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The rise in screwcap use in Australia since 2000 has been remarkable. Now they are by far the majority closure, for fine wines as well as more commercial ones. But a Masters of Wine (MW) dissertation by Alison Eisermann-Ctercteko, which has been published in Australian trade publication Wine and Viticulture Journal, presents evidence that is claimed to show that screwcaps cause more damage to wine than cork.
Eisermann-Ctercteko surveyed 22 retail outlets, most in the Sydney area, and examined some 11 500 bottles. The level of damage, if any, was graded on a five-point scale. Wines sealed with damaged screwcaps were then analysed for free and total sulfur dioxide (SO2) and browning (absorbance at 420 nm). Loss of free SO2 and browning are both signs of oxidation.
The results of these studies were alarming. The overall physical damage level of the screwcapped wines was 26%. 8.2% of screwcapped wines were damaged enough for significant changes to be detected in both browning and free SO2 levels.
In addition, 7.2% of screwcaps were applied incorrectly, or there was a fault in the application, but most of these defects were merely cosmetic.
She also found that printed screwcaps were more likely to show damage than plain ones. The Stelvin Lux, with its internal plastic seal, showed very little damage, but this closure is more expensive.
'Screwcap damage is a significant issue and shown to be surprisingly high in retail at a level of 8.2% of screwcapped bottles,' says Eisermann-Ctercteko. 'This is greater than the previous industry-wide problem of cork taint which led to the rapid change in closure type. This requires immediate resolution, as these levels are unacceptable.'
Screwcap supporters will argue that cork taint is more of a problem than the levels of oxidation seen in these wines because cork taint renders a bottle undrinkable. However, producers will be alarmed that 8% of their bottles are showing signs of oxidation because of the closure.
NOTE ADDED LATER: I have seen the original dissertation, and I disagree with the interpretation of the data. You can read my comments here42 Comments on MW dissertation claims that screwcaps cause more wine damage than cork


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Welcome to the third blog in our series focusing on Niue taoga (treasures) from Te Papa's collection for Vagahau (Language) Niue Week (6-13 October).
This titi (skirt) was collected in the 1920s by H W Cockerill a telegraphic engineer for the General Post Office who helped install a wireless telephone station on Niue. The titi, one of several are made of natural hibiscus bast fibres dyed in pink, red and green,and decorated with rosettes. They indicate a preference at the time for dying natural materials. This is similar to Cook Islands dance costumes from the same period.
Along with the titi, Cockerill acquired other items including tablemats, iliili (fan) and the lei (necklace) below.
Since the beginning of New Zealand annexation in 1901, New Zealanders such as Cockerill visited the island for work, travel and leisure. In 1973, Cockerill's collection was acquired from his son, and provide a snapshot of items produced in that period.

subset: commoncrawl


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Macadamia apricot coffee cake recipe
Macadamia Apricot Coffee Cake recipeThis article was published by: Matthew
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⚠ Note: for metric to imperial (or vice-versa) conversion please refer to our article on Cooking Measurements 101.
♼ Featured image is generic and may not represent the (final) appearance of a dish.
♼ Recipe origin is unknown.
- Ingredients
- 3.5-ounce jar macadamia nuts, chopped
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon flour
- 2 Tablespoons margarine, softened
- 1 egg, separated
- One 8-ounce can Pillsburyrefrigerated crescent rolls
- 1/4 cup apricot preserves
- 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
- 5 teaspoons sugar
- 1 Tablespoon flour
- 2 teaspoons margarine, softened
Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the chopped macadamia nuts, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 2 tablespoons margarine, and egg yolk; mix well. Set aside.
Unroll dough into 2 long rectangles on ungreased cookie sheet; overlap long sides 1 inch. Firmly press edges and perforations to seal. Press or roll into a 13 x 8-inch rectangle. Spread prepared filling lengthwise down center 1/3 of rectangle. In a small bowl, combine preserves and orange peel; spread over filling. To give the braided appearance, fold strips of dough at an angle across filling, alternating from side to side. Fold ends of coffee cake under to seal. Beat egg white slightly; brush over coffee cake.
In a small bowl, combine 5 teaspoons sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 2 teaspoons margarine, and remaining macadamia nuts; mix until crumbly. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over coffee cake. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 25 minutes or until deep golden. Cool 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Serves: 6 to 8
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Reference: Macadamia apricot coffee cake recipe
Recipe type: xarchivex
Find more recipes on thesmartcookiecook.com or see our latest posts.


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Assistive Technology
Each student computer lab within the School of Arts & Humanities provides specialized accommodations for those students who require such assistance. Labs are equipped with accommodations for wheel chairs and the visually impaired. For the visually impaired we have Zoomtext software, and larger monitors could be installed if needed.
Additional information for assistive provisions may be acquired through the Office of Student Disabilities Services (located in Shuster Hall, Room 238) at 718-960-8441.


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|Image from The Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Bella Patchwork Baby Quilt
17 comments:
The thought of public speaking makes me break out in a cold sweat too, but I sure would have loved to have the opportunity to demonstrate your binding technique.ReplyDelete
Ditto on the binding technique. Your edges are always sharp and defined. They look great. Love your work. Your knack for color is wonderful.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 23, 2012 3:11 AM
love the little quiltReplyDelete
I am amazed you can get your binding looking so neat doing it this way! Have you ever tried it with bias binding? Or do you find it works better with straight-grain binding?ReplyDelete
I love Bella! Beautiful quilt. I tried your binding method on my last quilt and it worked beautifully!ReplyDelete
That tutorial was amazing! Thats the first time I've ever pinned on the back and it totally worked out beautifully! Thanks for you tips!ReplyDelete
An eye catching quilt. Truly a beauty! Thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
I love the color combo you used here. You take a simple arrangement and make it pop!ReplyDelete
As always thank you for sharing!
This is perfect. I just got a fat quarter bundle of this. I may have to "borrow" your inspiration ; )ReplyDelete
Beautiful quilt as always Rita. Too bad someone didn't tape your binding demonstration!ReplyDelete
Great "up-close" photos of your stitching, thanks, .... and another beautiful quilt!ReplyDelete
Another winner. Love your bindings.ReplyDelete
gorgeous quilt Rita, and I bet you had everyone jostling for the best position to watch you do your machine-sewn binding demo!!ReplyDelete
I have read and used your tutorial so many times, it's the best one I've ever found for machine-sewn binding. I still need LOTS more practice to get the technique working better, but it beats hand-sewing binding down by a mile.
see you, Catherine x
LOVE this quilt Rita! It can so easily go boy or girl with the colors but definitely the flower back says girl all the way. I also just got a fat quarter of this bundle. Hmmmm.....:o) Boy oh boy I would have been front and center at that demonstration. I'm just starting my 4th quilt and have machine stitched binding on two of my three. I'm not sure I'm cut out for machine stitched binding. :o(ReplyDelete
Love your tutorial - saw it some months ago, when my fingers was very tired from hand-sewing binding, and has been machine binding since. - It works for me to.ReplyDelete
And thank you for telling the size in cm too - I am not good at inches (we use cm in Denmark)
love love love this quiltReplyDelete
Love the binding on this quilt Where can I get it?ReplyDelete
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment! I really appreciate it.
Comments are published after review.
Feel free to ask questions and I will answer either here or by email, as is appropriate.


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What does it for me is travel -- even a day trip. We're fortunate to live close to the Rockies, so we have a plethora of route/destination options in our backyard.
When we went through a stressful time (the closing of a business) we took long road trips to California or Utah, and you're right. It was like rebalancing a washing load.
Now that our lives are less stressful, a sock does the trick, so to speak, and a two hour road trip into the mountains is all it takes to reset the balance.
Good perspective....


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
It is worth noting that the 36x x86 tablets will not run the current Windows CE orbiter. It is not built correctly, and I wasn't able to get it to build correctly for WinCE 5 yet. This is a project for someone who has experience with embedded Visual C++ and the appropriate POCKET PC SDK.I basically did PadOrbiter because I got tired of wrestling with the compiler and the toolchain.-Thom


