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The Writing Life: How Do You Do it?
I went to New York City last weekend to attend the most recent Commonweal Conversations, "THE WRITING LIFE: WHAT'S FAITH GOT TO DO WITH IT?" Paul Elie, Alice McDermott, and Valerie Sayers gave thought-provoking presentations, prompted by piercing questions by Rand Cooper.One thing that struck me: Both Alice McDermott and Valerie Sayers remarked that they wrote in order to figure things out--they did not know where their writing will take them. It was fascinating to hear how they, really, are the recipients as well as the agents of the creative process.The parallels between fiction writing and non-fiction writing struck me in a way that they hadn't done previously. I find the same thing is true of my writing process --and I'm a non-fiction writer. (Okay, Okay, laugh, laugh. I realize some of you think law and ethics are fiction too.) But I write in order to figure out what I think. I wish I had had more time to ask all the panelists about the mechanics of the writing process for them. It's always interesting to me to find out the "how." I tend to rely upon Word Perfect's wonderful outline program (may peace be upon it), moving around ideas and blocks of text, and gradually producing an argument whose structure I can see clearly, and work on the prose too. Keeping it in outline, I think, lets me not think it's finished too early--enabling me to see the structure, and to play with it.The hardest thing, I thing, is to rip up pages that really don't work. Keeping it in outline as long as possible lets me do that more easily. It doesn't convey the illusion of being finished--which even draft prose does these days, given the ubiquity of laser printers.I love Word Perfect's outline function--and it's the biggest single thing that has kept me from moving to a MAC from a PC.What do you all write, and how do you write?
About the Author
Cathleen Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor in the Theology Department and Law School at Boston College.
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"I write in order to figure out what I think"I'm so glad it isn't just me. This is true for me, whether it's writing a homily or a comment at dotCom.
"how do you write?"For me, in no particular order, it's: read, think, pray, contemplate, research, draft, outline, revise, tear up, start over again, repeat until done.
I didn't even know that Word Perfect is still available.As soon as my latest version of an hp pc dies its final death (way too many interim deaths so far), I'm switching to a Mac.
When I write history (or my one published work of fiction), I reach a point where I think I've done enough research and thought to to put together the main story, and I set it down on paper or the computer. Now I begin to see where more research is needed, and helps me to do the kind of analysis I need -- what does all this stuff mean? and so forth. Then I revise, revise, revise, reorganizing where necessary, doing more research when necessary, all the time trying to tighten things up since the first draft is far too long and boring. (This is the way I've always worked; the first draft of my Ph.D. thesis in 1960 -- typewritten, of course -- came to almost a thousand single spaced pages). But at least you get all the stuff down, and then can whittle, prune, and reorganize as need be. The computer, of course, makes it far easier than it was in the old days. Everything I've written has gone through roughly a dozen revisions, and some parts more than that.And, when I think it's in more or less OK shape, like Count Dracula, I go on the prowl looking for victims who might be willing to shed their blood by reading it and giving me their ideas. My wife Deborah (my chief victim, of course, as I was hers) was a writer too, and she worked in a very different fashion, not slapping things down like me but carefully polishing each paragraph before going on to the next. So her first drafts were always a bit too short, a bit too tight, which gave her the enormous luxury of expansion, while I was forced to cut my winged words. In the one book we did together, she insisted towards the end that we leave home and go off somewhere alone where we could concentrate on finishing the work. It was her idea to take off for some days for Mount Savior, the Benedictine monastery near Elmira, NY, away from telephones, newspapers, and the internet, and there, wrapped around in the rhythms of monastic life, we read the manuscript out loud to each other, to pick up mistakes, clumsinesses, infelicities of phrase, repetitions, and so forth. Reading out loud, even if only to yourself, is essential.But there's no right way of doing it. Different people have different rhythms and work different ways. As for the program, I use Nota Bene, which is designed for scholars, and treats you like a grownup, unlike MS Word, which thinks it knows better than you how to do things.
What a great topic!When I write mathematical proofs, I proceed much like Nicholas Clifford's description: I reach a point where I think Ive done enough research and thought to to put together the main story, and I set it down on paper or the computer. Now I begin to see where more research [or arguments] is needed, and helps me to do the kind of analysis I need what does all this stuff mean? and so forth. Then I revise, revise, revise, reorganizing where necessary, doing more research [or calculations] when necessary, all the time trying to tighten things up since the first draft is far too long and boring. As to the instrument: no one I know uses the computer and typing for their first draft. Typing and interacting with the application is far too distracting when we are trying to focus on the object of our research. But recently I have discovered that stylus-based tablets are a great aid to thinking: see http://teachingintrotocs.blogspot.com/2011/09/designing-proof-with-table... commenting on dot commonweal, I have started to learn to write non-technical writing. It has inspired me to start a blog, half technical, half random incidents in the life of a professor of computer science, and I'm enjoying it greatly. The best thing about a blog is that you don't have to be organized: there is no classification other than chronological, so it does not require self-discipline. There is no expectation of minimal quality, so you can just write what's on your mind without worrying too much about how it is written. It's pure fun.
I looked up information on Nota Bene but it didn't look like anything special. What features do you like about it?Most of my papers have several authors, and we are using DropBox for our draft. The current draft is in a DropBox folder, and, whenever one of us updates it, it gets automatically updated for everyone. The next time I open DropBox, I see the latest version. No more sending manuscripts back and forth in emails and getting lost between several versions that start to diverge! Even just for myself, to communicate between the author Claire-at-home and the author Claire-at-work, it is a convenient way to avoid getting confused.One thing I really like, these days, is the possibility, in the pdf, to click on a reference in the text and be immediately redirected to the corresponding full reference in the bibliography, or to the corresponding equation or lemma. Nice!
I write what my editor tells me within the requisite word limit (500 is about average for a book review these days). Or, if I've pitched a story, I already know where it's going. If there's money involved, I write it as quickly as possible, and a computer makes that easier.Mostly I write book reviews, and, I find Dorothy Parker's old Constant Reader column full of inspiration, not for the snarkiness (though you have to admire that), but in her ability to convey as much about her own aesthetic notions and POV as she does information about the work.If I get too clever, however, I remember that I am NOT Dorothy Parker and follow Dr. Johnson's admonition to cut out the parts you like best. I used to keep a scrapbook of self-expunged passages just to impress myself, but they don't anymore, and I threw it away.
If theres money involved, I write it ... the story, not the money. Duh, you can see why I'm not in high demand ...
I don't write professionally but do write blog posts and I have a pile of short fiction stories. I write on the computer. I do have a mac and use Microsoft Word for Macs for fiction, but for the blog posts just type in the blog interface. I figure out what I want to write first in my head - imagine it, if it's fiction - then do the research, then start typing.
Forgot to mention - one thing that helped me a lot with my writing was belonging to an online writers community/BBS .... http://writersbbs.com/
My first five or six books were written longhand in spiral notebooks with text on the recto and notes on the verso; then typed (I was a horrible typist); then corrected in pencil; then handed over to a real typist. When I finally got brave enough to get a computer I switched to the Brave New World of composition on screen.In general: I write every morning with lunch marking the end of the reading/musing/ writing day.No writing on Sunday or football weekends.Over my desk this motto: nulla dies sine linea - I think it is from Pliny the Elder - "Let not a day pass without a line." I still write in my journal/notebooks in longhand following Thomas Merton's dictum "Contemplate with a pen."
I find something therapeutic in keeping a longhand journal (a la Anais Nin, who once compared laying out her pen and notebook to a junkie's getting out his needles and spoon, or something like that). I've always been interested in why people keep journals and who the audience is. I'm sure someone has covered this in a book somewhere and that the answers are varied and interesting. (Please make suggestions.) My great-grandmother and her sister both kept diaries. They lived next door to each other, and reading their takes on the same events makes an interesting read.I keep a journal for the same reason Harry Truman wrote letters he never sent--to deal with anger and frustration. I burn them in the garden as soon as they're full and ask for God to make me better.So far, it hasn't worked. Or maybe it has worked in that a certain amount of meanness is channeled into the journals, and so I at least appear nicer and more reasonable than I am. Perhaps one of the pitfalls of blog writing is that there is journal filter for the spleen. Mea culpa.I have a motto I write on the front of all my journals that will eventually be consigned to the flames. It's from "Dolores Claiborne" by Steven King: "Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman's got."
It has been so long that I've had to write anything extensively in longhand that the muscles in my hand and fingers are no longer up to the task. I attended evening grad school through a good chunk of the '90's, and had already transitioned so completely to email and word processors in my everyday work that the necessity of filling up a blue book during exams left my hand cramped and sore.
I'm closer to Nicholas Clifford than to his wife. I hardly ever know what I'm going to write before I write it, and first drafts are done very quickly and with not much care for precision or elegance. (A preface usually is the last thing done--after I've discovered what I was going to do.) For the same reason I wouldn't know how to make use of an Outline software.But I have had colleagues who couldn't leave a sentence until it was perfect. It took them forever, it seemed, to write an essay or a chapter. In preparing homilies, I try to read the biblical texts for the next Sunday early in the week, so that I have time to consult commentaries, both ancient and modern, to let ideas percolate in my mind, and to let associations with contemporary events or incidents suggest themselves. Then when I sit down to write the homily, the key is usually the first sentence and usually things flow from there.
I also hated changing over to bossy Word from sensible Nota Bene which we had used ever since it first appeared. (My husband still uses it because he needs the multiple languages it is so good with.) The only bad thing I can say about it is that once when an article I wrote was supposed to be supplied to the publisher copy-ready, the printing process changed every instance of the letters fl into one of those little circles that turns up in Swedish. Affluence, influence, etc. all had those weird little circles. And no proof reader caught it. I think that somehow fl must have been one of those hidden mark-up signs they had in Nota Bene at the time.
I write fiction to serve as advocacy. Colombian Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez once said that, if you want to make a political point, write a good book.I hope I've written a passable one. The conceit of my novel is the move of a Latin American country during the Sixties from cautious optimism to the edge of tinieblasabysmal ignorance, darkness. It is a love story woven around union organizing in a fictitious country in South America.
In answer to Claire's question, above, about Nota Bene: I took to it in large part because I had loved (and still do) its ancestor, XyWrite, a WP program from the 1980s and 1990s, which was blazingly fast and still today does things that MS Word can only dream of (and therefore decides you don't need). NB's weakness is in graphics; it's easier to bring pictures into Word, and see how they're going to look, so if you're doing something like designing a brochure, NB probably isn't for you. I still keep a copy of XyWrite IV on my Windows computer, and use it all the time.NB handles things like footnotes far better than Word, giving you much more flexibility. Try separating footnotes out of a chapter into a separate file in MS Word -- it's almost impossible, though this is what publishers usually want. NB also allows you to put all the chapters of a book (for instance) into a single file. It also allows you to do word searches through as many files in as many folders as you like (though it can't directly read documents in Word). It can allow to work in Cyrillic or Greek fonts, if you like (not that I can), and if you are are a biblical scholar, like some on this list (not me!), you can even work in Syriac, Coptic, Ugaritic and Akkadian with the appropriate fonts (not that they do me any good). Oddly enough NB still hasn't brought Chinese and Japanese in, though they promise to do so).Unfortunately, if you do a manuscript in NB, and send it off to most publishers, it will be met with head scratching, and so you have to translate it into Word through .rtf files. Which is OK, but tedious.
I am a lawyer but also a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church. When writing homilies I like to follow the advice of George Burns (of Burns and Allen fame). When asked his definition of a good sermon, Burns replied: "It has to have a good beginning and it has to have a good ending; and they can't be too far apart."


