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Tag: Paul Smith
Designer Baby Clothes at Little Liberty
The doors to the brand new Little Liberty range opened on 1 March 2012. This exciting range of designer baby clothes, designer children's clothes, toys, gifts, accessories and books spans almost 2,000 sq ft on the 3rd floor of Liberty London.
The designer range of beautiful baby and children's clothes is suitable for boys and girls, from newborns to 8 year olds.
View the online Little Liberty Baby Boy clothing range and the Little Liberty Baby Girl clothing range.
Highlights from the baby clothing range are brands Bonnie Baby, I Love Gorgeous and Kidscase for beautiful baby clothes.
Little Liberty's fashionable childrenswear collections include Petit Bateau, Miller and Liberty brands such as Stella McCartney, Paul Smith, Acne and Isabel Marant.
The shop floor of Little Liberty is themed to entice and entertain children and adults alike. The store is decorated in story book style with hand-drawn illustrations.
The range of toys have been selected with a theme of Create and Play. Choose from giant paper models that can be decorated to your child's desire, musical toys such as guitars and tambourines, Seedling's 'make your own' kits from bespoke tutus to superhero capes. Beautiful wooden activity toys by Kiko and puzzles and playthings by Djeco.
There's even an exclusive Bugaboo with a Liberty Arts fabrics printed buggy hood and pram cover.
If you're looking for unique gifts for baby or child you will find Little Liberty has amazing wall stickers, vanity cases, height charts, stationery, lamps, pouffes and accessories for nurseries and bedrooms.
You can visit Liberty London to view this debut collection or shop online at Little Liberty.


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Joe Thurston rose up quickly through the Dodgers farm system. In 2001, he was a top-10 Dodgers prospect, and looked to have a bright future as a second baseman. Heck, in 2002 he earned the Dodgers' Minor League Player of the Year Award and Baseball America's AAA Player of the Year honors. Unfortunately, that season would prove to be the peak of his minor league career.
His stats continued to dip, and he was eventually traded to the Yankees in 2005. From there, Thurston has bounced around. In 2008, he finally garnered some significant playing time as a utility infielder for the Cardinals, but failed to stick with them long-term. Today, I am unsure if he is currently playing ball.
Featured here area couple of 2003 Donruss Leaf Certified Materials autographed cards of Joe Thurston- in the Gold and Red parallel versions.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Do you know anyone who's as phony as a three-dollar bill? They say one thing yet do another; they make rules but don't follow them; and they live one way in public yet another in private. They're so dishonest, they could be called professional liars. In fact, many hypocrites even lie to themselves. Are you… [Read More]
Home » hypocritical person


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In the first and second post of this series, I looked at why relationship breakups are much harder for expats. One key reason is that expats find it much more difficult to reconstruct home. In my third post, I explored ways for expats to rebuild home after a breakup, mostly by using their internal resources. In this post, I highlight ways that the community can help divorcing expats get the practical and emotional support that they need in order to cope.
Unfortunately, there are not many resources out there for expats dealing with relationship breakdowns. This is what makes the role of the expat community even more critical.
If you are part of such a community, there are three things you do to help.
First, don't stay away.
Separation and divorce are taboo subjects in expat circles. Why? Because breakdowns are believed to be contagious. They highlight the reality that expat relationships can end and, it is feared, make those in fragile relationships more likely to consider the option. So best to isolate the virus before it can spread. The unfortunate result is that expats experiencing relationship breakdowns get isolated, in situations where their support networks already are tenuous.
If you are part of an expat network and see someone experiencing these challenges, fight the impulse to stay away. Offering help, even if it's just listening to someone tell their story, can make all the difference. Friends, even new ones, can ask questions, try to understand the real challenges, and identify the kinds of support that will help the most. For instance, understanding a person's concept of home and the loss of home that a relationship breakup implies for them could be very useful in determining the kinds of resources and support that they would need to cope.
Second, help them identify support resources.
As I discussed in the first post of this series, expats going through relationship breakups in a foreign country often face tremendous challenges operating in an unfamiliar language and navigating the local legal system. Whether you do it as an individual or by taking initiative in the context of a local expat support organization, you can help expats going through a breakup get access to relevant information and resources by:
· Synthesizing, translating and providing information, ideally accessible online, in English (or in other languages) on local legal frameworks for family law.
· Organizing access to legal advice in English (or other languages), for example, through the use of qualified volunteers.
· Providing guidance on dealing with the financial implications of divorce. This would include matters linked to pension systems, insurance, local bureaucracy and others. This could also be done through networks of qualified professionals, ideally volunteers; and by making the relevant information and resources accessible to non-local language speakers.
· Organizing access to counseling and/or therapy for expatriates going through a relationship breakdown, again through networks of qualified professionals, volunteer or not.
· Bringing together and organizing communities, forums and support groups of expats going through such experiences.
Third and finally, if you've been through this experience yourself, consider offering to coach a fellow expat going through the same familiar challenges.
The idea of volunteer expat divorce coaches was perhaps the most interesting one I heard during my research. In the words of Nour, the expat divorcée I mentioned in my previous post, "The problem is that people don't know what's out there in terms of resources. People need divorce coaches." A divorce coach offers both practical guidance and emotional support. Ideally, it is someone who understands the challenges, either from personal or professional experience, and helps people navigate the whole process – legal, logistical, emotional.
While divorce coaches have existed for at least a decade, there are no specialized divorce coaches for expats yet. These could be volunteers who have been through the experience and, irrespective of their professional background (legal, financial, coaching/ counseling etc.), are familiar with cross-cultural issues and have a solid understanding of both local legal systems and the international implications of expat relationship breakdown.
…expatriate life equips them with traits and skills that are invaluable in coping with relationship breakdown: resilience, endurance, adaptability, and an unmatched ability to create home wherever they are.
As I hope has become clear from this series, relationship breakdowns are particularly devastating for expats. In addition to the unavoidable feelings of grief, anger and disorientation, expats experience a particularly intense loss of home – along many dimensions – and they do so without the support systems they would have had at home. At the same time, however, expatriate life equips them with traits and skills that are invaluable in coping with relationship breakdown: resilience, endurance, adaptability, and an unmatched ability to create home wherever they are.
While, unfortunately, there are limited external resources for expats going through failed relationships, I hope I have communicated the importance of raising awareness about the challenges and the many different ways in which expats themselves can create appropriate resources and support each other through those difficult times. They don't call it an "emotional boot camp" for nothing; it is painful and tough, but the reward is that one emerges from it stronger and, most times, even happier than before.
Below are some examples of resources that are available for expatriates going through relationship breakdown:
General information on expat divorce
Frances Robinson, "Divorce and the EU Expat: Here's How to Go
About It," Wall Street Journal Expat, April 21, 2015; http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2015/04/21/divorce-and-the-eu-expat-heres-how-to-go-about-it/
Debra Bruno, "Divorce, Global Style: For Expat Marriages, Breaking Up is Harder to Do," Wall Street Journal Expat, March 18, 2015; http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2015/03/18/divorce-global-style-for-expat-marriages-breaking-up-is-harder-to-do/
Mark King, "Warring Across Waters," The Guardian, September 19, 2009; http://www.theguardian.com/money/2009/sep/19/expat-finance-divorce
Henry Brookman, "The Difficulties of Divorcing Overseas," The Telegraph, March 24, 2011; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/8356609/The-difficulties-of-divorcing-overseas.html
Articles written by legal professionals
"Divorce Abroad: 10 steps to protect your children;" http://www.expatica.com/ch/family-essentials/partners/Divorce-abroad-10-steps-to-protect-your-children_106043.html
Jeremy D. Morley, "Top Ten Tips for Expats;" http://www.international-divorce.com/Top-Ten-Tips-for-Expats.htm
Susan Harwood, "Expat Divorce: What You Need to Know and What Not to Worry About;" http://www.expatexchange.com/article/4238/Expat-Divorce-What-You-Need-to-Know-and-What-Not-to-Worry-About
Examples of expat divorce articles with a local focus
"Getting a divorce in Switzerland;" http://www.expatica.com/ch/family-essentials/Divorce-in-Switzerland_106669.html
"Expat divorce in the UAE – 10 frequently asked questions;" http://www.thenational.ae/blogs/your-money/expat-divorce-in-the-uae–10-frequently-asked-questions
"All You Need to Know About US Expats Overseas Divorce;" http://www.expats-moving-and-relocation-guide.com/overseas-divorce.html/- sthash.zKkrYTFI.dpbs
A comparison of national family law/divorce regulations among EU Countries
Divorce Coaches
There are many divorce coaches, unfortunately, not many specialize in working with expatriates. Some examples:
Articles about the benefits of divorce coaching
This series of posts is based on a presentation I gave at the Families in Global Transition conference (FIGT16) in Amsterdam on March 12, 2016.


