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Hey all,
With the close of the CCC and as we wait for the results, it's time to bring back the monthly challenges. As with all challenges, this is not a contest - i.e. there are no rules, no judging and no prizes. It is simply a spur to build.
This month's challenge is to build something inspired by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. This could be anything from a custom fig up to a full-scale Minas Tirith. You could draw on anything - books, movies, cartoons, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, whatever.
Play well,

subset: commoncrawl


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SSC Certificate Attestation from Kuwait Embassy in Tiruvallur
Call us: +91 9929222362
Mail us: firstname.lastname@example.com
Tiruvallur issued SSC Certificate Attestation from Kuwait Embassy. We Provide Legalization Services in all parts of India for Documents like SSC, HSC, Diploma, Degree Certificate etc. Before Submitting to Kuwait Embassy documents first needs to attest from authorities like MEA, Home Department, Regional Attestation Centre and Chamber of Commerce. The detail description of Legalization is as under,
Educational (SSC/ HSC) Certificate Attestation from Kuwait Embassy in India:
• Attestation from Notary
• SDM/Mumbai Mantralaya/HRD
• Attestation from MEA (Ministry of External Affairs, India)
•Kuwait Embassy Attestation


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Joel Ryan / AP
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez shakes hands with director Oliver Stone as they arrive for the screening of the film 'South of the Border' at the 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sept. 7, 2009.
As thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas to mourn President Hugo Chavez after learning of his death Tuesday, tributes began pouring in from supporters around the world — including several Hollywood heavyweights who stood by the socialist firebrand during his reign.
Actor Sean Penn, one of the Latin American leader's most vocal supporters (he once joined Chavez on the campaign trail and attended a candlelight vigil for him in Bolivia last year) said the United States had "lost a friend it never knew it had."
Str / AFP/Getty Images
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and actor-director Sean Penn listen to an explanation from a doctor during a visit to a hospital Aug. 3, 2007 in San Cristobal, Venezuela.
"And poor people around the world lost a champion," Penn said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela."
Related: Sean Penn on Hugo Chavez's death: 'I lost a friend'
Filmmaker Oliver Stone, who first met Chavez in December 2007 and credited him for many of the social changes taking place in South America, said the former leader would live forever in history.
''I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place," Stone said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live forever in history."
"My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned," Stone added.
Actor Danny Glover, who had visited Chavez in Venezuela several times, echoed the same sentiment.
Timothy A. Clary / AFP - Getty Images
File picture dated Sept. 21, 2006 shows Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and actor/activist Danny Glover hugging each other while attending The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program inauguration ceremony at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
"In sadness and in tribute to my friend, Hugo Chavez, I join with millions of Venezuelans, Latin Americans, Caribbeans, fellow U.S. citizens and millions of freedom-loving people around the world, in hope for a rewarding future for the democratic and social development charter of the Bolivarian Revolution," Glover told theGrio.
"We all embraced Hugo Chavez as a social-champion of democracy, material development, and spiritual well-being."
Others, including Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, paid their respects via Twitter. "So long comandante @chavezcandanga, we will miss you forever #ChavezVive," Maradona posted Wednesday.
"Ruling Classes hated Hugo Chavez. RIP," tweeted comedian Roseanne Barr.
"You won't hear much nice about him in the US media in the next few days. So, I thought I'd say a couple things to provide some balance," tweeted filmmaker Michael Moore Tuesday.
"54 countries around the world allowed the US to detain(& torture) suspects. Latin America, thanks 2 Chavez, was the only place that said no," he added.
"We spoke for over an hour," Moore said of an encounter with Chavez in 2009. "He said he was happy 2 finally meet someone Bush hated more than him."
Ricardo Mazalan / AP
Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez across the Americas mourn his death.


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Total Time: 11 hr 20 min
Prep 20 min
Inactive 10 hr 0 min
Cook 1 hr 0 min
Yield: 8 servings
Level: Easy
Prep 20 min
Inactive 10 hr 0 min
Cook 1 hr 0 min
Yield: 8 servings
Level: Easy
Almond Shortbread Crust:
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for greasing the pan
2/3 cup almond flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons xylitol sweetener
1 tablespoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons heavy or whipping cream
1 extra-large egg yolk, slightly beaten with fork
Cheesecake Filling:
1 cup xylitol sweetener
3 tablespoons arrowroot, dissolved in 2 tablespoons cold water
Four 8-ounce packages cream cheese (use only full fat), room temperature
2 extra-large eggs
For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan (preferably nonstick). Wrap the outside with aluminum foil, covering the bottom and extending all the way up the side, so water will not leak into the cake as it bakes.
Place both flours, the xylitol and salt in a food processor and process for 15 seconds. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture pulls together, about 30 seconds. Add 1 tablespoon of the cream and the egg yolk. Pulse until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms. If it is still stiff, add another tablespoon of cream. Flour your fingers and gently press the dough into the bottom of the prepared springform pan until it is covered. Bake the crust just until it no longer looks moist on the top and feels set when you touch it (do not overbake), 7 to 8 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
For the filling: Beat together 1/2 cup of the Xylitol, the arrowroot and one package of the cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer (using the paddle attachment if you have it) on low about 3 minutes to make a stable starter batter. Blend in the remaining cream cheese, one package at a time, scraping down the bowl after adding each one, about another 3 minutes.
Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat in the remaining 1/2 cup xylitol. Add the eggs, beating well. The batter will look light, creamy, airy, and almost like billowy clouds. Be careful not to over mix!
Spoon the batter over the baked shortbread crust. Place the springform pan in the center of a large shallow pan and add hot water to the larger pan so that it comes about 1 inch up the side of the springform. Bake until the edge is light golden brown and the cake is light yellow beige, about 1 hour. If the center is still very jiggly, let the cake bake for 5 to 10 minutes more.
Gently remove the cake from the water bath, transfer it to a wire rack, remove the foil, and leave it on the rack for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours. The less you move it, the less likely it is the cake will crack. Once it has cooled, leave the cake in the pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight until it is completely cold.
To serve, remove the springform ring from the cake and serve from the bottom of the pan (do not try to transfer it to a serving platter). Cover any leftover cake and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Do not freeze this cake.


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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich used the term "green conservatism" to describe his 2007 book A Contract With the Earth at a May 27, 2011 house party in Manchester, NH. On Tuesday, the term popped up again during Gingrich's interview with conservative talk show host Glenn Beck.
Beck played an audio clip from the 2007 debate on climate change that pitted the former House Speaker against John Kerry, the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts.
"I think there has to be a, if you will, a green conservatism," Gingrich said at the time.
This gem of a quote was dug up a few days before by Factcheck.org, which recently ran an excellent piece examining Newt's rather complicated record on climate change.
What followed was an exchange that revealed what types of policies President Gingrich might be willing to embrace to address climate change:
Glenn Beck: Help me out. This is a multiyear stance. It's not a moment in your life.
Newt Gingrich: Well, first of all, I fought in those (inaudible) and I believe in the environment in general and I think ‑‑
Glenn Beck: So do I.
Newt Gingrich: Okay. Second, I think that there is evidence on both sides of the climate change argument, and the point I was making was in a situation where, for example, having a larger nuclear program reduces carbon in the atmosphere, it's a prudent thing to look at nuclear as one of the actions.
Glenn Beck: But you ‑‑
Newt Gingrich: It's a prudent thing to develop a green coal plant that takes the carbon and puts it into carbon sequestration to use it to develop oil fields more deeply and can be actually economically done. We do it right now in West Texas…
Glenn Beck: Do you ‑‑ do you still believe in the, you know, the Inconvenient Truth as outlined by global climate change advocates?
Newt Gingrich: Well, I never believed in Al Gore's fantasies and, in fact, if you look at the record, the day that Al Gore testified at the Energy and Commerce Committee in favor of cap and trade, I was the next witness and I testified against cap and trade. And in the Senate, I worked through American solutions to help beat the cap and trade bill. Cap and trade was an effort by the left to use the environment as an excuse to get total control over the American economy, centralizing a Washington bureaucracy. In the end it had nothing to do with the environment. It had everything to do with their desire to control our lives.
As a presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich has generally shied away from using terms like "green coal". His 21st Century Contract with America calls for expanded development of coal, but says nothing about it being clean.
|Photo by Gage Skidmore


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Welcome to our Wedding Music Directory. Below you will find a list of Wedding Musicians supplying your chosen area.
Some of the vendors featured in our Wedding Music Directory have chosen to include e-mail addresses, website details and map links alongside their basic contact details - just click the appropriate icons on each listing for more information.
From bands and soloists to DJ's, pianists and pipers, there are a wide variety of musical acts available to entertain your guests throughout the day and long into the night, and the suppliers featured below in our Wedding Music Directory will be able to accomodate every taste preference.
QUICK LINKS : Wedding Music Ideas & Advice Wedding Music Q&A Wedding Music Forum
Your search of our for Wedding Music Directory has produced the following results. If you would like to modify your search, simply use the dropdown boxes below.
Wedding Music | Wedding Music UK | Overseas Wedding Music | Wedding Bands | Wedding Dance | Wedding DJs | Wedding Harpists | Wedding Musicians | Wedding Pianists | Wedding Pipers | Wedding Singers | Wedding String Quartets


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h3. Do you need help setting up e-mail on your device? * e-mail use requires an account with an e-mail provider. A data plan for mobile internet is recommended. * You need the password of the account in order to set up e-mail. If you do not know your password, you can request it from your e-mail provider. * For instructions on how to setup e-mail on your Sony Xperia E5, see the information below.
Manual: Configure e-mail manually
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Manual: Manual configuration MMS
h3. Have you rebooted the device? * Many problems can be solved by simply rebooting the device. * Turn your Sony Xperia E5 off, reboot it and check whether the problem has been solved. * If you cannot reboot the device the normal way, you can also force it. To do this, hold down the power and the volume up button simultaneously until the screen goes black.
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Manual: Internet manual configuration
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Manual: Restore factory settings
Step 1 of 8


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This week-end is your last chance to participate in our Halloween photo contest! Put on your costume, collect your candies, go party, but mainly don't forget to share your costume with us for a chance to win some cool hardware!
We only ask that your picture must feature one of the following item:
A GIGABYTE motherboard or motherboard color box.
Your open system with an easily identifiable GIGABYTE motherboard.
The following wording: I LOVE GIGABYTE MOTHERBOARDS!(Either written on a piece of paper, photoshoped in the picture, painted on your forehead, tattooed across your back… be creative!)
To participate and for all the rules and details, follow this link:http://gigabytemb-halloweenphotocontest.pgtb.me/5GRKcn
Good luck!!