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This is theorem 14.C on p.84 of Matsumura's commutative algebra.
Let $A$ be a noetherian domain, and let $B$ be a finitely generated overdomain of $A$. Let $P \in Spec(B)$ and $p = P \cap A$. Then we have $ht(P) \leq ht(p) + tr.d._{A} B - tr.d._{K(p)} K(P)$ with equality holds when $A$ is universally catenary or if $B$ is a polynomial ring over $A$.
Question: How should one understand this formula? I'm hazarding a guess that this factor, $tr.d._{A} B - tr.d._{K(p)}K(P)$, can somehow measure how primes of $B$ will be identified when they are restricted back to $A$. But this sounds woefully wrong and I just want to know how I should view this result or whether there is any (geometric) intuition behind the result.

subset: commoncrawl


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Possible Duplicate:
Which Content Management System (CMS) should I use?
need very simple multi lingual CMS. Currently site is in pure html. So all pages are written in pure html. No dynamics, block, etc.
What I need is: I can create 3 versions of site and add content to it. That's all.
Currently I think of Wordpress+qtranslate or TribiqCMS. But I am not sure right now.


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5 Insane Farm Secrets Behind the Food on Your Grocery List
Nobody wants to know where their food comes from. It's perfectly understandable: Hamburgers are delicious regardless of the fact that the slaughterhouse had to toss cows into a giant blender in order to make them. Still, it's worth paying attention to, because some of what's going on behind the scenes is downright weird. Like ...
#5. Magical Farm Rituals
Let's say your local farm or vineyard has a mouse problem. How do you think they solve it? Poison? Baited traps? A bunch of cats? Wrong! They catch one mouse, skin it, discard the body, burn the skin into ashes while Venus is in the constellation Scorpius, then scatter the ashes. Or at least that's what they do if they practice biodynamics. It's a popular farming technique among organic growers (especially vineyards) that is full of weird rituals intended to harness the powers of the Earth and stars. Here are their directions on how to make compost:
First, stuff cow horns full of manure and ground-up quartz, then bury them for the winter.
Winemaking Nomad, Natural Science Organics
Then hang sausages made from flowers and either cow or stag intestines out all summer.
Next, cram barnyard animal skulls full of bark, then "bury them in a damp place."
"We started out with human skulls, but we eventually ran out of hitchhikers."
Why in the possible hell are they doing this?
Well, early last century, an Austrian philosopher and "esotericist" named Rudolf Steiner founded an occult spiritual movement known as anthroposophy. Steiner himself described this belief system as "a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe." Basically, it's a hodgepodge of New Age jibber-jabber and astrology. For some reason, in 1924 a group of farmers invited Steiner to deliver a series of lectures on how his theories could be applied to agriculture, despite his having absolutely no expertise in the area. Steiner's ideas were a hit, and biodynamic agriculture was born.
In recent years, Steiner's methods have become especially popular among vintners, and we're not just talking about a few tie-dyed Napa Valley beard enthusiasts. Biodynamic viticulture has become all the rage among some of the world's leading wine producers, and there are even some supermarkets that organize their schedule around Steiner's calendar. Trade and industry groups hold exclusively biodynamic wine tasting events, and more than 10 percent of France's vineyards are now using this supernatural system. Most supporters will tell you that the proof is in the results, and that biodynamically grown wine just tastes better.
"Hmmm, a subtle bouquet, with undertones of mouse ghosts."
Just in case you were wondering if anyone has bothered, "A six-year study from the Washington State lab in 2005 was the first published in a peer-reviewed journal comparing biodynamic and organic agriculture with respect to wine grapes in particular. They found nothing." What? You mean grapes aren't improved at a farm where "cow horns are utilized as antennae for receiving and focusing cosmic forces"? Did we mention that's accomplished by filling them full of shit?
#4. Super Beef from Giant Genetic Freak Cows
Most of us just think of cows as walking beef. Think about it -- if you saw a cow in your yard, you'd assume that it escaped from somebody's farm. There's no such thing as wild cows, right? They're not animals -- they exist so we can have steaks. So if that's true, scientists said, why not go all the way with it and make a giant supercow with lots of extra steak on its bones? Boom:
Next Nature
This is what it'd look like if Sir Mix-A-Lot had taken up farming.
Behold, the Belgian Blue. Belgian breeders addressed the problem of cows not having enough lean, delicious meat on their bodies by exploiting a gene mutation that produces extra muscle fiber. If a cow and '70s-era Arnold Schwarzenegger made love, the Belgian Blue would be their baby.
Thanks to their extra muscle fibers, these behemoths can convert food to muscle much more effectively than their fat counterparts. And here's the kicker: They're all-natural. No steroids around. So even though they look as guilty as Jose Conseco at a back alley GNC, these gargantucows are probably healthier for you than what you're eating right now.
Nice calves. Way to only work the glamour muscles, asshole.
Even if you're eating chicken. According to a USDA study, Belgian Blue steaks get stellar marks for moisture and tenderness, and have less fat and cholesterol than chicken breasts. The breed is relatively new to the U.S. but is said to be rapidly gaining acceptance among blind people who like lean beef.
Yep, no downside whatsoever! We're not even sure why we brought it up. Oh, wait, here's a fun factoid: Getting a baby Schwarzenegger through a heifer birth canal is about as easy as getting a grown-up Schwarzenegger through a doggie door. Which is why most calves require Caesarean births. They have to be cut out of their mothers due to the muscle mass built in utero. So maybe we jumped the gun on the "all-natural" thing a little bit.
#3. Human Bees
A lot has happened since 2006: We've elected the first black president, we got bin Laden, there were some Olympics, oh and all the bees started disappearing. And so far science's best answer for the mass beeicide is "cellphones?"
No matter what is causing the mass disappearance of the bees, the effect on agriculture has the potential to be devastating. Without the pollinating prowess of the honey bee, farmers of everything from apples to watermelons are losing billions per year, and experts are still banging their heads against the wall trying to come up with a solution.
Some people refuse to take the mass extinction of our favorite pollinators lying down. And by that we mean they've decided to become bees themselves.
"Finally, a way to have sex with a tree that won't get me arrested!"
The pear farmers of southern Sichuan are addressing the bee shortage by unleashing perhaps their greatest asset: raw manpower. When the bees stopped facilitating hot yearly tree sex, thousands of citizens mobilized in the orchards each spring, armed with a suggestively named pollination stick made from chicken feathers and -- no joke -- cigarette butts. Up the trees they go, stick in hand, to manually do the work of insects by dabbing pollen onto the billions of willing blossoms. Or pork the flowers, whichever way you want to put it.
Paulownia Project
"He can dress up like a bee all he wants, but there's not a damn way I'm calling that weirdo 'my queen'."
And that's after they scrubbed the pollen from pear trees and manually dried it. The crazy part, besides the fact that China is doing it with pear trees, is that in this region they've been hand-pollinating for two decades now. They didn't wait for the big colony collapse to get started -- their bees left their asses 20 years ago, thanks to pesticides. So hey, unemployed American college grads -- looks like there might be some employment options out there after all. Just wait until spring!
But don't wait too long, or else the job might get taken by your cyborg grandmother ...


