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Green Onion Pancakes
You can find green onion breads and pancakes throughout northern China and in North America, too. These green onion batter-based pancakes are quick and convenient to make.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Yield: About 8 pancakes
1 egg
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 bunch green onions
In a bowl, combine the egg, water, 2 tablespoons cooking oil, sesame oil, salt, and five-spice powder.
Gradually add the flour and mix into a smooth batter.
Thinly slice the green onions.
Add 1/2 cup green onions to the batter, blending well.
Let stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Place a nonstick frying pan over high heat until hot.
Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the remaining 1/4 cup cooking oil, swirling to coat the sides.
Reduce the heat to medium
Remove the frying pan from the heat and pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the hot pan.
Spread the batter to make a 6-inch circle.
Return the pan to the heat and cook until the pancake is golden brown and crispy, 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.
Flip the pancake over and lightly brown the other side for another 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.
Press the pancake down with a wide spatula or pancake turner to flatten it while it cooks.
Repeat with the remaining oil and batter.
Cut the pancakes into wedges and serve.
Green onion pancakes are street foods of northern China that represent Chinese foods with a Mongolian accent. Vendors sell both the thin ones in this recipe and their puffy, yeast-raised cousins from carts and stalls all over northern China.


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Daniel Murphy's hit wins game for Mets against Nationals
NEW YORK -- Daniel Murphy singled home the winning run in the ninth inning and the undefeated New York Mets took advantage of a throwing error by reliever Henry Rodriguez to beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 on Monday night.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit his first major league homer for the Mets, who are 4-0 for the first time since 2007. Coming off a surprising three-game sweep of Atlanta to start the season, New York rallied from a three-run deficit before a crowd of 23,970.
Several fans left Citi Field chanting "Undefeated! Undefeated!"
The Mets received another excellent effort from a retooled bullpen that ranked 28th in the majors last season with a 4.33 ERA. Miguel Batista got out of trouble in the sixth, Ramon Ramirez escaped a seventh-inning jam with a double-play ball and Jon Rauch (1-0) worked two hitless innings for his first win with New York.
Pinch-hitter Mike Baxter drew a leadoff walk from Rodriguez (0-1) in the ninth and Ruben Tejada put down a sacrifice bunt. Rodriguez looked at second, then threw low to first and the ball got by second baseman Danny Espinosa.
New third base coach Tim Teufel initially waved Baxter all the way around, but he threw up a late stop sign and Baxter slipped to the turf as he tried to stop halfway down the line. Somehow he got back to his feet and scrambled back to third, barely beating Espinosa's throw across the diamond.
Espinosa was shaken up after getting bumped by Tejada as he ran through the bag, but the Washington second baseman stayed in the game.
With first base open and David Wright on deck, the Nationals went after Murphy. He fisted a soft, looping single to right that dropped in front of Jayson Werth as Baxter came in to score.
New York was 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position before Murphy came through. The Mets mobbed him near first base and a teammate pelted him in the face with a cream pie as he was interviewed on the field.
Adam LaRoche extended his fast start with a pair of RBI singles for the Nationals and Tom Gorzelanny tossed 2 2-3 innings of scoreless relief in his season debut. Washington fell to 2-2 in its first full season under Davey Johnson, who managed the Mets to their most recent World Series championship in 1986.
Edwin Jackson squandered an early three-run lead in his Nationals debut and was pulled for a pinch-hitter after five innings. The right-hander signed an $11 million, one-year contract after helping St. Louis win the World Series last season.
Looking for a bounce-back season, Mets starter Mike Pelfrey gave up 10 hits over 5 2-3 innings in his first outing of the year. But he struck out eight, matching a career high.
Eight of New York's nine starters were homegrown. The team said it was the first time that's happened since April 19, 1990, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
One of those farm-system products was Nieuwenhuis, called up after newly acquired center fielder Andres Torres re-injured his calf on opening day. The 24-year-old Nieuwenhuis had two hits in his big league debut Saturday and hit a two-run shot in the fourth inning Monday to tie it at 3.
His drive to right, estimated at 385 feet, cleared the new fence at Citi Field and clanked off the old one, making it the second home run in four games (both hit by the Mets) that would have stayed in the ballpark under the previous configuration.
Trailing 3-0 and booed as he stepped to the plate, the 6-foot-7 Pelfrey sparked New York's offense in the third. He ripped his fifth career double into the left-field corner and scrambled to third on Tejada's long flyout. Wright's two-out single made it 3-1.
Pelfrey allowed three straight hits in the first, and LaRoche's single put Washington ahead.
Ian Desmond singled to start the third and scored when Ryan Zimmerman doubled over Lucas Duda's head in right. LaRoche followed with an RBI single and was thrown out trying for second, though it appeared he beat the play by a comfortable margin.
