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Shifting grounds.
The comment of the weekend was brought to you by dotCommonweal contributor unagidon, who helpfully outlined the evolution of the Right's recent antiunion memes. Be sure to read the whole thing, and the thread where it was posted.
The creation of memes in our current politics is an interesting one because it fits so well with communication via the Internet.Lets review. This all started in Wisconsin with a governor saying that it was essential to break public sector unions (and not just the teachers union) in order to deal with a budget deficit. This was the original story; that it was about the deficit. There was a great deal of push-back with this, both locally and nationally. So the good reason to break the unions started to change. We have seen a number of these floated in these discussions here. Shall I list some of them?1. We have been told that unions are a means to funnel public tax dollars into politicians pockets, because unions demand dues which come from tax paid salaries, then the union then uses some to support their favorite politicians. This failed to become a meme when it was pointed out that, because union members are paying dues out of their own pockets, the implication is that tax payers have some kind of right to tell public sector workers what to do with their own money.2. Public sector unions, because they amount to monopolies hold the public hostage with their ability to strike. This failed to become a meme when the public sector unions didnt use this supposed massive power of theirs to fend off the governor of Wisconsin. If they could extort their wages from the tax payer by striking, they why arent they extorting their very existence?3. The above attempt at a meme broke into two more memes:a. Unions in general are too strong in the United States andb. Unions are not necessary any more in the United States because hardly anyone is in them any more any way.I have seen both of these theories, which contradict each other, being used by people even here in the same post.4. Union workers use their power to extort higher than market rate salaries. This didnt turn into a meme, because the general public thinks that some public workers (like police and firemen) hardly make enough now. So this meme morphed so that it was specifically the teachers who make too much. Why pick on the teachers? Because there is a common misconception in the general public that being a teacher doesnt require a lot of qualifications. First, the level of education of teachers in our system is similar to the general level of education of much of the population, many of whom make less than teachers. Second, teachers are teaching young people. So how hard can third grade math be? Third, anyone with a child is going to have contact with teachers. This creates the additional element of people having a hard time seeing their (tax) money go to pay people who appear to be having an easier time then the people paying them through taxes. But this didnt turn into a meme either, because a) not all the teachers make the big bucks b) lots of people have teachers in their families and c) lots of people also think that teachers salaries are not in fact too high.5. The salary thing did for a while look like it was going to be a good meme, especially when it was combined in one of its variants, then went something like Teaching is a calling and teachers are public servants. They teach because they love to. Why should we have to pay them too?. It fit in with the governor of Wisconsins own meme of defending the tax payer against greedy union worker. There were lots of people who think that they could teach if they really wanted to, so why should teachers get what they dont? And, very importantly, teachers teach children. So finding something wrong can be about saving the children. And excellent element for a meme, because it puts opponents in the position of having to attack children. And what kind of evil people do that? The problem was, the connection between teachers and salaries is a tax and wage issue, not a save the children issue. Children arent directly affected by how much their teachers make. At least not in the way that.6. hiring practices do. So this became the meme. There are so many anecdotes on the Internet about bad teachers not being fired (and in fact, everyone can probably recount some personal anecdote about this). Their job protections come from the unions. It was hard to criticize this meme, because the critic could easily be pushed back into a defensive position. (So you approve of retaining bad teachers? So you are willing to sacrifice the precious resource of our young helpless children just to protect a greedy corrupt union?) Another plus for well read partisans is that the unfire-able bad teacher problem has been going on for years, ever since NCLB started to fail all over the place. This gives the meme depth, as though it is part of a bigger ideological struggle between concerned conservatives and corrupt labor lovin liberals. So this meme seems to be sticking. It had a little head, a little heart, and it makes the people who might have seem greedy and envious themselves when they were pushing the other memes now sound like righteous child defenders. Amen.A meme is a pre-packaged cultural snippet that seems very clear and self contained. It looks black and white and it makes the other side look vicious, greedy, and stupid. Its function is to translate a complex situation into a pseudo-moral situation for the purposes of political manipulation. Both the right and the left use them and they are particularly common in religious discussions. They have become especially popular with the rise of the internet because they are so short that they can even be tweeted and they seem so complete that a person who uses them can sound like he knows what he is talking about. But they are a scourge that makes us ever more stupid every time we use them.
We've just published unagidon'sWeb-only article that asks, Why are public-sector unions so different? (Hint: they're not.) Don't miss it.
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A terrific post!We need one on "memes" in the Church as well.
"If some public-sector workers appear to have excellent benefits, you can bet they had to organize to get them in the first place. Once they lose their right to collective bargaining, those benefits wont last long."Very fine article, Unagidon. I agree with the first sentence I've pasted here. The second is a rather breathtaking prediction for which no evidence is brought forward. I'm wondering if any exists. My own opinion is that wages (which includes benefits such as healthcare benefits and retirement) are "sticky downward"; once won, it is difficult for them to deteriorate materially.The way the labor market corrects above-market wages in a union shop is an incredibly lengthy and painful process for all concerned: over time, the employer loses market share to competitors who aren't saddled with an above-market wage structure. As the employer shrinks, it lays off workers in order to protect the wages of more senior union members. Given a long enough time horizon, the firm will go out of business and all of the union jobs will cease to exist. In the end, a very wide population: the workers, the owners and investors, the firm's customers, its suppliers, and the families and community that relied on it, all lose.Cf. the steel industry in the US for an example. The unionized portion of the auto assembly industry in the US hasn't made it all the way through the process, and the Obama Administration's bailout of two of the three firms has delayed the inevitable, but it is pretty far along the path.We don't know yet how the endgame plays out in the public sector, but we will learn by observing the experimentation in states that are saddled with enormous debt. One possibility is bankruptcy court, in which case, I believe, union protections are diminished. Another is what is being pursued in Wisconsin and, with variations, in other states: confront the unions to get them to accept lesser wages or forgo other perks and amenities. A third possibility is what is being pursued by more union-friendly (and -supported) administrations in California, Illinois and New York - essentially, raise taxes on all citizens in order to keep union packages intact. The second and third possibilities are vulnerable to political correction: the administrations that are proposing them can be removed by voters in the next election. So, in a sense, the people can choose which course they prefer. The people will ultimately determine whether or not the relationship between their elected governments and public sector unions are in balance.What seems to be beyond the scope of this article, but which I'd like to see addressed, by Commonweal or elsewhere, is whether it is just and right for the people - the voters - to determine the nature and extent of the government-union relationship. That is precisely what is happening in Wisconsin: the administration elected by the people is executing the program it promised during the election campaign (and against which the public unions unsuccessfully campaigned). In a conflict between citizens and unions, whose rights prevail?
What Bob Nunz said!
Jim P. "the administration elected by the people is executing the program it promised during the election campaign (and against which the public unions unsuccessfully campaigned). 'I asked on other posts if anyone has a source showing that Gov. Walker campaigned on ending collective bargaining for public worker unions. Not controlling worker costs but ending collective bargaining. Any sources?
"As the employer shrinks, it lays off workers in order to protect the wages of more senior union members. Given a long enough time horizon, the firm will"Jim P. --Where is your data for this claim? There are unions which have been around for generations.You seem to view the economic system as a sort of set of absolutes in which certain variables don't change in response to changes in other variables. This does seem to allow for some long term predictability, but, unfortunately, there is no such thing as long term predictability in economics. An economic system is like baseball. There are some constants, e.g., the bases are always a certain distance apart. But that won't tell you who makes it to home plate or how many times. There are some unions that have been around for generations. And it looks like Ford at least will be too. You can't eliminate the action of the government in all these situations as part of the plot, It too is a player if we choose it to be, and some of us think that's a very good thing, or can be.
OOOPS --- the end was left out: Should be:"As the employer shrinks, it lays off workers in order to protect the wages of more senior union members. Given a long enough time horizon, the firm will go out of business and all of the union jobs will cease to exist."
Ann, I provided the example of the US steel industry. There are tens of thousands of jobs in the Chicago area that no longer exist because firms here have exited the business, either completely or have moved their production elsewhere.Economic systems are systems of human behavior. As such, they are never completely predictable, yet they are governed by rules (laws) of human nature and human behavior that do generally apply and provide good predictive guidelines. "People are greedy", "People are short-sighted", "People act on available information" - these are truths of human nature that explain economic behavior. We ignore human behavior at our peril. It would be good for unions and their members if employers didn't move production offshore, or if customers didn't drop US-based vendors in favor of foreign vendors with lower wage structures and thus lower prices, but there are compelling human motives that make these things happen. This is why union representation of the US work force has shrunk from 36% to about 1/3 of that amount - and this despite the robust growth of union representation in the public sector - in the space of about two generations. The economic ground has shifted under their feet.
"I asked on other posts if anyone has a source showing that Gov. Walker campaigned on ending collective bargaining for public worker unions. Not controlling worker costs but ending collective bargaining. Any sources?"Hi, Ed, here is some campaign boilerplate/blather that set the stage for what is now transpiring: http://www.scottwalker.org/issues/government-reformUnions had no doubt as to what this all meant - not only because they can read the code as well as the next person, but because Walker already had a track record for it as county executive of Milwaukee County. Unions weren't caught napping. They campaigned vigorously for his opponent.
Today's political cartoon in the NM paper:-panel 1 -soda bottle:"COKE the soft drink"panel 2 -black lumps:"COKE the derivative of coal"panel 3: -white powder: "COKE, cocaine"final panel :two pudgy middle age dwhite guys: "KOCH, the brothers; owners of a poodle named Walker in Wisconsin"
"This is why union representation of the US work force has shrunk from 36% to about 1/3 of that amount ..."Jim,The same way can apply to private corporations. Yet they have not shrunk. Secondly, the American middle class thought they had graduated to a place where they could expect fair treatment and stopped supporting unions. Further it is easier to reconstruct a company and lay off people than it is to dismantle an education system which covers the whole town, city or state. Governors, like the one in Wisconsin, are beholden to the 5% who have amassed riches and control. Perhaps after this the middle class will get it. The wealthy have always depended on the middle class to blame the poor rather than the unfair system. The irony is the Governor is not going after the police and fire forces which have the fattest salaries and pensions. After all who would pursue the fleeing democrats?
Jim. P. as I expected your citation of Walkers campaign platform not only does not mention ending collective bargaining and it does not even mention downsizing union wages and benefits. We all know that union has agreed to cuts in benefits and wage increases.You claim that 'it's in code'.. how silly! Let me state without 'code', Walker will lose and so will the Repub. TP agenda nationally.
Jim: For me, even if a majority of the people wanted to eliminate unions, that still wouldn't make it right. But there is a Rasmussen poll that shows a majority of Wisconsin residents in fact support the workers collective bargaining rights. (And interestingly, of those with children in the public school system, 58% think its good that most teachers are in a union). So, Governor Walker is NOT carrying out the will of the people in his current effortshttp://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_state_su...
Irene --Thanks for the figures. That parents strongly support the teachers' union is most significant. According to the Walkerites the very opposite should be true. Nothing like word from the trenches.
Irene - if those numbers are maintained, then presumably he will lose the next election.Ed - you're welcome not to believe me. I don't live in Wisconsin, just reporting what I've read.
I'm not sure I understand what are (is) a "meme." I'm not really convinced it's all that important.This is what I know: I grew up in a union family. If it hadn't been for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the United Mine Workers and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, my family would have starved to death in the last century.Because of the prosperity and protections that unions afforded my family, I personally have received a fabulous education that allows me today to enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle and professional life.Despite being widowed when my siblings and I were teenagers, my mother was able to pay-off our modest home, educate her children (in Catholic schools no less!), and enjoyed healthcare insurance until she died. All of this because of benefits fought for by unions contained within the Railroad Retirement Act passed under the New Deal in 1934.Starting when Ronald Reagan was their front man, corporate goons have been waging war on the middle class with growing intensity for the past thirty years. Scott Walker in Wisconsin is just the latest of their henchmen to attempt to drive a dagger through the heart of the working and middle classes with his shameless attempt to neuter public worker unions by denying them collective bargaining rights.After their gambling casino on Wall Street went belly-up, bringing the American economy to its knees, holding a gun to the heads of the American middle and working classes, financial and corporate interests insisted that their profits be "privatized" while their loses were "socialized," leaving the American people in a deep financial hole, to dig out of on our own.To paraphrase Michael Moore, AMERICA IS BROKE! It's a LIE! It's just that the monied elites and corporate oligarchs are not paying their fair share.And the sounds coming out of Wisconsin indicate middle and working class people have finally caught on to the scam. And we have had enough!There is nothing wrong with Social Security that taxing incomes (means testing) over $100,000 wont cure.Restore the pre-Reagan tax rates and our deficits will abate to normal levels.Reinstitute tariffs, as was the policy starting with George Washington and Alexander Hamilton until Reagan, which built the richest economy the world has ever known, so that countries like China are no longer eating our lunch. Let's protect the life and work of Americans first.The American economy should undergo a green transformation: broader and deeper education for everyone, greater innovation, cleaner technology.And no more blood for oil! (And, while we're at it, all the top income brackets who made out like bandits under G. W. Bush, should pay a surtax to pay off the debt from Iraq and Afghanistan).Let's begin the resurgence of the middle and working classes: RECALL the corporate stooges starting with Gov. Scott Walker. Sorry, I don't know what a "meme" is!
I mistyped: America is NOT broke!
I mistyped: America being broke is a lie!Sorry for the edits.
Jim j. ==What you said, except what you said about tariffs.Here are some definitions of "meme". It is really a very useful concept, I find.Macmillan dictionary: noun: a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means (as by imitation) ("Memes are the cultrual counterpart of genes")Miriam Webster: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a cultureWebster's a unit of cultural information, as a concept, belief, or practice, that spreads from person to person in a way analogous to the transmission of genes.
P. S. Here's a really great site. You can look up a word or phrase and it will give you dozens of definitions from a treasure trove of different dictionaries.http://www.yourdictionary.com/meme
Jim P. =Yes, you provided one example of a union that eventually failed. But your claim is about all (or most?) unions. I think the facts are on my side.You say that, "Economic systems are systems of human behavior. As such, they are never completely predictable, yet they are governed by rules (laws) of human nature and human behavior that do generally apply and provide good predictive guidelines. People are greedy, People are short-sighted, People act on available information"But those are generalizations that are oversimplifications. They aren't "laws" because there are too many exceptions, and as long as we have free will they aren[t going to be laws.To blame the very nature of unions themselves on the plight of union members and the public, especially with respect to the schools, is to oversimplify the forces operating in the economic system and the school system. You yourself say that "the ground has shifted", including strong forces from outside of our govermental and economic systems. To reduce our problem to one intrinsic factor is just too simple.
We are often warned about the allegedly insidious phenomenon of creeping infallibility. By the same token, the multiplication of rights may also be something to worry about. If government workers have collective bargaining rights, is it also the case that citizens have equally compelling rights which at least occasionally may be in conflict with public unions? Or should we limit the scope of democratic government and hand over decisions to lawyers, courts and arbitrators. For that matter, as long as we are attributing rights to groups, why not recognized the rights of merchants to form cartels (to avoid unnecessary and wasteful competition and to protect consumers interests, of course). The merchant guilds of old are an attractive model to many. After we have organized all possible groups and given them their rights we can then address the problem of the long-term unemployed in a sinking economy.
Bob N. --What would you say are some of the memes in the Catholic Church?
The other thing I was wondering about, people like to make a distinction that for some reason public workers don't need to organize because their "boss" is the taxpayer. I don't really see that, but if the "taxpayer-bosses" are ready to cut workers pay and benefits just to save a couple of bucks in their annual taxes, how does that make them different from any other boss who puts financial self-interest ahead of the well-being of the workers? In that case, seems like public workers have just as much reason to organize as coalminers and farmworkers.
"Yes, you provided one example of a union that eventually failed"Ann - I provided an example of an entire *industry* (at least in the US) that failed.
Hi AnnHow about starting with "distinctive Catholicism" or "Muscular or Robust Christianity (Catholicism)"?Or various forms of continuation of VII?
"Yes, you provided one example of a union that eventually failedAnn I provided an example of an entire *industry* (at least in the US) that failed."So what? What about all the other industries -- and their unions -- that did not go under? The point was that you said according to your theory they would *all* fail.
Bob N. --I think I might understand "distinctive Catholicism", but I"m not sure. It seems to be a new phrase for (self-claimed) "orthodox Catholicism". But I don't understand "Muscular Christianity" at all.The thing about memes is that, like genes, you don't find all memes in all segments of a culture. So even within a broad culture people can be alienated from each other because, say, ethnic subcultures are very different in some ways. There are different sorts of memes. Paczkis and donuts, for instance. Some are found among children. It used to be that many, many children in New Orleans believed that there were packs of wild dogs in City Park. Sort of like the Yetti in the Himalayas, I guess, or the loup-garous in France. There are memes that link religion and politics, too. In south Louisiana some people used to have little shrines to Huey Long in their houses, complete with a picture of him and a votive candle in front of it.By the way, the concept of a meme and the word for it were invented rather recently by that great geneticist -- and atheist, Richard Dawkins, but that doesn't stop the concept from being a very useful one. It helps to explain how we establish our in-groups and out-groups, groups both large and small.
"The other thing I was wondering about, people like to make a distinction that for some reason public workers dont need to organize because their boss is the taxpayer. I dont really see that, but if the taxpayer-bosses are ready to cut workers pay and benefits just to save a couple of bucks in their annual taxes, how does that make them different from any other boss who puts financial self-interest ahead of the well-being of the workers? In that case, seems like public workers have just as much reason to organize as coalminers and farmworkers."Hi, Irene, shouldn't government operate in the interest of the taxpayers and other citizens? In other words, isn't government of the people, by the people, for the people?If government operates in the interest of, say, KBR or Blackwater, instead of the interest of the people, wouldn't we rightly object that a special interest group is distorting or corrupting for its own ends government's legitimate function?For purposes of this discussion, public-sector unions look, walk and quack an awful lot like a special interest group. They donate money to politicians and other political organizations like think tanks; they lobby; they do whatever they legally can to influence government to operate in their interest.
"Hi, Irene, shouldnt government operate in the interest of the taxpayers and other citizens?"Yes, but, "operating in the interest of the taxpayers" is not synonymous with "doing the right thing". The interest of the taxpayers might be to try to get the desired services by paying as little as possible for them. A boss is a boss is a boss, whether the boss is the State of Wisconsin or Massey Energy. I believe in either case, workers have a right to organize themselves to fight for better wages and working conditions then the boss might agree to on its own steam. But, Jim, your original question was "In a conflict between citizens and unions, whose rights prevail?". No such conflict exists in this case. A clear majority of citizens in Wisconsin support the workers bargaining rights; so it is Governor Walker, not the unions, who is going against the will of the people there.
Irene - if a poll next month shows that a clear minority of the citizens of Wisconsin support the workers' bargaining rights, does that mean the Governor Walker is vindicated?The only poll that counts in politics is the one that counts votes. The unions had their shot at Governor Walker last November and failed to make their case. Presumably they'll get another shot in four years.
"A boss is a boss is a boss, whether the boss is the State of Wisconsin or Massey Energy. I believe in either case, workers have a right to organize themselves to fight for better wages and working conditions then the boss might agree to on its own steam."Actually, the State of Wisconsin is not, in most cases, the boss. That misunderstanding (or deception) is a big part of the general confusion on what is going on there.
I wrote: "Actually, the State of Wisconsin is not, in most cases, the boss. That misunderstanding (or deception) is a big part of the general confusion on what is going on there."I meant to add: the 'boss' in most cases is the local government entity (the school board, the municipality, the county agency) with which the local bargaining unit collectively bargains.The state's role is to determine, via state laws and regulations, what is in-scope or out-of-scope for collective bargaining. For some perspective, teachers' unions, like other special interest groups, have gone to state houses many times over the years to tinker with those scopes in ways that favor them. This is why the "concessions" by state labor leaders to the governor's wage, pension and healthcare demands aren't worth the air expended from their lungs to make them. Public unions don't determine those matters at a state level. They're determined individually, local by local and municipality by municipality.
Heres a little muscular Christianity for you: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LjvVcxYgog4/TWpt_qzZFdI/AAAAAAAAFK8/s... that doesnt lead you to the cartoon in question, go to this blogsite and you should be able to see it: http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-on-newt.html
Thanks, Jimmy Mac. I get it. I wonder why people conflate politics and religion? Maybe it's that inclination to heroes again. People who are both good and very decisive are a twofer, I suppose. That's certainly the image Reagan projected.
Not sure if anyone is still reading here, but Wisconsin is now on the move: the Wisconsin Senate has passed the non-appropriations part of the bill, including the part that curtails most collective-bargaining rights for public employees. The Assembly is expected to follow suit, perhaps as early as today.Ohio is not far behind.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870462910457619100389001401...
Some perceptive commentary on Wisconsin: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/261815/what-s-next-wisconsin-josh-b...


