text:
Elements of Image Making
From Noisebridge
Revision as of 12:22, 4 March 2013 by 220.127.116.11 (Talk)
Elements of Image Making: Alternative Optics, Processes & Techniques
Hand Processing is back in 2013!!!!!!
External Resources
- Helen Hill's Recipes for Disaster is a zine featuring lots of filmmakers from N. America talking about various direct film techniques. Super Awesome!
- Film Farm Canadian independent imaging retreat operating for 20+ years.
- HandmadeCinema.com Interactive concept map about the history, theory and techniques of handmade film.
- Handmade Film Institute Situated outside of Boulder Co, hosts classes, workshops and retreats in handmade film processes, also features a plethora of technical info on darkroom chemistry.
- delicious.com/jihalprin List of resources/articles about DIY cinematography; light meter use, optics, sound recording, processing....
- Scratchatopia Montreal based filmmaker Steven Woloshen's Tumblr. Links/articles/awesome!
- Antidote for a Virtual World by Ken Paul Rosenthal Comprehensive guide to hand processing reversal film.


text:
I'm looking to buy a used car. What do you think I should check (mechanically) before buying it (especially if it's diesel)?
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- Anybody can ask a question
- Anybody can answer
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Inside the car:
Manual: Check the manual for the service history. Was it services regularly at a authorized dealership?
Ash tray: Smells like cigarettes? The previous owner was a smoker, dealbreaker for me personally.
Interior: Does the amount of wear correspond with the expected amount of wear for a car of that age and mileage?
Trunk: Spare tire present? Jack present? Condition of the carpet?
Under the hood:
Engine: Does it look to clean? If the garage cleans the engine it most likely has a defect like an oil leak
Oil cap: White creamy stuff on the inside of the cap? Can indicate a broken head gasket or the car was used for a lot of very short trips. Walk away, it'll cost you to much money for repairs.
Paint condition: Lots of small dents and scratches indicate a sloppy previous owner. Pay attention to door edges and fender corners.
Front fender: Look at the underside, lots of scratches present? The previous owner didn't slow down for speedbumps. Can cost you money for new shocks, ball joints, etc.
Door handles: Lots of scratches around the door handles? A woman owned the car before you, expect to find some small toys and jewelery in the car. ;)
Parking damage on the rims: Lots of damage? Walk away, rim repair is expensive and the steering parts will be more worn than with careful drivers
Steering: Accelerate tot 30 mph/50 kmh on an empty straight road and get your hands of the wheel. Does the car continue to drive in a straigt line?
Brakes: Go to an empty parking lot, accelerate to 30 mph/50 kmh and press the brake really hard. Does the car brake in a straight line without tugging on the wheel? Do you feel the vibration from the antilock brakes (if present)?
Gearbox/clutch: Does it shift smoothly? Is the clutch worn out? (Engage very late, does not stall when engaging the clutch without applying some gas).
Engine noise: How does it sound? No weird noises?
Shocks: Listen for squeaky noises or thumping sounds.
Engine temperature: Does the car reach it's normal operating temperature after a few miles/kilometers?
Airco/heater: Is the airco really cold? Make sure the fan of the ventilation doesn't make weird noises.
Lights: Everything works?
Price negotiation
Timing belt almost due? Try to get a new one including the water pump included in the price
Airco not cold enough? Ask the dealer to refill it with coolant.
Worn tires? No new (good!) tires = no deal
And I think a full tank of gas is part of the deal. :)
These are things I check before buying a car (in addition to Alex's advice):
If it shows signs of overheating, leaking radiator fluid, having a blown head gasket, or leaking/burning oil... I would not buy the car.
I'm surprised this has not been mentioned.
Have a compression test performed on the engine. This will expose many major engine problems like head gasket leaks, damaged valves/valve lands or rings. It is a simple, inexpensive test that can save you from some of the most expensive repairs a vehicle may need.
I would consider a compression test absolutely mandatory on any engine with forced induction (turbocharged or supercharged).
Several printable checklists to consider:
If the seller shows you the service records/log book, verify the records. Call the dealers whose stamps are in the log book and make sure they have a record of having serviced the car.
Blank log books can be bought cheaply off the internet, and it's easy to find a dodgy mechanic who'll stamp the book while his boss isn't watching.
A friend recently bought a Toyota for around $50,000 with full log book history and 120,000kms on the clock. When he took it to his local dealership for a service, they told him that Toyotas records have the car as having 300,000+ kms. He then called the mechanics whose stamp was in the logbook and they say they have never serviced the car. My friend had the car re-valued and it's only worth about $30,000.
If this happens to you (at least in Australia) you have absolutely no legal recourse and could lose a lot of money.
A few other things which no one has mentioned which are pretty easy to do, or only require a cheap tool.
Before signing your name on the contract and completely sealing the deal for a used car, you should also check the dashboard features like the A/C, sound system, light and wiper controls, and horn. You can also check the speedometer for the mileage of the vehicle. After doing that, open the hood and check if the area is dusty or not. You may also want to check the oil in the car. To do that, you may use a dipping stick, which is found under the hood, to check if it's clean or dirty. If the oil is clean, the car is good to go. But if the oil is dirty, oil change is needed to avoid damaging the car's engine.
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text: Something different this time, guys. I noticed that DBZ tutorial are very popular here, so, since I'm a fan of the series, I decided to try making one. I hope you'll like it but, if you are not a fan of Dragon Ball, don't worry, I'll continue doing also tutorials about animals. Enjoy!