That might have saved Pelfrey a run because Werth then tripled to right-center for his first hit in 12 at-bats this season.
NOTES: Nationals closer Drew Storen, on the 15-day disabled list, felt tenderness in his elbow after throwing a simulated game Sunday in Florida and will be examined by Dr. James Andrews. "Hopefully it's nothing serious, but it doesn't sound good to me," manager Davey Johnson said. ... Washington LF-1B Michael Morse (back) isn't expected to come off the DL until the Nationals get home on Thursday. He is rehabbing in the minors and Johnson said he saw no reason to rush Morse back for this series. ... New York 1B Ike Davis is 0 for 15 this season after homering in each of his last three spring training games. Davis might be rested Tuesday night against LHP Ross Detwiler, who beat the Mets for his first major league win in September 2009. Detwiler will face RHP Dillon Gee, who is 3-0 with a 3.09 ERA in five starts against Washington. ... The Mets offered more $2.50 tickets for Tuesday night's game after Wednesday's allotment sold out. Stephen Strasburg is scheduled to pitch against Johan Santana in the series finale Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of the Mets' debut.

subset: commoncrawl


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Main Page
From SongbirdReMixWiki
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Latest Updates to the Wiki

Latest Updates to the Wiki

:07DEC15: Frogmouths. Nightjars and Goatsuckers added to all regions

:07DEC15: Frogmouths. Nightjars and Goatsuckers added to all regions

:25DEC13: '''Bird Library in PDF format''' (compiled by Robin Nicholson) [http://www.empken.com/tutorials/Antarctica_Sub-Antarctica.pdf Antarctica & Sub-Antarctica]
:25DEC13: '''Bird Library in PDF format''' (compiled by Robin Nicholson) [http://www.empken.com/tutorials/Antarctica_Sub-Antarctica.pdf Antarctica & Sub-Antarctica]
Revision as of 17:18, 6 February 2016
Welcome to the Songbird ReMix Central Wiki
- Bird Library: All the birds currently Songbird ReMix model form
- Products: A listing of the Songbird Product Line
- FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
- Rendering Quirks and Tips
- Pose Tips: A Place for Songbird ReMix users to get posing and morphs secrets
- Why Birds Matter?
- The Price of Extinction
- Environmental Issues and Birds
- Bird Library References and Sources
Latest Updates to the Wiki
- 06JAN16: Kiwis added to the Oceania: Australia & Nw Zealand Section>br>
- 07DEC15: Frogmouths. Nightjars and Goatsuckers added to all regions
- 25DEC13: Bird Library in PDF format (compiled by Robin Nicholson) Antarctica & Sub-Antarctica
The Songbird ReMix Project
The Songbird ReMix Project originally consisted of one bird mesh that can be morphed and textured into hundreds of different bird species. The base model can be morphed into such species as the Greater Roadrunner, a House Sparrow and a Red-headed Woodpecker. The model has built in morphs to allow accurate folding of the wings, flight and perching and had a low polygon count allow possible flock renders. The model has been used in the science fields to demonstrate courtship behavior, published depicting endangered and extinct status of bird species and is used by professional and amateur artists for commercial and private use. The model is in wavefront (.obj) format so it can be accessed by most of the affordable popular 3D packages such as Poser, DAZ|Studio, Carrara and Vue as well as high-end packages as Max and Maya.
Here's a 2007 movie that briefly describes the Songbird ReMix series:
The original "Songbird" model was created by Anton Kisiel who sold the rights to DAZ 3D. The Kisiel Model is now known as the "DAZ Songbird".
In 2003, the model was revised (or ReMixed) by B.L. Render who corrected the anatomy and added many features such as folding wings and character morphs, and remapped the model. Her partner, Ken Gilliland, using the new morphs, created the bird species and textured them. After the creation of the Songbird Remix Woodpecker, B.L. Render left the partnership and Gilliland took control of the ReMix series. In 2004, DAZ relinquished their rights to ReMix model, saying the "remixing" had made it different enough from the Kisiel model to be considered an "original" product.
In 2006, the model was "ReMixed" again, this time by Ken Gilliland, adding more complex morphs and geometry to create more complex birds such as hummingbirds, quail and kingfishers.
In 2007, he began hybridizing the model with specific bird base models to create Turkeys, Toucans, a variety of Sea and Shorebirds and even Owls. B.L. Render returned to the "ReMix" series to help create a vulture model in 2008.
