text: As shelter is the largest single expense for most people, the ongoing "Financiapocalpyse " could see more people trading that Tudor for a four-door. As your guides through this challenging time, we've identified ten cars you'd be happy to call home until your 401k is worth more than the postage used to send you those depressing reports. These rides are comfortable, affordable and most importantly, you can probably sleep in it. With car sales dwindling, now may be the best time to invest those dwindling funds in a home on wheels.


text:
In my project I'm using some third-party libraries. I include them using the references folder in Visual Studio.
But where should I save the DLL files? They are referenced from a path in the file system, but it would be nice if I can include it into the project. But how?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
43lb Danforth Standard Fluke Anchor for Boats to 45' - Tie Down Engineering
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This anchor has the traditional holding power which has always been associated with Danforth Standard Anchors. The shank is made of high strength …
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- Weight: 43 lbs
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Photoshop Elements 9 For Dummies
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October 2010
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Perfect your photos and images with this "focused" guide to the latest version of Photoshop Elements
For most of us, the professional-level Photoshop is overkill for our needs. Amateur photographers and photo enthusiasts turn to Photoshop Elements for a powerful but simpler way to edit and retouch their snapshots. Photoshop Elements 9 For Dummies, fully updated and revised for the latest release of this software product, helps you navigate Elements to create, edit, fix, share, and organize the high-quality images you desire. Full color pages bring the techniques to life and make taking great photos fun and easy.
Introduces you to the work area
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I'm of the opinion that it should. Test code is meant to be deterministic. This means that 100% of it should be executed. If it's not 100% (and assuming the analysis tool isn't under-reporting), either there's dead code that ought to be deleted or the code is complicated enough that it ought to be extracted into helper code and that helper code ought to have tests.
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I wouldn't necessarily put it high on the ToDo list, but I think it's beneficial to measure test code coverage to find dead tests. You probably won't get to 100%**, but you can find dead functions and binaries - which makes a big difference when you have a 20-hour automation run you're trying to whittle down to an overnight run.
** note - test code often has more code in error (or failure) conditions than production code, so unless your tests are failing, you probably won't hit the error paths. Of course, this begs the question of whether you should induce failures to ensure that the diagnostics and error handling in the test code is valid, but I'll leave that answer for another question.
I'm with Alan on this one - a lot of test automation code will cover error handling which may not get exercised often - and if you're really lucky, it won't ever get exercised (you do include error handling for every routine, right?)
Also, if you have a lot of libraried routines, you might find that one set of tests uses a relatively small subset of your library, where different test sets will use a different but overlapping subset. For instance, a library routine handling say user configuration could be used in multiple test runs. Libraries of utility functions are particularly prone to this.
I'd also suggest that this is a much lower priority than finding older, less effective test automation code and refactoring it to a cleaner state, which in turn is a lower priority than keeping up with new feature development.
Of course, it's possible that the software you're testing is stable and your automation code is nice and clean. In which case, more power to you! You're doing better than I am.
Personally I don't run code coverage on test code, as a tester with limited time, I simply have too many other things that need my limited time and attention.
What I do run though is static code analysis with Visual Studio or fxCop as a way to keep test code quality high.
I actually joke that visual studio Pro should be called Visual Studio un-Professional as it does not include code analysis, and it forces you to turn off the code analysis policy on TFS if you have a single copy being used as they can't check in with the policy on.
I assume by "deterministic" you mean "under the same conditions, always does the same thing". I am not sure that deterministic test code equates to 100% test code coverage. For example, a test may be deterministic and at the same time contain error-handling code for reporting anticipated conditions that rarely or never arise in practice.
Do you need 100% test code coverage? I think that depends on the needs of your organization. For example, if you publish your test code, or if your test code is a deliverable to your customer, it may be important to know that every line of your test code has been exercised. In my organization, tests are purely internal tools. I need a high level of confidence that my tests exercise the product in the way I intended and that my tests report failures and success in the way I intended. On the other hand, I am content with a lower level of confidence that my test will behave the way I intended if the network connection between my test and my database server times out.
Your suggestion about extracting uncovered test code into helpers that are then tested by other tests (meta-tests?) raises an interesting question: do you need to ensure 100% coverage for your meta-tests too? And if they contain uncovered code, should you extract them into meta-helpers that are tested with meta-meta-tests? In my organization, this would not be considered a good use of time.
It may be tempting to ask, "If I do not have 100% coverage, how do I know that my tests are correct?" You are wise to ask this question, because we tend to place a great deal of faith in the value of automated tests. However, code coverage is just one of a myriad of possible measurements of quality, all useful and all imperfect. There are other ways to raise your confidence about your tests, e.g. code reviews. Give code coverage its due, but do not allow your enthusiasm for code coverage interfere to with your good judgement.
In a subsequent comment, you said the deeper question is whether test code is as important as production code. "Important" can mean a lot of things; I assume you mean "necessary". It is necessary for a software company to have production code, and it sounds as if it is also necessary for your organization to have test code. Both are software, perhaps written in the same language and perhaps even written by the same people. Nonetheless, they exist to solve different problems, and so it is reasonable that they may be treated differently.


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I came across the linear congruential generator on Wikipedia:
I gather that for a particular choice of the modulus, multiplier and increment, the generator would generate a unique sequence. However, is there any way to determine the values of modulus, multiplier and increment that I need to create a particular finite sequence?
For instance, if I chose the modulus as 8, the multiplier as 1, and the increment as 5, I obtain the sequence
5, 2, 7, 4, 1, 6, 3, 0, assuming a seed value of 0. Now if I wanted the sequence
2, 11, 5, 9, 6, 22, how do I determine what values of the parameters to choose?