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The CWC girls basketball team picked up its second Black Diamond Conference win in three days with a 37-28 victory at home Monday night over Johnston City.
Briley Attebury led the way with 10 points, 11 rebounds and a steal.
Other contributors were Emma Bachman with nine points, four rebounds and four steals, Jerrica Money with seven points, Kelsey Rogers with five points, two assists, four rebounds and two steals, Sydney Clark with three points and three rebounds and Briley Tolley with three points.
The junior varsity team picked up a 26-8 win over Johnston City.
The girls will play at Eldorado on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Location, ST | website.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Kid In A Candy StoreWritten by on November 21, 2005 A Collection Of Heartland Hot Rods And Customs.
Three days, 3,000 cars, one camera. You can see the dilemma. Hiking around the Goodguys Heartland Nationals at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, soaking in some of mid-America's finest iron is like being a kid in a candy store--but it's like being a kid with only enough money for a few treats. Hot rodding is huge in the heartland and Goodguys Des Moines is one of the best places for seeing them. Picking the sweetest is a tough job.
R&C hasn't attended this event since the 20th century, so there was a lot of catching up to do. In addition to all the new rods and customs present, there were cars familiar to Midwesterners that were brand-new to us. A 100-yard trek along the main drag of the show, or down one of the tree-lined side streets, or around the numerous Pros Picks corrals could take an hour or longer. Checking out every car on the grounds--that was pretty much impossible. But we had a ball looking at as many as we could, visiting the vendors, and hanging out at the after-hours parties. When it was all over, we had the further challenge of selecting a handful of the rods and customs at Des Moines to share with you. Here are some of our favorites.
Rod & Custom Top Ten
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
Eric and Katherine Yohe are close to finishing their '61 Biscayne project. Until the 350 small-block gets cleaned up, we'll just be impressed by the gold paint with early '60s-style scallops and pinstriping, bullet grille, spots, five-spoke Americans, and white tuck 'n' roll.The whole place was buzzing about Tom Wahl's owner-designed-and-built '51 Ford woodie. Tom was still working to get the wood mounted on the original body only one week earlier. Subtle touches include the curved windshield, 2-inch chop, and recessed Continental spare. The '51 dash was modified and the original gauges were rebuilt with new workings. Drivetrain includes an LS1 and 4L60E trans.That open hood provides a peek at the 454 big-block that pulls Terry and Shirley Nystrom's green '56 Ford F-100 pickup, heated up with some Dave Bell flames. The truck rides on a Suburban frontend and four-bar/ coilover rear. A Franklin quick-change, '48 taillights, '60 Impala wheels, and Moon gauges are other cool modifications. The upholstery is two-tone brown tuck 'n' roll.Talk about hot rod history! Former Midget and Sprint Car racer Doc Parsons has been collecting parts for his '23 T roadster since 1959. The Offy Flathead's block assembly was in Calvin Rice's car when he won the first NHRA Nats in 1955. In 1962, Stu Hilborn gave Doc the intake he'd been running on his lakes car. The wheels and knockoffs, front hubs, and quick-change were given by Ted Halibrand. That's Doc's wife Suzy next to him.You can't beat the overall eye-appeal of Ken Barnhart's traditionally styled, full-fendered, original-steel Deuce roadster, built at Ken's Street Rod Repair in Rockford, IL. Those American Racing Salt Flat Specials and knockoffs look great with the green paint. Lift the hood and there's the 350 GM Ram Jet with a custom injection setup and Moon valve covers.Nineteen-year-old Derick Samson made a big splash in '04 with his '62 Chevy wagon. This year he's drawing attention with this topless, Galapagos green Bel Air with '50 Chevy gauges, Sunfire seats, and a '50 dash lengthened 8 inches and widened 5. The engine is a Chevy small-block. Derick did all the work himself and is shooting for the Goodguys' Custom Rod of the Year prize.Jeff Sharer definitely went in a different direction with his '36 Plymouth. It was already a highboy when he bought it. He pinched the front 8 inches and added the '39 LaSalle grille, stretched the wheelbase 14 inches, and punched 253 louvers in the deck. James Crawford provided the pinstriping. A crate 350 with three twos, and a TH350 tranny spins the gears in a Winters quick-change.George Poteet's '40 Ford truck, built by Dave Lane at Fastlane Rod Shop, has been causing a commotion all over the place this year. The knockout pickup is finished in gold paint with just the right amount of pinstriping. Under the hood, there's a 385-horse 350 small-block, hooked to a Tremec five-speed. White leather tuck 'n' roll and an elegantly cool dash complete the whole picture.
Bob and Mary Mitchell's '32 coupe mixes high-end touches (Italian leather interior) and old-time traditional inspiration (stance, Moon tank), and combines the look of a race car (SO-CAL-inspired paint) with street stuff (full fenders), and makes it all work. Ron Kester built the car, starting with an original body and frame. The 327 runs Enderle stacks converted to EFI.For many people, a black, slammed, chopped '50 Merc is the ultimate custom. David Wolk from Leavenworth, KS, built this specimen in 18 months, customizing it with '64 Impala seats, '56 Olds dash, Corvette steering wheel, 16-inch Halibrands, and machine-turned interior panels and firewall. Mechanical mods include a small-block with a five-speed, and four-wheel discs.It's been around a few years, but Randy Wilcox is starting to put some miles on his Troy Trepanier-built '62 Cadillac. The 500ci Caddy mill runs the first set of aluminum heads built for this application by Bulldog Performance. An Air Ride suspension drops the body over the one-off Billet Specialties wheels.This '36 three-window, powered by a full-race Flattie and three-speed, was Tom Satterfield's high school shop class project. He probably got an A for the torque tube rearend, '40 Ford hydraulic rear brakes with '53 F-100 front drums, red and white interior, and spun aluminum wheel covers. Tom graduated 30 years ago, but he drove the coupe to his reunion.Rudy Ruedisueli thought the new Firestone dirt track rubber from Coker might make for a rough ride on the road trip to Des Moines, but they rode great. His flat-black roadster, running a 350/350 combination, recently got some new graphics, rims, and Josh Shaw 'striping.If Watson-esque is a word, then it could be used to describe this purple and silver '56 Chevy 210 hardtop, owned by George Duryea from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. George shaved the handles and custom-fabricated a grille, but kept the side trim and hood ornament. The engine/trans combo is a reliable Chevy 350 and 700-R4 automatic.The guys from Meguiars picked Seth Wagner's orange and champagne '50 Ford for the Magnificent Masterpiece prize. Tony Nardi built the coupe, which features a blown Ford Motorsport 351, Tremec five-speed, and 9-inch rear, as well as five-spokes from Billet Specialties, and some wild paint.A dropped posture, some nice dark green and tan paint, Boyd Coddington wheels, updated custom interior, and just the right amount of sheetmetal shaving does a lot for the looks of Bob Moore's '55 Chevy, which sits in the perfect position between resto and overdone. An LT1 engine with a 700-R4 trans move the clean '55 along.
Randy Wilcox's new ride is this '59 Cadillac, kept close to stock, right down to the 390 with the original Hydramatic trans. The obvious departure is the 2-inch drop and some 18-inch Intro wheels with Pirelli meats. Randy bought the car from the original owner, with 27,000 miles on the odometer and every oil change sticker still in the doorjamb.James and Michelle Wolk treated their '37 Ford to a bunch of custom modifications, including a custom convertible top, '39 Merc bumpers, VW taillights, and leather buckets inside. The black and charcoal paint is separated by subtle red 'striping. The small-block-powered ragtop has been on the road for 12 years.This '29 highboy Tudor started out as a complete, all-original barn car. Rich Holte turned it into a gorgeous hot rod, riding on Deuce 'rails and powered by a 331 Hemi with quadruple Strombergs, and a 727 Torqueflite. It was a Rodder's Rep Pick in Des Moines, and an R&C cover car in the July issue.The Goodguys Street Sweeper award went to Gary Garnick's on-the-ground, chopped '50 Merc, stuffed with a Flathead motor and punched with 192 hood louvers (if we counted right). Gary loaded his custom with all the mods a traditional leadsled should have.


