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Another Tesla Caught On Fire While Sitting In A Toronto Garage This Month
Business Insider
Earlier this month, a Tesla Model S sitting in a Toronto garage ignited and caught on fire. The car was about four months old and was not plugged in to an electric socket, says a source.
Fires are a touchy issue for the company, which reports Q4 2013 earnings on February 19th.
Last year, three vehicles caught fire over the course of six weeks. The company has previously pointed out in a government filing that the lithium ion battery cells "have been observed to catch fire or vent smoke and flame." So the fires have raised concerns with consumers and caused a flurry in the media — so much so that CEO Elon Musk has addressed the coverage of these fires himself.
This latest fire occurred after the owner came home from a drive and left the car parked in the garage. After a few moments, the owner's fire detector went off and the fire department was called. Though the fire was intense, the firemen were able to put it out quickly. They also had to remove the other car in the garage, a Lexus, which was parked next to the Tesla.
Tesla confirmed that the fire occurred and sent Business Insider the following statement:
"Dealing with occasional fires is something that every car company has to do, as no vehicle is completely fireproof under all circumstances. What matters is the number of such incidents per car, and it is worth noting that gasoline car companies experience an average of five to ten times more fires per car than Tesla. Also extremely important is the fact that there has never been a serious injury or death in a Model S as a result of a fire or any other cause. The Model S continues to have the best safety track record of any vehicle in the world. In this particular case, we don't yet know the precise cause, but have definitively determined that it did not originate in the battery, the charging system, the adapter or the electrical receptacle, as these components were untouched by the fire."
Shortly after the fire, seven Tesla employees visited the owner of the vehicle. The company also offered to take care of the damages and inconvenience caused by the fire, but the owner declined.
Check out more pictures of the fire below:
Business Insider
Business Insider
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Target Recalls Children's Two-Piece Pajama Sets Due to Violation of Federal Flammability Standard
Target Recalls Children's Two-Piece Pajama Sets Due to Violation of Federal Flammability Standard
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.
Name of Product: Children's two-piece pajama sets
Units: About 560,000
Importer: Target Corp., of Minneapolis, Minn.
Manufacturer: Makalot Garments Co. Ltd., of Taiwan
Hazard: The children's cotton or cotton/fleece pajamas sets fail to meet the federal flammability standards for children's sleepwear, because they do not meet the tight-fitting sizing requirements. This poses a burn hazard to children.
Incidents/Injuries: None reported
Description: This recall involves Target Circo and Xhilaration children's cotton or cotton/fleece two-piece pajama sets. They were sold in infant and toddler sizes 12M, 2T, 3T, 4T and 5T, and in girls and boys sizes XS, S, M, L and XL. There are a variety of colors and designs, including stars, dots, skulls, peace signs, cats, owls, footballs and camouflage. To see a complete list of item numbers included in this recall, visit the firm's website. The item number is located on a tag on the shirt's side seam and on the pants at the waist. A tag printed on the neck of the pajamas states "Circo" or "Xhilaration", "Wear snug-fitting not flame resistant" and the item number. The pajamas were also sold with a yellow hangtag that states, "For child's safety, garment should fit snugly. This garment is not flame resistant. Loose-fitting garment is more likely to catch fire."
Sold exclusively at: Target stores nationwide and online at target.com from August 2012 through November 2012 for between $8 and $13.
Manufactured in: Vietnam and Cambodia
Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the recalled pajamas away from children and return them to any Target for a full refund.
Consumer Contact: Target; at (800) 440-0680, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or online at www.target.com and click on Product Recalls at the bottom of the page for more information.
Recalled Target children's two-piece pajama sets
Recalled Target children's two-piece pajama sets
Label and tag on recalled Target children's two-piece pajama sets

subset: commoncrawl


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'Don't ask, don't tell' and military reality
According to the Defense Department report on ending "don't ask, don't tell," a lot of people in the military don't like the idea of serving alongside colleagues who are openly gay -- and the numbers are highest in combat forces. Fully 58 percent of Marines in combat units think the change will have negative effects. So supporters of the existing ban will say we can't afford to endanger our fighting ability.
But the real problem is not gays. The real problem is lack of knowledge about them. What stands out in the Pentagon survey is how attitudes change among those who have been exposed to the reality of gay service members. Of those in combat units who know or suspect a member of the unit is gay, nine out of 10 say there are no negative consequences.
The last word on the subject comes from a special forces soldier who said, "We have a gay guy. He's big, he's mean, and he kills lots of bad guys. No one cared that he was gay."


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2013 NFL Mock Draft: Week 12
By Josh Hill
Each week Fansided.com will have a new mock draft t preview and showcase this upcoming April's draft. For more in depth analysis of each pick, be sure to visit the Fansided site of your favorite team and check back each Monday for a new and updated Mock Draft. NOTE: This is as accurate a draft order as possible. As the season nears it's conclusion, the accuracy of the draft positioning will become more pin point.
– Matt Barkley|QB/USC Trojans
The Chiefs are in serious need of rebuilding and that all starts, as we've seen in the past, with a franchise quarterback. The Falcons drafted Matt Ryan to rebuild, Detroit took Matthew Stafford and both have been to the playoffs not long after making those selections. The Chiefs are far from being playoff worthy in the near future but they need a leader and Barkley is their best shot.
– Luke Joeckel|OT/Texas A&M
The Jaguars need help, and that starts with moving the ball. Maurice Jones-Drew's days seem to be done in Jacksonville so offensive line help is a must if the Jags want this young team to grow. Blaine Gabbert needs protection and Rashad Jennings needs a line to block for him. When teams build their line up through the draft, they win. Jacksonville is not blind to this formula.
– Jarvis Jones|LB/Georgia
Jones is Top 5 pick in this year's draft and although the Panthers would be going linebacker in back-to-back years, they could use the upgrade and stability. Carolina has Luke Kuechly and for a team that plays in a rough NFC SOuth full of high powered offenses, having two stout linebackers could keep the Panthers competitive.
– Chance Warmack|OT/Alabama
The Browns could go defense with this pick, but they'll more than likely try to shore up an awful offense. Brandon Weeden and Trent Richardson are the wave of the future, but they need someone to block for them. Joe Thomas won't be around forever, so the longer you can have top tier guys on the line with him, the better the Browns will be.
– Star Lotulelei|DT/Utah
Some have him going No. 1 but almost everyone has Lotulelei going in the Top 5. If he falls to the Raiders, they'll be able to finally have someone that can give them a presence on the front line. Oakland's defense isn't bad but it's nowhere near good and that starts with their defensive line.
– Taylor Lewan|OL/Michigan
Expect a run of lineman at the top of this draft, because the number one reason most of these teams are here has to do with how poorly their front five protected. Michael Vick has been so horribly shattered this year, he'll likely never be the same guy. To avoid Nick Foles falling into this hole, offensive line help is needed.
– Barret Jones|OL/Alabama
The Cardinals started out 4-0 and have lost seven straight games. Their front line has been just brutalized almost as badly as they've allowed the quarterbacks behind them to be. No matter who is under center in Arizona next season, this offensive line needs to be improved or this cycle won't be broken.
– Barkevious Mingo|DE/LSU
Mingo may be a product of his environment and that environment may be one that sees a run on offensive lineman, but don't mistake his falling in the draft for lack of skill. He's a Top 5 talent and a team that needs OL help may bite on taking him, but if he falls to the Bills, he won't make it any further in the draft.
– Manti Te'o|LB/Notre Dame
The Lions could use offensive line help but having Te'o on this team does more than just give them massive talent. The Lions have been known as the "bad boys" of the NFL and Te'o's zen like presence and his character will go a long way in mending an image that has been kicked, stomped and spat on by Ndamukong Suh.
– Jonathan Cooper|OL/UNC
New York could do anything with this pick, include trade down to get more picks to fix what is obviously an awful team. They'll likely be picking higher in the draft when all is said and done, but they'll still likely shore up an offensive line that can't protect to save it's life — or win a game.
– Sam Montgomery|DE/LSU
Last season the Chargers took Melvin Ingram and by taking Montgomery this year they'll have two of the countries top defensive pass rushers on their line. San Diego has struggled to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks this year but with Montgomery, those problems should disappear.
– Johnathan Hankins|DT/Ohio State
Tennessee has an awful defense, and it needs rebuilding all around. While they could lean linebacker with this pick, shoring up the defensive line is something else they need to do and Hankins is a talent that could make other teams with other needs draft him solely based on his upside.
– Justin Hunter|WR/Tennessee
Jeff Fisher loved to draft offensive stars and defensive line studs when he was in Tennessee, and he might be going back to the well in more than one sense. Hunter isn't a guy getting a lot of talk from pundits, but he's getting compared to A.J. Green when he's mentioned, and they're not kidding. Bradford needs a true No. 1 and Hunter is that guy.
– Damontre Moore|DE/Texas A&M
Moore is in the Top 5 of both Todd McShay and Mel Kiper's Big Board and for good reason. The Cowboys will likely be taken over by Rob Ryan at some point, and if not he's clearly a leader on the staff. If Moore heads to Dallas, he can play either defensive end or inside linebacker, and Ryan's defense will only get better.
– Dee Milliner|CB/Alabama
Miami has a pretty good run defense, and their offense is coming around. But they need some assistance in the secondary and Milliner is perhaps the best cornerback in the draft. He's got great instincts, recognition skills and he is reliable in run support. Vontae Davis used to be the guy, Milliner is the future.
– Kenny Vaccaro|S/Texas
The secondary in New Orleans is among the league's worst and Vaccaro would give them youth and versatility. New Orleans could lean towards cornerback on this pick but either way the secondary is getting upgraded.
(From Redskins) – Jake Matthews|OT/Texas A&M
The Rams need wide receiver help, and while they may double up they'll likely try to get Sam Bradford some help to actually have time to throw to those receivers. Matthews is a sound lineman who can play anywhere on the offensive line, and unlike D.J. Fluker, Matthews is NFL ready in a lot more ways.
– Keenan Allen|WR/California
Linebacker is viewed as a need for the Bengals, but if they can get Keenan Allen and line him up along with A.J. Green, then this offense has the potential to be explosive. Allen is a 6-foot-3 monster who has No. 1 WR skills, which means the Red Rifle would have two No. 1 receivers to throw to on any given Sunday.
– Robert Woods|WR/USC
If I was a drunken (or normal) Vikings fans that calls into radio shows, I'd have put Geno Smith here, and if Ponder struggles and Smith falls, the discussion will heat up. But for Ponder to succeed, or any QB in Minnesota, he needs someone to throw to who will actually catch the ball. Woods isn't elite but he's better than anything not named Harvin in the Vikings receiving corps.
– Geno Smith|QB/West Virgina
If this order stays as is, the Vikings might be able to pull of a trade, because the aforementioned Smith doesn't fall past the Steelers. Big Ben is currently injured, as he usually is, he turns 31 and the Steelers have no contingency plan, as we've so delicately seen. Smith is an RGIII type of quarterback and after the RGIII storm, teams will want another guy like him.
– Anthony Barr|LB/UCLA
Barr's not the top linebacker in the draft, as C.J. Mosley and Alec Ogletree will get looks as well, but Pete Carroll knows Barr from his USC days and Carroll likes going with guys he knows. Plus, Barr is a beast of a prospect and can chase people from sideline to sideline.
– Jonathan Banks|CB/Mississippi State
A lot of people have different things for the Bucs, but they need secondary help more than anything. Banks is the top senior corner and second in the draft to only Dee Miliner. The Bucs could use a guy like Tavon Austin, but their secondary is currently holding them back from being contenders.
– C.J. Mosley|ILB/Georgia
No matter what the Packers do it will be on defense. Currently the Packers run a defense that features four linebackers, and only two of them have been consistent. Besides A.J. Hawk and Clay Matthews, the Packers haven't had a great linebacker and adding a third name to that mix is a must.
– Bjoern Werner|DE/Florida State
Werner might not last this long but if he does, the Colts can use him on a hungry young defense just itching for a star.
– Alec Ogletree|LB/Georgia
Ogletree is raw, he's unheralded but he's got amazing talent that could pay off in the right system. Right now the Giants have alright linebackers, which means Ogletree has time to grow into his role. He's got speed, he's crazy and he fits with this defense.
– D.J. Fluker|OL/Alabama
The Bears need help on the offensive line, as it might be the reason they don't win a Super Bowl this year. When Jay Cutler gets protection, he's great and Matt Forte can run the ball. When there's no protection, people get hurt and the Bears are experiencing that right now with a thin and terrible line.
– Giovanni Bernard|RB/UNC
Bernard is a guy not a lot of common NFL viewers have heard of, but how many guys new who Doug Martin was prior to last year's draft? The Broncos need running back help and they may be able to trade back into the top of the second round to get him (or just win the Super Bowl). Denver needs a running back, and they need one badly.
– Matt Elam|S/Florida
Like most years, the Patriots don't need much as they've been consistently excellent for the past decade. But when they do add players, it's always been like seeing the rich get richer, and Matt Elam is an example of that. He hits hard and lets you know it too, he fits right in with New England.
– Tavon Austin|WR/West Virginia
Jim Harbaugh likes making unconventional picks (see: LeMichael James), and with the 49ers not needing much, adding Austin just because you can is just a ridiculously good idea for the kind of offense moving forward with the speedy Colin Kaepernick. Fast offense, hard hitting quick defense, San Francisco is back to being dominant.
– Khaseem Greene|LB/Rutgers
The Ravens defense isn't getting any younger and Greene is a guy that can help lead the defense into the next generation. He can diagnose plays early, read the backfield and he's a hard hitter.
– Sylvester Williams|DT/UNC
Despite being 11-1, the Falcons have an atrocious run defense and while they could reach for a second round linebacker or they could grab a guy to stuff the run. That's Williams, who's rated highly on both of Kiper and McShay's big boards but he might fall on draft day.
– Terrance Williams|WR/Baylor
The Texans might get lucky and not win the Super Bowl (stay with me here) because then they could pick higher and draft Tavon Austin. Instead, for arguement and this mock's sake, the Texans are grabbing Terrance Williams from Baylor. Andre Johnson hasn't had a No. 2 partner in all his years in Houston and this team is on the cusp of something special, adding a big threat like Williams is what they need.


