text:
Local Hero
A stepping stone to U.S. citizenship: Alicia Flores of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center in Oxnard
By Grier King 02/21/2013
Nestled comfortably in a small headquarters on West Fifth Street in Oxnard is a brilliant and much-needed resource, La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center. Founded in 2005 by Alicia Flores, the center has proved an invaluable resource for the immigrant community of Ventura County.
"The purpose is to help the underserved. This is a grass-roots organization and [we] want to serve the community by helping them to adjust to a new country, to know what their rights are," says Flores.
The center provides many services, including a food share program, a literacy program, computer classes and an ESL program. The food share provides food for 250 to 300 families per week, with the literacy program aiding participants in finishing the educations they weren't able to conclude while in Mexico. The literacy program works in collaboration with the Mexican Consulate so that participants may receive their diplomas from Mexico. This ensures that, if any circumstances bring about a need to return to Mexico, the students will have the education credentials they need in order to find jobs.
In early October, 14 students graduated from the program and received their diplomas from Mexico.
Apart from education, the center also provides help for victims of domestic violence and fraudulent acts. These crimes against community members are what motivated Flores to create this resource.
"Our community is very vulnerable in the immigration process. I heard about a lot of [people] becoming victims of abuse; they are promised a process and they [the people who promised the process] commit fraud. They are promised a work permit and they [the people who promised the process] will just take their money or even put them on deportation," Flores said. "Some don't know their rights for their kids in school, or their rights in housing, or where to get some kind of help. This is a kind of guidance for them, when they have any problems, they come here to ask, 'Where can I go to get a divorce?' 'Where can I go to get a restraining order?' and things like that. The community [didn't] know where to go to get help. That was one of my motivations to have this organization open for the community."
The center also aids immigrant community members in becoming U.S. citizens. Since the recession, the fee for processing immigration paperwork has increased, making it a true struggle for immigrants, who often have low incomes, to afford the process, so things have slowed down for the center in that regard. However, before the recession struck, La Hermandad held "Citizenship Fairs" where 250-400 people would show up to have their paperwork processed in a single day. There are also classes held at the center to prepare those applying for citizenship with the test and interview they will face once their paperwork has been processed by the government.
"They put themselves last," Flores said on the matter of the difficulties immigrants face in their process of pursuing citizenship. "They don't continue going to school, they don't [make] the effort to learn the English language. That's the difficulty for them, the language, because they don't have the time to continue going to school. That's the barrier that they have."
Since its opening, the center has produced 3,000 American Citizens.
Alfonso Villegas, of Oxnard, is one of La Hermandad's latest success stories. He recently was granted U.S. citizenship and was able to register to vote just before the elections. Flores translated his words to English as he spoke, "It was my goal and my dream in life to become a US citizen, and I am very pleased to have received my training here to be able to do so. The teachers are good, and have many, many strengths; it's nice. I'm very excited [to vote]!"
The people receiving aid from the center, however, aren't the only ones reaping the benefits.
"I have learned a lot," Flores said. "It's been very satisfying for me, and a blessing. … You can help them change their life. They come back and they are very happy and thankful, and they tell you, 'God bless you,' and you can see that you were able to help make a change in that person's life. That's been my reward, to see that I was able to help."
Volunteers are needed to teach English as a Second Language classes though it is not required that volunteers speak Spanish. Volunteers are also welcome for the food share program to distribute the food to families in need, and monetary donations are always greatly appreciated.
For more information, contact Alicia Flores at 483-4620 for inquiries, or visit the center at 520 W. Fifth St., #D, Oxnard.
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Using ConTeXt I want to create a pdf with pictures from the internet. I don't want to include those pictures into the pdf, but I want only links to these pictures, and the pictures themselves shall be loaded when viewing the pdf. I tried to use this code:
%interface=en translate-file=utf-8
I used this command for the compilation:
texexec --pdf --tex=pdfetex --int=en file.tex
But in the final pdf there is only this error message:
name: dummy
file: Lucie+Jones+Lucie+PNG
state: unknown
Is it possible to have the external figures in the final pdf (using ConTeXt)?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I want to know how to get arbitrarily high in Thief games. I once read about this technique. I would say it looked something like flying. It does not seem like what developers wanted, so I would say it is a physics hack.
- By Thief games I mean Thief: The Dark Project and Thief: Metal Age and their mods.
- I remember it involved abusing game physics, it should work on clean installation of Thief (it was not done by console command or by some user script, game trainer or something similar).
- I remember, possibly incorrectly, it involved grabbing item (You had in inventory?), hoisting on it, jumping of it, hoisting, jumpig of it ... and it elevated You
- You had to have at least 2 items with which You did it, I think
- I imagine it looked similar to how somobody skipped final sequence in Oblivion speedrun (contains spoilers!) .
Do You know how it worked? And possibly why it worked?


text:
I've already installed hplip, it printed a test page, but it won't print from any program. It shows the printer in the list of printers, and it's checked as the default printer. I've restarted a couple times.
When I plugged the USB cable for the printer into the computer after installing hplip, it said printer detected. Then after a couple seconds it said the printer was ready for use.
When I send something to the printer, a pop-up shows that a document was sent to the printer - but there's a triangle with an exclamation point in it next to the message. A few seconds another pop-up indicates that the printer has completed printing the job but it didn't print anything.


text: This is where you talk to us about your monthly Fantasy and Horror Reads: whether good or bad, we want to discuss with you what you thought. We've held over our Book Club books this month, so Our Fantasy Book of the Month is Among Others by Jo Walton. Discuss here. Similarly, Our SF Book of the Month is Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo. Discuss here. Mark


text:
Alan M. Sampson of Quincy, a communications company technician, won a $1 million prize in the state lottery's "$10,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular" instant game.
Sampson selected the game's cash option and received a one-time lump sum payment of about $430,000 after taxes. He told lottery official he will invest his windfall.
Congress Card in downtown Boston will receive a $10,000 commission on the sale.
The odds of winning $1 million on the $20 ticket are one in 720,000.


