text:
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticizes Congress for delaying relief funds for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
The House GOP came under a blistering bipartisan assault Wednesday for punting on Sandy relief, with Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie complaining he couldn't even get Speaker John Boehner to return his calls.
Fallout from the surprise vote pullback on a $60 billion aid package mounted by the hour with cries of outrage and calls for revenge.
By late afternoon, it seemed like the onslaught was having an effect. The House scheduled a Friday vote on $9 billion in flood insurance funds, to be followed by a Jan. 15 vote on another $51 billion in assistance.
It was unclear if the larger allocation would pass – or if the belated vote would mollify the New York and New Jersey politicians who unleashed unusually personal attacks against Boehner and other House Republicans.
House to vote on Sandy funding Friday, placating outraged lawmakers
Earlier, New York Rep. Pete King said his Republican colleagues had exposed a bias against the blue states of the Northeast and that anyone from the area who donates money to them "should have his head examined."
"They can't count on any vote from me now," he said on MSNBC.
Christie, who has been touted as a possible White House contender, put the blame for the delay squarely on Boehner and marveled that he called the Ohioan four times before he would take his call.
"Shame on you, Congress," he said, adding that he has received no explanation for the "disappointing and disgusting" decision.
The $60 billion request for assistance for to victims of Superstorm Sandy has been passed by the Senate, and House supporters were pushing for a Tuesday night vote.
House Speaker John Boehner had quietly decided the House should not pass billions more in spending for Sandy relief, stunning both Democrats and Republicans from the storm-ravaged region. But after being subjected to intense pressure, a vote on some emergency aid will now be held on Friday. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.
Instead, King said, Boehner "just walked off" the floor and had an aide break the news that there would be no vote. The House adjourned on Wednesday without considering the measure; lawmakers are back Thursday for an hour before they gavel in the 113th Congress.
While some Republicans have criticized the aid package for funds not directly linked to Sandy, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said the speaker is "committed to getting this bill passed this month."
That promise didn't quiet the fury.
"Totally obscene," said Tom Jordan, a former firefighter whose house in Rockaway, Queens, was flooded by the storm that killed 120 people and damaged almost 400,000 homes.
"They're quibbling about $60 billion? That's nothing as far as the federal budget goes. They should come down here and see what the beach looks like. They want to wait? We need repairs before the next hurricane season."
Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican who represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn, called the delay "a personal betrayal." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand dared Boehner to visit Staten Island, then added that she doubts "he has the dignity nor the guts to do it."
First Read: 'Betrayal': Congress punts on Sandy recovery funding, infuriating local lawmakers
"They're a bunch of idiots," Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, a Conservative, said of House Republicans. "There's no other logical reason they'd be doing this."
Those hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy say they are close to the breaking point, their faith in government flagging. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
In a joint statement, Christie and New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, accused the house of a "dereliction of duty."
"When American citizens are in need we come to their aid," they said. "That tradition was abandoned in the House last night."
But it was King who really let his Republican colleagues have it.
"The fact is that the dismissive attitude that was shown last night toward New York, New Jersey and Connecticut typifies, I believe, a strain in the Republican Party," he said on the House floor.
"I can't imagine that type of indifference, that cavalier attitude being shown to any other part of the country," he added.
"We cannot believe this cruel knife in the back was delivered to our region… This is not the United States of America! This should not be the Republican Party. This should not be the Republican leadership."
Although he said he is not thinking of switching parties, King suggested New Yorkers should hit House Republicans who don't support the bill where it hurts – in the campaign coffer.
"These people have no problem finding New York when it comes to raising money. They only have a problem when it comes to allocating," he fumed.
"If this is not delivered and very quickly…anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans after this should have their head examined," he added on MSNBC.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., blasts Speaker John Boehner and Congress for delaying action on a bill that would provide aid toward Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
Boehner is supposed to meet with Republican members of the New York and New Jersey delegations on Wednesday to reassure them that the relief bill will be passed.
But King expressed skepticism about a quick vote, noting a majority of House Republicans don't support the bill and Washington will be soon be preoccupied with the inauguration and the State of the Union.
President Obama called on the House to bring the bill to a vote immediately and "pass it without delay for our fellow Americans."
It's unclear what impact the vote delay with have. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency testified this month that it had enough funding to "respond to the immediate needs."
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) defended Boehner's move, blaming the Senate for padding the relief package with non-essential funding.
"The Senate didn't do their job. They sent us a bunch of pork, and then left town," he said on "Fox and Friends."
NBC News' Tom Curry and Frank Thorp contributed to this report.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- One inch: Death in combat hinges on the tiniest margins
- Despite 'fiscal cliff' deal, more political drama likely on way
- Handcuffed California teen shot while in police custody
- Legalized pot, gay marriage: Are we all Washington now?
- New laws target sex offenders with Santa suits, and more
- Video: Two teens, 12-year-old charged in fatal carjacking
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

subset: commoncrawl


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Grails: Lessons Learned
Here are some lessons learned concerning lazy vs eager fetching and how to delete a child object in a One-to-many relationship (unfortunately it's not super obvious).
First Lesson: Don't set eager fetching globally
I by no means am a grails expert, but based on my experience don't set the eager fetching in your Domain as the example shows (unless you have a very good reason and understand the consequences). Lazy vs Eager fetching is well described in the grails documentation, so I won't repeat it, but anyone using One-to-many relationships needs to know the differences.
The default behavior in grails is lazy fetching, which results in n+1 queries. In some cases this might be ideal, in others it may not. When it's not you have a couple of choices. The example in the grails documentation sets a fetchMode property on the Domain. This sets it globally and every time the Domain is accessed, grails is going to load all it's many relationships. The path I recommend is to specify the fetch mode when retrieving the data. For example, the list() method has a parameter called fetch and can be used like this: Book.list(fetch: [authors: "eager"]). This gives you the most flexibility by not specifying the fetch mode globally, but allowing you to fetch eagerly when necessary.
Second Lesson: Use Hibernate Events to help remove associations
Like myself, you might actually have a One-to-many relationship where you need to delete a child. Unfortunately this use case isn't documented very well and it actually took me a little bit to figure out.
So lets say you have the following two domains
And you save the following
class Parent {
static hasMany = [kids: Kid]
String name
class Kid {
static belongsTo = [parent: Parent]
String name
Now Ayden turns 18 and going off to college and you need to remove him. You might think this would work:
new Parent(name: "James").addToKids(name: "Ayden").save()
But it doesn't because the parent James still has a reference to the kid Ayden in the kids list (parent.kids). So you have to do the following:
Why that isn't the default behavior in grails I don't know, but to prevent you from repeating code everywhere you can use Hibernate events. In the Kid Domain add the following beforeDelete property:
def kid = Kid.findByName("Ayden")
And now when you want to remove a Kid, all you need to do is call kid.delete(). The hibernate events are interesting. By default grails supports 4 events: beforeInsert, beforeUpdate, beforeDelete, onLoad. However, there is a recent plugin called Hibernate Events Plugin that adds 7 more events: beforeLoad, afterLoad, beforeSave, afterSave, afterInsert, afterUpdate, afterDelete.
class Kid {
static belongsTo = [parent: Parent]
def beforeDelete = {
String name