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Top Items:
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Announcing the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program & Windows 7 Pricing - Bring on GA! — Today we have some news to share around Windows 7 including answering what may be some of the "hottest" questions people have as we head toward General Availability (GA) on October 22nd.
Discussion: BetaNews, Technologizer, Tech Trader Daily, HP, CNET News, Engadget, Fast Company, Guardian, Ed Bott's Microsoft Report, All about Microsoft, techblog.dallasnews.com, Gizmodo, Softpedia News, ithinkdifferent, Obsessable, TechSpot, Techgeist, ITworld.com, GottaBeMobile.com, SlashGear, Smalltalk Tidbits … and The Tech Report
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews: Windows 7: Will you pay to upgrade or won't you?
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Jack Schofield / Guardian: Windows 7: good and bad news for UK users
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Victor Godinez / techblog.dallasnews.com: Microsoft announces Windows 7 pricing, with limited number …
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo: Windows 7 Packaging Is Plain, But With Subtle Flair (and Flare)
Imran Hussain / ithinkdifferent: Windows 7 retail pricing plans announced!
Barb Dybwad / Obsessable: Windows 7 pricing and worldwide availability announced
Jose Vilches / TechSpot: Microsoft unveils Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs
Alex Wilhelm / Techgeist: Windows 7 Pricing - Awesome, Actually
Gregg Keizer / ITworld.com: Microsoft discounts Windows 7 Home Premium to $50; deal to last two weeks
Rob Bushway / GottaBeMobile.com: HP Offering Free Upgrades to Windows 7
James A. Robertson / Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants: Windows and the Problem of Choices
Cyril Kowaliski / The Tech Report: Microsoft discloses Windows 7 pricing
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Windows 7 pricing announced: cheaper than Vista — Microsoft today announced Windows 7 retail pricing, upgrade information, launch details, and a preorder deal. The software giant has reduced the price on its most popular retail Windows product, the Home Premium upgrade version …
Discussion: eWeek, Macworld, internetnews.com, TechFlash, Reuters, PC World, Lifehacker, Boy Genius Report, AppScout, Softpedia News, Neowin.net, Gizmodo and Digits
Nicholas Kolakowski / eWeek: Microsoft Windows 7 Push Includes Price Cuts, Additional Vista Upgrades
Nancy Gohring / Macworld: Microsoft to sell Windows 7 for $50
Gregg Keizer / PC World: Site Reveals Friday Launch for Windows 7 Free Upgrade
Kevin Purdy / Lifehacker: Windows 7 Will Cost Less than Vista
Michael Bettiol / Boy Genius Report: Microsoft announces Windows 7 pricing
Chloe Albanesius / AppScout: Microsoft Unveils Win 7 Pricing, Upgrade Program
Brad Sams / Neowin.net: No Windows 7 upgrade option in the EU
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo: Windows 7 Pricing: Good News, Mostly
Nick Wingfield / Digits: Windows 7 Upgrade Deal Nears
Brandon LeBlanc / windowsteamblog.com:
Windows 7 Pricing and Offers Q&A Transcript
Windows 7 Pricing and Offers Q&A Transcript
Discussion: BetaNews, All about Microsoft, Ed Bott's Microsoft Report, Softpedia News and GottaBeMobile.com
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews: New Vista buyers can expect to pay more for Windows 7
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft: Why is there no Windows 7 E upgrade for Europe?
Warner Crocker / GottaBeMobile.com: Windows 7 Pricing and Availability Confirmed
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
NoPorn: Apple Removes "Hottest Girls" From The App Store — The tech blogosphere was abuzz yesterday with the news that Apple seemingly started accepting applications that contain nudity into the App Store. Now, it appears someone over at Cupertino as ultimately decided to reject the first such app to get into the store after all.
Discussion: VentureBeat, Mashable!, The Register, Gadget Lab, The Loop, MobileCrunch and Softpedia News, Thanks:tsuvik
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!: Apple App Store: Overpopulated with Apps Nobody Uses
Bill Ray / The Register: iPhone grows boobs at last
Charlie Sorrel / Gadget Lab: Porn Comes to the iTunes App Store
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop: Apple green lights softcore iPhone porn app
Nicholas Deleon / MobileCrunch: Hottest Girls iPhone app features topless women (causing America to freak out)
And then there was porn — Today the iTunes app store became a man, having finally seen its first adult app. Meaning nudity. Meaning boobies. — The app responsible for taking iTunes' virginity is called "Hottest Girls" ($1.99), an app that until today was merely a bunch of Asian chicks in lingerie.
Discussion: CNET News, Digital Daily, Contentinople, Silicon Alley Insider, MobileCrunch, iPhone Savior, MacRumors, Gawker, ITworld.com, Obsessable, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, ElectricPig.co.uk, I4U News, AppAdvice, The iPhone Blog, Mashable!, 9 to 5 Mac, the Econsultancy blog, GMSV, AppScout, broadstuff, iLounge, Engadget, Techgeist, p2pnet and MobileBurn.com
David Carnoy / CNET News: iPhone app goes topless
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: Sexually Frustrated? There's an App for That.
Erin Barker / Contentinople: News Bits: Porn? There's an App for That
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider: Apple Kicks Out iPhone Porn
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch: Poll: Porn in the App Store - Where do you draw the line?
Mr. Besilly / iPhone Savior: First Apple-Approved iPorn App Gets Unveiled
Ryan Tate / Gawker: iPhone Porn Makes Long-Awaited App Debut
Pasmith / ITworld.com: First 'iPorn' hits the App Store
C.K. Sample III / Obsessable: New iPhone 3.0 parental controls green-lights red-light content on the iPhone
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo: First Apple-Approved iPhone Porn App
MG Siegler / TechCrunch: Yep, iPorn Is Here For The iPhone
Greg Strachan / ElectricPig.co.uk: Hottest Girls App brings first adult content to iPhone
Luigi Lugmayr / I4U News: First Adult Content iPhone App available
Tyler Tschida / AppAdvice: App Store Gets Its First App With Nudity
Rene Ritchie / The iPhone Blog: iPhone 3.0 Parental Controls Allow First Adult App onto iPhone (NSFW-N)
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!: Boobs on the iPhone: But is it Porn?
Chauncey Dupree / 9 to 5 Mac: First iPorn hits the App Store
Patricio Robles / the Econsultancy blog: Adult content hits the iPhone
John Murrell / GMSV: And wait until it gets the haptic touchscreen
Brian Heater / AppScout: The Apple iPhone Porn Deluge Begins
Alan Patrick / broadstuff: An iPornograph for your iPorn
Charles Starrett / iLounge: 3.0 Parental Controls open gates for explicit apps
Thomas Ricker / Engadget: Apple's App Store approves first explicit content, Anita Bryant races to Cincinnati
Alex Wilhelm / Techgeist: Apple No Fun At All - Bans The Good Apps
Jon / p2pnet: iTunes app iPorn
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
There May Be 50,000 Apps For The iPhone, But Only A Select Few Become Popular — AdMob has released its metrics report for May 2009 (PDF download link), and looked closely at the actual distribution of users of the iPhone apps in their network this time. The main take-away?
Discussion: VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, AdMob Metrics, MacRumors, bub.blicio.us, ElectricPig.co.uk, Blogspotting, IntoMobile and dailywireless.org
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat: iPhone app report: A few top hits dominate the rest
Mfyall / AdMob Metrics: May 2009 Mobile Metrics Report
Kristennicole / bub.blicio.us: AdMob Offers Glimpse at Problems with iPhone App Store
Stephen Baker / Blogspotting: How Apple's Ap Store is like McDonald's
James Falconer / IntoMobile: AdMob May 2009 Mobile Metrics Report is Out
Sam Churchill / dailywireless.org: iPhone Apps: Long Tail Not Wagging Dog
Jordan Golson / GigaOM:
Long Tail of iPhone Apps Is Extra Long — and Not In a Good Way
Long Tail of iPhone Apps Is Extra Long — and Not In a Good Way
Discussion: www.pocketgamer.biz
Stuart Dredge / www.pocketgamer.biz: iPhone advertising market hots up
Matthew Flamm / Crain's New York Business:
WSJ publisher calls Google 'digital vampire' — The Internet search giant is "sucking the blood" out of the newspaper business, Dow Jones Chief Executive Les Hinton complains, before hinting he's working on a cure. — The gloves are coming off in the intensifying battle between newspaper publishers and Google.
Discussion: Techdirt, Elias Bizannes, Techgeist, Guardian, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Gawker, Life On the Wicked Stage and Boing Boing
Michael Masnick / Techdirt: According To WSJ, Google Not Just A 'Thief' But A 'Digital Vampire'
Michael Klurfeld / Techgeist: Wall Street Journal Publisher Calls Google a Vampire
Kevin Anderson / Guardian: Paid content venture aims to get 10% of web readers paying
Andy Beal / Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim: Google "Sucking the Blood" Out of the Anemic Newspaper Industry
The Cajun Boy / Gawker: WSJ Exec Calls Google a 'Digital Vampire'
Warner Crocker / Life On the Wicked Stage: Google a 'Digital Vampire' Says WSJ Publisher
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Upgrade fee sees few iPod touch users updating to 3.0 software — Nearly half of all iPhone users have already jumped at the opportunity to enhance the functionality of their handsets by installing the free iPhone Software 3.0 update, but the same can't be said for iPod touch users, who …
Discussion: Techgeist
Alex Wilhelm / Techgeist: Surprise! $10 For 3.0 Too Much For iPod Touch
iPhone OS 3.0 Adoption Rate
iPhone OS 3.0 Adoption Rate
Discussion: MacRumors iPhone Blog, Macworld, Gadget Lab and The iPhone Blog, Thanks:atul
Eric Slivka / MacRumors iPhone Blog: MacRumors: Apple's Share of U.S. Smartphone Ad Requests Grows …
Aayush Arya / Macworld: iPhone 3.0 adoption rate estimates in question
Charlie Sorrel / Gadget Lab: Three Quarters of iPhone Users Upgraded in First Five Days
Rene Ritchie / The iPhone Blog: iPhone 3.0 Also Stands for Speed — of Adoption
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive: Yahoo Working on Major Brand Overhaul (Pretty Please, No More Yodeling!) — In the past, Yahoo has used killer lasers and giant afros and has even tried a dog rising from the dead to brand itself. — Also, of course, there was the yodeler. — That was in 2003 …
Discussion: Between the Lines, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider, 24/7 Wall Street and paidContent, Thanks:atul
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch: New Yahoo Homepage Spotted In The Wild
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider: Yahoo Will Re-Brand, Kill The Yodelers
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent: Yahoo Plans To Redefine Its Brand
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Showtime for Yahoo's Bartz
Showtime for Yahoo's Bartz
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Google Takes On Tourism With City Tours Experiment — City Tours is a new addition to Google Labs that puts Google squarely in the tourism business: Give it a city name, and Google not only suggests sites to see, but it also maps out a multi-day itinerary and proposes a minute-by-minute travel schedule for you to follow.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch: Google Dips Its Toe Into Travel Space With City Tours
Benji Lanyado / Guardian: Google launches City Tours
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System: Google City Tours
Keir Clarke / Google Maps Mania: Google Labs Release City Tours - Updated
Rex Hammock / Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com: A fun Google Maps experimental tourist tool that could grow …
Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
Kayak to Bing: Stop Copying Us! - Update — Kayak, the popular multi-airline airfare search engine, thinks Microsoft Bing's new travel search engine looks so much like its own that it's confusing Kayak users. The travel search company sent Microsoft a legal letter last week telling them to cut it out, Wired.com has learned.
Discussion: TechFlash, Tech Trader Daily, Geekword, LiveSide and paidContent
Mansoor Ahmed / Geekword: Bing is copying Kayak..
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide: Kayak and the Philanthropist: Bing backlash?
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent: Kayak: Microsoft's Bing Travel Search Is Too Similar
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Did Shaq Just Find Out He Was Traded On Twitter? — Another day, another weird Twitter story. Tonight the news broke that NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal was being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Huge news, but what's humorous is that apparently Shaq found out he was traded on Twitter.
Discussion: Switched
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
CBS Interactive's Smith On Authentication: '70 Billion Reasons To Make This Work' — It didn't take long for CBS to issue a statement after Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) announced the upcoming national trial of TV Everywhere, expressing interest in anything …
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
TV Everywhere: What We Know—And What's Missing
TV Everywhere: What We Know—And What's Missing
Discussion: Contentinople
Ryan Lawler / Contentinople: Time Warner's TV Everywhere Starts on Comcast
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Why legendary game developer John Carmack shelved his ego and sold to ZeniMax — Here's an interview with John Carmack (right), the last remaining founder of id Software, the legendary video game developer which agreed to be acquired yesterday by another video maker ZeniMax Media.
Discussion: *Shacknews* Games, VG247, Touch Arcade and Macworld
Chris Faylor / *Shacknews* Games: id's John Carmack Talks Expansion Plans
Patrick Garratt / VG247: id went with Zenimax to avoid "big corporate changes" …
Peter Cohen / Macworld: ZeniMax Media acquires Id Software
Richard Tyler / Telegraph:
Hedge fund managers betting Twitter will give them an edge in rapid trading — Hedge fund managers are turning to Twitter in an attempt to steal a march on their rivals. — Traders are using software developed by US-based technology StreamBase to monitor "tweets" for price sensitive information.
Discussion: The Mind of Alex, Financial Times, Howard Lindzon and The Equity Kicker
Alex Wilhelm / The Mind of Alex: Day Traders Watching Your Tweets - Idiots
Gwen Robinson / Financial Times: Twitter for those dirty, alpha-seeking strategies
'Simpsons' Draws Higher Rates on Internet than TV as Ads Target Loyal Fans — Television programs such as "The Simpsons" and "CSI" are for the first time commanding higher advertising rates at Web sites including Hulu.com and TV.com than on prime-time TV. — The premium rates …
Discussion: PC World, PSFK, Gizmodo and Technologizer
Ian Paul / PC World: The Simpsons: Worth More on Hulu than Fox
Harry McCracken / Technologizer: The Simpsons Are Making Money Online
Chris Hall / Pocket-lint.com:
HTC Sense interface coming to HTC Magic? — CEO hints at existing devices getting new interface — HTC has confirmed to Pocket-lint that its new Sense interface found on the Android-touting HTC Hero, would be available on other devices the company has already released.
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James Tromans / Android Authority: HTC Sense UI available on older Android devices?
Chris Davies / SlashGear: HTC Sense UI will be released for "other existing devices"
Robert Evans / I4U News: HTC's Sense UI To Hit More Android Devices.
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report: HTC CEO reportedly confirms Sense UI coming to current Android handsets
Daniel Lyons / Newsweek:
Why We Need Steve Jobs — Love him or hate him, Apple needs its CEO back. Now. … I just spent an hour waiting in a line at an Apple store to buy a product I do not need. It's the new top-of-the-line iPhone 3GS, and it costs $299, and I waited in line for it even though I already …
Discussion: Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Forbes, GigaOM, Epicenter, bookofjoe and Ars Technica
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman: Jobs' Doctor Speaks
Brian Caulfield / Forbes: Why Did A Hospital Lie About Steve Jobs?
Kevin Kelleher / GigaOM: Are Steve Jobs' Innards Really Any of Our Business?
Fred Vogelstein / Epicenter: When Will Steve Jobs Level With His Investors About His Health?
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica: Report: COO Tim Cook to take on more responsibility at Apple
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Glubble raises $1 M, adds a photo gallery timeline to its family web browser — Glubble has raised $1 million in a second round of funding and launched a new photo gallery timeline for its family-friendly web browser. — The new round of funding will help the company launch what it calls …
Discussion: TechCrunch and Mashable!
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!: Glubble Creates an Interactive Timeline for Tracking Family History
Bill Mitchell / Newspay:
Story of Neda's Death Reveals 7 Elements of Next-Step Journalism — Just before ending his news conference Tuesday, President Obama called on CNN's Suzanne Malveaux for one last question. — MALVEAUX: Back to Iran, putting a human face on this. Over the weekend, we saw a shocking video of this woman …
Discussion: Beet.TV
Barton George / The Register:
Why Google Wave makes Tim Bray nervous — XML co-author on complexity and the web — HP US App Security & Quality Management - Jun - Aug 09 - 200905-4609 — Radio Reg Before Google's founders were ordering pizza in their Stanford University dorm rooms, Tim Bray was working to commercialize search technology.
Rik Myslewski / The Register:
Is your cameraphone an oxymoron? — iPhone 3G v iPhone 3GS v Palm Pre — Free whitepaper - eDiscovery best practices — Pic Review All cell-phone cameras are not created equal - even the three-megapixel cameras in the recently released iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre.
Discussion: MobileContentToday
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Judge Not Biased, No Retrial — A few days after the verdict in the Pirate Bay trial was made public, judge Tomas Norström was heavily criticized for his involvement with pro-copyright lobby groups. To everyone's surprise, Norström never declared these activities before he took on the case.
Discussion: The Register and Ars Technica
Kelly Fiveash / The Register: Pirate Bay judge cleared of bias by Swedish appeal court
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica: Pirate Bay retrial denied; judge declared "unbiased"
Sharon Barclay / uberceo.com:
It's Official: Fortune 100 CEOs are Social Media Slackers — We're surprised, but not shocked, to find that the top CEOs in the country appear to be mostly absent from the social media community. That's the result from research we conducted over the past several weeks.
Discussion: Epicenter, the Econsultancy blog and TechCrunch, Thanks:atul
Belinda Goldsmith / Epicenter: CEOs Are Social Media Slackers: Study
Patricio Robles / the Econsultancy blog: Should the CEO do social media?
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch: Top CEOs Leave Social Media To The Plebs
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
iPhone 3GS boosts mobile YouTube uploads by 400% — Google has announced that uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have increased by 400% since last Friday, when Apple's new iPhone 3GS went on sale. The handset lets users shoot video clips and upload them directly to the video-sharing site.
Discussion: Podcasting News, mocoNews and Lost Remote
James Lewin / Podcasting News: The iPhone 3GS video revolution is here.
Dianne See Morrison / mocoNews: YouTube Sees 400 Percent Jump In Mobile Video Uploads Since New iPhone Launch
Tim Stevens / Engadget:
Always Innovating's Touch Book in production, finally pictured in non-render form — Always Innovating has stopped innovating for a moment and started production. Its transformer of a netbook/tablet called the Touch Book is now rolling off manufacturing lines on track for shipments starting next month.
Discussion: Obsessable, GottaBeMobile.com, jkOnTheRun, Gizmodo and Liliputing
Barb Dybwad / Obsessable: Always Innovating Touch Book
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun: Hybrid Smartbook Touch Book Shipping Next Month
Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog:
The Power of Word in Outlook — This morning we became aware of a Twitter campaign run from the website http://fixoutlook.org. This campaign is intended to provide Microsoft with feedback about our decision to continue to use Microsoft Word for composing and displaying e-mail in the upcoming release of Microsoft Outlook 2010.
Ed Oswald / Technologizer: Microsoft: Outlook is Not "Broken"
Kelly Fiveash / The Register: Microsoft strikes back at Outlook 2010 rendering grumbles
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Zune HD video hands-on quickie — Sure, we've been chummy with the Zune HD in the past, but we just took it for a quick spin on video so you can check out those smooth transitions for yourself. Unfortunately, the unit we were playing with had zero content loaded on it …
Discussion: ithinkdifferent, techeblog.com, WMExperts and WMPoweruser.com
Imran Hussain / ithinkdifferent: Another hands on video of the Zune HD
Phil Nickinson / WMExperts: Zune HD + OLED screen = us drooling
Bryan Barletta / Medialets:
Palm Pre App Catalog Reaches 1 Million Downloads — Just 18 days after the launch of the Palm Pre, their App Catalog has hit its first major milestone, 1 million downloads. On launch day, Palm sold 50k devices and their App Catalog experienced 100k downloads - that's an average …
Discussion: eWeek, mocoNews, InformationWeek, Bits, Gadgetell, SlashGear, Joe Wilcox, Pocket-lint.com, Engadget Mobile and AppleInsider
Michelle Maisto / eWeek: Palm Pre App Downloads Top 1 Million
Dianne See Morrison / mocoNews: Palm Pre Owners Downloaded One Million Apps
Jenna Wortham / Bits: Palm App Catalog Hits a Million Downloads
Chris Davies / SlashGear: Pre App Catalog passes 1m downloads mark 18 days in
Duncan Geere / Pocket-lint.com: Palm Pre app store tops 1 million downloads
Kevin Purdy / Lifehacker:
Google Voice May Open to All Today — Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy — The Today Show takes a look at Google Voice this morning (as we did three months ago), with correspondent Janet Shamlian offering a very generalized overview …
Andrew LaVallee / Digits: Will You Be a Google Voice User?


