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18 August 2012
Days after shockingly racist and Islamophobic ads started appearing on city buses in San Francisco — paid for by a notorious anti-Muslim group led by notorious racist Pamela Geller — anonymous artists wheatpasted over the ads with an image of a hand and a stamp with the words "HATE SPEECH."
Additionally, the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority (SFMTA) posted full-sized disclaimer placards on MUNI buses that carry the Islamophobic ads. The disclaimer says that "SFMTA policy prohibits discrimination based on national origin, religion, and other characteristics, and condemns any statements that describe any group as "savages."
As Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on The Electronic Intifada podcast this week, MUNI made it clear "that they would not be removing the ads," because as vile as the message was, "it was likely protected by the First Amendment." However, the community has mobilized and was in talks with MUNI and the SF Human Rights Commission to determine the impact of the ads and how to move forward. Earlier in the week, the SFMTA announced that the revenue from the ads would be directed to the Human Rights Commission.
Pamela Geller and her group "thrives on lawsuits," Billoo added. "She goes from city to city, waiting for someone to turn her down, so that she can sue them. She's using lawsuits to essentially blackmail other cities into submission." After New York City's transit agency rejected the same ads, Geller filed a lawsuit and won a temporary injunction last month when a federal judge ruled that Geller's ads were protected by the First Amendment.
"San Francisco said, ok, we're not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole," Billoo said. "We'll give her the ad space. And so they caved because of the fear [of a lawsuit]."
To hear more of our important interview with Zahra Billoo, listen to our podcast.
In other news, The Gothamist reported on a new ad from Pamela Geller and her Islamophobic hate group that turned up at the Hartsdale Metro-North station in Hartsdale, New York. The poster reads, "19,250 Deadly Islamic Attacks Since 9/11/01* (*And Counting)" and "It's Not Islamophobia, It's Islamorealism."
The Gothamist reported:
Naturally, this upsets a local Westchester politician.
Paul Feiner, the Greenburgh Town Supervisor, tells the Daily Politics that he wants the MTA "to warn passengers that the ads could be upsetting and don't represent Metro-North's views or that of the community," noting, "There are many Muslims residing in Greenburgh and in our villages. They should not be discriminated against. the posters encourage hatred, discrimination and do not help the efforts to fight hate crimes."
Feiner added that he wants the MTA to donate the ad profits to an anti-discrimination campaign, "I feel it's not a violation of free speech for Metro North to put up a competing sign and it's also not a violation of free speech if they donate the profits to an anti-defamation league or an organization that objects to hate crimes. I feel that it should be clear that the people of Metro North and the town do not support this message."
The poster is from the American Freedom Defense Initiative (from Pamela Geller), which complained about some Jewish organizations criticizing the ads, "Look how tough these Jews are when it comes to going after their own who are brave enough not to hide behind the genocidal rhetoric of the annihilators. Are we to understand that these liberal Jews sanction the jihad war on innocent civilians in Israel?
If any further proof were needed that Israel backs hate groups
Permalink Tiercel replied on
Yet another example of wealthy Zionists & pro-Israel groups sponsoring Anti-Islamic hate campaigns.
Is there any more surreal irony than that of the state of Israel funding the swastika tattooed, shaven headed, zieg-heiling thugs of the EDL, whilst simultaneously attempting to portray any & all criticism of its own actions as "Anti-Semitism?
Islamaphobic ads on SF busses
Permalink D. Emily Hicks replied on
I am an artist. I will reveal information about myself before giving my view on the ads. I teach in a state university in which those who support Palestinian rights (including me) are punished on a regular basis. My views are not those of my university's (which would become tragically clear to anyone who came to my campus). I speak for myself only. I was born in San Francisco. I spent much of my childhood there. Back to the ads. Props to the unknown photographer who documented the alteration of this expression of public/community art. The ad was altered, by artists, in an elegant, effective manner that raises issues that can be discussed within a larger context. There are many artists who support Palestinian rights and/or reject Islamaphobia. I am speaking out because I am in a position to do so; hopefully, others, and especially other artists, will find ways to respond to these ads (through art, discussion and direct action). Attacks on Muslims are rampant in Europe as well. Those who speak out will suffer consequences at their places of employment and elsewhere; nevertheless, we need to continue to speak out.
Islamic attacks
Permalink Simon Burns replied on
Just trying to be Islamorealistic here: As an anthropologist I can't help but be a little curious as to how an attack can be islamic. Is it passed on from the parents? If so, what if the daddy attack is a christian and the mama attack is a muslim or the other way around? Are attacks allowed to convert from other religions? Are there secular attacks, or are they all religious? Help, I'm confused!
ha ha ha
Permalink Philippa replied on
Bravo the artist and photographer of the alteration!
More Graffiti!
Permalink wb replied on
Hey! An invitation to you, a regular San Fran citizen, to try your hand at graffiti without anyone telling you it's not okay. Just tag, stamp, and paste on top of all of them. As many as you can find! People will thank you! You'll be a hero to some! Claim it's "free speech". Hurry before the signs go down! Then the message will effectively be "san fran hates hate"
20 second tutorial:
I know you read that word "wheatpasted." That was a clue - or should I say GLUE! It means corn starch and water. Mix them together. You just made glue! Now apply it to something you print out and cut out. Now slap it on a hate speech ad. Viola.
Here's some inspiration: http://www.fatcap.com/article/...
IANAL so here's a genuine
Permalink Herul replied on
IANAL so here's a genuine qiestion: Is there a precedent for how not accepting ads is somehow an infringement on free speech?
Permalink Philippa replied on
There was one in the story you commented on: "After New York City's transit agency rejected the same ads, Geller filed a lawsuit and won a temporary injunction last month when a federal judge ruled that Geller's ads were protected by the First Amendment." The First Amendment is the one on freedom of speech.
Islamophobic Ads
Permalink Saut Situmorang replied on
If the Islamophobic ads makers are really civilized, they should have left America the Land of the American Indians and go back to where their ancestors came from. Also, English is not the Continent of America's original language.


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Publisher: Chinadaily.com.cn
Publication Date: Daily Update
Industry Updates, an online biz news service, features daily updated news, policies and statistics, as well as analyses on China's 16 key industries. With this service, subscribers can access both daily updated biz news and archives dating back to 1996. The service link is listed below. Please access it and feel free to contact us for a trial application.
Ciny GAO
Phone: 86-10-84883437
Fax: 86-10-84883500
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Living, studying and volunteering across international borders and in diverse communities with AFS are life-changing experiences that last forever.
That's why AFS Intercultural Programs is the leading study abroad program for secondary school students, supported and monitored by trained staff and volunteers. Since 1947, AFS programs have prepared young people to become global citizens, empowered with the essential knowledge and practical skills needed to live in a diverse and multicultural world. Our fun adventures are specifically designed for teens to enjoy and learn from. Finally, AFS provides a lifelong access to a community of friends, connections, and volunteer opportunities.
What is the AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum?
The state-of-the-art AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum helps students develop on a broad range of education goals for the 21st century.
AFS understands the need for young people to develop vital technology skills and be comfortable with technology and science used in education and workplace settings.
We also know that many universities and employers seek students and young adults who have a sense of the world beyond their own communities—and are comfortable interacting with people from other countries and cultures. Businesses, government, education and NGOs need people who have international experiences, insights, as well as critical skills required to tackle the defining global challenges of the 21st century.
To meet this demand, the AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum uses discussions, activities, and reflections to help our young global citizens develop and practice using skills valued by universities and employers locally, nationally and internationally. These include:
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
- Creativity and innovation
- Collaboration and communication
- Challenging assumptions.
In addition, AFS helps students:
- Learn how to communicate and make friends with people from different cultures
- Build confidence and broaden their perspectives on cultural stereotypes and global issues
- Learn firsthand about the impact of culture on values and the decisions they make
- See themselves through the eyes of others.
How does the AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum help students adapt to their new environment?
The innovative curriculum uses a variety of proven experiential learning formats and resources to engage students, help them process their everyday experiences, and learn from their reactions to new, and sometimes difficult, situations.
The AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum supports students before, during and after their time abroad through group orientation sessions. Students also meet at least once a month with a trained volunteer who uses curriculum activities to help make their intercultural experience more rewarding and meaningful. All these sessions help students develop a deeper appreciation of cultural differences and the most effective and appropriate ways to deal with them, as well as how to apply this learning later in life.
The 16 AFS Educational Goals
The 16 AFS Educational Goals are the backbone of the AFS Student Learning Journey & Curriculum. The goals are grouped into four areas:
Personal values and skills: Students are challenged to reassess their values and practice new life skills like solving their own problems and making decisions. They also learn how to turn difficult situations into valuable opportunities for personal growth.
Interpersonal relationship building: AFS students become fully involved in daily living and working arrangements of a variety of people in their new environment. This improves their communication and language skills and teaches young people how to work more effectively in groups and teams.
(Inter)cultural knowledge and sensitivity: The AFS exchange experience deepens students' insights into their home culture as well as their knowledge and appreciation of their host cultures—strengths and weaknesses.
Global issues awareness: AFS learning activities encourage students to broaden their perspectives on global issues and concerns, and helps them understand that workable solutions often need to be culturally sensitive to succeed. AFS also encourages and empowers students to use these insights to help build a more peaceful and just world—at home or across the globe.