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Provincetown, for those who have never been, is basically one long Victorian street… Commercial Street. Primarily an LGBT resort most everyone seems welcome here. At all times of night and day Commercial Street teems with pedestrians, bicycles and many dogs. Cars edge cautiously amongst the chaos. During the season (June-September) there are themed entertainment weeks (Saturday to Saturday) for gays, lesbians and trans visitors.
Near the Town Hall at town's center there are bars, candy stores and tourist favorites like The Lobster Pot serving lobster rolls and oysters. Provincetown has become an unlikely hen night/bachelorette party destination. Rowdy, drunk girls dressed in cheap veils patrol the streets screaming raucous songs and hitting men on the head with large dildos… true story. Drag queens, by the way, love dildos and hate Bachelorettes.
Commercial Street is divided into East and West Ends. It's probably best to work out which end is which within minutes of arriving here. So, facing from the bay where the ferry disgorged… the west will be to your left, the east to your right. I start my day, every day at 7am, after my beach walk with the dogs… unleashed, on the patio at:
1. Joe's
170 Commercial St, Provincetown, MA 02657 Phone: 508 487-6656
Hours: 7:00 am – 7:00 pm
West End.
Delicious, fragrant coffee served by an attentive bunch who remember both your name and what you want. Joe's is a staple breakfast haunt for most of the cool 'townies' (locals). It's common to see straight-backed, imperious Andrew Sullivan arrive with his husband on their ancient dutch bikes or watch John Waters sail elegantly by dressed in Issy Miyake. Ryan Murphy and his adorable family chowing down on their morning baked goods.
Try the delicious, freshly baked almond croissant… but get there early to avoid disappointment.
A perfect place to eavesdrop! Who fucks who? Learn all the local gossip: "They bring their terrible taste from the suburbs…" A great way to start the day with everyone who works or lives in Provincetown… and a few tourists.
Meet this man drinking coffee and eating his breakfast:
2. Loveland
West End.
120 Commercial Street Provincetown, Massachusetts 02657 Phone: 508 413-9500
Run by Josh Patner ex Rome based fashion journalist and stylist, this charming haunt is brimming with local and international art. Possibly the chicest most eclectic store in town. Beware! By August almost everything has been sold. Look out for beautiful and reasonably priced ceramics by: Gail S. Browne.
I bought a beautiful vase by Gail Browne and a gorgeous 18th Century throw.
3. Room 68
East End
377 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657 Phone: 617-942-7425
Room 68 is Eric Portnoy's 21st century gift shop. Originally out of Boston's Jamaica Plain – 68 South Street, originating the store's name. Look for Debra Folz ingenious extending ash table and more of her award-winning work. For those drowning in bad art glass and cat portraits… Room 68 is a welcome high style lifeboat on the choppy sea of capey mediocrity – quite unlike any other found on Commercial Street… or on Cape Cod.
4. Canteen
Town Center
225 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657 Phone: 508 487-3800
Opened in 2013 Canteen continues its stunning success. This charming restaurant is perfectly situated at the heart of Provincetown, offering a simple, unpretentious menu that capitalizes on local favorites like the ubiquitous Lobster Roll but served in a wholly original way. Like the interior of this nautical themed dining room the food is fresh, clean and authentic. The deep-fried smelt with tartar sauce are not everyone's cup of tea… but I love them. Order everything with re-fried Brussels sprouts doused in an aromatic balsamic reduction and remember to sit in the newly opened garden overlooking the dunes and the spectacular sunset.
5. Red Inn
West End
15 Commercial St, Provincetown, MA 02657 Phone: 508 487-7334
Away from the madding Provincetown crowd, either a 30 minute walk or a ten minute rickshaw ride is the legendary Red Inn. Consistency, taste and prompt service make this elegant venue an essential but expensive must see. Last night we ate perfectly prepared filet mignon, served by delightfully charming staff at the bar over looking the spectacular bay. Older bearded gay men with their well behaved hounds sit on the terrace and drink cocktails. One eats reasonably priced oysters during happy hour (4pm-5pm) or lounge in the very British country garden: lavender, roses and sweet-william perfume the early evening breeze.
6. Mimere's Homemade
Town Center
281 Commercial Street #4, Provincetown, MA 02657 Phone: 917 670-7561
Opened by ex-banker Andrew Hood just this year to sell his vast array of delicious home-made, seasonal jams and jellies using old-fashioned techniques. I bought 6 different flavors including hefeweizen (wheat beer and orange) and red onion preserve. The chunky peach jam is particularly delicious, slathered on crusty toast from the Pain D'Avignon French Bakery found at Provincetown Farmer's market held every Saturday by the Town Hall.
7. Provincetown Film Festival
Town Center
Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657 Phone: 508 487-7000
This years Provincetown Film Festival, hailed a huge success, attracting viewers from all over the world. I met women from Europe and a couple from Australia who coincided their holiday with the film festival. A well-organized and international feeling festival The Provincetown Film Festival grows in reputation every year. This year I saw Andrew Sullivan rip a new ass hole in the makers of the ghastly Chad Griffin propaganda film: The Case Against 8, at a festival breakfast. I couldn't think of a better way to spend $25.
As I left the breakfast feeling exhilarated, I bumped into a huge and handsome man, I said, "Did you see that! Andrew Sullivan is my hero!"
He replied, "Me too, that's why I married him."
8. Fag Bash at The Governor Bradford
Town Center
312 Commercial St Provincetown, MA 02657
I've already written at length about this wonderful, subversive spectacle. A delightful Wednesday night basement party. Arrive at 11pm, leave at 1am. Wear your finest drag. I expect the ghost of Leigh Bowery to make an appearance at any moment. Remember, most everything closes at 1am in Ptown.
9. John Derian
East End
396 Commercial Street Provincetown, MA 02657 Phone: 508 487-1362
The queen of decoupage Derian runs a tiny showroom a world away from his NYC empire. It is packed with essential nick nacks at the back of his Greek revival Ptown home. Black, $500 paper hollyhocks are not immediately alluring or justified… but… with time… anything is possible. I love the meat dolls by Nathalie Lete and the papier-mache hippo head. At night, as you pass by, envy his candle lit parties for Martha Stuart… and other gorgeous celebrities.
This boy will serve you. His name is Kevin and he is DIVINE.
West End
145 Commercial Street, Provincetown MA Phone: 508 487-5151
Once a week I drop into see the charming, flirtatious Joey to have my hair and beard trimmed. It's essential whenever you are anywhere for longer than a week to locate a great barber and Joey is he. Very reasonably priced, very funny and he's… totally gorgeous. In fact, I'm off there, right now to get my neck shaved.


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Residential Neighborhood
Residential Neighborhoods are generally occupied only by residential uses, although small areas of neighborhood shops could be embedded within them or along an edge of the neighborhood. This place type could include almost any type of residential structures, from single-family detached housing to multi-story apartment buildings. However, as the density increases, the likelihood that other uses – commercial streets, office buildings, etc. – would be present increases. In such cases, some streets with only residential frontages would fit in this place type, but other streets might fit into one of the other place types below.
Design considerations can be divided into three major categories:
- Multimodal Corridor Planning deals with the design of the transportation network and its performance.
- Site Planning involves site- and building-specific issues such as density, urban scale, and floor area ratio.
- The Choices & Guidelines section encompasses numerous design matters including parking, setbacks, lighting, and drainage, among others.
For more information about design and the relationship between the public roadway and private property see the Design Tutorial.
Process considerations deal with the steps and procedures involved in the planning process. This manual addresses nine specific process areas.
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 7 May 2014