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It's a strange thing, to watch a hero die. First came the shock, the denial, the OMGs and WTFs that exploded through our Twitter feeds last night when we found out that Landon Donovan wasn't traveling with the United States men's national team to next month's World Cup in Brazil. Then in snaked the smugness, the cynicism, the #wellactuallys, the doubt. There's no surprise here. We knew he wouldn't make it this whole time.
It was a version of his career in miniature, Donovan getting buffeted along an expectations curve of our own devising, finding himself discounted in the end.
We Americans consider ourselves special, plucked from our father's testes by God himself. Our idea of international competition is running out LeBron James or Michael Phelps as proof that we are all the Chosen Ones, that we have an inalienable right to victory, to domination. And so, when soccer washed upon our shores during the 1994 World Cup, we decided we wanted that, too.
We immediately started searching, scheming up ways the United States—decades behind the rest of the world—could mount the summit of the globe's most treasured sport. It became a sort of national parlor game. What if, we thought, we got Shaq to play? What if Randy Moss grew up with a soccer ball? In another life, would Troy Aikman have a nose for goal?
We were so busy theorizing that we barely noticed him when he presented himself to us. And then when we did, when a 17-year-old Landon Donovan was awarded the tournament's best player at the U-17 FIFA World Championships, we looked up, and we shrugged.
That shortish kid with the bleached hair and bad tan? We know that fucking kid! He was the guy in high school with the seashell necklace and the Abercrombie polo who listened to 311 and smoked weed at lunch in the senior parking lot. He wasn't different. He was like us.
He didn't even have an origin story. He wasn't from the hood, and he didn't have Olympians as parents. He was just a dude. Donovan was unlike any player we'd ever produced, but because he was too like any guy off the street—because he didn't look or act the part of an American sports hero—we doubted him.
We knew enough about soccer to know that we didn't have the league or the coaching or even the know-how to develop a world-class player. So it was exciting to see German club Bayer Leverkusen sign Donovan to a six-year contract, so that he could go, develop, and return to us as a savior of the sport.
He failed. He couldn't get settled in Europe, away from his family, his friends, and sunny Southern California, and in 2001, he slinked back after two unsuccessful years to the San Jose Earthquakes in Major League Soccer, our joke of a league where the 12 teams played on football fields and hollow cheers echoed through empty stands. But he preferred this. SMH, we thought. He couldn't tough it out.
San Jose won that year, and Donovan became the face of a league that desperately needed it. In 2002, MLS contracted to 10 teams, and Donovan went to his first World Cup with the USMNT. Somehow, the United States fought all the way to the quarterfinal. Donovan scored his first World Cup goal, and won the award for the best young player.
Donovan's contract with Leverkusen finally ran out in 2005; he couldn't make it through his final year before leaving after just seven appearance. But he returned to Germany in 2006, for the World Cup. By then, he'd won two more MLS cups and was the face of American soccer, and the USMNT had been ranked high as fourth in the world in the run up to the tournament. They were expected to improve upon their 2002 result, and Donovan was going to lead them again. And when he didn't, when he played poorly and the U.S. bombed out of Germany after three matches, he was blamed for the disappointment. "Landycakes," people called him.
The next year, Clint Dempsey transferred to Fulham, where he'd become an international cult hero, and David Beckham transferred in to the Galaxy. This, we thought, was the savior America deserved. Beckham was English, an underwear model, world-famous, and married to a Spice Girl. He fit right in, and was immediately named club captain over Donovan.
Donovan earned his 100th national team cap in 2008, but by then he seemed years older than he was. He was only 26, but he'd played pro for nine years, longer than most of us had been watching.
Many fans shared a specific kind of resentment toward Donovan. He was relatively nondescript, undersized and balding already, and spoke in a nasally, grating voice. He was arrogant on the pitch, but he shied away from the limelight in his personal life, and whenever he spoke on camera, he seemed self-conscious, or uninterested, like he didn't want to be there or had somewhere better to be.
On either wing and in transition, where he's always thrived, he could sprint past outside backs as if he was on roller blades, and in traffic, he turned and twisted like an otter, and slipped ball and body through crevasses no one else would dare enter. But as he ran, his arms and legs spun like turbines, and his face reddened, and it gave an impression that he was working harder than he needed to be, like he wasn't quite good enough to coast.
He both scored and set up lots of goals, magnificent goals, but he was never known as a stone-cold poacher or a graceful genius, and so even when you saw the goal coming, it came as a slight surprise. Often, he'd celebrate by running off aimlessly toward a sideline instead of the corner flag, or jump in the air with a decidedly uncool fist pump and scream, almost in pain, like he didn't know what else to do. And remember, he was doing all this in Major League Soccer, which had just scored its first major star and was just starting to attract designated players from leagues abroad.
Athletes like Michael Jordan, Adrian Peterson, and Cristiano Ronaldo are objectively beautiful specimens, representing a kind of aspirational, evolutionary endpoint. Donovan's talent and ability appeared to come from nowhere at all. If most superstars appear chosen, then Donovan seemed a lucky mistake, a fluke who stumbled upon more ability than any American to ever kick a soccer ball and didn't know quite what to do with it.
And so if Donovan had won some kind of cosmic lottery, well shit man, at least he could be kind of happy about it. He was traveling the world and playing the game we loved when most of us were buried in spreadsheets by day and jerking off into socks by night. He had the life a lot of us dreamed and strived for, and he never seemed to just stop for a second, and bask in it.
In January 2010, he finally ventured to Europe again. By then, USMNT players like Dempsey and Michael Bradley had already acquitted themselves in foreign leagues, and others like Fabian Johnson were following their lead.
He went to England on a brief loan at Everton, almost as if to prove to himself that he could play in the world's top leagues. He could, and scored twice in 10 appearances. That summer was the World Cup in South Africa.
The Americans drew England and Slovenia, and needed a win against Algeria in the final match of the group stage to advance. In stoppage time, it came.
The entire country went into hysterics. People cried, collapsed, hugged, kissed, sang, and cheered. Who else but Donovan, the greatest American player of all time, would be there at the end to score the most iconic American goal of all time?
The USMNT would lose a heartbreaker to Ghana in the next match, but Donovan had become a bona fide American hero, a legend. He won the MLS Cup with Beckham in 2011, dipped his toe back into the Everton squad for a loan the following winter, and then repeated as an MLS champion in 2012. Then he was gone.
He decided he'd had enough, and so he walked away from it all. He walked away from the Galaxy, and he walked away from the men's national team. He was tired, he explained, so he took time to himself four months after the MLS Cup. He missed three World Cup qualifying matches, and USMNT manager Jürgen Klinsmann, who'd taken over in 2011, said Donovan would have to play his way back in the squad.
No one knew if he even wanted to return to the squad. He was only 31, but had played professionally nearly half his life. Fourteen years of soccer, and 14 years of carrying a team, of dragging a nation into the present, can be a special kind of torture. It can take a toll on a man, grind him down.
He went on a sabbatical, and for the first time ever, Donovan was finally out of the limelight, away from the cameras. It looked like the legend was walking off into the sunset. When photos of Donovan popped up on Twitter in February 2013, he was in Cambodia, playing soccer with locals. He looked happy.
He came back last year, but he was immediately at odds with Klinsmann. He got his chance in the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Klinsmann brought much of the USMNT B Team, the guys trying to get in the 23-man roster for 2014 in Brazil. Donovan, the greatest player ever, didn't belong there. He played like it.
Donovan was unstoppable, and finished the tournament with five goals and seven assists in six matches, and took away the award for best player. It was the greatest we've ever seen him, and he finished the tournament as the only American player to record 50 career goals and assists each for the country. USMNT won the Gold Cup, and the question suddenly was not whether Donovan could play in the starting 11, but where was he going to fit.
But that was the last we saw of Landon Donovan, superstar. He's battled injury since, and this MLS season, he has yet to score a goal for Los Angeles. When the USMNT drew a difficult group and Klinsmann signed a contract extension last winter, we started to raise eyebrows. It wasn't inconceivable that Klinsmann was planning for the future. We did again when Julian Green, an 18-year-old prodigy winger and the ostensible Future chose to represent the United States over Germany. Maybe, the conspiracy theorists among us thought, some kind of deal had been made?
Still, that felt like crazy talk. But last night, when Klinsmann released the World Cup roster, Donovan was nowhere to be found.
Klinsmann called it the toughest decision of his coaching career.
"I have to make the decisions what is good today for this group going into Brazil," Klinsmann said. "And there I just think that the other guys right now are a little bit ahead of him."
If this explanation felt dubious and hollow, it's because it made no sense. Donovan had lost a step and gained a bit of weight, sure, but he was still one of the best five or six players on the team. Klinsmann, meanwhile, had elected to bring Green, young defenders John Brooks and DeAndre Yedlin, old poacher Chris Wondolowski, and Brad fucking Davis. These guys are going to Brazil for a vacation. If they're not going to play, and if Donovan's not going to play, why not bring the greatest, most important American soccer player ever?
We don't know why Donovan wasn't granted one final lap with the USMNT. Theories abound. Maybe, somehow, he doesn't fit alongside Jozy Altidore and Dempsey and Bradley and Johnson. Maybe he's hurt. Maybe Klinsmann doesn't want him on the bench. Maybe Klinsmann just wanted to move on.
Whatever the case, it feels like something had been taken from us, as if we were all witness to a crime. In sports, where athletes are ridden like racehorses and then discarded when they're no longer of use, surely he'd earned the right to leave the field on his own feet. But this was of a piece with the Donovan saga, too. He was always measured in negative space, by his supposed lack of steel, by his truancy from the top-flight soccer leagues, by everything people presumed he couldn't do. It seems both unfair and perfectly fitting for him to go out in this way, as the great national absence.


