text:
Notice: This Wiki is now read only and edits are no longer possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.
PTP/environment setup 70
- 1 Setup for development of PTP 7.0
- 2 Checking out PTP projects with Git
- 3 Build internal PTP parts
- 4 Updating
- 5 Committing to remote repository
- 6 API baseline and code formatter
- 7 Copy Remote Tools Dstore server jar
- 8 Copy LML Driver tar file
- 9 Launching a runtime workbench running the code you checked out into your workspace
- 10 Compiling XML Schema (XSD) into Java classes using the JAXB compiler (xjc)
Setup for development of PTP 7.0
This is applicable to Kepler development for PTP.
- Post-Kepler-based development (after 7.0, probably Luna) is on the ptp git repo master branch
- Kepler-based development (June 2013 release 7.0.x) is on the ptp git repo ptp_7_0 branch
- Juno-based development (PTP 6.0.x) is on the ptp git repo ptp_6_0 branch
PTP now uses the git repository at dev.eclipse.org and the CVS repository is now locked for writing.
Git reference info: Links to Git info
These instructions describe using the master branch of the repository. Please let us know (e.g. on ptp-dev mailing list) if these instructions need updating.
PTP 7.0 needs Java 1.6, Eclipse 4.3/Kepler , CDT supported by Kepler (8.2), and RSE 3.3 (?at least)
- Download Eclipse 4.3 (Kepler) here: http://eclipse.org/downloads "Eclipse Standard" (formerly called "Eclipse Classic" is a good choice. Also because it is a SDK. An alternative is RCP. It already includes Egit&Mylyn.
- Developing on a 4.2/Juno SDK will still probably work but we highly recommend using Kepler so we know our code works there.
- Eclipse 3.x version have not been tested and we do not develop on them.
Install CDT, RSE, Git, etc. into Eclipse.
- In Eclipse, click Help > Install New Software...
- In the "Work with:" combo box, choose
- "Kepler - http://download.eclipse.org/releases/kepler"
- Under "Collaboration"
- (Optional) Mylyn Task List, and Mylyn Tasks Connector: Bugzilla to track PTP bugs via Mylyn within Eclipse workbench
- Under "General Purpose Tools", check
- (Optional) "Parallel Tools Platform" - while you will probably check out source to override this, having it installed in the workbench can avert later build problems.
- "Remote System Explorer End-User Runtime" (RSE)
- Under "Programming Languages", check all of the following:
- "C/C++ Development Tools SDK"
- "Fortran Development Tools (Photran)"
- "Unified Parallel C (UPC) Support" (this includes CDT's LR parser)
- "XL C/C++ Compiler Support"
- (Optional) Under "Web, XML, JavaEE...", check
- "Eclipse Web Developer Tools" (useful for editing HTML files)
- "Eclipse XML Editors and Tools" (this is useful for editing XML files, e.g. creating target system configurations)
- Click the "Next >" button, click the "Next >" button, select accept agreement radio button and click the "Finish" button to complete the installation. Restart Eclipse when prompted.
JAXB shouldn't be needed to install, JAXB is now part of the Java 1.6 libraries
Set an API baseline.
In these steps, you will download the previous release of PTP. Eclipse's API Tooling will compare the current API with the API from the previous release to check for breaking changes.
- Download the PTP master archive of the previous major release of PTP. This will be a file named ptp-master-xxx.zip.
- After June 2013 Kepler release it will be PTP 7.0.0: ptp-master-7.0.0-xxx.zip found on http://download.eclipse.org/tools/ptp/builds/7.0.0/
- Unzip it into some directory (e.g. ptp-baseline-7.0.0)
- Open the Eclipse workbench preferences dialog. (On Windows or Linux, click Window > Preferences; on Mac OS X, click Eclipse > Preferences)
- Expand the "Plug-in Development" category, and choose "API Baselines"
- Click "Add Baseline..." In the dialog, enter "Default" for the name, choose the directory from step 2 for the location, click "Reset", and then click "Finish" to close the New API Baseline dialog.
- Click OK to close the Preferences dialog. (If a message dialog appears asking whether you want to perform a full build, click Yes.)
Checking out PTP projects with Git
- File>Import ... then use the 'Git>Projects from Git' import wizard.
- Select "URI" and click Next >
- If you haven't yet cloned the repository to your machine:
- Under Location: URI: enter the repository URI and click Next >:
- ssh://firstname.lastname@example.com:29418/ptp/org.eclipse.ptp -or-
- https://firstname.lastname@example.com/r/p/ptp/org.eclipse.ptp
- For ssh you need to upload your ssh public key here: https://git.eclipse.org/r/#/settings/ssh-keys
- For https the password is the one shown here: https://git.eclipse.org/r/#/settings/http-password
- For details see: http://wiki.eclipse.org/Gerrit
- Choose the branches you want to clone (usually ptp_7_0 and master==HEAD) and click Next >.
- Note: all workspaces on your machine that talk to this local clone of the repository will all use the same branch at a time. You may want separate clones of the repo (one for each release/branch) for this reason. If so, the last page of the wizard lets you specify a different directory for this clone and you don't have to use same name as remote repo name for your directory. (Note: each clone can, and usually does, have multiple branches in it, so you can use one repo clone for working on multiple branches. But each time you switch between branches it may take a while and may have to rebuild everything, so most developers use multiple clones, each usually pointed at one branch apiece. So e.g. checking in files to ptp_7_0 and then merging with master can be done more quickly, working with the two different clones that don't need to switch themselves.)
- One convention for this: Make two clones of the git repo, one for master (Luna-based work) and one for the ptp_7_0 branch (Kepler 7.0.x-based work). You can put both branches in each clone.
- One set of suggested names of the repos:
- Set of repos where 'master' is the (default) branch used - for Luna work (that is, name the repo to match the default branch -- or, just use the same name as the server repo)
- org.eclipse.ptp-luna
- org.eclipse.photran-luna
- org.eclipse.ptp.master-luna (this is the aggregated build project for eclipse hudson build server. Most developers won't need to clone this.)
- Set of repos where 'ptp_7_0' is the (default) branch used - for Kepler work
- org.eclipse.ptp-kepler
- org.eclipse.photran-kepler
- org.eclipse.ptp.master-kepler (this is non-gerrit, probably need to change for gerrit) (this is the aggregated build project for eclipse hudson build server. Most developers won't need to clone this.)
- One convention for this: Make two clones of the git repo, one for master (Luna-based work) and one for the ptp_7_0 branch (Kepler 7.0.x-based work). You can put both branches in each clone.
- Note: all workspaces on your machine that talk to this local clone of the repository will all use the same branch at a time. You may want separate clones of the repo (one for each release/branch) for this reason. If so, the last page of the wizard lets you specify a different directory for this clone and you don't have to use same name as remote repo name for your directory. (Note: each clone can, and usually does, have multiple branches in it, so you can use one repo clone for working on multiple branches. But each time you switch between branches it may take a while and may have to rebuild everything, so most developers use multiple clones, each usually pointed at one branch apiece. So e.g. checking in files to ptp_7_0 and then merging with master can be done more quickly, working with the two different clones that don't need to switch themselves.)
- Click Next> to choose where you want the repository located locally. It can be anywhere. See suggested names above if you don't have a better idea.
- Also choose what you want the default branch to be (if other than master)
- Click Finish. The repository should be downloaded.
- Once the repository has downloaded you should see it in the list. Select it.
- Under Location: URI: enter the repository URI and click Next >:
- If you have already cloned the repository, and it isn't shown in the list (e.g. Clone done from another workspace)
- Select Add... and add it.
- You should now see it in the list. Select it.
- Click Next> then Next> again and you should see a list of all the projects.
- Select all of the projects except the following (omitting them is optional; you can also just close then later if you like, or just ignore errors), then click Finish. (The tests projects are unit tests for RDT; to compile and run them, you would need to check out the source code for CDT's unit testing projects and their dependencies. Omitting them just keeps confusing build errors out of your way.)