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My t-sql teacher told us that naming our PK column "Id" is considered bad practice without any further explanations.
Why is naming a table PK column "Id" is considered bad practice?
closed as not constructive by Jim G., Walter, gnat, Dynamic, Giorgio Dec 28 '12 at 11:13
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I'm going to come out and say it: It's not really a bad practice (and even if it is, its not that bad).
You could make the argument (as Chad pointed out) that it can mask errors like in the following query:
but this can easily be mitigated by not using tiny aliases for your table names:
The practice of ALWAYS using 3 letter abbreviations seems much worse to me than using the column name
The point is: be consistent. If your company uses Id and you commonly make the error above, then get in the habit of using full table names. If your company bans the Id column, take it in stride and use whatever naming convention they prefer.
Focus on learning things that are ACTUALLY bad practices (such as multiple nested correlated sub queries) rather than mulling over issues like this. The issue of naming your columns "ID" is closer to being a matter of taste than it is to being a bad practice.
A NOTE TO EDITORS : The error in this query is intentional and is being used to make a point. Please read the full answer before editing.
Because when you have a table with a foreign key you can't name that foreign key "Id". You have table name it TableId
And then your join looks like
And ideally, your condition should have the same field name on each sides
So while it seems redundant to name the Id as ManufacturerId, it makes it less likely that you have errors in your join conditions as mistakes become obvious.
This seems simple, but when you join several tables, it gets more likely you'll make a mistake, find the one below...
Whereas with proper naming, the error sticks out...
Another reason naming them Id is "bad" is that when you are querying for information from several tables you will need to rename the Id columns so you can distinguish them.
With accurate names this is less of an issue
Ruby's ActiveRecord library and Groovy's GORM use "id" for the surrogate key by default. I like this practice. Duplicating the table name in each column name is redundant, tedious to write, and more tedious to read.
Common or key column names like "Name" or "Id" should be prefixed with the TableName.
It removes ambiguity, easier to search for, means far less column aliases when both "Id" values are needed.
A lesser used or audit column or non-key (say LastUpdatedDateTime) doesn't matter
I don't consider it bad practice. Consistency is king, as usual.
I think it's all about context. In the context of the table on its own, "id" just means exactly what you expect, a label to help uniquely identify it against others that might otherwise be (or appear) identical.
In the context of joins, it's your responsibility to construct the joins in such a way as to make it readable to you and your team. Just as it is possible to make things look difficult with poor phrasing or naming, it is equally possible to construct a meaningful query with effective use of aliases and even comments.
In the same way a Java class called 'Foo' doesn't have its properties prefixed by 'Foo', don't feel obliged to prefix your table IDs with table names. It is usually clear in context what the ID being referred to is.
This thread is dead, but I would like to add that IMO not using
Believe me, for months now I've spent all day every day working in lots of big databases (Salesforce) and the best thing I can say about the schemas is that every table has a primary key called
To be honest, the problems with with most people who teach computer programming are that they haven't written a line of production code in years, if ever, and they have no idea what a working software engineer actually does. Wait until you start working and then make up your own mind what you think is a a good idea or not.
It makes it hard (and confusing) to perform a natural join on the table, therefore yeah, it's bad if not very bad.
Natural Join is an ancient artifact of SQL Lore (i.e. relational algebra) you may have seen one of these: ⋈ in a database book perhaps. What I mean is Natrual Join is not a new fangled SQL idea, even though it seemed to take forever for DBMS's to have implemented it, therefore it's not a new fangled idea for you to implement it, it might even be unreasonable for you to ignore its existence nowadays.
Well, if you name all your primary key's ID, then you lose the ease and simplicity of the natural join.
Why not just ask your teacher?
Think about this, when all your tables PK columns are named
Column names need to be semantically significant.
BOOM, question answered.
There is a situation where sticking "ID" on every table isn't the best idea: the
For example, if you have
It not only saves typing, but is much more readable compared to the alternative:
There are some answers that approach what I would consider the most important reason for not using "id" as the column name for the primary key in a table: namely consistency and reduced ambiguity.
However, for me the key benefit is realized by the maintenance programmer, in particular one who was not involved with the original development. If you used the name "PersonID" for the ID in the Person table and consistently used that name as a foreign key, it is trivial to write a query against the schema to find out what tables have PersonID without having to infer that "PersonID" is the name used when it is a foreign key. Remember, right or wrong, foreign key relationships are not always enforced in all projects.
There is an edge case where one table may need to have two foreign keys to the same table, but in such cases I would put the original key name as the suffix name for the column, so a wildcard match, %PersonID, could easily find those instances as well.
Yes, much of this could be accomplished by a standard of having "id" and knowing to always use it as "tableNameID", but that requires both knowing that the practice is in place and depending on the original developers to follow through with a less intuitive standard practice.
While some people have pointed out that it does require some extra key strokes to write out the longer column names, I would posit that writing the code is only a small fraction of the active life of the program. If saving developer keystrokes was the goal, comments should never be written.
As someone who has spent many years maintaining large projects with hundreds of tables, I would strongly prefer consistent names for a key across tables.
ID is bad for the following reasons:
If you do a lot of reporting queries you always have to alias the columns if you want to see both. So it becomes a waste of time when you could name it properly to begin with. These complex queries are hard enough (I write queries that can be hundreds of lines long) without the added burden of doing unnecessary work.
It is subject to causing code errors. If you use a database that allows the use of the natural join (not that I think you should ever use that but when features are available somebody will use them), you will join on the wrong thing if you get a developer that uses it.
If you are copying joins to create a complex query, it is easy to forget to change the alias to the one you want and get an incorrect join. If each id is named after the table it is in, then you will usually get a syntax error. It is also easier to spot if the join ina complex query is incorrect if the pPK name and the FK name match.
The practice of using Id as primary key field leads to the practice where id gets added to every table. A lot of tables already have unique information that uniquely identifies a record. Use THAT as primary key and not an id field you add to each and every table. That's one of the foundations of relational databases.
And that's why using id is bad practice: id is often not information just an autoincrease.
consider the following tables:
What's wrong with this table is that it enables the user to add another line: United States, with countrycode 840. It just broke relational integrity. Ofcourse you can enforce uniqueness on individual columns, or you could just use a primary key that's already available:
That way you use the information you already have as primary key, which is at the heart of relational database design.
I always use 'id' as the primary column name for every table simply because it's the convention of the frameworks I use (Ruby on Rails, CakePHP), so I don't have to override it all the time.
That won't beat academic reasons for me.
I don't think it's a bad practice if it's used properly. It's common to have an auto-incrementing ID field called "ID" that you never have to touch, and use a friendlier identifier for the application. It can be a little cumbersome to write code like
As a personal preference I tend to prefix the Id with the name of the entity, but I don't see a real issue with just using
ID is common enough, that I don't think it would confuse anyone. You're always going to want to know the table. Putting fields names in production code without including a table/alias is a bad practice. If you're overly concerned about being able to quickly type ad hoc queries, you're on your own.
Just hope no one develops a sql database where ID is a reserved word.
Takes care of the field name, primary key, and auto increments by 1 starting with 1 all in one nice little 2 character package. Oh, and I would have called it CARS but if we're going to save on key-strokes and who really thinks a table called CAR is going to only have one?
This question has been beaten over and over again, but I thought that I too would add my opinion.
Another thing to consider is that if the primary key name is different from the foreign key name, then it is not possible to use certain third party tools.
For example, you would be unable to load your schema into a tool like Visio and have it produce accurate ERD's.
I find people here cover pretty much every aspect but I want to add that "id" is not and should not be read as "identifier" it's more of an "index" and surely it does not state or describe the row's identity. (I may have used wrong wording here, please correct me if I did)
It's more or less how people read the table data and how they write their code. I personally and most likely this is the most popular way I see more frequently is that coders write the full reference as
That way you can translate it to English as "Give me color and model of that car that is numbered as ." and not as "Give me color and model of that car that is identified as number ." The ID does not represent the car in any way, it's only car's index, a serial number if you will. Just like when you want to take the third element from an array.
So to sum up what I wanted to add is that it's just a matter of preference and the described way of reading SQL is the most popular.
Though, there are some cases where this is not used, such as (a far more rare example) when the ID is a string that is really describing. For example


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Sophomore Tyler Skaggs of Pratt High School was one of 106 golfers who teed it up at the 4A State Meet held at Cheney's Cherry Oaks Golf Course on Monday. Competing as an individual, Skaggs finished in the middle of the pack (60th) while posting an 84.
It was a good day for scoring. "There was hardly any wind," Skaggs reported. As a result, some low scores were shot. Kaden Macha, Iola, was medalist with a 72. Wichita Collegiate won their 17th state team golf title, outshooting KC Piper 299-305.
The highest score to medal was a 77, so with his 84, Skaggs was not far off the pace. "It was a good showing for a sophomore in his first State appearance," commented Andy Kisner, PHS head golf coach.
"(Tyler) hit the ball really well—probably as well as he has all season, but he struggled early with his putting," Kisner continued. The greens at Cherry Oaks are large and they were running extremely fast.
Kisner credited Skaggs with adjusting during the round to the difficulty of the greens. Skaggs shot 45 on his front nine and improved to 39 on the back. A 39-39 round would have placed Skaggs only one shot out of the medals, so it appears he is on the verge of being in the mix next season.
Especially considering that he played his final 6 holes at even par, Skaggs could be a force to be reckoned with next season with another year of improvement under his belt.
Follow Pratt High sports @NeilD_Tribune
Location, ST | website.com


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Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz yesterday presided over the regular weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers, and reiterated his desire to see peace all over the world, urging the international community to extend greater efforts to push ahead the peace process in the Middle East, where Israel is putting obstacles in front of any positive step forward. He stressed that Arab countries stand for a just, comprehensive and durable peace that would ensure the aspirations of all in security and stability.
Information Minister Dr. Fouad Al-Farsi reported that the cabinet went on to stress the need for drastic measures by the international community to stop the massacres and criminal acts of terror that are being perpetrated in Kosovo by the Serbs. The King then briefed the cabinet on his talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Dr. Salim Al-Hoss, which reflected the strength and depth of the relations between the Kingdom and Lebanon.
Expressing the cabinet's pain and sorrow at the death of King Hussein, King Fahd stated: "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has strong relations with brotherly Jordan, expresses its condolences to King Abdullah Bin Al-Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, to the royal family and the brotherly people of Jordan, on the death of King Hussein, who was a good brother and friend and a distinguished personality, and whose death will affect not only the people of Jordan, but all Arab and Islamic nations, and the entire world." The cabinet extended good wishes to King Abdullah Bin Al-Hussein in following in King Hussein's footsteps, stressing that the Kingdom stands beside Jordan in this critical situation.
Turning to domestic issues, the cabinet adopted a number of resolutions, including approval of the recommendations of the committee on environment concerning drafting a mass media policy on the scientific facts of the phenomena of weather changes, and formulating general guidelines for Saudi delegations participating in conferences on the environment, in order to present consistent information on the Kingdom's position on environmental affairs.