text:
Julia Draznin Maltzman, MD
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: August 18, 2004
On October 1, 2004 a team of twenty cyclists led by six time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, will depart Los Angeles California and cycle across country to Washington DC, in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope. These amazing twenty were selected from over 1,200 applicants to raise awareness and share their passion for cancer therapy and cancer clinical trials. All of these men and women have intimate and often heart-wrenching stories to share about how cancer has affected them personally. Each one of these cyclists has had to overcome this disease in one way or another.
OncoLink was fortunate enough to be able to speak with Elizabeth Sterling. We hope that her story will inspire our readers that may be going through a similar experience. Her story should be an inspiration to all of us to be the best mothers, fathers, siblings, friends, spouses, daughters, and sons we can possibly be.
OncoLink: Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I have already interviewed one of your teammates Darren Mullen whose story was incredibly moving and touching. I was also interested in speaking with you because what you went through may be every mother's biggest fear. Speaking as a mother, I honestly, can't even fathom what you endured. In honor and in memory of your son Bennett can you tell me about how it was that he was diagnosed and the 18 months of therapy?
Elizabeth Sterling [ES]: I had the most perfect pregnancy, ate right, exercised, had no interventions with my labor, breast fed my son, I did everything right. Bennett was the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so he was much anticipated by everyone.
He was always big for his age and at our four month well-child check appointment, our pediatrician noticed that Bennett's head circumference grew from the 50 th percentile where it had been two months earlier, to over the chart; greater than 100 percentile. We did not think anything of it. We just thought our boy has a big head. But our pediatrician recommended getting a CT scan just to make sure there was nothing going on. We did not expect to see anything, really. We were just going through the motions. I remember, I was at work and my husband called me after the CT was done and told me that the doctors see a little bit of fluid in Bennett's brain. I was in total shock. How could this happen? How could this be? I couldn't believe it. I kept asking why? Why is there fluid present but the doctors did not know and hypothesized that there was some abnormality in the brainstem not picked up by the CT scan. There was no mention of tumor or cancer or anything of the sort.
The next step was to go find a neurosurgeon that could take out the fluid. It turns out we needed a shunt – something that would continuously drain the fluid. We ended up traveling to a surgeon in Hershey, PA who did the shunt the next day. This surgeon was the first one to mention the word tumor. He said that he thought he could see a tumor on the CT scan that maybe responsible for the fluid accumulation. We needed to either cut this thing out or biopsy it. But he said that he would not recommend doing surgery right away, but rather allow Bennett to heal for two weeks from the shunt procedure before proceeding with the tumor surgery. It was at this point that I realized that I needed to educate myself. I started to read anything I could get my hands on. I searched the Internet, spoke with people and quickly realized our situation was unique enough, and rare enough that we really needed to find experts. We needed a neurosurgeon who knew how to deal not only with brain tumors, but also with infants.
It was during one of my searches on the Internet that I learned about St. Jude's hospital in Memphis TN. I also learned that there were clinical trials conducted there designed specifically for kids under the age of three. So we packed up and, essentially moved to Memphis for what turned out to be one year.
First Bennett had to have his surgery to remove the tumor and make a definitive diagnosis. He had so many complications post operatively. He had so many seizures and was on so many different medications. He was in the ICU for a while. I remember the worst time came about ten days post operatively, when Bennett would not respond to us. He would have these convulsions and then become totally unresponsive to our presence or us. I knew something was wrong. We had teams of neurologists come and no one knew what this was. All types of rare syndromes were considered but no one had a diagnosis. I really hit rock bottom one day when all the main doctors were away at a conference and I called one of the residents and told him that this is still happening and all he said was OK, we can get another CT scan. I knew that this CT scan was not going to show anything! But, all of a sudden it hit me. Call it mother's intuition, I don't know what, but I realized that it is the medication that Bennett was put on that was making him act this was. The doctors tried to convince me that his anti-seizure medication was actually helping him and preventing seizures. Furthermore, they said that his drug levels were all good – not high enough to cause problems. But I insisted and we take him off two medications – Dilantin and Reglan. I am not sure which one of them was responsible, or if it was the combination of the two, but within twenty-four hours Bennett was 100% better.
My baby woke up again, he was back to being himself. He could interact with me. I was so relieved. And, it was that day that we got the news that Bennett had a Medulloblastoma – a malignant brain tumor. It was almost as if it were planned. Someone knew that I would not be able to handle my child being so sick convulsions and inability to interact with me and hearing this devastating news. Only once Bennett improved did we find this out. Honestly, as soon as I saw him getting better I was so relieved I felt as if I could deal with anything – including cancer.
We packed up, came home for five days, and returned to St. Jude's to begin treatment on the very same clinical trial that I had seen prior to even coming to Memphis. I knew that a clinical trial was our best hope for survival. Being at St, Jude's gave me all the confidence in the world that my son will be taken care of in the best possible way. It also gave me comfort and joy to know that Bennett can participate in something that one day could help others in his situation.
The clinical trial consisted of 20 weeks of chemotherapy including intra-thecal therapy (chemotherapy injected directly into the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord), then followed by six weeks of radiation therapy, and finished up with twenty more weeks of chemotherapy with intra-thecal injections. Some cycles were worse than others. Thank goodness that they had great drugs that could help him deal with the nausea and vomiting. He was neutropenic (low white blood cell counts) often with a few fevers requiring hospitalization. He received many, many transfusions of blood and platelets. He had a central line for all this. I remember he used to like to chew on the end of the central line – he used it as a teething toy. He finished the first twenty weeks and was scheduled to begin radiation. But they have never done this type of radiation on anyone under one year. He was the youngest patient they have ever done. He finished 2 weeks before his first birthday. I remember, we celebrated his first birthday in Memphis and the next day he began radiation.
Bennett's tumor relapsed after radiation and we were taken off study. We were devastated.
They found another large tumor in his brain that needed to be removed surgically. The worst day I remember was when Bennett was in the ICU and he lost his intravenous access. They poked him for an hour trying to find an IV. He cried and screamed. We had to hold him down during all of this. This was just terrible. Seems so trivial compared to what he already endured, but it was so hard on me to watch him being poked for an hour straight.
OncoLink: I just can't imagine. What got you through this? Who supported you?
ES: We are very fortunate as we had many friends and lots of family come and stay with us and keep us company. I was fortunate enough to be able to take 2 years off work and my husband, who owns his own business, took off a year.
I also kept a daily email diary. Each day I would try to find something positive to focus on. It could be something as silly as a friend buying us coffee, or the fact that our hospital room may have a view of the garden, but I needed to focus on the positive. I learned never to loose hope, no matter how bad things seemed to get. And I became more spiritual and religious through this. Faith and religion helped me through it.
Bennett was the greatest gift God could have given me. Through I learned that there are two types of hope. The first one being the more narrow view of hope – hope that we get what we want. The other is a broader, much more beautiful, more wonderful, view of hope that something great can come out of any situation. Bennett did what he was meant to do on this earth. He was meant to live 18 months and he did. Honestly, it was harder on us than on the person going through it, I think.
OncoLink: Did you ever get angry?
ES: I guess I just don't see it that way. My husband did get angry, but I didn't. I just got tired. Just tired from everything. Tired of dealing with one thing and then another. I was fortunate to be surrounded by loving family and friends and saw the families around us at St Jude who were much worse off. Bennett was not robbed of anything. His purpose was to live 18 months. He affected so many people even in his short 18 months. Although he never talked or walked, he was an inspiration to so many including me. We have so many photos of his smiling and laughing. He was a happy kid. We took him out to state parks and on hikes when he was well. I guess not being angry is my survival technique.
OncoLink: So what happened after he relapsed? He had to go off study, I imagine?
ES: Right, we tried another trial. After the first cycle, it seemed that he responded, but after the second cycle, we did and MRI and it was obvious that the tumor grew. We were recommended to try Temodar an oral drug. I knew in my gut that it is not going to work and knew it was time to focus on his quality of life. It was a year to the day that we arrived in St Jude's and we were getting ready to go back home to continue the Temodar there. Bennett started to sleep all the time. The times he was awake, he was irritable and cranky. An emergent MRI showed that the cancer has spread all over his brain. So we returned home for hospice rather than more treatment.
Even though, I knew that the Temodar is not going to work, this was the first time that I realized that Bennett is going to die. On November 18, 2003, when he was exactly 18 months old, Bennett died at home. I can't tell you how devastating it is to watch your child take their last breath.
OncoLink: What is the Blue Butterfly Fund? And how did it get its name?
ES: The Blue Butterfly Fund is a fund we started in honor of Bennett and it is designed to help other families whose children may have cancer. It is primarily financial assistance but I end up talking to so many such families and helping them through this difficult time. It is so rewarding and makes me feel so good to know hat I have helped someone. For example, we just helped one family that was in total financial ruins after paying all the medical bills for their sick daughter. We helped them make their mortgage payment. This is how Bennett's life is helping other people. He is doing good for this world and he does not have to be here physically to do it. His memory lives on this way.
The name the Blue Butterfly is a symbol of hope. Blue is a healing color and a butterfly is a symbol of hope through history. When we found out that Bennett's tumor progressed through the clinical trial and radiation, I was just so devastated. I was talking to a friend of mine and she told me that now I am falling, but soon I will hit bottom and then I'll be able to see the light and regroup. As she said this, I happen to look up at the incandescent light and there was a blue butterfly puppet my husband put up so that Bennett would have something to look at. As it turns out the butterfly was a symbol of hope in Nazi Germany. Jewish people used to draw butterflies on the walls as hope.
OncoLink: Why do you think you were chosen for this Tour of Hope over the other 1,200 applicants?
ES: I was chosen because my story is unique. Most of the people on the team are the survivors themselves, with me you have to dig deeper for the story of hope.
OncoLink: What does this Tour mean to you? What do you hope to accomplish?
ES: People still die of cancer. I want that to change. I want there to be a cure for all of cancer and certainly for all of the childhood cancers. I want to raise awareness for the importance of clinical trials. I want people to know that clinical trials are an option for them. And, I want people to understand that they have to be strong advocates for themselves and for their loved ones. You have to know all your options. Don't expect someone else to make these difficult medical choices for you. You have to do it yourself.
I also want to share my version of hope with other people. People need to embrace it and put it in their back pocket and pull it out when they need it. There is always something to be happy about. You always need to look for it.
Everyone should make a commitment and a promise to educate themselves, to gather all the information, to learn as much as possible.
OncoLink: How would you like the world to remember Bennett? How do you remember him?
ES: Bennett was a happy, always smiling little boy. This little kid lived so that I could share his message with the world. So, I would be so honored, if someone, anyone, out there, could make this self-education pledge, this commitment, in honor of Bennett, then his struggle was worthwhile. If just one life is saved because a parent hears our story, then this means the world to me. Bennett lived to empower me and empower others to make educated choices, to reach families, to save others from experiencing this pain.


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Are you ready for Call of Duty: Black Ops II?
That's right guys.. they're going to reveal CoD: BO2 today.
Coming out 11/13/12.
What do you guys think?
PS: Don't down-vote me because you don't like CoD. I have Battlefield 3 too (haven't played MW3 much, just demoed it) and I've played CoD: BO1 last year... that game sucked out so much money out of me.
EDIT: Well, it doesn't say on the website yet, but the facebook page sure did.
9 Answers answer
I stopped caring about COD when right before MW2. I got tired of spending 50 dollars every year for essentially the same game with a few new features. Especially when it takes so long for me to level up because I don't play a lot.
Releasing new games every year or so just breaks up the gaming community and makes gaming less fun for me. Valve got in a lot of trouble for releasing L4D2 too soon but it's nice what they did to tie the two games together and how quickly they started dropping the price on both games.
Just look at counterstrike, the game is more than 10 years old and it still breaks back into the top 10 best selling games on steam all the time.. Anyways this is just my semi-unpopular opinion, and I'd still probably play the game if I'm at a friends house.
Same here.. that's why I opted for Battlefield 3 this year instead of MW3. Last year I spent $60 on Black Ops itself and over the next four months (1 map pack a month x $15) was another $60. Honestly I was in it for the zombies, but outcomes are always the same.. stupidly death from breaking the streak of zombie kills.
I'll probably just rent it out. Oh hear ya on counter-strike.. been playing that since middle school which was probably like ten years ago for me. We even played it in high school in "advanced computer programming" class. Yeah, how fun is that? Counter-Strike with professor for two hours and man, that guy gets pissed when he gets shot by a sniper with no-scope.
If only Woot sells video games (at better prices than amazon, I presume)... now wouldn't that be cool?
I wonder if CS works on Mac... I'm thinking about jumping right back into that right now.
EDIT: I guess not.
@cowboydann: I'm with you. I played COD4:MW religously for a long time. I hosted a gaming community geared specifically towards MW and hosted 3-4 servers for about a year. It was great. Then MW2 came out and crapped on everything in the PC community. There were no servers anymore. I switched to BF3 in the last round and have vowed never to give the COD franchise any more of my money. I wish I had back all the money I had put into MW2 and BO.
The trailer just dropped.
Looks like it's set in the semi-near future.. 2025
All I remember seeing was robot drones and horses. I think I want it now.. cause of the horses. Can't go wrong with horses. My interest level went up 25% on horses alone.
meh... haven't played my xbox in over a month, and I still have rage, arkham city, mass effect 1-2-3, and several others to get through. That should last me til 2013.
Not a gamer here, but it sounds interesting.
Not terribly excited for it, the CODs that Treyarch has produced over the years aren't nearly as fun as the ones that Infinity Ward produces.
With probably the exception of the Zombie mode in World at War, and the default map.
If I were to buy it, I would probably wait til it hits less than $40.
I was able to wait for CoD:MW3, and eventually snagged a copy for $25 with shipping through e-bay.
Though... this futuristic setting does look interesting... >.<
Honestly I'm not a fan of fps games, I'm an RPG kind of girl.
But I work in the gaming industry so I have to be excited for it for my customers. :)