- org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.core.tests
- org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.ui.tests
- org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.sync.rsync.core
- org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.sync.rsync.ui
Repeat the steps to import another repository (e.g. Photran).
- The Photran URI is ssh://email@example.com/gitroot/ptp/org.eclipse.photran.git; for non-commiters, use git://git.eclipse.org/gitroot/ptp/org.eclipse.photran.git.
- The aggregated build is org.eclipse.ptp.master (most folks won't need this); you will have to import as General project or it won't see any projects
It is also necessary to set Git options to ensure that updates are done correctly.
ONCE ONLY: (Git settings are saved on disk, so shared across workspaces and Eclipse installations.)
- Open Window>Preferences>Team>Git>Configuration
- Select the "User Settings" tab
- Click "Add Entry"
- For "Key", enter branch.autosetuprebase
- For "Value", enter always
- Click "OK"
- Open Window>Preferences>Team>Git>Configuration if it's not already open
- Select the "Repository Settings" tab
- Select the repository from the "Repository" dropdown
- Click "Add Entry"
- For "Key", enter branch.master.rebase
- For "Value", enter true
- Click "OK"
- If you are working on the ptp_7_0 branch (or other branches)
- Do the same thing, but use key branch.ptp_X_Y.rebase
Build internal PTP parts
Building LML Driver for system monitoring
The first time, or if changes occur in org.eclipse.ptp.lml.da.server:
- In project org.eclipse.ptp.rm.lml.da.server, create a new lml-driver.tar by right clicking on build.xml and selecting Run As > Ant Build
Obtaining sdm runtime binary for debugger
This is no longer necessary in most cases. PTP 7.0 moves a pre-built sdm to the remote host automatically, for most platforms. Need to check to see if we need to do something for dev workspace launching, though.
To locate the sdm runtime binary, use the ptp-sdm-*.zip package from here: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/ptp/builds/kepler/nightly/ (The ptp-proxy-* package from previous releases is no longer needed).
Download the ptp-sdm-*.zip package. Unzip it and locate the pre-build sdm binary for your target platform (directory name matches platform). Move the pre-built sdm binary for your target platform to some location onto the remote target. This is the binary sdm you will need to locate from the debug launch dialog.
Updating existing projects
- Right-click on a project and use Team>Pull - this updates the existing projects in your entire local repository, and the current branch in your workspace
Platform Git workflows wiki page has more detail here (including splitting Pull into its two actual steps of Fetch and Merge]
- Make sure you have set branch.autosetuprebase=always and branch.<name>.rebase=true as described above
- This causes a Pull (analogous to a 'cvs update') to do the following:
- Fetch
- Rebase (It undoes all local commits, fast-forwards the local version to the remote one, and then reapplies the local commits)
- Otherwise a Pull only does a Fetch/Merge which causes a spaghetti like history
If new projects have been added to the repository,
- Do an Import ... Git > Projects from Git, Next, Choose 'Local', Next, Choose your repository, Next, Next (leave default for 'Import existing projects' and working directory), and on the 'Import Projects' page you should see all the existing projects greyed out, since you already have them in your workspace; make sure all the new projects are checked and hit 'Finish'.
New Branches
- If a new branch is added to the repo and you want to get the new branch into your local repo, do:
- Team > Pull to get changes from remote repo (e.g. existence of the new branch) into your local repo
- Team > Switch to > New Branch... and for Source Ref, choose the new remote branch
Committing to remote repository
There are two steps to getting code changes in the remote repository at git.eclipse.org: commit then push. (This was a single commit step in CVS. Eclipse Kepler's EGit allows this in a single step via a "Commit and Push" button as well.)
- Pull to get the latest changes and prevent errors when you push
- right-click on any project in the repository and use Team>Pull
- Commit to your local repository - this can be on single files or groups/whole project
- right-click on your project and use Team>Commit
- If there is a associated bugzilla - copy and paste the bug number, for example, Bug 400832 (or [400832])- and the bug title or other description of the fix.
- Push to copy it to the remote repository - do it on project, e.g. from Project Explorer; all commits in your local repository (including other projects) get pushed up to git.eclipse.org
- right-click on any project in the repository and use Team>Push to Upstream
Alternatively, you can
- Team>Pull (on any project in the repo) first to make sure you've updated, then
- Team>Commit and use the checkbox to 'Push the changes to upstream' at the bottom of the 'Commit Changes' dialog.
Platform Git workflows wiki page is helpful here.
Here are the steps:
- If there is an associated bugzilla for the change, then assigned to yourself that is "take" the Bugzilla.
- Checkout the branch you want to commit changes, for example local:master -> remote:master
- If it is already checked out, Pull to make sure it is in sync
- Make changes / Apply patch
- Commit. Specify Bugzilla if available, and specify Author - contributor of the patch, and yourself as Committer.
- Push.
- If push failed, you may not be having latest version. Rerun pull.
- If e.g. you need to commit to both branches ptp_7_0 and master, then commit to ptp_7_0 first then go to master and merge.
- If there is an associated bugzilla for the change, then mark the Bugzilla RESOLVED - FIXED. Note: The bugzilla is marked verified/closed after the release.
In history view you should see
[master][origin/master][HEAD] Bug xxx - your fix
API baseline and code formatter
- Set up API baseline see PTP/developer_guidelines for API Baseline setup (API Tools)
- Set up PTP code formatter - see PTP/developer_guidelines for PTP formatting and cleanup profiles
Copy Remote Tools Dstore server jar
If you are using Remote Tools ... you may see the error "Unable to locate payload "rdt-server.jar" in bundle "org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.server.dstore" " when you launch a runtime workspace and make a (purely) remote project.
So you must do the following (Until we can build rdt server jar here) ... From a PTP (end-user) installation, unzip eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.server.dstore_xxx.jar into a directory. Then from the unzipped contents move rdt-server.jar to your development workspace project: org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.server.dstore
(This is the file that will be moved up to the remote host location when you create a remote project. Remote Tools installs this jar on the server automatically and starts it for you.)
If you don't, you will see the error popup "Unable to locate payload "rdt-server.jar" in bundle "org.eclipse.ptp.rdt.server.dstore"
Copy LML Driver tar file
If you are developing PTP from source in your development workspace and launching into a runtime workspace you also get a similar error to the one above:
"Unable to locate payload "lml-driver.tar" in bundle "org.eclipse.ptp.rm.lml.da.server""
TO fix this, see above section " building LML driver for system monitoring "
Launching a runtime workbench running the code you checked out into your workspace
- Run > Debug Configurations ...
- Double-click on 'Eclipse Application' - or click and click on the 'new' icon
- Defaults are probably ok to run with all the plugin projects in your workspace; hit 'Debug' in lower right corner
Compiling XML Schema (XSD) into Java classes using the JAXB compiler (xjc)
Should there be a need to alter the provided schemas for the JAXB Resource Manager (or any other such JAXB tooling), follow these steps to set up compilation:
- Download jaxb-ri (xjc); e.g., from JAXB Project (Note: Mac OS X already has xjc installed)
- Install it somewhere on your local machine
- In your project workspace, create an External Tools Configuration. The following is an example based on org.eclipse.ptp.rm.jaxb.core, which has the .xsd in the data directory:
- Location:
{jaxb-ri directory}/bin/xjc.sh
- Working Directory:
- Arguments:
data/resource_manager_type.xsd -p org.eclipse.ptp.rm.jaxb.core.data -d src
- Location:
Each time you run this, all the source files generated from the schema will be overwritten.