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A seasoned trial lawyer by profession and budding glass artisan by weekend, Gary Eisenstat began his love for glass art as a collector. Walking past a glass gallery without going in was almost impossible, notes Stefani, his wife of twenty years. About six years ago, as an anniversary gift, Stefani found a studio in Grapevine, Texas, that offered small private classes to beginners. "I was hooked at that point and began studying everything I could find about glass blowing to understand the processes, techniques, and tools."
Since then, Gary has trained with glass artists in Dallas and at the Corning Museum of Glass. He spends most Saturdays at the Carlyn Ray Designs studio in the Design District creating solid and blown pieces of glass art of all types, shapes, sizes, and colors.
"Learning to blow glass has been a phenomenal life experience. It taps into my creative side and is completely different from the practice of law. It is very physical, intense, and dynamic. Glass is real time. At over 2,000 degrees, it demands your full concentration. The practice of law also requires intense focus, but is typically a much slower, mostly sedentary, and analytical process. Preparing a case for trial can take years. With glass, we usually start and finish a piece in a single session. However, you cannot excel in either profession without a tremendous amount of effort, persistence, skill, and dedication to the craft."


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Product Details
Universal 2" Inch x 500' Feet Quick Connect Camlock Discharge Hose
The 2" single jacket hose can be used with any 2" inch quick connect camlock setups. These usually include pumps, outlets, and valves equipped with 2" camlock male or female fittings. The 100 foot lengths are the most economically convenient because they are long enough to move liquids a far distance, are easy to carry around, roll up, and store.
These hoses are well suited for for irrigation, industrial wash down, and general water pumping applications where medium water pressures of 150 psi or less are needed.
- Working Pressure - 150 psi
- Hose Test Pressure - 250 psi
- Hose Burst Pressure - 500 psi
- Inside Diameter - 2" Inches
- Lay Flat Width - About 3" Inches
- Length - 500 Feet (Qty. 5 x 100' Feet Lengths)
- Couplings - Both Male & Female 2" Aluminum Camlocks
- Material - Single Jacket Polyester
- Lining - Inside EPDM Black Rubber
- Color - White
Benefits Of Using 2" Inch Camlock Connectors & Hoses:
- No more lengthy connecting times; quick connect camlocks take just seconds to attach and lock. You will be ready to pump in a fraction of the time.
- Easy lock and release; no special tools required to operate.
- Woven polyester hose materials never require drying and are immune to mildew and rot.
- Strong polyester materials give you the same feel and durability of a fire hose without the higher pressure ratings.
- No more cross threading; camlock adapters can't damaged through cross threading, leading to less headache in the long term.
- Handles standard water pressures 150 psi or below so it will work with the majority of water transfer applications.
- Easy self installation: you don't need any special tools to re-couple camlocks. You just need the camlock adapters and standard hose clamps.
- Universal fittings: all quick connect camlock adapters will work together so long as the inside diameter is matching.
Polyester Is The Best Woven Materials For Discharge Hoses
Woven hose materials are the best way to go because it's strong and long lasting, and lightweight enough to haul around. It has a far higher PSI rating than plastic PVC hose. The inside rubber lined ensures this hose is resistant to holes, tears, and abrasion. Hose is immune to mildew and does not require drying.
If you're moving these hoses around day to day, 50 foot lengths are the best way to go. They are lightweight enough to carry around and roll up. For applications where you set the hoses for extended periods of time, the 100 foot lengths are more economical.
Watch: A Quick Overview On How Camlocks Work
How Should I Use This Hose?
- Push the ears forward on the female side fitting.
- Make sure the inside of the fitting is clear of dirt and debris.
- Insert the male fitting into the female fitting
- Pull the ears back and apply pressure to lock down the ears.
- When the ears can't go down any further, you're locked.
- To release the fittings, pull the ears forward and pull the fitting out.
Camlock Connectors Are Also Known As:
- Quick Release Hydraulic Couplings
- Quick Connect Camlocks
- Quick Disconnect Fittings
- Camlock Hose Shanks & Barbs
- Quick Hose Shanks & Barbs
Camlock Fittings Are Time Savers:
Camlock & Groove Couplings are probably the world's most commonly used quick connect couplings because of the great variety of applications. This can be best illustrated by looking at a few uses within a typical petrochemical process plant. Here's a few processes:
- Solids - Aluminum couplings can be used to join piping carrying solids, powders or pellets. The system can then be easily disconnected if blockages occur.
- Tablet Presses - For hygienic applications, couplings can be electropolished and fitted with food quality seals. The seals can easily be removed for steam cleaning.
- Process - couplings are particularly effective in the rapid changing of lines to mixing vessels in pilot plants, saving time compared with flanged or threaded fittings.
- Storage - Cam & Groove couplings are a standard option on IBC containers to allow rapid filling and emptying even with aggressive chemicals. Stainless Steel or polypropylene couplings are resistant to most acids and corrosive solvents.
Delivery & Returns
✔ Delivery
All products are shipped within 24 hours of ordering Monday-Friday unless otherwise specified on the individual product description page. Your tracking number will be sent via email. Your item will ship from one of our three warehouses (California, Ohio, New York) depending on your location and stock availability. Most orders ship via USPS Air Priority, UPS Ground, or FedEx Ground. Most items ship free. If you need express shipping, please call us 1 (888) 529-1521 and ask us for help.
✔ Returns
Returns on most new and unused items are accepted within 30 days of purchase unless items are "Custom Length", "Special Order", "Used or Scrap", "Bulk Discounted Orders", "International Orders" or "Rare Fitting" . Custom length hoses are non-returnable. Custom lengths is anything outside of 25, 50, 75, or 100 feet. Customer is responsible for return shipping charges. If a return label is issued from Fire Hose Supply the return shipping fees will be deducted from the refund. A standard 25% restocking fee is applied to all returns. Returns must be approved before sending in. Contact us for an RGA or return slip for approval before you send in your returns. Once your returns slip has been issued it will list instructions with a ship-to address. Any return orders sent without an RGA or previous authorization may be rejected.
✔ Special Order, Custom Order, Bulk Discount Orders, Rare Fittings & International Order Items
Special order, custom order, bulk discount orders, rare items & international order items cannot be cancelled or returned. Rare fittings include but are not limited to 2" NH (NST) and 3" NH (NST) fittings. Please make sure you are 100% sure of the product specifications you are ordering. If you don't fully understand the products you are ordering, please ask us for help to confirm the correct specifications you're looking for. Special order items are usually non-standard parts or bulk orders that are custom made directly from the factory.


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There have been some extremely successful traders in the history of the various markets, people who have made so much money in fact that they have been able to retire before the age of thirty in some cases. Whether the idea of being retired before you are even half way to the legally-mandated retirement age thrills or terrifies you, it has to be said that there is a real upside to having the opportunity. If we could all do what those super traders have done, we would surely do it, giving us more time to spend with loved ones. It probably comes as no surprise that such a way of operating is impossible.
As impressive as the idea of making billions and quitting before the market has the chance to take it back may be, we cannot just ape the actions of past successful traders and expect that to work for us. The market is constantly changing, and things that were true yesterday, a month ago or before we were even born are not necessarily so now. You need to find your own way, and this is as true of market trading as it is for anything else. As much as any other reason, this is true because sometimes you need to react instinctively. If you have been following someone else's strategy, then you'll be sunk because you do not have their instincts. Play it your way – learned through years of effort if needs be – and you will have a much greater chance of making a fortune.


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Data Center Best Practices for High-End Servers
- Introduction
- Installation and Configuration
- System Controllers
- Platform and Domain Configuration
- Memory and I/O Configuration
- Domain Administration
- Platform Security
- Error Analysis and Diagnosis
- Dynamic Reconfiguration
- Hot-Swappable PCI Adaptors
- About the Author
- Acknowledgments
- Related Resources
- Ordering Sun Documents
- Accessing Sun Documentation Online
This article provides best practices for installing, configuring, securing, and maintaining availability and performance for the Sun FireTM 15K server. Although the Sun Fire 12K server, Sun EnterpriseTM 20000 server, and Sun Enterprise 25000 server are not addressed separately, the best practices here apply as well to these servers. Additionally, reference materials for topics not covered in this article such as environment and domain configuration are provided. Throughout this article, best practices are described fully, then summarized in Tips for quick reference.
This article contains the following topics:
"Installation and Configuration"
"System Controllers"
"Platform and Domain Configuration"
"Memory and I/O Configuration"
"Domain Administration"
"Platform Security"
"Error Analysis and Diagnosis"
"Dynamic Reconfiguration"
"Hot-Swappable PCI Adaptors"
"About the Author"
"Related Resources"
"Ordering Sun Documents"
"Accessing Sun Documentation Online"
Many complex system environments are constructed from multi-vendor hardware and software products. Information Technology (IT) managers face challenges with managing and securing these environments. Sun Microsystems addresses these challenges by:
Building and testing complete hardware and software solutions.
Publishing reference architectures (RAs) and best practices as Sun BluePrintsTM.
Inviting our user community to attend seminars such as the SUPerG and Sun NetworkSM conferences, where Sun's users can directly interface with our support and engineering staff.
This article addresses the best practices for running Sun Fire 15K servers, and it covers the latest features in System Management Services (SMS) 1.4 installed on Sun Fire 15K server system controllers (SCs).
The article focuses on best practices compiled by High-End Server Group (HSG) support engineers who are highly experienced in configuring and troubleshooting problems on these servers. This valuable knowledge, gained by our support engineers, can benefit IT managers in improving the availability and performance of these large complex system environments.