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Health clubs have an almost limitless amount of options for revenue under the preventative health umbrella. However, one source that is often overlooked is personal training, but to realize any real profit, it needs just as much attention as you give each member and your business in general.
When you add another source of sales, you must treat that source as if it is another business. If you look at this from an aerial perspective, almost anything you can add to your health club also is successfully being sold outside your health club in other businesses. All of these businesses provide services you could be providing, but you have the advantage of already having the captive audience to create new business—all within your own facility.
Out of all of the business-within-a-business models, personal training is by far the most profitable and healthy stream to tap, mainly because personal training is a high-price ticket item.
Membership monthly net sales should be equivalent to personal training monthly net sales. How do you achieve this, you ask? Here are some ways to do so:
- Operate personal training as a separate business. Whether you physically separate training as a different business or maintain it within your facility under the same company does not matter. What does matter is that you watch your bottom line as you would with membership sales. You need to create a structure that equally benefits both your revenue and your employees. Stop looking at personal training as an added service, like the towels you give away, and start looking at it from the top down.
- Hire great trainers, not good trainers. The key to hiring great trainers is employer education. When hiring trainers, make them take you through a workout. If you don't sweat, don't feel a connection and don't enjoy yourself, then you don't have a great trainer. A great trainer will offer educational advice, keep things fresh and interesting, and probably won't use a clipboard or count reps. The current issue with hiring trainers is that employers lack knowledge and sometimes lack actual physical exercise experience. I see many owners and employers who don't exercise or have never exercised (except maybe back in high school or college).
- Sales and coaching. My business partner, Chris Gellings, often says, "It's not the player; it's the coach." Owners (coaches) expect their sales staff (players) to perform and "close" all the time, when, in fact, the owner may not even be able to do so. It is imperative that every owner/manager teach the proper practice of sales—not just the sale and the close but also proper "leading," all while maintaining genuine customer service and satisfaction. Get out there and coach your team.
- Point of sale (POS) personal training vs. after point of sale (APOS) personal training. Personal training needs to be introduced at POS simply because you may not see the customer again. Nearly 90 percent of the members who visit your facility are novice exercisers who need assistance. Why wouldn't you introduce personal training at this point? Your customers are walking into your facility, saying they want to lose fat and have been trying to do this with zero success for the past three years. Well, they obviously are asking for assistance. Proper assistance through personal training leads to results and success. Success with a member leads to renewals, referrals and revenue. I call this the four Rs: results = renewals = referrals = revenue. If you present personal training APOS, you likely won't see them again, but if you do, see the next point below.
- The numbers game. Any and every sale is a numbers game. The more opportunities you have, the more sales you have. I will always take 1 percent of 1000 over 100 percent of nothing. If you can get in front of someone to present personal training, your chances are higher. Hence, always present personal training at POS, and make sure your salespeople understand personal training concepts. If for some reason you are able to present personal training APOS, you need to have a sales system in place to ensure you will see them for the presentation (i.e. callback, complimentary workout with a trainer, etc.)
- The gel and the glue. Think of the sales team as gel and your trainers as the glue. The two combined are a force to be reckoned with. If your salespeople try to sell training without introducing the member to a trainer, you will likely lose the sale. However, if a trainer attempts to sell training after training someone, you also might lose the sale because many trainers want to "give the farm away" out of compassion and understanding for the client. It is great to have trainers care about their clients this much, but this certainly does not help the club's bottom line. So, get your trainers and sales team working together so you will see an immediate shift.
Following these six simple steps can help health club owners double their club revenue all through one stream: personal training.
Michael Benso has more than a decade of experience as a club manager, owner and fitness equipment product manager. He has developed or re-designed more than 100 pieces of equipment for Matrix Fitness Systems, a global fitness equipment manufacturer, as well as playing a role in developing a personal training sales strategy for some of the Gold's Gym International clubs in St. Louis, MO. Benso then co-founded Fitness Management Group (FMG) with his business partner, Chris Gellings. Since its beginning in 2009, FMG has become one of the largest in-house personal training operating companies in the world.


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But I first had to take care of the world I know February 8, 2010Posted by David Gillespie in advertising, business strategy.
Tags: Add new tag, advertising, Advertising agency, Al Ries, business, marketing, Zappos
8 comments
So nothing like 2 hours in customs and then more hours sitting on the runway because it's snowing at your destination, but it gave me time to read through this thought-provoking article from Bud Caddell on the future of the ad agency.
First off, it's great; it doesn't claim all the answers but it probes in all the right places. And for whatever reason I was thinking about this a lot over the weekend, and you should totally read Bud's piece first, because this is my take, and there are a bunch of synergies.
1. We do not need more web shops.
Now, I say that with a lot of friends running their own places, so let me qualify that statement. Most companies only need some simple hosting, a WordPress install, and should spend the majority of their money on design. To saddle people with cumbersome, proprietary content-management systems and code re-written from the ground up when someone else's plugin will do exactly what you want is morally bankrupt.
On top of that, it can be done more cheaply and to a reasonable level of quality for around US$20 an hour. Sad for some, but it is the modern equivalent of the industrial revolution. And the money is best spent elsewhere.
2. This is "elsewhere".
Content. Content content content. I recently did an audit for a company and came out of it with the exact thing I expected: they didn't give their customers anything other than coupons, so subsequently that's all they talked about.
3. Everything gets easier.
This is the biggest truism, and it exists as uch inside the ad industry as it does outside it: everything, I do not care what it is, will get easier. It will happen in manufacturing as much as it will happen with technology, so companies whose existence relies on technology have but one choice: to make problems that are difficult easy for the people facing them.
Agencies with big technical production capabilities need to send the work out to be done more cheaply, take the best and brightest they have and remake that department as a research & development arm. There is no reason Foursquare could not have been created by Zagat's; but nobody was working on that kind of problem. Not hard enough anyway. The digital shops need to go back to their engineering roots; they need to sit a bunch of curious minds from across the board together and be inventors; that work is far too important to leave to agencies – and they're not going to do it anyway.
4. No points for second place.
One of Al Ries' 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing said it was better to be first in a new category than 2nd in an old one; that is basically positioning but it speaks to a fundamental truth: marketers need to stop inventing problems for products to solve and focus on creating products that get back to the existing ones, which I suppose just echoes what I said in point 1 more generally. And particularly in the CPG space, they need to udnerstand the conversation around the product is always more interesting than the product itself (e.g. baby formula or parenthood? Which is more interesting?).
5. What we used to call digital will lead, and it won't survive without traditional talent.
Bear with me: it doesn't make sense to talk about "digital" anymore, it's too ubiquitous to mean anything. What we're really looking at is a kind of "curation of connections", which happen in various places. Great strategists can lead that, but they're going to need content produced – and occasionally a short, branded spot or a still image. One thing traditional advertising still has over new media is the ability to tell a story in a heartbeat; we'll always need that sort of eye, but there's no longer any reason for it to lead, its importance is decreasing by the day.
6. This only applies to the companies that don't create true value.
Apple, Zappos, and the other handful of brands that create products and services so compelling they don't need to market the way everyone else does are going to continue to chart their own course. Long term, companies are better off focusing on that than trying to advertise their way into people's wallets, as that stops working the second the ad stops.
So, in summation: the agency will be replaced by strategists defining touch points and curating content for those points, and that can be a 3rd party or it can be a savvy brand manager. Regardless of who it is, a lot of people currently in agency land are simply not capable of that. It isn't a sell, it's leading by being meaningful, and advertising just isn't good at that.
Web shops who want to remain web shops need to use the cheapest technologies available, and make their own approach more turn-key. If they don't, they will lose out to overseas suppliers who can do it all cheaper (and likely faster). The whole notion of a "digital" agency needs to be ditched, we're talking user-experience and connections, regardless of whether that happens virtually or in the real world. The shops who don't want to do that need to be inventors.
And brands that don't want to deal with either need to create products so compelling and in-tune with their customer base they largely sell themselves. Advertising was always the price you paid for being boring, and shortly it may not be a price you can pay at all.
Why Australian GQ sucks – part 4: Audience & Competitors May 19, 2008Posted by David Gillespie in branding, marketing, work/life.
Tags: 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries, American GQ, Border's, British GQ, David Bailey, FHM, GQ Australia, Guy Pearce, Jack Trout, Ralph, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger
3 comments
I may very well be the only straight man in Australia with this opinion, but I'm not interested in buying magazines with girls flaunting themselves on the front cover. If I want that, I can go to almost any bar on a Friday night and see pretty young things who can't hold their pre-mixed vodka. And if for some bizarre reason I'm really desperate to see girls tarted up and air-brushed to within an inch of their cosmetically enhanced lives, I'll google "porn star" and see what I find. In fairness, British GQ are as guilty of this as anyone, and Australian GQ actually have Guy Pearce on the cover for their April/May issue.
Regardless, put a stunning David Bailey portrait on the cover (better yet, an Australian photographer – Robert Paul Mee has a lousy website but is brilliant) and I'm 10 times more likely to buy than a bikini-clad actress. I realise I have now put myself in an even smaller subset of beings who know a David Bailey photograph on sight, but nobody said this was going to be easy.
The first part of this is something I don't have an easy answer to, but I think about it a lot, and that's we need a new definition of masculinity because the old one isn't working, and while that is something that informs this argument, it is itself a separate post (and one I look forward to).
The second part of this is looking at the space GQ exists in. Australian GQ competes on the shelves of newsagents and Borders against British GQ, American GQ (only marginally better than ours, but full of white-bread Hilfiger and Polo ads, therefore beyond saving) and Esquire (here the US version is actually better than the English one) among others.
It does not compete (or at least it shouldn't) with Ralph, FHM or any other "lad" magazine purporting to appeal to stereotypical male culture. Who writes this drivel? Who sees enough value in its pages to shell out for it? FHM are certainly aware of how low-brow they are, to the extent that they've started releasing dedicated Style issues in an attempt to reach people like me. Sorry guys, your brand doesn't stretch in that direction, no matter how hard you pull (pun intended).
Does the GQ man lust after models in magazines or does the GQ man party with them on his private yacht? Right. So get them off the cover and let's replace it with some men we can actually respect and who have earned the spot. British GQ used to run "Britain's leading quality men's monthly" across their masthead, and while you could argue you shouldn't have to say it, they at least knew where they were headed.
Tomorrow, we'll finish up by looking at online.
Image courtesy of Proserpina with thanks to Flickr Storm.
Update: I wanted to link all five posts together for easy reference, so here they are.
- The Editor
- The Writers
- The Art Direction
- Audience & Competitors (you are here)
- Online


