text:
Monday, January 26, 2009
Why So Serious?
Monday, January 26, 2009
What, that doesn't sound so bad? Then allow me to introduce a new Wreck series: Caped Catastrophes. Today's first lucky victim? The Bat Man himself.
Here Bat Boy rides out of a plastic drain-pipe on a magma slick in glorious celebration of "Brian Day". Um, are those things on the side supposed to be bats, Clarissa D.?
Then there's the continuing drama between Batman and the Batmobile:
I agree that the door in the brick wall is a little odd, Ashley W., but what I really want to know is how the Batmobile can leave a cloud of snow-white exhaust shaped like a hibiscus flower. These Bat gadgets - they just get cooler every year, don't they?
Fortunately Judith C. reports that 'man and 'mobile appear to have made up here:
Christal W. found the best toy-to-cake ratio out there:
I'm not sure if "River" is the birthday person's name, or if - in the tradition of Wreckerators everywhere - the decorator just labeled the cake what it's supposed to look like. If that's the case, then s/he must have meant "cascading river of blood, cement, and mold". But, you know, that probably wouldn't have fit.
([sigh] Again, yes, it's "professional". I checked the site and everything. C'mon, a little credit here?)
Now remember, kids: crime doesn't pay. Right, Batman?
But you know, all these cakes are totally cheating: they each use plastic Batman figurines! Why aren't decorators actually drawing the caped crusader?
Oh. That's why. Thanks, Nicc.
[shifty eyes] Um, and can I just say that that's an unfortunately appropriate placement of the "pp"?
Aaaand I'm done.
Have a superhero Wreck you've been meaning to send me? Then send it in soon; I'll be continuing the Caped Catastrophes theme over the next few weeks.
112 comments | Post a Comment
- fleeting said...
Ah! I saw one almost identical to cake #1 in my local Safeway, but my phone's battery was dead so I didn't manage a picture! Good to know that there are better, more fearless Wreckporters than I... that thing deserves to be seen!
- January 26, 2009 at 9:32 AM
It looks like Batman got ran over. And squished.
- January 26, 2009 at 9:33 AM
- Hyena Overlord said...
Holy crap cakes Batman!
What a mess.
The p's should be back to back*evil laugh*
wvotd pateri: a pasta made by letting your terripoo pat it flat with his/her paws. - January 26, 2009 at 9:35 AM
- Dahnks said...
New shirt needed with this saying "Blasted Baked Balls of Blue! I can't...quite...reach you!".. just about spit my 7-up all over my computer screen!
- January 26, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Holy toxic orange oil slicks, Batman. That first one is just scary. Actually they're all scary. And thanks for pointing out the wonderful placement of that PP.
- January 26, 2009 at 9:38 AM
- Eternal Lizdom said...
I haven't laughed this hard at a Wreck in a while- peopl emight be looking at me funny soon. The Batman being abandoned by his Batmobile is HILARIOUS!
- January 26, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Is Batgirl wielding a sword on that one wreck? Hey, wait a minute. That's the Tim Drake Robin on the same cake, and that's the Barbara Gordon Batgirl. Barbara was paralyzed before Tim became Robin.
I declare that cake to be non-canon. - January 26, 2009 at 9:46 AM
- Angie McCullagh said...
Robin must be bitterly jealous of the batmobile. I know I would be.
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com) - January 26, 2009 at 9:49 AM
- MzHartz said...
I kind of like the placement of the candles on the top one. But does the bat-bike have an acid orange oil leak?
- January 26, 2009 at 9:54 AM
- Kathryn H said...
Shouldn't the "River" cake been a part of the body part cake entry?
Is it a cancer? - January 26, 2009 at 9:54 AM
Cashing Crime?..I don't get it...
At least we are back to cakes that make me want cake. After Holy S**t cake last week I wasn't sure I wanted to eat cake ever again. These actually look delicious and wrecktastic. - January 26, 2009 at 9:55 AM
- Sarraphim said...
Oh my good gosh, so funny! Yeah, Bat Man they screw up enough... wonder what they've done to Superman?!
- January 26, 2009 at 9:56 AM
you forgot to mention that timmy's cake has pink on it. poor thing.
- January 26, 2009 at 9:59 AM
Did anyone else notice that the 1st cake is for a 20 year old (if the number of candles reflect "Brian's" age)??
Can you say living at home w/ mom & dad in the basement? - January 26, 2009 at 10:00 AM
- Donna M. said...
Did the last one say "Marvin" or "Melvin"? It made me think of Jeff Dunham's puppet...Melvin the Super Hero.
- January 26, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Wow. I'm about to make a Batman cake for my son's birthday. Hope it turns out better than these!
- January 26, 2009 at 10:05 AM
The CCC was lcose, though. One or two more and it'll be something special.
- January 26, 2009 at 10:06 AM
i wonder if that's supposed to be 'crushing crime'?
- January 26, 2009 at 10:21 AM
The last one looks like Al Bundy wearing a Batman costume.
- January 26, 2009 at 10:22 AM
- Persnickety Ticker said...
With enough blue frosting right and left to make mothers everywhere cringe...
Thanks for the PP giggle...oh, and Hyena Overlord? Your mind is just completely in the gutter...I like that in a person!! - January 26, 2009 at 10:30 AM
As a Metropolis resident I had to wonder, where are the Superman cakes?
- January 26, 2009 at 10:33 AM
- Kate said...
Ok, this is giving me serious reservations about my son's request for a Batman cake for his 4th birthday. How do I not screw this up?!
- January 26, 2009 at 10:46 AM
- Morgi said...
I should know better than to read this while eating. I think I just aspirated Cheerios.
- January 26, 2009 at 10:48 AM
May I point out that in the UK 'batty boy' is homophobic slang for a gay guy, so its use to describe the caped crusader was quite a shock to me until realised you probably didn't know that.
There you learn something new every day. - January 26, 2009 at 10:49 AM
- Glory von Hathor said...
So, I missed Brian Day AGAIN this year? Rats. Where the hell was I?
Next year...
Was the parade good? - January 26, 2009 at 10:50 AM
- tat2kitten said...
great new wreck theme. and i LOOOOVE batman. poor guy, reduced to ccc's and epic battles atop weird mountains of icing that isn't a color natural to anything in God's green goodness.
- January 26, 2009 at 11:00 AM
- Kristin said...
Bwahahaha...thanks for the laugh with that last CCC. The placement of the PP made me laugh.
- January 26, 2009 at 11:07 AM
that's AWESOME!!!
On a side note - I just saw the new Batman movie at Christmas and loved it. ahhh... Christain Bale. Enough said. - January 26, 2009 at 11:11 AM
- The Ferber Family said...
I'm just wondering how those huge arse plastic batmen are going to fit in those itty bitty batmobiles... anyone? guess maybe that's his hidden superpower? he's a human shrinkydink?
- January 26, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Is it just me or is Batman hailing a cab on the second cake? And could someone please put "Blasted Baked Balls of Blue! I can't...quite...reach you!" on a t-shirt?
- January 26, 2009 at 11:12 AM
- WakeGrace said...
i ACTUALLY ordered cake #1 for my dad ( biggest batman fan i know) BUT thinking of CakeWrecks i pretty much asked for everything different. hahah. I asked for No blue or Black icing and instead went with a white/ slight grey. The though of eternally blue intestines made me sick. and the magma was out too. it actually came out to be a good looking cake. if you change everything!
also. I was so excited...Batman is my absolute favorite superhero! I mean i'll admit I'm one of those women throwing themselves in his path when i see those tights and bullets ricocheting off their rock-hard pectoral muscles. - January 26, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Am I the only idiot who can't figure out what a "pp" is? I mean, I'm expecting something phallic, but I can't for the life of me find what it could be on the cake... You'd think I would know these things after reading this blog EVERY SINGLE DAY....
wv: things. Just... things. - January 26, 2009 at 11:41 AM
- Jacq said...
I was scrolling down through the photos and thinking 'gosh, I couldn't eat any cake with that much lurid blue icing on it', and then I came to River's cake: the cake that looks like slurry. Suddenly, lurid blue icing looked strangely appetising by comparison!
- January 26, 2009 at 11:46 AM
- Lildonbro said...
I was laughing so hard!
...until the river cake, that one stopped the laughing and triggered the gag reflex. - January 26, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Well, of COURSE Wonder Woman has rock-hard pectoral muscles. Female superheroes need them too. The muscles just aren't as visible on women, that's all. The ricocheting thing could be a problem, but presumably whatever protects Superman's skin (not to mention his shirt... shouldn't it look all tattered after he deflects a burst of machine-gun fire?) would also protect the female superhero's other, um, attributes in that area. (With Wonder Woman it's not even an issue, since her wristbands handle the bullet-deflecting duties.)
Why does Batman look like he's kicking back and relaxing in a... turret? strangely designed hot tub? whatever that is... on the "cashing" cake? - January 26, 2009 at 11:59 AM
The "Cashing Crime" cake is probably supposed to say "Catching Crime". It was most likely a phone order that was misinterpreted. Haven't we learned our lesson people?!? No phone orders!! :)
- January 26, 2009 at 12:12 PM
- Cute Things in Paint said...
i <3 legless batman ccc.
- January 26, 2009 at 12:18 PM
- the ginabean said...
that "river" cake is one of the ugliest things i've ever seen. it seriously hurts my retinas. and that batman ccc is...also hideous.
know what's funny? the word verification thingy actually has the word "suck" in it. that's funny... - January 26, 2009 at 12:27 PM
I read this blog everyday and I usually don't leave a comment, but I had to today. This post was one of the funniest posts here in a while. I was seriously laughing hard. Oh my god, more of things like this please.
- January 26, 2009 at 12:29 PM
- alexlady said...
the last one looks like batman is trying to dress up as Hedwig for Halloween.
- January 26, 2009 at 12:31 PM
- Word Ninja said...
I've seen every wreck you've posted, and this one is now in my top 5, right up there with mohawked-naked-carrot-riding-babies...you're commentary is priceless!!
- January 26, 2009 at 12:44 PM
- Suzanne Dargie said...
All I can say is: "YIKES!"
- January 26, 2009 at 12:52 PM
- Unknown said...
Poor Batman. He can't get no respect.
- January 26, 2009 at 1:05 PM
- Pam said...
I recognize that plastic oval Batman insignia...it is from dual purpose Batman/Superman Wilton kit I used to make my son a Batman cake about 15 years ago. It had a head and torso shaped pan that you baked the cake in, then decorated with the appropriate colored frosting using the "Wilton technique" and affixed the appropriate superhero face and chest emblem. It was the first and last I ever used black frosting!
- January 26, 2009 at 1:07 PM
- Christa said...
Oh I almsot fell out of my chair about the "PP" thing. You are so funny!
- January 26, 2009 at 1:14 PM
- Ted S. (Just a Cineast) said...
The "River" cake looks like an elementary school science fair volcano. It's not a river of blood; it's lava. How it got turned into a cake, I'll never know.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thought Batman was getting run over by the Batmobile in the cupcake cake. - January 26, 2009 at 1:14 PM
- Bedlam said...
you make a good point on the plastic figurines, i always see plastic toys representing Batman
- January 26, 2009 at 1:28 PM
- Tara Bergin said...
"Blasted Baked Balls of Blue! I can't...quite...reach you!"
Thank you for that, it made my day :) - January 26, 2009 at 1:37 PM
- Mahou said...
Oh gods. Thats horrible!!!
On a side note, I just saw a commercial on the food channel that there is going to be a wedding cake competition. I'm waiting to see what comes out of that.
(first time commenter here, btw. Found the blog yesterday!) - January 26, 2009 at 1:53 PM
*wipes tear from eye*
I love the "I didn't mean it" comments. Poor Batman, what was he thinking when he said that? Maybe KITT could be a temporary stand-in. Now that would rock. - January 26, 2009 at 2:18 PM
- Unknown said...
SWEET! Brian day, yet another day in which I have an excuse to eat cake!
- January 26, 2009 at 2:49 PM
- Angela at Box of Unicorns said...
It looks like Batman is trying to hold his pants up in that last one. Maybe his Utility Belt isn't working?
Ooorrr maybe he is pulling his pants up because he just went... peepee?
Did I seriously type that? - January 26, 2009 at 2:53 PM
I think the Batmobile lost a LOT more than a wheel here...
The Joker should be THANKFUL he got away. - January 26, 2009 at 2:57 PM
- queenb said...
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for your comments....It's Monday and I'm hitting the afternoon blues portion of the first day of the week....and the commentary on these gems just completely revived me!
My fav is the cake with Batman trying to convince the Batmobile to return...and the hibiscus smoke...
Wreck on Caped Catastrophes!
Bonnie B
PS...MalMal...'pp' is referring to the placement of the two p's in 'Happy'....which is why Hyena Overlord said that they should be back to back...hehehehe ;) - January 26, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Wow, my 10 year old nephew summed it up best regarding the first cake: "It looks like a cheese oil slick!"
Yuck. - January 26, 2009 at 3:34 PM
Ummm why is Batman fighting a dragon and you're right about the mold!
- January 26, 2009 at 3:38 PM
lmfao human shrinky dink! I love it!
- January 26, 2009 at 3:44 PM
- shewhocooks said...
That first cake? Yeah, that's an actual kit. You can thank Bakery Crafts for that one...half bats and squished "flames" and all.
- January 26, 2009 at 4:26 PM
- Pirate Alice said...
What is Brian Day? Do you have to be named Brian to celebrate?
- January 26, 2009 at 4:28 PM
*lmao!* Im speechless...no really! ha ha!
- January 26, 2009 at 4:34 PM
Brian Day?? Where have you people been?
Brian Day is that beloved holiday which we celebrate by dressing up as leprauchauns while hopping around the Christmas tree. When the wreckorated cake is lit in the town square by the town cupid, it's time to retire for the evening. The Easter Bunny will leave quarters under you pillow while you sleep.
