text:
Facebook may have saved thousands of lives by tweaking one little feature
It's easy to overstate the extent to which a social network like Facebook can change the world. It played a role in the Arab Spring, sure, but calling the uprisings there a "Facebook revolution" is a stretch. And with notable exceptions, online activism tends to play a relatively minor role in public policy debates.
That said, there are some specific cases in which Facebook can be used to further a cause more swiftly and on a greater scale than almost any other medium. This is especially true when the goal is to nudge a large number of people to take one specific action for the greater good - one that's easy enough that it can be done in a matter of minutes, but just annoying enough that a lot of people wouldn't bother otherwise.
One example is voting. A study last year estimated that a single banner ad on the Facebook news feed, coupled with photos of a user's friends who had already voted, spurred 60,000 more people to vote in the 2010 midterm elections.
The latest study on Facebook's potential to promote public welfare might be even more powerful. Seven years ago, Sheryl Sandberg read a profile of her former Harvard classmate Andrew Cameron in the university's alumni magazine. In the article, Cameron explained how a shortage of donated organs leads to thousands of preventable deaths in the United States every year. So at their 20th reunion in 2011, Sandberg approached Cameron and asked whether Facebook might be able to help. He said he thought that it could.
As of last year, you can share your organ-donor status on Facebook to tell your friends that you've registered and encourage them to do the same.
On May 1, 2012, Facebook added an option for users to share their organ-donor status on their timelines. Nearly 60,000 users did so on the first day, a number that gradually tailed off over the following few weeks. Cameron and several colleagues at Johns Hopkins and other public-health institutions followed up with a study in which they examined donor-registration rates in 44 states in the weeks before and after May 1.
They found that 616 people nationwide registered as organ donors online on a typical day before Facebook rolled out the new feature. On May 1, that number spiked to 13,012 - 21 times the baseline rate. And while registrations declined in the following two weeks, they stayed above the baseline for the duration of the study period, with a two-week total of 39,818 new registrations. In the scrappy, grassroots realm of organ-donation drives, this was a game-changer. The study was published this week in the American Journal of Transplantation.
The shortage of donated organs, Cameron told me, is not a medical problem but a social problem. "If you poll the public, as Gallup did in 2005, you will get 95 percent of Americans saying they support donations," he said. "Yet only about 45 percent have signed up. There's some obstacle, some barrier, that prevents people from doing it. Having it be on Facebook makes it easier for people - it allows them to do the right thing."
How many lives Facebook saved by adding its organ-donation feature won't be known for decades. Many registered donors won't turn out to be actual donors for lack of a match. On the other hand, a single donor could potentially save more than one life by giving more than one organ. Facebook may not always be a force for good, but Cameron's study is the latest proof that it can be if deployed wisely.
Oremus is the lead blogger for Future Tense, reporting on emerging technologies, tech policy and digital culture.


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Passionfruit Mint Cocktail Recipe
Tropical fruit is just the ticket on a hot day. I recently came upon a purple passionfruit at my local grocery store and immediately wanted to whip up a cocktail. Passionfruit have a semi-hard shell, but when cut open they reveal a gelatinous yellow flesh speckled with edible black seeds. The musky and tart flavor calls out for the herbal qualities of gin.
To punch up the herbal nuances, I added some fresh mint, along with a hint of honey. The resulting cocktail allows the bold passionfruit to take center stage, while the mint and honey provide just the right symmetry. So go ahead and treat yourself to a little tropical getaway, even if it's only in a glass.
- Yield:makes 1 cocktail
- Active time: 5 minutes
- Total time:5 mintues
- 1 passionfruit
- 15 fresh mint leaves
- 1 1/2 ounces gin
- 1/4 ounce honey
- Garnish: mint leaf
Scoop the flesh from the passionfruit into a cocktail shaker. Add mint and muddle with the passionfruit in the bottom of the cocktail shaker.
Add gin and honey, then fill the shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled, about 20 seconds. Strain the mixture into a glass and garnish with a mint leaf.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Herbal Hair Color Black
Contenu: 100.0 G
Référence: KH007
Intensive colour for healthy and strong hair.
Khadi Herbal Hair Color Black dyes the hair in a warm shade of black, a rich expressive black without blue cast. Khadi Black is best suited for medium-blonde or darker hair, then a shiny, warm black up to an intense raven black is achieved. Lighter or gray hair needs a pre-pigmentation with Khadi Red Pure Henna to get a perfect colour result.Herbal hair dyes are particularly gentle as they do not interfere with the natural structure of the hair, unlike chemical hair dyes, but covers each individual hair like a protective thin film of colour. Thus the initial hair colour determines the individual dyeing result.
Khadi Natural Cosmetics combines Ayurvedic Nature care with the latest cosmetic technology. The result: highly effective yet gentle natural cosmetics with valuable ingredients that nourish, protect and strengthen hair and scalp completely naturally. Khadi Herbal Hair Colors give the hair an intense yet natural colour. The herbal ingredients strengthen the hair from root to tips: it feels strong and dense, and shines healthy. The longer the exposure time of the hair colour, the more intense the shade, so even gray hair can shine with Khadi Hair Colours in blond, nut brown, black or any other nuance.
See the colour chart .
INCIIndigofera Tinctoria (Indigo), Lawsonia Inermis (Henna), Emblica Officinalis (Amla)
Khadi Natural Cosmetics combines traditional Ayurvedic care with the latest cosmetic technology and European cosmetic standards. The formulations for herbal hair colours, hair and body care are developed on the basis of dermatological findings together with Ayurvedic therapists and all Khadi natural products are made from natural active ingredients through a complex, traditional process.
Khadi natural cosmetics coddle hair and skin with active principles from wild herbs and oils and plants from organic agriculture. Attention is paid to fair trading prices and working conditions and thanks to its cooperations Khadi improves the living conditions of the local residents. Also important for Khadi is the result: highly effective and gentle natural cosmetics with valuable ingredients - free of synthetic dyes, fragrances and preservatives, color enhancers, peroxides, ammonia and other chemical additives.
Herbal Hair Colors really work differently.
Chemical hair colours aggressively remove natural pigments from the interior of the hair shaft, and replace them with synthetic dyes. In this way, the initial hair colour can be completely changed. However, since natural hair pigments have an influence on overall hair structure, repeated chemical colour treatments can make hair fragile and lifeless.
100% Herbal Hair Colors penetrate only into the outer, scaly layer of the hair shaft, giving a coating of colour over this outer layer. The natural hair pigments can, depending on the colouring way, shine through this colour layer so that the initial colour has an influence on the new hair colour.
- Colors the hair in dark, intense black without red nuance
- high opacity - even with gray hair
- strengthens and cares for the hair
Recommendations for use
- User manual enclosed in the box (in English, German, French and Italian)
- Khadi Herbal Hair Color Black can also be mixed with other Khadi Hair Colors:
with Khadi Red Pure Henna for pre-pigmentation (ratio: 80% Red Pure Henna, 20% Black).
with Khadi Indigo for a deeper colour result.
with Khadi Henna shades for individual brown shades or for pre-pigmentation.
Precautions for use
- Be careful not to inhale the fine powder
- Please read the application notes carefully to get the best colour results.
- Keep in mind that Khadi herbal Hair Colour dye hair permanently (except for Khadi Senna/Cassia) and that you therefore better dye a test strand before first use to avoid unwanted colour results.
- In the case of light or grey hair natural dyes containing a high level of indigo pigments (dark brown shades, Black or Pure Indigo) may cause undesirable greenish colouring. To avoid such unwanted result, it is advisable not to use these dyes directly on light or grey hair but to precede them with a pre-pigmentation using Khadi Henna shades (Henna Pure or Henna Amla Jatropha), so to proceed with a 2-step colouring:
1. Colouring of the hair (or only the roots if it is a regrowth treatment) with a Khadi Henna shade and ending with a rinse before going directly to point 2.
2. Colouring of the hair (or only the roots if it is a regrowth treatment) with the selected dark colour, which will give a homogeneous result without greenish shade.
- To reduce reddish in Khadi Light Brown or Natural Hazel, Khadi Indigo may be used as pre-pigmentation (in a way similar to the precedent point).
- It is advisable not to mix oil or oily products with Khadi colouring powders, Khadi hair oils can however be used 24 hours after staining to improve their hold: apply the oil 24h after staining, leave it to act one hour and then wash the hair with a shampoo.
Once the user has seen at least one product this snippet will be visible.


