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Have there ever been thoughts about switching the TelCon to VoIP? Tuning in from Germany I have two issues: telephone fees and voice quality. If we would use something like Mumble [1] then international participants wouldn't need to worry about their telephone bill and would be able to understand people more clearly (anyone who tried Mumble has to love the voice quality there). I guess most people own a headset for Skype / Teamspeak / similar anyway. There are also free iOS/Android apps for Mumble, so people can still join if they aren't near a computer (provided they have a compatible device). If any folks want to give Mumble a try, you can connect to frozenice.de port 33445 (no password needed, Server is in Germany). You might need to bring someone to talk to along ;) Else there's a server loopback test mode in your options. Mumble authentication (if someone wants to register) is based on certificates, you can also bring along your own valid cert you use for S/MIME for example, if not your client will generate a self-signed cert. Mumble could also be used at anytime, for spontaneous meetings and such, maybe even some people like to hang around. Just saying, I think it would be nice, but that's just my opinion. [1] http://mumble.sourceforge.net/ (yes, it's open-source!) On 06.11.2012 19:15, Alex Komoroske wrote: > Great meeting today! > > Here are the action items: > > As a reminder, *action items are expected to be completed by the next meeting (Tuesday)*. > > ACTION: jkomoros to implement the above stuff about attributes > ACTION: Paul to talk to Alexis about CanIUse data license and use on WPD. > ACTION: Paul to do further investigation into feasibility of markdown tool > ACTION: Peter to write up formal debrief of Adobe doc sprint > ACTION: shepazu to write up a guide on how to do translations by hand and send e-mails to the list > ACTION: shepazu to document how the translation workflow should work and send to the list > ACTION: scottrowe to write up a proposal for flow-chart/organization of architecture > ACTION: shepazu to lock it down so that only admins can move pages > ACTION: Julee to set up content architecture meetings for the next few weeks > ACTION: Scott to add the upcoming WPD Google hackathon > ACTION: shepazu to approach Event Apart/John Alsup folks about doing a WPD docsprint > ACTION: Alex to send out a doodle poll about a template-guru seminar > ACTION: Garbee to flesh out the todo proposal, including wireframes, open questions, etc. > ACTION: Doug to make progress towards hosting skin on GitHub > ACTION: Shepazu to post a proposal to the list about the different options for title > > And here are the full notes: > > jkomoros: scribe: jkomoros > [09:06am] jkomoros: Topic: Review last week's action items > [09:06am] jkomoros: ACTION: Janet to propose a page where people keep track of what they're currently working on > [09:06am] HammHetfield joined the chat room. > [09:06am] jkomoros: jkomoros: Janet did do this > [09:06am] jkomoros: julee_: No response to the thread > [09:07am] paul_irish: http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Current_activity > [09:07am] chris9911 joined the chat room. > [09:07am] jkomoros: paul_irish: There's a straw man there with an example. A few people chimed in on the thread, and that's as far as got. > [09:07am] jkomoros: ACTION: jkomoros to explain use of merge candidate flag on the page. > [09:07am] jkomoros: jkomoros: done, on WPD:Flags/Merge_Candidate > [09:08am] jkomoros: ACTION: Garbee to write up proposal for tracking of TODOs on site and send for comment. > [09:08am] jkomoros: Garbee: Done. > [09:08am] jkomoros: ACTION: jkomoros to implement the above stuff about attributes > [09:08am] jkomoros: jkomoros: Not done. I will plan to tackle on Friday > [09:08am] jkomoros: NEWACTION: jkomoros to implement the above stuff about attributes > [09:08am] jkomoros: OLDACTION: Paul to talk to Alexis about CanIUse data license and use on WPD. > [09:08am] jkomoros: paul_irish: Incomplete > [09:08am] jkomoros: NEWACTION: Paul to talk to Alexis about CanIUse data license and use on WPD. > [09:09am] jkomoros: ACTION: Paul to re-open markdown syntax ticket and restart discussion > [09:09am] jkomoros: paul_irish: Garbee reopened it and discussion.Discussion tracked along the lines of, "awesome to do client side, but we need to go in both directions." > [09:09am] David_Bradbury joined the chat room. > [09:09am] jkomoros: … We need to translate wikimarkup back into markdown, and that part is hard to do. Needs more exploration > [09:09am] jkomoros: … I will do more exploration > [09:10am] jkomoros: ACTION: Paul to do further investigation into feasibility of markdown tool > [09:10am] leaverou joined the chat room. > [09:10am] jkomoros: Topic: Docsprint Debrief > [09:10am] jkomoros: PeterLubbers: Great event. About 120 people signed up. Only had space for about 50. we figured there would be a number of no-shows. > [09:10am] jkomoros: … at the peak we had between 50 and 60 in the room. > [09:11am] shepazu: (why markdown rather than wysiwyg?) > [09:11am] jkomoros: … We opened 34 new accounts. Maybe 60-70% of new folks > [09:11am] Garbee: Markdown is what most seem to like to write in more. I'd guess due to GitHub. > [09:11am] jkomoros: … and a number of very experienced folks, including some with MediaWiki experence > [09:11am] jkomoros: … HUGE thanks to Adobe. Really successful. > [09:11am] jkomoros: … they provided breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, and the space. > [09:11am] Garbee: We actually need to discuss that more, since I learned this week we can use some real HTML markup, so that would be the preferred way to go I think. > [09:12am] jkomoros: … and nice shwag. T-shirts and some nice notebooks. > [09:12am] jkomoros: … we have more t-shirts coming. > [09:12am] cgoodman joined the chat room. > [09:12am] jkomoros: … I'll do a more formal writeup > [09:12am] jkomoros: … I went through all of the history logs, we go through over 800 committs! > [09:12am] jkomoros: ACTION: Peter to write up formal debrief of Adobe doc sprint > [09:12am] jkomoros: … lead of Sencha spent all day working on SVG filter documentation > [09:13am] David_Bradbury: I'd avoid WYSIWYG if we can. We should encourage clean markup here just as we would in our actual code > [09:13am] jkomoros: … we started at 9:30 and ended around 5, and majority were there the whole day > [09:13am] jkomoros: … no major issues. No 503 errors, for examples. > [09:13am] Garbee: WYSIWYG is actually needed. Since we want the lowest barrier to entry possible. > [09:13am] jkomoros: … a number of developers wanted to be able to send pull requests for CSS/site > [09:13am] jkomoros: … others wanted to make the developers more interactive. > [09:14am] jkomoros: … last night one of them sent summary e-mail to the group. Cool prototypes--everyone should check them out. > [09:14am] jkomoros: … for this hackathon, Scott Rowe created a doc sprint tracking sheet. It worked pretty well. People could claim the areas they were working on so they wouldn't > step on each other's toes > [09:15am] mike5w3c left the chat room. (Quit: mike5w3c) > [09:15am] jkomoros: … definitely having a tool LIKE this is important for future docsprints > [09:15am] Garbee: http://bit.ly/YDdTU2 --Link to spreadsheet. > [09:16am] paul_irish: jkomoros: one of the guys there was an expert in mediawiki bots. he wrote one that looked at recent new/moved pages and flag ones that dont follow URL > guidelines we set. e.g. if the HTML was uppercase, it'd flag it. He was gonna post to list but didn't just yet > [09:17am] jswisher joined the chat room. > [09:17am] jkomoros: PeterLubbers: Part of the point of these events is the on boarding process to get new people involved. > [09:18am] mdel joined the chat room. > [09:18am] jkomoros: topic: Translations > [09:19am] jkomoros: jkomoros: At the docsprint, NotTomato found a lot of pages that were translations and flagged them > [09:19am] jkomoros: shepazu: We wanted to have translations at launch. But the mediawiki extensions weren't suitable. They had a bad workflow and changed content around in original > article. > [09:20am] jkomoros: … The same people that helped us with comments extension and others, we've been talking with them about doing a translation extension. There are also folks from > Wikipedia who are interested. > [09:20am] jkomoros: … in the meantime we could simply allow people to create translations using the convention we're going to follow > [09:20am] jkomoros: … so if someone would want to do a spanish article, they could take the original article, add a "/es" to the end of the URL and do a translation there. > [09:21am] jkomoros: … to keep them current, we need to have an indicator on the main page about which translations are available, and on the translated page how recently the main > page has been updated since this one has been page. > [09:21am] jkomoros: *edited > [09:21am] jkomoros: … and also a new UI. > [09:21am] jkomoros: … we hope to have it started very soon. This is a common request. > [09:22am] chris9911 left the chat room. (Ping timeout: 245 seconds) > [09:22am] jkomoros: ACTION: shepazu to write up a guide on how to do translations by hand and send e-mails to the list > [09:22am] jkomoros: ACTION: shepazu to document how the translation workflow should work and send to the list > [09:23am] jkomoros: eliot: What happens with moved English articles? > [09:23am] jkomoros: shepazu: Because they're all subpages, as long as you check "move subpages", which should be default, then it should work > [09:25am] mstalfoort left the chat room. (Quit: kthxbai) > [09:25am] jkomoros: jkomoros: We need to make sure that people know where to put articles > [09:25am] jkomoros: shepazu: What about a wizard > [09:25am] jkomoros: paul_irish: We could just have a bot flag these so admins can figure out where they go > [09:26am] jkomoros: … I want the contributor to be able to contribute very quickly. Don't want them to have to learn about entire IA. > [09:26am] jkomoros: … So I'd like a way for admins to be able to find new articles and move them > [09:26am] jkomoros: scottrowe: I've looked into this. I've found our current URL architecture is very confused. > [09:27am] jkomoros: … We haven't arrived at an agreement at how API should be built out. > [09:27am] jkomoros: … I'm working on a proposal which I'll send out today > [09:27am] jkomoros: *this week > [09:27am] jkomoros: ACTION: scottrowe to write up a proposal for flow-chart/organization of architecture > [09:27am] mike5w3c joined the chat