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2009-10 Conference Primers: #10 – Missouri Valley ConferencePosted by rtmsf on October 28th, 2009
Patrick Marshall of White and Blue Review is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley Conference.
Predicted Order of Finish:
- Creighton (24-6, 14-4)
- Northern Iowa (23-6, 13-5)
- Wichita St. (23-8, 12-6)
- Southern Illinois (21-8, 12-6)
- Illinois St. (23-7, 11-7)
- Bradley (19-10, 10-8)
- Indiana St. (17-13, 8-10)
- Drake (13-18, 5-13)
- Evansville (10-19, 3-15)
- Missouri St. (9-21, 2-16)
All-Conference Team. This is a guard laden league which will populate the Missouri Valley All-Conference team this season.
- Kevin Dillard (G), So., Southern Illinois ( 12.2 pts., 4.2 ast.)—The bright spot for Southern Illinois last season is a tenacious ball handler and defender.
- Clevin Hannah (G), Sr., Wichita St. (11.2 pts. 4.3 ast.)—Hannah comes in as the leader for the Shockers which will make some noise this season.
- Osiris Eldridge (G), Sr., Illinois St. (14 pts, 6 reb.)–Last season he had Champ Oguchi as a security blanket and kept him from trying to take over the game himself. His all around game development will probably garner him Conference Player of the Year honors.
- Justin Carter (G), Sr., Creighton (8.1 pts, 5.5 reb.)—Over the summer, Carter has emerged as the leader of the Bluejays.
- Adam Koch (F), Sr., Northern Iowa (12.1 pts., 5.1 reb.)—Koch was a solid player last season to help lead the Panthers to the conference championship and will get the opportunity again as the team returns pretty much everyone.
6th Man. Jake Kelly (G), Jr., Indiana St. (Transfer from Iowa)—Jake got a surprise this fall as the NCAA allowed him to be an active player on the Sycamore team instead of having to sit out a year like transfers usually must. Due to the death of his mother, Kelly returned home to Indiana last season and announced he was transferring to Indiana St. Getting immediate eligibility will solidify the backcourt for the Sycamores.
Impact Newcomer. Wayne Runnels (F), Jr., Creighton—Wayne was an all around sports star in high school and could have probably played any sport he wanted to. He decided on basketball. The JC transfer will make an immediate impact for the Bluejays.
What You Need to Know. For several years, the Missouri Valley Conference was a multiple bid conference for the NCAA Tournament, but the runs by Wichita St. and Bradley to the Sweet 16 in 2006 seem like a distant memory. The past two seasons, the MVC has only managed to get their one automatic bid into The Dance. Drake went in 2008 and Northern Iowa went last season. Both teams won the regular season title and conference tournament. Although Creighton shared the regular season championship with the Panthers last season, the Bluejays were on the outside looking in for the 2nd straight year while Southern Illinois had their first losing season in 10 years. Considering the unexpected the last two seasons, things may be returning back to the norm this winter. Casual fans of the conference may see familiar names at the top this season as Creighton, Southern Illinois and Wichita St. will be in the mix, while last season's champion Northern Iowa returns almost everyone to a team that surprised everyone by the time conference play rolled around. Illinois State has risen toward the top the past couple of seasons and although they again have Player of the Year candidate Osiris Eldridge in the lineup, the supporting cast may not be enough this season to keep them there.
Predicted Champion. Creighton Bluejays (NCAA Seed: #9)—There are so many teams that believe they will be the best this season, but Creighton will slip to the top. Creighton worked it's way back up to the top of the league down the stretch last season winning 11 of the last 12 regular season games before getting embarrassed by Illinois St. in the MVC Conference Tournament semifinals. Yes, Creighton lost MVC POY Booker Woodfox. Yes, Creighton lost four year starting PG Josh Dotzler. Yes, emerging big man Kenton Walker transferred. Those are definitely big holes to fill. But the returning core includes senior Justin Carter who was a JUCO transfer a year ago and by the second half of the season became comfortable and dominated the boards. He has appeared to take a leadership role over the summer. P'Allen Stinnett is fun to watch and it will be important to see if he has matured enough to also be a leader. Antoine Young emerged as the guy to lead the point for the Bluejays, but watch out for Andrew Bock to settle in as the Dotzler type of point guard Coach Dana Altman is used to and to utilize Young's skills in his ability to drive to the basket at the off guard spot. The question mark is the inside game where Kenny Lawson is the only real veteran returning to the post position. Chad Millard is a little out of position in the post, but is the next tallest player on the team. Wayne Runnels comes in from the JUCO ranks and is expected to make an impact right away to help a team that ranked last in the Valley last season in rebound margin. A couple other players on the roster are expected to step up on a team that likes to rotate players constantly leaving the opening for others to make plays. Creighton also has the potential to have the best non-conference schedule in the league which will give them a little more wiggle room whether they win the conference or not.


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A protester shouted at Stephen Nolan on his live television show 'Nolan Live' on BBC One NI on Wednesday evening.
Nolan, who flinches as the man interrupts the show, remains composed throughout.
The man attempted to hand Nolan some papers but was asked to leave.
The man was removed from the studio by security staff.
"We have no idea who that was, but we will continue with our programme," said Nolan afterwards.
The identity of the protester has not yet been confirmed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Housing also lowers rates for 2011 Summer Session
UH Hilo Home > News and Events > UH Hilo Press Releases
Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011
Contact: Alyson Kakugawa-Leong, (808) 974-7642
For Immediate Release
Students enrolling in classes for Summer Session 2011 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo can now take advantage of lower residential housing rates in addition to reduced tuition. Summer instruction will be conducted over two sessions, with the first session running May 16-June 9 and the second session June 13-July 22.