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Latex Spraying Revisited
Q. I read the letter from G.S. in the August issue concerning the spraying of a latex. If I remember correctly, a latex is an emulsion and retains its characteristics in another liquid. They are difficult to spray since they do not break down in the other liquid. It is not like a solution where one disperses into the other liquid to form a homogeneous liquid.
I wonder what product he is spraying and why he is using a latex. He can get a reasonably fast air-dry material, use a two-part system to cure quickly or probably get a waterborne material that will dry reasonably fast. If he were willing to use a solvent-reduced material, he would have even more options. I get the feeling his volume is very small, and he is using an off-the-shelf material. S.B.
A. For the most part, your comments are true. According to the Coatings Encyclopedic Dictionary (CED), an emulsion is a "two-phase liquid system in which small droplets of one liquid (the internal phase) are immiscible in, and are dispersed uniformly throughout, a second continuous liquid phase (the external phase)." The CED also defines a latex as a "stable dispersion of a polymeric substance in an essentially aqueous medium." It goes on to say, "Strictly speaking, after polymerization, a latex is a solid dispersed in water and, therefore is not an emulsion." Latex and emulsions are often used synonymously in the paint industry.
Furthermore, G.S. is not developing a coating but a new type of high-volume, low-pressure (HVLP) spray gun. His problem is atomizing a typical latex paint using his experimental HVLP spray gun.
Related Topics
Conveyors and Paint Systems
Choosing the right conveyor system, coating technology, and ancillary equipment.
Coating Thickness Measurement: The Fundamentals
A review of available test methods, common applications and innovative instrumentation...
2020 Vision: The Future of Coatings
The year 2020 will be here before you know it, signaling the beginning of a new decade and bringing changes to the world as we know it.


text:
Re: Writing to same file from several kernels?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg111152] Re: Writing to same file from several kernels?
- From: Michael Stern <nycstern at gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:41:45 -0400 (EDT)
Do you have a database server running? If not, download an install MySQL Server or another free solution. Use the DatabaseLink package that comes with Mathematica to log your results to a database. Michael On 7/21/2010 7:10 AM, Sebastian wrote: > Hi all, > assume I have several kernels running which should all log their > progress to the same file. Is this possible? > Opening a stream from each of kernels does not work, neither does > passing on the stream object. Any ideas? > TIA > Sebastian >