room. > [09:28am] fr0zenice: just checked, if someone did say that pages can only be moved by admins, that's wrong [sry the quality isn't the best, listening from germany :)] > [09:28am] jkomoros: ACTION: shepazu to lock it down so that only admins can move pages > [09:29am] jkomoros: julee_: This is why I wanted a con tent architecture meeting > [09:29am] jkomoros: … so maybe once scott sends that out we can meet up > [09:29am] jkomoros: … if we are able to document what the architecture IS, then we can reinforce it in the experience on the website, which will help people understand it. > [09:29am] Garbee: fr0zenice, If it is wrong then we should address the permissions. > [09:29am] jkomoros: … If we can have pages that are exemplary of a given type to point people to > [09:30am] Garbee: They *should* be only movable my admins atm. Regular users should flag. > [09:30am] fr0zenice: then we need to strip movefile / move / move-subpages / move-rootuserpages from Users > [09:31am] jkomoros: ACTION: Julee to set up content architecture meetings for the next few weeks > [09:32am] jkofoed joined the chat room. > [09:32am] jkomoros: Topic: Vibrant use of events calendar > [09:32am] jkomoros: eliot: Just wanted to make sure we get a calendar going so we have more than two items on there. > [09:32am] shepazu: +1 > [09:32am] jkomoros: … ideally we'd have a 3 month lead of conferences, doc sprints, hackathons. > [09:32am] shepazu: q+ > [09:32am] HammHetfield left the chat room. (Quit: HammHetfield) > [09:33am] jkomoros: … I think that's a resource we can make use of > [09:33am] jkomoros: jkomoros: Absolutely. Put things up as soon as you know they may happen. Mark as tentative before the date is finalized. > [09:33am] jkomoros: ACTION: Scott to add the upcoming WPD Google hackathon > [09:34am] jkomoros: shepazu: It occurs to me that we might want to co-locate a docsprint with a conference > [09:35am] jkomoros: … or even emphasize conferences that are aligned with WPD, or that give a free ticket to a WPD memeber. > [09:35am] jkomoros: eliot: Does anyone have a close contact at Event Apart? > [09:35am] jkomoros: shepazu: We've talked to some of these folks, they're enthusiastic > [09:35am] Salt joined the chat room. > [09:35am] jkomoros: ACTION: shepazu to approach Event Apart/John Alsup folks about doing a WPD docsprint > [09:37am] desbenoit joined the chat room. > [09:38am] jkomoros: ACTION: Alex to send out a doodle poll about a template-guru seminar > [09:39am] jkomoros: shepazu: Ryan suggested maybe Lua to look into > [09:39am] jkomoros: Topic: Tracking actions > [09:39am] jkomoros: Garbee: There have been a lot of complaints about bug tracker being on separate domain and need a new account > [09:40am] jkomoros: … so we should ideally bring on the same domain and ideally one with open ID/SSO with main site > [09:40am] jkomoros: … bug genie has the ability to track just about anything we want to do with the project. > [09:40am] shepazu: q+ > [09:42am] jkomoros: jkomoros: Want to make sure we're addressing all use cases (e.g. savvy admin changes down to drive-by questions) > [09:42am] shaundunne joined the chat room. > [09:42am] jkomoros: Garbee: Ideally we'd have a comment system that's plugged into bug system and automatically files a bug > [09:42am] shaundunne left the chat room. > [09:43am] jkomoros: scottrowe: Does that mean the comments from the wiki could be funneled into buggenie > [09:43am] jkomoros: Garbee: Ideally, that's what I'd like. Since BugGenie allows different fields. > [09:43am] jkomoros: shepazu: Does BugGenie have a write API. > [09:44am] jkomoros: Garbee: Not sure. I'll look into this if we'd need to do custom work > [09:44am] fr0zenice: ref: http://issues.thebuggenie.com/wiki/Category%3ATheBugGenie%3ADevelopment > [09:44am] jkomoros: jkomoros: This will require a technical expert to be looped in, ideally Ryan > [09:44am] jkomoros: shepazu: I agree mostly with what's been said. > [09:45am] jkomoros: we do want to have people create accounts and join the community. I do want to lower the barrier for bugs. > [09:45am] jkomoros: … the idea of having it somehow tie into comment extension interests me. > [09:46am] jkomoros: shepazu: I think Ryan is supposed to be back not next Tuesday but the one after that > [09:47am] jkomoros: ACTION: Garbee to flesh out the todo proposal, including wireframes, open questions, etc. > [09:47am] jkomoros: scottrowe: I've noticed that sometimes I need to save on the wiki twice. > [09:47am] Garbee: You may need to refresh the page by dropping the cache. > [09:47am] Garbee: Edit tab > Refresh > [09:49am] jkomoros: jkomoros: I noticed an out-of-order problem in the history this weekend > [09:49am] Garbee: https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=19390 > [09:49am] jkomoros: Garbee: For session information, it's going to require at least a mediawiki engine update. > [09:49am] shepazu: Garbee++ > [09:50am] Garbee: I had to combine like 4 bugs into that one session bug. > [09:50am] Garbee: They were just annoying to see everywhere. > [09:50am] jkomoros: jkomoros: Is there way to make progress on hosting the wiki on github? > [09:50am] jkomoros: shepazu: We could host skin on github in the short term. > [09:50am] jkomoros: … this project is three or four different open source projects, which all have their own contribution paths > [09:50am] jkomoros: … but there are a few things that we could put on GitHub this week. > [09:51am] jkomoros: … I noticed there was a web platform on github. Do we know who that is? > [09:51am] jkomoros: ACTION: Doug to make progress towards hosting skin on GitHub > [09:51am] jkomoros: … we also want to host our extensions in a place where people can contribute to them. > [09:52am] jkomoros: … and just to clarify, we're TOTALLY open to this > [09:52am] jkomoros: shepazu: One last thing > [09:52am] jkomoros: … some people had asked about changing the title for the pages in the wiki for SEO > [09:53am] jkomoros: … I made an extension that does this, and it's ready to deploy when it will be least disruptive. > [09:53am] jkomoros: … What I'm proposing as the title content is basically "<page title> : <topic-title> : WPD" > [09:53am] jkomoros: "font-size : CSS : WPD" > [09:54am] jkomoros: benoit: There won't be Web Platform in the title > [09:54am] leaverou: q+ > [09:55am] jkomoros: ACTION: Shepazu to post a proposal to the list about the different options for title > [09:55am] leaverou: q- > > On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 9:02 AM, Julee Burdekin <email@example.com <mailto:email@example.com>> wrote: > > Hi: I added an agenda item: > > Content architecture meeting(s)? > > > > J > ---------------------------- > > > email@example.com <mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com> > > > @adobejulee > > > > From: Alex Komoroske <firstname.lastname@example.com <mailto:email@example.com>> > Date: Monday, November 5, 2012 9:44 AM > To: "firstname.lastname@example.com <mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>" <email@example.com <mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>> > Subject: Public TelCon Tomorrow, November 6th at standard time > Resent-From: <firstname.lastname@example.com <mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>> > Resent-Date: Monday, November 5, 2012 9:45 AM > > Hi all, > > I wanted to give everyone a heads up that I'll be chairing the weekly telcon tomorrow (11/6) at 16:00 UTC / 12:00 ET / 9:00 PT. You can find tactical details about the meeting > at http://docs.webplatform.org/__wiki/WPD:Meetings <http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Meetings> > > Agenda: > * Welcome > * Review of last week's action items > * Triage of new bugs > * Discussion topics (we'll see how many we have time for): > * Docsprint debrief > * Translations (hopefully with the right people in the call this time) > * Tracking bugs/actions with BugGenie > * A seminar about how we've wired up our intricate template system > > > Please feel free to suggest more agenda topics that you'd like to discuss. > > As a reminder, these meetings are open to anyone, although we especially value the participation of active community members. > > --Alex > >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Friday, 17 January 2020 19:13:33 UTC


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Ahhh, Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday. I actually have a lot to be thankful for. I have a loving girlfriend, a surprisingly not-hate-worthy job in a city I quite like (despite the last entry on this article), and the English language has a seemingly-endless variety of ways to say that food is terrible. And what better time to do so than now, when food is foremost on everyone's mind? Let's do this thing.
Corn Pudding — How to Make Corn Pudding in Four Easy Steps, Probably Because Masked Men Have Taken Your Loved Ones Hostage and This Was on the List of Demands For Some Reason:
— Step One: Create a substance akin to corn-flavored jello using milk and concentrated depression.
— Step Two: Weep in apprehension as you contemplate what Step One portends.
— Step Three: Add corn pieces. You should probably attempt not to throw up directly into the bowl at this point, although it's doubtful anyone would be able to tell the difference.
— Step Four: Decide your loved ones aren't worth it and give up.
Green Bean Casserole — I will concede that it is theoretically possible for there to exist a Green Bean Casserole that isn't terrible. I'm just not sure it's ever been done before. There's no individual ingredient to this dish that I actively dislike, but when their powers combine, it summons Captain Vomit. I honestly feel bad for the crispy onions on top of these things. Poor crispy onions; the rancid cream and soggy vegetables don't actually love you — they're just using you for your good looks. You should dump them and get with a burger who'll like you for you.
Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows — Who...who even...how could you...WHY DOES THIS EXIST?! Why would you do this to a perfectly good sweet potato casserole?! 1) They're fucking sweet potatos, they don't need marshmallowy death glue to give them MORE sweetness, and 2) if you really want to add something sweet, use candied nuts or (pending allergy issues) something else with some sort of crunchy texture as a fucking crust. Why would you leave disgusting, half-melted depth charges in your fucking sweet potato casserole?! Are you hunting for U-Boats in there?! Is the inside of every sweet potato casserole a scene from Das Boot?! PLEASE LET IT BE SO, I WANT TO BELIEVE.