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|View Poll Results: Do you think HOt Topic is Exspensive?
|no way
|Voters: 51. You may not vote on this poll
|Thread Tools
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Who thinks Hot Topic is Expensive?? - 08-16-2005, 03:26 PM
okay, I know that some people might say "NO" because they have ooodles of money floating around in their pockets but for those of us who aren't regular shoppers or can't buy like crazy and yet love to when we can. anyways, When I go out shopping, I always stop by Hot Topic to see what's new and see if I can buy a few things.
Well, problem is that I don't have $50 or more dollars on me most of the time. meaning that I can barely buy one t-shirt without going poor over at good old Hot Topic. I LOVE their stuff but why the hell do I need to pay $35 for a freaking shirt that will probably last me at most a year or two??? The material isn't even worth that much. Also, there are lots of these stores around so you can't tell me that they couldn't let up a bit on the prices at times. yes, they have sales once in a great while but they are more like small reductions and not big decreases.
I mean, I could easily wonder over to Macy's or Jcpenny's and but several shirts for the same price as one shirt over at Hot topic. I once saw this jacket there for $75 and I just about choaked on the price tag. I see that that the jacket was sorta original and cool but jeeeezus, not worth THAT much.
so tell me, do you think that they could reduce the prices a bit? or are you happy paying the money that will perhaps buy you a shirt and a pair of pants that could pay for a trip to the hospital??
and ALL opinions are gladly accepted...I don't discriminate here.
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text:
In This Section
- Education Home
- Students Blog
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- FAQ (Common Questions)
- Educators Forum
- AES Educational Foundation
- Student Community & Forum
AES Education Directory
Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Last Updated: Before 2011
If any of the information listed on this page is incorrect please have a school representative fill out this form.
1 Gloucester Road
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2584 8500
Fax: +852 2802 4372
Type 3 Courses - Associate degree course (e.g. AS)
Sound Technology
Qualification Awarded on Completion: Advance Diploma
Facilities: 3 theaters, 2 halls, 2 multitrack studios with Studer A8227-24 Logic 2, Audiofile, Dyaxis II, ProTools
Exact Duration: Inquire
Emphasis: Sound operations in theaters, live sound; recording engineering in classical music; multitrack facilities
Fee: US$ 4,500
Validating Body: Inquire
Contact Person: Lee Wing-Wing
Type 4 Courses - Bachelors degree course (e.g. BS, BSc, BA, BMus)
Sound Design and Music Recording
Qualification Awarded on Completion: Bachelors of Fine Arts
Facilities: 3 theaters, 2 halls, 2 multitrack studios with Studer A8227-24 Logic 2, Audiofile, Dyaxis II, ProTools
Emphasis: Sound design in theaters, live sound; recording producer in classical music; multitrack facilities; music composition.
Fee: US$ 6,500
Validating Body: HKCAA
Contact Person: Lee Wing-Wing


text:
6 Pet Products That Prove Rich People Have Gone Insane
We all love our pets, but rich people can express that love in insane ways the rest of us had no idea were even possible. So while we might treat our dog to a helping of table scraps and a belly rub, the wealthy can spend thousands of dollars on baffling luxury products, like ...
#6. Wedding Clothes
Dog clothing is, by itself, already a concept of dubious sanity, especially when it's designed to resemble human clothes (as opposed to actually keeping the dog warm). Well, the website Bitch New York takes the crazy up to a whole new level by offering expensive clothes for dogs for all sorts of occasions they are clearly not prepared for/interested in ... for example, their wedding day.
This pathetic creature was a wolf once.
Not only are dog weddings a thing, but people are actually spending as much as $1,000 on the dress alone (because marrying a dog in the nude would be ridiculous). Since males of all species are usually less particular about this stuff, you can buy a dog frock coat for the groom for the relatively low price of $800.
Hell, we might buy a bunch of these just for taking the dog out walking. The website says the suit imitates the "formalwear from Edwardian times," otherwise known as that dark period in English history when everyone magically turned into a dog.
This is the classiest anyone has ever looked while taking a crap.
And in case you've been trying to imagine how a dog wedding works, here's a video of one, but we're warning you: It might be the most frightening thing you ever see. The dogs are "guided" down the aisle with leashes to prevent them from wandering off, and the owners have to constantly grab them and turn them forward, because obviously they have no fucking idea what's going on (and if they did, the horror might kill them). Afterward, the owners read each dog's lovingly written vows while simultaneously attempting to shut them the hell up.
This does not look like "by your own free will" to us.
But hey, if you're going to live vicariously through a dog, you might as well do it in style, so how about pimping your bride with, oh, say ... a $3.2 million diamond collar for dogs?
Little-known fact: It will still be a dog.
But who's going to plan the reception afterward? You can't handle an event of that size on your own, obviously. So you'll need ...
#5. Pet Party Planners
Party Animals is a company that will plan for you all those dog parties you clearly haven't been throwing because you didn't have time to work out the logistics. The website, which drops painful dog-related puns on every page like the entire business depended on it, states that they will do anything from "spaw days" to "puppy showers" in exchange for some of your money and all of your dignity.
We can only assume that "yappy hour" means they're going to get your dog hammered.
So what does your money get you, aside from egregious animal wordplay? Everything from the invitations ...
"P.S. Bring your own poop bags."
... to the food and decorations. They'll even organize games for the dogs (right, because they'll be the ones who'll get bored at these things) while providing indispensable services like a dog manicure:
Which is about as useful as giving a manicure to a dog.
And, we shit you not, dog escorts.
Someone call the police -- tell them we've found evidence of poochstitution!
Party Animals is based in Austin, Texas, but there might be a dog party planner closer to you: Petaholics in New York, for example, will "help you throw a shindig your dog's friends will be barking about for months to come," and their services include greeting dogs as they arrive at the party. And if the available food options don't impress you, also based in New York is Zen Chien, a company that offers haute cuisine for sophisticated dog palates -- their menus include dishes like Mediterranean lamb and yogurt Parmesan chicken.
Not included: "Their own poop."
#4. Little Doggy Mansions
The luxury doghouses manufactured by La Petite Maison aren't so much doghouses as actual houses that happen to have dogs in them. The below $10,000 Mexican hacienda, for example, "is large enough to accommodate a human and comes complete with terra-cotta floors." It's the nicest floor he'll ever shit on!
And it's more expensive than most real homes in Mexico.
Who buys this? If you're willing to pay thousands of dollars to make your dog comfortable, you might as well let him into your house. We suspect this is less about dog housing, though, and more about lawn decoration, since your pet probably doesn't give a shit if the place where he sleeps is shaped like a large box or like a stately Alabama mansion. Which you can also get, for only $5,200.
If it wasn't for the house in the background, it'd look like giant dogs ate everyone.
This one, manufactured by Best Friend's Home, is made of varnished wood and features lattice windows and "real bitumen shingles" (there's nothing a dog loves more than bitumen shingles). Still, it's a complete shithole compared to La Petite Maison's $9,000 doghouse brick manor, which includes "running water, lighting, air conditioning and heat," making it more livable than most of our apartments. Presumably it also comes with a little mailbox for the dog to rack up his own bills, because someone has to pay for all that stuff.
Unfortunately, the dog had to mortgage it, because he spent $9,000 on a house for his hamster.
The website states that the houses are custom-made to the customer's exact instructions for size, style and color (which are usually "woof," "woof" and "licks himself"), and that "they even have the ability to replicate a client's own home," meaning that most of them must be full of underpaid Chihuahuas working in the kitchen. You can also pick the wallpaper, flooring and interior artwork, since it'd be a shame for the dog to shun a perfectly good house because the walls came in the wrong shade of turquoise.
If you'd rather buy a pre-made dog mansion, the available models range from the traditional:
"Thanks for the house and all, but get off my lawn."
To the modern:
Somewhere, a Bauhaus designer is weeping.


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Daily Nutritional Needs for Pregnant Women
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is of paramount importance during pregnancy to help you deal with the additional demands on your body and to provide your developing baby with essential nutrients. By eating a wide variety of healthy foods, you will be ensuring that you and your baby are receiving the correct balance of nutrients. Try to include a range of foods each day from each of the major food groups, including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Here are some serving-size guidelines.
1 of 7
Meat and Beans
Include 2-3 portions each day of protein-rich foods, such as fish that's low in mercury, lean meat, chicken, legumes, cheese, and nuts to ensure the healthy growth of body structures.
Next: Dairy
excerpted from:
Excerpted from Pregnancy Day by Day.
Copyright © 2008 Dorling Kindersley Limited.
Buy this book now!


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Train Derailment Injures Dozens
Service Disruption on Busy Commuter Corridor Could Last Days
A commuter train heading east from New York City derailed and collided with another train in Fairfield, Conn., during the busy Friday evening rush hour, injuring 60 people, including five that state officials said are in critical condition.
The accident of the Metro-North trains shut down much of Connecticut's commuter-rail service Friday evening. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York-area agency that runs Metro-North, said there was major damage to tracks and that rail service on the busy commuter corridor could be affected for days.
Amtrak offered limited service Saturday morning between Boston and New Haven, and regular service south from New York toward Washington. But train service through western Connecticut remained indefinitely suspended, and the railroad offered no timetable for its resumption.
The eastbound train, headed to New Haven from Grand Central Terminal, derailed at about 6:10 p.m. Friday just east of the Fairfield Metro station, and hit a westbound train on the opposite track, Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said, knocking several cars of that train off the rails. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, briefing reporters Friday night in Bridgeport, just to the east, said the accident caused "pretty big damage" that would take time to repair.
He added that officials from the National Transportation Safety Board would be handling the investigation of how the accident happened. "We have no reason to believe it's anything but an accident, but obviously that's something that has to be looked at," Mr. Malloy said.
Jason Brown, a 37-year-old New York City resident, was on the train heading for New Haven when he saw the cars in front of him start to curve.
"I could see part of the train in front of me curving," he said. "I thought, 'that's not right.' My first thought was to stand up and brace myself."
He said the car then lifted in the air and he was thrown upwards before it stopped. He said no one was seriously injured in his car, but he said he saw injured passengers outside after a fellow rider broke the glass on the door, allowing passengers to get out.
He added that he noticed that nearby tracks were "warped" with pieces of wood sticking up.
The derailment was the most serious crash of its type for Metro-North in many years. In 1988, two trains collided in the Bronx after an engineer apparently ran through a red stop signal.
This past December, a Metro-North train struck a car at a grade crossing in Redding, Conn., killing two of the occupants.
Write to Ted Mann at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Read the full story: Three Moves Ahead
"Jackson co-chaired a group of 10 prominent legal academics—including three others from Columbia Law School—who, with the help of student researchers, petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission in the summer of 2011 to issue new rules requiring public companies to disclose [political] spending."
Read that petition here:
Committee on Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending Petition for Rulemaking
Selected works by Professor Jackson:
SEC Strengthens Shareholders' Role In Corporate Political Speech Decisions
(Op-Ed, The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, May 15, 2011).
"Pre-Disclosure Accumulations by Activist Investors: Evidence and Policy" (with Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav, and Wei Jiang) (noted in The Wall Street Journal and Dealbreaker).
"Shining Light on Corporate Political Spending," (with Lucian Bebchuk) 101 Geo. L. J. ___ (forthcoming 2013) (noted in The New York Times' Dealbook).
"The Law and Economics of Blockholder Disclosure," (with Lucian Bebchuk) 2 Harv. Bus. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2012) (noted in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times' Dealbook).
"Stock Unloading and Banker Incentives," 112 Colum. L. Rev. 951 (2012) (reviewed by David Walker in "The Impact of Public Disclosure on Equity Dispositions by Corporate Managers" and noted in The New York Times' Business Day Live).
"Corporate Political Speech: Who Decides?," 124 Harv. L. Rev. 83 (2010) (with Lucian A. Bebchuk) (noted in the Huffington Post, Law Professors' Amicus Brief in Business Roundtable v. SEC, Reuters, and Board Agenda).


