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MPlayer 1.0rc1 + XvMC Nov 2006
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Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5472
Location: Australia
Posted: Tue 28 Nov 2006, 21:41
Post subject:
MPlayer 1.0rc1 + XvMC Nov 2006
This compilation is focussed on TV input support, plus optimised video out options, and support for modern codecs.
MPlayer XvMC output now works with nVidia graphics cards. I tested it with an nVidia FX5200 card. It turns out that the Unichrome patches from www.openchrome.org break nVidia compatibility, so I have packaged 2 versions; one for nVidia and Intel i810, and another for VIA Unichrome. If you don't have nVidia/i810/Unichrome graphics then it doesn't matter which version you use. Apart from the xvmc feature, the 2 dotpups are identical.
Get them from Mark's site - http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Multimedia/Mplayer-1.0rc1/
- "xvmc" video output for accelerated MPEG2 decoding under Xorg with nVidia/i810/Unichrome 3D drivers.
- "xv" video output for optimised playback (hardware-assisted scaling) under Xorg.
- "x11" video output under Xvesa (not as good as xv+Xorg).
- "gl" video output under Xorg+OpenGL (older).
- "dga2" video output (older).
("vesa" video output failed to compile, "fbdev & "directfb" could not be enabled)
- Inbuilt codecs for MPEG2, XviD, H.264, and AAC.
- External opensource Theora codec.
- External Win32 codecs for WindowsMedia9 and RealVideo10.
- DVB input support, for digital TV tuner cards.
- V4L/V4L2 input support, for most analogue TV tuner cards.
- IVTV input support, for "PVR" analogue TV tuner cards.
- network support, to play streaming audio/video from a server.
- infrared remote control support.
Regarding IVTV:
Most IVTV-compatible TV tuner cards contain MPEG2/4 encoding chips, so the the tuned TV signal can be compressed and saved as a file. These cards are usually identified as "PVR" models. The "pvr" option failed to compile in MPlayer-1.orc1, but I believe that it's possible to simultaneously record a TV signal and watch it with MPlayer at the same time by doing this -
mkfifo test.mpg
cat /dev/v4l/video0 > test.mpg | mplayer test.mpg
Regarding XvMC:
XvMC acceleration was becoming less significant as processors were becoming ever more powerful. Even without graphics hardware assistance, DVD playback and Standard Definition DTV decoding is possible with a modest Pentium2.
But with the growing popularity of High Definition TV, XvMC is useful once again.
XvMC makes it feasible to build Home Theatre/Personal Video Recorder (HTPC) projects from small and quiet computers with modest processors of about 1.5GHz, such as the AMD Geode and maybe(?) VIA Epia. Without XvMC acceleration, the minimum processor requirement for HDTV (1080i spec) is 2.8GHz.
MythTV, the well-regarded Home Theatre application, requires a "back-end" media player, so these MPlayer dotpups are ideal. MythTV's website provides extensive additional information about XvMC here www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/XvMC
There are different levels of XvMC specification:
i) Intel i810 and GeForce4 Ti cards support just the "motion-compensation" level of acceleration.
ii) VIA Unichrome cards have enhanced XvMC features called "vld-xvmc"
iii) nVidia GeForce4 MX cards upwards support "motion-compensation" plus "IDCT" levels of acceleration. This is currently the best possible level of hardware assistance.
In MPlayer XvMC output will only work when the XvMC-specific libavcodec-MPEG-1/2 codec ("ffmpeg12mc") is selected, and this can only be done when MPlayer is launched from the command line, NOT THE GUI. Like this -
mplayer -vo xvmc -vc ffmpeg12mc -fs /path/to/MYMPEG2VIDEO.mpg
("-fs" is for fullscreen)
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Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5472
Location: Australia
Posted: Tue 02 Jan 2007, 09:26
Post subject:
Update Jan 2 2007
DVD menus should now be fixed, with the addition of the libdvdnav library.
And infrared remote control support has been enabled, with the addition of LIRC + LIRC Client Daemon.
The LIRC libraries are contained in the MPlayer dotpup, but the kernel-specific LIRC modules have been packaged separately.
So all LIRC modules and libraries are provided, but LIRC configuration still requires some effort. See -
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Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5472
Location: Australia
Posted: Tue 02 Jan 2007, 22:59
Post subject:
Darn. I just discovered that DVD menu support in MPlayer is currently EXPERIMENTAL.
To see DVD menus, you must launch MPlayer from the commandline like this -
mplayer dvdnav:// -fs
You will briefly see the menu, then immediately the first title will play , followed by all other titles.
Not ideal, but it works.
Apparently you can gain control over menu functions with a multimedia keyboard, but not with the mouse.
I will need to investigate this further.
And as forum member mikeb mentioned, it's a good idea to add "-msglevel all=-1" to avoid filling up /tmp with error messages. So -
mplayer dvdnav:// -fs -msglevel all=-1
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Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5472
Location: Australia
Posted: Fri 12 Jan 2007, 06:05
Post subject:
Update Jan 12 2007:
MPlayer package recompiled with VCD support. Tested successfully with VideoCD's and SuperVideoCD's.
Latest libdvdnav library (pre v0.2.0) is also updated from CVS source. But DVD menus in MPlayer remain less-than-ideal.
My tests show that DVD menus consisting of graphics-only will display just briefly on the screen.
DVD menus containing video content will remain on the screen, and the menu buttons can be selected by the arrow keys on the keyboard numerical keypad; 4 left, 6 right, 8 up, 2 down, keypad Enter to select.
Unfortunately there is no highlighting of the DVD buttons, so it's difficult to know which button you have selected.
I also read in the documents that when launching MPlayer in dvdnav mode you should add the option "-nocache". I don't know why.
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Joined: 20 May 2006
Posts: 7024
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007, 05:59
Post subject:
I get this message:
mplayer: error while loading shared libraries: libXvMCW.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
None of the versions of Puppy that I have have this lib, and I can't find a reference to it on the forum. I've tried stealing it from other distros, but then I get this:
mplayer: relocation error: mplayer: symbol snd_pcm_hw_params_set_rate_resample, version ALSA_0.9 not defined in file libasound.so.2 with link time reference
Does anyone have any suggestions?
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Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5472
Location: Australia
Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007, 06:48
Post subject:
These MPlayer packages were compiled specifically for the Puppy version current at the time - version 2.12. (2.13 and 2.14 will be fine).
libXvMCW.so.1 is the XvMC Wrapper library. Puppy has contained this library ever since Xorg 7.0 was introduced with version 2.10 ... but don't use v2.10, because XvMC requires 3D drivers, and MU's 3D driver wizard only supports v2.12 onwards.
EDIT: I was assuming that you were trying to use the XvMC output option, but now I realise that MPlayer will not launch unless libXvMCW is present. So I have just packaged this library for Puppy versions prior to 2.10, specifically v1.04-2.02.
for Puppy versions 1.04-1.09 & 2.0-2.02
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Joined: 20 May 2006
Posts: 7024
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Sun 11 Feb 2007, 19:06
Post subject:
Thanks, that should be very helpful for other backward people like me that don't use the latest puppy
I don't understand my error message about ALSA at all, and Google doesn't help, but I've been trying to compile it myself, and I notice that the configure script says I have ALSA 1.0.x, not 0.9 like in the error message.
I also now notice this in the terminal output after it tells me all about Mplayer and my processor, and before the warning about not being able to use the remote control I don't have:
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Now for the really bizarre news - if I uninstall the Mplayer dotpup, it then runs perfectly (well - I couldn't figure out how to make it use X11 output, as that is all that works on my computer, but I didn't exactly spend all day trying). Unfortunately when I reboot Puppy (like it says I have to do to finish removing the dotpup) I no longer have Mplayer as it is uninstalled
I think I'll have to go away now or I'll be accused of living on the computer and banned from using it ever again, but I'll come back and try and figure it out, as I was almost finished my custom puppy, and this mplayer version is a vast improvement on the mplayer108 package.
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Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5472
Location: Australia
Posted: Sun 11 Feb 2007, 21:15
Post subject:
You still haven't told us which version of Puppy you're using.
If you're getting error ALSA-related error messages I suspect you have a Puppy version even earlier than v1.08, which is when Puppy transitioned from OSS to ALSA.
Compiling ALSA is a big deal. It would be far easier to just upgrade to a more recent Puppy. If you want to stick with the 1.x series, at least use 1.09.
disciple wrote:
I couldn't figure out how to make it use X11 output
Version 1.09 has Xorg, so you will be able to use xv output, and this will give you much better video performance than x11 output.