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While I've been a bit preoccupied of late, and have therefore missed two of the four WBCOOP qualifiers so far, there were the other two. In the first one, I ran well early and survived to get that Step 3 ticket, as mentioned last post. In the second one, I ended up at a table with both Irongirl and Bayne, but none of us seemed to be in much of a chatty mood. I was catching up on the news while playing, which semi-sorta explains my quietitude.
Not that it mattered. A Eurodonk -- :-) -- ran over the table, catching every draw, and I was out soon enough. The eight-game mix is today and I like my chances in that against a random selection of bloggers, anyway.
But, there was the matter of that Step 3 ticket....
After crashing out of the WBCOOP heat, I decided I'd give a Step 3 a whirl. I registered for one that had seven seats already full, and yet it still took another ten minutes for it to fill. Might it have had something to do with the lineup already seated?
Mayhap. I need to pay closer attention to that in the future, but in the short term, I'm stupidly willing to mix it up against just about anyone. After all, the cards can run well.
Two seats to my left I had "THAY3R" (Thayer Rasmussen), and there were two Stars Supernovas in seats to my right, plus two other screen names I recognized and suspected were also Novas or Supernovas, but like Rasmussen, were just not showing their accolades.
Steps get tougher up the scale, and they show a couple of distinct trends. The action tends to be slower early on at the higher steps, but once the blinds build a bit, it's war, with a lot of bluffing and aggro play.
Case in point, THAY3R. He was not one of the two who jumped out to early advantages once the first couple of wars finally unfolded; nor was I. I play the Step 3's a bit different than the 1's and 2's, because in the Step 3's the top two move on to Step 4, while spots 3-5 return to Step 3. So in my mind the Step 3 becomes a very reactive sit-n-go, wherein if a couple of players are willing to donk themselves out early, it's not necessarily a bad EV move to consider playing for the renewed Step 3, and hoping for a freeroll for the top two spots and the Step 4 ticket. Besides, perhaps you'll be one of the fortunate recipients.
I'm also a believer in first impressions. Against presumed tough opponents who probably have marginal records of my play, I don't mind folding in some crap spots early if it makes others think I might be overly weak-tight. I am a bit weak-tight by nature, but I consciously let a bluffer type two to my right swipe my blinds twice while also folding my button twice (also with crap) to THAY3R's big blind. Sometimes, after all, a plan comes together.
Unfortunately, none of the players wanted to go out early, and a pre-flop raise usually took down the pot, right from the outset. I didn't see much for cards early, and as I said, the situation didn't warrant pushing it. Soon enough, though, two players had been bounced while two others moved up to around 3,000, with the others, me included, all bunched between 1,300 and 1,700.
Then Rasmussen tried an all-in steal from the small blinds, with the blinds at just 25/50. He got called, by the big blind, one of the two leaders ... who showed K-6 off. Wow at that call. Wow again when it turned out he was ahead to Rasmussen's Q-5. Rasmussen, however, caught a five to double through to the lead.
Think he slowed down? Nope. With the blinds not yet even at 50/100, everyone was opening by jamming the pot. Into what type of aggro-fest had I stumbled?
The pushes kept coming. It turned out that the aggro switch had been tossed in four straight players, starting with Rasmussen's seat, and even though we were still at seven, the chips were going in light. Very light. Rasmussen got caught again on another pot-buy (one that seemed unnecessary to me), when he tried to pilfer with 10-5 or something similar and gave back half his stack.
I wasn't seeing any cards anyway. Didn't mind watching it to see if carnage would develop. Still, while there were three or four collisions, the short stack kept winning, and ten or twelve minutes later I'd paid another round of blinds and we'd only lost one more player, and we clicked over to 100/200.
Well, I'd been patient long enough. You can't back into the pay spots against this level without taking some risk somewhere, so when I found a suited A-7 from the cutoff, I jammed with it. Folds all around. I'm happy with buying the blinds, of course. The next hand I find 9-9 and do it again, and again it's folded around.
First impressions paying off?
I don't care -- my stack is near 2,000 and a couple of players are down around 1,000 and 1,200. If one of them goes away, my Step 3 refund is assured and I'm freerolling. Meanwhile, the player three to my right seems to be out-aggressing even Rasmussen; he's in there way weak twice, and manages to win to move out to the lead. I'm thinking that all I need to do is catch a wonderful hand and have it hold up....
And, just a few hands later, with six players still in the running, I find K-K. Blinds 100/200 and I have 1,840.
I jam. Seems like the money play if someone is getting suspicious of my newfound swiping ability. Rasmussen calls with A-Q... essentially, just what I wanted. For once, my kings hold up. THAY3R's gone and I'm in second in chips.
Just three hands later, with blinds still at 100/200, the super-aggro player pushes all-in for almost 5,000. I have 3,400 or so. I also have Q-Q in the small blind. I call, and he shows a suited Q-4.
Lovin' life, I am, when I double through to nearly 7,000.
But this guy just keeps shoving, and he manages to double up himself and swipes enough blinds to stay around. He's still there when we're down to three, and while I've lost 1,200 despite getting it in good against a short stack, I'm still ahead. Second place is to my left and has about 4,600; the aggro player has the rest. We're finally up to 200/400.
My big blind, and he shoves on me. I have A-4 of diamonds. Not much of a hand to call with, but this player hadn't shown an off switch yet, so I call real light. And... he's in there even lighter, as I'd guessed, with K-4. My hand holds up again, and we're down to two. It's a Step 4 ticket for me... meaning a regular-entry Sunday Million at some future date.
It's the best thing poker-wise for me in a month. I am pleased.