It's a wonderful holiday. Please tell me that I'm not the only one who celebrates it. - January 26, 2009 at 4:42 PM
Ooooh.. thanks. Apparently I expect everything to be a blog acronym. I kept thinking "pp..pp.. piping? piss poor piping? No, that's three p's...."
- January 26, 2009 at 5:25 PM
PLEASE tell me you're going to do a Sunday Sweets Superhero post?! I'm planning my 25th birthday party this year, and the theme is Comic Books and Graphic Novels, and I have no idea what to do for a cake, and these so called professional attempts are very disheartening!
- January 26, 2009 at 5:27 PM
I'm impressed that "Happy Brian Day" didn't come out as "Happy Brain Day". Well, OK, maybe I'm actually a bit disappointed.
- January 26, 2009 at 5:34 PM
I read all the commentary and captions, and finally cracked at "why is Batman fighting a dragon?", I spat cocoa all over my keyboard! I'm definately making a shirt with "Blasted baked balls of blue" on, its just too good!
- January 26, 2009 at 5:53 PM
- E.A.D. said...
I'm glad I wasn't drinking or eating. I think I'd owe the cafe owner a new keyboard. Still giggling at " Blasted baked balls of blue".
- January 26, 2009 at 6:11 PM
I throw my vote behind "CHASING Crime" for the intended spelling.
But seriously, what's up with the river cake? Is it some sort of unholy compromise? Maybe the kid wanted Batman and the parents had already planned a Renaissance Faire-themed party? With a name like River, I wouldn't doubt it. - January 26, 2009 at 7:13 PM
- sendingtheclowns said...
I too DEMAND to know why Batman is reclining recklessly on cake #5???
(VERY unprofessional of a superhero to be napping while in uniform!!!)
It looks like he slipped on the smooth surface of the way-out-of- proportion buildings (?) and got stuck.
Cake #3 looks as if the Batmobile had been spinning doughnuts in a parking lot made of blue & yellow frosting, while Batman surfs the rippling waves on his mini surfboard.
No telling WHAT shenanigans these two will be up to in the next episode! Stay tuned! - January 26, 2009 at 7:44 PM
- evil cake lady said...
This post is one of my favorites! Batman pleading for the Batmobile to come back is just plain awesome, and the whole PP thing...priceless.
- January 26, 2009 at 8:22 PM
I just love how even though they have plastic batman pieces to use, they still manage to screw it up by writing "cashing crime" on the side. LOVE it.
- January 26, 2009 at 9:50 PM
- dizzy mom said...
Wow...my avitar has never been so perfect. I can't wait for the Wonder Woman wrecks! As far as Batman's "pp" I didn't even notice...thanks for bringing it to my attention.
- January 26, 2009 at 10:03 PM
- Misty Dawn Photography said...
I LOVE this blog! You crack me up every day with these cakes! I follow it in my Google Reader and although I've never left a comment before, I'm leaving one now to let you know that I'm giving you a Blog Luv Award! You can check it out here: http://mistydawnphoto.com/blog/?p=304
- January 26, 2009 at 10:27 PM
For the record, copyrighted characters are technically not supposed to be drawn on professional cakes without crazy amounts of permissions... not that that stops the smaller bakeries, generally... But anyway, that's why so many plastic figurines.
- January 26, 2009 at 10:31 PM
- Hall Monitor said...
Bat-Mobile lost its wheels and the joker got away!
- January 26, 2009 at 11:06 PM
- Camille said...
Oh my heck! The comments about the "pp" hilarious. Love your blog.
- January 27, 2009 at 12:59 AM
- jackie31337 said...
MariaTeresa said... I'm impressed that "Happy Brian Day" didn't come out as "Happy Brain Day". Well, OK, maybe I'm actually a bit disappointed.
Or maybe it was supposed to say "happy brain day" and they got it wrong. It makes about as much sense as "happy Brian day".
On a side note, I have a cousin named Brian who was born when I was just learning to write and spell. He got a lot of hand-made cards addressed to "Brain" from me as a baby. - January 27, 2009 at 3:02 AM
- K said...
I think the third one is paying homage to Van Gogh's "Starry Night." Just a guess though.
- January 27, 2009 at 7:41 AM
I can here it now, "Yo, Wonder Woman! Fly yo little fine self on over here and have a look at my super canole. Yeah girl, that's right." Somebody get me a barf bag QUICK!!!!!!!!!!!!
WV: micracke Mi cracke up at these cakes girl! - January 27, 2009 at 7:41 AM
- Torii said...
Why is Jimmy's name in pink? Manly Batman cake accented by a pink border?
- January 27, 2009 at 8:27 AM
- Ms Unreliable said...
That pp was totally planned. Unlike the rest of the cake.
- January 27, 2009 at 8:46 AM
Batman #3 must be into hip-hop, judging by his saggy tights.
---Bree - January 27, 2009 at 8:48 AM
LOVED this today. Poor Batman.
Here's a link for "useless superpowers" that I found the other day... Hilarious.
Goes with the whole super-hero theme. :) - January 27, 2009 at 9:14 AM
- Trevor said...
On an unrelated note, I was wondering if you're planning to go to the ICES convention in IL this year. I think any of your readers who go should get together and have a meet and greet! - January 27, 2009 at 9:26 AM
- The Chic Cakery said...
In that first wreck it looks like Batman is driving out of a colon... I'm just sayin'.
- January 27, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Where I work, we have to use the plastic figures because of copyright laws. We're not allowed to draw ANYTHING copyrighted, or we could lose our job and get fined.
- January 27, 2009 at 11:07 AM
"But you know, all these cakes are totally cheating: they each use plastic Batman figurines! Why aren't decorators actually drawing the caped crusader?"
Unfortunately, us decorators are not allowed to draw any licensed material, no matter how much a customer begs, pleads and gets pissed off because they already bought all the "stuff" for the theme. Those gray blobs on the blue Batcycle cake are supposed to be round rocks, not spikes! Geesh..
love your commentary as usual! - January 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Can I just say, I love this blog. I read it when I need a good hearty guffaw. It's cleverly written. Major props to y'all.
- January 27, 2009 at 12:00 PM
- E. Peterman said...
Phew. The Batman cakes are a stitch — just horrible execution!
- January 27, 2009 at 4:12 PM
- Unknown said...
As a craft-store Wilton alumnus (and my mom before me), that last cake brings back memories. Poor guy; he looks more like The Tick than Batman. Not saying I could do much better but still. Poor guy. The eyes freak me out.
"Cashing Crime." Was this made for a bank? And if so, I don't know if that's an occasion for celebration...
River cake...Oh, boy. No words. They tried so hard...well, I hope it at least tasted good.
Okay, must stop laughing...people are beginning to wonder what I'm doing over here. *snicker* - January 27, 2009 at 5:35 PM
- klasieprof said...
Oh man...I wonder how JIMMY felt having all that PINK piping on his cake...
Donna in Mid Michigan...freezing... - January 27, 2009 at 8:33 PM
- Hannah said...
i'm pretty sure it's supposed to say "crushing crime," not "cashing crime."
- January 28, 2009 at 4:49 AM
- alexlady said...
I like glam-rock batman there. what a luxurious head of golden locks.
- January 28, 2009 at 10:07 AM
I'd like these cakes more than any professional-made stuff. Shows people really do care.
- January 28, 2009 at 7:10 PM
My 5 yo son looked at cake #2 and said -- it's got a wall! It's not a cake, it has levers! What happens when you pull them?
He's got a point. What are those things? - January 28, 2009 at 7:38 PM
maybe they found that cake in the "river"?
- January 29, 2009 at 10:43 AM
But...but... I sent you a "why so serious" superhero cake gone wrong pic over a month ago, and you didn't post it! :*(
- January 29, 2009 at 2:29 PM
Looks like "Batman Chasing the Batmobile" is a common theme in cakes:
http://thepartyworks.com/images/product_images/large/batman-jackcake-7-30-06-shaw.jpg - January 29, 2009 at 7:05 PM
Long time lurker, first time commenting here.
I no longer feel guilty about the Buddy Christ dashboard graven image I have on my Freightliner anymore.
The word verification is "sainti"?!? - January 29, 2009 at 9:31 PM
i like chock let cake
- January 30, 2009 at 8:10 AM
I have nothing important to say - but this just DESERVES to get to a hundred comments !!! ;¬)
- January 31, 2009 at 1:06 PM
- beloved30 said...
PP! I almost pp-ed my pants laughing!
- February 4, 2009 at 12:45 AM
- Danielle said...
Im a cake decorator at Walmart, and I think its hilarious that a ton of these cakes are from there.. hahaha.
- February 26, 2009 at 5:37 PM
- Unknown said...
The toys on the cake is because of copyright issues. Very few if any bakeries have the right to do a cake like you are talking about them doing. Would cause huge legal problems for them. The baker of the cake you praised so highly might not appreciate your compliment especially if it brings her the attention of whoever enforces the copyright of Spiderman
- February 27, 2009 at 1:55 PM
The cake second from the bottom... It looks like there is a pair of glowing blue eyes reflecting in the display case... now thats disturbing. perhaps batman's nemesis?
- March 17, 2009 at 4:26 PM
- Hannah said...
Thank you Jen, honestly without your comments I wouldn't find half of these cakes so funny. Ugly? Of course. Funny? Probably not.
- July 5, 2009 at 2:33 PM
- Zannah said...
... iwanted a Batman cake for my 16th Birthday....now i'm scared to order one!
- August 13, 2009 at 5:24 PM
#1 "When you close your eyes at night, do you still hear the bats scream, Clarissa?" I know the name isn't an exact match, but I couldn't resist. Maybe they're screaming because they were made to perform aeroBATics.
It looks like Bat Boy is jumping out of a giant pram ('old-fashioned stroller'), though that still doesn't explain the neon orange goo.
'Brian Day'. Let's hope that was the kid's full name, and not the start of another dastardly trend in word economizing. I know the point was already raised, but there sure are a lot of candles...
#2 looks like Batman was teaching Robin to park just as Tinkerbell made an unfortunate appearance in the wrong story. Poor Timmy. Poor, pink Timmy. Maybe he and Brian will have the same therapist. All in all, it's just another door in the wall.
WV: exesse. Exactly. - July 5, 2010 at 5:34 AM
Ah, Jimmy! Or is it 'Simmy'? Definitely not Timmy -- there are no collies on that cake.
Poor kid -- that cake even makes his name ambiguous.
What's the deal on the last specimen -- the background looks like mac & cheese. I so hope not -- I like that particular dish and want to keep eating it without hearing that theme song playing over and over in my mind... - July 8, 2010 at 3:32 AM
- Cupcakes Lady said...
Cashing Crime? eh?! xx
- October 13, 2010 at 8:43 AM
I now understand how the bat mobile lost a wheel though I feel the joker ran in this particular case
- February 25, 2011 at 4:08 PM
Bat*girl* is fighting the dragon (at least, I hope that's Batgirl). With a sword. Now it all makes sense, right? Except for Robin being an Elvis impersonator...
wv: santerea. Except for spelling, what I think might have been involved in the 'River' cake. - February 26, 2011 at 5:55 AM
- stalkers_can't_be_stalked said...
My favorite one was the third one :)
- March 2, 2011 at 12:27 AM
Search This Blog
Wreck the Halls
NEW! Pre-Order Today!
Barnes & Noble
Borders |
Buy the Book
Buy the NYT Bestseller
What's a Wreck?
What's a Wreck?
A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.
Now, don't you have a photo you want to send me? ;)
- Fan Faves
- The Classics
The Classics
Praise for the Book
- "Will have you laughing so hard you'll forget to eat!"— Washington Post
- "a hilarious winner" — The Oregonian
- "a fantastically gut-busting book"— NPR
- "It's all here, each wreck a disaster of hilarity." — BookPage.com
- "Hysterically funny!"— Epinions.com
- "laugh-out-loud funny"— The Times
- "Yates' sharp humor makes the funny even funnier." — The Dallas Morning News
- "an amazing laugh-out-loud book"— The Book Triblog
What the fans are saying
- "I was laughing so hard, I couldn't catch my breath."
- "As funny as the blog that started it."
- "WAY better than I expected!"
- "Cake Wreckery at its best!"
- "Wrecktastic!"
- American Mensa:Top 50 Websites of 2010
- Amazon: Top 10 gift books of 2009
- The Orlando Sentinal "Orbbies": Winner Humor
- 2009 BlogLuxe Awards: Funniest Blog
- 2009 Bloggies: Best Writing of a Weblog, Best New Weblog, Best Food Blog
- The 2008 Weblog Awards: Best Food Blog
- Blogger's Choice 2008 Awards: Best Humor Blog
Where's the book?
We don't have any copies of Cake Wrecks for sale here, autographed or otherwise. We decided the shipping and handling costs would be too high to make it worth your while. So instead, buy your copies locally or online and then order personalized bookplates: it's cheaper, easier, and I think even looks a bit nicer.
Ordering Info
Payments must be made through Paypal, which accepts all major credit cards. Sorry, but that means no checks or MOs or barter-based chickens.
We ship everything first class USPS, and will do our best to have your package in the mail within 2 days of your order.
Popular This Month
Popular This Month
- It's Me or the Dog: Cupcake Trance
- Of COURSE It's Right-Side Up...
- Score!
- Are You Ready for Some Football?!
- It's My Blog and I'll Flog if I Want To...
- Well, the word "holy" DID come to mind...
- You Say "Redneck" Like it's a Bad Thing
- Every Breath You Take...
- Why So Serious?
- Sunday Sweets: Cutey-Patootey Dragon Babes
- Hey Everybody, Do You Know What Time It Is?
- The Problem With Phone Orders
- Breaking News: Head-Swelling Bakery Incident Goes ...
- Why Suzy Needs Therapy
- The Presidential Sweet
- Wedding Crashers, Cake Wrecks Style
- That Poe Bird
- Sunday Sweets: Lord of the Rings
- It's Just a LITTLE Soap Box, I Promise
- What Do You Mean, "Last Minute"?
- Big Day, Big Wrecks
- Think They're Organic? [smirk]
- Introducing a Good Sport
- Double Your Photos, Double Your "Fun"
- LIFE Wrecks
- Voting Update: This One's For John
- Sunday Sweets: Castles & Fairies
- New Tees!
- My Sweet What is What?
- How to Make Your Twins Hate You
- Hey, Bebeh
- Cake Wrecks Gets Its Own TV Show!
- A Real Stretch
- Calling All Evil Wrecks Henchpeople...
- Now THAT'S What I'm Talkin' 'Bout
- Bonus Side Tangent Contest Results
- Why Football & Bridal Showers Don't Mix
- Sunday Sweets: Fastastical Beasts
- Groom's Cake for a Cop
- Food that's Bad for You, Disguised as...Food that'...
- Year of the Tongue?
- Wasted Cakes