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Joined: 20 May 2006
Posts: 7024
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Mon 12 Feb 2007, 03:21
Post subject: So close and yet so far
Sorry about that. I'm actually using Grafpup (based on 1.04 I think), so I have ALSA. I was also trying with 2.x Puppy versions (pre 2.10) before, but presumably they would work now (with X11 output and your XVMCW package). But I do know there must be a way of making this work in Grafpup because:
- like I said before I had both dotpups installed and then uninstalled, but without rebooting, then later forgot they were uninstalled, ran Mplayer from the menu, and it played everything perfectly with sound, but with a bright green blank video - the video is the same as what I see in VLC with the output set to a couple of the other options - only X11 works on my computer - even though you mentioned in the VLC thread that X11 is for Xvesa and I am using XORG.
- I just tried installing and then uninstalling without rebooting (in my pup001 backup from just before I initially tried this version of Mplayer) to see if it would work again, but for some reason it didn't - I still get the same message about ALSA. This time I actually read the readme properly and found out how to use X11 output, and I also tried telling it to use OSS sound because of the ALSA message. Now it plays video perfectly but with no sound (because I have no OSS).
So at the moment I have video but no sound, but I know the sound can work, so will keep trying.
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Joined: 20 May 2006
Posts: 7024
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Mon 12 Feb 2007, 22:33
Post subject:
Working :)!
OK now everything works if I tell it to use X11 and OSS. I can't fathom why I had no sound before, but it's all good now. I'm pretty sure Grafpup only has ALSA and it is just emulating OSS - in GXINE sound also works with 'ESD' - but whatever it is it works for me.
I followed the instructions in the Mplayer documentation to see if my computer can use XV, and it is supposed to be able to - but it certainly does not work.
Even though X11 output should support software scaling, it does not work
but it does work in Gxine, which can now play all the files it couldn't play before, like FLV and WMV9. I'm pretty sure scaling worked in mplayer108, and apart from this Mplayer seems to work a lot better than Gxine (faster / smoother playback)
EDIT - I have found that XV works on 1024x768 16 bit display settings - but I use 1280x1024 24 bit as it is my LCD monitor's native resolution
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Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 162
Posted: Sat 24 Feb 2007, 02:36
Post subject:
The link is broken for the dotpup download. Maybe we need a PET package.
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Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 5472
Location: Australia
Posted: Tue 27 Feb 2007, 09:01
Post subject:
Temporary link http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups/Multimedia/Mplayer-1.0rc1/
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Joined: 20 May 2006
Posts: 7024
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu 08 Mar 2007, 21:50
Post subject:
This is interesting. I replaced libasound.so.2.0.0 with the (smaller) one from Puppy 2.13, and now it works with alsa output. But now I can only get sound from one file at a time (regardless of media player) - I get messages about not being able to open the audio device...
Apart from that though, there seems to be no difference in functionality!?
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Joined: 12 Sep 2007
Posts: 26
Location: Düsseldorf, Germany
Posted: Sun 27 Apr 2008, 11:18
Post subject: MPlayer with puppy 4
When starting mplayer1.0rc1 in a terminal of puppy 4b2:
error while loading shared libraries: libXxf86dga.so.1:
no such file or directory
So do we need a new package for the new puppy?
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Joined: 05 May 2007
Posts: 11249
Location: Ontario Canada,Sydney Australia
Posted: Sun 27 Apr 2008, 11:43
Post subject: Re: MPlayer with puppy 4
GeorgR wrote:
When starting mplayer1.0rc1 in a terminal of puppy 4b2:
error while loading shared libraries: libXxf86dga.so.1:
no such file or directory
So do we need a new package for the new puppy?
well I made a missing lib package for you, if your missing anymore libs just shout.
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<-- Codec Test Files
<-- excellent HTML5 games
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==Bio Info== '''Titles:''' Prince Cor, King Cor of Archenland '''Age:''' 14 '''Species:''' Son of Adam, Archenlander '''Home:''' Archenland '''Physical Description:''' Fairhaired and light-skinned '''Tools:''' Thornbut's armor and sword '''First Appearance:''' ''The Horse and His Boy'', Ch. 1 (1954), first referenced in ''The Silver Chair'', Ch. 3 (1953) ==Appearances== ===~ The Horse and His Boy ~ (1954)=== [[File:3773.jpg|left]]Shasta has grown up as the adopted son of a Calormene fisherman named Arsheesh. One day a high-ranking Tarkaan rides up and demands hospitality for the night. Shasta overhears the Tarkaan's offer to buy him and and begins wondering what his life might be like. As he debates with himself, he says out loud to the Tarkaan's horse, "I wish you could talk" — to which the horse replies, "But I can." The horse [[Bree]] warns him that his master is a cruel man, and they decide to run away together. A few nights later, while trying to escape some lions, [[Bree]] and Shasta meet up with [[Aravis]] and [[Hwin]] and make plans to travel together. Upon arriving in the city of Tashbaan, Shasta is mistaken for a runaway prince by King [[Edmund Pevensie|Edmund]] of Narnia. He is forced to go along with the Narnian lords under that mistaken identity, and overhears their plan to leave Calormen secretly. That evening Shasta escapes to the rendezvous point outside the city, the Tombs of the Ancient Kings. A large cat keeps him warm, and, though he does not know it, protects him from the jackals as well. The next day, [[Bree]], [[Hwin]], and [[Aravis]] arrive and they start their trek across the desert, trying to warn the Archenlanders in time about [[Rabadash]]'s impending attack. As they are racing along, another lion appears and attacks [[Aravis]] just as they are reaching the home of the [[Hermit of the Southern March]]. Though unarmed, Shasta runs back yelling at the lion to "Go home." To his surprise, the lion does so. As Shasta enters the gates, the Hermit meets him and tells him that the horses are spent and that Shasta must run on foot to find [[King Lune]]. Though exhausted, Shasta runs on, eventually meeting up with [[King Lune]]'s hunting party. As they ride to Anvard, Shasta falls behind, not knowing how to manage a dumb horse. While he is bemoaning his ill luck, he suddenly realizes he is not alone. [[Aslan]] the Lion is walking beside him and tells Shasta of his history and how He was the Lion who brought Shasta and [[Aravis]] together (as well as many other things). When Shasta finally arrives at Anvard, he meets up with [[Corin]], who drags him into the battle. Shasta survives and shortly afterwards learns that he is the long-lost eldest son of [[King Lune]] and [[Corin]]'s twin, and that his real name is Cor. Shasta and [[Aravis]] eventually get married and their son, Ram the Great, becomes Archenland's most famous king. ===~ The Last Battle ~ (1956)=== [[File:3774.jpg|left]]Cor (Shasta) is there to welcome the friends of Narnia at the final reunion. ==About Shasta== Though he grew up in the harsh Calormene culture, Shasta has always been drawn to stories of the lands in the North where the "barbarians" live. Though by nature somewhat cautious, Shasta takes a risk to run away with [[Bree]] and does not hesitate when he turns back to face the lion and save [[Aravis]]. Throughout their journey Shasta demonstrates loyalty and courage on many occasions, though he is not immune to self-pity and calls himself unlucky many times. He is quite abashed when learns he is the heir to the throne of Archenland, and his humble upbringing and exposure to Calormene culture as a fisherman's son have done much to fit him for the crown. Shasta is calmer and more sensible than his twin [[Corin]], and it is clear he will become a wise and responsible ruler. ==Quotes== *"I wish you could talk, old fellow." (HHB Ch. 1) *"Oh hurrah! Then we'll go North. I've been longing to go to the North all my life." (HHB, Ch. 1) *"Why don't you say at once that you think I'm not good enough for you?" (HHB Ch. 2) *"I'm nobody, nobody in particular, I mean. King [[Edmund Pevensie|Edmund]] caught me in the street and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one another." (HHB Ch. 5) *"Oh, Puss. I am so glad to see you again. I've been having such horrible dreams. I'll never do anything nasty to a cat again as long as I live." (HHB Ch. 6) *"I do think that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. Everything goes right for everyone except me." (HHB Ch. 11) *"I must have come through the pass in the night. What luck that I hit it! - at least it wasn't luck at all really, it was Him. And now I'm in Narnia." (HHB, Ch. 12) *"Look here, [[Aravis]], I do hope you won't think I'm got up like this (and the trumpeter and all) to try to impress you or make out that I'm different or any rot of that sort." (HHB Ch. 14) ==Portrayals== *Jonny Scott: Focus on the Family Radio Theater, 1999 – 2002 *James Graves: BBC Radio Tales of Narnia
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text:
Monday, September 1, 2008
France Ready To Expand Drug Policy
When ESPN.com writer Ryan McGee penned a story about Aaron Fike, it took many fans and NASCAR team members by surprise. The words "heroin" and "NASCAR" had not really been heard together before. Click here to read the story.
