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Christian Life Church, 701 Murphy Drive: Transportation is available. For more information, call 803-0482 or 944-8251.
First Baptist Church of Maumelle, Corner of Maumelle Blvd and Millwood Circle: Vacation Bible School registration is underway. Colossal Coaster World for children from 3 to 5th grade will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m., through June 28. "Facing fear, trusting God" with biblical truths from 2 Timothy 1:7 is the emphasis through Bible study. Sunday school begins at 9 a.m. Evening worship is at 5 p.m. Sundays in the main sanctuary. You are invited to participate in the 5 p.m. Wednesday evening activities beginning with a fellowship meal followed by various youth programs and adult Bible studies. For more information, call 851-3547 or go to www.fbcmaumelle.org.
First Christian Church of Maumelle, 4001 Club Manor Drive: Worship service will be at 10:45 a.m. Sunday. For more information, go to www.fccmaumelle.com.
First United Methodist Church of Maumelle, 1201 Edgewood Drive: Contemporary worship is at 8:15 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Sunday. At 9:30 a.m., there is an encounter worship, and at 11 a.m., traditional worship. For more information, go to www.fumcmaumelle.org.
Shepherd of Peace Lutheran Church, 449 Millwood Circle, Maumelle:Vacation Bible School Tell it on the Mountain, will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., July 14-18, for ages 3-12 years old. Tell it on the Moutain will take children in a journey of Mountain Top experiences in the bible. Fill with Christ-centered activities and fun music. Registration can be done online by visiting shepeace.com. The church invites you to Bible studies they offer each Sunday morning at 9:20 a.m., and others throughout the week. A mid-week Bible study is available each Thursday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., and currently studying the prophets of the Old Testament. A traditional service that includes the Lutheran liturgy, is held at 8 a.m., each Sunday and a blended service at 10:30 a.m., each Sunday. For more information, call 851-4546 or www.shepeace.com.
— As submitted by area churches.


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This is part of a series of year-in-review reports over the next two weeks. For more year-end coverage, visit our special section online.
The past year has been a mixed bag for Southeast Michigan's manufacturing companies.
The dust had settled from the recent industry collapse, but 2013 let out all those skeletons hidden in closets during the downturn.
Automakers abandoned the Kumbaya dealings with suppliers as General Motors Co.'s new terms and conditions set ablaze the supply base, and contracts negotiated during the fallout ended in disputes throughout 2013.
Bad deals and alleged crimes surfaced in the case of Southfield-based Revstone. The group was compiled from struggling supplier assets through the new millennium, only to implode due to unfavorable contracts and alleged pension theft from its owner.
Manufacturing jobs continued transformation, leaving the traditional laborers in a lurch as technical skills and education requirements continued to rise — and there's no end to this in sight.
Goldman Sachs' presence in Detroit, by way of its aluminum warehousing outfit Metro International Trade Services LLC, became international news in 2013 (a story Crain's first covered in 2011). Wall Street's control of the ebb and flow of physical aluminum has led to lawsuits in Detroit, as well as investigations by federal regulators. The warehouses will continue to be a hot button in 2014.
But it wasn't all bad news in 2013. Southeast Michigan, especially the city of Detroit, continued to see drastic foreign investment.
The M-14 corridor in Plymouth, Novi and Northville saw new investment thanks to its 'neutral' location, and China became a major player in Southeast Michigan real estate. Experts say we can expect the influx of foreign investment to continue into 2014. The growing wealth in China led to an influx of investment from the nation as metro Detroit continued its economic rebound in 2013.
The fall of Southfield-based Revstone Industries LLC is one of hubris. George Hofmeister, founder and orchestrator of several bankrupt assets, ran into trouble in early 2013 with a lawsuit from his largest financier.
The suit resulted in the bankruptcy filing of Revstone in February. Hofmeister and the trusts that own his stable of auto suppliers already were under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly making $34.6 million in prohibited loans from employee pension funds to companies within the Revstone organization. Revstone also is under criminal investigation due to the allegations.
The ongoing investigations and bankruptcy of the parent organization have led to the closure and bankruptcy filing of nearly all of its subsidiaries.
Pricing disputes are not uncommon in the automotive industry. But TRW Automotive Inc.'s pulling of a contract with General Motors Co. that produced $700 million in revenue in 2012 is unprecedented.
While neither company would comment on the specifics, on- and off-record sources confirmed that a pricing dispute on future brake contracts led to TRW pulling the contract at its Saginaw brake plant, which it acquired from Delphi during the Troy-based supplier's bankruptcy. GM is rumored to have paid much of the employees' wages and is not willing to continue under new contracts, leading to TRW's pulling of the contract.
Manufacturing jobs are changing. The era of the laborer isn't over, but it is in transformation as greater skills and education become more critical to employment and the state's economy, experts say.
For the past three years, concerns over market-traded aluminum and its effect on manufacturing have grown. And Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Romulus-based aluminum warehousing unit Metro International Trade Services LLC is now in the crosshairs of several civil antitrust lawsuits and an investigation by federal regulators.
The dust-up has led to new rules from the London Metal Exchange, which regulates how aluminum warrants are traded on the market.
Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042, [email protected]. Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

subset: commoncrawl


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MUMBAI (Reuters) - The death toll from the collapse of a five-storey apartment block in India's financial capital of Mumbai climbed to 50 on Saturday and was expected to rise as more than a dozen people were feared trapped in the rubble.
The cause of the collapse of the building, where employees of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai were housed with their families, was still not known.
But police said on Saturday they had arrested a man identified by the municipal authority as having leased a part of the basement and done some construction that may have changed the structure of the building, which was built in the early 1980s.
A spokesman for the city authority said so far 50 people had been confirmed dead and 32 people injured from Friday's collapse.
A shortage of cheap homes in Indian cities has led to a rise in illegal construction, often using substandard materials and shoddy methods.
In April, a building collapse killed 72 people in Thane, just outside Mumbai. Officials had said that the structure was built with poor materials and did not have proper approvals.
(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)


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Natur & Miljö i Kambodja: Månatliga uppdateringar
- Projektöverblick
- Divemaster Course Add-on
fakta & rapporter
Cambodia Marine Conservation Project – August 2012
This month marked the beginning of our new seahorse survey schedule. We trained each volunteer in seahorse identification and survey methods and completed 8 surveys at randomly selected GPS points. We aim to complete at least a survey a day over the next year. Volunteers were also trained in reef check methodology. We repainted the English school and successfully met this month's targets for our new playground.
Conservation Projects
Reef Surveys
We completed 3 reef check surveys in the first week of August in an effort to monitor fish and invertebrate populations as well as substrate composition and general reef health.
Surveys were carried out at House Reef and Boatman's Bay on permanent transect lines. We will resume reef check training at the end of the month for surveys commencing in September. We are now building a detailed database in order to compare fish populations and reef health over the past year.
A sea turtle was spotted on one of our dive sights this month, giving volunteers increased motivation and satisfaction in our efforts so far. The hunt for photographic evidence continues.
Seahorse Surveys
We have so far taken GPS coordinates for 25 seahorses found around Koh Rong Samloem and volunteers have identified species, gender, and if male, pregnant or not, and taken several morphological measurements.
Volunteers have been trained in seahorse identification and survey methodology ready for September. We aim to complete at least 1 survey per day over the next year in order to draw monthly, seasonal and yearly comparisons. This will no doubt give an insight to these fragile creatures and the unique environment in which they live.
Volunteers have been exploratory diving in various areas between Koh Rong Samloem and Koh Kohn in an effort to establish new seahorse territories. So far we have reached depths of 13 m and sighted several adult seahorses. This will help us expand the area of seahorse territories and enable us to better protect them.
Clean Ups
Volunteers as always have been cleaning up the beach and around the village. This is a necessary task on the island and is builds strong relationships with the village.
Community Projects
The recently repainted school was fun for both students and volunteers. The volunteers are getting to know more and more of the children every day and this helps in attracting students to class. We have a strong focus on conversational English and improving sentences. This engages the children and encourages them to use their English outside of the classroom. Friday's remain Fun Days, with jumping off the pier and swimming with the volunteers. The addition of Delphine the Dolphin and our whale (both inflatable) encourages the smaller children to boost their confidence in the water.
Community Playground
This month we have completed the clearing and levelling of a 15 m x 7.5 m area where a community playground will be built by the volunteers. We have marked out boundaries and dug trenches ready for our wall. Next month we will be moving sand into the area to create a nice soft base for the children.
Ali Barlow
Project Coordinator, Cambodia


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Posts Taggedsoft dorothy
John Calhoun's original Glider — dating back to 1988 — may well be my favorite game. Quintessentially Mac in style, it put you in charge of a paper airplane in a rundown, dilapidated house. You needed simply to stay afloat, lifted by air vents, and try to reach the window leading to freedom.
It was a game of wits, and patience, and it's one of the most innately-charming pieces of entertainment I've ever encountered. The shareware series earned a dedicated fan-base and awards from Mac magazines through its five main installments, culminating in a commercial release (Glider PRO, 1994), then gradually faded into the background … that is, until Glider Classic for iOS was released in late 2011, which was followed up last year by a Mac version simply called Glider.
Let's see how this throwback stands up — both to modern standards and to the nostalgia of Glider games past.