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Whither Iran?
Here's more from the Times and the Post.
In Britain's Telegraph, Anton La Guardia addresses President Ahmadinejad's "divine mission": "The main rift is no longer between 'reformists' and 'hardliners', but between the clerical establishment and Mr Ahmadinejad's brand of revolutionary populism and superstition."
On the right, Michelle Malkin is "preparing for the worst". I'm not sure we're "on the brink," and I worry about the prospect of a reckless military excursion into Iran, not least one that diverts attention away from what's going on in Iraq, but Iran's pursuit of nuclear energy, and perhaps nuclear weaponry, is obviously a concern that demands our attention (and perhaps, eventually, military action).
As Steve Soto puts it at The Left Coaster, however, "we can't do anything about [Iran] at this time" -- at least not what we should do, at least not what we could have done back in 2001.
See also All Things Beautiful, The Glittering Eye, and Publius Pundit.
My last post on Iran is here.


text:
This blog has been real quiet of late due to me putting the finishing touches to our upcoming "Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2" book, but I wanted to do up a quick post here to highlight another book which was authored by some really good friends of mine in the System Center community.
This book is based on System Center 2012 - Orchestrator and is an excellent place to go to learn about Microsoft's automation solution in the System Center suite. Here's an excerpt from the book's description:
"Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 simplifies the process of
automating systems administration tasks. Originally a third-party product named
Opalis, which Microsoft acquired in 2009, Orchestrator provides a simplified way
of building complex automation. System Center Orchestrator is a complete
solution that goes beyond basic automation.
"Microsoft System Center 2012 Orchestrator Cookbook" will teach you how to
plan, create and manage powerful runbooks to help you automate mission-critical
and routine administration tasks.
In this practical Cookbook you will learn how to master System Center 2012 by
creating runbooks to control and automate every feature possible. You will start
by learning how to efficiently install and secure System Center
I've just purchased a copy and you can get your own copy of the book today in 'dead-tree' format from here or in electronic format from here.


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Have you ever made a really good cast, set up what you thought was the perfect drift and had it completely ignored? Then made a sorry cast, followed with a screwball drift and watch your fly be engulfed. I know I have, and it can be really irritating.
I believe this happens because too many of us really dont understand what constitutes a good drift.
To understand what is meant by the term drift, one first has to know the definition of drift. I looked up drift in my dictionary and found 2¼ inches of definitions in small type. The one I think is most descriptive for fly-fishing reads: To become carried along subject to no guidance or control.
That seems pretty simple and straightforward. However, to get your fly to drift with the appearance of no guidance or control from you is a completely different matter.
If a fly-fisherman can produce a drift that appears to be completely natural, he has a much better chance of catching a fish. Too often an upstream mend is made with the hope this will allow his fly to replicate an actual bugs trip downstream. And too often this just doesnt work.
So how does a fly-fisherman go about obtaining the perfect drift?
First he has to know what human-made piece of equipment most affects drift. Give up? Its the leader. This is followed by how a fly-fisherman lets the wind and current drag, push or pull the leader and thus the fly.
I believe there is more to obtaining a good drift than simply making an upstream mend. Because real bugs dont drift with a leader attached to them, a fly-fisherman needs to understand how different conditions affect drifting bugs. To better understand the natural drift of a bug, I suggest some on-the-stream experimenting be done.
Get some old beat-up flies from your fly box and cut off the hooks. (A free-floating fly will attract fish, and you dont want to leave a hook in a fish.) Find some riffles, seams, slow and fast water. Decide where you most likely would place a cast and go to that spot.
Now, standing at that spot, release a fly and watch where it goes and its route of travel. Simply put, in the various conditions mentioned above, a free-floating fly will replicate the natural drift of a bug.
Watch its speed. Does it move all over the riffle or follow a direct route to a stopping place? What happens when the fly moves into slow or dead water at the end of the drift? Do this experiment with different sizes of flies and in different conditions.
To finish this experiment, look around and see where you need to be standing to have the best opportunity to get your fly to the spot where you were releasing flies. Your position on the stream or bank will help your presentation.
Now, do it for real. Tie on a fly, make your cast, mend so your fly follows the drift you previously observed and then maybe catch every fish in the river.
Reach Don Oliver at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Lightweight WordPress performance plugin.
Slow WordPress sites have higher bounce rates and fewer conversions. The perfmatters plugin was created by webperf geeks to speed up your site!
Easy Dashboard
A minimal and easy to use dashboard with one-click toggles. You don't have to be tech-savvy to use Perfmatters.
Increases the speed of your site by reducing HTTP requests, disabling plugins, stripping out code, and optimizing your database.
We are all about no bloat! Clean code, lightweight at under 50 KB, and no JavaScript on the front-end of your site.
Support straight from the developers of the plugin. We have over 19 years of experience working in WordPress.
Frequent Updates
We love new things too! And that's why we push out more updates and new features than anyone we know of.
We code and test our plugins to work with all themes and plugins. It is designed to work alongside your caching plugin.
Kind words from our happy customers.
I've been very impressed with what perfmatters can do. It has reduced my page sizes and total number of HTTP requests. I'm sure I can optimize my website even further by disabling features in the script manager to load code more efficiently. – kevinmuldoon.com
Kevin Muldoon
Blogger and Internet Marketer
Chad Barnes
Head Honcho at SkyrocketWP
Awesome! perfmatters couldn't have been easier to set up—really clean design and to-the-point documentation. We took the recommendations from the documentation and reduced our requests by 10% and shaved 12% from our page speed—down from 1s to 864ms. – skyrocketwp.com
I love your WP Performance plugin – it really does work just as advertised – really simple to use and it does markedly improve the loading time of my sites. Most importantly though you maintain, update and support your plugins which is not always the case. And thanks ever so much for your terrific support in making some plugin changes so that I, as a blind person, have full access to manage your plugin – accessibility is an important issue and your support is great and very fast and friendly. – mydisabilitymatters.com
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Richard Lazazzera
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Super happy with perfmatters. Because of this plugin, we finally got A Better Lemonade Stand under the elusive 1 second load time. Now our whole site feels super snappy. Beyond the performance, you'll get nothing but top-notch support from the founders themselves. – abetterlemonadestand.com
Get the #1 web performance plugin for WordPress
We have over 19 years of experience speeding up and optimizing WordPress sites. Performance really does matter, and we don't settle for anything but lightning fast.


text:
LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is a very exciting distribution, targeted at experienced users, which provides the same environment as Linux Mint but uses Debian as its package base, instead of Ubuntu.
LMDE is less mainstream than Linux Mint, it has a much smaller user base, it is not compatible with PPAs, and it lacks a few features. That makes it a bit harder to use and harder to find help for, so it is not recommended for novice users.
LMDE is however slightly faster than Linux Mint and it runs newer packages. Life on the LMDE side can be exciting. There are no point releases in LMDE 3, except for bug fixes and security fixes base packages stay the same, but Mint and desktop components are updated continuously. When ready, newly developed features get directly into LMDE 3, whereas they are staged for inclusion on the next upcoming Linux Mint 17.x point release. Consequently, Linux Mint users only run new features when a new point release comes out and they opt-in to upgrade to it. LMDE 3 users don't have that choice, but they also don't have to wait for new packages to mature and they usually get to run them first. It's more risky, but more exciting.


text:
Ordered before 15.30h, ships same business day
High quality filaments for the best prices
Always working on new and innovative filaments
Unique features
Food contact compliant
Dishwasher proof and microwave safe
Material density of 0.9 g/cc
Watertight printing possible with only single wall prints
Great elastic properties
Can stretched up to >600% before breaking
Shore hardness of D50
Improved wear-, abrasion- and fatigue resistance
High chemical resistance
Excellent interlayer adhesion
Excellent adhesion to Eurocel LDPE Tape (PE 920)
General printing guidelines *
|Nozzle size: ≥ 0.15mm
|Layer height: ≥ 0.1mm
|Flow rate: ± 104
|Print temp: ± 220 - 240° C
|Print speed: Medium / High
|Retraction: Yes ± 5mm
|Heat bed: ± 0 - 65° C *
|Fan speed: 50-100%
|Experience level: Intermediate
*) Above displayed settings are meant as guidance to find your optimal print settings. These ranges in settings should work for most printers, but please do feel free to experiment outside these ranges if you think it is suitable for your printer. There are a lot of different type of printers, hot-ends and printer offsets that it is extremely difficult to give an overall one-size-fits-all setting.
*) Large Centaur PP prints can be printed on an unheated 2mm or 3mm PP plate, which can be attached to the print bed. Smaller prints can be printed on standard PP packaging tape.
Filament length
|ρ: 0.9 g/cc
|50 gr coil
|0.5 Kg spool
|Ø 1.75mm
|± 23.1m
|± 231m
|Ø 2.85mm
|± 8.7m
|± 87m
Product export information
|HS Code: 39169090
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Complete the form below and a member of the team will be in touch.
Recreational classes for boys and girls are aimed at children 4 years and above.
Structured and non structured gymnastics for the under 5's. Available every weekday.
Pay on the day, parent and toddler, free play classes for crawlers to 3 years.
Our fun, structured, holiday classes, available at both our purpose built sites.
We have a wide range of ages and abilities within our adult classes, for 18+ only.