text:
Subject: Re: [OMPI devel] RFC: add asynchronous copies for large GPU buffers
From: Nathan Hjelm (hjelmn_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-06-27 18:20:19
Can you make your repository public or add me to the access list?
On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 03:12:34PM -0700, Rolf vandeVaart wrote:
> WHAT: Add support for doing asynchronous copies of GPU memory with larger messages.
> WHY: Improve performance for sending/receiving of larger GPU messages over IB
> WHERE: ob1, openib, and convertor code. All is protected by compiler directives
> so no effect on non-CUDA builds.
> REFERENCE BRANCH: https://bitbucket.org/rolfv/ompi-trunk-cuda-async
> When sending/receiving GPU memory through IB, all data first passes into host memory.
> The copy of GPU memory into and out of the host memory can be done asynchronously
> to improve performance. This RFC adds that feature for the fragments of larger messages.
> On the sending side, the completion function is essentially broken in two. The first function
> is called when the copy completes which then initiates the send. When the send completes,
> the second function is called.
> Likewise, on the receiving side, a callback is called when the fragment arrives which
> initiates the copy of the data out of the buffer. When the copy completes, a second
> function is called which also calls back into the BTL so it can free resources that
> were being used.
> M opal/datatype/opal_datatype_copy.c
> M opal/datatype/opal_convertor.c
> M opal/datatype/opal_convertor.h
> M opal/datatype/opal_datatype_cuda.c
> M opal/datatype/opal_datatype_cuda.h
> M opal/datatype/opal_datatype_unpack.c
> M opal/datatype/opal_datatype_pack.h
> M opal/datatype/opal_datatype_unpack.h
> M ompi/mca/btl/btl.h
> M ompi/mca/btl/openib/btl_openib_component.c
> M ompi/mca/btl/openib/btl_openib.c
> M ompi/mca/btl/openib/btl_openib.h
> M ompi/mca/btl/openib/btl_openib_mca.c
> M ompi/mca/pml/ob1/pml_ob1_recvfrag.c
> M ompi/mca/pml/ob1/pml_ob1_sendreq.c
> M ompi/mca/pml/ob1/pml_ob1_progress.c
> M ompi/mca/pml/ob1/pml_ob1_recvreq.c
> M ompi/mca/pml/ob1/pml_ob1_cuda.c
> M ompi/mca/pml/ob1/pml_ob1_recvreq.h
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain
> confidential information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution
> is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by
> reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
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text:
No. 94 The Illinois Tollway: An Opportunity for Reform
Quick Links
- Policy Study (pdf)
The Illinois tollway system--one of the largest in the nation--is under the most serious political attack of its 41-year history.
Illinois Governor George Ryan told journalists on September 8 that he regarded tolls as a "nuisance" and wanted to greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the toll system in Illinois.
On October 5, saying he expects them to "pursue the direction I've set for them," Ryan nominated three new members to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) and appointed a personal aide, Thomas Cuculich, 39, as its new executive director.
In his announcement the Governor said that motorists who depend on the tollway system daily to move around the Chicago area "have grown increasingly frustrated" with it. "It is time for changes and those changes begin today," said Ryan in an October 5 news release.
The Governor's news release goes on to say: "Gov. Ryan's vision for the tollway system is to make it more efficient for motorists, with the long-term goal of reducing or phasing out tolls charged to motorists. He has directed state transportation officials to develop options for changes in the system." [emphasis added]
Announcing the new appointments, the Governor was quoted as saying, "I will expect Tom [Cuculich, the new CEO] and the Toll Authority board to pursue the direction I've set for them, and I'll be looking for them to give me their recommendations in 60 days."
The statement notes that the present executive director, Ralph C. Wehner, announced his retirement for the end of this year. Cuculich has already taken over though Wehner is remaining at the Toll Authority until the end of the year. The new board appointees are Norman Gold, 69, an accountant and attorney; Carl Kramp, 65; and former Kane County co-treasurer Gordon Volkman, 68, a banker. The Governor announced the reappointment of Paula Fasseas, 44, a banker. None of these people has expressed any concern about the Governor's apparent complete takeover of the Toll Authority or the fact that the board now seems superfluous.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune (October 14), Cuculich said: "My mission is to make the tollway system as convenient as possible for our customers, the motorists, and to look at the elimination of tolls." He said privatization of the tollway would be among the options he would present to the Governor. He said he will be focusing on ways to improve travel times on the tollways. He is not sure if this means fewer toll plazas, as suggested by the Governor: "Whether it can be done or not remains to be seen."
Cuculich made it clear he's working only for the Governor, saying: "I'm not here to make a career out of this. I am here to carry out the Governor's mission, which is to find a way to reduce the authority, and to get it out of motorists' lives."
The study is organized as follows:
Part 1, A Profile of the Illinois Tollway;
Part 2, The Value of Tolls;
Part 3, Reforming Illinois' Tollway System;
Part 4, Conclusion;
A Profile of the Illinois Tollway
In Northern Illinois, the tollways represent about one-third of the motorway/expressway standard lane-mileage. The Toll Authority operates four major toll roads totaling over 2,000 lane-km with a centerline of 437 km (273 miles), two-thirds of which was built in 27 months of construction between 1956 and 1958.
The tollways provide major north-south movement around Cook County, the inner part of the greater Chicago metropolis--America's third-largest in population (roughly 9 million). The tollways are also main routes west (through Aurora) and northwest (to Rockford). They are the principal distributors for the large commercial area around O'Hare International Airport and the Schaumburg retail center.
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) is America's largest toll authority in the number of daily tolls taken--some 2 million. The Garden State Parkway in New Jersey is the next largest by number of tolls, with just over 1.5 million/day.
In revenues collected, ISTHA ranks tied for third. The New York area bridge and tunnel toll authorities (Triborough and Port Authority New York and New Jersey) collect more revenue than any other tollway system in the country. The Illinois Toll Authority then joins the New York State Thruway and the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Turnpikes in a cluster of toll agencies that collect between $300 million and $400 million/year.
ISTHA is expected to collect $370 million in tolls this year, equivalent to one-third of the amount raised by Illinois state gasoline and diesel taxes ($1,100 million). The 19 cents/gallon gas tax would have to be increased by 6.4 cents if tolls were to be abolished and no other changes were made. But the Governor says he doesn't want to raise gas taxes.
"It's a nuisance to go through tollbooths and I agree with the public [complaints]. Drastic changes are needed," the Governor told the press. "It is on my scope and on my radar. If there's some way to handle the transfer [of the toll roads to the state] and pay off the bonds and work it fiscally and financially, I'm going to do that. But not with a gas tax increase."
The state toll authority has about $890 million of bonds outstanding, almost half of them 1992 bonds due in 2017. But that debt pales into insignificance beside the bonds that the Toll Authority has been planning to issue over the next ten years: $8 billion worth, split about equally between reconstruction and new roads.
Engineering consultants have concluded it would be most economical to completely rebuild the two-thirds of the Illinois tollway system constructed in 1956-58. This is proposed to be "from the dirt up" because it is no longer cost-effective to continue overlays and sealing of 40-year-old pavement. Many bridges, too, need major work, and with this level of reconstruction it is normal to bring interchanges up to modern standards, and sometimes to add travel lanes.
The new roads have all been approved by the Illinois legislature and include extensions of several of the existing toll roads, especially the north-south I-355 and construction of a new north-south link west of O'Hare airport.
The Case for Higher Tolls
The Toll Authority's natural response to the need for more revenue is to call for higher tolls. Governor Ryan appointed the current chairman of the Authority, Arthur Philip, to that position on July 23 knowing that Philip had been outspoken about the need for toll increases during a previous term as a member of the board.
As chairman, Philip did call for higher tolls. Indeed, on the very day of his appointment, he told reporters, "Tolls have to be raised to maintain, to modernize, and to expand the toll roads. Let's bite the bullet. It costs more money the longer you wait."
The last systemwide toll increases on Illinois tollways were in September 1983, when tolls at the mainline plazas went from the 1958 rate of 30 cents to 40 cents. Most tolls average about 2 cents/km (3.5 cents/mile); they probably need to be raised to about 3 cents/km (5 cents/mile) to fully recover current operating and maintenance costs. To support a fully modernized system, something like $1.00 is probably needed in place of the present 40-cent toll, so the average 20 km (13-mile) trip would cost 5 cents/km (7.5 cents/mile).
Philip may have thought, What better time politically to increase tolls than after the election? But his political patron, Governor Ryan, had apparently used the same logic to propose major tax and fee increases of his own, making Philip's announcement politically embarrassing to the Governor, setting the stage for the current push for fundamental reform.
Philip's announcement came amid debate over the Governor's controversial proposal to raise $573 million/year extra with a 62 percent hike in vehicle registration fees, a five-fold increase in title transfer fees, and higher alcohol taxes. This was to fund Illinois FIRST, a $12 billion five-year public works program covering transit, state and local roads, schools, and local public buildings. Those increases have since been approved by the state legislature. Complicating the situation is the fact that Arthur Philip is the brother of James "Pate" Philip, president of the Illinois Senate and an outspoken public critic of tax and fee increases.
Governor Ryan told reporters immediately after Philip's comments were made public that "I am not for higher tolls" and said he would let Philip "know how I feel." But he then said ISTHA was "pretty much an autonomous board." He went on: "I want to make sure that ISTHA keeps the toll roads running and operating efficiently. Part of the reason that you appoint boards is that you let them kind of do their own thing. You don't dictate to them what they should and shouldn't do."
Nevertheless, two months later the Governor seemed to be dictating policy: "I am absolutely against any increase in tolls and my goal is to reduce the toll authority as much as I can and eliminate some of the tolls and get the [toll] price down and [eventually] do away with it completely. We are talking about 275 miles of roads that the [state Department of Transportation] could take over and operate." (Chicago Tribune, September 9)
A few days later at a League of Women Voters meeting he was on the subject again: "If we can eliminate (the tolls), I'd like to do it, if we can figure out a way to do that. But I'm practical enough to know that maybe the finances won't allow us to do that, at least now. It might take some time to get it done. Any way we can get rid of it would be OK with me. But certainly, I think it needs to be made more efficient. There should be fewer tolls that people have to go through. . . . I don't think most people mind the 30 or 40 cents they have to throw in the basket. . . . I think it's that they have to stop every five minutes to throw it in. And we should be able to eliminate some of those tolls and make it more efficient." (Chicago Tribune, September 15)
Electronic Toll Collection
Important to the debate over whether to raise or abolish tolls is the ongoing transition to collecting tolls by using electronic toll (ET) collecting systems.
ISTHA executive director Tom Cuculich has said that a very difficult question is the future of I-PASS, the ET system currently being implemented by the Toll Authority. The Authority has all its lanes wired, and a long-term plan is in place for phasing in highway-speed open-road ET (i.e., drivers would not have to stop or even slow down to have their toll accounts automatically debited). Presently, less than one-quarter of Illinois toll transactions are electronic.
"If we are looking at, in the long term, eliminating the tollway system, how do we balance that with continuing to invest in I-PASS?" Cuculich asked in the Tribune interview. "It's something of a Catch-22, because I-PASS at some point does ease congestion." Reaching a decision on any further expansion of and spending on I-PASS will come in the next few months, Cuculich said, adding that the Governor had not told him to freeze spending on anything so far.
The Toll Authority has spent some $50 million on ET conversion. It has completed ET retrofitting on all 525 toll lanes in its 20 mainline plazas and 46 ramp plazas. At all its mainline plazas, the Authority has dedicated ET lanes operating at 1,800 vehicles per hour, with a posted speed of 30 mph. Two plazas are operating with full highway-speed ET, and another three are under construction.
Following Houston's lead, the Toll Authority has begun to demolish conventional toll lanes to build full highway-speed toll lanes at plazas it is rebuilding. These require a major capital outlay--usually eight-figures/plaza--for overhead bridges or underpavement tunnels for staff if manual and coin collection is to be continued on either side.
Some 240,000 ET tags are in use in Illinois with an average 800 added each day, so 300,000 seem likely to be in use by year's end. All this is happening without an active campaign to market toll tags, nor are tag users given a break in the toll rate they pay.
At close to 2 million transactions/day, the Illinois tollway system is by far the busiest in the U.S., though in revenue terms it ranks number three or four. Its large number of low tolls (mostly 40 cents) and heavy usage of low-cost automatic coin machines (which take 80 percent of tolls) make the financial case for ET conversion less compelling than it was in, say, New York, where tolls are high, coins are rarely used, and the system before conversion depended heavily on toll collectors.
ET users enjoy big time savings, but the improvements have not noticeably reduced delays for cash payers. Moreover, in some places improved toll plaza throughput has been offset by downstream delays unrelated to the tolls. At times whole stretches of tollway are simply overloaded.
The Toll Authority is six months into a $30 million contract with TransCore to upgrade lane controllers, signals, and manual toll collector registers at all 53 toll plazas. That work may have to be put on hold, given the Governor's desire for radical changes to the system.
Scandal, Waste, and Patronage
The first head of ISTHA, Austin Wyman, is frequently quoted as having said in a speech back in 1956 when work was starting on the original 299 km (182 miles) of the system that the roads would be made "free" when the bonds were paid off in 1984. Ever since, the Toll Authority has been criticized by some elected officials and taxpayer spokespersons for being a wasteful and self-perpetuating bureaucracy.
The charge is not entirely without foundation, though the reality is that a road cannot be built, paid for, and enjoyed cost-free for ever after.
A road is never fully paid for: It continues to cost money to be maintained and its entire physical structure of bridges and pavement needs to be completely rebuilt every few decades. Roads start to wear out from the moment they open, due to traffic and weather. This is especially true in areas, such as the Midwest, that use salt on winter roads. The real debate, then, is over how best to pay for the inevitable maintenance: through tolls, gasoline taxes, or other revenue sources.
Since 1956, successive governors and legislatures in Illinois have voted to continue tolls to pay for operations and maintenance and to underwrite expansion of the tollway system. In the 1970s it was the east-west extensions, in the 1980s the north-south, and in the 1990s more north-south extensions. The Toll Authority was given its instructions by successive legislatures. But often that did not help the Authority's image as a self-serving, self-perpetuating clique. Skeptics saw the legislature as manipulated by the Toll Authority, or viewed it all as part of a corrupt power structure.
The current chairman, Arthur Philip, recently acknowledged to the Chicago Tribune that not many years ago jobs at the Toll Authority, including most toll collector jobs, were awarded on the basis of political patronage. He says most of that ended with legal changes. "You can't do that kind of stuff anymore. Everything is so far above board now, it's really straight, and you don't have to worry about (political) fiefdoms anymore." Critics point out, though, that toll collector jobs are small potatoes compared to the lucrative contracts awarded to engineering firms, road builders, and increasingly, bond houses, where "pinstripe patronage" (i.e., steering contracts to political allies) still seems to be the order of the day.
Under the previous executive director, Ralph Wehner, the Toll Authority seems to have been scandal-free, but as recently as April 1997 his predecessor, Robert Hickman, was convicted of a $240,000 fraud in a sale of tollway land. Hickman had been a campaign fundraiser for then-Governor Jim Edgar. In June 1994 the state Auditor General attacked a confidential pension scheme for top Toll Authority employees, including Hickman, as improper. The ISTHA board did not defend the scheme and discontinued it after the auditor's criticism, apparently conceding that it had been an indefensible "perk."
Some critics see padding in the Authority's costs and in its accounts. ISTHA depreciates its roadways and bridges like a business does, assuming a life of 20 to 40 years. Its depreciation charges are thus high. Its accounts show provision of $126 million for depreciation and amortization. Critics point out that other toll authorities, like the New Jersey Turnpike, do cash accounting without any depreciation.
But to ignore depreciation of capital overstates net revenues and leads to practices that allow assets to run down. Financial analysts at bond rating agencies have leveled scathing criticism at New Jersey's financial policies and accounting practices. The state will pay a higher interest rate to sell bonds than will ISTHA or other authorities with a sound treatment of depreciation.
Accepted business standards of accounting are also under fire from those who want to use "innovative financing" to build more debt on a smaller revenue stream, often with a state infrastructure "bank" at the bottom of the creditor heap carrying risk that investors won't touch. This is, simply, bad policy.
The Toll Authority is accused of having high costs of operations, but this charge, too, is difficult to confirm. Toll collection costs are over $50 million, or 13 percent of revenue. With the electronic toll (ET) collection and higher tolls already being planned or proposed, that proportion should come down substantially. The alternative to tolls, tax collection, costs money too. A recent study showed, for example, that sales tax collection typically costs 7 percent of revenue. Estimates of the cost of income tax collections run higher, though those costs are largely borne by taxpayers rather than collectors, and therefore go unreported. (1)
Institutional reputations once badly damaged are difficult to repair. Fair or not, there are influential people around Chicago who say that the present Toll Authority is not really reformed, just better at concealing its inefficiencies and self-indulgences than its predecessor. All this weakens the position of the Toll Authority in defending itself against a governor on a populist campaign against it.
The irritation of waiting in lines at a plaza to pay gives tolling a very negative connotation and tends to create an emotional prejudice against tolls. Yet like all prices, tolls also have positive characteristics which thoughtful people will recognize.
Tolls provide a revenue stream to pay for the roads--to operate and maintain them, and also to rebuild and expand them if needed to accommodate motorists' needs. Properly set, tolls place the financial burden most fairly on those who use the roads, and they charge according to use. They are inherently fairer than taxes to pay for roads, since taxes are levied regardless of the use of a particular road and bear little relationship to the value motorists gain from the road, or the costs motorists impose on others by using a road.
Tolls can also help determine how much extra road is justified. Just as a commons is over-grazed, so an unpriced road will tend to attract traffic beyond that which would pay the costs of the facility.
"When scarce and valued goods, like highway capacity, are given away, queues of people who want them will form. The nation has invested billions of dollars in the existing highway and transit system, often justified on the basis of reducing congestion. Yet there is little evidence that urban traffic congestion has been eased," wrote a Transportation Research Board panel in a seminal report, Curbing Gridlock. (2)
Large parts of the Illinois tollway are already used to capacity, so the abolition of tolls would worsen congestion for all by increasing traffic. A more constructive course would be to recognize that increased capacity on the tollway system is probably needed, and to see how tolls can be used to fund and guide that process.
Local urban planning consultant John L. Gann says that the most important contribution tolls can make will be to allow highway improvements to be made without an increased tax burden. He contends that "If tolls are seen as the mechanism that makes it possible for Illinois to increase roadway capacity, the public will support them." Gann echoes the view of others that the toll plazas are not the only capacity constraint on the tollway system; the travel lanes and interchanges themselves will need enhancement, independent of the toll plazas.
Brett Baden of Chicago's RCF Economic & Financial Consulting also endorses the idea that setting proper toll rates will help make the best use of resources and produce better social outcomes. He argues that financing roads entirely out of taxes or license fees is extremely poor pricing, commenting: "The fee you paid in July is unlikely to affect your driving behavior in December." Similarly, he points out that gasoline taxes paid bear little relationship to costs imposed via axle weight damage to pavement or to the space the vehicle takes up in a crowded roadway. By contrast, tolls can be tailored to more nearly reflect these factors.
Baden emphasizes the value of exploring new ways of setting tolls in the future. He argues that rigid fixed tolls are not optimal because the costs of extra motorists driving a road are greater in congested conditions than when traffic is freely flowing. Moreover, the value a motorist gets traveling on a properly managed toll road in peak conditions on the whole roadway network is greater than off-peak.
This is the argument for moving toward toll rates that vary by time of day or level of congestion. Toll rates should be lower off-peak, but higher during peak periods. The benefit to the motorist will be that a few fellow motorists who value their trip less than the higher toll will decide (1) to move their trip to a time when the road is less crowded, or (2) to use transit, or (3) to rearrange their affairs so they don't need to make the trip. Where variable toll rates are used, overloading of the road can be avoided and annoying stop-and-go driving averted.
So long as tolls are paid predominantly in cash, via coin machines or collectors at the toll booth, then toll rates must be kept constant to avoid more confusion at the plazas. But once tolling is accomplished mainly by electronic transponder and monthly utility-type billing, and the toll plazas are downsized or abolished, such flexible toll rates will become technically quite feasible.
Reforming Illinois' Tollway System
Wilbur Smith & Associates Recommendations
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has nearly completed a "Long Range Toll Collection Alternatives Study." Commissioned from Wilbur Smith & Associates (WSA) in early 1998, well before the Governor's election and his anti-toll views were expressed, the study is extremely relevant to executive director Tom Cuculich's assignment from the Governor.
Preliminary results of the study were presented recently by the Toll Authority's chief planner, Lidia Pilecky, and the WSA study's lead analyst, Paul Marcella. (3)
Pilecky said that electronic tolling (ET) is the "key to the survival" of the system since it would be unthinkable to physically enlarge the system's toll plazas to cope with extra traffic. "We have to live within our existing toll plazas, and the only way to get traffic through better is electronic tolling," said Pilecky.
The questions to be answered by the WSA study were: how fast should the Toll Authority try to increase ET usage; what measures would achieve different levels of ET usage; and how much would each of those measures cost.
WSA's study developed projections of ET usage under a base scenario for which it was assumed that no steps would be taken to deliberately speed ET penetration into the driving population. In this base scenario, electronic tolling is expected to represent about 40 percent of all tollway trips--and 45 percent of trips taken during weekday peak periods--by 2015. In essence, the base scenario projects approximately a 1 percentage pont increase annually in the ET share.
The WSA analysts also considered a variety of strategies to speed ET's penetration into the Chicago-area driving population: toll discounts of 20, 33, and 45 percent for ET users, and universal free distribution of e-tags.
Toll discounting. WSA's findings very clearly support a strategy of high ET discounts. Given the projected growth of traffic on the tollways, congestion at toll plazas will grow if there is no deliberate effort to move motorists to ET. The cost of expanding conventional toll collection by enlarging toll plazas would be greater than the revenue losses caused by discounting tolls in order to move drivers to ET. The Toll Authority's capital and operating costs both would be reduced by ET discounts. WSA finds that high discounts work better than low discounts, producing a $280 million net savings as compared to the base scenario.
Highway-speed tolling. An active program of building highway-speed or express toll lanes (XTLs) does not make sense financially, according to the WSA study, because of very high capital costs and small savings. The WSA analysts conclude that highway-speed tolling should be installed only when a toll plaza needs to be rebuilt anyway, rather than for its own sake.
Free distribution of e-tags. The WSA report also finds against having all vehicles in the Chicago area use e-tags. While the tags make sense for regular users, the upfront cost of the tags and the ongoing cost of administering accounts make it uneconomical for near-universal use by occasional tollway users. WSA explains that even if every motorist in the Chicago tollway area were given a free e-tag, some won't install them, and therefore won't use them. Moreover, WSA finds, through-traffic by residents of Wisconsin, Indiana, and other nearby states (who wouldn't be given the free tags) means some kind of non-ET collection would still be required.
The Toll Authority and WSA apparently did not consider the costs and benefits of three other alternatives:
- A special low-cost/low-user e-tag program in which a basic read-only e-tag is supplied, instead of the bells-and-whistles version that the Toll Authority normally supplies. The basic tag might cost only $15 per unit, vs. the $35 cost of the current tag. Operating costs for basic tag users, who would receive no monthly account statement, would also be lower.
- A requirement that all drivers wishing to use the tollways have e-tags. On-road toll collection could be abolished and the whole system converted to open-road tolling.
- A program of imaging license plates and mail-billing drivers without e-tags, also allowing the abolition of on-road tolling.
Additional Reform Proposals
The reforms recommended below fall into four categories: electronic toll collection, time-of-day tolling, rebating gasoline taxes, and privatization. These suggestions, described only in the briefest of terms here, are based on a growing body of data from real-world applications of new technologies and new ownership arrangements. The bibliography at the end of this paper cites some of this research. None of these ideas is "just a theory" or untried. Most are being acted on by some of the largest municipal governments in the world.
The reader will note that this study does not recommend abolishing tolls, since that would move the state away from the direction innovative states and nations are heading. There are plenty of options for improving the state's current toll system that will meet the Governor's objectives while improving the efficiency and long-term financial footing of the tollways.
Electronic Toll Collection. E-tolling can reduce the Toll Authority's capital costs, by avoiding the need to add lanes at toll booths, and also reduce the operating costs of toll collection.
The Toll Authority should put forward a detailed program for accelerating installation of highway-speed electronic tolling throughout the tollway system so it becomes available for all trips within, say, four years. Following the advice contained in the upcoming WSA report, the Authority should offer a significant toll discount, say 45 percent, for those who lease e-tags. The Authority should also increase the marketing effort behind I-PASS.
A more sweeping option would be a commitment to end all cash toll collection by a date certain and rely entirely on electronic toll collection. This scenario would prove cost-effective if inexpensive, lower-tech transponders were distributed for free, and if a system were implemented to photograph license plates and bill by mail those without e-tags. This would allow the complete abolition of on-road tolling, with major capital and operational cost savings and dramatically reduced congestion.
Time-of-Day Tolling. Electronic tolling makes possible the variable-rate pricing discussed in Part 2 above. Toll rates can be made to vary by time of day, thereby encouraging people to use the roadways during periods of relatively low use, and to find alternative routes or reschedule trips during periods of high use. Nationwide, 60 percent or more of people using highways during rush hours are running errands, visiting friends, or making other trips for purposes other than commuting to work. They could choose to make these trips at times of day when their presence on the road would not add to congestion, but currently they have little incentive to do so.
Electronic highway signs and radio stations devoted to traffic conditions can tell drivers the current fare and explain their options. Such a system would guarantee free-flowing traffic (except in cases of a major accident) in return for tolls that reflect the true cost of a driver's choice to use a highway at a particular time of day.
To understand the power that time-of-day tolling has to reduce congestion, as well as construction and maintenance costs, consider a simple scheme in which tolls on most tollways near downtown Chicago are reduced to zero between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., but are raised to $1.00 between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Enough people would probably change their travel plans to significantly relieve congestion during the busiest times of day. Most people would pay roughly the same in tolls as they do today, but time wasted while trapped in traffic jams would be greatly reduced.
End Double-Taxation for Highway Users. A legitimate criticism of tolls is that they constitute a form of "double taxation" on tollway users. Chicago-area highway users pay among the nation's highest gasoline taxes due to the accumulation of federal, state, county, local, and special taxing district taxes, plus Illinois' unusual practice of collecting general sales taxes on gasoline purchases, plus other taxes levied on motor fuel. On top of all this comes the dramatic increase in vehicle registration fees approved by the legislature in order to pay for the Governor's Illinois FIRST projects.
Illinois' state gasoline tax is 19 cents/gallon. The average private automobile gets about 19 miles per gallon. So the effective state gas tax on vehicles traveling the tollways is roughly 1 cent/mile. "Double-taxation" could be ended by rebating against monthly tollway bills an amount equivalent to that tax, with correspondingly larger rebates for classes of vehicles that consume more fuel and thus are higher-taxed. An application for the rebate could easily be incorporated into the state's income tax forms. Only people with e-tags could apply for the rebates, creating another incentive for people to shift to electronic tolling.
Illinois should take the lead by rebating its own gasoline tax, and it should urge the federal government to do the same with its 18.3 cents/gallon tax, which could provide a similar 1 cent/mile rebate against tolls. The approximately 2 cents/mile that motorists pay in federal and state fuel taxes compares with 3 cents/mile for the average 13-mile trip on the Illinois tollway system with present tolls.
Privatize the Tollways. The reforms mentioned so far assume that ownership and management of the tollways remains in the hands of a government agency. But there is little reason to believe this is necessary, and growing empirical evidence suggests that moving to private management and/or ownership is a superior arrangement.
Such a transition, called privatization, can tap the expertise and other resources of private firms while at the same time avoiding the bureaucracy and perverse incentive structures that characterize the government sector.
In Virginia, the Dulles Greenway is a totally investor-built and -operated toll road. So are the 91-Express Lanes in the Los Angeles area. Smaller investor-built toll facilities have been built in Alabama and are under construction in Utah, Florida, and Texas, and others are being designed in Florida and California.
Tollways in Orlando, southern California, and Colorado are still formally state or local government entities, but the overwhelming bulk of their operations is contracted out, so only a small number are on government payroll. Few people probably know it, but the Detroit-Windsor tunnel is privately owned, as is the Ambassador bridge between Michigan and Canada.
A similar trend toward privatization is taking place internationally. Toronto's 407-ETR, the world's most advanced automated toll road, is fully privatized, as is the world's second automated highway, Melbourne CityLink in Australia. The formerly government-owned Autostrade SPA, which operates most of Italy's motorways, is in the process of privatization. France's Cofiroute SA, which generates more revenue than any U.S. toll agency, is investor-owned.
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority could be given the job of overseeing the privatization process. Many of its present staff would be recruited by competitive toll operating companies. Indeed, the Toll Authority's staff might decide to become one of the groups to bid on a management or management/ownership contract, in which case the Department of Transportation should oversee the bidding process.
The Governor's call for fundamentally rethinking the Illinois tollway system creates an opportunity to put forward reforms that will place Illinois at the forefront, nationally and internationally, of tollway management. This is an opportunity that business leaders, elected officials, taxpayers, commuters, and nearly everyone who lives in Illinois should not allow to pass without their input and active participation.
Governor Ryan's statements about wanting a better deal for Illinois motorists from the tollways are most understandable and laudable. Conditions on the tollways today involve too much congestion--partly at the toll plazas, but also because of interchange problems and insufficient roadway capacity along some stretches. The Toll Authority has been slower than some other toll agencies (though faster than others) to implement new technologies for faster, more efficient, and more convenient electronic toll collection.
Getting rid of tolls, by itself, would make conditions for motorists worse, not better. Motorists would further overload the tollways during rush hours while depriving the roads of a revenue stream needed for their upkeep and improvement. Those motorists understand that this is a big and important roadway system, and expensive too. No one else in some other part of the state or the country is going to foot the bill for the serious reconstruction that is needed or for ongoing costs. There will never be free roads; there is no such thing as a free lunch.
But Governor Ryan is right to say motorists are fed up with queuing to throw coins. That is no way to run a tollway in an electronic age. The Governor deserves support for shaking things up by expressing the frustration that hundreds of thousands of tollway customers feel each day.
There is everything to gain and little to lose by calling for competitive proposals from investors and from the existing Toll Authority staff on how they would operate and improve these facilities for the public, and on what terms. With a set of real proposals on the table, open to full public scrutiny, there will be a chance for a more businesslike tollway system to evolve, to the benefit of everyone who uses (or relies on others who use) the region's highways.
Peter Samuel is editor and publisher of Toll Roads Newsletter, a monthly newsletter on toll roads and road price issues. For subscription information, call 301/631-1148 or send e-mail to email@example.com. Samuel is a North American correspondent for London's World Highways and Intelligent Transportation Systems International magazines. He has an honors degree in economics from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
(Entries with authors' names underlined are available through PolicyBot on The Heartland Institute's Web site at www.heartland.org.)
Dunn, James A., Driving Forces: The Automobile, Its Enemies, and the Politics of Mobility (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998).
Giglio, Joseph M., Jr., "Private Roads and Public Benefits," Outlook (Hudson Institute), December 1997.
Gomez-Ibanez, Jose, Essays in Transportation Economics and Policy (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1999).
Hayek, Friedrich A., "The Use of Knowledge in Society," Individualism and Economic Order (Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery Company (Gateway Edition), 1948).
Poole, Robert and Kenneth Orski, "HOT Lanes," Policy Study #257 (Los Angeles, CA: Reason Public Policy Institute, 1999).
Roth, Gabriel, Roads in a Market Economy (Brookfield, VT: Ashage, 1998).
Roth, Gabriel, "How to Solve Our Highway Problems," Consumers' Research, June 1997.
Rufolo, Anthony M. and John A. Charles, "Low-Cost Solutions to Portland's Traffic Problems: Congestion Pricing and Free-Market Transit," Policy Summary (Portland, OR: Cascade Policy Institute, March 1998).
Samuel, Peter, "Building Our Way Out of Congestion," Policy Study #250 (Los Angeles, CA: Reason Public Policy Institute, 1999).
Samuel, Peter, "Roads Without the State," The Freeman (Foundation for Economic Education), January 1998.
Semmens, John, "Congestion Pricing: Traffic and the Market," The Pragmatist, June 1997.
Semmens, John, "Twelve Ways to Keep the Valley Moving Without Expanding Public Transit," Arizona Issue Analysis (Phoenix, AZ: Goldwater Institute, 1997).
Small, Kenneth et al., Road Work (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1989).
Transportation Research Board, Curbing Gridlock (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994).
Winston, Clifford and Chad Shirley, Alternative Route (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998).
1. James Payne, Costly Returns: The Burdens of the U.S. Tax System (San Francisco, CA: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1993).
2. Curbing Gridlock: Peak-Period Fees to Relieve Traffic Congestion, Transportation Research Board Special Report 242, two volumes (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994), page 19.
3. Contact Lidia Pilecky, ISTHA, 630/241-6100.
The Value of Tolls