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Shay Arthur
Shay Arthur is happy to be back in the north state. She grew up in Anderson and went to Anderson High School.
Shay graduated from the University of California Berkeley, where she majored in media studies and minored in public policy. She discovered early in college her passion for journalism. She interned at KRCR News Channel 7 her first summer home from school and helped cover the wildfires that hit the north state in the summer of 2008. She spent a summer in Washington, D.C. interning with the CBS Evening News, covering political news. Shay has also interned at KTVU, the FOX affiliate in Oakland and KGO, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco.
In her free time she loves to travel, play with her dogs, try new foods, and spend time with friends and family.
Shay is excited to be back home in beautiful Northern California and looks forward to covering stories that are important to her friends and neighbors in the north state.
Shay's always looking for a good story idea so be sure to email her if you have one!
Fan Shay Arthur on Facebook here.


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Yes folks, I've taken over. Sylus here from 4theHorde. One thing's for sure, the crazies here at Armaggedon's Coming must have really lost it! They let ME guest post???? Seriously??? ME?!?! I mean come on, he had to know what I'm capable of. I DO PLAY HORDE AFTER ALL! GASP!!!! Okay, seriously though. I know I've always been Hordecore and all, but this little guy's befriended the rowdy crowd I roll with. To be quite honest, I'm not sure what he see's in us anyway! Seriously, I mean we barely keep our own blog up to date, half of us take breaks that last months at a time, and then there's the whole "real life" thing that we deal with so much. Seriously, half of you don't even have a clue who I am, yet alone all of the others at 4theHorde. But, none the less, here I am! I guess that means he likes me? In a non gay orc/gnome way I guess. Totally platonic, of course.
Now, you may be asking yourself, "Gnome, what the crap is this Hordie doing on your blog???" (more…)


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University News
In the News: Pacific University Unveils All-Gender Restrooms
News coverage of Pacific University's unveiling of all-gender restrooms.
Stars in the Grove Slated for Saturday, Feb. 27
The university hosts Forest Grove's second annual talent show.
Eisen Published in Journal
Daniel Eisen recently published in the Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity.
Microsoft Access Training Available to Employees
Pacific University faculty and staff are invited to Microsoft Access training sessions in Forest Grove and Hillsboro.
Repairs, Renovations Underway in Strain
The Douglas C. Strain Science Center is getting two new labs as part of an ongoing facilities project on the Forest Grove Campus. At the same time, repair work is being done to the building due to water damage. Sheeting and scaffolding on the building should be done in late March.
Spring Intramurals Offer Sports, Recreation for Employees
Faculty and staff are invited to participate in intramural volleyball, basketball, soccer or volleyball leagues this spring. Or check out free drop-in Zumba classes offered twice a week!
Sign Up for Boxer Boot Camp
Boxer Boot Camp 2016 is available to Pacific University employees. Sign up by Feb. 17. Space is limited.
Visiting Writers Series Hosts Tiphanie Yanique
The Pacific University Visiting Writers Series presents author Tiphanie Yanique in a free public reading at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18 in the Milky Way.
Pacific University Clinic Offers Affordable Primary Care and Much More
Medical and wellness appointments available for $40 or less at Portland and Hillsboro locations


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- Home
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Topic Title
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- Research Review Sept. 7, 2012
Related Products for this Topic
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Original Nomination
Clinician Summary – Sept. 21, 2012
Progestogens for Prevention of Preterm Birth
- View PDF (PDF) 547 kB
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Table of Contents
- Focus of Research for Clinicians
- Background Information
- Conclusions
- Clinical Bottom Line
- Gaps in Knowledge
- What To Discuss With Your Patients
- Resource for Patients
- Source
Focus of Research for Clinicians
A systematic review of 63 clinical studies published from 1966 to October 2011 examined the comparative effectiveness, benefits, and adverse effects of progestogens used to prevent preterm birth in several categories of at-risk women. The full report listing all studies and the results of the analysis is available at www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/pretermbirth.cfm. This summary, based on the full report of research evidence, is provided to inform discussions of options with patients and to assist in decisionmaking along with consideration of a patient's values and preferences. However, reviews of evidence should not be construed to represent clinical recommendations or guidelines.
Background Information
Preterm births, which occur before completion of 37 weeks of pregnancy, are associated with more than 85 percent of perinatal morbidity and mortality, both maternal and infant. In the United States, 12.5 percent of live births each year are preterm, but efforts to reduce the rate have been unsuccessful.
The current clinical focus is on early intervention based on risks. In the United States, about 133,000 pregnant women per year have a history of spontaneous preterm birth and are candidates for intervention. A natural role of progesterone is to help maintain pregnancy. As evidence accrues from controlled trials, the use of progestogens (natural and synthetic progestin forms of progesterone) for women with prior preterm birth is increasingly regarded as beneficial.
Still, progestogen use for these women is limited by lack of synthesized evidence about effectiveness, optimal formulations, administration routes, doses and timing of drug delivery, modifiers of treatment effect, and a need for more data on short- and long-term risks. Also unresolved is whether other at-risk groups can benefit from progestogens.
Progestogens reduce the risk of preterm birth for women with prior spontaneous preterm births and current singleton pregnancies. Women with a short cervix may also benefit, but the evidence is limited. For women with multiple gestations, there is no benefit. For all other indications, the evidence is insufficient to guide care. The incidence of rare adverse events and the effects of modifiers are unknown, and direct comparisons of progestogen formulations, doses, timing, and durations of use have not been made. The evidence is insufficient to know whether progestogen use prevents morbidity or promotes normal childhood development.
Clinical Bottom Line
By Indication (Risk Group)
For women with current singleton pregnancies and a history of spontaneous preterm birth who are treated with progestogens:
The risk of preterm birth (prior to 37 weeks) is reduced by one-third (absolute risk reduction = 9.4%; NNT* = 11).
Neonatal mortality risk is reduced by half (absolute risk reduction = 1.7%; NNT = 59).
Birth weights may increase, but the estimated effect is not statistically significant.
In women with multiple gestations (twin or triplet), there is no benefit of progestogen use:
The evidence is insufficient for all other indications, including women with symptoms of preterm labor, and for populations with varied risk factors.
The evidence about benefits of progestogens for other maternal, fetal, neonatal, and perinatal outcomes (e.g., conditions of prematurity, NICU† admissions) is insufficient to guide clinical decisionmaking.
By Formulation/Route of Administration
Without head-to-head trials, the evidence is insufficient to determine if formulation and administration route are associated with different maternal or fetal outcomes or adverse effects.
Adverse Effects
Safety of Progestogens
Study withdrawal rates (a measure of tolerability) were similar for treated and control groups.
The most common adverse effects were related to route of administration (injection site discomfort, vaginal irritation).
The evidence is insufficient to understand the short- and long-term maternal and fetal adverse effects.
*NNT = number needed to treat: the number of patients to be treated to find the effect in one patient more than in the control group
†NICU = neonatal intensive care unit
Strength of Evidence Scale
High confidence that the evidence reflects the true effect. Further research is very unlikely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect.
Moderate confidence that the evidence reflects the true effect. Further research may change our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate.
Low confidence that the evidence reflects the true effect. Further research is likely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate.
Evidence is either unavailable or does not permit a conclusion.
Gaps in Knowledge
- In the research to date, the variety of outcome measurements, drugs, doses, and administration routes used limit the usefulness of the data for meta-analysis and lower the applicability of the studies for clinical decisionmaking.
- Direct evidence is limited about the health benefits expected from preventing preterm birth (e.g., effects on NICU admissions, conditions of prematurity, neonatal survival, and childhood development). Reporting of adverse effects in both women and children is inadequate.
- The few available studies are too small to determine benefits or risk of adverse effects for many subpopulations (e.g., women with symptoms of preterm labor or populations with mixed risk factors).
- Effects on neonatal mortality are not clear, due to imprecise classification (e.g., perinatal vs. neonatal or fetal) and inconsistent reporting of this outcome.
- The evidence about the influence of potential modifiers of effectiveness and safety is insufficient to guide care. Examples include the dose, timing, and duration of treatment; maternal characteristics (e.g., number and severity of prior preterm births, cervical length, body mass index, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, assisted reproduction); and cointerventions (e.g., cervical cerclage, bed rest, tocolytics, cortisol, nursing surveillance).
- Large-scale comparative effectiveness and surveillance research is needed that is powered to differentiate effects in both treatment and control groups and can evaluate both immediate and long-term benefits and adverse effects for each category of at-risk women and their infants.
What To Discuss With Your Patients
- Progestogens reduce the risk of preterm birth for women who previously had a spontaneous preterm birth and who currently have a singleton pregnancy. Women with a short cervix may also benefit. Progestogens do not prevent preterm birth for twin or triplet gestations.
- There is little evidence about using progestogens for women with preterm labor or other risk factors for preterm birth.
- The evidence about differences between the oral, injection, or vaginal methods for treatment is limited.
- It is not known if progestogens will provide short- or long-term benefits to the infant or pregnant woman, other than delaying birth, and there is little evidence about short- and long-term adverse effects.
Resource for Patients
Progestogens To Prevent Preterm Birth, A Review of the Research About Progestogens for Women at Risk is a free companion to this clinician research summary. It covers:
- The ability of progestogens to reduce the risk of preterm birth for some at-risk women
- The types of progestogens that are used
- The limited evidence about short- and long-term benefits and adverse effects
The information in this summary is based on Progestogens for Prevention of Preterm Birth, Comparative Effectiveness Review No. 74, prepared by the Vanderbilt University Evidence-based Practice Center under Contract No. 290-2007-10065-I for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, August 2012. Available at www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/pretermbirth.cfm.
This summary was prepared by the John M. Eisenberg Center for Clinical Decisions and Communications Science at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. It was written by Diane Markesich, Ph.D., Thomas Workman, Ph.D., Kjersti Aagaard-Tillery, M.D., and Michael Fordis, M.D.