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GROESBECK (December 13, 2012)-A Limestone County deputy sheriff has been cleared of wrongdoing in the July shooting death of a suspect who was in custody.
The November session of the Limestone County Grand Jury declined to indict Deputy Billy Mack in the shooting.
Mack had been under investigation by Texas Rangers after he shot a man he was trying to arrest on July 12.
Steven Thompson, 41, died the next day at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco from wounds he sustained in the shooting.
Mack was trying to arrest Thompson on a burglary warrant outside a Groesbeck tire shop where Thompson worked.
Thompson was shot during the struggle, Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson said at the time.
The deputy first attempted to use a Taser to subdue Thompson, but when that failed, he was forced to use his firearm, Wilson said.
The deputy who was also bitten during the struggle, suffered minor injuries, Wilson said, and was taken to a Groesbeck hospital where he was treated and then later released.
Some witnesses, including Thompson's father Bill, offered conflicting accounts of the shooting, however.
Bill Thompson said two passersby were holding down his son on the ground when the deputy fired.
"Steven was on the ground, the deputy was on top of Steven, and then a guy from across the street and another guy came and held Steven down," he said.
"The deputy then stood up, and shot Steven. I mean it was just like that," Thompson said.
"They used deadly force for no reason, I mean he didn't even have a weapon. They may consider him an outlaw, but he's my son and I love him. I sure didn't want them to shoot him like that." Thompson said.
Other witnesses said the deputy fired after he became tangled in the Taser's wires.


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Tag Archive | the hergenrother team open houses
Open House! 136 Woodbury Road, Burlington | $199,900
Open House | 136 Woodbury Road, Burlington
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The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? (Paperback)
October 2009 Indie Next List
"Padgett Powell has written his own take on Pablo Neruda's Book of Questions, and the result is a hoot -- but between the laughs there's substance and style."
— Lisa Stefanacci, The Book Works, Del Mar, CA
Playful and profound, The Interrogative Mood is a bebop solo of a book in which every sentence is a question. In it acclaimed novelist Padgett Powella writer once touted as the best of his generation by Saul Bellowforce us to consider our core beliefs, our most cherished memories, our final views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In fiction as in life, there may be no easy answersbut The Interrogative Mood is an exuberant book that leaves the reader feeling more alive.
About the Author
Padgett Powell is the author of six novels, including Edisto, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and two collections of stories. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, and the Paris Review, as well as in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Sports Writing. He has received a Whiting Writers' Award, the Rome Fellowship in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, where he teaches at MFA@FLA, the writing program of the University of Florida.
Praise For…
"Captivating and often glorious."
-New York Times Book Review, Paperback Row
"Can you picture the rabble-rousing literary offspring of Flannery O'Connor and Donald Barthelme? Does the prospect of reading a lawlessly lyrical, comic novel composed entirely in The Interrogative Mood pique your curiosity?"
-Vanity Fair
"[Powell] has a rare ear for dialect and dialogue, a dedication to new ways of making words jump and dance and catch fire."
-New York Times Magazine
"Offhanded, witty, original, and [an] altogether unique book. . . . Here, he's less a writer in the school of John Casey or Peter Taylor than he is a member of the badass gang of Barry Hannah. The Interrogative Mood, serious and laughable, extends this legacy."
-Rick Moody
"A supreme literary stunt."
-Jonathan Lethem
"[A] peculiar and mind-popping experience. . . . Most novels take us away from ourselves, into the lives and minds of other people. The Interrogative Mood goes boldly in the other direction — and really, wouldn't you like to talk about yourself?"
-St. Petersburg Times
"Hypnotic...Jazzy meditations that wrestle with life's important questions."
-The New Yorker
"Intimate and hilarious—the yearning is as powerful as all that is evoked and revealed in this precise and beautiful novel."
-Amy Hempel
"A delightful stylistic flight, and as engrossing as staying up late at summer camp considering every goofy or brilliant question that comes into your head. Padgett Powell is one of the best writers in America, and one of the funniest, too."
-Ian Frazier
"This book will sear the unlucky volumes shelved on either side of it. How it doesn't, itself, combust in flames is a mystery to me. Padgett Powell has given us a wake-up call."
-Jonathan Safran Foer
"If Duchamp or maybe Magritte wrote a novel (and maybe they did. Did they?) it might look something like this remarkable little book of Padgett Powell's: immensely readable, ingenious, witty, and ultimately important-feeling in a way you can't quite describe but don't need to."
-Richard Ford
"[This novel] represents superior value in a crumbling economy. Its pages do not tell a story—they tell thousands of stories, all of them starring you. Powell pokes and prods, soothes and slaps you. By the end you will feel as rich as Haroun al-Rashid on the thousandth night."
-Luc Sante
"[An] ingenious provocation, devious and deeply hilarious riff, perfect party game, not to mention the most entertaining personality test ever devised. But above all it is another brilliant work of fiction, in some ways Powell's best, by one of the few truly important American writers of our time."
-Sam Lipsyte, author of HOME LAND
"You don't so much read [The Interrogative Mood] as let it shove and jangle you into unexpected and highly pleasurable states of mind. Powell is a master of nouveau Southern lyricism....How this book works is beyond me, but, miraculously, it does."
-Village Voice
"The book intrigues as it entertains… [Powell's] questions and nonsequiturs will have you looking at your own life with a renewed sense of observation—and a healthy appetite for the absurd." (5 stars)
-Time Out New York
"A remarkable collection of philosophical inquiries, stimulating either/ors and good-faith measures the gap between where we are as a species and where we belong. The Interrogative Mood demands to be read deliberately, for it is courageous and entertaining and interested in the essential mysteries of self and society."
-New York Times Book Review


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S. M. Stirling
From Wikiquote
Stephen Michael Stirling (born 30 September 1953) is a Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. His novels often describe military situations and militaristic cultures.
|This article on an author is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it.
- Bad writers have influences. Good writers steal.
- Dragon Page Cover to Cover interview, Episode 372A (8 September 2009)
- A libertarian is someone who can believe that the police are no more than a gang of thugs without realizing that in the absence of police, thugs will gather into gangs.
- There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.
- Conquistador (2003)
- "The Mackenzie had never met folk so poor in story and song and legends, and it moved him to a pity that pricked at his eyes. Without that tapestry of colour and words and ritual, what was life but eating and mating, sleeping and moving your bowels? All of them good and necessary, but not enough; and they themselves needed that framework too, to give them meaning."
- The Sword of the Lady


