confined to Mormonism), but there is as much evidence that spirit children are conceived in the heterosexual afterlife as there is that dead married gay couples beget spirit children in everlasting married exaltation. Indeed, I have it on Good Authority that just about anything can or cannot happen in the afterlife.
Regardless, how in Good Authority's name can preserving the sanctity of any of this pleasant conceptual mythology justify present-life, secular discrimination against gays and lesbians?
In a recent essay, both fearfully and accurately entitled "Civil unions not the end goal" (see http://communityblogconsiderthis.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/civil-unions-not-the-end-goal), Scoville insinuates that a newspaper photo of two gay men kissing is akin to incest; she tries to guilt-trip Sen. Mark Udall (of Mormon stock) by inanely and falsely asserting that because Udall supports monogamous gay marriage that he must also support polygamy; and she frets that the government permitting the government to label same-sex couples using the word "married" threatens her and her church's religious freedom.
Lord, what a load of alarmist poppycock!
The goal of religious Prop 8 and DOMA proponents is to conjure up imagined harms so as to deflect attention from their actual agenda: to preserve at all costs the internal logical integrity, constancy and power of their own particular religious doctrine, justice be damned.
Fortunately, as Galileo's story will always teach, reality trumps flawed metaphorical thinking.
A symbolic conflict between same-sex marriage and a freely chosen but usually socially coercive, faith-based, entirely metaphorical, belief system — be it Mormon, Roman Catholic, Islamic or whatever — is not a government-created harm that tramples anyone's religious freedom.
The government has no obligation to cure such private cognitive dissonance, nor does the Constitution permit it to. The First Amendment is designed to prevent religious tyranny in the public sphere, at the same time as protecting religious beliefs — but not necessarily harmful conduct in the service of those beliefs (just ask Warren Jeffs) — in the private sphere.
By prohibiting legal benefits to a minority of married couples, DOMA and Prop 8 were fine examples of the religious arrogance of those who choose to worship penile-vaginal conception as a sacred, exalted, magical event.
There really is no difference between some religious authority figure oh-so-sweetly touting "Love the sinner, hate the sin" and some clueless middle schooler or Westboro Baptist idiot taunting an effeminate boy. Or some blogger asserting (in the name of community) that "civil unions" are good enough. It's all part of the same animus and disgrace.
In short, if your religion furthers in the public sphere prejudice and intolerance for essentially irrational reasons, expect pushback from the people whose rights really are being trampled. Better yet, it's a free country; choose a more enlightened religious belief system. Or at least work to change yours from within. If they excommunicate you as a heretic, at least you'll have a clear conscience.
Attempts to co-opt the secular state to further religious doctrines — for nothing more than a desire for private theological consistency — are antithetical to American freedom. DOMA and Prop 8 were not just violations of a minority's Fifth Amendment equal protection rights, they violated everyone's First Amendment rights as well.
I urge our community newspaper to reconsider its support of any bloggers who stubbornly prefer the simplistic purity of out-of-touch religio-sexual metaphors over constitutionally guaranteed equality and evidence-based justice.
"Separate but equal" civil unions in Colorado are indeed not the end goal.
Doug McKenna, of Boulder, is a married heterosexual. Neither he, his wife, nor his begotten children are threatened by same-sex marriage.


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Frozen , the first feature of award-winning director Juliet McKoen, is a film that lets the audience decide whether it¡¯s a psychological thriller, a murder mystery or ghost story.
Set in the stark beauty of Morecambe Bay, north west England, Frozen is a story about unresolved loss and the inherent danger of hope turning into obsession.
In a performance of ¡°unflinching immediacy¡±, Shirley Henderson (Intermission, Harry Potter,Bridget Jones) plays Kath, a woman still haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her sister Annie two years earlier. When she steals a security camera videotape from the police that captures Annie¡¯s last moments, Kath believes she finds a mysterious image on it. As she retraces Annie¡¯s last steps, she has recurring visions of Annie in an otherworldly landscape. Whilst Kath becomes convinced that her sister is trying to reach her, those around her become increasingly sceptical of her claims.
So has Kath really found a way to access the afterlife. Or is she losing her grip on reality? And what exactly did happen to Annie?
Frozen , a lyrical film about the impermanence of existence, examines the boundaries between perception and reality right up to its final climactic moments.