text:
Toyota, the U.S. sales leader in compact pickups, will display a pre-production Tacoma Toyota Racing Development (TRD) T|X (Tacoma Extreme) limited edition pickup truck at the 2011 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Inspired by Toyota's Baja racing heritage, the truck reveals bold graphics with its concept name "Baja Series." The truck will elevate the capability of Tacoma's TRD Off-Road pickup to a new level of fun and function.
All Tacoma T|X Baja Series models will be built exclusively at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas (TMMTX) in San Antonio and are scheduled for launch in late spring 2012.
"The Tacoma has long been the sales leader by a wide margin in the compact pickup segment thanks to its well-earned reputation for stellar quality, durability, reliability and off-road capability," said Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager, Toyota Division. "The limited edition TRD T|X Baja Series adds another chapter to Toyota's truck legacy by offering a new level of capability for off-road enthusiasts."
Toyota has a rich Baja racing truck heritage that dates back nearly three decades and includes numerous titles at the legendary Baja 500 and 1000. Toyota's desert racing program has inspired the development of numerous TRD off-road focused products and packages over the years including the Tacoma PreRunner and TRD Off-Road packages for both Tacoma and Tundra. Last year, Tacoma's Off-Road Package was enhanced with the launch of the TRD T|X and T|X Pro packages. TRD now takes Tacoma off-roading to the next level with the development of the T|X Baja Series.
The T|X Baja Series is currently undergoing final testing for application on both the Tacoma Access and Double Cab 4×4 models equipped with the TRD Off-Road Package. Expansion to include PreRunner models is also being considered. The Tacoma T|X Baja Series is equipped with a 4.0-liter V6 engine with either six-speed manual and five-speed automatic transmissions. In addition to an electronically-controlled locking rear differential, Active Traction Control (A-TRAC), Hill-Start Assist Control (HAC) and Downhill Assist Control (DAC) currently equipped on the TRD Off-Road package, the limited edition T|X Baja Series adds BF Goodrich T/A KO tires (LT265/70R16) and bead-lock style off-road wheels with an exclusive Gun-Metal Gray finish, TRD Cat-back Exhaust, increased front ride height of nearly two inches and unique Baja Series graphics.
The front suspension has been upgraded to include 60mm piston Bilstein race shocks with TRD coil springs that feature a protective zinc plated body and a one inch increase in wheel travel. The rear suspension is equipped with 50mm piston Bilstein race shocks with a remote reservoir to increase shock oil capacity for greater heat dissipation and damping sensitivity. The rear shocks also include a zinc-plated body and a 1.5-inch increase in wheel travel. Additional information about the Baja Series, including pricing and ordering information will be available in early 2012.
The T|X Baja Series will be part of a 2012 Tacoma line that is updated with a restyled front end and a refreshed interior in all models. Exterior changes include a redesigned hood, grille, headlamps and front bumper, among other changes. Inside, Tacoma has a new center-instrument panel design with a revised gauge cluster, along with a new steering wheel. A redesigned center stack adds new air conditioner/heater controls and power point locations.
The 2012 Tacoma interior also gets a new look with a black high-contrast center console, switch plate covers, dash and upper door trim, while the SR5 grade features a new seat fabric design. Tacoma offers new heavy-duty all-weather flooring option for 2012 on Tacoma Access and Double Cab models equipped with a V6 engine. The more specialized TRD Sport and Off-Road packages also feature new water-resistant fabric protection seats.


text:
Gym Girl Cake 1 KG
₹ 1399
Inclusive of all taxes
100% Eggless
Product Information:
Flavour Pineapple. Shape Of Cake Round. Type Of Cake Semi Fondant. Cake With Complimentary Knife n Candle
Delivery information:
Delivery Every cake we offer is hand crafted and since each chef has his/her own way of baking and designing a cake, there might be slight variation in the product in terms of design and shape.The chosen delivery time is an estimate and depends on the availability of the product and the destination to which you want the product to be delivered.Since cakes are perishable in nature, we will be able to attempt delivery of your order only once. The delivery cannot be redirected to any other address.
Care Instructions:
Store cream cakes in a refrigerator. Fondant cakes should be stored in an air conditioned environment.
The Cake Topper May Vary. The cake stand, cutlery & accessories used in the image are only for representation purposes they are not delivered with the cake. This cake is hand delivered in a good quality cardboard box

subset: commoncrawl


text:
There's a good chance that an Albion College student or alumni had a family member that attended Albion as well.
At Albion, it's almost a family tradition.
Below are some of the legacy stories from our alumni and current students.
Know a family member that should consider Albion? Let us know!


text:
Seemann, Enoch, Sr. (1661-?)
Seemann, Enoch, Sr., born 1661, the son of Isaac Seemann, surpassed his father in artistic ability; he learned painting in the studio of his brother Isaac, then made extensive journeys, returned to Elbing in 1680, and was received into the Mennonite congregation there at the age of nineteen. In 1683 he moved to Danzig and on 5 December of that year married Susanna Ordonn. On the basis of his work he was made a "free master," and was permitted (outside the guild) to paint only portraits and could not keep apprentices. He served as "City Painter" (Stadtmaler) 1683-98. At first all went well. But soon the elder of the congregation, Georg Hansen, forbade him to paint portraits, suggesting that he paint landscapes instead. Seemann replied that the signs on the shops were then also wrong and should be removed. When after a time these signs were not removed, and the guild of landscape painters made trouble for him, he again began to paint portraits, thereby drawing the renewed censure of the elder, who placed him under the ban in 1697. Seemann published Offenbahrung und Bestraffung des Gergen Hansens Thorheit (Stolzenberg, 1697), in which the story is given. About 1698 he went to Warsaw and served at the royal court until 1704, then went to London, where he died (date unknown).
Seven children were born to him; four were named in publications, but only two are recorded in the church books of the Danzig congregations. They include Enoch Seeman the Younger (ca. 1694-1744/45), who was born in Danzig and went to England with his father in 1704. He became a painter to the British royal court and completed portraits of King George I and King George II.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. IV, 145.
|Franz Harder
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
Harder, Franz. "Seemann, Enoch, Sr. (1661-?)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 24 Sep 2023. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Seemann,_Enoch,_Sr._(1661-%3F)&oldid=144303.
APA style
Harder, Franz. (1959). Seemann, Enoch, Sr. (1661-?). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 September 2023, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Seemann,_Enoch,_Sr._(1661-%3F)&oldid=144303.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 495. All rights reserved.
©1996-2023 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


text:
Zip Exporter
Zip Exporter is an export plugin for Lightroom 2 or higher that allows you to create a Zip archive of images and videos via Lightroom Export feature. The archive may be password protected for extra security.
The resulting Zip archive can also be uploaded to an FTP server.
Donating and Updates
The trial version is limited to zipping 3 images at a time, and donating towards this project will give you a registration code that will remove this restriction. All future updates are free.


text:
The worst nuclear-power-plant disaster in history. On April 26, 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine exploded, resulting in a nuclear meltdown that sent massive amounts of radiation into the atmosphere, reportedly more than the fallout from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That radiation drifted westward, across what was then Soviet Russia, toward Europe. Since then, thousands of kids have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and an almost 20-mile area around the plant remains off-limits. Reactor No. 4 has been sealed off in a large, concrete sarcophagus that is slowly deteriorating. While the rest of the plant ceased operations in 2000, almost 4,000 workers still report there for various assignments.
Next Bhopal


text:
High School Seniors Gallery
Bold & True high school senior pictures by Brad Barlow. Graduation announcement photos. Metal print graduation gifts.Read More
Contact Me
Follow B2X Photo
Photographers in Idaho Falls, ID
Music - Sports - High School Seniors- Headshots
Bold & True
B2X Photo
Photographers Idaho Falls, ID. High school seniors, Music, Sports, Headshots, Local listings photos.
(208) 403-6002
firstname.lastname@example.com Falls, ID 83406
United States


text:
Do you have a question about MYLAPS Speedhive? Then please view our FAQ first to find an answer to your question. If you wish to contact us, please do so here.
MYLAPS Speedhive
Zuiderhoutlaan 4
2012PJ Haarlem
The Netherlands
If you are a business customer, please contact MYLAPS Sports Timing.
MYLAPS Speedhive is a service from MYLAPS Sports Timing.