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I've tested Vista on two netbooks, and it's never been good (not counting the Vaio P). In fact, Vista has been unusable in both circumstances. Then I loaded Windows 7 onto the Mini 12.
If you look back at my original review of the Dell Inspiron Mini 12, a 12-inch Atom netbook with 1GB of RAM, I liked the hardware just fine but complained that Vista was too slow to even be considered as the OS. The system often lagged when just opening the Start menu, let alone launching real programs. It, like Vista on most netbooks, was little more than a novelty—something to be chuckled at for a few moments before formatting and installing XP. So I loaded the mini 12 with Windows 7. What did I have to lose?
The experience is night and day.
With Aero deactivated (and actually, totally inaccessible after an auto-configuration installation despite screwing with the registry), the Start menu now pops right up (like it should), Firefox takes about 3.5 seconds to open (which is reasonable) and light multitasking is smooth enough. The computer is by no means fast, but it's reasonably functional. And I can use the system without pounding my head against the screen or loading an old OS. Keep in mind, this testing is just with 1GB of memory, not even 2GB.
The system still struggles a bit with both full screen Flash video and XviD clips. Heavily dropped frames remain a fact of life, and don't expect to fast forward through high quality content at will. But that's a hardware limitation that I can accept, or at least not blame on Microsoft. Intel, I'm looking in your direction now.
I loaded Windows 7 onto the Mini 12 as a Hail Mary maneuver, hoping to play with the system a little more without resorting to XP. And I have to admit, the results were pretty close to miraculous.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Apple ex-evangelist Kawasaki pans, praises Jobs
'Apple's existence proves there is a god'
Apple fanboys may have religious fervor, but so too does its ex–chief evangelist Guy Kawasaki, who reckons that Apple's continued existence is evidence that there must be a God.
Keynoting at The Founder Conference in Mountain View, California, just up the road from Apple's HQ, Kawasaki laid into his former employer, joking about battery life, lack of a keypad, and dreadful data contracts that Apple customers have long grown used to with their iPhones and iPads.
He also tracked back to the 1980s, claiming that the only reason the Mac – and therefore Apple – survived was Aldus Pagemaker. That great piece of desktop publishing software enabled the Mac to find a market with publishers, and thus to survive – survive, that is, because the Mac was hopeless at what computer systems were most needed for at the time: spreadsheets and databases.
That same poor functionality in iPhones could (should?) have caused the demise of Apple 20 years later, he said, but instead it has become one of the world's largest computer companies. "I believe in God, I do," Kawasaki told attendees, "because if there were no God, Apple could not have survived."
Kawasaki's tenth book: Enchantment
In fact, Kawasaki – who is pushing his book about how to create a successful product by "enchanting" customers – has an answer for why Apple is going from strength to strength.
"Steve Jobs doesn't get on stage and say 'Here are $188 of parts, now just sign up to two years of the worst data contract in the world and you can have it'," Kawasaki said. "What he does is he sells a dream – he tells you about the wonderful, positive things you are going to do with it."
And selling that dream is part of what Kawasaki's Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions is all about. In his entertaining keynote, Kawasaki outlined a few of his rules for enchanting people – and also gave a quick masterclass in presenting.
You need to look outside the "A-List" of media and bloggers, and instead "plant many seeds," according to the Kawasaki. That means reaching people with 50 Twitter followers who you will never meet and never know. And you do that by engaging with as many people as possible as quickly and frequently as you can.
Highlighting the Jobs approach, Kawasaki suggests that you enchant people by talking about the number of songs your product can hold, rather than its gigabytes of storage capacity, or the months of food that your nonprofit has supplied, not the dollars it has raised.
Other tips include ways to overcome resistance to a new product – "and the more innovative it is, the most resistance you will face," he said. Examples include focusing on what Kawasaki call the "bright spot." In Apple's case, Pagemaker was the bright spot that gave the Mac entry into a market that helped it survive.
Kawasaki cited the Grateful Dead's policy of encouraging "tapers" – usually known as bootleggers – at its concerts as one reason for the enduring appeal and sales of the band. Contrast the Dead's laissez-faire policy, Kawasaki said, with the RIAA's approach of "suing old ladies for downloading cello music from Napster."
Tips for "enchanting up" – also called kissing ass – include dropping everything else when your boss asks for something, providing a fast first draft, and delivering bad news early. Presentation tips include using no more than 10 slides in 20 minutes in a 30-point font.
But perhaps most interesting of all was Kawasaki's plea to watch Justin Bieber's film Never Say Never.
"You will never learn more about marketing than watching that movie," he claimed. "Go rent it. And I will personally refund your money if you don't find it useful." ®