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Greed Monger Kickstarted MMO Hits Hard Times
Some of you may remember Greed Monger from a few years ago. It was one of the earlier Kickstarter MMO projects to be funded. Perhaps it was during the Golden Age of Kickstarter – where anyone with a silver tongue and an idea could get funding for their game project without much scrutiny. Jason M. Appleton, someone who has experience in the business world, was able to get his dream MMO Kickstarted with lots of sugary words and a dream, a dream of a real money economy MMO where land was purchased with cash and had meaning because of it; almost in the same vein as Project Entropia but with a fantasy setting. Things are different now, and perhaps Greed Monger can be considered a good example of why.
Yesterday, on April 5th, it was announced via the Greed Monger forum and
Greed Monger has been something I've had an eye on since I stumbled upon its Kickstarter page when the funding was still in full swing. I even had one of the earlier Q&A's with Jason. Perhaps I should have been more critical in my questioning, asking how he could possibly get a project of this scale up-and-running with so little experience with any form of game development. Heck, if you've ever been to any game development forum, newbies are constantly told, "Do NOT start with an MMO!" because, unless you're using one of those "MMO Creators," it's just too hard for a newbie.
In the statement that was released, Jason explains some of the issues with the game. One of the problems he mentioned was the pressure from various gaming communities. On our Friendly Competitor Website (Which perhaps shall not be named?), which may or may not be infamous for a community that likes to dish out all they can on various games and/or persons, Greed Monger has been a favored target for as much negativity as can be generated on the Internet. Right from the gate, they (and various other online communities) had formed a witch-hunt of sorts to track down and figure out exactly who Jason M. Appleton was and do their best to discredit him. Anyone would wither under those conditions.
Throughout the statement, Jason praises James for all his hard work and dedication. He re-affirms that it was really all of James' effort that allowed Greed Monger to get this far. He also admits that he got in over his head with trying to create an MMO with just $100,000, while not having the ability to monitor everyone on the team in person, and such little experience. To me, this shows great character and a willingness to admit when you're wrong and to do your best to do right by those who put their faith in you. But he also makes it clear that James and Joel will be taking full responsibility of the project, "as well as liability for the Kickstarter and website backers and will be committed to honoring all of your pledges."
This may have a few people worried. Is it legal – or just right – to do such a thing? Create a Kickstarter and then throw it on the shoulders of someone else, liability and all? Jason is, from what I've been able to see and read, much more business-savvy that James. Joel apparently has experience in business and PR. Some might worry that problems may arise due to this change in ownership from the original Kickstarter creator to the former (and now co-owner) Lead Developer. Perhaps it won't be an issue – James is definitely loved within the Greed Monger community, and I haven't seen much hate thrown his way from anyone. He's a genuinely nice, maybe dedicated, possibly not capable of developing an mmo, guy. Needless to say, I have my worries.
And perhaps you're wondering what sparked this, from our point of view, sudden change in ownership. Jason simply mentioned this in the statement: "After 3 years of working with James Proctor, the ups and downs, learning, trials and errors, he decided to leave the game in a very abrupt way that shocked me and everyone else." A bit of digging would lead you to this thread where the Community Manager (known as Derium) posts about an apparent "meltdown" by Jason which resulted in the banning of James from the Greed Monger forums. Darium continues on, saying that there are no devs currently working on the project and the project has failed to meet any obligations. He pleads with backers to do "what is right" and make some noise about what was happening. This post was made on 4/04/2015, one day prior to the "Papers" being signed.
Apparently James wanted to leave the project for quite some time. Two years prior, actually. But he claims Jason threatened him with lawsuit if he did. Perhaps the banning was due to James announcement that he was finally free of Greed Monger and would be starting his own project. The outcry from the community may have pressured Jason into signing over the project to James. And since James accepted, it seems that he gets to be the boss, just as he said he was glad to be in his announcement of separation. Truth be told, there's a lot of back-and-forth and we can't be sure who is to blame – Jason claims James promised him he could do things and then fell through and James claims that Jason was a major issue with the game and its stifled development. If you're interested, it's not hard to find some facebook and forum messages that help lay out the story. Youtuber The Argent Argument (AKA Derium) does a great job of laying it all out:
In the end, I think we can agree that these past three years have been a bit of a mess. Over six-hundred backers (perhaps more via the Greed Monger website crowdfunding) have waited three years for certain goals to be met and so far they've been left high and dry. Who knows who is to blame. Perhaps it was a culmination of dream-smoke, hope, and wonderful speeches mixed with inexperience. Personally, I don't think there was any attempt to "steal the Kickstarter money" on Jason's behalf, because he often likes to mention how much of his own money he's put into the project, and I have no reason to doubt that he has. I believe it's an issue of inexperience and a small team equivalent to a modding project that never gets quite finished. Either way, perhaps now Greed Monger can finally get somewhere in its development. Perhaps it won't.
It may be interesting to note that Jason originally wanted to hand the project over to an Interdiction Studios. However, that seemed to have fallen through within a 24 hour period.
How do you feel about this news? Do you feel that Jason should have signed the project (and all liability) over to James? Do you think James may have been 'tricked' into taking all the blame and potentially the incoming sue-storm? Do you think the project will get somewhere now? Vaporware? Scam? Tell us. To be honest, this whole issue makes me sick to my stomach.
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PERTH, Australia (AP) — Malaysia says a satellite has captured images of 122 objects in the Indian Ocean that might be from the missing plane.
Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says the objects were seen close to where three other satellites previously detected objects.
He said Wednesday the sightings together are "the most credible lead that we have."
Hishammuddin said the images were taken Sunday and were relayed by French-based Airbus Defense and Space.
Hishammuddin says the objects ranged in length from one meter (yard) to 23 meters (25 yards).
Various floating objects have been spotted by planes and satellites, but none has been retrieved or identified.


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Featured PropertiesSearchContact UsAccount
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603-455-7557 - firstname.lastname@example.com
Megan, daughter of Broker/Owner Elliot, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Plymouth State University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and a Professional Communications Minor. Following graduation she pursued Event Marketing, as the Event Coordinator for The Common Man Inn & Spa in Plymouth, NH. Along with being a very busy Mom of three, Megan and her husband are proprietors of The Bob House & Reel N' Tavern in Moultonborough, NH. Megan still remains dedicated to working with her Father in real estate here at Elliot Hansen Associates. The Wizard of Oz was a childhood favorite of Megan's, and as it says on the sign at our office,"There's no place like home!"


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Cookie Monster Arrested for Allegedly Shoving 2-Year-Old Boy in Times Square
It's been a rough year for people who make their living masquerading as beloved children's characters in New York City. Last summer, there was the sad case of Central Park's Jew-hating Elmo (who, by the way, is named Adam Sandler). Two months ago, a man dressed as Spider-Man in Times Square claimed to be the victim of a vicious snowball attack from a stingy mom. Monday morning, the streak continued when a man in a Cookie Monster suit was arrested for allegedly shoving a two-year-old boy.
The shoving reportedly occurred after the two-year-old boy's mother refused to pay the Monster two dollars after her family posed with him. Cookie Monster (real name: Osvaldo Quiroz-Lopez) allegedly became enraged and began cursing at the mother. After he was finished yelling, Quiroz-Lopez shoved the two year old, according to the mother.
The mother alerted police, who arrested Quiroz-Lopez, charging him with endangering the welfare of a child. Guilty or not, Quiroz can rest easy knowing he's far from the biggest Sesame Skeeve out there.
[Image via Getty]


