text:
Pablo A. Duboue - Kathleen R. McKeown
Computer Science Department
Columbia University
10027, New York, NY, USA
In a language generation system, a content planner typically uses one or more ``plans'' to represent the content to be included in the output and the ordering between content elements. Some researchers rely on generic planners (e.g., [6]) for this task, while others use plans based on Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) (e.g., [3,17,9]) or schemas (e.g., [14,13]). In all cases, constraints on application of rules (e.g., plan operators), which determine content and order, are usually hand-crafted, sometimes through manual analysis of target text.
In this paper, we present a method for learning the basic patterns contained within a plan and the ordering among them. As training data, we use semantically tagged transcripts of domain experts performing the task our system is designed to mimic, an oral briefing of patient status after undergoing coronary bypass surgery. Given that our target output is spoken language, there is some level of variability between individual transcripts. It is difficult for a human to see patterns in the data and thus supervised learning based on hand-tagged training sets can not be applied. We need a learning algorithm that can discover ordering patterns in apparently unordered input.
We based our unsupervised learning algorithm on techniques used in computational genomics [7], where from large amounts of seemingly unorganized genetic sequences, patterns representing meaningful biological features are discovered. In our application, a transcript is the equivalent of a sequence and we are searching for patterns that occur repeatedly across multiple sequences. We can think of these patterns as the basic elements of a plan, representing small clusters of semantic units that are similar in size, for example, to the nucleus-satellite pairs of RST.1 By learning ordering constraints over these elements, we produce a plan that can be expressed as a constraint-satisfaction problem. In this paper, we focus on learning the plan elements and the ordering constraints between them. Our system uses combinatorial pattern matching [19] combined with clustering to learn plan elements. Subsequently, it applies counting procedures to learn ordering constraints among these elements.
Our system produced a set of 24 schemata units, that we call ``plan elements''2, and 29 ordering constraints between these basic plan elements, which we compared to the elements contained in the orginal hand-crafted plan that was constructed based on hand-analysis of transcripts, input from domain experts, and experimental evaluation of the system [15].
The remainder of this article is organized as follows: first the data used in our experiments is presented and its overall structure and acquisition methodology are analyzed. In Section 3 our techniques are described, together with their grounding in computational genomics. The quantitative and qualitative evaluation are discussed in Section 4. Related work is presented in Section 5. Conclusions and future work are discussed in Section 6.
Our research is part of MAGIC [5,15], a system that is designed to produce a briefing of patient status after undergoing a coronary bypass operation. Currently, when a patient is brought to the intensive care unit (ICU) after surgery, one of the residents who was present in the operating room gives a briefing to the ICU nurses and residents. Several of these briefings were collected and annotated for the aforementioned evaluation. The resident was equipped with a wearable tape recorder to tape the briefings, which were transcribed to provide the base of our empirical data. The text was subsequently annotated with semantic tags as shown in Figure 1. The figure shows that each sentence is split into several semantically tagged chunks. The tag-set was developed with the assistance of a domain expert in order to capture the different information types that are important for communication and the tagging process was done by two non-experts, after measuring acceptable agreement levels with the domain expert (see [15]). The tag-set totalled over 200 tags. These 200 tags were then mapped to 29 categories, which was also done by a domain expert. These categories are the ones used for our current research.
From these transcripts, we derive the sequences of semantic tags for each transcript. These sequences constitute the input and working material of our analysis, they are an average length of 33 tags per transcript (, , ). A tag-set distribution analysis showed that some of the categories dominate the tag counts. Furthermore, some tags occur fairly regularly towards either the beginning (e.g., date-of-birth) or the end (e.g., urine-output) of the transcript, while others (e.g., intraop-problems) are spread more or less evenly throughout.
Getting these transcripts is a highly expensive task involving the cooperation and time of nurses and physicians in the busy ICU. Our corpus contains a total number of 24 transcripts. Therefore, it is important that we develop techniques that can detect patterns without requiring large amounts of data.
During the preliminary analysis for this research, we looked for techniques to deal with analysis of regularities in sequences of finite items (semantic tags, in this case). We were interested in developing techniques that could scale as well as work with small amounts of highly varied sequences.
Computational biology is another branch of computer science that has this problem as one topic of study. We focused on motif detection techniques as a way to reduce the complexity of the overall setting of the problem. In biological terms, a motif is a small subsequence, highly conserved through evolution. From the computer science standpoint, a motif is a fixed-order pattern, simply because it is a subsequence. The problem of detecting such motifs in large databases has attracted considerable interest in the last decade (see [10] for a recent survey). Combinatorial pattern discovery, one technique developed for this problem, promised to be a good fit for our task because it can be parameterized to operate successfully without large amounts of data and it will be able to identify domain swapped motifs: for example, given a-b-c in one sequence and c-b-a in another. This difference is central to our current research, given that order constraints are our main focus. TEIRESIAS [19] and SPLASH [4] are good representatives of this kind of algorithm. We used an adaptation of TEIRESIAS.
The algorithm can be sketched as follows: we apply combinatorial pattern discovery (see Section 3.1) to the semantic sequences. The obtained patterns are refined through clustering (Section 3.2). Counting procedures are then used to estimate order constraints between those clusters (Section 3.3).
Using the previous definitions, the algorithm reduces to the problem of, given a set of sequences, , , a minimum windowsize, and a support threshold, finding maximal -patterns with at least a support of support threshold. Our implementation can be sketched as follows:
After the detection of patterns is finished, the number of patterns is relatively large. Moreover, as they have fixed length, they tend to be pretty similar. In fact, many tend to have their support from the same subsequences in the corpus. We are interested in syntactic similarity as well as similarity in context.
A convenient solution was to further cluster the patterns, according to an approximate matching distance measure between patterns, defined in an appendix at the end of the paper.
We use agglomerative clustering with the distance between clusters defined as the maximum pairwise distance between elements of the two clusters. Clustering stops when no inter-cluster distance falls below a user-defined threshold.
Each of the resulting clusters has a single pattern represented by the centroid of the cluster. This concept is useful for visualization of the cluster in qualitative evaluation.
The last step of our algorithm measures the frequencies of all possible order constraints among pairs of clusters, retaining those that occur often enough to be considered important, according to some relevancy measure. We also discard any constraint that it is violated in any training sequence. We do this in order to obtain clear-cut constraints. Using the number of times a given constraint is violated as a quality measure is a straight-forward extension of our framework. The algorithm proceeds as follows: we build a table of counts that is updated every time a pair of patterns belonging to particular clusters are matched. To obtain clear-cut constraints, we do not count overlapping occurrences of patterns.
From the table of counts we need some relevancy measure, as the
distribution of the tags is skewed. We use a simple heuristic to
estimate a relevancy measure over the constraints that are never
contradicted. We are trying to obtain an estimate of
The obtained estimates, and , will in general yield different numbers. We use the arithmetic mean between both, , as the final estimate for each constraint. It turns out to be a good estimate, that predicts accuracy of the generated constraints (see Section 4).
We use cross validation to quantitatively evaluate our results and a comparison against the plan of our existing system for qualitative evaluation.
We evaluated two items: how effective the patterns and constraints learned were in an unseen test set and how accurate the predicted constraints were. More precisely:
Using 3-fold cross-validation for computing these metrics, we obtained the results shown in Table 1 (averaged over 100 executions of the experiment). The different parameter settings were defined as follows: for the motif detection algorithm and support threshold of 3. The algorithm will normally find around 100 maximal motifs. The clustering algorithm used a relative distance threshold of 3.5 that translates to an actual treshold of 120 for an average inter-cluster distance of 174. The number of produced clusters was in the order of the 25 clusters or so. Finally, a threshold in relevancy of 0.1 was used in the constraint learning procedure. Given the amount of data available for these experiments all these parameters were hand-tunned.
|pattern confidence
|constraint confidence
|constraint accuracy
The system was executed using all the available information, with the same parametric settings used in the quantitative evaluation, yielding a set of 29 constraints, out of 23 generated clusters.
These constraints were analyzed by hand and compared to the existing content-planner. We found that most rules that were learned were validated by our existing plan. Moreover, we gained placement constraints for two pieces of semantic information that are currently not represented in the system's plan. In addition, we found minor order variation in relative placement of two different pairs of semantic tags. This leads us to believe that the fixed order on these particular tags can be relaxed to attain greater degrees of variability in the generated plans. The process of creation of the existing content-planner was thorough, informed by multiple domain experts over a three year period. The fact that the obtained constraints mostly occur in the existing plan is very encouraging.
As explained in [10], motif detection is usually targeted with alignment techniques (as in [7]) or with combinatorial pattern discovery techniques such as the ones we used here. Combinatorial pattern discovery is more appropriate for our task because it allows for matching across patterns with permutations, for representation of wild cards and for use on smaller data sets.
Similar techniques are used in NLP. Alignments are widely used in MT, for example [16], but the crossing problem is a phenomenon that occurs repeatedly and at many levels in our task and thus, this is not a suitable approach for us.
Pattern discovery techniques are often used for information extraction (e.g., [20,8]), but most work uses data that contains patterns labelled with the semantic slot the pattern fills. Given the difficulty for humans in finding patterns systematically in our data, we needed unsupervised techniques such as those developed in computational genomics.
Other stochastic approaches to NLG normally focus on the problem of sentence generation, including syntactic and lexical realization (e.g., [12,1,11]). Concurrent work analyzing constraints on ordering of sentences in summarization found that a coherence constraint that ensures that blocks of sentences on the same topic tend to occur together [2]. This results in a bottom-up approach for ordering that opportunistically groups sentences together based on content features. In contrast, our work attempts to automatically learn plans for generation based on semantic types of the input clause, resulting in a top-down planner for selecting and ordering content.
In this paper we presented a technique for extracting order constraints among plan elements that performs satisfactorily without the need of large corpora. Using a conservative set of parameters, we were able to reconstruct a good portion of a carefully hand-crafted planner. Moreover, as discussed in the evaluation, there are several pieces of information in the transcripts which are not present in the current system. From our learned results, we have inferred placement constraints of the new information in relation to the previous plan elements without further interviews with experts.
Furthermore, it seems we have captured order-sensitive information in the patterns and free-order information is kept in the don't care model. The patterns, and ordering constraints among them, provide a backbone of relatively fixed structure, while don't cares are interspersed among them. This model, being probabilistic in nature, means a great deal of variation, but our generated plans should have variability in the right positions. This is similar to findings of floating positioning of information, together with oportunistic rendering of the data as used in STREAK [21].
We are planning to use these techniques to revise our current content-planner and incorporate information that is learned from the transcripts to increase the possible variation in system output.
The final step in producing a full-fledged content-planner is to add semantic constraints on the selection of possible orderings. This can be generated through clustering of semantic input to the generator.
We also are interested in further evaluating the technique in an unrestricted domain such as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) with shallow semantics such as the WordNet top-category for each NP-head. This kind of experiment may show strengths and limitations of the algorithm in large corpora.