text:
This is a recipe I developed over two years ago that never saw the light of day. With BBQ season now upon us I thought would dust it off. There is perhaps nothing I love more that a marinated, grilled oyster mushroom. And certainly everyone will think you're a fun guy when you make this traditional side salad as the main meal—all done on the barbecue!
· ½ cup (125 mL) soy milk (more as needed)
· ½ cup (125 mL) vegan mayonnaise
· 2 tsp (10 mL) freshly squeezed lemon juice
· 2 small cloves garlic, minced
· 1 tbsp minced capers
· ½ tsp each light soy sauce, brown sugar
· ¼ tsp each apple cider vinegar, mustard powder, onion powder
· 1 tsp miso
· pinch ground ginger
· salt and pepper to taste
· 2 small hearts of romaine lettuce
· ¼ cup (60 mL) freshly squeezed lemon juice
· 2 tbsp (30 mL) olive oil
· seasoned salt
· 16 large shitake mushrooms, stems removed
· 3/4 lb (375 g) oyster mushrooms, stems on
· 1/2 cup (125 mL) croutons
Oil grill and preheat barbecue to med-high
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper and thin with more soy milk to get desired consistency.
1. Slice romaine in half lengthwise, leaving core intact.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, salt and cayenne. Lightly brush over cut side of romaine. Set romaine aside on a tray.
3. Place mushrooms (cut oyster mushrooms into smaller pieces if needed) in remaining lemon juice mixture in a baking tray. Toss to coat. Season with seasoned salt. Let marinate for 15 mins
4. Place romaine cut-side down on grill. Place mushrooms on grill. Barbecue romaine for about 3 mins on the oiled side, and mushrooms, about 3-5 mins per side.
5. Set each romaine half on a plate. Divide shitake mushrooms evenly among the plates. Remove stems from oyster mushrooms and divide among the plates. Scatter with croutons. Drizzle with dressing. Serve.


text:
InjectorsDirect.com T-Shirt – Camo
- free 2-3 day shipping
Free 2-3 Day Shipping for orders over $100. Oversized and hazardous products ship using Ground service and may take up to 5 days. See our Shipping Policy for more information.
- no hassle 60 day returns
60 day return period for any product that has not been installed and is in "brand-new" condition. See our Returns Policy for more information.
- best warranty
Our Limited Warranty covers manufacturing defects for 2 years on Refurbished or Remanufactured products and 3 Years on New products. See our Limited Warranty Policy for more information.
- low price guarantee
Found an identical product cheaper elsewhere? We want to earn your business! Send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com with a link to the product in question. We will do our best to match or beat it!
Check this out!
Check this out!
100% Cotton Premium T-Shirt. Camo with safety orange printing. Limited Edition!
These shirts run slightly small, so please order accordingly.


text:
Of all the things I love in life, cheese has got to be right near the top. I even love stinky cheese. Cheese, cheese, put some cheese on it and I'll probably eat it. (Stahp. I didn't mean that.)
Anyway, you may even know that I don't mind ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese) because I ate copious amounts of it for the 3-day military diet. So what was I to do when I discovered that it can be made at home? Why, make it, of course.
Of course, this is only homemade in that I have combined stuff I bought from the store. I don't have my own goat or anything, although I wouldn't mind having one, I think. I love goats… Well, I'm not sure I'd love a goat enough to milk it. I love my dog, but, you know, I don't grab her tits and she doesn't try to kick me. It's an agreement we have.
Anyway, I waited a while to do this one because I did not have cheesecloth. Luckily, Amazon came through for me.
For some reason, I had it in mind that a dish towel wouldn't do the trick. Also, cheesecloths are surprisingly cool. I'm pretty sure we used these as burial shrouds in Easter passion plays when I was a good, church-going little fucker.
Instructions said to lay the cheesecloth in a fine mesh strainer. Yeah, well. I couldn't find mine, so a colander it was.
Annnnd done.
(Keep your eye on that colander. Looks like it might rise from the dead at any moment.)
To make ricotta cheese, you will require dairy products…
You will also need a thing in which to boil your dairy products.
The instructions said this would take about 10 minutes to heat to the appropriate temperature, appropriate temperature being when the milk starts to separate into gross-looking chunks and grosser-looking watery by-product. Mine took waaaay longer than 10 minutes.
And then when I went to scoop out the chunky things with a slotted spoon, as instructed, this was all I got:
My hand is there for perspective, and also because I'm still showing off my gel nails. (This picture is from last week and I've taken it off since then, but it was still lookin pretty good a week and a half in, right?)
So I boiled that shit some more. If a little is good, a lottle is better, after all.
When I figured I'd boiled it to within an inch of its poor little life, I tried the slotted spoon method again, but didn't have too much success. It was at this point that my mesh strainer miraculously reappeared and I got the bright idea to just dump the whole pot of gross-looking stuff in the mesh strainer and then transfer the chunky bits to the cheesecloth.
It worked.
So, really, at this point, the cheesecloth was just a cute place to set the cheese. The mesh strainer accomplished everything I thought the cheesecloth would do.
Still, I couldn't resist the opportunity for a photo-op of a cheesecloth hanging off my faucet. I call this one "Suck It, Pioneer Woman" or "I'm Homesteading, Motherfucker."
Let's pause here while we pretend to wait for the cheese to drain, because I started trying to do math in my head. This whole process yielded maybe a cup of ricotta cheese after I put in 4 cups of whole milk, 1 cup of buttermilk, and 1/3 cup of heavy cream.
A half gallon of whole milk costs $2.79 at my grocery store. I used 4 cups, so that's about $1.40.
A 32 oz carton of buttermilk costs $1.79 and I used 1/4 of the carton, so that's about $0.45.
Then I used 1/3 of a cup of heavy cream from an 8 oz carton at $1.85, so that's $0.62.
So I've already spent $2.47 for this homemade cheese and that's not taking into account that the remaining dairy product in those cartons will probably spoil in my fridge because I don't use whole milk, buttermilk, or heavy cream for anything.
A 16 ounce ricotta cheese carton at the store costs $2.69.
I leave it to you as to whether you think the price is right. I, for one, am skeptical. Because this is how much you end up with:
As far as the taste, I have to admit, it was much better than grocery store ricotta, if only because I got to drain off all that ookie water stuff and just have the curdy part. Yerrrrm. So, yeah, maybe if it really only took me 15 minutes, and I ate a lot of ricotta cheese, this would be worth it.
As it stands, though, I pretty much don't give enough craps to keep on doing this and there is a non-existent amount of money saved if you don't happen to have your own heavy cream producing goat wandering around, and you have mutually agreed that it's ok if you grab her tits.