text:
UsabilityCluster/Usability Test Framework
From Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)
Section 1 of 6: Inviting Users to Participate in the Study
- Purpose of this Section:
- The information from this section could be used for identifying/locating users for the user studies.
- Information Applicable for this Section:
- Sample message for soliciting users:
- Dear [person's name],
- [First sentence should be something that allows the person to recognize the organization, or a particular person that is familiar to them to catch their interest and let them know that this isn't spam.] We are conducting a study of [product] to better understand [how to organize information, how users interact with the system, etc. Why are you conducting the usability study - very broad statement]. [Provide and explanation of the product, if necessary (1-2 sentences that tells the person what the product is)]. Your feedback will help us to improve this product.
- During the study you will be asked to complete a number of tasks using [the product] and provide feedback about your experience. The study will take approximately [time frame (see section further down about appropriate test times)] and will run from [date range]. The study will take place [virtually OR (insert location)]. To thank you for your time, we have [insert the incentive (e.g. $5 gift card) (This is optional)].
- If you are interested in participating, please [indicate how they can reply] and we/I will provide you with more information.
- Tips:
- Keep the introductory email short.
- Personalize the email and provide references that the users could relate to, such as an organization or a contact information. Name recognition could help to draw users in.
Section 2 of 6: Test Introduction
- Purpose of this Section:
- The information from this section could be used for the following:
- To explain the process of the user study on the day of meeting with the users.
- Information Applicable for this Section:
- Consent to participate in the testing:
- Possible steps:
- Step 1: Verify if formal informed consent is necessary for your organization (e.g Internal Review Board - IRB)
- Step 2: Document any applicable waiver for consent.
- Step 3: If a consent is required, confirm with the IRB if a consent script would be sufficient. If yes, also ensure whether a waiver for a signed informed consent form is required. An example of consent script and can be viewed here.
- Step 4: If a consent script is not sufficient and a formal consent form is required, then check with your IRB if there is an official form that should be used. In general, an example of a consent form can be viewed here.
- Additional references/recommendations per the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has been summarized and provided by Dr. Robert Downs of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, which can be viewed here.
- Additional areas to discuss with users:
- Want users to be as natural as possible.
- Repeat what we're testing and more information about the product, if necessary.
- Stress that there are no right or wrong answers. We are testing the system not the user. The user can't do anything wrong.
- Go with users' first reaction and don't think through things too much. Have some sort of time limit to keep moving things along. Tell them "you will have [time] to complete each task and at the end of that time, I will ask you to move on" "You are welcome to end each task at anytime." "Go with your first reaction and don't think through things too much"
- Users can stop the usability test at any time.
- If you are recording, to let them know and make sure they are okay with it.
- Tell them how/where the responses will be used. (e.g. if you will be using responses in a publication, giving them to developers, etc.)
- If they are on the web, bookmark the homepage, so if they do get lost they can get back to where they started. Let them know how to get back to the homepage.
- Tips:
- Don't read the test user a script here, just have a conversation. In other words, it is important to rehearse and pilot-test the introduction because it is helpful to be as natural as possible when interacting with your test users. If you read them a script, they will feel more like they are being studied. Keep things as natural and comfortable as possible.
Section 3 of 6: Pre-test survey
- Purpose of this Section:
- The information from this section would be used to collect information about the test user and establish benchmark for the user's experience with the system-under-test or with similar systems.
- The information from this section will be able to help:
- Prioritize the usability issues found during tests.
- Understand the differences in test results.
- Provide user's context.
- Information Applicable for this Section:
- Recommended:
- We recommend collecting information about the user's demographic information and experience with the system-under-test.
- Sample questions that could be used are shown below:
- What is your field of study? (fill in the blank)
- Examples for presenting the above questions with predefined values:
- ☐ research
- ☐ program management/project management
- ☐ data management
- ☐ metadata creating
- ☐ database administration
- ☐ ecological modeling
- ☐ policy making
- ☐ field work
- ☐ application development
- ☐ Other, please specify here:
- How often do you [use a system that is presented by the system-under-test]?
- 1 to 5 (Likert scale) 1 being least 5 being most.
- How would you rate your experience level with [the system that is presented by the system-under-test]?
- 1 to 5 (Likert scale) 1 being least 5 being most.
- How often do you [perform the function/task that is being tested]?
- 1 to 5 (Likert scale) 1 being least 5 being most.
- How would you rate your experience level with [the function/task]?
- 1 to 5 (Likert scale) 1 being least 5 being most.
- Optional:
- Additional questions for collecting user's reasons/interests in and expectation with the system-under-test could be considered.
- Sample questions that could be used are shown below:
- What are your key job duties?
- Why are you interested in participating in this test?
- Is there anything you would like to learn from the experience?
- Have you used other systems that are similar to the system-under-test?
- Tips:
- Please note that free text questions can be time consuming for users to answer, so you should make sure that the questions add value to the survey.
- Additionally, it is more difficult and time consuming to analyze free text questions, so free text questions should be considered carefully before including in the pre-test survey.
- Additional References:
Section 4 of 6: Usability test itself
- Overview
- Length of the Test
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/time-budgets-for-usability-sessions/ (typically 60 - 90 minutes)
- https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/58542/how-long-does-a-usability-study-take-from-start-to-finish (guerrilla mode is about 30 to 60 minutes)
- Typical user vs "Super" user
- Typical user: Someone who is not motivated to be part of the process. A sample from the general user pool. These people are volunteering time for this project. (30 - 60 minutes).
- Super user: Someone who is not biased, but knows about the value of the project and is motivated (incentivized or tasked) to provide time and resources to participate. (up to 90 minutes).
- Tasks (appropriate to the length of the test)
- Using other methods (cognitive walkthrough) to determine the baseline for the length of a task. If the cognitive walkthrough is best case scenario (completing tasks perfectly), you know that average users will require substantially more time to complete the task and provide feedback.
- Doing a pilot test is important for ensuring that the time you estimate for completion is realistic.
- Based on tests that have been performed by usability labs, it is typically better to design the tasks using an overall time frame (aim for 15 to 30 minutes), then to restrict to a specific set or number of tasks.
- Definitions of Tasks:
- Guidelines/recommendations regarding how to develop the tasks.
- References:
- Guidelines/recommendations regarding how the test administrators could interact with the user.
- E.g. staying unbiased, help asking questions to help users in thinking out loud, try not to distract users.
- https://uxmastery.com/beginners-guide-to-usability-testing/ (see the "Take on the role of moderator" section)
- Would be determined based on the system-under-test and the areas needing evaluations.
- Test Implementation:
- Will it be in person or remote?
- How will tasks be presented to users?
- Will you record the usability test session?
- How will you use the information that you get from the test?
Section 5 of 6: Post-test reflection
- Choosing when to ask questions after each task versus at the end of the test
- How much time do you have for the test? You need more time to ask questions after each task.
- How much time do you have to evaluate the results? This will affect how many questions you want to ask.
- Are you more interested in the individual tasks or the test as a whole?
- Guidelines/recommendations regarding how to "interview" the users.
- Quantitative Methods:
- System Usability Scale questions could be applied here (To get quantifiable results, you need to ask all 10 questions; however, these could be used for more generic feedback as well if you can't get through all of them) (scale is 1 - strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree)
- 1. I think that I would like to use this system frequently.
- 2. I found the system unnecessarily complex.
- 3. I thought the system was easy to use.
- 4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.
- 5. I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.
- 6. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.
- 7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.
- 8. I found the system very cumbersome to use.
- 9. I felt very confident using the system.
- 10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system.
- If there is time, single-ease question can also be used after each task:
- Overall, how difficult or easy did you find this task?
- It uses a scale of 1 to 7 (1 - very difficult; 7 - very easy)
- Reference from Nielsen Norman Group: Beyond the NPS: Measuring Perceived Usability with the SUS, NASA-TLX, and the Single Ease Question After Tasks and Usability Tests
- Qualitative:
- Interview Questions (could be better to ask these questions in person than with a written survey):
- How was your overall experience with the system?
- Is there anything that you would like to comment on other than what you have already thought aloud?
- Anything else that you would like to share about your interaction with the system?
- The questions from System Usability Scale could also be used as prompts for getting qualitative feedback.
- Information to invite users to participate in further activities/follow ups and to receive updates.
- Additional information that might be useful to document (if applicable):
- Information to improve the way the test is administered:
- What did users think about the use of their time? Why or why not?
- Was 15 minutes too long? Too short? Efficient use of time?
- How could the test administrator improve the test experience?
- Additional audiences that the user would recommend.
Section 6 of 6: Using the Test Results
- Prioritization of the issues found:
- Generate summary report
- Present findings to stakeholders
- Review goals/mission statements of the project
- Review available resources (i.e. time, financial support, staff members, alignment with institutional goals, etc)
- Select top issues
- Education:
- Training the team
- Be able to recognize potential Issues
- Be able to provide possible solutions
- Build user-centric culture
- Promote understanding of how to be more user aware
- Create/update design practices or guides
- Verification/Validation of the Usability Improvement:
- Reassess usability
- Measure performance/effectiveness by keeping metrics (number of clicks, amount of time people stay on a page, amount of time people take to find what they are looking for, etc.)
- Examples of techniques that can be used: System Usability Scale, A/B test
- Roadmap Development:
- Make an action plan / improvement plan
- Continue to:
- Involve stakeholders in discussions
- Educate team members
- Adapt to changing design standards
- Integrate usability principles in design cycles


