text:
Over 4,000 inspections performed and 10,000 hours since 1999!
The purchase or sale of a home or property is one of the most significant single investment or transaction you will ever make. Hometech Property Inspection Services, LLC has 20+ years background in the building and remodeling field, trained by a master craftsman.
Each year we inspect hundreds of properties in New Hampshire estimated at over 10 million dollars' worth of real estate by educating clients and minimizing any unexpected repairs and expenses about a newly constructed or existing house before the purchase. Pricing is based according to square footage and age of the property when calling to schedule an inspection.
A thorough and objective evaluation by a NH licensed experienced professional home inspector provides the information needed to make an informed buying decision and provides peace of mind.
All of our inspections are conducted according to the New Hampshire standards of practice and code of ethics. We are proud to be a certified inspector of the National and Northern New England Chapter of ASHI, with over 20+ hours of continuing educational training per year.
Call Us: (603) 883-8822
We provide the client with a pleasant and informative Home buying Experience, which goes beyond the inspection by providing you with a full and courteous service.
After the inspection, Hometech will email you using the latest 3D software inspection report in a PDF format.
- Heating / Air Conditioning
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Additional services include:
- Radon in water
- Radon in air
- Water Analysis
- (FHA-VA Criteria
- Pest Inspection
- Septic Inspection
Why Choose Hometech To Do Your Home Inspections in Windham?
Whether it's your first home, townhouse, or condominium, at Hometech, we conduct detailed, professional, thorough, inspections. For more than two decades, we have focused on providing our customers with efficient, high quality, trustworthy home inspections.
- Very Punctual, compassionate home inspector, available to answer all your definitive questions
- Our Home inspections in Windham will pinpoint all the relevant issues and put them into perspective, which will help you make your decision from the provided facts and data.
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- Coordinated home inspection to report detailed and concise findings
- Our Home inspections in Windham will make you aware all the relevant issues and put them into perspective, which will help you make your decision from the provided facts and data.
Your home is usually the most substantial investment you'll ever make, yet several people do so not knowing the condition of the property they are acquiring.
That's why selecting an experienced and professional property inspector is such a wise, valuable investment!
At Hometech Property Inspection, we provide a visual non-destructive examination of the structure and systems of your home, from the foundation to the roof.
All inspections are conducted by a completely unbiased NH licensed inspector who is highly trained with more than twenty years of Home Inspection experience.
Based on Hometech's experience, we're conscious of the emotions present during any real estate purchase and know-how relevant the content is to be delivered in a timely fashion. We'll provide you with a computer-generated (PDF) report within two business days.
Call Us: (603) 883-8822
At Hometech Property Inspection, we're believers of verbal and written communication, which is fundamental in the industry of buying, selling, and home inspections. Homebuyers could easily make mistakes without all of the proper information before they purchase the home that could also cause difficulties in maintaining it in the future.
Having past experience in the building and consulting field makes it easier for us to be dedicated to the proper communication skills to answer all your questions. On the day of the inspection, it is recommended that you attend so you can accompany the inspector and learn the first-hand issues found within the home.
To reinforce what you have seen at the inspection, you'll receive a written report with color photos. You're encouraged to contact your inspector via phone, email, or text with any questions you may have.
Our home inspection reports are easy to read and well organized. They include descriptions of systems and components that need (Repairs, Maintenance, Safety issues, etc.) precisely written with comments and color photos.
Reports are formulated with an overview summary following with sections on (Structure, Framing, Electric, Plumbing, Heating, etc.) that are easy-to-read and very descriptive.
Within 48 hours after the home inspection, usually early the following morning, your digital PDF report can easily be accessed from any mobile device and computer.
Scheduling A Home Inspection in Windham
Your time is important to us. Making ourselves accessible to you throughout the inspection process. We pride ourselves on our proficiency and our detailed inspection reports. We are here to help you make an informed buying decision.
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Any Questions?
Call Us: (603) 883-8822
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We also do Home Inspections in These Areas