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Mom Is Amazing! Infer What Happens!
Lesson 3 of 16
Objective: SWBAT use the text and illustrations to make inferences about the characters, setting and plot.
- Hazel's Amazing Mother by Rosemary Wells
- Lesson vocabulary words from the Reading/Writing word wall: inferring, literature, evidence, schema, characters, setting, plot
- Set up the whiteboard
- 'Inferences-Prove It!' worksheet
- 'Making Inferences' poster (I used this throughout my inferencing unit)
- post-it notes for the kids to add inferences
- one piece of construction paper for each student and markers
- put a stuffed animal in a paper bag
I chose this book because the author writes wonderful stories. The kids can relate to the topic of a favorite toy and there's lots of 'meat' to the plot. The story has twists and turns, some sadness, and it gives us a starting point to talk about family, bullying, and a parent's love. I've read some lighter comical stories lately, so it's great to jump into something with a more complicated story line.
This is the second lesson I've taught about inferencing, so I'm still giving lots of clues and help, especially with the evidence. In the first lesson, Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! Let's Infer What Happens, students worked on identifying evidence, schema and inferences. It's hard for second graders to give the language to state these. They find it hard to tell what they know, even though 'they know it'.
In future lessons, I'll hold them more accountable for describing the evidence and their own schema to create their own inference, but that's a lot to expect from a 2nd grader who is just learning about inference. By scaffolding this skill (modeling and providing support early on and the weaning them off this support), I'm building a foundation for the students for how to describe characters and other parts of a story by focusing on how they respond to major events and challenges. (RL.2.3)
Resources (4)
Let's Get Excited!
Underlined words below are lesson vocabulary words that are emphasized and written on sentence strips for my Reading & Writing word wall. I pull off the words off the wall for each lesson, helping students understand this key 'reading and writing' vocabulary can be generalized across texts and topics. The focus on acquiring and using these words is part of a shift in the Common Core Standards towards building students' academic vocabulary. My words are color coded 'pink' for literature/'blue' for reading strategies/'orange' for informational text/'yellow' for writing/'green' for all other words)
Common starting point
- Keep your special animal in a bag. "I brought a special stuffed animal today."
- "Can you infer what I've brought today? Did you see the size? Do you want to feel the bag? Did you see how big it was? This is the evidence - how it look, what it feels like, the size. Do you have some schema to bring to your guesses. Do you have a special animal at home?"
- "Maybe if you guys work REALLY hard today, I'll show you my special friend."
I chose to engage the students this way because it's similar to the last lesson. I want them to bring in their schema and review my vocabulary from yesterday (schema and evidence).
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
Teacher's Turn
Give the purpose of the lesson
- "Today we are going to review what inferring means and how it helps us understand what we read better."
- "After we review the poster, we're going to read a story about a little girl and her favorite stuffed animal and infer what is happening."
Introduce strategy - teacher models (I'm reviewing this from yesterday's lesson using the inferring poster)
- "When we infer, we use our schema and some evidence from the literature book. What is schema?" Take ideas. "What kind of evidence does our book have?" Take ideas.
- "Inferring is figuring out what the author did not say. Some people call it 'reading between the lines'. We take those inferences and then check with the text and illustrations. Are they correct? Are the inferences we make supported by the evidence in the text?"
- "We can use inferring with lots of other reading strategies, such as connecting, predicting, connecting, and questioning."
- "Let's try some inferring with this book. We can look at the characters, setting, and plot. I made a chart that will help us remember to use evidence and schema. I'll read and then add an inference to the chart."
- Read through the page that says, "Such a pretty doll...." What evidence do we have so far about the doll? 'new shoes, clothes, new doll.' (Write that on the chart) My schema tells me 'girls like dolls', so I'm going to infer that 'Hazel likes her new doll'." Write that on a post-it.
- Here's what the modeling looked like.
Practice strategy - guided practice
- "Let's try one together. " Read through the page that says, "But at the next corner....."
- "What evidence do we have on the page?" (illustration shows her face, bad street, words say wrong turn) Write that on the board.
- "Our schema tells us what? How does that build on the evidence?" Take ideas. (If you get lost you can get into trouble, it's scary to get lost) Write that on the board.
- "What can we infer from this?" Take ideas. (Hazel is scared because she is lost. She took a wrong turn and is in trouble.) This was our guided practice discussion.
- During out discussion, students did use other reading strategies, which I encouraged. Here's an example of how a student 'connected' this story to another cyclical story that we had read.
- This was the completed whiteboard when we were done.
- Sometimes we start with an inference and work backwards. Let's read to the page where we see a soccer ball. Can you infer what happened? Let's think about our schema and evidence based on the inference?" This is what that discussion looked like.
Stress to the kids that the text evidence must be used in conjunction with schema. To be aligned with CCSS, students must learn that schema is a way to fill in gaps, but that the text evidence is paramount. This is hard for 2nd graders to remember-that the text is the source of information and inferences, schema and background knowledge and inferences are built on those.
Resources (5)
Students Take a Turn
Work as a Group
- "Let's try some more and you can put the inferences on the board."
- Read through the page that says, "Don't worry, Eleanor..." Talk about the evidence (Hazel does not notice the ball in the carriage, The boy is yelling and has a sports shirt on, there is a ball in the carriage), ask the kids about their schema (kids get mad when you take their things) and have one of the kids add an inference on a post-it (the boy is mad and thinks she's stealing the ball).
- Help with spelling, as needed.
- Continue to read through the pages below, talk about and show the evidence, discuss the schema and have kids take turns adding an inference. Here is a great example of a student sharing an inference.
- 'Hazel rocked poor ruined Eleanor...?'
- 'The boys quivered like jello....'
- 'Eleanor's carriage worked without...'
- 'Oh mother...?'
- This is the one of my student's completed worksheet.
In this lesson, unlike many other lessons I teach, the kids never really work independently. There are 2 reasons for this. One is that the text is too hard for most of my kids and adding the new skill of inferencing really puts the task 'out of reach' for most of my students. The other reason is that this is one of the first lessons in this unit and I want to model and guide the kids through the identification of schema and evidence purposefully. Second graders have a difficult time with inference - we are asking them to make a informed guess on what is happening (and then tend to predict vs infer) and then back it up with solid evidence and their schema. To top that off, we are asking them to write what they know and how they know it.
Resources (3)
Show What You Know
Explain the task
- "We saw a wonderful idea about mother's love and how Hazel's mother was amazing."
- "I want you to think about your mother (or father) and their amazing love. We are going to create a card to show mom that you know how much she loves you."
- "You are going to make mom a card and use evidence, schema and an inference."
- "Your evidence is what mom does for you (take ideas). Your schema is how that makes you feel. Your inference is the same as the story - mom helps you because you love her."
- Here's my explanation of the project.
Kids work
- Give kids time to work.
- We did brainstorm a list of ideas for project of ways that mom helps.
Scaffolding and Special Education: This lesson could be easily scaffolded up or down, depending on student ability.
Since most of the lesson is group work, I would just make sure that students with learning difficulties have support with spelling and are given the chance to share their ideas.
Those with great academic abilities should be able to use higher level vocabulary when making the inferences ('she didn't see the ball' vs 'she was more concerned about the doll than the ball'). Challenge those students to add their own ideas and language.