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Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. The majority of colorectal cancers arise from adenomatous polyps, which can be detected with screening colonoscopy. Previously, the investigators of the National Polyp Study (NPS), found that colorectal cancer can be prevented by colonoscopic removal of adenomatous polyps. However, it has been unclear if the cancers prevented were those that had the potential to cause death. Recently, Zauber and colleagues reported* the effect of colonoscopic polypectomy on mortality from colorectal cancer. The researchers conducted a long-term prospective study of the NPS cohort of patients to determine the mortality among patients with adenomas removed compared with the expected mortality from colorectal cancer in the general population. The death rate of patients with adenomas was also compared with an internal control group of patients with nonadenomatous polyps. Among 2,602 patients who had adenomas removed, 12 died from colorectal cancer over a median period 15.8 years, compared with 25 expected deaths in the general population, suggesting a 53% reduction in mortality. Mortality from colorectal cancer among patients with adenomatous polyps was similar to those with nonadenomatous during the first 10 years after polypectomy. Thereafter, mortality increased for patients with adenomas, when strict surveillance was not organized by the study's investigators. The researchers concede several limitations of the study. A small number of skilled endoscopists performed the colonoscopies, thus the observations may not be applicable to a community practice, for which the reported rates of colorectal cancer after polypectomy are higher than those reported in the NPS. The results of the study may not be representative of the general population, since the study was not a randomized, controlled trial. In conclusion, the study's findings further support the belief that colonoscopic removal of adenomatous polyps prevents colorectal cancer death. The results also underscore the importance of longterm-term surveillance for patients after the initial removal of adenomatous polyps. More randomized, population-based trials are necessary to determine the effectiveness of screening colonoscopy on colorectal cancer mortality.
Zauber AG, et al. Colonoscopic Polypectomy and Long-Term Prevention of Colorectal-Cancer Deaths. N Engl J Med 2012;366:687-96.
Bretthauer M, Kalager M. Colonoscopy as a triage screening test. N Engl J Med 2012;366:759-60.


