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A grand inauguration
A few days ago we had mentioned how the Ambani-run Reliance Foundation was leaving no stone unturned to make the Harkisandas Hospital in Girgaon, said to be one of Nita Ambani's dream projects, a world-class institution and one of the foremost in the city
A few days ago we had mentioned how the Ambani-run Reliance Foundation was leaving no stone unturned to make the Harkisandas Hospital in Girgaon, said to be one of Nita Ambani's dream projects, a world-class institution and one of the foremost in the city.
And now word comes in that the hospital will be inaugurated at the end of the month by one who is in the top echelons of the government.
Nita Ambani
It doesn't get bigger than this.
Kashyap and Scorsese?
Contrary to the perceived notion that the release of the much-awaited Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar, said to be the director's most adventurous outing so far has been delayed due to budgeting issues, our sources say that the real reason for pushing the release to next year is because Kashyap has been in touch with top Hollywood director Martin Scorsese (they are said to belong to a mutual admiration society) who has agreed to present the film for a worldwide release!
Anurag Kashyap
Scorsese, Kashyap and Kapoor together- if that happens it's a movie buff's dream come true!
Ranbir Kapoor
Martin Scorsese
Bigger planes and better suites
A piquant aspect of the very rich is of course the fact that they can never be rich enough. There's always someone with a bigger home, a flashier car, a better jet.
And this aspect of the lives of poor little rich boys and girls was noticed during the visit of a super rich private club to a Middle-Eastern state recently. "Who flew in on their private jet, who came by commercial airlines, was a topic of great concern amongst the members of one of the country's most elite young person's business forums," says a lady, given to pithy observations on human nature. "Of course, the next thing was who got to stay in the hotel's Presidential Suite" she said smiling, as she took a tiny sip of her favourite Golden Moon Rasa Sinharaja Black Tea.
Meeting Zuckerberg
"When you get a mail saying, 'Would you like to join us for a lunch and keynote by Mark Zuckerberg', you don't wait to reply! You quickly jab 'yes' and then re-plan your calendar." It was our friend, the dashing founder CEO of Games2win Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal on his lunch with The Man last week.
Mark Zuckerberg. Pic/PTI
"The Internet Pundits of India landed up at the Taj Palace Hotel, Delhi on Thursday, October 9 for a rather exclusive brush with The God of the Internet – Zucky Baba. I mean we have aapro Zubin so why not a Zucky Baba?" he says.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal with Cherie Blaire
"The keynote session was preceded by a very private luncheon in the Blue Ginger restaurant at the hotel, hosted by the gracious, affable and most definitely huggable Kirthiga Reddy – MD of Facebook India. She had assembled Facebook partners, friends and industry veterans to be up close and personal for the Zuckerberg address."
And what about er 'Zucky Baba'?
"All of a sudden, Kirthiga announced, "Hey, let's rush… The doors are going to open and we don't want to be outnumbered by the crowds..."
"A few minutes later, a rather diminutive, shy, college-looking bloke in a grey flannel t-shirt, jeans and Nike shoes (which had some dust on them) appeared. My God, he was Zuckerberg himself! He looked like a young teenager put on by conspiracy rather than design!"
"I found the experience humbling," Says Kejriwal. "Here was the most successful entrepreneur on earth still making a fervent pitch and trying to make us believe."
At home with Pallavi
She's been celebrated for her style and is one of Sobo's acknowledged grande dames, which is why Sunday evening saw a swathe of some of the city's leading lights attend the launch of Pallavi Jaikishan's exhibition of exquisite home furnishings created and curated by her from all over the world. Held at the Dhanrajgir enclave, easily one of the city's most elegant housing colonies, we spotted Rajashree Birla, Harsh and Archana Mariwala, Lakshmi and Aishwarya Nair, Sabira Merchant, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, Archana Goel, Gopi and Vinod Grover, Kanchan Desai and Champa Doshi, at the elegant soiree.
Pallavi Jaikishan with Kanchan Desai
Precious Salon at Saatchi
It's been an iconic part of Sobo's grooming rituals, and the captains of industry who have bowed their heads to its barbers are legion, but how often does one's corner barbershop find its way into the Saatchi Art Gallery?
Rocky Malhotra
Which is why when we saw the words 'Super Max, Precious Hair Cutting Salon, Breach Candy Mumbai', followed by the words 'Supermax exhibit at The Saatchi Art Gallery in Chelsea today' we contacted our friend Rocky Malhotra, the LA-based international blade tycoon and Supermax's dashing head honcho.
Supermax Exhibit at Saatchi Gallery
"Actis had their tenth year anniversary at The Saatchi Art Gallery in Chelsea," he said, referring to the London-based private equity firm, "and for it they commissioned the renowned photographer Harry Cory White to do a series of works on companies that they are associated with. And when it came to Supermax, the object was a barbershop," he said, adding, "Just the artist's way of portraying the Supermax Company."
Singled out for honour
Pramod Kapoor, founder publisher of Roli Books was singled out for honour at the recently concluded Frankfurt book fair by being featured at the famous walkway concourse, a leitmotif of the institution. "Our publisher, Pramod Kapoor was celebrated for his contribution to international publishing," says Roli Book's attractive commissioning editor, his daughter Priya. "His quote which was portrayed on all the banners was '... I am here because this is my 35th year at Frankfurt book fair. Every year I go back as a better publisher'."
Pramod Kapoor
And what is he working on now, we enquired.
"Two books, both on Gandhi! One is a pictorial biography and the other is his own book that he has been researching and writing called 'My Experiment with Gandhi' - Outlook carried an extract last week," she says.


text:
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no people, horizontal, indoors, day, part of, auto post production filter, food, healthy eating, plate, ornate, close up, caprese salad, tomato, mozarella, basil, dish, spring onion, cheese, green, kitchen, platter, mozzarella, white, red, sound recording, plant, dairy product, room, onion, herb, phonograph record, green onion, recording, crimson, produce, vegetable, disc
Tomato, mozzarella, basil, platter, food, kitchen, vsco, foodporn, red, white, green, nomnom

subset: commoncrawl


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I don't think I have written a blog entry about my parent's Scuba gallery before, but this might as well be the first if it is. I just finished uploading the last batch of pictures to my parent's scuba gallery from their trip to Roatan last month. Check out the photo's as soon as you get a chance, because a lot of them are just plain amazing!
My intentions is to get a blog setup on their site soon so they can make entries about the trips they go on. Hopefully I can get that setup and them taught how to use it on my next trip out there over the 4th of July weekend.


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Earlier, Google had reported its queries statistics update, but this time Google has created a small landing page named Google Internet Stats on the Google UK front. The page is a bunch of statistics collected from various sources. It has been done so that the users can get insight about technology, consumer trends, media consumption and so on, get random stats, search for stats, or submit their own statistic.
Let us have a look at some bits from Google's site:
- "There are 1.6 billion people online worldwide, representing nearly 24% of the world's population." (Internetworldstats.com, April 2009)
- "According to a study done by OTX, 33% of young people (12 – 24 year olds) globally (UK, US, Germany, India and Japan) are contactable at all times, even in their sleep." (OTX Research, March 2009)
- "On the phenomenon of 'continuous partial attention': over 25% of Internet users surveyed in the UK, FR, DE, IT, US, and Japan in October 2008 said they go onto the Internet at the same time as watching TV 'most of the time'." (Ofcom, November 2008)
There other lots of stats such as "Users are 1.5 times more attentive when browsing YouTube than when watching TV." – source: "Motorola (with Mindshare) and GM, partnered with YouTube, December 2008". So changes in stats are ongoing process for Google.


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He was in the final breakaway with eventually winner, Dirk Demol. I remember watching on TV both riders getting ready for the run into Roubaix(it finished on the streets that year), when suddenly a plastic bag strayed into poor Wegmüller's derailleur. The plastic bag jammed and even with the futile attempts from his team mechanic nothing would work. The tank was helpless. Demol easily won, hitting the line in just over 6 hours, 34 mins. Wegmüller dejected limps in, 2 seconds after. And a super fit Laurent Fignon came in 3rd, almost 2 minutes later.
The Swiss rider became a cult hero. Here's to 'the tank', remembered for his gutsy ride and for his ... his bad luck!


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Updated 5:27 p.m.: Clarified net neutrality. Thanks, commenter jmalkin.
The Federal Communications Commission will fight to keep Internet service providers from limiting access to Web sites that could slow down networks, The Hill newspaper reports.
"One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation of net neutrality principles," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told The Hill.
Genachowski, a President Obama appointee, is just two months on the job. He is a staunch supporter of net neutrality, and helped write Obama's tech policy as an adviser, according to The Hill.
He took over June 29 from Kevin Martin, a George W. Bush appointee who also supported net neutrality, in the midst of a legal battle against Comcast. The cable provider is challenging the FCC's authority to penalize Internet service providers for limiting certain users' access to particular Web sites.
Last year, the FCC targeted Comcast for limiting access to BitTorrent, a popular program that lets users download torrent files from file-sharing Web sites. Comcast challenged the penalty in court, arguing it can't maintain high data-transfer speeds when certain users clog up bandwidth on the network.
The practice of limiting Web access is known as "throttling."
More information and background on net neutrality can be found on PBS's MediaShift blog. Read The Hill's full report here.


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Please complete the form below to send us your business requirements and one of our representative shall get in touch with you shortly. All the information provided by you below will be kept strictly confidential and will not be shared with anyone.


