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Are there any well-studied analogs to the Mandelbrot set using functions other than $f(z)= z^2+c$ in $\mathbb{C}$?
A variant on the M-set can be defined in straightforward fashion for any iterated function in the complex plane parameterized by a single initial value. For instance, slight modifications produce the tricorn and burning ship fractals. However, most such variations tend to be either boring, incoherent, or obviously derived from the Mandelbrot set--nothing particularly novel.
Some obvious patterns also emerge quickly from many variations: Real exponents alter symmetry, imaginary exponents cause asymmetric twisting, disreputable functions produce misshapen lumps like the burning ship, and so on.
On the other hand, it's more difficult than you might expect to avoid the M-set in the first place: For a well known example, consider the Newton-Raphson method for approximating roots, which can be generalized to the complex plane in straightforward fashion. For some polynomial, a point in the complex plane may or may not converge to a particular root after some number of Newton-Raphson iterations. In most cases, plotting the regions of divergence and convergence per root produces a fractal. Modifying the polynomial and the iteration formula produces effects analogous to modifying the constant and iteration function, respectively, of a standard Julia set, and in fact it turns out that Julia fractals can be considered a special case of Newton-Raphson fractals.
Analogous structure can also be found elsewhere than the complex plane. The period-doubling behavior of the logistic map relates to the behavior of points on the real line of the M-set, and islands of stability for the logistic map correspond to the positions of mini-Mandelbrots. Elaborate Julia-like structures can also be found in the quaternions, although unfortunately visualization of 4-dimensional fractals is somewhat challenging.
My suspicion is that Julia-like structure will arise for any fractal defined by similar means, e.g., classifying points into sets based on their behavior under repeated iteration of a position-sensitive transformation, but I'm not sure how to define "similar means" precisely enough to formalize that.
I have no idea about well-studied, but here's what I've gotten from a bit of playing around (here's the relevant Mathematica code).
$\boldsymbol{f_c(z)=\cos(z)+c}$ where $\cos(z)$ is defined however Mathematica defines it, using the escape time algorithm with escape radius $10\pi$ and 100 iterations maximum:
$\boldsymbol{f_c(z)=\sin(z)+c}$ appears to be the same as cosine, but horizontally translated.
$\boldsymbol{f_c(z)=e^z+c}$, using the escape time algorithm with escape radius 50 and 100 iterations maximum (it's vertically periodic with period $2\pi$):
edit (Mathematica code edited, too): $\boldsymbol{f_c(z)=cz(1-z)}$ (since camccann's answer mentions logistic maps) using the escape time algorithm with escape radius 50 and 200 iterations maximum:
Here's the Mandelbrot set on the Poincaré Disk. I made it by replacing all the usual operations in the iteration
$$z_{n+1} = z_n^2+c$$
by "hyperbolic" equivalents. Adding a constant was interpreted as translating in the plane, and the hyperbolic equivalent is then
$$z \mapsto \frac{z+c}{\bar{c}z+1}$$
For the squaring operation, that meant I used angle doubling plus rescaling of the distance by a factor two based on the distance formula for the Poincaré Disk:
Isaac, the auxiliary question that we should ask ourselves before answering your question is: what is the "right" (i. e., most mathematically relevant/interesting) generalization of the Mandelbrot set to other parametrized families of functions? Of course, you can take some arbitrary holomorphic family of functions $f_c(z)$ that depends holomorphically on the parameter $c$, and for each $c$, pick some starting value $z_0$ (which depends on $c$ in an essentially arbitrary way) and color the plane somehow based on the long-term behavior of the iterates. However, as some of the other posts show, you typically end up with objects that don't really resemble the Mandelbrot set, so the status of this construction as the "right" generalization of the M-set is very dubious.
Here's what I think is the right answer to my auxiliary question: the boundary of the standard Mandelbrot set is the bifurcation locus for the holomorphic family $f_c(z) = z^2 + c$: it's the set of $c$ at which the long-term dynamical behavior of $f_c$ is not continuous. (For example, if you cross the boundary and move from the inside of the M-set to the outside, you go from having a finite-valued attracting orbit to not having one (with only the fixed point at infinity attracting)). This concept applies equally well to other holomorphic families, and this is what I think is the right generalization of the M-set: the bifurcation locus of a family $f_c(z)$ of holomorphic functions that depends holomorphically on $c$. More generally, we can think of not just the bifurcation locus, but a more complete "catalog" of the dynamics of the family: a partition of the complex plane into the bifurcation set plus the union of a bunch of open sets in which the long-term dynamical behavior varies continuously (which for the M-set, would be a partition of the plane into the outside, the boundary, and all of the cardiods and bulbs (including those in smaller copies of the M-set found near the boundary)).
Now, to answer your question: yes, these objects have been studied in some generality, but I'm not an expert in the field and thus can't tell you everything about them. However, for example, it is known that every nonempty bifurcation locus contains copies of the boundary of the standard M-set (or the bifurcation locus of the family $z\mapsto = z^d + c$ for some $d$, the "degree-$d$ M-set"), and moreover, that these copies are dense in every bifurcation locus.
Starting with the very well known iteration formula that creates the Mandelbrot set
where $c=z_0=x_0+iy_0=\text{Re}(c)+i\text{Im}(c)$ is a complex constant which is the starting point of the trajectory generated in the complex plane by the iteration, in Doppelpot , from the German blog Fraktale Welten by Nachtwaechter, it is explained that, when we have two complex exponentiations the fractals generated by the recursive formula are normally beautiful, particularly those of Julia sets.
I suggested to the author to try the following formulae:
In Fünf Formeln the fractals are shown.
I reproduced some with the author's permission in this entry of my blog.
This one is generated by $z_{n+2}=z_{n+1}^{2}+z_{n}+c$:
and this by $z_{n+2}=z_{n+1}^{3}+c^{z_{n}}$
There is the Julia set, which can be defined for any complex rational map f(z) = P(z)/Q(z) where P(z) and Q(z) are polynomials.
The Julia set for the map fc(z) = z^2 + c is related to the Mandelbrot set in that a point z is in the Mandelbrot set if the Julia set of fc(z) is connected.
Robert L. Devaney, An Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems ... part III (the last 50 pages)
I couldn't say anything about "well-studied". What I do know is this:
My personal favourite is the cubic function $f(z) = z^3 - 3a^2z + b$. This has two critical points, $+a$ and $-a$. The Julia sets have 3-fold symmetry, and aren't especially stunning. The Mandelbrot set, however, is strictly speaking the intersection of two sets, one iterating with $z_0 = +a$ and the other $z_0 = -a$. If you combine the colourings of these two iterations, you get a strange "shadowy" effect. On top of that, the Mandelbrot set is 4D, and plotting various 3D slices of it looks interesting.
Barnsley's book FRACTALS EVERYWHERE has many examples of this. I believe some edition of that book (long ago...) came with software that lets you make your own examples, too.
Ultrafractal has a particularly impressive collection of thousands most of which have configurable parameters as well as julia variations. Some of these parameters are shared among many such as starting position and bailout whereas others are specific to individual fractals, most notably I would say:
Magnet & Magnet 2
Burning Ship
Barnsley 1, Barnsley 2, Barnsley 3
There are other things to explore as well, as just one example take coloring, the inside of sets for example is usually coloured solid black but Ultrafractal alone contains hundreds of other possibilities such as triangular inequality average.
There has been found a whole family of simply connected multipower m-like sets now, like f(z)->(((zc-1)^2)-1)^2-1, (z0=-1) that have been offered by Jeffrey Barthelmes (as "fracmonk")at fractalforums in a thread in the "New Theories and Research" section there. Many combinations of powers can coexist on the complex parameter plane at once, contrary to long-held popular belief, each sharing connectedness properties of M.


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January 2007 -- We'd still like your opinion.
Some big changes may be coming for you, the mortgage shopper... and you probably haven't heard anything about them.
Back in 2002 and 2003, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offered several radical proposals to change the way that mortgages are offered, and especially the way fees are charged and disclosed to you.
HUD received a record 40,000 comments from industry participants, consumer groups, regulators, etc., but ultimately, the proposals were shelved as the many disparate groups couldn't come to any sort of agreement of how best (and most fairly) to proceed. The proposals were withdrawn in early 2004.
After a long hiatus, discussions about RESPA reform (the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, now over 30 years old) are alive again, and industry groups and regulators seem determined to formulate some new regulations. Six meetings took place in Summer 2005; various groups provided their inputs, including those who purportedly represent mortgage shoppers like you. While not yet certain, there is likely to be some movement on this issue as 2007 rolls along, and it's still in the works with nothing final as of yet.
That's still the case. However, issues in subprime and alt-A credit lending have lead to new concerns about onerous prepayment penalties and the fees associated with getting a mortgage loan, and of course, better and more clear disclosures about mortgage costs and risks.
We thought that asking people like you -- those who would be directly affected by these potential changes -- might prove instructive. (Please note that for brevity's sake, we've simplified the arguments somewhat).
Guaranteed Mortgage Package
The HUD proposal would allow lenders to offer you a Guaranteed Mortgage Package (GMP). Simply, the GMP calls for the lender to offer you an interest rate and a pay-one-price bundle of closing fees which he must guarantee for a specific period of time, typically 30 days. For example, your GMP might be a 30-year fixed rate at 6% with $3000 in fees; this deal would be guaranteed for the next 30 days, regardless of what interest rates might do.
Unsurprisingly, lender groups are against being required to guarantee the interest rate, as they have little control over market conditions which -- as most mortgage shoppers know -- can and do change dramatically in the time your application is in process. There has been considerable doubt as to whether or not the interest-rate portion of the GMP will actually pass HUD's final review process.
However, there has been support for "fee bundling" and/or fee packaging in one form or another, and there are some expectations that regulations which allow for such are most likely to happen. Some lenders are already producing their own form of bundled pricing.
Fee Bundling
The concept of "pay one price for all settlement services" isn't new, and there are a few lenders who offer such an arrangement now (however, by law, they still must itemize the actual fees you pay). The proposed law would allow for bundling without listing the actual fees charged by each service provider (appraisal, title search, credit reports, etc).
Proponents of fee bundling claim that it will simplify mortgage shopping, providing clarity to a now-confusing array of fees and conditions. Opponents claim that by quoting only one price, borrowers will never know what they are actually paying for each settlement service, and could end up overpaying for them.
There are also claims that such packaging favors large lenders over small, because the large players can leverage service providers into more favorable contracts -- and that those savings might not all be offered to the consumer, but instead would become profits for the lender.
"Enhanced" Good Faith Estimate of Closing Costs
Also contentious are discussions to revise the amount of information provided on the Good Faith Estimate of Closing Costs (GFE), which must be provided to you within three days of placing a mortgage applications. One such discussion centered around disclosing the mortgage broker/mortgage originator's compensation for originating the loan to you, as well as who should be liable for any errors on the GFE or violations of GFE regulations. Some early discussions called for limits on how much the final total closing cost fees could differ from the up-front estimates. So far, our poll (though May 2006) found two-to-one support for the revised GFE compared to the other potential options.
What's your opinion? (As always, our privacy policy applies.)
Thanks for your input. If you'd like to add some additional comments on this issue, please use our feedback form.
Last totals, though September 27, 2007 (subject to change with
further responses):
GMP 30%, Fee Bundling 10%, Better GFE 61% (totals may not equal 100% due to rounding)
See a list of previous VoxPop questions.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi, I recently came across the famous Buffon's needle problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffon%27s_needle), and there is no doubt that the problem as well as its answer are elegant. However, the problem I have in mind, is slightly modified. The original problem deals with parallel lines separated by fixed distance (say, m). What if there are squares of side m instead of just parallel lines? How will this affect the probability? I scratched my brain over this, but could not come up with anything. Can some genius crack this for me?
Regards, Salil


