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Spending too much time playing violent video games can delay a teen gamer's ability to tell the difference between right and wrong, a new Canadian study says.
Researchers at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., quizzed a group of eighth graders about their playing habits and also determined their stage of moral reasoning on a scale of one to four.
Researcher Mirjana Bajovic found those who played violent video games for three hours or longer each day were detached from the outside world.
"Spending too much time within the virtual world of violence may prevent (gamers) from getting involved in different positive social experiences in real life, and in developing a positive sense of what is right and wrong," Bajovic said in a press release.
But her study also found there was no correlation between the amount of time adolescents reported playing non-violent video games and their sociomoral reasoning levels.
The study was published in Educational Media International.
Source: Canoe.ca


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Since 2003, BobbleGram has been custom sculpting personalized wedding cake toppers for thousands of happy brides and grooms. We specialize in sculpting bride and groom figurines to look like you based on your photos. Brides and grooms everywhere love to see their favorite hobbies and interests highlighted on their wedding cake topper. We offer funny wedding cake toppers in both a bobblehead style and realistic wedding cake toppers. Choose from hobbies like hunting wedding cake toppers, fishing, shopping and dirt bike riding. Do you love your pets? We create custom wedding cake toppers with dogs, cats, birds and horses. We offer styles for sports fans too. We have hockey wedding cake toppers, football wedding cake toppers, soccer and more. Do you love super heros like Batman, Superman, Iron Man, the Green Flash and Wonder Woman. Check out our Batman wedding cake topper, Superman wedding cake topper and the rest. Love Star Wars? We offer several Star Wars wedding cake toppers.
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Concert time is 2:00-3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4 and features the Toledo Symphony Concert Band. The signature element of this annual event is the presence of Civil War reenactors who provide unique percussion to performance of the 1812 Overture by firing a series of cannon. The effect is thrilling!
Admission to the Independence Day Concert is FREE thanks to major sponsorship from Crown Battery and Hal & Diane Hawk . Additional support is provided by Mosser Construction Inc, Richard Binau Insurance & Financial Services, & United Ohio Insurance Co.
Attendees are reminded to bring their own seats and come prepared for the weather (sunscreen and/or bug spray.) Snacks and drinks can be purchased at a refreshment stand. Free parking is available on the grounds of the Hayes Presidential Center and adjoining city streets.


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May 17, 2009
Blog server update seems to be working
The fact that you're reading this text indicates that this weekend's blog server upgrade has gone according to plan. If you experience any weirdness (e.g. problems posting comments), please drop me a line (jnack at adobe); thanks.
Photoshop engineers talk GPU: Birds, biplanes, mules, & more
A couple of senior Photoshop engineers have offered sometimes colorful perspectives on the challenges inherent in tapping into graphics processors' great potential.
- TGDaily spoke to Photoshop architect Russell Williams and me about Photoshop and the GPU. To illustrate the bottleneck of reading data back from the GPU, Russell "compared this scenario to a company that would like to print local papers in San Jose, but decides to go with a printer in New York. 'You will have to fly the data to New York, and it's returned on a bi-plane.'"
- Imaging Resource conducted a similarly themed interview with Jerry Harris. "It's hard to actually achieve that theoretical goal when running in parallel," he said. "So it's sort of like working with a bunch of mules. You might work with two of them but four or five, forget it. They don't want to behave. Where a GPU is more like a stream of fish you see in the ocean or a flock of birds. They just seem to do better with more of them. More naturally suited."
PS: I should reiterate that we're quite actively engaged with the GPU makers. We're working together to tune both the hardware & the software sides of the equation, and I see encouraging signs.
7:41 AM | Permalink | No Comments


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In this page division worksheets we have given more then 15 worksheets.
Practical example:
Division is nothing but splitting in to equal parts.Let us consider the following example.
Example: there are 8 biscuits, and 4 friends want to share them, how do they divide the biscuits? Division is nothing but splitting in to equal parts.Let us consider the following example.
If there are 8 biscuits, and 4 friends want to share them, how do they divide the biscuits?
Each will get 2 biscuits.
Like these we are using the concept division in many places.
To practice division we had given division worksheets. Students can use them to become master in division.
"Mathematics, without this we can do nothing in our life. Each and everything around us is math.
Math is not only solving problems and finding solutions and it is also doing many things in our day to day life. They are:
It subtracts sadness and adds happiness in our life.
It divides sorrow and multiplies forgiveness and love.
Some people would not be able accept that the subject Math is easy to understand. That is because; they are unable to realize how the life is complicated. The problems in the subject Math are easier to solve than the problems in our real life. When we people are able to solve all the problems in the complicated life, why can we not solve the simple math problems?
Many people think that the subject math is always complicated and it exists to make things from simple to complicate. But the real existence of the subject math is to make things from complicate to simple."
More problems are given as link in this page 'Division work sheets'. Students can try to solve them on their own.
Online math 4 all gives collections of work sheets from all the grades.You may practice each set of worksheets and also you check your answers that will help you to evaluate the knowledge.Teachers and parents also can help the children to practice the work sheets and improve their knowledge. If you are having any difficulties to understand any step in the solution please Contact us via mail. We will send you step by step detailed solution.In the topic basic math you can learn the basic topics more clear. Your valuable suggestions are welcome for the improvement of this site.
Here are the division worksheets.
Not only teaching the concept we need to tell the purpose of each topic in our real life.We need to use that concept in front of the child.Then the child will come to know the need of math.Also we have to tell the real story about famous mathematician. This is basement of learning.They must be very clear about basic things.We need to give different kinds of exercises. In these following worksheets you can find mixed questions in each topic. This will be very useful to the children who are in third grade.These worksheets will be very interactive. You can check immediately whether you have answered it correctly or not. We hope thee worksheets will help you to learn the concept division in better way.
division worksheets to worksheets
Math dictionary


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- Search
Publications: Moles, Aaron
Journal Article
Drynan, E.A., Moles, A.D. and Raisis, A.L. (2011) Anaesthetic and surgical management of an intra-tracheal mass in a cat. Journal of Feline Medicine & Surgery, 13 (6). pp. 460-462.
Moles, A.D., McGhite, A., Schaaf, O.R. and Read, R. (2010) Sand impaction of the small intestine in eight dogs. Journal of Small Animal Practice, 51 (1). pp. 29-33.
Moles, A.D. and Glyde, M. (2009) Anatomical investigation of the canine cranial tibial artery. Veterinary and Comparative Orthopaedics and Traumatology, 22 (5). pp. 351-355.
Moles, A.D., Hill, T.P. and Glyde, M. (2009) Triple tibial osteotomy for treatment of the canine cranial cruciate ligament-deficient stifle joint. Veterinary and Comparative Orthopaedics and Traumatology, 22 (6). pp. 473-478.