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8 Fun Pool Games
When the hot weather hits, head out to the pool and try some of these great games!Download All (8)
Download All is only available to Education.com Pro members. Learn More
Click on an activity in the set below to see more info.
Snake Tag: A Great Game for the PoolView Full Activity
Are you looking to entertain your child and a large group of his friends? Try out Chain Tag. The more players you have, the more fun the game becomes!
Pool Obstacle CourseView Full Activity
Here's a guide to help you design a challenging pool obstacle course for your elementary school children with ordinary pool toys and household objects.
Play Aqua GolfView Full Activity
What do a pool, a raft and a golf club have in common? They are all integral ingredients in the fun game of Aqua Golf, a great activity for kids of all ages.
Steal the BaconView Full Activity
Are you looking for a fun pool game that doesn't require a lot of heavy accessories? Try Steal the Bacon, a creative form of tag your child is sure to love.
Play Pool BasketballView Full Activity
What do you get when you cross a pool, water balloons and hula hoops? Pool Basketball, an exciting summer game perfect for kids of all ages.
Cruise Ship: A Pool RelayView Full Activity
Challenge your child to an exciting race across the pool and engage him in a game of Cruise Ship. Grab some plastic figures, hop in the pool, and you're set.
The set is continued below.
Play Seahorse TossView Full Activity
Bring the fun carnival game of ring toss to your home pool with this watery twist on the classic game.
Rope Rush: Raft Race for the PoolView Full Activity
Grab some rope and a couple of rafts and you're ready to play Rope Rush, an exciting race game for the pool!
Want to download this whole set as a single PDF?Download All (8)
Download All is only available to Education.com Pro members. Learn More


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08/03/2012 – 10/03/2012
Come to celebrate the 22nd Sussex Beer Festival, you'll find something like 230 types of different beers on sale…and that isn't exactly what you would find in your local pub around the corner…so you must understand the surrealism of this event…more beer than anyone can imagine, and I imagine a lot…The Beer & Cider Festival will be held at Hove Town Hall March. A large selection of ciders, perries, country wines and British and foreign bottled beers will also be served.
The Oriental is a luxury B&B situated in a charming area close to the west Pier. Check out our rooms and availability on www.orientalbrighton.co.uk/rooms!


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I can't stay without you, I need you so much.
Never one second without you, I'm longing for your touch.
Just one look at you, it's the best thing I can get.
A second gaze at you, I feel it but yet,
Your indifference is stabbing me slowly, really slow.
I can't get it, did you really have to teat me so?
You will always live buried in my head,
And never will my love for you be shed
Away. You will always be near,
Because near you my heart will never fear
The cold nights at home, alone.
The sense of life is gone.
This post was submitted by Mervet Ziane.
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Grey Saffiano London Tote Bag
Elevate your everyday wardrobe with the 'Saffiano London Tote' from Kurt Geiger London. This dark grey tote is crafted from the finest Saffiano leather, featuring elbow handles and a detachable over the shoulder strap, finished with simple gold branded hardware. Bag Dimensions: H 32.5cm x W 25cm x D 15cm.


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The ™ embedded processor core has been selected as winner of the 2002 Microprocessor Report Analysts' Choice Award in the Embedded IP Processors category. Analysts' Choice Award winners were announced at a dinner presentation on February 13, 2003, in San Jose, CA.
The ARM1136JF-S™ core was one of six nominees in the Embedded IP Processors category. Nominations were based on the cores' ability to run applications, consume little power, occupy a small amount of die area and the ease of implementation. The ARM1136JF-S core is a synthesizable design featuring a high-performance 8-stage pipeline with a high-bandwidth memory system. The ARM1136JF-S core includes integrated floating-point and DMA (Direct Memory Access) capability and will run at over 400 MHz in a 0.13 micron silicon process while consuming less than 0.4 mW/MHz of power.
ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY)] is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions. The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals, and system-chip designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming a volume RISC standard in such markets as portable communications, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com .
Friday, February 14, 2003
For more information on ARM, please contact:
Patrick Hall
The Townsend Agency (for ARM)
Tel: +1 858 457-4888 x. 112


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June 10, 2009
STARKVILLE -- Mississippi State''s men''s basketball program wasn''t afraid about going after McDonald''s All-American Renardo Sidney as it appeared other schools were.
Despite an on-going process concerning Sidney''s eligibility, Mississippi State officials believe signing him was the right thing to do and are confident he will be on the court in the near future.
Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury insists recruiting Sidney was in the best interest of the program and the player.
"We''re going to be aggressive in our recruiting while still following SEC and NCAA rules," Stansbury said. "Other SEC schools have followed similar paths in eligibility cases. Every situation is different, but any time a situation arises involving a student-athlete or signee, we will pursue the matter in a thorough and appropriate manner, and expect full cooperation from all parties involved."
The parties in this case are the Sidney family and its attorney Donald Jackson, of Montgomery, Ala., who are putting together information that will be provided to the NCAA and MSU.
MSU Associate Athletic Director for Compliance Bracky Brett is responsible for collecting the information. He said the process has just begun.
The question of Sidney''s eligibility appears to be from his Amateur Athletic Union basketball days, while playing for his father, Sidney, Sr.
In a story in The Los Angeles Times, Sidney Sr. was involved financially with former Reebok employee Sonny Vaccaro, which might have affected Sidney''s eligibility.
After originally committing to Southern Cal, Sidney changed his mind and picked MSU.
MSU Athletic Director Greg Byrne said it is important for people to realize the Bulldogs were not late-comers into the Sidney sweepstakes.
"We recruited him early and it looked like he was going to attend school out in California," Byrne said. "When that didn''t work out, we got back on him very late."
There are conflicting reports on why USC backed of Sidney.
Jackson said Sidney ended the recruiting process himself, while an anonymous source told The Los Angeles Times that USC didn''t want to take the risk of attracting NCAA scrutiny because of sketchy issues with his family and camp.
It has been speculated USC was scared away from any potential problem because investigations continue into Reggie Bush, a Heisman Trophy winner in football, and O.J. Mayo, a first-round NBA draft pick.
USC has refused to clarify rumors. Athletic spokesman Tim Tessalone said the school won''t make any comment on its decision to stop recruiting Sidney.
Tim Floyd resigned as the coach at USC on Tuesday. It''s not known if the Sidney situation contributed to Floyd''s decision.
Byrne said any potential snag with Sidney''s eligibility was discussed, but the school decided to move ahead with his signing April 30.
"We looked at all the factors involved and decided it was in the best interest of Mississippi State and Renardo to sign him," Byrne said. "We also made it very clear to fully cooperate so we can make sure Mississippi State is protected long term. We''re going through that process right now.
"We''re looking forward to having Renardo here. We''re going over his eligibility and making sure everything is above board in what''s been done."
Stansbury said he wouldn''t comment on the situation further until a decision was made about Sidney, which might not be until August.
MSU officials hope Sidney, who graduates from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles on June 18, will be cleared to play in time to enroll at MSU for the fall semester, which begins Aug. 17.
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2. Lowndes Roundup: New Hope starts fresh, West Lowndes faces Caledonia HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
3. MSU's Carr stays strong, keeps believing COLLEGE SPORTS
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5. Moorhead likes what he sees in '15-round heavyweight bout' COLLEGE SPORTS


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Thoughts on the Chained CPI, Social Security, and the Budget
|Written by Dean Baker
|Monday, 17 December 2012 21:43
According to reliable sources, the Obama administration is seriously contemplating a deal under which the annual cost of living adjustment for Social Security benefits would be indexed to the chained consumer price indexrather than the CPI for wage and clerical workers (CPI-W) to which it is now indexed. This will lead to a reduction in benefits of approximately 0.3 percentage points annually. This loss would be cumulative through time so that after 10 years the cut would be roughly 3 percent, after 20 years 6 percent, and after 30 years 9 percent. If a typical senior collects benefits for twenty years, then the average reduction in benefits will be roughly 3 percent.
There are a few quick points worth addressing:
Read More: Thoughts on the Chained CPI