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How can I detect and peel the label from the jar below (POV, cylinder radius, jar contents are all unknown)
to get something like this, which is the original label before it was stuck on the jar?
How can I detect and peel the label from the jar below (POV, cylinder radius, jar contents are all unknown)
to get something like this, which is the original label before it was stuck on the jar?
This answer evolved over time and got quite long in the process. I've created a cleaned-up, restructured version as an answer to a very similar question on dsp.stackexchange.
Here's my quick&dirty solution. It's a bit similar to @azdahak's answer, but it uses an approximate mapping instead of cylindrical coordinates. On the other hand, there are no manually adjusted control parameters - the mapping coefficients are all determined automatically:
The label is bright in front of a dark background, so I can find it easily using binarization:
I simply pick the largest connected component and assume that's the label:
Next step: find the top/bottom/left/right borders using simple derivative convolution masks:
This is a little helper function that finds all white pixels in one of these four images and converts the indices to coordinates (
Now I have four separate lists of coordinates of the top, bottom, left, right borders of the label. I define a mapping from image coordinates to cylinder coordinates:
This mapping is obviously only a crude approximation to cylinder coordinates. But it's very simple to optimize the coefficients c1..c8:
This minimizes the mapping coefficients, so the points on the left border are mapped to {0, [anything]}, the points on the top border are mapped to {[anything], 1} and so on.
The actual mapping looks like this:
Now I can pass the mapping directly to ImageForwardTransformation
The artifacts in the image are already present in the source image. Do you have a high-res version of this image? The distortion on the left side is due to the incorrect mapping. This could probably be reduced by using an improved mapping function, but I can't think of one that's better and still simple enough for minimization right now.
I've tried the same algorithm on the high-res image you linked to in the comment, result looks like this:
I had to make minor changes to the label-detection part (
And you might want to invert the mapping function symbolically and use
I think I've found a mapping that eliminates the cylindrical distortion (more or less, at least):
This is a real cylindrical mapping. I used the Taylor series to approximate the arc sine, because I couldn't get the optimization working with ArcSin directly. The
Resulting mapping:
Unrolled image:
The borders now fit the label outline quite well. The characters all seem to have the same width, so I think there's not much distortion, either. The solution of the optimization can also be checked directly: The optimization tries to estimate the cylinder radius r and the x-coordinate of the cylinder center cx, and the estimated values only a few pixels off the real positions in the image.
I've tried the algorithm on a few images I've found using google image search. No manual interaction except sometimes cropping. The results look promising:
As expected, the label detection is the least stable step. (Hence the cropping.) If the user marked points inside the label and outside the label, a watershed-based segmentation will probably give better results.
I'm not sure if the mapping optimization is always numerically stable. But it worked for every image I've tried as long as the label detection worked. The original approximate mapping with the 2nd order terms is probably more stable than the improved cylindrical mapping, so it could be used as a "fallback".
For example, in the 4. sample, the radius can not be estimated from the curvature of the top/bottom border (because there is almost no curvature), so the resulting image is distorted. In this case, it might be better to use the "simpler" mapping, or have the user select the left/right borders of the glass (not the label) manually, and set the center/radius explicitly, instead of estimating it by optimizing the mapping coefficients.
@Szabolcs has written interactive code that can un-distort these images.
My alternative suggestion to improve this interactively would be to let the user select the left&right borders of the image, for example using a locator pane:
Then I can explicitly calculate
Using this solution, I get almost distortion-free results:
Here's my stab at it, using a cylindrical projection, and TextureCoordinateFunction with a fitting parameter. Replace IMG in the code with the actual photo. The last command is a manual crop.
Here's a modified version of the above using a few more control parameters which gives a projection on to a more general elliptical cylinder.It also corrects the lighting.
@nikie gave a very nice answer. This is a complement to it.
One remaining challenge is compensating for the distortion close to the left and right edges of the image, visible for example here (image taken from nikie's post):
The magnitude of the distortion cannot be estimated in the general case without having some information about what's on the label. If the photo of the label is taken directly from the front, it will always appear as a rectangle. Therefore it's impossible to tell what angular region of the cylinder (jar) the labels takes up simply by looking at its photo. It could be half a jar (180°) or it could be negligibly small (e.g. 30°).
One solution could be letting the user compensate for the distortion manually (as a person can judge the magnitude of the distortion from e.g. the text on the label). We could use a
Note: I assumed parallel projection to keep things simple.
After finding an approximation for $\alpha$ by dragging the slider and looking at the output, we can compute a better quality "undistorted" image using
this approach looks promising:
and then locate corresponding points as follows:
So now all we need is a routine to do arbitrary rotations of an image projected onto the surface of a cylinder, then optimize matching of points with respect to cylinder radius, viewpoint, rotation etc. (and it would be nice to have more than 3 points, but that would probably be the case for larger images).
As an aside, it sounds like
So it'll take some more work.
Thank you for your interest in this question.
Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?


text:
I have vinyl flooring in the bathroom that has started to curl up a bit at the edge. It was suggested to me that I use contact cement to fix it. The problem is that there is not enough curl to allow space for me to get at the sub floor or the underside of the vinyl flooring in order to apply the cement. Do I need to rip up more of the floor to expose enough surface area? If so, how can I do that in a controlled manner?
One option would be to install quarter round next to the baseboards. If the edge has barely started curling up, this would hold it down.
Otherwise, yes you will have to peel the vinyl back to apply adhesive to it. One method to make the floor a bit more pliable is to use a hairdryer to heat it up. Just make sure you don't overheat it too much.
Before applying the new adhesive, you may have to scrape off some of the old adhesive, and clean off any resulting debris.
Here's a good article with more details: Link


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Product Reviews
Swarovski 5000 8mm Faceted Round Provence Lavender-Chrysolite Blend
Let your designs shine with unique color using the Swarovski 5000 8mm faceted round in Provence Lavender-Chrysolite Blend. This bead is perfectly round and features multiple facets precisely cut into the surface, for a glittering display. This bead features a spectacular display of color transitioning from pale purple to a light and leafy green. This unique blend is sure to evoke a sense of springtime, all while highlighting the tenderness of femininity. Use this bead as a transition between colors or let it stand alone as a stunning design element. This is the perfect bead for using in matching necklace and bracelet sets.
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Lincolndale Collection by Feiss
From table lamps to floor lamps, the Lincolndale Collection from Feiss features a number of classic lighting pieces. Each lamp features an Astral bronze finish coupled with a natural linen shade for that traditional aesthetic. Use a 150-watt bulb for the best results. Brighten your bedroom or living room with one of these stylish lamps.
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Hi all,
After a couple of trials, it was pointed out to me else where that the settings for the 40D+10-22 needs to be adjusted. I have a NN3 MKII head and I used the settings recommended in the camera settings.
Anyways, I tried to recalculate the numbers manually and came up with this:
Lower Rail 'A' = 43 mm
Upper Rail 'B' = 104.5 mm
If I could push the camera backward a little more I would have because the settings in B is the closest thing to correct but not exactly.
Can someone confirm the numbers?


text:
New homeowners may pay a pretty penny for their dream home. Experts say over the last month prices on drywall, cement and asphalt have increased.
But the expenses don't stop there.
"We are going to see other increases. We have already been put on notice by our suppliers that things like shingles, plastics, vinyl windows, anything that has a petroleum product in it," says Realtor & New Construction Specialist Lynn Davenport.
Builders say the basics of new home construction have also seen a dramatic change.
"Lumber material has gone up about 30 or 35% just here in the last month or so. So a substantial increase on the lumber," says Kyle Kirby of Kirby Builders.
The increased cost still hasn't had an affect in Warren County where home construction is around just about every corner.
"We have 32 single family home permits already on February the 8th. This time last year we only had 21," says Director of Warren County Public Works Mac Yowell.
The desire to live in Warren County is good news for the area, unless you're in the market to build. Supply and demand have even spiked prices for land.
"We are seeing lot prices increase anywhere from what they were six months ago to a year ago they have increased $15,000. So if you are building a $250,000 house that you could have built for $250,000 six months ago that house, if nothing else changes, will go up $10,000 to $15,000," says Davenport.
Davenport says inflation could also be passed on to prices of existing homes in the coming months.


text:
The international oil shipping services provider, which paid Bretta Tanker Holdings $15.1 million in the second quarter of 2016, saw profits for the first half of 2016 slip 11.3 percent year-over-year to $153.7 million.
The Port of New York and New Jersey, which experienced the second busiest June ever for box volumes, was called by a 10,077-TEU containership at the GCT Bayonne Terminal.
The U.S. gross domestic product increased 1.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016, according to the "advance" estimate from the Department of Commerce, following a revised increase of just 0.8 percent in the first quarter.
Registration takes less than 1 minute.
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based railway will construct a $270 million intermodal rail hub in Rocky Mount, N.C. in addition to launching a new intermodal rail service within the state between the Port of Wilmington and Charlotte.
The terminal operator has joined a group of Nova Scotia business leaders and investment company Cyrus Capital Partners L.P. in plans to build 315-acre marine container terminal on the Strait of Canso.
The massive $5.3 billion project comes with "considerable safety concerns," which could lead to accidents and delays for shippers and higher claims for insurers, according to a new report from the London-based risk management consultancy.


text:
In an emergency...
In emergencies, for Police, Fire or Ambulance, dial 999or112.
Free home safety checks are available from West Midlands Fire Service
Highways Emergencies (out of hours):
If you need to report a danger on the highway (including faulty lighting, dangerous structures, road hazards, etc.) during times when our office are closed (evenings, weekends & bank holidays), call Birmingham City Council control centre on: 0121 303 4149. Other problems, which do not represent a danger, may be reported via this form.
If You Smell Gas:
Contact Transco on 0800 111 999
Dangerous Structures:
To report dangerous structures during office hours, call: 0121 303 7179 / 0121 303 4149
For other Emergency Services provided by Birmingham City Council see the related links section below:
Street Lighting
Dangerous Trees
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West Midlands Police
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West Midlands Fire Services