The office of Housing has announced special discounted rates at the University's Hale Ikena apartment complex, which will serve as the summer session's official residence hall for students residing on campus. The housing cost for the first session will be reduced by $70 to $384.75. The second session will be discounted by $106 to $584.25.
Summer housing applications will be available as of March 1 for pick up at the University Housing office located in PB-11, or can be downloaded online at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/housing/.
The housing rate reduction follows earlier action by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents to set the tuition schedule for the 2011 summer session at UH Hilo, UH West O`ahu and the seven community colleges at $248 per credit hour, which effectively rolls back tuition to what it was at the UH Hilo campus during the 2009 summer session.
Under President M.R.C. Greenwood's Hawaiʻi Graduation Initiative, the UH System aims to increase the number of college graduates by 25 percent by the year 2015 through improved access, affordability and student success. Another goal is to reduce the amount of time it takes to graduate students without compromising the value of their degrees.
Under last summer's tuition of $282 per credit hour, students paid a total of $883 in tuition and fees for a single three-credit course. The cost of that same three-credit course this year will be reduced by $204 as a result of the Board's action.
This summer, UH Hilo will offer approximately 150 courses, including 40 percent online under the theme "UH Hilo: A Living, Learning Laboratory." Among the notable online classes are upper-division Nursing and English courses on Health Information technology and Graphic Novels as Literature.
Corinne Tamashiro, program coordinator, College of Continuing Education and Community Service (CCECS), who oversees summer session, says planners have worked hard to ensure students will be able to get the classes they need this summer.
"We are streamlining our course offerings this summer and concentrating on offering high demand courses," Tamashiro explained. "These are the courses that students cannot always get because they tend to fill up during the fall and spring semesters."
In addition to helping students complete degree requirements, the summer curriculum will also feature the flagship Marine Science Program with courses on Natural History of Sharks/Rays/Skates, Hawaiian Coral Reefs, plus Polynesian Sailing and Navigation, among others. Students interested in studying abroad can choose among opportunities in China, Peru and Australia, including a new special topics course on sustaining Australia's human societies and the natural environment.
Two other new special topics courses will be taught by this summer's visiting professors. ART 294: Photo in the New Media will be taught by Frederic Larson, who has spent 30 years as a photojournalist with the San Francisco Chronicle. Larson will teach the basics in photojournalism dealing in the "New Media" with the emphasis on the photographs that tell a story.
SOIL 294: Control of Erosion Processes will identify erosive processes and how to stop them. The course will be taught by Pablo Garcia-Chevesich from the University of Arizona's Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, who has worked locally on North Hawaiʻi's Kapulena Land Project to make more than 1.7 acres available for community-based agriculture.
Summer registration begins on April 11. Non-UH Hilo students are welcome to register, but must first complete an application. For a tentative course listing and basic information, visit http://hilo.hawaii.edu/depts/summer/.
Disclaimer: The University of Hawaii at Hilo is not responsible for the contents, links and/or materials presented in any web site listed above that are not of the "hilo.hawaii.edu" or ".uhh.hawaii.edu" domains. All comments, complaints and grievances should be filed with the author, host and/or owner of said site.


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Hot Off the 3D Presses: A New Generation of Fitness Equipment
Sep 17, 2013 5:00 AM PT
Health buffs today have no shortage of apps, gizmos, gadgets and devices promising to help them get and stay in shape. At the same time, new materials are enabling lighter, stronger and more diverse products.
The next revolution in fitness, however, could come from a technology that seems to have little to do with athletics but is already being used daily in the development of new products. It is the 3D printer, and it's a device that could change fitness.
"3D printing is perfect for sports equipment because the equipment is often rather small, of relatively uniform material or a few materials, and would indeed benefit from customization," said futurist Glen Hiemstra. "The stuff wears out and needs to be replaced."
'Some Crazy Shapes'
Numerous companies are already using 3D printing to develop prototypes, models and samples of finished products.
"We are using 3D printing all the time," Eric Bjorling, a spokesperson for Trek Bicycle, told TechNewsWorld. "That thing can make some crazy shapes."
Trek, which is one of the largest bicycle builders in the world, is hardly alone in using 3D printing. Other companies including American Bicycle Group and Italian Colnago also rely on 3D CAD software that can allow designers to develop a bicycle frame on-screen and from there print out the parts in 3D.
That's significant, because it allows the designers to "see" clearances, cable routing and other details that can be difficult -- if not impossible -- to view via a software rendering.
'Initial Prototyping'
It is for those advantages that some "old school" companies are now considering 3D printing.
"While we have not used 3D printing to date, I have been looking at printers for some titanium accessory products and new titanium frame parts as well," Mark Lynskey, founder and owner of Lynskey Bicycles, told TechNewsWorld. "If you're developing products for an expensive material such as titanium, 3D printing can be a very efficient way to get initial prototyping done.
"Where I see 3D printing helping companies such as ours is in the initial prototyping phase of a product," Lynskey explained. "A company our size does not have a dedicated, full-time department for prototyping, so when we need a new part, we have to find a way to mix it in with our normal production needs."
That, not surprisingly, can "really hurt overall shop floor efficiency by slowing down normal production," he added. "It can take weeks to work it in with the normal shop schedule."