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SEMI-REGULAR MUSINGS FROM THE SEMI-REGULAR MIND OF WRITER J.M. DeMATTEIS
Thursday, July 10, 2014
53 comments:
- AnonymousJuly 13, 2014 at 2:02 PM
Rick here. JM, it's time for me to move on from PS, as a cancelled series (but not your newer stuff). Nonetheless, I thought I had figured out where you were going. So while I am not looking for spoilers,... here are my thoughts. I tried to follow "writer's rules" by sticking to character limitations and arcing concepts (e.g., a character's fate is pre-determined; the way it is to occur can be changed).
PS is not the betrayer of Judas. One of PS's roles is to act as a catalyst allowing the Presence to personify his divine aspects. PS did it with Jesus, Spectre and Chris. But in the case of Jesus, he was not permitted to complete his work because the Presence had previously decided that Jesus had to die. PS saw that his work was not going to be completed, had the equivalent of a nervous breakdown, and decided he was Jesus' killer. He then withdrew into his shell. Eventually, the Presence decided it was time to use PS again, see if time had healed him, to help "fix" him, and test him. He first had PS create the Spectre. That went a little badly, because the Spectre thinks he's the wrath of God instead of the hand of divine justice. So, the Presence waited a while longer. He then tested PS, who passed the tests by being willing to be dam'ned for eternity; be obliterated by bringing back Dr. Light, and deciding that Chris should be brought back ("a wise choice"). Chris Esperanza means "Chris[t] Hope", the new redeemer. By bringing back Chris, and having him "work" properly, the Presence has decided that PS is spiritually sound again. PS doesn't get this yet, and he must now overcome his personal demons--undeserved guilt. This leaves PS plenty of time to do other things he is meant to do, like acting as mankind's conscience, while his true origins remain unknown.
One completely unknown question is why someone my age is doing this. I guess the little kid in all of us never goes entirely away. RickRepliesI can't get into the details, Rick, but some of what you hit on here is very much in line with what I was hoping to do. Some of it is off the mark (but very interesting nonetheless).
As for why you're doing this? Well, you wouldn't be a comic book fan if you didn't have an open heart, an active imagination and a mind that likes to explore the universe in all its varied forms. Am I right?- AnonymousJuly 13, 2014 at 4:44 PM
I figured some unknowable part of it would be off the mark, but I was hoping I would get somewhere close. Nevertheless, PS really should move away from the strict Judas angle. It's too much of a turn-off for a lot of people. I will hazard a guess, however, that the Question is a better being than he appears to be.
I am never one to refuse a pat on my own back, so you are absolutely right about what you wrote. :)
With that said, I think one reason that people move away from comics is that they learn that life is a lot more complicated than it seems and they want to find solutions to what they find. But, putting in too much of real life into a comic can be uncomfortable for those who don't face life very well. It's a tough balance. Well, if you're talking about super hero comics, perhaps that's true—but we're dealing with an art form that can tackle life in all its complexities. Of course the audience for those stories isn't necessarily the super hero audience, but I think there are plenty of people out there who walk in both worlds.
That said, I totally get your point!- AnonymousJuly 14, 2014 at 2:38 PM
I'd say comics are better equipped to deal with life's complexities than people give them credit for.
Comics are perhaps the world's most compressed storytelling medium, and as such, force readers to 'fill in the gaps' between panels. We instinctively jump from one panel where an ax murderer stands behind Batman grinning to the next where Batman has ducked and the axe is in the wall. We do it so often we don't even think about comics train us to fill those spaces, which is why comics readers are (generally speaking) such great critical thinkers.
--David Good points, David. Limiting what comics can do is like limiting what movies or novels can do. It's just a FORM of storytelling...what we can do with that form is limitless. That said, I think there are limits to what the mainstream superhero comic can directly tackle. Doesn't mean we can't have these things as interesting subtexts, we can certainly bend the barriers—but the genre can bend just so far before it breaks.
This from the guy who's written mainstream stories about everything from sexual abuse to politics to the nature of God!- AnonymousJuly 14, 2014 at 3:25 PM
I get what you're saying, JMD. I'd argue, for instance, that while Denny O' Neil's Green Arrow/ Green Lantern run was great for conversation, it wasn't very good for its heroes. Some would say that's because a superhero book isn't big enough to sustain serious political discussion, but I'd reverse the argument and say the politics were too small to hold Green Lantern's philosophy.
--David That book was so much of its time. It clearly wasn't aiming for subtlety...but it had such energy, such enthusiasm, and we hadn't seen anything like it before.
Delete- AnonymousJuly 14, 2014 at 3:56 PM
For me personally, it's the mystical stuff like SWAMP THING, TOMB OF DRACULA, and HOUSE OF MYSTERY that really embody the best of that era. But I'm not as well read in the 70s as I could be!
--David SWAMP THING and ToD were classic...and real groundbreakers. But the 70's had so many incredible seres: MASTER OF KUNG FU, Kirby's NEW GODS books, Thomas-Smith CONAN, Jim Starlin's WARLOCK and CAPTAIN MARVEL, just about everything by Steve Gerber, Englehart's DOC STRANGE, BATMAN and JUSTICE LEAGUE...and others. As you can see, most of those aren't superhero books. They're more mystical and cosmic and pushing the barriers of mainstream storytelling.
Delete- AnonymousJuly 14, 2014 at 5:23 PM
I love Englehart's work, especially Batman! But I'm also a big fan of his Cap stuff, which seemed a better fit for politics than Green Lantern. But I have my own biases coming at these stories not in the 70s but much more recently.
--David Oh, yeah: I forgot about the CAP stuff. What a wonderful run! And the always-amazing Sal Buscema did a superb job on those stories.
God, the 70's were a great time for comics.- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 7:53 AM
"I'd say comics are better equipped to deal with life's complexities than people give them credit for."
I don't think I agree with this. Where I think comics excel is in their ability to take a single or small group of ideas and use the dramatic emphasis of art and timing to force the reader to focus on them. Let's say Superman decides to help a charity by demolishing an old building. There is no way that a comic looks at all the ramifications of this act of kindness: impacts on workers who lost the ability to make money doing the work, the risks of air-borne asbestos, the risk of flying debris hurting people, the violations of building and zoning regulations, the list goes on. Books and movies convey more information and are better at being subtle. But, any one of those after-effects can become the whole focus of a comic story line while the writer pushes everything else into the background. You're focusing solely on superhero comics, Rick, and, as noted, comic books are so much more.
At the same time, I think that pop culture can deal with any issue. Can we look at it from every angle? No. But does a movie? A novel? Even the news doesn't do it (in fact, in some cases, the news, so-called, does the worst job of all).
In the end, I think that fantasy and science fiction works best in metaphor—TWILIGHT ZONE being the perfect example of a show that dealt with every issue imaginable through the power of metaphor and symbol. But the comic book FORM is unlimited and can do as good a job as any art other art for; and, perhaps, in its intimacy and immediacy, it can do even better.
There are always cycles when sales tank, Rick. The 90's crash is another example and, quite frankly, sales now are nothing to shout about. In the 80's at Marvel, any book that dipped below a hundred thousand was on the chopping block: most books now are far below that. Only the higher cover price that's helping.
Sales aside, the 70's was one of the most magical and creative times for mainstream comics and fed the creative expansion of the 80's. For me as a reader, the 70's were Comic Book Heaven.- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 11:53 AM
I seem to recall Jim Shooter saying that the only thing that saved Marvel Comics was getting the Star Wars license.
I love the weird and wonderful stuff from the 70s, though I'm not that well read in them. But it's strange and sad that superhero comics had to be at their weakest for books like that to thrive. And it seems like they all fell apart when Shooter perfected the superhero comic in the 80s. Shooter took mainstream heroes to a new level without sacrificing what made them great in the first place, and Hollywood is just now catching up to what he always knew.
--DavidRepliesShooter was they person who opened the door for me at Marvel and I learned a lot from him. A very smart., hugely talented—and, yes, often controversial—guy.
Delete- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 12:17 PM
Shooter is, in my humble opinion, the greatest editor-in-chief Marvel ever had. He understood the storytelling and the business side of things, and I think having one foot in both worlds is what made him so effective and controversial.
To creators, he was often "The Man," the face of corporate politics, and to corporate accountants he was the crazy dreamer trying to sell Hollywood on superhero films when everyone knew Superman was a fad and no one wants a Spider-Man movie...
I've also heard that Marvel wasn't run like a business in the 70s, and one could walk into their offices and find writers smoking pot and drinking in the halls. I'm not sure how true that is, but I can see why such a dramatic shift in culture would lead to conflict. I mean, when some guy in a suit tells an uncompromising ar-teeest in a French beret that he's got to take his joint to the break room, things get ugly by the time Secret Santa rolls around!
(I hope it will be noted that I take everything I've heard with a grain of salt and am having a bit of fun with it...)
--David I have NEVER heard ANYTHNG about people smoking pot and drinking in the halls of Marvel. I can imagine something like that happening once and the mythologists out there blowing the story up to ridiculous proportions!
DeleteAnd keep in mind that Stan was still in New York in those days. I can't see him putting up with anything like that. Ever.
Delete- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 1:04 PM
The account comes from Sean Howe's book MARVEL COMICS, THE UNTOLD STORY. Here's the relevant excerpt which I found at http://grantland.com/features/an-excerpt-sean-howe-marvel-comics-untold-story/
"Roy Thomas's hands-off, see-what-sticks approach had ushered in Marvel's most unpredictable — and often downright subversive — era. Young creators, eager to refract the superhero world through a prism of boomer values, kept parading through. 'It wasn't a corporate environment,' said one former Cadence Industries lawyer who'd occasionally visit the offices. 'I remember stepping over people sitting in the hall, smoking pot, 'getting inspiration.' "
So there you have it, JMD, and really, why would a lawyer ever lie? :)
--David Right! And we all know that, just because it's in a book, it HAS to be true! : )
Delete- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 1:55 PM
In defense of my fellow lawyers, you ought to hear some of the crap which our clients privately tell us and insist it's the truth. Then, we have to come up with a legal argument based on it.
By the way, yes, there are some dishonest ones, but it's less than you might imagine. We were just having a little fun, Rick! You know how it goes: nobody likes lawyers until they need one!
- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 1:41 PM
Comics, of course, cover more. Look at Maus. My son has it on his required reading list in school. Or, consider American Splendor. In College, I had a course which used a comic book format for Latin to teach one of the writings of Plautus (the source for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). But, what's so bad about that kind of company? Different media have different advantages, that's all.
I would agree with you that comics do an excellent job at intimacy and immediacy. Let me add that they are better at permitting the reader to set his own pace. With a book, a reader can read various sections quickly or slowly, but there are no real indicators of what is coming up next. With a movie, a viewer has to pretty much accept the director's pace, but, the viewer has a good idea of what will happen immediately afterward (not the whole story, just the next few minutes). Comics let a reader speed up or slow down, while also cluing the reader in to the next few events. That lets different readers create their own "mini-stories" by focusing on specific elements. RickRepliesAnd let's not forget Will Eisner's amazing body of work, Rick. A CONTRACT WITH GOD opening my mind in so many ways when I first read it back in the 80's.
Good point about the pacing: It's a unique, and powerful, art form that, in many ways, has yet to be fully untapped.- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 2:49 PM
Glad we settled that so quickly, JMD. Creation Point: where controversy comes to die! :)
Great points on the strengths and weaknesses of the superhero genre, Rick. I'm not sure I have anything of worth to add...yet!
- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 1:50 PM
I once had a dealing with Shooter, and he earned my respect. I had come up with an idea for a superhero which I sent him. He was kind enough to send me back a personal letter. While he declined any interest, he told me I had created the ultimate Marvel superhero. I always appreciated that effort. Rick
ReplyDeleteRepliesIt's amazing, and heartening, how a small act like that, reaching out directly instead of sending a form letter, can have such a profound effect on someone.
Jim really took me under his wing in my early days at Marvel: even before I was "officially" aboard, he gave me several interesting jobs, including one that found me working in Stan Lee's office for a couple of weeks, while Stan was in California. Talk about Geek Heaven! I should really blog about that one of these days.
- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 5:57 PM
I read A Contract with God when it came out (I bought one of the limited edition signed copies--I hope it's still in good shape).
Obviously, it was ground-breaking. It was the first graphic novel, and a really personal exploration by the author of a subject not brought to modern readers. I thought the pacing was a little slower than it should have been--and he was the master of that subject, but, it has been a long time.
The one thing I did not like was the page size. Some of the scenes had great emotional impact which the small pages did not do justice (but hey, paper does cost money). Rick - AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 6:05 PM
On a more light-hearted subject, who came up with the design for Asa when she isn't occupying a human being?
I can't decide whether the model was a Giant Anteater wrapped in a stainless steel samurai warrior's armor or whether it was a tribute to Cerebrus the Aardvark. At first, I was leaning toward Cerebrus, but those hands would make great tools for digging out African termite nests. RickRepliesDemon-Nurse was designed by Mikel Janin. one of the most talented artists working in comics today.
Delete- AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 8:11 PM
I think the print run on the signed edition was about 250.
I once had an original art page from the Spirit that I bought at auction, but it was ruined in a flood. Those things almost never went up for sale (I think it was around $400 in 1983). It's been well over 10 years since it was ruined, but I think it was an inside splash page. If you still had it, you could probably pay off your mortgage.
- AnonymousJuly 21, 2014 at 5:30 AM
So Dematteis, you have championed kids comics, the question is how do you define it? \
Seriously, the old EC books were largely read by kids, but they got even gorier than even some of the modern comics that people say is too violent. For that matter, many of the old fairy tales are too ark for kids today. So, how do you define it? What do you need to do or not do?
JackRepliesFantastic question, Jack...SO good that I think I'm going to forgo answering here and write a new blog post on the subject.
Thanks for the inspiration!- AnonymousJuly 22, 2014 at 10:49 AM
I think we all know what makes a gory book suitable for children--bad puns! :)
--David - AnonymousJuly 22, 2014 at 11:07 AM
LOL! I love it. You should narrate a line of children's horror comics, JMD. It will get the kids all worked up, I kid you KNOT...
- AnonymousJuly 21, 2014 at 12:40 PM
So a lot of developments coming out of Marvel recently have got me thinking. It seems to me like there's been a major shift in the way Marvel approaches continuity, and whether it's better or worse is a matter of opinion. But I think most writers now approach these characters with an epic 'hero dies/disabled/replaced' story in mind--something that, God willing, could fill one or two ominbuses, and then reset back to the status quo for the next guy to do the same.
Up until recently, it felt like more of a pass the baton thing. The writers didn't plan that far ahead, which made it harder (but at the same time, maybe a bit more fun?) for the next guy to start running with whatever he'd been given. "Steve Rogers is now an artist living in an apartment with a new supporting cast...go!"
There are, of course, advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. It's probably--at least in part--shaped by the knowledge that everything is immortalized in a collection now, and comics are no longer 'disposable' entertainment.
But I also think many writers are now patterning themselves after Brubaker and Morrison, both of whom had very popular and critically acclaimed 'mega'arcs' that can be read as an epic with a beginning, middle and end.
The advantage is that when done right it makes for a very satisfying (and arguably complete) experience. But that sense of completion can also be a downside, because once you've read your own personal favorite three year 'Character X' replaced mega-story, everything that follows will seem either inferior or redundant.
--DavidRepliesI wonder if it's the writers thinking that way, David, or the marketplace dictating the kind of "event" story lines that follow this pattern. It seems these days unless the readers (well, certain readers) hear "THE STORY THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING" they don't buy books.
But even if it is the market dictating it, if it happens enough it becomes a template, then it becomes EXPECTED.
Me? I miss the days when you could just go in and tell good stories without worrying about "mega arcs" or "events." And I think, if the audience would buy books like that, you'd see a huge change in what DC and Marvel were putting out. From my POV, it's not the companies (or the writers) saying "We want to do this," it's the companies responding to the market, finding the best way to put out quality product that sells.
Of course these kinds of things can evolve naturally, too. My infamous "Captain America becomes a pacifist, gets assassinated and is replaced by either Black Crow of the Falcon" storyline—the one that was shot down and never saw print—came solely from character. And the fact that Marvel DID shoot it down shows how much things have changed.
Captain America assassinated? The Falcon as Cap? Never happen!- AnonymousJuly 22, 2014 at 10:52 AM
Very true, the format is guided by the market!
As for your crazy story idea, LOL! Yeah, never happen. Now one asks if Cap could go a year without being killed or disabled.
I'm kind of sad that not much was ever done with Jesse Crow. Gruenwald used him to good effect at the end of his Cap run, but other than that, I can't recall seeing him pop up anywhere.
--David Jesse is a character I'd love to bring back, given the opportunity.
Delete- AnonymousJuly 22, 2014 at 11:11 AM
Funny thing is, about the only way to get a newer character going--and this has been true since the wave of 90s replacements--is to have them stand-in for a hero and then reassume their own roles. If Jesse had been Captain America in the 80s, we would probably see a lot more of him than we do now! But really, the concept of a Native American hero tied to Captain America speaks for itself...
--David Seemed like a good idea at the time, David! The first Black Crow story—"An American Christmas"—remains one of my favorites out of all the Cap stories I wrote.
Delete- AnonymousJuly 22, 2014 at 11:37 AM
"An American Christmas" is arguably your Cap run in a nutshell.
--David Which makes it VERY difficult to read. "Honey, can you get me the nutcracker, please?" (Sorry: couldn't resist.)
Delete- AnonymousJuly 22, 2014 at 12:15 PM
Ha! No apologies necessary, that was pretty good as far as corny jokes go. And here I was pondering what kind of traumatic experience made this issue so difficult for you to read...
BTW, the FOREVER EVIL Blight story is up for pre-order on amazon, and it's a little less than $20 for twice the normal TPB page count. Pretty impressive selling point!