text:
gdbprintlib now works for all sources if using debug version of ADMB with 'admb -g modelname'
Simplify main GNUmakefile build by eliminating sub-makes.
Fix problem with last commit, should build spcomm.cpp for windows only.
[Issue #122] Simplified nmake build files. Does not call utilities\make in src\Makefile.
[Issue #118] add shared target$ make shared
Don't do pvm routine unless USE_ADPVM is defined.
I started adding comments to the code. The function minimizer for MCMC now has comment header. Also changed a few error messages in the same function. C
Don't do pvm stuff in lex files.
Format nh99 objects.
Fix typo.
Updated core team list.
Simplify build instructions for tpl2cpp from nh99/Makefile and tpl2rem from df1b2-separable/Makefile by moving to src/Makefile.
tpl2cpp.exe and tpl2rem.exe are now moved properly into build/dest/bin
Force tpl2cpp and tpl2rem builds.
Remove unused makefiles.
Spaces and uppercase letters in 'mymodel -version' report
Modify build script to work with MinGW without msys.
Avoid output to tpl2cpp-winflex.c adn tpl2rem-winflex.c.
Use the gnuwin32 flex for windows.
Update lex .c files for those without flex.
Add braces to improve readablity.
Use Makeflags -j and do not parallel build tpl2rem and tpl2cpp.
Increase borland library size.
Typo fix.
Reorg makefiles
Remove unused file.
VC build improvements.
Update build files for VC
Fix build when flex is missing.
Also, other build file cleanups.
Major changes to the gmake build files to simplify and improve.To use just type
$ make
Or for Visual C++
$ nmake
in the main source directory.
Fix cl paths.
Changed option from -mcgrope to -mcprobe.
Documented commandline option matching
Changed the lexer so that it adds #include <contrib.h> to a model's built cpp file. The user no longer needs to #include any of the contributed library header files in their TPL source.
Another correction of sign in the covariance calculations
[ADMB Users] difference between ADMB-RE and R/mgcv in SEs ....
[Issue #108] Reverted beta and gamma to ADMB-9 code.
Addresses feature request 40, outputting eigenvalues unsorted and sorted
Add check for cygwin, courtesy of Johnoel Ancheta
Copy VERSION .
[Issue #99] Add support for MinGW-w64(GNU g++).
[Issue #99] Begin support of x86_64-w64-mingw-g++.
[Issue #101] mingw.mak builds contrib libraries by default.
[Coding Standard] No tabs.
Move sed.exe to utilities.
expanded default arrmblsize in tpl2cpp but did not move to gradstrc.cpp
[Issue #51] using const instead of _CONST macro in headers.
using const instead of _CONST macro in nh99.
Rescope some variables. Avoid unitialized stuff.
Remove trailing space in *.std output file
Revert src back to r413 keeping changes in r420.
Dos to Linux line endings for more files
Revert r414 conversion of URLs, from http:// url back to http://url
Reverted conversion of line endings from r414, back to Linux style
Changed almost all CPP HPP and H files to reduce warnings from Ubuntu build involving whitespace in code. All assignment operators should now be surrounded by spaces, all comments should be preceded by a space, all for loop constructs should have whitespace surrounding all statements.
Fix bug in -help, where model name was truncated
Fix whitespace etc. in src/nh99/model7.cpp
Improve -help and -info, add support for --version
added labels to cout statement in hybrid mcmc
Should deallocate memory reported by cppcheck.
Fix borland build.
Fix solaris studio build for istringstream.
Removed no-deprecated and permissive flags, then changed deprecated headers with recommended.
[Issue #97] Should also set CFLAGS for 32 bit builds.
Add support for simple --help with two hyphens
Fix warnings about unused variables.
Fix broken build for solaris studio.
Fix some g++ compiler warnings.
Fix reported cppcheck error for allocation and deallocation of memory.
Use 'rd' instead of 'rmdir' in Windows makefiles (don't use coreutils)
Don't copy sedflex to 'bin' directory
Remove sed1.exe
Fix whitespace etc in makefiles
Fix whitespace etc in MinGW makefile tree
Remove stub target.
Upgrade sed.exe from version 2.05 to 3.02
Fix vc compiler build.
addeddvector value(const param_init_number_vector& t)dvector value(const param_init_bounded_number_vector& t)const char * get_name(void) { return name;}
add prior_section and likelihood_section
Really put svn:keyword Id...
Add svn 'Id'.
Fix broken solaris studio build.
started support for factors
Fix broken build.
Remove confusing 10.x version number
Profile likelihood for RE models from Dave
Change to mod_sd.cpp required to remove warning from glmmadmb.tpl
Changes to df1b2fnl.cpp xmodelm3.cpp needed for new robust glmmadmb.tpl
Fix valgrind reported memory leak.
Add how to cite to -info and README.txt.
Add ADMB Foundation to Copyright and add -version to -help option.
Fix buildbot exception for borland runtime.
--version touch ups.
Add revision to --version
Add line space
Add copyright to -version.


text:
Arts & Education Magazine Subscriptions
ARTnews is the most popular art magazine in the world. Each award-winning publication covers contemporary artists, trends, and issues. Articles cover topics such as the most impressive art collections and the best art galleries. Individuals who want an overview of the international art scene will appreciate a subscription to ARTnews magazine.
The Artist's Magazine is a leading resource for artists who work with watercolor, pastels, oils, and pen and ink. Issues teach readers how to develop their skills, master new techniques, and sign up for art contests. Step-by-step instructions and colorful photos serve as a useful how-to guide.
SchoolArts magazine is a renowned publication for art educators. Each issue is filled with art lesson ideas, creative tips, new projects, and helpful hints. The magazine covers contemporary, fine, and digital art. Teachers who need professional support and creative inspiration will appreciate a subscription to SchoolArts magazine.
Whether you are an aspiring artist, a teacher, or someone who appreciates good art, you'll look forward to each new issue of our arts and education magazines. Peruse our website to find the latest deals and discounts on select magazines. You can easily find something that you'll love!


text:
Situated in the heart of London's West End, the Hotel is only a few minutes walk from Oxford Street, with Soho, Covent Garden and Theatreland a short stroll.
The British Museum and University of London are adjacent and the City's financial centre is just a short taxi or tube ride from your London home. The accommodation is designed to satisfy the most discerning international traveller.


text:
Celebrating its decade of existence, Indonesia's grand fiesta of fashion and food is returning with its biggest bang yet to the metropolitan capital of Jakarta. The 10th edition of Jakarta Fashion and Food Festival will be held from 9th to 26th May 2013 at the Mall Kelapa Gading, La Piazza, and Haris Hotel Kelapa Gading.
As usual, the festival will feature three main highlights: Fashion Extravaganaza, Food Festival, and Gading Nite Carnival.
Fashion Extravaganza will present vast collections of ready to wear outfits from top designers, independent designers, and also emerging designers from various renowned fashion establishments through a number of fashion shows and the 'Fashion Village' trade Shows. There will also be exciting talent and awards shows including Gading Model Search (GMS), GMS Kids, Gading Fashion Enterpreneurship Awards (GFEA), Asian Gading Beauty Awards, and Fashion Icon Awards (FIA).
Appreciations towards the richness of Indonesian culinary varieties and international taste will be combined with the brand of Summarecon Kelapa Gading as the 'town of a million cuisines' at the Food Festival. Some of the finest of Indonesia's own authentic cuisines will indulge visitors at the 'Kampoeng Tempoe Doloe' (Old Time Village), while the Wine&Cheese Expo will take visitors through some of the most exquisite tastes of the world.
As in previous editions, the series of events in the Jakarta Fashion and Food festival will kick off with a massive excitement at the Gading Nite Carnival. The carnival will involve parades of decorated cars, contemporary art performances, costume party, and many more. As its pinnacle, a spectacular fireworks fiesta will light up Jakarta's night sky over the carnival.
More information available at: http://www.jfff.info/
Photo courtesy : www.jfff.info
Copyright © 2014 Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia. All Rights Reserved


text:
Contrary To Popular Belief, No One Owes You Anything T-Shirt - T-Shirt Deal for $5.55
3 Comments add a comment
Seems like the kind of shirt appropriate to wear for a meeting with an IRS representative.
So affordable you could pass them out to all who need them. Thanks for the deal!
site says 7.99


text:
Celebrating illustration, design, cartoon and comic art of the mid-20th century.
Monday, May 29, 2006
The Art of Reader's Digest
I've got a handful of Reader's Digest magazines from the late 40's and early 50's. This week we'll look at some of the artists who regularly did work for the magazine during that period. These pieces were signed Blattner, and since RD chose not to include credit lines for its illustrators, for now Blattner has no first name.
5 comments:
It could easily be today's "New Yorker" cover: nice to see that some work stand the test of time!ReplyDelete
Some really strong draughtsmanship on display . One of my fave contributors to the 'Digest' was David Stone Martin. His stuff's always inspirational.ReplyDelete
Looking forward to the rest of the week.
The artist's full name is Robert Henry Blattner. b. 1906, d. 1996. He was the art director of Reader's Digest from 1945 to 1972, consulting art director 1977-78. He was a brilliant artist. His talent...surpassed only by his wit, humor, and kindness. He was a true gentleman, and, I'm proud to say, my grandfather.Replies
I am curious...where did you find these? I have a few of his original cover paintings, but none if the actual magazines. In fact, I don't recall seeing these before. Thank you for sharing them.Delete


text:
Jefferson County sheriff
Arrested: Casey Gill, 33, 105 Americana Circle, Wintersville, theft, Tuesday.
Arrested: Sarandos N. Tsouris, 36, 1421 Maryland Ave., Steubenville, possession of drugs, Tuesday.
Arrested: Destiny Mullins, 27, 725 Brady Ave., Steubenville, public intoxication, Tuesday.
Arrested: Breanna Peck, 19, 137 El Villa Way, Steubenville, assault, Tuesday.
Brooke County sheriff
Arrested: Sabrina M. Jordan, 35, 1020 Clifton St., Follansbee, bringing stolen property into the state, Friday.
Arrested: Lee A. Hartley Sr., 50, RD 3, Wellsburg, domestic battery, Monday.
Vehicle vandalism: The rear window of a vehicle was broken with a cinder block while it was parked in the Greek Hill area near Bethany College early Sunday.
Ohio State Highway Patrol
Arrested: Bryan P. Liggett, 32, 438 Mellwood Drive, Toronto, possession of drug paraphernalia, Tuesday.