text:
Please feel free to add stuff here.
This page is rather long. We've started to add some sub-headings, but would welcome your help in making it better organised.
GHC (Platform-specific Issues)
Porting GHC
How do I port GHC to platform X?
There are two distinct possibilities: either
- The hardware architecture for your system is already supported by GHC, but you're running an OS that isn't supported (or perhaps has been supported in the past, but currently isn't). This is the easiest type of porting job, but it still requires some careful bootstrapping.
- Your system's hardware architecture isn't supported by GHC. This will be a more difficult port (though by comparison perhaps not as difficult as porting gcc).
Both ways require you to bootstrap from intermediate HC files: these are the stylised C files generated by GHC when it compiles Haskell source. Basically the idea is to take the HC files for GHC itself to the target machine and compile them with gcc to get a working GHC, and go from there.
The Building Guide has all the details on how to bootstrap GHC on a new platform.
Missing libreadline.so.x Errors
I Can't run GHCi on Linux, because it complains about a missing libreadline.so.3.
The "correct" fix for this problem is to install the correct package for the particular flavour of Linux on your machine. If this isn't an option, however, there is a hack that might work: make a symbolic link from libreadline.so.4 to libreadline.so.3 in /usr/lib. We tried this on a SuSE 7.1 box and it seemed to work, but YMMV.
Linking Errors
Linking a program causes the following error on Linux: /usr/bin/ld: cannot open -lgmp: No such file or directory
The problem is that your system doesn't have the GMP library installed. If this is a RedHat distribution, install the RedHat-supplied gmp-devel package, and the gmp package if you don't already have it. There have been reports that installing the RedHat packages also works for SuSE (SuSE doesn't supply a shared gmp library).
Memory Allocation Errors
If you have SELinux enabled on your system, then GHC may fail with a memory allocation error:
ghc-6.4.1: internal error: mallocBytesRWX: failed to protect 0x0x1660730
or maybe
ghc: internal error: getMBlock: mmap: Permission denied
The reason for this is that SELinux prevents allocation of writeable/executable memory regions, which GHC needs in order to implement certain parts of the FFI that require dynamic code generation. (See this bug report).
In GHC 6.4.2 we improved the situation somewhat, but not completely.
- Set allow_execmem to 0, with the setsebool command.
- do this on a per-program basis, for GHC and GHC-compiled programs. Apparently this is done by:
/usr/bin/chcon -t unconfined_execmem_exec_t /path/to/binary/prog
Link Errors
Solaris users may sometimes get link errors due to libraries needed by GNU Readline.
We suggest you try linking in some combination of the termcap, curses and ncurses libraries, by giving -ltermcap, -lcurses and -lncurses respectively. If you encounter this problem, we would appreciate feedback on it, since we don't fully understand what's going on here. The build fails in readline.
It has been reported that if you have multiple versions of the readline library installed on Linux, then this may cause the build to fail. If you have multiple versions of readline, try uninstalling all except the most recent version.
My program that uses a really large heap crashes on Windows.
For utterly horrible reasons, programs that use more than 128Mb of heap won't work when compiled dynamically on Windows (they should be fine statically compiled).
Ctrl-C Not Working
When running GHC under a Cygwin shell on Windows, Ctrl-C sometimes doesn't work. A workaround is to use Ctrl-Break instead. Another workaround is to use the rlwrap program (cygwin package available) to invoke ghci : In addition to proper Ctrl-C, you also get emacs (or vi) key bindings and command history across sessions.
Linking with Visual Studio C++ Code
How do I link Haskell with C++ code compiled by Visual Studio?
It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the Haskell Foreign function interface (FFI), and is able to compile Haskell programs with GHC and C++ programs with Visual Studio.
GHC has two modes of code generation. It either compiles Haskell straight into object code (native mode), or translates Haskell into intermediate C code, and uses a C compiler as backend.
The Windows distribution of GHC comes bundled with the GCC compiler, which is used as backend. That's why linking Haskell with Visual C++ is no different from linking GCC-generated code with the code generated by Visual C++.
One cannot statically link together object files produced by those two compilers, but they can be linked dynamically: an executable produced by Visual C++ can invoke a DLL produced by GCC, and vice versa. Likewise, we can link Haskell with Visual C++ in one of these ways.
Note: when Haskell becomes able to use Visual C++ as a backend (see [1]), we would not need to go via a DLL anymore. Instead, we would simply list all source files (Haskell and C++) on the command line of GHC.
Invoking a Haskell DLL
From a C++ executable
- Make a Haskell DLL as explained in [2]
- Make a module definition file, such as
LIBRARY Adder
adder - Create an import library using Visual Studio's lib.exe:
lib /DEF:adder.def /OUT:adder.lib - Link the C++ program against the import library.
From a Haskell executable
- Make a DLL project in Visual Studio. It will create a .vcproj and .sln files for you. Add your C++ source files to this project.
- Create a .def file for your DLL. It might look like
LIBRARY MyDLL
where function1 and function2 are the names of the C++ functions that you want to invoke from Haskell (there can be more of them, of course), MyDLL is the name of your DLL. - Create an import library that can be used by ghc:
dlltool -d MyDLL.def -l libMyDLL.a - Link your Haskell project, adding the library:
ghc --make main.hs -optl-lMyDLL -optl-L.
mind the dot at the end of the command line!
(-optl switch passes its argument as an option to the linker).
GHCi Hanging Issues
GHCi hangs after "Loading package base ... linking ... done."
On a small number of systems GHCi will fail to start, hanging after loading the base package. The "Prelude>" prompt is never reached.
This is believed to be due to a bug in Windows thought to affect tablet PCs, although the details are not fully understood.
A workaround is to open a command prompt, enter "chcp 28591" - if this hangs hit Ctrl-C - and then run "ghci". Some users may find this hotfix useful.
A console window opens when my application is supposed to be GUI only
Windows has several different "subsystems", the default subsystem which the mingw linker uses is console, so that stdout/stderr can be printed on screen and stdin be read from the console window.
This can be solved by giving the option -optl-mwindows with the compile command:
ghc --make -optl-mwindows MyProgramWithGUI.lhs
With this option, the option -mwindows is passed to the linker.
Caveat: attempting to read from stdin with -mwindows set may cause a runtime error, any output on stdout/stderr will be lost.
.NET/JVM Availability
Why isn't GHC available for .NET or on the JVM?
It would make a lot of sense to give GHC a .NET or JVM back end, and it's a question that comes up regularly. The reason that we haven't done it here, at GHC HQ, is because it's a more substantial undertaking than might at first appear (see below). Furthermore, it'd permanently add a complete new back-end platform for us to maintain. Given our rather limited development effort, we have so far not bitten the bullet, and we have no immediate plans to do so.
It would be a good, well-defined project for someone else to tackle, and we would love to see it done. There is some good groundwork already done:
- Ashley Yakeley worked on a Haskell-JVM bridge
- Sigbjorn Finne did a simple interop implementation (the hs-dotnet package) that allows a Haskell program to be compiled to native code (as now) but to call .NET programs via a variant of the FFI. I don't think this work is in active use, and I'd be surprised if it worked out of the box, but it could probably be revived with modest effort
- Andre Santos and his colleagues at UFPE in Brazil are working on a .NET back end, that generates CLR IL, though I don't know where they are up to.
- Nigel Perry and Oliver Hunt have a Haskell.NET prototype that works using GHC to compile to Core, and then compiling Core to NET. I'm not sure what stage it is at.
- GHC.Net would be extra attractive if there was a Visual Studio integration for GHC. Substantial progress on this has been made in 2004 by Simon Marlow, Krasimir Angelov, and Andre Santos and colleagues.
- Brian Alliet created a patch for GHC called LambdaVM that compiles programs into JVM bytecode. [3]
- Not GHC but UHC: the Jazy backend of UHC generates Java class files to allow Haskell programs to run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Jazy is not fully functional yet.
There may be others that I don't know of. If anyone wants to join in
this effort, do contact the above folk. And please keep us informed!
Here's a summary of why it's a non-trivial thing to do (using .NET language, but it mostly applies to the JVM too):
- The first thing is to generate native CLR Intermediate Language (IL). That's not really hard. Requires thinking about representations for thunks and functions, and it may not be particularly efficient, but it can surely be done.
- An open question is about whether to generate verifiable IL or not. The trouble here is that Haskell's type system is more expressive than the CLR's in some ways, notably the use of higher-kinded type variables. So, to generate verifiable IL one is bound to need some run-time casts, and it's not clear how to minimise these.
At first blush this is all you need do. But it isn't!
- Next, you need to think about how to inter-operate with .NET libraries. You don't really want to write "foreign import..." for each and every import. You'd like GHC to read the CLR meta-data directly. But there are lots of tricky issues here; see the paper that Mark Shields and I wrote about "Object-oriented style overloading for Haskell".
- A closely-related question is this: how to make the type systems of Java/.NET and Haskell "line up"? For example, when importing a Java procedure, what is the Haskell type that corresponds to its .NET/JVM type? How do you sub-class a .NET class in Haskell? For example Object-Oriented Style Overloading for Haskell gives one "take" on the subject, but there are plenty of other possibilities.
- Now you need to figure out how to implement GHC's primitive operations:
- the I/O monad
- arbitrary precision arithmetic
- concurrency
- exceptions
- finalisers
- stable pointers
- Software transactional memory
- Not all of these are necessary, of course, but many are used in the libraries. The CLR supports many of them (e.g. concurrency) but with a very different cost model.
- Last, you have to figure out what to do for the libraries. GHC has a pretty large library, and you either have to implement the primops on which the library is based (see previous point), or re-implement it. For example, GHC's implementation of I/O uses mutable state, concurrency, and more besides. For each module, you need to decide either to re-implement it using .NET primitives, or to implement the stuff the module is based on.
These challenges are mostly broad rather than deep. But to get a production quality implementation that runs a substantial majority of Haskell programs "out of the box" requires a decent stab at all of them.
Linking with GHC
Linking with ghc produces ld: Undefined symbols: _sprintf$LDBLStub ...
This happens on a PowerPC Mac OS X 10.4 if gcc-3.3 is the default compiler and you try to compile with a ghc that has been built with gcc-4.0. For example:
$ cat t2.hs module Main where main = putStr ("t2: Hello trac 1066 2007-Feb-17 19.48\n") $ gcc --version gcc (GCC) 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1819) ... $ ghc --make t2.hs [1 of 1] Compiling Main ( t2.hs, t2.o ) Linking t2 ... ld: Undefined symbols: _sprintf$LDBLStub _fprintf$LDBLStub _vfprintf$LDBLStub _sscanf$LDBLStub $
To correct this, set the default compiler to gcc-4.0 (sudo gcc_select 4.0) or include linking options -lHSrts -lSystemStubs in that order on the ghc command:
$ ghc --make t2.hs -lHSrts -lSystemStubs [1 of 1] Skipping Main ( t2.hs, t2.o ) Linking t2 ... $
The command
for l in <ghc installation directory>/lib/ghc-<ghc version>/*.a; do nm $l 2>&1 | if grep LDBLStub 1>/dev/null; then echo $l; fi; done
prints the list of libraries that may be needed instead of or in addition to -lHSrts before -lSystemStubs on the ghc command. For example:
$ for l in /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/*.a; do nm $l 2>&1 | if grep LDBLStub 1>/dev/null; then echo $l; fi; done /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/libHSX11_cbits.a /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/libHSrts.a /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/libHSrts_debug.a /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/libHSrts_p.a /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/libHSrts_thr.a /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/libHSrts_thr_debug.a /Users/thorkilnaur/tn/install/ghc-HEAD-for-1066-20070211_1657/lib/ghc-6.7.20070209/libHSrts_thr_p.a $
[4] has additional details.
Linking with C++
Linking with a C++ library gives: Undefined symbols: __Unwind_Resume
You need to pass the -fexceptions to the linker. Use -optl -fexceptions.
Running GHC
Filenames Containing '+'
GHC doesn't like filenames containing '+'.
Indeed not. You could change + to p or plus.
Why does linking take so long?
Linking a small program should take no more than a few seconds. Larger programs can take longer, but even linking GHC itself only takes 3-4 seconds on our development machines.
Long link times have been attributed to using Sun's linker on Solaris, as compared to GNU ld which appears to be much faster. So if you're on a Sun box, try switching to GNU ld. This article from the mailing list has more information.
One huge slowdown is also working on remote filesystem, e.g., nfs. Work on a local machine, preferably.
You may also speed up linking by enabling dynamic linking with the -dynamic
option of GHC or --enable-executable-dynamic
of Cabal.
Missing Include Files
Why do I get errors about missing include files when compiling with -O or -prof?
Certain options, such as -O, used to turn on via-C compilation, instead of using the native code generator. Include files named by -#include options or in foreign import declarations were only used in via-C compilation mode. For current docs on using includes, see Using Header Files for more details.
Compiling for Profiling
How do I compile my program for profiling without overwriting the object files and hi files I've already built?
You can select alternative suffixes for object files and interface files, so you can have several builds of the same code coexisting in the same directory. For example, to compile with profiling, you might do this:
ghc --make -prof -o foo-prof -osuf p.o -hisuf p.hi Main
See ´Redirecting the compilation output(s) for more details on the -osuf and -hisuf options.
String Gaps
I can't get string gaps to work
If you're also using CPP, beware of the known pitfall with string gaps mentioned in CPP and string gaps.
Error Messages
Missing Symbols
GHCi complains about missing symbols like CC_LIST when loading a previously compiled .o file.
This probably means the .o files in question were compiled for profiling (with -prof). Workaround: recompile them without profiling. We really ought to detect this situation and give a proper error message.
Starting GHCi
When I try to start ghci (probably one I compiled myself) it says ghc-5.02: not built for interactive use
To build a working ghci, you need to build GHC 5.02 with itself; the above message appears if you build it with 4.08.X, for example. It'll still work fine for batch-mode compilation, though. Note that you really must build with exactly the same version of the compiler. Building 5.02 with 5.00.2, for example, may or may not give a working interactive system; it probably won't, and certainly isn't supported. Note also that you can build 5.02 with any older compiler, back to 4.08.1, if you don't want a working interactive system; that's OK, and supported.
Duplicate Definitions
I get an error message from GHCi about a "duplicate definition for symbol __module_registered"
An error message like this:
GHCi runtime linker: fatal error: I found a duplicate definition for symbol __module_registered whilst processing object file /usr/local/lib/ghc-6.2/HSfgl.o
probably indicates that when building a library for GHCi (HSfgl.o in the above example), you should use the -x option to ld.
REPL Workarounds
Why doesn't "x=1" work at the ghci prompt?
let x = 1