text:
Today, as promised, I'm going to talk about Sandy Hook Elementary. I'm also not going to provide you with any easy answers or solutions.
This means that if you don't want to acknowledge the grim reality that public policy is hard, stop reading now lest you get to the end of this piece and find that I've made you miserably unhappy and that you therefore wish to abuse me. This post is the first of two; the next one will go up when I have some more information about a crucial aspect of the investigation as it unfolds.
I ended my last piece on 2DayFM's prank gone wrong with Charlie Brooker's plea to report spree killings differently, so I'll start this one on the same theme: the spectacle.
This comes from Plato's Republic:
Leontius, the son of Aglaion, was coming up from the Peiraeus, close to the outer side of the north wall, when he saw some dead bodies lying near the executioner, and he felt a desire to look at them, and at the same time felt disgust at the thought, and tried to turn aside. For some time he fought with himself and put his hand over his eyes, but in the end the desire got the better of him, and opening his eyes wide with his fingers he ran forward to the bodies, saying, 'There you are, curse you, have your fill of the lovely spectacle'.
Nearly everything in Plato's Republic is A-Grade bunkum, but that insight is a telling one. Charlie Brooker calls it 'rubbernecking' and anyone who's ever slowed down to gawp at an RTA or wondered what the Romans got out of their incredibly violent entertainments or played Call of Duty or obsessively tried to learn more about the latest school shooting understands the desire that got the better of Leontius. Violent death. It's just so interesting, dammit. And these days, we know that it's not just our eyes that want to look. We do, too. Plato thought that ideal versions of everything existed out there in the ether–he called them 'forms'. But there are no forms, or if there are, they exist not in the stars but in our heads. Just like the rubbernecking habit.
This means that any discussion of Sandy Hook–here or elsewhere–is in some respects voyeuristic. We are perving on other people's grief, and that's not an attractive habit. I find it revealing that the two commentators who made the 'grief' point in the most lapidary fashion represent political extremes. Here is socialist Guy Rundle, in Crikey!:
Too calm, too practised. They are too good at this now. There is too much stricken meditation on the unknowable nature of evil, too much "this is not a day for politics", too much coming together, too much spirituality that is really passivity with a gloss, too many candles, too many floating lanterns. These things have become as polished and inverted in intent as teen funerals with their slideshow montages to Time of Your Life.
There's something nauseating about such forbearance. The systematic and thorough killing of 20 children under seven should not be an occasion for which anyone is sufficiently prepared. By its very nature, it should be an occasion for hysteria, for disarray, for uncontrollable grief.
The meditative reflection on display strikes one as a particular condition of a more general process — the manner in which a type of fatalism has encroached on daily life at the very root — in America. Though expressed in religious terms, it seems to have more to do with the all-encompassing power of abstract systems, corporations, processes, a life lived in permanent suspension from the real.
"We need to take action," the superintendent had said in Bridgeport and I brightened for a moment. "We need to take action to comfort, action to be vigilant." Which is not action at all, but its opposite.
And here is paleolibertarian Ilana Mercer:
Almost as warped as the (evil, not ill) mass murderer who killed 20 children and 7 adults (his mother included) at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., is the freaky spectacle of mass contagion—where members of the public turn professional mourners, flocking to funeral happenings for victims they never knew.
Yes, each one of us can project his own baggage onto the senseless deaths in Newtown. But grief is not a tribal affair. Communities don't grieve; individuals who incur loss do. These ritualistic displays among regular folks across the US are symptomatic of our festering cultural commons. [Emphasis in original]
At the center of this festering culture is the journalist, acting as a master of ceremonies (MC). (I can see Anderson Cooper reconfiguring his Hero of the Year Award as we speak. This low-watt, dim bulb of a journo chooses America's heroes each year, based on how many tears they shed. Pretty much.) For the media's blow-by-blow, wall-to-wall coverage of the memorial in Newtown, Connecticut—and of every connected utterance on the issue, official or other—is a deconstruction of the discipline of journalism.
So–that acknowledgment of our devotion to the spectacle over–it's time to address a few (and it is only a few, because life is too short) of the early stage explanations for Sandy Hook, and to put them out of their misery.
It was the guns what done it!
I'm about to make both pro and anti-gun friends very unhappy (so you have been warned), but this lawyer with a modicum of statistical understanding is heartily sick of both sides abusing the numbers.
First, some background radiation to what I'm about to say.
The United States is, compared to OECD averages, a phenomenally violent country. And within the US, the South has levels of violence on par with much of the developing world.
US v OECD assault death rates
South v rest of USA assault death rates
As should be reasonably obvious, even the blood-drenched United States is getting better as time passes: much better. New York has recently had cause to boast about crime rates dropping to levels not seen since 1960. This decline in all forms of crime (not just assault deaths) has been repeated throughout the developed world, although the rest of us are falling from a much a lower 'high'. The decline in violent crime has also continued across the US and EU, independent of both the financial crisis and rates of firearm ownership.
Recorded offences in those EU countries where consistent time series data is kept (via European Commission/Eurostat)
US firearm deaths over time (via Center for Disease Control)
It is important to remember that the most common gun-related death in the US (and elsewhere) is a suicide, and that if there is one 'gun control' proposal that would help to reduce this figure, it would be a mandated requirement to have secured firearms (what is sometimes called a 'gun cabinet') with separate ammunition storage. I was brought up (in my Australian country childhood) to do this — not only by my parents but also by the local Sporting Shooters' Association.
Many people make the mistake of assuming that because there is effectively a gun for every American (thanks to the 2nd Amendment), it is always and everywhere the high rate of gun ownership that produces the high death from assault rate. This is only true up to a point. Not only do other countries have high rates of gun ownership combined with low rates of firearm death (Switzerland is a common and well documented example), firearms are not the only independent variable when it comes to rates of violent crime. Other things are going on, which I'll deal with in the next post. That said, it is important for gun rights advocates to understand that banning guns would not be meaningless:
That leaves us with the big one, the argument I've been circling around for 2,000 words: ban guns. Ban them all.
I'm not going to insult your intelligence by arguing that this wouldn't work. Guns do not create homicidal intent, as some people have argued, but they do make homicidal intent more lethal. A bullet is harder to stop, requires less physical strength to deploy, and does a huge amount of damage. And shooting someone takes a lot less time than stabbing or bludgeoning them. That is why we now arm the US military with rifles instead of big knives. Conservatives who argue that a total ban wouldn't lower the homicide rate are being ridiculous.
However–even if you tore up the Bill of Rights and banned guns, overcoming all the practical hurdles in your path–while you would certainly reduce the death toll, the US would still be a more violent country than the others in the OECD. Of course, you could argue that an America without guns would undergo a vast cultural shift, would–in effect–become Canada. But, as my mother used to say, "if 'ifs' and 'ands' were pots and pans, there'd be no need for ironmongers". Jeffrey Goldberg explains:
But these gun-control efforts, while noble, would only have a modest impact on the rate of gun violence in America.
Because it's too late.
There are an estimated 280 million to 300 million guns in private hands in America—many legally owned, many not. Each year, more than 4 million new guns enter the market. This level of gun saturation has occurred not because the anti-gun lobby has been consistently outflanked by its adversaries in the National Rifle Association, though it has been. The NRA is quite obviously a powerful organization, but like many effective pressure groups, it is powerful in good part because so many Americans are predisposed to agree with its basic message.
America's level of gun ownership means that even if the Supreme Court—which ruled in 2008 that the Second Amendment gives citizens the individual right to own firearms, as gun advocates have long insisted—suddenly reversed itself and ruled that the individual ownership of handguns was illegal, there would be no practical way for a democratic country to locate and seize those guns.
Many gun-control advocates, and particularly advocates of a total gun ban, would like to see the United States become more like Canada, where there are far fewer guns per capita and where most guns must be registered with the federal government. The Canadian approach to firearms ownership has many attractions—the country's firearm homicide rate is one-sixth that of the U.S. But barring a decision by the American people and their legislators to remove the right to bear arms from the Constitution, arguing for applying the Canadian approach in the U.S. is useless.
So, yes, guns make the problem worse. But even without the guns, there is still one hell of a problem. And good luck with trying to do anything about the guns.
Finally: always remember that it is easy for people in the UK to criticise the US for its terrible violence. Compared to the US, the UK (even more than many other European nations, like France) is an astonishingly peaceful, ordered country. It is hard to believe that this nation of gardeners, queuers, and apologisers once ruled the greatest empire the world has ever seen, but it did. As an erstwhile classicist, I sometimes like to play the 'compare the imperialists' game: London v Rome. Apart from a grave public politeness, a sentimental fondness for their pets, and the rule of law, the two societies had nothing in common. Not for nothing did historian Tom Holland call the Romans 'a superpredator of a civilisation'. One wonders what the Brits did if they did not predate, or if there were once more to them than cricket and liberal democracy.
It is also fair to say that Britain both before and after Dunblane started with a less absolutist attitude towards civil liberties than the US, and also, a lot fewer guns.
Moving swiftly on…
If we can't ban guns, what can we do? Magazine size, concealed carry, and background checks
Once the 'ban guns' argument falls over, three alternative proposals are routinely floated, one from strong 2nd Amendment supporters and two from the more moderate end of the gun control spectrum. They are as follows:
1. Background checks.
2. Ban extended capacity magazines.
3. Allow concealed carry/remove 'gun free' zones.
There is modest evidence that background checks and banning extended capacity magazines would make a would-be school shooter's decision to inflict carnage more difficult. Megan McCardle observes:
You can, to be sure, name one or two things that might make a marginal difference: ban extended-capacity magazines, and require background checks for private sales. As a proponent of reasonable gun control that in some ways goes farther than current rules (I'd like to require that people pass a shooting and gun safety test before they can own a gun), these rules don't strike me as crazy.
But we are back to generic solutions. These "reasonable controls" would not, in fact, have done much to stop the horror at Newtown; Lanza's problem was not that he didn't know the four rules of gun safety, or that his aim was bad. And Lanza didn't buy the guns, so a background check would not have stopped him.
Could we go bigger? Should we ban the relatives of anxious sad sacks from buying guns? How about family friends? (Michael Carneal broke into a friend's house while they were away for Thanksgiving and stole the guns he used to shoot up his Kentucky school.) The question answers itself; the kind of all-knowing surveillance regime that this would require would be both impossible, and intolerable.
Reducing the magazine sizes seems modestly more promising, but only modestly. It takes a few minutes of practicing to learn how to change a magzine in a few seconds. Even if you banned magazines, forcing people to load the gun itself, people could just carry more guns; spree shooters seem to show up, as Lanza did, with more guns and ammunition than they actually need. In this specific case, it might well not have helped at all. Would Lanza really have been gang-rushed by fast-thinking primary school students if he stopped to reload?
There is also evidence that gun free zones just make the individuals within them more vulnerable, and that they actually attract criminal elements (as in, those with unlicensed weapons) because they are unprotected. This may, once again, be peculiar to the US and may not apply outside it.
The problem of concealed carry
Concealed carry, one would assume, stands or falls on the evidence. The way people argue over it, one would think that it either works brilliantly (gun rights groups) or generates chaos and crime (law enforcement and gun control groups). In fact, it does neither. Time and again, the enactment of concealed carry laws has not changed the crime rate in either direction. At all. People don't even get to argue over correlation and causation because the data doesn't get that far. It's a wash, indistinguishable from noise.
Claims in favour of concealed carry laws and their ability to reduce crime were first made by John Lott in his book More Guns, Less Crime. Lott, an academic economist who–perhaps unusually–supports gun rights argued that violent crime decreases in areas where law abiding citizens are allowed to carry concealed weapons. Lott's case, when first made, seemed empirically very strong. Indeed, in terms of an understanding of the operation of economic incentives, the basic argument is sound. Gun free zones don't work because of the incentives involved, so by extension concealed carry should work, for the simple reason that if a criminal thinks his potential victim is armed, he may be deterred from committing the crime. However, it proved impossible for other scholars to replicate Lott's results, while (by his own admission, foolishly), Lott waded into heated usenet debates, and was later caught sockpuppetting in his own cause.
Discrediting Lott did not serve to make the concealed carry argument go away, however, because the opposite claim–that it increases crime rates–turned out to be equally untrue. Consider the following case study:
In 2004, the Ohio legislature passed a law allowing private citizens to apply for permits to carry firearms outside the home. The decision to allow concealed carry was, of course, a controversial one. Law-enforcement organizations, among others, argued that an armed population would create chaos in the streets. In 2003, John Gilchrist, the legislative counsel for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, testified, "If 200,000 to 300,000 citizens begin carrying a concealed weapon, common sense tells us that accidents will become a daily event."
When I called Gilchrist recently, he told me that events since the state's concealed-carry law took effect have proved his point. "Talking to the chiefs, I know that there is more gun violence and accidents involving guns," he said. "I think there's more gun violence now because there are more guns. People are using guns in the heat of arguments, and there wouldn't be as much gun violence if we didn't have people carrying weapons. If you've got people walking around in a bad mood—or in a divorce, they've lost their job—and they get into a confrontation, this could result in the use of a gun. If you talk to emergency-room physicians in the state, [they] see more and more people with gunshot wounds."
Gilchrist said he did not know the exact statistics on gun-related incidents (or on incidents concerning concealed-carry permit holders specifically, because the state keeps the names of permit holders confidential). He says, however, that he tracks gun usage anecdotally. "You can look in the newspaper. I consciously look for stories that deal with guns. There are more and more articles in The Columbus Dispatch about people using guns inappropriately."
Gilchrist's argument would be convincing but for one thing: the firearm crime rate in Ohio remained steady after the concealed-carry law passed in 2004. [Emphasis mine]
The devil in the detail
It seems not to be widely known among the general public (excepting those who have some knowledge of firearms) that the Bushmaster .223 the killer used in Sandy Hook is a very common rifle in the US and not covered by any 'assault weapons' ban–historical, current, or proposed (the term is actually legal, rather than technical, and suggests that US Congressional draftsmen are not, generally, gun-owners). It is widely used for hunting and easy to customise:
Mr. Halbrook, who compiled manufacturing estimates for a lawsuit, said that by a conservative estimate, 3.3 million to 3.5 million AR-15s were made in the United States from 1986 through the first half of this year and were not exported. A similar estimate, for manufacturing from 1986 through 2009, was summarized by a District of Columbia circuit court judge as sufficient evidence that the rifles were in "common use."
Enthusiasts praise the AR-15 rifle as lightweight, durable, accurate and, compared with other long guns, gentle in its kick. They describe the rifle as a gadget geek's dream — the "Barbie doll" of firearms, as one gun dealer described it — because of an array of accessories that allow it to be easily customized.
"The average person can change stocks, they can put lasers on them, they can put locks on them," said Tony Dee, the chief gunsmith at The Gun Store in Las Vegas. "It's just endless. It's like building a custom car. You can just accessorize it to your own personal taste."
Mr. Dee said his wife owned a pink, chrome-plated AR-15. "It's blinged out pretty good."
Where to now?
I expected angry and inflamed online debate about gun laws in the wake of Sandy Hook. I did not expect some of the arguments and assertions I've seen about mental illness. There are policy proposals (from people I had hitherto assumed to be reasonable) I've heard that would amount not only to the reinstitutionalisation of the mentally ill but also to a deliberate decision to tear up the Bill of Rights for not a few of America's most vulnerable people. To my mind, the mental illness debate is more urgent and frightening than the anger swirling around the 2nd Amendment debate right now. I want to address the issues raised therein with some care, which is why I've confined this first post to voyeurism, guns, and crime.
The take home?
1. Crime rates, including violent crime rates, are dropping like a stone across the developed world.
2. Despite also experiencing a significant drop in violent crime rates, the US is still much more violent than other OECD countries.
3. Much of this crime is independent of rates of gun ownership.
4. There are insurmountable Constitutional impediments to getting major changes to US gun laws as they currently stand.
5. Not all of the small changes otherwise possible are pointless.


