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|XP is just a number
comment on
|( #3333=superdoc: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
I find ~> not visually distinct enough (otherwise, it might be my first choice). [Update: Alternately, in some fonts it doesn't even look like an arrow and so reads more like "approximately greater than". The combination of the two possible presentations makes it a particularly bad choice, IMHO.]
The name "safe de-ref" means more to me than what is being proposed here. What is being proposed is merely the more specific "undef-safe de-ref". As such, the closest representation of what it does is the &&-> choice (a syntax which I'm pretty sure I've seen in some other language, though I don't recall which).
However, it isn't actually &&-> so I'd vote for &-> because it is that much less ugly and is mnemonic for "slightly different from &&->". In case some don't quite follow... If we had an operator that was to "&&" as the new "//" is to "||", then that operator would be the ideal one to paste in front of "->" to get this new "undef-safe de-ref" operator. But we don't. Now, "&&->" naturally implies "de-ref if true" which is only slightly different from "de-ref if defined". So "&->" is about as close as we can get to "de-ref if defined" by virtue of being "slightly different from 'de-ref if true'". But we do have "&" so you could interpret "&->" as "bit-wise 'and' then de-ref" but that just makes no sense.
So my choice would be for "&->". But part of my reason for that choice (despite it being somewhat ugly) is because I would also like to have something worthy of being called "safe de-ref".
I'd like to also have "->?" added to Perl 5. Since "safe de-ref" is too vague, we should call "->?" the "de-ref if possible" operator.
So $obj->?blurg(@args); would be roughly equivalent to $obj->blurg(@args) if $obj->?can("blurg"); (note how I had to use "->?" in order to safely call can() on something that might be neither an object nor a class).
But my hopes for "->?" are even better realized if, in the process of extending Perl 5's de-ref operators, we also add the long-ago-proposed de-ref operators of "->@" and "->%". Because "is this a hash reference?" is a complete mess in Perl 5.
It started with ref which had the poor design of not thinking blessed hash refs are hash refs. Then we added ->isa("HASH") which was more accurate in several ways but rather sucked because you can't safely call ->isa(...) on some random scalar. Then chromatic's fetish for forcing everybody else to do things his way so he wouldn't have to make a minor improvement to his used-only-in-testing module got pushed as a moral stance against making isa actually convenient as well as useful so that problem just gets worse. So I've resorted to things like eval { $ref->{''} } but that gets unacceptably complicated because you might have a version of Perl that issues warnings (not suppressed by eval) when you do something that it thinks might be an attempt to use the deprecated "pseudo-hash" feature.
So $ref->?% or even defined $ref->?% would be a nice replacement for all of the prior "is a HASH?" techniques. It'd even work for blessed references to scalars that overload hash de-ref'ing.
And even if we don't get ->%, I'd still be happy to have $ref->?isa("HASH") which I don't believe would violate chromatic's edicts about how I should be allowed to use isa() (but would require overload to properly either fudge @ISA or override isa() when an object overloads a data de-ref operation if we want ->?isa to be completely accurate).
And, of course, you could do things like:
for when you don't really care which succeeded or why and you just want the result (or undef).
Thanks much to Tanktalus for helping me with these ideas.
Update: I'd also be happy with just implementing ->? (but my guess is that many will want "de-ref if defined" w/o having to also silently ignore the extra "de-ref isn't possible" cases). But I'd be quite sad if ->? were used to implement just "de-ref if defined".
- tye
In reply to Re: What operator should perl5porters use for safe dereferencing? (&-> and ->?)
by tye


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Representatives from Bella Terra Realty Holdings LLC announced today (July 5) that construction is underway on the final phase of their resort in Gulf Shores, Ala.
As the final phase of their flagship property, they are finishing the project with an exciting twist. Owners will have an opportunity to custom design their lot prior to construction and take advantage of several unique design opportunities, according to a news release.
The final release includes the much sought after lakefront Coach Estate and wooded Terraced lots. Regardless of lot location, each lot is perfectly situated in a resort recognized by Good Sam Club, Woodall's and Best Parks in America as one of the top five Class A RV resorts in the United States. The property continues to garner perfect scores and boasts a 97% overall customer satisfaction rating.
Completion of the final phase and delivery of lots is scheduled for September of this year.
"Today is a special and exciting day for us," said Chuck Smith, president of Bella Terra Realty Holdings LLC. "I remember standing about 20 yards from this very spot when we first broke ground. The past few years have delivered a beautiful new resort, but more importantly to me and my partners, is that we have made many wonderful new relationships with owners and guests here at Bella Terra."
Each of the remaining 65 oversized sites comes landscaped and can be customized to include coach houses, gazebos, outdoor kitchens and much more. Contracts signed during the next few months of construction will include a credit toward lot upgrades as well as a choice of other exciting incentives. Prospective owners are encouraged to contact Bella Terra for specific details.
To view construction photographs and learn more about Bella Terra of Gulf Shores visit: http://www.bellaterrarvresort.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Thank you for publishing your Aug. 16 article, "Rockford-area patients, providers navigate new health insurance system." I volunteer in Rockford for an organization called Get Covered America, and we work to maximize the number of uninsured enrolling in the health insurance marketplace and also educate uninsured consumers about the financial help and in-person assistance that's available to them.
I've seen firsthand the difference that quality, affordable health coverage can make in the lives of Illinoisans and their families and it makes me happy to read about how pleased John Mitchell is with his new coverage. It's also a joy to see people's reactions when they find out they qualify for the health insurance marketplace's special enrollment period, which allows people with certain life events — including moving to a new county, getting married or having a baby — to enroll immediately.
It's important that we continue to bring attention to our new health insurance system as we head toward the second open enrollment period that begins Nov. 15. Everyone deserves to have health coverage.
— Ivan Bautista, Rockford


text: LeBron at the NBA All-Star Game in February. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images North America hide caption toggle caption Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images North America The Two-Way LeGone: James Picks Miami July 8, 2010 Two-time NBA MVP LeBron James tells a live TV audience that he will leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat. The decision by James, 25, ends one of the wildest spectacles of sports speculation in memory.


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Shame that. Been a blast it has to be said.
I'd still like to keep in contact maybe via Twitter if anyone is interested?
My username is @Dansthemanz
Well done Hams for keeping such a tight ship and always keeping the discussions going. It's without question you played a huge part in this forums success.
Well done mate.
Now get on Tweeter.


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Orlando First Academy fullback/linebacker Colton Plante will sign as the fifth local member of the Naval Academy's 2013 football recruiting class, TFA coach Leroy Kenard confirmed Friday.
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Plante, an integral part of TFA's historic best season ever this past year during which the Royals went 12-1 and fell one game shy of the Class 3A state title game, joins teammate Lloyd Hylton as Navy pledges, and they are the fourth and fifth Orlando-area players to commit to the Midshipmen.
Also headed to Navy are Winter Garden West Orange teammates FB/LB Nate Ozdemir and DE Winston Chastang, and Orlando Lake Highland Prep DE Carter Shipley.
For Plante, the No. 40-ranked player in the Sentinel's 2013 Central Florida Super60, his journey to Navy was a bit of an arduous task. He finished his senior season without an offer from a Football Bowl Subdivision school, but he kept searching for openings. He gained preferred walk-on invitations from both South Carolina and Rutgers, but Navy was the only institution offering a full-ride scholarship up front.
He visited all three schools an in the end came away most impressed with what the Naval Academy had to offer.
Hylton, a 5-foot-10, 168-pound running back who had one other FBS offer from Air Force, committed to Navy this past weekend after an official visit to Annapolis.
Chris Hays is the Sentinel's recruiting coverage coordinator and can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Os_Recruiting and Facebook at Orlando Sentinel Recruiting and now on Pinterest at Orlando Recruiting.


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hichamc necesitaba un nuevo diseño de botón o icono y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
2 ganadores han sido elegidos entre 111 diseños de 42 diseñadores freelance.
We are a MMORPG gaming community. For our gaming community, we are developing a unique anti-cheat protection software called "GameProtect".
Gamers who play the game Lineage 2 (RPG)
We are looking for 2 different pictograms to represent our GameProtect software. We will be developing 2 versions of the software, which are basically the same software, but the difference is how the software will be distributes/promoted:
1) A free version, which will only be used by our community
2) A commercial version which other gaming communities/users can purchase from us.
The 2 icons should be completely different from each other. Each of the icons should be unique and any design element (for example a shield) are allowed, as long as it radiate safety. A clean, abstract or heavily simplified style is preferred over a realistic or cartoon design. There should be no text in the icons. Any other creative input is much appreciated.
The icons will be used as application pictogram and as icon in the windows tray. The icon should look great in its full size as well when it's used in the windows tray.
Note that the most important icon-size is the 16x16 one thats meant for the Windows Tray. This is the most used size of them all and so it'll be very important that this size keeps its detail, even when being so small.
We require the final icons to be delivered in the following sizes:
- 16x16 pixels
- 32x32 pixels
- 48x48 pixels
We hope to see some great designs.