From IRC: "But in general, it's tricky to define function interactively. You can do simple stuff easily enough: "let f x = x * x" or whatever; but for anything other than a simple one-liner, I usually stick it into a file and then load it with ghci.
The Foreign Function Interface
When do other Haskell threads get blocked by an FFI call?
safe | unsafe | |
-threaded | NO | YES |
no -threaded | YES | YES |
The -threaded flag (given when linking; see the manual) allows other Haskell threads to run concurrently with a thread making an FFI call. This nice behaviour does not happen for foreign calls marked as `unsafe` (see the Foreign Function Interface description in the Haskell 2010 Language Report).
There used to be another modifier, threadsafe, which is now deprecated. Use `safe` instead.
Using Floats
Propagating Run-time Errors as Exceptions
How can I propagate a Haskell run-time error (e.g. pattern match failure) as an exception to a foreign caller of the Haskell function.
If a runtime error occurs inside a DLL compiled by ghc (like "irrefutable pattern match failed" or exceptions caused by error), the application that called the DLL function dies. This is ok for development but unacceptable when it happens with a user sitting in front of the display. So the question is: Is there any way to catch and process runtime errors? I am looking for some way to map those errors to exceptions on the C++ side that can be caught if required. It would be ok to kill the Haskell runtime system and unload the DLL if necessary.
Answer: The FFI doesn't provide any way to propagate exceptions from Haskell to the caller of a foreign export, because there's no standard way to do this. It is your responsibility to catch the exception in Haskell and return an appropriate error code to the caller. To raise a C++ exception, you would probably need another C++ wrapper around each foreign export, translating an error code into the C++ exception.
Calling C Procedures
How do I call a C procedure from a Haskell program?
First, you'll want to keep open the GHC user manual section on foreign function calling, and the Haskell FFI addendum.
Now, let's assume you got this c-program ffi.c which writes THE answer to a file:
#include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> write_answer(char *userfilename) { FILE *userfile; userfile=fopen(userfilename,"w"); fprintf(userfile,"42"); fclose(userfile); }
You also need a header file ffi.h.
void write_answer(char *userfilename)
Next Step: Write the according Haskell program to include the function write_answer in your Haskell code:
{-# INCLUDE <ffi.h> #-}
{-# LANGUAGE ForeignFunctionInterface #-}
module Main where
import Foreign
import Foreign.C.String
foreign import ccall "ffi.h write_answer" cwrite_answer :: CString -> IO ()
write_answer :: String -> IO ()
write_answer s = do
s' <- newCString s
cwrite_answer s'
main = write_answer "ffi.dat"
Now we get to compiling (assume that /tmp/ffi/ is the current path).
cc -fPIC -c ffi.c ar rc libffi.a ffi.o ghc -lffi -L/tmp/ffi --make Main
And the resulting executable should write the file.
The -fPIC parameter to the c compiler is not strictly necessary. But the result will help us in the next step which is to dynamically link the library for use in GHCi.
Compiling C Programs
How do I compile my C program to use in GHCi?
Suppose you got your c-program compiled (with -fPIC parameter) as described above. If you try to load your file Main.hs in GHCi you get an error similar to this:
Loading object (dynamic) ffi ... failed. Dynamic linker error message was: libffi.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Whilst trying to load: (dynamic) ffi
What you need is a shared library. To get it you compile once more:
cc -shared -o libffi.so ffi.o
And now it all works fine:
$ ghci -lffi -L/tmp/ffi Main.hs GHCi, version 6.8.2: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ :? for help Loading package base ... linking ... done. Loading object (dynamic) ffi ... done final link ... done Ok, modules loaded: Main. Prelude Main> write_answer "test" Prelude Main> :! cat test 42 Prelude Main>
If I print out a string using putStr, and then attempt to read some input using hGetLine, I don't see the output from the putStr.
The stdout handle is line-buffered by default, which means that output sent to the handle is only flushed when a newline (\n) is output, the buffer is full, or hFlush is called on the Handle. The right way to make the text appear without sending a newline is to use hFlush:
import System.IO
main = do
putStr "how are you today? "
hFlush stdout
input <- hGetLine stdin
process input
You'll probably find that the behaviour differs when using GHCi: the hFlush isn't necessary to make the text appear. This is because in GHCi we turn off the buffering on stdout, because this is normally what you want in an interpreter: output appears as it is generated.
If I use the above fix, but check for EOF with isEOF before prompting for user input, the above problem still happens (GHC 6.12.1)
Buffering on Handles
If I explicitly set the buffering on a Handle to NoBuffering I'm not able to enter EOF by typing "Ctrl-D".
This is a consequence of Unixy terminal semantics. Unix does line buffering on terminals in the kernel as part of the terminal processing, unless you turn it off. However, the Ctrl-D processing is also part of the terminal processing which gets turned off when the kernel line buffering is disabled. So GHC tries its best to get NoBuffering semantics by turning off the kernel line buffering, but as a result you lose Ctrl-D. C'est la vie.
FIFOs (Named Pipes)
When I open a FIFO (named pipe) and try to read from it, I get EOF immediately.
This is a consequence of the fact that GHC opens the FIFO in non-blocking mode. The behaviour varies from OS to OS: on Linux and Solaris you can wait for a writer by doing an explicit threadWaitRead on the file descriptor (gotten from Posix.handleToFd) before the first read, but this doesn't work on FreeBSD (although rumour has it that recent versions of FreeBSD changed the behaviour to match other OSs). A workaround for all systems is to open the FIFO for writing yourself, before (or at the same time as) opening it for reading.
Importing Functions Returning Char/Short
When I foreign import a function that returns char or short, I get garbage back.
This is a known bug in GHC versions prior to 5.02.2. GHC doesn't mask out the more significant bits of the result. It doesn't manifest with gcc 2.95, but apparently shows up with g++ and gcc 3.0.
Garbage Collection
My program spent too much time doing garbage collection
Add the "+RTS -A10m" option to the command line when you run your program. This sets the allocation area size used by the garbage collector to 10M, which should sufficiently decrease GC times (the default is 256K; see the section "Running a compiled program" in the users' guide). You can also add to your program C module containing statement
char *ghc_rts_opts = "-A10m";
to force your program to use this setting on each run.
Subexpression Elimination
Does GHC do common subexpression elimination?
In general, GHC does not do CSE. It'd be a relatively easy pass for someone to add, but it can cause space leaks. And it can replace two strictly-evaluated calls with one lazy thunk:
let { x = case e of ...; y = case e of ... } in ...
let { v = e; x = case v of ...; y = case v of ... } in ...
Now v
is allocated as a thunk. (Of course, that might be well worth it if e
is an expensive expression.)
Instead GHC does "opportunistic CSE". If you have
let x = e in .... let y = e in ....
then it'll discard the duplicate binding. This can still cause space leaks but it guarantees never to create a new thunk, and it turns out to be very useful in practice.
Bottom line: if you care about sharing, do it yourself using let
or where
When can I rely on full laziness?
Consider this program
f x y = let r = expensive x
in r+y
g vs = map (f 2) vs
Since r depends only on x, you might hope that (expensive 2) is computed just once. And that is indeed what will happen if you write
f_opt x = let r = expensive x
in \y -> r+y
g_opt vs = map (f_opt 2) vs
It's easy enough for a compiler to transform f into f_opt. (This is called the "full laziness" transformation.) BUT in the cases when f is fully-applied, f_opt is *less* efficient than f; consider
h ys zs = zipWith f_opt ys zs
Reason: it's much less efficient to have separate lambdas \x-> let ... in \y -> e than one compound lambda \xy -> e.
So the best way to transform f depends on how it is used. When it's used locally and just once, GHC inlines it at the call site and all is good. But when it's exported or called many times, GHC's full laziness transformation uses the following rule: never "float" a let between two lambdas. So it won't transform f into f_opt.
On the other hand, if you write f_opt, GHC will keep it that way. Furthermore, if a sub-expression can be floated right out of a complete lambda group, GHC will float it out. For example
f x vs = map (\y -> y + expensive x) vs
Here, the (expensive x) can be floated out of the \x->... lambda without separating two lambdas, and the full laziness transfom will do just that.
Upgrading GHC
Do I have to recompile all my code if I upgrade GHC?
Yes. There are two reasons for this:
- GHC does a lot of cross-module optimisation, so compiled code will include parts of the libraries it was compiled against (including the Prelude), so will be deeply tied to the actual version of those libraries it was compiled against. When you upgrade GHC, the libraries may change; even if the external interface of the libraries doesn't change, sometimes internal details may change because GHC optimised the code in the library differently.
- We sometimes change the ABI (application binary interface) between versions of GHC. Code compiled with one version of GHC is not necessarily compatible with code compiled by a different version, even if you arrange to keep the same libraries.
GHC does provide shared libraries, currently only on MacOS X. We are working on making shared libraries work on other platforms.
However, GHC-compiled libraries are very tightly coupled, which means it's unlikely you'd be able to swap out a shared library for a newer version unless it was compiled with exactly the same compiler and set of libraries as the old version.
My program is failing with head [], or an array bounds error, or some other random error, and I have no idea how to find the bug. Can you help?
Try the GHCi Debugger, in particular look at the section on "Debugging Exceptions".
Alternatively, compile your program with -prof -auto-all (make sure you have the profiling libraries installed), and run it with +RTS -xc -RTS to get a ´stack trace at the point at which the exception was raised. See ´RTS options for hackers, debuggers, and over-interested souls for more details.
Increasing Heap Size
How do I increase the heap size permanently for a given binary?
See ´´Hooks to change RTS behaviour.
Compiling for Parallel Execution
I'm trying to compile my program for parallel execution with the -parallel, and GHC complains with an error like 'failed to load interface file for Prelude'.
GHC doesn't ship with support for parallel execution; that support is provided separately by the GPH project.
Using Unsafe Functions
When is it safe to use unsafe functions such as unsafePerformIO
?We'll give two answers to this question, each of which may be helpful. These criteria are not rigorous in any real sense (you'd need a formal semantics for Haskell in order to give a proper answer to this question), but should give you a feel for the kind of things you can and cannot do with unsafePerformIO.
- It is safe to implement a function or API using unsafePerformIO if you could imagine also implementing the same function or API in Haskell without using unsafePerformIO (forget about efficiency, just consider the semantics).
- In pure Haskell, the value of a function depends only on the values of its arguments (and free variables, if it has any). If you can implement the function using unsafePerformIO and still retain this invariant, then you're probably using unsafePerformIO in a safe way. Note that you need only consider the observable values of the arguments and result.
For more information, see this thread.
Using Finalizers
I can't get finalizers to work properly. My program sometimes just prints <<loop>>.
Chances are that your program is trying to write a message to stdout or stderr in the finalizer. Handles have finalizers themselves, and since finalizers don't keep other finalized values alive, the stdout and stderr Handles may be finalized before your finalizer runs. If this happens, your finalizer will block on the handle, and probably end up receiving a NonTermination exception (which is printed as <<loop>>).
Extensible Records
Does GHC implement any kind of extensible records?
No, extensible records are not implemented in GHC. Hugs implements TRex, one extensible record variant. The problem is that the record design space is large, and seems to lack local optima. And all reasonable variants break backward compatibility. As a result, nothing much happens.
Using Extra GCC/Linker Options
How can I make GHC always use some extra gcc or linker option?
If you want to *always* use an extra option then you can edit the package configuration for the 'rts' or 'base' package since these packages are used by every program that you compile with GHC. You might want to do this if you had installed something that ghc needs but into a non-standard directory, thus requiring special compilation or linking options.
All you need to do is to dump out the configuration into a human readable form, edit it and re-register the modified package configuration. The exact commands to do that are below, but first here are the fields in the file that you might want to modify:
- include-dirs
- directories to search for .h files
- library-dirs
- directories to search for libraries
- extra-libraries
- extra C libs to link with
- cc-options
- extra flags to pass to gcc when compiling C code or assembly
- ld-options
- extra flags to pass to gcc when linking
to edit the rts package (or base) confiuration just do:
- ghc-pkg describe rts > rts.package.conf
- edit rts.package.conf with your favourite text editor
- ghc-pkg update rts.package.conf
On Unix systems and Windows, some options can also be set with environment variables such as LIBRARY_PATH and C_INCLUDE_PATH.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
My two year old is always trying to ride our boxers around the house. He loves acting like he is a cowboy. With his little cowboy hat on he yells out to the dogs, "Yee Haw". My little cowboy. When it comes to imagination, my kids do not lack it in that department. We have princesses, little monsters, cowboys, detectives, you name it my kids probably have acted the character out! They are kids, and they love to play. Well I have received this adorable little sit on Pinto horse from Magic Cabin as a sample for my little cowboy to try out. Way too cute! Our poor boxers can finally take a break from the little cowboy utilizing them as his horses. This sit on Pinto horse is just the cutest thing. It includes a saddle and a bridle, which makes his cowboy play even more realistic to him. Not only does he thank the wonderful people over at Magic Cabin for his new horse but our boxers are very grateful as well. Now enough about this adorable little Pinto horse. Lets talk toys. The holidays are not that far off. The way this summer flew by just means that the Holidays are that much closer. So now is just a good a time as any to start beating those awful Holiday crowds. To get your head start, head on over to Magic Cabin and check out the amazing selection they have on toys for kids. While you are there you will notice that they carry toys for kids of all ages and the prices they have are also very nice!!
Giveaway Time!!! Those wonderful people over at Magic Cabin not only gave my little cowboy a sit on Pinto horse of his very own, but they are going to give one of you a sit on Pinto horse to give to your little cowboy or cowgirl!!
Mandatory entry: Go over to Magic Cabin and take a look around then come back here and tell me what other toy or toys you would like to get for your kids!! Please leave me your email address in the comment so I can contact you if you win!!!
Extra Entries:
Follow me on Twitter (2 entries)
Tweet this giveaway daily (1 daily entry)
Follow me on Facebook (2 entries)
Follow me publicly on Google Friends Connect (2 entries)
Vote for this blog on Top Mommy Blogs (3 entries)
Enter any of my other giveaways (1 entry per giveaway)
Grab my button and leave the URL to where I may find it (3 entries)
Blog about this giveaway and leave the URL to the post (5 entries)
This giveaway is open to US residents. This giveaway will be open until midnight on October 17, 2010. Winner will be chosen at random.org. Winner will be given 48 hours to respond before another winner will be chosen.


