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Manic Market Myths
The late-1950s Les Paul Sunburst is the most sought-after vintage guitar model today.
A 1959 Les Paul Standard Sunburst was a "used" guitar in 1967. During the mid-1960s, Mike Bloomfield put away his Telecaster and picked up a Les Paul Goldtop with P-90 pickups. A few years later he switched to a '59 Burst. Bloomfield is widely credited with influencing many guitar greats to play their music on a Les Paul Flametop. His knowledge of the blues, powerful riffs and quirky character endeared him to numerous music icons of the 1960s and 1970s.
The late-1950s Les Paul Sunburst is the most sought-after vintage guitar model today. The prices paid for the best examples have exceeded $500,000 and is up, on average, about 30-fold in 20 years. When Burst aficionados speak of these electric guitars I often hear things like, "they were built by craftsman and better than anything made today," "PAFs can't be replicated," "the materials are so much better than you can find now," and "age has made these guitars sound great."
Old Bursts and other classic electric guitars were cut on a router table or band saw. Are current high-tech precision CNC machines attached to routers, drill bits and saws less accurate than 1950's equipment? Are you saying that wire, magnets and plastic can't be made to sound like an old PAF? The raw material argument is weak as well. Maybe global warming changed the growth patterns of trees. Who decided that recently cut wood doesn't sound better than planks cut fifty years ago?
Bursts sounded great in 1967 when they were eight years old (go listen to Bloomfield's recordings). The same age a 1999 Les Paul Standard is today. Do you believe a room full of blindfolded guitar dealers could pick out the chords and riffs played by the real Bursts from the Historic, replica and Murphy Aged models without error? The argument isn't strengthened when we think of dot-neck ES-335 guitars, made almost fifty years ago from laminated pieces of maple. Does a sandwich of woods sound better with age too? Burst prices are driven by the amount of flame on the top. I have never heard anyone say, "give me the plain-top, it sounds better – keep the outrageously flamed Lester."
|The late-1950s Les Paul Sunburst is the most sought-after vintage guitar model today. The prices paid for the best examples have exceeded $500,000
Folklore is alive and well in the vintage guitar market. Bursts cost more than the average home in America for reasons other than sound. They cost more than the average worker makes in many years on the job because they are a limited availability collectible that has shown extreme price appreciation over a long period of time and some of the greatest guitarists the world has known played them in their prime.
Let's inject a few real world examples into our theoretical discussion. Slash is credited with helping save Les' namesake guitar from lackluster sales as he and Guns 'n Roses climbed the music charts in the 1980s. Jimi Hendrix saved the Stratocaster playing Purple Haze in the late 1960s. Slash said that he played the same Les Paul guitar on all his important early recordings because it sounded the best. It was a replica LP made by a luthier. Slash has real Bursts, yet cherishes his replica and recent signature guitars.
Jimmy Page, the Burst guitar god of Led Zeppelin, shaved and refinished the necks of his '59 Sunburst Les Pauls because he liked a thinner neck profile, closer to a typical '60 model. Does that make them sound better? Page's Groverized guitars sounded good to me. Shouldn't all '59 Burst owners get Grovers and a shave? Sellers price a '59 versus a '60 LP higher, all other things equal. Why, because they sound better?
These old Les Paul guitars have become as iconic as the marquee players who used them decades ago. That's why most wealthy buyers pay six-figures for them – not the sound. Mike Bloomfield, originally from Chicago, put down his Burst and switched back to Fender guitars during the 1970s.
Larry Meiners writes the Serious Guitar Collector Column for Musicians Hotline® Magazine. Larry is the author of the Gibson Flying "V" and Gibson Shipment Totals books as well as the audio CD book for collectors, Live! At The Guitar Show.
Larry''s books are available at (as well as other fine musical instrument and book retailers): Amazon.com, www.amazon.com, Blue Book Publications,
1-800-877-4867, www.bluebookinc.com, Elderly Instruments,
1-888-473-5810, www.elderly.com JK Lutherie,
1-800-344-8880, www.jklutherie.com, Music Time (Charles Dumont),
1-800-932-0824, www.musictime.com
For more information or to email Larry, please visit - www.flyingvintage.com
email: email@example.com
Copyright (c) 2004 Larry Meiners All Rights Reserved


