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*In ''Dune, ''Gurney Halleck explains that Duke Leto was "the man who rescued me from a Harkonnen slave pit, gave me freedom, life, and honor." In ''House Harkonnen'', he escapes all by himself.
*In ''Dune, ''Gurney Halleck explains that Duke Leto was "the man who rescued me from a Harkonnen slave pit, gave me freedom, life, and honor." In ''House Harkonnen'', he escapes all by himself.
* In ''House Corrino'', [[Wellington Yueh/DE|Dr. Wellington Yueh]] explains how, following an industrial accident, he found a specialist to replace "Wanna's hips, spleen, and uterus with synthetic parts, but she could never have children." But in ''Dune, ''he wonders why [[Wanna Marcus/XD|Wanna
* In ''House Corrino'', [[Wellington Yueh/DE|Dr. Wellington Yueh]] explains how, following an industrial accident, he found a specialist to replace "Wanna's hips, spleen, and uterus with synthetic parts, but she could never have children." But in ''Dune, ''he wonders why [[Wanna Marcus/XD|Wanna Marcus never gave him children - he knows, as a doctor, "there was no physical reason against it."
** ''Prequel Rationalization:'' This was answered on the official ''Dune'' website: "Yueh later learns that Wandra's injury did not, in fact, make her incapable of bearing children - but the Sisterhood had commanded her not to conceive."
** ''Prequel Rationalization:'' This was answered on the official ''Dune'' website: "Yueh later learns that Wandra's injury did not, in fact, make her incapable of bearing children - but the Sisterhood had commanded her not to conceive."
Revision as of 03:47, 28 June 2016
The collective Dune universe, as described by its creator Frank Herbert, or in works authorized by Herbert or his heirs, is comprised of the six original novels by Frank Herbert, the prequel novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and The Dune Encyclopedia by Dr. Willis E. McNelly. Despite their official and authorized nature, these works contain numerous discrepancies, both within particular works by the same author, and between the works by different authors.
In the specific case of The Dune Encyclopedia, it should be noted that, while Dr. McNelly was a close friend of Frank Herbert's, and his work written and published with Herbert's knowledge and permission, Frank Herbert did not consider it canon, and reserved the right to specifically contradict it in his later works.
In the discussions below, the term "rationalization" simply refers to explanations which are not explicitly found within any of the primary texts.
- 1 Discrepancies within the Original Novels
- 2 Discrepancies Between the Original Novels and Prequels
- 3 Discrepancies Between Prequels
Discrepancies within the Original Novels
Ancestral Memories - Alia: In Dune, Jessica endures the spice agony, and receives the memories of a Fremen Reverend Mother who had, in turn, received the memories of the Reverend Mother who came before her. As a result, Jessica inherits the memories of countless generations of Reverend Mothers. Jessica's unborn child, Alia, also inherits these memories and is born with the awareness and memories of an adult in the body of a child. In Children of Dune, however, Alia instead possesses the memories of her ancestors (including the Baron Harkonnen).
- Rationalization: Alia gives herself a massive spice-overdose in Dune Messiah. It is possible that this spice-overdose triggers her ancestral memories.
- Rationalization #2: It was also stated that Alia possessed her other memories all throughout her life from birth, but succumbed to them through a combination of flesh-weakness (puberty), the disapproval and subsequent burying of friendly other-selves (such as the other-memory version of the Lady Jessica), and futile attempts to dominate other-memories instead of forge a working relationship with them (as stated by Leto II).
Ancestral Memories - Bene Gesserit: The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers in Heretics of Dune are possessed of ancestral memories. However, this ability is not possessed by any Bene Gesserit in the earlier novels. When Jessica endures the spice agony in Dune, for example, she gains access to the memories of all the Reverend Mothers who came before her, but she doesn't gain ancestral memories.
- Rationalization: The events of Heretics of Dune take place 1,500 years after God Emperor of Dune. During that time, the Bene Gesserit have all been explicitly bred to inherit the genes of Siona Atreides. Siona briefly gained ancestral memories as a result of enduring the spice agony. Siona's father, Moneo, also briefly gained ancestral memories as a result of enduring the spice agony. It seems likely that ancestral memories are a trait inherited from Ghanima, bred for by the God Emperor, and triggered by the spice agony. It is possible that the Bene Gesserit further strengthened this trait through their breeding program. Or it may be that the Bene Gesserit's endurance of the spice agony is simply more prolonged, intense, and/or prepared for than those endured by Siona and her father.
Duncan Idaho - Ghola Memories: In Heretics of Dune, the Duncan Idaho ghola is initially awakened with his memories only up to the point of his original death in Dune (before Paul Atreides becomes Muad'dib). However, he later speaks, prior to gaining the memories of his later incarnation, of being taught how to resist the Voice control of the Bene Gesserit: "I learned the way of that from Paul Muad'dib himself."
- Rationalization: It's possible that Paul taught Duncan how to resist the Voice before they came to Arrakis and that Duncan is simply referring to him as "Muad'dib," due to his earlier training and study of history. It's also possible, perhaps even likely, that this is deliberate foreshadowing that Duncan's memories include his later incarnations.
Farok's Arm: In Dune Messiah, a minor character named Farok is initially described with a missing arm: "Scytale returned his gaze to the old man [Farok], noted the empty sleeve dangling from the left shoulder and the lack of a stillsuit." Only a few paragraphs later, however, Farok has mysteriously regained his arm: ""Thrice blessed," Farok said, folding his hands into his lap in the ritual clasp. They were old, heavily veined hands."
Prescience - Seeing Guildsmen: In Dune, Paul's prescience allows him to see the Guildsmen: "He saw [people] in such swarms they could not be listed, yet his mind catalogued them. Even the Guildsmen." In Dune Messiah, however, Guildsmen are capable of shielding not only themselves but others from Paul's prescience: "Paul consulted his memory of the vision: in it, he'd left here with the names of the traitors, but never seeing how those names were carried. The dwarf obviously moved under the protection of another oracle."
Scytale: In Dune Messiah, Scytale is a Face Dancer. In Heretics of Dune, Scytale is a Tleilaxu Master. Heretics of Dune also establishes that Face Dancers are the servants of the Masters, who are not Face Dancers themselves.
- Rationalization: The Scytale appearing in Heretics of Dune is not, in fact, a ghola-descendant of the Scytale in Dune Messiah - although this is unlikely, as Scytale the Master also met Paul. Also, Masters with serial lives, as they are known in Heretics and beyond, was a Tleilaxu political development that came after the discovery of how to make gholas remember past lives in Dune Messiah. It is possible that ghola-Scytale was a Face Dancer who later became a Master.
Shaddam's Birthdate: In the very first chapter-heading of Dune, Princess Irulan writes: "[Paul Atreides was] born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV." However, in the appendices of Dune, it states: "SHADDAM IV (10,134-10,202) The Padishah Emperor, 81st of his line (House Corrino) to occupy the Golden Lion Throne, reigned from 10,156 (date his father, Elrood IX, succumbed to chaumurky) until replaced by the 10,196 Regency set up in the name of his eldest daughter, Irulan." This would indicate that Paul was born in 10,191. However, this is the same year that the novel begins (with Paul already 15 years old). Similar confusion over Shaddam's age can be found in another passage from Dune: "My father, the Padishah Emperor, was 72 yet looked no more than 35, the year he encompassed the death of Duke Leto and gave Arrakis back to the Harkonnens." (Although this later date is consistent with the claim that Paul was born in Shaddam IV's 57th year.)
- Rationalization: The prequels resolve this inconsistency by subtracting fifteen years from the birth dates of Shaddam IV and Count Hasimir Fenring.
Discrepancies Between the Original Novels and Prequels
Discrepancies between the original novels by Frank Herbert and the prequels written by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert are frequently used by critics of the prequels. Criticism of the prequels also extends to a perception of poor quality and a negation or misrepresentation of Frank Herbert's original points and themes. For example, John C. Snider wrote in his review of Dune: House Harkonnen:
- "If any criticism could be made about the prequels, it's that they just don't have the Byzantine mystique of Frank Herbert's original novels. The characters within the prequels would fit well within any of the old pulp dramas - driven by vengeance, driven by justice, driven by love - you get the picture. The Harkonnens, for example, are so ridiculously evil it stretches believability that they could control a thriving empire for millennia! Frank Herbert was a master at plunging you into strange, alien worlds of the far-flung future. The prequel novels, while satisfying, will just never attain the artistry of the original."
Such critique are, ultimately, matters of opinion and taste. The inconsistencies below are matters of fact within the Dune universe.
Bene Gesserit Psychic Powers
In the original Dune books, Frank Herbert presents the Bene Gesserit as a secretive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain powers and abilities that can easily be seen as magical to the uninitiated. It is an important aspect of their place in the Dune universe, and thematically within the books that their powers are not supernatural and mystical, but based on a thorough understanding of their physical body and the body politic.
Frank Herbert's Bene Gesserit were consummate politicians who understood the use of body, mind, and spirit in pursuit of power. Still, they do have some powers which might be classed as supernatural within the context of the created Duniverse. In example, the "genetic memory," or remembering the direct experiences of an ancestor or individual with whom they have "shared," most commonly via a spice-trance.
In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, however, endow their predecessors, the Sorceresses of Rossak, with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, changing not only the Bene Gesserit but the metaphysical rules of the Dune universe. Later, in Dune: House Harkonnen, they give the now fully-formed Bene Gesserit the ability to hide in shadows, close to invisibility. In none of the six original books does any Bene Gesserit give any hint of knowing of any such abilities of invisibility, telekinesis or telepathy - not even in situations where such abilities would be lifesaving.
In Dune: House Harkonnen, the Bene Gesserit are also apparently able to sense and wrest control telepathically of a no-ship being flown by the Beast Rabban. This seems in stark conflict with the characterization of a no-ship in the original Frank Herbert novels as explicitly undetectable, most particularly by those with extra-sensory perception.
- Rationalization: It is imaginable, especially in the case of the telekinetic powers which were only used to kill cymeks and resulted in the Sorceress's death, that the Bene Gesserit in the original novels had these powers, but a situation never arose where they needed to use them. It is never explicitly stated that they do not have these powers, they are just not expressed in the writing, much like the existence of Face Dancers and gholas were not mentioned in the original Dune, and yet play a significant role in its sequels.
- Rationalization: It is mentioned in the prequels that the telekinetic powers were a result of various chemicals that were found on Rossak. It may be that within a generation or two after the Bene Gesserit left Rossak, they lost these powers.
