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HiH stands for Hand-in-Hand because I couldn't do it alone — any of it. I am as interested in history as I am in typefaces and I firmly believe that no typeface is an island, either. By that I mean, every typeface has a context and a history and is a product of some person(s) creativity and effort. Since alphabets have the purpose of written communication, a typeface cannot be TOTALLY original or it would be useless. A typeface must, at minimum, resemble other typefaces that already exist. If a reader cannot recognize any of the letterforms, the reader will not be able to read any of the words formed by those letters and there will be no communication. Over time, I evolved a growing dislike for the practice, that goes back to the earliest foundries, of copying and renaming fonts without attribution, as if each look-alike font was the product of original and independent effort. I found it confusing and frustrating, so I started off giving back the original name some of the fonts I had accumulated. Next, I became dissatisfied with fonts that were missing punctuation or special characters that were (or should have been) part of the original design, etc. I started adding them as I needed them. Then I found myself re-designing some of the non-alphabetic characters. I think all of the characters should look like they belong with the font and not hauled out of the trash someplace. For example, I think a blackletter typeface should have a period that reflects the same broadpen characteristics as the letterforms. Who draws perfect circles with a broadpen nib? On the other hand, why would anyone want math symbols with a copperplate script? That is like blackletter small caps or a swash version of a geometric sans-serif. You get the picture. And then there are all the really great Victorian & Art Nouveau typefaces that I could not find in digital form. Personally, I think the 19th century (more exactly, from 1815 through 1914) is the most exciting in the history of typography — the teenage years, messy, conflicted and full of the discovery of the raw power being unleashed. There was no escape. I had to make my own. I hope you like them and find them useful. — Tom the Boxer, HiH Retrofonts
Character Sets
We use a standard Windows 3.1 character set with 213 visible characters or glyphs and 256 total character slots (some reserved for program functions and not visible) for display typefaces. We think Unicode is really great for text faces, but often overkill for display purposes. We use Fontographer 4.1 and like to see the entire character set displayed on a single screen — not possible with Unicode. We frequently deviate from the standard ASCII set, which we believe includes some silly choices. Don't look for a "logical not" in our faces. For diacritical marks (accents), we generally include the acute (´), grave (`), dieresis or umlaut (¨), circumflex (ˆ), tilde (˜), cedilla (¸) and macron (¯). Most of our fonts are revivals. Priority is given to the accents and special characters needed to set the native language of the original designer. Bringhurst lists 59 letter forms in Roman- or Latin-based alphabets alone (exclusive of Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, etc). For example, there are four Os: the standard O, the slashed O, the horned O, and the open O. When you add in the various accent combinations, from O-acute for to open-O-ogonek, you wind up with a total of forty variations on the letter O alone. The old saw that you cannot be all things to all people obviously applies here. Note: for the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the official administrative languages were German and Hungarian. While Czech, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian were important regionally, it was a major political issue that they did not have official standing. (There were periods when their use was actually forbidden.) We try to include ligatures and alternate characters that were part of the original design. We will also include special characters or dingbats when we deem it appropriate to do so. There is a wealth of printer's ornaments to be found in specimen books. Many have already been digitized in raster form by Dover and others and are available in inexpensive collections on CD.Decorative Initials
As a rule I try to match decorative initials with appropriate small caps, if available, or with a matching or harmonious lowercase. While the lowercase or small caps will be supplied with accents, the decorative initials will not be, with the sometime exception of C-cedilla and the N-tilde. According to The Chicago Manual of Style, French, Portuguese and Spanish may be set without accents on capitalized vowels; and German can set by using Ae, Oe & Ue in place of the umlauted capitals. Italian varies: accents required for display headlines, but not for text. Æ and Œ will generally not be included in decorated form unless part of the original design.Selected Bibliography
The books listed below are the ones to which we most frequently refer. Each of these books has something unique to offer. Together they can form the core of a useful typographic library. No specimen books are listed because the most important are far beyond anything most people can afford, running into the thousands of dollars. It is hoped that the holders of major historical libraries, such as Columbia University in NYC and St. Bride's in London, will gradually digitize the most significant and post them on their web sites. Donations might encourage them — it would be an expensive and time-consuming process.- Annenberg, TYPE FOUNDRIES OF AMERICA AND THEIR CATALOGS (Oak Knoll Press, New Castle, Deleware, 1994) ISBN 1-884718-06-X. The purpose of this book, and those like it, is to capture history metal type before it is too late. These are labors of love and we are indebted to those who made effort because this history belongs to all of us.
- Bain & Shaw, BLACKLETTER: TYPE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY. (Princeton Architectural Press, NYC 1998) ISBN 1-56898-125-2. Useful contribution to understanding the zeitgeist of blackletter, countering the many unproductive negative comments made by readers familiar only with roman letterforms. Fraktur, especially, can be difficult when you are not used to it, but it does work better with German than English. Now check out Burmese. Chapter on what editors term "German Hybrid Typefaces": Behrens, Eckmann, Künstler, etc.
- Bringhurst, THE ELEMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE (Hartley & Marks, Vancouver [near where author lives] 2004. ISBN 0-88179-206-3 (pbk). Incomparable must-have book on disciplined page layout and typography with a strong historical perspective. Bringhurst is a major critic of parochial typography.
- Gray, NINETEENTH CENTURY ORNAMENTED TYPEFACES (University of California Press, Berkeley & LA 1976) ISBN 0-520-03074-5 Out of print. Find it used and buy it. Est $40. Originally published by Oxford University Press in 1938.
- Jasper, Berry & Johnson, ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF TYPEFACES, 4th Edition (Cassell & Co., London 2001); ISBN 1-84188-139-2 (pbk). Note: earlier editions are also worth acquiring on used book market.
- Lewis, TYPOGRAPHY DESIGN AND PRACTICE (Taplinger Publishing, NYC 1978) ISBN 0-8008-7922-8 (pbk). Useful discussion on artistic developments as they impacted display typography from 1800. Draws insightful connection between blackletter faces and sans-serifs.
- McGrew, AMERICAN METAL TYPEFACES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, 2nd Edition (Oak Knoll Books, New Castle, Delaware 1993); ISBN 0938768-39-5 (pbk). Includes typefaces from 19th century that continued to be cast in the 20th century, like Pekin.
- Petzendorfer, TREASURY OF AUTHENTIC ART NOUVEAU ALPHABETS, DECORATIVE INITIALS, MONOGRAMS, FRAMES AND ORNAMENTS (Dover Publications, New York 1984); originally published by Julius Hoffmann of Stuttgart in 1903 under the title SCHRIFTENATLAS NEUE FOLGE: EINE SAMMLUNG VON ALPHABETEN INITIALEN UND MONOGRAMMEN ZUSAMMENGESTELLT VON HOFRAT L. PETZENDORFER. ISBN 0-486-24653-1 (pbk).
- Solo, THE SOLOTYPE CATALOG OF 4,147 DISPLAY TYPEFACES (Dover Publications, New York 1992) ISBN 0-486-27169-2 (pbk). As title indicates, book was intended as a commercial catalog and not a historical record. Because of practice of renaming typefaces to support that purpose and the lack of any further information on where the typefaces were collected, the book is less useful than it might have been. It would be wonderful if an accompanying database was compiled. Many faces simply can't be found elsewhere.
- The University of Chicago Press, THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE, 14th Edition (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London 1993) ISBN 0-226-10389-7. Fifteenth edition is now available. Probably the best reference source for the practical details of applied typography.