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In the past, I've used Visual Studio with the DirectX XNA math library. Now, I'm using the GNU compiler collection. Can anyone advise a SIMD math library with a good documentation?
You can also do it "yourself" using the SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions) instructions and the intrinsics ( *mmintrin.h files ) of your compiler/proc.
Here is an example of how to use SSE instructions with assembly:
And here is a tutorial on how to use SSE instructions with intrinsics:
A practical guide to using SSE SIMD with C++:
Useful informations
Intel C++ Intrinsics reference (useful to get the list of instructions):
SSE & SSE2 Intrinsic support for the enhanced instruction sets supported by Intel and AMD processors (useful to all kinds of informations relative to SSE and SIMD):
Overall instructions list and informations about SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4, 3DNow etc (different versions of SSE for different proc architecture):
If you prefer a linear algebra framework I eared about Eigen:
And finally if you need more answers about C++ SIMD Frameworks, here is a StackOverflow link. (C++ SSE SIMD framework) :
Both of these vector/matrix-libs have optimized SSE2 code, Sony also has an Altivec for PowerPC compile switch:
by a little seraching i think you can use bullet's math library, bullet itself is an opensource physics engine and it seems to have a powerfull math library beside it. here is a shortcut to download link http://sourceforge.net/projects/bullet/files/SIMD%20and%20amp_%20Vector%20Math%20library/simd%20math%201.02%20and%20vector%20math%201.01/simdvectormath.tgz/download
It is not here yet. But there will be a boost.simd library (hopefully). Take look at this presentation (given last week at boostcon)
AMD has the open source SSEPlus project, although I have never used it so I can't comment on its quality or applicability.