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Mystery-thriller book review: 'The Crime of Julian Wells'
Summer might be drawing to a close, but don't worry — there's still plenty of time to squeeze in a few more chills provided by new mysteries and thrillers from Karin Fossum, Tana French and Thomas H. Cook.
An Edgar Allan Poe Award and numerous other prizes to his credit notwithstanding, the mystery writer Thomas H. Cook rarely gets the kind of high-profile attention accorded reigning superstars Michael Connelly and Patricia Cornwell, at least in the United States, a degree of oversight on his home turf that is a mystery unto itself.
The reason may be the prevailing perception that Cook is a genre writer, an unfortunate oversimplification because most of his books are literary hybrids that are anything but formulaic.
One can only hope that the critical reception for the Alabama native's 28th book, "The Crime of Julian Wells" (Mysterious Press: 292 pp., $24), will balance things out somewhat, because it is a striking example of a suspense writer working at the top of his form, and an agreeable diversion for those who enjoy a bit of style with their substance.
The premise itself is an exercise in speculation. Julian Wells, the title character, is an enigmatic sort of person who has made a name for himself as an author of real-life crime, a background that Cook shares in several of his own books, but there the similarity ends. As the novel opens, Julian is tidying up his Montauk, Long Island, study, making sure to leave no telltale signs that might explain why he is about to row a hundred feet out into a nearby pond and slash his wrists before his sister Loretta, a failed actress and part-time copy editor who owns the old family house with him, suspects anything is amiss.
That there might be a crime of any sort is something that Philip Anders, a book reviewer accustomed to a fairly sedentary life, is compelled to investigate, spurred on by the agonizing thought that he might have been able to prevent the suicide, if only he'd had an inkling of the demons that were nudging his dearest friend over the edge. Philip and Julian were brought together in youth by circumstance, both of them the sons of middle-level State Department bureaucrats.
As an author, Julian's books had examined various aspects of what Hannah Arendt called the "banality of evil," the idea that unspeakable crimes like the Holocaust are often carried out by ordinary people unwilling to question authority or consider the moral consequences of their actions.
There are a couple of hints to begin with, a map of Argentina Julian had been examining on the day he died, and the haunting dedication he had written to his first book: "For Philip, sole witness to my crime." The line had always bothered Philip, because he had no idea what his friend meant by it. And Argentina is especially interesting, since both men had known a woman in Buenos Aires who had inexplicably gone missing during the darkest days of the military dictatorship of the 1970s and early '80s.
Philip's travels through three continents bring him in contact with a succession of unsavory people and deeper into a world that walks a fine line between appearance and reality. Cook's characterizations are richly balanced and finely nuanced, with a narrative driven more by psychological insight than pyrotechnics. Literary references abound, perhaps a few too many for some tastes, but always relevant, and none more resonant than a description of the deceased that appears early in the novel: "Like Orpheus, he had brought music into hell, and like him, he had died in a world that no longer wished to hear it."
— Nicholas Basbanes
Basbanes' ninth book, "On Paper," will be published next year by Alfred A. Knopf.
Your essential guide to the arts in L.A.
Get Carolina A. Miranda's weekly newsletter for what's happening, plus openings, critics' picks and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.


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New York State Modern Political Archive: apap121
Communications Workers of America Operators Division Local 1104 Records, 1949-2001, bulk 1980-1995
Communications Workers of America. Local 1104 (Albany, N.Y.)
26.0 cubic ft.
The Operators and Service Employees Division of Communication Workers of America, Local 1104 represents those in the telecommunications industry. The collection includes board meeting information, calendars, contracts, financial records, photographs, and related information.


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South African universities partner with Morgan State University
Growing international program seeks to enrich students
A half a dozen South African universities have joined forces with Baltimore's Morgan State University.
A few weeks ago, the two agreed to share research and open their respective campuses for students to travel abroad. The partnership is helping to put Morgan on a global playing field.
Nearly 400 international students are registered at Morgan this fall, and their numbers could be going up even more. The South African agreement proves that Morgan State is wasting little time in its efforts to try to change the school's educational culture from a historical black university campus to one now open to teach the world.
Forty students from Brazil, who will become members of the Morgan student body for the next year, spoke to WBAL-TV 11 News about their experience.
"I'm feeling quite comfortable because the classes are quite different from the ones I have in Brazil," one student said.
"I'm having a lot of fun learning much about your culture," another student said.
Students from places like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Italy and China are also on campus. South Africa will add to that list.
"It's a lifetime experience being abroad and seeing different people, different cultures," another student said.
The head of international affairs said the goal is to put Morgan and its academic programs and students on the map.
"It means the students here at Morgan can now look at the world in a different manner. They can get a global view. Many of them now want to go abroad during the summer," said Dr. T. Joan Robinson with Morgan State University.
That's exactly what Morgan State President David Wilson had in mind when he signed the latest agreement with South Africa.
"We'll be able to bring three to four students from each of those institutions to Morgan, where they'll stay for a semester or two. Then we'll also make available opportunities for three or four students from Morgan to go to any of those institutions," Wilson said. "For us here at Morgan, we want to make sure our students are well prepared to dance on the world stage with the very best of them when they get their degrees from this institution."
Morgan's president is leaving for China this weekend, where he's hoping to develop even more international partnerships.


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Conflict Resolution Programs
Reduce Aggression & Enhance Learning
The effect of aggressive behavior on the classroom environment is significant. For three decades studies continue to show that the majority of surveyed teachers feel that aggressive students undermine learning for others and most feel that academic achievement would improve dramatically if the problem were remedied.
Three quarters of the public surveyed agrees. The research shows that a set of social skills commonly lacking in people prone to violent and aggressive behavior [include poor] impulse control, problem-solving, and anger management (Committee for Children, 1997, p.1). Victims and bystanders of aggressive and angry students often lack assertive communications skills, as well (Marano, 1995).
Conflict resolution program evaluations show that programs which address these issues not only reduce aggression and violence in communities and their schools, but also provide "life-long decision making skills" (U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1997, p. 55), and enhance the self-esteem of students.
Fortunately, conflict resolution programs provide hope in reclaiming the sanctuary provided by our schools. The Center for Law Related Education (Bodine, 1996) found that most conflict resolution programs reduce the time that teachers spent on conflicts, improve school climate, and improve problem-solving skills and self-control among students. There have been increases in peaceful problem-solving and a significant reduction in violence within the most violent gangs after conflict resolution training (Sherman et al., 1997). More significant reductions in destructive behavior are generally the case in school settings (Johnson & Johnson, 1996).
Now, with thousands of conflict resolution programs in place, we know that such mediation promotes responsible, pro-social behavior, "improved communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking" (Van Steenbergen, 1994), p. 22). Improved academic performance is a particularly significant gain when conflict resolution skills are integrated into a content area, improving both conflict resolution skills (integrative thinking) and content comprehension (Johnson & Johnson, 1994). Conflict resolution programs improve students' social and emotional skill development (National Institute of Dispute Resolution, 1997). Johnson and Johnson's (1995b, 1996) decades of research show that integrative thinking skills are almost non-existent prior to conflict resolution training, yet are often used spontaneously afterward.
Studies of conflict resolution programs often include measures of positive changes in the classroom or school climate (Koch, 1988; Lam, 1989). There are several studies which show that after implementation of effective conflict resolution programs students' ability to problem solve and cooperate improves dramatically and the "cooperative spirit goes beyond the classroom" (Steinberg, 1991, p. 5).
The gains in cooperative skills are significant for two reasons. First, in America our "children are often so highly and inappropriately competitive that they lose the opportunity to win prizes that require even minimal cooperation" (Phinney & Rotheram, 1987, p. 208)…And, second, students in cooperative conflict resolution environments "hold fewer negative stereotypes" (Lantieri & Patti, p. 26).
This article is an excerpt from Warren Heydenberk and Roberta Heydenberk, A Powerful Peace: the Integrative Thinking Classroom (Allyn and Bacon, 2000, pp. 164-165).