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Although I think you could have spotted the "bun" part without my help. [smirk] Eh?
Hey, Monica S., I hear there's a full moon tonight.
Click here to donate your dollar through our First Giving Campaign Page.
When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.
oh. my. god. THEY RUINED THE CINNAMON BUNS!
This is sacrilage! Not only is the tree blue, but they had to dishonor the Cinnamon Bun!
Are any of your readers in any legislature? Can't someone make laws about stuff like this? Won't anyone think of the children!
My family has actually been doing this for years. We don't paint them green, put plastic chotskies on it, or (heaven forbid) buy it premade...
but Christmas morning, fresh baked out of the oven the cinnamon roll tree is very festive.
and gooey
and yummy :)
I'd eat it.
My jaw is permanently in the open position- aka- the "Oh no they din't" face. This makes CCC's look decent.
As for the charity of the day- way to go on this choice...I'm going right now to donate. It's hard to think that in 2009 people in the world still have to worry about slavery.
Oh the horror!!!
That would have looked so much better if they would have just left the icing a creamy color - and not added the ornaments. (I don't think they're food safe.)
I thought the Christmas tree was mooning me.
Ok, buns were not the first thing I saw......lol
IACK! Disgusting!!!
Vanessa: I am sure it must be a lovely cinnamon roll tree without the paint!
Actually I think the bottom two looked more like a pair of bazongas than a bum...
They look like balls 0_0
Clearly they wanted a full dozen buns. But instead of two for the trunk...next time make a bright yellow, glittery one on top, as a "star."
(Or next time, just...don't. Don't. At all.)
It is definitely not easy being green!
MAN - there's usually so stinkin' many comments on here I can't get in to tell you how this is my favorite laugh of my week (I usually have to read a week's worth at once)
Love it, well... "love" might be a little strong for the cakes we love to hate -
poor cinnamon buns, what did they do to deserve this treatment?
OMG, NO! and I was about to make Sticky buns for Christmas morning... Look away! Look away now! Avert your eyes!
Next I want to see a Long John cake.
That green icing on the cinnamon bons is ATROCIOUS! ew. do NOT look appetizing. Also, they could have done with one bun for the trunk. Now the tree looks like it's on wheels.
And seriously? are those more glass ornaments on the cake? Hope nobody drops the box, crunch crunch.
Doesn't glass help with digestion though?
wv: express. You will need a polar express to the hospital if you eat any green cinnamon buns with glass.
The cheez whiz garland is a nice touch.
I just see green teeth, lips and gums. The stainage!!!
bahahahahahha. they look gross, but at the same time I know they are delicious. I'd eat 'em.
Vanessa seems to have the right idea - a Cinnamon roll "tree" in the same way that one big and two small pancakes can be a "Mickey Mouse" pancake. Cute for the kids but not actually altering food that doesn't need altering
But seriously? Cinnamon bun cake? With weird teal icing? I don't understand who thinks this is a good idea. Probably the same people who gave "Gigli" the green light.
Frankly I thought it looked more like a couple of smooshed-together boobs. Not that that's any better!
Compared to the intestine cake of yesterday, this is almost boring. I *like* boring, I do NOT like intestine cakes.
Oh no no no no no no...
I, for one, am actually glad you explained what it was, because I would never have believed that someone wanted to do this to perfectly good cinnamon buns. Another blessing to count this year-- ours won't look like that!
Tee hee, I think I just got mooned by a Christmas tree.
It's ugly, it's a horific color, but I still find myself thinking i's not all that bad. There are cinnamon buns under all that ugly you know, I think that saves it for me.
My mom makes a Christmas tree with roll dough every Christmas. It's kinda fun. Though I've never been real comfortable with frosting on bread......
Thanks for supporting today's charity, which also in part works to end slavery of children, including sex slavery. Slavery is not legal anywhere at this time, but happens all over the world, including in the U.S. Please take a little time today to look at the Free the Slaves website.
They definitely should have used only 1 bun for the trunk. Having 2 looks risque is at least 3 different ways.
My stomach turned when I looked at that.
Somewhere I was reading recently (I think it might have been "The End of Overeating"), they were talking about the history of the Cinnabon franchise, and how the woman who started it all began with good, real, not-that-horrible-for-you ingredients. She had a pastry shop and this was her best seller. Then she was approached by a megacorp who wanted to get them in every mall and airport. She worked with him for a long time to keep the product as true to the original as she could, but over time as the need to make them highly portable and shelf-stable prior to cooking rose, more fake ingredients had to be added. They also got bigger with more stuff dumped on them.
In the book the creator was quoted as saying she never intended for people to be eating those things so big, so often. She didn't sound very happy about where it had all gone, and I bet this kind of concoction would make it worse.
We do this every year too! Get the pillsbury cinnamon rolls, dye the icing green, and leave a little bit to dye yellow for a star on the top. We leave only one for the trunk though!
Mmmmm cinnamon rolls. I want some now. Frosting and all.
Does anyone else find the thought of a green cinnamon roll as repulsive as I do? Reminds me of the time my college dining hall tried to "celebrate" St. Patrick's day by adding green food coloring to everything. I mean everything. Green eggs and ham is cute for a kid's book...but not for breakfast.
Are those real ornaments on that nasty tree??? Ew!
And I love that they chose the festive 'daisy' for the tree topper... I mean that is the national christmas flower, is it not?
i just saw one of these last night at my local grocery store and was cursing myself for not having a camera. it was hideous.
wow... that tree needs a bra, badly!
Why would anyone do that to a perfectly good cinnamon bun?! Why, why, WHY?!?
I saw these where I work the other day and thought of this website. lol I'm glad someone else had a camera on them.
That's not just ugly, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't taste very good.
As soon as I saw this I heard Townie from the Waterboy in my head "Oh NO we suck AGAIN!"
Oh... my... wow.
Is NOTHING sacred anymore?!
That green icing isn't making me hungry either.
That is SO wrong. Isn't a cinnamon bun perfection on it's own? Why mess with perfection? Blech!
how bunny.
can't believe people buy these creations.
Well, at least cinnamon rolls are _supposed_ to be stuck together when you make them......
Ever seen those yard art things that look like some big-bottomed woman bending over in her yard? (hideous) Yeah, it kind of looks like that, but worse.
Yes since really what cinnamon rolls need is more icing!
surely the flotsom is not edible?! So, does it come with a disclaimer? gross
save it for Easter and make a Bunny cake.
Yikes. They suuuuure did.
I'm afraid the rest of the charity event is going to have to wait a couple of weeks for me. Someone managed to harvest my credit/debit card number and compromised my card over the weekend (basically emptying my account - thank goodness for protection policies on this that mean I'm only broke for a few days), so I have no way to send money in through firstgiving until my bank can send me a new card.
About my only change in online purchasing behavior lately has been the charity sites. Has anyone else reported problems? I'm a little concerned that one of the sites from the first few days might have been hacked, which would be a horrible thing for someone to do.
It might be sheer coincidence, of course. I hope the charity links will be left up for a while, and I'll catch back up once I have a way to send money!
Ugh....the whole thing looks like it's about two weeks old and covered in mold. Nothing like yummy shards of glass and mold to make the holiday season bright!
Is there some kind of evil wreckerator mastermind giving marching orders to these bakeries for these weird holiday trends? People have seen this weirdness in more than one place. And some of the other postings through the months. And that weird Santa-on-a-hilltop-overlooking-xmas-cartoon-scene-with-sprinkles-pointsettias-and-lightbulbs on the side suggests that too. Since there was more than one. But that may have been a kit. But this?
Some evil bakery mastermind must be plotting this stuff. whip out the cameras, wreckporters! and pick off these creations wherever they may lurk!
wv: reweak. that intestine cake yesterday made me reweak after I already felt a little sick.
I. would. not. eat. that. for. all. the. tea. in. CHINA!!!!
Cakes have sunk to a new low.
Aren't there laws against this?!?
Totally getting one of these for Christmas Morning... NOT! Seriously though, I just had to pull myself back into my chair after falling off in shock and laughter. Are no sweet foods safe?!
OH! Seriously NOT edible! And um... excuse me, but aren't those mercury-glass ball ornaments? Who wants THOSE on their dessert? Let's hope they are the more safer less non-edible PLASTIC glass ball ornaments. HA!
That's the most hideous thing I've seen! Worst Holiday Wreck Ever IMHO!
My mom used to make these horrid cakes when i was a kid 20+ years ago. She would use this as her "holiday" dish for the potlucks at church. They were disturbing to look at then, and still a little nausiating now.
If i'm not mistaken my mom got the idea from martha stuart, or someother "better homes" source.
It looks like Bibi, a character from a tv show called Bibi et Geneviève (90's).
Look by yourself : http://42.img.v4.skyrock.net/420/pennielane/pics/1962563441_1.jpg
Now I've seen it all... *shakes head*
Baahaaaa! I've never been mooned by a Christmas tree before - I suppose there's a first for everything!
Jeepers - I thought CCC's were bad, but I think we just found a new low!
patooing is too good for them. *shaking head sadly* i hope everyone wore their ponchos
I first saw this post this morning when I was still half-asleep and I thought it was just a really ugly cupcake cake. OH MY GOD! WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO EAT THAT MANY CINNAMON BUNS?! Disgust doesn't quite seem to convey the deep emotion I'm feeling right now.
Even coming back to look at this (and re-comment) hours and hours later, its still just as butt-ugly as it was when I tried looking at it this morning. I thought I'd give the bun-cake another chance, but.... yah... I still wanna hurl.
Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I found even more cinnamon bun cakes, including a Christmas tree! They're horrible:
Oh no! It's not just Christmas trees! They make wedding "cakes", too:
Oh. My. Gods. Whatever that thing is, it belongs in the ninth circle of Hell.
Oh, God, Pure brown cinnamon buns should NEVER be made. They don't even have to unartistically swirl the icing, since it's already a perfect poo pile!
The last time I checked, ornaments weren't edible. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Usually I don't hate CCC's because I figure they must taste good, but this looks absolutely disgusting... never again should there be a CBC on this page, it may make me vomit.
OMG, the bun cake looks like infected monster boobies.
And yes, I did see all the gazonga comments. It still needed to be said.
It's a little sad, but I think this is better than all the CCCs.
Bwahaha, that's hilarious!
OMG!! now i know where my boss is getting his ideas from! my boss at the Ithaca Bakery tried to make one of these with cinnamon bun dough and he slathered it with fondant and sprinkles! thank god it didn't make it to the shelves or all our customers would run away screaming!
um, thanks for the link, Anon @ 11:00 a.m.-ish. That wedding cake is "special." btw, did you notice on the weird boxed cakes they have a flowerbox with a row of buns and a rose? so instead of buying a rose, we buy a row of cinnamon buns and a sugar rose. Show someone you love them by offering them the ticket to obesity and diabetes.
I wonder how many calories are in the bun-tree? minus the glass ornaments of course. they just don't "cut" it.
wv: thsfer: An offer made by a drunk person. Slurring: "Hi, I brought thsfer you. Nice buns!"
Cinnamon bun cake? *whimper* I'm scared, hold me.
Cinnamon Bun, well and truly dishonored! lol ;) xx
thanks its very good
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A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Adult Female
Name: Gifted Bella
Species: Bell White Elk
Birthday: Thursday, December 24, 2020
Owner: Maskrosen
Mother: unnamed
Father: unnamed
Element: Neutral
The Arkene has a variety of wildlife, not all magical. Elk there are in plenty, their brown coats making them easy to spot. They travel in packs comprised of one sex, meeting only a few times a year in the spring to mate. Creatures set apart by their magical abilities differ from their ordinary brethren, and it is the same for the white elk. Like most companions of the magi, they are very intelligent and can live for centuries. White elk mate for life and travel in herds, forming families. It is not unusual for a magi to be granted an elk at the hatchling stage; among magical creatures, living alongside the magi is considered prestigious. To be trusted with an elk hatchling is a high honor, not to be taken lightly. These creatures are proud and noble animals, and should be treated with the utmost respect.
White elk are majestic creatures found only to the far north of the Arkene. Their light coats allow them to blend in easily with the snow, making them difficult to locate. It is the males of these species who possess antlers, which are powerful weapons. Their most potent powers, though, are their bells and ornamentation. Their magic is made apparent through sound – when one hears ringing, calm emotions wash over them and only peaceful thoughts remain. This causes the enemy to drift into a deep sleep, leaving them completely defenseless. While this magic is extremely useful, it is taxing on the creature wielding it, and so is not frequently used. Elk vary slightly in color, usually have cream coats. Whether they possess bells or golden chains depends on their ancestry, for reasons unknown to magi.
Sprite art: BettyxMe/GlassWalker (adult) | Description: Damien