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5 Great Movie Scenes Made Possible by Reckless Endangerment
Sometimes, the only way to capture a truly horrifying and brutal moment on film is to horrify and brutalize the actors, as happens surprisingly often.
Yes, even in the age of computer effects and entire sequences shot in front of a green screen with tennis balls, there is still no substitute for gross neglect of human safety.
#5. Inglourious Basterds: The Actors Almost Burn in the Theater Fire
SPOILERS: In the climax of Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's narrative veers off course from historical fiction and gives the audience a more cathartic and hyper-violent Hitler death than the boring old suicide in a bunker we're all used to. Specifically, some Nazi-killing Jews shoot him in the face hundreds of times with machine guns while a theater burns to the ground around them.
"Thank God we shot him before the fire killed him!"
Ironically, shooting the assassination of Hitler nearly killed the two actors (Eli Roth and Omar Doom) who were supposed to be doing the assassinating. Who could have predicted that actually lighting the set on fire around them would be so dangerous?
That's right -- while it's possible to use CGI to make a building look like it's on fire, it's far more convincing to actually set it ablaze and yell "ACTION!" So the flames that were roaring in the background during the Basterds' murder spree were very much real, and those actors were actually inside -- that wasn't no goddamned green screen effect. The controlled blaze was supposed to never get closer than 20 feet from the actors, but fire rarely does exactly what it's told.
So, predictably, the flames roared across the theater almost immediately, and the fire was right on top of both actors within 30 seconds.
"Feel free to cut, Quentin. Whenever you're ready. Any time now."
Of course, that's the expensive set that's burning down around them, so this was their only chance to shoot the scene without rebuilding the whole damned thing. So everyone was forced to hurry and grab the shot before the out-of-control hellblaze overtook them.
The temperature of the fire quickly reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and, while Tarantino and the crew were wearing fire suits, Roth and Doom were only coated in a jelly meant to protect their skin. The heat was so unbearable that Eli Roth passed out once the scene was over, and had to spend the next day with his head and hands in ice. But he still got off lucky.
The platform they were shooting on was about 10 seconds away from collapse when Tarantino called cut and everyone fled. Had they shot even a few seconds longer, Eli Roth and Omar Doom would have burned to death. Or almost to death -- it would have been awful either way.
But it might have been worth a handful of sympathy-Oscars.
The only indication in the movie of how out of control everything got is that giant swastika over the stage behind Roth and Doom. It collapses and crashes to the ground during the fire, but it was never supposed to fall. In fact, it was supported by massive steel cables precisely so it wouldn't fall, but those cables promptly melted in the unbearable heat of the fire.
So as you watch that scene, remember that the two actors are standing in a room that's so hot it's melting steel. We can only hope the guy who played Hitler was OK, because at this point we're assuming they really shot him in the face.
#4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Real Blades, Real Blood, Real Insanity
Near the end of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (so, you know, spoiler alert), all of Sally's (the main character's) friends are dead and hanging from meat hooks or crammed into freezers in the basement. Sally is tied to a chair at a dinner table while the family of murdering cannibals sits around, taunting her. The scene is well over five minutes long, filled with screaming, close-ups of her pupils and some almost unwatchable psychological torture from Leatherface and his family.
"Thomas told us all about you. More potatoes, dear?"
As an audience, sitting through the entire scene, from the moment they feed the grandfather some of her blood to the point when they try to kill her with a hammer, is excruciating. Watching it feels a little like punishment, which isn't that surprising, considering it was infinitely worse for the actors shooting the scene.
Because there was some legitimate psychological torture taking place in that house during the shoot, and it wasn't just aimed at Sally (Marilyn Burns). They shot for 27 hours straight in that dining room in the middle of a Texas summer with temperatures outside reaching 110 degrees, so it was even hotter inside the house, since they blocked off the windows to keep out the light. If that wasn't bad enough, there were also piles of festering head cheese on the dining room table that were originally just props, but pretty quickly made the rooms smell like a rotting carcass.
"It's all worth it for what I'm sure will be a Best Picture nomination!"
All of these elements combined in a perfect mind-melting storm for the actors and crew. Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface, probably caught it the hardest. He was wearing a heavy leather mask that couldn't be washed the entire shoot (that would cause continuity errors if stains vanished and reappeared in between shots), so he was essentially suffering in his own tiny, stinking oven. Supposedly he got so muddled from the heat that he thought he was actually supposed to kill Marilyn Burns.
In the scene where Leatherface cuts Burns' finger so that the old man can suck her blood, the device that was supposed to release the fake blood clogged for several takes in a row. Hansen, whose mind was already broken and who was willing to do anything to get out of that room, turned away from everyone, removed the safety tape from the knife and then just cut open Marilyn's finger for real.
"Quit squirming or I'm going to screw this up!"
So what you're actually seeing is her blood and her real reaction to having her finger sliced open while tied down in a 115-degree house with people around her who can't remember if they sincerely want her dead or not.
#3. Carrie: Actors Were Blasted in the Face With a Real Fire Hose
While most girls will remember standing in the crowd at their high school prom vaguely wishing they could kill the prom queen, Carrie flips that expectation by allowing the prom queen to psychokinetically murder all her classmates at once.
It starts when the social outcast Carrie White falls for that old classic prank: drenched-by-a-pail-o'-pig's-blood-connected-to-a-rope-leading-to-John-Travolta-under-the-stage. While Carrie has no sense of humor about the cruel prank, she does have telekinesis, which she uses to lock all the doors of the prom, and to slowly murder all the faculty and students present.
"You know, in some countries being doused in pig's blood is an hon-ARGH!"
Carrie's primary weapon in the scene is a fire hose that winds around the gym like a snake, spraying students until they fall through tables (there's a type of snake that does that, right?). During the shooting of that scene, director Brian De Palma wanted shots of some of the meaner characters getting hit directly in the face with the water, but the firefighters on set said hitting people in the face, even actors, was too dangerous given the extreme water pressure.
To which Brian De Palma countered, "Ehh," and shot the kids in the face anyway. Check out actress P.J. Soles at 4:40 (the one who inexplicably wore a baseball cap to the prom):
As you can see, they achieved a very realistic "getting sprayed in the head with a hose" shot by actually spraying her in the head with a hose. What's the harm in that? Well, because she had turned her face away from the spray, the water shot directly into her ear, rupturing her eardrum. It was so painful that she collapsed and passed out immediately.
"No! Unconsciouser!"
She was deaf in that ear for six months following the accident. So what you're actually seeing in that scene is a young girl who's legitimately unconscious from a shattered tympanum, getting sprayed in the face with a fire hose. And then people paid to watch it! Hollywood magic!