text:
Forget the language barrier, please – unless you're a closet racist who simply can't abide the merest whisper of a foreign language in their presence, Trompe-L'oeil is the most bubbly, boisterous and fun album to earn itself an official UK release in the month of May.
The Montréal-based quintet released this, their second long-player following the well-received Le Compte Complet of 2004, on their home turf last year; that it's taken over 12 months to cross the Atlantic may have something to do with the fact that the band sing exclusively in French, but really such an obstacle is easily overcome after but a cursory listen. Effervescent of tone and as excitable as a child given £300 to blow in Hamleys of an afternoon – no PlayStations allowed – the album breezes into life with the joyous 'Montréal -40?c', a single in Canada. It sets a perfect tone: all smiles and carefree joviality, handclaps in the park on a summer's day and cool beers by the beach at sunset; neverending evenings of friends and laughter. That few of the lyrics really make sense is but a moot point – you'll be too busy dancing to these songs to care about their messages.
It's not until 'Casse-Cou', nine of twelve, that matters take a turn for the serious, in tone anyway; a slower piece than those preceding it, the song unfolds gradually and carefully, revealing facets only when the one in the spotlight extinguishes itself. As such it's a less-immediate offering than many a song on Trompe-L'oeil, but the distorted screams that occasionally puncture its surface are indicative of the playfulness of its makers. Even when aggressive, they're pumped full of happy pills.
'La Russe' is a complete left turn, if not an about-turn style-wise – ditching the indie-pop template that informs so much of Trompe-L'oeil, the brief rap-propelled track recalls fellow Canadians Islands' Return To The Sea, particularly 'Where There's A Will There's A Whalebone'. Only in French. And shorter. It's wicked, whatever. Recent single 'Fille A Plumes' has been criticised as a standalone offering, for being a poor representation of its parent LP, but in the context of the full-length its rougher-than-average edges are welcomed. It's intermittent blasts of discordance that prevent Trompe-L'oeil from drowning in its own syrupiness.
While it's not a perfect LP by any means – its young architects have plenty of time to pen their masterpiece – Trompe-L'oeil is nevertheless a recommended UK introduction to one of Canada's most-revered indie-rock acts (three Juno nominations deserves hearty applause). That there's not a word of English across its tracks shouldn't be seen as a flaw; it's just another dimension of the LP worthy of considered investigation, starting now.
7Mike Diver's Score


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The first night of the 2013 N.F.L. draft didn't possess the star power many of us anticipated, but it set up an intriguing Day 2. With many prospects in both rounds projected to start immediately, we saw why this was considered such a deep draft. Let's run through some of the interesting choices.
Cincinnati Bengals (37): Giovani Bernard, RB, North Carolina
It was widely assumed that Alabama's Eddie Lacy would be the first back off the board, but it was the North Carolina running back with do-it-all ability. The Bengals needed a back in a big way, and Bernard has to be considered the favorite to start for Cincinnati right out of the gate. The 5-foot-8, 202-pound Bernard ran for more than 1,200 yards and 12 touchdowns in each of the last two seasons at UNC, adding at least 45 receptions in both years. Bernard also adds value as a return man.
Grade: C-
Bernard is a good player, but running back is an extremely deep position, so Cincy could have waited.
San Diego Chargers (38): Manti Te'o, LB, Notre Dame
The Chargers moved up seven spots from No. 45 over all to grab the draft's most controversial player. The linebacker recorded at least 113 tackles in each of his final three seasons at Notre Dame, although his totals declined each year. He managed to snag seven interceptions in 2012 after slimming down in the off-season.
Grade: D
I don't see anything special in Te'o, and San Diego gave up more than just a second-rounder to get him.
Jets (39): Geno Smith, QB, West Virginia
In Smith, the Jets are getting a quarterback who posted jaw-dropping numbers in 2012: 71.1 percent completion rate, 8.1 yards per attempt and a stunning 42-to-6 touchdown-to-interception differential. Despite those statistics, many have questioned Smith's accuracy and his ability to lead an offense.
While Smith won't be the highest-paid quarterback on the Jets' roster — that, of course, is Mark Sanchez — he may wind up as the starter. Smith had originally committed to leave New York City after he was snubbed in the first round. Now he won't have to.
Grade: A
Opinions on Smith will be split because of the nature of his game and position, but I see a player who dominated in a major conference. Regardless of the offense he ran at West Virginia, a 67.4 percent career completion rate is impressive.
Giants (49): Johnathan Hankins, DT, Ohio State
After landing a versatile offensive lineman in the first round, the Giants turned to the defensive side of the ball in the second round. It was an interesting pick because of Hankins's size. At 6-3 and 322 pounds, he has been considered a nose tackle — someone who wouldn't necessarily fit in the Giants' 4-3 scheme.
They obviously believe they can find a way to get the most out of Hankins, emphasizing talent over scheme. I think that's generally a positive view to take. Too often, we see teams get caught up in searching for players who fit their particular schemes instead of simply drafting really talented players.
What makes more sense: filling an entire roster with very specific prospects who fit one person's scheme, or adding lots of quality pieces and then figuring out a way to maximize their potential?
Grade: C+
I don't think the Giants got sensational value, but I applaud them for drafting a talented player who isn't the "typical" 4-3 defensive tackle.
Denver Broncos (58): Montee Ball, RB, Wisconsin
Willis McGahee's tenure in Denver might have just come to an end with the Broncos' selection of Ball, who was incredibly productive at Wisconsin, rushing for more than 3,700 yards and scoring 55 touchdowns in the past two seasons alone.
Earlier this year, I wrote this about him: Ball had nearly 1,000 career carries, yet still managed 5.6 yards a carry. That's a good mark for a player who had so many touches. Ball's 77 career rushing touchdowns are eye-popping. A lot of scouts ignore college production, but it's meaningful. Using college stats alone, a simple algorithm can typically identify successful running backs better than N.F.L. teams can (regarding how high the players were drafted).
Ball is somewhat paradoxical in that he was so productive, yet his speed suggests he's going to have a really tough time in the N.F.L. The same was the case with the former Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne, who averaged 3.8 yards as a pro. Ball has decent size at 214 pounds, but his 4.66 40-yard dash and 4.40 short shuttle times were poor.
Grade: C
I'm a big believer in emphasizing production, but other running backs still on the board were also productive in college but have measurables superior to Ball's.
Green Bay Packers (61): Eddie Lacy, RB, Alabama
The consensus top running back in the draft nearly dropped out of the second round before the Packers scooped him up after Giovani Bernard, Michigan State's Le'Veon Bell (by the Steelers) and Montee Ball had been taken. Lacy had a really poor off-season, running a 4.64 40-yard dash and showing subpar conditioning.
It's worth noting that running backs who have run as slow as Lacy and Ball have historically recorded less than one-sixth of the total production of backs clocked at better than 4.50. But Lacy will help protect quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the new $110 million man.
Grade: C
Again, the depth at running back was strong enough that a player like Lacy was not scarce. A comparable prospect could have been had later in the draft.


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A strange light III
Oil and cold wax on Arches oil paper, 30 x 24 cm, mounted and backed on archival board.
Part of a series of paintings created during my residency at Brisons Veor in Cornwall. Each day I would create 4 small paintings on Arches oil paper, changing my palette each day and seeing how my work was influenced by the weather and the light.


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The 122nd Sand Lake Alumni Reunion will take place on Flag Day, Saturday, June 14, 2014, at Resurrection Lutheran Church, Sand Lake, Mich.
The social hour starts at 5:00 p.m., with dinner at 6:00 p.m. Please RSVP by June 6, 2014, by calling Dave Groner at 269-208-5716, Dick Pierce at 616-636-5258, or Dick Braford at 616-984-2077.
This year's program is: Saluting our Veterans from Sand Lake Schools. The committee is looking for pictures, stories, and experiences from our Veterans. If you have something, please contact Dave Groner at 269-208-5716.
Notifying our Alumni is a difficult task. Please help spread the word to all classmates.
Also, Sand Lake School history books will be available for $35 each.
Next year's reunion will be June 13, 2015, and will be the 123rd Reunion. We would like to commemorate all Sand Lake School Queens and Miss Sand Lakes up to 1962. Any ideas or information you have for the program will be welcomed and appreciated.


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via m.bradle
The Unicorn Museum presents a walk through history. Designed by a noted fantasy author, this state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot museum brings the fantastical and highly implausible to life.
A fully engaging, sensory experience for intellectually undiscerning guests. Murals and realistic scenery, computer-generated visual effects, over fifty exotic animal-like replicas, life-sized giant and hill troll animatronics, and a special-effects theater complete with elven air conditioning and dwarven hand-crafted drink holders. These are just some of the impressive exhibits that everyone in your family will enjoy.


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Whether the challenge is maneuvering your company through an economic downturn, completing the acquisition of a leading industry supplier, developing an effective market entry strategy, or strengthening one's global competitive position through a much improved supply chain organization, Orr & Boss is there to help our clients succeed. Our toolkit of fact-based analyses, previous related experiences and practical solutions all converge to get the job done right.
Three simple words capture the very essence of what we achieve for our clients — Creating Client Value.


