text:
[font="verdana;"]TRANSFORMERS: ETERNAL CONFLICT[/font]
[font="verdana;"](Discussion topic can be found here)[/font]
Far in the future, in the space between universes, the dark god Unicron lies battered, bruised, and dying. To satisfy his never-ending hunger and hopefully revitalize his body, he begins kidnapping Transformers from all corners of the Mulitiverse and pitting them in gladiatorial combat. These battles give off residual energy that the eater of worlds can absorb, and the defeated lose their sparks to the pit of his stomach. Entire planets are brought from alternate universes to supply this ravenous sport. Primus, Unicron's brother and opposite, takes notice to this and begins assembling his own army, the Children of Primus to free the kidnapped transformers. In retaliation, Unicron forms his own faction, the Minions of Unicron. Battles erupt across entire worlds between these two factions composed of warriors from across the multiverse. However, there are those that do not seek out war.From those who escaped Unicron's bowels and chose not to take sides, a new faction is forged. These Paxitrons ally themselves with the humans and other organic races inhabiting the planets Unicron has taken, giving them weapons to defend themselves and ships to travel across Unicron's pocket dimension.A war is being waged, one for the fate of the entire multiverse. Which side will you choose?
The Zytrix (Zyke)
Axilus Prime
Toa Kaithas
Unicron has created his own star system to sustain the planets he has taken. The star is known as Leviathan, and several worlds from different universes orbit it.
(Map [obviously] not to scale)
Leviathan: A star chosen by Unicron to host his potential meals. About the size and age of Earth's sun.Unicron: The planet-eater himself. Orbits Leviathan in his planet form, and is in turn orbited by two moons that serve as prisons for the bots he has captured. Within him is the gladiatorial arena and the headquarters of the MoU.Earth 1 (G1 IDW Continuity): This Earth is from one of the many continuities collectively referred to as "Generation One." It quickly fell to the Minions once Unicron took it. While a few pockets of civilization still exist, it has been largely abandoned by Humans in favor of Earth 2 and Gigantion.Earth 2 (Aligned Continuity): The government on this planet was largely aware of Cybertronians even before the Universe War, as such, they were well-prepared for the attack that occurred when it was pulled into the pocket universe. It is currently under the control of the Children of Primus and serves as a refuge for humans and bots alike, whether they're aligned with the CoP or the Paxitrons, though the CoP have constructed a headquarters here.Gigantion (Unicron Trilogy Continuity): This world is mostly populated by neutral bots of massive stature (even for Cybertronians) and Mini-Cons that assist in construction and maintenance. It managed to ward off the MoU on its own, but it currently serves as a headquarters for the Paxitrons (the faction originated there, after all) and a refuge for humans and bots that haven't taken sides in the war.Cybertron -1 (Shattered Glass Continuity): This world comes from a strange mirror universe where the Autobots were an evil force that sought to conquer the galaxy and the Decepticons rose as a resistance to stop them. Its inhabitants, mostly Autobots, have allied themselves with the MoU as they share similar goals. A few groups of Decepticons still reside on the planet, but they are few and far between.Cybertron 2 (Aligned Continuity): This world is ravaged by a substance known as Dark Energon that is said to be the blood of Unicron himself. Perhaps this is why it fell so quickly to the MoU. The Decepticons there have joined the Minions.
Generation One: G1 encompasses several micro-continuites, so for the sake of everyone's sanity, they will be divided into the following four:-Wings of Honor: Primus does not exist in this universe. Instead, the Cybertronians were originally machines built by a race known as the Quintessions for slave labor. The Autobots were the workers and the Decepticons were the soldiers. Eventually, they rebelled and took control of Cybertron, the factory planet on which they were all built. Eventually, however, the Autobots and Decepticons found that their ideals clashed, and this disagreement spiraled out of control until a civil war broke out.-Classics/Marvel Comics: In this universe, Primus and Unicron were both created by an extra-dimensional entity known as The One to explore the multiverse. However, it soon became apparent to Primus that Unicron was a corrupt being. While Primus was no match for his brother in combat, he had his advantage in cunning. He trapped both himself and his brother in metallic planetoids. Unicron managed to form his own body into a large, robotic form, while Primus transformed himself into a habitable world: Cybertron. After performing experiments on a nearby planet, during which he successfully created twelve transforming robotic beings that would later be known as The Covenant of Primus, he birthed from the core of his body thirteen beings that could change their shape much like Unicron. These were the Primes, the first thirteen transformers. However, one of these Thirteen, Megatronus Prime, betrayed Primus and became an acolyte of Unicron. This culminated in a battle in which Unicron and Megatronus, now dubbed The Fallen, were thrown into a black hole, never to be seen again.Millenia later, a civil war erupted amongst the Primes' descendants, who parted to form the Autobots and Decepticons.-IDW Comics: The storyline of this universe is very similar to the Marvel Comics timeline. The major difference is that IDW wrote for a more mature target audience, and so, the storyline here is grittier and more modern; Autobots and Decepticons alike die much more frequently, and the plots are more serious (rather than Megatron creating a device to remotely control the Autobots' processors, he creates a railgun and tries to wipe out Autobot City)-Beast Wars/Beast Machines: This timeline takes place in the far future of the Marvel Comics universe. In an effort to conserve energon, the lifeblood of all transformers, they have diminished their bodies to about the size of your average silverback gorilla (this varies between bots, however). The civil war still goes on, but now between the Maximals and Predacons, the descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons, respectively. The civil war ended after Cybertron was transformed into a techno-organic world where the inhabitants took the forms of animals from prehistoric Earth (thanks to Optimus Primal's journey there).Shattered Glass: This is a strange negative-polarity universe where the Autobots, led by the sadistic and evil Optimus Prime, try to conquer Cybertron and the Decepticons, led by the heroic Megatron, rise to stop them. The origin of this universe is unknown, though it most likely diverged from the IDW continuity at a point in the ancient past.Unicron Trilogy (Armada, Energon, Cybertron): There are two notable differences from this continuity and most others: one is the existence of Mini-Cons, a race of miniature transformers that can combine with their larger counterparts for a boost in power and energy. The second is several subtle but fundamental differences in the anatomy of the robots; Sparks are much less fragile and can even be removed and sustained while the body was undergoing repairs or upgrades. The bots were also more bulky in most cases and frequently changed appearance and alternate modes.Movie-verse: Rather than originating from Primus, the bots of this universe were created by an ancient and possibly sentient relic known as the AllSpark. There were seven Primes rather than thirteen, and Cybertron was powered by harvesting the energy of stars with devices known as Star Harvesters. These would be placed on a planet orbiting the chosen star and were activated by a device called the Matrix of Leadership. It would then convert the star's mass and energy into Energon. The one rule for this practice was that a Star Harvester could not be placed on a planet populated with life, sentient or otherwise. However, this rule was broken when The Fallen placed one on Earth. A battle ensued between The Fallen's forces and those of his brothers that ended with The Fallen being sealed in a sarcophagus that was buried on Cybertron and the Matrix being hidden in a tomb composed of the bodies of the Primes themselves.The civil war here was started when the Lord High Protector of Cybertron, Megatron, found the sarcophagus and formed the Decepticons under The Fallen's telepathic will.Bots from this universe feature very intricate designs and are much more violent, whether Autobot or Decepticon.Animated: Unlike the Cybertron of most universes, this universe's Cybertron is controlled by the Autobots, while the Decepticons are scattered across the galaxy. This universe's robots also originate from an AllSpark.In this universe, Autobots never take on flying alternate modes and tend to be less suited for combat than the Decepticons.Aligned: This universe seems to be a merging of all known continuities. Though this universe has an AllSpark of its own, it is merely an extension of Primus's essence and serves as a means of creating more robots via the Well of All Sparks.The civil war in this universe originated from Cybertron's corrupt caste system. Two bots, Orion Pax and Megatron, sought to lift this system in favor of a more balanced government. However, when Orion Pax was renamed Optimus and given the title of Prime, Megatron betrayed the cause and led his Decepticons against Optimus's Autobots.TransTech: Cybertronian society is much more advanced in this universe. It serves as a hub for all other universes, and monitors all trans-dimensional activity. As such, the Universe War is a huge concern for them, but they are still debating over how to intervene.
1. No god-modding. Basically, don't do anything that would be beyond your character's (and the multiverse's) limits, both mental and physical. For example, one Child of Primus isn't going to be able to take down a whole squad of Unicron's Minions.2. Do not bunny (take excessive control of) or kill other characters without the owner's permission. For example: "Bob threw a rock at Joe's foot, killing him."(In this case, Bob would be the offending player's character, while Joe is another player's character.)3. No metagaming. Everything that your character knows IC must be learned in some way. For example, your CoP general isn't going to know the MoU's battle plan unless he has acquired the intelligence somehow.4. This one goes along with #1: No deus ex machina. Basically, don't god-mode to get your character out of a tricky situation. For example, if your character is surrounded by an enemy squad, he/she can't suddenly take off with his/her rocket boots and escape without a single scratch.5. Don't excessively argue with other players. Any debates that last more than 5 posts will be deemed arguments and be forcefully resolved by a staff member.6. Include the phrase "Burning Justice" when posting your profile so I know that you read this.Any rule-breaking will be dealt with like so:First infringement: You are issued a warning by a staff member. Don't do it again.Second infringement: You are warned again and the offending character is dealt a life-threatening injury.Third infringement: The offending character is killed and you are temporarily suspended from the RPG.Fourth infringement: All of your characters are killed and you are given a suspension twice as long as the previous one.Fifth infringement: Permanent ban, no warnings, no questions asked.(Rule #5 is an obvious exception to this)
1. Use IC for speaking in-character and OOC for speaking out-of-character. Example:IC:"One shall stand, one shall fall," Optimus Prime declared.OOC: Decepticon86, that's your cue.2. Don't take anything IC personally. If one player's character seems to not like one of your characters, don't take it as an insult to you.3. Likewise, don't harass other characters IC with the intent of making a given player feel bad.4. LISTEN TO THE STAFF. I cannot stress this enough.