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Monday, November 11, 2013
Contact: Jennifer See 814-464-5409
$199,886.50 Bad Beat Jackpot Won At Presque Isle Downs & Casino
Erie, PA, November 9, 2013 — A losing hand in Presque Isle Downs & Casino's poker room caused one "lucky" player to walk away with $99,943.26 from "losing". The Bad Beat Jackpot at Presque Isle Downs & Casino was won by James of Saegertown, Pennsylvania. The bad beat jackpot occurs when a sufficiently strong hand is shown down and loses to an even stronger hand held by another player. At Presque Isle Downs & Casino the qualifier is Aces full of Kings (player must have pocket Aces).
This is the fourth Bad Beat Jackpot won since opening their poker room in October of 2011.
Joseph of Conneaut, Ohio won $49,971.64 for his "winning hand". The remaining share was split among six players each winning $6,246. Jack of Petrolia, PA; Karen of Meadville, PA; Jerome II of Madison, OH; Donald of Erie, PA; Peter of Erie PA; Reginald of Cleveland, OH; Norman of Mentor, OH; and Joanne of Waterloo, Ontario Canada all shared in the $49,971 remaining.
The casino started the Bad Beat Jackpot to create more excitement around the game. And that strategy seems to be paying off in spades.
"The Bad Beat Jackpot was created to enhance the customer experience by providing an additional opportunity for the players to win," said Mike Tamburelli, Presque Isle Downs & Casino VP and General Manager. "It is the second largest jackpot our poker room has seen since we opened and we're glad to see ten very lucky players walk out with their share of over $199,000."
The last bad beat jackpot was awarded in October 2012 when Justin of Grove City, PA won $139,271 and Edward of Erie, PA won $69,635. Eight other players won $8,704 each as part of the table share.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available.
Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
Learn more about Presque Isle Downs & Casino at presqueisledowns.com