text:
The Supreme Court struck down a federal law that prohibits sports gambling Monday in a landmark decision that gives states the go-ahead to legalize betting on sports.
The court ruled 6-3 to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a 1992 law that barred state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions. It made Nevada the only state where a person could wager on the results of a single game.
States that want to offer legal sports betting may now do so, and New Jersey plans to be first. Delaware, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are among the states expected to quickly get into the legal bookmaking game.
The court ruled in favor of New Jersey and against the NCAA, NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball, capping a nearly six-year legal battle and overturning a federal statute that the sports leagues had adamantly stood by for more than 20 years.
"Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own," the court wrote its opinion. "Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not."
The leagues first sued former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in August 2012 and won every step of the way -- until June, when the Supreme Court decided to take the case. Oral arguments were heard Dec. 4, and the justices ruled five months later.
Christie tweeted after the ruling that it was a "great day for the rights of states and their people to make their own decisions."
A great day for the rights of states and their people to make their own decisions. New Jersey citizens wanted sports gambling and the federal Gov't had no right to tell them no. The Supreme Court agrees with us today. I am proud to have fought for the rights of the people of NJ.— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) May 14, 2018
New Jersey's current governor, Phil Murphy, also cheered the ruling, saying he was "thrilled" to see the high court strike down the "arbitrary ban." He said in a statement that he looks forward to working with the legislature to "enact a law authorizing and regulating sports betting in the very near future."
The impact will be widespread. For nearly 26 years, Nevada has been the only state allowed to offer a full menu of sports betting options. A record $4.8 billion was wagered at Nevada sportsbooks in 2017.
New Jersey, with its much larger population, is expecting even bigger things. So are other states, with more than a dozen having introduced sports betting bills this year.
As the case played out over the past six years, the NBA and MLB pivoted their position on expanding legal sports betting and began lobbying on the issue in several states, including Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, New York and West Virginia.
"We remain in favor of a federal framework that would provide a uniform approach to sports gambling in states that choose to permit it, but we will remain active in ongoing discussions with state legislatures," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. "Regardless of the particulars of any future sports betting law, the integrity of our game remains our highest priority."
MLB said in a statement that the ruling will have "profound effects" and that it will "continue to seek the proper protections for our sport, in partnership with other professional sports."
"Our most important priority is protecting the integrity of our games," MLB's statement said. "We will continue to support legislation that creates air-tight coordination and partnerships between the state, the casino operators and the governing bodies in sports toward that goal."
The NFL, NHL and NCAA, on the other hand, have sat on the sideline awaiting the ruling.
"The NFL's long-standing and unwavering commitment to protecting the integrity of our game remains absolute," the league said. "Congress has long-recognized the potential harms posed by sports betting to the integrity of sporting contests and the public confidence in these events. Given that history, we intend to call on Congress again, this time to enact a core regulatory framework for legalized sports betting. We also will work closely with our clubs to ensure that any state efforts that move forward in the meantime protect our fans and the integrity of our game."
Tony Clark, the head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, called the ruling "monumental, with far-reaching implications for baseball players and the games we love." Clark said the topic must be addressed "urgently and thoughtfully to avoid putting our sport's integrity at risk as states proceed with legislation."
The U.S. joins other jurisdictions that allow legal sports betting, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and France.
To start, it's likely that bets will have to be placed at brick-and-mortar establishments, but states are making plans to offer mobile sports betting in the future.
One research firm estimated before the ruling that if the Supreme Court were to strike down PASPA, 32 states would likely offer sports betting within five years. The American Gaming Association estimates that Americans illegally wager about $150 billion on sports each year.
Geoff Freeman, the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, said in a statement that the court's decision is "a victory for the millions of Americans who seek to bet on sports in a safe and regulated manner."
"Today's ruling makes it possible for states and sovereign tribal nations to give Americans what they want: an open, transparent, and responsible market for sports betting," Freeman said. "Through smart, efficient regulation this new market will protect consumers, preserve the integrity of the games we love, empower law enforcement to fight illegal gambling, and generate new revenue for states, sporting bodies, broadcasters and many others."
ESPN's Ryan Rodenberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


text:
One of her five brothers, Pedro Rivera Jr., plans to lead the 10 a.m. service at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles.
"We will celebrate the graduation into heaven, with honors, of our beloved mother, daughter and sister," the family said in a statement.
Rivera and six others died Dec. 9 in a northern Mexico plane crash that remains under investigation.
The mother of five and grandmother of two was 43 years old.
Rivera sold more than 15 million copies of her 12 major-label albums. Her soulful singing style and her honesty about her tumultuous personal life won her fans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. She was also an actress and reality-TV star.
Born in Los Angeles, Rivera launched her career by selling cassette tapes at local flea markets. By the end of the 90s, she won a major-label contract and built a loyal following that knew her as the "Diva de la Banda."
Many of her songs deal with themes of dignity in the face of heartbreak, which Rivera spoke of openly with her fans.
She had recently filed for divorce from her third husband, was once detained at a Mexico City airport with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and publicly apologized after her brother assaulted a drunken fan who verbally attacked her in 2011.
Free tickets to the public memorial service were quickly snapped up Tuesday afternoon. Rivera's burial will be private.


text:
Leukoedema, a grayish-white lesion of the oral mucosa in humans, was once thought to be a probable precursor to leukoplakia. Clinical examination differentiates leukoedema from leukoplakia, lichen planus, white sponge naevus, and pathomimia morsicatio buccarum. Prevalence rates vary greatly in different countries and in different ethnic groups. For many years, leukoedema was alleged to occur only in adult populations until Martin and Crump found this lesion in children and youth. There is a definite predilection for this lesion in black Americans. Although the etiology is unknown, it has been suggested that leukoedema develops in areas of local irritation. (Martin JL, J Natl Med Assoc 1992 Nov;84(11):938-940)
Leukoedema, Oral
Leukoedema, Oral, Leukoedemas, Oral, Oral Leukoedema, Oral Leukoedemas


text:
Are you a tech-savvy person? Always hunting for things that can savor your tech needs... We have an amazing collection of technology free mobile themes downloads that will help cater your tech cravings. This section will bring you all your favroite technology free theme downloads at one place and you won't have to go anywhere else.
Displaying 1 to 14 out of 1143 Mobile Themes in Technology Category