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Your cart is currently empty!
Character Wig – Black (Bin:50)
Product Description
A wig is the perfect way to bring a costume to the next level. For a more comfortable wear and to keep your hair in place be sure to wear a wig cap. Hold wig behind you, place front of wig at your hairline and pull wig on towards nape of your neck. Avoid flipping upside down. For best storage keep on a styrofoam wig head. Comb through gently with fingers or a wide tooth comb. DO NOT heat style. For everything you need for the best wig experience check out our wig supplies section.
Wig Maintenance
- Wash your wig by soaking it for 15-20 minutes with a mild shampoo or dish detergent. You may scrub the cap lightly. DO NOT AGITATE.
- Rinse in cold water.
- Soak in lukewarm water with conditioner for 5-15 minutes. DO NOT AGITATE.
- Roll up firmly in a towel to remove excess water.
- While damp, comb through with a wide tooth comb or pick. Apply rollers and/or hair product if desired.
- Hang to dry.
- For Afros, wash as directed. Shake out excess water, hang to dry then groom with a pick.
- DO NOT use and form of heat on your wig, no blow dryers, curling irons, hot rollers etc.
- You can use regular rollers to restyle your wig as well as hair products such as hairspray, gel or mousse.


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Atlassian today announced that it has acquired project management service Trello for $425 million. The vast majority of the transaction is in cash ($360 million), with the remainder being paid out in restricted shares and options. The acquisition is expected to close before March 31, 2017.
This marks Atlassian's 18th acquisition and, as Atlassian president Jay Simons noted when I talked to him last week, also it largest. Just like with many of Atlassian's other acquisitions, the company plans to keep both the Trello service and brand alive and current users shouldn't see any immediate changes.
Trello launched in the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield in 2011 and in 2014, it was spun out of Fog Creek Software as a stand-alone company. With Trello, Atlassian is acquiring one of the fastest growing project management services. It now has about 19 million users and just under 100 employees, all of which will join Atlassian. After it was spun out of Fog Creek, Trello raised $10.3 million from BoxGroup, Index Ventures, Spark Capital and others.
"We're super excited," Simons told me. "They are a breakout product and have achieved incredible momentum."
It's easy to see how Trello fits into Atlassian's overall suite of productivity tools, which have increasingly targeted non-developers, too. At its core, Atlassian's own JIRA project management service already features a Trello-like Kanban board, for example. That's only a small part of what JIRA does, however, and for many potential users, a board is really all they need to keep track of their projects. JIRA also features a full-blown issue-tracking service, reports, and an on-premise version that enterprises can run on their own servers.
With its Marketplace, Atlassian has also built a store for plugin developers and we'll likely see many of Trello's so-called "power-ups" migrate there over time. It's also worth noting that both companies have taken similar marketing approaches that focus more on word-of-mouth recommendations and a freemium model than traditional enterprise sales.
In our conversation, Simons also noted that he believes the cultures in both companies are very similar and that both share the same "big audacious goal:" to get to 100 million monthly active users. To get there, Atlassian has to go beyond its traditional market of developer teams and branch out into other verticals. It's no surprise then, that the company's press release specifically cites Trello's popularity with business teams in finance, HR, legal, marketing and sales and notes that 50 percent of Trello users work in non-technical functions.Looking ahead, Simons said that Atlassian is committed to developing Trello. The company will put more resources behind the product and help the team scale.
Atlassian is scheduled to report its Q2 results on January 19 and chances are we will hear a bit more about this transaction and how the company plans to integrate Trello's services then.


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• 8 egg whites (size M)
• 200g fine sugar
• 200g sugar powder
• Pink or red food colouring paste
• 30g cornflour
• 1 pinch of baking powder
Meringue hearts
1. Separate the eggs and beat the egg white together with the baking powder in a dish until it is light and fluffy. Slowly add the sugar. Mix the food colouring in to colour the meringue mass. Now beat the egg white until the mass is firm and shiny.
2. Mix the sugar powder with the cornflour and sieve the powder over the beaten egg whites before folding it in with a dough scraper.
3. To get the meringue into the desired heart shape, fill the mass into a piping bag with a round spout attachment. Start in the middle of the heart curve. First draw the left curve and the half down to the tip at the bottom. Then start at the top again and do the right heart curve. Finally, fill in the heart and break off the piping bag in the middle.
4. Dry the meringues in the preheated oven (convection) at 100°C for approx. half an hour, depending on their size. Leave the oven door open just a gap with the help of a wooden spoon so that the moisture can escape. The meringues are ready when they have hardened and now only have to cool off.


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"One small step for man, a giant step for mankind" Or something to that effect.
This blogpost was created using Zoho Writer. I'm quite used to Blogger Dashboard. Familiarity breeds contempt. Which is why I'm not very comfortable with Wordpress interface. Which is why I thought I'd try it from here. It reminds me of "Open Federation".
I'm not a fan of Star Trek or jargon for that matter. Only yesterday I came to know of something called "Open Federation". (via) I understand that it has been the underlying concept behind the success of E-mails. Imagine someone having 3 blog accounts, one at Blogger, one at Typepad and one at Live Journal. (One might argue that people don't possess three different accounts, but heck, I said "imagine") It's pretty tiresome to log in and post to each of them.
The simplest way to explain Open Federation is the idea of Food Courts where several restaurants have their stalls. Comparing the menu (a la carte or whatever), price, variety and then choosing where to dine happens under one roof, instead of entering and leaving several restaurants with dissatisfaction.
Such a facility for IM exists with a provider called Meebo, but there too it's not possible to have several IM clients open simultaneously. So it's not "Open Federation" in the truest sense. But for PC to PC calling options, there is no centralized location from where you can handle it. Although, the idea of having several people from several points across the globe calling your PC simultaneously and having to manage those calls is quite appalling. It might mean a lot of trouble for lot of people ;)
In "One for all" principle I trust.
Tags for this post - Open Federation
*Fingers Crossed before I hit Save button*


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The AniMove framework ha been ported to QGIS 3!
The analysis of animal movement and ranging behaviour (including the estimation of home range size) is a complex issue. A number of programs have been written (see this web site for an obsolete and incomplete list), but all suffer from one or several limitations, including:
We believe the problem could be solved by the use of several free and open source programs, available both for GNU/Linux, Mac OSX and MS Windows operating systems. We aim at producing the most advanced software; our indicative term of reference is Animal Movements (which requires the expensive, obsolete, and proprietary ArcView + Spatial Analyst proprietary packages).
All resulting software is and will be freely available (under GPL or similar licences).
One of the approaches used involves the use of the statistical package R_ and its extension AdeHabitat by Clément Calenge.
Another approach is to use plain QGIS to run many useful analyses (e.g. basic statistics, Minimum Convex Polygon). For more advanced analyses, we have developed some ad hoc plugins.
Developing python plugins for QGIS is easy, cheap, and fast. Our aim is to have a toolbox in which anybody can add her/his own preferred analyses.
Developers: Víctor González, Jorge Arevalo , Francesco Boccacci, Alexander Bruy
It implements kernel analyses and restricted MCP in Pure Python, without the need to install R and its libraries. Since version 1.4.0 the plugin adds new functionalities:
A porting to the Processing toolbox of the "RandomHR" plugin Randomization of home ranges within a study area, see http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/randomHR/ that was previously available for QGIS 1.x but not for 2.x, see below.
A new tool called "Random path" that allows to randomize paths (lines) within a study area and with many options: keep angles, randomize angles (range as user choice), randomize starting points, keep starting points, use a point layer for starting points, check if the random path crosses features of a specified line/polygon layer.
The plugin is available through the QGIS official repository.
Developer: Borys Jurgiel
Given a series of polygons (home ranges) and a containing polygon (the study area), throws the polygons randomly many times (N chosen by the user) and calculates the average overlap between them.
A few notes:
The plugin is available through the QGIS official repository.
Please note: the plugin works on QGIS 1.8, not on 2.0. If you are interested in upgrading it, please contact us.
Developer: Borys Jurgiel
It calculates the position of an animal from its bearings.
The plugin is available through the QGIS official repository.
You're welcome to add your most needed plugin, either by writing it on your own, by hiring a programmer, or by donating to the project. AniMove and Faunalia can help you.
AniMove lives thanks to the efforts of many people, which contributed through time. Your help would therefore be much appreciated. This could be a suitable project for a MSc thesis. You can collaborate by testing the software, writing manuals and other. Please write us if you are interested.
Faunalia provides ongoing support to the project