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text:
As a recent graduate or a professional seeking advancement, Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) knows you manage many responsibilities each day.
That is why the online M.B.A. and RN-B.S. programs at DWU were designed to blend into your existing schedule.
The greatest benefit of taking online courses from DWU is the flexibility. When and how long you log on is completely up to you. You can choose to log in for five minutes to check messages before work or wait and devote a few hours after the kids go to sleep.
Online courses at DWU were designed to alleviate several other concerns associated with returning to the classroom. You don't need to commute or take night classes. You can edit answers before clicking submit; analyze and even research another student's response before contributing your own. In online courses you don't need to be nervous about interacting with a professor face-to-face.
Our online professors empathize with students balancing busy lives. Like you, they juggle the online program in addition to other professional responsibilities. Our professors were selected to teach these courses for their professional and academic achievements, but they were also chosen due to their ability to motivate and support students.
When thinking about how an online degree might fit into your long-term schedule, know that the decision to take one or two courses each eight-week session is also yours. If you enroll and you need a break, take a semester or more off without any repercussions.
We give credit for hard work, too. Applicants to the RN-B.S. program can receive credit toward their degree for hours worked up to 12 credits or 1,500 hours. If you are interested in our RN-B.S. program, please contact us to request more information.


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Kori Morishita
this wiki
"Choose, choose, choose! All my life, people have been asking me to choose! I am an earthbender and a Fire Nation citizen, and I live in Yu Dao! That's what I choose! "
|Kori Morishita
|Biographical information
|Physical description
|Personal information
|Chronological and political information
|Image gallery (9)
Early life
Kori was born to Mayor Morishita and his wife in the Fire Nation colony of Yu Dao, and was raised to honor both the Fire Nation Royal Family and her hometown. During her youth, she was given some form of earthbending training as well as additional weapons training, where she learned to use a meteor hammer.[3] In early 100 AG, she met Sneers, a former Earth Kingdom rebel who had traveled to Yu Dao after the dissolution of his group, and the two of them fell in love and began a romantic relationship.[4]
Harmony Restoration Movement
In 101 AG, Yu Dao started to see the effects of the Harmony Restoration Movement. Kori began feeling resentful toward the Fire Lord, thinking that he had betrayed his people. She arrived at the Fire Nation Capital and sneaked into the Royal Palace with the intent of killing Fire Lord Zuko.
While Kori succeeded in incapacitating the guards, Zuko proved to be too much for her and she was captured. Zuko began interrogating her and brought her back to Yu Dao, where he met her father, Mayor Morishita, and her earthbender mother. Initially, Zuko attempted to persuade Kori and her family to return to the Fire Nation; however, Kori, her parents, and a closer look at the life of Yu Dao convinced Zuko that the Fire Nation colonies should stay.[3]
Zuko's decision to withdraw his support for the Harmony Restoration Movement, however, made the tensions rise outside the gates of Yu Dao, and Kori organized her cousins, both earthbenders and firebenders, to train for battle.
Some time after the Freedom Fighters' arrival in Yu Dao, Kori and Sneers' romance became strained after Kori learned that Sneers had become one of the leading protesters outside the gates of Yu Dao. When Sneers said that it was time for Kori to choose a side, the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation, she stated that she had already chosen, namely to be an earthbending Fire Nation citizen who lived in Yu Dao. As she walked away from Sneers, she left him with an ultimatum: fight for her colony's right to stay in the Earth Kingdom, or side with Smellerbee and break off their relationship.[1]
Kori continued her relationship with Sneers after he chose to side with the Yu Dao Resistance. When Aang and Katara returned to Yu Dao to urge the colonials to evacuate, Kori, together with other members of the Resistance, attacked them with an assortment of weapons, assuming that they had arrived to force them from their homes. Aang proceeded to inform them of the true reason for their arrival, but Kori was undeterred, and boasted that they could handle the Freedom Fighters. However, when Aang revealed that the Earth King and his army were marching toward Yu Dao, she attempted to persuade Aang to help them fight the Earth King, albeit unsuccessfully. As a last resort, Kori introduced the Avatar to the Yu Dao Chapter of the Official Avatar Aang Fan Club, but her plan backfired, as the fangirls' activities only further solidified Aang's opinion that the Yu Dao colonials needed to be removed.
When the Freedom Fighters breached the wall with a drilling machine, Sneers reluctantly introduced Kori to Smellerbee. Attempts to reason with the Freedom Fighters ended in failure, as a skirmish ensued between the Yu Dao Resistance and the Freedom Fighters. At the same time, the armies of both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation arrived and started to battle. General How entered the town gates and demanded the colonials surrender. Kori refused to cooperate and threw her meteor hammer at him, only for her opponent to shatter it. The battle ended when Aang entered the Avatar State, used earthbending to uplift Yu Dao from the battle, saved Fire Lord Zuko, and managed to reason with the Earth King to spare Yu Dao.[4]
Forming a new government
After the solution of the escalating crisis and an agreement between Zuko and Earth King Kuei, Kori attended a meeting in the governor's place of Yu Dao, together with Sneers, her family, Avatar Aang, Zuko, and other dignitaries to discuss the future of the city.[5]
Eventually, it was decided to let the inhabitants of Yu Dao elect a new coalition government in 102 AG. Kori happily announced the results of this election at the city's palace, presenting both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation representatives to the assembled crowd.[6]
Kori was shown to be headstrong and "rash", according to her father. While usually tame, Kori was fiercely defensive of her homeland of Yu Dao, going as far as to attempt an assassination on the Fire Lord to protect the interests of her home.[3]
Kori trained and practiced her abilities a great degree throughout her childhood, becoming a skilled earthbender. She combined her bending skills with her earthen meteor hammer, using her ability to control the directions of the attack, thus making her a greater threat.[3]
Kori was shown to be close with each of her parents, as they were both worried when she went missing.[3] She also had a romantic relationship with Sneers.[1]
|Mrs. Morishita
Graphic novel trilogies
- The Promise
- The Search (no lines)
- The Rift
- Kori is the first chronologically mentioned child of a multicultural family in the World of Avatar.
- Kori's attire, composed of the colors red and green, reflected her mixed heritage.
- Kori had at least five cousins, of whom two were firebenders and three were earthbenders.
- "Kori" means daughter in Greek.


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I am very excited to welcome, Ian Fyfe to the Pentaho team as our Chief Technology Evangelist. Ian recently joined us after spending six years at Jaspersoft as their senior director of product management and product marketing. However, I know him best from working with him several years ago at an executive information systems start-up that he co-found called Intelligent Office Company (IOC, Inc). Ian's knowledge of the industry, proven leadership skills, and existing relationships with the executive team are a home run for Pentaho. I like to welcome and introduce all new team members on the blog by asking the same question, "What brought you to Pentaho?" Welcome Ian!
Guest Blogger: Ian Fyfe
There are a number of things that brought me to Pentaho, including great people and great products, but perhaps one of the most compelling was the opportunity to work with the founding principals of the company again (Richard Daley-CEO, James Dixon-CTO, Marc Batchelor- Chief Engineer, and Doug Moran-VP Community), having worked with them several years ago at an earlier software startup. Coming to Pentaho in some ways brings me full-circle, back to working with this group of extremely talented, innovative, and motivated individuals and helping take the extraordinary company they have built to the next level through a continuation of its high growth in customers, community, and capabilities. Even better, Pentaho has emerged from the swamps of Florida to establish their sales headquarters in downtown San Francisco, the northern anchor of California's Silicon Valley, and my longtime hometown.
Through my long career in Business Intelligence and related technologies, I've been fortunate to work at a number of venture-backed startups such as Jaspersoft and Epiphany, as well as more mature larger enterprise software business such as Business Objects, Informix, and PeopleSoft. I've worked closely with sales, marketing, and engineering, and have become fluent at real-time, bi-directional "translation" between these constituencies, enabling me to bridge the gap between understanding market requirements and customer problems, deriving the products and features to meet those requirements, and marketing and selling the resulting products. From these experiences I've learned well the ingredients critical to success are a modern and well architected product, smart and motivated people, and a high growth or rapidly changing market with unmet requirements. Pentaho truly has it all, and sits at the confluence of the BI market which continues year after year to be at or near the top of the list of CIO spending priorities, and the spectacular growth and mainstream acceptance of commercial open source technology.
I'm excited by my new position at Pentaho as the Chief Technology Evangelist, which builds solidly on my prior experiences, while also introducing the welcome challenge of a new role. As one of Pentaho's primary spokespeople I'm looking forward to communicating and interacting with you through events such as talks, webinars, articles, demonstrations, briefings, and social media.
Ian Fyfe
Chief Product Evangelist
Pentaho Corporation


text:
Archive for the 'galaxy note 10.1 hd' tag
Leak suggests Samsung is working on two iPad-demolishing tablets with high resolution displays and more
Samsung SM-P900: 12.2-inch, Exynos 5 octa, 2560×1600, S-pen; P600: 10-inch, Snapdragon 800, also 2560×1600
— @evleaks (@evleaks) July 27, 2013
Samsung's latest generation of tablets, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 line has undoubtedly failed to impress. Equipped with low resolution screens, slow processors and other features that can not compare to competitors' offerings, everyone only assumed that Samsung was shooting themselves in the foot, but it seems that was not the case. According to some new leaks, Samsung is working on a set of tablets that are sure to knock the Apple iPad's shoes off.