Canned Cranberry Sauce — Oh good! Purple jello that tastes of unwashed gym sock laced with disintegrating pieces of mandarin oranges and vicious, seething hatred. Just what I always wanted.
Instant Gravy — "Gee, I'd love some sandy mud to top off my mashed potatos/turkey. Yes, more gritty bits, that looks lovely. Why, of course the constant danger of disgusted suffocation is something I look for out of my dining experience, why would you ask?"
Chess Pie — If you've never had Chess Pie (I hadn't until last year), it's pretty much just a sugar pie, topped with sugar. I'm not exaggerating, it's like 85% sugar and 15% pie crust. You can look it up. On a related note, here's a clue that a thing is too goddamn sugary to exist: I WON'T EAT IT. My bloodstream is like 68% high fructose corn syrup at this point, and if I'm looking at a food and going "whoa, hey, wait a minute," THAT SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.
Ok, this final entry is not a Thanksgiving food. I realize that. But a) you try coming up with 12 bad Thanksgiving foods when it generally has the best food of ANY holiday (no, Passover does not have the best food of any holiday, you're just so drunk by the time the food gets there that you think horseradish on matzoh tastes delicious), and b) I ate this meal for lunch Friday then immediately went home to write about it.
Also, everyone in/from Pittsburgh is about to really hate me. Fuck it, here we go:
Primanti Brothers Sandwiches — Since I moved to Pittsburgh, people have been telling me to go to Primanti Brothers for a sandwich. It is, literally without fail, the first question anyone who has ever lived here asked me when I told them where I was headed. You'd think I would've gone there sooner than three and a half months after arriving considering that I love sandwiches and there's one right near where I work. I finally went there on Friday. I wasn't expecting it to live up to the hype, but I wasn't expecting it to be terrible, either. My sights were firmly set on mediocre.
How sadly, gravely mistaken I was, for my sandwich cannot be truly said to have been a sandwich. It was the anti-sandwich whose birth portends the Crust Times. It was the ur-example of sandwich corruption. It was listed as a cheesesteak, but in truth, it was darkness given form.
You know, you'd think, given that it's located in the same state as Philadelphia, that Pittsburgh would understand what actually constitutes a cheesesteak. A cheesesteak (pay attention, Pittsburgh) is either thinly-sliced steak or steak tips topped with either Cheese Wiz (if you're in Philly) or actual real cheese product that doesn't come out of a fucking spray can (if you're in a city whose entire population hasn't apparently suffered a fucking head trauma), like provolone or cheddar or swiss. You can mix and match some combination of onions, mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes (*shudder*), mayo — that's pretty much up to you. But the STEAK and the CHEESE elements are pretty constant to a FUCKING CHEESESTEAK. What is NOT a cheesesteak is one slab of mildly meatlike substance (which, given its total lack of anything resembling flavor, I have to assume was some form of industrial insulation) topped with a single depressed slice of white American cheese. That is not a cheesesteak, Primanti Brothers. That is like if pure, platonic Horror were capable of having an orgasm. By the way, I fully realize that sentence makes no sense. That just gives it something in common with the fact that people from Pittsburgh fucking love Primanti Brothers.
But that's only the first part of what made this the worst sandwich I've ever had. The second part is that Primanti Brothers sandwiches are as tall as they are wide, which...why? Why the fuck would you do that to a sandwich? Sandwich integrity is a serious issue — if your sandwich is falling apart on the way to your mouth, you're not fucking enjoying it very much, and if it's such a perfect sphere that it would bring Archimedes to tears, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.
Third, there's a thing sandwiches need called "sauce" or "some type of condiment." You may have heard of it before. It acts as a lubricant and makes the sandwich-ee say something like "Yum!" as opposed to "Oh dear, I seem to have put the Mojave desert in my mouth." With cheesesteaks, usually the au jus can accomplish this without any help, but since you can't make au jus from a hobo's discarded winter coat that you are pretending is meat, I was SOL here. As it is, the only vaguely sauce-like thing you'll get on a Primanti Brothers sandwich is the weird, vinegary, possibly-motor-oil liquid on the coleslaw, which succeeds neither as a flavor nor as a structural element.
Fourth, that fucking coleslaw. I mean, come on. I like cabbage. My dinner last night consisted of like 90% cabbage. And you CAN put coleslaw on a sandwich. It's been done before with great success. But not a) when it's FUCKING VINEGARY COLESLAW OH MY GOD EW, or b) when the coleslaw is so cold and the sandwich so lukewarm that it fucks up the temperature differential so much that it tastes like it's been sitting out on the sidewalk for the last three days. Temperature differentials in food are fine if you know what you're doing — they're the reason burritos are so delicious — but not if your sandwich is roughly 40% cabbage poop encased in disconcertingly cold bread, and if another 50% of that sandwich is MOTHERFUCKING FRENCH FRIES.
Lastly...Pittsburgh, we need to talk about this potato thing. I'm guessing at some point you were hanging out with the other cities, and the following conversation happened:
Pittsburgh: "Dude. DUDE. I just came up with THE BEST idea."
Chicago: "What?"
Pittsburgh: "French fries...ON a sandwich."
Los Angeles: "You mean, like...on the side?"
Pittsburgh: "No no — as a topping. I'M A FUCKING GENIUS."
DC: "...I dunno, dude. That sounds...I mean..."
Chicago: "I think what DC is trying to say is that's just really dumb. I mean, I'm the one who came up with putting the sauce on TOP of the pizza, and even I think french fries as a sandwich topping is stupid. For Christ's sake, even Philly would tell you that's a terrible idea if he wasn't busy beating up an elderly woman."
Pittsburgh: "FUCK YOU GUYS, IMMA DO WHAT I WANT! PIEROGIS ON A SANDWICH, DEAL WITH THAT SHIT!"
St. Louis: "Well gollee gee whillikers, guys, I don't think we need all this swearing, back where I come from people are just simple folk who—"
New York: "Shut the fuck up, St. Louis, no one likes you."
San Francisco: "HEY LOOK GUYS, I'M DRESSING UP LIKE A NUN AND THROWING CONDOMS AT PEOPLE, AREN'T I WACKY?!"
While I admire the obstinacy in your viewpoint there, Pittsburgh, sometimes when people tell you a thing is terrible, it isn't because they're jealous of your genius, it's because that thing is terrible. Basically...stop. You don't need to put potatoes on everything. Really. French fries and pierogis don't need to be shoehorned into every possible fucking meal. I mean, I LIKE french fries and pierogis, but there are places they should not go. As a sandwich topping is one of those places. There's a reason you're the only place that does that in the entire universe, and it isn't because you're ahead of the curve, it's because you have a serious addiction issue. It does not taste good. It has never tasted good. I don't know why you think it would ever taste good. Just put them on the side like a sane person would.

subset: commoncrawl


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- Intuitive controls that make full use of Windows Mobile touch screen
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- Rockin' Soundtrack with over 20 minutes of music and more than 50 sound effects and voices
- Four different Cups to compete in!
- Records Menu keeps track of all your best track and lap times
- Auto-save automatically saves your progress when you exit, so you can continue where you've left off!


text:
Construction has aready begun in the middle of Beit Safafa. Photo by Aviva Lev-David.
"No, no Route 4!" a young Palestinian boy yelled out in Arabic.
His cries are directed towards the white washed Jerusalem stone walls and heavily tinted windows of the Jerusalem Municipality. He is speaking about Route 4, a controversial, illegal settler-only road that upon construction will slice directly through the predominantly Palestinian Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa, dividing the community in half.
Wednesday's protest at the Jerusalem Municipality has legally bypassed the typical procedures that require public inclusion on the plan, making it impossible for Beit Safafa's many affected residents to formally object to the plan. So in addition to protesting in Beit Safafa, demonstrators also gather weekly in front of the municipality, voicing their opposition in alternating Hebrew and Arabic in one last effort to be informally, if not formally heard.
Around 150 people gathered in front of the Municipality on Wednesday afternoon—the crowd is a mixture of both Palestinians front Beit Safafa and Israeli activists from Jerusalem. The Palestinian boy, Farook Salman, a young resident of Beit Safafa is at the very front, holding a sign that is taller than him.
Although he is yelling in Arabic, the sign is in Hebrew, with a graphic that traverses the language barrier of a photograph of the pastoral landscape of Beit Safafa being sliced with a pair of scissors.
"We want them to listen to us, so we write our signs in their language," he tells me.
Beit Safafa
Beit Safafa is a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem, just south of the area commonly known as "West Jerusalem." However, its relationship to Israel and Jerusalem has been tense since the beginning of the occupation. In 1949, Beit Safafa was divided by the Green Line, putting the northern two thirds under Israeli control and the southern third in the Jordanian-controlled occupied West Bank. In 1967, Israel annexed the southern two thirds and united them as part of Jerusalem, giving all residents the blue Jerusalem ID cards.
If built, Route 4 will separate Beit Safafa's residents from the mosque, bakeries, hospitals and schools that are part of their daily lives
If built, Route 4 will separate Beit Safafa's residents from the mosque, bakeries, hospitals and schools that are part of their daily lives
Now Beit Safafa is home to just under 10,000 Palestinians—some who are originally from Beit Safafa, and many others who re-settled after leaving Jaffa, Nazareth, Haifa and other cities inside of the '48 territories.
However, the Jerusalem municipality does not treat the predominantly Arab town of Beit Safafa as equal residents of Jerusalem. While a city park is being planned for the south of Jerusalem in Beit Safafa (after a long battle by the residents for a green space in this part of the city) the logical geographic continuation of the park is being eschewed for the highway. While the other two neighborhoods of the German colony and Katamon are predominantly Jewish, Beit Safafa is largely Palestinian.
If built, Route 4 will separate Beit Safafa's residents from the mosque, bakeries, hospitals and schools that are part of their daily lives. In order to cross the highway, Palestinian residents will be forced to use overpasses, underpasses and long roads to get from one side to the other—turning what was once a simple journey into an extensive ordeal.