With 3D printing, on the other hand, "we can get initial prototype parts made without having to step foot on the shop floor," he pointed out.
Finished Products
It's not just prototyping on which 3D printing is wreaking transformation, however; finished products are being affected as well. Case in point? Athletic shoes, as companies including Brooks, New Balance and even athletic footwear giant Nike are looking to produce special shoes that can be printed as needed.
Brooks, for instance, has already developed its seamless Glycerin 11 shoe, the creation of which includes 15 to 18 layers of liquid polymer deposited over a molded mesh by a 3D printer.
Then there's French designer Luc Fusaro, who last year developed a technique that would allow for printing of customer-fitted track shoes. This relied on a 3D scanning system to perfectly match an athlete's foot; the shoes are then printed out via a selective laser sintering process that produces the strongest products from additive manufacturing.
Nike followed up this year with its Nike Vapor Laser Talon, an athletic shoe that can be tailored to whatever position the wearer is playing. As with other 3D printing techniques, this one utilizes the SLS process that fuses small particles to produce the finished product.
"SLS technology has revolutionized the way we design cleat plates -- even beyond football -- and gives Nike the ability to create solutions that were not possible within the constraints of traditional manufacturing processes," said Shane Kohatsu, director of Nike footwear innovation.
Catching a Wave
Along with the flexibility of 3D printing comes the possibility of customizable products. That's where companies such as Made see the possibility for customers to order a very specific product fit to their needs.
"We're pushing 3D beyond prototyping," said Shanon Marks, founder of Made SmartBoards. "It's critical for the technology to move beyond research and development and into commercialization.
"This will push material prices down and increase accessibility to the technology," Marks told TechNewsWorld. "Made is using 3D to create bespoke products on a large scale. We believe everyone should ride on custom gear, and 3D allows us to create highly personalized, data-driven boards that meet the exact needs of the rider."
In the case of surfboards, this can mean the personalization that has only been offered in hand-shaped boards, but now at a reduced cost and with a far faster production time than has ever been possible before.
Made can start with a bamboo underlay and fiberglass or carbon fiber wrap and in about 30 hours print out a board. With an additional day or two to finish the board, it will be a product ready to catch a wave -- far faster than if it was made completely by hand. Unlike mass-produced products on an assembly line, moreover, this one is customized to the end user.
The Promise of Titanium
Back in the world of bicycles, a similar phenomenon is occurring as industry giants such as Giant Bicycles start testing the ability to print out individual parts that can be "glued" together.
At the same time, while carbon fiber bicycles have overtaken steel and even titanium, the latter could see a comeback thanks to efforts by companies such as Change Bikes, which last year started testing 3D printed titanium sections for its frames.
The key in this case is that titanium -- unlike many other materials -- isn't typically mined as an ore, but rather is separated from sand. It is thus already in a smaller form, and there are now efforts to develop 3D printing of the metal.
At present this is just a small section of the frame, which is welded to the rest of the titanium frame, but it isn't difficult to see how eventually an entire bike frame could be printed out.
Reduced Waste
One issue that 3D printing does face is that it currently isn't easy to recycle the finished product, which is made up of layers of material.
"Our hope is to reduce waste in our production process," Marks said. "Made will be leading the charge when the ability to recycle an additively manufactured good without material loss exists."
The result could be that in the future, consumers may be offered customized bikes, shoes, surfboards or any other range of products and even lend a hand in the design process.
"I have little doubt that this will be the future someday," Hiemstra told TechNewsWorld. "As for materials, as nanoscale carbon composite tech continues to develop, producing things like bikes with sufficient strength will not be an issue. Scale will be the issue."


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Methamphetamine addiction is the new crack epidemic—a scourge that rips up communities, especially rural ones, and has frustrated many attempts to slow it down. Now a new project from the Tufts School of Dental Medicine suggests that an important weapon in the fight could be dentists.
The idea, as explained in a recent issue of the Tufts Dental Medicine Magazine, was developed by Jennifer Towers after a vacation trip to the small Idaho town of Coeur d'Alene. Towers, the dental school's director of research affairs, saw lots of young Idahoans with really bad teeth, a side effect of rampant addiction to methamphetamine. The drug can cause teeth gnashing so intense it leads to cracked enamel and, eventually, a grotesque state of tooth decay known as "meth mouth."
"Meth mouth" is often the most overt sign of addiction, and to Towers that suggests dentists and hygienists should play a frontline role in combatting it. "Meth mouth really dovetails well with drug prevention efforts because it's so startling," she says. She designed a screensaver of images of meth mouth that dentists can play in their exam rooms as well as a graphic novel aimed at preteens and a software application that lets you "degrade" a mouth over time to simulate the effects of meth use. The idea is to horrify people—especially teenagers—enough to prevent them from ever trying the drug. In focus groups, Towers has found the response to be strong. "I got a group of 14-year-old girls to be very silent when I showed them the before and after pictures [of meth addicts]. Especially in mid-teen range, they're pretty concerned about their appearance."
When information grows on trees
Data visualizationis a hot field these days, with artists transforming information into any number of innovative graphic forms. A new book from visualization wunderkind Manuel Lima teases out the astonishing creativity applied over the years to just one approach: the tree. "The Book of Trees" takes a richly illustrated tour through tree diagrams from as long ago as 1202—when they tended to be made to look like actual trees, with trunks, branches, and leaves. Eight hundred years later the tree diagram persists, though often highly abstracted (the modern visualization known as a "tree-map" no longer looks like a tree at all). It's clear the tree works as a powerful device for displaying hierarchies and family relations, a perennial goal of organizing data. And there's also a certain power in presenting data through a natural form. Trees, which are real, lend a sense of authority to statistics, which sometimes lie.