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The Ghost of NS4
There are times when you simply have to throw in the towel and do something evil. Such as, oh, make Firefox behave like Netscape 4.
A widely-used utility script was causing fatal errors in Firefox. These errors were halting the JS interpreter completely, which shut down my own code before it could even be executed. Closer examination revealed that the utility script jammed all browsers into the IE4 or NS4 category, and made extensive use of NS4-only properties like document.layers, layer.clip and layer.pageX.
Fixing the utility script to work with Firefox was not an option. The script is deployed to literally hundreds of thousands of existing websites as part of a popular WYSIWYG program. Even if I was able to provide a patch to the script, there would be no way to compel people to upgrade.
Not to mention that I'd be the one stuck maintaining and supporting a script that I didn't write.
Worse, browser detection was buried deep inside the utility script and done on the fly in several spots, all with locally-scoped variables that were impossible to overwrite.
I had to find a way to unblock these errors without touching the script.
document.layers = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
Unngh! It hurts! Make it stop!
HTMLElement.prototype.pageX getter = function () { return this.offsetLeft; };
HTMLElement.prototype.pageY getter = function () { return this.offsetTop; };
Please kill me now.
I'll leave it to you to figure out how I took care of things like the getting and setting of properties like clip.left, clip.top, clip.right, etc. (hint: it involves the use of getComputedStyle, parseInt, a number of string methods and IT AIN'T PRETTY, THAT'S FOR SURE.)
Oh wait, IE6 chokes on this and tells me it's expecting a semicolon. Well, of course. IE doesn't support getter/setter. So I have to wrap this whole thing in a server-side UA sniff to ensure that it's never delivered to IE.
The ghost of NS4 continues to haunt, its icy incorporeal fingers reaching out to mess with my head.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Good News and the Bad News
After studying the history of the prophecy of the popes and the surrounding scholarly literature, we have some good news and some bad news. What's that? You want the bad news first? Sure, no problem, let's get this unpleasantness out of the way.
The bad news is that part of the prophecy may be a forgery which was fabricated around 1590. We say forgery meaning that over half of the prophecies, the first seventy or so predictions, arevaticinia ex eventu (prophecy from the event). It seems someone irrevocably altered the original medieval document and the original is either hidden away or lost to history. The first known publication of the "Malachy Prophecy of the Popes" was in Arnold de Wion's massive eighteen-hundred-page volume entitled Lignum Vitae (Tree of Life), which was published in 1595. That text will be presented and examined below. Even though we have good reason to believe a much older document is still visible, we must accept that the earliest instance of the prophecy surfaced nearly four hundred years after its alleged origin in 1139. Despite the legend which pleads it was locked away in a musty Vatican vault those four hundred years, the skeptics still have valid points. Even so, it very well could be the work of Saint Malachy coarsely corrupted by a forger. Of course, this would fall neatly in line with the Roman Catholic practice demonstrated by the Donation of Constantine and Pseudo–Isidorian Decretals. Alternatively, some have suggested it was partially the work of Nostradamus cleverly disguised to protect his identity. While the identity of the actual prophet remains unclear, the author was a prophet whether he knew or not.
The exciting news is that the prophecy of the popes, although tainted, is still a genuine prophecy. Despite the superficial insincerity detectable in the first section of "prophecies," the post publication predictions show astonishing fulfillments. We have no critical analysis to explain away the sometimes jaw-dropping, post-1595 fulfillments. Indeed, we are currently at 111 out of 112 and believers argue they seem to have increased in precision over time. However, we shall deal with bad news first. As we shall demonstrate, the Vatican's penchant for propaganda is undisputed in the record of history. In Rome's tradition of the altering ancient documents for political expediency, the prophecy of the popes was probably used as propaganda for Cardinal Girolamo Simoncelli papal ambitions. Nevertheless, it was a ploy which did not work as Simoncelli lost to Gregory XIV, Innocent IX, and Clement VIII. While textual evidence for this conspiracy is provided, we suggest the reader remain objective and patient in lieu of the more astounding findings.
Historically, the prophecy has enjoyed mixed acceptance. Four hundred years ago, with so many more popes to go, it was a mere novelty. However, as time runs short, the forecast understandably becomes more urgent and the criticism more caustic. Accordingly, beginning in the nineteenth century, the Jesuits, save one, have been outspokenly critical. As a result, the most recent edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that the prophecy is a late sixteenth century forgery, while the older 1911 edition allows, "it is not conclusive if we adopt Cucherat's theory that they were hidden in the Archives during those four hundred years." He refers to the nineteenth-century author, Abbé Cucherat, who is one of the few who argued for the authenticity of the prophecy in his book, Revue du monde catholique,published in 1871. We will examine it and other positive assessments in the next chapter. Even so, most scholars point out that Malachy's biographer and dear friend, St. Bernard, makes no mention of the papal prophecy in Life of St. Malachy of Armagh. This argument from silence is ubiquitous in the literature.
Modern academic sources are also not very charitable. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church bluntly states, "The so-called Prophecies of Malachy, which are contained in a document apparently composed in 1590, have no connection with St. Malachy except their erroneous attribution to him." Jesuit scholarship presents a united front. M.J. O'Brien's An Historical and Critical Account of the So-Called Prophecy of St. Malachy Regarding the Succession of Popes is a thorough attempt at debunking. Herbert Thurston, another Jesuit, was a prolific late nineteenth-century critic. He argues that "not one scrap of evidence has ever been adduced to show that St. Malachy's prophecy about the Popes had been quoted, or even heard of, before it was published by Wion in 1595." This is not necessarily the case as we will discuss a possible reference to the prophecy published by Nicholas Sanders in 1571. Even so, most scholars bifurcate the list of 112 Latin phrases at number 76, due to the circumstances surrounding its publication. In so doing, two layers of context are established in the prophecy. This approach is adapted from biblical scholarship.
Exegesis in biblical studies is always an attempt to derive the original author's intention for his original reader and that is the methodology undertaken here. For instance, when scholars study the New Testament Gospels, they take into account layers of context. There is the context in which Jesus is interacting in the original historical setting and then there is a layer of context in which the author of the gospel is presenting his account to a later audience. Careful study reveals that each evangelist author, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, frames the events of Jesus' life in unique ways for their own theological and evangelistic purposes.
The underlying context of Jesus can be assimilated by studying first-century Judaism in Israel. We study the Pharisees to understand Jesus' criticism of their traditions. In the same way, the upper level, the author's context, can be discerned by how he presents Jesus. Still, the order in which a certain account is presented in a Gospel is often unique. This requires the careful student to "think vertically" for potential significance.
You might ask, "Is the author making a statement by where he places this parable?" The context of the evangelist author speaks to why and how he selected, arranged, and adapted the historical material about Jesus. Additionally, the scholar must "think horizontally" meaning to read each pericope with awareness of the parallels in other Gospels.While each of the four accounts preserves actual historical data, they are not always chronologically identical because of the secondary layer of context pertaining to the unique purpose of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. This methodology unveils new insights into the prophecy of the popes as well.
At first glance, there appear to be at least two levels of historical context, that of the original author and then that of the publisher. We will examine the possibility of even deeper contextual layers in the next chapter but for now we might accept the Malachy legend or perhaps a pseudepigrapher as the lower contextual level. To determine the upper level, the context of the publisher/commentator, we discover that is has been suggested that a papal emissary, Nicholas Sanders (1530–1581), may have brought an original Celtic version of the prophecy to Rome during the reign of Pope Pius V (1566–72). While he may have obliquely referred to the prophecy in a book published in 1571, it has also been suggested that the first specific mention of the prophecy was in a handwritten account by Don Alphonsus Ciacconus, a Spanish Dominican scholar in Rome, in the year 1590.
At the time, Ciacconus was a recognized expert on ancient Greco-Roman paleography and ancient manuscripts, as well as the history of the papacy. Apparently the publisher, Dom Wion, had received the text from someone and turned to Ciacconus for his opinion. Ciacconus ostensibly authenticated the manuscript. We cannot know exactly when it was altered but the textual and circumstantial evidence points to the original manuscript being tampered with by 1589–1590, in time to promote a particular papabile. In the meantime (1590–1595), it circulated surreptitiously amongst the Cardinals creating quite a stir. Wion published it with the previous popes named and interpretations of the fulfillments added in 1595.
Thus, we have discerned two layers of context :
- Lower level of historical context: An original document possibly by St. Malachy or a pseudepigrapher circa 1139 –1571.
- Upper level of historical context: Alterations imposed and interpretations added circa 1571–1595.
In examining the scans of the original 1595 Latin text, even with no comprehension of Latin, one can note that that explanations of the mottos with papal names cease at time of publication. Wion claimed that Ciacconus was responsible for the interpretations but this has been called into serious question by O'Brien, who suggests it was someone else who simply copied from Onuphrius Panvinius' short history of the Popes, Epitome Romanorum Pontijicum usque ad Paulum IV, printed in Venice in 1557. He bases this on the case that the interpretations presented by Wion match Panvinius' work but disagree with Ciacconus' own book about the popes, Viltae et res Gesltae Romanorum Ponlificum el Cardinalium,printed in 1601. While Ciacconius' work resembles Panvinius', it disagrees in important areas that Ciacconius made explicit. O'Brien ponders this issue: "Now, if Ciacconius was the interpreter of the prophecies, as Wion asserts, Ciacconius must be pitching into himself, for we find reproduced in Wion's book the errors of which he complains. Who then is the interpreter? Is it Panvinius? Or may not the prophecy as well as the explanation have come from the same hand? May not Wion have been merely duped (which could have been easily done considering his character); and may he not in good faith have given the prophecy as that of the great St. Malachy?"
Whoever the interpreter was, the last comment in Lignum Vitae referred to Urban VII who died in 1590 and the last papal name listed was Clement VIII who took office in 1592 just prior to the prophecy's 1595 publication. In reading the Latin text, underneath "Crux Romulea…Clemens VIII," the last page simply lists the remaining mottos in three columns ending with the famous apocalyptic codex centered on Petrus Romanus and the destruction of Mystery Babylon headquartered on Vatican Hill in the seven-hilled city.
The Man Who Forsaw The Final Pope
The second paragraph above reads: "Three Epistles of St. Bernard addressed to St. Malachy are still extant (viz., 313, 316, and 317). Malachy himself is reported to have been the author of some little tractates, none of which I have seen up to the present time, except a certain prophecy of his concerning the Sovereign Pontiffs. This, as it is short, and so far as we know, has never before been printed, is inserted here, seeing that many people have asked for it."
The bottom two lines by Wion read, "What has been added to the popes is not the work of Malachy, but of Father Alphonsus Giacon, of the Order of Preachers, the interpreter of this prophecy." This may seem confusing in light of the above discussion about Ciacconius. Gaicon is also Chacon or Ciacconius because he was from Spain, his original name, Alphonso Chacon, was Italianized to preserve the soft Spanish sound of "ch" inhis name into Ciacconius or alternately as Wion has it "Giacon." But this last line reveals that the original prophecy was a mere string of obscure Latin phrases, and that Giacon, Ciacconius, added each pope's name and explained how the prophecy applied to him. The comments end with to Urban VII who died in 1590 and the last papal name listed is Clement VIII. Since the evidence points to the prophecy appearing in 1589–90, we observe the next prophecy after Urban was "ex antiquitate Urbis" which translates to "from the old city" and no interpretation is offered. This is the critical point where scholars detect an attempt to influence the conclave when Gregory XIIII was opposed by one Girolamo Simoncelli.
As a representative example of scholarly detective work, Louis Moreri, a native of Provence born in 1643 and doctor of theology, is chosen. He was the author of the acclaimed Dictionnaire Historique. As his life's work, the dictionary contains such a wide variety of information it is considered to be an early forerunner of the modern encyclopedia. In the 1759 edition, we read:
"They attribute to him [Malachy] a prophecy concerning the popes from Celestine II. To the end of the world, but the learned know that this prophecy was forged, during the conclave of 1590, by the partisans of Cardinal Simoncelli, who was designated by these words: 'De anlzguilale Urbis,' because he was of Orvieto; in Latin, 'Urbs vetus.'"
The argument "from the old city" would arguably predict Girolamo Simoncelli who was at that time the Cardinal of Orvieto which also means "old city." This is the dominant opinion of Malachy scholars. The scholars are right; it does seem a little too perfect. It seems that the conspirators hoped to rig the papal conclave by encouraging the voters to fall in step with the much venerated Saint Malachy. The clever ruse failed when Simoncelli lost to Gregory XIV, albeit Gregory only lived a year to be followed by Innocent IX who similarly only lived a brief term dying in 1591. Because popes had a short life expectancy in those days, Simoncelli was a viable candidate in the conclaves in September and October–December 1590, and those in 1591 and 1592. Altogether, he missed out on seven opportunities including the earlier conclaves of April and May 1555, 1559, and 1565–66. Even so, Simoncelli died February 24, 1605 never winning the pontificate. While the trail of the conspiracy seems evident, the coherence of the frustrated papbile's "old city" Cardinalate is not the most compelling reason we hold that it was tampered with.
To demonstrate why we can confidently discern that at least some of the pre-1590 mottos were written after the fact I will use an analogy from counter-cult apologetics, specifically in regard to Mormonism. Joseph Smith claimed that he miraculously translated the book of Mormon directly from gold plates which were written by a divine hand. Thus, it was a one-generation translation from plates to Smith's manuscript. Accordingly, one would then expect the book of Mormon to be sacred scripture of the most direct and pure translation. The insurmountable obstacle for the veracity of the book of Mormon is demonstrated by the fact that when the book of Mormon references passages from the Hebrew Bible, it follows the translated text of the King James Bible a little too perfectly. For instance, where the King James italicized words, the Book of Mormon follows suit. Obviously, this proves that Smith copied his references from a King James Bible and not more ancient source material like the mythological golden plates. We have a similar line of evidence with the prophecy of the popes.
Because we are examining the upper level of context from the time of publisher, specifically the interpretations offered prior to 1590, we can discern that they were manipulated in line with what was available at the time. Books were hard to come by. The prophecy follows the descriptions and details found in a work on the history of the popes by Onuphrius Panvinius: Epitome Romanorum Pontijicum usque ad Paulum IV, printed in Venice in 1557. The prophecy transparently follows this reference work. O'Brien argued, "Any person who opens this work and compares the account of the popes in it from Celestine II to Paul IV, with the corresponding part of the 'Prophecy of St. Malachy' will come to the conclusion that the writer of the latter, if not Panvinius himself, must have been someone who followed Panvinius' account rather too closely." This is more than just an assertion; his evidence is detailed and specific:
In Panvinius's Epitome, the popes' armorial bearings are given, but not in every case. When the arms are given, we usually find that they figure in the prophecy, when not given, the prophecy is a play upon or a description of the pope's name, country, family, or title, when cardinal. Moreover, we find in Panvinius the very same antipopes as given in the prophecy. Even when the pope's family-name, armorial bearings or cardinalic title is wrongly given by Panvinius, we find the forger of the prophecy to perfectly chime in with him.
In other words, it matches too perfectly because, even in the few places where Panvinius' papal history makes mistakes, the interpretations of the prophecy follow those errors. This only makes sense if someone was using Panvinius' book or if it were Panvinius himself. If we allow that they were following Rome's penchant for altering an authentic ancient document to meet their purposes, then we have two layers of context. The prophecy itself (the lower, an older level of historical context) seems to have been manipulated to match the interpretation (the upper, the late sixteenth-century level). O'Brien's parting shot is a zinger:
According to Wion, Malachy's prophecy was a mere string of meaningless Latin phrases. How did the supposed interpreter know with what pope to commence? How was he persuaded to take up the antipopes?
While O'Brien's incredulity is clear, the answer to the first question is trivial. As the legend goes, Malachy was summoned to Rome in 1139 by Pope Innocent II (r. 1130–43). Thus, the prophecy commenced with the Pope following Innocent II who was Celestine II (r. 1143–44). The second quandary concerning antipopes is much more problematic. For instance, in the Malachy prophecy, predictions 6: Octavius ("Victor IV") (1159–1164); 7: Pascal III (1165–1168); 8: Callistus III (1168–1177) are antipopes. Antipopes are alternative popes elected in opposition to a standing pope during various schisms and controversies. The problem is that those antipopes listed opposed Alexander III (1159–81) but in reality there was another antipope Innocent III (1178–1180) who is not included in prophecy. What makes this revealing is this is exactly the same way Panvinius recorded it. Panvinius neglected antipope Innocent III as well.
This state of affairs points to the fact that someone redacted the pre-1590 prophecies to conform to Panvinius' book. In light of their goal, it makes perfect sense. Panvinius' work was the authoritative source at the time and likely the only one most people had access to. By manipulating all of the pre-1590 mottos to have obvious fulfillments that any semi-studious Cardinal could verify, they launched an ingenious conspiracy to promote papabile Simoncelli as the candidate of divine destiny. Because the lower level of historical context, the original text, was just a series of nebulous Latin phrases, how could someone like the alleged interpreter Ciacconus or the publisher, Wion (who discovered the list over four hundred years after their composition), know to include these and only these specific antipopes? It is just not plausible. If the antipopes are not included, the whole list gets thrown out of sync. Of course, the original text left no such instructions. Even so, it is in sync…but not with actual history; rather, with Panvinius' book!
In summary, there is ample evidence pointing to a sixteenth-century pseudepigrapher who referenced Panvinius' book for all of the prophecies up until Paul IV in 1559 (when Panvinius' book ends). The five popes between him and Urban VII (Pius IV, Pius V, Gregory XIII, and Sixtus V) would in recent memory and easy for anyone to describe. It is our belief that whoever perpetrated the ruse for the 1590 conclave used an actual prophetic document and modified all of the entries prior to coincide with the principle text on Pontifical history of that time. He then altered the next prophecy on the list "of the old city" to promote Girolamo Simoncelli who was the Cardinal of Orvieto (Latin urbs vetus = "old city") at the 1590 conclave. While this evidence supports the conspiracy to promote Simoncelli, what it does not explain is what has happened over the last four hundred years since Wion's publication.
Source : Raidersnewsupdate