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7 Incredible Ways Sports Improved (And Even Saved) Lives
#3. Rough Contact Sports Fight Osteoporosis
All right, but these are all isolated, freak incidents. On the whole, sports are still a huge, stupid waste of time and money, right? Especially contact sports, which basically just add broken bones, concussions and brain damage to the equation.
And madness
A lot of schools agree with that these days, and several school districts have stripped recess of all its fun by banning high impact sports like dodgeball and soccer. By removing any potential threats of bodily harm from physical activity, parents believe they'll prevent their precious little snowflakes from harm. But what they're really doing is making it much more likely their kids will be hurt way more often in the future.
Like muscles, bones need repeated stress to stay strong. Impact sports like soccer and dodgeball deliver enough stress to strengthen bones. A recent study showed that soccer player have much higher muscle strength and bone density than inactive people and even better strength than people who just run. Imagine the benefits for people who play real sports!
Additionally, men at age 70 who had played recreational soccer their whole lives were found to be as fit as untrained men in their thirties. They also had twice the balance of their peers, making them less likely to slip and fall in the shower and break their hip from osteoporosis, a fate that the little pile of adolescent femininity you call a son will probably suffer at the age of 18 thanks to your incessant coddling. Get that kid a helmet and get him on the field, pronto!
OK, fine, but we knew sports were good for the body in general. But that hardly makes up for the fact that jocks are a bunch of dumbasses, right? Well...
#2. That "Dumb Jock" is More Likely to Graduate than You
College athletics are often criticized for allowing in unqualified students that are only there to play sports. Aren't these supposed to be institutions of higher learning? Isn't that why the textbooks cost a hundred bucks? Meanwhile college athletes are admitted via scholarships, despite having lower SAT scores than the general student population.
Then again... maybe we should be looking at the results. Athletes who entered into college during the 2002-2003 academic year had a graduation rate of 64 percent, two percent higher than 62 percent for the general student body.
The true face of the student majority
Academics criticize low rates of graduation for black athletes, one going so far as to call college sports the new plantation, a sentiment we'll totally co-sign as soon as you can show us evidence of even one slave who went on to sign with the Raiders for $48 million in guaranteed money. But more importantly, while gaps still exist for black dominated sports such as basketball, overall black student athletes benefit even more from athletics than others--black student athletes graduate at a rate of 53 percent compared to 45 percent, an 8 percent benefit.
Some of the beneficial effects are tied to better support systems for athletes and minority hiring in college sports offices, but also the NCAA also uses a sliding scale of GPA and SAT/ACT scores that correct for problems in standardized testing. Hell, even Harvard has added athletics as a factor in deciding admissions at the prestigious school.
So, if your kid applies to Harvard with a dream of being a Supreme Court justice some day, don't be surprised if the Entrance Exam involves a man handing him a basketball and saying, "Now let's see you take this shit to the hole."
#1. Playing Sports Benefits Career More than Extra Time in the Library
Even if you do manage to graduate that's no excuse to get smug about athletes. Sure, they may have had a lower GPA because they didn't spend their nights studying in the library and acing every exam. But because they didn't, they'll probably make more money and be more successful than you.
Education is not linked to success
While spending all your time on class work might separate you from the beer-swilling rabble, the real world is a series of complex human interactions based on relationships and the ability to read other's intentions and emotions. Failure to do so will inevitably lead you to being misunderstood, duped, made a fool of and eventually to a lonely life of isolation not so different from the hermit's existence you made for yourself in your pursuit of success. Enjoy your cats!
College athletes, meanwhile, are developing their emotional intelligence. According to James Shulman, author of The Game of Life: College Sport and Educational Values, college athletes have more self confidence and people skills that allow them to succeed in jobs that require human interaction.
Studies have also found that athletes earn more on average than non-athletes in the fields of business and the military. For instance Harvard athletes, even minorities or those from lower socio-economic status, do better on average than their peers. They are more driven than their counterparts and do especially well in the high paying world of finance.
There is benefit for women too, as 81% of female executives have played organized sports in some fashion. They still throw like girls though.
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text:
- Graduate School
- Waldschmidt 321, MSC 177
- 5000 N Willamette Blvd.
- Portland OR 97203
- 503-943-7107
- email@example.com
Ninon Richartz '08, Manager of New Business Development, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Ninon's interest in health communication and community organizing began at a young age, watching her mother advocate for the health justice of migrant workers in rural Oregon. After obtaining a BA in Communication from Lewis & Clark College, Ninon worked for several years in the health communications field, coordinating large-scale patient education campaigns. This continued passion for the power of discourse lead her to UP's Management Communication graduate program, where she combined her academic, personal and professional interest in Communication theory with the business tools offered in the Pamplin School of Business. While in school, Ninon tailored her study with research focuses in stakeholder theory, dialogue and collaboration, organizational communication and health communication, and operationalized this research in the professional setting, as she managed a national initiative founded by the Office of the US Surgeon General to identify workable and sustainable community-based solutions to the nation's childhood obesity crisis. "The knowledge and skills I learned through the Communication department at UP had direct applications in my daily work, as I traveled around the country, working with community-based coalitions, and gaining grassroots dialogue-driven input into solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic. The faculty see the classroom as a collaborative environment and draw upon students' outside experiences in life and work to bring theory to life in the classroom. This fundamental respect for the contribution of each student, combined with an ability to create a safe environment for discussion and new thought continually challenged me to think critically in my research, become deeper entrenched in the literature, and apply that to my professional and personal life." Ninon is now based in Cambridge, MA, developing programmatic initiatives with senior staff at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, an independent not-for-profit organization helping to lead the improvement of health care throughout the world.


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I know what the NBBO is but I've seen mention of ABBO and I'm not sure what it means?
From the Turquoise features document:
In other words, it's the best price from all other exchanges. Ie, NBBO minus this exchange.
Well it's the best away from the market quote on the bid and ask side. Or put in terms of level 2 quotes, the highest bid below the top level and the lowest ask above the top level.


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Where Aren't They Now? 13 Overlooked Deaths of 2009
This year was a monster for celebrity deaths: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, David Carradine, Patrick Swayze... even Bea Arthur and Ed McMahon are probably boning in Heaven as we speak (and if you're in Hell, you get the cam-feed).
But while you're rushing out to buy Thriller memorial parasols and Kung Fu Forever neckties, a lot of other important people kicked the bucket that the media didn't deem important enough to tell you about. Once again, these are the most overlooked deaths of 2009--a notoriously murderous year:
#13. January 14: KHAAAANN!!!
Ricardo Montalban, owner/operator of Fantasy Island and professional KHAAAAANN!!!
Congestive heart failure.
The Legacy:
As one of few working Hispanic actors in the 50s, Montalban was mostly used as the go-to guy when a movie about attractive white people needed a miscellaneous foreign person to laugh at or to learn inscrutable wisdom from. Examples of these roles include everything from Indians to Jamaicans, and one time even a Japanese Samurai--where he presumably infused the role with his trademark Latin suavity and almost assuredly did so with an anachronistically oiled bare chest.
Years of playing the embodiment of racism inspired Montalban to develop a foundation dedicated to raise the profile of Hispanic actors, and he even had a theater named for him in 1999. Also, "KHAAAAAANNN!!!!"
#12. January 15: Glenn Close's Dad (Who May Have Saved Your Life)
William Close. Father of actress Glenn Close, doctor, and ex-air force pilot. All in all not a very exceptional man... except for that time he actually lived the plot of Outbreak... and won!
He was a doctor in Zaire in the mid-70s when Ebola broke out in a rural hospital... near the Ebola River (side note: Not for nothing, Africans, but you really should've seen that one coming. If we lived next to Black Plague Creek, for example, we'd probably just move). Shit got expectedly crazy: roads were blocked, most of the hospital staff was killed, air travel was restricted. It got so bad that the president of the country even fled to France.
Of the 318 infected people, roughly 90 percent died. And then Close flew in (possibly on the back of a giant hawk or some kind of winged lion) grabbed the remaining medic's protective gear and somehow "broke the chain of transmission," thus killing the virus off. We're far too stupid to understand complex biology, so we're going to assume he did so with a karate chop.
Judging by that badass eyepatch, we're probably right.
Heart attack.
The Legacy:
You're not reading this with blood coming out of your tear ducts with 15 minutes to live while Dustin Hoffman fistfights a plague-monkey on top of your prone, melting body. So, thanks, Glenn Close's Dad!
#11. April 7: The Prince of Geeks
Dave Arneson. If Gary Gygax was the King of Geeks, then Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson was the Prince--or at least some sort of Arch-duke (we're not really sure how the nerd feudal system works). The pair met at a gaming convention in the late 1960s, perhaps after admiring each other's Hawaiian-shirts-and-beard combos.
The Legacy:
His class, "Rules of the Game," taught many a budding game developer how to accurately document and create balanced rule sets, the likes of which certainly helped lead to the popularization of the role-playing game and the subsequent rise of the MMO. Without Arneson and Gygax's work, WoW would merely be an exclamation of surprise from somebody that hates punctuation, or a suffix for Sham.
#10. May 18: The Voice of Mickey Mouse
Wayne Allwine voice actor and the third voice of Mickey Mouse from 1977 until his death in 2009. He is survived by his wife, Russi Taylor, the current voice of Minnie Mouse. Wait... they were actually married? Has Disney been non-fiction this whole time?! Excuse us while we go rob the shit out of Scrooge McDuck and bone us some Jasmine.
Complications from diabetes.
The Legacy:
He was responsible for the defining characteristic of the single most recognizable cartoon character in history, the happiness of countless children and an impression that castratos can finally pull off at parties.
#9. May 31: The Last Remaining Survivor of the Titanic
Millvina Dean. At nine weeks old, she was the youngest passenger on board the Titanic, and would live to be its last survivor. The fact that you're picturing her as Kate Winslet, and then picturing Kate Winslet pretend-flying on the bow, and then settling on an image of Kate Winslet's breasts has nothing to do with her life.
The Legacy:
Her ashes were scattered where the Titanic set sail, which kind of seems like poor taste to us. You generally don't want to be memorialized at the site of the worst disaster of your life. They didn't bury Napoleon at Waterloo and they're probably not going to sprinkle Tiger Woods's ashes on top of a bunch of whores. Show some respect.
#8. September 12: The Guy Who Saved Billions of Lives
Norman Borlaug was an agronomist, humanitarian and Nobel Laureate. He was not that fire-cow thing that fought Gandalf in the Mines of Moria.
...that we know of.
Borlaug introduced a high-yield, disease resistant wheat to Mexico, Pakistan and India, and later applied himself to aiding food production in Africa and Asia. This in turn saved billions of people worldwide from starvation. That's right: billions. The man single-handedly saved an entire continent's worth of people, and you've probably already forgotten who he is twice while reading this paragraph.
The Legacy:
The savior of billions dying barely rated a mention in the news this year. Farrah Fawcett wore a bikini well back in the 70s and she got international coverage. Good job, society.
#7. September 16: Not Peter, Not Paul, but Mary
Mary Travers, singer for 1960s folk pop group Peter, Paul and Mary--whose name is now a euphemism for being the only woman in a threesome, thanks to that gross Britney Spears song ("1, 2, 3, Peter, Paul and Mary, Gettin' down with 3P, Everybody loves, Ooh").
The Legacy:
She was partially responsible for Puff the Magic Dragon, and therefore roughly half of the stoned conversations in the entire world, tied only with retarded theories about religion and the decision as to whose turn it is to get Fritos.