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The following is excerpted and adapted from the screenplay for the forthcoming movie "The Counselor" (directed by Ridley Scott; to be released in November).
MEXICAN GARAGE. A welder in coveralls and goggles is cutting a line along the side of the tank of a Ford F650 septic-tank truck with an acetylene torch. The tank of the truck has been cut in two laterally and a hoist is lowering a fifty-five-gallon drum into the open top of the tank. The welder is standing in the tank waiting to unfasten the hooks and the cable.
MEXICAN GARAGE. The welder is welding the top of the tank back in place.
A SMALL MEXICAN port town on the Gulf of California. Several trucks are being unloaded and are driven along the dock toward a warehouse with a sign over the door that says "Aduana." One of the trucks is the septic-tank truck. It is waved aside and the driver hands a brown envelope down to the customs inspector, who puts it inside the front of his coat, and the truck drives out to the road.
SOUTHWESTERN DESERT. The septic-tank truck is sitting in the chaparral. The driver opens the door and stands up, holding on to the roof of the cab and the top of the open door. Another man watches through the windshield with a pair of binoculars. In the distance, a line of stragglers crossing through the chaparral, men and women, carrying suitcases and laundry bags over their shoulders. The standing man takes a cigarette from his shirt pocket and lights it and blows the smoke gently.
DESERT. THE SUN has just set. Bare purple mountains are dark against a darkening sky streaked with deep red. There is the high, thin scream of a motorcycle in the far distance, very slowly becoming louder. Then it streaks across the middle distance in a small part of a second, really just a blink of lights, and whines away.
A SMALL GROCERY STORE. A young man dressed in a bright-green leather motorcycle outfit—jacket and tight pants and green boots and gloves—is waiting in line, his helmet hanging over his arm. He is somewhat dark. Part Mexican. The woman in front of him has unloaded her groceries onto the conveyor belt and the clerk is adding them up. She turns and smiles at the man. He is holding a ten-pound bag of dog food.
SOUTHWESTERN DESERT. The septic-tank truck and a pickup are parked in the chaparral. The two Mexican drivers are talking to two other men. They squat on the ground. One passes around a pack of cigarettes. Then he picks up a stick and draws a map in the dirt.
A WAREHOUSE WITH floodlights. The metal door clanks upward and the green-leather motorcyclist comes whining through on a Kawasaki ZX-12R and brakes and does a doughnut on the concrete floor and stops and shuts off the bike and takes off his helmet. A Doberman runs to him and stands up and he hugs her and tousles her ears and steps off the bike. There is a black late-model Cadillac Escalade parked toward the rear of the warehouse. He crosses the room, with the dog leaping about him, to an island in the far corner that contains a kitchen and a bed, a tin locker, and a leather easy chair, taking the bag of dog food with him. He fixes the dog a bowl of food and turns on the stereo and opens the refrigerator and takes out a frozen dinner and puts it in the microwave and opens a beer and sits, watching the dog eat. He puts the beer on the table and stands up and takes off the leather jacket and unzips a pocket and takes out a clear plastic bag and pitches it onto the table. It is full of hundred-dollar bills.
NIGHT. NORTHERN Mexico at the U.S. border. The septic-tank truck is lumbering over the desert, driving with only the parking lights on. The truck crests a slight rise and grinds to a halt. In the distance are the lights of a city.
YARD OF THE Pump Masters Septic Tank Pumping Company. Early morning. The trucks are pulling out one by one and the yard master is checking them off on his clipboard. When they are all gone, there is one truck left in the yard.
A LARGE MOTORCYCLE store in the city. A man enters and stands looking. He crosses to where a Kawasaki ZX-12R motorcycle is circling slowly on a motorized dais. The dais is marked off with a blue velvet rope and the man approaches and stands looking at the bike for a moment, then unhooks the rope and lets it fall to the floor and mounts the dais and stands circling with it. A clerk talking to a customer nearby sees him. The clerk comes over to the dais. The man has taken a steel tape measure from his coat pocket and is measuring the height of the Kawasaki at the handlebars.
BORDER CITY. EVENING. An outdoor café adjoining a parking lot. Metal chairs and tables. Traffic. A Mexican man is sitting at one of the tables with a cup of coffee before him and a newspaper. The young man in green pulls up on the Kawasaki ZX-12R. He takes off the gloves and the helmet and puts the gloves inside the helmet and steps off the bike and walks to where the man is sitting and kicks back a chair and sits down.
THE MAN AT THE table rises and goes, leaving the paper on the table. The kid sits at the table and opens the newspaper and reads.
THE KID RAKES AN object from under the paper into his helmet and puts down the paper and stands and puts the helmet under his arm and crosses the plaza to his bike and puts his foot over the bike and starts it and pulls his gloves from the helmet and lays them on the tank in front of him and pulls on the helmet and fastens the strap and then pulls on the gloves and kicks back the stand and pulls away into the traffic.
NIGHT. TWO-LANE blacktop road through the high desert. A car passes and the lights recede down the long straight and fade out. A man walks out from the scrub cedars that line the road and stands in the middle of the road and lights a cigarette. He is carrying a roll of thin braided wire over one shoulder. He continues across the road to the fence. A tall metal pipe is mounted to one of the fence posts and at the top—some twenty feet off the ground—is a floodlight. The man pushes the button on a small plastic sending unit and the light comes on, flooding the road and the man's face. He turns it off and walks down the fence line a good hundred yards to the corner of the fence and here he drops the coil of wire to the ground and takes a flashlight from his back pocket and puts it in his teeth and takes a pair of leather gloves from his belt and puts them on. Then he loops the wire around the corner post and pulls the end of the wire through the loop and wraps it about six times around the wire itself and tucks the end several times inside the loop and then takes the wire in both hands and hauls it as tight as he can get it. Then he takes the coil of wire and crosses the road, letting out the wire behind him. In the cedars on the far side, a flatbed truck is parked with the bed of the truck facing the road. There is an iron pipe at the right rear of the truck bed mounted vertically in a pair of collars so that it can slide up and down and the man threads the wire through a hole in the pipe and pulls it taut and stops it from sliding back by clamping the wire with a pair of vise grips. Then he walks back out to the road and takes a tape measure from his belt and measures the height of the wire from the road surface. He goes back to the truck and lowers the iron pipe in its collars and clamps it in place again with a threaded lever that he turns by hand against the vertical rod. He goes out to the road and measures the wire again and comes back and wraps the end of the wire through a heavy three-inch iron ring and walks to the front of the truck, where he pulls the wire taut and wraps it around itself to secure the ring at the end of the wire and then pulls the ring over a hook mounted in the side rail of the truck bed. He stands looking at it. He strums the wire with his fingers. It gives off a deep resonant note. He unhooks the ring and walks the wire to the rear of the truck until it lies slack on the ground and in the road. He lays the ring on the truck bed and goes around and takes a walkie-talkie from a work bag in the cab of the truck and stands in the open door of the truck, listening. He checks his watch by the dome light in the cab.
HE TURNS OFF the walkie-talkie and takes the cigarette from his mouth and grinds it into the dirt and shuts the door of the truck. He looks at his watch. Very thin in the distance we can hear the high-pitched scream of the Kawasaki bike flat out at eleven thousand r.p.m.
SHOT OF THE green rider bent low over the bike at a hundred and ninety miles an hour. Suddenly, the floodlight comes on and he raises up and turns his head to look at it.
THE TRUCK. THE desert is suddenly lit to the north of the wire man and he takes the ring and carries it forward and pulls it over the hook. The wire hums.
SHOT OF THE green rider with his face turned back to the floodlight, which is now behind him. Suddenly, his head zips away and, in the helmet, goes bouncing down the highway behind the bike. The bike continues on, the motor slows and dies to silence, and in the distance we see a long slither of sparks recede into the dark.
THE TRUCK. THE man clips the wire at the ring with a pair of wire cutters and the wire zips away. He walks out to the road with the walkie-talkie. In the road, he shines the light down the blacktop and then walks down the roadside ditch until he comes to the helmet.
HE PUTS AWAY the walkie-talkie and bends over and picks up the helmet. It is surprisingly heavy. He goes back to the truck and opens the cab door on the driver's side and puts the helmet on the floor and shuts the door and goes out to the road and crosses to the fence, where he cuts the wire free from the fence post and begins to wind it up as he walks, passing the wire over his elbow at each turn to make a coil. He stows the wire in a toolbox under the bed of the truck and gets in the truck and starts it and turns on the lights and drives out into the road.
DESERT, NIGHT. THE truck drives past the headless body sprawled in the road. Then it stops. The man looks out the window of the truck at the body, then backs up the truck and gets out. He picks up the feet and drags the body into the ditch and wipes his hands on his pants and then gets back in the truck and pulls away down the highway.
FRONT GATE OF the septic-tank company. The flatbed truck pulls up and the wire man gets out and shuts the door. He is holding a battery-driven die grinder in one hand and he watches the road behind him, where a single light is approaching. Sound of a motorcycle. The cycle pulls up and the rider gets off and kicks down the stand, and the wire man goes to the gate and turns on the die grinder and bends to cut the padlock on the gate. A sheaf of sparks lights up the area, and the lock falls to the ground in about twenty seconds. He pushes open the gate and then bends and picks up the lock and juggles it in his hand and throws it into the bushes.
THE SEPTIC-TANK truck on a two-lane blacktop road in central Texas. A late-model sedan is following it, two men in the car. The passenger in the sedan plugs a flashing red roof light into the cigarette lighter in the dash and reaches out the window and places the light on the roof of the car. Then he takes a black box off the seat and holds it at the window and turns it on and it begins to emit a police-siren sound. The septic-tank truck slows and pulls over onto the verge and comes to a halt. The sedan pulls in some distance behind it and the two men get out, putting on white Stetson hats. They are dressed in boots and tan slacks and white shirts and wear automatic sidearms. The driver of the truck—the wire man—watches them in the rearview mirror. The boots of the co-driver of the truck are moving back along the passenger side of the truck. The driver starts the truck and pulls away. The two men in the road have almost reached the truck and they draw their pistols and run forward. The co-driver of the truck is now lying in the bar ditch, and when the truck clears his position the two men in the road are exposed directly in front of him and he opens fire on them with a pistol, dropping one of them dead in the road and wounding the other in the leg. The wounded man dives into the ditch on the other side of the road. The truck has come to a stop again, angled slightly toward the road, and the driver opens fire on the wounded man with a pistol from the truck window. The wounded man presses himself flat in the ditch and takes careful aim with his pistol and shoots the driver in the head. The driver's pistol clatters into the road. The co-driver in the ditch sees the pistol fall. He studies the far side of the road and then backs down into the ditch and crouches and runs along the ditch toward the truck. The wounded man sees the man's back moving along the ditch and he stands and fires three rounds after him. The last round hits the tank of the truck and brown sewage starts to spout from the hole. The co-driver reaches the truck and opens the door and clambers in over the body slumped on the floor and, crouching over the body, he reaches and pushes the clutch to the floor with his hand and drops the shifter into first gear and reaches and releases the emergency brake. He pushes down the accelerator with one hand and lets the clutch out with the other and the truck moves forward into the road. The wounded man climbs out of the ditch and hobbles back to the car and gets in and shuts the door. He lays the pistol on the seat and reaches under the seat and takes out an AR-15 machine pistol with a twenty-round clip and pushes off the safety and starts the car and pulls out down the road after the truck. The truck has wandered to the far side of the road and the car pulls up along the passenger side of the truck and the wounded man opens fire with the AR-15, emptying the clip into the door of the truck. Then he backs away and pulls to the verge and sits watching. The truck veers slowly off the road in front of him and rolls down into the bar ditch, where it tilts up onto two wheels and balances for a moment and then drops back onto all four wheels and sits there in silence. In the rearview mirror, the man in the car can see another car approaching, very small on the long stretch of blacktop road. He can see the pistol lying in the road and, beyond that, the dead body. The approaching car is shimmering in the heat waves off the road. The man's trouser leg is dark with blood to his boot. He places his hand on his thigh and leans forward slightly in pain. He turns the AR-15 on the seat and ejects the empty clip and reaches under the seat and gets hold of a small canvas bag and puts it in his lap and unzips it and takes out a loaded clip and loads the AR-15 and pushes back the slide with the heel of his hand. The approaching car has slowed. Now it stops. It turns sideways in the road and backs up and swings around and heads back the way it came. The wounded man has opened the door and he steps out and levels the AR-15 and opens fire on the fleeing car. He empties the clip and then lowers the gun and stands watching. The car slows and drifts off the road and down into the bar ditch and comes to a stop. The man reaches into the car and gets another clip and reloads the AR-15 and turns and goes down the bank to the truck.
SEWAGE IS STILL leaking from the bullet hole in the tank. The man limps up to the passenger side of the truck, with the gun at the ready, and pulls open the door and steps back. Then he steps up and reaches into the truck and pulls out a body by the belt and lets it fall into the grass. Then he pulls the other one out on top of it. He turns and climbs up out of the ditch and stands in the road and looks up the road and down. He limps down the road to the car and gets the pistol and the pouch of clips off the seat and takes the keys out of the ignition and goes to the rear of the car and opens the trunk and gets out his bag.
THE MAN IS sitting in the front seat of the septic-tank truck whittling with his knife on a tree branch. His open bag is sitting on the seat beside him. There is a box of 9-mm. cartridges in the open bag and he takes one of the cartridges out and compares the diameter of the bullet to the diameter of the stick he is whittling. Now he cuts a ring around the branch about three inches from the end. The man climbs down from the cab of the truck and walks back and jams the end of the stick into the hole in the truck. He breaks off the branch and throws it to one side and folds away his knife and wipes his hands on his trousers and taps the plug in more firmly with the pistol and then goes back and climbs painfully up into the cab and shuts the door and rests for a minute with his eyes closed. Then he takes out his cell phone and dials a number and puts the phone to his ear.
PLYWOOD OFFICE of a junk yard in the desert. The junk-yard man is talking on the phone. A pit bull lying on a mat beside his desk growls and stands up. The man looks up. He hangs up the phone and looks at the client. The client comes forward in his bloodstained clothes and limps to a stop and reaches into his jacket. He takes a false-leather pouch with a bank logo from his coat and unzips it and takes out three banded sheaves of hundred-dollar bills and drops them onto the desk. The junk-yard man stands up.
THE SEPTIC-TANK truck is being jacked up on one side with two floor jacks. The junk-yard man operates one of the jacks. The plug has been removed from the hole in the tank and sewage is leaking from the hole. The truck tilts up and the leak slows and then stops.
JUNK YARD. THE owner is standing in a chair, wearing welding goggles and holding an oxyacetylene torch. He melts lead from a stick and spreads it over the bullet hole in the tank with a wooden paddle.
A MOBILE HOME at the edge of the junk yard. Interior. The wounded man is lying on a cheap sofa, with his leg stretched out on a coffee table that is covered with a sheet. There is a plastic bucket on the floor filled with bloody gauze.
A GARAGE, THE septic-tank truck. There is a gantry crane overhead—a chain hoist that slides on iron rails—and a man in coveralls and welding glasses is slicing open the tank of the truck laterally from front to rear with a cutting torch. The top half of the tank is being lifted by two hooks and the chains from the single hook hanging from the pulley. Inside the severed tank lie four fifty-five-gallon steel drums.
THE WASH BAY in the corner of the garage. The four drums are standing upright on pallets and the worker, in coveralls and rubber boots, is hosing them down with a steam washer.
TWO MEN IN breathing masks at the wash bay. One is in work clothes and one is in white coveralls. The worker has an electric driver and is unfastening the tops of the drums. One of the drums is already open, and the man in coveralls takes out four clear plastic bags, each holding a kilo of cocaine. The worker unscrews the bolt on the second drum and lifts away the rim that circles the top of the drum and moves on to the next. ♦


