text:
Compiling for Windows¶
See also
This page describes how to compile Windows editor and export template binaries from source. If you're looking to export your project to Windows instead, read Exporting for Windows.
For compiling under Windows, the following is required:
Visual Studio Community, version 2017 or later. VS 2019 is recommended. Make sure to read "Installing Visual Studio caveats" below or you will have to run/download the installer again.
MinGW-w64 with GCC can be used as an alternative to Visual Studio. Be sure to install/configure it to use the
posixthread model.
Python 3.5+. Make sure to enable the option to add Python to the ``PATH`` in the installer.
SCons build system. Using the latest release is recommended, especially for proper support of recent Visual Studio releases.
If you have Scoop installed, you can easily install MinGW and other dependencies using the following command:
scoop install gcc python scons make
If you have MSYS2 installed, you can easily install MinGW and other dependencies using the following command:
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-python3-pip mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc \
mingw-w64-i686-python3-pip mingw-w64-i686-gcc make
For each MSYS2 MinGW subsystem, you should then run pip3 install scons in its shell.
See also
To get the Godot source code for compiling, see Getting the source.
For a general overview of SCons usage for Godot, see Introduction to the buildsystem.
Setting up SCons¶
To install SCons, open the command prompt and run the following command:
python -m pip install scons
If you are prompted with the message
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not
writeable, you may have to run that command again using elevated
permissions. Open a new command prompt as an Administrator then run the command
again to ensure that SCons is available from the
To check whether you have installed Python and SCons correctly, you can
python --version and
scons --version into a command prompt
If the commands above don't work, make sure to add Python to your
environment variable after installing it, then check again.
You can do so by running the Python installer again and enabling the option
to add Python to the
If SCons cannot detect your Visual Studio installation, it might be that your
SCons version is too old. Update it to the latest version with
python -m pip install --upgrade scons.
Installing Visual Studio caveats¶
If installing Visual Studio 2017 or 2019, make sure to enable C++ in the list of workflows to install.
If installing Visual Studio 2015, make sure to run a Custom installation instead of Typical and select C++ as a language there.
If you've already made the mistake of installing Visual Studio without C++ support, run the installer again; it should present you a Modify button. Running the installer from Add/Remove Programs will only give you a Repair option, which won't let you install C++ tools.
Downloading Godot's source¶
Refer to Getting the source for detailed instructions.
The tutorial will assume from now on that you placed the source code in
To prevent slowdowns caused by continuous virus scanning during compilation, add the Godot source folder to the list of exceptions in your antivirus software.
For Windows Defender, hit the Windows key, type "Windows Defender Settings" then hit Enter. Under Virus & threat protection, go to Virus & threat protection setting and scroll down to Exclusions. Click Add or remove exclusions then add the Godot source folder.
Selecting a compiler¶
SCons will automatically find and use an existing Visual Studio installation.
If you do not have Visual Studio installed, it will attempt to use
MinGW instead. If you already have Visual Studio installed and want to
use MinGW, pass
use_mingw=yes to the SCons command line. Note that MSVC
builds cannot be performed from the MSYS2 or MinGW shells. Use either
cmd.exe or PowerShell instead.
During development, using the Visual Studio compiler is usually a better idea, as it links the Godot binary much faster than MinGW. However, MinGW can produce more optimized binaries using link-time optimization (see below), making it a better choice for production use.
Running SCons¶
After opening a command prompt, change to the root directory of
the engine source code (using
cd) and type:
C:\godot> scons platform=windows
When compiling with multiple CPU threads, SCons may warn about pywin32 being missing. You can safely ignore this warning.
If all goes well, the resulting binary executable will be placed in
C:\godot\bin\ with the name
godot.windows.tools.32.exe or
godot.windows.tools.64.exe. By default, SCons will build a binary matching
your CPU architecture, but this can be overridden using
bits=64 or
This executable file contains the whole engine and runs without any dependencies. Running it will bring up the Project Manager.
If you are compiling Godot for production use, then you can
make the final executable smaller and faster by adding the
SCons option
If you are compiling Godot with MinGW, you can make the binary
even smaller and faster by adding the SCons option
As link-time optimization is a memory-intensive process,
this will require about 7 GB of available RAM while compiling.
If you want to use separate editor settings for your own Godot builds
and official releases, you can enable
Self-contained mode by creating a file called
._sc_ or
_sc_ in the
bin/ folder.
Development in Visual Studio¶
Using an IDE is not required to compile Godot, as SCons takes care of everything. But if you intend to do engine development or debugging of the engine's C++ code, you may be interested in configuring a code editor or an IDE.
Folder-based editors don't require any particular setup to start working with Godot's codebase. To edit projects with Visual Studio they need to be set up as a solution.
You can create a Visual Studio solution via SCons by running SCons with
vsproj=yes parameter, like this:
scons p=windows vsproj=yes
You will be able to open Godot's source in a Visual Studio solution now, and able to build Godot using Visual Studio's Build button.
See also
See Visual Studio for further details.
Cross-compiling for Windows from other operating systems¶
If you are a Linux or macOS user, you need to install MinGW-w64, which typically comes in 32-bit and 64-bit variants. The package names may differ based on your distribution, here are some known ones:
Arch Linux
Install mingw-w64-gcc from the AUR.
Debian / Ubuntu
apt install mingw-w64
dnf install mingw64-gcc-c++ mingw64-winpthreads-static \
mingw32-gcc-c++ mingw32-winpthreads-static
brew install mingw-w64
urpmi mingw64-gcc-c++ mingw64-winpthreads-static \
mingw32-gcc-c++ mingw32-winpthreads-static
Before attempting the compilation, SCons will check for
the following binaries in your
PATH environment variable:
If the binaries are not located in the
PATH (e.g.
you can define the following environment variables to give a hint to
the build system:
export MINGW32_PREFIX="/path/to/i686-w64-mingw32-"
export MINGW64_PREFIX="/path/to/x86_64-w64-mingw32-"
To make sure you are doing things correctly, executing the following in the shell should result in a working compiler (the version output may differ based on your system):
${MINGW32_PREFIX}gcc --version
# i686-w64-mingw32-gcc (GCC) 6.1.0 20160427 (Mageia MinGW 6.1.0-1.mga6)
Cross-compiling from some Ubuntu versions may lead to this bug, due to a default configuration lacking support for POSIX threading.
You can change that configuration following those instructions, for 64-bit:
sudo update-alternatives --config x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc
<choose x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix from the list>
sudo update-alternatives --config x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++
<choose x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++-posix from the list>
And for 32-bit:
sudo update-alternatives --config i686-w64-mingw32-gcc
<choose i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix from the list>
sudo update-alternatives --config i686-w64-mingw32-g++
<choose i686-w64-mingw32-g++-posix from the list>
Creating Windows export templates¶
Windows export templates are created by compiling Godot without the editor, with the following flags:
C:\godot> scons platform=windows tools=no target=release_debug bits=32
C:\godot> scons platform=windows tools=no target=release bits=32
C:\godot> scons platform=windows tools=no target=release_debug bits=64
C:\godot> scons platform=windows tools=no target=release bits=64
If you plan on replacing the standard export templates, copy these to the
following location, replacing
<version> with the version identifier
(such as
3.1.1.stable or
With the following names:
However, if you are using custom modules or custom engine code, you may instead want to configure your binaries as custom export templates here:
You don't need to copy them in this case, just reference the resulting
files in the
bin\ directory of your Godot source folder, so the next
time you build, you will automatically have the custom templates referenced.


text:
Insurers Respond to Sandy: Report from Rhode Island
Contact with area insurers remains spotty following Hurricane Sandy's impact, and an Upstate New York-based CIO emailed to say that our speculation that higher communications priorities interrupted our contact with insurers was right in the case of his company. The same was true of Amica Mutual Insurance. "Now is not the best time to talk because we're doing so much relative to handling claims of insureds," acknowledged Vince Burke's a spokesman for the Lincoln, R.I.-based personal lines P&C carrier.
[If you think Sandy was a one-off, see Don't Think Sandy Can't Happen Again.]
Amica is facing significant challenges owing to power outages, according to Burks. The mutual insurer communicated with policyholders prior to Sandy's landfall. "We proactively sent emails and are now following up, but we're still getting information as to which areas have been hardest hit," he comments.
Mike Anselmo, SVP & CIO, of Pawtucket, R.I.-based Narragansett Bay Insurance Company (NBIC) checked in with us yesterday afternoon to report that he was one of many associates of the company who lost power at home. "Our corporate office remained up and our core applications hosted via multiple private clouds remained available to our agents for claims and policy handling," Anselmo informed I&T. "We are experiencing some call center phone issues, however, our partners servicing center is handling all claims services for us with minimal interruption."
Mike Anselmo, Narragansett Bay Insurance Company
NBIC activated its CAT readiness plan last week so they were sure to be prepared to service their policyholders and agents, Anselmo relates. NBIC also introduced a new web-based FNOL process developed internally and hosted in the cloud that Anselmo says is getting rave reviews by agents. "We will be provisioning this to our consumers this week for added claims servicing capabilities directly from the policyholder during Hurricane Sandy and all future events," Anselmo says.
The coastal streets of Barrington, R.I. were under about three feet of water, according to Gavin Hunter, president of BenchStrength International, a technology consulting firm serving the insurance and reinsurance industries. "Sandy visited from mid-morning, when our power went out for about an hour, until well into the evening," he says. "We were very fortunate and had little damage to our property, but those neighbors who are a bit closer to the water experienced a good deal of flooding from the combination of the storm surge and the tide."
The silence of the insurance industry that we reported yesterday — when we only got responses from two regional companies, both of them life insurers — is a phenomenon that goes beyond the industry, suggests Amica's Burks. While insurers are clearly busy with higher-priority, claims-related communications, many workers and residents are still without power, according to numerous media reports and our own personal experience. As Amica deals with its customers, it has had confirmation of the psychological impact of the storm's destructiveness: "Many people are comparing this event to 9/11 in terms of the eerie quiet that followed, along with feelings of being disconnected and isolated," says Burks.
Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio

subset: commoncrawl


text:
About gogbetsg
I'm located in Singapore and I have been using 23 since February 14, 2020. I've uploaded 3 photos and written 0 comments, I am a member of 0 groups and have got 0 contacts. My photos have been viewed 410 times in total.
My most viewed photos More popular photos...