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false pdp {"scheme":"product1_cr"}
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Rated 4 out of 5 by 5 reviewers.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Zipzap These pants are the best! I got the red ankle length pants at the beginning of summer.Then I thought I'd get a pair in the regular length. I now have three pairs in different colors and may go for one more in a winter color. August 28, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by tootsiejo I was skeptical about description until I received them. They were a perfect fit. Plenty of stretch in the right places. They look great. Wish there were more colors. I would love to have another pair. December 19, 2014
Rated 5 out of 5 by vcgrandma14 Good product I normally wear size 10 but if there is stretch in the material I buy one size up and I'm glad I did. The fit was perfect. I'm 5'9" and the length was perfect as well. Good material. Not stiff but very soft. Nice tapered legs. Since this was in clearance and non returnable I am very happy it fit so well. Thank you for the good deal, and good product. January 14, 2015
Rated 3 out of 5 by Meema poor sizing I washed them when got them in cold water. They are even smaller now. , Instructions said to wash before wearing. . color is nice, too bad about size. October 22, 2015
Rated 2 out of 5 by karcar Weird dye the cut of the jeans is nice. To me, they run a little on the small side, contrary to what the description says. :BEWARE I washed in cold water as directed and the dye ran and made a sort of stripe on one leg. I am going to wear them anyway. I would not buy again! September 19, 2013
1-5 of 5
Product:22450-Miraclebody Colored Katie Straight-Leg Jeans


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What is the principle behind centrifugation?
I understand the idea that you spin something around the centripetal force will cause an apparent force on the spinning system. However I don't quite grasp how particles (in the non subatomic sense) with different density should be affected differently.
Quite coarsely, I would expect to write down Newton's second law, but then the mass would simplify and the acceleration of every particle would be the same, regardless of mass.
Is friction the answer? Or am I missing something silly?


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The 6 Most Inappropriate Song Choices in Advertising
Choosing the right song for your commercial is a delicate process. You need to find one that gets the viewers' attention immediately, sets the proper mood, conveys the intended message, and convinces everyone that they need to buy your product immediately.
Or you could do what these companies did and just choose the first thing that pops up on your intern's iPod. That works, too.
#6. Garnier Fructis Presents the Most Gangsta Shampoo Ever
The Commercial:
Since not too many songs directly reference shampoo and "Hair" by the Cowsills has just been done to death, the fine folks at Garnier settled for a nice, catchy beat to accompany the traditional glamour shots of a model whipping passersby with her cruel but beautiful locks.
How Inappropriate!
Proving that no job is too simple to screw up completely, the company went with "Diamonds and Guns" by the Transplants.
True to its title, the song is about the joys of gangster life:
Lookin' for the bitch who took the money and run
Now the daylight's gone and there's no more fun
And who's the fuckin' bitch who stole all the heroin?
Heroin, heroin, it's all gone
Smoked it all up, and now you got none
And then later:
I'm wiggin out, flippin' out, hearts is what I'm rippin' out
So wash your hair with Fructis, ladies! Or Garnier will rip your fucking heart out.
And your fucking hair out. Shoulda strengthened with Garnier.
You'd think the title alone would warn corporate away -- "Diamonds and Guns" doesn't exactly scream "refreshing hair cleanse." But we are all apparently drastically underestimating how hardcore the shampoo industry is. Not only did they stick with their choice for the above commercial, they kept it around for a few more.
Because that's the true secret to maintaining a shiny, voluminous head of hair: heroin and murder.
#5. Royal Caribbean Cruises (and Hard Drugs) Give You a Lust for Life
The Commercial:
Royal Caribbean wants you to experience the thrill of a lifetime, which is why their commercials are filled with gourmet food, surfing, zip lining, and implied middle-aged boning in pools of over-chlorinated water. Each one is set to the pounding, yet highly danceable beat of a beloved classic rock song from the good 'ol 1970s: Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life." You'll have a lust for life, too, if you get on a really big boat with these desperate strangers today!
How Inappropriate!
"Lust for Life" is a song about how awesome drugs and alcohol are. There's no other way to explain lines like:
Here comes Johnny Yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And a flesh machine
He's gonna do another strip tease
The lyrics leave very little room for misinterpretation, and the ruined visage of Iggy Pop's deflated chest leaves even less. But Royal Caribbean managed it anyhow. As far as they're concerned, a lust for life doesn't come from destroying your family by constantly shooting up; it comes from disappointing your family by subjecting them to endless shuffleboard and horribly stale stand-up comedy.
And unlike many instances of clueless executives who don't bother to actually listen to the music their ads are using, Carnival absolutely has a clue. Jay Williams, the creative director of the agency responsible for the campaign, has straight up admitted that his company chose the song simply because they liked the beat. They decided, "Iggy wasn't someone [they] were going to put out front." So they cherry picked the "lust for life" refrain, cut literally everything else, and hoped against hope that everybody watching the commercial would be too excited about jet skis to look up the rest of the lyrics.
Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images
"Hey man, where'd ya get that lotion?
Your skin starts itching once you buuuuy the gimmick ..."
But just in case anyone did listen, Williams had a counter prepared. He insists the song is actually anti-drug, and that the narrator's "lust for life" comes from his newfound sobriety. He is literally the only person who sees it that way, including the creator of the song. Although Iggy did say he enjoys the commercials and is fine with the usage, probably because he had a syringe full of "life" pumping through his veins at the time.
#4. Janis Joplin Unwittingly Endorses Mercedes-Benz from the Grave
Tim Boyle/Getty Images News/Getty Images
The Commercial:
Mercedes-Benz ran an ad wherein an entire town sings part of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" in honor of a handsome Benzo doing the whole village the honor of driving through it. In one instance, a mother even coos it to her infant child. Aw! Never too early to teach that little fella to want things above his means.
How Inappropriate!
"Mercedes Benz" wasn't about how great Mercedes-Benzes were -- it was about how wanting one was kind of a shitty thing to do.
Joplin had grown up in the '50s and '60s, and the era's constant "buy buy buy" attitude had deeply affected her outlook on life. So she wrote a song about how pointless and depressing it is to lust after stuff, because all it does is make us want more stuff. After all, not only does consumerism not satisfy your soul in any meaningful way, it also means less money for sweet, sweet booze and less time for sweet, sweet boning.
The song has two more verses, which, of course, the commercial doesn't touch, because Janis forgot to mention any obscenely expensive vehicles in them. In the second verse, she sings about how much she wants a color TV -- another useless extravagance to her eyes (hey, they hadn't invented video games yet, you can't blame her). In the third verse, Janis only wants "a night on the town." That was the point of the structure of the song: The narrator pines for progressively less impressive things, dropping from a pricey new car to just a few fleeting moments of distraction, because she knows they're all out of her reach, and probably won't make her any happier anyway.
But Mercedes-Benz saw all that and just thought "Hey, she mentioned us! Let's use it!"


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The Snoozer Quiltie Dog Bed gives your pet soft comfort - and it doesn't accumulate hair!
Snoozer Dog Beds Feature:
Snoozer Dog Bed Sizes:
There are three rules of thumb often used when selecting a dog bed.
In general we believe that measuring your pet lying down as he is normally accustomed to lying, is the best way.
Weight is always an estimate; for best results...... Always Measure Your Pet.
Dog Crates, Dog Beds, Dog Exercise Pens, Dog Carriers, Dog Feeders & Bowls
Dog Crate Pans, Dog Crate Covers, Dog Kennels, Dog House, Pet Barriers