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Lithium-air batteries can store energy for cars, houses and industry
Current lithium ion battery technology will probably not be able to handle the coming decades' huge demand for energy. It is estimated that by 2050, electricity will make up 50 percent of the world's energy mix. Today, that rate is 18 percent. But installed capacity for renewable energy production is expected to increase fourfold. This will require batteries that are more efficient, cheaper and environmentally friendly.
One of the alternatives being studied today in many parts of the world is the lithium-air battery. Some of the Brazilian efforts in the search for such device were presented on Day Two of FAPESP Week London, held February 11-12, 2019.
"There is a lot of talk today about electric cars. Some European countries are also thinking about banning combustion engines. In addition, renewable sources like solar energy need batteries to store what is generated during the day through solar radiation," said Rubens Maciel Filho, a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP).
The lithium-air battery, currently functioning only on a laboratory scale, uses ambient oxygen as a reagent. The battery stores additional energy through an electrochemical reaction that results in the formation of lithium oxide.
"It is a sustainable way to store electrical energy. With advances, it can support numerous discharge/charge cycles. It has great potential for use in transportation, in light and heavy vehicles alike. It can also work in electric power distribution networks," said the researcher.
But turning experiments into commercially viable products involves understanding the fundamentals of the electrochemical reactions that occur in the process.
"It also requires the development of new materials that allow us to leverage desirable reactions and minimize or avoid undesirable ones," said Maciel, director of the New Energy Innovation Center (CINE). With units at UNICAMP, the Nuclear Energy Research Institute (IPEN) and the São Carlos Chemistry Institute at the University of São Paulo (USP), the center is supported by FAPESP and Shell under the scope of the Engineering Research Centers Program (ERC).
He went on to explain that some of the phenomena need to be observed in operando, or in other words, in real time. "The idea is to keep track of the reactions that occur in dynamic experiments and the different chemical species that are formed, even if temporarily.
Otherwise, some of the stages in the process get lost and the battery becomes inefficient in terms of charge time and duration of charge."
To conduct these measurements, the researchers are using the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) at the Brazilian Center for Light Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), located in Campinas.
Another project presented during the session involved sulfur-air batteries. Despite not being as efficient, they are inexpensive and store energy for many hours. "They can store energy for up to 24 hours at a very low cost. Its main ingredients are sulfur and caustic soda and they are extremely inexpensive. That is why we are investing in them," said Nigel Brandon, a professor at Imperial College.
Because of these characteristics, sulfur-air batteries can be used in homes or businesses. Brandon believes, however, that their greatest potential is in charging stations for electric cars, which will become much more commonplace due to the European goal of cutting carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.
"It is important to underscore the fact that the different battery projects are not competing with each other but rather are complementing each other," said Geoff Rodgers of Brunel University London, session facilitator.
Sun, hydrogen and biofuels
More efficient batteries are particularly important in a scenario in which the use of solar energy is expected to increase. Peak solar radiation during the day will require the need for efficient storage of energy so it can be drawn upon at night.
Maciel also talked about a project at CINE to develop more efficient photovoltaic cells that could be used in the future to convert solar energy to electricity as well to obtain chemical products, or even hydrogen from water hydrolysis.
Liquid hydrogen is a very efficient fuel, but its production entails high-energy costs. It is one of the options being considered in the United Kingdom since biofuels are not as viable as in Brazil.
"We are looking for new bacterial enzymes for oxidation of lignin, an aromatic polymer that makes up more than 25 percent of plant cell walls and is part of the residue of biofuel production. The goal is to develop new products such as biofuels, new plastics and chemical products for industry," said Timothy Bugg of the University of Warwick.


