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Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
Today is a very special edition of The Queue, ladies and gentlemen. I believe it's the first one ever written on an iPhone. The Shattering delayed my daily walk, so time for both had to be found. Enjoy!
primal.geek asked:
Why, after the Shattering, do Dalaran mobs near the crater still feel the need to attack me? Sure, I'm a member of the Horde, but I'm also exalted with their city. Can't they give me a break for once?
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
Well, member of the Horde, I'm sure the citizens of Dalaran near the crater would love to give you a break ... as soon as the Horde reciprocates. The Horde has been killing those guys from vanilla WoW all the way up through Wrath and have never actually stopped. Go run a character through Silverpine Forest right now, post-Shattering. The faction of Dalaran left in the Eastern Kingdoms is still completely at war with the Horde. Of all the neighbors to have, Sylvanas is the worst. Garrosh might not even be as aggressive as she can be.
masteroaktree asked:
What exactly is that metal lower jaw on Deathwing? Is it a plate of armor or is a replacement jaw because his fell off?
All of that armor on Deathwing is there to hold him together. The amount of power he's taken in from outside sources like the Demon Soul and the Old Gods is quite literally tearing him apart. The bands of metal riveted to his flesh certainly work like armor, but they're there to hold his body together. He is bristling with so much power that if he weren't tethered together by metal freaking plates, he would be rent to pieces.
Cern asked:
So who else will be rolling a tauren paladin today?
Not me! I threw the decision of what I'd roll first to Twitter and they decided dwarven shaman. I don't actually like dwarves and I already have a level 80 shaman, but what the people want is what the people get.
Many readers complained:
Dang, I wanted to run Molten Core and Blackwing Lair one more time before the Shattering! I can't believe I missed my last chance to see the classic raids!
Whoa there, folks. Not all of the classic raids went away with patch 4.0.3a. Only Zul'Gurub was removed in this patch. Every other classic raid is sticking around for Cataclysm! You didn't lose out on your chance to run those raids at all. Which is good, because my paladin has been soloing Molten Core for approximately an eternity and hasn't seen either Binding for Thunderfury.
Stupid, fiery jerks.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!


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This event has been and gone!
Catch the next one:
Check out the info below for future tour dates, and track them to receive alerts when they tour near you
Never miss another 'The Manfreds' show
The Manfreds
The Manfreds, with 'The One In The Middle' Paul Jones, will be performing many of their biggest hits including 5-4-3- 2-1, Pretty Flamingo and Do Wah Diddy Diddy, along with a mix of solo hits and jazz and rhythm'n'blues renditions for which they are famous.
With his award-winning harmonica sound, Paul will be joined by fellow original Manfred Mann members Mike Hugg on keyboards and Tom McGuinness on guitar, plus Rob Townsend on drums, Marcus Cliffe on bass guitar and Simon Currie on saxophone/flute - all excellent musicians who will provide a full evening's entertainment.
The Manfreds
Maximum rhythm 'n' blues with former members of the original Manfred Mann Group playing together with some of the top '60s legends. Original MM frontman Paul Jones, with his unique harmonica sound, is joined by Mike Hugg on keyboards, Tom McGuinness on lead guitar, Rob Townsend on drums, Marcus Cliffe on bass guitar, Simon Currie on saxophone/ flute and special guest and former member Mike d'Abo.
Hits include 5-4-3-2-1, Do Wah Diddy Diddy, The Mighty Quinn and Pretty Flamingo.
The Manfreds tour dates
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Venue Facts
Venue: The Broadway
Website: thebroadwaybarking.com
Bookings: 020 8507 5607
→ Barking 7 min walk
→ Barking 6 min walk

subset: commoncrawl


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Hold fire on Petraeus, Obama warns
BARACK OBAMA says he has seen no evidence of any breach of national security as a result of the Petraeus affair.
During his first post-election press conference, the US President said he was withholding judgment over whether the FBI should have notified the White House sooner that it was investigating a possible breach due to the affair it uncovered between the CIA director, David Petraeus, and his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
Mr Obama said he had accepted General Petraeus's resignation because, ''by his own assessment, he did not meet the standards that he felt were necessary as the director of the CIA with respect to this personal matter''.
But he said the US was a safer place for General Petraeus's long military career and his short tenure as CIA director.
''My main hope right now is that he and his family are able to move on and that this ends up being a single side-note on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career,'' Mr Obama said.
The FBI agent who helped start the investigation that led to the resignation of General Petraeus was named on Wednesday as Frederick Humphries, 47, described by colleagues as a ''hard-charging'' veteran counterterrorism investigator.
''Fred is a passionate kind of guy,'' one former colleague said. ''If he locked his teeth onto something, he'd be a bulldog.''
Mr Humphries took the initial complaint from Jill Kelley, a Tampa woman active in local military circles and a personal friend, about anonymous emails that accused her of inappropriately flirtatious behaviour towards General Petraeus.
Suspecting the case involved serious security issues and was being stalled, possibly for political reasons – a suspicion his superiors say was unjustified – he took his concerns to congressional Republicans.
The Petraeus case occupied only a limited part of Mr Obama's attention during a long and wide-ranging press conference in the White House's East Room. He saved his most combative words for Republicans who were attacking the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, over her public statements in the days after the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September that killed four Americans.
It was Ms Rice who informed the media that US intelligence believed anger over an amateur film had provoked the attack.
''As I've said before, she made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her,'' Mr Obama said. He said he would not allow the Republican attacks to determine whether he would nominate her as secretary of state, replacing Hillary Clinton.
My main hope right now is that ... this ends up being a single side-note on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career.
The Arizona senator John McCain confirmed that General Petraeus would testify to Congress on the Benghazi attacks on Thursday. His resignation had put that appearance in jeopardy, but General Petraeus made clear through committee members he was willing to testify.
Mr Obama was more conciliatory over the ''fiscal cliff'' negotiations, saying both parties should be able to agree almost immediately to extend the Bush-era tax cuts to those earning $US250,000 ($240,000) or less, while opening negotiations on other methods of bringing the deficit under control.
''I'm open to compromise and I'm open to new ideas, and I've been encouraged over the past week to hear Republican after Republican agree on the need for more revenue from the wealthiest Americans as part of our arithmetic if we're going to be serious about reducing the deficit,'' he said.
with The New York Times
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This Saturday, December 15, the Cowboy Carousel Committee will be having their first event to help open their new Carousel Center, located in the old, Historic Beutler Building.
A book signing event will be held at the facility that will feature many regional authors either in attendance or their pre-signed books available for purchase.
Craig Johnson, Gene Gagliano, David Ramtvedt, Steve Rzasa, Joe Tiller, John Nesbitt, Louise Anderson, Dave Wooten, Mary Tass and John Davis are all scheduled to appear, and signed books by Raymond Plank and Erik Molver will be available.
The book signing will run from 4pm to 7pm with wine, cheese and soft drinks served. There will be tours of the facility and a chance to see the future of the Carousel Center and the community education programs and other ideas that are in the planning stages. And plan on shopping for some great Christmas gifts while you are there.
The event is a fundraiser for the committee to help make their plans for the Cowboy Carousel to be housed at the center in the future a reality, but committee member Arnette Tiller explains it is much more than a fundraiser.
The Carousel Center is located at 59 N. Lobban Street in Buffalo, and the community is welcome to attend.
For a schedule of the author's appearances, go to the end of this story at sheridanmedia.com.
4 to 6pm:Craig Johnson, Gene Gagliano, David Romtvedt and Steve Rzasa.
5 to 7pm: Joe Tiller.
4 to 7pm: John Nesbitt, Louise Anderson, Dave Wooten, Mary Tass and John Davis.