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Per the Sunday-show rhetoric, both sides remain far apart in budget negotiations… But remember: The real negotiations haven't even started yet… Democrats and Republicans now find themselves in completely opposite places from 2011… Pelosi threatens to introduce already passed Senate-bill that extends Bush tax cuts for only household income below $250,000… Obama holds bilateral with Bulgaria PM at 2:55 pm ET… Wasserman Schultz to remain DNC chair… Checking in on Mitt Romney… And the latest VA GOV developments.
As the White House and Republican leaders enter the final months of negotiations over the fiscal cliff, both sides remain very far apart. The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd reports.
*** Far apart: Less than a month before the Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire and significant spending reductions are supposed to go into effect, the Obama White House and congressional Republicans remain far apart in their negotiations. "We're nowhere, period. We're nowhere," House Speaker John Boehner said on FOX yesterday. He also blasted the budget offer that the White House gave to Republicans on Thursday, which included $1.6 trillion in increased taxes and revenues, $400 to $600 billion in spending cuts, and the essential end of Congress' control over the debt limit. "I was flabbergasted… I've just never seen anything like it. You know, we've got seven weeks between Election Day and the end of the year. And three of those weeks have been wasted with this nonsense."
Larry Downing / Reuters
President Barack Obama hosts a bipartisan meeting with Congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room of White House to discuss the economy, in this file photo from Nov. 16, 2012.
*** Boehner vs. Geithner on the Sunday shows: Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was adamant that the Bush tax cuts for income above $250,000 would have to expire. "The only thing standing in the way of [a deal] would be a refusal by Republicans to accept that rates have to go up on the wealthiest Americans," he said on "Meet the Press." And he added that if Republicans want entitlement changes, they'll have to propose them. "What we can't do is try to figure out what they need. They have to tell us. And then, we have to take a look at it, and see if we think it makes sense for the American people." But as bad as things sounded on the shows yesterday, let's not panic yet. This isn't all-hands-on-deck time. After all, President Obama was out golfing with Bill Clinton and speaking at the Kennedy Center yesterday. As we've told you before, the real negotiations probably won't start until mid-December.
*** 2011 vs. 2012: Role reversal: What is striking, however, is that Democrats and Republicans now find themselves in COMPLETELY OPPOSITE places than they were in 2011. A year ago, Republicans were the ones – after their victory in the midterms – who had the political winds at their back and felt like they had the mandate. Now it's the Democrats. In 2011, Republicans were the ones with more detailed plans about spending cuts (think the Ryan plan). Now it's the White House with a more detailed plan. And back then, Republicans had the leverage with the debt ceiling. But now Democrats are the ones with the leverage, because of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. As the Washington Post's Greg Sargent writes, "[I]f we do nothing, Democrats will get their way. All the tax cuts will expire, and Dems can come back and push a new tax cut just for the middle class -- a circumstance that will only increase the Dems' leverage further."
*** Pelosi threatens to introduce already-passed Senate bill: And given that leverage, don't overlook this gambit: House Minority Leader says that Democrats might try to schedule a vote, via a discharge petition, on the already-passed Senate legislation that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts only for household income below $250,000, CNN writes. "'If Speaker Boehner refuses to schedule this widely-supported bill for a vote, Democrats will introduce a discharge petition to automatically bring to the floor the Senate-passed middle class tax cuts,' Pelosi said in a statement. Under a 'discharge petition,' a bill can be brought to the floor without going through a committee or without approval of House leadership. The bill would need an absolute majority - 218 votes - to pass."
*** Obama's day: At 2:55 pm ET, President Obama hosts a bilateral with Bulgaria PM Boyko Borissov. And then about an hour later, at 4:00 pm, he delivers remarks at the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction symposium at the National Defense University.
*** Wasserman Schultz to remain as DNC chair: NBC has confirmed from two Democratic officials that President Obama will ask the Democratic National Committee to ratify Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) to remain as DNC chair when the party next meets in January. Politico first reported the news this morning.
*** Checking in on Romney: Over the weekend, the Washington Post ran a piece checking in on Mitt Romney a little less than a month after his presidential loss. "Four weeks after losing a presidential election he was convinced he would win, Romney's rapid retreat into seclusion has been marked by repressed emotions, second-guessing and, perhaps for the first time in the overachiever's adult life, sustained boredom, according to interviews with more than a dozen of Romney's closest friends and advisers." More: "Unlike the last two unsuccessful nominees, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Romney had no job waiting for him. His public platform fell out from under him on election night."
*** The latest VA GOV developments: On Sunday, President Obama golfed with Bill Clinton -- but also with Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. But could McAuliffe get a primary challenge from former Rep. Tom Perriello. As the Washington Post reported on Friday, "Former congressman Tom Perriello, currently at the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, has quietly approached prominent Democrats in recent weeks to let them know that he is at least considering a run, according to party operatives in Virginia. Perriello himself has not responded to several requests from The Washington Post for comment." With Cuccinelli as the all but assured GOP nominee, the penalty for a primary on the Democratic side would SEEM to be less.
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Penn Badgley was giving his "Gossip Girl" role as Dan Humphrey a run for his money when he debuted a new look during a performance at Miami's Art Basel.
The 30-year-old showed off some serious scruff and a blond 'do while he and his band Mothxr performed at the Life of the Party event which was held at the Bricknell City Centre last night.
Badgley sang several tracks from the band's new album like "Touch," "She Can't Tell" and "Victim."
We Ranked All the Gossip Girl Couples and No. 1 May Surprise You
And while his musical career is clearly top priority these days, Badgley has made it clear that he hasn't put his acting chops on the back burner, either.
During a recent interview with Huffington Post, Badgley explained he's still interested in acting but he's a "musical person" at heart and taking his singing skills to the stage has been something he's waited for.
"This was always an intention of mine...It's not forced. It's not something that I've been incredibly conscious or precious or deliberate about. It was obviously going to happen."


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Britney Spears has made a raunchy return to the spotlight with one of her sexiest videos to date, in which she whips a string of women while posing provocatively above a shark-infested pool.
The Toxic superstar is planning to release her eighth album ahead of her much-publicized two-year residency in Las Vegas, which is due to begin at the end of the year.
Spears has now released the promo for her new single, Work B**ch!, and in the video she can be seen dancing seductively in the middle of a desert with a group of PVC-clad females.
She then grinds in a bikini before brandishing a whip, which she cracks at one woman crawling along a floor, ripping her underwear.
The star is then shown in a party scene, where one female dancer is gagged by a speaker system, before Spears overpowers a number of women attached to diamond-encrusted dog leashes.
Spears re-teamed with her Scream and Shout collaborators, producer will.i.am and video director Ben Mor, for her latest project.


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We believe that envisioning and creating the future is exciting and that here on campus is where health innovation begins. It starts with you. If you want to join a group of students, faculty and leaders who want to transform the future of health care, apply today.
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Now there is a big problem here. Many people become atheist (or lose faith in God) from misunderstanding the concept of Destiny and from the claim by the theist that God knows everything including our future. An Atheist argue, if God knows everything, then what is the point of punishment or reward? whats the point of Heaven or Hell?
If you are an athiest or deny God then you may put forward more such points.
If you are an theist or believe in God and the fact that God know all (so also future), then how do you answer the question?
For explanations of this esoteric spiritual law, click on explanations, part 1, 2 and 3.
[>] READ EXPLANATIONS part 1, part 2, part 3
Maktub is also written as Maktoob.
(Arabic: مكتوب)
Comics Credit: Sufi Comics on Freewill or Pre-Desitniation
>> READ THE HOMEPAGE OF THIS BLOG for more INSPIRATIONS <<


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Disaster-Related Contracts
for Quotation - Internet Consulting (DGE)
Updated April 15, 2013
The Division of Purchase and Property, on behalf of the Division of Gaming
Enforcement, posts Electronic Questions and Answers.
RFQ Questions and Answers
Posted April 5, 2013
The Division of Gaming
Enforcement (DGE) will be seeking a Vendor to provide consultant services to assist with the implementation of internet gaming. There will be four phases of vendor consultation: preliminary phase, testing phase, implementation phase and maintenance phase.
The response deadline is April 17, 2013 at 12:00 noon EDT.
RFQ document
Vendor Checklist


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Almost a fool-proof dish, and very healthy. Low in calories, high in potassium and, most importantly, very tasty. Also flexible. If you don't have olive oil, butter works. If you don't like fennel (though you must at least try it) skip it and add tomatoes, basil and shallots instead. I've even used red or rose wine in a pinch. Whatever you do, don't throw out the liquid. Serve this with bread, the traditional "frites" or pasta to soak up every last bit.
2-3 pounds of mussels
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and sliced thin
1 large onion, sliced
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 tablespoons of fresh chopped herbs such as Italian parsley
3 scallions, chopped
1 cup dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste
Long gone are the days of soaking mussels to get rid of the sand, most are line grown and grit free by the time they reach your kitchen, especially if you get them from a great place like the Southold Fish Market. Be sure to rinse them well, however. You can gently rip off the beards if you find any. Make sure to check closely for open or cracked ones, those you can discard. Once clean, cover with a moist towel and keep cold until you are ready to use them.
Meanwhile, in a large dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add fennel at let cook about 5 minutes until soft. Add onions and garlic, cook until softened about 4 more minutes. Add a pinch of salt to prevent browning if you'd like.
Add mussels to pot with herbs, scallions, white wine, a dash of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir, cover and let cook until the mussels open, about 5 minutes. Discard any that are not open.
Grab a crusty loaf of bread, a cold bottle of Chardonnay (Paumanok Festival, 2009) and a big bowl for the shells. Enjoy!


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VMI Physical Plant strives to provide materials and services to increase participation in recycling across Post. As VMI grows, recycling remains a cost effective way to manage our environmental footprint and keep usable resources in local manufacturing systems, rather than our local landfill. In five out of the past six years, VMI sent over 500 tons of waste to the landfill. Our goals are to keep that number down, and quantify the recyclables we divert.
Physical Plant personnel carry out daily recycling collections, as well as general coordination of recycling activities and program development. Most buildings on Post have dedicated recycling stations. Cadet Assistants handle recycling in Barracks and at special events. Each member of the VMI community plays an important role in recycling every day. Use the information on these pages to learn more!
Recycling at VMI is an evolving program. Physical Plant encourages all comments, suggestions, and questions at email@example.com.


