text:
This post has been updated.
Strunk & White, it turns out, were CIA sources. The authors of The Elements of Style, a classic American writing guide, are cited alongside Henry Fowler, Wilson Follett, and Jacques Barzun in the Directorate of Intelligence's Style Manual & Writers Guide for Intelligence Publications, whose eighth edition (from 2011) was quietly posted online (pdf) by the legal nonprofit National Security Counselors a little over a year ago, following a Freedom of Information Act request. (The document first surfaced on social media late last week.) So what role do partisans in the usage wars (pdf) have in a guide produced by an intelligence agency with a hidden hand in many real-life conflicts?
Though the CIA may dissemble as a matter of course, it speaks plainly to policymakers and operations officers—its "customers," in the language of the manual. The foreword begins, "Good intelligence depends in large measure on clear, concise writing. The information CIA gathers and the analysis it produces mean little if we cannot convey them effectively."
As revealed in the manual, the CIA is a prescriptivist scold, a believer in the serial comma, and a champion of "crisp and pungent" language "devoid of jargon." It takes a firm stand against false titles used attributively and urges intelligence writers to lowercase the w in Vietnam war ("undeclared").
Like any style guide, whether it's produced for a magazine or a government agency, this one reflects its authors' environment and biases. The missile-related acronyms ABM, ICBM, IRBM, SAM, SLBM, and SRBM are all deemed well-known enough not to have to spell out. "US imperialism" gets scare quotes. Most jarring are the often bellicose usage examples, which are littered with protests, human rights positions, free enterprise, surface ship deployments, oilfields, and bombs.
For more insight into how the CIA writes—and thinks—Quartz collected some notable entries from the 190-page document:
Keep the language crisp and pungent; prefer the forthright to the pompous and ornate.
Do not stray from the subject; omit the extraneous, no matter how brilliant it may seem or even be.
Favor the active voice and shun streams of polysyllables and prepositional phrases.
Keep sentences and paragraphs short, and vary the structure of both.
Be frugal in the use of adjectives and adverbs; let nouns and verbs show their own power.
regime: has a disparaging connotation and should not be used when referring to democratically elected governments or, generally, to governments friendly to the United States.
tortuous (adj, twisting, devious, highly complex)
torturous (adj, causing torture, cruelly painful)
while: as a conjunction, usually has reference to time. While the President was out of the country, the Army staged a coup. It can, with discretion, also be used in the sense of although or but. While he hated force, he recognized the need for order. Avoid using while in the sense of and.
number of: a phrase that is too imprecise in some contexts. A number of troops were killed. (If you do not know how many, say an unknown number.)
casualties: include persons injured, captured, or missing in action as well as those killed in battle. In formulating casualty statistics, be sure to write "killed or wounded," not "killed and wounded." (See injuries, casualties.)
nonconventional, unconventional: Nonconventional refers to high-tech weaponry short of nuclear explosives. Fuel-air bombs are effective nonconventional weapons. Unconventional means not bound by convention. Shirley Chisholm was an unconventional woman.
war crimes (n)
war-crimes (adj)
lay, lie: Lay means to put, place, or prepare. It always takes a direct object. Both the past tense and the past participle are laid. (The President ordered his aide to lay a wreath at the unknown soldier's tomb. The aide laid the wreath two hours later. Yesterday a wreath was laid by the defense minister.)
affect, effect: Affect as a verb means to influence, to produce an effect upon. (The blow on the head affected John's vision.) Effect, as a verb, means to bring about. (The assailant effected a change in John's vision by striking him on the head.) Effect, as a noun, means result. (The effect of the blow on John's head was blurred vision.)
disinformation, misinformation: Disinformation refers to the deliberate planting of false reports. Misinformation equates in meaning but does not carry the same devious connotation.
celebrity copycatting: can lead one up the garden path because those emulated are not always pure of speech. A venerable newscaster persists in mispronouncing February (without the firstr r sound) and has misled a whole generation. Another Pied Piper of TV is given to saying "one of those who is"—joining many others who are deceived by the one and forget that the plural who is the subject of the verb (see one). The classic copycat phrase, at this point in time, grew out of the Watergate hearings and now is so firmly entrenched that we may never again get people to say at this time, at present, or simply now (see presently).
Capitalize the W in October War or Six-Day War because either term as a whole is a distinguishing coined name, but 1973 Middle East war or 1967 Arab-Israeli war is distinguishing enough without the capital W. Avoid Yom Kippur war, which is slangy. Do not uppercase the w in Korean war, which was "undeclared"; the same logic applies to Vietnam war and Falklands war, and a similar convention (if not logic) to Iran-Iraq war.
die: is something we all do, even writers who relegate world leaders to a sort of Immortality Club with phrasing like the President has taken steps to ensure a peaceful transition if he should die. Reality can be recognized by inserting in office or before the end of his term, or even by saying simply when he dies.
Free World: is at best an imprecise designation. Use only in quoted matter.
Use parentheses to set off a word, phrase, clause, or sentence that is inserted by way of comment or explanation within or after a sentence but that is structurally independent of it. This style guide (unclassified) will be widely disseminated.
This style guide was prepared by the DI[redacted]
[This post was updated at 2:25 p.m. EDT to clarify when the manual was originally uncovered. The document first circulated on social media late last week, but it was posted online in late 2012 or early 2013 on the website of the intelligence-focused legal nonprofit National Security Counselors. The group's executive director, Kel McClanahan, received the document in early 2012 after submitting a FOIA request the previous year.]


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Nothing puts you instantly into vacation mode—even if you're on a business trip—like a refreshing dip in the pool. And when you choose Washington hotels with indoor pools, you never have to worry about the weather outside. Indoor pools are always the perfect temperature, plus you'll feel like you're in your own little world—from getting in your morning workout to relaxing after a day of adventure.
Make a splash at Washington hotels with indoor pools
Whether you're in Washington for a family vacation, a romantic getaway, or a solo trip, your hotel's indoor pool will refresh you after a day of travel. There are a lot of reasons to choose hotels with indoor pools in Washington:
• Convenience: No need to look elsewhere for recreation opportunities when there's an indoor pool at your hotel. Swim laps, practice your dive, or play a game of tag with the family. You're just steps away from the comfort of your room.
• Relaxation: Step into the cool water and feel your stress drift away. Float on your back and let the water dissolve your tension. Why go to the spa when the pool is so inviting?
• Year-round fun: In the pool room, it's always warm and dry. No matter the weather in Washington, you can enjoy swimming any time of year at an indoor pool.
Orbitz Rewards for you
Use Orbitz Rewards when you book your hotel in Washington and you'll start earning points immediately. There are no blackout dates for using your Orbucks, so your savings—just like your favorite hotel's indoor pool—can be enjoyed year-round.
Hotels with an Indoor Pool in Washington
Highest price
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Popular hotels
|Seattle Airport Marriott, La Quinta Inn by Wyndham Lynnwood, Days Inn & Suites by Wyndham Vancouver, Best Western Seattle Airport Hotel, Hotel Thea Tacoma, Ascend Hotel Collection, Red Lion Inn & Suites Vancouver, Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham Hotel & Conference Center, Fairbridge Inn & Suites, Enzian Inn, Best Western Plus Vancouver Mall Dr. Hotel & Suites, Ramada by Wyndham SeaTac Airport, SureStay Hotel by Best Western Ellensburg, Hyatt At Olive 8, BayVue Hotel, Resort and Suites, Comfort Inn Federal Way - Seattle

subset: commoncrawl


text: Hey guys, This winter i will be taking a surf trip to San Juan instead of Rincon, for a family vacation. Having never been there, I've been getting mixed reviews hearing that it the breaks are usually too fare out to paddle, or too sharks, sharp reef, no beach breaks. Any info would be greatly appreciated i've been checking surf line but they don't have as much on SJ as they do Rincon. Thanks, Devin


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Hey, Louisiana folks. Fantastic news. With only a few days left to go, the National Taxpayers Union has endorsed Jeff Landry for U.S. Representative in District 3.
"It'll take a combination of tenacious veterans, recently-tested tax-fighters, and many energetic newcomers to get the nation's finances back on the path to sustainability," said National Taxpayers Union Campaign Fund (NTUCF) President Duane Parde. "Congressman Landry is an elite pro-taxpayer representative who will lead our country to a brighter fiscal future. He is truly a taxpayer ally and has the full support of NTUCF."
The endorsement comes after the Boustany campaign spent months trying to convince voters that Landry wanted to raise sales taxes to 23%. After repeatedly denying, the ultimate backing on the subject of taxing steps in to tell Boustany "No." It is a wonderful thing to see.
This is big and hopefully the news gets out there. If you're in this district, spread the word and get this guy into this seat. Boustany should not be allowed to win.
See this post and others of mine here. Follow me on Twitter: @joec_esquire


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Sunday, January 3, 2010
6 comments:
if you're going to buy a different harrington, at least buy one that's still tailored well and not made out of a lazy washed chino fabric. i'd go merc or ben sherman if you don't feel like shelling out for an repro G9.ReplyDelete
mlp- Can you please link up to said options?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 4, 2010 at 12:44 AM
I scored a Merc Harrington for about the same price (maybe less? I can't remember) off of eBay a while ago and I love it. I definitely don't feel the need for a Baracuta now.ReplyDelete
Newgrass- Merc def. has some sweet options but I am not trying to pay for shipping and deal with exchange rates.ReplyDelete
I'd save your pennies and get a real one. I did find a Ben Sherman/Barracuta Colabo for like $60 tho.ReplyDelete
This blog is insanely old, but I have been tirelessly searching to still find this exact coat. Even had no luck on Ebay. Anyone know where I can possibly get it? ThanksReplyDelete