The width of the road planned will be 33 meters wide at its smallest and 78 meters at its largest—meaning that at points, it could have as many as 10 or 11 lanes. Even with the alternate routes, underpasses and overpasses that are being implemented to justify the highway, the amount of land taken by the highway alone is devastating.
"It will make it very hard to get to school," Saga, a Palestinian student said. "I am sure there will be a way, but it will be much more difficult than it is now."
For some residents, although the highway has not been completed—and theoretically there is still time to halt its construction—the effects of the highway on their daily lives are already beginning.
"The highway will go behind my house," Farook, tells me while adjusting his sign. "It's where I normally play football with my friends, but a few days ago a soldier with a gun told us we couldn't be on that land anymore, so we had to stop."
Route 4 for Israeli residents
In the same way that this highway slices through the daily life of its Palestinian residents, it facilitates life for Jerusalem's Jewish—and surrounding Jewish settlements—population. If the road is completed, it will connect the Gush Etzion settlement cluster south of the city to the Givat Ze'ev cluster in the north. Ultimately, it would link Tunnel Road—which connects Gush Etzion to Jerusalem—to Route 443, which connects several settler roads to Tel Aviv, facilitating easy access between settlers, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, further fulfilling a vision of a "Greater Jerusalem"—a vision of the city as the undisputed "Jews-only" capital of Israel.
In many ways, Route 4 echoes the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR) which, through connecting Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem with Central Jerusalem, condoned Israel's illegal settlement enterprise in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and uprooted and displaced many Palestinian families in the process. Once the train was finished, Israeli Jews living in settlements surrounding Jerusalem had an easy route into the city while—though it was ultimately decided that Palestinians could also use the train—it divided and uprooted Palestinian communities, and served as a permanent symbol of the occupation.
"I'm against building the road in the middle of Beit Safafa," Maya, an Israeli resident of Jerusalem who prefers not to give her last name tells me.
"Although in some ways I think Beit Safafa should be on its own, as part of the Palestinian Authority, then it would be even further under occupation which wouldn't be good."
"But with this street it is not hard to figure out who is right and who is wrong," she finishes. "It's obvious."
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First, the aggressively-odd entertainer aggravated some of us with that insulting extreme makeover which suggested that he'd rather look like a nose-less, albino zombie that just invaded Earth than anything remotely resembling his own people. He spends more on cosmetic surgery than the average Black family does on their house. And the job couldn't possibly be finished yet, although it's painfully obvious there's nothing they can do to make him look normal again.
Next, he irritated Elvis impersonators after that sham of a marriage which left Lisa Marie completely catatonic when she realized her boy-hungry hubby was more interested in her famous father's publishing rights than in her. Jackson's next loveless liaisons had child advocates calling for intervention when it became apparent that he was paying white women to bear babies for him to dangle off balconies for kicks. Don't you wish he were your dad?
Of course, he's had to hire top P.R. firms to put a positive spin on all the never-ending child molestation rumors, while simultaneously retaining armies of dream team attorneys to pass out hush money as they fought to squelch every new accusation. And how about that ill-advised appearance in a British documentary during which he was caught holding hands with a pre-teen and confessing that he was still sleeping with boys? In an unauthorized bio published earlier this year, Bob Jones, a well-respected P.R. man who had worked at Jackson's side for 34 years spilled the beans about his former employer, all but confirming the persistent suspicions about his boss' pedophilia and also confirming some ugly rumors about Michael's alleged anti-Semitism.
The latter had started in 1995 after he released a song called "They Don't Care About Us,� whose lyrics went like this, "Jew me, sue me, everybody do me. Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me.� When MTV removed the video from the airwaves, Spike Lee re-shot it with cleaned up lyrics.
Now, even Jackson's trusted advisors have begun to bail on him, stepping forward to acknowledge that there's plenty in Mike's closet we probably ought to know about. Despite beating the statutory rape rap, it is readily apparent that the falling star has entered the crash and burn phase of his career. Jackson had quietly left America for the relative obscurity offered by the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain, an island about triple the size of Washington, D.C. with a population of less than a million. Unfortunately, the disgraced icon's story didn't end there, for a lawsuit just filed by another disgruntled business partner has catapulted his name back into the tabloids.
Dieter Wiesner claims that he is owed $64 million, and as proof he's submitted into evidence—and to the media—audiotapes on which Jackson is heard uttering resurrecting some hateful stereotypes about Jews.
Good and bad people come in every color, religion and ethnicity. If Michael Jackson has a bone to pick with certain individuals, he ought to describe the nature of the specific problem, not resort to the evil shortcut of unproductive group slander which only unfairly diminishes a whole segment of society.
I suspect that if Michael Jackson had devoted his life to dealing with, instead of running from, reality, he might be of a more sympathetic nature. For had he accepted himself and chosen to walk the Earth as a black man, he'd know, firsthand, the pain of discrimination and of being pre-judged by something other than the content of his character.
Black Star columnist Williams is a member of the NJ, NY, CT, PA, MA & US Supreme Court bars.
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text:
Poinsettia Cake Roll
Total TimePrep: 2 hours + standing Bake: 15 min. + chilling
Makes10 servings
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
- 1 cup (5 ounces) red candy coating disks, melted
- 1 cup (5 ounces) dark green candy coating disks, melted
- 2 tablespoons vanilla or white chips
- Yellow paste food coloring
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 3/4 cup cake flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup sugar, divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
- 1/2 cup baking cocoa
- 7 to 8 tablespoons milk, divided
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- For poinsettia dough, divide corn syrup between two bowls. Stir red candy coating into one bowl and green into the other just until blended. Spread each mixture onto a sheet of waxed paper to 1/2-in. thickness (about 4-in. square). Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature for 2-3 hours or until dry to the touch. Remove each mixture from waxed paper and gather into a ball. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap; let stand overnight.
- Make leaf and petal patterns and trace onto waxed paper and cut out, or use leaf-shaped cookie cutters. Knead a portion of green dough until pliable but not soft. Roll between waxed paper to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut out four large and four small leaves; with a toothpick, score veins. Arrange in two circles on waxed paper with center points touching.
- Knead and roll out a portion of red dough as above. For each poinsettia, cut out five to seven large flower petals. Shape petals as shown in photo; place in between green leaves, matching centers. Cut out 10 to 14 smaller flower petals from red dough (use additional dough if needed). Shape as shown; arrange between large red petals.
- For flower stamens, form tiny balls of green dough. Place several in center of each flower, covering all petal centers. Melt white chips; stir in yellow food coloring. Transfer to a resealable heavy-duty plastic bag; cut a small hole in corner of bag. Pipe onto green centers. Store poinsettias in an airtight container at room temperature.
- For cake, let egg whites stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, sift flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks until slightly thickened. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, beating until thick and lemon-colored. Beat in vanilla. Add sifted ingredients; mix well.
- In another bowl, beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold a fourth of egg whites into batter; fold in remaining whites.
- Line a greased 15x10x1-in. baking pan with waxed paper and grease the paper. Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool for 5 minutes. Turn cake onto a kitchen towel dusted with confectioners' sugar. Gently peel off waxed paper. Roll up cake in the towel jelly-roll style, starting with a short side. Cool completely on a wire rack.
- For filling, in a large bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Beat in 2 cups confectioners' sugar, cocoa, 3 tablespoons milk and vanilla. Add remaining confectioners' sugar and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Unroll cake; spread filling evenly to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll up again. Place on a wire rack over a baking sheet; cover and set aside.
- Place chocolate chips in a small bowl. In a heavy saucepan, bring cream to a boil over low heat. Pour over chips; whisk gently until smooth. Chill for 35-45 minutes or until ganache begins to thicken, stirring occasionally.
- Pour half of the ganache over cake, allowing excess to drip off. Chill cake and remaining ganache, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until remaining ganache has cooled and a thermometer reads about 62°. Pour ganache slowly in a thin stream over cake; chill until set.
- If piping is desired, transfer ganache that dripped from cake into a bowl; chill for 45 minutes. Whisk until thickened, about 1 minute. Place cake on a serving platter. Place thickened ganache in a pastry bag with a #21 star tip; pipe around bottom of cake. Position poinsettias on top of cake; gently press into ganache. Store in the refrigerator.
Nutrition Facts1 slice: 834 calories, 39g fat (27g saturated fat), 129mg cholesterol, 321mg sodium, 120g carbohydrate (107g sugars, 2g fiber), 6g protein.
Every product is independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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Dec 28, 2010
This was in the first issue of Taste of Home I ever received, and finally, at long last, I made it this Christmas. What a treat! Worth the effort. Looks beautiful on the table!~ Theresa
Dec 25, 2008
I made this for Christmas a few years ago and I did make the flowers ahead of time. They are much easier to make than they look! The cake is beautiful and tastes great, too. I received many compliments - a real show-stopper!
Jul 17, 2008
poinsettia pieces can ve made up to 2 weeks in advance to get a head start.
Dec 20, 2007
Dec 20, 2007
What a luscious dessert this appears to be. The preparation with the tempting ganache; whatever that may be. Kneading the doughuntil it's pliable that means working with it in a certain way to your complete satisfaction. The whipping cream has to be heavy, heavily pushing up and down until you reach a soft peak of perfection. If your preference is tubular there is a small hole in the center of the pipe. Cup your hands on the pipemoving them up and down over and over allowing the granache to drip slowly off then pour into a thin stream into its destination. Roll firmly, then unroll and roll again. Finally garnish with gorgeous edible pointsetta for the finishing touch. It sounds like this recipe would be time consuming but the luscious taste of the tiny balls of red and green especially at this timeof year would be well worth it.
Dec 12, 2007
It's too pretty to even eat!