text:
May a man shave his beard in a kosher manner on Chol Hamoed?
(Sefira considerations aside)
May a man shave his beard in a kosher manner on Chol Hamoed?
(Sefira considerations aside)
Short Version: Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik and others are of the opinion that it is permitted for one who regularly shaves to shave, and since it is permitted it is a mitzva to do so, so as not to look disgraceful on chol hamoed (Source). Rav Moshe Feinstein makes a similar argument in Igrot Moshe OC I 163.
Long Version: The Mishna in Moed Katan 3:1 (page 13b in the Bavli) lists 7 people who are allowed to get haircuts on chol hamoed, implying that everyone else is forbidden to get a haircut on chol hamoed. The gemara there (14a) wonders why is this so? Even though cutting hair is one of the 39 categories of forbidden labor ("Gozeiz"), shouldn't it be permitted on chol hamoed by the rule of "tzorech hamoed" -- that labor which is performed for the sake of the holiday may be performed on chol hamoed? Surely getting a haircut to look nice is for the sake of the holiday! The gemara answers that there is a rabbinic decree forbidding haircuts on chol hamoed, to encourage people to get their haircuts before the holiday and not wait until they are free from work on chol hamoed. The mishna's exceptions are cases of people who could not for various reasons get a haircut before the holiday; for them there is a dispensation to allow haircuts on chol hamoed because the end goal is to have people look nice during the holiday.
Now comes the important question: can we extend beyond the seven cases of the mishna? The gemara asks about one who was busy all of Erev Chag searching for a lost object and did not have an opportunity to get a haircut before the holiday. The gemara answers that he may not get a haircut on chol hamoed as his having been stuck is not obvious and eveyone may come to claim that they were stuck and can take a haircut. Rather, it says, only someone whose reason for not getting a haircut is apparent to all is permitted to get a haircut on chol hamoed.
At this point it should be clear that a man who is regularly clean shaven may shave on chol hamoed, for it is obvious to all that he was unable prior to the holiday to shave the hairs that hadn't grown yet! And since it is permitted for him to shave, it becomes a mitzva for him to do so, because as we said, the end goal is to have people look nice during the holiday.
From here:


text:
While skipping through the class notes I noticed one exercice that I couldn't solve:
Suppose we have $\mu$ - probability distribution in $\mathbb{R}$.
Recalling that $\mu_k \rightarrow \mu$ iff $\int_{\mathbb{R}} f(x)\mu_k(dx) \rightarrow \int_{\mathbb{R}} f(x) \mu(dx)$, $\forall f \in C(\mathbb{R})$, $f$ bounded $k\rightarrow \infty$. We have to show:
- $\exists \mu_k$ - series of continuous distributions that $\mu_k \rightarrow \mu$.
- $\exists \mu_k$ - series of discrete distributions that $\mu_k \rightarrow \mu$.


text:
Recipes from the January/February 2013 Issue of EatingWell (Slide 39)
(Slide 39 of 46) Start at the beginning | View recipes as list
Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Pineapple Rings
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Mac & Cheese
This healthy, homemade macaroni and cheese recipe is topped with plenty of golden breadcrumbs. If yo…View slide
Buffalo Chicken Salad
All the flavor of Buffalo chicken wings is packed into this irresistible, healthy salad. But unlike …View slide
Chicken Coconut Curry
At once comforting and exotic-tasting, this rich chicken coconut curry stew will warm you on chilly …View slide
Creamsicle Breakfast Smoothie
Though it tastes like those iconic vanilla-and-orange popsicles, this creamsicle breakfast smoothie …View slide
Ruby-Red Grapefruit Cocktail
This gorgeous sparkling grapefruit cocktail recipe combines gin, Campari, fresh grapefruit juice and…View slide
Baked Coconut Shrimp with T…
A sweet-and-sour tangelo salsa complements the toasty coconut crust on these sassy little coconut sh…View slide
Cream Sauce without the Cream
Here's a formula for making "cream sauce without the cream" to use as a healthy replacement fo…View slide
Creamy Wild Mushroom Toast …
Serve these rich and savory mushroom toasts as a healthy appetizer with a fork and knife. Wild mushr…View slide
Grapefruit, Hearts of Palm …
Serve this grapefruit, hearts of palm and shrimp salad for lunch or as an appetizer. This shrimp sal…View slide
Grapefruit Rounds with Hall…
In this beautiful grapefruit salad recipe we pair the salty flavor of halloumi cheese with sweet-tar…View slide
Tonnato Dip
This dip recipe is inspired by "vitello tonnato," a classic Italian dish in which veal is served…View slide
Bean & Barley Soup
This hearty bean and barley soup tastes like it has simmered for hours, but actually it's quite qu…View slide
Borscht with Beef
Even people who think they don't like beets love this vibrantly colored, vegetable-packed borscht …View slide
Italian Wedding Soup
This Italian Wedding Soup recipe is Italian comfort food at its best, and this easy soup recipe lend…View slide
Moroccan Lentil Soup
Like most soups, this healthy Moroccan lentil soup recipe gets better with time, so make it a day ah…View slide
Mushroom-Beef Noodle Soup
You don't need much beef in this homey mushroom-beef noodle soup recipe, since mushrooms and a lit…View slide
Old-Fashioned Winter Vegeta…
This wonderful winter vegetable chowder recipe is rich, filling and great for a winter supper. This …View slide
Southwestern Vegetable & Ch…
Who wouldn't want to eat their vegetables when they're tucked into a fragrant broth with bits of…View slide
This vegetable-packed minestrone soup recipe is inspired by a popular Weight Watchers vegetable soup…View slide
Baked Egg Foo Yong
Egg foo yong is a Chinese omelet filled with vegetables, bean sprouts and sometimes meat. Our vegeta…View slide
Curried Pea & Potato Croque…
Curry powder gives this pea and potato croquette recipe Indian flair. Serve these healthy pea and po…View slide
Lemon Thins
These lemon cookies are made healthier with whole-wheat pastry flour and they get their zippy flavor…View slide
Shrimp Fried Rice
This healthy shrimp fried rice recipe is packed with vegetables and makes 4 generous servings, so yo…View slide
Chicken with Red Pepper Cre…
In this healthy chicken with red pepper cream sauce recipe, roasted red pepper and chipotle give thi…View slide
Cranberry-Turkey Meatloaf
This healthy turkey meatloaf recipe is packed with cranberries, sage and celery—all the flavors of…View slide
Creamy Pea & Chicken Stew
This cheesy, saucy one-pot pea and chicken stew reminds us of the filling in chicken potpie. While i…View slide
Hoisin-Ginger Meatloaf
Scallions, hoisin sauce and ginger give this pork-and-turkey meatloaf great flavor and plenty of veg…View slide
Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Do you like bacon cheeseburgers? Try this healthy meatloaf recipe packed with bacon and Cheddar chee…View slide
Basic Meatloaf
While meatloaf purists focus on the meat, we like to look at meatloaf as a way to pack extra veggies…View slide
Quick Pasta Bolognese
Who doesn't love pasta with a quick meat sauce? This crowd-pleasing healthy spaghetti Bolognese re…View slide
Reuben Meatloaf
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text:
I am interested in some geometrical aspects of spaces $L(E)$, of bounded operators on a given Banach space $E$. I am unable to estimate if my problem deserves to be asked at MO, but let me try.
Is there an infinite-dimensional Banach space (non-separable preferably) $E$ such that for some non-zero
$T\in L(E)$
the set
$$\{S\in L(E)\colon \|S-T\|=\|S+T\|\}$$
contains an open ball? In fact, I am more interested in the negation:
Is there a Banach space such that for none non-zero $T\in L(E)$ this can happen?
I cannot (dis)prove it even if $E$ is a Hilbert space.