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Margarett Loke
Recent and archived news articles by Margarett Loke of The New York Times.
Helen Levitt, Who Froze New York Street Life on Film, Is Dead at 95
Ms. Levitt was a major photographer of the 20th century who caught fleeting moments of surpassing lyricism, mystery and quiet drama on the streets of her native New York.
March 30, 2009, Monday
Ted Croner, 82, Dies; Photos Captured New York Energy
Mr. Croner's rigorously blurry photographs of New York at night in the 1940's epitomized the film noir energy of a city that never sleeps.
August 17, 2005, Wednesday
Helen Gee, Pioneer in Sales Of Photos as Art, Dies at 85
Helen Gee, whose Limelight photography gallery in Greenwich Village in the 1950's became a pioneering blueprint for the offering and selling of photography as an art form, died on Sunday at a hospice in Manhattan. She was 85. Her death was announced...
October 13, 2004, Wednesday
A Camera-Toting Odysseus Looks Into the Face of Pain
In person the Brazilian documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado is genial and unassuming. He keeps himself trim and his head shaved. He delivers rapid-fire accented English, as if he can hardly contain his immense energies. Mr. Salgado chooses...
August 6, 2002, Tuesday
Zalmai Ahad -- 'The Forgotten Hostages'
Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery Walter Reade Theater Lincoln Center Through June 30 Unlike many photojournalists who went to Afghanistan after the United States began its campaign against Taliban forces in October, Zalmai Ahad knew the country...
June 28, 2002, Friday
Wonders of Daily Life In Millennial Europe
For the photographer Frank Horvat, 1999 held not the gloom and doom of Y2K but the alluring promise of crossing from the 20th to the 21st century. That year he created a day-by-day photographic diary to take stock of his career and to document the...
June 7, 2002, Friday
DoDo Jin Ming -- 'Seascapes'
Laurence Miller Gallery 20 West 57th Street, Manhattan Through June 15 A conceptual artist who happens to be a photographer, DoDo Jin Ming goes after nature, wild or tamed, in her big, viscerally appealing pictures. In richly toned negative...
June 7, 2002, Friday
A Cornucopia Extracted From the Soil, Then From Obscurity
In their magnificent honesty, Charles Jones's photographs of vegetables put Edward Weston's studies of green peppers and cabbages in the shade. Around the turn of the 20th century, about 30 years before Weston created his sleek modernist still lifes,...
May 3, 2002, Friday
Decades of Life in Afghanistan, in Peace as Well as in War
Afghanistan is an ancient land plagued in recent times first by cold war geopolitics and then by Islamic extremism. Two photography exhibitions, one at the Asia Society and the other at Sepia International, offer different perspectives on that...
April 19, 2002, Friday
James Karales, Photographer of Social Upheaval, Dies at 71
James H. Karales, the photojournalist whose 1965 picture of determined marchers outlined against a lowering sky became a pictorial anthem of the civil rights movement, died on Monday. He was 71. The cause was cancer, his wife, Monica, said.
April 5, 2002, Friday
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Are there non-trivial (i.e. excluding concepts that can be defined only for $p>0$) statements in algebraic geometry that hold for all fields of characteristic $p$ for all prime $p$ but are known to be false in characteristic zero?
Here are two examples.
The moduli space of dimension $g$ principally polarized abelian varieties $A_g$ contains complete codimension $g$ subvarieties in any positive characteristic $p$ (for instance, the locus of abelian varieties with no nontrivial $p$-torsion points), but not in characteristic $0$ (by Keel and Sadun arXiv:math/0204229).
The other example is also a resul of Keel (arXiv:math/9901149). It states that a nef and big line bundle $L$ on a projective variety over a field of positive characteristic is semi-ample if and only if its restriction to the exceptional locus (i.e. the union of subvarieties $Z$ such that $L|_Z$ is not big) is semi-ample. This criterion is not true in characteristic $0$.
One other example: in characteristic $p>0$ there exist non trivial embeddings of the affine line $\mathbb{A}^1$ into the affine plane $\mathbb{A}^2$ (i.e. embeddings that are not equal to the composition of $x\mapsto (x,0)$ with an automorphism of $\mathbb{A}^2$). For example,
$x\mapsto (x^{p^2},x^{p^2+p}+x)$
is an embbeding because $k[x^{p^2},x^{p^2+p}+x]=k[x]$ (take $f=x^{p^2}$ and $g=x^{p^2+p}+x$, then $g^p-f^{p+1}=x^p$). It is not trivial because the degree of one component does not divide the other one.
In characteristic zero, there is no non-trivial embedding of $\mathbb{A}^1$ into $\mathbb{A}^2$. This is the famous Abhyankar-Moh theorem (Abhyankar, S.; Moh, T. T., Embeddings of the line in the plane. J. Reine Angew. Math. 276 (1975), 148–166.)
Perhaps this is an example of the contrapositive of a statement in char 0 that fails in all positive characteristics. The affine line has nontrivial \'etale covers over every field of positive characteristic, yet it is algebraically simply connected in characteristic $0$.
Tamagawa has shown that a smooth curve (of genus $\neq 1$) over $\bar{\mathbb{F}}_p$ is determined by its profinite $\pi_1$ up to finite indeterminacy, that is, that the map $$\pi_1: M_{g,n}(\bar{\mathbb{F}}_p )\longrightarrow \mbox{Profinite groups up to isomorphism}$$ is finite-to-one. This is clearly false over, say, $\bar{\mathbb{Q}}$. It's not correct to conclude therefore that there are just fewer curves in characteristic $p$, in some sense. The truth is that $\pi_1$ simply retains more geometric information.
Here is a paper by Rachel Pries and Katherine Stevenson that addresses the question:
Full reference: Pries, R. and Stevenson, K. "A survey of Galois theory of curves in characteristic p" , Fields Institute Communications 60 , American Mathematical Society, Providence RI, (2011), 169-191.
I am not well-versed in this area, but I found this paper quite readable. Some of the examples in the paper (particularly the first half of the paper) have been brought up in answers already in this thread.
The stack $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ of Deligne-Mumford stable curves and its coarse moduli space $\overline{M}_{g,n}$ are defined over $\mathbb{Z}$. Therefore they are defined over any commutative ring and in any characteristic.
Let $\pi:\mathcal{U}\rightarrow\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ be the universal curve, $\omega_{\pi}$ the relative dualizing sheaf and $\Sigma$ the union of the sections of $\pi$. Then $\mathcal{L}:=\pi_{*}\omega_{\pi}(\Sigma)$ is a line bundle on $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$.
If $p:\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}\rightarrow\overline{M}_{g,n}$ is the coarse moduli space then $p_{*}\mathcal{L}$ is semi-ample in positive characteristic but this fails in characteristic zero.


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If calories are a measure of energy, and protein contains more calories per gram than carbohydrates then how does Atkins work? What is the difference between the energy provided by the 'carbs' and the 'calorie' energy that is in all food? Why does eating no carbohydrates make your body go into 'fat burning' mode for energy if everything contains calories?
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Your premise is a bit off. Protein and Carbohydrates have essentially the same number of Calories. It's fat that has more calories.
In order to understand how Atkins and other ketogenic diets work, you need to understand a bit about energy systems and a very important pair of hormones. Oversimplifying things quite a bit, we can get to a layman's understanding of what's going on. Essentially, there are three sources of energy the body can pull from:
Under normal operations, your body will use up the glycogen before it attempts to use any other source of energy. The problem is when we have depleted the glycogen, the body tends to consume both the muscle/organs and fat stores at the same time--unless we do something different.
For the average person, your body will hold about 3 days of glycogen energy. Glycogen is replenished by carbohydrates. In a ketogenic diet, you are not eating carbohydrates and are intentionally burning through your glycogen stores to force your body into a state where it creates ketone bodies using the available energy. The ketone bodies cannot be re-assimilated as fat, and have to be urinated out. This is a good thing. However, remember how we said the body will pull from both the muscles/organs and fat stores if there is no glycogen? Here's what the body gets from those sources of energy:
If you have a Caloric deficit of 1200 Calories a week, and the body is pulling half from fat and half from muscle tissue, you will burn a pound of muscle while only burning less than a quarter of a pound of fat. This isn't good. Again, this is also grossly oversimplified. Bottom line is that we have to do something to protect the muscle.
This is where the high protein content of your diet comes to play. The body doesn't really care if the protein it is consuming is dietary or from your existing muscles/organs. It's just going to create ketone bodies using both the protein and the fat. Sufficiently high protein, and you can actually gain some muscle mass. An additional benefit of protein is that it is very thermogenic, or in other words it takes a lot of energy to process. You burn more Calories digesting protein than you do carbohydrates and fat.
NOTE: part of the process of digesting protein requires calcium. If you don't have enough dietary or supplementary calcium, you may end up leaching that calcium from your bones. This is particularly troublesome for women as they have a greater risk of osteoporosis anyway.
A big influence on the way your body processes energy has to do with a pair of hormones: insulin and glucagon. Insulin is anabolic, which means it's job is to build up. It operates by taking elevated blood sugar and pushing it to the muscles and organs. However, if both the muscles and organs are full, the only place left is fat cells. Glucagon has the opposite responsibility, and is catabolic, meaning it's job is to tear down. It operates to restore blood sugar to normal levels by taking energy out of the muscles, organs, and fat cells. The energy in muscles and organs is glycogen. The energy in fat cells is fat.
In a ketogenic diet, you are depleting the glycogen stores so that the only place left to pull energy is the fat stores. There are a few areas of concern here, which affect active people more than sedentary people:
I'm not an advocate for Atkins but the theory is that carbohydrates, proteins and fat are all metabolised by the body in different ways before it becomes the direct food that our cells use. Low carbs advocates suggest that digesting carbohydrates increases the level of the hormone insulin in our blood leading to cells accepting that energy and storing it as fat.
Conversely, eating low levels of carbs does not raise insulin and thus that storage mechanism is not invoked. The body also has to switch processes to metabolise the fat and protein you're eating - which is pretty much the same mechanism it uses to burn body fat.
Secondly, there's some evidence that it's the protein in food that makes us feel full and stop eating. There's certainly evidence that Atkins is simply a low-calorie diet. Theories are that this is because it's rather hard to find food that is low carb and because of the satiation I just mentioned.