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Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
phone: +49 (0)341 3550 - 315
fax: +49 (0)341 3550 - 333
e-mail: email@example.com
Curriculum Vitae
Current Position
|PhD candidate in Behavioral Ecology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Project title: "Social learning in structured populations: Theoretical and empirical approaches"
Supervisors: Prof Richard McElreath, Dr Anne Kandler, Prof Daniel Haun
University Education
|University of St Andrews, United Kingdom
M.Sc. (with distinction) Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology: The Origins of Mind
|Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
B.Sc. Psychology (final grade: 1.0)
B.A. Comparative Studies in Culture and Religion, Philosophy (final grade: 1.3)
|Scholarship student
with the German National Academic Foundation
(Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes)
Academic Experience
|Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews
M.Sc. student
Supervision: Prof Dr Kevin Laland
|Department of Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg
B.Sc. student at the Cognitive Neuroscience of Perception and Action group
Supervision: Prof Dr Anna Schubö, Dipl.-Psych. Dominik Dötsch
|Research Assistant at the Associative learning group
Supervision: Prof Dr Harald Lachnit, Dr Metin Uengoer, Dr Anna Thorwart
|Department of Comparative Cultural Research at Philipps-University Marburg
B.A. Student at European Ethnology group
Supervision: Prof Dr Karl Braun
|Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara
Research Intern at Cultural Psychology lab
Supervision: Prof Dr Heejung Kim
Language, Statistics and Programming skills
- Fluent in German (native) and English (IELTS Academic overall band score: 8.0), proficient in Latin, Ancient Greek and French
- Experienced in (Bayesian) generalized mixed models
- Working knowledge in mathematical and individual-based modelling
- Experienced in R, SPSS and MPlus statistics
- Basic programming experience in Python and Matlab
- Experience with E-Prime, Tobii eye tracking software and PsyToolkit
Teaching experience
|Undergraduate seminar on Cultural Evolution and Social Learning
|Introductory seminar in Perception Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
|Tutor in Experimental Methods module


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"What happened to Steve Blass? Nobody knows, but some speculation is permissible—indeed, is perhaps demanded of anyone who is even faintly aware of the qualities of Steve Blass and the depth of his suffering. Professional sports have a powerful hold on us because they display and glorify remarkable physical capacities, and because the artificial demands of games played for very high rewards produce vivid responses. But sometimes, of course, what is happening on the field seems to speak to something deeper within us; we stop cheering and look on in uneasy silence, for the man out there is no longer just another great athlete, an idealized hero, but only a man—only ourself. We are no longer at a game."
—Roger Angell, "Gone for Good," June 1975
Nobody knows. Even 35 years later, nobody knows what happened to Steve Blass, why, after his best season in the major leagues, Steve Blass lost the ability to pitch. Blass was, historically speaking, the first in a list of infamous players that now includes Mackey Sasser, Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, and Rick Ankiel—baseball players who suddenly and inexplicably could no longer do simple tasks that they had long ago perfected.
Sports, as Chad Harbach points out at one point in The Art of Fielding, create a strange paradox between the art they aspire to and the artless, thoughtless repetition required to best attain it. Baseball, just like any other sport, relies heavily on muscle memory and on keeping your brain as far out of your physical movements as possible. KISS, we all hear at some Little League practice: keep it simple, stupid.
Harbach's much-anticipated debut novel—it isn't often first-timers get six-figure advances these days—adds another name to that ignominious list with Henry Skrimshander, a balletic shortstop for Division III Westish College in lakeshore Wisconsin. Harbach's novel essentially takes its cue from Roger Angell's oft-praised (and deservedly so) profile of Blass from 1975: What happens to a baseball player when he loses the ability to play baseball? What happens when your self-definition dissolves?*


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You know what a Fast and Furious movie is by this point. They're loud, obnoxious, somewhat-heartless, sometimes unintentionally hilarious, rarely intentionally hilarious, incredibly aggressive action movies. You know that's what you're getting when you buy your ticket and the only thing that's changed about the series is that it's become less about racing and more about squeezing in familiar faces to pull off some high-octane crime. Fast Five ditches the racing almost entirely and replaces it with a heist film that recalls Ocean's Eleven but with brawn instead of brains.
World's Worst Law Enforcement Agent Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) and his girlfriend Mia (Jordana Brewster) have busted Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) out of prison by staging a gigantic bus crash that killed no one and only freed Dom. Some films spend their entire runtime figuring out how to free a prisoner from captivity. I like to imagine that Brian and Mia wrote down their plan to free Dom and this is what it looked like
Step 1 – Force prison bus into gigantic crash using fancy driving.
Step 2 – Free Dom.
Step 3 – :)
The three make their way to Rio where they join up with former accomplice Vince (Matt Schulze) for a spectacular train heist. Most of Justin Lin's action scenes in Fast and Furious felt inert, but this time around he's really upped his game and pulls off some impressive set pieces. The train heist goes a little south as Zizi (Michael Irby), the guy who hired Vince, is along on the job and tries to kill Dom and the gang, but ends up murdering some hapless DEA agents instead. Dom, Mia, and Brian get free with a GT40 that contains a microchip. The chip contains the locations of the cash houses of nefarious businessman and Zizi's boss, Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). The trio decide to rob Reyes and bring in a cast of supporting characters from the previous films to pull off the heist. However, this not only puts the gang in the crosshairs of Reyes and his infinite supply of goons, but Dom, Vince, and Mia are pegged with the murder rap for the DEA agents. The U.S. government sends in Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), an agent hellbent on bringing the three fugitives to justice. Hobbs is like Tommy Lee Jones' character from The Fugitive if someone said "Yeah, but let's bulk him up and strip away the charm and intelligence."
But that's really Fast Five in a nutshell: bulk it up and strip away the charm and intelligence. The film desperately wants to recall Ocean's Eleven, right down to having two members of the heist constantly bickering with each other like Casey Affleck and Scott Caan. But while the film pretends like it's going to set up a fast-paced, clever heist, it eventually comes to the stupid solution you knew it was going to reach because this is a Fast and Furious movie and clever plotting is for sissies.
And if bringing in a sinister bad guy and relentless manhunter sounds like a lot of plot threads for a Fast and Furious movie, it is. The movie runs over two hours long but just because it's bigger, that doesn't mean it's stronger. There are plenty of places where the movie could trim the fat, but for the filmmakers, bigger equals better. However, fans of the franchise will most likely be overjoyed with having more—more chases, more fistfights, more babes, and more stuff blowing up real good. Fast Five is the franchise on steroids and while folks like me shudder at that thought, fans are probably giddy at that prospect.
For all my problems with the franchise, Fast Five is probably my favorite so far (note: I haven't seen Tokyo Drift). It drops almost all pretense, wisely gives Paul Walker's boring Brian O'Connor as little screen time as possible, and has some of the best action sequences in the franchise to date. But there are times when Fast Five feels like it has to mean something as if we're going to care about characters who pretend to be human but can survive massive car wrecks and falling hundreds of feet without so much as a scratch. I don't care that Dom is mourning the loss of a loved one and has found a connection with a local Rio cop (Elsa Pataky). I don't believe Dom when he tries to talk about "family" with his fellow criminals. You can't have the camera spend an eternity glaring at the asses of hot young women and then make me believe that Fast Five is about anything more than jamming sex and violence into your lizard brain. If you want to do that, fine. Just don't lie to me about it.
There are so many problems I have with the Fast and Furious franchise but at this point I've simply ceased to care. Fast Five is at its best when it shares that indifference and instead focuses on making the best action scene with the slickest production value possible. The characters are simple, the action is loud, and the bravado is so thick you'll choke on it. Were you expecting something else?
Rating: C+


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Friday, September 14, 2012
Power washing deck in Southbury
Posted by Shaboo Ct Cleaning LLC at 7:28 AM
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Shaboo CT Cleaning LLC Is a mobile truck mounted HOT water power washing company. We also specialize in window and gutter cleaning. We maintain all aspects of floors. Stripping and refinishing of vinyl flooring. Carpet steam cleaning.