text:
Our Leyla bathrobe, 100% cotton
Leyla fabric. It is woven in our Babadag factory in handloomed machines, then is sent to our Istanbul atelier to make it a bathrobe.
Approximately 560 gram
Very light weight. Easy to carry, easy to dry. Yellow base with white stripes.
Also we like you to know, this model is made a lot in the market and sold very cheap. Once you use our fabric made things, you will understand the difference.
We do give guarantee, that our products will be your favourite. We have also attached a photo, which came to us from our customer, the middle one is our production washed 5 times, both sides ones are washed only once, they are from other different producers.
Since we do not use any harmful chemicals, to gain the absorbancy it should be washed several times. Then it would reach high absorbancy. Cause our motto is "nature sake".
It is more than a bathrobe, I am sure you will love it.
Please note that you can order with or without fringes, as you can see there are fringes in here. When you are ordering if you indicate as you do not want fringes, then we will produce it in this way.
If you like to have gift package, you can also tell us, our gift packages are free of charge.
Our embroidery service is available, with extra charge, please contact.
According the time, the order appears in our system, we ship the same day.
We do not ship at the weekends
Enjoy !
- Cotton
No posts found
- In general, people like to wash items which they buy as towel, bathrobe or bed linen, and if you can see all towels are in the market, their instructions advise, to wash before use to get softer products.
- We do not suggest you to wash for this purpose, you can wash for your own cleanning, but not to get softer products.
- Our products are already soft and have absorbency.
- Machine wash 30 degree with similar colors.
- No tumble dry.
- We suggest you to hang to dry.
- Please do not use any fabric softner, and do not bleach.
- In fact we recommend staying away from softners, as they actually reduce the absorbency of the product.
- Lalay products are very soft but to keep them super soft, add a splash of white household vinegar to a rinse cycle from time to time.
- If you pull a thread, simply cut off the pulled loop with scissors. Your product will not be damaged or unravel.
- We hope this helps you to take care of your product. As always, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to call us +90 212 210 19 21 or write to us firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Scottish songstress KT Tunstall will be the celebrity judge of a new competition aimed at aspiring singer-songwriters.
The Shure Creative Award, co-sponsored by the Institute Of Contemporary Music Performance, gives one lucky winner the chance to receive a free place on the Institute´s one-year Higher Diploma course.
Based in London, the course is worth £4950. Two runners up will be offered places on the same course at discounted rates plus prizes from the competition´s sponsors.
K. T. Tunstall had the following to say about the Award: "It's important that the art of songwriting is respected just as much as the ability to perform and play on stage. It's about time there was a competitive platform for young songwriters to win the chance to spend a year honing their craft. It's a great opportunity."
Applicants should upload a video of themselves performing an original song, on any instrument, to the Shure Creative Award website between 30 May and 13 July 2008.


text:
Despite my elementary school diploma, I loved Spy Kids: All the Time in the World. Why? It's a chilling examination of an alternate reality in which children have become fellow travelers in global espionage, a parallel universe where Langley is run like Willy Wonka's candy-colored calorie mill. Like Ender's Game mixed with The Mickey Mouse Club, this is hands-down some of the grimmest shit ever to limbo under a PG rating.
Let me first admit that before yesterday, I'd never seen a Spy Kids film. I chalk this up to pure conceptional kismet — being born in the wrong decade meant I was oblivious to the entire franchise, never mind Sharkboy and Lava Girl. My childhood heroes were Tintin (whose exploits inculcated in me a fear of fakirs, cobras, and the opium trade) and those anthropomorphic rodents of Redwall, protagonists defined by their hardscrabble, can-do attitude and opposable digits.
I'll admit that the prospect of sitting through Spy Kids 4 was leaving me cold. Sure, the preview demonstrated that the characters had thumbs, but what of the pluck? Also, I'm generally too lazy to attend screenings of movies, so I go to matinee showings. Do you know how goddamn weird it is to be single man attending Spy Kids 4 at 10:30 AM on a Friday? Those ushers have the withering-est of gazes.
As a straightforward kids' movie, there's not much to Spy Kids 4. The film opens with Jessica Alba doing some acting as a pregnant secret agent. It's charming, but nothing Saturday Night Live didn't do 20 years earlier with Lisa Pongrasic: Very Pregnant Undercover Cop. After giving birth, Honey 007 retires to be the stepmom to Joel McHale's kids, but a villain known as The Timekeeper is making time accelerate uncontrollably, without the sped-up shenanigans of, say, the ending of Ice Pirates.
Anyway, the kids soon become entangled in their stepmom's double life and meet her coworkers, namely the original Spy Kids (who have grown up to be semi-competent Spydults), Jeremy Piven dressed like a pimp, and a robotic dog with the voice of Ricky Gervais.
(Also, the movie apparently came with some scratch-and-sniff Smell-O-Vision cards, but I bought my tickets at the computerized kiosk and the whole theater had the bouquet of rancid popcorn anyway).
Honestly, it's jarring seeing the original Spy Kids get so much screen time — they yammer a bunch about their exploits since 2003's Spy Kids 3: Game Over. Imagine if in Home Alone V — yes, there was a Home Alone IV — a strung-out Kevin McAllister advised the next kid with negligent parents how to not dial 911. What if Jurassic Park IV starred Night Vision Goggles Kid and Jeff Goldblum's Daughter Who Fought Velociraptors With Gymnastics? You're not unhappy that the original Spy Kids are still alive, but they really should be off at Spy University, doing bong rips laced with Sodium Pentothal and waterboarding sleeping roommates whose hands are dipped in bowls of warm water.
One of the weirdest facets of Spy Kids 4 is its focus on the mythos of all that is Spy Kids. At first, this obsession with history makes diddly sense whatsoever. The Spy Kids franchise is not known to inspire otakuesque outbursts from adults, and it will be a solid decade before any of the franchise's prior demographic is going to be ironically excited about it, à la the same way everybody's now losing their minds about midnight showings of Clarissa Explains It All.
The first Spy Kids movie came out ten years ago — the audience that propelled it to $148 million is now too teenaged, apathetic, and ashamed to have fond memories of that family-friendly movie made by the fellow who made Salma Hayek gyrate the best gyration in the history of things that gyrate. Also, it is an empirical fact that all nostalgia post-Y2K is inherently not interesting.
So yes, why would Rodriguez spend so much time dusting off old mythology the target demographic doesn't care about? Six-year-olds don't give a crap about canon. My read is this — despite its Happy-Meal-primed veneer, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World is the gritty reboot of the series, a narrative that details the aftermath of an American government complicit in the employment of child soldiers. The franchise has grown up, and Rodriguez is determined that a world of prepubescent espionage would be a grim place to live indeed. It is his Christopher Nolan moment.
For example, the original Spy Kids — Carmen and Juni Cortez — are a dysfunctional duo by the time they hit adulthood. The film establishes that the Spy Kids division was shuttered after Game Over, but the Cortezes bear psychological scars. Carmen is still a spy, which suggests that she's too mentally entrenched for civilian life. On the other hand, Juni has struck out on his own. It is not clear whether he's a soldier of fortune or a black ops agent. Either way, we must assume there is blood on his hands.
Spy Kids 4 is a children's movie, so death is a fate reserved solely for saintly, offscreen parents. The franchise leapfrogs over the Cortez children's tumultuous teenage years, where they were presumably forced to confront A.) their childhood living on the edge of mortality; and B.) their newfound world of Spydulthood, which is neither black-and-white nor a variegated CGI rainbow.
The Spy Kids didn't just grow out of their childish antics, they realized that they were pawns of an unscrupulous extragovernmental entity who sent 10-year-olds to death's door, like Halloween UNICEF collectors in a demilitarized zone. All The Time In The World seems to indicate that the world has since repented for the first three films. But as soon as the new Spy Kids Rebecca and Cecil save the day, the cycle begins anew. Only this time, Juni and Carmen are perpetuating it and goading on the new recruits. After all, a 10-year-old secret agent is less of an investment than a full-grown company man.
The film ends with Rebecca and Cecil plucking new Spy Kids out of cineplex audiences, activating them like so many Skittles-drunk Jason Bournes. This flash conscription is an understatedly disturbing scene — the ending suggests that America's entire stock of quasi-literate elementary schoolers are renewable cannon fodder for spy games. And just who are they spying on? We honestly do not know. Is this the onset of a Gymboree surveillance society?
This is the military-industrial complex by way of Playmobil, a reality where Fun Dip keeps the memories blurry. Chronology is meaningless when you spend night after night staring into the bottom of a Juicy Juice carton. You can't lose your innocence when you grow up guilty.