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June 3, 2004-Arrival In Hong Kong
Arrival in Hong Kong, June 03, 2004
We arrived in HK on Thursday. Now it is Saturday morning. I am typing, and Judy and Carol are both still asleep. The "Wow!" factor of this place far, far, exceeds anywhere we've been. We've planned this stop for over five years, and have so much riding on it, that now that we are here we are feeling pretty overwhelmed. It seems that we must be junkies for this kind of thing though, because we are always doing it: always landing in this foreign country or that, with barely a clue where we are or what we are doing, knowing little of the language, and instantly getting this feeling that we have really done it this time; we're never going to figure out this place. But then we start to cope. In Hong Kong so far, we have completed our check-in and clearance, have a temporary mooring in the city (will move to suburbs in a week or two), temporary membership in Royal Hong Kong YC, a few hundred HK$ in our pockets, new phone numbers, and have been exploring some of the neighborhood. I found a street I recall from the 60's. It could be a different one but it feels right.
To clear in we stumbled ashore right into the busy streets of central Hong Kong. A rabbit warren of shops and crowded streets with overhanging neon signs, double-decker busses, and 40-story high-rise apartment buildings with bamboo laundry poles sticking out next to soaring, futuristic, office buildings and 5 star hotels. We rubber-necked continuously, just about got run over, and couldn't make heads or tails of the vague directions we had: "Go to the MTR and take a train to..." Then a train station appeared before our eyes and we went underground and got more lost, but we got on a train and by some stroke of luck it was the right one. When we got off four stops later, we really got lost. We wandered around for two and a half hours, with our poor tired feet getting sorer by the minute, following first one and then another set of confusing directions (the office had moved), mostly in Chinese, but somehow we made it to Port Control just as our feet were giving out completely. There some 10-15 busy immigration guys barely gave us a second look, but one nice fellow issued us a clearance and stamped our passports. Cost: Zero. Education: Just started.
On the way back, a harried tourist ran by towing a suitcase on wheels, and asked us for directions to the Macao ferry, and we knew the answer! Like a local expert, Judy pointed the way and as the lady thankfully hurried off we cracked up. Somebody asked us for directions in HK, what a hoot.
There is a collection of sampans tied to the guest pontoon here in Causeway Bay, where the yacht club is, and where WINGS is moored, with a look right out of "The Sand Pebbles": Each one is twenty five feet of fat, low, cluttered, overhanging, canvas covered, swaybacked teak, bumping side by side with more like it and with a few dozen battered punts, (fiberglass dingys) floating nearby. There are dogs barking and filth in the water, and a toothless old Chinese lady is organizing some buckets and cleaning supplies on the dock. She, and the other people living in these sampans do boat maintenance for the moored yachts. To clean the yachts they fill their punts to the gunnels with fresh water, a kind of floating tub, and they drive out to the yacht and use a pump to run a hose. Very quaint...or is it? When we first arrived we walked by the sampans and their maintenance punts. Glancing inside one sampan I saw a lady watching a flat screen TV and typing on a notebook computer. Three sampans down a small generator purred and some extension cords looped between boats. On a post I saw a Wi-Fi antenna. Things aren't what they seem.
The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is nice. It is an up-scale joint a bit like Seattle Yacht Club with efficient staff, mahogany paneling, soft carpets, and about 200 Lexus and Mercedes sedans in the parking lot. They welcomed us, gave us a shower key, and imprinted our credit card.
So, we're getting settled bit by bit, and we know we are in for the adventure of our lives. Stay tuned.
Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Hong Kong


text:
Women hit most by poverty in France
Issued on: Modified:
A report by the Secours Catholique, the French branch of the Catholic charity Caritas, has revealed that women and immigrants have been hit hardest by the financial crisis. Women account for 57% of people seeking help from the association, almost 10% more than a decade ago. Even people with secure jobs are living under the breadline. Getting out of the poverty trap once you've fallen into it, says the charity, is taking longer than ever before.


