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The ultra-tiny Pentax Q is the smallest interchangeable lens camera (which leaked today) in all the land and costs a little over $800, a wild price to pay for a camera that is arguably tiny. Sadly, as Engadget points out, the value for money just isn't there with a "1/2.3-inch backlit CMOS image sensor" that competes with other compact cameras rather than other cameras from Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung. It's tiny, sure, but it's not particularly better.
However, doesn't it look like a little cutie?
PR after the jump.
GOLDEN, CO. (June 23, 2011)… PENTAX Imaging Company has announced the PENTAX Q – the world's smallest and lightest interchangeable lens camera (ILC).* The Q offers the versatility and precision of an advanced DSLR in a body that is significantly smaller than every other digital ILC body available on the market today.
* The world's smallest and lightest digital interchangeable lens system camera, as of June 15, 2011 (based on PENTAX research).
The camera's tiny size, lightweight design, and superior image quality are made possible by an innovative PENTAX-developed imaging system. With a high-resolution 12.4 megapixel, 1/2.3 inch CMOS image sensor, the Q carves out an entirely new camera category that extends beyond traditional digital compact, APS-C or 4/3 digital cameras. The backlit sensor is a highly efficient light-gathering instrument that produces very little noise at high sensitivity levels particularly in low light settings. Further, the new Q lens mount is a perfect match with the new sensor and every interchangeable Q lens is designed for more advanced image quality than may be found on traditional compact digital cameras. This innovative PENTAX design is the foundation of the Q's position as the world's smallest, lightest ILC system with superior image quality.
Several important features of the PENTAX Q include:
• A newly designed PENTAX Q-mount lens system for convenient interchangeability with a variety of specialty Q lenses including prime, zoom, fish-eye and more.
• Exceptional image quality in 12.4 megapixels from the Q's 1/2.3 inch backlit CMOS image sensor. Capable of producing 12 bit DNG RAW and JPG images, the backlit CMOS sensor is a highly efficient light-gathering instrument designed specifically to produce very low noise at high levels of sensitivity.
• Extremely compact, durable, lightweight, scratch resistant magnesium alloy body.
• The power and flexibility of traditional DSLR shooting modes such as Program, Aperture/Shutter Priority, and Metered Manual exposure control as well as highly convenient PENTAX Auto Picture and 21 scene modes for casual shooting, including new Forest and Stage Lighting options.
• A variety of creative modes, Smart Effect options, or camera settings that assign to the Q's Quick Dial located on the front of the camera. Smart Effects modes enhance digital photography by applying a series of effects to images to achieve high quality finishing. Brilliant Color, Vintage Color, Warm Fade, Bold Monochrome, and Water Color are just some of the Smart Effects available and may be assigned on the Q's Quick Dial.
• In-camera HDR capture mode shoots 3 images of varying exposures, blending them to bring out the details in even the darkest shadows and brightest highlights of extreme contrast shots.
• High quality motion video with stunning full 1080p HD clarity at 30 frames per second. The Q processes the full HD video using high quality h.264 compression for superior color and detail and offers creative video effects through custom image modes, digital video filters, and interval shooting.
• A sensor-shift Shake Reduction system with integrated DRII Dust Reduction for blur and dust free images even in low lighting.
• 5 frames per second continuous shooting mode for any fast action setting.
• Effortless bokeh control with the Q's Bokeh Control filter. (Traditionally controlled through a DSLR lens's aperture, bokeh is the out of focus part of the background that helps to emphasize the subject, drawing the viewer's eyes to the most important part of the photo.) The Q offers a fine degree of extra control over image bokeh via an in-camera filter operation.
• Powerful USER modes allow the creative photographer to save a series of favorite camera settings, filters, and custom image modes for instant reuse.
• Shutter speeds range from 1/2000 to 30 seconds for freezing fast action or capturing long nighttime exposures. Bulb mode adds flexibility for low light photography and motion effects.
• A built-in popup flash adds the perfect amount of extra light to an image with a high extension to naturally reduce the redeye effect common to compact cameras. The Q's flash is effective to 23 feet at 200 ISO, and covers a wide angle 28 degree field of view.
• Compatibility with the latest generation SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards for ultra-high capacity storage as well as outstanding image file portability.
Along with the Q, PENTAX introduced the PENTAX 01 Standard Prime kit lens and an optional optical viewfinder. The unifocal standard lens has a focal length equivalent to 47mm in the 35mm format. The lens offers a natural perspective similar to that of the human eye and is ideal as a multipurpose, everyday standard lens for various subjects including landscape and portraiture. With a maximum aperture of F1.9, it performs superbly in dim lighting and may be easily adjusted for bokeh. Incorporating two high grade aspherical optical elements, this lens compensates various aberrations to a minimum.
Featuring high-end optics incorporating special optical glass elements and PENTAX exclusive lens coating technology, this lens delivers beautifully defined, high quality images that are sharp and high contrast even at the edges. The AF motor installed in the lens assures smooth, quiet focusing operation. The lens shutter mechanism allows the PENTAX Q's built-in auto flash to be synchronized to the camera's top shutter speed of 1/2000 second (or 1/250 second when using an accessory flash unit). This lens is also equipped with a built-in ND (neutral density) filter, which comes in handy when shooting with open aperture at bright locations or when using slower shutter speeds.
The shoe-mounted viewfinder attachment is an optional accessory. This External Viewfinder O-VF1 offers outstanding compositional framing, even in the brightest sunlight where viewing an LCD screen is traditionally a challenge. (Note: The Viewfinder offers framing marks for the Standard lens.)
The PENTAX Q will be available in white or black body models and shipped in a Standard Prime lens (available in silver) kit. Initially, the PENTAX Q system will ship in Japan. Anticipated shipping time to the United States is early Fall 2011 at around $800 for the standard lens kit.
The optional shoe-mounted viewfinder will be available at the same time for $249.95 USD. Each may be pre-ordered now on www.pentaxwebstore.com The PENTAX 01 Standard Prime kit lens will not be sold separately. More information is available here: www.pentaximaging.com/news
PENTAX Imaging Company is an innovative leader in the production of a variety of adventure ready digital cameras including weather-resistant digital SLRs and stylish, compact, waterproof cameras, as well as lenses, flash units, binoculars, scopes, and eyepieces. For more than 90 years, PENTAX has developed durable, reliable products that meet the needs of adventurous consumers and businesses. With headquarters in Golden, Colorado, PENTAX Imaging Company is a division of PENTAX of America, Inc.


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You will require this approval if you intend to dispose of commercial or industrial waste into a waste receptacle that is to be collected by Council or an authorised person. The type of waste that is counted as commercial or industrial waste is as follows:
Please consult the Contact Officer for more information.
A licence defines the need to obtain recognition / certification and registration to undertake a certain business activity.
Please consult the Contact Officer for more information regarding eligibility requirements.
Fees Details for this service in table format.
Please consult the Contact Officer for information on fees to be submitted.
Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1911 Western Australia
Health Local Laws 2003
Shire of Pingelly
Contact Email, Phone and Address Details for this service in simple two column table format, header then data.
Shire of Pingelly

subset: commoncrawl


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The Pearlstone shower trays, come in a array of shapes and sizes allowing for complete choice when it comes to designing your showering needs.
The Pearlstone trays are slimline only 40mm high making them great for a wet room design, and are all easy fit with a flat underside.
|Manufacturer Part Numbers
- Easy to fit - The Pearlstone Matrix has screw retention so that the feet from the leg set (sold separately) can be screwed directly into the base of the tray
- All trays have a flat underside making installation and levelling even easier
- Slimline - At just 40-45mm high Pearlstone trays are amongst the sleekest on the market
- Perfect for a modern and contemporary wetroom design
- Patented Technology - Made of the patented 'Pearlstone Matrix' making the range one of the strongest and lightest available
- All trays are acrylic capped and constructed from a polyurethane resin mixed with filler including volcanic ash
- Lightweight - The trays are up to 50% lighter than conventional stone resin trays - making them safer for handling and fitting
- All shower trays are back by a lifetime guarantee
- With corner waste hole
Suitable Shower Basket
You can find an estimated delivery time on every product page, you can find this below the ''In Stock''/''Available'' icons. Please note that these are estimated times and cannot be guaranteed. WE STRONGLY RECOMEND NOT BOOKING TRADESMEN UNITL YOU ARE IN RECIPT OF YOUR GOODS AND THEY HAVE BEEN CHECKED. All pallet deliveries are kerbside only. Please click here for our full delivery details.
If for any reason you no longer wish to keep your purchase, you must inform us in writing within 14 days of accepting delivery. If your order was delivered from our warehouse it will be your responsability to arrange the return of the item(s) and cover any and all costs. If your order was delivered directly by our suppliers, it will need to be collected by our suppliers. The collection fees vary from supplier to supplier. We will confirm the collection cost once the collection request has been made. Please see full return details. Please note - Any damages must be reported with 48 hours of recipt of delivery. We cannot send replacements for damaged items reported after 48 hours.