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Meditation and mindfulness are the new rage in Silicon Valley. And it's not just about inner peace—it's about getting ahead.
Chade-Meng Tan is perched on a chair, his lanky body folded into a half-lotus position. "Close your eyes," he says. His voice is a hypnotic baritone, slow and rhythmic, seductive and gentle. "Allow your attention to rest on your breath: The in-breath, the out-breath, and the spaces in between." We feel our lungs fill and release. As we focus on the smallest details of our respiration, other thoughts—of work, of family, of money—begin to recede, leaving us alone with the rise and fall of our chests. For thousands of years, these techniques have helped put practitioners into meditative states. Today is no different. There's a palpable silence in the room. For a moment, all is still. I take another breath.
The quiet is broken a few minutes later, when Meng, as he is known, declares the exercise over. We blink, smile at one another, and look around our makeshift zendo—a long, fluorescent-lit presentation room on Google's corporate campus in Silicon Valley. Meng and most of his pupils are Google employees, and this meditation class is part of an internal course called Search Inside Yourself. It's designed to teach people to manage their emotions, ideally making them better workers in the process. "Calm the mind," Meng says, getting us ready for the next exercise: a meditation on failure and success.
More than a thousand Googlers have been through Search Inside Yourself training. Another 400 or so are on the waiting list and take classes like Neural Self-Hacking and Managing Your Energy in the meantime. Then there is the company's bimonthly series of "mindful lunches," conducted in complete silence except for the ringing of prayer bells, which began after the Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh visited in 2011. The search giant even recently built a labyrinth for walking meditations.
It's not just Google that's embracing Eastern traditions. Across the Valley, quiet contemplation is seen as the new caffeine, the fuel that allegedly unlocks productivity and creative bursts. Classes in meditation and mindfulness—paying close, nonjudgmental attention—have become staples at many of the region's most prominent companies. There's a Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute now teaching the Google meditation method to whoever wants it. The cofounders of Twitter and Facebook have made contemplative practices key features of their new enterprises, holding regular in-office meditation sessions and arranging for work routines that maximize mindfulness. Some 1,700 people showed up at a Wisdom 2.0 conference held in San Francisco this winter, with top executives from LinkedIn, Cisco, and Ford featured among the headliners.
These companies are doing more than simply seizing on Buddhist practices. Entrepreneurs and engineers are taking millennia-old traditions and reshaping them to fit the Valley's goal-oriented, data-driven, largely atheistic culture. Forget past lives; never mind nirvana. The technology community of Northern California wants return on its investment in meditation. "All the woo-woo mystical stuff, that's really retrograde," says Kenneth Folk, an influential meditation teacher in San Francisco. "This is about training the brain and stirring up the chemical soup inside."
It can be tempting to dismiss the interest in these ancient practices as just another neo-spiritual fad from a part of the country that's cycled through one New Age after another. But it's worth noting that the prophets of this new gospel are in the tech companies that already underpin so much of our lives. And these firms are awfully good at turning niche ideas into things that hundreds of millions crave.
Many of the people who shaped the personal computer industry and the Internet were once members of the hippie counterculture. So an interest in Eastern faiths is all but hardwired into the modern tech world. Steve Jobs spent months searching for gurus in India and was married by a Zen priest. Before he became an American Buddhist pioneer, Jack Kornfield ran one of the first mainframes at Harvard Business School.
But in today's Silicon Valley, there's little patience for what many are happy to dismiss as "hippie bullshit." Meditation here isn't an opportunity to reflect upon the impermanence of existence but a tool to better oneself and improve productivity. That's how Bill Duane, a pompadoured onetime engineer with a tattoo of a bikini-clad woman on his forearm, frames Neural Self-Hacking, an introductory meditation class he designed for Google. "Out in the world, a lot of this stuff is pitched to people in yoga pants," he says. "But I wanted to speak to my people. I wanted to speak to me. I wanted to speak to the grumpy engineer who may be an atheist, who may be a rationalist."
Duane's pitch starts with neuroscience and evolutionary biology. "We're basically the descendants of nervous monkeys," he says, the kind with hair-trigger fight-or-flight responses. In the modern workplace, these hyperactive reflexes are now a detriment, turning minor squabbles into the emotional equivalents of kill-or-be-killed showdowns. In such situations, the amygdala—the region of the brain believed to be responsible for processing fear—can override the rest of the mind's ability to think logically. We become slaves to our monkey minds.
"My old coping strategy—the bourbon and cheeseburger method—wasn't working," says Google's Bill Duane
Repeated studies have demonstrated that meditation can rewire how the brain responds to stress. Boston University researchers showed that after as little as three and a half hours of meditation training, subjects tend to react less to emotionally charged images. Other research suggests that meditation improves working memory and executive function. And several studies of long-term practitioners show an increased ability to concentrate on fast-changing stimuli. One paper cited by the Google crew even implies that meditators are more resistant to the flu.
But Googlers don't take up meditation just to keep away the sniffles or get a grip on their emotions. They are also using it to understand their coworkers' motivations, to cultivate their own "emotional intelligence"—a characteristic that tends to be in short supply among the engineering set. "Everybody knows this EI thing is good for their career," says Search Inside Yourself founder Meng. "And every company knows that if their people have EI, they're gonna make a shitload of money."
Meng has had quite a career himself, joining Google in 2000 as employee number 107 and working on mobile search. But for years, his attempts to bring meditation into the office met with limited success. It was only in 2007, when he packaged contemplative practices in the wrapper of emotional intelligence, that he saw demand spike. Now there are dozens of employee development programs at Google that incorporate some aspect of meditation or mindfulness. And Meng—who was born in Singapore and was turned on to Buddhism by an American nun—has slowly ascended to icon status within the company. More than one Search Inside Yourself student has asked Meng for his autograph.
There is in fact little data to support the notion that meditation is good for Google's bottom line, just a few studies from outfits like the Conference Board showing that emotionally connected employees tend to remain at their current workplaces. Still, the company already tends to its employees' physical needs with onsite gyms, subsidized massages, and free organic meals to keep them productive. Why not help them search for meaning and emotional connection as well?
Duane, for one, credits Google's meditation program with upgrading both his business and personal life. It wasn't long ago that he was a stress case, and with good reason: He was leading a 30-person site-reliability team while dealing with his father's life-threatening heart disease. "My typical coping strategy—the bourbon and cheeseburger method—wasn't working," he says. Then Duane attended a lecture Meng arranged on the neuroscience of mindfulness and quickly adopted a meditation practice of his own.
Duane believes the emotional regulation he gained from meditation helped him cope with his father's eventual death. The increased ability to focus, he says, was a major factor in his promotion to a management post where he oversaw nearly 150 Googlers. In January he decided to leave the company's cadre of engineers and concentrate full-time on bringing meditation to more of the organization. Google executives, who have put mindfulness at the center of their internal training efforts, OK'd the switch.
Duane still doesn't have much use for hippies. He still professes to be a proud empiricist. But when I walk back into the Search Inside Yourself class, neither he nor any of the other Googlers seem at all fazed when Meng tells us to imagine the goodness of everyone on the planet and to visualize that goodness as a glowing white light.
As before, Meng's voice lowers and slows to a crawl. And, of course, we close our eyes. "When you breathe in, breathe in all that goodness into your heart. Using your heart, multiply that goodness by 10," he says, in a variation on a Tibetan Tonglen exercise. "When you breathe out, send all that goodness to the whole world. And if it's useful to you, you may visualize yourself breathing out white light—brilliant white light—representing this abundance of goodness." We exhale. I actually feel a buzzing on the underside of my skull as I try to imagine pure love. For a minute, I forget that we're in a room ordinarily reserved for corporate presentations.
search inside yourself might have remained a somewhat isolated phenomenon in the Valley if a mindfulness instructor named Soren Gordhamer hadn't found himself divorced, broke, out of a job, and stuck in the town of Dixon, New Mexico (population 1,500). Gordhamer, who had spent years teaching yoga and meditation in New York City's juvenile detention centers, was feeling increasingly beleaguered by his seemingly uncontrollable Twitter habit. He decided to write a book—Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected—that offered tips for using technology in a mindful manner.
The book wasn't exactly a best seller. But Gordhamer struck a nerve when he described how hard it was to focus in our always-on culture. By providing constant access to email, tweets, and Facebook updates, smartphones keep users distracted, exploiting the same psychological vulnerability as slot machines: predictable input and random payouts. They feed a sense that any pull of the lever, or Facebook refresh, could result in an information jackpot.
And so he got the idea to host a conference where the technology and contemplative communities could hash out the best ways to incorporate these tools into our lives—and keep them from taking over. The event, billed as Wisdom 2.0, was held in April 2010 and drew a couple hundred people.
That was three years ago; since then attendance at the now annual conference has shot up 500 percent. In 2013 nearly 1,700 signed up to hear headliners like Arianna Huffington, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Twitter cofounder Evan Williams, and, of course, Meng talk about how they run their enterprises mindfully. Gordhamer has become a Silicon Valley superconnector, with an array of contacts that would make an ordinary entrepreneur burst with envy. He now leads private retreats for the technorati, and more conferences are in the works—one just for women, another to be held in New York City. "Everywhere you turn at Wisdom," says PayPal cofounder Luke Nosek, "it's like, 'Oh my God, you're here too?'"
The Gurus Of Silicon Valley Power players in the mindfulness movement. — N.S.
Kenneth Folk
He popularized the notion of open source enlightenment, winning adherents in Silicon Valley—and plenty of eye-rolls from the American Buddhist establishment.
Soren Gordhamer
He once taught meditation in New York prisons. Now he's a Silicon Valley influencer, thanks to his hugely popular Wisdom 2.0 conference.
Vincent and Emily Horn
Self-described Buddhist geeks, this married couple is crafting new ways to practice mindfulness, helping others develop apps for contemplation.
Jack Kornfield
A longtime Buddhist teacher, he cofounded the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. Today Kornfield hosts the technorati at his Spirit Rock sanctuary.
Chade-Meng Tan
Author of Search Inside Yourself. Official title at Google: Jolly Good Fellow. His job is to make meditation accessible to as many Googlers as he can.
Evan Williams
The Twitter cofounder has spoken at Wisdom 2.0 and regularly hosts meditation classes and mindfulness workshops at his new startup company, Medium.
On an enclosed porch outside the exhibition hall at this year's Wisdom 2.0 event, Zen-monk-turned-CEO Marc Lesser talks about his plans to take the Search Inside Yourself training to companies everywhere. Plantronics, Farmers Insurance, and VMware have already signed up. Nearby, companies promoting mindfulness apps and "cloud-based platforms for market professionals" hawk their wares while an acoustic guitar player strums. On the main stage, executives discuss how they maintain mindful practices during the workweek: One wakes up early and focuses on his upcoming meetings; another takes a moment to pause as she dries her hands in the bathroom. In the cavernous, wood-paneled main hall, oversize screens show a silhouette of a brain connected to a lotus flower and the logos for Twitter and Facebook.
One of the reasons that Wisdom 2.0—and the broader movement it represents—has become so big, so quickly, is that it stripped away the dogma and religious trappings. But it's hard not to consider what gets lost in this whittling process. Siddhartha famously abandoned the trappings of royalty to sit under the Bodhi Tree and preach about the illusion of the ego. Seeing the megarich take the stage to trumpet his practices is a bit jarring.
It also raises the uncomfortable possibility that these ancient teachings are being used to reinforce some of modern society's uglier inequalities. Becoming successful, powerful, and influential can be as much about what you do outside the office as what you do at work. There was a time when that might have meant joining a country club or a Waspy church. Today it might mean showing up at TED. Looking around Wisdom 2.0, meditation starts to seem a lot like another secret handshake to join the club. "There is some legitimate interest among businesspeople in contemplative practice," Kenneth Folk says. "But Wisdom 2.0? That's a networking opportunity with a light dressing of Buddhism."
On the THIRD day of this year's Wisdom 2.0 conference, Facebook engineering director Arturo Bejar takes the stage with Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama's English interpreter and right hand in North America. They tell the crowd about an experiment going on at Facebook that is at once subtle, a little strange, and potentially of deep significance. While many other Silicon Valley companies are teaching their employees to meditate, Facebook is trying to inject a Buddhist-inspired concept of compassion into the core of its business.
Bejar had been a somewhat reluctant guest at the first Wisdom 2.0 conference in 2010. But he was struck by an onstage conversation about kindness with American Buddhist trailblazer Jon Kabat-Zinn. If people truly see one another, Kabat-Zinn said, they're more likely to be empathetic and gentle toward each other. Bejar knew something about depending on the kindness of others. As a geeky teenager in Mexico City in the 1980s, he snuck into a tech convention by bribing the guards with candy bars; a local IBM exec was so impressed he gave Bejar a job. Then Bejar had his college education paid for by a friend of a family friend: Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak.
Buddhism teaches that we are all interconnected. And nowhere is that more apparent than on Facebook.
After hearing Kabat-Zinn, Bejar began looking for ways to bring some of that compassion to Facebook, where bullying and flame wars were all too common among users and the tools for reporting offensive content weren't terribly effective. Bejar set up a series of "compassion research days" at Facebook and brought in Buddhist-inspired academics from Berkeley, Yale, and Stanford to see if they could help.
The researchers' advice: Make the tools more personal, more conversational, and more emotional. For instance, let people express their vulnerability and distress when asking for a problematic picture or status update to be removed. The changes were small at first. Instead of tagging a post as "Embarrassing," users clicked a new button that read "It's embarrassing." But those three letters made an enormous difference. It turned the report from a seemingly objective classification of content into a customer's subjective, personal response. Use of the tool shot up 30 percent almost immediately. This in a field where a change of a few percentage points either way is considered tectonic.
Further fixes followed: personalized messages, more polite requests to take down a photo or a post, more culture-specific pleas. (In India, for example, online insults directed at someone's favorite celebrity tend to cut deeper than they do in the US.) "Hey, this photo insults someone important to me," reads one of the new automatically generated messages. "Would you please take it down?"
It'd be easy to be cynical about this effort—to laugh at people who over- identify with a Bollywood starlet or to question why meditation teachers, the masters of directing attention, are working with the social networks that cause so much distraction. But when you sit with Bejar and his colleagues at Facebook as they review these reports—when you see all the breakups, all the embarrassing photos, the tiffs between mothers and daughters—it's hard not to feel sad and awed at the amount of confusion and hurt. Over a million of these disputes happen every week on Facebook. If you had a God's-eye view of it all, wouldn't you want to handle that pain with gentle hands?
Buddhists have been preaching for centuries that we are all fundamentally interconnected, that the differences between us literally do not exist. That is the basis of Buddhist compassion. And there is no place where this interconnectedness is more obviously revealed than on Facebook. Arturo Bejar isn't running off to a monastery; his personal meditation practice, if you can call it that, is taking a walk with his camera. But incorporating Buddhism's compassionate kernel into a billion-person social network? That reflects a level of insight many people will never reach, no matter how long they sit cross-legged.
One night during the Wisdom 2.0 conference, I meet Kenneth Folk and some of his protè9gè9s at a vegetarian restaurant run by the local Zen center. At first the conversation doesn't sound so different from what I might hear at Wisdom 2.0: the neuroscience of mindfulness, the remixing of ancient traditions, the meditation-as-fitness riff.
Then things turn kaleidoscopic. After the mesquite-grilled brochettes with Hodo Soy tofu, Vincent Horn, who runs the popular Buddhist Geeks website and podcast, tells me that everyone I'm eating with is enlightened.
Horn drops this casually, as if he were discussing his hair color or the fact that all of the men are wearing pants. I'm not sure how to respond. As Jay Michaelson — the guy sitting to my left, and the author of Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment — gleefully notes, talking openly about enlightenment is as big a taboo as there is in modern American Buddhism, where the exploratory journey trumps any metaphysical destination. Enlightenment implies sainthood, perfect wisdom, an end to the cycle of birth and death. Michaelson, Folk, and Horn are polishing off their second bottle of red. Is that who they think they are?