- Discrepancies to Rationalization: Bene Gesserits engage in life-or-death combat dozens of times throughout the novels, for instance, against Honored Matres in Chapterhouse: Dune. They also plot and scheme on a way to remove Paul from the scene for decades. At no point is the option of telekinetic attack mentioned or portrayed in any fashion. Even moreso, even Paul and his descendants themselves never show this ability or knowledge of anything approaching it.
- Rationalization: The no-ship described in the prequels is a prototype model designed by a Richesean scientist, who is murdered by Rabban after building the ship. The plans for the technology are temporarily re-discovered by his Richesean colleagues, but are permanently lost when the orbital lab is blown up by the Sardaukar. The no-ships in the original novels are an independently-developed technology. So it is entirely possible that the original no-ship was only built to, basically, have a Star Trek-like cloaking device, while the no-ships from the original novels also included a prescience-shield.
The Butlerian Jihad
In Dune and subsequent books by Frank Herbert, the Butlerian Jihad is described as a human religiously- (and/or philosophically-) grounded revolution, a great war in which all thinking machines were banned, and then purged. This Holy War cleverly set the scene for a futuristic universe without computers, which allowed the organic growth of both the Bene Gesserit, the Guild, and the Mentat schools, which focused on development of the human being.
The Butlerian Jihad further thematically served to make points about the dehumanizing dependence on automation, while highlighting questions of determinism vs. human free will. Frank Herbert explored the question of free will by showing how Paul Atreides became ensnared by his own dependence upon seeing the future to the point that he is determined by it. So too prior to the Butlerian Jihad, humanity had become so dependent on computers ("thinking machines") that they did not control their own fate.
In the prequels by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, the Jihad is described as a war between oppressed humans and murderous machines, and started by a slave rebellion. According to the prequels, humans were enslaved first by rebels (the Titans), then Omnius enslaved all, having the Titans serving him and ruling the humans. The humans were enslaved physically by machines and the Titans, held in pens and tortured, and then rebelled.
- Rationalization: "The target of the Jihad was a machine-attitude as much as the machines." This quote from God Emperor of Dune suggests that the war was started for many reasons. It was a religious, philosophical, and physical war all wrapped into one, but the lesson to be passed down was the philosophical one, and thus that is how it is portrayed 10,000 years later.
- Discrepancies to Rationalization: This rationalization does not address the fact that the Jihad, as portrayed by Frank Herbert, was strictly an ideological struggle. The quotes below make little sense if computers had taken over and tried to enslave and torture mankind. For instance, humankind had been "guided" by machines, which is not the right word for genocidal enslavement.
There is some controversy over Frank Herbert's view of the Jihad, as he only referred to it indirectly. There are quotes spread out over the original six books which should add up to a relatively clear image, although still open to individual interpretation. The characters of these books speak of machines as perversions, and something that can "trap" you into a sense of complacency, a point which it does not make sense to discuss if the real problem was that humankind was almost annihilated by an evil artificial intelligence:
- Then came the Butlerian Jihad—two generations of chaos. The god of machine-logic was overthrown among the masses and a new concept was raised: "Man may not be replaced."
- Its possession was the shibboleth of this age, but it carried also the taint of old immorality. Once, they'd been guided by an artificial intelligence, computer brains. The Butlerian Jihad had ended that, but it hadn't ended the aura of aristocratic vice which enclosed such things.
- The human-computer replaced the mechanical devices destroyed by the Butlerian Jihad. Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind! But Alia longed now for a compliant machine. They could not have suffered from Idaho's limitations. You could never distrust a machine.
- Note that Alia had memories about the time of the Jihad, and consequently Omnius, who tried to enslave and eradicate mankind. But yet, she believes that one cannot distrust a machine.
- One moment he felt himself setting forth on the Butlerian Jihad, eager to destroy any machine which simulated human awareness. That had to be the past—over and done with. Yet his senses hurtled through the experience, absorbing the most minute details. He heard a minister-companion speaking from a pulpit: "We must negate the machines-that-think. Humans must set their own guidelines. This is not something machines can do. Reasoning depends upon programming, not on hardware, and we are the ultimate program!" He heard the voice clearly, knew his surroundings—a vast wooden hall with dark windows. Light came from sputtering flames. And his minister-companion said: "Our Jihad is a 'dump program.' We dump the things which destroy us as humans!"
- Here, the speaker is trying to talk people into a fervor about ridding the world of machines. It makes no sense not to mention the fact that machines are also trying to kill humanity off, and in fact, it seems ludicrous to mention that machines "destroy us as humans," when Omnius has enslaved entire planets.
- "The target of the Jihad was a machine-attitude as much as the machines," Leto said. "Humans had set those machines to usurp our sense of beauty, our necessary selfdom out of which we make living judgments. Naturally, the machines were destroyed."
- Leto II had detailed memories of the Jihad, and specifically tells us why the Jihad started, and why the machines were destroyed - for philosophical/religious reasons. For comparison, imagine a historian who has all the facts, yet claims that America went to war against Japan after Pearl Harbor over some differences in opinion regarding the Empero'rs status as deity and his political opinions.
- The god of machine-logic was overthrown among the masses, and a new concept was raised: "Man may not be replaced." Those two generations of violence were a thalamic pause for all humankind. Men looked at their gods and their rituals and saw that both were filled with that most terrible of all equations: fear over ambition. Hesitantly, the leaders of religions whose followers had spilled the blood of billions began meeting to exchange views.
- Firstly, the "god of machine-logic" is overthrown for a concept - so what was overthrown cannot have been a murderous machine-empire, but rather another concept or belief. Secondly, we are told explicitly that the Jihad was "followers of religions" who fought primarily among each other - this makes no sense if the fighting was between man and machine.
Another suggestion that the Butlerian Jihad was originally intended to be a philosophical struggle, rather than a literal war between factions, may lie in the very name "Jihad." While jihad can refer to political and military combat akin to the war portrayed in Brian Herbert's books, it can also refer to "inward spiritual struggle."
References to the need for humans to transcend the need for "thinking machines" in the original books (in the absence of any reference to combat with the machines) suggest that Frank Herbert employed the term "Jihad" not simply for the sake of exoticism, but to suggest that the Butlerian Jihad was chiefly conducted in the minds and practices of the population, rather than on any physical battlefield.
Commission of Ecumenical Translators (C.E.T.) Meeting Place
"The Religion of Dune" (Dune, Appendix II) states that after the Butlerian Jihad (201-108 B.G), at a time when the Spacing Guild "was beginning to build its monopoly over all interstellar travel," the "Commission of Ecumenical Translators convened on a neutral island of Old Earth, spawning ground of the mother religions." The basis of the Imperial dating system in "the genesis of the Spacing Guild's monopoly" (Dune, "Terminology of the Imperium") implies that the Commission convened sometime during the 108 years before that event.
This is confirmed by the "Brief Timeline of the Dune Universe" in the sequel Hunters of Dune, which includes this at the end of its entry for 1. A.G., "Council of Ecumenical Translators releases the Orange Catholic Bible, meant to quell all religious divisions." However, in the Legends of Dune prequels, Earth is sterilized early in the Jihad by Atomics, rendering it utterly uninhabitable.
- Rationalization: There can really be no rationalization here, since the description of Earth's destruction in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad makes it quite clear that the planet will never be inhabitable by humans ever again.
Mentat Origins
Another supposed discrepancy related to the Butlerian Jihad regards the origin of the Mentats. Frank Herbert clearly states the Mentats arise from humanity's need for a computer-like ability to process information, just as the Spacing Guild is a response to the need for space travel. In the prequels, the Mentats are the product of the independent computer Erasmus's experiment to make humans "better" in the computer's view, and thus are a sort of by-product of the machine-enslavement of humanity.
This appears to run directly counter to Frank Herbert's point that the Mentat's abilities far exceed those of computers because they are not limited to raw, deterministic number-crunching. Frank Herbert's Mentat is able to make deductions and leaps of logic which a machine-mind cannot. Thus, Mentats are not computer-like humans, but humans who are trained to be better than computers, because humanity saw the need to evolve beyond such machines.
- Rationalization: The establishment of the Mentats is not explicitly told in the Legends saga; it is only hinted at. The experiments which produce the Mentat Gilbertus Albans, that are conducted were probably changed into a full-fledged school after the war was over, due to the new need for such a school. Also, the Mentat being better than a computer is not something that is trained into them, but merely a fact about humans that cannot be erased. The Mentat is trained to think like a computer, but then also has the skills of a human.
"This will be your first time off-planet" - Paul's Early Years
In Dune, shortly before the move to Arrakis, Paul asks his father, "Are the Guild ships really big?" Duke Leto then replies, "This will be your first time off-planet," before explaining some of the intricacies of Guild travel. Leto's statement, coupled with Paul's lack of knowledge and general uncertainty, make it clear that Paul has never been offworld before.
In addition, Paul reflects that, "This world of Castle Caladan, without play or companions his own age, perhaps did not deserve sadness in farewell." This, coupled with other information, paints a fairly-vivid picture of Paul's life as the only child of a Landsraad Noble.
Howeverm in Paul of Dune, in the year 10,187 AG, Paul travels to both Ecaz and Grumman. In the second Heroes of Dune novel, The Winds of Dune, in 10,188 AG, Paul joins a travelling Jongleur troupe with his friend Bronso Vernius (also aged 12 at the time), which takes him to Chusuk and Balut.
- Rationalization: Dune paints a picture about the three critical years 10,191 AG to 10,193 AG of the Imperium and the life of Paul Atreides. Kevin J. Anderson explained that Paul of Dune "is about the inaccuracies and liberties taken in Irulan's purported histories of Muad'Dib." The following is an excerpt from Paul of Dune:
- One morning she [Irulan] went to Paul's Imperial office to talk with him, holding a copy of the first volume in The Life of Muad'Dib. She dropped the deep blue book on his desktop, a plane of polished Elaccan bloodwood. "Exactly how much is missing from this story? I've been talking with Bludd. In your accounts of your life, you left out vital details."
He raised his eyebrows. "Your publication has defined my life's story."
"You told me you had never left Caladan before your House moved to Arrakis. Whole parts of your youth have been left out."
"Painful parts." He frowned at her. "But, more importantly, irrelevant parts. We've streamlined the story for mass consumption..."
- Discrepancies to Rationalization: The clear implication of these statements and rationalizations made in Paul of Dune and by Kevin J. Anderson, is that Dune is the aforementioned Life of Muad'Dib - the first draft of Paul's biography, and that any inaccuracies are there because Irulan did not have all the information. The fact that the sources for discrepancies found in the main text suggests that Frank Herbert's original Dune should, or could, be read as in-universe propaganda.