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Gary Gygax Tribute Game: Keep on the Borderlands - March 8, 2008
by, 01-03-2012 at 01:59 PM (9142 Views)
On March 8, 2008, I ran a game to memorialize Gary Gygax. We played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons; I ran the Keep on the Borderlands. A chair was set aside for Gary at the head of the table. We toasted him with scotch after that game. The man has touched so many lives. I've only now gotten around to fixing it so it can be online.
A photo of the game table is here: http://maxwriter.deviantart.com/art/...ygax-194539194
Monday, March 10, 2008
(After playing 1st Edition AD&D in Bryan Saturday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. with Scott Allen, Adam, and Kim: The Keep on the Borderlands.)
The realm of mankind was narrow and constricted. Always the forces of chaos pressed upon its borders, seeking to enslave its populace, rape its riches, and steal its treasure. If it were not for a stout few, many in the Realm would indeed fall prey to the evil which surrounded them. Yet there were always certain exceptional and brave members of humanity, as well as similar individuals among its allies dwarves, elves, and halflings who rose above the common level and joined the battle to stave off the darkness which would otherwise overwhelm the land. Bold adventurers from the Realm set off for the Borderlands to seek their fortune. It was those adventurers who, provided they survived the challenge, carried the battle to the enemy. Such adventurers met the forces of Chaos in a testing ground where only the fittest would return to relate the tale. Here, those individuals would become skilled in their profession, be it fighter or magic-user, cleric or thief. They would be tried in the fire of combat those who returned, hardened and more fit. True, some few who did survive the process would turn from Law and good to serve the masters of Chaos, but most would remain faithful and ready to fight chaos wherever it threatened to infect the Realm.
The three who came down the road that fateful day were indeed members of that exceptional class, adventures who had journeyed to the Keep on the Borderlands in search of fame and fortune. Of course, they were inexperienced, but they had their skills and hearts that cried out for adventure. They had it in them to become great, but they still had to gain experience and knowledge and greater skill. There was much to learn but they were willing and eager to be about it! Each of them had come with everything which they could possibly be given to help them. But now they had to fend for themselves; their fate was in their hands, for better or worse.
Ahead, up the winding road, atop a sheer-walled mount of stone, loomed the great Keep. There, at one of civilizations strongholds between good lands and bad, they would base themselves and equip themselves for forays against the wicked monsters who lurked in the wilds. Somewhere nearby, amid the dark forests and tangled fens, were the Caves of Chaos, where fell creatures lay in wait. All this they knew, but before they dared adventure into such regions, they had become acquainted with each other, for each of their lives would depend upon the ability of the others to cooperate against the common foe.
They had introduced themselves when they found themselves together on the road some days before.
The largest of them was a tall man in chain mail who carried a shield with a lightning bolt upon it. He had close-trimmed red hair on his head but not his chin or lip and his eyes were a steely-blue. He was a man thick with muscles and not an ounce of fat upon him. On either hip was a throwing hammer and at his neck was a symbol of a hammer. Basch ZrPhylus had introduced himself to the others as a cleric of Thor, the thunder god.
He had heard of the Caves of Chaos and it was rumored that the bugbears in the upper caves were afraid of dwarves. He had hoped to meet a dwarf on the road but luck had not been with him.
The other man in the small party was short and skinny with brown hair and green eyes. He wore leather armor and carried a round, wooden shield. A scimitar hung from his belt and mistletoe hung from his neck. He wore rough clothing, this druid, this child of the woods, this nature nurturer, who was called Nacian Horrormain.
He had also heard the Caves of Chaos but what he had learned was that a powerful magic-user would destroy any invaders of the caves.
Finally, a lithe and willowy half-elven woman also walked with the two men. She had short brown hair and bright green eyes. A long sword was upon her hip and a light crossbow over her back. A fighter, she knew how to use all of her weapons well. She also wore leather armor and carried a small, round, metal shield. She had told the others her name was Bailey Kneadadog.
She, too, had heard rumors of the Caves of Chaos. She had been told that an ogre sometimes helped the cave dwellers. She was ready to test her mettle against such a horrible creature.
The three had introduced themselves on the roadway and decided that they would adventure together. Fate seemed to have decreed that they were to become an adventurous band who would pass through many harrowing experiences together on the path that led to greatness.
They had traveled many days, leaving the Realm and entering into the wilder area of the Borderlands. Farms and towns had become less frequent and travelers few. The road had climbed higher as they entered the forested and mountainous country. When they had seen the keep, they had taken the side road that led to it.
They moved up a narrow, rocky track. A sheer wall of natural stone was on their left, the path falling away to a steep cliff on the right. There was a small widening ahead, where the main gate to the keep was. The blue-clad men-at-arms who guarded the entrance shouted at them to give their names and state their business. All along the wall, they saw curious faces peeing down at them eager to welcome new champions of Law but ready with crossbow and pole arm to give another sort of welcome to enemies.
When all three of the travelers had given their names and told their professions, and Basch had called them the Champions of Thunder, the drawbridge was lowered and the portcullis raised. Two plate-mail clad men-at-arms carrying pole arms approached the three adventurers, telling them to put any weapons away and come with them. They led them through the gatehouse and into a courtyard beyond.
They stopped in the courtyard when another man in plate mail, this one carrying a shield and armed with a long sword, bid them to halt. Next to the man was another who wore robes and had a great book. Flanking the two were two more men-at-arms in plate mail. The corporal took their names and the scribe wrote them all down in his book. The armored man asked if they were merchants and when they claimed they werent, he waved them through, allowing them to finally enter the keep proper.
They walked south past stable and warehouse with parapets atop their roofs, then turned to follow the way westward. A taller smithy stood in the cobblestone street and they could hear the men working within. They passed by two low buildings with wooden placards over the doors. The first read Provisioner and the second Trader. They were well-provisioned and so walked past them and the houses that lined the other side of the street.
Some of the folks in the keep gave them strange looks but most simply ignored the adventurers.
They finally came to another courtyard, this one with a large, gushing fountain in the center of the square. Two more buildings opened into the Fountain Square. Over one door was a sign that proclaimed it to be the Travelers Inn while a simple sign over the other listed it as simply a Tavern.
Their throats were dusty and dry from the road so they opted to enter the tavern first. The smell of cooked meat, bread, and other good food greeted them as they entered the room and they found that in the early morning, they were alone except for a man in robes who sat at a far table, seemingly lost in deep thought. A man stood near several casks stacked up by the far wall and over him was a sign that listed the prices of food and drink in the place.
The prices were quite high.
A mug of ale or a glass of wine cost an electrum piece, according to the posting, though small beer or bark tea was only a silver coin. The honey mead was a gold piece for a mug. The tavern had a decent variety of food with bread being only a copper coin a slice and pudding, soup, or fruit only a silver coin for a bowl. Both the stew and the hot pie were an electrum piece while the roast fowl coast a gold coin and the roast joint cost two gold coins.
The three sat down and called for ale. The barkeep asked if they would be buying him a pint as well and after a moment, Basch smiled and said Of course! The man filled four mugs and brought them over, sitting down with them and drinking his ale. When they asked him what he had heard of the Caves of Chaos, he told them that an ogre sometimes helped the cave dwellers.
I heard that too, Bailey said.
I heard the bugbears in the upper caves were afraid of dwarves, Basch said.
Well, I heard that a powerful magic-user would destroy any invaders of the caves, Nacian replied.
What is your name good sirrah? Basch asked the barkeep.
Bob, the man replied, finishing his pint and licking his lips.
Have you heard any other tales of the caves? Nacian asked.
Depends, the barkeep replied. I have a powerful thirst and prefer honey mead to ale.
The three looked at each other and then ordered another round, asking Bob to get himself some honey mead as well and continue to drink with them. Over the course of the next few minutes, they learned from Bob that there were hordes of tiny dog-men in the lower caves and that tribes of different creatures lived in the different caves. They also learned that the caves lay somewhere to the east in the wilderness and that the lower caves held the lesser creatures while the higher caves were filled with all sorts of terrible beasts.
Peter might know more, Bob said, pointing to the man in robes at another table. Hes a traveling priest who has been here a few weeks. You might want to ask him.
He told them that the priest was a likable fellow though his acolytes had taken a vow of silence and never spoke. Those two were strange and unnerving, he said.
The man at the other table appeared to be deep in thought or perhaps prayer. An empty mug and a plate that had been cleaned of food sat before him. Basch thanked the barkeep and the three adventurers walked over to the priest. Basch apologized if he was interrupting the mans prayer but asked if he could talk to him. The priest opened his eyes and smiled, telling the man he was just enjoying the feeling of the filling breakfast hed just eaten. He bid them to sit down and join him.
They learned that he had come to the borderlands to fight evil. He said he had stopped over at the keep to talk theology with learned people and convert any who wished to know the gods. When Basch asked what god he worshipped, the man merely held out his hands and told them All of the gods of Law. Unfortunately, he didnt know much of the Caves of Chaos that they hadnt already heard.
They ended up having a meal with the man. Bailey ordered the stew and more ale while Basch had hot pie and soup. Nacian got the roast joint and found it quite delicious and filling.
They went to the inn next door and got rooms, each of them finding themselves in a small room with a bed with straw tick mattress, tiny table, and a candle. Each of their rooms had a narrow window that looked out onto other courtyards in the keep. They learned from the innkeeper that there was also a loan bank in the town, as well as a chapel.
Nacian told the others he wanted to go into the woods to commune with nature for an hour or so. He bid them good day and told them he would return but Basch turned to Bailey when he had left.
Wed better go after him and see that he doesnt get into trouble, he told the girl.
She nodded and they followed behind, leaving the keep and lounging in the grass while the man tended to some trees at the edge of the forest. Nacian was used to such treatment. Basch had done the same thing on the road and the druid had decided it didnt matter.
They returned to the keep and then went to the great inner gatehouse. They could see that it was like a small fort. The southern portion was only about 15 feet high and had a battlement running around the top. The rear portion was 30 feet tall with battlements. Arrow slits were in the southern section and along the walls of the 20-foot wide, 10-foot high passage that sloped upwards towards the inner courtyard. The open heavy gates appeared to be double-bound with iron and were spiked. There were two guards in the gateway.
Basch told the guards on duty there that they were noteworthy adventurers who wished to see the castellan. The guard asked their names but didnt recognize any of them. He told them the castellan was a very busy man but he would pass on the word that they wanted to speak to him.
They had passed the large chapel on the way to the gatehouse and so entered that large building. The building had a peaked roof two stories tall and the interior was one large room. The altar was at the eastern end under a great stained-glass window that was some 20 feet high and eight feet wide. An offering box was secured atop a heavy pedestal in the southeast corner and steps went down in the northwest corner. Soon after they entered, a young man in robes came up the steps and approached them. They learned he was an acolyte and he fetched the Curate for them.
The man seemed somewhat dour but chatted with them.
Beware of treachery from within the party, he told them. Often there are traitors amongst those who enter the Caves of Chaos.
They talked to him for some time and he also told them he didnt much care for the priest.
They left and ended up going to the smithy next. The building was connected to the warehouse near the main gatehouse but was a good 20 feet tall with a five-foot parapet above, pierced for defense. The main floor had a forge, bellows, and other smithing equipment. A large man and two younger men worked on various metal implements. There were two swords, a mace, a suit of chain mail, and a dozen or so spears on display in the shop. The smith also told them there were hordes of tiny dog-men in the lower caves.
They visited the provisioner next and found that the low shop had a great deal of goods for sale. He had no weapons other than daggers, spears, arrows, and bolts but told them that the trader next door carried weapons and armor and large amounts of goods. When they told him they were adventurers, he went pale.
Beware of the mad hermit of the north lands, he said.
He didnt know anything else about the hermit save that the man was insane and dangerous.
They visited the trader next and found that the small shop dealt with all kinds of armor, weapons, and large-quantity goods such as salt, spices, cloth and rare woods. The trader told them he was interested in obtaining furs and would pay a good price for them if they were in good condition. He told them that piles of magic armor were hoarded in the southern caves of the Caves of Chaos.
They finally went to the loan bank and as they entered the building, they saw that, in addition to the banker and a scrawny old clerk was another man-at-arms who eyed them suspiciously. They learned from the banker that they could store their riches in the place for a month at no charge but if they took the goods or gold out before that, there was a cost. He also told them that he had heard that nobody had ever returned from an expedition to the Caves of Chaos.
Well, well be returning, Basch said with a grin.
Displayed on a shelf for sale were several items, each marked with a price. They included:
a carved ivory tusk priced at 50 gold coins.
a silver cup priced at 20 gold coins.
a crystal decanter priced at 45 gold coins.
a jade ring priced at 250 gold coins.
a dagger with jeweled scabbard priced at 600 gold coins.
a fur-trimmed cap priced at 75 gold coins.
three blank vellum books priced at 20 gold coins each.
a gold and silver belt priced at 90 gold coins.
a set of locksmiths tools priced at 100 gold coins.
an iron box with a secret lock priced at 50 gold coins.
They explored the keep only a little while longer before having dinner and retiring to their rooms with plans to search for the Caves of Chaos the next day.
* * *
The three adventurers left the keep early the next morning. The corporal at the gate asked if they were moving on or were just going to go out for an hour again. Basch told him they were going to explore the Caves of Chaos and he wished them luck.
Youll need it, he said.
They traveled down to the main road and then headed east along it. Nacian had learned from the barkeep that the caves were in the woods somewhere along the road in a deep ravine.