text:
Chinese Characters for beginner 汉字
مقدمة من
نبذة عن المقرر
Welcome to "Chinese Characters for beginner"!
This is an elementary course on learning Chinese characters. Together, we will start from the basic element of Chinese characters-- Strokes. Then we will learn 1,200 basic Chinese words composed of 240 commonly used Chinese characters, which begin with "一"(one), including pronunciation, shape and meaning, so that to improve the learning effect.
① Each Chinese character is with pinyin;
② Each Chinese character is shown in the form of animation in the process of writing, namely strokes;
③ English translation is used on the Chinese character can be a word itself. Other Chinese characters can not be independent of words are the characters of. The English translation of this kind of characters is marked in parentheses;
④ Each Chinese word is accompanied by Pinyin, English translation and picture, which is easy to understand;
⑤ There are proper exercises at the end of each lesson.
Good luck !

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Crock-Pot Greek-Style Beef Stew
From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...As you know, stifado is a Greek stew. It can be made with rabbit, hare or beef and it's slowly simmered with a quantity of onions until the cubed meat is meltingly tender. The stew is both sweet and sour and is fairly unique in the spices that are used to flavor it. The dish I'm featuring tonight is Greek-like. I would never claim it to be authentic and I don't want to become embroiled in arguments waged by those who believe theirs to be the definitive stew. I've combined stew meat, pearl onions and tomatoes in a slow cooker and seasoned them with cinnamon, allspice and cloves to produce a stew that becomes Greek-like when topped with feta cheese and walnuts. This is a no fuss dinner and once the meat and onions have been browned, it is a meal that takes care of itself. The recipe I used was was developed by Lynn Alley, and the only change I've made to it, is to use a bit more garlic and add a small amount of vinegar at the end of cooking. Those of you who love to use the crock-pot or slow cooker will love this recipe. Those of you who do not can achieve the same results by braising the stew in a 250 degree F. oven for 6 to 7 hours, or until the meat is fork tender. Either way, you'll have a wonderful family meal that is delicious when served with rice and a salad. The recipe calls for a bouquet garni. Remember you can use a coffee filter rather than cheesecloth to hold the herbs and spices in place. Here's the recipe.
Crock-Pot Greek-Style Beef Stew...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Lynn Alley
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper, more to taste
2 pounds boneless beef stew meat or top round steak, trimmed or fat and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks across the grain
24 white pearl onions, trimmed
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup hearty red wine
3 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks (4-inch)
4 cloves garlic, smashed flat
8 whole cloves
4 allspice berries
Kitchen twine (for bouquet garni)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 pound feta cheese, crumbled, for serving
3/4 cup coarsely broken walnut pieces, for serving
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, for serving
1) In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat 1-1/2 tablespoons oil until very hot. While it is heating, combine flour, salt and pepper in a large zipper-top plastic bag. Add beef chunks to bag and shake until well coated. Add half of beef to hot oil and brown on all sides, for 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a medium or large slow cooker. Repeat browning with remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons oil and remaining beef. Transfer to slow cooker.
2) Add onions to skillet and brown slightly, stirring, over medium-high heat. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate, bringing them to room temperature after 2 1/2 hours.
3) Using same pan, add tomatoes, their juice and wine and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits stuck to pan. Pour into cooker.
4) Make a bouquet garni of bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, garlic, cloves and allspice berries by wrapping them in cheesecloth or a coffee filter and tying bundle with kitchen twine; submerge into the stew. Cover and cook on low for 3-3 1/2 hours.
5) At three hour mark, add room-temperature onions, cover and continue to cook on low until the meat is tender, another 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Remove bouquet garni, stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir gently so as not to break up onions. Serve topped with feta cheese, walnuts and parsley. Yield: 6 servings.
You might also enjoy these recipes:
Mushroom Bourguignon - Elle's New England Kitchen
Coffee and Chili Braised Pot Roast - Cara's Cravings
Crock-Pot Vegetarian Chili - Spice Opolis
Sunday Suppers: Cassoulet - Stacey Snacks
Beer Stew - Food and Whine
Crock-Pot Southwestern Sausage and Hominy Stew - One Perfect Bite
53 comments :
- Faith said...
Mary, that sounds amazing! I love anything that has the greek flavors in it and feta is one of my favorites.
- January 18, 2011 at 11:57 PM
- cocoa and coconut said...
We love Greek food! (In fact, we went out for it last night). And I think this would be a great addition to our weeknight meals seeing as it's no fuss. Thanks Mary!
- January 19, 2011 at 12:20 AM
- Ginny Hartzler said...
I must say I've never heard of stifado. But I have made a few greek style dishes, like pastichio (don't know if I spelled that right). This one looks good. I'm glad to see you doing some slow cooker dishes! It's time to wash mine and start using it again.
- January 19, 2011 at 12:55 AM
- Banana Wonder said...
Very proud of this Greek like dish! I love stifado - my favorite being the rabbit version. Your version makes Greek grandmothers proud :)
- January 19, 2011 at 1:18 AM
- Asteri (Maria) said...
Καταπληκτικό φαγητό!
Πολύ ωραία μαγειρεμένο.
Είναι περιτό να πω ότι το λατρεύω το στιφάδο; :))
Καλημέρα - January 19, 2011 at 2:32 AM
- Diane said...
Great flavours here and anything that cooks in my crock-pot has to be good. Take care. Diane
- January 19, 2011 at 3:15 AM
- Priya Suresh said...
Stew sounds interesting, unfortunately we dont eat beef..
- January 19, 2011 at 4:08 AM
- Katerina said...
Stifado is one of my favorite traditional meals. I just love the boldness of this dish. Mary your stew may not follow the true recipe to T, but it looks great and from the ingredients I can understand it tastes great as well. After all, food is all about the feelings it creates and the senses it arouses, authenticity follows and frankly to me has little importance.
- January 19, 2011 at 4:28 AM
- Peter M said...
Mary, it's a good dish, one I like and you've tailored it well to the slow-cooker.
- January 19, 2011 at 5:18 AM
- Schnitzel and the Trout said...
BINGO! A coffee filter can be used. Why or why have I not thought of that myself. sigh...thank you so much Mary for waking me up. Lovely recipe by the way. Learned something new today :)
- January 19, 2011 at 6:51 AM
- What's next said...
That sounds wonderful. I think this may be dinner tomorrow night! Of course my very Texas husband will want to know why I didn't serve it over mashed potatos...
Thanks! - January 19, 2011 at 7:19 AM
- Kim said...
I love all the flavors in this stew. I can't wait to try this!
- January 19, 2011 at 7:33 AM
- Martha said...
I'm not a crock pot fan but I would certainly do it in the oven. I've not had this nor made a Greek stew -- if the cold weather holds, this may definitely be on the menu at Linderhof!
- January 19, 2011 at 7:43 AM
- GLENDA CHILDERS said...
I made a great stew for company this week . . . I agree with you, it is so easy. Even had leftovers. This looks great, and I look forward to trying your Greek version.
Glenda - January 19, 2011 at 7:51 AM
- Astra Libris said...
Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and for your lovely comment! I'm so touched and honored!
I'm thrilled to try this recipe - it sounds delicious and I love any excuse to try a new, scrumptious slow cooker recipe! :-) I'm especially excited about your clever tip to use a coffee filter for the bouquet garni - thank you so much! - January 19, 2011 at 8:11 AM
- Unknown said...
This is one of those times I wish I could reach into my computer and take that bowl!! I love these flavors together, I bet it was wonderful!
- January 19, 2011 at 8:15 AM
- Cara said...
Thank you so much for the link up. This stew looks fabulous - I love the addition of feta and walnuts!
- January 19, 2011 at 8:26 AM
- Tiza said...
I'm always looking for more slow-cooker recipes. I can't wait to try this!
- January 19, 2011 at 8:36 AM
- Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...
Cooking this Greek classic in a crock pot certainly speeds up the process,marries the flavours and makes tender pull apart meat Mary.
- January 19, 2011 at 8:37 AM
- Cathy said...
Whatever would we do without a crock pot on a busy day? The aroma must be heavenly as it cooks.
- January 19, 2011 at 9:04 AM
Definitive Stew ... I saw them open for REM back in '93.
I think the Google has run out of made-up words for the word verification ... got a real word this time.
Cheers! - January 19, 2011 at 9:14 AM
- Unknown said...
Love it! A fun and flavorful new way to prepare beef! I'll need lots of pita bread for soaking up!
- January 19, 2011 at 9:34 AM
This recipe looks and sounds delicious and I can't wait to try it. Thank you for the link back to my Food Blog as well!! Have a great day my friend.
- January 19, 2011 at 10:16 AM
- Faith said...
I love the Greek twist to this classic! I'm always looking for new stews this time of year and I think this sounds perfect. Hope you have a wonderful day, Mary!
- January 19, 2011 at 10:28 AM
- pigpigscorner said...
This sounds amazing! So comforting! Love sweet and sour flavours.
- January 19, 2011 at 11:08 AM
- claire said...
I am obsessed with Greek- almost as much as I am obsessed with my crockpot!! I eat it way too much!
Cant wait to try this! - January 19, 2011 at 11:26 AM
- Patricia @ ButterYum said...
This one's for you, Mary:
ButterYum - January 19, 2011 at 11:41 AM
- PeggyR said...
I really need tog et with it and make some stew!
- January 19, 2011 at 11:54 AM
- Jayanthy Kumaran said...
very interesting recipe...looks pretty yummy n irresistable Mary..:)
Tasty appetite - January 19, 2011 at 12:05 PM
- We Are Not Martha said...
I love Greek food (and feta!) and this looks so much better to me than the typical beef stew. Yum!
Sues - January 19, 2011 at 1:51 PM
- The Blonde Duck said...
I love no-fuss dinners!
- January 19, 2011 at 2:24 PM
- Kim said...
The combination of spices, along with the use of feta cheese, makes this a huge temptation to me! Sounds and looks glorious Mary!
- January 19, 2011 at 2:28 PM
- Big Dude said...
In a fan of Greek food and this looks super good.
- January 19, 2011 at 2:50 PM
- Rita said...
I do love feta cheese, but never would have thought to add it to a stew. I can just imagine that flavour; great combination.
- January 19, 2011 at 3:06 PM
- Carolyn™ said...
I will just have to make this yum.
- January 19, 2011 at 3:22 PM
- teresa said...
oh my goodness, those flavor look and sound just poppin! what a gorgeous stew!
- January 19, 2011 at 3:40 PM
- nanny said...
I love Greek food and this looks so delicious....
- January 19, 2011 at 4:04 PM
- brokeintrovert said...
Another great recipe!
Thanks for visiting my blog! - January 19, 2011 at 4:31 PM
- Claudia said...
Ilove the idea of a stew with cinnamon and cloves and then topped with feta. So many melding flavors in one stew pot! And so wonderfully warming (which is how I judge all meals these days).
- January 19, 2011 at 4:47 PM
- Kankana said...
Stew sounds perfect in this cold winter .. i have to make this soon.
- January 19, 2011 at 5:31 PM
- From the Kitchen said...
You are edging me closer and closer to dusting off that seldom used crock pot and giving it a few assignments. I love the Greek flavors in this recipe.
Bonnie - January 19, 2011 at 5:34 PM
- La Bella Cooks said...
Loving the Greek flavors in this dish. I just made a stew myself but I like your take on it as well.
- January 19, 2011 at 5:45 PM
- Joanne said...
All you had to do was put cinnamon and beef in the same sentence and I was hooked. This looks so hearty! Traditional or not.
- January 19, 2011 at 7:53 PM
- foodie and the chef said...
That's great that you can use a coffee filter - genius ! This looks so delicious, I love the depth of flavours you've used.
- January 19, 2011 at 8:17 PM
- hannah said...
Wow your blog is brilliant. Thanks for the kind words, I'm so glad you commented me so I can browse at your beautiful food blog.
- January 19, 2011 at 8:57 PM
- Anna said...
I've been using my slow cooker a lot lately. This is just the recipe I've been looking for! I'll let you know when I try it.
- January 19, 2011 at 9:04 PM
- T.W. Barritt at Culinary Types said...
A gorgeous winter dish. I'm intriqued by Greek flavors in a stew. I never thought of using a coffee filter for the herbs - great idea!
- January 19, 2011 at 9:19 PM
- kitchen flavours said...
Your stew looks wonderful. I have never tried Greek cuisine before, now you have really caught my attention with this lovely stew! Thank you.
- January 19, 2011 at 9:25 PM
- Angela said...
Looks delicious. I have never cooked with allspice berries before; they sound very exotic!
- January 19, 2011 at 10:08 PM
This stew sounds delicious! I need to add this to the menu next week! :)
- January 19, 2011 at 10:44 PM
- penny aka jeroxie said...
The flavours are intense. I have a crock pot :)
- January 19, 2011 at 11:58 PM
- My Little Space said...
I think it should goes well with turkey meat too! I like how you put them together. Must be so flavourful. Thanks for sharing.
Regards, Kristy - January 20, 2011 at 7:59 AM
- scrambledhenfruit said...
Authentic or not, it looks wonderful. I love the Greek flavors, and also the fact that it's crock pot friendly. :)
- January 20, 2011 at 11:10 PM