text:
MorphSVGPlugin morphs SVG paths by animating the data inside the
"d" attribute. The video explains more (but uses the GSAP 2 formatting):
It has never been easier to morph between SVG shapes. First, let's cover what this new plugin can do:
- Morph <path> data even if the number (and type) of points is completely different between the start and end shapes! Most other SVG shape morphing tools require that the number of points matches.
- Morph a <polyline> or <polygon> to a different set of points
There's a utility function,
MorphSVGPlugin.convertToPath()that can convert primitive shapes like <circle>, <rect>, <ellipse>, <polygon>, <polyline>, and <line> directly into the equivalent <path> that looks identical to the original and is swapped right into the DOM.
Draw the resulting shape to <canvas> (via a render function or set a
Use either linear interpolation (the default) or a newer
"rotational"type to get more natural looking morphs
- Optionally define a "shapeIndex" that controls how the points get mapped. This affects what the inbetween state looks like during animation.
- Instead of passing in raw path data as text, you can simply feed in selector text or an element and the plugin will grab the data it needs from there, making workflow easier.
How does it work?
MorphSVGPlugin does a ton of heavy lifting so that you don't have to. You can morph a circle into a hippo with a single line of code:
gsap.to("#circle", {duration: 1, morphSVG:"#hippo"});
MorphSVGPlugin finds the path with the id of "circle" and the path with the id of "hippo" and automatically figures out how to add enough points to the circle and position them properly so that you get a super smooth transition to the hippo shape. It will rip through all that ugly path data, convert everything to cubic beziers, and dynamically subdivide them when necessary, adding points so that the beginning and ending quantities match (but visually it looks the same). It's all seamless under the hood, of course. And since MorphSVGPlugin is so tightly integrated into GSAP, sequencing multiple morphs is a breeze. Watch how easy it is to make that circle morph into a hippo, star and elephant.
tl.to(circle, {morphSVG: "#hippo", duration: 1}, "+=1") .to(circle, {morphSVG: "#star", duration: 1}, "+=1") .to(circle, {morphSVG: "#elephant", duration: 1}, "+=1") .to(circle, {morphSVG: circle, duration: 1}, "+=1");
MorphSVGPlugin needs to know what shape to morph to (and optionally which shapeIndex to use). When only specifying a shape, MorphSVGPlugin can take a wide range of values. Selector string
gsap.to("#circle", {morphSVG:"#hippo", duration: 1});
An SVG element
var endShape = document.getElementById("hippo"); gsap.to("#circle", {morphSVG: endShape, duration: 1});
Points for <polyline> or <polygon> elements:
gsap.to("#polygon", {morphSVG:"240,220 240,70 70,70 70,220", duration: 2});
Strings for <path> elements
gsap.to("#path", {morphSVG:"M10 315 L 110 215 A 30 50 0 0 1 162.55 162.45 L 172.55 152.45 A 30 50 -45 0 1 215.1 109.9 L 315 10", duration: 2});
*Note: if the shape you pass in is a <rect>, <circle>, <ellipse> (or similar), MorphSVGPlugin will internally create path data from those shapes.
shapeIndex property allows you to adjust how the points in the start shape are mapped. In order to prevent points from drifting wildly during the animation MorphSVGPlugin needs to find a point in the start path that is in close proximity to the first point in the end path. Once that point is found it will map the next point in the start path to the second point in the end path (and so on and so on). Due to the complexity of vector art there will be times that you may want to change which point in the start path gets mapped to the first point in the end path. This is where
shapeIndex comes in. In order to specify the
shapeIndex you need to use an object {} with
shape and
shapeIndex properties. The following code will map the third point in the square to the first point in the star.
gsap.to("#square", {morphSVG: {shape: "#star", shapeIndex: 3, duration: 2}});
findShapeIndex() utility
Experimenting with
shapeIndex can be a bit of a guessing game. To make things easier we have created a stand-alone utility function called
findShapeIndex(). This function provides an interactive user interface to help you visualize where the start point is, change it and preview the animation. You can load findShapeIndex() from: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s.cdpn.io/16327/findShapeIndex.js Once its loaded you simply tell it which shapes to use.
findShapeIndex("#square", "#star");
Or pass in raw data:
findShapeIndex("#square", "M10 315 L 110 215 A 30 50 0 0 1 162.55 162.45 L 172.55 152.45 A 30 50 -45 0 1 215.1 109.9 L 315 10");
The best way to get started is to drop your SVG into the pen above and alter the IDs to match your svg. Be sure to watch the video above which clearly illustrates how
shapeIndex and
findShapeIndex() work. Additional Notes
- shapeIndex only works on closed paths.
- if you supply a negative shapeIndex the start path will be completely reversed (which can be quite useful).
Converting SVG shapes to paths
You can pass in an element or selector text, so you could also have it convert ALL of those elements with one line:
MorphSVGPlugin.convertToPath("circle, rect, ellipse, line, polygon, polyline");
This literally swaps in a
<!-- An svg Like this: --> <rect id="endShape" width="100" height="100" fill="red"/> <!-- becomes --> <path id="endShape" fill="red" d="M100,0 v100 h-100 v-100 h100z"></path>
Rotational Morphs? Canvas?
View the official docs here for a full breakdown of the API. To learn how to include MorphSVGPlugin into your project, see the GSAP install docs.
Get your hands on MorphSVGPlugin
MorphSVGPlugin is a bonus plugin for Club GreenSock members ("Shockingly Green" and "Business Green" levels). It's our way of showing our gratitude to those who are fueling innovation at GreenSock. To download MorphSVGPlugin, just log into your account dashboard and grab the latest version of GSAP. Try MorphSVGPlugin for free on CodePen! There's a special [fully-functional] version of MorphSVGPlugin that we link to in our demos in our MorphSVGPlugin Collection on CodePen, so feel free to fork any of them, add your own SVG graphics, and take MorphSVGPlugin for a spin. CodePen is a fantastic way to experiment. We highly recommend it. Note: the special version of the plugin will only work on the CodePen domain. To find out more about the many benefits of being a Club GreenSock member swing on by the club page and be sure to check out the other premium plugins.
- 3
- 1


text:
Through the atom transmitter Dianthus bestows several gifts on Barbarella to help her with her mission. The first of these is the "portable brainwave detector…to test for Durand-Durand's presence." To operate it, Barbarella must press "a contact," (Dianthus is offscreen when he indicates the contact, but later we see her operating the leaf-like button near the wrist) and if Durand-Durand is around, the ball of lights will glow and an alarm will sound.
The device is wearable, wrapping around Barbarella's forearm, and held in place by a ring. This aspect of the design is good, since it means the device is ever-present for operation, and the design of it makes it lovely enough to be overlooked as a fashion accessory. In fact many characters see her wearing it and make no mention.
Manual activation is less than ideal, though, since this might tip off the suspect. This is especially true with the blinking, glowing ball of light and audio feedback. And, in fact, this is what happens later in the film when Durand-Durand trips over the device. The blinking light and audio catch his attention, betray the device for what it is, and blow Barbarella's cover in the process.
The best feedback would be invisible, like a haptic vibration through the cuff to her skin. Ideally, the device would be constantly on, to detect the subject passively, the moment he came into range. But presuming battery life is the issue, the activation cue should be something much more subtle, like Barbarella's touching the back of the ring with the thumb of the same hand. Such a gesture would match the existing design of the object, be discreet to an observer, and yet still discrete enough to prevent accidental activation.


text:
This article is more than 1 year old
Novell spills sales after pipe breakage
'Just fell apart. Could happen again'
Novell's plan to shift more of its sales through channel partners has coincided with the economic meltdown, and the combination caused the company's revenues to slip a gear in its fiscal first quarter ended in January.
For the quarter, Novell's sales fell by 7 per cent to $214.9m and were hurt by a dramatic drop off in software license sales, which fell by 29.7 per cent to $28.3m. Services sales at the company fell even more dramatically, down 31.7 per cent to $27.8m, while maintenance and subscription sales helped offset declines a little by growing 5.8 per cent to $158.8m. Net income fell by 36.5 per cent, to $10.7m, and what is immediately clear is that if Microsoft had not extended its SUSE Linux coupon deal with a $100m extension last year and agreed to kick in $25m this quarter, Novell would be at a loss. Quite literally.
And probably making the kind of layoffs that have been rumored but have not occurred. Novell's headcount was 4,000 at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 and stood at 3,900 as the first fiscal first quarter of 2009 closed.
That's exactly what Novell has said publicly it would do. But that is a net employee headcount change. The number of employees let go could be higher in one division or department if the company was also hiring in other divisions or departments. Novell has not said this is what has happened, but the persistent rumors of larger layoffs could be the result of such hiring and firing practices.
Ron Hovsepian, Novell's president and chief executive officer, said that software license and services sales were both below expectations, and in a conference call with Wall Street analysts, he said that "the pipe fell apart" in the last two to three weeks of the quarter and warned that it could happen again.
He added that the pipeline for sales in the second fiscal quarter were slightly ahead of where they were at this time last year, and in terms of customer commitments to sign of deals, Novell was also running slightly ahead. But Hovsepian said that his confidence was a little shaken after what happened with Q1 and acknowledged that it could happen again. To that end, Novell is not providing revenue guidance, but the company did say that it expects to be able to hit its target of 10 per cent or higher operating margins for fiscal 2009.
Novell's Open Platforms division posted sales of $37.1m in the quarter, up 19.2 per cent, with $35.2m of that coming from SUSE Linux sales on servers and desktops. (And most of that is for servers, rest assured). Linux subscriptions were up 23.6 per cent, but Hovsepian said that Novell's Linux business has been dependent on closing big deals and that it lost some sales resources in the quarter in Europe at exactly the same time that it was trying to revamp its channel to push more indirect sales.
Of the $240m in coupons for SUSE Linux that Microsoft acquired as part of its partnership with Novell, only $199m of them have been invoiced. That's only $4m more SUSE Linux invoices through this deal this quarter. Hovsepian said it was mostly Novell's job to chase down Windows shops and get them to activate licenses. Why Microsoft pre-paid $25m for a new batch of coupons when it still has $41m coupons already acquired on behalf of Windows shops is clear: both Microsoft and Novell suspected Novell would need the dough in fiscal Q1 to prop up its numbers.
Novell's Workgroup division had a total of $81.4m in sales, down 9.3 per cent, with sales of NetWare and the Open Enterprise Server hybrid (which mixes SUSE Linux and NetWare) down 14.2 per cent to $44.1m. The GroupWise messaging and groupware product declined by 8.9 per cent to $24.9m.
In part because of recent acquisitions, Novell's Systems and Resource Management division saw sales bump up 8.7 per cent to $40.3m, with licenses and support sales both up. The Identity and Security Management division declined by 12.5 per cent in the fiscal first quarter, thanks mainly to declines in software license sales.
Looking ahead, Hovsepian said that Novell was "investigating all opportunities to lower costs," and that might mean more layoffs. (He did not use the L-Word). He also said that Novell was working to build out its application software channel to do a better job chasing business, that Novell would "be aggressive on pricing to gain market share," and that he expected to engage in "hand to hand combat" at customer sites. "At the end of the day, I want the customer," Hovsepian said bluntly.
He added that Novell was looking forward to the launch of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 this quarter and warned investors and Wall Street that Novell would be sitting on its more than $1bn in cash, which gives it comfort and flexibility in these hard economic times. Don't expect any "broad-based share buybacks," Hovsepian said. It would be a fair guess that any large acquisitions would also be out of the question until the economy improves too. ®


