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101 Ways to Massacre Students
Once again, a horrific eruption of violence in the United States has been turned into a National Enquirer "blood and circuses" spectacle on every television network in the nation. Curiously, grotesque and ghastly as the carnage is, it seems that Americans are not impacted by bloodbaths until they occur in their own backyards. Juan Cole said it best yesterday when he stated, "the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech should give us a baseline for what the Iraqis are actually living through. They have two Virginia Tech-style attacks every single day."
We seem incapable of coming to terms with violence: Either we distance ourselves from it as "something happening over there" or we voyeuristically wallow in it 24/7 with grisly images of a massacre or the incessant repetition of a video tape made by a perpetrator exuding psychotic rage from every pore. In neither case does America appear to be capable of asking the deeper, disturbing questions in relation to such incidents, but obsessively leaps to "the healing" which Gary Corseri so brilliantly slammed in his piece earlier this week, "Blacksburg: Let The Healing Not Begin."
As I watched some of the coverage of the Virginia Tech incident this past week, I could not help but be reminded of another massacre that occurred thirty-seven years ago next month at Kent State University. On that day I was being pepper gassed as I marched in solidarity at Michigan State with my fallen comrades at Kent State who were massacred by a government which at that very moment was murdering thousands of Cambodians, dropping bombs it swore it wasn't dropping and lying through its teeth to the American people in the throes of the Vietnam War. Today I teach with a colleague who, on May 4, 1970, took a stray bullet at Kent State and became permanently disabled as a result.
But while Kent State and Virginia Tech are venues of physical assault on students, almost no one is aware of the myriad levels on which, in other venues and without the spilling of blood, students are being massacred. Another article this past week which escaped the notice of many but riveted my attention was Danny Schechter's "A Student Crisis." Writing, Schechter says, in the spirit of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly," he reminds us of "the way student loans have become a noose around the necks of a whole generation of students making our colleges and universities likely sets for the next edition of one of those crime scene shows." Furthermore, in recent weeks the corruption around student loans involving kickbacks, gifts, trips, and other perks to college and university officials involved in the lending process has been exposed and appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. California Congressman George Miller compares the corruption and abuse in the student loan industry to that of Halliburton. Moreover, Miller's investigations have also revealed that as well as being deeply mired in corruption, the industry is also involved in datamining of students' personal records, ostensibly to determine their eligibility for loans.
Meanwhile says Schecter:
Schechter knows about these things as a result of his splendid documentary, "In Debt We Trust," which illuminates not only the student loan debacle but the seduction of financially unsophisticated college freshmen into the black hole of credit card debt -- an average of $20,000 per college graduate.
To fully comprehend the economic plight of today's college student/graduate, I strongly recommend Anya Kamenetz's superb book Generation Debt and her article "Greed Aid," which was part of her 2004 "Generation Debt" series of articles in Village Voice. Kamenetz analyzes the student loan/debt issue and reveals the lifelong misery that it is inflicting on millions of students. Tragically, and God forbid, the seeds sown in this present economic assault on students could eventually produce the harvest of another literal massacre on some college or university campus somewhere in the future by some troubled graduate, buried in mid-life under a crushing mountain of debt.
But the economic warfare being waged on students is only one aspect of the massacre. Even more brutal, yet silent and seemingly benign, is the massacre of minds. Supposedly, students attend college and universities to get an education, and supposedly, even if they attend a community college, they are required to show up with basic skills. Yet anyone who has been teaching college students for the past twenty years knows that only a tiny segment of incoming freshmen are capable of writing an English sentence, and even more frightening is the reality that non-English speakers from other countries are often capable of doing so while students educated in the US aren't. Sadly, I've discovered that, overall, college students do not like to read and have trouble concentrating on textbook or other reading assignments. It is not uncommon for them to purchase $150 textbooks and almost never open them. Faculty frequently report that they are only able to lecture 15 or 20 minutes and then must incorporate a Power Point presentation or utilize video or DVD material in order not to lose the attention of their students. In other words, the present generation of high school graduates often finds concepts without the dazzle of special effects, elusive and monotonous.
Increasingly, children in public schools are experiencing horrific levels of violence on a daily basis as they are forced to deal with physical or verbal bullying from other students and ineffectual school administrations with no funds to put bullies and their parents in programs that would adequately address the issue. Periodically, protracted bullying erupts in a Columbine or a Virginia Tech incident, perpetrated either by the bully or one of his victims. Then everyone rushes to "heal and move on," never willing to explore the deeper roots of the violence.
Overwhelmingly, as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which Greg Palast has so appropriately named "No Child's Behind Left," students coming to college from a public school seem to excel in test-taking, but have virtually no critical thinking skills. In my experience, I find that students enjoy critically thinking once they have learned the skill, but they require training for it because it is a foreign concept.
NCLB is a gargantuan assault not only on the minds of public school and college students, but on the entire society. It is, in my opinion, the principal reason, besides skillfully-cultivated fear, that Americans could be lied into the Iraq War. When Colin Powell made his bogus case for war in front of the United Nations in 2003, a society of critical thinkers would have raised their eyebrows and asked more probing questions. As it was, a British news channel exposed his plagiarism of a graduate student's essay as a fundamental piece of his presentation. (Students serve many purposes for the ruling elite, do they not?) When during that presentation Powell held up a vial of white powder, touting it as anthrax, critically thinking Americans should not have turned as white as the powder with fear, but rather demanded proof that the vial was not filled with baking soda. When Condoleeza Rice threatened that if we did not invade Iraq, a mushroom cloud would hang over America because Iraq was purportedly in the process of manufacturing a nuclear bomb, a country of critical thinkers would have unambiguously and boisterously insisted on proof beyond the whining, photo-op assertions of the former Chevron board member. But as one of my students naively asked later, "If it wasn't true, why did they have it on CNN?"
My answer: Because CNN is corporate media whose job it is to act as stenographers for the regime and "sell" its agenda to a nation of citizens who are incapable of thinking analytically, and in 2003, the scam was successful beyond the wildest dreams of the neocons who devised it.
Naturally, in my field I am constantly reminded of how trivial and irrelevant America's public education system has rendered the study of history. Most college students have no sense of it and report enduring the mind-numbing boredom of high school history classes either by ditching, text-messaging, or falling asleep. Increasingly, as with art and music programs, funding for history is being slashed both in high schools and colleges and increased for engineering and computer technology programs.
Some years ago I heard John Judge remark that, "a people who have no knowledge of their history are easily manipulated and dominated." Deny students the ability to read, write, critically think, and study history, and you have a nation of sycophants who ask no questions and comply with virtually any directive in the name of patriotism or national security as they are almost certain to do when they are sold the regime's propaganda regarding the National I.D. Act and the U.S. government's plan to incorporate its provisions in 2009. After all, who among them is willing to have the privilege of obtaining or renewing a drivers license, opening a bank account, or boarding a plane denied?
So what is the destiny of this generation of students? Where will they end up besides unfathomably in debt? Sadly, they are facing a future hammered by global warming, global energy depletion, and global economic meltdown. They will go forth from the halls of academia, and if they are not well-connected, they will take the jobs they can get. They will graduate into a world of outsourced American jobs which will force them to accept mind- and soul-numbing positions with insufficient pay, often with few or no benefits. Those in tech fields may fare better than those in other professions, I wouldn't be willing to bet that in another decade they will be delirious with a sense of job satisfaction.
Many, wide-eyed with idealism, will enter the teaching profession, determined to teach differently than they were taught, but according to statistics from 2005, half of the teachers surveyed plan to be out of the profession by 2010. These hopeful education majors will vow to give students a genuine education, not just prepare pupils for NCLB tests, but unless they are teaching in private schools where NCLB is not incorporated and which also pay less than public schools, they will be discouraged and demoralized within less than a decade. In public schools they will soon discover that whether they like NCLB or not, their salaries will be tied to the test scores they produce, in which case, why not "teach to the test" instead of giving students an education? They may learn to live with a system that makes authentic teaching virtually impossible, in which case, they will become robotic moving parts in a nationwide dumbing-down mechanism, or choosing not to live with it, they will abandon the career for which they have trained in favor of remaining true to their calling as educators.
Increasingly, trade and tech schools will be the choice of many high school graduates, and a college education will ultimately become untenable financially for the middle-class student and impractical in terms of its value in securing lucrative employment. As the current housing bubble worsens and impacts the credit industry and interest rates, and as the Bush administration endeavors to eliminate the Mortgage Tax Credit, owning one's home will not be in the future of many college graduates. And given the new bankruptcy laws of 2005, declaring bankruptcy in the face of grinding debt will not be an option, and this generation of graduates will never, ever get ahead financially.
So on the one hand, the carnage at Virginia Tech is equivalent to what innocent Iraqis and most US combat troops experience at least twice a week, and therefore, brings home to our own soil the horrors of mass violence. But at the same time if we are among those critically thinking Americans to whom I alluded above, then we must also consider the full spectrum of assault being waged on today's students which encompasses high schools, colleges, and universities across America, and we must consider the consequences of those assaults in terms of the misery, despair, and even violence that they are certain to evoke in the coming years.
In recent months I have been pleased to hear of a resurgence of chapters of SDS (Students For A Democratic Society) at US colleges and universities. As well as protesting the Iraq War, some have been instrumental in organizing for wage increases and benefits for campus workers. Hopefully, they will also begin or have already begun to organize against the economic warfare being waged on students by the debt industry.
Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. is author of a forthcoming book, Coming Out from Christian Fundamentalism: Affirming Life, Love and The Sacred. Her recent book, U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED: What Your High School Textbook! Didn't Tell You, is available at her website: www.carolynbaker.org.
Other Articles by Carolyn Baker
The Secret:
Creating a Culture of Cheerfulness as Rome Burns