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Respected analyst firm Gartner is set to recommend that all BlackBerry enterprise customers find alternatives to the struggling vendor's smartphones and enterprise management software over the next six months.
Garner's advice to users comes after BlackBerry today confirmed that it expects to lose $965 million in the second quarter amid slow sales of its Z10 smartphone since its unveiling in March.
On Monday, BlackBerry had announced plans to sell the company to Fairfax Financial Holdings of Toronto for $4.7 billion. That came just days after BlackBerry disclosed plans to lay off some 4,500 of its 12,500 workers.
"Gartner recommends that our [BlackBerry enterprise] clients take no more than six months to consider and implement alternatives to BlackBerry," said Gartner analyst Bill Menezes in an email interview on Friday. "We're emphasizing that all clients should immediately ensure they have backup mobile data management plans and are at least testing alternative devices to BlackBerry."
Menezes said a full Gartner report with three recommended courses of action will be delivered soon to Gartner clients that use BlackBerry Enterprise Service servers and/or BlackBerry smartphones.
Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, who authored the report, could not be reached for comment.
Menezes noted that while he and Gartner are clearly foretelling BlackBerry's demise, "BlackBerry isn't going to disappear overnight and there's probably a six month window to consider and then implement alternatives."
Many large companies, including some U.S. government agencies, have already replaced BlackBerry devices with Apple iPhones and iPads or Android smartphones. The trend toward BlackBerry smartphone alternatives, underway for some four years, has increased steadily in the last year.
Though BlackBerry indicated Friday in its second quarter results an uptick of organizations installing or testing the latest BES 10 servers, analysts have noted a large number of organizations are also abandoning earlier versions of BlackBerry management software.
More than a dozen established software companies now offer alternative Mobile Device Management and Mobile Application Management software and many clients already have one or more such tools installed.
In a statement, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said there is "increasing penetration of BES 10," with more than 25,000 actual or test servers installed, up from 19,000 in July. BlackBerry has devised a way for BES 10 to work with iOS and Android device management, partly as a way to hold onto enterprise customers who have relied on BlackBerry smartphones and BES for years when the company used the software as a gateway to BlackBerry's global, secure network.
BES 10 also doesn't offer all the device management components for Android and iOS devices that it does for its own BlackBerry devices, analysts have noted. Also, despite its reputation for network security, BlackBerry hit a turning point in trust for many users two years ago when much of the BlackBerry network went down for several days on nearly every continent.
Even with the BES deficiencies, most analysts believe BlackBerry's biggest problem was failing to keep up with consumer-grade advances seen on Apple's iPhone and on various Android devices. The Apple and Android device can also be managed with MDM tools at work.
The Z10 first appeared in the U.S. in March, six years after the first iPhone launched.
For all the second quarter, BlackBerry sold just 5.9 million smartphones, the company said Friday. Meanwhile, Apple on Monday reported that 9 million iPhones were sold over just three days after the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C went on sale last Friday.


text:
Scrum Product Owner Certification course (CSPO)
Scrum Product Owner Certification course
On this CSPO course, you will learn the key fundamentals to take that ownership and successfully lead your product initiative.
Trainer Petri Heiramo
The Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) course will help a Product Owner to understand Scrum and the Product Owner role.
- Why to use Agile? When is Scrum the right approach? When should we use some other approach? Can I combine different approaches?
- What am I expected of in the Product Owner role? How do I interact with the Development Team and the ScrumMaster, or with the stakeholders? How do I plan for future? What kind of commitments are safe to make?
- How do those commitments affect the work we do?
- How can I effectively describe the things / features my clients and users want? How much detail is useful, and when?
- How can I get the Development Team's feedback on risks, opportunities, effort and consequences of planned work?
- What techniques can I use to elicit needs and value information from my stakeholders? How do I keep them informed of product progress?
- Product ownership simulation
- Why Agile for project management and business?
- Scrum fundamentals
- Requirements and product backlog
- Release planning
- Elective topics
This is a two-day course intended for product owners, product managers, business analysts, management and executives.
Petri Heiramo has more than 15 years of experience in projects and process improvement in IT business. Agile and Scrum have been the main focus for the last 9 years. In that time, Petri has trained and coached thousands of people, with well over 130 CSM and CSPO courses (with many many other trainings and coaching engagements). Petri has direct experience from small companies to international giants. Petri became the first Finnish Certified Scrum Trainer in 2008.
Full attendance and participation in the course will result in becoming a Certified Scrum Product Owner from the Scrum Alliance. No Exam Required. - See more at Scrum Alliance


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The oldest memory I have is of catching a baseball. Coming from a sports fan, this may sound like treacly, lump-in-your-throat stuff, but it's true. I was three years old. My father was mowing one side of our front lawn, I was standing in the other, and I underhanded a pop fly into the air. It hung up there forever and I got dizzy trying to follow it. When the ball smacked into my hands, I had no idea how I'd caught it.
Thirty-seven years later, I'm sitting on a suede easy chair recreating that moment in MLB 13 The Show. Not necessarily in a good way, either. Don't get me wrong, The Show's latest release still places it in the top echelon of sports gaming. But its improvements are mostly subtle, which is to be expected of an annual sports release near the end of a console life cycle, especially one made by a company that just announced the next piece of hardware. Some of its more overt changes are head-scratching, if not off-putting.
Let's start with Road to the Show, a very popular career mode that indulges your superstar fantasy, and a bulletproof feature every year since its introduction. MLB 13 The Show introduces a new camera perspective for both hitting and fielding, but I'm not sure what it adds to the experience. If you hit or catch a lot of fly balls, prepare to spend a lot of time staring up.
In fielding, you're now following the flight of a fly ball, visually, as you respond to an onscreen icon telling you where to move your player. For high pop flies, even to the warning track, there's almost no way where to judge where you are in the field—that's why there's a warning track, after all, the crunch of clay under your cleats lets you know, hey, you're close to the wall. Not that single-player fielding was a breeze in MLB 12 The Show—taking good routes to corral a shot in the gap is a little easier in MLB 13 thanks to the new onscreen indicator. But in Road to the Show, the new fielding view makes a high fly ball—especially one in which you have to range back—an adventure. This, plus the continued lack of a fielding minigame to acclimate yourself to these responsibilities—your only means of learning is to go out there in a live performance—means your debut month is going to be filled with needless mistakes that a professional ballplayer, of any caliber, simply wouldn't make.
In batting, you will also follow the flight of the ball, with it centered on your screen (unless you hold a shoulder button to keep your eyes on a base coach). Longtime fans know why a ballclub's comp seats are directly behind home plate—they offer the poorest perspective on the flight of the ball. In Denver I'd go to Rockies games and laugh at the minivan crowd from Douglas County sitting behind home, shouting at anything hit in the air. In The Show, I've hit towering flies that I thought for sure were over a fielder's head, only to see one trotting in to pull it down. I've chopped them to the opposite field, expecting to be caught out, and seen the ball sail into the corner or even over the fence—which has its own consequence as effective baserunning always requires thinking a step ahead.
WHY: When the history of the PS3 is written, MLB The Show will be recognized as the console's most consistently excellent title.
MLB 13 The Show
Developer: San Diego Studio
Platforms: PS3, PS Vita (reviewed on PS3)
Release Date: March 5
Type of game: Sports simulation.
What I played: Two rookie campaigns in Road to the Show (pitcher and hitter) and an entire postseason. Four games played online day of release.
My Two Favorite Things
- Hitting is easier, which reduces stress offline, and makes online play much more enjoyable.
- Just a beautiful game, richly illustrating one of the best sports fantasies money can buy.
My Two Least-Favorite Things
- Some changes to Road to the Show presentation seem needless and invasive.
- Despite a new "Beginner" mode, you're still on your own learning essential acts like baserunning (team) and fielding (Road to the Show).
Made-to-Order Back-of-Box Quotes
- "Still the finest in the field."
-Owen Good, Kotaku.com
- "Brings back the terror of tracking down a towering fly ball in Little League."
-Owen Good.
- "This is a game for all America. A game for boys and for men."
-Ernie Harwell.
The new camera view is a mandate of a more personalized focus in Road to the Show, not that last year's was, really, wanting for intimacy. Before the game, the commentary booth will remark specifically on your career, the milestones you reach, and the expectations set before you. (If you miss a promotion to AAA or the majors, they'll bring it up.) RTTS, which for many is the only mode they will play in the game (it is for me), removes the player from the broadcast presentation and depicts him more in the mode of playing the game. In some areas, the execution is fantastic. Your base coach yells situation-specific instructions at you. Infield chatter is authentic to the ball-strike count and number of outs. It's more than window-dressing, it's actionable information.
During a game in MLB 13's Road to the Show, however, the regular broadcast audio is gone. You only hear commentary after the end of a meaningful play. Yes, I know real baseball players don't hear what the guys in the booth are saying as they play. But every 12-year-old who fantasizes about hitting a game winning home run also mimics the radio call as he does so. The inclusion of TV audio—or a camera view of your hit—doesn't shatter immersion. What does is the distracting whoosh noise you get as you either enter or leave your player's head to hear on-field sounds or a deliberately tinny broadcast commentary. In many cases, the audio doesn't kick in soon enough, and is cut off mid-sentence when you return to play. It even slows the game down relative to MLB 12 The Show's RTTS.
If you're a veteran player 10 seasons into an RTTS career under MLB 12 The Show, you already know how to hit in this game, and probably won't feel much of an urge to start all over again in MLB 13 on Day One. That's for a single mode of play, however, and my disappointments in The Show are almost entirely limited to it. There still is palpable improvement in two critical areas elsewhere in the game: Its online play, and in hitting.
Online play has long been a bugaboo for The Show, especially for a game so dependent on timing (or defeating it, as a pitcher). In the online games played I played opening night, I've never had the feeling that my hitting was thrown off by input lag. I doubt The Show rewrote its codebase and hit it perfectly on the first try; it's more likely that opening the hitting window—the time in which you can make effective contact on the ball—helped move online play into a more enjoyable state. The flipside is, playing casually, you're going to see a lot of slugfests. While shooting the bull with a friend, we traded eight-run innings. That said, the huge totals were totally the fault of my lack of attention. The home runs I hit (or surrendered) came in authentic situations, and swinging for the fences on every pitch with Jason Heyward still got me five strikeouts with him in a game.
In offline play, experienced Show players may find themselves bumping hitting difficulty up to All-Star or higher soon into their Franchise or RTTS careers. Hits are very easy to come by at lower difficulties, but that's fine with me. In past iterations of The Show, I played a lot of station-to-station baseball, grateful for any hit or one-run advantage. The opening of the hitting timing window means you don't have to approach every situation with a man on base like it's your last. You can stand in there, be selective, and wait for the pitch you prefer to hit.
There's a new fielding system as well, something called "Button Accuracy" which combines a throwing meter (for accuracy of the throw) with how hard you jam on the button of the base you're going to. It takes some getting used to, and in my first few games I was pulling a lot of guys off the bag with what should be routine throws. Still, Button Accuracy does make the business of scooping out ground balls and turning double plays into more of a deterministic exercise than past versions of The Show (or other baseball games, in general.) It gives worthy attention to fielding, the second-most unloved phase of the game (next to baserunning). But if you don't prefer it, The Show lets you employ older control methods.
That is, somewhat secretly, the greatest strength to this series: The endless customization of the controls and the means that offers to challenge your true strengths (mine is pitching) while minimizing your weaknesses (fielding and baserunning). No other game offers this level of assistance without making you feel like you're cheating or ignoring a critical phase of play. To this, Sony's San Diego Studio added a "Beginner Mode" that I've already sampled, and anyone with more than a year's history on The Show won't need to spend much time with it. It's not so much a tutorial as it is a difficulty (or lack thereof) setting, applicable to any game mode. It only trains you up in pitching and hitting however; this is a game that could seriously use instruction in baserunning and fielding, acts that are taken for granted but mystifying to a newcomer once the ball is in play.
As always, MLB The Show is one of the most beautiful video games—sports or otherwise—period. NBA 2K is a close rival in the genre, but even it has quirks—in the way tank-top jerseys hang, for example—and is a sport played inside an enclosed arena. The Show presents a game principally in outdoor lighting with impeccable quality throughout. There isn't a flat or unnaturally low-contrast surface on any part of the screen, even during a night game. The crowd, one of the atmospheric features everyone loves to bring up when discussing next generation hardware, is alive, interesting and distinct. You really see it in the game's postseason presentation, which you can jump to in a new tournament mode without having to wade or sim through an entire Franchise season. When I ponder how the next console generation could possibly make a game's graphics more stunning, MLB 13 The Show on the PlayStation 3 is the first thing I think of, because Christ almighty, no other sports video game, every year, is this good looking.
Yes, a lot of MLB 13 The Show's quality is banked on the excellence that preceded it. It's no bold leap forward, which should be expected as we come to the close of this console generation. Its peers in the sports genre—FIFA, NHL and NBA 2K—likewise took few risks in their most recent releases. These are the supermodels of sports video gaming: visually stunning, impeccably manicured, desired by the public and envied by their peers, and if they have recognizable flaws or grating annoyances, they're overwhelmed by beauty and sophistication.
But I'm struck by how I can still fall in love every year with a game so dependent on such repetitive acts spread out over a 162-game season. I will always, always love watching the cleanup hitter pivot slightly, check his swing, and see my 1-2 slider drift across the plate like an extinction-level asteroid in a near-earth trajectory. Every sports video game has its moments. In MLB The Show, they are memories.