text:
Written by Christopher D. Ford
Directed by Jake Schreier
Starring Frank Langella, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Susan Sarandon and Peter Sarsgaard
Robot: Hi Frank. It's a pleasure to meet you.
Frank: How do you know?
As I understand it, aging can be an isolating and confusing time for many, especially when it seems that life has forgotten you and left you to finish out your years alone. When you are retired from work and your family has moved on to families of their own, purpose can be difficult to find. Frank (played by Frank Langella) knows this better than most. He was once a loving husband and father to two vibrant children. He was also once a jewel thief but even jewel thieves eventually get too old to break into homes in the middle of the night. Fortunately, loneliness, one of mankind's oldest afflictions, has finally found a solution thanks to the unlikeliest of places - modern technology.
ROBOT AND FRANK, the directorial debut by Jake Schreier, takes place in what appears to be the not-so-distant future. Life is pretty much recognizable in Frank's world but slight differences pop up here and there so we know it isn't quite the world you and I know today. The biggest of these tiny nuances would definitely have to be the robots. Frank has just gotten his from his son (James Marsden) to assist with his daily needs. Living all on his own, Frank neglects to clean up after himself or eat properly. The robot, voiced with tranquility and patience by Peter Sarsgaard, is not only there so that his son doesn't have to make the long trek up from the city each week to make sure Frank is taking care of himself, but also to keep Frank company. Naturally, Frank resists the robot at first, but once he sees how the robot can help him get back to his thieving ways, the two become fast friends.
At the end of the day, a robot is incapable of being someone's friend but Frank will take what he can get. The people in his life, including his daughter (Liv Tyler) and a librarian in town (Susan Sarandon) do what they can for him, but they all have their own lives too. And as Frank loses a little more of his memory with each day, he learns to rely more and more on the robot, blurring the lines between reality and artificial intelligence. ROBOT AND FRANK is a little movie with big ideas, led by yet another endearing and layered performance by Langella, an actor who constantly disproves the idea that there aren't any good parts for older actors. And while the film may not be revelatory on any level, it has plenty of charm to please the viewer. In the end , I learned that we can all get by with a little help from a friend, even if that friend is made of metal.


text:
Girls 6 to 9 Months
Professional baby photographer in los angeles, servicing the areas of santa monica, pacific palisades, beverly hills and hollywood. Best child photography studio for mar vista, playa del rey, culver city and manhattan beach. Professional photographer for venice beach, brentwood, playa vista, encino, studio city, sherman oaks, calabassas and bel air.Read More


text:
First half: For the Olympique de Paris soccer team, this away match scheduled against Caplongue was merely supposed to be one last chore before the end of the professional season. Yet no one could ever have imagined that an unknown rabies-like infection was going to spread like wildfire, turning this small town's inhabitants into ultra-violent and highly contagious creatures. For Samuel, the former golden boy who is nearing retirement, Idriss, the arrogant wunderkind, Coubert, the team's depressed coach and Solène, the young ambitious journalist, this will turn into the most important confrontation of their lives. Second half: While the rabid supporters prowl about Caplongue, which is in a state of ruin, another nightmare begins for Sam. Barricaded in the police station with other survivors, he has to face the young Cléo, his grumpy father, and Solène, who hasn't forgotten him this time. Meanwhile, Idriss and Marco, hidden in the stadium, look for a way to escape.
View Full Cast >


text: WASHINGTON -- As federal CIOs develop new strategies to support an increasingly mobile workforce, they will inevitably have to decide whether or not to adopt a bring-your-own-device policy, just as a similar challenge confronts their counterparts in the private sector.For some agencies, the answer is a hard "no.""I'm not doing BYOD," says Coast Guard CIO Rear Adm. Robert E. Day Jr., who also serves as director of the Coast Guard Cyber Command.[Related: Embrace Consumerization of IT and Stop Saying No]Day, speaking at a federal IT conference hosted by the media group FedScoop, explained that many agencies dealing with sensitive or classified information are sticking with government-issued devices in the absence of clear policies for the use of personal equipment in the workplace.The fear of losing sensitive data has kept many federal CIOs from adopting BYOD policies. It's not necessarily that the devices themselves are insecure, according to Day, but if a worker's personal phone with work data stored on it is lost or stolen, and security protocols would normally dictate that the device be remotely wiped, would the agency IT staff then be compelled to erase all the contents of the phone?"There's the issues of what if I wipe your device and you lost all the pictures of little Susie and little Johnny and they weren't backed up? We're going to have to have some policies that go into place with this and figure that piece out," he says. "Having full MDM (mobile device management) capability across the device is absolutely key."[Related: 10 Mobile Device Management Apps to Take Charge of BYOD]"We're going to have to have some limitations on a personal device and then, again, the documentation that you are going to sign over saying that if I blow your device away with all your financial data and all your pictures that you did not back up, I'm not responsible for that," he adds. "I think we're going to get there, but until I get those security pieces put into place it's going to take a bit."BYOD Security Biggest ConcernSecurity, more than any other factor, is the greatest concern for CIOs like Day, who worry that loose management policies would open the door to intrusions into the device that could compromise sensitive government or enterprise data."What about a keyboard logger being installed on your private side of the device, and it's not the part that I'm managing?" he asks.Federal CIOs' stance on BYOD, which varies from agency to agency, remains a work in progress, as is the gradual shift to the cloud and other government IT priorities that the Obama administration has outlined. Last January, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel announced the launch of a government mobile strategy, tasking departments and agencies to develop guidelines for the devices they would allow into the workplace, along with a host of other mobility issues, including policies for apps and suggestions for deploying mobile technology to drive efficiencies and deliver better services to citizens.In sharp contrast to the approach that Day describes at the Coast Guard, BYOD has gotten a warm embrace at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), at least at the policy level. EEOC CIO Kimberly Hancher describes a checklist of considerations the agency weighed before rolling out a BYOD policy.Last year, when funding cuts sapped about 15 percent of the EEOC's IT budget, Hancher and other agency leaders began to consider BYOD as a cost-saving measure. They evaluated whether the EEOC maintains any classified data that would be at risk if a user's personal device was compromised. It does not. Nor does the agency house what it considers sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) in its data centers (PII was scrubbed from the EEOC's servers a couple of years ago, according to Hancher). Finally, agency heads affirmed that the devices EEOC employees carry with them would not offer access to critical infrastructure systems, and with that, they implemented a BYOD policy."For us, it was a risk-based decision to move into bring your own device," Hancher says.Government Works Stick With BlackberryBYOD is often understood in terms of a friction between workers and the CIO or senior security officials: Employees want to use their own devices for work, but management resists. But that wasn't the case at the EEOC.In implementing the agency's BYOD policy, Hancher polled employees about their thoughts on the issue. Just 23 percent signed up to bring a personal device into the workplace, while the remaining 77 percent opted to stick with their government-issued BlackBerry."Of the people who chose to keep the government-provided devices, the majority of them felt that work and personal should be separate," Hancher says.Others cited confusion about the rules and responsibilities they would be subjected to under a BYOD policy, and a substantial number chose not to participate simply because they don't own a smartphone.For them, "it's not a matter of switching. They would have to go and buy -- you know, select a device -- pay for the device, pay for the voice and data service," she says. "And those are some of the reasons why the consumers -- our internal customers -- are not flocking to BYOD."Kenneth Corbin is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who covers government and regulatory issues for CIO.com. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline, on Facebook, and on Google +.