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Enter keywords, ISBN, author, or book title
Home > Resources: Author Profiles > Author Profile
Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) was a writer who for more than forty years championed innovative, community-based approaches to urban planning. Her 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities became perhaps the most influential text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of planners and activists.
Photo © Toronto Star Syndicate
Dickens's widely read satirical account of the Industrial Revolution. Dickens creates the Victorian industrial city of Coketown, in northern England, and its unforgettable citizens, such as the unwavering utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind and the factory owner Josiah Bounderby, and the result is his famous critique of capitalist philosophy, the exploitative force he... Read more
In this eye-opening work of economic theory, Jane Jacobs argues that it is cities—not nations—that are the drivers of wealth. Challenging centuries of economic orthodoxy, in Cities and the Wealth of Nations the beloved author contends that healthy cities are constantly evolving to replace imported goods with locally-produced alternatives, spurring a...
In this indispensable book, urban visionary Jane Jacobs argues that as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future, we're at risk of cultural collapse. Jacobs—renowned author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities—pinpoints five pillars of our culture that are in serious decay: community and family; higher...
Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of its initial publication, this special edition of Jane Jacobs's masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, features a new Introduction by Jason Epstein, the book's original editor, who provides an intimate perspective on Jacobs herself and unique insights into the creation...
A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. In prose... Read more
In this book, Jane Jacobs, building on the work of her debut, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, investigates the delicate way cities balance the interplay between the domestic production of goods and the ever-changing tide of imports. Using case studies of developing cities in the ancient, pre-agricultural world... Read more
From the revered author of the classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities comes a new book that will revolutionize the way we think about the economy.Starting from the premise that human beings "exist wholly within nature as part of natural order in every respect," Jane Jacobs has focused... Read more
With intelligence and clarity of observation, the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities addresses the moral values that underpin working life. In Systems of Survival, Jane Jacobs identifies two distinct moral syndromes—one governing commerce, the other, politics—and explores what happens when these two syndromes collide. She... Read more
A career-spanning selection of previously uncollected writings and talks by the legendary author and activist No one did more to change how we look at cities than Jane Jacobs, the visionary urbanist and economic thinker whose 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities started a global conversation that remains... Read more
In this powerful book we enter the world of Jurgis Rudkus, a young Lithuanian immigrant who arrives in America fired with dreams of wealth, freedom, and opportunity. And we discover, with him, the astonishing truth about "packingtown," the busy, flourishing, filthy Chicago stockyards, where new world visions perish in a jungle of human suffering. Upton Sinclair, master of... Read more
The Innocents Abroad is one of the most prominent and influential travel books ever written about Europe and the Holy Land. In it, the collision of the American "New Barbarians" and the European "Old World" provides much comic fodder for Mark Twain—and a remarkably perceptive lens on the human condition. Gleefully... Read more
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The last Friday of January. Already. Why am I surprised? Time just keeps ticking whether I'm paying attention or not. On the upside, we have sunshine after days and days and days of rain. By Saturday we may see 72 degrees here on the coast. I'm ready!For those of you waiting for a full pattern for the AMH EPP quilt, I'm working on it! The quilt is done and as you can see, has full cat approval. For those of you looking for the Finlandia pattern (the quilt in Jane Sassaman's Scandia collection) but unable to find it on the MakeItCoats site, I'm hosting the file here until it's uploaded to Coats. Here's a link.
I have Heather Bailey's Hello, Love on the cutting table, ready to start cutting pieces for a throw sized quilt. If all goes well this weekend, and I don't catch Mr P's cold, I might have a quilt top to show you on Monday. Cross your fingers!
Have a great weekend, everyone!


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Because so many women do it voluntarily. A man would never intentionally 'torture' himself in public, let alone for hours at a time.
yeah yeah - heard the same thing about child birth - seen you girls do both......men may be wimps - but high heels and child birth look like torture to me.....
Like Tony Curtis said in 'Some Like It Hot'....'It must be the way the weight is distributed.'
They don't care how it feels; they care about what it looks like. And since we know that, and that wearing heels makes our legs look longer and more slender and sexy, we'll deal with the pain to get the attention. Yes, it's ridiculous... unless you can find a pair that feel good. I have two pair.
wellies are more practical
I believe it isn't a torture for some, I have known enough women who loved wearing them, and torture for others... as I've known a lot of women who complain about anything other than flat shoes.
I'm a woman and it is for me. I very seldom wear them.
Several females I know complain about it all the time so how can you not assume it to be torture? They also look uncomfortable, but Ill never know hahaha
It is torture when there walking on my back
Because they are not wearing the heels and it look so hard to do to them.
It probably isn't. Hard, that is. I'm sure wearing high heels sucks. They were first invented so concubines couldn't escape easily.
Cause so many do it so well it sucks for those of us with feet that love our tennies.
It's hard for me to believe, and I'm a woman. I can't walk in heels. Way too uncomfy. I know many women who like them though and seem to walk fine in them...I suppose I am just off balance lol
I never found them attractive.. the high heels that is :)
Unlike myself, most men haven't taken the time to find out about the wearing of heels, so they really aren't qualified either way. The assumption that high heels are feet torturers has been rooted in women trying to wear heels that don't really fit properly. Each person's feet are individually constructed and no two feet are exactly the same, which makes it hard to find the right heels for comfort and fit. Most high heels are somewhat form fitting more than other types of footwear. If your feet can not adapt to the form of the heels comfortably, then they will seem like torture applicators by wearing them. Some high heels should have a period of familiarization or breaking in before wearing them on a more extended basis.

Now, I have many pairs of comfortable heels at different heights, that came from a lot of sampling and experience. It has to do with the way they fit the needs of my feet to feel comfortable. This could depend on many factors, such as: the materials used, the quality of the heels, the contoured shape of the footwear fitting the shape of my feet, the abilities of my feet to adapt to the specifications of the heels, whether or not I have foot and ankle limitations for the height and style I want to wear, how much prior time I have already spent on my feet that day, and so on.
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White Rabbit Skincare
In the words of brand creator, Melanie Blane, 'Go Natural. Go Vegan. Go White Rabbit Skincare'. Based in Scotland, White Rabbit Skincare is a luxury vegan skincare company focusing on natural products, environmental issues and animal welfare. All products are small batch, hand made and harness the therapeutic aspects of essential oils, base oils, butters and waxes, each helping to nourish and nurture your skin. This company prides itself on sourcing packaging which is fully recyclable (if not already recycled!) to minimise the impact on the environment and will never use animal-derived ingredients (such as beeswax), Parabens, SLS, Silicones, mineral oils or derivatives of petrochemicals, artificial fragrances, artificial colours or ingredients containing EDTA, PEGs' or Phthalates. This is forward thinking skincare with a conscience.


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Most statistics state than shyness is somewhat more common for girls than for guys. Nevertheless, make no mistake about it, there are heaps of shy guys out there, and many of them are in fact extremely inhibited.
These guys feel anxious in social situations and they feel particularly anxious around girls, especially the ones they find attractive. They have trouble engaging in conversations and keeping them going, they hide their sexual side, they are often invisible to the girls they like, and if they're not they often get friend-zoned by these girls.
Unsurprisingly, their social life in general and their dating life in particular look pretty gloomy. And taking care of this issue is one of the most valuable actions they can accomplish.
As a social confidence coach, I work with shy guys on daily basis. Over time, this allowed me to see certain recurring patterns regarding why they are shy and how they can fix this. So, in this article, I'd like to share with you my most important findings.
The Making of Shy Guys
Generally speaking, shyness is the result of an overestimation of the risks social situations pose for you. But what these perceived risks are exactly, why they are perceived and what they signify varies from one person to another, and it varies based on gender as well.
I discovered that shy guys have two limiting beliefs in particular, which feed their timidity.
Firstly, shy guys perceive themselves as losers.
Success and status are very important for men. On average, they are significantly more important for them than they are for women. Men are especially competitive, achievement-seeking and results-oriented.
If a guy doesn't see himself as successful and as having a good status, if he thinks other guys are better than him, he will tend to feel inferior and insecure.
Of course, success and status are very relative and the problem is that shy guys distort the reality in their heads and make themselves seem much, much worse than they are. And this generates unreasonable coyness.
Secondly, shy guys perceive themselves as sexually unattractive.
Even if they may seem themselves as successful, they still don't see themselves as sexy. Deep down, they believe that a woman could never be sexually interested in them.
This is why they regularly try to compensate for their alleged lack of sexual attractiveness by being extremely nice with girls they like, paying a lot of attention to them or buying them expensive gifts.
Yet again, this lack of sexual attractiveness is merely a figment of their imagination, a result of some very faulty stereotypes used to understand human sexuality. It has little to do with the objective reality.
Now that you have a better understanding of the problem shy guys have, let's talk about the solution.
From Shy Guy to Social Guy
A lot of shy guys appear to deem that their lack of social confidence is the result of their shortages in terms of success, status, looks, charisma or sexual experience.
Although these shortages may be to some degree real and they can be contributing factors to shyness, their role is only secondary. As I already alluded to, as a shy guy, the primary source of your shyness is your faulty thinking, not the way you are as a person.
Whatever your condition may be, trust me, I know several guys in the exact same condition who are very confident socially and have no problems making friends or enticing members of the opposite sex.
But your thinking amplifies your flaws, even invents false ones, and embellishes their meaning. This takes places automatically when you're in social situations, and generates your feelings of anxiety and hesitancy to just be social.
Obviously, the solution is weeding out these automatic thinking patterns and replacing them with more accurate ones. It's a step by step process which entails:
- Indentifying unrealistic thoughts you have in social settings;
- Challenging and correcting these thoughts;
- Gradually developing a more social behavior;
- And being persistent with this process.
This is a just a gross outline of the process. I'd like to show you in more detail how to implement it effectively. For this purpose I have created a special video presentation for you.
Go here now to check out the presentation and learn how the psychological process of changing your thinking and eliminating limiting beliefs works. You'll get a lot of value out of it.
Unfortunately, shy guys miss out on a lot on life. I should know: I used to be one. You notice other guys making friends, having girlfriends and enjoying social interactions, while you're just being an observer, waiting for something to simply fall in your lap. But it almost never does, and if it does, you're not able to leverage it.
The good news is that you can change all of this. You can take charge your thinking, eradicate your limiting beliefs and gain the social confidence you want. All you need is the right guidance and the wiliness to apply it consistently. The improvements will follow naturally.
Image courtesy of Ed Yourdon