- To add perhaps-unnecessary backstory to Paul's childhood, have his son Brian and Mr. Anderson reduced the award-winning novel Dune itself to a document in a fictional universe? This document, although penned and created by Frank Herbert, has now seemingly been presented by the two as a streamlined book written by Irulan Corrino Atreides.
- This would be unsound—the theme of inaccuracies in history is already made in Dune, both in Irulan's epigraphs, and when the smuggler/Sardaukar reveal themselves in-sietch. In the Nebula Award-winning novel, Paul thinks to himself: "I didn't even draw my knife, but it'll be said of this day that I slew twenty Sardaukar by my own hand." It is unlikely that this is a detail Irulan, in her role as myth-builder, would include.
- One morning she [Irulan] went to Paul's Imperial office to talk with him, holding a copy of the first volume in The Life of Muad'Dib. She dropped the deep blue book on his desktop, a plane of polished Elaccan bloodwood. "Exactly how much is missing from this story? I've been talking with Bludd. In your accounts of your life, you left out vital details."
Other Discrepancies
- In Dune, it is established, in the very first paragraph of the novel, that Paul was born on Caladan: "Do not be deceived by the fact that he [Paul] was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there." This is verified further into the novel, and also in Dune Messiah. In Dune: House Corrino, Paul is born on Kaitain.
- Prequel Rationalization: Paul was only on Kaitain for a few days, and then was transferred to Caladan where his naming-ceremony took place, thus it is seen as the place of his birth, much like what would happen to a baby if he were born while his family were on vacation.
- Prequel Rationalization #2: This particular inconsistency is directly referenced in Paul of Dune, where it is explained that Irulan "streamlined the story for mass consumption" in order to "[eliminate] unnecessary complications, cut off unnecessary questions and explanations"
- In Dune, Duke Leto sends agents to buy Jessica: "Not since the day when the Duke's buyers had taken her [Jessica] from the school had she felt this frightened and unsure of herself." In House Harkonnen, the Bene Gesserit send Jessica to Duke Leto without his consent, and he allows her to stay.
- In Dune, Duncan Idaho claims he first killed on Grumman: "He lifted his face toward the ceiling, bellowed: "My sword was firs' blooded on Grumman!"" This is contradicted in the prequels.
- Prequel Rationalization: Duncan was referring to the first use of his current sword - which was given to him shortly before the assault on Gumman in Paul of Dune (10,187 AG).
- In Dune: House Harkonnen, Liet Kynes meets up with the rogue elements of House Vernius, who have also enlisted the services of one Gurney Halleck. During this period, the two become close comrades, with a strong component of mutual respect. In the original Dune novel, however, Kynes' meeting with Halleck makes no reference whatsoever to this past contact - in fact, Halleck's manner is brusque and formal, whilst Kynes is notably resentful of Halleck's presence.
- Prequel Rationalization: This was answered on the official Dune website: "More than fifteen years have passed. Gurney met Liet then on a different planet, when he was using a false name, and his appearance was different. It¹s not surprising he would not recognize Dr. Kynes."
- Discrepancies to Rationalization: We are given no explanation for two persons' faces should change that much, nor why Gurney, who is overall a rather competent soldier, does not even remember Kynes' name.
- In Dune: House Atreides,it is general knowledge that the Tleilaxu are religious fanatics; however, in Heretics of Dune,this fact is a major revelation for the Bene Gesserit. The same is true when the nature of the Axlotl tanks are revealed in House Corrino.
- The planet Harmonthep, a "no longer existent satellite of Delta Pavonis" (Caladan also orbits Delta Pavonis) is mentioned several times in the Dune prequels.
- Fixing a crysknife is explained as "keyed to the body of the owner so it would dissolve upon his death" in this book. In Dune, "Fixed knives are treated for storage," which is demonstrably the opposite.
- In Dune, the Baron is shown to be a "seeker of sensations." Moneo Atreides, in God Emperor of Dune, explains it well, "The fat was a side-effect, then perhaps something to experience for itself, because it offended people and he enjoyed offending." However, in House Atreides, his weight is revealed to be the result of a disease given to him by Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam when he raped her. This does not explain why Alia begins to put on weight in Children of Dune.
- Prequel Rationalization: The Baron is depicted as riven by disease by David Lynch in the 1984 film version of Dune. Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert may have been taking their lead from the movie adaptation.
- In Dune, Gurney Halleck explains that Duke Leto was "the man who rescued me from a Harkonnen slave pit, gave me freedom, life, and honor." In House Harkonnen, he escapes all by himself.
- In House Corrino, Dr. Wellington Yueh explains how, following an industrial accident, he found a specialist to replace "Wanna's hips, spleen, and uterus with synthetic parts, but she could never have children." But in Dune, he wonders why Wanna Marcus never gave him children - he knows, as a doctor, "there was no physical reason against it."
- Prequel Rationalization: This was answered on the official Dune website: "Yueh later learns that Wandra's injury did not, in fact, make her incapable of bearing children - but the Sisterhood had commanded her not to conceive."
- In Paul of Dune, when planning the "Great Surrender" ceremony, Paul orders all representatives to come to Arrakis with his frigate's cargo hold filled with water as a gift. From Dune: "Many, not understanding the prohibitive mass-ratio problem, may even think we'll bring water from some other planet rich in it."
Discrepancies Between Prequels
- In the House Atreides prequel, House Ecaz is led by Duke Prad Vidal, who is noted as being an avowed enemy of the "Old Duke" Paulus Atreides. In the subsequent House Harkonnen and House Corrino prequels (written by the same authors), however, House Ecaz is led by Archduke Armand Ecaz, whose actions are continually cordial (to the extent of proposing a marriage alliance) with regard to House Atreides.
- The timeframe between these novels is in the vicinity of ten years, and no attempt is made to explain Ecaz's change of leaders, or their apparent about-face on all matters relating to House Atreides over this period.
- Rationalization: In Paul of Dune, it is explained that Duke Prad Vidal is a sub-leader who oversees House Ecaz's holdings on Vidal's continent only. The Archduke Armand Ecaz oversees all of House Ecaz's vast holdings, which span various star-systems.
- In Hunters of Dune, it is revealed that Hasimir Fenring once stabbed Paul in the back. However, in Paul of Dune, he stabs Paul in the chest.


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ODA in 2010
In 2010, net official development assistance (ODA) flows from members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD reached USD 128.7 billion, representing an increase of +6.5 % over 2009. This is the highest real ODA level ever, surpassing even the volume provided in 2005 which was boosted by exceptional debt relief. Net ODA as a share of gross national income (GNI) was 0.32%, equal to 2005, and higher than any other year since 1992 (see Table 1 and Chart 1).
Bilateral aid for core development programmes and projects (i.e. excluding debt relief grants and humanitarian aid) rose by +5.9% over 2009 (see Chart 2). New lending (+13.2%) increased faster than grants (+6.8%).
Online dynamic graphics
Bilateral ODA to Africa was USD 29.3 billion, of which USD 26.5 billion was for sub-Saharan Africa. These amounts represent an increase in real terms of +3.6% and +6.4% respectively over 2009. However, excluding debt relief grants, bilateral ODA fell very slightly (-0.1%) for Africa but rose (+1.7%) for sub-Saharan Africa.
Donor performance
In 2010, the largest donors by volume were the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden continued to exceed to United Nations ODA target of 0.7% of GNI. The largest increases in real terms in ODA between 2009 and 2010 were recorded by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Korea, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
The United States continued to be the largest single donor with net ODA disbursements of USD 30.2 billion, representing an increase of +3.5% in real terms over 2009. This is the highest real level of ODA ever recorded by a single donor country, except for 2005, when the US gave exceptional debt relief to Iraq. US ODA as a per cent of GNI remained unchanged at 0.21%. Its bilateral ODA to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) rose to a record USD 9.4 billion, representing an increase of +16.2% over 2009. Much of this increase was accounted for by the US response to the 2010 Haitian earthquake (aid to Haiti rose +241% to USD 1.1 billion). Among non-LDCs, aid to Pakistan rose especially sharply (+126% to USD 1.4 billion), reflecting increased disbursements across many sectors.
ODA from the fifteen EU countries that are members of the DAC rose by +6.7% in 2010 to reach USD 70.2 billion, representing 54% of total net ODA provided by DAC donors. It also represented 0.46% of DAC-EU GNI, up from 0.44% in 2009. This was well above the overall DAC average of 0.32%. ODA rose or fell in DAC-EU members as follows:
Grants to developing countries and multilateral organisations from EU Institutions rose by +0.8% to USD 13.0 billion.
ODA by Japan was USD 11.0 billion, representing an increase in real terms of +11.8% over 2009. Japan's ODA as a share of GNI rose from 0.18% in 2009 to 0.20% in 2010. The increase was mainly due to larger bilateral grants to LDCs as well as a major contribution to the World Bank.
Net ODA rose or fell in other DAC countries as follows:
In 2010, gross ODA (i.e. without deducting loan repayments) amounted to USD 141.3 billion, representing an increase in real terms of 6.3% over 2009. The largest donors were the United States, Japan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom (see Table 2).
Non-DAC OECD economies provided net ODA flows as follows:
How well were the pledges made in 2005 kept?
In 2005, at the Gleneagles (G8) Summit and other fora , donors made specific commitments to increase their ODA. When quantified by the OECD Secretariat, the pledges implied raising DAC ODA from about USD 80 billion to nearly USD 130 billion (in 2004 prices).
Also, in 2005, the fifteen members of the EU that are DAC members committed to reach an ambitious minimum ODA target of 0.51% of their GNI in 2010. The following countries surpassed that goal: Belgium (0.64%), Denmark (0.90%), Finland (0.55%), Ireland (0.53%), Luxembourg (1.09%), the Netherlands (0.81%), Sweden (0.97%) and the United Kingdom (0.56%). France nearly met the goal with an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.50% while others fell short: Austria (0.32%), Germany (0.38%), Greece (0.17%), Italy (0.15%), Portugal (0.29%) and Spain (0.43%).
Other DAC members made various promises for 2010 that were met. The United States pledged to double its aid to sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010 and surpassed this goal in 2009, a year early. Canada aimed to double its International Assistance Envelope compared to 2001, and did so. Australia aimed to reach $A 4 billion and achieved this. Norway surpassed its commitment to maintain ODA as a per cent of GNI at 1%, and Switzerland met its commitment to meet an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.41%.