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Physics Video Archive
Toy Box Physics ` - Mar 10, 2012
Cool video explaining smoke rings and other fluid effects.
Large Electrical Arc ` - Feb 10, 2012
This is a video of an electrical arc occurring at a distribution substation.
Liquid Nitrogen Party ` - Dec 14, 2010
Video from a liquid nitrogen party held by the Physics Club at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Monkey Hunter Demo ` - Aug 13, 2010
This is a very cool implementation of the classic "Monkey Hunter" Demonstration that was done by some high school students.
Crushed Can Demo ` - Mar 26, 2010
Good video of the famous collapsing can demonstration.
Cool Liquid Nitrogen Demo ` - Feb 12, 2010
This is a demonstration I hadn't seen before. Pouring hot water into a large volume of liquid nitrogen.
ISU SPS Something Destructive ` - Jun 26, 2009
The Idaho State University SPS chapter soaked various things in liquid oxygen then set them on fire. Very entertaining!
Liquid Nitrogen vs. Trash Can ` - Jun 25, 2009
Classic demo of a sealed LN2 container dropped in a trash can full of water.
Singing Tesla Coil ` - Jun 25, 2009
Cool demo of a large Tesla coil being used as a speaker.
LHC Rap ` - Jun 25, 2009
The now famous LHC rap.
Next 10 »


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What we're thinking and learning about right now and the news and issues that matter to nonprofits.
Sep 14 2016 | Sandy St. Louis
Patience and resolve are at the heart of David Stroh's model in his new book Systems Thinking for Social Change. → More
Categories: Leadership, Public Policy and Advocacy


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Dating site eHarmony is launching a new ad campaign to celebrate its ten-year anniversary — and the spots show how commonplace online dating has become.
According to Tanzina Vega of the Times, today is eHarmony's tenth anniversary, and they're commemorating the milestone with ads directed by Errol Morris (better known for documentaries like The Thin Blue Line). The ads feature unpaid actual couples doing couple-y things like kissing underwater and swinging in hammocks. The company apparently chose this approach over earlier strategies like "having couples talk about how they met or why they like the service" because, says Lucas Donat of the agency that made the spots, "People don't want to be sold to anymore. The beauty in letting music and lyrics tell the story is that it lets people stay open and allows you to access people at a different level."
Or maybe people don't need to be sold to anymore, because they already know the story. eHarmony's pretty much a household name at this point, with 3.4 million unique visitors last month, and perhaps more importantly, there may now be little need to explain to people how online dating works or to convince them it's okay to do it. Says eHarmony CEO Greg Waldorf, "I don't think people are surprised that a quality relationship starts at eHarmony or starts online. The stigma has just gone out of the business."
Whether or not said stigma is completely gone, it's true that online dating has become familiar, and now it can be marketed like other familiar services. eHarmony's new ads could almost be for AT&T or Visa, brands with such high name recognition that their advertising often seems to sell happiness rather than a specific product. Online dating is lovely in some ways (connecting people who might never have met in the real world; giving shy people a useful extra tool in their search for love) and disturbing in others (racism; a new forum for crap emails). But its ascendancy is undeniable, now that eHarmony can advertise it using almost no words at all.


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Delaware's Last Honest Toddler Fight Club Was Shut Down Yesterday
Since toddlers were first domesticated thousands of years ago, they have been prized for their sweet faces and their deadly skill in hand-to-hand combat. Now three daycare workers in Delaware have been arrested for giving toddlers a theater in which to hone their innate violent tendencies. Secret Toddler Fight Club is no more.
19-year-old Tiana Harris, 21-year-old Estefania Myers and 47-year-old Lisa Parker of Dover's Hands of Our Future daycare were arrested Monday after detectives received cell phone video they say shows the women encouraging toddlers to battle one another.
In the footage, which police claim they are not releasing because it is "evidence," but probably they're just sitting on it while they make copies for all their friends because it sounds awesome, two three-year-olds are seen scrapping in the center of a room while adults cheer them on.
Here are the rules of Toddler Fight Club, based on the information the detectives have released about the video:
I. No pinching. In the video, one child is reportedly heard yelling "He pinched me!" (snitch). One of the daycare workers then reminds her young warriors there is "No pinching! Only punching!"
II. Only punching. Technically, this is part of the "no pinching" clause, but it could also be extended to life outside of the toddler gladiatorial arena. Just only ever be punching. If you find yourself doing something other than punching, punch that thing in the face and keep on punching. There is only punching.
III. No babies. Dover Police Captain Tim Stump says the video catches one crying child attempting to forfeit the game, only to be pushed back into the fray by one of the workers. If you're going to behave like a baby, you are not welcome in Toddler Fight Club.
Following the incident, Hands of Our Future Daycare has had its license revoked.
All previously scheduled Toddler Fights have definitely not been moved behind Lord and Taylor on Market Street and betting absolutely is not open until 6:30 p.m. tonight.


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Wall-Mount Coat Rack, 16" Long, Mahogany
Wall-Mount Coat Rack, 16" Long, Mahogany
$103.99 / ea.
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Wooden Mallet's popular coat & hat racks are made of solid oak, not veneer or wood grain vinyl coverings. Sturdy 1" x 2" oak hat rack bars are mortised into the sides for unbeatable strength and durability. Racks are 11.5" high and extend 15.5" deep from the wall. Rack features 5/8" diameter chrome steel hanger bar for use with small hook hangers. Racks are shipped knocked down. Simple screwdriver assembly required. Color matched wood plugs are included to cover wall mounting screws. Wall mounting hardware is not included. All Wooden Mallet products are warranted for one year against defects in materials and workmanship. Made in the USA.
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Product Type Wood Hat and Coat Racks
Style 1 Shelf
Size 16 in
Color Mahogany


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A study published in the International Journal of Business Administration in May 2016, found that what students read in college directly affects the level of writing they achieve. In fact, researchers found that reading content and frequency may exert more significant impacts on students' writing ability than writing instruction and writing frequency. Students who read academic journals, literary fiction, or general nonfiction wrote with greater syntactic sophistication (more complex sentences) than those who read fiction (mysteries, fantasy, or science fiction) or exclusively web-based aggregators like Reddit, Tumblr, and BuzzFeed. The highest scores went to those who read academic journals; the lowest scores went to those who relied solely on web-based content.
The difference between deep and light reading
Recent research also revealed that "deep reading"—defined as reading that is slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity—is distinctive from light reading—little more than the decoding of words. Deep reading occurs when the language is rich in detail, allusion, and metaphor, and taps into the same brain regions that would activate if the reader were experiencing the event. Deep reading is great exercise for the brain, and has been shown to increase empathy, as the reader dives deeper and adds reflection, analysis, and personal subtext to what is being read. It also offers writers a way to appreciate all the qualities that make novels fascinating and meaningful—and to tap into his ability to write on a deeper level.
Light reading is equated to what one might read in online blogs, or "headline news" or "entertainment news" websites, particularly those that breezily rely on lists or punchy headlines, and even occasionally use emojis to communicate. These types of light reading lack a genuine voice, a viewpoint, or the sort of analyses that might stimulate thought. It's light and breezy reading that you can skim through and will likely forget within minutes.
Deep reading synchronizes your brain
Deep reading activates our brain's centers for speech, vision, and hearing, all of which work together to help us speak, read, and write. Reading and writing engages Broca's area, which enables us to perceive rhythm and syntax; Wernicke's area, which impacts our perception of words and meaning; and the angular gyrus, which is central to perception and use of language. These areas are wired together by a band of fibers, and this interconnectivity likely helps writers mimic and synchronize language and rhythms they encounter while reading. Your reading brain senses a cadence that accompanies more complex writing, which your brain then seeks to emulate when writing.
Here are two ways you can use deep reading to fire up your writing brain:
Read poems
In an article published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, researchers reported finding activity in a "reading network" of brain areas that were activated in response to any written material. In addition, more emotionally charged writing aroused several regions in the brain (primarily on the right side) that respond to music. In a specific comparison between reading poetry and prose, researchers found evidence that poetry activates the posterior cingulate cortex and medial temporal lobes, parts of the brain linked to introspection. When volunteers read their favorite poems, areas of the brain associated with memory were stimulated more strongly than "reading areas," indicating that reading poems you love is the kind of recollection that evokes strong emotions—and strong emotions are always good for creative writing.
Read literary fiction
Understanding others' mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies—and that makes a writer excellent at creating multilayered characters and situations. Not much research has been conducted on the theory of mind (our ability to realize that our minds are different than other people's minds and that their emotions are different from ours) that fosters this skill, but recent experiments revealed that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective theory of mind (understanding others' emotions) and cognitive theory of mind (understanding others' thinking and state of being) compared with reading nonfiction, popular fiction, or nothing at all. Specifically, these results showed that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances theory of mind, and, more broadly, that theory of mind may be influenced greater by engagement with true works of art. In other words, literary fiction provokes thought, contemplation, expansion, and integration. Reading literary fiction stimulates cognition beyond the brain functions related to reading, say, magazine articles, interviews, or most online nonfiction reporting.
Instead of watching TV, focus on deep reading
Time spent watching television is almost always pointless (your brain powers down almost immediately) no matter how hard you try to justify it, and reading fluff magazines or lightweight fiction may be entertaining, but it doesn't fire up your writing brain. If you're serious about becoming a better writer, spend lots of time deep-reading literary fiction and poetry and articles on science or art that feature complex language and that require your lovely brain to think.
This post originally appeared at PsychologyToday.com. Susan Reynolds is the author of Fire Up Your Writing Brain, a Writer's Digest book. You can follow her on Twitter or Facebook.