text:
Aline @ Let's Talk About Books
Aline chose The Secret Keeper
by Sandra Byrd!
So sorry for the delay in announcing the winner! Thanks to everyone who entered!
Check out my current giveaway, The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift, and come back next week for a chance to win Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Marvin Goldstein in Provo, June 6
Any of you going? Please tell us about it afterward.
I'm also interested in hearing your favorite Marvin Goldstein experiences or recollections.
5 comments:
- T said...
Marvin was here about a month or so ago for a fireside. I'd heard him before then, and he's really good. Plus, David Sylvester is our Stake President's son, and he's also a great pianist. He's been at it since he was a kid. I remember hearing him play a piece by Rachmaninoff at a stake youth talent show when he was 12. You will not be disappointed.
- 7:52 PM, June 03, 2009
I am seeking information regarding an LDS operatic tenor (at least I think he's LDS). When I used to have BYU television about 5 years ago or so, he was on several programs performing at high profile LDS events, like Christmas and such. Does anyone have any idea who this singer might be? He really had a beautiful voice (I think he sang "Danny Boy" during one concert--and it was the best I have heard it sung.) Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.
Peace and Grace!
- 9:57 PM, June 03, 2009
- nshumate said...
Years ago, Bro. Goldstein performed at a fireside at the Institute at Southern Utah Univerdsity. Part of his performance was to have audience members give him three disparate songs, which he would arrange into a single medley on the fly (asssuming he knew the song, naturally).
The second time through, he had already gotten a request for "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, and then he called on me.
"Yellow Submarine!" I shouted out.
He tried. Really he did. But there was just no way.
- 12:39 PM, June 04, 2009
- Mormanity said...
David Sylvester's website is SylvesterMusic.com. Just launched--more coming soon.
- 9:04 PM, June 06, 2009
I remember seeing Marvin Goldstein at BYU Education Week a long time ago.
What impressed me was that he was offered the keyboard position with Three Dog Night, but turned it down because he didn't want to be taken away from his family. That left an impression on me.
- 11:10 AM, June 14, 2009


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Ben Lomond Soil & Terrain
The Impact of Ben Lomond Soil & Terrain on Grape Growing
The elevation of the AVA ranges from 400 to 3,000 feet above sea level. The topsoil is made of weathered granite, sandstone, and quartz. It is deep and well drained. The subsoil of the region is very light in color and also drains well. Most vineyard roots reach from five to eight feet into the ground.
Some of the more elevated parts of the AVA are particularly steep and can have slopes of up to 75%. Obviously vineyards are not planted on these extremely steep hills, and vines are concentrated in lower parts of the region.
In addition to vineyards and redwood trees, Douglas firs, madrone, and oak trees dot the landscape. Because there is so much natural vegetation in the area, most of the ground is covered with about two inches of decomposing organic material. This includes pine needles, leaves, and twigs.
If proper care is not taken during vineyard development, erosion can be a problem in Ben Lomond. Fortunately, the grape growers in the region are known for their environmental sensitivity and take steps to stem this process. They only clear as much land as they need to, and often plant cover crops to keep the soil intact and healthy.
> Ben Lomond and other Bay Area Wineries


text:
Dune Walk Study, 6 x 8, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2014
This is a study I painted in preparation for a larger studio piece. These winter months are great for studio work and there is nothing quite like revisiting warmer seasons while I am at it! This beach is in St. Simons Island on the Georgia coast, one of my favorite places in life. I am looking forward to being back soon!
WORKSHOP OPENING: I am teaching a plein air workshop on St. Simons in April, and there are 2 spots available. If you can join us, register with Mary Anderson at the Anderson Fine Art Gallery.
See other Small Works.


text:
Acceleo 3.0 has just been released and it comes with compatibility with Eclipse 3.4, 3.5 and the latest 3.6 versions. Acceleo 3.0 is a pragmatic implementation of the OMG Model-to-text specification. It supports the developer with most of the features that can be expected from a top quality code generator IDE: simple syntax, efficient code generation, advanced tooling, features on par with the JDT... Acceleo also has a unique tooling around example-based design of code generators with all the pragmatism we had with the 2.x stream.
Acceleo can be downloaded and installed in a number of ways. If you have an existing Eclipse installation and simply wish to install Acceleo in it, installing through the update site is the easiest way. If you'd rather install a new Eclipse with Acceleo, you may want to take a look at the facilities provided by the amalgamation project. Amalgamation is the project that leads the creation of the modeling bundle, it has an easy one click discover and install wizard. Thanks to it you could also easily install also ATL 3.1 (the model-to-model transformation language in Eclipse), EEF (a way to improve the EMF model creation), EMF Compare 1.1 and many other modeling components.
Acceleo 3.1 will be released in June 2011 with the Eclipse Indigo release train. We also planned several corrective versions for the 2.x maintenance stream: a 2.7.1 version will be released this year and a 2.8 version in 2011. Meanwhile, the Acceleo team is investigating towards Eclipse 4 (e4) compatibility. All the links and information to download and install Acceleo are available from here: http://www.eclipse.org/acceleo/download/
Note that examples are available from the menu right-click => New => Examples => Acceleo Plug-ins.
Do not hesitate to give feedback through the mailing-lists, the bug-tracker or the web forum, a Wiki is available to ease the collaboration and the gathering of tips and tricks.
Support information: http://www.eclipse.org/acceleo/support/
Developers information: http://www.eclipse.org/acceleo/developers/
Thanks to all the developers and contributors involved in this release!


text:
Senior Insight Manager
- Recruiter
- Ball and Hoolahan
- Location
- Wembley, London
- Salary
- £63,000 - £65,000 per annum
- Posted
- 25 Aug 2017
- Closes
- 22 Sep 2017
- Ref
- 20892
- Job Discipline
- Insight
- Experience Level
- Manager
- Sectors
- Leisure & Travel, Other
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
About the role
This is a very exciting role. As Senior Insight Manager, you will be part of the Research and Insight team for a leading not for profit organisation, working across all areas of their business providing primary research, collating secondary information and data to develop consumer understanding and provide evidence based recommendations to grow industry knowledge and aid the development and delivery of the organisation's strategic priorities.
Your role will involve working with internal and external teams to develop consumer insights to better target consumer groups. You will need strong research project and data handling experience - quantitative experience and exposure to both ad hoc and continuous insight from an agency or client side environment.
Shape of the role and typical projects
- Identify, collate and synthesis existing research, along with commissioned primary research to inform to grow the business knowledge base.
- Work with the Head of Research to build and deliver an ongoing research and insight rolling 18 month schedule.
- Work closely with cross functional teams -specifically Marketing, Digital and Commercial Divisions to deliver projects which will ensure market leading insight expertise, which in turn will support and influence key business decisions that help shape the organisation's strategic plan.
- Grow the in house commercial and digital research capability – training the team and establishing best practice.
- Act as lead contact for internal and external clients, and agencies.
- Working to identify potential new sponsorship partnership opportunities.
- Working end to end with marketing on campaign work
About you
You will have a proven track record of senior leadership from within an agency or client side role leading project teams and will have worked on end to end multi-disciplinary research projects covering digital, marketing and commercial sponsorship and partnership campaigns. You will have a real talent for analysing complete data and simplifying it into easy to understand formats and great story telling ability, enabling you to talk succinctly and creatively – inspiring internal and external stakeholders to act on meaningful consumer insight that will shape the our client's strategic plans .
You will ideally have experience in the following:
- Have worked on continuous and ad hoc projects – brand monitoring, product concept testing, advertising research, presenting at SMT/board level
- Will have lead project teams and managed cross functional projects.
- Strategic planning, positioning and creative development projects
- Designing, implementing and delivering bespoke research programmes
- Experience of working in sponsorship/partnership measurement (ROI focus)
- Experience of working on the delivery of primary research projects
- Demonstrable skills in using a wide array of secondary sources to inform decisions on business issues and increase overall insight delivery
- Excellent analytical skills – must be able to manipulate 'big data' qualitative and quantative data to produce usable data sets and reports/analysis
- Experience of app and web analytics and the software needed to mine these types of data sets (Flurry, Google Analytics, Apple App Analytics and Sysomos)