text:
AirAsia today announced the re-designation of key executives within the organization.
Dato Kamarudin Meranun has been re-designated as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, where he will take the lead in engaging with the government, aviation regulators and airport authorities in Malaysia. He replaces Dato Aziz Bakar who remains on the board as a non-independent non-executive director. This appointment follows the practice of appointing a Tune Air representative as Chairman and is effective from 06 November 2013.
"Dato Kamarudin has spent more than a decade building AirAsia into the world's largest low-cost carrier and I look forward to the industry experience he will bring as chair of the Board," said Aireen Omar, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Berhad.
"The Board members would also like to take the opportunity to thank Dato Aziz for playing a vital role in the success of the company as Chairman these past five years."
In addition, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes was re-designated as Group Chief Executive Officer and non-independent executive Director following the recent merging of the regional office's Group functions back into AirAsia Berhad. As Group CEO, Fernandes will provide overall leadership to the group in driving brand value, reducing cost and driving efficiencies to improve performance of the airline and other affiliates within the AirAsia network including Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and soon to be India.
"The regional office we set up in Jakarta as AirAsia Asean two years ago has achieved its objective in providing focused leadership to the Group and guiding expansion within the region. As such, we are merging most Group functions back into AirAsia Berhad to ensure alignment within the core management team and to simplify the operation," Fernandes said.
"Kamarudin and I will be more involved in the operations of AirAsia Berhad as we continue our growth in the region and we will continue to focus on reducing costs. AirAsia has been on a cost-reduction drive, which has seen good success in the 3rd quarter and will continue in the 4th quarter. AirAsia Asean will remain in Jakarta where I will continue to personally lead regional policy engagement. Jakarta remains the nerve centre of Asean while Indonesia is the region's largest market by far, and there is still much we want to do there. Our future lies with the future of Asean and we are committed to doing our utmost to ensure the success of the region we call home."
With this change, Rozman Omar will also return to AirAsia Berhad as Group Chief Financial Officer where he will utilise his extensive experience in finance to develop a group-wide growth strategy that will create long-term value for shareholders. Andrew Littledale will continue as CFO of AirAsia Berhad.
Kamarudin said the changes followed months of discussions between himself and Fernandes, and are aimed at sustaining AirAsia's growth trajectory.
"Given the highly regulated nature of the aviation industry and the importance of airport infrastructure and financial charges to the LCC model, Tony and I feel that this role is critical in protecting AirAsia Berhad's long term sustainability and value. This will include handling all external issues that affect the aviation industry, most notably KLIA2 but also the development of Kota Kinabalu, Johor Bahru and Kota Bahru. This cannot be done piecemeal or on an ad hoc basis and I will be leveraging my experience and ownership to liaise with the government to ensure the industry and nation benefit. Low cost always wins and one of the most important parts of my new role will be to reduce costs at airports and to emphasise to the government that any cost increases will be detrimental to the Malaysian economy. Malaysia is now the leader in low cost travel and we must not lose that advantage. Given AirAsia's size and our plans for the future, plus the challenges in the aviation industry, it is going to be almost a full-time job in itself," he said.
Aireen Omar remains CEO of AirAsia Berhad and will report to the Chairman on regulatory and stakeholder management and to the Group CEO on operational performance matters.
"Aireen is doing an amazing job in leading the company as well as building strong relationships with key stakeholders in the government and she will continue to manage our Malaysian operations," Fernandes said.