text:
Saturday, June 18, 2011
June 17, 2011 – The White Hats Report #21
The on-going battle rages between the customary conundrums … right v. wrong, good v. evil, thugs v. the common people. Our US President Barack Obama who is both ineligible to hold the office and totally incapable of carrying out the duties of said office is again resorting to thuggery … this time extortion. The White Hats have been tracking the progress as patiently as everyone else allowing the good fellows in the international banking community to move through the process of being the meticulous mechanics they are. To find that it had stopped at Obama's desk … again … gave us great pause as we had a feeling it meant more than waiting for a signature. True to form, Obama did it again. We never thought that our President could be so blatant in his demands. We shouldn't be surprised as Congress allows him and his controllers, i.e. NWO gang of Bush, Clintons, Kissinger, Soros, et al to hold the American dollar hostage and threaten the world financial system … all for their own personal gain, attempting to leverage Obama's temporary position to enrich their bank accounts, all the while financially destroying the American people.
The information contained in the attached Al Hodges letter is vital to the success of the World Global Settlements and, unfortunately, is very disturbing in its truthful content. You, the reader, needs to take the information to heart and know that this is the standard that Washington politics has come to.
This latest development, the extortion attempt by Obama, leaves us wondering how to respond.
Perhaps, we should start by apologizing for blocking his attempted extortion of $1,000 per package sent out by Federal Express to recipients of the Prosperity Packs, after all it was rude of us to do that. A quick calculation would indicate a nice "commission" for his trouble of making the phone call to allow them to go out.
Perhaps this time we should request a written contract to sign. I'm sure his legal team could put something together for a basis in which to start negotiations.
And we haven't heard yet on how he wishes to be paid this extortion money. We're not sure if he'd like it in cash, a cashier's check or money order. Or perhaps he'd like it wired to one of his overseas accounts at the Vatican Bank, the Bank of Santander, a bank in Honduras or maybe the Caribbean? If so, he'll need to provide his routing coordinates as we'd hate to wire it to the wrong account, one under the name of Bush, Clinton, Kissinger or Soros. He'd NEVER get it back then. If he wants Ackermann at Deutsche involved, he should let us know that as well. We're also wondering where he wishes the 1099 to be sent or would this be tax free money? And don't worry; we'll use the Connecticut Social Security for reporting to the IRS. We know, as President, he wouldn't want to cheat them out of their money. How he reports it on his tax return and disclosure statements would be his problem.
Many of our long time readers are actively involved in the communications process, please continue. Call Washington and let them know you're tired of the acts of this President and his participation with the Bush/NWO Cabal. Let them know that you demand action on the World Global Settlements.
The White Hats Team
Al Hodges 6/17/2011
8 comments:
How come you guys didn't pick up on the Kenyan Trojan horse thread that we're all a flutter about? Heads will roll....ReplyDelete
At last we seem to be reaching a final conclusion to enforce long overdue release of the Global settlements. America so much needs new Presidential contestants of integrity to unseat this Kenyan illegal Con Man and his Tri Lateral / Soros NWO Puppet Masters. The inability of US Enforcement Agencies to act and deal with the Texan / Chicago Cabals augures badly for the Union. Hopefully a candidate like Rick Perry, the Texan Governor, will emerge to offer the electorate true Patriotic values and help turn back the tide of corrupt, mercenary opportunists who have demeaned all Constitutional values with their bankrupt Federal Reserve Cohorts. Only the White Hats site seems to be able to deliver current reality of viable information, as long as you can keep the funded, conspiring and disfunctional Agency Rent Boy malicious Trolls away from site comments, as all they do is demean or seek to negate truth. Some readers now commenting seem not to have read the numerous White Hats reports and exposures to date, of this Kenyan illegal and his handlers treasonous conduct. Back to basics, watch the White Hats videos, read the files and then ask how, on YOUR watch is this happening? We Europeans read, look in and watch with empathy, but often despair. Last year the Brits rose up in anger and voted out en masse a truly disfunctional, corrupt, inept Labour /Democratic party of misfits and implemented a major crackdown on expense accounts fiddling and conduct standards. Multiple MP's were unseated, some were jailed and yet more are going away. Rigorous standards have been enforced with Weevils publicly investigated and exposed in the Mother of Parliaments. Time for the US to backtrack to its core standards of Constitutional values and remove those diseased DC, Texan and Wall Street tentacles restricting greatness and growth. Time to re enforce the Free will of the American people and remove the Free Lunches of these disfunctional limp wrist political mediocrities. America has such great potential and fundamental qualities in abundance. Sadly constrained by Tri Lateral Commission Commie Czars!,Wall Street Cabal and DC Fed malpractice. These are not American values, nor representative of the peoples wishes.Time to hijack - back, all America truly is. Weevil power is no place to be. +ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 19, 2011 at 2:37 AM
Why are you still wondering how to respond re Obama Extortion?ReplyDelete
You seem to have a case against the Dark Cabal, when will the mass arrests begin?
We have gotten used to their HAARP already.
I agree. When will these arrests take place? I think the people have been more than patient in light of the charges against the Dark Cabal.ReplyDelete
However, I will never get used to chemtrails, or HAARP which I believe are tied together.
Exposure, Exposure, Exposure!!ReplyDelete
"World Global Settlements" is nothing but a fairy tale, as is the "Iraqi dinar refunding program". I've been a lawyer for over forty years and I've witnessed plenty of con schemes like this. You've all been suckered in - you're holding worthless paper and empty promises.ReplyDelete
Just got my cheque for $500.ReplyDelete
Many times people don't believe me when I tell them about how much you can earn by taking paid surveys online...
So I show them a video of myself getting paid $500 for taking paid surveys to set the record straight once and for all.
According to information provided by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, 1:8 people in the U.S. have unclaimed money... With claims averaging claims of over $1,000!ReplyDelete
Lookup Federal & State Claimable Money!


text:
Telepathy [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Psion/Wilder 1, Society Mind 1, Thoughtsinger 1, Worldthought Medic 1
Display: Visual
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: One willing creature
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 min./level
Power Points: 1
You perceive what the subject creature perceives using its sight, hearing, taste, or smell. Only one sense is linked, and you cannot switch between senses with the same manifestation. You make any skill checks involving senses, such as Spot or Listen, as the subject, and only within the subject's field of view. You lose your Dexterity bonus to AC while directly sensing what the subject senses. Once sense link is manifested, the link persists even if the subject moves out of the range of the original manifestation (but the link does not work across planes). You do not control the subject, nor can you communicate with it by means of this power.
The strength of the subject's linked sense could be enhanced by other powers or items, allowing you the same enhanced sense. You are subject to any gaze attack affecting the subject creature (if you linked vision). If you are blinded or deafened, or suffer some other sensory deprivation, the linked creature functions as an independent sensory organ, and provides you the benefit of the linked sense from its perspective while this power's duration lasts.
You can augment this power in one or both of the following ways.
- If you spend 2 additional power points, you can have the subject perceive one of your senses instead of the other way around.
- If you spend 4 additional power points, you can link to a second sense of the same subject.


text:
Celeste Dolphin & Ring
Sensory Teether
- 👶3 - 12 months baby
- 👶Teething irritation
- 👶Hand gripping training
- 👶Sensory training (Wooden creates sensory SOUND when friction)
- 👶Sensory of touch and sound
- Baby will be experiencing touching on textures, learning how to hold things by hand and experiencing the natural sound from wood friction.
- 🌱Eco-friendly beech wood
- 🌱100% Food Grade Silicone
- 🌱Applied natural coconut oil on wood surface
How to clean:
- Use unscented wet tissue to wipe off dust
Silicone Ring Size: Diameter 7cm
Wooden Ring Size: Diameter 7cm
Total Size: Approximate 11cm
Colour : Wooden, Celeste Blue, Marble White, Grey
Complimentary with a Zaturee tie bag in 15cmx15cm.
This is not only a teething tool but a stimulating toy as well.
If you would like to have Personalized Name on Wooden Teether, please add Laser Engraving to your cart too. It is RM10.00 for this service.