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The war is on! Thanks to the relentless efforts of the Dev-Team, along with the help of ion1c, an independent security expert, the jailbreaking tools for iOS 4.3.1 was recently released. And in our guide today I'm going to help you set free your iPhone 3GS/4, iPod Touch 3G (except 8Gb)/4G and iPad.
Please note, iPad 2 is not supported! Also, I won't be going into the details of creating custom firmware (for those upgrading a locked phone that need to preserve the old baseband).
So, if you're looking for a straight-up jailbreak, let's dive in!

subset: commoncrawl


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- LJ Index, September 2009
- Why Buy a $350 Thin Client?
- diff -u: What's New in Kernel Development
- Hardware Requirements: None
- Mac OS X, It's Not Linux, but It's Close
- WebcamStudio—Create Your Own On-line Video Show
- They Said It
- LinuxJournal.com
- Non-Linux FOSS
LJ Index, September 2009
1. Percent of all waste that is e-waste: 2
2. Percent of the heavy metals in landfills that come from e-waste: 70
3. Number of separate elements found in e-waste: 38
4. Percent of e-waste bound for recycling that actually gets recycled: 20
5. Average number of electronic items purchased per American household per year: 24
6. Average number of books read per year by adults in the US: 4
7. Percent of adults in the US that read zero books per year: 25
8. Number of hours the average American spends watching TV per day: 4
9. Number of years spent watching TV during a 65-year life: 9
10. Average time someone in the US spends Web surfing each month: 27:38:58
11. Average time someone in France spends Web surfing each month: 19:16:28
12. Average time someone in Spain spends Web surfing each month: 17:52:43
13. Average time someone in the UK spends Web surfing each month: 17:36:55
14. Average time someone in Germany spends Web surfing each month: 17:00:35
15. Average time someone in Italy spends Web surfing each month: 15:02:36
16. Average time someone in Australia spends Web surfing each month: 14:30:16
17. Percent of local advertisers on search engines that choose not to renew: 50
18. Percent of local advertisers on advertising sites that choose not to renew: 60
19. US National Debt as of 06/08/09, 10:51:06am MST: $11,403,815,042,547.90
20. Change in the debt since last month's column: $152,944,501,331.18
4: Basel Convention
5: Consumer Electronics Association
6, 7: Washington Post
8: A.C. Nielsen Co.
9, 20: Math
10–16: Telegraph.co.uk
17, 18: The Business Insider
Why Buy a $350 Thin Client?
On August 10, 2009, I'll be at a conference in Troy, Michigan, put on by the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project, www.ltsp.org) crew and their commercial company (www.disklessworkstations.com). The mini-conference is geared toward people considering thin-client computing for their network. My talk will be targeting education, as that's where I have the most experience.
One of the issues network administrators need to sort out is whether a decent thin client, which costs around $350, is worth the money when full-blown desktops can be purchased for a similar investment. As with most good questions, there's really not only one answer. Thankfully, LTSP is very flexible with the clients it supports, so whatever avenue is chosen, it usually works well. Some of the advantages of actual thin-client devices are:
Setup time is almost zero. The thin clients are designed to be unboxed and turned on.
Because modern thin clients have no moving parts, they very seldom break down and tend to use much less electricity compared to desktop machines.
Top-of-the-line thin clients have sufficient specs to support locally running applications, which takes load off the server without sacrificing ease of installation.
They look great.
There are some advantages to using full desktop machines as thin clients too, and it's possible they will be the better solution for a given install:
Older desktops often can be revitalized as thin clients. Although a 500MHz computer is too slow to be a decent workstation, it can make a very viable thin client.
Netbooks like the Eee PC can be used as thin clients and then used as notebook computers on the go. It makes for a slightly inconvenient desktop setup, but if mobility is important, it might be ideal for some situations.
It's easy to get older computers for free. Even with the disadvantages that come with using old hardware, it's hard to beat free.
Thankfully, with the flexibility of LTSP, any combination of thin clients can coexist in the same network. If you're looking for a great way to manage lots of client computers, the Linux Terminal Server Project might be exactly what you need. I know I couldn't do my job without it.
diff -u: What's New in Kernel Development
Rik van Riel has doubled and doubled again the amount of RAM that can be directly addressed in the x86 64-bit architecture. The previous limit had been 244 bytes, or more than 17 terabytes. The new limit is 246 bytes, or more than 70 terabytes.
The Linux Pulse Per Second (LinuxPPS) Project has had to reset and restart, when Udo van den Heuvel asked why the code hadn't been accepted, and neither Andrew Morton nor Alan Cox could remember any of the objections anyone had against it. They both recommended resubmitting the patches, which at the very least would get the folks who still had problems with the code to speak up again. LinuxPPS is a project to provide a character-device-based API for communication between kernel space and userspace. Rudolfo Giometti took Alan and Andrew's advice a couple weeks later, submitting the core LinuxPPS code for inclusion—the idea being to get everyone signed off on the basic features before introducing any code that might be more controversial. He also pointed out that all previous objections had been fixed, or that the objectors already had agreed the fix could wait. So, it looks like a good thing that Udo asked about this initially, or the perfectly good code might be lingering still.
The XCEP motherboards from IskraTel now are supported in Linux, which is cool, because that motherboard is used in many particle accelerators throughout the world. Michael Abbot recently submitted patches adding this architecture, which runs an ARM XScale PXA255 CPU.
DebugFS soon may be configurable in much more powerful ways. Steven Rostedt has added a feature to enable tracing events defined in a whole directory tree. The previous version required that each event be enabled individually in its own directory. The current version recurses through all child directories, but it also allows users to chop off branches of that directory tree easily if they so desire. What's the cost of all this power? It's no longer easy to identify which tracing events are enabled and which are not, because an event may be controlled by configurations elsewhere in the directory tree. But, as Steven said during the discussion, the information is all there, and a script easily could identify all configured events. As far as the debate went, no one seemed to feel the cons outweighed the pros, so this probably will be accepted into the kernel in the near future.
One thing that doesn't happen often is a hardware vendor asking for advice from the Linux community about how to code its drivers. But, Atul Mukker from LSI Corporation recently did exactly that. He said LSI wanted to take a whole new approach to driver writing, in which it had operating-system-independent code at the core, with a thin layer of support for Linux, Windows and so on. And, he just wanted to know if anyone had any advice. Turns out several folks did—one of the main ones being Jeff Garzik. Jeff recommended Intel's networking drivers as excellent examples of good practice. He suggested modularizing the code so that each piece of hardware would have its own codebase, which also could be kept free of any operating-system-specific code. He also recommended keeping general-purpose code out of the driver entirely, where other drivers could use it more easily. The Application Binary Interface (ABI), Jeff said, also should remain consistent with other drivers already in the kernel. Any feature similar to something found elsewhere should imitate that other interface. Any features that were unique, on the other hand, could create whatever interface seemed best.
Hardware Requirements: None
In two days, I'll be the proud owner of a Kindle DX. That may seem a bit odd, considering how much I despise DRM. The real selling point for me, however, is that it will read PDF files natively, and in full size. As I was looking for the system requirements for the Kindle DX (naively thinking it might sport Linux support), I was amused to see the hardware requirements listed: none.
The Kindle is designed as a self-contained piece of hardware, never needing to connect to a computer. Because it actually mounts as a USB removable device, it will work just fine under Linux. But, more interesting for me is that it never needs to sync at all. And, that got me thinking about my other electronic devices. I have two smartphones that I never connect to a computer. They both have the ability to sync with a computer, but because they're connected to the Internet, I never have had the need to connect them directly to a computer.
Will hardware compatibility fade away into the past? It wouldn't be a bad thing, unless, of course, proprietary hardware drivers are replaced with proprietary network protocols. Luckily, Linux is king on the Internet, so we're much more likely to keep standards in place on-line than in the hands of Windows-savvy developers.
My Kindle DX might have the taint of DRM, but thankfully, it also has support for non-DRM files as well. Although it has support for the non-free Windows operating system, it also supports Linux. And heck, it will run just fine all by itself. I figure that's because it's running Linux as its underlying OS.
Mac OS X, It's Not Linux, but It's Close
In the past, the Mac OS was a fairly unique entity, not having much in common with other OSes, such as Windows or UNIX, which made cross-platform work a bit convoluted. However, the advent of the latest incarnation of the Mac OS, called OS X or Darwin, provides a very comfortable alternative for Linux geeks. Because Darwin is based on BSD UNIX, it is possible to use POSIX-compliant applications on the Mac.
Apple provides a package called Xcode on its developer site. Xcode has the necessary tools for compiling programs on the Mac, and it includes a nice graphical IDE and lots of examples for developing applications for OS X. Xcode is based on the GNU toolset, providing tools like gcc, libtool, make and so on. That means, with Xcode, most command-line applications can be compiled and run on the Mac. So, a simple little hello world program:
#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main (int argc, char **argv) { printf("Hello World\n"); }
compiles fine with gcc, giving you an executable that prints out "Hello World" on the command line. Basically, anything that is POSIX-compliant should compile and run with no issues.
Getting graphical programs to run can be a bit more involved. Mac OS X does provide an X server and all the standard development libraries you would need for a pure X11 application, like Xlib. However, none of the other standard libraries, like GTK or Qt, are available by default. You have to download, compile and install them yourself, which works fairly well, but you have to choose the correct configuration options and collect all the required dependencies. But, you shouldn't need to go through so much pain. Two projects in active development provide some form of package management for GNU software: Fink and MacPorts. Using these, getting and installing GNU software is as easy to do as it is with most Linux distros.
The Fink Project started in 2001 and is based on the Debian package management system, so you can use the Debian package tools like dpkg, dselect and apt-get, making it familiar for Debian-based distro users. Once the base installation is done, you can start to install packages. If you like a text-based manager, use dselect (Figure 1). If you prefer a graphical manager instead, use the following command to get synaptic (Figure 2):
sudo apt-get install synaptic
Using these applications, you can install many of the packages you are familiar with in Linux. The package count, at the time of this writing, is 10,872.
However, not all packages are available as a binary install using these tools. For that class of packages, Fink installs them directly from source, compiling and installing on your Mac. So, for example, if you want to install gramps and do some genealogy work, execute the following:
sudo fink install gramps
Even installing from source, Fink deals well with dependency issues, because it still is based on the Debian package management system.
The MacPorts Project started in 2002 and models itself after the BSD port packaging system. Thus, you use the command to manage the packages on your system. Once you have done the base install, you can install other software packages simply by running the command:
sudo port install stellarium
Several graphical interfaces are available as well, such as Porticus. However, those typically are independent projects, as opposed to the Debian tools available in Fink. As such, their development cycle and behavior tend to be a bit more erratic and unstable than the older and more mature Debian tools. But still, they may be exactly what you're looking for if you prefer a graphical interface. Like the Fink Project, both binary packages and source packages are available. There are 5,829 packages available in the MacPorts Project.
Both projects provide access to the full wealth of open-source applications that has been available to Linux users, and the number of packages provided by both projects continues to grow.
Once you have one, or both, of these projects installed (they will coexist on your system), you will have all the tools necessary to do your own code development. I have used anjuta (Figure 3) on my MacBook to develop some small GNOME applications. These compile and run equally well on my MacBook and my Netbook running Ubuntu. Although there isn't binary compatibility between OS X and Linux, with source compatibility, it is (at least in theory) simply a matter of recompiling for the other system.
Running Mac OS X code on Linux is not as easy as running Linux code on Mac OS X. The real stumbling block is the graphical interface called Quartz on the Mac OS. Although the kernel and most of the command-line tools have been released as open-source software, Quartz still is closed. At the time of this writing, I could not find any references to a reverse-engineered, open-source replacement for Quartz. So the only option available is running OS X inside a virtual machine. Although this is not technically running Mac applications on Linux, it does provide the ability to run OS X on a Linux box.
Apple Developer Connection: developer.apple.com
Open-Source Apple: www.opensource.apple.com
Fink Project: www.finkproject.org
MacPorts Project: www.macports.org
WebcamStudio—Create Your Own On-line Video Show
A few months back, Linux Journal had a live streaming show called, "Linux Journal Live". It aired once a week and streamed via ustream.tv. One of the frustrating things about running the show was that it was very difficult to get the "studio" feel using Linux. As it happened, we ended up using a Macintosh computer and the freeware CamTwist in order to embed graphics, guest hosts and text.
If we ever resurrect the live show, now we'll be able to stream from our dearly beloved Linux, thanks to the open-source project, WebcamStudio (webcamstudio.sourceforge.net). WebcamStudio allows Linux users to stream Webcams, graphics, text and much more to sites like ustream.tv. If you've ever wanted to try your hand at a live show, be sure to check it out.
They Said It
We're done with the first 80%, and well into the second 80%.
—Larry Wall, referring to Perl 6
Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club someone to death with a loaded Uzi.
—Larry Wall
Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
—Mitchell Kapor
Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing...you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world.
—Jimmy Carter
I don't have to write about the future. For most people, the present is enough like the future to be pretty scary.
—William Gibson
In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance.
—John Perry Barlow
As we read this month's coverage of cross-platform development, I thought I'd weigh in on the Web development end of things. While I work toward a new-and-improved iteration of LinuxJournal.com, I must constantly consider the needs of users with widely varying operating system and browser configurations. LinuxJournal.com visitors are a technologically diverse bunch. As you might expect, the majority of our Web visitors view LinuxJournal.com with Firefox, but what may surprise you is that a slight majority of those Firefox users are browsing from a Windows machine. Linux and Firefox users are nipping at their heels though. What also may surprise you is the percentage of visitors browsing with some version of Internet Explorer. Granted, that percentage has decreased during the last couple years, but the most recent numbers show about 20% of traffic coming from IE users, down from around 30% a year ago. Other browsers like Chrome, Opera and Safari have a small but important constituent as well, which makes my job just a little more interesting. So, to all of you visiting us from a less-used browser, I am doing my very best to give you the same great experience as the Firefox majority, and to all of those using IE, well, you may drive me to drink. I still welcome you though, and I will do my best to accommodate!
Non-Linux FOSS
Moonlight is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight. In case you're not familiar with Silverlight, it's a Web browser plugin that runs rich Internet applications. It provides features such as animation, audio/video playback and vector graphics.
Moonlight programming is done with any of the languages compatible with the Mono runtime environment. Among many others, these languages include C#, VB.NET and Python. Mono, of course, is a multiplatform implementation of ECMA's Common Language Infrastructure (CLI), aka the .NET environment.
A technical collaboration deal between Novell and Microsoft has provided Moonlight with access to Silverlight test suites and gives Moonlight users access to licensed media codecs for video and audio. Moonlight currently supplies stable support for Silverlight 1.0 and Alpha support for Silverlight 2.0.
Silverlight Pad Running on Moonlight (from www.mono-project.com)