text:
Before this Stanley Cup Final is over, the Bruins will be our Boys of Summer — on skates. And at this hour they are a feel-good team on a par with the 1967 Red Sox, the 1970 Bruins, and the 2001-02 Patriots.
There was a rainbow over Causeway Street when fans filed into the West End ice palace before Game 3 Monday night. By the end of the evening, Garden legions were thinking about the silver chalice that is the pot of gold in the National Hockey League.
On the latest date an NHL game has ever been played in Boston, the Bruins defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-0, to take a 2-1 series lead in the Cup Final, which resumes Wednesday night at the Garden. If the Bruins win Game 4, they will have a chance to hoist the Stanley Cup on the ice of the United Center in Chicago Saturday night. Call JetBlue and American Airlines ASAP.
OK, that would be getting ahead of ourselves. But it's easy to get swept away by the Black-and-Gold tide washing over New England in the spring/soon-to-be-summer of 2013. The Bruins are the team you love to love.
More than a month ago they were down and out in the third period of that seventh game at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then they staged the greatest Game 7 comeback in Stanley Cup playoff history and they have not looked back. In the words of club president and ultimate Bruin Cam Neely, they have no rearview mirror.
So we are not shocked by the shocking event unfolding in front of our tired, rink-shaped eyes. We saw these Bruins dominate the Rangers in five games. We saw them demolish the heavily favored Penguins in a four-game sweep. Now they have rallied from a stake-through-the-heart, triple-overtime loss in the first game in Chicago. They have won two straight against yet another favored opponent. They have won seven consecutive playoff games at home.
We are a hockey town on the brink of summer. While the talking heads at ESPN drone on about Doc Rivers, we are listening to the dulcet tones of Doc Emrick. While others envy the golden pipes of Chicago's opera-star-turned anthem singer Jim Cornelison, we rally at the sight of Rene Rancourt's triple fist-pump.
Claude Julien is pulling the strings more effectively than Claude Rains in "Casablanca.'' Julien's new line of Daniel Paille, Tyler Seguin, and Chris Kelly is a latter-day incarnation of Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Wayne Cashman. Patrice Bergeron wins every faceoff and the Bruins kill every power play. Jaromir Jagr is skating like a guy with "Take that, Mike Milbury" in the back of his mind. Tuukka Rask is having a better playoff series than Tim Thomas enjoyed two years ago when the Bruins won the Cup in Vancouver in seven games.
A couple of Bruins were asked if they were sensing a closeness to another Cup.
"Yes and no,'' said Seguin. "It gives you even more incentive being two games away, but we need to stay focused. We're just trying to enjoy this one tonight.''
"Absolutely not,'' countered Kelly. "All we've done is put ourselves in a better position. They can say that they are only three games away from winning the Cup. They're a great hockey team.''
The Blackhawks are supposed to be a great hockey team. They won the Cup three years ago and set an NHL record when they came out of the gate without losing any of their first 24 games in regulation. They recovered from a 3-1 series deficit against Detroit. They overwhelmed the defending Stanley Cup champs from Los Angeles. They went 10-1 in their first 11 home playoff games.
But something changed after Chicago dominated the first period of Game 2. The Bruins came out flying in the second period of Game 2 and have crushed the Hawks' spirit over the last five periods. The Blackhawks are taking on the look of the Penguins. They can't believe how hard it is to score against the Bruins. A couple of fights broke out Monday in the closing seconds.
The Bruins are playing better defense than the 2003-04 Patriots. They don't allow good chances. Rask kept them in Game 2 with spectacular work in the first period, and his defenders have made it relatively easy over the last five periods.
"They box you out, they've got big bodies, and they block shots,'' said somewhat frustrated Chicago coach Joel Quenneville.
It is a mistake to think this series is over. We know better. But the Bruins are just two wins away from another Cup and they are playing textbook, almost perfect hockey. They even managed to get it done without overtime in Game 3.
Friday is the first day of summer and the Stanley Cup is within the grasp of the Bruins. Life is good.
Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at email@example.com.


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The origins of the The National K12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation, Inc. derive from a simple set of facts:
The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference is the preeminent ceramic event in the US annually, gathering professionals from universities, colleges, museums, art galleries and the ceramic arts world to a host city to view exhibitions, demonstrations, talks and other ceramic events. For the duration of the conference, the host city is the world capital of ceramics. Also at these conferences are ceramics teachers who work in schools, in grades kindergarten through grade 12 (K12). When these people met at conferences before 1995, they expressed the desire to see the program of activities include K12 interests such as talks, forums, meetings, and a K12 exhibition. The pace of inclusion was felt to be too slow and the teachers began to take things into their own hands.
In 1998 Leah Schlief, from Ursuline Academy in Dallas Texas, who had been part of the national K-12 ceramic teachers groups for years of NCECA conferences, took the initiative to start the K-12 exhibition. Her first steps were so validating for other professional clay educators, keeping it alive became a necessity for the K12 ceramic community. Her hard work, dedication, persistence and perseverance were remarkable. But as one person trying to pull so much together, it was clear to the K12 teachers that help was needed. Recognizing these facts, Dr. Bob Feder, of Bridgewater-Raritan High School in Bridgewater, NJ, began to organize a cohesive group of corporations and individual teachers to fund and support the exhibition. He first enlisted the aid of an amazing teacher, Lee Burningham of Box Elder High School in Utah, and they began to raise funds and create a body of commitments upon which an organization could be built. The goal was to create a structure that would outlive the founders and guarantee the survival of the exhibition as the original people aged and passed down the leadership to younger people.
At the NCECA conference in Charlotte in 2001, Bob approached Jim Skutt of Skutt Ceramics to ask if he had seen the exhibition. He had seen it and was complementary with his response. He faced a simple request, "How about giving us $1,000 a year forever." When Jim Skutt said, "OK", the foundation had the beginning of an annual budget. With his guidance, Bob approached a series of people and by the end of the conference, he and Lee had lined up enough people to insure the exhibition would stay alive for a while. Jim Skutt helped us find other Founding Members: Russ Fish and Ben and Lee Powell from Clayworld; Richard Arnfeld from Spectrum Glazes; Kenton Oakes from Creative Industries; and Rick MacPherson from Aardvark Clay and Supplies. Since then Lenny Larson of Ceramic Systems and Wendy Rosen of The Rosen Group and American Style Magazine have joined their ranks. The consistent support of these Founding Members has given The Foundation the ability to plan and make commitments to insure the survival of the exhibition. Without their support we would not exist today and would never have been able to grow toward achieving our scholarship and educational goals.
After the Charlotte conference, Bob approached Ned Cohn of Cohn, Bracaglia and Gropper of Somerville, NJ for help with creating a non-profit corporation. Papers were drawn up and the following year in Kansas City, the new board incorporated. The original board members included: Bob Feder; Leah Schlief; Lee Burningham; Steven Branfman of Newton, MA; Clay Sewell from Aurora, IL; Paula Sibrack Marian, of Sherman, CT; and Kevin Tunstall of Dayton, OH. Shortly thereafter, Kenton Oakes of Creative Industries joined the board as secretary and a year later became secretary-treasurer. The board added Professors Jim Connell of Winthrop University, Judith Schwartz of NYU, and Billie Sessions of California State University at San Bernardino, and teachers Barbara Beasley of Clovis West High School in California and Francis Johnson of Barnstable High School in Massachusetts. John Williams, of Trinity Ceramics in Dallas, Texas, an original supporter of the exhibition, came on to the board in 2003.
Three simple goals frame the foundation today:


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The Sciences
Science, Quickly
Tiny Animal Achieves Sex-Free Biodiversity
Despite reproducing by parthenogensis, bdelloid rotifers have found a way to evolve into various distinct species.
Bdelloid rotifiers are microscopic animals that live in birdbaths, rivers and on mosses. They've been around for at least 40 million years. Which is particularly amazing, because they've never had sex. No, they didn't all take a vow of celibacy. It turns out the rotifers are all female. They multiply by parthenogenesis—from unfertilized eggs. That feat is not that unusual in nature. But the fact that the little critters have evolved into quite distinct species is. Scientists at Imperial College in London used DNA analysis and a scanning electron microscope to find that the rotifers have adapted to minute differences in environment, even though they reproduce from only one parent. For example, two species of rotifer that live around different parts of the water louse have different jaw shapes and body sizes. That's important because it was long thought that sexual reproduction was necessary for such diversity to evolve, and for a species to thrive. But with 40 million years under their chastity belts, and counting, the rotifers seem to have found the road to success without sex.


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History of Syria's war at risk as YouTube reins in content
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's civil war has been one of the modern world's most brutal conflicts and one of its most heavily filmed. Hundreds of thousands of amateur videos uploaded to YouTube document every heartbeat of the war over the past seven years, from momentous events like cities under bombardment to intimate scenes like a father cradling his dead children.
Syrian activists fear all that history could be erased as YouTube moves to rein in violent content. In the past few months, the online video giant has implemented new policies to remove material considered graphic or supporting terrorism, and hundreds of thousands of videos from the conflict suddenly disappeared without notice. Activists say crucial evidence of human rights violations risks being lost — as well as an outlet to the world that is crucial for them.
Activists are rushing to set up alternative archives, but they also recognize nothing can replace YouTube because of its technological infrastructure and global reach.
"It is like we are writing our memories — not in our own book but in a third party's book. We don't have control of it," said Hadi al-Khatib, co-founder of the Syrian Archive , a group founded in 2014 to preserve open source evidence of crimes committed by all sides of the Syrian conflict.
Based on his database and review of around 900 groups and individuals, al-Khatib said some 180 channels connected to Syria were shut since June, when YouTube began using machine learning protocols to sift through videos on the site for objectionable content.
Working with YouTube, al-Khatib's group secured the return of about 20 channels, salvaging about 400,000 videos. But about 150,000 videos remain in jeopardy, pending a decision from YouTube, which is still reviewing whether to reinstate them, he said.
"Nothing is lost forever yet," al-Khatib said, speaking from Berlin. "But this is very dangerous, because there is no alternative for YouTube."
YouTube, which is owned by Google, says it will correct any videos improperly taken down and that it is in dialogue with the activists on a solution. But many activists fear a repeat or a permanent loss. The shutdowns were chilling for a community that had just celebrated a possible precedent for Syria when the International Criminal Court in August issued an arrest warrant based on video evidence for a Libyan military commander.
One prominent Syrian human rights group, the Video and Documentation Center in Syria, said it will stop using YouTube and will set up its own storage and platform. "The risk became very big now and we don't trust this platform anymore for keeping violations evidence," Husam AlKatlaby, VDC executive director, said in an email.
VDC, registered in Switzerland, has specialized in documenting rights violations since 2011. The group limited access to its YouTube channel since 2014, making it a closed channel, after the company warned it over graphic content.
But not everyone can afford to go on their own. Also, YouTube provides activists with personal accounts for free and technological tools to edit, translate and upload anytime — vital for people taking video out in the field in dangerous circumstances.
Activists used YouTube first to report on the peaceful protests that erupted in 2011 against the rule of President Bashar Assad, using videos taken on mobile phones. As the conflict got bloody, so did the videos, catching the aftermath of chemical attacks, spectacular aerial bombings, rescuers pulling children from rubble, and new strikes hitting rescuers and survivors. Militant groups uploaded videos of beheadings. Government supporters uploaded their own imagery and propaganda.
Often, the images were the only thing to grab the world's attention in an intractable conflict. A video last year that was viewed more than 4.3 million times showed a child covered in blood and dust after surviving an airstrike in Aleppo, as government forces advanced to recapture the city.
YouTube previously relied in part on a system of community flagging of content deemed inappropriate.
In the Syrian context, that often turned political. Supporters and opponents of the Syrian government have waged digital wars reporting each other's channels or videos, prompting YouTube to close some. Many videos were lost, including footage of a 2013 chemical attack in a Damascus suburb.
Under pressure in Europe and the West to do more to rein in extremist content, YouTube introduced a number of new measures, including machine learning, which trains itself to recognize patterns in enormous numbers of videos. It identifies "objectionable" material, which is then reviewed by human experts to determine if it should be taken down.
A YouTube spokesperson said the machine learning can remove "a lot of content at a scale."
"The vast majority of time our reviewers get it right. And when we make mistakes, we act quickly to correct them," the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with company regulations.
The spokesperson said activists need to improve their data when uploading videos, properly identify them as documenting rights violations and provide context. Meanwhile, the machine learning is being tweaked.
Robin Gross, the executive director of the San Francisco-based IP Justice, an organization that promotes internet freedom, said powerful images, even if bloody, can change the minds of the public, as they did in the U.S. war in Vietnam.
"Machine learning software doesn't evaluate the importance of understanding conflict and how an image, even a graphic one, can contribute to better understanding of a situation, which is necessary for addressing it," Gross said in an email.
The closures' suddenness and breadth stunned those documenting the conflict. Many opposition activists already feel the international scene is turning against them as the Syrian government and its allies make major battlefield gains. Some were convinced the YouTube shutdowns were because of political pressure.
"There are attempts to finish off the conflict in Syria by any means, including having no coverage or a total blackout on the media by the Syrian opposition," said Tala Kharrat, English department manager for Qasioun News Agency, whose channel was among those shut down and subsequently reopened on appeal.
Another prominent news platform, the Shaam News Network, has nearly 400,000 videos on its YouTube channel, viewed some 90 million times. In July, its operators found a message saying their channel no longer exists.
Mizyan Altawil, spokesman for SNN, said his network is no stranger to scrutiny of its content, but this time the shutdown was different, with no prior warning. Even more confusing, the channel was reinstated, only to be closed again, then reopened. "We are constantly on the alert," Altawil said.
The Syrian Archive reached out to activists and media groups affected by the removal and contacted YouTube to restore them. With a team of six and a budget of $96,000, the Archive is also downloading videos to its own server, an expensive and labor-intensive endeavor. The group is partially funded by Google through its Digital News Initiative.
Al-Khatib said the group knew the issue will come up one day, given concerns over proliferation of violent content, and that it was always a "grey area" how long YouTube would handle graphic material.
But the best evidence for war crimes can come from videos showing violence, even ones uploaded by the perpetrators with the intent to terrorize, like an execution video. Sometimes such videos identify and show the faces of militants.
"If they take it down, there will be no graphic content but there will be no evidence."
Follow Sarah El Deeb on Twitter at www.twitter.com/seldeeb


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Rapunzel ( Read it Yourself with Ladybird Level 3)
The classic fairy tale. Rapunzel is stolen from her parents by a witch and forced to live in a tower. Every day, the witch climbs up Rapunzel's hair into the tower. Then one day, a prince rides by...
Read it yourself with Ladybird is one of Ladybird's best-selling series. For over thirty-five years it has helped young children who are learning to read develop and improve their reading skills.
Each Read it yourself book is very carefully written to include many key, high-frequency words that are vital for learning to read, as well as a limited number of story words that are introduced and practised throughout. Simple sentences and frequently repeated words help to build the confidence of beginner readers and the four different levels of books support children all the way from very first reading practice through to independent, fluent reading.
The wide range of classic fairy tales, favourite characters and exciting modern stories in the Read it yourself series appeal to all children, whatever their interests, and have bright, detailed pictures to help support the text. Each book has been carefully checked by educational consultants and can be read independently at home or used in a guided reading session at school.
Further content includes comprehension puzzles, helpful notes for parents, carers and teachers, and book band information for use in schools.
Rapunzel is a Level 3 Read it yourself title, suitable for children who are developing reading confidence and stamina, and are eager to start reading longer stories with a wider vocabulary.
Product details
- Publisher : Ladybird (4 July 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 48 pages
- Reading age : 4 - 7 years
- Dimensions : 15.24 x 0.38 x 22.86 cm


