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Thursday, November 8, 2007
I'm a grown-up now
I'm impulsive so I started looking on line for playpen balls the following weekend and quickly learned the same thing Randall did. Filling one's apartment with playpen balls, for any reasonably sized apartment, or even a tiny dorm room, would cost well over a few thousand dollars. Determined to have a ball pit, I decided I would cordon off the bottom of my lofted bed and make a ball-pit underneath. The lofted bed is a nice big queen-sized bed so the pit would be about 5'x7' with about 5' head clearance.
Using an on-line playpen ball volume calculator (inspired by the XKCD comic itself) I found that making a 5'x7' ball pit 2' deep was a pretty tractable goal. With a little help from my friend Sue I was able to find two ebay auctions for 700 and 800 balls from the same seller. The orders totaled about $160 counting shipping, which by the way made up more than 40% of the cost.
I placed a bid and week or so later I received the largest delivery I'd ever received as well as an endearingly spastic but uninformative voice from my roommate attempting to describe exactly what had happened to our front porch while I was gone. "Hey! Mike! Oh my god there's, like... the porch is totally gone. They're huge. These all have your name... I can't... do want me to... Holy crap." Remembering my order from a week ago I figured that was probably what she was talking about so I went home to bring them in.
On the Saturday after the delivery arrived, Sue and I went to Home Depot, the toy store for grown-ups who think the word grown-up has been ill defined. After some careful consideration we decided to pick up a reel of plastic garden fencing, zip ties, and you guessed it, some PVC pipe.
The lofted bed was already up against two walls so I just needed to gate off the other two. One wall, the short one, I decided to completely cover with the garden fence. The long wall I made the entry way, so it has a short wall made of a PVC frame and garden fence which is easy to step over.
That Saturday night Sarah came over and Sue, Sarah, and I sat in the ball pit for nearly five hours talking and laughing uncontrollably while throwing balls at each others faces. It really is quite amazing how long throwing balls at your friends' faces can last without getting boring. When it did we just lounged around and chatted until someone decided it was again time to throw balls at each other's faces. As the night winded down Sarah took great joy in completely burying herself and Sue made sure that both of us had heard every possibly innuendo involving the word balls.
Later in the week my improv troupe came over to practice and we ended the night with a really loud and rowdy ball pit fight where in most people just threw balls at Tony while Tony scrambled to bury his face and anything else fragile under a thick enough covering of playpen balls. My more obsessive compulsive friends came over the following weekend and we shorted the ball pit in spectrum order. To be fair this project also started with throwing balls at each others faces when I decided that Mike could only throw blue balls and Trevor could only throw red. This created a really nice visual effect so we ran with it and Lisa took some pictures.
I guess what I've learned from all this is simply that if you are going to go through the trouble of making a ball pit in your apartment just realize that all your friends are going to want to do is throw plastic balls at your face. Recently I moved and decided to make a video of the reconstruction of the ball pit.
60 comments:
Ha! Also the balls came in all these boxes for huge & expensive electronic equipment. I was all "woah, our house is going to be... fancy". I'm glad it ended up being a ball pit instead.
- November 8, 2007 at 10:27 AM
- Mike Machenry said...
We could always take the boxes back up from the basement and put them in the living room. That way when people come over it will give the impression that any day now our apartment is going to be super fancy, but they're just a little too early.
- November 8, 2007 at 11:16 AM
- Aimee said...
michael machenry! this is aimee from hurd school in wakefield, ma. sorry to comment on out the blue on a blog, but it was emailed to me as a fan of XKCD, and then i saw that this mike machenry was YOU and i had to say...hello! your ball pit is pretty awesome. how are you? hope things are great. :)
- November 19, 2007 at 10:03 AM
I am really impressed and totally inspired. Thank you.
- November 19, 2007 at 3:52 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Woa, Aimee. How have *you* been?
- November 19, 2007 at 6:46 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Thank you, Colleen. It's nice to hear.
- November 19, 2007 at 6:46 PM
- November 22, 2007 at 10:06 AM
- . said...
I love it! I so want to do this! I'm thinking of surrounding the front and sides of the livingroom couch. The calculator's default values show this to be an expensive proposition (+$1k for the balls alone). Thankfully there is E-bay! 1,000 balls for buy-it now of $113... lets see if I get "permission"!
- November 25, 2007 at 2:09 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Luis, you probably only need about 1,500 - 2,000 balls for a reasonably fun, deep ball pit. That should only cost about $150 for regular balls or $300 for crush-proof. A ball pit replacing the typical coffee table would be a really cool idea. Or maybe just behind it.
- November 25, 2007 at 8:43 PM
dude you must get so much ass, serious, good work!
- November 30, 2007 at 5:38 PM
oh...my...goodness...after reading that XKCD I realized that was also my dream, and seeing it come true makes me feel like there's some hope for a better future.
Why isn't that my life?
I wish I was you. Or your roommate....
- December 5, 2007 at 11:12 AM
So... I'm curious. How does one clean this beautiful thing?
I totally, totally must do this.
- December 7, 2007 at 7:38 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
I try to be pretty careful about eating and stuff in there so no to make it too mess to begin with. I moved once and it hadn't gotten all that dusty underneath so maybe that's fine. Once a year, empty it. I got a great suggestion to put netting under the whole thing so that it's easy to suspend it up a foot or too and sweep underneath. I may do that. The honest to god truth is just simply that I employ squirrels.
- December 8, 2007 at 1:11 AM
I originally saw that comic on xkcd.com, but ohhhhhh mygosh, seeing an ACTUAL ballpit is pretty flipping awesome! I can't breathe, I want one....NOW.
The couch was a nice touch too XD
- December 10, 2007 at 5:31 PM
- xenobiologista said...
If you need to clean the actual balls can you run them through a washing machine?
- December 15, 2007 at 1:26 PM
- Effilcdar said...
I would think a dishwasher would make more sense. Just make sure they don't melt.
- December 22, 2007 at 3:03 AM
- Hanzel said...
hmmm, I'm looking at prices, are you including shipping in yours, because for me shipping for 1000 balls is about a hundred bucks.
- December 27, 2007 at 5:09 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Yeah I've included shipping in my rough estimates. Shipping does go up linearly at tinkertots.com where I most recently ordered balls. I do remember their shipping calculator was broken when Randall and I ordered though. He called them. You might do the same. But $100 for 1,000 balls sounds like way too much.
- December 27, 2007 at 5:25 PM
- Hanzel said...
Thanks. also, what about crush-proof balls?
- December 27, 2007 at 7:33 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
I just dug up my receipt for tinkertots.com. I bought two orders of 500 balls for $281.00 total counting tax and shipping. I notice their prices vary some what, but not by much. I hope this helps. Posts a link to pictures here if you end up making one of your own. I'd love to see it.
- December 28, 2007 at 12:17 AM
- Hanzel said...
I will. Just gotta convince my friends to pitch in. Thanks for the help.
- December 28, 2007 at 2:32 AM
I want to do that now.. How do you clean them after more "adult" fun?
- January 5, 2008 at 3:01 AM
- Mike Machenry said...
Adult activities? Like a board-room meeting? We try to keep all faxes and memos on the table outside the ball pit. Any agendas go on the white board so as not to produce needless scrape paper to clean up. Basically we're just pretty good about being preemptive with the messiness.
- January 5, 2008 at 2:46 PM
- urania277 said...
The author said he spent 20000 EUR on this (500 000 plastic balls).
I should ask if he got his inspiration off xkcd (but I think this guy has other things in mind now, like how to deal with the authorities)
- January 18, 2008 at 7:48 AM
I recently found xkcd and found so many comix that just ... *got* me ... i loved the ball pit comic and was wistfully imagining such a thing and WOW you did it .... i want one! you have inspired me to search out an australian way of obtaining and creating such coolness.
- February 2, 2008 at 6:30 AM
- the Kindling said...
Oh man. If our magazine had an office we DIDN'T have to share with the newspaper, we'd definitely do this with it. Whoa.
- March 6, 2008 at 11:42 PM
- Lizadeath said...
oi Skippy! You're famous!!
I was like "ball pit? loft bed? Is that Skippy? Naaah... WAIT YES IT IS!"
- March 7, 2008 at 4:15 PM
oh wow, - interestingly enough i read the xkcd comic and have now decided to go round looking for some to give to the boyfriend for christmas.
wow im not the only one =]
- December 3, 2008 at 2:23 PM
that is so cool.
just makes me sad that my ceiling is too short for a loft bed because i could (and would) tottally do that.
- December 9, 2008 at 7:27 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Thank you. Maybe you could just replace your living room couch? There's always away. :)
- December 10, 2008 at 10:59 AM
I always knew there were people that thought like me: you know, the ones that fully and completely understand Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when all their friends keep telling them that it makes no sense.
You mentioned board-room meetings up there and I was just wondering, with such an atmosphere as to accommodate not only talking, but laughing and ball-throwing, as well, how do you entertain your clients?
May all your risky corporate decisions be just as much fun to make as they are wanton to result in massive layoffs in the current economy.
- February 19, 2009 at 10:19 PM
We have a (now empty) hot tub sunken into the floor in our sunroom. I'm hoping to turn it into a ball pit for the kids. Unfortunately, I'll need btw 5000-8000 balls...
- March 4, 2009 at 1:49 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Sounds like a great idea. Do remember, you can always half fill it and fill it more later if you decide you need more. Also you could put in some pillows or other, larger bouncy balls to fill up some of the space for the time being. Be creative. A big cushion at the bottom would make it more comfortable and also easier to fill with fewer balls.
- March 4, 2009 at 2:21 PM
- Kaichu said...
d.u.d.e., you are.
you're brilliant. can I visit, something like couchsurfing?
and it's also completely amazing that you're still replying to comments almost 2 years after the original post. mike, you rock =) this post brought me much happiness.
- August 14, 2009 at 1:40 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Ha! Thanks so much. It's pretty easy to keep on top of blog comments when you get about one a month. :) You can couch surf here. Ever been to Boston? I'm actually going to be out of town for a while. Maybe some time in the fall.
- August 14, 2009 at 1:52 PM
- Kaichu said...
OK, will try. There's always Thanksgiving! And thanks, btw. feels good to have replies to comments.
I was actually in Boston last winter break. It's such lovely, elegant little city, but god was it COLD.
- August 14, 2009 at 4:24 PM
- Unknown said...
Two words, Senior prank. I go to a school with about 100 people. Filling this one teachers room would be perfect! Thanks for the idea. Ball pit balls on ebay are running around 1000 balls for $210 including shipping. THANKS
- September 6, 2009 at 11:27 PM
- Unknown said...
I watched the video with my kids and I now have a new project to complete in the basement.
- November 15, 2009 at 2:00 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Awesome, johnb0002002! I'm so glad it's inspired you to do something fun. Here's a tip. I've rebuilt mine with wood frame (not PVC) and metal wire shelf squares (not that green garden fence. It's much better now because it doesn't flex.
- November 16, 2009 at 12:32 AM
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- December 15, 2009 at 8:32 AM
XKCD also inspired me to make a ballpit :D I found your blog via my google search "How to build a ballpit" xD
- January 6, 2010 at 7:20 AM
- Mike Machenry said...
That's great. Why don't you post some pictures?
- January 6, 2010 at 2:43 PM
- Kelly said...
Hi Mike!
I'm trying to build a ball pit of my own, but did 1300 balls really fill that 5'x7'x2' area? My calculations are telling me that you would've needed about 4000 balls to fill that space. I'm trying to fill a 5' diameter kiddie pool with balls, so if my calculations are correct, I'll need about 2000 balls, but if you're correct, then I'll only need about 800.
Great job by the way! That's an awesome looking ball pit :)
- February 14, 2010 at 7:35 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Your calculations are pretty well on. I do, now, have 4000 balls. I've done a lot of improvements to the ball bit since I made it. 1500 was definitely fun. Just barely enough to bury one's self and plenty enough for a ball fight. But it wasn't very deep. Only about a foot and a half. It's now three feet deep and really great.
Good luck.
- February 15, 2010 at 10:40 AM
- Unknown said...
Wow! That is flipping amazing. I read the XKCD comic as well (recently). Anywho, I was talking about turning one of my rooms into an entire ball pit. That would be fan-fricking tastic. Thank you for having this blog up. The information will be helpful to me when I build my own at home.
- March 12, 2010 at 8:49 PM
- Unknown said...
Actually, I was thinking about the actual ball pit. I will just buy a metal frame pool and set it up in the living room. Nothing like playing video games or watching a movie while sitting in a ball pit! :-D
- March 13, 2010 at 2:42 AM
- Edison said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- October 23, 2010 at 12:20 PM
- Edison said...
How big were the ball's diameter?
- October 23, 2010 at 12:20 PM
You don't know me but I am thirteen and trying to create my own ball pit. I know you're like, the expert so I was wondering if you thought this (http://www.walmart.com/ip/North-States-Superyard-Xt-Gate/8457890) was a good playpen i could use. It's the exact same size as I want and also cheaper and less laborious than building choices I have brainstormed. Please answer with your thoughts.
- November 2, 2010 at 9:29 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Hey Sam,
That doesn't look too bad. I think you might have to take some thin rope and reinforce all of the connections though. When I made my first ball pit (as shown in this blog post) the PVC you see there bowed out and would let balls out the sides. I eventually moved to wood and metal. This gate you have is plastic. It looks like the sides are short enough, relative to the thickness of the plastic to be pretty structurally sound but I bet those joints are not.
Actually, here's a better idea, get 2 or 3 long, nylon straps with those adjustable plastic bit that the loop through. Put one around the top and one around the bottom (maybe one around the middle) of the whole play pen. When you go in a push all the balls out toward the walls (as you will) you won't explode the pen.
- November 3, 2010 at 6:45 AM
i am really glad that you decided to do this. my son is 7 and has low vision but is in love with the ball pit at ikea. we recently got him a new bunkbed and for months he hasnt stopped asking for a ball pit in his room. i was searching the internet when i found this. we are going to home depot this weekend. thank you for your awsomeness!
- April 2, 2011 at 8:48 PM
- Mike Machenry said...
Thanks. I hope it turns out great. You should post a URL to a picture in the comments. I'd love to see. He'll be the coolest kid on the block.
- April 5, 2011 at 4:38 PM
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- September 2, 2011 at 5:15 AM
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- December 11, 2011 at 9:19 AM
- cleaning business said...
Such a cool idea! My kids moved from CA to TX and I rarely see them. They miss me so much and miss having the fun I bring into their lives.. Anyhow, I am planning to move to TX soon and I just know my 5 and 6 year olds will love having a ballpit (and their dad) around for years to come. Thanks for the blog and video!
- January 4, 2012 at 9:05 PM
- Danilo said...
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- November 18, 2017 at 4:27 AM


