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Data integration and data exchange is one of the key features in XML that will have wide usage in the future which means that applications would be able to exchange data. All large and small players in the computer industry are adopting XML. Hence XML is and will be a sure key enabler for e-business. Sound's quite intriguing and fascinating isn't it? Then read this article to understand why and how.
You may think in this strange world where standards come and go like seasons, even a single standard are fragmented by companies seeking competitive advantage. XML however, appears to be different. The technologies that dominate the market for data storage are pre-relational and relational databases that manage traditional data types like numbers and text. But with the advent of XML into the market, we have amazing new products that can manage and process "diligent data", which means self-describing data. Relational systems will always be recommended for storing text and numbers, but if communication and processing are the priorities, XML is the technology of choice.
How is ASP and XML related? If you are using ASP to create a web site, then chances are pretty high that you are using a database to store data. XML is another format for storing data and being increasing used.
We've already seen XML support be introduced into Internet Explorer and ADO, but the support is far from full. The trouble stems from the fact that ADO and IE are evolving at different rates. While it is true that browser support is limited (although W3C's Amaya browser as well as JUMBO browser supports it), in the near future all browsers are expected to fully support XML, and ADO and IE albeit would be more integrated. This shouldn't give you the impression that XML is useless, until a browser supports it. XML isn't about display, it's about structure.
XML is gaining universal acceptance and is sure to stay in future. Parsing algorithms and tools continue to improve as more and more people come to know the long-term benefits of moving their data to XML.
Technical gurus claim that XML is revolutionizing the way we communicate, spread and exchange information across the Web and within Intranets. This powerful language will help you do things with your data that you never before thought possible. {mospagebreak title=Preparing Yourself For The Future!} What Is Extensible Markup Language: Before we can learn what XML is, it's a good idea to clarify what markup language is. Because, language is probably the wrong term. It is not a language in the sense that Visual Basic or C++ are languages, but it's a set of rules that define how text documents should be marked up. Now we have to define what we mean by marked up. Marking up a document is the process of identifying certain areas of a document as having special meaning. In short markup language is just a set of rules that define how we add meaning to areas of a document.
The main difference between XML and HTML XML takes a different view from HTML, although it still uses tags, It is not a replacement for HTML. XML and HTML were designed with different goals. The major difference is that XML is designed to describe the structure of text, not how it should display. In short, XML was designed to carry data, to describe data and to focus on what data is. On the other hand HTML was designed to display data and to focus on how data looks. To put it in a line we can say HTML is about displaying information, while XML is about describing information. Let us take a simple example 1: Save it as .html
When you load the above html file into a browser, then it displays the above tags as though it were formatted document. Which will looks something like below
Hello !!

 Welcome to the Web Age.

This is normal text.  while this is bold text.
Hello!! Welcome To The Web Age This is normal text. While this is bold text.However if the above text defines an XML document, then the tag don't mean anything. Say you load same file with .html extension (example 1) into the browser like IE but now with a .xml file suffix. Internet Explorer interprets this XML and displays it for us which looks like this
But notice it's done nothing with the XML – just displayed it as such (except indents the tags to give a structured look). The browser knows how to interpret HTML and display it with all formatting. The browser also knows how to interpret XML, but in this case since XML tags don't imply formatting nothing is done and the tags are displayed as such. {mospagebreak title=The Name Says It All…..EXtensible:} HTML has a fixed set of element types, for example TITLE, H1, H2, EM, BODY, P, HR, and so on. A valid HTML document must use these elements. It cannot invent its own. A browser vendor can of course add its own proprietary tags (for instance, Netscape's <BLINK> tag), but there is no standard way to introduce new element types. While this is not the case with XML. XML has the ability to define new elements, and furthermore, this can be done in the document itself. Thus, XML documents are in essence self-describing. Let's consider an example. Imagine that you are looking at an HTML document with the following table in it:
Hello !!

 Welcome to the Web Age.

This is normal text.  while this is bold text.
|Visual Basic Programming
|Eduwardo Wancelloti
|Java Programming
|ASP Programming

Although we as humans or programmers can make an educated guess, we really have no way of knowing what this data represents. Is "Visual Basic Programming" the name of a book? A course opted? Skill set required? It is impossible to say. And if it's a course (as appear to be), are there three named participants registered (Naven, Gokul, and Anna). Or just one named Naven Gokul Anna? XML fixes this. The corresponding information would be represented in XML like this:
 Visual Basic Programming
 BTech
 Eduwardo Wancelloti
 Naven
 Gokul
 Anna
(and so on for each row)...
<course>The lesson here is tags can be anything you like, it is only how you use them that gives them meaning. Of course it is sensible to give meaningful names to start with. In the above example we have used XML to describe data, and we've used tag names that represent field names of the data. Thus in XML, information about the data structure can be preserved. It's standard text, so can easily transfer from machine to machine. It's not in proprietary format, so anyone can read it, and if the tags are named sensibly, the XML is self-describing. Furthermore, all information concerning presentation style has been removed from the document. We can say that this XML document evidently supports an element named "course," and the question you should be asking yourself is: But how am I supposed to know how to format this? (Notice that the HTML code contains a style directive for the text "Visual Basic Programming;" for example, the element indicates italics.{mospagebreak title=Proof Is In The Output} XML does not have a fixed number of tags or elements, as HTML does, but is extensible, as is SGML, allowing the document designer to define meaningful tags. XML represents a response to the inadequacy of both languages to meet typical information publishing needs in an era that includes global information networks, and conventional paper publishing. XML is designed as a slim SGML, better suited for software development, distribution on information networks, and for use on non-conventional computing systems. The virtue of XML will become clearer as the Internet expands and as information devices such as palm-held computers and cellular phones become increasingly popular. Now let us look at some terms, and different ways that XML can be laid.
<name> Java Programming </name>
<department> BTech </department>
<teacher> Eduwardo Wancelloti </teacher>
<student> Naven </student>
<student> Gokul </student>
<student> Anna </student>
Tag and Element:
We have used the name tag to identify some HTML such as  and
. An Element is a fully formed use of those tags. For example:
 Some Bold text and  italic text .
This tag consists of two opening and closing tags and two elements: "b" and "I". So an element comprises of a start tag, an end tag, and text it encloses, which can include other elements. This is of great significance because it introduces the concept of Well-formed XML. In which an openeing tag must have closing tags. This is very different from HTML where some tags like  and
 don't have closing tags.
If you are using XML it is possible that some fields might contain no data. In that case the tags would be empty. Empty tags in XML could be define in one of the two ways. First is with start and end tags, but no content:
<TagName/>Another aspect of being well-formed is that XML tags are case sensitive, so opening and closin tags must match. This means the following is incorrect:
<TagName></tagname>{mospagebreak title=Starting From The Roots of XML…} Root Tags:
Another term to be aware of is the Root Tag. This is defined as the outer tag, and an XMl document can have only one root. For example:
<BookAuthors>There can be only one top-level tag in the above code <BookAuthors>. Say you add <BookAuthors> some <author>tags and another <Bookauthors> within the above tag, then it will become invalid.
<au_name> Bill Gates </au_name>
<au_name> Harry Potter</au_name>
The <?XML Tag>: This isn't a true XML tag but special tag indicating special processing instructions. The <?xml tag> should be the first line of each XML document. And can be used to identify the version and language information. It is also a place where you define the language used in your XML data. It is trivial that if your data contains characters that aren't a part of ASCII (standard english character set) you can specify the encoding used in your document by adding encoding attribute to the ?xml processing instruction as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>Attributes:
Like HTML, XML has Attributes to define the properties of elements, and they mus also be well-formed.
Special Characters:
XML has special set of characters, which cannot be used as normal string. They are &, <, >, " and,. For example the following is invalid <book> Advanced ASP & ADO Concepts </book>
Schemas and DTD's:
As stated earlier XML tags don't actual mean anything and you can give any name, but how do you know what name to give and what sort of tags are allowed in a document. For this purpose you have to use either a Document Type Definition (DTD) or Schema. Schema and DTDs are like flip side of the same coin. They both specify which element are allowed in a document, and can run well-formed XML document into Valid XML document. All this means is that XML as well as being correctly marked up (well-formed) it contains only allowed elements and attributes.{mospagebreak title=The Best Of Both The Worlds} We will discuss both DTDs and Schemas you can decide which to use. A DTD is a text file that defines the structure of an XML document, but DTDs isn't XML – it is completely separate syntax.
Let us look at a typical DTD – say you have Employees table in your database that had fields like emp_id, emp_lname, emp_fname, phone, address, zip. Then the XML document generated for this Employee from the database will look this below.
<!ELEMENT DOCUMENT (EMPLOYEE+)>This is actually quite simple it states that this document comprises zero or more employee elements. The plus sign on the end of EMPLOYEE says one or more. Each EMPLOYEE element is made up of six other elements. And each of these sub-elements contains character data (CDATA).
<!ELEMENT EMPLOYEE(emp_id, emp_lname, emp_fname, phone, address, zip)>
<!ELEMENT emp_id (CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT emp_lname(CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT emp_fname(CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone(CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT address (CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT zip (CDATA)>
There are two real flaws with DTD:
• They are not XML as such
• You cannot specify data types such as integer, data and so on.
Because of this Microsoft proposed Schemas to the W3C. If we converted the above DTD into a Schema it will look something like this:
<Schema ID="EMPLOYEE">With the addition of data types display will look like below.
<ELEMENT name = "emp_id"/>
<ELEMENT name = "emp_lname"/>
<ELEMENT name = "emp_fname"/>
<ELEMENT name = "phone"/>
<ELEMENT name = "address"/>
<ELEMENT name = "zip"/>
<Schema ID="EMPLOYEE">Namespaces:
<ELEMENT name = "emp_id" type = "string"/>
<ELEMENT name = "emp_lname" type = "string"/>
<ELEMENT name = "emp_fname" type = "string"/>
<ELEMENT name = "phone" type = "string"/>
<ELEMENT name = "address" type = "string"/>
<ELEMENT name = "zip" type = "string"/>
One problem with XMl is you can give an element almost any name. Unfortunately this means there is good chance you'll pick the same name as someone else. This is where namespaces come in, as namespaces uniquely identifies the schema to which elements belong. Namespaces are added to XML document by defining the xmlns attributes in the root tag, which requires Uniform resource Identifier (URI). {mospagebreak title=The Potential Of XML} Parts of an XML document:
The various building blocks of an XML document is shown in the document below. And this will be a recap to what we have already learnt.
The Prolog consisits of two internal blocks :
• The first block defines the XML version declaration which is optional. <?xml version = "1.0" ?>
• DTD (document type definition) OR SCHEMA
PROLOGXML Style Sheets
XML documents, unlike HTML, contain absolutely no formatting directives. Instead, an XSL (XML style sheet) is applied to the XML document. Think of a style sheet as a pre-processor for the actual graphical flow-engine that creates the final layout. The style sheet contains functions and rules for every element type. The functions are written in Scheme (a programming language derived from LISP) and have access to the full structure of the XML document being processed. This means that elements can be processed conditionally, for example, based upon their parent-element type (or some other relevant factor).
It is beyond the scope of this document to discuss XSL style sheets. However, the concept of applying a style sheet as part of the server-side processing is in fact extremely interesting and relevant to the discussion vis-a-vis server-side XML processing. I like to think of style sheets as transformation engines, which are capable of transforming an XML document into something else–for instance, a database record–or an HTML document. {mospagebreak title=XML Parser} A parser is a piece of software that makes sure the XML document is valid or at least well-formed. Parsers are extremely complex to develop and so only experienced programmers will design one. Once a parser is developed, other programmers and Web designers can easily reuse it .A parser is part of XML that you will never see.
XML tags are custom-defined thus enabling the generation of domain specific markup languages for diverse fields such as vector graphics, mathematics, music and technical documentation. I hope my now you have got a fair idea of this most hyped up XML technology, we will explore more of this in the next part.