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The Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Bruce Hangen Conductor, Performs in Cambridge February 19, 2012
You are hereHome/ The Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Bruce Hangen Conductor, Performs in Cambridge February 19, 2012
(BOSTON) The Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Bruce Hangen conductor, continues its season Sunday, Feb. 19, at 2 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge. Tickets are $15 general admission and $10 for students and seniors. Box Office: (617) 496-2222. For more information call The Boston Conservatory event line at (617) 912-9240 or visit www.bostonconservatory.edu/performances. The concert will feature two guest conductors from this year's graduating class, and the winner of the 2011-12 Concerto Competition. Prior to the concert, Dr. Elizabeth Seitz of The Boston Conservatory music history faculty will present a 30-minute lecture about the work to be performed. The lecture begins at 1 p.m.
STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier Suite, op. 59
Matthew Marsit, M.M. '12 conducting
EMMANUEL SÉJOURNÉ: Concerto for marimba and strings
Brandon Ilaw, B.M. '14, marimba (Winner of the 2011-2012 Concerto Competition)
STRAVINSKY: Firebird Suite (1919)
Motoki Tanaka, M.M. '12 conducting
Bruce Hangen serves as the principal conductor of The Boston Conservatory Orchestra and chairs the Conservatory's orchestral conducting program. He serves as music director of the Indian Hill Symphony. Hangen conducted many of the country's leading orchestras and spent eight years as artistic and general director of the Portland (Maine) Opera Repertory Theatre, a company he founded. Prior to that, he spent 10 years as music director of the Portland (Maine) Symphony. He formerly served as principal guest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.
About The Boston Conservatory
The Boston Conservatory trains exceptional young performing artists for careers that enrich and transform the human experience. Known for its intimate and supportive multidisciplinary environment, the Conservatory offers fully accredited graduate and undergraduate programs in music, dance and theater and presents more than 200 performances each year by students, faculty and guest artists. Since its founding in 1867, The Boston Conservatory has shared its talent and creativity with the city of Boston, the region and the nation, and continues to grow today as a vibrant community of artists and educators. For more information, visit www.bostonconservatory.edu.
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NASA Astronaut Mike Hopkins, above, observes the ant habitat on the International Space Station.
Want to compare an experiment you can easily conduct on Earth to a similar one on the International Space Station, which is whipping around 200 miles over our heads at a mind-blowing 17,000 miles per hour? Well, here's your chance.
The University of Colorado Boulder and its educational partners are seeking K-12 teachers and students around the world interested in how the low gravity of space, which makes astronauts float, affects the behavior of ants up there.
The Ants in Space payload was designed and built by CU-Boulder's BioServe Space Technologies and launched to the space station Jan. 9. The ants made the trip into space in specially built habitats developed by BioServe, a part of the university's aerospace engineering department, on a commercial Cygnus spacecraft.
The ants are not the first insects CU-Boulder has lofted into space -- spiders, butterflies and ladybugs also have made the trek for other K-12 educational experiments, touching hundreds of thousands of kids in the past several decades. The new experiment will look at foraging patterns of the common pavement ant on Earth and space -- the same kind of ants we see crawling about on sidewalks and vacant lots our cities and towns, said BioServe Education Program Director Stefanie Countryman.
After the ants arrived on the space station, American astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio opened up eight ant habitats by lowering barriers in each that allowed the ants to crawl out of a small nest area into a larger forage area.
Hopkins and Mastracchio videotaped and took photographs of ants meandering about in their special space homes, then provided video and snapshots to BioServe. The material was passed on to colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Education Outreach, who designed the curriculum for the experiments.
Countryman said she hopes thousands of students around the world will participate in the space station experiments by constructing their own ant habitats on Earth, making scientific observations of the ant behavior, then comparing their classroom results to videotapes of the space ants milling about -- and often spinning -- in their space homes.
Previous research by Stanford University Professor Deborah Gordon, principal investigator on the Ants in Space project, showed some ant species have the ability to search areas collectively without communicating with their fellow ants. When ant densities are high, ants search small areas by walking in random circles. When ant densities are low, each ant searches by walking in a relatively straight line, allowing it to cover more ground.
In addition to Gordon, Associate Professor Michael Greene of the University of Colorado Denver is a research partner on the effort. The experiment is sponsored by NASA's National Lab Education Office as well as the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, a nonprofit group headquartered in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Teachers interested in participating can visit http://www.bioedonline.org for the curriculum or contact Countryman at firstname.lastname@example.com.
In the past 26 years, BioServe has designed, built and flown microgravity life science research experiments on more than 40 space missions. BioServe has a full suite of space flight hardware, both on ISS and on the ground, which supports its own research as well as research conducted by its customers and partners. Past BioServe partners include large and small pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities and NASA-funded researchers.


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Bin Laden Son-in-Law Pleads Not Guilty
More than a decade after he warned Muslims not to fly or live in high rises following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden appeared before a federal judge in New York on Friday and pleaded not guilty to plotting to kill Americans.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, described by U.S. officials as a 47-year-old former teacher and preacher, was charged in a one-count indictment made public late Thursday with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, namely for his role as the onetime spokesman for al Qaeda, the terrorist organization run by his late father-in-law. He faces life in prison if convicted.
At the brief hearing in Manhattan federal court, Mr. Abu Graith, who was ordered detained, was wearing blue prison garb and was led into the ornate ceremonial courtroom in handcuffs. He spent most of the hearing seated, wearing headphones so he could hear the translation by an Arabic interpreter.
The hearing, attended mostly by journalists and courthouse staff, was held on the ninth floor of the courthouse at 500 Pearl St., one of two federal courthouses in lower Manhattan.
"The purpose of this initial proceeding is to advise you of your rights and your right to legal counsel," U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said. "This is not a trial."
Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. Cronan told the court that after Mr. Abu Ghaith was taken into custody, he gave a 22-page statement to law enforcement. That statement, in the form of a Federal Bureau of Investigation report, as well as a number of DVDs containing speeches by Mr. Abu Ghaith, were turned over to his lawyers, the prosecutor said.
Mr. Abu Ghaith was taken into custody by U.S. law-enforcement officials at about midnight New York time on Thursday, Feb. 28, and arrived in New York about 12:30 p.m. a day later, Mr. Cronan said.
At Friday's hearing, three lawyers were appointed to represent Mr. Abu Ghaith and the not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf. The next hearing in the case is April 8.
Philip Weinstein, one of his appointed lawyers, said the attorneys were in the process of getting security clearances in case there was classified material that could be used as evidence. About half of the taped statements by his client had been translated into English by the government, Mr. Weinstein said.
Mr. Abu Ghaith was captured in Jordan after he was deported from Turkey, according to people familiar with the investigation. He was detained in Turkey last month after leaving Iran, where U.S. officials believed he had been hiding for a decade, according to people familiar with the matter.
Alireza Miryousefi, first secretary at Iran's mission to the United Nations, said his office didn't have information about Mr. Abu Ghaith's case.
"Our position about al Qaeda is clear. Iran has never permitted al Qaeda to have any activity or operation from or inside Iran.''
Mr. Abu Ghaith is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, one of two federal facilities in New York City that house defendants awaiting trial.
A U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman, citing agency policy, declined to comment on the specific conditions under which Mr. Abu Ghaith is being housed.
Terrorism suspects or other defendants who might be considered at risk or a risk to others in the general population are typically housed in a section of the facility known as the Special Housing Unit, or SHU. Defendants in that section are housed one or two per cell and mostly confined to their cells, except for limited exercise periods each day.
Mr. Abu Ghaith was never an operational commander in the organization but was the voice of al Qaeda in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, according to terrorism experts.
According to the indictment, Mr. Abu Ghaith appeared with Mr. bin Laden the day after the attacks and said a "great army" was gathering against the U.S. In another statement, he advised Muslims, children and opponents of the U.S. "not to board any aircraft and not to live in high rises," according to the indictment.
In a videotaped message in October 2001, Mr. Abu Ghaith warned Americans that "the storms of planes will not stop until you drag your defeated tails from Afghanistan, not until you raise your hands from the Jews in Palestine, not until you lift the embargo on the Iraqi people, not until you leave the Arabian Peninsula, not until you stop supporting the Hindus against the Muslims in Kashmir.''
He was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship following the release of that video.
—Devlin Barrett contributed to this article.
Write to Chad Bray at firstname.lastname@example.com