text:
This is the wind, wave and weather forecast for Sinop/Black Sea in Sinop, Turkey. Windfinder specializes in wind, waves, tides and weather reports & forecasts for wind related sports like kitesurfing, windsurfing, surfing, sailing or paragliding.
The Forecast is based on the GFS model. Forecasts are available worldwide. The horizontal resolution is about 13 km. Forecasts are computed 4 times a day, at about 7:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 7:00 PM and 1:00 AM Eastern European Standard Time. Predictions are available in time steps of 3 hours for up to 10 days into the future. The arrows point in the direction that the wind is blowing.
Check the wind forecast for Sinop/Black Sea when you want to find the best last minute travel destination for your kiteboarding, windsurfing or sailing vacation in Turkey.
Units Our default units are knots and degrees Celsius. These are often used by sailors, kiters, surfers, windsurfers or paragliders. You can change units on our settings page.
Help If you need more information about our wind forecast for Sinop/Black Sea, have a look at our help section.


text:
Last night I invited my friends over for a "Happy Healthy New Year Party", to kick off all our healthy eating resolutions with fresh fruits and veggies!
Here are a few of the yummy dishes I made, starting at the top: Mediterranean Eggplant (from Eat To Live, made without the garbanzo beans) with endive leaves for scooping; blanched green beans with lemon mayonnaise (mix lemon juice, zest, and white pepper with Vegenaise...this one isn't nutritarian but I enjoyed the plain green beans); celery, jicama, and sugar snap peas; and homemade white bean dip with cucumber slices and whole wheat pita bread. Not pictured are a big bowl of roasted carrots and another bowl filled with fresh strawberries and mango slices.
The party was a lot of fun, with everyone contributing other healthy dishes (one friend brought vegan Hoppin' John with black-eyed peas and mustard greens, perfect for the New Year!), and we all looked silly and got sweaty playing Just Dance on the Wii. Proof that people can still have fun and be social while eating healthfully!
This morning I made a beautiful lunch with leftovers, although there hardly were any! One friend brought this amazing roasted red pepper hummus, which I packed with cucumber slices for dipping. I sliced strawberries, apple, endive, romaine, and baby spinach for today's salad and topped with pecans and pomegranate balsamic vinegar.


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Notice: This Wiki is now read only and edits are no longer possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.
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SWTBot Users Guide
Information on this page may be outdated.
Note that this page is for first time users. Advanced Users click here.
SWTBot is an open-source Java based functional testing tool for testing SWT and Eclipse based applications.
SWTBot provides APIs that are simple to read and write. The APIs also hide the complexities involved with SWT and Eclipse. This makes it suitable for functional testing by everyone. SWTBot also provides its own set of assertions that are useful for SWT. You can also use your own assertion framework with SWTBot.
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SWTBot can run on all platforms that SWT runs on. Very few other testing tools provide such a wide variety of platforms.
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package org.eclipsecon.swtbot.example; import org.eclipse.swtbot.eclipse.finder.SWTWorkbenchBot; import org.eclipse.swtbot.swt.finder.junit.SWTBotJunit4ClassRunner; import org.eclipse.swtbot.swt.finder.widgets.SWTBotShell; import org.junit.AfterClass; import org.junit.BeforeClass; import org.junit.Test; import org.junit.runner.RunWith; @RunWith(SWTBotJunit4ClassRunner.class) public class MyFirstTest { private static SWTWorkbenchBot bot; @BeforeClass public static void beforeClass() throws Exception { bot = new SWTWorkbenchBot(); bot.viewByTitle("Welcome").close(); } @Test public void canCreateANewJavaProject() throws Exception { bot.menu("File").menu("New").menu("Project...").click(); SWTBotShell shell = bot.shell("New Project"); shell.activate(); bot.tree().expandNode("Java").select("Java Project"); bot.button("Next >").click(); bot.textWithLabel("Project name:").setText("MyFirstProject"); bot.button("Finish").click(); // FIXME: assert that the project is actually created, for later } @AfterClass public static void sleep() { bot.sleep(2000); } }
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GEF/GMF-based editor testing
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Example SWTBot for GEF test case: http://git.eclipse.org/c/swtbot/org.eclipse.swtbot.git/tree/examples/gef/org.eclipse.gef.examples.logic.test
General principles
Everything is almost the same as using SWTBot, except that some classes change in order to give you the ability to manipulate DiagramEditors. The SWTBotTestCase superclass must be replaced by SWTBotGefTestCase. From the inside of your SWTBotTestCase, you can access your SWTGefBot bot field to play with your GEF editor. Then you retrieve a SWTBotGefEditor by using bot.getEditor("label of my editor tab").
Once you have your SWTBotGefEditor, you can perform high level user operations programatically:
Creation of elements
// retrieve editor SWTBotGefEditor editor = bot.gefEditor("test.logic"); // editor must be already open // Simulate creation of element from palette editor.activateTool("Circuit"); // "Circuit" is the label of the tool in palette editor.mouseDrag(55, 55, 150, 100); editor.activateTool("Circuit"); editor.mouseMoveLeftClick(150, 150); editor.activateTool("Connection"); editor.mouseMoveLeftClick(150, 150); editor.mouseMoveLeftClick(55, 55);
Direct edition of editParts
SWTBotGefEditPart editPart = editor.getEditPart("edit part label"); // select edit part by label editPart.click(); editor.directEditType("new edit part label");
Perform a drag'n'drop
editor.mouseDrag(fromXPosition, fromYPosition, toXPosition, toYPosition)
Mix it with GEF/GMF to perform checks
TODO: create an example that ensure that creation of a specific element is not possible on mainEditPart
Recorder and Generator
SWTBot comes with a tool that generates some code based on events performed at runtime. It makes writing tests easier and faster. See SWTBot/Generator.
Migration to SLF4J logging
SWTBot 4.0.0 has removed its use of org.apache.log4j and is instead using the org.slf4j.api facade for its logging. See SWTBot/MigrationToSLF4J


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Clutch Adjustment and Inspection
The Basics Behind Clutch Adjustment and Inspection Services at Greulich's Automotive Repair
In a manual transmission, the responsibility of the clutch is to engage and disengage the transmission from the engine. A clutch in a manual transmission allows the engine to continue turning even when the vehicle is stopped. In an automatic transmission, this process is regulated by the torque converter and transmission fluid. The clutch operates two shafts, one in the transmission and the other in the engine, and uses friction to keep the transmission connected to the engine. If the clutch is engaged, the pressure plate pushes against a flywheel and joins the transmission to the engine. If the clutch is disengaged, the pressure plate pulls away from the flywheel, separating the transmission from the engine. The clutch makes switching gears possible. Some transmissions use hydraulic clutches while others use cable clutches. In both cases, routine clutch maintenance is required to keep all moving components operating efficiently. If you are concerned about the functionality of your clutch, be sure to contact us about a service.
Why Should You Have Clutch Adjustment and Inspection Services Performed at Greulich's Automotive Repair?
A slipping or sticking clutch are both signs that you should have your clutch inspected. If your clutch slips, the friction material on the clutch disc may have worn away, which will loosen the contact between the disc and the flywheel. When a clutch sticks, the clutch fails to release all the way, and leaves the engine in limited contact with the transmission. This can create grinding noises and an inability to switch between gears. Too much free play and an overly stiff clutch are signs of an impending clutch inspection or adjustment. Most clutch adjustments concerning a hydraulic clutch involve examining, draining, and refilling the fluid reservoirs. In a clutch check and adjustment involving a cable driven clutch, our service staff will check the cable on the release arm, and make the necessary adjustments on the cables and hardware in your vehicle's clutch mechanism. Neglecting a clutch adjustment or inspection when warning signs arise can cause serious damage to your engine and transmission.
We proudly service the Clutch Adjustment and Inspection needs of customers in Scottsdale, AZ, Cave Creek, AZ, Phoenix, AZ, and surrounding areas.