When McGee appeared on ESPN2's NASCAR Now and spoke about the reality of this Craftsman Truck Series driver using illegal drugs on race day, it shook the sport to its core.
In a follow-up column (click here), we tried to motivate the NASCAR Now reporters to keep this story on the front burner. Unexpectedly, we got some very strong help from many Sprint Cup drivers who did not mince words when asking for a random testing policy on race weekends.
Owners like Rusty Wallace and Ray Evernham talked about their existing drug testing policies and how the world had changed from a time when hangovers from a late night at the bar were often a driver's only challenge.
The drivers recently banned for life or suspended from the sport are a diverse bunch. Their drugs of choice were also diverse. While this story had a shelf-life of a couple of weeks, it faded into oblivion because of NASCAR's stalling tactics where a modern drug testing policy was concerned.
One point to remember in all of this is how much time and effort ESPN recently spent on speculating about driver changes and posting "good guesses" online about where someone like Ryan Newman or Martin Truex Jr. was going just to "scoop" the competition.
The second point is how SPEED ignored the drug testing issue except for a brief mention on RaceDay and a comment on Wind Tunnel. SPEED has no dedicated news program that focuses on NASCAR during the week and on the weekend the focus is on the happenings at the racetrack.
Hopefully, the company where you work has a random drug testing policy and offers confidential assistance to those who fall into the pattern of addiction. Most of us had to be screened and agree to random testing even prior to our first entry-level jobs.
This issue is not about steroids. It is not about taking amphetamines before a race like baseball players do before a game. It is not about pain-killers for a nagging injury when an athlete makes the decision to take an injection and then play.
The question raised by McGee and pursued briefly by the media was about the use of illegal or prescription drugs and the effect on the workplace. In this case, the workplace happens to be going very fast and pit road happens to be very dangerous.
France talked to veteran reporter Jim Utter of thatsracin.com on Sunday. "We will be looking at broadening testing, even though we have a lot of latitude today," said France. "We're going to broaden it. The circumstances around all of sports have changed in the past three, four or five years. We need to be mindful of that."
As some media observers note, France and NASCAR have not been mindful of that in the past and were considering no changes until the ESPN the Magazine article and NASCAR Now appearance by McGee shocked the sport. Heroin is a strong word. It is made stronger when the addict was racing with the drug in his system in a top level professional NASCAR event.
Perhaps the E:60 news magazine or Outside the Lines program with Bob Ley would be a good place for France or Mike Helton to present themselves to the fans and explain what they are about to change for 2009 and why it took the media to force these changes.
Fike told McGee that no one from NASCAR had ever followed-up about his addiction problems since his heroin arrest. Maybe, the reality of random testing would have saved Fike's career. The one thing the arrest did trigger was a "moment of clarity" for NASCAR itself.
Now, Mr. France and the NASCAR executives are very slowly coming out of "denial" and being forced to deal with the reality of addiction for the first time. We wish them luck in their recovery.
The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
25 comments:
- Anonymous said...
I would make the drug policy simple. I would have a mandatory drug test for any driver that either wrecks or wins. If you do it with no exceptions and it is administered independently with the tester having no idea as to who the test is for, it would be seen as fair (as if that ever mattered to NA$CAR).
- September 1, 2008 at 1:28 PM
- Dot said...
What prompted the turn around?
I agree w/Ken, test after crashing or winning. If you get hurt on the job here in NV, they test you. Benefits denied if you test dirty.
- September 1, 2008 at 1:53 PM
- Geeze said...
If you test after a cash, that isn't doing much for prevention. It's a little late. Most large company's have random drug testing. Even for people who sit at a desk for a living.
It would seem to me that what the driver's do for a living poses a bit more danger working under the influence of drug's. A few of the team owner's have said they have testing, but not what type and whom they are testing.
I would think it would be the driver's employer who is responsible for random testing. Just like any other business. Only if there is a hesitance or refusal to do so should NASCAR become involved and basically say "Random test your drivers or your not racing".
- September 1, 2008 at 2:28 PM
- majorshouse said...
This is not the first time that NASCAR has buried its head in the sand. A prime example was the safety issue especially where seat belts were mounted and the issue of the safer barriers and it took the death of Dale Earnhardt to open their eyes. I think it is time that Bryan France got his head out of the sand and really addressed this problema nd it is sad that a few team owners like Kevin Harvick have had to be so vocal int he media to even get NASCAR's attention.
- September 1, 2008 at 3:04 PM
- majorshouse said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- September 1, 2008 at 3:06 PM
- Anonymous said...
Geez, Making the employer responsible would be the worst possible way to do it. The employer would not disclose a problem for fear of losing their sponsorship and/or their star driver. If they found drug use with one of NA$CAR's "stars" and didn't let him run or gave him other punishment, it would get out immediately.
If NA$CAR did random testing, do you really think it would be random? It has to be something that NA$CAR is unfamiliar with--"SET IN STONE". Maybe it should be set by qualifying. Every 5th or 4th or 8th or some number drawn from a hat after qualifying. That would make it random with no room for fudging.
- September 1, 2008 at 5:10 PM
- Anonymous said...
This seems like more of a critique of NASCAS's policies and less of a review of a NASCAR broadcast. What say you, JD?
- September 1, 2008 at 7:50 PM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
The non-event contingent of NASCAR TV is just as important as the networks providing the event coverage.
Neither the Nationwide or Truck Series have any TV programs dedicated to them, so shows like NN and RaceDay have to serve several purposes.
On interesting element should be if Tradin' Paint covers this subject, which they have avoided.
- September 1, 2008 at 8:06 PM
- Rockin Rich said...
Who is the guy in the UVA cap, (1st on left)? I think it may be the Busch driver accused a couple of years ago. I am not guessing his name because I don't want to wrongly associate a name I may be incorrect about.
- September 1, 2008 at 8:28 PM
- Anonymous said...
i stated my opinion about nascar's drug testing policy several months ago in the linked blog column when the aaron fike article first appeared. i'm going to sit on my hands untili have the opportunity to read the policy released by helton et. al.
that being said: i continue to have a problem with helton talking about having "alot of latitude" and "we're going to broaden it." what i would suggest is that they work toward removing any ambiguity from the policy, make it consistent in its application and have clear and specific consequences. i'm not hearing that yet: the same soft and fuzzy terms continue to be quoted.
and in all honesty? i don't expect to read that the vague "policy" is being nailed down and will be exceedingly surprised if i do.
it is also pretty damning to me that fike says no one from nascar has been in touch with him since he was suspended. out of sight, out of mind?
- September 1, 2008 at 8:47 PM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
The photos above represent the transition of Mr. Fike from a teenager to a healthy man in his 20's. Then, the heroin use (spoon) results in the mug shot that is next when he was arrested.
All three are Fike.
- September 1, 2008 at 9:11 PM
- Rockin Rich said...
Thanks. That wasn't what I was thinking, as I stated in my post.
I had a Richmond, Va. area person in mind. Actually, now that I ponder on it, That guy might be back in racing at the regional level. If so, bringing up his name again serves no good purpose.
- September 1, 2008 at 10:23 PM
- Lisa Hogan said...
I'm not sure why NASCAR would be expected to contact Fike. He's gone.
If someone is working to get back into NASCAR, then there is contact.
Quite frankly, I'm still on the fence about Fike's statement that he used heroin during a race. He had lied. So when does one believe any of his statements?
My opinion is not going to influence NASCAR policy one way or the other. I'm in a "wait and see" mode.
- September 2, 2008 at 8:03 AM
- Anonymous said...
hey lisa! fike's been suspended, not banned, by nascar and has been working on getting reinstated by them. he's currently racing usac. that's a whole bunch different than shane hmiel, who's been banned for life and has no chance at ever racing in a nascar sponsored event again (altho' he, too is currently racing.)
given that nascar did not ban him, that he has undergone rehab and is being tested every week, i would have thought nascar would have at the very least kept in touch. guess not.
- September 2, 2008 at 10:18 AM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
Fike was arrested first and his team suspended him.
NASCAR never talked to him or did a follow-up about his circumstances while involved in the sport or at the track racing.
When McGee approached him, Fike was through rehab and working on putting things back together.
He did the interview to get the facts out and wake-up the slumber of denial by the NASCAR brass.
I think it did the job.
As was mentioned, Fike is currently sober and racing in the USAC series in the Midwest.
- September 2, 2008 at 10:48 AM
- Lisa Hogan said...
With all due respect, I say he's gone.
- September 2, 2008 at 10:59 AM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
Well, it must be nice to come from a family where no one has ever had a drug or alcohol addiction issue.
I wish I could say the same.
- September 2, 2008 at 11:01 AM
- Lisa Hogan said...
JD-if that was aimed at me, I don't get the connection. I'm talking about one driver being out of NASCAR.