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New Issue, Now Online
The new issue is now online.Highlights: Joseph Sorrentinos photo essay on the dangers faced by migrants traveling through Mexico aboard the train of the unknowns, Elizabeth Kirkland Cahill on the connections between Mr. Biswas and Mr. Bond (James Bond), and our 2012 Christmas critics. Also posted today: E.J. Dionne on how Mitt Romneys loss seems to be spurring bishops to rethink the churchs rightward tilt.
About the Author
Dominic Preziosi is Commonweal's digital editor.
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No place else to put this: who's the white-haired dude at the end of this clip?http://www.romereports.com/palio/pope-cheerfully-greets-cardinal-tagles-...
I forgot to give credit: H/T Rocco PalmoMea culpa.
"Rarely does a document reach the floor of the conference and then fail to win the two-thirds majority necessary for approval. Something is stirring." Cardinal Law left in disgrace but his appointees remained to continue to embarass the American church. Now even the bishops are tired of an insipid leadership which has left them mired in disgrace for advocating a partisan agenda. Even John McCain is saying the Republicans should get off the abortion politics bandwagon.
In the next conference 'Rarely does a document reach the floor of the conference" they might bring in Dem Majority leader Pelosi to count the votes before the vote, (-:
Jim, thanks for the clip! You can see the same "white-haired dude" giving a wonderful talk, instructive, entertaining, and hopeful, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxtbpDBMe_0
Thanks to Jim and Claire for the links to the white-haired dude. Great stuff.
What is the current bidding on the transcipt of the conversation between the Josephs?


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When getting out of a free standing minecart (not on a rail), is it possible to do so without moving (pushing) it at all? If so, how?
Place another minecart in a 1x1 hole within reach of your derailed minecart and just hop into it with a right-click.
(not my idea, shamelessly stolen from Minecraftaddict's YouTube, see his explanation)
Since version 1.3.1, players are moved away from minecarts when exiting automatically, so as long as there is a valid block to stand on once you've exited the minecart should not move.
Exit the cart, jump straight up, then move sideways once your (invisible...) feet are above the cart. This is easier if there's a block or even a slab next to the cart to jump onto.
We kind of solved the problem by placing a block on the other side of the track, so that it gets pushed against a wall, which does not move it drastically. It worked quite well for all users of my train station. The advantage is that it is quite easy to use and thus hard for somebody to break it (this is a big advantage in multiplayer, of course), but you need to cross the booster track for this to work.


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Trojans Split SAC Doubleheader with BrevardApril 16, 2014
ANDERSON, S.C. – The Anderson University softball team dropped the opening game of a crucial South Atlantic Conference doubleheader, 4-1, to Brevard, but bounced back to claim the nightcap, 14-3, Wednesday afternoon at Smethers Field.
In a rare occurrence while playing on their home field, the Trojans were the visiting team on the scoreboard because the game was originally slated to be played at Brevard, but was moved due unplayable field conditions in the Tar Heel State.
Anderson (36-10, 14-6 SAC) had its 11-game win streak snapped in the opener, but with the win in the second contest, the Trojans have now won 15 of their last 18 outings. Anderson has won six of eight meetings all-time with Brevard (20-23, 9-9 SAC), which saw its win streak halted at seven with the AU victory in game two.
Game #1
Brevard 4, Anderson 1
Senior Charlotte Sieber was the lone Trojan to muster multiple hits in the opener, going 2-for-3 with a pair of singles, while junior Jessica Neidigh added a single and scored AU's lone run. Senior first baseman Danielle Swygert notched an RBI-single, while freshman Courtney Czentnar and junior Bri Cason also recorded singles.
Junior hurler Katelynn Howser, the reigning SAC Pitcher of the Week, surrendered four runs (three earned), on five hits, while striking out one and not walking a batter. The right-hander saw her personal win streak halted at six with the setback.
Neidigh led off the contest with a single to the left side of the infield and scored on Swygert's two-out single back up the middle, but it proved to be the final time the Trojans would plate a run in the contest.
The Tornados posted all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first inning on sophomore Kinsey Parrish's two-out, two-run homer over the left-field fence. Anderson threatened in the top if the sixth inning, getting Abby Child and Czentnar aboard with one out, but the Trojans were unable to capitalize and stranded eight base runners in the opener.
Brevard countered with a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 4-1 lead on senior Alyssa Miller's solo home run and senior Emily Boykin's two-out single.
AU again threatened in their final at-bat, as Cason reached on an error and Sieber pulled a single down the left-field line, but Brevard pitcher Jamie Hrobak escaped the jam with three consecutive outs to improve to 15-8 on the season.
Game #2
Anderson 14, Brevard 3 (5 innings)
Czentnar was 3-for-4 in the nightcap, with a pair of singles and her 11th home run of the season. She drove in a pair of runs and score three times. Neidigh tallied three singles, two RBI and a pair of runs scored, while Swygert added three singles in four trips to the plate. Sophomore Molly Child blasted her second grand slam of the season, marking her league-leading 13th home run of the campaign. Cason, the reigning conference player of the week, extended her hitting streak to eight games with a fourth-inning RBI-single. She also garnered a first-inning walk. Jansky posted a pair of walks in the nightcap.
Freshman Lauren Rudesheim (15-4) earned the win in the circle, tossing four innings and allowing a pair of earned runs on three hits, while walking two. Fellow freshman Augie Pena threw an inning of relief and surrendered one earned run on two hits, while striking out a pair of Tornados.
The Trojan bats woke up in the opening inning of the nightcap, as AU sent 12 batters to the plate and pounded out five hits, including Molly Child's grand slam. Anderson also took advantage of five walks issued by the Tornados in the first inning to build a 9-0 advantage after a half-inning.
Brevard countered with a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the first inning to trim AU's lead to 9-2. Neither team was able to plate a run in either the second or third innings, with the Trojans putting the game further out of reach with four runs in the top of the fourth inning, as AU sent 10 batters to the plate in the frame and five came away with singles to boost the lead to 13-2.
Czentnar lifted her solo home run beyond the left-field fence with one out in the top of the fifth and Parrish's two out RBI-triple in the bottom of the inning set the final margin.
Anderson closes out the regular season on Saturday, when the Trojans visit South Atlantic Conference-newcomer Coker. First-pitch versus the Cobras in Hartsville, S.C. is scheduled for 1 p.m.


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Small Business Must-Reads—Tuesday, Feb. 12
Happier campers?: Despite higher taxes kicking in last month, small-business owner confidence increased again in January, according to data released Tuesday. But it still remains close to record lows. In a separate survey, business-owner outlook was relatively flat. WSJ.
Climate control: Businesses are weighing how to prepare for potential new rules on climate change, after President Barack Obama has repeatedly promised to make the issue a priority in his second term. WSJ.
Bowing out: Karen Mills is leaving her post as head of the Small Business Administration. She has served as SBA administrator since 2009. Washington Post.
Legal advice: Ten questions to ask before hiring a small-business lawyer. Entrepreneur.com.
E-tailers struggle: The sudden shuttering of online clothier Quincy Apparel illustrates the many challenges that entrepreneurs face in offering custom threads. Crain's New York.
Follow WSJSmallbiz on Twitter@WSJsmallbiz.
For Startup Must-Reads, click here.
What are you reading today? Please add your comments, or shoot us a note at email@example.com.


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I have a schema that I have added to my Sequential Workflow solution. Currently, when I access the schema it is hard coded to a location on my c drive.
doc.Schemas.Add(@"http://usdoj.gov/leisp/lexs/publishdiscover/3.1", @"C:\Code\NSI\xsd\lexs\publish-discover\3.1\publish-discover.xsd");
I would like to upload this schema to a library for future use. However, this sequential workflow has to be used on many different computers, all of which will not contain the schema in the location that I have on my computer. So I added the schema to my workflow project but when I try to call on it using a relative path with the following code:
doc.Schemas.Add(@"http://usdoj.gov/leisp/lexs/publishdiscover/3.1", @"..\Schemas\publish-discover.xsd");
I get the error: "c:\windows\system32\Schemas\publish-discover.xsd". I want to be able to access the schema without having to provide a local hard coded path so I can upload it to a library and have the final wsp file work on multiple machines.


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So I'm using Visual C++ 6.0, and trying to compile some source code, but upon compilation I get this:
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file "Iphlpapi.lib"
Error executing link.exe.
I'm using the correct SDK, and the directories are correct. I've checked, double checked, and triple checked. The file is the specified directory. I can't figure out what the problem is. Any ideas?
Service Pack 6
SDK for Windows Server 2003 SP1 //Sounds odd, since I'm running XP SP3, but this has worked for me in the past.
Like I've said, it worked in the past for me, flawlessly. I don't understand why it won't work now.