text:
Yo Soy lover of Soy.
Come on, I'm Japanese American and grew up eating tofu by the square plastic tub-full. If my family laid those out cartons end to end, I'm sure we could reach the moon and back.
And I love the edamame. I just like saying the name. I like eating the whole edamame with sea salt and popping those beans out of their pod.
And I love hummus. Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans and me are friends. You remember Little House on the Prairie? Laura Ingalls' husband was Almanzo Wilder. My "English is my Second Language" mom always (I mean always) called him "Garbanzo." I can't look at hummus without thinking of Pa, Ma, Mary and Half-Pint.
So, when I saw this double soy delight by everyone's favorite Ellie Krieger, I was sold.
Edamame Hummus
From Ellie Krieger
2 cups shelled edamame, cooked according to package directions (for this recipe, I bought the shelled edamame, not the whole beans)
1 cup silken tofu, briefly drained of excess liquid
(I used Mori-Nu Silken Soft Tofu. 1 cup is about 1/2 a package.)
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
3 cloves garlic (Holy smokes, I used too much garlic or my cloves were extra large. I would cut this in half and then add more if necessary)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice, plus more, to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin, plus more, for garnish
I whirled it all in a food processor for 2-3 minutes. Added lots of black pepper and topped with extra edamame.
It's Soy Soy good. (ha ha ha)
Edamame Hummus From Ellie Krieger/FoodNetwork Website


text:
In winning election as Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio defied the papal pundits, even though they should have seen him coming. His rise marks the decisive shift within Roman Catholicism toward Latin America and the developing world. In theological terms, he represents continuity, yet he is the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years, and also the first Jesuit.
He is a doctrinal conservative who battled gay marriage in Argentina and fellow Jesuits who were more liberal. But he also rebuked priests who denied baptism to children born out of wedlock and has spoken strongly for social justice. He is the first pope to take the name of the saint known for his devotion to humility and to the poor. He is likely to weigh in often on behalf of the world's poorest regions.
"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," Bergoglio told Latin American bishops in 2007. "The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."
That his election was a surprise is, in itself, surprising. It was widely reported that he came in second to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- Pope Benedict XVI -- in the 2005 conclave. John Allen, the well-sourced Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, cited a prelate who said that Bergoglio had given Ratzinger "something of a horse race."
Bergoglio's support stayed intact in the ensuing eight years, and one church official said that he received roughly 30 votes on the first ballot on Tuesday, a strong showing in the 115-member conclave that placed him in a commanding position to win early after only five rounds of voting.
In the run-up to the conclave, however, he was pushed down the list of probable victors, partly because of his age -- he is 76 -- and partly because some cardinals wondered whether he had the toughness to take on a Vatican bureaucracy in desperate need for reform. This will now be tested.
More liberal American Catholics seeking change in the church's stance on the role of women and sexuality cannot expect much movement from Pope Francis. He is a traditionalist, although the same could be said of all other potential winners. Francis was an early critic of liberation theology, which united Catholics and movements on the political left in Latin America.
Yet an American bishop noted that the choice of Francis would not be greeted as a clear victory by conservatives, either. On liturgical issues, he has opposed those who seek to roll back changes instituted by the Second Vatican Council.
This bishop also noted that in his first speech as pope to the crowd in St. Peter's Square, Francis laid heavy stress on his role as the "Bishop of Rome," rather than emphasizing his standing as the leader of the church. This could, the American bishop said, be a signal that Bergoglio is sympathetic to forces in the church unhappy with the concentration of power in the papacy who have called for a decentralization of authority away from the Vatican.
The conclave also pointedly stepped away from cardinals with close ties to the Curia, as the Vatican bureaucracy is known, and also from the early Italian favorite, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.
In the end, it is Pope Francis' standing as a Latin American and as an advocate of the poor that may well define him.
His connection to Argentina is not without ambiguity. He has come under criticism for not speaking up strongly against the brutal Argentine junta that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. Yet he is unlike some past leaders in the Latin Church who allied themselves with privilege.
He gave up the archbishop's mansion in favor of a small apartment, and used public transit. He's worked in his nation's slums and asked his priests to do the same. He has outlined the shortcomings of unregulated capitalism, and of the International Monetary Fund.
For many Catholics, a great deal of hope rests on the new pontiff's choice of the name Francis, the saint who disdained formal authority, devoted himself to a simple life, cared passionately about the marginalized, and saw actions as counting far more than proclamations.
It is said that St. Francis once declared, "Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words." For a pope, it's a challenging approach.
(c) 2013, Washington Post Writers Group
Please email comments to [email protected] and join the conversation on our Facebook page.
Previous Story
Update: Pope Francis
Next Story
Quick Thoughts on Pope Francis


text:
Last year, something surprising happened: A piece of legislation about abortion made it through both chambers of Congress and was signed into law by President Obama.
It was a law providing insurance coverage for abortion for military women in the case of rape or incest. The bipartisan support enjoyed by the military trumped politics as usual, which generally holds that Republicans and Democrats have to fight over anything involving abortion.
But will the women who volunteer for the Peace Corps inspire a similar truce on the same issue?
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) is banking on it. Lautenberg introduced a bill Thursday called the Peace Corps Equity Act of 2013, which echoes the law that extended the coverage for military women, the Shaheen Amendment. The new bill, also co-sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), would overturn a 1979 appropriations bill that banned the Peace Corps from offering this benefit in its federal health plan.
Peace Corps volunteers "face inherent risks to their safety and security," according to a statement by Lautenberg. More than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers reported experiencing sexual assault between 2000 and 2009, including more than 221 rapes or attempted rapes. Women make up about 60 percent of Peace Corps volunteers serving abroad.
The bill does not yet have a House sponsor.
Echo Bergquist, who served in the Peace Corps in southern Kazakhstan, said the organization hadn't addressed the issue of unwanted pregnancies during her orientation in 2009. While the health plan had otherwise been more than adequate — even picking up the tab for Tylenol — she said the issue of pregnancies resulting from sexual violence weren't addressed.
"Maybe it's uncomfortable to say to these young enthusiastic Americans," she said. "But in countries like Kazakhstan, it's a real threat."
During her two years as a teacher abroad, Bergquist said, she often felt unsafe and was grabbed by men on several occasions. Even so, Bergquist considers herself lucky. She said her program was cut short when several cases of more serious sexual assaults were reported. The Peace Corps website cited "operational considerations" and suspended the Kazakhstan program in 2011.
The same year, Congress passed the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act, named for a volunteer who was murdered while serving in Benin. The act, which called for more transparency and better treatment of sexual violence victims, came soon after an ABC 20/20 report about Puzey's murder and what critics called a "blame the victim" culture that they said kept these issues under the radar.
While the Peace Corps responded with stricter protocols, advocates of the equity bill said covering abortions is a necessary addition to women working abroad.
"I think this should be a no-brainer. There's no rational reason to deny women in the Peace Corps coverage," said Andrea Friedman, a reproductive health director at the National Partnership for Women and Families, an advocacy group.
She said the 1979 appropriations act was most likely an oversight, not an outright decision to leave them without coverage. Friedman hopes the new bill passes and gives volunteers the same benefits as their military peers.
The Shaheen Amendment passed with bipartisan support. Republican senators John McCain of Arizona and Scott Brown of Massachusetts voted for it in 2012.
Calls to anti-abortion-rights groups including the National Right to Life Committee, the Family Research Council and the Susan B. Anthony List were not immediately returned.
Copyright 2023 Kaiser Health News. To see more, visit Kaiser Health News.


text:
w, class_hints)
Display *display;
Window w;
XClassHint *class_hints;
Status XGetClassHint(display, w, class_hints_return)
Display *display;
Window w;
XClassHint *class_hints_return;
The XSetClassHint function sets the class hint for the specified window. If the strings are not in the Host Portable Character Encoding, the result is implementation-dependent.
XSetClassHint can generate BadAlloc and BadWindow errors.
The XGetClassHint function returns the class hint of the specified window to the members of the supplied structure. If the data returned by the server is in the Latin Portable Character Encoding, then the returned strings are in the Host Portable Character Encoding. Otherwise, the result is implementation-dependent. It returns a nonzero status on success; otherwise, it returns a zero status. To free res_name and res_class when finished with the strings, use XFree on each individually.
XGetClassHint can generate a BadWindow error.
typedef struct { char *res_name; char *res_class; } XClassHint;
The res_name member contains the application name, and the res_class member contains the application class. Note that the name set in this property may differ from the name set as WM_NAME. That is, WM_NAME specifies what should be displayed in the title bar and, therefore, can contain temporal information (for example, the name of a file currently in an editor's buffer). On the other hand, the name specified as part of WM_CLASS is the formal name of the application that should be used when retrieving the application's resources from the resource database.


text:
Unfortunately there are many key aspects to the job -- staying alert during long administrative meetings, sucking up constantly to rich people, uttering pious nonsense on appropriate public occasions -- that I would be terrible at. But if (or rather when) some intrepid chancellor decides he or she needs a ruthless hatchet man, who will know how to cut a payroll drastically with little or no loss of educational quality . . .
Also, I wouldn't ever do stuff like this:
This missive was sent to me by an understandably exasperated Emory student, who wonders what exactly the $45,000 per year in tuition he and his fellow students are charged is going towards. Now on one level what's another $135 when you're being billed $135,000 in tuition alone for an opportunity to go try to find a job in Nebraska? But on quite another, we're talking about a grand total of $37,000 or thereabouts, which the school is passing through to its 2Ls, rather than digging around in the couch cushions of the school's $50 million per year operating budget.From: ELS 2014 Students [email@example.com of 2014 and certain members of the Class of 2013:EMORY.EDU] on behalf of Jones, Lindsay [email@example.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2012 12:17 PM
To: email@example.com
Subject: Mandatory Registration and Payment for Trial Techniques Program
All Emory Law Students are required to register for the Kessler-Edison Program for Trial Techniques during their second year of study. Those students in their third year of study who did not register or complete the program during their second year because of a joint-degree waiver during their second year, or due to conflicts or other reasons that prevented them from completing the program during their second year, must also register and complete the program as a prerequiste to graduation.
In order to complete your registeration for the program, all students will be required to pay a course materials fee on-line via a credit card. The fee of $135 covers the cost of hard copy and electronic case files and other reading materials, as well as a ditigal video card, which will be distributed to students on the January 7, 2013, at the beginning of the spring semester, and during the week long May session of the program that commences on May 4, 2013, and concludes on May 10, 2013. In addition, the program provides lunch for students on the weekend and trial dates of the program (four days), as well as two receptions with faculty.
To register and pay for your course materials fee, go to the following link:
Students must visit register and pay their course materials fee by December 1, 2012.
With Regards,
Hon. Lindsay R.M. Jones,
Associate Director
Center for Advocacy and Dispure Resolution
Emory University School of Law
Leaving aside matters of ethics, law school administrators need to understand that the symbolic optics of this sort of thing are terrible. It's not 2007 any more -- the natives are getting restless, and you should really avoid annoying them unnecessarily. If you have to, tell your faculty that they'll be taking a couple of fewer trips to Lake Como -- oh the joys of "international law!" -- and cut back on the free booze at the AALS reception, or whatever.