At the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005, Japan pledged to increase aid related to the period from 2005 to 2009. Japan's performance against this pledge was covered in last year's report. It is noted that Japan's ODA rose significantly in 2010.
New Zealand plans to achieve an ODA level of $NZ 600 million by 2012-13 and appears on track to meet this.
Korea was not a DAC donor in 2005 and made no promises then to increase its aid; however, since 2005 its aid programme has increased in real terms by +56%.
The combined effect of the increases has been to raise ODA by 37 per cent in real terms since 2004, or about USD 30 billion (in 2004 dollars). However, when comparing the 2010 ODA outcome with the promises made in 2005, this still represented a shortfall of about USD 19 billion. Only a little over USD 1 billion of the shortfall can be attributed to lower than expected GNI levels due to the economic crisis. The remaining gap of USD 18 billion was due to donors that that did not meet their ODA commitments.
At Gleneagles, G8 donors also envisaged an increase in total ODA to Africa of USD 25 billion. However, preliminary estimates show that Africa only received an additional USD 11 billion. This shortfall is larger in percentage terms than the shortfall in total ODA. The main reason is the poor performance of several of the donors that provide large shares of their aid to Africa.
In an effort to ensure that future aid targets and pledges are clear, realistic and attainable, the DAC has recently approved a Recommendation on Good Pledging Practice. This is designed to help all donors improve their pledging practice and enhance accountability and transparency.
Aid beyond 2010
The OECD has just completed the fourth comprehensive survey of donors' future spending plans which provides an indication of the collective forward programming of bilateral and multilateral donors through 2013.
Preliminary findings based on DAC members' returns to the forward spending survey suggest slower aid growth ahead. Global country programmable aid (CPA - see note) is planned to grow at a real rate of 2% per year from 2011 to 2013, compared to 8% per year on average over the past three years. For DAC countries' bilateral aid only, the projected increase is slightly lower at 1.3% per year.
The deceleration is likely to be more marked for low income countries and for Africa, where CPA is projected to increase at about 1% per year in real terms, compared to a 13% annual growth rate in the past three years. Thus, additional aid to these countries is likely to be outpaced by population increases.
The DAC is developing illustrative aid scenarios for the next few years as a number of donors do have aid targets, notably the EU target of at least 0.7% of GNI for the 15 EU members of the DAC and 0.33% for other EU members in 2015, along with the commitment of the EU and its member states to reach a collective target of 0.7% in 2015.
This document is based on OECD members' responses to an advanced questionnaire on main ODA aggregates. Data may be subject to revision.
For further information, please contact email@example.com
Note: CPA is a core subset of ODA and excludes non-programmable items such as humanitarian aid, debt relief, and in-donor costs like administrative costs and refugees in donor countries.
Related Documents

subset: commoncrawl


text:
According to a new post on the ThinkPHP blog (pointing to the original story on the Yahoo Business site), WSO2 has released a web services framework WSO2 WSF/PHP.
According to Yahoo Biz, a company called WSO2 released their WSO2 WSF Framework C-library. What is more appealing is that there are now bindings for PHP available under a Apache 2.0 license. The company WSO2 describes itself as: "We are thought leaders in the Apache Web service project, where our engineers are core contributors to key projects including Apache Axis2, Apache Sandesha, Apache Rampart, Apache Neethi, Apache Axiom and Apache Synapse."
The framework provdes a set of resources that can be used to quickly create web services for your application. It also features interoperability with .NET and J2EE implementations.
The ThinkPHP post even helps you take the first steps by providing a step-by-step guide to installing the source and getting it up and running.


text:
Alarmingly, nearly half of all baby boomers today suffer from some degree of hearing loss. While its onset can be almost imperceptible, the end result is an impaired ability to interact with the world that significantly detracts from quality of life.
For more than 20 years, leading otolaryngologist Dr. Michael Seidman has been searching for the underlying causes of age-related hearing loss and for natural strategies to prevent and even reverse this debilitating condition. His remarkable research and clinical experience shows that it is now possible to slow the progression—and sometimes even reverse hearing loss—using an integrative approach that includes optimal nutritional and lifestyle choices.
In the following excerpt from Save Your Hearing Now (Warner Wellness, 2006), Dr. Seidman reveals the intimate link between aging andhearing loss, and how you can implement a program today to protect your hearing against the ravages of aging.
After treating hundreds of patients suffering from hearing loss— and seeing the devastating effects it had on their lives—I decided to look for a natural solution. Knowing that antioxidants counteract the damage caused by free radicals, I thought there might be a way to use those same safe, natural substances to protect and/or restore hearing.
But first, the fact that there was a link between free-radical damage and hearing loss had to be established.
So the first study my colleagues and I conducted was designed to find out if there was a connection between damaged hearing in humans and the common hearing loss seen with aging. To measure free-radical damage, scientists can look for certain "markers," chemical or cellular signposts that indicate change within a cell. In humans, one of these markers is known as the common aging deletion.
It is a sign of both advancing years and free-radical damage to the DNA of tiny organelles within each cell known as mitochondria.
From previous research in our lab and by others, we knew four things:
Common aging deletions accumulate as we grow older.
Blood flow to the cochlea, home to the nerve endings that make hearing possible, decreases as we age.1
At the same time, our hearing apparatus becomes less sensitive.2,3
As we age, our bodies produce more free radicals and fewer of the antioxidants that protect our hearing from free-radical damage.4
To test the theory that aging damages hearing and common aging deletions are a sign of that damage, we examined the temporal bones (those found at the sides and base of the skull) of thirty-four individuals, seventeen with normal hearing and seventeen who had age-related hearing loss. Temporal bones house the cochlea, the snail-shell-shaped organ responsible for hearing, and this is why we focused on that particular area. We found the common aging deletion in fourteen of the seventeen individuals with hearing loss and in eight of those with normal hearing.
Why didn't the deletion appear in all seventeen of those with hearing loss? And why did it appear in bones of people whose hearing was fine? At least two reasons: The common aging deletion is only one type of hearing loss. It could be that other deletions contribute to hearing loss, too. In addition, there are four different types of age-related hearing loss.
The common aging deletion may not be responsible for all four. At any rate, this study provided us with enough evidence to conclude that the common aging deletion is associated with aging and hearing loss.5
Supporting the First Findings
The link between aging and hearing loss was underscored by our next study. It involved a number of rats, which were divided into four age groups: young, mid-young, mid-old, and old. We tested the sensitivity of rats' hearing and examined their DNA for the common aging deletion, to determine if there was an association between the two.
We found that, like humans, rats tend to have higher levels of the common aging deletion as they grow older, and they have an increased tendency to develop hearing loss as well.6
Now we had established that the aging process resulted in an increase in common aging deletions, which weakened the mitochondria and damaged hearing. But could the damage be slowed, prevented, or possibly even repaired with supplements of naturally occurring antioxidants?
That's the question we set out to answer with two additional studies. In one clinical trial, we followed animals from approximately several months old to the day they died. One group received a calorie-restricted diet, shown to reduce free-radical production, reduce mitochondrial damage, and to increase life span.
For purposes of comparison, a placebo-controlled group was allowed to eat freely. Other groups were treated with antioxidants, including vitamins E and C, and the hormone melatonin. With this study, we demonstrated that free radicals and damage to the mitochondria that occurs with aging leads to presbycusis, the medical term given to agerelated hearing loss.
Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate that dietary moderation and specific nutrients reduce the progression of age-related hearing loss, and we concluded that it is likely that a combination therapy would provide a synergistic protective effect on presbycusis and possibly on aging as well.7
But even more dramatic results occurred in our next clinical trial. In this study, we used twenty-one two-year-old rats, senior citizens in the rodent world, and divided them into three groups of seven each.
For six weeks, one group was given ALC (acetyl-L-carnitine), the second was given ALA (alpha-lipoic acid), and the third group, used as a control, received a placebo (sugar pill).
When we tallied the results, it was clear that hearing in the control (placebo) group had deteriorated at a rate typical for animals of that age. But that didn't happen with either group of supplemented animals. Instead, we discovered the ALA and ALC did something pretty amazing. The supplemented rats not only avoided hearing loss, but their hearing actually improved. In other words, supplements didn't just stop age-related hearing loss—they reversed it!8
During the study, the control group lost anywhere from 3 to 7 dB of hearing, while the ones treated with ALC or ALA had a 7 to 10 dB improvement in their hearing, with the greatest improvements occurring after six months of treatment. While the ALA was more effective for protecting hearing at low frequencies, ALC did better at higher frequencies. We demonstrated that taking both supplements is the best way to protect against hearing damage in general.
Of all the research I've done, I consider this study the most important. It clearly demonstrates that hearing loss can be prevented—and even reversed—by simply taking a combination of antioxidants that includes ALA and ALC. Both these substances have been popular in Europe for some time, and are widely considered nontoxic, very effective in treating hearing loss, and also capable of providing overall antiaging and wellness benefits.
But there is another reason this study stands out. Medical research is full of surprises. Sometimes what makes perfect sense on paper just doesn't work in the lab. Other times we are literally astonished by the unanticipated benefits. That's what happened in this particular study. Along with improved hearing in the supplemented animals, we found a much lower level of common aging deletions in the mitochondria all throughout the body.
The supplements actually reduced the amount of free-radical damage everywhere, creating an antiaging effect that improved hearing and carried over to other cells throughout the body. In other words, we had proven that age-related hearing loss can be reversed in mammals, with allnatural, side-effect-free substances.
Although this research was groundbreaking at the time, other scientists have since shown that ALA, ALC, and various other substances, including the antioxidant coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and glutathione, provide substantial protection for the mitochondria and thereby support healthy hearing.
How Aging Affects Hearing
Age-related hearing loss affects approximately one-third of all people aged sixty-five and older. Technically known as presbyacusia or presbycusis, age-related hearing loss is due to the changes that occur in the body as we grow older. Circulatory disorders, for example, which limit the flow of blood throughout the body, as well as to the brain and auditory system, are common in later years.
There are any number of reasons why circulation slows down as we grow older, among them heart disease, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, and sedentary lifestyles.
My research and that of many colleagues clearly show that the same things that protect us from the damage done by passing years also prevent damage to our hearing. In order to understand how hearing can be saved by slowing the clock, let's take a look at the aging process and what happens in the body, especially the auditory system, as time passes.
Aging Begins in the Cells
During a normal lifetime, our cells divide anywhere from twenty to thirty times. This ongoing process of cellular expansion turns a child into an adult, and then cell division slows. Ultimately, because of inherent limits, our cells are no longer able to divide.