text:
Broadcom Introduces GNSS Location Chip with Geofence Capabilities
Enables Always-on, Location-aware Applications to Run While Consuming 60x Less Power
Feb 20, 2013, 08:00 EST
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
News Highlights:
- Broadcom architecture first to enable geofence capability to run without significant battery drain
- Chip opens the door for innovative location-based services such as social networking, place-based mobile commerce and local merchant advertising
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced the BCM47521, the industry's first Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) chip with a unique architecture to enable geofence capabilities while preserving battery life. Geofence technology is a breakthrough in virtual perimeter awareness. The new chip opens the door to innovative always-on, location-aware applications such as social networking, place-based mobile commerce and local merchant advertising. Broadcom will showcase its GNSS innovations at the upcoming Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, February 25-28. Visit Broadcom @ Mobile World Congress for more news.
A geographical region of interest (aka "geofence") is being used by many new and innovative location-aware applications. The geofence feature enables the application to receive a notification when a user enters or exits a virtual perimeter. However, the implementation of this feature in traditional architectures is not viable as the applications processor needs to run constantly, causing rapid drain to the device's battery. Broadcom's new BCM47521 overcomes this issue, making it possible to continuously monitor geofence areas while consuming 60x less battery power.
"The astounding growth of mobile devices is driving new opportunities for inventive applications that deliver valuable location-aware information," said Scott Pomerantz, Broadcom Vice President & General Manager, GPS. "With the BCM47521's low-power geofence mode, Broadcom is driving the next wave of system power consumption innovation that will allow OEMs to incorporate features that differentiate their mobile offerings and make location-aware, always-on applications a reality."
The BCM47521 chip also provides the industry's most advanced multi-constellation support by simultaneously collecting data from four satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS) and using the best received signals, resulting in faster searches and more accurate real-time navigation. Broadcom's multi-constellation technology, coupled with advanced signal processing, provides faster positioning performance for improved user experience, especially in challenging urban environments where buildings and obstructions can dramatically impact accuracy and time-to-first-fix.
Key Features and Benefits:
- 60x better system power efficiency versus a host-based architecture due to:
- Advanced host-offload mode monitors geofences in the background and only activates the applications processor when there is a trigger event
- Smart algorithms that adapt in real-time as the user gets closer to a geofence boundary
- Lowest board space, power consumption and cost:
- The 40 nanometer (nm) BCM47521 has the same board space, power consumption and cost advantages as its BCM4752 predecessor
- Based on proven BCM4752 GNSS architecture platform:
- Industry-leading urban navigation accuracy integrates handset inertial sensor readings into the position computation
- Best-in-class assisted GNSS (AGNSS) assistance data available worldwide from Broadcom's hosted reference network
- Indoor positioning capabilities leveraging Broadcom's device connectivity including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communications (NFC) and handset inertial sensor data
The BCM47521 is currently in production and will be shipping in handsets by Q2 2013.
For ongoing news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom, read the B-Connected Blog, or visit Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to Broadcom's RSS Feed.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything® and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Susan Vander May
Chris Zegarelli
Senior Manager, Public Relations (MWG)
Senior Director, Investor Relations
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Mobile & Wireless


text:
I didn't see this post of Ink's till a bit late to comment. But I loved the question and the answers. In many ways, my dream job is the one I have, tarted up a bit (as many of the other people who commented seem to have felt). I like the idea of teaching Latin to enthusiastic students and spending summers in the Mediterranean; being a curator of medieval manuscripts would be great; or maybe I could be the engineer who invents Belle's "poof" machine for idiots.
And finally, I would love to be in charge of caring for big cats at a really good zoo.


text:
Saint Wilfrid lived in England in the 600s. He studied in Rome, and when he went back to England, he tried to teach the local people the Roman ways, but they didn't want to give up their old Celtic traditions. He was made bishop of York, and he went through a lot of troubles. He was very unpopular with the local people, and several times, Wilfrid had to ask for help from the Holy See to settle matters. He spent a lot of time teaching the Saxons in southern England about Jesus and eventually retired to a monastery, where he was able to remain in prayer every day until he died.
To honor this saint from Celtic England, color a Celtic cross. Celtic crosses are known for two things – the circle behind the cross, which represents the unending love of God – and fancy designs. Here are three different Celtic cross coloring pages (one, two,three). Choose the one you like best and color it any way you like.


text:
Another week, another gallery of the reality TV stars showing off and sharing snapshots on Twitter and Instagram.
Above: Real Housewives of Potomac star Karen Huger shared, "Lover of #everyshade of blue! #rhop"
Look below for pics from Ladies of London star Juliet Angus, Teen Mom 2 star Leah Messer, Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley, Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent, Real Housewives of Orange County's David and Shannon Beador, and more.
Cynthia and NeNe
NeNe Leakes: Twinkies.
Josh Flagg
Josh Flagg: #floatnaked
Jeff and Shannon
Shannon Beador: Happy hour in the OC with Jeff Lewis! Down 15, but could easily go up 15 after a night with him! #loyalfriend #hasmyback #loveourfriendship
Bethenny Frankel
Bethenny Frankel: So many margaritas, so little time. @skinnygirl #unleashyourskinnygirl
Eileen Davidson
Eileen Davidson: Living for Michael Jackson ONE!
Meghan Edmonds
Meghan Edmonds: Couldn't have asked for a better mommy daughter day in the happiest place on earth.
Luke and Dorinda
Dorinda Medley: We worked we laughed we laid in bed and watched a movie! I love you @lukehendersonw1! Yesterday with @elleusa was a hoot! #brokenzipper #mussels #HMU #friendship #clipclipclip #shirleyvalentine
Kail Lowry
Kail Lowry: Nothing compares. #motherofboys #momx3
Joanna Krupa
Joanna Krupa: After the crazy incident in Mykonos this is how I roll now.
Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner: Day at Mommy's.
Maks and Peta
Peta Murgatroyd: Lake Como with my love. We were blown away by the beauty! Missing our little Shai - this is our first trip away just the two of us.
Maci Bookout
Maci Bookout: My big 3rd grader! Ahh! #bennybaby #thingsthatmatter
LeeAnne Locken
LeeAnne Locken: #datenight is one of the happiest nights ever! We laughed & had a wonderful evening! Thank You Al for always taking great care of us!! Here's to a MONDAY filled with Love, Laughter, & Success! Learn to #letgo of what doesn't work & #holdon to what does! HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE! #happyme #RHOD #date #love #soulmate #dallas #albernaits #bravo #rhod #realhousewives
Leah Messer
Leah Messer: Why is she starting school next week? What will this momma do? She just told me she was still my baby, but she's a big girl now too! I'm going to cry I already know it!
Joe and Melissa
Melissa Gorga: Bye LA. Love ya.
Lisa Vanderpump
Lisa Vanderpump: Loving Vegas so far. Fabulous food, amazing views, and great service.
Real Housewives of Atlanta
Marlo Hampton: 24kt magic with Nene Leakes and Kandi Burruss. #happybirthday #todd44
Khloe Kardashian
Khloe Kardashian: All my Love.
Vanderpump Rules
Lala Kent: We like dogs way more than we like people.
Dorinda Medley
Dorinda Medley: Wedding makeup! Thank you @allanaponte and @tomford for helping me get ready for @selasry gorgeous wedding!!
The Jersey Shore
Nicole Polizzi: #SquadGoals #WereStillCoolISwear
Kaitlyn Bristowe
Kaitlyn Bristowe: I wish I could live on a farm full of golden retrievers. That would be my happy place. Meet Moose.
Shark Tank
Bethenny Frankel: It must be shark week. #aboutlastnight @kevinolearyshark @sharktankabc
Tonya Banks
Tonya Banks: Hello from me and Angel. #TonyaTuesdays #lilboss #lilbossbodyactivewear #lwla #CouplesTherapy
Kenya and Cynthia
Cynthia Bailey: Me & Mrs. Daly. #50cynt #chocolateandcaramel
Karen Huger
Karen Huger: Lover of #everyshade of blue! #rhop
Juliet and Tinsley
Juliet Angus: Real ladies in Chicago. @tinsleymortimer #friendsfor15 #rhony #ladiesoflondon #godfreyhotel #chicagorooftop
Kelly Dodd
Kelly Dodd: Type writer keys on the wall! #nyc #jameshotel @lindadalessio
Lala and Scheana
Lala Kent: #givethemlala & her squad.
NeNe Leakes
NeNe Leakes: She does whatever she wants too.
David and Shannon
Shannon Beador: David about to eat oysters! #sundayfamilydinner
Ryan Serhant
Ryan Serhant: We are deep into filming #SELLITLIKESERHANT for @bravotv and I'm working my ass off with our awesome crew to bring everyone the greatest television show in the history of the world. I mean that. From the bottom of my heart. I've been working on this show's concept for years. I'm taking everything I've learned while selling real estate in New York over the last 10 years - all the tips, tricks, secrets, exercises, and mental toughness - and bringing it to new salespeople in totally different industries in each episode. In THIS one you're going to meet Frank from Staten Island. I don't want to tell you too much, but you're going to love Frank. You're going to root for him. You're going to see yourself in him. You're going to laugh with him and his ridiculous jokes. And you're going to wonder why the ?? I brought him into the woods and gave him a chainsaw. Just remember - there's a method to the madness. Or is there? Now I need food. Cutting down trees is exhausting.
Shiva and Mohamed
Shiva Safai: Je T'aime
Terra Jole
Terra Jole: Cubs vs Giants - not looking good for the cubs, but so happy to be here with the family! #chicagocubs @cubs
Sonja and Ramona
Ramona Singer: This is what happens when frick and frack run into each other.
Stephanie Hollman
Stephanie Hollman: When you give a really great answer in your confessional but you realize you have two boys and puppy playing the the background. Just a part of being a #BoyMom! See you on August 14th at 10/9c #JustBecauseSchoolIsOutDoesntMeanMommyDoesntHaveToWork #QuietOnSet #RHOD #BTS
Ashley Darby
Ashley Darby: Oh it's a beautiful day in this neighborhood. #georgetown #rhop #sunandsmiles
Kandi Burruss: Super model rocking his Cynthia Bailey Eyewear.
Yolanda Hadid
Yolanda Hadid: Finally all moved in. #NewChapter #FarmLife #EastCoast
Kathryn Dennis
Kathryn Dennis: Have you ever taken selfies on an airplane? #awkwardAF
Main Photo Credit: Instagram