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5 Creepy Things London Did to Prepare for the Olympics
On July 27, the London Olympic Games begin, and for 17 long days everyone on Earth will pretend to be interested in track. And for some reason, LOCOG (the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games), normally responsible for ensuring that all the events start on time and all poles are properly vaulted, have instead seized their chance to change laws, build urban fortresses, revoke civil rights and swamp the streets with enough high-tech weaponry for an Iron Man sequel. It's all in the name of anti-terrorism and public safety, of course, but the London 2012 Olympics will be the most sinister sporting event ever held outside of Battle Royale, thanks to stuff like ...
#5. Surface-to-Air Missiles ... on Apartment Buildings
At some point during the planning stages of this sporting event, someone in the fetid bowels of LOCOG headquarters stood up and said, "So, we've got the sod laid and ensured that we have enough seating and bathrooms. Now, how many rocket launchers do we think we need?"
New events this year include Government Helicopter Shoot and Molotov Toss.
That's right: To protect the London Olympics, they're installing high-grade surface-to-air missiles ... on top of residential buildings.
Daily Mail
Because nothing says "this city is safe" like missiles looming over you at all times.
While other Olympics contented themselves with Tasers and stern, disapproving looks, LOCOG security hurtled screaming past the event horizon of sanity and started transforming apartment buildings into launch pads. Ostensibly, the missiles are intended for use against low-flying aircraft, such as suicide-bombing planes or those goddamn pigeons from Mary Poppins. But the residents of the Fred Wigg Tower, and several other soon-to-be-weaponized apartment buildings, probably take little solace in the fact that they'll be hosting Starstreak missiles 10 feet above their living rooms. Because even if the best case scenario plays out and missile flames don't burn their houses down, they'll still have to deal with collateral damage from an intercepted target. The remains of any stricken aircraft will have no place to fall but directly on top of residential London, gently dusting the inhabitants with a fine layer of fucked. That's all assuming, of course, that it actually works. The newest Starstreaks have zero combat efficacy data, rely heavily on operator skill and might be foiled by bad weather.
But what are the odds of bad weather happening in a place like London?
#4. The Biggest Military Buildup in London Since World War II
During WWII, there were warships docked on the river Thames, right in the center of London. It was a sobering sight, having those war machines looming over a major metropolis. But those were dark days, requiring drastic measures: There was also an operating Royal Air Force base in the capital back then, and all air traffic control was taken out of civilian hands and given to the Ministry of Defense. That's exactly the sort of thing we'd expect to happen during the largest, most destructive war in human history. That's not exactly the sort of thing we'd expect from, say, the security team at a Ping-Pong match.
Poor British soldiers. Now all the other armies are gonna laugh at them.
But apparently the London 2012 Olympics features some seriously, awesomely dangerous new sports, because all of those things are coming back for the first time since the Blitz. During the games, 13,500 troops will be deployed in London just for the run time of the Olympics -- that's 4,000 more than they had on the ground in Afghanistan in 2011. And these aren't the across-the-pond versions of the National Guard or anything -- Britain's most badass commandos, the Royal Marines, will be checking tickets at the shot put and waving around those little parking attendant glow sticks. Also, fresh from its last deployment in Libya, the HMS Ocean will be docked in the Thames.
"Yes, it does have batteries of missiles. But they almost never fire off for no reason."
That's the largest ship in the Royal Navy. Not to mention all the fighter aircraft, helicopter gunships and pilotless drones clouding the skies. On land, sea and air, it will be what the British government calls "maximum" military presence.
For the Olympics.
It's often said that the Olympic Games are a platform for a country to show what it's proudest of off to the world. If that's true, then apparently London is that creepy kid from middle school who invites you over to his house to look at his knife collection.
"... and these are my Royal Marines. They're here to shoot anyone who cheats at the 100-meter breaststroke."
#3. Empty Roads for the Rich
It's an unfortunate happening, no doubt chock-full of enough wacky shenanigans to staff a Rob Schneider movie, but sometimes athletes have missed their events at past Olympics. But not this year: London has designated special lanes in the city not just for athletes, but for Olympics officials, people working for sponsoring companies and, hey, what the hell, anyone else rich enough to buy their way in.
"How can we take an institution beloved for dissolving barriers between people and make it the exact opposite of that?"
Not allowed behind London's velvet off-ramps, however, are ambulances carrying such trivial things as blood for donations and elderly people in need of dialysis. True, ambulances carrying people in need of emergency medical care will be able to turn on their sirens and use the special lanes if they absolutely have to, but unless you're firmly heading toward the light, you'll just have to sit in the unmanageable Olympics traffic with the rest of London.
Do try not to cough on any of the McDonald's or Coca-Cola employees as they zip past you, laughing and sipping champagne while bombing around their 39 miles of VIP roadways.
London's sanitation department will have to work overtime to clean up all the littered chalices and solid gold napkins.


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Is there any gauge in which Yang-Mills theory (4d, non-SUSY) can be written as a local action containing only the propagating modes?
1) The usual definition of a local action forbids the Lagrangian density ${\cal L}(x)$ to contain inverse differential operators (=integration operators) like $\partial_\mu^{-1}$, which is a non-local operation.
If OP requires the action to be on manifestly local form in the above sense, then the answer is No, to the best of my knowledge.
2) On the other hand, if one does not require a manifestly local form, then it is possible to write the gauge-fixed Yang-Mills action in $d\geq 2$ spacetime dimensions using propagating transversal gauge potentials only.
Consider the light-cone formulation (which implies that evolution/propagation is wrt. the light-cone coordinate $x^+$ as opposed to $x^0\equiv t$) in the light-cone gauge $A^+=0$.
Then the gauge potential $A^{-}$ becomes a non-propagating auxiliary field, which can be integrated out. This yields a Lagrangian density that only contains $d-2$ propagating transversal fields, but with inverse powers of $\partial_-$, and hence non-local.
See e.g. Warren Siegel, Fields, p. 210, arXiv:hep-th/9912205, for further details.