Folk's journey toward enlightenment, he later explains to me, started in 1982 when he ran out of cocaine. An addict, he took the only drugs he could find: four hits of LSD. He saw a glass tube open up into the sky and merge with beautiful white light. "My drug addiction vanished in that moment," he recalls. It sent him on a decades-long journey to re-create the experience. He spent three months on a silent retreat in Massachusetts and another six at a Burmese monastery, wearing a sarong in winter and eating his final meal of the day at 10 am. He found himself hitting ecstatic heights. But he also found that, at times, meditation could lead to rather horrible depression.
The monks of Burma told Folk that the depressive episodes were the completely predictable result of his meditative work and that they would soon be over. He was on a well-worn path through 16 stages of insight, each one bringing him closer to enlightenment. They laid out a map of his inner voyage and told Folk precisely where he was. Folk followed their plan and, he says, eventually became enlightened.
It was a radical shift from the method traditionally used by mystics to impart wisdom, in which a master cryptically pointed the acolyte in the direction he should go. And Folk loved it. Enlightenment wasn't some completely mysterious, ungraspable goal. He returned to America ready to preach a gospel of jail-broken enlightenment: The source code for spiritual awakening is open to anyone. "Enlightenment is real. It is reproducible," he says. "It happens to real human beings. It happened to me."
Not surprisingly, Folk's doctrine was rather attractive to a set of seekers who were raised with the idea that information should be free and status updates should be shared publicly. He and Horn started contributing to a web forum called the Dharma Overground, founded by Daniel Ingram, the soundman for one of Folk's old bands. It became the place online to share tips on the most effective means to promote enlightenment, to brag about the mystical powers that come with intensive meditation, and to chart their progress through the four rounds of 16 stages that lead to a final awakening. Ingram wrote "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book," which became a cult classic, in part because it likened meditation to a contemplative videogame. Episodes of Horn's "Buddhist Geeks" podcast are now downloaded regularly by 100,000 people. On his website, Horn is constantly introducing new forms of mindfulness for the social media crowd, from concentration- boosting apps to something he calls #Hashtag Meditation.
But until recently, Folk himself remained relatively unknown. He lived with his mother-in-law in a New York City suburb, teaching meditation over Skype. Then, in the spring of 2011, Luke Nosek—a partner at one of Silicon Valley's most successful venture capital firms—emailed Folk from Manhattan and insisted they get together. Like, immediately. "I have a spaceship," said Nosek, whose fund owned a chunk of the private rocket company SpaceX. "What planet do I have to fly to so I can meet you tonight?"
Nosek had a history with meditation. But nothing like this. When he and Folk meditated, it brought him into a state of such utter focus, he says, that "I could see the patterns of threads in my socks with more detail than I had in my entire life." Nosek and several other execs paid to move Folk out to San Francisco so he could start opening some of Silicon Valley's most influential minds.
In some ways, Folk's seemingly mystical enlightenment gospel would appear to be a bad fit for the titan-of-industry set—especially compared with the business-friendly message found at Search Inside Yourself or Wisdom 2.0. And several established Buddhist leaders who came to this year's conference were openly wary of what they saw as an unhealthy fixation on the brass ring of enlightenment. "If someone really wants it, I'll teach it," says Kornfield, cofounder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center north of San Francisco. "But a strong goal orientation can heighten unhealthy ambition and self-criticism. It doesn't really heighten wisdom."
Folk's doctrine may be less radical than it seems, however. Yes, he calls himself enlightened. But he doesn't think of himself as some holy man. To him, the old stories of Buddhist saints shaking off their cravings for food or sex are just that: stories. "Sainthood is a relic of the past," he says.
Nor is Folk interested in re-creating that LSD-induced peak anymore. "It's a loser's game," he says. Better to take every experience as it comes and then let it pass. (You can't hold on to those feelings anyway.) Enlightenment may be hackable and shareable, but only if its meaning radically changes. To Folk, being enlightened is about "meta-OK-ness"—meaning that it's OK even when it's not OK—which he says anyone who tries can achieve.
At search Inside Yourself, Meng starts with a seemingly small request for Googlers to pair off and take turns meditating on each other's happiness. I sit across from Duane, the tattooed former engineer, and do my best to send him good vibes. Not only is he a nice guy who's been through some pain, he's at least indirectly responsible for the tools I use a thousand times a day. I want him and every other Googler to be their highest selves—centered, focused, calm, and content. Perhaps I can help head off a future Google Buzz.
But Meng has another goal in mind for this exercise: to help his colleagues develop mental habits conducive to kindness. It's these sorts of meditations, Meng tells me later, that ultimately led him to "discover the ability to access joy on demand. After a while, it became a skill." He smiles and gives me a look as if to say: No, seriously.
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised at the claim. Last year Meng published a Search Inside Yourself book. The introduction proclaims him to be "a closet Bodhisattva"—a Buddhist saint, next in holiness to Siddhartha himself.
Despite the language of neuroscience and business advancement, Search Inside Yourself is ultimately an attempt to replicate Meng's elevated mind-state—first in Googlers and then in the rest of us. "We can all become saints, because saintly habits are trainable," he tells the class. "I hope you all do."
And if we start such training, Meng insists, we won't just be helping ourselves. "My dream is to create the conditions for world peace, and to do that by creating the conditions for inner peace and compassion on a global scale," he writes. "Fortunately, a methodology for doing that already exists … Most of us know it as meditation."
Suddenly acid-inspired Kenneth Folk seems downright grounded in comparison. It's hard to deny that meditation can have remarkable benefits. But world peace? Sainthood? That may be a bit of a stretch. Steve Jobs spent lots of time in a lotus position; he still paid slave wages to his contract laborers, berated subordinates, and parked his car in handicapped stalls.
One of Meng's students raises her hand. This saintly training, this randomly wishing for others' happiness—it doesn't seem all that genuine, she says: "It felt like I was saying the words, but I wasn't actually doing anything by thinking that."
Duane tells her it's OK to feel that way. The practice will help you later, he says, even if it comes across as empty at the time. "There's definitely a fake-it-till-you-make-it aspect to it," he says.
Oh no, Meng answers. It's the first time in the whole class he's corrected anyone. "It's not faking it until you make it," he says. "It's faking it until you become it."
The session ends and we walk out into the sun feeling slightly dazed. The next lesson begins in five minutes.
The Facebook engineer rewrote the network's alerts to be more compassionate.
Contributing editor Noah Shachtman (noah.shachtman@gmail .com) wrote about cracking an ancient secret code in issue 20.12.
Photographs by Brian Finke
Source: http://www.wired.com/business/2013/06/meditation-mindfulness-silicon-valley/all/
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Home / Med-Surg
Medical-surgical units are challenged by low nurse-to-patient ratios, increasing case complexity and variability. Clinicians have long understood the value of monitoring in helping to alleviate these burdens, but previous solutions for this environment have been intermittent, delayed and/or limited in their effectiveness. Masimo has developed integrated monitoring technologies providing noninvasive and continuous measurements that automate and streamline the flow of patient data to improve clinical efficiency.
The ability to continuously monitor active patients in medical-surgical units reliably – and to save clinicians' time by documenting important physiological measurements in electronic medical records – allows clinicians to spend more time caring for patients.
Masimo offers an integrated portfolio of solutions designed to help clinicians focus on patients and improve workflows, including industry-leading SET® pulse oximetry, advanced measurement capabilities, vital signs monitors, portable monitoring devices, and a robust remote monitoring and clinician notification system.
Clinicians rely on patient monitors to alert them of adverse changes in a patient's condition. Alarm fatigue – the sensory overload of an excessive number of alarms – can, however, result in desensitization to alarms and missed alarms, as well as patient discomfort.
Masimo's breakthrough Signal Extraction Technology® (SET®) overcomes the limitations of conventional pulse oximetry with the ability to measure through motion and low perfusion.
Two separate studies found that Masimo SET® pulse oximeters detected approximately 10 times more true events than other "Next Generation" pulse oximeters studied.1,2
Masimo SET® had 3% missed true alarms and 5% false alarms versus 43% and 28%, respectively, using competitor technology.3
Results shown are calculated by combining sensitivity and specificity outcomes of machine-generated and volunteer-generated motion.
In another study which compared the ability of three pulse oximetry technologies to detect hypoxic events, Masimo SET® pulse oximetry demonstrated the highest sensitivity and specificity during induced conditions of motion and low perfusion.3
In an 11-month study conducted at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Dr. Andreas Taenzer and colleagues found that using Masimo Patient SafetyNet™* and Masimo SET® pulse oximetry as part of a comprehensive alarm management strategy reduced rescue events by 65% and intensive care unit transfers by 48%, and as a result, reduced costs by $1,480,000.4,5 In a subsequent article, they announced that after five years, Dartmouth-Hitchcock had had zero preventable deaths or instances of brain damage due to opioids since the installation of Patient SafetyNet.5 In 2016, after ten years, they reported achieving a 50% reduction in unplanned ICU transfers and a 60% reduction in rescue events, despite increases in patient acuity and occupancy.6
Masimo technology includes a host of noninvasive measurements offered through many patient monitoring solutions, enabling care areas such as the medical-surgical unit, which cater to a variety of patient cases and populations, to customize the type and degree of monitoring needed.
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF)9 and The Joint Commission recommend continuous oxygenation and/or ventilation monitoring for patients receiving opioid-based pain medications.10 However, current methods of respiration rate monitoring may be limited by shortcomings related to accuracy and patient tolerance.11,12 rainbow Acoustic Monitoring provides a noninvasive, continuous, easy-to-use, and reliable monitoring solution that has the benefit of higher patient tolerance.13,14
Masimo offers a portfolio of expandable and configurable patient monitoring solutions designed to adapt to changing patient needs.
Root with noninvasive blood pressure and temperature and Root with NomoLine capnography. The flexibility and expandability of the Root platform make it an ideal bedside solution, tailorable for both high- and low-acuity settings.
Root® is a powerful, expandable patient monitoring and connectivity hub that integrates an array of technologies to provide multimodal monitoring and connectivity solutions – in a single, clinician-centric platform that allows clinicians to tailor monitoring solutions for high- and low-acuity settings. Root's plug-and-play expansion capabilities, as well as its availability in a configuration with integrated noninvasive blood pressure and temperature, allow clinicians to centralize patient monitoring by bringing together advanced rainbow SET™ Pulse CO-Oximetry, vital signs measurements, brain function monitoring, regional oximetry, and capnography measurements on an easy-to-interpret, customizable display, empowering clinicians with more information. Further, Root serves as a central connectivity hub, with automated electronic charting of Masimo and third-party device data and alarms to electronic medical record (EMR) systems, which may improve clinician workflows through the reduction of manual data documentation.
Root has the unique ability to bring together data and alarms from multiple third-party monitors — such as IV pumps, ventilators, and other multi-parameter monitors — automating the flow of patient data to the EMR, which may help streamline workflows, improve productivity, and reduce the likelihood of transcription errors.15
Used in conjunction with Patient SafetyNet or Iris Gateway™, Clinicians receive ADT information directly on Root, facilitating positive patient identification. Clinicians simply select a patient from a drop-down list or scan the patient's wristband using an optional barcode scanner, attached to Root, to associate the patient, device, and clinician at the bedside.
The Radius-7® Pulse CO-Oximeter® is a Bluetooth®-enabled wearable monitor used in conjunction with the Root patient monitoring and connectivity platform. Radius-7 provides continuous tetherless monitoring so that patients can ambulate throughout the hospital and have freedom of movement while being continuously monitored. Two "hot-swappable," rechargeable modules with up to 12-hour battery life minimize monitoring interruption and require just one module exchange per shift. The use of single-patient-use armbands minimizes the risk of patient cross contamination.
Masimo offers a variety of spot-check and vital signs measurement solutions, allowing facilities to select the best options for their patient needs and workflows.
Root and Root with noninvasive blood pressure and temperature can be mounted on a mobile roll stand, simplifying workflows by facilitating quick vital signs spot-checking and automatically documenting measurements in electronic medical records during rounds.15 Noninvasive blood pressure technology provides three oscillometric blood pressure measurement modes: spot-check, automatic interval, and stat interval. Accessories include both disposable and reusable cuffs for adult, pediatric, and neonatal patients.
Root also includes a number of additional features, such as the ability to connect to and serve as a hub for third-party devices and the ability to calculate an Early Warning Score (EWS) on demand, allowing clinicians to tailor monitoring to best suit a variety of clinical needs.
Masimo Patient SafetyNet optimizes patient safety and clinician workflows through centralized, supplemental remote monitoring and automated charting. Near real-time information from any connected Masimo device, as well as supported third-party devices such as ventilators, is displayed at a central view station, allowing clinicians to quickly assess the status of up to 200 patients, review trend data, and investigate alarms.
When changes occur in measured values, which may indicate deterioration in a patient's condition, Patient SafetyNet automatically sends wireless alerts directly to clinicians, wherever they may be. In addition, Patient SafetyNet can automate the transfer of patient data, vital signs, early warning scores (EWS), and other physiological parameters directly to hospital electronic medical record (EMR) systems, helping to improve clinician workflows and reduce the possibility of transcription errors.15
Escalation Management — Actionable patient alarm notifications are sent to designated clinicians, with automatic escalation, facilitating immediate patient intervention.
Configure alarm thresholds and delays by patient population to manage alarms
Clinician is notified remotely of alarm at the bedside
If primary clinician does not respond, the alert is escalated to additional clinicians
Masimo's unique approach to device connectivity leverages existing hardware and infrastructure to reduce the cost of connectivity. Iris Gateway and Patient SafetyNet connect Masimo and third-party medical devices' data and alarms to provide streamlined and cost-effective meaningful use of EMR systems.
Hay WW. Reliability of conventional and new oximetry in neonatal patients. J of Perinatol, 2002;22:360-36.
Barker SJ. "Motion-Resistant" Pulse Oximetry: A comparison of new and old models. Anesth Analg. 2002;95(4):967-72.
Shah et al. J Clin Anesth. 2012;24(5):385-91.
Taenzer AH et al. Impact of Pulse Oximetry Surveillance on Rescue Events and Intensive Care Unit Transfers: A Before-And-After Concurrence Study. Anesthesiology. 2010; 112(2):282-287.
Taenzer AH et al. Postoperative Monitoring - The Dartmouth Experience. Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Newsletter. Spring-Summer 2012.
McGrath SP et al. Surveillance Monitoring Management for General Care Units: Strategy, Design, and Implementation. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. 2016 Jul;42(7):293-302.
Patino M. et al. Paediatr Anaesth. 2013 Sep 3.
As a default, EWS on Root is aligned with the NEWS system established by the Royal College of Physicians using seven (7) physiological contributors as the basis of the scoring system. Royal College of Physicians. National Early Warning Score (NEWS): Standardizing the assessment of acute illness severity in the NHS. Report of a working party. London: RCP, 2012
Weinger MB, et al. APSF Newsletter. 2011;26(2):21-40.
The Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert. Issue 49, August 8, 2012. http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/ SEA_49_opioids_8_2_12_final.pdf
Ramsay MAE et al. The accuracy, precision and reliability of measuring ventilatory rate and detecting ventilatory pause by rainbow acoustic monitoring and capnometry. Anesth Analg. 2013 Jul;117(1):69-75.
Applegate RA et al. Advanced Monitoring Is Associated with Fewer Alarm Events During Planned Moderate Procedure-Related Sedation: A 2-Part Pilot Trial. Anesth Analg. 2016;122(4):1070-8.
Macknet MR et al. Accuracy and Tolerance of a Novel Bioacoustic Respiratory Sensor in Pediatric Patients. Anesthesiology. 2007;107:A84. (abstract).
Goudra BG et al. Comparison of Acoustic Respiration Rate, Impedance Pneumography and Capnometry Monitors for Respiration Rate Accuracy and Apnea Detection during GI Endoscopy Anesthesia. Open J Anesthesiol. 2013; 3:74-79.
The Value of Medical Device Interoperability. West Health Institute. 2013.
*The use of the trademark Patient SafetyNet is under license from University HealthSystem Consortium.
Caution: Federal (USA) law restricts this device to sale by or on the order of a physician. See instructions for use for full prescribing information, including indications, contraindications, warnings, and precautions.
The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth® SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Masimo is under license.