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You might want to tell your boss now that you'll probably have some foggy mornings in mid-November, but only because you're supporting local business. November 10 to 17 is set to be the first-ever Maine Beer Week, where craft brewers from around the state will be teaming with local restaurants to showcase their best brews.
It's another food-promoting activity put together by gBrittPR, the public-relations company behind Maine Restaurant Week and Harvest on the Harbor. "This event is connecting the dots between restaurants and brewers and it gives us a reason to celebrate great food and great beer. It's a chance for folks to meet the people behind the beers we all love so much," says organizer Jim Britt.
This beer-focused week will replace the fall Maine Restaurant Week and, unlike Restaurant Week where restaurants offer three-courses for a fixed price, Maine Beer Week will be more flexible, allowing restaurants to choose how they want to feature Maine beers. The list of restaurants keeps growing and includes David's Restaurant, Back Bay Grill, Eve's, the Salt Exchange, and more (check MaineBeerWeek.com for the latest information). Some restaurants will offer food and beer pairings, some chefs will cook with beer, and others may simply offer a wider selection of Maine beer. "There are no limits — it's up to the creativity of the chefs and brewers," says Britt.
That's what Chef David Turin of David's Restaurant in Monument Square (and David's 388 in South Portland) likes to hear. He admits that when Restaurant Week first launched in 2009, he was skeptical. The idea of offering a set menu at a set cost had him concerned about devaluation of his fare, but after the resounding success of Restaurant Week, he's changed his mind. And he's all in with Maine Beer Week.
Turin is leading off the celebratory week with a five-course menu that includes peekytoe crab, duck breast, chicken sausage, ale-braised pork osso buco, and herb-ricotta stuffed prawns. These dishes will be paired with some of Maine's newest (and smallest) breweries including Rising Tide Brewing Company, Maine Beer Company, Marshall Wharf Brewing Company, Baxter Brewing, and Oxbow Brewing.
This isn't Turin's first beer-pairing event — his restaurant has had special dinners paired with beers from Boston's Harpoon Brewery — but it's one he's visibly excited about. "I think the notion of beer pairing is where wine was 10 years ago," he says. "Beer was just Budweiser and the working man would drink beer, but craft brewers have really forged new territory." More people are realizing the variation and diversity of beer and how well it pairs with food.
Daniel Kleban, brewer/owner of Maine Beer Co., is also the president of the Maine Brewers' Guild and says this is a great opportunity for small brewers to collaborate with local chefs. "Maine — and Portland especially — has such a foodie culture and it only made sense to pair beer with food and do an event that focused on the combination of the two," he says.
This week will hopefully provide more exposure for small breweries like Rising Tide, but also for the booming craft-brewery industry overall, says owner/brewer Nathan Sanborn. In addition, it's also a way for brewers to show their appreciation for local support, says Luke Livingston, president of Baxter Brewing. "It's been easy for breweries to start in Maine because they're embraced right out of the gate," he says.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Andrew Losowsky has peered into the glass of the iPad and decided that the world of magazine apps is half empty. So we feel it necessary to cheer him up a bit and fill the glass. Andrew pens his blog at The Hospital Club — one of Covent Gardens best watering holes — offering us a swig from the bottle in his first paragraph, a convenient summary of his position:
Twelve months ago, the magazine industry was shouting from the rooftops that the iPad was going to be their saviour – but it turns out that all those people lining up to buy one weren't doing it solely to pay for glass-coated editions of Marie Claire. Sales of maglets (magazines on tablets – geddit?) have been far below the costs of developing these apps, and public reaction has been underwhelmed at best. What went wrong? Six things, actually.The Truth Behind the Failure of iPad Magazines
But if you look at the six points he makes it would appear that the glass is really half full. There have been some mistakes – as is surely to be expected with an innovation as startling as the iPad – but there has also been some progress. Take a look at his problems
- Publishers are Selling the Same Content Twice. This is clearly a big mistake. But there is no compulsion on publishers to adopt this posture (that they have done so, is largely the result of a separate battle that they have been fighting with Apple about the ownership of user-data). Some publishers, all those who work with Exact Editions, have opted to offer free iPad access to their existing subscribers. There is nothing in Apple's terms and conditions that says that publishers cannot do this, or that digital magazine access has to be sold exclusively through iTunes. Apple's mooted new system for in-app subscriptions will surely encourage more publishers to adopt this attractive way of selling subscriptions, though it may also require that digital/app subscriptions are sold through iTunes.
- There are not enough iPads out there. Only 15 million in the nine months! Since Apple will sell perhaps another 40 million this year, and no market analyst predicted, prior to launch, that Apple would sell more than 7 million in the first year, this is a glass rapidly filling up before-we-can-get-organised, point. Come on Andrew this is surely a reason for publishers to get their skates on!
- Maglets are competing with everything else on the iPad. Yes indeed, "….magazines no longer have the benefit of being at the centre of our cultural lives. They have to work harder than ever to grab our attention and force their way into our habits, a task that's all the harder when they reside on a fully connected device that contains the latest news from thirty seconds ago…" Which is also a reason for magazines to see if they can persuade consumers to use them on iPads just as they use them in their living rooms. Magazine publishers did not chuck in their hands when the TV invaded the living room, innovative publishers will see the iPad as a similar challenge. Glass half full.
- Separate App Syndrome. I think Andrew misses a key point here. Magazine publishers have made a big mistake in designing magazine apps as though each issue was a separate app. This is a valid complaint, but not the point that Losowsky makes, and it is one reason for the disappointing showing of several magazine apps. It is also one reason why magazine publishers have felt that they should market and sell magazines on the iPad one issue at a time, failing to see that selling subscriptions through, or without, iTunes is clearly the way to go. Magazines as apps work very well as branded apps in iTunes partly because magazine titles often confer superb branding and findability on the product (Marie Claire, Elle, Vogue and also niche titles Literary Review, Opera, Index on Censorship). But the branding should cover magazines in their entirety: past issue, current issue and future issues are ideal to function as branded apps in the customer's iPad. This is a glass that needs to be very full — including the archive.
- Magazines are outside the digital conversation. This is indeed a valid objection, but in mitigation the magazine publishers (and app developers such as Exact Editions) can point out that this is a complex and rapidly developing field; better engagement and social interaction with digital magazines is certainly coming. The Exact Editions apps are already stuffed full of links to web pages and email addresses (and on the iPhone, phone numbers that the customer can call). Magazine apps can be highly interactive and they are increasingly becoming more so. Losowsky appears not to have noticed that the iPad itself makes it incredibly easy for a single 'page' or a JPEG to be emailed from any magazine app, it is not a matter of some publishers enabling this. There is nothing that the magazine publishers or the copyright owners can do to stop such informal sharing (which does not mean that magazine apps can be easily copied wholesale; that is a different matter). This is a glass to be shared.
- The medium is nine months old. By which I am sure that Andrew Losowsky means that its really too early to be sure: "The truth is that we just don't know yet what varieties of format, design and interactivity will best serve each kind of content, and though some of the experiments in the field are fascinating, most of them are just irritating applications of over-design by people giddy at the possibilities of new formats." This is indeed a matter of the glass being half-full, and a point on which we can agree
Losowsky's excessively gloomy, more than half-empty, headline 'The Truth Behind the Failure of iPad Magazines' is perhaps belied by this concluding (half-full) optimism:
That said, this is still a genuinely exciting time to be working in media. Nothing at all can be taken for granted – except for the simple fact that there will always be a hunger for unique stories, told in a manner in which the text, design, images. and when necessary audio and video, combine to enhance our enjoyment and understanding of the story itself. This ability to make design part of content is the reason why magazines lasted in the first place.
I first noticed Losowsky's piece via an approving tweet, from Erik Spiekermann, perhaps the Lionel Messi of typographic design. This design discontent with magazine apps is not an odd-ball view, most/many good magazine designers are disappointed by the way that magazine iPad apps have been designed so far. My hunch is that the user experience and pleasure in magazine apps will improve as designers and publishers realise that magazine design and book design has to move to a more holistic and a more abstract level, perhaps when designers are less 'giddy' with the possibilities and more relaxed about the opportunities and the 'flow' that comes with touch interfaces. Technology is moving very fast and good digital magazines have to be conceived and conceptualised for systems and services that don't yet exist. From now on all pages are virtual, all stories have addresses, and all interfaces have to be intuitive. This is not a trivial set of challenges for a designer who aims at quality and effect.


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The open road
I was driving on a very dangerous two-lane highway in India. More than eight hours of death-defying horror…
Our driver aggressively tailgated whatever car, truck or horse was in front of us, and then passed as soon as he was able (and sometimes when he wasn't).
What amazed me, though, was what he did during those rare times when there wasn't a car in front of us, just open road.
He didn't speed up. In fact, it seemed as though he slowed down.
He was comfortable with the competitive nature of passing (I may not be fast, but I'm faster than you), and he was petrified of the open road and the act of choosing his own speed.
Of course, we do the same thing with our career or our businesses. Most of us need competition to tell us how fast to go.


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Women´s Kiteboarding, Yoga & Surf Trip Cabarete, Dominican Republic
Turquoise and warm water, Surf in the morning, Kite in the afternoon and yoga overlooking the ocean... What else can we ask for?
Date: June 3rd to 10th, 2017
Wake up every morning with the sound of the birds and nature, vitalize body and mind with early yoga sessions in the lush and tropical garden of the Kite Sisters House in the NorthShore of DR.
Encourage to surf the turquoise waves of famous Playa Encuentro and ride every afternoon in the windy, warm and beautiful golden beaches of Cabarete!
Packages include:
+ Kiteboarding Lessons
Package with Lessons for Beginners & Intermediate
Package with Advance Coaching for Independent Riders.
+ Transfer from Puerto Plata Airport to Cabarete.
+ 7 nights accommodation on a beautiful Villa.
+ All Meals.
+ Daily Yoga
+ Gear storage and use of Kite Center facilities
+ 2 x Surf lessons
+ IKO Certification (International Kiteboarding Organization).
+ Kite Sisters kit
More info: http://www.kite-sisters.com
Contact and Bookings: email@example.com


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Many people hate those ugly fonts which come with Ubuntu. Ubuntu comes with many fonts, most are so ugly that you will wonder why have they put them in the first place? There are some quality ones like Ubantang, which looks like SegoeUI, however to use Vista or XP fonts do this:
Go to Home folder, then turn on the 'view hidden files' option (Ctrl+H). If you can see files with a . preceding the folder name like in '.compiz' then the 'view hidden files' option is ON.
Next search for the folder .fonts, if its not there then create a new folder and rename it to .fonts
Now download the fonts you want. If the fonts are compressed, extract them and now place the .ttf files you will have in the folder '.fonts'.
Now all these fonts will be available for normal use.