At first the river came close to the road on the south side but it soon meandered away again as they passed a hill to the south. The woods likewise pulled away from the road as it started to turn in a more northerly direction. Nacian suggested they move into the woods and they turned northward and made their way through the undergrowth, coming out in a wide clearing probably a mile across that was empty of anything except rolling hills. They headed eastward again and came to the road once more before heading into the woods in a northwesterly direction.
The forest they had been passing through had been getting more dense, tangled, and gloomier than before. The thick, twisted tree trunks, unnaturally misshapen limbs, writhing roots, clutching and grasping thorns and briars all seemed to warn and ward them off, but they had forced and hacked their way through regardless.
Dont hurt the trees! Nacian had told them.
The strange growth had suddenly ended. They stepped out of the thicket into a ravine-like area. The walls rose rather steeply to either side to a height of about 100 feet or so. Dark streaked rock mingled with the earth. Clumps of trees grew here and there, both on the floor of the ravine and up the sloping walls of the canyon. The opening they stood in was about 200 feet wide. The ravine ran at least 400 feet west to where the western end rose in a steep slope. Here and there, at varying heights on all sides of the ravine, they could see the black mouths of cave-like openings in the rock walls. The sunlight was dim, the air dank, there was an oppressive feeling there as if something evil was watching and waiting to pounce upon them. There were bare, dead trees here and there, and upon one, a vulture perched and gazed hungrily at them. A flock of ravens rose croaking from the ground, the beat of their wings and their cries magnified by the terrain to sound loud and horrible. Amongst the litter of rubble, boulders, and dead wood scattered about on the ravine floor, they could see bits of gleaming ivory and white closer inspection revealed that they were bones and skulls of men, animals, and other things ...
They knew that they had certainly discovered the Caves of Chaos.
There were numerous caves and some of the small thickets were too dense to see through. They guessed there might even be more caves amongst those copses and decided to try to explore the first cave on the south side, hoping that the creatures there were not too terribly powerful or organized.
They entered the cavern to find that the natural cave quickly turned into a worked stone tunnel. Basch lit a torch and only about 20 feet in from the entrance, the tunnels split into three other directions: west, south, and southeast. They opted to head west and as they came down the tunnel, they heard noises ahead.
Bree-Yark! the cry went up.
A half-dozen goblins were in the room. Nacian let fly with a bullet from his sling as soon as their torch light showed the creatures. The bullet flew straight and true and the goblin fell back and fled the chamber. The other five rushed them. The battle was fast and furious and Nacian fired sling bullets at the creatures while Bailey and Basch fought them hand to hand.
Basch was injured repeatedly by goblin spears until he finally swooned and fell to the floor, unconscious. Bailey and Nacian finished off the rest of the goblins and tended to their friend but just then they heard the sounds of footsteps coming from the far side of the room.
Pick him up and run! Nacian yelled as he snatched up Baschs torch.
The half-elf woman did so and they fled from caves, running to the edge of the forest and hiding themselves in the underbrush. They saw another half-dozen goblins come out of the cave but the bright light obviously hurt their eyes and they stumbled about until they fled back into the cave.
Nacian and Bailey returned to the keep, annoying the corporal.
I thought you said you were going to be gone for more than an hour! the man said. It isnt easy raising and lowering this drawbridge you know!
They returned to the inn.
* * *
Basch had recovered enough by the next day to cast healing spells on himself. Nacian suggested they invite the priest to join them and he found the mans chambers that morning. Another man in robes answered the door and didnt speak to Nacian but gestured into the air and pantomimed eating and drinking.
Hes at the tavern? Nacian asked.
The young man simply nodded. Nacian thanked him and headed for the tavern where he found the priest finishing his breakfast. He chatted with the man and then invited him to join them in an adventure into the Caves of Chaos. Peter was more than happy to help destroy evil and Nacian told him to meet them the next morning.
* * *
They left the next morning with the priest and again headed to the Caves of Chaos, sticking to the road and not venturing into the swampy land south of it. They found themselves again at the ravine and headed into the goblin cave.
This time they turned to the left, heading southeastward and soon finding themselves in another guard room. Another half-dozen goblins were in the room and Bailey rushed the creatures. One of them fled through another passage and up a flight of steps while the rest eagerly joined the fray. Bailey found she was facing four of the creatures while a lone goblin attacked Basch. Nacian cast a spell and two of the goblins started glowing purple.
Just then, Peter the priest smashed his mace into Nacians head.
Fools! he shouted as the druid stumbled back, injured. You will not defeat the followers of chaos!
He howled with laughter and Nacian remembered the words of the curate: Beware of treachery from within the party. He turned to the priest and yelled for help even as Basch killed the goblin he fought and turned to the man.
Bailey was having some trouble with the three creatures she faced. She fought with them for several minutes before cutting them down one at a time.
In the corridor, however, the battle was not going well. Nacian had managed to get off a spell that made Peter glow like the goblins before but even so, he and Basch were finding it almost impossible to harm the man. He had plate mail and a large shield and wielded a great mace. He injured both Basch and Nacian, focusing most of his energies on Basch and calling the man a cleric of a feeble god, before the two each managed to hurt the man. He had backed away from them carefully.
This is not over yet! he said with a grin before laughing again.
He backed away and suddenly the faerie fire on him went out, leaving him in darkness.
Ah! he yelled and ran away.
They quickly regrouped and found that they were all injured though not terribly so. This time they searched the bodies and found silver and copper coins on them. They headed out of the other end of the room and up two flights of stairs before finding the goblin who had run from the battle. He stood before a solid door and when he saw them, he started to bang on it with his spear.
Nacian let a bullet fly from his sling and killed the creature.
They discussed what to do but then opened the door to find larger creatures within, these in fine weapons and armor. They slammed the door and ran out of the complex again, guessing that the things had been hobgoblins and realizing they were in no shape to face them. They hid in the woods again and soon saw a small group of four hobgoblins march out of the goblin cave. The creatures surveyed the area and policed the ravine near the cave before they returned the way theyd come, marching back into the cavern.
They returned to the keep again, Basch using his magic to heal them as best he could. They warned the corporal of the treachery of the priest as well. He questioned them, wondering if they hadnt killed the priest and taken his possessions. They stood up for themselves and the corporal finally backed down.
Nacian asked if Bailey could use better armor and the woman said she could. In the interest of protecting the party and himself, they went to the trader and he bought her a suit of banded mail with some money donated by Basch as well. The half-elf woman thanked the two men.
* * *
They used Baschs magic to heal themselves the next day.
* * *
They left the keep again the next day and returned to the Caves of Chaos, exploring some of the copses of woods in the area. They found another cave in one copse not far from the goblin cave and as they entered it, saw what looked like a bear on the floor of the rough, natural cavern. There was a strong, sour odor in the place. They talked a moment about what to do until they heard noises and heavy breathing from a side chamber. Then they heard heavy footsteps.
They fled, again entering the goblin tunnels. They turned right again and found that there were more goblins in the guard room. One of the creatures fled the room yelling Bree-Yark! while another ran to a barrel in the corner and the last two rushed the party.
They made quick work of the two goblins that had charged them but the third had pulled a dripping sack out of the barrel and ran to the corner of the room. He pushed on the wall and it opened as he yelled Bree-Yark! and flung the bag within.
A moment later, an obscenely huge creature came through the door and the same strong, sour odor theyd smell in the cave in the copse filled the room. The thing stood at least eight feet tall and dragged a club behind it. It was horrible to behold and Bailey realized they had found the ogre she had heard tell about. She grinned as the creature lumbered across the room and swung its club at the girl.
She easily deflected the blow and the fight was on. The goblin rushed them as well and Basch quickly smashed its head in with his hammer.
The battle against the ogre was long and furious. As Basch and Bailey cut and bludgeoned the horror, Nacian cast spells upon it, causing it to glow and making it easier to see. The druid also fired bullet after bullet at the thing, sometimes hitting it. After several minutes, they cut the beast down without taking any injuries themselves! It had been so clumsy and slow that they had managed through sheer teamwork to best it.
They quickly searched the goblin bodies for coin, finding little, and the ogre, finding nothing but a rotten bear-skin armor. Nacian kicked over the water barrel but it was empty of anything but water.
Just then more goblins came running down the corridor. After another furious battle, they had decimated the half-dozen or so goblins and been only slightly injured in return.
They peeked into the secret door in the corner. A great leather bag sat in the cave with a smaller, wet bag beside it. They guessed that was the side cavern where theyd heard the breathing before.
They dragged the bags into the guard room and when Nacian looked into the wet bag, he was pleasantly surprised to find that it full of gold coins. Basch found more bags in the great leather bag and pulled them out, looking in each of them carefully. The first was full of silver coins while the second had a hard cheese. In the third were copper and electrum pieces while the fourth was full of gold pieces. A keg of brandy was in the fifth while the sixth held copper pieces and the seventh was also full of gold pieces.
They quickly looked in the cave again, not entering the adjoining chamber where theyd seen the sleeping bear. There was a heap of old bones piled in the south side of the chamber but they ignored them. They quickly went down the corridor where the other goblins had come from to look into another room where they could see firelight. Goblin females and children were in the room.
They left the caves again, returning to the keep. They found that the wet bag had 250 gold pieces in it while there was 287 silver pieces in the first bag. There were 182 copper pieces and 91 electrum pieces in the next bag and 289 gold pieces in the other gold-filled bag. The sixth bag had 303 copper pieces and the last bag had 241 gold pieces.
After some discussion, they went to the trader to buy plate mail and a larger shield for Bailey, figuring that Basch would then get her banded mail. While they were there, the man found that some of the coins were actually lead coins with a wash of gold and nearly worthless. They examined all of the coins and found that the sack with 241 gold coins had been actually filled with fakes.
They still got the plate mail for the girl.
* * *
They returned to the caves the next day, this time searching more of the copses in the ravine. They found another cave with natural caverns within it on the far side of the ravine and entered the place, bearing towards their right once they got within. The empty gallery stank and bones and rotting corpses were spread here and there amidst a litter of dead leaves and old branches.
The cave they found themselves in at the end of the tunnel was very wet and all of the walls and the floor had a sheen from the dampness. There was a large pool of shallow water and a few white, blind fish swam there. There was a jewel-encrusted goblet in the water.
Its too easy, Basch said. He turned to Nacian. Get it.
Nacian drew out a torch and had Basch light it off his own. He tossed the torch into the water but it just hissed and went out and then floated. They watched the wood but it didnt sizzle as if it were in acid so Nacian took out a piece of rope and tried to lasso the goblet.
His first toss missed and the rope sank to the bottom of the pool. As he started to pull it back, the rock bottom of the pool suddenly seemed to ripple and curve upwards, grasping the rope! Nacian drew his scimitar and cut the rope, then ran. The others followed him out of the cave as the three gray oozes rippled out of the water. They fled the copse of woods and ran back to the forest.
Did you get the goblet? Nacian asked them.
What? Basch said.
I distracted them and you were supposed to get the goblet! Nacian said.
You distracted them right at us! Basch replied.
They entered the goblin caves again, turning right and heading down to the guard room. They quickly dispatched the three goblins there and then moved on to the common room theyd seen the day before, first investigating several side passages that all ended in dead ends. They went through the room, ignoring the females and postering young. The corridor beyond went to the north and then cut to the west again. As they rounded the corner, several crossbow bolts flew out of the darkness of the tunnel ahead, bouncing off Baschs and Baileys shields and armor. The cleric rushed down the corridor to find four goblins frantically reloading their crossbows.
The group made fast work of the goblins, killing them all in short order. There werent any major injuries so they took the tunnel to the right and followed it until it opened into a large room with many bales, boxes, crates, barrels, and sacks stacked and heaped all around. They found nothing alive in the room so started to search the booty. They found little of value. There was nothing but cloth, food, beer, and wine, none of any great worth.
As they were searching, part of the wall across from the entrance to the room pivoted aside and four hobgoblins marched out. The creatures had long swords in their hands and when they saw the adventurers, they rushed them.
Two of the creatures quickly fell to Baileys and Baschs weapons. The other two fought fiercely, one of them making a fighting retreat back to the secret door and slamming it shut behind him as they killed the last of the creatures.
They fumbled at the hidden latch and finally managed to get the secret door opened. It revealed a tunnel that went due west away from the goblin storage room. They crept down it until they came to a T-intersection with steps leading up to their left. As they headed up the steps, crossbow bolts flew down from above and they rushed up the stairs and charged the two hobgoblins in the room beyond.
Bailey cut down one of the retreating hobgoblins but the other made it to one of the two doors of the room and banged on it.
Chief! the creature yelled in his own tongue. Intruders! Intruders! We need your help!
Only Bailey could understand the creatures language and she yelled a warning to the rest. As they killed the creature, the door opened and a huge and ugly hobgoblin stood there and bellowed at them. Behind him were four females, all of them armed with long swords. The chief wore plate armor.
Nacian took one look at the creature and cast faerie fire. The hobgoblin chieftain began to glow purple, looked down at himself, and then bellowed at them all. Nacian ran down the stairs into the darkness followed by Basch. Bailey fought a fighting retreat down the stairs and then turned and fled after the hobgoblin chief cut her with his sword and badly injured her.
In the near-darkness, she ran down the corridor to the secret door and into the torch lit goblin storage room. Nacian was behind the secret door and slammed it shut behind her. Then Basch pushed several crates up against it.
They heard someone banging on the door and saw it start to open so they all fled.
They escaped that day and returned to the keep with quite a tale to tell.