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While other manufacturers of media centre PCs are moving to smaller form factors, Acer's latest model in the Aspire series still retains the bulky workstation form that some of its main competitors have all but discarded.
Take for example the DreamVision ViiV MCE Mini PC from Pioneer Computers. Several months ago, this media centre PC impressed us with the fact that when viewed from the top, it is no larger than an A4 piece of paper.
By contrast, the Aspire e700 from Acer retains the same tower form it always has, as can be seen in the picture here.
However the specifications of the latest model are well improved on its predecessors. It supports the latest dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo processor technology and offers improved integrated graphics, faster storage speeds and ViiV technology, Acer claims.
In fact, Acer says the processor is up to 40 percent faster than the previous model and that the e700 is over 40 percent more energy efficient, making it run cooler and quieter.
Other specifications include:
· 9-in-1 media reader· Firewire
· Optional wireless capabilities
· Support for two digital TV tuner cards for simultaneous recording and viewing
· Support for 7.1 surround sound
· DVD-dual drive
· RAID-ready
For anyone who wants to upgrade their operating system in the future, the e700 is also Vista-ready.
More information at www.acer.com.au


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The Greater Richmond Pipes & Drums was founded in 1996 in Richmond, Virginia. We have grown to become the largest competition and performance bagpipe and drum band in Central Virginia. We now comprise over 50 bagpipers and drummers from Richmond, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Roanoke & Williamsburg.
The Greater Richmond Pipes & Drums is a member of the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association (EUSPBA), which sanctions individual and band competitions from Maine to Texas. It is one of the largest bagpipe band associations in the world.
The band currently fields both Grade IV and Grade V competition groups, participating in competitions throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.
We provide lessons for beginner and advanced bagpipe and drum students alike, offering private lessons for beginning and intermediate students who are just starting. Many of our experienced pipers and drummers are involved in our highly successful tuition program, which has trained several of the most successful Grade II, III & IV competition pipers and drummers in the region.
(Non-Profit, Tax-Deductible Donation)


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Diane Kruger gazes into Joshua Jackson's eyes as she arrives at the Winners Dinner during the 2012 Cannes Film Festival on Sunday (May 27) in Cannes, France.
The 35-year-old actress, in a Jenny Packham dress and Edie Parker clutch, was also joined by actor Ewan Mcgregor and his wife, Eve Mavrakis.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Diane Kruger
Diane and Ewan both served as part of the awards jury that gave the film Amour the coveted Palme d'Or top prize.
Diane was later spotted at the closing ceremony wearing an elaborate Christian Dior dress.
10+ pictures inside of Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson attending the winners dinner at Cannes…