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Rules for Voting
• Each person may vote for a maximum of three people per category where a voter's first choice is given three points the second choice two points, and the third choice one point.
• Voting will be made public. One can vote by simply posting and assigning points on the category threads.
• Logically, you also are not allowed to vote for yourself.
• Voting begins a day after nominations, August 17th, and ends on August 27th, and will be announced on the main site.
The Nominees (in no particular order):
- silversong
- Duck With No Name
- hiholly123
- Artificial Asian
- Shadow Light
- crazychick
- Paopufruit
- /b/
- Kierisa12


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Today I am giving away Mark Wilson's Biblical Turkey: A Guide to Jewish and Christian Sites of Asia Minor (Ege Yayinlari ,2010). This is an excellent resource that I used both before and during my recent trip to Turkey. Mark Wilson has lived and guided in Turkey for more than a decade and is also a fine New Testament scholar. I have known Mark for almost 20 years and highly recommend his book. He combines important historical, archaeological and biblical information in an easy to use guide. I believe that Mark's guide will become for Turkey what Jerome Murph- O'connor's guide has been for Israel.
Here is the blurb:
Biblical Turkey is an authoritative and comprehensive guide to the ancient Jewish and Christian sites in Turkey. It includes all the references to cities, regions, provinces, and natural features in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals, New Testament, and Apostolic Fathers. Special features include Side trips, which point to nearby sites that are also of interest to visitors. The In-Sites help readers to read between the lines for special insights into the biblical text. In the Ancient Voice section writers from antiquity speak about the ancient world of Asia Minor. Colorful photographs and plans of selected sites illustrate the volume.
If you would like to win this signed copy of Mark's book put your name below. I will pick a winner on Sunday. Remember, you must check back to see if you won. You then have 5 days to claim your prize or it goes back on the shelf.


text: This lively and upbeat song by BrownHouseMedia will energize your meeting, website, or audience. It is a spirited underscore that is both dynamic and motivational. It has a driving nature that is enhanced by uplifting electric guitar melodies, pulsating drums and bass. It will inject energy and refreshment into your project.


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WiFi Analyzer Premium is an app created by Abdelrahman M. Sid. WiFi Analyzer Premium was first published on December 1, 2020. WiFi Analyzer Premium is available on Android, Other.AndroidIf you are a proud owner of the Android device, WiFi Analyzer Premium requires . The most current version is 1.8 Before downloading WiFi Analyzer Premium consider c...
WiFi Analyzer Premium Review
WiFi Analyzer Premium is an application developed by Abdelrahman M. Sid. WiFi Analyzer Premium was first published on December 1, 2020. It is currently available on the following platforms: Android, Other.
If you are a proud owner of the Android device, WiFi Analyzer Premium is compatible . The most current version is 1.8 Before diving headlong into WiFi Analyzer Premium consider content rating:
- Everyone
WiFi Analyzer Premium will take up 1.9M of free space on your device.
Introducing a new way to analyze and optimize your WiFi, Turn you android device into WiFi Analyzer!
WiFi Analyzer Recommends the best channel and place for your network.
WiFi Analyzer gives you the most useful optimization information to help decrease interference and increase connection speed and stability.
Premium Features:
- No Ads
- WiFi Diagnostics
- Get new features and bug fixes faster
- Works on Android P
- WiFi Optimizer for Interference Issues
- Channel Analyzer for Nearby APs
- Real-time data and distance calculations.
- History of signal strength
- Supports 2.4GHz/5GHz
- View Hidden WiFis
- Copy MAC address
- Export Graphs
- View information about your connection
- Connect to open WiFi networks within the app
- Channel Optimizer + Much More!
NOTE: As of Android 6.0, Location access is required for all new apps in order to scan WiFi.
This app doesn't track you, nor does it collect you location.


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The European Union is funding a three-year research project that intends to develop a variety of technical components and policies designed to make cloud computing more secure.
Cloud computing is a buzz phrase often invoked by companies offering computing services in their own data centers. Companies such as Google, Microsoft and IBM have been aggressively pushing cloud technology to their customers, saying the concept offers flexible, low-cost computing that lets enterprises roll new services out faster to their customers.
But there are a variety of privacy and security issues around cloud computing that have not been fully investigated, ranging from regulatory and legal issues to technical questions over how data stored remotely can be secured.
The E.U. project, called "Trustworthy Clouds" or TClouds, "will explore these legal issues," said Christian Cachin, a computer scientist specializing security and cryptography with IBM Research in Zurich.
IBM is leading the project, which also includes more than a dozen other companies and research organizations within Europe. The E.U. is giving €7.5 million (US$10.1 million) for TClouds, with €3 million coming from the companies and organizations.
On the technical side, TClouds will look into developing better privacy-protecting protocols for transferring information securely in between, for example, two companies that both offer cloud services. It will also look into developing security standards and building open APIs (application programming interfaces) and secure cloud management components.
The research will be published in scientific outlets along with ideas on proposed standards that could eventually be employed in software. The research will likely not end up in products for more than a decade as that is the nature of basic research, Cachin said.
The scientists will work on two scenarios to see whether it is possible to offer a higher level of security and reliability for cloud computing. One of those will involve Energias de Portugal, a Portuguese energy provider, and EFACEC, a company that provides electrical grid infrastructure, also based in Portugal. TClouds will investigate how a system designed to efficiently control a public lighting network can be migrated to the cloud.
The second scenario will focus on health care and involve San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy. The researchers will test to see if it is possible to remotely monitor and diagnose patients outside of the hospital in their homes, with data stored in the cloud and accessed by patients, doctors and pharmacists. The aim is to see if health care costs can be reduced but while preserving patients' privacy.