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What if Veerappan came back from the dead in the guise of an IPS officer? The plot revolves around a celebrity couple Mrs Lilitha and Harman Shergill who are serving as an IAS and IPS officers respectively. Shockingly, the wife kills the husband in a felicitation function in the presence of VIPs. Will she be proven guilty in court?
Sorry! None of the critics have had a chance to review this movie yet.


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With the school year soon to be starting up, I am sure I am not the only one that is worried about protecting the campus network when 1500 students show up in early September ready to get onto ResNet. I had been working on a somewhat complicated system of VBScript, cgi, cookies and Windows Auto-updates to try to clean new users and patch them before they join ResNet.
In the middle of this long, complex job I received a forwarded email from a ResNet mailing list from someone asking for suggestions on something very similar to what we are doing. One reply really stuck out. Use the Nullsoft Installer. After about 30 minutes of reading and playing with it, I knew this was going to make things a hell of a lot easier. I can now:
-Make sure users are up to the current service pack.
-Make sure all OS hotfixes are installed
-Run Stinger to clean off the most popular viruses.
-Check to see if any AV software is installed and if not, suggest our site-licensed virus scan package.
This process is totally visible to the user, especially with the proper command line switches. (progress bars the whole way!) The only time a reboot is necessary is if an SP must be installed.
Unfortunately it took me almost a week of wasted time getting the first, not so good system set up but I got most of it redone in an afternoon with NSIS. (http://nsis.sourceforge.net/) I just wanted to let everyone know that this option is available and very powerful.
Thanks to Dave Hughes of Marist College for this idea.


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HomeReady® Mortgage
- Minimal down payment – sometimes as low as 3%
- Required homebuyer education program (available online)
- Ability to use flexible sources for down payment and closing costs (gifts, grants,
or Community Seconds)
- Cancellable monthly mortgage insurance
What is HomeReady®?
This program was launched by Fannie Mae in the hopes of helping more Americans with their dream of homeownership and to accommodate changes in borrower demographics. HomeReady® is offered through and provides extra financial flexibility for homebuyers who may not fit into the traditional mortgage mold. The program gives creditworthy borrowers an opportunity to purchase a home when they have low or moderate incomes. HomeReady™ also offers more competitive pricing compared to other traditional mortgage program.*
How the HomeReady® program works:
The HomeReady® loan is very similar to conventional mortgages. However, it is geared towards homebuyers who may not have enough money available to cover the cost of a down payment and closing costs. This down payment can sometimes be as low as 3%. Income from non-occupant borrowers can be included in your total qualifying income; however if you choose this option, you will be required to make a 5% down payment. Borrowers can also include rental/boarder payments (from relatives or non-relatives) as part of their income, as long it is documented.*
When applying for a HomeReady® mortgage, it is required that at least one borrower complete a homeowner education course. The course helps provide home buyers with a better understanding of the process of purchasing and owning a home and gives borrowers tools to succeed. This course is offered through the Fannie Mae approved program, Framework. If a borrower has already finished a homeownership education class offered by a HUD approved agency within six months of applying and before September 30, 2016, then the education requirement is met.
You could benefit from the HomeReady® loan program if you:
- Have low to moderate income
- Need flexible sources for your down payment and/or closing costs
- Have a co-borrower who will not be living in the home
- Receive income from boarders
If you or someone you know are interested in a HomeReady® loan, we can help! Contact one of our Licensed Loan Originators today!
Related Products: Conventional Mortgage, USDA, FHA
For more information, visit the Fannie Mae HomeReady® website.
* Product information effective 2/3/16. Certain restrictions apply. Guidelines and product availability subject to change at any time.
Subject to income limitations. Requires homebuyer education per guidelines.