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Today was standardized testing in school today, specifically math and science. We had to also fill out a student questionnaire. The first half were computer related, the second was courses (Do you take algebra, or algebra II?)
Two questions bothered me: "How many days a week do you use the computer?" as well as "How many hours a week do you use the computer?". Both of them I went over the highest answer.
The first's answer was "Nearly every day", which is wayy off for me, I'd say be 360 days a year (I might miss a day here-or-there). Is that too much? I can justify it because I do use it for schoolwork every day too...
However, I'd guess 30 hours per week is put in. FireFox's TimeTracker extension shows I was using the web for about 1/2 the time from the time I got home to now. But today, I've also read all my RSS feeds (In Liferea, so that isn't in the count). I've also worked on my book in Abiword, and ate dinner. So I'd guess for the 3 hours I've been home, I used 1:30 on FireFox, and another 40 minutes elsewhere. And its only 5:00! Thats a little more than 4 hours a day, and about 30 hours a week! (Weekends have much more computer time).
So, what have we learned? Well that Zach was unimaginative today, and was forced to blog about his computer usage. I was going to blog about an annoying speech I had to listen to today, but it would come out like the whole thing, even though some parts aren't that bad.
By the way, with all interruptions, this post took over 1 hour to write!
Wednesday, May 16
Is 30 Hours Too Much?
Posted by Zach at 4:40 PM
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Teddy Roosevelt, not Teddy Kennedy!!!!!!!
We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a pollyglot [sic] boarding house; and we have room for but one, soul [sic] loyalty, and that loyalty is to the American people. Source: Quotes and Notes, US History, Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Richard Hurd, January 3, 1919
Shame on Harry Reid and the rest of the social pundits for their comments and positions on American culture, values, and ethics. Our America is being corrupted by the socialist values of the new age leftists. On English being our national language, Social Democrats said........
the proposal would curtail rights established by an executive order President Clinton issued to extend language assistance to individuals not proficient in English. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada went further. "I really believe this amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish." It should be noted that at the end of the day, the proposal passed, 58-39, leaving the outcome of the symbolic debate uncertain. Source Fox News: Habla Ingles? Senate votes on U.S. languageThis is what you get when metro males take over and subvert our America culture.
Other stories from Fox News regarding Borders, Language, and Culture:
- Mexico, Latin American Nations Slam U.S. Border Fence Proposal
- Bush Continues Push for 'Fair and Effective' Immigration Laws
- Report: Border Patrol Demoralized by Lack of Smuggling Prosecutions
- Spanish Version of 'Star-Spangled Banner' Draws Protests
- Bush: National Anthem Should Be Sung in English
- Bush Requests $1.9B to Increase Border Security
- Hundreds of Pro-Immigrant Advocates Lobby Congress
- Bush Defends Border Security Proposal
- Raw Data: Comparison of House, Senate Immigration Bills


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1/10 Crawler Scale 8-in-1 Accessory Combo Kit by Yeah Racing
Check Store Availability
Please be aware that pricing and product availability in-store may vary from what's available online because each store is independently owned and operated.
Yeah Racing
This item is discontinued and no longer available for purchase. You may want to search our site for a similar item.
|Low Price:
Discontinued Online
This Yeah Racing Crawler Accessory Pack includes eight different packages of crawler body accessories in one combo. In total, this package includes the fuel tank, mirrors, tools set, narrow roof light bar, bucket light set, roof mounted light bar and fan set; all in chrome/silver finish.
- YEA-YA-0243SV: Body Accessories - Tools
- YEA-YA-0244SV: Body Accessories - Fuel Tank
- YEA-YA-0245SV: Body Accessories - Rear Mirror
- YEA-YA-0246SV: Body Accessories - Narrow Roof Light Bar
- YEA-YA-0247SV: Body Accessories - Roof Bar
- YEA-YA-0248SV: Body Accessories - Truck Light Set
- YEA-YA-0249SV: Body Accessories - Roof Mounted Light Bar
- YEA-YA-0250SV: Body Accessories - Plastic Silver Fan
This product was added to our catalog on April 8, 2016.


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Hadas Nahon and myself have been working on a project for a couple of months last year, with the intention of building a generic UI for "throwing stuff on a page and sharing it." It runs without plugins in any modern browser. Due to previous commitments (and family-related considerations) we've never had the chance to really finish the project, so I decided to release it as it is. It's running at PopSimple.com and the full source is at github for your forking leisure.
Current features
- Content tools – allow you to place content on the page:
- Rich text
- Images
- Videos
- Maps
- and even drawings (as far as your mouse-based artistic talents can take you)
- Free-form: rotate, scale and drag content on the worksheet to visually arrange your content
- Share an editable link or a read-only "view" link to the page you created
A few technical details about the nature of the project follow.
How to write a big fat rich web client?
Did I mention it runs on Google App Engine (GAE)? There are only two things we need the app engine for: saving and loading pages. Everything else the application does is completely browser based. We have some conclusions about the pros and cons of GAE, but I'll leave that for another time. The main reason we use GAE is because it made deploying our site much easier (and it was free).
For a nicer-than-metal interface to GAE we use Twig, a nifty library that provides an object-level persistence API to the app engine data store.
Modern browsers, please
We decided to assume that the browser you're using is fairly modern – taking advantage of CSS3 and even a teeny bit of HTML5 (for the drawing tool – uses a canvas, and for dropping image files onto the worksheet).
Other stuff
Some of the cooler implementation details include a framework for chaining asynchronous functions (a la "futures" or "promises" or the new async/await C# features). We use those for running stuff after dynamically loading some javascript libraries (such as google maps) while avoiding "callback hell". Also we've made use of Mapstraction – a library that abstracts away web-based maps APIs and wraps them nicely (we make use of Google, Microsoft and OpenLayers via a single API).
I hope to blog again about how we built PopSimple, I'm trying to decide which of the problems we tackled could be interesting to write about.
Check it out!
The project is up & running at PopSimple.com – so check it out! We'd love to know what you think. You can even open issues on the github issues page for the project if you feel like it.