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Story highlights
Former soldiers allege at least six soldiers were killed in Bergdahl search
U.S. official: "Right now there is no evidence to back that up"
A mother of one says she feels her son died trying to save a "traitor"
Another is remembered as a joker, someone who could cheer up anyone
The deaths of six U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are being tied, directly or indirectly, to the search for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after he went missing and was captured by the Taliban in 2009, former unit members allege.
The former soldiers' controversial accusations come days after Bergdahl was released after almost five years of enemy captivity.
A U.S. official told CNN that Pentagon and Army officials have looked at the claims, and "right now there is no evidence to back that up."
Asked about the debate, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters Wednesday that he did not know of specific circumstances or details of soldiers allegedly dying as a result of the efforts to find Bergdahl.
It is also "unfair" to Bergdahl and his family to presume anything about his motivations for leaving the base, Hagel said. He stressed that the Army would conduct a review of the case.
Former Army Sgt. Evan Buetow, Bergdahl's former team leader, elaborated on the accusations. "I can't say for a fact and I don't know if there is really anyone who can prove that soldiers died on a directed mission to find Bergdahl. However, every mission, especially in the following two or more months – those were directed missions," he told CNN's Jake Tapper. "Everything after that, they were still missions that were in search of Bergdahl."
Here's a look at those six fallen soldiers.
2nd Lt. Darryn Deen Andrews
Andrews was killed in September 2009 when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with a roadside bomb and a rocket-propelled grenade in the Yahya Khel district of Paktika province, Afghanistan. The Dallas, Texas, native was 34.
Andrews' mother, who still wears her son's ID tags, spoke to KHOU this week. The CNN affiliate reported Andrews died using his body to shield two other soldiers from a blast.
Sondra Andrews feels her son was killed trying to save a "traitor."
"My son's life was worth more than that," she told KHOU.
Staff Sgt. Clayton Patrick Bowen
Staff Sgt. Clayton Patrick Bowen was a 12-year Army veteran who had served as a drill sergeant and shooting instructor before being shipped out to Afghanistan in February 2009, according to a U.S. Army account of his service.
The 29-year-old San Antonio, Texas, man was traveling to provide security for Afghanistan's presidential elections when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb on August 18, 2009, according to the Army account.
He and another soldier, Pfc. Morris Lewis Walker, died.
Bowen, who joined the Army straight out of high school, served as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division's All-American Chorus before deploying to Afghanistan with the 501st Infantry Regiment. He also was featured as the cover model for a book on how to survive basic combat training, the Army account quoted his mother, Reesa Doebbler, as saying.
"Clay had a sense of humor second to none and lit up a room when he walked in," Doebbler said in a 2010 CNN iReport.
Pfc. Morris Lewis Walker
Walker died at age 23 when a roadside bomb exploded as he traveled through Afghanistan's Dila district. He died alongside Staff Sgt. Bowen on a mission to provide security for Afghanistan's presidential elections, according to the Army.
Walker joined the Army in 2008 after attending the University of North Carolina, where he played on the basketball team, according to a UNC memorial web page.
"If you got to spend time with Mo Walker, you remembered it," the student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, quoted former student Sam Rosenthal as saying. "He had a charisma and a warmth that just rubbed off and also a pride and a sense about himself. I had never met anybody with so much confidence and even borderline arrogance that never rubbed people the wrong way."
Staff Sgt. Kurt Robert Curtiss
Curtiss joined the Army the day after the 9/11 attack, according to CNN affiliate KSL.
He was shot to death during a firefight in which his unit was supporting Afghan security forces in Paktika province on August 26, 2009.
The Murray, Utah, man died during what the Army called a clearing operation at a hospital at a medical clinic in Sar Hawza.
He was a well-regarded squad leader whose leadership style engendered fierce loyalty in at least one soldier – the squad member who faced an onslaught of enemy fire in an effort to rescue him, the Army said in a 2009 article about two soldiers awarded the Silver Star for actions during the firefight.
"When I first got here, he showed me everything," the Army piece quoted one of those soldiers, Spec. Robert Parson, as saying. "Just small things that only a veteran would know."
He left behind a wife, two small children, and a humorous reputation, his mother, Ruth Serrano, told KSL.
"He was quite the joker," she said. "He could cheer up anybody."
Pfc. Matthew Michael Martinek
Martinek died September 11, 2009, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries suffered from an attack about a week earlier in Afghanistan.
Enemy forces attacked his vehicle with a roadside bomb, a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire in Paktika province.
His mother spoke to CNN affiliate KTUU, praising her son's sacrifice. Martinek was sent to Afghanistan during the first quarter of 2009, the station said.
"What we hope will not be lost on the American people is the true heroism of the soldiers who risked their safety to relentlessly attempt to rescue Bowe," said Cheryl Brandes. "One of those brave men was our son and brother Matthew Martinek."
Martinek, 20, was a native of DeKalb, Illinois.
Staff Sgt. Michael Chance Murphrey
Murphrey was killed in September 2009 when forces attacked his unit with a roadside bomb in Paktika province.
A native of Snyder, Texas, he was 25.
According to an online obituary, Murphrey decided he wanted to be an Army paratrooper when his family took him skydiving on his 17th birthday. He loved to hunt, hike, camp and fish.
Murphrey was survived by his wife and two young children, a son and daughter.
EXPLORE: War Casualties Memorial
Obama: I don't apologize for Bergdahl swap


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A 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan early Thursday may affect the global technology industry by sending prices of LCD panels and certain chips higher, analysts say.
The Taiwan government has already confirmed dozens of injuries due to the temblor, mainly caused by falling objects, as well as power outages and several fires, one of them engulfing a factory owned by Everest Textile in the southern city of Tainan.
The earthquake also stopped work at LCD and chip factories in the Tainan Science Park, including at Chi Mei Optoelectronics, the fourth biggest LCD panel maker in the world, and at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip maker.
The temblor came at a bad time for the global technology industry. Brisk demand for a number of products requiring LCD screens, from laptop PCs and desktop monitors to LCD TVs, and for chips, including PCs, Blu-ray Disc players and smartphones, has already caused shortages this year. Companies have announced plans to spend big on new factories to keep up with demand. The good news is that the March through June time period is considered a slower time of the year for gadget demand, and a time when component prices normally fall.
This year, however, prices will probably not decline and could actually rise, analysts say.
"While it is too early to gauge the impact of supply and pricing of TFT-LCD panels, we can assume that any downward pressure on panel pricing has been eliminated," wrote Shawn Lee, an analyst at DisplaySearch, in a blog post. "In fact, there are some indications that there will be another panel price increase in March due to the earthquake's impact on the supply chain."
Chi Mei, which houses its main operations at the Tainan Science Park, said its factories were shut down by the temblor, but that most of its production lines have already recovered. HannStar Display, which also operates LCD factories in southern Taiwan, also stopped production, but said the temblor will not affect its quarterly financial results, in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Chi Mei accounted for 13.3 percent of the global supply of LCD panels as of January, according to iSuppli, while HannStar accounted for 3 percent. The market researcher believes work outages at the two companies will impact large-sized LCD panels most, such as the kind used in LCD TVs.
U.S. glass maker Corning reported that its facilities in Tainan were largely unaffected by the quake but did require some minor repairs.
"Management at our Tainan LCD glass facility has reported that there were no injuries or damage to the facility, and that all glass-making operations recovered within hours and are running normally," Corning said in a statement. The company makes glass used in LCD panel production.
Chip makers were also hurt by the temblor. The global chip industry has been plagued by tight supplies since the middle of last year, but the seasonal drop in demand could offset the impact of the earthquake. One analyst in Taipei called the impact on global supplies minimal, but said the impact depends on what kinds of chips were affected. TSMC and rival United Microelectronics make a wide range of chips, including mobile phone chips for Qualcomm and graphics chips for Nvidia and ATI. Both kinds of chips have been in high demand.
TSMC said its factories in Tainan shut down after the earthquake but have gradually resumed production. "Our initial estimate is that the earthquake caused the equivalent of 1.5 days loss" of chip production for the company, in all, TSMC said in a statement.
UMC said production line equipment at its Tainan factory, Fab 12A, shut down during the earthquake and that it was making minor repairs. The company also expects the impact of the temblor to be about 1.5 work days, it said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
On the same day as the earthquake, UMC also put out a press release saying that it plans to hire an additional 1,000 chip engineers for its southern Taiwan facilities.
It often requires hours or days to resume operations at a chip factory because chips on the production line can be damaged by the shaking and must be assessed, as well as due to the need to shut off and then restart the supply of gases and chemicals needed for chip manufacturing.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), the world's largest chip packaging and testing company, said the earthquake had little impact on its production. The company has dozens of factories in Kaohsiung, a major city in Taiwan also close to the epicenter of the earthquake.
Seismic activity is nothing new to Taiwan. The island is hit by dozens of earthquakes every day, most too small to be felt. Companies on the island have developed strategies to protect devices on production lines from damage during a temblor, such as emergency stoppages, and often can resume normal operations quickly. There were a total of 24 earthquakes in Taiwan on Thursday, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. Only the one was strong enough to cause damage.


