text:
Tony Pirone shouldn't have a badge
looks at a possible twist in the struggle against the Oakland police.
ANTHONY "TONY" Pirone is seeking arbitration with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to be reinstated to his previous position with the BART police.
SocialistWorker.org readers may remember Pirone as one of the police officers on the Fruitvale BART platform in Oakland when Oscar Grant III was shot and killed by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in the early morning hours of New Year's Day, 2009.
Pirone was caught on camera and observed by witnesses hurling racial epithets at Grant and physically assaulting him. He had his knee on Grant's back while Grant was laying on the platform as Mehserle shot and killed him.
Indeed, many consider Pirone as one of the main instigators in the events leading to Grant's murder.
Pirone, along with his partner Marysol Domenici, while never formally prosecuted for any crime or misconduct, were both fired on the recommendation of an independent consulting law firm regarding violation of BART rules of conduct--specifically, false testimony and physical assault, including Pirone's physical assault on various people and Domenici's violation of procedure in the use of a Taser).
Jack Bryson, the father of two of Oscar's friends who were with him on the platform the night he was killed, and Cephus Johnson, Oscar's uncle, have stated that people within BART management with whom they are in contact with have indicated that there is little chance Pirone will get hired back. But this isn't a certainty.
Bryson and Johnson think that it is highly unlikely Pirone would get his job back. While police in California have always been granted a great deal of leniency regardless how bad their conduct has been, there are reasons to think that BART may be reticent about having Pirone back on the force.
Pirone was used by Mehserle's defense to take a lot of the blame for the events leading up to Grant's murder. His aggressive attitude and the physical assaults against people detained on the platform were used by Mehserle's defense lawyer Michael Rains (infamous for his defense of the Oakland Riders) to label Pirone as the instigator of the events that night in order to attempt to excuse Mehserle's own culpability. Specifically, Rain portrayed Mehserle as an inexperienced "rookie" who got "caught up" in Pirone's violent methods.
That, combined with the defense's racist vilification of Grant, is responsible for Mehserle getting sentenced to only two years for involuntary manslaughter. By throwing Pirone under the bus to take "moral responsibility" for the events that led up to Grant's murder, BART officials and the defense were most likely hoping to avoid what would have been a far more damning scandal to BART, and police in general, in a city notorious for police brutality.
Johnson thinks that BART and the Oakland district attorney used the media blitz around Mehserle's trial to shift focus away from the additional officers who were intimately involved in the escalation of events that lead to Grant's murder. In the eagerness to get some measure of justice for Grant, Pirone and Domenici received less attention.
In the end, even the half-measure of justice that was achieved with Mehserle's conviction meant little. Along with Merhserle getting the lowest possible conviction and sentence, Domenici was re-hired before even a year had passed since her firing, with full back pay.
While hopeful that Pirone's attempts to seek re-hiring will not be successful, we must still say that the limited "justice" meted out after Grant's murder was no real justice at all. If Pirone gets his job back, the lack of real justice for people of color under capitalism will simply be made all the starker by the denial of even that limited "justice."
Any real justice for Grant and other victims of police brutality will not be achieved by leaving it to the courts or BART's discretion, but by building movements in the street capable of fighting back against racism and police violence.
There will be several more arbitration hearings over the next few months, with the last slated for January 2013, at which point a decision will be made.


text:
Both Craig and I agree that maybe Blog War isn't the best title (too violent, too macho), but we were just excited to work together on something, so...
So... Cool, no?
Let's continue.
Mike Allred and Laura Allred joined us right at the end of the music concert, and off we went to this incredible wine bar called Kir. We were greeted by Joe Sacco on the way in, and after a couple bootle of wine, he eventually found his way to our table.
It was an incredible night. The conversation was inspiring, the company was lovely, and we were so jazzed by it that we just kept on drawing. Joe Sacco got the best sketches, I think. We left in high spirit, and we had some challenges ahead of us: could we do this night justice in ours sketches?
And more importantly: could we top this experience on our next adventure?
to be continued...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - November 10, 2009
"When I was 4, I just kind of found these Beatles 45s," Rucker said. "I think I just said to myself, 'I'm never going to let anybody tell me what I can listen to.' And I never did. When I was sitting there watching 'Hee Haw,' my brother didn't want to watch it. He was older than me but there was going to be a friggin' fight if they didn't let me watch 'Hee Haw."'
That mindset has led the singer best known as the frontman of Hootie and the Blowfish to a career renaissance in country music marked by the kind of success no one could have predicted and few other black performers have experienced.
Rucker is up for two Country Music Association Awards and could join Charley Pride as the only African-Americans to win best male vocalist if he wins. And he has sold more than 1 million copies of his debut country CD, "Learn to Live."
Both milestones are receiving a lot of attention, and Rucker enjoys the comparisons.
"You can't help but smile when someone mentions your name in the same sentence as Charley Pride," Rucker said.
It's been nearly 40 years since Pride, the best-selling African-American performer in country music, won entertainer of the year in 1971 and male vocalist of the year in 1971-72, a feat not since repeated by a black artist. Rucker, who also has a chance to be the first black to win for new artist, will perform during Wednesday's live broadcast on ABC.
Pride's was one of the voices in that stewpot of influences that launched Rucker on his eclectic run through the rock and country charts.
"You have those memories of Charley Pride coming on 'Hee Haw' and doing his hits," Rucker said. "When I was 7, you could have Charley Pride and Buck Owens, Stevie Wonder and The Who on the same radio station."
Pride thought he would be the first in a string of black country music singers creating hits, and admits he is puzzled why it took so long for another to break through. (Ray Charles, a CMA Award nominee, sang some country songs and had a strong connection to the genre's audiences but was never considered country performer).
Pride has introduced fans to others over the years he thought might catch on, but never did.
"I don't know why," Pride said. "I think you need to go to the industry and ask them about that."
There are only two black performers in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum - Pride and DeFord Bailey, who was a member of the early Grand Ole Opry cast.
Some black singers like Lionel Richie, Solomon Burke, Esther Phillips and Al Green had fleeting success in country music on their way to other destinations, Country Hall of Fame historian Jay Orr said. And relatively recently, performers such as Stoney Edwards, Big Al Downing, Cleve Francis, Rissi Palmer and Cowboy Troy have registered on the country charts.
Pride figures he cleared most of the obstacles facing those who followed him. Signed by Chet Atkins in the midst of the civil rights movement, the platinum-voiced Mississippi native has had dozens of No. 1 hits and sold tens of millions of albums.
Perhaps his most significant achievement was disproving those who thought country's heavily Southern audience wouldn't support black performers at a time when race relations were marked by violence.
"I never had even one hoot call from the audience in all these years," Pride said. "Not one iota of hoot calls. I know it happened to Jackie Robinson when he was in that same kind of position, sort of. I never had to go through nothing like that. Once I started singing they didn't care."
Rucker's transition in this era has been seamless, too. The honey-coated baritone's music outweighs everything else and he's had three straight No. 1 singles.
"It seems clear to me that if I didn't deliver songs that country music fans wanted to hear, then radio wasn't going to play them," Rucker said. "
No matter the reason, Orr said Pride and Rucker stand alone in terms of album sales by African-Americans.
Rucker's not sure his success will clear the way for other black performers to mine country music for hits. But he hopes it has opened some minds.
"I don't know if I proved it can work," he said. "But maybe someone will give a second listen now instead of just saying no."
Get Action News on your website
Follow Action News on Facebook
Click here to get the latest Philadelphia news and headlines from across the Delaware and Lehigh valleys.