- September 2, 2008 at 11:04 AM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
One part of a comprehensive addiction program is the pathway to a second chance.
We cannot judge how Fike got involved with this drug, we can only judge his commitment to recover and resume his life and career.
Perhaps, his presence in the NASCAR garage might serve as reminder of the fact that a second chance can turn someone's life completely around.
- September 2, 2008 at 12:17 PM
- Lisa Hogan said...
Since you know very little about me or my family, I thought your comment to me was hostile. All I did was post a comment about the column subject.
I posted my opinion that Fike is gone from NASCAR. This is not a personal wish. This is my opinion of NASCAR's stance.
I will refrain from posting comments on any future drug related columns you might write.
- September 2, 2008 at 12:57 PM
- Anonymous said...
I've got to kind of agree, I don't see this as a media commentary, but a policy commentary. Either way, I'll bite and see if you understand my point.
NASCAR treads a fine line of mandating its "contestants" and "independent contractors" take drug tests. Think about it this way, you run a construction company and use a labor hall (Labor Ready) for your temporary employee needs. Why would you test those employees at a cost to you when you have no reason to believe the owners wouldn't test their drivers. What I'm getting at on this deal is NASCAR needs to be careful not to slip into a quagmire where the drivers are all of a sudden employees of NASCAR or dare I say, unionize. I don't think the new breed of drivers are as scared of the France family as the older drivers were of Big Bill in the Curtis Turner/Tim Flock/Teamsters days. When a driver 50th in points has winnings of over $750K where's the fear?
Now, that being said, I seriously doubt that Rick Hendrick and his dealerships; Penske and his people; Childress and his vineyard staff do not require drug testing in order to work. I know that for most reputable car dealerships down in Florida, they make you give a hair sample prior to employment. Why wouldn't the owners with so much riding on their reputations, not mandate testing for their crews, from the hauler driver to the stock car driver? NASCAR has had a very charmed life in its nearly 60 years. Between the Grant issue and others like sagging gate numbers, down tv numbers, boring racing, and now drug testing, it would behoove NASCAR to proact instead of sitting back. I know Helton like to say, "We're not going to react for the sake of acting" but to me, doing nothing is a hundred times worse.
Also, John, your shot at the one girl was rather petty. There's not one set way to rehabilitate drug abusers, alcoholics, kleptomaniacs, etc. Some need the nurturing Mother Hen treatment, others need the scared straight approach and there are many other ways people deal with these issues. Just because you have an issue in your family in my humble opinion does not give you the right to lash out at someone like that. I personally think Lisa is right in that Fike will likely be persona non grata in NASCAR garages. You see a big name owner who'd risk it all to sign him up? Hell, these guys won't touch drivers with multiple concussions like a Craven, Steve Park, or Jerry Nadeau, why the hell would they hire a drug addict. You're NEVER a recovered drug addict, just like you're NEVER a recovered alcoholic.
You know damn well NASCAR is a very narrow-minded community and when someone opens pandora's box and breaks the "what goes on in the garage stays in the garage" code, they are dead to everyone in the garage. I'm shocked he got into ARCA, but that's as high as he'll go unless you have an owner with a major set of brass ones
- September 2, 2008 at 2:53 PM
- Anonymous said...
"Think about it this way, you run a construction company and use a labor hall (Labor Ready) for your temporary employee needs. Why would you test those employees at a cost to you when you have no reason to believe the owners wouldn't test their drivers."
Kinda got spun up in my rant. I meant to say why would a construction company test temporary employees, which esentially NASCAR drivers are, when the cost burden should be placed on the team owners?
- September 2, 2008 at 3:16 PM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
Anon 2:53PM,
"There is not one set way to rehabilitate drug users."
There are thousands of rehab facilities across the nation that serve millions of Americans with addiction problems every year.
One of the reasons ESPN should have been vigilant in this cause is because ESPN has experienced a higher than normal rate of addiction over the years as a company.
If Fike had been tracked by NASCAR and brought back as someone who was actively in recovery, it would have set an example of NASCAR as a group in-tune with the times.
Instead, as France admitted, they are several years behind.
Lisa has very forceful opinions that I have always respected. In this case, I have one too.
In talking about his addiction, Fike said if NASCAR actively tested all three series it would be a surprise they would never forget.
Perhaps, in 2009 we will see if that happens before a life is lost.
- September 2, 2008 at 4:15 PM
- Anonymous said...
JD, no use preaching to a lot of the fans out there. Some people just are so damn lucky, as to having the "perfect family" tree.
I love the comment above about the "union" in Na$car...that really makes me laugh. As I have always said, Na$car just never does wrong, it's the rest of us that do..
I also agree about Brian France and how the drivers see him as to Bill and Grandaddy France would rip their a%%..
- September 2, 2008 at 11:33 PM
- Anonymous said...
Maybe Nascar has been waiting for the major players (drivers and crew chiefs) to clean-up first.
this might hilight why some drivers and crew chiefs have been acting and performing different lately. JMO
- September 2, 2008 at 11:58 PM


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Homemade grenadine is simple to make and well worth the effort.
8 oz. pomegranate juice
1 cup superfine or baker's sugar
2 oz. pomegranate molasses (available at most Asian markets)
1–3 tsp. orange flower water, optional
1 oz. vodka, optional
Mix pomegranate juice and sugar in a bottle or jar and shake until sugar is dissolved. Add the pomegranate molasses and shake well (it will dissolve faster if the juice is at room temperature); the molasses thickens and sweetens the syrup while lending a deeper, fruitier flavor. For an added flavor dimension, mix in a little orange flower water to taste. You can also add an ounce of vodka or grain alcohol as a preservative. Refrigerate and use within 2 weeks. You can freeze any extra for future use.


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this is going to be a pretty simple walk through on installing newsbin on linux because its a pretty simple process these days ill be modifying and adding to this post as i get more tips and feedback from users.
so let us begin
1. 1st install wine from your favorite linux distro. im not going to give instructions on installing it since there are so many different commands depending on the distro you use. just open up a package manager and find "wine" if you are having problems with your version of wine or want a more updated wine. head over to https://www.winehq.org/download and add the wine repo. myself im using http://antergos.com which uses http://www.archlinux.org repos so the wine is pretty current. if you are a new user of linux my advice would be to start out with Ubuntu. lots of different versions to choose from depending on your desktop preference. here is a link to them all http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu-flavours
2. now lets go get Newsbin http://www.newsbin.com/freetrial.php you will want the "ALTERNATE INSTALLER" its down the page a little bit. now go to your download folder and right click the newsbin installer and select open with wine command. it should just be a normal install after that.
3. now to run wine. depending on your distro it will make a shortcut in your programs section but if not you can easily run newsbin by going to the terminal and copy paste
- Code: Select all
wine /home/yourlinuxusernamerightinhere/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Newsbin/NewsbinPro64.exe
4. UnRar and Par2. these shouldn't be needed as newsbin should take care of that but if you do have some files that need to be extracted. Linux has the tools to do it. in your software manager look for "Unrar" "par2" most Distros will come up with Archive manager that will handle the rest.
thats it!


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One of our true favorites from the very start. Back in 1999, we were thrilled to have found one of the finest artisans who was producing exactly the type of product we were looking for. Years later, we still think the blood orange is extraordinary! This classic marmalade is incomparable - a simple combination of fruit, sugar and lemon juice. It's distinguished by the unique berry-like flavor and deep color of ripe organic California blood oranges. Eat it with a spoon! Try it, and we think you will love it as much as we do. Serving Suggestions Enjoy a generous spoonful on scones or muffins or English muffins, and try it warmed over rice pudding. Also makes a vivid presentation as a glaze for roast duck. About June Taylor For June, everything starts with the fruit, or more accurately, fruits: she uses 50 to 60 different varieties in creating her products! Her fruit is organic, nearly all grown locally (in California), and she is passionate about high quality and excellent flavor, so if a particular fruit is having a substandard year, she will pass on it that season and try something else. June has a relationship of trust with the farmers who produce fruit for her, and they understand her rigorous quality standards. She insists on small, completely hand-produced batches of her products. The process is involved and labor-intensive, but once you've tasted her preserves and marmalades, you may wonder why anyone does it differently. Even the lovely letterpress labels for her jars are applied by hand. June specializes in heirloom and other forgotten fruits, those ignored by companies, large and small, whose product profiles are set in stone. The fruit is hand-cut and then cooked, quickly, to maintain maximum flavor. June adds only minimal amounts of sugar and only the fruit's natural pectin, basing her methods not on a formula but on taste and flavor, and so each batch is different. She would rather produce a soft-set marmalade in which the fruit shines through than meet an industrial, artificial expectation of how stiff it should be.