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OLYMPIA – A proposed pilot project would partner mental health professionals and local law enforcement officers on calls that involve a mental health crisis.
HB 2892 creates a grant from the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs to fund services from mental health professionals who would either go with police officers on calls or respond to scenes when requested.
The bill was voted out of the House Public Safety Committee and advanced to the rules committee on Thursday, Feb. 1.
"Our current system works but I think it is a system that can be expensive and at times ineffective," said Representative John Lovick, D-Snohomish, the bill's prime sponsor. "Jails are not designed to be mental health treatment centers."
Lovick said he brought the bill before lawmakers when he saw a similar program in action in Edmonds while he was volunteering at the Edmonds Gospel Mission. He said having a mental health professional on the scene can better serve someone in a crisis.
The legislation's aim, he said, is to improve the initial law enforcement interaction with people in a crisis, increase bystander and officer safety, and connect those who need it with mental health services instead of jail.
"Somebody in a mental health crisis is not in of themselves by virtue of their crisis committing a crime but our system continues to send law enforcement officers as its only response," said James McMahan, policy director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs.
He said that the bill would require the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs to provide a study of the grant program's effectiveness to make sure it works. He said that could establish a foundation on which to build future response teams.
"We see cities as policy innovation mechanisms, as agents," said Logan Bahr, government relations advocate for the Association of Washington Cities. "This is a great marriage between the state and locals in responding to the needs of our communities."
Partnerships with mental health professionals have already proven effective. McMahan explained two working models; the Seattle model, in which a professional is in the passenger seat of a patrol vehicle, and the navigator model, in which a mental health professional goes to a scene on their own upon request of an officer who is already there.
"The most critical point in this program is to have the mental health professional there on scene in that moment of crisis," McMahan said.
Karl Hatton, regional emergency communications director for Jefferson and Clallam counties, said 911 operators should be included in the program because they have the best sense of who needs to respond to a scene. He also said that ongoing training for 911 operators should be included in the bill's language so they know how to best respond as the first point of contact.
Lovick said he is seeking at least a couple million dollars for the grant and hopes to implement at least one project on each side of the state. The funding could come from a small surcharge on traffic citations. However, the funding won't be determined until the bill reaches the appropriations committee.
The bill was introduced late in the session, but Lovick is optimistic that it will pass this year.
"If we do it, it's going to be done this year," he said. "This is really a time to bring the community together to see what we can do to work with the vulnerable population."
Chairman of the House Public Safety Committee Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, sponsored a similar bill, HB 2234, which has a companion bill in the Senate, SB 5970 sponsored by Senator David Frockt, D-Kenmore.
Taylor McAvoy is a reporter with the WNPA Olympia News Bureau.


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Your shopping cart is currently empty.
Tial Wastegate Valve Seat, 46mm
Price: $56.00 (USD)
Nickel based super alloy is used for valve and high temp NiCrFe alloy for the valve housing offers superior product life under the most demanding conditions. (Turbo rotary applications 2000F (1093C) exhaust temperatures). High temperature silicone Nomex reinforced actuator diaphragm rated to 4 Bar. A 17-7 PH Stainless Steel actuator spring gives consistent pressure at high temperature, resists "relaxing" at temperature to 900F (483C). Nitronic 60 Stainless Steel is used for the valve seat, valve bushing, and lower housing fastening hardware. Flows .32Kg/S at 1 Bar. Color anodized 6061-T651 aluminum actuator (Silver, Red, Blue, Purple, Black). Wastegates are shipped with fasting hardware, 10mm aluminum banjo type air fittings, and gaskets. Race proven at Daytona 24hour, on Porsche GT2 Twin Turbo. Flanges are an extra cost, they do not come with the wastegate unit. All springs are included.


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Ringtones suck. Not in theory but in practice. They exist for one reason and that is to notify; this however, doesn't stop everyone and their grandma from using screechy loops of "Ice Cream Paint-Job" instead. Enter Cleartones by Hugo Verweij.
Verweij makes his living as a sound engineer so you can imagine how much it hurts him to hear your average teen's ringtone. These "hand-made, minimalist ringtones for the serious user" consist of short, clean bursts of unobtrusive sound designed specially for the iPhone's speakers. In his own words:
As a sound designer I pay a lot of attention to the sounds of our everyday life and what they communicate. We are surrounded by electronic devices, almost all of which make sound. But many times, the sound is not as well designed as the device itself. That's one of the reasons why I created Cleartones. A ringtone is oftentimes rude and annoying, while it should be unobtrusive yet functional. It should be clear to it's owner without disturbing anyone else, that's the essence of a good ringtone, says Hugo Verweij, founder of Cleartones.
There are 4 sample tones available for your listening pleasure on the product site with artsy names like "Persistence" or "It's Time." The whole set of 50 tones is available now for $10 or you can get 4 for the price of a tweet. He'll also do custom requests by email. I wonder if he can whip up a bite of "Born this Way" for me! [Cleartones via David Report and Another Something; Photo from Joachim Baan]


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phpBB Platinum package is a software bundle. It consists of original phpBB 3.0 forum engine, preinstalled language packs, styles and several mods which can be turned on in various combinations with only few mouse clicks.
At the moment we make first public release of this great peace of software and any bug reports and feature suggestions are welcome on our support forum.


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New iPhone Connector Port Revealed, Thus Wiping Out Several Generations Of Accessories In One Fell Swoop
from the planned-obsolesence dept
Clarification: As some people have pointed out, Apple themselves have not revealed this—the information comes from TechCrunch's conversations with accessory manufacturers. The headline was misleading and has been updated.
As iPhones and iPads have gotten more powerful, they've been adopted for a lot of professional applications, and this has spawned a huge industry of compatible devices—not just accessories, but significant expansions that can run into the same price range as the iPhone/iPad itself. In music, for example, there are DJ controllers, audio interfaces, studio microphones, stompbox pedals and more—all utilizing the ubiquitous iPod/iPhone/iPad connector port that has remained the same for years. But now TechCrunch has confirmed that the new iPhone will feature a new mini connector with a yet-to-be-announced standard—which means the rest of the Apple line is sure to follow, and all those products are officially on the road to obsolescence.
Apple's 30-pin ports have been the standard since Apple released the third generation iPod. The connectors offered structural stability when connecting to most accessories but it's clear – especially with the introduction of the MagSafe 2 port – Apple is more concerned with space savings inside each device.
Three independent manufacturers all agreed that the 19-pin dock port is in the works and many accessory manufacturers are facing an uneasy few months as they wait for official news of the standard to be announced.
This is going to frustrate a lot of users—but despite TechCrunch's suggestion, most manufacturers probably aren't "uneasy". For them, it's a great cash-grab, and an apparently pointless one. Sometimes things have to become obsolete—but this doesn't seem like one of those cases. There were no problems with the old connectors, and they weren't causing any kind of technological bottleneck, so apart from the space-saving aspect, there doesn't seem to be much to gain—certainly not for the user, and certainly not compared to what's lost by abandoning such a well-established standard. This has led some to suggest that the accessory manufacturers were in fact the driving force behind the change:
Have you guys ever heard of 'planned obsolescence?' It's a practice which encourages planning and designing a product so it's only useful for a limited time, before becoming obsolete. It's common practice, and used by many companies to create demand for the 'newer, better' model of the product. Yet this move is possibly prompted by the major accessory makers facing dwindling sales, as customers see no need to buy new accessories for a smartphone that had a universal dock system for 6 generations. What most tech blogs failed to address was the following question: Did the top accessory makers pad Apple's pockets, or hardball negotiate for an incentive to drop the standard cable as a means of forcing consumers to buy new accessories? We're inclined to think so.
Considering that three of the top accessory makers have been the first to confirm that they're working on 19 pin accessories already for the launch of the iPhone 5, the motive is simple : Greed. And why not? It's a fail safe business plan, designed to shake out the smaller accessory makers with tons of unsold '30 pin' stock and a good amount of people will probably conform to this odd decision without question.
Of course, Apple gets plenty of benefits too. The new connector will be yet another proprietary standard, following their typical walled-garden approach, which means most accessory developers will build Apple-first, everything-else-second-if-at-all, thus pushing more people towards Apple products. It's not surprising, but it's not a consumer-friendly decision either. Additionally, manufacturers/owners of some of the aforementioned professional accessories to do with music and photography get the worst deal—for them, iPhone/iPad compatibility is a great feature, but not central to their businesses/buying habits. Breaking the compatibility is a source of nothing but frustration, and will probably discourage a lot of such users from upgrading at all—while the manufacturers are slowly forced to leave them behind.
Filed Under: accessories, connector, ipad, iphone, ipod, obsolescence
Companies: apple