5. Please include IC content in every post you make. Anything OOC-only goes in the Discussion Topic.
To create a character, fill in one of these profile sheets and post it in the topic. A staff member will review it.For a Cybertronian Character:Name: (Calling a character Prime generally entails an important rank, so PM me before posting a Prime)Gender: (Despite being alien robots, Cybertronians can have the characteristics of a certain gender)Faction: (Minions of Unicron, Children of Primus, Paxitrons, etc.)Home Universe: (G1, Aligned, Movie, etc, or maybe an unknown universe, PM me or refer to TFwiki for help on this)Appearance: (A detailed description or image of how your character looks. Bots can vary in size from grasshopper-sized insecticons to giants the size of skyscrapers. No larger for normal PC's, though)Alternate Mode: (Almost all Cybertronians can take on an alternate form, be it a car, jet, or animal)Weapons: (Keep it realistic and not overpowered; no character is going to wield the Star Saber)Personality: (How your character thinks, feels, and acts)Skills/Special Abilities: (Again, keep it realistic)Weakness: (Nobody's invincible)Bio: (A summary of your character's past, preferably more than one sentence long)For Humans:Name: (No nonsense names, like Awesomedude1234 or ASKDFH)Gender: (...Do I really have to explain this?)Faction: (Who do they fight for/align themselves with?)Homeworld: (Please pick a planet inhabited by humans and currently part of the Leviathan system)Appearance: (A detailed description or image of how your character looks)Weapons: (In a war dominated by giant robots, it's a good idea to arm yourself)Other Equipment: (Any other appliance that wouldn't really fit into the category of "weapons")Skills: (Anything your character is good at. May possibly have superpowers, but PM me about it first; I won't accept very many superhumans)Personality: (How your character thinks, feels, and acts)Weakness: (If giant robots aren't invincible, humans probably aren't either)Bio: (A summary of your character's past, preferably more than one sentence long)Other:If you want a custom species that is neither human nor Cybertronian, PM me with a custom profile (you must at least have a detailed description of the species, a name, an appearance, a home world/universe, and a weakness. A bio would be nice, too).
A note on Alignment: If you participated in Transformers: Alignment before it was closed, feel free to use characters from that RPG. Just fill in a profile for them using the above template and list their home universe as Alignment rather than Aligned.
Important NPCs:
Edited by The Zytrix, Mar 26 2013 - 05:11 PM.


text:
Log in
Price: lowest first
Price: highest first
Product Name: A to Z
Product Name: Z to A
In-stock first
Sort by
No products
Cart Check out
All specials
No new products at this time
My wishlists
All best sellers
Fine Taste is a company linked to the import, export and distribution of beverages, food products as well as exhibitors, accessories, equipment and solutions for the Horeca Channel as well as the general public. The service finetaste.pt guarantees the quality, secure payment processing and delivery of products. We only work with quality partners in all paths of this process. Fine Taste offers a wide selection of products at competitive prices through business partners with high quality. The products are ordered from Fine Taste directly to our business partners at no intermediarie costs.The service finetaste.pt is the shortest path between the producer and consumer. We guarantee the quality of service, secure payment processing, billing and satisfactory delivery of products. Drink responsibly. The sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited for people under 18 years. Driving under the influence of alcohol is set offense, punishable as a criminal.
Lojas Online | Alojamento Web | Visual-Fusion
Phone: +351 227 122 373
Fax.: +351 227 132 000
Mobile: +351 913 808 831
e-mail: email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Almost everyone agrees that too much borrowing (aka "leverage") was at the core of the financial crisis and Great Recession. Too many risky loans were made. Where do we stand five years after Lehman Brothers? Well, there's good news and bad. The good is that American households and businesses have cut their debt burdens. The bad news is that in most other countries, they haven't.
The economic implications are plain. If you're devoting more of your income to debt repayment, you're probably spending less at the mall. On paper, Americans' lighter debt burdens suggest a stronger economy. By the same logic, steep debt levels elsewhere may retard the worldwide recovery.
Let's go to the numbers. These come from the McKinsey Global Institute -- the research arm of the consulting firm -- which has been tracking debt in major economies. To measure the relative burden of debts, McKinsey compares them to the country's economy, its gross domestic product (GDP). Here are McKinsey's latest findings for the United States.
Start with households, whose debts consist mostly of home mortgages, credit card loans, and auto and student debt. From year-end 2000 to 2007, household debt almost doubled, from $7 trillion to $13.7 trillion. As a share of GDP, it went from 69 percent to 96 percent. That was the credit bubble inflating. But since 2007, household debt has dropped by nearly $1 trillion to $12.8 trillion. The GDP share has fallen to 80 percent. This was the bubble popping: mortgages defaulting and being written off; or borrowers skimping on spending to repay debts.
Something similar has happened to non-financial businesses -- companies such as IBM, Google and Wal-Mart. True, their debt rose from nearly $11 trillion (77 percent of GDP) in 2007 to $12.9 trillion (81 percent of GDP) in 2013. But these figures overlook the reality that much corporate debt has been refinanced at lower interest rates. As a result, says economist Susan Lund of McKinsey, annual corporate interest payments dropped by nearly $200 billion from 2007 to 2012, from $551 billion to $369 billion. Lower debt and interest rates did the same for households, whose interest payments also fell about $200 billion from 2007 to 2012.
These developments are a plus for the U.S. economy. Consumers are better positioned to spend, and -- if demand strengthens -- businesses are better positioned to invest in new production capacity.
Abroad, the picture is darker. True, private debt in some countries is low or declining. Germany's household debt fell from 73 percent of GDP in 2000 to 58 percent in 2012. Indeed, some economists argue these low debt levels show that Germany's economy depends too heavily on exports and not enough on domestic demand. But Germany is an exception. Many countries have high private debt levels. In Britain, both household and business debts are near 100 percent of GDP. In Canada, household debt is 96 percent of GDP; in Australia, it's 106 percent of GDP. Both these countries, says Lund, might suffer housing bubbles with prices collapsing and defaults increasing. This is already happening in the Netherlands, she says, where household debt reached 125 percent of GDP.
Together, what do these numbers mean for the world economy? Bear in mind three realities.
First, there's no magic debt level -- compared to GDP -- that's just right or too much. The amounts may vary by country. Nations with faster growth can usually bear more debt, which can be repaid from rising incomes. Still, the higher debt goes, the more likely it will reach a tipping point that triggers a broad credit pullback (and higher interest rates) or a full-fledged crisis.
Second, just because U.S. private debt levels have dropped doesn't mean that American consumers and businesses will go on a spending spree. Shaken by the Great Recession, they may reduce debt further or increase savings against future setbacks.
Third, government debt has expanded in most countries. In some, it substituted for contracting private debt. In the United States, government debt (including state and local borrowing) rose from 56 percent of GDP in 2007 to 93 percent in 2013. In Japan, government debt in 2012 was 228 percent of GDP. In Britain, it was 95 percent. So far, financial markets have accepted these high levels without imposing punishing interest rate increases. But despite the talk of too much "austerity," countries will want to restrain large debt increases for fear of a market backlash. The resulting higher taxes or lower spending could dampen growth.
So any deleveraging report card must be maddeningly hedged. An honest grade is: incomplete.
Robert Samuelson is a columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group.


text:
The non-profit the Little Baby Face Foundation is coming to the rescue of children at the mercy of schoolyard bullies—but not in a way you'd expect. Little Baby Face pays for children and teens, who have been bullied because of their appearance, to receive plastic surgery. Nadia Ilse, a 14-year-old girl from Georgia, is one of the teens who has had all of her plastic surgery costs covered by Little Baby Face, CNN reports.
Plus: What Parents Need to Know About Bullying
Nadia had been teased throughout her childhood about the size of her ears. The bullying began in the first grade when another child told her, "You have the biggest ears I've ever seen." She says that before that moment, she had never thought about the size of her ears. "Dumbo" and "elephant ears" are just a few of the names she has been called by bullies throughout her childhood. When Nadia was asked about her worst experience being bullied, she responded, "It happens so many times that it all sort of blends together."
Plus: Teacher Orders Kindergarteners to Hit Bully
At the age of 10, Nadia asked her mother for plastic surgery to pin her ears down. Her mother searched the internet, looking for a way to help her daughter, and found the Little Baby Face Foundation. Little Baby Face brought Nadia and her mother to New York to receive the surgery free of cost, though the operation she received is valued at $40,000.
When Nadia applied to the Little Baby Face Foundation, she asked for her ears to be pinned back. But Dr. Thomas Romo insisted that she would also need to change her chin and nose, to make her face balance her features. Prior to her consultation with Dr. Romo, Nadia had no problem with her nose and chin—but Dr. Romo says that's "because she didn't recognize it."
Plus: In Defense of the Bus Monitor Bullies
Nadia underwent a 4-hour operation to change her face. Her mother understands that the operation alone will not help Nadia's emotional damage from the bullying, so she will also put her in counseling.
When Nadia, saw herself without bandages for the first time since the operation, she said, "I look beautiful. This is exactly what I wanted."
Do you think plastic surgery is a positive answer to bullying? Leave a comment.


text:
Wardrobes & Armoires: Stylish Clothing Storage
Wardrobes are a great way to add storage space to older homes with small closets. You can hang clothes inside, and most have extra shelving for folded items. In addition to being practical, wardrobes can also be a gorgeous centerpiece for a bedroom.
Most American homes built before the 1950's had less closet space because, in general, people owned less clothing. It's hard to believe, but sometimes a couple kept their entire wardrobe in one wardrobe, hence the name. Also, clothes needed to be enclosed in a small space in order to protect the fabric from environmental elements, like moths. However, wardrobes will always serve a purpose for those who live in tight urban quarters. Extra shelving keeps clutter under control and enclosing the clothes behind doors helps maintain a clean aesthetic. The concept of a wardrobe might be old fashioned, but many modern designs are sleek. Below is a selection of stylish wardrobes for many budgets:
• Century Wardrobe, CB2, $699.
• Larissa Screen Door Armoire, Posh Tots $7,425.
• Iannone Design Graphic Armoire, 2Modern, $3,995.
• Bonne Nuit Grand Armoire, Posh Living, $4,800.
• Elga Wardrobe, IKEA, $300. Modular shelving so you can personalize your wardrobe.
• Mirrored Armoire, Neiman Marcus, $1,739. In case you're really low on space, this armoire can double as storage and full length mirror.
• Stanley Young America Ma Marie Armoire, Layla Grayce, $1,929. Pink and french with flourish, this wardrobe is perfect for a feminine look.
• AR-16 Armoire/Media Cabinet, Home Portfolio. This wardrobe is both luxurious and simple.
• Bento Kona Chifforobe, Crate & Barrel, $1,899. Inspired by Japanese design, this practical piece has ample drawer space.