Returning to the original Songbird ReMix model in 2010, Ken remixed the model a third time, creating a much more realistic bird than the prior versions. The model underwent a significant structural change with the hips moved forward. In addition, several of the detached crests created in 2006 were incorporated into the mesh, more transparency layers were added and many of the 2003 morphs were revised. New base models were also created to improve bird realism. These new base models included: Songbird Base, Gamebird Base, Parrot Base, Zygodatcyl Base and a Syndatcyl Base. Older bird libraries that used the SBRM 1 and 2 versions of the model were updated in late 2010 and 2011 to use the newer models. The series completed it's updates to Songbird Remix 3 in April 2011.
In April of 2012, the series underwent a revision for DAZ Studio use, eliminating the .DAZ file format. At that time, most of the sets underwent revision and texture maps were improved. The series underwent yet another revision in the winter of 2012-2013 due to changes in DAZ Studio programming. The Studio version was merged back into the Poser version.
In 2014, the series introduced more hybrid models to represent waterfowl (swans, geese, ducks, coots, loons and grebes) and Birds of Prey (falcons, hawks and eagles).
Why do birds?
Birds are popular... Besides the purchase of domestic birds as pets, we purchase wild birdseed, bird feeders, birdhouses, bird field guides, binoculars, and even go on birding trips to distant countries. People spend more on pet and wild birds than cats and dogs combined.
Many within the scientific community believe that songbirds are bell-weathers for the health of our planet. In places where songbird populations are in decline, symbiotic partnership are thrown out of balance giving early warning sings that our planet in peril.
And finally, by creating threatened, endangered and extinct bird species in digital format and using them in imagery, animation and film we can educate the public about the mistakes we've made in the ecosystem and what measures we need to take to keep our planet not only healthy for birds, but the human species as well.


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Walt Bellamy was a giant on the basketball court, and the legacy he left on his hometown loomed even larger.
Walt Bellamy was a giant on the basketball court, and the legacy he left on his hometown loomed even larger.
Born on July 24, 1939, Bellamy became the most accomplished and celebrated athlete to come from New Bern.
Bellamy died on Saturday at the age of 74 in Atlanta. He has a street named after him in New Bern and when he was in town, he attended nearby Clinton Chapel AME Zion Church.
�(Walt) was an inspiration for people,� said Ron Bellamy, Walt�s half-brother. �I didn�t hear too many people say negative things about him.
�He accomplished all this when there was the Civil Rights Movement, a lot of racial tension and he kind of broke that barrier in basketball for this neighborhood.�
Ron Bellamy, a former professional boxer, was 26 years younger than Walt. They had the same father, but different mothers.
Still Ron admired his brother.
�When I was a little teenager, I was always using him as motivation,� said Ron, 48, who lives in Jacksonville. �He was in the NBA, and I watched him several times. He was an inspiration for me and it gave me something to strive for.
�That�s probably why I became an athlete myself.�
The start of it all
Bellamy learned how to play basketball on the playgrounds in New Bern, then with West Street School and J.T. Barber High School.
By the time he turned 14 years old, Bellamy was already 6-foot-1, but his game was still raw.
J.T. Barber coach Simon Coates taught Bellamy the fundamentals and helped him throughout high school and college.
Johnnie Sampson, a Craven County commissioner, was a senior captain on the basketball team when Bellamy was a freshman.
�He was really trying to make something out of himself,� Sampson said. �He wasn�t a guy who was running the streets and doing things like other boys.
�He was trying to do the best he could and he really worked hard at basketball to try to make it. He did what the coaches asked him to do and he followed their advice.�
Bellamy, like a lot of the kids in his neighborhood, grew up struggling to make ends meet. Money was tight and food was sparse.
�During the times we were playing basketball, Walt was struggling trying to make it in life, going to school, and his family had to get help from other families in the community,� Sampson said.
�We tried to get together to help one another because it was a trying time.�
In his senior year at J.T. Barber High School, Bellamy guided his team to the 1956 football state championship and garnered all-state recognition.
He scored 47 points in a game against Durham in the 1956 state basketball playoffs.
Ed Bell, a J.T. Barber team captain, was more than just a teammate and classmate. He was one of Bellamy�s closest friends. They were groomsmen in each other�s weddings.
�We grew up together,� Bell said. �Over the years, I would go see him play and stay at his house. When he was in town, he would stay at my house.�
Grows up
Bellamy grew to be 6-foot-11, and went on to play college basketball at Indiana University for coach Branch McCracken.
He was an All-American in 1960 and 1961, finishing his college career with 1,070 points. He averaged 17.8 rebounds per game as a senior.
�In the summer after my junior year of high school, I played with some guys from Indiana,� Bellamy once told the Bloomington (Ind.) Herald Times. �Indiana at the time was closest school to the South that would accept African-Americans. It was an easy transition for me to make.�
Bellamy was a member of the gold-winner 1960 U.S. Olympic team in Rome. It was a team loaded with future hall of famers � Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas.