text:
- Dan O'Bannon (screenplay)
- Miguel Tejada-Flores (screenplay)
- Charles W. Fries
- Josée Bernard (co-ex-prod)
- Masao Takiyama (co-ex-prod)
January 26, 1996 (United States)
November 30, 1996 (Japan)
Screamers is a 1995 dystopian science fiction film based on Philip K. Dick's 1953 short story "Second Variety." Directed by Christian Duguay, Screamers stars Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, and Jennifer Rubin.
This action-packed sci-fi thriller is set upon the planet Sirius 6B in the year 2078. The planet has been decimated by a vast nuclear war. Many have survived, but their continued survival is threatened by the dreaded screamers, strange shape-changing mechanical creatures who use razor sharp knives to hack up any life-form in their way. They earned their name because when they kill, they make a horrible high pitched sound. The first screamer makes its appearance as a lone soldier approaches a bunker. He has come to deliver an important message from the NEB (New Economic Block) to its enemy the Alliance. Unfortunately, the low flying screamer gets to the soldier first, and slices and dices the fellow into tiny pieces. Later a jet crashes near the bunker. Aboard it is a nuclear reactor. One man survives the crash. The man, Ace, knows how to make a bomb with the reactor. Alliance-leader Col. Joseph Hendricksson takes Ace and they travel across the great irradiated desert to meet with the NEB leaders. Along the way they find a small boy and though they don't want to, bring him along. Unfortunately, by the time they get to the NEB headquarters, the screamers have killed all but Becker, a tough soldier, Ross, who is nearly mad, and sexy smuggler Jessica. When Becker and Ross see the boy, they think he is a screamer and kill him. They are right and soon the little group find themselves surrounded by the hellish killing machines, all of which have taken the shapes of small boys.[1]
- Peter Weller -as- Joe Hendricksson
- Roy Dupuis -as- Becker
- Jennifer Rubin -as- Jessica Hanson
- Andrew Lauer -as- Ace Jefferson (as Andy Lauer)
- Charles Edwin Powell -as- Ross (as Charles Powell)
- Ron White -as- Chuck Elbarak


text:
Posts Tagged 'Factory'
RoadRace Factory Team rebuilds bike during red flag
Dion Device Brake Lever Guard at Infineon from Dion Device Brake Lever Guard on Vimeo.
Dion Device brake lever guard team rider Hayden Gillim crashed when a rider directly in front of him went down. It was up to the RoadRace Factory team to rebuild his wrecked bike during the red flag. Against all odds, the team had Hayden back on the grid, of which he had to start dead last among 37 other riders. With bent forks and the rest of the grid against him, Hayden rode the tires off his bike and finished top ten on an ever-so-special race weekend. Film and Edit by Dion Device brake lever guard.
Source link
First seen on TrackdayMag


text:
Home of the National Collection of Pelargonium & the National Collection of Hedera
This product is currently out of stock. Please come back later. Thank you!
Rich cream with a pink flush on occasional petals edges.
Begonia Delivery Charges:
These are dispatched from February until late March, when the tubers are dormant. Shipping (UK ONLY) The tubers are dispatched by Royal Mail and shipping charge includes box, packing insurance and first class letter post. However, we will be starting the tubers just into growth before dispatch to ensure the tuber is good condition when you receive it.
EU/Shipping As above but EU orders are sent by courier. The tubers are thoroughly checked and carefully packed before dispatch. However, we are unable to insure against delay, loss or damaged parcels or their contents so we cannot be held for the postal services of the countries outside the UK, therefore all orders are dispatched at your risk and not ours.


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Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 1654
Location: Penrith (where jacarandas remind me of change), New South Wales, Australia
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:32 am
Post subject:
sweetbabyjames...our Western culture, by and large, prefers tradition to be neat and tidy and clean...wrinkle free...
so let's have none of this dancing around the fire business....
sooth and such?....NO! says our Western culture ....sit neatly in pews ....clean ...'n wrinkle-free..
without shadow...
however, as a dear friend reminded me...the shadow, if ignored, will become all the darker.
all cultures need to hug their shadows....
"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson
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Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 696
Location: israel
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 7:34 am
Post subject:
Gingerpale , jellied doghnuts are the Hannuka treat.
At Purim we eat "Hamantachen" or "the ears of Haman" cookies. It's a triangular shaped cookie - to remaind us of the ears Haman the evil who, like many of his followers, wanted to kill all the jewish people . There is nothing new under the sun and he was a Persian (Iranian). Nothing new there too. It's a sugary pastry dough filled traditionally with walnuts or various kinds of mince pie. Very yummy. I prefer thye doughnuts.
For Purim you wear disguises, anything you like, but only kids usually do that. Nothing ghastly about it, mostly political/fairy tales kind of disguises/masks.
Mo more war, more doughnuts. No jelly.
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Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 136
Location: France, Bordeaux
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:44 pm
Post subject:
Gingerpale, I hope I did not put you out with my answer. I do have a fairly high level of acceptance for the unknown and the strange, and if a fairy suddenly appeared before my eyes, I guess I would not be too surprised ! At the same time, should my son burn himself seriously, I would gladly accept the help of the "fire-taking", yet would insist on the very best possible treatment modern science offers !
My son has asthma, and I never refused traditional medicine for him. I spent enough nights in the ER watching him fight for breath. Yet from his babyhood I had him treated also with homeopathy, which allowed him to dispense with many antibiotic treatments. And some say homeopathy is not medicine, because no active ingredients are found in the pills. Yet it works. Is it a placebo ? Who cares as long as it works !
I also respect beliefs, faith, though do not have much liking for religion. Faith is admirable, religion often perverts the faith. Believing is inherently human, since the dawn of mankind men have looked up and asked themselves "why? how?". Very human in its questioning, and so very egocentric to think that some higher being has nothing better to do than worry about the doings of some indigenous species stranded on a speck of dust lost somewhere in an infinite universe.
And I suppose now I have lost the point I wanted to make !!! Nothing more gratifying than trying to convince someone one is right, yet be able to walk away peacefully, everyone standing on its opinion, but somewhat richer for having shared ideas !
Well, as Simona says, no more war, and more doughnuts ! Hurray for doughnuts !
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Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 136
Location: France, Bordeaux
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:45 pm
Post subject:
Oups ! I meant "exchanged ideas" ! I love exchange ! Not that I mind sharing !
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Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Posts: 2498
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:07 pm
Post subject:
charlsy, so very sorry for the drama and trauma of asthma! I'm asthmatic too but didn't develop it until puberty. How horrible it must be to see a small child gasping for breath!
Hope it's in control now and I can
understand how you'd explore every possible avenue. Have you tried isolating allergies and desensitizing? That was the most productive route for me.
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor
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Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 136
Location: France, Bordeaux
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:33 pm
Post subject:
Rainey, thanks for your kind words. Spending time in the hospital, even for something as "benign" as asthma (as compared with leukemia), was no picnic. He once had to stay there for 10 straight days hooked to an oxygen line. Part of one of his lungs had "folded" up (pneumothorax). Thankfully he healed without problems.
The best thing I ever did for my son was to leave Paris. Now, here near Bordeaux, in a small town swept by ocean winds, he seems to have outgrown asthma, although he remains sensitive at times. But no more severe attacks, no more midnight trips to the ER ! I very much prefer my ER on TV ! He will probably have to be careful his whole life, but it turned him into a convinced non-smoker ! He knows too well what it means to fight for breath... The only good thing I have to say about asthma is that a wheezing kid is a sure way of not staying for hours in a waiting room for a doctor to check on him. A few notes of his whisting lungs and off to a room for oxygen and Ventolin !
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 357
Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 10:54 pm
Post subject:
Gingerpale, quite pagan enough!
Can I say then that next to halloween, Christmas is my favorite pagan holiday? Just kidding, though we in my family do make a point of celebrating both solstices and equinoxes, and just about every other holiday I can lay my hands on.
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Joined: 15 Dec 2004
Posts: 583
Location: Anniston Alabama USA
Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:42 pm
Post subject:
I haven't been reading this thread.
Have I missed anything which qualifies as
' She says, 'I am the glamorous type.' I said, 'So what?'
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Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 932
Location: England
Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:45 pm
Post subject: Believers and skeptics, welcome!
Can I say then that next to halloween, Christmas is my favorite pagan holiday?
Christmas was originally a pagan holiday/festival. It was called Yule at which huge fires were burned to encourage the sun to be reborn in the Spring. All Hallows Eve or Hallow e'en is Britain's Day of the Dead, when the barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead becomes thinner. Even Easter was originally dedicated to Eostre or Ostara the Saxon goddess of the Dawn. The Easter bunny or more properly the hare and the egg are her symbols. In Britain at least, the early Christian church assimilated these festivals into Christian ones which is why they have their pagan roots showing in little ways.
Have I missed anything which qualifies as supernatural?
There must be at least one dish that is 'out of this world' which you haven't tried yet.
if a fairy suddenly appeared before my eyes, I guess I would not be too surprised!
From the little fairy lore I know, if you see one, back away slowly and ALWAYS be extremely polite as they are dangerous creatures and will likely make you very sorry you met one. Unless of course you are carrying cold iron/steel with you. If it's a crucifix that's even better.
Confusion comes fitted as standard.
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Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 136
Location: France, Bordeaux
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:38 pm
Post subject:
Griffin thank you for the advice about fairies. I'll keep it in mind ! Also I liked your comments on the pagan celebretions, recycled by the catholic church ! A practice not limited to England, usually churches are built on earlier pagan sites. A good way of using your "enemy", and showing your strength ! Crush him and take his place... Yet the original meaning of the festival sometimes can't be erased.
What's funny is that countries of originally identical christian traditions differ sometimes in their customs. Here in France, there was an attempt to import Halloween, in its basest commercial form mind you, and it didn't work out. Kids would come at the door and ask for candy, without knowing the rituals associated, your basic "trick or treat" code phrase for instance ! Also they would usually do it the friday or saturday night just before Halloween, not on the exact day. Not convenient enough to do it hte right day, if it's a school day... So french, trying to adapt an anglosaxon custom and botching it.