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Difference between revisions of "Fritillaria affinis"
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'''Longitudinal Cross Section:''' elliptical [[File:FRAF long.png]]
'''Longitudinal Cross Section:''' elliptical [[File:FRAF long.png]]
===Photo Gallery===
===Photo Gallery===
Revision as of 12:43, 7 May 2012
Fritillaria affinis is also called Chocolate lily, Checker lily, Rice root and Mission bells. It is in the lily family, Lilliaceae, a family of monocotyledons. This plant is also called Fritillaria lanceolata some of the time.
- Kingdom Plantae
- Subkingdom Tracheobionta
- Superdivision Spermatophyta
- Division Magnoliophyta
- Class Liliopsida
- Subclass Liliidae
- Order Liliales
- Family Liliaceae
- Genus Fritillaria L.
- Species Fritillaria affinis
Perennial herb from a small, scaly bulb and numerous rice-sized offset bulblets, the unbranched, glabrous stem 1.5-10 dm. tall.Fritillaria affinis
1-2 whorls of 3-5 and scattered upward, lanceolate, 5-15 cm. long and 3-25 mm. broad.
Usually 2-5 in a raceme, broadly bell-shaped, pendant, strongly mottled, purplish to greenish or yellowish. Tepals 6, lanceolate, distinct, 20-30 mm. long; the 6 slender filaments 2-3 times as long as the anthers; styles attached to each other about 1/3 of their length.Flowers usually 2-5 in a raceme, broadly bell-shaped, pendant, strongly mottled, purplish to greenish or yellowish; tepals 6, lanceolate, distinct, 20-30 mm. long; the 6 slender filaments 2-3 times as long as the anthers; styles attached to each other about 1/3 of their length. Fritillaria species do not flower regularly in nature, and so are described as shy-flowering.
capsules 2 cm. long, broadly winged.
Bloom Period
February - June
West of the Cascades, British Columbia to California; also, east of the Cascades, Washington and British Columbia to Idaho
Prairies and grassy bluffs to woodlands and coniferous forests, sea level to fairly high elevations in the mountains
The bulbs of chocolate lily were eaten by most Coast and Interior Salish peoples, either boiled or steamed in pits. Chocolate lily, also called "rice root" by Native American peoples, has bulblets that look like grains of rice. The bulbs grow relatively close to the surface and are easily extracted.
Propagates readily from seed, and the rice-like bulblets can be used for propagation. Most bulbs take 3-5 years to reach mature flowering stage. When seed capsules form, they begin to split when they are ripe. Collect immediately, as seeds may be shed quickly. Let the seeds dry without heat, and store them until sown in labeled paper packets in a cool, dry, airy place. Do not use plastic bags, as the seeds are likely to rot. The best times to sow seeds are fall, but if seed is available earlier, sow immediately. Germination should follow in early spring. The recommended potting soil for seed germination and emergence is a commercial sand-based mix; with one-quarter part coarse sand added if the mixture does not have a sandy appearance. Space large, flat seeds of Fritillaria one seed's width apart. Sieve a light covering of the soil mix over the seeds so that they are no longer visible, and then cover with a generous layer of grit or aquarium gravel. Label the pots with the plant name, seed source, and date. Stand the pots in a shady place in the open garden, or plunge them in a sand frame, and keep them moist.
When the seedlings have germinated, bring the pots into full light in a cold frame or greenhouse. Keep them moist until they show definite signs of dying down, and then water them very sparingly. Fritillaria seedlings should be kept slightly moist during this senescent period. Start watering again in early fall, or as soon as there is new growth, and keep the pots watered until the growth dies down. Leave most bulbs for two growing seasons before repotting, unless they grow vigorously. Larger bulbs are formed if these seedlings are fed the second year. Use a commercial liquid feed as used for tomatoes, but at half the manufacturer's recommended strength. After two years, remove the bulbs from the pots after they have died back. Separate out the bulblets, clean them gently, and repot them in clean, moist soil. For Fritillaria species, use a soil mix of one part sterilized leaf mold, one part peat or compost, and one part sterilized soil, with a further 1.5 parts of coarse horticultural sand or seed-grown perlite. It is better to grow seedlings in pots for 3-4 years before planting them outside.
Abbreviation: FRAF
Seed sample from: 2011
Average Measurement: 6.1 x 4.5 x 0.4
Measurement Range: L: 5.5 – 7, W: 3.5 – 5, D: 0.2 - 0.5
Shape: Seeds very flat and tear drop shaped. Seeds widely winged. Seed coat somewhat transparent, making seed body visible.
Color: Hilium is visible as a small darker brown dot on pointed end of seed. Seed is golden/brown/bronze.
Surface: Surface is lustrous and finely and erratically ridged, giving the seed an overall bumpy/pitted look.
Latitudinal Cross Section: elliptical
Longitudinal Cross Section: elliptical
Burke Herbarium USDA Plant Profile Wildflower.org