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Members of the Panel shared their own written inputs on enhancing UNCTAD´s role and impact. They also considered a paper submitted by H.E. Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Chairman of the Board of the South Centre and former Secretary General of the United Nations.
These inputs, along with the outcome of the first meeting, served as a basis for the discussions on the substantive issues to be included in the Panel´s final report later this year.
During the meeting, the Panel agreed on the main messages and overall approaches of the report, as well as its annotated outline. They will meet again on 7-8 June in Helsinki, at the invitation of H.E. Ms. Tarja Halonen, President of Finland.
Participants in the Rio de Janeiro meeting included: UNCTAD Secretary-General Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, H.E. Ms. Gro Harlem Brundtland, H.E. Mr. Joaquim Alberto Chissano, H.E. Mr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Chair), H.E. Ms. Tarja Kaarina Halonen, H.E. Mr. Benjamin William Mkapa, as well as their senior aides.
The meeting was hosted by the Panel´s Chairman, Mr. Cardoso.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
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Chicago White Sox Mickey and Minnie Baseball Transfer
Thank You for stopping by Kreationsbytheresa
Here is what you are purchasing :
This is a personalized transfer or pre-finished image and is a great way to make almost anything more meaningful!!
T-shirts, Sweatshirts, Tote Bags, Onesies, Aprons,Collectible Plates and Baseball Caps
are some of the items that they can be applied to. The sky is the limit for transfer applications.
Use these transfers for any gifts or special occasion with customization to make it look or read exactly how you want it to.
Add this transfer to your shopping cart and include any customization in the customer note box at checkout.
Once your transfer is completed we will email you the transfer image so you can print it.
Please note that you are paying for a creative service and the time spent designing and personalizing your item with personal information. We DO NOT SELL or claim ownership over the character clipart or graphics; they belong to their respective copyright holders. Items purchased are for one-time personal use only and are not to be re-sold for any reason.
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Available sizes refer to the size of the paper that the image will be printed on. Size of actual image is approximate and may be slightly smaller or larger depending on the design style.
Actual paper size is 5.x 7 inches • Select (small 5 x 7) - this size is recommended for shirt sizes 12m to 5T
Actual paper size is 8 1/2 x 11" inches • Select (large 8x10) - this size is recommended for shirt sizes 6Y up to Adult (this is the largest print size available)
These are only recommendations. Feel free to choose whatever size you would like for your project needs.
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Graduates, Your Ambition Is the Problem
Civic education in America took a hit on Sunday when President Obama, giving the commencement address at The Ohio State University, chose citizenship as his theme. The country's Founders trusted citizens with "awesome authority," he told the assembled graduates. Really?
Actually, the Founders distrusted us, at least in our collective capacity. That's why they wrote a Constitution that set clear limits on what we, as citizens, could do through government.
Mr. Obama seems never to appreciate that essential point about the American political order. As with his countless speeches that lead ultimately to an expression of the president's belief in the unbounded power of government to do good, he began in Columbus with an insight that we can all pretty much embrace, at least in the abstract. Citizenship, Mr. Obama said, is "the idea at the heart of our founding—that as Americans, we are blessed with God‐given and inalienable rights, but with those rights come responsibilities—to ourselves, to one another, and to future generations."
Well enough. But then he took that insight to lengths the Founders would never have imagined. Reading "citizenship" as standing for the many ways we can selflessly "serve our country," the president said that "sometimes, we see it as a virtue from another time—one that's slipping from a society that celebrates individual ambition." And "we sometimes forget the larger bonds we share, as one American family."
Not for nothing did he invoke the family, that elemental social unit in which we truly are responsible to one another and to future generations—by law, by custom, and, ideally, in our hearts. But only metaphorically is America a family, its members bound by tendrils of intimacy and affection. Realistically, the country is a community of individuals and private institutions, including the family, with their own interests, bound not by mutual love but by the political principles that are set forth in the Constitution, a document that secures and celebrates the freedom to pursue those interests, varied as they might be.
Alas, that is not Mr. Obama's vision. "The Founders left us the keys to a system of self‐government," he went on, "the tool to do big and important things together that we could not possibly do alone." And what "big and important things" cannot be done except through government? On the president's list are railroads, the electrical grid, highways, education, health care, charity and more. One imagines a historical vision reaching as far back as the New Deal. Americans "chose to do these things together," he added, "because we know this country cannot accomplish great things if we pursue nothing greater than our own individual ambition."
Notice that twice now Mr. Obama has invoked "individual ambition," and not as a virtue. For other targets, he next counseled the graduates against the "voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works."
The irony here should not go unnoticed: The opponents that the president disparages are the same folks who tried to save the country from one of the biggest pieces of gum now in the works: Mr. Obama's own health‐care insurance program, which today is filling many of its backers with dread as it moves toward full implementation in a matter of months.
None of that darkens Mr. Obama's sunny view of collective effort. What does upset him, still, is the run‐up to the 2008 financial crisis: "Too many on Wall Street," he said, "forgot that their obligations don't end with their shareholders." No mention of the Federal Reserve, or Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Community Reinvestment Act, or the many other "big and important things" government undertook before the crisis hit, things that explain the disaster far better than any Wall Street greed. None of that fits in Mr. Obama's morality play. For that matter, neither do the Constitution's checks and balances. When the president laments that "democracy isn't working as well as we know it can," he is not talking about those big, misbegotten public projects but about the Washington gridlock that has frustrated his grander plans.
From George Washington to Calvin Coolidge, presidents sought mostly to administer the laws that enabled citizens to live their own lives, ambitiously or not. It would have been thought impertinent for a president to tell a graduating class that what the country needs is the political will "to harness the ingenuity of your generation, and encourage and inspire the hard work of dedicated citizens … to repair the middle class; to give more families a fair shake; to reject a country in which only a lucky few prosper."
A more inspiring message might have urged graduates not to reject their own country, where for two centuries far more than a lucky few have prospered under limited constitutional government—and even more would today if that form of government were restored.


text: The third group to be put together through the reality television series Making the Band — O-Town being the first, Da Band being the second — Danity Kane's membership includes five women who beat out hundreds of hopefuls. Chosen by music mogul and Bad Boy Records CEO Diddy, members Aubrey, Aundrea, D. Woods, Dawn, and Shannon sang, danced, and watched their competition stumble over two seasons of the series. By the end of the second season, Diddy decided this was the quintet who fit his dream of creating the next En Vogue or Destiny's Child. A third season chronicled the recording of the band's first album and the process of naming the group. During a June 2006 appearance on MTV's TRL, it was announced the group would be called Danity Kane, a reference to a superhero Dawn had created and sketched in the studio during downtime. The TRL appearance also announced the group's debut single was the club cut "Show Stopper" featuring fellow Bad Boy artist Yung Joc. With tracks from big-name producers Scott Storch and Timbaland, their self-titled debut hit the streets in August of 2006. After spending 2007 on a package tour with Christina Aguilera and the Pussycat Dolls, their second album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, landed in 2008. ~ David Jeffries


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2013 PKRA Season Kicks Off Next Week!
We are just a few days away from start the start of the 2013 PKRA season in Dakhla, Morocco. The event will feature freestyle kitesurfing and wave riding at a perfect right hand point break. The final event of the 2012 season was one of the most exciting the history of the PKRA. Youri Zoon and Alex Pastor were battling for the world title until the last heat and Karolina Winkowska upset Gisela Pulido and Bruna Kajiya to claim her first world title. It will be interesting to see how the winter training has paid off for everyone and who will claim this first competition
We also saw some innovating moves from Alberto Rondina last year with some technical toe side handle passes, will we see other riders choose to explore these maneuvers or have new moves been perfected? Up and coming riders like Christophe Tack, Eudazio Da Silva, Stefan Spiessberger could also start making waves in the rankings. This is the event where we see who the top guys and girls are and who are the new contenders for a world title.
The 2012 season was marked by all the riders really pushing power kiting with excellent execution for both men and women. The PKRA format rewards riders for innovation in riding and we are looking forward to seeing some new tricks or variation of tricks in 2013. The first event is where we will see the latest tricks in kitesurfing and the PKRA will bring them to you Live, in videos and photos every day.
2013 will bring back wave riding on the PKRA and the chance for the riders to claim 10,000$ in prize money and the Dakhla trophy. The wave is a perfect right hand point break with the wind in a side, side-off direction, making it perfect to execute the latest moves in wave kitesurfing and powered turns.
The new freestyle judging format with more families will give the riders more opportunities to score points with their favorite tricks and keep pushing the level of kitesurfing on the PKRA. The new software will allow everyone to follow the scores live on the internet and give riders valuable feedback on their performance.
Dakhla is one of the top kitesurfing destinations in the world; with a combination of wind, flat water, waves, amazing desert scenery and a very hospitable culture. Everyone is looking forward to the couscous and tagines at Kite Attitude and great atmosphere.
Go to http://www.prokitetour.com to see latest news, photos and videos, 2013 is going to be sick!!!
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- DC6817" £ —Out of stock
Bonnie Prince Billy
Two tracks culled from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Haggard-tribute Best Troubador sessions save a little for Tommy! Tommy Collins was the stage name for Leonard Sipes, whose presence on the Bakersfield scene and in the country charts during the 1950s was no doubt a major inspiration for Merle Haggard during his early years of apprenticeship. Carolyn tells the tale of Tommy's rise and fall and rise again in deft images; a plain-spoke and loving tribute to a hero of Merle's. Tommy contributed songs to Merle's songbook often in the early days. The B-side of this single, Carolyn, went to number 1 for three weeks in '72, toward the end of Tommy's period of getting songs on Merle's records. On Leonard, Bonnie and the band (Van Campbell, Nuala Kennedy, Danny Kiley) are joined by Matt Sweeney who sings along and fingerpicks an acoustic in a fond tribute to Merle and Tommy and all the old boys. Carolyn is an outtake from the Ease Down the Road recording.