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Transgender inmate seeks rare transfer to female prison
Published : 06 Jan 2018, 12:11
A 26-year-old transgender woman serving a 10-year sentence in Illinois for burglary is seeking a rarely granted transfer to a female prison where she says she'll be less vulnerable to the kinds of sexual assault, taunting and beatings she's been subjected to in male prisons.
Deon "Strawberry" Hampton describes in a lawsuit filed last year asking for the transfer how guards and fellow inmates would regularly single her out for brutal treatment at the high-security prison in southern Illinois, Menard Correctional Center, and earlier at Pinckneyville Correctional Center.
A U.S. magistrate judge began a first-of-its-kind evidentiary hearing in Hampton's case Friday in Benton, southeast of St. Louis, to help the court decide whether to order the transfer. The hearing, which will last several days, is focused on Hampton's gender identity and on whether she could pose a risk to female inmates if moved.
While at the Pinckneyville prison, she alleges that guards made her and another transgender inmate perform sex acts on each other as the guards hurled slurs and laughed. When she was transferred to the higher security Menard, she says guards there warned they would retaliate for complaints she made about Pinckneyville guards.
Unable to comfortably represent herself as female in the male prison — where she can't wear her hair or nails long — has also been devastating psychologically, said one filing from her lawyers at the Chicago-based MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People's Law Center. "I feel inhuman," Hampton was quoted as saying.
While prison officials do have the option of assigning such male-to-female transgender inmates to women's prisons — it happens infrequently. Federal data from 2016 indicates there were no transgender prisoners in Illinois' two female prisons; there were 28 in the state's 24 male prisons.
Surveys support claims that transgender inmates are at greater risk of abuse.
The latest available Justice Department data estimates there were over 3,200 transgender inmates in state and federal prisons as of 2012. And nearly 40 percent reported being victims of sexual misconduct by other inmates and guards — compared to around 4 percent of the general prison reporting such abuse.
Some prisons and jails nationwide have faced similar legal challenges. Jennifer Picknelly, a transgender woman who in Massachusetts, sued a sheriff alleging she was mocked with anti-transgender slurs, extorted and raped while an inmate at a Hampden County jail for men in 2016. She recently agreed to drop the suit in exchange for a slightly earlier release.
Having a court decide where to send Hampton and other transgender inmates "would directly interfere with the operations of the (department) in a situation where Plaintiff is merely attempting to manipulate the system," Illinois Department of Corrections lawyers argued in a filing.
The same state filing casts doubt, not only on Hampton's accounts of abuse by guards, but on her gender identity — alleging that Hampton in initial sessions with prison health workers never claimed to be transgender and, in the words of the filing, "was ok with being male."
But a key witness for Hampton, clinical psychiatrist George Brown, said in a declaration to the court before Friday's hearing that Hampton shows all the features of someone convinced of their identity as a female, saying Hampton has identified as female since the age of 5.
He also challenged the department's contention that Hampton is a greater risk to women because she hasn't had sex reassignment surgery, saying such a view "conflicts with all reliable medical literature." He added Hampton's low testosterone levels due to previous hormone treatments meant she was "functionally chemically castrated."
A decision on the transfer request isn't expected for several weeks.
Source: AP


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-Air-Flo3D Breathable fabric - Air circulates through the fabric
-Air Channel Design - promotes cool air circulation
-Tailbone relief - Reduces spinal compression
-Comfortable - Fluidized gel Tekpad prevents numbness and discomfort
-Cushioning - Gel cradles your 'sitz' bones - ride longer in comfort
-Durable - Welded construction
-Convenient - Lightweight, compact and FOLDS for storage
-Non-Skid Bottom - Anchors cushion to seat
-Easy Installation - Cruising SNAP STRAP included with cushion
-MADE IN USA - Guaranteed workmanship and performance
AirFlo 3D Breathable Fabric
This fabric has a unique three dimensional, internal structure that allows it to breathe and control moisture. It's durable, lightweight, and washable.
Care & Maintenance
There is NO MAINTENANCE with any SKWOOSH™ Motorcycle gel cushions with Air-Flo3D Breathable Fabric. You never need cleaners or Scotchguard™ sprays. There is no cover to remove, no cover to wash and no cover to dry. The non-skid bottom material is welded (not stitched) to the waterproof top fabric so every Skwoosh™ is truly waterproof.
What is TekPad?
Jab it and your finger will bounce off, but gently press and it will slowly sink in, conforming to the size and shape of any object. Common cushioning materials don't have the same ability to deform and will alsways return to their original shape after use. TekPad® cushions are used in the medical, travel and performance sports industries for maximum comfort, supprt and impact absorption. Imagine a kayak seat, a car seat or an airplane seat with a TekPad® cushion that automatically conforms to each user ensuring maximum comfort for the legs and back and reducing numbness or tingling after prolonged sitting.
-Weight: 9 oz.
-Color: Black
-Measurements: 11"L x 13"W x 1"H
-Folded dimensions: 11"L x 6½"W x 2½"H
For the rider Skwoosh recommends the Touring pad for machines in the BMW Touring range and the Mid-Size for everything else, and the pillion pad for passengers on all BMW machines although the Mid-Size will probably be a better fit for large passenger seats. Dimensional weight listed.
Skwoosh Mid-Size Air-Flo3D Gel Pad
Produced by Skwoosh of USA


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Jen from Librarian Tells All shares how to turn some leaves into seasonal décor versatile enough to display fall through Christmas. Here's from Jen: "I love West Elm's Metallic Leaf ornaments! I imagine displaying them all through fall, dangling them above the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day and letting them shine alongside the chandelier crystals, then reusing them on the Christmas tree in December. But eight dollars apiece… West Elm, are you for real?! I knew I could come up with something similar for so much less. For just $4.89, I made eight, with supplies left over for many more. The best thing about this? You could so so many other things with these, too! Fill an apothecary jar, adorn a candle ring, make a wreath, decorate gift boxes with them, etc…"
Jen was inspired by the Metallic Leaf Ornaments from West Elm.
Find the tutorial at Librarian Tells All.


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[New Exam] Citrix Exam 1Y0-202 PDF Dump Free Download In Lead2pass
2017 August Citrix Official New Released 1Y0-202 Q&As in Lead2pass.com!
100% Free Download! 100% Pass Guaranteed!
Lead2pass 1Y0-202 braindumps including the exam questions and the answer, completed by our senior IT lecturers and the Citrix product experts, include the current newest 1Y0-202 exam questions.
Following questions and answers are all new published by Citrix Official Exam Center: https://www.lead2pass.com/1y0-202.html
A user's Desktop OS machine with Personal vDisk (PvD) is unresponsive. The user needs to access applications installed on the PvD urgently, due to an important deadline.
How could a Citrix Administrator resolve this issue?
A. Use Citrix Director to reset the PvD.
B. Use Citrix Studio to restore the user's initial settings.
C. Run the ctxpvd.exe command on the user's system.
D. Run a PowerShell cmdlet to restore the user's PvD to a new virtual machine.
Answer: D
Which policy must a Citrix Administrator modify on the NetScaler to allow mobile devices to connect to a XenDesktop environment where two-factor authentication is NOT used?
B. Session
C. Authentication
D. Traffic Domain
Answer: B
Which session configuration on a NetScaler Gateway must a Citrix Administrator set to provide a secure connection to the servers running XenDesktop?
A. ICA Proxy On
B. Clientless Access Off
C. Default Authorization action
D. Single Sign-On to web applications
Answer: A
A company, OrgA, has an existing XenDesktop site and recently acquired another company, OrgB. OrgB also has an existing XenDesktop site and multiple thin clients deployed using the online plug-in. OrgA wants all employees to use the current OrgA StoreFront store. Which two changes in StoreFront must a Citrix Administrator make to meet the requirements of the scenario? (Choose two.)
A. Enable Remote Access.
B. Export the Multi-store Provisioning file.
C. Add the FQDN or IP address of the Delivery Controller in OrgB to the existing store.
D. Create a new store using the FQDN or IP address of the Delivery Controllers in OrgA and OrgB.
E. Go to the specific store on the StoreFront servers and enable the 'Configure XenApp for Services Support' feature.
Answer: CE
A Citrix Administrator discovers that there has been a security breach that requires all users to change their password. However, users are NOT able to change their password through Store Front.
What should the administrator do to allow for password changes?
A. Allow users to change passwords at any time.
B. Allow users to change expired passwords only.
C. Enable the password expired warning notification period.
D. Enable the password change feature on the NetScaler Gateway.
Answer: A
What is true about users' access to Desktop OS machines when the XenDesktop SQL Server is offline?
A. New users may start sessions.
B. Only anonymous users may start new sessions.
C. Users may only start a new session to Desktop OS machines.
D. Users who have connected to their Desktop OS machine in the last 14 days are able to start sessions.
Answer: D
Due to changes in the network infrastructure, the IP addresses of the Delivery Controllers will be changing. There are 2000 Desktop OS machines in the environment.
What should a Citrix Administrator do to reduce the impact of the IP address changes on the environment?
A. Update the beacons in StoreFront to reflect the updated IP addresses.
B. Change the DNS entries for the Delivery Controllers to the new IP addresses.
C. Run the Provisioning Services Configuration Wizard and update the IP addresses of the Delivery Controllers.
D. Remove the Delivery Controller from the site, change the host file entries, and add the Delivery Controller back to the site.
Answer: B
A Citrix Administrator uses Citrix Director to determine that user logon times have increased by two minutes in the last three months. The administrator wants to resolve this issue before the delay further impacts users.
Which action could the administrator take to reduce the logon times?
A. Configure Folder Redirection.
B. Update Citrix Receiver on the endpoint.
C. Increase RAM on the Desktop OS machine.
D. Configure Citrix Profile Manager Active Writeback.
Answer: A
XenDesktop has been implemented with Citrix Profile Manager enabled. Users are complaining that logging on takes a long time. A Citrix Administrator examines the user profile store and finds a number of profiles that have grown to over 500 MB. Which profile management setting could the administrator configure to address the slow logon issues?
A. Active Writeback
B. Profile Streaming
C. Registry Exclusion
D. Cross Platform Settings
Answer: A
A user reports that a CAD application is NOT launching in the assigned HDX 3D Pro Desktop OS machine. The user sees an error that indicates that a GPU could NOT be found. The host providing the Desktop OS machine for this user has the supported physical GP Us available.
How could a Citrix Administrator ensure that a physical GPU is configured for the Desktop OS machine hosting the user's HDX 3D Pro Desktop?
A. Enable the HDX 3D Pro policies for XenDesktop.
B. Select the Lossless option in the Quality Control tool of the user's session.
C. Create a new catalog in Citrix Studio for the HDX 3D Pro Desktop OS machines.
D. Run the xevgpu-create vm-uuid=<uuid> command in the XenServer command-line interface.
Answer: D
Lead2pass 1Y0-202 braindumps including the exam questions and the answer, completed by our senior IT lecturers and the Citrix product experts, include the current newest 1Y0-202 exam questions.
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2017 Citrix 1Y0-202 exam dumps (All 145 Q&As) from Lead2pass:
https://www.lead2pass.com/1y0-202.html [100% Exam Pass Guaranteed]