text:
OCEAN CITY — As expected, sparks flew, tempers flared and a proverbial line was drawn in the sand for the fight over what it should cost to operate a cab in Ocean City.
At day's end on Tuesday, the cost to acquire a so-called "medallion" will be $1,500 per car, with only 160 medallions to be offered.
When the Mayor and City Council met at City Hall to debate the proposed taxicab medallion ordinance, several dozen members of the taxi industry showed up to express their disdain for the change that in their minds is just adding to their cost and padding the town's pockets. All the while, the town argued that putting a medallion system in effect would create a valuable commodity for the owners of the medallions.
After three hours of heated deliberation that seemed to have run the gamut of emotions – thunderous applause, muttered expletives, political posturing and even an industry walkout from those in attendance – the Ocean City Council voted 5-2, with Lloyd Martin and Jim Hall in opposition, to move forward with a new ordinance that would require a $1,500 medallion be purchased to operate a cab in the resort.
From the town's perspective, the decision was a compromise, as Mayor Rick Meehan argued that the council's decision to allow the initial cost of the medallion to be paid over five payments, in 20-percent increments, essentially making the first payment when the medallion is purchased ($300 per car), was more than reasonable.
"I thought that the council listened to what those in the taxi industry had to say and we made some changes based on their passionate testimony," said Meehan. "In the end though, I think what was proposed is very reasonable and when we all look back on this decision, although it's going to increase their costs this year, those medallions are going to grow in value."
In summation of the entire proposal, which was essentially piece-mealed together based on spirited testimony from those in the audience and usual back-and-forth banter from those on the council, what will be read on Monday night's meeting at City Hall for the first of a required two readings will include the $1,500 per car fee, with 20 percent due the day of medallion acquisition, and payments due each month on the 15th with the final payment due July 15. In addition, there will be a $500 per car annual renewal fee for the medallion, a 25-percent fee paid to the town of Ocean City if the medallion is transferred or sold, tacked onto the costs that already are set in stone for the taxi industry to acquire the decal from the Ocean City Police Department ($150) and annual inspection fees. Lastly, the medallions will be offered to the existing license holders first on March 1 at 10 a.m. at City Hall, with the one caveat being that owners will not be able to purchase more medallions than they have current licenses.
"We all want a good cab system, but no one is making a million dollars in this industry," said Ocean City Taxi owner Carl Kufchak. "I could probably afford what you are asking because I own the largest cab fleet from here to Baltimore, but this is going to put the little guy out of business, and I don't want that. Nobody wants that."
The ordinance, penned by City Solicitor Guy Ayres, as originally written, called for a sealed bid process where applicants would essentially compete for the right to these medallions.
However, the industry members who were on hand seemed so unsettled by the uncertainty of that process, many feared that the smaller cab companies would be the biggest losers.
"I think there's a lot of scared people with putting it to a sealed bid," said City Cab owner Wayne White. "If you were to put it at a flat bid and just set a price then no one is going to get knocked out of business and feel the shock of losing everything during an auction."
White's comments were met with loud applause as was heard a handful of times, most notably when Councilwoman Margaret Pillas pitched an idea that would essentially add to the cost of the business license rather than have a medallion system altogether.
"It seems to me that we are offering up a value or commodity that the industry doesn't want," said Pillas. "I don't want to chase out small business in this town because we make it too expensive for them to operate."
Yet, the momentum that those in the cab industry may have thought was being gained based on their vehement arguments was essentially thwarted when Councilman Doug Cymek made the motion to set a price for the medallions at $1,500, rather than the $1,000 per medallion that was rumored to be the starting price for the sealed bid process.
"The first thing I said all along when I heard about this was that they were going to shove this decision down our throats," said Classic Taxi owner Christy Freeman. "I probably could've lived with a $1,000 per medallion, but $1,500 per medallion is just too high, and what's even more unacceptable is the $500 annual renewal fee per medallion. We think that it should be $500 per company each year."
Cymek's motion essentially cleared the room as all but a few members of the industry stormed out of the council chambers in unanimous anger.
Councilman Jim Hall, who was vocal throughout the conversation in trying to find a happy medium to pass the ordinance through, voted against the motion claiming that the $1,500 was simply "too high" for the business owners to manage and said, "we'll never see 160 medallions sold, and we are going to see a lot of people walk away from the industry for this money."
Councilman Lloyd Martin, who also voted against Cymek's motion, agreed with Hall's sentiments.
"We basically put a price on something that has driven the cabbies out of the room," said Martin,
At Monday's first reading, police officials are expected to report on the exact number of licenses that were purchased last year by fleet (anyone owning one or more cab) and independent owners. There is a clause written into the ordinance that would require at least 25 percent of the medallions sold in the resort to go to independent owners.
If all the medallions are sold, the town expects to accrue an additional $240,000 in revenue, just from the initial medallion fee alone.
Some in the taxi industry say that the town needs to expend some of this revenue to enforce the rules and punish those in the industry who are ripping people off and breaking laws on a consistent basis.
"If they don't give the police some of this money to actually enforce the rules, the only thing that is going to change is that it's going to cost more to be on the road," said Century Taxi owner Ken Hovance. "The bad drivers are still going to be there because there is only so many drivers for us to choose from. If the town really wants to clean up the industry, they need to use some of the medallion money. The cops aren't doing it now, because they aren't getting paid for it."
Meehan says that although the town has not laid out a specific plan for where the medallion money is going to go, he agrees that some of that money should be put toward enforcement.
"I think that some of that money should go towards making sure that people are following the rules," said Meehan, "but some of that money is going to be going into the general fund as we spend millions to draw people to come to Ocean City and make sure the streets are clean and the resort is in top-notch shape. That money that we expend is vital to any business in town, including the taxi industry."


text:
The author visits Azerbaijan and finds the good side of exploding oil prices
By David Brown
"We are very close to everything," my driver from the airport explains, smiling as he swerves around a truck with one hand on a cigarette and the other out the window, "And very close to no one."
For a moment I am at a loss as to what he means, and can't decide if it is a language error, or whether he is, indeed, making a fairly abstract point about the contradictions of Azeri life.
Either way, the more time I spend in Azerbaijan, the more convinced I am that his statement actually makes sense. With its semi-desert plains and thickly forested hills, gorgeous coastline, and polluted slums, Baku does make you feel like you are within reach of a dozen different places.
And yet for all this, it is still a country so unique as to make being in Azerbaijan quite unlike being anywhere else.
While all countries are riddled with contradictions, perhaps nowhere else on earth are those contradictions either as deep or as apparent as they are in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Azerbaijan is, like Iran, a Shiite Muslim country, but one in which few women veil, and where almost everyone seems to drink. Azeris do not enjoy good relationships with their fellow Shiites to the south but enjoy strong trading relationships with secular Turks and Christian Georgians.
A City of Contrasts
It is a city of gorgeous belle époque towers and tree-lined parks, overlooked by housing which is little more than mud huts. And it is a city which oil has built and paid for, but which it has poisoned to the extent that the sea wears a permanent rainbow sheen.
In Baku, I find myself constantly wondering where I am, where everything reminds me of somewhere else, and often somewhere unlikely.
The newer city reminds me very much of the recently constructed Solidere district of Beirut; the metro system is an exact replica of St. Petersburg's; the climate is Singaporean and the Old City similar to that of Qom or Damascus.
In short, whatever one's preconceptions of Baku, you are more than likely to be surprised.
The upside of that is that so much of that surprise is positive. While I had feared Soviet modernism and the less-than-welcoming attitudes that generally come with them, in fact, the Azerbaijani people are charming and open, and much of the city is breathtakingly beautiful, safe and tolerably well organized.
Things function, albeit at a fairly leisurely pace.
The Old City
For the traveler, much of what is of interest is located in the Icari Sahar, or Old City. From the city waterfront, the mysteriously named Maiden Tower fronts a labyrinth of winding alleys, sandstone towers and houses.
Local legend has it that the tower was built for a young woman so distressed at the looming marriage to her own father that she threw herself from the top as soon as it was completed, but I am assured by locals that the original use of the tower was probably more astronomical than romantic.
Whatever its intended purpose, the unusual Q shape of the tower is charismatic, an effect intensified by the clouds of pigeons and swallows nesting amongst its walls.
In a strange twist of fate, the day I ascend the tower turns out to be Armed Forces Day, and as I'm admiring the sandstone towers and alleyways below me, a crowd is gathering to watch a serious display of military might.
It starts off fairly low key, with some camouflaged motorbikes and jeeps parading up the main boulevard, followed by a long line of vehicles carrying katyusha rockets.
But then in come the air force; first a squadron of helicopters and then the fighter planes, who roar overhead, complete with colored smoke and the occasional burst of firework-like stars.
It is impressive and certainly hits the right note with the crowd, who applaud and cheer on the display with slightly disturbing abandon.
Disturbing, because Azerbaijan is a country so well used to warfare that one might have thought the sight of the fleet anchored Pearl Harbor-like in the harbor might be more a cause for concern than celebration.
A Rocky Road to Independence
Having forged a democratic republic out of the ashes of the First World War, only to lose it again as the Soviet state expanded, Azeris had to wait another 70 years to rule themselves.
The early days in independence seemed to be cursed – first by an aborted Soviet re-invasion in January 1990, then by a four-year war with neighboring Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a war which forced 800,000 Azerbaijanis to flee their homes and during which the new republic lost 13% of its territory.
It is a loss the people have never accepted, and even today daily TV weather maps still show Nagorno-Karabakh as being part of Azerbaijan.
What perhaps has been forgotten is also that the conflict was sparked by Azeri mobs attacking their Armenian neighbors during street riots in Sumqayit, unleashing a wave of fury in Armenia that quickly escalated to the ethnic cleansing of Azeri townships within Armenia.
Impressive Petroglyphs
The army duly celebrated, I head out of Baku to check out a few of the areas claims to fame. First up is Qobustan, home to some of the world's most impressive petroglyphs.
The journey alone is well worth the price of admission; down along the gorgeous coast, studded with oil rigs and monumental engineering projects on the one side, empty semi-desert on the other.
The 12,000-year-old carvings are located high up above the town in a series of caves and are impressive even to the novice. Even I had no problem making out goats, horses, people and even Viking-style longboats, especially when I had a guide to help me.
My guide, Farhaat, is disturbed that I came well out into the desert by taxi, which then promptly fled.
"How will you leave this place?" he asks, sounding concerned, but with a hint of promise in his voice that suggests that just maybe he knows someone who can help.
A Rattling Lada
The problem is solved in a typical Azeri fashion – we drink tea with the local policeman and another guide, snack on biscuits and discuss football and the apparently hilarious idea that my country (Finland) has a female head of state.
Phone calls are made, and a half-hour later a rattling Lada appears to drive me 20 kms south to see a small volcanic area, and then deliver me into town, from where I can pick up a 'marshrutka' or collective bus, back to Baku.
Suleiman speaks little English apart from the words "no problem," but drives like a demon across the featureless dusty plateau. If there is a road, I can't see it. Finally, we climb the first-gear hill and stop in a cloud of dust.
We're surrounded by a ring of one-meter (three-foot) high volcanoes, happily bubbling away and spurting the occasional mouthful of mud.
It is made even more incongruous by the fact that we're in the middle of a desert, but still within sight of the sea, and the black spots I can see in the distance turn out to be small swamps of oil (which Suleiman calls petrol).
A day later I head north and into the Abseron peninsula. Apart from being the center of the oil industry and the location for an unlikely Zoroastrian temple, it's also a place in which one really experiences the dichotomy of life here.
Nodding Headed Beasts
The densely populated area seems to be a never-ending series of small concrete dwellings, overgrown with grapes, melons and oil wells – the same nodding headed beasts that seem to crop up in so many TV series murder scenes.
The reality is gruesome – the beasts, some 3 meters high, groan incessantly and sit in a pool of their own oil while children play next to them.
I visit the field known locally as the 'James Bond' field for its role in 'The World Is Not Enough,' and walk across an enormous graveyard of dead oil wells. It takes an hour to cross, and I see nothing but rusting metal hulks, abandoned scrap iron, and pools of toxic muck.
At the edge of it I come to an ecological project; laudable no doubt, but 90% of the thousand trees that have been planted are dead, hardly surprising in a field of oily, salty dust. It is hugely dispiriting, and gives the lie to the beautiful fountains and parks the oil money has paid for in the inner city.
There is no question that Baku is slick, and far more sophisticated than many might guess. And it's not just the arrival of espresso and Mexican restaurants; there is a genuine sense here of a nation moving forward.
A Sense of Optimism
But beyond the inner city, it is hard to enjoy the good without also feeling concerned about the dark side. The nationalism on display on Armed Forces Day must surely spill out over the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, even though another costly stalemate would seem the most likely outcome.
Many of the environmental tragedies here appear irresolvable, and one suspects the nightmare stories that stem from children playing next to oil wells may never see the light of day.
But I also leave Baku with a sense of optimism. What oil has destroyed it can possibly also pay to clean and if the oil wealth can be well used, the city will look more like Singapore or Abu Dhabi, and less like Beirut.
Wanna Go?
Americans traveling to Azerbaijan on a U.S. passport must obtain a visa. … Transit and short stay single entry visas are no longer available at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku for most travelers. To obtain a visa for travel to the Republic of Azerbaijan, contact the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Washington D.C
Qobustan petroglyphs and mud pools are 40 km south of Baku. Qobustan can be reached by marshrutka (shared minibus). A taxi to the sites cost around €20.
Eat at:
Kalinka, Qoqol küc, Baku
David Brown is a New Zealand-born travel writer and language consultant based in Helsinki, Finland. His work has appeared in magazines and newspapers in New Zealand, Australia, the US and UK. He hosts a website called Word of Mouth.
- Theodore Roosevelt's Long Island Home - September 29, 2023
- "I Can't Believe We Live Here!" - September 27, 2023
- Litter Robot 4, Family Tree DNA and Other New Finds - September 24, 2023