text:
K. Tempest Bradford is the main writer behind the Angry Black Woman blog, and also the author of that great list of stock science fiction TV plots we linked to a few years ago. Here, she explains why Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter isn't just a weak genre mashup, but also the ultimate white guilt fantasy.
In the annals of Lies My Teacher Told Me, one of the biggest and most pervasive has to be that old saw about how Abraham Lincoln fought the Civil War to free the slaves. I remember hearing this one as far back as Kindergarten, but the formal teaching of this dubious factoid came during my third grade American history class.
Given that kids in the third grade are possibly not the most sophisticated thinkers, it makes sense to offer up a simplified version of events. Thing is, the Civil War being fought to end slavery is not a mere simplification — it's simply not true.
These ideas about Lincoln and the Civil War are what I like to call White Guilt Fantasies. The kinds of stories white Americans tell themselves about the history of our country to make themselves feel better — or, at least, not have to grapple with the realities of the things their forefathers thought or did.
And this White Guilt Fantasy pervades Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. So much so, it inserts several plot points, incidents, and characterizations into the movie that are so unbelievable, the part where vampires actually exist comes off as far more plausible than the rest.
Spoilers ahead...
Hey, You Got History In My Blockbuster!
To be sure, I did not expect a high level of historical accuracy from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It's alternate history at best, and clumsy supernatural allegory at worst. But as many liberties as the movie takes with historical events and people, it never deviates from the White Guilt Fantasy about Lincoln or the war.
In the first scene, an 11-year-old Abraham watches as two (previously free) black adults being dragged away and a boy about Abe's age screaming and crying and fighting the man who's hauling them away. My first reaction to this was: Why are they acting like this is not something completely normal in their lives?
Let's be honest: During this time, black people had been slaves for decades. Even those not born as slaves had to be careful, since they might still get snatched up because they were black and someone could decide they must be property. Any black person with sense, including a child, would not be fighting and carrying on like this unless they wanted to get a severe beating.
And that's just what happens.
A white man starts whipping the young black boy, which is Abe's call to action. He goes after the man with an axe. This doesn't end well for anyone, and eventually the man with the whip starts beating on Abe, too. His mother jumps to his rescue while spouting some abolitionist slogans about how no man can be free unless all men are free.
This scene is supposed to show us that little Lincoln was raised up by slavery-hating people, and his willingness to put his own body on the line for a black person.
All of this is utter and complete crap. I'm sorry, but it is. Nothing about this scene makes any sense in the historical context of the movie itself.
This is our first taste of the White Guilt Fantasy at work and the building blocks on which our understanding of Lincoln in this movie are based.
Our Vampires Don't Sparkle, But Are Just As Nonsensical
When Abraham starts in on his vampire-hunting career, the movie still takes time to drop plot cookies that illuminate how awesome and pro-abolition he is, and how this fact makes him beloved by all good people. Such as the moment when Mary Todd, his future wife, gets all interested in him after he says something vaguely anti-slavery. Or the time when he and the black boy from the first act (Will Johnson) end up in jail for fisticuffs against some men who are determined to cart Will away as a slave.
Given that Mary Todd came from a wealthy slave-owning family, I doubt that aspect of Abe was really what turned her head. And I highly doubt she'd have called on a politician friend to get some random black dude out of jail. I also don't think the local police would have thrown Will in jail for beating up on white men. That was a lynchable offense, even in the North.
Even if we wave all that off, there's still the incomprehensibility of the plot with the vampires.
Henry, the man who reveals to Lincoln that vampires exist, tells Abe that these creatures have been in the new world for ages. First they preyed on Native Americans, then European settlers for a bit, then hit the motherlode when the slave trade started up. Now they have a stronghold in the Southern states, where there's an unlimited supply of food.
Vampires as an allegory for Southern slavers I can buy. But vampires who buy slaves just so they can eat them? Not so much.
These vampires don't seem to have any control. Once they bite you, they eat you all up forever, or turn you into one of them. Given this fact, they'd have to keep buying slaves all the time to stay fed. How is that economically viable?
In one scene, we see a very large plantation where there are no slaves — except those who are dinner. So who, exactly, is doing all the work here? The vampires? I don't see that happening. How does this plantation make money?
This movie forgets that slavery was the backbone of the South's economy. The reason why abolishing it was such a contentious issue wasn't just about feelings or mean racists, it was about how folks were supposed to make money without the cheap labor slaves provided.
Plus, at this time in history the trans-Atlantic slave trade had been abolished, which meant that slave owners relied on slaves breeding for more "stock". If a large proportion of the Southern populace killed slaves on a regular basis, and thus cut into the number of workers, this would disrupt the economy big time.
If we'd been shown vampires selectively feeding off of some slaves while others worked, I might have bought the premise. It would have at least been thought through.
The vampire allegory fails, because it doesn't add anything to our understanding of slavery or the civil war or Lincoln. Slavery is bad because vampires? Isn't slavery itself bad enough?
Once Abe abandons vampire-killing, we're treated to an outline of the Cliff's Notes of his political career. It's implied that Lincoln ran for office on an abolitionist platform. In real history, Lincoln was anti-slavery but not an abolitionist — an important distinction when understanding his motives as a politician, president, and commander-in-chief during the war.
But, whatever, have a high-speed horse chase.
That Awkward Moment When Real History Is More Interesting Than Vampires
The climax of the movie involves a lot of ridiculous plot twists, including Mrs. Lincoln inviting Harriet Tubman to the White House and Abe driving the decoy supply train to the troops at Gettysburg himself. The action-filled sequence that follows is impressive in its absurdity — and only manages to out-absurd the subsequent revelation about what Tubman is up to because there's more fighting and CGI involved.
When the South loses the war, the vampires mostly leave the U.S. for Asia and South America. One can only presume they do so because the supply of expendable non-white people is just as high on those two continents even without widespread institutional slavery.
When Lincoln finally rides off to see Our American Cousin in the end, we're still left with the idea that he did it all for the good of black people and the country, or something. Whether you cloak it in supernatural allegory or not, it's still a White Guilt Fantasy — and not even beginning to approach a worthwhile truth.
The story could have been better, and remained Hollywood-worthy, if the screenwriter had bothered to toss real history a bone. Lincoln hates vampires, because one killed his mother when he was just a boy. So it would have worked better for him to oppose abolition on legal grounds — but in the end dispense with slavery as a means of cutting off the vampire food supply, make them weaker, and ultimately destroy them. This works perfectly as allegory, because that's close to what did happen and why (sans blood suckers).
The real history of the Civil War, and of Abraham Lincoln personally, is complex and interesting, even by Hollywood's standards. Adding vampires to the mix should have added to that complexity, while illuminating the true horror of the institution of slavery. Instead, we got the Fisher-Price version of history.


text: I have web1 to web20 and some domains have SSH access, but i've noticed that they can access to /var/www and so they can read files from all websites. All website have Config.php files and those should be private files (db user and password is there) Files from other websites have a 744 perm's, if i change to 740 then www-data can't read them and so on apache. What can i do to dissallow this? Any solution?