Bellamy was drafted with the first overall pick in the 1961 NBA Draft and elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
Bell attended the hall of fame ceremony in Springfield, Mass.
Long NBA career
Bellamy played 14 seasons with the Chicago Packers, Baltimore Bullets, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans Jazz.
Bellamy, the 1962 NBA Rookie of the Year, averaged 31.6 points and 19 rebounds in his first season. He was a four-time NBA All-Star and finished with 20,941 points and 14,241 rebounds.
�I was always amazed that he scored 20,000 points and had 14,000 rebounds,� said Ron Bellamy. �He was well respected in the community.
�Back in the 70s, he might have made $400,000 or something like that, but back then, that was probably like three or five million today.�
End of an era
Ron Bellamy said he last spoke to Walt a month or two ago, then got a call from Walt�s son Darren on Saturday.
�I hadn�t heard from Darren in a while and I knew, when I answered the phone and said hello and asked how he was doing, he said �not too well,�� Ron said. �I knew in my heart what he was going to tell me.
�I knew what the news was going to be even before he spoke it. It was a sunken feeling in my heart.�
Walt Bellamy attended the Atlanta Hawks� basketball game on Friday before suddenly passing away the following day.
Bellamy was planning on joining Bell, and his former J.T. Barber teammates, on Friday in New Bern for the New Bern Hall of Fame induction of Reubin Best.
They were going to celebrate afterwards at Applebees.
Bell last spoke with his good friend last Wednesday and had planned to call him on Saturday.
�I couldn�t believe it because we made plans to come down there and enjoy the induction of our classmate Reubin,� Bell said. �We were looking forward to that and our teammates getting together.
�He is one of the greatest athletes to come out of New Bern. They built a road off of Jones Street where he was living, which is Walt Bellamy Drive, in honor of him.�
Walt Bellamy timeline
1939 � Born on July 24
1956 � Led J.T. Barber High School, in New Bern, to a football state championship; named all-state.
1957 � Graduated from J.T. Barber High School
1958-1961 � Played college basketball at Indiana University
1960 � Member of the Gold-medal winning 1960 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team
1961 � Selected first by the Chicago Packers in the NBA Draft
1962 � NBA Rookie of the Year (31.6 points, 19 rebounds)
1974 � Played his final game in the NBA with the New Orleans Jazz
1993 � Elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
2013 � Died in Atlanta, Ga.
Adam Thompson can be contacted at 252-635-5669 or at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow Adam on Twitter @Adam_matic.


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Bacteria are not known for their ability to stir the imagination, but there is at least one reliable exception: bacteria from Mars. In 1996, a NASA study caused a sensation when it announced the mere possibility of fossilized bacteria in a meteorite believed to be from the Red Planet. Thirty-six years after the Viking landers collected soil on Mars, scientists can still make news by declaring that the samples indicate the presence of microbes. Although conclusive evidence for life on Mars (or on any other foreign planet) has yet to turn up, humans are an impatient species. And so we have invented extraterrestrials of every conceivable kind. There are fictional aliens that resemble little green men, mollusks, insects, plants, and minerals. Sometimes they have no bodies at all.
For all their diversity, these creatures tend to fall into one of two groups: those we can live with and those we can't. This summer, Hollywood franchises espousing each view will be delivering their newest installments. The genial "Men in Black" movies suggest that freaky-looking extraterrestrials already live among us, undetected by most citizens and overseen by an agency made up of weary bureaucrats and blasé field officers. The films are an extended pun on the alternate meaning of "alien": immigrant. Far grimmer is "Prometheus," the latest "Alien" movie; the series features an implacable foe that uses our bodies as nests for its young, and likes to chase us through hideous, dripping corridors while baring its hideous, dripping fangs.
Before the nineteenth century, if authors depicted the inhabitants of other planets the aliens were essentially human. The suave Saturnian described by Voltaire in a satirical 1752 story, "Micromégas," looks like an earthling, except that he's six thousand feet tall. (And he has a Continental spirit, keeping a mistress—a "pretty little brunette, barely six hundred and sixty fathoms high.") The Saturnian's primary fictional purpose, as he visits our planet, is to marvel at the relative puniness of humankind, whom he examines with a very large microscope.
It was only after Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's and Charles Darwin's theories of adaptation and natural selection gained wider acceptance, in the nineteenth century, that writers began to speculate in earnest about the sorts of creatures that might flourish in environments beyond Earth. According to Brian Stableford, writing in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the definitive reference on the genre, Camille Flammarion was the first author to present a popular fictional portrait of truly alien life-forms. Flammarion was a French astronomer whose metaphysical interests, if he were pursuing them today, would be labelled New Age. (These beliefs damaged his scientific reputation, but they did lead to a friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle, who shared a fascination with spiritualism.) In 1864, Flammarion wrote a nonfiction book, "Real and Imaginary Worlds," expressing his conviction that there was life on other planets, and eight years later he produced "Lumen," a peculiar fictional work in which the title character, a scholar, relates the myriad wonders of the universe to a disciple.