text:
How Much Is My Home Worth in Lewiston, New York
How Much is your home worth in Lewiston, New York? If you are planning on selling your home, that is a question you need answered. As your Local Lewiston Real Estate Experts, we can help you to learn the answer to that question. We will personally do the research on your behalf and provide you with a detailed Free Market Analysis. Please feel free to take a few moments to complete the basic information below and I will go straight to work for you. Or, if you prefer, please feel free to give me a call directly at 716-754-2550.
See: Homes for Sale in Lewiston, New York
FOR A COMPLETE MARKET ANALYSIS FORM: CLICK HERE (link to Free Market Analysis)


text:
The doctor may suspect heart failure based on your medical history and symptoms, such as shortness of breath or edema. A complete physical exam will be done to look for other characteristic signs of heart failure, such as:
- Fluid in the lungs
- Enlargement of the jugular vein in the neck
- Enlargement of the liver
- High or low blood pressure
- Rapid heart rate—tachycardia
- Fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity—ascites
- Fluid accumulation in the space between the lungs and ribs—pleural effusion
Your doctor may recommend tests to confirm the diagnosis and assess the degree of damage. Some tests can also eliminate other health conditions with symptoms similar to heart failure. Examples of these tests include:
- Blood tests—to look for other conditions, such as anemia, thyroid disorders, and high cholesterol. Blood tests evaluate the functioning of your kidneys and liver.
- Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)—a hormone that is elevated in the blood when the heart is under strain. This is used as an indicator for heart failure.
- ECG—ECG records the electrical activity of your heart through 12 electrodes attached to the skin. This test will help diagnose heart rhythm problems, muscle abnormalities, and damage to the heart from a heart attack.
- Exercise stress test—This test records the heart's electrical activity during increased physical activity. It may be coupled with an echocardiogram or myocardial perfusion imaging. People who cannot exercise may be given IV medication that simulates the effects of physical exertion.
Imaging tests take pictures of the heart, blood vessels, and structures. Imaging tests for heart failure include:
- Chest x-ray—to see heart enlargement or congestion in the lungs
- Echocardiogram—ultrasound to evaluate the function of the heart's valves and chambers and to determine the amount of blood ejected from the heart with each heartbeat. An echocardiogram also can detect structural damage, tumors, or excess fluid around the heart.
- Myocardial perfusion imaging—Contrast material is used to observe the heart muscle. Areas with diminished blood flow can be detected on the scan.
- Coronary angiography and coronary catheterization—These tests help to detect obstruction in the arteries of the heart and assesses heart function. Testing to check for blockage in the coronary arteries is recommended for some individuals with heart failure, especially younger people and people with symptoms of chest pain and angina.
- CT angiography—Contrast material is used to detect areas with diminished blood flow.
- Electron-beam CT scan—creates images of the heart, lungs, and chest cavity
- Cardiac MRI—evaluates large blood vessels, coronary arteries, heart walls, and the pericardium, a double-walled sac that contains the heart
Stages and Classes of Heart Failure
Once the diagnosis is confirmed, your doctor will assess the stage and class of your heart failure.
Staging is based on heart damage and symptoms. The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology Foundation stage heart failure as:
- Stage A—have high risk for heart failure without structural heart disease or heart failure symptoms
- Stage B—structural heart disease without heart failure signs or symptoms
- Stage C—structural heart disease with previous or current heart failure symptoms
- Stage D—heart failure that is not responding to standard treatment that needs specialized interventions
The New York Heart Association (NYHA) classifies heart failure based on symptoms and how they affect your abilities. NYHA classes are:
- Class I (mild)—no limitation of physical activity. Ordinary activity does not cause symptoms.
- Class II (mild)—slight limitation of physical activity. Ordinary activity causes heart failure symptoms, but resting does not.
- Class III (moderate)—marked limitation of physical activity. Less than ordinary activity causes heart failure symptoms, but resting does not.
- Class IV (severe)—unable to carry out any physical activity without heart failure symptoms, or symptoms are present while resting.
Brain natriuretic peptide. Brain Natriuretic Peptide website. Available at: http://www.brainnatriureticpeptide.net. Accessed September 15, 2020.
Diagnosing heart failure. American Heart Association website. Available at: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartFailure/SymptomsDiagnosisofHeartFailure/Symptoms-Diagnosis-of-Heart-Failure%5FUCM%5F002047%5FArticle.jsp#.WbwVbLKGNxA. Accessed September 15, 2020.
Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.dynamed.com/topics/dmp~AN~T114099/Heart-failure-with-reduced-ejection-fraction . Accessed September 15, 2020.
How is heart failure diagnosed? National Heart Lung and Blood Institute website. Available at: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/hf/diagnosis. Accessed September 15, 2020.
Medical tests and findings. Heart Failure website. Available at: http://www.heartfailure.org/heart-failure/medical-tests. Accessed September 15, 2020.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: EBSCO Medical Review Board Michael J. Fucci, DO, FACC
- Update Date: 11/06/2020