'Just sex from start to finish'
It's easy to assume that American culture only grows more permissive over time, but fans of vintage movies know the arrow doesn't always move that way. A story earlier this month by Mallory Ortberg on The Toast recalls the brief period known as Pre-Code Hollywood, when movies were far more scandalous than they would be again for decades.
The pre-code era began in the late 1920s, with the introduction of sound to movies. The technological improvement and lack of any strict content regulation created a kind of Wild West of film production. Ortberg's favorites include "Babyface," the 1933 film starring Barbara Stanwyck ("just sex from start to finish") and frothily titled movies like "Sin Takes a Holiday," "Merrily We Go to Hell," and "Hips, Hips, Hooray."
The era ended in 1934, when a wave of Catholic protests led Hollywood to start enforcing the Motion Picture Production Code, a list of rules about what could appear onscreen that had been created in 1930. Suddenly, movies needed a certificate of approval before being released and were forbidden from depicting things like "actual childbirth," "ridicule of the clergy," and "licentious or suggestive nudity." Not until 1968 was the code replaced by the more flexible MPAA rating system we know today. Aside from reminding us that the past could be a pretty risqué place, the whole episode demonstrates the tidal forces that determine where we draw cultural lines: Technology opens up expressive possibilities that an alarmed society moves to rein back in.
Kevin Hartnett is a writer in South Carolina. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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72-061 Onsrud 6MM SC BORING BIT W/THRU HOLE
Quantity in Basket:
Price: $19.99
Solid Carbide Boring BitsTwo styles of tools are available in this series. Thebrad point drill is designed to cut blind holes andproduce a clean edge on the top surface. The 60 degreethrough drill is designed to produce through holeswhile providing clean edges on both sides.BRAD POINT - designed to produce a blind holewhile preventing fraying on the top edge.THROUGH HOLE (60 Degree Point) - produces athrough hole and reduces fraying on the entryand exit edges.Available in RIGHT HAND ROTATION and LEFT HAND ROTATION
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I found this delicious animated video via http://www.losingthewheatbelly.blogspot.ca/
Short and sweet.
Of course, not everyone needs to adopt a LCHF lifestyle in order to have a healthy metabolism and enjoy a healthy body weight without struggles with hunger. Some people can handle a higher intake of carbohydrates, particularly if they focus on carb foods with a low glycemic index. Long term success comes from taking the time and effort to adjust your lifestyle specifically for you.
Also, there are some people who find, even after they are very well adapted to a LCHF eating pattern, that they do need to pay some attention to calories (e.g. Ellen ) – but without the suffering from hunger that they had previously without a LCHF approach).
One other thing to point out relates to the comment in the video about human body fat. Human body fat is composed mostly of MUFA (mono-unsaturated fatty acids) and SFA (saturated fatty acids), with a bit more MUFA than SFA. Of course, there will be some variability between people in this. You can read about this, and review a good table showing the fatty acid content of various foods, fats and oils in the book I am constantly recommending "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" by Jeff Volek, PhD, RD and Stephen Phinney, MD, PhD.
Quoting from that book:
"Factoid: A 50:50 mixture of butter and olive oil approximates the composition of triglycerides typically found in human body fat."
The web site mentioned in the video is lchf.se which looks like a terrific site, if you are up to reading Swedish.


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Obama sends Hawaiian-style love to his alma mater
President Obama showed some Hawaiian pride at the Inauguration Parade, flashing the shaka sign to the Punahou High School Marching Band and others from his home state.
For those who have never been to the islands, the extension of the thumb and smallest finger -- with three fingers curled in the middle -- is a common way for Hawaiians to convey what they call "aloha spirit." The shaka, also known as the "hang loose" sign, is a friendly gesture that is also popular with surfers.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama also proudly displayed the president's roots as the Hawaii state float passed by the reviewing stand. The "warrior" marching band from the Kamehameha Schools, which has campuses on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii, also took part in the parade.
Obama graduated from Punahou, a private prep school in Honolulu, in 1979. The school's website includes a page titled "The Shaka Seen Around the World" that hails the first time Obama flashed the sign publicly as president, during the 2009 Inaugural Parade.
The Punahou website says the shaka flashed by Obama four years ago was not spontaneous, but rather part of a well-rehearsed ploy by the students to get the president's attention. They also got a little help four years ago from the first lady, who saw the band approaching.


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Watch this short video showing how you can consolidate two Office 365 tenants after a merger or acquisition -- using fictitious companies as an example.
Duration: 04:44
See how to migrate groups within On Demand Migration from Quest.
Duration: 02:32
See how to add migration tenants and grant consent with On Demand Migration from Quest.
Duration: 03:32
This video demonstrates an overview of the Migration feature at a very high level.
Duration: 01:29
Learn why a SaaS-based solution like Quest On Demand Migration is perfect for getting your ever-changing business to the cloud or consolidating your various Office 365 tenants.
Duration: 07:36
See how to create and migrate to a new project with On Demand Migration from Quest.
Duration: 04:55
Migrações de usuários. grupos, caixas de correio e diretórios, de locatário para locatário do Office 365 com base em SaaS


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Product #: 99028
Flat top threshold sits 1/4" in height
Width: 2 1/2 inches
Height: 1/4 inches
Length: from 12 inches up to 144 inches
For lengths greater than 144 inches please call Customer Service at 1-800-348-4056.