text:
The following RAW preview is provided by RingsideNews.com:
Tonight's WWE RAW will take place from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. No matches have been announced for tonight but advertised locally is hometown star Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan plus CM Punk vs. Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman in a handicap match.
WWE is focusing on the following points for tonight's show:
* Business decisions for Triple H after being knocked out by Big Show
* What does The Wyatt Family have in store for The Miz?
* Will Ryback's "big boost" help him against CM Punk?
* What's next for Alberto Del Rio?
* How will Shawn Michaels affect the Hell In a Cell main event?


text:
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2008
Special thanks to Thomas Bauer for providing this lens!
The build quality of this lens is exceptional thanks to an outer body made of metal and extremely tight tolerances. The zoom and focus control rings operate very smooth and well damped. The typical EX finish (smooth crinkle style) may be a bit of a dust collector but it provides a good grip. The physical length remains constant regardless of the zoom or focus setting and the front element does not rotate. It is a bit unfortunate that Sigma did not incorporate seals against dust and moisture but without any moving outer parts the AF 100-300mm EX is better than most lenses in this range anyway.
The lens features a HSM (Hypersonic Motor) AF drive providing fast and near silent AF operations. The AF 100-300mm f/4 EX is also compatible to both Sigma AF EX DG converters (1.4x = 140-420mm f/5.6, 2x = 200-600mm f/8). We'll also have a look at the performance of the lens when combined with the AF 1.4x EX DG during this review.


text:
Pain in childbirth is normal, healthy, and productive — and ends with the ecstasy of your baby's birth. Although management of labor pain plays less important role in a mother's satisfaction with childbirth, compared with the quality of the relationship with her labor support and her ability to take part in decision making, it is an important topic.
Pain in labor is a nearly universal experience for childbearing women. It is, however, experienced differently by birthing mothers. The majority of women, though, need some sort of pain relief during childbirth. Methods vary from drugs to natural methods, and it is worth considering the various options available to you well in advance.
Non-pharmacologic methods of labor pain relief are becoming more common as mothers, as well as pregnancy and labor caregivers, become more aware of the effectiveness of these methods. Changing positions and movement, warm water baths, massage and acupressure are gaining more popularity, in addition to relaxation and hypnobirthing, in management of labor pain.
A vast study by Childbirth Connection in 2005 revealed that 69% of birthing mothers used at least one non-pharmacologic method to relieve pain and increase comfort during their labor. Most frequently used were breathing techniques and position changes and movement, followed by relaxation, visualization or hypnosis. As many as one in five birthing mothers used hands-on techniques such as massage and labor acupressure. These two hands-on techniques were rated very helpful by vast majority of 91% of the mothers. The popularity of these pain relieving methods is based on the simplicity and easiness to use them anywhere without any special and expensive tools. This is in addition to highly satisfactory level of relief from labor pains.
Less frequently used labor pain relieving methods include use of birthing balls, birthing tub or pool, and aromatherapy. Mothers who use these pain relieving methods, also, generally rate them helpful. Unfortunately, their use is limited by the need of special equipments or space.
By far, the most common forms of medication in both vaginal and cesarean births among the pharmacologic labor pain relieving methods are the epidural or spinal analgesia. Epidural or spinal analgesia mostly give excellent labor pain relief. However, studies revealed a scattered satisfaction with epidurals. Many interviewed mothers described their experiences of not having access to this type of pain relief when they wanted it, getting uneven pain relief on different sides, and experiencing headaches, and other adverse effects.
Labor is an exciting event and involves many new sensations, especially if you are having your first baby. These sensations are part of giving life to your baby. However, no one needs to suffer during childbirth. By understanding what you can do, and how others can help you in order to prevent and relieve labor pains, you are most likely to have a satisfying birth experience.