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Click to enlarge table (PDF).
Most sampling events are conducted by one party and use one sampling procedure and one laboratory for sample analyses. Recently three consultants completed a three-way split sampling program: one sampling procedure was used to fill containers in a random order for three consultants sending their samples to three independent laboratories. The results showed surprisingly disparate results while duplicate sample results analyzed by the same laboratory and individual laboratory QA/QC showed acceptable levels of precision and accuracy.
The collection and analysis of these samples is a reminder that sampling the environment is complex and in some cases not fully understood. Care must be exercised when drawing conclusions that presume a detailed and complete understanding of a complex system (i.e., the environment) based on the results of data.
As part of a lawsuit, three consultants sought to accurately and precisely determine the nature and extent of gasoline contaminants in groundwater. Though representing different parties in the lawsuit, the three consultants recognized the value in developing a data set that all parties would share and use. Working together, the three consultants (Consultant A, Consultant B and Consultant C) developed a groundwater sampling plan to sample 15 groundwater observation wells at the site for multiple analyses. This article presents and analyzes the sampling procedure and results of one laboratory analysis of groundwater collected from nine groundwater observation wells.
Consultant A was assigned the role of purging each well using low-flow techniques with a peristaltic pump until geochemical parameters of the purged water stabilized. Once stable, Consultant A placed groundwater samples into sample containers appropriate for analysis (preserved 40 milliliter VOA vials). Independent state-certified laboratories (Laboratory A, Laboratory B and Laboratory C) provided the sample containers to Consultant A, Consultant B and Consultant C, respectively. All consultants were on hand to inspect and document the work completed by Consultant A.
Consultant A filled sample containers in a manner intended to avoid the potential bias associated with possible changes in groundwater contaminant concentrations during groundwater purging. At each location, Consultant A filled nine containers, three from each laboratory in a rotating order such that vials from Laboratory A might be filled first, fourth and seventh while vials from Laboratory B might be filled second, fifth and eighth and Laboratory C third, sixth and ninth. The order that vials were filled changed from well to well. The three vial containers collected for each consultant constituted one sample, therefore, a total of three samples were collected from each groundwater observation well for laboratory analysis.
Once filled, Consultants A, B and C collected the vials and placed them into coolers for shipment under chain of custody to the laboratories. Consultants A, B and C delivered samples to the respective laboratories on the same day that the samples were collected or on the following day.
Each laboratory used a method of analysis developed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to determine the concentration of gasoline constituents. The Volatile Petroleum Hydrocarbon or VPH method is a purge and trap, gas chromatograph, mass spectrometer method that uses a photoionization detector and flame ionization detector in series. It quantifies the concentration of both individual compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, naphthalene and MtBE) and carbon chains (C5-C8 aliphatics, C9-C12 aliphatics and C-9 to C-10 aromatics). The consultants selected VPH in part because it was acceptable to all three consultant/laboratory teams and is widely used in Massachusetts, but also because it is the method preferred by state regulators.
The three laboratories analyzed the groundwater samples provided by the three consultants. The laboratories also analyzed QA/QC samples including a field duplicate, trip blanks, and laboratory duplicates. Additional field duplicates, trip blanks, matrix spikes and matrix spike duplicates were also analyzed as QA/QC samples for other analyses not discussed in detail in this article. Each laboratory provided reports to their respective consultants, who, in turn, circulated the reports among the other two consultants. In the end, everybody received everybody else's data, including the results and all QA/QC backup information.
Review of information provided by the three laboratories indicates that all three laboratories met acceptable QA/QC standards when their data was viewed in isolation. For example, for each lab, all analyses were performed within the appropriate holding time and all samples were received in good condition and with the appropriate preservatives. Analytical reports show surrogate recoveries for all samples well within acceptable criteria. Reported concentrations of duplicate samples were within 10 percent for all compounds, with the majority of the compounds being within 5 percent. Trip blanks showed no evidence of cross contamination as no compounds were detected above reportable detection limits. Percent recovery of laboratory control samples (LCS) and laboratory control duplicate samples (LCDS) were within 5 percent and the relative percent difference between the LCS and LCDS samples also was within 5 percent. In short, if one were to evaluate the sampling and analysis effort based on only one laboratory report, he or she would likely conclude that the sampling effort successfully measured contaminant concentrations in groundwater with both great accuracy and precision.
To determine the accuracy between the three laboratories, the percent differences between the three samples collected from the same groundwater observation well and analyzed by three distinct laboratories were calculated. The percent differences were also calculated for thee duplicate samples where the original sample and duplicate sample were both analyzed by the same laboratory. The following formulas were used:
D = S / M x 100%S = √[∑(X-M)2 ] / (n-1)Standard Deviation = D = Percent DifferenceS = Standard DeviationX = Individual ResultM = Mean of all Resultsn = Sample Size
The results among the three laboratories did not correlate well when compared to one another, while the results for the duplicate samples analyzed by the same laboratory correlated within 10 percent (see the Table). Not only do the results among the three laboratories differ significantly, but the results appear to defy a straightforward explanation as to why such a disparity exists. For example:
In collecting samples for analysis, we attempt to ensure that the contaminant concentration present in the media being sampled (for example groundwater) is accurately represented by the number we see in the laboratory report. Through understanding the limitations of sampling methods (for example, bailers versus peristaltic pumps versus bladder pumps), proper purging of wells (for example, stabilization of geochemical parameters) and standardization of handling and laboratory methods, we minimize the likelihood of spurious results. In 2005, DEP completed an extensive assessment to determine whether laboratories were able to accurately analyze water and soil samples. In this double-blind investigation, an independent contract laboratory spiked soil and water samples with a known concentration of a known contaminant. These samples were then analyzed by 20 laboratories in the state using the same methods. The results are encouraging as all labs reported results within 10 percent of the actual concentration.
But environmental samples are not prepared in a laboratory and are complex mixtures of naturally occurring elements and compounds. Environmental samples contain sediment and, despite our best efforts, change from the time they are removed from the environment to the time they are analyzed. This investigation reminds us that we must not be lulled into a sense that what we see in the laboratory report is actually what is going on in the Earth, as it might not be what it seems.

subset: commoncrawl


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2 brand new pics from "Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2"!
04.26.2012 | By Jack Rico | No Comments">No Comments
Seven months from the awaited release of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″, two new pics from Summit Pictures have been revelaed with the three protagonists stars – Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
In the first still, we see Stewart and Pattinson (dating in real life) looking at yonder. Pattinson looks concerned, while Stewart is on a cheerful note. Is he expecting an attack and is she happy to be a vampire? The second photograph is of Lautner determined and courageous, ready for any situation where he can defend his beloved Stewart. These harmless speculations, will be answered via the new trailer in due time.
The official synopsis of the film the astonishing conclusion to the series, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 2, illuminating the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ opens in U.S. theaters on November 16.