text:
Miami sophomore Shane Larkin finished second to Virginia Tech�s Erick Green in the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year voting.
North Carolina point guard Marcus Paige was an All-Freshman team selection.
So, their big time performances in the ACC tournament didn�t necessarily come as a shock. However, the last three days in Greensboro did show they are both peaking when it counts.
Neither looks to be hitting the late/postseason wall that some young players, especially point guards, hit � often sending their teams into a tailspin.
Larkin put the Hurricanes on his back over a three-day stretch in earning tournament MVP honors. He was especially dynamic on Sunday in the championship against North Carolina, scoring a career-best 28 points, while dishing out seven assists and also grabbing five rebounds.
The 5-foot-11 floor general turned it over just three times and orchestrated an offense that had just eight turnovers in front of a raucous pro-Tar Heel crowd at Greensboro Coliseum.
On Saturday against N.C. State, also a hostile environment, Larkin played off backcourt mate Durand Scott. After scoring 32 points on Saturday against the Wolfpack, Scott wasn�t up to par in the championship game - hobbled by a back injury. Larkin�s running mate on Sunday was fellow guard Trey McKinney Jones. In a game that will be remembered for its 3-point onslaught, McKinney Jones connected on 6 of 9 from behind the arc and complimented Larkin with 20 points.
Larkin, who says he patterns his game after the Wake Forest legend, Chris Paul, looked the part of a lethal dual threat � averaging nearly 24 points, over five assists and only three turnovers per outing in Greensboro as the primary ball-handler.
�It means a lot (to be tournament MVP),� Larkin said. �My coaches have done a great job of making me the player I am, improving from last season to this season.
�I try to model my game after Chris Paul. He doesn�t always look to score. He knows where to pick his spot. He tries to get his teammates going to see if somebody will get hot. Like Trey was today � just keep feeding him everywhere.�
As dominant as Larkin was, Paige, kept the Tar Heels clicking and on pace with the Hurricanes in a back-and-forth battle for most of the afternoon.
The 6-foot left-hander from Marion, Iowa put up 17 points, drilling three, 3-pointers, with five assists and just one turnover. Paige, who earned a second team All-Tournament selection, showed improved overall play down the homestretch of the ACC campaign and followed up on those efforts in the tournament.
�Marcus is a better player now than he was in December,� UNC coach Roy Williams said. �The credit should go to these kids that continued to improve.�
With North Carolina bound for the NCAA tournament, Paige � like plenty of UNC point guards before him - will continue to be pivotal.
In a basketball world where the top performers often jet for the NBA just as we�re getting to know their skill sets, it appears as if we�ll get to see Larkin on the ACC hardwood for at least one more year. However, as we�ve seen before, a national championship run could steer him to the pros quicker than expected.
In Paige�s case, he will likely be in the Carolina blue for three more years.
There's no reason to get ahead too far, though. This weekend, the two young guards showed they can be crucial contributors in the present quests of their teams.
Gaston Gazette Sports Editor Gabe Whisnant: 704-869-1841; email@example.com; twitter.com/gabewhisnant