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The "Other" Summer Greens
We're teaming up with other food and garden bloggers to host Summer Fest 2010, a season-long garden party. Each week we'll feature favorite garden-to-table recipes and tips to help you enjoy the bounty, whether you're harvesting your own goodies or buying them fresh from the market. To join in, check out awaytogarden.com.
I sometimes forget about summer greens until I run into a beautiful, compelling pile of chard or mustard greens at the farmers' market. For my next impromptu purchase, I've tapped into the expertise of Alton, Giada and the Food Network Kitchens. I might even head out to buy greens on purpose now, with these three winning recipes (plus Alton's cool washing method!) at my fingertips.
Swiss Chard Lasagna from the Food Network Magazine
Swiss chard is the star of this easy vegetarian main, but there's just enough heavy cream and cheese to swing it out of the health food realm and into the comfort food category. Both a pro and a con in my opinion, but it looks too tasty to resist.
With cheese, mushrooms, garlic and a buttery cracker crust Alton turns mustard greens into an irresistible side. And if you happen to have beet greens on hand, don't miss his beet green version.
Giada has a never-ending string of amazing pasta dishes, and here she works her magic with mustard greens, Swiss chard and spinach. It looks like a quick, healthy dinner option or even a side dish for a cookout crowd.
How to Clean Greens: Alton uses his washing machine!
More Greens, Beans and Herbs with Friends and Family:
- The Best Bean Salads and a French Take on Greens, Beans and Herbs from the Cooking Channel
- Top 6 Herbs from Healthy Eats
- Leftover Herb Solution (Pesto!) from Alison at Food2
- White on Rice Couple Todd and Diane use fresh mint to make homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream.
- Nicole at Pinch My Salt features Green Beans with Balsamic Browned Butter.
- Margaret at A Way to Garden stores a year of herbs-and makes one-pot Farinata a polenta dish with greens.
- Food Network UK is on the edge with herbs and greens.
- Caroline at the Wright Recipes is cooking up Wax and Butter Bean Herbed Salad.
- Jennifer and Mark at Gilded Fork have a virtual garden of recipes for basil, cilantro, fennel, lavender, lemongrass, rosemary, sage and tarragon, including Lavender Pound Cake and Rosemary & Honey-Roasted Pears.
- Shauna and Danny at Gluten Free Girl and the Chef are growing fava beans.
- Tigress in a Jam has a preserving-book giveaway, and ways to put up greens, beans, herbs.
- Caron at San Diego Foodstuff talks about Kale and Feta Empanadas and roasted Romano beans.
- Alana at Eating From the Ground Up has shirred eggs with fresh herbs: the affinity between eggs and herbs.
- Cate O'Malley at Sweetnicks makes a fresh green bean salad.
- Kelly at Just a Taste makes fresh herb ricotta.
- Tara at Tea and Cookies whips up a Clean Out the Fridge Frittata.
- Judy at Tuscan Diva makes an Italian herb blend.
- Paige at The Sister Project has "Aloha, Pesto"
Past Summer Fest Picks: FN Chefs' Creamed Corn-Off and Paula's Best Zucchini Bread.


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The entire Eastern Front in your pocket!
Play either the German side or the Soviet side in the grand campaign 1941-1945 or in one of the smaller scenarios. Play with corps (German) and army (Soviet) sized units and 1 month turns. Features include: mud and winter seasons, production, partisans, raw materials, oil, diverse landscapes and challenging AIs that can be set to multiple difficulty levels.
Hesitating to buy? Check out the free demo version of the previous Small General game first.


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Greg Veis: You Tube Hunter Explores...Humor
By BY
Listen, life is short and if you, like me, work next to a skyscraper being put up by drunkards it could be shorter. That's why we have to relish in a little light-hearted fun from time to time, eg. going to the beach or eating popcorn with our toes or seeing a Dave Barry column in your paper, refusing to read it, and then ritualistically burning it using your mother's nail polish remover as igniter fluid. There's really no limit to what we can do if we try, and this clip, reinforcing the week's theme of bonhomie and good cheer, is evidence [beware: bad language]:
And so is this video, created by the unlikely—and largely unfunny--internet sensation Liam Sullivan:
Here's the first clip that comes up when you type "funny" into YouTube's search. And here's the first thing you need to know about it: unless you're a 37 year-old divorcee or the type of person who really loves Family Circus, you are not going to find it the slightest bit funny:
If human misery is more your speed, these two should do the trick:
[Hat tip to reader DDW for those two clips, and for the hole in my heart that festers more with each moment we're apart.]
[Actually, reader DDW is just my roommate. Pretty good guy. I'll probably see him when I get home from work tonight.]
And, finally, a wonderful bit of collegiate humor from Dartmouth. This might be one of the best stunts ever perpetrated on a college campus. Three cheers for these guys. Honestly.


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Darrell Issa slams IRS watchdog
IRS inspector general J. Russell George is one of the few people to emerge from the agency's scandal looking good thanks to his just-the-facts report on the controversial practice of targeting conservative groups.
Until now.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa slammed George on Wednesday for not alerting Congress to the targeting of conservative groups earlier. It's the toughest swing anyone has taken at George over the course of three congressional hearings probing the IRS scandal.
"Despite numerous requests from the committee for information and updates, including an Aug. 3 letter, the request for the inspector general to inform Congress about serious problem … the inspector general failed to do that," the California Republican said at the hearing today.
( PHOTOS: IRS hearing on Capitol Hill)
Issa called his failure to inform lawmakers the "greatest failing of an otherwise well regarded inspector" and implied that he didn't live up to what is expected of such watchdogs in the law.
"You have a responsibility to keep us continually, and according to statue, equally informed," Issa said. "In this case, it appears you did not. Would you agree with that?"
"No actually," George answered, explaining that he should not brief Congress until all the information had been analyzed and a solid, correct conclusion has been made. "There are established procedures for conducting an audit. … It would be impractical to give you partial information which might not be accurate. It would be counterproductive, sir, if we were to do that."
But Issa said, "That is not the statute."
( PHOTOS: 10 slams on the IRS)
Issa is referring to part of the Inspector General Act that requires watchdogs to report serious problems to Congress through the head of an agency within seven days. It's known as the "seven-day rule" — but it's often used sparingly.
The Oversight Committee asked the inspector general about conservative group targeting a number of times, and Issa read some of the emails in the hearing Wednesday.
George also raised concerns that incremental information provided to lawmakers would ultimately leak to the public.
"That is not fair to the people we are investigating," George said.
( Also on POLITICO: Witnesses gone wild)
Issa responded that the White House is the source of plenty of leaks as well.
Meanwhile, Rep. Stephen Lynch warned IRS officials that a special prosecutor might be named if the IRS keeps "stonewalling" investigations.
"There will be hell to pay," he said.
Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.


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40th ANNIVERSARY OF GAUDIUM ET SPES
St Peter's Basilica
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In our Gospel today, we sense the increasing tension between Christ and his opponents, a tension which is progressing, almost inevitably, to the events which lie at the centre of our faith: the great Mysteries of the Lord's passion, death and Resurrection, which are now almost upon us.
In the Gospel, Jesus is confronted by his opponents; they are seeking to put him to death in spite of the good works which he has done - works of mercy, compassion and love. They answer him: "We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God" (Jn 10: 23).
Jesus' adversaries cannot deny the good works they have seen, but what they can deny is that these good works point to something more, to something beyond the works themselves.
His adversaries are enraged, not because Christ has healed the blind, but because he has said that these works of mercy point to his unique relationship to the Father: "The Father is in me and I am in the Father" (Jn 10: 38).
Jesus is continually inviting his hearers to believe this truth of his identity, and to become, in him, capable of worshipping the Father "in spirit and truth" (cf. Jn 4: 23). But they reject the significance of what they have seen and heard; they remain on the level of human judging and human justice, and they invoke the law that requires that blasphemy be punished by stoning. The stones in their hands reflect the hardness and the limitations of merely human judgment.
It is a joy for me to celebrate this Mass for you as part of your conference on the "Call to Justice", the legacy of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 40 years after its promulgation. In a certain sense, our Gospel today, which brings us to the very threshold of Holy Week, is providentially structured as a meditation on the problem which Gaudium et Spes sought to address: that is, the significance of the Christian contribution to the improvement of human welfare, through works of mercy and justice, within the overall mission of the Church.
The fact that your conference has chosen the theme of "The call to justice" is very appropriate.
We should not be surprised if the attitudes toward Jesus that we find in the Gospel continue today in attitudes toward his Church.
It is certainly true that today, when the Church commits herself to works of justice on a human level (and there are few institutions in the world which accomplish what the Catholic Church accomplishes for the poor and disadvantaged), the world praises the Church.
But when the Church's work for justice touches on issues and problems which the world no longer sees as bound up with human dignity, like protecting the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death, or when the Church confesses that justice also includes our responsibilities toward God himself, then the world not infrequently reaches for the stones mentioned in our Gospel today.
As Christians we must constantly be reminded that the call of justice is not something which can be reduced to the categories of this world. And this is the beauty of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, evident in the very structure of the Council's text; only when we Christians grasp our vocation, as having been created in the image of God and believing that "the form of this world is passing away... [and] that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth, in which justice dwells" (Gaudium et Spes n. 39), can we address the urgent social problems of our time from a truly Christian perspective.
"Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectation of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, prefiguring in some way the world that is to come" (ibid., n. 39).
And so, to be workers of this true justice, we must be workers who are being made just by contact with him who is justice itself: Jesus of Nazareth. The place of this encounter is the Church, nowhere more powerfully present than in her sacraments and liturgy. The celebration of the Holy Triduum, which we will enter into next week, is the triumph of God's justice over human judgments.
In the mystery of Good Friday, God is judged by man and condemned by human justice.
In the Easter Vigil, the light of God's justice banishes the darkness of sin and death; the stone at the tomb (made of the same material as the stones in the hands of those who, in today's Gospel, seek to kill Christ) is pushed away for ever, and human life is given a future which, in going beyond the categories of this world, reveals the true meaning and the true value of earthly realities.
And we who have been baptized, as children of a world which is still to come, in the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, catch a glimpse of that world and breathe the atmosphere of that world, where God's justice will dwell for ever.
And then, renewed and transformed by the Mysteries we celebrate, we can walk in this world justly, living - as the Preface for Lent says so beautifully - "in this passing world with our heart set on the world that will never end" (Preface for Lent II).