text:
STEUBENVILLE - Ashley Dawn Cross and William Evan DeGarmo were united in marriage Aug. 17 during a 5:30 p.m. service at Holy Family Church officiated by Monsignor Gerald Calovini.
The bride, the daughter of Roberta Cross of Toronto and Timothy Cross of Follansbee, was escorted to the altar by her father. She wore a one-shoulder taffeta ballgown featuring ruched pick-ups with an asymmetric draped bodice embellished with beaded flowers, metallic embroidery and pearl accents.
The groom is the son of Charles and Suzanne DeGarmo of Wellsburg.
Article Photos
Mr. and Mrs. William DeGarmo
Darcy DeGarmo of Wellsburg, sister-in-law of the groom, and Brittney Yoklic of Weirton served as matrons of honor. Bridemaids were Mackenzie Boyd, cousin of the bride; Hope Nicholson; Jen Cline; and Erica Wetherell and Emily Guerriro, sisters of the groom.
Adam DeGarmo of Wellsburg served as his brother's best man. Groomsmen were Anthony Cross and Brandon Cross, brothers of the bride; Eric Smail of Follansbee; Chase DeGarmo, brother of the groom; Patrick Donley of Wellsburg; Andrew Mazella of Beech Bottom; and Shane Wetherell and Chris Guerriero, brothers-in-law of the groom.
Camryn Truemper, cousin of the bride, and Madison DeGarmo, niece of the groom, served as flower girls.
Carson Truemper, cousin of the bride, was the ring bearer.
A reception was held in Holy Family church's Malara Hall. The couple took a wedding trip to Wilmington, N.C.
The bride earned an associate degree in applied science from Eastern Gateway Community College and is an expanded function dental assistant in Oakland, Pa.
The groom's education includes Wyoming Technical Institute in mechanics and an associate degree in business. He is an ASE certified mechanic at Lyle's Auto in Follansbee.
The couple live in Mingo Junction.


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CHARLESTON - State championship dreams remain alive today for 15 Ohio Valley netters as the West Virginia High School Tennis Championships enter Day 2 at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Complex.
Madonna's Nick Conforti put the finishing touches on an 8-1 triumph against Bridgeport's Cam Horner in a No. 1 Singles quarterfinal. Conforti, now 23-0 this season, will battle Charleston Catholic's Mark Cassis in one of two semifinals today.
Conforti edged Scott's Caleb Starkey, 8-6, in the first round.
Article Photos
STATE TENNIS — Weirton Madonna's Nick Conforti hits a shot during their wins Thursday in the West Virginia Class AA-A state tennis tournament.
-- Rick Thorp
COURT ACTION — Oak Glen's Abbi Sayre in action Thursday.
-- Rick Thorp
Nick Conforti's brother, Matt, will face Charleston Catholic's Scott Standish today after besting Petersburg's Ankur Makani in a No. 2 Singles quarterfinal.
Also, the Confortis will team for No. 1 Doubles today.
Madonna's Ali Welch lost to Poca's Courtney Mobley, 9-7, at No. 2 Singles.
All of the area's Class AAA entrants were eliminated Thursday.
Wheeling Central's Joanna Capito will face Charleston Catholic's Claire Hamilton in a No. 1 Singles semifinal after topping Grafton's Hailey Rogers, 9-7, in a thriller Wednesday.
Capito trailed 6-4 and 7-6 before rallying.
"She was down and she just fought back," an elated Wheeling Central coach Peggy Dailer said. "She really put it all on the line. She wanted to be all-state again and she went ahead at the end and did it."
Capito topped Chapmanville's Natasha Williams in their tourney opener.
"She will have her hands full (today), but I'm anxious to see how (Joanna) plays against (Hamilton),'' Dailer said.
Hamilton topped Oak Glen's Haley Spurlock in the opening round.
Less than a minute after Capito's epic,
The Maroon Knights' Gus Schmidt moved on to the No. 3 Singles semis with an 8-1 victory against Wyoming East's Michael Culicerto.
Central's No. 1 Doubles duo of Jon Haley and Brett Szeligo topped St. Joe's Max Meade and Jackson Reynolds, 8-5.
Haley and Szeligo didn't fare as well at No. 1 and No. 2 Singles, respectively. Haley lost to Williamstown's Luke Flanagan, 8-4, while the Yellowjackets' Aaron Lee bested Szeligo, 8-1, at No. 2 Singles.
Opening action today will be Central's No. 2 Doubles team of Schmidt and Dan Lee and the No. 3 Doubles tandem of Ben Gordon and Billy Teufel.
Oak Glen's Abbi Sayre advanced at No. 3 Singles with an 8-0 quarterfinal win against Liberty-Raleigh's Shayla Stephens. Teammates Spurlock and Madison Juzczak defeated Chapmanville's Natasha Williams and Haley Justice, 8-0, in a No. 1 Doubles quarterfinal.
Juzczak opens play at No. 4 Singles today, as do the No. 2 and No. 3 Doubles teams of Sayre and Anna Crawford and Lauren Pizzurro and Madison Hill.
Wheeling Park's No. 1 Doubles tandem of Shaun Hunley and Mitch Baranski dropped an 8-6 verdict to Hurricane's Alex Clay and Jordan Chapman.
John Marshall's Hayden Blazer lost to Huntington's Hunter Tubert, 8-0, at No. 1 Singles. The Monarchs' Alaina Pauley also lost at No. 1 Singles, 8-0, to the Highlanders' Cassie Mercer.


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Windows 10 pain: Reg man has 75 per cent upgrade failure rate
A KMail Breakthrough.
Installing jstock with Slackware 14.1
Installing sbopkg with Slackware 14.1
Open Source Wealth Management
GNUifying Windows: Make the best of imposed Windows-use at work
Update to "How long is a piece of string?"
Don't miss our LXer Features!
Join us in Austin, TX, August 10-12, 2016, for the 25th USENIX Security Symposium! The technical sessions program will feature more than 70 refereed papers, as well as daily lightning talks, a poster session, Work-in-Progress Reports (WiPS), panels, and invited talks.


text:
Content without Borders
Ray Gallon
Technical communicators often need to break through silos in our organizations. But we also have our own silos, when it comes to content—for example, most of us think what we do has nothing to do with marketing. But even without our necessarily thinking about it, the boundaries between different kinds of content, different "information types," and different content life cycles is becoming completely permeable.
Not only that, communication that seems to come from a given source often comes from another, with a very different intention. What we now call "technical communication" might also be claimed, or repurposed, as marketing, Web content, mission statement, etc. As we move more into the post-PC, tablet-smartphone-mobile first world, these boundaries are going to disappear even more. This webinar, illustrated with real-life examples, provides a sneak peak at what this borderless future means for our profession.
Takeaways from this webinar:
- Planning for the future—what will the job entail?
- Skills we will need to develop in the future
- Profiles for success in the borderless future


text: Hello folks, I hope everyone is ready for a day full of fun because I have a bunch of lessons that I know you will all love. To start, we will first be tackling the task of learning "how to draw emo Gir", step by step. Emo Gir was actually requested by a member so I went ahead and did what I could do to make it happen. Gir will always be a character that people love because of his coolness and adorable look and personality. There really isn't too much more to say because I have done a bunch of Gir lessons in the past . All I can do is my best to show folks that drawing an emo Gir really isn't all that hard. Have fun and if there is other characters you think would make cool emo transformations, let me know. Peace out people.