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This program has been archived.
Division of Undergraduate Education
Widening Implementation & Demonstration of Evidence Based Reforms (WIDER)
|Myles Boylan
|(703) 292-4617
PROGRAM GUIDELINESSolicitation 13-552
Important Information for Proposers
A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 22-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after October 4, 2021. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 22-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.
The chief goal of WIDER is to transform institutions of higher education into supportive environments for STEM faculty members to substantially increase their use of evidence-based teaching and learning practices. The first recommendation in the Report of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), "Engage to Excel," is to increase widespread implementation of evidence-based practices in order to increase persistence in STEM and contribute to the goal of producing 1 million additional STEM graduates.
Through this process, WIDER seeks to substantially increase the scale of application of highly effective methods of STEM teaching and learning in institutions of higher education, by employing instructional materials and methods that have a convincing evidentiary basis of effectiveness. In particular WIDER seeks this transformation for high enrollment, lower division courses required for many STEM majors and taken by many other students to fulfill general education distribution requirements.
Included in our broad definition of effective STEM teaching and learning are not only instructional practices in traditional learning environments, but also modern laboratory methods and field research, proven distance education methods (or hybrid designs incorporating both face-to-face and distance methods), and improved approaches to motivating student interest in STEM. In all cases, the primary goal of WIDER is to increase substantially the scale of these improvements within and across the higher education sector in order to achieve:
(1) Improved student learning;
(2) Increased numbers of students choosing STEM majors, particularly from demographic groups underrepresented in STEM;
(3) Improved retention in the first two years of undergraduate study and to graduation of all STEM majors.
Applicants may apply for WIDER grants to begin institutional planning efforts, to support implementation efforts for evidence-based teaching and learning practices, and for research on how to increase the importance placed on evidence-based practices in institutional strategic planning and faculty rewards.
Display additional information
- Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program Centers
- Advanced Technological Education
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program
- Tribal Colleges and Universities Program
- Research in the Formation of Engineers (RFE)
- Cyberlearning: Transforming Education
- ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions
What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)


text: In a market that is changing faster than the product we sell it is important to have trust and commitment. These two qualities are the foundation that keeps a relationship sound between customer and company. Customer is a word that we like to use only the first time we meet you. After that we consider you family and a friend. We trust that despite what is heard or read prior to visiting the dealership you will see the real people of All American Ford. They're people who are committed to their family, friends and future customers. I encourage you to make your own decision and see the difference All American Ford has to offer.


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He is a young man; an optimist drawn to dark music and the themes of death and suffering. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has gained a reputation for his dedication, musicality and charisma. Combining documentary and animation, this short film captures his energy and passion, both in performance and in conversation.
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Home Page Chess Life Online 2009 March Best of CLO 08: Meet the Judges and Runners-up
|Best of CLO 08: Meet the Judges and Runners-up
|January 6, 2009
ran the Best of Chess Life Online 2007 contest to recognize timeless articles that readers may have missed. This year we did it again, and the competition was even stiffer. Seven prestigious judges, involved in various aspects of the game, from playing to organizing to editing, (like Peter Doggers of ChessVibes.com to the left) ranked their top ten articles of the year. Without further ado... let's
Last year, uschess.org
...Meet the Judges
Michael Aigner is an active chess master. He played in the 2007 US Championship and has won several U2300/2400 prizes. He enjoys sharing tricks of the royal game to many of Northern California's top juniors and aspires to take lessons from his former students after they earn the IM/GM title. He is also an Internet Chess Club admin under the handle "fpawn," which refers to his bizarre devotion to the Bird's opening, Dutch defense and other systems that require an early f4 or f5. Check out http://fpawn.blogspot.com , the premiere site for chess news in the Bay Area. Aigner's judging was the most mathematical of the panel, incorporating six weighted categories.
NTD Michael Atkins is a native Baltimorean (the other spelling is Baltimoron, which can fit too sometimes) living in Virginia, wondering why they still call it "The War of Northern Aggression" down here. It's over, you lost, move on!
Peter Doggers (33, Amsterdam) is founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes, one of the leading online resources of daily chess news. Famous for its videos that feature many super GMs, ChessVibes offers on-the-spot coverage of the world's most important chess events, as well as book reviews and columns. During the Corus Chess Tournament, ChessVibes will bring back the famous daily press-conferences-with-demo-boards by the players.
International Master Irina Krush is a two-time U.S. Women's Champion and two-time Olympic Medalist (Dresden 2008 and Calvia, 2004.) In yet another twofer, Irina appeared on two 2007 Chess Life covers, April and October. Krush has contributed many pieces to Chess Life Magazine and Chess Life Online, including a story on the Girls Nationals in May 2008 and an in-depth blog on Gibraltar in February 2007, which placed seventh in last year's "Best of CLO" competition. She is the only judge to use rap lyrics in commenting the articles.
International Master Alex Lenderman is one of the top junior players in America. He won the World Youth Under 16 in 2005, the 2008 New York State Championship with Justin Sarkar. He also placed first in the 2008 Grand Prix. He made the an All-Star U.S. Chess League team, for his board 3 performance on the Queens' Pioneers. You can read Lenderman's own annotations on CLO, in an article on his victory over IM Ginsburg for the Pioneers. Alex judging criteria in order of importance is: 1. Instructional value especially to the average player, 2. Flashy and interesting, 3. Details and 4. Response Generated.
Mark N. Taylor is an associate professor of English at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, and editor of Georgia Chess magazine (for the last two year awarded "Best State Magazine" in the CJA/Cramer competition). His son, Paul is a two-time national scholastic champion.
Arlen Walker is a former USCF Publications committee chair. Apart from his chess experience as a player, organizer, and coach he is a professional web developer, and an amateur chess historian. His chess website is thechessmill.com.
Runners-Up and Honorable Mentions:
This year, there were two entries that stood out from the rest of the crowd, both just 1-2 points away from breaking into the top 10.
11. Todd on Music and Chess at Bonnaroo by FM Todd Andrews
How Todd got the idea for this article, I have no clue-- but it is extremely fresh and original. Both the vignettes of Bonnaroo, with its cast of colorful characters, and the featured chess game were compelling. I imagine that a lot of people, with varying degrees of chess savvy, would be quite interested to read this one- IM Irina Krush
The most amusing and "out there" of the articles. Chess is FUN! in the world at large- Mark Taylor
The game itself was bit surreal, but, child of the sixties that I am, the festival background brought back some fond memories. I think I've met some of those people before- Arlen Walker
12. GM Joel on Knocking Out the Competition by GM Joel Benjamin
I love US Chess League action, even from the wrong coast. GM Benjamin's writing style and strong technical annotations made this a great story- Michael Aigner
Who wouldn't commiserate with Joel's attempts at humor? Just kidding! This article saw me break into a smile numerous times. If you care about the New Jersey Knockouts, this article is for you- IM Irina Krush
Mixed feelings: Should I admit to the major bout of Schadenfreude when I saw Benjamin-Christiansen (Bf7 sacs are fun, no matter how cheap they are!) or just stick with the enjoyment I got from Lian-Sinanan and Ng-Wilson?- Arlen Walker
The following articles were not as close to making the top ten, but also incited some high scores and interesting comments from the judges:
Honorable Mentions
Abby on her Best Trip Ever by Abby Marshall
Perhaps other judges will rank this article higher because Abby Marshall truly showed her heart while writing. The stories and photos were great for a tourist guide to Beijing and this blog post would have easily made my top 10 with just a few light annotations of the games-Michael Aigner
Very long, interesting, thoughtful article, with many different perspectives about the trip to China. It brought a lot of comments from people too. One might ask why didn't I rank this one closer to the top? I didn't quite find it as instructive for the public as the next ones up in the list.... however, since it was so flashy and interesting, it had to make my top ten.- IM Alex Lenderman
Morelia-Linares: The Story So Far by Macauley Peterson
Well written, nice perspective on this event and produced THE quote so far "who is this Shahade, and why is he famous? I heard he had some poker jackpot."- Michael Atkins
Very solid tournament report with good quotes and historical background- Peter Doggers
Hilton on Not Winning Nationals by Jonathan Hilton
Excellent article by Jonathan, expressing being a good sport, and taking losses and unsuccessful tournaments the right way. It's very instructive for all the young rising players and even some adults who have trouble taking losses. I just wish there would be more articles out there which can be so thoughtful and at the same time instructive- IM Alex Lenderman
Start Solving Now: Part II by Gary Kevin Ware
I enjoy reading about problem solving. Unfortunately, the article (could not) compete with the exciting tall tales at the top of these rankings- Michael Aigner
Well-written with interesting insight into the art of composing problems- Mark Taylor
As a member of the College Chess Committee, I was thrilled to see a well-written article describing the difficulties of recruiting and funding a team to attend the Pan Am championships each December- Michael Aigner
As a former Pan-Am Organizer myself, I have to admit to a little bias probably playing into my placement of this piece. It's a good tournament that hasn't received the attention or support it's deserved in the last 30 years or so- Arlen Walker
The tenth article in Best of CLO 2008 will be announced on Wednesday, January 7.