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|Synth Site: EMU: ESI-32 Sample Module: User reviews Add review
|Average rating: 4.3 out of 5
|page 6 of 8: <<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>>
|Alahazred a part-timer user from UK writes:
At last, a piece of music gear that does what it says it'll do in the ads... It records sections of digital audio, then allows you to play them back from a keyboard. Brilliant! It also has resonant filters, timestreeeetttttccccchhhhh, parametric EQ (doesn't do much?), doppler effect (wierd) and some transient merge thing that is guaranteed to transform your cheesey old sample into unusable squeeky muffle after a half hour wait. Yum. It doesn't do: pitch bends of more than 7 semitones, no reading of WAV's, no writing of samples in a form recognisable to the outsiede world, no sysex of mention, no sensiblly organized sample directory structure - you often have to have the same sample copied into every bank that uses it. The key entry bit is really tedious - is it just me or does everyone else spend more time naming the samples than actually sampling them? It's good, though. I like it and would just love to be able to afford the Calamari expansion, as the only real weakness is the original 4 outputs.
|Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Aug-26-1998 at 09:57
|Sergey Sokolov (SergXp50) a part time user from Moscow, Russia writes:
ESi's digital processing of samples is extremely slow.
It has some very interesting fx, for example,
"Transform Multiply" function, but calculation of a
5-second sample takes 30-40 minutes :( Of course most
fx can be processed externally in computer making
SCSI interface a must-have.
|Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Aug-05-1998 at 23:38
|Aural B a hobbyist user from USA writes:
I just bought the esi-32 yesterday and I'm already making fat beats...Very easy to use (i only had experience with phrase samplers before I got this beauty) Zip drive, as anyone will tell you is a must. I wonder why co.'s even bother putting floppy drives in their samplers anymore. They've become all but impracticle.
|Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Aug-05-1998 at 23:38
|JASON KLEIN a professional user from MIAMI writes:
I have an ESI-32 with 32 megs and a Zip drive. I play a lot of dance music and alternative. I do a lot of programming with my ESI-32. It is very simple to learn and use. I am always looking to share ideas and tips with other ESI-32 users who try to mimic analog filter sounds and effects. Great sampler. I recommend getting a Zip.
|Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Aug-05-1998 at 23:38
|Andrew Glover from Lincs, England writes:
Great Sampler, I mean Great.
I Use it with 8 meg + Zip. The Zip(or an external drive like it) is the
definitive add on for this sampler, transforming it into a far more powerful
and creative tool.
I belive the usual internal floppy drive found on samplers like this will soon
be replaced by hard drives like the Zip. Anyway, back to the sampler. I could afford the S2000 or the Esi, but there was
only one real choice.
|Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Aug-05-1998 at 23:38
|page 6 of 8: <<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>>


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If you grew up in the late 80's early 90's you probably remember the death of hair metal or glam rock and the cross to grunge. If you were a musician this was a dark time. Not because everyone put away the lipstick and man thongs, but because almost all the playing went away. We traded singers that had really practiced and learned their craft (think Jani Lane) for Curt Cobain who showed us that pitch really didn't matter all that much. We traded guitar players like Nuno Bettencort for … Well …. Curt Cobain. Granted, the 80's thing totally got played out and a change was needed.
Now the grunge era wasn't a total loss, we had Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and the first couple of STP discs to name a few. After that they really tried to embrace the retro just a bit too much for me. But in the end a lot of the sucky talentless bands start to die off and the STP's and AIC's which are still spun on the radio today survived. In my opinion because there was still musicianship in those bands. While Cantrell wasn't giving anyone at the time sweep picking lessons he was showing us some of the coolest striped down groove riffs on the radio. And when he did bust into a solo it was thought out and melodic and had some value. As a guitar player I had no problem appreciating players like Dimebag and Cantrell from the same perspective.
But, enough about my growing years. This is about STP sucking and doing what unfortunately they tend to do a lot live. In an article found at concertaddicts.ca they paint a pretty good picture of what a typical STP show is. It seems every year or so a story like this floats around the interwebs here is a clip below…
("Scott Weiland is a fucking selfish asshole" proclaimed one very drunk and very angry concert-goer at last nights Stone Temple Pilots show in Abbotsford at the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre.
I think many attendees from last night concert would agree with this statement, it was a fucking train wreck. After the band delayed their start time by nearly 2 full hours, they came out and played a mediocre set. Weiland was never really present, he always seemed far away. He sang a mumbled mix of inaudible moans. Although a good portion of the notes he sprayed over the crowd were in tune and in time with the rest of the group, the real words were lost in his mind. It was like a really horrible cross-over between junky-rock and that Sigur Rós made-up-word approach to singing.)
It's unfortunate, because when Weiland is on, he's a total champ!! Remember how Velvet Revolver sounded at first?? Please take a minute to read the rest of the article at concertaddicts.ca HERE


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CORVALLIS — The Oregon State football team learned Thursday that linebacker Michael Doctor has been granted a fifth year of eligibility by the Pac-12 Conference.
CORVALLIS — The Oregon State football team learned Thursday that linebacker Michael Doctor has been granted a fifth year of eligibility by the Pac-12 Conference.
Doctor, who has not redshirted, suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the second game of 2013 — a 33-14 victory over Hawaii Sept. 7 at Reser Stadium.
"I'm very excited to have another year," Doctor said. "Last year was bittersweet for me. I had a chance to learn from a coaching perspective and watch guys like Jabral (Johnson) and Rommel (Mageo) grow and I think from all of this it will make me a smarter player."
The Tulsa, Okla., native qualified for a medical hardship for the 2013 season by meeting several criteria, most notably that he did not play in more than four of the first six games of the year per NCAA rules.
The 2013 co-team captain has a team-leading 185 career tackles, including 17.5 for loss, and three interceptions. He is part of deep linebacker class that has eight returning lettermen for the '14 season.
"From a football standpoint, I'm very excited to have Michael back. He solidifies our outside linebacker depth," OSU football coach Mike Riley said. "From a personal standpoint, Michael has meant a great deal to this team not only on the field, but off as a captain and a true leader. Having No. 40 back in the lineup is a huge plus for the defense."
Doctor has met requirements for his bachelor's degree in human development and family studies and is working toward a minor in sociology.
Doctor will be on the field for spring practice on March 31.


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Bag bans, bottle backlash, wrap rage...in terms of public perception, 2011 was a year many players in the plastics packaging realm would rather forget. But as the new year begins the old year's battles are far from finished, with plastics fighting to hold on to packaging ground it long ago won from glass, aluminum, and paper. Plastic in many applications will no longer be able to stand on its own; only by emphasizing lightweighting, renewable content, recycled content, or spoilage impact, will plastics be able to continue to grow market share in packaging.
1. Lightweighting in primary packaging has run its course: Anyone who's handled a bottled water lately knows that brandowner and packaging suppliers' work to lighten their products has reached a tipping point. Any less material in today's water bottle, for instance, and the transformation from rigid to flexible package is complete. As a result, look for brandowners and retailers, at the vocal behest of their customers, to start targeting wasteful or unnecessary secondary and tertiary packaging, reexamining goods from the case, carton and pallet level, all of which could mean continued changes for the primary packaging component....
Read more


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Caring adults can have a significant impact on the lives of San Francisco public school students. Volunteers serve as powerful role models that help students know they have a personal champion and help them build a deeper connection with their education.
The San Francisco Education Fund's K-12 Tutoring & Classroom Support Program engages community volunteers to actively build relationships, resiliency and academic skills with students. Volunteers fill a variety of roles in K-12 classrooms across San Francisco public schools.
- Tutors work with students one-on-one or in small groups in academic subjects, like English, math and science, or in enrichment subjects, like art and music.
- Classroom Assistants support a teacher in a variety of capacities in his/her classroom. They can help the teacher prep for lessons and set-up classroom activities, or work with students one-on-one or in small groups.
This program started more than 50 years ago, when Gretchen de Baubigny visited a classroom in San Francisco's Western Addition to read aloud to students. Soon after, a student asked her when she would be back. Gretchen saw an opportunity to engage the San Francisco community in our public schools, to provide one-on-one attention students need to excel.
Want to become a tutor or classroom assistant? Sign up to volunteer.