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- Home
- Phantom 4 Accessories
- TACO-RC Multi-Coating MC ND filters set (ND4/8/16/32) for DJI Phantom 4 Pro Free Shipping
Product Description
Limited Quantities Edition
This ND filter set is a must-have tools for all Phantom pilot who want to shoot professional quality motion images and video.
- Extreme light-weight thread on design
- Weight: ~3.2g (same as DJI UV filter)
- 0.5mm thick Multi-Coating HD glass
- Rear surface is multi-coated to reduces the internal reflection between lens and filter to extreme minimum.
- Slows Shutter speed for more natural cinematic motion and eliminates jello effect
- No need to counterbalance your gimbal to avoid motor overheat
- ND4 filter (2 stops)
- ND8 filter (3 stops)
- ND16 filter (4 stops)
- ND32 filter (5 stops)
- Free filters Case Pouch
How to clean the filter:
- Use high-quality disposable lens tissues.
- Make sure the glass surface has no dust or grit on it.
- Take a lens tissue, fold it once or twice (depending on size), gently(don't push too much pressure to the glass) wipe with the tissue in a circular pattern starting from the center and moving out to the edge.
Using the standard fabric "lens cleaning cloths" with any liquid is not recommended because dust and grid can become trapped in the fibers and damage the lens or filter on subsequent uses.


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FIRST THOUGHT: If we were to stop you right now and take your elbow -- if we might be so forward -- and ask you to "think of an iconic example of San Francisco architecture," would you scrunch your brow and have a bit of a difficult time just landing on one? Well, perhaps after you think of the Transamerica Pyramid, a building so pointy that it out-points all other pointy buildings on the planet? Yep, you would have a bit of a difficult time landing on just one: Coit Tower is there, of course, as is the Palace of Fine Arts, The Painted Ladies, the Fairmont Hotel, oh, and yes, of course, apologies, now we feel badly, but last and certainly not least, the Golden Gate Bridge. The fact is that the oft-foggy burg just out-iconics other iconic metropolises on the iconic architecture front, easily, making a San Francisco building almost instantly identifiable, even if you remove it, picture-wise, from its Bay-close surroundings. Seriously, how many other cities can claim that? A few distinct destinations, of course, but the truth is this: San Francisco architecture is about the architecture-iest on this planet and maybe any other.
SO... when Architecture Month rolls in, like a marine layer in the Marina District, building buffs sign up for tours and special events. September is that month, and the get-out-and-get-to-know-the-structures-of-San-Francisco to-dos are plentiful: behind-the-scenes peeks of the Exploratorium -- that's the new Exploratorium, of course -- as well as a Phillip Choy-led tour of Chinatown. Valencia Street businesses will get the tour guide love, too, as will Fisherman's Wharf. Nope, there probably isn't a twisty, breath-huffy street that hasn't been well-documented in the city, but, given its fast, Gold Rush-based rise, and its 1906 earthquake, and all of the colorful characters who have come through and built, built, built, that is understandable. It's a building maven's dream place, in short, and September is the month to completely indulge.


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French Montana "Coke Boys TV Vlog" Part 1 (Out On The West Coast Ft. Diddy & King Los)
@FrenchMontana Excuse My French album coming soon
Posted by @Worldstarvids
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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Stock Growers Bank is pleased to offer products and services to meet your needs. We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing our relationship with you. Our main goal is to provide top quality service to our customers. We believe that as our customer, you deserve prompt and courteous assistance in fulfilling your requests.
Please contact us so that we may demonstrate our commitment to you.


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Drug-running Florida Keys family busted with 17 pounds of cocaine, 500 lobster tails
STOCK ISLAND, Fla. — Members of a Stock Island family with a history of drug arrests were jailed Thursday after a raid on their "compound" turned up eight kilograms (17.8 pounds) of cocaine, 2,100 bars of Xanax, 500 Oxy pills, a cookie of crack cocaine weighing seven grams, more than $75,000 in cash — and 500 lobster tails under the legal size limit, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
Held on multimillion-dollar bonds are Juan Soca Sr., 63; Juan Soca Jr., 42; and Jose Soca, 38. The "compound" consisting of side-by-side trailers is at 6451 6th St.
"This is not the first time we have served drug-related search warrants on the Soca property," Sheriff Rick Ramsay said.
Deputy Becky Herrin gave the following account:
The Sheriff's Office obtained the search warrant after Soca Jr. allegedly sold 1.5 ounces of cocaine Tuesday to an undercover operative near the Stock Island Lobster Co., where Soca Sr. has a commercial fishing boat. Juan Soca Sr. and Jose Soca were at the compound when the warrant was served Wednesday.
Soca Jr. was picked up a short time later at an apartment building on South Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West and had about 300 Oxycodone pills with him. The search of the compound "went on late into the night Wednesday and resumed Thursday morning as detectives continued to find drugs and money hidden in various areas, including buried in the ground, hidden in concealed compartments, false electrical boxes and in a boat fender nailed to a fence." They found the lobster tails in a freezer.
The three Socas are charged with cocaine trafficking, and Jose Soca faces additional charges of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and possession of the undersized lobster tails.
Herrin said Soca Jr. and Sr. were charged with trafficking in cocaine in 2002. She said Soca Jr. — who has a 28 arrests since 2001 on various charges — was also arrested for trafficking in cocaine in 2003. However, state Department of Corrections records don't show what, if any, prison time they served (although it could have been federal).
"We are going to do everything we can to make sure it is the last" time authorities have to deal with the Socas, Ramsay said, "The drug activity by these members of the Soca family is a danger to everyone in our county."
Working with the Sheriff's Office were Key West police, the Monroe High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Group, the Key West HIDTA Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations. SWAT teams from the Sheriff's Office and the Key West Police Department executed the warrant.
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/01/31/4965603/drug-running-florida-keys-family.html#storylink=cpy


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Willow Your wish is..
I'll be writing over the next couple hours.. so patience everyone.
Mell Thank you. Just many years of experience, and back reading LOL.
Which I'm off to do now.
I'm just going with the flow....
You all have been inspirational with your posts
... thanks
OK Luthy, Teth, and Willow, your fellows are up.
CHiara and Aleser... I need to catch some Zzzzzzzzz's then will get to work on LaCroix, Trystan and Faith.
Have I forgot anyone?????????
Have a good day/night... see y'all in a few hours.