Use Type: Residential
Material: Aluminum
Finish: Aluminum
Style Type: Saddle
ADA Compliant: No
Style Shape: Flat Top
Door Swing: Outswing
Flat Top 2-1/2" Wide Aluminum Saddle Door Threshold - Aluminum Flat Top Aluminum Saddle Door Threshold
Flat top threshold sits 1/4" in height
At CustomDoor Thresholds.com, you can watch how to do the project and also print out how to do the project.
In our videos, CustomDoorThresholds.com explains step by step how to replace, measure, cut and install various types of door thresholds including hardwood, standard, bumper, adjustable and aluminum with vinyl seal.
Here are easy to print full color "How To" PDFs that correspond to the above videos. At CustomDoorThresholds.com we recommend you print the PDF so that you have an easy reference to all the steps in the above videos.
Print The Project
Click on the links below to open our How To instructions.
How to Cut a Door Threshold
How to Measure a Door Notch
How to Measure a Door Threshold
How to Remove a Door Threshold
How to Install an Adjustable Door Threshold
Need help or have a question?
Please check our website first to see if your question has been answered.
Frequently Answered Questions
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Custom Door Thresholds' Forum
If you haven't found what you are looking for in these sections, please contact us. One of our representatives will gladly answer all of your questions.
By Form
Contact Us page
Phone Us
You can reach a Custom Door Thresholds' representative toll free at: 1-800-348-4056
Hours of Operation
Monday through Friday
8 AM to 5 PM (CST)
Mailing Address
4041 N. Santa Fe Ave.
Oklahoma City, OK 73118
Important Customer Service Information
|Threshold Specs
|Threshold Type
|Threshold Material
|ADA Compliant
|From 12 inches up to 144 inches
|Style Type
|Style Shape
|Flat Top
|Aluminum Finish
|Door Opening
|2 1/2


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Monday, August 31, 2009
Hate Mail for the HoseMaster
When you annoy people in the name of comedy, you get letters. Slinging unwanted barbs at people can be dangerous work, ask any porcupine. But it ain't satire unless you ruffle some feathers, and HoseMaster of Wine has ruffled more feathers than Big Bird masturbating. I thought I might share some of those angry epistles with my loyal readers.
After I referred to Mr. Jess Jackson as "Huckleberry" a few times I received this note:
Dear Mr. Hosemaster,
I'm going to hunt you down and beat you like a Fred Furth voodoo doll. Your implication that I have lost my grip on reality is libelous, insulting and I own thirty wineries. None of which are currently making any money, Sweetcheeks, and I resent the fact that you say they are. Just where do you get off saying that Murphy-Goode wines taste like the grapes want revenge? I bought a perfectly nice blogger, Hardy Burgundy, or some stupid fucking name like that, and look at all the good that's done me. I can't even race the mule. I love mule races. No money in them, not like owning thoroughbreds like Verite, but it's fun to watch those big stupid animals like Hardy Breakfast run in circles. But, hey, don't try to confuse me, I'm here to make a point. I own thirty wineries. Thirty. Calling me Huckleberry rolls off me like integrity rolls of Marvin Shanken, another mule I own, and a good one. I'll buy every blogger alive, don't think I won't. I got the money right here in my pants next to where I keep my keys to the thirty (THIRTY) wineries I own. Which don't make money no matter what you say in your stupid blog. Hey, don't I own you as well as that Hardy Handshake fucker? I need to ask my wife. She must be around here somewhere. She's not in my pants. Hell, she's probably at one of the thirty wineries I own and you don't, Hosemaster of Shit.
Sincerely, Huck
I've taken a disproportionate amount of cheap shots at Alder Yarrow whose blog Vinography wins Best Wine Blog every year, which says more about wine blogging than anything I could say. (Sheesh, there I go writing like Alder, who punctuates like an orangutan.)
While I very much appreciate your background in wine, your rise from lowly comedy writer to sommelier, the passion you've shown for the bounty of the grapes, the wit and eloquence with which you skewer wines, the wine business, wine bloggers and people with deformities, mostly of the mammary persuasion, your mission to redefine wine blogging, an admirable mission, a Sonoma Mission, if you'll pardon my attempts at your trademarked humor, by making me a personal target leaves me ill at ease.
I came to the wine business late in life, some would say so late I missed that ferry, and the one after it. But I've been posting religiously and frequently about wine for five years. I want to thank, first of all, my wife, whose patience and understanding have been astonishing given that writing about wine is not my main occupation! I know, I know, it's hard to believe! Wine is not my main career. How could it be? That would be like a brain surgeon operating with hand tools. Or like a tennis player with no balls. Or like Kevin Costner. My blog is among the most widely read and admired, especially by wineries who know I learned my lesson from my mother who used to always say, as mothers do, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. And if you say something nice, expect free stuff." Aren't Moms always right?
I am ill at ease because I can't think of anything nice to say to you. You're mean. You make my tummy all woozy. When your blog comes up in my Google Alerts, oh, God, don't you love Google Alerts?, I get all sweaty and I want to go downstairs and talk to my wife, only she's not there, she's just out with her girlfriends, she'll be home before I'm done posting Vinography and I'll once again be able to guess what wine she's been drinking from her breath and the stains on her dress, and people still say I can't taste blind. Then I read your mean remarks and it just makes me wish I'd never gotten into the wine business. Just stop. Go after that BiggerThanYourHead guy, he's the real doo-doo head. Sorry, Mom.