Here it's All saints' day that is "celebrated", in a rather dreary way in my opinion. It usually involves the annual trip to the family cemetery, cleaning up the gravestone (Heaven forbid the neighbours should think you neglect your familial duty) and putting chrysanthemium on the grave. It's the flower of choice in France, and every supermarket sells hundreds of potted chrysentemium for the occasion. Nothing like the joyous mexican Day of the dead ! French cemeteries are usually lugubrious places. Apart from the Père Lachaise in Paris, with its fancy graves, and celebrities, they are usually gardens of stones, with the few dots of colour provided by flowers, fresh, dead, or artificial...
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Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 932
Location: England
Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:31 pm
Post subject: Believers and skeptics, welcome!
If there's one thing I love, it's folklore and especially folktales! ... and if there's one thing that annoys me it's the little girl with wings fairies! A sanitised Victorian notion for the most part (Mabel Lucie Attwell has a lot to answer for, but to be fair so does Arthur Rackham). 'Real' fairies in the Northern European tradition are a sort of Northern version of the Ancient Greek nymphs.
But the fairies are troublesome things. There are the 'Take Care Children' fairies like Jenny Greenteeth in Britain who lives in stagnant waters and if you get to close, she'll drag you under and eat you! There's the Welsh Pwca or Scots Phooka (not sure if it's pronounced quite like I imagine!) that takes the shape of a beautiful horse that makes you desire to ride on his back. But when you do, you can't get off and he rides away with you into the nearest lake where you are drowned and eaten. And that's before you get to the Nuckelavee and Yallery Brown!!
if you go into a Bluebell wood then make sure you have cold iron with you also. Fairies love bluebell woods as much as rings of mushrooms, which you must avoid also. If anyone has a baby, keep a cross of iron/steel over the cot or the baby will be replaced by a changeling.
I think, in Britain, it was partly a way of crushing paganism, but also the Britons were not fussy. Life was so tough that you worshipped any and every god/goddess/other being just to be on the safe side. As a result, the natural party instinct in paganism comes through in our modern 'Christian' festivals. In Leicester, here in the UK, Diwali is celebrated in the city with people of all faiths and ethnicities on the principle that it is yet another fab celebration. There is food, of course, but also colour and music and general fun-type mayhem, which adds to it.
Death in Christianity (among other religions) is often seen as an enemy - a bad thing. In Native American legends it's seen as a necessity so that there are always enough resources to go around. It then becomes no better or worse than life. Both are risky in their own ways, both have prices to pay. Life costs in terms of pains, fears and sorrows. But death means that you pay by losing out on the bliss and beauty that life is occasionally capable of. Older faiths are fine with this I think. Paganism and the like are more at home with death than Christianity. I don't know about Islam, Hinduism or Judaism.
I would love to see Pere Lachaise cemetery, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are two of my favourite troublemakers!!
Confusion comes fitted as standard.
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Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 1855
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 3:32 pm
Post subject:
Griffin--thanks so much for the "fairy tales". Really interesting!
As for Christianity co-opting pagan rites/rituals--it is my understanding that St. Stephen's Day in Ukraine is celebrated by buttering your cows udders.
Pere Lachaise Cemetery is wonderful---I have pictures of myself at Oscar's grave and at Gertrude Stein's. Stein's/Toklas' grave is interesting. Face on you see only Gertie's name, Alice's name is on the back of the gravestone because as Alice said "In death as in life I will follow Gertrude Stein." How's that for romantic?
Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!
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Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 827
Location: Oakland, CA
Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:29 pm
Post subject:
A brilliant film that deals with believers vs. sceptics is "The Illusionist". Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti are the leads. It takes place in turn-of-the -century Austria. It is visually one of the most stunning films I've ever seen. The story is quite engaging and the acting is SUPERB. I got dragged to it and can't think when I've enjoyed something more. Jessica Biel, the female lead, apparently wanted the role SO MUCH, she showed up at the audtion in period clothing. She is quite beautiful and talented.
Highly recommended!!!!!!!!
L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais
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Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Posts: 2498
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:39 pm
Post subject:
How interesting to read your recommendation, Donna.
I saw the trailer when we went to see
Little Miss Sunshine
. I had a very strong reaction to it but I couldn't quite tell if it was a negative or a positive one. Now I'll have to see it and come to a conclusion.
Your story, harpospeaking, reminds me of a time long ago when I went to a movie with my husband (then boyfriend) and another couple. I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back from a comparatively bright hallway to the dark screening room I had a very difficult time seeing. I located three people and an empty seat and took my place turning to my husband on my right and saying "I love you, Steve". Only it wasn't my husband and that became apparent when he and my friends sitting in the row in front recognized my voice and began laughing.
I'm still humiliated (a bit) even remembering it.
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor
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Joined: 09 Jun 2006
Posts: 932
Location: England
Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:39 pm
Post subject: Believers and skeptics, welcome!
As for Christianity co-opting pagan rites/rituals--it is my understanding that St. Stephen's Day in Ukraine is celebrated by buttering your cows udders.
David, when the cows get their revenge I dread to think what they'll do!!
Your story, harpospeaking, reminds me of a time long ago when I went to a movie with my husband (then boyfriend) and another couple. I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back from a comparatively bright hallway to the dark screening room I had a very difficult time seeing. I located three people and an empty seat and took my place turning to my husband on my right and saying "I love you, Steve". Only it wasn't my husband and that became apparent when he and my friends sitting in the row in front recognized my voice and began laughing.
Oh Rainey!! Oops! In fact Oops with a side salad of Oops with Oops on top! Ahem, I suggest using the cat method and looking at him with an I-meant-to-do-that look. Either that, or darkly remark that you have Sicilian relatives!
Confusion comes fitted as standard.
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text:
Here was her answer:
I can say I didn't agree with the way the blog characterized Professor Kaplan's comments on the recording. The blog stated the following:
"At the Q&A session, another teacher asked Kaplan how to incorporate the BDS memes of demonizing Israel into college courses, even when the course has nothing to do with "Palestine." And Professor Kaplan answered him. Here we have a professor at an Ivy League university explicitly calling on like-minded educators to shoehorn hate of Israel into every one of their classes."
This characterization is not accurate. Contrary to the claim that Professor Kaplan believes that political views on Israel-Palestine should be forced into college courses that have nothing to do with that subject, Kaplan explicitly said she didn't think that was feasible: "I don't know how you can address the issue if you're not dealing with a course that has no content or relationship to it."
She took the position instead that certain kinds of thematic courses, such as prison literature or prison history, would have an inherent relation to the topic of Israel-Palestine (as one case among others). Prison writing is a well established area in literary studies, as is the history of prisons. Any search of data bases will reveal this neutral fact of academic history. And I fail to see how the case of the Israeli-Palistinian [sic] conflict would be inherently inappropriate as a case study for a thematic course of that sort, just as with courses like war literature or the literature of mourning and violence. If you can explain how this is not the case, I'd be happy to comment.
"For these academics, college is not about teaching but it is merely a platform for them to spout their political views at their captive audience." This assertion on the blog does not seem accurate to me either, since Professor Kaplan expressed the idea that only courses in which Israel and Palestine were relevant to the advertised course theme would be logical candidates for discussing these questions. Such courses (prison writing, war and literature, etc.) are not required of English majors or SAS students, so discussions of the politics of the Israeli-Palestine conflict would never be forced on a "captive audience."
Professor Kaplan didn't say that one shouldn't try to figure out a way to fit one's politics into a course that should have nothing to do with politics - just that she doesn't know exactly how one would do it in a practical way.
The basic issue, which Professor Bentley avoids, is that the university should not be a place where professors a priori craft their classes to push a political viewpoint, as Kaplan says she wants teachers to do and indicates she does herself. If the best example of prison studies includes Palestinian Arab events, or if the best example of poetry includes Darwish, there is nothing wrong with including that in the course. But if a professor specifically includes it for the express purpose of pushing an anti-Israel agenda there is something very wrong with that.
I'm not saying it is inherently inappropriate. I am saying it is inappropriate when the teacher decides to include it for reasons that have nothing to do with academics. Kaplan is not only doing that proudly, but she is telling like-minded people how to do it - to "make courses" that have the desired political content.
That is an problem, and to see Penn sweep it under the rug this way indicates that it is a much bigger problem than just the actions of one professor.
Here again is the Q&A:
My question falls on Professor Norton's statement that Boycott may not be the most important part of BDS, and is kind of the closest to where we live as academics and also with Professor Kaplan's call to think about a positive program on BDS, a positive aspect of the Boycott [of Israel]....And that's um about teaching in the classroom about BDS and how, not just in our life as professional producers of knowledge, and scholars, but as teachers, how can that be formed in this pedagogy, especially I guess when the course is not dealing directly with material that has to do with Palestine"
Well I don't know how you can, how you can address the issue if you're not dealing with a course that has no content or relationship to it.... But I know that, I mean, you can make courses that have content. I mean, for example, I happen to know that you're interested in prisons, and the literature and culture about, you know, prisons, so you can teach a course on which you included prison as a really, really big thing, not only in the political life of Palestinians, but also in their literature and in their poetry, so that will be kind of an ideal way -- you take a thematic course, and you bring in themes from this issue, and literature is really a great way to teach students about what's going on -- students they think, they know they have an ideological line, a political line, and then they read, you know, they read darwish, they read, you know, The Pennoptimist and it opens up a whole new world -- so that's my answer to that.


text:
I know we've now run two trailers in as many days—and I promise that we're not moving in a bold new direction of showing more commercials—but both of these pieces of content are explosive, for different reasons. Prometheus began life as a prequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, but became something different in production. The first trailer for the movie is here, and you can watch it after the break or catch the high-definition version that should be available soon, but I think you'll agree that the Alien franchise is about to get another entry, even if no one can admit it.