text:
Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories, edited by yours truly, is out in paperback now. To celebrate, here's an essay from the late George Kimball. It's about Yankee Stadium II, Billy Martin, finks and phonies, brawling, and, of course, drinking with Bill "Spaceman" Lee.
There are things you learned about the old Yankee Stadium once it became your place of work that never would have occurred to you as a kid going to watch a game there. Making your way from the visiting- to the home-team dugout, or to the pressroom where they fed us and the adjacent quarters where we wrote our stories after games, involved negotiating an elaborate system of labyrinthine tunnels that could have been a large-scale Skinner box. A dim-witted scribe could spend hours trying to find his way around down there, but once he did figure it out, he'd be rewarded with supper, or maybe a beer after the game.
And since we only made two or three trips a year to New York, we were always making wrong turns, ones that inevitably brought us face-to-face with one of New York's finest on a security detail. Some of the cops had been drawing this plum assignment for years. Others, newer to the job, couldn't tell you how to get from A to B any better than another sportswriter could. They should have handed out road maps with the press credentials.
But the overriding memory of all those hours spent wandering around beneath the House That Ruth Built remains the smell. If you grew up in suburbia, it wouldn't have meant much to you at all, but if you'd spent much time in a big-city tenement or in the stockroom of a grocery store or ever wandered beneath street level in a restaurant that abuts a subway line, the permeating odor of Decon, the rat poison, would have been familiar.
My friend, John Schulian, must have recognized that smell too, because at some point in the late 1970s, he came up with a description of Billy Martin so apt that it should have been chiseled on Billy's gravestone: A rat studying to be a mouse.
The funny part of it was that, while Martin had carefully cultivated an image of a guy ready to fight at the drop of a hat, he wasn't actually very good at it. If you look at the fights he won, they were usually against marshmallow salesmen or mental cripples (Jimmy Piersall was just months away from the loony bin when Martin beat him up under the stands at Fenway in 1952) or a guy who was even drunker than he was (Dave Boswell at the Lindell AC in 1969). Sometimes he'd gain the advantage with a well-timed sucker punch, and sometimes he'd just think he had the advantage, as was the case in St. Louis in 1953, when he picked a fight with a short guy wearing glasses. (The guy, Clint "Scrap-Iron" Courtney, turned out to run against stereotype.)
If you watched him carefully over the years, he was careful to pick his spots. When Martin went at it with somebody bigger or tougher than he was, it was usually in a setting where he knew it would get broken up right away. In fair fights—and there weren't many of them—he almost always got his ass kicked. (See: Martin vs. Ed Whitson at the Cross Keys Inn, Baltimore, 1985.)
I'd been at Yankee Stadium the night Thad Tillotson bounced a pitch off Joe Foy's helmet in 1967. "Watch this," I told my then-wife when Tillotson came to bat a couple of innings later. Sure enough, Jim Lonborg drilled him in the back, both benches emptied, and when they finally pulled them apart, there were Joe Pepitone and Rico Petrocelli rolling around in the dirt.
I was also at Fenway Park the day in 1973 when Stick Michael missed a bunt on a suicide squeeze. With Thurman Munson barreling in from third toward Carlton Fisk, whom he didn't like much anyway, the result was somewhat predictable. Both benches emptied after the collision, and even as they dragged Munson away, Fisk and Michael were going at it. Boston lefty Bill "Spaceman" Lee said the whole thing looked like a bunch of hookers swinging their purses at each other. Everyone save Thurman Munson thought that was pretty funny.
So, by the time Billy Martin came back to manage his old team, Red Sox–Yankee rhubarbs were nothing new. Their history long predated the return of Number One. I'd seen them start for good reasons and for bad reasons, and sometimes they'd started just because they were Yankees and Red Sox. So, when another one broke out on May 20, 1976, I wasn't surprised. You could see this one coming a mile down the road. It was like watching a fight develop in slow motion.
Lee had a 1–0 lead with two out in the bottom of the sixth. Lou Piniella, at second, represented the tying run; Graig Nettles was on first. With the count 2–1 on Otto Velez, Spaceman threw a sinker on the outside of the plate, and Velez stroked it into the opposite field. It was hit so hard that when Dwight Evans grabbed it on one hop, it briefly crossed my mind that he might even have a play on Nettles at second. That's when I looked down and saw Piniella rounding third, and he didn't seem to be slowing down.
Evans may have had the best arm in the American League back then, and not even a good base runner would have challenged him in this situation, but Piniella was, at this point, committed and kept on coming. Evans threw in one fluid motion, a strike to the plate, and had him by at least ten feet. If it had somehow been a closer play, maybe what happened next wouldn't have happened at all, but now it was inevitable. Out by a mile, Piniella's only chance was to run right over Fisk, barreling into him so hard that he might dislodge the ball. Fisk, aware of this, was determined to make the experience painful enough that Lou would think twice before he ever tried it again.
As tags go, it was pretty aggressive. Fisk may even have tried to tag him in the nuts—and with his fist, not his glove, holding the ball. Naturally, Lou came up swinging, and in what seemed barely an instant, there were fifty or sixty guys in uniform going at it in the middle of the infield. Or that's the way it seemed. Actually, some of them took a bit longer getting there than others. Traditional baseball protocol in these situations calls for the occupants of both bullpens, even the ones intent on serving as peacemakers, to make a mad dash all the way to the infield, where they are to then grab one of their opposite numbers and wrestle for a while until the smoke clears.
Logic would suggest that it would be a lot simpler to just pair off out in the bullpen, particularly since, in its new configuration, Yankee Stadium's bullpens shared a common gate. So, when the fight started, everybody from both bullpens jumped up simultaneously to race in to where the action was. Tom House, then a Boston reliever, told me that when he got to the gate, Catfish Hunter was gallantly holding it open for him.
"See ya in there, kid," said Catfish as House trotted past.
Fisk and Piniella were rolling around on the ground following the collision when Lee, who'd been backing up the plate on the play, spotted Velez trying to be third man in.
The first guy to hit Lee was actually Mickey Rivers, who must have been taking boxing lessons from Billy Martin. Mick was running up and down behind the scrum, looking like a guy playing Whack-A-Mole as he lashed out at the back of every Boston cap he could spot. (Somebody watching on television later told me that Ken Harrelson, in his blow-by-blow call on a Boston station, said, "Rivers is just basically just running around sucker-punching everybody!")
The next thing I saw was Nettles grabbing Spaceman from behind, seemingly lifting him over his head, and body-slamming him. I don't know for a fact that he was trying to throw Lee on his left shoulder, but that's how he landed. (Nettles claimed later that he was just trying to drag Lee off Velez, since Rivers's punch hadn't done the job.) Lee was 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, almost the exact dimensions of Muhammad Ali, but truth be told, he couldn't fight any better than Billy Martin could, even though he did have an impressive one-punch KO on his résumé.
That had occurred in a winter league game down in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, several years earlier. When Eliseo Rodriguez charged the mound, Lee reflexively stuck his hand out in self-defense and, to his own surprise, knocked Rodriguez cold. Only when he read the next morning's papers did he realize that he'd knocked out the island's former Golden Gloves light-heavyweight champion.
The return bout took place in Caguas a week later. Rodriguez and two of his relatives were waiting when Spaceman got off the team bus. They beat him up and rammed his face into a light pole for good measure.
"I did get a nice new set of teeth out of the deal," said Spaceman.
With Lee now apparently out of commission, Fisk and Piniella separated and Rivers dragged away by several Yankees, things seemed to calm down in a hurry. That's when Lee made the mistake of getting up.
In his college days at USC, Bill had played summer ball for the Alaska Goldpanners with Nettles's brother. Until a few moments earlier, he had considered Graig a friend. Now, he was screaming incomprehensibly as he staggered toward the New York third baseman.
"I think," Lee said later, "it might have been the word 'asshole' that set him off."
In Nettles' defense, what he probably saw was just a crazy man charging at him. In any case, when Lee got close enough, Nettles cut loose with a right cross, and when Lee tried to block it with his left, he discovered that he couldn't lift his arm above his waist. The punch caught Spaceman flush in the face and dropped him in his tracks.
A few months later, Ali and Ken Norton fought in almost exactly the same spot, and in fifteen rounds neither one of them landed a punch as hard as that one.
Oddly, I don't remember Billy Martin throwing a single punch in that brawl. Maybe he found Don Zimmer and the two of them sat it out.
Once order was restored, both Nettles and Lee were ejected. (Neither Fisk nor Piniella were.) In Lee's case, it was somewhat moot. Before the Red Sox finished batting in the next inning, he was on his way to the hospital.
He would later describe the episode by saying, "I was attacked by Billy Martin's brown shirts."
There was clearly no love lost between the dope-smoking Spaceman and the whiskey-swilling Fiery Genius. There were unconfirmed rumors, before and since, that Martin had personally placed a bounty on Lee, but there were enough Yankees players who intensely disliked Lee that they probably didn't need any encouragement from Billy Martin.
Obviously, the fight hadn't been started just to get at him, said Lee, "but once it did start, it sure seemed like there were a lot of guys in pinstripes trying to find me."
It might be noted here that, going into that game, Lee ranked as the number three Yankee-killer of all time, with a lifetime percentage against the Bronx Bombers bettered only by those of Babe Ruth and Dickie Kerr. Ruth, of course, had stopped pitching even before Harry Frazee sold his contract to Colonel Ruppert, and Kerr, pointed out Lee, may have accomplished the greatest pitching feat of all time—winning two games in the 1919 World Series with five guys playing behind him who were trying to lose.
Bill Lee's career didn't end that night, but it's fair to say he was never the same pitcher again. He had won seventeen games in each of the previous three years, but he never won as many in a season again. He had torn ligaments and a separated left shoulder, and nearly two months would go by before he pitched again. Between 1973 and 1975 Lee had thrown fifty-one complete games. In 1976 he would throw just one.
Nobody knew this that night at that ballpark, of course. All we knew was that Lee had been taken away in an ambulance, but when the team bus pulled up in front of the New York Sheraton an hour and a half after the last out, there was Spaceman, waiting in the lobby.
Since I was then writing for a weekly and didn't face a postgame deadline, Lee and I had earlier made plans to terrorize a saloon or two in Greenwich Village that night, and now, with his arm and a sling and sporting a black eye, he was determined to keep the appointment.
"Come on," he said. "We're still going to the Lion's Head, aren't we?"
Stan Williams, the Red Sox's pitching coach, had other ideas. "Come on, big boy," he said to Lee as he grabbed his good arm. "No curfew for you tonight."
So, with Stanley as our tour guide, we went bouncing on the Upper East Side. I vaguely remember visiting a gin mill with a hospital motif—the ER? the Recovery Room?—where the waitresses were all dressed like nurses, or dressed like nurses wearing white miniskirts, anyway.
Either the sight of a bona fide patient had scared all the nurses away or we'd moved on to another joint. Thirty-three years later, all I can swear to is that, a bit after 3 a.m., we were the last three customers in the bar, and Lee had been chasing shots of VO with the Demerol they'd given him in the real hospital, or maybe it was the other way around, but anyway, just then the saloon door swings open and who comes walking in but—think about the odds of this for a moment—Lou Piniella, all by himself.
As soon as he saw us he was all over Lee like a long-lost brother: "Gee, Bill, I'm so sorry. If I'd ever known this was going to happen . . ." I think tears may even have welled up in his eyes. And, of course, he bought us all a drink, and then another one.
The sun was coming up by the time we left, Sweet Lou in one direction, and Bill, Stan, and I back to the hotel. In the cab, I remarked to Lee that Piniella was a pretty nice guy after all, and that he had seemed properly contrite over the outcome of the affair he'd initiated at home plate that night.
"What else was he going to say?" Spaceman sighed wearily.
"There were three of us and one of him."
Out on an early morning foraging run, a solitary rat darted across the sidewalk. We all saw him, but nobody said a word.
At various times George Kimball was a poet, a pornographer, an editor, and a mayoral candidate, and at all times he was a hellraiser. He was a longtime sports writer, first at the Boston Phoenix and later for the Boston Herald, where he covered Super Bowls, World Series, and golf and tennis majors, but he is best remembered for his boxing writing. He co-edited the Library of America's collection of great boxing writing, At the Fights, and wrote the definitive book about the Duran-Leonard-Hearns-Hagler era, Four Kings. Kimball died in 2011. Here's a tribute I wrote for Deadspin that grew out of a Bronx Banter interview.
Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories also features essays from Richard Ben Cramer, Pete Hamill, Jane Leavy, Peter Richmond, John Schulian, Pat Jordan, Tony Kornheiser, Kevin Baker, and William Nack, among others.
The Stacks is Deadspin's living archive of great journalism, curated by Bronx Banter's Alex Belth. Check out some of our favorites so far. Follow us on Twitter, @DeadspinStacks, or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
While the Power Rankings are getting harder and harder to build, the Dunk Contest (and even parts of the skills competition) were chalk full of Pac-12 representation. And its less about who won the subjective award, but more about ohmahgawd what'd he just do moments. There was plenty of it (and Oregon got swept in the Bay).
Alas, we find ourselves with co-leaders heading into the homestretch and I find myself in sub-zero temperatures in Boston, MA. I watched a lot of movies over the long weekend.


text:
Modular drive system
The modular drive generation from B&R provides a universal solution for any machine manufacturing automation task. A new milestone on the path to "Perfection in Automation".
Line filters passive
Line filters
Regeneration chokes
Mounting plates
Passive power supply modules
Power supply modules
Auxiliary supply modules 400W
Auxiliary supply modules 800W
Auxiliary supply modules 2000W
Inverter modules (single-axis modules)
Inverter modules, SafeMOTION (single-axis modules)
Inverter modules (two-axis modules)
Inverter modules, SafeMOTION (two-axis modules)
Expansion modules
Capacitor modules
Braking resistors
Plug-in modules
Cables (can be used in cable drag chains)
Cables (cannot be used in cable drag chains)
Cable extensions
The drive system for maximum customer benefits
In today's market, customers demand more than simply meeting technical requirements. Above all, customers require cost-effective solutions, investment protection and a high degree of availability. ACOPOSmulti, the new drive generation from B&R, possesses these characteristics. It is the universal solution for all automation tasks in machine manufacturing. A new milestone on the path to "Perfection in Automation". The ACOPOSmulti generation offers the highest degree of efficiency for multi-axis machines that are commonly used in the plastics, packaging, print and textile industries.
Modular cooling design
The use of fans and climate control units in a control cabinet means considerably higher costs as well as additional maintenance expenses. ACOPOSmulti gives the designer the free space required for conventional heat dissipation in the control cabinet, a feed-through cooler with IP65 protection for releasing heat outside the control cabinet and a cold plate variant for connecting to a cooling circulation system (water, oil).
Wall mounting
Pass-through mounting
Cold plate mounting
Additional information
- Configuration of an ACOPOSmulti drive system
- ACOPOSmulti inverter modules with SafeMOTION
- Safety functions
- Overview of safety functions
- Trend-setting power supply
- Handling power failures safely
- Compact, scalable performance
- Outstanding usability
- The ideal cooling method for each machine
- Wiring made easy
- Intelligent power supply modules
- Integrated 24V auxiliary supply modules
- Scalable inverter modules
- Accurate encoder plug-in modules
- Embedded parameter chip
- Quality made by B&R
- Receiving design support
- Integrated technology
- Smart Process Technology
- PLCopen motion control
- Auto-tuning - fully automatic controller configuration
- 100% software compatibility with the well-established ACOPOS drive generation
- Cable assignments
ACOPOSmulti configurations
ACOPOSmulti drive systems include multiple technology-specific functions. The ACOPOSmulti functions listed below are basic functions that the user can switch between as needed within 400 μs. In addition, manipulations such as changes in product length, print mark control, overlying torque control, brief process adaptations and quality checks can be carried out at any time.
- Point-to-point
- Electronic gearbox
- Electronic compensation gears
- Cross cutter
- Electronic cams
- Flying saws
- Line shafts
ACOPOSmulti servo drives can be used in various configurations depending on the requirements of the application. The functions listed above are available to the user in each of the topology examples shown.
Reaction speeds are not influenced by the network and control system being used if technology functions are processed directly on the ACOPOSmulti drive system. Additional sensors and actuators must be integrated in the control system for more complex processes. In these cases, the level of performance depends mostly on the control system being used.
The topology examples shown on the following pages provide an overview of the bandwidths that are possible with B&R automation components.
ACOPOSmulti drive systems in a POWERLINK network
High-performance machine architectures require flexible networks and fieldbuses. With POWERLINK, a network is available to the user that fully meets the high demands of dynamic motion systems. POWERLINK adapts to the requirements of the machine and the system. The rigid coupling of many axes with controllers, industrial PCs, I/O systems and operator panels allows machines and systems to be created with the highest level of precision. Compatibility to standard Ethernet also reduces the number of networks and fieldbuses on the machine level.
Successful areas of use for these topologies
- Packaging industry
- Materials handling
- Plastics processing
- Paper and print processing
- Textile industry
- Wood industry
- Metalworking industry
- Semiconductor industry