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Autodesk Takes Schenectady County Engineers Digital13 Feb, 2004 By: Cadalyst Staff
Land Desktop cuts response time by automating civil design tasks
In Schenectady, a relatively small county near the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers in upstate New York, the engineering department maintains about 200 miles of roads, 18 county bridges, eight miles of bike trails, the branch library system, an ice skating rink, and the county airport. After years of managing these projects in its traditional way-drafting by hand-the county's small engineering staff determined that approach was too time-consuming. Paul Sheldon, the department's senior civil engineer, said, "We were looking for efficiency. We needed to get more work done in less time to help the highway department." The department chose AutoCAD, Autodesk Land Desktop, Autodesk Survey, and Autodesk Civil Design to automate the design process and become more responsive to the community's public works needs.
From Three Days to 10 Minutes
Like other counties in central New York, Schenectady contends with harsh winters. -The engineering department sends out surveyors in mid- to late fall, then focuses on design during the winter. Before moving to Autodesk, surveyors at project sites took notes by hand, manually plotted the information, then spent several days drawing and copying plans. This approach used a lot of paper and made editing and collaborating on the emerging designs a challenge.
Now, survey data is entered electronically into a data collector, downloaded, and then plans are drawn on the computer.
"The change from doing it by hand to doing it on the computer was dramatic," stated Sheldon. "We went from about three days of work to about 10 minutes of work." He noted, "Simply avoiding the aggravation of doing the drawings by hand makes it worthwhile to get AutoCAD. Editing is much easier, too."
The team is pleased with the reduction in paper, the time saved at the drafting tables, and the ease of collaborating with other departments and outside consultants.
Automation also allows the county to archive and track projects indefinitely. The department can easily refer to drawings from other sources. This reduces duplication of work and creates a useful library.
"It has changed the way we do business," said Latimer Schmidt, director of the engineering department. "There's no going back to pen and ink or to electric erasers." The drafting is cleaner and "prettier." Producing CAD drawings also gives the department more credibility when it proposes projects to the county legislature for authorization and funding. One recently approved project is the county's 36,000-square-foot vehicle maintenance facility and offices.
A Sample Project
The $2.5 million replacement vehicle maintenance facility will serve as a garage for highway equipment. Construction began in mid-2003. The engineering department used AutoCAD to do most of the design work in-house. First, the team surveyed the property and then downloaded survey point data from data collectors to Autodesk Survey, where the points were converted into a base map. They then created contours using Autodesk Land Desktop's terrain menu list. Next, the team created a site layout and determined building location and site drainage. Schmidt created the structural building design, and Sheldon designed the interior. The only design elements outsourced were HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) and plumbing.
Schenectady County engineers used AutoCAD and Land Desktop to design several side views of a new vehicle maintenance facility.
Architectural costs typically range from 6% to 8% of the total project cost. This means Schenectady County taxpayers realized a $125,000 savings in architectural fees from this four-person department's efforts.
Rapid Response and Collaboration
"Being responsive is part of our job," said Sheldon. Automating the engineering department enables it to respond quickly to requests from highway department supervisors who review the county's roads and bridges each quarter. A recent project request came in early one morning: an intersection needed to be relocated without going off the county's right-of-way. An engineer was expected in the field, ready to go, by 11 a.m. that same day. The department used Land Desktop to create and print a design in time to meet the deadline.
Another advantage is ease of collaboration. For example, when a survey is done by a third party, the department imports the data or drawings for later use in projects as diverse as air conditioning systems, room sizes, finished roofing designs, standard Department of Transportation sheets, and road work.
Future Challenges
The job of the engineering department is to get it right, every time, because mistakes affect public safety. Schenectady County's efforts to attract more small businesses, as it works to replace aging facilities and infrastructure, will likely increase pressures on the department. The team also faces the same challenge that engineers everywhere face--the ever-present "need for speed." Yet Schmidt believes that with the right combination of personnel, training, and tools, better designs are guaranteed.
About the Author: Cadalyst Staff
For Mold Designers! Cadalyst has an area of our site focused on technologies and resources specific to the mold design professional. Sponsored by Siemens NX. Visit the Equipped Mold Designer here!
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It's been a pretty terrible week for the singing blueberry muffin society has decided to call "Justin Bieber". First, his birthday party sucked. Then, fans chided him for showing up late to a show in London. Just when it seemed like things couldn't possibly get any worse, Biebs goes right ahead and collapses in the middle of a performance at London's O2 Arena.
Don't worry! It turned out that after a quick once-over from some friendly (and super polite) British EMTs, a healthy dose of the life-giving oxygen that we so often take for granted, and, most importantly, the ceaseless cheering of a stark raving mad audience, Biebs returned to the stage to finish the show, which must, no matter the circumstances, go on. Afterwards, he was ferried to a local hospital where a barber bled Biebs of all his bodily impurities. [E!]
While filming her E! show Fashion Police today, Kelly Osbourne suffered a seizure, and was promptly rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital. Nails were bitten and stress hives sprouted all over normally clear complexions. It turns out, however, that we have nothing to worry about. According to Fashion Police co-hosts Joan and Melissa Rivers, "Everything's fine" with Kelly.
That may be true now, but, for several harrowing moments, the live audience that sits for tapings of Fashion Police was treated to the fairly horrific spectacle of Kelly Osbourne convulsing on the floor of the studio, which probably made them feel helpless, as if none of modern medicine's discoveries mattered and they were just a helpless ancient people in the Athenian agora watching an Olympian smite some unlucky mortal. [ET, Extra]
According to boring legal documents filed by Demi Moore in response to Ashton Kutcher's divorce petition, Demi Moore is loaded, way more loaded than Ashton Kutcher. It's therefore quite surprising to TMZ that the actress is not only asking for Kutcher to pay her legal fees, but that she's also asking him to pay spousal support. She'll only accept the money in nickels and Kutcher must give Moore the full spousal support amount one nickel at a time in his underpants. [TMZ]
The cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly features Michael Douglas and Matt Damon looking fabulously gay as Liberace and Guy Who Makes Sweet Love To Liberace. Damon gabbed to EW all about the metal thongs and spray tans he got to wear while filming the Liberace biopic, and mentioned that, no big deal or anything, a doggy style sex scene between him and Michael Douglas only took ONE take:
As for their sex scenes together (and trust us, the movie has plenty), Damon and Douglas both say that shooting a moment of passion is always awkward, no matter who's involved. "The scene where I'm behind him and going at him, we did that in one take," recalls Damon, laughing. "We do it. Cut. There's a long pause. And then you just hear Steven go, "Well… I have no notes."
You may now express your astonishment in the form of a drawn-out whistle. [D-Listed]
A few more details have oozed out of your girlfriend Taylor Swift's Vanity Far interview. Like, for instance, the fact that T-Swizzle has "a framed photograph of that moment at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when Kanye West interrupted her" hanging in her home. Every night, Swift pulls up a leather upholstered chair in front of the photo, raises a snifter full of brandy to her lips, considers the infinite "accidents" that might befall a performer like Kanye West while he's on tour, and fills her halls with the sound of maniacal laughter. [Vulture]
Rumor has it that Ryan Lochte and Ryan Lochte's "biggest crush since childhood" Carmen Electra were sloppily making out at Bootsy Bellows in Hollywood. A keen-eyed witness reports:
They were in a booth together and he had his arm around her and they were kissing on the lips. At one point, they were standing up and kissing and everyone saw them.
The witness (who really ought to learn to mind his/her own business) added that the pair did not leave together, but is almost positive, based on absolutely nothing, that they'll see each other again. [E!]
- Somebody decided it'd be a great idea to photograph a shirtless Vin Diesel flexing his pectorals, grimacing, and holding a leashed leopard. The leopard seems mildly confused, but still game. [TMZ]
- Matthew Fox doesn't like One Direction, sez Matthew Fox, but nobody cares because Lost ended forever ago and that Alex Cross movie was mega stupid. [E!]
- Chris Brown is still mega pissed at Drake. [E!]
- Remember that picture of Eddie Redmayne flashing his freckles in a how-to-knit handbook called Denim People? No? Well, your Aunt Marjorie does, and she was way into knitting and Eddie Redmayne before everyone else was. [E!]
- Shia LeBeouf and his girlfriend Mia Goth went to Olive Garden for one of the never-ending pasta bowls those North Dakota foodies are always raving about. [Us]
- Noted Scientologist Giovanni Ribisi is once again teaming up with noted smarm-machine Seth MacFarlane for a movie about two sheep fuckers, er, farmers, sorry. [Deadline]
- Have you purchased your Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie wine yet? No? Well, it looks like you're fucked — all 6,000 bottles were sold within five hours. [People]
- Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas will be having girl, says the one-eyed gypsy who held a necklace over Hilaria Thomas' outstretched hand and watched it swing slowly in a circle. (Also, the baby is cursed now, soooo...) [Us]
- Miley Cyrus may have said that she and Liam Hemsworth are still getting married, but last night she appeared in public sans engagement ring. You may now commence gasping sequence. [TMZ]


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Jobless Claims Nearly Unchanged
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits last week was basically the same as the week before, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.
It says 404,000 such claims were submitted, vs. 405,000 the week before (a number that was revised up slightly from the previous estimate of 401,000).
As we wrote last week:
"Weekly claims peaked at 659,000 in March 2009 — when the economy was technically still in recession. They gradually slid to a low of 375,000 in February of this year. But since then they've generally stayed above the 400,000-mark — a level that economists say is another sign of an ailing labor market that isn't producing enough jobs to bring down the nation's unemployment rate."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Nene, Crawford out against Thunder
Nene and Jordan Crawford are out for the Washington Wizards against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.
Nene (right knee tendinitis) has played just 20 games this season while dealing with a foot problem (plantar fasciitis), but he had played in the Wizards' previous eight contests. He's averaging 12.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
Crawford (sore left ankle) is averaging 15.6 points, 4.6 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game.
Cartier Martin (hyperextended left knee) is also out.
With John Wall and Trevor Booker already inactive, Washington will have just 10 players available.
Trevor Ariza, who missed the last 17 games with a left calf strain, will return against Oklahoma City, according to Wizards coach Randy Wittman. Wittman said A.J. Price will also return Monday after missing 15 games with a broken right hand.