text:
Michael Anthony Strahan (pronounced /ˈstreɪhæn/; born November 21, 1971 in Houston, Texas) is a former American football defensive end who played for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He is currently a football analyst on Fox NFL Sunday, and also a host for Pros vs. Joes alongside fellow FOX football analyst Jay Glazer. He starred in and produced the Sunday night FOX sitcom Brothers but in December 2009 it was cancelled.
Strahan followed in the footsteps of his uncle Art, who also had played defensive end at Texas Southern University. Strahan was so dominant he drew double teams, and outraged TSU coaches dubbed the double teaming "Strahan rules." By his junior season, Strahan had begun to turn himself into an NFL prospect. As a senior at Texas Southern, Strahan was selected All-America first team by The Poor Man's Guide to the NFL Draft, The Sheridan Network and the Associated Press, when he recorded 62 tackles with a school-record 19 quarterback sacks and 32 tackles totaling 142 yards in losses. He was also selected Division I-AA Defensive Player of the Year by The Poor Man's Guide. In 1992 he was named 1st team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference and the SWAC's Player of the Year for the 2nd consecutive season. He was also named Black College Defensive Player of the Year. As a junior in 1991, Strahan led the SWAC with 14.5 quarterback sacks. His 41.5 career sacks is a Texas Southern record.
Strahan holds the NFL record for sacks in a single season with 22.5 (breaking New York Jets' Mark Gastineau's total of 22) in the 2001 season.


text:
|Home > International Criminal Law > War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity, Including Genocide
|See also the International Human Rights section of EISIL, under the subcategory War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, Including Genocide and the Use of Force section of EISIL, under the subcategory Law of Armed Conflict. Relevant information may also be found under the following sections of this topic: International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, and International Military Tribunal for the Far East at Tokyo.
Web Sites
War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide, and Terrorism, University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
More Information
Research Resources
ASIL Insights: Special Court for Sierra Leone Dismisses Taylor Motion Against Change of Venue
More Information
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text: Concrete Contractor Perth Whether you have a driveway that needs to be installed or looking at building your dream outdoor entertaining space, Terrastone will come to you with a wealth of ideas, knowledge, and assistance to turn your visions into reality. Over the years, we have partnered and now work with the best decorative concrete manufacturers, contractors, and concrete finishers in the Perth area, so that we can continuously bring our customers the best possible result for their project. When you choose to hire Terrastone for your project, it will be Adam who is there from the initial consult to the final finish on your decorative concrete application. His approach to project management ensures that the highest level of quality control is met, creating consistency in project completion and final beautifully created products for clients.


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text:
Possible Duplicate:
How exactly does "root" user access/account works? Do all applications run as root on my phone after rooting?
I understand the root user under Linux and the goal of rooting an Android device. Though, when people say "rooting", does it mean I will always use my device as root? Or just while I apply my changes?


text:
Lincoln College PTK Chapter recognized at regional, national
Send a link to a friend
[July 03, 2014]
LINCOLN - The Iota Chi chapter of the
Phi Theta Kappa honor society at Lincoln College received two awards
at the PTK Regional Convention and was recognized as a 4-Star
Chapter at the International Convention.
Iota Chi chapter was recognized with the Dr. Mary
Anne Player Appreciation Award for co-hosting the Illinois Honors
Institute and Leadership Conference held at Illinois Central College
last October. The Conference was attended by members of 18 Illinois
Phi Theta Kappa chapters and representatives of the International
Headquarters. According to Iota Chi's faculty advisor Associate
Professor Spring Hyde, hosting the conference was the pinnacle event
in the Iota Chi Chapter's goal to earn its fourth star in the 5-Star
Chapter Development Plan.
"To be recognized by the Region as an award recipient is a huge
achievement," said Hyde. "We have vastly increased our presence on
campus, in the community, and in the region in the last four years.
It was a wonderful surprise for our chapter to be recognized for the
hard work our members have put forth."
In addition to the Chapter recognition, Hyde was nominated by the
Illinois Region and Phi Theta Kappa International Headquarters for a
Horizon Award, which is given to chapter advisors who attain new
levels of achievement in their PTK programs.
"I was honored, and surprised, to learn that I was given the Horizon
Award for 'reviving the Lincoln College Chapter.' I could not have
done this without the help of my co-advisor Assistant Professor Kate
Ross, the support of College administrators, and especially the
wonderful, funny, hard-working PTK members who have helped build our
chapter the last four years," said Hyde.
[to top of second column]
In recent years the Iota Chi chapter has participated in the
Logan County Polar Plunge for Special Olympics, sent over 500
books to soldiers serving overseas and donated books to Illinois
Veterans, sponsored the Reading Railroad Activity Day to promote
reading in the community, collected toys for Logan County Toys
for Tots, held voter registration drives, volunteered at the
Creekside Outdoor Center for Environmental Education, and
participated in or helped with numerous other community and
campus events.
Founded in 1918, Phi Theta Kappa is the international honor
society of two-year colleges and has over 2 million members.
[Text received; TRACY BERGIN, LINCOLN
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text:
I've recently returned to the openSUSE fold after a prolonged absence. I installed openSUSE Leap 15.1 and, when at home, was able to connect to my home wifi network.
I took my laptop to the office so that I could get it to perform all necessary updates during the day but am unable to connect to the office wifi - either the secured or the open networks.
The default network manager can see the networks and appears to have a good signal - solid blue bar above the signal strength indicator. Unfortunately, this is accompanied by a yellow question mark. I can click on the signal and select the network. I get a 'Configuring interface' message below the chosen network, then it stops and 'Never used' appears below the network.
I'm pretty sure that there's a simple solution - but I cannot for the life of me find it.


text:
Sort of a stale "Ginger Snaps," Fritz Böhm's "Wilding" takes the familiar trope of a girl's sexual awakening and compares it to a beast waiting to be unleashed. (Because as we all know, when a girl becomes a woman, they will tear the world apart. Or something like that.)
Written by Böhm and Florian Eder, this werewolf-esque tale concerns a little girl named Anna (played by Arlo Mertz, Aviva Winick, and, ultimately, Bel Powley) who is kept locked in her bedroom by her father (Brad Dourif), who is hell-bent on keeping her safe from a monster called the Wildling. Anna longs to go outside; when her father kills himself she gets her wish and is taken from the home by Sheriff Ellen Cooper (Liv Tyler). Cooper fosters Anna until a permanent home can be found for her, joining Cooper's teenage son, Lawrence, who seems to like how weird Anna is. Aside from being an odd duck, Anna has dreams of running wild in a forest and seeing a strange creature eating people in the woods. She tries to adapt to society, but when she starts to change physically, reining her becomes a problem.
There isn't any new ground covered here, as this is a fairly straightforward gothic fantasy. Anna has to learn to live in the world and control who she really is while those around her struggle to understand her. It's like any normal teenager trying to find their footing in the world... except Anna's feet leave paw prints instead of footprints.
The film starts out fairly interesting and is decently directed, but it falls apart around the halfway mark. Meanwhile, the entire film is shot so dark it's hard to see what's going on for a good portion of the movie. This gets worse as the film keeps going, which is also when it starts to lose its way and we're not quite sure what the point of the thing is anymore.
Powley is effective bringing a dangerous innocence to Anna that gives the character more depth. Tyler is that calming, sweet, motherly figure who also happens to be a sort of complacent cop. The rest of the cast is serviceable; James Le Gros has an inexplicable role as a forest hobo who takes Anna in after a particularly violent night at a party. When the film ends, it's just sort of over without any insight into girls, sex, or being an outsider. It makes you wonder what drew anyone (except Powley) to the script when it just sort of lays there inertly. Böhm might surprise us with his next feature, but this one doesn't live up to its title. It's more Mild-ling then Wildling.