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Tina Fey Is Officially Over the Taylor Swift Thing
Tina Fey has three words for anyone who asks her about Taylor Swift from this point on.
We'll let you guess what they are. Here's a hint: they're not "I," "love" nor "you."
When a paparazzo badgered Fey on a New York City street asking about the somewhat imaginary feud between herself, her BFF Amy Poehler and the country crossover, Fey gave the only appropriate response: "Go f— yourself."
As a comedy veteran, Fey knows that it's all in the delivery — so her delivery was cheerful and sunny.
The pap continued asking Fey for a comment on what started as an innocuous joke, so after briefly chatting with a fan, Fey once more told him, "Go f— yourself."
Liz Lemon would be so proud. And hey, at least she didn't lunge at the guy.


text: Seller: luckyfindtreasures (1,218) 100% , Location: La Verne, California, Ships to: US, CA, Item: 222321063404 Vintage BRASS keyhole cover in an old worn tiger copper flash finish. It's in good vintage condition with surface wear and tarnish...please view all photos for any further information on detail/size/condition, or please contact me with any other questions that I may be able to help you with. Thank you for your interest and business...it is greatly appreciated. Take a look at my other unique hardware I have listed...I DO COMBINE SHIPPING (if you are unable to request an invoice, a combined shipping overage refund will be issued once items are paid for) Tax will be added on invoice for all California residents. Sorry, no international shipping (except CANADA).NOTE: I will gladly combine shipping, but you have to ADD ALL ITEMS TO YOUR CART and "REQUEST TOTAL" so that I can send you an adjusted shipping cost invoice, in order to receive a combined shipping discount...refunds will no longer be issued, due to new eBay policies...THANK YOU


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It's no lie: Chelsea Handler loves to smoke out "dumbassness", the condition people suffer from that allows them to fall prey to her brand of complete and utter nonsense. Friends, family, co-workers - they've all been tricked by Chelsea into believing stories of total foolishness and into behaving like total fools. Luckily, they've lived to tell the tales and, for the very first time, write about them.
©2011 Chelsea Handler (P)2011 Hachette Audio
There are no listener reviews for this title yet.
"Money Grab… Chelsea Owes Me a Credit!"
First off let me say I am (or rather was) a huge Chelsea fan! When she is on her A game she is possibly the funniest woman alive. Her previous 3 books have had me laughing out loud and sharing them with all my girlfriends.
This book however is simply a sad attempt at a money grab. It appears as though Chelsea had nothing to do with this book, yet has shamelessly plastered her name and image all over it. Granted the stories are about her (for the most part) but are written by others poorly attempting to emulate her style. Its truly terrible and they should all be ashamed. *Spoiler Alert* One chapter is 'written by' Chunk… Yes Chunk. Her dog. Need I say more?
I have never been more annoyed over the complete waste of a credit! I warn you, if you are hoping for classic Chelsea, skip this and just re-enjoy one of her old books.
"I loved it... but I "get" the humor."
I listened to this without first reading other reviews, because Chelsea Handler makes me laugh on a nightly basis. Now reading them, I don't understand other reviewers saying, "I love her, but reading this makes me realize that she's cruel/immature/mean..." Have you never seen her?
I think most people don't have friendships that are so obnoxiously immature on the outside. I think that's why they don't "get it." My core group of friends/family say and do crazy things to each other constantly in order to get a laugh. If you sat in a room with my best friend and I, you'd think we hated each other by the way we talk sometimes. However, the people in my world would do ANYTHING for me, and I for them. There isn't one person in this book that doesn't say that very thing about her.
If you don't get why people do obnoxious things to their friends, this book isn't for you... but then again, I don't know why you'd read it in the first place. If you can watch Chelsea Handler's show and not get that she's obnoxious and bitchy, you're missing something. This book answers the question, "I wonder how bitchy she really can be," answer being, "A LOT." It's college frat boy humor... she's a jackass boy with breasts.
I thought this book was funnier than VODKA... I actually didn't like that one at all. Having said that, I didn't think every narrator was great, but I did like hearing each voice separately. I do think that Chelsea Handler should have narrated her own part. Hearing other voices, especially those you "know" (Heather McDonald, Josh Wolf, Roy Handler) makes it weird when someone is else is reading her part. There are also musical transitions separating each chapter that I thought were weird and out of place.
"Not as good as "Vodka, it's Chelse...""
I got this after literally rolling on the floor listening to "Vodka, it's Chelsea." While this was kinda of funny, it just wasn't as good. Could be cause it is based entirely on pranks she pulls rather than her self-deprecating humor that was so funny.
"Love all of Chelsea's books. But this one sucks."
It's weird bc I'm such a fan of Chelsea, but her friends are a tad annoying in this book. For example, it seems like they've all listened to her self-read audiobooks & sort of emulated her performance style. badly.
also....and maybe it's just me....but are all of these people super super stupid? if chelsea is such a known prankster, wouldn't most of these pranks have been visible from space? Once guy is duped into leaving his honeymoon early b/c he was told that TIME Magazine was putting the writing staff of Chelsea Lately on the COVER. Reeeeeally? Seriously? I mean, I know that Time Magazine does actually dumb down the American version of its publication by making it more pop culture skewed ((that's actually true...the rest of the world gets another version of the magazine....wtf)) but, seriously.....i don't think i need to continue. You get it. It's OBVIOUSLY a prank. Jeez.
so many other examples....and none really that funny, except probably to the people involved.
Oof. Wait for Uganda to Be Kidding Me to come out on audible.
"Meh. Maybe..."
The energy from some of the narrators was a little dead. It felt as if they had been reading for hours, and they were at the very end and restless.
It would have been so much better if Chelsea Handler could have read her parts. Everybody else read their own parts. Chelsea Handler has such a nice voice...
No. I think I'll just have to pay more attention to the reviews before i purchase.
I like that the stories were told by the people who wrote it, and by the people the events happened to. It was nice that they were able to mimic the sounds of surprise or the accents spoken. The pauses were accurate and done in a way that I would not have been able to imagine reading on my own.
See above for dislikes.
The book was entertaining. It made me giggle on the inside often. It was just evident that none of these people are used to writing in book format. It was so poorly written, that even the decent performances couldn't save it. It was entertaining and worth a listen if it is free.
"The characters become real"
The characters in all of Handler's previous books finally become real and take the reins in this book.
Chelsea graciously replies to each story with her own rebuttal in the only way she knows how: delightfully insulting.
Chelsea is able to bring those around her into her schemes to make them more realistic. She convinces can take somebody's weakness and exploit it to the brink of destruction. She had an OCD colleague convinced that her employee was becoming her adoptive son, living with her, going on vacations with her, not paying rent... but it was never true. This wouldn't bother most people, but Chelsea knew an OCD wouldn't be able to take it. Brilliant.
Everything. I'd love to be Chelsea's friend.
I loved 'Vodka' and I have to compare the laugh-out-loud humor of that book to this one, which offers just a few smiles. And these aren't worth wading through all the cruel pranks that are reported with no real explanation of why these people are Chelsea's 'friends' except that they're on the payroll. I tried hard to like this, but my mood and morale were deteriorating from all the pointless profanity, slimy images, and unchallenging, childish humor.
"OMG Chelsea is Crazy"
This is so funny, Chelsea can play a mean joke., which is always done with love and way over the top. I guarantee you will not stop laughing. I heart Chelsea!
"Brad Wollack is an asshole"
Why would anyone marry that neurotic jackass?! His wife sounds like a normal person so is this the longest running lie that's been forgotten? Who ends a honeymoon early when he should be grateful he got to experience one at all! What an idiot. I think it would be amazing to be a member of CHs' pack. This is a great book!!!
"Not funny"
I used to like Chelsea but after listening to this money grab disaster, I'm convinced that although she may be smart, she is a terrible person who uses her wealth and power to manipulate and control people. I actually feel sorry for her.
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Late-inning Tribe trio set to lead relief corps in '13
Smith-Pestano-Perez combo, should make 'pen a strength for Indians
By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com
With Cleveland's pitchers and catchers scheduled to report to Spring Training on Sunday, indians.com is taking a look at the state of the Tribe's roster. Today we'll complete this five-part Around the Horn series by examining the bullpen.
CLEVELAND -- As disappointing as last season was for the Indians, there was one thing the ballclub did extremely well. When the team had a lead late in the game, the bullpen was typically able to ensure a trip to the win column.
That strength was largely a credit to the combined work of sidearmer Joe Smith, setup man Vinnie Pestano and closer Chris Perez, who often handled the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively. This winter, Cleveland was aggressive in improving its roster, but the club did not mess with its late-inning formula.
"It's been proven over the past couple of years that we've been very effective in that spot," Pestano said.
The Indians feel they have improved their offense with the additions of players such as Nick Swisher, Mark Reynolds, Drew Stubbs and Mike Aviles. Cleveland is also hoping for an upgraded rotation with Brett Myers and Trevor Bauer now in the fold. The Tribe also tweaked its bullpen, adding arms such as Matt Albers and Bryan Shaw.
The relief corps has been a strength for Cleveland over the past few years, especially when it comes to the later innings. That aspect of the Indians' roster is expected to once again be reliable with the combination of newcomers and holdovers slated to be in camp this spring.
"We've got quite a 'pen," Pestano said. "It's going to be a good battle to see how those last few spots shake out."
Smith, Pestano and Perez headline the cast.
Consider that, while the Indians went 68-94 overall last season, the club posted a 24-12 record in one-run games. Only the Orioles had a better winning percentage in such contests. Cleveland went 20-7 in games featuring Smith, Pestano and Perez, and posted a 38-8 record in games during which Pestano and Perez pitched.
The Indians were 52-8, 57-4 and 57-3 in games in which they led after six, seven and eight innings, respectively.
Smith, Pestano and Perez combined for a 3.01 ERA with a 1.13 WHIP and a 2.9 strikeout-to-walk ratio last season. The rest of the bullpen posted a 4.56 ERA with a 1.35 WHIP and a 2.2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Cleveland ended the year ranked 13th in the American League with a 3.99 bullpen ERA, but that relatively poor showing was not the fault of the late-inning trio.
"That group of guys for a couple of years," Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said, "has done a very good job of preserving leads. When our starting pitchers have turned leads over to the bullpen, we've done a pretty good job of converting those leads into wins.
"Obviously, the work that Chris and Vinnie and Joe, especially, have done in those roles has been a key part of the very successful component of our team."
Smith, who will be eligible for free agency next winter, posted a 2.96 ERA over 72 appearances last season. Pestano -- entering his third full season in the big leagues -- had a 2.57 ERA, a club-record 36 holds and 76 strikeouts in 70 innings. Perez, who avoided arbitration this winter with a $7.3 million contract for 2013, saved 39 games, made his second All-Star team and had a 3.59 ERA.
Behind that trio, Cleveland's top bullpen candidates include right-handers Albers, Shaw, Matt Capps, Frank Herrmann, and Cody Allen, along with lefties Nick Hagadone, Scott Barnes, David Huff and Rich Hill. Albers is out of options, making him a likely candidate to open the season in the big league bullpen.
Albers and Shaw were both acquired from Arizona as part of a three-team, nine-player trade in December that also involved the Reds. Albers posted a 2.39 ERA in 63 games between stints with the D-backs and Red Sox last year, while Shaw fashioned a 3.49 ERA in 64 appearances for Arizona.
During the winter, Cleveland parted ways with experienced left-handers Tony Sipp and Rafael Perez. The Indians have youngsters Hagadone and Barnes as possible replacements, and Huff will be an option as a long reliever if he does not crack the rotation. Hill will also be thrown into the left-handed relief mix.
It is also worth noting that Albers limited left-handed hitters to a .207 average in 2012.
"One of the things we liked about both guys we acquired from Arizona," Antonetti said, "is that we feel that they have the ability to get both right-handed and left-handed hitters out. We worry most about the success guys are able to have -- not necessarily the handedness. We don't care whether they throw left-handed or right-handed."
That will add to the intrigue as Cleveland sorts through the coming bullpen competition.
"We feel we have improved on some of our alternatives and brought in some interesting guys," Antonetti said. "And we have some other guys who are rebounding from injuries -- a guy like Hagadone. We feel like we have a good balance and we'll continue to look to improve on our options."
Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Major League Bastian, and follow him on Twitter @MLBastian. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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The regional rail cars, to be used rail lines being built by Denver Transit Partners, are scheduled to be delivered in 2014.
Several Wabtec units will provide the equipment for the cars: Wabtec Passenger Transit (brakes and couplers), Wabtec Railway Electronics (PTC equipment), Bach-Simpson (event recorders) and Vapor Stone (doors).
"We're pleased to be working with Denver Transit Partners and Hyundai-Rotem on this important project," said Wabtec President and CEO Albert J. Neupaver. "This demonstrates the diversity of our capabilities and the integrated role that we are positioned to play."
Wabtec earlier announced a separate, $63 million contract with Denver Transit Partners to provide the dispatching and operations control systems, wayside signaling and communications systems, and related integration and project management services for the new lines.
The Denver train control system will meet the requirements of the U.S. Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, and uses PTC products that Wabtec is providing to Class I railroads and other commuter rail systems. As such, the Denver system will be fully compatible with other PTC installations in the U.S., Wabtec said.