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Eat Like a Local: Rome
In a city where the recipes often predate the buildings, Rome's best meals are marvelously simple. We unearth five quintessential trattorias where the cucina romana is home-cooked, the company is homegrown, and the owners are happy (enough) to have you.
Taverna Romana
To be clear, Lucia, the gruff proprietress, and her husband, Tonino, an older man of few words, do not want you here. They will do everything they can to dissuade you from waiting for a table. Ignore their pleas and stick it out—normally it takes no more than 20 minutes. When you finally gain entry, you'll see what all the fuss is about: The small space is unassuming, but in spite of the owners' shtick, it's incredibly inviting. Beyond the simple cork walls, the smells of simmering sauces waft out from the kitchen. Once you have a table, Lucia changes her tune entirely: Now you're part of the inner circle, not one of those suckers waiting outside. If you're lucky, it will start raining and you can hunker down for the better part of the afternoon. This is the rare trattoria where you are welcome to eat, drink, and eat some more with no regard for the time—or the growing line. Best dish:Rigatoni cacio e pepe. Ask for it with spaghetti instead of rigatoni so the sauce sticks to the pasta better; they're usually happy to make the switch. When the bowl arrives—drizzled in olive oil, with black pepper and a small mountain of freshly grated pecorino cheese—stir the ingredients together until you're left with the most delicious take on mac and cheese you've ever tasted. Via della Madonna dei Monti 79, 011-39/06-474-5325, rigatoni cacio e pepe $9.50, closed Sundays, cash only.
Armando al Pantheon
Next year, Armando's will be celebrating its 50th birthday, which is saying something for a restaurant in one of the most trafficked piazzas in Rome. The atmosphere is on the romantic side of classic; walls are decorated with paintings, some lovely, some less so. Armando's sons currently own the place, and you'll see them every night, Claudio in the kitchen and Fabrizio working the front of the house. Pressed tablecloths and mood lighting elevate Armando's beyond your typical trattoria, making it a favorite for special dinners. And while the menu has all the traditional staples, the most popular items are somewhat fancier: duck with prunes, guinea fowl, and pasta dishes that steer more toward mushrooms, truffles, and earthy, woodsy flavors. Best dish:Tagliolini al tartufo. A bowl of fresh pasta comes topped with a generous helping of rich black truffles from Abruzzi or Umbria and a touch of olive oil. It's normally served as a first course, but nothing on the secondi list will be more delicious, so feel free to make it your main. Salita dei Crescenzi 31, 011-39/06-6880-3034, tagliolini al tartufo $27, closed Saturday nights and Sundays.
Osteria Qui Se Magna
Romans like their restaurants bright, and Osteria Qui Se Magna, which roughly translates to "Here you eat well" in Roman dialect, is one of the most intensely lit. It may look like a cafeteria when you first walk in, with red-and-white-checked paper tablecloths and daily specials written in marker, but the place is packed every night with young families and artist types in ironic glasses who aren't too thrilled that you've discovered their little secret. A dedicated family operation, the restaurant is known in the neighborhood as Da Valeria despite the fact that Valeria's son and daughter, Paolo and Pina Zecchino, currently own it. The recipes, however, remain precisely as they've always been. Best dish:Pasta alla mafiosa. This is a heaping bowl of rigatoni corti tossed with tomato sauce, eggplant, and creamy ricotta. Don't make the beginner's mistake of eating it as it's presented: The pros know to mix it all until the ingredients melt together into a gooey sauce. Via del Pigneto 307A, 011-39/06-274-803, pasta alla mafiosa $8.25, closed Sundays.
Da Lucia
Da Lucia is on one of those Roman streets that you see in movies: a tiny cobblestoned block with 500-year-old palazzi; laundry hangs out of the windows, and lightbulbs sway overhead. You half expect to see Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck dining at an outdoor table. In other words, this place is all charm. Da Lucia is hardly a secret (you'll see plenty of guidebooks on the neighboring tables), but unlike many trattorias, the food hasn't suffered. The menu is simple, with the ever-present selection of pastas and meat dishes; the antipasti are the real reason to come. On a nice night, be sure to ask for a table outside, and then start with the pecorino e miele (cheese and honey) or alici al limone (anchovies with lemon juice) and a bottle of vino rosso della casa. The owner, a bald man known simply as Uncle Ennio, is as likely to scowl at out-of-towners as he is to send over a tiramisu on the house. Don't take it personally—it's all part of the show. Best dish:Spaghetti alla gricia. A bowl of warm spaghetti is piled high with freshly grated pecorino cheese, cracked black pepper, and several chunks of salty, perfectly fatty pancetta. Vicolo del Mattonato 2B, 011-39/06-580-3601, spaghetti alla gricia $11.50, closed Mondays, cash only.
Da Tonino al Governo Vecchio
Piazza Navona
It's hard to find this place. For one thing, it has a couple of monikers: Da Tonino, Trattoria di Antonio Bassetti. Also working against you is that if it's not lunchtime, you're likely to walk right by its nondescript glass doorway. Plan to arrive in the early afternoon, when a small, smartly dressed crowd queues up outside, and be prepared to wait a little while. The restaurant isn't much bigger than a dorm room, and after half a dozen trips, we've still never seen an empty table. Businessmen, politicians, and local merchants pour in for a bowl of pasta and a carafe of the house red wine. The tables are packed together; the owner, Antonio Bassetti, barks orders to his waiters; and the whole place hums with a steady flow of hungry Romans, most with napkins tucked into their dress shirts. Then, suddenly, by 3 p.m., only a few stragglers remain, one or two tables of non-Italians. If Antonio starts to look at you funny, that's why: Lunch is over, and he's ready to go home. Best dish:Rigatoni all'Amatriciana. Done al dente, the rigatoni here is as good as any in the city. All'Amatriciana is a mildly spicy tomato sauce with pancetta, a classic Roman dish. The other specialty of the house is rigatoni alle melanzane, pasta tossed with eggplant, tomato, garlic, and olive oil. Via del Governo Vecchio 18–19, 011-39/333-587-0779, rigatoni all'Amatriciana $9.50, closed Sundays, cash only.
Several years ago, Trastevere was considered off the beaten path by Roman standards. But the remove had its own appeal, and the neighborhood became a destination unto itself. Still, Trastevere maintains its characteristic charm: late-night bars, yapping dogs, and old-school Italian mamas chatting to each other from their windows.
Get there: Tram 8 from Largo di Torre Argentina to Piazza Mastai.
Piazza Navona
While Piazza Navona proper is dominated by tourist shops and caricature artists, things are far more authentic just a few blocks away. For example, via del Governo Vecchio, the street Da Tonino is on, has vintage clothing stores, jewelry boutiques, and tiny wine bars—and not a caricature artist in sight.
Get there: Bus 40 or 64 from Roma Termini to Largo di Torre Argentina.
Yes, that's a McDonald's over there, but don't let it get to you. This neighborhood, smack in the heart of the city, revolves around an undeniably stunning 2,000-year-old church, and even the tour groups passing through can't detract from the sheer beauty of it all.
Get there: Bus 40 or 64 from Roma Termini to Largo di Torre Argentina.
Just behind the Colosseum, Monti is characterized by tranquil, ivy-covered palazzi and quiet, hilly streets. In the warm-weather months, the sidewalks fill up with well-dressed Italian families out for an evening stroll and young children playing soccer in the piazza.
Get there: Metro Linea B from Roma Termini to Cavour or walk the seven minutes.
Originally home to railroad workers who lived here while building the tracks that now run into the middle of the city, Pigneto later inspired Italy's finest filmmakers, like Pier Paolo Pasolini and Roberto Rosselini, who filmed here. Today, it's probably the least touristy pocket of Rome—full of art students, documentary filmmakers, and the cafés they frequent.
Get there: Bus 105 from Roma Termini to Via Casilina.


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Ian Harte went from villain to hero as Reading salvaged a point from a 1-1 draw against in-form Hull at the Madejski Stadium.
The former Leeds defender committed a horrible error that allowed on-loan Manchester United midfielder Corry Evans to mark his Hull debut with a goal.
But when goalkeeper Brad Guzan brought down Shane Long in the penalty area in the 78th minute, Harte stepped up to claim redemption by slotting home the leveller from 12 yards.
New signing Mathieu Manset had to be content with a place on the Reading bench following his arrival from Hereford on Friday evening.
Skipper Matt Mills returned from injury for the Royals, while Jem Karacan passed a late fitness test and Simon Church replaced Noel Hunt in attack.
Hull made just one change from the side that beat Barnsley 2-0, with Liam Rosenior returning at right-back in place of Nolberto Solano.
Reading made the majority of the early running and had strong penalty claims waved away when Andy Dawson appeared to bring down Jimmy Kebe in the 18th minute.
The pressure continued and McAnuff skipped past a pair of challenges only for Guzan to narrow the angle and thwart his effort on goal.
The winger then tried his luck from distance, cutting in from the left flank before fizzing a low 25-yard effort past the post.
Long sprung the Hull offside trap in the 27th minute but Reading's top scorer struggled to get the ball under control and his eventual shot did little to trouble Guzan.
The on-loan Aston Villa stopper was extended more considerably a minute later when he got down to claw Long's glancing header from Harte's inswinging free-kick away as it headed for the bottom corner.
McAnuff had time to drill another 20-yard strike past the post, but Hull somehow managed to reach the interval with their goal intact.
Evans came on for Cameron Stewart at half-time and he made an immediate impact by giving Hull a scarcely deserved 51st-minute lead.
Harte had to shoulder the blame for the goal as he attempted to head Robert Koren's cross back to goalkeeper Adam Federici and succeeded only in leaving Evans with a simple finish.
Hull were beginning to look dangerous on the break and Matt Fryatt came close to doubling their advantage when he shot wide in the 65th minute.
Just as Reading's challenge appeared to be petering out, Harte was given the opportunity to atone for his earlier error.
McAnuff's pass sent Long through on goal and the Republic of Ireland international was brought down by Guzan.
This time referee James Linington did not hesitate in pointing to the spot and Harte emphatically slammed home his fifth goal of the season.
Source: DSG
Source: DSG