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There are a lot of things NOT to like about liberals, but you have to give them some credit. These are people who are badly, dangerously, and devastatingly wrong on almost every issue of consequence and yet, year after year, they hang in there at a rough parity with conservatives. So, they may do a lot wrong, but there are things we can learn from the Left.
1) Fight Harder: Liberals win a lot of battles just because they're willing to fight harder. Look at what happened to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Komen decided not to keep giving free money to Planned Parenthood and liberals, who aren't even willing to oppose cancer unless some babies can be aborted to even it out, raised so much hell that Komen had to engage in a public face-saving maneuver. This is not unusual. Conservatives are constantly complaining that some insult towards Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann would never be tolerated if it were aimed at Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton. Well, of course, it wouldn't. Liberals raise hell, create blacklists, and hold permanent grudges over that sort of thing. Conservatives complain, shrug their shoulders and let it go. If conservatives get nastier, more vindictive, and less forgiving, then suddenly people will start giving conservatives the same respect liberals get.
On the other hand, ever notice that liberals can get away with everything from leaving women to die in a tidal pool to having a gay prostitution ring run out of their apartment, while conservatives are destroyed for some faux pas that wouldn't even hurt a liberal's popularity rating? There's a reason for that: liberals will stand up for liberals who are politically useful while conservatives will toss those people under the bus in some kind of misguided attempt to appear "principled." When two equally matched forces meet and one is playing by Marquess of Queensberry rules while the other has an ends justifies the means mentality, there's no question which side is going to win anywhere outside of a Disney movie. If conservatives want to save the country, we need to start playing as dirty as the Left.
2) Support Activists: If you're a popular liberal blogger and you want a better gig, you can be certain that some liberal foundation, magazine, or newspaper will hire you. If you're an activist group that helps the liberal cause, whether it's ACORN, Air America, or the ACLU, you will get the money you need. If you're a liberal with any kind of status, colleges around the country will shell out big bucks to bring you in for a speech. Money is never your biggest problem if you can help liberalism.
On the other hand, most big name conservative magazines won't hire popular conservative bloggers, there simply aren't enough conservative newspapers to do a lot of hiring, and most of the big time talk radio hosts treat blogs like a gold mine to be looted for topics, but seldom if ever mentioned on the air. While there are some conservative think tanks that do things to help grassroots activists -- like Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity, The Leadership Institute, and the Franklin Center -- almost every activist and blogger I know is operating on a shoestring. What it all comes down to with conservatives is that if you can't fundraise or figure out how to turn a profit, it doesn't matter if what you're doing is good for the movement -- because nobody is going to come in to fund it or even give you any real help promoting it. This is why the conservative blogosphere is slowly but surely dying off. Contrast that to the Occupy Movement where a bunch of dirty hippies camping for handouts can have millions materialize out of thin air to help them out. This isn't because liberals in power love activists. There would be Democrats all over Capitol Hill high-fiving each other if Markos Moulitsas Zúniga were hit by a bus tomorrow. The difference is liberals have a better understanding of what their activists can do for the cause.
3) Embrace Identity Politics: Whether you're talking about blacks, Hispanics, women, Jews, Muslims or gays, liberals have the exact same approach to minority outreach. They find people from that group, fund them, have them claim to be spokesmen for that entire group and then their first message is always, "Conservatives hate you." There's a simple reason that liberals do that: It works! In fact, it works so well that conservatives end up buying into the hype and going to groups like the NAACP, La Raza, and CAIR for outreach and absolution. This is insanity. These groups are given power and money by the Left precisely because they're willing to smear conservatives. It's time to have our own conservative NAACP, our own La Raza, and our CAIR that are friendly to conservatism, capitalism, and Christianity. We can pout, cross our arms, and say we'll never give in to identity politics, but that argument has already been settled with the American people and we've lost. Either we can come to grips with reality and start funding our own interest groups or we can keep pursuing the same failed strategy as we inevitably lose the country as it progressively becomes less white.
4) Make Emotion-Based Arguments: Don't get me wrong: both liberals and conservatives make emotion-based arguments. However, it may be 25% of what conservatives do, while it makes up 98% of liberalism. What so many conservatives don't seem to get is that as a general rule, a powerful emotional argument will usually beat a sound, logical argument. Put another way, you can be right and still lose. It happens all the time. So while conservatives shouldn't discard logic-based arguments, we need to work much harder to tie in emotions. This isn't actually all that hard. Ask yourself whom a program benefits or hurts and explain it in emotional terms. "You support Affirmative Action? Oh, so you believe black Americans are inferior to whites and need a hand up to compete with them? That's disgusting." "You think we should turn a blind eye to illegal immigration? Why do you want to put American workers out of jobs?" "Dry and sciencey" may appeal to think tank wonks and "Big L" Libertarians, but it isn't ultimately going to be enough to move the American people our way.
5) Move the ball forward: There's a simple reason that the country seems to inexorably move to the Left no matter who gets into office. Liberals in D.C. are always trying to move the ball forward while conservatives in D.C. are always trying to hold the line. Look at the two years when Democrats were running everything in D.C. They passed everything from the biggest stimulus in history to Obamacare. What did the Republicans do when they controlled the House, Senate, and White House during the Bush years? Medicare Part D. That was after they worked with the Democrats to pass the No Child Left Behind Act and Sarbanes-Oxley. Thanks for the temporary tax cuts, Republicans, but the country moved to the LEFT domestically during the Bush years. This is one of the reasons that Scott Walker struck such a chord with conservatives: he implemented a policy that helped Wisconsin, hurt the Left, and pulled the state to the Right all in one fell swoop. Why can't conservatives in D.C. ever seem to do that any more?


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View of range of pavers and feeders
These machines are born for the road.
Road construction is a complex task. That's why every BOMAG paver is systematically designed for efficiency – regardless of the class and whether it is a wheel or chain version. This applies as much to the lower fuel consumption as to fast operational readiness and excellent pre-compaction. Developed and optimised by engineers, who can draw upon half a century of experience, particularly in respect of efficient road construction. Every machine leaves the factory with the highest possible level of reliability. Another reason why selecting BOMAG ensures an investment that pays off for a long time.


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1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2003
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/01/2003
|Page tools: Print Page
Graph 19.7 shows that the total volume of production (measured in terms of industry gross value added) of the manufacturing industry in chain volume terms (measuring 'real' output unaffected by price change) increased in most years from 1982-83 to 2000-01. Production levels peaked in 1988-89 before dropping back to around the level achieved in 1987-88. Since then manufacturing production has continued to increase at an average rate of 3% per year.
Manufacturing gross value added has risen by 13% over the past five years, 22% over the past 10 years and 38% over the past 20 years. However, in percentage terms manufacturing's contribution to GDP has been trending down for some years, and has declined by 1.3 percentage points of GDP since 1994-95 (table 19.8).
Over the period 1994-95 to 2000-01, gross value added rose in five of the nine manufacturing subdivisions, the largest growth being recorded in Food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing (by 42%), Machinery and equipment manufacturing (by 25%), and Petroleum, coal, chemical and associated product manufacturing (by 23%). Production levels for some subdivisions declined over the same period, most noticeably in Textile, clothing, footwear and leather manufacturing (by 15%) and Other manufacturing (by 10%).