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+ Court date is set for Ponzi pair
The Sarasota couple the Securities and Exchange Commission is suing for allegedly duping investors in a Ponzi scheme will have a court hearing on the case June 25.
John and Marian Morgan are accused of bilking investors out of about $14 million and using the money to pay for their mortgages and make Ponzi payments to other investors.
A temporary freeze on the Morgans' assets, including their three Sarasota properties, has been issued, but the judge could issue a permanent freeze or appoint a receiver, who would be in charge of the Morgans' assets.
Reached by phone June 23, Marian Morgan said she could not comment on the case, because it was in litigation. But in an e-mail sent to friends two weeks ago, she professed her innocence and blamed a third co-defendant for the legal trouble.
+ New deputy city manager named
Marlon Brown has been hired as the city of Sarasota's new deputy city manager. He replaces the retiring Peter Schneider.
Brown has more than 15 years of municipal-management experience and is currently the county advisor on economic stimulus for the Florida Association of Counties. He previously served as the county manager of Gadsden County and assistant city manager in Tallahassee.
Brown's first day on the job will be July 13.


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It would be helpful for the reader if the as-yet-unwritten parts were marked "[todo]" or something in the table of contents.
This, of course, requires more editing effort and would have to be kept up to date to be useful.
An "[in-progress]" marker might also be helpful.
That kind of thing might be helpful, yes. Normally when we write books, the chapters that haven't been created yet have red hyperlinks instead of blue ones. However, when I created this book I used an automated editing tool that I've been developing, so all the pages were created with some boilerplate stub text.
Since the book is in such an early stage right now, it can be assumed that all pages are "in progress". I may put a note on the TOC about this, and maybe progress markers on each page.


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SEATTLE – Fabián Espíndola scored just out of halftime and Real Salt Lake snapped the Seattle Sounders' six-match unbeaten streak with a 1-0 victory at CenturyLink Field on Saturday.
In the 50th minute, Luis Gil dropped a ball over the Sounders backline that Espíndola volleyed with his left foot from about 16 yards out, beating Sounders goalkeeper Bryan Meredith to the far post.
The goal marked the first time in 500 minutes that Seattle had trailed in a game. It also ended a 321-minute shutout streak for the Sounders, 275 minutes of which came with Meredith in net.
Up until the goal, most of the run of play had belonged to the hosts. Eddie Johnson got probably the two best looks of the first half, but was unable to do much with either.
In the 15th minute, Johnson was able to get position on his defender inside the six-yard box, but his header from a well-placed Adam Johansson cross went well wide.
Just a minute later, the former US international created his own chance with a series of stepovers that created some space about 10 yards out. He had a clean look at the goal, but he sent his shot high.
RSL were mostly content to bunker-and-counter in the first half. Their best chance came in the 23rd minute when Will Johnson found some space on the left wing, but his shot from about 15 yards out was easily saved by Meredith.
The Sounders were never really able to get untracked, largely missing any kind of touch in the offensive third. RSL's backline held Fredy Montero to without a real scoring opportunity all game after a three-game stretch in which he had scored three goals and had an assist.
OPTA Chalkboard: Salt Lake squelch Sounders attack
Saturday's match marked the first of three during the regular season between the Western Conference rivals.
With the victory, Real Salt Lake extended their lead atop the Western table. They improve to 8-3-2 and extend their own unbeaten streak to five matches heading into a bye week. RSL next host FC Dallas on May 26.
Seattle, meanwhile, tasted defeat for the first time since March 31 and fall to 7-2-1. They next head north to face Cascadia rivals Vancouver on May 19.
MLSsoccer.com Men of the Match
|What We Saw
|Jámison Olave
|There's a reason red-hot Montero was invisible all game. Monster performance by monster Colombian.
|Nat Borchers
|Olave's partner in crime did the business as well, keeping Seattle's attack out of the box all game.
|Osvaldo Alonso
|Cuban midfielder put in his usual dominant work in d-mid, keeping RSL's attack mostly corked.


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The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation issued medical suspensions of more than 10 days to just five UFC 136 fighters, and defeated main-event fighter Gray Maynard got the longest one with 60 days.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the list with commission officials.
A representative told MMAjunkie.com that official disclosed paydays for the Oct. 8 event won't be released, per state protocol.
UFC 136 took place this past Saturday at Houston's Toyota Center. The night's main card aired on pay-per-view, and prelims aired on Spike TV and streamed on Facebook.
In the main event, UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar survived a first-round beating from Maynard and stormed back for a fourth-round TKO victory. It was the night's only knockout, and though commission officials didn't detail the exact reasons for specific suspensions, Maynard's likely was issued for precautionary reasons.
In addition to Maynard's 60-day suspension, Edgar was issued a 45-day suspension.
The list of medical suspensions lasting longer than the standard 10 days included:
- Frankie Edgar: Suspended until Nov. 23
- Gray Maynard: Suspended until Dec. 8
- Leonard Garcia: Suspended until Nov. 23
- Eric Schafer: Suspended until Nov. 8
- Mike Massenzio: Suspended until Nov. 23
For complete coverage of UFC 136, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
(Pictured: Gray Maynard)


text: I have recently been having issues with Whole Home / MRV. I have three HD-DVRs, all hooked up via Deca. I have a SWM8. I did the install. HR20-100 in Basement HR22-100 in Living Room HR21-200 in Bedroom When I did the install a few months back, everything was working fine. Every once in a while, a receiver would drop off. Do a "Restore Defaults" on "Network Setup" or a Reset would fix the problem. Last week, I couldn't get the Living Room HD-DVR to connect using any of the methods. The Basement and Bedroom DVRs saw each other fine. I found the "Static IP" thread but my original router (TrendNet TEW-432BRP) couldn't do DHCP Reservations and didn't seem to be able to handle IPs set outside of the DHCP pool. So, I invested in an Cisco E2000. I was looking to upgrade to a N router anyway. I set up my receivers using DHCP reservations and got them all to connect to the internet. However, my Basement receiver is now causing problems. It can connect to the internet (via the connection test), but cannot see the other two receivers. The other two receivers connect to each other and the internet. Today, I connected a switch in between my Deca Broadband Adapter and my Cisco router, but that did not appear to solve the issue. I tried to a "Restore Defaults" on the Basement HD-DVR. I don't know what is causing the issue. I am in the middle of recording Final Four games, so I can't do a reset right now. I plan to do a reset on the Basement receiver at the end of the night. Any other suggestions? Any other information that I can provide to help solve the problem?