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Miami City Ballet in New Yorkreview of MCB Program 1 and 2 at City Center, 1/22 and 1/24/09
Posted 24 January 2009 - 08:17 PM
What has he done? After 23 years of labor, he has brought back a company to dance the Balanchine legacy in its original City Center home, and dance it as well or better by nearly every measure, from Authenticity to Zing, than Balanchines own New York City Ballet in its bigger, plusher home ten blacks north.
Want proof? A picture is worth a thousand words, so just take a look at page C1 of Saturdays New York Times. Here is Jeanette Delgado executing a grand pas de chat surrounded by three corps dancers in Balanchines Square Dance. I have not seen a grand pas de chat like this at NYCB in many years. Look at the point of contact of the toe with the extended leg two-thirds of the way up the inner thigh! Look at the perfect equilibrium in the air, the thrust of the extended leg through the toes, the stretch of the arms, the softly articulated fingers. Finally, look at the face a smile of exhilaration and delight.
Want more? Turn to page C5, where Jeanettes sister Patricia flashes another calm, ecstatic smile in a fully extended, classic pose from Symphony in C, in front of three leaping men Jeremy Cox in front, with his legs flying like a javelin. The fully stretched jete may be Miamis signature look in six ballets over two days, I saw not a single lazy limb.
The Delgado sisters are Miamis own and the superstars of their present and future. Jeanette in particular packs a punch worthy of Villella in his prime. But this first New York season was not an individual triumph. In programming six ballets with full casts, Villella was clearly showing off his ensemble, and forcing a comparison with the often disorganized, dispirited look of the NYCB corps. Opening with Symphony in Three Movements was a case in point. The last time I saw NYCB do it, the opening diagonal thrust looked tentative and confused, like a bunch of girls at an audition. Miamis had the precision and savagery of an infantry attack.
As for Twyla Tharps In the Upper Room, this was as punishing for some of us in the audience as it must have been for the dancers. To me, it looks like Molissa Fenley times fifty a largely empty, showy test of endurance. I dont like the slavish look of the costumes, the hellish look of the smoke-belching set, or the stuck-in-a-groove banality of the music. But it made its point that these dancers are a formidable force, and they are ready to lay themselves on the line and sacrifice, individually and as a group.
La Valse made the same point in its morbid way -- a dance of death, willingly and totally embraced by a company thats taken a vow to go wherever its art requires. The final swirl of the ballroom around the lifted corpse was intoxicating, even scary.
Program 2 -- Square Dance, Rubies, and Symphony in C -- was not as fierce and aggressive as Program 1 maybe a reminder that in the end, this is supposed to be fun. And it was. But there was serious drama in the Prodigal Son's return to City Center, that will reverberate in the ballet world for years to come. My card says Round One to the challenger.
Posted 24 January 2009 - 08:23 PM
Cheers for my cubanitas!!! (Didn't I predict this a while ago...ah? )
The Delgado sisters are Miamis own and the superstars of their present and future.
Posted 25 January 2009 - 10:03 AM
Lets take J. Delgados Square Dance pas de chat: it was an awesome display (and in last nights performance it looked exactly like the picture Flipsy cites, so its an awesome display Delgado can apparently repeat at will, not just a fluke), but authentic Balanchine? Im not so sure I think I have to differ with Flipsy on this one. Ive been watching NYCB for 30+ years, and Ive never seen a pas de chat done quite like that, even by Merrill Ashley. In order for her toe to cross her thigh, Delgado has to keep the knee of her trailing leg below the knee of her leading leg at a point where they should in theory be on the same plane. Personally, I think sacrificing the line of the knees to get the toe that high both muddies the forward trajectory of the step and takes some of the openness and air out of it -- but your mileage may vary. Would Balanchine have liked it? I cant say, of course, but its not what Id look to first as a marker of authenticity. (Delgado is nonetheless a delight and I loved her in the role.)
I wonder if any company really can claim to dance authentic Balanchine at this point? Ive seen Balanchine ballets danced by NYCB, ABT, the Kirov, San Francisco, and now Miami and while each one of them captures something that I remember from Balanchine as it was danced by NYCB in the 70s and early 80s, none of them dance it exactly as it was then. And I suspect that NYCB in the 70s didnt look the way it did in the 50s & 60s, and that at least some portion of the audience found that troubling.
As an ensemble, Miamis dancers did some things I really liked (and that I hope the NYCB dancers I saw in the audience took note of and will think about). 1) For starters, they danced in all three dimensions; all too often (although less often now than in the 90s) NYCBs dancers appear to be trapped between two panes of glass, scurrying along hither and thither in one plane as if State Theaters stage were an ant farm. (This is what dancing Martins will do to you, I think.) 2) They danced with real clarity, but also with forward momentum. Ive seen other companies (ABT for instance) pull steps out of Balanchines choreography with equal clarity, but also pull back on the momentum while doing so. 3) They made something out of the transfer of weight; one of the things thats bugged me the most about NYCB since about the early 90s has been the devolution to a style of movement I think of as skittery the women sometimes flit across the stage with all the impact of water bugs on a pond. 4) They moved their feet by moving their legs i.e., where the foot went was a function of where the thigh went, if that makes any sense. 5) I liked the way they used their upper bodies, but it struck me as Not Authentic Balanchine. The corps danced with equal energy and musicality, if not with equal finish and facility; that's fine by me.
Some individual performances taken as a whole didnt seem as successfully Balanchinean as the ensemble overall. Andrea Spiridonakos soft focus attack as the Tall Girl in Rubies just didnt work for me in that role (NYCB has a couple of dancers who can deliver it better at the moment) and Haiyan Wu was too pretty and too careful in the second movement of Symphony in C to convey the special perfume of that role. The dancers were definitely musical, but not necessarily rhythmically subtle: I can imagine this company producing a Tiler Peck, say, but not a Miranda Weese or a late-model Janie Taylor.
Despite my carping about the pas de chat above, I loved J. Delgado and I liked Square Dance best of all. Shes a terrific dancer and a ray of sunshine all rolled into one and I hope I get to see her again. I really liked Jeremy Cox, too. He didnt approach the great male solo in the Sarabande in any way like its originator, Bart Cook, nor like its other great interpreters, Boal and Hübbe. It kind of looked like Balanchine filtered through half-speed Kylian, but I liked it all the same.
Posted 25 January 2009 - 11:55 AM
I'm glad I saw program II - I'm most fond of MCB in Square Dance and wished that they had opened program I with it, instead of Symphony in Three Movements, which I think was the wrong choice for the venue. The funny thing is Symphony in C fits City Center's stage better - even though it has a huge cast, until the finale there are fewer dancers onstage. Miami does the bigger, later version of the finale when Balanchine added dancers for the State Theater - but MCB would need to do that version at their home theater to fill it.
What I found interesting watching MCB is that it's the opposite of San Francisco Ballet in its strengths. SFB has invested the bulk of resources into its soloist and principal dancers; they're the strength of the company and the corps de ballet is the weak link. SFB does (if this is possible) a lumpen Symphony in C. MCB's corps are extremely well rehearsed for things more elusive than just being together on steps - their accenting is excellent. I don't know this from first hand experience, but I'd make a strong bet that Roma Sosenko is a very good ballet mistress.
MCB does have some interesting soloists (Kronenberg, Jeanette Delgado, Jeremy Cox and Alex Wong all come to mind) but I thought the casting and coaching was often odd. I've never seen a Kabuki version of second movement Symphony in C before. It depended on how you looked at it, one friend found Haiyan Wu ethereal; I found her too artificial and we're both right.
That said, I'm glad to see MCB and want to see more of them.
Posted 25 January 2009 - 12:22 PM
NYCB certainly has the talent to match anything Miami does. Contrary to their publicity campaign, MCB's dancers are not "Superhuman." They're just winning because they want to dance more.
Posted 25 January 2009 - 03:43 PM
But what I meant by "authenticity" was something deeper -- an honesty and commitment, a selflessness and boldness in the dancing that I remember from the days when Balanchine was there, which I'm afraid has given way at NYCB to a sketchy, smudgy reproduction of his style.
Flipsy, I am totally with you on the honesty, commitment and boldness front. I just got back from today's NYCB matinee: there was plenty of boldness and commitment on display, but it was in Preljocaj's La Stravaganza, alas, not Balanchine's Theme & Variations. I've seen people mark a ballet with more engagement.
Posted 25 January 2009 - 04:32 PM
Posted 26 January 2009 - 02:31 AM
Posted 26 January 2009 - 05:38 AM
It would be fascinating to be able to look at key segments of Balancine choreography as performed by a variety of companies, comparing, dissecting, and trying to compare what each is doing to the Ideal Type that exists in most of our brains and/or memories. With the proliferation of Balanchine around the world, it should certainly be possible.
I hope I'm not throwing this topic out of alignment, but I was especially intrigued by Leigh's comments on what seem to him to be less than ideal casting choices. Casting itself is an art. It relies, however, on many objective factors that make it especially difficult for those "smallish" big companies with 30-50 dancers, many of whom are in the early stages of their professional careers.
The problem is compounded if you are stuck with a "program I," "program II," kind of schedule, which demands multiple performances of programs in a very short period of time. Four performances of difficult and often quite varied ballets -- in three days -- would seem to make casting compromises inevitable.
Typically, 3 casts of soloists prepare a shorter ballet. At some point or other, all are given the chance to perform -- and to grow -- which involves a risk. If you want to "give dancers a chance," keep them interested, and experiment with casting in order to let younger dancers expand their range, you may not always send up with the best choices. When this works, it's called a triumph.
When you have a many of ballets in rotating rep for any given season -- as NYCB does -- there are of course casting issues, but they are quite different.
I suppose that all of the above reflects two of my own prejudices:
(1) great choreography is generous and (within limits) rather forgiving: it allows for a certain amount variation in approach, style, and "look".
(2) while casting is important, coaching and helping the dancers prepare after they are cast are even more important. Even, sometimes, for principals.
Posted 26 January 2009 - 07:12 AM
Not that this doesn't happen with the big companies either - there are those dry periods when NYCB didn't really have someone to do Ballo, for instance, even though it was programmed.
Posted 26 January 2009 - 07:18 AM
Posted 26 January 2009 - 08:14 AM
Bring in a guest who's up to the role?
Question regarding the Ballo example. When you are maintaining a great rep like NYCB is reposnible for, and you don't have a dancer really up to doing the lead(s) -- what should you do? Let the ballet languish? program it anyway and do your best? Focus on identifying and training a dancer or dancers capable of doing it at the highest level of The Possible?
Posted 26 January 2009 - 09:51 AM
Bring in a guest who's up to the role?
Question regarding the Ballo example. When you are maintaining a great rep like NYCB is reposnible for, and you don't have a dancer really up to doing the lead(s) -- what should you do? Let the ballet languish? program it anyway and do your best? Focus on identifying and training a dancer or dancers capable of doing it at the highest level of The Possible?
I think this becomes for the AD (or whatever they might choose to call themselves) to determine IN SOME WAY. There isn't a fixed solution i.e. not programming the piece, programming it with less than ideal casting, or bringing in a guest, etc.
It's a matter of balancing the alternatives to end up with the best possible solution. You don't want to let the piece languish but you don't want to put in on in a substandard performance. You also want to weigh the developmental opportunities for the company. Might it be a chance for dancers to stretch and grow to match the demands of the piece?
This is where the AD earns their salary, theoretically coming up with the solution that best serves the audience, the dancers and the work itself. Each call is going to be a bit different, depending on the nature of the variables for that particular situation. Obvioulsy it's real easy to second guess the outcome!
Posted 26 January 2009 - 11:49 AM
"Forward toward Petipa"
Lopukhov. (can't remember where I read this...)
Posted 26 January 2009 - 02:03 PM
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5 Classic Pop Culture Moments (Actors Made Up on the Fly)
We have nothing against writers (much of this very website is written by them), but we can't pretend that every iconic TV and movie character or moment is carefully crafted by expert scribes hunched over a desk. Often the writer comes up with only a vague idea (or a specific yet terrible one) and the actor has to think up something better on the spot. In fact, some of the most iconic scenes of all time come about this way ...
#5. The Vulcan Nerve Pinch Was Originally a Punch in the Face
Paramount Pictures
Star Trek's Vulcan nerve pinch (called the Vulcan neck pinch by people who like it when Trekkie heads explode) is the type of thing that sci-fi is all about: It looks awesome, it fits the Spock character perfectly, and even a child could learn how to do it.
Any stealthy, oddly tall child.
So, of course it wasn't intended to exist at all. Gene Roddenberry's vision of how Spock should deal with his enemies was far simpler: He'd punch them square in the jaw.
That's right, just a big ol' sock to the teeth. In an episode titled "The Enemy Within," an evil Captain Kirk terrorizes the Enterprise, and Spock is tasked with subduing him. He was supposed to do this by throwing a haymaker and knocking Kirk straight out. Despite being given a golden opportunity to punch William Shatner right in his enormous head, Spock declined, saying it was out of character. And here is where, in fact, Leonard Nimoy proved that he understood the character of Spock better than the people who wrote for him. Of course Vulcans would have a more restrained, logical way to subdue a man rather than giving him a flailing knuckle sandwich.
Plus, fight scenes need such complex choreography.
Instead, Nimoy suggested that Vulcans should have the power to shoot energy from their fingertips, and that placing said fingers on a prominent nerve would cause the enemy to receive a moderate shock and be knocked harmlessly unconscious. OK, it's not very scientific (although lightning fingers would certainly make masturbation more interesting), but it adheres to the central rule of sci-fi: Nobody will care as long as it's awesome.
The director was less than enthused, but Shatner loved the idea, presumably because he suddenly didn't have to risk getting cold-cocked into next week. They played out the scene for the director, who came around and decided he loved it. It immediately became one of the show's trademarks, right behind male aliens with walnuts for foreheads and female aliens who automatically want to have sex with humans, no matter what planet they're from.
#4. Blade Runner's "Tears in Rain" Speech Was Originally Pure Gibberish
Warner Bros.
Originally a flop after its 1982 release, Blade Runner's reputation as a dystopian masterpiece has improved exponentially, and Rutger Hauer's "tears in rain" scene is one of the reasons why. Like many great speeches, it's short and to the point:
"I've ... seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
It's one of the most poignant, emotional, and famous death-related soliloquies in movie history, delivered by Roy Batty, a supposedly soulless robot who understood the frailty of life and the importance of making an impact on history while you still can better than any of the human characters ever could. But if the original script was followed, nobody would've given a shit, and "Dust in the Wind" would still be the undisputed champion of poetically pointing out that we're all gonna die.
Peeter Viisimaa / Photos.com
'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" would place a distant second.
Why? Because the speech, as originally scripted, sucked. It read less like a heartbreaking treatise on life and death and more like a lost verse from Robo Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere."
"I've known adventures, seen places you people will never see, I've been Offworld and back ... frontiers! I've stood on the back deck of a blinker bound for the Plutition Camps with sweat in my eyes watching the stars fight on the shoulder of Orion. I've felt wind in my hair, riding test boats off the black galaxies, and seen an attack fleet burn like a match and disappear. I've seen it, felt it!"
Hauer decided the speech needed some, you know, actual emotion behind it, so he went about editing it himself. He cut out virtually all of the travel guide that he was given, added in the stuff about tears and death, and inserted a dove for further symbolism.
Warner Bros.
"I've been pooped on in places you people wouldn't believe."
He read the whole thing out loud to director Ridley Scott, who loved it. The result was some of the most badass dying words in recorded history and one of the most artful death scenes of all time. As a result, Hauer would of course go on to play the lead in Hobo With a Shotgun.
#3. Fonzie Was Originally a Generic, Silent Bully
At this point, Fonzie is more well-known and recognizable than the show he starred in -- and in fact many people who know about Fonzie today have never seen an actual episode of Happy Days at all. The quintessential '50s cool dude resonated with audiences like few other characters did; without him, Happy Days would almost certainly be one more short-lived footnote in sitcom history. And that almost happened, because the Fonz was originally slated to be nothing at all.
Roman Milert / Photos.com
They wanted an unmanned motorcycle, but it kept falling over.
Hell, he didn't even get his name in the original opening -- it was one of those bit parts that only got billing in the closing credits, right around the time most viewers had already switched to one of the other two channels they had at the time. That's because the original character, if you can call it that, was just a generic street tough, a near-mute motorcycle rider whom the other kids feared. He likely would've faded into oblivion, along with the rest of the show, had Henry Winkler not raised a few objections prior to filming the pilot. Namely, that he hated the character and didn't want to portray him as written. The Fonz was a bully, carried around cigarettes, and chewed gum; Winkler said nay to all three.
"'I came here to kick ass and chew ...'? Nope. Not sayin' it. Pass the milk."
Surprisingly, instead of just canning his prima donna ass, the producers agreed to let Winkler play the Fonz his way. Then, one final bit of improv cemented the character in TV history: In one scene, Winkler was supposed to comb his hair in the bathroom mirror, like all the kids did back then. Instead, he sauntered up to the mirror, started to comb, and immediately stopped. He stared into the mirror, arms outstretched, and realized his hair was already perfect, and he was already the coolest guy in the world. "AYYY!"
This cocky persona took off immediately and catapulted the Fonz and Happy Days to the top of the ratings. Add in a few "AYYYYYYYY"s and "WHOOOOOOOA"s (also created by Winkler, who used the phrases a lot while horseback riding), accompanied by a thumbs-up, and the show had itself a bona fide icon. One that wouldn't have existed if Winkler had actually followed the script.