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Dancing With the Stars, 2010
Posted 08 March 2010 - 06:21 PM
miliosr, any thoughts on the lineup?
Posted 09 March 2010 - 04:33 PM
miliosr, any thoughts on the lineup?
Well, for starters, I'm happy ABC cut the number of celebrities back to 11. I boycotted the last season because it had become bloated in terms of the number of dancers (and in everything else, really.)
As far as the actual casting, I feel like the show is in a bit of a rut. This will be the third season with contestants from 90210, All My Children and The Bachelor. This will also be the sixth season (at least) with a contestant from the National Football League and the fourth season (at least) with an Olympic medal winner. So, to my mind, the casting has grown stale.
Based on fan base, I would handicap Evan Lysacek as the early favorite -- Anna Trebunskaya would have to be just terrible as a coach and a choreographer to screw up the fan base advantage. Buzz Aldrin will get votes for awhile because, well, he's the astronaut with the coolest name in the history of astronauts. Shannen Doherty might be able to challenge Lysacek because she has legions of 90210 fans to this very day. (And she'll be an entertaining contestant because she's just as likely to belt Mark Ballas as work with him.)
Posted 24 March 2010 - 04:24 PM
Obviously, America doesn't agree with me that the casting has grown stale!
Posted 24 March 2010 - 05:06 PM
Does no one learn on this show--ie. how to dance better? When I found out Lysecek was going to be on the program, I was hoping a good instructor/choreographer would get him to use his line better, and yes, stop semaphoring without meaning.
No, of course, some people learn how to dance on the show. A fair number actually come out the other side with some actual dance skills.
The pros that I think actually have a good track record of actually teaching their celebrities how to dance pretty consistently are the following: Cheryl Burke, Kym Johnson, Louis Van Amstel, Jonathan Roberts, and the Wonder Triplets (Julianne Hough, Derek Hough and Mark Ballas). Allowances have to be made for the individual celebrity's physical abilities, talent, background and attitude, but most of their celebs show pretty clear improvement from Week 1 until they leave the show.
The pros that really seem to have variable results based on the celeb are Maksim Chmerkovsky and Karina Smirnoff. I think they can teach some students, but it really seems to depend on whether they "click" or not.
The pros that tend to have minimal success in actually teaching their celebs are the following: Anna Trebunskaya, Alec Mazo, Edyta Sliwinska, and Tony Dovolani. I very rarely see any real improvement in their celebrities from week to week.
I do think Anna might work out with Evan Lysacek, though. He's not my favorite skater, but he is obviously athletically-talented, hard-working and used to being coached. Anna's teaching seems to consist mainly of the "Do this!" *demonstration* method, which doesn't work with most beginners because it they have little to no ability to imitate the demonstration, and it doesn't give beginners any idea where to start. Evan may actually be talented enough and well-trained enough to recreate Anna's movements with his body even if he doesn't have the concepts explained to him. For example, Evan's actually getting bend in his knees and real push in his steps, which most of Anna's celebs never accomplish (Jerry Rice never got this even after months), and I would guess it's because he can see Anna do it and mimic it even though she doesn't articulate it.
I don't know if it will work with the concepts of leading/following, but that is pretty invisible to most laypeople even if it would never work in real competition or the social dance floor.
I think Evan will have a harder time keeping his arms under control on the Latin/Rhythm side, though.
Posted 25 March 2010 - 06:06 AM
Really liked Nicole/Derek. I like when beautiful people let their dork flag fly. In that regard she's a cute match with Derek who can be a bit of spaz sometimes. She has lovely lines and can seemingly handle Derek's choreography well.
I surprised myself by how much I like Pam Anderson! Most celebrities are a bit tentative/stiff on the first dance. She let loose with all the momentum of a freight
train which made it a fun dance to watch. If she can tighten up on the wildness and get serious with the technique she actually might be a contender.
Posted 30 March 2010 - 03:55 PM
01 28pts Nicole/Derek (jive)
02 24pts Evan/Anna (jive)
03 23pts Erin/Maksim (foxtrot)
04 22pts Pamela/Damian (foxtrot)
05 21pts Niecy/Louis (foxtrot)
06 20pts Shannen/Mark (jive)
06 20pts Jake/Chelsie (jive)
08 19pts Aiden/Edyta (foxtrot)
09 16pts Chad/Cheryl (foxtrot)
10 15pts Kate/Tony (jive)
11 12pts Buzz/Ashly (foxtrot)
(Sorry, I don't have the scores from last week so I can't give combined totals for the two performances.)
General Thoughts:
1) New season, same old Mark Ballas -- he can never bring himself to tone down his performance so that it matches up more cleanly with the performance of his celebrity amateur, can he? Watching poor Shannen try to keep pace with him last night was painful. Better for him to simplify things so that his partner looks better which, after all, is the point of the competition. (During a commercial break last night, I rewatched Mark and Shawn's freestyle from Season 8 and it was the same thing -- poor Shawn was struggling to keep pace.)
2) Oh Louis! Listening to him drone on about "being the mirror" and "being the truth" for Niecy gave me flashbacks to poor Monique, who he turned into a psychological mess by the end of her season. As for Niecy, her personality is a lot like Marissa's -- she will divide the audience like Moses parting the Red Sea.
3) Against all odds, I am enjoying Pamela and Damian the most. Unlike most everyone else, she is good at portraying a character in whatever dance she is performing. It was a little odd, though, how she stayed in character as "Marilyn" during the post-dance interview with Brooke Burke.
4) I'm all for bringing back obscure words into common usage but Len Goodman was probably ill-advised to use "titivate" to describe Pamela's performance.
5) I can't be objective about Kate Gosselin. ("Kids, Mommy has a new reality program on ABC. Take care of each other while I'm gone!") And yes, I know I'm being unfair -- deal with it!!!!!
Who's Going:
My guess is Buzz goes. His scores are so low that I don't know if any fan base could save him. (And, if Dial Idol is correct, I most definitely overestimated the size of his fan base.)
Still, the first elimination is always an odd one because often it is a middle-of-the-packer (in terms of judges' scores) who goes. We'll see tonight!
Posted 30 March 2010 - 04:05 PM
Tom Bergeron declares Buzz and Ashly safe and Brooke Burke declares Pamela and Damian in the Bottom Two.
Posted 30 March 2010 - 05:02 PM
Shannen and Mark join Pamela and Damian in the Bottom Two with Shannen and Mark going.
The result is a travesty (based on actual dancing) BUT not a completely unexplainable travesty. Shannen and Mark never generated much excitement and, so, they got lost in the pack. And, since the 90210 fans obviously didn't show up for the vote, less deserving celebrities like Aiden, Buzz and Kate live to dance another day.
Posted 31 March 2010 - 08:36 AM
So..... Kate Gosselin still staying on this show, while annoying and slightly nausea inducing is nowhere near enough to be a tragedy and I'm sure she'll be gone soon.
I really like Pamela Anderson! I like having my preconceptions about people proven wrong now and again. It keeps you on your toes.
Posted 05 April 2010 - 06:01 PM
01 26pts Evan/Anna (quickstep)
02 23pts Erin/Maks (waltz)
02 23pts Nicole/Derek (quickstep)
04 21pts Jake/Chelsie (quickstep)
04 21pts Niecy/Louis (waltz)
04 21pts Pamela/Damian (paso doble)
07 20pts Aiden/Edyta (quickstep)
07 20pts Chad/Cheryl (paso doble)
09 15pts Kate/Tony (paso doble)
10 13pts Buzz/Ashly (waltz)
Posted 06 April 2010 - 04:59 PM
Buzz/Ashly and Jake/Chelsie are Bottom Two w/ Buzz and Ashly leaving.
Buzz was a gallant competitor but, at 80, he was never going to keep pace with his younger competitors and, sure enough, he didn't. An appropriate elimination.
Posted 07 April 2010 - 08:34 AM
Posted 08 April 2010 - 03:03 PM
I read in today's NY Times that NYCB principal dancer Tiler Peck will be appearing on Dancing w Stars on Tuesday.
In what capacity?
Posted 08 April 2010 - 03:21 PM
Posted 08 April 2010 - 03:22 PM
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Cottage Grove Speedway Set For Two Nights Of Racing; Karts On Friday August 8th
By Ben Deatherage
(Photo Courtesy of Dirt Monkey Productions)
Cottage Grove, Oregon- Cottage Grove Speedway will have two nights of action this weekend starting off with the Kage Karts on Friday August 8th. Then on Saturday the 9th the historic ¼-mile clay oval will host the BC Motorsports Northwest Extreme Sprints, Late Models, IMCA Modifieds, and Hornets for Cottage Grove Area Chamber Of Commerce/Pepsi Family Night.
Danny Horner still leads the BC Motorsports Northwest Extreme Sprints win column with three victories. Dave Hibbard is the only other multi-feature winner with two and drivers who have won once include Jesse Thistle, Orion Redmond, and Colin Baker.
With his win last week Shaun Mayea is now level with his uncle Rob as the "House of Mayea" continues to dominate at Cottage Grove Speedway. Both drivers have scored three wins each while Blaine Taylor is the only other driver to make it to victory lane.
In the IMCA Modifieds it's still Braedon Hand with the most wins, at four, and Mark Wauge still has three. Drivers with just a single triumph include Jesse Williamson, Tom Berry Jr., Alex Stanford, Nick Trenchard, and Collen Winebarger.
The Hornets have been ultra-competitive this season. Both Taunton Swaim and Chris Pierce have five wins each. Also on the win chart includes Eric Cooper, Josh Corley, and K.C. Scott with all three paying just one trip to the winner's circle.
General admission to the Kart race on Friday will be FREE of charge. Pit Passes are $10.00 and Car and Driver fees will be $35.00. The Pit Gate will open up around 3:00 PM and the Pit Meeting is at 6:00 PM with Hot Laps and Racing to follow.
On Saturday Pit Gates will open at 2:00 PM, Front Gates open at 4:00, and racing starts at 6:45. Tickets for this event are Adults $12.00, Seniors/Military/Juniors (13-18) $10.00, Youths (Ages 12-6) $5.00, and Children under the age of 5 are FREE. We will offer our normal family pass for two Adults and up to four Youths for just $35.00 but being that it is Pepsi Family Night complimentary small soft drink beverages will be included with the admission. For more information log on to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com and click "Fan Info".
The Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce is committed to building a strong local economy. The Chamber is a great way to network with other businesses through several of their events throughout the year including the "Business After Hours" program. If you're an owner or operator of a local business and haven't joined this wonderful organization but are interested visit their website at cgchamber.com or giving them a call at (541)-942-2411.
Driven by MyRacePassTM
Cottage Grove Speedway | All rights reserved