text:
When Hilary Mantel's new book opens, the spark has gone out of Henry VIII's second marriage. His roving eye leaves Anne Boleyn and begins to settle on Jane Seymour, another woman at court. The monarch doesn't go to a marriage counselor or divorce lawyer, not when Thomas Cromwell is his chief adviser.
Bring Up the Bodies is the sequel to Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize and worldwide acclaim. It is also the latest in a planned trilogy about Cromwell.
Historically, Cromwell is considered a dangerous and unscrupulous bully. In Mantel's books, he is — like any other man — much more than his reputation.
"He's a work in progress, as far as I'm concerned. I'm far from being able to add him up. I'm not even trying at this point," Mantel tells Weekend Edition host Scott Simon.
She says some people expected the follow-up to Wolf Hall to be about Cromwell's fall, since the first book narrated his rise.
"But actually it's not like that at all. He will go on and on rising in the world until he becomes Earl of Essex," Mantel says, "and then his fall, when it came in 1540 — long after the action of this present book — was very, very sudden. In a few weeks, it was all over."
Mantel says Cromwell knows how to "work" the king — but only does so up to a point.
"Because, in the end, Henry needs to be told the truth, and he needs someone strong who can stand up to him," she says.
The king's attraction to Seymour was puzzling to his contemporaries, Mantel says. They had known each other for years, so it wasn't love at first sight.
"But contemporaries said maybe it's because he's such a contrast to Anne Boleyn ... She was sexy, and she knew she was sexy, and she knew how to work life her way," Mantel says. "Jane was muted, she was soft, a complete opposite sort of woman ... In Jane, he saw the woman who would reflect him back at twice his size."
In the midst of this story, Cromwell tries, unsuccessfully, to pass an employment law through the parliament. Cromwell, Mantel says, looked at the endemic poverty across rural England and saw that people didn't have work. At the same time, the country needed infrastructure. He proposed putting the two together.
"But the state [would] have to finance it, and the way he seemed to be proposing to finance it was by imposing income tax," Mantel says. "But parliament did not like that. They comprehensively trashed his measure. But he was, in lots of ways, a man ahead of his time in thinking of the relationships between the state and society. It all seems startlingly modern."
She says she wants her readers to try and put themselves in Cromwell's position and find turning points they would have handled differently.
"But I myself think that Thomas Cromwell's end was written into the beginning," Mantel says.
The nobility felt they should have his job, and he was envied by his colleagues. Even the common people eyed him with suspicion, believing such a "low-born" man rose to eminence through sorcery.
"His only friend, really, was the king, and the moment the king turned against him, then it was all over," Mantel says. "But the marvelous thing about it is that he managed to keep on winning for so long. And I hope the reader will take pleasure in watching him do so."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
We use our own and third party cookies to improve your experience and our services. If you continue, we consider that you accept their use. You can get more information on our website at cookies policy.
- Travel
- Search Search
- Travel ideas Travel ideas
- Special flights Special flights
- Flight information Flight information
- Your flights
- Online check-in Online check-in
- Bookings Bookings
- Before you travel
- All about your baggage All about your baggage
- Plan your trip Plan your trip
- At the airport At the airport
- Iberia experience
- Travel with class Travel with class
- Onboard Onboard
- Iberia's fleet Iberia's fleet
- Our partnerships Our partnerships
- Our new brand Our new brand
Iberia Plus
- Register Register
- Learn about Iberia Plus Learn about Iberia Plus
- Avios Avios
- Elite Points Elite Points
- Iberia Plus Partners Iberia Plus Partners
- Iberia Plus Help Iberia Plus Help


text:
Cheers guys, for both replies.
I think I missed a bit of reading in the middle of this thread. I'll go back and do a bit more reading before I hit the post button any more.
Cheers guys, for both replies.
I think I missed a bit of reading in the middle of this thread. I'll go back and do a bit more reading before I hit the post button any more.
Well the rabbit hole is the problem, once you have seen how deep it goes, you come to understand why people making random statements about "what they have seen" is pretty pointless.
But like fad diets and ancient treasure maps people will always want to believe the simple story.
So Tom, where does this go from here? Does the rabbit hole hold no secrets for you any more? Did this thread reach the same and full conclusions that you found back in the 90's or has your research on this subject continued?
P.S. I can't see any of the data on the data thread, which is a shame.
The data is here:
The begining is graphs for recharge rates and after that is Tom's paintball ballistics testing.
Hey Hitech your starting to sound like me! - AGD
Hitech is the man.... - Blennidae
The only Hitech Lubricant
Ya but all the pics are dead. Do they work for you?Originally Posted by hitech
Hitech, same as Beemer for me. All the pics/links are dead. Just shows a blue border with " attached images" above it.
Am I doing something wrong?
links don't work for me either. I don't know if I have them archived or not. I've only found one so far. I'll look. Maybe Tom will read this and republish them...
when AO went through some cleaning a while back, all images hosted on AO went bye bye
embargo backwards = o grab me
"Guns dont kill people, husbands that come home early do." -Larry The Cable Guy
Dragun Drallion, nexus kit, tickler, e2, pysco 5" drop w/ on off, macroline, A+ bolt and back block, Oydessy 3 barrel kit, armson stealth, 15* ASA, Kapp pump arm, Black Magic, warp feed w/ 12v upgrade, halo b w/ vic&rip, 91/4500 bulldog
Tippmann 98C ebolt, lp kit, m-16 kit, palmer stabilizer
This may just be redundancy but anytime you try to change the trajectory of a round ball you are going to run into issues like the aforementioned. The only real way to change the trajectory and ballistic behaviors of a projectile would be to change the trailing edge. Like in actual ballistic science. If one were to change the leading edge of a bullet you would find that very little effect is achieved as far as trajectory is concerned. You could cut an "X" or drill a hole into the front of the bullet but not much would happen to distance traveled, drop ratio, or flight pattern.
Altering the aft end of the bullet however has drastic effect! An "X" or dove tailed bullet would be completely erratic in flight pattern and very dangerous. Just imagine a brass slug traveling at 2500 fps and behaving like a Super Swirl out of a Tippmann Flatline!! I dont think I would want to be anywere near it!! Basicaly the point being made here has two factors.
1st - The reason spin from a riffled barrel on a paintball doesn't work too well is because there is no sence of a trailing edge for the trajectory to set a base for flight and maintain that base.
Some may say that certain civil war era muskets used round balls and rifled bores. BUT, soon after, they found that it didn't help too much and developed what we view as a bullet today. It was just loaded like a muzzleloader.
2nd - Unless you change the trailing edge of a paintball, thereby changing the entire manufacturing process thereof you will never achive great success with rifled bores in paintball.
Originally Posted by nippinout
back spin is cool, but not quite as consistant as we would like. the problem with making the paint spin in the shell is the duration of time required to get the paint moving up to a suitable revolution per minute to stabalize the ball, without deteremental effect. i am a gunsmith not an airsmith or balistican(did i spell that right), but i know that there are differemt rates of spin required for the same projectiles at different speeds. as an example my .300 winchester magnum can use 220 grain bullets with a one twist in 10 inches barrel and will lob them out at about 2600-2800 feet per second depending on my load, but the same bullet cannot be stabilized at all out of my .300/221fireball barrel with the same twist as it only goes 920 or so feet per second to do that at a slower speed with the same bullet i need a faster spin or a one in eight twist. as far as nino_fs vortices question i think you might look in a book named "rifle accuracy facts" i would give you more specifics but my cohort has my copy.
Merry Christmas
Last edited by spooky; 12-12-2007 at 10:55 AM.
Originally Posted by Redkey
the more weight per ball, the more momentum= staying faster for a longertime. a higher sectional density, even marginally higher will make a difference when you have such a small ammount of play in velocity.
thank you
p.s. i will make an attempt to make a spinning barrel marker and post the findings of various lots of paint.
i have an idea, does anyone have any way to make a paintball with more flash from the casting on the i.d. of the ball so that the required duration of spin required to stabalize the paint in the ball would be lessened due to more friction on the balls interior?
Originally Posted by hitech
look up the reflex style supressor "silencer" at http://www.reflexsuppressors.co.uk/
sound cannot move without air
Spooky, tell me you did not register an account to reply to several posts made literally year(s) ago?
Paintballs are not bullets. Bullets spin about the axis of travel to prevent significant yawing and tumbling. Sort of how a round may be stable out to certain ranges and then start tumbling because it's constantly loosing spin rate (Like shooting heavy 5.56 rounds out of a slow twist AR15 barrel - stable, but only for a short flight distance). The spin keeps the bullet point-forward and the ballistic coefficient good... which means accuracy. It's easy to spin a bullet because it can be dug into by the rifling without breaking (like a paintball).
People try to spin paintballs consistently simply so they all act in a consistent manner. It, has nothing (or little) to do with "stabilization" in a physics sense of the word. It's a sphere, it doesn't and cant be "stabilized"... it already is. Most paintballs shoot with random or no spin, causing either random deviations or unpredictable knuckleball deviations, respectively.
Now you'll say "some old muskets that fired balls were rifled and accuracy was greatly aided." True, this is to get rid of the "knuckleball" and random oriented spin effects and create consistent spin (and thus flight) patterns. It was not to "stabilize" the ball. Once again, it is a ball and has no geometric orientation more stable than other orientations.
The most important reason why spinning a paintball is hard is plain simple inertia. A paintball is not solid like a bullet, as you mentioned. It cannot be forced to spin to a precise twist rate consistently in just a few milliseconds. The shell spins, inertia makes the paint stay stationary. There is no way to effectively spin paintballs to a consistent spin rate on the field of play. Tom Kay actually did tests with rotating barrels in the past. Finally, in the end when all is said and done... they are paintballs. They have seams and dimples and internal liquid. It would be foolish to assume that even paintballs flying with exact speed and rotation would still hit the same point of impact.
*I realize that a rotating sphere will have a gyroscopic stabilized relative coordinate system, but the accuracy effects from that are nearly negligible compared to the magnus effects. A consistent magnus effect will produce consistent ballistic path deviation... and thus increased accuracy.
i was thinking of letting the barrel itself, do the spinning at say 10.000rpm or so and allowing the ball to sit in the spinning barrel untill the fill is also spinning. it's a paintball the effect of a light projectile constantly losing speed when allready starting out slow is a moot point as the shell would have to be tougher to deal with the higher rpm and velocity, again not safe. i'm just wondering if anyone has tried getting the barrel and the balls fill to spin then while spinning shoot. just trying to envoke more thought
i think that consistant velocity and sorting the paint by weight and size would be the most important for practical accuracy, but i'm the type who has to hotrod every thing i own
Tom did that. If I remember correctly, 10k rpms was what he spun it up to. It had no increase in accuracy.Originally Posted by spooky
These are extremely lite, large, slow moving balls. The effects of vortex shedding are just too great to overcome.
I came across this thread while researching paintball spin knowledge.
To all those out there that have spent any amount of time thinking about how to get a paintball to spin so as to take advantage of a sprial-rifled barrel, would there be a way to include a divider in the paintball and elongate its design?
If an elongate paintball were made with a divider running the length of the paintball, seperating it into two halves a spin could be imparted upon it without having to worry about the "uncooked egg" effect.
I've seen how paintballs are made, I'm sure it is possible.
What do you guys think?
While a divider might be possible, a football shaped paintball would require a complete remake of all paintball markers, loaders, and tournament rules. You'd have to load each paintball through a clip or magazine, since footballs wouldn't work in a hopper.Originally Posted by ChowderMusket
A divider, while possible, is pointless - TK proved that spinning a paintball doesn't improve accuracy, even if the fill is spinning.
they made football shaped paintballs once. i forgot what they were called.Originally Posted by ChowderMusket
anyway, the failed becuase they are hard to load, dont break on target well, hella expensive and dont really have much in the way of range or accuracy gains.
Don't forget not legal in any tournament.Originally Posted by cockerpunk
Paintballs are too lite for their size. Manike made a "bullet" shaped (exact same as the FN303 round) "paintball" that weighed the same as a normal paintball. These have groves that spin the round when it is fired. It flew worse than a paintball. They just don't have enough mass for their frontal area.
Oh what a bizarre coincidence that today I check back on this forum after years of being away, to find a recent post in this thread.