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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- With the rich getting richer in China and the middle class still in rapid expansion mode, rising disposable incomes in the country is affording Chinese travelers the ability to embark on more and more unique travel adventures than ever.
Beijing-based e-commerce travel site Qunar (QUNR) has managed to work itself into a strong position of being able to serve these travelers by giving them the tools they need to research, explore and buy highly customized travel experiences through the convenience of the web and mobile devices.
A record 168 billionaires made it to Forbes' China Rich List this year, up from 113 last year. According to Bloomberg, China's per-capita disposable income has accelerated four-fold since 2000.
Even with strong travel demand in China, the overall infrastructure of the Chinese travel industry remains surprisingly underserved and disjointed. The total market is divided between state-owned companies, offline agencies and a number of online services. In the U.S., consumers can easily choose between a vast number of online travel services sites to pull up all the comprehensive bookings information they need with a quick search of the Internet. Such an option still isn't as prevalent in China, despite the country having already exceeded the U.S. on the population of web and mobile phone users.
Qunar has recognized this services gap, and as a strong strategic ally of China's second-largest Internet company Baidu (BIDU), which holds 58.8% of Qunar's voting power, has been building up its online travel services business since 2005. The company aggregates and processes highly fragmented travel product information from tens of thousands of travel service providers into an organized and user-friendly display through its proprietary technology. It ranked number one among all non-state-owned online travel companies in China based on monthly unique visitors since 2010, according to Internet consultant iResearch. According to Nielsen, Qunar was the most visited travel website in China as of June 2012.
The company, which has drawn comparisons with Priceline.com (PCLN)-owned Kayak, has seen revenues increase to RMB 501.7 million ($81.7 million) in 2012, up from RMB 123.9 million in 2010, as the online travel market in China grew at a compound annual growth rate of 36.9% in the 2008 to 2012 period. Qunar's active web users grew to 29.7 million in 2012 from 12.6 million in 2010, and active mobile user ship increased to 10.4 million in 2012 from 80,000 in 2010. Active web user and active mobile user figures stood at 31.4 million and 17.6 million, respectively for the 12-month period ended June 30. The company estimates that as of June 30, there were more than 100 million downloads of its mobile apps.
Qunar, which means "Where to go" in Mandarin Chinese, went public on the Nasdaq last week to help fuel investments into Qunar's technology, infrastructure, and services. In reflection of the robust confidence in Qunar's business proposition, shares soared by as much as 133% to an intraday high of $34.99. The company had priced about 11.1 million American depositary shares at $15 a share the evening before, above the expected range of $12 to $14.
Jenna Qian, the company's head of investor relations, said during an interview with TheStreet on Monday that the IPO had a strong showing also with the help of steps the company had taken to eradicate any fears tied to the accounting scandals that marred Chinese technology stocks over the last several years. On Wednesday, Qunar shares closed ahead by 5.89% to $28.06.
Andrea Tse: How long were you waiting for market conditions to ripen for an IPO?
Jenna Qian: I think Qunar has been ready for an IPO a long time ago. For us, it's a very natural process of company growth and development, and now I think the investor appetite is here, and the macro is good, so I think it's a very natural step for us.
Tse: What would you say were the key drivers behind the demand for your initial public offering?
Qian: I think it comes down to the fundamentals of our business. Firstly, we are in a hugely growing market. The Chinese online travel market is growing at about 33% CAGR, so the growth is tremendous and the online penetration for the Chinese travel industry is relatively low. It's only seven percent. Versus the U.S., it's about 40%. So we have huge growth potential. And secondly, in this online travel market, we are the leading player. We are a 100% online. We are a technology company. So that puts us in a very sweet spot. We are the leading search-based commerce platform in China. So it's a very good value proposition for us. And then thirdly, I think investors have known us for some time. As a Chinese company, I think we stand out in terms of corporate governance. Our CFO came into the company three years ago. So normally Chinese companies only hire CFOs right before an IPO. So for us, we've had him here for almost four years, and he understands our business. He's very involved in the operational details. And we also engaged independent directors, the Big Four, also legal counsel a long time ago, like three or four years ago. Right now we're using Ernst & Young because Baidu uses Ernst & Young.
So that's actually quite rare for a Chinese company, to set a very high standard for our corporate governance. And now today among our board members, four out of seven are independent directors.
Tse: How has Qunar benefited from Baidu's controlling stake in the company?
Qian: Yeah, Baidu invested in us for $306 million in 2011. Since then, they have become our majority shareholder. I think our relationship with Baidu, first of all is a strategic alliance. Baidu is the leading general search in China and we are the leading travel vertical search in China. So there's a lot of natural fit between our businesses. We can have a lot of cooperation on the R&D level, so our engineers talk to each other to share the R&D ideas. But if you look at our operation, we run pretty independently from Baidu. Our management is still the same as before Baidu. So Baidu has set a very good example on strategic investments. I think they've intentionally kept us independent from their system in terms of daily operations. They gave us enough independence and freedom to run the business because they know that we are the best in terms of vertical search. So it's a very healthy, positive relationship between us.
Tse: What are some Chinese travel industry trends or patterns that Qunar is uniquely positioned to benefit from?
Qian: I think compared to the U.S. market, the Chinese market is still in the relatively early stage. We think online travel booking has taken off over the past few years. As you can see, in China's travel industry, most of the travel agencies have been offline, right? Those are like a lot of state-owned travel agencies who were dominant in the market. And then in the 1990s, Ctrip came up as the leading online travel agency. They were the disruptor back then. But their business still largely relies on call centers. They have over 10,000 people in call centers. And now, in the 2000s, the business involves us. Qunar is now the leading search platform. You know, we are the new disruptor to the industry. You know, we brought technology, we brought search technology to consumers. Chinese consumers have the platform, have the entry point to compare prices and products across the whole internet for the first time ever. So I think this is like you know ... it comes in a two-way interaction. First of all, we see the trend. The consumer trend is taking off. And secondly we are also driving the online movement of the consumer behavior. And then the last thing to mention is that the mobile penetration in China is really ahead of the curve. It's even more ahead of the curve than the U.S. and Europe sometimes. For example, our mobile app has received over 100 million downloads by Q2 of this year. And then in Q3, our mobile revenue has already contributed to 14.5% of our total revenue and we only started to monetize it July of last year. So that was fairly recent and the growth is very fast. So I think the Chinese market will be more similar to the Japan market when it comes to mobile development. In Japan, according to some industry players there, they said that mobile penetration has already reached 40% to 60% of the total market. And for us, over the next few years, China could be able to reach that level.
Tse: Are there any travel destinations or vacation experiences that have been particularly popular with Chinese travelers?
Qian: Well they're willing to do anything, you know, from the North Pole to South Pole. I think you can find Chinese everywhere.
Tse: What's your long-term outlook on the travel industry in China?
Qian: I think no matter how the macro economy is, I think we're staying, as I mentioned. I think the overall, the size is huge, and it still keeps a growth rate of around 10%. And within the travel industry, we're seeing online travel growth at 33% right. So the growth will continue, it is anticipated to continue. And then the other thing is Chinese consumers having more disposable income from their pockets and also the realization of the lifestyle upgrades, right ... they're travelling more. You know, they're simply doing more leisure travel. And for us, our main target audience are leisure travelers. You know, they are FITs, frequent independent travelers. So we think that maybe ten years ago, most of the Chinese travelers, they will go on travel tour, right? Led by those travel guides. But not anymore. I think as they are more educated, as they have more experience with different cultures around the world, I think they are more willing to have a more personalized experience.
Tse: What other measures has Qunar taken to placate lingering concerns about Chinese technology stocks?
Qian: I think the concerns over Chinese companies in the past couple of years, I think it could be a good thing. I think that it differentiates good companies like us from the bad ones. We have done a lot to ensure that we have the best corporate governance, and as I mentioned, we engaged Big Four accounting at a very early stage, you know, three years ago to help us on the accounting audits. And internally, last year we set up a whistleblower email address that HR and internal auditors can directly access. And then I mentioned that we have engaged independent directors in 2010, and after Baidu got in, our board now has four independent directors. The other thing to mention is our voting structure. We use a voting structure that provides protection to minority shareholders through cumulative voting. So we've done the best we can to become a really transparent company and if you look at our F-1, we have disclosed a lot of operating metrics, which a lot of our comps don't. So we really want to become the best practice in this market. And that's also another reason why we came to the U.S. for listing because we think the U.S. market is much more regulated. It's the best governance market in the world. We want to test our capacity to perform in this market.
Tse: Which particular metrics are revealed by Qunar but not your competitors?
Qian: I think we have metrics on different fronts. For example we have the user numbers, the mobile users and the PC users. We have active user numbers and general user numbers. And if you look at other travel companies in China, they only disclose downloads. For us, we always choose the more rigid ways to disclose numbers. No fuzzy items. We want to be crystal clear to investors and users.
--Written by Andrea Tse in New York


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The image above of Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams in Brian De Palma's Passion is courtesy of a New York Times video in which De Palma discusses the film. Aside from the image above, the video includes three more new pictures that have not previously been released. In the video, De Palma briefly describes the plot of Passion, and then discusses some of his filmmaking techniques. "I'm kind of a very intensely involved visual director," he says in the video. "I like beautiful people, interesting locations, and I also like the relationship between them. I kind of like the noir look. This is a kind of noirish drama. And plus, noir lighting has always been very interesting to me. I look for the correct shot for the piece of material I'm photographing. If it happens to be a steadicam shot, or a split diopter shot, or use of split screen, or a whole complicated surrealistic montage, these are things I have developed and evolved over the last 50 years of filmmaking. And they're very distinctive, and it doesn't take anybody very long to know that they're in a Brian De Palma movie."
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Boylesports Paying 7 Yes 7 Places in British Open Golf Championship
Leading Irish Bookmaker Boylesports has announced it will pay unprecedented each way terms on next weeks British Open .
The British Open gets underway next Thursday at St Andrews the home of golf and betting interest will surely be at an all time high .
The Open will see the first visit to the UK from Tiger Woods since his highly publicised personal problems resulted in him taking a break from the game .
The Open will also give Northern Ireland's Graeme Mcdowell the chance to add to his US Open victory gained last month in great style at Pebble Beach in Florida .
World No.1 Phil Mickelson will head the line up but the ever popular Mickelson will have to improve on a relatively poor British Open record .
Britain's leading hope is Lee Westwood who is currently the World Number 3 and has been in consistently brilliant form this year . Westwood should have won last year's Open but faded over the last 2 holes and will be ready to mount a big challenge at St Andrews .
At 18/1 with Boylesports and each way of 1/4 odds 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 , a bet on Westwood represents outstanding value .