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Did John Waters sell out? Or did our ever-more-metrosexual age merely render him irrelevant? Certainly long before Hairspray took up residence on the Great White Way in 2002, Waters had abdicated his throne as America's elder statesman of underground smut in favor of a more lucrative career as a neutered mainstream pop-culture icon, readily available for awards-show MC gigs and sitcom guest appearances. Yet somehow Hairspray on Broadway seemed to seal the deal, with its further taming of Waters's already pretty tame 1988 movie version and its gently satiric tale of plus-size Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad, who becomes an unlikely instigator of integration on an American Bandstand-like TV show at the end of the Jim Crow era. Like Mel Brooks before him, Waters was fully gentrified now, and getting very rich as a result — thus, from shit-eating to shit-eating grin.
In truth, the stage version of Hairspray was easily the best of the recent Broadway behemoths, even if it buried Waters's skewering of WASP panic in the face of black progress beneath thick layers of tongue-in-cheek nostalgia. You could easily walk away from the musical Hairspray thinking racial segregation in the early Sixties wasn't anything that a little blues-infused doo-wop couldn't cure, but the show was mercifully lacking the labored slapstick of The Producers and the ponderous self-seriousness of Wicked. More important, the songs were pretty darn good — a dozen and a half clever, up-tempo numbers styled by composer-lyricist Marc Shaiman and colyricist Scott Wittman after the Top 40 hits of the era (the Angels, Jackie Wilson, et al.). And unlike the songs from Dreamgirls (which charts roughly the same period in American music history from the other side of the racial divide), Shaiman and Wittman's featured an abundance of good old-fashioned soul.
Hairspray the movie musical has been conceived and executed as a faithful record of the stage version, but that's all it is — a recording. Registering somewhere between Susan Stroman (who made the abominable 2005 film version of The Producers) and Bob Fosse on the scale of choreographers turned directors, Adam Shankman shows a lot of know-how when it comes to the placement and movement of human bodies, but considerably less when the object at hand is a movie camera. No, Shankman doesn't slice and dice his musical numbers into MTV oblivion (à la Chicago). But it's evident right from the opening number, "Good Morning Baltimore" — a spirited parody of introductory tunes like "The Trolley Song" from Meet Me in St. Louis, in which Tracy (played here by perky newcomer Nikki Blonsky) rolls out of bed and into a pastel universe of winos, streakers, and sewer rats — that the movie is visually flat: not pasty and garish in the Waters signature style, but merely serviceable and competent in the worst tradition of Hollywood "professionalism."
Shankman has gotten Hairspray on the screen, all right, but he hasn't rethought the material in cinematic terms (the way, for example, Frank Oz did when adapting the similarly stylized Little Shop of Horrors). The result is an odd hybrid that lacks both the rambunctious energy of a live performance and the expressionistic pull of a great movie musical. That leaves the film to survive on its auditory pleasures and the novelty of its stunt casting, most notably John Travolta as Tracy's plus-plus-size mom, Edna — a role originated (in the 1988 film) by longtime Waters muse Divine and subsequently inhabited (onstage) by queer culture doyennes such as Harvey Fierstein and Bruce Vilanch. That most dandyish of ostensibly straight contemporary screen performers, Travolta seemed like sound casting — yet, given this primo opportunity to get his femme thing on, he's oddly restrained and tamped-down in a part that calls for the grandiose. (I, for one, spent most of the movie trying to locate the inspiration for Travolta's slurry, monotonous vocal inflection, until I pinpointed it as a misbegotten hybrid of Ed Sullivan and Homer Simpson.) Meanwhile, as the movie's vampish villainess Velma Von Tussle, Michelle Pfeiffer plays all of her scenes with such shrill, white-rich-bitch intensity that, all of a sudden, Pfeiffer's lengthy screen hiatus (this is her first live-action role since White Oleander in 2002) doesn't seem to have been quite long enough.
Hairspray is far from an abject failure, but its only flashes of inspiration exist on the periphery, chiefly in Queen Latifah's joyous performance as Motormouth Maybelle, hostess of the monthly "Negro Day" on the film's Bandstand simulacrum, The Corny Collins Show; in Christopher Walken, too little seen as Tracy's gadget-man dad, doing some elegant soft-shoe to the Comden-and-Green-style ditty "Timeless to Me"; and in Corny Collins himself, James Marsden, who is so adept at playing period roles (here and in The Notebook) you dread the thought of ever seeing him in another comic-book adaptation. Though much of the publicity surrounding Hairspray is bound to focus on the casting of tween pinup-du-jour Zac Efron as resident Collins heartthrob Link Larkin, it's Marsden — sporting enough Brylcreem to deflect most forms of nuclear radiation, and flashing a Pepsodent smile that could guide ships to shore in a raging monsoon — who twinkles his baby blues (and belts out in a surprisingly strong singing voice) until he seems the epitome of the virginal Fifties innocence to which Hairspray is, ultimately, a cockeyed adieu.


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SSAE 16 is an enhancement to the current standard for Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization, the SAS70. The changes made to the standard will bring your company, and the rest of the companies in the US, up to date with new international service organization reporting standards, the ISAE 3402. The adjustments made from SAS 70 to SSAE 16 will help you and your counterparts in the US compete on an international level; allowing companies around the world to give you their business with complete confidence.
SSAE16 is now effective as of June 15, 2011, and if you have not made the necessary adjustments required, now is the time to find a quality provider to discuss the proper steps. All organizations are now required to issue their Service Auditor Reports under the SSAE 16 standards in an SOC 1 Report.
The soon to be effective, SSAE-18, is expected to follow a similar reporting structure to the SSAE-16 within a SOC 1 report.
Who Needs an SSAE 16 (SOC 1) Audit?
If your Company (the 'Service Organization') performs outsourced services that affect the financial statements of another Company (the 'User Organization'), you will more than likely be asked to provide an SSAE16 Type II Report, especially if the User Organization is publicly traded.
Some example industries include:
- Payroll Processing
- Loan Servicing
- Data Center/Co-Location/Network Monitoring Services
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Medical Claims Processors
What you Need to Know:
Before starting the SSAE 16 process, there are a number of considerations one must take into account that can save considerable time, effort, and money in the long run. Use the following items as a mini checklist for yourself:
- Does my Company need an SSAE16, or, are we doing it just because someone asked?
- Reports on the low end can run at least $15,000 a year, will the business lost be less of a burden than the cost of the report itself?
- Does your company have defined Business Process and IT controls in place, or, will you need assistance developing and implementing them (readiness assessment)?
- Have you determined the controls in place which affect the outsourced services being provided?
- Have key stakeholders been defined and included in discussions?
There are many other issues to consider before engaging a CPA firm to help with your SSAE 16, for a more detailed 'checklist' – please see The SSAE 16 Checklist
You may have heard SSAE-18 is on the horizon for reports issued as of May 1, 2017. There are some important updates discussed in here: SSAE-18 – An Update to SSAE-16.
As the standard is formalized and the date approaches we will continue to provide more information to help you prepare for these changes.


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Religious and ideological websites can carry three times more malware threats than pornography sites, according to research from security firm Symantec. The firm's annual Internet Security Threat Report also found that threats to mobile devices continue to grow, almost exclusively for Google's Android mobile OS.
Internet security reports from companies that also sell anti-virus solutions should be taken with a pinch of salt, given the potential of conflict of interest, but Symantec's authoritative findings are nevertheless interesting.
Symantec found that the average number of security threats on religious sites was around 115, while adult sites only carried around 25 threats per site–a particularly notable discrepancy considering that there are vastly more pornographic sites than religious ones. Also, only 2.4 percent of adult sites were found to be infected with malware, compared to 20 percent of blogs.
Why religious sites you might ask? "We hypothesize that this is because pornographic website owners already make money from the Internet and, as a result, have a vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free–it's not good for repeat business," said the report.
Malware on the Increase
Symantec measured an increase of more than 81 percent in malware in 2011 over 2010, while the number of malware variants increased by 41 percent. On the flip side, spam volumes have decreased from 88.5 percent of all email in 2010 to 75.1 percent in 2011–thanks to law enforcement action which shut down the Rustock worldwide botnet that was responsible for sending out large amounts of spam.
Android smartphone users should also be weary of malware, as Symantec says mobile vulnerabilities, almost exclusive to Google's open mobile OS, increased by more than 93 percent. The report found more than half of all Android threats collect device data or track users' activities.
A quarter of the mobile threats identified were designed to make money by sending premium SMS messages from infected phones, which could be even more lucrative than stealing your credit card details.
Follow Daniel Ionescu and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter


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After the throat surgery during which she stopped breathing, Joan Rivers was put in a medically-induced coma and she is still on life support.
Rivers was rushed to the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on Thursday after going into cardiac arrest during an operation to fix her vocal chords.
Joan's daughter Melissa has released a new statement, which reads: "My mother would be so touched by the tributes and prayers that we have received from around the world. Her condition remains serious but she is receiving the best treatment and care possible. We ask that you continue to keep her in your thoughts as we pray for her recovery."