Take a look.
Everything from the reveal of the movie's title to the music and design of the sets brings to mind Alien, and I'm pretty sure I saw the legendary space jockey in a few of the quick cuts. A few eagle-eyed members of our community also pointed out that the Weyland-Yutani logo can be seen all over production stills and in this trailer. Or, at least the Weyland logo. Yutani may not have been merged with the company yet.
It's clear that Prometheus exists in the same universe as the Alien films, or at least the original film. Ridley Scott's returning to the world of dark, gothic science fiction is something worth celebrating, and I can't wait to see this when it comes out on June 8, 2012.
In 3D, of course


text:
By Chris Wright
Just a quickie to warm your cockles this morning.
Shortly before cruising in on a wave of phase to equalise for Real Madrid against Manchester United last night, the Red Cross announced that Cristiano Ronaldo is donating €100,000 on behalf of UEFA to help rehabilitate Afghans who have lost limbs, mostly as a result of landmines.
Said Ronaldo: "For me it's a great honour to be able to help others, and it makes me extremely happy to do so."
What a good egg. This is the second time Ronaldo had pledged a wodge of his earnings to the Red Cross orthopedic centers in Afghanistan too, doing likewise back in 2008.
The cynical among you may suggest that it's only a tiny fragment of Ronaldo's salary, but lest we forget that he's under no obligation to give his money away and that €100,000 could make a hell of a difference to a charity like that.


text:
Pl:Visual Tour: Edycja xorg.conf
Welcome to the visual tour part 2 editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I'm going to be using the command line interface and nano to edit my xorg.conf. Before your freak out about the command line interface, it is a necessity to know how to do this. You may find yourself with a system that does not boot and the only fix is to use the command line interface to fix your xorg.conf.
I start by doing Alt F2 and and a run box will come up and I enter into the run box konsole and my konsole session starts up. I need to be root to edit the xorg.conf file. I need to go in and fix my resolution so it fits my screen properly. I enter su and then it will ask me for my password. Now, as I type my password, it will not show any characters on the screen, so just go ahead and type your password and hit enter. Since we are on the live dvd, the root password is root, so I type root and presto. I need to fire up nano now and enter in nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf and yes it is capital sensitive. You have to get the path, spelling and caps exactly correct. Click Images to See Full Sizes.
Now xorg.conf opens up and is ready for editing. I simply scroll down till I find my resolutions. I simply just need to change the "1280x1024".
See how easy this is to do? Who needs a gui? I only need to change the one in this section because I am using the 24 Depth as my default. You can change all the "1280x1024" if you want to. Time to save our changes. Nano's commands are at the bottom of the window. The caret symbol (^) simply means Ctrl key, so all I have to do is hit Ctrl X and it will automatically prompt me with do you want to save changes and you will simply hit Y for yes and then you can simply hit enter when it asks about file name, it will keep it xorg.conf by default. If you use the AMD ATI fglrx video driver, enter the following command:
/opt/bin/aticonfig --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf --tls=1
This is needed because data for fglrx is stored in the file /etc/ati/amdpcsdb, and aticonfig reads the changes you have made to xorg.conf and updates amdpcsdb accordingly.
Now you are back where you started, but you need to restart X to get your new resolution. Many will tell you to just do Ctrl Alt Backspace to restart X. I disagree and only do that when I absolutely have no other choice. Doing that does not save any of your session. It's just not a good thing to do. All you need to do to restart X in a nice and pleasant manner is to enter in /etc/init.d/xdm restart. So go ahead and enter that command.
OMG the blackness! Don't worry, perfectly normal.
We are doing fine, just hold on.
See, told ya. Back to the login box, so simply click the arrow or enter your password and enter.
Now doesn't that look much better? I have my entire screen properly displayed.


text:
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A baróti várat, amely valószínűleg a település határában állott római castrum maradványa lehetett, a középkorban Venczel várának hívták. A települést 1224-ben Boralt néven említik. A vár lábánál feküdt egykor Alsó- vagy Kisbarót. Felső- vagy Nagybarót pedig a Nagyerdő alatt feküdt. A római katolikus templom a 16. században épült. A települést 1658-ban a tatárok dúlták fel, 1709-ben a labancok kirabolták. 1802-ben a földrengés pusztított, melyben a templom is súlyosan megrongálódott és 1817-ben újjá kellett építeni. 1848. december 13-án döntő fontosságú csata zajlott Köpec és Felsőrákos között. Horváth Ignác és Gál Sándor vezette székelyek óriási vereséget mértek a Heydte által vezetett császári csapatokra. 1876-tól járási székhely. 1910-ben 2531 lakosa volt, 30 kivételével mind magyarok. A trianoni békeszerződésig Háromszék vármegye Mikósvári járásához tartozott. Városi rangra 1968-ban emelkedett. http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar%C3%B3t
Transylvania (Romanian: Ardeal or Transilvania; Hungarian: Erdély; German: De-Siebenbürgen.ogg Siebenbürgen (help·info), see also other denominations) is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term frequently encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical regions of Crişana, Maramureş, and (Romanian) Banat.Transylvania was once the nucleus of the Kingdom of Dacia (82 BC–106 AD). In 106 AD the Roman Empire conquered the territory and after that its wealth was systematically exploited. After the Roman legions withdrew in 271 AD, it was overrun by a succession of tribes, which subjected it to various influences. During this time areas of it were under the control of the Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars and Bulgars. Thereafter the Romanized Dacian inhabitants either moved into the mountains and preserved their culture or migrated southward. It is likely that elements of the mixed Daco–Roman population held out in Transylvania.[1] There is an ongoing scholarly debate over the population of Transylvania before the Hungarian conquest[2] (see Origin of the Romanians).The Magyars conquered the area at the end of the 9th century and firmly established their control over it in 1003, when their king Stephen I, according to legend, defeated the native prince entitled or named Gyula.[3][4][5][6] Between 1003 and 1526, Transylvania was a voivodeship of the Kingdom of Hungary, led by a voivod appointed by the Hungarian King. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 Transylvania became effectively an independent principality ruled primarily by Calvinist Hungarian princes. Afterward, in 1566, Hungary was divided between the Habsburgs and the Turks, with the Transylvanian principality maintaining autonomy as an Ottoman subject.The Habsburgs acquired the territory shortly after the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The Habsburgs, however, recognized the Hungarian sovereignty over Transylvania,[1][dubious – discuss] while the Transylvanians recognized the suzerainty of the Habsburg emperor Leopold I (1687), and the region was officially attached to the Habsburg Empire, separated in all but name[7][8] from Habsburg controlled Hungary[9][10][11] and subjected to the direct rule of the emperor's governors.[12] In 1699 the Turks legally conceded their loss of Transylvania in the Treaty of Karlowitz; however, anti-Habsburg elements within the principality only submitted to the emperor in the 1711 Peace of Szatmár. After the Ausgleich of 1867 the region was fully reabsorbed into Hungary [4][6] as a part of the newly established Austro-Hungarian Empire.Following defeat in World War I, Austria-Hungary began to disintegrate. The ethnic Romanian majority elected representatives, who then proclaimed union with Romania on December 1, 1918. In 1920, the Allies confirmed the union in the Treaty of Trianon. Hungary protested against the detach, as over 1,600,000 Hungarian people[13] were living in the area in question, mainly in Szekler Land of Eastern Transylvania, and along the newly created border, which was drawn through areas with Hungarian majority. In August 1940, in the midst of World War II, Hungary regained about 40% of Transylvania by the Vienna Award, with the aid of Germany and Italy. The territory, however, reverted to Romania in 1945; this was confirmed in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties[4].In distant regions, Transylvania is also often associated with Dracula[14][15][16] (Bram Stoker's novel and its film adaptations), and the horror genre in general, while in countries of Central and Eastern Europe the region is known for the scenic beauty of its Carpathian landscape and its rich history.


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Difference between revisions of "LDAP Authentication against AD"
From PostgreSQL wiki
m (drop ownership info, this is a wiki)
|Line 1:
|Line 1:
== Howto SSL enable Postgresql LDAP Authentication against Active Directory ==
== Howto SSL enable Postgresql LDAP Authentication against Active Directory ==
The following instruction applies to Redhat RPM installation.
The following instruction applies to Redhat RPM installation.
Revision as of 19:11, 19 May 2012
Howto SSL enable Postgresql LDAP Authentication against Active Directory
The following instruction applies to Redhat RPM installation.
- Download SRPMs from website and rebuild with --with-ldap flag.
- The binary release from postgresql website does not include LDAP authentication support. If you want LDAP support, you will need build it from the source with a flag: --with-ldap. If you are deploying it to Redhat 4, you can download the source RPM from srpm folder of the release. You can simply add --with-ldap flag into the RPM specification file.
- Install all the needed rpms as root.
- postgresql-8.2.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
- postgresql-libs-8.2.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
- postgresql-server-8.2.3-1PGDG.i386.rpm
- Fix a permission on directory:
- chmod 755 /usr/share/pgsql/timezonesets/
- Initialize the database
- /sbin/service postgresql initdb
- Modify client authentication configuration by editing /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
- # For testing, allow any local user without a password
- # Remote connection for admin and postgres users require a password. Everybody else use LDAP
- # "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
- local all all trust sameuser
- # IPv4 local connections:
- host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust sameuser
- # IPv6 local connections:
- host all all ::1/128 trust sameuser
- # Remote TCP/IP connection
- host all postgres,admin 172.20.0.0/16 password
- host all all 172.20.0.0/16 ldap "ldaps://172.20.13.130/basedn;cn=;,cn=users,dc=concert,dc=music"
- In this configuration, we assume all users are under cn=users,dc=concert,dc=music. Otherwise, user Name defined inside postgresql needs to include ou:
- Jzw,ou=dev
- Note that basedn is ignored in the Postgresql 8.2.3 build, but you will have to put it there in order for it to work. See bug report reference: 3095.