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One August weekend in 1991, Serguei Oushakine decided to take a brief holiday from work in Leningrad on his dissertation in politics and education and travel a few hours to Tallinn, a coastal city in Estonia.
Tallinn offered all the trappings of a summer getaway spot — warm weather and scenic views — along with a rich past dating back to the 11th century. As it turned out, history was being made throughout the Soviet Union that very weekend.
When Oushakine — now an associate professor of anthropology and Slavic languages and literatures at Princeton University — and his traveling partners heard the news that old-line Communist Party members had attempted to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev's government, they walked to Tallinn's city center. A band was playing a cover of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy." It was hardly a revolutionary anthem, but in a way it was perfectly appropriate.
The coup d'état ultimately failed, but the botched endeavor effectively broke the Communist Party's iron grip on the bloc. Life in the Soviet Union was about to be transformed, but into what? Few were inclined to guess, including Oushakine.
He and his contemporaries were happy with the change and the opportunity it created to discover their past. They began reading more about Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky and other key figures in the country's history. Literature they never knew existed — works by the likes of Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche — appeared in bookstores.
"I don't think people were much interested in the future. Everyone was so obsessed with figuring out the past," said Oushakine, director of the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (REEES) at Princeton. "Soviet history was not known."
He knew little of the purges in the 1930s and, though he grew up in Siberia, he and many others there didn't know of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet novelist and historian who put a spotlight on the nation's forced-labor camps with works including "The Gulag Archipelago."
In the two decades that have passed, though, Oushakine has developed a deeper relationship with his native land's history and how it ties to its complicated present.
"The work of discovering your historical past is fascinating," he said. His research, he said, makes him much like a detective: "You start with the small clue and it is like the onion. You unwrap it."
Bringing clarity to scholars, students
Since 2006, when Oushakine joined the Princeton faculty, his work has focused on connecting the fragmented dots of the Soviet Union — its culture, its politics, its influence — in a manner that brings greater clarity to fellow scholars as well as a reference point to undergraduates, most of whom were born after the Soviet collapse.
He imbues his classroom with a sense of life "back then" while drawing on life in Central Asia today. Karl Marx's "Das Kapital" (or parts of it) is required reading in many of his classes, but students also uncover the Russia of Vladimir Lenin and Trotsky and the Soviet Union of Stalin, Nikita Krushchev, Alexei Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev through art, photography and film.
"Serguei is a commentator on how a society has moved from being Soviet to being post-Soviet," said Michael Gordin, the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, a professor of history and director of the Fung Global Fellows Program.
"He is able to look at what happens when worlds come undone and when they are transforming. He is helping to show how various republics that were a part of the Soviet Union are dealing with the transition," said Gordin, who preceded Oushakine as director of REEES. Gordin said his colleague is "making sense of the new world."
In classes such as "Between Heaven and Hell: Myths and Memories of Siberia," "Socialism With a Human Face: Daily Life Under the Soviet Regime" and "Russia Today," Oushakine introduces his students to situations and concepts — collectivism, peasantry, surplus value — that may be unknown to them. He strives to provide context so students "understand why people were doing things that [the students] might think are ridiculous or inappropriate and yet … seemed normal [to those people]," Oushakine said.
"When Serguei arrived at our department, he was a cultural anthropologist among humanists," said Caryl Emerson, the A. Watson Armour III University Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and a professor of comparative literature. "We welcomed this. It turned out to be a productive wake-up call for us, helping us to expand and diversify the Slavic program."
Oushakine leads REEES with the same kind of energy. The certificate program's broad mission is to influence Soviet, Russian, East European and Eurasian studies in the United States and highlight areas that are less studied. To that end, its faculty associates are drawn from a wide range of Princeton departments — from politics to music— and share a desire to be part of an intersection of disciplines, he said.
Those multidisciplinary interests are reflected in the departmental concentrations of the undergraduates who earn certificates and in the program's event calendar. Supported by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, REEES sponsors public lectures, workshops and conferences on a wide variety of topics central to Soviet and post-Soviet life. For instance, the fall 2013 lecture series, "Soviet: Modernity and Empire," includes talks on the development of taxes in the 19th and 20th centuries and on the paradoxes of post-Soviet culture.
'It cannot work'
Oushakine, who was born in the mid-1960s, acknowledged that there is a bit of truth to the perception many outsiders have of an austere Soviet lifestyle. "It was a pretty minimalistic life," he said. But he speaks enthusiastically of the government's "enlightened desire" to educate its people.
"The Soviet Union wasn't a picnic, but there was some logic and desire to make it work," he said. He benefited from a system that drilled into him the fundamentals of finding information, he said. The one hitch: "You find all this information but you don't know what to do with it."
He chuckled as he told the following anecdote: In 1987, while conducting research in a special collections library in Moscow, he came upon a copy of "Soviet Marxism" by Herbert Marcuse, and couldn't put it down. The work, published in 1958, essentially outlines why the Soviet system would inevitably implode.
"Marcuse explains why Lenin's idea about building socialism in one separate country couldn't possibly work," he said. "You are not building socialism because you are surrounded by capitalist countries, and you have to constantly respond to those countries by investing money in arms and other things. You are using your resources unproductively; you are not using them in a socialist way. So it is not socialism."
He smiled, and said, "And I'm thinking, 'He is right. It cannot work.'"
Astounded by his discovery, Oushakine also realized he could do little with it. "What would you do, protest?"
But the Soviet system was already beginning to collapse, and when the system did fall, there was much for scholars like Oushakine to sift through.
He had earned his master's degree in history at Altai State University, and his first doctoral degree, in political sciences, at St. Petersburg State University, followed by a master's in sociology through the Central European University in Budapest and Open University in London.
Oushakine came to the United States in 1997 to complete a second dissertation; this one in anthropology from Columbia University. His work in that field led to the publication of his first book, "The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War and Loss in Russia" (2009). He conducted much of the research for it in Barnaul, his Siberian hometown, interviewing a variety of individuals — from intellectuals to soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya — whose stories revealed a post-Soviet society in transition as well as turmoil.
"What I tried to show is that this previously homogeneous urban fabric got fragmented" after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Oushakine said. "You had more independent actors and forces and groups and people who are claiming they are part of society, but there is no unifying force or style or political system or religion. It is a doubled-edge sword. You can claim your own possibilities, but because [society] is fragmented, it takes more work.
Hope for the future
While his office in East Pyne Hall is a long way from his homeland, Oushakine is fully immersed in the region. Of late he has been researching Belarus and Kyrgyzstan for a new book project. In both countries he has talked to natives and explored areas in an attempt to show how these countries are building their independence after centuries of being ruled by outsiders. He stays on top of current events by reading Russian newspapers online daily and corresponding with leading experts on Central Asia from around the world.
Of course, the news he reads and the news he shares is often disturbing. Inflation, human rights crackdowns and corruption overwhelm the current headlines. And leadership is a concern. "I am not a fan of [Vladimir] Putin," Oushakine said of the Russian president.
But he is hopeful about the future.
"The younger generations in the former Soviet Union are people who have traveled a lot and have been exposed to political cultures and different lifestyles. They do not want to leave their country. They like it there," he said.
Oushakine tapped his desk, then looked ahead. "They just want it to work better. That gives some hope."


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British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was not only a key figure in developing the theory of evolution in the mid-19th century but also had the foresight to call for saving endangered species.
Wallace, who died 100 years ago this year, did his most important research in the rich biodiversity of Indonesia, and his plea for preservation is even more compelling than when he wrote it.
From my base in Jakarta, I can just step outside my home to observe the spectacle of life in overdrive that attracted Wallace.
OK, it's downtown Jakarta, so there are no rhinos or orangutans. Still, just outside my door, bugs flit, swarm and crawl in great abundance, and predators — birds, bats, toads and geckos — dart, swoop and pounce at them, and appear quite plump and well-nourished as a result.
But sadly, part of the story is the destruction of the natural abundance that Wallace noticed here.
I was shocked to discover on a reporting trip two years ago that more than 90 percent of the world's oldest virgin rainforests in Indonesian Borneo have been cleared to make way for, among other things, palm oil plantations.
The Modern Debate Over Evolution
While there may be a consensus among scientists about Wallace's and Charles Darwin's theories, it is worth noting a Gallup Poll last year that found that only 15 percent of Americans believe in any form of evolution that is not guided by God. Other studies suggest that the theory of evolution is more widely accepted in other Western countries.
Reading and thinking about Wallace has given me some new perspectives on my own work. It occurs to me, for example, that to discern the difference between two things, it helps to look at the seam or point of transition from one thing to the next.
The Indonesian archipelago is just such a transitional zone between the Asian, Pacific and Australian regions.
The news focus has always been more on Indochina than on maritime Southeast Asia. Despite the archipelago's great natural and human diversity, media have tended to ignore it, except for natural disasters and terrorist attacks. But the balance appears to be shifting in favor of Indonesia, which is Southeast Asia's largest economy.
The more I travel for reporting, the more I see how Wallace's ideas about biogeography also apply to humans.
In one country after another, I have looked at people's faces, food, language, music, and seen how each group transitions into the next one on a map, and how those who have migrated over the course of history have adapted to new environments.
Boundless Diversity
On one level, the biodiversity that enabled Wallace's discoveries implies the infinite variety of life — if not infinite in the number of species, then at least beyond our current ability to identify them all.
At the same time, biodiversity is a mechanism to ensure the survival of life on Earth as a single entity. The simultaneous diversity and unity of life is reflected in Indonesia's national motto, "unity in diversity." Or, as we would say, "out of many, one" — e pluribus unum.
Wallace's skill at this kind of observation reminds me of a passage in the ancient Chinese Taoist classic, the Dao De Jing:
"The ten thousand things — side-by-side they arise;
And by this I see their return.
Things come forth in great numbers;
Each one returns to its root."
So it seems that the man some describe as the last great Victorian had some interests in common with ancient Chinese philosophers. They seem to have shared ideas about the importance of observing nature as the key to perceiving the laws of the universe and advancing human knowledge.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Carnaval began back in pagan times, as a wine celebration for the God of Wine, Dionysios!
The Greek influence can still be seen today in the masks, dancing, drinking and costumes associated with Carnaval. But Carnaval in its present manifestation came about through a fusion of pagan festivals and Catholicism, similar to other popular celebrations like Halloween and St. Valentine's Day. The origin of the word Carnaval comes from the Italian word carnevale, which means to be without meat. Carnaval is celebrated in the time before Lent, a period during which practicing Catholics go without meat for a month.
Although first celebrated in Italy, the celebration soon traveled to other European Catholic countries, such as France, Spain and Portugal. Through colonization of other countries, Carnaval came to South America, the Caribbean and North America, where local customs soon mixed with the old, making regional Carnavals different. However, they all have boisterous merriment in common and almost all are held in February or early March (Granada in the Caribbean holds it in the summer to attract tourists). No matter what language you say it in, or what you call it, Carnaval, Carnevale, Karneval, or Mardi Gras means a good time.
Cozumel Carnaval ~ More Than 150 Years of Tradition!
We are proud to say that our Cozumel Carnaval is the oldest celebration on the Yucatan Peninsula and perhaps in the whole country of Mexico. According to Merida Magazine published on March 30 and April 20 of 1876 by Mr. Nestor Rubio Alpuche, Cozumel introduced its first Carnaval that year From oral history, we know that in 1896 parades in Carnaval dress and the "Dance of the Ribbons" and the wooden bull "Huacax-ch" appeared. In 1904, for the first time Don Manuel Vivas Martin, along with a local baker by the name of Perez organized a masquerade, that was Cuban in origin where the protagonists were depicted as blacks and the women's roles were all played by men.
A bit before the 1920's, a recent arrival from Tabasco to the island named Don Felix Gonzalez Bonastre developed parties that were organized student participation and ballads with other critical social events during Carnaval. Since then, masquerades are enthusiastically embraced by attendees and have become a part of the tradition. In the mid- 1940's women began to participate, starting with Dona Elia Flores de Gonzalez. Starting in 1970, the Carnaval celebration entered a crisis and the beautiful fiesta became degenerate and monotonous, featuring graffiti and violence. In 1975, the local city government took control of the activities and the fiesta gained new momentum, little by little reaching new heights of popularity among the population.
With the enthusiasm of the municipal leaders, German Garcia Padilla (1975-78), Antonio Gonzalez Fernandez (1978-81) and local personalities such as Adolfo Gracia Aguilar (Don Fito) and Sra. Carolina Hernandez de Joaquin and Professor Isabel Solis Vera, the Carnaval celebration was revived. The celebration has year to year become a huge fiesta for the people and families of the island providing a healthy diversion filled with glamour, fun and festivities. And we believe it is the best Carnaval in the state of Quintana Roo.