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John Faieta
You are hereHome/ John Faieta
Trombone | Chamber Music Faculty
John Faieta earned his B.M. and M.M. from Boston University. Originally from Lynn, Massachusetts, Faieta is a founding member of the award-winning Atlantic Brass Quintet and performs with the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra, the Boston Ballet, the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO).
Faieta is a member of the Vermont Symphony and is currently on the faculty of The Boston Conservatory and Boston University School for the Arts.
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Looking for your local polling place?
There you can find information on where to vote in your community, check your provisional ballot status and more.
Click here to visit the Wisconsin Voter Information page.
North Shore voters can visit our North Shore Voting Guide, which has a list of polling places and a post-redistricting guide to congressional, assembly, and senate districts.
Man with ammo, 'strange writings' detained at Sikh temple
Oak Creek - A Maryland man who walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin with ammunition and written references to a mass shooting in Colorado sipped tea with temple members before being detained by police, a temple spokesman said Thursday.
Police searched and questioned the man and released him after determining he intended no harm, according to Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal.
The incident occurred Sunday, almost three months after gunman Wade Michael Page killed six temple members and wounded three others before being shot by a police officer. Page then fatally shot himself.
According to a police report on the Sunday incident, from which the man's identity was redacted:
Officers were called to the temple shortly after 8:30 a.m.» Read Full Article
Drunken driver caught after witnesses box in her car in Oak Creek
A 33-year-old Caledonia woman was arrested for drunken driving the evening of Oct. 20 after two people who saw her sleeping in her car on Howell Avenue used their cars to box her in.
According to the Oak Creek police log:
A driver called police to report a possible intoxicated driver after she saw a woman sleeping in her car, which was running, near 27th Street and College Avenue about 11:50 p.m. Oct. 20. While the caller was talking to the dispatcher, the intoxicated driver woke up and started driving.
The caller followed her to a traffic light in the 6200 block of South Howell Avenue, where the woman fell asleep again while waiting for a red light. She woke up before officers arrived and continued driving.
A second driver, who apparently saw what was happening, pulled in front of the intoxicated driver in the 6400 block of South Howell Avenue. The caller then pulled up behind her car, boxing her in so she could no longer drive.» Read Full Article
Police pursuit ends when man drives onto wet cement in Oak Creek
A shoplifting suspect who was being pursued by South Milwaukee police was arrested in Oak Creek after he drove his car into wet cement in a construction area Oct. 24.
According to the Oak Creek police log:
About 11:45 a.m., South Milwaukee police reported a 45-year-old Oak Creek man was driving west on Drexel Avenue, approaching Howell Avenue, when he drove over the median and began driving west in the eastbound lanes of traffic. The vehicle finally became disabled after the man drove through wet cement in a construction area near Howell and Drexel avenues.
Construction workers told police the driver and his passenger, an unidentified female, exited the vehicle and fled on foot. Officers found the man in the 8100 block of South Wynona Drive and took him into custody.
The man also was wanted on a Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office warrant for retail theft. He was turned over to South Milwaukee police.» Read Full Article
Milwaukee man robbed during Craigslist transaction in Oak Creek
A 24-year-old Milwaukee man said he was robbed while attempting to sell two iPhones to a potential buyer he met on Craigslist.com.
According to the Oak Creek police report:
About 8:45 p.m. Oct. 26, the man went to an unlit entrance at Hy-View Mobile Home Park, 2137 W. College Ave., to meet a man who wanted to buy two iPhones the victim had advertised for sale on Craigslist.com.
While the victim was talking to the potential buyer, he saw three men walk toward him. One of the men was holding a club. When one of the men yelled, "I'm gonna get you mother (expletive)," the Milwaukee man fled in his vehicle.
He drove south on Interstate 94, and the other men followed him. The victim stated he called the supposed buyer while he was driving to ask him for an explanation, to which the buyer replied, "We will get you." The man exited the freeway on Rawson Avenue and the other vehicle continued driving south on I-94.» Read Full Article
Arrest made in Oak Creek TCF Bank robbery
A 25-year-old South Milwaukee man was arrested for robbing TCF Bank, 8995 S. Howell Ave., Oct. 20.
According to the Oak Creek police log:
The man entered the bank about 11 a.m. wearing dark-rimmed glasses with a fake mustache attached to it, and handed a note to an employee that demanded money from her register. The note also stated not to use a dye pack or he would blow up the bank. The man then handed the employee a white plastic bag, which she filled with an undisclosed amount of money before handing it back to him.
He left the bank and was last seen walking west toward Kohl's.
During the investigation, police got a tip from a security guard at Caterpiller Global Mining in South Milwaukee, who said a man matching the description of the robbery suspect was at their facility that day speaking to another employee. A detective spoke to the employee, who said the man was his roommate. Officers went to the apartment in South Milwaukee and arrested the 25-year-old man.


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Bo Xilai Trial to Start Thursday
Former Rising Star in Party Faces Charges of Bribery, Graft and Abuse of Power
BEIJING—Chinese authorities have announced that the country's most politically sensitive trial since 1980 will begin on Thursday, when Bo Xilai, the former rising star in the Communist Party who was felled by a political scandal last year, faces charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.
The announcement said the trial would be "open." But public access to the proceedings in Jinan, capital of the coastal eastern province of Shandong, appears to be as tightly controlled as it was for last year's trial of Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai. She was convicted of the murder of a British businessman close to the Bo family.
Shortly after Sunday's announcement, a court official confirmed the start date but declined The Wall Street Journal's request to attend the trial, saying all the seats in the courtroom had already been taken—a pretext commonly used in politically sensitive cases in China to control access, according to legal experts.
A guilty verdict is almost a foregone conclusion as courts are tightly controlled by the Communist Party and verdicts and sentences are almost always decided in advance, especially in politically sensitive cases, according to legal experts. The conviction rate in criminal cases in China is around 98%.
An internal Party document says Mr. Bo is accused of taking 20 million yuan ($3.3 million) in bribes, and embezzling 5 million yuan of state funds, as well as abusing his power, according to a Party official who has seen the document.
The charges are less severe than had been expected, according to Party insiders, who believe that the Chinese leadership has struck a bargain whereby Mr. Bo will plead guilty in exchange for immunity for his relatives and allies from politically motivated investigations.
But it remains unclear how severe his sentence will be if he is convicted, whether his wife will testify in person and to what extent the charges against him are linked to the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood or the subsequent police coverup that was described during the trials of Ms. Gu and others involved in the case.
Mr. Bo was party chief of the western metropolis of Chongqing when Mr. Heywood was poisoned to death in a hotel room there in 2011. Local authorities initially said he had died of excess alcohol consumption.
Chinese authorities barred foreign media and handpicked the observers for Ms. Gu's trial, which also took place outside Beijing. But two British diplomats were allowed to attend those proceedings, along with a Chinese lawyer representing Mr. Heywood's family.
A British Embassy spokesman said Sunday that no British official would attend Mr. Bo's trial. He Zhengsheng, the lawyer for the Heywood family, said he could not confirm whether he would be attending.
Mr. Bo's trial will open at the Intermediate People's Court in Jinan at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, the state-run Xinhua news agency—one of the government's main mouthpieces—said in a short bulletin.
It didn't say when the trial would end, but Mr. Bo's lawyers say they are not expecting it to last for more than one or two days. Ms. Gu's trial lasted only one day, and the verdict and sentence were announced 10 days later. She was given a suspended death sentence.
Chinese authorities hope Mr. Bo's trial will help to draw a line under a political scandal that has laid bare deep divisions inside the party elite and heightened public awareness of corruption and abuse of power, analysts and party insiders say.
Mr. Bo remains popular among many Party officials and ordinary Chinese people, and Chinese leaders are anxious to prevent the kind of disruptions that marked the 1980 trial of Jiang Qing, the wife of Mao Zedong, who frequently denounced her prosecutors.
But the Chinese government's efforts to choreograph the proceedings have been complicated in recent weeks by a public demand for compensation from Mr. Heywood's family and by splits within the Bo and Gu families, according to people involved in the case.
The Journal reported on Saturday that Mr. Bo's lawyers expected Ms. Gu to be a key witness for the prosecution, and that Mr. Bo-who didn't testify against her last year—had threatened to divorce her if she appeared in court rather than providing written testimony.
One of those lawyers said Sunday that it was possible that Ms. Gu would testify against her husband, but he could not say for sure.
Some of Mr. Bo's six brothers and sisters disagree over how to handle the case and whether to maintain close relations with the Gu family, according to three people close to the Bo family. They said some relatives of Mr. Bo blame his wife for the scandal that ended his political career.
Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu could not be contacted for comment.
There is also tension over who will be among the six relatives of Mr. Bo who can attend the trial, according to one of the people familiar with the Bo family. Five members of the Bo family and one from the Gu family are expected to attend, but the identity of the latter has yet to be decided, that person said.
Several of Mr. Bo's relatives have hired different lawyers to help to defend him, but only two have been approved by the court.
Write to Jeremy Page at firstname.lastname@example.com