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Celebrating five years of the Anglo-Celtic-Connections blog.
There are 2,865 posts in the blog archive. Want to find out if a topic has been covered? However you get the blog, from the site, via RSS or email, the easiest way to find past materials is to do a Google site search.
1) Go to Google Advanced Search at http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
2) As appropriate enter your search term in the boxes beside "all these words", "this exact wording or phrase" and/or "one or more of these words"
3) Beside "Search within a site or domain" enter http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/
4) Click Advanced Search at the bottom right.
Each time you read a blog item that's one step closer to the 350,000 total page views milestone the blog should reach by the end of the month.
Thank you for reading Anglo-Celtic-Connections
Monday, 14 March 2011
Celebrating today
Celebrating five years of the Anglo-Celtic-Connections blog.
4 comments:
- CMA said...
Congratulations John. I have been getting updates from Anglo-Celtic Connections via Google Reader for some time now. I always find your postings interesting.
- 14 March, 2011 10:17
- Thomas MacEntee said...
Congratulations John - a well-deserved blogiversary celebration!
- 14 March, 2011 11:32
- Chris Paton said...
Congratulations John, here's to 5 more years!
- 14 March, 2011 12:04
- BDM said...
An auspicious occasion that should have produced cake and candles from your many followers!Congratulations, John, on a remarkable 2,865 posts!
See you soon,
- 16 March, 2011 00:24


text:
Team works to develop collaborative intelligent agents to monitor networks
Imagine being able to deploy an army of software robots intelligent enough to cooperate with one another to monitor and defend the largest networks. Instead of independent devices doing a single task and reporting to a central console, the cybots would collaborate to accomplish their missions.
That is the goal of the Ubiquitous Network Transient Autonomous Mission Entities program that a team of researchers is developing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
"UNTAME is a distributed, intelligent framework," said Joe Trien of the lab's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division. The prototype network supports existing commercial tools and security devices, enabling traditional point-to-point solutions to cooperate and provide situational awareness and response capabilities in near real time.
UNTAME is the product of a long-term program by the division's Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Group to develop futuristic security functionality for increasingly large, complex environments. The cybots differ from traditional software agents in that they form a collective and are aware of the condition and activities of other cybots in the collective.
"You give it a mission and tools to work with, such as mobility and intrusion sensors, and it uses those tools and cooperates with other cybots to accomplish the mission," said Lawrence MacIntyre, one of the project's developers.
"A cybot is more intelligent than an agent," said Trien, the team's leader. "When you lose an agent, you've lost it. But a cybot is intended to work with other cybots, continue their mission or regenerate when necessary so they can pick up where one left off."
The advantage of an autonomous system that can work across an enterprise is clear, but it's not a concept that commercial product developers have embraced, MacIntyre said.
"Most enterprise-capable solutions are centrist," he said. "They want a single point of control."
The concept of mobile, autonomous software is a little frightening, Trien said.
"When you tell people you've got this software that roams, the first thing they think of is a worm," he said.
But Trien prefers to think of UNTAME as similar to the Borg, the cyborg collective in the TV show "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that swept the galaxy assimilating other cultures. But UNTAME is not malicious: Cybots are bound by their mission directives, which could include jobs such as network monitoring and discovery, intrusion detection, and data management.
So far, there is little danger of the cybots getting out of control.
"UNTAME at this point is a prototype system," Trien said. "It has only been tested in an isolated lab network."
There are challenges to taking the system to the next level and demonstrating it on an operational network, Trien said. UNTAME will need to operate with little network overhead so that it is transparent. Someone will need to scrutinize the code until it has reached the "almost shrink-wrapped" stage, and the cybots must be tested to ensure that they do not do anything unexpected, he said.
"We don't want to launch UNTAME on a real network and find it shuts everything down," Trien said.
Those activities will require more resources than the Oak Ridge group has, and the developers are hoping to find funding to advance the project. They have been in touch with the Air Force Research Laboratory but have not yet gotten any commitments.
"We think that with appropriate resources, we could have this out in two years," Trien said. "We've spent 10 years doing this."
He said there is some urgency in developing UNTAME. "We know we can do this," he said. "That means other people can do it." U.S. government officials assume that other countries are working on cyber warfare capabilities. "If we don't deploy this to defend the enterprise, someone else could turn this around and use it as an offensive weapon."
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Kannapolis, the Sox Low-A affiliate, put up a chubby 5.12 ERA in 2007. In 2008, it dropped more than a full point to 4.08. And here in 2009, it dropped 80 more points to 3.24, 2nd best in the South Atlantic League by just .01. They were also 2nd in strikeouts, 2nd in WHIP, and led the league with 15 shutouts. Not surprisingly they finished the season at 82-57, best record in the 16-team league, despite being below the median in most offensive categories. And the pitching staff that achieved this was filled mostly with players drafted or signed since the 2008 June draft, not much more than a year ago. …
October 2, 2009
A look at Kannapolis' pitching staff
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text:
Don't underestimate Ann Romney.
The basic facts of Mrs. Romney's life – a wealthy childhood; years as a stay-at-home mother to five sons in lieu of a career; a passionate interest in the expensive sport of dressage horseback riding – can convey an impression that those who know her say is at odds with the reality.
The relatively conventional, privileged veneer masks a steel determination, say friends and acquaintances. And she has frequently defied expectations, first by opting as a teenager to convert to the Mormon faith, then forgoing a career and choosing a large family, against the wishes of her parents and at a time and place when many women of her generation were entering the workforce. She fought back from a devastating diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in the late 1990s to a point, now, where she seems the picture of health and has managed to keep the disease in remission.
"She has a very strong backbone," says Margaret Wheelwright, a close friend of Romney who was a neighbor and fellow church member in Belmont, Mass., for about 20 years, before she moved to Hawaii with her husband, president of Brigham Young University's Hawaii campus. "When she decides something, she goes for it all the way."
Tuesday night, she will speak to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., tasked with showing that her husband is more than the cardboard cutout he can sometimes appear to be on the campaign trail. Blonde and attractive, she is a familiar presence at Mitt Romney's side, but she can also be a bit of an enigma.
She's gracious and maternal, happy to share recipes and talk about her children and grandchildren. But she can also come across as elitist and out of touch with the average American – even more than her husband – and her defenses flare up when she believes she or her family is under attack.
Unlike some political marriages, in which spouses offer teasing and even unflattering tidbits to reporters to humanize their home life (Michelle Obama did this so much she was criticized for "emasculating" her husband), the Romneys have famously claimed never to have fought.
Mr. Romney is adoring of Mrs. Romney and has said she helps anchor him. He was the first Massachusetts governor to request that his wife be included in his official portrait (in a picture on his desk). Mrs. Romney believes her husband can save America. And she accepts her own position as an irreplaceable muse.
"We are partners, true partners in every sense of the way," Mrs. Romney said in a CBS News interview recently. "I don't think he could do it without me. I don't believe he could. I couldn't obviously be here without him, either."
Ann grew up in the same sheltered Michigan town that Mitt did, and attended the private Kingswood School – the sister school to Mitt's Cranbrook School. Ann was 15 when she met Mitt (she is two years younger than he), and they soon fell in love.
Ann was the daughter of a self-made Welsh businessman (also the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., mayor) who had grown up in a coal-mining family and disdained organized religion. But at age 17, while Mitt was serving his 2-1/2 years of missionary service in France, she decided to convert to Mormonism, and then enrolled at Brigham Young University. Mitt's father, the governor of Michigan at the time, baptized her.
Ann has said repeatedly that her conversion had little to do with dating Mitt, and more to do with her own spiritual quest. Her two brothers later converted as well, as did her mother, shortly before her death in 1993.
"They don't talk about it a lot, because it's a very private thing for them, but when you're with them you know they're truly people of faith," says Mrs. Wheelwright.
When Mitt returned from France, Ann was among those who met him at the airport. During the drive home, they got engaged.
Ann's decision to get married at 19 and to start a family right away (their first son, Tagg, was born on their first wedding anniversary) raised concern among her parents.
Her mother, who believed in zero population growth, was unhappy that Ann left school to move to the Boston area with Mitt, and that they were having so many children so quickly, and so young, says Ronald Scott, author of "Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and his Politics" and a distant cousin.
"Her mom in the 1970s is grumbling about the fact that [Ann] has converted to Mormonism and drunk the Kool-Aid, and it finally gets to the point where Ann says, 'If you want to have a relationship with your grandchildren, cut it out,' " says Mr. Scott.
Not only did she stand up to her mother, he adds, but she also went on to finish her degree, taking night classes at Harvard's Extension School. "This is a person who is her own person," Scott says. "She didn't need to finish her degree, but she did."