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"The police state is here."
Thus spoke John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, in reference to the arrest and involuntary commitment of former U.S. Marine Brandon J. Raub (pictured) of Chesterfield County, Virginia. On August 16, Raub was visited at his home by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and Chesterfield County police because of alleged complaints about Raub's Facebook posts, many of which questioned the received wisdom from Washington, D.C., and a few of which suggested violence. According to the Rutherford Institute, which is defending Raub, police and FBI agents "did not provide Raub with a search warrant," but he nevertheless "was cooperative and agreed to speak with them."
"Without providing any explanation, levying any charges against Raub or reading him his rights, law enforcement officials then handcuffed Raub and transported him first to the police headquarters, then to John Randolph Medical Center, where he was held against his will," wrote the Institute.
Chesterfield County Police Chief Col. Theirry Depuis told the Associated Press that Raub was detained "upon the recommendation of mental health crisis intervention workers," who apparently considered dangerous the Marine sergeant who served honorably in Iraq and Afghanistan and who, according to Richmond television station WTVR, has a "clean" criminal history and "no mental health history." Under Virginia's emergency custody statute, an individual can be subjected to civil detention and psychiatric evaluation if he is considered a threat to himself or others.
At a hearing before a special justice on August 20, Raub was asked about his Facebook posts.
"He had an opportunity to share and respond to the questions being asked him about his Facebook posts," his mother, Cathleen Thomas, told WTVR. "He responded and explained himself, and the judge also allowed me to give some facts and basically a character representation of my son, which I did. And then he proceeded to read the (mental health) evaluation that was given on Brandon. The evaluation, I was told by my son, was 15 minutes long, and basically the evaluator said that he was not ready to go back into society and he needed additional psychiatric treatment."
And with that, the special justice ordered Raub's continued detention at a Veterans Administration hospital for up to 30 more days.
"For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon. This should be a wake-up call to Americans that the police state is here," Whitehead said. "Brandon Raub is no different from the majority of Americans who use their private Facebook pages to post a variety of content, ranging from song lyrics and political hyperbole to trash talking their neighbors, friends and government leaders."
Indeed, as WTVR noted, "Raub's postings seem no different than those questioning the government's version of the 9/11 [attacks] or the role of the Federal Reserve. He believes the government is corrupt and ready to fall, which is why he has a home business dealing in silver coins."
A November 2011 post entitled "The Truth" that Thomas supplied to WTVR bears out these assertions. "America has lost itself," Raub begins. He lays out a positive vision of the United States:
This is the land where you can start from the bottom and get to the top. This is the land where regardless of you [sic] race and ethnicity you can succeed and build a better life for you and your family. This is the land where every race coexists peacefully. This is the land where justice wins. This is the land where liberty dwells. This is the land where freedom reigns. This is the land where we help the poor, and people help each other. This is [the] land where people beat racism.
Then he lists those things he believes have sent America down the wrong path: the Federal Reserve, the income tax, the wars and empire-building, the "systematic[] dismantl[ing]" of the Bill of Rights; 9/11 (an "inside job" by the government, in his opinion) and all that followed from it; politicians beholden to special interests and "brainwashed through the Council on Foreign Relations."
"There is hope," Raub concludes. "WE MUST TAKE OUR REPUBLIC BACK."
In the entire missive, there is not one suggestion of violent revolution. In fact, he very specifically denounces the use of force. (His brother, Brent Raub, told WTVR that Brandon "doesn't even own a gun.")
Authorities have released a couple of examples of Raub's posts that suggest violence. At least one of them — "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads" — comes from a rap song. Others were "trash talk" among friends playing an online game, Raub told the special justice.
"The posts I read that supposedly were of concern were libertarian-type posts I see all the time," Whitehead told the AP.
So why was the FBI investigating run-of-the-mill online speech, and why has Raub been committed to a psychiatric hospital for a month because of it?
"We received quite a few complaints about what were perceived as threatening posts," FBI spokeswoman Dee Rybiski told the AP. "Given the circumstances with the things that have gone on in the country with some of these mass shootings, it would be horrible for law enforcement not to pay attention to complaints."
Whitehead wasn't buying it. He told the AP that "some of the posts in question were made on a closed Facebook page that Raub had recently created so he questioned whether anyone from the public would have complained about them." In his opinion, adds the news service, the government may well be "monitoring citizens' private Facebook pages and detaining people with whom they disagree."
Even worse, those who get on the government's bad side can end up being sent to mental hospitals until they come around to the "correct" opinions. As Christopher Manion observed on the LewRockwell.com blog: "Be sure to re-read 1984, especially O'Brien's 'medicating' of Winston in the Ministry of Love, and Cancer Ward, Solzhenitsyn's account of the psychiatric torture that political prisoners endured under the Soviet system."
Fortunately, Raub's plight has generated a great deal of outrage among informed Americans. Cellphone video of his cuffing and stuffing — not an "arrest," authorities insist, though there's no other way to describe it — quickly went viral. As of this writing, the Support Brandon Raub Facebook group has over 8,000 members. Internet commentary about Raub's situation has been overwhelmingly in his favor. Even some who disagree with Raub's sentiments, including one "lifelong progressive" with "Marxist tendencies" at DailyKos.com, are disturbed by his treatment.
"Our views are very strong because we are patriots," Thomas told WTVR. "Our stance in this family is to question everything ... when we lose the right to be able to stand up and say how we feel, no matter what it's about, I think that we need to be very concerned. Because what it speaks to me is that they're trying to shut people up. They're trying to squelch the message."
With family, friends, and much of the public on Raub's side, his message of liberty will not easily be squelched.
Photo: Brandon J. Raub


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Model Kate Moss to Design Handbags For Longchamp 2010-01-15 14:00:22
Kate Moss, Longchamp's Newest Handbag Designer
UPDATE: A sneak peek of Kate's Longchamp collection is in February's French Vogue, here's a stunner of Kate with a tan mini duffle, after the jump there's more!
Kate Moss's birthday is tomorrow, but she gave us a sweet surprise today. The multitasker will try her hand at designing Longchamp handbags. Moss has been the brand's advertising muse for the past four years, and she's been working with Longchamp artistic director Sophie Delafontaine on Kate Moss for Longchamp. Look out for them in boutiques and select department stores Feb. 11. I'm guessing Moss will add some edge to Longchamp, and keep an eye on her arm — I'm certain she'll soon be showcasing her latest design endeavor!
For more Kate/Longchamp goodness, read more.


text: Now experience a lifestyle of the big cities right here in Panipat at Eldeco Estate One – Residential Township. Situated right on the G.T. Karnal road, it is easily approachable and extremely well connected with Panipat, all nearby towns and of course Delhi. On offer are expandable Villas built on 200 to 500 square yard plots. Estate One is just five minutes away from the town center thus has quick and easy access to the entire Panipat town and its facilities (markets, hospitals, schools, entertainment centers, shopping centers, educational institutes, government centers and much more) as well as different localities.


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|Carlsen Closes in on World Championship
|November 21, 2013
Magnus Carlsen defended against Vishy Anand's vicious attack today, in round nine of the World Championship in Chennai, India. The current World Champion ultimately faltered with 28.Nf1? and gave up the game.
Instead of 28. Nf1? which allows 28...Qe1, 28. Bf1 keeps black on the ropes, though he defends with accurate play 28...Qd1 29.Rh4 Qh5 30.Nxh5 gxh5 31. Rxh5 Bf5 32. g6 Bxg6 33.Rg5.
Magnus now needs just half a point more to win the match and the World Championship title. Norway's Prime Minister tweeted:
16-year-old Claudia Muñoz pointed out Magnus's effect on youngsters across the globe:
Look for GM Ian Rogers' final Chennai report upon the event's conclusion.


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Date: 29-01-2014
Source: WIRED
The staff of Keen IO, inside the communal space it shares with other startups seeking to remake the way of the world builds software.
Ryan Spraetz helps run a Silicon startup that aims to remake the future of online business, but he describes it with a metaphor that dates to the 16th century.
More than 400 years ago, Spraetz says one afternoon outside a San Francisco coffee shop, a Danish nobleman named Tycho Brahe spent most of his adult life collecting data that described the night sky. Each night for more than 30 years, Brahe would climb into his observatory and record the brightness and the position of the stars overhead. Then he died. But his young assistant, Johannes Kepler, would go on to use Brahe's massive trove of data to formulate the three laws of planetary motion, the laws that proved the Earth revolves around the sun.
"Because Brahe dedicated his whole life to gathering all that data, Kepler is now cemented into history," Spraetz says, and this becomes an on-ramp to his startup, a 15-person company called KeenIO. As Spraetz explains it, Keen aims to provide the world's online businesses with ready access to the sort of detailed data so diligently gathered by Brahe, giving them the information they need to make the big leap forward — to, as Spraetz puts it, "turn them into Keplers."
It's a highfalutin pitch — honed over several months during Keen's residence in the startup incubator Tech Stars — but it's also a captivating tale, and it taps into a sweeping trend in the tech world. Web giants like Google and Facebook and Twitter have achieved huge success in large part because of their ability to analyze the enormous amounts of data their online services generate — to see exactly how their businesses are operating at the lowest of levels — and now, many startups and open source projects aim to bring this "Big Data" know-how to the rest of the world.
At the same time, Keen is different. Some big data outfits offer massively complicated data analysis tools that run across hundreds of servers and require hard-core engineering talent. Others provide polished iPad apps that let you analyze data in simpler, and less powerful, ways. Keen aims to find a sweet spot, offering tools that are both simple and malleable, tools that let you readily use massive amounts of data in precisely the way you want to use it.
"We're an alternative to building your own software," says Kyle Wild, Keen's CEO, who founded the company alongside Spraetz and another engineer named Daniel Kador, two close friends from his days at IMSA, a live-in Illinois high school known for breeding tech talent.
The trio launched the company out of Wild's San Francisco home, but as the operation has grown — recently attracting $2.35 million in venture funding — Keen has moved into a communal startup space in the city's South of Market district. Run by an operation called Heavybit Industries, this space is solely for startups that sell tools to the world's software developers. It aims to help these startups create a new kind of software infrastructure that makes it all the easier for developers and businesses to build exactly what they want to build. Keen is the poster child of this new movement.
The Origin Story
Keen can trace its roots to Wild's time as an engineer at the online games company FableLabs. One day, the data analysis guy left for another venture, and the data duties fell to Wild. He spent a few months building a central engine that let the company readily crunch all sorts of data, as opposed analyzing data in ad hoc ways each time a question came up.
As Wild tells it, this immediately boosted the efficiency of its gaming service. In order to use the site, gamers were required to take an online tutorial, and with his new data analysis engine, Wild says, the company soon determined that the length of the tutorial could directly effect the its bottom line. If the tutorial was expanded, fewer people would actually make it onto the site, he explains, but they would end up spending more money. "That's something you can only learn with really deep analytics," Wild says. "It's stuff like that let us go toe-to-toe with Zynga using only a few people."
The tool was so effective, Wild eventually quit his job to found Keen. Basically, Keen offers a set of application programming interfaces, or APIs, that let you build your own data analysis tools. You shuttle all your data onto Keen's online service and then, through simple API calls to the service, your software can query that data, slicing and dicing it as needed.
That may sound complicated, but this is a tool for coders, not ordinary business folk. The aim is to keep things simple while still giving coders the flexibility to harness data as they see fit. "You can ask us questions with easy-to-understand, easy-to-construct, logical queries, and we'll take care of all the hard stuff, like storing data on our servers, scaling the system up, making queries fast," Kador explains. And, yes, coders can build slick "dashboards" that deliver results to the ordinary folk.
Building Blocks for the Future
You'll hear a similar pitch from Google, which offers a data analysis service called Big Query, and Amazon, which offers something called Red Shift, but Keen wants to give you more control of your data. Edward Dowling, who runs a small startup called App.io that plugs into Keen for data analysis, says he was drawn to the tool because it could deal with millions upon millions of events at any given moment, but also because it could conform with his own way of doing things. "Other services follow their own forms and paradigms," he says. "Keen does not."
The larger point here is that App.io can analyze data in its own way without building a new engine from scratch. This is another trend across the web, one Heavybit is trying to harness with its communal startup space, one in which companies offer you internet services for piecing together your own online business. In technical speak, these services are APIs, but you can think of them as building blocks. Rather than erecting an entire online business from scratch, you can assemble the basic infrastructure from existing services. Amazon's cloud provides the processing power. Keen analyzes the data. Imgix processes the images. Twilio offers the voice and text communications. And so on.
"You should only be building the part of a website that's your core competency," says Kador. "You should be outsourcing as much as you can."
Five or six years ago, if you pieced together a new service with various APIs, you called it a mashup. Today, this is simply what you do when creating an online startup. And the practice will only become more prevalent in the years to come. Though it keeps one foot firmly planted in the 16th century, Keen is the future in more ways than one.