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Posted on April 2, 2013 by benmorgan1995
I always said that I didn't want to make this a weekly blog. That's lucky seeing as it's been around 2 weeks now. Basically what happened is that Easter got in the way. What I mean by this is that … Continue reading →
Posted in Advertising, Economics, Economy, Fast Food, Humour, Lifestyle, Marketing, Social, Uncategorized, Young People, Youth | Tagged Advertising, Easter, Economics, Humour, KFC, Marketing, McDonalds, National Trust, Pet Hate, Petty | 1 Comment


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Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom."—Luke 23:42
"and gave thanks to God for it [the bread]. Then he broke it in pieces and said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.""—Corinthians 11:24
I am thinking that every object in the universe is pervaded by Christ consciousness. Perhaps, Jesus meant, when you look at bread (or any food), remember that I am in it, the whole cosmos is in it: the air, the rain, the sunshine, the earth. I am with you. Looking ahead, Jesus knew he was going to die soon, and maybe this thought of remembering him in the bread was a way to comfort the disciples that he is still with them in Spirit whenever they ate. It was to bring awareness.
"When I hold a piece of bread, I look at it, and sometimes I smile at it. The piece of bread is an ambassador of the cosmos offering nourishment and support. Looking deeply into the piece of bread, I see the sunshine, the clouds, the great earth. Without the sunshine, no wheat can grow. Without the clouds, there is no rain for the wheat to grow. Without the great earth, nothing can grow. That is why the piece of bread that I hold in my hand is a wonder of life. It is there for all of us. We have to be therefore it."—Thich Nhat Hanh
"A cloud never dies."—Thich Nhat Hanh


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Miami, March 13, 2012 – This summer, Regent Seven Seas Cruises kicks off its 20th anniversary season with the debut of Sette Mari at La Veranda. Translated from the Italian "Seven Seas," the new restaurant will offer a casual dining experience that broadens the all-inclusive, luxury line's diverse gourmet dining options.
Sette Mari at La Veranda Showcases Authentic Italian Specialties
Regent Seven Seas Cruises to launch new restaurant on all 3 ships
Each evening, La Veranda, a popular breakfast and lunch buffet venue, will transform into Sette Mari at La Veranda, where guests will enjoy an extensive menu of authentic antipasti and Italian specialty items paired with distinctive Italian wines. Using fresh, gourmet ingredients, each hand-crafted dish is prepared al momento (cooked to order) by Regent Seven Seas Cruises' talented chefs. Al fresco dining is also available so guests can dine under the stars.
As guests enter Sette Mari they will be presented with a sampling of antipasti, including aged Parmesan cheese and marinated olives, bruschette, veal meatballs and savory pastry stuffed with tomatoes and mozzarella. Additionally, an elaborate antipasti bar will also be available for guests to select from.
A first course might be the specialty pasta of the day, prepared by a chef at the pasta station on the buffet or guests may order a traditional pasta dish from the menu. These include Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Penne Rigate alla Bolognese, Gnocchi de Patate al Pesto and Lasagna al Forno.
Secondi piatti – or entrées – will include Cioppino, the classic Italian seafood stew with lobster, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels and calamari, served in a garlic, white wine, parsley and fresh tomato broth, along with plenty of crusty Italian bread for dipping. In addition, guests can order delicacies such as veal chops, lamb chops and Mediterranean sea bass, among other choices.
For dessert, the perennial favorite of Tiramisu will be offered along with other traditional and delicious Italian sweets.
"This new restaurant concept is a substantial enhancement to current menu items featured for dinner in La Veranda," according to Bernhard Klotz, culinary director for Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
"Sette Mari will not require reservations based on guest feedback and offers the perfect complement to the dining venues on our ships," stated Mark Conroy, the line's president. "After a full day ashore, guests can select appetizers and the house-made pasta on their own and be finished in as little as 45 minutes or enjoy a leisurely evening ordering specialties from the menu."
Long a leader in culinary innovation, Regent Seven Seas Cruises offers a delicious array of dining venues as part of its all-inclusive, ultra-luxury experience including: Prime 7, a contemporary American steakhouse; Compass Rose, the ship's elegant main dining room serving Continental specialties; and Signatures restaurant serving authentic French cuisine (available on Seven Seas Mariner and Seven Seas Voyager only).
Sette Mari will debut on Seven Seas Navigator (May 30), followed by Seven Seas Voyager (July 2) and Seven Seas Mariner (July 13). Sette Mari is open for dinner only; reservations are not required.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises is widely recognized as the world's most inclusive ultra-luxury cruise line with airfare, all-suite accommodations, award-winning cuisine, premium spirits and fine wines, live entertainment, shore excursions, gratuities and taxes, and a pre-cruise hotel stay included in cruise fares.
To receive a brochure or for more information on Regent Seven Seas Cruises, see a professional travel agent, visit www.RSSC.com or call toll-free 800-285-1835.
About Regent Seven Seas Cruises – Regent Seven Seas Cruises is the world's most-inclusive luxury cruise line. Fares include all-suite accommodations, round-trip air, highly personalized service, acclaimed cuisine, fine wines and spirits, sightseeing excursions in every port, a pre-cruise luxury hotel package and gratuities. Three award-winning, all-suite vessels, Seven Seas Mariner, Seven Seas Voyager, and Seven Seas Navigator, are among the most spacious at sea and visit more than 300 destinations around the globe.
About Prestige Cruise Holdings – Prestige Cruise Holdings is the parent company of Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Formed in 2007 to manage select assets in Apollo Management's cruise investment portfolio, PCH is led by Chairman and CEO Frank Del Rio, the founder of Oceania Cruises. PCH is the market leader in the upper-premium and luxury segments of the cruise industry with nearly 5,200 berths between the Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands, a number the company expects will grow to more than 6,400 berths by 2012.


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Whoomp! Here it is! A dated reference to an overused hip-hop song from the '90s? No, silly … well, I mean, yeah, but I was referring to the end of another fantasy basketball season. Or if this is your first fantasy basketball season, then just the end of your fantasy basketball season. Anyway, it's over. Done. And the results are in: only 16 of the 48 Razzball Commenter Leagues teams had 10-or-fewer games remaining at the end of the season. Also, two-thirds of you played most of the season and then petered out after injuries grabbed hold and shook your soul loose. Frankly, I'm happy with 2/3 general participation after the All-Star Break. A lot of leagues don't come close to that.
Now, despite my long monkey arms able to reach the dead center of my spin (the sweet spot when patting yourself on the back), that doesn't mean that I'm unwilling to listen to criticism. Between now and August, any suggestions on how to improve the RCLs will be read, printed, made into a paper airlplane, thrown at my dog's face and the ones he catches in his mouth and doesn't tear apart in a violent fashion will be re-read and re-considered.
The top 12 players from this year (listed below) or in this spreadsheet have the option to be in the RCL Champs League next season (assuming there's a season), everyone else will be placed into leagues on a first-come, first serve basis. For any of the dozen champs that politely (or with gut-wrenching impoliteness) decline to rejoin the league next year, we'll move on to the 13th-place finisher, or 14th or 15th and so-on. Think of it as being wait-listed for a school you barely applied for.
Congratulations to Sky Valley, Team RBAej, Mayweather's Baby Mamas and Charlemagne Barclay who each won their respective leagues and, incidentally, ended up in the top four overall.
And now, your Razzball Commenter League Overall Champion:
Mayweather's Baby Mamas from the Teen Wolf League. /Pops a party favor. Stands watching the paper streamer and glitter bits float to the floor, thinks about having to clean that up, wonders why he popped the streamer when he's alone in his house and only wearing boxer briefs. Decides next year to congratulate the winner and leave it at that.\ It was a nail-biter between Mayweather and Team RBAej, who were ranked second and first at the halfway point of the season. Mayweather came up money. Congrats to you.
And congrats to the rest of you for playing. As some of you may notice, when all 48 teams were tossed into one big group, the rankings changed and some teams in the same league suddenly found themselves flip-flopping in the total ranks. Don't take it personally, but do take it. There's not enough room in my trunk for all of you to just leave it here. Speaking of "here," here's the Top 10:
1. (2) Mayweather's Baby Mamas, Teen Wolf, 312 total points
2. (1) Team RBAej, White Shadow, 310 total points
3. (4) Charlemagne Barclay, Juwanna Mann, 295 total points
4. (6) Sky Valley, Blue Chips, 294 total points
5. (5) With a Bad Back, 287, White Shadow, 287 total points
6. (7) north kingstown ri (1), Teen Wolf, 282 total points
7. (11) jonluscaesar Pham, Juwanna Mann, 272 total points
8. (3) Team Richard, Blue Chips, 265 total points
8. (9) Team Stockton, Blue Chips, 265 total points
10. (8) Green Chile Stew, Blue Chips, 258 total points
Congratulations to the teams that did well. Generic words of encouragement about moral victories for the teams that did less-than-well. And zurberflipnoptic superkligg to those of you who gave up on your team before it was sweater weather outside.