Romney has said she often felt on the defensive about her decision to forgo a career and be a stay-at-home mother to five kids in Boston in the 1970s.
"My parents were questioning my choices, my peers were," she told The New York Times this summer. "But … I was pretty resolute."
This spring, the subject came up again, when Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen made the mistake of criticizing Mrs. Romney in a television interview, saying that she had "never worked a day in her life."
The remark caused a brief firestorm, and Romney took to Twitter to defend herself.
"I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work," she tweeted.
Ms. Rosen apologized, and the Obama campaign quickly distanced itself from her, denounced her remarks, and emphasized that Rosen wasn't working with the campaign.
By all accounts, Romney was a devoted mother – and a busy one. Her five boys were born in the space of 11 years, and Romney raised them largely without help. (She also suffered a miscarriage, several months into the pregnancy, between the births of her fourth and fifth sons.)
"She is a fabulous mother and grandmother," says Wheelwright, who also had five children about the age of the Romney boys, and used to spend time with Romney at the park as they watched their children play. "She always had a sense of humor, even when the house was being torn apart.… She'd laugh, and say, 'That's just boys.' "
She could be strict, too. Scott recalls an incident when her son Matt was 16, and the family was ready to drive to Cape Cod for the weekend. Matt was reportedly being obnoxious, and ragging on his mother, and finally she just got in the car and drove off to the Cape, leaving Matt alone for the weekend.
"It says two things," says Scott. "She's got a temper, and she's not easy to push around. And also she raised her kids so that she could leave her 16-year-old son home alone for the weekend and know she'd come back and find the house in good condition."
Wheelwright recalls being impressed that, even though the Romneys had money, they always had their sons – and Mr. Romney – out doing yardwork or pulling out stumps in the yard.
When their church would ask for volunteers to help students or families with a move, "We'd show up, and there would be Mitt and Ann and the five boys with their pickup truck," Wheelwright recalls. "They really believed in service and in teaching it to their boys."
Ann was briefly involved in civic life as well, running for and winning a seat on the Belmont town meeting representative in 1977 – long before her husband ever entered politics – though she served just a year.
"Mitt and Ann were very quietly gracious in the town of Belmont," says Maryann Scali, who also served as a town meeting representative with Romney, though she says she knew her better from the League of Women Voters – where Ann twice offered up her home for fundraisers – and tennis, where Ann was competitive, but gracious.
In the presidential campaign, Mrs. Romney has had a more public persona, embracing her role as a mother and grandmother of 18, touting her faith in her husband's ability to save the economy, and discussing her health battles with MS and breast cancer, and the role horseback riding has played in her recovery.
But she hasn't always been an asset.
In Mr. Romney's first foray into public life – his failed 1994 Massachusetts Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy – Romney allowed herself to be profiled in a Boston Globe story that was disastrous.
She came across as naïve, privileged, and out of touch with average Americans – especially when she decried the financial hardship of early years with Mr. Romney, when they were both students living in a $62-a-month basement apartment with a cement floor and "we had no income except the stock we were chipping away at."
She also told the reporter that the couple had never had a serious argument, as long as they'd known each other. Columnists at the time referred to her as a "Stepford wife."
At the end of the campaign, after her husband had lost, Romney told another Globe reporter that "you couldn't pay me to do this again."
Still, by her own account, Romney was the member of the family most enthusiastic about her husband launching a second bid for the presidency this time around. She was also the one who encouraged him to step in to help the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics – ensuring that he kept a high profile – back in 1999, even though it was soon after her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
She was diagnosed in 1998, after a year of health difficulties, and has spoken poignantly about the difficult period that followed.
"My life is finished. My life is over," she recalled thinking when she got the diagnosis, speaking to a crowd in South Carolina last winter. She has referred to it as her "darkest hour."
She also credited Mr. Romney, and his steadfastness and support, with bringing her back from the brink of despair. (It was a side of Mitt that was emphasized often last December, putting his reaction to his wife's illness – and their long, happy marriage – in sharp contrast with the personal life of Newt Gingrich.)
She received treatments for a while, which she credits with helping to stop the progression of the disease. But it was horseback riding that she says ultimately saved her.
She had loved horses as a girl, and began riding again in Salt Lake City. Initially, she could barely get on a horse, but dressage – which involves far more intricate control of a horse through leg movements than most horseback riding – eventually helped her both physically and emotionally.
"Riding exhilarated me; it gave me a joy and a purpose," she told the Chronicle of the Horse magazine in 2008. "When I was so fatigued that I couldn't move, the excitement of going to the barn and getting my foot in the stirrup would make me crawl out of bed."
She shows no visible signs of her illness these days, though she has said she works hard to limit campaign appearances and get the rest and nutrition she needs. A brief flare-up around Super Tuesday was a wakeup call to be careful.
Her battle not to let MS – or the breast cancer that was diagnosed and successfully treated – get the better with her was, in many ways, a very Mormon reaction, says Scott.
"Originally, when [Romney] got MS people said that's it for Mitt's career because they're so tight, he'll stay home and take care of her and they'll fade into oblivion. But they chose the opposite tack: Let's conquer this and get on," he says. "It's a Mormon thing. You bury your burdens and smile and move forward."
But if Romney has morphed into more of an asset to her husband's political career than she was back in 1994, she still sometimes makes missteps – and can come across less as the warm presence her friends describe than a privileged woman who thinks her family is a step above everyone else.
There's the business of dressage – which provides "dancing horse" images, stories about the $77,000 "business loss" claimed on the Romneys' 2010 tax returns due to her horses, and endless fodder for Stephen Colbert.
There are the occasionally off-key comments, as when she told ABC News in April that "it's our turn now" for the presidency, or later, when she told ABC News, in response to queries about her husband's refusal to release more tax returns, that "we've given all you people need to know" about their finances.
"She's heading in the direction of being a liability to the campaign," says one longtime acquaintance of the family, who asked that his name be withheld.
"She is as loyal as can be, and as nurturing as can be to her family, and values them more than life itself; it's an endearing quality," he adds. "But her weakness is the flip side of that: We're at one level, then there's the next level…. It comes across as demeaning to others."
Scott, the Romney biographer, recounts a time when a Romney daughter-in-law had just moved to Boston with her new husband and was looking for work at the ad agency where Scott's wife worked. Scott's wife was ready to offer her a job, when she got a call from the head of the agency, who had just heard from Mrs. Romney.
"Even though the kids were making this happen on their own, Ann wanted to make sure the deal got closed," says Scott. Later, Mr. and Mrs. Romney also let it be known they thought their daughter-in-law's salary was too low.
"There's this almost guileless sense of entitlement and being willing to speak their minds that's both annoying and refreshing at the same time," says Scott.
As first lady of Massachusetts, Romney kept a low profile, giving few public appearances. Near the end of his tenure, Mitt Romney gave his wife a position as an unpaid liaison for federal faith-based initiatives.
But her rising role in the 2012 campaign seems to indicate a willingness to be somewhat more prominent, should her husband win.
In interviews, Romney has expressed admiration for first ladies such as Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, and Mamie Eisenhower, and said she could envision using her role to be an advocate for children and those who suffer from MS.
"I would think she'd be somewhat of a cross between a Michelle Obama and a Laura Bush," says Scott. "I actually think she will be an activist in some areas,… once the dust settles."


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text:
Californians love their cars as much as they hate the price of gasoline.
But to ease their pain at the pump, would they support replacing the gas tax — which tacks 52.9 cents to the price of each gallon — with a mileage-based fee, as one state lawmaker has proposed?
SB 1077, sponsored by Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, establishes a pilot program that would study implementing a mileage fee much like those in Oregon and Washington. The bill would give the California Transportation Agency, the Department of Motor Vehicles and other agencies authorization to track vehicle miles traveled by motorists who volunteer for the program starting in January 2016.
Though no fee would be immediately collected, the pilot program could lay the foundation for a statewide initiative to replace the gas tax with a per-mile tax paid by motorists.
The bill has passed the state Senate and awaits confirmation by the Assembly.
Proponents argue that the gas tax is unsustainable and does not provide adequate funding for maintaining California's roads. Alternatives must be examined, they say, as a way to identify funding to rebuild highways, freeways, bridges, pedestrian and bicycle paths and mass transit such as light-rail and subways.
Critics, meanwhile, are blasting the idea as another burden for taxpayers.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, argues that a mileage fee would hit lower-income families especially hard, and raises questions about the nexus between data collection and the privacy of motorists.
What do you think?
California's well-traveled roads are in dire need of attention; would a mileage-based fee provide a stable source of funding for such work?
If you commute daily to work, what would you prefer — a tax on gas or a tax on your mileage? Or is there another way the state could fund repairs to its roads?