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1 YEAR MANUFACTURER'S WARRANTYThe 1402SS comes with a one year warranty against manufacturing defects.


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Twin Sisters, Twin Sisters Trailhead, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Twin Sisters - 7.0 miles
Twin Sisters Trailhead
|Round-Trip Length:
|7.0 miles (distance updated to reflect 2013 re-route)
|Start-End Elevation:
|9,040' - 11,428' (11,428' max elevation)
|Elevation Change:
|+2,388' net elevation gain (+2,477' total roundtrip elevation gain)
|Skill Level:
|Dogs Allowed:
|Bikes Allowed:
|Horses Allowed:
|Related Trails:
Twin Sisters - 7.0 Miles Round-Trip
The Twin Sisters ridge runs nearly two miles along the east-central boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park. A short but strenuous trail leads to a small saddle, and splits up scrambling routes to each summit (11,413' and 11,428').
A landslide caused by the 2013 floods wiped out a portion of trail between 1.3 and 1.65 miles. While terrestrial damage is extensive, only this short segment was actually affected, and has since been re-routed across and up the far side of the slide.
The re-route is steep with deadfall in places, but sufficiently marked by cairns (though snow and mud can present greater challenges). Call ahead for trail conditions, especially in winter and during the thaw.
Visitors will enjoy rangy panoramas across Longs Peak, Estes Park and the Continental Divide, along with interesting alpine ecology leading to the summits:
The trail heads south on a steady climb across a west-facing slope through uniform lodgepole. Longs Peak (14,259'), Mt Meeker (13,911'), Mount Lady Washington (13,281'), Powell Peak (13,208') and Estes Cone (11,006') emerge through gaps in the forest at 1.0 miles (9,780').
Look for Mills Glacier in Mills Moraine, a gash in the landscape at the base of Longs Peak's east-facing 'diamond'. Mills Glacier forms the headwaters of Chasm Lake and Roaring Fork Creek.
Timber breaks suddenly on the edge of the landslide with a good look at its entire path (1.3 miles : 9,840'). Cairns lead across the slide and turn sharply up newly-created switchbacks on the far (south) side. Sections may be obscured by deadfall and runoff channels, but are generally easy to follow.
Travel normalizes on the original trail past 1.65 miles, resuming a steady climb on switchbacks across the National Park Boundary into stands of limber pine and bristlecone pine (2.25 miles : 10,650'). These high-alpine trees are specially adapted to poor soil and harsh growing conditions found on this wind-buffeted mountain.
The trail clears treeline (2.9 miles : 11,040') and winds across an exposed talus slope up to a small saddle between the Twin Sisters (3.35 miles : 11,348').
A clear path breaks right above a research facility to the West Summit (3.45 miles : 11,413'), and a vague route leads left on a more challenging scramble to the East Summit (3.5 miles : 11,428'). Exercise caution on these sharp and potentially unstable rocks, especially in windy conditions.
Interactive GPS Topo MapKey GPS Coordinates - DATUM WGS84
- N40 18.191 W105 32.119 — 0.0 miles : Twin Sisters Trailhead
- N40 18.150 W105 31.833 — .5 miles : Steady climb in lodgepole forest
- N40 17.742 W105 31.979 — 1.0 miles : Brief reprieve with views of Longs and Estes Cone
- N40 17.594 W105 31.844 — 1.28 miles : Cross big landslide area
- N40 17.590 W105 31.735 — 1.5 miles : Steep travel on makeshift switchbacks
- N40 17.717 W105 31.572 — 2.0 miles : Travel normalizes on methodical climb
- N40 17.757 W105 31.444 — 2.5 miles : Exit RMNP | Enter National Forest
- N40 17.650 W105 31.330 — 2.5 miles : Steady climb through limber pine and bristlecone stands
- N40 17.547 W105 31.313 — 2.9 miles : Clear treeline and enter exposed talus field
- N40 17.447 W105 31.232 — 3.0 miles : Steep, winding travel trough talus
- N40 17.352 W105 31.124 — 3.35 miles : Saddle between the Twin Sisters summits
- N40 17.342 W105 31.163 — West Summit (11,413')
- N40 17.317 W105 31.051 — East Summit (11,428')
Worth Noting
- The trailhead is actually located just east of the Park Boundary, and portions of the trail pass through National Forest Land. No entry fee is required to hike this trail.
- There is what some refer to as the 'butterfly burn' on Twin Sisters Mountain's west face. This area - more visible from the trailhead than the trail itself - is an aspen grove whose autumn colors resemble a large 'butterfly'. This is especially visible from the Longs Peak Trail Head.
- 11,428' - East Twin Sisters Peak | 11,413' - West Twin Sisters Peak
Directions to Trailhead
The Twin Sisters Trailhead is located 6.2 miles south of Estes Park on Highway 7. There's a large sign for the trailhead on the west side of Highway 7 just before the turnoff.
Follow the turnoff .35 miles up the dirt road to the parking area. Parking is only permitted on the right side of the road, and spaces are limited. Walk the remaining 75 yards to find the trailhead on the left side of the dirt road.
Contact Information
Rocky Mountain National Park
Visitor Information:
Backcountry Office:
Campground Reservations:
Emergency Dispatch:


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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
For the ipod touch you will need an orbiter.
Ok so forgive me for being a dumbass but I over looked one major aspect in my setup....After looking at the architecture posted above I noticed that I do not have a Switch connected to my Core...All I have is a router with built in wireless connected to my core via CAT5!!This means I have to buy a second ethernet card dont it!?Any ideas on the best one to get??Thanks for pointing out my stupid error!!


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Mauritius is a tropical playground set in the Indian Ocean, ringed by coral reefs, white sand beaches and clear calm water. World-class holiday resorts are scattered along the island's coastline offering enormous swimming pools, endless water sports and shaded sun loungers a few steps from the sea. The service at these resorts is superb, the facilities excellent and all tastes are catered for: that's the beauty of a Mauritius holiday - it's easy and stress-free with everything conveniently close at hand.
These sunny shores have been a firm favourite for family holidays for years and you couldn't really ask for a better setting. Splash about in the warm shallow ocean and pick adventures – snorkelling, water skiing, parasailing or windsurfing - from the bucketfuls of activities offered at your accommodation. Many Mauritius holiday resorts feature an on-site kids club which means that you can slip away to dive coral reefs or play a round of golf, confident that your youngsters are having a great time under professional supervision.
It's not just families who have all the fun though: this beautiful little island has a romantic side too. Away from the large resorts are secluded coves and quiet beaches, home to some of our favourite honeymoon retreats and luxury villas. Nothing is too much trouble for the "no problem" attitude of the Mauritian staff, and if sunset cocktails and candlelit beach dinners don't soothe away any lingering post-wedding stress, then a massage at a spa surely will!
With all this sun, sea and sand, it's easy to understand why most visitors on vacation in Mauritius don't venture any further than the nearest beach, but we'd recommend setting aside a morning to explore the hiking and horse riding trails that wind through the island's forested hills. You could also go shopping at the Port Louis or Grand Baie markets and pick up a few colourful reminders of your Mauritian island holiday.
Quick links to travel advice
- Planning an African island getaway but not sure which indian Ocean destination to choose? Read our comparison "Mauritius vs. Seychelles - Which is Best?"