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From Pensacola to Miami, the Republican primary is in full swing. Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are blanketing Florida with rallies and personal appearances. The airwaves are full of campaign ads.
But Jeanne Casserta has heard enough. With several days left to go in the campaign, she stopped by the library in Coral Springs this week to cast her vote. She said she has heard plenty from both the Romney and Gingrich campaigns.
"I don't need to listen to any more speeches," she said. "I just had to follow who I think would be the strongest person to win the primary." And for Casserta, that's Romney.
Coming off his big win in South Carolina, Gingrich has found in Florida a number of challenges that appear to be slowing his momentum.
There's organization and money, of course. Romney has a lot more of both. Those are assets that Florida — with its 10 media markets and its large population — demands. On the air, Romney and a superPAC supporting him have outspent Gingrich and his allies 7 to 1.
Another potential problem for Gingrich is the hundreds of thousands of Florida Republicans who have already voted.
Voting Early
It's easy to cast your vote early in Florida elections, and an increasing number of voters are doing so. In most counties, polls opened last Saturday. Well over 100,000 people have already voted early that way.
Another popular way to vote early is through an absentee ballot. But, as Brian Hughes, a spokesman for Florida's Republican Party, says: "These days, calling it absentee is almost a misnomer. It's almost better to call it vote by mail."
Because of Florida's liberal absentee ballot rules, anyone who chooses can mail in his or her vote. In the 2008 primary, 300,000 Republicans cast absentee ballots. This year, Republican voters are expected to surpass that.
Hughes says it's a sign Florida Republicans are energized — in part because of the state's early primary. "We're a much bigger prize in the early landscape," he says.
A Game Changer?
In Florida, working the early and absentee vote has become an important tactic, even for campaigns at the county commission level. Brett Doster, a Florida Republican strategist working with the Romney campaign, says in primary campaigns, absentee and early voters are critical.
"Primary elections are lower turnout," he says. "So ... the more likely votes for your candidate you can track and get in the bank for the absentee ballot program — or the early voting program — ensures you a greater possibility of success on Election Day."
And this is an area in which Romney has an advantage. The Romney campaign began working in December to follow up with mailers and phone calls to Republicans who requested absentee ballots. By the time the Gingrich campaign turned its attention to Florida, more than 100,000 ballots had already been returned.
When primary day rolls around Tuesday, more than a half-million Floridians — maybe a quarter of the estimated turnout — are likely to have already voted. That's enough to sway an election.
Doster says the case study for this was the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary in Florida. That's when political newcomer Rick Scott edged out the establishment candidate, Bill McCollum.
"Bill McCollum actually won a plurality of votes on Election Day," Doster recalls. "But Rick Scott had beaten Bill McCollum in the absentees and the early vote. And he ultimately was the winner of that primary."
People who vote early are not influenced by last-minute revelations or momentum shifts that sometimes change the course of campaigns. That may not work in Gingrich's favor.
A survey conducted by the American Research Group found that at the beginning of the week, 17 percent of likely Florida voters had already cast ballots. Within that group, Romney has a 7-point lead over Gingrich.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
And I'm Robert Siegel.
Edward Snowden, the man who leaked top-secret NSA documents, predicted a month ago that the U.S. government would accuse him of committing grave crimes. That comment came in a video released today by The Guardian newspaper. At the time he disclosed the secret information, Snowden was an employee of a private firm Booz Allen Hamilton.
NPR' Tom Gjelten says his case has focused new attention on the role private contractors play in the intelligence business.
TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE: The debate over intelligence outsourcing arose after 9/11. U.S. intelligence agencies were told to do whatever they could, hire whomever they needed, in order to track down terrorists and prevent another attack. The agencies didn't have enough trained people of their own to do the necessary intelligence work, so they went outside. They used intelligence contractors.
President Obama's first intelligence director, Dennis Blair, speaking at his confirmation hearing, said this intelligence outsourcing needed to come under control.
DENNIS BLAIR: You can't do that for a long time. You have to keep the governmental functions by people who get their paycheck every two weeks and work for the government. And I will get into that issue.
GJELTEN: That was in 2009. But Congress is not entirely satisfied the intelligence agencies are reducing the use of outside contractors fast enough.
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: They've been working towards that goal. They have found it more difficult, and the process has been slower than any of us would like.
GJELTEN: Democrat Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee says the Snowden case has caused him and other members of Congress to take yet another look at the use of contractors to do intelligence work. It's long been known, he says, that outsourcing is more expensive than using government workers.
SCHIFF: From a cost point of view, it's made little sense for many of these jobs. But now we're going to be viewing this through does this also pose a risk to the security of our information?
GJELTEN: The new question - whether contractors are less likely to keep secrets.
SCHIFF: Certainly, we're pouring over this to determine what changes need to be made. And I think it really bolsters the view that many of us had before the whole Snowden business, that certain quintessentially government functions really ought to be brought back in and handled only by those working directly for the intelligence agencies.
GJELTEN: But it's not entirely clear that contractors present a bigger security risk than government employees. Before getting hired at Booz Allen as an intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden worked for the CIA, and he passed security checks there.
Charlie Allen is a 50-year intelligence veteran, spending most of his career at the CIA. It's been his experience, he says, that intelligence contractors are as trustworthy as government employees.
CHARLIE ALLEN: I worked with contractors as deputy program manager of a highly compartmented major program in the 1980s, early '90s, where our trust was deep with hundreds and hundreds of contractors. And we could not have accomplished that program in the Cold War without contractor support.
GJELTEN: Allen is now an advisor to a coalition of security firms on intelligence issues. He agrees some intelligence jobs are inherently governmental, but he says there are other areas where hiring contractors makes sense. He can imagine a CIA employee working in IT but not current with the latest technology.
ALLEN: He or she loses their expertise. They are not keeping up with the warp speed at which developments are occurring in places like Silicon Valley. You want to have very agile, very nimble, highly skilled contractors.
GJELTEN: But Allen and other intelligence veterans agree that outsourcing intelligence work does present unique security issues. John Gannon has worked a decade in private intelligence work after a long career at the CIA. He says he's found that intelligence contractors tend to bounce around from one employer to another.
JOHN GANNON: This creates a kind of mobility that I think is a real challenge to managers. And the managers in the contracting world are often managing a diaspora of contracts and multiple agencies.
GJELTEN: Making it harder for them to properly supervise the people doing their contract intelligence work. As much as half the government's intelligence work is now contracted out, all this outsourcing was already set to get congressional attention before Edward Snowden's leaks became a big story. Now, congressional hearings are due to be held, and there's even talk of new legislation to mandate that some intelligence work be handled only by the government. Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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I need to know something.
I took a day off today, which meant, as usual, that Erin went to daycare and I went on a bike ride and watched a movie. The bike ride was great; the movie was average.
I seem to have a special ability; a sixth sense. Whenever I abandon my daughter to the care of strangers and take a day for myself and guiltily hide from the spying, judging eyes of the world by ducking into a movie theater, I pick the worst possible movie to see given my guilt and my judgment paranoia.
For instance, today I saw a movie called Henry Pool Is Here. Luke Wilson stars as a man who finds out he is terminally ill, buys a house in his childhood neighborhood looking for comfort in the familiar, and tries to drink himself into depressed oblivion before he dies. He is alone, without any hint of family. This is the kind of movie I choose to see, without knowing anything about the plot, on the day when I'm alone. Idiot.
But today doesn't even compare to Erin's very first day at the day care center. The first day when I wasn't home with her. It was a test, to make sure she'd be able to handle daycare if we had to use it in the future. I didn't need a break or have to run errands or anything like that. So I was feeling especially guilty about taking the afternoon off (yeah, it was only 4 hours of daycare, not even a full day). I went to the movies, and I saw two films, back to back.
No Country for Old Men and I Am Legend.
Completely, utterly, insanely bad choices.
The movies were fine, even great. But let me synopsize these two features, selected by me on an afternoon when I had sold my daughter to gypsies.
No Country is the story of man who finds a whole bunch of money at a drug deal gone bad. Someone figures out that he has the money, and they hunt him. So he has to leave his wife and go on the run, holing up in hotels and motels and fleeing from the creepy menace that is Javier Bardem, as well as from some Mexican gangsters. Ultimately, and if you don't want the end spoiled go ahead and skip to the next paragraph…..ultimately, he fails. Despite his competence, he weakens for a moment, and he is killed like a dog. He dies far from his wife, and because he has failed her and defied his nemesis who has promised to kill her for his defiance, she dies too. There is almost no movie that could have been a worse choice to see on that particular afternoon.
Almost. Because I saw the worst movie to see on that particular afternoon immediately afterward.
I Am Legend is the story of a brilliant scientist who is the last man on Earth. He watched his wife and son die in a horrible accident during a panicked evacuation from New York after the cancer-cure he develops starts turning everyone into crazy zombie things. After he watches them die he spends years in insane isolation, trying to cure the zombie things: because he can't bring his family back, but maybe he can perform the near-impossible and make up for destroying the human race and killing his family.
This was not a good, relaxing afternoon at the movies, folks. This was vengeance. Retributive justice. Karma.
I biked away from the theater today feeling as I tend to on these days: guilty. Missing my daughter. Wondering why I need to take even these modest breaks from the routine. I suppose I need to know that these breaks are worthwhile.
But not as badly as I need to know where the 40 year old dude on the bike in front of me was going, in his khaki pants and his loafers and his visor.
And his Bob the Builder backpack.
Just curious, dude.
(Editor's Note: As some people have pointed out, I actually don't really remember the plot details of I Am Legend. Do not count on me for movie reviews. I actually just sit in the theater and tweet.)