Send your thoughts to firstname.lastname@example.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Also, provide a daytime phone number so we can verify you sent the comment. Or, if you prefer, share your views in the comments section below this article online.
We'll publish as many responses as possible in Sunday's newspaper and online.
Editor's note: This editorial has been updated to correct an error about the scope of the pilot program. The program would not target a specific city.


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Conn. man sentenced for role in illegal gambling
HARTFORD (AP) -- A man was sentenced to prison on Friday for his role in illegal gambling businesses that prosecutors said were controlled by a New York organized crime group.
The Connecticut U.S. attorney's office said Joseph Borea, 56, of New Canaan, was sentenced in Hartford federal court to 33 months in prison.
Borea was fined $50,000 and ordered to forfeit $75,000. He was arrested last year and pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiring to violate racketeering law.
Prosecutors said Borea collected gambling debts for a Stamford-based Internet sports bookmaking operation and card gambling clubs in Stamford and Hamden that were tied to Gambino organized crime associates in New York.
Prosecutors said the sports betting operation had gross revenues of nearly $1.7 million from October 2010 to June 2011.
Two co-defendants who ran the operations also have pleaded guilty to racketeering-related charges, prosecutors said. One is serving an almost six-year sentence, and the other is serving an almost four-year sentence, they said.
Prosecutors said 18 defendants who have pleaded guilty in the investigation have agreed to forfeit about $1.4 million.


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Congress battles over car-free transportation
Washington --
Congress opened negotiations Tuesday on a new transportation bill as bicycle and pedestrian groups fought to defend programs, including one in Marin County, that build bike paths and sidewalks to make it easier for people to travel without a car.
The programs that make up most federal support for biking and walking - dubbed "safe routes to schools," "recreational trails" and "transportation enhancements" - make up less than 2 percent of all federal transportation funding. Republicans have targeted the programs for elimination or cutbacks in the House and Senate as a way to save money and stop what they call unnecessary spending on such things as transportation museums.
House and Senate negotiators, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., began trying to meld the Senate's $109 billion, two-year bill with efforts by House Republicans to raise money for highways by opening all U.S. coasts to oil and gas drilling, and building the Keystone pipeline between Canada and the Gulf Coast.
Supporters of bicycle and pedestrian programs pointed to the success of the Marin County effort that increased bicycle transportation by 68 percent and walking by 23.7 percent from 2007 to 2010, while adding 9.4 million miles of nonmotorized travel in that time period.
The project encouraged more children to walk or bike to school and opened new commuter corridors, including a "greenway" from the Sonoma County line south to the Golden Gate Bridge. Part of the new trail uses an old railroad bed to take cyclists from San Rafael to the Larkspur ferry.
Marin County was mapped for the safest, most direct or most scenic bicycle routes and marked with route numbers, while businesses contributed by installing hundreds of bicycle racks.
Reducing car traffic
County planners discovered that 22 percent of cars in morning weekday traffic were ferrying children to school, said Steve Kinsey, president of the Marin County Board of Supervisors and a key proponent of the experiment. Some schools were able to reduce car traffic by 70 percent.
"Republicans need to get their heads out from under the hood of a car and realize that Americans need healthier choices and safer choices," Kinsey said. "We have found that when people know how to bike safely and have safe choices, for trips of less than 3 or 4 miles, biking is a really viable option."
The project was 1 of 4 in the nation that Congress approved six years ago to determine whether adding paths, sidewalks, signage and other efforts could get people out of their cars. The $100 million project, authorized as the Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Program, allocated $25 million to each project.
Marin County was considered a "topographical challenge" because of its hills, while Sheboygan County, Wis., and Minneapolis have extreme winter weather and Columbia, Mo., needed support from large institutional employers.
Results from the nationwide test, released last week, showed an average 49 percent increase in bicycling, a 22 percent increase in walking and 32 million miles of vehicle travel averted from 2007 to 2010.
"Everybody isn't going to walk and bike, everyone can't walk and bike, but small increases can represent huge savings, both to the public and to persons individually," said Marianne Fowler, head of federal relations for the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a group that promotes cycling.
The House transportation bill gutted bicycle and pedestrian programs and Republican leaders could not pass it despite several attempts. They finally resorted to extending the current law.
Rare cooperation
The Senate bill passed on a rare bipartisan vote of 74-22 after partisan differences were worked out between Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and the top committee Republican, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
Inhofe sought to cut the pedestrian and bicycle programs, but Boxer preserved most of them, with some concessions.
Bicycle and pedestrian programs "believe it or not, caused the most anguish and were the hardest to come to an accord on," Fowler said. She said the Senate bill scales back each of the programs to some extent, such as allowing governors to opt out of spending for recreational trails to divert the money to highways.
Fowler said that while Oklahoma City has started its first bike-share program with the full support of its mayor, Republicans such as Inhofe from rural states remain adamant that federal transportation money go to highways alone. She insisted that cycling and walking can work in small towns, too.
Marin County has spent $40 million so far on its bicycle and pedestrian program and Kinsey said a complete build out will cost $200 million. In addition to the federal grant, the county passed a half-cent sales tax, 12 percent of which goes to the school program. He said the Bay Area is moving toward adopting Marin's safe-routes-to-schools model.
Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicle's Washington correspondent. email@example.com


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International activists are acting as a human shield on El Wafa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The medical facility is the only rehabilitation center in the besieged Strip, and is currently housing fourteen patients in critical condition who cannot be moved. The building is slated to be bombed by Israeli forces, according to Haaretz.
Two warning shots were fired at the building at 2 a.m. Friday morning. The practice, called "knock on the roof," is intended to demonstrate the severity of the situation to inhabitants of buildings about to be struck.
"I didn't see anything resembling a rocket," American activist Joseph Cotran told Haaretz of his tour of the hospital.
Cotran is accompanied by activists from Australia, New Zeland, Sweden, Spain, England and Venezuela, all of whom have reportedly informed their embassies that they will stay in the hospital. They are now rotating shifts staying in the building, so at least one international activist is in the hospital at all times.
Israeli airstriks on Gaza have claimed 121 lives and injured over 900 since Operation Protective Edge, an offensive intended to cripple Hamas and end all Palestinian militant rocket fire at Israel, began early Tuesday morning.
The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits the targetting of medical facilities in war time, unless such facilities are being used for weapons storage or for shelter of able-bodied combatants and due warning has been given.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the Israeli military has a history of targetting medical personal and medical aid workers. During Operation Cast Lead, a 22 day-offensive in 2008 and 2009 in which 1,455 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed, Israeli forces targetted several ambualances and humanitarian aid workers, according to the organization's report.
The Israeli military has asserted it does all it can to avoid civilian casualties, particularly by way of the "knock on the roof" technique.
"We strike at their armed forces and sometimes we hit civilians by mistake," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu in a televised speech Thursday.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Sports News
Carter's late goal lifts Kings over Oilers 3-1
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[February 20, 2013]
EDMONTON, Alberta
(AP) -- Jeff Carter scored the go-ahead goal with 49.6 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Los Angeles Kings over the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Tuesday night.
After the Oilers turned the puck over at the Kings blue line, Carter beat goalie Nikolai Khabibulin through the legs with a quick shot. Los Angeles then put the game away with an empty-net goal by Jarret Stoll.
Colin Fraser also scored for the Stanley Cup champions, who have won three of four. Jonathan Quick made 23 saves.
Sam Gagner had a goal for the Oilers and Khabibulin stopped 35 shots.
Edmonton had the best early chances. Taylor Hall dropped a pass to Jordan Eberle just 3 minutes in, but he hit the post behind Quick. A minute later, Quick was forced to come up with a big toe save on another solid opportunity for Hall.
The Kings took a 1-0 lead at 4:44 of the second period. Khabibulin made a save on a long shot by Jordan Nolan, but the Oilers were unable to clear the rebound and Fraser swooped in for his first of the season.
Los Angeles had most of the momentum in the period, at one point outshooting Edmonton 13-1, but the Oilers fought back to tie it.
Seconds after Khabibulin made a diving save after an odd bounce off the boards, Edmonton connected on the power play when Gagner's shot beat a screened Quick at 16:50.
[to top of second column]
Edmonton once again had a great chance denied 3 minutes into the third when Quick stoned Hall point blank on a shot from the top of the crease.
The Kings finish a three-game road trip in Calgary on Wednesday. The Oilers play the fourth game of a five-game homestand Thursday against Minnesota before heading out on a nine-game road swing.