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I have a Unity project without any version control, and I need to share it with another developer so that both of us can work on the project.
What strategies should be use that play nice with Unity Assets?
I have a Unity project without any version control, and I need to share it with another developer so that both of us can work on the project.
What strategies should be use that play nice with Unity Assets?
Unity has a built in facility for supporting version control properly.
Just go into the File->Project Settings->Editor and enable external version control.
I recommend using Git, it's free and the best around.
A while ago I wrote about version control (using Git) on my blog
Long story short:
Enable external version control File->Project Settings->Editor and create the .gitignore file in order to avoid unnecessary stuff on the repo (this is not really necessary, but it will be priceless during development).
Here's how the file should look like:
Unity 3.0 is configured to play nicely with subversion. (At-least nicer than before) I don't know if this is only in the pro version or not, I'll have to check.
In general though, the most recommend version control system is the Unity Asset Server.
Unity specific - work on different scenes and different code files at all times, and merge in the other person's changes manually. If you both need to be working on the same scene, duplicate it and use the copy as a test. Otherwise, if you both modify the same scene, one person's changes will overwrite the other. You can still use source control for your source files, just don't move them around at all, in the file system or via Unity, once they're created.
Beginner advice - get yourself a decent diff/merge tool (I like WinMerge) and get used to using it to see what changes the other person made, and to manually merge changes in conflicted files. Set up a central documentation space, eg. a Google writing document or a wiki, and keep your documentation there - documentation should contain a basic feature list at a minimum so you know what you're aiming for, and ideally a task list derived from the feature list, along with a clear indication of who is working on the task. Talk to each other to get a rough idea of who needs to work on which task and cross them off the list as they get done. Keep revisiting and re-evaluating the list to see if everything is still valid and if you need to rework any priorities.
I work with a team that calls itself Defective Studios. We've struggled with the same issue for years, and just recently I finally gave in and started writing an extension to help me merge gameobjects.
Basically the approach is to create an inspector-like interface in a window that lines up each gameobject, component, and property side-by-side for comparison, and provides buttons to copy values (or whole objects) from one side to another. If you're familiar with the
As well, there is a set of mask fields that let you filter certain component types out of the comparison. GameObject attributes like name, layer, and tag are also compared. We use
One last nifty detail is that the comparison process (triggered when the objects are loaded and whenever a change is made) is run in an ad-hoc coroutine that is updated by the
The tool, Unity Merge is documented on the Unify wiki, which includes a roadmap and an e-mail address for feedback and issue reporting. If you're really struggling with a complicated merge, give it a shot and let us know what you think! Also, I didn't bother to build it into a DLL, so feel free to poke around at the source. The ad-hoc coroutine implementation and
If you have the funds for it, the Asset server with the pro version of Unity is pretty decent. I have used it on a large, multi-person project in the past and it did the job. For vanilla version control, it did what we expected it to do.
I've tried using an SVN repository with a Unity project and it was a bit of a hassle. We ended up scrapping the idea before getting it to work, however. Unity keeps a lot of backup files that I didn't want to take the time to find out what would happen if they weren't synced to the server. I think, with a little finesse, it could be doable but I haven't had experience with it working well.
I have done a small project using the free features of DropBox. It made me nervous but we never had any issues. And, I don't think we ended up needing any real version control stuff for that project so I can't speak much to how reverting or merging files would have gone.
Dropbox supports versioning per file (rather than per commit) and plays nicely with Unity. It is free initially (2 gigabytes) and quite cheap thereafter (about $10 for 50gig). You need the PackRat addon to have access to version history.
Just like with SVN, CVS, GIT etc., you will need to make sure you create tag folders when you get to each key stage in development (eg. end of week, end of milestone). Unlike the aforementioned, it will be much harder to revert to such a stage if you don't, because you would have to revert every single file individually. Bear that in mind while developing and you'll have an easy time without paying for the Asset Server.


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A facility which provides medical care for minor illnesses and injuries is set to close at the end of this month.
The Franklin Urgentcare opened in the fall of 2000, later moving to its current location during the summer of 2001. Although business has been steady, officials say the greater need is for specialty services.
Currently, The Medical Center at Franklin offers physician specialty services in cardiology, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, oncology, orthopedics and psychiatry on scheduled days. Officials say they're now able to add urology and pulmonology to the list of services offered.
The Urgentcare facility will no longer be an option to Simpson County residents beginning July 1, 2003. Persons seeking medical attention during odd hours will be directed to the hospital's emergency room.
Currently, Commonwealth Health Corporation operates Urgentcare facilities in Scottsville, Morgantown, Russellville and Bowling Green.


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I have a valid American visa lasting till June 2015 but my current passport expires in June 2013.
Does the American embassy transfer visas onto renewed passports or am I expected to travel with the old one?
Here's what to do:
Having the visa in another passport does not affect it by any means, as long as the page with the visa is not clipped. I have my own US visa in the old passport and things are fine.
Your embassy should be able to endorse the two passports for you. It's really easy. You just have to tell them to please endorse two passports together because you still have a valid US visa.
My mom has done that for years.


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It seems that some people worry and pray about every aspect of their life, while others only sweat the big stuff. For example, I doubt any believer does not pray about whether they should marry a certain person or not. But for less significant matters, some pray about what God's will is and others just make a decision without prayer.
Should you pray about what career you should choose? About what book you should buy? At what point should you just make a decision?
Does the Bible indicate an answer to this question?
Note: I found a similar question here.


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Is there any subset of $R^n$ homotopically equivalent to the wedge product of countable many circles. In particular, is the union of circles in $R^2$ with center (0,n) and radius n for n=1,2 ... n (sort of inverse Hawaiian earring) homotopically equivalent to that wedge product.
Note that the answer is no if we ask about topological equivalence: the wedge product is closed but not locally compact.


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Larry Cornett
Brilliant Forge is a Product Strategy and Design Consultancy founded by Larry Cornett. Prior to founding Brilliant Forge, Larry Cornett was a Silicon Valley product executive with over 18 years of experience designing, defining, and building consumer products at several of the biggest and best technology and internet companies; including Apple Computer, Yahoo, eBay, and IBM. Most recently, Larry was the Vice President of Consumer Products for Yahoo! Search, leading a multinational team of product managers, designers and developers who were focused on creating world-class Search experiences to compete with Google and Bing.
Larry began his career at IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory while in the graduate program at Rice University in Texas, designing database and development tools. He returned to Rice to complete his doctorate and soon after had the opportunity to move to the Bay area to work as a designer for Apple Computer, where he worked on the Finder for Mac OS 8, OS 9, and OS X, as well as Internationalization and Localization software.
After many memorable years at Apple, Larry left to join a startup during the infamous Silicon Valley Boom and later founded MindSpan Design, an interaction design agency, where he worked on desktop, web, and mobile solutions for a variety of startup clients for several years until the "Bust". After that, he joined eBay to lead a team focused on multiple products for vertical shopping experiences (e.g., eBay Motors, Half.com, Kijiji), platform solutions, and eBay's international sites. This included moving to Shanghai, China to work with the local team to define and launch several new products and help optimize the Product and Design organization.
He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Rice University with an emphasis on Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction. While there, he designed and developed a coaching system for training software users to become more effective and efficient in their daily usage of productivity software. He holds multiple patents, which include design work on web-based products and hardware solutions.
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Hitachi Gas-Powered Handheld Blower (New) for $89.99
The Hitachi RB24EAP Handheld Blower is one of the lightest (only 8.6lbs) and most powerful (at 441 CFM) blowers in its class
Quick and simple to start, a low emission Pure Fire II engine, large throttle lever for easy operation and exceptional balance
23.9 cc Commercial grade 2-stroke engine for outstanding power & longer life
Lightweight & well-balanced for comfortable use and less fatigue
Class leading air volume at 441 CFM for excellent debris movement
Produces an impressive air velocity of 170 MPH (with taper nozzle)
Large two-finger throttle lever for easier operation
5 Comments add a comment
Good deal! But speaking from experience, backpack blowers are so much easier on your body!
I love that you can use anything from 25:1 to 50:1 fuel/oil mix.
User's Manual is available here if anyone is interested...
I bought this the last time it was on woot. Works great. It is a little hard on the arm but I just switch back and forth between left/right hand to give myself a break.
A rake cannot clear my rain gutters of leaves. A rake cannot get leaves out from under nor out from within my bushes and shrubberies.
Bought one last time on Woot. Works great, love it. Do not know how I ever cleaned the leaves and dirt out of the garage before.


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Pocket Atlas of Chinese Medicine (9783131416117)
Publisher: Thieme
Binding: Paperback
by Ergil
A traditional medicine with up-to-date applications, Chinese Medicine is gaining steady acceptance throughout the world. In this exquisitely illustrated Pocket Atlas of Chinese Medicine, written by a renowned team of international experts, readers will find a concise yet comprehensive synopsis of the entire field. From the clinical practice of acupuncture and moxibustion to Chinese herbal medicine and nutrition therapy, Tai Ji, Qi Gong, and Tuina, the book offers a deep understanding of the underlying theory, characteristics, and fundamental concepts of Chinese Medicine, as well as its philosophical and cultural basis. For those needing a single volume overview of this broad and multi-faceted field, this book is unrivalled.
Full coverage of the basic tenets of Chinese Medicine, from its historical roots to modern scientific research, methods, and findings Informative chapter on diagnosis in Chinese Medicine Practical discussion of Chinese herbs and their usage, including formulas for various common ailments Insights from leading specialists on their respective disciplines Proven pocket atlas format, with double-page spreads and juxtaposition of text and related photographs, drawings, and charts for easy comprehension More than 150 beautifully detailed, full-color illustrations demonstrating key models
Pocket Atlas of Chinese Medicine is a must-have resource for students and practitioners of Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, and complementary medicine, including medical doctors in acupuncture training. General physicians interested in expanding their services will also benefit from the wealth of information in this practical guide.
Weight (including packaging): 1500g
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Dennis "Denny" Poirier, 63, of Union died at St. Mary's Community Hospital in Nebraska City Dec. 17, 2012. He was born April 26, 1949 at Brockton, Mass., to Wilrose and AnnaBelle (Blanchette) Poirier. He married Laura Woods July 17, 1971 at Great Falls, Mont.
He is survived by wife Laura Poirier of Union; sons Tony Poirier and wife Melinda of Wiesbaden, Germany, Mark Poirier and wife Karen of Stevens Point, Wis., and Daniel Poirier and wife Tressa of Tomah, Wis.; daughter Stacy Farber and husband Anthony of Lincoln; grandchildren AnnaBelle, Rebecca, Jessica, Stephanie, Nicholas, Samara, Ruthie and Aaron; brothers Norman Poirier of Ohio, and Paul Poirier and wife Sally, John Poirier and Leo Poirier, all of Massachusetts; sisters Marie Palmer of Georgia, Elaine Gilgis of Massachusetts, and Jeanette Hebert of Massachusetts; many other relatives and friends.
He has lived in Union for 36 years. He has worked at Cargill for the past four years, but had previously worked at the Cass County Jail and Cass County Courthouse. Denny served in the United States Air Force for 22 years with an Honorable Discharge in 1989. He loved working on the farm and the outdoors. He was a past member of the Union Volunteer Fire Department and loved helping people.
Memorial services are at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, at Calvary Community Church in Nebraska City with Rev. Dr. Norman Anderson officiating.
A memorial fund has been established.
There will be no viewing or visitations.
Online condolences may be expressed at www.marshallfuneral.com.Marshall Funeral Chapel of Nebraska City is in charge of arrangements.
Location, ST | website.com