text:
Government Office Supplies, Signage & Displays
Explore All Government Offices & Agencies Categories:
Browse Product Categories
Browse All Products
Citizens often have to visit state and federal buildings to take care of things like driver licenses and legal matters. When most people enter this type of public building, it is unfamiliar to them. So, what is the first thing they do to try to get their bearings? Most likely, these people immediately stop and look around them for signs telling them where to go. That's where government signs come in! Municipal and administrative buildings need a healthy supply of these wayfinding signs and directory boards to help visitors find their way around. From wall mounting sign standoffs to floor standing poster holders, you'll find a huge variety of government signage on this page.
While traditional sign solutions are essential to the smooth operation of a federal or state facility, government digital signage can provide directory information in a way that typical frames and poster holders cannot. With the ability to remotely operate up to 50 TV monitors at once, these LG media players are a great choice for any municipal building with constantly changing signage needs. The commercial monitors come with integrated media systems that let uses show the weather, stock tickers, live TV, advertisements, and more! Use this type of government digital signage in waiting areas or lobbies to keep visitors entertained.
Besides keeping guests entertained, state and federal office receptions areas will also need to provide seating accommodations. Government office furniture like chairs, couches, side tables, and coffee tables help to create a welcoming waiting area for guests. Use snap-open poster frames to hold art on the surrounding walls to further complete the room's décor. With a range of colors and sizes available, this government furniture is sure to look great in any office environment.
Government office literature displays are another important supply to municipal facilities. Many of these administrative buildings offer information and services to the general public. Literature holders are needed to hold the various periodicals, brochures, pamphlets, and magazines that are available. From spinning floor models, to countertop acrylic holders, government supply purchasers are sure to find the right display to fit their literature. Office cubicle file hangers are a chosen organizational supply by many government employees. Multi-pocket business card holders are another popular choice.
There are many other government office supplies on this page that are ideal for municipal facility outfitting and management. Crowd control stanchions, for example, have retractable belts to keep long lines orderly. Trash receptacles and recycling bins are a must for any office building. Ballot boxes are great for collecting employee feedback, donations, or election votes! Storage lockers with combination locks are essential for keeping personal items secure in break rooms and changing areas. Hand sanitizer dispensers are ideal for stopping the spread of germs around flu-season. All these government supplies and more are needed to keep a facility up and running efficiently!
Browse the product selection you see here or select your specific government industry from the top of the page to see products focused to your area of work!
Filter Results
Select a product type to enable all filters.
Product Type
Price Range
Customization Options
Placement Type
Color Group
Eco Friendly Features
Message Type
Return To Top


text:
HYMN Lyrics Text: Make Me A Channel
1. Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred,
Let me bring your love.
Where there is injury,
Your pardon, Lord.
And where there's doubt,
True faith in you.
Oh Master
grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled
as to console,
to be understood
as to understand,
to be loved
as to love with all my soul
2. Make me a channel of Your peace.
Where there's despair in life
Let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there's sadness ever joy
3. Make me a channel of Your peace
It is pardoning
that we are pardoned.
In giving to all men
that we receive.
And in dying that
we're born to eternal life.


text:
i had such a fun session with Baird and his mom and dad. can you imagine a more beautiful family?!
we hiked and raced and played in the tall grass at the park. Baird has a little sister coming soon -
i cannot wait to meet her!
|i love it when older siblings force hugs and kisses on less willing little ones!


text: Hi there, I am quite new to handle with Immunoaffinity Chromatography and I want to purify a protein from Hordeum vulgare with this subject. Before I start to purify the protein. I have to clean the polyclonal mouse IgG with a protein A column (BioRad, Affi-Gel Protein A Gel). The antibody did not bound to the protein A and I found the complete IgG in the first wash step. Then I tried a different way: I tried to couple the IgG via caboanhydrate moities to hydrazide activated agarose beats (BioRad, Affi-Gel Hz Immunoaffinity Column) In the first step I detected again the complete IgG so it did not bind to the gel. Maybe there are eome hints behind the productinformations? Please contact Jan Schroeder<jschroed at vzdmza.zdv.uni-mainz.de> Thanks, Tanja


text:
With hundreds of thousands of apps available for the iPhone and iPad, it may seem over the top to single out a specific app as a must-have. VIPOrbit is not your average app, though, and the capabilities it brings to iOS make me comfortable declaring it a true game changer.
First, let's talk about what VIPOrbit is. VIPOrbit was developed by Mike Muhney, co-creator of ACT!—the software that essentially created the contact management segment. Muhney was frustrated with the limitations of iOS itself when it comes to managing contacts, calendar events, and communications. He also found the third-party apps available lacking, so he developed VIPOrbit to fill a need: mobile relationship management.
VIPOrbit integrates your contacts with your calendar, providing instant access to all relationship details, quick scheduling, and easy communication. You can initiate a call, schedule a meeting, send an email, or post to social networks, and have a chronological log of all activity associated with a given contact stored automatically. VIPOrbit gives you a comprehensive relationship history for each contact, and enables you to build stronger relationships both personally and professionally.
When VIPOrbit first appeared nearly a year ago, I claimed that the app redefined mobile productivity. I stand by that assertion, but I discovered that the fact that VIPOrbit was only available on the iPhone was a significant handicap to its underlying potential.
To truly take advantage of what VIPOrbit has to offer, though, you have to commit. You need to develop the habit of relying on VIPOrbit for tracking your calendar, storing information about personal and business contacts, and logging your various communications and interactions. While the iPhone is often the most convenient device, it doesn't lend itself well to being the only device when it comes to adding and managing contacts and events.
The problem with the original version is that it was iPhone-only, and it is difficult to commit to using only the iPhone for all activity. Any emails or social network interactions I might have from my iPad, or PC would not be tracked or logged in the VIPOrbit app, and required a lot of redundant manual effort if I wanted to try and keep VIPOrbit up to date with my activities outside of the iPhone.
The iPad version of VIPOrbit changes things significantly. I can't fathom using my iPhone as my go-to mobile computing platform, but the iPad fits the role quite nicely. In fact, while there are thousands of apps designed to make the iPad more functional as a mobile business tool, VIPOrbit goes a step farther and provides a strong case for using the iPad instead of a laptop as your primary computing platform.
There are two things that I'd still like to see for a next evolution of VIPOrbit. One of them is in VIPOrbit's control, and I know it's a high priority on the to-do list. The other falls into Apple's court, and unfortunately I'm not sure if Apple is willing to make it happen.
First, VIPOrbit needs to complete the trifecta by introducing a version for PCs. It is a natural extension of having VIPOrbit on an iPhone and iPad to also offer a version for Mac OS X that can stay in sync as well. After meeting with Muhney for a sneak peek of the iPad app, I know that this is in the works, as well as a Windows version.
The other thing that would make VIPOrbit easier to use, and even more invaluable, would be better integration with iOS. Right now, I have to make a conscious choice to use VIPOrbit as opposed to the contact and calendar functions built into iOS, and any requests I make of Siri on my iPhone 4S rely on the default iOS apps. I'd like to have an option to tell iOS to rely on VIPOrbit as the default for these things.
VIPorbit for iPad is US$19.99 and VIPorbit for iPhone is US$9.99, but VIPOrbit is offering both apps for half off through March 1, 2012. VIPorbit Lite for iPad and VIPorbit Lite for iPhone are free versions limited to 100 contacts. VIP Orbit 2.0 for iPhone is available in the App Store now, and VIPOrbit for iPad is expected very soon.
If you have an iPhone or iPad, you owe it to yourself to check out VIPOrbit. Try it, and let me know what you think.


text:
Today's release of the Chicago Federal Reserve National Activity Index (CFNAI) indicated that national economic activity remained in contraction in November with the index weakening to -0.46 while the three month moving average remained flat at -0.41.
The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 indicators of national economic activity collected into four overall categories of "production and income", "employment, unemployment and income", "personal consumption and housing" and "sales, orders and inventories".
The Chicago Fed regards a value of zero for the total index as indicating that the national economy is expanding at its historical trend rate while a negative value indicates below average growth.
A value at or below -0.70 for the three month moving average of the national activity index (CFNAI-MA3) indicates that the national economy has either just entered or continues in recession.
It's important to note that at -0.46 the current three month average index value is indicating extremely weak growth nearing the recessionary level of -0.70.