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A List of Concerns
Doubtless, Sister Reille has sparked some healthy soul-searching among Europe's fund managers. But, for all the emphasis on "social responsibility" behind her movement, most ethical investment strategies reflect incoherent thinking about morality. Anyone seriously concerned about the moral life should really worry about the "ethical investment" movement.
Of course, attention to the morality of investment choices should be welcomed by the Catholic Church, which has always taught that a person's free choices for the good contribute to his or her fulfillment as a person and ultimately to salvation. Conversely, a poor moral choice fosters spiritual disintegration, possibly leading to eternal separation from God. Pope John Paul II himself stated in his 1991 encyclical, Centesimus Annus, that the choice to invest in one area rather than another is always "a moral and cultural choice."
The list of concerns promoted by most ethical investment funds is not especially coherent. They generally refrain, for example, from investing in businesses involved in armaments, tobacco, gambling, pornography, product-testing involving animal experimentation, inhumane farming, mining, and countries with oppressive regimes. The same funds often try to avoid corporations that do not have affirmative action programs. Equally reprehensible, according to many socially responsible investment guidelines, are corporations giving insufficient attention to "community involvement."
Fashionable Causes Are Not Ethical Imperatives
Immediately, this raises problems. What, for example, constitutes "inadequate" community involvement? Concerning affirmative action programs, many perfectly orthodox Catholic theologians have argued that they suffer from several fundamental defects of justice. In other words, objecting to affirmative action does not make you a racist.
As the Catholic moral theologian Germain Grisez warns, "while certain ethical investment vehicles are advertised as 'socially responsible,' the notion of socially responsible here may not reflect a judgment conformed to Christian principles."
The standard list of ethical investment priorities also suggests that many "socially responsible" criteria have more to do with fashionable causes than with the objective moral life. Apart from pornography, the list reflects little interest in questions of sexual morality. Ethical investment funds rarely, for example, cater to those who believe that marriage is a basic good and that abortion is wrong.
A high degree of moral and political selectivity is apparent in these organizations. In the 1980s, for example, ethical investment funds invariably listed South Africa as a country to shun. But why did they not also list other countries with regimes at least as oppressive, such as Cuba, Nicaragua, East Germany, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, or Vietnam?
Investing in so-called socially responsible funds is thus no guarantee that the investment is moral. Naturally, if people want to further particular causes through encouraging us to invest in particular ways, there is little to prevent them from doing so. But one may protest their use of the word "ethical" to describe such investments.
Moral Wisdom or Political Correctness?
So how, then, should Catholics and other people of good will think about ethical investment?
First, they should know that the moral principles that inform and direct their investment decisions are no different from those that should inform and direct other choices. Their investments should be directed by maxims such as the Pauline principle (one should not do evil even if good may come of it) and the Golden Rule (do to others as you would have them do to you).
Catholics, in particular, should also know that the Church has declared that certain acts are always wrong. Intentions may be noble, people may claim to be acting in good conscience, and circumstances may mitigate personal responsibility. Nonetheless, certain acts (e.g., adultery) are always evil. The negative moral precepts of the Church's teaching, as Veritatis Splendor John Paul II's 1993 encyclical reminds us, do not allow for legitimate exception.
The greater the risk of corrupting ourselves, or of giving others the impression that we have no strong objection to an evil policy or activity, the more serious our reason for refraining from investing in organizations that engage in, or support, any activity that the Church has identified as evil.
Sister Reille is presently working with financial specialists to formulate ethical investment guidelines she hopes will be used by investors not just at the Vatican, but throughout Europe's business world. One can only pray that they produce guidelines shaped by authentically Catholic moral wisdom rather than the political correctness that masquerades as moral reflection in much of Europe today.
Dr. Samuel Gregg is Director of Research at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded (University Press of America, 2001) and On Ordered Liberty: A Treatise on the Free Society (Lexington Books, 2003).
(This article is a product of the Acton Institute www.acton.org, 161 Ottawa NW, Suite 301, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 and is reprinted with permission.)