text:
Where The Economist "Big Mac" Index Finds Currency Value
My former employer, The Economist, once the ever-tolerant editor of my flabby, disjointed, and juvenile prose (Thanks Peter and Marjorie), has released its "Big Mac" index of international currency valuations.
Although initially launched as a joke three decades ago, I have followed it religiously and found it an amazingly accurate predictor of future economic success.
The index counts the cost of McDonald's (MCD) premium sandwich around the world, ranging from $7.20 in Norway to $1.78 in Argentina, and comes up with a measure of currency under and over valuation.
What are its conclusions today? The Swiss franc (FXF), the Brazilian real, and the Euro (FXE) are overvalued, while the Hong Kong dollar, the Chinese Yuan (CYB), and the Thai baht are cheap.
I couldn't agree more with many of these conclusions. It's as if the august weekly publication was tapping The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader for ideas.
I am no longer the frequent consumer of Big Macs that I once was as my metabolism has slowed to such an extent that in eating one, you might as well tape it to my ass. Better to use it as an economic forecasting tool than a speedy lunch.


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STARKE, Fla. – More than 300 citizen soldiers from throughout Florida will witness history Monday as part of the military support for the 37th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C.
The Florida Guardsmen will be part of Joint Task Force Access, making sure civilians flow through areas smoothly to get to the inaugural events.
The mission requires a large amount of planning and preparation and involves coordination with not only the other National Guard units that will be providing support, but also coordinating with active duty forces, the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies who will be present.
As part of the preparation for this mission, the Florida Guardsmen gathered at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center near Starke, to issue equipment, complete paperwork and ensure all the soldiers have everything they need to be successful. The in-processing also gives the leadership a chance to address any issues that might arise during the trip.
One of those issues is weather. The soldiers may not be acclimatized to the cold weather they will encounter in the nation's capital. Leaders are ensuring that the soldiers have the appropriate gear for the cold weather and potential snow they may encounter.
"From what we're hearing, it's going to snow up there, so that's going to be a big factor," said Capt. Jamire Austin, the Charlie Company commander.
Safety is also a huge consideration for the mission. From making sure soldiers are well-hydrated to ensuring they have enough rest, leaders at all levels are making sure that safety is a part of the planning and execution of the mission.
"We're going to be [taking a bus] up to D.C., so that's a long bus ride," said Capt. Charleton Matthews, Commander of Bravo Company. "We have to make sure that our Soldiers who are driving don't get fatigued. It's very important that we do all of those safety checks and make sure that everybody gets enough rest."
For the soldiers, the mission provides an opportunity to be involved in an historic event in the nation's history, especially for the young soldiers who are new to the military.
"I think it's a good mission that gives some of the soldiers who are just coming in some exposure so they can also take part in history and be a part of the inauguration," said Austin.
The Florida National Guard has some experience in this mission – the state supported the last Presidential Inauguration in 2009. This experience, combined with the overall motivation from the soldiers who all volunteered to support the mission, is evident as the soldiers prepare for the long trip from Florida to Washington, D.C.
"Whenever you get volunteers, everyone's excited about the mission and everyone wants to take part," said Matthews.


text:
Vous êtes ici
Daily Routine
Yogic Habits to Cultivate
In the practice of Kundalini Yoga, as our awareness expands, it impacts every aspect of our lives. Over the years, Yogi Bhajan gave guidelines about how to keep the Kundalini flowing through the day, just by making some simple changes to our daily routine. For instance, taking cold showers, wearing white, and covering the head are habits we can develop. These habits have a tremendous impact on our consciousness and vitality.
You may also be interested in:
- Rise Up Sweet Family!
- Living Your Destiny
- Yogic Living: Changing Habit Patterns by Rewiring the Brain
- Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Synchronize Your Mind with the Cosmic Magnetic Field
- Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Come Out from the Cocoon of Your Habits
- Yogi Bhajan Lecture Excerpts: Wearing White
- Luminous Skin Care
- 5 Tips for Women for Facing the Day
- Wake Up Routine
- 10 Ways to Keep your Liver Happy (with Kriya for the Liver, Colon and Stomach)
- 1 sur 3
- ›


text:
A Few of My My Favorite Things
Product breakdown:
- Infotone Face Mist ($34.97)
- Jojoba oil from Trader Joe's (less than $8)
- From the Field Catnip Essential Oil ($6.99)
- Scalp massager (~$5-10)
- Sun Chlorella Cream ($75)
- Photo Dynamic Laser Lotion from DERMAdoctor ($85)
- Lulus.com Trip Meter Grey Handbag ($43)
- Mylie Cyrus shorts (from Rave – discontinued)
- Nail polish pen from Claire's ($8.50)
What are some of your favorite vegan things?
About Sunny (Sunny's Profile)Longtime vegan, hardcore compassionate beauty junkie, serious cake aficionado, and lover of all things floofy and sparkly! If there's something in particular you'd like me to review, drop me a line at firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Google +.
Filed in: vegan skin care
Comments (9)
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Nice video! I'm playing it right now. Cute orange polka-dot shirt too by the way 🙂
I must track down that nail polish pen.
I was about to email asking about this – would you mind doing an update to your beauty regimen? Your last (first?) one was all the way back in September 2010, and I'm curious if it's changed. I'm always interested in what other folks are using these days. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your favorite things! There are so many great products out there and it's impossible to try them all so I often rely on what I read on my favorite blogs.
My current favorite beauty products are:
Body Wash- Dr. Bronner's Pure Castle Liquid Soap (Peppermint) Found in all health food stores. I love the tingly feeling you get when you put this all over your body. I'm addicted!
Face Lotion- From Carol Alt's Raw Essentials line: All Day Revitalizing Face Moisturizer. I love how this is made with all raw ingredients. It's so good for you you can even eat it! I found this product online but I heard you can also buy at Duane Reade. I'm obsessed with not only how clean and refreshed this product makes me feel but it also helped heal a scar on my chin!
ChapStick- Burt's Bees Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate oil- I LOVE using chapstick! I just recently came across this one that changed my life. Its made with all natural ingredients and adds a little color to your lips!
ALL of these products are under $25!
Makes my healthy cheap self happy : )
Oh my gosh, my daughter & I totally fight over our scalp massager! (To be fair, I did buy it for her for her bday, but then tried to hijack it!) She asks me to use it on her every night when she gets in bed. That thing knocks her out like nothing else! My cousin was visiting this past weekend, and I caught her using it a couple times too! They do make great gifts. I'm heading to lulus.com now, because I love a good vegan bag…
You are too funny! Nice review update!