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Session 8 - Part 4 - Deploying SharePoint Online Branding Solutions
- Posted: Jun 22, 2011 at 11:45AM
- 9,537 views
Right click "Save as…"
In this video, you'll learn how to package up your SharePoint Online branding solution and deploy it to SharePoint Online via the Solution Gallery.
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Neezer wrote:So, does this mean I am out of luck? Or, is there someway I can look through hidden files and get rid of this program entirely? I do have Windows installed on this computer, and can install it there. I just prefer to do as much as possible within the Mac platform (otherwise, why switch, right?).
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Uveitis (cont.)
Patricia S. Bainter, MD
Dr. Bainter is a board-certified ophthalmologist. She received her BA from Pomona College in Claremont, CA, and her MD from the University of Colorado in Denver, CO. She completed an internal medicine internship at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver, CO, followed by an ophthalmology residency and a cornea and external disease fellowship, both at the University of Colorado. She became board certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology in 1998 and recertified in 2008. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Bainter practices general ophthalmology including cataract surgery and management of corneal and anterior segment diseases. She has volunteered in eye clinics in the Dominican Republic and Bosnia. She currently practices at One to One Eye Care in San Diego, CA.
William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.
In this Article
- What is uveitis?
- What causes uveitis?
- What are symptoms of uveitis?
- What are the signs of uveitis?
- What are the different types of uveitis?
- What other medical conditions are associated with uveitis?
- How is uveitis diagnosed?
- What is the treatment for uveitis?
- What is the prognosis for uveitis?
- What are the complications of uveitis?
- Can uveitis be prevented?
- Find a local Eye Doctor in your town
How is uveitis diagnosed?
An ophthalmologist will ask several questions about the symptoms, both in the eye(s) and the rest of the body (for example, about painful joints, weight changes, skin rashes, etc). The doctor will also need a detailed history of any existing medical conditions and family history of medical disorders.
The vision and eye pressures will be measured, and the examination will involve careful observation of all parts of the eyes.
Though there are several types of uveitis, they all have one thing in common: invasion of white blood cells (immune cells of inflammation found in the bloodstream) from inside the blood vessels of the uvea to outside the blood vessels. These white cells permeate the uveal tissue and also leak out of the uvea into other parts of the eye. This presence of white blood cells is what an ophthalmologist looks for when making the diagnosis. Using a slit lamp, an ophthalmologist can detect white blood cells accumulating in different parts of the eye.
Iritis can present as 'subclinical' with no white blood cells visible, or as subtle microscopic white blood cells floating in the aqueous, the liquid in front of the iris. Sometimes uveitis is not so subtle with large numbers of cells visible and accumulations on the back of the cornea (the clear "dome-shaped" front cover of the eye). These clusters of cells are referred to as 'mutton fat deposits.' In extreme cases, the cells can also form a large pool in the space between the iris and the cornea. This is referred to as a 'hypopyon.'
Cyclitis (intermediate uveitis) presents as white blood cells floating in the clear material just behind the iris (the vitreous) and collections of cells on the surface of uveal tissues behind the iris. Similarly, choroiditis presents as cells in the vitreous and uveal tissue, but further posterior (towards the back of the eye). An ophthalmologist will likely need to dilate the patient's eyes and use special examination techniques to visualize this.
If an associated medical disease is suspected, additional tests or consultation with other specialists may be necessary to identify the condition. These tests might include laboratory evaluation of a small sample of aqueous or vitreous liquid from the eye, blood tests, and/or X-rays. These tests take time. Therefore, usually a treatment plan is initiated based on a clinical judgment before the cause can be definitively identified.
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Tweet Any Good Books Lately?
Explore the world of Twitter book clubs and the spirited, if short-winded, discussions they spark
IF THERE'S ONE THING I like more than reading books, it's sharing my opinions about them. But I'm too overscheduled and disorganized to commit to a book club. So when I heard about the phenomenon of Twitter book clubs—online literary discussions where observations and insights must adhere to Twitter's 140-character limit—I was intrigued. Low effort, laid back and cheaper than shelling out for a babysitter the fourth Thursday of every month, they seemed a perfect match for my current lifestyle.
There are only a few active book clubs on Twitter: Penguin hosts one, as does the Jewish Book Council. The clubs have different guidelines and formats, but most put forth a title for discussion that takes place on Twitter at a specific time. Because I couldn't commit to being in front of my computer at any given time, I went with the Atlantic magazine's 1book140, which is nearly two years old and now has more than 84,000 followers (although only a handful actively participate). I also liked the democratic chaos of the largely unmoderated discussions.
The rules are simple: Each month, members nominate a book by tweeting suggestions in a specific genre. A shortlist is put to a vote (via tweet, of course), a winner declared and the reading schedule published with a week-to-week hashtag guide. Unlike an in-person book club, where you usually show up after having finished the book, on 1book140 you tweet your thoughts chapter by chapter.
In February, when I joined, the genre of the month was young-adult fiction. John Green's blockbuster "The Fault in Our Stars," about two teenagers with terminal cancer who fall in love, beat out classics like Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War" and Judy Blume's "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret." (In April, the club will read "The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.")
Maybe I'm just too old, but interacting with strangers online doesn't come naturally to me. Still, I wanted to participate in 1book140, not just lurk, so I summoned the courage to tweet my entry onto the scene: "Is it too late to start this month? Better to begin on the 1st? How does it work?"
'It quickly got personal, but never the least bit ornery.'
I immediately received a welcoming reply, along with a link to the schedule and an overview of how 1book140 works. "I learned Twitter when I began the group," @jompoi tweeted when I admitted my ineptitude. "You can ask Twitter questions. It's a great group & others will help."
As I got into the book, I found myself checking in with the club regularly: in line at the grocery store, waiting outside my son's classroom, during those all-too-rare moments on the elliptical at the gym. Participants loved swapping favorite quotations, and I'd often pause to mull over lines I'd blown through in my own reading (though I wasn't sold on the crowd's enthusiasm for "the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate").
By week three, I felt ready to join the discussion. Although I was enjoying the book, lack of variation among the characters' voices irritated me. I tweeted accordingly: "Sucked in, and yet: too many characters are unconvincingly identical in wit, self-awareness…Does anyone else find?"
Nobody else found. Or at least nobody else responded. Which was depressing. Kind of like posting a picture of your baby on Facebook and attracting zero likes (not that this has ever happened to me).
The more I read, the more annoyed I became, so I tried again: "Reminds me of Aaron Sorkin's issue. The characters all speak in their creator's too-clever voice, not their own. Wearying." This time: success! I received a reply from @meilufay, a writer in Idaho, whose astute observations had already made her one of my favorite participants. Tweeting back and forth about Mr. Green's lapses into preciousness was exactly the type of low-key literary experience I was looking for.
I could have done with more debates and fewer quotations, which is not to say there weren't some meaningful moments along the way: A reader with a chronic illness launched a discussion about the "culture" of sick people and whether society as a whole marginalizes them. It quickly got personal, but never the least bit ornery.
By the end of the month, I felt vaguely acquainted with the club's most active participants. It helped that there weren't all that many of them. I'd estimate no more than 20 people tweeted along with the schedule.
But so what? For me, 1book140 was more enjoyable for its intimacy. Most of all, I liked how nice everyone was. So often the Internet is a place of derision and insult. But on 1book140, participants respected one another without having to be told to be nice.
Sure, I wouldn't have minded more in-depth discussion, but book clubs have never been confused with postgraduate seminars on Metonymy in Early Shakespeare. They're about quiche and Chardonnay, and most of all about camaraderie. And 1book140 has that in spades.
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THOMPSON, Paul Jr., 90, Mt. Pleasant resident and Dillonvale, Ohio businessman, passed away Tuesday, May 7, 2013, at Autumn Healthcare, Adena, Ohio.
He was born Jan. 14, 1923, in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, son of the late Paul and Maude DeGarmo Thompson.
He graduated from Mt. Pleasant High School and served in WWII from 1943 to 1946 in the Pacific Theatre earning three bronze service stars.
Article Photos
Upon returning from the war, Paul joined Thompson & Sons, the family business in Dillonvale, and continued to work there with his son, Don, until shortly before his death. He is the last birthright member of the Friends Church. He followed his sons and nephews playing sports for many years.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Lewis. Surviving Paul is his wife of 65 years, Jean (Griffith) Thompson; sons: Donald (Rhoda) of Mt. Pleasant, Ohio and Ronald (Carolyn) of Rockwall, Texas; daughter, Bonnie (Ted) Riggle of New Concord, Ohio; six grandchildren: Ben, Chris, and Amanda Thompson, Stephanie Luff, Brad and Brent Riggle; step-grand children: Cathy Gerlach and Rose Reed; seven great grandchildren; four step great-grandchildren; a sister Pauline Walter of Lubbock, TX and many beloved nephews and nieces.
Family and friends are invited to celebrate his life during calling hours Friday, May 10, from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. at Wilson Funeral Home, 154 Second Street, Dillonvale, Ohio. Viewing from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday May 11th at The Mt. Pleasant Friends Church with funeral service commencing at 11 a.m. with Pastor Scott Rose, officiating.
Interment following at Shortcreek Friends Cemetery, Mt. Pleasant, Ohio.
Offer online condolences at www.wilsonfuneralhomes.com