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With anticipation levels getiing higher and higher by the day, Zack Snyder has finally revealed some details about his approach to "Superman."
And, yes, he does not hesitate to play the "BB" ("Batman Begins") card.
"Literally, the one thing that everyone can start to think about is that we're making a movie that finally goes with the approach that there's been no other Superman movies," Snyder tells The Los Angeles Times. "If you look at 'Batman Begins', there's that structure: there's the canon that we know about and respect, but on other hand there's this approach that pre-supposes that there haven't been any other movies. In every aspect of design and of story, the whole thing is very much from that perspective of 'Respect the canon but don't be a slave to the movies.'"
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
Not that Snyder's "Batman" analogy isn't earned - this reboot of the Man of Steel does have "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan onboard as a producer and collaborator.
"It's been really great," says Snyder. "Chris is awesome. He's super-respectful but super-helpful, too. You can't imagine a more generous [collaborator] … once he sort of got what I want to do with it, he was like, 'OK,' and once he said, 'You know what, that's awesome,' now he's 100%. If I say, 'What do you think of this?' he's like, 'That's awesome,' and then there's a great give-and-take about it, a great conversation that we can have about it and making it better every day. And by the way, he's hilarious too."
Snyder did not confirm any additional casting beyond Henry Cavill and Diane Lane (he's mum on Kevin Costner's alleged involvement),


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We always discuss films and books and television. There's the occasional politicking. Oh, and let's not forget drinking – as in drinking games for watching political theater or your favorite cult film/TV show. So why the heck not put The Spin on one of my all-time favorite things?
I've been in love with it ever since that day when I was about ten years-old and I tasted the home-cooked fried chicken of Mrs. Cottingham in Willingboro, NJ.
On reruns of Seinfeld I'm often reminded by Newman that "Kenny Rogers makes a pretty mean bird," but roasting is for suckers. My heart and cholesterol belong to fowl of the fried persuasion.
I covet it like Daniel Plainview covets oil.
So ladies and gentlemen…if I say I'm a fried chicken man you will agree.
And I am a man on a mission – in search of the world's greatest fried chicken.
A few years ago, I thought I may have found it. Continue reading


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- List titled "April 1847," including Richard Hildreth, Harriet C. Capen, J. & E. Bales, G. C. Leach, Paul Morrill, Edward Rohan, J. K. Blasdell, Artemas White, Willis & Co., Ellis G. Loring, Wetherbee Brothers, Joel Brett, Thacher Beal, Hiram Davis, Jacob Berkmaer, Charles N. Chandler, Sundry tenants [of] 45 Congress St. and ca. 65 others.
- List of donors [probably to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society] for October 1846, including Richard Hildreth, Robert Briggs, Thomas C. Wales, Stimpson & Whiting, Ellis Gray Loring, Wells, Wetherbee & Co. [Wetherbee Bros.], Charles N.Chandler, Sundry Tenants [of] 43, Heman S. Doane, Thomas Whittemore, Boyd & Beard, Henry Rice, George L. Thayer, A. B. Vose, Mrs. Cutter, Otis Brewer and others.
- Petition letter [from the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society] asking the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to protest in United States Supreme Court against the wrongful imprisonment of "colored citizens" employed on trade ships arriving at the ports of slaveholding states.
- Manuscript copy of a correspondence between Edmund Jackson and Hon. Robert C. Winthorp, in which Jackson asks for Winthorp's position on slavery before his election to United States Congress. Includes Winthorp's response dated November 2, 1840, in which he replies that he "cannot regard it as desirable or expedient to attempt any alteration of the Constitution in relation to slavery."
- Resolution produced by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that the United States Congress must abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Includes note that the "resolves were passed by the House in the 21st, & by the Senate of the 23 March" and that the resolutions are the same that are referred to in the letters of E. Jackson and R. C. Winthrop.
- List of donations [to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society] from ca. 110 people belonging to various churches. Divided into columns labeled Orthodox, Baptists, Methodist, and Unitarian. Some of the names included in the list are: James Trask Woodbury, G. Buckingham Wilcox, Giles Pease; E. A. (Edward Ainsley) Stockman, Abijah Stowell, Benjamin Whitmore, Luther Sheldon, Asaph Meriam, C. T. Tucker, and Charles Manning Bowers.


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The Berlin Film Festival says Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger has joined the jury for this year's competition.
The festival announced Tuesday that Zellweger, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for "Cold Mountain" in 2004, will be part of the seven-member panel under veteran German-born filmmaker Werner Herzog.
They will be joined by Chinese actress Yu Nan; Italian writer-director Francesca Comencini; Spanish producer Jose Maria Morales; Somali-born writer Nuruddin Farah; and German actress Cornelia Froboess.
The festival runs from Feb. 11-21. The jury will announce the winners of the top Golden Bear honor and other awards on Feb. 20.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: 'Chicago,' The Movie
PLAY IT NOW: Renee Zellweger 'Starstruck' At 2009 ELLE Women In Hollywood Tribute
PLAY IT NOW: Renee Zellweger's 'My One And Only' NY Premiere
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Renee Zellweger - Movies


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Not all surprises are good ones. No one knows that better than a woman in a relationship. I have a friend who met and married the so-called man of her dreams within six months. A year later, he dropped a major bombshell — he had been married before. Even more shocking: He had been married twice before.
For whatever reason, it never previously came up. That was probably just as much her fault as it was his. She clearly didn't ask enough questions. But sometimes, nothing can compare us for the crap that comes out of their mouths.
Check out the 15 things a woman never wants to hear her man say.
- It was just a kiss.
- My mom's gonna stay with us for a few months.
- Oh, didn't I tell you I had kids?
- I'm on house arrest.
- I'm as good as divorced. I mean, we haven't lived together in years.
- I think I might be gay.
- I've been late because my ex needed my help with something.
- I need you to get me a good lawyer.
- Can I have a hall pass?
- Maybe I'm not cut out for monogamy.
- I told my little brother he can live in the basement.
- I quit my job.
- So I sent a photo of my junk to another girl. It's not like I was having an actual affair.
- Surprise, I got you a boob job for your birthday!
- What do you think about the open marriage thing?
What other ridiculous surprises do men spring on their wives and girlfriends?


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Horford's big game leads Hawks over Pistons
Al Horford had 23 points and 22 rebounds, and the Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons 114-103 on Monday night for their fifth win in six games.
Josh Smith added 23 points for the Hawks, who were ahead 61-51 at halftime and led by as many as 26 in the third quarter.
The Pistons have lost three straight, all without guard Brandon Knight, who has a hyperextended right knee. Will Bynum was also out Monday because of a suspension.
Jeff Teague had 20 points for Atlanta, which shot 14 of 33 from 3-point range. Kyle Korver scored 15 points, all from beyond the arc.
Rodney Stuckey led Detroit with 22 points, and Jonas Jerebko added 21.
Horford equaled his career high in rebounds.
Atlanta's only loss in its last six games was to Miami, and the Heat lead the Hawks by 8 1/2 games in the Southeast Division. But the Hawks are very much on the bubble for home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs. They moved percentage points ahead of Brooklyn for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
The Pistons were already without rookie big man Andre Drummond, who has a stress fracture in his back, and Knight's recent injury made matters worse. With Bynum suspended for striking Indiana forward Tyler Hansbrough during a game against the Pacers on Saturday, Kim English - a second-round pick in last year's draft - became the top guard off the bench.
The Hawks were without Zaza Pachulia because of an Achilles strain, but they shot 55 percent in the first half, including 7 of 16 from 3-point range. Horford already had 13 points and 13 rebounds by halftime.
Horford's shot from the baseline in the third made it 76-58, and Pistons coach Lawrence Frank took his second timeout of the quarter. It was no use. A 3-pointer by Smith pushed the lead to 24, and Teague's two free throws made it 86-60.
The Pistons cut the deficit to 14 and had the ball midway through the fourth quarter, but Teague's steal and layup made it 97-81.
Near the end, Horford capped his terrific game with a 3-pointer from around the top of the key - his first of the season and fourth of his career.
NOTES: Korver has made a 3-pointer in 49 consecutive games. ... Horford also had 22 rebounds against Miami on Feb. 27, 2009.


text: Wide open teen pussies and a lot of masturbation! If that is not enough, we also have the hottest girls stripping for the camera to delight us with the pleasures of their young toned bodies. These little whores can't wait for you to enter CutiesGalore.com and they will tell you all about what makes them horny and how do they please themselves when alone at their room. This is an incredible site where naïve young cuties share with us their private desires and fantasies and masturbate for us.


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Ray Chess Players are "All Stars"
Happy New Year to everyone, and congratulations to Ray chess players Karen Dai (4th grade) and Allen Dai (1st grade), who each earned the title of "CPS All Star" at last week's holiday chess tournament at McCormick Place.
The tournament was part of the mayor's holiday sports festival, held annually during the last week of the year, while school is out. This year, for the first time, chess was included.
Did anyone else from Ray attend the tournament? If so, please let us know.
Update (01/08): I understand Ray 4th-graders Shawn Kim and James Liu also played at the tournament. Thanks for representing Ray, guys. Pictures here, at John Buky's site.