"Lumen" belongs to the least congenial of literary genres: the philosophical dialogue. Vast swaths of it are given over to explanations of how Lumen, having died, has become a being of pure soul who is able to witness events in the past. Not only can he zoom in on choice historical figures and incidents on Earth; he can also see life on other worlds.
Eventually, Lumen's gaze is directed to a distant planet called Virgo. Alien beings, he explains, "are the result of elements special to each globe, and of the forces which regulate them." This observation aligns with Lamarck's theory of adaptation and, by extension, with the serene rationality of French positivism. According to this pre-Darwinian notion of evolution, animals were thought to shape themselves to match their environments. Life worked its way up a hierarchical ladder of complexity, becoming more "advanced" with each rung; mankind was seen by many thinkers as standing at the top of the ladder.
Although this isn't a theistic view of the universe, it is a stable, orderly, and knowable one, calling to mind the medieval belief that all creation is organized in ascending rank, from the grossest of matter all the way up to God himself. There's something premodern, too, in Flammarion's depiction of the creatures on Virgo. The aliens are a pell-mell combination of human features—rather like the mythical headless Blemmyes, whose faces, according to Pliny the Elder, were in their chests. Lumen's aliens have three thumbs instead of five fingers, and three toes growing out of the heels of their feet; if there's an adaptive reason for this, it is never explained. They have only one ear, "in the shape of a cone, which is placed on the upper part of the skull like a little hat." They are without gender, reproducing "spontaneously." Though they lack wings, they can fly.
As Lumen's all-seeing eye zips around outer space, he spies mermanlike aliens swimming through a rose-colored ocean, a planet populated by "intelligent vegetable races," and another where the inhabitants—"neither vegetables nor animals"—resemble mobile cacti. Flammarion was a reincarnation enthusiast, and on each planet Lumen locates his own incarnation among the natives, a conceit that allows the narrator to conjure what it's like to be such strange creatures. Disappointingly, the aliens' florid bodies are mere candy coatings; on the inside, they all have the sentimental morality of a nineteenth-century Frenchman. As a conehead, Lumen savors "fraternal confidences" with an "intimate friend." On another planet, where Lumen inhabits a fantastical form that resembles a fig tree, he tenderly bestows a blossom from one of his own branches upon a grateful, leafy child.
Every alien society in "Lumen" offers a critique of life on Earth. By eliminating sex or nations or nepotism, each illustrates a finer, more peaceful and rational way of doing things. This is one of the oldest professions practiced by fictional characters: illustrating how humans ought to behave. Extraterrestrials, it turns out, are as good at that job as any of the bizarre races encountered by Lemuel Gulliver during his travels. These are not only aliens we can live with but aliens who can teach us how to live, since obviously we're making a hash of things on our own. And if some extraterrestrials are perched even higher on the Lamarckian ladder than we are, why not give ourselves a boost by following their example?
Although the idea of aliens allowed writers like Flammarion to construct utopian fantasies, in others it prompted dark visions. In the nineteenth century, the thrilling possibility that we have company in the universe was, for most people, overshadowed by an existential crisis. It now seemed that, rather than being created by God, we probably just happened. With a slight change of circumstances, we could just as easily unhappen.
In France, this less comforting view of a universe filled with alien life was adopted by an enigmatic Belgian who wrote under the pseudonym J.-H. Rosny. Born Joseph Henri Honoré Boëx in 1856, he shared the Rosny pen name with his younger brother. The elder Rosny—a protégé of the writer and publisher Edmond de Goncourt—also wrote naturalistic novels, published a manifesto in Le Figaro attacking Émile Zola, and otherwise inhabited the role of fiery saloniste.
Rosny's "scientific romances"—as the genre was called until the nineteen-thirties—won him the esteem of some French scientists, according to Danièle Chatelain and George Slosser, the translators of the recently published "Three Science Fiction Novellas: From Prehistory to the End of Mankind" (Wesleyan). Today, Rosny is best known as the author of the novel that is the basis for the 1981 film "Quest for Fire." In the new collection's bold introduction, Chatelain and Slosser champion the relatively obscure Rosny, over Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, as the true "father of hard science fiction"—a term used to describe narratives in which science, not human concerns, determines how the story unfolds. Rosny, they assert, was the first to attempt fiction in this "neutral, ahumanistic manner."