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Tuesday, March 03, 2015
Four Thoughts
(1) Some things that are morally permissible are nonetheless morally risky.
(2) Enduring difficulty is itself a human excellence.
(3) We should restrain ourselves even when dealing with good and innocent pleasures.
(4) Exchanges should be done in such a way that all parties to the exchange benefit in some way.
The sharp eye might note the connection to the cardinal virtues. What are some ethical ideas that you think should be taken more seriously?
8 comments:
- Rob9:37 AM
I like your first one. It's a head-scratcher to me that Pieper skips over Caution and Circumspection in his book on the cardinal virtues. Also a nice connection to your third.ReplyDelete
Since I'm still hip-deep in Pieper at this point of the semester, I'll add:
How giving what is not strictly due makes us more just (affability, liberality).
Anger as both pre-rational and as good.
- Chris5:35 PM
Are you sure #1 and #2 shouldn't be switched?ReplyDelete
I would think #1 falls more in the category of prudence. In other words, even though we are engaging in something morally permissible, we should be prudent due to the risk that a moral wrong could be committed.
#2 seems like courage to me, in that courage is necessary to endure difficulty.
I could be wrong - I can't say I have more than cursory knowledge of Virtue Ethics.
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Monday, 19 October 2015
Being a Domestic Goddess is Hard Work - and final photos from Ynyslas
Starting the Pontack Sauce. I was half asleep and didn't read the recipe to the end, and had put the ginger and spices in a muslin square. Recipe says to put in loose and strain off later, so did that.
Slicing shallots made my eyes water!
I had bought a big box of English eating apples for £3, and try as I might, I was losing the battle to eat my way through them before they got over-ripe, so I turned a good few pounds into Country Mincemeat (recipes later).
The two books in use last week. The Farmhouse Fare one I bought back in the 70s and it is the book I probably use most for all sorts of baking and preserves.
Cook's treat!
10 days' crochet and the round cushion cover is finished. However, I bought a down-filled cushion which although it is 16" width, is DEEP and so I need to try and extend behind and beyond the pretty frill. I am still unhappy about the middle - which the instructions didn't help and when I do another one I shall do it to a different starter instruction.
A quick loaf of bread was bunged in the bread-maker (including lots of mixed seeds and some tasty oat and bran flour. This loaf says everything about what I dislike about machine-made loaves - sides cooked more than the top, and I like a good crust. When I am not so busy I bring it up to dough and then prove again outside and cook in the oven.
The finished sauce. I am going to make another batch with the elderberries I have in the freezer and cook it all up again to fill the jars completely.
Sock wool on the winder now. I bought this in Hay last year I think it was. Now I need to relearn sock knitting on 4 needles as I've not done any for several years.
Some cheap fat quarters from the car boot sale yesterday. Christmas projects in mind, and the little sprigged piece for the 70s hexagon quilt.
Back to Ynyslas now. Sea and some rafts of clouds overhead.
The soft pastel colours of Aberdovey across the estuary.
Remains of beach machinery - use unknown. I could only think it may have been for reeling in Seine nets when fishing?
A wind-ruffled crow. Other birds were far out on the sands and U.F.O.s.
Aberdovey again.
Looking back towards Ynys-Hir, where the RSPB Nature Reserve is.
One last look across to the Lleyn peninsula. We will be back.
17 comments:
Well as a 'domestic goddess' hope you had a Nigella Lawson outfit on! I see you have got a 'swift' (may have completely wrong word there) anyway a winder for wool, are they any good? Bought a Xmas magazine yesterday but find suppliers for bits and bobs are a bit thin on the ground here, also have a hankering for TK Max and its pottery, pots and pans....ReplyDelete
The wool winder is one I inherited from Annie (along with a smaller one which needs mending). It has made SUCH a difference to wool-winding - I can remember mum having skeins around the backs of two chairs! I expect shopping is different where you are. We have a splendid TK-Maxx in town but I still have to go to Swansea if I want any fabric (or buy it on-line). Monday is a shut day for both small wool shops locally so I ordered some on line this morning, and am doing more of my shopping this way - as are so many I am sure.ReplyDelete
Oh Goddess I salute you. I could almost smell the kitchen. I could not fine any elderberries this year, but my pantry is groaning with preserves, I keep eyeing up the rosehips and then scurrying past muttering , next year to myself. I gave my breadmaker away and now make my bread by hand, unless it is a sticky dough and then it goes in the stand mixer.I got fed up with the inconsistency. Love the wool winder, I used to use my husbands hands but have not bought skeins of yarn for a long time.ReplyDelete
Thank you Pam. Sometimes I can get it together. The place looks like a bomb has hit it but there are some nice edibles . . . I have only made Rosehip Syrup a couple of times, and would love to do it again, but I have restricted myself to just making what is necessary rather than what I would like to make. Sock yarn now wound and first socky stitches cast on . . .ReplyDelete
Lovely making in the kitchen and elsewhere. I so love our beaches now , making the most of this bright weather..lovely picsReplyDelete
The wool is beautiful and I can't wait to see the socks. Breathtaking scenery XReplyDelete
Dotty's Daughter - I have just come on line to see How to Proceed with my socky toe (crocheted one), having got the basic bit right now (had to see a tutorial on Youtube to show me properly). The beaches are wonderful at the moment and I'd be down there every day if I wasn't busy!ReplyDelete
Rachel - I went blog-hopping this morning and found a "stash enhancement" that someone had bought at Yarndale. Oh, I was envious! I've wound that sock wool into a ball now, and cast on a knitted sock. Fabulous scenery - I would love to go back soon.
I love the machinery in the sand photo. The whole place looks beautiful.ReplyDelete
I wonder if any of those houses up above Aberdovey are up for sale - what a fantastic view they must have.ReplyDelete
I'm like Pam and every year I say that next year I really will make Rose hip syrup.... still waiting for the right next year!
Suzie - I'd love to know what it was for. Any suggestions?ReplyDelete
Sue - what a fab view eh? I would LOVE to live by the sea, but living there wouldn't be too practical for getting to either Sheffield (and possibly Bristol and/or Brighton for other children). Good for my lungs though . . .
There you go Sue: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34620674.htmlReplyDelete
SOme seriously tempting looking food on display there! As ever, my cackhandedness makes me the envy of the incapable of cooking societyReplyDelete
All the photos are great especialy the cooking ones but I like the last one the best.ReplyDelete
A lady with the gud dug on the beach ! Wonderful.
cheers, parsnip
Simon - good cooking is just practice. Honestly.ReplyDelete
parsnip - great place for walking dogs, and I have a friend who boxes her horse down to ride on the beach (DEEP envy here!)
Your sauce looks great.ReplyDelete
We are like you and eating and cooking apples. I am getting fed up with peeling them and am running out of recipes to use. Your mincemeat sounds lovely.
I love your standard lamp, I am looking for a vintage one for knitting in the evening. Why when you would like something to they go up in price.
Fondly Michelle
It all brings back such lovely memories BB - thanks for that.ReplyDelete
Michelle - we've had that old lamp many years - I think it may have been my husband's mum's originally. I will post up the Mincemeat recipe in my side bar, and add some apple cake recipes for you to try.ReplyDelete
Pat - I would say it hasn't changed at all. Still magical.


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I Want To Go Back To The Time When...
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly."
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening.
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
Being old, referred to anyone over 20.
The net on a tennis court was the perfect height to play volleyball andrules didn't matter.
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb.
It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a slingshot.
Nobody was prettier than Mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute ads for action figures.
No shopping trip was complete, unless a new toy was brought home.
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
War was a card game.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.
- Author Unknown
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
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I use it in all my homemade cleaners. I keep a spray bottle of 1:1 water & vinegar on the counter for spraying down the table and counters. It's efficient and more importantly, it's safe for my family to breathe. Not that it smells great, but it's safe.
I had a bit of a mishap with steel cut oats the other night. I'm not sure why, but the bottom burned on, badly.
I scraped, scrubbed, soaked. I tried my go-to for stainless steel pots and pans - salt. Nothing. I tried baking soda and vinegar. I let it bubble and sit overnight. Nothing. I tried lime juice. (I didn't have any lemon on hand.) Nothing. I was seriously ready to give up.
{this is how it looked, only covering the entire bottom. Thick, black, crusty, burnt!}
Then I googled. (Why didn't I do that first??) I came up with this site and decided to try boiling 1:1 water and vinegar. While it heated I scraped the pot with a wooden spoon. And guess what. The burnt bits started chipping off! The photo above is how it looked after heating (I didn't really bring it to a boil) and scraping for 5-10 minutes. I had to go so I decided to let it sit then finish later.
Tonight I dumped it and added new water and vinegar and finished it up! It looks good as new! I couldn't be happier with the result!
What amazing things do you do with vinegar?


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Like setting the VCR clock, most of us are lazy. It takes time to seek out show to record when it is much easier to just search and watch as we please. And as more content is available through streaming and on demand, DVR use seems to be declining. According to yesterday's Mediapost article, "time-shifted viewing (DVR) declines are at the lowest level in three years." As more and more content is at our fingertips, it makes sense. Our need for immediacy makes on demand and streaming a more compelling option.
To be a DVR user, one must be proactive. You must actively seek out future times for a show of interest and tell the cable box to record and save it, either as one show or the whole series. Most don't plan their TV viewing like that anymore, especially millennials. Instead, we go to our app to stream content or our cable box to access the content via on demand with the intent to watch immediately. Now that we find ourselves with content everywhere, we simply need to get it to watch it.
But as a TV viewer who despises most commercials on live TV, the DVR offers one advantage over on demand and some streaming. I can control the trick features, fast forwarding through ads to get back to the content. On demand tends to restrict those trick features forcing ads to be shown as we wait for our program to resume. As a DVR user, I am in the minority, but I do love the added control.
One final point on ads. A newly discover network by me is Buzzr. It has acquired the old black and white game shows that GSN once aired. Shows like I've Got A Secret, What's My Line, and To Tell The Truth. Even better, Buzzr plays the b&w ads that played with these shows. Ads like Cool Whip and Toni put a smile on my face. I DVR these shows and don't fast forward through those ads.


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the good peeps here in pdx took couple hour drive to the coast for my celebration of three decades where it was fully stunning. hotels on the water, casino across the parking lot. we killed it at fun and knowing when to hold em and when to fold em. thanks all. 30s been super fantastic so far.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
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I think that knitting is a lovely hobby except sometimes it gets kind of lonely. Let's face it — it's a solitary activity. I don't need my husband to count stitches with me or my friends to decide what colour to use next. And for the most part, people who don't knit themselves, don't care about knitting at all. So, I decided to start a new knitting group to hang out with other local knitters in the library. I have been to many knitting groups around the city, and all of them have their charm and special atmosphere but I figured that adding one more couldn't hurt.
Knitting Night
Every 2nd and 4th Wednesday
(this month — September 10th and 24th)
7:15pm – 8:30pm
Program Room at Captain William Spry Public Library
This group will be open to all crafters — just bring your projects along. There is no need to sign up, it's "drop-in" and free. Thanks to people who donated yarn, we will have a "community yarn stash" and needles that will be available to the group members. This might be interesting for people who knit for charity, new knitters or those who want to start knitting again but hesitant to invest in yarn and tools. Actually, anyone who is not knitting because yarn is not a priority on their budget is welcome to dig into this stash. And if someone needs a place to donate the yarn they "fell out of love" with, we would gladly accept it. (Provided the yarn is clean, not scratchy and doesn't smell funny.)
If there is interest, I would like to start informal peer-to-peer tutorials about different techniques — tips and tricks that we learned over years and want to share with others. It also might help with the socializing, topics like "How to join yarn invisibly", "My favourite cast-on method", or "Frogging vs Tinking" can be good conversation starters. I personally love "Show and Share" thingie, when we can bring our finished objects and brag (or complain) about them. If someone struggles with the pattern or a project that became a hot mess, maybe someone in the group could help out.
Also, we could use library resources for printing out patterns, looking up techniques on youtube, or even borrowing knitting books. I also have a few donated books with vintage patterns — some people might like them. We are allowed to bring snacks, so maybe we could have some food there, too.
If some of the members would like to knit for charity, we could take a closer look at the Spryfield community — non-profits, schools, and churches in the neighbourhood that need hats, scarves, mittens or any other items.
If you know someone, who could be interested, please share this information with them. I would really appreciate your feedback, whether you plan to come or not. Do you attend any knitting groups and if so, what do you like about them the most?


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View East from Masonic Avenue
And to the West from Masonic Avenue
Sometimes it's a relief to step back and get a different perspective. Take, for example, the Panhandle Park and its multiple-use path on the north side and the walking/jogging trail on the south side. Both need better design and maintenance, and the intersections with Masonic Avenue remain risky for bicyclists and pedestrians. But step back from the congestion -- and mud -- of the paths and take a look at the center of the Panhandle, an open urban oasis. Walk along Masonic between Fell and Oak Streets and gaze in either direction. Notice that fewer 100 year old trees are in the center of the park.
Originally the Panhandle served as the promenade entrance to Golden Gate Park with a carriage road meandering down the middle of the long strip of terrain extending from Baker Street to Stanyan Street. Three quarters of a mile long and a block wide, the Panhandle was first referred to as the "avenue of approach." In a "Park History" , an 1870 map refers to "Golden Gate Park and Avenue." The configuration of a roadway down the middle of the Panhandle continued until about 1940 when the roadway was removed for open space.
From 1870 to 1940 a carriage roadway meandered through the center of the Panhandle
After 1940 the Panhandle no longer featured a roadway
A consideration: how well did the Panhandle's "avenue of approach" handle both carriages and bicycles, especially during the bicycle craze of the 1890s? And how did bicyclists and pedestrians fare in later years as the automobile began to dominate city streets and roads? Or don't go there at all and just appreciate the beauty of our "neighborhood park."