So although we continue to need new cells, later in life our bodies are not as efficient as they once were at producing them. The result: Disease or malfunctions occur because faulty cells are not replaced with fully functional versions.
In addition to the inherent limitations on new cell production, other factors are thought to play a role in aging. There are several different theories about the process, including the free-radical or mitochondrial clock theory, dysdifferentiation theory, and the telomerase theory. Thus far, the free-radical theory hasthe widest acceptance.
The Enemy: Free Radicals
In simplest terms, a free radical is an unstable molecule or cluster of molecules that is missing an electron. Like mini-atomic bombs, free radicals damage or destroy cells they come in contact with.
Free radicals are by-products of everything from eating to living in a world filled with toxic chemicals and pollution. In other words, they are unavoidable.
Although some free radicals are actually beneficial, others damage healthy cells. Free radicals can cause errors in genetic "messages" by altering DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the "blueprint" that governs cell growth).
This can, among other things, lead to a reduced blood supply to organs such as the inner ear and brain, thereby damaging hearing. When one of these loose cannon free-radical molecules binds with a healthy cell, it wreaks havoc on the cell's ability to function. Mother Nature did not leave us completely defenseless, though.
Our bodies produce enzymes known as antioxidants—such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase—to counteract the damage. We can also obtain antioxidants from certain foods and supplements.
But if inadequate production or a poor diet results in a shortage of antioxidants, cellular damage may not be repaired, and sooner or later, we become ill. There have been many studies documenting that free radicals are responsible for more than a hundred human diseases, including Alzheimer's, cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and arthritis, as well as aging.
Even though free radicals are microscopic and exist for far less time than it takes to blink an eye, they are capable of doing considerable damage simply because of their sheer numbers.
According to research at Emory University, each human cell receives approximately ten thousand free-radical hits each day. Further calculations have shown that this equals 7 trillion (7,000,000,000,000!) insults per second throughout our bodies.9
Certainly, 7 trillion is a staggering number, but the body counteracts this assault with its own arsenal of antioxidant enzymes. Unfortunately, there is a significant decline in these enzymes as we grow older. In fact, we now know that by the time the average person reaches the late twenties, production of these detoxifying enzymes has declined dramatically.
Based on the findings of scientists studying free radicals and human health, the best approach to slowing aging is one that provides the body with plenty of antioxidant ammunition against free radicals.
That means increasing intake of antioxidants, something that can be done in part with the proper diet or, more effectively, by taking supplements.
The Mighty Mitochondria
To measure free-radical damage, scientists can look for certain "markers," chemical or cellular signposts that indicate change within a cell. In humans, one of these markers is known as the common aging deletion.
It is a sign of both advancing years and free-radical damage to the DNA of tiny organelles within each cell known as mitochondria. About 98 percent of our body's energy is produced in mitochondria, so they are often described as the cells' powerhouses. A number of studies have shown that the functions of the mitochondria decrease with age, leading some experts to speculate that this may be why many people feel less energetic as they grow older.
The hardworking mitochondria also serve as the cells' "gatekeepers," with the power to determine whether a cell lives or dies, so it's doubly important to keep the mitochondria healthy.10
The mitochondria have their own DNA, which is completely separate from the DNA found in the cells. When free radicals ravage the cellular DNA, it can be repaired, but the mitochondria's cannot. The mitochondria can be weakened or may even die, creating a slowdown in many essential processes. Even an incredibly small mutation in the mitochondrial DNA can dramatically slow energy production.
In fact, the drop in mitochondrial activity is the basis of the free radical or mitochondrial clock theory of aging. According to this theory, the aging body increases its production of free radicals, which damage the body's tissues and subcellular elements, such as the mitochondria.
When we see the common aging deletion in mitochondria, we know the cells' little energy factories aren't fully functioning.
Full article at: www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/nov2007_report_hearingloss_01.htm


text:
Dial H is the good kind of weird. The DC comics series springs from the imagination of renowned fantasy author China Mieville and plays host to all sorts of weird, shouldn't-exist-even-in-comics heroes and villains So far, thanks to aging hippie engineer Roxie, lead character Nelson's learned some of the origin of the old-school telephone dial that turns him (and her, too) into weirdo crimefighters like Captain Lachyrmose or Boy Chimney.
The next issue of the series—out tomorrow and previewed here exclusively—brings the odd couple into a new storyline where they try to ferret out more clues about the magical dial around the world. Mieville's talent for worldbuilding continues to shine here and it's helped out to great effect by the awesome artwork of David Lapham. I really like the bickering chemistry between Roxie and Nelson because it kind of makes sense that you wouldn't always get along with someone you had to share superpowers with. This book is one of the unsung successes of DC's New 52 initiative. Give it a shot when Dial H #7 hits comics shops and digital storefronts tomorrow. Click on each thumbnail to enlarge.


text: British poster artist Olly Moss shows his nerdy love for the original Star Wars trilogy in a trio of new posters he created for collectible art house Mondo. The prints, revealed exclusively by Wired.com in the first three frames of this gallery, go on sale at a random time Monday. They are the first in Mondo's wildly popular Star Wars series to be crafted as traditional, theatrical one-sheet movie posters. The new posters show colorful silhouettes of C-3PO, Darth Vader and Boba Fett that are filled in with detailed imagery from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. To create original artwork for such rabidly adored films was daunting, Moss said, especially since so many of the visuals are already iconic. "It was so intimidating!" the artist told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. "There is such a wealth of great Star Wars art out there already, from paid professionals and from enthusiastic fans. I suppose my main aim was to make a set of Star Wars posters that were a little different from what people are used to seeing from the franchise, but still retained that essential Star Wars feel. I started by re-watching the original movies with a sketchbook on my lap, and just sort of went from there." Still, there was no backing away from the challenge. "If you're as big a nerd as I am, you just can't say no to Star Wars," Moss said. Moss has worked with Mondo and its parent company, Austin, Texas–based Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, frequently. He created the Alamo's 2010 Rolling Roadshow posters as well as Mondo's The Trouble With Tribbles poster. Justin Ishmael, Mondo's creative director, said Moss often nails his poster concepts on his first attempt. "Olly does sketches and will e-mail them to us and ... a lot of the times, they are exactly what the finals look like!" Ishmael said in an e-mail. "It's almost like seeing the inner workings of a genius' brain in real time." Given Moss' talent, he was a coveted artist for Mondo's Star Wars series, a high-stakes project for the art house. George Lucas is notoriously protective of his Star Wars images, and it took Ishmael and Mondo a year to woo Lucasfilm into licensing the characters and worlds that would grace the posters. Instead of flowers, Mondo sent over poster prototypes made with metallic and glow-in-the-dark ink. All that work paid off. Mondo has released 17 posters — and counting — in its Star Wars series, including a blueprint of R2-D2 and a series of six bounty hunters. Many of the prints sold out within minutes. Beyond the retail success, the featured artists and Ishmael have a personal stake in Star Wars. "We're fans first," Ishmael said. "I couldn't think of a reason to choose something, if it wasn't because we liked it. I guess we could get licenses for Twilight because it's hot. We'd make a lot of money, but Twilight is lame, and we only do stuff that we personally like."* Moss, when asked about his most beloved Star Wars character and film, responded: "Obi-Wan and Empire Strikes Back. Duh." The Force is strong with this one. Follow @MondoNews on Twitter on Monday if you want to score one of the new Star Wars posters by Moss, which measure 24 inches by 36 inches (the first time Moss has done that size). The posters cost $50 each. If you miss your chance, well, that sucks, but two more posters in the series will be released by the end of 2010. Above: Star Wars Artist: Olly Moss Size: 24 inches x 36 inches (each) Limited edition of: 400 (each) Price: $50 (each) On sale: Dec. 20 (follow @MondoNews on Twitter for "on sale" announcement) * This writer maintains that Twilight has its merits.The Empire Strikes Back Artist: Olly Moss Size: 24 inches x 36 inches (each) Limited edition of: 400 (each) Price: $50 (each) On sale: Dec. 20 (follow @MondoNews on Twitter for "on sale" announcement)Return of the Jedi Size: 24 inches x 36 inches (each) Limited edition of: 400 (each) Price: $50 (each) On sale: Dec. 20 (follow @MondoNews on Twitter for "on sale" announcement)10 Banthas Artist: Jay Ryan Size: 18 inches x 24 inches Limited edition of: 175 On sale: Dec. 14 (sold out in 15 minutes)Sanctuary Moon Artist: Daniel Danger Size: 24 inches x36 inches Limited edition of: 230 On sale: Dec. 10 (sold out in 10 minutes)Han Shot First Artist: Florian Bertmer Size: 24 inches x 34 inches Limited edition of: 400 On sale: Dec. 2 (sold out in 45 minutes)A Linch Pin Droid Artist: Kevin Tong Size: 24 inches x 36 inches Limited edition of: 400 On sale: Nov. 26 (sold out in five minutes) Artist statement: My print is called A Linch Pin Droid and it's an exploded view of R2-D2, my favorite character in the Star Wars trilogy. For this print, I made certain that I stayed true to the original trilogy and spent months watching and pausing it. Although this print is largely technical, I was hoping that by showing R2-D2's individual tools and components all spread out, people can reflect on the moments in the trilogy where he used those devices to save the day and the galaxy."Scrap Yard Power Droid Artist: Jeff Soto Size: 24 inches x 36 inches Limited edition of: 350 (hand-numbered) On sale: June 25 (sold out in one hour) Artist statement: "Star Wars was a pretty big deal for me as a kid. I was only 2 when the movie came out, and I can't even remember if I saw it or not in the theater. The characters and story were known to many of us mainly from the toys! The toys! Oh they were wonderful, and we played with them for hours — and wore out the Best and Sears catalog! One of my favorite action figures was the power droid, and I didn't really know much about the little guy, but for some reason he (I pictured it being male for some reason) captivated my imagination. I realized at some time that he's barely even in the movie, which added to his mystique. Over the years he functioned as the worn-out, floppy-legged power supply for numerous Transformers, G.I. Joes and Construx. He is small and