• Wilshire Armoire, The Furniture Domain, $1,529. The perfect addition to any shabby chic decor.


text:
Sapphire HD 5770 and 5750 Review
ATI had just dropped a bomb on the boys in green with the release of the HD 5870 that usurped the single GPU performance crown that nVidia has had a stranglehold on for the last few years and the company has now quickly followed up with the Juniper based HD 5770 and HD 5750 to fill a gap in the price/performance wars. The latest cards form Sapphire are DirectX 11 ready, support Windows 7 and are built on a 40nm fabrication process to both reduce costs and provide lower energy consumption. The HD 5770 features exactly half the stream processors (800), texture units (40) and ROPs(16) that its big brother, the HD 5870, carries into battle. The HD 5750 is built much the same way but the card itself has half the parts of the HD 5850. So just where will these cards fall when it comes time to start fraggin zombies or beginning the move to using your GPU as a computing tool? Based on the specifications, the HD 5770 and HD 5750 should offer up either half the performance of the HD 5870 and HD 5850, respectively. Let's hop to it and find out!
Closer Look:
Both the Sapphire HD 5770 and 5750 continue the packaging theme that we first saw with the HD 5870 just a few short weeks ago. Both feature a different rendition of "Ruby," each with a slightly different look. The same goes for the background but much is similar in the features advertised on the front panel. The 5700 series from Sapphire feature Eyefinity support, onboard HDMI and DisplyPort connectivity, are DX 11 ready, ATI stream Technology to harness the power of the GPU in parallel computing tasks, and of course the cards are both CrossfireX capable. Each card comes with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Both the 5770 and 5750 come with a digital download key for the game Dirt 2, a DirectX 11 title. The rear panel goes into detail on the attributes of the features listed on the front panel. At the bottom of each box is a bit of information that shows that Sapphire is doing its part to reduce its carbon footprint using recyclable materials for the packaging.
Both the 5770 and 5750 come packaged identically, Each box carries a small recyclable icon on the bottom left to promote that fact. Popping the boxes open you have the cards stored in a formed cardboard tray with the accessories in a separate compartment, with the documentation and driver disc on top of the bubble wrapped cards. For reference, the HD 5770 is on the left with the 5750 on the right.
The bundle of accessories allows you to get the most out of the Sapphire HD 5770 and 5750. Both cards come with a manual, driver disc, digital download key for Dirt 2, a CrossfireX bridge connetor, DVI to D-sub adapter and a 4-pin Molex to 6-pin PCI-E power adapter. Where the bundle differs is the inclusion of the ArcSoft SimHD software to make use of the Stream computing capability of the ATI GPU.
Time to pull the cards from their wrappers to see what Sapphire has in store for the public with the HD 5770 and 5750!


text:
Medallion Ball - 11/26/10
More than 100 debutantes in exquisite white ball gowns were presented at the 47th annual Medallion Ball. The ladies were honored at the ceremony by His Excellency The Most Reverend David A. Zubik, Bishop of Pittsburgh, who awarded each candidate a St. Joan of Arc medallion for their outstanding service to the Pittsburgh community. The ladies-in-waiting were required to donate at least 100 hours to a charity of their choice. "The Medallion Ball celebrates volunteer service by girls who have so many other things going on in their lives but still take the time out to help those in need," says Roseanne Wholey, publicity chair for the Ball. "In particular, Claire Gleason and Caroline Walker provided great numbers of volunteer hours with both amassing more than 500 hours," Wholey added. More than 1,200 guests attended the Ball at the Wyndam Hotel Downtown.Read More
Photography by Katelyn Petraitis
Photography by Katelyn Petraitis


text:
UPDATE: Here's the joke that made Mooch throw shade at Boehner.
Here's the real Michelle, elbows on the table, rolling her eyes at John Boehner. What do you suppose the Speaker said to provoke this reaction? (H/T mattyrab)
Look at her shovel that lobster and bison in! Three thousand calories are nothing for Her Royal Wideness, America's Number One self-appointed health, fitness, and nutrition expert!


text:
If you haven't heard, "the next generation of DOES" is finally here. The new Motorola DROID X went on sale nearly ten days ago, ushering in a new area of DROID dominance on Big Red. Though the DROID X has some incredible features, it definitely has its work cut out for it to prove to the world that it can compete with other elite Android smartphones.
Looking at the DROID X for the first time, we're pretty sure that no one will be able to confuse it with any of the new Samsung Galaxy S phones or even the similarly sized HTC EVO 4G. The DROID X has an extremely plain, rugged design that not even a loving mother would be able to call pretty. The front of the phone features the large 4.3 inch WVGA (480 x 854) display with four physical buttons (menu, home, back, and search) and voice mic right below it. Above the screen is the speaker, ambient light and proximity sensor. Along the right side you'll find the volume toggle and red camera button and along the left are the micro HDMI and USB connections. The top of the DROID X houses the power button, 3.5mm headphone jack, and noise cancellation mic. Flipping the handset over reveals the battery panel, speakerphone speaker, a third microphone for video recording, and the 8MP camera (capable of 720p video recording) and dual LED flash.
Those of you who have been following Android for a while might be familiar with the "chin" concept that HTC has used on their phones. While the DRODI X doesn't really have a chin, it does feature a prominent protrusion on the back of the phone where the camera is located. We're not exactly sure why Motorola chose to add this extra bulge, but we are inclined to conclude that they did so in order to fit in the necessary optics for the camera.
On the inside of the phone, the DROID X features a 1GHz TI OMAP3630 processor with a dedicated GPU. While 1GHz processors aren't anything new, this is the first one we have seen from Texas Instruments on the OMAP3 platform. To give you an idea of how it stacks up against the 1GHz Snapdragon processor on the Nexus One, Linpack tests show that the DROID X yields 8 MFLOPS, about double of what the Nexus One can pull of running Android 2.1. For a more detailed look at how the DROID X's performance stacks up against the competition, you'll definitely want to check out our benchmark comparison post from last week.
Like most of the new phones hitting the streets these days, the Motorola DROID X is running on Android 2.1. There's been talk about an update to Android 2.2 sometime this summer, but we don't really expect the update to hit the phone until the last week of the quarter. While many of you may be familiar with Android 2.1, the DROID X is the first phone from Motorola to feature their enhanced version of MotoBLUR. We're pretty sure that Motorola and Verizon are probably not too happy that we're calling the custom UI by that name, but the fact remains that it accomplished the same social media integration we have seen from MotoBLUR in the past, but has a new refined look.
The cheesy blue and green contacts and phone icons next to the app drawer have been replaced with simple white icons. All the widgets have been given a facelift and most now have the ability to be re-sized right from the home screen. HTC Sense does give users the ability to choose various sizes for the dozens of widgets that they offer, but on the DROID X, users can simply re-size the widgets when they are moved. The best part about the widget resizing is that if you re-size one and it goes over another widget or application icon, the UI simply moves things about (sometime to another screen) in order to accommodate your change.
Like other manufacturers, Motorola has pre-loaded the new SWYPE keyboard onto the DROID X. But rather than loading SWYPE and calling it a day, Motorola has also developed their own new multi-touch keyboard, a first for Android. The new keyboard allows the phone to recognize multiple inputs at once, which reducing errors for those who type fast on the touch screen. A few unscientific tests showed that the multi-touch keyboard is quite a bit more accurate than Android's standard keyboard, which allows users to type significantly faster. My wife actually stated that she would give up SWYPE on her Nexus One if I would find a way to port the DROID X's multi-touch keyboard to her phone.
Like most of Motorola's other phones that feature MotoBLUR, most of the stock Android apps on the DROID X have been modified. The customizations are not too horrendous, but those who prefer stock Android will most likely want to pick up the phone and smash it on a rock. MotoBLUR did add some nice enhancements to Android when it was introduced last year on Android 1.5. Unfortunately, the custom applications actually seem to dumb down or even remove some of the functionality of Android 2.1.
Fortunately, the DROID X features DLNA support, a feature that Google still has not implemented in stock Android. With DLNA support, the DROID X is able to stream music, pictures, and videos to other DLNA capable devices on the same Wi-Fi network. Users simply need to walk through the media sharing options in the Media Share app once they are connected to a Wi-Fi network. Streaming media to my PC and PS3 worked flawlessly when hooked up to my home network. The DROID X can also access media on other devices through DLNA. Opening the DLNA and clicking the "Play Media" button allows you to browser through share media files on other devices on your Wi-Fi network.
While the DROID X does feature a micro HDMI connection which allows you to directly connect your phone to your fancy LCD or PLASMA TV, the functionality is limited. Currently, HDMI output is limited to video and picture files and you'll have to pony up some extra cash for the cable as well. In our opinion, the DLNA connectivity almost makes the HDMI connection obsolete.
If the design or software build have not impressed you yet, we would like to take a few minutes to give you our thoughts on the camera. Like most other top of the line Android phones, the DROID X features an 8MP camera with dual LED flash and the ability to record 720p HD video. Neither of these two features are anything new, but Motorola has definitely invested the time and money into this handset to make it stand apart from the competition.
Image quality on the DROID X is superb. Phones like the DROID Incredible and EVO 4G take some pretty nice pictures, but the DROID X seems to capture the correct color tones while producing some incredibly sharp images. Motorola has included the typical camera effects (black and white, negative, sepia, and such) but they went out of their way to add special picture modes for self portraits, panoramic images, and multi-shots.
- Self portrait: uses facial recognition to make sure the image is centered
- Panorama assist: select which direction you are going to pan to and simply take the first picture. Pan left, right, up, or down and the phone will been and take the next shot
- Multi-shot: camera switches to 1MP resolution, but is able to take six sequential images in less than two seconds. Great feature for capturing action shots.
Currently, the DROID X, EVO 4G and the Galaxy S family of phones are the only Android phones to officially support 720p video recording. While the EVO does an OK job for being a phone, the video quality produced by the DROID X is far superior. The X also includes some pretty neat features like slow motion and fast motion video recording, essentially increasing or reducing the frame-rate of the recording you make to achieve the effect.
Knowing that users would be taking advantage of the DROID X's video recording capabilities, Motorola has added an extra microphone to the back side of the handset. Users can select various audio options to use the mic that's facing their subject or the one on the front for dictation. It may not sound that impressive, but if you compare audio quality from two different handsets, you'll definitely notice a difference.