text:
Agate Black Metallic 2019 Ford F-150 XL 4WD, ABS brakes, Compass, Electronic Stability Control, Low tire pressure warning, Traction control.
Clement Auto Group is home of the 30 Year, 300,000 Mile Warranty. Enjoy no haggle pricing. When you shop at Clement Auto Group, the price you see is the price you get.
This price includes $1000 trade-in assistance, $1000 in-house finance bonus cash, and $1000 loyalty bonus cash (previous buyers from Clement Auto Group). Contact dealer for details.
We have something for everyone with over 1500 cars, trucks & suvs onsite to choose from. We make every attempt to ensure accurate pricing and options on every vehicle. Dealer is not responsible for computer errors, human errors, or third party errors with pricing or description of vehicle. We recommend you contact the dealership to ensure accuracy of advertised vehicles.
Certification Program Details: Clement Assurance - Whatever happens, you're protected. Enjoy the peace of mind that comes with a 30 year / 300,000 mile warranty. Clement Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles have passed a rigorous inspection and meet the highest standards. Please visit clementautogroup.com for more details or contact us today.
Certified Pre-Owned 2019 FordF-150 XL Truck V8
- Exterior Color
- Agate Black Metallic
- Interior Color
- Medium Earth Gray
- Odometer
- 89,823 miles
- Fuel Economy
- 18/23 MPG City/Hwy
- Transmission
- 10-Speed Automatic
- Drivetrain
- Engine
- Stock Number
- Body Style
- Truck
Ford F-150
Highlighted Features
- Exterior parking camera rear
- Auto high-beam headlights
- Split folding rear seat
- Fully automatic headlights
- Trailer sway control
Detailed Specifications
- Air conditioning
- Driver door bin
- Front beverage holders
- Passenger door bin
- Passenger vanity mirror
- Rear beverage holders
- Rear door bins
- Telescoping steering wheel
- Tilt steering wheel
- Front anti-roll bar
- Front wheel independent suspension
- Power steering
- Speed-sensing steering
- Tires: all-terrain
- 1st row LCD monitors: 2
- Front center armrest
- Rear seats: split-bench
- Rear seats Folding position: fold-up cushion
- Split folding rear seat
- Drive type: four-wheel
- Engine location: front
- Fuel economy city: 18mpg
- Fuel economy combined: 20mpg
- Fuel economy highway: 23mpg
- Manual-shift auto: SelectShift
- Mode select transmission
- Variable valve control
- Approach angle: 26 deg
- Departure angle: 26 deg
- Ground clearance (max): 262mm (10.3")
- Ground clearance (min): 236mm (9.3")
- Ramp breakover angle: 20 deg
- Cargo: tailgate
- Rear step bumper
- Trailer sway control
- Exterior body width: 2,029mm (79.9")
- Exterior height: 1,961mm (77.2")
- Exterior length: 5,890mm (231.9")
- Front headroom: 1,036mm (40.8")
- Front hiproom: 1,588mm (62.5")
- Front legroom: 1,115mm (43.9")
- Front shoulder room: 1,694mm (66.7")
- Interior maximum cargo volume: 895 L (32 cu.ft.)
- Passenger volume: 3,285L (116.0 cu.ft.)
- Payload: 803kg (1,770lbs)
- Rear headroom: 1,024mm (40.3")
- Rear hiproom: 1,643mm (64.7")
- Rear legroom: 851mm (33.5")
- Rear shoulder room: 1,671mm (65.8")
- Towing capacity: 2,268kg (5,000lbs)
- Turning radius: 7.2m (23.5')
- Wheelbase: 3,683mm (145.0")
- Appearance: analog
- Auto high-beam headlights
- Compass
- Delay-off headlights
- Exterior parking camera rear: Dynamic Hitch Assist yes
- Fully automatic headlights
- Low tire pressure warning
- Oil pressure gauge
- Outside temperature display
- Tachometer
- Variably intermittent wipers
- Voltmeter
- 4 wheel disc brakes
- ABS brakes
- Brake assist
- Dual front impact airbags
- Dual front side impact airbags
- Electronic stability
- Forward collision: Ford Co-Pilot360 - Pre-Collision Assist with Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) mitigation
- Ignition disable
- Occupant sensing airbag
- Overhead airbag
- Traction control
Dealer Notes
KBB.com Consumer Reviews
- 4.0
A power house 3.5 eco!
By Scott's Beast on Friday, June 05, 2020Although i have only had the truck a little over a month i am impressed with the 3.5 eco and the 10 speed tranny. They seem to link up nicely. The only thing I don't like about the truck is it seems to ride stiffer then my 2010 f150 i had in the past.
- 5.0
2015 F-150 5.0L SCrew is the best vehicle I've own
By Gunner on Thursday, December 19, 2019The F-150 is the Aluminum body Ford truck that came out in 2015. New Coyote 5.0L V-8 is the best engine Ford has put in their trucks. Zero problems, ZERO. Transmission has been flawless, engine never misses a beat. interior has been flawless, nothing has failed. Best F-150 ever. Period.
- 5.0
I understand why they sell so many F-150s
By Tampa Tom on Saturday, November 23, 2019This F-150 Lariat replaces an older Super Duty that was thirsty for expensive diesel fuel. I was hesitant to get the 3.5 liter eco-boost engine because the reviews seemed too good to be true, but it's every bit as good as they say. The truck is roomy, quiet, and comfortable. I've had zero problems since new, and haven't yet even opened the hood. My only concern is the seemingly hundreds of buttons, knobs and switches I cannot read, reach, or see in the dark.


text:
Australian artist TEZ is an all rounder, his art spans across an array of mediums including painting, sculpture, ceramics, screen-printing and vector illustration. Much of his work comprises of a combination of these mediums and often incorporates recycled materials and found objects. TEZ unveiled his debut solo exhibition "Sure Ain't Sushi" at Sydney's China Heights gallery in late 2009.
He resides in his "fibro castle" on the New South Wales Central Coast and more often than not can be found in his shed creating his next fresh piece or just plain old tinkering.
Copyright © 2023 NiceProduce.com
All artworks and designs are copyright to their respective authors and creators.
For all support, questions and information, please e-mail us!
Want to be a part of NiceProduce? E-mail Team Nice


text:
Karen Lord's new novel starts out with a horrific act of genocide. Sadira, the homeworld of the Sadiri race, is completely wiped out, with countless Sadiri dead. The remaining Sadiri, living on other planets, struggle with preserving their culture and keeping their race alive in some form. With that sort of set-up, you'd expect a terribly grim book.
What you don't expect is a giddy romance, which is so light-hearted it almost approaches being a screwball comedy at times. But that's what Lord gives us, and it's delightful. Spoilers ahead...
I don't want to give away too much about The Best of All Possible Worlds, which is io9's book club pick for March.
But suffice to say, it's the far future, and Terrans have discovered we're not the only humans in the universe. There are three other races that appear to be offshoots of the same species as humans, including the Sadiri, who are basically like Vulcans. They're super-logical and have highly developed mental powers, but are also capable of intense emotion, particularly when it comes to matters of mating.
(And the Sadiri homeworld is destroyed by an offshoot of their race who embraced emotion, who seem very much like the Romulans — but we basically never meet those guys. They're already dealt with by the time the novel really gets going.) So the remaining Sadiri need places to live, but they also need communities. And they need mates — there are more male Sadiri than female Sadiri left, for various reasons.
So some of the Sadiri come to the planet Cygnus Beta, where various groups of Sadiri descendants — known as the Ta-Sadiri — live in scattered communities. The Ta-Sadiri don't embrace the full mental disciplines of "proper" Sadiri, or rather they do to varying degrees. At one extreme, there's a secluded community where the locals have refined their brains to an astonishing degree. At the other, there are some seriously messed-up Ta-Sadiri realms, including the one where they pretend to be fairies (as seen in the excerpt we published yesterday.)
Joining this mission is Grace Delarua, a government official on Cygnus Beta who's almost — almost! — too old to get married, but still full of vim and vigor. And most of the book is told from Grace's first-person point of view, except for very brief third-person segments from the POV of Dllenahkh, a Sadiri who's traveling around with Grace's crew. Grace's POV is so irreverent and silly, that any heaviness in the story of the survivors of a catastrophe soon gets lost in the funny observations and sweet moments. But don't worry — the horrors of genocide and the terrible question of how you go on after your world has been destroyed are not ignored in this book, which keeps circling back to them in ways that are all the more poignant for being surrounded with levity.
So Grace and Dllenahkh are traveling around, with a group of scientists and officials, surveying all of the very different settlements that seem to have some Sadiri ancestry. And given that the Sadiri all have mental powers, it's not surprising that a big focus of the book is on coping with the implications of mental abilities, including the ability to read or project thoughts and feelings. Complicating matters, Grace's own family turns out to be quite complicated — her sister is married to a man who turns out to have some mental abilities of his own, making for a uniquely abusive situation whose shadow hangs over Grace the whole time.
So there's a lot of heavy stuff going on in this novel, and yet it's a quick, fun read, that might make you laugh and keep flipping pages to see what happens next to the characters, even as incredibly intense topics are being processed right under the surface. I wish I knew how Karen Lord pulled this off — it's a pretty unique accomplishment.
The overall structure of the book is quite episodic, with our heroes traveling from place to place and encountering different societies — there is some peril at times, and even a bit of swashbuckling. There are also some huge ethical dilemmas that our heroes face. And one of the questions Lord teases out is: What makes a good society? What kind of rights and responsibilities should the individual have, and how do families interact with the larger units of the state and society as a whole?
And Lord does a pretty amazing job with the world-building, too, shaping four separate races and the countless planets they live on without ever bludgeoning the reader with information. We learn tons about separate alien cultures, and see them combining and reproducing in endless variations, without ever getting overwhelmed.
Along the way, Lord also takes in questions of predestination, alternate timelines, causality and panspermia, without dropping a beat.
And as a romance, as a story of intimate relations between people, Lord's writing is note-perfect. All of the romantic relationships in this book are passionate and emotionally complex, but they're also built on mutual respect among smart people. Here's one passage, where Grace is talking to a man she's had an all-too-brief fling with:
"We've had too little time, you and I," he said quietly. "And now you go this way," he continued, nodding toward the forest, "and I return this way." He looked in the direction of the savanna. "So it goes."
"No jokes?" I said breathlessly. "No lighthearted humor to make it easier?"
He gave a half smile, touching my cheek softly with the back of his hand. "I don't want easy. I want true."
"Then this," and I kissed him lightly on the lips, "is not easy, but it is true."
But Lord's writing can also turn lyrical and deep, like when the characters are visiting a memorial for the Sadiri genocide, consisting of candles on a lake, under the stars. Lord writes:
The moonless night pressed on the eyes like thick, heavy felt, making the small flames sear the vision as they danced on the dark water. The stars added their cold fire overhead, and yet the night remained dim enough to hide my attempts to dash away tears.
This novel is already getting compared to Le Guin and Mieville, but really what Lord has done here is an achievement all her own. By taking what could have been an incredibly depressing, mournful story of survival after an unthinkable disaster and turning it into a light, comedic romance, she's created something that paradoxically makes it harder to avoid the big, important questions she's addressing. If you want to see science fiction doing something new and fascinating in 2013, then you shouldn't sleep on Best of All Possible Worlds.