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Naval Air Station Jacksonville was named the Navy winner of the 2013 Commander, Navy Installations Command Installation Excellence Award for its outstanding efforts in shore installation management. NAS was selected from 72 bases in 11 regions worldwide.
Vice Adm. William French, commander, Navy Installations Command, said the competition was intense, but NAS Jacksonville displayed a well-defined understanding of strategic goals and fiscal austerity in execution of its mission.
NAS Jacksonville Commanding Officer, Capt. Bob Sanders, immediately congratulated base personnel saying, "It gives me great pleasure to announce that you have once again won the Installation Excellence Award as the best large installation in the United States Navy! I could not be more proud of each and every one of you and your accomplishments over the past year. Again, congratulations. I am very fortunate to a part of this amazing organization."
This award honors NAS Jax for delivering the most effective and efficient readiness from the shore. The station's synergistic 'One Team, One Fight' relationship with all tenant commands targeted the best use of available resources to ensure all accomplished their assigned missions, while at the same time focusing on innovative energy innovation and management actions that increase productivity.
Throughout the year, NAS Jax was the premier installation for delivering effective, sustained and improved shore readiness to its 14 home-based squadrons, sailors and civilian personnel, as well as supporting numerous joint commands, government agencies, and carrier readiness sustainment exercises, along with visiting allied forces.
Its personnel approached every challenge with a leading-edge mentality and continued their accident-free growth by exceeding the Chief of Naval Personnel mandated 75 percent mishap reduction goal.
Upon learning that NAS Jacksonville had won the award for the second consecutive year, Commander, Navy Region Southeast Rear Adm. Jack Scorby Jr. said that the men and women assigned to the installation had earned the recognition with a balance of initiative and hard work.
"This year's competition and all nomination packages reflected the great accomplishments that CNIC installations made worldwide," said Scorby. "However, for the second year in a row, NAS Jacksonville distinguished itself and made the best use of its available resources to accomplish its assigned missions. They continue to set the standard, and I couldn't be prouder of Capt. Sanders and his team of professionals."
Sanders attributed their continued success to conducting business using an integrated team approach that includes the support of Navy Southeast leadership, the Jacksonville Mayor, county, state, federal agencies and area communities.
"This award belongs not only to the NAS Jax Team, but also to the people of northeast Florida. They work with us throughout the year and ensure our mission and military and their families are well care for," Sanders said. "It is a happy day in Jacksonville."


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Raiders cheerleader sues, says pay is less than $5 an hour
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The Oakland Raiders didn't give their fans much to cheer about during the football season, and now one of the team's cheerleaders says they're being shortchanged as well.
Lacy T. accused the Raiders in a lawsuit Wednesday of failing to pay the Raiderettes minimum wages for the work they do, both on the sidelines and in the community for charity. The team also sticks them with travel costs and levies "fines" that eat into their meager salary, she said.
She filed her lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court as a proposed class action on behalf of 40 current Raiderettes and other members of the squad over the past four years. And she said she hopes other NFL cheerleaders will join the fray.
"I love being a Raiderette, but someone has to stand up for all of the women of the NFL who work so hard for the fans and the teams," Lacy T. said in a statement released by her lawyer. "I hope cheerleaders across the NFL will step forward to join me in demanding respect and fair compensation."
The suit identifies her as Lacy T. in accord with a team policy that withholds the Raiderettes' last names for security reasons.
Less than $5 an hour
The Raiderettes' contract calls for $125 per home game, or $1,250 per season, she said. That amounts to less than $5 an hour, counting hours of unpaid work in rehearsals, performances at 10 charity events and participation in the team's annual swimsuit photo-shoot, the suit said.
Additionally, the suit said, the Raiders withhold the cheerleaders' pay until the end of the season, in violation of a state law requiring pay at least twice a month.
"I've been dancing for 16 years, and I was paid more for dancing in college than I am as a pro cheerleader," Lacy T. said in an interview. "I'm a stay-at-home mom, and every dollar out of my pocket is noticed."
The 27-year-old Alameda resident, hired by the Raiders before the 2013 season, said she was treated much better in the previous two years as a member of the Golden State Warriors' dance team, the Warrior Girls. They were paid $10 to $14 an hour, depending on experience, with no unpaid work or expenses, she said.
Lacy T. said the other Raiderettes were unaware of her lawsuit until Wednesday, but she's talked with many of them and "we all have the exact same complaints."
Her attorney, Sharon Vinick, said she has been told that other NFL teams have similar wage practices for their cheerleaders, though she has not seen the contracts. She said 26 of the 32 NFL teams have cheerleading squads.
In contrast, Vinick said, the teams treat their male mascots as paid employees with benefits, which the Raiderettes don't receive.
Offer falls short
Vinick said the Raiders apparently got wind of the suit and tried to head it off by paying the cheerleaders considerably more than their 2013-14 contract salaries last week - in Lacy T.'s case, $2,780 for 332.5 regular work hours and 10 hours of overtime. That still was less than the promised contractual rate of $125 for an eight-hour shift in a home game, the suit said.
Raiders officials said they would not comment on the suit.
The suit said Raiderettes are required to take part, without pay, in two to three rehearsals per week, the 10 charity events, a team rally, Fan Day and the swimsuit calendar photo-shoot. They must also pay the costs of traveling to those events, it said.
In addition, the suit said, the cheerleaders must buy accessories such as tights, false eyelashes and a yoga mat, and pay for a team-selected hairstylist, whose appointments cost several hundred dollars. Lacy T. claims in her suit to have spent about $650 on those items this past season.
The team fines Raiderettes $10 or more for such offenses as failing to bring the right pom-poms or a yoga mat to practice, the suit said. It said a cheerleader who gains 5 pounds from her weight at the start of the season, or who appears "too soft" to the squad's director, is benched for the next home game, has to stay in the locker room, and forfeits the $125 wage she would have made for participating, though she still must take part in pregame and halftime activities.
The suit seeks compensation for minimum wages, overtime, expenses and meal and rest breaks that state law requires after five hours of work.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Debunking the Socialization Myth
Probably the question most often asked of homeschoolers is, "What about socialization?" One of the greatest stumbling blocks to homeschooling is the public perception that homeschooled students are isolated and unsocialized. In fact, the opposite is often true, as homeschoolers have the opportunity to socialize with many different groups and ages, not just with their own peers in a traditional school setting.
As the homeschooling movement has matured, the public concern over unsocialized homeschoolers has waned, especially as people see homeschoolers excelling in college and career environments. HSLDA has commissioned several studies of homeschoolers that looked at the issue of socialization. These have consistently shown that the average homeschooler is far from isolated.- HSLDA


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The good news: You finally have the free time to pursue that long list of subjects that have piqued your interest. The better news: Overture's wide-ranging education resources for active adults will provide unlimited opportunities to satisfy your intellectual curiosity with classes that are fun, informative, and relevant to your ever-changing world.
Whether you loved school, or were a reluctant student back in the day, Overture's inclusive and stimulating approach to continuing education will keep you motivated and engaged. Sessions are available in both the actual and virtual classrooms. No stress. Just learning for the fun of it.
• Computer and Software Courses
Keep up with computer technology and show the grandkids they aren't the only ones who know a gigabyte from a mosquito bite. Expand your online world and get hip to what's happening in theirs.
• History Courses
They say to understand the past is to be able to predict the future. Take an in-depth look at your favorite historical era or gain insight into a part of history you've always wanted to learn about. Enjoy discussion groups with other Overture history buffs.
• Ancestry Research
Explore your roots by researching your family tree. Compare notes with friends as you discover the secrets of your ancestry.
• Writing Classes
Put pen to paper and express yourself creatively. Whether you want to tell your own story, try your hand at fiction, or write about the world in general, writing classes can help you tap into your inner Hemingway.
• Prepare for Future Milestones
Exercising that muscle between our ears is every bit as important to our health and well-being as all those miles on the treadmill. Continued learning can be a lifelong process that keeps us both interested and interesting. Overture's goal is to create an environment in which challenging and expanding the mind is an integral part of overall wellness.
*Not all amenities and activities are available at every Overture Community. Please contact an Overture representative for details.
Monday - Friday: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday: 1:00pm - 5:00pm