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I need to fly to Basel (CH) soon. I have checked fares to Basel/Mulhouse from Brussels. The fares are ridiculous expensive (>900 Euro for an 1 hour flight). I can take the night train, but before considering that I was wondering if there are other airports I could use when I need to be in Basel?
You can easily fly to Zurich. The connections from Brussels to Zurich are way better than the connections from Brussels to Basel. And from Zurich you're in less than a hour in Basel when you take the train. The prices for that train travel start around 15 Swiss franks. The SBB (Swiss national train carrier) has an understandable website. I found flights for around 300 euros for next week (with Swiss)
You could also fly over Geneva to Zurich which is cheaper (around 200 euro). Then I would think about only take the first leg of the flight, leave the plane in Geneva and take the train. But this really depends on the actual date and time you're going to fly.
You could also fly to Geneva, but this is a little bit further away from Basel. The train takes almost 3 hours.
There are also other airports nearby which may be useful (even if I doubt it). This are particularly Friedrichshafen and Altenrhein.
I would look at flying to Zurich and taking a train
Bern might be another option but may not be as good. Personally I'd drive but that may be US traveler talking.


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What is the origin and meaning of the idiom lay an egg? I believe the phrase is usually used for when a team goes out and plays really badly, but I am not certain why.
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This was show-biz parlance in the 1920s, and it referred to a show that closed quickly after opening. The most famous usage was by Variety (a show-biz newspaper) in 1929 after the stock market crashed: "Wall Street Lays An Egg"
Some sources I have seen say that the original meaning came from the number 0, which is what is put up on a scoreboard when a team fails to score. It resembles an egg, and is still today called a "goose egg," so by extension when a team scores zero it "lays an egg."
The OED says "lay, v. ... 9. ... figurative phrase to lay an egg, used in various colloquial senses, specifically: (a) (of an aircraft) to drop a bomb; (b) orig. U.S. (of a performer or performance) to flop." with earliest citation for sense (a) from 1927 and for sense (b) the 1929 Variety headline quoted by Robusto.
This phrase thus seems to be unrelated to the "zero" sense of the word egg, though it's possible that its use in sporting contexts is influenced by it.
The OED says of the latter: "duck's egg, n. The egg of a duck; hence, in Cricket, the zero or '0' placed against a batsman's name in the scoring sheet when he fails to score; no runs; hence, generally in school-boy slang, 'nought'" (earliest citation 1863).
I must move in a somewhat anal environment. I just asked three people what lay an egg might mean in a non-literal sense. One thought it could refer to programmers writing hidden Easter eggs in software packages, the other two knew it was what cats do when they deposit a turd somewhere exceptionally unwelcome (your pillow, for example).
I didn't prompt them until after they'd answered, but I'm in no doubt that I side with the majority there. I recall a Garfield comic strip where after some slight, the cartoon cat leaves his "calling card" in hapless owner Jon's shoe. That was an idiom defined, for me!
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My basic knowledge of these two words is that they both mean the same thing. So why are they used differently, and what is their difference in meaning?
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Let's get some standard definitions in here.
All from wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn.
A hypothesis is a testable prediction.
A theory is a tested, and usually widely accepted, hypothesis.
I think this is mainly related to their usage in american-english. Originally, these two words have very different meanings.
A hypothesis is an assumption made for the sake of argument.
Theory is the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another used to draw a conclusion or an explanation of some phenomenon. A theory may use a number of hypothesis to draw one, or more, conclusions.
Unfortunately, people often say "it's just a theory" almost as if theory was an assumption about something. Nonetheless, you can see the difference from the definitions above.
A hypothesis is something expected to be true, but not yet proved (Synonyms: presumption, assumption, conjecture). For example:
However, a theory is a proposition which is most likely to be true, and is derived from other true statements (theorems). They may also be analyses of facts. For example:
Hypothesis is a single statement regarding relationship between variables that can be tested by observation. Hypotheses are usually formulated to support or deny theories. Usually, several hypotheses on a fact, if scientifically proven, become a theory.
A theory, on the other hand, is a systematic set of generalization that explains some phenomenal linking variables in order to come up with principles that are internally consistent. It should be noted that a theory is only accepted after successful researches on a certain formulation about a fact are done while a hypothesis is just a mere formulation of a fact.


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How do I deactivate the pop-up flash on the Nikon D7000 when using a flash unit that is mounted in the hot-shoe?
Check to see if custom setting e3 is set to commander mode. If so the camera thinks you want to use the pop up flash to control slave units. You need to change the mode to any of the other options: TTL, Manual, or Repeating. This is covered on page 223 of your owner's manual.
If that is not it, make sure the external flash in powered on, and that it is compatible with your camera. If the D7000 does not detect it and the camera is in a mode that activates flash automatically it will pop up the built in flash. Even if the camera doesn't detect the external flash it should still trigger it but you will have to choose a mode that doesn't automatically activate the built in flash. Try one of the PSAM modes. Since you're going to need to set the flash power manually in this case, you might find Manual mode will allow you the most control. You might also want to turn off Auto ISO sensitivity since the camera won't know the flash is going to fire.
If you are using a third party flash, be sure the trigger voltage of the flash is not higher than your camera can accept or you could permanently damage the electronics of your camera. See the answers and links to this question.
Well the pop up can be deactivated even in automatic mode by pushing and holding down down the flash button on the left side of the lens and rotating the back command dial to non flash. But it works only for one at the time in that mode.
Turn your Mode dial to the Flash icon with the line through it.