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IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE 7TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA GENERAL JURISDICTION DIVISION CASE NO.: CA 07-0603 US BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR MASTER ASSET BACKED SECURITIES TRUST, 2006-WMC2 PLAINTIFF VS. SIMON HOOPER; UNKNOWN SPOUSE OF SIMON HOOPER, IF ANY; ANY AND ALL UNKNOWN PARTIES CLAIMING BY, THROUGH, UNDER, AND AGAINST THE HEREIN NAMED INDIVIDUAL DEFENDANT(S) WHO ARE NOT KNOWN TO BE DEAD OR ALIVE, WHETHER SAID UNKNOWN PARTIES MAY CLAIM AN INTEREST AS SPOUSES, HEIRS, DEVISEES, GRANTEES OR OTHER CLAIMANTS; CIMARRONE PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC.; MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC.; JOHN DOE AND JANE DOE AS UNKNOWN TENANTS IN POSSESSION DEFENDANT(S) NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Summary Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated 11-15, 2007 entered in Civil Case No. CA 07-0603 of the Circuit Court of the 7TH Judicial Circuit in and for ST. JOHNS County, ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, I will sell to the highest and best bidder for cash at FRONT DOOR at the ST. JOHNS County Courthouse located at 4010 LEWIS SPEEDWAY in ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida, at 12:00 NOON on the 18th day of December 2007 the following described property as set forth in said Summary Final Judgment, to-wit: LOT 35, CHEROKEE CROSSING TWO AT CIMARRONE GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB, ACCORDING TO THE PLAT THEREOF AS RECORDED IN MAP BOOK 45, PAGES 100 THROUGH 106 OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA. Any person claiming an interest in the surplus from the sale, if any, other than the property owner as of the date of the lis pendens, must file a claim within 60 days after the sale. Dated this 26th day of Nov. 2007. CHERYL STRICKLAND Clerk of the Circuit Court By Melissa Dukes Deputy Clerk ATTENTION: PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES If you are a person with a disability who needs an accommodation in order to participate in this proceeding, you are entitled, at no cost to you, to the provision of certain assistance. Please contact Mary Bratos, Court Administration 904-827-5617, 4010 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084. If you are voice impaired, call 1-800-955-8770. THIS IS NOT A COURT INFORMATION LINE. L3300-7 Nov. 29, Dec. 6, 2007
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Wells designated to possibly open spot for Soler
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
On Wednesday, pitcher Randy Wells was designated for assignment, and right-handed pitcher Rafael Dolis was recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Wells did have options left, but by designating him, he was removed from the Cubs' 40-man roster, which is now at 39.
On June 11, there were reports the Cubs had won the bidding for Soler, and the outfielder had agreed to a nine-year, $30 million contract. The Cubs have declined to confirm the signing.
Soler, 20, was declared a free agent in early June and was courted by several teams. The Cubs and Soler need to complete the deal before Tuesday, or else they will be subjected to the new Basic Agreement guidelines, which will limit spending on international prospects to $2.9 million per team without penalty.
When asked about Soler on Tuesday, Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said he had no update.
A power-hitting right-handed hitter, Soler played for the Cuban national team in the 2010 World Junior Baseball Championship, batting .304 with a .500 on-base percentage and .522 slugging percentage. He defected in 2011.
Wells was 1-2 with a 5.34 ERA in 12 Major League games, including four starts, and 2-2 with a 7.71 ERA in six starts with Iowa. He struggled on Tuesday against the Mets, giving up three runs on six hits and four walks over three-plus innings.
"The command and the walks are still a major issue," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. "He's got to get better at that. Those things are killing him and the pitch count gets up so high, he can't even get to five innings. He's got to go down and get better at that."
Wells could go back to Iowa if he is not claimed by another team.
Dolis began the season on the Cubs' Opening Day roster, and posted a 2.79 ERA in his first 16 outings. He replaced Carlos Marmol as the closer, but then struggled in his last seven games, giving up 10 earned runs over six innings. He was optioned to Iowa on May 28. In 11 relief appearances in Iowa, he compiled a 2.92 ERA, striking out 13 over 12 1/3 innings.
Rizzo to stay in No. 3 spot against righties and lefties
CHICAGO -- Anthony Rizzo was back in the Cubs lineup on Wednesday, batting third, and that's where he'll stay, as far as manager Dale Sveum is concerned.
Rizzo, the highly touted first baseman who went 2-for-4 Tuesday in his Cubs debut, hit .313 against left-handers at Triple-A Iowa. That's one reason Sveum left him in the No. 3 spot.
"You want to get some stability in this lineup," Sveum said Wednesday. "You call people up who are going to be here a long time, you just want to leave them alone. [Starlin] Castro and [Rizzo], we'll see what happens. I don't want to keep moving things around, because then you can't protect this guy or that guy, and it snowballs into another problem. We're committed to this lineup and lefties will be what they are. Those two guys will be in the same spot from now on."
Castro has batted .311 in 24 games in the No. 2 spot and .296 in 50 games in the No. 3 spot this season.
"We've tried to mix and match and tried to figure something out to create some offense," Sveum said. "Now, you've got a third hitter and a second hitter and it's pretty much going to stay that way for the rest of the year."
Rizzo, 22, was able to get his pregame work done without being followed by cameras on Wednesday, and said he didn't think it would be difficult to maintain his routine.
"It's just about getting comfortable now," he said. "It's just going day by day and working my tail off."
For Rizzo fans, note that he doesn't have a Twitter account.
"I did have one but I shut it down -- too much for me to handle," he said.
And what about wearing No. 44? That was the number the Cubs assigned him in Spring Training. He wore No. 27 with the Padres.
"Forty-four, they gave it to me in Spring Training, and it grew on me," he said.
Marmol becomes fourth Cub to record 100 saves
CHICAGO -- Carlos Marmol became the fourth Cubs pitcher to save 100 games, joining Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter and Randy Myers.
Marmol's save in the Cubs' 5-3 win over the Mets was his fifth of the season. The right-hander lost the job earlier this year, and is 3-for-3 in save opportunities this month.
"It's the one spot where you stand on the mound and you're the only guy who can close the game out," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. "Not everybody, as we well know, can get those final three outs of the game. They're the most difficult three outs there are.
"Only certain people can do it and some people have longevity doing it, and they usually go to the Hall of Fame and the rest of them are hit or miss, year to year," Sveum said. "It's a nice accomplishment to have 100 saves."
Smith owns the Cubs record with 180 saves, while Sutter totaled 133 and Myers had 112.
Extra bases
• Since James Rowson took over as the Cubs hitting coach, manager Dale Sveum has seen some differences in the players' approach.
"There's definitely been a change," Sveum said. "You see it a little bit on a daily basis. It's not an easy job and it's not easy to change people's minds and change hitting. Guys have a lot of habits and they're not easy to change."
Rowson was the Cubs Minor League hitting instructor and took over June 12 for Rudy Jaramillo, who was dismissed.
"The good thing about James is he's not afraid to talk to big league hitters, and not jump on them but say, 'Hey, this is what you have to do and some things have to change,'" Sveum said.
• The other Cubs Minor Leaguers can learn from Anthony Rizzo's promotion. The message is: You've got to earn it.
"You're not going to promote people for a .220 average and 30 home runs," Sveum said. "That's not what we want to create here. We want to create quality hitters and keep the line moving. Today's one day when the wind is blowing out, and there are a lot of days when the wind is blowing in."
One player the Cubs are keeping an eye on is Brett Jackson. He's already struck out more than 100 times at Triple-A Iowa.
"It's very alarming," Sveum said. "It's almost a strange occurrence how many there are. Even if he's 3-for-5, the outs are strikeouts. Last night, there were three more. He's on pace to strike out 200 times in a Minor League season, which is not easy to do."
Sveum likes Jackson's bat speed, his quickness, his athleticism, and he's put together some great at-bats.
"It's got to get better," Sveum said.
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings, and you can follow her on Twitter@CarrieMuskat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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The traffic is only projected to get worse.
The Mountain View City Council in July approved a plan that allows companies in what it calls the North Bayshore Area to expand to 10.7 million square feet of buildings by 2030, or almost one-and-a-half times the current square footage. Conservatively, that growth could bring the number of employees trundling their way to work each day to 28,000.
The roads weren't designed for that much traffic. About 25 percent more cars could squeeze onto the streets, officials say, but after that it would be perpetual gridlock.
Mountain View's not the only city where traffic jams are a part of daily life. The Page Mill Road exit from Interstate Highway 280 south is a logjam on most weekday mornings. Ditto the Willow Road exit from 101 south in Menlo Park.
And it's not just highway intersections that transportation planners are scratching their heads over. Officials in Palo Alto are puzzling over traffic and parking downtown. Residents in neighborhoods near University Avenue have been clamoring for relief from downtown workers who park their cars all day along neighborhood streets, leaving residents to park blocks from their homes.
And when a 21,700-square-foot office building on the edge of downtown Palo Alto was approved by the City Council in May, it came with one fairly novel requirement: Its owners must manage how people working in the building commute to and from work. The city is banking on having at least 20 percent fewer cars parking there than would normally be allotted. And those workers ought to arrive by bike, carpool, bus or train — not park their cars on adjacent streets, residents have already said.
The Lytton Gateway project, as it's called, as well as other upcoming developments downtown, have triggered a study of parking and commute options that planners are hoping to get off the ground this fall.
In the Bay Area and nationwide, transportation experts have long examined roads, parking and public transportation, aiming to make them as efficient as possible. They've considered a raft of questions: Are there enough lanes? Are traffic signals timed to allow for a smooth flow of cars? Is parking sufficient for the demand? Are routes laid out so buses pick up the most people and deliver them as quickly as they can?
Increasingly, however, officials are turning to additional transportation tools to ease congestion, techniques that go squarely to one central goal: convincing people to leave their cars at home.
As with other efforts to get people to change their habits, transportation-demand management programs, as they are known, offer people both carrots and sticks — rewards and penalties — to motivate them to adopt new ways.
The toolbox includes passes for free public transit, shuttle buses, van- or carpools, car- and bike-sharing and even cash and raffles for those who convert to alternate modes of transportation.
Many of the larger companies in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Mountain View have started to tackle these issues. Ubiquitous Bauer's Intelligent Transportation shuttles and white double-decker Google buses pick up high-tech workers as far away as Marin and the East Bay and deliver them to work. Free bicycles, painted in primary colors, allow Google employees to get quickly from building to building without hopping in a car.
Palo Alto's Hewlett-Packard Co. lets its employees buy transit passes with pre-tax income and partners with rideshare.org to encourage workers to carpool.
Facebook, now located in Menlo Park, provides workers with free passes to ride Caltrain and runs shuttles from the nearest stations to its campus along Bayfront Expressway. More than 40 percent of the company's workforce take the train or bus, hop on Facebook-run shuttles, join van- and carpools, bike or walk, according to the company.
The efforts have shown decided results. In Mountain View's North Bayshore Area, 25 percent of employees at the four largest companies take transit or employer-run shuttles, while 6.4 percent use a car- or vanpool, and another 5.6 percent bicycle, according to a consultant's study released in October.
Some 61 percent drive to work by themselves.
"Compared to the typical Bay Area business park where 80 percent or more of the employees drive alone, the current modal share for the North Bayshore Area shows the effectiveness of the programs the existing employers use to encourage use of alternative travel modes," the report states.
Palo Alto, meanwhile, is contemplating how to work with its downtown businesses and their merchants group, Palo Alto Downtown Business and Professional Association, to make stores and offices aware of the many ways their employees could get to work. By banding together, they might even be able to make a car-sharing program or discounted transit passes available.
It's all about economies of scale, according to Jaime Rodriguez, the city's chief transportation official.
"If I'm a seven-person business, how can I take advantage ... and create a transit-pass program?" he asked hypothetically.
The city already has in place a commute-alternatives program for its own staff, but encouraging — or outright requiring — businesses to do likewise is an area under exploration, Planning Director Curtis Williams said recently.
The challenges the city faces in getting people to leave their cars at home are unlike those of private companies. In terms of the city's own employees, union contracts prohibit the city from taking away benefits, such as parking, that otherwise could be used as a means to get people onto trains, buses and bikes.
And some developers might balk at requiring tenants to run a transportation program, fearing it would scare off potential tenants because of the costs.
While companies such as high-tech security firm Palantir "are progressive on their own," Williams said, "other businesses think, 'Well, that's going to cost me money to provide transit passes for all my employees.'"