cute, and found a place in my childhood heart. I still have the little guy. This piece is an ode to the power droid!"Salacious B. Crumb Artist: Rhys Cooper Limited edition of: 325 Size: 24 inches x 36 inches On sale: Sept. 30 (sold out in 10 minutes) Artist statement: "I always thought Salacious Crumb is the kind of character that makes Star Wars great. Little personalities like his are what give the galaxy far, far away its depth and diversity."Raider Artist: Dave Kinsey Size: 24 inches x 36 inches Limited edition of: 350 (hand-numbered) On sale: July 8 (sold out in 25 minutes) Artist statement: "The Tusken raiders, like Gonk, have really stayed with us at Mondo over the years; easily one of the most unique characters of the original trilogy. Even with very little screen time, the look, mannerisms (riding single file to conceal their numbers) and even the sounds that the sand people made are classic. We are proud to make this our second offering in the series." —Justin Ishmael, Mondo's creative directorLuke's Destiny Artist: Frank Stockton Limited edition of: 360 Size: 24 inches x 36 inches On sale: Oct. 28 (sold out in 10 minutes) Artist statement: "I chose to illustrate what is, to me, the most poignant moment of all the films. Luke, who was broken down, battered, and disfigured by Vader, was offered the chance to save himself by compromising his ideals and betraying his friends. With seemingly no chance of survival, he makes the decision to leap into the dangerous and uncertain unknown. This is the moment of him making that choice."Hoth Artist: Dan McCarthy Size: 12 inches x 36 inches Limited edition of: 475 (hand-numbered) On sale: Aug. 20 (sold out in 12 minutes) Artist statement: "Dan McCarthy is well-known for prints that depict vast landscapes, but more importantly, he's great at conveying mood. For this reason, we thought he'd be perfect for the scene on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back where the probe droids infiltrate the Rebel defenses and alert the Empire to their whereabouts. Notice the streaks in the sky as they enter the atmosphere ... this is literally the calm before the storm." —Justin Ishmael, Mondo's creative directorGreat Warrior Artist: Todd Slater Size: 17 inches x 24 inches Limited edition of: 385 On sale: Aug. 26 (sold out in five minutes) Artist statement: "From the first time that I saw Star Wars, I was captivated by the mystery of Yoda's species and home world. For Yoda, Dagobah was a place to disappear, and I see him as being at one with the landscape. For this print I wanted to camouflage him as a part of this murky planet using leaves, sticks, ferns and other flora found in the swamps. The image is printed on black paper with a shiny black varnish layer in the background. The varnished layer reveals even more of Dagobah and is shown as a transparency through Yoda's face. The kanji (japanese characters) on the left side gives one-word representations of the six stages I identified in Luke's Jedi training: the meeting of a great warrior, the discovery of a Jedi's strength, entering of a domain of evil, learning that size matters not, seeing the future and finally, the confrontation of Vader. The screen print is seven colors, which is the most I've done to date."Father: Encounter on Dagobah Artist: Tomer Hanuka Size: 19 inches x 25 inches Limited edition of: 350 (hand-numbered) On sale: July 29 (sold out in 30 minutes) Artist statement: "The central idea going into this image was depicting planet Dagobah itself as a portrait of Luke's subconscious in its most interesting and unformed phase. In a nightmarish sequence, Luke runs into the mist where he thinks he saw Vader. Luke finds him and a lightsaber duel ends with Vader's decapitation. The mask cracks open on the severed head, exposing the frozen face of a dead Luke Skywalker. The suggestion here is that somewhere within Luke's psyche there is a potential for ultimate evil. Luke's greatest challenge isn't the Galactic Empire and its endless, faceless troopers, but the magnetism of the dark side; the seductive idea of choosing his own potential for power over everything else."Attack Position Artist: Rich Kelly Size: 24 inches x 36 inches Limited edition of: 400 Price: $50 On sale: Nov. 12 (sold out in less than two hours) Artist statement: "When I was approached with this project, a considerable amount of artistic liberty was encouraged. After re-watching the original trilogy and observing how Chewbacca interacted with the rest of the characters, I realized that on more than one occasion he was basically used for comic relief with Han. Even during some of the battle scenes he seems to be fumbling around a bit. As a kid, I definitely remember thinking of him as a major force to be reckoned with. Therefore, I decided I wanted to depict Chewie as one bad dude; kicking ass and taking names. Endor came to mind as an appropriate environment, with Chewbacca gliding down a fallen tree, about to attack a couple of unsuspecting stormtroopers."A Wretched Hive Artist: Martin Ansin Limited edition of: Regular (copper color) 360 Size: 24 inches x 36 inches On sale: Nov. 18 (sold out in 10 minutes) Artist statement: "I've always liked that scene in Reign of Fire where these post-apocalyptic survivors re-enact Star Wars scenes for their children; in the future, the stories that we really like have become legends. For this poster I tried to do something similar, but in the opposite direction in time. I wanted to see how the cantina scene would look if it had been illustrated for an old book, if Star Wars was a traditional epic adventure sharing space with King Arthur and Beowulf. Who knows, maybe sometime in the future it will."A Wretched Hive (Silver Variant) Artist: Martin Ansin Limited edition of: Variant (metallic silver) 150 Size: 24 inches x 36 inches On sale: Nov. 18 (sold out in 10 minutes)Bounty Hunters: 4-Lom and Zuckuss Artist: Ken Taylor Limited edition of: 425 Size: Each poster measures 12 inches x 36 inches On sale: Bounty Hunters Wave 1 (Bossk, IG-88, Zuckuss) Sept. 21 (sold out in 10 minutes); Wave 2 (4-Lom, Boba Fett, Dengar) Oct. 7 (sold out in two minutes) Artist statement: "Both infamous and anonymous at the same time, bounty hunters are far more than mercenaries for hire — they're heirs to a professional legacy — an ancient brotherhood with a glorious history." —Anonymous "The amount of time it took to read the above line is roughly how long the bounty hunters were on screen in Empire Strikes Back. Think about that for a second: What other characters in cinema history can boast that claim? On the deck of The Executor, Darth Vader tasks six bounty hunters to find The Millennium Falcon. As he says this, one bounty hunter growls and one says, "As you wish," and that's it. No massive firefight ensues, nor is there an origin given ... and with the exception of Boba Fett, none of them are ever seen or talked about again! They are merely seen standing, yet they are some of the most popular characters in the entire Star Wars universe." —Justin Ishmael, Mondo's creative directorFollow us on Twitter: @allisonpdavis and @theunderwire.See Also:Mondo's First 'Director's Series' Posters Pay Tribute to Guillermo Del ToroRoboCop, Dirty Harry Go Retro in Rolling Roadshow PostersExclusive: Tribbles Infest Alamo Drafthouse's New Star Trek Posters


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Today's tutorial is a bit different: I'm going to show you how to make your ethernet shield wireless!
You can find many Wi-fi shields for Arduino: starting from the official one, up to shields based on Microchip's ICs.
Sometimes however it could be easier (and maybe cheaper!) to connect an Arduino to the Wi-fi network using your ethernet shield in conjunction with a wireless router.
I found the TL-WR702N nano router by TP-LINK that, with a cost of about 20€ on eBay, can work also as a wireless client: in this mode the router acts like a "bridge" between the device connected to its ethernet port and a Wi-fi network.
The TL-WR702N router is also very small and you can power it through a micro USB connector:
Here's how to configure it in client mode:
First, give to your PC a fixed IP address, 192.168.0.10, and connect it to the router using an ethernet cable:
Open your browser and type http://192.168.0.254; login with admin as username and password.
Choose Client mode:
Click Survey to find your Wi-fi network, then type your security settings (password…):
Wait till router restarts:
Now connect your Arduino+ethernet shield to the router; wait a couple of seconds and it will be available through your wireless network!


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…to my blog!
Yesterday, September 23rd, was the one year anniversary of the very first blog post on Cait Strides. I had the idea to start this blog as a way to keep me accountable for marathon training and [as a picky eater] trying new foods. It has turned into so much more than that and has truly been a pleasure to write nearly everyday. It's been a pretty crazy year with so many up's and down's. Of course, it's impossible for me to share every aspect of my life on this blog, but I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and share a few highlights from the past year:
The First Post – chronicling a bit about my life and how I became such a picky eater/my desire for change (Sept 2011)
Life of a runner – explaining my love-to-hate relationship with running (Sept 2011)
Hawaii Trip!! – when I went to visit a good friend who is living in Hawaii (Oct 2011)
Graduating from the kiddie menu – my first Chipotle experience (Oct 2011)
Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse – Run For Your Lives post race report (Oct 2011)
Experimenting in the kitchen – first time making pizza dough (Nov 2011)
On Life, and Death – serious contemplation on life and what it means to fully live (Nov 2011)
Ran Philadelphia – marathon #2 in the books! (Nov 2011)
Truly becoming a Maryland-er – making the most delicious crab pizza (Dec 2011)
Discovering my inner hipster – I'm even too cool for this post (Dec 2011)
New Years Eve in NYC – easily one of the craziest nights of my life and one I won't forget any time soon (Dec 2011/Jan 2012)
Weight – announcing my struggles with weight and committing to lose weight (Jan 2012) – for the record, I'm 15 lbs lighter! WOO!
It's not always rainbows and butterflies – sometimes life is hard (Feb 2012)
Things I love – a different kind of Valentine's Day (Feb 2012)
Shamrockin' the races – Post race Shamrock Half and PR report (March 2012)
Monument Ave 10k – another race recap (March 2012)
Kristina's visit! – my BFF from Washington came to visit for a weekend in DC, we had a blast (April 2012)
It's a BOY!! – my sister and bro-in-law find out they're having a boy! (April 2012)
Livin' the Sweet Life – hanging out at the Sweet Life Festival (April 2012)
Memorial Day Weekend – Instagramming my entire life away (May 2012)
USA vs. Brazil Soccer game/vacation #1 to Myrtle Beach – kicking off summer the right way (June 2012)
Lindsey's Bachelorette Party – girls just want to have fun (June 2012)
Erin's baby shower – spending the weekend with my family celebrating my sister (July 2012)
4th of July – a low key 4th of July celebration at my parent's house (July 2012)
Myrtle Beach Vacation #2 – Post 1, Post 2, Post 3 my family is crazy and I love them (July 2012)
Debating chicken and teal pants – in the same post, impressive! (August 2012)
Mumford & Sons and Kyle is born! – best weekend of summer, easily (August 2012)
Rockin' and Rollin' in VA Beach – Rock 'n Roll VA Beach sweeeeaty post-race recap (Sept 2012)
Remembering 9/11 – never forget (Sept 2012)
Thank you so much to everyone who has continued to read and support Cait Strides. I have appreciated each and every one of your messages, comments, and feedback! Writing this blog has truly been a pleasure; I hope you enjoy reading my ridiculous quips as much as I enjoy writing them.
I'm looking forward to blogging another crazy year of my life: more races, running, cooking, new foods, and general fun with my favorite people. Get ready.