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Chat Home
Welcome to Baseball Prospectus' Thursday January 31, 2013 1:00 PM ET chat session with Zachary Levine.
Join "Skewed Left" author Zachary Levine for his inaugural BP chat.
Zachary Levine: Live from the campus of the State University of New York at Albany, let's have a chat.
Alex (Anaheim): What's your favorite Spring Training venue?
Zachary Levine: We'll start with an easy one. I've only done the Florida side, so I'd say Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, home of the Tigers. Good old school feel but not run down. Clearwater (Phillies) second.
William (Pensacola, FL): Any teams that look good on paper going into Spring Training that might be terrible this year after 162 games ?
Zachary Levine: The Dodgers will probably be the popular answer, but what if it's the Giants? What if the champs spent all this money to keep the band together and the band doesn't have much left. Zito, Lincecum and to some extent Vogelsong don't excite me, and they had a couple of position guys playing over their heads to get the West title and then again in the playoffs. I don't actually think they'll be bad, but if I have to pick a presumed good team, I'll go with them in a division that got tougher.
John (Boston): Hey Mr.Levine,can you put thes guys in order??Jose Fernandez...Salvador Perez...Albert Almora..Jorge Solar...Kyle Zimmer...Noah Syndergaaud...Allen Webster...Alen Hanson...Gregory Palanco..Aaron Sanchez...Andrew Heaney...Kevin Gausman..Addison Russell....Kyle Crick...Sean Manaea...Clint Frazier...Ryne Stanek...
Thanks John
Zachary Levine: I sort of feel like this is a riddle to see if I can figure out what this list even is. What is this list? I'll go with Salvador (Sal(vy)) Perez and then the rest just for the present.
Paul (DC): My saber oriented Philly friend is howling at Rueben Amaro's off-season moves: Mike Young, Delmon Young, John Lannan, Chad Durbin, and the artist formely known as Yuniesky. In your humble opinion, are the Phillies actually moving forward, slamming on the accelator while in reverse, or simply stuck in neutral?
Zachary Levine: They're not moving forward, far from it. They're not slamming on the accelerator either. I think they're trying to push it out of a ditch, if I had to pick any one automotive analogy. This is what happens when you extend Ryan Howard so far before free agency and only notice the skills you want to notice. Of the moves mentioned, the Lannan move bothers me the least. Or the Yuni NRI just because it's an NRI.
Lane (Washington, DC): How much does a 50 game suspension of Gio Gonazalez affect the Nationals?
Zachary Levine: (Combining this with your question of should they go with Garcia/Duke or consider FA rental). I'd also add Maya to that list, probably before Duke, who is the one bullpen lefty. But I don't think that 50 games is a killer, 1-2 wins from the strictest definition of WARP, since we're probably dealing with close to a true replacement player. But the Nationals don't have a ton of depth, so there's a chance that even when Gio would come back that extra arm would be needed, so I wouldn't just brush it off.
Alex (Anaheim): Would Hafner be a good fit for the Yankees?
Zachary Levine: Yeah, I think so. When Alex Rodriguez's situation didn't look so grim and Jeter's seemed to have more uncertainty, the DH spot was needed for whichever of Rodriguez or Jeter was too gimpy to field that day. Now I'm not so against having a real DH on the team. I like lefty power for a team that plays 81 games at Yankee Stadium.
jlarsen (Chicago): 12 days before Pitchers & Catchers report and there's still a nice handful of players left in free agency. Are agents/players going to drop their asking prices or will there be a surprising number of retirements to come(with the older relievers and bat-only players)?
Zachary Levine: I'd find 2012 Roy Oswalt situations more likely than retirements for players who still have something left. But yes, the usual things will happen. Prices will meet the market, and then the market will rise again with injuries in spring.
etrain (belfast): What are your thoughts on Lester ... bounce-back candidate with a little luck or do the warning signs spell continued decline?
Zachary Levine: Bounceback candidate. Not ready to give up despite the drop in K rate.
Bill (Katy): Do the Astros win more than 60 games this year?
Zachary Levine: Man, that's right around the number I would pick. I'll say under but really close.
Noah Braun (SD): Thanks for the chat Zach, I was wondering what your feeling is on the Padres over the next couple years. How far away are they from contending?
Zachary Levine: They don't strike me as a contender in the next couple years to challenge the Dodgers, who seem capable of fixing every weakness outside of third base. The division helps, though, in that Arizona is selling off the long-run for the present and San Francisco doesn't appear to be improving. Challenging for a wild card may come within 3 years.
dev1astros (Houston): I'm surprised that Michael Bourn hasn't been signed yet. I'm assuming Boras is to blame. Do you think there's a chance that the Astros might try to pick him up or do you think they'll stick with their young players (not that Bourn is old)?
Zachary Levine: I can't see the Astros committing that % of payroll to one player. He'd probably cost more than half of their current 2013 payroll.
Mike (Chi-town): Would you view Scherzer/Freeman or D.Jennings/Altuve more valuable in a 20-team fantasy league
Zachary Levine: I'm seven years clean from fantasy (best decision I ever made, cold turkey) so I'm not even all that familiar with the categories anymore, but the first couple look better if strikeouts and RBIs are categories. I'm a big Scherzer fan.
stros (Houston): Favorite and least favorite memory from your time with the Astros?
Zachary Levine: Favorite memory from covering the Astros is being lucky enough to cover a perfect game. Least favorite memory is all the times they made news (firing a GM, hiring a GM, firing a manager, hiring a manager) after 10 or 11 p.m.
Tampa Tim (The Ocean): What's your projection for Desmond Jennings in 2013?
Zachary Levine: Not overly optimistic, nor am I about their entire outfield/DH situation. I still think Tampa Bay is a piece away from replacing their pitching losses, and I absolutely loved that team last year. Still amazed they didn't make the playoffs. Maybe a .750-.770 OPS from Jennings just to throw some lazy numbers out there. I definitely think he'll be better than last year.
Demanding Joe (Possumjaw, AR): Hey you, rank every active MLB player and prospect in one list. And do it quickly, I haven't got all day here!
Zachary Levine: I'm almost done with the list but need a judgment. Does Jamie Moyer count as active?
andtinez (Houston): How do you handle the Jonathan Singleton situation if you're the Astros? Can they move him to the 40-man to avoid the suspension?
Zachary Levine: I don't think they can do that. Somebody please correctly if your JDA knowledge is better than mine. You can move him to the 40-man if you're worried he'll smoke again and then he can avoid the next suspension, but he's stuck with this one. What do I do? Just make sure he's ready to play on day 51. I figure Oklahoma City this year and Houston either September or next April.
Billy (Ocean): Let's say you're shrunk down to the size of a quarter along with Felix Escalona and then placed in a blender. You have five minutes to escape. How do you do it?
Zachary Levine: Fill the 5-gallon jug and pour that into the 3 gallon jug, so you have only 2 gallons left in the 5 gallon jug. Then empty the 3 gallon jug and transfer the 2 gallons there. Then refill the 5 gallon jug and pour one gallon into the 3 gallon jug, filling that to the top. Your 4 gallons will be what's left in the larger one.
JayKay (H-Town): Obviously still too early to tell, but as of now, it seems the Astros did very well in the Pence trade but got hosed in the Bourn trade. Thoughts?
Zachary Levine: Yes and yes. I'm really surprised they got so much more for Pence because I thought Bourn was a better player, though I guess it was the one-year difference in the amount of team control.
whales are awesome (san diego): Outside of the Oakland/San Jose situation, what's the next team you see moving and what are the most realistic destinations?
Zachary Levine: If Tampa Bay moving to Tampa counts the same as Oakland moving to San Jose, then I say Tampa Bay or Anaheim to somewhere else in the LA area. If that doesn't count, then I probably still say Tampa Bay.
mmcd (ottawa): How much will the KC defence impact James Shields? Is it all that bad?
Zachary Levine: No, Shields is a high strikeout pitcher. I don't think the impact will be all that much.
carter (Houston): Should we expect a little bit of a drop in Jose Altuve's numbers this year?
Zachary Levine: Yes, a little bit. He's still a very viable starting second baseman.
Theo Backer (Chicago): What's your take on the new Theo-Hoyer regime along with all the other baseball minds they've brought into the organization? It's sucks continuing to wait, but I feel like the Cubs are finally doing it the right way.
Zachary Levine: Impressed so far. I like what they've done with some of the one-year stuff to make the rotation relevant in what shouldn't be an overwhelming division this year. Bats need a lot of work, though. Disappointing crop of rookies on-the-verge guys and young MLers they inherited outside of Castro.
Steve C (Houston): Five years from now ... Is Jeff Luhnow getting the keys to the city of Houston, or an ex-Astros GM?
Zachary Levine: Neither.
Beaton100 (Houston): Do you think it would be worth it for the Astros to tank for Rodon in 2014? And who do you think they should take with the 1st pick this year?
Zachary Levine: I expect their approach will be similar to their 2013 approach, not taking the consensus best guy, but the guy they can "get a feel for demands" on and sign for below slot. Then use the money later on. So tanking would be for more bonus pool money, not any one specific player, and no they won't tank.
Steve N (Delaware): ZL, my son is riht across the river from you at RPI. Anyway, is there any hope for Frank Francisco? Will he ever be a successful closer? Will he ever be a workable reliever?
Zachary Levine: Let's go Red. Clarkson still sucks. Anyway, no I don't think Frank Francisco has much closing left in his future. That's not his career trajectory heading into his age 32 season. But there's value there if his 2012 walk rate was a one-year problem. The stuff is still there into his 30s. Still a legitimate option.
Paul (DC): Any guess on the kind of numbers Korean import Hyun-Jin Ryu will put up this year with the Dodgers?
Zachary Levine: Haven't seen him or heard much on him. Sorry to avoid the question, but I imagine his leash will be pretty short considering the eight starting pitchers they have now and the expectations. If he doesn't start well, you might not get a full season out of him until some of the starting jam is cleared out.
JayKay (H-Town): Lets say you're an athlete and you've been accused of steroids/tested positive/whatever. But you actually are innocent. Is there anything that can be said that would get people to actually believe you?
Zachary Levine: No. I can't think of anything other than telling SportsCenter I'll take a polygraph test on live television. (They'd never turn that down, by the way. Christmas morning for Roger Cossack.)
It's a scenario I've actually imagined in my own head before, but usually involving a crime that I did not commit and have been arrested for. It doesn't usually end well. There's nothing I can think of to say, especially in the steroids case, where there are no alibis.
So good luck if you are so accused and so innocent.
Traffic Jam (Houston): How many wins above or below replacement-level city (USA) would you rate Houston, Texas, and what are its best skills, if any?
Zachary Levine: It's above replacement level and trending upward as it should be, young city headed into its prime with still a little way to go. Best skills are unlimited chips and salsa.
Pedro (KY): When all's said and done, what ends up happening with A-Rod and the Yankees? Please answer in the form of a Hunt for Red October reference.
Zachary Levine: They don't void his contract. He takes a long time to heal. He plays again when healed. I really don't imagine much has changed in the last two days; I was more concerned about Cashman's quotes recently about the hip. I can't see how he retires or how insurance is involved unless he gives a complete effort (probably multiple efforts) to come back and really can't.
And I never saw the movie. I haven't seen many movies.
Jordan (Friend Zone): You think Luhnow would pass on Rodon next year, just because he could demand over-slot? He may be the best chance they have at an ace.
Zachary Levine: I certainly don't see them going over the value of the pick. They were really happy with what happened last year going under. Now that said, if the top of this year's class works out with an obvious No. 1 and an enormous talent drop even to No. 2, then there could be an issue, but we're a long way from that point.
andtinez (Houston): You're the commish for a day and any move you make regarding instant replay is permanent for the full coming season. What do you do with your new found powers?
Zachary Levine: First of all, no umpires leave the field. That's all for show and sort of nonsense. That can be handled without the delay from elsewhere though the miracle of telecommunications. It's a fifth umpire in the stadium or in the central office who reviews the play and announces the decision for call and runner placement voice of God style at the stadium. The manager wouldn't be able to argue because the person wouldn't be anywhere near them.
Use it for fair/foul, safe/out, homer/in-play, caught/trapped whenever the closest ump to the play dictates.
JayKay (H-Town): How long until you get your Hall of Fame vote? I'm counting on you in case Biggio and Bagwell still need the help.
Zachary Levine: This will be year 6 for me in the BBWAA. I expect not to have a chance to vote for either one. I'd be voting for former Astros Clemens and Schilling, though. Disappointed I won't be able to even consider former Astro Lofton, who I think was much closer to a reasonable HOF standard than the 2% of the vote would indicate.
dianagram (VORGville): Who plays A-Rod in the inevitable biopic?
Zachary Levine: I'm out. My righthanded swing is terrible. So is my lefthanded swing, but whatever.
Ignition (Remix): What's the word on BP doing another gathering in Houston?
Zachary Levine: Heard rumors on just that. Not allowed to say the tentative date but it rhymes with May Feleventh.
Adam (Cleveland): What are your thoughts on Rays' Willie Argo? What is his projection?
Zachary Levine: Do not know him. Probably a question for our prospects guys.
Chris (KC): On Singleton, no, adding him to the 40-man will not allow him to avoid suspension:
"J. Completion of Minor League Discipline
A Player suspended under Major League Baseballs Minor League Drug
Prevention and Treatment Program (the Minor League Program) who is selected to or
otherwise placed on a 40-man roster before such suspension is complete shall be
suspended at the Major League level for the lesser of: (a) the remainder of the suspension
imposed under the Minor League Program or (b) the difference between the maximum
penalty that could have been imposed under this Program (had each of the Players
violations occurred while he was on a 40-man roster) and the number of games already
served by the Player at the Minor League level. A Player who tests positive under the
Minor League Program, or who has otherwise violated the Minor League Program, and
who is not notified of that positive test result or of the violation until after his promotion
to a 40-man roster shall be treated as if the Player tested positive under or violated this
Zachary Levine: Thank you for verifying. So yes, the move they could make would only be to prevent future suspensions if they thought he was likely to keep smoking. But the baseball impact of this strikes me as fairly minimal. Next year was his reasonable year to become a significant player anyway.
andtinez (Houston): Have you ever thought about taking anti-aging treatments to improve your performance as a writer?
Zachary Levine: Au contraire, I hope to age into being a good writer. The only age-related concern I have is on the top of my head and if that's the worst I'm doing, then I'm doing OK.
webberoo11 (Las Vegas): Zach....Things in Houston aren't the same without you!! Come back!!! Also, do you think Houston makes anymore deals before opening day?
Zachary Levine: Thank you, and no, nothing of significance. If they can find a team with a spring training injury to overpay for a guy like a Norris or an Altuve or a Lowrie, then they should go for it.
Zachary Levine: Thank you all very much for chatting. I had a good time. Hope to do this again before or during spring training. -Z
Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.Copyright © 1996-2023 Baseball Prospectus, LLC.