text:
There is really a growing debate between the popularity of land casinos versus online casinos. While the basic format of the casinos may be the same, the debate comes whenever choosing a casino to suit you, the player. Choosing the type of casino is really a difficult choice, but once the kind of game has been decided, there are several points to note on the various casinos.
The slot machines are the key to deciding on the higher type of casino, because they give a very good sign of the level of game play in the casino itself. As the slots themselves are similar, in that you insert the coin and pull the handle, hoping to complement the symbols to win the prize, the differences are many, and it's vital that you understand these differences when coming up with your decision.
The payout of the machines includes a large impact on the decision. A land based casino includes a considerably smaller payout percentage than an online casino. That is mostly because of the overheads that the land casinos have to pay out to run the casino. For example, they have mechanics, waiters, cleaners, and dealers, and they are paid through the house profits of the machines. An online casino usually only includes a few workers that require payment. In this way, the payouts are usually higher, and will entice a larger customer base because of the increased rates.
The larger customer foot of the online casinos largely attracts more customers. The more people playing the machines at one given times escalates the popularity, thus making it seem as though there is an advantage to playing the slots at that one casino. There are so many online casinos that each site has to offer the best service to keep your custom. Land based casinos haven't any real need to do this, because the chances of having another casino in the same city are quite small, and folks rarely want to travel a long distance to find other slots.
If you do opt to happen to be another land based casino, it is very important be aware that the casinos may have dress codes, or other rules to follow that may be dissimilar to the prior one you visited. บาคาร่า is a great way to sit in the comfortable surroundings of your own home without having to be worried about what to wear, or what things to eat. It is up to you to decide how you spend time, and your credits whilst playing for the most notable prizes. It is also possible on many online sites to chat to other users with a chat function, so you still have the interaction with other players.
You can easily fall for the gimmicks that may be set up on certain casino sites, rendering it impossible that you should win any prizes. Sometimes, having less winnings could be right down to the player not used to that particular machine. In a land based casino, it is therefore wise to play at a variety of slot machines to get the right one for you personally. However, this may prove costly, and you could end up spending your money before you've found a machine that works for you. With an online casino, there's always a section where you could either download a trial version of their machines, or enter a java page. This enables you to play the slots free of charge, and implement any strategies you have before playing with real money.
You will find a worry that using your own money isn't safe having an online casino. Charge card fraud is a common crime, and it is wise to be wary about giving your details on the internet. To ease your brain, casinos use a secure server that transfers hardly any money efficiently, and generally doesn't store any private information where it could be accessed by other users. Confidentiality is a major factor when creating an account with one of these sites, and the owners of the casinos understand that in order for you to keep playing their wide variety of games, they must adhere to their own rules.
When thinking about the wide range of games, a land based casino doesn't offer the same variety. Mostly that is due to space in the room, and the cost of having many different machines. Addititionally there is the fact that only 1 person can be playing exactly the same game, so there may be an empty machine in a single area, and a queue in another. Because an online casino deals with the software for a particular machine, there is no limit to how many can play, and there's an unlimited quantity of space to have a wider variance of machines.
To entice customers to play their games, many casinos offer many bonuses. A land based casino will typically offer bonuses such as luxury holidays in the form of hotel visits, cruises or seats. These are offered with the requirement of obtaining a certain amount of points or wins, or for being a member of these casino for a given amount of time. It is sometimes difficult to acquire these points, as there is absolutely no guarantee of keeping exactly the same machine for an extended period of time to build up the points that you'll require for the prizes. The huge benefits to playing online are endless. Casinos offer similar rewards with their land based predecessor, and you can find no limits to the length of time a player is allowed to use the machines. That will help you with the ability to play these games, many casinos will give a new player free credits, or free games to play the machines as an additional benefit for being on the site for a certain amount of time. Downloading software versions of the slots means that players haven't any time restriction, and is free to come and go as they please, and will always be able to play that particular game.


text:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Ever walk down your hall and think, hmmm, that Alaska brown bear could use a face lift. That bison, a dye job. Those painted purple mountains, where's the majesty? That's the situation that Ross MacPhee found himself in last year. Dr. MacPhee is the curator of the Hall of North American Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Maybe you've seen it in the film "Night at the Museum." Dr. MacPhee has spent much of the past 12 months supervising the restoration of the hall and its exhibits. Dr. MacPhee joins us in our studios. Thanks so much for being with us.
DR. ROSS MACPHEE: Hi, Scott. Same to you.
SIMON: What'd you do? I mean, how do you touch up a brown bear?
MACPHEE: With difficulty. Fortunately, it's not a living brown bear. Well, in a nutshell, the hall opened for the first time in the '40s, and the hall has aged, and in some respects, not very well. One of our biggest problems is that the lighting sources blasted a lot of UV, and UV is very harsh on hair color.
SIMON: May I ask, do the brown bears use Clairol?
MACPHEE: Perhaps if they had a choice, they would. I can't speak for them. But I think the question you're asking is how we did it.
SIMON: Yes.
MACPHEE: And we had all of these bleached mounts. Well, sure, you can look at steady skins and say we want exactly that pigmentation. But you have to add the pigment. So, our exhibitions people came up with this remarkable system with these pigments that you can dissolve in alcohol. You spray, the alcohol dissolves, and when it does so, it does not matt the hair. So, the hair looks beautiful. Do they look better than they would in nature? Well, you know, you can make the argument that they're perfect beyond perfect. But that's really not the point. What you want is this piece of theater, and the end result is beautiful. They all look like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in respect to their particular species.
SIMON: How many animals are we talking about?
MACPHEE: Well, we're talking about 43 separate dioramas, each of which focuses on a single species. Some of them have more than one and some of them have species that are only on the painted backdrop, if there was a point to be made about having several species in one ecological zone, for example.
SIMON: And how did you change the backdrops? 'Cause we're, as I don't have to tell you, we're living in a time of extraordinary special effects and CGI in the films and people get used to seeing very lifelike diorama depictions.
MACPHEE: So they do. But here is how I would phrase it: the background paintings were executed by some of the very best craftsmen and painters that were around in the '40s and '50s. They're exquisite. And what has happened to them is New York grime gets under the glass. That needed to be cleaned off, and some of the paintings have peeled a bit from their backdrops. They need to be reattached. But having done that, they're as good as human craft can make them now.
SIMON: I have to ask: you've seen the movie "Night at the Museum"?
MACPHEE: I have.
SIMON: So, does Teddy Roosevelt still come to life when it gets dark at the museum?
MACPHEE: People would like to think so, and this is part of the imagination that you need to have when you're visiting a natural history museum. To go back to your point about whether the dioramas are old hat, well, sure. In one way they certainly are. They represent a very old kind of technology. But I look at it a little bit differently. It's a 3-D theater in a way that TV cannot be. We have a beautiful diorama of bison herds from some indefinite time in the 19th century when they still had large herds, and that is so realistic that you think, if you just saw an image of it, that it had to have been taken yesterday somewhere in Wyoming.
SIMON: Ross MacPhee, curator of the Hall of North American Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History. Thanks so much for being with us.
MACPHEE: Most welcome.
SIMON: The newly restored Hall of North American Mammals opens to the public today. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
A full service private hospital offering a comprehensive range of specialist services by a team of 200 physicians. 35-40% of the patients are foreigners, and there is a dedicated department for handling medical tourists.
Diabetes Risk Tests
upon request
This information is intended for general information only and should not be considered as medical advice on the part of Health-Tourism.com. Any decision on medical treatments, after-care or recovery should be done solely upon proper consultation and advice of a qualified physician.
Diabetic risk test
What is diabetes?
This is a condition that develops when the amount of glucose in the blood is too high. This may be because the body cannot use it properly. This is because the pancreas either does not produce any insulin or produces it in inadequate amounts to enable the glucose to enter the cells of the body.
Types of diabetes
This is a test that assesses your risk to diabetes. Diabetes can develop without someone realizing it. This is because in the early stages diabetes is asymptomatic. Taking the risk test is important for early diagnosis which can prevent complications from arising.
Risk tests include:
Complications linked to diabetes include:
Heart problems such as ischemic heart disease
Copyright © 2008 - 2024 Health-Tourism.com, All Rights Reserved