text:
Tournament completed!
Share the victory to your followers by giving a shout-out.
IMPORTANT: YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE NEW CHALLENGER DISCORD IN ORDER TO ENTER THIS TOURNAMENT! Link here: https://discord.gg/vSVHPVW
Your Challonge entry must match your Discord name and CFN, if a TO cannot find you on discord you will be DQ'd!
Update your Discord name on the server to include your CFN. This makes it easier to find matches as well as TOs locating fighters.
All unsportsmanlike conduct directed towards other members will result in a temporary 1 week ban from all New Challenger Tournaments. Repeat offenders will be dealt with accordingly.
1) Senzer and Penguin93 will be Tournament Officials (TO) for this.
2) Penguin93 will be streaming for us. The Twitch stream will be linked here:
Must be a part of discord group AND in the European Region Invite: https://discord.gg/vSVHPVW
Participants MUST check-in before tournament starts or they will be kicked.
Check in is a full hour before tournament so you have time.
Participants must complete scheduled fight within 15 minutes of each round, specifically when the initial request is sent. If you cannot find your opponent after 10 minutes please contact a Tournament Official.
Participants SHOULD NOT disqualify other competitors, only TOs!
Bracket will be shuffled randomly before tournament kicks-off.
Every set should be a FT2 -UNLESS- it is TOP 3 (Winners', Losers' and Grand Finals) which will be FT3.
General Participant Code of Conduct: Participants may report their scores after matches - Honor code. If you believe something was incorrectly scored please have screenshots and message a TO in Discord.
Understand that you may not get the best possible connection. While we would all like to play in minimal ping this is simply not possible. Please do not complain about losing from lag or rollback - it's annoying, we get it - but just fight your best!
Final Results
|Supreme Champion:
|Worthy Adversary:
|Maybe Next Time:


text:
The Wire 300: Simon Reynolds on the Hardcore Continuum #3: The State Of Drum 'n' Bass (1995)
February 2013
Originally published as "Sounds Of Blackness" in The Wire #136 June 1995.
Nine months on, General Levy's "Incredible" looks like a fluke; despite radio play and a seductive melody, Metalheads' "Inner City Life" failed to crack the Top 40. Jungle doesn't look like it's gonna become pop music after all. Maybe sped-up breakbeats will always prove too disruptive for mass consumption. But the real problem, I suspect, is that the Song is simply too staid and unwieldy an entity to ride Jungle's unstable, self-rupturing aesthetic. So far the best attempt at song-oriented Jungle is Princess's "Say I'm Your No 1", as remixed/re-produced by Steve Gurley, formerly of Foul Play: here, two different kinds of swing (Eighties R&B and drum 'n' bass) entwine perfectly to make for as nubile a slice of 'lover's Jungle' as you could wish for. Generally, though, Jungle - like most post-rave musics - isn't about songs, it's about hooks. Jungle's radicalism is that its drum-patterns are as catchy as its synth-motifs or vocal samples, e.g. Omni Trio's "Renegade Snares", where the snare tattoo is the mnemonic, rather than the stuttering diva-chorus or three-note piano figure.
Omni is about as pop as drum 'n' bass gets these days. Since the explosion of media and record biz interest last Summer, there's been a concerted shift by the scene's leading artists away from anything that panders to mainstream sensibilities. Determined to sabotage the co-option process and protect Jungle's underground status, the key producers are studiously shunning anything that smacks of either Ragga (the term 'Jungle' has been displaced by the more neutral and formalist 'drum 'n' bass' ) or pop appeal. Instead of hefty chunks of melody or lyrics, vocal samples tend now to be the merest mood-establishing tint of abstract emotion; keyboard motifs rarely amount to anything as memorable as a riff, just timbral washes and jazzy cadences.
Esotericism, elegance and elitism are the watchwords. Jungle's current obsession with being 'deep', its disowning of its roots in rave, has coincided neatly with its belated rehabilitation by the very people who once derided and ignored Hardcore back in 1992-93. As a result, drum 'n' bass has been reintegrated into the spectrum of 'cool' music, where it rubs shoulders with trip-hop and intelligent Techno. Accompanying this legitimisation process has been a subtle rewriting of history, with Detroit-aligned icons like Carl Craig and The Black Dog being cited as formative influences by some artists, while other key ancestors, perhaps too redolent of Ardkore's 'one dimensional' juvenilia are conveniently forgotten (Joey Beltram, Mantronix, The Prodigy).
None of this would particularly matter (the politics of hip being as irrelevant to true creativity as ever), except that Jungle's new legitimacy, and the scene's flattered self-image, is feeding back into the music, often to quite deleterious effect. Here I survey some of the directions in which artists are pushing the music in a misguided attempt to make it 'grow up', then focus on those who are really extending, rather than diluting, the renegade essence of drum 'n' bass. Jungle no longer needs uncritical boosterism; the scene, like Techno and Ambient before it, is reaching dangerous levels of over-production (in both the quantitative and technical senses). The time for discrimination, for rigorous aesthetic definition, is overdue.
Perhaps the biggest trend in Jungle right now is fusion. Drum 'n' bass has always been a hybrid, anti-essentialist style. In the early Ardkore days, this took the form of a collage-based, cut-up aesthetic. That fissile approach has now been replaced by a seamless emulsion of influences. There's also an explicit reinvocation of 70s jazz-fusion, and of later styles influenced by that era (jazz-funk, Detroit Techno, Garage). A crucial mid-94 release that trailblazed this smooth-core style was E-Z Rollers' "Believe"/"Rolled Into One", tracks that combined jazz-tinged chords and lambent, tremulous textures over float-like-a-butterfly breakbeats. What was initially so captivating and unusual about "Believe" and "Rolled" - the mellow mellifluousness - has subsequently become a hegemony of tepid tastefulness. Tracks like DJ Krust's "Jazz Note" or DJ Phantasy's "Atmosphere" amount to little more than 21st century cocktail music.
Jazz here signifies flava not process; there's no improv-combustion involved, just the use of a certain kind of chords. 'Jazz' also relates to a very specific British black tradition, where said chord-sequences and a polished fluency connote relaxation, finesse, sophistication, upward mobility. And so on KISS FM an influential DJ like Fabio will praise a track's "rich, lavish production -real class!" then exhort breakbeat-fans to "open their minds". All this passionate advocacy on behalf of what is basically fuzak draped over unnecessarily fussy breaks.
Perhaps the two most totemic figures behind the phusion phad are Alex Reece and Rupert Parkes (aka Photek, Aquarius, Studio Pressure, et al). Revealingly, neither were around in the Ardkore era, but only got into Jungle when it became 'musical'. Parkes's reputation resides in his having made Jungle sound more like 'proper' Techno and less like its own baaad self. Straddling both genres without innovating in either, he's infected Jungle with Trance's funkless frigidity and pseudo-conceptual portentousness: just dig those track titles, "Resolution", "Book of Changes", "Form & Function"... Parkes actually admitted in i-D that he and his posse "have more in common with Carl Craig's music than we do with the majority of Jungle". In mitigation, it must be conceded that the last Photek EP, The Water Margin, shows improved command of swing and groove. But overall, everything that Parkes is applauded for bringing to Jungle actually detracts from its ferocity.
I should have said much the same of Alex Reece, judging by the emollient slinkiness of his Latin/jazz tinged debut "Basic Principles", but he's redeemed himself by creating the monumental "Pulp Fiction", which is due out on the Metalheadz label any week now and has been the national anthem at LTJ Bukem's club Speed for months. Based around an epic bassline distantly descended from George Clinton's "Loopzilla", and featuring a horn motif-cum-solo redolent of Miles' coked-out early 70s paranoiac phase, "Pulp Fiction" dramatically expands drum 'n' bass's spectrum of moods and sources without blunting its edge.
Another notable sub-style, pioneered by LTJ Bukem, picks up on the cosmic/oceanic imagery of fusion and ambient. Based around 'quiet storm' diva-murmurs, nebulous texture-swirls and a radical uneventfulness, Bukem's 1993 classics "Music" and "Atlantis" were heretically at odds with the staccato freneticism of Ardkore. Sadly, this aqua-funk serenity, as perpetuated by Bukem & Co via his Good Looking/Looking Good imprint, seems to have become an aesthetic cul de sac, if self-parodic titles like "Rain Fall" and recurrent use of clichéd dolphin-like noises are any indication. Bukem's latest, "Horizons" is closer to jacuzzi than gulf-stream; its synth-arpeggios and watery texture-washes are way too New Agey, as is the snatch of Maya Angelou poesy that witters on about how "each new hour holds new chances for new beginnings/the horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps for change". Bah!
Forming a triangle with nu-fusion and oceanic Jungle is a subgenre - call it 'hyper-soul' - that draws on the same kind of soothing, silken 70s sources as G-funk, e.g. harmony groups like The Dramatics. A pivotal track here is Doc Scott's "Faraway". At first a rather sickly confection, with its limpid trickles of wah-wah guitar and breathy angel-sighs, the track comes alive when it strips down to guitar/bass/drums, sashaying with an irresistible panache. By far the best G-funk junglists, though, are Hidden Agenda, if only because "Is It Love?" has ten ideas where most tracks content themselves with three, veering from dubwise menace through summer-breezy soul shimmy (frothing Moogs, you half expect to hear a clavinet come in any second) to sinister phusion, and back again.
Drawing on the most oversubscribed elements of all these three
mini-aesthetics is an overcrowded Second Division of drum 'n' bass
units, artists like Essence Of Aura, Higher Sense, Adam F, Sounds
of Life, Wax Doctor, JMJ & Richie, Obsession, Northern
Connection, ad nauseam. Together, they have installed the
consensual middlebrow sound of '95. Start with an unnecessarily
elongated, 'teasing' intro; roll in the heavy-on-the-cymbals
breaks; layer some wordless female vocal samples (measured,
tasteful passion only, no helium-histrionics please); drag out the
track, through percussive breakdowns and wafting synth-interludes,
for eight minutes or longer; rinse the mix to get that airy, 'just
brushed freshness' that sounds good on a really crisp stereo (lots
of separation and ear-catching stereo-panning effects, natch).
There's nothing shallower than the music made by artists who have
been persuaded that Depth is where they should be at, but who don't
have what it takes to get there.
[page break]
So who's really 'deep'? What does 'deep' mean, anyway? I'd argue that it's not some external notion of profundity borrowed from another genre altogether (e.g. jazz), but rather about exploring the style's essence, the stuff drum 'n' bass has got going on that no other genre has (not even hiphop, Ragga and dub, although they're all ancestors/inputs). With Jungle, that's breakbeat-science and bass-mutation. Exempting from consideration the key figures I discussed in last year's Ambient Jungle feature, (i.e. Goldie, Foul Play, Omni, A Guy Called Gerald), here's a provisional checklist of the crucial drum 'n' bass auteurs. Some are new skool, others have been around in some guise or other since Year Dot.
Roni Size and sidekick DJ Die are exemplars. This duo are usually regarded as pioneers of jazz-Jungle, on account of their early 94 classic "Music Box" and sequel "It's A Jazz Thing". Listen again to "Music Box", though, and you realise that the sublime cascades of fusion-era chimes are only a brief interlude in what's basically a stripped down percussion workout. Size's late 94 monster "Timestretch" was even more austere, just escalating drums and a chiming bassline that together resemble a clockwork contraption gone mad. Size & Die's latest collaboration, "11.55", and especially the "Roll Out Mix", is their most minimal-is-maximalist effort yet. What initially registers as merciless monotony reveals itself, on repeated plays, to be an inexhaustibly listenable forest of densely tangled breaks and multiple basslines (the latter acting both as subliminal, ever-modulating melody and as sustained sub-aural pressure), relieved only by the sparest shadings of sampled jazz colouration. Such fiercely compressed, implosive creativity is an aesthetic strategy of alienation analogous to bebop or free jazz, i.e. an attempt to discover who's really down with the programme by venturing deeper into the heart of blackness. Hence the track's mood of brooding malevolence, its vague gangsta theme (the sample that kicks off the track explains that 11.55 is when the hustlers swagger en masse into the nightclub).
Like Roni Size, Dillinja is keeping alive Jungle's ghettocentric menace without resorting to tired Ragga-isms: just check that mobster moniker. He's also one of the very few producers to respond to Ragga's rhythmic innovations, as opposed to just its verbal/attitudinal aggression. Dillinja's justly renowned for the melting melancholy of fusion-y tracks like "Deep Love" and "Angel's Fall", but not enough attention has been paid to the viciously disorientating properties of his beats and B-lines. "Warrior" places the listener in the centre of an unfeasibly expanded drum kit played by an octopus-limbed cyborg; the bass enters not as a B-line but a one-note detonation, an impacted cluster of different low-end frequencies/timbres/treatments. This track's aura of abstract militancy also comes through in Bert & Dillinja's collaboration "Lionheart", whose intro beat-sequence slashes and scythes, feints and parries like a ninja warrior.
If Dillinja and Size & Die are developing drum 'n' bass as martial art, Droppin' Science's work is more like a virtual adventure playground, where collapsible breakbeats and trampoline bass trigger kinesthetic responses, gradually recalibrating your motor reflexes, hot-rodding the human nervous system in readiness for an immeasurably swifter new millennium. Droppin Science's Danny Breaks is a former b-boy whose first Ardkore incarnation was as the scratchadelic Sonz of A Loop Da Loop Era. His five Droppin' Science EPs since early 94 have evolved a fantastical fusion of electro and dub that sounds like neither. On tracks like "Long Time Comin'" (Vol 4) and "Step Off" (Vol 5), bass fibrillates like muscle with electric current coursing through it, hi-hats incandesce like fireworks in slow-mo, beats seem to run backward as uncannily as trick photography of a fallen house of cards tumbling back together. And melody limits itself to minimal motifs where the eerie fluorescent glow of the synth-plasma is the real hook.
Another innovative drum 'n' bass essentialist is Asend. As half of Dead Dred, he was responsible for last year's "Dred Bass", whose skidding breaks and backward bass constituted a landmark in Jungle's development into a rhythmic psychedelia. This year, as half of NC & Asend, he's crafted another ultra-minimal classic of compulsion-for-compulsion's sake, "Take Your Soul", whose one-and-a-half note bassline, percussive/textural as opposed to melodic, lodges itself in your memory-flesh as viciously as a flechette. Texturally closer to the fuzak-squad, Blame & Justice are also doing astonishing rhythmic stuff underneath all the Joe Zawinul-esque synth-foliage. On "Nightvision", and on Blame solo tracks like "Sub Committee", there's an effect like a sampladelic equivalent of the way a drummer will let the stick vibrate on the skin, rather than make a crisp hit - a sound like a spinning coin that's starting to decelerate. "Nightvision" is so reverb-riddled and elasticated, so nuanced with percussive accents and hyper-syncopations, it's virtually a drum solo, albeit constructed painstakingly over days as opposed to happening in real-time.
Of course, there's a point at which this approach becomes virtuosity for virtuosity's sake, when the breakbeat bombastics get so fiddly and fucked up that any sense of groove is lost. Dillinja and Size, Asend and Danny Breaks, these are the Jimi Hendrixes and Jimmy Pages of polyrhythm; Lord help us when the Eddie Van Halens and Gary Moores materialise.
What's going on in drum 'n' bass right now is a productive conflict between two rival models of blackness, one American, the other ultimately derived from Africa, via the Bronx and Jamaica: elegant urbanity (jazz-lite, smooth soul) vs. ruffneck tribalism (hiphop, ragga, dub - all based on African music principles like bass frequencies, polyrhythms, repetition). From a drum 'n' bass novice's viewpoint, artists like Dillinja, Roni Size, and Droppin' Science constitute the deep end. They are consciously engaged in purging any and all concessions to non-Jungle criteria. Even more than the nu-fusion esoterics, these artists are ferociously distancing drum 'n' bass from pop, not in deference to an ill-conceived notion of maturity but simply because they're impelled to plunge ever deeper into the anti-populist imperatives of the art's core, which means intensifying all the stuff that happens beneath/beyond the non-initiate's perceptual thresholds. They are doing things for which we don't yet have a language.
Most of the artists and syndromes discussed above are documented on the following compilations:Jungle Renegades Volume One (Re-Animate), Artcore (REACT), DJs Unite Volume Two (Death Becomes Me), Spectrum (ffrr)