text:
This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Not many DeLorean owners painted their cars' stainless-steel exteriors; this is a rare find indeed.
I've got the DMC-12 on my mind these days, after seeing Evil Clint's DeLorean doing pace car duty at the 2009 Arse Freeze-a-Palooza 24 Hours Of LeMons. Yes, Clint has his Northern Irish import running just fine now!
So, on to the cool shots taken by Brownie for us:
This was parked a few weeks ago on 7th Avenue, between 12th & 13th. Circumstances were such that I was only able to take 3 shots, and in retrospect they're not the 3 shots I would have taken if I had more time to think about it. Also, it was at night and I didn't have a flash - c'est la vie.
But whatever - it's a DeLorean! It's a much smaller car in real life than I imagined. The photos do not do justice to how ridiculously small it looked in comparison to 7th Avenue traffic - the minivan in the first photo looks tall next to it, but in person it seemed like the DeLorean might get run over.


text:
Excerpt: "Texas death row inmate Ray Jasper is scheduled to be put to death on March 19. He has written us a letter that, he acknowledges, 'could be my final statement on earth.' It is well worth your time."
(photo: Gawker)
From Death Row, a Powerful Letter on Slavery
05 March 14
exas death row inmate Ray Jasper is scheduled to be put to death on March 19. He has written us a letter that, he acknowledges, "could be my final statement on earth." It is well worth your time.
Ray Jasper was convicted of participating in the 1998 robbery and murder of recording studio owner David Alejandro. A teenager at the time of the crime, Jasper was sentenced to death. He wrote to us once before, as part of our Letters from Death Row series. That letter was remarkable for its calmness, clarity, and insight into life as a prisoner who will never see freedom. We wrote back and invited him to share any other thoughts he might have. Today, we received the letter below. Everyone should read it.
Mr. Nolan,
When I first responded to you, I didn't think that it would cause people to reach out to me and voice their opinions. I've never been on the internet in my life and I'm not fully aware of the social circles on the internet, so it was a surprise to receive reactions so quickly.
I learned that some of the responses on your website were positive and some negative. I can only appreciate the conversation. Osho once said that one person considered him like an angel and another person considered him like a devil, he didn't attempt to refute neither perspective because he said that man does not judge based on the truth of who you are, but on the truth of who they are.
Your words struck a chord with me. You said that my perspective is different and therefore my words have a sort of value. Yet, you're talking to a young man that's been judged unworthy to breathe the same air you breathe. That's like a hobo on the street walking up to you and you ask him for spare change.
Without any questions, you've given me a blank canvas. I'll only address what's on my heart. Next month, the State of Texas has resolved to kill me like some kind of rabid dog, so indirectly, I guess my intention is to use this as some type of platform because this could be my final statement on earth.
I think 'empathy' is one of the most powerful words in this world that is expressed in all cultures. This is my underlining theme. I do not own a dictionary, so I can't give you the Oxford or Webster definition of the word, but in my own words, empathy means 'putting the shoe on the other foot.'
Empathy. A rich man would look at a poor man, not with sympathy, feeling sorrow for the unfortunate poverty, but also not with contempt, feeling disdain for the man's poverish state, but with empathy, which means the rich man would put himself in the poor man's shoes, feel what the poor man is feeling, and understand what it is to be the poor man.
Empathy breeds proper judgement. Sympathy breeds sorrow. Contempt breeds arrogance. Neither are proper judgements because they're based on emotions. That's why two people can look at the same situation and have totally different views. We all feel differently about a lot of things. Empathy gives you an inside view. It doesn't say 'If that was me...', empathy says, 'That is me.'
What that does is it takes the emotions out of situations and forces us to be honest with ourselves. Honesty has no hidden agenda. Thoreau proposed that 'one honest man' could morally regenerate an entire society.
Looking through the eyes of empathy & honesty, I'll address some of the topics you mentioned. It's only my perspective.
The Justice system is truly broken beyond repair and the sad part is there is no way to start over. Improvements can be made. If honest people stand up, I think they will be made over time. I know the average person isn't paying attention to all the laws constantly being passed by state & federal legislation. People are more focused on their jobs, raising kids and trying to find entertainment in between time. The thing is, laws are being changed right and left.
A man once said that revolution comes when you inform people of their rights. Martin Luther King said a revolution comes by social action and legal action working hand in hand. I'm not presenting any radical revolutionary view, the word revolution just means change. America changes as the law changes.
Under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution all prisoners in America are considered slaves. We look at slavery like its a thing of the past, but you can go to any penitentiary in this nation and you will see slavery. That was the reason for the protests by prisoners in Georgia in 2010. They said they were tired of being treated like slaves. People need to know that when they sit on trial juries and sentence people to prison time that they are sentencing them to slavery.
If a prisoner refuses to work and be a slave, they will do their time in isolation as a punishment. You have thousands of people with a lot of prison time that have no choice but to make money for the government or live in isolation. The affects of prison isolation literally drive people crazy. Who can be isolated from human contact and not lose their mind? That was the reason California had an uproar last year behind Pelican Bay. 33,000 inmates across California protested refusing to work or refusing to eat on hunger-strikes because of those being tortured in isolation in Pelican Bay.
I think prison sentences have gotten way out of hand. People are getting life sentences for aggravated crimes where no violence had occurred. I know a man who was 24 years old and received 160 years in prison for two aggravated robberies where less that $500 was stole and no violence took place. There are guys walking around with 200 year sentences and they're not even 30 years old. Its outrageous. Giving a first time felon a sentence beyond their life span is pure oppression. Multitudes of young people have been thrown away in this generation.
The other side of the coin is there are those in the corporate world making money off prisoners, so the longer they're in prison, the more money is being made. It's not about crime & punishment, it's about crime & profit. Prison is a billion dollar industry. In 1996, there were 122 prisons opened across America. Companies were holding expos in small towns showing how more prisons would boost the economy by providing more jobs.
How can those that invest in prisons make money if people have sentences that will allow them to return to free society? If people were being rehabilitated and sent back into the cities, who would work for these corporations? That would be a bad investment. In order for them to make money, people have to stay in prison and keep working. So the political move is to tell the people they're tough on crime and give people longer sentences.
Chuck Colson, former advisor to the President once said that they were passing laws to be tough on crime, but they didn't even know who the laws were affecting. It wasn't until the Watergate scandal and Colson himself going to prison that he learned who the laws were affecting. Colson ended up forming the largest prison ministry in America. He also foreseen in his book THE GOD OF SPIDERS & STONES that America was forming a new society within its prisons. Basically, that prison would become a nation inside this nation. He predicted that over a million people would be locked up by the year 2000. The book was written in the 8O's. Now, its 2014 and almost two million people are locked up. It's not that crime is the issue. Crime still goes on daily. It's that the politics surrounding crime have changed and it has become a numbers game. Dollars & Cents. You have people like Michael Jordan who invest millions of dollars in the prison system. Any shrewed businessman would if you have no empathy for people locked up and you just want to make some money.
I don't agree with the death penalty. It's a very Southern practice from that old lynching mentality. Almost all executions take place in the South with a few exceptions here and there. Texas is the leading State by far. I'm not from Texas. I was raised in California. Coming from the West Coast to the South was like going back in time. I didn't even think real cowboys existed. Texas is a very 'country' state, aside a few major cities. There are still small towns that a black person would not be welcomed. California is more of a melting pot. I grew up in the Bay Area where its very diverse.
The death penalty needs to be abolished. Life without parole is still a death sentence. The only difference is time. To say you need to kill a person in a shorter amount of time is just seeking revenge on that person.
If the death penalty must exist, I think it should only be for cases where more than one person is killed like these rampant shootings that have taken place around the country the last few years. Also, in a situation of terrorism.
If you're not giving the death penalty for murder, then the government is already saying that the taking of one's life is not worth the death penalty. Capital murder is if you take someone's life and commit another felony at the same time. That's Texas law. That makes a person eligible for the death penalty The problem is, you're not getting the death penalty for murder, you're actually getting it for the other felony. That doesn't make common sense. You can kill a man but you will not get the death penalty......if you kill a man and take money out his wallet, now you can get the death penalty.
I'm on death row and yet I didn't commit the act of murder. I was convicted under the law of parties. When people read about the case, they assume I killed the victim, but the facts are undisputed that I did not kill the victim. The one who killed him plead guilty to capital murder for a life sentence. He admitted to the murder and has never denied it. Under the Texas law of parties, they say it doesn't matter whether I killed the victim or not, I'm criminally responsible for someone else's conduct. But I was the only one given the death penalty.
The law of parties is a very controversial law in Texas. Most Democrats stand against it. It allows the state to execute someone who did not commit the actual act of murder. There are around 50 guys on death row in Texas who didn't kill anybody, but were convicted as a party.
The lethal injection has become a real controversial issue here of late because states are using drugs that they're not authorize to use to execute people. The lethal injection is an old Nazi practice deriving from the Jewish Holocaust. To use that method to kill people today, when it's unconstitutional to use it on dogs, is saying something very cruel and inhumane. People don't care because they think they're killing horrible people. No empathy. Just contempt.