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The first request came from the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce for an advertisement in the Stuttgart Chamber produced city magazine and sportsman's guide.
Two requests for a total of $1,820 were passed during Thursday's Stuttgart Advertising and Promotion Commission meeting. The Commission passed both requests — for advertisements — unanimously.
The first request came from the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce for an advertisement in the Stuttgart Chamber produced city magazine and sportsman's guide.
"We produce 10,000 copies a year of the 158 page magazine. We have one cover for the festival and a different cover for the rest of the year," Executive Vice President of the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce Stephen Bell said.
The Chamber doesn't make a substantial amount of money from the magazine except through advertisement, Bell said, and asked the Commission to sponsor an $800 ad in the magazine promoting upcoming events throughout Stuttgart.
"It gives a good impression of the city," Bell said.
The Grand Prairie Center proposed a $1,020 ad to run in the statewide publication AY Magazine.
"In November they are going to promote Stuttgart as the destination location," Grand Prairie Center Director Amanda Holsted said. "So Stuttgart will be the featured site with a ducking hunting article and an article on the festival."
The magazine distributes 35,000 copies across the state each month.
"So people in other areas — outside our service area — will see this," Holsted said.
The ad will list the upcoming events at the Grand Prairie Center, Holsted said, which will be three months of shows, a total of six.
Both items were approved.
The Commission also put into effect a projected budget for the inaugural year. The Commission expects to receive $20,000 with $2,000 going towards office expenses and $18,000 going towards applications from the community.


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The Games
The four-game series between the East Central University softball team and Southern Nazarene has been moved up do to weather expected in the area over the weekend. The teams will now battle at Cypert Athletic Facility, Thursday, March 28 and Friday, March 29 in Bethany, Okla. Thursday's games will start at 2 p.m. and Saturday's at noon.
The Coverage
Fans who can't be at the game can find links to live stats, live video (if available) on ECUTigers.com. Go to the softball schedule page.
Scouting Southern Nazarene
The Crimson Storm are 11-21 overall and 4-14 in the Great American Conference after losing two games to Southeastern last weekend and splitting a series with Oklahoma Christian earlier this week.
SNU has a strong team batting average (No. 2 in GAC) at .311, but is allowing its opponents to hit at a .306 pace. While the Crimson Storm has out-hit, including extra-base hits, their opponents 263-249 they have a 165-189 runs scored disadvantage. That is partly due to the fact that they have allowed more walks (97-88) and struck out fewer batters (91-126) than the opposition.
Kylie Lang is the player with the best batting average on the team (.419) and she has scored 20 runs, but recorded just six RBIs. Amy Madden is the team's RBI leader, with 32, and she has a .353 batting average, with 31 hits, nine home runs and 20 runs scored.
The Crimson Storm have used six pitchers through the season, with three recording more than one inning of work and one standing farther out on the innings pitched column. Maci-Brooke Lambert has thrown 11 complete games, thrown 90.2 innings and has a 6-10 record. She has an ERA of 4.01, an opponent batting average of .282 and struck out 50 batters.
Gina Going the Distance
In the first game against Southern Arkansas, March 22, junior Gina Mengwasser came up big for the Lady Tigers. ECU was trailing 3-2 with two outs. Senior Ali Manship was walked and sophomore Lauren Bancroft had hit a single to right when Mengwasser stepped to the plate and hit a three-run game-winning home run off the top of the fence in center field.
Striking Out the Competition
In the six games that ECU played from March 12-16 the pitching staff combined for a 6-0 mark and 39 strikeouts. Sophomore Brianna Nunley started the strong week off with 10 K's against Oklahoma Baptist (March 12) and freshman Lacey Paulk continued the run with 11 against Ouachita Baptist (March 15).
Simmons Earns Player of the Week Honors
ECU senior Shelby Simmons was named the GAC Player of the Week for March 19 after helping the Lady Tigers to a 6-0 record over the week.
The North Richland Hills, Texas, native hit .591 for the week, with 13 hits in 22 at-bats. Simmons scored five runs, added four RBIs, had a double and triple and a slugging percentage of .727.
Leah Leaping Forward
Freshman Leah Tigert had a standout weekend for the Tigers at Southwestern and earned GAC Player of the Week honors for her efforts. The Hennepin, Okla., native hit .636, with seven hits and six RBIs. Tigert came up big with a double and a game-winning double in the seventh inning of the fourth game with the Lady Bulldogs.
Finishing Early
So far this season the Lady Tigers have played 32 games, winning 24. Of those 24 wins ECU has earned the victories at the end of the fifth inning in 10 games, with the run rule.
Home Run Fever
The Lady Tigers had a case of home run fever in the Tarleton State Tournament, with 12 total home runs, including seven in the second day.
Senior Ali Manship led the team with five home runs, junior Gina Mengwasser added three, and senior Shelby Simmons, sophomores Lauren Bancroft and Lacey Williams and freshman Jordynn VanPelt all garnered one.
Mengwasser Picking Up Recognition
Junior transfer Gina Mengwasser made an immediate impact for the Lady Tigers in her first games. The Edmond, Okla., native tallied four hits, including a home run and a grand slam. She tallied 10 RBIs and a .786 slugging percentage. For her efforts she was named to the 14-member St. Mary's All-Tournament Team as the catcher.
All-Tournament Honors
Four members of the ECU softball team earned a spot on the 12-member Tarleton State All-Tournament team. Junior Gina Mengwasser, senior Shelby Simmons and sophomore Lacey Williams were named to the team as the catcher, short stop and outfielder, while senior Ali Manship was named the co-MVP of the tournament.
Mengwasser has a .385 batting average, with three home runs, four RBIs and a 1.077 slugging percentage. Simmons finished the four games with a .500 batting average, a double, home run and four RBIs. Williams tallied a .455 average, with a double and home run. She also added an RBI, .818 slugging percentage and 2-2 in stolen bases. Manship earned a win in the circle and recorded a batting average of .600. She tallied five home runs and nine RBIs, with a 1.600 slugging percentage.
Manship GAC Pitcher of the Week
Senior Ali Manship also had a strong showing in the opening weekend of action and was named the first Great American Conference Pitcher of the Week for the 2013 season. The honor is the first for the Harrah, Okla., native.
Manship picked up the win in all three of the Lady Tigers victories at the St. Mary's Invitational. She threw a shutout and two complete games. She struck out seven and registered an ERA of 1.47 for the weekend. As a batter, she hit .429 (6-for-14) with four runs scored.
GAC Preseason Poll
The Lady Tigers were picked to finish third in the 2013 Great American Conference Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's head coaches. ECU received 35 points.
Arkansas-Monticello earned the top spot, with 43 points and four first-place votes. Southeastern was second, with 39 points and two first-place votes, with Southwestern and Southern Arkansas each earning the final first-place votes and finishing fourth (34 points) and fifth (30 points), respectively. Henderson State (17 points), Arkansas Tech (13) and Ouachita Baptist (13 points) round out the poll.
Up Next
The Lady Tigers will remain on the road for six games next week. ECU will first play a double-header at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Tuesday, April 2 and then play a GAC series at Henderson State, April 5-6.