text:
Northern Colorado Gazette
Pedophiles want same rights as homosexuals
Claim unfair to be stigmatized for sexual orientation
by Jack Minor –
Using the same tactics used by "gay" rights activists, pedophiles have begun to seek similar status arguing their desire for children is a sexual orientation no different than heterosexual or homosexuals.
Critics of the homosexual lifestyle have long claimed that once it became acceptable to identify homosexuality as simply an "alternative lifestyle" or sexual orientation, logically nothing would be off limits. "Gay" advocates have taken offense at such a position insisting this would never happen. However, psychiatrists are now beginning to advocate redefining pedophilia in the same way homosexuality was redefined several years ago.
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. A group of psychiatrists with B4U-Act recently held a symposium proposing a new definition of pedophilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders of the APA.
B4U-Act calls pedophiles "minor-attracted people." The organization's website states its purpose is to, "help mental health professionals learn more about attraction to minors and to consider the effects of stereotyping, stigma and fear."
In 1998 The APA issued a report claiming "that the 'negative potential' of adult sex with children was 'overstated' and that 'the vast majority of both men and women reported no negative sexual effects from childhood sexual abuse experiences."
Pedophilia has already been granted protected status by the Federal Government. The Matthew Shephard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act lists "sexual orientation" as a protected class; however, it does not define the term.
Republicans attempted to add an amendment specifying that "pedophilia is not covered as an orientation;" however, the amendment was defeated by Democrats. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fl) stated that all alternative sexual lifestyles should be protected under the law. "This bill addresses our resolve to end violence based on prejudice and to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability or all of these 'philias' and fetishes and 'isms' that were put forward need not live in fear because of who they are. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this rule."
The White House praised the bill saying, "At root, this isn't just about our laws; this is about who we are as a people. This is about whether we value one another – whether we embrace our differences rather than allowing them to become a source of animus."
Earlier this year two psychologists in Canada declared that pedophilia is a sexual orientation just like homosexuality or heterosexuality.
Van Gijseghem, psychologist and retired professor of the University of Montreal, told members of Parliament, "Pedophiles are not simply people who commit a small offense from time to time but rather are grappling with what is equivalent to a sexual orientation just like another individual may be grappling with heterosexuality or even homosexuality."
He went on to say, "True pedophiles have an exclusive preference for children, which is the same as having a sexual orientation. You cannot change this person's sexual orientation. He may, however, remain abstinent."
When asked if he should be comparing pedophiles to homosexuals, Van Gijseghem replied, "If, for instance, you were living in a society where heterosexuality is proscribed or prohibited and you were told that you had to get therapy to change your sexual orientation, you would probably say that that is slightly crazy. In other words, you would not accept that at all. I use this analogy to say that, yes indeed, pedophiles do not change their sexual orientation."
Dr. Quinsey, professor emeritus of psychology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, agreed with Van Gijseghem. Quinsey said pedophiles' sexual interests prefer children and, "There is no evidence that this sort of preference can be changed through treatment or through anything else."
In July, 2010 Harvard health Publications said, "Pedophilia is a sexual orientation and unlikely to change. Treatment aims to enable someone to resist acting on his sexual urges."
Linda Harvey, of Mission America, said the push for pedophiles to have equal rights will become more and more common as LGBT groups continue to assert themselves. "It's all part of a plan to introduce sex to children at younger and younger ages; to convince them that normal friendship is actually a sexual attraction."
Milton Diamond, a University of Hawaii professor and director of the Pacific Center for Sex and Society, stated that child pornography could be beneficial to society because, "Potential sex offenders use child pornography as a substitute for sex against children."
Diamond is a distinguished lecturer for the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. The IASHS openly advocated for the repeal of the Revolutionary war ban on homosexuals serving in the military.
The IASHS lists, on its website, a list of "basic sexual rights" that includes "the right to engage in sexual acts or activities of any kind whatsoever, providing they do not involve nonconsensual acts, violence, constraint, coercion or fraud." Another right is to, "be free of persecution, condemnation, discrimination, or societal intervention in private sexual behavior" and "the freedom of any sexual thought, fantasy or desire." The organization also says that no one should be "disadvantaged because of age."
Sex offender laws protecting children have been challenged in several states including California, Georgia and Iowa. Sex offenders claim the laws prohibiting them from living near schools or parks are unfair because it penalizes them for life.


text:
Log in to post a job or course or manage your existing posts.
Log in to WorkInCulture to post jobs and courses or to manage your existing posts.
Need Help? Please carefully review our
Instructions to Post,
and Policy
New to WorkInCulture?
Register for an account
About Us Our Programs Resources FYI JobBoard DiscoveryBoard Contact Us Privacy Policy
WorkInCulture is the brand name of the organization legally known as Cultural Careers Council Ontario.


text: I have been reading a document about securing Bind and it disusses the use of views, internal and external. I noted the zones in named.conf are the same with the exception of the file. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between an internal zone file and a external zone file for the same domain? I have Googled for a couple days with no luck on examples. The closest guess I have is that the external zone file does not contain A records for network computers. One other question... I am building two servers on two different machines. One will be primary DNS and mail with www and FTP. The other will be secondary DNS and mail. Is a reverse zone not needed in the secondary for the domain/nameserver?


text:
Microsoft plans to invest heavily in its cloud platform but expects to see little revenue for two to three years, Bob Muglia, the president of the server and tools business, said Tuesday.
Muglia also said Microsoft is still waiting for businesses to resume spending on client and server software, and he took a number of swipes at VMware, which Microsoft is battling in the virtualization and cloud markets. He made his remarks during a Webcast from the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco.Microsoft's 2010 task: Make the cloud clear
"From the perspective of investment internally, interest from customers and engagement clearly the cloud will be an area of focus," Muglia said. "But in the next two to three years that is not what will drive financial growth in server and tools. It is essentially zero percent of our current operating revenue."
Microsoft just this month began billing users of its Azure cloud platform environment.
Muglia said the revenue drivers in the interim will continue to be Windows Server and SQL Server. "The big dogs are driving it but the rest of the portfolio is doing well." While he did not cite specific products by name, he called out management, security and development tools as areas of growth.
He also said virtualization and new pricing structures around Windows server are causing more users to buy premium editions of Windows Server software and that provides incremental revenue per server sold.
"Historically, the enterprise version of the server has been under 10% of the overall units shipped for 10 years," he said. "Now that number is north of 20%."
Muglia said the holiday season was good for Windows 7 sales on the consumer side, but the pick-up on the business side has not happened. He said all of Microsoft's conversations with CIOs and business customers include talk about upgrade cycles from "XP to Windows 7. And we expect to see that over the next three years."
He did not mention Vista, which showed a poor uptake in the enterprise market and was replaced by Windows 7.
Muglia said Microsoft also expects those forthcoming corporate spending decisions to sweep across server sales, which he said were "anemic" last year but are on a road to recovery.\
"You have to think about last year where server hardware was down over 20% on a quarter-by-quarter basis," he said. "We exited 2009 with server sales roughly being the same as 2006. So we essentially lost two entire years of growth in 2009 but we do expect to see some growth as the economy recovers."
In terms of virtualization, Muglia said Microsoft continues to chase VMware on the high end, especially since Windows Server 2008 R2 shipped with new features for Hyper-V. But Muglia said in the SMB space that Microsoft has a substantial advantage over VMware mostly from a cost standpoint. Muglia also touted Microsoft's Virtual Machine Manager, which offers some support for VMware, as another advantage.
And he said Microsoft is seeing many companies put in Hyper-V deployments alongside their existing VMware installations, although he did not offer a numbers or percentages on customer penetration.
But Muglia said virtualization will become somewhat of a moot point as he predicts the action will transition to the cloud.
He said that he had picked up a copy of "Cloud for Dummies" he saw lying on his administrative assistant's desk and that it did a pretty good job of describing the basics. But he said it missed an important angle.
"We see the cloud transforming the way applications are built over the next five to 10 years," he said. And he added that the cloud would change the way hardware is built and transform the way people operate and run systems.
"There are few companies -- Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook and a few others -- that are able to build these cloud applications because they have the resources to handcraft all of it. [Microsoft's] job is to make it easy for everybody to do it. Other companies like VMware are not equipped to enable people to build these applications."
Muglia also took another shot at VMware, saying Microsoft and Citrix are gearing up for some announcements in the coming months around virtual desktops and VDI that "will be highly differentiated from what VMware is doing."
Follow John on Twitter: twitter.com/johnfontana