I understand that it's not popular to talk about race issues these days, but I speak on the subject of race because I hold a burden in my heart for all the young blacks who are locked up or who see the street life as the only means to make something of themselves. When I walked into prison at 19 years old, I said to myself 'Damn, I have never seen so many black dudes in my life'. I mean, it looked like I went to Africa. I couldn't believe it. The lyrics of 2Pac echoed in my head, 'The penitentiary is packed/ and its filled with blacks'.
It's really an epidemic, the number of blacks locked up in this country. That's why I look, not only at my own situation, but why all of us young blacks are in prison. I've come to see, it's largely due to an indentity crisis. We don t know our history. We don't know how to really indentify with white people. We are really of a different culture, but by being slaves, we lost ourselves.
When you have a black man name John Williams and a white man name John Williams, the black man got his name from the white man. Within that lies a lost of identity. There are blacks in this country that don't even consider themselves African. Well, what are we? When did we stop being African? If you ask a young black person if they're African, they will say 'No, I'm American'. They've lost their roots. They think slavery is their roots. Again, its a strong identity crisis.
You take the identity crisis, mix it with capitalism, where money comes before empathy, and you'll have a lot of young blacks trying to get money by any means because they're trying to get out of poverty or stay out of poverty. Now, money is what they try to find an identity in. They feel like if they get rich, legal or illegal, they've become somebody. Which in America is partly true because superficially we hail the rich and despise the poor. We give Jay-Z more credit than we do Al Sharpton. What has Jay-Z done besides get rich? Yet we see dollar signs and somehow give more respect to the man with the money.
A French woman who moved to America asked me one day, 'Why don't black kids want to learn?' Her husband was a high school teacher. She said the white and asian kids excel in school, but the black and hispanic kids don't. I said that all kids want to learn, it's just a matter of what you're trying to teach them. Cutting a frog open is not helping a black kid in the ghetto who has to listen to police sirens all night and worry about getting shot. Those kids need life lessons. They need direction. When you have black kids learning more about the Boston Tea Party than the Black Panther Party, I guarantee you won't keep their attention. But it was the Black Panther Party that got them free lunch.
People point their fingers at young blacks, call them thugs and say they need to pull up their pants. That's fine, but you're not feeding them any knowledge. You're not giving them a vision. All you're saying is be a square like me. They're not going to listen to you because you have guys like Jay-Z and Rick Ross who are millionaires and sag their pants. Changing the way they dress isn't changing the way they think. As the Bible says, 'Where there's no vision the people perish'. Young blacks need to learn their identity so they can have more respect for the blacks that suffered for their liberties than they have for someone talking about selling drugs over a rap beat who really isn't selling drugs.
They have to be exposed to something new. Their minds have to be challenged, not dulled. They know the history of the Crips & Bloods, but they can't tell you who Garvey or Robeson is. They can quote Drake & Lil Wayne but they can't tell you what Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton has done. Across the nation, they gravitate to Crips & Bloods. I tell those I know the same thing, not to put blue & red before black. They were black first. It's senseless, but they are trying to find a purpose to live for and if a gang gives them a sense of purpose that's what they will gravitate to. They aren't being taught to live and die for something greater. They're not being challenged to do better.
Black history shouldn't be a month, it should be a course, an elective taught year around. I guarantee black kids would take that course if it was available to them. How many black kids would change their outlook if they knew that they were only considered 3/5's of a human being according to the U.S Constitution? That black people were considered part animal in this country. They don't know that. When you learn that, you carry yourself with a different level of dignity for all we've overcome.
Before Martin Luther King was killed he drafted a bill called 'The Bill for the Disadvantaged'. It was for blacks and poor whites. King understood that in order to have a successful life, you have to decrease the odds of failure. You have to change the playing field. I'm not saying there's no personal responsibility for success, that goes without saying, but there's also a corporate responsibility. As the saying goes, when you see someone who has failed, you see someone who was failed.
Neither am I saying that advantages are always circumstancial. Sometimes its knowledge or opportunity that gives an advantage. A lot of times it is the circumstances. Flowers grow in gardens, not in hard places. Using myself as an example, I was 15 when my first love got shot 9 times in Oakland. Do you think I m going to care about book reports when my girlfriend was shot in the face? I understand Barack Obama saying there is no excuse for blacks or anyone else because generations past had it harder than us. That's true. However, success is based on probabilities and the odds. Everyone is not on a level playing field. For some, the odds are really stacked against them. I'm not saying they can't be overcome, but it's not likely.
I'm not trying to play the race card, I'm looking at the roots of why so many young blacks are locked up. The odds are stacked against us, we suffer from an identity crisis, and we're being targeted more, instead of taught better. Ask any young black person their views on the Police, I assure you their response will not be positive. Yet if you have something against the Police, who represent the government, you cannot sit on a trial jury. A young black woman was struck from the jury in my case because she said she sees the Police as 'intimidators'. She never had a good experience with the Police like most young blacks, but even though she's just being true to her experience, she's not worthy to take part as a juror in a trial.
White people really don't understand how it extreme it is to be judged by others outside your race. In the book TRIAL & ERROR: THE TEXAS DEATH PENALTY Lisa Maxwell paints this picture to get the point across and if any white person reading this is honest with themselves, they will clearly understand the point. I cannot quote it word for word, but this was the gist of it...
Imagine you're a young white guy facing capital murder charges where you can receive the death penalty... the victim in the case is a black man... when you go to trial and step into the courtroom... the judge is a black man... the two State prosecutors seeking the death penalty on you... are also black men... you couldn't afford an attorney, so the Judge appointed you two defense lawyers who are also black men... you look in the jury box... there's 8 more black people and 4 hispanics... the only white person in the courtroom is you... How would you feel facing the death penalty? Do you believe you'll receive justice?
As outside of the box as that scene is, those were the exact circumstances of my trial. I was the only black person in the courtroom.
Again, I'm not playing the race card, but empathy is putting the shoe on the other foot.
The last thing on my heart is about religion and the death penalty. There are several well-known preachers in Texas and across the South that teach their congregations that the death penalty is right by God and backed by the Bible. The death penalty is a governmental issue not a spiritual issue. Southern preachers who advocate the death penalty are condoning evil. They need to learn the legalities of capital punishment. The State may have the power to put people to death, but don't preach to the public that it's God's will. It's the State's will.
If God wanted me to die for anything, I would be dead already. I talk to God everday. He's not telling me I'm some kind of menace that He can't wait to see executed. God is blessing me daily. God is showing me His favor & grace on my life. Like Paul said, I was the chief of sinners, but God had mercy on me because He knew I was ignorant. The blood of Abel cryed vengeance, the blood of Jesus cryed mercy.
There are preachers like John Hagee in San Antonio who have influence over thousands of people, who not only attend his church, but also watch his TV program, and hear him condoning the death penalty. Hagee doesn't see his Southern mentality condones the death penalty, not the scriptures. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that condones the way Texas executes people today.
Southern preachers use scriptures like God telling Noah, 'Whoever shed's man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed'. 'That's murder. Under Texas law, you cannot receive the death penalty for murder. There is no such thing as capital murder in the Bible, where murder must be in the course of another felony. Yet, they preach capital punishment is God's will. Even if you're guilty of capital murder in Texas, it doesn't mean you'll receive the death penalty. People get the death penalty when a jury has judged them to be a 'continuing threat to society'. 'That means they are deemed so bad that they have no hope of redemption or change in their behavior. That is the only reason a person gets the death penalty. They are suppose to be the absolute worse of the worse, so terrible that they cannot live in prison with other murderers.
That in itself is contrary to the whole Christian faith that believes no one is beyond redemption if they repent for their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ. For a Christian to advocate the death penalty is a complete contradiction.
As easy as it is for a preacher to stand up in the pulpit with a Bible and tell thousands of people the death penalty is right, I challenge any preacher in Texas, John Hagee or any others to come visit me and tell me that God wants me to die. Martin Luther King said, 'Capital punishment shows that America is a merciless nation that will not forgive.'
Again, Mr. Nolan, this is only my perspective. I'm just the hobo on the street giving away my pennies. A doctor can't look at a person and see cancer, they have to look beyond the surface. When you look at the Justice system, the Death Penalty, or anything else, it takes one to go beyond the surface. Proper diagnosis is half the cure.
I'm a father. My daughter was six weeks old when I got locked up and now she's 15 in high school. Despite the circumstances, I've tryed to be the best father in the world. But I knew that her course in life is largely determine by what I teach her. It's the same with any young person, their course is determined by what we are teaching them. In the words of Aristotle, 'All improvement in society begins with the education of the young.'
Ray L. Jasper
Ps: Forgive me for being longwinded, but I was speaking from the heart. Thanks for the opportunity.
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.