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Hundreds of Muslim athletes are participating in the London Olympics, which officially begin Friday. But along with travel and other logistics, they're also adjusting to Ramadan, the holy month that requires them to fast.
Many athletes say they'll forego the ban on consuming food and drink, as Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports on Morning Edition. The daylong fast is a threat to a strong performance — and their hopes of bringing pride to their nation, they say.
In most cases, the athletes are skipping or postponing the fast under an Islamic dispensation for Muslims who are traveling. Other athletes have been issued special fatwas, or religious rulings, authorizing them to postpone their fast.
Barbara spoke to open-water swimmer Mazen Aziz, of Egypt.
"I don't think anyone can handle that. Anyone," Aziz says of competing in his event without consuming any water or food. "You may die, because you just don't have anything in your body. Like, empty. So that would be so dangerous."
The open-water swim can last for well over an hour and 45 minutes, Barbara reports.
For most Muslim athletes, the choice to put off the fast disrupts years of tradition that began as early as age 12.
"It was a really difficult decision because I've fasted all my life for Ramadan – it's incredibly important to me. But if I fast, it will be impossible to stay in peak condition and perform at my highest level in the Games," British discus thrower Abdul Buhari tells The Guardian. "I believe God is forgiving, and I'll make up for every single day I've missed."
The United Arab Emirates has sought relief for its athletes, as France 24 reports. The plan calls for athletes to "make up" the fast after they're done competing.
While Morocco is considering joining the practice, "athletes from more conservative Islamic countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, will however be expected to stick rigidly to the rules of the holy month," according to France 24.
Of course, Ramadan presents a challenge to all Muslim athletes, not only those who are Olympians.
On her Lifting Covered blog, Pakistani-American weightlifter Kulsoom Abdullah, who lives in Atlanta, has written about the difficulties of training during Ramadan.
Among her recommendations: for the pre-fast morning meal, go light on carbohydrates, which might send blood sugar higher — and increase the urge to eat. Abdullah isn't competing in this summer's Olympics.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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011792 24737
E: firstname.lastname@example.com
Brunel's Old Station History
The Story of Brunel's Old Station
What makes Brunel's Old Station stand out from the crowd when it comes to choosing the ideal venue for events, meetings and conferences in Bristol? The secret lies in its historical roots. The former Great Western Railway Terminus has seen significant change since its creation in the 19th century, but its unique story remains entrenched in history.
Brunel's Old Station... then
Brunel's Old Station was designed in 1841 by one of the world's most famous architects, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The entire railway station was built on the same scale as a cathedral, yet the project was completed in just two years. The building was a masterpiece of its time - it took another 14 years before London could boast a similar structure of the same scale and importance at Paddington.
To make the station as unique as possible, Brunel had to tackle a variety of design issues and functions that had never before been resolved in one building project. Designing an engine shed, passenger hall, ticket office and goods area, as well as stabling for hundreds of horses and an engineering shop were just a few obstacles he faced. The station was also not permitted a site within the medieval walls of the city, so Brunel chose to place it within the water meadows of Temple Parish, which stood just beyond the Temple Gate of the City. On completion the timber and iron roof of the passenger shed formed the widest single span of its age.
Brunel's Old Station... now
Today, Brunel's Old Station remains one of Bristol's most fascinating and historical best kept secrets. The Grade 1 building, nominated as a World Heritage Site in recognition of its international importance, was rescued by the Empire and Commonwealth Trust in the 1980's with the active support of the Railway Heritage Trust and English Heritage
The main entrance of Brunel's Old Station now stands within the former Engine and Carriage Shed, where the locomotives filled their tanks with water from a massive water-tower. The water tower stood above where Café Gusto is now located. The enduring versatility and appeal of this Bristol venue is reflected in the events, meetings and conferences its hosts today, from large Asian weddings, to business meetings, cider festivals and food fairs. The Passenger Shed can accommodate 800 people and is conveniently located right next to the city's modern day railway station of Bristol Temple Meads. Today Brunel's Old Station is a venue of choice for thousands of customers who have been placing large scale events here for over 25 years.