text:
Whit Smith – On the Nature of Strings
As founder of the Hot Club of Cowtown, Whit Smith is known far and wide as one of the kings of western swing guitar. But on his new solo EP, On the Nature of Strings, Smith gets to stretch a little by focusing less on the western and more on the swing. In doing so, he proves he's a master of both.
For his first album as leader, Smith gathered some of Austin's shining stars (guitarist JD Pendley, drummer Buck Johnson, and Hot Club cohort Jake Erwin on upright bass) at the renowned Fort Horton Studios to ensure a warm, retro vibe, and together they've created a collection of tunes that feels nothing less than timeless.
As Smith and Pendley blaze through the icy swing of "Brave Companion" and navigate the slippery "Baby Steps," fans of Johnny Smith and George Barnes will do well to contain a smile. "Passing Lane" veers closer to the territory of jumpin' Jimmy Bryant, while the gorgeous acoustic melancholy of "Deep Pockets" recalls the more sophisticated stylings of Eddie Lang.
Though Smith's idols are evident throughout, he's able to transcend his influences due to the strength of the songs, soloing, and tight ensemble work, all of which ensure this is much more than an exercise in nostalgia.
Packed with slick, harmonized melodies and sly solos, On the Nature of Strings is a short, swinging set of melodic instrumentals that evokes the ghosts of jazz masters past, yet feels wholly contemporary and absolutely essential. This is a dazzling showcase for Whit Smith. Hopefully, he'll feel the need to stretch again, and soon.


text:
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman facing charges that she helped steal a laptop from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the attack on the U.S. Capitol will be released from jail, a federal judge decided Thursday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson released Riley June Williams into the custody of her mother, with travel restrictions, and instructed her to appear Monday in federal court in Washington to continue her case. Williams, 22, of Harrisburg, is accused of theft, obstruction and trespassing, as well as violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
During the hearing, Carlson said the "gravity of these offenses is great, it cannot be overstated." But, he noted Williams has no prior criminal record.
The FBI says an unidentified former romantic partner of Williams tipped them off that she appeared in video from the Jan. 6 rioting and the tipster claimed she had hoped to sell the computer to Russian intelligence.
Video from the riot shows a woman matching Williams' description exhorting invaders to go "upstairs, upstairs, upstairs" during the attack, which briefly disrupted certification of President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
Williams' attorney, federal public defender Lori Ulrich, declined comment on the case. Williams surrendered to face charges on Monday and has been locked up in the county jail in Harrisburg.
In adding the theft-related charges on Tuesday, a Virginia-based FBI agent said Williams was recorded on closed-circuit cameras in the Capitol going into and coming out of Pelosi's office.
The agent's affidavit said a cellphone video that was likely shot by Williams shows a man's gloved hand lifting an HP laptop from a table, and the caption read, "they got the laptop."
Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, has said a laptop used only for presentations was taken from a conference room.
A federal prosecutor earlier this week argued that Williams should not be released on bail pending trial, claiming she might flee or try to obstruct justice.