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The CSP Lab. (Communications & Signal Processing Laboratory) was established on 2011. It includes the knowledge of the Image Analysis Processing & Protection (IAPP) group and Signal Processing & Wireless Communications (SPWC) group.
The research activity of the Laboratory carried out by this group involves the analysis, the processing and the protection of multimedia signals, focusing on images and video sequences, Digital Signal Processing, Wireless Communications (WLAN, Mobile and Satellite)and Telecommunication Networking, for projects founded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR), by the European Union (EU), by national and international public research institutions (CNR, ESA, ASI, etc.) and by privately-owned companies.
The IAPP group and SPWC group are also involved in the teaching activities of the Faculty of Engineering, with several courses held in the framework of the Laurea degrees on: Informatic Engineering, Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering, Information Engineering.


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In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
Términos y frases comunes
altho ART KASSEL artists Ballerina Best Selling Best-Selling Billboard Billboard Juke Billy Eckstine Capitol Chicago coin machine coin-operated Columbia Cunliffe Decca disk jockey distrib distribution distributors equipment erated Four Leaf Clover Frankie FREDDY MARTIN HOLLYWOOD Honor Roll Hood's Barn restaurants January 24 JAYE PACE juke box operator Juke Box Records keep location owners Love manufacturers MARION CARUSO merchandising Mercury MERLE TRAVIS Most-Played Juke Box music business music industry music machine music operator NICK DE FRANCES operating firm Orchestra Passing Fancy patrons pattern Petrillo phonograph Picks POLKA Pop Retail Records popularity problem public location radio RCA Victor RCA Vktor recording ban Records Most Played releases Robin Hood's Barn Rock-Ola Roll of Hits route Russ Morgan Selling Pop Retail servicemen song spots tavern tele telecasts television thru Trio tunes Uost Played Vaughn Monroe Vocal wall box week York


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Jut Cabinet 3,849 usd
Designed by Thomas Jenkins
A modern cabinet for the living room and hallway. The long, round legs are positioned at the outer corners while the smart brass-handles on the cabinet doors are aligned with the tabletop. The left room is empty while the rooms on the mid and right are each divided by a removable shelf. The tabletop comes in either oak or marble – both materials known for their beautifully vivid structures.
- Details
Marble / Green
Oiled Oak
FSC Mix
LxWxH: 49.61x15.35x26.77 in
Item no. 1090104
PackagingWxDxH: 51.18x17.72x31.5 in
Weight: 128.42 lb
- Material & product care
Proper usage and maintenance
Proper usage and maintenance is vital for getting the most out of the valuable resources we have. Our designs are made to last for generations, but just like everything else, they need a little care to get there.
Green Marble
Marble is a natural rock and one of the worlds oldest building materials. This noble and durable stone is formed over millions of years from heat and pressure, therefore each slab will turn out as a unique art piece made by nature itself. Your new product includes green marble with the full name Verde Guatemala, it's processed in Italy but has its origin in India.
Start by wiping off the surface with a dry, soft cloth to remove any dirt. For a regular cleaning, all you need is hot water and a soft sponge or cloth. For a deeper cleaning, apply a suitable, acid-neutral marble cleaner. Buff dry with a cotton cloth or chamois leather.
Note: Wipe up spills immediately. Marble is a porous material and will etch if in contact with acidic substances such as citrus, wine, coffee and vinegars. Therefore you should never use acidic or abrasive cleaners.
Spot removal
Remove stubborn stains with a poultice paste.
1) Mix baking soda and water into a thick paste.
2) Apply it to the stained area, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it for 12-24 hours.
3) Then remove the plastic wrap and wipe off the poultice with a damp cloth.
4) The process might have to be repeated for a perfect result.
You can help protecting the surface from stains and etching by sealing the marble top once or twice a year with a suitable marble sealer or simply mix soap flakes with water and apply the foam on the table top for 5 minutes. Dry off with a damp cloth.
Oil Treated Oak
Oak with the botanical name Quercus spp. grows in most temperate zones. Skagerak oak comes from European forests.
Oak is a sturdy and hardwearing type of wood. Furthermore, the Skagerak oak is FSC 100 % certified or FSC Mix certified. The selection of the wood is extremely careful and all processing is done by hand, so that only the best and most durable pieces of wood are used in production. Oak contains tannins which reduces bacterial growth in the wood.
Cleaning and Maintenance
Your new product comes with an oil treatment. For daily cleaning, use a damp cloth. Spills are to be removed immediately to minimize risk of spots. The product is treated with an oil treatment that treats and seals the surface to make the best possible protection along with the valued aesthetical qualities of an oil treatment. Be sure to wipe over with a dry cloth after cleaning and leave no water to dry on the oiled surface.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, popular for its superb malleability, hardness, corrosion resistance and attractive appearance.
Cleaning and Maintenance
Brass will tarnish over time, especially if it is not kept dry. Find a suitable brass polish and clean the brass carefully without staining other materials.
Since brass can be quite susceptible to tarnish, small spots might already have occurred on the product when unpacking. These can easily be polished off.


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Leslie F. Seidman Reappointed to Financial Accounting Standards Board
Norwalk, CT, March 6, 2006—The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) today announced that the FAF Board of Trustees has approved the reappointment of Leslie F. Seidman to a five-year term as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
Ms. Seidman was initially appointed to the FASB in 2003. Prior to joining the Board, she managed a financial reporting consulting firm that served global corporations and other concerns. A certified public accountant, Ms. Seidman also served the FASB in various capacities in the late 1990s as an Industry Fellow, Project Manager and as Assistant Director of Research.
From 1987 to 1996 she held executive positions at J.P Morgan & Company, including serving as that firm's Vice President, Accounting Policy.
"We are delighted with the reappointment of Leslie Seidman to the FASB," said Robert E. Denham, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Foundation. "Leslie's tremendous background and expertise have been significant contributors to the Board as it tackles complex issues intended to improve financial reporting, including fair value measurement, financial instruments, pensions, and many others."
Ms. Seidman started her career in accounting at Arthur Young & Company in New York, after graduating from Colgate University with a B.A degree in English. She later earned an M.S. degree in Accounting from New York University.
Robert J. DeSantis, President and Chief Operating Officer of the FAF noted that Ms. Seidman's new term will become effective on July 1, 2006 and run through June 30, 2011.
About the Financial Accounting Foundation
The Financial Accounting Foundation is responsible for overseeing, administering, and funding the FASB and the GASB and selecting its members. For more information on the organizations it oversees, visit the Foundation's websites at www.fasb.org and www.gasb.org.
About the Financial Accounting Standards Board
Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has been the designated organization in the private sector for establishing standards of financial accounting and reporting. Those standards govern the preparation of financial reports and are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Such standards are essential to the efficient functioning of the economy because investors, creditors, auditors, and others rely on credible, transparent and comparable financial information. For more information about the FASB, visit our website at www.fasb.org.