text:
5 Awesome Sci-Fi Inventions (That Would Actually Suck)
Remember all those Star Trek gadgets you wished you had because they looked so cool? Well, it turns out looking cool is about all they'd be good for.
Here's five inventions that will be available some day ... even if nobody wants them.
#5. Flying Cars
As seen in:
Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Back to the Future II, Futurama, The Jetsons ... it's actually kind of difficult to list sci-fi that doesn't feature some variation of the flying car.
Why we thought we wanted them:
First, we don't mean some kind of sissy half-plane, half-car hybrid that some people will try to tell you is a flying car. No, we mean real, float off the ground, how the crap is that happening, Jetsons sort of flying cars. Admit it, when you were 7 years old, there were only two things you were sure of: Transformers fucking rule, and the future would be full of flying goddamn cars.
Of course, once you learned to drive you wanted one even more. Every time you're stuck in traffic, you can picture yourself flipping a switch and swooping into the sky, leaving those honking bastards behind. You'd fly straight to work, free as a bird.
Why we were wrong:
Well, guess what: They're not gonna let you do that. People just flying wherever the fuck they want would be a death warrant for every radio tower and power line in the country.
No, you'd have to fly according to a wussified autopilot, along pre-set pathways. Air-roads, in other words. And, once everybody has a flying car ... well, have you ever been driving to work in a city at around, oh, eight or nine in the morning? If so, you'll know exactly how bad traffic can get during rush hour. Now, imagine if there was not just one layer of cars, but there was layer after layer of flying metal death traps over top and below you.
That's not even the worst part. The many people who have tried to invent flying cars over are finding out that every single thing that's bad with cars (cost, safety, etc) is made worse when you try to make the thing fly.
For instance, no matter what kind of engine they invent, a flying car will always burn more fuel than a regular car, especially on short trips (you burn a bunch of gas trying to overcome that gravity thing on takeoff).
Even worse, even a minor crash with another flying car could send both vehicles plummeting to the ground while you scream in terror. Imagine the poor guy on the ground, sitting there at a red light, as a flaming five car pile-up is hurdling down towards him from the sky. If you're not scared yet, try to imagine what they're going to charge you in insurance premiums as a result.
#4. Jet Packs
As seen in:
The Jetsons (again), The Rocketeer, James Bond used one in Thunderball, Boba Fett... too many to count. If you've never heard about and/or purchased a toy featuring a jet pack, you are from the 1800s.
Why we thought we wanted them:
Because every single human wants the ability to fly, pretty much from birth. We're talking the ability to fly, not ride in a thing that flies.
Why we were wrong:
We're going to skip past the obvious point that the Rocketeer here would be left with charred stumps below the thigh, since that exhaust is coming out at around 2,000 degrees.
Modern jetpacks just use tanks of compressed gas that basically fart you into the air. If that sounds lame, you're right. The prototypes they have now let you fly a whole 30 seconds.
But let's assume they overcome all that and make one that actually works. All those safety issues we have with the flying cars? You've got all that, only without a car around you to protect your fragile body. The only possible method of saving your ass when you crash/fall asleep/run out of fuel is probably a parachute, which means you'd need extensive training on how to land without impaling yourself on a tree branch.
The only alternative would have to be some kind of air bag that instantly inflates around you in an emergency, letting you bounce gently to safety while you involuntarily shout, "WHEEEE!!!" The problem with that, of course, is that we'd be intentionally crashing all the time just so we can do that.
#3. Holodecks
As seen in:
Most people would know the holodeck as being an invention out of the Star Trek series, but they probably took the idea from a Ray Bradbury short story called The Veldt where a family has a holodeck that simulates an African veldt, and then are (predictably) eaten by virtual lions.
Why we thought we wanted it:
The holodeck is just big room, that can simulate any number of environments and/or experiences for the user, and can trick all five senses into believing that it's real. You don't have to hook anything up to your brain, you can walk in and out of it like any room. A room that happens to be full of ninjas and naked women and everything else you don't have in your real life.
Why we were wrong:
Of course, we here at Cracked were too busy practicing Jujitsu and working on our dragsters to watch something as geeky as Star Trek, but we do know that the dangers of a holodeck were demonstrated in Episode 234 ("A Fistful of Datas", aired November 9, 1992, Stardate 46271.5). This episode proved that if you get shot by a cowboy in the holodeck world, you really die.
Now, assuming the creators of the real holodeck are not completely retarded and they install something that makes it so the simulation cowboys do not shoot real bullets and that the veldt lions don't really eat you (both of these would seem to be first-day considerations in the design phase), there is another problem.
Imagine how you'll react if you're in your holodeck and somebody interrupts you. Say, you're halfway through your chess game with Darth Vader, when suddenly he disappears, Scarlett Johansson is no longer sitting in your lap, and pizza costs money again. You'd find the guy who turned off the machine and snap his damned neck. Dilbert creator Scott Adams jokingly points out in his book The Dilbert Future that the holodeck, "will be society's last invention." It's no joke; once we had it, there'd be no reason to have anything else.
It's not just that it would be addictive; it's that it would literally fill every possible human emotional need and utterly eliminate all motivation to ever do anything ever. Everyone's only goal would be to do just enough work to keep food and electricity coming into the holodeck, to keep those interruptions by reality to a minimum.
People would stop reproducing, your virtual Scarlett Johansson could have perfect virtual kids who'll never wind up in jail or steal money from you to buy crack. If you get tired of them, tell the holodeck to blink them out of existence. If you're saying that you're a high-minded person who pursues spiritual goals and would never be sucked in by anything as crude as a simulation, hey, they've got a holodeck for you, too. You can sit down to dinner with Plato and Abe Lincoln and Gandhi and Jesus. If somebody yanked you out of that to go work at the post office all day, you'd barricade yourself in with a shotgun.
If aliens showed up to Earth 1,000 years later, they'd find an abandoned planet with ten billion mummified corpses laying on the floor of ten billion dusty holodecks, with huge smiles on their faces.


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Additional 20% Off Your Order
coupon code: ALTHANKS2
Awww. I think it's so sweet how you matched your purple jacket to your jogging stroller. And also a little weird that you push your shihtzu around like a baby.
12 Comments add a comment
I have good taste: the Mountain Hardware hooded jackets like the one shown in the ad run from just under $200 to well over $200.
Just not I got an email from them for 35% off, so this deal is not so special.
I would join the mailing list and wait for the really good deal via mail, as its better then this
@fit410s: Their various deals seem to be for different products, so don't assume that something you seen now for 20% off will be available for 35%.
That said, definitely sign up for their newsletters. they have plenty of good deals.
I bought the Sorel boots shown in the image last week and just spent the last 3 days wearing them in a deer blind. Kept my feet nice and comfy.
one thing they do that IMO is totally dishonest....
look at some of the retail prices they list. Its double or triple the MSRP or SRP that others list.
I mean its like they are listing the MRP that GQ magazine lists.
that being said, using a 35-45 % coupon with a closeout item can be a great deal.
The game they play withe SRP is so sad
retail $700? ahhh no
@publiclurker: You have to take anything fit410s says about Sierra Trading Post with a grain of salt. Sierra will never be good enough for fit410s because they aren't LeftLane Sports.
@fit410s: That same jacket is listed with an MSRP of $950 at this site.
I can't find it on sale anywhere else. So what are you basing your $700 claim on?
@fit410s: I haven't noticed any MSRPs that have been off the mark. Most of the products I've bought from Sierra were at ridiculously good prices (especially with the 35-40% discounts that they regularly offer), with MSPRs that I've either confirmed, or have been what I'd expect.
lol good points guys
I'm sure some items have an overpriced MSRP, but most of what I buy from STP are items I know the cost of in retail stores and I know I'm getting a screaming deal. I buy a LOT of Columbia Sportswear items from STP because I also shop at our local CS outlet and I know what the clothes sell for there. I got my daughters combination coat for half of what it was selling for at the outlet. You just have to be smarter than the average bear, know your merchandise and sign up for the mailing list and wait for the best deal. I put my items in the cart, then check back with each coupon to see what is cheapest (you can also call customer service and often they will combine 2 deals, if you put forth the effort).
@traquy: yeah those items stay in the cart longer then anyplace I know !!


text: Galleries > Galleries > Weekly Surprise Party For Alicia Dingle April 19, 2012 Share Tweet Alicia Dingle celebrated her 30th birthday with friends and family at a surprise party on April 14. Photos by TIM GIRTON | Contributing Photographer Alicia and Scott Dingle. Surprise 30th Birthday Party for Alicia Dingle. Tom and Jean Yarletts. Alicia Dingle with her father Tom Yarletts. Guest of honor Alicia Dingle hugging her mother Jean Yarletts. Alicia Dingle. Alicia Dingle. Gathering just before the guest of honor arrives. Gathering just before the guest of honor arrives. A table full of presents. Tom Yarletts and Michael Schaefer. Matt and Laura Watring. Heather and Eddie Fritch. Scott Owens with Stephanie and Todd Lanham. Julia and Peter Wayne with Todd and Colleen Underhill. Natalie Underwood with Jennifer and Chris Cundiff. Leann Pellissier and Dana Owens. Rebecca and Paul Blackburn with Shane Leavell. Lisa and John Homer. Melissa and Peter Reisert. Jean Yarletts with Larry Dingle. Tom and Jenny Dingle with Kirsten Schaefer. Sue and Doris Dingle. Kelly and J.D. Rothberg. Laura Watring and Kelly Suhre.