text:
Player-created dungeons
mudlab.org Forum Index
View previous topic
View next topic
Joined: 13 May 2005
Posts: 62
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:46 am
Post subject: Player-created dungeons
Kind of long so made its own thread, but this is pretty relevant to
the thread here
KaVir wrote:
Something which has been discussed on other places in the past (such as MUD-DEV) is the idea of player-built content - for example, players might be able to build their own dungeons and fill them with monsters and treasure (think "Dungeon Keeper"). Other players could then seek to kill the monsters and take the treasure.
I have attempted to add this sort of content on my mud. A few people have been interested in my approach. Here is some info about what I am doing, the various iterations I have gone through, and some of the problems that have arisen along the way. I'll try to keep talk about details that are specific to my mud to a minumum.
On my mud, players are able to build lairs. They can fill these lairs with treasure, guards, and traps. The longer treasure stays in the lair undisturbed, the more powerful it becomes. Owners of lairs can take items out of their lair whenever they like, and other players can attempt to raid each others' lairs and loot items.
Players create 'hoard' rooms inside of their lairs. These rooms can contain a maximum of 10 items. Hoards can be looted once per day, which will allow a player to take one item at random. Of course, owers can take any item whenever they want.
I initially wanted lairs to serve a few purposes. One, I wanted players to have a way to create content for each other. Two, I wanted to add another means of progression other than the standard 'gain experience'. Three, I wanted some sort of medium that provided a way for unused items to be recycled breaking them down into raw materials. Since then, I have decided it also provides a good opportunity for me to steal good dungeon layout ideas, and push my own development. When I see a good layout, I'll approach a player about it and ask if I can adopt their lair into a dungeon. If they agree, the plan is to turn their lair into a dungeon with a new set of monsters and loot, and give them a fresh batch of rooms to work with. This last part is a slow-going process, but the intention is there
Aging and Activity
The way I encourage players to design lairs, and the way they allow for progression, is through aging. When an object is placed in a hoard room, it will have a chance to age each day. As an item ages, it will become higher quality and its magical bonuses will be amplified.
A number of random items in your lair ages each day, proportional to the lair's activity. Your lair's activity is simply the amount of experience that had been earned for killing monsters in your lair. The idea is to reward people whose lairs are actually visited (and looted), and discourage people from designing lairs with unkillable guards in them.
Players defend their lair by stationing guards at strategic locations. When playing, players can opt to 'hire' monsters instead of kill them. Once hired, players are able to station those monsters throughout their lair. Guards have maintenance costs proportional to their difficulty. Players can also opt to spawn guards as 'portals', which will spew out a stream of copies of that monster that will wander around. Otherwise, guards will stay at their post. Spawning a guard as a portal increases its maintenance cost.
The sum of all maintenance costs is subtracted from the lair's activity each day, before aging occurs. This is to encourage players to create efficiently designed lairs and give them opportunities to optimize.
Iteration One
I have gone through numerous iterations of my lair system. The basic goals and mechancis have always remained the same, but I've changed some important details. I'll go through each iteration in turn, say what I learned, and how I changed it.
The first iteration was very basic. I gave players 300 rooms to work with and lay out however they wished. Guards also received maintenance penalties if they were both expensive and close to the lair enterance. This was done to encourage players to design lairs that had a natural progression from weakest to strongest.
The first iteration was pretty much a huge failure. Players would set up guard portals for really weak monsters that would filter into a nexus room, where they would just get their friends to sit and bot-kill.
To protect their loot, players would also set up very convoluted designs to filter a large number of very powerful monsters into a single chokepoint, so looters could not effectively get to hoards or, if they tried, would have random success/failure because of wandering monsters. The entire process was very frustrating from a looter's perspective, and not fun.
Iteration Two
I made two changes. First, only one wandering monster could occupy a room at a time. Two, monsters would not wander into rooms full of too many corpses. This stopped botting, but it also meant that lair owners were stripped of their defensive tricks. If you can get a monster low enough to hire it for your lair, it means someone or a group of someones can probably also kill it. Lair guards did not add any challenge or reliable defenses.
Players began designing rather convoluted mazes. While fun to design, they tended to be rather frustrating and unappealing for looters.
Iteration Three
I reduced the maximum lair size from 300 rooms down to 50. This is slightly bigger than the average dungeon I design when adding new content to the mud. It is enough room to make 4-5 main encounters, and a couple side-encounters. The idea was to constrain players into having to use all of their space effectively and not just make haphazard mazes.
It sort of worked. Some players would design really cool lairs with interesting layouts. Others would instead just make big long hallways of easy monsters to a network of rooms guarded by one really big guy repeatedly spawning from a portal, and all of their treasure stashed behind. Again, ultimately frustrating for the looter to be able to clear out 90% of a lair and not be rewarded for it.
There is one monster in game, a Balor, which is notorously difficult. A very skilled group of 3 people can take him down reliably. Otherise, he takes about 4 or 5 players. In both cases, if a second one wanders into the room immediately after a kill, it results in a dead party. Players were utilizing portal-spawning balors and the hope that players would have to fight two in quick succession to deter looters from lair hoards.
Iteration Four
I restricted players from using portal spawns with monsters above a certain treshold of difficulty. This still allowed lair owners to provide difficult challenges, but took away the random element of getting walked in on by a second powerful monster right after you kill his twin brother.
I still wanted lair owners to be able to defend their lairs, but just wanted them to have tools with less random outcomes. There has been traps since iteration two, but they had always played a minor role. In this iteration I made a push to add a larger selection of traps that would compliment different types of guards. This would allow players to make their lairs slightly harder, but also more predictable for looters.
Iteration Five
At this point, the mud had hit this weird point where the player base was growing, but not many people were well-equipped. Emphasis shifted away from raiding lairs to raiding dungeons, where players could more reliably learn new crafting recipes and collect resources to make better equipment. The majority of player lairs tended to be filled with uninteresting items, since all of the nice crafting components or finished products were being used. Lair activity took a huge nosedive.
I wanted players with well designed lairs to be able to ensure some minimal amount of lair activity each day. To do this, I designed some mercenary NPCs. They were NPCs about on par for power level with a 2-week old player, utilizing a very simple AI. Once per hour, a mercenary would spawn at the entrance of each lair and attempt to go from hoard to hoard, killing guards along the way and looting treasure.
The idea was that this would ensure that players with good lair designs would get rewarded for it, even when other players were not using their lairs, and it also gave players a stronger reason to make at least the opening section of their lair newbie-friendly.
Of course, some players stumbled onto the fact that you could just make a huge basin full for very easy monsters, with the bulk of your treasure still hidden behind one or two very powerful monsters. Very fun for lair designers, but very boring for looters.
Iteration Six
Over the iterations, a few issued had become glaringly obvious and hard to fix. The big one was that players had a tendency to store all of their treasure together, at the end of their lair, behind one or two very big monsters that you'd need 4-5 people to take down. Thus, if one or two people just wanted to go adventure, there wouldn't be many rewards to be had inside of lairs.
Originally, I had the idea that players would space their hoards out, putting their best treasure at the end and worse treasure at the beginning. In reality, people were just putting all of their treasure at the end. If they had stuff anywhere else, it was just throwaway junk that nobody would want.
However, I really hadn't given players a reason to space their treasure out. On this iteration, I decided to focus on tackling this issue. Each guard has a base maintenance cost (and more if they are spawning from a portal). There were also a few penalties such as distance from treasure, distance from other monsters, etc. These were pretty weak, though, and a person with a wealthy hoard could effectively ignore these costs. This iteration, I made these penalties much more pronounced, and attempting to mitigate them an integral part of lair design.
Monsters would get unhappy if they didn't think they were guarding enough, they would get greedy if they were guarding too much, they would get hungry if smaller monsters were around or fearful if larger monsters were around. They would get jealous if an equal or lesser monster near them was guarding more, they would get annoyed if they did not have enough space to wander around in, and so forth. Basically, I constrained guard placement in such a way that encouraged players to space out their hoards, and match the value of their hoards to the power of the monsters guarding them.
I also made it so that individual monsters were capped on how much activity they would generate for your lair. I monitored lair activity for a couple weeks, and set the cap at half of the amount of activity that the weakest monster in each lair generated for those two weeks. The idea was that if players wanted to age a large amount of items, they would have to have a diverse set of guards (each with their own equivalently valued hoard keeping them happy, sectioned off from the bulk of other guards).
Iteration Seven
This is where I am at now. Lairs finally seem to be taking shape in such a way that treasure incrementally improves as players go deeper into a lair. Hoards are spaced out, and monsters have interesting and tactical placements. This is largely seen in the newer lairs (the ones that have been formed in the past two weeks). Many of the older lairs still maintain the old design of "put all the treasure at the end, guarded by one big monster", but this is to be expected. Change is slow. It's much easier to see the impact of changes on the newer players than the older players.
Now I am focused on dealing with another one of the larger problems with lairs. It really sucks to have your stuff looted! My intention for lairs is for them to be a place where people put stuff they don't mind losing, with the hope that it will get a little more powerful and be desirable again. If it gets looted, ohh well... not a big loss. Of course, players will always think they can beat the system and throw some of their valuable stuff in with the rest. It is very frustrating when this stuff gets looted, and overall a very unenjoyable experience. The way lairs are designed right now, it's very much a system of avoiding penalties, rather than trying to achieve rewards. It is a very cool and fun system when it works as intended, but very very frustating when it doesn't, both for lair owners and lair looters. This is what I am currently thinking about how to deal with. I don't really have any good ideas at this point, but would not be surprised if it required a full redesign of the system.
I have taken an initial stab at the problem of frustration on the part of lair owners. I've introduced containers called pedestals. Players can set them up in their lair's origin room and place an item on them. This item will display to any other player who enters the room (they can view its stats, age, abilities, etc...) but will be unlootable. However, while on a pedestal, items will age just the same as items in hoards. However, pedestals have maintenance costs just like guards, and those maintenance costs are such that a player can only have 2-3 pedestals at a time (in a hoard of about 120 items). We'll see how this goes. Undoubtedly, people will still be trying to beat the system and sneak in their really good items into hoards and continue to be aggrivated when those items get looted. But I don't have a better solution at this point.
Closing Comments
The approach I have taken has very much been an uphill battle. I want lairs to be content that is fun to design and maintain, and fun to play through. They're fun to design, but designers are motivated to keep their treasure safe, and often this means structuring lairs in such a way that they are painful (not neccessarily hard, just timeconsuming and unfun) to play through. There are exceptions, but this is something about their design that currently exists. Likewise, the maintenance of lairs can be very frustrating when your best stuff gets looted, or a group of seven people storm over your lair without a challenge (the bulk of game content is designed for 2-3 player groups) and take 10% of your stuff in a day.
This has not been an easy system to design. It is far from ideal, but it is slowly getting better. I think a very large redesign will be in order soon, however. If I've learned one thing from this attempt, it has been that you always need to keep in mind that for a system like I have designed, the creator and consumer of the content are naturally competitors, not cooperators. With poor design, it is very easy for this to play out as frustration for both parties (and myself). If you've been thinking about trying something similar in your mud, hopefully my mistakes will be valuable lessons to you!
Despite this being an atrociously long post, I have left out a great deal of information that people might be interested in (such as the search tools I use for locating items in lairs, how I make sure that people in specific timezones don't have a better chance of looting hoards first than people in other timezones since hoards can only be looted once per day). I am happy to answer further questions as they arise.
This has been an incredibly frustrating system to design, but I certainly think it is worth the effort to keep pushing through and innovating new approaches to it. Here's some observations I've made along the way.
Typically, when you lose a player from your game, you lose a player unless they decide to start playing again. Lairs change this. I've had a couple players come, play intensely for a few weeks, and then leave. Now they have abandoned lairs scattered throughout the world, full of items slowly aging and becoming very powerful. The deeper parts of these lairs are going to provide some very interesting and rewarding content in a month or so when all of the items age to artifact status and become some of the most powerful items currently in the game. There is something very appealing about this to me.
My mud is low on grind. Players reach "top level" after about 5 hours of play, and beyond that point most of the content is self-directed (What should I kill today? Well, I really want to make a sweet new jerkin, so I should go kill some dire bears to get that high quality leather I need). I am taking a deliberate effort to focus on detailed and thoughtful gameplay rather than repetitive and addictive gameplay. Of course, this means it's much easier for my players to wander off and get caught up in a different game. The progression that hoards offer while players are offline gives them a reason to want to come back after days or weeks or months. This kind of design should offer stronger longterm motivations for playing than repetitive gameplay.
I am a lone developer, and have no intentions on recruiting a staff. This is my hobby project, and I get much more satisfaction from it being mine alone. That said, I am faced with the problem that my player base is growing quicker than my ability to generate content for it. Introducing player-generated content like lairs is a way of having the amount of content available scale with the number of players, taking some of the burden of development off my shoulders. Of course, I still have to design the lair system itself, but once it's in place and I am happy with it, the maintenance time I have to put into maintaining and tweaking it should hopefully be minimal!
Back to top
Display posts from previous:
All Posts
1 Day
7 Days
2 Weeks
1 Month
3 Months
6 Months
1 Year
Oldest First
Newest First
mudlab.org Forum Index
All times are GMT
Jump to:
Select a forum
General (Mud Related)
Code Vault
post new topics in this forum
reply to topics in this forum
edit your posts in this forum
delete your posts in this forum
vote in polls in this forum
Powered by
© 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
BBTech Template by © 2003-04