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Mixing it up…
We've had rough patches before and quite often, when the manager mixes it up, you turn things around. So, with Xavier Paul at the top of the lineup, we'll see if we can't get this offense going.
And for you UCLA Bruins who had to stomach all the USC Trojan colors last night, this is your chance to get even. First 20,000 in the park get an LA hat in Bruin colors.
Here's the lineup:
Paul, LF
Martin, C
Ethier, RF
Kemp, CF
Loney, 1B
Blake, 3B
DeWitt, 2B
Carroll, SS
Billingsley, P
108 Comments
I think Josh is totally ignoring us…..don't you?
Ignored again.
"How long must we sing this song…"
I am glad you haven't forgotten that Messagebear!
For the players sake (and the players sake only), I hope this does bring them out of whatever brought them to this point. I think there is more to this hitting drought than meets the eye. Their spirit seems to have been knocked a few pegs, and I noticed that before the issue with Matt/Colletti. Whatever it is, I hope it gets figured out for their sake.
Just remember boys (Andre, Matt, James, Russell, Blake, Casey, Brox, Billz, et. all), it's not you that we have issues with, it's your owner and GM. Keep fighting the good fight on your end, and we will keep fighting the good fight on our end, which is for a team that is ran the Dodger Way once again.
I agree also, it's good to see the X-man in the line up. We can't do any worst with him ih there then we've already been doing.
I certainly admire everyone's loyalty to the players with all the criticism directed at management, most of it deserved I might add. I have some issues with the players since they are the ones on the field. Say what you will about the limited abilities of some of the arms out there but the pitching the past few games has not been that bad. It is the core position players who collectively went into a slump and who are making poor decisions on the field. Now before everyone jumps on me I realize even the best players go into slumps and make errors. Did Kemp make a bad play last night? Perhaps, but we all know Kemp believes he can get to any ball hit near him so why would a fan be upset at his effort? The problem this little mistake gets so magnaified because of the comments made the past two days and the overall poor play of the team since day one. So little things will get magnified. But the players have to make the plays. I have no idea if or how players are affected by what goes on in the front office but they are human and if we are talking about it I have to guess they do to. Nonetheless, I still hold the players accountable for what they do on the field whether or not they like the manager, owner or GM. Anything is possible. I still expect hitters to drive in some runs in key situations more often than not. I still expect pitchers to throw strikes and limit walks. I still expect fielders to make plays. I don't care if the player is a veteran or just starting his career. I know the Dodgers will not win every game but tell me what is wrong with expecting a win every time the team takes the field?
The difference is I am not going stop rooting and enjoying my love for baseball and the Dodgers when things get rough. I might get a little disgusted and highly disappointed, but I will back the next day to see what happens. Win or lose.
Batting Xavier leadoff tonight makes a lot more sense than batting Garrett Sweeney #2 last night.
Today's projected season record is 59-103.
We really need a series victory to start turning things around. However, even if we go 3-1 against the Pirates this weekend, that's not enough to remove the paper bag.
The Mets went from last to first in 4 days. We should be so lucky.
"Hey Bart? Am I seeing things, or is the earth rising?"
"I don't know, but whatever it is, I hate it."
32and53, you are right on! I neglected the intelligence part of the equation. Shawn Green used to get criticized for not diving at balls and as I recall his response was why risk injury on a play I am not going to make anyway. I also recall him being a decent fielder with a good arm who got to the ball most of the time. He played within his capabilities which at times might have made it look like a lack of effort on some plays. However, the fans love the guy who hits the wall full steam trying to run down a fly ball. I am sure Matt was not too happy when that ball got by him. It happens to the best of them once in a while.
"Perhaps, but we all know Kemp believes he can get to any ball hit near him so why would a fan be upset at his effort? "
I am a Kemp fan and have no doubt that he puts in a great effort. In general, not just with Kemp, I get a little ticked when I see mental errors. I mentioned on the Steve Lyons blog last year about 6 tool players where the last tool is intelligence, situational awareness, or baseball instinct whatever you want to call it. Sometimes that is a skill that comes with experience or coaching. Sometimes it comes naturally. Sometimes a player will never get it. Manny has it. He knows his limits. Even though Manny does not have very good range, he picks up on the ball and can tell where it is going and whether he can get to it or not. Sometimes it makes him look lazy but most of the time his response is correct. He is not like Repko, who will crash into a wall trying to catch a ball that is 4 rows into the stands. Kemp seems to be struggling with some of these issues right now. I hope he learns from his experiences and makes fewer plays that exhibit bad judgement. I also hope Colletti learns from experience and keeps his criticism of players private.
Bravo Nelly, bear, lbirken, all BPB's and 32and53fan! Spot on as usual.
lbirken – your two cents is always…….always welcome here, and I certainly see your point. I honestly don't know what happened to the hitting. It's like overnight, the Dodgers went from getting 5-10 per game to being lucky to get 2. I guess the only people that do know what is happening are the players themselves, and it's ultimately up to them to figure it out.
In terms on being upset with the players, in most cases, I am sure they are pretty hard on themselves. Just by how Andre reacted after that last at-bat, I would have to assume his batting helmet didn't make it into the dugout tonight because it was probably broken once again.
I am certainly not giving up on them. We have seen the Rockies rocket through the standings with less than three weeks remaining in the season 2 out of the last 3 seasons, and we are just beginning this season. So, there is a lot of baseball to be played, and there are alot of factors that can change on a dime for all teams in the league……….. injuries and trades.
32and53fan (I love those numbers), you are right on! I neglected the intelligence factor. As I recall Shawn Green took some grief because of his apparent reluctance to dive for balls. His response: why risk injury on a play he is probably not going to make anyway. Some might look at this as being selfish but what good is a player who can't play because of injury? I thought Shawn was a decent fielder and had a good arm and I never thought he was lazy or lacked effort. However, some fans just love it when a guy crashes into the wall chasing down a fly ball.
Hey 32and53fan!!! Another great post sir!!!
Thanks Sparkleplenty!!! It's great to read about your friend. What a blessing!
Then there is Messagebear who is good at reminding players when it is time to kick it into gear. He seemed to have a good read on when Andre needed it last year – lol!!!
good post from lbirken. All we can do is hang in there and wait this out.
Sorry for the double post. Have a great evening everyone and let's pull for a victory tonight! Keep the faith.
Dang I didn't even know Baez pitch for the Phillies.
I think everyone besides the owner is frustrated with the team the dodgers put together. Torre, Kemp (and the rest of the team), Coletti, and the fans. I mean Torre starting Padilla on opening day is a pretty big FU to the owner IMO
Hi everybody
Well that 6 hour flight back from N.Y. (took me 5 hours), there probably was some trouble up there and jet lag probably set in ( I felt that jet lag the whole time I was in LA). LOL.
Aside from jet lag, they probably wasn't expected, somebody probably got the schedule wrong, or something and left the door locked.
Charlie Morton, I understand, is having a bad year, so far. John Maine was having one before he faced us, if we don't hit Morton, pitching against the Dodgers will be known as a safe haven for pitchers that are struggling. If it's not already.
My camera wouldn't work at all at Citi field even after I put new batteries in. But today on my way to the camera store to have it checked out, it was working perfectly.
Maybe that's a good omen.
You want to read some good news? JP went 0-3, with a walk. He is now batting a nice healthy .193 :))))
LMAO…..somebody on At-Bat says on twitter, "What inning do I have wait until I get a refund?"
Ummmmm…. He got out of it, but it is just scary.
Go X-man that's the way to get us started. I love to see the number 30 leading of for the Dodgers.
Now THAT is our Andre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go Andre Ethier!!!!!!
ETHIER will do much better.
WTG DRE!!!! I just got this feeling that the losing streak ends tonight.
Nice to see Bills shut them down with a 123 inning. The streak ends tonight.
And keep that confidence like in the last game, maybe it's a good night for the offense.
Gosh damn these freaking Thunders won't go away. This series should've been over if it wasn't for these lopsided FT's from the Thunders.
The Thunders???? haha
Bills looks like he has a little more hop on his fastball tonight. The streak ends tonight.
Yeah watching the basketball game and they were known as the Seattle SuperSonics until they move to Oklahoma City and I never seen an arena this loud for there 1st playoff game in that city. While we at it let's keep Paul up and released Anderson.
I'm watching it too Shad 🙂
Well actually there 1st playoff series.
I called LONEY's HR on TBLA.
Not my sport.
Nice to see James hit his first one. oldbrooklynfan it is nice to see the other team play like crap and give us some gifts for a change. The streak ends tonight.
Nice call Joey Joe! It wasn't long but it was in the right location.
I hope that double by Doumit, that Either mess up out there
doesn't rattle Bills.
I don't think it is so much the outfielders having issues as it seems like the wind is causing the ball to do weird things. Vinny has even mentioned it a few times. I was more worried about how Andre came off that wall. I think I saw him cringe because due to his ankle.
How did Either mess up that play? My MLB.TV blacked out during that play.
red pen – omit the word "because"
I don't think he really did mess up. It appeared the ball went over Andre's head, but it just missed his glove as he crashed into the wall. It wasn't ruled an error.
Loney hit home run #1 today.
Konerko hit home run #10 today.
Genius move by Lasorda trading K away.
PAUL looks good but I'd like to see more power. I think I will, he seems to have a nice swing.
I think Ethier should've caught it, Nelly.
Ohhh, I think he should have too, but I think the wind is playing tricks on them to some degree. It has been very windy here in the valley, and it is usually worse over there.
Three K's for Matt isn't so good……………….hmmmm!
It's good to see Billz still in the game in the 6th inning. I was a little worried after inning #1.
Come on Lakers so tired of these refs just let them played.
I was just concerned with Bills and the run coming in, because lately, since late last year, seemed to suddently lose it, after a run scored after he was pitching very well and it looked like to me that 'Dre messed up that chance. But you could be right.
I wonder how Kemp is doing with Rihanna.
I think we have to thank Ned for Matt's problems!
I think he is trying way too hard to prove Colletti wrong.
Nice going BELLIARD.
Bills had another quality start YEAH!!!
Here comes DY! Come on Ronnie…………..go get'em!!!
It was good to see Billz get through six. Let's hope the Bullpen can finish up for him.
Dang the Lakers game is freaking close can't believe they blew that lead.
Nice job Ronnie!!!! Let's get some insurance runs boys!!!
Nice HOLD for Belisario,
Way to go Lakers! Now, let the other L.A. team win!!!!! GO DODGERS!!!!!
Good job Gasol
Nice hold Belisario
KEMP finally got some wood on the ball.