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Crush Natural Citrus - 8.5X11 (Letter) Card Stock Paper - 92lb Cover (250gsm) - 250 PK
Looking for Paper, 8-1/2-x-11 with Fiber appearance found in the OffWhite Color Group, 250 GSM (92lb Cover) --learn more about Natural Citrus --Crush Paper. Also, review our popular help pages for paper help. (To make a successful paper selection, it is important to have a brief understanding of text weight and cover weight papers.) AND envelope help (It is important to remember that inserts must always be smaller than the envelope dimensions.)
Crush, Eco-friendly, Natural Citrus 8-1/2-x-11 Paper, 250 GSM (92lb Cover)
This is a unique earth-friendly paper made using process residues from organic products to replace up to 15% of virgin tree pulp. Crush uses natural raw materials that may have simply been used for landfill. By-products from citrus fruits, corn, cocoa, olives, coffee, kiwi fruits, hazelnuts, cherries, lavender and almonds are used along with 30% post consumer recycled waste to create this visibly different and appealing line of papers.
Nicely named by its corresponding by-products, this grouping offers practical shades to complete creative projects with visual appeal and a draw to touch and feel the artistic surface. Produced using 100% green energy along with raw by products, post consumer recycled products causes this paper to boast of reducing the carbon footprint by 20%
PaperPapers sku: CR-6002499-811B-- This product listing is selling as, 250 per package. Find related and matching cardstock, paper and envelopes by jumping to Favini pages and viewing more Crush selections. Light differences may occur in paper shade, inclusions and look as a result of the use of natural raw materials. Suitable for most major print and finishing processes within the scope and limitation of each printer specifications.
Find more details about this product under the more info tab --please contact our team if you have questions.WHS_IN | 2.8 - 158 |
Product type | Paper |
Oversize or Cutting Fee to be applied | No |
Brand | Crush |
Color Name / Brand Specific | Natural Citrus |
Description of color | natural off-white shade with subtle specks of fiber |
Color Range | OffWhite Color Group |
Content Fiber | 30% Recycled/15% Organic |
Finish Appearance | Fiber |
GSM / Basis Wt | 250 GSM (92lb Cover) |
Manufacturer | Favini |
Package Quantity | 250 per package |
Size | 8-1/2-x-11 |
Caliper (Avg) | 13.3 |
Stock Availability | Floor Stock |