text:
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text: Call for papers: Horror(s) of childhood and adolescenceav Niklas Lello03/11/2019 Call for papers 1/2020 Horror(s) of childhood and adolescence On the one hand, within literary and film studies, the notion of horror is used as a genological category. On the other hand, as an aesthetic category, it is referred to various cultural texts: literary works, films, and TV series as well as theatrical performances and video games. Anita Has-Tokarz, in a monograph Horror w literaturze współczesnej i filmie [Horror in Contemporary Literature and Film] (2010), even considers it to denote "an effect [of dread] exerted on the recipient by a [cultural] text" (p. 51; our own translation). We would like to devote the third issue of "Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura" to the relations of childhood and adolescence with horror – understood in all these ways – which are visible in three fields of consideration. Firstly: the child in horror fiction. Culture, especially popular culture, eagerly casts children in the roles of disturbingly mysterious, mediumistic, frightening, demonic beings, or even torturers – but also in the roles of victims, specially protected individuals, objects of interest of variously presented evil, as well as heroes and heroines who are the only ones that can fight this evil. From the classic examples, it is enough to recall the teenage girl, Regan, from The Exorcist directed by William Friedkin, the young antichrist from The Omen franchise, and children's characters from Stephen King's prose – e.g. The Shining, Children of the Corn, Pet Semetary, or It – and from many famous screen adaptations of his works. Such figures – demonic children, but also children as saviours – have appeared in many popular films in recent years, such as John Krasinski's A Quiet Place, Jennifer Kent's Babadook, or Ari Aster's Hereditary; in TV series, to mention the American Horror Story anthology by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, Stranger Things by the Duffer brothers, The Haunting of Hill House by Mike Flanagan (loosely based on the novel by Shirley Jackson); in video games, e.g. The Last of Us by the Mighty Dog studio and American McGee's Alice series; and, finally, in literature, like Josh Malerman's already filmed novel, Bird Box. It is also worth to mention the approaches other than the Anglo-Saxon ones: the dreadful child presented by the classics of Japanese horror cinema in which it is an embodiment of tragedy and mystery, and where childhood is stigmatised by unimaginable suffering from which the protagonists cannot free themselves (e.g. The Ring and Dark Water by Hideo Nakata, or Ju-On: The Grudge by Takashi Shimizu); Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, and South American representations, connected to folklore, traditional beliefs, and fairy tales, such as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or J. A. Bayona's The Orphanage; the cruel children from German and Austrian works, e.g. Goodnight Mommy by Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala. We would like to look at the ways in which children's characters are used both in the classics of the genre and in the latest cultural production. Secondly: children's and young adult horror fiction. In the last dozen or so years, we have been experiencing a renaissance of horror literature for young people. The literary roots of such works date back to the tradition of the 19th century and, inter alia, to the so-called pedagogy of fear, while in the 20th century, classical examples are the works by John Bellairs, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Today, many authors display both the ludic and reflective dimensions of horror, such as Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Ian Ogilvy, Chris Priestley, or Neil Gaiman and, in Poland, Marcin Szczygielski and Grzegorz Gortat. The issue of horror in cultural texts for children and young adults has become the subject of research of many scholars, both in Poland, especially Katarzyna Slany, and abroad, including Jessica R. McCort, Michael Howarth as well as Anna Jackson, Karen Coats and Roderick McGillis, Monica Flegel, Christopher Parkes, Chloé Germaine Buckley, K. Shryock Hood, Laura Hubner. To continue the considerations they have undertaken, we would like to invite authors to examine the strategies of creating horror fiction for young recipients – not only literary works, but also those from other media, such as films, TV series, video games, comic books. Thirdly and lastly: childhood and adolescence as a horror. In this problem area, the concept of horror will be understood the most broadly. Such plots and motifs appear in works addressed both to adults (including biographical and autobiographical pieces) and children and young adults. The dominance of the Arcadian tone in cultural texts for young people is a thing of the past; for several decades, there has been a clear tendency to raise drastic subjects, tabooed before, such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, addictions, suicides, etc. 13 Reasons Why, a famous TV series created by Brian Yorkey (adapted from the novel by Jay Asher), Euphoria by Sam Levinson, Stephen Chbosky's novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower and its screen adaptation directed by the writer, The Lovely Bones by Jodi Picoult and Peter Jackson's film based on this work, Dom nie z tej ziemi [The House Out of This World] by Małgorzata Strękowska-Zaremba, The Book Everything by Guus Kuijer, or transgressive picturebooks (like those by Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus) – are just a few of the many examples. Another issue is the horror of childhood and adolescence in dystopias and post-apocalyptic narratives, those for adult audiences (The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and a TV series inspired by this prose, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and a film based on it) and those for young adults (Suzanne Collins's trilogy The Hunger Games, Veronica Roths's Divergent series, and screen adaptations of these works, or Meto by Yves Grevet) and children (Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas). Social problems with a destructive impact on childhood and adolescence, reflected or extrapolated in many cultural texts, are therefore another issue we encourage potential authors to explore. We invite you to consider various aspects of the relations of childhood and adolescence with horror in diverse cultural texts for different audiences. We are interested in cross-sectional articles and case studies about works created in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. The three problem areas we identified – the child in horror fiction, horror for children and young adults, and childhood and adolescence as a horror – do not cover such a complex issue fully; therefore, the editorial team is open to other proposals, going beyond the proposed topics. We also invite you to send texts unconnected with the issue's subject matter to our Varia and Reviews sections. Article submission deadline: 31.01.2020 Relaterte innlegg forrigeCFP: Enabling and Disability Comics for/about Young People: Within the Panels and WithoutnesteCall for Papers: Conceptions of Girlhood Now and Then: "Girls' Literature" and Beyond


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Even non-smokers can experience health hazards from cigarette smoke, and the latest study suggests the dangers may depend on your gender.
About 46,000 non-smokers in the U.S. die from heart disease and 3,400 are claimed by lung cancer each year, according to the American Cancer Society. The most likely culprit? Second hand smoke, which studies have linked to increased risk of dementia, high blood pressure, and genetic changes. Now, scientists report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) that teen girls may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of such passive exposure. The researchers from the University of Western Australia studied a cohort of 1,057 teens born between 1989 and 1992, and collected information on smoking in the children's homes from the time their mothers were pregnant to the time the kids were 17. The researchers also collected blood samples to measure the teens' cholesterol levels at the end of the trial. Over the study period, 48% of the children were exposed to secondhand smoke in their home.
(MORE: The Major Toll of Secondhand Smoke)
When the scientists compared these cholesterol readings to the adolescents' smoking exposure, they discovered that teenage girls who grew up in homes where smoking was present were more likely to have lower levels of good HDL cholesterol, which helps to protect against heart disease by clearing cholesterol from the blood. "Assuming causality in these relationships, there are strong public health implications concerning the need to avoid children, particularly girls, being exposed to passive smoking in the household," the authors write.
(MORE: Largest-Ever Survey on Global Tobacco Use Issues Dire Warnings)
Why would girls be especially at risk? The study wasn't designed to determine what made passive smoke exposure more hazardous for girls over boys, but the researchers do not believe hormones made a difference, since the vast majority of the participants were past puberty. Cigarette smoke may pose particular problems for women's hearts, however, since previous research showed that smoking leads to a 25% higher risk of heart disease risk among women compared to men. The findings are enough to prompt further research into gender-based differences in the reaction to the components in cigarette smoke — and sufficient to bolster efforts to reduce all children's exposure to smoking.
(MORE: Teens and Tobacco Use: Why Declines in Youth Have Stalled)


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Frau Doktor,
take out your contacts,
remove your wig.
I write for you.
I entertain.
But frogs come out
of the sky like rain.
Frogs arrive
With an ugly fury.
You are my judge.
You are my jury.
My guilts are what
we catalogue.
I'll take a knife
and chop up frog.
Frog has not nerves.
Frog is as old as a cockroach.
Frog is my father's genitals.
Frog is a malformed doorknob.
Frog is a soft bag of green.
The moon will not have him.
The sun wants to shut off
like a light bulb.
At the sight of him
the stone washes itself in a tub.
The crow thinks he's an apple
and drops a worm in.
At the feel of frog
the touch-me-nots explode
like electric slugs.
Slime will have him.
Slime has made him a house.
Mr. Poison
is at my bed.
He wants my sausage.
He wants my bread.
Mama Brundig,
he wants my beer.
He wants my Christ
for a souvenir.
Frog has boil disease
and a bellyful of parasites.
He says: Kiss me. Kiss me.
And the ground soils itself.
should a certain
quite adorable princess
be walking in her garden
at such a time
and toss her golden ball
up like a bubble
and drop it into the well?
It was ordained.
Just as the fates deal out
the plague with a tarot card.
Just as the Supreme Being drills
holes in our skulls to let
the Boston Symphony through.
But I digress.
A loss has taken place.
The ball has sunk like a cast-iron pot
into the bottom of the well.
Lost, she said,
my moon, my butter calf,
my yellow moth, my Hindu hare.
Obviously it was more than a ball.
Balls such as these are not
for sale in Au Bon Marché.
I took the moon, she said,
between my teeth
and now it is gone
and I am lost forever.
A thief had robbed by day.
Suddenly the well grew
thick and boiling
and a frog appeared.
His eyes bulged like two peas
and his body was trussed into place.
Do not be afraid, Princess,
he said, I am not a vagabond,
a cattle farmer, a shepherd,
a doorkeeper, a postman
or a laborer.
I come to you as a tradesman.
I have something to sell.
Your ball, he said,
for just three things.
Let me eat from your plate.
Let me drink from your cup.
Let me sleep in your bed.
She thought, Old Waddler,
those three you will never do,
but she made the promises
with hopes for her ball once more.
He brought it up in his mouth
like a tricky old dog
and she ran back to the castle
leaving the frog quite alone.
That evening at dinner time
a knock was heard on the castle door
and a voice demanded:
King's youngest daughter,
let me in. You promised;
now open to me.
I have left the skunk cabbage
and the eels to live with you.
The kind then heard her promise
and forced her to comply.
The frog first sat on her lap.
He was as awful as an undertaker.
Next he was at her plate
looking over her bacon
and calves' liver.
We will eat in tandem,
he said gleefully.
Her fork trembled
as if a small machine
had entered her.
He sat upon the liver
and partook like a gourmet.
The princess choked
as if she were eating a puppy.
From her cup he drank.
It wasn't exactly hygienic.
From her cup she drank
as if it were Socrates' hemlock.
Next came the bed.
The silky royal bed.
Ah! The penultimate hour!
There was the pillow
with the princess breathing
and there was the sinuous frog
riding up and down beside her.
I have been lost in a river
of shut doors, he said,
and I have made my way over
the wet stones to live with you.
She woke up aghast.
I suffer for birds and fireflies
but not frogs, she said,
and threw him across the room.
Like a genie coming out of a samovar,
a handsome prince arose in the
corner of her bedroom.
He had kind eyes and hands
and was a friend of sorrow.
Thus they were married.
After all he had compromised her.
He hired a night watchman
so that no one could enter the chamber
and he had the well
boarded over so that
never again would she lose her ball,
that moon, that Krishna hair,
that blind poppy, that innocent globe,
that madonna womb.