But offering commute options could be a perk for employees and help the business to attract workers, he said. The city's role could be to make companies aware of what they could offer, and at what cost, if they join with other businesses.
Unlike Mountain View, which surveyed the North Bayshore Area companies, Palo Alto doesn't yet have firm data on the driving habits of commuters, let alone its residents on the whole. To better assess these habits and devise a transportation-management strategy, the city is looking to start an annual transportation study, Rodriguez said. It could document both how people are getting to and from where they want to go and also, over time, how people shift from traveling by one mode of transportation to another.
While city planners look for ways to keep their roads and parking lots from clogging, they already have one local organization to look to when it comes to getting people out of their cars: Stanford University.
Partly by choice and partly because of limits imposed on it by Santa Clara County, Stanford's become a national leader in transportation-demand management.
The university has managed to keep the number of cars coming onto and leaving campus steady for the past 10 years, even while the campus population has grown from some 10,300 employees (not including those at the hospitals) in 2001-02 to about 12,700 during the last academic year. Add to that thousands of undergraduate and graduate students.
As part of a 2000 agreement with the county, which governs the conditions under which Stanford can construct new buildings and add more employees, the university agreed not to allow the amount of traffic to increase. Twice-yearly measurements show the university's succeeded: In 2002, 3,474 cars arrived during a peak morning commute hour of 8 to 9 a.m.; in 2011, the count was 3,081. The number of cars leaving campus one day between 5 and 6 p.m., the evening commute, was 3,591 in 2002 and 3,540 last year.
The success has been consistent but not necessarily easy. One year, the count of evening commuters exceeded the 2002 "cap" by 144 cars; however, the university only has to implement measures to ease the traffic if the surplus occurs in two of three consecutive years.
The commute counts may be the official measure of compliance, but the real success of its transportation program is seen in the number of people who no longer drive themselves to work, according to Brodie Hamilton, the university's director of parking and transportation services.
Today, just 46 percent of employees drive alone to campus, down from 72 percent 10 years ago. Those taking Caltrain to work has jumped to 21 percent from 4 percent. The bicycling population has grown to nearly 13 percent from 7 percent. People taking the free Marguerite Shuttle, Stanford's fleet of 41 red-and-white buses that roam campus and the Palo Area, account for more than 7 percent, up from 4 percent a decade ago.
Stanford's success has relied on introducing and expanding a host of programs that draw on psychology, access to transit information, publicity, new infrastructure and even giving people cash in order to convince them to commute differently.
"When I got here (in 2000), it had a good TDM program," Hamilton said, referencing some of its features: a program that guaranteed rides to a commuter in a personal emergency, the Marguerite service, and Clean Air Cash, which rewards alternate-commuters with money. "What we needed to do ... was enhance that."
One of the program's biggest successes has been a partnership with Caltrain to offer employees free rides, a ticket now known as the GO Pass. So many people took the university up on the offer that the Marguerite system, which stopped at the train stations, had to expand, he said.
"If you're ever out there from between 7 and 8 a.m., the train pulls up and they disgorge all those people, and they pile into the buses and off they go," Hamilton said of the seamless transition for commuters.
In fact, the number of rides Marguerite buses provide to and from the train has doubled since 2004 — growing from 212,000 rides to 449,000 last year.
Another major initiative for the program was the creation of the Commute Club, a way to offer recognition to alternative commuters.
"The idea was, 'Let's create this group, an identity, a sense of belonging, and people who are having a common cause, if you will: 'We're alternative-transportation users!'" Hamilton said.
To create a buzz and raise awareness, the department held a competition for the best testimonials from people who loved their alternative commute. It featured the winners on posters and postcards.
"It was like putting a face to members of the Commute Club," he said. Soon groups of people from departments contacted his office wanting to be featured as well.
"Now we're up to 8,000 Commute Club members. That sense of identity is there," he said.
In addition to recognition, cold hard cash has helped the Commute Club grow from an initial group of 3,700. Commute Club members receive $25 a month in exchange for not having a parking permit.
Stanford also has a way to nudge those not swayed by rewards, in the form of one fairly large "stick": the price of a parking permit.
The annual price of an "A" permit, which allows prime parking, is $792, more than twice of what it cost in 2001. A "C" permit, which allows parking farther away from most buildings, costs $309 a year, nearly three times the price in 2001.
With more than 20,000 parking spaces on campus, the university has been able to avoid building any parking for new commuters, according to Hamilton.
"Most of our parking now is replacement parking, or if a new dorm is built, we do need to meet that demand," he said.
The same agreement with the county that limits traffic has put a cap on parking at 2,300 new spaces — much to the dismay of visitors to Stanford who circle around for the better part of the hour looking for a slot.
As the numbers show, limiting parking and raising the price have been effective. Demand for parking has dropped more than 6 percent since 2002, even as buildings and employees have been added, according to a university report.
In spite of the successes, Hamilton admitted there have been a few bumps in the road to the alternative-commute lifestyle. About eight years ago, the university decided to mount a pilot program for its East Bay residents by offering free passes for BART.
"It was going to be a piece of cake. We knew we had 2,000 to 3,000 people living in the East Bay ... that would be eligible," Hamilton said.
But the response was underwhelming, to say the least.
"We had 11 people take us up on this," he said. "We said, 'Wait a minute; it's free!"
It may have been free, but getting to campus on public transit still felt too onerous for most people. The typical commuter would have to get to BART, then transfer from BART to another transit line, and then leave that transit line to hop on Caltrain or the Marguerite, Hamilton said.
"That was telling us that was a long way to come with maybe too many connections," he said.
It was either an idea that was before its time, or it was just not a good idea, he added.
So what lessons can be learned from Stanford's decade-long program?
"The biggest takeaway I would offer is: With the right mix of incentives, and maybe some sort of disincentive, you can change people's commuting behavior," Hamilton said.
There is no single service that has been responsible for the university's success, he said, but rather a vast array that have met the needs of Stanford's commuters.
Free transit passes, the Marguerite system and the Commute Club form the pillars of the overall program, but car-sharing, emergency rides home, help with planning one's commute, one-day parking passes and bicycle-repair stations, to name just a few additional services, all make the program work.
Hamilton believes, however, that not all of Stanford's services are directly transferable to other organizations, in part because of differences in location, budget and other factors. Stanford, for example, spends more than $5 million to run its program, he said.
Then, there's control.
"Universities, because they are like small communities on their own, have the flexibility to do things municipalities don't. We can control our parking. Very few universities don't charge for parking," he said. "We're in a situation where we can do that, and it works out very well."
Likewise, Stanford commuters rely on Caltrain, but a company located away from a train line would have to consider whether that option makes sense, as the business might have to run shuttles to get workers from the depot to the office.
Where employees live and whether there is a sufficient concentration of them there could also determine whether an option, such as a company-sponsored shuttle, would make sense.
The City of Palo Alto has been working on a few initiatives that could make life easier for train and bus commuters. A rental bicycle program, in which 100 bikes would be stationed at train depots and other strategic locations around town, is aimed at helping commuters get from public transit to their workplaces. That connection, known as the "last mile," can be one of the thorniest problems of public transportation, planners say. The timeline for deploying those bikes, officially part of the Valley Transportation Authority's Bicycle Share Program, is due at the end of the year.
The city's also rolling out bike corrals downtown — green rectangles the size of one car parking space that can fit up to 10 parked bicycles — to motivate more people to travel by bike.
In the bigger picture, the city is hoping to work with merchants, through the Palo Alto downtown association, to make small-business owners aware of commute options for their employees.
And the council took a huge step in pushing alternative transportation when it approved the expansion of Stanford Medical Center in June 2011. As part of an agreement with the city, the medical center pledged to provide GO Passes for free Caltrain rides to all of its current and future workers, thus stemming a potential flood of thousands of cars driven by employees. As of mid-December last year, 2,000 workers had already signed on.
Mountain View officials, meanwhile, are continuing to examine the city's options for the North Bayshore Area. Among those could be automated and magnetically levitated "pod cars" that run on an overhead track, akin to a monorail, from downtown Mountain View to the North Bayshore Area and NASA Ames, according to the October study and city officials.
It is also considering launching a Transportation Management Agency, a partnership of the city and employers that would organize transportation-management programs and institute incentives and penalties. Such groups, usually nonprofit organizations, have sprung up over the past several decades around the country and have been successful in getting people to leave their cars at home.
City planners intend to return to the council in January for direction on action steps, once stakeholders have weighed in this fall and a list of "preferred options" has been defined.
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Winooski Bridge (Washout) (4X5's)
Item Description
Title: Winooski Bridge (Washout) (4X5's)
- McAllister, L. L. (Louis L.), 1877-1963
Source Document
Extent: 1 image
Publisher: University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections
1927 view of the Winooski River from the Burlington side. Seen is the old mill that was a branch of the American Woolen Company (later converted to Forest Hills Factory Outlet) and the pontoon bridge after the November 1927 flood. Building to the left may be of the heavily damaged Johnson Grain Co.
Genre(s): photographs, black-and-white photographs
Type of Resource: still image
Parent Collections
Access Conditions
For usage rights related to this resource please visit: http://cdi.uvm.edu/rights/
More information.
Permanent Link:
Preferred citation
Winooski Bridge (Washout) (4X5's), Louis L. McAllister Photographs, Box A19, Folder 10, Item 05, http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/item/mcalA19F10i05 (accessed January 21, 2018)
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While millions of football fans spent a Sunday afternoon watching the Oakland Raiders play the San Francisco 49ers on CBS, Alex Kartman, '11, telecommunications, was in San Francisco to help the network bring the sights and sounds of that game to them.
Kartman was a guest of Sennheiser, an industry leader in audio equipment, as part of its Student Mentor Program, which gives a select number of students from around the country the opportunity to participate in a live production of a major sporting event each year.
From setting up and testing dozens of field microphones before the game to watching audio professionals seamlessly mix cheers from the crowd with announcers' insights during the broadcast, Kartman gained valuable on-the-job experience that most students who are looking to break into this industry only dream about.
"The entire broadcast was a thrill to be a part of," says Kartman. "Working alongside people who have mixed audio for Super Bowl, Masters Golf Tournament, and Olympic broadcasts gave me an incredible opportunity to watch, learn, and ask questions to some of the industry's best audio mixers."
Although this was, by far, the largest production he has been a part of, Kartman is certainly no stranger to live sporting event productions.
One reason Sennheiser chose Kartman is his work with Ball State's Sports Link. The nationally recognized, Emmy Award-winning program produces sports-related content for the university's multiple platforms such as radio, television, and the Internet. Sports Link has exclusive partnerships with Fox College Sports (FCS) and NCAA March Madness on Demand. Since 2009, Kartman has produced and directed live televised sporting events that have aired on www.ballstatesports.com, www.ncaa.com, Comcast, and FCS.
"Sports Link not only provides us with an immersive learning opportunity to put our classroom learning into practice, but it also gives us the advantage of having our work showcased on a national stage such as Fox College Sports and other national sports networks," he says.
In addition to operating parabolic microphones during Ball State's televised football games on ESPN, Kartman also worked for the Fort Wayne (Indiana) TinCaps, a minor league baseball team, directing all of its 70 home games as well as the 2010 Midwest League's All-Star Game and Home Run Derby.
Kartman took his knowledge from his three days spent with Sennheiser and CBS in San Francisco back to Ball State and applied it to his work with Sports Link as a producer and director.
"I learned just how important the extensive planning process the entire crew goes through is—from camera set up to audio patching, but the most valuable lesson I walked away with is to remember that no matter how much chaos and stress a live broadcast can bring, always stay composed and be professional."
"Sports Link not only provides us with an immersive learning opportunity to put our classroom learning into practice, but it also gives us the advantage of having our work showcased on a national stage such as Fox College Sports and other national sports networks."
—Alex Kartman, '11