Battery Life
The Motorola DROID X is definitely a feature rich handset. More features equals more use from handset owner. More use equals faster battery drain. With that in mind, Motorola has chosen to equip the DROID X with a massive 1540mAh lithium-ion battery. With heavy use, the X can typically make it at least 12 hours between charges. While this may not seem like much, it should be enough to get you through a whole day's worth of work. We did find that the DROID X does fair extremely well during low use. During our time with the phone we were actually able to use the handset intermittently for three days before the battery completely died on us.
As with most other Android phones, we would definitely suggest picking up an extra charger for the office or for the car just to make sure you have enough power at the end of the day.


text:
TIBCO's ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks Emerges Winner In SOA TCO Study by PushToTest
- Share
- |
Read later
Reading List
PushToTest, makers of the TestMaker open source test tool, announced the results of a research study that evaluates and compares the total cost of ownership of SOA development and deployment solutions from IBM, Oracle and TIBCO in a paper titled "The Composition Approach for Large-Scale SOA", which is part of the revised soa knowledge kit. TIBCO was declared the leading solution on multiple aspects including total cost of ownership. InfoQ spoke with Frank Cohen, CEO and Founder of PushToTest, on the underlying mechanics of the study.
InfoQ: What is the motivation to perform a TCO study on SOA stacks and offer support on a kit of collaterals for the community?
As a community leader in the IT industry I keep looking for an expert source that provides software architects and developers with a way to understand SOA development platforms for interoperability, developer productivity and performance. PushToTest is working for medium and large organizations to define a standard SOA application blueprint to surface interoperability, performance and deliver problems. Adoption of these practices will help PushToTest profitably deliver the knowledge, test tools like TestMaker, and support services to organizations. The SOA Knowledge Kit is the defacto standard at Best Buy, PepsiCo, Deloitte, and 30 other companies.
By urging the standards bodies (OMG, OASIS, W3C, IETF) to adopt these practices I hope to help the IT industry to deliver a more reliable world. PushToTest's work on the Kit appears in the OASIS SOA Blueprints project. http://tinyurl.com/85tsbal. We maintain that work and others.
We initially published the SOA Knowledge Kit in 2008. I chose the Oracle, IBM, and TIBCO stacks since they provide SOA development and deployment platforms. In 2009 we added JBoss to the Kit. We hope to add other SOA platforms, including Mule, in the near future. The current work updates the Kit to the latest versions: IBM WebSphere Integration Developer V7.0, TIBCO ActiveMatrix SOA Product Suite 3.13, and Oracle SOA Suite 11gR1 (188.8.131.52.0).
InfoQ: What was the team composition on this project? Can you tell us the average engineer's prior experience with each of the stacks and with web services development and orchestration in general?
PushToTest used 2 engineering teams to implement the SOA Knowledge Kit. Each team has 1 architect with 5-8 years of experience building SOA, Rich Internet Applications (RIA, using Ajax, Flex, Flash,) and Web applications, 2 engineers with 5 years of Java coding experience, and 1 project manager. The engineers have experience writing EJB's, SOAP and REST-based service interfaces, mediation, orchestration, and workflow. Team A implemented the Oracle and TIBCO projects. Team B implemented the IBM project. It took approximately 3-4 weeks to implement the use case for each stack.
InfoQ: Were the same service patterns used to design and implement services on all the stacks? Can you describe some challenges that were faced with implementing certain service patterns on the individual stacks?
PushToTest defined a use case for a typical manufacturing organization. We implemented the use case on TIBCO, Oracle, and IBM stacks. We then made changes to the implementation: added HTTPS/SSL security, changed the message schema, and changed to an asynchronous message delivery transport. We ran a functional test and a performance and scalability test of the finished work. We document the use case and the developer's experiences and publish everything under a free open source software GPL v2 license.
The manufacturing scenario use case implements a 3-step business flow.
1) The Allocate Purchase Order (PO) process opens a new PO. The implementation provides a method through a SOAP interface accessed over HTTP protocols.
2) Reserve Parts using a service for warehouse just-in-time inventory control to reserve portions of the inventory to meet the delivery needs defined in the purchase order. This is a Spring and Data Access Object (DAO) service that receives a REST-encoded request over a JMS service interface. The message conforms to the inventory control service's XML message schema. We used the OAGIS organization's Business Object Document (BOD) schema. A Web page with Ajax elements provides a human interface to request the service.
3) Price Purchase Order - uses a service to assign a price point to the purchase order based on the current price catalog. The system prices products by simulating business functions on an SAP installation and accessed through a simulation of SAP NetWeaver's SOAP Web Service interface and security credential system. We built mock SOAP services using soapUI.
The engineers kept a Developer Journal of their experience on each stack. Each Journal is 60-80 pages long. The Journal contains our software engineer's instructions, comments, and opinions to accomplish the use case implementation step-by-step. The Developer Journals describe significant challenges on each stack and workarounds/solutions.
At a high level we found the following challenges implementing certain service patterns on the individual stacks:
Oracle's stack provides quick solution creation for engineers. Everything in the Oracle stack requires a code dive and manual adjustments to deployment descriptors, classpaths, and general configuration. Oracle's tools are for developers - not for architects and business analysts. There is little or no model driven approach to designing, building, and deploying SOA applications in Oracle.
For engineers identifying the tools for the task using only the Oracle web site was easy. Oracle's Quick Start Guide is straight forward and useful.
Nothing worked out-of-the-box. Everything required community support (especially of the BEA components.) Most solutions came from workarounds found by third parties. For example, we found many tutorials on Web Service creation on the Oracle site. The one we chose failed. http://st-curriculum.oracle.com/obe/jdev/obe11jdev/ps1/webservices/ws.html#t5. We found soapUI web service mocks can not be called from Oracle. JDeveloper throws a WebServiceException: Error creating model from WSDL. We document this in the Developer Journal.
Other times we found multiple tutorials, some worked and others did not. For example, we found a tutorial on building asynchronous services at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/web.1111/e15184/asynch.htm#CBHECBFG. We used annotations that are not available on the app server: @AsyncWebService and @PortableWebService tags.
The IBM stack is several big platforms integrated together: WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Integration Developer (WID,) Rational Application Developer (RAD,) and WebSphere Process Server (WPS.) IBM RAD is a 6 G download alone. The platforms have version issues: WID 7.0 requires WAS 7.0 and RAD 8.0.3 requires WAS 8.0.3. You wind-up having to install multiple versions of WAS to make their SOA stack work. The parts are enormous and often don't play well together. For example, WebSphere Integration Developer (WID) gave us broken WSDL document output.
We encountered many situations where we could not get 'there' from 'here.' For example, we could not create a client for a service we built in WPS. WID refactoring could not handle simple changes to namespace, name, and schema values. WID created corrupt WSDLS. RAD does not have the capability to develop business processes. And, integration and process development happen in different tools: WID and WPS.
The TIBCO SOA stack consists of modeling tools, component development tools, and service grid deployment: ActiveMatrix Service Grid 3.13, BusinessWorks 5.9.2, Enterprise Message Service EMS 6.0.1, Rendezvous RV 8.1, and BusinessWorks Studio (BS.)
The tools are model oriented. They keep a better control of code and abstract away the underlying technologies. There is no need to look at code, just models with SOA Concepts. This is great news for developers because they now have common tools to work with business managers and software architects to model the service interfaces and workflow.
Code oriented developers without SOA knowledge will have a steep learning curve. The documentation is abundant and quite good. Finding the right guide is hard. The surface-level documentation on the TIBCO Web site often describes the functionality rather than showing how to do things. The modeling language is a proprietary one, reducing intuitiveness. BW Studio is an Eclipse Based IDE that will be familiar to many developers. Some concepts will be new, such as Aysnchronous Services using JMS where some code oriented developers would expect to use Message Driven Beans (MDB.) And, mediation flow was required to implement asynchronous services.
InfoQ: Can you shed some light on the functional and performance testing methodology for the SOA app?
We applied Agile software development practices when building the Kit. We paired our developers with testers and created unit tests as we built the services. Some unit tests were Java JUnit tests that made class/method calls to object interfaces. Other tests were soapUI TestSuites that made SOAP and REST calls to services. We used PushToTest TestMaker to repurpose the tests as functional tests and load and performance tests. TestMaker deploys the tests to a grid of test servers in a QA lab and also to a cloud computing environment (Amazon EC2, GoGrid, Collabnet, and Rackspace.) TestMaker produces a set of reports showing the root cause to functional issues and performance bottlenecks.
The SOA Knowledge Kit comes with the tests we implemented and a copy of PushToTest TestMaker. Rather than publish the performance results based on our available hardware, we deliver the ability for anyone to run the tests in their own environment to prove out the performance differences between each of the SOA stacks in their own data centers.
InfoQ: Can you share some details on the TCO model that was computed from development effort?
did a time/motion analysis of each step of the services lifecycle to reveal the amount of time and effort required to build, integrate, deploy and manage a range of services needed to assemble a composite application. The goal of the study is to compare the cost savings that can be achieved through greater developer productivity resulting in significantly reduced TCO. The TCO model is a Open Office/MS Excel spreadsheet that assigns costs to each step of the Kits development. The model comes with the Kit.
In side-by-side product implementations, TIBCO ActiveMatrix and BusinessWorks provided the greatest productivity savings. TIBCO took 29 percent less time and development costs compared to Oracle. TIBCO took 22 percent less compared to IBM.
InfoQ: Did you utilize SOA infrastructure capability such as repositories, ESBs and other intermediaries from individual vendors as prescribed? Can you describe some of the high level details?
We followed the published best practices from each of the stack vendors, including use of their repositories, ESBs, and mediation services. For IBM that meant using: WebSphere Application Server v8.0.3, IBM Rational Application Developer V8.0.3 Multiplatform Multilingual, IBM Websphere Integration Developer V7.0, IBM Websphere Application Server V7.0 Multiplatform Multilingual, and IBM Websphere test environment. For Oracle that meant using: Oracle SOA Suite 11gR1 (188.8.131.52.0), Oracle Database XE 10g 10.2.0.1, Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.5, Coherence, OEPE, Repository Creation Utility 22.214.171.124.0, SOA Suite 184.108.40.206.0 (2 parts), JDeveloper 188.8.131.52, and Oracle Service Bus 126.96.36.199.0. And for TIBCO that meant: ActiveMatrix Service Grid 3.13, BusinessWorks 5.9.2, Enterprise Message Service EMS 6.0.1, Rendezvous RV 8.1, TIBCO Runtime Agent 5.7.1, ActiveMatrix Sample Examples BWSE 5.9.2, Business Studio (BS) VS, and Designer Design Time DABS 1.3.1.