text:
But here's where it affects me:
There's a Parkinson's Disease medication called Azilect. It has some unique properties, and there's no generic, or direct competitors, currently available. It's manufactured by Teva, a company that does most of their business in generic drugs. It's the world's largest generic drug manufacturer, and if you've taken ANY type of pill at some point in your life, the odds are you've used a Teva product.
Teva is an Israeli company. I personally don't care. From my view, they make a useful drug, and if I think you could benefit from it, I'll write for it.
Most people are fine with this. But I always get a handful of calls a year from people refusing to take it, or calling to yell at me, for prescribing an Israeli product. Some refuse to take it because they don't want to support Israel. Others have accused me of secretly prescribing it over other drugs as part of some vast Israeli conspiracy. I've even had one patient fire me because I wrote for it.
Here's the bottom line people: I don't care where your medication was made, who makes it, or the name of the chemist in the assembly line.
I am your doctor, and when you're here, my goal is to try and make you better. I'm not getting kickbacks for these scripts, nor are they my way of making a political statement.
Improving you is what I'm trying to do. So try to see it that way, and accept my help.


text:
We are ready to help with whatever you need. To ensure you get a fast and considered response, please contact us via email - simply enter your details below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
All of the fields are optional but please enter as much detail as you can.


text:
2021 Destintions
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Name *
Email *
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Enter your email address to subscribe to our Rving blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Email Address


text:
Reshma survived, in remarkably good shape, by eating dried food that was in her area and drinking spare amounts of water with her. She was discovered on the second floor of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, where crews have been focused on recovering bodies, not rescuing survivors, for much of the past two weeks.
"I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention," she told the private Somoy TV from her hospital bed as doctors and nurses milled about, giving her saline and checking her condition.
"No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again," she said.
"There was some dried food around me. I ate the dried food for 15 days. The last two days I had nothing but water. I used to drink only a limited quantity of water to save it. I had some bottles of water around me," she said.
Once Reshma finally got their attention, the crews ordered the cranes and bulldozers to immediately stop work and used handsaws and welding and drilling equipment to cut through the iron rod and debris still trapping her. They gave her water, oxygen and saline as they worked to free her.
When Reshma was freed after 40 minutes, the crowd erupted in wild cheers. She was rushed to a military hospital in an ambulance, but her rescuers said she was in shockingly good condition, despite her ordeal.
Abdur Razzak, a warrant officer with the military's engineering department who first spotted her in the wreckage, said she could even walk.
"She was fine, no injuries. She was just trapped. The space was wide," said Lt. Col. Moyeen, an army official at the scene.
Reshma told her rescuers there were no more survivors in her area. Workers began tearing through the nearby rubble anyway, hoping to find another person alive.
"Reshma told me there were three others with her. They died. She did not see anybody else alive there," said Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the head of the local military units. "We will continue our search until a survivor or a dead body is there."
The woman survived for more than two weeks in temperatures that touched the mid 90s (mid 30s Celsius). She scrounged for whatever food she could find, Suhrawardy said.
Then, when the workers with bulldozers and cranes got close to the area where she was trapped, she took a steel pipe and began banging it to attract attention, Razzak said. The workers ran into the dark rubble, eventually getting flashlights, to free her, he said.
Reshma's mother and her sister, Asma, rushed to the hospital to meet her.
Hundreds of people who had been engaged in the grim job of removing decomposing bodies from the site raised their hands together in prayer for her survival.
"Allah, you are the greatest, you can do anything. Please allow us all to rescue the survivor just found," said a man on a loudspeaker leading the supplicants. "We seek apology for our sins. Please pardon us, pardon the person found alive."
Workers at the site had been clearing the rubble since the collapse April 24. More than 2,500 people were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. However, no survivors had been found in the wreckage since April 28, when Shahin Akter was found amid the wreckage. As workers tried to free her, a fire broke out and she died of smoke inhalation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, called Reshma in the hospital, and the rescued woman began crying on the phone, Suhrawardy said. She told Hasina: "I am fine, please pray for me," he said.
Hasina, whose government has come under criticism for its lax oversight over the powerful garment industry, was racing to the hospital by helicopter to meet her, and congratulated the rescuers, officials said.
"This is an unbelievable feat," Hasina was quoted as saying by her assistant, Mahbubul Haque Shakil.
The death toll from the disaster soared past 1,000 Friday, with officials confirming that 1,038 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of the fallen building, which had housed five garment factories employing thousands of workers.
The disaster has raised alarm about the often deadly working conditions in Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry, which provides clothing for major retailers around the globe.
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, an army official overseeing the recovery work said the bodies being recovered were badly decomposed and identification was difficult.
"We are working carefully," he said. "If we get any ID card or mobile phone with them, we can still identify them. Our sincere effort is to at least hand over the bodies to the families."
Brig. Gen. Azmal Kabir, a top official of the military's engineering section, said more than half of the estimated 7,000 tons of debris have been removed from the site but he did not know when the work would be finished.


text:
Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries
Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I'll get right to the point. These strawberries are juicy, creamy, sweet little bites of perfection, ready to sweep your taste buds, your friends, or your special someone right off their feet. Of course, these would be fabulous any time of year, but Valentine's Day always seems like a time to indulge and be decadent. These Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries give you all the decadence you could want for only 1 Weight Watchers SmartPoints on Green, Blue or Purple or 35 calories each! To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts, but one slice from the bakery at my local supermarket is around 500 calories. These strawberries change up the ratio of berry to cheesecake so that you're eating more fruit, and the berries provide the perfect vessel for portion controlled deliciousness. The graham cracker "crust" on top is the perfect finishing touch. With only 5 ingredients and no cook time, these sweet little treats are easy to whip up, and they're so light you can indulge completely guilt-free!
Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries
- 1 lb fresh strawberries, this was about 16 large strawberries for me
- 4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 full sized low fat graham cracker, one sheet of four little rectangles, crushed
- Cut the tops off of each strawberry and discard. Using a paring knife, hollow out each strawberry, removing the white interior.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat with an electric mixer until thoroughly combined. At this point you can either transfer the cream cheese mixture into a piping bag and pipe it into each berry, or do what I did and just fill each berry using a butter knife.
- Dip each strawberry, cheesecake side down, into the graham cracker crumbs, coating the top.
- Note: These taste best the day they are made, so if you are not planning to serve/eat all 16 in one day, I recommend making the cream cheese filling, crushing up the graham cracker, and storing them separately (the cream cheese filling in a tupperware container in the refrigerator and the crumbs in a ziplock somewhere dry). This way, you can just hollow out however many strawberries you plan to eat at once and stuff them with filling to order.
1 per berry (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com) I have seen these all over. Here's a few: Iowa Girl Eats, Sugar Derby and Nutmeg Nanny.


text:
Hand Salve
Intensive Repair for Dry Hands
Have super-dry hands? This all-natural salve knows how to handle it. Brimming with botanical oils, herbs and Beeswax, your hard-working hands can finally find sweet relief. - Moisturizes rough, dry hands with botanical oils and Beeswax - Herbal scent
Olive Oil ? Homer, the epic poet, called it liquid gold. Olive Oil, a centuries old Mediterranean oil, is as good for your skin as it is for your heart. Penetrates quickly for smooth, beautifully supple hands. Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Cera Alba (Beeswax, Cire D'Abeille), Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Lavendula Hybrida (Lavandin) Oilrosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Eucalyptus Globulus Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Oil, Tocopherol, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil Canola Oil (Huile De Culza), Linalool, Limonene.