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If you want to play music as part of your business, either live or recorded, chances are you are going to have to pay the two big performing rights organizations. The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) license the rights to a lot of music, and without safeguards in place, could easily abuse their position. They've done so before. That's why the Department of Justice should keep up its historic role overseeing those licensing societies.
In June, the DOJ announced that it was reviewing its "consent decrees" with ASCAP and BMI, the two major performance rights organizations. The consent decrees are agreements with the U.S. government. They were originally done in 1941 to settle antitrust lawsuits, and they have been modified several times over the years. The federal district court in Manhattan (the Southern District of New York) has jurisdiction over the consent decrees and has the authority to accept or reject any changes.
These consent decrees impose important limits on ASCAP and BMI's ability to restrict competition and access to licenses that allow public performances of music compositions. Most importantly, the decrees require ASCAP and BMI to set license fees fairly and to charge uniform fees to similarly situated users. That helps copyright law serve its ultimate goal of spurring creativity and public access to creative works.
Given the importance of the limits the consent decrees impose, EFF joined allies including Public Knowledge, the Consumer Technology Association, and the R Street Institute in voicing its opposition to any changes would chip away at the consent decrees' protections against anti-competitive conduct by ASCAP or BMI. The consent decrees have become an integral part of the music publishing industry and continue to promote competition. There's simply no good reason to get rid of these structural mechanisms that allow markets to thrive while limiting opportunities for anti-competitive conduct by dominant firms.
Admittedly, the current music licensing system is not perfect. But nonetheless, the consent decrees are as necessary today as ever. ASCAP and BMI still control over 90% of the licensing market for music performance rights and remain the predominant players wielding tremendous market power. At the same time, music publishers, who own most of the copyrights in musical works that ASCAP and BMI license, have grown more concentrated over the years. The three biggest music publishers now own a majority of the copyrights on popular music.
It might be possible to replace the consent decrees with oversight by the Copyright Office and the Copyright Royalty Board. That would put rate-setting for music performances in the hands of the same body that sets rates for other important copyright licenses, including the licenses for digital audio streaming and cable transmission of broadcast TV channels. But today's system has important advantages. Today, anyone who wants a license to perform music can challenge the price of those licenses set by ASCAP and BMI by going to the federal court. It's relatively quick and happens often. The Copyright Royalty Board, in contrast, typically sets rates for each type of license only once every few years. And the Board's proceedings are not easily accessible to the public, because they tend to operate under blanket protective orders that put a cloak of secrecy over most of the evidence and arguments presented there.
Congress could change all this by moving rate-setting functions to the Royalty Board, while perhaps leaving the DOJ in the role of antitrust watchdog. But that's not a change that the DOJ can make on its own, and it shouldn't move to end the consent decrees if Congress doesn't step in.
It's an odd accident of history that an important part of the creative economy is governed by a 70-year-old court settlement rather than a law or agency regulation. But in practice, the consent decrees that govern ASCAP and BMI work reasonably well and are as necessary as ever.


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Abortion rights once again appeared to be a key motivator for Democratic voters, and the party establishment showed it still has an advantage, with election results in New York and Florida Tuesday night.
A win in a key special election in New York State is giving Democrats hope of doing relatively well in these midterm elections. They clearly have momentum, though they should probably temper expectations.
Plus, key races in Florida are now set, with Democrats hoping to stop Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis from winning reelection and a platform to perhaps bigger things — and the first Gen Z candidate won with a likely path to Congress, signaling where things may be headed for Democrats.
Here are four takeaways from Tuesday's elections:
1. More evidence that abortion rights has changed the landscape
How many examples does it take to make a trend? Democrat Pat Ryan won a special election in an evenly divided Upstate New York House district that is one of the swingiest in the country. Former President Obama won it in 2012, former President Trump won it in 2016 and President Biden won it in 2020.
Ryan won it by about 2 points Tuesday, and following on abortion-rights supporters' win on a ballot measure in Kansas earlier this month, he made abortion rights the key issue in his election. Republican Marc Molinaro, on the other hand, made his race about inflation and crime.
It can be tempting to overread the results of special elections. They are generally low-turnout affairs that draw the most engaged voters. In recent years, however, they have been indicators of which party has the most enthusiasm, and the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade is a pretty clear line of demarcation.
In midterms, history is usually on the party out of power's side, and Republicans had success early on in Biden's presidency, overperforming in races in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as special elections earlier this cycle.
But as the Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman lays out, that changed post-Dobbs:
The big question is whether that enthusiasm holds into November when there will be far higher turnout. What's more, political momentum has shifted quickly in this election cycle.
And before rank-and-file Democrats get their hopes up too high, while there may now be an outside shot at the party retaining the House, it's still considered a longshot. At the moment, Republicans need to net just five seats to take back the House, and they have redistricting and history on their side.
Democrats have had problems with setting expectations that they can lasso the moon and then disappoint their base when they only make it to space — even though that's a pretty good accomplishment. (See: Biden's original Build Back Better plan.)
What abortion rights has done is likely given Democrats a real shot at keeping Republicans' margins down in the House and maybe help them retain the Senate, both of which would be major wins.
2. There's no time like the present for establishment Democrats who still (mostly) have the advantage
For as much as Republicans want to stereotype Democrats as extreme progressives, once again the perceived-to-be more moderate or establishment candidates won — in a key Florida race and even in one of the most Democratic-leaning places in the country: Manhattan, Brooklyn and the areas just north of the city.
— Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee head Sean Patrick Maloney defeated progressive Alessandra Biaggi, 67%-33%. Biaggi had the backing of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
— Dan Goldman, who prosecuted the first impeachment case against Trump, defeated a splintered field of more progressive candidates.
In fairness, had progressives consolidated and not split the vote, one of them may well have won. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who was essentially forced into this district because of redistricting and Maloney's decision to run in the 17th District, and Yuh-Line Niou held a news conference before the election encouraging voters not to cast ballots for "conservative Democrat" Goldman. (Only in Manhattan or Oakland could Goldman be considered "conservative.")
Yet, they and several others, remained on the ballot and divided up votes, giving Goldman a path to a narrow victory, which he got, by about 2 points over Niou.
— And in Florida, in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Rep. Charlie Crist handily defeated Nikki Fried, the state's agriculture commissioner, by more than 20 points.
This race highlighted a generational divide within the party — and an old school-new school divide over how to do politics. Crist, a former Republican governor-turned-Democrat, cashed in on contacts and worked political power broker networks, and for now, that old-school style won out again.
New school is coming, though. In the Orlando area, thelikely first Gen Z member of Congress won his primary — and it may signal the future for Democratic politics.
"Today's election is proof that Central Florida's working families want representation that has the courage to ask for more," Maxwell Frost, 25, said in a statement. Frost is favored to win election to Congress this fall because of the liberal bent of the district.
3. The results highlight ideological differences within the parties
If more moderate Democratic establishment candidates are winning in many places, the opposite has been true mostly for Republicans this cycle, who are being pulled more to their polarized extreme.
Though candidates Trump endorsed had mixed results Tuesday night, overall, people pushing his election lies are winning or being boosted, though several of them lack political experience.
That's led to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell questioning his party's "candidate quality." The Trump and MAGA brands are going to be tested in purple states and swing districts. And while a wave can push even flawed candidates over the finish line, that's less true with a lazy river current, which is what this election is looking more like.
What's more, even Tuesday, candidates who only a couple cycles ago would have been seen as far off on the fringe lost, but got better than 40% of the vote.
That was the case in Western New York with Carl Paladino, a political gadfly with a history of making offensive comments, and Laura Loomer in Florida. Loomer has regularly posted conspiracy theories, including about COVID-19 vaccines, and calls herself a "proud Islamophobe" and "pro-white nationalism." She won a GOP primary in 2020 before losing by 20 points in the general election.
This time, she lost her GOP primary, but still received 44% of the vote and added a new wrinkle — some Trump-style baseless griping.
"I'm not conceding, because I'm a winner and the reality is our Republican Party is broken to its core," Loomer said in a non-concession speech Tuesday night.
With tears streaming down her face, Loomer, who has been banned from social media platforms, added, "We are losing our country to big-tech election interference."
4. Key Florida statewide races now set
Incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio against Rep. Val Demings is now official. And this race so far has had a heavy dose of Trump. Rubio has criticized the FBI search of Trump's Florida home, while Demings was a Trump impeachment manager.
But there's another issue that is notable to watch — how a Democrat who positions themselves as pro-law enforcement does in a state that's been tipping toward the GOP.
Demings, a former Orlando police chief, hasn't been shying away from that record. She ran an ad, for example, denouncing the idea of "defund the police."
"In the Senate, I'll protect Florida from bad ideas, like 'defund the police,'" Demings says in the ad. "That's. Just. Crazy."
Rubio still has the advantage and this is seen as a bit of a stretch for Democrats to be able to win in this environment, but Demings has outraised Rubio and has done well in some early polling.
The main event, though, very well may be the gubernatorial showdown between Crist and DeSantis.
DeSantis has landed in repeated controversy over his stances on education, women's rights, redistricting and voting, but he's seen as a rising star in Republican circles. Many conservatives see him as a more disciplined version of Trump, someone who can carry the culture-war mantle forward without the chaos.
There's been plenty of DeSantis 2024 talk, but he has to win reelection as governor first.
Democrats went with Crist over Fried, in some measure because of Crist's perceived strength of electability. That's going to be tested. Crist knows the stakes.
"This guy wants to be president of the United States of America, and everybody knows it," Crist said in his victory speech Tuesday night, of DeSantis, without using his name. "However, when we defeat them on Nov. 8 that show is over. Enough."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Virginia Tax Law Attorneys Protecting Your Rights
Falls Church law firm helping you understand complex tax laws
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What to do if you have unfiled back taxes
If you have not filed your tax returns for a few years, it is only a matter of time before the IRS contacts you. Once they do, it is essential that you address the problem immediately to avoid criminal charges. With the help of an experienced tax attorney, you can complete your unfiled tax returns efficiently and accurately. At our firm, we can ensure that you file the appropriate forms and documents to resolve your issues with the IRS and protect you from a criminal investigation.
Navigating an audit by the IRS
If you are being audited by the IRS, you need the assistance of an experienced tax attorney to help you avoid criminal tax fraud charges. Our extensive experience with all areas of tax law allows us to understand the complicated processes and procedures that accompany an audit. We ensure that you show up to your audit prepared for what you are about to face by reviewing your tax returns and explaining how to answer questions that the auditor is likely to ask. Trust our firm to ease your stress and give you the guidance you need.
Fighting for your rights in tax litigation
Tax litigation occurs between a tax payer and the state or federal government to resolve a dispute over a tax-related issue. As your dedicated advocates, we can help you through the litigation process. We help you file the appropriate forms, help you settle any tax debts, resolve notice issues, and mediate between you and the IRS. No matter your issue, our experienced tax law attorneys have extensive experience with this process and are prepared to provide you with the zealous advocacy you need.
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A criminal tax charge has the potential to greatly impact your life, even leading to prison time. You may face criminal charges if you have not filed tax returns for several years or failed to accurately represent your financial situation in your tax form. If this is the case, you need to be represented by an attorney with the tenacity and experience to protect your freedom. At our firm, we can defend you against criminal charges, including tax fraud or tax evasion.
Contact an experienced tax law attorney in Virginia
For all of your tax-related legal issues, turn to Scholar Law. Call us at 703-349-0068 or contact us online to schedule a consultation. From our Falls Church office, we represent clients throughout Virginia.