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By Daily Mail Reporter
New look: A newly redhead Charlotte Church at a charity gig in Powys, Wales over the weekend, where the alleged incident took place
Charlotte Church has reached a new low after she was apparently videoed in a drunken clinch with boyfriend Jonathan Powell.
In the video, it seems the 25-year-old newly-redhead singer is leaning against the side of a van with a man, who looks like Powell, leaning on top of her as the pair enjoy a racy tryst.
After their encounter, which took place at around 10pm on Saturday night, the woman is seen with her knickers around her ankles as she is led back to the party.
Fellow guest Jim Davies told The Sun: 'I couldn't believe it. She clearly had no shame. The pair started getting amorous like teenagers - until someone came past.
'She was so drunk she couldn't even pull her knickers up. She almost fell over.'
Saturday night's clinch came after mother-of-two Charlotte performed the Welsh national anthem at the party at Glanusk Park, Powys, in aid of a children's hospital the Voice of an Angel is patron of.
Charlotte, who also unveiled her new bright red hair over the weekend, is no stranger to embarrassing herself while drunk.
Before she had her children, three-year-old Ruby and Dexter, two, with ex-fiancé Gavin Henson, Charlotte said in an interview she loved getting drunk on nights out.
Tryst: In the video, it looks like Charlotte and Powell, seen last month, are enjoying a passionate clinch
She said: 'I can sink 'em! If I'm home, I'll start with a Cheeky Vimto - double port and a bottle of WKD Blue in the same glass. It tastes just like Vimto or Ribena. They're lethal.
'Once I'm out, I'll have about 10 double vodkas. Then I'm pretty much KO'ed. But if I'm in London, the club owners give me loads of bottles of free champagne. I hate champagne. I still drink it though.'
However, Charlotte then added: 'I don't actually like alcohol. If I'm having a meal I'll have a lemonade.
'The only time I drink is to get p***ed and dance like a crazy woman.'
Charlotte has been dating singer-songwriter Jonathan since they met while working on her most recent album Back To Scratch last summer.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Embarrassment for Charlotte Church as video emerges of her 'with underwear round ankles after drunken tryst with boyfriend'
Labels: Charlotte Church
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part native American, Harrison was born in rural northern Michigan, where he still lives on a farm. He reached national critical attention and readership with Legends of the Fall ...
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I can't put down Claire Tomalin's biography of Charles Dickens. I feel as if I am living in the nineteenth century, an observer of the writer's life, perhaps a servant or maybe a butcher's boy who calls with the chops and sausages and is astonished by his energy and sometimes alarmed by his mania.
For make no mistake, Dickens was a man of phenomenal energy and life-force. His constitution must have been magically strong. Charisma is too small a word to encompass him.
The beauty of this biography is that Tomalin's shows him warts and all yet indicates that the warts were, perhaps, an essential part of his towering, monumental personality. In fact there were more than warts, there were huge failings as a human being. Yet, I am reminded of the fact that we are dealing with a man who was born almost two hundred years ago and that some of these faults would not have needed to surface in the way they did in another era.
As I read with mounting distress the harsh way he treated his wife Catherine and his young lover Nelly I thought for a moment, why doesn't he just marry the girl? But he couldn't. Divorce was not an option, especially not for a man who did so much to create the notion of the happy family enjoying the Christmas turkey.
My favourite part of the book so far takes place when Dickens was in the midst of his marital break-up, a break-up considered so terrible that many long-time friends deserted him. He was starting a new weekly magazine and insisted that it be called 'Household Harmony.' His best friend Forster suggested that such a title would raise a few eyebrows. Isn't it delicious that the great spinner of words could not see what a terrible error of judgement such a title would have proved. In the end, Forster's arguments prevailed and the magazine was called 'All the Year Round.'


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"Aunt Eliza had brought Ma a large red apple stuck full of cloves. How good it smelled! And it would not spoil, for so many cloves would keep it sound and sweet." Little House In The Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House In The Big Woods is my most favorite of the Little House books. I love the descriptions given of daily pioneer life. Clove apples are a very simple craft to make with children. They don't have to make a pattern at all, but some will want to and they smell wonderful! They also taste very good too (after cloves have been removed). I found a small bottle of cloves for little more than a dollar at the local store, though they can be quite costly--I had to shop around. The number of cloves per child can be limited if necessary. Handi-wipes would be good to have on hand since the fruit is very juicy.
Press the sharp point of each clove into the apple. Push it in until only the head of the clove shows. you may need a toothpick to help you get started. Continue until the whole apple is covered with cloves, (you can limit the amount of cloves if necessary). To display your apple, place it on a dish or in a bowl out of direct sunlight. You can also make clove oranges and clove lemons the same way you make clove apples. These taste great in hot cider! (instructions from My Little House Party Crafts Book, ISBN 0439060052)
Our family hosted a Library Story Time and we did this fun craft. To see the lesson plan go to my Christmas Traditions, part 3 post.


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QUECHEE, Vt. -- Led by a 1-under-par 71 from J.P. Raftery and an even-par 72 from Connor O'Brien, the Bucknell men's golf team shot 293 on Saturday and is in fifth place in a field of 14 teams at the halfway mark of the Quechee Club Collegiate Challenge, hosted by Dartmouth. The Bison also counted a 74 from Chris Tanabe and a 76 from Peter Bradbeer, and they sit eight strokes behind co-leaders Cornell and Harvard heading into Sunday's final round.
The Big Red and Crimson both opened with 285, followed by Princeton at 289 and Central Connecticut at 290. Bucknell is one shot in front of sixth-place Drexel and three ahead of host Dartmouth.
Raftery was one of 13 players in red numbers on Saturday. He made birdies at holes 5, 6, 14 and 15 to offset three bogeys on his card. Raftery was 3-under through 15 holes before bogeying 16 and 18. He is currently in a 10-way tied for fourth place, just one stroke back of Central Connecticut's Joseph Tucker and Harvard's Greg Royston and Ryan Rhee, all at -2.
O'Brien had four birdies and 11 pars on the day, with his only major blemish a double-bogey on the par-5 14th hole. He finished with a birdie at No. 18 to pull back to even par and sits just two shots off the lead.
Tanabe had two birdies, 12 pars, and nothing worse than bogey in his round. Bradbeer endured a roller-coaster day with only six pars in his 76. He notched three birdies and the team's lone eagle of the day, coming on No. 14.
Also playing well was Ashton Radvansky, who was entered as an individual. Radvansky shot 74 but was 2-under through 15 before a tough final three holes.
The tournament concludes with 18 holes starting Sunday morning.


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Purple and yellow go very well together, and they certainly do on these diamond and butterfly designs. Here you will find wedding invitations, save the date stickers, and postage stamps. You'll also find links to other matching and coordinating items.
On most items, there is a diamond shaped border, along with a pair of butterflies, done in the same blended purple and yellow design. Most designs are also printed on a pale yellow background.
Any of the text can be easily customized on the template forms.
This invitation is two sided and comes in a choice of card stock, and also card shapes. You can select from different edge designs.
The Save the date stickers are printed with just the butterflies, with placeholders for your names and wedding date.
The postage stamps come in different sizes. They are on the large side to begin with, to allow room for the Zazzle logo. They can be easily customized with your own message.
View all the yellow purple butterfly designs that are ready for order. Do let me know of any product requests that you have, and I'll be glad to design it for you. You can let me know in the comment section below, or email me at email@example.com.
Cheryl Paton
CherylsArt at Zazzle
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Purple and Yellow Butterflies Wedding Invitations Set
Posted by Cheryl Paton at 9:41 AM
Labels: butterflies, butterfly wedding invitations, purple and yellow wedding invitations, purple and yellow wedding invites, wedding invitations, wedding invites, wedding sets, yellow and purple
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Was £60.00 Now £28.00
Size RangevariationSizeVariation_9
Regular 59
Safer sun time - in style!
Whether you're planning on surfing or chilling at the beach this summer, you'll be perfectly covered in our long sleeve rash guard. It's the most stylish way to protect your skin from the sun's harmful rays without worry; so you can concentrate on building sandcastles with the kids - or relaxing with a good book if you get half the chance. We can but dream!
- Long sleeve rash guard offers UPF50 protection
- Slim fit is designed to fit close to your body
- Fastens with a centre-back zip
- Vibrant colour block design
- 80%nylon/20% elastane, hand wash
Product Reviews


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If you think white working class guys in Ohio are lining up to vote for the "plutocrat married to a known equestrian," you are quite mistaken. Ask them who is better on the economy and they will tell you 'Obama.' This is evidence that the GOP is no longer a national party.More and more I find myself believing the Republican Party is dying. They have lost too many moderates, too many sane conservatives, and are now left with the rabid, extreme right wackos who have not a clue on how to be a professional, rational political party.
Whether you are Democrat or Republican, Progressive or Conservative, the bottom line in being a successful political party is realizing that you have to be competent, intelligent leaders that know how to run a country. It is in this manner that one derives power organically. But to run a political party simply for the power without regard to competent leadership means the eventual death of the party.
I am not a believer in "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." That being said, I do believe seeking power for the sake of having power does corrupt. I want a leader who's reason for running is because he believes he can do a good job. Mitt Romney is obviously not running because he believes he can do a good job. He has not shown that he believes he is a competent leader. He is running because he believes he is entitled to be President. Nothing more, nothing less.
So too the Republican party in general. They no longer present themselves with the belief of their competence at leadership. They simple believe they are entitled to be the political party in charge. And towards that end they created propaganda machines in the forms of Right Wing Talk Radio and Fox News. Not to disseminate truth, but to simply use lies and distortions to convince intellectually lazy people that the Republican/Conservative party is the party of leadership when in actuality they are incompetent.
The Republican Party was doomed the moment the Iron Curtain collapsed. Do you really think it is simple ignorance that drives Romney to embrace the concept of another cold war with Russia? No. The people desperate for power who now advise Romney are from a time of conservative dominance in our government. The stand against Communist Russia was all consuming. It's collapse meant the removal of conservatism's claim on leadership. It's reason for existing collapsed. With the co-option of the Republican party by the extreme conservatives, it's collapse was inevitable.