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LOS ANGELES - At the recent premiere of Disney-Pixar's "Brave," an animated tale about a bow-wielding Scottish princess named Merida, the whooshing of arrows seemed to glide even closer to the audience's ears, a bear's roar felt even more dangerous and a storm sounded like it was swirling over the audience.
It's the Dolby Atmos system at work, the latest innovation in movie theater audio that's aiming to make the big-screen 3-D experience sound as three-dimensional as it looks.
"Brave" is the first feature film mixed entirely for the new audio platform from Dolby Laboratories Inc. "It's a new way of thinking," said "Brave" sound designer Gary Rydstrom. "We had to make sure we captured the opportunities that the Dolby Atmos mix gave us, without getting gimmicky."
There were also concerns about not overwhelming the computer-generated film with the new technology. "The choices that we made in the mix were based on what made the movie more dramatic or funny," said Rydstrom.
Because of Dolby Atmos' unique ability to aurally immerse and envelop audiences, the film's audio engineers had to craft the soundscape inside a screening theater at Skywalker Sound in Northern California instead of in a typical sound mixing studio.
Scenes from films such as "The Incredibles," "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" have previously been test-mixed in Dolby Atmos, but "Brave" is the first feature film to totally use the new platform from start to finish.
"The audience is way more sophisticated now," said David Gray, Dolby's content services vice president, following a demonstration of the system earlier this month at Dolby's Burbank, Calif., facility. "There's a whole generation who grew up with multichannel sound, so this is the first time a generation has really demanded this kind of evolution."
"Brave" in Dolby Atmos is being test-released beginning Friday in 14 domestic theaters that typically charge a premium for 3-D and other enhancements, including in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto and at six AMC Entertainment ETX - Enhanced Theatre Experience - venues in San Francisco; Los Angeles; Burbank, Calif.; Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; Paramus, N.J.; and Kansas City, Mo.
"If there's new technology that we can put into place that enhances an experience, then we're all for it," said AMC operations vice president Neal Katcher. "We're very excited about this test."
Unlike Dolby's previous audio advancements that added digital sound and multiple channels, Dolby Atmos boasts the ability to render and individually direct sounds to certain speakers. For instance, an explosion from a witch's spell in "Brave" can be pinpointed to one spot within a theater instead of just broadcast along the front, back, left or right walls.
The biggest update with Dolby Atmos is two arrays of overhead speakers. Depending on the layout of a venue, the speakers can be installed on the ceiling or on trusses hanging over the audience, as is the case at Hollywood's historic El Capitan Theatre and the massive Dolby Theatre that hosted the "Brave" premiere.
"If there is one single perceptional element customers will notice, I think it will be the addition of the overheard surround sound," said AMC technology vice president Dan Huerta. "From a creative perspective, mixers have never had that channel available to them before. It's something audiences never experienced until now because it's never been up there."
Rydstrom, the veteran Academy Award-winning sound designer of such films as "Jurassic Park" and "Saving Private Ryan," utilized the overhead speakers in "Brave" to broadcast such sound effects as rain drizzling down on Merida and her mother in a dense Scottish forest, while the outdoorsy young royal constructed a shelter to shield the pair from the elements.
Since developing the platform, Dolby has been petitioning filmmakers to mix upcoming movies in Dolby Atmos, but the company is remaining mum on what films might be next.
The cost of upgrading a theater with the technology can range from $30,000 to $100,000, depending on the infrastructure and existing sound system. Dolby said more theaters in North America, Europe and Asia will be installing Dolby Atmos in the coming months.
Dolby Atmos, which can blast 128 separate channels at a time, marks the first overhaul since the company debuted Dolby Surround 7.1 with "Toy Story 3" in 2010. The company's president, Kevin Yeaman, said Dolby experimented with adding even more channels but decided it needed a way to render sounds in space, not just put more speakers into theaters.
"We are really responding to a pull in the market from creatives and exhibitors," said Yeaman. "When 3-D hit screens, we started getting questions from people like, `Now that we're having a more emotional visual experience, what can you do with sound to really bring us into that?' When you combine those two elements, that's a really powerful experience."


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linux.conf.au 2011 is now over and its time to catch up on a few hundred hours of sleep (after a little packing up and cleaning). It is amazing how much work still has to be done after the conference has finished, but I am hopeful (perhaps skeptical) that I will have most of it out of the way before I officially go back to work in a weeks time.
The conference was awesome, given the many challenges the team had to endure before, during and after the event. lca2011 will truly be a conference the whole team (and many others) will remember for a long time to come. While we were unable to deliver everything we had hoped for (time and financial constraints due to floods), the majority of the feedback has been extremely positive. There were a few interesting requests during the conference that added extra challenges (such as tethering a helium balloon 100m above the university oval) and the rocketry miniconf near the NOC kept us fairly high on paint fumes for many of the days they were constructing their rockets.
Reflecting back on the event – we had a venue (eventually), we had great speakers and delegates, supportive sponsors, a working network with Internet prior to the conference (even with a little IPv6 thrown in here and there) and great food. The PDNS at the Maritime museum saw fine weather and a relaxed environment (even with some food left over from the catering) with a few fireworks thrown in across the river. Interestingly, we also managed to have many video's uploaded to http://linuxconfau.blip.tv/ during the conference which was a credit to our AV team and the many hours of planning and training that they undertook. Once encoding is finished all the video's will be available at the Linux Australia Mirror (as per usual). The speakers dinner was a real drumming event where everyone was able to get in to the rhythm and hit drums as hard as they could – an event that received continual praise from many speakers during the week. The penguin dinner was relaxed and perhaps a little slow to kick off the fund raising activities – however a total of $23 239 was raised for the Qld Flood Appeals and another $5000 for the Glenleighden School at Fig Tree Pocket in Brisbane ($28 239 in total).
Open Day seemed to attract a good crowd of people during the morning while the final day of conference activities was the launch of the Rockets built during the Rocketry miniconf (thanks to Bdale, Keith, AJ and Clinton for their efforts here). A few of the pics from the rocket launch day can be found at http://fishtank.kangawallafox.com/index.php/linux-conf-au/rockets-lca2011


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We hope to see you at the seventh edition of Hoosier Beer Geek's Tailgate for Nothing on Saturday, November 3, from 11 a.m. to ??? in Sun King Brewing Company's back parking lot. The theme: Wiener Time! More details here.
Here are some ground rules and tips for you if you're going to attend:
- Weather. The current forecast shows that it will be
- Travel. The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon is taking place on Saturday morning. We think that most of the runners should be done by the time we get started with TFN7, but you might want to plan your route to Sun King accordingly. Maps of the marathon course can be found here.
- Parking. When you arrive, please park your car in the back lot at Sun King if there are still spaces available there. Do not park in the main lot out in front of the brewery. If there aren't any spaces in the back lot by the time you arrive, there should be plenty of parking available on the surrounding streets.
- Victuals. We don't have many rules for this thing, but one rule we expect everyone to follow is this: bring beer and food to share. The beer and food don't have to be anything special. Just bring something tasty and preferably wiener-related (please see the theme above). No one appreciates a freeloader.
- Courtesy. You are expected to clean up after yourselves, so please pick up your trash. Our friends at Sun King are doing us a favor by letting us hold the event at their place, so return their kindness by not leaving a mess behind. They've even agreed to provide trash bags, so please use them to dispose of your garbage.
- Keep off the hill. The hill behind the parking lot is off limits. Please don't go there.
- I gotta pee. A portalet will be provided on site. Please use it if you have to go to the restroom. Do not go inside the brewery to use their restroom. Of course, it's okay to go inside the brewery if you want to buy more beer, but don't go in just to use their crapper.
We hope that you'll come out and enjoy a day of beer-sharing and food-sharing with us!


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3D printing is making its mark as it reshapes product development and manufacturing and turns individuals, small businesses and corporate departments into "makers." CSC's new report, 3D Printing and the Future of Manufacturing, explores the opportunities of 3D printing services and provides 10 questions companies should be asking as they prepare to join this trend.
The idea of a do-it-yourself manufacturer is really coming to the forefront. Similar to the way the Internet leveled the playing the field, solving the challenges of reach and enabling everyone to play, that's what is happening with manufacturing today.
You don't need all of the capital involved in the creation of things anymore. You now have the opportunity at a small scale, even as a hobbyist, to do it yourself, and to do it fairly eloquently.
With 3D printing being applied to materials ranging from chocolate to cells to concrete, and being used by corporations, departments and consumers, organizations need to understand how the future of 3D printing manufacturing technology can be used for a for competitive advantage – before their competitors do.
3D printing has been around for decades, better known as additive manufacturing (building an object layer by layer). What's new is that 3D printing has reached consumer-friendly price points and footprints, new materials and techniques are making new things possible, and the Internet is tying it all together.
Technology has developed to the point where we are rethinking industry. The next industrial revolution is opening up manufacturing to the whole world – where everyone can participate in the process. This democratization idea will not be much different than the journey computers had – from a few, big, centralized mainframes to something we now hold in our hands.
Desktop 3D printing manufacturing technology can be done at home, the office, a hospital or a school, bringing manufacturing to non-manufacturers the way PCs brought computing to non-traditional environments.
At the same time, 3D printing, long used for rapid prototyping, is being applied in a number of industries today, including aerospace and defense, automotive and healthcare. As accuracy has improved and the size of printed objects has increased, 3D printing services are being used to create such things as topographical models, lighter airplane parts, aerodynamic car bodies and custom prosthetic devices. In the future, it may be possible for the military to print replacement parts right on the battlefield instead of having to rely on limited spares and supply chains.
However, it's not just about replacing the technique of how we make and get a product – it's about creating brand new products, with entirely new properties, that were not possible with the old techniques.
Further, any time there are new products and new properties, that changes the way business operates. If you apply every stage in the supply chain to this new world of 3D printing, the processes are going to change across the board.