text:
Custom CMS block displayed at the top of the right sidebar. Put your own content here: text, HTML, images - whatever you like.
There are many similar content placeholders across the store. All editable from admin panel.
Custom CMS block displayed at the bottom of the right sidebar. There are many similar content placeholders across the store.
EMMX proudly develops novel molecules and reagents to drug discovery and cancer research.
We are scientists driven by a devotion to discovery and innovation, and we work hard every day to find new ways to streamline life science research.
Optimum Technical Support, Online, email or phone
Unconditional Return & Replacement
Free Overnight Delivery on all orders over $500
Safe Online Shopping SSL, Verified Domain, and more
Call Us 888-539-0666
Fax +1-310-957-2966
For bulk inquiry
please contact us
Visit our blog
for recently update


text:
Good Morning Paper Shelter Followers, this week we are hosting yet another Challenge involving Flowers but this time you can add any sort, either on your papers or as a embellishment I leave the choice up to you, but we do need to see them on your cards please. All the cards entered for last weeks Challenge "Roses" were truly gorgeous and the lucky person who and was chosen by Random Org is:-
Random Integer Generator
and please make sure you collect your prize by Saturday.
using Teddy bear with Flower


text:
Hadley Products of air horn fame has introduced a multi-function height adjustment valve for tractor air suspensions. Called SmartValve, the device combines several components into one housing, and is said to solve major fleet challenges of driver shortages and increased fuel costs.
The SmartValve raises and lowers a tractor's chassis to match that of the trailer's upper coupler and kingpin, saving drivers time and effort, said Bob Dubsky, Hadley's president. It helps reduce back and leg injuries because it can eliminate the hard labor of raising and lowering trailer noses when their heights don't match a tractor's.
It speeds hook-and-drop operations and will pay for itself in six months or less, Dubsky contended during a press conference on the eve of TMC's annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn.
Extensive testing at the Bosch Automotive Proving Grounds in Indiana validated the time saved by SmartValve in these operations as compared with mechanical height control valves. In high-frequency drop-and-hook ops, SmartValve saves each driver a week's worth of time every year. That equates to increased productivity and annual savings of $1,350 per driver for the fleet.
Insurance industry officials say that raising and lowering landing gear is one of the top sources of driver injuries, Dubsky said. The chief cause is falls from equipment. SmartValve minimizes these injuries by reducing the landing-gear cranking, and reducing some of the need to get out and into the cab. Fleets will benefit through reduced workers' compensation premiums.
Easier operations can help recruit and retain drivers, said Bob Zirlin, director of marketing. In a survey Hadley conducted of drivers familiar with both SmartValve and mechanical height control valves, all drivers questioned enthusiastically preferred SmartValve.
The SmartValve electronic height control system can also help fleets save fuel, Dubsky said. Fuel economy is improved through greater ride height accuracy, resulting in reduced compressor run time and avoidance of unnecessary valve actuations.
SmartValve provides truck builders with a tool to design more aerodynamic tractors because it can automatically lower vehicle ride heights by 1 to 2 inches at highway speeds. Lowering occurs at 45 mph, while raising happens at 35 mph, he said.
Hadley track-tested this future function with extensive SAE J1321 Type II fuel economy runs. The results show a 0.7 % improvement on the specific tractor model tested at low ride height.
With new tractor designs, that could mean savings of $700 or more per year for every tractor in the fleet, Dubsky said. A 100-unit fleet would save 17,500 gallons of diesel every year.
SmartValve is available today as a retrofit kit for specific applications, with additional coverage planned for the months ahead. SmartValve will be available later this year for installation by truck builders.
Hadley is a supplier of components for Class 5-8 trucks, tractors and trailers and other transportation equipment. More information is at www.hadleyadvantage.com.
53-Foot Powered Trailer Helps Reduce Emissions
Range Energy introduced its 53-foot powered trailer, RA-01. The full-scale electric trailer is designed for fleets seeking ways to reduce emissions.


text:
Sony expects that 3D televisions will make up between 30 percent and 50 percent of all sets it sells in the financial year that begins in April 2012, a senior executive said late last week. The goal further indicates Sony's confidence in 3D entertainment ahead of a roll-out of the technology next year.
Sony first announced its 3D ambitions in early September when President and CEO Howard Stringer said the company planned to launch 3D-capable Bravia TV sets and Blu-ray Disc players as well as adding 3D to the PlayStation 3. Sony's plans for the latter two products are already becoming clear: the Blu-ray Disc Association is working on a 3D disc standard while Sony plans to add 3D to all models of the PlayStation 3 via a firmware update.
On the TV side, perhaps the largest and most important part of the picture, Sony hadn't disclosed many details but now that picture is starting to come into focus.
The 3D-compatible sets will include a small piece of additional hardware that enables them to show 3D content but they'll also work as conventional television sets, said Hiroshi Yoshioka, executive deputy president of Sony and head of the unit that includes its TV business, in an interview. Yoshioka didn't elaborate on the additional hardware but said it would only add a little to the production cost of the TV set.
By far the biggest expense for 3D viewing will be the glasses that are required to produce the illusion of a three-dimensional image. Those could cost up to around $200 and won't necessarily be bundled with a television. By selling the glasses separately Sony will be able to keep its 3D-compatible sets competitive with other sets while only requiring a higher outlay from customers who want to experience 3D content.
Yoshioka stressed that Sony has yet to determine the premium for 3D-compatible sets and whether it will bundle the glasses or sell them separately. But the TV business is perhaps the most price-sensitive of all of Sony's product areas, particularly in the U.S. market, so the company will likely want to keep additional costs down.
Sony's TV business has been losing money for six years but Stringer committed this month to turning a profit on televisions in the next financial year, which runs from April 2010 to March 2011. Success with 3D will be vital if Sony is to accomplish its goal of grabbing a 20 percent share of the LCD TV market within the next three years.
"It's all up to the contents," said Yoshioka.
Sony's 3D plans revolve around gaming, movies and sports. Sony is already working on gaming with the PlayStation 3 upgrade plans and its movies division, Sony Pictures, is already producing 3D movies. If history is any indicator, sports is an additional area where users are willing to pay a little more money for a better experience.
The company's existing relationship with broadcasters through its movie division and TV production house could serve well in promoting 3D but even if it doesn't there will be a secondary route to 3D-capable sets. Sony is expanding its PlayStation Network service to cover its televisions and will launch a new content delivery service next year that will pump movies, TV shows and other video content directly into Bravia TVs and Blu-ray Disc players from its own servers.
Smaller-scale experiments have already taken place in the U.S., where Sony recently offered its Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movie to Internet-linked Bravia TVs ahead of the DVD release.
"So far there is a good response," said Yoshioka of the trial.
Late last year, Hancock, another Sony movie, was offered via the same route.


text:
LEDs do not directly produce white light. There are two ways in which white light is produced from LEDs as below:
Using a blue LED with a phosphor coating to convert blue light to white light by a process called fluorescence.
Combining red, blue and green LEDs to produce white light. White light is produced by varying the intensities of the individual red, blue and green chips.