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Request to halt strip-club law is denied
In an opinion peppered with double-entendres, references to famous writers, the Bible and a San Antonio contortionist, Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Monday denied a request by strip clubs to stop the city from enforcing a new ordinance requiring entertainers to use bikini tops instead of pasties.
The judge, who oversaw a similar fight a decade ago between the parties, titled the opinion the "itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini top v. the (more) itsy bitsy teeny weeny pastie." It includes a reference to contortionist Miss Wiggles, who gave fully clothed but risqué performances in the 1960s at the Eastwood Country Club here.
"I think Judge Biery's decision is correct as a legal matter, but his opinion fails if he was attempting to be witty or attempting to write 'tongue in cheek,' and his use of double-entendres largely fails as humor and appears almost intended to offend," said Michael Ariens, a law professor at St. Mary's University School of Law. "His footnotes, which cite Shakespeare, the Bible and 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' seem less erudite than a matter of showing off."
Another law professor agreed.
"There's nothing wrong with it in any formal sense," said Steven Lubet, who teaches ethics at Northwestern School of Law in suburban Chicago. "But it is seldom a good idea because the issues are very serious and the people involved often don't appreciate humor in decision-making."
The strip clubs' lawyer, despite being disappointed with the ruling, called Biery's opinion "one of the most entertaining I've ever seen.
"It's almost like getting tickled to death," said attorney Luke Lirot of Florida.
Mick McKamie, a lawyer representing the city in the case, called the opinion "interesting" and noted that the judge had a more businesslike, serious tone in an appendix attached to the opinion that took into account legal and technical arguments of the case.
In summarizing the case, Biery wrote that an ordinance dealing with semi-nude dancing has again "fallen in the court's lap."
"Thus, the age-old question, now with constitutional implications, is: "Does size matter?" the judge wrote, referring to the coverings.
He added that the clubs "clothe themselves in the First Amendment to provide cover against another naked grab of unconstitutional power."
"The court infers plaintiffs fear enforcement of the ordinance would strip them of their profits, affecting their bottom line," the opinion states. "Conversely, the city asserts these businesses contribute to reduced property values, violent crime, increased drug sales, prostitution and other sex crimes and therefore need to be girdled more tightly. Plaintiffs, and by extension their customers, seek an erection of a constitutional wall separating themselves from the regulatory power of city government."
The ruling doesn't end the lawsuit filed in January by 13 strip clubs, which allege that the city is infringing on constitutional rights to free expression. A full-blown trial still could take place, unless the clubs settle with the city or comply.
Lirot said he will speak with his clients about what to do.
"I guess the options are either change the format or apply for licensing while the challenge continues," said Lirot, who is on the board of directors of Houston-based Rick's Cabarets, one of the plaintiffs that operates a club in San Antonio.
McKamie said that "if there are insurmountable logistical issues, we'll work with them on those, but the city is ready to enforce the ordinance right away." The San Antonio Police Department is ready to accept applications for licenses, he said.
Late last year, the city amended its human display ordinance to require more covering of female breasts.
If they choose not to have dancers wear bikini tops, the clubs will be treated as sexually oriented businesses and be subjected to greater regulation, including licensing, background checks of employees and wearing ID badge wristlets or anklets. The ordinance also increased penalties for violations from a class A misdemeanor to a class C misdemeanor, with fines and possible jail time.
In 2003, the city and the clubs fought before Biery over a prior version of the ordinance. That case ended with a settlement in which dark or obstructed VIP rooms, nude dancing and lap dances were banned if completely topless. But the "topless" clubs found a loophole in the previous ordinance by having entertainers wear pasties that allowed them to continue providing lap dances.
In the current case, Biery found the clubs fell short of proving elements necessary to obtain a preliminary injunction, and he denied the clubs' request for such a court order.
He also said the clubs failed to show that semi-nude erotic dancing does not have adverse secondary effects.
"While the court finds these businesses to be nefarious magnets of mischief, the court doubts several square inches of fabric will stanch the flow of violence and other secondary effects emanating from these businesses," Biery wrote. "Indeed, this case exposes the underbelly of America's Romanesque passion for entertainment, sex and money, sought to be covered with constitutional prophylaxis. Alcohol, drugs, testosterone, guns and knives are more likely the causative agents than the female breast, proving once again that humans are a peculiar lot."
And he went further: "Should the parties choose to string this case out to trial on the merits, the court encourages reasonable discovery intercourse as they navigate the peaks and valleys of litigation, perhaps to reach a happy ending."
firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter: @gmaninfedland
Twitter: @gmaninfedland


text:
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. You know you've done a horrendous job of maintaining your new blog when you forget the URL and the password! In the two months (yikes!) since my last post I have, in the odd moment, said to myself in a panic, "Oh, my blog! I need to update it. I need to update it regularly! I'll do that tonight." Then NADA. Thinking back on when I started this blog is almost laughable – how excited I was when I first created the blog, of all the time I spent crafting those first posts, of how this was going to be the thing that really got me working on my research on a constant and frequent basis. That lasted for, oh, a couple of weeks! Then NADA.
I had thought creating this blog would keep me accountable for making progress on my research, something I've only managed to do in a few bursts in the last two years since I "committed" myself to researching my family history. Well, between bursts I really don't have anything to write in my genealogy blog, now do I? Unwittingly, in starting this blog I had added another item to my guilt pile in an effort to tackle another huge project already on my plate! Cute, huh?
This week I came across an article about dealing with unfinished projects. This really hit home given that my research and the blog are just two of several babies I've neglected. The article presents three options for tackling each unfinished project: ditch it, wrap it up as is, or finish as originally planned. The personal and professional stakes one has in each project will guide the decision as to which path to take.
What can make genealogical research so overwhelming is there is no real end, is there? There's no product that is truly finished. So does this decision-making model truly apply? Not perfectly. But it still served as a useful exercise in thinking about how to prioritize this project. I knew I definitely did not want to abandon it altogether, as I have always longed to know more about my ancestors, their lives, and the places they lived and died. This made me realize the best approach was to think about it as a series of mini-projects. Whether it be uncovering one particular peice of information, digitizing one image, or posting one update on my progress – or lack thereof.
With a trip to Panama coming up at the end of this month I have a very real opportunity to collect documents and conduct interviews. Reading that article and writing this post have pushed this priority to the top of my mind, so now all that is left is to see what I get started amid all of the holiday and wedding excitement.


text:
Bill Parcells gets an honor he richly deserves: Hall of Famer
Bill Parcells was circumspect about his chances of gaining entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his third try. When we talked about his candidacy a few weeks ago, he said he wasn't obsessing over it.
"If it happens, it happens," said Parcells, who was bypassed last year and ignited intense criticism of a Hall of Fame process in which he didn't make the final cut. "And you know what? Maybe I don't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame."
A moment of insecurity? Perhaps. Despite his coaching brilliance, Parcells has been a lightning rod for criticism, in part because of his brusque personality that rubbed some people the wrong way. He didn't make it to Canton last year, prompting plenty of second-guessing of voters who bypassed him for other choices despite Parcells' terrific coaching resume.
But there was a part of Parcells that really wondered whether he'd ever get to enjoy the thrill of making it to the highest place in pro football. Was he too much of a bully? Did the fact that he coached in four different places work against him, prompting some to wonder why he simply couldn't stay in one place?
Parcells no longer has to ask the questions and wonder if he'd ever achieve pro football immortality. He was selected for Hall of Fame induction late Saturday afternoon, capping a career that undoubtedly qualified him for this honor. At last, Parcells can rest easy about his place in the NFL.
"It's just unbelievable," he said in a telephone interview. "It's such a thrill to join such an elite group, especially the ones that paved the way for guys like me. I'm just grateful for those coaches that came ahead of me.
"It's really a tribute to the players I had, who worked hard and played hard, and nobody had a better coaching staff than I had," Parcells said. "I'm lucky in that respect. I'm very, very grateful and appreciative."
Parcells' imprint on pro football is undeniable. He took the Giants, who had struggled for almost two decades before his arrival in 1983, to two Super Bowl championships, using his unique blend of strategic brilliance and motivational mastery to build two of the greatest teams in franchise history. He helped turn Lawrence Taylor into a Hall of Fame performer and maybe the best defensive player of all time. He tapped into the grit and determination of Phil Simms and turned him into a Super Bowl MVP. And he brought out the best in Mark Bavaro, Joe Morris, Leonard Marshall, Carl Banks and Jim Burt, players who all reached heights they might never have imagined without the stern handling of their demanding coach.
Parcells' second Super Bowl title came after Simms got hurt. Jeff Hostetler took over and managed the offense, finishing off a remarkable playoff run with a massive upset of the heavily favored Bills.
Parcells left the Giants after his second Super Bowl title because of health problems, leaving the team with a chasm at head coach that Ray Handley was incapable of filling.
When Parcells, who underwent heart bypass surgery, grew weary of working as a television analyst, he went back to what he loved most and took over a floundering Patriots team in 1993 that had finished 2-14 the year before. Within four years, he was back in the Super Bowl. The Patriots lost to the Packers after the 1996 season, and Parcells, frustrated by contract issues with Robert Kraft, whom he inherited as an owner, bolted for the Jets.
Who could forget what he accomplished with a team that had gone 4-28 the two previous seasons? Parcells had the Jets at 9-7 in the first year and fighting for a playoff berth, and had them in the AFC Championship Game the following year.
It was one of the most brilliant coaching jobs you'll ever see, in some ways more remarkable than his run with the Giants because he didn't have nearly the number of blue-chip players with the Jets.
Another ownership change -- from Leon Hess to Woody Johnson -- and Parcells was gone again. He spent a year as the Jets' GM, then walked away and spent two more seasons on television before taking over in Dallas.
The Cowboys had gone 5-11 the previous three seasons, but in his first year on the job, Parcells got them to 10-6 and into the playoffs with quarterback Quincy Carter.
The man was a master at resurrecting franchises, and he was accorded his rightful appreciation for a job well done. A job brilliantly done.
"Bill Parcells has been thought of as one of the all-time greats for a long time, so it is with great pride that we can officially refer to him as a Hall of Famer," said his former defensive lieutenant, Bill Belichick. "He deserves all the recognition he is getting and for his career to be celebrated in Canton forever."
Parcells has made it to the highest place in pro football, a place where Vince Lombardi and Joe Gibbs and Bill Walsh reside.
He has made it to Canton, a place where he belongs.
Even if he wondered if he'd ever get there.