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Oregon health officials are concentrating on coordinating services and preventing hospital stays. New Jersey medical centers are rewarding doctors who can save money without jeopardizing patient care. And Massachusetts is expanding the role of physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
As states work on implementing the complex federal health care reforms, some have begun tackling an issue that has vexed employers, individuals and governments at all levels for years — the rapidly rising costs of health care. The success of models that are beginning to emerge across the country ultimately will determine whether President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act can make good on its name.
It's too early to tell what will work and what won't, but states, insurers and medical groups are experimenting with a variety of programs to contain costs without undermining care. These test runs come as millions of new patients will gain eligibility for health insurance under the federal law, putting additional pressure on the system.
"Look at any of the long-term projections for the federal budget or for state budgets," said Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. "If we don't bring down health care costs, we're either going to be paying a whole lot more in taxes or we're going to stop spending money on other things we care about."
The Affordable Care Act is expected to extend coverage to many of the roughly 50 million Americans who lack insurance by expanding Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for low-income people, and requiring most others to purchase insurance or pay a fine.
Often overlooked are the law's efforts to stabilize constantly rising costs.
U.S. health care spending reached $2.7 trillion in 2011, or $8,700 per person, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The agency says those numbers are climbing and predicts spending will reach $14,000 per person by 2021.
The higher costs mean higher premiums for businesses, which are passing on more of those expenses to their employees, and for individuals, who are seeing a rise in out-of-pocket costs.
In the Portland area, spiking costs have forced Steve Ferree to reduce the benefits he offers his 32 employees at the Mr. Rooter Plumbing franchise he owns.
"We feel bad about it," he said. "We do provide good insurance, and we want to make sure we take care of folks, so that's a tough decision to make."
Premiums for employee-only coverage have spiked 65 percent since 2006, Ferree said, and employee and spouse plans rose 90 percent. Workers cover a quarter of the premium.
The struggles of business owners such as Ferree illustrate the difficulty of finding solutions, even in a state that has been held out as a potential national model for savings.
The recession provided what is expected to be a temporary reprieve, with health care costs slowing to 3.9 percent annually between 2009 and 2011, the slowest growth rate since the government began keeping track in 1960, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Over the preceding 18 years, per capita health care costs grew an average of 6.5 percent a year.
Yet despite the recent slowdown, health care costs continue growing faster than both wages and the economy as a whole, accounting for an ever-larger share of spending for employers and workers alike. It now accounts for nearly 18 percent of U.S. economic activity, up from 5 percent in 1960.
Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family coverage jumped nearly 4 percent this year, and single coverage rose almost 5 percent, according to a report released last week by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation expects prices will begin rising faster as the economy improves.
Economists say soaring health care costs are driven primarily by industry consolidation and expensive new medical technologies and prescription drugs.
The Affordable Care Act's cost-containment section reduces Medicare reimbursements to providers and requires commercial insurance companies to issue refunds if more than 20 percent of their revenue goes to profits, salaries and overhead. Hospitals will face penalties when patients develop conditions while in their care.
The federal law also promotes "accountable care organizations" within Medicare, which are charged with improving coordination to reduce wasteful spending.
But much of the experimentation on reducing costs is driven by state governments and private businesses.
Oregon has tried to tackle rising costs by focusing on Medicaid, which serves 550,000 people in the state and is expected to grow by 200,000 under the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion that starts next year.
Gov. John Kitzhaber last year spearheaded a new model of delivering services under Medicaid. His initiative led to a state law that created "coordinated care organizations," which attempt to integrate mental, physical and dental care as they improve the way chronic conditions are managed. These organizations are required to manage their costs within a fixed rate of growth.
Some coordinated care groups are hiring staff to work intensely with Medicaid patients who frequently visit the emergency room.
"We try to deal with the medical part. But everything they go through, we have to take into account, because if you don't have money to pay your bills, you're going to have stress" that complicates medical problems, said Ruby Ibarra, a community health specialist for Multnomah County, which is part of a coordinated care organization in the Portland area.
Elsewhere in the state, Trillium Community Health Plan in Eugene has a program starting this month that gives up to $200 in prepaid debit cards to pregnant mothers who quit smoking.
Oregon's law also has led to the rapid expansion of "health homes," supporting a system of primary care that calls for clinics to stay open longer and offer same-day appointments.
The health home model has been successful at improving preventive care in Enterprise, Ore., a town of 2,000 in the remote northeastern corner of the state.
"You don't feel like you're just pushing papers around here. You really feel like you have an important part to play in improving people's health," said Dr. Elizabeth Powers, one of four physicians at Winding Waters Clinic in Enterprise, an early adopter of the health home model.
The clinic serves all patients, including those with Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance. The federal Affordable Care Act also encourages wider adoption of the health home model.
In New Jersey, hospitals have reported success with a Medicare program that paid doctors who saved money for hospitals. Officials said it contributed to lower costs and shorter hospital stays without increasing mortality or readmission rates because doctors began considering the costs of their orders.
The experiment, known as "gainsharing," is expanding this year to more hospitals, including some outside New Jersey.
In Massachusetts, the first state to enact comprehensive health care reforms, lawmakers last year supported a goal of restraining the rise in health care costs to a level no greater than the state's overall growth rate. To accomplish this, legislators passed a multi-tiered state law that expands the role of physician assistants and nurse practitioners to act as primary care providers, making it easier for patients to access care outside the emergency room.
The law also requires providers to disclose more information to consumers about costs and quality and allows the state to review proposed consolidations to assess the effect on those factors.
The Massachusetts regulations provide money to accelerate electronic record-keeping and create tax credits for businesses that adopt wellness programs to combat preventable chronic diseases.
Cost-containment efforts are not confined to states that have embraced Obama's health care reforms.
Many Southern states are transitioning their Medicaid patients into managed-care programs, which receive a fixed amount of money for each patient, regardless of their costs. Some insurance companies are thinning their networks of doctors to funnel patients to lower-cost options.
South Carolina, for example, is targeting elective early births, trying to keep newborn babies out of the expensive neonatal intensive care unit. The state also trained 18 community health workers who are in clinics that see a large number of Medicaid patients.
There are substantial challenges to copying these experiments nationally. Adopting a technology system to keep medical records electronically, for example, entails substantial upfront costs, as does hiring staff to coordinate patient care. At the same time, providers have to be careful to avoid skimping on needed care to save money.
Most of the experiments are too new to produce reliable data about their success, but health policy experts warn that the rapid rise in costs is unsustainable.
"It has to end eventually," said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, "because we can't have an economy driven entirely by health care."
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UPDATE - "10 Ways the Greek People Can Save Themselves"
Once in a great while an opportunity comes along to deliver justice to a people, giving them what they truly deserve. Greece's time has come.
It must be dawning on all but the most obtuse member of the banking elite that they can't possibly steal enough money from German taxpayers to save the Greek government from default. Put it off, maybe, but collapse is inevitable.
Once this happens, what is the purpose of casting Greece into some selective temporary financial purgatory where the irrelevant Greek economy can continue embarrassing anyone foolish enough to lend their dysfunctional government a dime? Why not go all the way and give the country what many of its people have been violently demanding for almost a century?
Let them have Communism.
Hard as it is for young people to believe, Communism was once a major historical force holding billions of people in thrall. Outside the halls of elite universities, who still takes it seriously? Sure we have Cuba, where the Castro deathwatch is the last thing standing between that benighted penal colony and an inevitable makeover by Club Med. Then there is Venezuela, though hope is fading that Hugo Chavez will carry the Bolivarian banner much longer now that he's busy sucking down FOLFOX cocktails while checking for signs that his hair is falling out. And frankly, a psychopathic family dynasty ruling a nation of stunted zombies hardly makes North Korea a proper Communist exemplar.
What the world needs, lest we forget, is a contemporary example of Communism in action. What better candidate than Greece? They've been pining for it for years, exhibiting a level of anti-capitalist vitriol unmatched in any developed country. They are temperamentally attuned to it, having driven all hard working Greeks abroad in search of opportunity. They pose no military threat to their neighbors, unless you quake at the sight of soldiers marching around in white skirts. And they have all the trappings of a modern Western nation, making them an uncompromised test bed for Marxist theories. Just toss them out of the European Union, cut off the flow of free Euros, and hand them back the printing plates for their old drachmas. Then stand back for a generation and watch.
The land that invented democracy used it to perfect the art of living at the expense of others, an example all Western democracies appear intent on emulating. Being the first to run out of other people's money makes Greece truly ripe to take the next logical step beyond socialism.
As wrenching as it will be we can take comfort in the fact that Greece doesn't have much of an economy to disrupt. The only Greek industry that's worth a damn is tourism, rapidly collapsing as travelers get tired of being stranded by strikes while dodging Molotov cocktails. The rest of us can find plenty of other sources of lamb chops, yogurt, and olive oil. They crushed the concept of private property long ago under the burden of environmental, cultural, and social regulations that govern land use. Wouldn't it be instructive to let them have a go at building a workers' paradise to remind us what state enforced equality looks like?
Unlike neighboring Balkan nations that got to experience the joys of Communism after the Second World War, Greece was brought back from the brink by massive western intervention as well as a Churchillian side deal that obliged Stalin to butt out. The nasty civil war between the Greek Communist Party (the KKE) and government forces backed by Britain and the U.S. set the stage for decades of struggle between communist sympathizers who never gave up the dream, and right wing juntas determined to rule by force. The uneasy peace that has existed since the colonels were booted merely masks underlying tensions as every Greek worries, is someone else working fewer hours than I am?
How Greece conned its way into the European Union while hard working Turkey was left begging is a testament to the astute diplomats in Brussels, no doubt consulting their playbook on what dodge they can conjure up next to stick someone else with the bill. Why the E.U. extended credit to a nation whose governments have been in a chronic state of default since the country gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832 is a fitting subject for a News of the World expose. Perhaps they were being advised by Fannie Mae.
So despite the frantic meetings, the tragicomedy nears its final act. It's time for the global financial industry to pull up stakes and go home before more innocent bank employees get immolated. If you don't want the real contagion to spread, that is the disease of believing you can perpetually consume more than you produce, leave Greece to the Greeks and let the bankers take their lumps.
As difficult as it is for a Greek-American like myself to admit, resting on 2,000 year old laurels is a stale act. While few cultures can proudly look back on as many achievements in the arts, drama, athletics, philosophy, rhetoric, and architecture that were the glory of Greece, it's time for modern Greeks to take a good hard look at themselves. What have they done for the world lately? More importantly, what are they prepared to do to help themselves? If they can't face that question then it's time to sing the Internationale.


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Subwoofers: 4, 2, or 1?
I can tell you in one paragraph how to set up a pair of small speakers, but I could write a book about setting up subwoofers. It's the most challenging aspect of home audio because the resonances in a room tend to stress certain bass frequencies and strangle others. The effects of those resonances change from place to place in a room, so the sound may be perfect in one seat and a mess the next chair over.
A few years ago, researchers at Harman International found that using four subwoofers in a room — in the corners or at the midpoint of each wall — delivered smoother response across multiple seats than a single subwoofer could. But discovering that four subs are better than one creates a new conundrum for the audio enthusiast. Sure, a few of us have the luxury of asking, "Should I buy one kick-ass subwoofer or four kick-ass subwoofers?" But the question most of us must ask goes more like, "Should I spend my $1,200 subwoofer budget on one kick-ass subwoofer, two pretty good midsize subwoofers, or four little bargain subs?" In other words, would you get more benefit from the deep extension and powerful dynamics of, say, a big 15-inch sub, or from the smoother response of four 8-inch subs in the corners?
Unfortunately, finding a simple answer to this question may be impossible. Say you compared Brand X's 15-inch sub to four of its 8-inch subs. Well, what if the driver in the 15-incher kind of sucks? Or what if the engineers tuned the 15-incher for tight bass while they tuned the 8-inchers for maximum output? Performance differences like these would make the results of a comparison meaningless.
The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that while I couldn't find the definitive answer to this question, I might be able to discover some useful clues. To do so, I had to create as level a playing field as possible. Which meant ensuring that the subs had as similar a design as possible. Which meant I'd have to build them myself.