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CAT stands for "computerized axial tomography." Translated, that means a scanner takes computer pictures of what's going on inside your body. The scan itself is painless. All you'll need to do is hold still for a few minutes at a time so the pictures come out clear.
Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.
© 1995-
Images provided by iStock, Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Science Photo Library, Science Source Images, Shutterstock, and Clipart.com
For a full list of Rady Children's Programs and Services, click here or call Rady Children's Customer Service and Referral Center at 1-800-788-9029 for more information.


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Hacienda Oaks Nursing & Rehab would like to congratulate Doris Mckinney on completion of our Short-Term Rehabilitation Program! When Mrs. McKinney arrived at Hacienda Oaks she was very weak and unable to walk from her recent hospital stay with Pneumonia. On December 28, 2010 Mrs. Mckinney was able to return home walking with minimal assistance! All of us here at Hacienda Oaks would like to thank Mrs. Mckinney for choosing Hacienda Oaks Nursing and Rehab for your rehab needs. We wish you the best of luck and are going to miss you dearly!
Hacienda Oaks Nursing and Rehab would like to send a special Thank You to Dr. Larakers and Teralea Jones, PAC for allowing us to care for your patient.
"The Right Step to Your Success"
Visit us at www.nursingrehabbeeville.com


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FRAMINGHAM - Lucky shoppers at Thursday's Framingham Farmers Market will receive "Veggie Dollars" to help pay for their purchases.
Next Step Living will pass out a limited number of the dollars during Thursday's market, open from noon to 5:30 p.m. on the Centre Common on Edgell Road.
This week's market lineup includes bread, fresh produce, fish, meats, cheese and other products.
Location, ST | website.com


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I have two Gaussian random variables $X$ and $Y$, each of which is an estimator of an underlying quantity. I need to measure whether $Y$ is estimating something different than $X$. So if the mean of $Y$ is very different to the mean of $X$, that is good. However, if the variance of $Y$ is also much higher than the variance of $X$ it might just be that $Y$ is a poor estimator and the different mean is not meaningful (if you'll excuse the pun).
So for a fixed $X$, I need a function of $Y$ that increases with $\left|\mu_Y-\mu_X\right|$ but that decreases with $\sigma_Y$ (and is zero if and only if $\sigma_Y = \sigma_X$ and $\mu_Y = \mu_X$). I don't really know whether to call this a measure, a divergence or something else, since it will be negative when $\mu_Y = \mu_X$ and $\sigma_Y > \sigma_X$.
I thought that the Kullback-Leibler divergence might be the way to go but it responds the wrong way to changes in the variance of $Y$. Also, it can't be negative.
Clearly, something like $\left|\mu_Y-\mu_X\right| + \sigma_X - \sigma_Y$ has the above properties but I'm looking for something a little more grounded in information theory.
Ideally, this would generalize to distributions other than Gaussian.


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WEIRTON - John Travis Maxwell admits he can't get rich building hot rods. Not yet, anyway.
What Maxwell will tell you, however, is that every day brings him closer to his goal.
And that goal? Well, it's simple enough: To turn ordinary-looking old cars into eye-catching hot rods that look so perfect people will think they're strictly showroom pieces - known in the industry as "trailer queens" - yet make them beefy enough under the hood that he can race them, do circles in the snow or take them out on the road no matter the weather.
Article Photos
1930 FORD SEDAN DELIVERY RESTORED — Involved in restoring this 1930 Ford Sedan Delivery were, from left, Travis Maxwell and his wife, Esther, who own Street Dreams Rod & Custom shop in Weirton, along with mechanics Bill Richardson and Shane Evans. Wayne Cairns also helped with the project. - Linda Harris
PLENTY OF HORSEPOWER — A 600 HP small block Chevy engine and modern suspension make his restored 82-year-old Ford handle like a Corvette, owner Travis Maxwell says. Maxwell inherited the vintage car from his father, whose keen interest in racing fueled a passion for them in his young son. - Contributed
TO BE RESTORED — A 1954 Studebaker Commander is just one of the many vintage cars Travis Maxwell has been commissioned to restore. Maxwell owns Street Dreams Rod & Custom shop, now located in the old Pavlik dealership in downtown Weirton. - Linda Harris
In other words, he prefers "working" cars.
Maxwell, owner of Street Dreams Rod & Custom in the old Pavlik dealership in downtown Weirton, has already married the two very different end uses in a 1930 Ford Sedan Delivery, the kind of car the old moonshiners used, that he inherited from his father in 2009. The end result is an eye-catcher: Synergy Green with black fenders, a 600 HP small block 400 engine and a host of other custom touches. It won "Best in Class" at the 2011 Pittsburgh World of Wheels show and was the "Hot Pick" in a recent issue of "Cruisin' Times, earning him the cover photo and a pictorial inside.
"I was on Cloud 9 the whole time in Pittsburgh," he said. "When they asked me to take it up and put it indoors, I thought, 'I can't do that, it doesn't belong with all those cars on the top floor.' I'm maybe 20, 30 feet away from those really nice cars, but my car fit right in. It caught your eye as much as any of them. It was heady, but at the same time it was humbling."
That's because the Sedan Delivery, which he races, looked every bit as stunning as the "trailer queen" cars whose wheels never touch asphalt.
"It handles like a Corvette," he said, because of it's new suspension, coil-over shocks and an engine "built for a late-model race car."
"There's a misconception in the industry that you can't build a nice car and drive it, that if it's nice you have to trailer it," Maxwell said. "We refer to those cars as 'trailer queens.' Basically, what we did was make it look like a trailer queen but we drive it.
"If you don't drive it, what's the sense of having all that money in it? I wanted a car that looked like a trailer queen but was driveable."
Maxwell said the notoriety he gained from the Pittsburgh show has led to invitations to bring the Sedan Delivery to major shows in Canton and Philadelphia, "and I also nailed a couple different builds just from being up there, talking to people."
Last week alone he picked up three new builds - a '70 maverick, a '64 Falcon and a '47 Ford. He said while most people just want their classic cars to look and run good, Maxwell doesn't mind accommodating them.
One individual had a car shipped to him from South Dakota. Another had a '54 Studebaker shipped to Street Dreams from Virginia so Maxwell could work on it. A friend who died recently of cancer bequeathed his race car to Maxwell, which he plans to turn into a tribute car and run on the race circuit.
The entire building, in fact, is filled with old cars - some of them his, most of them belonging to other people - in various stages of production.
"If I had to live on selling hot rods, I could never function," he said. "I have to be able to sell, service and accessory any vehicle, hot rod or not, for the everyday driver.
"This is like a big boys' toy store," he adds. "We get to play with cars all the time. I started the detailing and accessorizing shop just so I could afford to do the rest."
It was his dad, a rod enthusiast himself, who drew him into the world of hot rods when he was a teen, using the allure of fast cars to keep him off the streets and out of trouble. Working alongside his father, he customized one vehicle after another, starting with a '57 Chevy S10 pickup "that we restored basically from the ground up," he said.
When his father passed away, he'd planned to leave the Ford Sedan as it was. "I swore I'd never redo it, I'd never touch it," he said. "Then I hit a deer and totaled it. It was almost a blessing in disguise, really."
Street Dreams, he points out, is the only full-blown custom shop within hours of Weirton.
"We do everything from custom autobody and paint to wheels and tires, speed and performance parts, truck accessories it just goes on and on."
Since moving to Weirton, he said he's picked up a lot of everyday business, doing minor mechanical work, brake jobs, oil changes, even changing head gaskets.
"We're getting a lot of mechanical work as well as installing accessories, even outfitting commercial vehicles," he said.
He's also picked up a deal with a major corporation, a high-profile project he's hoping will put the shop on the national map and be the big break he needs.
"We're already at the point where I'm probably going to start hiring more people," he said.
Maxwell said he currently has about five people working for him, in addition to himself and his wife, Esther, who handles the upholstery.


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Home > Toyota > Toyota Venza 2013
Below you will find the high resolution car image for Toyota Venza 2013. You may use the car image for any of the following widescreen screen resolutions:
1920x1200 | 1680x1050 | 1440x900 | 1280x800
Published On : Apr 11, 2012
Published On : Apr 11, 2012
Image Copyright : ToyotaToyota Venza 2013 - Car Image at Dieselstation
Toyota Venza 2013
The 2012 New York Auto Show has witnessed many redesigned vehicles being showcased. And same is the case with Japanese automakers, Toyota. Toyota unveiled its 2013 Venza with the modest of makeovers.