InfoQ: What is the support plan for future versions of SOA stack solutions from the three vendors: IBM, TIBCO and Oracle?
We plan to refresh the Kit for the Oracle, TIBCO and IBM stacks in 2012. That will give them some more time to make major new releases. We are looking for the developer community feedback to identify the additional stacks to add to the Kit. For example, we would like to add Microsoft stacks (maybe BizTalk Server, ASP.net,) and more open source software projects. Please let us know.
The SOA Knowledge Kit is available for free download at http://soakit.pushtotest.com
Rate this Article
Hello stranger!You need to Register an InfoQ account or Login or login to post comments. But there's so much more behind being registered.
Get the most out of the InfoQ experience.
Tell us what you think
SOA nrrd
The report quoted here is from February 2008. However, this article makes it seem like something that PushToTest has recently released. Please post the latest one or do not link to such an old report!!
Re: Report
Rajeev Kozhikkattuthodi
Disclaimer: I work for TIBCO Software, one of the vendors evaluated in the Push To Test study
Re: Report
Frank Cohen
PushToTest released a refresh of the SOA Knowledge Kit last week with updates to the latest platforms from IBM, TIBCO, and Oracle. It's entirely new and updated. The white paper I wrote on the Composition Approach To Scalable Systems is from the original 2008 report because it still applies to SOA development today.
The URL for the kit is soakit.pushtotest.com
Re: Report
Frank Cohen
Clarifications on conclusions around IBM stack used
Andy Piper
In the slide deck you published on Slideshare you made a number of assertions about your teams' use of the WebSphere products. In particular I'm baffled as to why you chose to use both WebSphere Process Server 7.0 and WebSphere Application Server 8.0 when WPS is a superset of WAS and could easily have run any service logic you decided to deploy to a separate WAS instance. There was no real reason (that I can see) for using different versions.
In this article you also repeat the statement that
integration and process development happen in different tools: WID and WPS.
That's really not correct. WebSphere Integration Developer (WID) is an IDE for developing WebSphere applications and business processes (NB it can now be combined with WebSphere Lombardi in the BPM 7.5 product which you don't appear to have used). WPS is an application and process runtime. The two, WID+WPS, work together and are not intended to be "different tools". You can't develop anything in WPS, you develop in WID and deploy to WPS.
In the list of products at the end of this interview you go on to omit WPS altogether!
Needless to say, whilst I'm surprised by your conclusions I really cannot comment on offerings from other vendors. However, I would point out that there appear to be misunderstandings of the IBM stack here, and that may well significantly skew the results.
Re: Clarifications on conclusions around IBM stack used
Frank Cohen
Thanks for your feedback. Even though you say this is not your area of expertise I appreciate your effort and comment.
Our method had a small team of engineers with a background in Web, App, SOA, and BPM implement a use case on the IBM platform. We turned them loose on the IBM.com site and using Google to find community and third party sites supporting IBM platform. We told them: No hand-holding from the platform providers. You can only use solutions you find from published publicly available information.
In this case the developers chose RAD as their first option and reported all the challenges that they encountered with that. As you point out there are other ways, including development through WID or avoiding preferrence through it. Had they chosen to do the development through WID you would have had another set of entries in the Developer Journal on pros and cons. There is one path that one developer needs to pick.
Your feedback to the SOA Knowledge Kit is welcome as a subjective opinion on the Kit and shows a different point of view are there before starting any development. Also, the Kit highlights challenges met for work performed on WID.
We distribute the Kit under an Open Source Software license to encourage you to do your own implementation. The effort will show on a level playing field how your work supports IBM's claims to being the best for developer productivity and performance.
Lastly, I wish we could have done this on WebSphere Lombardi 7.5. It was not available a few months ago when we started this project. Would you be interested in implementing the Kit's use case on 7.5? I would be happy to work with you and certify the results.


text:
Get Waves Tune LT FREE When you Buy sE2200a II or USB 2200a Mic
Get a FREE copy of Waves Tune LT!
From the 20th July 2012 when you purchase one of the following sE Elecrtronics microphone's you can get Waves Tune LT FREE.
This offer will be available throughout the Summer, and all you have to to to get your freebie is register your new sE Microphone and email simply register your microphone and e-mail email@example.com with the subject "FREE Waves Tune LT".
Please Make Sure That...
- You have actually registered your microphone
- You email firstname.lastname@example.com with the following information:
- - Your full name
- - The name of the microphone you have purchased
- - The name of the retailer you bought it from
You will be sent the acclaimed Waves Tune LT (worth £100) electronically within 24 hours. Please note that Sonic Distribution is closed over the weekend so applications sent on Friday afternoons will be processed on the following Monday.
Already Bought One?
Don't worry, because if you have already purchased the sE2200a II Cardioid Microphone or sE2200a II Multi-Pattern Microphone from an authorised sE UK retailer, you can still claim your FREE Waves Tune LT retrospectively. This promotion will end Friday 24th August at Midday.
For more information about this offer please call us on 0800 815 0888
Links: Waves Tune LT, sE2200a II Cardioid, sE 2200a II Multi-Pattern, USB2200a, sE Product Registration.
Related Products
SE Electronics 2200a II Cardioid Condenser Microphone
Condenser mics are versatile tools in the recording studio, even if you're just setting up a homeproject studio: they are great for micing acoustic instruments, vocals and even guitar amps. The sE Electronics sE2200a II is a great value mic that'l help you to achieve great results! sE Electronics sE2200a II Cardioid Features 2012 update and replacement to the…
Web Price:169.00
Availability:Call 0844 815 0888
SE Electronics 2200A MKII Multi Pattern Condenser Microphone
sE2200a Mk II Main Features and Specs Frequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz Sensitivity at 1 kHz into 1 k ohm: 20 mV/PA Directional Pattern: Cardioid, Omni, Figure-8 Impedance: ¡Ü 200 Ohms Equivalent Noise Level: 16dBA Max SPL for THD 0.5% *: 135dB Supply Voltage: Phantom power 48V¡À4V Connector (Matching): XLR (XLR3F) Weight: 598g…
Web Price:179.00
Availability:Call 0844 815 0888
SE Electronics USB2200A
Based on the studio standard sE2200a, the USB2200a records via USB directly to your DAW and has several features unique from competitor USB mics including, zero latency headphone monitoring, mix control playback/record path, 10dB pad, bass cut and simultaneous analogue/USB feeds. The USB2200a also has a proprietary chip and software set which deals with capsule noise when transforming…
Web Price:199.00
Availability:Call 0844 815 0888


text:
Pass the Dramamine.
Even though it is the stuff of life, water sometimes does strange things to
people. I remember one time when a friend of mine spent the majority of a catamaran
cruise leaning over the rail doing his best imitation of a cat hurling up hairballs.
It wasn't pretty.
I've never been one to get queasy on water, but I think I learned how thanks
to the nauseating ride that is Wave Rally.
Strangely enough, Eidos' new jet ski racer is the very first game to give
me what amounts to motion sickness. After playing for just a half-hour or so,
my head began to hurt and my eyes felt like they were going to pop out. I wish
I could say that it was fun while it lasted, but well, I can't.
The play modes are nothing new. There's Arcade, Championship, and Time Trial,
all of which are pretty self-explanatory. There's also a Freestyle mode where
you do as many tricks as you can in two minutes and a skeletal Versus mode which
only allows you to race head to head.
Interestingly enough, Wave Rally is the first game I've seen to allow
you to race Runabouts (sit down watercraft) as well as the normal jet skis.
It would have been a cool feature if the game were easier to handle, but as
it stands it just doesn't feel very different than the normal skis.
The basic gameplay of Wave Rally is very similar to the GameCube's
Wave Race: Blue Storm.
You plow through various courses as quickly as possible, making sure to pass
buoys on the correct side. Miss one, and your craft will lose power for a few
moments. Miss too many (between 3 and 5, depending on difficulty) and you'll
be disqualified.
Strangely absent is any kind of turbo boost. You could do it in Wave Race
and you could do it in Splashdown,
but you can't do it here. Even doing tricks or leaning back a little doesn't
seem to help you go faster at all. It may be more "realistic," but it sure isn't
as fun.
The trick system is much more complicated than any of the other jet ski racing
games but doesn't work as well. I hope your fighting game skill is formidable,
because you'll have to pull some crazy Street Fighter combos like Circle,
Down, Left, Up to do interesting things. Make sure to keep that manual handy.
Control is kind of wily as well. It's much more difficult than the other two
games with much less emphasis on holding down the throttle. Similar to an auto
racing sim, you'll really need to find good lines in order to stand a chance
against the computer controlled players.
Wave Rally's headlining features are "ultra-realistic water and real-time
variable waves." This technology attempts to simulate wave physics as well as
the visual distortion of things below the surface of the water. If you look
at the water before you start moving, it's great. The wave effects are actually
pretty good and the water reflection looks kind of neat. But once you start
moving, all you see is a very lame looking wake, some transparent waves, and
a screen that shakes so much you get a headache.
of the shaking problem lies with the game's fixed camera. If it was fixed on
the horizon, things would be fine and you'd just be watching your racer bounce
over the waves. Instead, the third-person cam is fixed on the player and bounces
each and every time you hit a wave. And being a "wave oriented" game, this
happens every second that you play. There's also a first-person view, but you
can't see what you're doing at all. The incessant bouncing might make your eyeballs
The rest of the game looks okay when you're stopped, but all of the bouncing
around makes everything in the distance look like one big blur. It's too bad,
because I bet there are some decent background out there somewhere.
The courses seem interesting enough with some shortcuts for you to discover,
but again, it's tough to really see what's going on with all the bouncing. Did
I mention my head still hurts?
For the most part, the sound is okay. You won't really hear much of it at
the default levels, but just know that the majority of it is some inoffensive
drum 'n bass. The only problem I have is the very lame remix of 2 Bad Mice's
Bombscare. A classic has been tarnished.
When it comes to wave racing on the PS2, Wave Rally is sunk. It's got
some nice waves, but a bad camera, tough controls, and some unsatisfying gameplay
cause an evil tsunami of massive proportions.


text:
Chicagoans take their coffee seriously, and not just when they're drinking it.