text:
Chinese customs officials last week arrested 14 women trying to smuggle 88 Apple iPads and 340 smartphones into the country, according to a report in a state-controlled newspaper Wednesday.
Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal noted the report in the Guangzhou Daily .
The latter is the official publication of the Guangzhou municipal Communist Party committee.
The women, all of whom the newspaper said were "dressed fashionably," had taped devices to their bodies or were carrying them in large handbags as they entered the country at Shenzhen, a south China city just across the border from Hong Kong.
Customs became suspicious when video surveillance cameras showed that more than a dozen women were dressed similarly, and all carried a large bag over the shoulders.
One woman had fixed 65 phones to her torso, and was carrying another 20 in her bag, said the Guangzhou Daily.
Chinese custom officials also seized 88 iPad tablets in the arrests.
The women, who were from Shenzhen, Shantou -- another city in Guangdong Province -- and other southern cities, earned about 200 yuan, or $30, each time they smuggled devices into China, the newspaper said. The 14 remain in detention.
Customs valued the seized electronics at 950,000 yuan, or $142,500.
Apple has sold the Wi-Fi iPad in China since September , and prices the tablet between 3,988 and 5,588 yuan, or $598 to $839. It does not sell the 3G model of the tablet in China.
In Hong Kong, however, Apple sells both iPad models, including the device equipped for 3G data reception. There, the 3G iPad starts at 4,888 Hong Kong dollars, or $629.
The iPhone 4 is sold by Apple without a service contract, or by China Unicom with one.
One woman arrested by customs authorities had taped 65 phones to her body. Credit: Guangzhou Daily
China has tried to crack down on smartphone smugglers -- in April, authorities arrested over 150 to break a major ring -- but the "gray market" remains resilient. According to estimates earlier this year, as many as two million iPhones not sold by China Unicom -- outside Apple, the only official supplier -- are being used in the country.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com .
Read more about macintosh in Computerworld's Macintosh Topic Center.


text:
Opinion: Amid Shutdown, U.S. Government Should Learn From Apple
U.S. leaders should take more care to protect national image and brand.
Branding America just got a bit harder.
A government shutdown is not the ideal way to convey U.S. values and interests overseas. Closing the federal government—especially our national parks, America's signature attractions—undercuts the basic narrative that America is an open society, a tolerant nation, and a good partner in the world.
(See "National Parks: Shutting Down America's Best Idea.")
Now some might argue that a government shutdown, because it is a nonviolent act, reinforces U.S. values such as diversity of opinion, checks and balances, governing by a majority, and the right of individuals to disagree.
I don't buy it. In the branding business, whether you are a country or a corporation, you have to be visible and active to maintain your image and to advance, economically and politically.
That's because citizens are consumers—and citizen-consumers, increasingly, exercise power in today's economy.
Congress might study corporate America for a few lessons.
Big Apple
Take the recent news that Apple has topped Coca-Cola as the world's best-known brand. Apple just ended Coca-Cola's 13-year run at the top of a highly regarded annual list put out by Interbrand, a corporate identity and brand consulting company owned by the Omnicom Group, that has been compiling what it calls the Best Global Brands report since 2000. Others on the "top 10" list include Google, IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, and Intel.
Apple ranked high this year because its products are well liked, its services are considered good, and people have come to value the company as practically a cultural icon of America—particularly with young people. Those characteristics are good for a company and good for a country.
But it is hard to deliver high-quality services and a good experience if you are not open for business—whether it is the National Zoo or the Grand Canyon. Both convey American values.
Citizens know good brands. And even when citizens express disdain for some U.S. policies, they often simultaneously praise our people, our values, and our brands, not to mention our colleges and universities. America consistently gets high marks in the world for its technology, culture, and power.
According to polling by the Pew Research Center, people in countries across the globe continue to embrace American culture, technology, and science, as well as the way we do business. And they like our innovation and our products.
Over five years, between 2007 and 2012, the number of people who said they admire American technological advances grew, as did support for American ideas and customs spreading to other countries—although the notion of a positive value placed on importing American culture is still a minority viewpoint in the world. And, yes, popularity varies with regions. (We still remain more popular in places like Europe than in the Middle East.)
A government shutdown is unlikely to make us a more popular place to do business or to borrow ideas from. It certain won't boost our tourism numbers.
Global Image
A government shutdown could have negative consequences for both our image and our economy. Indeed, it could lead to a perception that we are an economy that is globally falling, not rising.
Recent Pew findings suggest that other nations like China are rising in the perception game. According to public opinion, China's economic power is on the rise, and many think it will eventually supplant the United States as the world's dominant superpower. Overall, the U.S. has enjoyed a stronger global image than China—before this shutdown. Across the nations surveyed, a median of 63 percent expressed a favorable opinion of the U.S., compared with 50 percent for China, but could that change?
One key constituency to watch over the next few months are young people and how they respond to this week's events. My own informal survey—asking my own high school and college-aged children—is that they are pretty turned off by Washington, and pretty turned on by their iPhones.
We all know about the "youth bulge" in the world today—there are more people under 25, many of whom are using technology and learning about the world through technology. (People under the age of 25 constitute 43 percent of the world's population. There are one billion 12- to 18-year-olds.)
Companies have figured out how to market to youth. Nations could learn a few things from corporate America about how to shape the ideas of young citizens across cultures.
Interestingly, that Pew study found that young people in both the U.S. and China express more positive attitudes about the other, a finding that is a part of a broad pattern in many countries where people under the age of 30 tend to rate other countries more favorably than other age groups do.
Mobile technology and digital diplomacy are excellent ways to educate people around the world. There are currently over six billion active cell phones in the world, and there will potentially be as many cell phones in use next year as people on the planet. Many of those users are young people. The newly released iPhone 5S sold a record nine million units during its first weekend, many of them to people under 30. And much of Apple's boost can probably be attributed to its growing presence in, guess where? China, where iPhones and other Apple devices are increasingly popular.
At the end of the day, the only possible positive impact of a shutdown on public perceptions of the U.S. could be that it proves that individuals triumph over systems. Some might say that if the majority of the House prevailed that might mean, in this case, more representative democracy—something we Americans often preach and a value that citizens abroad say they like about us. Not likely.
Public diplomacy should never be equated with corporate PR. One is a public good; the other is a bottom-line sell. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from both about the importance of being understood in a crowded global market. Apple, as a company and a symbol, is, well, as American as apple pie.
I'd vote for re-hanging a sign soon: "America: Open for Business."
Tara D. Sonenshine is former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. She is currently a Distinguished Fellow at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.