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Visiting Isla del Tigre and Amapala
Andrés Niño first sighted Isla del Tigre in 1522, but the Spanish didn't settle there initially. Pirates used the island as a hideout until 1770, when the governor of San Miguel, El Salvador, ordered a town built. For a short time during the presidency of Marco Aurelio Soto, Amapala functioned as the capital of Honduras.
Although subject to the same heat as the Choluteca plain, the island is often graced by an ocean breeze, making the climate more hospitable. Isla del Tigre is six kilometers in diameter, and the volcanic peak is 783 meters high. Until the early 1990s, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) contingent staffed a base at the peak, but now it's deserted.
A small tourist office at the dock in Amapala can help answer questions about where to go on the island—when it's open that is (8 a.m.-noon and 2-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-noon Sat.).
Around the Island
A 17-kilometer dirt road rings Isla del Tigre, so named for one of the island's long-extinct animal denizens—it makes for a great bike ride, although you'll need to bring your own bike. Many extremely poor campesino families live in simple huts along the road, scraping a living from little agricultural plots on the mountainside. From Amapala heading southwest (counterclockwise), about 20 minutes from town by foot and just past the Honduran military post, a dirt road turning inland leads to the top of the volcano, the site of the now-deserted DEA base. The walk takes about two hours of hard hiking, and the views, especially in the early morning when the sky is clear, are superb. (It's also smart to get your hike in as early as possible before the heat really kicks in.) It's possible to spend the night if equipped with tent, water, and food—sunrise is usually lovely.
About 45 minutes from Amapala on foot, not far past the mountain road, is Playa Grande, a swath of black sand facing El Salvador and lined with several fish restaurants. At the north end of the beach is La Cueva de la Sirena, a bat-filled red volcanic rock cave with two entrances, one on the ocean. Local legend has it that Sir Francis Drake hid a stash of his ill-gotten booty here.
Of the popular beaches, Playa Negra is by far the cleanest, and it's actually possible to see through the water to your feet if the water is calm. Many other less obvious and usually deserted beaches are located around the island, awaiting exploration. Playa El Zapote is one of the only white-sand beaches on the island (white from crushed shells), and there is a hotel, but there are also a lot of biting pulgas de mar (water fleas). From Playa Caracol on the west side, you can walk across the shallow water to the barely inhabited Isla el Pacar, where you can pitch a tent or navigate around the outcropping to the right for a beach all for yourself.
The waters virtually lap the edge of the restaurants at Playa Grande and Playa El Burro during high tide, so plan accordingly. Avoid swimming at the beaches where fishermen work, as manta rays and jellyfish like to swim nearby in search of fish discards.
The biggest impediment to tourism on Amapala has long been its dearth of decent hotels. Fortunately, there are a couple of newer options on the island that, while still simple, are taking things up a notch.
Waterfront Casa Cangrejo (tel. 504/3278-3172) is set upon rocks edging the sea, with two compact apartments that rent for US$35 per person (US$15 per child, under six free). Each apartment can accommodate up to three persons and has a full kitchen; one has the bathroom inside, while the bathroom for the other is outside of the apartment. They share a porch that looks out over the water, complete with a hammock for swinging in the ocean breeze. Water access is via a little cement dock a few steps down from the house itself. There is a two-night minimum stay. You can hire a lancha in Coyolito to take you straight to the little dock at Casa Cangrejo for about US$8 (per boat, not per person).
Right in town is Casa de las Gárgolas (tel. 504/2795-8529), a white stucco building overseen by a pair of gargoyles, with a nice swimming pool (which is key, since this is the one hotel not on the water). The single rooms are quite small, but reasonably priced at US$32. Double rooms are US$63 (up to four people), and triples are US$95 (up to six). The family room is by far the most comfortable, essentially an apartment with a full kitchen and two bedrooms, but it's a hefty US$126. The windows close with lovely wooden slats, but the lack of screens means that it's impossible to keep the windows open from dusk onward in order to keep the mosquitoes out, and the heat means that you have to use the air-conditioning even if you'd prefer the ocean breeze.
The remaining options on the island tend to be fairly run down. Mirador de Amapala (tel. 504/2795-8407, US$53 d, including breakfast) is a few minutes' walk from the main dock. Mirador means lookout, which is a bit deceiving, since only one or two of the 30 rooms have a view of the sea just across the street. The modern-style hotel, with air-conditioning, TVs, and hot water, also has an adequate (if slow) restaurant, a murky pool with a slide, and free transportation via mototaxi to and from Playa Grande (imperative, given that the beach right at the hotel is unswimmable). Room prices seem to vary according to how much business they have.
Directly on Playa Grande is the Hotel and Restaurant Dignita (tel. 504/2795-8584, US$24 s, US$32 d). The two simple rooms come with two double beds, air-conditioning, and private bath. No view of the sea, but the beach is just steps away, and the seafood soups at the restaurant are outstanding.
There are a couple of places to stay at Playa El Burro. Aquatours Marbella (tel. 504/2795-8050, US$53 s/d) has humid rooms with two double beds, private baths, and air-conditioning. They also charge nonguests US$2 a person to use their "entertainment center," which consists of a cloudy pool, broken-down patio furniture, billiards, music, raggedy hammocks, and beach games. The next-door restaurant, Veleros (tel. 504/2795-8040, US$21 s, US$24 d), has three simple but tidy rooms.
You may be able to find a less expensive room by checking with the network of guesthouses (casas de huespedes) that has been developed on the island.
Locals also claim that the island is safe enough for camping right on the beach, if you should be so inclined.
Dignita on Playa Grande has the best seafood in town, with excellent seafood soup and "lobster" (more like giant prawns) (US$6-12). There are also a number of shacks along the beach selling simple and cheap dishes like fish carnitas.
El Faro Victoria (lunch and dinner Fri.-Sun., dinner only the rest of the week), next to the dock, has decent burgers, fish, chicken, shrimp, and lobster for US$3-10 per meal.
Veleros is a good restaurant serving sandwiches (US$1.50), fish (US$3-6), and lobster (up to US$18 for the largest), with a deck right on the beach at Playa El Burro.
Information and Services
There isn't a bank in town, but most businesses will accept dollars if you don't have anything else. It's often a good idea to bring a lot of change in lempiras, as breaking big bills on the island can be a problem. There are two Internet shops in town, one of which (by the health clinic) does international telephone calls too.
Getting There and Around
To get to the island by public transport, get off a Choluteca-Tegucigalpa bus two kilometers west of San Lorenzo to the dirt road turnoff to Coyolito. Here, hop one of the hourly buses or hitch a ride the 30 kilometers to Coyolito. Alternatively, you can get a bus to San Lorenzo and catch a Coyolito-bound bus from the center of town. Colectivo boat rides from Coyolito to the main dock at Amapala cost US$0.80 (US$8 for a private boat ride). Colectivo boats to Playa El Burro are also US$0.80 (around US$3 for a private boat). These same boats charge about US$26 for a half-day tour around the island, or varying prices to specific destinations (other nearby islands, mangrove forests, etc.). For more information, check with the Capitanía del Puerto in Amapala (tel. 504/2795-8643). One direct bus goes to Tegucigalpa at 3 a.m. each day, but it's easy to take a bus to the main highway and catch a passing bus to either Tegucigalpa or Choluteca.
One bus circles the island each day early in the morning, and there's some traffic in the morning—good for hitching rides—but in the afternoon, it's usually deserted. Pickup trucks stand in for taxis on the island, and rides can cost US$3-7 depending on the destination.
Excerpted from the Sixth Edition of Moon Honduras.


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Program Registration
You may register online for the events below by selecting the title of the event. You may also register by phone at (202) 225-1116. Program registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Download a PDF version of our current Calendar of Events here. Messages left to register for fee-based programs do not guarantee a reserved spot. Reservations made over the phone for fee-based programs will only be accepted with a payment. If you prefer to register by mail, please complete a registration form and submit it along with your payment. Refunds for programs are only provided in the case of program cancellation by the U.S. Botanic Garden. Please note: Our online calendar only displays programs five months in advance of the current month. If you are looking for a program more than five months out, please return to register for that program at a later date or call to inquire. Thank you.


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BDSM Romance Fifty Shades of Gray is a National Phenomenon
Read the USA Today Article, Quoting NCSF own Susan Wright
March 4, 2012 -- Everyone is talking about the run-away success of the novel Fifty Shades of Gray by E. L. James, the first book in a BDSM romance trilogy. On March 1st, 2012, the novel hit #1 on the Amazon ebook bestseller list in the genre, romance and erotica categories.
The book got a big boost from The Today Show, with supervising producer Joanne LaMarca saying, "I downloaded a copy and don't think I put it down until I finished it, despite what the pilot on my flight to Florida said. I can say, along with many other women I'm sure, that reading this book is very good for your marriage!"
Read the coverage on: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46590258/ns/today-books/t/triple-x-trilogy-novels-has-women-talking-quietly/#.T1OJgfUzB8E
In a segment televised on Today on March 2, 2012, sexologist Dr. Laura Berman touted the appeal of submission: "Now we've moved on to a new generation where women are more empowered than ever before, the glass ceiling has been broken, and we have as much control as we want—and what are we longing for? A little bodice-ripping."
NCSF supports the open discussion taking place about Fifty Shades of Gray, and celebrates the fact that acceptance of kinky sex between consenting adults is taking place. NCSF has worked hard to educate the media and the public about BDSM, and the benefit of having responsible, healthy sex through negotiation, communication, trust and honesty.
The only sour notes were sounded by Today's Chief Legal Analyst Savannah Guthrie, and Dr. Drew Pinsky, who called the BDSM romance "violence against women":
"But there is something about this. It's not just a matter of steamy sex scenes. The context is this bondage, this submission, and frankly stripped bare: violence against women," said Guthrie.
"It does disturb me actually… the swept-away fantasy is a common fantasy but as you're saying, Savannah, it's going beyond that into violence against women," said Pinksy.
The voice of reason was relationship expert Dr. Logan Levkoff who said, "I've read these books. I don't see these particular books as violence against women." She added, "The community has very organized rules. It's consensual. Let's be clear, this does not depict rape or anything like that."
See the video on: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/46602040#46602040
NCSF believes that adults who engage in BDSM with other consenting adults, as well as those who just want to fantasize about roleplay and power dynamics, should not be stigmatized. Experts who voice their opinions on television should make the distinction that consensual sex is good and nonconsensual sex is violence. Until that happens, the BDSM community will continue to be discriminated against and persecuted because of the misconception that we are violent people.
If you'd like to let Today know your opinion, write to: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29041920/ns/today-today_participate/t/email-today/#.T1OLHPUzB8E
Resources for doctors, lawyers, therapists and other professionals.
Information helpful when considering finding a Kink Aware Professional.
Kink Aware Professionals is a service offered by NCSF dedicated to providing the community with referrals to psychotherapeutic, medical, legal and other professionals who are knowledgeable about and sensitive to diverse expressions of sexuality.
Kevin Carlson
NCSF Board Member
The Kink Aware Professionals Directory (KAP) is a free service managed and funded by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). For questions and further information, please contact the KAP Coordinator. All material on this site is Copyright © 2011 NCSF and cannot be copied unless permission is granted. Links to this site, however, are welcome.
Copyright 2012-2015 - National Coalition for Sexual Freedom - NCSFreedom.org
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U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth has reintroduced a bill to create a federal grant program inspired by boxing great Muhammad Ali that would promote global respect and understanding.
The Muhammad Ali Legacy Act seeks to build on the Louisville native's humanitarian work.
Yarmuth, a Louisville Democrat, reoffered the bill during the same week that Ali is celebrating his 71st birthday.
The bill authorizes $5 million a year for the grant program, which would be administered by the State Department. It would fund U.S. nonprofit groups that work to promote the values of respect, understanding and communication.
Yarmuth introduced the bill in the last Congress as well.
The grant program would prepare young leaders to contribute to society through peace building, conflict resolution, violence prevention and character education.