text:
16 Nov 2012 12:42 PM #1
Grid with all NumberField editors doesn't update the store
Very odd one.
I have a grid and so long as at least one of the columns has an Ext.form.TextField editor, edits to the grid result in store's beforewrite, beforesave events firing.
However, if all columns Ext.form.NumberField editors, then edits to them do not fire these store events.
I see no errors. It's most odd.
Does anyone know what I might look at?
19 Nov 2012 10:34 AM #2
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Just did a test with 3 columns and each is numberfield editor and worked for me with 3.4.0 and 3.4.1Mitchell Simoens @LikelyMitch
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text:
5 Real Judges Who Put the Most Evil Supervillain to Shame
It's one thing for a judge to be corrupt -- we sort of expect that to happen in all public jobs, because we watch the news. It's quite another for judges to be hilarious lunatics, criminally lazy schemers or just impossibly evil. Yet it happens, and more often than you'd think.
#5. Mark "Mr. Zero Tolerance" Ciavarella Gets Rich on Children's Tears
Judge Mark Ciavarella earned his nickname, "Mr. Zero Tolerance," because he was a firm believer in giving harsh sentences to juvenile delinquents, even if all they did was slap a friend who slapped them first or take their mom's car for a joyride. And if he made himself disgustingly (and illegally) rich while doing so, well, that was just the icing on top of a delicious cake made from the suffering of thousands of kids.
Via Jjie.org
We were going to lable this NSFW until we realized it wasn't an actual penis.
While sitting on the bench as a juvenile court judge in Luzerne County, PA, Ciavarella personally sent thousands of children to a local detention center. One 10-year-old girl was sentenced to one degrading, horrifying month in the center for accidentally setting her house on fire while playing with a lighter, even though the landlord didn't want to press charges. An 11-year-old got nearly two years for taking out his mother's car and driving it over a curb (she only reported it because of the insurance), and a 14-year-old got three months for making fun of a teacher on MySpace. Most of these kids didn't have lawyers, and their hearings often lasted less than two minutes.
Via ABC News
"They said 'MySpace' and I was like, 'Ugh, guilty.'"
Judge Ciavarella always claimed he was doing this for the good of the kids, but it turns out that "kids" was just a code word for the condo in Florida that he bought thanks to those sentences. You see, Ciavarella had a special arrangement with the owners of the private detention center he sent all these kids to: For each kid that ended up there, he would receive a generous kickback from the facility, which in time would accrue to upwards of a million dollars.
This went on for years. At some point he had to look at himself in the mirror and wonder if life was just an '80s movie, and he was the main villain.
Via Northjersey.com
Eventually Ciavarella's method became too obvious for the courts to ignore: His convictions went from 4.5 percent when he took office in 1997 to 26 percent by 2004. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison, but not before causing around 4,000 previous convictions to be overturned. Personally, we would have taken a page from his colleague Judge Michael Cicconetti below and thrown him into the juvenile center for 30 hours with those 4,000 kids.
Via Msnbc
We'd be completely fine with an amendment to give every American the right to kick this man in the balls once.
#4. Carol "Set 'Em Free" Feinman Couldn't Give Less of a Shit
Judge Carol Feinman had a pretty comfortable job at the New York Civil Court in Brooklyn -- until duty called, and she was assigned to help out with the heavy backlog of criminal cases in the Bronx. For whatever reason, Feinman wasn't pleased with the move, which most judges would consider a promotion -- maybe she thought the quality of life in her new neighborhood wasn't as good as in Brooklyn. Naturally, she decided to deal with this by intentionally making the Bronx more dangerous than it was before she got there.
Via NY Post
On a slow day, she'd just start lobbing grenades into the spectator seats.
Since asking her bosses to send her back to her cushier post wouldn't look very good, Feinman took a more subtle route: She set out to prove that she sucked at her new job more than anyone on the entire planet. Unfortunately, said job was being a criminal judge, and as such her plan involved letting dangerous criminals go free with increasingly ridiculous excuses. In one case, she released a self-professed career criminal after he left traces of his DNA on a church safe he had robbed ... because she claimed he was too clever to be caught. In her own words, "I think his past history would indicate that if he were to commit a burglary, he would be smart enough to wear gloves."
Via NY Post
"The defendant has claimed innocence -- who are we to accuse him of lying?"
Another criminal was lucky enough to land in Feinman's court after being captured by the police when his victim fought back and wrestled his gun away. Judge Feinman took one look at the victim and decided he didn't look badass enough to overpower his attacker, setting the criminal free on those grounds. Not only did she essentially call an innocent victim a pussy and a liar; she also knowingly released a man who less than a month earlier had been arrested for weapons possession and had prior arrests for gang violence and drugs. But, you know, Brooklyn!
When the media approached her for comment on her recent decisions, she proved what a classy lady she really was by stating, "Get the fuck away from me or I'm calling the police." The police, however, weren't big fans of Judge Feinman, either -- one officer stated that "The only thing she should decide is what to have for lunch."
Via NY Post
Though with that outfit, we'd suggest nothing with any sort of sauce involved.
Feinman's negligence eventually got the attention of her superiors, and as punishment for doing the exact opposite of her job, they ... gave her exactly what she wanted. Feinman was quietly transferred back to the Brooklyn Civil Court, a move that another Bronx detective described as "good news for the Bronx and bad news for the people of Brooklyn."
#3. Michael "Creative Justice" Cicconetti Hands Out the Most Bizarre Sentences Ever
Judge Michael Cicconetti is by far the least evil person in this list -- in fact, we believe he's just honesty trying to do good. He is also, however, by far the craziest.
Via lcba-ohio.org
They made him remove his "macaroni hat" for this photo.
Cicconetti became known in Painsville, OH, for using his court to dish out what he calls "creative justice" -- unusual sentences involving stuff like holding a sign in front of the porn shop you stole from (while blindfolded), or being forced to spend hours with a pig or donkey for insulting cops and Jesus, respectively. But then it gets really strange.
Via Baptiststandard.com
"And on mile five, you are to eat that donkey. Alive."
One woman was sentenced to spend an entire night at a remote spot in the middle of the woods for abandoning 35 kittens that were dropped at her door. The woman wasn't allowed to carry any food or anything to cover herself but the clothes she was wearing. When he learned it would be really cold that night, Cicconetti made one concession: He let her make a fire to warm herself.
Another man was given a similar sentence for playing his car stereo too loud. According to Cicconetti, sitting in the woods would help him to "appreciate the silence." At least there's some sort of logic behind most of these; others are just bizarre. Three men arrested for soliciting were sentenced to stand in the street wearing giant chicken costumes, because, you know ... prostitutes are chicks, we guess ... and they're the farmers?
Via Cyberpresse.ca
Maybe he's going for some sort of "getting laid" pun? Because of eggs, and ... we give up.
It's like at some point he stopped being a real judge and became some sort of comic book character whose gimmick is ironic punishments. Any day now we expect him to transform a criminal into a tree and cut him down with a chainsaw.
Sometimes the sentences are too harsh for the crime, and other times they're not nearly harsh enough. When a man was convicted of shooting his dog in the head, Cicconetti offered to trade his six-month sentence for 20 days in a dog costume teaching kids about traffic safety and drug abuse (because that's exactly the kind of man we want around children). Another time, he sentenced a nanny who beat a little boy to read a folder full of articles on child abuse, then discuss them in public.
"You like burning the American flag? Let's see how you like having sex with it in public for a few hours."
We should note, however, that Cicconetti always offers the crazy punishment as an alternative to a traditional sentence, and the people convicted are free to choose which one they want. So there's that.


text:
Book your room at Le Meridien Arlington
Get an overview of this hotelLuxury boutique hotel moments from Washington, D.C. attractions
Near Georgetown
2 blocks from Rosslyn Metro, this centrally located boutique is moments from Georgetown shopping, the National Mall, and the Smithsonian.
Cocktails on the terrace
In addition to 24-hour fitness facilities, Le Meridien Arlington offers a restaurant featuring innovative Italian cuisine and signature cocktails with views of the Potomac River from the outdoor terrace.
City views, designer toiletries
Le Meridien Arlington's 154 guestrooms feature views of Washington, D.C., designer toiletries, flat-screen TVs with DVD players, and wireless Internet.Would you like to give us feedback? Share it! Opens in a new window
Le Meridien Arlington1121 19th Street North Arlington VA 22209
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Le Meridien Arlington is 1.5 blocks from the Rosslyn Metro stop and Key Bridge, which leads to historic Georgetown. This boutique hotel offers views of the Georgetown waterfront and the National Cathedral.
This pet-friendly hotel offers a 3-tier Bark Bar at the hotel entrance, allowing furry friends to refresh. Pets are offered complimentary treats and food bowls, mats and beds, and a special tag with the hotel's contact information. Pets can relax at The Dish, the property's pet lounge.
The property includes a 24-hour fitness center and a concierge desk. WiFi is available in the business center and other public areas for a surcharge. There is also a convenient meeting space with audio-visual equipment. The hotel offers parking for a surcharge, and luggage storage.
The onsite restaurant serves northern Italian cuisine. Room service is available 24 hours a day.
- 24-hour fitness facilities
- 24-hour front desk
- ATM/banking
- Bar/lounge
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- Business center
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Free reception
- Conference space
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Elevator/lift
- Express check-out
- Fireplace in lobby
- Luggage storage
- Meeting rooms 5
- Multilingual staff
- Number of floors - 8
- Restaurant
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Smoke-free property
- Terrace
- Total number of rooms - 154
- Valet parking (surcharge)
- WiFi (surcharge)
Available in all rooms: Wireless internet access ( USD 14.95 per day )
Available in some public areas: Wireless internet access ( USD 14.95 per day )
Self parking (surcharge), Valet parking (surcharge)
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Bathrobes
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Free newspaper
- Cribs/infant beds available
- Daily housekeeping
- Desk
- DVD player
- Hair dryer
- Hypo-allergenic bedding available
- In-room safe (laptop compatible)
- Iron/ironing board
- Pay movies
- Phone
- Premium TV channels
- Private bathroom
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Room service (24 hours)
- Shower/tub combination
- Turndown service
- WiFi (surcharge)
Where to Eat
Amuse Restaurant - Specializing in northern Italian cuisine, this restaurant's menu includes antipasto, soups, salads, homemade pastas, and other entrees made from fresh, local, seasonal ingredients. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Amuse Lounge - This bar/lounge offers a range of mixed beverages.
The hotel hosts a free manager's reception for you to enjoy on select days. You can order a meal from 24-hour room service.
Nearby Things to Do
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or near the hotel; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Kayaking nearby
- Hiking/biking trails nearby
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Roll-in shower
Hotel Policies
Check-in time ends at 1 AM
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Minimum check-in age is 21
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
- Pets allowed for an extra charge of USD 25.00 per pet, per stay
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
Optional extras
- Breakfast fee: between USD 10 and USD 25 per person (approximately)
- Fee for in-room wireless Internet: USD 14.95 per day (rates may vary)
- Fee for wireless Internet in public areas: USD 14.95 per day (rates may vary)
- Self parking fee: USD 18 per night
- Valet parking fee: USD 18-30 per night (in/out privileges)
- Pet fee: USD 25.00 per pet, per stay
- Rollaway bed fee: USD 20 per night
Hotel Name
- Meridien Arlington
- Meridien Hotel
- Meridien Hotel Arlington
- Hotel Palomar Arlington Kimpton