text:
WASHINGTON – The United States Postal Service will suspend service on Wednesday, Dec. 5 as part of the National Day of Mourning for former President George H.W. Bush.
While regular mail service will come to a halt, officials say there will still be some limited package delivery service to keep from disrupting holiday operations.
USPS posted this statement to their website:
President Donald J. Trump has proclaimed Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, as a National Day of Mourning in remembrance of former President George H.W. Bush.
Out of respect for the 41st President of the United States and to honor his vast contributions to our country during his lifetime, and consistent with the Presidential Proclamation, the United States Postal Service will suspend regular mail deliveries, retail services and administrative office activity on Dec. 5.
We will provide limited package delivery service on that day to ensure that our network remains fluid and we do not experience any impacts to our package delivery operations that might negatively affect our customers or business partners during the remainder of our busy holiday season.
The federal government will also be closed Wednesday.
Full Coverage: Death of George H.W. Bush
Also, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq said over the weekend that they will close trading Wednesday in observance of a national day of mourning for Bush. The former president died Friday evening at the age of 94.
The NYSE also said it will display the U.S. flag that flies above the New York Stock Exchange at half-staff in honor of the former president.
U.S. traders also observed a moment of silence before markets opened on Monday in honor of Bush.


text:
Simply log in or or register your card.
"Sign in to load" will change to "load to card".
Click "load to card" and the offer will automatically be available on your card.
To redeem, take your Rewards Card into a Kroger or Affiliate
store, bring item to checkout, automatically redeems free with scanned card!
Your freebie will stay on your card until 2/2/2013


text:
「楽園の王」 (Rakuen no Ō)
"The King of Paradise"
The prison mystery wraps up – sort of – in a mostly satisfactory and highly entertaining manner that plays something like a cross between 60's sci-fi and early Hitchcock. I can't help but wonder whether much was changed from Ango's original story, or Ango was simply a remarkably visionary writer.
First off, I have to give full credit to the scene where Kazamori infiltrated the prison electronically in order to reach Shinjuro. It wasn't quite as cool as The Spiral King's master hack from the second Gurren-Lagann movie, but it was stylish and stunning in a retro-future sort of way. It certainly explained the strange message Shinjuro received on the library computer last week, but then this ep did a great job (perhaps even too neatly) of explaining pretty much everything that happened last week.
If you have the time, it'd certainly be an interesting experience to re-watch episode 7 in light of everything we were told today. It was especially fascinating to look back on the interpretations each of the three "actresses" (Toyosaki Aki, Takagaki Ayahi, Kotobuki Minako) took from the "We should've sucked off war more" dialogue last week, each a reflection of their real-life crimes – prostitute, propagandist, mother-turned-terrorist. As I surmised it was indeed The Novelist's sidekick that Inga smelled last week, and now we know who she is – Bettneou, a black-eyed Kami that has the ability to change others' perception of their reality. Whether she works for The Novelist or vice-versa is hard to say and we don't know how they met, but this was certainly always the most logical explanation for what happened at the prison. There were other clues – the Frank Darabont films the "director" was looking at, for example – and some were quite subtle, like the missing number on the director's keypad and the fact that Shinjuro appeared to be leaning on non-existent walls and such at times. The whole exercise was not just a play for The Novelist's benefit, but a scam on the part of a prison guard to ensure the silence of a female prisoner who knew things he didn't want to get out.
This was an episode where the side characters really got to shine. Kazamori proved its worth yet again, cleverly zapping Shinjuro into reality with shock handcuffs (perhaps an explanation will come later as to how Kazamori can seemingly create matter from the ether). Inga was uncharacteristically flustered in trying to deal with Shinjuro's massive crowds of angry customers. It was interesting to see Seigen get his first opportunity to really participate (and for Miyu Irino to act a little) as he teamed with Inga to get inside the prison mystery once Rie and Izumi were caught up in Bettenou's unreality. We saw the first signs of independent thought from him, too, as he seems to openly rebel against Kaishou's tendency to hide the truth rather than shed light on it – I hope that's a thread that's followed in future episodes.
Indeed, in addition to providing a compelling mystery in its own right this arc did wonders to further add depth and color to the world UN-GO has created, and to set-up what appears to be a final arc building on the themes of war, freedom of thought and conscientious objection. Bettenou has fallen into the hands of the intelligence branch of the government, and given their track record and her powers, that's a terrifying prospect. Shinjuro – as evidenced by his decision not to immediately leave the prison after the truth was revealed – has proved himself a complex and fascinating man, someone who holds deeply to his ideals and appears to be willing to pay the ultimate price for them. I get the sense that we've seen only the mild and smiling side of Kashirou so far, but we're about to see some serious fangs there. I think the stakes are going to rise precipitously across the board, with everyone being forced to choose a side – a choice that will prove extremely difficult for some of them.