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A method of investing in mutual funds by making equal, periodic investments over a specified period.
Do you find the brand name 'Bewakoof' strange or relatable? The traditional meaning that Bewakoof means stupid has changed its course to Bewakoof meaning 'making a difference without worrying about what others think.'
This unique, trendy, and attractive brand name grabs your attention – not entirely for the name, but for how a 'Made-In-India' initiated concept was adapted and how the brand changed a 'T-shirt-making business' into a 100 crore D2C brand.
When fashion brands were busy trying to be chic and royal with expensive price tags, the fashion e-commerce startup stood out from the rest by launching quirky, uncanny, and astounding designs that resonate with Gen Z and millennials.
Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot, Civil Engineers from IIT Bombay launched Bewakoof on April 1st, 2012. April Fool's day brought the brainstormers to go for the 'Bewakoof" domain name for their humorous designs. Headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Bewakoof was initiated with a mission of bringing style and wit into the lives of young students by its founders.
Bewakoof launched its unique and crazy fashion apparel and slowly became one of the biggest brand names in India. This leading apparel brand has become one of the most pursued fashion trends creating a new niche in the fashion world.
'Bewakoof' as a brand formulates its production and marketing strategies based on people's opinions and choices. The brand has created an interesting presence among young people by listening to its 1.7 Million social media followers for innovative concepts.
Bewakoof believes in creating trending products that people love. Its social media fan base proves how Bewakoof is making an impact with its spirit of looking at things differently. With its innovative marketing techniques, 'New Month, New Color' or 'Design of the day,' the direct-to-consumer online fashion portal has grown from INR 30,000 to INR 250 crore in just 9 years.
"A Bewakoof follows his heart," the slogan of Bewakoof binds millennials and cultivates a culture that thrives on research and origination. They always strive to create something unique, breaking all records with their best-performing collections.
Bewakoof functions on principles like honesty, affordability, and creativity. Their goal is to enable self-expression through their innovative products and to promote a guilt-free shopping experience. It is characterized by the spirit of looking at things from a different angle without conforming to societal norms.
Bewakoof is famous for its affordable range of t-shirts for both men and women, which are available in a stylish variety and premium quality. While big brands were charging thousands for the staple piece of clothing, Bewakoof offered a much better range with the lowest possible rates.
This competitive pricing immediately grasped the right attention of the millennials and made the brand stand out. The brand promoted distinctive fashion with in-house design, manufacturing, technology, data science, and marketing skills, thus improving its value proposition - affordability.
The world knows "Bewakoof" for its innovative design, reasonable prices, and direct-to-consumer model. Their products are made in India and are highly preferred by their consumers.
Bewakoof is growing and is looking forward to a sales figure of INR 2,000 crores by 2025. The much-loved brand collaborates with the nation's top celebrities to scale its marketing and advertising campaigns. It also aims to increase its subscribers to one million in the next 2 years.
Firmly believing in "Mann Ki Baat," Bewakoof thrives on a mechanism for achieving lifestyle goals. There are no fixed rules to success, and all it takes to be successful is inspiration, an idea, fruitful long-term savings, an instinct, and the power and willingness to deal with failures.
Ever since India started its Digital India Movement, Indians' adoption of digital payments has gone up steadily. Cashless transaction has been embraced across the board all the way down to chaiwalas with whom you can complete your payment using your phone, without fumbling for change in your wallet.
PayTM and PhonePe, that function using UPI are widely popular for daily transaction. There are many more options available in India beyond these.
A payment method is a way that you use to transact money as payment for a product or service. Cash, credit card, debit card, cheques, UPI etc. are various payment methods that are common in India.
Let's look at an almost exhaustive list of payment methods you can use in India.
UPI - Unified Payments interface is a revolutionary system that has enabled Indians to access multiple bank accounts within a single interface. Users can seamlessly transfer money to businesses and other users using an app. All you need is an active bank account with a participating bank and you'll be able to create a UPI id for yourself.
Just like an email, a UPI id allows people to send money directly to you, into your bank account. With 0 transaction fees, UPI is the most accessible payment method available for Indian smartphone users.
Popular UPI Apps In India
Digital Wallet, sometimes referred to as 'e-wallet' is a virtual account in which you can keep money to transact from. You could transfer money from your bank account to your digital wallet, which you can use as a payment method.
Why use a digital wallet, when you have UPI? Digital wallets operators such as PayTM, Amazon, Airtel etc. offer exclusive discounts for transactions using their digital wallets. You could avail those exclusive benefits by using such digital wallets.
Popular Digital Wallets in India
Internet banking, or Net Banking as known popularly is an electronic system that allows you to access your bank account and other banking services online.
Within Net Banking, there are a few ways that you can transact money.
Mobile banking is net banking, accessed through your bank's mobile app on your Android or iOS device.
It is essentially the same thing as net banking, but it allows for some personalised features.
Cash is still a dominant payment used in India. As the use of digital payment methods are becoming more and more prevalent, Indians are getting more and more comfortable with not carrying cash.
AEPS - Aadhaar Enabled Payment System is a way Indians with Aadhaar card can do transactions. If your Aadhar card is registered with your bank account, you can start using this service.
How to use AEPS?
All you need to use AEPS is your Aadhaar card number. You'll have to quote this number and initiate the transaction. As simple as that.
All banks in India offer debit cards when you open an account with them. You will be able to access funds in your account using this debit card. Withdrawing of funds can be done through either the same bank's ATM or other ATMs.
When you can demonstrate that you have continuous income, the same bank will be interested in offering you a credit card too. Credit cards can also be obtained by opening a Fixed Deposit and pledging the same.
A prepaid card is an instrument that can be used just like a credit card or debit card. The only difference is that a prepaid card needs to be 'recharged' or loaded with money before hand.
It is not connected to your bank in any way and it provides an easy way to manage expenses especially for dependents in a family.
Banking instruments such as a cheque or DD is still very much widely used in India. They have their own benefits and use cases. Having said that, even businesses are slowly embracing digital payments for all their operations.
We are working towards bringing as much flexibility as we can in your Hubble experience. Currently we allow deposit and withdrawals through UPI.
Net banking and Digital Wallet payments are being worked on at the moment and we plan to release them any time soon.
First off, congratulations on your financial success!
When you earn a salary above 50 Lakhs, which is 50 lakhs in number or '50,00,000', you've clearly made your mark in your field. However, with this level of income comes the responsibility of paying higher taxes.
Fortunately, there are ways to maximize deductions and save on taxes, even for those in the higher tax brackets.
When we talk about 50 lakhs, it translates 50 lakhs to rupees as 5 million rupees, a significant amount that requires efficient financial planning.
In this article, we'll dive into the world of elite tax savings and help you make the most of your hard-earned money.
When you're part of the elite group that falls under the 50 lakhs salary jobs in India per month, which equates to approximately 4.16 lakhs, it's crucial to understand the various tax deductions available to you.
Section 80C of the Income Tax Act is a goldmine for taxpayers in India.
You can claim deductions up to ₹1.5 Lakhs under this section, which will directly reduce your taxable income.
Some popular investment options under Section 80C include:
If you haven't already, consider investing in these instruments to claim the maximum deduction.


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Asynchronous Cloudant / CouchDB Interface
Project description
An effortless Cloudant / CouchDB interface for Python.
pip install cloudant
Cloudant-Python is a wrapper around Python Requests for interacting with CouchDB or Cloudant instances. Check it out:
import cloudant
# connect to your account
# in this case, https://garbados.cloudant.com
USERNAME = 'garbados'
account = cloudant.Account(USERNAME)
# login, so we can make changes
login = account.login(USERNAME, PASSWORD)
assert login.status_code == 200
# create a database object
db = account.database('test')
# now, create the database on the server
response = db.put()
print response.json()
# {'ok': True}
HTTP requests return Response objects, right from Requests.
Cloudant-Python can also make asynchronous requests by passing async=True to an object's constructor, like so:
import cloudant
# connect to your account
# in this case, https://garbados.cloudant.com
USERNAME = 'garbados'
account = cloudant.Account(USERNAME, async=True)
# login, so we can make changes
future = account.login(USERNAME, PASSWORD)
# block until we get the response body
login = future.result()
assert login.status_code == 200
Asynchronous HTTP requests return Future objects, which will await the return of the HTTP response. Call result() to get the Response object.
See the API reference for all the details you could ever want.
Cloudant-Python is minimal, performant, and effortless. Check it out:
Cloudant and CouchDB expose REST APIs that map easily into native Python objects. As much as possible, Cloudant-Python uses native Python objects as shortcuts to the raw API, so that such convenience never obscures what's going on underneath. For example:
import cloudant
account = cloudant.Account('garbados')
db = account.database('test')
same_db = account['test']
assert db.uri == same_db.uri
# True
Cloudant-Python expose raw interactions – HTTP requests, etc. – through special methods, so we provide syntactical sugar without obscuring the underlying API. Built-ins, such as __getitem__, act as Pythonic shortcuts to those methods. For example:
import cloudant
account = cloudant.Account('garbados')
db_name = 'test'
db = account.database(db_name)
doc = db.document('test_doc')
# create the document
resp = doc.put({
'_id': 'hello_world',
'herp': 'derp'
# delete the document
rev = resp.json()['_rev']
# but this also creates a document
db['hello_world'] = {'herp': 'derp'}
# and this deletes the database
del account[db_name]
Iterate over Indexes
Indexes, such as views and Cloudant's search indexes, act as iterators. Check it out:
import cloudant
account = cloudant.Account('garbados')
db = account.database('test')
view = db.all_docs() # returns all docs in the database
for doc in db:
# iterates over every doc in the database
for doc in view:
# and so does this!
Behind the scenes, Cloudant-Python yields documents only as you consume them, so you only load into memory the documents you're using.
Special Endpoints
If CouchDB has a special endpoint for something, it's in Cloudant-Python as a special method, so any special circumstances are taken care of automagically. As a rule, any endpoint like _METHOD is in Cloudant-Python as Object.METHOD. For example:
https://garbados.cloudant.com/_all_dbs -> Account('garbados').all_dbs
http://localhost:5984/DB/_all_docs -> Account().database(DB).all_docs()
http://localhost:5984/DB/_design/DOC/_view/INDEX -> Account().database(DB).design(DOC).view(INDEX)
If you instantiate an object with the async=True option, its HTTP request methods (such as get and post) will return Future objects, which represent an eventual response. This allows your code to keep executing while the request is off doing its business in cyberspace. To get the Response object (waiting until it arrives if necessary) use the result method, like so:
import cloudant
account = cloudant.Account(async=True)
db = account['test']
future = db.put()
response = future.result()
print db.get().result().json()
# {'db_name': 'test', ...}
As a result, any methods which must make an HTTP request return a Future object.
Option Inheritance
If you use one object to create another, the child will inherit the parents' settings. So, you can create a Database object explicitly, or use Account.database to inherit cookies and other settings from the Account object. For example:
import cloudant
account = cloudant.Account('garbados')
db = account.database('test')
doc = db.document('test_doc')
url = 'https://garbados.cloudant.com'
path = '/test/test_doc'
otherdoc = cloudant.Document(url + path)
assert doc.uri == otherdoc.uri
# True
To run Cloudant-Python's tests, just do:
python setup.py test
The API reference is automatically generated from the docstrings of each class and its methods. To install Cloudant-Python with the necessary extensions to build the docs, do this:
pip install -e cloudant[docs]
Then, in Cloudant-Python's root directory, do this:
python docs
Note: docstrings are in Markdown.
MIT, yo.
Project details
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Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.