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=== DocBook ===
=== DocBook ===
Revision as of 12:38, 15 December 2008
There is plenty of information on the wiki about how to become a beat writer. We need people who will pick up a piece that interests them and help tell the world. What is lacking is help in how to execute the duties of a beat writer. This page hopes to address that. Please take care to note that these are the opinions of one beat writer, and perhaps something of an outlier at that.
The Process
During the release cycle, there are things that need to be done to stay on top of the release. Most of these, honestly, are pretty lightweight. They may seem a bit daunting at first, but really, they're not too bad. The hardest part, though, is understanding what is expected; this page hopes to address that.
Finding out what a Beat looks like
The beat page in the wiki ultimately becomes a section of the release notes for the next release of Fedora. It's primary objective is to help people understand what has changed. Depending on the beat, it might be helpful to begin with a 'short' synopsis of what is in the beat, but the main thrust should be to describe the changes between the next release and the previous.
Just how detailed this should be depends on the particular topic. For many packages a simple note mentioning a new version of a particular package, perhaps with a short description of new features is adequate. For a completely new package, you may want to be a little more detailed. Most packages come from an upstream project, so in general you want to include a link to the upstream's release notes.
Sometimes a package has changed in a way that requires action from a user. Perhaps the user must install an external package, perhaps (s)he must do some sort of file conversion. When this happens, the beat must include at least a warning, and a link to the details. In cases where there are probably many users, and especially when those users might be less experienced, then a detailed, step-by-step description of what needs to be done is in order.
Read through the current version of the release notes. You will see examples of both very brief descriptions and very detailed descriptions. As you read through the release notes, keep in mind that the audience for, say, gcc is a very different audience than that for the Flash plugin, for example, even though they end up in the same document.
Finding out what is in the Beat
This sounds simple, but is probably the hardest part. You took on (or are thinking of taking on) the Beat Writer duties because there is a subject within Fedora that you care about, and maybe are even familiar with. You probably already use some of the packages in your particular beat. The operative word there is some. Fedora now has well over 11,000 packages. Chances are there are packages in your area you don't know about. The good news is that you are likely to find packages you wish you knew about sooner!
PackageKit is one obvious place to start. PackageKit is not organized by Beats. As a result, not all packages are in obvious places in PackageKit, and many packages "belong" in multiple groups. But at least PackageKit is a start. The GUI for PackageKit wasn't really aimed at Beat Writers, so this process can be a little tedious.
When you are looking around in PackageKit, at least scan groups that don't seem to be related to your beat. The people who organized the groups in PackageKit had a different point of view. Even when a package at first seems way out of bounds for a particular group, usually if you give it a little thought, you can see the rationale, even though you may not agree with it.
A somewhat faster, but less friendly, way of searching the groups is to issue a
yum grouplist command, find some groups that look relevant, and then do a
yum groupinfo (groupname) to see a list of packages in the group. For packages that you aren't familiar with, you may still need to do a
yum info on the package. With PackageKit you can simply select the package name to see the same description.
If your particular area of interest is supported by a SIG, then the SIG's page on the wiki is probably the best place to look. The SIG page not only has the current packages, but often has news of planned packages. Unfortunately, not all beats are supported by SIGs.
Finding out what has changed
The largest part of the job is keeping track of what has changed so that you can report on it for the release notes. The "company line" as it were is to stay in contact with developers and watch commits. Well, there are a couple of problems with that. If you can hook up with a developer that is obviously the optimum. Often, though, it isn't obvious who the developer is, and developers often have little interest in documentation, and even when they do, a developer's view of the world is quite a bit different than a user. The developer will often tend to be really excited about some change that is invisible to the end user, while ignoring significant new features. Still, maintaining a dialog with the developer is definitely the best approach.
Watching commits isn't a bad plan in theory, there is even an RSS feed. The problem is that with 11,000+ packages, there are a lot of commits. It isn't always all that easy to pick out the commits that you care about from the dozens or hundreds every day.
Probably the almost perfect situation again is if your beat has a SIG. The SIG page will probably link to a table listing packages and work being done on them. This is an ideal way to keep up with what is happening in your beat. The problem of course is the same as for identifying the packages in the first place; only a few beats have corresponding SIGs.
Probably the easiest, if a little tedious, is to look at the repositories. If you have a list of packages in your beat, you can make note of the versions for the previous release. Then from time to time you can look at the rawhide repositories for each of your packages and see what the current rawhide version is.
A variant on looking through the repository is to look in the yum database. Each repository has a
primary.sqlite file that lists all the files in the repo and their versions. This is a SQL database and the
sqlite3 program provides a text interface to the database. If you are comfortable with SQL, this is a much quicker approach than going through the rather long web page that describes the repository. There is a hack (tar here ) that attempts to make that a little easier.
Dale Bewley has a script for examining the koji files to see changes. He describes it here .
Once you know what package has changed, you now need to find out what has changed. Again, if your beat has a SIG or you are in contact with the developer, this is already pretty obvious to you. But if you are operating a little more at arms length it is a little less obvious. Again, the yum database comes to the rescue. If you issue the command
yum info (packagename), yum will cough up a short description of the package, along with the URL of the package's project. Almost always that URL will lead you to the release notes for the upstream package.
Sometimes the upstream has weak or no release notes. Some insight into what has been done can be gleaned by looking at the change log in the RPM. If you have downloaded a copy of the RPM or have the package installed you can issue a
rpm -q --changelog command and see the list of commits. The comments will give you a view into what has been happening with the package.
Depending on your capabilities and the resources available to you, it might be appropriate to install the rawhide package and explore it so you can write authoritatively.
The wiki
The primary method for providing release notes content is this wiki. The wiki is relatively easy to use, and since MediaWiki is a widely used wiki, it is well documented. There are a few Fedora unique styles and templates, these are described in the editing help page.
The main benefit of the wiki is that it allows so many people to contribute. You aren't likely to be familiar with all the packages in your beat, but those people who are likely to read your wiki page are exactly those people who are likely to be familiar with the packages. This allows you to pick up on a lot of details of some of the packages that may otherwise elude you.
The release notes are produced by a package called Publican, and you must have the latest version of Publican installed if you want to build the release notes. The good news is that there isn't a lot about Publican that you need to know. Publican basically creates an empty DocBook document. By the time you, as a beat writer, need to work with that tool, the Publican part is done.
Basically, Publican is a big, lumbering package and the release notes are produced in a zillion languages (well, OK, I count only 40). This means that should you inadvertently try to build all the languages, it will take a very long time. Once you have the release notes cloned from git, you can make just the U.S. English version by:
make html-en_US
The process of cloning the common tools and release notes from the git repository is described elsewhere.
As the time for release closes in, you may need to make last-minute changes in DocBook. You may also find that updates will need to be made in DocBook from time to time. Fortunately, like Publican, you really don't need to know a lot about DocBook to use it.
The source for the release notes is consists of a number (roughly a couple dozen) XML files. These files can be edited with a normal text editor, although it may be a little easier to use an editor that understands XML like emacs. Since there is generally not a lot of formatting to be done anyway, and especially in the sorts of edits that are likely to be applied to XML, it is fairly simple to look at other parts of the document for guidance on how to make your changes.
Once you have changed the XML, you can rebuild the release notes with
make as above, to see what the final result will look like. Be sure to carefully review the changes in the final form before committing them back to git.


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Snoop Dogg—His mama named him Dogg, Imma call him Dogg—is a huge fan of Celtic F.C. and wants to lead the team out in its next match against Juventus in the Champions League.
'It's the one I need to go to, it's the game we have been waiting for,' Snoop said. 'I need tickets but I want to walk out with the team like a little kid with the banner. Yes, yes, make it happen. Hail, hail the Celts are here. Yabbadabbado.'
When told he could find himself sitting next to Rod Stewart at next Tuesday's match Snoop added: 'Do ya think I'm sexy.'
Snoop has also expressed an interest in ownership of a soccer club.
'I don't need to run the club but I'd like enough of a percentage to get me on the board and be heard. I want to bring a bit of Snoop to things.
'I am passionate about my sport. The boxes at Celtic would never be the same once I have hosted a party there.'
This has been your celebrities are slightly insane update for the week.
h/t tomuban
Snoop Dogg's bizarre plea to lead Celtic out as a mascot [Metro UK]


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Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora's 12-year-old daughter, Ava Sambora, made her runway debut over the weekend in the White Trash Beautiful show, which kicked off LA Fashion Week in Los Angeles.
Ava might still be just shy of her teen years, but she strutted down the runway modeling designs by her father and designer Nikki Lund looking well beyond her age.
"I'm very, very proud of her. I'm very excited, and I'm here to support her," Heather told People. "And the minute she's done I'm going to grab her and wipe off her makeup and get her into her PJs."
Ava strutted down the runway to dad's "Livin' on a Prayer," modeling a leather strapless mini with Bon Jovi-inspired accessories.
It appears that Ava has inherited her parents' rock/starlet genes.
"No, she's a diva! She's ready to rock it, she's amazing!" designer Nikki told the mag when asked if Richie was nervous for his daughter's debut. "He's so excited about this, it's his baby!"
Richie was unable to attend the show, due to scheduling conflicts, but his design partner sent him photos from her phone throughout the night.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood Dads
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Stars With Amazing Style
PLAY IT NOW: Dish Of Salt: Why Did Billy Campbell Grab Heather Locklear's Butt?
PLAY IT NOW: Dish Of Salt: 'Melrose Place' Premiere Party
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Richie Sambora - Bon Jovi - Heather Locklear - News - TV


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I've been blogging here at WindowsITPro.com for just about two years now, and I've had a great time doing it. However, my workload has recently gotten so tight that I'm no longer able to commit to even a semi-regular blogging schedule. Rather than letting myself get lazy, I've decided to formally end my blogging career over here, at least for the time being. Likely the good folks at the publication will find another PowerShell blogger to take over my keyboard!
I'm definitely not stepping away from PowerShell (as if). In fact, much of my additional workload is coming from new PowerShell books (including some I'll be self-publishing so the price can be low-low-low), training videos, and so on. It's just tough to focus on those big projects and maintain a regular blogging activity.
You'll still be able to post questions to me at http://bit.ly/AskDon, and I'll still post the odd article at http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/donjones/default.aspx when the mood takes me. There's always my Twitter feed, too, which has the benefit of only taking 140 characters' worth of time to update!
Thanks for your attention and support throughout these past two years, and best of luck with the shell!