text:
"Saturday Night Live" helped Lindsay Lohan's career take off, and this weekend she'll look to the show to help pick it back up again. But it will be her first time hosting the show minus her friend Tina Fey as "SNL" head writer, possibly making for a different kind of night.
Lindsay Lohan was 17 when "Mean Girls," written by Fey, was released on April 30, 2004. In it she plays a clever teen trying to navigate the savage jungle that is high school, and displaying a somewhat magical combination of maturity and vulnerability.
U.S. & World
The very next day Lohan made her first appearance as host of "SNL," where Fey was working as head writer. She earned some laughs for her portrayal of a buxom Hermione in a "Harry Potter" sketch, and was part of Rachel Dracht's unveiling of Debbie Downer.
Fey and Lohan chummily made the talk-show circuit together, and it was clear a sincere friendship was developing.
But over the next several months, Lohan was hounded by paparazzi, dated Wilmer Valderama, saw her weight drop precipitously, was hospitalized with a kidney infection and recorded an album.
Lohan returned to "SNL" in December 2004 as a surprise guest, coming out during Fey's and Amy Poehler's Weekend Update. The pair gave Lohan a good-natured ribbing during the broadcast for her "Mischa Barton arms."
A couple of years later, it came out that the duo actually gave Lohan a serious off-screen talking to, concerned over her increasingly apparent hard-living ways.
"They sat me down," Lohan told Vanity Fair in 2006, "literally before I was going to do the show, and they said, 'You need to take care of yourself. We care about you too much, and we've seen too many people do this,' and I just started bawling. I knew I had a problem and I couldn't admit it."
But Fey left "SNL" after the 2005-06 season, to start her own hit sitcom, "30 Rock," about a woman who's the head writer at a comedy-variety show filmed in same building where "SNL" is based.
Lohan stopped hosting. Instead, the show on more than one occasion made Lohan's reported issues their target. Emma Stone in 2010 played a dazed Lohan who was allowed out of the Betty Ford Clinic to make an appearance on "The View."
It was around the same time that Fey appeared on "Watch What Happens," where host Andy Cohen asked for her thoughts on Lohan's stint in rehab.
"Lindsay is in rehab now? Right? We think? I think that's good [that she's in rehab]. Yeah," Fey responded, adding, "[Lindsay's] so great, and such a beautiful girl, I hope she gets well.
Now six years removed from her last "SNL" stint, Lohan's acting career has come close to bottoming out. In the past year she's been to jail and rehab, been kicked out of community service and been cast and uncast in films about porn star Linda Lovelace and mobster John Gotti.
But since December, things have looked up just a bit, as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Saunter praised the actress' newfound commitment to her rehabilitation.
"Ms. Lohan, you have actually done the work, and done it not only on time, but early," Saunter told her. "You're doing well and I'd like to see you continue."
On the upswing, she reached out to "SNL"'s producer, Lorne Michaels, and begged him for a chance to host yet again, she said.
"I'm really lucky because Lorne Michaels has been really supportive," Lohan told Matt Lauer of "Today" earlier this week. "I actually emailed him and started harassing him to meet with me."
Lohan's "Saturday Night Live" performance this week might not save her career, but it has the potential to kill it. Here's hoping "SNL" is as good to Lohan as it's always been.


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Here's the Reds lineup for tonight via baseballpress.com. Heisey gets the nod in LF and Cairo takes his turn at third.
1. Zack Cozart (R) SS
2. Drew Stubbs (R) CF
3. Joey Votto (L) 1B
4. Brandon Phillips (R) 2B
5. Jay Bruce (L) RF
6. Chris Heisey (R) LF
7. Miguel Cairo (R) 3B
8. Ryan Hanigan (R) C
9. Mat Latos (R) P


text:
The quality of electronic discharge summaries for post-discharge care: Hospital panel assessment and IT to support improvement
NZ Literature Abstract
posted by Research Admin on 2 June 2011
Mehnaz Adnan
Jim Warren
Martin Orr
Andrew Ewens
John Scott
Shona Trubshaw
Year of Publication
Health Care and Informatics Review Online, 15 (1), 8-17
Publication Type
Journal article (peer reviewed)
Publication Status
This paper assesses the quality of information in Electronic Discharge Summaries (EDSs) with respect to adequacy and specificity for optimal post-discharge care of the patient. The assessments were done by randomly selecting 40 EDSs of the patients discharged from two secondary care hospitals affiliated with Waitemata District Health Board and using a questionnaire with an expert panel composed of two medical specialists and a clinical coder. Irrelevant data in laboratory results, and insufficient management and follow up information to patients and primary care physicians were identified as the most common quality issues.
Type of Study
How to Access
To read the full abstract, and to access a free full text version of the article, go to: http://www.hinz.org.nz/journal/2010/12/The-Quality-of-Electronic-Discharge-Summaries-for-Post-Discharge-Care---Hospital-Panel-Assessment-and-IT-to-Support-Improvement/1034


text:
Re: Re: Off by 0.00000001, Why?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg37411] Re: [mg37390] Re: [mg37378] Off by 0.00000001, Why?
- From: jmt <jmt at dxdydz.net>
- Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 06:33:04 -0500 (EST)
- References: <firstname.lastname@example.com> <firstname.lastname@example.com>
- Reply-to: jmt at dxdydz.net
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
That's why you can use Mathematica arbitrary precision function to control your results. But you must know first what to control. On Saturday 26 October 2002 08:03, Steven T. Hatton wrote: > On Friday 25 October 2002 09:34 am, you wrote: > > This is not surprising. First of all as you correctly pointed out the > > Mathematica routines you are calling may have changed and therefore > > produce different results. > > This is not a high priority for me, but it would be nice to know how to > identify the source of such discrepancies. > > > Secondly your OS and hardware platform may > > not be identical and in my experience the same compiler may produce > > different results on different hardware and OS combinations due to > > different optimizations applied to floating point expressions. > > Finally, Intel chips have floating point registers that are actually 80 > > bits wide. Thus they perform some floating point operations > > differently than a pure 64 bit machine because they may use 80 bits for > > intermediate results. See > > http://www.validlab.com/goldberg/addendum.html for a reasonable summary > > of the issues with floating point computations on different > > architectures. > > I *believe* Java trys to create a platform neutral computing environment > which insures results will be uniform across platforms. IIRC, I read > something about this kind of thing in the Mathematica documentation. There > are ways of manipulating the content of atoms which can be used to optimize > performance, but they are discouraged because they can lead to the kinds of > discrepancies were are discussing.... Indeed, see A.1.4 of the Mathematica > Book: (4.2, Help Browser) > > "As an optimization for some special kinds of computations, the raw data in > Mathematica atomic objects can be given explicitly using Raw[head, > "hexstring"]. The data is specified as a string of hexadecimal digits, > corresponding to an array of bytes. When no special output form exists, > InputForm prints special objects using Raw. The behavior of Raw differs > from one implementation of Mathematica to another; its general use is > strongly discouraged. " > > > > Any thoughts on this? > > > > If your floating point calculations are mission critical you have to > > use a compiler which allows you to control whether floating point > > expressions are optimized. Also you have to use a CPU architecture > > whose behavior you understand. Finally all of your algorithms must be > > analyzed to guarantee you understand and have compensated for the > > floating point model of your compiler and CPU. This is why mission > > critical code such as for NASA is typically audited by a team before > > being committed to production code. > > I do seem to recall a lost probe not too long ago. Seems someone forgot to > convert from miles to kilometers, or something like that. To my mind that > was just plain stupidity. They should never have been using imperial units > in the first place. > > Nonetheless, this demonstrates the kinds of things which can creep into > your calculations. Suppose the Auditors come in and bless everything off, > and the next week you get a brand new computer. Not realizing that the > hardware will influence the outcome of your calculation, you copy > everything over to the new system, give the nice lady at WRI a call to get > your new password, and run the calculations 10 times faster, but based on > assumptions which are inconsistent with your current environment. Ooops, > "Houston, we've got a problem." > > > Regards, > > > > Ssezi
- References:
- Re: Off by 0.00000001, Why?
- From: "Steven T. Hatton" <email@example.com>
- Re: Off by 0.00000001, Why?


text:
* Case has aroused huge public interest
* Jury selection likely to be long process
* Zimmerman says he acted in self-defense
By Barbara Liston
SANFORD, Fla., June 9 (Reuters) - Jury selection begins on Monday in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 and then famously walked free for 44 days, triggering nationwide protests and calls for his arrest.
Lawyers estimate the long-awaited trial will last four to eight weeks. Much of that time is expected to be spent picking a six-person jury that can be open-minded despite extensive publicity about some of the explosive issues, including racial profiling and self-defense, surrounding the case.
"They're going to have a tough time picking a jury. At this point who doesn't know who Trayvon Martin is and who George Zimmerman is," said David Weinstein, a former state prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer.
Zimmerman, a 29-year-old former neighborhood watch volunteer, faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged of second-degree murder.
More than 200 journalists have signed up to cover the trial and a tight blanket of security will be enforced by federal, state and local police in and around the courthouse in this town near Orlando in central Florida.
Even spectators in barricaded "public assembly zones" on the courthouse lawn will be subject to search. Four seats inside the courtroom will be rotated among local pastors who will monitor the trial and be ready to help calm any racial tensions.
The trial is being heralded as either a defining moment in the annals of civil rights, or an anti-climactic resolution of another senseless killing in gun-happy Florida.
Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, was the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain in a gated community of Sanford at the time of the killing on Feb. 26, 2012. Martin, 17, was a student at a Miami-area high school and a guest of one of the homeowners.
He was walking back to the residence after buying a bag of Skittles candy and a can of iced tea from a nearby convenience store when he died with a bullet in his chest during a struggle with Zimmerman.
Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda says Martin would be alive today but for the fact that Zimmerman, who profiled him as "a real suspicious guy," disregarded a police dispatcher's advice against pursuing Martin and wound up fatally confronting him.
Sanford police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman who claimed self-defense, saying they had no choice in light of Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law, which allows anyone in fear for their life to shoot rather than retreat. But many saw the lack of an arrest as a symbol of second-class treatment of black victims in the criminal justice system.
Zimmerman was arrested only after a national outcry from both ordinary citizens and the nation's top civil rights leaders, and the appointment of a special prosecutor to take over from local law enforcement when it lost credibility. Almost 2.3 million people signed an online Change.org petition - still the largest petition in the organization's history - demanding "Justice for Trayvon Martin."
As the trial opens, Martin family lawyer Ben Crump said many are still waiting to see whether the family receives equal justice.
"I honestly think this is a civil rights/equal justice issue because everybody in the world is watching to see if everybody in America gets equal justice," Crump said. "This family has wanted to have their day in court. They wanted to not have their son's death be in vain. They pray continuously that the justice system does not fail them."
Others believe the injustice was cured once an arrest was made, and that now, regardless of the ultimate verdict, justice is being served.
"What this community wanted was for George Zimmerman to be arrested, the police chief to be fired and the state attorney to be gone. And all of this has been done," said Francis Oliver, one of Sanford's long-time civil rights leaders.
"We called it a victory when we got the arrest. But the call was for justice. I don't think we want someone to go to jail if we don't have the evidence," said Derek Turner, spokesman for the NAACP.
Prominent Orlando defense lawyer Mark Nejame suggests viewing the case through separate moral and legal lenses.
"Morally, I think it never should have happened," Nejame said. "I think that George Zimmerman was somewhat of a zealot in his effort to protect and serve and he should never have been following anybody when he was carrying a gun."
Legally, the case would depend on what the jurors believe happened in the struggle in the moments before the killing, he said.
Key points to watch as the trial unfolds will include testimony from a young woman, known as Witness 8, who was talking to Martin by cell phone in the last minutes of his life.
She has already gone on record describing Martin as scared and trying to get away from Zimmerman, as he pursued him. She has also said she last heard Martin say, "Why are you following me," after which she heard what sounded like Martin falling. Then the phone shut off. (Additional reporting by David Adams. Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)