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artiq99 needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 45 designs submitted by 12 freelance designers.
We need a new logo (and also would really like a masthead with the logo incorporated into it) for an existing website at rinkmapper.com. Currently, the logo is just the words "rinkmapper.com". ArenaMaps is a competitor and we want a much Trendier look. The thing to remember is that visitors are looking for directions to an arena in the US or Canada.We are also running a second contest for Onlinestickhandling.com
RinkMapper.com is a website that allows visitors to search for hockey arenas anywhere in North America. The results from the search are displayed in a Google map. We also have functionality to the user to then find the nearest Starbucks or Tim Horton's coffee shops, which are then added to the Google map. Users can also add rinks that are not already in the database.
We want to keep things light-hearted and fun but just a more professional feel to it. The logo will need to still look good scaled down as it will be used in other applications that require a smaller sized logo. Another option could be to have a second logo version that is used for our scaled down version.
- Crisp, clean colors
- vector format required with all editable layers (we use Illustrator CS3 or CS4)
- Masthead should 990 x 125 px
- bright tacky colors
- No Clip Art
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Gnostic adj. of or relating to knowledge (from gnōstos meaning 'known')
Agnostic adj. a person who believes that nothing is known on some topic, either at the present, or in principle
In the philosophy of religion and recent public debates over atheism, a distinction is made of the difference between believing in God (theism) and not believing in God (atheism), but a third option, agnosticism is often regarded as the equivocation or uncertainty about whether or not there is a God. In fact, agnosticism is the denial that the existence of a God can be known one way or the other, and that we should stick to the facts we do know. Agnostics reject gnosticism of either kind. In biology, there are similar matters to consider.
Comparative biology is a now relatively unpopular (and often thought to be outmoded, replaced by unqualified reliance upon molecular data) approach to the nature and relationships of living things. So, what is knowledge in comparative biology? We are able to observe and therefore know organisms and their parts from fossil and living specimens to some degree through direct acquaintance, under microscopes, or as gels and know something of their behaviour, genetics and ontogeny. We can even see fertilization, cell growth, life cycles and environmental conditions in modern organisms. Knowledge, in comparative biology, is inextricably linked to what we can observe. It is empiricism of the highest order, and relies upon actual observations as the basis for knowledge claims. However, it is what we can predict (rather than observe), which makes comparative biology 'interesting' to the majority of contemporary biologists.
Given the hypothesis-driven emphasis in of 21st century comparative biology, many systematists and biogeographers have made their careers on predictions and modelling. We believe we can, for instance, predict divergence times based on molecular clocks. We attempt to predict which taxa and areas are ancestral based on models of evolution and geography. However none of these predictions are knowledge to the comparative biologist, as proponents of these models can never prove their predictions beyond a hypothesis, best guess or hunch. At best, they have tested, and to that extent warranted, theories. Warranted theories are far less reliable and certain than observations, and they hitchhike on data.
Call this "experimental envy" if you wish, but comparative biology is simply that - comparative. Knowledge for the comparative biologist lies in the ability to recognise organisms and their parts (as described above). If, for instance, a prediction proves to be true at some point in time, it was the comparative biologists' observation and knowledge of the organism, rather than a knowledge of a particular evolutionary process, that grounded that prediction. Theories and hypothesis are dependent on evidence (e.g., observation).
But knowledge of an organism is not enough. In their quest to predict and model, the contemporary comparative biologist is insisting a certain 'knowledge' of processes that extend beyond known and observable material phenomena. They claim to know what they cannot: that their hypotheses are true. Using their prior hypotheses, they ground their later ones on probabilities and likelihoods that are no better founded than the strength of the priors. Hypotheses build on hypotheses. This is inference, but it is not knowledge.
It appears that some comparative biologists appear to exhibit a certain form of non-religious and secular gnosticism - analogous to the gnosticism of atheists and theists described by Huxley when he coined the term "agnostic". That is, they claim to know more than what the evidence (i.e., data) can possibly claim. One example is ancestors. Having found the oldest known specimen of trilobite does not mean one has found the ancestor of all trilobites. What is known is that it is the oldest at the time of discovery - an older one may still exist. A trilobite's relations are inferred and always defeasible by new data. Data are not defeasible, however.
This phylogenetic agnosticism does not deny the existence of ancestors or centres of origin, only of our ability to recognise them with much certainty based on what we know (as opposed to what we merely think).
We recognise that a form of gnosticism has arisen in comparative biology since the 19th century due to the blurring of what we know for sure and what we believe we know. What we know is limited and restricted to what we can observe. What we believe to be happening, however, is not knowledge, but a best guess or informed opinion. Confusing it with actual knowledge creates a gnosticism that is already quite widespread in biology.
We appeal for warranted agnosticism, one that recognises the distinct difference between what we do know and what we believe we know. For instance, we may say that "I know this is a mammal" based on the diagnosis of mammals. We may also confidentially state that "I believe this to be the centre of origin for all palms" based our conviction of the truth of a theory of dispersal and speciation. For example we may be convinced that method x is better than say method y. On this basis we can determine which method is better. However, knowing which method is better does not guarantee that method will extend our knowledge of other unobservable processes.
What agnosticism in comparative biology is not, is banning, denigrating or rejecting certain hypotheses because they are not based on knowledge. Every comparative biologist has the right to express their convictions and opinions. They do not, however, have the right to confuse knowledge with a hypothesis. Doing so illicitly validates a hypothesis (i.e., a conjecture or best guess) as a discovery or known fact. A good comparative biologist is agnostic to all hypotheses and theories, until they are demonstrated to be true.
The highest happiness of man is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable (Goethe).
John S. Wilkins contributed a portion of this post. Please cite as Ebach, M.C., Wilkins, J.S. and Williams, D.M. (2011). Knowledge and Agnosticism in Comparative Biology. Systematics and; Biogeography Blog, http://urhomology.blogspot.com/2011/12/agnosticism-in-comparative-biology.html
Such expressions as that famous one of Linnæus, and which we often meet with in a more or less concealed form, that the characters do not make the genus, but that the genus gives the characters, seem to imply that something more is included in our classification, than mere resemblance. I believe that something more is included; and that propinquity of descent,—the only known cause of the similarity of organic beings,—is the bond, hidden as it is by various degrees of modification, which is partially revealed to us by our classifications (Darwin, 1859, p. 413f).
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Agnosticism in Comparative Biology
Labels: Agnosticism
2 comments:
I'm not sure I see the point of this post, unless it is to reframe some dubious, often dogmatically-held points from more old-fashioned versions of cladistics (e.g. a somewhat naive version of Popperian falsificationism, no-ancestors-allowed, privileging pattern over process) as "agnosticism".
- 15 December 2011 at 14:24
- Malte C. Ebach said...
I'm not sure I see the point of this comment unless it is to reframe some dubious, often dogmatically-held points from more old-fashioned versions of phylogenetics (e.g., a somewhat naive version of statistics, ancestors-allowed, privileging models over evidence) as gnosticism.
You're not Steve Farris are you?
- 15 December 2011 at 15:27
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I'm gonna shy away from the usual rundowns of current wrestling stuff and
stories this week and give everyone an insight into some of the things they may
not know about wrestling or wrestlers in general. As well I am gonna defend
myself a little here as it seems public forums are the place for stuff to air.
Firstly, for those who keep asking, yes I am still part of TNA. I have a
contract and everything.
I have been patiently waiting in Canada for a surgery
to repair multiple hernias in my stomach, which are the result of shoddy work
done by the doctors in Nashville in repairing my stab wound.
Why am I waiting in Canada you ask? Because contrary to what many think, wrestlers on the whole do
not make a lot of money and American hospitals cost a fortune. And getting
insurance for wrestlers can be difficult to say the least!
To give you an idea, my repair surgery and four-day stay in Nashville cost $23,000 USD. Thank God I am
Canadian and have free health care. I have been waiting since June when I
received an ultrasound telling me I have at least three hernias. That's the downside
to Canadian health care. Everything takes time.
Once this surgery gets done -- it was yesterday, January 27th, by the way -- it will be at least two months till I can hit the ring again. So, no there is no return date yet. Time and healing will tell.
In the meantime I have been wrestling for some indys and running the Sports Entertainment College for Action Wrestling Entertainment (www.aweheat.com) -- and I love it! Apparently I am a pretty damn good instructor from what I have been told. Some AWE young guys to watch are Don Douglas (in dire need of a gimmick change), Dan Duggan and the tag team of Chevy and Sanchez. All young guys with a lot of promise.
Now to my defense.
Some of you have heard/read about this weeks sentencing of the Hotshot and his subsequent $1,000 fine for assaulting a bar patron while I was bouncing at a bar in Calgary. [See January 24th's Devine fined in attack on patron]
What the wonderfully uninformed writer of said article DIDN'T mention were any of the facts or particulars of said incident.
And I figured since I already told one story like this last time, why not get
them all out.
So here goes.
While working at said bar I got a call over the radio to come and
backup the removal of a patron at a door into the alley behind the bar. When I
arrived the gentleman was already out of the bar with a friend and arguing at
the doorway with the guy who threw him out. As was bar policy, myself and
another doorman (Nick) took over talking the guy out, so as to diffuse any anger
for the guy doing the booting.
The patron was ejected for stage diving off a bar into a group of women. The guy then begged and pleaded to be let back in for a good minute and, when he wasn't allowed to go back in by Nick and I, he got angry and asked
"why were be being such a--holes!?" To which I replied "We're not! We could be, but we are being very nice. Come back tomorrow and we'll buy you a beer."
He took what I said as a challenge and punched me in the face twice. Now let's just stop for a second and review a couple of facts:
So now the guy has hit me and Nick and I lunge to get ahold of him. His friend grabs Nick and he punches away at me. So now the fight is on. I had a tough time getting a stretch on him so it fell to exchanging punches.
Bottom line? I did what I had to do in self defense. Was he beaten almost unconscious? Yes. Did I put a sleeper on him? Yes. Was it excessive? Maybe. But in the last story with the girl and bottle, the guy had a broken orbital (eye socket) cheekbone, and jaw. THIS guy had bruises and swelling. So you tell me why this one is different. I'll tell you why. Cause for this one I was staff and not a patron and it's not "tolerated."
Weak. That's all I can say.
So that's my rant and defense and the parts you didn't read. Hope that clears a few things up and some of you will quit freakin emailing me "when are you coming back to TNA?!" LOL.
As always feedback and questions or quandaries and queries can be sent to email@example.com. Or you can get me on myspace at www.myspace.com/canadiandevine. Man I Love that myspace. Till next week kiddies. Stay Hot!
EDITOR'S NOTE: "Hotshot" Johnny Devine's column will run on Saturdays (or whenever he delivers) on SLAM! Wrestling. Be sure to visit each week! For more on Devine's career, see his biography in our Canadian Hall of Fame.


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Its now also possible to install IBM Memory Analyzer into an existing Eclipse (3.4.2 or later) workbench install, rather then being embedded into the IBM Support Assistant (ISA) or using the Eclipse Memory Analyzer Tool (MAT) RCP client. This can be done with a 64bit Eclipse workbench to give you a 64bit version of Memory Analyzer, which is the preferred mechanism over having to install the IBM DTFJ adapter separately into the Eclipse Memory Analyzer Tool RCP Client.
You can do that using the following steps:
If you don't have an existing install of Eclipse, download one from eclipse.org:
Start Eclipse and go to "Help -> Install New Software..." and "Add..." a new update repository of:
- Select to "Work with": "--All Available Sites--"
Select the following features to be installed:
Business Intelligence, Reporting and Charting -> BIRT Framework
EclipseRT Target Platform Components -> BIRT Engine OSGi Runtime SDK Feature
label.component.tools.jvm -> IBM Memory Analyzer (not IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java - Memory Analyzer)
This should update your Eclipse install with IBM Memory Analyzer, which you'll be able to find by opening the "Memory Analyzer" perspective.
I also recommend that you download and install the IBM Extensions for Memory Analyzer. You can find how to do that here:


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This article is excerpted from William J. Dobson's book, The Dictator's Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy.
The workshop takes place at a rundown seaside hotel five minutes from the airport. Outside, vacationers relax on plastic lounge chairs lining the beach. Faux thatch umbrellas shield them from the summer sun as they drink dark bottles of beer and stare out at the Mediterranean. The beach is close enough to the airport to be on the flight path for incoming planes. Every 20 minutes children yell and wave their hands toward the sky as another jet makes its approach. Besides a few palm trees, the landscape is dreary. A string of fish restaurants and tired hotels, generously described as two stars, dot a sun-baked road that hugs the water's edge, leading to the city center. Many of the lots are abandoned or unkempt. The salmon-colored building next door advertises "Beachside Apartments," but the only residents appear to be feral cats and the hundreds of pigeons that roost on the balconies with closed doors. The island boasts posh resorts and fine beaches. But they are not here. This stretch is a vacationland for locals and a handful of European budget travelers. It gets no mention in Fodor's.
We meet on the hotel's second-floor. Twenty people—13 men and seven women—make their way into a conference room and take their seats around tables that have been arranged in a horseshoe. They are from their mid-20s to early-40s in age, although they all dress like students. A lecturer addresses the group, occasionally pointing to the Power Point presentation projected on the wall behind him.
The hotel has designated its second floor for meetings and events, and with the help of partitions and dividers, it can host a couple of functions at the same time. On this particular afternoon, a local weight-loss group akin to Weight Watchers is in the room next door. We must pass through their meeting, nodding to a group of 30 or 40 heavy-set older women to attend our workshop.
Every few minutes, we hear the sound of shouts and clapping as one of the participants reports how much weight she has lost since their last get-together. At one point, it gets loud enough that the lecturer in our room has to repeat himself, raising his voice over the din outside. "If your movement grows too rapidly, it's very dangerous. You won't have the necessary structures in place. You won't have the discipline. You risk a Libya," he says, referring to Col. Muammar Gaddafi's massacre of demonstrators several months earlier. The slide behind him lists the "pillars of support" for an authoritarian regime.
Faintly, a woman is heard saying, "9 kilos!" The words are met by a round of applause.
In this shabby hotel, in a nondescript corner of a Mediterranean island, 20 activists had come to attend a clandestine meeting on revolution: specifically, how to start one. Their instructors in this weeklong course were two former members of the Serbian youth group Otpor, which ousted the dictator Slobodan Milošević in 2000. Today, they work as trainers for an organization called the Centre for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, otherwise known as CANVAS. The Belgrade-based organization, staffed with veterans from nonviolent democratic struggles in Serbia, Georgia, Lebanon, the Philippines, and South Africa, is one of the leading groups training democratic political movements around the world. In the past nine years, this outfit has advised movements in more than 50 countries. The list reads like a global field manual for the battle between dictators and democrats: Belarus, Bolivia, Burma, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, Iran, the Maldives, Tibet, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Sahara, and Zimbabwe. The trainers running this seminar are two of CANVAS's most experienced instructors; they have run more than 70 workshops between them, in dozens of countries.
The workshop's 20 students are all members of a democratic movement from a country in the Middle East. (In order to attend this weeklong seminar, I had to agree to ground rules to preserve the security of those involved. Namely, I could not reveal the location of the meeting, the country the activists call home, or the identity of any of the participants.) They came with many questions: How could they build support for their cause? How could they counter a regime that was becoming more draconian? What protest actions might shake people from their apathy? They wanted to be more effective as an organization, to make the leap from a protest group to a resistance movement. But, after 18 months, they had hit a wall. They feared that they had become reactive, predictable. "We always feel in a state of emergency. It blocks our thinking," says one of the activists. "We continue doing what we already know how to do."
For the group's leadership, the workshop is more than a lesson in tactics and methods; it's a crossroads. The movement, which can reliably call out several hundred people to the streets, grew faster than anyone anticipated. Much of this growth came from activists who engaged in direct actions, and then joined forces to make common cause. But the leadership, a core of roughly five or six people, want to take the movement in a more professional, calculated, and strategic direction. The trouble is they know that some of the group's lieutenants, a second-tier leadership of say 20 to 30 people, are split on their objectives. Some fully share their more professionalized goals. Others, they fear, almost enjoy protesting for protesting's sake. These members would be quick to call a more pragmatic campaign a sellout of the movement's purest revolutionary goals. The group's top leaders are prepared for this division or disagreement to come out into the open, and they almost seek it. Because, although it may thin their ranks temporarily, they suspect they will require a unity of purpose if they are to be successful and become a more sophisticated and potent political force. So they have come to CANVAS, in part, to provoke this discussion, win over some of their colleagues, and perhaps leave some realizing they are on the fringe. "We are not thinking through what we gain from our actions. We need to agree on clear objectives," one of the leaders told me. "If that means we are fewer, at least for a little while, then so be it."
The CANVAS trainers have seen this dynamic within a movement countless times. They are happy if the seminar proves to be a provocation for the group, if it gives them "the critical distance to view their own struggle," as one of the trainers explains to me. What they will not do is draft them a plan or blueprint to oust a dictator. They follow two simple and strict rules: They will only work with groups with no history of violence, and they refuse to tell them what to do. "I don't want that responsibility," says one of the Serbian trainers. "I wasn't born and raised there, so I can't decide for them."
What they will do is teach them how to think strategically. They will offer them tips. The will point out common mistakes and pitfalls that have tripped up others. They will draw on their own experience to discuss real-life examples of how to shift the loyalties of the police, how to diminish a dictator's authority and ultimately make a regime turn against itself. "We are not here with a bag full of magic tricks to say do this, this, and this," one of the Serbs says at the beginning of the workshop. "It's a struggle using nonviolent methods. It's like a form of warfare, only you won't be using guns."
Training Camp
The beginning of a workshop can always be a little rocky. As anxious as activists may be to learn new ideas on how to counter a regime, they are reluctant to believe that they have been approaching the job the wrong way. That is the mood on the second floor of the hotel.
The 20 Middle Eastern activists are asked to break up into small groups to draw up what the CANVAS trainers call their "vision for tomorrow"—their vision for the change they want their movement to create. It's a simple enough idea: Lay out your movement's ostensible mission. But the Serbian instructors have put a twist on it. They have asked the activists to outline it in terms that five very different segments of society will find appealing. They need to express their goals for the future of their country in a way that will resonate with businessmen, religious scholars, teachers, students, and members of the media. "When Otpor became an organization credible in the eyes of the public, then our numbers grew," says Aleksandar*, one of the trainers, a heavyset Serb with an expertise in political organization. "And numbers are what we are always seeking."
It proves a tough assignment for everyone. When they report back to the main group, most haven't been able to find common denominators across five different strata of society. Instead, they want to explain why making common cause among so many disparate people in their country is next to impossible. One of the older activists says, "Well, it's complicated. We are unique." Another chimes in, "We are a bit different." A chorus of the activists starts explaining how there are many competing interests, divided opinions, different groups, and so on. The trainers look on and listen, as if are they expecting these excuses. Finally, one of the female activists, clearly frustrated by the whole exercise, blurts out, "It's impossible."
Dragana, the other trainer, a striking blonde with a wry smile, says flatly, "You cannot change anything if you remain a minority. It's as simple as that."
"I don't think you understand," says one of the activists, a young man with tattoos up and down his forearms. "How willing should we be to degrade our politics to widen our struggle?"
"Why do you see it as degradation?" replies Aleksandar. "It's a beginning. They cannot rule the country without the people. But you need the people."
The activists' reaction to the exercise is a common one. The trainers anticipated it. Every movement thinks that its situation is wholly unique. People attending CANVAS's workshops are always quick to point out why the Serbian example wouldn't translate to their own political environment, or why the regime they are up against is unusually brutal, clever, or insidious. The Ukrainians said they had to worry about Russian interference, since Moscow was backing the regime. In Egypt, activists pointed to the fact that Mubarak could count on American support. They are usually quick to mention how large the regime's domestic security budget has become or how many police or informants walk the streets. And, of course, no two situations are identical. If they were precisely the same, then the Serbs would have no problem telling people what to do. But the Serbs insist that the fundamentals are the same. Understand those building blocks, and you can build your own plan of attack.
*The names of the trainers have been changed. (Return.)
It takes time for it to sink in. The activists admitted at the beginning of the workshop that one of their biggest problems is that the majority in their country does not view them sympathetically. They know they have a message problem. The Serbs acknowledge that it can be difficult to craft a vision that encompasses enough key groups. In the case of Otpor, they sent members out to various parts of the country to interview people about what they wanted. They spent time identifying who some of the most respected people in the country were. In some rural areas, it was the doctors. In other places, it was the teachers. Either way, the thinking was that if these people could be won over it would add even more numbers to their movement. Eventually, one of the Middle Eastern activists, one of the youngest in the room, says what is painfully obvious, "Well, we probably haven't thought enough about how we could build supporters."
"Finally," whispers Dragana. It's a start.
The Serbs now turn the discussion to what the activists are up against. They ask the group to identify the regime's pillars of support—for example, the military, police, bureaucracy, educational system, organized religion—the main institutions from which it draws it strength. The next step is for the activists to make what they call a "power graph." It's an analytical tool developed by Slobodan Djinovic, one of CANVAS's founders. "This makes us focus on who is with us and who is against us, and how we can influence them," says Aleksandar.
Again in small groups, the activists chart each institution's reaction—along a spectrum of varying degrees of positive, neutral, and negative—to significant political events, protests, actions, or moments in a chronology going back roughly 10 years. Popovic told me that producing the power graph was always a key moment in the workshop. And so it was for this group of activists. What they found when they isolated the different pillars of the state was that their loyalty or attitude toward the regime had fluctuated over time. For example, parts of the educational establishment had been somewhat sympathetic to some of their actions, if only because students had participated. In other instances, the media had taken a slightly critical opinion of the government, if only slightly. By looking at the regime this way, the activists immediately understand two things: The regime is not a monolith, and its loyalties are malleable. "Loyalty is not carved in stone. It can be changed," says Dragana. "Loyalties can be shifted."
The Serbs stress that if you attack a part of the regime, the natural reaction is for the rest of the regime to rally around that portion that has been targeted. They perceive their own interests to be more aligned with the regime under attack than with your movement. "The goal will be to pull the pillars of the regime, with persuasion, not to push them through attacks," says Aleksandar.
Some pillars are obviously more susceptible to persuasion than others. The military and the police are usually the last to come around. But, then again, movements do not require the support of security services; they just require their ambivalence. And, as the Serbs explained, even the most thuggish cops can be neutralized.
During their struggle, the Serbs encountered one particularly brutal police chief. He operated with the impunity of a king in the small city where he was stationed. "He enjoyed beating people up, torturing them," says Dragana, pursing her lips in disgust. "He got off on it." So they figured they could not sway him, at least not directly.
Instead, they took photographs of him beating up young members of the movement. They had those photographs made into posters, and put his name and cellphone number on them. Then, they plastered them everywhere his wife shopped. They put the posters up on her route to the kindergarten where his child went to school. The posters asked people to call and ask him why he was torturing our children. His wife was appalled. The family would quickly become pariahs. "We didn't attack him in uniform," says Dragana. "We attacked him in his home through his wife. We weren't going to let this bastard hide behind the system or the badge."
The example resonated with the group. "There are these monstrous people, and they hide behind the seal of the regime," one activist responded. "This gives the regime a face." People nodded in agreement.
After each day's session, the activists would meet in their own groups to digest that day's lessons and analysis, debating what it meant for them. Clearly, the discussion was raising fundamental questions for some members of the group, very much the types of questions that the movement's leadership wanted discussed. "It's a shock for some of them," one of the leaders says to me. "Like, whoa, you mean we weren't doing everything right?" But the majority of the activists are engaged, and eager to learn more.
One of the key sources of power for any regime is authority. The perception of authority alone—and the fear of defying it—is the cause of most people's obedience. So, if a movement wants to encourage people to withdraw their consent, to interrupt their obedience to the regime, then undermining the regime's authority is a key objective. For Otpor, the answer was laughter. "Humor undermines the authority of the opponent. Humor is also the best cure against fear. Use it as much as you can," says Aleksandar. "Try to surprise the enemy. Use as many combinations of actions as possible. That is our strong recommendation."
Humor may, in fact, have been Otpor's signature weapon. Members of Otpor came up with countless ways to reduce the authority of the regime through humor and ridicule. One example involved turkeys. Milošević's wife, Mirjana, often liked to wear a white flower in her hair. Members of Otpor saw it as an opportunity. They got their hands on several turkeys and put white carnations on their head. Then, they released them in downtown Belgrade. The turkeys walked down the city streets. Anyone who saw a turkey with a white carnation would immediately know it was a reference to Milošević's wife. (As Dragana points out, laughing, "In Serbia, calling a woman a turkey is one of the worst things you can do.") Police were dispatched to apprehend the turkeys. Members of Otpor were at the ready to snap photographs of police officers desperately trying to corral the bird. When they eventually did, the turkeys were taken down to a local police station. Anticipating this, Otpor immediately issued a call for the turkeys' release, saying that they had been unlawfully arrested and they had reason to fear for the birds' safety.
CANVAS's trainers call this and similar stunts dilemma actions. When done correctly, they are low-risk, and put the focus on what your opponent will or will not do. "The purpose of these actions is to create a dilemma for the adversary," Aleksandar explains to the group. "The actions create a dilemma for the police, who are forced to choose between two unfavorable choices. They can't let a turkey mocking the president's wife walk around. But they know they look like fools chasing a turkey." Anyone who is asked to chase turkeys in a city's downtown is going to lose respect for the regime. And the regime itself hardly looks intimidating when its police are left herding birds. "At that point, we didn't have a way to listen to their communications," says Aleksandar, still laughing, "but I would have loved to have heard them call this one in to headquarters."
The Middle Eastern activists left the room to try to design some of their own dilemma actions. Meanwhile, I talked with Dragana about her time as a CANVAS trainer. Of the 40 workshops she had helped lead, she said a group of Bolivians was one of the most impressive. They learned fast, maybe too fast. "On the fourth day, we came into the room and they had put newspapers on all the chairs. The newspaper was reporting on the front page an action they had done that night, after the workshop! I came in and they said, 'Look what we did!' '' she recalled. "A lot of times [after the workshops], I find out later what they have done, and I say, 'Oh my god, they were planning that all along.' "
Sometimes plans backfire, too. Dragana told me about one group of Iranians who failed to think through everything. There were shortages of gasoline in Iran at the time, and the group thought this was an issue they could exploit. "These guys planned to hold a silent protest at gas stations. The plan was to line up at gas stations holding empty containers," she recalled. "What they failed to predict was how fast [bystanders] would join in. There were 200 people at one gas station in an hour. The number kept growing, and riots started. They burned 60 gas stations." The problem is that the action quickly grew to include people who were not part of the movement, so there was no way for members to maintain nonviolent discipline. Later, Dragana heard from members of the Iranian diaspora who were happy with the whole episode. She was appalled. "No, no," she said, "This is not what I taught them. Burning gas stations will not help their cause."
Of course, there are some groups that CANVAS simply refuses to work alongside. In one instance, while in Johannesburg, CANVAS was contacted by a member of the British consulate. The official wanted to contract with CANVAS to work in the Kingdom of Swaziland, which has been ruled by the same corrupt family for decades. The problem was CANVAS wouldn't have been working with a homegrown movement; it would have been nonviolent struggle by proxy. "He said money is no object," recalls Dragana, laughing. "Well, that's nice, but that is not how we operate. We are not mercenaries."
As the seminar continued, the focus shifted to evaluating some of the movement's own actions. The activists had achieved a number of successes. Through sheer persistence, they had won the ability to operate in certain areas and neighborhoods that would have been unthinkable 18 months earlier. They had also earned the support of several well-known and respected academics, who had lent their names and reputations to the cause. They had a strong brand, and the movement's numbers had grown. But, after listening to the trainers, the activists realized another mistake they had made. They had operated with a siege mentality for so long, they had forgotten to declare their victories. It is not just a matter of morale boosting. Declaring victory is an important opportunity to communicate with the public and build credibility. "When we were accommodated, we never publicized it as a victory," one of the activists said. "We never marked it with a big V. That was a mistake."
The Serbs referred to it as "doing post-production." "Everything you do should be capitalized," says Aleksandar. "First of all, proclaim the victory. Second, be sure that potential members and supporters know about it. You need a victory every week, even small victories. If you are on the defensive, you lose."
"You always need to be a step ahead. You need to answer the 'what if?' " Aleksandar continued, reinforcing the need for advance planning, something that had become a mantra over the course of the week. "Do your homework, choose a target, and build a winning record."
At the end of the seminar, the Serbs stayed for an extra couple of days for some sun and sand. They wanted to spend time relaxing on the nicer beaches, a world away on the other side of the island.
The activists had to get home. They took the short cab ride to the airport and caught one of the last flights out. A few weeks later their country had waves of marches and demonstrations. They were the largest protests in a generation.
Adapted from The Dictator's Learning Curve by William J. Dobson Copyright © 2012 by William J. Dobson. Published by arrangement with Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House.
Correction, June 9, 2012: The original caption accompanying this article described the rally as being in Moscow. It was in Belgrade.