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The YES! No Impact Diary: Day 8
Take a break from everything. Ohm Shanti.
Click here for more stories from No Impact Week.
Click here for more information on Day 8: Eco-Sabbath.
Dallas, Texas
Olubunmi Ishola is a No Impact skeptic, but she's willing to see if the experiment can prove her wrong.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
No Impact Man inspired Molly Eagen's graduate thesis on life without oil. Follow her tips this week as she takes on the No Impact Experiment.
Los Angeles, California
Mother, teacher, and eco-pilgrim Kathy Kottaras' lyrical take on the inner adventure of going No Impact.
Don't forget to check out our No Impact Week featured blogroll for more great stories, and post your photos on our Flickr page for a chance to win a subscription to YES!
Day 8 experiences from our readers!
Yesterday was EcoSabbath, and we did observe it... mostly. I logged on last night to record Day 7, since I hadn't had the chance to do it on Saturday. It was snowing and cold yesterday, so a pot of coffee got made (and then unplugged immediately upon finishing brewing) and then I set hot cocoa to simmering on the stove on the lowest possible temperature. My two boys and I sat around the dining room table talking and reading books, drinking cocoa, and listening to Mussorsky's Pictures from an Exhibition and Ravel's Bolero (the teen-ager chose the music), and watching the snow fall. Then it was time to go out in it. Little Frog wanted to try out his brand-new (from the thrift store) snowboots and winter coat (also from the thrift store) that he got for the holidays. We tromped in the yard, stomping and kicking the snow, letting the snowflakes collect on our shoulders and head, revelling in the second snowfall of Winter. As the chill set in, we headed back in, had a little more cocoa and then it was naptime for the littlest, and my teen-ager headed out to shovel our driveway and sidewalk, and to see if my heart-sister needed her driveway shoveled.
The snow let up later, letting my Hubby get home from work in relative safety. At this point, we had only the flourescent light in kitchen on, and then the lights and computers downstairs. Dinner was a re-warmed affair, using as little energy as we could. Leftover chili over sausages, with pickles and sliced pears on the side. Something that was quick and easy to make, especially nice since I had a migraine coming on (weather-induced headaches are a wonder in a state where the weather is in a perpetual state of flux). I wrote my blog last night while I could still think well enough to do so, and then was done. The Hubby took Little Frog into the Lego room to play - CFL's for lights in that part of the basement, and the teen-ager watched some tv.
It was such a peaceful day, I just might see if we can do it more often. Just one day a month, and maybe as a compromise at first - only part of a day... power down as much as we can. From that start, maybe we can make it once every couple of weeks, or even once a week. It'll be easier in Summer, when we can leave the stove off for a good majority of our meals. It was fun to see what we could accomplish on a cold, snowy day in Winter. -Laura in Colorado
As I look back on the week, the image of raw, blistered hands from wringing out wet laundry is fresh in my mind. I've worked hard this week, and yes, that's an accurate description of my hands. I've saved every bit of trash for the week. I've trimmed our consumption way down, to just the necessities. I've drafted posts by candlelight in a notebook of recycled paper, made dinner by candlelight (not recommended), and haven't flipped a light switch in 4 days. I've been entertained by a hand-crank radio (sadly, by the winding almost as much the listening). I've made commitments to be more present and involved in my community. Aside from the cut on my finger from chopping veggies in the dark and the laundry blisters, I feel great. I'm empowered. I have hope. And I know I'm not alone. There are lots of registered participants from this past week who likely feel as I do. In reflecting on this week, I've made changes large and small, temporary for the week and some that will remain permanent. And I'm ready to keep going. And that's good because there's much work to be done. Here's to making every week no-impact week. -Karyn Alzayer
When our neighbor's house is on fire, we don't argue about who owns the hose. We turn on the water, we fill the buckets, and we help.
In the same way, it doesn't much matter whether we agree with the science that points to Man as the villain in climate change, or we believe that the planet is merely undergoing cyclical changes. What matters is that our "house is on fire" and we need to put it out.
Of course, as the No Impact Experiment reminds us, there's not a whole lot of water to go around.
I joined this year's No Impact Experiment because its beautiful objectives aligned with the objectives of a personal project: The Big Scout Project (BSP), http://www.bigscoutproject.com. In October 2010, on my fiftieth birthday, I began this three-year project in the hopes of learning to live a wider, more responsible, seriously fun life. The framework for the BSP's goals? I'm working my way through all of the badges currently available to Junior Girl Scouts in the U.S.
I was a lousy scout as a kid—nothing could have been less cool. Too bad, though, because I might have become a more responsible steward of natural resources early on. Through the BSP, I've become enormously impressed with the way scouts are encouraged to understand the effects of "civilized life" on air, land, water, wildlife, and our own bodies. There's so much we adults can learn. Sigh…
This past week was filled with surprises, mostly from assessing our household's energy/food/water footprints. There's no question about it: our household has made a few steps in the right direction to lessen our impact already, but we have far, far to go.
The great news, for me, my husband and millions like us, is that change is not that hard.
Change starts with replacing Kleenex with a handkerchief. Change starts with swearing off bottled water and enjoying tap water. Change starts with unplugging, if only for a few hours each week, to just be still and think. We start with the small changes, and the bigger ones become easier to adopt.
The bad news, of course, is that change is often slow to come.
And for that, I'm deeply appreciative for the No Impact Experiment. Opportunities just like this, repeated again and again, are the catalysts that promote change and tip the scales in the right direction.
Thanks again for the inspiration and the guidance --
-Jean Synodinos
Austin, TX