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Regarding what happened at Mozilla, I yield the floor to Ben Shapiro who perfectly articulates the problem with thought-crimes
Ben Shapiro has published a post that perfectly articulates everything I want to say about the Mozilla thought-crime purge. I therefore hope that Ben will forgive me for quoting him at some length. After detailing the way in which Brendan Eich's outing and subsequent destruction began with OKCupid, and then spilled over to Mozilla, Shapiro says:
Was OKCupid's action legal? Sure.
Was Mozilla's action in forcing his resignation legal? Of course.
Were both of them not only wrong, but morally disgusting?
This is not about the issue of same-sex marriage. I have personally taken the position that the government should get completely out of the business of marriage. If two men or women want to live together and get married through any private institution of their choosing, I'm fine with that; I hold the same position with regard to one man and one woman. And TruthRevolt is obviously not attempting to crack down on pro-same-sex marriage companies – Google is pro-same-sex marriage, and yet we recommend them as an alternative browser to Firefox.
This issue is far larger than the small and parochial same-sex marriage issue. It is about the chilling of political freedom by small sects of motivated political players. It is the same issue as A&E's suspension of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson over his comments paraphrasing the Book of Corinthians. It is the issue of McCarthyistic blacklisting and voter intimidation and ultimately, the issue of utilizing power to silence dissent. In America, we typically prize freedom of speech. And while OKCupid and company may be exercising their market power in fully legal fashion, they're certainly advocates for quashing freedom of speech.
Imagine a world in which all gay people in America were at risk of firing thanks to religious bigots mobilizing against their perceived sins. Imagine a world in which market power wasn't just utilized to get gay people fired, but government became a tool of the anti-gay mob. Would that be wrong? Now switch the parties. That's reality.
This is a fight for freedom, whether or not you agree with Eich's political perspective. Privately-held political beliefs are no excuse for wheeling out the stocks and demanding public canings. To stop such activity, we will have to fight fire with fire.
We are not powerless in this fight. TruthRevolt will not stand idly by. Neither should you.
Sign our petition, and uninstall Firefox today.
By way of comparison and contrast, let me introduce you to the New York Times' take on the subject, which is that, because Mozilla wants to market itself far and wide, its best business tactic is to engage in blacklisting:
Mozilla is not a normal company. It is an activist organization. Mozilla's primary mission isn't to make money but to spread open-source code across the globe in the eventual hope ofpromoting "the development of the Internet as a public resource."
As such, Mozilla operates according to a different calculus from most of the rest of corporate America.
Like all software companies, Mozilla competes in two markets. First, obviously, it wants people to use its products instead of its rivals' stuff. But its second market is arguably more challenging — the tight labor pool of engineers, designers, and other tech workers who make software.
When you consider the importance of that market, Mr. Eich's position on gay marriage wasn't some outré personal stance unrelated to his job; it was a potentially hazardous bit of negative branding in the labor pool, one that was making life difficult for current employees and plausibly reducing Mozilla's draw to prospective workers.
The post expands on that topic, but it boils down to this: Because Mozilla employees are activists, they cannot be expected to cope in an environment that tolerates diversity of thought.


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For a good portion of 2011, Northern Virginia was paralyzed in fear of a man who had made a habit of sneaking up behind unsuspecting shoppers in area malls and slashing their posteriors with box cutters and razors. His shenanigans continued unabated for months, until authorities identified the man as Johnny Guillen Pimentel and the slicing stopped. Now, officials fear their suspect may have fled to Peru.
The butt cutter would indulge in his odd habit this summer at malls in the DC area. A young woman, in her teens or twenties, would be distracted by a commotion while shopping, and before she knew it, her ass would be slashed. No one was seriously injured in the attacks that every single media outlet in the world reported as "bizarre," but victims were seriously unnerved and asses lived in constant fear. In total, nine women have come forward to report being victimized.
Then, in September, a break in the case. Authorities used surveillance footage and citizen tips to identify the man as Johnny Guillen Pimentel, a Peruvian immigrant who came to the US 8 or 9 years ago. His brother, who also lives in the states, claimed Pimentel had never displayed violent tendencies.
It now seems that Pimentel has exported his derrière filleting skills back to his home country. Authorities believe that he's been in Lima since mid-December, and they're seeking extradition. Peruvian media also believes that the corta nalgas has returned home, and has warned citizens to be on the lookout.
If convicted, Pimentel faces a charge of malicious wounding and years of being the butt of late night comedians' monologue jokes.
Suspect in bizarre attacks on young women flees US, authorities say [WaPo]


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More to come soon from Radek!
Just in case you have arrived here via direct access to EAA Forums, this thread was established to comment on the most recent article in IMC Advisor by Peter Conant. Read it please and let us know what do you think ;-). Would you question your ATC controller and when? How long would you wait if you think you should be receiving another instruction or the one you have received seems to be incomplete?
Last edited by Radek.cfi; 02-24-2017 at 09:44 AM.
Yes.The first was a relatively straightforward clearance to fly the ILS Runway 24 approach at Nantucket. The weather was clear, but it was after dark, so I had requested the ILS procedure. Cape Approach had assigned me a heading (I think it was 210) and as I watched, the localizer needle came in from the left, crossed the center, and began drifting off to the right. I didnt say anything, having never heard join the localizer or cleared for the approach. Cape came back a few seconds later, and I was given turn right to 270, join the localizer, contact Nantucket tower.
Should I have said something? It was not a busy night and as far as I knew, the controller at Cape Approach might have just forgotten about me. Should I have joined the localizer anyway with the weather being VFR, telling Cape what I was doing? What would you have done? I never did hear cleared for the approach.
AIM, para 5-4-3:
(b) After release to approach control, aircraft are vectored to the final approach course (ILS, MLS, VOR, ADF, etc.). Radar vectors and altitude or flight levels will be issued as required for spacing and separating aircraft. Therefore, pilots must not deviate from the headings issued by approach control. Aircraft will normally be informed when it is necessary to vector across the final approach course for spacing or other reasons. If approach course crossing is imminent and the pilot has not been informed that the aircraft will be vectored across the final approach course, the pilot should query the controller.


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By Zach Thompson
Las Vegas, NV – People want to look good and feel good. Nearly every poll conducted shows that most people are dissatisfied with their bodies and would like to see an improved difference. Most people who feel this way state that they haven't done anything to change it because they don't know where to begin, or how. They feel confused and often overwhelmed. Luckily, technology has improved, and people have more options available to them to help guide their fitness journey. Over the past two years, The New You Challenge has changed hundreds of thousands of lives in just 6 weeks with a radical new program that touches on nutrition, high intensity interval training, Krav Maga, Brazilian Jujitsu, Yoga, Boxing and more. The program utilizes an app that will deliver the meal plans, track body stats, and deliver training challenges. It was created by professional CrossFit athlete and fitness coach Tommy Hackenbruck.
"We live in amazing times," says Hackenbruck. "When I was growing up we didn't have the ability to have a coach in our homes, our refrigerators planning our meals and telling us how to exercise. These apps are able to do that. The New You Challenge utilizes an app that will map out someone's fitness plan, keep them on track, and provide daily motivations. It's like having a coach in your pocket. I can now do for people all over the country what I do with people I train in my gym—I can get them fit in six weeks. No question about it."
Hackenbruck has had a career in sports that began in high school, where he excelled at football. He took his football talents to the University of Utah where he played his last two years under Urban Meyer (and won a Fiesta bowl). After football, Tommy's athleticism was fueled by a new-found love for CrossFit, where again he excelled, and became a 2x Champion at the CrossFit games Team Competition and a runner up individually. Most recently he has become famous as the 7 -time winner of Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge. For the last eight years Hackenbruck has operated a CrossFit gym in Salt Lake City. His methods are proven, his enthusiasm, contagious. Hackenbruck believes wholeheartedly that the New You Challenge will work for everyone.
"All I ask is a commitment," says Hackenbruck. "The app, the group, and the coaches will do the rest. We will keep people on track with their meals, their exercise programs, and even sleep schedule. I know what it feels like to be healthy and fit. People that have been able to transform their bodies not only look better but they feel better and have more confidence. That is what I want for people—to feel great about themselves and their lives."
The fitness app (Called Project Level Up – Click for access) delivers meal plans, photo uploads, and stats tracking. It is absolutely free to use, even for those challenge. However, the app also provides users with an online 30-day training program for an "in app purchase" of $29.95. The company behind it, Athlete Acquisitions spent close to a million dollars building what they believe is the best fitness app of its kind. "We are doing something groundbreaking with this," says Hackenbruck. "I can't wait to release it to the world."
For more information, visit: www.newyouchallenge.com
Media Contact
Company Name: Athlete Aquisitions
Contact Person: James Epner
Email: email@example.com
Phone: 201-961-2641
Country: United States
Website: http://www.newyouchallenge.com