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Two women have taken over the helm of their village store and brought a buzz back to the community.
Business partners Helen Weckerle and Julie Dewar unveiled the revamped Village Shop in Great Barrow last month.
Helen and Julie gave local resident Tim Healey the ribbon-cutting honours for his support for the new venture.
Championing local produce, the shop has daily deliveries of fresh meat from Sheaf Farm and bread from Harrisons Bakery in Tarporley.
Helen and Julie, who both live in Great Barrow, spent six weeks refurbishing the shop, after it had been closed for four months.
Helen said: "We are doing really well and we have had lots of support.
"People are delighted we've reopened it. The village was becoming a bit of a ghost town, with the pub closing and the social club under threat.
"There are lots of elderly people and young mums in the village, and there is no bus service.
"Our community really did need a shop. So we stepped up."
The Village Shop is open from 7am-8pm Monday to Friday, 7am-6pm on Saturdays and 8am-noon on Sundays.


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Tomorrow: 33 Years Later…
November 10th: 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald sinks; 29 killed. For reading material, you can check out this site by some folks at UW-Madison, this site dedicated to the ship, or you can check out good 'ol Wikipedia .
At least it won't be that windy tomorrow. Cold, though. At least in the morning. 40s return by Tuesday and will take us through mid-week, but it'll be a little unsettled, as well.
About the Author: Steph
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We in the Great Lakes region continue to be captivated by this awful tragedy. This disastrous shipwreck has become legend in no small part because of Gordon Lightfoot's haunting ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
Check out my website to find a YouTube video that combines vintage footage of the "Fitz" and Lightfoot's song to create a compelling tribute to the mighty Fitz.
This year's tribute: http://meanderingmissives.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/a-33-year-legend/
Last year's tribune: http://meanderingmissives.wordpress.com/2007/11/10/in-memoriam-november-10-1975/


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P30%_gha! or p0%3ghA!?
If you've ever resorted to scribbling your assigned computer password on a Post-It and sticking it to the side of your monitor because it was too cryptic to remember, then research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology in Germany, could be just what you've been waiting for.
The scientists there have developed a new program – PasswordSitter. "Using it, you only need to remember a single password. The program provides all the other passwords on any device, whenever you need them", explains team leader Markus Schneider, "A special procedure based on state-of-the-art encryption technology provides the necessary security."
Despite new security mechanisms, requesting a password is the most common method of checking a user's identity. Most of us have so many passwords for websites, databases, email etc, that remembering which one goes with what is a major headache. The problem is doubled by company IT managers who often force users (quite sensibly) not only to choose non-obvious passwords with mixed alphanumerics and even punctuation marks but also to change it on a regular basis.
According to the annual Safenet survey, half of all professional computer users write down their passwords, and around a third even divulge their passwords to colleagues. It almost defeats the object of having a password in the first place. A lot of people go for weak passwords, such as the name of a spouse, or don't think twice about using the same password for everything. "These kinds of practices harbour potential security risks", says Schneider, "On the other hand, it's virtually impossible for you to follow the security advice from the experts without any help."
PasswordSitter bolsters security because it generates strong passwords, while the level of security can be set to allow different password guidelines to be followed and passwords can be changed quickly and easily.
But, you may be wondering why not opt for one of those neat USB fingerprint reader? gadgets? Well, they're fine if you're at your own PC, but what happens if you're working at someone else's workstation or in a cybercafe?
PasswordSitter provides users with access to their passwords from any device at any time they need them.
So, how does it work? Well, it seems that Fraunhofer aren't so keen to reveal details, although Schneider told Sciencebase that, "PasswordSitter is available as signed Java applet. If you are in a cybercafe in Peru, then you can download PasswordSitter, type in your Master Password and PasswordSitter generates your ebay password for you every time you need it. Note that your ebay password is not stored in the PasswordSitter system."
There are other password-minding systems out there – including PassPack and LastPass and if you're stuck for ideas for how to come up with a password try my passwords for scientists idea.


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Do pension stamps from 1960s and 1970s still qualify?
Q&A: I have a query regarding contributory pension. I am 62 years old and working. I paid "stamps" from 1968 to 1972 – 48, 51, 52, 52, five in each respective year. I was rearing children until 2001. I returned to work in 2001 and my recent contributions are: 2001=1; 2002=40; 2003 to date = 52 each year.
How will my contributory pension be calculated? If my earlier "stamps" are ignored, will I be entitled to a full pension? Do they have to take account of my early "stamps"?
Is there any way I can remedy the situation while I am still working?
Is there any credit given for years spent rearing children and/or caring for disabled husband?
Ms D.S., email
Sorting out State pension rights is certainly confusing. Every time you get a fix on it, they seem to change the rules. That's exactly what happened this year.
As of April 2012, the rules for people who are not yet retired state that you will need to have a minimum of 520 PRSI contributions to qualify for a State contributory pension. Before that date, you would have qualified with just half that number.
In addition, you will need to have an average annual number of stamps of 10 or more.
A second change this year means that for anyone starting to receive a State pension after the beginning of September will have the rate of pension paid within a new set of contribution bands.
Prior to this, for instance, anyone with a yearly average of anywhere between 20 and 47 stamps would get the same payment. Now, the weekly payment can range from €196 for those with between 20 and 29 contributions to €225 a week if you have an average of somewhere between 40 and 47 weekly stamps per year.
A third factor affecting your position is the increase announced in the age at which the pension is paid. The transition pension, which was paid to people who retired at 65, is being phased out and, from 2014, no payment will be made until the State contributory pension kicks in at the age of 66.
Effectively, this raised the pension age to 66 and means you will be working (and building up PRSI stamps) for an extra year.
As you suspect, the calculations kick in from when you first paid PRSI until your retirement date. Thus your weekly average will be calculated from 1968 until 2016. You cannot simply get rid of earlier contributions to improve your position.
So where does all this leave you? Well, you had a total of 208 contributions paid before you took time out to raise your family. Since your return (to the end of this current year), you will have paid a further 561 contributions.
That total of 769 will grow over the next few years. To the end of 2015, when you will be 65, you will have amassed 925 contributions.
You clearly cross the first threshold – 520 lifetime contributions – but the situation is somewhat trickier when it comes to calculating the yearly average.
If you never worked beyond the end of this year and triggered the pension some time in 2016, you would have a weekly average of 16 contributions which, at present, would deliver a weekly State pension of €150.
To the end of 2015, you will have a weekly average of 19 contributions. That delivers the same weekly payment. However, if you can tip over to a weekly average of 20 contributions, your weekly pension rises to €196 at today's rates.
Whether this works for you depends in the first instance on when in 2016 your 66th birthday is. If you pay 35 PRSI "stamps" in 2016, you will automatically qualify for the higher payment (assuming they don't change the rules again between now and then). If your birthday is in the early part of the year, unfortunately you are likely to miss out by this calculation.
In that event, you need to see if you qualify by virtue of what are called "credited" contributions. Effectively, if you are in receipt of certain State benefits, you will be credited each week with a PRSI contribution even if you have not physically paid it.
A number of benefits are relevant, including illness benefit, jobseeker's benefit, adoptive benefit, health and safety benefit and the invalidity pension. But from your perspective, the most relevant are likely to be maternity benefit and/or carer's benefit.
If you were in receipt of maternity benefit at the time you started your family, you will have received a "credited" PRSI contribution during this period. The same is true if you were in receipt of a carer's allowance at any time for taking care of your disabled husband.
Some people are slow to apply for benefits on the basis that they feel they can get by, but the PRSI stamp and its possible impact on retirement income illustrates the importance of doing so.
There is a separate provision – the Homemaker's Scheme – designed to reflect the fact that working women take time out of paid employment to raise a family. The scheme effectively discounts those years when you were rearing children under 12 from the lifetime calculation of weekly average. The maximum number of years that can be discounted in this way is 20.
The bad news is that the scheme only came into force in 1994. My understanding, having spoken to the Department of Social Protection, is that people like you who left the workforce to raise a family before that date do not qualify, even though you were still raising your family when the measure was introduced.
From your point of view, the bottom line is that you will have 925 stamps at the end of 2015 and you need 960 to creep over the threshold to the higher weekly State pension payment.
This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Please send your questions to QA, c/o Dominic Coyle, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or to firstname.lastname@example.com. No personal correspondence will be entered into.