text:
Home » Electroacoustic/Contemporary » PARTCH, HARRY: Enclosure 2 (4cds)
PARTCH, HARRY: Enclosure 2 (4cds)
BIG NEWS!! Nearly 5 hours of priceless archive material from one of the great musical originals of the century; all recordings not in print, and nearly all works so far unreleased, plus Harry lecturing, reading, introducing the pieces and being interviewed; plus a sound-collage memoriam featuring informal (& illicitly recorded) conversation amongst HP's friends and tapes of HP at the piano talking with friends and playing. A mix of old precious low fi recordings and some new digital recordings too. Excellently compiled. Think of this as 2 evenings well spent with HP: he introduces the selections, gives you a clear exposition, with musical examples, of his tuning system. Here too is a substantial part (a sidesworth) of the extraordinary and prodigious 'Bitter Music' (HP thought he'd destroyed all copies). In other words, it's a gem - and for any fan of HP, indispensible. What's more, it is very cheap. While it is around. Plus informative and well designed book. L
Code: INNOVA401
Price: £32.00


text:
The ease of one-dish dinners such as casseroles are known to all of us. When I chose this theme I wanted this roundup to be a reference for all of us who have a tight daily schedule but still want to serve up a delicious meal.
With 60 entries this One-Dish Dinner roundup is going to be one very useful reference to browse through. Hope you enjoy the roundup. I thank all my guests who joined me and brought their wonderful creations.
- Culinary Bazaar: Grilled Eggplant Moussaka with Brown Rice
- More Than Burnt Toast: Skillet Lasagna
- My Veggie World: Vegetable Pongal
- Foodie's Hope: Pomegranate Soup
- Cooking 4 All Seasons: Vegetable Rice
- Chez Denise Et Laudalino: Japanese Inspired Pot Roast
- Enjoy Indian Food: Wheat sprouts Khichdi
- The Singing Chef: Khichdi and Kadhi
- Passionate About Baking & Beyond: Biryani/Yakhni Pulao
- What's Cooking?: Chicken Pot Pie with a twist
- Greedy Gourmet: Pork Sausage, Leek, Carrot & Butter Bean Casserole
- For The Cook in Me: Easy Tomato Spaghetti with Shredded Chicken
- Dragon Musings: Mum's Chow Mein
- Dil Se...: Corn-Peas Cheese Pulao
- Simple Indian Food: Kadamba Saadam (Mixed Rice)
- Escapades: Spicy Tagliatelle with Vegetables
- The Taste Tinkerer: Savory Bread Pudding
- Gatinah Na Cozina: Brown Kitten Bowl
- Mirch Masala: Hungarian Goulash
- Indian Vegetarian Kitchen: Akki Roti
- Spicy Tasty: Rava Kichadi (Semolina pudding)
- Ahaar: Fish Biryani
- Ruth's Kitchen Experiments: Chicken Paella
- I googled, I saw, I cooked: Vegetable Couscous
- Le Petit Kitchen: Minestrone
- Kailas Kitchen: Corn Meal-Rava Kichadi
- eat the right stuff: leek and bacon black eyed bean bake
- Spicy Thali: Eggs on Potato
- Archy's Recipe Book: Spinach Rice
- Fun and Food: Baked Rigatoni Pasta with Homemade Garlic and Basil Marinara Sauce
- Hooked On Heat: Curry Noodle Bowl
- Finger Licking Food: Gowdru Pulao
- Zaiqa: Hyderabadi Biryani
- teczcape - an escape to food: Savory congee, one pot rice porridge
- I think I have a recipe for that: Duck Laksa
- Yambalaya: Cauliflower Gratin
- Rina's Recipes: Slow Cook Chunky Meat and Veggie Stew
- Canela & Comino: Peruvian Arroz con Pollo (Peruvian Chicken with Rice)
- Bird Food: Sausage, Bacon and Cheddar Cheese Quiche
- Randomosity and the Girl: Minestrone Soup
- Peppermill: Creamy Curried Eggplant and Pumpkin Risotto
- Annarasa: Pasta with Chickpeas and Parsley
- Live To Eat by Anty: Indonesian Curry
- Mele Cotte: Turkey Sausage Rice
- Spice is Right: Urban Dal Dhokli Under Pressure (Indian stew)
- Khichdi: Haleem
- Dhivya's Cuisine: Potato Fried Rice
- All Things Edible: Chicken Pot Pie
- A Cook At Heart: Bisi Bele Hulli Anna
- Saffron Trail: Cracked wheat with tons of veggies
- Mrs. W's Kitchen: Cheesy Chicken Burrito Soup
- Cook With Love: Corn Methi Rice
- Live :: Love :: Laugh :: Eat!: New England Pot Roast
- An attempt to Spread love by cooking : Sev Khamani
- Sass & Veracity: Crab & Andouille Jambalaya
- Live to Eat by Sig: Sausage Fried Rice
- Taste Of Mysore: Tomato Rice
- Green Gourmet Giraffe: Vegetable Nut Crumble
- What's For Lunch, Honey?: Bulgur with Vegetables & Feta
- Finally, Kathy Crawford in Salem, OR sent me this delicious sounding crockpot recipe:
Crock Pot Roast
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans beef broth
1 package dry onion soup mix
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons red pepper sauce (Tabasco)
1 3-4 lb roast (any kind since it will cook all day)
1 onion sliced thin
3-4 potatoes peeled and chunked
3-4 carrots peeled and chunked or 2 handfuls of baby carrots
1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons cornstarch
In crockpot, mix together first 5 ingredients. Add meat and vegetables. Spoon some of the soup mixture over meat and vegetables to distribute flavors. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove meat and vegetables to serving tray. Turn crock pot on high. Mix cornstarch with water and add to broth mixture. Stir to thicken gravy. Pour gravy over meat and vegetables and serve.
I use a 5-quart oval crockpot. Increase or decrease ingredients to fit your crockpot. - The Lierate and the Liberate Foodie - Easy Enchiladas
That wraps up this 18th edition of the Monthly Mingle. Great recipes, great people and great blogs. Please do take a few minutes to browse through them.
The theme for the next mingle has already been announced. Check it out here and here.
If you would like to guest host the Monthly Mingle please contact me at email@example.com.
See you at the next roundup!
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First


text:
Once again, when they needed a win the most, the Dodgers came up empty. With ten games left in the season, this puts them half a game behind the Brewers and three games behind the Cardinals for the final wild card spot — and likely ensures Clayton Kershaw will not pitch tomorrow's game, as only a sweep of the Reds would have given the Dodgers any real hope to make the PLAYOFFS!
It's time to rest Kemp and Kershaw, and to hope Adrian Gonzalez has been playing injured as well. Twenty-four years without a World Series appearance. Your turn, Guggenbros.