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At a Glance: From the makers of the original colored-lighting festival "Unreal" we get the single-player sequel, creatively named "Unreal 2: Some Generic Filler Subtitle". Designed for dullards who like pretty lights by dullards who like pretty lights, Unreal 2 is the jewel-encrusted Faberge turd of first person shooters. It fails utterly on every level but the eye candy, so follow that rail of tears through the amazingly beautiful stages because blowing away uninspired aliens and having embarrassingly bad conversations about the most generic plot of all time never looked so fucking good. Next to the graphics, the best thing about Unreal 2 is that you can finish it in under about six hours, or at least get to the point at which it stops being tolerable and uninstall it. For Lowtax that was the first stage. I made it to the last stage before I heard the plastic of my mouse creaking beneath my rage-clenched hand and bid adieu to this steaming pile of garbage.
Publisher: Infogrames
Developer: Legend "Entertainment"
System: PC
Unreal 2 features an intelligent and intriguing plot, realistic characters, excellent gameplay, and deep character interactions. On Bizarro World.
At some point in every gamer's life he or she has to begin to doubt the reviews they read in magazines and on web sites. For me I think it was when I was about twelve and I saw that Descent had somehow been rated as the number two greatest game of all time by PC Gamer. Then I turned the page in disbelief and was treated to a full page color ad of the polygonal fag boxes from Descent bursting from an explosion to herald the impending arrival of Descent 2 at a store near me. The nadir of reviewer integrity used to be Black and White, which was raved about by critics as wonderful, amazing, and many other adjectives that certainly don't apply to that piece of crap. Hopefully my copy is stuck to the bottom of a trashcan somewhere by old syrup and a filth-encrusted Kleenex.
Times are changing bucko, and Unreal 2 has stolen the crown of soulless reviewer hype from Black and White with resounding cries of "revolutionary!" and "the best first person shooter ever!" I have two magazines in my house that rated it a 9 (out of 10) or above, and online sources are only slightly less likely to heap undue praise on the game. How can these sons of bitches look themselves in the mirror in the morning without cringing from their ugly, pimply, nerdy liar's faces? How does it feel to rubberstamp a thumbs up on any game that bought full page four colors in this issue or is sponsoring your latest banner ad campaign? I say fuck them all and damn them with my non-existent powers of voodoo to an eternal pit of fire and high-school athletes who bullied them.
Unreal 2 is a rotten abortion of gaming. If you feel yourself getting mad at my scathing criticism then take your fucking eyes to some other web site where the reviewers will reassure you that you just spent those 50 bucks exceedingly well. I'm doing this as a warning to hopefully save a few people on the fence from wasting money and time on this piece of crap because a hundred Gamespot and IGN drones soiled their panties fighting an endless stream of spiders. Still not clear? I have played better Java applets than Unreal 2 and I only wish I were kidding. I think I've made my point, now let's dissect this cadaver and find out just how full of worms it really is.
The environments are for the most part beautiful.
Let's get the good out of the way because I have a lot more ranting to subject you folks to. Unreal 2: You Won't Care About Anything That Happens In This Game looks like a million bucks. Actually it probably looks like about five or ten million dollars wasted on talented modelers and texture artists while the rest of the staff ate donuts and read through the design document for Halo, occasionally jotting notes in the margins about how to make Unreal 2 infinitely worse. I think it's fair to say that Unreal 2 is the most attractive First Person Shooter ever created. The environments, while limited, are often sumptuous and detailed, the models are crisp, and most of the textures are colorful. I ran the game completely maxed out on my new "totally boss" computer and it was a real treat to look at. Note that I used the term "totally boss" to let you know just how amazing my computer is.
The shortcomings in the graphics fall mostly into the category of "uninspired character design". Many of the people you talk to, while very detailed, are just sort of generic. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the "greatest strategist of humanity" in a form-fitting leather belly shirt really needs to have lava funneled up their puckered asshole. The aliens are also prime offenders when it comes to poor design. The leaping monkey-like creatures you fight in endless waves are about as cool and menacing as Corey Haim delivering a line about "whooping your butt" in the movie "Gleaming the Cube." The Skaarj are passable, and everything else is a stupid set of "character concept art" copied from Jeff K.'s history notebook. Floating sacks of gas, evil mercenaries, and laser-equipped robo squids that look like a twelve-year old's description of the ships from "The Matrix" all have the worst AI this side of the barrels from Donkey Kong.
The worst are the spiders. Endless swarms of spiders in day-glow colors and a giant monster queen spider that is probably the shittiest looking boss I've seen in a FPS in a decade. Don't get me started on how flamboyantly stupid the concept of a giant spider queen and hundreds of spiders taking over a "space lab!!!" really is. Here's a hint: it makes the screenplay for "Alien: Resurrection" look like Dostoevsky.
Probably the most attractive level, or at least the most visually interesting, was the one where you descend into a massive planet-sized creature. Even this environment is somewhat ruined by the game design, which includes exploding barrels inside of the monster planet and lots of mercenary soldiers just sort of wandering around until they manage to kill themselves, just for the heck of it I guess. Other environments include a musty swamp that seems lifted almost directly from Halo but manages to be less immersive, and a H.R. Giger-esque alien world that is as staggeringly boring to play through as it is staggeringly huge and detailed. There are many other less notable environments like "rocky planets one through eight" and "another human base with fucked up monitors."
Probably the most well-designed, detailed, and attractive level is your "Space Marshall" ship where you and your intrepid crew walk around and talk about clichéd shit, spew forgettable one-liners, and endure completely worthless mission briefings. A smart game design company would have used this environment for an intense defensive mission where your ship is boarded and you and your crew must fight off an attack. Instead it serves merely as a backdrop for the sub-"Space: 1999" quality melodrama that plays out in the game. Even these interactive conversation segments restrict your freedom, usually forcing you to talk to everyone onboard about their own ridiculous nonsense problems and thoughts before you can once again launch into space and fight your way through a corridor of evil. Additionally, Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka ICQed and asked me to write something about how your ship seems to be several miles long yet you can only explore 20 feet of it because there are shiny crates blocking every major accessway, but I replied by shutting down ICQ.
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美伊互相发出军事威胁 伊将领称美军航母是"目标"
美伊美军"Hopefully when I'm done with my work here, the connection between the two universities will be further strengthened, and through that I will leave a legacy," Reimers said
互相航母The top domestic consumers, in descending order, are India, the EU, China, the US and Brazil发出Standing sentinel around the mound are ghostly sculptures of small children, apparently made out of sugar-like granular material, wearing tags that read: "I am 9 years old and weigh 64 pounds
军事According to the National Soft Drink Association, the industry produces 600 12-ounce cans of sugary drinks per person per year, most of it what they call the full-sugar variety, and supplies more than a quarter of what Americans drink威胁The publicity stunt, created by Magnetic Collaborative agency to promote power bar-maker Kind's new line of fruit snacks, which have no added sugar, is meant to sound an alarm美伊美军In descending order, Brazil, India, the EU, Thailand, China and the US are the top producers互相航母The survey, conducted in 2014 by China's health, education and sports authorities, found that the sugar intake of males 13 to 17 surpassed 8发出"There are now 30 percent more people who are obese than who are undernourished
军事The average child takes in 21 teaspoons a day, the AHA says威胁The white paper went to great lengths to define China as one of the "destabilizing factors" along with Democratic People's Republic of Korea美伊美军Officials should all start from basic positions and get promotions gradually
互相航母He has been trying his best to achieve what he has vowed to do发出I became the first South Korean person to receive the Chinese Central Government's Friendship Award in 2002 and the first from my country to get permanent residency in China in 2006军事We didn't expect that we would come to love the country as much as we do," said Cho, who speaks fluent Mandarin威胁Some of China's practices are also worth learning, such as how it trains its officials
" What do you feel has been China's biggest achievement over the past five years? What's the most notable change you've observed? China has achieved much in many aspects over the last five yearsOver the last 21 years, South Korean teacher Cho Sung-hye has contributed much to the friendship between the people of her country and China
A remarkable South Korean teacher took up residence in Hefei, Anhui province, at the urging of her young son and never looked back"Nowadays all the primary schools in my country have made Chinese-language courses available to students," said Cho, who was believed by some local media to have given the strongest push to the achievementIt was the first primary school in the country to do so"At the peak, I had 21 relatives living here, and there are still 12 of them now," Cho said
For the last five years, the air has been clearing upWhat do you think China will be like in five years' time? How do you view China's longer-term future? Chinese people's incomes have increased significantly in recent years and they will become richer in the next five years" Cho and her husband have also donated hundreds of thousands of yuan to help prevent the children of poverty-stricken rural families in Anhui from dropping out of schoolCho said the number of the poverty-stricken students is declining, and they can now get more financial support from the government, rather than relying on occasional social donations
Do you believe that some of China's experiences or practices could be used to solve pressing global problems? If so, what are they? China has a very mature and comprehensive system to foster leadershipWhat are your expectations for the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China? What are the key issues you care about most? I think China loves peace more than some of the developed countries
In recent years, I have received numerous awards from the Chinese governmentAnd she has brought even more students from South Korea to China
By comparing these figures, Pew seems to suggest that China and the US are engaging in a popularity contest in the PhilippinesMeanwhile, two-thirds say having a strong economic relationship with China is more important for ties between the two nations, while only 28 percent say being tough with China on territorial disputes is more vitalFully 86 percent have a favorable view of Duterte himself; 78 percent support his handling of the illegal-drugs issue; and 62 percent say that the Philippines government is making progress in its anti-drug campaignThat was certainly not the policy under Obama when he launched the US pivot-to-Asia policy, trying to gang up US allies on ChinaAnd on global economic status, about half of Filipinos (49 percent) say that the US is still the leading economic power, but that is down from 66 percent who said so in 2015But Filipinos also share positive views of China and its leader, President Xi Jinping
Since becoming Philippines president in June 2016, Rodrigo Duterte has refused to be used by the US to advance its strategyHowever, the Pew survey finds that Duterte and his policies are widely popular at home despite concerns expressed by some governments, in particular the US, over Duterte's clashes with drug cartels and alleged human rights violations
In 2014, the Philippines was still led by Aquino IIIThis represents a dramatic shift since that question was last asked in 2015
It clearly suggests that one's gain is another's lossThe Philippines under Duterte has tried to develop an independent foreign policy rather than being a US puppet most of the time
The US government, lawmakers and pundits have generally expressed negative views of Duterte since he took office last JuneAnd overall, the perception gap between the US and China in the Philippines is narrowingAccording to the survey, 78 percent in the Philippines have a positive view of the US as of this spring, down from 92 percent who expressed positive sentiments in 2015But the Philippines, and indeed all the countries in the region, should be encouraged to have good relations with both China and the US, a real win-win situation for not just the three countries involved, but for the region and the world
At the same time, 78 percent believe the current economic situation is good, and 57 percent are satisfied with the direction of the country, a 21 percentage-point increase from 2014, the last time this question was asked in the PhilippinesSome even believe that he would not able to serve the full six-year term
A zero-sum mentality about China-US relations is reflected not only in the thinking of some US politicians, but also in a new survey conducted by the Pew Research CenterThe report finds that people in the Philippines still like the US and have confidence in its leader, President Donald Trump
The survey released on Sept 21 bore a title saying people in the Philippines still favor the United States over China, but that the gap is narrowingA quarter now name China as the world's leading economy, up from 14 percent the last time the Philippines was surveyed
Such an independent policy is dealing a heavy blow to those who still view the relationship between the three countries as zero-sumAnd despite the Philippines being the most pro-Trump nation in Pew's spring 37-country survey, confidence in Trump now is lower than it was in then-President Barack Obama in 2015The US was believed to be fully behind the scenes when the Philippines, under President Benigno Aquino III, filed the arbitration suit in 2013 against China in a tribunal in The Hague, a case in which China had refused to participateHis tough rhetoric on the US and softened rhetoric on China, especially compared with his predecessor Aquino III, has worried many in the US
The Obama administration had done everything it could to internationalize the South China Sea issue and had used the Philippines, a US ally, to advance the American strategyThe negotiations may take days or weeks before a deal is struck between the future governing partners
Winston Peters, the party chief of the New Zealand First Party, however, refused to say which party he would side withAUCKLAND - New Zealand's parliamentary elections on Saturday yield no clear winner as tally ended in the wee hours of Sunday, leaving the third largest party with 7
The New Zealand First Party has garnered nine seats, making it the indispensable coalition partner for both the National Party and the Labor Party to form the governmentThe ruling National Party has secured 46 percent of the party votes, which transfer to 58 seats in the 120 member Congress in an Mixed-Member Proportional voting system, with the opposition Labor Party lagging behind at 35