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I am very excited to host this month's edition of Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free. This is the monthly blog event created by Naomi Devlin from Straight Into Bed, Cake Free and Dried. Each month a new blog hosts with a different theme. August 2011 will be hosted by Shirley of Gluten Free Easily with just the sort of thing you want when the heat of August hits – Dishes So Simple, No Recipe Required! Check out the whole schedule through May 2012.
I'm not sure if you have heard about the amazing things that happened at my alma-mater Hogwarts but I must share. It was an amazing event and I was even part of what happened. For me it all started when I went to the market one day. I was in the produce aisle and someone bumped into me except there was no one there. I had a sneaking suspicion who it might be so I made sure whoever it was couldn't get past me. Then I whispered, Harry, is that you under the invisibility cloak. A soft whisper came back, no it's Hermonie but please don't say anything. I assured her I wouldn't and offered to make them a meal and hide them for the day.
See everyone knew she, Ron and Harry were on the run. Some of us had an idea it was something that Professor Dumbledore had left them to do after his death. The poor kids were famished. I guess it's hard to live off of whatever mushrooms or berries you find along the way. I was just putting the final touches on a lemon white bean cake with pistachio lemon topping that is As Good As Gluten according to my friend Lauren. They sat down and devoured almost the whole cake plus being a Gluten-Free Homemaker like Linda, I had a fruit pizza on hand too.
They shared with me that they were in deed on a special mission but they couldn't tell me anything more. They couldn't stay long so I didn't get to make them any of my favorites from A Gluten Free Hogwarts. But with City Life Eats I was able to share with them some raspberry chocolate pudding that Valerie created.
I really wanted to help them in any way I could and the only thing I could think of was getting them food. They never knew where they were going to apparate to next or if they would get food. They were running from You Know Who. I had to figure it out so how to get around this Daily Dietribe. So I sat down with some fruit and herb salad and summoned my inner wisdom, Iris.
Finally, a solution came to me. I arranged to have some treats available to them whenever they could summon them. It took a special kind of magic to send it to them since the Floo Network was being monitored and so was any portkey I could whip up. Hanging out with the houseelf Doby I learned a few tricks about food appearing out of nowhere. He was a very kind house elf.
So I got busy baking and making treats. I had KateAlice Cookbook's recipe for apple blueberry millet crumble. Something they could heat up on the fire if they wanted. And then for more Daily Bites I made raspberry brownie bites. I sure hoped they were getting all of these treats including a Tasty Eats From Home of healthy chocolate zucchini muffins. Hallie and Alta thought they could carry some with them in Hermonie's bag. She seemed to be able to fit all sorts of things in this tiny bag of hers.
That's all I ended up sending before I heard they were captured by snatchers and taken to the Malfoy manor. Somehow they escaped and headed to Shell Cottage where Ron's brother and sister-in-law lived, Bill and Fleur. I was happy there were finally somewhere safe and where they could get a good home cooked meal.
Fleur is a wonderful cook. I heard She Let Them Eat Cake every meal and made a decadent chocolate sauce for ice cream too. My friend Maggie would have loved that. Well of course they liked that And Love It Too when she made them molten lava cakes. Wouldn't that make your day Sunny!
There is one thing that Fleur is great at is Faking it Gluten Free Style. Every morning they woke to spiced peach cupcakes. Well you know, muffins and cupcakes are really the same thing says Terri. I heard she even bewitched egg cakes baked in eggshells which she served with Z's Cup of Tea.
They had to stay at the cottage for some time while they worked on something. I come to find out it was a plan to brake into Gringots the wizarding bank. They say it's the safest place and no one has ever stole anything from there. So once again they were off and without food. I'm not sure why they didn't take any of the coconut chocolate cookies from the RA Vegan or the carrot cake that was Gluten Free, SCD and Veggie.
Well believe it of not they did manage to break into the bank and get out safely. Then for some reason they headed off to Hogsmead, the village near Hogwarts. They almost got caught too. Thankfully Aberforth, Professor Dumbeldores brother, helped them to safety and fed them some ginger cake with lemon cashew frosting after he got rid of the Fox in The Kitchen.
Well the next thing you know they are running around Hogwarts and there are not just a few death eaters or snatchers after them but hundreds. All of their friends were there to help Harry, Ron and Hermonie along with those in the Order of the Phoenix plus the teachers of Hogwarts. Molly Weasly fought fiercely to protect her daughter and even I showed up to see if I could help.
The battles took place all over Hogwarts and the grounds. The fighting was fierce and people were dying. It's just too sad to tell you all the people we loved that lost their lives fighting. But they never gave up and they never handed over Harry to Voldemort.
The castle was mostly in ruins or on fire and you should have seen the explosions. At one point we all thought Harry was dead and Voldemort wanted everyone to just join him. Can you imagine. Well you know how it ended.
With the battle finally over, everyone gathered in the great hall. We had warm drinks and the house elves brought us all some treats. First I had raw cashew cheesecake as I listened to the Adventures of Pip. I was Gluten Free and Loving It eating orange sherbet with Rogene and we were living gluten free easily with the watermelon sherbet and a bonus milk shake from Shirley while Adrienne felt like a Whole New Mom eating chocolate almond chip coconut milk ice cream.
It's 19 years later now and life has moved on but not a day goes by that I don't think about Harry, Ron and Hermonie and everything that happend. How brave, clever and quick on their feet they were. I will always treasure the time I spent with them throughout the many years. They are filled with many wonderful memories. It's sad that part is all over but it's good to know that "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home." shared J.K. Rowling at the London Premier. Thank you Jo.
My biggest thrill was getting to go to the NYC premier and be just feet away from the stars of this movie. If you missed my story click here.


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NASHVILLE (REUTERS)- A 40-foot sinkhole opened up under the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky and swallowed eight collector cars, including the historic 1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette, the museum said on Wednesday.
No injuries were reported, but a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and a 2009 ZR1 "Blue Devil" on loan from General Motors Co were among the iconic cars piled up in the gaping pit.
"It seems almost Biblical in a way, to have the ground open up and swallow the cream of the collection of the museum," said Corvette historian Jerry Burton. "What are the odds?" Alarms went off early Wednesday morning in the "Skydome"area and museum security officers who rushed to the scene discovered the sinkhole, 25 to 30 feet deep.
The Bowling Green Fire Department estimated its width at 40 feet.
In addition to the White 1 Millionth Corvette, a 1962 Black Corvette, a 1984 PPG Pace Car, a 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette, a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette and a 2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette were among the damaged cars owned by the museum.
Burton said the millionth Corvette, which was never sold, was likely the most valuable car and could fetch "several million dollars" from the right buyer.
The facility will be closed on Wednesday, while a structural engineer assesses the damage, the museum said. It will reopen Thursday, but the Skydome area will be blocked off.
That region of south central Kentucky contains many caves and sinkholes, known as "karst" topography. Mammoth Cave National Park is about 20 miles from Bowling Green.
"It's not uncommon for us to see sinkhole collapses," said city spokeswoman Kim Lancaster. "Most are significantly smaller than the one we have today." Bowling Green city hydrologist Tim Slattery said when the museum was constructed, builders "did do their due diligence" on the area's geography. But sinkholes can develop over time, as water goes underground and carries soil with it, he said.
GM builds Corvettes at a plant near the museum, which opened in 1994.
The value of the damage was not immediately known, as most are one-of-a-kind collector cars with no similar sales figures to use as comparison, according to Sam Murtaugh, marketing director at Mecum Auctions of Wisconsin.
"How do you even begin to place a value on the 1 Millionth Corvette built?" Murtaugh said in an e-mail. "It's irreplaceable." Dave Chrisley, president and co-founder of the Bowling Green Assembly Corvette Club, which was started by plant workers, said he believes the cars on loan from GM were the most valuable - especially the Spyder.
"You'd have to auction it to even put a price on it," said Chrisley. "I couldn't even give you a ballpark. It was a concept car." The museum's Facebook page was filled with comments from devastated auto fans, including one suggesting that flags be lowered to half-staff "to honor the fallen vettes."


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Disney/Pixar's Cars 3 opens in US theatres in 3D June 16, 2017.
Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician, Cruz Ramirez, with her own plan to win, plus inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn't through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing's biggest stage!
Cars 3 is directed by Brian Fee (storyboard artist Cars, Cars 2) and produced by Kevin Reher (A Bug's Life, La Luna short).


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SAN FRANCISCO -- Twitter and Google can't reach an agreement on Realtime Search, but Twitter's CEO isn't giving up.
CEO Dick Costolo told a dinner audience at the Web 2.0 Summit on Monday night that he hasn't reached a deal to re-establish the Realtime service with the search giant. Google shut down the service in July, saying it was down "temporarily."
Google Realtime was designed to pull real-time social networking posts as well as tweets into Google's search results. When there was a big new event, for example, Google Search would display tweets and social posts on the topic, giving the search more social relevance.
However, last summer Google said in a tweet that it was exploring how to incorporate its new social network, Google+, into the service.
The day before Google's Realtime Search was taken down, Google's deal to access Twitter's stream of tweets ran out. And today, unlike search rival Microsoft Bing, Google can no longer use Twitter's traffic flow.
Now it appears there's a major bump in the road in terms of getting Twitter back in the deal.
"Anytime you are negotiating with a company, it's true that the devil's in the details," Costolo said. "We just can't agree on what the appropriate value exchange is. And I'm not just talking dollars."
Costolo was quick to add that he hasn't given up on the possibility that the two companies can find common ground on the issue. "We talk to these guys all the time, so we'll see what happens," he said.
Google, meanwhile, has not given up on Realtime search.
Last week, Vic Gundotra, a senior vice president of engineering at Google, reported in a Google+ post that the company was rolling out real-time search results for its new social network.
"Now when you search in Google+, you'll see a message about new posts the instant they're available," wrote Gundotra. "If you click on this message, or select 'most recent,' then relevant posts will start appearing in real time."
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her email address is email@example.com.