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It's been just under 3 months since we posted our development roadmap for Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, so we thought it time to update you on our progress and all the cool stuff still to come!
Before we get into the future of BFG, we'd first like to summarize the features and changes that have already been added since launch:
- Space Marines Fleet
- Online Custom Games against Friends
- Improved Regional Matchmaking
- Russian Language Version
- Chat Improvements
- Co-op versus AI Mode
- Elite System
- Pre-Set Behaviors
- In-Game Newsfeed
- Subsystems Temporary Critical Damage
- Major Balance Changes
- New Upgrades
Here's the main features that are still to come:
- Ranked Matches
- Global Leaderboard
- Tau Fleet (Forge World) Fleet DLC
- Custom Online Leagues
- (Even more) new Skills
- Fleet Color Customization
- Profiles and Heroic Deeds
- …and more to be announced!
The next major feature for implementation will be the Ranked Matches and Leaderboards - we're happy to announce they'll be making their way to Battlefleet Gothic: Armada next week!
To keep you sated until next week, here's a sneak preview of what you can expect in ranked play:
Ranked Matches
All Ranked Matches will take the form of a 1v1 Best of Three (BO3) format.
Each player is given an equal number of points (8000 Renown) to create whatever fleet they want. All Ship Slots are unlocked at the creation of a Ranked profile, and every ship added to a Ranked fleet will automatically be set to the maximum level. This fleet can be rearranged before a battle, and any Skills, Upgrades or Favours are refunded in their entirety if players wish to change their fleet composition.
Fleet persistency (ship damage, destroyed ships, lost in warp, etc.) is applied during each BO3, but NOT between BO3s. Matches can be won, lost, or abandoned (which will result in an automatic loss).
The BO3 format will take place over the following steps:
- First Battle: Player A chooses the mission (eg. Space Station Assault, Convoy, Data Recovery, etc).
After the first map is played, all ships destroyed will not be able to be selected for the next matches and those that are heavily damaged will not be available for the second battle.
- Second Battle: Player B chooses the mission.
Again, any ships destroyed or heavily damaged in the second map will not be selectable in the third map.
- Third Battle: If players are tied 1:1, a Cruiser Clash game will decide the winner.
The first player to win two matches gains ELO for their ranked admiral!
Ranking System and Leaderboard
The ranks of Admirals will be divided by leagues – separate for each Admiral of a player. Each league will be composed of a certain percentage slice of the current total ranked Admirals.
Your ELO ranking will determine which percentage and league your Admiral will fall into.
There are six leagues:
- Bronze – Players fall within top 100% to 50% ELO ranking
- Silver – Players fall within top 50% to 30% ELO ranking
- Gold – Players fall within top 30% to 15% ELO ranking
- Adamantium – Players fall within top 15% to 5% ELO ranking
- Epic – Players fall within top 5% to 1% ELO ranking
- Legend – Players fall within top 1% to 0% ELO ranking
The leaderboard can be filtered to display only specific factions and leagues.
Here's how it looks in-game right now (note that this is taken from the debug version and subject to change):
The patch is coming next week, and will include Ranked Matches, Leagues and the Leaderboard.
Next week's patch will also allow more fleet points in 2v2 matches – something that has been commonly requested by the community. The total fleet points in Cruiser Clash have been raised from 700 to 800 under the following modes:
- Custom Game 1v1
- Custom Game 2v2
- Multiplayer 2v2
See you in the Gothic Sector,


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Politicians and Election, Vote in Freedom, Actively Participate in Democracy, Vote for Change, Online referendum
Gabrielle Giffords
> United States of America > Politicians > Democratic Party (United States) > Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords is ready for your opinion, support and vote. Vote online NOW!
Gabrielle Giffords - for
American politician - third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress.
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giffords wins award, gabrielle giffords images and more...
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One thing we have done in Genomes Unzipped is to report on what is on the market for consumers interested in getting information about their genetic data. While we have found generally positive things to say about this market, there are also many exaggerated claims especially when it comes to making inferences about an individual's ancestors from direct-to-consumer genetics companies. An example came up last summer with a BBC radio 4 interview of Alistair Moffat of Britain's DNA. This post will discuss the scientific basis of some of the claims made in the interview.
But first of all, what is my motivation to write this post? After all, there are quite a few genetic ancestry companies like Britain's DNA, making similar claims. Why specifically discuss this BBC radio 4 interview? The main reason is that listening to this radio interview prompted my UCL colleagues David Balding and Mark Thomas to ask questions to the Britain's DNA scientific team; the questions have not been satisfactorily answered. Instead, a threat of legal action was issued by solicitors for Mr Moffat. Any type of legal threat is an ominous sign for an academic debate. This motivated me to point out some of the incorrect, or at the very least exaggerated, statements made in this interview. Importantly, while I received comments from several people for this post, the opinion presented here is entirely mine and does not involve any of my colleagues at Genomes Unzipped.
Continue reading 'Exaggerations and errors in the promotion of genetic ancestry testing'


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A few post ago, I wrote about – WHAT IS FENG KUA NUMBER AND HOW TO CALCULATE IT. In that particular post I wrote about the different types of luck and bad luck base on different directions as dictated by your Kua number.
Today, allow me to share with you the 4 different types of good luck base on your Kua number. The four different good lucks are SHENG CHI (Success), TIEN YI (HEALTH), NIEN YEN (Relationship/Love) and FU WEI (Personal Development/Growth).
SHENG CHI, which I have indicated as the 'Success' direction, is actually loosely translated as 'generating chi' or 'generating energy'. Most Feng Shui experts and Chinese believes that this is the best amongst all the four different luck, because this largely governs your personal success, especially in business, or if it is wealth growth and prosperity that you're looking for. This direction also governs your 'political' potential. By political I don't mean it to be the real sense of politics but more of how you handle situation in your professional life. This is also the direction that governs your recognition luck.
TIEN YI is loosely translated as 'heaven's doctor'. This largely governs one's health. If you are experiencing health problems or is afflicted with the illness star it's best to have your head face the direction of your Tien Yi when sleeping, just make sure that the illness star is not in that direction on that particular year. However, Tien Yi is not only about health, it also provides medium range wealth and career luck. So some people consider this as the second best luck.
NIEN YEN's loose translation is 'descendant and longevity', but as you can see the English translation that I indicated is RELATIONSHIP/LOVE, because this directions basically deals with primarily family relationship luck and descendant's luck. This is also the luck that governs your all your relationship that includes love life. This is also a secondary health direction, so if you're sick and is unable to face your Tien Yi direction, this is the second option.
FU WEI's loose translation is 'basic self'. This is the direction that largely governs your personal growth but is not related to career and/or financial growth. This direction is largely associated with people who need to seek enlightenment or needs to know what they want to do in life. This is also a direction that is largely beneficial to those who need to seek spirituality and clarity. If you're going through a lot of personal problem, this is the direction to activate.
It's quite easy for us to misinterpret that Sheng Chi is the best luck; in fact, this is the case with most Chinese and some Feng Shui experts. However, I don't think this is the case, each of the lucky and it's corresponding directions base in your Kua number serves it's own purpose. For example, you may be enjoying career success and financial luck but is going through a tough personal fulfillment phase; you can activate your Fu Wei and need not concentrate too much on your Sheng Chi. You also may be a successful businessman, but your health of family life is bad, then you can activate your Tien Yi and Nien Yen respectively. It's really finding the right balance and looking for what's missing in your life or what would be your priority.
How do you activate these directions, it's quite simple, you just face that direction when working and eating. When sleeping your head should be towards the direction you want to activate.
If you have the lucky directions, you also have the unlucky directions. If you wish to know more about it you can read my post – FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF BAD LUCK BASE ON YOUR KUA NUMBER.


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The New Year is upon us with promises of attitude adjustments and hopeful tomorrows! We get to take a panoramic view and look at everything from that oh-so last year hair style, to our jobs, to the things that bring a laugh or the things we know we don't want to repeat again. With our colorful New Year's glasses on we can make a resolution to be smarter, thinner, more spiritual, richer, or even kinder as the year begins. After all, it's time to be optimistic, burn some rubber over the past, and keep moving. Ready! Set! Wait…
Hold on! Maybe we need a new compass here. This could be a good time to tap into the resources of the One with the big GPS system, (Glorious Personal Services) and notice that we might yet have room to be molded and shaped. We're still the clay as the New Year starts, and perhaps more open to new designs and deeper impressions.
We might not be as pliable as we once were, but we're still soft enough to be reshaped and redesigned for new purposes. In fact, we could be getting ready to face the best year yet! Wow! To that idea, we might start out with a big round of thanks for all we've been, for all we hope for and for all we yet believe is possible. The fact is, everything is possible!
Let's start the New Year with a happy dance for the things that have worked to make us unique in the presence of others. Then, let's step out into the proverbial and the real world of possibility. Let's recharge, refocus, review all that we want and make a plan to go after it. Now, mind you, we can't simply make a resolution to lose five pounds, we have to make a re-soul-ution to lose all those things that hold us back, and embrace the good and happy things that move us forward. Come on! You can do it right from where you are! Start something new and be open and willing to see where the path leads.
Remember, you are not alone in this challenge of shaping and changing things up a notch. You're already beautiful to those who love you, who want only good things for you, and who see you becoming amazing in even more incredible ways.
Happy New Year to you…to us…it's going to be exciting! Yes, happy new YOU!