Sincerely, Alder
And I couldn't believe it when this note showed up in my email.
Dear Mr. Washman,
As publisher of Wine Spectator I take offense when you call it, "a lifestyle publication for those dweebs who sorely need to get a life and get a style." We take great pride in our reader demographics, which skew towards the upwardly mobile, the active, and those who read at a fourth grade level. So, basically, people who run for City Council. Compare that with your readers who wouldn't know a Rolex from a Timex, a Cuban cigar from a horse turd, or a bottle of Hardy Rodenstock Jefferson Bordeaux from a fake. I knew it was a fake all along, by the way, I just didn't say anything. See Thomas Matthews' article on "The Billionaire's Vinegar" in the next issue of Wine Spectator--OK, OK, we have timeliness issues, but we're working on it. It runs right after the article about Jess Jackson's search for a Social Media Director at Murphy-Goode and the piece about William Foley buying Michael Jackson's remains.
And I don't much appreciate the potshots at my weight. "Marvin is so big that last year the tent for the Napa Valley auction was one of his old pair of underpants." "Marvin was a big hero at Sebastiani Winery when he noticed a leaking foudre and quickly secured it with his belt." And, "After Marvin's last visit to Cuba to pick up cigars, 79 people used him to illegally sail to Florida." What is your stupid blog, The Marvin Shanken Roast? (ED. NOTE--which would be enough to feed the city of Florence.) Get off my back, Hosepunk, or I'll sick Laube, Kramer, Steiman, and Suckling on you. Worse than that, I'll give you a lifetime subscription to Wine Enthusiast. See how you like that.
Marvelous Marv Shanken
And those are just three out of the gigantic pile of hate mail the ol' Hosemaster receives! You should read the one I got from Robert Mondavi, postmarked Hell! Maybe next time...
11 comments:
- Samantha Dugan said...
Alder is right, you are mean but in that wicked smart, super funny kind of way that can make my tummy woozy too. Keep it up HoseBoy.
- August 31, 2009 at 8:22 AM
- Charlie Olken said...
Dear Sir--
Just because you get a lot of hate mail, which you deserve by the way, is no reason for you to send me hate mail. I know the following was from you because only you and Steve Heimoff have ever sent me email. Yes, I know that the penis extender emails were your doing as well, but did you really need to send me the following?
" Dear CornerSewer:
When you describe a wine as barnyardy, it makes you as full of shit as that Hosemaster Guy."
Now, don't deny it. You know you did it because you want at least one other wine writer to get mail like yours and you want some sympathy.
Well, the hell with that noise. I can always go read Vinography, you know.
- August 31, 2009 at 11:23 AM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Um...Mr. Puff Daddy Sir,
The extender emails may have been from me, but "someone" may have had a "hose" to my head.
- August 31, 2009 at 8:50 PM
He wishes.
- August 31, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Talk about HATE MAIL. I just got an invitation to join A. Diass Blue in his TASTING TOUR and watch his trained judges perform.
Now, that would be pretty funny to me except for the following: It lists The Hosemaster as one of the trained seals. WTF?
- September 1, 2009 at 1:52 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
(world spinning....must sit down)"Um, excuse me...what?"
- September 1, 2009 at 3:27 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Hey Puff Daddy,
As it says in my "About Me" section I judge wines for the SF International Wine Competition, a competition run by Andy Blue. Other than that, though I know Andy, I don't have much to do with his wine empire. They do an annual tasting of the wines that won Double Golds at the competition, invited me since I'm a judge, and asked me if they could use my legendary name in the invites. That's WTF.
But I know they're just using me as a draw. The HoseMaster packs 'em in.
- September 1, 2009 at 3:54 PM
- Charlie Olken said...
OK. Let's let bygones be bygones. He is just not my idea of someone I want my friends to hang around with. Of course, admitting that I think of you as a friend is going to cost me dearly elsewhere. Thank of all the folks who will never talk to me again like Jess Jackson, Alder Yarrow and Mr. Marvelous.
- September 1, 2009 at 5:30 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
We know darlin' we are just bustin the ball busters balls...
- September 1, 2009 at 5:54 PM
Oh where oh where has the Hosemaster gone,
Oh where of where can he be
With his song cut short and his words not home
Oh where oh where can he be?
- September 3, 2009 at 11:29 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Maybe we should check Marv's freezer for his head?!
- September 4, 2009 at 8:50 AM


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Defending champions Leinster struggled past debutants Exeter in a scrappy 9-6 victory in their European Cup opener on Saturday.
Leinster, the champions in 2008-2009, 2010-2011 and last season, were forced to grind their way to victory, with Ireland international flyhalf Jonathan Sexton kicking three penalties.
Sexton put Leinster ahead in the 11th minute after former Ulster center Ian Whitten was penalized for playing an opponent in the air, but the expected avalanche of points never materialized and Exeter drew level on the stroke of halftime when Gareth Steenson succeeded with a penalty after two earlier misses.
Sexton put the champions back in front after 53 minutes, but Steenson again pulled Exeter level 12 minutes later when Leinster were penalized for slowing the ball down at a ruck inside their own 22.
Exeter replacement prop Ben Moon was then punished for straying offside in the 74th minute and Sexton gobbled up the opportunity with the decisive penalty in front of the posts.
Exeter had a chance to level in the last minute, but Ignacio Mieres went well wide with an optimistic 48m penalty attempt.
"It was no surprise to us how tough they were to break down. They are a formidable side," Leinster coach Joe Schmidt said. "They are greater than the sum of their parts, well coached, well organized and hard to break down."