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No. Of People
Minutes walk to the marina
Star Rating
Silicon Cup Accommodation, Cowes Isle of Wight
Silicon Cup accommodation is in great demand given the success of this spectacular event. Silicon Cup 2018 is even bigger and better than in previous years with many people seeking to holiday in Cowes at the same time.
Property Ref: 111
Located in the heart of old Cowes, in an elevated position very close to yacht clubs this nine bedroomed house is perfect for larger owner/crew groups. Sleeping up to 20 people in a mix of twin and double rooms with bathroom facilities to match. Good outside entertaining space and also parking which is unusual for this part of Cowes. Classic kitchen with Rayburn, all good sized, high celiling rooms.+ More details
Property Ref: 109
A delightful cottage in Cowes Old Town within easy walking distance to all the main yacht clubs. 4 bedrooms sleeping up to 8 people and a pretty garden makes this a perfect cottage for the discerning visitor.+ More details
Property Ref: 76
A very large and spacious six bedroomed house on one ot the most prestigious roads in Cowes. Walkable from the town centre with sea views and loads of entertaining room. Newly redecorated with large garden and parking for at least ten cars. Ideal for corporate or large family use.+ More details
Property Ref: 95
Very spacious four bedroomed house in an elevated position on the edge of Cowes. All good sized rooms with ample seating both inside and out. The bunk beds shown in the photo are split for the summer rentals giving very flexible accommodation. All mod cons including wifi. Parking for two cars and entertaining space outside.+ More details
Property Ref: 79
Tucked away and secluded yet deceptively large house on one of the most prestigious roads in Cowes. With unrivalled views, and access over the golf course from the sunny part decked garden. 4 good sized bedrooms with bathing facilities to match and all the extras including surround sound and wireless broadband.+ More details
Property Ref: 80
A Fabulous grade two listed cottage in the heart of 'Old Town' Cowes. Elegant and comfortable accommodation which has been recently totally refurbished. One double, three twins. Fabulous conservatory and open fire, great for holidays, short breaks and sailing events.+ More details
Property Ref: 131
A fabulously presented characterful cottage within a stones throw of the marina. The Cottage has 2 double ensuite letting rooms (Both can also be twins) and two twin rooms that share a very modern shower wet room. All rooms have televisions. WI FI and a fabulous spacious garden with covered decked area and seperate lawned area.+ More details
Property Ref: 122
A modern terraced home on a pretty new development with parking, 5 minutes walk to Cowes High St. Sleeping up to 5. Courtyard garden and additional cloakroom makes this an ideal family, or crew home.+ More details
Property Ref: 81
This comfortable, well furnished waterside cottage offers views over the harbour. The first floor lounge has two balconies, to take advantage of the nautical scenery. Ground floor: 2 bedrooms - 1 double, 1 bunk, bathroom with shower over bath, toilet & basin. First floor: Lounge with dining area/kitchen. Z bed on request.+ More details
Property Ref: 83
A stunning Victorian tardis! Corporate heaven, with 5 bedrooms and many en suites, bath and shower rooms. Seaviews, decked garden, conservatory, and stunning kitchen make this an ideal property for corporate lets. The owners are able to provide a catering package if required.+ More details


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Definitely portrayed the flaws well. Still missing some bass and plenty of soundstage. I also wish it was more sensitive for portable players. i also think etymotic has to move on to dynamic drivers to improve the distortion and increase bandwidth.
On a random side note, any chance you can get your hands on the Powerbeats 3? Boy do these sound amazing which totally threw me off guard considering the PB2 were bad. So far it's my reference for imaging and soundstage on a iem and tonal balance is good, bass is cleaner than my JVC FX850s


text:
DescriptionSkip the business school loans: this 25-course bundle encompasses a complete MBA education, covering all the essential topics of managing and operating a business in today's economic climate. With courses ranging from project management and accounting to marketing and culture, and everything in between, novice and seasoned business professionals alike can diversify their skill sets and increase their personal marketability with this immersive bundle.
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In police training, how much contact is enough?
When it comes to fighting, as with sex, there is no substitute for the real thing
In my August column, I examined the inherent dangers of full-contact training methodologies, including the medical and political realms.
Given the concerns raised among administrators (and in my column) the question becomes: "Why make any attempt to use full-contact drills?"
The best way to practice to do a thing is to do the thing. If you want your emergency responders to be confident fighters who can execute defensive tactics under stress, they should have realistic practice. As a close friend and mentor once told me, "When it comes to fighting and sex, there is no substitute for the real thing."
Stress Inoculation
In police defensive tactics training, this practice must include enough full-contact experience to inoculate the officer against the toxic emotional stress and physical demands of interpersonal combat. However, the training methodology must mitigate the inherent danger as much as possible.
We should also examine the psychology of fighting; in order to dominate the will of another, one must develop force of will. Not all people in law enforcement have a developed sense of aggression or force of will — in some this has to be trained. Full-contact training can be a method for developing both force of will and self-control. Officers must have sufficient force of will to overcome the will or actions of an aggressor. They must also be able to escalate and de-escalate given changing circumstances.
Therefore, our training must include the opportunity to flow under realistic conditions.
Academy training must incorporate full-contact training. However, recruits must be given an adequate foundation for this training to be beneficial. Technique must be adapted from a ring environment (where referees will helpfully intervene) to the street fight.
Full-contact sparring sessions must be integrated with realistic dynamic simulations that require the recruit to use striking techniques in order to gain sufficient advantage so as to apply control tactics. All of these pieces are integral to building a recruit that is ready for the street.
Departmental in-service training should include realistic dynamic simulations or scenarios that include some contact. These scenarios should be carefully monitored in order to prevent injury. Given the limited amount of training time available at most police agencies, full-contact sparring as an in-service training methodology is not the way to go.
Remember, in sparring, half of your participants will "lose" the exercise. Officers placed in sparring drills without the requisite conditioning will be likely to overlook the benefits of the training and to focus on the unpleasant aspects (pain, embarrassment in front of peers, heavy exertion, etc.).
Both recruit training and in-service training must incorporate the concept of technique flow. Police officers must be able to move from striking, to control tactics, to weaponry, to ground control, to handcuffing while making solid use-of-force decisions. Sparring at one range is not sufficient to develop flow.
The Full-Contact Question
DT instructors are left with the dilemma of how much actual fighting should be conducted in training. An argument can be made for training with zero contact — there will be few or no training injuries and no chance of brain damage. Under such restrictions, DT training essentially becomes DT exposure — meaning you have seen it, you know what it looks like, and your ability to execute the skills under pressure will be determined by your ability (what you were born with), not your skill.
I counter with the Specificity theory of motor learning: Training should be created to closely resemble or duplicate the conditions under which a skill is performed. The closer the training comes to reality, the better the performance of the motor skill will be when the skill is executed "for real."
A person's first immersion in the dangerous environment of interpersonal violence is very emotional. It is not reasonable to expect a police recruit to work through intense emotion while attempting to enforce the law. Therefore, this bath in the toxic soup of violence must take place in training, so that the recruit knows what to expect when fighting on pavement. This recruit training must then be reinforced by regular (at minimum yearly) exposure to dynamic simulation training.
Law enforcement is a profession of arms. Recruit training must be specific to our unique work environment. Dilution of our essential skills must not be allowed. My belief is that regular in-service DT training that exposes the student officer to tightly controlled student-on-student sparring, IRS drills, and full-spectrum scenarios will produce an excellent result: a confident, competent officer who is ready to use reasonable, justifiable, and necessary force.
Our initial training must then be used as a foundation for further skill development during ongoing in-service training.
Our training is inherently dangerous — the danger can be mitigated but never completely removed. Defensive Tactics instructors must seek to minimize this risk while providing training that will produce officers able to fulfill our mission.