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Again a simple problem that I can't seem to get the derivative of
I have $\frac{x}{2} + \frac{1}{4}\sin(2x)$
I am getting $\frac{x^2}{4} + \frac{4\sin(2x)}{16}$
This is all very wrong, and I do not know why.
Again a simple problem that I can't seem to get the derivative of
I have $\frac{x}{2} + \frac{1}{4}\sin(2x)$
I am getting $\frac{x^2}{4} + \frac{4\sin(2x)}{16}$
This is all very wrong, and I do not know why.
Jordan, The derivative of your function is $\frac{1}{2} + \frac{\cos 2x}{2}$. Now note that $\cos 2x = \cos^2 x -\sin ^2 = \cos^2 x -1 -\cos^2 x =2\cos^2x -1$. Rearranging, you get $$\cos^2 x =\frac{\cos 2x}{2} + \frac{1}{2}.$$
$$ \begin{align*} \cos 2x = \cos(x+x) & =\cos x \cos x -\sin x \sin x \\ & = \cos^2x -\sin^2x\\ & = \cos^2x -(1-\cos^2x)\qquad\text{because}~\cos^2x + \sin^2 x =1.\\ & = \cos^2x-1+ \cos^2x\\ & = 2\cos^2x-1 \end{align*} $$
So, you have $\cos2x = 2\cos^2x -1$, which is the same as $\cos 2x + 1 = 2\cos^2x$. Divide both sides by 2 to get what you want.
You want the derivative of a sum of functions, so find the derivative of each term in the sum and add.
For the term ${x\over2}$, note that it can be written as ${1\over2} x$. Now use the fact that you can factor constants out of derivatives: $$\color{maroon}{ {d\over dx }{x\over 2 } } = {d\over dx }\Bigr({1\over 2 } x \Bigl) ={1\over 2 } {d\over dx } x ={1\over 2}\cdot 1=\color{maroon}{{1\over2}}. $$
For the other term, you'll need to use the chain rule and the fact that the derivative of $\sin(x)$ is $\cos(x)$: $$\color{darkgreen}{ {d\over dx }\Bigr({1\over 4} \sin(2x) \Bigl) } ={1\over 4} {d\over dx } \sin(2x) = {1\over 4}\cos(2x) \cdot (2x)' = {1\over 4}\cos(2x) \cdot2=\color{darkgreen}{ {1\over 2}\cos(2x)}. $$
Combining the above results: $$ {d\over dx}\Bigl( {x\over2}+{1\over4}\sin(2x)\Bigr)= \color{maroon}{{d\over dx} {x\over2}}+\color{darkgreen}{ {d\over dx}\Bigr( {1\over4}\sin(2x)\Bigr) } =\color{maroon}{{1\over2}}+\color{darkgreen}{{1\over 2}\cos(2x) }={1\over2}\bigl(1+\cos(2x)\bigr). $$
You deal with the sum of functions, $f(x) = \frac{x}{2}$ and $g(x)= \frac{1}{4} \sin(2 x)$. So you would use linearity of the derivative: $$ \frac{d}{d x} \left( f(x) + g(x) \right) = \frac{d f(x)}{d x} + \frac{d g(x)}{d x} $$ To evaluate these derivatives, you would use $\frac{d}{d x}\left( c f(x) \right) = c \frac{d f(x)}{d x}$, for a constant $c$. Thus $$ \frac{d}{d x} \left( \frac{x}{2} + \frac{1}{4} \sin(2 x) \right) = \frac{1}{2} \frac{d x}{d x} + \frac{1}{4} \frac{d \sin(2 x)}{d x} $$ To evaluate derivative of the sine function, you would need a chain rule: $$ \frac{d}{d x} y(h(x)) = y^\prime(h(x)) h^\prime(x) $$ where $y(x) = \sin(x)$ and $h(x) = 2x$. Now finish it off using table of derivatives.
If your trying to prove integrals you should make your question a little better, because the current question makes it appear that you do not know how to take a derivative.
If $f(x) = \frac{x}{2} + \frac{1}{4}\sin(2x)$, then $f'(x) =$ $\frac{1}{2} + \frac{cos(2x)}{2}$. If you want $\int{f(x)}$, then we have $\frac{x^2}{4} - \frac{cos(2x)}{8}+C$. Here, we differentiate/integrate $\frac{x}{2}$ and $\frac{1}{4}\sin(2x)$ separately. Do you have an initial condition?
$y = \dfrac{1}{2} x + \dfrac {1}{4} \sin(2x)$
$y' = \dfrac{1}{2} + \dfrac{1}{4}\cos(2x)*2$
$y' = \dfrac{1}{2} + \dfrac{2}{4}\cos(2x)$
$y' = \dfrac{1}{2} + \dfrac{1}{2}\cos(2x)$
$y' = \dfrac{1}{2} \big(1 + \cos (2x)\big) $
Which is equivalent to $\cos^2x$.


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There were several very good questions asked in Orlando. Two have been sticking in my mind as very valuable to DREw; with gratitiude to the attendees, I'll paraphrase:
Could Production defects be given more weight than test? and What about the concept that defects found later in the SDLC are more costly to fix?
The technique for reweighting defect severities at differing SDLC stages (including Production) would be rather simple and could be automated, even though the long-held maxim that defects found later are more costly is being challenged by more agile SDLCs which embrace change. As mentioned before in other forae, my goal is to find/have/share a method for associating defects with reasonable, supported, dollar values. These questions are steps along that journey.
A longer step in that direction is to leverage the idea of iteratively delivering business value. If the business value of a usage scenario were a basis for its delivery prioritization, and if Walker Royce's description (in EXEC02 at RSC2009) of business value as a function of ROI, ROA, and Product Revenue Profile holds, then we are close to formulating a definition for defect value in terms of business dollars (as a function of degree for deliverable business value). Perfect? Not in any sense, but defined, consistent, and supported by the prior decisions of our business stakeholders themselves.
Join in my reverie: Imagine a day when the business representative gives us a use case, the business leadership assigns a dollar value to the basic flow for that use case and a relative value to each scenario, the software delivery team produces and tests the highest priority scenario, finding one defect (of any severity). The benefit of assigning dollar values would lie not in deciding which defects to attack (for the emphasis should be on delivering value, not eliminating defects) but in deciding which defects to study for defect prevention in the next iteration/evolution. We could measure, for each evolution of a product, the change (we would hope, "improvement") in delivered versus delayed value, perhaps developing a new metric for software which approximates the meaning (not method) of Taguchi's loss function. When we add common existing methods for tracking project costs, we could offer true insight into practical questions. Imagine being able to quantify, in dollars, how much a practice, say pair programming, improved delivery of business value relative to its cost over a prior method!


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According to this study, cited by many popular science magazines, jellyfish and other, smaller animals can contribute to the vertical ocean stir as much as currents do.
Black Sea chemistry and biodiversity is highly coupled with the lack of vertical currents, present in oceans or bigger seas. (Some ) effects are limited salinity in the top layers - and many ocean fish species cannot live in black sea - and limited space for life (under 50 meters there is no oxygen)
Can the jellyfish population (which is exploding now) change the stratification of water layers enough that the highly saline waters from bottom go up, and oxygen goes down, allowing a completely new ecosystem here?
If yes, what are the outcomes of such prospects? Besides the potentially catastrophic release of hydrogen sulphide form the bottom, can it be an improvement for the biodiversity here?


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I'm porting a commercial app to Linux, it is to run on several distros. When run on Ubuntu, the GtkMenuBar is removed from the app's window and placed on the main global menu bar. That's fine ... but there is a corresponding empty space in the app window where the menu was removed (it is placed with GtkFixed). I need to be able to detect when this has happened (and ONLY) when it has happened from any distro, so that I can reliably remove the empty space.
What's the best way to detect this? (ie via gtk_widget_... calls) What has been done to the GtkMenuBar to achieve this? Thanks.


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When making cider, can you carbonate it using tablets? and should this be in the demijohn or in the bottles?
Sure, you can use them and they'll work just fine. I've heard the carb levels can be low with 1 tab per bottle, so you'll have to experiment.
(As an aside, a little cheaper method that a lot of cider makers do is to thaw out a can of frozen apple juice concentrate and dump it into a 5 gal batch before bottling - or about 8-10oz of Apple Juice per gallon can be used as well.)
You can carbonate cider by bottle conditioning exactly the same way you would with beer. Either use tabs or boil some form of sugar in a small amount of water, cool and add it to the bucket prior to bottling. Make sure it is mixed well or the carbonation will be inconsistent between bottles. Also, don't bottle until fermentation is complete, or they will end up overcarbonated.
My last cider was carbonated with 4.5oz of corn sugar (the standard amount for carbonating beer). The level of carbonation seemed appropriate to me.


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spoiler:I'm pretty sure the door to the east in the room where you battle vision of Darth Revan. After you defeat the vision of Revan, Kreia chimes with some information about the visions and how you are stronger for it and then door in this room should be unlocked.
Yep it is the door to the east, or better stated the door across from the entrance to the room or behind the tomb of Ludo Kresh.