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Brooklyn Dodgers star Andy Pafko dies at 92
MILWAUKEE— Andy Pafko, a four-time All-Star who played on the last Chicago Cubs team to reach the World Series and was the famously forlorn outfielder who watched Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" sail over the left-field wall during the 1951 National League playoff, has died. He was 92.
Pafko, who had Alzheimer's disease, died Tuesday at a nursing home in Stevensville, Mich., said his nephew, Michael Nedoba.
A fan favorite known for his dogged play and diving catches, Pafko played with Jackie Robinson for theBrooklyn Dodgers in 1951, and with Hank Aaron as a Milwaukee Brave from 1954-59. But he is perhaps best remembered as being part of one of the most famous games in baseball history, when Thomson's three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth gave the New York Giants the win in the decisive Game 3 of their NL playoff against the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds.
"The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" shouted broadcaster Russ Hodges, one of the signature moments in major league history.
The Giants went to the World Series. The Dodgers went home.
"Everybody remembers who was the pitcher, but nobody remembers I was the outfielder who watched it go over the fence," Pafko said in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. "That was the biggest disappointment of my whole career. I wanted to go to the World Series."
Thomson later became Pafko's teammate and roommate with the Braves — and "Bobby never wanted to talk about that homer after that," said Pafko, whose death was first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Pafko was born in the northwestern Wisconsin city of Boyceville, and he started his baseball career in Chicago's farm club. Manager Charlie Grimm gave him the nickname "Pruschka" when he joined the Cubs in 1943, and he was later known also as "Handy Andy."
Pafko became a starter the next season at the age of 19. He hit .298 with 110 RBIs in 1945, helping the Cubs to the pennant. In the World Series loss to Detroit, Pafko had six hits, including two doubles, but batted only .214.
He was an All-Star from 1947 until 1950. His best seasons during that stretch were 1950 with .304 average, 36 homers and 92 RBIs and 1948 with a .312 average, 26 homers and 101 RBIs. He was traded to Brooklyn in 1950 and to Milwaukee in 1953. He had declining production numbers and saw limited duty in the last few years before retiring in 1959.
Pafko's other three World Series appearances were all against the Yankees — 1952 with Brooklyn, and 1957 and 1958 with Milwaukee. The Braves won the series in 1957.
Pafko once described a run-in with Robinson in 1948, when the Dodger great hit a triple and bowled him over at third base. The Cubs dugout emptied.
"I thought there was going to be a big fight. But we backed off and it all quieted down," Pafko said in a 1997 interview. "Later, when I joined the Dodgers and he was my teammate, Jackie came over to me and asked me if I remembered that incident at third base. Both of us laughed about it."
Pafko used to love telling of hitting a home run for the Cubs that went over the fence and landed on the coal car of a passing train. The train continued through several states, and Pafko used to joke that no one ever hit a ball that traveled further, Nedoba said.
"Baseball was everything to him," Nedoba said. "He'd tell his wife, 'I love this game so much I would have played for nothing.' And his wife would say, 'Compared to today's standards, honey, you did play for nothing.'"
Pafko, who played his entire 17-year career in the National League, was a sought-after figure by baseball card collectors. One of them — a Topps card from 1952 in excellent condition — sold for nearly $84,000 in 1998, marking what at the time was the second-highest price at the Mastro Rine Sports auction in Washington. The only higher bid was $108,000 for a jersey that Lou Gehrig wore in 1927. A 1933 Babe Ruth card went for $32,485.
After retiring as a player in 1959, Pafko was a major-league coach and minor-league manager for the Braves, then scouted for the Montreal Expos in the late 1960s. Back in the Chicago area around 1970, he settled in Mount Prospect and was a part-time starter at a local golf course for several years. He retired for good in the late 1970s.
"I'm in good health, still playing golf," Pafko said in 1999. "People say I should be playing now. But I had a good career — four World Series, four All-Star games. Except for the money today, I have no regrets."
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One of the big news stories in Britain last year was the uncovering of what that country's media insist on calling "Asian sex gangs." Simply put, groups of "Asian" men turn large numbers of "white" girls into their sex toys, "grooming" them for exploitation and then passing them around to one another. For those unfamiliar with the standard euphemisms of the British press – left-wing and right-wing, highbrow and lowbrow alike – "Asian" and "white" are codes for "Muslim" and "non-Muslim," respectively. The reason these men can target non-Muslim girls so remorselessly is simple: they know that in their religion's eyes female infidels are already prostitutes, whose failure to wear veils renders them undeserving of respect and responsible for any sexual act to which they might be unwillingly subjected.
Although it is becoming clear that such "sex gangs" are in operation in a number of places, the focus has been on a group in Rochdale, near Manchester, whose conviction last May made huge headlines. Every bit as deplorable as the abuse they committed is the fact that cops and social workers to whom some of these girls turned for help had chosen for a long time not to do anything about the situation. Former Labour MP Ann Cryer excoriated police officers and people at Child Protective Services who "were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness. They had a greater fear of being perceived in that light than in dealing with the issues in front of them."
Fortunately for the cause of justice, the chief prosecutor who chose to put the sex gang on trial is Nazir Afzal, a man of Pakistani parentage – a fact that in a better world would make no difference one way or another but that, in the world we're stuck with, enabled him to get away with making straightforward statements of fact that would get a non-Muslim in big trouble. It's largely because of this invisible Islamic shield that Afzal became, in the words of Jonathan Brown, writing last May in the left-wing Independent, "the public face of the legal system's determination to stamp out honour-based violence, forced marriage and grooming." Ordinarily, to be sure, the Independent would prefer not to mention that such things as honor-based violence and forced marriage exist, let alone that they're part and parcel of Islamic culture; but if someone like Afzal talks bluntly about these matters, it's willing to nod silently when he points out that they're real, undesirable – and, yes, Islamic. (Also fortunately for justice, by the way, the judge in the case didn't have his head in the sand, either, telling defendants that "one of the factors" in their systematic abuse of the girls "is that they were not of your community or religion.")
Yet no sooner did news about these "sex gangs" – and of the years-long, sweep-it-under-the-rug approach of pusillanimous public servants – begin to trickle out than the voices of political correctness began to push back. The Daily Mail's James Tozer and Nazia Parveen noted an MP's warning that (in their words) "highlighting the Pakistani origin" of sex gangs risks "giving ammunition to the far-Right." Similarly, they quoted a Manchester police official as saying that the gangs are "not a racial issue….It just happens that…these were Asian men." Naturally it's not about race: it's about Islam. But some folks are so PC that they can't even be totally honest about what it is they're denying.
One likely reason why Brown was willing to describe Afzal, with apparent admiration, as the public face of a war on forced marriage and such – and, I might add, to paraphrase him to the effect that "no minority communities should be allowed to offer refuge to men who commit crimes against women" – is that the focus of Brown's article wasn't Islam but another "minority community," one in which "there is still work to do." (As if all the "work" on Islam were now completed.) Which community? The Travellers, "where children are still married off against their will." As Afzal told Brown, "I have become aware of massive issues of forced marriage in the Traveller community. It is widespread." Indeed, Afzal said that for him, the Travellers are "the last bastion": "We tackled grooming gangs. Now we have to confront forced marriage among Travellers."
Who are the Travellers? They're a small, nomadic Gaelic group, often lumped in with gypsies, who have been a part of life in the British Isles for centuries. Full points to Afzal for wanting to protect children from this subculture's harmful customs. But how palpably, pathetically eager Brown was to grab this opportunity to shift the focus away from Islam! Brown provided an excellent example of the stark difference between the left's treatment of Islam and – well – its treatment of pretty much everything else. When the subject is Islam, the approach is invariably discreet, delicate, diplomatic: the euphemism "Asian" is religiously reiterated, as is the assertion that (fill in problem here) has nothing to do with group identity. But when the subject is, say, the Travellers, you can feel the clouds of anxiety lifting, and witness the willingness to acknowledge that, yes, there is a cultural issue here that deserves notice. One minor point: the Travellers, unlike Islam, pose no existential threat to British society – or the West generally. "Turning the spotlight on the Traveller community is a typically bold action by Mr Afzal," wrote Brown. Yeah, right: Afzal's risking reprisal from all those Traveller terrorist cells.
Anyway, all that was last May. Ever since, Britain's leftist media have done their best to try to decouple Islam and pederasty in the public mind. Official "reports" have helped. In late September, an Independent editorial, while serving up, en passant, an admission that "the racial [i.e. Islamic] dimension" of the sex gangs merited attention, trained its focus on a new report that dismissed this "dimension" on the grounds "that just 28 per cent" of child sexual abusers in Britain are "Asian." To which one would reply, first, that massive evidence points to the existence in European Muslim families of child sexual abuse on a monumental scale, with only a tiny percentage of victims ever breathing a word to anyone about their plight; second, that if even the report's figures were thoroughly legitimate, the manifest eagerness of the left to shift attention away from the long-ignored victims of Muslim sex gangs is obscene.
In November, another "report," this one by England's Children's Commission, sought to (shall we say) contextualize the matter of Muslim sex gangs. Discussing the report (which I wrote about at the time) with the Independent, Sue Berelowitz, who headed the report committee, spun it this way: sexually abused children "are falling through the net because of a pre-occupation with Asian men targeting white girls." What? After all, "Asian men targeting white girls" is only one of "a number of models"; perpetrators "come from all ethnic groups and so do their victims – contrary to what some may wish to believe." "Wish to believe"? What does "wishing" have to do with any of this – except for the fact that a small army of public employees tasked with protecting kids spent years trying to wish away the need to confront a small army of Muslim men over their barbaric behavior? Berelowitz's report was a big hit with her fellow child-aid bureaucrats: one of them called it "a sobering reminder that child sexual exploitation…can happen to any child, in any community"; another hailed it as an affirmation that sexual abuse "can impact on children from any background." Again, the readiness to return to the see-no-evil status quo ante was as transparent as it was repulsive.
As the months went by, the party line on the sex gangs was endlessly repeated: although MPs had "called for an inquiry into the cultural roots" of the gangs, the Independent's editors warned that "[i]t would be as well to be cautious before drawing too general lessons." (As if a "cautious" approach, on the part of cops and others in authority, hadn't prolonged so many girls' suffering!) An Independent contributor, Susan Elkin, agreed: the sex-gang issue, she pronounced, "certainly can't be categorised as a racial or cultural matter." But if multicultural orthodoxy made it verboten to finger Islam, it was OK to place the blame elsewhere. Many agreed with Afzal that the sex gangs were "a gender issue," not a religious or cultural one; in September, one Laurie Penny argued risibly in the Independent that if the authorities had waited so long before helping sex-gang victims, it wasn't "'in the interests of racial harmony,' as outlets like The Daily Telegraph continue to claim," but because those authorities didn't consider the working-class rape victims "worth protecting": in short, "[t]he axis of prejudice here is not race, but class." This low, dishonest denial of reality reached its nadir, perhaps, in a November Guardian piece by Ratna Lachman, head of JUST West Yorkshire, who actually argued that if official Britain, after ignoring Muslim sex gangs for years, had finally brought them to justice, it was because "institutional Islamaphobia has become part of the political culture." Even a Muslim rapist, then, is ultimately a victim.
"There must never be another Rochdale" read the headline on the Independent's September editorial. But the only way to prevent another Rochdale is to be honest about what made it happen. If you sincerely want to protect girls from "Asian sex gangs," you've got to understand, face, and speak the truth about the malefactors' motivations. A good first step would be for Britons to decide, once and for all, to stop saying "Asian" when everybody knows they mean Muslim.
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.