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1. I have been studying a lot of grammar, since I'm done with Glowing shadow for now. I want to memorize the elements of style, I hope by the end of the summer I can make it.
2.Also I have been helping the kids with lots of projects. Seriously they send projects for my 3 year old in kindergarten, I couldn't believe it. Anyway I tried to help in a way the work was from them but they understood it, so it was long but at the end had good results.
3. I have three noisy stories in my head. I'm trying to write every idea on a notebook to further outline them after I go back again to Glowing Shadow and the summer with the kids.
4. Yesterday I went with one of my best friends to see the movie Snow white and the huntsman. Well, I loved Charlize Theron as always, she does an amazing witch. As a lover of fantasy I loved what they did with the setting and the story. Kirsten Stewart was good but I couldn't keep from thinking she was Bella, she couldn't pull me out of that memory. What I liked most was this:
5. A random fact about me that you might not know. I not only know Spanish and English, I also know Galician, a Romance language close to Portuguese. I know it because my parents are from Galicia, Spain and they usually talk between them in that language at home. I learned it because I heard them and when I went to see my grand parents there were all these people talking to me on that language so I had to learn. But the reason that I think that made me understand it and learn it was that my mother when was angry with me always spoke in Galician so if I wanted to know what she was saying and my punishment I must understand her. It came naturally to me since I heard it since born, but I can only understand, speak and read it. I tried and tried, but I can't write it.
Have an amazing weekend!


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As the title says.
Now this is the first major GNOME release I was not part of (insert sad nostalgic face here). There is also an alarming lack of easter eggs in this release. I think those two facts are highly correlated. So no randomly floating fish to make fun of those who take life way too seriously: Wanda, may you rest in peace!


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How Will I Know When To Sell My Gold?Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013 Dec 06, 2012 - 12:59 PM GMT
NEVER sell your gold because you want to hold it for the rest of your life and pass it on to your grandchildren.
Sell your gold NOW (big mistake – my opinion) if you believe that gold is in a bubble or never should have been bought (as per "gold-bashers" Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger).
Most of us will sell sometime between now and never. What is an objective method to determine when to sell?
Technical ratios at which it might be sensible to sell some of your gold
Sell some gold when the gold to silver ratio drops down to around 15 to 1. The gold to silver ratio is currently about 51 to 1. When gold and silver prices have both risen beyond all typical expectations, the ratio will probably drop to between 10 and 20 to 1. The ratio was about 17 to 1 at the bubble peak in 1980.
Sell some gold when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DOW) ratio to gold (DOW/Gold) has dropped to near 1 to 1. The ratio is currently about 7.5 to 1. The ratio could reach 1 to 1, for example, if the Dow were priced at 10,000 and gold was selling for $10,000 per ounce. At the peak of the 1980 gold bubble, the ratio was approximately 1 to 1.
Sell some gold when the gold to crude oil ratio rises to perhaps 30 to 1. For example, if crude oil is priced at $300 per barrel and gold is priced at $9,000, that is a 30 to 1 ratio. In 1980 the peak ratio was about 25 to 1.
Sell some gold when you can pay off the entire mortgage on your house with 10 to 20 ounces of gold.
(I suggest you only sell "some" of your gold, not all of it, because it is always a good idea to keep some "real money" and not be utterly dependent upon unbacked paper currency.)
Sentiment-based timing to consider selling gold
Sell some gold when the "money honeys" on financial TV are running one story per hour on the rapidly rising price of gold.
Sell some gold when Time magazine posts a picture of gold bars on their cover with a caption "The new bull market in gold."
Sell some gold when your hairdresser/barber gushes about the gold she/he just bought and how it is sure to triple in price soon.
Sell some gold when there are lines of people waiting at coin shops to buy gold.
Sell some gold when people finally realize that "money (unbacked paper money) is accepted only because money is accepted," and people have become reluctant to accept paper money.
Sell some gold when people have realized that money only has value because people have faith in its value, and people have finally lost faith in unbacked paper money.
Additional thoughts: Jim Sinclair suggests that, regarding gold, people should "buy fish lines and sell rhino horns." Stated another way, when the price has collapsed in a price spike down (looks like a fish line extending downward from a fishing pole) then we should buy. But if the price has risen in a parabolic pattern (looks like a rhino horn), then it is time to sell a portion and wait for the correction. If the price has fallen too for, too fast, and there is no fundamental reason for the price collapse, buy more. If the price has rapidly rallied to new highs far beyond expectations, then it has moved too far, too fast. Those markets rallies, whether in gold, silver, the NASDAQ, crude oil, or real estate, always seem to correct in a crash. Examples include Gold and Silver in early 1980, the Nikkei 225 in 1990, and the NASDAQ in early 2000. It seems likely that gold and silver will go into a parabolic rise within a few years unless the money printing ceases – and we should plan on the money printing continuing for a LONG time.
The common denominators are the human emotions of fear and greed. In simple terms, greed drives the market to new highs and fear causes the crash. People were "getting rich quick" when the NASDAQ rallied from about 1,100 to about 5,000 in less than 2 years – when greed had the upper hand. But when the NASDAQ reached a natural stopping point, fear took over and people sold in panic or to preserve what value remained. If they did not sell and rode the market all the way down, they lost a significant portion of their investment and paper profits. Fear caused people to sell, which created more fear and selling, and the waterfall decline fed upon itself until the sellers were exhausted.
Similarly, in 2008, when gold had collapsed from over $1,000 to under $700 (the price today is about $1,700) in seven months, most amateur investors were reluctant to buy because they were fearful that the price of gold would decline further. Professionals buy the bottoms and sell the tops. Fearful amateurs sell down into the bottoms and then buy back near the tops when greed takes over.
If you bought gold, which is currently in a long-term uptrend, then waiting will eventually bring success, even if you purchased at a temporary top. However, if you were buying Enron Stock some years ago, then waiting only magnified the disastrous investment. Study the fundamentals of your investments until you understand the differences.
When will gold reach $4,000?
The Bottom Line: Buy when the "blood is running in the streets," and sell when everyone else wants to buy. Use ratios from other markets as objective measures to indicate probable price extremes in markets. We can seldom pick the precise bottoms and tops, but we can carefully observe while others are being swept along by their own fears and greed. If we can keep our heads while others are losing theirs and make sound decisions based on numbers, analysis, and comparison ratios to other markets, we can make intelligent and informed buy and sell decisions. For now, it makes sense to me to hold gold and silver and to carefully evaluate everything else. Massive and supposedly unexpected changes can occur with surprising rapidity. Check here for additional commentary
GE Christenson
aka Deviant Investor
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© 2012 Copyright Deviant Investor - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.
© 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