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How many people were sentenced to prison in 2011 in the United States? This statistic is hard to come by online. The only measured incarceration rate I've come across is the amount of people incarcerated per 100,000 people.
The DoJ published this paper in December 2011 and released prison statistics for 2010. According to the article the number of people in prison at year-end'10 was 7.1 million of which 2,226,800 people were sentenced in 2010 itself [table 1, in that paper].
This wikipedia article also has a lot of detail on this subject. I think you can extrapolate the figures in the DoJ article with the 2011 rates mentioned in the wikipedia article and compute the number of people in Jail in 2011.


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Square peg, round hole, hammer.
Square peg, round hole, hammer.
When your friend leaves for two hours and you didn't upgrade his laptop to linux.
When your wife says "Are you done yet?"
"You can't expect to hold supreme executive power just because some watery tart lobbed a sword at you"
"Don't let your mind wander -- it's too little to be let out alone."
When you find out one day that your wife was a killer clown from outer space all along.
Full time open source software developer. Projects:
Wakame-vdc: Virtual data center. Community: Wakame Users Group
OpenVNet: Virtual networking using OpenFlow
Sinatra-browse: Parameter declaration framework and browsable API for ruby Sinatra.
When you find yourself saying this while locked in a duel with swords, "Get back here, I can still bite ya!"
Best one so far. XDOriginally Posted by fyfe54
deviantART | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr
when you boot your usb and you go to install and there is no drive to install to, only to realize you forgot to plug the drive in and later you find out you forgo to plug the dvd drive in
Laptop: ASUS A54C-NB91 (Storage: WD3200BEKT + MKNSSDCR60GB-DX); Desktop: Custom Build - Images included; rPi Server
Putting your Networked Printer's scanner software to shame PHP Scanner Server
I frequently edit my post when I have the last post
When you get the Windows logo on your monitor...
CrunchBang Linux
Plz no tpe lik dis or no anser!!
The search tool can be found in the upper right corner of your screen, please use it to your advantage, especially before asking questions.
when you get v&
Feel Free to Bitcoin Tip: 135Rp4pwwYTHEJ4u8bxKaDQiC91N9LUoV2
Backtrack - Giving machine guns to monkeys since 2006
Kali-Linux - Adding a grenade launcher to the machine guns since 2013


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Let $\lambda_1 (\cdot)$ be the larger absolute value eigenvalue of a $2\times2$ matrix and $\lambda_2 (\cdot)$ the smaller absolute value eigenvalue of a $2\times2$ matrix, i.e. $|\lambda_1 (\cdot)| \ge |\lambda_2 (\cdot)|$. Is it true that $$\Big||\lambda_1 (A+B)|-|\lambda_1 (A)|\Big|^{1/3}+\Big||\lambda_2 (A+B)|-|\lambda_2 (A)|\Big|^{1/3}\leq|\lambda_1 (B)|^{1/3}+|\lambda_2 (B)|^{1/3}$$ for any two $2\times2$ symmetric real matrices $A$ and $B$? Thanks a lot!
closed as no longer relevant by Andrés E. Caicedo, Andy Putman, Suvrit, Will Jagy, Harald Hanche-Olsen Feb 21 '12 at 15:33
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The alleged inequality is false, even if you restrict $A$ and $B$ to be positive definite matrices. Consider the following,
$$ A = \begin{bmatrix} 1.2281 & 0.6361\\\\ 0.6361 & 1.9690 \end{bmatrix},\quad\quad B = \begin{bmatrix} 3.7829 &-0.6021\\\\ -0.6021 & 0.4002 \end{bmatrix}. $$ Then, we have the following:
\begin{eqnarray*} \lambda(A+B) = (5.0114, 2.3687)\\\\ \lambda(A) = (2.3347, 0.8624)\\\\ \lambda(B) = (3.8868, 0.2962) \end{eqnarray*}
From, which we see that
\begin{eqnarray*}|\ \ |\lambda_1(A+B)| -|\lambda_1(A)|\ \ |^{1/3} + |\ \ |\lambda_2(A+B)|-|\lambda_2(A)|\ \ |^{1/3} & = & 2.5348\\\\ |\lambda_1(B)|^{1/3} + |\lambda_2(B)|^{1/3} &=& 2.2389 \end{eqnarray*}


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As summer jobs and internships start, one of the questions we get at the Library is "how do I start my research?" The good news is, there are lots of resources on how to do that!
Some of the best resources are Libguides on legal research. Libguides are created by librarians, and there are lots of law librarians helping you out! Florida Coastal has a great one for low cost legal research.
If you want more, run a search in Google for libguide starting legal research: .edu (that : .edu restricts the search to only school websites). Or change up the language and run starting legal research libguide: .edu (it will give you slightly different results). Switch up the words for more results libguide beginning legal research: .edu for example.
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5 Must-Ask Questions
The Parent-Teacher Conference: 5 Must-Ask Questions
4 of 6
How do you accommodate differences in learning?
- What if my child is a slow learner and falls behind, or is a fast learner and is bored?
- Are summer school, tutoring, or other programs available for students who need more help?
Next: How are older students prepared for further learning after high school?
More on: Relating to the Teacher


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Marvel Assembles an Official Title for Third "Avengers" Movie
Comic Books, Film
Showing results 66-105 of 113
Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s "Hit-Girl" miniseries rolls on in September, and CBR has the exclusive first look at the third issue's variant cover by Jock.
Karl Urban gatecrashed 2000 AD's CCI panel to gush over his love of the Judge Dredd comics, "2000 AD" EIC Matt Smith revealed the future of the comics and IDW's Chris Ryall announced the new writer for the U.S. ongoing.
Andy Diggle spoke with CBR on his recently revived "2000 AD" and "Judge Dredd Megazine" series "Lenny Zero," what to expect in the new MegaCity-One-based sequel and why Kickstarter is the future of comics.
Former "2000 AD" EIC Andy Diggle spoke with CBR about working for the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, the series' brush with cancellation, the return of "Lenny Zero" and his response to his biggest critics.
In a featured panel at Kapow Convention 2012, British comedian Peter Serafinowicz and "The Losers" artist Jock discussed their new creator-owned comic, "Nelson." CBR has details.
Andy Diggle spoke with CBR about his and Jock's new "Judge Dredd Megazine" thriller, gives details on the sequel to his classic "2000 AD" thrill "Lenny Zero" and shares exclusive "Snapshot" pages.
Writer Andy Diggle spoke with CBR TV at NYCC about his return to 2000 AD with his and Jock's "Snapshot" thriller, bringing Marvel's Western heroes into the modern age and more.
Relativity Media has provided CBR with an exclusive featurette with the artists of Archaia's "Immortals: Gods and Heroes" graphic novel describing their work on the feature film inspired project.
CBR's review staff has given the Scott Snyder-written "American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest" #3 4.5 stars and "Detective Comics" #881, the final issue of the long-running series, a perfect 5-star review.
DC Comics has released a preview of Scott Snyder, Jock and Francesco Francavilla's "Detective Comics" #881, the series' final issue before the title relaunches in September with a new #1.
CBR's Ryan K. Lindsay gave "Scalped" #51 a rare five-star review, saying of Aaron & Guerra's work on the issue, "For a comic that has built its reputation on being hard, this issue stirs in a few extra shovels of concrete."
Writer Jason Aaron and artist R.M. Guera's crime saga, "Scalped," comes to a conclusion with issue #60. To prepare for the finale, we had an in-depth conversation with Aaron about issues #1-50
Doug Zawisza gives "Detective Comics" #880 4.5 stars, saying Scott Snyder and Jock "give you a story that socks you in the mouth and knees you in the groin."
This September, Archaia releases "Immortals: Gods and Heroes," a companion anthology to the upcoming film by Tarsem Singh, and the creators were on hand at CCI to talk about the book.
CBR's Doug Zawisza gave "Detective Comics" #878, the latest chapter in Scott Snyder and Jock's "Hungry City" arc, 4 and 1/2 stars saying of the Dick Grayson Batman story "the final page of this book...is downright disturbing."
Courtesy of DC Comics, CBR presents an exclusive preview of "Detective Comics" #878 by Snyder, Jock and Francavilla, on sale now.
Acclaimed writer Scott Snyder moves from "Detective Comics" with Dick Grayson to "Batman" #1 starring Bruce Wayne with artist Greg Capullo, and they're looking for epic adventure.
Kelly Thompson gives 4.5 stars to Scott Snyder and Jock's "Detective Comics" #877, summing her feelings up by saying "If you read comics and you're not reading 'Detective Comics' right now, you're screwing up."
DC Comics has released a preview of "Detective Comics" #877 by Scott Snyder and Jock. The issue, featuring the final chapter of "Hungry City," hits stores tomorrow, May 25.
CBR Reviewer Kelly Thompson gives Snyder & Jock's "Detective Comics" #876 4.5 stars and says the series "has shot to the top of my must have list again." Read on to see why this series is receiving rave reviews.
Courtesy of DC Comics, CBR presents an exclusive preview of "Detective Comics" #876, by writer Scott Snyder and artist Jock. The second chapter of "Hunger City" hits stores April 27.
Nate Cosby and Ben McCool spoke exclusively with CBR about their Image title "Pigs" which takes a long, hard look at the personal aspect of an America-based terror cell tasked with overthrowing the US government.
Writer Scott Snyder spoke with CBR TV's Kiel Phegley at C2E2 about the upcoming WWII arc in his creator-owned "American Vampire" and its spinoff miniseries, the themes and future of "Detective Comics" and much more.
CBR reviewer Doug Zawisza gave "Detective Comics" #873 a 4.5 star review, saying that the current creative team of Scott Snyder and Jock "are doing a great job [of] making this title a must-read."
Courtesy of DC Comics, CBR is pleased to present an exclusive preview of "Detective Comics" #873 by Scott Snyder and Jock, concluding their first story arc "Black Mirror." The issue goes on sale this week.
Scott Snyder revealed plans to introduce characters both new and old in the coming issues of "Detective Comics," including the daughter of Tony Zucco and James Gordon Jr., while sharing a look at "Detective" #873.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics, CBR presents an exclusive preview of "Daredevil: Reborn" #1 by writer Andy Diggle and artist Davide Gianfelice. The series, featuring covers by Jock, kicks off Wednesday, January 12.
Greg McElhatton gave "Detective Comics" #872 a 4 star review, calling the second installments of Scott Snyder, Jock and Francesco Francavilla's first story arcs "from start to finish...an excellent comic."
Courtesy of DC Comics, CBR presents an exclusive preview of "Detective Comics" #872. The issue, by writer Scott Snyder and artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla, hits December 29 with a cover by Jock.
Scott Snyder, the writer helming DC Comics' namesake title, explained to CBR how a character from Commissioner Gordon's past and the villain challenging Dick Grayson's Batman both represent the same darkness of Gotham City.
With "Shadowland" in his past, what comes next for the Man Without Fear? We spoke with writer Andy Diggle about the climax of his Daredevil epic and his follow up miniseries, January's "Daredevil: Reborn."
Chad Nevett gave Scott Snyder and Jock's "Detective Comics" #871 4 stars, saying, "If you want a Batman comic with the emphasis on the detective and a classic Bat-comic feel, Snyder and company deliver."
DC Comics has released a preview of "Detective Comics" #871 featuring the debut of the new team of Scott Snyder and Jock with a cover by Jock and back-up feature art by Francesco Francavilla. The issue hits November, 24.
"American Vampire" creator and writer Scott Snyder spoke with CBR TV about his plans for "Detective Comics," how he figures to incorporate the Batman Inc. status quo into his and artist Jock's storylines and more.
In a project teaming the writer with Jim Lee and a host of European artists, Brian Azzarello tells CBR how "Batman: Europa" works to the artistic strengths of the hero and spills details on his "100 Bullets" reunion.
A brand-new four-issue Dark Knight series from Brian Azzarello arrives this January taking Batman on a life-threatening team-up with the Joker across Europe, and Jim Lee will be there to draw chapter one.
Before the highly anticipated movie sequel hits the big screen this December, Disney Publishing and "Green Hornet" scribe Jai Nitz tell the story behind "TRON: Betrayal" with an original graphic novel.
Daredevil's title may be canceled, in the wake of "Shadowland," but the Man Without Fear will be "Reborn" come January 2011 according to a pair of Jock-illustrated teaser images released this afternoon by Marvel.
This week, Tim spoke with writer-on-the-rise Scott Snyder about vampire vacations in Vegas and the the grim greatness of Gotham City as they look behind the scenes on Snyder's upcoming run on "Detective Comics."
Archives: All | Comic Books | TV/Film | Video Games | Web Comics