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The 11 Most Idiotic Fictional Weapons
#5. The Ultimate Nullifier
Used By:
Reed Richards of The Fantastic Four.
Why It Could Be Cool:
It may not look like much, but when it comes to nullifying, there's no better nullifier on the market.
Why It Absolutely Is Not Cool:
It isn't that it can destroy anything at the speed of thought. It isn't that it looks like a camera from the twenties. It isn't even that the guy who made it--Galactus--is basically a god who shouldn't even need a weapon. It's that there isn't even a half-assed attempt to explain how it's supposed to work.
The mind-boggling schematic.
No pseudo-scientific jargon, no magic incantations, no nothing. It just nullifies. It's like they bought it from some dude in an alley. "Trust me, dude, if you need something nullified, this'll nullify it right up." The Ultimate Nullifier is especially effective against gaping plot holes.
So easy, even a baby can use it. Just point and nullify.
The Ultimate Nullifier is one of those fictional weapons that exists for no other reason than to resolve an unresolvable plot. The Fantastic Four, facing the near omnipotent Galactus, are basically given the Ultimate Nullifier by another near omnipotent being (The Watcher) and quicker than you can say deus ex machine, they use it to save the world. It's as if the writer of The Fantastic Four, Stan Lee, had dinner reservations and wanted to wrap the story up.
The Fantastic Four would go on to save the Earth again with the Total Eradicator (Stan Lee had Rangers tickets), the Super Eraser (when his brother was in town) and the Mighty Make-Bad-Thing-Go-Awayer (this time he just didn't give a shit).
#4. The Krull Glaive
Used By:
That dude in Krull.
Why It Could Be Cool:
It looks like a five bladed switchblade. And it's magic!
Why It Absolutely Is Not Cool:
The Krull Glaive is the magic weapon in the film Krull. The hero, Prince Colwyn, has to find the glaive, find the lair of the beast who has attacked his kingdom and kill it, all while maintaining his perfectly blow-dried hair and beard.
Like a lot of ridiculous fictional weapons, the obvious uselessness of the Krull Glaive is explained away by it being "magic." There have been weapons like this in history (like the African tribal weapon, the awesomely named hunga munga), but they all had something the Krull Glaive lacks: a fucking handle.
"It's like a Frisbee made of paper cuts."
How the hell are you supposed to throw this thing? Even if you use it in hand-to-hand combat, you're just as likely to hurt yourself as anyone else. No matter how you hold it, half the blades are pointed back at you. Seriously, we could have done a whole separate article on "fictional weapons that would cut your own fucking hand off."
#3. The Bat'leth
Used By:
Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation and overweight guys dressed in homemade Klingon outfits everywhere.
Why It Could Be Cool:
It's wicked sharp, and you could probably do a lot of damage to a guy with it, provided he wasn't armed in any way.
Why It Absolutely Is Not Cool:
Never has a fictional weapon so beautifully illustrated the old adage, "never bring a knife to a gun fight." In a universe where phasers and disruptors are commonplace, why the hell would anyone carry around a boomerang so huge and heavy that it can't even do boomerang stuff?
Sure, you could impress your enemy with your cool bat'leth moves and wow him with how fast you can twirl it around, but once the rhythmic gymnastics display was over, all he has to do is pull an Indiana Jones and shoot your flailing ass.
The savage poetry of the bat'leth in action.
In fact, the bat'leth is an incredibly shitty weapon even by pre-gunpowder standards. It's clumsy, heavy and, because you need two hands to use it, it has almost no reach. You can go one handed to swing at your opponent, but that sends the other razor-sharp end directly at your own gut.
Sure, you could say the same about the cool two-bladed lightsaber in The Phantom Menace, but at least that could deflect lasers. The bat'leth can't even deflect the scorn your enemies will have for you for carrying the damn thing.
#2. The Gunsword
Source: Christos Tzeremes
Used By:
This pretty boy from Final Fantasy VIII.
Why It Could Be Cool:
Guns and swords--together at last!
Why It Absolutely Is Not Cool:
Never mind that emo kid up there looks like he could barely lift a hanky to dab away his tears at the end of Twilight, let alone a massive sword, what you're probably wondering is how the hell this thing even works.
Well, the gunsword is also a revolver, with a tiny barrel that runs the length of the blade. You may be thinking that revolvers are a hassle and why not make the sword automatic so it wouldn't take forever to reload, but that's really only scraping the surface of the how retarded the gunsword is.
Oh, by the fires of agony that swirl in my tortured heart, I declare this gunsword lamer than the last Cure album!
Want to use it as a gun? Well, too bad, you've got like 20 pounds of sword weighing down the barrel while you try to aim it with one hand. Want to put your hand on the end there to hold it up like a rifle? Congratulations, you've just joined the "I sliced off all my fingers with a fantasy weapon" club.
Want to use it as a sword? Also too bad, you've got to hold it by this idiotic little grip made for revolvers, and the first time you stab somebody you're going to get the tiny little barrel on the end crammed full of bad guy guts. So the next time you try to use it as a gun, it's going to blow your other hand off.
Pretty much the only use for this thing would be to mail it to the enemy the day before the battle in gift wrap, and pray they're stupid enough to use it.
#1. The Dalek Plunger
Used By:
The Doctor Who enemy, the Daleks. Also janitors, plumbers, housewives and, you know, anyone who needs to plunge.
Why It Could Be Cool:
The Daleks managed to conquer the universe countless times despite their inability to climb stairs, so they have to have something going for them.
...What is this show about?
Why It Absolutely Is Not Cool:
Records are spotty, and the stories told around campfires are probably more legend than fact, but every little Dalek soldier grows up listening to the tale of the ancient Dalek warrior Lenny, the resourceful janitor who used his plunger to single-handedly fend off an entire battalion of overflowing toilets in the Great Sewage War. From that day forth, no Dalek has ever gone to battle without their trusty plungers.
The plunger isn't the Dalek's main weapon--that would be the egg whisk thing to the left--but it's still pretty useful. It can open doors, move things and strangle people.
You know what else can do that? Hands. Why the Daleks chose to go with plungers over hands is never quite explained in the series but, then again, neither is the fact that they only have one eye that can easily be covered with a hat.
We don't know how close the Doctor Who universe is to ours, but if its most feared soldiers look like they were put together out of whatever was lying around the kitchen, we guess it can't be all that bad. No wonder an unarmed, eccentrically dressed British guy with a posh accent and a phone booth time machine is able to beat them so easily.
If you liked that check out 8 Pointless Laws All Comic Book Movies Follow. And be sure to view the lovely ladies in Cracked.com's Top Picks or we'll be forced to use our awesome bat'leh skills against you.


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8 Classic Movie Robots That Actually Suck at Their Job
#4. The SAINT Robots (Short Circuit)
Johnny 5 from Short Circuit was actually Strategic Artificial Intelligence Nuclear Transport number 5. Surprisingly, he was the least useless shit robot of the bunch. He had life going for him, and a family-friendly sense of humor. The rest were like little Henry Kissinger's on treads.
Designed to be soldiers and transport nuclear devices, the mind boggles at the potential horrors involved in that scenario if a lightning blast managed to fuck one up so badly it came to life. Your programming abilities have to be seriously lacking if that kind of shit happens. Worse, the remaining robots, that were apparently functioning normally, get reprogrammed into the Three Stooges in the span of about five minutes by Johnny 5.
Sure, he's a robot with some advanced abilities, so we can assume that the enemy, if they were to encounter one of these robots on the battlefield and, say, push it over then capture it, would have taken maybe as much as a week to make a Three Stooges bot out of it. It and its nuclear payload.
How the robots were intended to deliver nukes isn't made clear, but they really only seem capable of standard, remarkably unstealthy locomotion and can apparently be blown to pieces by regular munitions. According to the film, each robot costs $11 million, making one wonder how sending one of these little bastards with a nuke towards something would be more effective than say, a remote-controlled shopping cart with the same weapon stored inside.
#3. Jinx (Space Camp)
The movie Space Camp convinced every gullible kid in the mid-'80s that going to Space Camp would be the most awesomest thing ever, while never once mentioning that they'd most likely end up in Huntsville, Alabama, sharing a dorm with 40 other children suffering from intestinal cramping brought on by a diet of grits and freeze-dried ice cream.
The movie also gave us Jinx, a small, apparently sentient robot who exists for no discernible reason other than to initiate what would be, in reality, the worst public relation crisis any organization has ever faced by launching children into space.
Despite leading us to believe a shuttle only takes a handful of children and a malfunctioning '80s robot to launch, the film raises a number of other questions. Mainly, who thought it would be a good idea to program a robot with all of the technical know-how to launch a shuttle, but to give it the wide-eyed personality and intelligence of a toddler?
Having artificial intelligence is all fine and good, but ideally you want to give your creation the ability to consider at least one of the hundreds upon hundreds of horrifying consequences that could occur as a result of its actions, before you let it roam around the rocket-controlling computers all willy-nilly.
#2. Box (Logan's Run)
Logan's Run provided the public with not just a robot named Box, but a robot that was actually made from boxes with some kick-ass futuristic tin foil tossed in for good measure, plus some flexy vent pipe the producer's probably stole from a discarded dryer. Robotics is just that easy.
Box's job was apparently to freeze food, which seems easy if you live in a giant freezer. Most of the work is probably done for you. But even in this Box somehow fails, and instead, he just starts freezing people, possibly with that Braun hand blender and caulking gun, or whatever it is he's outfitted with.
When the shit hits the fan and Logan has to throw down against Box, who would have guessed that his wobbly, slinky-covered-in-tin foil arms didn't quite have the fortitude to put up much of a fight?
Watch in dismay as, even before the fight starts, the cold apparently affects Box's wicked arthritis and his left hand loses its grip, dropping its prop gun to the ground. Even with the addition of maniacal, drunkard laughter, we're left to wonder what the hell Box was good for.
#1. The Sentinels (the Matrix Trilogy)
In the world outside the Matrix, the machines use Sentinel robots to kill those dirty buggers from Zion. Failing to learn from Skynet's mistake with the T-1000, once again the machines failed to create something that could kill people at a reasonable distance. Like, you know, a number of machines that exist today.
Judging from the climactic invasion of Zion in the third Matrix film, this vast intelligence intended to wipe out mankind entirely with hand-to-hand combat. No awesome lasers or face-melting technology, just slinky arms and the occasional giant drill. Their main plan of attack seems to be squiggling about in mid-air while being shot at and occasionally stabbing at people once they get in reach.
Watching the thousands of sentinels flailing around during the final attack, it appears the machines could have won the battle if they'd just aimed their tens of thousands of soldiers with, well, any kind of weapon. Some old civil war muskets they pillaged from a museum, or a basket of heavy rocks. It's not like the humans were wearing helmets or anything.
If you liked that you'll probably enjoy our look at 5 Hot Ladybots You Probably Shouldn't Have Sex With. And don't forget to check out Internet Party 2: An Intervention for MySpace to see which sites you shouldn't be inviting to your next intervention. Or learn an important lesson by watching our video Apparently Real Moms Aren't Like the Ones on MILFhunter.com.


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I obsessively check the battery info on my ICS phone, and I've noticed that I get the best battery life when the phone hasn't been "awake" much. But I realized I don't really know what "awake" means. I have not found a definition for it, and frankly am too lazy to download and grovel the SDK docs.
So ... what precisely does "awake" mean?


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David F. Gallagher
David Gallagher is a deputy editor for technology news at The Times. He is most interested in blogs, search engines and all of the other things that make the Web so fun to watch nowadays.
Jukebox Apps for the Party-Pleasing D.J.
An intrepid D.J. decided he wanted to let partygoers select songs much like a jukebox, which he was finally able to do once he found the iPad app Tune Drop.
September 20, 2012, Thursday
XOXO: A Festival of Indie Internet Creativity
The XOXO Festival in Portland, Ore., over the weekend brought 400 people together to discuss the many ways that the Internet is helping to "creatively disrupt" traditional businesses and industries. Here are a few of the highlights.
September 18, 2012, Tuesday
Facebook Is Said to Be Near F.T.C. Settlement on Privacy
Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are nearing a settlement over deceptive practices related to several moves by Facebook, including changes to its privacy practices in 2009, according to two people briefed on the settlement who would only...
November 10, 2011, Thursday
The iPad's Big Day
The Times followed the iPad's first day in real time with updates from Times reporters and from around the Web.
April 3, 2010, Saturday
What's in Your Facebook Ads?
Plumbing the mysteries of Facebook's self-service advertising system.
March 4, 2010, Thursday
Google Restricts Free Reading on Pay News Sites
Google is closing a loophole that allowed people to read large numbers of articles on subscription-based sites without paying for them.
December 2, 2009, Wednesday
Times Site Was Victim of a Malicious Ad Swap
The New York Times Company said NYTimes.com was the victim of an attacker who masqueraded as a legitimate advertiser, then distributed fake virus warnings.
September 14, 2009, Monday
A Blog's Story Gets a Tweak in 'Julie & Julia'
In the first Hollywood film to spring from a real-life blog, the heroine uses a semi-fictionalized blogging service called email@example.com. Why didn't Sony just depict the real thing?
July 9, 2009, Thursday
Messing With Google's Speech Recognition, Part 2
More transcripts of phone calls from readers, as generated automatically by Google Voice.
July 1, 2009, Wednesday
Pushing the Limits of Google's Speech Recognition
Readers responded to a call to test the voice-mail transcription service of Google Voice. The results are in.
June 29, 2009, Monday
Rss Feeds On David F. Gallagher
Subscribe to an RSS feed on this topic. What is RSS?