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After considerable squabbling, back-tracking and horse-trading, on 22 January European Commissioners finally proposed a climate and energy package to shape the EU's energy industry to 2030.
Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso triumphantly announced a momentous decision: a greenhouse-gas reduction target of 40% of 1990 levels by 2030 and a 27% renewable-energy target, binding on the EU, but not on individual member states. Connie Hedegaard, the climate action commissioner, and Gunther Oettinger, energy commissioner, stood alongside Barroso as he delivered the proposal.
Ignoring a European Parliament vote just days earlier calling for strong policies and a 30% renewables target, Barroso highlighted how "ambitious" the EU is on renewables. He rejoiced that his plan is "far-sighted", will trigger an "energy revolution", bring down energy bills and create prosperity.
Nothing could be further from the truth. With this proposal, the European Commission (EC) has turned its back on renewables and, in doing so, has turned its back on jobs, economic growth and energy security.
Throughout 2013, the issue of electricity affordability was a hot topic in Brussels, as it was in capital cities across the EU — and rightly so. It is, however, a complicated and multi-faceted issue: on the one hand power producers are struggling as the cost of electricity on the wholesale markets reaches historic lows, on the other hand, electricity bills are soaring for consumers (see box, below). In the meantime, under-priced shale gas in the US brought down power prices, and the spectre of Europe's perceived competitive disadvantage haunted the energy debate.
As in all complex debates, the tactic of choice was to select scapegoats. Some power producers faced with stranded gas assets pointed their fingers at renewables — specifically wind and solar — arguing that they are dragging down the price of electricity due to their lower marginal costs. The sharp decrease in power demand due to the economic crisis was, interestingly, not an important part of this reasoning.
Manufacturing and chemical industry associations, meanwhile, argued that electricity bill increases was due to renewables taxes. Caught between its renewable energy policies and growing pressure from some power producers and energy-intensive industries, the commission launched a series of studies to feed into an impact assessment for the 2030 energy and climate package. No decisions would be taken without evidence and real data, many commissioners said.
Import excesses
The evidence, in the form of an impact assessment, a report on energy costs and prices, and a report on energy economic development in Europe was conclusive. Europe is victim of its fossil-fuel imports, which are the main drivers of energy bills — EUR 421 billion in 2012 alone, more than 3% of the EU's GDP.
The impact assessment confirmed that the decrease in power demand due to the financial crisis has contributed to the lower wholesale prices and, where power markets take renewables into account,such as in Spain or Ireland, the merit order effect of low-cost power production from wind offsets the extra cost of the support mechanism. Where this does not happen it can be due to bad policy or market design, like in Germany.
The assessment also found that the cost of support mechanisms for renewable-energy sources — more than EUR 30 billion in 2010 across the EU, of which EUR 2.2 billion was for wind energy — is offset entirely by the reduced fossil-fuel import bills thanks to renewable energy availability.
Setting a renewable energy target of just 30% alongside a greenhouse gas reduction target in 2030 would create 1.25 million extra jobs in the EU — 570,000 more than setting a single greenhouse-gas target — at virtually no extra cost to the energy system.
Europe is a global industrial leader in renewables, particularly in wind, with a positive export balance in 2012 of EUR 2.5 billion in wind-turbine components alone. European companies are responsible for 55% of global wind-energy patent applications.
In short, the commission evidence is compelling, making the decisions taken by the commission all the more surprising and counterproductive. In the words of Thomas Becker, CEO of European Wind Energy Association (EWEA): "The previously far-sighted commission is a shadow of its former self."
Wind energy needs ambition and stability
The wind industry has suffered in past years from the regulatory instability created by governments rushing to change, re-change, fix, undo and re-do energy market policies and support schemes. Some changes introduced in key markets have had retroactive aspects, hitting wind farms that have been up and running for years.
EU policy and targets over these tumultuous times have been a reference, and the commission has played a role in trying to keep national renewables policies on track. A strong signal from Brussels that renewables are unequivocally the way forward for Europe's energy supply and broader economic redeployment would go a long way in increasing investors' confidence in the wind industry and allow the many supply-chain companies to plan their future operations. In short, allow the wind industry to get back to business.
In March, the heads of state of the EU's 28 member states will meet to discuss the commission's proposal for a 2030 climate and energy framework. They need to show leadership and agree an ambitious package based on a renewable-energy target exceeding 30% that allows Europe's world-leading wind sector to make the region more prosperous and secure its energy supply.
The industry is meeting at Europe's biggest wind conference a week before the EU meeting, and this will be an opportune moment to send a clear message to governments across the EU.
Cheap wholesale prices
European Commission analysis shows that the decrease in power consumption due to the financial crisis and the increase in "low marginal cost" power production, predominantly wind and solar, have reduced the cost of producing electricity and lowered wholesale prices.
However, the EU's dependence on fossil-fuel imports, especially gas, has increased fuel import bills. Gas is especially problematic as a majority of import contracts are long-term and index-linked to oil prices. The EC concludes that there is a strong correlation between fossil-fuel price rises and electricity bill hikes. While the "energy production" element of electricity bills has declined, taxes and grid costs have increased, leading to an overall increase in bills, the commission notes.
In well-functioning electricity markets, the lower wholesale prices should be reflected in consumer bills, states the EC. However, as many countries regulate consumer-prices and use electricity bills to levy taxes that are not directly related to power production, low energy costs do not pass through to consumer bills. Consumers are, therefore, not fully reaping the benefits of increased wind energy development.
Soaring energy prices
The EC further analysed the increasing energy bills and how that affects the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries.
It concludes that the European industry pays significantly more for its energy compared to its main commercial partners (with the exception of Japan).
This situation is not new; energy has been more expensive in Europe than in other areas of the world for a long time due to Europe's lack of domestic fossil-fuel resources and the increasing energy consumption in other parts of the world. The EU is an energy price taker, not maker. Even with an increase in domestic fossil-fuel production, such as through shale gas exploration, fossil-fuel prices will remain largely dictated by international markets.
Energy efficient
European industry has reacted over the years to the high energy prices by increasing efficiency. EU industry is significantly more energy-efficient than that of the US, China or other emerging economies. Consequently, the EU's balance of trade has, as yet, not been significantly affected by the difference in energy prices compared to the union's commercial partners.
"The EU-US goods balance has shown a persistent surplus for the EU without any clear sign of deterioration. One can tentatively conclude that the widening EU-US energy price gap has so far not visibly affected the EU industry's market performance vis-a-vis their US counterpart," says the European Commission staff working document Energy economic developments in Europe (January 2014).
Jacopo Moccia is head of political affairs at the European Wind Energy Association


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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Ghost Tree
Posted by Rot at 7:42 AM
Labels: art, artist, nick potter, paintings
2 comments:
- bean said...
wow...i love these. beautiful.
- July 28, 2009 at 9:33 AM
- Sara said...
I am really liking the way he uses paint to create cliff-like structures in his pieces. Very nice. I love the artists you feature here, so thanks for doing so!
- July 28, 2009 at 11:03 AM
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text:
One of the overlooked benefits of the Beta.FamilySearch.org website, is the very small print link to the FamilySearch Help Center. Here is a screen shot showing where to click:
Opening the Help Center brings up a fairly simple screen:
Just type in your question using normal language usage. The other options include a more advanced search, which lets you filter your answer by topic, document type, publishing date and language. Be sure and note that the filter by topic option lets you ask questions about 24 different FamilySearch areas.
There is also a Personal Assistance link that offers a number of other solutions for answering questions about any of the FamilySearch programs. In addition, there is a link (not yet active) to Training and Resources:
and finally a way to contact FamilySearch directly.
I have mentioned the Help Center before, but repetition is always good when it comes to learning where to go to answer questions.
Friday, October 15, 2010
The FamilySearch Help Center
1 comment:
- AnonymousOctober 15, 2010 at 1:59 PM
James, thanks for the blog. I'm the Product Manager for Help and Support at FamilySearch and would love to get any of your suggestions on how Help Center can be improved. There is a new Survey feature (as your image points out above) as well as a Feedback link. With either of those you can tell me what we can do better to make Help Center more helpful. Thanks! -Cullen BrimhallReplyDelete
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text:
Praise for Notes from a Coma
"A cross between 1984 and The X-Files . . . Notes From a Coma establishes McCormack as one of the most original and important voices in contemporary Irish fiction."
─Irish Times (original review)
"The greatest Irish novel of the decade."
─Irish Times
"McCormack's language is lovely, lyrical . . . his humor is dark, macabre; the words glimmer like a spell."
─Time Out
"The testimony about JJ's life is written with a sad and touching simplicity . . . Intriguing."
─The Wall Street Journal
"Subtle but haunting storytelling mixes with an insightful examination into the ethics of the penal system to produce an unusual and unforgettable read."
─Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Notes from a Coma is the finest book yet from one of Ireland's most singular contemporary writers, a daring reinvention of the gothic for the age of machines."
—Matt Bell, author of In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods
"A major talent in Irish fiction . . . McCormack slyly and brilliantly satirizes, among many other things, our fixations with celebrity and high-priced medical technology."
"Additional events and commentary take place literarily underneath these chapters in long footnotes . . . [They underscore] how unique and noteworthy this unusual novel truly is — and why McCormack undeniably deserves a wider audience on this side of the globe."
"An intriguing novel that touches on many of the moral and ethical questions of the day. Mike McCormack is one to watch."
─Book Chase
"A great work of literary/psychological fiction…well worth the read."
─A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall
"Are you ready for something mind-bending, something intelligent, introspective, and quintessentially Irish? Five men volunteer to enter a comatose state to test a new idea for incarceration of criminals. The novel makes a subtle statement on today's politics, spirituality, and even celebrity worship."
—Mary T. of R.J. Julia Booksellers
"Compelling….A story of politics, psychology, metaphysics, and family that defies easy classification."
─Required Reading
Praise for Mike McCormack
"McCormack's obsessions at times converge with those explored by Ian McEwan, Will Self and J. G. Ballard, but his clever ideas and fluid, gracefully morbid style are all his own."
"When venturing into the realm of the macabre, a writer gains a distinct advantage if he has a sense of discipline and a sense of humor … Mike McCormack has both to spare…. Like parables in their easy transcendence of setting and time, the most audacious stories are classics."
─The New York Times Book Review