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In theory it was a good idea.
I just had to find the courage to make it.
I'm glad I went with my gut instincts. Here's one of the two books I made.
I kept the front simple, with details coming from the sash of satin organza ribbon across with the bow and little red roses hanging from skinny white satin ribbons with silver details on the side. I used chiffon with silver dots throughout the book to add sparkle and glitter.
Book/Album when opened and displayed
I used the red roses on ribbons at the side as accents and they add colour as well as pick out the bouquet of red roses the bride has. Took me several hours just to put those roses on. In total for the three books I used almost 80 roses.
The pictures are recessed so even when shut they do not touch each other and are not glued down. The only thing that's holding them in place are the ribbons at the corners. That way they can choose to move the pictures around or change it for a different set of images.
The landscape version is the same as well, only when you stretch it all out, they better have enough table space for it.
All in all, the client and husband was blown away when I presented the books. She was so happy I got an extra tight hug from her when she was saying thank you. The books have flown off to Europe as Christmas presents for the wedding couple, and I hope that they feel the same way as their parents did when I presented them the books.


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This week's stamping 411 sketch is pretty simple! I took some liberties to fit the stamps I wanted to work with. I really love to watercolor. I used a watercolor "wash" method, to do the background.. This was completely water colored with markers and a water brush.. I'll be doing this card, this week for a workshop on water coloring.
Have a great weekend! If you have time to play along, check out the 411 blog and post a link to your card, if not please visit my girlfriends and see their amazing creations. You'll be glad you did!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Sketch Challenge 116 from the 411
Labels: stamping411
6 comments:
- Robin Merriman said...
So lovely and sweet - I love it!
- September 11, 2009 at 10:46 PM
- gbarron56 said...
Hi friend! This card is so sweet and soft -- just lovely! Blessings, Gretchen
- September 12, 2009 at 12:26 AM
- Hi, I'm Lee Conrey! said...
You're watercoloring is outstanding. I love it. Thsi really is a sweet card....you can tell you hve a daughter. So much of what you do is soft and pretty.
- September 12, 2009 at 11:36 AM
- Lisa Kmiec said...
Very pretty card. I love the colors. They are so feminine.
- September 12, 2009 at 11:28 PM
- Connie said...
Love the soft colors in your card, Selene...beautiful!
- September 12, 2009 at 11:52 PM
- Tiffany Bauer said...
This is just sooooo sweet!! Great job watercoloring!! That is one area I am not so good at!!
- September 15, 2009 at 11:38 AM
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I am in town Sunday Night to Friday AM (next week), staying at the Palliser in Calgary and going to be working out of Banker's Plaza during the day. Looking for rec's for lunch and dinner, both where I and a business partner can walk in and walk to (figure 6 block max, as I am Vancouver and a pansy if it really cold).
We are both adventurous, and last time in Calgary spent every night at Charcut, which was great but would love to mix it up a bit.
For me it is all about the food and menu, wine list and bar are nice but since it is business, and I have to work the evenings I can't really partake.
Of note, I recognize one of the days is Valentine's so want to avoid the hassle of waiting two hours for service that night.
I look forward to all of your advice.


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|Let's Party!
2015 is WPA's 20th Anniversary and we are having a party to celebrate twenty years of members supporting each other as artists both in Austin and across the country. The party is planned for the evening of Saturday, November 7th from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Bone Black Studio.
The party is open to WPA members and supporters!
Please RSVP by logging in and clicking participate if you are a member or by calling 512-239-8662 if you are a supporter so that we can have enough food and beverages for everyone! If you plan to bring guests, let us know!Silent Auction
WPA will also be having a silent auction during the party. Come ready to bid on prints, art supplies, and other unique items. Let's start a biding war!
Thank you so much for your support and membership for the past 20 years and we will see you at the party!
Like with most events we will need a little help to pull this together.
Set-up and Take Down Volunteers
We need help with decorating before the party and clean up afterwards.
We will also need food and drinks. Please let us know what you plan to bring so that we can have a good mix of main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and beverages by clicking on what you plan to bring under the volunteer area to the right. If everyone contributes something we can make this a great party for all with a delicious variety of treats.
Silent Auction
You can also support WPA by donating a print, new or gently used art supplies basket, or another unique item or service to the silent auction. All proceeds from the auction will go to support WPA in the coming year as we work to provide you with services and opportunities that support our artists. If you plan to donate an item to the auction please let us know by clicking on a silent auction slot in the volunteer positions. Then just bring the item to the studio before the party begins. If you want to donate but can't attend the party we can make arrangements for you to drop the item off at the studio at an earlier time.
Thank you for all your support!
How do I sign up for this WPA Event?
The deadline to signup has passed. Deadline for Entry: 11/7/2015.
How do I volunteer?Volunteers recieve discounts to some WPA events. After you have logged in to the WPA website, volunteer positions will appear in the "Volunteer Positions" section on the right of this screen. Click on one of the open checkboxes to the left of the position name.
How do I modify my volunteer position(s)?After you have logged in to the WPA website you can click either the "Volunteers" tab at the top of this screen or the "View/Manage" button located at the bottom of the volunteer position box on the right of this screen. To remove yourself click the trashcan icon to the right of your name.
WPA Event Details
WPA Studio
Chair: Angela Hayes
Event Deadline
The deadline for this event (11/7/2015) has passed.


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This past week for fhe we went to the lake with skyler's brothers! It was a lot of fun! The sun had pretty much gone down so it was starting to get chilly, especially when the boat was going so Nate and I were bundled up in sweatshirts as the boys wake-boarded in 60 degree water...CRAZY! The water was pure glass so they couldnt help themselves! They had to suck it up and get in! We were the only boat out there so we had the whole lake to ourselves! It was nice! Needless to say they have been to the lake 4 or 5 times this year already!
Justin doing a back flip
Skyler attempting the 360


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Roger Noyes, guitarist for the local jazz group, The Arch Stanton Quartet, is heading to Egypt with his band in an educational effort later this month. The band also has a show at the Beat Shop on Saturday from 1-3 p.m. The band will be playing songs from their new album, "Along for the Ride," which can be purchased at www.archstantonjazz.com.
Q What's bringing you to Egypt?
A Our former drummer, Jim Ketterer, heads an education organization there. Jim approached us several months ago about doing a cultural tour of Egypt cosponsored by his organization, AMIDEAST/Egypt, as well as the U.S. Embassy and the American University in Cairo, which are all making this trip possible. We'll be performing at the Cairo International Jazz Festival, at local schools, in university music workshops, and in Alexandria.
Q Have you ever gone overseas for a show before?
A The band hasn't as a group, but we've all played throughout the U.S. and internationally. Terry Gordon, our trumpeter, has played the Montreal Jazz Festival; I have played festival and club dates in China during a term abroad 15 years ago; Chris Macchia, our bassist, has toured the Virgin Islands several times; and Steven Partyka, our drummer, has toured extensively throughout the U.S.
Q Now, this isn't the first time jazz has been brought to Egypt, correct?
A Correct. In fact, this trip is inspired by international tours in the 1950s and 1960s by jazz icons like Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong, who performed in Egypt. The State Department sponsored those tours to expose other nations to American jazz music. The U.S. government saw jazz performance as an opportunity to project cultural qualities like artistic leadership, freedom of expression, and Democratic ideals. This all occurred in the context of the Cold War and the American Civil Rights movement, mind you, and held various strategic purposes for the government and for the musicians themselves. Certainly now is a much different time with different international factors at play. But, as you know, Egypt is in the midst of major political changes of its own. At this critical moment in Egyptian political life, we hope to bring some glimmer of the vital cultural exchange that occurred in those tours from a bygone era.
Q What do you hope people in Egypt will take away from your trip?
A Jazz music has splintered into so many different forms and subgenres that I am not sure many Americans, even, have a grasp of what jazz is anymore; so, the landscape has changed both politically and musically. Our hope is to show Egyptians that, regardless of the specific political questions at play in their country, we all share common aspirations, talents and drives, no matter what we call our music or how we define the political questions of the day.
Q What are you most excited to see while you are over there?
A This is a short trip and we've built in a little bit of time to visit the pyramids and other attractions. These exciting landmarks obviously feature heavily in our collective imaginations. But I think the most exciting part of this experience will be to meet people from other cultural backgrounds who have a shared interest in music and to communicate on that level because this is something we all love to do every day of our lives.