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A New Britain man accused of picking up a 14-year-old girl from her Kentucky home has waived extradition to face charges.
The New Britain Herald reports that the lawyer for David Hernandez said Monday his client believed he was on a "mission of mercy" to take the girl from an abusive situation. He said the youngster said she was an adult.
The 51-year-old Hernandez was held in New Britain over the weekend on $1 million bond on a fugitive from justice charge. A judge reduced his bond to $100,000.
Officials from Kentucky are scheduled to pick Hernandez up Jan. 17 to face charges in connection with the girl's disappearance. She was found at Hernandez's home Thursday night.
His lawyer says the girl and Hernandez's 15-year-old son knew each other on Facebook.


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Disney On Ice: Rockin Ever AfterSat, January 5, 2013 - 3:00 PMWells Fargo Center PA in Philadelphia, PA
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Kurt Snibbe's Page 2 cartoon caption winner
Updated: February 28, 2012, 5:48 PM ETBy Kurt Snibbe
Earlier today, we posted a blank cartoon and readers offered their captions. Our favorite was by commenter Left Coast Packman. Please check your ESPN.com profile message center for an email.
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I work in a large corporation, so using Outlook is mandatory - All the e-mails, contact lists, appointment requests, room scheduling, etc., goes through the Exchange server. It is therefore very convenient for me to use Outlook as a dashboard - It is always open, and I look at it frequently. If something appears on Outlook, I can't ignore it.
However, Outlook is a very poor organizer w.r.t tasks and projects. You can't divide a task to sub-tasks or set next actions. It is also poor at keeping "project support material" other than e-mails.
I know that there are many good personal task managers, GTD implementations, etc. available either on the web or as standalone applications. The functionality that I am looking for is displaying "next actions" and deadlines from that service or app on the Outlook calendar and task list. It does not have to sync back from Outlook, one-way is perfectly fine. I don't mind setting up some elaborate configuration and/or doing some mild hacking, as long as it does not tamper with the Outlook installation.
Did anyone have good experience with such a setup? Thanks.


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so if I disallow tempPage, does it mean tempPage_1, temp_Page_2, tempPage_x are also disallowed? I tried to google this up, but I don't know...
1) If tempPage_1, temp_Page_2, tempPage_x are subdirectories of tempPage then, yes, they are blocked.
2) If they are parallel directories then, no, they are not blocked.
3) If they are separate files then, no, they are not blocked.
Assuming #1 is not true, to block them all you would use:
Yes those pages would be blocked, assuming they are at the same directory level. There is no
In other words this...
...would block


text: The National Senior Games will be held beginning Friday through Aug. 1 in Cleveland where over 13,000 athletes will participate. The games are held every two years. From left, Keith Holmes, Norm Six, Tom Potter, George Davis and Ray Dalfonso qualifed after winning the West Virginia State Basketball Championship in the 80-and-over division. It is a three-on-three halfcourt competition. Dalfonso is from Weirton, Six from Chester and Holmes, Potter and Davis from Charleston, W.Va. — Contributed


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White Silver-Plated Brass Medium Circle Link Waves with 2 Rings
Try this white silver-plated brass medium circle link waves with 2 rings in your next idea for a touch of style and dimension! This round finding features a domed front surface which displays a collection a curling, crashing waves in the center. Two rings on opposite ends allow this link to be used in any necklace or bracelet idea to connect multiple strands together or break up color patterns. With its bright silver shine this link will help your designs look professional.
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I want to watch this film. I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 on a laptop and FireFox 8.0. The video doesn't play in the browser, and I can't use the 'copy' feature in the player (I think the built in player of firefos is used). What can I do to watch this?
You didn't say which version of Firefox; some still have issues with ASX files. I think it might be better to use a browser that doesn't have issues with ASX files or perhaps learn a little about what the ASX file does... An ASX file is a bit like an M3U file, in that both file types serve as a sort of playlist. The real video file is referenced within the ASX file. Open a terminal.
The output:
The ASX file merely references a WMV file and MMS protocol (multi-media streaming). So plop the real URL in your Firefox and see how it goes:
To play the video in Firefox, try installing


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The Yankees Can Definitely Use A-Rod's Help
Alex Rodriguez will be eligible to play third base for the Yankees while he appeals the 211-game suspension handed down Monday for his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs and his attempts to obstruct MLB's investigation. If anyone should be happy about this, it's the Yankees, because any production they get from Rodriguez would be more than they've gotten all season at the hot corner.
The Yankees, currently in fourth in the AL East, have the fourth-worst batting average in the majors, due in part to the production, or lack thereof, that they've gotten from the third-base position. Nine players—David Adams, (29 games), Jayson Nix (34), Kevin Youkilis (22), Luis Cruz (13), Chris Nelson (10), Brent Lillibridge (9), Alberto Conzalez (6), Eduardo Nunez (1) and Vernon Wells (1)—have appeared at third this season. All but Wells have had at least one at-bat, combining to hit .215 with four home runs and 32 RBI. Youkilis has the best average at .266 (at third base), but he's been out since June after back surgery. Youkilis wasn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball before he got hurt. He had only two home runs and was batting just .219 overall.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, has flashed some power during the 15 minor league games he's played while rehabbing from his offseason hip surgery. In just 42 at bats for Charleston (A), Tampa (A+), Trenton (AA) and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (AAA), he has three home runs.
—Kevin Trahan


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Recent Toy Recalls
19 of 28
Toy Pirate Swords
The Gymboree Corporation is recalling plastic pirate swords due to reports of the products breaking and posing a laceration hazard. No injuries have been reported, but the product can be returned for a full refund. Visit www.gymboree.com for more details.
More on: Childhood Safety