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Welcome to the Northern Black Forest's Black Forest Spa Route. It's not just fans of unbridled relaxation who get more than they bargained for on this 270 km stretch through idyllic valleys, hot thermal and mineral springs, traditional and modern spas and health resorts.
Health, beauty and fitness, leisure, arts and culture: everyone will find something to suit their interests in the charming countryside of the Northern Black Forest as the route makes its way between Pforzheim and Freudenstadt, the junction of the Nagold and Enz rivers and the Rebland in Baden-Baden. Few other regions have as many hydrotherapy, climatic, thermal and mineral spa resorts as here in the Northern Black Forest, one of Germany's largest nature reserves.
No place you'd rather be
Whether you prefer to relax in the bubbling waters of the thermal baths or get your circulation going in the hydrotherapy pools, wellness is a longstanding tradition in the Black Forest. The Black Forest Spa Route takes you on a circular tour through an unparalleled natural landscape that is perfect for wellness, fitness and health breaks. Draw strength from your surroundings: Mother Nature will give you energy, while the food and wine will restore your lust for life.
A route that will fulfill everything your heart desires
There is a large choice of leisure activities with something for everyone; from hiking, cycling, golf, climbing, fishing and paragliding to a wide range of winter sports. The thermal and mineral springs of these deep valleys have been used by the spas and health resorts here for centuries.
Take a break from the daily grind
The Northern Black Forest offers gentle hills, vibrant colours and healthy, relaxing air; a chance to breathe deeply and to find your inner self. The countryside is characterised by idyllic Black Forest towns and neatly kept half-timbered buildings, abbeys, castles, palaces, secluded lakes, coniferous forests, peat bogs, awe-inspiring valleys and vineyards. And if the woodland air and the thermal waters stimulate your appetite, you're sure to find delicious food in the right surroundings – whatever your taste.
Length: approximately 270 km
Theme: spa and health resorts, health treatments, beauty and fitness, countryside
Altensteig: castle, historical old quarter
Baden-Baden: Caracalla spa resort, casino
Bad Herrenalb: Siebentäler spa resort
Bad Liebenzell: Paracelsus Spa
Bad Rippoldsau: mineral baths and peat spa
Bad Wildbad: adventure pool
Baiersbronn: Fairy Tale Museum, corrie lakes, starred restaurants
Calw: abbey, silver mine and Heilstollen spa
Enzklösterle: adventure golf course
Freudenstadt: the largest market square in Germany
Maulbronn: UNESCO monastery
Nagold: reservoir
Pforzheim: jewellery making, silverwork and clock making centre
مجموعتي أزرار مفيدة لغرض التكبير في المتصفح:
تكبير: +
تصغير: +
يمكنك لدى عارض برنامج التصفح الحصول على المزيد من المساعدة من خلال النقر على الأيقونة:


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- Prayer and Worship
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Bildad's Second Speech. 1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2When will you put an end to words?
Reflect, and then we can have discussion.
3Why are we accounted like beasts,
equal to them in your sight?
4You who tear yourself in your anger—
shall the earth be neglected on your account
or the rock be moved out of its place?
5Truly, the light of the wicked is extinguished;
the flame of his fire casts no light.
6In his tent light is darkness;
the lamp above him goes out.a
7His vigorous steps are hemmed in,
his own counsel casts him down.
8A net catches him by the feet,
he wanders into a pitfall.
9A trap seizes him by the heel,
a snare lays hold of him.
10A noose is hidden for him on the ground,
a netting for him on the path.
11On every side terrors frighten him;b
they harry him at each step.
12His strength is famished,
disaster is ready at his side,
13His skin is eaten to the limbs,
the firstborn of Death* eats his limbs.
14He is plucked from the security of his tent;
and marched off to the king of terrors.*
15Fire lodges in his tent,
over his abode brimstone is scattered.
16Below, his roots dry up,
and above, his branches wither.
17His memory perishes from the earth,c
and he has no name in the countryside.
18He is driven from light into darkness,
and banished from the world.
19He has neither offshoot nor offspring among his people,
no survivor where once he dwelt.
20Those who come after shall be appalled at his fate;
those who went before are seized with horror.
21So is it then with the dwelling of the impious;
such is the place of the one who does not know God!
* [18:13] Firstborn of Death: that is, disease, plague.
* [18:14] The king of terrors: of Sheol, of Death (cf. the "terrors" in v. 11). However, the Hebrew of this verse is obscure.
a. [18:6] Jb 21:17; Prv 13:9; 24:20.
b. [18:11] Jb 15:20–24; 27:20.
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Install necessary software
To import Canon Cinema RAW Light media, install the necessary software.
- Use the Updates pane of the Mac App Store to install the latest Pro Video Formats software, and to update to Final Cut Pro X 10.4.
- Download the Canon RAW Plug in 1.0 for Final Cut Pro X from the Canon support website. Then, install the software on your Mac.
Supported cameras
To see if you can use your Cinema RAW Light media in Final Cut Pro X, check the list of cameras supported by Final Cut Pro X.
Learn more
To learn how to import media, see these topics in Final Cut Pro X Help:


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Though she's now the star of two major franchises, Jennifer Lawrence has no plans to turn her back on smaller-scale dramas. It was announced today that the Oscar nominee is attached to star in the romantic drama The Ends of the Earth, which is based on the lives of Ernest and Lydie Marland. The pic centers on the controversial love affair between the oil baron/eventual Governor of Oklahoma and his adopted daughter and how their relationship lost Ernest everything he had. Lydie was adopted as a girl by her aunt and uncle as their daughter, and Ernest went on to actually marry Lydie. The young woman fought for better conditions for his workers (ie. raised wages and better medical care).
No male lead or director is currently attached, but the film has a script by Chris Terrio (Argo). The Weinstein Company is in final negotiations to acquire the project, so I expect we'll hear much more in the coming months. Lawrence appears this fall in David O. Russell's drama The Silver Linings Playbook and recently wrapped the thriller Serena. She'll next shoot The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and the X-Men: First Class sequel Days of Future Past back-to-back. Hit the jump to read the press release.
New York, NY – August 6, 2012 – The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that they will finance and distribute THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. They have acquired worldwide rights from Escape Artists, who will produce the film. Jennifer Lawrence (SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, THE HUNGER GAMES, WINTER'S BONE) is in discussions to star in the epic love story, based on true events, as Lydie Marland. In THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, powerful oil tycoon Ernest Marland loses everything after engaging in a controversial love affair with his adopted daughter Lydie. The screenplay was written by Chris Terrio (ARGO). The director has yet to be chosen. The announcement was made today by TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein, COO David Glasser and President of Production Dylan Sellers.
Said Weinstein, "I'm not sure that anything resonates more with an audience than a true story. Jennifer Lawrence shows the skill of a seasoned veteran in everything she does, and we're thrilled to work with her again."
Added Sellers, "Chris has brought to life with his writing one of the most epic love stories that people have yet to really discover. We knew right away that this script was something special."
"Uniting with TWC on this project will allow this amazing true story to come to life in an artful and beautiful way," said Escape Artists' principal co-owner Todd Black. "We couldn't be happier to be on board with them and to get the chance to uncover this story for audiences everywhere."
TWC and Escape Artists made the deal based on the screenplay by Terrio. The deal was negotiated by TWC's Glasser, President, Business and Legal Affairs Andrew Kramer, and VP, Business and Legal Affairs Adrian Lopez and Escape Artists Executive Vice President David Bloomfield. Sellers and Julie Rapaport, Vice President, Production and Business Development, will oversee the film for TWC along with Escape Artists' Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch and Lance Johnson.


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Car loan articles can be found online with a specialist motoring website and they hold a vast amount of useful information for those who are looking to finance a new or used car. A good site will offer articles on all aspects of car loans which all go towards you finding the best deal for your particular circumstances as well as offering hints and tips on choosing your new vehicle.
By having this knowledge, it means you can make an educated choice as to the right type of car finance for you.
When it comes to finding a loan there are many types to choose from so getting doing your homework is essential, so take advantage of articles aimed at car loans and you get to the best start possible. Articles are often laid out in specific categories which mean you can instantly find access to the information you are looking for.
Car loan articles will tell you all about the various options when it comes to financing your new or used car. Car loan articles giving information for the standard loan will explain the options you have and how to get the best deal possible on a secured or unsecured loan.
The secured loan means that you take the borrowing over a specific amount of time and then spread the repayments in monthly installments over this period. The beauty of this is that you are able to keep the repayments down to a level you can afford each month. However of course the longer you take the loan over, the more interest you will pay. If you have a less than perfect credit rating then this is usually the best chance of securing a loan for a car, as the car will be taken as security against the borrowing.
If you are considering buying a used car then get as much information as you can by way of car loan articles focusing on used car loans or unsecured borrowing. If you have an excellent credit rating and do not need to borrow a lot then you can get a loan without having to put up anything as security. The unsecured loan will usually come with an interest rate that is higher than that of the secured. However by allowing a specialist website to search within the car finance marketplace you can make great savings.
Any type of loan is confusing when it comes to the technical jargon and interest rates. Car loan articles will take the confusion away for you. They will explain clearly what APR means and the tricks that some lenders play to make you believe you are getting an excellent interest rate. For example, some lenders will quotes an interest rate that is for weekly terms and of course if the individual compares this against a monthly or yearly rate then it can seem extremely low. Taking the time to read through the articles and learning as much as possible about car loan and finance can save you a lot of money and of course, a specialist website will offer these resources for free.


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CARSON, Calif. -- The LA Galaxy may be dealing with injury issues heading into Thursday's CONCACAF Champions League match against Isidro Metapán, but they are not alone.
According to El Gráfico, El Salvador's largest sports daily newspaper, four Metapán players did not make the trip to the United States due to visa issues including starting center back Ernesto Aquino. Also according to the Salvadoran daily , Metapán trained with the following formation before coming to Southern California: GK Fidel Mondragón; RB: Luis Perla, CB: Ricardo Alvarado, CB: Milton Molina, LB: Alfredo Pacheco; RM: Cristian Sanchez, CM: Omar Mejia, CM: Ramon Sanchez, LM: Paolo Suarez; FWD: Eliseo Quintanilla, FWD: Nicolas Muñoz.
Below is a thought from Galaxy midfielder David Beckham on the Salvadoran club:
"We've always respected teams like we'll be playing tomorrow. It doesn't matter if we've heard too much about them. They've still got a very good team unit and we know enough about them to know that we have to play well to win the game. We're well aware of the players, and well aware of individual players that they have, its about our own game and If we play our own game, then we're difficult to stop. But we've got to do that."