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from a sales perspective:
Daily Sales Tip: Get An Annual Checkup
Just as you should regularly go to the doctor for a checkup, you need to get a sales checkup.
You need to see a videotape or listen to a recording of yourself that captures how you look and sound when you pitch. What's good enough for your golf swing goes double for how you make your living.
Even if you saw a tape of yourself 18 months ago, you've changed. And even if it's for the better, you need to know.
Source: Marketing consultant/author Michael Schrage


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Tropical Socks
I am finally getting around to posting some of the Christmas knitting! (Possibly the only Christmas knitting which is actually finished yet - but shhhhh, don't tell anyone that!)
These socks are for my brother's girlfriend, who spent two weeks with us in her first visit to the frozen north. When I was at her place this summer I was knitting a pair of socks and she dropped several broad hints about wanting some herself, so how could I refuse? I picked a yarn as bright and sunny as she is, and incredibly soft and warm.
I cannot deny having done some slight engineering and rearranging of the yarn so as to make the stripes line up exactly. More ends to work in, but it was worth it!


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We have no shortage of good banh mi around my office, but I wanted to try to re-create one of these delicious little sandwiches myself. A year or so ago, I found and amazing recipe for Thit Nuong (Vietnamese grilled pork) from gastronomyblog.com. I adapted it a bit, using pork tenderloin instead of pork butt and eliminated a few of the ingredients but realized it would be great for a banh mi filling. I was right 🙂 This meat can also be served over rice noodles with additional accompaniments (this was how it was used in the original blog post I found).
*please note, this is not an authentic banh mi recipe, just one I adapted to my taste buds.
Grilled Pork Banh Mi (serves 4-6)
For the meat:
2 lbs pork tenderloin, thinly sliced approximately 1/4 inch thick
1 large shallot, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup lemongrass, finely minced
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
For the mayo:
1/2 cup low-fat mayo
2 tablespoons sriracha (or to taste)
4-6 crusty bread rolls
julienned carrots
julienned diakon
julienned cucumbers
sliced jalapenos
1. Combine all meat ingredients from shallot through vegetable oil in a large non reactive bowl
2. Place pork in marinade mixture, coat well
3. Allow the meat to soak overnight (or for best results, 24 hours)
4. Thread pork onto bamboo skewers that have been soaked in water for 20 minutes
5. Bbq pork over medium high heat until caramelized and cooked through (about 3-5 minutes per side)
6. While the meat is cooking, heat rolls in a slightly warmed oven, about 200 degrees.
7. Remove pork from skewers and place in a large serving dish
8. Slice the rolls and spread about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the mayo on each roll
9. Add meat, and any of the accompaniments above


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VAT is becoming ever more popular among politicians aroung the World. Hardly surprising. Most people think it's the least damaging tax. I suppose the logic must be that less domestic consumption doesn't ultimately hurt production (that much).
From todays Telegraph:
"How Japan's massive VAT increase has crippled the economy
Japan's economy contracted sharply in the latest quarter after a sharp rise in sales tax from 5pc to 8pc in April led households and companies to cut spending"
This has lead to quarterly contraction of 1.7% GDP. While it's probably a little early to draw any firm conclusions regarding the effect of the VAT rise, things aren't looking too good so far.
So 3% VAT hike = 1.7% off GDP.
In the UK, VAT is 20%. How much is that off GDP? How much of the slightly-less-bad taxes (income tax and corporation tax) would we get from that missing GDP? Answer = about two-thirds as much as VAT currently raises.
As this report in the Economist makes clear, if there isn't a rebound in the third quarter, the next hike to 10% will be put on ice. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
VAT Shrink
VAT is becoming ever more popular among politicians aroung the World. Hardly surprising. Most people think it's the least damaging tax. I suppose the logic must be that less domestic consumption doesn't ultimately hurt production (that much).
My latest blogpost: VAT ShrinkTweet this! Posted by Ben Jamin' at 12:27
Labels: VAT
14 comments:
- Anonymous said...
You'd expect some increased purchases ahead of the VAT rise which would have boosted the first quarter figures so some decline would be normal in the 2ndQ. More worrying, industrial production is also trending lower in 2014. In Japan they now have a cost of living crisis by design, as a result of the Abenomics splurge.
Prices are meant to go up with wages lagging to increase profitability so as to spur investment. Investment has been increasing as a result but not as much yet as hoped for. The trade balance is still deeply negative and companies are less increasing investment than raising cash reserves. So far then it's been good for business, just not for most Japanese.
- 13 August 2014 at 13:57
- DBC Reed said...
@Pc156 Its understandable perhaps that the Japanese might try increasing prices by design when they have had decades of deflation.But we have n't and government policies are causing the same pile-up of corporate cash reserves.
- 13 August 2014 at 16:01
- Mark Wadsworth said...
Yup, VAT is the worst tax, for a multitude of reasons.
In the UK, the rule of thumb is that 1% VAT = 100,000 jobs lost.
If we scale up Japanese example, that seems about right, there are about 20 million real private sector jobs, add 10% to that (GCP grows by half the VAT cut) that's 2 million jobs.
- 13 August 2014 at 19:55
- Lola said...
I completely fail to understand why anyone thinks that taxing the exchanges in an exchange economy is a Good Thing. Unless they think that exchanges are a 'sin' and need to be taxed highly the discourage them.
I am truly baffled.
- 13 August 2014 at 22:11
- Ben Jamin' said...
@ Lola
It feeds in to our production good/consumption bad protestant work ethic assumptions.
I've got to admit, that's what I used to believe too.
Corp Tax being the worst and VAT being the least worst.
As for "property taxes", I always there was a logic to "taxing" them more, but dismissed it as a serious way of raising significant amounts of revenue.
So, Wrong, Wrong, and Wrong.
- 13 August 2014 at 22:28
- Kj said...
BJ: Good find. Unfortunately both conservatives in some camps seem to think this taxing consumption more, probably because of what you say, some libertarian types because it´s "less invasive" or whatever, and even the lefty greenies think it´s a good thing because "consumption" is bad as everyone knows.
- 13 August 2014 at 22:59
- Mark Wadsworth said...
Kj, that is the bit which annoys me most, this conspiracy between Faux Libertarians (who hate LVT and are desperately trying to think up a "less invasive" tax) and the hair shirt socialist Home-Owner-Ists (who have the same prejudices).
"Oh... if we have to tax something, let's tax, er, 'consumption'."
Basic maths says:
consumption = production.
People who refuse to accept this are saying "Cooking is good but eating is bad" or "Making films is good but going to the cinema is bad".
- 13 August 2014 at 23:39
- Derek said...
Of course the way to get around the
consumption = production
identity. is to tax the consumption of things that are not produced. So when discussing consumption taxes with those who love them, you can agree that a consumption tax would be a good idea for some things: things like land, radio frequencies, airport slots, etc. The usual Georgist sources in other words. Be prepared to get into discussions about elasticity though, as you will probably have to explain why you like consumption taxes on some things but not on others. You can see the details in one of Mark's earlier posts.
- 14 August 2014 at 06:17
- Mark Wadsworth said...
D, no no no. The Homeys have an app for that.
They simply deny that they are consuming anything. The land is physically unchanged.
So you ask them whether they lose something if squatters moved into their house, the Homeys say "Yes".
You point out to them in Homey terms that these squatters have not consumed anything, therefore the squatters have taken nothing away from the landowner.
Then they call you a Commie.
- 14 August 2014 at 08:00
- Mark Wadsworth said...
D, the price insensitivity argument alone is sufficient to justify LVT.
- 14 August 2014 at 08:01
- Bayard said...
"It feeds in to our production good/consumption bad protestant work ethic assumptions"
Don't forget the lie that VAT is a tax on luxuries (on the basis, I suppose, that food, houses and children's clothing are exempt).
- 14 August 2014 at 16:18
- Rich Tee said...
Sales tax is a popular tax with politicians because it is easy to collect, so I understand.
- 14 August 2014 at 17:57
- Mark Wadsworth said...
B, yes, that's another good lie. Actually, the exemption is mainly for land and finance related activities, with VAT exemption for books thrown in as a red herring.
RT, it's not that easy to collect, far more VAT is evaded than corp tax. But politically it is an easy sell for the reasons mentioned by others above.
- 14 August 2014 at 18:56
- Bayard said...
"VAT exemption for books thrown in as a red herring."
I think you are underestimating the influence of the publishing industry. Think of Bertelsmann.
- 15 August 2014 at 09:20


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Authors: D. Liepmann
Affilation: University of California-Berkeley, United States
Pages: 10 - 13
Keywords: complex fluid dynamics, BioMEMS, modeling, simulation
MEMS technologies promises to revolutionize health care by providing precise control of biological fluids for both diagnoses and treatments. For example, microneedles can be used for sample collection for biological analysis, delivery of cell or cellular extract based vaccines, and sample handling providing interconnection between the microscopic and macroscopic world. Microneedles may be used for low flow rate continuous drug delivery such as the continuous delivery of insulin to a diabetic patient. Microneedles are interesting from a design perspective no only because of their small size but because they provide a range of geometries and flow characteristics. This paper uses microneedle design as an example of the potential interaction between experiment and computation for the improved design of microfabricated microfluidic devices in general.<p>Previously, fluid flow in microneedles was studied experimentally. Here, we use computational modeling capabilities in concert with experimental results to optimize the design of medical microneedles and, thus, to shorten the whole design/fabrication cycle. We compare CFD simulations to analysis and experiments for flows in three microneedle geometries – straight, bent and filtered. The bent microneedle was found to have the hightest fluid carrying capacity of 0.082 m/sec at 138 kPa with a Reynolds number of 738. A microneedle with a built in microfilter 192 um wide, 110 um high and 7 mm long also had flow rates of 0.07 ml/sec. Although the throughput of these microneedles is low they still compare favorably with other microneedle designs. Laminar flow models were found to accurately predict the flow behavior through the microneedles. All computational modeling was performed with the CFDRC CFD-ACE+ suite of software tools.
Pages: 764
Nanotech Conference Proceedings are now published in the TechConnect Briefs