text:
AnyEvent::Capture - Synchronous calls of async APIS
I've been a busy little bee lately, and have published a handful of new CPAN modules— I'll be posting about all of them, but to start things off, I bring you: AnyEvent::Capture
It adds a little command to make calling async APIs in a synchronous, but non-blocking manner easy. Let's start with an example of how you might do this without my shiny new module:
use AnyEvent::Socket qw( inet_aton );
my $cv = AE::cv;
inet_aton( 'localhost', sub { $cv->send(@_) });
my @ips = $cv->recv;
say join ".", unpack("C*") for @ips;
The above is not an uncommon pattern when using AnyEvent, especially in libraries, where your code should block, but you don't want to block other event listeners. AnyEvent::Capture makes this pattern a lot cleaner:
use AnyEvent::Capture;
use AnyEvent::Socket qw( inet_aton );
my @ips = capture { inet_aton( 'localhost', shift ) };
say join ".", unpack("C*") for @ips;
The AnyEvent::DBus documentation provides another excellent example of just how awkward this can be:
use AnyEvent;
use AnyEvent::DBus;
use Net::DBus::Annotation qw(:call);
my $conn = Net::DBus->find; # always blocks :/
my $bus = $conn->get_bus_object;
my $quit = AE::cv;
$bus->ListNames (dbus_call_async)->set_notify (sub {
for my $name (@{ $_[0]->get_result }) {
print " $name\n";
With AnyEvent::Capture this would be:
use AnyEvent;
use AnyEvent::Capture;
use AnyEvent::DBus;
use Net::DBus::Annotation qw(:call);
my $conn = Net::DBus->find; # always blocks :/
my $bus = $conn->get_bus_object;
my $reply = capture { $bus->ListNames(dbus_call_async)->set_notify(shift) };
for my $name (@{ $reply->get_result }) {
print " $name\n";
We can also find similar examples in the Coro documentation, where rouse_cb/rouse_wait replace condvars:
sub wait_for_child($) {
my ($pid) = @_;
my $watcher = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => Coro::rouse_cb);
my ($rpid, $rstatus) = Coro::rouse_wait;
Even still, for the common case, AnyEvent::Capture provides a much cleaner interface, especially as it will manage the guard object for you.
sub wait_for_child($) {
my ($pid) = @_;
my($rpid, $rstatus) = capture { AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => shift) };


text:
The New SEO Professional: Master Of Both Left & Right Brain
Compared to its ultimate impact, the beginnings of an earthquake are actually quite small. Likewise, in terms of scope, the Penguin algorithm update was relatively miniscule, affecting only 3.1% of queries. Its impact on the industry, however, was far greater, as the de-emphasis of thin content in the SERPs drove SEO professionals to place […]
Compared to its ultimate impact, the beginnings of an earthquake are actually quite small.
Likewise, in terms of scope, the Penguin algorithm update was relatively miniscule, affecting only 3.1% of queries. Its impact on the industry, however, was far greater, as the de-emphasis of thin content in the SERPs drove SEO professionals to place a renewed emphasis on creating — and marketing — quality content.
In its aftermath, the industry has struggled somewhat to define what an SEO has become. Is he/she now a content-creating machine? What about the practice's well-rooted origins in data analysis? Has that taken a backseat to content creation? The upheaval in the industry has left many SEOs with something of an existential crisis, scratching their heads asking, "What am I?"
The SEO Lives At The Intersection Of Liberal Arts & Technology
Now, aside from more cat pictures, certainly the last thing the Internet needs is more comparisons to Steve Jobs and Apple. But, in searching for the best way to get across what I think an SEO has become, I'm going to commit a cardinal sin of lame article writing and make just such a comparison.
At Apple's WWDC event in 2010, Jobs famously said that, "[Apple] has always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts." By that, I think he meant that Apple products are born from both creative-based and science-based thinking.
I think this is the place that SEO has arrived at. For many, pre-Penguin SEO practices were tipped in favor of the technology and data side, heavily focusing on tactics like link-building while content took a back seat. In a post-penguin world, the practices have become more evenly balanced, with a focus on both content and the data/tactics.
What Does this Mean for You?
There are many theories about how the brain operates, but a persistent one is the logical vs. creative schema. Ehrenwald's Anatomy of Genius: Split Brains and Global Minds describes most people's mind styles as either dominantly rational/logical or intuitive/artistic.
Intuitively, this makes sense when we consider the people we know and when we think about how our own brains operate — we can probably classify most as dominantly thinking in either a logical, data focused manner or with a creative bent.
Given that people tend to tack to the approaches they feel most comfortable with, there is a possibility that as an SEO, you or your team may be giving the most time and attention to either data/tactics or content, depending on your dominant mental schema.
If you buy the argument that the most successful SEOs now live at the intersection of technology (data) and liberal arts, any singular-focused approach may be detrimental to your natural search success. (And, given that much of our mental programming operates outside of our conscious awareness, careful consideration may cause some to discover that this mental 'work-with-what-I-am-most-comfortable-with' schema has been operating outside the confines of their awareness).
So, if you buy the post-Penguin "liberal arts-technology intersection" argument, the implications for success are that you (individual or collective) must be giving sufficient mindshare to both liberal arts and technology. In many ways, the two are separate — building content people want to link to and share and optimize on page factors, etc.
In other ways, the data side is supportive of the liberal arts side such as tracking how the content is resonating, discovering new opportunities for content creation, assessing the competitive landscape etc. In this regard, it is a true intersection, the place where the liberal arts and the technology come together.
What An SEO Professional Has Become
To come full circle, and answer our original question, "what is an SEO?" now, post-Penguin, the modern-day SEO is an organic search professional positioned at the intersection of liberal arts (content) and technology (data). This means you, as a practitioner or organization, must be aware if you are tacking too far to one side.
It may no longer be enough to outsource the liberal-arts side to content creators, internal or otherwise. Now, it is too critical to your natural search visibility that you have to get involved and start driving the creation of excellent content. (And, please don't say that you don't have the budget — see this excellent piece on creating content with no budget by John Doherty —Producing Great Content with No Budget.)
On the flip side, it may not be enough to put content out there without both support of on- and off-page tactics and without sufficient visibility into how content is driving links and shares, as it would ultimately impact your natural search visibility.
As we enter the new year, make it a resolution to at least evaluate where your SEO practice is relative to the liberal arts-technology intersection; what you discover may alter your practice for the better.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
Related stories
New on Search Engine Land


text:
MioTech, a financial tech startup with offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, has raised $7 million in Series A funding to develop artificial intelligence based software for investment managers. The round was led by Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Hong Kong business tycoon Li Ka-shing, with participation from returning investor Zhenfund.
MioTech's graph database is designed to help large financial services firms store and process terabytes of data. Its analytics engine helps investment managers combine data from a variety of sources, including market prices, news events and micro- and macroeconomic activity, and get insights to help them manage their portfolios.
Co-founder and chief executive officer Jason Tu tells TechCrunch that MioTech will use its new funding to hire talent from top tech and financial companies such as Google, Facebook and Morgan Stanley. MioTech plans to focus its research and development on building its data feed pipeline and machine learning research team, as well as working with financial data providers to grow its data analytics tools.
Financial services is seen as one of the main industries that will benefit from artificial intelligence tools and many of the biggest firms, such as Merrill Lynch, are working on their own artificial intelligence based software.
Well-funded startups also developing AI-based tools for wealth managers include Addepar and Palantir. But Tu says that while consumers have benefitted tremendously from tech innovations by companies like Google, Facebook, Alibaba and Tencent, the financial industry lags behind because many financial service firms rely on in-house tech teams, which means that "fintech continues to be more 'finance' than 'tech,' especially in Asia."
"We are a group of hardcore technologists who aspire to bring true cutting-edge technology from research, consumer, enterprise software and many other industries, much of which have already changed your daily life, to the financial industry which is still dominated by error-prone processes and lacks big data analysis capabilities," he adds.
In a statement, Horizons Ventures project director Frances Kang said "MioTech's ability to capture, aggregate and dissect the data helps asset managers and financial advisors to have deeper insights in serving their clients. We believe that MioTech fits well with our portfolios of fintech and insurtech companies."
Featured Image: Keren Su/Getty Images
Source : TechCrunch


text: Track "red and black" – music for walks. This track can be used as a musical background for web sites, in games and video etc. Instrumental a composition with bright and positive mood. The file is intended for a background of short video, can be used as a logo or background animation.


text:
Potted Roses for Delivery
Which roses grow best in pots?
Most varieties of roses can be grown in pots. As long as you have an appropriately-sized pot, you should be able to grow just about any rose. However, if you want to keep the project low-maintenance, then the best roses for pots are generally miniature and shrub roses. These are often easier to maintain and transport than roses that grow to be very tall.
Here at ProFlowers, we offer high-quality roses for delivery, so you can be certain you'll get the right roses for your pot. From elegant white roses to stunning purple flowers, we have it all.
Can roses survive winter in pots?
It depends on the climate you live in. If you live in an area that experiences harsh, brutal winters, then it's likely that your potted rose bush won't be able to make it through the winter months.
On the other hand, if you live in an area that experiences milder winters, your potted roses should be able to survive, provided you prepare them for colder conditions. To prep your potted roses, you could bury the pot in the ground, add a layer of fertilizer to the pot or even move it to an indoor area to protect it from frost.
How do you care for potted roses?
Potted roses generally require a similar level of care as most other potted plants. After getting your rose bush delivered, here are a few care tips to follow:
- Use high-quality soil and compost when planting
- Water your potted rose bush on a regular basis
- Add fertilizer once the roses begin to bloom
- Prune your roses regularly
- Transfer your roses to a new pot after two years or so
How do you care for potted roses indoors?
If you're keeping your potted roses indoors, you can still follow the tips above, keeping in mind some extra considerations. For instance, it's best to keep your potted roses near a window where they can get a healthy amount of natural light. Also, the room the potted rose bush is in should stay between 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit at all times.


text:
Higher Education Quarterly removed paper: Perspectives of UK Vice-Chancellors in a Knowlege-Based Economy, 2009
From WikiLeaks
Unless otherwise specified, the document described here:
- Was first publicly revealed by WikiLeaks working with our source.
- Was classified, confidential, censored or otherwise withheld from the public before release.
- Is of political, diplomatic, ethical or historical significance.
Any questions about this document's veracity are noted.
The summary is approved by the editorial board.
See here for a detailed explanation of the information on this page.
If you have similar or updated material, see our submission instructions.
- Release date
- July 6, 2009
This paper appeared briefly on the web site of the journal Higher Education Quarterly[1]. It is Perspectives of UK Vice-Chancellors on Leading Universities in a Knowledge-Based Economy by Lynn Bosetti, University of Calgary, and Keith Walker, University of Saskatchewan. The paper quotes ten different university Vice-Chancellors (presidents) of UK universities, once of which, is now the VC of an Australian university. Some of the comments caused quite a stir when they were quoted anonymously in an article of the Times Higher Education[2]. But the paper soon vanished and still has not reappeared.
- ↑ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117999627/home
- ↑ http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=407233
Further information