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Ukraine Crisis Tests Uneasy U.S.-Germany Alliance
Germany and the United States look to present a united front against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, despite recent strains in the long-standing relationship, says expert William M. Drozdiak.
May 5, 2014 1:03 pm (EST)
- Interview
- To help readers better understand the nuances of foreign policy, CFR staff writers and Consulting Editor Bernard Gwertzman conduct in-depth interviews with a wide range of international experts, as well as newsmakers.
The United States and Germany must find a way to collaborate on issues like trade and the crisis in Ukraine despite "some very serious differences" dividing the long-standing allies, says expert William M. Drozdiak. He says that controversial U.S. surveillance practices will remain a bone of contention between the two nations "for the foreseeable future," but says the Obama administration is keen to keep Germany, Russia's largest European trade partner, in its corner as it campaigns for broader sanctions against the Kremlin.
German chancellor Angela Merkel just made a twenty-four-hour visit to Washington, including several hours at the White House and a long press conference with President Obama. What is the overall state of U.S.-German relations right now?
More on:
There are some very serious differences dividing both sides. But both the Obama administration and the Merkel government realize they have to find a way to work together on a number of these challenging issues. And last Friday's meeting, which lasted about four hours, concentrated on the continuing crisis in Ukraine and the fate of the trans-Atlantic trade talks, which are very important to Merkel, and of course the National Security Agency controversy and whether Germany would receive a no-spying pledge from the United States
On the last point, Obama indicated that they were still talking about that, but that the United States can't make such a pledge to any country.
This is the crux of the problem. The Germans have been seeking for months a promise that U.S. intelligence agencies would not spy on German soil, and the United States said, "Look, we cannot set a precedent by giving you that blanket guarantee because other allies would ask for the same thing, not just in Europe, but also in Asia. And this would create holes in efforts to prevent terrorism and other security threats in the United States." So there is an impasse on this issue, and it will remain a sore point for the foreseeable future.
But of course, the big crisis now is Ukraine. I see in both German and U.S. press that German industry is strongly opposed to major sanctions on Russia.
[There is] no question that Germany, which is the largest trade partner with Russia, would bear the brunt of damage from [further] sanctions. The [Obama] administration is aware of that, and has been very careful to bring Merkel and other Europeans along because it realizes the West needs to present a united front against Russia on any sanctions going forward.
The first two rounds were actually relatively mild. Any further Russian incursions that disrupt the May 25 Ukrainian presidential elections may bring about more severe economic sanctions. Germany feels quite vulnerable in this respect because they have more than six thousand companies involved in trade and investment relationships with Russia. And more than 300,000 jobs in Germany are directly linked to this economic relationship.
Before the Iran sanctions, the Germans had $6 billion in trade with Iran; Russia would be even larger. One concession was that Obama did not mention the oil and gas sector in his press conference. Russia supplies one-third of German energy. Americans hope this will alleviate German concern in this respect.
More on:
Such notable figures as Helmut Schmidt, former chancellor, and others have spoken out on the futility of sanctions and [the need] to keep a dialogue going with Putin. [This is] not to mention former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has business relations in Russia and was in St. Petersburg earlier this week celebrating his seventieth birthday at a party given by Putin and Gazprom. Several German politicians also attended, including from Merkel's party.
I thought Obama was very careful to say that he understood that Russia had a legitimate history of close contact with Ukraine. And it seemed that he was trying to give Putin a wide berth so long as he did not send troops into Ukraine. But it was also crucial for the May 25 elections to go ahead.
From now until May 25, they are trying to send a combination of signals that tough sanctions are looming if Russia does anything overt, and at the same time letting Putin know that there are exit ramps from this crisis. This is particularly important for German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is interested in keeping trade ties alive.
Is Merkel likely to try to serve as an intermediary with Putin to try to head off a crisis that would disrupt the May 25 elections?
She has spoken with Putin regularly, three or four times a week, since the crisis started. Putin himself says Germany should serve as intermediary in brokering a solution. Merkel made it clear Friday that any further incursions or stepped-up efforts by Russia to destabilize the May 25 election will make harsher sectoral sanctions inevitable, though she expressed the hope that this will not come to pass.
Do you think the release of the [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] monitors was the direct result of Merkel's conversation with Putin, or just a coincidence?
It's hard to tell. I saw Merkel in a small group late Friday, and she said she spoke to Putin on the phone about the hostages just before coming to Washington. She said he seemed either unwilling or unable to make any commitments about securing their release, but it is no small coincidence that it happened after she returned to Germany, as he would not want to be seen buckling under pressure from Obama or doing him any favors in advance of his meeting with Merkel.
What's the next step—an EU foreign ministers meeting on May 12? Will sanctions be taken up?
One [step] would be [to consider] what kind of sanctions would be tolerable for all twenty-eight nations to engage in. Some countries get 100 percent of their energy supplies from Russia. Will Europe set up a common natural gas reserve, so that if energy supplies from Russia are cut off, European countries could dip into the reserve fund?
They are backing themselves into a corner. That is why Obama was trying to say that Russia had legitimate interests in its neighbor, and that's why the May 25 elections must take place—so that a legitimate and democratic government can take power in Kiev.