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Before 1975, most chefs were antisocial proles. They kept to their kitchens, wielding terror, and sometimes genius, behind the swing doors. It was restaurateurs—most famously Henri Soulé at Le Pavillon and Sirio Maccioni at Le Cirque—who were the bearers of their establishments' glory, lubing up VIP guests till they gleamed like aspic. But by the early 1980s, Jeremiah Tower, whose legacy as a founder of California Cuisine and New American cooking is the focus of a newly released documentary and a revised edition of his memoirs, had put stardom within the scope of a chef.
By all rights Tower was America's first kitchen celebrity, when that meant more than having a signature look and the skills to bang out 30-minute chili on TV. He was a defining voice in the early years of Chez Panisse, who went on to open Stars in San Francisco in 1984. The visible center of his restaurant, Tower charmed and elevated in a kitchen exposed like the stage at a theater in the round. He was tall, svelte, and elegantly ruddy in whites. He knew how to work a room, flattering socialites, laughing with drag queens, throwing an arm around James Beard or Rudolf Nureyev. He spoke with an accent you couldn't place (sort of Connecticut country club, gilded with public-school England) but you knew it belonged to a man who had seen and tasted things you never would.
"They were the first fuckable chefs," Anthony Bourdain told me last year, as he talked about Tower, Marco Pierre White, and the changes of the 1980s. Bourdain is executive producer of the Tower documentary, The Last Magnificent. Directed by Lydia Tenaglia, it premiered last year at the Tribeca Film Festival; its theatrical release began this past Friday, April 21, in New York and Los Angeles. Earlier this month, Bourdain's imprint for Ecco published Tower's revised memoirs, Start the Fire: How I Began a Food Revolution in America. Tower's original memoir, California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution, rolled out in 2003. Since Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain's mission has been to explicate the culture of cooks. In Tower—as with Norman Van Aken, the Florida chef who formalized "fusion cuisine" in the 1980s—Bourdain saw a seminal chef the food establishment had pretty much left for dead.
"By all rights Tower was America's first kitchen celebrity, when that meant more than having a signature look and the skills to bang out 30-minute chili on TV."
Tower was one of the most influential chefs of the 1970s and '80s, but by the 1990s much of the food world, fascinated by Emeril and The Frugal Gourmet, had lost interest. When Tower resurfaced on social media in 2010, tweeting from Merida and Cozumel, in Mexico, it was as if he'd returned from exile. His talk at the MAD symposium in Copenhagen in 2014 played like a homecoming.
The title of Tenaglia and Bourdain's film is a tweak of "The Last Magnifico," the name of a 1998 Gourmet profile by James Villas of Lucius Beebe. Beebe, who died in 1966, was an opulently swank, unapologetically queer columnist, a chronicler of Manhattan's café society in the early twentieth century. In Start the Fire, Tower acknowledges his debt to Beebe as the example of a man who fashioned his life as a fuck-you to narrow convention: "'If anything is worth doing,' [Beebe] once said, 'it is worth doing in style and on your own terms—and nobody goddamned else's.'"
Besides Alice Waters, no other goddamned chef still alive has Tower's history, or can claim to be a bridge between the present and the vanished twentieth-century world of Beard, Richard Olney, and Elizabeth David, Tower's friends and mentors. To read the dishes that shaped his career is to brush, like an archeologist, through a stratigraphy of pike timbales and truffled capons, only a degree or two removed from Fernand Point, Curnonsky, and the founders of modern cuisine.
Here are the 10 dishes that shaped Jeremiah Tower's career.


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|by Rachel Hauser
February 28, 2000
Polar research operations depend largely on local weather conditions and the fortitude of both scientists and accompanying research equipment. Safeguarding personnel and equipment in such isolated areas depends upon support from team members located thousands of miles away. Since timing is all-important, the long-distance support team often must find real- or near real-time information to relay to polar teams.
Radar image of the seasonal sea-ice cover in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Red-tinged deformed ice pieces surround rounded, undeformed blue-gray ice floes. The regular cycle of ice growth and deformation causes the ice to break apart and reveal open water leads. Within the linear leads, blue lines indicate open water areas in new ice fractures, and red lines show intermediate stages of new ice growth. the darker areas are covered by a thicker layer of smooth ice. This image was acquired in October 1994 by the SIR-C/X-SAR sensor aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. (Image courtesy of NASA's Planetary Photojournal)
The Near Real-Time Ice and Snow Extent (NISE) data set provides a map of Northern and Southern Hemisphere sea ice concentrations and snow extent. For more information, visit the National Snow and Ice Data Center DAAC.
George Weidner, a research scientist with the University of Wisconsin's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, supports field crews each year, when the University's Antarctic Meteorological Research Center sends a team to Antarctica on a Coast Guard ice breaker to inspect, test and repair the Center's weather stations. Helicopters are required to transport the science team from the ship to the weather stations. However, no matter the wind and ocean conditions, ice breaker movement must be minimized for safe helicopter lift-offs and landings.
In December 1998, Weidner had to find a way to locate regions of sea ice dense enough to allow the U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker Polar Star to dock. "In regions of sea ice, the icebreaker can essentially ground itself in ice to allow the helicopter to take off," he said.
"The Polar Sea departed Hobart, Tasmania for McMurdo Station to service the Automatic Weather Stations along the Adelie Coast near Dumont D'Urville and at sites at Terra Nova Bay and on Franklin Island," Weidner said. "Communications with the Polar Sea were problematic, so in deciding which weather stations to attempt to visit, I downloaded the National Snow and Ice Data Center's (NSIDC) Near Real-Time Snow and Ice Extent (NISE) data for that area of the Antarctic.
"Using the near real-time data, I provided daily forecasts and suggestions about which weather station to visit. For example, the lack of ice at one location coupled with bad weather would lead to suggesting the ship move on to a different weather station. We had use of the icebreaker for a limited amount of time and thus had to go for those sites with the best chance of success," Weidner said.
The near real-time data used to navigate the Polar Star was developed at NSIDC for atmospheric modelers developing algorithms for use with NASA's Terra satellite data. Several instrument development teams require reliable maps of global snow and sea ice extent to increase the accuracy of their models.
"The design of the NISE product was driven by discussions with the instrument teams requiring snow and sea ice data," said Anne Nolin, the NISE principal investigator at NSIDC. "The Marshall Space Flight Center provides us with calibrated passive microwave data within one to two days of satellite overpass."
Passive microwave sensors used to collect NISE input data are particularly sensitive to the presence of snow and ice on the ground. Multichannel passive-microwave measurements allow researchers to distinguish between open water and sea ice. Liquid water and ice both emit microwave energy, but in very different amounts. Using this knowledge, researchers can use a simple, linear calculation to relate passive microwave measurements to sea ice concentrations.
Researchers at NSIDC refine the input data by placing the snow and ice distribution into maps that divide the Earth into a grid comprised of equal-area cells. Using techniques developed at NSIDC and Environment Canada, two essential information sets are offered: a record of snow and sea ice extent, and details describing observation times.
If atmospheric model results and snow and ice cover observations differ, scientists can use data acquisition date information to evaluate inconsistencies. For example, a two- to three-day gap in satellite coverage during spring melt, when rapid changes can occur along the snow line at high and mid-latitudes, can account for major differences in modeled and reported conditions.
While designed to support Terra instruments, NISE data appeal to a surprisingly wide audience.
"Weidner used the information to guide the Polar Star to and through the ice while other scientists used it in Arctic tundra studies," said Nolin. "NISE data are also interesting to researchers who track high-latitude carbon dioxide, New Zealand fishing agencies that ensure compliance with national legislation, and even an artist who is interested in including images of snow and ice as a backdrop in his work."