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I frequently mention the acronym "GEDCOM" in this newsletter. This week a reader wrote to me with an excellent question: "What is GEDCOM?" I realized that I haven't explained this buzzword in a long, long time. So, here is a brief, non-technical explanation of the term for the newer subscribers to this publication.
GEDCOM is an abbreviation that stands for GEnealogy Data COMmunications. In short, GEDCOM is the language by which different genealogy software programs talk to one another. The purpose is to exchange data between dissimilar programs without having to manually re-enter all the data on a keyboard.
To illustrate the importance of GEDCOM, step back in time with me for a moment.
Back before the invention of GEDCOM and before the invention of the home computer, I used 80-column punch cards to record the names and limited information about 200 or so of my ancestors. I did this after work hours in my employer's data center. I then used the employer's mainframe computer that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to sort the data and to print a few crude reports. Luckily for me, my employer allowed me to use all the mainframe time I wanted late at night, after the company finished its daily work.
Around 1980, I built my own home computer. I decided to put my genealogy database onto the new system, but it would not read the 80-column punch cards I had used earlier. I manually re-typed every bit of data into a dBASE-II program that I wrote. My had discovered more ancestors by that time, so I had to enter manually data about 400 or so individuals. I stored the information on 8-inch floppy disks attached to my homemade 8-bit CP/M computer, which had 64 Kb (kilobytes) of memory.
Some time later I discovered a CP/M genealogy program that would operate on my home computer. (CP/M was an operating system that was popular before MS-DOS which, in turn, was popular before Windows.) Unlike my crude, homemade dBASE-II program, this new genealogy program printed pedigree charts, family group sheets, and other reports. I decided to convert to the new, more powerful program (although I must say that it was rather elementary when compared to today's powerful programs). At this point my database had grown to about 600 individuals, and I could not find any method of easily copying that data into the new program. I first printed out the information from the dBASE-II database. Then I sat at my computer for several evenings, reading the information on paper and re-typing every bit of it into my new program.
I bet you can guess the next step: I purchased an IBM clone in 1984 and decided to move my data to this new powerhouse. After all, it had 640 kilobytes of memory and a 20-megabyte hard drive, which I was certain that I could never fill. Having been rather active in my genealogy research, I now had information about 1,200 people to re-enter. I printed out the entire database from the old system onto paper and then manually re-typed it into the new PC powerhouse. That effort took weeks, and I promised myself, "Never again!"
Newer genealogy programs appeared in the following years, each with new features that I found enticing. However, I continued to use the same program simply because I didn't want to go through the keyboard effort again.
Roughly twenty-five years ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced something new: a file format called GEDCOM. This new proposed standard file format was designed to allow different genealogy programs to exchange data. There was only one problem at the time: the only program that could read and write GEDCOM data was the one written by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
GEDCOM is a standard, not a program. As such, genealogy programs that are going to use the same data have to be written by the programmers to handle GEDCOM files. If you are trying to transfer data from one program to another, only to discover that one of the programs does not support GEDCOM, you are out of luck. To complete the exchange of data, both programs have to support GEDCOM.
Slowly, over a period of several years, other genealogy programs began to add the ability to read and write GEDCOM files. It became possible to move data from one genealogy program to another without manually re-typing everything. Now you can simply export your file from one genealogy program in GEDCOM format and then import that GEDCOM file into another genealogy program.
GEDCOM files usually have a file name ending in ".GED", such as myfamily.GED.
You can use GEDCOM files to exchange genealogy data with your distant cousin in Poughkeepsie as well as to upload data to the many online databases.
The author of the genealogy program that I used never did add GEDCOM capability. Luckily for me, someone else eventually wrote a small routine that would export data from this program in GEDCOM format, and I was then able to move my data to increasingly powerful new programs.
By 1990, I was writing articles on CompuServe, advising everyone to never use a genealogy program that lacked GEDCOM capabilities. Luckily, that is no longer an issue. All of today's genealogy programs will import and export GEDCOM data. Data transfer may still be a problem for those using older genealogy programs without GEDCOM capability; many people still find their data trapped in these "islands." For them, there is no easy solution.
Unlike the "dark ages" of the 1980s, it is now common for people to use two or three or even more genealogy programs, including those on handheld smartphones and tablet computers. You may find one program that you prefer to use for storing all the bits of information that you encounter in your research efforts. However, you might prefer the printed reports or multimedia scrapbook features of a different program. Thanks to GEDCOM, you can easily move your data from one program to another. You can also share information with distant cousins using yet other genealogy programs by sending GEDCOM files to each other by e-mail.
The instructions for creating or reading GEDCOM files will vary from one program to another. You need to consult the program's HELP files to find the exact sequence of instructions your genealogy program requires.
GEDCOM files can be read by a human although it would be tedious to do so. Here is an extract from the beginning of a typical GEDCOM file:
1 SOUR Legacy
2 NAME Legacy (R)
2 CORP Millennia Corp.
3 ADDR PO Box 66
4 CONT El Mirage, AZ 85335
1 DEST Gedcom55
1 DATE 16 Oct 2004
1 FILE Kennedy.ged
1 NAME Not Given
1 ADDR Not Supplied
1 NAME Joseph Patrick /Kennedy/
2 GIVN Joseph Patrick
2 SURN Kennedy
2 DATE 6 Sep 1888
2 PLAC Boston, MA
3 PAGE pg 56
2 DATE 18 Nov 1969
2 PLAC Hyannis Port, MA
(rest of file omitted)
The file contains genealogy data in a structured format. It utilizes numbers to indicate the hierarchy and tags to indicate individual pieces of information within the file. A number of zero indicates the first line within a single record, and the letters, or tag, after the zero indicate the type of record. The top line in any GEDCOM file is the HEADER record, indicating that it is the beginning of the file. Words that are more than four letters long are typically abbreviated. In this case, the word HEADER is written as HEAD.
A number "1" shows that the line in question is one level below the "zero" line. This indicates that this line is one level subservient to the zero line and contains additional information. In the case of the second line in the above file, the entry of "1 SOUR Legacy" indicates that this file was created by (SOURCE) Legacy, a popular genealogy program for Windows.
The number "2" on the next line shows that it is subservient to the preceding line with a number 1 in it. In this case, the line of "VERS 4.0" indicates that the file was written with version 4 of Legacy. Below that you see a line labeled ADDR (address) and another labeled CONT (the previous line is CONTinued here).
Scanning a bit further down the file, you will see the following:
Again, the zero indicates this is the beginning of a new record. The "at" signs bracket the record number. In this case, the record is of an INDIvidual, and it is individual #1 (I1) in the database. Succeeding lines show events, such as birth, marriage, and death, along with subsequent data listing dates and places. You will also note an entry of "2 SOUR @S2@," which indicates that a source citation for the event can be found in SOURce entry S2 to be found later in this file.
INDI, NAME, BIRT, DEAT, SEX, SOUR and the other record types are called GEDCOM "tags." There are many available tags within the GEDCOM standard and even a capability to create user-defined tags for those situations not covered by the standard. Of course, user-defined tags are usually not understood by the receiving program, so they seem to be somewhat useless. They may help define data within the program in which they were created, but they will not translate to a new program via the GEDCOM format.
This is a very abbreviated explanation of the internals of a GEDCOM file. You can a detailed explanation at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~pmcbride/gedcom/55gctoc.htm.
Later versions of GEDCOM have been proposed but have never been widely implemented. In February of 2012 at the RootsTech 2012 conference, FamilySearch outlined a major new project around genealogical standards called GEDCOM X, and invited collaboration. In August of 2012 FamilySearch employee and GEDCOM X project leader Ryan Heaton dropped the claim that GEDCOM X is the new industry standard, and repositioned GEDCOM X as another FamilySearch open source project. However, no genealogy programs that I am aware of support GEDCOM X.
You can read more about GEDCOM X at http://www.gedcomx.org.
You need to be aware that the creation of the GEDCOM standard was not a perfect implementation. For one thing, not all the data fields are specified precisely in the GEDCOM specifications. Next, not all the programmers of the various genealogy programs interpreted the specifications in exactly the same manner. For instance, your present genealogy program might be perfectly happy with a birth date listed as, "after 1847 but before 1852." However, once that information is exported in a GEDCOM file and then imported into a different program, the birth date may say something else. The receiving program may expect exact dates and not be able to handle anything that says "after" or "before," especially not both in the same statement. Typically, the receiving program simply leaves the line blank. Sadly, one or two genealogy programs will accept the first date found on the line and then will disregard any further information.
Another problem is that not all genealogy programs have the same ideas about databases. One program may have only one field for "occupation," assuming that every person on the face of the earth never, ever changed careers. Another genealogy program may have the ability to record multiple occupations during the person's lifetime. When transferring data via GEDCOM from the more powerful program to the simpler one, some of these occupations will be lost.
The GEDCOM standard was invented long before genealogy programs started saving pictures, videos, and other multimedia files. As a result, transferring information from one genealogy program to another results in the loss of multimedia files.
Another problem is the transfer of notes. Some genealogy programs store only one note per individual while a different program may store different notes for physical description, medical history, occupations, DNA information, and more. GEDCOM was invented long before genealogy programs reached that level of sophistication so it cannot accurately transfer all variations of notes.
These are a few simple examples; you can find numerous other inconsistencies when moving data between dissimilar programs.
There is another problem with translating from one program to another: that of data integrity. Translating from one program's database to GEDCOM is sort of the same as translating from one spoken language to another. The basics work, but subtleties and details sometimes do not translate well. Then, when translating to the third language (the receiving genealogy program's database), more translation losses creep in. I well remember reading a technical manual some years ago that had been written in Japanese and then translated into Chinese. At a later date, the Chinese version was translated into English. The resultant English manual was barely readable. The same may happen with translating a database from Program A into GEDCOM and then from GEDCOM into Program B.
A new method of transferring data between different genealogy programs was announced several years ago by Wholly Genes Software. Their Bridge technology reads data from one program directly into a second program without requiring a "double translation" via GEDCOM. The result is a much more accurate transfer process. However, very few genealogy developers have adopted GenBridge. To date, this technology is only available in a few programs.
Despite all the shortcomings, GEDCOM is still a simple and somewhat effective method of transferring genealogy data from one program to another. Most of the data will transfer properly, and then there are easy ways of reviewing the data to look for errors. The names, dates, and locations normally transfer correctly. Text, events, notes, and source citations may not always work perfectly. The exact problems encountered will depend upon the two genealogy programs involved.
Most modern genealogy programs will create an error log of GEDCOM data imported but not understood by the receiving program. You can read that log file to see what the program detected as inconsistent, then manually go in and fix the errors. While tedious, this is still a lot better than re-keying everything!
I offer this article as a non-technical explanation of GEDCOM plus some commentary on its use. For more details and for technical explanations of the inner workings of GEDCOM, I would suggest that you read the following:
- The GEDCOM Standard Release 5.5: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~pmcbride/gedcom/55gctoc.htm
- GEDCOM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM
- GEDCOM X: http://www.gedcomx.org
- Is GEDCOM Dead? by Beau Sharbrough: http://www.rootsworks.com/genart13.htm