text:
University of Michigan
Runs his own tutoring company
Carl taught upper-level math in several schools and currently runs his own tutoring company. He bets that no one can beat his love for intensive outdoor activities!
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University of Michigan
Runs his own tutoring company
Carl taught upper-level math in several schools and currently runs his own tutoring company. He bets that no one can beat his love for intensive outdoor activities!
A system of linear equations is two or more equations that contain the same variables. A solutions to a system of equations are the point where the lines intersect. There are four methods to solving systems of linear equations: graphing, substitution, elimination and matrices. Solving systems of equations first shows up in Algebra I, but more complex applications occur in Algebra II.
So often times we're given situations where we're trying to figure out the number of possible outcomes for a set of information, okay? And one example that I want to start with is just a going to a sandwich shop and dealing with the lunch that we're receiving. So if you buy a sandwich you can get a choice of a soda or tea and a side of fries, chips, slaw or salad. and we're trying to figure out the number of different combinations that you can get for this particular problem.
So one of the easiest ways to start with this kind of problem is to just make a what's called a tree diagram, okay? And it's really like what it sounds like it just sort of connecting branches of a tree. So what we end up with is we start with our sandwich, we start at one point. From there we can either get our soda or our tea. Okay? So that takes us through one decision that we have to make. Then once we end up at that point we then can choose our other side. So if we got our soda, we could go with our fries, side chips or slaw or our salad. Okay? We could also do those same different combination with our tea. We could get those fries, chips, slaw or salad and then all we have to do is once we go through all those things is count the number of endpoints that we have. So with our soda there were 4 different options we could get. With our tea there were 4 different options that we could get for a total of 8 different things, okay.
So in general the tree diagram is a good way to sort of start organizing your data but once you start dealing with a lot more ingredients. So say we had you know different toppings on our sandwich or many different deserts or who knows what, you're going to start getting a lot of branches and it's going to become a little bit overwhelming. It will always get you through it but it's not always going to become the most efficient thing, okay?
So there's also what we can do is called the fundamental counting principle and in general I'm not a huge fan of definitions but I've done this one up here just so you can actually see how it works, okay? So what it says if there are m ways for one event to occur and n ways for another, then there are m times n ways for both to occur. So really all you have to do is take the possible numbers of one outcome times the possible numbers of the other and that's going to be your answer. Going back to our sandwich. There were 2 drinks, there were 4 solids. So the number of possible events is just 2 times 4 which is 8, okay? So we're often times able to do a tree diagram but more often than not and it's going to be significantly easier we can just use the fundamental counting principle, multiply our individual components together to get our answer.


text:
The Freemason's Monitor: Or, Illustrations of Masonry in Two Parts
Cushing & Appleton, 1808 - 336 pagini
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Alte ediții - Afișează-le pe toate
The Freemason's Monitor, Or, The Illustrations of Masonry in Two Parts
Thomas Smith Webb
Vizualizare completă - 1821
The Freemason's Monitor; Or, Illustrations of Masonry: In Two Parts. by a ...
Thomas Smith Webb
Nu există previzualizare disponibilă - 2018
Termeni și expresii frecvente
accepted according ancient appointed assembled attend authority bless bodies brethren brother build called candidate ceremony Chapter of Royal charges closed companions conduct constitution craft Deputy Grand desirous direct duties earth elected Encampment enter established Excellent father fraternity give given glory Grand Chapter Grand High Priest grand lodge grand master Grand Officers Grand Royal Arch granted hand hath heart heaven holden holy honour important institution Israel Jerusalem jurisdiction king Knights knowledge laws lecture light Lord manner masonry Master Masons meeting ment mind moral nature necessary observed Past perfect perform person present procession proper Providence received regular regulations respective Royal Arch Chapter Royal Arch Masons saying Secretary Solomon square stone Sword temple thee thou tion Treasurer true United unto virtue wardens warrant whole worshipful
Pasaje populare
Pagina 248 - But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Pagina 243 - And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples.
Pagina 245 - And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand ; and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews ! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
Pagina 247 - Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, "beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
Pagina 91 - FOR the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
Pagina 179 - To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace...
Pagina 163 - And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice : for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
Pagina 74 - ... or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Pagina 244 - And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.
Pagina 148 - Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.


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Keeping with the usual plan of keeping R-Fed's Nike outfits fairly low-key, the top seed's clothes at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. didn't distract from his game. (Still, he was upset by Marcos Baghdatis in the third round.)
Note a few deets: first up is that stripe that breaks up the collar of his All Court polo; also note the horizontal contrast line that runs along the placket of the shirt. His black Vapors are pretty darn shiny and have an "RF" monogram on the heel. TSF saw a pair of these on site (worn by a spectator) and it's very reminiscent of his Darth Federer from the 2007 U.S. Open.
And in case you're keeping track, he's traded his diaper bag from the Australian Open with this more demure gym bag.
Buy: Nike Lunarlite Vapor Tour, $120; Spring All Court Polo; $80.
(Federer images via Getty Images; bag photo by TSF)


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Star Wars + dog = adorable Wampug
And now, for your daily dose of darling, a puppy transforms into Hoth Wampa from "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back."
Beware the mighty Wampug!
Kristen, a friendly veterinarian with a knack for arts and crafts, transformed her puppy into Luke Skywalker's worst nightmare.
"Every year I make a new costume for my pug Chubbs and this year was no exception," reads the YouTube video's description. "This year she became the dreaded Hoth Wampa from The Empire Strikes Back!"
OK, so "worst nightmare" is a stretch. But imagine a swarm of Wampugs. They would be... still pretty adorable.
This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com.


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When our clients walk into Elias Law Offices for the first time, they are under a great deal of pressure — pressure we seek to alleviate through straightforward, informative and understanding representation. The attorneys of Elias Law Offices represent individuals throughout York County and surrounding areas in Maine in criminal defense, personal injury and family law disputes with a focus on quality and lasting results.
I'm a criminal defense, drunk driving, DUI, DWI & OUI lawyer in Portland Maine. Here's info about Maine OUI laws, penalties and defenses for DUI & OUI in Maine. DUI or OUI in Maine is rarely a "whodunit." Issues like alternative suspects, DNA testing, fingerprints and alibis rarely apply. Because of this, some think that there's no point in hiring a DUI attorney. But in the real world, most criminal cases are not about who did it, or even what happened, instead the question is "c
Maine DUI arrests are complicated and expensive. They can be highly embarrassing and can follow you for the rest of your life through revoked driver's license and permanent record implications. Nichols & Churchill specialize in Maine OUI and DUI cases and can help avoid much of the pain and headache that comes with a drunk driving arrest. If you have been arrested in Maine for drunk driving, our team of lawyers can help. We offer free OUI defense consultations that will answer any question
- Total Population: 8,394
- Male: 48%
- Female: 52%
- Under 10: 11%
- Ages 10 to 19: 15%
- Ages 20 to 29: 5%
- Ages 30 to 39: 7%
- Ages 40 to 49: 16%
- Ages 50 to 59: 20%
- Ages 60 to 69: 13%
- Ages 70 to 79: 6%
- Over 80: 5%


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Hewlett-Packard has changed its direction on OpenVMS. Instead of pushing its users off the system, it has licensed OpenVMS to a new firm that plans to develop ports to the latest Itanium chips and is promising eventual support for x86 processors.
Last year, HP put OpenVMS on the path to extinction. It said it would not validate the operating system to its latest hardware or produce new versions of it. The move to license the OpenVMS source code to a new entity, VMS Software Inc. (VSI), amounts to a reversal of that earlier decision.
HP isn't calling its action a reversal, however, even it completely changes the previously announced roadmap for the OS. An HP official said the partnership proposal arrived on its own months ago from VSI, and company officials became convinced it was good one.
"I think it's going to get the customers what they want," Randy Meyer, vice president and general manager of Mission Critical Systems at HP, said in an interview.
What many OpenVMS customers want is to stay on the OS. HP stirred up complaints among OpenVMS users with its earlier announcement that it would not validate OpenVMS beyond Integrity i2 services running the Tukwila quad-core processors. That decision effectively put the OS on an end-of-life path.
An OpenVMS user group based in France recently went public with its complaints, calling HP's decision a mistake.
VSI is new, but then again, it isn't. It is funded by the investors of Nemonix Engineering, a longtime support and maintenance firm of OpenVMS systems.
VSI plans to validate the operating system on Intel's Itanium eight-core Poulson chips by early 2015, as well as support for HP hardware running the upcoming "Kittson" chip. It will also develop an x86 port, although it isn't specifying a timeframe. And it plans to develop new versions of OpenVMS.
VSIpublished a roadmap ( download PDF) Thursday.
Duane Harris, the CEO of VSI, said his firm decided to approach HP about OpenVMS because of its strong customer base. OpenVMS is used in nuclear power plants, in process control systems in all industries, by the U.S. Navy and in transportation and finance.
"It's a marquee piece of software; its strengths are just legendary," said Harris, citing disaster recovery, security and clustering.
OpenVMS is largely invisible in a world dominated by Windows, Linux, cloud-based systems, and even Unix systems such as HP-UX, AIX and Solaris. But it runs critical systems and its IT managers consistently praise it for its reliability, engineering and capabilities.
HP has about 2,500 OpenVMS customers on support contracts. That does not include independent support vendors, such the Parsec Group, which has 350 OpenVMS customers running some 7,000 systems. This agreement doesn't change the support arrangements customers have with HP.
VSI hopes to expand the OpenVMS footprint and sell it to new customers. It intends to modernize its application development tools, and well as improve the capabilities of the operating system -- including the number of cores it can support. Harris believes the operating system's security will be a particularly strong point, as well as its fault tolerance.
"We feel very strongly that OpenVMS is the most secure operating system out there, and certainly more secure than Windows and certainly more secure than Linux," said Harris.
VSI said it has assembled a team of veteran OpenVMS developers, some from the core Digital Equipment Corp. team that developed the operating system. The system traces its roots back to the mid-1970s. Digital was acquired by Compaq and Compaq by HP.
"We want to take OpenVMS into the future," said Harris.
Patrick Thibodeau covers cloud computing and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed. His e-mail address is email@example.com.
See more by Patrick Thibodeau on Computerworld.com.
Read more about operating systems in Computerworld's Operating Systems Topic Center.