Rosny's stories have a stripped-down, lunar quality, and are subject to disorienting shifts in tone. His first alien yarn, titled "The Xipéhuz," was published in 1887. It begins as a prehistoric adventure (a popular genre at the time), and is related in the solemn, archaic cadences of a fable. A wandering tribe on Earth comes across a clearing occupied by a "large circle of bluish, translucent cones," each with a "dazzling star" near its base. Close by, the tribesmen spy "strata-like forms . . . somewhat like birch bark" and a few "nearly cylindrical" objects, all of which begin to "undulate." These are the mysterious Xipéhuz. Suddenly, the aliens attack, killing the humans, in a hazily described manner that causes the victims to be "struck down as if by the sword of lightning." Priests approach the Xipéhuz with offerings, acknowledging their status as gods, but that only results in more casualties.
Where do the Xipéhuz come from? Capable of shape-shifting from cone to strata to cylinder, they certainly seem otherworldly, but Rosny offers no explanation for their presence. In a story that he published two decades later, "The Death of the Earth," the beleaguered remnants of humanity confront an even stranger species. In the distant future, Earth is racked by massive earthquakes and water shortages. In the wastelands beyond the few surviving settlements, a new life-form emerges: the ferromagnetics, sentient metallic beings that glow in the dark. (Rosny was big on bioluminescence.) Although the creatures are not manifestly hostile, they will vampirically leach the iron from the blood of any human who spends too much time around them. The hero, at the story's conclusion, is the last human alive, and he decides to lie down among ferromagnetics so that a trace of his own species will be preserved in Earth's inheritors.
In an introductory essay, Chatelain and Slosser praise the "transhumanity" of Rosny's perspective, asserting that he tried "as hard as any writer can who uses words and addresses a human audience to decenter humankind, to make it part of a larger system of life in evolution." Like Flammarion, Rosny was a species pluralist, and believed that human beings are no more entitled than any other creature to reign supreme. He would have felt right at home among the Men in Black.
So great were Rosny's alien affinities that, when he wrote a novel of Mars exploration, "Navigators of Infinity" (1925), he had his narrator fall in love with a Martian female. A far cry from the bikini-clad babes who eventually turned up in pulp science fiction, Rosny's Martian presents "the possibility of beauties perceptible to us and yet completely foreign to our environment and evolution." Another hodgepodge of humanoid features, she has three legs, six eyes, and no nose or ears. Fortunately, the narrator is an eye man who has always considered the "soft protuberance of the mucus-producing nose" and the "ridiculous appendages of ears" unappealing. As for the Martians' "nuptial caress," it is "extraordinarily pure" and "somewhat immaterial." Whatever that means.
Rosny's Martians have reached the "decadent" stage in their species' history. For all their grace and "greater abstract agility," they lack initiative, and have let a mindless, pancake-shaped creature take over their habitat, resigning themselves to eventual extinction. Their leader tells the narrator, "Our forefathers knew that our race was bound to disappear. That no longer saddens us; we only wish to disappear without violence." This melancholy vision of tragic refinement—of exquisite, enervated aliens overcome by the vigor of more primitive beings—seems very French but not very Darwinian. The story of a decaying empire, it's more politics than biology.
But can the two be separated in a Darwinian universe? H. G. Wells didn't bother to try in "The War of the Worlds." Published in 1898 (and in print ever since), the book is written with the economy and the precision of the best journalism, which makes the terror and despair it conveys only more persuasive. Orson Welles's radio adaptation of the novel, in the form of a mock news broadcast, shows a shrewd understanding of its effects.
You will find no nuptial caresses in this account of a Martian invasion of England. The narrator is kept apart from his wife for most of the action, and these Martians are definitely not the caressing kind. Like Rosny's aliens, they are "advanced" creatures, but they're hardly passive: they are the prototype for the rapacious octopoid aliens that abound in later science fiction, from the novellas of H. P. Lovecraft to modern films like "Independence Day." Wells's Martians reproduce via a kind of parthenogenesis, "just as young lilybulbs bud off." Their repulsive, bulbous bodies consist mostly of brains. Sixteen "slender, almost whiplike tentacles" operate the sophisticated technology with which they mercilessly conquer the human race. The Martians' machines are like the shells of mollusks: without them, the aliens' bodies are vulnerable and ineffectual. At the time that Wells wrote his story, deep-sea explorers were making major discoveries, adding thousands of bizarre creatures to the Book of Life; the imprint of the aquatic is still felt in many fictional conceptions of aliens.
Although "The War of the Worlds" was the first great alien-invasion story, Wells was vamping on a popular genre called invasion literature: hypothetical fiction in which Europeans (usually Germans) use superior weaponry and sneak attacks to seize control of a complacent Britain. The initial impulse behind invasion literature was patriotic and militaristic. George Tomkyns Chesney, whose "The Battle of Dorking" kicked off the craze, in 1871, worried that Britain was neglecting its armed forces. It's not difficult, however, to detect the guilty conscience of empire speaking through these nightmares of attack and subjugation.