text:
Hi, Im using the free DVD Video Converter by DVDVideoSoft to rip a DVD and although I find this software super easy to use and Im using the highest quality setting to produce an .AVI....I am getting horizontal lines during motion sequences... (is this called "combing"?). This makes my files unuseable for presentation.
Is there anything I can use to fix this on the .AVI that was produced? Or...I am also open to using other software if better results will be achieved (such as quality that will match the DVD).
I have Premiere Pro CS5...is there anything I can do with that to help?
Looking forward to your suggestions, and finding something that works, as I have many of my stage performances on DVD that I need to convert to files.
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Any special reason to stick with AVI ? ( check this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave )
If you can live with MKV check out makeMKV or Handbrake.
Makemkv ( free for now ) rips the main program directly from DVD but does not transcode ( output = mpeg2 and selected audio + subtitles )
Handbrake ( open source ) requires a DVD access tool ( some are free also ) , transcodes to mpeg4 or h.264 and has plenty of audio/video/subtitles settings including some advanced deinterlace and decomb filters.Periculum in mora
These programs are so complicated! I've been playing with video for years but now I feel like a newbie! I dont think MKV will be a good format for me. If my intent is to take a portion of a DVD, and NOT edit it, Im guessing I would want to make an MPG H.264? And if I want to edit it, same? But if I want to keep a high-res archive file of what I ripped, wouldnt I want to use AVI?
You might try out XviD4PSP, it's fairly easy to use. It can convert a decrypted DVD VIDEO_TS file to a MKV file with a fairly small file size and not much loss in quality. MKV is a much more advanced codec than Xvid/Divx for compression. You might try it.
Almost no highly compressed format is good for editing, Xvid, Divx, H.264 included. You want to do that in a less compressed format most times.
But if you just want to convert a DVD main movie to a archive file, H.264 does very well.
Quick and easy with XviD4PSP, pick 'DVD', find the decrypted VIDEO_TS folder and use 'x264 Q21 HQ Film' video settings and use 'Copy' for the audio settings and see how it looks.
Other settings may work better, depending on your PC capabilities.
If you want simple uncompressed copy of DVD in a future proof container makemkv is the way to go ( and free for the time being ).
The interface is very simple :
- put the DVD in a drive
- have MKV analyze it
- select chapters and audio
- hit the "make MKV " button.
Both video and audio are copied "as is" , just wrapped into an MKV container.
Further processing if needed can be done with one of the many other tools already mentioned here.
Periculum in mora
Is there any advantage to ripping to MKV rather than just VOBs?
Also, are all VOBs extracting programs equal in terms of the end quality of the VOBs? For instance, if I rip to VOB using DVDDecrypter, will I get the same quality as if I rip using DVD Fab? It would be nice to know that for that step, all softwares are created equal...
A VOB is just a MPEG with some extras. (Subs, menus, alternate audio and languages, etc.) If you extract the MPEG, all extraction programs should do it equally. I usually use VOB2MPG, but I have AnyDVD running in the background to take care of decryption. They all just 'remove' the MPEG hiding in the VOB container.
The advantage to using the MKV format for me is small filesize. A 700MB MPEG-2 can often be reduced to ~400MB with little quality loss. You can't 'rip' to MKV, you need to encode to that format.
You have to remove copy protection (aka decrypt), and DVD Decrypter fails against modern copy protection - It hasn't been updated in a few years.
If these are your own home made "stage performance" DVD's then chances are they don't have advanced protection, but if they are retail DVD's and recent within a few years, there is a good chance DVD Decrypter will fail
If you see combing in your premiere sequence, then either your DVD was telecined from a film source , or your sequence settings were set incorrectly. Premiere can handle interlaced footage, but not telecined footage
if it's interlaced, you can activate a deinterlacer in your playback software for example
normal TV's and DVD players do this automatically , and they take care of normal telecine as well
if you are doing this for editing, you should leave it interlaced, but remove telecine (because most editors can't handle telecine)
playing it back on a pc media player provides no information - the software might be ivtcing or deinterlacing on the fly
you need to use the correct sequence settings, or everything you export will have a problem
you would export as interlaced for dvd, and deinterlace for web export. Notice all this is done in the export stage, you don't change the sequence settings
this all assumes your dvd was interlaced , not telecined. If it was telecined, you would IVTC (inverse telecine) ,and everything would be progressive (sequence settings, export settings)
I just have a few more question.
- If you are NOT planning on editing the footage you ripped, should you still bring it into Premiere just so that you get rid of the combing thru the export process?
- And does this mean that the playback on the PC (ie. iTunes or Windows Media Player) will then be "fixed" and without the combing effect?
- How would I know if something is telecined? For instance if I ordered an instructional DVD from the USA, would it be telecined or are only motion pictures telecined?
1) you don't have to use premiere , you could use any number of programs, but you first have to figure out if it's interlaced or telecined
2) yes you can "fix" it. But if you deinterlace , you can bob deinterlace or single rate deinterlace. 60i footage is 59.94 fields per second, or 29.97 frames per second . When you deinterlace you throw out half that information, and motion is a lot choppier (30 vs. 60) . If you bob deinterlace you can make it 60p, but DVD-video doesn't support 60p only 60i . Avi files if played on PC could be kept interlaced , or bob deinterlaced to 60p , or single rate deinterlaced to 30p - you can do anything if your goal is PC
And if it was telecined, and you inverse telecined, it would return the progressive frames
DVD-video doesn't support anything natively progressive. 24p is in 60i (that's what telecine is). You need that 60i signal to be NTSC DVD compliant.
Deinterlacing degrades quality, and the high quality filters take a long,long time to process . You only deinterlace if you have to (e.g. for web)
3) instructional dvd will likely be interlaced , not telecined. Movies shot on film have a film rate of 24p (e.g. hollywood movies) . Instructional video will be shot as video likely, not film , but there are exceptions.
To determine if something is interlaced or telecined , I use avisynth and examine individual fields (not frames)
Ooh lala, that AVISynth looks complicated! I suppose I could instead experiment with different sequence settings in Premiere until I figure out if Im dealing with interlaced footage? Is AVISynth really worth the learning curve if Im pressed for time?
BTW, what would NOT be shot interlaced?
Do modern consumer camcorders shoot interlaced or deinterlaced?
Is deinterlaced same thing as progressive?
Does HD have anything to do with interlaced/deinterlaced?
Ooh lala, that AVISynth looks complicated! I suppose I could instead experiment with different sequence settings in Premiere until I figure out if Im dealing with interlaced footage? Is AVISynth really worth the learning curve if Im pressed for time?
BTW, what would NOT be shot interlaced?
Do modern consumer camcorders shoot interlaced or deinterlaced?
Is deinterlaced same thing as progressive?
Does HD have anything to do with interlaced/deinterlaced?
If you want to learn the proper way, eventually you will have to examine fields. You can't do that in premiere
Modern consumer camcorders shoot interlaced, and their "24p" mode is 24p in 60i or telecined. Only "prosumer" and "pro" camcorders and DSLR's shoot native progressive
If you have interlaced footage and you deinterlace it, the result is progressive. But remember deinterlacing degrades quality - and if you don't do it properly you throw out 1/2 the information, and most programs use very poor quality deinterlacers. The high quality ones are very slow to process, but the quality is much better (and of course they are avisynth based)
HD has nothing to do with interlace/progressive/telecined . You can have SD or HD and one of those. HD refers to the frame size , height > 576 pixels.
Premiere will separate fields when you look at the preview (just like a media player would deinterlace on the fly), so it's not representative of what you really have either. You have to use the proper sequence settings and export settings or you will get poor results
Last edited by poisondeathray; 15th Sep 2010 at 23:48.
super rusty!
Vegas Pro and Premiere before and I didnt think that the footage had degraded that much....
vegas and premiere are garbage at deinterlacing. Do a search , many people have posted comparisons at this forum and many others . I've posted several myself
CS5 is slightly improved, if you use MRQ, but it's still slightly worse than an "average" avisynth deinterlacer
You have to understand how premiere works and what the preview is actually showing you. You have to understand fields vs. frames . This is critical.
If you have interlaced footage (like the majority of consumer camcorder footage) , and you are looking at the preview, it won't show combing or those lines, because you are looking at a separated field. It separates the fields, because you can't edit in field mode. You have to look at full frames. If you export interlaced (like you would for DVD) , you won't see the combing , unless you watch on a progressive display (you will be seeing 2 fields offset) , but you would just activate a deinterlacer if this was on a computer. 100% of blu-ray and dvd players will play it without seeing the combing
Deinterlacing when you shouldn't is even worse, you will end up with jaggy lines and horrbile quality. There are many examples of that too , when people use premiere incorrectly
If you're going to rip and convert NTSC DVDs, it might be worth understanding the difference between hard and soft telecine.
The link below gives quite a good explanation.
You really need to create interlaced DVDs if the video is interlaced or telecined. Yeah, you can IVTC, but for home projects, that may be more trouble than it's worth.
This would take more time to explain than I have available.
Poison's giving you some good info. So good luck!Want my help? Ask here! (not via PM!)
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If I understand correctly, its best to rip a DVD to VOBs on the hard drive, then convert to MPG-2, and then to examine the fields to see if deinterlacing is required, correct? (DVDDecrypter --> VOB2MPG --> AVISynth)
So programs like Xillisoft DVD Ripper are therefore useless with their apparent ability to go directly from DVD to AVI or MP4 or MPG? Because they skip the step of deinterlacing...which makes them more prone to creating rips that contain combing effect...is this correct?
I would use dvdfab or anydvd . Dvddecrypter hasn't been updated in a few years and may fail with some copy protections
I don't know what xilisoft does, but it has a pretty poor reputation around here
If you want something easy to use , but better than xilisoft, try autogk for xvid/avi , or handbrake, or xvid4psp - they can make errors too, but are less prone.
The best way is to examine it manually looking at the field pattern - because no autodetection scheme is 100% perfect. Only human eyes can get it correct.
AnyDVD IN CONJUNCTION WITH DVDDecrypter or CloneDVD but really, you can use AnyDVD on its own to rip, correct? Why would people need to use it conjunction with anything else?
Yes, anydvd just works in the background. You can use it with other programs . But you might want functionality of other programs - maybe some people wanted to rip in IFO mode for example, for individual titles. You can just as easily use it alone and copy the whole disc
OK, so I ripped the DVD to my PC as VOBs (using AnyDVD by itself because there was no encryption), and I plan to edit various scenes in Premiere by adding graphics, titles, color filters, etc.
I will be exporting for Web, DVD, and perhaps iPhone.
My question is...
Now that I have VOBs on my hard drive, and considering that I want to work with the best quality source files in Premiere (which I will export to a number of media such as DVD, Web, etc), what file format should I convert the VOBs into? 2 years ago it was MPG2.
Is MPG2 still the best format to work with in Premiere to edit with least compression or would it now be better as MP4? Or something else I am not aware of?
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text:
I cannot believe I am getting close to finishing the Days of December book (I'm so sick and tired of Christmas).
It never fails, Christmas eve I am up until 2 or 3am, making certain everything is just right. I guess if I keep doing this year after year, I must enjoy it!
Journaling reads: This year, I was not well prepared for getting the gifts under the tree. Ron was in China, and I was working 12 hour days, plus taking care of the horses each night (most of which was in the rain), the weeks leading up to Christmas. Still things fell into place and everything was perfect come 3:00am. Cricket followed me around the house as I did the final prep, and the placing of the gifts, so I had to be certain that she not see as I placed her little cow under the tree. She would know it was hers, as she had found her gifts early in the past. Tired, I set coffee mugs, and water for brewing so that I could manage with the few hours of sleep I was about to get. I went to sleep with a smile on my face knowing tomorrow would be a special day with family.
Items Used:
Days of December Layered Template Set No. 04 Katie Pertiet
Spot Dots No. 17 Paper Pack Katie Pertiet
Background Beige paper from Katie Pertiet - Color Inspiration Paper Pack 7-11-10 (recolored)
Basic Twills: Plain Katie Pertiet
Stitched By Anna Borders White No. 01 Anna Aspnes
Classic Cardstock: Christmas Katie Pertiet
La Cremerie: Fraise Kit Katie Pertiet
Le Marche Kit
Fonts used: Pea Bandit, Goudy Stout
*** Thanks for Looking ***