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I like how Leo Fender in the 80s was losing his hearing but still designing pickups. One theory is that his hearing problems led him toward ever brighter and treblier sounds. He was convinced that what musicians wanted was more high end, but it may have been because that was all he could hear. Richard Smith writes in The Sound Heard Round the World" "Leo's reliance on diminished hearing led to pickups that sounded too shrill."
His background was with Country pedal steels and lap steels, where twang is king, then moved on to the twangtastic Telecaster, whose bridge pickups are definitely on the trebly end - some, painfully so. He didn't play guitar but knew what he liked, and what he liked was twang.
Some was apparently just plain stubbornness. Smith again: "He had problems taking advice if he had already set his mind on some feature or tone... several musicians preferred a pickup with less highs... more often than not Leo made the instruments he preferred, and they sounded the way he liked.... [while at G&L) Leo believed players needed even more highs than the Telecaster produced."
― Ye Mad Puffin, Friday, 19 June 2015 18:15 (five years ago) link
I have a high pitched ring that I hear at night when everything is quiet. Otherwise I never noticed it.
I always stuff some tissue paper in my ears at gigs.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 19 June 2015 19:54 (five years ago) link
the only time i stuffed tissue into my ears was at a mark stewart/mafia gig.
bloody glad i did ..
― mark e, Friday, 19 June 2015 20:27 (five years ago) link
I actually have some mid-range dips, which I'm told is unusual, in addition to the dreaded NIHL. Generally avoid obscenely loud stuff, unfortunately found myself at Metz at SXSW with no earplugs. Ugh.
― campreverb, Monday, 22 June 2015 16:54 (five years ago) link
practicing (rock music) loudly in a small room with a hardwood floor, close proximity to the crash cymbal would exacerbate the condition substantially.. that, in combination with loud amps. but it was the cymbals that usually had me wincing. and then all of the shows attended over the years until i started using protection (a little over ten years ago). I often get the sort of 'drop out' in one ear, followed by a high pitched sound that gradually diminishes.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 22 June 2015 17:12 (five years ago) link
I was so concerned about seeing MBV several years back that I purchased ear muffs (for shooting), and used them along with ear plugs for the "holocaust" part of you made me realize.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 22 June 2015 17:15 (five years ago) link
it was a pleasant body massage. I've read that your ears can become damaged by simply exposing your body (face, etc.) to loud sound, not just your ears.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 22 June 2015 17:21 (five years ago) link
i often wonder if this is the case, as my friends who play/practice rock music regularly do not seem to experience the same sensitivity. i usually have to plug my ears to impede the squeal of bus breaks, or passing ambulance sirens etc.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 22 June 2015 17:25 (five years ago) link
bus brakes, rather. apologies for the quintuple post
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 22 June 2015 17:28 (five years ago) link
I get chills when I see the work 'hyperacusis' and I think of poor Jason DiEmillo of Asuza Plane.
― MaresNest, Monday, 22 June 2015 17:43 (five years ago) link
wow. thank you for posting that
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 22 June 2015 18:37 (five years ago) link
whenever I get sad about all the shows I never went to growing up I try to remember how lucky I am to have at least OK hearing now because of it.
― skip, Monday, 22 June 2015 18:45 (five years ago) link
no - by some miracle despite having been at several of the loudest concerts in the history of music and spending my entire adult working life in extremely loud environments i don't have it.
my hearing however is bad.
― stirmonster, Monday, 22 June 2015 19:21 (five years ago) link
xp i missed the minutemen twice at the seventh street entry when i was in the first flush of my fandom and it's prob the biggest concert regret of my life. BUT i was told D's telecaster was ridiculously ridiculously loud so maybe my tinnitus would be even worse if id made those shows...
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Monday, 22 June 2015 20:50 (five years ago) link
Only attended two concerts that left my ears ringing before I invested in audiophile earplugs. Fortunately, those two were Curve and MBV, so no regrets.
― We'd like to conduct a wobulator test here (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 23 June 2015 04:48 (five years ago) link
It was Fuck Buttons in 2010 that got me to get high quality ear plugs.
What bugs more than the tinnitus is the noticeable attenuation/loss of hearing around the 6-8khz band in one ear.
― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 June 2015 05:32 (five years ago) link
― hardcore dilettante, Tuesday, 23 June 2015 05:34 (five years ago) link
(never gets old)
― hardcore dilettante, Tuesday, 23 June 2015 05:35 (five years ago) link
After years and years of punishment (Swans, On-U, MBV, Merzbow, Astro, Sunn, a million other things) and only the odd very light and short burst of tinnitus, after seeing Jiri Wehle (a Czech pensioner singing quiet fairy stories) and Afework Nigussie (an Azmari guy on solo masenqo) a couple of weeks ago I have been left with a blocked feeling in my left ear which makes everything sound like it's underwater. I'd read somebody else's similar story before, that it was something innocuous that caused their first big hearing problem, so it's earplugs from here on it for me.
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Tuesday, 23 June 2015 08:55 (five years ago) link
I suffer from moderate tinnitus and hyperacusis, my symptoms can vary from totally unnoticeable to "so bad I can't get out of bed" on any given day. It's a struggle but I'm dealing with it.
I just want to point out that the Buzzfeed article above is quite negative and may not be the best introduction to the subject for someone with recently developed hearing problems -- I would quite seriousl post a warning by the link.
One of the major issues with tinnitus is the difficulty of getting proper practical advice -- between your GP being "lol deal with it" and sensationalist Daily Mail/Buzzfeed articles about suicide, it can make you feel rather hopeless when there's actually good information out there. (e.g. this book.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 07:29 (five years ago) link
Don't know what's happened but since the weekend I'm experiencing noticeable hearing loss and certain frequencies like dialing tones and dishes clanking together sound unbearable. Hoping this rights itself pretty damn soon.
― I ain't got no bites / Bad itches is the only thing that I like (dog latin), Wednesday, 24 June 2015 08:41 (five years ago) link
After years and years of punishment (Swans, On-U, MBV, Merzbow, Astro, Sunn, a million other things) and only the odd very light and short burst of tinnitus, after seeing Jiri Wehle (a Czech pensioner singing quiet fairy stories) and Afework Nigussie (an Azmari guy on solo masenqo) a couple of weeks ago I have been left with a blocked feeling in my left ear which makes everything sound like it's underwater. I'd read somebody else's similar story before, that it was something innocuous that caused their first big hearing problem, so it's earplugs from here on it for me.― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Tuesday, June 23, 2015 9:55 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Tuesday, June 23, 2015 9:55 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It could just be wax that's come dislodge and is blocking a pathway. Your GP can fix this in seconds.
― I ain't got no bites / Bad itches is the only thing that I like (dog latin), Wednesday, 24 June 2015 08:42 (five years ago) link
Good point dl, I am due at the docs soon anyway.
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Wednesday, 24 June 2015 10:21 (five years ago) link
Sounds more like sinusitis or similar than tinnitus. One of those Netipot or over the counter nose-squirty-sniffy things might help. (They wouldn't hurt.) I'd avoid ear drops until your doctor's had a look though.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 12:53 (five years ago) link
Re: earplugs, it's just not worth the potential consequence not to use earplugs. Maybe not in yr early 20s but 30s, 40s, 50s, definitely. I recommend the Alpine Music Pro plugs - they're very good, not irritating.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 12:55 (five years ago) link
I think the loudest show I ever went to (or loudest seeming) was Firehose. My bandmate who is a sound guy said the loudest he ever supported was Sugar; I've seen Mould in several settings that were loud but not painful.
― Ye Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 15:54 (five years ago) link
Sugar seems to be a really very common reference point, more so than HD or even the other early 90s bands save Dino and MBV - there's some story about Mould going to bed with the TV snow whacked up full blast
― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 16:56 (five years ago) link
Xpost edfromohio was trying to live up to the treble crown of d boon
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 24 June 2015 20:06 (five years ago) link
Loved Firehose, Sugar, Dino at the time but all I can now is fuck 'em all for being so stupid loud.
― doug watson, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 20:41 (five years ago) link
I can see why, say, Swans want to be so loud as some trance-inducing full body experience, but fucking Sugar? Turn it down, dudes.
― that's why god destroyed the radio (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 25 June 2015 22:42 (five years ago) link
this thread sort of rekindled my interest in my tinnitus. been wearing earplugs on the subway recently
i am going to get acupuncture for it at some point in the mid-term future; can report back if anyone is interested in an anecdote as to whether it worked
― unknown pleasure zone (uptown churl), Thursday, 25 June 2015 23:53 (five years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Friday, 26 June 2015 00:01 (five years ago) link
I don't have tinnitus and i'm grateful everyday. I remember nights djing where i'd turn headphones up to full because I couldn't hear them over the speakers. I did once review a sun 0))) gig from outside the building they played, which was prudent.