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Fifteen-year-old McKay Hatch has relentlesly campaigned to clean up people's language in Los Angeles County.
On Tuesday, he will be recognized by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The board is scheduled to issue a proclamation by Supervisor Michael Antonovich making the first week in March No Cussing Week.
U.S. & World
That would mean no blue language from the Mojave desert, where it gets hot as $&*# in the summer, to the Pacific Ocean, where on a winter's day it can get colder and nastier than *%$#!
Not that Hatch expects complete compliance. When his No Cussing Club meets on the campus of South Pasadena High School on Wednesdays it's not unusual for a nonmember to throw open the door and unleash a torrent of four-letter words. He's also been the target of some organized harassment from pro-cussers.
Antonovich's motion, meanwhile, carries no penalties.
"But it's a good reminder for all of us, not just young people but everybody, to be respectful to one another and watch the words we use," said the supervisor's spokesman, Tony Bell. He added that the board also recently honored a father promoting a no-bullying campaign.
Although perhaps the largest entity to try to put the lid on swearing, Los Angeles County isn't the first. Hatch's hometown of South Pasadena declared itself a cuss-free zone for a week last March, and two years ago a high school in Canada threatened to suspend repeat cussers.
Hatch insists he won't be satisfied, however, until he's done his part to clean up the whole world's act.
"Next year I want to try to get California to have a cuss-free week. And then, who knows, maybe worldwide," said the 10th grader, who believes if people treat each other with more civility they can better work together to solve bigger problems.
Until a few years ago, Hatch was just another suburban kid who liked to play tennis and soccer and listen to music. But about the time he hit the seventh grade, he says, he noticed his friends beginning to swear, something his family wouldn't allow. He decided to form the No Cussing Club and invite others to join.
Soon the group had a Web site, bright orange T-shirts, a hip hop theme song and people from around the world inquiring about joining. He estimates 20,000 people have now formed similar clubs.
"It's not about forcing anyone to stop, just to bring awareness," he says of the movement. "If you can do a week without cussing, maybe you can do two weeks. And then maybe a month."


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Here's a baking miracle that performs its magic due to air alone—choux paste or pâte à choux. It translates literally as "the pastry for making little cabbages." Cream puffs are, hands down, the most well-known choux paste descendant.
Food Guy Greg Patent gives an outline and step-by-step instructions for making cream puff dough, or pâte à choux. For more photos, go to The Baking Wizard.
. . . . . . . . .
You make the dough by beating flour into boiling water and butter to make a paste—called a panade in French—and cooking the paste over heat while stirring vigorously to drive off excess moisture. Finally, you beat in eggs a little at a time off heat. And that's it.
The first time I made it I couldn't imagine how this warm dense yellow blob—perhaps the most versatile of any pastry—could be transformed into crisp shells for cream puffs, éclairs, and profiteroles, or how spoonfuls rolling around in hot fat would puff up into tender/chewy beignets. And if I mixed some cheese into the paste and baked mounds of it, they'd transform into custardy French puffs of gougères. Why does choux paste puff? Because of the air you beat into the eggs—which expands with heat—and the wetness of the dough, which gets converted to steam, making for even more puff.
The only equipment you'll need to make choux paste is a heavy saucepan to cook the panade and a sturdy wooden spoon for beating in the eggs. A food processor or heavy-duty stand mixer can do the work for you, but if you've not made pâte à choux before, I recommend the elbow grease approach to give you the feel of what it's all about.
There is no strict proportion of the four major ingredients—water, butter, flour, and eggs—when making pâte à choux. Much depends on the moisture content of the flour, how you measure it, the volume of eggs and even how you measure the water! I've made it with 1 cup water (8 ounces), 6 tablespoons butter (3 ounces), 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces), and 4 large eggs (7 to 7.5 ounces out of the shells), which makes puffs that grow to great heights with crisp shells and tender insides.
For the liquid, many more recent pâte à choux recipes use water, milk, or a combination, vary the amount of butter, call for bread flour instead of all-purpose flour, and combine whole eggs with extra egg whites. All will affect the size and texture of the puffs. It really depends on what you want to do with the choux paste.
The following formula, a favorite of Shirley Corriher's, and a variation of one in her seminal work, Bakewise, makes especially crispy puffs because egg whites are great drying agents, bread flour (higher in gluten than all-purpose flour) absorbs more liquid than all-purpose flour—allowing you to add more eggs—and the added gluten also helps give a higher rise:
1 cup water (8 ounces), 4 tablespoons butter (2 ounces), 1 cup bread flour (5 ounces), 3 to 4 large eggs plus 2 large egg whites (7.25 to 9 ounces out of the shell). You decide how much egg to add depending on the final texture of the pâte à choux: the pastry should just hold its shape on the spoon with an inch or more of the dough hanging down 2 or 3 inches (see 7th photo in preparation description below).
Ultimately, the proportions you decide to use will depend on what you'll be making. Gougères, which have a definite custardy texture, are best with the first formula, but you might prefer the second one for cream puffs and éclairs, which should be really crisp.
Me? I've been happily making cream puffs, éclairs, beignets, and other classic French desserts such as Paris Brest and Gateau St. Honoré as well as savory cheese puffs (Gougères), gnocchi, and canapé toppings with the first formula, simply adjusting flavors by adding ½ teaspoon salt to the boiling water and butter for non-sweet recipes and adding 1 tablespoon sugar and a big pinch of salt for sweets.
Pâte à Choux for Big Cream Puffs
Although I give you cup and weight measurements, I always weigh the ingredients for greater accuracy. You can use salted or unsalted butter. Be sure to warm the eggs in hot water before adding them to the panade or the choux paste will have less puff.
1 cup water (8 ounces)
6 tablespoons cold butter (3 ounces), sliced
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)
4 large eggs (8 to 8.5 ounces in their shells), warmed in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes
Get everything ready and in place: A 2 ½ to 3-quart heavy saucepan with the water, butter, and seasonings, the flour (measured by stirring the flour in its bin to aerate slightly, dipping a 1-cup dry measure into the flour and filling it to overflowing, and sweeping off the excess with a straight edge), and warmed eggs cracked into a 2-cup glass measure.
Set the saucepan over medium high heat and bring the liquid to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Entire surface should be bubbling vigorously.
Immediately take the pan off the heat and dump in the flour. Stir rapidly with a wooden spoon until the flour is completely incorporated and forms a smooth mass of dough. This is the panade.
Reduce the heat to medium and stir and cook the panade for 2 to 3 minutes. Press and spread the dough with the wooden spoon to flatten it and increase the surface area to speed evaporation of excess moisture. The dough may film the bottom of the pan with a very thin layer.
Take the pan off the heat and continue stirring the panade with the spoon for a minute or two to cool it slightly. Lightly beat eggs to combine whites with yolks. Pour on about ¼ cup of the eggs and mix them in. At first you'll get a mess looking like lumpy scrambled eggs.
But keep stirring and beating gently until the egg is incorporated and the dough becomes thick and smooth.
Continue adding the egg in 3 more installments, beating in each until smooth. After the last addition, beat about 1 more minute until the pâte à choux is thick and glossy and holds its shape on the spoon with an inch or more of the dough hanging down 2 or 3 inches. The choux paste is now ready to use.
This recipe makes 10 large puffs. Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line two heavy 14 x 17-inch cookie sheets or two 17 x 11-inch baking sheets with cooking parchment. Using soup spoons, one for picking up the dough and one for pushing it off, shape 5 mounds of choux paste on each sheet spacing them 3 or more inches apart. Try to keep the mounds smooth on top. Dip a finger in water and dab a rough spot to smooth it. Each mound should be about 2 ½ inches across and 1 inch high at its center.
Coat each mound of dough on the second pan lightly with cooking spray and cover loosely with a sheet of plastic wrap. Leave alone until needed.
Bake the first sheet of puffs for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and continue baking another 10 to 15 minutes or until puffs are huge and nicely browned. They'll be about 4 inches across and 2 ½ inches tall. Remove pan from oven and stab the puffs on their sides in two places with a sharp paring knife to allow trapped steam to escape. Allow puffs to cool on the baking pan.
Return the oven temperature to 425 degrees, uncover the sheet of remaining puffs, and bake and cool as before. Here is a sheet with a few unbaked and a baked puff to compare sizes.
With a serrated knife, cut the top third off the puffs and see if the insides have any sheets of soft baked eggy dough.
Scoop out any eggy insides with your fingers or a spoon. The reason for doing this is to remove any moisture that could diminish the crispness of the shells. If there isn't too much of the soft stuff, I usually just leave it alone.
Replace tops and cover puffs until ready to fill and serve.
Here's a puff filled with ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Eat with a knife and fork.
(Broadcast: "The Food Guys," 7/22/12, 6/1/14 and 2/24/19. Listen weekly on the radio at 11:50 a.m. Sundays, or via podcast.)