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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Challenge and Accessibility
In some ways, your kill needs meaning, and for it to be meaningful you must consider the boss a worthy opponent. The boss earns your respect by repeatedly wiping your guild over and over. One-shot kills are meaningless. There's no sense of progression, of getting better and better, of attaining mastery of that fight.
The fight I loved best in TBC was Moroes, despite it being the second fight in the raiding game. When you beat Moroes, it really felt like you had mastered the challenge, that you beat it by becoming more skilled.
But having a challenge means that some people will fail to meet that challenge. And that often gates content. The complaint that paying the same amount of money should at least entitle you to see all the content, to see all the story, is also reasonable.
I think the solution Blizzard has chosen--a relatively easy main path that allows you view all the content, with harder challenges that are optional--is probably the best solution. And I believe that rewards need to scale with the challenge. The best rewards should come from the hardest challenges.
One issue that I think has really made the situation worse than it should be is that the gap in skill between the high and low ends of the playerbase is excessively large. For example, I thought Karazhan was perfectly tuned for an entry level raid. The theoretical max DPS in 70 blues was around 900. Karazhan was tuned for about 500 DPS. I thought that 55% of max seemed reasonable for an entry level raid. But apparently most people disagreed with me.
I think the game would be a lot healthier if the low and high ends were closer in skill, if there wasn't so much variance. But I'm not sure how you would accomplish that. Maybe you'd have to change mechanics so that skill mattered much less, and gear mattered more.
24 comments:
In regards to closing the skill gap, WoW is unlike most other games in that regard. It is very easy to get started in WoW, however you have to pay attention to things all the time in order to really understand what you are doing.ReplyDelete
Really, WoW is one of the few games where help outside the game is almost required to be a really good player. How many games have EJ forums, gear calculators, databases, addons, and hundreds (thousands?) of blogs? I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable on most things paladin (ret more then the other specs). And even at that, I am learning something new everyday. And I am looking around, reading, asking (dumb) questions, etc on a daily basis.
All that is to say this. WoW would have to teach you how to play, how to gear, how to read stats, and what spells are affected by what stat. For example, I have seen plenty or ret palas sporting spellpower. I dont know why, but there isn't anything in game (other then the players) saying they should do otherwise. Maybe even a book right next to the trainers that simply had some instructions on what stats to watch out for and basic gearing advice for the class would be great. WoW would also have to find a way to be playable without a pile of addons (a good threat and dps meters built in would be a good start). I see that as the only solution for the actual casuals that are playing. A lot of players just don't have the time to learn the ins and outs and nuances of this game.
How much time did you spend learning how to play FFIIV or Super Mario, or even the original Warcraft games? I would guess not much. And what you did need to learn was usually covered in a tutorial of some kind (well except SMB :P). Casuals view this as another game, and unless the game guides them to be a better player, that gap will never close.
Sorry for the supersize comment :)
/end rant
Surely though that is the problem, for those that can't master spatial awareness, the 1.5s twitch, gearing (55% of max though I am not sure if that's for pures), and so forth the game is a linear series from 1-80 culminating in normal instances and eventually heroics. The raiding path is really for those that have taken the time surely, maybe we need a check box at the start and you get to see arthas in a 5 man if you click it.ReplyDelete
Most games have an easy setting, or similar construct to enable play, raiding is a max level time consuming task, maybe what's needed is extra content at this level that isn't raiding, but making raiding 500dps @ 80 with a twitch ( and I dislike this since twitch in wow is typically 5s+ to account for lag, reactions and latency ) of 30s makes the game pointless for those who would like to play on normal, hard, or European extreme modes. The challenge needs to be there for the top, and from that simplified mechanics for lower levels ( in a similar way kael'thas was harder in mgt than phases 4 and 5 of his 25 man, size of party is not always complexity ).
Reducing difficulty could simply be dropping a tier from the gear list ilevel and merging hits and damage by 30% like the tbc 3.0 nerf or something more subtle.
First of all I am sure we all agree there should be an `difficulty' ladder in terms of the achievements (not the ingame thingy but in general) a player can have. I partialy disagree with the fact that people pay and should see more of the content. I agree they should see the essence - i.e. imo the story - but seeing end bosses which may not add to the story but drops exotic loot, sorry but not necessarily. To use my argument on yesterdays post I can buy a Ferrari but I can not nag to Ferrari that they made the car in such a way that I can not drive like Schumacher.ReplyDelete
What it all come is the hierarchy and the spread of those levels and the value of the rewards.
Possibly, its relatively hard for some to get into the game. Hell, it was for me. And yes we often rely on external information sources. And yes, possibly Blizz could incorporate this to an extent to the game and smooth out the `entry' of people into certain game aspects.
However this is beeng done to an extent. Like for example with easier-to-tackle raids, prerequisite quests, daily-trainers (think Aces High!), certain class quests etc. Arguably, some info is hidden but there is also technical aspects on how much info can be provided.
I am afraid we are trying to formulate abstact things like 'skill' in order to reach some form of reward equation. I am sorry to say but that is impossible. Like in real life, one can not have a PhD (yours truly does) but all are entitled to at least a basic level of education or indeed the chance to attempt a PhD.
The matter at hand starts to leave the boundaries of a shared virtual environment and becomes philosophical. Reward, effort-put, ammount of available resources etc become a complicated mix when put together. It seems our sublime desire for the 'best' along with our inability to obtain it in real life has crawled up into a game.
- Anonymous1:53 AM, January 15, 2009
I'm afraid I have to disagree very strongly with this part:ReplyDelete
The complaint that paying the same amount of money should at least entitle you to see all the content, to see all the story, is also reasonable.
Paying a monthly fee DOES entitle them to see all the content and the story. Every character is perfectly able to zone into every single instance and raid. Blizzard doesn't boot them out if their spell damage is less than 1600, or if they don't have a certain number of days /played. Whether or not they actually succeed in seeing all the content is totally up to the player, not Blizzard.
It's somewhat a pet peeve of mine when people talk about skill as a static measure. The general perception is "raids are too hard for casuals, blizzard needs to down the difficulty/give us more gear". Why do so few people suggest the opposite: players should learn to play better?
Consider super mario, lets say there's a pit right at the end of the first stage. A bunch of really really poor players just can't seem to figure out that they should jump closer to the edge and keep falling in. Are they being deprived of the rest of the game's content, since they paid the same as everyone else?
Catering to the lowest denominator may make the most people happy and rake in the big bucks, but I don't think it's a good thing for the game as a whole or even the human race in real life.
Soon a school exam will consist of only 1 question : "what is your name?" and as long as you get 1 letter correct you get a PhD.
"Maybe you'd have to change mechanics so that skill mattered much less, and gear mattered more."ReplyDelete
I think part of the problem is that this is already the case. Skill requirements do not increase in the linear way that gear requirements do. The leap in skill required to get from levelling to raiding is massive, particularly if you opt to tank or heal (assuming you probably didn't level that way) but once you make that leap it's just a case of learning new encounters and picking up the right gear. There's some knowledge requirements in there too - how to gem and enchant, what talents to pick, UI and addons. But skill is less tangible. You can't learn skill from a blog. The game doesn't do enough, imo, to teach players the skills they need to progress. Of course, I don't have a solution for how it could, it's just my view on the subject.
I think you're ignoring that there's already a method in to allow players variable challenge in the boss fights. The raid and heroic boss achievements are very hard, and not something a group of players who (currently) can just barely manage to get through Naxx. Heck, even a group that's pretty capable of clearing Naxx will be finding them quite challenging. The current gear level means you really need to be on the ball to do something like The Undying, The Hundred Club, or even Make Quick Werk of Him and You Don't Have an Eternity.ReplyDelete
While certainly some of them will get slightly easier as gear improves, I don't think the bar is going to drop so much that noob PUG groups are going to start getting themselves Plagued or Black Proto-Drakes. Most of them would still need the coordination and skill that higher end raiding guilds have.
While we'll have to wait and see how the baseline difficulty of Ulduar and Icecrown will be (though it was already stated that they're much more difficult then Naxx), if they continue in this theme and make the achievements where the "real" challenge is, I think that manages to satisfy all camps pretty equally. The less connected players are able to at least enjoy the content, while the "elites" are able to show off their mastery by beating the much more difficult optional challenges.
Of course, the "elites" just need to realize this.
For all the people who complained they never got to see Sunwell, I ask... how many weeks have you raided it since 80? What, you wanted to see it, right? Go experience it! Its a whole lot easier with a group of 80s, so why aren't you out there. Its not an issue of lack of challenge, because it will certainly be trivial, its just a matter of seeing the content you paid your $15 to see, right?ReplyDelete
So, how many times are you out there?
The answer is, no one is doing these raids. They don't really want to "see" the content, its just a convenient talking point.
The leap in skill required to get from levelling to raiding is massive, particularly if you opt to tank or heal (assuming you probably didn't level that way) but once you make that leap it's just a case of learning new encounters and picking up the right gear.ReplyDelete
So Karazhan and Sunwell was equally difficult if you had the gear for it? Maybe this was true for you, but I didn't feel it that way. In Sunwell there was more things for me to remember, more things for me to pay attention to at the same time, less room for error etc etc.
- Painolympics6:04 AM, January 15, 2009
The problem is killing some of the bosses in TBC was a feat. Vashj/Kael'thas/Illidan/Every SWP boss. Of course these are all pre-30% nerf. But then blizzard made it so you don't even have to kill these bosses. They made the best content in the game (t5 end bosses) so that you didn't have to kill them.ReplyDelete
How many guilds skipped over Vashj/Kael when there was no more attunement? Alot I'm sure. Now it's the same story except all content is easymode.
If people want to see the content you have to work for it. It's like someone in my guild said.
WoW isn't a game where we should hold your hand and give you free loot. WoW isn't socialism and it certainly isn't communism like you apply.
WoW needs to return to a democracy. The best players see the best content, get the best gear, etc.
I don't want to have to rely on the RNG any more than I already do, and really, gear already has a lot of sway.ReplyDelete
I don't mind some content being "easier". I regret not seeing a lot of content that I missed (and yes, I will be doing 'nostalgia runs' of stuff later!), and I think that the current achievement system actually strikes a good compromise. Sarth with 3 drakes up, for example.
People forget that not everyone is going to walk away happy with a compromise. You get SOME of what you want, not all. Not everyone is going to be happy, but this is a better balance than we've had before.
Naxx is too easy? What will happen if we try it on greens or quested blues? Would it be similar to Kara? Are we overgeared?ReplyDelete
Dyermaker, actually, on Skywall, I know there has been a number of guilds/PuGs that have run or attempted Sunwell once or twice at 80. Just like there were Naxx runs at 70.ReplyDelete
But people also want to improve their character. It's a great deal of the fun in an RPG, and is something doesn't happen with nostalgia runs. In contrast, with an "easy path", people on the easy path are still improving their character. Maybe not to the level of the high end, but they are getting upgrades, and that is an important part of the fun. The gear you get doesn't have to be the best, but it does have to be better than what you have right now.
Pockie, I disagree. I see no harm in letting less-skilled players kill a weaker version of Arthas. I think saying that they shouldn't even get to see him is very "dog in the manger" on the parts of the hardcore.
Second, it's in the self-interest of the hardcore to allow this. Content creation, especially art assets like zones and monster models, is expensive, and the casuals subsidize the raid game. Making that content more accessible makes it more likely that extra resources will be spent on raiding, and that is a big win for raiders.
The best way to ensure that we get more and better raids is to get more people raiding. If that takes having an easy path through raid content, I'm all for it.
Merlot, while I do think you are understating the difficulty increase from raid to raid, I think you are correct that the larger jump comes from non-raider to raider. That's what I'm trying to address with raider101. I do think that Blizzard needs to focus on helping people get past that jump a bit more.
- Anonymous9:28 AM, January 15, 2009
I agree with Krytus. I think Naxx is easy because it has been too easy to gear. Kara was easy once you were wearing even 50%epics. I think the real culprit has been how easy the heroics in WOTLK have been, and therefore how easy it has been to gear up to epix via those drops and badge loot.ReplyDelete
IMO, you're basically right, Rohan. Something like raider101 is exactly what's needed.ReplyDelete
Reading your post, all that came to mind is that the reason the skill gap is so large is that the game mechanics are relatively complicated and the game itself gives you literally zero insight into them. As Dradis and others said, you HAVE to get outside help.
The game really needs some sort of in-game tutorial system. I've advocated a few versions of this:
1) solo "training" instances that take the player through the basics (here's what a rotation is, here's how threat works, here's why you want a slow weapon in your mainhand, etc.). They shouldn't be too in-depth (since they are "official"), but they should get people started.
2) Audio tutorials. I often find myself listening to podcasts while playing wow. For many tasks, you can listen to something effectively while playing. These could be in-game, and augmented by a small, moveable window in the UI that puts up points in text or images, kind of like a mini-powerpoint to accompany it.
The game mechanics are just too complicated for someone to figure out on their own. As we see on elitist jerks, it basically takes a team devoted to it to even get it kind of right.
I see now that I'm glad I didn't reply to the previous post; not because I was about to interpret it as a literal text, but because, well, I was gonna write about how this debate is just about dead, and nothing good can come of it anymore.ReplyDelete
Well. Apparently I was wrong!
I can of course see both sides of this debate, tending towards hardcore myself (on some level, or atleast, compared to the majority) in liking a challenge. What I don't understand is that people seem to demand a high level of exclusivity to enjoy themselves.
That, and so damn many of the shit-flinging parties that these discussions often devolve into devolve into poor metaphore spam.
Why bother? What matters to you should be whether or not you're feeling that you get a challenge, or atleast have options to challenge yourself, and get a reward for it, no? Sarth 3 drakes and Malygos is quite hard atm, and gives the greatest rewards. Hurray! Where's the problem in less dedicated players clearing Naxx10 liek it were a normal Deadmines run?
When Ulduar cometh, there will be more hard mode alternatives, PUG's will struggle more, and the formula remains; EoH grinds and ilvl 200 loot for casuals, 213 loot for those who have big enough guilds and some measure of skill, and you, dear elite hardcore superplayer, can run around in your 226 loot.
Perhaps I'm simplifying this discussion too much. Perhaps I'm repeating the oldest words in the book.
Soon a school exam will consist of only 1 question : "what is your name?" and as long as you get 1 letter correct you get a PhD.
But these kind of comments sort of hint that no agreement has been reached in the battle of casual vs hardcore.
Would be neat if they had additional servers with different difficulty scales.ReplyDelete
So then you could have a server with all the content more scaled to your ability as a player.
Instead of my poorly geared holy pally fighting 11 mobs 1 level below me all at once and winning. (I cheered for myself anyways) :oD
- PainOlympics10:09 AM, January 15, 2009
I think the point is missed. Okay you have Sartharion and he or she drops base loot which is pretty good.
Then you have 1 drake (my guild did last week), where the loot is pretty good
Then you have 2 drake, where the loot is pretty good.
Then you have 3 drake, where you get a mount.
Hope you see my point now. The only thing out there is the challenege of doing it. The loot isn't much better. It seems that once you get geared in naxx loot from Malygos (10/25) and loot from sarth (10/25) is bad gear.
It was the same case with magtheridon in TBC. The dude had bad loot, his good stuff never dropped. What was the point in killing him? If you're going to do this hardcore/casual thing hardcore players need increased rewards.
"I think the game would be a lot healthier if the low and high ends were closer in skill, if there wasn't so much variance."ReplyDelete
"Maybe you'd have to change mechanics so that skill mattered much less, and gear mattered more."
Now this would be really dumbing down the game.
Majority of the players has already a better chance see the content while the rest who wants more challenge and better loot has the option of doing so.
Bad thing is we only 1/2/3D Sarth currently available as an example of harder mode = better loot. Hopefully we get to see more bosses like this in Ulduar.
IMO the game is already gear dependent as it is. Heck Fury warriors has been asking for more skills so we get more variety. It's pretty dull as it is.
I wonder how it is for mages ... even as a tank the skills you press gets really repetitive.
How many buttons do you press on a tank and spank fight like patchwerk?
Heck give us more fights like 3D Sartharion where I just don't sit there and spam 3-4 buttons.
Some level of skill boils down to quick decision making and quick reaction to your environment.
This "skill" is what will separate a good guild from an equally geared guild in who will beat Ulduar first given you alot them the same amount of time to work on it.
WoW has never been about skill. It always was about the appropiate gearlvl for your skill. The not so good players had to get badgegear and outgear the designed encounters. And it frustrates me now more then it used to.ReplyDelete
I was member of a 4/6 SWP (pre-nerf) guild so I know my skill is on par, but due to rl changes i can no longer put in the required hours (about 8 hours a week) to farm gear for the current raidcontent. And now i can no longer participate in the raidingbusiness. Not because i'm bad skilled, but because i dont have the raw numbers to put out enough dps.
If however the encounters were designed around skill and not around gear i could still be in a semi-hardcore guild. Now im forced to be in a casual guild or quit the game. I've done the latter because i don't have the patience to be around people who dont know that fire is bad thing :P
- Anonymous2:49 PM, January 15, 2009
There is almost NO skill required to raid in WoW. Classes just need to know where to stand, what to kill and use their spec/rotation most efficiently. A lot of this information is not learned from playing however, it must be aquired by reading a lot on theory crafting, or getting advice from other players.ReplyDelete
All that is needed in WoW is gear, communication and cooperation. Communication and cooperation are what makes WoW raiding a difficult game. Getting 25 people all on the same page without any of them whining and leaving after a wipe or two is hard.
Once people know what to do, and have the gear to do it WoW becomes a push over joke. After all WoW is a game based on numbers. Results from gear are easy to predict, results from players...not so much.
For me, the problem is not challenge per se, but the type of challenge. Some people want WoW to be more like a video game and FPS in particular. And there should be arenas et al for them. I do not PvP and have no skill or interest in it. I see too many things where the challenge is only reaction time.ReplyDelete
There seems to be little challenge that requires intelligence. Some knowledge is required, but I am not sure that someone who spends 40 hours reading EJ has a significantly better shot rotation that one who spends 2. Nor a lot of challenge that requires effort/grinding (Hodir excepted.) The challenge involves reflexes and movement.
And I find WotLK frustratingly in the middle; if it was more movement and twitching, then it would be even more obvious it was time for me to leave. Millions of people would prefer more FPS-like; my guess is the majority of subscribers would not and Bliz would certainly find it harder to expand (or even retain - there are many competitors ) their customer base. Or they could walk away from the idea that "challenging" means doing the Heigen dance and jumping at the right time. Perhaps where knowledge, intelligence and effort were also part of the challenge rather than the [to me] more juvenile, more trivial, current challenges that mostly test your reaction speed with perhaps a test of your computer and network connection.
I think you can still be just as committed as you and the blogosphere are to the idea of challenge while feeling it is the type not extent of the challenges that disappoint.
Yeah I don't think reducing the amount of skill involved even further and just making it a gear game is a good idea. I think it's a better to just shrink the information gap, so that even players who don't pore over EJ can do a decent rotation and know what gems to use.ReplyDelete
Raids are actually the least skill-based part of the game, but there is still a gap between the excellent players and the decent players, meaning that there has to be some skill involved.
The real skill comes in in small groups and in pvp. I defy anyone who says there's no room for skill in WoW to truthfully claim they have never been just plain destroyed by someone who outplayed them in PvP.
And I know I'm desired over other rogues not just for my dps, but because I've used gouge and blind to save my healers more times than they can count, and I hit my interrupts when needed more often than not.
- Anonymous10:35 AM, January 17, 2009
Diablo 2 made raiding incredible fun and rewarding. WoW, despite most of the comments here has a very solid pve game and just has some minor issues with gear and item mudflation with its lvl pacing.ReplyDelete
I think where the biggest problem is, that characters must scale their gear and use external sources to get uptu speed with a raid instance. It should be the other way around, the instance should scale to the players gear and number of players and the required strategy doesnt need to be about your positional exploits but rather your conviction to take down the bosses.
Nobody goes through the 1-60 content expecting people in instances to not make mistakes (that in endgame raids make everyone wipe). This part of the game is the most enjoyable to most players, ironically.
Someone posted a comment about casual player being the lowest common denominator in WoW, I would argue that hardcore raiders have always been the lowest common denominator because the content they designed does apply to those crazy enough to jump all the hurdles for it.
- Anonymous8:28 PM, January 18, 2009
Rohan, I don't have a problem with letting others see content as well. Frankly, I simply couldn't be bothered about what other people are doing. Whether or not they have epics or rare mounts or whatever is completely irrelevant to my playing experience.ReplyDelete
What does affect it however, is when fights are designed to be brainless. It is not simply a matter of allowing everyone to view content ala some kind of tourist mode, because that has no impact on me.
A fight can't simply be scaled up or down in terms of boss hp and damage and made easier/harder. Many things tend to be either trivial, or completely different. By the nature of tuning with the goal of "i want everyone to be able to see this" you will most likely end up with fights that are flat out boring to any person who puts in any kind of effort.
Isn't the fun part of a game learning and improving and overcoming challenges together? How are players supposed to improve if everytime they fail Blizzard just makes the goal easier?