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San Art Hostel is a privately run hostel, opened in summer 2012. It is located on the Danube River, close to the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, in a tranquil and quiet atmosphere of water and wood.
Come as guests, leave as Friends! We guarantee You great atmosphere!
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text:
Having skimmed the opinions and read a good bit of commentary I'm sure I have nothing interesting to add about the Supreme Court decisions on same sex marriage yesterday.
But a trivia question: who is the most influential lay Catholic intellectual in the United States over the past fifteen years?
Lots of nominees, I'm sure. I'm wondering, though, if fifty years from now we'll think it's Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan made one of the first "conservative" cases for gay civil rights and ultimately gay marriage in his Virtually Normal. It's striking that he has always drawn on Catholic resources, admittedly not always orthodox resources, including a lovely initial review in The New Republic on, of all things, the Catholic catechism.
Sullivan's interests are wide ranging and sometimes vulgar (in a cheerful way) as evidenced on his hugely influential blog. I'm struck, though, by how arguably the country's most prominent advocate for gay marriage first reacts -- he is liveblogging -- to the Kennedy majority opinion striking down DOMA.
Here's Sullivan:
11.23 am. Some have noticed how often Anthony Kennedy used the word "dignity" in his ruling. My own impression of the text is to note how Catholic it is. I mean by Catholic the sense of concern for the dignity of human beings that still resonates among the average Catholic population and, mercifully, now with the new Pope. This is the true measure of our shared faith: not a desire to use its doctrines to control or constrain the lives of others, but seeking always to advance the common good while leaving no one behind. No one.
The Church hierarchy's Ratzingerian turn against this minority in 1986, its subsequent callous indifference to us during the plague years, its rigid clinging to 13th Century natural law rather than what or rather who was right in front of them … these were all tragic failures from the top. But not in the pews; not among lay Catholics; not among many of our families and friends. And that humane Catholicism is embedded in paragraph after paragraph of Kennedy's text. He is talking about us, our relationships and our children as if we were human beings made in the same image of God with inalienable dignity.
It will one day – perhaps even today – seem banal. And it is. But to get to that banality required a revolution.
About the Author
John T. McGreevy is the I.A. O'Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters and Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.
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I think Andrew Sullivan is indeed on the short list of highly influential Catholic intellectuals. His essay "Alone Again, Naturally" should be among the required readings for anyone interested in the question of same-sex marriage.
Now if you want other nominees for the short list of "most influential intellectuals" I'd also nominate Bruce Springsteen. A deep sense of social justice infuses his work--and he fills arenas with people who sing along. Bono of U2, of course. Are these rockers intellectuals? Hmmm...I'd say yes, given the subtlety and power of the lyrics they produce. And also for the work they do on the side working for social justice causes.
Sullivan and Springsteen, alas, feel themselves alienated from the tradition they represent so powerfully. (Or at least from its present leadership.) Another sign of our divided times. (And Bono, as far as I know, is a son of a Catholic and an Anglican, and is careful not to declare his denomination.)
Andrew Sullivan's obsession with Sarah and Trig Palin is symptomatic of an chaotic mind and is a ruthtless attack against the dignity of another person -- a complete lack of Catholic charity. Of course, the ethics of people like Sullivan rest on the notion that those who disagree with their doctrines are not deserving of charity and justly deserve whatever scorn is heaped upon them.
Robert George is an example of an honorable, charitable Catholic intellectual. More Catholic intellectuals on the left should emulate Professor George's reasoned and eloquent style and not Sullivan's hyper-emotional partisanship and hatefulness.
Of Catholics who explicitly aim to influence the culture whether directly or indireclty, I'd say that Charles Taylor is the most liberal influence in the U. S. even though he's Canadian. He's been highly influential both within and outside of the Church and inside and outside of academe.
Among Catholic artists, I'd say thatf Andy Warhol's influence on the general culture is still very strong (alas), as is the influence of Jack Kerouac.
I can't think of a single American bishop who is generally recognized as an intellectual, whether public or otherwise. Sigh.
Then there's the incomparable Stephen Colbert.
Mother Angelica? I don't know what qualifies as "intellectual", but if Bono makes the cut, I figure she does. I think she was way out in fornt of the new evanglization.
Irene - not to pick a fight but would describe Mother Angelica as a niche throwback - she fits exactly what Sullivan means when he tlaks about the Ratzingerian turn starting in 1986 that decided who or who wasn't *orthodox*. Would predict that she will have little lasting impact and wil become or has already become a distant footnote in US catholic history. If she is representative of the *new evangelization*; then, it means that this new evangelization is all smoke and mirrors and addresses none of the pressing issues in the world church e.g. significant and alarming decrease in attendance, membership, and participation especially among the young; lack of clerical vocations; ignoring gender issues; ignoring the abuse scandal; financial and church/school closings, etc.
I'm betting Stephen Colbert finds a great deal to like about the new pope. How does one not like a man who so clearly loves to hug.
As for Robert George he is to social justice what Niall Ferguson is to economic justice. Likely well meaning but often enough a victim of his profound tendency to wax literal when faced with ambivalence.
@Bill. Hey Bill, with Mother Angelica, even if her message isn't a compelling one, don't you think her creation of EWTN was pretty impactful? It seems to have a large following.
I am somewhat reluctant to enter the fray, but will do it anyway. I agree with Bill. Mother Angelica and EWTN have indeed had a big impact on American Catholics (not on American culture in general though) - but only on a particular sub-set of American Catholics. EWTN has been, in the minds of many, among the greatest polarizing influences on American Catholicism during the last decades, defining the Catholic church so narrowly as to exclude the majority of practicing Catholics. M. Angelica/EWTN is dismissive of those whose view of Catholicism is different from their own. The question-and-answer of "experts" on the EWTN website sometimes gives highly misleading information to naive questioners - opinion rather than "fact". Her work combined with some others may have contributed to the atmosphere that has driven away many Catholics who no longer feel welcome in a church so narrowly defined as that seen on EWTN. If the "new evanglization" is meant to re-attract "lapsed" Catholics to full participation in the church, the M. Angelica/EWTN approach may often have the opposite impact than that intended.
Andrew Sullivan's work is accessed by many in the entire American culture, unlike that of M. Angelica.
I am not an "intellectual" like so man who post here, and so am unfamiliar with the work of Taylor and George. But, if we define "Catholic intellectual" more broadly to include those like Sullivan (and Bono?) rather than only those whose views are not well known to those outside of academia, I would nominate Joan Chittister, OSB. She is the author of more than 50 books, and countless columns and articles in both the Catholic and secular media. She has been the invited speaker to graduations at influential non-Catholic universities, such as Stanford. She is a sought after speaker to Catholic, non-Catholic, and secular groups. She is co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a UN-sponsored organization creating a worldwide network of women peacemakers. She is spiritual leader and speaker, sought out by both Catholic and non-Catholic groups - for example, she has been invited many times to speak at the Washington National Cathedral (Episcopal), which is probably the most spiritually and religiously influential church in the nation's capital. She touches many beyond those reached by academics or by conservative Catholic organizations such as EWTN.
OK - I thought I was editing, not reposting six times. Could someone please delete all but the last comments and explain to me how the edit function works? Also, how to delete duplicate comments! Merci bien!
Ann Chapman,
I wish I could help you. However, I think that your comment is worth repeating again and again, and again, and again, and again.
You don't seem very reluctant to me.
Anne, I thought we were briefly able to edit, for a few days after the format of the blog changedm then it got taken away from us. I wish we were free to edit for at least a few minutes, long enough to correct typos.
Do you have an "edit" button? I used to have one, but it disappeared.
I wonder if our features are user-dependent? Is it possible that some people are allowed to edit their comments and others are not, perhaps depending on how we have used that feature?
My spell check feature also became in-operative with the new format
Thanks, Anne - you enhanced and expanded what I intended. If anything, would suggest that *Mother* will fall into the same category that historicans now place folks such as Charles Coughlin, Leonard Feeney, Rev. Fessio.
I don't comment on the articles on this blog very often. But when I do, I enter the fray 100%. ;)
Anne --
While I agree with your estimation of Mother A,'s views, I also agree with Irene that her founding of EWTN was quite an acomplishment. One just prays it does more good than harm.
If I were to win the lottery, I'd start a Catholic TV channel of a different sort -- one which presents Church teaching in some depth and a variety of views on contested matters. (Bishop Sheen showed not only that Catholicism could prove interesting, he showed it could also be extremely popular.) The channel would also provide a smorgasbord of reports on the arts and sciences and social issues. Such a channel would reach out to all sorts of people, not just trad Catholics. Surely there must be enough money and know-how in liberal and middle-of-the-road Catholic philanthropic circles to support such a venture.
As a businesswoman, M. Angelica accomplished a great deal, founding a major religious network. Yet EWTN has not contributed to a positive tone in the American church but has instead sharpened the divisions. Has it accomplished more good than harm? How does one determine that? It seems to me that she found a way to preach to a choir already in existence who were quite thrilled to have a TV network full of people who affirm the views they already held, and she was able to capitalize on that. Her work has done little to "bring back" the former Catholics targeted by the new evangelization, as most "lapsed" Catholics that I know (and I know a lot of them!) think that the version of Catholicism espoused by M. Angelica and EWTN represent the very mindset that finally led them to decide to leave the church.
I have vague memories of Fulton Sheen - my mother loved his show. The main memory I have, though, is of him walking back and forth, swishing his robes dramatically. It reminded me of Count Dracula, I'm afraid. I have no memory at all of the content, and was probably too young to understand it anyway. But I do remember the drama of the "count".
A show that would present a "variety of views" on contested matters in the church would be very interesting. But would any cleric or religious have the courage to put on such a show or even appear on such a show, given the current climate in the church in America? Perhaps the commentators would have to be drawn from the laity instead of from the ordained and vowed religious - those who don't fear "discipline" for presenting dissenting views. Commonweal is able to present a variety of views because it is not beholden to bishops or Rome, unlike other Catholic publications such as America, which became far more bland and far less interesting after Rome forced the Jesuits to replace Thomas Reese as editor.
However, I think that your comment is worth repeating again and again, and again, and again, and again.
I know - I found myself nodding more enthusiastically in agreement every time I read it!
I tried at one time to follow Sullivan, but there is just more there than I have time to read and absorb (or that was my experience at that time, anyway). It's just too much.
Anne --
Count Dracula? Funny! (He might laugh too:-)
Yes, my dream TV channel would have to be largely presented by laity, at least at this point. But they couldn't be disciplined for explaining what dissidents are saying, nor for showing how some of the official Church teachings are not supported by the arguments offered. And, of course, the official teachers (bishops and their theologians) would have to be represented too. It would be a beginning, anyway.
And, the question was about influential intellectuals. I don't think Mother Angelica is an intellectual, but neither is Bono.
What's an intellectual? Someone with a lot of degrees? Someone whose day job is to to opine/think about things? (I thought Charles Barkley's commentary on the NCAA championshps was pretty profound; is he an intellectual?)
"What's an intellectual?"