"For a long time in Chicago, coffee shops were split into two camps," said Zaida Dedolph of HalfWit Coffee Roasters. "Ones that served Intelligentsia, and ones that served Metropolis."
While some pledge unyielding allegiance toward one of the city's two big-name roasters, a number of more modest, small-batch operations opening over the past few years have brought even more richness to the local coffee-roasting community. That, coupled with existing roasters opening—or planning to open—new locations, means a cup of coffee made from beans roasted within city limits is easier to find than ever.
"There is so much room for growth in Chicago," said Chris Chacko, founder of Sparrow Coffee Roastery, which opened its facility last year in the West Loop and now roasts coffee for more than 80 restaurants, including fine-dining destinations such as Grace and El Ideas. He's also actively looking for a retail space. "I really want to see Chicago like another Portland," he said.
It's clear coffee drinkers are embracing the perks of both Chicago's established roasters and artisanal newbies. The numbers speak for themselves.
A Chicago original that has spread to New York City and Los Angeles since its 1995 inception, Intelligentsia opened a Logan Square coffee bar in April and plans another for Old Town in June.
Think you go through a ton of coffee? Metropolis Coffee Company is on track to roast 800,000 pounds of beans this year -- that's more than 2,100 pounds. per day. The company's plans for a Midway location are on hold, pending the airport's privatization.
Every roaster has to start somewhere. Four years ago, Tim Coonan started planning his roasts for Big Shoulders Coffee, experimenting with 12-ounce batches he roasted on his stovetop. Now his West Town cafe sells more than 1,000 pounds every week.
Since opening in 2011, Joshua Millman of Passion House Coffee Roasters has watched his reputation and his beans spread throughout Chicago, with his roasts now available in approximately 40 locations around the city.
Sharing is caring for some roasters. In March 2012, HalfWit Coffee Roasters started humbly, roasting 140-gram batches of coffee in an employee's kitchen. Now, they share a space in Logan Square with 8-month-old Gaslight Coffee Roasters, where their 12-kilo roaster has helped them land their beans in four cities (with a fifth on the way).
Though Asado Coffee Company has maintained only one coffee shop since its 2009 opening, it plans to add two more locations by the end of 2014. A West Town location at 1651 W. Chicago Ave. will open later this year, with another to follow next year in the Loop's Pickwick Stable building at 22 E. Jackson Blvd.
Year-old Lakeview outfit Bow Truss Coffee Roasters expanded its reach earlier this year by opening a new location in River North. With 14 seats, it's designed more for grab-and-go than camping out for the afternoon.
If your brewing skills stop with popping in a fresh K-cup, Ipsento Coffee House wants to help you step up your game. The cafe hosts regular Coffee 101 classes that teach you how to choose better beans and brew like the pros. The frequently-sold-out 2-hour classes host 8 people each.
Later this year, Bridgeport Coffee will branch out from the neighborhood from which it takes its name. The coffeehouse will expand into the Roosevelt Collection development in the South Loop, occupying a new, 850-square-foot location.
Dark Matter Coffee wants to bring coffee lovers closer to where it all begins, but just a few at a time. The owners recently opened a coffee bar located inside its Ukrainian Village roasting facility with an ultra-exclusive seating capacity of four.
Finding your favorite blend takes experimentation, and lots of it. Beverly Bakery and Coffee Roasters offers 26 different types of coffee, making the choice significantly more complicated than "regular or decaf."
Coffee flavors are strongly affected by the conditions in which the beans grow. Just ask Stefan Hersh of Buzz Artisanal Coffee Roaster, who has been roasting for Buzz since 2011 and sources beans from more than 12 locales around the world.
Small-batch coffee roasting is steadily gaining popularity, but some local artisans are ahead of their time: The Coffee & Tea Exchange in Lakeview, family-owned since its inception, opened in 1975 and has been roasting daily ever since.
Sparrow Coffee Roastery is focused on making the roasting process as earth-friendly as possible. Owner Chris Chacko reports that the operation uses one-fifth the natural gas as a typical roastery of the same size, thanks to an eco-friendly coffee roaster that operates without an energy-hogging afterburner.
It takes more than coffee to make a cafe. The mural in University Village's Demitasse Coffee, hand-painted by international mural artist Joel Bergner, took 2 months to complete in 2001. He spent at least four days per week on the mural, which was the first of his career; if redone today, he estimates that it would take as little as one day to paint one of comparable size.
Why is locally roasted coffee booming?
"People don't want to think of coffee as something corporate, but as more of a style choice. Choosing a specialty coffee can make you seem more discerning." --Stephen Morrissey, director of marketing and communications for Intelligentsia
"For a long time, coffee was just considered a commodity. It wasn't a special thing or a treat, it was something you had in your cupboard ... Now people are more conscious of environmental and global issues of food production. It's easy to think of Joe the farmer down the street with his pitchfork, growing carrots. He's local, he's part of the community. It's harder to relate to coffee, but we're trying to get people to think of a larger global community." --Zaida Dedolph, director of operations of Time Bandits LLC, which operates HalfWit Coffee and The Wormhole
"People want to have more say in where their money goes. There's a market for well-done crafts, whatever they might be. People are just more thoughtful about consumption." --Tim Coonan, owner of Big Shoulders
How much influence does the roaster have over the quality of the coffee?
"There's nothing a roaster can do to make coffee better. That's determined much earlier, by the farms and the farmers." --Stephen Morrissey, Intelligentsia
"You can have an OK green coffee and roast it to be a great coffee. It's all about figuring out what it takes to draw out the best in it ... it's a little bit of science and a little bit of magic." --Zaida Dedolph, Time Bandits LLC
"You can go buy the best beans, but ... without a quality roaster, not only the equipment, but the person who stands behind it, you're not going to be able to pull the flavors out of it. More people are beginning to realize that there are more layers of flavor to coffee and that it can be like a fine brandy or wine ... if the layperson can't taste those nuances, then the roaster did something wrong." –Chris Chacko, founder of Sparrow Coffee Roastery
"It depends on the quality of the beans when they leave the farm, but it's also the roaster's job to bring out the right flavors. If you roast the bean right, you can turn any coffee bean into a really great cup of coffee. You just have to know the right technique." --Jessica Shaver, Asado Coffee Company
How competitive is the coffee industry?
"It can be challenging. At the same time, though, the more coffee roasters there are, the more people are educated about coffee, and the more people want a better cup of coffee. And that's good for everyone." --Joshua Millman, owner of Passion House
"When you try to explain why a cup of coffee is special, it can be really difficult. It's still served in a paper cup for three dollars. So it can seem really pretentious and disingenuous. ...When you only have a few people making that argument, it's hard. When you have more and more people making that argument, it's a good thing." --Stephen Morrissey, Intelligentsia
How do you educate people about coffee?
"While we take it seriously, how we make it, how we brew it, we want to downplay that. I don't want to participate in the sort of drama that can happen so easily with coffee. We have to remember: It's just a cup of coffee." --Tim Coonan, Big Shoulders
"If you cover it up with sugar or flavored syrups, you're not going to taste the bean. We don't do that here, and I don't know why people think of that as snobby, because really, it's for their benefit. If they're getting a coffee drink, we want it to be the best coffee drink they can get." --Jessica Shaver, Asado Coffee Company
Tom VanBuren is a RedEye special contributor. Additional reporting by Lisa Arnett. firstname.lastname@example.com| @redeyeeatdrink


text:
|View Poll Results: Kanon - 2006 - Episode 5 Rating
|Perfect 10
|9 out of 10 : Excellent
|8 out of 10 : Very Good
|7 out of 10 : Good
|6 out of 10 : Average
|5 out of 10 : Below Average
|4 out of 10 : Poor
|3 out of 10 : Bad
|2 out of 10 : Very Bad
|1 out of 10 : Painful
|Voters: 99. You may not vote on this poll
|Thread Tools
|2006-11-03, 12:32
|Link #41
阿賀野型3番艦、矢矧 Lv168
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Age: 32
phew... i wasn't excepting THAT amount of humor, i couldn't stop bursting in laughter, especially the 2 "silent" scenes (bath : silence 10 sec +15 sec yuuichi showtime, and the 30 sec with ayu unoticed with the breakfast (i couldn't stop being amused "hey yuuichi... is it normal that ayu is there? especially for breakfast? XD"))
it was a nice surprise ^^ (as a kanon newbie, i was a bit puzzled with the slightly slow pace and a lots of mysteries around the girls (it is damn hard to avoid the "spoiler" in the generic general thread ~~)
it is too bad that KyoAni was a bit conserving the budget... the scene when yuuichi think about "Demon Hunter" was really lame (i was like : WTH is that bumping mai face all of a sudde,n, then disappear as fast as it appeared? oO )
still, it deserves a 10.
|2006-11-03, 12:43
|Link #42
"Show it to me"
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: In solitude, where we are least alone
Well, an episode with few Ayu scenes. Even if it was few, it's pretty funnt about that breakfast scene. This episode focus more on Makoto x Yuuichi rather than Mai x Yuuichi. Still, I like those Mai moments. I guess she was just speechless because someone is talking to her other than Sayuri. Speaking of Sayuri, her laughing doesn't sound laughing at all It somehow sounds...different. Let's see....the Makoto scenes are pretty funny too like that in the bath scene when she threw everything at Yuuichi and slamming the door with her foot on it; and also that porno magazine part Yep, out of all the girls in Kanon, Makoto is getting most of Yuuichi's attitude
|2006-11-03, 12:51
|Link #43
Primula hates you
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Utah
Age: 43
Yeah, not even the strange rainbow monster things that were in Kanon 2k2. But when the "ghost" started showing up behind Yuuichi I almost freaked.
For the Fluff. Your Asa avatar sickens me, but I love your fansubs.
|2006-11-03, 14:55
|Link #44
Waiting for more taiyuki!
Join Date: Jan 2004
A low Ayu scene and "uguu" count, but nevertheless it progressed her arc some. Really sad scene there.
It was nice to have progression of Mai and Makoto's arc here too.
Shiori is being mysterious as ever in this episode. Animation really excels in her scenes imo. I guess it's because of the snow.
So, there's professionally made fakes of the real episode in circulation? Wow. That's a hardcore way to count down on distribution. So what do they look like? How can you tell that they are fakes?
Last edited by orion; 2006-11-03 at 15:09.
|2006-11-03, 15:16
|Link #45
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Hamburg
Age: 49
The content can be anything and doesn't matter. It's just that when you look on winny for raws for Kanon, you get 896324 zillion hits. Several of them can be discarded due to size, but the others cannot. Here, you (or someone else) needs to download a part of it and peek whether or not it's a fake.