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The GQ Guide to Skiing: 35 Reasons to Hit the Slopes
You think you know what a ski trip is all about. Three-hour car-rides from the Denver airport, crappy overpriced faux chalet rooms, jockeying with stoned snowboarders for Pabst. But there's another way. Besides bracing ercise, the snowy realm of America's mountains now offers kick-ass cocktails, top-notch wintry cuisine, fun and nonembarrassing snowboard lessons, and a great excuse to wear gear that'll make you look like Robert Redford in Downhill Racer—and it's all downhill from there. Thirty-five reasons there's never been a better time to be a mountain man


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Clubby club club: New dance space gets 'em moving
Rapture 2 Opening
DJs Bob Mould and Richard Morel
November 14
Just in case you've had your head up somewhere dark for the last two weeks, Charlottesville just welcomed its second official full-fledged dance club, Rapture 2.
Although there was a preview party Halloween night and another random event, Friday was the official grand opening of the space adjacent to Rapture 1. When I arrived at 11pm to check out the scene, I didn't expect to run into a wall of bodies barely making enough room for new flesh to enter the market.
To get into R2 (as the club is affectionately called) you have to go through the main area of R1. By the looks of the mass of people in R1, I figured R2 was packed. But when I got to the entrance of R2, I was surprised to see a decent amount of elbowroom.
This came as no surprise after the second set of doormen asked me for a $10 entry fee. Whew! Being the cheap journalist that I am, this can be when things get tricky- and sometimes ugly.
I flashed my digital camera and dropped a few names of important folk and told the security guy with the ear piece that I was here to report on the event. Normally, I get a little attitude from bouncers who don't know me. The staff at Rapture was just plain... nice. They smiled, they didn't give me a hard time, and they didn't come across as elitist.
Here I am thinking to myself: Is this actually a club, like a real clubby club club?
I must have arrived early because I wasn't there for 45 minutes before another wave of people packed the venue wall to wall. There was nowhere to go but the dance floor. I'll tell you what, though, you wouldn't have caught me dancing to the cheesy slow house that DJ's Bob Mould and Richard Morel were spinning.
I love electronic music, and I can definitely vibe to Chicago and Detroit house, but I can't get down with soft beats and lame build-ups. Now I can't say which DJ was spinning while I was there, but if they could make people dance then I can't wait till R2 snags some really real real DJ's and completely rocks the house.
Snide remarks aside, the experience was great. The club's special effects were strangely mesmerizing, and the human scenery was quite refreshing.


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AMARILLO, Texas (CBSNewYork/AP) — The JetBlue Airways captain who ran through the cabin of a cross-country flight from New York to Las Vegas yelling about religion and terrorists was prohibited Friday from flying or keeping his pilot's license.
Clayton Osbon was released more than seven months after a March flight during which passengers said the 49-year-old pilot left the cockpit and ran through the cabin yelling about Jesus and al Qaeda. The flight was diverted and safely landed in Amarillo, Texas.
Osbon now faces what could be the difficult task of finding work after being released from a prison medical facility.
He was charged with interference with a flight crew. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity after a forensic neuropsychologist testified in a short, unpublicized trial that Osbon had a "brief psychotic disorder" brought on by lack of sleep. Reports on Osbon's psychiatric evaluations over the past several months have been sealed.
Osbon remains a JetBlue employee on inactive duty, but conditions set Friday by U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson said he is not allowed on board any domestic or international flight without permission from the judge or his probation officer and he must forego his license. The conditions also say he must find regular work, unless his probation officer approves schooling or training instead.
Defense attorney Dean Roper said he did not know what sort of employment Osbon might pursue.
Osbon also is not allowed to communicate with anyone on the flight he disrupted and must participate in a treatment program for alcohol, drug and narcotic dependency, according to the judge's order.
"This is a bad situation for you and your family, but you are fortunate to have the type of immediate support that you have," said Robinson, who could have committed Osbon to a mental health facility.
Osbon appeared at his Friday hearing in a green jail jumpsuit and did not make an extended statement in court. Roper said afterward that he didn't know if Osbon would ever fly again, but was relieved the months-long legal proceeding was at an end.
"It's been a long ordeal for everyone involved, especially Mr. Osbon," Roper said.
Osbon left the federal courthouse without commenting to reporters and was to head back to his home in Georgia later in the day. Osbon and a JetBlue colleague who attended the hearing were making the 1,300-mile road trip together, Roper said.
JetBlue spokeswoman Sharon Jones declined Friday to say whether the judge's order would affect Osbon's status as employed but on inactive duty.
Osbon showed up unusually late for the March 27 flight. The plane was in midair when he told his first officer that they wouldn't make it to their destination, according to court documents.
He began to ramble about religion, scolded air traffic controllers to quiet down, then turned off the radios and dimmed the monitors in the cockpit. He said aloud that "things just don't matter" and encouraged his co-pilot to take a leap of faith.
When he left the cockpit, passengers moved to restrain him. A flight attendant's ribs were bruised in the scuffle, but no one was seriously injured.
At least 10 passengers have sued JetBlue over the episode.
Neuropsychologist Robert E.H. Johnson testified in July that Osbon's psychotic disorder at the time of flight lasted for about a week afterward, according to a hearing transcript. He determined Osbon suffered from a brief psychotic disorder and delusions "secondary to sleep deprivation." He didn't say how long Osbon had gone without sleeping before boarding the plane, and his psychiatric evaluation of Osbon has been sealed.
Those symptoms made Osbon incapable of understanding why his actions on the flight were wrong, Johnson testified.
After the July trial, Osbon was sent to a prison medical facility in North Carolina for evaluation. Robinson was to decide what happened next for Osbon in August, but instead extended his evaluation period into October after being notified that Osbon had suffered a psychotic episode in prison. She did not say what the nature of the episode was, if it was connected to his previous disorder or what prompted it.
(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)


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COVID-19 Updates for CR Students, Faculty, Staff, and Community
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When a human woman can give great powers to any demon who devours her, how can she stay safe?
Jin Sun Mi (Oh Yeon Seo) is a successful real estate CEO who has the ability to exorcise demons from bad-luck properties. But to the demons living on Earth, she is known as Sam Jang, who carries the irresistible scent of a lotus flower and can give great powers to anyone who eats her.
When Sun Mi was a young girl, Son Oh Gong (Lee Seung Gi), a trouble-making deity, tricked her into releasing him from a castle where he was imprisoned and made a contract with her to always appear and protect her whenever she called out his name. But he tricked her again by removing her memory of his name. In modern times, Son Oh Gong freeloads off of Woo Hwi (Cha Seung Won), another deity known as Woo Ma Wang who works as the CEO of an entertainment company and enjoys more fame and adoration than some of the celebrities in his company.
Son Oh Gong is intent on finding Sam Jang so that he can eat her and become the most powerful god. His friend, top idol star P.K (Lee Hong Ki), wants just a nibble for himself. When Song Oh Gong realizes that Sam Jang is Sun Mi, he at first protects her from attacks from other demons to save her for himself. But with the help of Woo Ma Wang, will Sun Mi find a way to force Son Oh Gong to serve as her protector?
"Hwayugi" is a 2017-2018 South Korean drama series directed by Park Hong Kyun. The drama is a reinterpretation of the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West and is written by Jong Jung Eun and Hong Mi Ran, often referred to as "the Hong Sisters," who have written many hit television dramas, including "The Greatest Love" (2011), "Big" (2012), "Master's Sun" (2013) and "Warm and Cozy" (2015).
- Original title
- 화유기
- Romanized title
- Hwayuki
- Also known as
- A Korean Odyssey, Hwayuki,
- Volunteer Team
- The Monkey Minions
- Broadcast Network
- tvN
- Broadcast Period
- 12-23-2017 to 03-04-2018
- Rating
9 K-Dramas That Deserve Second Seasons
7 Historical And Fantasy K-Drama Leads We Wish Would Reunite In Modern Dramas
Delightful Fantasy And Healing Romance: What To Watch If You Miss "Hotel Del Luna"
9 K-Dramas With Heartbreaking Couple Moments That Are Peak Angst
"Hwayugi" Writers Hong Sisters Cleared Of Plagiarism Charges + To Possibly Take Legal Action Against Accuser


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OMG BYE Patch
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By M. Carter
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By M. Carter
COVID-19 Shipping Info
There is currently delays from all major carriers. USPS and UPS are overwhelmed, even domestically, with volume and new social distancing / sanitation measures. Please be aware that normal delivery standards do not currently apply!
Big one to note: INTERNATIONAL orders (outside the US and Canada) are currently made at the buyer's own risk as far as timing goes, due to individual countries' restrictions on imports at this time as well as severely minimized air travel around the world. We ship them out but cannot guarantee any timing - delays of over a month have been reported to certain locations. The best way to avoid this is to inform yourself about your country's current policies on parcels coming from abroad before ordering. Here's the USPS' current page on International service disruptions: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm
Thanks for you understanding, stay safe. - Ben