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I used to use MacPorts on my Macs to install the necessary libraries that are needed by Drizzle. I've recently dumped that because I didn't like all of the extra stuff that was installed (do you really need to install a separate Perl installation?). And a recent b0rk of their Perl installations was the final straw.
It turns out that all you really need are just a few extra packages to build Drizzle on your Mac. Here are the packages that I currently have installed on my machines:
The first three (autoconf, automake, and libtool) aren't strictly necessary. I install those because I want newer versions of those tools than what OS X provides by default. It makes building a little bit nicer (the output is much cleaner). The last three are what you really need.
Each package has its own instructions for how to compile and install. I use the default installation path (/usr/local) for each. Basically, building and installing for each is simply:
- ./configure
- make
- sudo make install
The Boost package is the lone exception:
- ./bootstrap.sh
- ./bjam
- sudo ./bjam install
If you install the libtool package, there is one additional step you should do. That package installs the binaries libtool and libtoolize into /usr/local/bin. I rename these to glibtool and glibtoolize, respectively. The Drizzle build system looks for these program names.
The last thing I do is to make sure that /usr/local/bin is in my path. So in $HOME/.bash_profile, I have this line:
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATHWith all that in place, to build Drizzle is just:
- ./config/autorun.sh
- ./configure
No need to add any extra options to configure to find libraries.