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AMERICAN LASER GAMES RAM / ROM BOARD INFO - 6 September 2006
Written and developed by Andrea Turci (with a little help from
Matteo Marioni)
The purpose of this document is to give a little technical insight of the RAM/ROM board used in the nine American Laser Games titles that were based on a plain Amiga 500 computer and a laserdisc player. This document will describe how the board works and what the main differences are between the two revisions that were made: Rev. A, (the first one) and Rev. B, (the last one to be developed).
Each RAM/ROM board is composed of five integrated circuits:
Pictures of the board can be found in the American Laser Games Virtual Library.
The RAM/ROM board is directly connected to the Amiga expansion port and it is used to store the code and data for game
operation. The two EPROMs contain the game code, while the RAM is used to keep game settings and other data. The
two PAL ICs are used to generate the Chip Select (CS) signals for EPROMs and RAM, and they are used to do some address swapping
to prevent illegal board reproductions. The PALs were factory programmed, and their surfaces were scraped off as a sort
of copy protection. Here's a basic schematic of a PAL16L8:
Quoting from Wikipedia: "Programmable array logic (PAL) is a programmable logic device used to implement combinational logic circuits. The devices have fixed-or, programmable-and-plane arrays of transistor cells to implement 'sum-of-products' binary logic equations for each of the outputs in terms of the inputs and either synchronous or asynchronous feedback from the outputs" |
PAL on location U5 generates the CS signals for all ROM and RAM ICs. From Rev. A to Rev. B, the position of the RAM in the CPU memory map was changed, and the ROM size was doubled.
CS equations | |||||||
PAL R2 (Rev. A boards) |
PAL R5 (Rev. B boards) |
Memory maps | |||||||
Start address | End address | Start address | End address | Start address | End address | Start address | End address |
0xF54000 | 0xF55FFF | 0xF00000 | 0xF1FFFF | 0xF7C000 | 0xF7DFFF | 0xF00000 | 0xF3FFFF |
where Axx stands for the corresponding bus address line.
Please note that these are NOT the exact formulas used in the PALs, but they work great for me. I've made a custom U5 PAL
replacement with a bunch of TTL ICs that works nicely on both Rev. A and Rev. B boards. The equations I used are
more or less the following ones:
PAL on location U4 was more challenging to deal with... :P There are 3 known versions that can be mounted in this location:
My goal was to play all games on a Rev. B Board, so in order to do this I needed to understand how this address swap
worked. I used a socket to hold the PAL, some switches to drive the PAL inputs to high and low states, and some LEDs on the PAL
outputs. After a few hours, the puzzle was solved! :)
It came out that they used this PAL to swap data blocks of 0x7ff bytes in the ROM memory map. So I obtained a
'truth table' for both R6 and R1, and I was able to rescramble Mad Dog McCree v.1c from R1 version to
R6. I had Mad Dog McCree running on a Rev. B board using R6 and R2. As previously said, the memory map was different
in the 2 revisions, so I had to use R2 in place of R5 to get the correct CS signals for the RAM. Unfortunately, I didn't have the R3
version, so I couldn't figure out its scramble and port also Who Shot Johnny Rock? on Rev. B.
A friend later gave me a decrypted set of Who Shot Johnny Rock? ROM images, so I scrambled them with the R1 algorithm, and
now I have it up and running on a Mad Dog McCree Rev. A board, with PALs R1 and R2. Take a look at the
ALG Tech Center to download a copy of these ROM images (version 1.6a) if you want to have
Who Shot Johnny Rock? running on your Mad Dog Rev. A board, or you can download version 1.6b to run it on a Rev. B
board with PALs R6 and R2. As a final step, I compared the decrypted Who Shot Johnny Rock? set with a crypted one,
to determine how PAL R3 works, and I wrote down the scramble (see program below).
UPDATE: Now also available in the ALG Tech Center is Space Pirates ROM version 1.4b, to make the original version of Space Pirates compatible with a Rev. B board and R6 / R5 PALs.
The following is a simple C code I used to scramble/descramble the binary files of the ROM images. It's quite simple if you are familiar with programming, so it doesn't need too much comment. If you're not, then just stay away from it. ;)
// Use this main program to :
// - input a crypted ROM with known algorithm (file rom1.bin) and return it decrypted (file out1.bin);
// - input a decrypted ROM (file rom1.bin) and return it crypted with a known algorithm (file out1.bin)
// - to "port" game from Rev. A to Rev. B first you have to descramble the ROM, then copy the plain ROM twice in a new file
// (copy /b out1.bin + out1.bin rom1.bin) and finally scramble the result with R6 algorithm.
#include <stdio.h>
static const int r1[] = { 0,1,3,2,4,5,7,6,12,13,15,14,8,9,11,10,16,17,19,18,20,21,23,22,28,29,31,30,24,25,27,26};
static const int r3[] = { 0,1,3,2,4,5,7,6,8,9,11,10,12,13,15,14,16,17,19,18,20,21,23,22,24,25,27,26,28,29,31,30};
static const int r6[] = { 33,32,34,35,37,36,38,39,45,44,46,47,41,40,42,43,49,48,50,51,53,52,54,55,61,60,62,63,57,56,58,59,
int main (void){
int R1 = 1;
int R3 = 0;
int R6 = 0;
int rev_a = 1;
int rev_b = 0;
int i=0;
char rom_src_rev_a[65535];
char rom_src_rev_b[65535*2];
char rom_dest_rev_a[65535];
char rom_dest_rev_b[65535*2];
static FILE *src_file = NULL;
static FILE *dst_file = NULL;
src_file = fopen( "rom1.bin", "rb" );
dst_file = fopen( "out1.bin", "wb" );
if (rev_a){
for (i=0;i<65535;i++){
if (rev_a){
for (i=0;i<65535*2;i++){
if (rev_a){
if (R1){
for (i = 0; i < 32; i++)
memcpy ( rom_dest_rev_a + r1[i] * 0x800, rom_src_rev_a + i * 0x800, 0x800);
if (R3){
for (i = 0; i < 32; i++)
memcpy ( rom_dest_rev_a + r3[i] * 0x800, rom_src_rev_a + i * 0x800, 0x800);
if (rev_b){
for (i = 0; i < 64; i++)
memcpy (rom_dest_rev_b + r6[i] * 0x800, rom_src_rev_b + i * 0x800, 0x800);
if (rev_a){
for (i=0;i<65536;i++){
if (rev_b){
for (i=0;i<65536*2;i++){
English isn't my mother tongue, so don't expect this document to be perfect. I'm not a professional electronic
engineer or programmer either, so 100% accuracy is not guaranteed.
I'm not responsible for any damage to yourself,
your computer, or your American Laser Games hardware. The above worked fine for me; I hope it does the same for
you. Feel free to submit corrections, comments and suggestions by contacting the
D-L-P Staff.


text:
Daredevil #12 Cover. 20. Ink on Marvel board, 11 × 17.25″.
This was an exciting weekend for Daredevil news. First and foremost, I'd like to welcome Chris Samnee to the team, who will be alternating arcs with me on the series. I've been a "Samnee-vore" for some time, consuming his beautiful, black and white pin-ups via his blog and Comic Twart. He's a pitch-perfect match for the book, and his pencils for issue 12 are phenomenal. I'll be providing the cover, pictured above, which pretty much sums up the issue. It's simply a joy to read.
Samnee's grand entrance, however welcome, was old news to me (I just couldn't tell anybody for the longest time). What I didn't expect to get this weekend was a congratulatory email from David Mazzucchelli, informing me that the Daredevil, Vol. 1 hardcover collection made it on the New York Time Best Sellers list. Hot damn. Thanks to everyone for supporting the book and spreading the word.
Lastly, I just finished issue 10, which means I can finally leave the apartment. Time to get a haircut. Special thanks to my Paw, for rearranging his schedule to make sure the pages got in on time. And thanks to my girlfriend, who fed me and made sure I didn't lose all contact with the outside world.


text:
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1 Can you make your own logo?


text:
Pragmatic ethics is one of the three main schools under the umbrella of ethical relativism. Ethical relativism teaches that right and wrong, good and bad, are relative to the situation, circumstances, or personal conviction. Cultural relativism is another school of relativism, but it is less an ethical framework than a tool for anthropologists to use to remind themselves that other cultures have different social mores. Moral relativism teaches that morality is merely the following of any ethical framework—one is as good as another. Pragmatic ethics takes a more aggressive approach, insisting that mankind is responsible for determining the best ethical system possible, which will be refined as new discoveries are made.
Pragmatic ethics is the philosophy of ethics most championed by atheists and evolutionists. It combines the worldview of materialism (the supernatural does not exist) with the methodology of science in an attempt to develop a code of behavior for mankind. "Pragmatic" refers to the belief that we should use what works and alter or discard what doesn't. Pragmatic ethics does hold that absolute/universal truth exists. But it also teaches that the imperfect human intellect will never recognize truth; all we can do is endeavor to get as close as possible. Practically speaking, then, pragmatic ethics is relativistic.
The worldview of atheistic materialism directly relates to the theory of pragmatic relativism. If everything in the universe is physical and the supernatural does not exist, then the spiritual has no effect on the physical world we experience. This means no God, but it also means no human soul, no afterlife, no thought, no feeling, and no consciousness. If we appear to feel or think something, it is merely a physiological reaction to stimuli.
The philosophical application of this is that humanity's value, identity, and character have no innate worth and are not imbued by a Creator. We are simply physical beings interacting with the world. We are defined by the effect our actions have on other physical entities. Ethics takes on a great importance, then, since ethics is the standard by which we (should) interact with the world around us.
Although it isn't widely known, one of the key beliefs of most scientists is fallibilism. Fallibilism is the stance that mankind is incapable of knowing when we have come upon the truth. The truth may exist, and we may even believe the truth, but we will never know for sure when or if we do. Yet it is still our duty to seek the truth. We do this is by guessing (hypothesizing), experimenting, and then seeing if our guess was correct.
Fallibilism applies to ethics, too. Truth about human behavior may exist—an absolute standard we are meant to follow. But we will never know if we have discovered that truth. And so our duty is to observe and contemplate which actions lead to the best results for humanity. With continued effort and experimentation, we might come closer to knowing how to live.
Pragmatic relativism doesn't work for several reasons. First, it purports to strive toward truth while completely rejecting God. God is truth. He is the I AM—the essence of existence. Of course, mankind has done this since the Garden of Eden—searched for truth outside of God. The tragedy of pragmatic relativism is that it acknowledges many biblical truths (e.g., truth does exist, finite humans cannot fully understand truth, and mankind is responsible to live according to a truth we don't know) while completely ignoring the fact that Truth came down and walked among us (John 1:1; 14:6). It's like a lizard lying in a desert, willing to accept that light and heat are realities and knowing that his little lizard brain will never fully understand them, but refusing to believe that there is a sun.
Pragmatism gets some things right, like the fact that ethics and right behavior are directly related to truth. Psalm 15:2 speaks of the man who "walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart." Scripture also agrees that mankind will never discover truth with our limited intellect (called a "darkened understanding" in Ephesians 4:18). John 14:16-17 teaches that truth only comes from God: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." And John 15:26 says we cannot understand the truth about God incarnate without the leading of the Spirit.
But the Bible differs from pragmatic relativism in that God teaches that mankind can know truth—with help. Absolute truth exists, and it is knowable. Psalm 51:6 says, "Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom." Proverbs 3:3 agrees: "Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." In addition, we are to worship in truth (John 4:24), discern truthfulness in our leaders (Matthew 7:15-20), and be characterized by truth (John 17:17; Ephesians 6:14).
Romans 1:18-32 explains why pragmatists refuse to acknowledge God's truth. "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened…For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen" (vs. 21, 25). When men refuse the truth of God, whether that truth is a warning that forbidden fruit will bring certain death or God's very existence, they reject God's sovereignty over them. With God's guidance flouted, something must take its place—"the creature" of verse 25. In the case of pragmatic relativists, that "creature" is mankind—the base, physical, material part of man. Not even the heart or soul of man, because that would be too close to God, but arms and legs and neural synapses. The search for truth is futile in their case; 2 Timothy 3:2, 7 says that people who seek truth apart from God are "lovers of self …always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."