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The day of the classic winger is over, kind of like New Coke. No longer can a tricky dribbling specialist be content to hug the touchline waiting for chances to beat his man and swerve pretty crosses.
They still do that at times, sure, but the modern game of organized defenses demands so much more. So the men who attack from wide areas must be complete players—or something close to it.
Take Seattle's Steve Zakuani. Last year, the overall number one draft pick was a blur of pace who ran at defenders from his spot on the left at Qwest, although his game sometimes lacked nuance. In just a year he has added significantly to his stores of wile. With added physical presence, an ability to win the ball in midfield and knowledge on when to maneuver inside, he has become even more dangerous.
He was having a relatively quite night against Dallas last week (as FCD wide midfielder Atiba Harris focused less on offense and more on helping defend Zakuani). But one well-timed burst down the left side brought the important equalizer. Would last year's Zakuani have recognized and exploited the moment when FCD fullback Zach Loyd got caught too far forward without cover?
Houston veteran Brad Davis is another premier MLS left-sider, ever comfortable coming inside. He is doing even more of it this year. Houston are missing a couple of its signature big strikers, so banging balls willy-nilly into the penalty area just won't do. Instead, Davis drifts inside regularly to assist Geoff Cameron, who was just learning to work the top of Houston's diamond-shaped midfield when his knee betrayed him so sadly.
Davis is a good example of today's two-way flank midfielder, a worker bee able to slant inside on offense and willing to share the defensive load. They don't have to specialize in blue-collar defensive work, a la Houston's Brian Mullan or Real Salt Lake's Will Johnson, but they certainly must help.
Speedy New England attacker Sainey Nyassi was on a short list of Revs who had a good night against Colorado. Nyassi whipped in several dangerous balls from the right toward forwards Zack Schilawski and Kheli Dube. While he looks to get the most of his speed, he knows when to hit early balls, too, serving before the second man arrived on defense.
His more comprehensive body of work helped create the Revs' only goal. Nyassi dribbled at top speed into the offensive third, serving a useful ball to the back post before the defense could fully organize. Colorado managed a scrambling clearance, but Nyassi moved quickly inside to recover the ball.
After he did, Pablo Mastroeni chose to foul rather than chase Nyassi's next run off the ball. Then, Marko Perovic made the free kick count.
Speed isn't necessarily essential, though. In second-half relief duty, L.A. reservist Chris Klein reminded us how some guys find room to serve through shrewd timing and an ability to read the game. Meanwhile others do it with technical craft. Columbus Crew winger Eddie Gaven isn't particularly quick, but he knows his angles that he needs just a smidge of space to deliver a cross.
The wide midfielder who can't threaten to cut inside is too predictable and, therefore, too easily neutralized. San Jose's Arturo Alvarez frequently plays on the right, and despite everybody knowing he wants to cut inside and use his left foot, he still pulls it off. Only an organized defense with lots of inside help and communication can deal with it. Young Philadelphia man Roger Torres has a lot of that in him, too. So does Chicago's Marco Pappa (although he's playing centrally right now in Carlos de los Cobos' 4-5-1).
MLS does have a few men who look something like the classic wingers of bygone day. Robbie Rogers works the left at Crew Stadium with a destabilizing speed. Sigi Schmid previously and current Crew manager Robert Warzycha have attempted to work with Rogers, tutoring him on making the best choices: when to run at defenders, when to take one touch past them into space and when to patiently hold possession and look to combine with Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
Rogers is also a good example of where MLS remains a work in progress quality-wise. He has the foot speed to reach great spots but can't always deliver crosses with intent and authority. In MLS, there's a lot of that going around. (FYI: Rogers' run from a wide spot in the penalty area created the critical PK in the weekend win over Real Salt Lake.)
Wing play in modern soccer doesn't just mean forwards and midfielders, of course. Teams depend on fullbacks to push ahead and supply width in attack. No team does this better than RSL, where the wide midfielders squeeze in liberally and depend on fullbacks to work the wide channels.
We know less about a couple of new wide guys in MLS. Kansas City's Ryan Smith certainly has something to offer the left side of CommunityAmerica Ballpark. And K.C.'s 4-3-3 will provide opportunities to be isolated one-on-one, especially when they travel and get on the bigger fields.
Lastly, we got our first peak Saturday at Brian Nielsen, Red Bull's new Danish winger. He didn't see much of the ball against Philadelphia and he was coming off an illness. But he appears to have some power and pace. If he can prove a danger, Red Bull will really stretch defenses horizontally, with Nielsen on the left and Dane Richards working the right. That wide push is important to the way Red Bull want to play, with two centrally stationed midfielders but no true playmaker.
So far, it seems to be working.