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Matthew Hamilton knows how to shoot — and spritz.
The former Marine is the chef-owner of Lulu & Po, a new restaurant in Fort Greene, where patrons are downing wine spritzers by the fistful, in flavors such as rhubarb and peach-mint.
"We were surprised that people drank as many as they did," admits Hamilton, who decided to bring spritzers to his Brooklyn spot, which opened in June, after some at-home summer sipping sessions.
"They're awesome!" exclaims the burly, tattooed spritzionado, who says there's nothing girlie about the bubbly quencher.
"They're Americana," he reckons.
And now, even hip.
The once-mocked drink — rooted in '80s housewife folklore and bemoaned as a beverage for elderly teetotalers and middle-aged cheapskates — is having its NYC moment.
Everyone from bro-ish bankers to downtown party kids to Vilebrequin-loving prepsters are
getting spritzed-off spritzers — which, in its simplest form, is wine topped with soda water — and loving every watered-down minute of it.
Spruced-up spritzers topped with exotic sodas and garnishes are now top sellers across the city — from Hell's Kitchen wine bar Ardesia to East Village tavern Edi & the Wolf. Bourgeois Pig in the East Village just announced its wine-spritzers-on-tap program.
"I'm totally pro-spritzer," declares Eduard Frauneder, chef-owner of Edi & the Wolf.
"They're very versatile . . . very clean, very food-friendly. They're refreshing. They're less alcoholic, and you drink less, which is always a good thing; people in New York drink enough," he adds with a laugh.
Frauneder offers three wine spritzers on his Austrian menu, including what he calls "the Mercedes of the spritzers": a concoction made with white wine, elderflower syrup, soda water, mint, lemon and two dehydrated roses.
He's seen a 20 percent increase in spritzer sales this summer and predicts the next evolution of the trend will be spritzing with sparkling lemonade.
"It is very European," he explains.
Without a doubt, the wine spritzer has come a long way from its most recent perch in pop culture — a gag in a late '90s episode of "The Simpsons," in which goodie-goodie character Ned Flanders gets sloshed off the white-wine variety: "I'll have a Shirley . . . No, a virgin . . . No, a children's . . . Oh, what the heck? You only live once. Give me a white-wine spritzer!"
Nowadays, they're eliciting more praise than mockery.
Just ask Hollis Daniel, a 26-year-old fashion designer who used to consider wine spritzers a "trashy drink."
She hadn't even tasted one until two years ago, when, at a sweltering Arizona wedding, her chic aunt led her bar-side for a refreshment.
Lo and behold, two white wines with a heavy splash of diet Sierra Mist and a squeeze of lime were ordered.
"I was really skeptical," says the TriBeCa resident.
But after one sip, she was convinced.
"It was the most delicious thing," she recalls. "Ever since, I've been a convert."
Part of the drink's resurgence is owed to the unavoidable kitsch factor.
"You think of old ladies drinking them. My mom drank them when I was a kid," says Ravi DeRossi, owner of the Bourgeois Pig.
"But that's why I like them. Because they're sort of nostalgic and my mom would give me sips when I was 12."
Spritzers are also a lot less showy than your typical bubbly.
"It goes back to that notion that anything that is perceived as unpretentious is cool," says Tanya Wenman Steel, editor-in-chief of Epicurious.
Of course, the modern wine spritzer has gotten some urban polish.
At DeRossi's Bourgeois Pig, you'll find spritzers on tap made with a rotating roster of Brooklyn-made sodas. On draft this week are sauvignon blanc and simple syrup mixed with either orange peel, hibiscus and ginger soda or grapefruit, jalapeño and honey soda.
Already the drinks, introduced at the restaurant just two weeks ago and sold by the glass or pitcher, are a runaway hit.
"Guys and girls on dates will each order [a different flavor] and share them," observes DeRossi, who says he feels "pretty secure in my masculinity" with a wine spritzer in hand.
Not everyone does.
"I have to say, I'm of the crowd that thinks that no real man drinks a wine spritzer," says Harlem resident Gerrald Ellis, a 29-year-old attorney.
"I bet they're delicious, but I don't think I'd be caught dead in public drinking one."
Even fashion designer Daniel admits that not all social situations are spritzer-proof.
"I wouldn't order it on a first date. I'd feel a little prissy," she says.
Scott Fitzgerald, head mixologist at the Vinatta Project and Mulberry Project, says he will try to "nudge" customers away from ordering the "antiquated drink."
"Refusing service is a difficult thing, but any bartender worth his wage should be able to reposition the drink," he says.
One way to do this?
Rename it and add a bunch of trendy ingredients.
"We don't call it a wine spritzer," admits Mandy Oser, co-owner of Ardesia Wine Bar. "We're kind of elevating it a bit."
Sales of her Lillet Fizz — made with Lillet blanc, Prosecco, grapefruit bitters and a touch of lemon — are up by 30 percent this year, she says.
And even esteemed wine experts say cheers to that.
"Wine for so long was so serious," says David Lombardo, the beverage director for Landmarc and Ditch Plains restaurants, who, yes, drinks wine spritzers beachside to the shock of his summer guests.
"People would be embarrassed because they thought you can't add anything to wine. It was supposed to be the most sacred, purist thing in the world. And it is. It's wonderful and fantastic. But I think people are more willing to experiment and to take a chance."
Which means taking a chance at being ridiculed, at least until your friends' wariness fizzes out — and they put the fizz in.
"One of my servers made fun of me because we were serving spritzers on ice, and he's like, 'That's such a Long Island thing,'" recalls Hamilton.
"I was like, 'I am from Long Island. You have a problem with that?' "
Foodie insiders and fizz aficionados give us their favorite flavor combinations for a spruced up at-home spritz. Pour to taste, though the general rule is two parts wine to one part bubbles.
Sauvignon blanc + soda water + sliced cucumber + mint
Rosé + soda water + raspberries
Spanish red wine + San Pellegrino limonata + cubed apples
Lillet + soda water + limoncello + orange slice
Riesling + peach puree + agave nectar + soda water + a squeeze of lime


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Plotting the Analemma
My SJAA planet-observing column for January is about the Analemma and the Equation of Time.
The analemma is that funny figure-eight you see on world globes in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Its shape is the shape traced out by the sun in the sky, if you mark its position at precisely the same time of day over the course of an entire year.
The analemma has two components: the vertical component represents the sun's declination, how far north or south it is in our sky. The horizontal component represents the equation of time.
The equation of time describes how the sun moves relatively faster or slower at different times of year. It, too, has two components: it's the sum of two sine waves, one representing how the earth speeds up and slows down as it moves in its elliptical orbit, the other a function the tilt (or "obliquity") of the earth's axis compared to its orbital plane, the ecliptic.
The Wikipedia page for Equation of time includes a link to a lovely piece of R code by Thomas Steiner showing how the two components relate. It's labeled in German, but since the source is included, I was able to add English labels and use it for my article.
But if you look at photos of real analemmas in the sky, they're always tilted. Shouldn't they be vertical? Why are they tilted, and how does the tilt vary with location? To find out, I wanted a program to calculate the analemma.
Calculating analemmas in PyEphem
The very useful astronomy Python package
makes it easy to calculate the position of any astronomical object
for a specific location. Install it with:
easy_install pyephem
for Python 2, or
easy_install ephem for Python 3.
import ephem observer = ephem.city('San Francisco') sun = ephem.Sun() sun.compute(observer) print sun.alt, sun.az
The alt and az are the altitude and azimuth of the sun right now.
They're printed as strings:
25:23:16.6 203:49:35.6
but they're actually type 'ephem.Angle', so float(sun.alt) will
give you a number in radians that you can use for calculations.
Of course, you can specify any location, not just major cities. PyEphem doesn't know San Jose, so here's the approximate location of Houge Park where the San Jose Astronomical Association meets:
observer = ephem.Observer() observer.name = "San Jose" observer.lon = '-121:56.8' observer.lat = '37:15.55'
You can also specify elevation, barometric pressure and other parameters.
So here's a simple analemma, calculating the sun's position at noon on the 15th of each month of 2011:
for m in range(1, 13) : observer.date('2011/%d/15 12:00' % (m)) sun.compute(observer)
I used a simple PyGTK window to plot sun.az and sun.alt, so once it was initialized, I drew the points like this:
# Y scale is 45 degrees (PI/2), horizon to halfway to zenith: y = int(self.height - float(self.sun.alt) * self.height / math.pi) # So make X scale 45 degrees too, centered around due south. # Want az = PI to come out at x = width/2. x = int(float(self.sun.az) * self.width / math.pi / 2) # print self.sun.az, float(self.sun.az), float(self.sun.alt), x, y self.drawing_area.window.draw_arc(self.xgc, True, x, y, 4, 4, 0, 23040)
So now you just need to calculate the sun's position at the same time of day but different dates spread throughout the year.
And my 12-noon analemma came out almost vertical! Maybe the tilt I saw in analemma photos was just a function of taking the photo early in the morning or late in the afternoon? To find out, I calculated the analemma for 7:30am and 4:30pm, and sure enough, those were tilted.
But wait -- notice my noon analemma was almost vertical -- but it wasn't exactly vertical. Why was it skewed at all?
Time is always a problem
As always with astronomy programs, time zones turned out to be the hardest part of the project. I tried to add other locations to my program and immediately ran into a problem.
ephem.Date class always uses UTC, and has no concept
of converting to the observer's timezone. You can convert to the timezone
of the person running the program with
localtime, but
that's not useful when you're trying to plot an analemma at local noon.
At first, I was only calculating analemmas for my own location. So I set time to '20:00', that being the UTC for my local noon. And I got the image at right. It's an analemma, all right, and it's almost vertical. Almost ... but not quite. What was up?
Well, I was calculating for 12 noon clock time -- but clock time isn't
the same as mean solar time unless you're right in the middle of your
time zone.
You can calculate what your real localtime is (regardless of what politicians say your time zone should be) by using your longitude rather than your official time zone:
date = '2011/%d/12 12:00' % (m) adjtime = ephem.date(ephem.date(date) \ - float(self.observer.lon) * 12 / math.pi * ephem.hour) observer.date = adjtime
Maybe that needs a little explaining. I take the initial time string,
like '2011/12/15 12:00', and convert it to an ephem.date.
The number of hours I want to adjust is my longitude (in radians)
times 12 divided by pi -- that's because if you go pi (180) degrees
to the other side of the earth, you'll be 12 hours off.
Finally, I have to multiply that by
ephem.hour because ...
um, because that's the way to add hours in PyEphem and they don't really
document the internals of ephem.Date.
Set the observer date to this adjusted time before calculating your analemma, and you get the much more vertical figure you see here. This also explains why the morning and evening analemmas weren't symmetrical in the previous run.
This code is location independent, so now I can run my analemma program
on a city name, or specify longitude and latitude.
PyEphem turned out to be a great tool for exploring analemmas.
But to really understand analemma shapes, I had more exploring to do.
I'll write about that, and post my complete analemma program,
in the next article.
[ 20:54 Dec 29, 2011 More science/astro | permalink to this entry | ]