text:
Twice a year I will be providing some trends that I am seeing in the e-learning market.
This one trend really is an irritation to me, because the term "training" is showing up rather than "learning", which is the standard term as it relates to online learning (see it already?).
We call online learning, e-learning, not e-training, but some vendors will have you believe that "training" is the appropriate term, rather than learning.
It can be seen in systems that dub themselves "training management" systems, HCMs that state "training" as a component, authoring tools that describe their product geared towards "training lessons or courses", etc.
I know this one word is creating a stir among the instructor led crew and some educators, but in education we use the term "learning", not "training" when we are teaching students.
Custom Development and LMS vendors
Custom Course Shops
In the early 2000s, there were plenty of custom development shops and costs ranged from 1K to 100K and more, but the custom development shops were not as plentiful as today.
Reasons that the custom development market has exploded at a massive rate, just in the past year.
- Economy – with folks losing their jobs or unable to find work (due to layoffs, lack of hiring, among other things), more people are jumping into the instructional design, e-learning development and course creation. For the most part, it is one person, but I have seen groups of folks joining together to build content/courses
- Money – Depending on what you are offering, there are $$$ to be made. However, there is a flip side to this – with sites like freelancer.com, odesk and elance, there are swaths of people willing to create on the cheap, thus pricing to build great courses are dropping, and occasionally quality follows suit (not all the time, mind you)
- LMS vendors – read below
LMS vendors build in-house or outsource
Back in the early years you were more likely to see vendors build their own courses, with a nice size staff and someone who had an instructional design background leading the charge.
Then cost cutting appeared. When you think about it, why have people in-house to build your own courses, when you can outsource the course building to either an individual, boutique or larger size course development shop (that has the experience, etc. – since this is all they do).
Many vendors followed this approach, and the number of vendors who built in-house became a rarity (as a whole).
The Trend
LMS vendors are re-surfacing to offer in-house custom course development, as part of their offerings. While some never dropped to outsourcing, there is an increase in custom content/course development.
- There were/are vendors who entered the LMS market – this is to say, they first were a custom course development shop (primary product)
- As noted as "are", some vendors still have a large client base, which is great, but will spin their marketing that these people are clients, without specifying of what -potential customers of their LMS, have no idea. Thus they give the illusion that all these clients are LMS clients, when the larger numbers tend to be as a result of custom content development – even still today
- There were/are vendors who first and foremost have the LMS (primary), prior to adding a custom course development line – which is the trend we are talking about
What do you mean?
- To generate additional revenue, LMS vendors are adding custom course development (equally pitched as content development) as another offering
- This new pipeline enables customers/clients of the vendors to have their LMS vendor as a one-stop shop, rather than going elsewhere or having themselves build the courses
Talent Management
Still a huge trend, and as previously noted in other posts, smaller size vendors are jumping into the arena.
With any trend, an upswing leads to newer approaches since competition always exists.
Latest to Appear
- Again, as previously listed, many large size vendors are turning into more a Human Capital Management system then a solo TM, heck even a LMS
- PeopleMatter – a talent management vendor focused only on the service industry, offers a streamlined and unremarkable LMS, is within the "Learn" component of their TM platform. PeopleMatter equally provides a mobile platform for their TM system
- Saba People Cloud – a social enterprise platform. It includes PQ – People Quotient, where end users can rank themselves, among other things. PQ is not something new in the space, and has camps who like it and dislike it.
- Talent management systems are appearing in education (K-12) – I expect this to see an upswing as well – as a separate sub-genre in the education marketplace, including academia
Quick hits, you can read about them in my E-Learning 24/7 Linkedin Group
- Game Based Learning – templates, mini games, etc. – you can read more on it in my Linkedin Group
- Image Libraries – not just the eLearning Brothers catalogs, but vendors offering their own images, graphics, etc.
- E-Signatures – electronic signatures
A couple more
- Online education (K-12) – One report states that as of March, total revenue is 1.5B to 2B USD. Are lovers of ILT paying attention yet? I just saw an article today, that basically says online education isn't that great. I've seen similar regarding virtual schools (which is the same thing as online education). Its total hogwash, IMO.
- Mobile Learning with LMS vendors – slow adoption rates. Nearly non-existent with native apps, self-contained with online/offline synch.
Bottom Line
These are just some of the trends in the marketplace.
Are there more? You bet.
The market continues to evolve, with advancements and enhancements abound. Some trends are appearing in emerging markets, some are emerging markets and some are components and feature sets, not listed above.
I always say, you can swim or drown, especially in the highly competitive e-learning market.
It's time for many vendors to take it to heart.
E-Learning 24/7


text:
DROP TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION drops an existing text search configuration. To execute this command you must be the owner of the configuration.
Do not throw an error if the text search configuration does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing text search configuration.
Automatically drop objects that depend on the text search configuration.
Refuse to drop the text search configuration if any objects depend on it. This is the default.
Remove the text search configuration my_english:
DROP TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION my_english;
This command will not succeed if there are any existing indexes
that reference the configuration in
to_tsvector calls.
Add CASCADE to
drop such indexes along with the text search configuration.


text:
Alpinestars is the answer for when pedalling through trails and mountainous terrain and obstacles that make the journey more difficult. Alpinestars have a range of MTB clothing, gloves and protection that has been specifically designed for the demands of mountain biking.
Inspired by the sensations of adventure and freedom offered by mountain biking, the Alpinestars MTB collection is the culmination of an intensive development program at the Alpinestars I+D facilities, also incorporating the recommendations of world champions such as Aaron Gwin and Anneke Beerten.
With special emphasis on weight reduction, durability and comfort, and in combination with unparalleled levels of protection, this innovative and high-performance collection uses the most technical materials and the most advanced design concepts.
Categories related to AlpineStars


text:
(feat. Mystic)
If U w/ me girlfriend then wave your hands
Slap a nigga wit a hundred just to show your grand
Get them niggas fuck all U can
I'm gettin' paid just to fuck a man
[Verse 1]
Im a bad ass bitch nigga
that's why yo' doe gone
and all yo' weed in the ozone
Im doing this one for my no thugs
who on no drugs
other niggas yellin' out so what, huh
Cause you could never be my only one
cause I want too much shit, want too much done
recognize who I be when you see me in the club
like a pooch in a coupe with the roof dropped down
where my real bitches at?
right here
where them niggas riches at?
right here
We treatin' niggas like rental cars doggin' em out
with no doe theres nothing we can talk about
[Chorus (Repeat 2x)]
[Verse 2]
I can tell by your eyes, love is what you feel
U wanna talk nigga, then lets discuss my bills
as you can see im an expensive bitch
who has good taste and love expensive shit
U wanna conversate well nigga I charge a fee
each additional minute, nigga I charge a fee
You short well nigga I gots to go
only ballers are tall enough to reach my goal
I know you love me but I love your huns
cause U could never be my only one
Don't trust me, broke nigga don't lust me
cause gettin' paid is a must be
and hell naw you can't fuck me
[Chorus (repeat 2x)]
[Verse 3]
2 karats in the ear
4 karats in the ring
hoes get sick when they see the bling bling
stay fuckin' wit' a thug
who would cop the 4, cop some ?
then cruize and just drop u off
want me to lock the door
im not whore
fuck nigga get your mind right or im out the door
gotta go, goota go
6 double o
im a big trouble hoe
who likes to smuggle doe
from my head to my toe
fly shit fo' sho'
want my wrist to glow
and my tips to flow
don't puff blunts
i like my B's up front
you can smoke though blow weed on my kunt
cause im a bad bitch
first round draft-pick
shaped like a coka- cola classic
get my ass licked
take a nigga for his cash quick
even take plastic, uh
yeah I know yall niggas can say fuck them hoes
but not on this one
im doing this one for my bitches
all bitches of all bitches
and fuck them flaw bitches
okay, play wit' it
Ms Trina
new Millennium
year 2000
slip -n- slide