text:
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our signature "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!
Mark Consuelos and John Stamos are bound for "The New Normal" as a grip on Bryan's show whom Rocky (Nene Leakes) develops a crush on and "a coworker of Ellen Barkin's Jane whose sexuality is questioned by the conservative grandma," respectively (EW.com); Bradley Whitford will reunite with his "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" co-star Matthew Perry on "Go On" (@MatthewPerry); Terry Kinney will guest on the post-Super Bowl episode of "Elementary" as "an unpredictable criminal who causes chaos in New York" (TVLine.com);
Toni Trucks will return to NBC's "Do No Harm" for three episodes as Dr. Patricia Rivers (TVLine.com); Brendan Hines will recur on "Beauty and the Beast" as a police department psychologist who will get inside the head of Kristin Kreuk's Catherine while Sendhil Ramamurthy is set as a "power-hungry ADA determined to crack down on crime" (TVLine.com); Shane McRae likewise has booked an arc on "Chicago Fire" as "a high-octane firefighter who has a history one of the other rescuers" (TVLine.com); Brian Klugman is set as the latest squintern on "Bones" (TVLine.com); and Michael Morrison will replace the CNN-bound Jeff Zucker as showrunner of "Katie" (Deadline.com).


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Everybody who has continually heard of song earlier has dreamt of someday performing an instrument on their own. The guitar is perhaps the largely all the rage instrument which folks wish to be taught. The guitar is used to participate in a broad variety of song for the reason that of its wonderful sound and its amazing tunes versatility. It can moreover remain single of the majority sought after musical instruments. All it will take to ascertain are a small number of resources of easy guitar lessons and the passion to practice thoroughly.
Not everybody has the occasion or else money to exhaust on the traditional way to discover this instrument by departing to a music tutor and undergoing normal lessons. You can uncover a batch of resources for easy guitar lesson obtainable on the internet. They might be alive read within the convenience of your residence and theyre a lot cheaper than standard instruction. Getting the appropriate one can remain a little tricky since youll uncover hundreds and perhaps thousands of this instruction accessible.
- There are exactly hundreds of informations on the internet which will help to teach you.
- On a quantity of the greatest ways of practicing, and places to get a hold easy guitar lesson.
- The internet society is a tremendous source intended for dig up a great amount of complimentary lesson.
- So why not take benefit and get a hold on your own various lessons on learning how to use the guitar.
What is so overwhelming on the subject of learning to use the guitar is that you merely truly to need to fully understand three or four chords at the start to set out to perform a quantity of your favorite songs. A percentage of the songs which I have printed were formed using no more than three to four chords.
The hardest part of studying how to perform the guitar is most likely at the start. You might learn the chords to be alive little difficult to control and your fingers will be in pain from holding down the strings. You be supposed to be able to learn your harmonize and render the chords much more controllable if you provide it a tiny bit of moment and exercise. Your fingers will as well acquire the basic robustness and dexterity necessary concerning guitar performing.
I do strongly suggest with the purpose of you obtain a first-rate quality instruction to start your easy guitar lesson. If you possess associates that cooperate you can exercise with them and hone your abilities. Once you cooperate with your friends, it is a much more enjoyable moment.


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We create Activity Reports for our Scouts, which include what they have achieved and leadership positions held
These Activity Reports can be sent to colleges and universities in addition to an academic transcript
Our Scouts are going places. They are going to college; they are going on to careers and jobs. Our Scouts have a lot of FUN in our Scout Programs, but it is FUN with a purpose. Our Scouts acquire many necessary life skills from Outdoor Living Skills to resourcefulness to critical and creative thinking. Our Scouts build skills they need for a lifetime which they simply cannot get anywhere else.
Many of our Scouts also serve in leadership positions including Team Leader. Our Scouts take on responsibility and develop positive leadership skills, including delegating and budgeting. All of this experience our Scouts accumulate is impressive to employers and to college admissions professionals. We make it easy for our Scouts to let those who make decisions regarding their future know about their accomplishments.
That is why we created the Activity Transcript. This is a report which contains the history of each individual Scout's accomplishments including:
This transcript is a database in which the Team Counselors list the Scout's achievements, and is unalterable. We also include non-Scout activities. The Scout informs us of their accomplishment, we confirm it, and include it on the transcript. For example, if a Scout tells us they have volunteered five hours a week at a homeless shelter, we contact the shelter, confirm, and then include that information on the transcript so the Scout can present college admissions professionals and potential employers with one complete transcript of activities.
Clearly, potential employers and college admissions professionals will be interested in the information. This also allows our Scouts some bragging rights – not many youth have their own activity transcript! We also ensure that the information is correct. We have implemented methodology to ensure the validity of the information.
Our Scouts get the opportunity to let everyone know what they have been doing, and those who have say in their futures get the opportunity to see what our Scouts really have accomplished.


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When the Mathematica application loses focus, palette windows disappear (normal notebooks and dialogs (CreateDialog
) stay). This is usually convenient because the small palette windows would clutter the screen.
I would like to use a palette as a drag-and-drop target. For this I need to keep it visible even when another application is focused. Which notebook property needs to be changed to prevent one particular palette from disappearing when Mathematica loses focus?
(Why I want to keep this drop target as a palette: it's easy to open from the Palettes menu and it has a small frame.)
Note: Per the comments below, this does not seem to happen on all systems.
Update: It seems that this is an OS-wide behaviour for this window type, at least on OS X. The answers suggest changing the window type (WindowFrame
Here are two screenshots to demonstrate. The only difference is switching the focus to the browser.


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As the weather warms up its always nice to add a little bohemian touch to your wardrobe.
So its time to clean out your closet and channel your inner hippie by turning your jeans into a maxi skirt. This DIY tutorial will show you how to easily create a denim maxi skirt from 2 pairs of jeans. The best part of this project is the fact that it took very little time to make, which is great if youre like me and all about instant gratification.
To see step by step instructions and photos click here.
What youll need to make your Denim Maxi Skirt:
- 2 pairs of jeans – 1 that will be your skirt and 1 thats for patch fabric
- Scissors
- Sewing machine
Step 1
Cut the inside seam open on your jeans (pair #1) these will be the main part of your skirt.Be sure to also cut part way up the back seam (the part that curves) about 2 inches, you will be sewing this flat, it will help to make sure your skirt hangs smooth in the back.
Step 2
Using your 2nd pair of jeans (pair #2, the ones youre cutting up for patches), cut one leg open on both seams. This is the one you will use for the front of your skirt. Cut either the front or the back which ever works best for the size and looks best.Place this patch piece under your main jeans and pin in place.
Step 3
Cut the other leg of your 2nd pair of jeans but be sure to keep the inside seam in tact. The piece you cut for the back needs to be twice as wide as the piece you use for the front.Place this piece under you main jeans in the back and pin in place.
Mine came up a little short and I patched it with another piece. You can add more pieces to give it more of a patchwork feeling if you like.
Step 4
Using your sewing machine sew your pieces together.
Step 5
Cut the hems off your jeans and fray them, once you wash them they will look even better.This Recycled Denim Maxi Skirt DIY is a truly bohemian project and one that doesnt have to be perfect, as in straight lines and perfect color matches.Go crazy and mix it up! Let your inner hippie free, add patches, paint it, embroider it! Make it your own and let me know what you come up with.
Id love to hear or see what you make!