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Dating Historical Eras of Greek
Posted: February 26th, 2013, 8:13 am
Well, inasmuch as this very interesting thread originally emerged from discussion of this particular passage in this particular text, I really would like to know what date or range of dates you're assigning it to. You say that you're "inclined to view that shift as happening at least a century [or] two into the Byzantine period." Where, as nearly as possible, do we draw these lines between eras? It seems ironic to me that linguists prefer (that's true isn't it) to speak of linguistic structures and usage in synchronic terms, and yet many of our problems of interpreting particular texts involves questions of accurate dating of the texts and reasonably accurate estimates of the direction, pace, and dating of the significant changes in structure and usage.I know there are some lines drawn between eras of Greek language: Homeric, Archaic, Attic, Hellenistic, ... But how much consensus is there on these questions? Perhaps the question belongs to a thread of its own in "Greek Language and Linguistics."MAubrey wrote:That's a fair point, depending on the dating, it could be, though I'm inclined to view that shift as happening at least century or two later into the Byzantine period. Alternatively, I might be inclined to view this as involving the perfect to aorist shift in process, but not yet completed. That is, however we analyze this perfect here, it is precisely this kind of usage that motivated the death of the perfect and its "merger" with the aorist.cwconrad wrote: Considering the questionable dating of this Greek text (it really is questionable, isn't it? How old, in fact, is the Greek text here cited?) couldn't these perfect-tense forms (apart from the ptc. εἰδυῖα, of course), be understood as aorists?


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Beat the Streak Report: Tuesday, May 19
Today's recommended picks
Alfonso Soriano, OF, Cubs
13-for-32 (.406 AVG) lifetime vs. Cardinals starter Joel Pineiro
Ryan Braun, OF, Brewers
3-for-3 (1.000 AVG) lifetime vs. Astros starter Mike Hampton; .347 AVG in May
Ichiro Suzuki, OF, Mariners
20-for-53 (.377 AVG) during 12-G hit streak
BTS all-time leader: Michael Karatzia, 49
MLB all-time leader: Joe DiMaggio, 56
Yesterday's results
The reign at the top of the BTS leaderboard was a short one for dustinhahn29, whose selection of Rays speedster Carl Crawford (0-for-3) ended his streak at 29 games. JohnnyV21 also fell from his perch near the front of the pack, getting a 0-for-3 effort from the normally reliable Albert Pujols to snap his run at 28 games.
That leaves jackstraw0018 and redlandsrick as the new BTS co-leaders with their 27-game streaks. Choterita and tjb0424 are tied for third at 26 games, and khaarer rounds out the Top 5 with a 25-gamer.
Yesterday's Top 5 most selected players
1. Carlos Beltran (NYM): 7.3%, 0-for-4
2. Ryan Zimmerman (WSH): 6.4%, 2-for-5
3. Aaron Hill (TOR): 6.3%, 1-for-3
4. Evan Longoria (TB): 5.4%, 2-for-5
5. Chipper Jones (ATL): 5.2%, 1-for-3
7 Comments
I do not know if this season is just particularly unpredictable, but the high-water marks established as the initial surge has settled, are rather weak, compared to previous years.
For example, the Beat the Streak leader now is only at 30 games and people seem to be faltering consistently in the high 20's, whereas in the past, the 1st page of the leaderboard is normally filled in the 30's. The weakest win ever was at 39 games, with normally at least several streaks into the 40's. With the prize higher than ever this year, one would think that the talent would be even higher, but it seems to be vastly underperforming.
However, the question is: Will this trend continue? I would think not, as the Survivor example last year is a great comparison. All year, the leader was at a paltry 19 games and in August, there was this tremendous, unprecedented surge where the entire leaderboard finished in the 30's with the leader at 36 games.
The surge only ended when Joe Nathan blew a 1-run lead in the 9th, because of an error, in a game the Twins lost in extra innings.
This surge was amazing, in that the old contest record was only 23 games and that a whole leaderboard crushed that 7-year old mark.
If we were to see a surge of that magnitude in Beat the Streak, I am convinced that someone would eclipse the 56 mark and maybe go into the 60's!
And with the leader now at only 30 games and the MLB.com Survivor leader at only 17 games, the stage seems to be set for a full-on explosion.
As for the situation right now, Beat the Streak: Home Run Edition is slightly underpeforming, compared to historical standards, as a few years people went out and won (albeit it took less to win then, but you still needed 9-10 back then,) right within the first several weeks of the contest.
However, that might be more of a function of those years occurring when steroids were more prevalent as the league HR rates have begun tanking over the past few years. On top of that, the HR sources have been more unpredictable. How many people have been picking Ian Kinsler or Curtis Granderson in the month of April?
However, if we compare directly to last year, the contest as a whole is performing slightly better. Both years, one person ran up a 7-game HR streak right off the bat, but this year, we have already picked up 3 more 7-game HR streaks, in which it took until late in the summer to get even 1 more 7-game HR streak last year.
Also, the rest of the leaderboard is stronger as well. The 6-game group is slightly stronger and the 5-game group is much stronger, easily spilling into the 2nd page, whereas last year, some 4-gamers were able to sneak onto the bottom of the 1st page, even though they were displaced by the end of the year.
Beat the Streak's history is much longer and I was not even around for the first year. However, I do not remember a year, in which the upper teens and low 20s got you on the 1st page of the leaderboard in the first week of May.
Now, this year did start late, but by the first week of May, you did have 25-30 games already completed, so you had several waves of people fail to establish a 25-game coalition.
Even now, on May 19, the bottom 4 slots of page # 1 of the active leaderboard have just 19-game hit streaks, a feature unheard of, until you get to late August, when new streaks will not get you to 56 and the activity starts dwindling off.
Even what is on the active board right now is bottom heavy, with just 5 streaks at 25 games or greater. It is harder to discern signs of an explosion soon, based on performances, because there are so many possibilties every day, but in terms of actual data, the streaks seem to fizzle out significantly as you hit the mid 20s and die off completely in the upper 20s.
As for MLB.com Survivor, the contest has been around as long as Beat the Streak, but the leaderboard has been slowly improving since May began. At the beginning of May, the leader was at just 16 games, but people as low as 11 games! were on the 1st pasge of the overall leaderboard.
Now, the top has edged up to 17 games, but the bottom has swollen up to 13 games, which is a bigger accomplishment, since the categories are larger there.
The history of the Survivor contest has to be split into 2 eras though: 2001-2006 and 2007-2009+. Pre-2007, the contest was carved up into individual games every Monday, in which if you lost once, you were out, unless every remaining other person lost, in which case, the contest continued. Then, at the end of the year, the winners all met in a Tournament of Champions.
So, there was no leaderboard to speak of, in those days. The data would come from looking at the results chart to see how long each game lasted, but you could not be sure how many wins each winner actually had, because there could be several loss ties, before the contest ended.
So in this way, the sample sizes are even smaller, as we only have 2 years of past data to go on. In 2007, I remember someone jumped out in front at 21 games early in May, overtaken by someone else at 23 games, in which that person won for the year.
In 2008, someone had 19 games early and was on cruise control until after the All-Star back, in which everyone stormed past and did not stop until the 30s.
There are signs of a breakout coming though in 2009. Despite the leader being at 17 games, there was a massive uniting behind the Braves last night on the active leaderboard. Despite the Braves losing 5-1, the leaderboard reloaded itself with more fresh talent at the 10-game level, which is a strong indicator that the mid levels are swellling in numbers. It is only a matter of time before the mid levels migrate to the upper levels and start seriosuly challenging the front-runners.
I would predict that someone will hit 20 games in MLB.com Survivor by June 15. I hope not, because that makes my job that much harder, but that is the conclusion that the trends are pointing to right now.
I hope you enjoyed my analysis of the big 3 MLB.com contests at this point in time!
Leave me some comments below on this post or subsequent Beat the Streak Report posts!!!
I'd just like to get a streak into the double digits!
My longest this year is 7!


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How Chalk Plus Water Equals Hours of Outdoor Fun for Kids
Do you have a sidewalk nearby?
Got chalk and water?
Then you have the makings of a fun activity to get your kids outdoors.
In this article I'll show you how to turn a few hours outside into a chalk art extravaganza.
All for the price of a box of sidewalk chalk.
Why Chalk Art With Water?
Chalk art combined with water is a simple idea that requires little planning and is practically free but yields priceless rewards.
It combines three things kids love most: water, drawing and imagination.