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November 2005
Partners in Strategy
As insurance technology continues to mature, so does the appreciation of IT - and the CIO's role - on the part of the business. In an era of increased technology investment, these factors are transforming today's senior insurance technology officers into influential strategic partners.
Georgette Piligian
Senior Vice President, CIO, Corporate Systems, MetLife
Constructive Discontent
Having transformed MetLife's e-business IT, Georgette Piligian went on to become CIO of corporate systems, and play a leading role in finance transformation and the carrier's acquisition of Travelers Life.
Piyush Singh
CIO, RLI Corp.
Front-End Focus
Piyush Singh's front-end strategy took RLI's back-office-focused organization and built agile, user-friendly technology to match the P&C carrier's approach to business.
Annaclair Kiger
Senior Vice President, Customer Service and Information Technology, Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Co.
Rising to the Challenge
Never one to shy away from a challenge, Colonial Life & Accident Insurance's Annaclair Kiger is taking on the supplemental insurance market.
Paul Rix
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, AIG's Life Division
Going Global
Paul Rix breathes new life into AIG's worldwide operations by adapting the company's global resources for local markets.
Scott McKay
CIO and SVP of Operations & Quality, Genworth Financial
Culture of Discipline
At Genworth Financial, CIO Scott McKay is transforming perceptions of IT, improving consistency of the customer experience and leveraging the culture of former parent General Electric.
Mike Byam
Vice President of e-Business & Technology and Head of the Transformation Office, The Hartford Financial Services Group
The Case for Change
The Hartford's Mike Byam helped transform how the carrier's personal and commercial lines do business. Now, he's driving transformation for the entire P&C technology organization.
Dennis Noice
Senior Vice President and CIO, Nationwide Financial Services
There's No 'I' in 'Team'
At Nationwide Financial, business and IT work together to reduce costs and improve processes. CIO Dennis Noice leads the charge.
Ron J. Ponder
EVP, CIO, WellPoint
Mission: Integration
As CIO of the nation's largest healthcare provider, Ron Ponder blends leadership skills with technology savvy to move WellPoint past any post-merger integration woes.
Virtual Roundtable
Survival of the Fittest
These Elite 8 alumni are shouldering more responsibilities than ever. But to keep the corner office, they've needed to adapt how they approach their jobs.
The 2005 Elite 8 - Retirees
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
For these former Elite 8 honorees, staying retired is almost as challenging as staying on top - the allure of the insurance business just keeps pulling them back in.
From the Editor
Leading by Example
There has been much discussion about the nature and meaning of leadership in the weeks since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but, sadly, very few actual examples of effective leadership in action.
Special Report: Hurricane Katrina
Mean Season
Hurricane Katrina threatened insurers' already low public image, but technology gave carriers a chance to redeem their reputations through effective claims processing.
The Sun Will Come Out
Before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, business continuity plans and partners help insurance entities weather the storm.
Real-Time World
Insurers use automation and wireless technology to deliver services to customers faster, reveals InformationWeek 500.
IBM/ACORD Deal Eyes SOA
Elements of IBM's Insurance Application Architecture will give ACORD reach into business processes.
Contract News
--OneBeacon Calls 911
--Chubb Claims MS/B
--Austin Mutual Licenses .Claim
--Gore Mutual Selects Symbility
--Security Mutual Uses Common Census
--Main Street Chooses Guidewire
--Golden Rule to Integrate Norvax
--Industrial Alliance Taps Global IQX
--Dongbu Relies on Accenture
Alliances & Partnerships
--Oracle Buys Siebel
--Business Objects Acquires SRC
--Fiserv Offers Aetna
--KIG Taps DocASSURE
--ASK, IdeaStar Team
--Open Text in Sync With InSystems
Where Are They Now?
Last year's Elite 8 honorees continue to pursue technology excellence and innovation.
The Best Transformation
Bob Best
Reynolds Ramps Up Responsibilities
Doug Reynolds
Connolly Broadens Vision
Michael Connolly
Ellis Motivates Matters
Todd Ellis
Chu Continues Transformation
John Chu
Piehler Plans Retirement
Barbara Piehler
Bob (Wilkes) the Builder
Bob Wilkes


text: >Number: 10160 >Category: kern >Synopsis: raidframe behaves poorly with failed disk >Confidential: no >Severity: serious >Priority: medium >Responsible: kern-bug-people >State: open >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: net >Arrival-Date: Sat May 20 11:57:01 PDT 2000 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Joel N. Weber II >Release: 1.4.2, with slightly newer 1.4 branch kernel >Organization: Gratuitous Organization for Gratuitous Software Enhancement >Environment: System: NetBSD xanthine 1.4.2A NetBSD 1.4.2A (XANTHINE) #0: Sat Apr 15 12:53:55 EDT 2000 nemo@xanthine:/usr/src/syssrc/sys/arch/i386/compile/XANTHINE i386 >Description: xanthine has two disks, /dev/sd0 and /dev/sd1. About two weeks ago, sd0 appears to have lost some blocks; if you tried to read some blocks on the disk it will sort of get wedged, but that disk was intact enough that the machine could successfully read the disklabel and kernel and quite a bit more off of it. xanthine crashed when sd0 got wedged the first time. Unfortunately I neglected to save any output at that point. It is entirely possible that it wedged on the raid level 0 device failing, in which case I can't even assert that there is a bug in raidframe. (xanthine was configured with a /dev/raid0 and a /dev/raid1 that had each had a component on each of sd0 and sd1; raid0 was at raid level 0, and raid 1 at raid level 1. I think that when I reconstruct things I will make them both raid level 1, as I believe improved reliability probably has more value than conservation of disk space given that I have gratuitously large disks for the amount of data I have.) When I tried rebooting xanthine, with both sd0 and sd1 still in the system, I got the following repeated at least a half dozen times (and I suspect it would have gone on forever had I not turned the machine off): [0] node (R ) returned fail, rolling backward [0] DAG failure: r addr 0xa18810 (10586128) nblk 0x2 (2) buf 0xc73f000 DEAD DISK BOGUSLY DETECTED!! I'm getting the distinct impression that NetBSD reacts to a partially dead disk that's being excessively slow by getting into a loop printing the above text and being hosed, rather than deciding that the disk is dead and moving on. Perhaps it should be reacting by an inability to read a block on one disk by asking the other disk for it. After seeing this lossage, I decided to run using sd1 as the only disk in my system; I'm currently waiting for a warranty replacement of sd0 after which I will have an sd0 again. sd1 had been set up with a proper disklabel, but didn't have appropriate boot code or an appropriate partition table installed. I went through about a half dozen boots trying to get this right, and at one point obliterated the disklabel on sd1 and had to temporarily reinstall sd0 so that I could copy its disklabel to sd1. The whole process of setting up a raid array so that you can boot off the disk needs to either be better documented, or better automated. It also appears to be the case that if a component has evaporated, raidframe decides that the serial number of the evaporated component is zero, and compains of a serial number mismatch. I believe that dmesg also reports that sd0 and sd1 are both hosed when sd1 is OK, but raidctl's status subcommand reports that sd0 is failed and sd1 is optimal. I'm not sure why this is. >How-To-Repeat: >Fix: >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted:


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Cerebellum-based adaptation for fine haptic control over the space of uncertain surfaces. World Haptics Conference (WHC), 2013. :353-358. Abstract. 2013.
Towards a Framework for Tactile Perception in Social Robotics. Living Machines, International Conference on Biomimetics and Biohybrid Systems. :335-336.. 2012.
Sensory augmentation with distal touch: The Tactile Helmet project. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems; Second International Conference on Living Machines. 8064:24-35. Abstract. 2013.
Tactile SLAM with a biomimetic whiskered robot. Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). In Press. 2012.
Embodied hyperacuity from Bayesian perception: Shape and position discrimination with an iCub fingertip sensor. Intelligent Robots and Systems Conference (IROS).. 2012.
Optimal decision-making in mammals: insights from a robot study of rodent texture discrimination. Journal of The Royal Society Interface. Abstract. 2012.
A SOLID case for active Bayesian perception in robot touch. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems; Second International Conference on Living Machines. 8064:154-166. Abstract. 2013.
Brain-inspired Bayesian perception for biomimetic robot touch. IEEE proceedings of ICRA 2012 . In Press. 2012.
The state-of-the-art in biomimetics. Biomimetics and Bioinspiration,. 8(013001). 2013.
Active touch for robust perception under position uncertainty. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)... 2013.
The State of art of Biomimetics. Living Machines, International Conference on Biomimetics and Biohybrid Systems. :367-368.. 2012.
Active Bayesian perception for angle and position discrimination with a biomimetic fingertip. In: Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS): IEEE/RSJ . :5968-5973.. 2013.
Active contour following to explore object shape with robot touch. IEEE World Haptics Conference 2013.. 2013.
Angle and position perception for exploration with active touch. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems. Second International Conference on Living Machines. 8064:405-408. Abstract. 2013.
Texture Classification through Tactile Sensing. Living Machines, International Conference on Biomimetics and Biohybrid Systems. :377-379.. 2012.
Towards contour following exploration based on tactile sensing with iCub fingertip. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS). :459-460.. 2012.
Whisker Movements Reveal Spatial Attention: A Unified Computational Model of Active Sensing Control in the Rat. PLoS Comput Biol. 9(9):e1003236.. 2014.
Embodied models and neurorobotics. The Brain Region as Anchor.. 2013.
Layered control architectures. Encyclopedia of Mind.. 2013.


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Winona Ryder Reacts to Trump's Inauguration
You knew it would happen eventually, so here is Winona Ryder fresh from the SAG Awards reacting to our 45th President.
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Though the country's industrial output bounced back in November with 5.9 per cent growth, a slowdown in investment and the weak sentiment will restrict expansion in factory production to below 5 per cent in the rest of the fiscal, research firm Dun & Bradstreet has said.
"The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is expected to remain subdued and register below 5 per cent growth during the remaining months of FY'12 as production activity continues to be impacted by the slowdown in investment demand and the weak business and consumer sentiment," D&B said in the latest issue of its 'Economic Observer' report.
It also projected the December, 2011, IIP growth numbers at 2.5-3.5 per cent.
Industrial production bounced back to a five-month high of 5.9 per cent in November, 2011, on the back of a recovery in the manufacturing segment. In October, it had contracted by 4.74 per cent.
During the April-November period of the current fiscal, IIP growth stood at 3.8 per cent, compared to 8.4 per cent in the same period of 2010-11.
D&B, however, said the RBI is unlikely to cut policy rates before the beginning of next fiscal, even though inflation is expected to remain at moderate levels.
"The moderation witnessed in Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation is expected to continue during January
"Thus, the RBI is unlikely to cut policy rates before April, 2012," it added.
Cheaper food items pulled down headline inflation to a two-year low of 7.47 per cent in December, 2011.
However, inflationary pressure continued in manufactured items, which have a weight of around 65 per cent in the WPI basket. Prices of manufactured products, went up by 7.41 per cent year-on-year in December, compared to a 7.70 per cent increase in the previous month.
Yesterday, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan said the Reserve Bank will have to factor in the sustained pressure of manufacturing inflation while framing its monetary policy in the near future.
The central bank is scheduled to conduct its third quarterly review of the monetary policy on January 24. The RBI hiked key policy rates 13 times between March, 2010, and November, 2011, to tame inflation.
India Inc has said the string of rate hikes, which have raised the cost of borrowing, have acted as a hurdle to fresh investment and have hindered growth.
Economic growth stood at 6.9 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) of 2011-12, the lowest rate of expansion in over two years.