In the day's other Pool 5 game, ASM Clermont Auvergne came back from 13-6 down to trounce Llanelli Scarlets 49-16 in France, running in six tries for a crucial bonus point.
Jonathan Davies gave the Welsh visitors a third-minute lead, but it proved to be their only try as Sitiveni Sivivatu, Lee Byrne, Damien Chouly, Julien Bonnaire and Napolini Vonowale-Nalaga all crossed for Clermont, with a penalty try also awarded.
Harlequins routed Biarritz 40-13 in a four-try bonus-point performance.
England scrumhalf Danny Care scored the opening try, before Arnaud Heguy helped the French draw level 13-13 at the interval, but 'Quins ran riot in the second half with tries from Rob Buchanan, Jordan Turner-Hall and Seb Steggman.
"The players were so positive at halftime and that was good. We kept on trying to play and we knew the scores would come," 'Quins director of rugby Conor O'Shea said.
In the other Pool 3 game, Connacht saw off Italian club Zebre 19-10.
Olly Barkley turned in a masterful performance on his debut for Racing-Metro, overseeing a 22-17 victory over former two-time champions Munster in Pool 1.
"You don't win games like that, against teams like Munster, without a really good team spirit," Barkley said.
The Irish scored the game's opening try after 15 minutes when flanker Sean Dougall bounced off a couple of weak tackles to crash over from short range, with Ronan O'Gara adding the extras.
Against the run of play, Racing scrumhalf Maxime Machenaud touched down for a try that Barkley converted to draw the scores level.
Barkley was successful with two more penalties either side of the break, before Munster wing Simon Zebo outpaced Mirco Bergamasco to score a memorable converted try.
Barkley handed the home side the lead once again late in the game, before Bergamasco stretched that further with a late penalty.
Last season's semi-finalists Edinburgh suffered a humiliating 45-0 home drubbing at the hands of Saracens.
The English side scored tries through Sam Tomkins, Owen Farrell, Chris Ashton, Alex Goode and Charlie Hodgson, the flyhalf also scoring four penalties and four conversions.


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Feel like a can of Coke? Seventy minutes of ironing should burn it off. A calculator launched by Coca-Cola in Britain aims to help soft drink consumers justify the indulgence by coming up with some "unusual, fun and interesting ways" of balancing it out.
However, it's not as guilt-free as it seems. A well-known New Zealand-based nutritionist warns that it focuses solely on cancelling out calories which impact on weight and disregards other health negatives linked to the drinks.
The Work It Out calculator was developed by the beverage giant's British arm in conjunction with an expert in exercise physiology and sports performance, Dr Greg Whyte, and the figures are calculated based on the energy expenditure of a female weighing 60kg.
Click here to go to the 'Work It Out' calculator.
It tells you 17 minutes of Zumba will make the 139 calories from a 330ml can of Coke disappear, as will a fast nine-minute run, a 10-minute boxing session or 14 minutes of salsa dancing. Cherry Coca-Cola and Sprite have been identified as the most calorie-laden beverages so require more effort to ease your weight-conscious mind.
Those opting for the Coke Zero or Diet Coke can just stay put on the couch, according to the calculator, which says no work is required to burn off the 0.05 calories in a can.
Surprisingly, Sprite Zero requires slightly more effort be put in to dissolve the four calories - a one-minute ski, ice skate or two minutes paddling a canoe should do the trick.
There are also options for Fanta lovers, Powerade drinkers, Glaceau Vitaminwater connoisseurs and even those fancying a Schweppes Indian Tonic.
Healthy Food Guide nutritionist Claire Turnbull said while the calculator was correct in terms of what it took to burn the calories, it didn't take into account any other factors which could be detrimental to health. The fewer sugary drinks consumed the better, she said.
"It's not good for you to have that much acid, it's not good for your teeth, it's not good for your stomach whether they've got sugar in or not. Even though Coke Zero doesn't have any sugar in it, it doesn't mean it's good for [you] it just means it doesn't take as long to burn off as the other ones."
She said comparison calculators were helpful in highlighting the difference in calories between beverages but shouldn't become a justification tool, because calories could be spent on better quality foods.
The application is targeted at the British market and some drinks listed are not available in New Zealand.
Coca-Cola NZ's website provides a more generic hydration and energy counter. The serving sizes also differ, as a Coca-Cola can in NZ is 355ml compared to 330ml in Britain.
A Coca-Cola NZ spokeswoman said the calculator could be used to update information on the company's website here. "Education is a key factor in helping people make informed decisions."


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Condition-based maintenance
Reduce costs by optimizing maintenance activities
Condition-based maintenance means that maintenance work is performed only when needed. This enables you to dramatically reduce maintenance expenditures. SKF can help increase profitability in wind farms or turbines through the Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) method, specifically adapted to your turbine needs.


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Sealing solutions
SKF ConCentra roller bearing units in the SYNT series are available with different sealing solutions.
Bearing units in the FYNT series are produced standard with double-lip seals. End covers are also available, but must be ordered separately.
Bearing units in the FYNT series are produced standard with double-lip seals. End covers are also available, but must be ordered separately.
Table 1 provides an overview of the characteristics and suitability of each sealing solution. Details are provided in the following text. This information should be used as a guideline, and does not substitute for testing a seal in its application.
Double-lip seals
Double-lip seals (fig. 1) are made of acrylonitrilebutadiene rubber (NBR) that is vulcanized onto a stamped steel insert. The steel insert enables the outside surface of the seal to sit firmly in the housing bore, providing a static seal. The seal has an auxiliary lip to protect against coarse contaminants.