Through contacts, 2chan and hashdb, you need to eventually find the famous needle in the haystack - the genuine raws which are hidden by the myriads of fakes. And unlike most other shows, where you can count on finding good workable raws around 4 hours after airing, it now takes 12 hours before you can even START working on the release encode. And if you're trying to stay below 24 hours, this is a major strain on the timeline.
|2006-11-03, 15:17
|Link #46
Founder, Sprocket Hole
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Fresno or Sacramento, CA
Age: 50
Shiori: I really liked how they handled Shiori this time around.
Spoiler for Shiori...:
Spoiler for Makoto:
Spoiler for Sayuri and Mai:
This one really takes the cake considering it's a major foreshadow...
Spoiler for Makoto and Mai:
Well, those are some of my thoughts on ep 5, such as they are. Enjoy!
|2006-11-03, 15:24
|Link #47
I desire Tomorrow!
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: As far away from reality as possible
Age: 36
That was fun, YuuichixMakoto rule, maybe he should end up with Makoto after all. Although that is close to impossible considering the stories they have to fit in Kanon.
The Toei Makoto magazine scene was also fun.
Low Ayu scene count, heaven on earth Although the Yuuchi breakfast scene was fun
Well, it was a Makoto/Mai episode, with a bit of Nayuki/Shiori, so I suppose I should be happy Missed Kaori a bit, she looks stunning in this version
|2006-11-03, 15:30
|Link #48
Founder, Sprocket Hole
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Fresno or Sacramento, CA
Age: 50
Spoiler for Shiori:
Although it seems kind of odd, fighting fire with fire, though in this cae, s/fire/infringement/g.
|2006-11-03, 15:41
|Link #49
1000 times better
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Surrounded by Mistery (cool isn't?)
Nice as always.
Yuiichi's jokes absolutely won the episode, Makoto got a lot of improvement, but I dont think this is so good, as she may get forgotten in the later parts of the show.
Nevertheless, it was a GREAT episode.
And, LOL at Yuiichi's Fanservice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Makoto got a good sight eh!)
|2006-11-03, 16:45
|Link #50
~ You're dead ^__^* ~
Graphic Designer
|2006-11-03, 17:37
|Link #53
lost in wonder forever...
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: edge of my dream in the land of twilight...ZzzZzZ
I really like this episode! All the funny and witty remakes Yuuichi did this episode were nicely done. Gotta love Tomokazu SUGITA for voicing Yuuichi.
|2006-11-03, 18:30
|Link #54
One of the best episode so far for me, all the Yuuichi, jokes, all the cute faces and moments, aaaah i'm so melting and laughing every time i watch an episode of this serie!
It's a full 10!
|2006-11-03, 19:16
|Link #57
Somehow I found out
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 34
I think if there was anyone who missed Haruhi (poor unfortunate souls) and doubted that either Ishihara Tatsuya or Sugita Tomokazu could do comedy, this should dispell all doubts. That episode was hilarious. Some of the timing and delivery reminded me of School Rumble, back when it used to be funny.
But never mind Kyuuichi or the director, Makoto stole the show. I wouldn't have guessed she had the capacity for such hilarious scenes before I saw this ep. The only qualm I had was that they dampened the impact of the porn-mag joke as compared to the Toei version by not actually showing her buy the book. Other than that, every attempted joke in the two versions was much better in this one.
The story is still veeery slow. I still maintain that I wouldn't be enjoying this so much if I hadn't already seen the first Kanon. In particular, I'd imagine I wouldn't have thought highly of the demon hunting plotline revealed in this ep. I seem to remember thinking of it as one of the weaker plotlines when I first saw it all those years ago, but between then and now I've seen similar (and worse) more times than I can count. I'd imagine it would have come off as a case of "been there, done that".
But I'm slowly starting to turn towards the fact that they've really slowed down the pace of the story, since it's allowed them to flesh it and the characters out more. The character interactions were always (one of) the best things about KyoAni's Air, and I'd say it's working as a strength again here. Characters take part in seemingly pointless conversations, yet it still somehow adds to the entire progression, giving another dimension to the entire story. It's something that's not really easy to quantify, but if KyoAni's Kanon turns out anything like KyoAni's Air, then it'll be of great benefit to future eps in the series when events turn a little more dramatic.
|2006-11-03, 20:02
|Link #58
Join Date: Oct 2006
Wow...I seriously dont remember the original series making me laugh as hard as this episode did.
Part of it is definitely sugita's work...His comic timing and voice where just beyond perfect this episode...made me laugh so hard for so long it literally hurt.
Overall im enjoying the remake a great deal thus far.
|2006-11-04, 00:48
|Link #60
Anime Snark
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 35
I think this is my first 1000+ words entry on AnimeSuki. Actually watched the fansubbed Ep05 last night( this morning?), but it would have been suicidal to wrote coherent thoughts at 3am, so... yeah. On a side note, watching an episode of Kanon before lunch is likely to make you hungry... Taiyaki, Bentos, Meat Buns, etc... man. Onwards to the actual post.
~~~~ ~~~~
..) With the fifth dream, I am expecting that further episodes will no longer have these dream foreshadowings. My memory is fuzzy on this, but if I remember correctly, there are only five dreams. Episode 06 should be the start of the melodrama and stuff.
..) We had a moe scene of Ayu rubbing her nose in Ep02. Do girls find Yuuichi moe when he was rubbing his nose in the bathtub? Hmm... come to think of it, I have not heard much input from female viewers on Kanon. Is it because of the lack of male leads( Jun doesn't really count)?
..) We get to see the more 'paternal' side of Yuuichi with regards to Makoto in this episode. For all his complaints about Makoto's dangerousness, he still shows concern for her well-being and even tucks her in.
..) It was never explained in the game, but man... where does Akiko get all her money from? A spacious double-storey bungalow. Able to support 2 freeloaders along with the occasional Ayu visit. Giving Makoto an allowance. Does she have a diamond mine in the basement or something? Come to think of it... we never get to see the basement. Of course... the easiest answer would be that she is a Black Widow. Kudos, if you get it.
..) Loved the comic transition from when Akiko mentioned Ayu's energeticness, followed shortly by a pan to Nayuki...
..) Speaking of Nayuki, I love the jokes about her being a drug addict. Hmm... an athlete taking drugs, and getting drowsy from the side effects as a result. Heh. As one caption puts it, "Mmm... crack..."
..) Shiori the Stalker. Dun-dun dun-DUN!
..) Ep05 resolves the mystery of the eating mat from Ep02.
..) Establishment of Mai as a big eater.
..) Yuuichi was seriously working his mojo in this episode. I mean, barely seconds after parting with Mai and Sayuri, he was already charming Shiori. Poor Nayuki.
..) Yuuichi now has more money to spend on bribery thanks to Sayuri's offer of free lunch. He's so lucky. Free breakfast, free lunch, free dinner. No wonder he has loads of cash to spend on mysterious girls. Not to mention Akiko's generosity...
..) I noticed that there were a lot of still layers( mainly the background) in this episode, and for the first time in recent memory, KyoAni recycled frames( GASP! HORROR!). Fortunately, the recycled scene was used for comedic effect( I am referring to the two scenes of Makoto barging into Yuuichi's room followed by her tantrum), so it was not groan-inducing unlike the clipshow that was Gundam SEED Destiny.
The still layers also indicates that KyoAni is conserving a lot of budget. I do not mind this actually. I rather have beautifully drawn still layers than atrociously animated frames( *cough*Crescent*cough*Love*cough*).
These budget saving methods have also given me confidence that when the time comes to animate the pivotal scenes in Kanon, it will be a sight to behold. I imagine that the budget for Kanon is huge due to KyoAni's resume and past successes, so the money has to be going somewhere.
..) How much money did Akiko give Makoto to buy tofu? I mean... she had enough to buy meat buns and stacks of manga.
..) Akiko has the heart of Jesus. Yuuichi is the cynical John.
..) What did Yuuichi mean by the creepy mood is perfect?
..) Yuuichi pats Ayu and Shiori. Do people really head-pat in Japan? It just seems so surreal.
..) Fun with out of context screenshots,
~~~~ ~~~~
The Following Consists Of Silly Speculation
Do Not Take Them Seriously, Or I Will Laugh At You
..) So what attracts Yuuichi to these girls? And what attracts the girls to Yuuichi? The answer? Violence and Food respectively.
Think about it. Ayu headbutts Yuuichi all the time, Makoto is constantly threatening his life, and Mai swings a sword around him. Man, he must have really been turned on by Mai's violent ramming of him into the school wall to make him ignore Nayuki and return to the school in the dead of the night just to give her some Onigiri. He constantly teases Ayu all the time, but you know he's just acting and secretly thinks she's hot for smashing her face into his body all the time. Makoto? Look at how tender he was when he tucked her into her bed. That washbasin smack to his face must have been a turning point in his opinion of her.
See? This is why Nayuki is constantly being ignored. She doesn't smack Yuuichi around enough. She needs to treat Yuuichi like how Louise treats Saito. Just one kick to his nuts and I guarantee you that even if the other girls dress up as Bunny-Girls or naked-apron Meidos, Yuuichi would be too blinded by love for Nayuki. Crush Yuuichi's balls for the sake of your love, Nayuki!
How about Shiori then? Too young, but she will serve nicely as an Imouto-chan for future servings. Yuuichi shall groom her first, before unleashing his S&M fetishes on her when she matures enough.
Okay, so we have established Yuuichi's reasons for being attracted to these girls. How does he win them over then?
It's simple. Bribery, through food.
He feeds Ayu Taiyaki, introduces Makoto to meat buns, and various foodstuff to Mai. This is also an extension of his S&M fetish, as he gets to play out the role of a servant serving food to his masters. The girls, violent as they are, must be thrilled by this servitude from Yuuichi. Just wait and see. He will be serving food to Shiori soon enough.
Do you see Yuuichi giving food to Nayuki? Again, no! Unleash the beast within you, Nayuki! Whip Yuuichi into submission!
~~~~ ~~~~
The Following Contains Spoilerific Thoughts
|Thread Tools


text:
I'm not talking about the polarizing EvoPsych related to gender, sexism, shopping, or even humans. I'm talking about dogs!
National Geographic filmed 'The Science of Dogs' a few years back. I found a particular segment to be relevant to recent blog posts regarding EvoPsych.