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Reading JenLu's tumblr page- learned about Jonah Falcon. Unfortunately, i was curious.
He holds some sort of record for something. Its definitely 18+ so make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before you read this:
the article is below, fyi.
June 12, 2003
Jonah Falcon was born with a blessing in, er, disguise. Until it took over his life. And tormented him.
"I'm a showoff. You should see me in my bike pants."
-Falcon at his home in New York.
WHEN JONAH FALCON WAS IN FIFTH grade, his class was allowed to use the school swimming pool. Like many ten-year-olds, the boy was modest and decided to change into his swimsuit in a bathroom stall. Locker-room noises ricocheted outside as Jonah dropped his pants. Then, silence. At first, he wondered if everyone had run away. He looked up and saw fingers wrapped over the top of his stall. Then more fingers. And eyes. His classmates, as many as could wedge themselves around the perimeter of the stall, had hoisted themselves up to peer at what Jonah had exposed. Jonah did not know it was unusual for a ten-year-old boy to have an eight-inch penis. He was unaware that his organ was already longer, thicker and heavier than any owned by his classmates' fathers. All he knew was that the silence and the staring boys made him want to burst out of the stall and run away. But Jonah didn't run away or close his eyes. Pinned inside the toilet stall, pants scrunched around his ankles, he saw a new expression in the eyes of the boys. They looked, Jonah thought, to be in the presence of God.
The average adult penis, according to the Kinsey Institute, measures just under six inches when erect. Most men - about eighty-seven percent - are between five and seven inches. Dr. Alfred Kinsey found that the largest reported penis was a bit more than nine inches erect.
Jonah Falcon's penis is 9.5 inches flaccid, 13.5 inches erect. Tense your forearm. Now wrap your hand around the middle of the muscle. That is the girth of Falcon's erection. Those who have witnessed it describe it as "grotesque," "gorgeous," "hideous" and "stunning." Falcon, who stands five foot nine, thinks his penis is perfectly formed, with a fifteen-degree downward curvature at the six-inch mark and absent the blotching, lumpiness and sudden bends that mark some oversize sex organs. A penis this size functions, physiologically, like any other, according to urologists, a claim substantiated by Falcon. His balls are proportionately huge, each the size of a grade-A jumbo egg. When erect, Falcon's penis generates enough heat to warm hands - campfire, style - from a distance of six inches.
Today, Falcon's beloved Yankees play the Mets at Yankee Stadium. He feels the subway calling. He will need his full supply of gear to attend a game of this consequence - glove, empty bag, yearbook and a pair of authentic Yankees pinstripe pants two sizes too small.
"People are going to stare at my dick," he acknowledges. "But I'm a Yankees fan, and that comes first."
Falcon packs his penis to the left and buttons his pants. The human brain needs several seconds to reconcile the sight. His dick stretches across his pelvis and settles against his outer thigh. The head of Falcon's organ rises in unmistakable relief from beneath the fabric. His balls, especially when he pushes them up as he does today, look like the wide, oval eyes ascribed to Martians in popular drawings. Never does the sight of Falcon's equipment suggest a kielbasa or any such inert object. In clothes, with every step, Falcon's penis is alive. He refers to his penis as "it" or "my dick." "I won't call it Little German or Ralph, like other guys," he says. "More insecure guys name their dicks."
Just one block into the trip, Falcon approaches two nattily dressed Wall Street types hailing a cab. One man elbows his friend frantically as Falcon passes. Both stare directly at his crotch as a dozen taxis fly past. Falcon focuses on their faces - familiar expressions to him. It is the look men get when they meet Michael Jordan or Keith Richards, the look of someone contemplating something fundamentally more powerful than himself.
A lilt begins to animate Falcon's stride. "People always want to talk about my potential," Falcon says. "But I have unlimited potential. I can do whatever I want."
"I have unlimited potential… I can do whatever I want." What Jonah Falcon wants is to be taken seriously as an actor. But a brother's got to make a buck while paying his dues. Falcon was once offered $1,000 to let someone suck his member. His response? "Why not?"
JONAH CARDELI FALCON WAS BORN IN 1970 to Cecilia Cardeli and a man who died shortly after Jonah's birth. Falcon has at times said that his biological father was legendary porn star John "Johnny Wadd" Holmes, who died of AIDS in 1988. Holmes was known for the length of his penis (which happens to be roughly the same size as Jonah's). Falcon claims to possess "confidential" information proving his lineage, but family members scoff at this suggestion.
Falcon asks that if I interview his mother, I do not speak to her about his penis. "I'm pretty sure she knows about it," he says. "But it's not a topic for a mother."
I ask Cardeli about Jonah's childhood. She interrupts. "I know the reason you're calling. Look, it's genetic. He was born like that, and he was always big for his age. But it's not his big penis, it's society's need to fixate on it. We're in a world where men see their manhood in their penises."
As an only child, Jonah shared a four-story house in Brooklyn with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents. Cardeli says that the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy was reading by eighteen months, a claim his cousins substantiate. When Jonah was six, his mother decided to find work and sent her son to Puerto Rico to live with his grandmother. He stayed for three years and climbed avocado trees and made water balloons and sobbed when his mother left after visiting.
When she did return to New York with him, Jonah's mother sent him to live at the Infants Home of Brooklyn, a residence that provided, among other things, foster care for children. "I don't think my mom could afford me," he says. "But it's no big deal. My past has so unaffected me." He stayed at IHB for three happy years, where he was appreciated for his first-rate mind and during which no one, including Jonah, thought much about his penis.
But after that day in the locker room, he was treated with deference. 'When Jonah was ten, an older neighborhood kid told an eighteen-year-old woman, "I've got a buddy who's got the biggest dick you'll ever see. It's probably a foot long. He's kind of shy. Want to fuck him? "The woman said she did. So Jonah, who was five foot zero, maybe ninety-eight pounds and mostly bald in the crotch, agreed to meet this woman. He didn't know what sex was, but he showed up, and the woman showed up, too - red hair, average build, brown eyes. Jonah had no clue what to do, but he knew that people had sex lying down, so he lay on his back and waited. He remembers "fondling and fucking" and that the woman was probably on top, but all that is vague to him now. What still echoes is the woman's refrain: "Holy shit! I've never seen anything like that in my life. Holy shit!…
Along the route to the subway station this late Saturday afternoon, Falcon will need to pause every few blocks for an "adjustment" - a reconciliation of penis and pants to facilitate comfortable locomotion. The move, perfected over twenty years, is Houdini seamless; if you don't know what to look for, you never see it. As he walks, Falcon shifts his baseball glove from his left hand to under his right armpit, pivots so that he is facing a store window, pulls out the elastic waistband of his skintight baseball pants with his right hand, then uses his left to lift the penis back into its sideways position - it had drifted down his leg and was pointing earthward. Once his organ is securely wedged to the left, he releases his pants with a thwap, flips his glove back onto his catching hand and resumes his stride up New York's Eighth Avenue.
"Jonah," I say, "don't you ever worry that those pants might make you appear freakish to people?"
"The point is to be obvious," he says. "Wearing tight pants is not just about getting attention. It's about watching other people get obsessed with me. I'm a show-off. Look at people check me out. My bike pants are even more impressive. You should see me in my bike pants."
On his way to the subway station, Falcon passes maybe 150 people. At least half of them housewives, merchants, businessmen, children - notice his penis. Some avert their eyes and quicken their pace. Others openly gawk. "Good Christ," "That's fake" and "Yeah, right" echo in Falcon's wake, and with each notice he becomes energized, until he stands outside the subway station like a model unveiling a prize on a TV game show. One young woman circles in front of Falcon for a second look, after which she seems horrified. "It's her fault for staring," Falcon says. More often than not, women merely giggle when they see Falcon's penis cellophaned in the bike shorts he favors. Men ask about it. Some men - usually straight ones - even ask to see it. If the mood strikes him, Falcon might honor the request.
Tonight, no one asks to see it. But Falcon cannot buy a subway token or purchase a candy bar without causing a hushed pandemonium. A frat boy who spots him walks sideways to a pay phone in order not to break his line of sight and places a call - his only words audible above the subway-platform noise are "baseball pants."
Falcon wedges himself into the first subway car bound for Yankee Stadium and grabs one of the overhead straps. He knows that many of the people who stare at him presume he's some kind of Dirk Diggler, the big-dicked character from the movie Boogie Nights. Falcon hates Boogie Nights. He loathes that Diggler doesn't learn a goddamn thing in a two-and-a-half-hour movie except - no shit - that his dick gets him places. He hates the cheap prosthetic penis Diggler pulls from his pants in the film's closing scene -how the hell do you cut corners and buy a giant rubbery dick with painted-on blue veins? Most of all, Falcon hates that he had been writing his own screenplay about the life of a guy with a huge penis, a better screenplay than Boogie Nights, one with real dialogue, where the main character ends up with a life, a meaningful life.
AT AGE TWELVE, JONAH ENROLLED AT AN East Harlem school for brainy kids. Teachers were astounded by his fine intellect, but they were also struck by his awkward social skills.
"Jonah was extraordinarily bright," says his math teacher Jeff Nelson. "He breezed through college work. He could have taught my class. But he was a strange kid. He didn't like to share his knowledge. He'd get upset with kids if they didn't understand."
By the seventh grade, Jonah's penis had grown to 9.5 inches erect. By fifteen, he had reached 10.5 inches and showed no signs of stopping. Neighborhood kids knew about Jonah's penis and occasionally begged him to show it to them. Sometimes he agreed, studying their facial reactions for signs of amazement and wonder. He looked, he says, for signs that people liked him.
"Jonah never fit in," says Alex Covan, a classmate and sometime friend. "I think it was extremely difficult on him. I really remember him being alone."
By the time he had graduated from junior high school, Jonah was thriving in the stratosphere of mathematics. His mother, who earned a modest income as an accountant's clerk, bought him the latest computers, software and role-playing games, even as they lived in a tiny public housing apartment. After scoring off the charts on entrance exams, Jonah enrolled at the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, breeding ground for New York's most brilliant and promising children.