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Cookbook Giveaway
Let My Children Cook!
A Passover Cookbook for Kids
By Tamar Ansh
Publisher: Judaica Press
Let My Children Cook! makes it easy for kids to share in the fun of Passover cooking. Kids will also discover how to cook delicious food on their own, so no longer will they complain, "There's nothing to eat around here!"
Filled with recipes such as Matzah Marshmallow Melts, Crunchy Chicken Crisps and Matzah Soup Squares, to Rocky Road Brownies and Mock Oatmeal Cookies, the entire family can enjoy cooking together.
Let My Children Cook! includes cooking and safety guidelines, some information relating to Passover dietary laws and tips for new, young chefs. Colorful whimsical illustrations appear throughout the book's pages, many of which teach lessons, such as washing hands before cooking and cleaning up when finished. The cookbook is particularly geared for kids aged 8 – 15 and features over 80 easy recipes with step-by-step instructions, along with cooking and kitchen safety tips specifically for kids. There are also some fun arts and crafts projects that the kids (and their parents) will enjoy.
Tamar Ansh is a busy mom who loves to write, cook, bake, read, and chat with her kids. Since her kids have recently taken over the kitchen, she decided to share their experiences with her readers. In her spare time Tamar is a bestselling cookbook author with hits such as A Taste of Challah, Pesach – Anything's Possible, A Taste of Tradition and others. She is a food columnist and gives live cooking and challah demonstrations around the world. Mrs. Ansh lives in Jerusalem, Israel together with her family and their pet rabbit Fluffy.
Free Giveaway
Let My Children Cook!
This fabulous giveaway ended 11:59PM, March 25th. The lucky winner is M. Grossman, Brooklyn, NY.


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Contact:Grand Canyon Education, Inc.Investor Relations:Dan Bachus, (602) firstname.lastname@example.com Relations:Bob Romantic, (602) firstname.lastname@example.com
PHOENIX, April 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (Nasdaq:LOPE) announced today that it will report its 2016 first quarter results after market close on Monday, May 9, 2016. The University will host a conference call to discuss the results in more detail at 1:30 P.M. (4:30 P.M. ET) the same day. Dial-In Numbers: 877 577 - 1769 (Domestic) 706 679 - 7806 (International) Conference ID: 90446449 Please dial in at least five minutes prior to the start of the call. Journalists are invited to listen only. Webcast and Replay: Investors, journalists and the general public may access a live webcast of this event at: Q1 2016 Grand Canyon Education Inc Earnings Conference Call. A webcast replay will be available approximately two hours following the conclusion of the call at the same link. Telephone Replay: A telephone replay will be available approximately two hours following the conclusion of the call by dialing: 855 859-2056 (Domestic) 404 537-3406 (International) Conference ID: 90446449 About Grand Canyon Education, Inc. Grand Canyon Education, Inc. is a comprehensive regionally accredited university that offers over 200 graduate and undergraduate degree programs and certificates across nine colleges both online and on ground at our approximately 250 acre campus in Phoenix, Arizona, at leased facilities and at facilities owned by third party employers of our students. Our undergraduate programs are designed to be innovative and meet the future needs of employers while providing students with the needed critical thinking and effective communication skills developed through a Christian, liberal arts foundation. We offer master and doctoral degrees in contemporary fields that are designed to provide students with the capacity for transformational leadership in their chosen industry, emphasizing the immediate relevance of theory, application, and evaluation to promote personal and organizational change. For more information about Grand Canyon Education, Inc. visit the Company's website at www.gcu.edu.


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Child Development Center
Students may enroll their children, ages six weeks to five years, in the College's Child Development Center on Main Campus. This convenient center, managed by Knowledge Universe, Inc., fully adheres to all state requirements and currently enjoys accreditation by both the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Keystone Stars (Star 3).
What's Available?
We offer age-appropriate programs for infants:
- 6 weeks to 12 months
- 13 months to 3 years
- 3 to 5 years
We also provide drop-in care on a space-available basis. Please provide copies of your child's most recent physical exam.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who can I contact for tuition assistance, and do you accept Subsidy?
A: You may either contact the Child Care Information Office (CCIS) near you, or stop by the Child Development Center for more information.
Q: Do you have qualified teachers?
A: Yes, our teachers have (Child Development) Associate's and Bachelor's degrees in Early Childhood Education.
Q: How can we schedule a tour?
A: You may call us at 215-751-8764 weekdays to arrange a tour.
Q: Do you have a meal program?
A: We provide breakfast and healthy snacks throughout the day. You are responsible for bringing your child's lunch each day.
Q: When can I pay or co-pay for tuition?
A: You pay each Monday by check or money order only, no cash. Also, we do provide an online payment plan; please stop by the office for set-up details.
Hours & Location
Fall and spring semesters
440 N. 16th Street, between Callowhill and Spring Garden streets
More Information
For further information regarding registration procedures, fees, fee payment policies, summer programs, required physical and health policies, and visits/tours, call the Center director at 215-751-8764 or -8765.