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Here is an update on LHN's Stitcher's Prayer. The wording is finished, now to get to the good stuff!
And after an unbelieveable amount of procrastination on my part, I finally decided on my colours for the Quaker Friendship Round Robin. I'm really not this bad normally but I sure had a mental block or a colour block when it came to deciding what to use. And what fabric to use. I made a mess of my stash, pulling out different pieces and trying different floss on them. So I finally settled on antique white...a little boring I know.
And I really wanted to use one of the DMC variegated threads since stash money is tight these days. I went with the deep purple/blue tone and picked out plain colours that went along with it when I stopped by Michael's. I'm going to ask each person in the RR to stitch their section in one colour and then I'll be able to see each person's section more clearly but hopefully it will all mesh together very nicely. I need a kick in the behind to get me moving on this since our first mail-out is April 1st!
Finally, here is a picture of Nick and JF taken on Good Friday. Can you guess where they might be?
If you said on the roof of our cottage, then you are 100% right!
They went to the cottage for the day to shovel snow off the roof, in anticipation of the Great Melt.
Thanks for stopping by!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
A little progress
Here is an update on LHN's Stitcher's Prayer. The wording is finished, now to get to the good stuff!
Posted by Wendy at 8:23 am 16 comments
Labels: LHN, Life, Quaker Friendship RR
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Happy Easter!
I'm WIP'ing along with the Love Sampler. I actually finished the first 3 pages! Only 9 left to go. I know its creased and crumpled looking but isn't it beautiful? I'm so proud of how its coming along.
And I managed a wee start on LHN's Stitcher's Prayer. I needed something to do for the Guild embroidery meeting, and I can't very well drag the magnifier with me ~ a Tim's coffee and my goodie bag are about it.
And look who I found dozing away on the couch, exactly where she is not allowed to be ~ Miss Kelsey. She is obviously called Princess for a good reason.
Happy Easter and thanks for dropping by!
Posted by Wendy at 9:27 am 24 comments
Labels: Dogs, LHN, Love with a Capital L
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Love with a Capital L
This was my update picture as of Friday...but I've stitched quite a bit since then and have some of the wording done and border along the right hand side. Its coming along so nicely and I am loving working on this. I'm almost through my first skein of Gloriana silk. Let's see, that's 4 yards of 12 stranded silk, using 1 strand over 2 fabric threads, so that makes 48 yards of silk so far. Well, when you put it like that, my needle has been flying!
I have fabric ready to start LHN's Stitcher's Prayer as I would like to get this one going too.
We had rain yesterday and dark gloomy skies today which means more rain...and our snow is quickly disappearing. It was hard to imagine these great mounds of snow everywhere can so quickly be reduced to little piles of darkened yuckiness. Come on rain!
I am so stoked to hear about the new cross stitch shop opening in Whitby, Hedgehog Stitchery! Thanks Vickie for stopping by and letting me know. I'll be sure to pass the word along to our fellow stitchers who I am sure will be just as enthusiastic about having a real live shop to visit. There is nothing like seeing fabric and floss in real life to be re-inspired. And that its opening on the second floor of the Kniterary is a nice little treat to us knitters too!
Thanks for dropping by!
Posted by Wendy at 8:15 am 18 comments
Labels: LHN, Life, Love with a Capital L
Friday, March 14, 2008
My Town
After reading about Carol's (iStitchaholic) town and seeing the beautiful pictures, I thought I would copy her idea and do one of my own. I have to warn you though, I love history so this little insight to where I live is more geared to local town history than what's going on today.
Whitby is located on Lake Ontario, about 30 km from Toronto. We now have a population of 110,000 people. Although settlers arrived in Whitby in the 1700's, most settlement took place after the American Revolution, as a British resettlement for the Loyalists, with the development of the downtown area starting in 1836.
A view of Lake Ontario from Whitby shores, one of my favourite places to head for an evening walk or bike ride, as we have km's of finished trails along the shoreline.
We have a castle in downtown Whitby ~ Trafalgar Castle. These are the best pictures, I'm afraid! I nabbed them off the web and as you can tell we're not in the midst of winter.
Trafalgar Castle was built in Elizabethan style in 1859 by Nelson Reynolds, Sheriff of Ontario County. It has 15 towers, a receiving hall that is 108 feet long, secret passageways and a tunnel to Lake Ontario (which is actually quite far from the castle - I can't imagine the state of it now!). The castle is currently home to an all-girls boarding and day school for 240 students.
My friend Marj attended Trafalgar Castle school for 2 years and gave me this cool info:
The stories of the tunnel is true. And it was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad and there are even "pits" for the slaves to hide out in , in case of people coming to the castle. I know that much is true as we were taken down by our history teacher and shown them for a fact.
It is a really cool place to check out and every May they have their May Day festivities and Open house, which is really nice to go and see the school. Some of the residents from the Whitby Psych would work there in the kitchens and do the groundskeeping, supervised of course by the saner members of society.
We have an award winning, state of the art, new library which opened in 2005 and is huge at 54,000 square feet. This is also where we now hold our Embroidery Guild meetings, since being given the heave-ho from the church around the corner.
However I confess to appreciating the original town library much more... the Carnegie Library which was built in 1913 with a grant from American industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Its a law office today.
I have to mention the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, located on the shores of Lake Ontario, just because it has always been the butt of too many jokes. It was originally built in 1913 and called the Ontario Hospital for the Insane (gruesome!). However once it was finished, it was taken over by the federal government as a hospital for convalescing soldiers returning from World War I before reverting back to its true purpose. At its prime there were 1650 patients living in this facility, which consisted of numerous 'cottages' to house the patients and treatment areas, in all over 40 buildings. It finally closed in 1995, and became quite an interesting locale for movie sites, and of course local teens. Most of the cottages are demolished now with a couple remaining for posterity, once the new hospital took over.
One of the buildings, now empty. There are tons of stories of the various hauntings of this place, as you can imagine. I, ahem, steered clear of them! All of the buildings were painted yellow, with red roofs, so easy to spot through the trees. I have to admit though it was sad that they had to go, although most were falling down anyways.
We have had a few famous residents ~ Leslie McFarlane lived in Whitby with his family from 1936 on. He was quite a famous writer, and wrote the Hardy Boys novels under the penname Franklin W. Dixon. His son, Brian McFarlane, went on to become a CBC sports broadcaster for the NHL. And you all know how we love our hockey!
And the one of the most interesting history bytes for last~
Is there anyone cooler than Bond? ...that's James Bond. Take the401 Hwy east from Toronto for 30 minutes to Whitby, and you can find street signs relating to the James Bond character, such as Ian Fleming Cres. During WWII there was a secret agent training camp here called 'Camp X'. It was located right on the shore of Lake Ontario where it could be reached discreetly at night by water from the USA.
One of the spy trainees was Bond author Ian Fleming, who went on to create the famous James Bond '007' character using knowledge he aquired here. Camp X was also influencial in the development of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); five future heads of the CIA were trained there. Today the camp's location is marked by a small memorial in the 17-acre, watefront Intrepid Park, on the Whitby/Oshawa border. 'Inside Camp X'author Lynn Philip Hodgson leads occasional guided walks of the site. There's also a 'Camp X' exhibit at the Oshawa Municipal Airport (see original lipstick-container dagger and posion gas pen).
I hope you enjoyed my little tour. Have a great weekend!
Posted by Wendy at 8:36 am 14 comments
Labels: Life
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Sampler Lady...and Stash
Sampler Lady by Little House Needleworks, stitched on 32 ct Lakeside Linen remnant, with DMC and GAST threads. Started Feb 10/08 ~ Finished Mar 10/08
She's done...she's done! I love how quickly these little designs come out! And isn't she so sweet! Now I have the Stitcher's Prayer to do and I would love to get these framed (with Home of a Needleworker) to hang on my sewing room wall.
I finally received my long-awaited package from Needlecraft Corner. I had re-signed with the Loose Feathers Club and couldn't wait for the newest Where My Heart Blooms to arrive. But then I went ahead and ordered a couple of other Nashville designs so I had to wait for all before it was sent out to me. So when I saw the box in my mailbox, I danced my way home, well actually more like slip/sliding on the ice (I hope none of the neighbours were watching).
I guess most of you have seen the Blackbird Designs piece, but have you seen this absolutely wonderful Quaker Turtles design by With My Needle? It came fully kitted and how much better to love fondling such loveliness?
I wish my pictures could do these things better justice. Aren't those Putford scissors so cute!
I wish I didn't have to work today...so I could start one of these wonderful new things...but I guess I have to pay for them somehow.
Thanks for dropping by today!
Posted by Wendy at 8:45 am 17 comments
Labels: LHN, Quaker Turtles
Monday, March 10, 2008
Snow...Snow...and more Snow
It started on Friday and came with a vengeance on Saturday which was lucky really for all the commuters. The weather forecasters were telling everyone to stay inside and not to venture out. But did we listen? Of course not, we had to go wedding dress shopping! And the stores were empty so it was a great time to go! Carrie made her final decision and ended up back at the store that is 5 minutes from our house LOL! So the dress is on order, veil and headpiece too!!
Here are a couple of pictures of the aftermath~
Hubby measured snowfall on Saturday to be about 10" or 27 cm in our back yard. Poor doggies had a hard time as every time they went outside, they had to create new pathways for themselves. We are only 17 cm short of a new record snowfall this winter for the Greater Toronto region...yeah, whoopee....Its pretty until you have to start shovelling it!
On the stitching front, I started Love with a Capital L! And I love working on it. I decided on using the 40 ct lambswool linen, the colour worked a little better with the Gloriana Cranberry silk floss we decided to use, and the 40 ct gave me slightly more room for edging since I only had a fat1/4 of the 40 ct and 36 ct fabric. This is a picture after about 10 hours on it.
Thanks so much to everyone who drops by and reads my blog! Staci, I'm so happy you have joined the blogging world, I've tried tracking your blog numerous times and I was so grateful to find it! Here is the link everyone: Snippets and Stash. She's a new blogger and has some gorgeous pictures of her wonderful work.
Posted by Wendy at 8:25 am 19 comments
Labels: Love with a Capital L
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
A Finish and almost finished
I finished my section on Carol's RR! I did the little cottage on the upper left side. Sorry I don't have a picture of the full piece ~ there are now 5 homes that have been built in this neighbourhood, but I don't have my camera at hand. This section of the RR is getting quite a forestry-feel to it, I hope Carol likes it.
I've also slowly been working at LHN's Sampler Lady in the past month. I've just picked it up randomly and put in some stitching here and there when I don't feel like working on the smaller counts of fabric, which so many of my WIP's seem to be in these days. I think its a good idea for me to have these smaller projects on the go, so I can see some real progress being made on them. I've used a mixture of DMC and GAST threads on her and she has come along so nicely.
I ordered Love with a Capital L from Papillon Creations, directly from their website. Its pretty cool that you can order directly from a designer, pay through Paypal, and then receive an e-mail with the pattern attached. So its done, all printed out and ready to go. We decided on Gloriana silk in Cranberry for the fibre and the only thing left to decide is the fabric. I have 2 different fat 1/4's in my stash: one is a 40 ct Lambswool Linen and the other a 36 ct Raw Linen. I drift from one to the other and can't decide which one to use!
And we have yet more snow this morning, cleaning off the car this morning to take the kids to school was not fun because there was a layer of ice under the 10 cm of snow. The streets have yet been plowed so that meant I got stuck once I backed out of our driveway, which was a challenge, and another challenge when I got stuck again, trying to get onto the main road. Winter...enough already....yuck! Spring can't come soon enough for me!
Posted by Wendy at 8:03 am 21 comments
Labels: LHN, Neighbourhood RR