text: This project attempts to show you how to make your own home media server from readily available PC components and open source software. The software components we'll be using in this feature are Ubuntu Linux 8.10, Firefly DAAP Server, and MediaTomb. Most newer TVs and game consoles (for example, the PS3) are UPnP capable and allow you to stream content from UPnP-enabled sources. iTunes (Windows) and Rhythmbox (Linux) can play media that is centrally hosted on this type of server – an excellent way to setup a centralized, on-demand audio/video library in your home.


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Swagata Dev's Inspiring Journey as North East's Leading Lifestyle Creator
April 6, 2021Guwahati (Assam): Social media is a relatively new avenue for people to engage themselves. We're all aware of multiple internet personalities who have made a fortune through business and finding a particular niche for themselves.
It's not all easy though.. You have to venture forth into the great abysses of social media and business, with nothing but your determination and vague ideas in your head. Sure, you're liable to fall multiple times.
With lots of hard work, a substantial amount of talent, a decent head for business, and a smattering of luck, you can become a pioneer for people to take inspiration from. This is exactly what Guwahati-based entrepreneur and fashion blogger, Swagata Dev, has managed to accomplish.
Swagata Dev started freelancing as a fashion blogger in 2016, during her college years. During that time, she struggled to gain a foothold in the world of social media influencing. Resources were scarce, and the Indian scenario for fashion blogging and entrepreneurship through social media was still young. Swagata Dev says, "My friend and partner, Rahul Hazarika, introduced me to the different possibilities of fashion blogging through platforms such as Instagram."
Little by little, Swagata learned the ropes of the business. The fact that she hails from the North Eastern side of the country was quite bittersweet for her – "Very few people knew about the type of work I was getting into. Initial days went by me explaining what I do", said Swagata Dev, reflecting on her beginnings. However, she also had the chance to become a pioneer in her field; especially in North-East India. And this is exactly what she did!
As she entered the year 2020, after almost four years in the fashion and beauty blogging industry, her hard work and determination paid off. Swagata Dev has amassed lakhs of followers on Instagram, with some very ardent fans as well!. To add icing to the cake, she has worked with brands in different industries from fashion to lifestyle to travel, such as Amazon, ITC, L'Oreal, Forever New, Mango, Marks & Spencer, Samsung, Nokair, and many more. Not so long back, started out with Travel content, Swagata Dev has also worked with various hotels & resorts. However, little did she know that there was much more to come for the young content creator.
Filmfare Awards 2020 had a special surprise for Swagata Dev : the 24-year-old was invited to the event as an official blogger for Amazon. In fact, she was the only content creator from North-East India to have been in the red carpet of Filmfare! "It felt absolutely amazing, really! I worked hard in my field, but to be invited to such an event, best that Bollywood had to offer, it was a special feeling altogether!" said an ecstatic Swagata.
It's now into the year 2021, and Swagata Dev is working from her home. "My camera, setup and I are the best partners, lockdown has taught me to self shoot as well. I only step out when I need to visit client stores, source or get some outdoor content done", she says. The content creator hopes to continue learning, improving and bringing new aspects to her job, and possibly inspire a few others to bring their own talents into the field. Swagata Dev is a worthy inspiration to many aspiring creators in the North-East; someone that has the potential to tap into much bigger markets and work her way to the top of Lifestyle blogging.
You can check out Swagata Dev's Instagram here at: https://www.instagram.com/swagata_dev/?hl=en