The psychology of a dog's degree of 'human suggestibility' is tested against a similar group of wolves.
That's pretty cool. At the 41:00 mark, the dogs are tested and unsurprisingly – are highly suggestible. The real cool stuff happens at 41:36 when the wolves are clearly uninterested in the humans in the same situation.
This post is not intended to suggest that 5 minutes on Nat Geo should count as a rigorous defense of the field. In fact, I'd like to recommend this critique in PLOS Biology (thanks, jose!) It's got some well-laid out problems with the field of EP. Curiously, it frames much of the criticism as a past tense problem ('traditional EP') and suggests some quality control measures already are (or should be more rigorously) applied by present day scientists ('modern EP').
I'm quoting from sections that aren't particularly critical, for what it's worth.
Towards a New Science of the Evolution of the Mind
We have reviewed how developments in a number of scientific fields have called into question the key tenets of EP. Fortunately, these developments do not just create problems for EP, but also suggest potential solutions. We argue that the key factor will be the methodological and conceptual integration of EP with adjacent fields.
Traditionally, EP has tested hypotheses using the conventional tools of psychology (questionnaires, computer-based experiments, etc.). Generally these hypotheses have a functional perspective—that is, EP proposes that a particular mechanism functioned to enhance reproductive success in our ancestors.
However, Nobel laureate Niko Tinbergen famously proposed that understanding behavior requires comprehension not only of its function and evolution, but also of its causation and development, and he argued that a complete understanding of behavior involves addressing all four of these questions. These distinctions are relevant because accounts of the evolution of brain and cognition cannot in themselves explain the brain's underlying working mechanisms, since these are logically distinct questions. While evolutionary analyses may generate clues as to the mechanisms of human cognition, these are best regarded as hypotheses, not established explanations, that need to be tested empirically, and there are instances where such evolutionary hypotheses about mechanisms have had to be rejected. Here, we ask which of Tinbergen's questions is currently addressed in the field of EP and describe how EP could expand its focus to provide a broader and richer understanding of human behaviour.
Similarly, EP has engaged in a longstanding debate with advocates of cultural evolution over whether human social learning is governed by evolved content biases (e.g., choose the sugar-rich food) or by domain-general context biases (e.g., conform to the local norm). There is sufficient empirical evidence for the deployment of context biases, such as conformity or prestige bias, to render the casual dismissal of transmitted culture counterproductive. A broader EP could actively pursue these questions, by testing experimentally whether human social learning is dominated by content or context biases, and by investigating the factors that affect reliance on each. The finding that innovation, social learning, and other aspects of development are capable of introducing novelty into phenotype design space, thereby establishing new selective scenarios, opens up new opportunities for investigating evolutionary novelty to which social scientists can actively participate.
This experiment with wolves and dogs seems to be an example of content-biased evolution, to my untrained eye. They familiarized a pack of wolves with humans, but didn't get the same results. The trait wasn't example of conforming to the local norm, because wolves didn't socially acquire it despite the opportunity. Instead, the trait appears better explained by ancestral dogs' increasing reliance on human-controlled resources. Interesting, as it seems to buck the trend (if my understanding is close enough).
One more apparent instance of evopsych in dogs
(below the fold)
Genes that tend to give rise to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (or the doggie equivalent) seem to plague this breed:
It's kind of depressing. I have no idea how well the science behind this diagnosis was formed, and don't accept it as irrefutable fact. The expert said so, and I can't trump that as a layman. Other potential EP-related factors might cause similar symptoms. We've created breeds of herding dogs, and they often exhibit obsessive circling behavior. In what are probably too tight of spaces for the breeds, they've may even aggressively 'herd' toys, and children.
Neat stuff. Once again, I'm a layman. Perhaps these are terrible examples of EP, though I think they're strong 'proof of concept' if nothing else. I'd love to see Chris Hallquist or Ed Clint weigh in on these examples. I'm also looking forward to more calm rational dialog from the (mostly) excellent commentariat I've seen over the last few posts about EP.


text:
A new review suggests that teens are less likely to have sex if their dads talk to them about the birds and the bees. "Fathers do make a difference. It's not just about mothers," said lead author Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, a professor and co-director of New York University's Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health.
Closeness with fathers at the beginning of one study was significantly associated with daughters delaying having sex for the first time after a year of follow-up. Another study on father-son HIV prevention found that more communication about sex was linked to increased abstinence in the six-month study period, reports HealthDay.
Schools and health-care providers attempt to influence kids when it comes to safe sex practices, but teens say their parents' viewpoints actually matter most. According to study authors, when it comes to dads specifically, it seems that their reliable and open presence really contributes to teen kids' overall health and well-being.
Experts believe that striking a balance between protecting and overprotecting is key. Evidence shows that kids are more likely to have sex earlier if they have either very strict or very easy-going parents.
Dads, do you talk to your kids about sex? Leave a comment.


text:
The Dan Brown Code
In a court filing, the best-selling author reveals all the secrets of a pulp novelist.
Dan Brown's latest novel, Inferno, went on sale this week and has already hit No. 1 on Amazon's best-seller list. To mark the occasion, Slate revisits Bryan Curtis' 2006 article about witness statement in a copyright infringement case concerning his earlier novel The Da Vinci Code. As Curtis writes, the document offers numerous insights into the author's enormous popularity and success. The piece is reprinted below.
Dan Brown, author of the mega-selling The Da Vinci Code, has brought forth his most thrilling piece of writing to date: a court document. Brown, who is being sued for copyright infringement in London by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, filed a 69-page witness statement with the British courts back in December. The London Times, the Associated Press, and other media gleefully unearthed it last week. In its textures—it is at turns snotty, contemplative, and disarmingly personal—it is clear Brown intended the brief less as a legal defense than as a literary memoir. Like the hidden ciphers the heroes of The Da Vinci Code pursue, this is the Dan Brown Code—the key to understanding the secrets of a pulp novelist.
At first glance, the document bears the giddy signatures of a Dan Brown novel. It's chopped into staccato chapters; the language is awkward ("I quite literally woke up one morning and decided to write a thriller that delved into NSA"); and its hero is a simple man who is being pursued by evil forces he doesn't quite understand. Educated at Amherst and Phillips Exeter Academy, Brown had an unusual literary awakening. He did not go the usual route, wandering into a library, bumping into Hemingway and Flaubert, and resolving right there in the stacks to become a writer. Brown resolved to become a writer when he read Sidney Sheldon's The Doomsday Conspiracy while vacationing in Tahiti. "Up until this point," he writes, "almost all of my reading had been dictated by my schooling (primarily classics like Faulkner, Steinbeck, Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, etc.) and I'd read almost no commercial fiction at all since the Hardy Boys as a child." The Sheldon book was a revelation, swift and merciless where Shakespeare, etc., had been slow and cumbersome. "[L]ife seemed to be trying to tell me something," Brown notes, adding, "I began to suspect that maybe I could write a 'thriller' of this type one day."
Brown has done a lot of thinking about what makes a successful Dan Brown thriller. He has found that it requires a few essential elements: some kind of shadowy force, like a secret society or government agency; a "big idea" that contains a moral "grey area"; and a treasure. The treasures in Brown's four novels have been a meteorite, anti-matter, a gold ring, and the Holy Grail. The shadowy forces have included the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei, and the National Security Agency. The big idea, if I'm reading him correctly, goes something like this: Is the Vatican good … or is it evil? Is the National Security Agency for us … or is it against us? When all of Brown's elements come together, doled out over cliffhanging chapters, with characters that exist to "move the plot along," it is like mixing the ingredients to make a cake. For example, Deception Point, Brown's third novel, is "a thriller about a meteorite discovered in the Arctic—a discovery that turns out to have profound political ramifications for an impending presidential election."
Another author might have sneered when asked to lay bare his methodology. Brown, on the other hand, appears eager to reveal every one of the secrets of the pulp novelist: "All my novels are set in 24 hours"; "All of my novels use the concept of a simple hero pulled out of his familiar world";"I intend to make Robert Langdon my primary character for years to come." My favorite secret is Brown's notion of the "thriller as academic lecture." The trick is to make your characters experts—in Brown's world, they are symbologists, cryptographers, and so forth. Then you pair them with an expert of a different discipline, making it convenient for the experts to essay to one another at some length, in the process spilling all the research you have done for your novel. (The Da Vinci Code contains dozens of loosely connected academic lectures.)I was also curious about how Brown named his protagonists. He has heroes ranging from Vittoria Vetra to Susan Fletcher—names that, in the glorious tradition of pulp writing, are either ostentatiously foreign or ridiculously dull. "I named the protagonist Robert Langdon," Brown writes of his Da Vinci and Angels & Demons hero. "I thought it was a fantastic name. It sounds very 'New England' and I like last names with two syllables …"
One can't help but feel good about Brown's portrayal here. He is his own most fully formed character—the only one not rushing off to foil some dark international conspiracy or another; the only one who is allowed to emerge in a rush of small details. For instance, we learn that Brown's writing day begins at 4 a.m. He writes seven days a week. He keeps an hourglass on his desk and, on the hour, puts aside his manuscript to perform push-ups, sit-ups, and stretches. He does not like to write in the margins of books, but his wife doesn't feel that way. He is invariably delighted by anagrams. (He was extremely delighted to discover that Heide Lange, his literary agent, had a last name could be rearranged to spell "angel.") For a while, Brown sold books out of the back of his car. Some of his recent vacation destinations have included Tahiti, Rome, and the Mayan pyramids at Chichén Itzá. He is not a pack rat. He has thrown away most of the documents from his younger days, especially from his failed songwriting career, because they were "painful reminders of years spent for naught." He wrote the outline for The Da Vinci Code in a laundry room, himself planted in a lawn chair and his manuscript balanced on an ironing board.
None of this has the slightest thing to do with plagiarism. It seems that Brown, working under the restraints of the legal system, has freed himself from an even more rigid system, that of the commercial novel. When not absorbed with shadowy conspiracies or buried treasures, his prose becomes confident and disarmingly confessional. How else to explain the decision to reveal the fact that his father hid young Dan's Christmas presents around the house, providing him with treasure maps and codes to find them? Or that he once composed a music album called Angels and Demons? Or that as a student he felt profoundly movedbya professor's description of Michelangelo's Pietà? This document is a pulp novelist's renaissance. For the first time in his life, you might say Dan Brown is trying to create literature.