text:
Prospective Students
Brigham Young University-Idaho is a private, four-year university affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Guided by that affiliation, BYU-Idaho seeks to create a wholesome learning environment in which students can strengthen their commitment to their faith and receive a quality education that prepares them for leadership in the home, the community, and the workplace.
Admissions process (International Services has no responsibility for admissions-we assist those already admitted)
If you have not applied, please visit:


text:
Rx for health: Not just money
or dole-outs but real reforms
IN HIS message that accompanies the proposed government budget for next year, President Benigno C. Aquino III notes that the allocation for health is 13.6 percent higher than 2010's P29.3 billion (According to the 2010 General Appropriations Act though, only P28.7 billion was allocated to the Health Department).
Yet if one were to compare health's share of the budget for this year and what the corresponding figure could be in the next, the difference isn't much.
For 2010, the health allocation is 1.8 percent of the P1.54-trillion national purse. For 2011, the Aquino administration is proposing P32.62 billion for health –as indicated in the proposed National Expenditure Program — which is 1.9 percent of the P1.64-trillion national budget. The increase in terms of share in the total budget then would amount to just a tenth of a percentage point.
RP far behind goals to lift
plight of children, mothers
IT WILL be his first official trip overseas as the country's chief executive, but President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III has little reason to look forward to his upcoming visit to the United States.
On September 20, Aquino will be at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he is expected to present just how far the Philippines has achieved progress in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Unfortunately, in large measure because of the shortcomings of his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Aquino is bound to acknowledge before other world leaders that the country is falling short of several of these targets.
In September 2000, the Philippines and 188 other countries signed the Millennium Declaration, and committed themselves to achieving a set of eight goals by 2015. These goals – the MDGs – have since been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress for both rich and poor countries.
President Aquino's Millennium
Development Goals
President Aquino's first foreign trip is most likely the United Nations assembly. With barely five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the UN Secretary-General called on world leaders to attend the summit in New York on September 20-22 to accelerate progress towards the MDGs. Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo believes that "by that time he is already addressing the domestic issues, and he has advanced in his domestic issue programs. Of course like he said 'I cannot solve it in two or three months' but we set the guidelines, we'll be on track and the various government offices in charge are there on the ball.
Philippines made little progress
in achieving MDGs – Report
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines still has much work to do in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly reducing poverty, a report released by the Overseas Development Institute and the United Nations Millennium Campaign revealed.
Ending extreme poverty and hunger comes first in the list of MDGs — a set of time-bound, concrete and specific development goals that 189 leaders worldwide committed to achieve by 2015. The other key goals include achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.
Rx for next president: Rescue
mothers, assure healthcare
WHOEVER will be elected president might have to hurdle among many others, two big tasks in the area of healthcare – rescuing mothers from the throes of death at childbirth, and providing universal healthcare protection to all 90 million Filipinos.
These tasks may seem "mission impossible" projects all at once but are, according to former health secretary Alberto Romualdez, not exactly beyond solution.
"RP has improved from Marcos years"
The Philippines, financially bankrupt and mired in poverty after the ravages of Martial Law, has improved in many aspects. This is gleaned from the monitoring done on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as set by the United Nations in 2000 aimed at reducing poverty and the worst forms of human deprivation by 2015.
MDG, palpak?
Makapadayeg ang gihimo sa Kingdom of Bhutan atol sa ilang nasudnong panagtigum. Naghiusa ang mga lider sa gagmay nga nasud sa pagkab-ot sa ilang bag-ong tumong—ang paghatag og nasudnong kalipay o Gross National Happiness. Alang sa maong nasud, tunga-tunga sa kampanya sa lig-ong ekonomiya ug pagpuyo nga malinawon sa mga tawo didto, ang labing mahinungdanon nga sukdanan, kung kining tanang inisyatiba nakahatag ba og kalipay sa tibuok nasud. Nahigmata ang daghang nasud sa kalibutan sa lakang sa Bhutan. Kanunay nga anaa sa mga plano ug tumong ang maayong dagan sa ekonomiya, pagkaon sa matag pamilya, trabaho alang sa tanan, edukasyon sa kabataan ug daghan pa. Apan sa kauwahian, unsa ba gyud ang tukmang mga butang nga makapalipay sa tibuok nasud.
Can the Philippines achieve the UN
Millennium Development Goals?
Can the Philippines achieve the MDGs by 2015? According to the latest progress report submitted by various government agencies, the Philippines is confident it can achieve goals 1 (halving poverty), 3, 4, 6, and 7. Improving nutrition and dietary energy requirement (goal 1) is rated as medium probability. It is least likely that the country can achieve goals 2 and 5.
The latest progress report is depressing. Even the positive indicators can slip back as negative outcomes in the next five years. For example, the Philippines claims it has already achieved goal 6 but just recently the Health Department has warned about the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases among young professionals. A doctor-lawmaker described the AIDS situation in the country as reaching epidemic proportion. Underreporting of HIV/AIDS cases also distorts the true picture and extent of the problem.


text:
Craftsman 3 pc. Mini Box-Joint Pliers Set for $8.49
Sears.com is offering the Craftsman 3 piece mini box joint pliers set for $8.49 (reg. $19.99) w/free in-store pickup to save shipping cost , or ships free with Shop Your WayMax. Plus, save an extra 5% with your Sears Card.
Note: This is a mini set, not a regular sized set of pliers.
"This versatile mini pliers set is perfect for those hard-to-reach precision jobs. These box-joint pliers feature durable carbon steel construction and comfortable soft-grip handles."
The extra 15% off select tools sold by Sears offer ends 2/20/13 at 7am CT.
2 Comments add a comment
Have two of these sets...great for small work such as electronics. Occasionally they have been used (abused) on larger jobs and held up fine.
awww :( 9.99 now :\
missing the deal (though, $1.50 cheaper) makes me sad enough not to want it.
Nonetheless, good post, OP!


text:
WINE, Ricky Jr., 42, of Brilliant, Ohio, passed away suddenly on Saturday April 27, 2013, at Life Line Hospital in Wintersville, Ohio.
He was born October 1, 1970, in Fort Eustis, VA.
He was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Clyde and Wilda Wine, and his maternal grandparents, George and Marion Reinacher Sr.
Article Photos
Ricky graduated from Buckeye North High School in 1989. He also attended the Jeffco. Workshop. Ricky was an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan. He also enjoyed painting plaster crafts, and he loved his animals, hanging Christmas lights, and most of all he enjoyed swimming.
Surviving are his father, Rick Wine Sr. of Brilliant, Ohio; his mother, JoAnn (Reinacher) Wine of New Alexandria, Ohio; a sister, Mary Jo Boyd of Grove City, Ohio; two nephews, Zachary and Alec Boyd; and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
Friends will be received on Tuesday from 5-8 p.m. at the Wheeler Funeral Home, 712 Third St., Brilliant, where funeral services will be held on Wednesday at 11 a.m. with Pastor Heather Long officiating. Interment will follow at New Alexandria Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be directed in Ricky's name to the Jefferson County Humane Society, P.O. Box 233, Steubenville, OH 43952, since he had such a love for animals.
Offer condolences at www.wheelerfuneralhomes.com


text:
A year back a person had once told me that he doesn't want to have any conversation with me at the moment.
Today I sent him a kind of apology mail and added the sentence (in tile of this thread) at the end of the mail. I wanted to make sure that he doesn't assume that I am trying to bait him in to a conversation.
Now, when I think of it, I am not sure if that statement can be considered as
"Do not reply."?