text:
Home | About | Archives | RSS Feed |
The Independent Investor: It's That Time Of The Year — Again
We all waited with bated breath until the end of last year, only to see Congress extend the Bush tax cuts for another two years. Although the legislation passed, it did create some issues that you should be aware of in filing your taxes this year.
Let's start with property taxes; something most of us have learned to despise. Until last year, if you owned a home you were able to deduct a portion of your state property taxes in the form of an enhancement or an addition to your standard deduction. The deduction was worth between $500 and $1,000 depending on whether you were married or single. This provision was not extended, but you can still claim the deduction providing you itemize your deductions. The problem with this new wrinkle is that many Americans do not have a sufficient amount of deductions to make itemizing worth doing.
Given the vast number of workers who lost their job during this last recession, if you were unemployed in 2009, the government granted an exemption in unemployment income up to $2,400 per person. That meant you only had to pay taxes on earned income above that amount. That exclusion has been eliminated as well.
So if you were unemployed at any time last year and collected unemployment compensation you owe taxes on 100 percent of that income. The problem here is that few of these jobless taxpayers withhold taxes from this income, so now they will need to come up with the cash they owe the IRS.
The first-time home buyer credit and the follow-on home buyer tax credit on primary residences provided a tax credit ($8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,000 for other buyers) but require that you keep your new residence for at least 36 months. That means if you bought and sold that new home you must repay that tax credit to the government this year.
The American Opportunity tax credit was a bit of new legislation that replaced the Hope credit that allows taxpayers earning $80,000 ($160,000) for joint filers) to claim $2,500 tax credit for tuition, fees, books, supplies and equipment required for educational studies paid in 2010. There is some confusion about this tax credit because the government already allows a deduction of up to $4,000 for the same items. You can't claim both the deduction and the credit.
People become confused between a credit and a deduction. Simply put, a deduction reduces your income while a tax credit reduces your tax bill. If you earned $60,000, for example, and took the $4,000 education deduction that would reduce your adjusted gross income to $56,000. If you were in the 20 percent tax bracket, then the tax savings for you would be ($4,000 X 20 percent) or $800. However if you selected the tax credit, your tax bill would be reduced by $2,500, a dollar-for-dollar tax savings.
Because Congress acted so late in the year, the IRS said it would need until mid-February to reprogram its systems. As a result, they advised that those who plan to itemize their deductions wait until after March 1 to file their taxes. Since most of us wait until the very last second (or longer) to file, this delay should not have a major impact on us taxpayers. In any case, the coast is clear for filing your taxes. I bet you just can't wait.
Note: You've got some extra time. Tax day is Tuesday, April 19, this year because the 15th falls on a Friday holiday in Washington and Monday falls on Patriots Day in Massachusetts.
Bill Schmick is an independent investor with Berkshire Money Management. (See "About" for more information.) None of the information presented in any of these articles is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of BMM or a solicitation to become a client of BMM. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by BMM. Direct your inquiries to Bill at (toll free) or e-mail him at email@example.com. Visit www.afewdollarsmore.com for more of Bill's insights.
Tags: taxes, IRS, deductions |
The Independent Investor: ETFs Are Tax Efficient
Tax time is drawing closer and as it does, the annual barrage of questions concerning investments, portfolios, dividends and capital gains distributions are keeping financial advisors and accountants quite busy.
"One of the most frustrating issues to me," writes a Long Island investor, I'll call Joey G., "are the mutual fund capital gain distributions."
As a large holder of mutual funds, every year, between November and December, Joey is hit with substantial taxable capital gain distributions from the mutual funds he owns.
"I have no idea how much they are going to be or when they are going to be distributed until it's too late, so there's no way I can plan for them tax-wise."
Joey G. is not alone in voicing this complaint. For readers who are not familiar with mutual funds capital gains distributions, it works like this:
During the year, mutual fund manager try to buy stocks low and sell those same stocks at higher prices, generating capital gains, the more successful the manager the higher the capital gains.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the fund manager then passes on all these taxable gains to the holder of the fund, in this case Joey G., Depending upon the size of your holdings; this tax bill can be many thousands of dollars. To some this may seem to be a high-class problem since the higher the capital gains distributions, the more expected appreciation in the price of the fund but not always.
There are years such as 2008, when, as the market declined, fund mangers sold stocks they had held for a long time. Those sales generated huge capital gain distributions for their investors. At the same time, because the markets were declining, investors sold out of mutual funds in great numbers sending the price of mutual funds to multi-year lows.
"Not only did I have to pay a huge tax bill that year," laments Joey G., "but the very same mutual funds that gave me this tax bill were now selling at deep discounts to my purchase price."
For those who are tired of these capital gains issues, I would suggest looking at exchange-traded funds or ETFs. Since they are index funds, once their indexes are created, they rarely change (no need to buy or sell) so there are relatively few, if any, capital gains distributions.
On occasion there may be a gain (or loss) generated but only if the underlying index the ETF tracks changes in composition. For example, if you purchased the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), that ETF tracks the performance of the S&P 500 Index. If at some point the S&P were to replace one or more stocks in the index, the ETF manager of SPY would also do the same. In that case, there could be a gain or loss (and a distribution) in the ETF. Those kinds of changes occur infrequently.
There are exceptions to this rule; however, since not all exchange-traded funds are created equal. There are some "black box" ETFs that are actively managed. Their marketing managers claim that because of their internal strategies, their ETF can out perform whatever index they represent. Sticking with the S&P 500 example, the actively-managed ETF might only select a sub-set of the index, or buy and sell various stocks within the index, in an effort to provide outperformance. The results of these black box beauties are checkered at best. To me, these hybrids rarely fulfill their promise while their expense ratios are higher than plain vanilla ETFs and there can be capital gain distributions as well.
Since more than 75 percent of mutual fund managers fail to outperform the indexes anyway, ETFs make sense on the performance side as well. They are cheaper to own, the tax advantages are clear and the next time you compare an ETF to a mutual fund remember that the mutual fund performance does not include the taxable consequences of capital gain distributions.
Bill Schmick is an independent investor with Berkshire Money Management. (See "About" for more information.) None of the information presented in any of these articles is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of BMM or a solicitation to become a client of BMM. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by BMM. Direct your inquiries to Bill at 1-888-232-6072 (toll free) or e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com. Visit www.afewdollarsmore.com for more of Bill's insights.
Tags: ETFs, capital gains, taxes |
The Independent Investor: And Now For That Deficit
President Obama speaks with Erskine Bowles, left, and former Sen. Alan Simpson in February before announcing their appointment to the deficit-reduction commission in this White House photo. |
The lame-duck Congress is finally getting to work. The president is horse trading with the Republican majority to extend the bush tax cuts before the end of the year. At the same time, the Obama budget deficit commission has released its findings and the full 18-member panel will vote on these proposals on Friday. Be prepared for some fireworks.
When the President Obama first appointed the bipartisan panel led by Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson, to come up with ideas to cut the exploding deficit, I wrote that we would have to wait until after elections before their findings would be revealed. Given some of the radical suggestions these deficit doctors have suggested I can understand why they are only now being revealed.
At long last the "untouchables" are on the table; those sacrosanct programs that no politician has had the guts to address in my lifetime. Taboo subjects such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, farm subsidies, defense spending and mortgage interest rate deductions are on the table. If accepted in its entirety (and it won't be), the plan would reduce the deficit by $3.89 trillion between 2012 and 2020. The current national debt is about $13.9 trillion.
Here are some of the high points. Our complicated tax system and tax brackets would be collapsed into three brackets – 12, 22 and 28 percent. Itemized deductions would be eliminated; capital gains would be taxed as ordinary income. Contributions to tax-deferred accounts would be capped at 20 percent of income or $20,000, whichever is lower.
Although the plan would reduce income tax rates, there would be a price to pay. Your mortgage interest deduction would disappear, gas would be taxed at a higher rate, the retirement age of Social Security would increase and benefits for both Medicare and Medicaid will be cut. Over on the corporate side, taxes would be reduced as well to 28 percent from 35 percent. But employer provided health care exclusions would be capped and phased out altogether by 2038.
Now before you take sides on what you like or dislike about the proposals, understand that just about every interest group, every age group, every demographic profile you can come up with will both gain and lose by these proposals. Lobbyists will trash those proposals that threaten their clients and promote those that don't. On an individual level, I who have just purchased a home (and therefore a mortgage) in Pittsfield while less than five years away from social security and Medicare, will want my representatives to vote against those proposals but vote for a reduction in my income taxes.
You, my dear reader, will have your own agenda and want the deficit reduction to play out in a way that benefits you but takes nothing away from what you already have now.
This would be a mistake.
Our deficit is out of control. Many Boomers, their heads stuck in the sand, believe that if we pretend to ignore it, the deficit will soon become the problem of our future generations. We have gotten into the habit both individually and as a nation of kicking the can down the road. We mouth statements like "I'm glad I'm not growing up in America today" or "kids today will just have to work harder" or "our generation supported them, now it's their turn."
Maybe prior to the financial crisis, that short-sighted attitude would have worked. Now, several trillion dollars in debt later, the hard, sober facts are that if we don't make the sacrifices now to reduce the deficit dramatically, the Boomer generation is going to get clocked at the time when they can least afford it — in retirement. We share a number of economic and social conditions that could quite easily put us in the same position as Ireland, Italy, Spain and Greece. It wouldn't take much for our big lenders, like China and Japan to go on a debt buyer's strike, especially if the deficit continues to grow.
Nations around the world have already warned us of this possibility. Actions to replace the dollar by a basket of currencies are simply another warning shot across our bow. If the deficit continues to rise while America once again backs away from the hard choices we have to make in deficit reduction, then we will all see a spike in interest rates that will make your hair stand on end. Those rates will drive the economy into a depression and the stock market to new lows. Your retirement savings will disintegrate and we baby boomers will be bagging groceries at the supermarket at age 85 — if we are lucky.
So what's it going to be?
Bill Schmick is an independent investor with Berkshire Money Management. (See "About" for more information.) None of the information presented in any of these articles is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of BMM or a solicitation to become a client of BMM. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by BMM. Direct your inquiries to Bill at 1-888-232-6072 (toll free) or e-mail him at email@example.com. Visit www.afewdollarsmore.com for more of Bill's insights.
Tags: deficit, taxes, retirement |