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What makes a student successful? What makes adults successful? Is it how much they know? To me, it's the character of a man or woman that makes the biggest difference. When I look back over my years of teaching, my biggest frustrations with students (and parents) revolve around issues like responsibility, dishonesty, short-sightedness, dependence, lack of perseverance, and lack of tenacity. As Angela Duckworth so eloquently details in her TED Talk, the biggest indicator of success is grit.
For years, educational "experts" have been telling us that students fail, students are mean, students are depressed because of their lack of self-esteem. I see students with the opposite problem: they are completely self-consumed and think of themselves as invincible. "I can drink and drive and will never get caught or get in an accident." "I can be lazy and not do any hard work and turn out just fine. I'll get by somehow." Today's young people suffer from a lack of character that revolves around an extreme self-centered attitude.
So if we want kids to focus more on others and develop strong character, what do we as educators do? Build up their SELF esteem? I believe that approach creates more self-centered, ego-inflated citizens. First, we can model other-centeredness, caring, giving, and kindness for our kids. We should be smothering them with positive messages, encouragement, and acts of kindness. In addition, teachers should be highlighting positive peer role models.
Friday, a 12-year old boy had a dream come true: he got a foul ball at a Red Sox game. But instead of standing up, celebrating his moment, and pocketing the ball, he turned to the little girl behind him and handed it to her. Ryan acted without even thinking! He did it because it's nice to do! What an amazing role model. Let's lift up Ryan and make him a hero for our kids to admire, rather than all the characterless actors, musicians, and athletes that our society loves to worship. And after you watch this, submit a comment with a link to other inspiring stories of selflessness that we teachers can use as positive role models for our kids.