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The 6 Most Gigantic Everything in the History of War
#3. The Big Unit: 442nd Regimental Combat Team
So it's World War II and, during one of the bigger dick moves in American history, the U.S. government starts sending Japanese-Americans to internment camps.
To defend against the very real threat illustrated here by Dr. Seuss.
What you may not know is that some Japanese-Americans not stranded behind barbed wire actually fought in the U.S. military, a few thousand of them in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. And they performed pretty well.
And by "pretty well" we mean the 3,800 Japanese-American Rambos in the 442nd won 18,143 awards. That's not a typo. While serving in Africa, Italy, France and Germany, they won a mind-boggling 21 Medals of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4,000 Bronze Stars and 9,486 Purple Hearts.
Wait. See that last number? Did you remember that those 9,486 Purple Hearts were earned by just 3,800 men? That's two and a half serious battle wounds per soldier.
That's nearly as many battle wounds as there are Uruk-hai in this picture.
The 442nd also received a total of seven Presidential Unit Citations, five of which were earned in a single month, for acts of heroism that included the rescue of the "lost battalion," a regiment that had been isolated and trapped by enemy forces. That was a group of more than 200 men who got surrounded by the Nazis and saw two previous attempts at rescue fail. Then the 442nd stepped up and, after five days of vicious fighting where they suffered 800 casualties, got them out.
It was like saving 230 Matt Damons.
#2. The Big Sea Battle: The Battle of Lake Poyang
It makes sense that when talking about the biggest anything, China is going to show up on the list. We could have gone for the obvious and pointed out that gigantic wall of theirs, but they're also responsible for what is to this day the largest naval battle in history. And it happened way back in 1363.
Accounts say hundreds of boats and around 850,000 sailors from the combined fleets of the Han and the Ming navies met in Lake Poyang. The Han by far had the larger navy, which consisted of 11 squadrons and more than 600,000 men equipped with what the Han called lou chuan ["tower ships"], which were essentially floating fortresses, crammed with troops.
Yes, that dude on the left has a flamethrower.
So, just to recap, that's a Han fleet twice the size of the entire U.S. Navy, armed with warships the size of elementary schools versus a "smaller" Ming fleet of 200,000 sailors.
And although Lake Poyang is the largest freshwater lake in China, the summer sun "had already caused the lake's water level to drop considerably." They were essentially fighting the largest naval battle in history in an enormous bathtub with a hole on the bottom.
The winning strategy wound up being fittingly insane for such a battle. The Ming constructed several "fire ships," that is, kamikazes filled full of explosives and the most flammable shit they could find. They staffed these boats with fake sailors made of straw to fool the enemy, then sent them downwind toward the Han. Flames roared through the decks of the Han ships, burning tens of thousands of men alive.
By the end of the fight, the Ming had won and a few hundred thousand sailors were floating dead in the water. To this day, Poyang Lake is considered the Bermuda Triangle of China, with constant reports of ships disappearing without a trace. We're going to venture a guess that it has something to do with several hundred thousand angry sailor ghosts.
#1. The Big General: Subutai
If the goal of war is to conquer land, then Subutai "the Brave" is the single most successful general in history.
If the goal of war is to grow fantastic facial hair, the most successful general is Ambrose Burnside.
As a teenager from a modest background he signed up with Genghis Khan simply because it seemed like something cool for him and his older brother to do that afternoon. It turned out he was really, really good at it. By the time he was done, his army would conquer 32 nations, win 65 major battles and overrun more territory than any other commander in history. He is also the only person to conquer Russia.
Armed with Chinese technology, a vast spy network, and the best army any nation would see until WWII, Subutai led the invasion of Persia before marching west and coming this close to making all of us part-Mongol. Once Genghis died, his successor Ogedei Khan immediately dispatched Subutai to ride west until he hit the Atlantic Ocean. At that point Subutai's cavalry could cross 270 miles of Eastern European snow, sleet, and ice--in the dead of winter--in only three days, and the Mongolian spy network stretched as far as England.
Oh yeah, lots to spy on there.
Once, in 1241, Subutai destroyed the entire armies of Poland and Hungary in two separate battles, in two different countries more than 200 miles apart, on enemy territory, on consecutive days. During the Hungarian battle, Subutai devised a strategy that would lead to the slaughter 40,000 enemy soldiers, while losing less than 1,000 of his own.
And he did all of it while looking like this:
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Let $X$ and $Y$ be locally comapct Hausdorff spaces, and $f:X\to Y$ be a surjective local homeomorphism. When is $f$ a covering map?
It is well-known that when $f$ is proper, $f$ is a covering map. However I think the properness is too strong because there are many example of non-proper covering map (e.g. the universal covering of a space whose fundamental group is not finite is not proper).
Is there any other condition?


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Please enter a maximum of 5 recipients. Use ; to separate more than one email address.
The new plant will replace the Airgas plant at the Shell Deer Park refinery complex that is expected to close late this year. Airgas says it has entered into long-term agreements with affiliates of Denbury Resources to transport and deliver feedstock of raw carbon dioxide to the new Airgas facility.
Airgas plans to build a new 450 tpd liquid carbon
dioxide plant in the greater Houston area, the company
announced on Thursday.
The new plant will replace the company's plant at the
Shell Deer Park refinery complex that is expected to
close late this year.
Airgas says it has entered into long-term agreements with
affiliates of Denbury Resources to transport and deliver feedstock of raw carbon dioxide to the new Airgas
"The construction of this facility
represents Airgas' commitment to this very important and
strategic market," said Phil Filer, president of Airgas Carbonic and Airgas Dry Ice.
"With our long-term feedstock agreements we will be able
to serve existing and secure new carbon dioxide customers in
the petrochemical industry, as well as
the traditional food chilling and beverage carbonation
industries. We will also be supplying liquid carbon dioxide to
our dry ice facility in LaPorte, Texas."
Airgas expects that construction will begin shortly on
its new carbon dioxide purification and liquefaction plant and
will be completed in the fall.
The Airgas and Denbury relationship goes back to 2001, when
Airgas sold its Jackson Dome reserves and the associated
183-mile pipeline in Mississippi to Denbury.
Recently, Denbury opened up its Green Pipeline which transports
this natural, well-based carbon dioxide more than 500 miles
to its current terminus at the Hastings Field, just south of
William P. Hobby Airport.
The new Airgas plant will repurpose many of the existing
assets from the current Deer Park facility, such as storage
tanks, truck loading equipment, scales, and analytical
equipment. Current Airgas production and distribution
personnel will all be relocated to the new facility.
All comments are subject to editorial review.
All fields are compulsory.
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A searchable database of project activity in the global hydrocarbon processing industry
Engineers and designers are highly skilled individuals. Forcing them to enter design changes using tables, forms and spreadsheets is unproductive and uneconomical, and it increases the likelihood of human error—this is the way that most instrumentation software systems currently work. For too long, software vendors have denied engineers and designers the simple practicality of a graphical visual engineering interface with "drag and drop" capability and inbuilt intelligence, ensuring changes are automatically replicated into all the associated data and databases.
Is 2016 the peak for US gasoline demand?
Too soon to tell
July 2016


text:
|Fowlerville, Michigan
|Last 3 Finishes
|96 - Detroit River, 8/23/2012
|Click a column heading to re-sort.
|Tournament Finishes
|(Only recent tournaments are included. Not necessarily a career listing.)
You may report any errors or omissions by clicking here. Please be certain of your information before submitting anything. Submissions will be examined, and if approved will be included in a future update.
By John Johnson BassFan Senior Editor As if Jacob Wheeler hasn't had enough success in the Forrest Wood Cup – now FLW has gone and put the event on
By Todd Ceisner BassFan Editor With hundreds of booths and displays set up across the floor of the Orange County Convention Center for the annual
By John Johnson BassFan Senior Editor Former FLW Tour pro Scott Dobson got away from top-level fishing several years ago in order to spend more time


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The Dean of Philadelphia Coaches Is…The Eagles' Chip Kelly?
Philadelphia Coaching Scene Undergoing Massive Upheaval
For five long weeks, coach Chip Kelly has prowled the Philadelphia Eagles' sideline. (Nine if you count the preseason.) Now, at last, he has a title befitting his epic tenure: He is the dean of Philadelphia coaches.
On Monday, the Philadelphia Flyers fired coach Peter Laviolette. In August, the Phillies fired manager Charlie Manuel. And in April, Doug Collins resigned as the 76ers' coach. That leaves Kelly—who was hired in January—as the longest-serving coach of Philadelphia's four major sports teams.
Before this current cycle of instability, the Philadelphia coaching scene had bizarrely become a model of peace and prosperity. Andy Reid had coached the Eagles for 14 years. Manuel ran the Phillies for eight and a half. Laviolette got four seasons with the Flyers, Collins three with the 76ers. Manuel won a title, Reid and Laviolette got to their league's final round and even the 76ers won a playoff round under Collins.
Enough of all that. The Flyers dumped Laviolette after the first three games this season. Three games. He had his chance.
The Phillies have given new manager Ryne Sandberg a three-year window to win with a declining, expensive roster. The Sixers brought in longtime Spurs assistant Brett Brown to preside over a team that isn't likely to win anything except the draft lottery.
The jury is still out on Kelly, too—the Eagles are just 2-3. But for this town right now, that passes for a dynasty.
—Ben Goldberg-Morse


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I just saw in the latest SO blog post:
7% of [stackoverflow's] overall audience is still on creaky, broken, ancient old IE6.
What do you think about putting an 'IE6 no more' kind of warning on top of the page if the user loads SO (or SF, SU, Meta...) in order to tell them about the suffering that their browsers brings on the web development community?
Also, SO has some bugs on IE6 (I noticed that the warnings messages are off)
Of course leave a button "hide forever" since some of them must be forced to use IE6 by their companies.
It would also be interesting to see how the stats evolve next month.
EDIT: I do get that SO doesn't want to alienate people. But I'm not saying "just redirect them to getfirefox.com", it would be a warning that is possible to remove by one click. A lot of websites are doing it
(image via)
I'm surprised that the SO community -so far- is against such an idea.


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Prizes & Awards
APS Honors in the area of Materials Physics
David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics
To recognize an outstanding contributor to the field of materials physics, who is noted for the quality of his/her research, review articles and lecturing.
James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials
To recognize and encourage outstanding achievement in the science and application of new materials.
Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award in Experimental Condensed Matter or Materials Physics
To recognize doctoral thesis research of exceptional quality and importance in experimental condensed matter or experimental materials physics.


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Hundreds of area swimmers, displaced by the renovations of Diddle Arena, are closer to having a home they can call their own.
Workers spent most of Monday installing an air pressured dome over the T.C. Cherry Elementary pool. The installation of the $167,000 dome alleviates a problem for several area swim teams.
When the renovations to Western's Diddle Arena began, a pool that catered to WKU's swim program and the community was closed for good. A petition circulated by a Bowling Green doctor and signed by 750 people caught the attention of Warren County's Fiscal Court who agreed to fit the bill. Warren County's Board of Education also agreed to pick up the debt and operating expenses.
The year-round aquatic facility will be used to accommodate area swim teams, swim programs and swimming lessons. The YMCA is planning on conducting swimming lessons and water aerobic classes. In addition, Warren County Parks and Rec. hopes to fill the remaining time slots with new programs like water football and polo leagues.
The Warren County Aquatic Center plans to officially open it's doors on Monday, Sept. 30.


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I'm in the process of creating some icons for an application, and find myself coming up with the same question over and over again. Are there any guidelines for how thick the lines should be in an icon. I need to use lines with strokes that vary in thickness, but I don't know if there is any standard for it. Let's say the outline of my icon is 16pt, should the lines inside be ideally half of that? Is it better to use odd or even numbers? Any other tips or suggestions?
It will depend on the platform you're targeting and what the native icons look like. It also depends on the use. Are you creating icons for use inside an application, or the icon of the application itself?
Also, it's likely that you'll need to tweak each size of the icon. This is especially true for application icons and platforms like iOS, where many varying icon sizes are needed.
Here's some more info on techniques for scaling icons:
Best workflow for icon design: Start big, or start small?
Even if the icons are for use within an application, scaling still may be a concern, because high DPI displays are about to become far more common.
And finally, I'd highly recommend against using Illustrator for icon design, if the final output is a bitmap (a PNG file etc). When it comes to generating bitmap artwork Illustrator is the wrong tool for the job. For the final output, anyway.