text:
Malloy's house hits the market in Shippan
STAMFORD -- Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is pulling up stakes in Stamford, placing his home in the Shippan section of Stamford on the market for $1.5 million, and raising questions about what he has planned in the coming years.
Malloy and his wife Cathy purchased the structure in 1998, moving it about 100 feet to a half-acre lot at 277 Ocean Drive East and transforming the building from a historic carriage barn into a luxury four-bedroom home where they raised their three sons. While the Malloys vacated the house in 2011 after the governor's inauguration, filling the space with a renter who paid $8,000 a month, the house has always loomed large in their life.
Reconstructing it back in 1998 and 1999 was a labor of love for the Malloys, who are known as dedicated preservationists. When they purchased the barn, it was still attached to a gardener's cottage by a second-story breezeway, according to Chuck Jepsen, the neighbor from whom the Malloys purchased the property. Jepsen lives in the nearby "Holiday House," a Queen Anne-style home built in 1887 by Colonel Woolsley Hopkins, a descendant of Shippan's forefather, Moses Rogers.
"We had always had very formal shingle Colonials," Cathy Malloy said in 1999. "This time, we wanted something different."
And with all the attention paid to the minute details of the home -- all the stones from the original foundation pepper the walls and the wainscoting in the great room was preserved from the barn's original lining -- the house came to represent more than just a place to live for the Stamford family.
And it has cost the governor much more than the $550,000 mortgage he took out on it.
In 2004, investigators from the chief state's attorney's office questioned whether contractors Malloy hired to renovate the barn received preferential treatment in the bidding process for city contracts -- a scandal that cost him a gubernatorial nomination for the 2006 election.
In August of this year, the property again found itself in the middle of an inquiry into Malloy's perceived improprieties when it was discovered that a Stamford worker, driving a city truck, was trimming the hedges on the governor's private property.
That incident launched a citywide investigation and left mud on Malloy's face.
The home was also the scene of a police search in 2007, where officers found drugs, including cocaine residue, in the bedroom of the governor's son, Ben.
But despite the skeletons tucked away in the closets -- which include an actual skeleton found in the attic of the home when the Malloys first purchased the barn -- the home has remained a cherished spot for the family.
In 2011, when the governor and his wife first moved to Hartford, the pair put the home on the market for $1.8 million, while noting that even if the house sold, they planned to keep some kind of residence in Stamford.
Unsuccessful, they lowered the price to $1.6 million, but it still didn't sell.
"Our kids have friends in Stamford and I'm going to be working in Stamford," Cathy Malloy said at the time. "We're definitely going to keep something in Stamford, but we're moving because we really think it's important to be residents of Hartford."
But she later left her job in Stamford, announcing she was no longer sure whether she and her husband would purchase another house in Stamford if their carriage barn sold.
But two years later, with only 14 months left in the governor's term, and uncertainty about whether he can win a second term in the state's highest office, the question arises: Why would the family choose now to shuffle out of Stamford?
"The Malloy luster has worn out, I think," said Joe Tarzia, Malloy's former nemesis in Stamford politics. "Obviously, (William) Tong didn't do well in his mayoral campaign, and he was Malloy's chosen person."
But it could just be a good time to re-enter the real estate market with a prized property that flopped when conditions were less than stellar.
The listing agent for the home is the governor's sister, Gail Malloy.
And the market in the seaside neighborhood is picking up, according to June Rosenthal, a real estate agent with William Pitt Sotheby's International, who has listed countless houses on the point in her career.
The market in the area has not been as strong as usual, she said, likely due to concerns about waterfront or near-water properties in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
But she sees the area bouncing back.
"I think things are getting certainly stronger in Shippan," she said. "With one house, I went from having no showings for a long time to having three in nine days, and I think the market is certainly gaining ground."
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NYC Quintessentials: Arturo's Coal-Oven Pizza
Pizza reviews in NYC.
Wood-fired ovens. Neapolitan pies. Fancy and inventive toppings. Neo-NYC-style. A Roman invasion. Amid these major and minor trends in pizza NYC's coal-die oldies soldier on.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
So it is at Arturo's on Houston. The lines may not be as long as at Lombardi's or John's but where there's always a crowd (and often a wait) for dinner.
What's New On Serious Eats
Unlike Lombardi's and John's, though—Arturo's nearest coal-oven neighbors—the homey pizzeria is a neighborhood joint. The tourist crowd seems to have largely ignored this place despite the line-up of celebrity-signed photos in the window and on the walls.
The pizza menu is straightforward and probably hasn't changed since Arturo's opened in 1957. (The rest of the dance card consists of red-sauce Italian fare.) The fanciest toppings you'll find are lobster ($16 extra per pie) or artichoke hearts. Pizzas are relatively pricey, starting at $17 for a small plain pie (which is plenty for two people), $20 for a large.
The pizza is serviceable. It's not about airy hole structure or crisp yet foldable crusts. It's not about the artfully charred crust you might find at some of the other coalers in the city. To me Arturo's has always been about meeting up with friends and not thinking too hard about the pies, all while you enjoy each other's company. That is to say, if you are concerned with the best pizza in the city, you might be better off at nearby Kesté or Forcella (if you're looking for Neapolitan) or Joe's (if you're looking for a solid NYC-style slice).
But it's good if you have a large party to seat and want to avoid some of the more trafficked pizzerias.
For some reason, I thought I remembered the meatball pizza drawing recommendations. As at many pizzerias that serve meatball pies, they're applied sliced. Which for me sort of defeats half the purpose of a meatball pizza. It's fun when a pie comes with small globes of meat on it. The meatballs on a recent pie we ate there were overdone.
We couldn't resist the "Arturo's Fiesta" pizza (above, right) as it seemed to be the house pie—sausage, peppers, mushroom, and onion. It's exactly the kind of pizza you expect in a place that's been around since the '50s. Real pizza parlor pizza.
And the Fiesta was good, in a satisfying supreme-pizza sorta way. But the pie our group of five reached consensus on as the best was the simple mushroom pizza (above). Maybe that's because it was the wettest of the trio we ordered.
Which brings me to the thing I've always thought hobbles Arturo's pies: The crust is too dry. Too chewy. Not flexible. It breaks before it bends.
I find myself leaving the "pizza bones."
But you come to Arturo's for the atmosphere. The worn leather booths. The paintings on the wall done by the late Arturo Giunta himself. The kooky decor. The nightly jazz.
Yes, you should know that Arturo's is also a venue for live music. A piano takes up prime space in the bar room, and jazz trios entertain patrons. No surprise. This is the Village, after all.
This is the kind of charm that can't be manufactured. It's the New York of old. Which is why it's surprising (and refreshing) that tourists have not caught on to this place.
The charm extends to the thoughtful way they use baker's twine to secure the pizza box. I only wish I craved the contents of the box a little more.
106 West Houston Street, New York NY 10012 (at Thompson; map) 212-677-3820
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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An anteater has given birth at a Greenwich, Conn., conservation center, prompting officials there to wonder how the mother conceived.
Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center told the Greenwich Time they had removed the only male anteater from the enclosure in August, when little Alice was born.
They feared that the male, Alf, would kill a baby in the pen.
That left the mother Armani, and the young female, Alice, in the enclosure months before the six-month gestation period for baby Arthur would have begun.
But little Archie was born in April anyway.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
Marcella Leone, founder and director of the conservation center, suspects this might be a rare case of delayed implantation, when fertilized eggs remain dormant in the uterus for a period of time.
The center is a special kind of zoo. It's a non-profit refuge for rare, threatened and endangered animals, with a focus on breeding species that are at risk.
Back in April, a rare Rothschild giraffe born at LEO Zoological Conservation Center was named Sandy Hope to honor Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims and their families.


text:
The morning after five members of his family were murdered, grandfather Yang Fei Li received a call from the alleged killer telling him "something terrible has happened".
He began silently praying for everything to be okay.
It wasn't long until he discovered "everything was gone".
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Lin told the Supreme Court on Tuesday about the day he learnt his son Min Lin, 45, his wife Lily, 44, her sister Irene, 39, and his grandchildren Henry, 12, and Terry, nine, had been killed in their North Epping home.
He said the night before the discovery on July 18 2009, had been spent like any other Friday family get together at the grandparents' house.
His grandson Henry complained of having broken shoes, and his wife, Feng Qing Zhu had given him $50 for winning a badminton competition.
Mrs Zhu had even tried to get Henry to stay the night but the 12-year-old said he needed to play the sport first thing in the morning.
All in all, it was a harmonious, quiet, normal night, Mr Lin added.
The next morning, everything changed.
He got a call from their son-in-law Lian Bin "Robert" Xie, saying, "something terrible has happened to the Lin family," Mr Lin recounted.
"I asked, `What happened? He said, `I can't say it now ... get here by train as soon as possible'."
After Xie agreed to pick him and his wife up, Mr Lin recalled: "I didn't say anything even when I was in his car; I was silently praying that nothing bad had happened to my family."
Xie has been accused of carrying out the five murders with a "hammer-like" weapon. He has pleaded not guilty.
When they arrived at the Lin family home in Sydney's northwest, Mr Lin said he was told Lily, her sister Irene and the two children had died.
At this stage, however, his son Min's death had not been confirmed.
"I was always wondering if my son Min had been abducted," Mr Lin said.
It was only when the family were later taken to hospital to see a social worker that they were told nobody had survived.
"We were really heartbroken. Very sad. Everything is gone," Mr Lin said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Lin told the court that before the "five members of my son's family were murdered we had a normal and good relationship with my daughter (Kathy) and her husband".
However, after the killings he said disputes concerning his son's inheritance and the guardianship of the sole surviving member of the Lin family began.
The trial continues.


text:
Siri, Apple's awesome voice assistant is more than enough reason to go out and buy an iPhone 4S (if you can get one). With hints that the Apple TV will get a hardware update — and that fast dual-core A5 processor, it's possible Siri might make the little black box less of a "hobby" and put the "smart" back in Smart TV.
It's a fantasy every tech fan has long dreamed of: voice controlling your TV. The TV remote's over 50 years old and we haven't gotten any less lazy.
Why bother with fiddly remotes with zillions of buttons, when we can just order our TVs to go to ESPN, Cartoon Network, increase/decrease volume, etc.?
Kinect's voice control function is a step in the right direction, but it's still a far cry from being super responsive (our own Kevin Hall says Kinect never seems to understand him). Apple's Siri technology seems pretty robust (we've yet to test it ourselves), but judging from the response and questions the press have tossed its way, the voice recognition and intelligent A.I. seem like technologies from the future.
Siri in the AppleTV would give it a life of its own. A TV would no longer be a box that just pipes stuff through you. You'd be able to talk to your TV. And it'd talk back.
Having Siri in an Apple TV attached to an HDTV would be like having a personal assistant inside the living room. The possibilities could be endless. I could ask Siri to recommend a movie, to pull up the weather, to give me a recipe on how to cook a meal, to do almost anything.
With so much of more time spent watching videos on the Web than on TV, if Apple incorporates Siri into its Apple TV, it has a real chance at pushing us all back in front of the tube again.
Via 9to5Mac