text:
I wonder if something like the Badger framework (Andy Wardley) would give most of what you want with Moose but with better numbers. I have never seen them compared. The benefit I see is that Badger doesn't have outside dependencies so would be easier to "ship" with Padre.
Just a thought...
Last I looked at it Badger had a totally different set of goals than Moose. Badger was the distillation of what Andy Wardley had been using for building Perl applications while Moose is specifically about building a good MOP based Object Framework for Perl.
And playing devil's advocate for a second, what is the difference between adding one up stream module, and adding 12 that install relatively cleanly (both according to deps.cpantesters.com have a > 90% chance of installing clean on 5.10.0)? In both cas
Modules you install for yourself are necessary and sufficient and good examples of code reuse.
Modules your dependencies install for you are bloat.
I'm not sure what happens if modules your dependencies need are modules 1) you already have installed for yourself or 2) modules you've written and distributed, but it's a good first approximation of a definition.
Personally, I take a couple of things into account when I decide whether or not extra modules constitute "bloat".
First, how likely are these modules to fail to install on the target platform(s)? If they are going to make my code harder for the sysadmin (often myself) to move, port, and maintain in the future they may not be worth pulling in to my dependency chain.
Second, how does this module perform given how I will be using it in my code? How does it perform compared to it's alternatives?
Third, do I need a


text: I'd still be interested in knowing where to find sutta that you described in SN in which the Buddha visits a lay person and he says he has put aside greed and distress with reference to the world using satipattana. If you happen to come across a reference in the future, would you mind sending it by PM? I'll look around some, too.rowyourboat wrote:Sorry for not quoting the specific sutta in this forum.