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In case you haven't noticed, the world is changing faster than the speed of … well, something really fast. And that includes the world of arts and entertainment. Expect some big changes, locally, nationally, internationally and Internetally, in 2008. We take a sneak peek at what they may be.
In case you haven't noticed, the world is changing faster than the speed of … well, something really fast. And that includes the world of arts and entertainment. Expect some big changes, locally, nationally, internationally and Internetally, in 2008.
We take a sneak peek at what they may be.
1. Will the Google Phone take over the world?
First, there is no Google phone. Mid-summer chatter and rumors led people to believe that Google was going to jump into the mobile phone race and compete with Apple's iPhone. They aren't. But they may produce something much, much cooler.
There won't be a physical Google phone, but there will be Google software, likely to officially arrive in 2008. It's called Android, and it will serve as a platform for a number of different cell phones.
Vincent Nguyen, editor and founder of www.google-phone.com, has been following trends in the cell phone industry for the past six years and says that 2008 will be the year of the cell phone.
"This year was a good one for the cell phone, but it's just a precursor of what we're going to see in 2008," explains Nguyen. "There will be a paradigm shift because Android is open source."
Right now, each cell phone is locked into its own platform. You buy a Verizon phone, and you get the bells and whistles that come with it, and nothing more. Android will open that up, making software that can be used on multiple phones and allow people to create original, independent applications. For techies, it's similar to the difference between Internet Explore and Firefox.
And because it's made by Google, it means that the programs you use on the computer now (Google Maps, Gmail, etc) will be available on the phone.
Nguyen says no current phones can handle the Android software, which means "new hardware" (new phones) must to be developed. Some pictures of a prototype have surfaced and resembles a Smartphone. So, in essence, there won't be a Google phone. There'll be a bunch of different ones.— Francis Ma
2. Who will be the local breakout singer-songwriter of the year?
Antje Duvekot (pronounced Aunt-ya Doo-va-kot), the Heidelberg, Germany, native, moved with her family to Delaware when she was a kid, headed for New York to make it as a musician, and moved to Somerville a few years ago because she liked the Boston scene better. She's been given the blessing (and support) of the Irish supergroup Solas as well as local folkie Ellis Paul. Last week she signed a deal with Bank of America for her song "Merry Go Round" (re-recorded from her first CD "Little Peppermints") to be part of the bank's new TV ad campaign.
Thing are looking way up for Duvekot, a winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Award, whose most recent album "Big Dream Boulevard" is getting lots of alternative air play, and features lyrics such as "Dandelion's" "You are looking for an orchid and I will always be a dandelion," and in the song "Jerusalem" she describes the city as "a town the is delicate where old grudges run deeper than mud/ where peace is a term that is relative, written in blood."
She's got a soothing voice, complemented by melodies that flow, almost as if they've been made up on the spot. Her songs are as lovely, dark and deep as a Robert Frost poem.— Ed Symkus
3. Which big resident theater company will have a more difficult transition in 2008, the Huntington or the American Repertory Theatre?The ART.
Earlier this month, the Huntington named the artistic director who will take over for Nicholas Martin, the man who has helped transform the Huntington during his stellar tenure. Incoming a.d. Peter DuBois' biggest problem will be that he's got big shoes to fill. Martin brought the Huntington to the next level during his run, helping to build new theaters at the Boston Center for the Arts, and staging acclaimed shows ("Hedda Gabler" with Kate Burton and "Butley" with Nathan Lane) that traveled from Boston to Broadway. That's a tough act to follow.
But at least Dubois enters a stable situation. The ART, on the other hand, is a theater in flux, at best, and a theater facing an identity crisis, at worst. Former artistic director Robert Woodruff was dismissed this year, and it's still unclear whether the difficulties that led to his demise were even his fault. If the theater is unsure about who they just fired, how can they be confident about who they're about to hire? And how confident can the new artistic director feel about coming into this situation? He or she will enter a tense situation, as the ART must ask and answer some fundamental questions about its mission in these turbulent times. Is it that same edgy theater company that bestowed complete faith in the (sometimes quirky) visions of its (sometimes quirky) directors? Or will it bow to the harsh economic realities of making theater these days and soften its approach? Hard questions. Tough times ahead.
— Alexander Stevens4. Will the music industry die?
It was another horrible year for album sales, which were down about 19 percent. Even digital music sales leveled off.
But there are pockets of good news, including a site called TuneCore.com that's poised to breakout in 2008.
The Brooklyn-based company has been distributing music to vendors like iTunes, Rhasody, Napster, eMusic and AmazonMP3, while giving the artists all the royalties.
Here's how it works: for a fee, TuneCore stores and distributes your song or album to the vendors mentioned above. Once a song is bought, all the royalties go to the band, who also keep copyrights and masters. Essentially, TuneCore is a delivery service.
"It's basically the music industry in a box," says founder and Brookline native Jeff Price. "For the price of a six-pack and a pizza you can distribute your music around the world."
It costs $19.98 to store an album for a year (and an album can be any length) and a one-time charge of 99 cents for each store you want to be in. Since it began in 2005, TuneCore customers have made $4 million and that list includes a wide range of people, from local indie rock heroes Harry and the Potters to hip-hop artist Lil Wayne.
Come March 2008, the site will launch a plan to promote the participating musicians. There will be "Band Pages" where they can post tour information, a bio, stream certain songs and post pictures.
The music of TuneCore artists will also play in Guitar Center stores around the country. And in terms of sales, Price says artists will soon be able to track who is buying their music and where they live.
"This way they can identify certain pockets where they can market more heavily," explains Price. "It used to be that if you wanted a real career in the music industry you had to deal with a record label. With TuneCore, everyone can be their own label." (F.M)
5. What will be the surprise hit movie of 2008?
While Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett worked on the acclaimed hit "Babel," they talked about acting in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a film adaptation "loosely based" on the 1922 F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. It happened. They've already finished shooting the film.
The offbeat story is about a man who is "born at the age of 80," and gets younger as time goes by. When he reaches 50, he meets a 30-year-old woman named Daisy — who is aging normally. You see the problem.
Pitt and Blanchett are among our best film actors today, and it sure doesn't hurt that it's being directed by David Fincher ("Se7en," "Fight Club") who is also quite the hotshot. Though Fitzgerald set the story in Baltimore, Fincher moved it to New Orleans and made it, according Paramount executives, darker and more complex than the source material.
The film is scheduled for release on Nov. 26, 2008. It's already on my Top-10 list for next year, and I haven't seen a frame of it. (E.S.)
6. Will free TV's two best comedies — "The Office" and "30 Rock" — get canceled in 2008?
When Tina Fey, creator and star of "30 Rock," accepted last year's Emmy for Best Comedy, she thanked her "dozens and dozens of viewers." Unfortunately, that's a little too close to the truth for comfort. The two shows are critical darlings and ratings duds. "30 Rock" averaged 5.4 million viewers during last year's debut season, and the numbers look about the same so far this year. That means more people watched shows called "3 Lbs." and "National Bingo Night," and those shows are long gone.
The numbers for "The Office" are about the same, and the grim truth is that "The Office" may already have been canceled if it weren't for iTunes. "The Office" was the most downloaded show on the Internet, and in the ever-changing media industry, a "new media" hit is worth saving, even if no one has really figured out what that means yet, in terms of ratings and revenue. NBC and iTunes had a fight over money (what else?), and "Office" and "Rock" have since jumped to Amazon, a less hip and less user-friendly system. The move could be a mistake — the last thing NBC needs is to create obstacles for anyone who wants to view either of these shows. That's probably why NBC has developed Hulu.com, a Youtube-like site where you'll be able to watch recent episodes for free.
Still, the outlook for the two shows seems optimistic for 2008. NBC sounds committed to both of them. "30 Rock," only in its second season, deserves more time to build an audience (and what other show has gotten Al Gore to guest star?). And NBC seems unlikely to pull the plug on "The Office" — its status as a download hit reflects an attraction with the young, techno-savvy, disposable-incomed demographic that's so attractive to networks. (A.S.)
7. Will the "war" between high definition formats — HD DVD and Blu-Ray — come to an end in 2008?
Remember the original video "format war" in the 1980s? VHS crushed Beta. Now there's a new battle raging between "high definition" formats HD DVD and Blu-ray. Both formats boast radically improved picture and sound quality. (Blu-ray players retail for about $499, while HD players cost about $249.) But unfortunately, they're now splitting the market — some HD videos are released in HD DVD (the upcoming "Pan's Labyrinth") while others are Blu-ray ("3:10 to Yuma"), but rarely are movies released in both. This split isn't good for anyone, and it will probably be resolved in 2008. It could be knock-down drag out fight for market-share, but we're predicting a merger that will result in an entirely new technology. (E.S.)
8. Will 2008 bring us a reality show as weird and annoying as "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila"?
You bet. The writer's strike is still in full swing, so that translates into more "reality" TV. Get a load of this line-up.
"The Baby Borrowers" (Feb.18, NBC): Young couples get thrown into the world of parenting as their "child" grows from an infant to a teenager (and maybe older) in a matter of three weeks. Don't we have enough baby drama with the Spears family?
"When Women Rule the World" (March 3, Fox): Twelve "macho" men will be placed in a society that is completely ruled by women, who act like dictators and treat the men like slaves. The last man standing wins $250,000 and an immediate need for therapy.
"The Moment of Truth" (Jan. 23, Fox): People will answer personal and probably embarrassing questions about themselves while hooked up to a lie detector. And just to make things interesting, Fox plans to fly in people's friends and family to be in the audience (because the millions watching at home isn't embarrassing enough). (F.M.)