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Well, the DNC just wrapped, folks, and it looks like the Prince of Darkness has finally found his political party: the God-booing Democrats
Booing God? Who the heck boos God? I'll tell you who: Satan, his principalities and powers, devil worshippers and DNC delegates, that's who.
Look, I get Democrats raising hell over a picture of George W. Bush, or Debbie Wasserman Schultz's hairdo, or a video of Rosie speed drinking gallon jugs of chocolate milk … but God? Really?
Hey, media: You can say what you will about Republicans and their foibles, but you'll never have audio or video of them, en masse, telling God to blank off. Wow.
I believe that three-minute display of divine disdain might have Chick-fil-A'ed the Dems come this November. I know if I were Romney I would run commercial loops of that sound bite over and over and over and over again. Back and forth. Back and forth. God handed Mitt a nugget that the greatest writers in Hollywood couldn't script. Flog it, Mitt. Flog it.
One of the many funny things about the DNC's Cirque du Freak last week was when queried about why God was removed from their party's platform and Jerusalem scrubbed as the capital of Israel, Dick Durbin and other dipsticks said it was no big whoop, that the Dems are down with Yahweh and that Republicans were grasping at straws.
This, of course, satiated the lamestream media and sounded totally peachy until the delegates voted on whether or not the big man upstairs was welcome back to the big scam downstairs, and God got a resounding "screw off" from Obama's backers.
If you haven't seen the video clip of over two-thirds of the Democratic delegates shouting down the God vote and Villaraigosa's teleprompted skewing of the delegates' overwhelming decision to dis God, you must watch it here after you finish my awesome column.
Obama thought he could bamboozle the U.S. and remedy the national outcry against his party's platform by having a faux vote reinstating Jesus and Jerusalem to his group's ticket. The only thing he did not figure on was his multitudinous freak patrol shouting that notion down.
Please facebook, email and tweet this column to your Christian and Jewish buddies who're still gaga over Obama despite his haggard record and ask them what they think about their party's open hostility toward God and Israel.
Check out my latest video, Obama: "If Your Life Sucks, It's a Conservative's Fault!"


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Fruit flies help explain why diet success varies
Published in the July issue of Genetics, the study adds weight to the theory of personalised nutrition, which suggests that the benefit of nutritional compounds varies for different people.
"This study strongly suggests that some individuals can achieve benefits from altering their dietary habits, while the same changes for others will have virtually no effect," write the researchers.
Different genetic lines
Led by Laura Reed, Ph.D, from the Department of Genetics at North Carolina State University, the researchers studied 146 different genetic lines of fruit flies to contrast quantitative genetic mechanisms with respect to weight gain.
The flies were fed four different diets: nutritionally balanced, low calorie, high sugar, and high fat. Researchers then measured a variety of metabolic traits, including body weight, in each group.
Findings indicated that diet alone made a small contribution to the total variation in metabolic traits, while genotype and genotype interactions with diet made "very large" contributions.
Flies in some of the genetic lines were "highly sensitive" to their diets, as reflected by changes in body weight, while flies of other lines showed no change in weight across diets.
For several metabolic traits, genotype-by-diet interactions accounted for far more variance (between 12 and 17 per cent) than diet alone (1–2 per cent), and in some cases have as large an effect as genetics alone (11–23 per cent), reported the researchers.
One size doesn't fit
"There is no one-size-fits all solution to the diseases of obesity and type-2 diabetes," said Reed.
"Each person has a unique set of genetic and environmental factors contributing to his or her metabolic health, and as a society, we should stop looking for a panacea and start accepting that this is a complex problem that may have a different solution for each individual."
Source: Genotype-by-Diet Interactions Drive Metabolic Phenotype Variation in Drosophila melanogaster
Genetics, Jul 2010; 185: 1009 - 1019.
Authors: Laura K. Reed, Stephanie Williams, Mastafa Springston, Julie Brown, Kenda Freeman, Christie E. DesRoches, Marla B. Sokolowski, and Greg Gibson


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Joey + Alfonso = Bromance
Joey + Alfonso = Bromance
They've been through thick and thin together -- figuratively and literally.
Alfonso Ribeiro has been seen in the crowd of "Dancing With the Stars" supporting his pal, Joey Fatone. But the chums go back a long time. Maybe Joey can bust out the Carlton Dance. That's fresh!
Look out Matt and Jake -- there is a new celebrity friendship in Hollywood: Ladies and gentlemen, meet Fateiro!


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The moon doesn't get much bigger and brighter than this.
On Monday, Earthlings will be treated to a so-called supermoon — the closest full moon of the year.
Monday's supermoon will be extra super. It will be the closest the moon comes to us in almost 69 years. And it won't happen again for another 18 years.
NASA says closest approach will occur at 6:21 a.m. EST when the moon comes within 221,523 miles (356,508 kilometers). That's from the center of the Earth to the center of the moon. Full moon will occur at 8:52 a.m. EST.
NASA planetary geologist Noah Petro is urging everyone to step outside and soak in the view. At the time of closest approach, the moon will be setting and the sun rising, at least on the U.S. East Coast, so prime viewing will be Sunday and Monday nights there.
"Ultimately, people should be more geared toward just getting outside and enjoying it," Petro said.
Supermoons can appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter in the night sky. But it takes a real expert to notice the difference.
Petro, deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the moon, said Thursday that even he won't be able to see much difference in size and luminosity. What counts, he said, is getting people "talking, thinking and caring about the moon."
Weather permitting, it's a sky show the entire planet can enjoy.
"Everyone gets to see the moon," Petro said. "It's a great shared resource for all humanity."
The last time the moon was so close — actually, 29 miles closer — was in January 1948. That's the same year the Cleveland Indians last won the World Series, Petro noted, "a big year," at least there.
In 2034, the moon will come even closer, within 221,485 miles. That, too, will be a supermoon.


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Did you know there's a counter service restaurant in Epcot's American Adventure pavilion? Lots of folks don't, because it's tucked back into the corner, but this place is massive!
It's a great spot to stop for a rest and a bite to eat when you're halfway around your World Showcase touring, and it's also a good place to pass the time while you're waiting for a show in the amphitheater across the way — Flower Power Concerts, Eat to the Beat Concerts, and the Candlelight Processional all take place there! (Note: Don't feel like searching for a seat for the concerts? Sitting at an outdoor Liberty Inn table will give you the opportunity to hear the concert while enjoying your food! Win-win!)
While this is a typical Disney counter-service restaurant, imagineers have provided special touches to help you feel as though you've stepped back into colonial times. Baker's racks lined with early American colonial pottery stand against the walls; brass and iron utensils, pots, and pans hang closer to the ceiling; wrought iron tables and chairs surround a bubbling fountain; and the flags of the 13 original colonies brightly span an accent wall as you walk into the building.
And while there's plenty of seating inside, there are dozens of umbrella-ed tables outside as well!
Offering sandwiches, wraps, veggie burgers, salads, chicken nuggets, and other counter-service items, the Liberty Inn doesn't necessarily have anything you can't get elsewhere. (Click on the menus for larger versions.)
But we thought the roast beef sandwich served with Sun Chips was a unique and relatively healthy choice for our buck — but of course we had to augment it with a baked apple dumpling 😉
Don't forget, you can get frozen cokes and cherry slushes here; this might be helpful for those who are losing the beloved Scuttle's Landing over in the Magic Kingdom.
Kosher meals are available.
With a decent selection and a great location, Liberty Inn should be on your radar for counter-service spots. The items on the menu should please just about any palate, and the perk of listening to concerts while you're dining can make this a must-do.
Don't forget — if you walk to the left of the Liberty Inn you'll find a restroom. I have no idea why, but this restroom has come in very handy on my trips to Disney World. It's centrally located and tucked waaaaaaaaaaay back, so some folks don't even know it's there!
Finally, another fun perk of this restaurant is the opportunity to hear the colonial band when they play. They do a show right in front of the restaurant and — for those of us who are musicians — it can be pretty spectacular.