text:
And Willi should know. The former West Coast Editor of Organic Gardening magazine, she now pens the weekly column "The Gardener" on the green living section of Apartment Therapy, offers gardening advice every Tuesday morning on Seattle's NPR call-in show Greendays, teaches a joint gardening and cooking class with James Beard award-nominated chef Matthew Dillion at The Corson Building in Seattle, and (because, clearly, not near enough!) also hosts an , online garden-to-table cooking show, Grow. Cook. Eat., with her husband Jon from their Portland, Oregon home.
Fortunately for all of us, Willi has distilled that massive collection of knowledge into a wonderful new book, Grow. Cook. Eat.. Her publicist recently sent me a review copy and I can't recommend it enough. Not only is it lovely to behold, it's imminently practical to use and apply. This is the gardening book you absolutely want to have on hand this coming growing season.
I had an opportunity to ask Willi a few of my own growing questions recently and wanted to share them with you here today:
Because you, too, should have access to such a fantastic piece of literature, Willi's publisher, Sasquatch Books, has graciously offered one small measure reader a copy of Grow. Cook. Eat.. To be entered into the giveaway, simply leave a comment listing your favorite thing to grow, or something you'd like to grow in the future. For me, it's two things: mushrooms (outdoors) and citrus fruit (indoors). What about you? What dirt from what crop is itching to get under your green, growing thumb?
The giveaway will run through next Wednesday, January 25th, midnight EST. Canadians, feel free to enter. Do be sure to leave a means of contacting you, should you be the winner, via either a link back to your own blog or website or with your email address in your comment.
Winner or not, do give Willi's book and blog a look. She's got the golden touch when it comes to all things garden-related.
*Don't forget, there's still time to enter last week's giveaway for a copy of Jenna Woginrich's book Barnheart!
UPDATE: The winner of Grow. Cook. Eat., as deemed by the Random Widget, is lucky #27. Liz C. I'll be getting in touch soon for your mailing information. Thank you so very much to everyone that entered. It looks like we're a happily growing bunch!


text:
More options for this meteogram are available with point+
Learn more
The simulation history archive offers access to past weather simulations for every place in the world. You can see weather information for yesterday or the weather history of the last years. The weather archive diagrams is separated in 3 charts:
- Temperature, including relative humidity in hourly intervals
- Clouds (grey background) and clear sky (light blue background). The darker the grey background, the more dense is the cloud cover
- Wind speed and direction (in degree 0° = North, 90° = East, 180° = South and 270° = West). In the history archive meteogram, the green line represents wind speed, and the wind rose shows the wind direction.
Please consider the following:
- The weather archive shows simulation data, not measured data, for the selected area.
- The data is not compared to measured data of a weather station (because in more than 99% of the places on Earth, no measurements are available). Simulation data with high predictability can replace measurements. For areas or data with lower predictability, simulation cannot replace measurements and can also not be used as an evidence.
- Wind and temperature data are calculated with the average altitude of the grid cell. Therefore, the temperatures for mountains and coasts can be a somewhat different from the data at the exact location which you have selected. You can find the altitude of the grid cell besides the coordinates.
- The "15-day" diagram shows hourly data. For one month, there are daily aggregations for minimum, maximum and average values. For more than 6 months there are monthly aggregations.
- We also offer raw data for sale. Please contact us for more information ([email protected])
Hourly historical weather data since 1940 for McDonald can be purchased with history+. Download variables such as temperature, wind, clouds and precipitation as CSV for any place on Earth.


text:
Related info:
– The War On Terror Spreads To Africa: U.S. Sending Troops To 35 African Nations
– US Deploying Troops To 35 African Countries
– US starts airlifting French troops to Mali (RT, Jan 22, 2013):
The United States has begun airlifting French soldiers and equipment to Mali with its C-17 transport planes, in an attempt to push back Islamist militants that have taken over the northern half of the country.
The airlifting will continue for several days as the US aids the French government in its initiative to fight Islamists. The Malian authorities, fearing a terrorist takeover, has long requested help from neighboring countries to regain control of the north.
"The missions will operate over the next several days," Tom Saunders, a spokesman for US military's Africa Command, told the Associated Press.
Three US flights have arrived in Mali since Monday, with one arriving Tuesday morning, the New York Times reports. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday declared his goal of a "total reconquest" of Mali, a statement that was followed by the French takeovers of the central Malian towns of Diabaly and Douentza.
Drian called the advance a "clear military success for the government in Bamako and for French forces intervening in support of these operations."
France currently has more than 3,000 troops working on the Mali takeover in an operation it has code-named Operation Serval in Mali. All but 1,000 of these troops have been deployed in Mali, while the rest are intervening from the neighboring countries of Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Niger and Chad.
The extent of the US involvement in the initiative is unknown, but the use of at least three C-17 transport planes has been witnessed by reporters and there are reports of a US-flagged military transport aircraft taking off from the Istres air base in the south of France.
A US official has also confirmed that the US is working with France on intelligence issues, without elaborating on the extent that the Obama administration is involved.
In an interview with ABC's Martha Raddatz on Capital Hill after the swearing-in ceremony on Monday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that the US assistance in Mali is a good example of future military assistance it might provide to its allies. Washington on Friday congratulated Paris for its "antiterrorist" actions, but made it clear that it would not bring its own troops into the conflict, since Mali is not of strategic interest to the US.
"Our willingness and ability to help other countries like France be able to go after AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Maghreb) I think is the kind of model you're going to see in the future," he said.
Panetta confirmed that the US is providing France with intelligence, but has not made a decision on whether or not it would provide unmanned surveillance drones or refueling tankers for French fighters conducting airstrikes.
"We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war," President Obama said in his inaugural address in front of an audience of nearly a million.
As the president was sworn in for his second term, US airlifts continued to bring a 600 troop French battalion to Mali in wake of rising extremism in the northern part of the country.


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Pier 29 along the Embarcadero at Chestnut Street, where the old Teatro ZinZanni theater and dinner house used to be located, was the site of the fire. By 5 p.m., authorities were not saying the fire was under control, but contained, meaning they were still taking care of hot spots inside, but did not expect any fire to spread to other buildings.
The call came in around 1:50 p.m. and firefighters soon had their hands full. The fire quickly punched through the roof forcing crews off the roof and out of the building. They soon realized the fire was getting a hold of the large empty mostly wood-framed building. They began by attacking the flames from the roof, but within a half hour of their decision that it was too dangerous to stay there, chunks of the façade began crashing down to the sidewalk and street below.
About 150 firefighters surrounded the building and in San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White's words, "tried to drown the fire with huge volumes of water" including water drafted from the Bay. The Port of San Francisco says the building dates from 1915 and is made mostly from wood. The roof fire was billowing toxic creosote smoke.
"You can see the façade has given way, so the incident commander, he did a very good job assessing the vulnerability of the structure and established what we call a 'collapse zone' to make sure that there was no one in front of the building and sure enough, parts of the façade did give way," Hayes-White said.
The Port says there are no tenants in the building which was being emptied out for use by the America's Cup event next summer. There are conflicting reports about whether or not welding or plumbing work was going on at the time the fire started. The fire department says it will have to investigate those reports. The arson team, a combination of personnel from the fire department and the police department, were on scene, although an SFFD spokesperson did say there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the fire.
Construction for the America's Cup race is a huge project, but those in charge say they are confident it will be finished in time. "Based on information available at this time, we do not anticipate that this will have any impact on our plans for the site and we look forward to moving ahead with the future construction of the America's Cup Village at Pier 27/29," said America's Cup spokesperson Jane Eagleson.
"There is no loss. The cruise ship terminal project will remain on time and on budget. I'm happy to tell you we will be putting up the steel here in a couple of weeks," said Port of San Francisco Executive Director Monique Moyer said. "The America's Cup event will be happening here in 2013 as the America's Cup Village and there should be no impacts from this other than an unsightly façade."
The commotion caused gridlock on the Embarcadero in the heart of San Francisco's tourist district. The Embarcadero was shut down in both directions between Bay Street and Broadway until just before midnight. Cyclists and pedestrians could be seen walking around but the roadway, a main track for both tourists and commuters, was completely closed off to automobiles. Muni's F Line was also blocked between the Ferry building and Fisherman's Wharf. During rush hour, the traffic situation grew chaotic with motorists being diverted off the waterfront and onto Broadway and Battery Streets, making the interior city streets a mess. There were citywide reports of backups on streets leading out of San Francisco.


text:
Tickets for this parade are not available for sale at this time.
Ancient Druids and Krewe Of Nyx
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Originally organized in 1921, this is a relatively small krewe of 200 members. It will offer a traditional-style parade reminiscent of the night procession of the past. The parade theme is not divulged until parade time. The identity of the Arch Druid – the king - is also never made public. Dressed in priest-like robes, the club parades with 16 floats, some from the original Druids parades of nearly 90 years ago.
Krewe of Nyx named after the Greek Goddess of night riding in its first year boast a parade of tradition with new and fun ideas. This all women krewe will be goddesses of the streets in new Orleans on this spectacular evening.