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Warning: things are about to get a little snarky.
Back in October, Bruce Buschel wrote a piece for the New York Times blog, "100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do." Buschel explained this list to be a part of the training manual he would use for an upcoming fine dining seafood restaurant of his, a literal lists of 100 "Don'ts."
This idea of training through a series of do nots instead of through illustrations of what should be done irks me in and of itself, especially as a restaurant manager. I have to admit that I do agree with some of his points, but I found the article to be, well, essentially hating on his staff (what a way to build up morale, Buschel!), without having allowed them a chance to prove that they more than likely already knew a lot of these rules– and that they didn't need to be subjected to a patronizing list. (I printed the list and brought it up to my restaurant to see the reactions — there was a lot of eye rolling and "duh" being thrown around.)
More than anything, this list started to get me fired up, not about things servers should/should never do, but the serious disrespectful faults that I come across with restaurant patrons every day (in every restaurant I've ever worked in). I like to think that some people are just ignorant when it comes to proper restaurant etiquette, but I know that some are just, well, assholes.
I don't have 100 things quite yet, but this list is a definite work in progress, as new disrespectful acts are constantly witnessed. So in that same do-not vein, here is part one.
100 Things Restaurant Patrons Should Never Do
1. Snapping, waving, flailing your arms wildly is really not necessary. You look like a fool, and you're only distracting (and annoying) your server while he or she attends to another table.
2. Do not ignore your server. When he or she approaches with a smile and a greeting, do not stare at your menu, all the while never looking up, and say "Yeah, I'll have the salmon."
3. Do not expect your server to be an octopus, or the god Shiva. Three plates are generally the maximum that a server will carry at a time, and when you're a table of five and three plates are brought by your laden-down server, do not go "And where are our meals?!" It's called a second trip.
4. Interrupting gets you nowhere. Saying "excuse me" loudly while your server is attending to the table next to you is rude to the server and the other table, and generally makes you look like an ass.
5. When dining in a small, heavy-volume restaurant (especially one expected to be a quick serve), do not sit 45 minutes after you have finished all food and drinks and have paid the bill. There is most likely a long wait, and you're ruining everyone's day.
6. Do not ignore the host or hostess. Those people standing at the door and saying hello to you are, in fact, people. Pretending they don't exist will only make your wait for a table longer.
7. Along the same lines, do not attempt to do the host or hostess' job for them. Creating the flow of a restaurant involves a lot more than just sitting people in empty chairs. When there are visible empty tables, it's for a reason– either reservations or a section was triple sat. Never say, "but there is an empty table right there!" unless you like looks of contempt.
9. I cannot repeat this one enough — Never, ever, EVER touch your server or hostess. Do you touch your bank teller? No? Then why do you think that grabbing your server or host/hostess is acceptable? It happens constantly and is inexcusable.
10. Do not stop a server/runner/backwaiter while they're running heavy plates to another table. Heavy. Plates. You and your emergency need for more Splenda in your coffee can wait.
11. Know what you ordered. You're the one who looks like a moron (and angers the entire staff) when you get your baked pasta with pancetta and cry "But I'm a vegetarian!" making us waste a plate of food and make something else for you. If you don't know what something is, ask. It's easier.
12. Be on time, and also know that a reservation is exact. Do not call for a reservation and say "We'll be there between 7:00 and 7:20 or so." No, you'll be here at 7:00, or your table will be given away by 7:15.
13. "Yeah, I'll take" or "Gimme/Get me" are not respectful ways to start a sentence. So don't do it.
14. This almost seems too obvious, but tip your server. Even if you didn't like the food, keep in mind that your server only had anything to do with, well, service. And remember that depending where you are, hourly wages aren't even enough to pay taxes. (Here in MA it's currently $2.63 for servers.)
15. Must you blow your nose on five different tissues and just leave them on your table for your server or backwaiter to pick up? What is this, TGI Fridays? Excuse yourself.
16. LISTEN to your server. When he or she asks if you would like milk, cream or sugar with your coffee, "yes" is not an appropriate answer.
17. This is a tip for non fine dining restaurants, but when your server comes up to the table with three plates on his or her arms, and you have a bread plate and a cup and saucer blocking the entire space in front of you, don't just sit there. Move things, at least until one of the server's hands are free.
18. Asking "What's good today?" is pretty much the same as asking your server "What's inedible here?" putting the server between a rock and a hard place. There is no correct answer to that uncomfortable question — be more specific, asking about particular dishes.
19. This also seems to obvious, but clearly announce any allergies/aversions you may have to your server. The last thing we want is a lawsuit due to the diner's negligence (or the server's, of course).
20. Standing up around your table for 15 minutes at the end of your meal is disrupting to all. If you all need a long time to put on coats/say goodbye, please move it along to the foyer.
21. Whether you're in the industry or not, never tell restaurant employees what they should or shouldn't do – as long as what they're doing isn't hurting or violently offending you, you have no say. Just go somewhere else.
22. I know you think you're being helpful, but please don't stack plates and silverware "for the server." Everyone has different ways that they feel comfortable carrying stacks of plates, and your helpfulness could result in a floor-smashing mess.
23. Don't name drop — it's just tacky, and will not change the fact that every table is currently occupied. Especially do not name drop incorrectly — mispronouncing the name of the owner that you "know so well" will only result in your being mocked by the entire staff for the rest of the night. Because you deserve it.
24. It pains me to have to say this, but the "I'm in the industry" line is never amusing nor helpful, nor will it curry favor. You should know better.
25. Tourists, please don't tip 10% because you know you'll never be back to this restaurant ever again. I have no words for people like you.


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However, I'm going to make an exception for this one because Shadowz' tag coincided with me having a conversation with Rav in one of her comment threads in which she mentioned that I rarely talk about my life beyond SWTOR. Which is true! So I thought I'd use this opportunity to do so. If this isn't something you're interested in, feel free to skip this post - I completely understand.
Anyway, first off, the rules of this "challenge":
Thank the person that nominated you and share a link back to their blog [done]
Post 5 facts about yourself [that's what the main part of this post will be about]
Nominate 15-20 people for this award [seems kind of excessive to me even by chain letter standards, but I will tag a few]
Let the people you nominated know, that you have nominated them
Post the rules so everyone will understand what to do
So, facts about myself:
1. In real life, I work a 9-5 desk job at the moment, which isn't bad, but honestly not very exciting to talk about either. When I get home, I want to immerse myself in something fun instead. Even more so since my employer moved to London a few months ago, introducing a long commute into my work day, which leaves me feeling exhausted every evening. Gaming offers a bit of escapism there, and I don't see that as a bad thing.
2. Both gaming and writing go very far back for me. I actually learned to read and write before I even entered school and started my first diary only a few years later. I've had a Livejournal since 2004, though I only post there very rarely these days.
As far as gaming goes, my father introduced multiple Commodore 64s into our household when I was still very little, and like my older brother I was absolutely fascinated by them. (My mother disapproved of computers and does so to this day.) I loved every opportunity to be allowed to play around on one, even if it was just to load up PrintMaster and plaster a sheet of paper with unicorns surrounded by flowery borders. (It's amazing what sorts of things you find entertaining when you're young.) The first actual game I was allowed to play was called Purple Turtles, a simple game where you play a character that repeatedly crosses a body of water on the backs of the eponymous purple turtles to feed fruit to an owl. That narrative, guys!
3. We soon came into the possession of literally hundreds of games for the C64, all pirated. The problems with the legality of this didn't actually hit me until long after, but at the time I wouldn't even have known how else to acquire computer games. It wasn't until my teens that I actually started seeing them in the shops. Copying your own collection and sharing it with your friends was simply how it was done at the time.
I tried a lot of those games and didn't care for the vast majority at all. I wonder if this explains my immunity to the whole Steam sale phenomenon... I learned at a very young age that an abundance of games isn't necessarily all that much of a blessing. I liked things with colourful graphics and with gameplay that wasn't too stressful. Things that required a lot of jumping around and shooting enemies were sometimes fun to watch over my brother's shoulder, but I just wasn't any good at them and quickly got bored of replaying the first one or two levels over and over (back in the days without save functions). You could say that my gaming preferences showed themselves very early on.
My love for gaming really hit a new stride however when I discovered adventure games after we got our first PC. I remember laughing out loud when Stan the used-boat salesman sold Guybrush Threepwood a ship whose mast fell over the moment it set sail... (and then I wrote all of this down in my diary of course).
4. It didn't take all that long for me to start writing about gaming either. When I finally beat a (to me) challenging adventure game, I started writing up a guide for it... not that I ever expected anyone else to actually read it, but somehow I wanted to preserve the knowledge that I had gained about how to solve all the puzzles really badly. My first real-time strategy game, a Bullfrog title called Gene Wars (which was critically panned and thus quickly forgotten) inspired me to write a sort of fanfic about my units' adventures.
The first online writing I did about games goes back a little over ten years ago, to a game called Neopets (which was also my first experience with online gaming and communities). I was in a guild there whose guild leader ran a small help site for the game and also loved to write, and somehow she eventually came up with the idea for a site called "The Neo Commentary" where she'd write editorials about what was happening in the game. Me and a couple of other guildies were invited to write for it as well, and I became the most regular contributor aside from the owner herself. However, she eventually lost interest in the game and took the site down.
5. I've talked a lot about my origins in gaming now, which was a topic that was making the rounds at some point last year or so. I remember that I found it very interesting at the time, but was also a bit sad to find out how little I had in common with most other bloggers in terms of gaming origins. A lot of people mentioned consoles and Mario, but I've actually never owned a console (unless you count my brother's discarded Sega Game Gear... but nobody seems to have fond memories of a Sega console).
Oddly, for all my love of computers, I've never been hugely interested in consoles. I have played a few games on those of friends over time of course, but I've always been a bit put off by their limitations. I realise it's quite hypocritical to say this considering how much time I spend using my PC to play games, but being able to also use the PC for other, more useful things has always set it apart from consoles for me, with the latter coming away as mere "toys" in comparison that offer a very bad value for money proposition in my opinion.
Bullet points or not, that was probably even more than five facts about me, and I even managed to stay at least vaguely on topic by focusing on my relationship with gaming! Now for the "tagging" part. As I mentioned above, I think 15-20 is a bit excessive. (Who else are they supposed to tag then? We'll use everyone up really quickly!) However, I will still tag...
- Zerne of Zerneblog because he hasn't posted in aaages and I know he's around!
- Mhorgrim of For A Few Credits More if he isn't totally overwhelmed by other things
- Targeter from Imperial Intelligence because he's always good at randomness
- Njessi of Hawtpants of the Old Republic because we need more posts from her!
- Calphaya from
Spawn of the Dread Master (for now)Galactic Antics because he also doesn't talk much about himself