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Condolences, prayers for Germanwings Flight 4U9525 crash victims
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to the crash site in the French Alps, where a Germanwings Airbus 320 went down with 150 people on board.
« It's a moment of great sorrow, » Merkel said in the wake of Germanwings Flight 4U9525 crash Tuesday morning on its way from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf, Germany.
READ MORE: 150 feared dead in Germanwings 9525 Airbus crash
She said Germany, Spain and France are all in « deep mourning » for the victims of the disaster.
French President Francois Hollande said it was « a tragedy on our soil » and warned it's not likely anyone survived.
Je veux exprimer aux familles des victimes de cet accident aérien toute ma solidarité. C'est un deuil, une tragédie.
— François Hollande (@fhollande) March 24, 2015
(Translation: I want to express my full solidarity to the families of the victims of the air accident. It is a mourning, a tragedy.)
Voir l'article original 816 mots de plus


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Could the King of Radio be making his way to American Idol? It seems so as Howard Stern confirmed on his Sirius Satellite radio show Monday afternoon that he is indeed being considered as a possible replacement for Simon Cowell when American Idol's tenth season begins in 2011.
"There's not a better job on the planet than judging that f—ing karaoke contest," Stern said. "It might be possible, we'll see," he said, adding: "They'd have to pay me a ton of dough because I already make a ton of dough."
This seems even more possible as Howard's five-year, $500 million contract with Sirius expires at the end of this year. So how much does Howard need to replace Cowell? "A $100 million to judge a karaoke contest? Yeah, I would do that show for $100 million," said Stern referring to a Fox news report that Idol would need to match his current salary.
$100 million a year salary however seems highly unlikely as even Cowell was not earning close to that.
Stern also reveals he would no longer do radio if he got the AI job, "If I do say do myself, I can't imagine anyone else but me replacing (Cowell)," Stern said. "I mean, I don't know. How else are they going to make that show work? Who knows how to broadcast and who knows how to be interesting? And who's not afraid to speak their mind?"


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Begin your cloud journey with server virtualization. Moving forward, at your own pace, evolve toward a fully virtualized software-defined data center architecture: virtualize networking, storage and security to create virtual data centers. Simplify the provisioning of IT resources and applications and make them available for consumption in minutes. Complete your private cloud by automating management for optimum performance, capacity utilization and compliance.
Cluster server disks to create radically simple shared storage for virtual machines, enabling a resilient, high-performance scale-out architecture that reduces TCO as much as 50 percent.
Protect your applications with disaster recovery software that provides simple management, non-disruptive testing and fully automated site recovery.
Consolidate servers, improve availability, enhance performance and optimize capacity with the world's leading virtualization platform.
Deliver the operational model of a virtual machine for the network, to transform data center operations and economics.
Build an agile, efficient cloud infrastructure that integrates software-defined services, policy-based self-service provisioning and automated management.
VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi Networks) provides multi-cloud load balancing, web application firewall and application analytics across on-premises data centers and any cloud. The software-defined platform delivers applications consistently across bare metal servers, virtual machines and containers to ensure a fast, scalable, and secure application experience.
Liberate IT services from the complexity and rigidity of specialized hardware. Gain a true cloud-era infrastructure that delivers unmatched business agility, the highest SLAs, simpler operations and lower costs.
Get the simplest, most affordable disaster protection for your virtualized applications, without requiring a duplicate, idle data center. Perform single-step automated recovery in a fraction of the time.
Virtualize your servers, desktops and applications on a platform with data protection and high-availability built in. Simplify backup and recovery, eliminate planned downtime and minimize unplanned downtime.


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An opportunity to meet a true master once in your lifetime is a gift, but to have the opportunity to be taught by one is a blessing from above.
Vladimir's mastery is so profound, it would take a lifetime to unravel.
"Hit Different" is a book that is a reflection of the acuity of Vladimir's knowle..read more >>


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19 February 2015 - Lucca, Italy
Fiat Chrysler Finance and CNH Industrial Finance Choose Tagetik's Corporate Performance Management Software
The solution allows both treasury companies to forecast profit & loss and balance sheets
Tagetik, a visionary leader in global performance management software solutions, today announced that Fiat Chrysler Finance and CNH Industrial Finance, the treasury companies of FCA and CNH Industrial Groups respectively, have chosen Tagetik's corporate performance management (CPM) software solution to manage their financial budgeting processes. The implementation of Tagetik's software will aid in the forecasting of both companies' profit & loss and balance sheets.
"We rely on our accounting and management database to apply both external information as well as key strategic variables to our business. The Tagetik software will allow us to forecast our financial statement using this data and identify specific financial indicators such as average exposure, interests and average rate of each balance sheet, to make more informed decisions," said Giuseppe Novello, manager, processes & IT systems, Fiat Chrysler Finance.
The built-in financial intelligence in the Tagetik corporate performance management solution makes it possible to build profit & loss, balance sheet and cash flow impact right into the planning process. As plans are developed, the financial statement impact is automatically calculated. Since Tagetik is a unified solution, the impact of adding assets or staff and the associated depreciation and costs is immediately reflected in all financial statements.
"We are proud to support the treasury companies of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and CNH Industrial Groups, two of the world's leading brands in the automotive market, in addressingtheir finance needs," added Manuel Vellutini, co-chief executive officer, Tagetik. "Tagetik's expertise to effectively meet the complex needs of the finance function at both companies includes developing detailed forecasts on the economic and financial trends of the business, assessing risks and analyzing alternative market scenarios. We believe this is a testament to ourability to successfully support the complexity and scalability of global organizations."
Request a Demo
Our personalized demo allows you to speak directly with a senior solution specialist and discover the key functionalities of CCH Tagetik.
Would you love to know more about CCH Tagetik?
For more information, please complete the form and a member of our team will reach out to you shortly!


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OX - Smelling Myself [Label Submitted]
1st video off Ox's soon to be released mixtape "DANGER ZONE"
Directed by Action Figure Smij
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In a few years, you could be listening to an album of new songs featuring a duet between Elvis and Kurt Cobain. No, the two never cut a record together, but engineers and computer programmers are getting closer to being able to "resurrect" any singer's voice for use in synthesized songs.
Yamaha's been developing voice synthesizers for years — think Mac's text-to-speech meets AutoTune — under the brand name Vocaloid. But to build a Vocaloid "voice library," a singer typically had to sing every possible syllable, one at a time, in the target language. A computer later would synthesize the fragments into songs.
But now the Vocaloid team has announced that it has succeeded in building a library based on the voice of someone who couldn't participate in the painstaking process: Hitoshi Ueki, a popular Japanese vocalist who died in 2007. The initial results were revealed on a Japanese video-streaming site earlier this year.
"As far as I know, many viewers were satisfied with the result, and so am I," said Yamaha researcher Hideki Kenmochi in an e-mail to Wired.com. "It really sounds like him, because the creator [the programmer in charge of the voice library] did a good job."
If perfected, the technology could result in some very uncanny entertainment, with singers, actors and others whose voices have been extensively recorded seeming to speak from beyond the grave. The "resurrected" voice could be employed anywhere computerized speech is heard, from automated customer service to GPS devices (though Yamaha's mum on where its proof-of-concept technology will end up).
Kenmochi and his team started their ongoing research on Ueki-loid, as the software's informally called, last year. They built a computer that could "listen" to isolated vocal tracks from several songs by Ueki and pick out the individual syllables. From there, it will be relatively simple to use the library to build new tracks.
The technology isn't perfect. Listening to a song created by an English-language Vocaloid, it's often clear that the voice was made by a computer — but there are moments when it's possible to forget. This near-perfection is known as the "uncanny valley" in English, and "the valley of death" in Japanese, according to Jordi Bonada Sanjaume, part of the music technology team that helped develop the original Vocaloid, at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain.
"When you pretend the synthesis sounds like a real person, any small artifact or unnatural subtle sound will make the whole listening experience frustrating, emphasizing that it sounds synthetic," Sanjaume said in an e-mail to Wired.com. "Otherwise, if you 'sell' it as a synthesizer, all those small artifacts or unnatural sounds can be at some point totally ignored during the listening experience, or even wanted and pleasing."
Kenmochi agreed. "Especially in Japan, Vocaloid is not regarded as a substitute for human singing, but a kind of new musical instrument," he said.
The software can't mimic a singer's delivery yet (think whispers, screams or grunts), but Kenmochi told Wired.com that his team is now studying how to tackle that particular problem. They presented initial results last year, "but it will take some years to put into practical use," he said.
Since the English language has many more possible sound combinations than Japanese, it may take longer before "Elvis-loid" is available to the public, but Kenmochi said it will certainly be possible.
The question remains, however, whether that would be desirable. Almost as soon as computers gained the capability to mix and mash up footage, Dirt Devil licensed Fred Astaire clips in order to make him dance with a vacuum cleaner, an advertisement some called one of the worst Super Bowl ads of all time. It's probably a given that if this technology were expanded commercially, someone would get John Lennon's voice to endorse cameras, ice cream or Huggies.
There's also the creep factor.
"I wonder if some people might feel that the singer's spirit has not been resurrected, but only her/his voice, and that they are listening to some kind of zombie," Bonada said. "It may be very natural-sounding, but as creepy as a humanlike android might be."
For the time being, those questions are academic: No other singers have been "brought back" via the Vocaloid technology, and the entire Ueki-loid library won't be released to the public. That said, Kenmochi's group plans to release an album as a showcase of their technology, starring Ueki-loid, sometime in the future.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


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Product FAQs
Windows is automatically installing drivers for my fax modem in Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10. Do I need to do anything?
By default, the drivers for the USB modem are included in Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. When you plug the adapter into your Windows computer system, wait a few minutes while the driver is installed. When the driver is installed, the USB modem appears under Modems in Device Manager.
To open Device Manager, press the Windows key + X and select Device Manager.
If the driver installation is not successfully installed, you can manually install the driver by completing the instructions in the following FAQ: http://www.startech.com/faq/lsi_install_windows_v78.