Bronx Science should have been Jonah's salvation, a place filled with like-minded kids experienced at being different. But even there, his craving for attention and his lack of social skills painted him as an outcast. He told no one at school about his secret and thanked God that students were not required to strip for gym class. After school, he worked on his computer, read science fiction and tracked his weekly penis growth. His grades began to slip - 80, then 70, then 65. But he never stopped measuring himself. "I knew something special was happening," Falcon says.
One afternoon when he was fifteen, two men approached him outside Bronx Science. "Are you Jonah Falcon? Have you had sex yet? Would you be interested in making some money?" Jonah felt weird and told the men he was not interested. Then he went home and worked on his computer. A few days later, someone at school said to him, "Remember those guys? You know they're porno filmmakers, don't you?" That's when Jonah realized that people knew about him.
Falcon is in his element at Yankee Stadium. Armed with two hot dogs, a jumbo pretzel and a Diet Coke, and with his bag safely over his groin, he begins a monologue - on baseball, life, baseball, sex, baseball, acting and baseball - that will motor on until well after the final pitch. There are a half-dozen independent conversations in progress around him in the cheap seats, and Falcon manages to insert himself into each of them. "The bullpen does not suck; they have tired arms," he tells a pack of Mets fans to his left. "Score that 'catcher unassisted,"' he tells three college guys. When the scoreboard asks for the Yankees' single-season doubles leader, Falcon does not wait for the multiple-choice answers. "Don Mattingly, 53; Don Mattingly, 53; Don Mattingly, 53," he machine-guns into the air before anyone in the section has a chance to answer. Kids grin at his knowledge, and he grins back.
"While his high school classmates tossed their caps at graduation and toasted to success at Brown and MIT, Falcon vowed to follow his heart and become an actor. Or a writer. That is where his passion lay - in making others happy, in causing people to say, "I really enjoyed you in that, Jonah," or to approach him and ask, "Aren't you Jonah Falcon?" or to invent the term Falconesque, which would be most wonderful of all. But first there was the matter of baseball. For two years, Cardeli had saved up the tuition for the Rich Martin All-Star Baseball Camp, where they both thought Jonah might take his first steps toward becoming a Yankee. He made several spectacular fielding plays before camp let out.
Falcon enrolled in a state college to study theater. Often, he would announce his life plan - to himself, to professors, to whomever: "I will become a recognized actor. I will become an artist."
"Jonah was very talented and creative," says a man who attended a film class with him. "But he hadn't developed any real ability to interact with people. He was alone, and that stood out. He was a solitary figure."
While other aspiring artists took classes and rehearsed, Jonah made nightclubs his audition hall. People noticed him. Sweat pants gave way to skintight trousers and white bike shorts. He discovered the weight room. For seven years, Falcon did little more than accumulate sex partners -1,500 by the time he was twenty-five, mostly women, he says.
He swears he has never been a hustler. "I have been offered money and accepted money," he says. "But I have never solicited. I've never been a prostitute." Falcon's wallet seems to confirm this claim. His savings total $500. He eats frozen dinners. Still, he seems to have benefactors.
Falcon travels often to Los Angeles, where he stays with friends and "admirers." He has made several trips to Europe. He is not above taking money for sex if offered.
"I've had guys blow me simply because they expressed so much desire and admiration," Falcon says. "I took $500 from a lady on the Upper East Side to pose in my underwear for Polaroids. I've been offered $1,000 just to let someone suck it, and I'll say, 'Why not?' It's really about my ego. My ego is bigger than my sexuality."
His longest romantic relationship, with a woman, lasted a year. Some who know him think he's straight. Others believe he's gay. His cousin, Ben Lewin, says Jonah is neither straight nor gay. "Jonah will be with whoever loves him," Lewin says. "Jonah will love whoever won't hurt him."
By twenty-six, Falcon found himself empty. In seven years, he had not established a single lasting romantic relationship. He was forty pounds overweight. No one in the clubs seemed to mind. On some days, Falcon knew that this was not the path of a man with unlimited potential. But even on the shittiest day, he could still look down and think, "Even if I had made the Yankees, there have been lots of Yankees. But no one has this. If all else fails, at least I have this."
SEX IS DIFFERENT FOR A MAN WITH A 13.5 inch penis. Falcon can receive oral sex while lying on his stomach, suck himself ("I haven't since I was eighteen") and penetrate his own anus. His ejaculations, rather than flying eruptions, are events of massive dribble. He has never been able to insert more than nine of his 13.5 inches inside a woman. Blowjobs hurt because at this width, teeth are inevitable. Falcon takes between fifteen and thirty minutes to generate a full erection, but can perform at half-mast without a woman realizing much difference.
Men brave enough to ask Falcon about his penis often feel compelled to tell him what they would do with such a gift. The riffs are all alike: The men would fuck every girl in the country; walk around nude all the time; wear the skimpiest Speedo to the beach and thrust their bulging package into the faces of tanning women. They often tell Falcon, "Man, I'd give anything to see you ram my girlfriend," and Falcon wonders about this, about why they might want to see their women hurt.
Because he is capable of plowing and splitting, Falcon has learned to make love
differently; in essence, to rely less on his penis. When he was younger, he would push until he could penetrate no further, often hurting his partner and ruining the mood. With experience, he says, he learned to use angles, massage interiors, stroke rather than bang. He calls upon his mouth as much as his penis, sometimes taking hours to kiss, lick, rub and masturbate his partner before his penis ever makes an appearance. "I get the impression that other guys don't do that," says Falcon. "I have to do that. And it works."
Just before turning twenty-seven, Falcon says he woke from the fog of his life as a walking penis. He attended acting workshops, stood in line at auditions, knocked down doors for roles as an extra. He became the author of countless online and print computer-game reviews, for which he developed a sterling reputation for honesty and detail. He trimmed down to 155 pounds. None of what he dreams of, he says, will come by way of his penis. He is not Dirk Diggler.
"Huge cocks get old," Falcon says. "Talent doesn't."
Still, Falcon has yet to break through as a working actor. When people inevitably ask why he does not accept the money and worldwide fame pornographers regularly offer, he removes his Woody Allen glasses, cocks his head as if he hasn't quite understood the question and says, "I want to be an actor. I want to be taken seriously."
Yet some who know Falcon question the contradiction between his philosophies and his actions. At his ten-year high school reunion, asked to recall his most memorable experience, he wrote, "Appeared on national television to display my 13.5-inch erect penis." He has posed in his bike shorts for a German magazine. He still wears those bike shorts.
Jeff Gomez is a successful developer of video games and a producer of short films. He is a man with serious show-business connections, the kind of person Falcon ought to know. After meeting him online, Gomez took a liking to the aspiring actor. "I thought Jonah had an interesting look for one of the characters in my new project," he says. He agreed to help Falcon and invited him to dinner with his business partner. "He put on this crazy show in the restaurant," Gomez says. "He started acting like Kermit the Frog, and he seemed so lonely, so desperate to fill every moment of dead space with words. And he mentioned his dick size."
Gomez e-mailed Falcon the next day, expressing his disappointment and urging him to treat his craft professionally. He concluded by saying, "I wouldn't be wasting my time writing all this to you if 1 didn't think you had talent and potential."
Gomez took another chance; it was something about Falcon's sincerity and sweet inner core. He invited him to a nightclub to meet several prominent movie directors. Falcon arrived in a tank top and skintight silver pants. Gomez shuddered but made the introduction.
"After about a minute, Jonah began to dance," Gomez recalls, "first a kind of distracted half-boogie, then all-out crazy, like a go-go boy, until he drifted out of our circle completely."
It is past 11 P.M. when the game ends at Yankee Stadium. Falcon packs his pencil, score card and glove in his bag and heads back to the subway.
Near midnight, Falcon approaches the entrance to his Chelsea apartment building, the same home in the same public housing project he has lived in since boyhood. He still lives with his mother. The smell of urine pervades the lobby, and chicken bones litter the floor. Near an elevator door painted with the slogan "Rose and Johnny 4-ever," young children play tag and toss water balloons.
Upstairs, Falcon walks into a corridor in which a color cardboard cutout of Jesus hangs. He slowly turns the key to his apartment and enters. He creeps past his mother and grandmother, who have fallen asleep on adjoining couches in front of a flickering TV. The apartment is cramped and narrow, with damaged walls and weathered carpeting. Falcon's room is at the end of the hallway, past his mother's room and the bathroom they share. As he opens the door, it is clear that the life of Jonah Falcon is stuffed into this closet-size room - his projects and computer disks and books, his twin-size bed and empty two-liter soda bottles, his letters from the Screen Actors Guild, his dreams. There is almost no floor visible beneath the clutter.
Falcon logs on to his computer to check the expanded stats for the evening's game. He looks at me, and it feels like he sees my thoughts - this is not the room of a Bronx Science graduate; this is not the room of a man with unlimited potential. He stops studying his statistics and steps toward me. He looks me in the eye.
"You think my dick is the only thing I have going for me? Have you read my writing? You can look at me longer than that. Look at me."
There is silence in the room.
Then Falcon says, "I want to show it to you. I want you to see it."
He turns off the overhead light so that only a small desk lamp illuminates his body. The sound of a TV infomercial wafts in from the other room. Falcon pushes down his baseball pants.
Holy shit.
Jesus Christ.
As his penis hangs there, its uncircumcised head reaching halfway down his leg, the failed dreams and disappointments that wallpaper this room begin to disappear. Falcon knows the effect. He has seen it before. He seizes the moment by grabbing the base of his penis with his left hand and twirling the organ furiously, creating a blurry snake of skin and then a propeller sound, and while his penis speeds around, Falcon looks as if nothing in the world could touch him. Even if he had made the Yankees, there have been lots of Yankees. If all else fails, he has this.
In a minute, Falcon's pants are back up around his waist. He takes a breath, then claps my shoulder and says good night.
"Do you think," he asks as I walk out the door, "that you'll tell people about me tomorrow?"
ROBERT KURSON is a contributing editor at "Esquire." He is currently at work on a book.