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They do it for the love of comic art, to help change lives of the children in their community, and to rejuvenate comic art in the Bronx. Ed Mouzon and his partners are some of the key players in the independent comic art movement, started in the '90s, that is responsible for reviving the deep-rooted comic art heritage in the Bronx.
The Bronx is his inspiration, Mouzon said. "I only need a pencil to doodle what I visualize in the streets of the Bronx."
Mouzon's draftsmanship is rich in details and colors, and his characterizations are filled with nuance. The 47-year-old said he has drawn 9,000 comic characters just by observing the streets. "The Bronx is a fertile soil for me," he said."These characters are us."
In the early '90s when the indie comic came into its own, a team of local comic artists, including Mouzon and his longtime friend Gary Camp, founded Creative One Comics, an independent comic publishing group based in the Bronx. "We just sat at a round table, and said there will be no hierarchy among us, thus we shall call it 'One'," Mouzon said.
Their mission was to focus on intelligent storytelling and promote positive messages — and to stay "independent".
They maintained a roving office with no permanent space for a studio. "Our studio is where ever we are," Mouzon said. "We meet at our own areas. We connect with young artists at open door spaces. We do it at a dining table, or while watching a horror movie, I even do the planning during the train trips."
Creative One Comics publishes many books about Bronx politics and society: The Blakelyverse, An Industrial Strength taste-test, La Mala Noche, Little Miss Strange, and Pozitron. But the remarkable breakthrough was Bronx Heroes — a three-part mini series and a political statement in the guise of a comic book.
Bronx Heroes was first issued in 2007. "It moved us the most, it brought us an audience," said Mouzon. "It got us in conventions, but it was only a bridge to what's next for us."
The sweeping story-telling enthusiasm has brought Mouzon and his partners a ringside view of the United States and Bronx history. "History was the glue for all our Bronx heroes," said Mouzon.
Camp, 42, said, "We take history events like the Great Depression, and the 70s when the Bronx was burning, and spin it in a way, on superheroes."
Mouzon, a Bronxite by birth and upbringing, studied zoology in college in Massachusetts but is a self-taught artist. He attended St. Raymond High School for Boys at a time when budget cuts meant no art classes.
"I started drawing when I was 4," he said. "I was a good visualizer."
Comic art became for him an act of redemption and a sacred calling especially after he had tumor in his right eye when he was 14 that almost cost him his sight.
Mouzon eventually returned to St. Raymond to teach art. "I teach visual art, filmmaking, and storytelling, but above all I give the kids the spirit on how to become successful," he said.
"Mouzon is very attached to his students," Camp said. "I appreciate him for keeping it to the kids."
Mouzon said he wants his students to surpass him. One example is a former student he urged to study art at the University of Southern California. "This kid is an intern now at Disney," Mouzon said.
Mouzon also works with community centers in the Bronx to promote art within the borough.
At the moment, he is working with The Bronx River Art Center and students from the Junior High School at Morrison Avenue on an environmental awareness comic book. "It's called Bronx Go Green," said Mouzon, who meets once a week with 15 kids to work on the environmentally themed heroes drawings. "It's the kids' initiative and effort," Mouzon said. "I am only putting it together, playing the role of a publisher."
Mouzon and his partners think of themselves as community activists.
"We are not making money," said Camp. "We don't work for DC Comics or Marvel. I appreciate Spiderman, but if we work there, we won't be able to be as active in the Bronx community."
"Here we can help the kids, do conventions, write for the kids, and be able to immerse ourselves in the community to personify street characters from the Bronx," said Mouzon.
He added: "We keep our day jobs to pay the bills, then we do it for the love."
The group's future plans includes re-launching the Creative One Comics website, and creating a studio to branch out into visual art, urban street art, video games art, to get a wider appeal and to expand the niche, as they continue publishing.
They also plan to publish a new series called Old City — a series of multicultural heroes who build collective power to fight crime, injustice, racism and social prejudice during the the Great Depression. Taking some of the characters from their old series, Bronx Heroes, the new series aims to focus on the Bronx's multicultural mix.
Many of the greatest comic artists of the past century — Stan Lee, Will Eisner, John Collins, Bob Kane — lived in the Bronx.
"It's a legacy that we have give to the next generation, or it will die," said Mouzon.
He added: "We just want to make books in a collective effort. That's our model."
For now, Mouzon and his partners enjoy their vision of success. They make no secret of their credo. It's on the cover page of the last issue of Bronx Heroes: they "will not yield to evil."


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A brief description of who you are and what you do.
This section will only display on your public profile if you've added content.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select 'Edit profile'. Under the heading and then 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select - 'About'.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You'll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.


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By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben
If you're a label reader, you've probably run across the terms inulin and oligofructose (also known as fructooligosaccharides or FOS) on various processed food ingredient decks including those on soups, yogurt, cereals and breads, snack and energy bars, cookie, cakes. Although naturally found in various plants and veggies like onions, and grains and bananas, asparagus and Jerusalem artichoke, and chicory root, inulin and oligofructose are also industrially prized by the for their ability to provide a non-caloric sweetening benefit and are most often found in the standard American diet in the form of processed food additives. And, in addition to their inclusion in processed foods, these ingredients can be found as stand-alone products marketed as diabetic friendly sweeteners with names like Fruta-Fit, Frutalose or simply Inulin/FOS.
Technically inulins and FOS are "fructans" which are long molecular chains of the fruit sugar known as fructose. By linking many fructose molecules together, the characteristic sweetness of the fruit sugar is dampened and its spiking effects on blood sugar are mitigated. From a chemical structure standpoint the only difference between inulin and FOS involves their sizes (lengths) with FOS molecules, basically being little inulin chunks or short chains of fructose that are formed by the breakdown of the parent inulin element.
Besides providing a mild amount of sweetness or enhancing the sweetening properties of other sugar substitutes, the most notable and interesting properties of these products is their ability to beneficially affect digestive health. Technically called pre-biotics, inulin and FOS are mostly (90% or so) indigestible by humans. This indigestibility allows Inulin/FOS to pass through the intestine intact where it can then act as a substrate for pro-biotics, i.e. "good bacteria" in the gut, supporting their growth and proliferation. In essence, prebiotics, like inulin/FOS function as food for flora. This makes these polysaccharide substances effective ingredients for improving various digestive conditions including diarrhea, constipation, and gas and bloating. Also, because the beneficial bacteria that feed on Inulin/FOS produce substances like short chain fatty acids which can beneficially affect the entire body in addition to supporting digestive wellness, overall human health can be improved as well. This makes these ingredients multi-functional and supports various label claims that can make manufactured foods seem more appealing and ultimately create greater sales and profits for processors.


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My Workout Routine Update: Natural Pilates
I might as well start posting updates on my workout routine, since these covid-19 times have dramatically limited all of our fitness options nation-wide. YES, I'm still working out every day and NO, it wasn't easy to restructure my workout routine. Over the past 5 months, I've been able to find outdoor classes, workout videos, trainers, a running team and so on, that compliment my schedule. But I'm going to be honest, the stuff that isn't online is few and far between because people are trying to social distance and exercise safely.


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Software Licenses
You'll be introduced to several different types of software licenses.
PM: Sources of Conflict
You'll be introduced to the sources of conflict you'll need to manage as a project manager.
Review - Employment Law
Exam 1 Review - Employment Law
Cognitive Psychology Crossword
Learn Cognitive Psychology Concepts with this Crossword!
Accounts Payable
Practice Debits and Credits
Local Opportunities and Resources
Terminology review: local opportunities for employers, employees, non-profits and residents
TEKS ECONOMICS - Entrepreneurs and Inventors Third Grade
This game addresses topics found in the specified social studies TEKS 113.14 6,7,8 .
Internal Sources of Finance
Sources of Finance within the business
Bees-iness Finance
the role of finance for businesses
Telling Ain't Training
Training Sessions Chapter 6


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DENVER — A Colorado man is in custody in the 1982 deaths of two young women near Breckenridge.
Alan Lee Phillips, 70, of Dumont, was arrested for investigation on murder charges in the killings of Annette Schnee, 21, and Barbara "Bobbi Jo" Oberholtzer, 29, who went missing Jan. 6, 1982.
Court records said Phillips also faces charges of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon in each case.
The offense date on Phillips' case matches the date Schnee and Oberholtzer went missing, and the Park County Combined Court confirmed that Schnee and Oberholtzer are listed as the victims.
A source close to the investigation also confirmed that an arrest had been made in the case.
Arrest-only charges were filed in the case on Feb. 24, and Phillips remains in custody at the Park County Jail, according to jail records. He is expected to be formally charged on March 8.
More information about how investigators were led to Phillips was not yet available Tuesday. Colorado Bureau of Investigation records showed that Phillips was previously arrested on burglary and assault charges in 1973, though the cases were purged in 2002. More information about Phillips was not yet available Tuesday.
A Colorado cold case and the chase for closure
Phillips' arrest marks one step toward closure for the families of Oberholtzer and Schnee, 39 years after they died.
The two women had no apparent connection to each other, but both worked in Breckenridge and were believed to be hitchhiking home when they disappeared.
Oberholtzer and family found her body the next afternoon, in a snow drift on Hoosier Pass, south of Breckenridge. Annette remained missing for the next six months, until a young boy found her body, fully clothed, in a creek further south, near Fairplay.
Both women were shot to death.
In the investigation, leads faded and after about 18 months, the case went cold.
Private investigator Charlie McCormick began working the case in 1989.
McCormick last year held out hope that a killer might eventually come forward, or that there might be a breakthrough from the DNA collected from the crime scene.
"I have no problem working it to the bitter end," McCormick said last year. "You can't walk away from it, or I can't. Haven't wanted to. Tomorrow's another day, and you got stuff to do, and you see what might happen."
Eileen Franklin, Schnee's mother, also was holding onto hope.
"I've been waiting," Franklin, 87, said last summer, "but my time is running out."
This article was written by Ryan Osborne forKMGH.


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NC_004431:4319152 Escherichia coli CFT073, complete genome
Host Lineage: Escherichia coli; Escherichia; Enterobacteriaceae; Enterobacteriales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This strain (CFT073; O6:K2:H1) is uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) one of the most common causes of non-hospital-acquired urinary tract infections. This organism was named for its discoverer, Theodore Escherich, and is one of the premier model organisms used in the study of bacterial genetics, physiology, and biochemistry. This enteric organism is typically present in the lower intestine of humans, where it is the dominant facultative anaerobe present, but it is only one minor constituent of the complete intestinal microflora. E. coli, is capable of causing various diseases in its host, especially when they acquire virulence traits. E. coli can cause urinary tract infections, neonatal meningitis, and many different intestinal diseases, usually by attaching to the host cell and introducing toxins that disrupt normal cellular processes.