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DENVER (AP) -- Colorado's medical marijuana regulations are due for a critical look Tuesday from auditors who have been called to investigate why the agency is so troubled.
The Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division has had to lay off staff and leave major regulatory ideas on the shelf. That's because the agency fell short of fees paid by people seeking medical marijuana licenses.
The struggling regulatory ideas include seed-to-sale tracking of marijuana, plus round-the-clock video surveillance of marijuana plants.
The division's problems are being watched closely because the agency is likely to shift to enforce recreational pot, too. A legislative audit committee wants to know what should be done differently to make sure enforcement is adequate as Colorado launches licensing for recreational marijuana businesses.


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Unlike traditional Web authoring systems, such as Front Page or Dreamweaver, which create and maintain static HTML pages, CommonSpot manages content in a granular and object-oriented manner. CommonSpot stores and manages all content, except for images and other native document files, within the CommonSpot content repository, a series of relational databases.
This object-oriented framework provides tremendous advantages:
The number of databases needed for your configuration depends on the number of top-level sites. One database exists for:
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You can download PDF versions of the Content Contributor's, Administrator's, and Elements Reference documents from the support section of paperthin.com (requires login).
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Northeast, Maryland
Happy Friday! Back after taking a two-week break from the Follow Friday Gems. Needed to regroup and regenerate my batteries. Between the holidays and the curve balls life throws our way need a wee bit of off time.
While writing this post I realized how much I missed my journey around the genealogy world. Each week there are amazing posts to entertain and educate. And without further ado here are just a few discovered this week.
Denielle Radcliff Koch of Ancestrally Challenged will be sharing a series of genealogy book reviews. This week's title is Genealogical Proof Standard: building a solid case by Christine Rose.
Over at Dying for Chocolate we find Ruth Jordan's Busy Lady Fudge. My favorite type of recipe! Easy and yummy! Then from Family Heritage Recipes we have the mouth-watering treat Butterscotch Carmel Pull-Aparts.
Russ Worthington of My Tombstone Collection shares helpful tips on using the Find-A-Grave website with Family Tree University Cemetery Research 101 - Lesson 2 - Find a cemetery.
Must read! Cassmob of Family history across the seas shares great advice for future researchers.
Made any New Year's resolutions? Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy Blog share her 2012 New Year's Genealogy Resolutions.
My husband's newfound cousin Heather Wilkinson Rojo shares The Nutfield Genealogy Top 10 for 2011.
The National Archives shares the interesting tale A Civil War Widow's Story.
Excellent research tip from Leah's Family Tree with Not All Wikipedia Pages Are Created Equal.
Indiana ancestors? The Indiana Genealogical Society Blog announced 3 counties were added to the Indiana Marriage Index.
Sheri Fenley of The Educated Genealogist shares Making Some Family History Where Ever I Go. Sheri tells how to turn a grocery store shopping trip into a wonderful event. Storing this one in my Grammy bag of tricks!
Leland and Patty Meitzler of GenalogyBlog catch us up with New USA Vital Records Data at FamilySearch.org.
Check out the amazing photographs by Carol of Reflections From the Fence in the post THE Trip, Yellowstone National Park, Roosevelt, Snow and One Last Look.
Make sure to read Q&A with Julie Hill of Archives.com about the 1940 U.S. Census by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings. Chocked full of great information!
Favorite post of the week is from Jacqi of A Family Tapestry. You are sure to enjoy the charming Cat Genealogy And Dog Tags.
Great genealogy webinar opportunity with 10 Ways To Jump Start Your Genealogy in 2012 from the Illinois State Genealogical Society
Thanks to Jennie of They Came To Montana for her Friday Funny...Party Hearty on NYE!
Happy Blogiversary to Documenting the Details! Stop by and offer your congratulations!
Blogs discovered this week:
Ancestral Times
The Family Snoop
Genedocs: Genealogy and Legacy Preservation
The Sum Of All My Research
The USCT Chronicle
Wishing a wonderful Follow Friday and Happy New Year to everyone!


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Results 1 to 4 of 4
Thread: Happy New Year
12-31-2011, 03:04 PM #1Pro Bowl Poster
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- Jan 2011
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- Watford, England
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Happy New Year
Just wanted to wish fellow UK Ravens fans a very happy New Year.
Hope to see you not too worse for wear in tomorrow's game thread as we clinch the division!
GO RAVENS!"Flacco stepping up and throwing deep down the far sideline... CAUGHT!!! Into the endzone, TOUCHDOWN JACOBY JONES!!!!!"
01-01-2012, 02:06 PM #2Pro Bowl Poster
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- Aug 2011
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- Nottingham, England
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Re: Happy New Year
Happy New Year everybody!
I'm having to forgo tonights game beers as a consequence of last night's excesses!!
Re: Happy New Year
Just got back from Agadir. Managed to get Ravens updates on my lad's new phone (new it was a good idea to get him a better one for xmas)
Happy New Year everyone."We ain't stinking Redskins fans in this Town sonny!"
01-03-2012, 09:30 AM #4Regular 1st Stringer
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
- Location
- USRaven
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- 155
Re: Happy New Year
Happy New Year and Fesitvus Maximus to the UK Ravens!


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Loretta I. Bustetter, 84
Loretta I. Bustetter, 84, of Wapakoneta, died at 4:55 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21, 2011, at St. Rita's Medical Center in Lima.
She was born on Dec. 13, 1926, in Auglaize County, the daughter of Albert and Anna (Brautigam) Seitz, and they preceded her in death.
On June 6, 1945, she married Alfred A. Bustetter, and he survives her.
She is also survived by four children, Patricia (Thomas) Davin of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., Michael (Kathy) Bustetter of Charlotte, N.C., Debra (Todd) Meier of Wapakoneta and David (Sara) Bustetter of Cincinnati; 10 grandchildren, Molly (Michael) Hoffmann, Bradley (Kimberly) Davin, Bridget (Jim) Dwyer, Christopher Bustetter, Amanda (Jason) Alge, Abigail (Dane) Roush, Aimee Meier, Shannon, James and Samuel Bustetter; nine great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by a son, Robert Bustetter; a sister, Evelyn Bustetter; two brothers, Vernon and Eldon Seitz.
A homemaker, Loretta was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, where she was a member of the former Christian Mothers. She was active with the Girl Scouts for more than 30 years and also volunteered at God's Storehouse. She was a 1944 graduate of Blume High School. In years past, she enjoyed fishing and camping.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wapakoneta, with the Rev. Matthew Lee officiating. Burial is to follow in the St. Joseph Cemetery in Wapakoneta.
The family will receive friends from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at the Long & Folk Chapel of Bayliff & Eley Funeral Home, 13 S. Blackhoof St., Wapakoneta.
Memorial contributions may be directed to the St. Joseph Catholic Church. Condolences may be expressed at Bayliffandeleyfh.com.


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