- It is important to use double-quote around ldap url.
- LDAP authentication only verifies user credentials from AD, but the user has to be pre-created inside Postgresql.
- Update /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
- Listen to connections on all IP addresses
- listen_addresses ='*'
- Enable SSL
- Ssl=on
- Listen to connections on all IP addresses
- Generate self-signed key and certificate:
- This is needed for SSL communication between client with DB. Follow the directions on the Postgresql official documentation.
- Create database
- createdb mydb
- Make LDAPs to work with AD
- For the test, you may want to create your self-signed certificate on AD:
- Create Root Certificate Authority
- If you are importing a certificate from Verisign, skip this part and go to part 2 (Import server cert into AD).
- Start the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs applet.
- Click Add/Remove Windows Components to start the Windows Components wizard.
- Click Next when the welcome screen appears.
- When the list of components displays, select the Certificate Services checkbox and click Next.
- Select type Enterprise root CA, and click Next.
- Enter a CA name and other information about the organization, as the screen shows. Click Next.
- Accept the default location for the certificate database (i.e., %systemroot%\System32\CertLog), and click Next.
- If Microsoft IIS is running, the service will stop and a dialog box will display. Click OK.
- A list of files to copy will generate, and the files will install. Service and system configurations will also install. You might need to insert the Windows 2000 Server CD-ROM.
- When the wizard completes, click Finish.
- Import server certificate into Active Directory
- Open Default Group Policy editor. Navigate to Computer configuration->windows settings->security settings->Public key policies->Trusted root certificate authorities.
- Right click on Trusted root certificate authorities and choose import.
- Click on Next and browse to the certificate (.crt file) issued by CA. Click on open.
- Export CA from Active Directory
- Click on Trusted root certificate authorities to open the folder
- Right click on the CA you want to export and choose open
- Click on Details tab and click on copy to file button.
- You will see Certificate export wizard. Click on Next.
- Choose the format to export. For use with OpenSSL (OpenLDAP), choose base-64 encoded X.509 format.
- Copy the file to appropriate location on Redhat 4 server: /etc/openldap/concerto.cer
- Configure LDAPS connection to Active Directory
- Configure ldap.conf and add the following lines:
- TLS_CACERT /etc/openldap/concerto.cer
- TLS_CACERTDIR /etc/openldap/
- # TLS_REQCERT never
- Configure ldap.conf and add the following lines:
- Start DB
- service postgresql start
- Try to connect DB remotely:
- On Windows client, download win32 binary from http://www.postgresql.org. It also includes a .NET library for integrating with .NET client software. Install only psql package.
- Login using password of AD user jzw:
- psql -d mydb -h 172.20.x.x. -U jzw -W
- Make sure one see this line to verify that SSL connection is established between client and DB
- SSL connection (cipher: DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA, bits: 256).
- To verify if SSL is working between Postgresql and AD, you can run tcpdump to see if content is encrypted. I found that psql client does not verify the certificate. Not sure if that is a bug or a default settings.


text:
I want to talk about welfare reform. Liam Byrne won't let me.
Resheath your pens, denizens of the Fourth Estate. This isn't a tale of shadow cabinet ministers cracking down on free expression by humble bag-carriers.
Over the New Year holiday, the forces of Twitter were unleashed on the shadow secretary of state for work and pensions. He knew they would be. He wanted them to be. Otherwise he wouldn't have pre-briefed the Daily Mail in advance of his not-massively-controversial-when-taken-on-its-own Guardian piece on welfare reform. Not being a paper that puts many coins in the nuance meter, the Mail duly obliged with a piece heavy on the rhetoric of 'scroungers', 'cheats' and 'evils'.
The Mail article predicted a fight with 'the left', a prediction that even Old Mother Shipton could probably have managed to get right. Though when the fight immediately came, those ranged against the 'new line' on welfare included large sections of the Labour centre and right as well. Again, Byrne won't mind. Some have said he's a Blairite who still sees getting into a scrap with both the intra- and extra-Labour 'left' (however defined) as a vote winner. Being increasingly disinterested in such labeling, I'll simply describe him as a politician doing what a certain breed of politician has always done – seeking identity through conflict. It's a tactic as old as the hills and generally about as useful for gaining votes as said hills.
Twitter, like the Daily Mail, isn't a great place for nuance. It provided very little over those days. A lot of the condemnation that Byrne received, particularly over the Mail piece, was more than justified. Sure, there's those who can't see the words 'welfare' and 'reform' together on a page and not immediately label the writer as a Thatcherite lickspittle. But there were many who pointed out precisely where the language of 'the scrounger' leads us. To the demonisation of the vast majority of genuine benefit claimants, to finger-pointing, to misplaced blame. To the steadily growing instances of hate crimes against the disabled, to the suicides, to the stigma and to the political space it gives to the forces of reaction in the two governing parties to chip away still further at the welfare settlement.
These, by themselves, are more than good enough reasons not to engage in such easy, throw-away rhetoric, even if the words that appear under your actual byline are far more measured. But there is a further reason: by doing so, you in fact close down the debate on welfare reform and make genuine reform all but impossible. You condemn the British welfare state – the Beveridgian inheritance Byrne proclaims himself to be an heir of – to another decade of managed decline.
Let me be honest – I don't think the British welfare state works. That doesn't mean I want to throw every recipient of benefits on the breadline. For probably somewhere in the region of 99% of claimants, I would be happy to die (metaphorically at least) in the last political ditch to ensure a continued guarantee of those benefits. But I'm not necessarily prepared to offer even so useless a sacrifice for the system that calculates and writes that cheque. The Welfare State is a post-war creature, predicated on full employment, jobs for life, stay-at-home mothers, the nuclear family and predictable cycles of boom and recession. Like a vast, gothic cathedral, it is a magnificent edifice. The very scale and noble purpose of it can make the most secular heart sing. But we've tried patching it up to make it more suitable for the modern age. It's worked in places – the tax credit system is doing a passable job of keeping the rain from leaking through the sacristy roof, for example – but there's only so far this can go.
The British welfare state is inflexible, complex, user-unfriendly, faceless and unpersonalised. When I make those criticisms, that doesn't mean I want a replacement which is less generous or more austere to those in need. In fact, I want to see a system which doesn't lead to billions in benefits going unclaimed – as many have pointed out, that, in terms of scale, is the true scandal, not the relatively limited benefit fraud.
But I also know that one of the key pillars of the post-war welfare settlement is legitimacy in the eyes of the public. I've canvassed enough Labour heartlands (and non-Labour heartlands) to know that this is eroding. A lot of that is due to misreporting and misplaced rhetoric, based on a very limited number of genuine case of welfare state failure. But tell me that the average Labour voter doesn't like the language of 'scroungers' and 'cheats' and I will laugh in your face.
That, however, is not an excuse to perpetrate it. By doing so, we simply enter an arms race with the Tories which we cannot win.
A political party cannot ignore public opinion; nor should it believe it cannot play a part in shaping it. The counsel of despair which is governance by the top-line findings of opinion pollsters leads to a non-courageous style of government which would never, for example, have seen Labour Home Secretaries abolish the death penalty or lower the age of consent. Rather than demonising the old welfare settlement, and particularly not those who depend on it, you address the concerns through a new settlement in which the majority can have confidence.
Soaring unemployment is creating a new influx of welfare state users, from a wide range of social backgrounds, including large numbers of graduates and professionals. Not only does this render a shift to generally abusing welfare recipients as politically short-sighted, it also misses that opportunity to build a new, legitimated, welfare settlement. The 'new unemployed' will quickly discover the shortcomings of the current system – the petty bureaucracy, the low payments, the unwelcoming JobCentrePluses, advisers who, whilst committed, are going to struggle with this influx. They will demand change, improvement. And they have the political clout to do so.
This new unemployment is a personal and economic tragedy, yet it is also a political opportunity to forge a new consensus. A welfare state that is based around work where possible, and a comfortable existence where it isn't; that personalises its offering for each client; that provides genuine training and (properly) paid work opportunities; that doesn't stigmatise or dehumanise the long-term claimant. And yes, maybe Byrne is right to suggest a greater role for the contributory principle – I am not going to attack him for wishing to emulate parts of the often highly successful welfare systems of much of northern Europe.
So, I should be excited by the opportunities for welfare reform, and for my party to be spearheading them. But I'm not. Because instead, Liam Byrne has catapulted us into a pointless, degrading and actually rather childish debate about linguistics. Rather than a victory for those who want to debate welfare reform, even if we don't agree with every dot and comma of Byrne's stance, he has handed a victory on a plate to the conservatives (lower case 'c' intentional) on both left and right who will countenance no reform. He has removed the option of nuance and made it harder for genuine welfare radicals to put their heads above the parapet. And by failing to link in policies on job creation to the narrative on welfare reform, he has left many people shaking their heads as to the disconnect with the most pressing economic debate.
I disagree with Liam Byrne on a lot, but I don't think he's an evil benefit-snatcher. I'm not, as Owen Jones puts it, 'ashamed to share a party card with him'. I joined a broad church party, and by doing so happily accepted that I'd be sharing a card with Byrne. But I thought the leadership had learnt some lessons on the linguistics of welfare reform. To my mind, Ed Miliband's biggest mistake since taking over the leadership was the line in his Coin Street speech in which he appeared to qualify himself to judge a man on incapacity benefits' ability to work. This soured an otherwise thoughtful and intelligent speech on responsibility 'at top and bottom', and rightly caused anger. At party conference, Miliband seemed genuinely contrite and understanding about why that had been an error. I don't think he, personally, will make it again. But he has allowed Byrne off the leash to make that mistake on his part, and by doing so has damaged the prospects of a new welfare settlement being at the heart of Labour's next manifesto, where it belongs.