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Here's another edition of linklove, a collections of some of the more interesting photography related reading on the interwebs:
Found Film: all about film left over in cameras, found and developed by others.
Your favorite photography compliments that aren't like "Your photos are awesome. What camera do you use?!" and nine more:
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Eight years after "School of Rock," Jack Black still awaits a worthy follow-up. Now director Michael Winterbottom is here to help.
Winterbottom will direct Black in "Bailout," an adaptation of Jess Walter's 2009 novel, "The Financial Lives of Poets," reported Deadline. Walter will be adaptating the screenplay himself.
"Poets" tells the story of a finance journalist who gives up his job to start a website written in blank verse about the same topic. When it inevitably goes belly up, he finds himself on the brink of losing everything--his home, his wife...
U.S. & World
Black's whole shtick is predicated on desperation of one form or another, so this sounds like a good enough fit. Black's had a rough go of it since "School of Rock," with "Tropic Thunder," in which he was third- or fourth-banana, being an unqualified success.
Winterbottom is odd choice, but we can get behind it. The guy often makes some of the darkest heaviest films out there--"Butterfly Kisses" and "The Killer Inside Me"--but he's shown a nice comedic touch working with Steve Coogan in this year's "The Trip" and 2002's "24 Hour Party People."
Shooting starts in August, but they're gonna have to come up with a better title.
Here's the official synopsis for "The Financial Lives of Poets" from the publisher's website:
A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse. When his big idea—and his wife's eBay resale business— ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams. One morning Matt wakes up to find himself jobless, hobbled with debt, spying on his wife's online flirtation, and six days away from losing his home. Is this really how things were supposed to end up for me, he wonders: staying up all night worried, driving to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night to get milk for his boys, and falling in with two local degenerates after they offer him a hit of high-grade marijuana?
Or, he thinks, could this be the solution to all my problems?
Following Matt in his week-long quest to save his marriage, his sanity, and his dreams, The Financial Lives of the Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin—and how we can begin to make our way back.


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Earlier this year Silhouette Music put out the Space Love EP from our friend SynthWaver Silenx. A collection of some of his finest tunes from around that time, the EP held four track worth of massive funky, space age Electro. Now it's time to revisit Space Love, with a brand new reMix EP holding work from some of the top names on the scene.
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♫ Silenx – Far Far Away (Final DJs reMix)
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Silenx's Space Love: The reMixes is released 17th December.
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In the Blog
Racism and the Hunger Games
Like almost everyone I know, I saw The Hunger Games on opening weekend. I sat in a packed theatre, sandwiched between my friends and an opinionated preteen girl who read a massive fantasy novel until the lights dimmed. She wasn't the only one; it was the first time in a while that I saw so many young people avidly reading in a movie theatre, and I've been to many midnight showings of Harry Potter. From my limited observations, and from the film's massive box office sales, it's clear that the Hunger Games franchise has really resonated with many people, both young and old, who gravitated towards the strong female protagonist, interesting social commentary, and gripping action sequences of the story.
In the days following the film's release, I was also one of many who saw the racist tweets compiled on sites like Buzzfeed and Tumblr. (The comments appeared to come mostly from young people, who expressed outrage and confusion over the casting of black actors in the roles of Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi) and Rue (Amandla Stenberg). Some of the commenters accused the film's producers of not "staying true" to the character descriptions in the novels, when in fact, Rue and Thresh are described as having "brown" skin and Cinna's race is not described in any detail. Others confessed that they did not feel as "sad" about the death of Rue because she was black, with one tweeter adding "#ihatemyself."
At first, I was shocked and angry to read these hateful and disturbing tweets, especially because I had spent a lot of time sniffling through Rue's death scene when reading the books and watching the film. I was furious with the commenters for questioning their own feelings of loss and sadness when Rue died, purely based on the fact that they weren't expecting her to look a certain way. But after reading through the comments a few times, and reading an exchange between the moderator of the Hunger Games Tweets Tumblr and one of the racist tweeters, I started to focus more on the theme of confusion present in many of the tweets in an attempt to make sense of the events.
According to Anna Holmes's New Yorker article on the phenomenon, "the tweeters' profile pictures suggests that most of the missives were written by people in their teens and early twenties." The casually racist attitudes of these young people who did not expect to feel bad for the death of a black person, combined with the common theme of "surprise" and "confusion," speaks to a number of interesting and disturbing trends in popular culture discourse.
The confusion and anger experienced by these Hunger Games viewers is evidence that too many cultural products (movies, TV shows, books, etc.) are segregated and/or whitewashed to the point that people are surprised to even see characters of different races interact in a positive way onscreen. Instead, we see white heroes and "foreign" villains, usually people of colour, who represent everything alien and dangerous to us. This is especially true for films aimed at younger audiences–Harry Potter, Twilight, and other franchises feature almost exclusively white casts in both the books and the films. A more controversial casting move was made when producing the 2010 film The Last Airbender, based on a television series that featured racially diverse characters and societies. The film version features white actors in the protagonist roles, in a move that many critics saw as whitewashing .
So, when the formula of white vs. non-white, or the elimination of people of colour from youth-oriented films altogether, is challenged to some extent, as it is in The Hunger Games, these reactions are not surprising. They illuminate the institutionalized racism that goes unchallenged in popular culture (and everyday life), as well as the fact that the young people in question have not yet learned to couch their racism using less explicit language often used by adults to describe the same kinds of feelings (ie. "that person wasn't right for the role").
In the past few weeks, as more has been written on this phenomenon, the blog Hunger Games Tweets has reported finding fewer of these tweets online. The blog's moderator, a Toronto man known pseudonymously as "Adam" also published a response by one of the commenters, Alana Paul, who asked that her tweet, "Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture," be removed from the site. Adam wrote in response: "I needed to post it so that others who saw it and recognized the ugly reflections of themselves in those words would start to question their values and principles. The hope is that this will result in a positive change and shift in attitudes."
I think (and hope) that it's working, and that Paul's realization of the impact of her actions is an indication of another trend among young people: gaining more critical insight into how they have been taught to see and understand each other. Perhaps holding young people accountable for their actions within the forum of social media is part of a wider process of media literacy and critical inquiry into popular culture.
The Hunger Games world imagined by Suzanne Collins is a chance for actors of a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds to participate in a global phenomenon based on the multi-ethnic makeup of the fictional world of Panem. And while the film is not without its own colour-based casting issues, it is possible that the swell of support for the movie's black actors in the wake of these events may lead to some progress in widening the field for actors of colour in the next instalments of the series. Hollywood often takes much longer to act on such hopes, but perhaps by 2013, any comments featured on Hunger Games Tweets will have at least taken a turn for the positive.
Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite is a Master's student in the Ryerson-York Joint Programme in Communication and Culture. She also blogs about pop culture for Snap! magazine and spends a lot of time knitting.


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