My question also - or one of them. Another is - how much impact do intellectuals actually have on American culture or even American Catholic culture? It seems to me, as a "non-intellectual", average American, that it is other "non-intellectuals" who may have the greatest impact on ordinary people and on the culture. So maybe Sullivan and Bono are more influential than Taylor, for example - someone I had never heard of before this blog, so I had to google him for a summary. Have his ideas actually had an impact on the general culture? I don't know - Ann, your are a philospher, can you tell us how Taylor's work has impacted society? Perhaps these unknown to the masses intellectuals have huge impact behind the scenes on policy formation in government, or in education, or maybe in the USCCB. I don't know, but whatever infuence they have as Catholic intellectuals is not obvious to the average American.
I don't read Sullivan regularly, but he does have wide name recognition. One might argue that as a gay, Catholic conservative he has had far more impact on the culture's views of homosexuality than have the entire conference of Catholic bishops, in spite of their multi-million dollar campaigns to save American society and the family from destruction, a dire fate that they somehow imagine will occur by permitting two, loving committed adults of the same gender to live together as legally married spouses instead of living together as an unmarried couple. Nobody disputes that Benedict is an intellectual - yet it would seem that in only a few months, Francis has had far more impact on the general culture than did his predecessor. Has he changed the culture? Not yet, but people are paying attention - including many who had totally ignored Benedict. I don't know if Francis is also an "intellectual" - but his communication style is not that of intellectuals who talk above and past the "non-intellectual" masses.
p.s. What exactly did Barkley say?
Mother Angelica is a remarkable figure. On her own, she created a major television and radio network, in the face of considerable opposition. She also is a faithful Catholic who has devoted her entire life to the Church. Andrew Sullivan, by contrast, devotes most of his energies to attacking Catholic teaching and anyone who seeks to uphold that teaching. Sadly, I am no longer surprised to see which of these two has more respect here.
Anne --
(Please, forgive the length of these posts, but you posed some important questions.)
About the influence of intellectuals: I'd say that an intellectual is someone who tries to answer three traditionally basic philosophical questions: Who am I? What can i know? What am I to do? Plus "intellectuals" also compare the different ideas and then criticize them for consistency and relevance .
I do not think that the only intellectuals are academic ones. Many writers and artists and popular singers do consider the big questions, but not very many of them compare and criticize the answers, though some do. The particular value of the academic intellectuals is that they do all three -- inventing ideas, comparing them, and criticizing them. Note: to invent and criticize ideas is a creative process itself.
As to the influence of intellectuals, many of the ideas that the intellectuals invent are incorporated long-term into into their culture's languages and thought patterns. Further, these ideas are often notably incorporated into their country's laws. See, for instance the number of latin terms in English and American common law which have been inherited from the thinkers of the middle ages (who in turn incorporated ideas from the Greeks and Romans). But even some of our own everyday ideas/words are the gifts of ancient philosophers -- Aristotle invented the idea/word "energy" from scratch: "en" = being, and "erg" = force, which combined means the force possessed by or which is a part of a being. "Substance" is another idea we got from the Greeks and the chemists still use it in his sense, and we also got "potential" from Aristotle. Other ideas/words are not as useful, and they don't generally last very long, though we include them in dictionaries in case we should need them again (e.g., "ether" keeps coming and going in and out of physics).
Usually it takes time, and often a lot of it, for the ideas of the intellectuals (e.g., Newton's gravity, or Freud's unconscious) to filter into the minds of people who are less curious or non-intellectual, but eventually the ideas and words which help answer the important questions do become part of the culture's intellectual equipment. If you don't think that the intellectuals' ideas are part and parcel of our culture, then ask yourself: why do North Americans view the world and themselves so very differently from, say, a South American aborigine who thinks that the stars are gods and who has no idea of human inalienable human rights? And, No, I'm not saying that the aborigines are not intellectuals -- they try to answer those questions too. See their myths and laws.
Why do Americans disparage intellectuals/ eggheads/ absent-minded professors/ geeks/ bookworms? (We're notoriously anti-intellectual.) I suspect it's because the eggheads are professional criticizers of everyone including us, and American's hate being criticized (especially by one of our own) -- we're the citizens of that city on the hill and are the paradigms of all things admirable. So we blame the eggheads for the criticisms and call them names in return.
Anne --
About Charles Taylor: Our thinking about the big questions has an initial focus on ourselves (Who am I, etc.). Taylor's Sources of the Self (which brought him to the public's attention), is a huge history and criticism of ideas of "self" in Western cultures from the Greeks down to now. It was published in 1989, and quickly ('92) came out in paperback. As I remember it sold several hundred thousand copies, which for a 602 page book about philosophy is remarkable. True, Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on self-help books each year, and that no doubt accounted for some of Sources' popularity. But since then it is regularly referenced in the more serious press, which indicates that readers of those media seem to know what he is about.
Yes, it was a bit surprising that Sources (with its 60 pages of footnotes) would be so successful. It proves, though, that when a philosopher doesn't use a terribly obscure vocabulary (as do the European philosophers these days), when he writes as clearly as the subject allows, when he is fair in his criticisms, and when he manages new insights, people are willing to put in the effort to read him, even non-academics. Unfortunately, the Charles Taylors of this world are rare.
Taylor's reputation is a world-wide one. He's a recipient of the Kyoto prize which in philosophy and the arts is the equivalent of a Nobel. His more recent works have not been so popular as Sources but popular enough to still qualify him as a major public intellectual in the U. S. as well as Canada.
I must also admit that Taylor is not typical of contemporary Catholic philosophers. He is not a product of Catholic universities, not trained in the scholastics (except perhaps for the influence of the later-in-life-Thomist Elizabeth Anscombe) and he has been known to call philosophy "a perpetual disturbance of the peace" (not a typically Catholic notion). No doubt this attitude has not endeared him to the conservative Catholic powers that be. He also is not a typical Catholic philosopher in that he is well-known and highly respected in the secular parts of academe. He has taught at Northwestern and Notre Dame, and, I think, should be better known among Catholics, but he's too liberal for many American ones.
He has been active in Canadian politics (he ran for office several times) and has been greatly honored by the Canada with a string of letters (CC GOQ FRSC) after his name.
So, yes, some intellectuals sometimes do influence the public directly.
Thank you Ann, for your long posts - they always make me think and reflect, something I have gotten quite lazy about in recent years. My response is also long - some stream-of-consciousness questions and comments mostly.
"I'd say that an intellectual is someone who tries to answer three traditionally basic philosophical questions: Who am I? What can i know? What am I to do?"
I would say that most [at least somewhat] self-reflective and thinking people ask those questions. They may answer them in their own minds or at least try to without trying to apply their answers universally. The professional intellectuals who ask and try to answer these questions seem to try to develop universally applicable answers. So one must also ask if there really are universal answers to these questions. Certainly religion and philosophy try to answer them and declare objective Truth, but are these "universal" answers developed by philosophers and theologians the final "truth" or just the best understanding of the moment? Sometimes the individual's answers and the academically derived answers may coincide and sometimes not. Is it only professional intellectuals who can find "true" answers to these questions? Is there any one set of "true" answers? How do you know? Some pass the test of time, most don't but may be important in understanding how we got from there to here, even if not the final word.
"Plus "intellectuals" also compare the different ideas and then criticize them for consistency and relevance."
This approach is certainly required in academia but it is not limited to it. Many outside academia must do this within their own disciplines – pose questions, develop answers, compare and test them. Are businessmen and scientists and engineers and economists etc who use the same process outside of the academic world also "intellectuals"? Or does that label only properly belong to those seeking universal answers to the universal questions of the meaning of life?
Of course the work of "intellectuals" impacts society to varying degrees over a period of time and that this work is needed. But the immediate question of the article was about who is the most "influential" lay Catholic in America at the present time – the author suggests it might be Andrew Sullivan whose ideas are known through the popular media targeted to non-academics.
I read the wiki entry on Taylor and understand that he is highly lauded for his work, but how has his work directly impacted the American culture of the early 21st century – beyond the classroom and in the society itself? Have institutions changed, or laws, or medicine, or psychology or education because of his work? He ran for office in Canada unsucessfully so he did not gain an office that would give him the opportunity to integrate his ideas into Canadian law or policy. According to wiki, he wants to attack "islamaphobia" and has a strong interest in multi-culturalism. Has he had an impact? I guess philosophers and theologians are a bit like some saints who died heretics– they might have to be dead a long time before their ideas are finally acknowledged!
Taylor's book sounds like an exhaustive critical literature review and I'm sure is a great resource to those who are interested in his subject matter. But its popular success as a book focused on philosophy over the centuries is most likely due to this "…he writes as clearly as the subject allows,
Perhaps that is why Andrew Sullivan or maybe Andrew Greeley (not an intellectual in most people's minds) may be among those Catholics who have been most "influential" on contemporary American culture. They write clearly so that even non-academics, non-philosophers, non-theologians, non-christians can understand what they are saying. Greeley may not have developed new insights about the eternal questions, but he did have some savvy insights into the functioning of the church and into "Catholic culture". I am not a fan of his novels (which he admitted himself are hardly great literature) but many non-Catholics developed a bit of an understanding of "Catholic culture" through reading them. Perhaps it's the professional intellectuals who are most influential over the long course of history, but it's those who write simply with every day words who have the most influence in the short-run!
Anne --
You raise some more good questions :-)
Yes, the question was about influences -- present tense. But philosophical influences usually begin at one time and then take years to become common in academe and then more years to spread out into the general populace. At least that's the way it usually happens in the U. S. In other countries, e.g., France or Mexico, there are more non-professionals who read philosophy so ideas there no doubt catch on more quickly. Even so, sometimes the process takes fifty or a hundred years, though with the new media I think the process has been speeding up. For instance, the use of the word "referent" is now common, but it's was introduced 120 years ago in an extremely technical context..
As for Taylor influence on American culture, there's no way to tell except to surmise based on the changes he seems to have contributed to already. Before his Sources there wasn't a great deal of systematic challenging of the current materialistic view of the self going on. But Sources was taken very seriously by the professionals -- you can see that in its reviews then later in the number of times reference is made to him. So I think that Sources *probaby* had a hand in the movement away from materialism to what is emerging in people like Nagel who has explicitly and powerfully challenged the scientists on that point. But there were others between him and Taylor, and some before Taylor. I suspect we'll know if the influence lasts when we see what happens to the Humanities, but that could take another 50-60 years. Sigh.
In contrast to the "humane Catholicism" Sullivan speaks of, Catholicism that embraces the dignity and worth of our LGBT brothers and sisters, we have the utterly disgusting, degrading and inhumane words of Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez of the Dominican Republic.
If you speak Spanish, I urge you to watch the video. It is appallingly lacking in diginity and not only because he uses a vile word for a gay man. Pope Francis must act here.
Catholicism is sooooooooooooo inviting to us LGBT folks these days. Yes, indeedy.
Even though some people remain nasty, two conservative old fogeys (who both happen to be middle-aged;-) have said some very nice things about Andrew Sullivan and his part in the changing of American opinion. I mean Ross Douthat and Rod Dreyer, who are anti-gay marriage.
They're so nice about Sullivan I expect that eventually they'll both change. Maybe in 40 years or so...
(For the Dreyer article, scroll down to "the Most Important Political Writer of His Generation". He also counts Sullivan as a friend.
Oops -- That's Rod DreHer, not Dreyer.