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Facebook may have over 100 million duplicate accounts globally: report
Social networking site Facebook said the website may have over 100 million 'duplicate' accounts, and their percentage being higher in developing markets such as India, besides 5 to 15 million 'undesirable' accounts registered with it worldwide.
Social networking site Facebook said the website may have over 100 million 'duplicate' accounts, and their percentage being higher in developing markets such as India, besides 5 to 15 million 'undesirable' accounts registered with it worldwide, as per company's estimations.
'There may be individuals who maintain one or more Facebook accounts in violation of our terms of service. We estimate, for example, that 'duplicate' accounts (an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account) may have represented between approximately 4.3% and 7.9% of our worldwide MAUs (Monthly Active User) in 2013,' Facebook said in the SEC filing.
According to the latest quarterly report, Facebook said the percentage of duplicate or false accounts is higher in developing markets such as India and Turkey.
As of March 31, 2014, the site had 1.28 billion MAUs, an increase of 15% from last March 31. Users in India and Brazil represented key sources of growth in the first quarter of 2014 relative to the same period in 2013, the filing with SEC said.
'In 2013, for example, we estimate user-misclassified accounts may have represented between approximately 0.8% and 2.1% of our worldwide MAUs and undesirable accounts may have represented between approximately 0.4% and 1.2% of our worldwide MAUs,' it further said.
User-misclassified accounts, are the profiles created by users for a business, organisation, or non-human entity such as a pet while undesirable accounts, are user profiles that are intended to be used for purposes that violate terms of service, such as spamming.
Facebook further said the estimations of duplicate or false accounts 'may not' accurately represent the actual number of such accounts and the social website is continually seeking to improve ability to identify duplicate or false accounts and estimate the total number of such accounts, and such estimates may change due to improvements or changes in its methodology.
Worldwide mobile MAUs increased 34% to 1.01 billion as of March 31, 2014 from 751 million as of March 31, 2013.
In all regions, an increasing number of MAUs are accessing Facebook through mobile devices, with users in India, Brazil, and the United States representing key sources of mobile MAU growth over the first quarter of 2014, as compared to the same period in 2013.
Worldwide Daily Active Users (DAU) increased 21% to 802 million on average during March 2014 from 665 million during March 2013 due to growth across major markets including Brazil, India, and the United States.
Overall growth in DAUs was driven largely by increased mobile usage of Facebook.
The number of DAUs accessing Facebook on personal computers decreased in March 2014 compared to the same period in 2013, Facebook further said.
Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews , also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.


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Lawmakers writing the transportation spending bill have a problem. Actually they have 89 billion problems, because that's how many dollars they are short between what they want to spend over the next six years and the revenue bean counters expect.
Considering the contortions Congress has gone through when it came to finding offsets for more spending in recent years, it's in a fiscal pickle.
You know the saying: When the going gets tough, the tough get going? The question here is where are lawmakers going? Are they going to make tough decisions and find the transportation-related revenue for their transportation-spending appetite? Or are they going to try to find an easy route through starving other accounts, paper gimmicks, or raiding the Treasury's refrigerator?
Our transportation system relies on user fees, most notably the gas tax. The basic idea being that transportation infrastructure should be paid for by those using it and be self-sustaining. Thus, you pay for the roads when you fill-up your F-150, not when you fill out your Form 1040. But in recent years the math hasn't worked. We've run out of money.
Not surprisingly, lawmakers are trying to find an easy way out. After raiding the Treasury for an additional $50 billion since 2008, they are now sinking to new lows by proposing ridiculous offsets.
House Republicans have suggested using savings from getting rid of Saturday mail delivery as an offset. Well, you could say that having fewer mail vehicles on the road reduces impact, but that's pretty much the inverse of a user fee like the gas tax.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) has suggested using 10 years of mostly gimmicky offsets (although it does call for an increase in the Heavy Vehicles Use Tax, which hasn't changed in 30 years) to generate $9 billion in revenue to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat through the end of 2014.
Not to be outdone, some Senators are floating the idea of using multinational corporations' profits that are parked overseas as an offset. There is an estimated $1.95 trillion in profits being kept out of the U.S. to avoid the official 35 percent corporate tax rate.
The idea is to let companies bring these profits back stateside but taxed at a rate of five percent or so. And voila. There's $98 billion in revenue to replenish the trust fund for years. That seems rather untenable, given that the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that this kind of tax holiday would really only bring in $19.6 billion for two years before becoming a revenue loser.
There are several problems with these staggeringly bad ideas. One, they don't fix any of the fundamental problems with the trust fund revenue shortfalls compared to lawmakers spending desires. Two, revenue generated from a tax holiday — if such a scam was to be perpetrated on taxpayers — should go to the Treasury, not some dedicated purpose. We still have a half–trillion-dollar deficit and a $17.5 trillion debt, after all.
Three, certainly our nation's tax code needs to be reformed, but taking care of just one aspect that needs to be fixed actually would reduce some of the incentive for broad reform and in an inequitable way. Finally, instituting tax holidays for profits stashed overseas only encourages more of that kind of parking in the future. The last time Uncle Sam took this step, $804 billion was overseas. Just 10 years later, there's nearly $2 trillion.
Instead of resorting to gimmicks and "get rich quick schemes," lawmakers need to make hard decisions. Cut spending or come up with some new revenue. Cars are more fuel-efficient, generating less gas tax revenue per mile traveled. Plus, the 18.4-cent gas tax hasn't changed since 1993, which means inflation has trimmed its spending power.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the gas tax would total roughly 30 cents if it were indexed to inflation. Coincidentally, the CBO estimates the tax would have to increase 10 to 15 cents to pay for current spending levels in the future. Hmmmm.
Congress can also be forward-looking and explore even more truly user-fee type revenues, like vehicle miles travelled, expanded tolling, or other user fees based on actual usage and resulting wear and tear — any of which would be better than the gas tax.
What we can't afford are gutless lawmakers who refuse to go the distance for taxpayers.


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Anne Hathaway says, "Most women dress for their most fashionable friend." Do we?
WWD posed this question to front row types during fashion week and got the expected range of answers. French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld says she dresses for herself; designer Isabel Toledo takes another view. "Women dress for men. I do dress for myself because it makes me feel empowered, but I'm definitely looking for [my husband's] expression, not his approval."
It's kind of a tricky one: it's basically asking you to define yourself. Obviously Roitfeld's answer is the "right" one (if life were a Cosmo quiz) but the truth is it's the rare woman who decks herself out to sit alone in her apartment, and when she does it can often skew more Dare Wright than confident fashionista. I'd also say most women don't dress for men — who for the most part don't care or, if pressed, at the end of the day like figure-friendly stuff and are baffled by much that is awesome. Isabel Toledo and her husband are a famously tight artistic unit who inform each other's work, but most of us wouldn't make a decision based on a significant other's opinion — while it's undeniable that someone's disapproval has the power to deflate excitement, it's rarely going to change an independent mind. (And to the perverse amongst us, it's like a red flag to a bull.)
As to friends? Also a dicey proposition: if by "fashionable friend" Anne means the person most likely to appreciate efforts that's one thing; if it's craving the approval of a stronger personality, that's quite another. (And yes, this is probably putting way too much thought into an off-the-cuff response to a reporter's question.)
Different women dress for different people. In a sense, though, Roitfeld's answer is probably closest to the truth: when we think about self-presentation of any kind, it's with the ideal of our perfect selves in our mind's eye — but this itself is a mutable concept, varying depending upon the movie you've seen or novel you've read or, yes, the company you keep. Even Toledo's statement seems to suggest that she wants — rather than "approval" — to see reflected in her husband the person she is trying to project. Clothes, after all, are just pieces of cloth, and it takes the burden of an awful lot of human context to make them more. The chic aunt, the TV style expert, the nagging mom, the critical boyfriend, the mysterious girl who left your school after 10th grade — all these people are standing behind the mirror. That's why the career of a stylist must be a tricky one; a good one has to ferret out this information and project it; otherwise it's deciding who someone wants to be to the world. Your "friend" may dress for a dashing spinster Spanish Civil War correspondent with a French mother, but that's just "her." If you're honest, probably no two answers will be the same.