― Popture, Friday, 26 June 2015 00:10 (five years ago) link
Against all odds, no I don't.
― a strawman stuffed with their collection of 12 cds (jjjusten), Friday, 26 June 2015 01:04 (five years ago) link
I'm interested. Mine isn't so bad that it bothers me - I have taken care to wear earplugs at shows for the past twenty years, though, after some pretty deafening shows. But definitely interested in knowing if there's anything to acupuncture helping that.
― that's why god destroyed the radio (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, 26 June 2015 02:06 (five years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Saturday, 27 June 2015 00:01 (five years ago) link
i'm one of the two who voted "yes - a lot, it's not f*cking fair, one gig by MBV/Swans/Tackhead, and that was it ..." i saw MBV twice in three days for the Loveless tour. also stuff like Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, Spiritualized ect...
― Bee OK, Saturday, 27 June 2015 02:48 (five years ago) link
I think I have this now--been noticing it for the past two weeks every night when I watch TV. What I've read matches what I'm experiencing exactly. I'm at least relieved to find out how common and how to-be-expected it is.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 30 December 2015 02:35 (four years ago) link
all it took was being up close at one lightning bolt show
― BringTheAuBonPain, Wednesday, 30 December 2015 03:34 (four years ago) link
I've never even heard of Tackhead
― small doug yule carnival club (unregistered), Wednesday, 30 December 2015 03:39 (four years ago) link
aka the mafia (as in mark stewarts backing band after the pop group), on-u sound system etc.in the late pre-major label era, 80s with adrian sherwood on the live mix, they made a noise like i had never experienced before.bass booms, shrieking top end industrial noise distortion, with drums that rattled the innards.fantastic stuff.
― mark e, Wednesday, 30 December 2015 19:42 (four years ago) link
Does this come and go? Sometimes it's there, sometimes not. Is it more that it's ever-present, I'm just not, for whatever reason (idle thoughts about something else, etc.), always aware of it?
― clemenza, Saturday, 30 January 2016 20:04 (four years ago) link
There is no way to objectively measure tinnitus really. And it presents in a wide variety of ways.
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 30 January 2016 20:50 (four years ago) link
With me it's always there, more pronounced at times (like when I have a head cold). I can tune it out for days at a time, but I'm always aware of it. Weird thing is, when I first acknowledged to myself that it was a permanent condition, it stopped being a problem. My anxiety was really more about finding the right treatment options, rather than the T itself.
― henry s, Saturday, 30 January 2016 21:22 (four years ago) link
About once every week or two, I experience a ringing for ~5 seconds that slowly tapers in amplitude until it's gone. I assume that's tinnitus.
― Toof Seteltha (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 30 January 2016 22:26 (four years ago) link
Also worse with head colds for me. At its best I don't notice it unless I'm in a really silent room.
― Three Word Username, Saturday, 30 January 2016 22:31 (four years ago) link
xpost - I get that 5-10 second ringing too, on top of the tinnitus. Usually once a day or so. The temporary ringing is a bit different, certainly more pronounced than the ongoing tinnitus I deal with.
― henry s, Saturday, 30 January 2016 22:58 (four years ago) link
That 5-10 second thing used to worry me - like one day it will start ringing and then never stop. It's probably normal though.
― skip, Sunday, 31 January 2016 03:27 (four years ago) link
I get that too, same worry. blocking the ear with my finger helps a lot, seems to equalize it
― the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Sunday, 31 January 2016 03:33 (four years ago) link
I knew it was probably overcautious to bring earplugs to a Mark Eitzel gig and they were new ones, I haven't been to a gig since 2013. They were called Thunderplugs and the guy who sold me them was really enthusiastic about them.
I put them in minutes before the support band came on, it sounded way too muffled, but then I couldn't get one of them out my ear. The more I tried, the further it got lodged in my ear, I couldn't get the fucker out, it was painful the whole night and I was really pissed off that could have happened so easily. This probably sounds like I stupidly shoved them in but I really didn't.
My mother picked it out with tweezers and it was difficult, painful, and a little scary. To think I was considering trying small scissors to grip the little tube in the centre if we didn't have tweezers.
Thunderplugs went in the bin. I'm going to look for plugs closer to the older plate style but I'm honestly not sure how much I need them, I never go to anything brutally loud except one Swans gig that wasn't as loud as feared. It's impossible to measure how much you'll need earplugs for this or that gig.
Has this happened to anyone else or do I just have huge gaping earholes?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 13 March 2017 00:30 (three years ago) link
Sounds temporary at best, but sometimes even temporary relief is helpful...
― DJI, Wednesday, 5 April 2017 19:41 (three years ago) link
I've done something like that before but my tinnitus isn't that bad, so I didn't notice much difference.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 5 April 2017 19:44 (three years ago) link
I'll probably try this at some point, but I'm not expecting much and anyway, I've reached an understanding with my tinnitus. You have to kind of fall in love with those things you can't change, otherwise they will drive you crazy. I don't say this when I have a cold and it gets worse, but normally it's a pure, consistent sound that isn't so hard to deal with. Maybe others have it worse.
― henry s, Wednesday, 5 April 2017 19:55 (three years ago) link
Have any of you tried the background noise generator myNoise.net?
Commence blatant fawning: It's an incredible collection of about 150 soundscapes, field recordings, drones, music, background chatter, machine sounds, white noise, etc., each made up of 10 different tracks with individual volume sliders, randomizers and presets for endless variety and fine tuning.
They have several generators specifically geared toward tinnitus (see the section called Synthetic Noises), but listener testimonials on many of the soundscapes claim varying amounts of tinnitus relief. It does seem that every testimonial is for a different combo of sounds and volumes, so you'll probably have to try a bit of everything to find one that might work for you.
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 6 April 2017 04:10 (three years ago) link
Can someone precis the video - it's region blocked
Sat in a pub with friends last night when, dead on 8pm, a DJ started up and suddenly nobody could hear anybody else. The ringing is bad today.
― koogs, Saturday, 8 April 2017 13:03 (three years ago) link
lying in bed this morning at about 5:30 listening to the birds waking up and something clicked and the tinnitus got suddenly louder and changed frequency (to one that masked out about half of the birdsong). it's grim. i hope it stops.
tons of batshit tinnitus 'cures' on youtube.
― koogs, Thursday, 20 April 2017 20:06 (three years ago) link
see an ent as soon as you can (make sure that includes a hearing test with an audiologist)
the tests you undergo are simple hearing tests so it's nothing painful
― i n f i n i t y (∞), Thursday, 20 April 2017 20:44 (three years ago) link
i do wonder how on earth (ho ho) kevin martin copes with his gigs as 'the bug' as they are supposedly insanely loud.
never seen him mention anything re ear protection.
― mark e, Thursday, 20 April 2017 20:57 (three years ago) link
maybe he was already deaf after years in metal bands in his youth
― Odysseus, Thursday, 20 April 2017 21:00 (three years ago) link
cosign mynoise.net, it's amazing
― People like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, 21 April 2017 04:19 (three years ago) link
doctor reckons, and i hope, that my recent noise upturn is related to recent / ongoing cold / sore throat / etc. and that antibiotics will clear it all up.
it's still there, still as loud, but it now sounds like it's more to the left than it was.
― koogs, Thursday, 4 May 2017 21:04 (three years ago) link
every time i get a lurgy, the inner ear buzz increases.hopefully once you are clear it will subside to a more acceptable level.
― mark e, Thursday, 4 May 2017 21:56 (three years ago) link
"Inspiral Carpets drummer killed himself after 20 years of 'unbearable' tinnitus"
― koogs, Saturday, 6 May 2017 14:37 (three years ago) link
That's awful. Stories like this used to keep me awake way more than the actual tinnitus when it first set in. Then I would look at people like Neil Young, who must have it as bad as anybody, and he gets by. Made me think there was a way to make peace with this thing. And there is. Like Steve Martin (another sufferer) said, "you just get used to it."
― henry s, Saturday, 6 May 2017 15:11 (three years ago) link
Ha, after one failed attempt I got an ENT appointment in the post this morning. April 2018, 11 days short of the day it started.
― koogs, Monday, 27 November 2017 18:52 (two years ago) link
― DJI, Wednesday, 3 January 2018 22:44 (two years ago) link
Tested on an actual Guinea pig...
― koogs, Thursday, 4 January 2018 03:28 (two years ago) link
so, 11 months after this kicked up a notch i got to see an audiologist (nhs sent me to a private hospital as they had no appointments until july (it was put back 3 months))
he said there was hearing loss at certain frequencies, but didn't seem to consider that the ringing was drowning out the tones, making them hard to spot, rather than not hearing them exactly. (the audio equiv of being dazzled by the sun, say). he generally didn't look too happy about the situation.
MRI booked as well, but i worry that all the metal in my teeth will rule that out.
i also realised that i've lost my earplugs. haven't used them this year. will buy some more but the ones i like are a penny below the amazon free postage limit.
― koogs, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 11:46 (two years ago) link
(he also singled out Brixton Academy as a dangerously loud venue)
― koogs, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 11:47 (two years ago) link
My brother, my sister and my mother all wear hearing aids now - how I've escaped God knows, it's murder on my throat having to shout all the time, let me tell you.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 12:19 (two years ago) link


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