The narrator of "The War of the Worlds" calls the arrival of the Martians "the great disillusionment," an interplanetary bulletin delivering the bad news of humanity's fragility and inconsequence. A "philosophical writer," he has the misfortune of getting stuck for eight days in a claustrophobic hideout with a mentally disintegrating curate. This useless spokesman of religion can only wail over the betrayal of his faith. He asks, "Why are these things permitted? What sins have we done? What are these Martians?" The narrator pointedly responds, "What are we?"
Whether your preferred variety of exceptionalism is religious, ethnic, or species-based, the Martians are here to tear it down. The aliens feed on human blood, but after the narrator discovers this ghastly fact he muses that "an intelligent rabbit" would surely find our own carnivorous appetites equally appalling. Are the aliens really any worse than the imperial power they've chosen to attack? The Tasmanians, the narrator notes, "were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants." There is a heavy, if unspoken, sense that the British are getting a taste of their own medicine.
Wells was a socialist and, for a while, a member of the Fabian Society—which is to say, a kind of optimist. But in this work, and in scientific romances to come, he offered little hope that humanity could peaceably coexist with extraterrestrials. According to Stableford, early British science-fiction writers were more prone than the French to picture the encounter between humans and aliens as a brutal clash from which only the fittest would emerge alive. This was, he implies, how Britons saw most social relations. Margaret Thatcher's remark about there being no such thing as society comes to mind.
At the end of Wells's novel, Britain is saved not by military prowess but by natural selection: the Martians succumb to a bacterial infection. They lack the resistance that humanity has acquired over millennia, an immunity that we have paid for with "the toll of a billion deaths."
The narrator of Wells's novel may describe the Martians as "the most unearthly creatures it is possible to conceive," but he comes to suspect that they have descended from a species that was a lot like human beings. In other words, they aren't doing anything to us that we haven't done countless times to one another. Why should we anticipate anything different?
If catastrophe and hostility are what we're expecting, our yearning for extraterrestrial contact seems perverse. The aggressive aliens that skittered, slithered, and oozed through the twentieth century were, to a remarkable degree, prefigured in the very first ones imagined in print. Exemplary aliens did enjoy a brief heyday in the dreamy nineteen-sixties, when they demonstrated new ways of thinking about religion (Robert A. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land," 1961) and gender (Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness," 1969). But the majority of outer-space creatures have been like Wells's Martians: up to no good. For every kindly E.T., there must be a dozen fiendish Body Snatchers. These aliens may not all be made in the image of their creators, but each one is a child of our psyche. We go on staring, Lumen-like, into the farthest reaches of the cosmos. What we most often find out there is a reflection—and it's not a pretty sight. ♦


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Salt Lake County Animal Services is dedicated to providing superior support, education, protection and advocacy for all animals and members of the community.
The Salt Lake Valley Landfill provides environmental stewardship, financial integrity, safety, recycling education, and quality service to benefit the environment, residents, business, and employees of Salt Lake County.
Salt Lake County Flood Control Engineering provides permitting, inspection, engineering design, and maintenance services along over 500 miles of county waterways.
Fleet Management is an ASE Certified repair facility with four shops and over 30 technicians handling the transportation and mobile mechanical needs of all Salt Lake County Agencies and Districts.
Emergency services provides support to disaster recovery programs, and leads the personnel and organizational emergency preparedness of Salt Lake County Government.
Salt Lake County Engineering provides engineering services to the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District (MSD) to build and maintain roadways and sidewalks, manage traffic calming programs, encroachments and excavation permitting,
and special event permitting.
Salt Lake County Operations provides high quality maintenance services promoting the safety and welfare of County residents. Services include; pavement management, snow & ice control, street lighting, signs & striping, traffic signals,
weed control, bee inspections.
Development services, including land use planning, help grow our communities in smart and responsible ways. These services include business licensing, which ensures safe and responsible use of private land, and code enforcement, which
keeps neighborhoods vibrant and clean.


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The Pittsburgh Steelers didn't re-sign wide receiver Mike Wallace in part because they knew they had Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders in place. But what if they lose Sanders?
Sanders visited the New England Patriots on Friday. There were conflicting conflicting reports afterward about whether or not the speedster had signed an offer sheet with the team, but NFL.com's Ian Rapoport later reported the wide receiver still hasn't signed an offer from the Patriots. On Sunday, Bob Labriola of Steelers Digest reported that Steelers GM Kevin Colbert hadn't received an offer sheet from New England yet for Sanders, which means Sanders hasn't signed anything.
Restricted free agents like Sanders rarely change teams these days, but the Patriots can use some of their salary-cap room to make a front-loaded offer, which Pittsburgh could find tough to match.