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Lysa TerKeurst, "Made to Crave"
Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food is the missing link between a woman's desire to be healthy and the spiritual empowerment necessary to make that happen. The reality is we were made to crave. Craving isn't a bad thing. But we must realize God created us to crave more of him. Many of us have misplaced that craving by overindulging in physical pleasures instead of lasting spiritual satisfaction.
If you are struggling with unhealthy eating habits, you can break the "I'll start again Monday" cycle, and start feeling good about yourself today. Learn to stop beating yourself up over the numbers on the scale. Discover that your weight loss struggle isn't a curse but rather a blessing in the making, and replace justifications that lead to diet failure with empowering go-to scripts that lead to victory. You can reach your healthy weight goal – and grow closer to God in the process. This is not a how-to book. This is not the latest and greatest dieting plan. This book is the necessary companion for you to use alongside whatever healthy lifestyle plan you choose. This is a book and Bible study to help you find the "want to" in making healthy lifestyle choices.
Purchase through Amazon.
Tags: Non-Ficton, Self-Help
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Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity & Risk Monitoring: Elections Infrastructure
Cybersecurity experts have been and remain concerned about a potential attack on the U.S. election infrastructure. With Russian interference in the 2016 elections, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) undertook the mission to ensure free and fair elections.
Since then, LookingGlass has monitored and assessed security risks across the election infrastructure sector with our comprehensive attack surface management, global internet insight, and deep, dark web capabilities. These capabilities were expanded and updated ahead of the 2018 and 2020 elections and provided security analyses during both election cycles.
Download the complete brief to learn more about LookingGlass's findings and advisements including:
- Combatting election-related fraud and cyber attacks
- Reducing cyber exposures
- Election Infrastructure Sector and Ecosystem Cyber Threat Intelligence Knowledgebase


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New ancestors? Scientists ponder DNA
Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 25, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) — In the latest use of DNA to investigate the story of humankind, scientists have decoded genetic material from an unidentified human ancestor that lived in Siberia and concluded it might be a new member of the human family tree.
The DNA doesn't match modern humans or Neanderthals, two species that lived in that area around the same time — 30,000 to 50,000 years ago.
Instead, it suggests the Siberian species lineage split off from the branch leading to moderns and Neanderthals a million years ago, the researchers calculated. And they said that doesn't seem to match the history of human ancestors previously known from fossils.
So the Siberian species may be brand new, although the scientists cautioned that they're not ready to make that claim yet.
Other experts agreed that while the Siberian species may be new, the case is far from proven.
''We really don't know,'' said Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who wasn't involved in the new research.
But ''the human family tree has got a lot of branchings. It's entirely plausible there are a lot of branches out there we don't know about.''
The discovery ''is like many new finds,'' said Eric Delson of Lehman College of the City University of New York, who didn't participate in the new work. ''You say, 'I think this is different, but I'm not sure.' And then you look for more material and you try to make better comparisons.''
The researchers, who say the Siberian species is not a direct ancestor of modern-day people, hope further genetic analysis will show if it's a new species. Some experts are skeptical about whether such analysis will resolve that.
In any case, the finding emphasizes that quite unlike the present day, anatomically modern humans have often lived alongside their evolutionary relatives, one expert said.
''We weren't alone,'' said Todd Disotell of New York University, who was familiar with the new work. ''When we became modern, we didn't instantly replace everybody. There were other guys running around who survived quite well until very, very recently.''
Just last month, other researchers used DNA analysis to show the genetic diversity still present in residents of Africa, the cradle of the human race. And another project produced the first genome of an ancient human — a man who lived in Greenland some 4,000 years ago.
The new work, published online Wednesday by the journal Nature, is reported by Johannes Krause and Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and others.
They describe mapping DNA from what appeared to be a youngster's pinkie finger bone, which had been recovered in 2008 from Denisova Cave in Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. They showed how it differed from DNA of 54 modern-day people and six Neanderthals.
Their analysis indicated the Siberian species last shared a common ancestor with modern humans and Neanderthals about 1 million years ago. That in turn suggested there was a previously unrecognized migration out of Africa around that time, they said.
The work decoded the complete set of DNA from mitochondria, the power plants of cells. That's different from the better-known DNA that comes from cell nuclei and determines things like eye color. Paabo said the researchers are working to decode nuclear DNA from the Siberian species. That will reveal whether it was closely related to Neanderthals or today's humans, and answer questions like whether it interbred with Neanderthals or ancestors of modern-day people, he said.
Without a completed analysis of the nuclear DNA, ''we are not saying this is a new species,'' Paabo said, although he said that's a likely possibility.
Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program, said the Siberian find might represent Homo heidelbergensis or Homo erectus. And even analysis of the Siberian species' nuclear DNA won't show if it's distinct from those ancestors, he said.
As for the study's suggestion of a migration out of Africa about a million years ago, Potts said there's already evidence of one or two migrations around that time.
The finger bone recovered from the Siberian species is not enough for a fossil-to-fossil comparison with other ancient species to show whether it's a new species, Delson said.
He suspects it might be a descendant of Homo erectus that's already documented in some fossil remains in northern Africa and Europe. Scientists are still trying to figure out how many species of the Homo grouping those bones represent and what name or names to attach to them, he said.
Disotell said the new creature could be an early version of Homo antecessor, a forerunner of Neanderthals and modern humans known from fossils in Spain. Or, he said, it could be a new species. In fact, the eventual decision could hinge mostly on the philosophical question of just how different a creature has to be to be declared a new species, he said.
Potts said that in the new work, ''what we're seeing is a really, really interesting distant echo of the DNA history of human evolution…. This is an amazingly powerful technique that these guys have. This is going to be a growth industry in the study of human evolution.''


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Hatch's Freudian Slip
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005I thought this was kind of fun. From the Salt Lake Tribune: Hatch refers to Iraq as Vietnam.
"The Democratic Party seems to be taken over by the Michael Moore contingent in their attitude toward Vietnam, and they continually call for a withdrawal of troops at a time when we haven't finished the job," Hatch said on the network's morning show. Hatch's spokesman acknowledged the error, which was first reported on the American Prospect Web log.
The comedy works on at least a couple of different levels, doesn't it?


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When Correlations Lie
Welcome to the mathematically ignorant, conceptually foolish, money-losing world of single-variable analysis.
Bloomberg, June 27, 2014
If you work in finance, you will invariably come across an example of single-variable analysis. Almost daily, we see terrible examples of this sort of analytic error, rife with logical weakness, yet offered with the highest degree of certainty.
The way this works is as follows: Some ominous data point will be shown, along with a chart that foretells some sort of outcome, often horrific. It usually is accompanied by a chart or table, along with text that warns "IF X OCCURS, THEN Y MUST FOLLOW." Welcome to the mathematically ignorant, conceptually foolish, money-losing world of single-variable analysis.
A closer look reveals this to be the worst sort of intellectual foppery.
The behavior of markets or economies simply can't be explained by looking at just one thing. If single-variable analysis were remotely possible, the world's forecasters would have a much, much better track record. They could simply pick the data point with the highest correlation to the target variable, and make much better predictions than we currently see. (Earnings versus Standard & Poor's 500 Index performance, gross domestic product versus economic activity, interest rates versus bond returns.) Even a moderately accurate set of directional predictions should be easy.
But that doesn't happen. Economies and markets are extremely complex. They have a variety of different inputs, including earnings, interest rates, psychology, economic activity, fund flows, taxes, sentiment, momentum, geopolitics, etc. The relevant significance of all of these inputs varies over time. There are periods when fund flow doesn't seem to matter, like most of the past five years. Sometimes interest rate increases are really important to equity prices, other times they aren't. Indeed, markets seem to embrace the idea of rotating memes. These different forces have different weights at different times.
In a lot of ways, markets exhibit behaviors quite similar to those predicted by chaos theory — dynamic, nonlinear, sensitive to initial conditions, etc. (For those who may be interested, James Gleick's "Chaos: Making a New Science," is a marvelous primer on the subject.). Some years ago, I noted that "quantum physics aside, I think we can all agree that the market is a terrifically complex mechanism for digesting an unholy spectrum of all too many data points. Merely controlling for one single variable over time is a surefire long-term money loser."
What are a few examples of the single factors that have been making the rounds these days?
GDP: "We have never had a negative 2.96 percent GDP report and not gone into recession…"
Rising Rates: "The U.S. stock market doesn't do well when interest rates are rising."
Earnings Surprises: "Earnings are good this quarter, better than expected, and therefore, the market's going higher."
New Financial Products: "These new products are being adopted, therefore it means the bull market is coming to its peak."
Death Cross/Golden Cross: "When the 50 and 200 day moving average cross to the upside (downside), it bodes well (poorly) for any trading vehicle."
You probably have read one or more of these things recently. They all share the same analytical flaw: Predicting the future actions of a complex system by tracking a single variable. Even when they end up identifying a correlation, we don't know if it is anything more than a random coincidence.
Let's just take one example of how foolish it is to reach a definitive conclusion based on a single data input. Look at the chart below: It shows a powerful relationship between per-capita consumption of sour cream with U.S. motorcycle riders killed in noncollision transport accidents. Correlation: 0.916391.
Source: Tyler Vigen
Given that Wall Street's computing horsepower rivals that of NASA, if that single variable existed, we have to believe it would have already been found, and whatever informational advantages it offered would have been whittled away already. For some fun with ridiculous correlations, have a look at Tyler Vigen's website.
This is before we even get to George Soros's theory of reflexivity. Stated simply, the interaction in any complex system of unfolding events and participants' reactions to those events creates a dynamic disequilibrium that leads to unpredictable, unexpected future results. In other words, our collective reaction to ever-changing data points ruins any predictability that might have otherwise come about from that data.
Theory aside, real world observations lead me to conclude that investors, analysts and economists aren't going to successfully forecast a stock market or economy by simply looking at a single variable.
I originally published this at Bloomberg, June 27, 2014. All of my Bloomberg columns can be found here and here.