Well, that catch made up for the missed catch………….way to go Andre!!!!
BELASARIO looks more like he's back from Venezuela.
Great catch Andre!!!!!! The streak ends tonight.
lol yahoo finally have sherrill in a dodgers hat dang he got a big head.
That's holding them GEORGE.
Nice game tonight, James.
Sherrill pitch 8 games in a rows without given up an earned runs
Urgh should've had played home Loney instead of Agon tonight.
All my comments have gone through tonight without a hitch.
knock on wood………………so have mine oldbrooklynfan!
GEORGIE PORGY PUDDEN PIE did a good job tonight.
Yep but the time warp is a problem lol
Let's hope it keeps up, Nellyjune.
Here's Johnny!!!!!!!!!!!!
Way to go guys! Tonight is the start of a long winning streak!!!!!!
What does Johnny say boys and girls?…………………………….
Fu Q y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!! We finally won one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice job Bills & the bullpen, two HRs, an all around good game by the Dodgers. Another 85 or 90 like these and we'll be alright. The streak HAS ended!!!
whoohoo! keep paul in. best game in a week. I hope matt gets ned out of his head. start the streak!
Keep Paul released Anderson.
Andre Ethier continues to be the Dodgers' star.
When I saw the title to the thread I was excited as I thought they were mixing up how the security is run at the stadium.
I guess not.
Take the challenge Frank. Step up to the plate & make a difference. I dare you!!
Nice game tonight. The team played well rounded ball tonight. No errors, Bills had a good start & didn't waste pitches & knuckled down when facing some diversity. The bully performed well. I also felt they were more agressive with the hit & run and seemed like they were trying to take it to them.
Watching Kemp I feel he's really gripping and trying to hard. Maybe something you can do while running the bases but not at the plate or defensively.
One final note… At the Giants game tonight the fans were chanting "Beat LA". Pathetic for them! I take it as a compliment and when I hear them do that I have to laugh because in order to be hated so much you must of been good! Whenever I see our Boys In Blue here in SF I try to encourage them and remind them to take pride when they hear it.
Okay now one last note… Some great posts from earlier today. Birk & CY come to mind. I think we all agree that Kemp
isn't playing as well as he can, but he hasn't been the reason we've not done well. It's been the pitching which is Ned & Franks call, so it's on them & for Ned to call out Kemp
in public is the issue. I think we can all agree with this. But good discussions. I enjoy all of you and look forward to when we can celebrate a safe & fun stadium, new ownership team, and the Ring coming to the Ravine! Go Blue!!
Wow we bring up Konerko name huh 32and56? We needs an all stars closer since the closer at the time was a left handed specialist forgot who was in that bullpen at the time I think it was DePostra that traded Konerko. I wish we could've traded Karros for Shaw and moved Konerko to 1st.
lol beat LA chant and they weren't playing us seriously is tha a joke?
I wonder what happen if that other so calls LA team playing in SF would that say beat LA to lol.
I really think I need to say this again sorry Anderson but you need to be released and keep the young stud Paul.
Monasterios 1st start today. I really don't think we should be experience this so soon which Weaver was off the DL.
Pitchers pitching fielders fielding=a win.
well we won last night… we all know what that means, anderson will be back in there batting 2nd, paul doesnt need to start on consecutive days (good ol joe joe)… but great win last night!
Sorry to disappoint but Eric's letter did not make the cut in today's L.A. Times. However, the letters that did appear pretty much echo sentiments expressed here the past couple of days. On a more positive note, lets hope the Dodgers feel comfortable playing in front of the home field fans since a good portion of the games the next few weeks will be played at Dodger Stadium. Also, the articles in today's local papers point to the absence of Manny in the lineup for the struggles from Ethier, Kemp and company.
Wow Ozzie why did it take you this long to put someone in that 9th spot? I guess it took a stats lines like this .193/ .260/ .193/ .454 and 1 for 19 in his last 5 games combined. To bad I can't say much about the other fool who just hit his 7th homerun just now.
Now he just popped up to the shortstop with the bases loaded with no outs.
They better resigned Dye and stick him in LF now.
You guys should read the White Sox board and I bet they hate phew now.
Shad, all those poor folks had to do was take a look at the ITD archives and cut and paste. What more is there to be said about poor JP that has not already been said? Aren't the Dodgers still picking up some of his salary?
lol are we still? Of course is JP first time in the AL league maybe the pitching there is tough and damn if only Jones would had did that with us we probably wouldn't have had Manny on this team and we could've had keep Andy.
Andrew Lambo was suspended for 50 games for testing positive on a drug of abuse. http://twitter.com/dylanohernandez
He must be smoking pot again. Not too bright for someone who wants to be a major leaguer.


text:
Audra Menez recorded two goals and six assists in Liberty's 22-6 win over Lees-McRae, Saturday, setting a new program record for most assists in a single game.
The Liberty women's lacrosse team concluded regular-season play on Saturday with a win, defeating Lees-McRae, 22-6.
With the victory, Liberty closes out the 2011 regular season with a 6-10 record, while Lees-McRae falls to 3-10. Liberty's 22 markers also set a new program record for most goals in a single game. The total surpassed the previous standard of 19, which occurred in the Lady Flames' 19-9 win over Howard on March 27.
Karis Walborn highlighted the Liberty offense with five goals and two assists. Five other Lady Flames finished with two goals apiece – Audra Menez, Emily Dinsmore, Jen Moyer, Kristin Crowley and Anna Starling.
Along with her two goals, Menez also made her way into the Liberty record books, chipping in six assists, setting a new single-game assist mark just two days after Moyer claimed the program record with four helpers against Longwood.
Kelsey Keimig led Liberty with five ground balls and seven draw controls. Jamison paced the Lady Flames' defense with four caused turnovers.
Menez put Liberty on the board in the opening 29 ticks of the first period with an unassisted goal. Lees-McRae's Olivia Gudewich answered the tally at 27:20 with one of her own to knot the contest at one.
Just under the 27-minute mark, Moyer kick started a 4-0 Lady Flames run, firing a shot past goalkeeper Martha Peacock. Liberty tacked on three more markers over the next 5:20. Starling capped the spurt at 21:33 to put the visitors up, 5-1.
Scoring on both ends was dormant, until Lees-McRae's Nicole Dupont gave the Tigers their second goal of the game to pull within three at 13:18. The Lady Flames answered 11 ticks later, when Bianca Brancaleone found the net for her third goal of the season, igniting a 7-0 scoring burst by the visitors.
Seven different Lady Flames posted goals during the span, including Keimig, who picked up her first career goal for Liberty at the 1:16 mark. Walborn cemented the run 23 seconds later with an unassisted tally and also recorded two assists during the hot streak.
The Tigers closed out the period with one final goal with 37 seconds left, resulting in a halftime score of 12-3.
In the second period, Laura Hawthorne lit up the scoreboard first for Lees-McRae with an unassisted goal at 26:13.
The Lady Flames' defense responded by holding the Tigers scoreless for nearly 22 minutes, while the Liberty offense reeled off 10 unanswered tallies. Walborn opened the run with three-straight goals off assists from Moyer, Crowley and Menez, respectively.
Liberty displayed its passing ability during the span, as all 10 markers were created by assists, including a quartet of helpers by Menez. Freymond sealed the run, following a pass from Camille Little with 6:08 remaining to put Liberty up, 22-4. The Tigers closed out the stanza with two goals of their own for the 22-6 final.
Kristen Masullo occupied the net for Liberty in the first period, recording seven saves. Blaire Barnhart came in for the entire second period, making two stops. Peacock played the full 60 minutes for the Tigers, finishing with 13 saves.
Liberty will now prepare for the National Lacrosse Conference Tournament, which is set to take place April 29-May 1 in Davidson, N.C. Official tournament seedings will be announced by the conference office in the coming days.


text:
This rather lightweight novel, featuring almost no plot and a great deal of first-person discussion of poetic prosody, received mostly positive reviews in 2009.
Only Tom Deveson of the London Times savaged Baker's latest as cutesy and trivial (and unfair to Pound—but this is the least of its sins).
David Orr, who praised the book, pointed out the New Yorker (and Paul Muldoon) got undue attention from Paul Chowder, the protagonist of the book, a poet and anthologist who assaults the reader with the minutiae of his drab life and his opinions of poetry. Orr is right: Chowder does not seem like a real player in po-biz, hardly mentioning any magazines which publish poetry, save the New Yorker; Chowder seems only a witness from a certain learned distance, like the novelist Baker, himself.
I can almost imagine Garrison Keillor writing a book like this, though Keillor's protagonist wouldn't be quite so nerdy and reclusive. Still, there would be that fondness for popular poetry, that slightly self-effacing humor. It's the way other kinds of writers who like poetry talk about poetry: fondly yet ruefully, eclectically yet blithely, sentimental yet wisecracking.
Nicholson Baker is charming in the sort of way he always is, if you like that sort of thing; I did not find his digressions very interesting; well, more accurately, I didn't find any skillful blending of the story with the opinions of poetry, and as a true poetry lover, I kept skipping over the little fictional interludes (drab) to hear the opinions of poetry (somewhat less drab).
At one point, poetry is described as a kind of rhythmic sobbing. Well, no, but a nice try.
Is this a novel of ideas? I suppose not, since none of the reviews discussed the book's ideas. Perhaps this says more about the book reviewing industry than anything else: "Charming book! Loved it! Profound! But it will make you laugh, too, outloud, even! Have no fear, reader! Buy this book!" Simon Schama writing in the London Financial Times was not quite this bad—but almost.
The only idea in the book, for me, worth mentioning: Traditional ballad meter, with 4 beats per line, is the true music of English poetry despite the fact that snobby scholars insist it belongs to iambic pentameter (5 beats per line).
Baker's prosodic discussions are extremely simple—too simple by half. His gallant failures did not make it necessary to chase down my copy of Poe's "Rationale of Verse," since Baker's formulae caused me to merely smile at their simplicity; I felt no need to refute them.
Poe appears in The Anthologist only as one of numerous, unconnected incidents: Paul Chowder pictures himself meeting Poe in a laundromat. A dull meeting, remarkable for having no relevance to anything at all.
I wonder if Baker knows that Rufus Griswold, Poe's famous nemesis, was the most important anthologist of his time, producing a best-seller not only with his Poets and Poetry of America anthology, but with his Female Poets of America anthology—which included women involved in the lives of these two literary men in all sorts of interesting ways.
Oh, wait, forgot. Real life.
Baker writes…uh, what is it called… fiction.