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Expenses scandal: How did our MP perform?
Brockley's local MP Joan Ruddock claimed £131,237 in expenses in 2007/08, according to this Google spreadsheet.
Ms Ruddock, the MP for Lewisham & Deptford, is 523rd out of 645 MPs listed - not too bad. Specifically, she did not claim any expenses for her family or spouse, and she didn't claim the second homes allowance (all of which is understandable as she lives in London).
Her main expenditure was on staffing (£89,000) and office costs (£23,000), plus £6,000 on stationery and postage and £1,100 on IT.
She used £8,900 of the communications allowance, and claimed £471 in travel costs (consisting of £71 in Europe and £400 mileage) and a £2,800 London living supplement.
Perhaps most pertinently, how did she compare to other London-based MPs? BC counts over 20 MPs in the greater London area who are below Ms Ruddock in the list, and around 15 above her. So she's about average, we'd say.
(If anyone from the Telegraph happens to be reading this and fancies giving us a preview of Ms Ruddock's claims in detail, do drop us an email ...)


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According to this article, home sewing was a billion dollar industry at the time. This is in 50's money! I would be very interested to compare that to the profits of today's home sewing industry, wouldn't you?
The article really outlines the ways in which home sewing in 1958 was so influenced by Paris fashion:
Every calculated change in Paris means more money spent [on patterns]. So fashion-bent have sewing women become that patternmakers have all but junked the simple housedress designs that used to be their bread and butter. What more and more women want is the kind of high-fashion Vogue patterns long sold by Conde Nast. The originals would cost perhaps $600, but almost any woman can copy them for the cost of a $3 pattern and $50 worth of fine fabric (Vogue patterns even supply a Paris label).That's interesting to compare to today's Vogue designer lines. I've enjoyed some of their Anna Sui offerings, but the others (Michael Kors, Donna Karan, etc.) have been a little staid for my taste - certainly not the trend-driven machine that it seems to have been in 1958.
What really blew my mind, though, was the fact that 20% of all women's garments in 1958 were made at home. Can you imagine?
And then there was the age of the women who sewed their own clothes:
One return prize for the industry is more and more younger sewers: the average home sewer's age has dropped from 45 in 1928 to 27 now, and by 1960 millions of teenagers will be sewing. A common but fashionable wedding present for suburban brides: a sewing machine.These 27-year-old women of 1958 would be 78 today. Are they still sewing, do you think?
I tried in vain to find the average age of the home sewer today to compare to the stats of 1958. Though there has been an indisputable rise in young women sewing today, I would guess that the average person purchasing sewing supplies is of the boomer generation (the teenagers that the article predicted would be sewing in the 60's, I suppose!).
But there was such an incredible drop in average age from 1928 to 1958 - do you think it's possible we could see the same thing happen in the coming years?
One parallel I can see between the young women sewing in 1958 and young women sewing today is that is was viewed not as necessity, but as a creative outlet:
Millions of women now rank sewing as their No. 1—and often only—hobby. "There's a whole new climate," says Simplicity's [director] Shapiro. "They do it as an art form."Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on all this. From your age perspective (whatever it may be) how do you see the future of the home sewing industry?


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WASHINGTON (AP) — A robust recovery for the global economy remains well out of reach.
That's the view that emerges from a survey of economists just as the Federal Reserve is expected this week to reduce its stimulus for the U.S. economy.
Europe has finally emerged from recession. Japan is growing after two decades of stagnation. And the United States is trudging ahead. Yet an Associated Press survey of more than two dozen economists suggests that global growth will remain below full health this year and next.
Persistently weak growth would make it harder to resolve many of the world's biggest economic challenges. They include historically high unemployment in Europe, sluggish spending by consumers and businesses in the United States, heavy government debts in Europe and Japan and unstable economies in some emerging nations.
The economists think the 17 nations that use the euro will grow at an annual rate barely above 1 percent in the second half of 2013 and in 2014. From April through June, the eurozone eked out its first quarterly growth after 18 months of contraction — a 1.2 percent annual rate. No acceleration is foreseen in the next year and a half.
The United States and Japan are expected to fare only slightly better.
The economists think the U.S. economy will grow at a 2.3 percent annual rate in the second half of 2013 and 2.6 percent in 2014. Japan is expected to grow 2.2 percent next year — far weaker than its 3.8 percent growth rate from April through June.
Normally, a healthy expansion in advanced economies produces annual growth of 3 percent or better. The United States expanded at an average pace of 3.25 percent from 1976 through 2007. But it hasn't grown at a 3 percent rate or faster since 2005.
"Most economies are growing so slowly... you don't know one day from the next if it's getting better or getting worse," said Susan Sterne, an economist at Economic Analysis Associates.
The AP survey collected the views of private, corporate and academic economists on a range of issues. Among their views:
— The Fed will start reducing its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases after its latest policy meeting ends Wednesday. The initial cut in purchases will be small — $10 billion a month. The Fed's bond purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low to induce people to borrow and spend. Though U.S. hiring and growth remain soft, some Fed officials don't think the bond purchases are doing much good anymore.
— "Tapering," as the Fed's expected pullback in bond purchases has come to be known, won't significantly disrupt the U.S. stock and bond markets. "That's because it's been so well-telegraphed," said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds. Investors have already driven up the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond about 1.2 percentage points beyond its level in late May, when Chairman Ben Bernanke first suggested that the Fed could slow its purchases by year's end.
— The biggest obstacles to faster U.S. growth vary — from tepid job and pay growth to the lingering squeeze from a Social Security tax increase and government spending cuts to doubts about whether Congress will raise the government's borrowing cap. If the cap isn't raised, the United States could default on its debt by mid-October. That would risk a downgrade of U.S. credit.
— The U.S. unemployment rate won't return to a range associated with a healthy economy — roughly 5 percent to 6 percent — before 2015 and perhaps not until 2016 or later. The rate is now 7.3 percent. It rose as high as 10 percent during the recession and has been falling steadily. But the rate has been falling, in large part, for a discouraging reason: More people have stopped looking for work. Once people without a job stop looking for one, the government no longer counts them as unemployed.
— Congress should not increase the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Some economists warn that a higher minimum wage could lead some employers to hold back on hiring lower-wage workers. That could escalate unemployment, they say.
The economists' dim outlook for the recovery in many advanced economies coincides with a slowdown in some key emerging economies after years of powerful growth.
China's growth, for example, slowed in the second quarter to 7.5 percent — explosive by the standards of developed countries but the slowest pace for China in two decades. The economists surveyed by the AP foresee little change through 2014.
The economists note that aging populations may be holding back growth in Japan and Europe. As older workers retire in greater numbers than younger workers can replace them, workforces shrink and economic growth tends to slow.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sought to revive Japan's moribund economy by boosting government spending and pushing the Bank of Japan to launch its own bond purchases. Those efforts led to a burst of growth in the first half of the year. But economists worry about the effects of a higher consumption tax that's set to take effect next year.
In 1997, Japan raised taxes on consumers — a move that many economists think stifled a nascent economic recovery.
"People are a little spooked about what that means this time," Webman said.


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Advice on Keeping Frogs (and Other Critters) out of Your Toilet
When you tell people you've had frogs in your toilet, their first assumption might be that you also have bats in your belfry. That is, that you're not playing with a full deck. But the fact is, lots of people have flipped their lids upon discovering uninvited guests in their biffies. If this happens to you, you should promptly close your lid, literally. Then put a heavy weight on it while you gather your senses and determine your next move. The following discussion will help you figure out where the intruder might have come from and how to keep his friends from joining the party.
Most Popular Potty Pets
Judging from the frequency of news reports and personal accounts of recent years, the most common animal to enter a home via the toilet is a rat. Frogs are pretty high on the list, too, presumably due to their amphibious capability. Squirrels, mice, and other rodents also have been found in toilets, but this is far less common. And all sorts of insects show up in toilets probably because bugs show up everywhere. In any case, keep in mind that a toilet has water not only in the bowl but also in the trap below the bowl, so any intruder has to swim or crawl its way through water to get in (unless, of course, no one's used the toilet in so long that all the water has dried up).
How'd They Do That?!!!
Rats are the Navy Seals of the animal kingdom. They will fulfill their mission, come hell or high water. They usually get into a home through a break in the drain pipe under your yard or in the city's sewer main. Snakes can do the same thing. Frogs, on the other hand, are the Don Knotts of the natural world. They jump around haphazardly and might just hop into a rooftop vent pipe or climb around on the edge of a vent and do a pratfall into the hole. The main vent pipe (called the vent stack) is actually the upper portion of the main drain pipe (called the waste stack); from this pipe it's usually a short trip to the nearest toilet.
When any animal other than a rat ends up in a toilet, it probably got there by accident via the vent stack. Again, rats usually enter by choice through the drain end, lured by the sweet siren scent of human sewage. Bugs in a toilet probably got there by crawling in from the bathroom.
Laying Out an Unwelcome Mat
If you've had only one animal invade your house through the vent stack, it's best to do nothing and hope it doesn't happen again, because it probably won't and because covering the vent can lead to bigger problems. However, if animal visits are recurring, you can cover the top of the vent pipe with something like chicken wire, just to keep critters from falling in. You want a material with fine wires and fairly large holes; don't use screen or even fine hardware cloth, which can become clogged with dirt or snow and block off the vent; very bad. Whatever cover you try, make sure to check it periodically to confirm the vent is "breathing" as normal.
To stop rats and snakes from entering through the sewer system, find out where your house's main drain runs along your property, and look for burrows in the area; these could link up to holes in the drain pipe. You can also hire a plumber to scope the drain with a video camera and/or ask the city to scope their line to look for possible entry points. Atlanta Plumbing Plus said on Hometalk.com, "Typically, when we run a camera down the line, we like to show our customers exactly what we are seeing so they can understand the problem and make an informed decision on next steps. Your plumber should always do that for you."
Best of luck keeping your toilet free of critters!
Updated December 6, 2017.
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