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Installing & Operating FSP 3000 CloudConnect™
- Location: Remote, Online - Europe
- From: 20 June, 2022
- Until: 22 June, 2022
- Duration: 3 days
- Spaces: 8
- Registration closes: 06 June, 2022
A three-day training course which explains in detail each of the product's components, its implementation and its relationship to other components. Troubleshooting and configuration exercises are essential elements of the training to assure that the attendants gain a comprehensive understanding of the device's operation.
This course is delivered in English language with English course materials.


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Chemosphere, L.A. Times Home Magazine, April 30, 1961. Julius Shulman Job No. 3152, March 6-7, 1961. (from my collection)
Feb. 2010 John Lautner Foundation reprint of the Journal of the Taliesin Fellows Issue 18, 1995 edited by Louise Wiehle and Frank Escher with new material added (see bibliography below). Courtesy of Judy Lautner.
Feb. 2010 John Lautner Foundation reprint of the Journal of the Taliesin Fellows Issue 18, 1995 edited by Louise Wiehle and Frank Escher with new material added (see bibliography below). Courtesy of Judy Lautner.
The 2008 Hammer exhibition "Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner" and Getty-Hammer Symposium "Against Reason: John Lautner and Postwar Architecture" created a flood of publicity and generated much renewed interest in Lautner's life and work. The traveling show is currently on view at the Palm Springs Art Museum after an interim show in Glasgow, Scotland. This motivated me to look deeper into the literature for information on this unique and creative genius.
A logical starting point for me was to perform a "Lautner" search in my 8,000 item "Julius Shulman Annotated Bibliography" prepared while researching a book on Shulman cover photos. The search resulted in 275 articles with Shulman photos of Lautner projects. Shulman has logged close to 75 assignments for Lautner projects over the years for various clients ranging from Lautner himself to book and article authors, magazine editors, newspaper reporters, exhibition curators, homeowners and realtors. He also used his considerable marketing skills and contacts with publishers and editors to help spread the gospel of modernism according to Lautner to a global audience.
This bibliography compiles my Shulman-Lautner findings with the excellent bibliographic foundation laid by Ludolf von Alvensleben in the 1991 Viennese exhibition catalog "John Lautner: Architect: Los Angeles", and "John Lautner, Architect" with text by Lautner and edited by Frank Escher, and the John Lautner Foundation web site. Listings were also gleaned from the end notes in "The Architecture of John Lautner" by Alan Hess and "Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner" edited by Nicholas Olsberg, et al.
Building upon these sources, exhaustive searches were also done on ProQuest-Los Angeles Times Historical, RIBA, Avery, WorldCat, WilsonWeb, Art Index, Google and many other databases and sources resulting in well over 1200 items discovered to date. Feedback on ways to improve this compilation and submittals of new items I have undoubtedly overlooked are always welcome as I intend to update this bibliography periodically.
Structure of the Bibliography
Entries in the bibliography are chronological with divisions by year. Each year begins with a brief chronology of important events in Lautner"s life followed by a list of the year's projects and finally, bibliographical items published during the year with my annotations. I have compiled the chronology and project lists from the ones provided in the aforementioned Ludwig von Alvensleben exhibition catalog and Lautner-Escher monograph, the 1999 Barbara-Ann Campbell-Lange "John Lautner" monograph edited by Peter Gossel, the 2008 "Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner" exhibition catalog edited by Olsberg, the 1998 "The Architecture of John Lautner" by Alan Hess and the project database prepared by Tycho Saariste available on the Lautner Foundation web site. I also have not taken the time to edit items from the Shulman bibliography that contain work by others in addition to Lautner. Readers may find it interesting, however, to see what company Lautner was keeping in these group articles. Illustrations are from my personal collection or from various internet sources and credited in the adjacent bibliography listing.
I would like to thank Judith Lautner for her review comments and contribution of numerous items included herein and her continuing devotion to maintaining the Lautner Foundation web site. http://www.johnlautner.org/
Bibliography Link:
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NORFOLK, Va. — "Can you hear me?" It is a simple question, but police say answering it could make you the victim of a scam.
Police in Virginia are now warning about the scam, which has also been recently reported in Florida, and, in 2016, in Pennsylvania.
"Anytime you become victim to a crime, you just feel violated," said Officer Jo Ann Hughes with the Norfolk Police Department.
Here's how it works – police say you'll receive a phone call from a number you do not know.
"Usually it has a familiar area code," Hughes told WTKR, making the potential victim more likely to answer the call.
Police say after you answer the phone, a person – or automated recording – on the other end of the line introduces themselves and their business.
"That kind of warms you up," Hughes said.
After the introduction comes the question, "Can you hear me?"
"All of us, our natural response is to say, 'Yes,' or 'Sure,' or 'Yes I can,'" said Hughes, but she says this is exactly what you do not want to do.
Police say scammers record your "yes" response. In one variation of the scam documented by the Better Business Bureau in October, 2016, the criminals may pretend to be from a cruise line or home security company and will later bill you for products or services you never asked for.
If you try to deny the charges, the scammers will playback your verbal confirmation 'yes' and threaten to take legal action if you don't pay.
In another variation, scammers may use the recording to authorize charges on a stolen credit card or with a utility company by tricking an automated system, according to CBS News. The con artists may have already stolen other personal information through a data breach that would allow them to pass the security checks.
"A lot of times, victims do not want to come forward because they are embarrassed. They feel like, 'It was my fault. I should have known better,' and they are just embarrassed by it all together. So we do not get a whole lot of reports, unfortunately," said Hughes.
Police say to avoid this scam, follow this advice.
- Do not answer the phone from numbers you do not recognize,
- Do not give out personal information,
- Do not confirm your number over the phone,
- Do not answer questions over the phone.
And finally this piece of advice: hang up the phone and call 911 instead.
"We really want people to hear this," said Hughes. "[We want people to] say, 'Look, I just heard about this scam on TV,'…and to hang up."