text:
1. Etsy craftswoman Becky Striepe recently sent in this email:
"Hi Jennifer!Oh, thank you so much, Becky! Your handmade bags are super-adorable!
I've been a big fan of yours for quite a while. You're basically the reason I got interested in bento, so it would be a total honor if you mentioned my Lunch Kits on your blog. Each one comes with: a handmade bag, 5 napkins, a stainless steel lunchbox and a pair of bamboo chopsticks or eclectic utensils.
"I'm also a vegan and love cooking! Your Magical Loaf Studio is one of my go-tos when we need an easy, tasty dinner. It hasn't failed me yet!"
2. A blog commenters recently pointed me towards Kids Konserve, a new company focusing on waste-free lunches for kids.
There's so much to like here! Their Lunch Kits come with a recycled canvas sack with recycled aluminum name tag, an organic cloth napkin, stainless steel beverage bottle with a carabiner, a BPA-free "food kozy" that replaces disposable baggies, and two stainless steel food containers with BPA-free plastic lids. Eco-impeccable!
There is one thing I don't like, though, particularly since this kit is geared toward school kids, who usually don't have access to a refrigerator: I wish that the lunch sacks were insulated and came with an ice pack and a built-in ice pack pocket, to keep foods safe until lunch time.
Also, although I think stainless steel is the best choice environmentally, I wonder about sending kids to school with it. Watching my own son swing and drag his backpack around makes me fear these containers will wind up dented in a matter of weeks. And do schools have issues with stainless steel, particularly those with security? Thoughts?


text:
Throughout your life, you will be faced with many decisions about saving and spending. Your goals can vary from smaller purchases such as a new smartphone to larger purchases, such as a car or a house to long-term savings for retirement and any unknowns. There are some life events that you can plan and save for, like higher education or starting a family, but it's impossible to foresee unplanned expenses. That's what makes saving important – so you'll be prepared for any type of expense by having money set aside.
If you're reluctant to start saving or believe it isn't possible, think of it as a path to exciting opportunities rather than a burden. Chances are you'll need the funds for unexpected situations throughout your lifetime, good and bad. Here are some basic steps to get you started.
SMART Goals
Real-life reasons to save are good motivators. After you have secured an emergency fund and have enough saved to support yourself for three to six months, you can start saving for what you really want. Think about short-term (current month or year purchases) and long-term goals (for important life events and big expenses), using this SMART guideline:
SPECIFIC goals inspire. Setting a clear goal will help you focus on saving for it.
MEASURABLE goals let you see the real task at hand. By using real numbers, you can measure your progress along the way.
ATTAINABLE goals pay off. When setting your goal, ensure that it is realistic and within your reach.
RELEVANT goals make good sense. Set a goal only if you know it will be meaningful in the long run.
TIME-RELATED goals have a real deadline. Setting a time frame for your goal will help you stay committed to reaching it.


text:
Demystifying the Mind
A three-part series on the scientific struggle to explain the conscious self
By Science News
Consciousness has posed a special challenge to scientists, but new ways of studying the brain may finally yield a deeper understanding. Science News describes the latest thinking on consciousness in this three-part special report. | Read essay and features. The human brain is very good at figuring things out, except about itself. Think about it. A brain capable of sophisticated reasoning has to be very complicated — so complicated that it would take an even more sophisticated brain to figure out how it works. But an even more sophisticated brain would be even harder to figure out. As the brain gets smarter and smarter, and thus more and more complex, it becomes ever more difficult to explain how it works. The brain can never catch up. Human brains are amazing devices, just not amazing enough to explain all of their amazing abilities. In truth, the human brain has figured out a lot about how it works. Much of the molecular and cellular machinery underlying thinking and learning and memory, and even emotion, has been outlined in elaborate detail. But dissecting the machinery has not enabled scientists to say why the machine has a persistent sense of itself, how it generates the feeling of self-awareness (and even the awareness of that self-awareness) that people generally refer to as consciousness. For millennia, philosophers have grappled with consciousness, trying to discern the distinction between mind and body or to show that such a distinction is illusory. But only in the present millennium have scientists engaged these arguments in a serious way, equipped with substantial scientific data. Science News neurocience writer Laura Sanders has explored the latest efforts by consciousness researchers to demystify the mind and reports her findings in a three-part series. Her account describes how consciousness, long regarded by neuroscientists as a taboo topic, has finally emerged as a legitimate realm of scientific inquiry. Research results have begun accumulating, and theorists have begun transforming explanations of consciousness from philosophical speculations into quantitative concepts and equations. A common thread connecting much consciousness theorizing is the role of information. Using the mathematics of information theory, scientists have begun to get a grip on possible ways of measuring consciousness, making it easier to identify and perhaps, someday, easier to create in a non-biological information-processing system. The prospect of a conscious computer may be terrifying to fans of the Terminator films (or, for older people, Colossus: The Forbin Project). But it would nevertheless be interesting to see if a conscious machine would be sufficiently sophisticated to figure out for itself how it works. —Tom Siegfried, Editor in Chief |
In the February 11, 2012 issue ESSAY: A strange loop emerges from the mind's efforts to understand itself. |
In the February 11, 2012 issue FEATURE: The source of consciousness remains elusive, but the latest brain studies offer new insights. |
In the February 25, 2012 issue Consciousness emerges By Laura Sanders FEATURE: Conscious experience coalesces from sensory inputs traveling through the brain. |
In the March 10, 2012 issue FEATURE: Rich, deeply connected information may be the defining feature of consciousness. |


text:
Stone Giant of Evil Earth D&D Miniature Dungeons Dragons Bigby Presents Glory 37
Wizards of the Coast
1 ea / New Unused - Stone Giant of Evil Earth (Huge 3 in base, approx 4 1/2 in tall, pre-painted plastic figure) - Dungeons and Dragons / D&D miniature - Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants mini set #37
Items will ship within 1 business day of received payment and ship via USPS First Class Mail Package, always in a box with packing material, not loose in an envelope. Listings can combine shipping if you let me know before I send out invoice to you.
If you have any questions, please let me know and I will try and help answer.


text:
{source} |
I've spent the last 10 or so years cultivating a workplace style: one that's vintage but professional, appropriate yet colorful and artsy. Lots of pencil skirts, sheath dresses, pumps, etc. Now that I'm going freelance, it's time to cultivate a new style, preferably one that doesn't involve either uncomfortable footwear or—on the other end of the spectrum—elastic waistbands. You see, when at home I tend to stay in my pjs. I'll be working from my apartment a lot now (though also out of a studio) and I don't want to spend all my time looking like a slob. I want to take the opportunity to be a bit more casual, but not sloppy.
So, readers, any tips for freelance/stay-at-home fashion? I'm thinking comfy dresses are the way to go, and if I had all the time in the world, I'd whip up a few vintage housedress patterns. Like these:
{source} |
{source |
Vogue 2091 (OOP) |


text:
Pack of (1000) hinges
There are no reviews yet.
You must be logged in to post a review.
Welcome to Dutch Country Auctions home of The Stamp Center. We offer a comprehensive selection of services to customers worldwide including a minimum of six public auctions per year, a free appraisal service and retail store. Our specialties include U.S. & Worldwide stamps, coins, currency, covers, postcards, historical or sports related memorabilia and related areas.
Our professional staff has a wide and varied background with years of experience and whether you are a private collector, estate executor, dealer or institution you can expect expert counseling, personal service and rely on our reputation for integrity and trust.


text:
New York mayor to Times Square superheroes: Play by the rules _ and prepare to be licensed
Cookie Monster may soon need a license.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday he believes the people wearing character costumes in Times Square should be licensed and regulated.
Dozens of people — dressed as kids' favorites like Elmo, Cookie Monster and Batman — stand near 42nd Street and pose for photos with tourists in exchange for money.
De Blasio said the practice has "gone too far."
A man dressed as Spider-Man was arrested Saturday after allegedly punching a police officer who told him to stop harassing tourists.
The City Council is working on legislation that would require the characters to get a city-approved license.
The mayor said even those dressed as superheroes have to "play by the rules or you won't be working here any longer."


text:
(AP) — The internet is blossoming into quite the virtual vineyard.
Online wine options are everywhere, from flash sale sites like Lot18 offering daily deals to Facebook prodding you to send a little something for Aunt Suzy's birthday. And now there's a new generation of startups such as Club W, which adds a little algorithm to your albarino, using surveys and ratings to figure out what you might like to drink next.
The click-and-sip approach seems to be catching on, says Jeff Carroll of ShipCompliant, a Boulder, Colo.-based company that helps wineries comply with shipping laws. "Wine is a unique product and it lends itself well to the social aspects of the Internet in terms of discovery."
Online sales have been around for a while, with individual wineries selling wine through their websites, a practice that has become more prevalent as more states relax Prohibition-era laws that had banned alcohol shipments.
Today, only seven U.S. states have an outright ban on direct-to-consumer shipping, though some of the states that do allow shipping have various restrictions, and 89 percent of the U.S. population has access to direct-to-consumer sales, according to Steve Gross of the San Francisco-based Wine Institute, a trade association.
What's changed is the rise of third-party sites run by companies that don't make wine, like Lot18.com, which offers special deals on wine. These sites got a boost in 2011 when the California Alcohol Beverage Control officials issued guidelines allowing third-party providers to act as agents in the sale of alcohol but requiring wineries to stay in control of the wine, making them responsible for following all the relevant laws. The advisory applies only to California, but was seen as creating a framework that others could follow. "That really changed the dynamic," says Carroll.
Since the guidelines were issued, major Internet retailer Amazon has gotten back in the wine business, its third attempt, and Facebook has added wine to the gifts friends can send each other. Meanwhile, a number of smaller companies have jumped into the market.
Thanks to the data-gathering and interactive capabilities of the new technology, online sites serve as more than a digital catalog. Relative newcomer Club W tries to anticipate what customers want by basing selections on information gathered from surveys on customer flavor preferences along with their ratings of wines already purchased.
Club W CEO and co-founder Xander Oxman says the idea is to combine the convenience of a traditional wine club shipment with the personalized experience made possible by tools that capture a buyer's likes and dislikes.
The club, which sends out monthly shipments of three bottles for $39, aims to appeal to casual drinkers, who usually shop for wine at supermarkets or liquor stores.
In its first nine months, Club W sold more than 100,000 bottles of wine, Oxman says.
Though it's easier to ship wine across state lines now than it was 10 years ago, there still are numerous legal challenges being played out and some state legislators are looking at bills that could restrict third-party sales. Opponents generally cite concerns that alcohol will be delivered to underage drinkers; proponents say age verification tools and adult signature requirements on delivery prevent that.
Jeff Stai, owner of Twisted Oak winery, a winery based in the foothills of the Sierra in Northern California, has sold online for years, including lately through Amazon and Facebook.
Twisted Oak is licensed to sell in 30 states and though the tasting room accounts for the bulk of sales, about 20 percent of his business is from outside California and Nevada.
Stai jokes that he's "not shoveling money into the bank," from third party site sales, but they do provide a steady stream of orders. Twisted Oak also sells wine directly from its own website, going back about nine years and that has steadily increased, especially during the past two years, Stai says.
"It went from, 'Oh, look, we have an order today,' to 'We've got orders every day.'"