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Wilmington scores 8th straight win
Austin O'Neal simplified his stunning game-winning goal down to a simply hockey adage: If you put the puck in front of the net, anything can happen.
O'Neal bounced a pass from behind the net off a defender's skate and into a shortside hole late in the second period to give Wilmington the lead in an eventual 3-1 victory against Burlington in a battle of defending Eastern Mass. champions at Wilmington's Ristuccia Arena yesterday.
The Wildcats (8-1, 5-0 Middlesex League Freedom Division) have won eight straight.
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goddamnit toady no devlog in two days after just announcing release in less than a week
you really know how to break our balls don't you you bastard
goddamnit toady no devlog in two days after just announcing release in less than a week
you really know how to break our balls don't you you bastard
maybe its ready to be released omgogmogmggbf
i dont think toady would be as dumb as only keeping some form of DF2010 on 1 harddrive
i mean if I was toady id back that shit up like every day
and i would also put it on 10 new external hard drives each day and ship them out to different countries
one of my marksman dwarves got a broken head after they killed an ogre... hes unconscious now... poor guy.. i NEED better armor
Even if it is, you're still a cheap bastard.
Some goblins tried to siege me again
Dwarfs fight in blood and vomit!
How do I make the little shits go fetch water for the unconscious fellas? I really can't be arsed to make a well, can't they just take water from the brook? I have healthcare enabled on all the dwarves and I have spare buckets.
Thorny, we all know you're toady in disguise, give it up and release the new version.
how can Thorny AND Orkel be Toady in disguise?
magic shit right there.
Do you think one brain allone could create DF ? :O
Also, do the Demons stay around if I abandon the fort then visit it in Adventurer?
Adventurers don't trigger levers or traps.
I heard that even that does nothing.
Just make sure you don't have cagetraps I don't think adventurers can escape those.
I built myself a nice well down at the bottom of my fort and a lever to release the brook water down a few Z levels and across a mined out shaft to be used by a well. A z level above I channeled out the floor because I wanted dorfs to see some nice water as they walked pass. I opened the floodgate, water went down, water came up open the channel in the floor and flooded my entire bedroom/barracks/office level and the Z level down where the levers to close the floodgate were. Nice.
-snip- fuck im an idiot
First something related: I have a hard time starting a new game, so I think I am just gonna wait for the new version.
And now something unrelated: This post is posted at 00:00 (GMT+1), which means the date turns to the 31th of March, which means I turn 15.
According to danish laws, it is now legal for me to "Have a hang out, with my wang out."
Not that I am going to :(
Happy Birthday :)
Maybe DF will come out today and that'd be a mega-sweet present.
Happy birthday Dryvnt!
just kidding<3
What exactly do you mean by, "Have a hang out, with my wang out"? As in, you can walk public streets naked? Or..?
Get his drunk on?
At least that's what a Danish guy on Chatroulette told me.
Maybe 15 is the legal age to have sex with people in Denmark?
Happy Birthday, Dryvnt!
Oh yeah, and there will be lots of twists and turns and dead ends ending in bow/weapon traps, which will make it even harder.


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The crab season started in San Francisco and last night our neighbor invited us for a crab-fest in his house! Yeeeey! The crab-fest slowly morphed into a wine-fest… unfortunately with easily predictable outcome … severe dehydration… Don't worry, we are not 21 anymore! We have our tricks, and by 10 this morning, we felt and looked like new! The secret is in Vietnamese Pho! Oh, it's the best cure!!!!
You think that would be the today's recipe, but NO! I cannot manage to make a dissent broth! I just cannot! I tried so many recipes online but none taste good enough. The problem is – we are serious about our pho. We traveled to Vietnam to eat Pho. We tried it in every town and neighborhood we visited. Our favorite bowl could be found somewhere in the Old Quarter of Hanoi . Our favorite US equivalent resides in Tenderloin (well, Little Saigon) of San Francisco, and it's called Turtle Tower. If you are ever in town, and if you are not afraid of… you know.. sketchy neighborhoods – it's the place to enjoy.
Here are some photos from our trip:
Anyways, even a night of… crab-fest-ing didn't stop me from doing hot yoga tonight. And oh… what a delight! Hence, I'm still on the right track to fulfilling my vein ambitions. The session even managed to suppress this Russian mom's appetite for a not-so-light-dinner she started before the class! I was quite satisfied with a grapefruit and some raw veggies. This yoga stuff is incredible!
Well, because of all this hard work, I deserve a reward: my family's favorite bread!
1 Recipe of the Basic Country dough
1 tsp coriander
25 g molasses
1/2 cup of walnuts, slightly crashed
1/2 cup of raisins
Soak the raisins in 1 cup of hot water for about 15-20 minutes, drain
Prepare the dough according to the basic country dough instructions until the point where salt and water are added. Add salt, coriander, and instead of water add 25 g of molasses as well as the walnuts and raisins.
Incorporate the ingredients by squeezing them with your fingers into the dough.
Follow the directions of the Basic Country dough for proving, and shaping. Once you shape a loaf and ready to place it into the proofing basket, pat the loaf with a wet hand. Sprinkle it with some crashed walnuts, and place the loaf into the basket on a floured towel.
Follow the basic country bread instructions on the final rise and baking.


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On Monday August 6th, at 1:31 am EDT (0531 GMT), following a 254 day, 352 million mile (567 million kilometer) journey through the Solar system, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will land its newest rover, "Curiosity", on the surface of the red planet.
We hope.
In what is NASA's most ambitious and risky Mars mission ever, the entry, descent and landing phase (EDL) is particularly hazardous. So much so, that the time from MSL's entry into the Martian atmosphere to its landing of Curiosity on the Martian surface has even been dubbed by NASA, the 'Seven Minutes of Terror'.
With a size comparable to a Volkswagen Beetle, and a weight of approximately 1 ton (907kg), the Curiosity rover is about twice as long and five times as heavy as its rover predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity. While the smaller rovers were light enough to have their landings cushioned by an airbag system, Curiosity's size precludes this option. The Viking landers which visited Mars in the 1970's as well as the Phoenix lander in 2008 were set down on Mars using "legs". Again, the size of Curiosity would make this approach too risky – an extremely flat surface would be needed to avoid instability, and a legged landing could potentially kick up enough Martian dust to damage Curiosity's scientific instruments.
Instead, in what NASA scientist Adam Steltzner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) describes as the "least crazy" of all possible methods that could be used to land the rover, NASA will employ a novel and elaborate sequence that will slow the spacecraft from a staggering 13,000 mph (21,000 kph) to a final descent speed of about 2 mph (3.2 kph).
The first step in slowing the spacecraft will use friction provided by the Martian atmosphere – similar to the way the Earth's atmosphere is used to reduce the speed of a returning space shuttle or capsule. However, with an atmosphere 100 times thinner than that of Earth, the friction can only slow the spacecraft to about 1000 mph. A heat shield (the largest ever flown in space) will need to withstand the scorching 3,800 Fahrenheit (2,100 degree Celsius) heating of atmospheric entry.
Next, the spacecraft will deploy the largest and strongest supersonic parachute ever built. Designed to withstand 65,000 pounds of force, the chute measures a massive 51 feet (16 meters) in diameter. The heat shield will then separate and fall away giving the Curiosity rover its first "look" at the red planet. In fact a camera on the bottom of the rover (the "Mars Descent Imager") will begin videoing the action from this point until landing (about 2 minutes).
With the spacecraft now only 1 mile above the ground and barreling towards it at approximately 180 mph (290 kph), the parachute separates, leaving the rover and a key piece of new equipment called the "Sky-Crane". This novel apparatus will actually lower the rover with a tether to a soft landing on the surface of Mars. Attached to the Sky Crane are eight "retrorockets". Firing these rockets enables the descent speed to be reduced to about 1.7 mph (0.8 meters per second).
At an altitude of only 66 feet (20 meters), and a mere 12 seconds before scheduled touchdown, nylon cords begin to lower the rover itself from the sky crane. The sky crane continues to lower, with Curiosity dangling 20 feet (6 m) below.
As the Curiosity rover comes to rest on the Martian surface, it will wait 2 seconds to confirm that it is indeed on solid ground before firing the last of a total of 76 pyrotechnic explosions used throughout its descent – this time to cut the cords attaching it to the sky crane above. With its job done, the sky crane will fly away – to crash land at a safe distance of at least 500 feet (150 meters) from Curiosity. The sky crane maneuver provides a safer alternative to a purely rocket powered descent, which could see the jets kicking up dust and debris, potentially damaging sensitive instrumentation.
Assuming the Curiosity rover is intact after this dramatic and intricately choreographed landing sequence, scientists will need to wait the 14 minutes it takes for signals to travel the distance from Mars to Earth before knowing the rover's fate. When Earth receives the signal that MSL is entering the Martian atmosphere, Curiosity will already be on the surface of Mars.
With a total cost of $2.5 billion dollars, there is a lot to lose if the mission fails. Looking at history gives little comfort. Curiosity is the latest in a string of Martian landing missions that stretches back more than 40 years. Of 16 prior spacecraft destined to land on Mars, only 6 were complete successes.
There is also much to gain if the mission succeeds. More so than in previous missions, NASA has chosen a site of particular scientific interest in hopes of determining whether conditions have been favorable for microbial life.
In the case of Curiosity, a risky landing may be the price for great scientific reward.
Next up: the science behind Curiosity's mission.