NOTES: It was the second of three games between the teams this season. Edmonton won the first matchup on Jan. 24 after rookie Nail Yakupov scored with 4.7 seconds left to send the game to overtime. Gagner finished off a 2-1 victory at Rexall Place. ... Los Angeles came into the game having scored the fewest goals of any NHL team this season, with 30 in 13 games. ... Khabibulin made his second start in the Edmonton net this season after coming in to start the second period and earning his first win in more than a year in the Oilers' come-from-behind 6-4 win over Colorado on Saturday. ... Kings defensemen Alec Martinez (upper body) and Willie Mitchell (knee) remained out and are day to day, while Matt Greene (back) is out indefinitely. ... Teemu Hartikainen was back in the lineup for the Oilers, while Lennart Petrell (head) and Ryan Jones (eye) are day to day. Anton Lander (foot) and Andy Sutton (knee) are out indefinitely. ... Former Oilers forward Dustin Penner played in just his seventh game of the season for the Kings.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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On a recent sunny afternoon Bob Loebelenz pauses to gaze 72 feet into the air at the spinning blades of his wind turbine, a small "clean, free electricity" smile creasing the corners of his mouth.
While giant wind turbines that supply power to utilities sprout along ridgelines across the United States, far smaller residential wind generators, like the one Mr. Loebelenz erected in 2003 to power his suburban Boston home, are still unusual in densely populated places.
That may be changing. Across the country signs are growing that "small wind" (a category that includes wind generators geared to supply a single home) is catching on in suburban and even urban settings.
"My phone has been ringing off the hook," says Mark Durrenberger, president and founder of New England Breeze, a Hudson, Mass., wind and solar power installer.
Improved generator technology, more financial incentives, rising electric rates, and energy-security concerns have opened the way for small-wind power to bloom in unlikely places.
"Small wind really seems to be taking off for residential, small business, and farm use," says Trudy Forsyth, leader of the distributed wind program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
The installed capacity of "on grid" small-wind residential generators has almost tripled, from 1,300 kilowatts nationwide in 2006 to 3,000 kilowatts last year, says the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a Washington-based trade organization. The number of residential installations rose from 400 to 1,200 units in the same period.
Supplying that tiny but red-hot market are dozens of new companies that have popped up since 2000. Though a half-dozen companies dominate the market, AWEA tracks about 45 US manufacturers. With demand strong overseas, too, the US is the world leader in small-wind power, exporting more than half of what it sells.
"The growth we're now seeing in small-wind residential in the US is impressive," says Ron Stimmel, who tracks the small-wind market for AWEA. "Advanced technology and electronics have made these units more reliable, and more states are now offering incentives to build them."
At least 26 states have tax or productivity incentives or other subsidies to support wind energy, Ms. Forsyth says. But strong growth is happening even without the federal tax incentives enjoyed by solar panels and big utility-scale wind turbines, she notes.
Countervailing breezes are blowing.
Long held down by high up-front costs, lack of federal subsidies, and neighborhood opposition on aesthetic and noise grounds, small residential wind-power use continues to grow far more slowly than solar photovoltaic "panels," experts say. Some also oppose small-wind units claiming they are "bird Cuisinarts," Loebelenz says, though he has never found dead birds by his unit.
Another major hurdle is zoning laws. While few states or the 25,000 local zoning authorities have laws specific to wind power, that's changing, Mr. Stimmel says. Five states – Wisconsin, California, Michigan, Vermont, and New York – now prohibit local zoning laws from blanket small-wind prohibitions.
"Zoning is always an issue, it's something we understand now and we go in prepared to show the benefits," says Don Mosher, president of Southern New England Wind Power, based in Portsmouth, R.I.
Even so, zoning battles over wind power are increasing. Loebelenz had to hire a lawyer. Even then, he might have lost the fight had not an octogenarian neighbor, Beverly Ryburn, not come to his rescue by rallying others to help.
Pointing to a plaque on his tower that reads: "The Beverly," Loebelenz notes: "I named my wind generator after her because, without her, it probably would not have been built."
Wind power can be expensive. Small wind turbines for homes run in the 2- to 10-kilowatt range. A smaller machine can cost from $12,000 to $60,000, installed. A rule of thumb: Turbine systems cost about $6 to $8 per watt (1 kilowatt = 1,000 watts), installed.
Loebelenz also has a big solar array on his barn roof next to the wind turbine. On many days, when the wind generator is humming and solar panels are cooking, he's generating far more energy than he uses, so he sells the overage to the power company.
It's that link to the power grid that's been key to small-wind growth. While wind power has long been popular for "off the grid" homes miles from power lines, growth in residential "grid tied" homes lagged until "net metering" laws were passed. Net metering means a utility must buy back extra power.
Better wind technology has helped, too. Lighter magnets in the generators, blades that adjust to wind conditions, and units that wirelessly report how much power they're making – along with global-warming concerns – are creating a "perfect storm" of interest in suburban, even urban residential wind power.
"Everything we had done historically was off-grid and international, but ... about six, seven years ago really, things started percolating," says Andy Kruse, vice president of Southwest Windpower, the nation's largest small-wind manufacturer, in Flagstaff, Ariz.
The company's newest small turbine – the 1.8-kilowatt "Skystream" – is aimed at the residential market. In February, the company said a Skystream would be erected at the Maine home of former President George H.W. Bush.
But Robin Wilson already has a Skystream wind generator atop a 45-foot pole sticking out of her new zero-energy home in San Francisco's Mission District. Hers may be the first such "urban residential turbine," though she can't be quite sure.
Ms. Wilson may have started something because San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom visited her home recently and says he's forming a group to study the idea of expanding residential wind throughout the city.
"I love the idea of being a zero-energy home and wind is helping me get there," says Wilson, whose neighbors "just love it" she says. The "scimitar-style" high-tech blades emit little noise, she says, "just a little hum."


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City of Keller, TXHome Menu
City Calendar
The City Calendar offers information on upcoming meetings, regular programs and special events organized by the City of Keller. To see additional events going on in Keller hosted by nonprofit and other community organizations, please visit the
Keller Writers' Association
- Date: 10/05/2019 12:15 AM - 2:15 PM
- Location: Keller Public Library
640 Johnson Road
Keller, Texas 76248
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The Keller Writers' Association is a group designed to help current and aspiring writers write well in an environment that encourages creativity. Learn how to improve your writing techniques such as characterization and plot, hear speakers, and have your stories critiqued by the group.
Meetings are held from 12:15 to 2:15 PM on the first Saturday of each month in the Conference Room of the Keller Public Library.


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Crosby extracted his first measure of revenge when he assisted on Ryan Malone's power play goal at 2:03 of the third. Crosby then made it 2-0 56 seconds later as he jammed a Ziggy Palffy chip in front past Flyers goaltender, Antero Niittymaki. Joni Pitkanen tied the game with two consecutive power play goals both set up by Peter Forsberg 1:34 apart.
Overtime was all Philadelphia until Ryan Malone sprung Crosby on a breakaway and Crosby made no mistake by firing it past Niittymaki stick-side for the victory. The shot was the Pens' only in overtime.


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Lou Scheimer, who founded the Filmation animation studio that produced Saturday morning cartoons including "Fat Albert" and "The Archie Show," has died. He was 84.
The Pittsburgh native behind the cartoon powerhouse died on Thursday, two days before his 85th birthday, Scheimer's wife Mary Ann said on Sunday.
The Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/1d6rLiJ ) reported that Scheimer's company was the largest animation operation in the country in the early 1980s by number of employees.
Scheimer, who graduated with an art degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, founded the company in 1962 with a $5,000 loan from his mother-in-law and opened a one-room office in Southern California. His first big hit was "The New Adventures of Superman" and the studio went on to work on series including "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and "The Archie Show."
He won a Daytime Emmy Award as a producer of the 1974-75 season of the "Star Trek" animated series.
In 1969, Filmation was sold to a cable operator that was bought by Westinghouse. Scheimer continued to head Filmation but was told to cut costs and in 1987 announced that some work would be shipped overseas.
In 1989, Filmation was bought by a French investor group that closed the company's Woodland Hills plant and fired most employees.
Scheimer retired several years ago. He is survived by his wife, his daughter, Erika and his son, Lane.
Posted by SirVic for wetopup(News Laboratry)


text:
>The Adventures of Pete & Pete actually has a lot of great guest star appearances by musician!
As does Adult Swim in its various incarnations.
Mike Tribby
Senior Cataloger
Quality Books Inc.
The Best of America's Independent Presses
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
Received on Fri Aug 14 10:07:35 2009
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Tue Oct 20 2009 - 15:17:07 PDT


text: Hot off the heels of my frustration with SparkLife, I decided to tackle Ricky Gervais's "Holiday Message." Due to its length, I will skip some stuff. I don't feel like I've skipped anything particularly crucial, but correct me if I'm wrong. Let me also say that I think Gervais is a fantastic comedian. I love The Office and Extras.