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Narrow your search
The budget-priced Surface 3 is a solid tablet that finally runs the real version of Windows, but it would be a much better value if the must-have keyboard cover was included.
HP shakes up the world of gaming laptops with unique-looking and highly portable Omen. It offers very capable performance in PC games, despite being stuck with a last-gen graphics card.
These 8-inch and 10-inch tablets run the same Intel Atom processor, but come in Windows 8 and Android flavors.
This 23-inch all-in-one is built for entertainment, offering great speakers and a striking look. But the glossy, reflective display throws a wrench in the works.
Pricing not available
While its camera isn't best-in-class and Windows Phone's underwhelming app selection still stings, the elegant and sophisticated HTC One M8 is an enticing alternative to Nokia models.
The 8-inch VivoTab 8 is a Windows tablet that doesn't particularly stand out in a crowded field, until you discover the Wacom stylus tucked inside its body.
While the new Surface Pro 3 is Microsoft's best PC to date, it's more successful as a tablet than a laptop replacement.
Windows Phone 8.1 is the best update yet, thanks to its revamped design and modern features, but it lags behind iOS and Android.
Pricing not available
With new functionality for the Start button and separate experiences for desktop and tablet users, the Windows 8.1 update finally gives people what they want.
Pricing not available
Microsoft's operating system makes Windows Phone phablets a reality with a new interface fitted for humongous screens, and support for quad-core CPUs.
Pricing not available


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Vein stripping is surgery to remove varicose veins in the legs.
Vein stripping with ligation, avulsion, or ablation; vein ligation and stripping; vein surgery
Varicose veins are swollen, twisted, and enlarged veins that you can see under the skin. They are often red or blue in color. They usually appear in the legs, but can occur in other parts of the body.
Normally, valves in your veins keep your blood flowing up toward the heart, so the blood does not collect in one place. The valves in varicose veins are either damaged or missing. This causes the veins to become filled with blood, especially when you are standing.
Vein stripping is used to remove or tie off a large vein in the leg called the superficial saphenous vein. This helps treat varicose veins.
Vein stripping usually takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. You may receive either:
During surgery:
The doctor may recommend vein stripping for:
Today, doctors are doing fewer vein stripping surgeries because there are newer, non-surgical ways to treat varicose veins that don't require general anesthesia and are done without an overnight hospital stay. These treatments are less painful and have a much faster recovery time.
Vein stripping is usually safe. Ask your doctor about any problems that might occur.
The risks from any anesthesia include:
The risks from any surgery include:
The risks from vein stripping include:
Always tell your doctor or nurse:
During the days before your surgery:
On the day of your surgery:
Your legs will be wrapped with bandages to control swelling and bleeding for 3 to 5 days after surgery. You may need to keep them wrapped for several weeks.
Surgical vein stripping reduces pain and improves the appearance of your leg. Rarely, vein stripping causes scars. Mild leg swelling can occur. Be sure you regularly wear compression stockings.
Freischlag JA, Heller JA. Venous disease. In: Townsend CM, Beauchamp RD, Evers BM, Mattox KL, eds. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. 19th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2012:chap 65.
Goldman MP, Guex JJ, Weiss RA. Sclerotherapy: Treatment of Varicose and Telangiectatic Leg Veins. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2011.


text: Just another silly little game. You start by naming an athlete from ANY sport. The next person has to name another athlete who's FIRST name STARTS with the first letter of the previous athlete's LAST name. Confusing huh? So if I say- Willie Mays You could say- Magic Johnson "Mays" starts with an "M", as does "Magic". Let's see how far we can take it.


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I think I've played through most of the dungeons by now, and I believe I have all the Kingdom buildings. But I still just have three gods whose altars spawn, Taurog, Tikki Tooki, and Glowing Guardian. How do I unlock the other gods (Mystera, Dracul, Pactmaker, Earthmother)?
I've now located Mystera and Dracul. I'm not sure Pactmaker and Earthmother are in the game yet, since I haven't seen them mentioned in the patch notes at all.
Each god has a subdungeon associated with them, where you must complete some requirement in order to unlock them. We aren't entirely sure what causes the subdungeon to appear, it seems to be random at this point. The answers currently list at least one place where the subdungeon can appear.
Glowing Guardian
Tikki Tooki
Unfortunately I can't remember where exactly I found the others, so I'm making this CW so someone else can add them.


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This is an idle question. Is there an example of a number field $K$ for which the maximal everywhere-unramified extension $M|K$ is of infinite degree, and yet the group $\mathrm{Gal}(M|K)$ has been completely determined ?
No, I'm pretty sure not.
In general, the theory is much more developed for the maximal pro-p-quotient of the groups you're asking about, and even in this more explored setting, not a single explicit presentation of an infinite such group is known (to me, for sure, but I think to anyone -- Edit: Nigel Boston appears to concur in his survey paper Galois $p$-groups unramified at $p$). In fact, this is true even if we generalize to ask about the Galois groups $G_{S,p}(K)$ of maximal $p$-extensions unramified outside of a finite set of primes $S$ (with some tameness conditions on $S$ -- obviously taking $K=\mathbf{Q}(\zeta_p)$ and $S$ as the set of primes above $p$ gives a counterexample to my claims.)
To elaborate, what we do have are certain approximations to presentations for such groups. If you consider a pro-$p$ presentation of $G_{S,p}(K)$: \begin{align*} 1\to R\to F\to G_{S,p}(K)\to 1, \end{align*} where $F$ is a free pro-$p$-group, then in some cases (for example, $K=\mathbb{Q}$) you can find an approximation to a minimal generating set for the relation module $R$ in the sense that you can give an explicit description of these generators in some quotient of $F$, e.g., modulo the third step in the lower central series of $F$. (Actually, it's the "Zassenhaus filtration" for which the results are sharpest.) A lot of authors have written on this idea, which roughly originated with Koch -- I'd recommend NSW's "Cohomology of Number Fields" for an overview, and then work of Morishita, Vogel, or possibly myself for more details. In brief, these approximations are determined by the arithmetic of $K$ and $S$ (e.g., $p$-th power residue symbols or other class-field-theoretic symbols evaluated at the primes in $S$). This was a fairly resounding triumph of the theory -- it would be outright revolutionary to lift these congruences of relations mod $F_3$ to literal equalities in $F$.
Let me finish by bringing the general case back toward your original unramified setting. The relevance of the more general case is as follows: Say, for example, that you have a quadratic extension $K$ of $\mathbb{Q}$ and would like to know its maximal unramified 2-extension. If we let $S$ be the set of primes dividing the discriminant of $K$, then the maximal unramified 2-extension of $K$ corresponds to an index-2 subgroup of $G_{S,2}(\mathbb{Q})$, which is, as above, difficult to get ones hands on (if infinite). Finally, I should also mention work of Boston conjecturing explicit (non-approximate) presentations for $G_{S,p}(K)$, though even here, the unramified case is less concrete.
It seems the question is not so idle after all, for the Fontaine-Mazur conjecture has something to say about it, as I discovered today in Neukirch-Schmidt-Wingberg (the NSW of Cam's answer). To paraphrase their (10.8.13), every representation
$$ \operatorname{Gal}(M|K)\to \operatorname{GL}_n(\mathbf{Q}_p) $$
of the group of automorphisms of the maximal unramified extension $M$ of a number field $K$ has finite image, even if the degree $[M:K]$ is infinite. This is certainly a very strong restriction.
Here are a few complementary remarks. The first nontrivial result on class field towers before Golod and Shafarevich was Scholz's proof that for every positive integer $n$ there exist class field towers of length $n$. His proof was completely constructive: given a prime $\ell$, he chose $n+1$ prime numbers $p_j \equiv 1 \bmod \ell$ satisfying certain congruence conditions and showed that the compositum of the cyclic $\ell$-extensions inside the fields of $p_j$-th roots of unity has an unramified extension whose Galois group has stage $n$. I guess that it is possible to extract the Galois group from his proof; note, however, that his unramified extension certainly is not maximal in general.
Artin later found a short proof of Scholz's result: given any finite group $G$, let $L/K$ be a normal extension with Galois group $G$ (this is easy). Then choose an extension $F/K$ disjoint from $L/K$ and generated by a root of a polynomial $p$-adically so close to that of $L$ that the whole ramification vanishes when the extension is lifted to $F$; then $LF/F$ is unramified with Galois group $G$.
This construction is, unfortunately, pretty useless for infinite groups.


text:
I selected a few important mails and mistakenly clicked on Archive.
I don't know where that mails are? Where can I find them?
migrated from superuser.com Feb 2 '11 at 12:09
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In the left pane there should be an "All Mail" option. If there isn't, expand the down arrow that should say something like "6 more" (see screenshot below), and click All Mail. Select them and you can move them back to the inbox if desired.
Archive removes the label inbox on your mail, without any other labels on the mail it's possible to find under All Mail or via search (as already said). I don't agree that they 'go to All Mail' as all (except Trash and Spam I think) mail is always there.
They go to All Mail. It should on the left side in the list under Compose Mail. Gmail changed some stuff around a while back so it might be hidden for you. If it is, click Settings (upper right corner), go to the Labels tab, and select which System labels you want to be displayed.
At Gmail emails aren't located at places. Mails have labels and you can search based on labels.
In this case you can either search for the mail in question or click on all mails.
Don't worry about where they are, just search for them.
And, if you've not done anything else since mistakenly clicking "Archive", there's a bar at the top saying
Click the "undo" link there
If you have keyboard shortcuts enabled, "/" takes you to the search box, "z" is for undo.
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