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Tag Archives: astroplus win tickets to nba global games 2013
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The plight of Gaza civilians has shaken many a torpor-ed digital selves recently. This was notable because the ordinary condition of Gaza, the daily quotidian plight is in itself a crisis of unbelievable moral and humanistic severity. Yet the now-sanctioned ritual sharing of photos, of inflamed or inflammatory opinion pieces, of outrage on social networks happened only after the air and drone assault. What do we make of this relationship between the everyday and the extra-ordinary?
The Israeli "precision strikes" highlights the rule of exceptional occurrence in our collective consciousness – something has to break out of the ordinary for us to see it, feel it, respond to it. The "something" itself does not need to be extra-ordinary. The Gangnam-Style dance video has nothing exceptional going for it, except that every one is looking at it. Gaze is the exceptional-making entity. The Israeli assault on Gaza was exceptional precisely because it focused a collective Gaze onto Gaza City. Once it is over – once the exceptional ends – we revert back to the opaque haze that surrounds geographies and histories mere feet away from us.
In Pakistan this opaqueness limits our sight down to the level of the house. Since 2009, the targeting of Ahmadi community has continued unabated. Assassinations, public and private, coupled with state-backed "blasphemy" witch-hunts are the ordinary state of being Ahmadi in Pakistan. Into that particular majoritarian violence enters the attempt at mass annihilation of Shi'a communities across Pakistan. This is the targeting of Shi'a civilians in Quetta or in Sindh and Karachi.
The longer history of anti-Shi'a/anti-Ahmadi violence in territorial Pakistan stretches back to the early 1950s when the Jama'at-i Islami sought public and private ascendancy against its "communist" opponents. As the aims of Maududi-led Jama'at came closer and closer to the politico-military regimes of Ayub, Bhutto and then Zia ul Haq, the religious and political organizations became para-military execution squads.
It was in 1970-71 East Pakistan that this particular form of militant politics found its working-model: as Jama'at para-military groups were first asked, by West Pakistan military junta, to target and eliminate Bangla intellectuals.
Following the brutality of 1971, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto advanced the Jam'ati militarization on two fronts: he publicly and politically aligned Pakistan's foreign policy with the Pan-Islamic movement in Cairo and Damascus and, secondly, he publicly and politically aligned Pakistan's domestic policy with the Sunni-majoritarian theocracy of the Jama'at. Alongside this ideological re-alignement came the economic alignment when Bhutto initiated the overseas Workers program to export mass labor to the petro-Gulf States – specifically to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. From my perspective, these particular realignments of the early 1970s remain the most important, and most damaging, events of post 1947 Pakistan. Before I move on, to remain in touch with my theme of opaqueness let me also put forth that these policies were enacted squarely removed from any public participation. The absence of the voice of the common Pakistani is stark not only then, but now.
If all of that is setting up the bonfire, then the spark was 1979 – the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Siege of Mecca, mingling nationalism, petroleum, and the capacity of Muslims to declare apostasy where they see fit. Zia ul Haq's regime, client state of both KSA and USA, was adamant on passing as many anti-Shi'a laws as possible, fearful that the Islamic Revolution will spread across the border and the world. The attacks on Shi'a processions had intensified in 1978-9 and kept escalating throughout the 1980s. Anti-Zia groups such as the Shi'a Tahrik-i Nifaz Fiqh Ja'fariyya quickly were labelled anti-Sunni groups against whom the military regime armed new paramilitary entities like the Sipah-e Sahaba. The Jama'at remained a fully plugged-in vehicle for the distribution of anti-Shi'a and anti-Ahmadi violence especially on college and university campuses where Zia ul Haq had banned all "political" parties.
I grew up in that Pakistan, on that college campus. Our home shared a wall with an Imam Barah. My cricket team contained 8 members who were Shi'a. I participated in most, if not all, activities during Muharram. We could not field a match because we were either sore or bleeding from Matam.
There was no tolerance. I learned after almost a year that our fast bowler – named Zulfiqar – was Shi'a. I was dense in my majoritarianism and my Gulfism. I was new to Pakistan. My uncles thought that orgies happened inside the darkened Imam Barah and that women were flown in from Iraq to service men. The wailing, the crying, they were eroticized acts of othering for them. My team-mates hid their Shi'a rituals, even as they participated in our particular brands of Eid Saeed. At College, the charismatic Jama'ati leader – who is now a very prominent Lahori politician – explained how devious and evil the Shi'a were to a group of us in the University Canteen. The tone was conspiratorial. The evidence was universal. The Jew. The Shi'a. The Ahmadi. The Christian.
The long and thorough de-humanization of Pakistan's "others" has led us to such an acute crisis that we cannot even see that amidst our urban decay and rural want are scattered hundreds and thousands of dead bodies. They are all victims of precision strikes. All living in ghettos. All with daily freedoms curtailed. All living in fear of life, limb and desire.
The para-military religious assassination squads of 1971 are now operating against the Hazara community. Dawn.com has a chilling indictment of Pakistan's blinded majority in their photo and video essay I am Hazara. I urge you to see it.
I urge you to feel some outrage for the very ordinary lives of your very ordinary neighbors.


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LOS ANGELES. — Former Grand Slam tennis champion Jennifer Capriati lashed out at Maria Sharapova on Twitter on Monday after the Russian announced she had tested positive for a banned drug at the Australian Open in January.
In a series of tweets that didn't mention Sharapova by name, Capriati said she was "disappointed."
"I had to lose my career and never opted to cheat no matter what," Capriati tweeted. "I had to throw in the towel and suffer.
"I didn't have the high priced team of (doctors) that found a way for me to cheat and get around the system and wait for science to catch up."
During a quickly convened news conference at a Los Angeles hotel on Monday, Sharapova said she tested positive for Meldonium, a circulation-boosting drug used to treat heart ailments that was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list this year.
"What's the point of someone taking a heart medicine that helps your heart recover faster unless you have a heart condition? Is that accurate," Capriati said.
"In my opinion (if) it's all true every title should be stripped. This is other people's lives as well."
Sharapova's failed drug test at this year's Australian Open provoked a flurry of reaction on social media and beyond on Monday.
While most expressed shock and a degree of sympathy for the Russian former world number one, others were less charitable, including three-times grand slam champion Jennifer Capriati.
AMERICAN GREAT MARTINA NAVRATILOVA ON TWITTER: "Hold your horses everyone — about Maria — I don't have all the facts, I hope it's an honest mistake, stuff was legal as far as I know till 2015."
FORMER PLAYER JAMES BLAKE on TWITTER: "Wow. Classy of @MariaSharapova to hold a press conference for this and admit making a mistake. Definitely agree that have to be aware though."
CURRENT AMERICAN PLAYER RYAN HARRISON on TWITTER: "Maria handled that so well. In my opinion, honest mistake from a great champion"
FORMER TOP 10 PLAYER AND COACH BRAD GILBERT: "Still stunned that nobody on Shazza team checked new list from WADA, players are responsible, but this is big time oversight on team as well." — AFP.


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I want to make a wildlife pond in the garden before the summer is over.
I have a butyl liner I can use which is not quite big enough, but I have the opportunity of another, which if combined would be about what I want. What can anyone suggest is the best way of utilising both.
Can they be joined or linked in some way? Both are about 6x4m and just buying one big one is not really an option.
We have quite a large area backing on to open fields. The ground is only very slightly sloping, maybe 25cm in 5m.
Any tips would be very helpful. Thanks
Thanks to you both.
I don't hold out much hope with my method but the mushroom compost or transporting a piece of turf seem like good ideas. I will get back to you in a year....or two!
Hello. I just wondered if it was possible to encourage and grow wild mushrooms in the lawn or in a rough grass area I have.
I have picked a lot in the fields just recently, and have actually had too many to cope with. Some that were going past their best I have put under the turf in different areas around the garden and wondered if there was anything above a zero chance this might result in mushrooms growing another day
I grew Brandywine in the greenhouse for the 1st time this year. Although they were very late, I had some corkers. Some were as big as my hand and tasted wonderful. I still have some in a drawer with a banana, only recently picked, and they are slowly ripening.
Early in the spring I bought several trays of plugs of begonias (normal and trailing) and geraniums.
After filling all my baskets and troughs I had quite a lot left over which have spent the summer in small (3") pots where they havent grown very much mainly due to lack of attention. They have suffered from either too much water or too little, most are about 3" tall now and look OK.
Will I be able to overwinter these in the greenhouse, should I pot them on and will these types of begonias develop tubers that I can use year on year.


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Creating Senior Communities –Caring for People, Profit, and Planet: An Assisted Living Community's journey to LEED Gold
This session, Creating Senior Communities–Caring for People, Profit, and Planet: An Assisted Living Community's journey to LEED Gold, was presented at the LifeSpan Conference in Ocean City, MD, looks at the recently certified LEED Gold project of Brightview South River Assisted Living in Edgewater Maryland, and how sustainability positively impacts the triple bottom line – people, profit, and planet. The story is shared from the perspective of Shelter's Senior Project Director, the Architect and Sustainability Coordinator, and the Executive Director at the community. Topics include the vision for sustainability, implementing that vision through design and construction, and the impact of the sustainable strategies when managing a green community.
- Studio:
- Housing, Multi-family