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Antoine Lutz
I am currently an associate scientist at the Waisman Lab for Brain Imaging & Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am doing my research in collaboration with Prof. R. J. Davidson and several researchers from his lab.
I am interested in understanding the neural counterparts to subjective experience and, more generally, the mechanisms underlying mind-brain-body interactions. In the first part of my research, I am studying the role of large-scale neuronal integration (neural synchrony mechanisms) during various mental states (voluntary attention, emotion generation); The emphasis of my work is in the use of introspective, or first-person, data in order to understand the function of these large-scale dynamical processes (Neurophenomenology). In the second part of my research, I am studying the relationship between mental training, as cultivated in contemplative traditions, and neuroplasticity. More precisely, I am looking at the impact of standard meditation techniques on basic affective, cognitive and social functions and on the brain mechanisms that subserve these processes.
Current researches and collaborations include:


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Artisan Marble
The Artisan Stone Collection includes granite and marble countertops in a variety of unique colors. Browse the gallery below to discover the perfect countertop for you. Because the actual color of slab may vary, we recommend that you find a fabricator near you to view your countertop selections in person. – Get Pricing –


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How to Install a Chair RailUpdated: Sep. 19, 2023
Learn how to install chair rail molding that will take your home from ordinary to elegant in one weekend.
You might also like: TBD
- Time
- Complexity
- Cost
- Multiple Days
- Intermediate
- Varies
All about chair rail molding
The original purpose of chair rail molding, specifically dining room chair rail, was to protect walls from being damaged by chair backs. Today, this chair rail molding is a fast way to stylishly define a dining room, living room or entry hall, especially when used to separate wallpaper from paint, or between two different colors of paint.
This article will show you how to install chair rail molding, with tips to make the job go faster and easier and with less wasted material. Chair rail is available in a variety of woods and styles, from inexpensive paint-grade pine to large, very expensive hardwood profiles. You can also make your own chair rail molding with standard trim or clear "1-by" material. The special-order cherry molding we used cost $5 per ft.
To cut the chair rail, you'll need a miter saw and a coping saw with extra blades (they break easily). A finish nailer isn't absolutely necessary but will give you faster, better results.
Make a sketch, then go shopping
Sketch out the floor plan of the room, noting the exact length of each section of wall. Add a foot to each length for waste to get the minimum size you need for each wall. Once you decide on a style, you'll need to do some juggling to make the standard lengths that the lumberyard sells fit the lengths that you need. The best way to keep track of what piece goes where and avoid wasting expensive wood is to make notes on the sketch. Here are some shopping tips:
- When possible, buy pieces of chair rail molding long enough to span the entire wall; otherwise, you'll have to splice
sections (Photo 7).
- If you plan to stain and varnish the chair molding, select pieces with similar grain pattern and color.
- Check each piece for flaws such as splits and tear-out.
- To avoid heavy sanding, select pieces that have a smooth surface. Watch out for deep "chatter marks" (a wavy surface left by the milling machine).
- Home centers only carry a few pine and oak chair rails. For a larger selection, ask about special-order chair railing profiles or visit a lumberyard that caters to professional contractors.
- Many types and combinations of moldings can be used as chair rail, even if they aren't called chair rail.
Also use your sketch to plan the location of coped cuts, so that you don't end up with pieces that have to be coped at both ends. If possible, locate coped pieces on walls where the non-coped end can be marked in place. That way you can shave the coped cut down, or even recut it if you have to, before you cut it to length. Even pros have to tweak their cuts, so leave yourself a little extra wood to work with.
Get Better Results With an Air Nailer
Until the 1990s, air nailers were so expensive that many carpenters didn't use them. They're a whole lot cheaper now; even if you do only occasional carpentry, they're well worth the investment. Not only can you nail trim faster and easier, but you'll get better-looking results. The skinny nails are less likely to split wood, and they leave smaller holes that are easier to hide. Hammer dents and bent nails are no longer a concern.
Prepare the walls
How High is a Chair Rail?
Apply wallpaper or paint high enough (or low enough) for the chair rail to cover the edge. Chair rail height is usually 36 in. above the floor but can be installed anywhere from 30 in. to 42 in., with wallpaper either above or below.
Lightly mark the bottom of the chair rail every 3 ft. around the perimeter of the room. Measure from the baseboard, the ceiling or the floor—whichever is most consistent. Find and mark all the studs (Photo 1).
Split the Difference
In older houses, where level floors and ceilings may be only a distant memory, perfectly level chair rail can actually look crooked. The best solution is to ignore the level and follow a compromise line halfway between level and the closest visual reference point—usually the baseboard. If in doubt, tack up a test piece or a piece of tape, then stand back and see if it looks right.
Prefinish for a faster, neater job
For a job with sharp, crisp edges, stain and varnish (or paint) the chair rail before nailing it up (Photo 2). Before the first coat, sand all the chair rail lightly but thoroughly with 180-grit sandpaper. Test the finish on scrap pieces to make sure the color looks right. To match existing trim, you'll have to experiment on scraps of chair rail. Don't assume that stain colors will look the same on your chair rail as they do on store displays.
Cope corners for a perfect fit
Photo 3: Cope cuts
Cope inside corners by cutting along the profile left by a 45-degree miter cut. Hold the coping saw at an angle to "backcut" the chair rail.
Photo 4: Fine-tune the cut
Perfect the fit of coped ends with a file, rasp, utility knife or sandpaper. Don't try to shave off thin slices with a coping saw.
Wall corners are almost never perfectly square, but coped joints cover this problem by fitting tightly against the adjoining piece even if the corner is a few degrees off.
Cut the piece for the first side of the corner at 90 degrees and nail it in place—but keep the nails a foot back from the corner for now. Cut the coped end of the next piece and tweak it until the joint is tight (Photos 3 and 4).
Here are some tips for making smooth, accurate cope cuts:
- Make sure the saw teeth point toward the handle. That way, the blade will cut smoothly on the pull stroke.
- Practice on scraps. You'll be surprised at how much your copes improve after a couple of practice cuts.
- Clamp the chair rail to a solid work surface. Cuts are smoother and easier if the molding can't
shift or wiggle.
- Don't force the saw forward. Make smooth, even strokes, applying light forward pressure.
If the first wall isn't perfectly plumb, you may need to glue a thin shim under the bottom edge to tighten the joint (Photo 5). Don't cut off the shim in place—you may damage the wall. Instead, mark it, and then pull it out
to cut it.
Once the coped joint looks right, hold it in place and mark the cut at the other end. Only one end should be coped. The other end will always be either an outside corner or a 90-degree cut. Here's more on creating coped corners.
Test outside corners for a tight fit
Outside corners often flare out slightly, so that the chair rail needs to be cut at more than 45 degrees. To get the exact angle, cut two scrap pieces at 46 degrees, then adjust the angle of the cut until the joint is tight (Photo 6). Both sides should be cut at the same angle.
Spread wood glue on one of the ends before nailing the chair railing pieces to the wall. Don't nail within 2 in. of the end unless you're using a brad nailer or predrilling, to avoid splitting the wood.
Create a "Return" at an Archway
To end chair rail at an archway or corner, form a return an inch from the corner. When you cut the return, leave the saw blade down until the blade stops spinning to avoid nicking the return as it falls away from the blade.
First, cut a return piece the width of the chair rail. Clamp a 1×4 to the fence so the saw blade won't mangle the return.
Next, push the return into place with a little wood glue and hold it for a minute until the glue starts to set. Don't nail the return—it's too small.
Splice long runs of chair rail
If your wall is too long for a single piece of chair rail, you can inconspicuously join two pieces by cutting the ends at 30 degrees and gluing them together (Photo 7).
Select two chair railing pieces with similar grain. Measure and cut the two pieces so that the splice occurs on a stud. Position the top piece so that all the edges line up, then nail it to the wall. Wipe away glue drips and touch up with filler and additional finish if necessary.
Cut a "Bevel" at Thin Window Casing
Some types of chair rail molding are thicker than window and door casing. To solve this problem, bevel-cut the chair rail as shown in the photo with a shallow 45-degree bevel cut. Apply finish to the cut before you nail it up to avoid getting finish on the casing.
Fill nail holes
Before applying the final coat of finish, fill all nail holes. Use colored wood putty—either oil or water-based—to fill holes in natural woodwork (Photo 8). If you don't have the right shade, blend different colors with your fingers for a better match. Wipe away excess filler with a rag dipped in thinner for the oil-based putty, or water for the water-based product.
Use spackling paste for painted chair rail molding. Sand it flush, spot-prime the nail holes, then repaint.
Figure A: Plate or Chair Rail Design
The techniques used to install a chair rail molding can also be used to make a plate rail or a heavier, built-up chair rail. In addition to being visually interesting, a built up chair rail molding like this can be used to display photos, artwork and knickknacks. Plate rails are usually installed about five feet above the floor.
Required Tools for this Project
Have the necessary tools for this DIY chair rail molding project lined up before you start—you'll save time and frustration.
- Air compressor
- Air hose
- Block plane
- Brad nail gun
- Clamps
- Coping saw
- Cordless drill
- File
- Hammer
- Level
- Miter saw
- Orbital sander
- Paintbrush
- Pry bar
- Putty knife
- Rags
- Safety glasses
- Stud finder
- Utility knife
Required Materials for this Project
Avoid last-minute shopping trips by having all your materials ready ahead of time. Here's a list.
- 1-1/2-in. brad nails
- Chair rail
- Colored wood putty or filler
- Finish
- Painter's tape
- Wood glue
- Wood shims