text:
By: Beverly Bell
May 18, 2010
Jonas Deronzil from Verrettes has been farming since 1974. Like small producers throughout Haiti, his meager income from corn, rice, and beans is threatened by new competition from Monsanto. (Photo: Beverly Bell)
"A new earthquake" is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto's seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation's presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.
In an open letter sent May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the executive director of MPP and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti "a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds ... and on what is left our environment in Haiti."(1) Haitian social movements have been vocal in their opposition to agribusiness imports of seeds and food, which undermines local production with local seed stocks. They have expressed special concern about the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
For now, without a law regulating the use of GMOs in Haiti, the Ministry of Agriculture rejected Monsanto's offer of Roundup Ready GMOs seeds. In an email exchange, a Monsanto representative assured the Ministry of Agriculture that the seeds being donated are not GMOs.
Elizabeth Vancil, Monsanto's director of development initiatives, called the news that the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture approved the donation "a fabulous Easter gift" in an April email.(2) Monsanto is known for aggressively pushing seeds, especially GMOs seeds, in both the global North and South, including through highly restrictive technology agreements with farmers who are not always made fully aware of what they are signing. According to interviews by this writer with representatives of Mexican small farmer organizations, they then find themselves forced to buy Monsanto seeds each year, under conditions they find onerous and at costs they sometimes cannot afford.
The hybrid corn seeds Monsanto has donated to Haiti are treated with the fungicide Maxim XO, and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with thiram.(3) Thiram belongs to a highly toxic class of chemicals called ethylene bisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs). Results of tests of EBDCs on mice and rats caused concern to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which then ordered a special review. The EPA determined that EBDC-treated plants are so dangerous to agricultural workers that they must wear special protective clothing when handling them. Pesticides containing thiram must contain a special warning label, the EPA ruled. The EPA also barred marketing of the chemicals for many home garden products, because it assumes that most gardeners do not have adequately protective clothing.(4) Monsanto's passing mention of thiram to Ministry of Agriculture officials in an email contained no explanation of the dangers, nor any offer of special clothing or training for those who will be farming with the toxic seeds.
Haitian social movements' concern is not just about the dangers of the chemicals and the possibility of future GMOs imports. They claim that the future of Haiti depends on local production with local food for local consumption, in what is called food sovereignty. Monsanto's arrival in Haiti, they say, is a further threat to this.
"People in the US need to help us produce, not give us food and seeds. They're ruining our chance to support ourselves," said farmer Jonas Deronzil of a peasant cooperative in the rural region of Verrettes.(5)
Monsanto's history has long drawn ire from environmentalists, health advocates, and small farmers, going back to its production of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war. Exposure to Agent Orange has caused cancer in an untold number of US veterans, and the Vietnamese government claims that 400,000 Vietnamese people were killed or disabled by Agent Orange, and 500,000 children were born with birth defects as a result of their exposure.(6)
Monsanto's former motto, "Without chemicals, life itself would be impossible," has been replaced by "Imagine." Its web site home page claims it "help[s] farmers around the world produce more while conserving more. We help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods ... while also reducing agriculture's impact on our environment."(7) The corporation's record does not support the claims.
Together with Syngenta, Dupont, and Bayer, Monsanto controls more than half of the world's seeds.(8) The company holds almost 650 seed patents, most of them for cotton, corn, and soy, and almost 30 per cent of the share of all biotech research and development. Monsanto came to own such a vast supply by buying major seed companies to stifle competition, patenting genetic modifications to plant varieties and suing small farmers. Monsanto is also one of the leading manufacturers of GMOs.
As of 2007, Monsanto had filed 112 lawsuits against US farmers for alleged technology contract violations of GMOs patents, involving 372 farmers and 49 small agricultural businesses in 27 different states. From these, Monsanto has won more than $21.5 million in judgments. The multinational appears to investigate 500 farmers a year, in estimates based on Monsanto's own documents and media reports.(9)
"Farmers have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or seed from someone else's genetically engineered crop [or] when genetically engineered seed from a previous year's crop has sprouted, or 'volunteered,' in fields planted with non-genetically engineered varieties the following year," said Andrew Kimbrell and Joseph Mendelson of the Center for Food Safety.(10)
In Colombia, Monsanto has received upwards of $25 million from the US government for providing Roundup Ultra in the antidrug fumigation efforts of Plan Colombia. Roundup Ultra is a highly concentrated version of Monsanto's glyphosate herbicide, with additional ingredients to increase its lethality. Colombian communities and human rights organizations have charged that the herbicide has destroyed food crops, water sources and protected areas, and has led to increased incidents of birth defects and cancers.
Vía Campesina, the world's largest confederation of farmers with member organizations in more than 60 countries, has called Monsanto one of the "principal enemies of peasant sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty for all peoples."(11) They claim that as Monsanto and other multinationals control an ever larger share of land and agriculture, they force small farmers out of their land and jobs. They also claim that the agribusiness giants contribute to climate change and other environmental disasters, an outgrowth of industrial agriculture.(12)
The Vía Campesina coalition launched a global campaign against Monsanto last October 16, on International World Food Day, with protests, land occupations and hunger strikes in more than 20 countries. They carried out a second global day of action against Monsanto on April 17 of this year, in honor of Earth Day.
Nongovernmental organizations in the US are challenging Monsanto's practices, too. The Organic Consumers Association has spearheaded the campaign "Millions Against Monsanto," calling on the company to stop intimidating small family farmers, stop marketing untested and unlabeled genetically engineered foods to consumers and stop using billions of dollars of US taypayers' money to subsidize GMOs crops.(13)
The Center for Food Safety has led a four-year legal challenge to Monsanto that has just made it to the US Supreme Court. After successful litigation against Monsanto and the US Department of Agriculture for illegal promotion of Roundup Ready Alfalfa, the court heard the Center for Food Safety's case on April 27. A decision on this first-ever Supreme Court case about GMOs is now pending.(14)
"Fighting hybrid and GMO seeds is critical to save our diversity and our agriculture," Jean-Baptiste said in an interview in February. "We have the potential to make our lands produce enough to feed the whole population and even to export certain products. The policy we need for this to happen is food sovereignty, where the country has a right to define its own agricultural policies, to grow first for the family and then for local market, to grow healthy food in a way which respects the environment and Mother Earth."
Many thanks to Moira Birss for her assistance with research and writing.
1. Group email from Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, May 14, 2010.
2. Email from Elizabeth Vancil to Emmanuel Prophete, director of seeds at the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture, and others; released by the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture, date unavailable.
3. Ibid.
4. Extension Toxicology Network, Pesticide Information Project of the Cooperative Extension Offices of Cornell University, Michigan State University, Oregon State University and University of California at Davis.
5. Jonas Deronzil's comments are from an interview in April. He was not specifically discussing Monsanto.
6. "MSNBC," January 23, 2004. "Study Finds Link Between Agent Orange, Cancer." The Globe and Mail, June 12, 2008. "Last Ghost of the Vietnam War."
7. http://www.monsanto.com
8. La Vía Campesina, "La Vía Campesina carries out Global Day of Action against Monsanto," October 16, 2009.
9. Center for Food Safety, "Monsanto vs. US Farmers," November 2007.
10. Andrew Kimbrell and Joseph Mendelson, Center for Food Safety, "Monsanto vs. US Farmers," 2005.
11. La Vía Campesina, October 16, 2009, Op. Cit.
12. La Vía Campesina, "La Vía Campesina Call to Action 17 April 2010 - Join the International Day of Peasant Struggle," February 23, 2010.
13. Organic Consumers Association, "Taxpayers Forced to Fund Monsanto's Poisoning of Third World," Finland, Minnesota.
14. Center for Food Security, "Update: CFS Fighting Monsanto in the Supreme Court," May 11, 2010
Editor's note: My thanks to World View News Service and Truthout for publishing this article. If you enjoyed this article, log onto the 15th edition of The Journal of History and read the lead-off article.


text:
In one of his earliest public addresses, at an audience for journalists, Pope Francis spoke of how, immediately following his election, an old friend and fellow churchman had embraced him, urging, "don't forget the poor." The new pope said that he subsequently chose as namesake the saint "who wanted a poor church," and concluded his remarks by exclaiming, "Ah, how I would like a church that is poor and is for the poor!"
Pope Francis' words were invoked early on during the Indiana Catholic Poverty Summit at the University of Notre Dame last month, and the paradox of Catholic doctrine — the imperative to alleviate the poverty we encounter in others while trying to become poor ourselves — was appreciable in the gathering.
Hosted and sponsored by the University's Center for Social Concerns (CSC), the daylong summit brought together all five of Indiana's Catholic bishops and representatives from Catholic social service, health care and educational institutions across the state and nationwide to explore and recommend new initiatives to reduce poverty in the state. "Five bishops in the same room, and all of them listening," joked Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin. "Why, that's practically an ecumenical council."
As would befit an ecumenical council, the summit began with Mass in Geddes Hall's Our Lady of Mercy Chapel. Concelebrating with the bishops, Rev. Paul V. Kollman, C.S.C., director of the CSC, gave a homily on the day's Gospel (John 14:1-6), in which Jesus assures his followers that "in my Father's house there are many dwelling places."
"This Gospel reminds us that Jesus made room for all," Father Kollman said, "and our work with the poor of our state should invite the same concern, even as we are mindful of the poverty we all share and ought to embrace."
Whatever they may have thought of Pope Francis' desire for a poor church, the nearly 100 summit participants plainly shared a determination not to forget the poor. Had they needed reminding, plenty of assistance was available from David Siler, executive director of Catholic Charities in Indianapolis; Rev. Larry Snyder, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities USA; and Sheila Gilbert, national president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, as well as from social workers active in three Indiana dioceses.
Even without the human stories that many of the summiteers are able to ascribe them, Indiana's poverty statistics would make any morally sentient person wince: At present, 16 percent of the state's residents and 20 percent of the state's children (which means 311,000 children — about four Notre Dame Stadiums full) live under the poverty line. Moreover, those statistics are inadequate, as the outdated "poverty line" is reckoned by the cost of the cheapest three-meal daily diet that the federal government considered nutritionally adequate in 1963.
Having heard nation- and statewide overviews of the worsening plight of the poor and the increasing inadequacy of communal response, the summit participants received more intimate views of urban and rural Indiana poverty from diocesan social workers at work in Evansville, Tell City and South Bend before breaking into five respective diocesan groups to discuss the use of education, advocacy, service and prayer in battling Indiana poverty.
When they had reassembled, Archbishop Tobin spoke, reminding the participants of three conspicuous commitments of Catholic social services: refugee resettlement, disaster relief and the alleviation of poverty. "We need to learn why we have been so successful with refugees and disaster relief," he said, "but we also need to keep in mind that Meat Loaf was wrong when he sang 'two out of three ain't bad.'"
As the summit concluded, Archbishop Tobin said that the Indiana bishops would be meeting again in May to discuss issues raised in the Notre Dame discussions and to consider writing a pastoral letter on poverty.
According to summit organizer William Purcell, associate director of the CSC, it is too early to gauge the effects of the Notre Dame meeting, but the unprecedented event "allowed leaders from around the state to draw attention to the needs of people in poverty, and reflect on concrete ways our Catholic faith calls all of us to respond. From this historical occasion, there were incentives for improved diocesan and statewide communication and coordination of poverty eradication efforts. The Holy Spirit was truly present at the day. There was real listening, deep engagement and a true desire to move further in addressing poverty in Indiana. People were inspired."
Contact: William Purcell, 574-631-9473, email@example.com
Originally published by news.nd.edu on May 10, 2013.at


text:
Today a new startup, Coin, launched with an intriguing product: A battery-powered, credit card-sized device that stores all your credit card information in one place. Perhaps intentionally, it looks a bit like the heavy, exclusive black Centurion card from American Express, but with a small LED display. You simply tap a button on Coin and cycle through the cards you've stored on it. When it shows the one you want, you swipe it like a regular card.
It sounds like a great idea… until you realize that the price of replacing a handful of plastic credit cards with a single one is that your ability to pay for anything becomes entirely dependent on the battery life of your smartphone. That's for security reasons: If it loses contact with your phone for a user-specified period of time, from one to 10 minutes, Coin deactivates itself. Coin CEO Kanishk Parashar says he wants to solve this problem, someday, but it's not clear when or how that will happen.
Thus, Coin has the same problem that all digital wallets have: In those odd moments that you find yourself with a dead phone battery, it ceases to function. That might not happen so often, but think of the times it might, and how they're precisely those moments you would most want your credit cards to function: Late at night, when you need to pay a cab, tow truck, restaurant bill, or whatever else you need to get you back to a place where you can charge your phone again.


text:
Wildflower Bud Vase
Wildflower Bud Vase
Sale Sold out
Regular price $60.00
Regular priceUnit price per
Sale price
This white porcelain bud vase is an exquisite one-of-a-kind item, crafted on a potter's wheel and accented with handmade clay florals. Unique and beautiful, it is an excellent addition to any home.
Height:, Width:
Our Making Process
Our Making Process
All our pottery is handcrafted in our home studio. Will creates each piece from clay on the potter's wheel, before drying it to a leather hard state and trimming it. Sarah then fires it into bisqueware beforeapplying glaze to finish the design and render it safe and functional. Each step is lovingly done by hand to bring beautiful, functional art to your home.
Care Recommendations
Care Recommendations
Dishwasher Safe