If Sanders does sign an offer sheet from the Patriots, the Steelers would have seven days to match it. If they choose not to, the Patriots would send a third-round draft pick in 2013 to the Steelers.
Sanders would join a rebuilt Patriots wide receiver group alongside new signees Danny Amendola and Donald Jones. Sanders' proven ability to get deep would add some necessary speed to the team's wide receiver position.
New England's interest in Sanders certainly does not bode well for the future of Brandon Lloyd. The Patriots have to make a decision in the next week about whether to give Lloyd his roster bonus or cut him loose.
Sanders set career highs with 44 catches and 626 yards in 2012, starting seven games for the Steelers. He was slated to be a starter with the Steelers this season.Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.


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Many Coloradans raised their glasses when the Repeal of Prohibition went into effect for the state on September 26, 1933. Eighty years ago, fifteen state delegates were called to the state convention to formally ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, which repealed prohibition.
The ratification was set in motion by a two-to-one wet vote of the people to end the dry times in Colorado, two weeks prior on September 12, 1933.
Gov. Ed C Johnson at the time called the convention 'doubly historic' event. However, it was not an exciting affair according to Denver Post reporter Walden E. Sweets.
As the governor and the delegates gathered at the state capitol, delegate Mrs. Stuart P. Dodge gave a speech on the "four responsibilities facing realists." Some may argue her keynotes could be poignant today.


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The driver of this yellow Corvette Grand Sport alright after a late-night suspected drunk driving accident. And by "alright" we mean "all right," because she still lost her hand.
This scary incident occurred in Lodi, California this weekend when the driver of the Corvette collided with a Pontiac Bonneville at about 90 mph. It was enough force to shear the body-cladding off a mid-90s Pontiac and send the Corvette upside down 700 feet from the crash. Not sure what's more impressive.
Police say the woman was airlifted to a local hospital, the three passengers in he Pontiac somehow walked away despite having their car sliced in half. Drugs and/or alcohol is expected to be involved.
She was caught saying she'd "never thought she'd miss a hand so much" immediately prior to the accident.


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NetlogicComputer necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 100 diseños de 35 diseñadores freelance.
IT, Computer, Server and Networking installation and support services for small and medium sized businesses.
I have 2 businesses, Netlogic Computer Consulting, and Netlogic Backup. Last week I held a contest for Netlogic Backup and got a great design. Now it's time to redo my logo for "Netlogic Computer Consulting" and get a professional design.
I attached a picture of the winning logo from last week for "Netlogic Backup" (for reference only).
The 2 businesses may be linking to each other's web sites. I would like a design that is different but still compliments the Netlogic Backup logo. I would like to use similar colors as found in the Netlogic Backup Logo.
I would like to keep the Font color and style of the word "NETLOGIC" Whereas The "NET" I would like to be blue (same color) and the "LOGIC" I would like to be green (same color). I would like a similar font style so it looks alike. I would like the "NETLOGIC" font color to have similar gradient.
The overall logo color should complement the Blue in "NET" and the green in "LOGIC" Use the green very sparingly (not too much green please). I think a small amount of green with the blue color combination makes the logo pop out better.
In my consulting business I am an IT/Computer consultant for over 20 different small/medium size companies with a few residential customers. The majority of this business is related to networking small business computers and servers.
I pride myself for being very good at what I do with a 99.9% client retention rate. All my customers know I go above and beyond their expectations.
With that said, I would like my slogan underneath the logo to say "Going Above and Beyond For Your Partnership in Technology".
I have included a copy of my OLD non-professional business card/ logo I created (The one I am looking to Change).
I want to get rid of the laptop handshake logo. It is too difficult to implement in a professional design.
What I LIKE about the laptop handshake is it signifies computers and partnership. I would like the logo to signify computers, partnership and networking (if possible).
The target audiences are the small/medium size businesses. However it should (on a small level) also possibly target residential as well.
I want an eye catching modern 3D look, Web 2.0 format, I love mirror reflections under the logo, shadows, light reflections and Gradients. I like a high tech look but nothing that looks like it is from Outer space.
It would help if I could see 2 versions of the logo, 1 with a white background and 1 with a darker color background .
I DON'T think I want Arrows in the design; it would be too similar to the Netlogic Backup logo. Remember I want the design to be different yet still compliment it in Colors and style.
I really like the Blue color found in the attached picture.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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With approximately $19 billion in assets, MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBFI) is the holding company for MB Financial Bank, N.A. headquartered in Chicago.
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Learn more about MB Financial Bank, N.A.'s subsidiaries:
MB is guided by our six fundamental values that support the work we do for you – integrity, high performance, customer focus, mutual respect, open communications and enthusiasm.