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Access the most up-to-date information about Carmen Quiles in Meriden, CT today with USA People Search. Whether you're looking for Carmen Quiles's address, phone number, or email address for; you're sure to locate it right here. If you're unsure about the first name, no problem! Enter all the information you have, and we'll return results for everyone with the last name Quiles living in Meriden, and you can narrow it down from there.
Our website offers information categorized under - name/aliases, age, location, and possible relatives in order to easily locate Carmen in CT. You will be privy to a wide array of search results for the last name Quiles which you can then peruse to identify the correct match. You can also explore the View Details link in order to collect further details about Carmen Quiles.
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Axelgear wrote:To make a person suffer, all you have to do is focus on the joints. The fingers, the elbow, the knee, the groin, the stomach... All these points are the vulnerable spots.
Dalton wrote:Take the biggest guy in the world, shatter his knee and he'll drop like a stone.
Axelgear wrote:Also, something odd occured to me: Martial arts seemed to try and preserve their opponent as much as they do the person trained in them. When was the last time you heard of a martial art that involved training on how to gouge eyes or to sever fingers?
MikeVanPelt wrote:You're thinking tornament martial arts.
Actual serious fighting martial arts, yes, gouged eyes, broken bones, shattered joints, serious permanent mamining, and death, are all part of the package.
Axelgear wrote:This is also true, but even so, I repeat that the tactics remain the same. An example is that regimented soldiers in Ancient China were trained to use swords to stab and parry, but only very well trained Rebels ever managed to utilize it for somewhat more unconventional techniques such as slitting their opponents achilles tendons so he couldn't run and they'd just leave them there, either to be killed when they doubled back or just to bleed to death. It seems to me things like that are so bloody and brutal that they just don't appear...
Breaking a bone is one thing but trying to make your attacker bleed to death from a quick wound is a totally different, far more lethal strategy that I have never seen.
But please, if you can provide resources on such martial arts, inform me so I may know for future reference.
nick012000 wrote:Bushido is Japanese, not Chinese. It's the Samurai's equivalent to the Medieval European code of Chivalry.
Bushido (武士道, Bushidō?), meaning "way of the warrior", is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of life, loosely analogous to the European concept of chivalry. Bushido developed between the 11th to 14th centuries as set forth by numerous translated documents dating from the 12th to 16th centuries (as mentioned below). According to the Japanese dictionary Shogakukan Kokugo Daijiten, "Bushido is defined as a unique philosophy (ronri) that spread through the warrior class from the Muromachi (chusei) period."
The core tenets of Bushido date from as early as the 12th century as demonstrated by the earliest translations of Japanese literature and warrior house codes. Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, Bushido became formalized into Japanese Feudal Law.
Inazo Nitobe, in his book Bushido: The Soul of Japan, described it in this way. "...Bushido, then, is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe... More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten... It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career."
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Board of Directors
The Pat Covelli Foundation was founded in 1999 after the death of our beloved brother, Pasquale.
Pat fought many health-related battles, including diabetes and kidney disease, throughout most of his adult life, before succumbing to his illnesses in 1998 at the age of 44.Throughout his many health-related struggles, he always managed to make every possible effort to help others afflicted with ailments similar to his and those in his community requiring assistance of any type. His strength, compassion and courage were an inspiration to all who knew him.
In Pat's memory, the foundation has been raising funds for several years and has donated 100% of all monies raising to various local and national charities. The Foundation has no employees, incurs no administrative costs, ad donates all funds raised to worthy charities, causes and individuals in need throughout our community. All of the Foundation's work and planning is coordinated by friends and admirers of Pat's, as well as those who have come to recognize the significant contributions that are being made in Pat's name.
To date, The Pat Covelli Foundation has helped many deserving individuals and families meet their basic day-to-day and emergency needs during their battles with extreme personal hardship.
Additionally, some of the tremendously worthy organizations that have received funding from our Foundation include:
Kidney & Urology Foundation of America ALS Association
The Diabetes Research Institute The Alzheimer's Foundation
Make-A-Wish Foundation American Cancer Society
Schneider Children's Hospital at LI Jewish Toys of Hope
Police & Firefighter's Widows & Orphan's Fund AIDS Fund
Leukemia &Lymphoma Society Cancer Care
Juvenile Diabetes Research Center Joslin Diabetes Center
Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Miracle Foundation
National Multiple Sclerosis Society American Red Cross
Starlight Children's Foundation Companions in Courage
Operation USO Care Package Lynne Cohen Foundation
Pat would be so appreciative of all we've done together in his name and so thankful to each and every one of you for all of your continued support.
We can't think of a better way to keep our brother's memory alive and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us to do so.
Ralph & John Covelli
Paddy Lee Fashions | 47-09 36th St, Long Island City, NY, 11101, United States


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A joint initiative between the American Immigration Council and AILA seeks to change the playing field for immigrants facing deportation.
Register for AILA's National Day of Action (NDA) on April 11, 2019, to meet with members of Congress and share how the administration's immigration policy changes are harming American families, businesses, and communities.Register Now
AILA Doc. No. 02101071 | Dated October 10, 2002
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Contact: Judith Golub (202) 216-2403
October 10, 2002
We Need to Get it Right, Immigration Experts Say
Washington, D.C.- "The United States' immigration system needs to be reformed to reflect current needs and realities," said Jeanne Butterfield, Executive Director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "We thus welcome the introduction today by Representative Dick Gephardt (D-MO) of the Earned Legalization and Family Unification Act of 2002. AILA views the introduction of this bill as an important first step. It is high time we return to the important task of reforming our immigration system," continued Ms. Butterfield. "This bill begins this task by including long-overdue provisions that would grant hard-working people an earned adjustment and dramatically decrease the backlogs in family-based immigration. We call on the White House to step up to the plate and take a leadership role by resuming the U.S./Mexico discussions."
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has long supported reform of our immigration system. As a result of our current system, families are separated for long periods of time and U.S. employers cannot bring in needed workers. People are forced to live an underground existence in the shadows, declining to make themselves known to the government for fear of being separated form their families and jobs. "We need to target our enforcement resources on people who mean to do us harm, not on those who are filling our labor market needs, revitalizing our communities, and seeking to fulfill the American Dream," said Ms. Butterfield.
The Earned Legalization and Family Unification Act of 2002 recognizes that the status quo is unacceptable, especially in a post-September 11 world in which enhanced security is a priority, as is the need to balance our security with the continued flow of people and goods. AILA looks forward to working in the next Congress on this vitally needed reform with immigration supporters in the House and Senate. Successful immigration reform will take account of the following:
Founded in 1946, AILA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides its Members with continuing legal education, information, and professional services. AILA advocates before Congress and the Administration and provides liaison with the INS and other government agencies. AILA is an Affiliated Organization of the American Bar Association.
Cite as AILA Doc. No. 02101071.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-2019
American Immigration Lawyers Association.


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Interpretation of your dream:
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friendJoy and consolation. Aspect of self ready for integration. To dream of friends being well and happy, denotes pleasant tidings of them, or you will soon see them or some of their relatives. To see your friend troubled and haggard, sickness or distress is upon them. To see your friends dark-colored, denotes unusual sickness or trouble to you or to them. To see them take the form of animals, signifies that enemies will separate you from your closest relations. To see your friend who dresses in somber colors in flaming red, foretells that unpleasant things will transpire, causing you anxiety if not loss, and that friends will be implicated. To dream you see a friend standing like a statue on a hill, denotes you will advance beyond present pursuits, but will retain former impressions of justice and knowledge, seeking these through every change. If the figure below be low, you will ignore your friends of former days in your future advancement. If it is on a plane or level with you, you will fail in your ambition to reach other spheres. If you seem to be going from it, you will force yourself to seek a change in spite of friendly ties or self-admonition. To dream you see a friend with a white cloth tied over his face, denotes that you will be injured by some person who will endeavor to keep up friendly relations with you. To dream that you are shaking hands with a person who has wronged you, and he is taking his departure and looks sad, foretells you will have differences with a close friend and alienation will perhaps follow. You are most assuredly nearing loss of some character.
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mouthNourishment. New attitudes. You will soon have news from interests you are anxious over.
> Find more dreams containing 'mouth'
> Find the meaning in Gematria for 'mouth'
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With the election behind him, newly re-elected President Obama will have to find a way to prevent the crippling defense cuts facing the Pentagon beginning early next year, defense analysts said.
Going into 2013, Obama will face extreme fiscal challenges tied to defense spending. The proposed defense strategy stands to cut $487 billion in Pentagon spending, the result of the Budget Control Act Congress mandated last year.
Pentagon leaders supported the plan, but lawmakers couldn't come to an agreement and tabled it to next year. All eyes will be on the president to push the plan forward in 2013 or make the changes necessary to get the cost-cutting budget passed into law.
An even bigger challenge facing the Obama administration will come if Congress doesn't find a way to prevent an additional $500 billion in sequestration cuts to defense that are slated to begin in January as mandated by law.
Following Tuesday's election little has changed in the political landscape with Democrats retaining control in the Senate and Republicans holding their majority in the House.
"The incentive for both sides is to go ahead and work out a deal for the lame duck session," said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis. "It's to neither party's advantage to wait until after sequestration goes into effect and we go off the fiscal cliff to try to work out a resolution they might as well go ahead and do it now ."
Other analysts suggest that Congress will not reach the grand bargain they set out to achieve to reduce the deficit, but they will either reach a "mini bargain" or delay the sequestration cuts, said Mackenzie Eaglen, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin has already laid the "ground work" for a partial sequestration that would add an additional $100 billion worth of cuts above the Budget Control Act over the next decade. That's a far cry from the $500 billion in cuts outlined under the current law.
"That idea has gained traction recently," Eaglen said.
In the end, the winner of the presidential election mattered little in determining whether the sequestration could be avoided. Sensing a tight race where the result would not carry a political mandate, both sides of the aisle in Congress started to dig in on their positions even before Tuesday.
"Obama would love to get that grand bargain, but he would need time to build it and he doesn't have it in a lame duck," Eaglen said. "But even in a Romney administration you could see a temporary patch or a punt to get a better deal."
The election did eliminate the excuse for lawmakers to argue that they needed to wait to see the results of the election. Both parties "have a much clearer sense of what their options are for the future and a lot of the uncertainty will go away," said Loren Thompson, a senior defense analyst for the Lexington Institute. "They will either have to bargain or we will have two more years of partisan paralysis."
War spending has been cut almost in half from its peak since the exit from Iraq and the coming drawdown in Afghanistan, Thompson said. A few years ago, the U.S. military has gone from spending "160 billion a year to about $88 billion a year," Harrison said.
Military service leaders have already started to put plans in place to deal with the defense cuts by reducing their forces, and either cutting or delaying modernization programs. The Army plans to reduce its force by 80,000 soldiers while the Marine Corps plans to drop its end strength by 20,000.
"The problem is that doesn't get us to a balanced budget," Harrison said. "On our current trajectory we are going to accumulate another $10 trillion in deficits over the next decade and the Budget Control Act and sequestration only reduces that by $1.2 trillion."
In the short term, though, experts seem to agree that "the president has got to sit down with House Majority Leader John Boehner and say 'look, what are we going to do'? … and work out a compromise."
Thompson said he expects that the lame duck session of Congress will delay implementation of sequestration to buy more time to draft an alternative solution.
Michael Hoffman contributed to this report.