Labyrinth seals
As labyrinth seals (fig. 2) do not generate friction, bearing units fitted with these seals are capable of relatively high speed operation. The labyrinth is created with three sheet steel rings. Two rings are fixed to the mounting collar / back-up collar. Both rotate with the shaft to act as flingers. The third ring is secured in the housing bore.
Heavy-duty radial shaft seals
Heavy-duty radial shaft seals with an auxiliary lip (fig. 3) provide superior protection against contaminants. These rugged and robust seals have a steel insert that is encased in acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR). The primary seal lip can maintain its sealing ability even if there is excessive wear. An auxiliary dust lip provides added protection against coarse contaminants.
End covers
Bearing units mounted at the end of a shaft should have an end cover (fig. 4). These are made of plastic and can be snapped easily into the recess of the housing bore.
Details of the permissible length of the shaft end are provided in table 2.


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Extraction Arm OVAL Hood - Ø 180 mm, length 3 m
ESTA has a comprehensive assortment of exhaust arms to ensure precise, effective extraction wherever pipes can't make the right connection between the extraction area and the filtering device. Mountable on walls, ceilings, floors or directly on the device, they can be used with the utmost flexibility. Their super-easy handling and premium workmanship are a plus for customer satisfaction.£449.00 – £2,555.00


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This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — Hours after his wife's death, Martin MacNeill had her remaining prescription drugs counted, documented and then flushed down a toilet.
That was the testimony Wednesday of Eileen Heng, who said she retrieved five to 10 bottles of Michele MacNeill's prescriptions from the bathroom and then carefully counted the blue and white pills with her then-boyfriend, Damian MacNeill, as his father watched.
"He wanted to know what was missing," she said of Martin MacNeill on the fourth day of his murder trial. "He did say she was not taking her pills, she had high blood pressure and high cholesterol."
Later, on cross-examination, Heng confirmed that she had told investigators that Martin MacNeill had also said he believed the pills may have contributed to his wife's death and "couldn't bear to look at them."
Some of the pill bottles were nearly full, while others were close to empty, Heng told deputy Utah County District attorney Jared Perkins. But she did not say — nor was asked — exactly how many pills were left.
Heng told the court she complied with MacNeill's requested because "he just lost his wife and I wanted to help." She said she did not know what happened to the white pad of paper where the pill count was recorded.
Michele MacNeill was found unconscious in the bathtub of her Pleasant Grove home on April 11, 2007. Prosecutors charged MacNeill with murder, saying he over-medicated his wife with painkillers she was given after plastic surgery and then drowned her in the tub.
I think it would be difficult to get adequate chest compression because of the angle of the person. You would push the patient down into the bathtub further and not get adequate compression or chest motion.
–Dr. Scott VanWagoner, the American Fork Hospital ER doctor who treated Michele MacNeill
Heng said MacNeill recounted the events of April 7 to her, saying he had picked Ada up from school and that the child, then 6, had been the first to find her mother.
She also testified to "a lot of contention" between Martin MacNeill and his daughter Alexis, who flew back home from Las Vegas, where she was attending medical school, the day her mother died.
The discord was related to a woman named Jillian, whom Martin hired as a nanny shortly after his wife's death. Jillian is pseudonym for Gypsy Willis, the woman prosecutors say was MacNeill's mistress and for whom he allegedly killed his wife so he could begin a new life.
Heng helped her boyfriend — the MacNeills' only son — and his sister Vanessa interview nanny candidates and said she advised MacNeill against hiring Willis so as not to create more tension and divide the family.
"I encouraged Martin not to hire her," Heng said. "He said he didn't want his kids controlling his life."
Willis was hired and moved into the family home soon after. Within months, Heng said it became clear that Willis and MacNeill's relationship was more than one of employer and employee. Over lunch one day with Willis, Martin MacNeill and Damian MacNeill, Heng said she noticed the other woman was eating from Martin MacNeill's plate.
He offered me $10,000 to continue my resuscitation and not quit. I'm not sure where that came from or why he would make that offer. It just struck me as very odd and still remains odd.
–Dr. Scott VanWagoner
"I thought it was strange," she testified.
Heng's relationship with Damien MacNeill ended in early 2008, less than a year after his mother's death. Damian committed suicide in January 2010 by overdosing on prescription drugs.
Before his death, Damian MacNeill told the Deseret News his father wanted him to get rid of the pills that day because he wanted to keep his mother's face-lift a private matter and also said his father was afraid he would try to overdose on the drugs himself.
Earlier Wednesday, the American Fork Hospital doctor who attended to Michele MacNeill in the emergency room told jurors that an attempt to resuscitate a person slumped down in a bathtub with CPR would be difficult and likely not effective.
Martin MacNeill told a 911 operator he was performing CPR before neighbors came to his aid and lifted his wife out of the tub. Prosecutors believe MacNeill lied about starting the life-saving measure.
"I think it would be difficult to get adequate chest compression because of the angle of the person," said Scott VanWagoner, the American Fork Hospital ER doctor who treated Michele MacNeill. "You would push the patient down into the bathtub further and not get an adequate compression or chest motion."
When MacNeill was brought to the hospital at 12:25 p.m., her skin was blue and she had no pulse. "I think she was dead by the time she arrived at our door," VanWagoner said.
While in the emergency room, MacNeill denounced his wife's plastic surgery and then made an "off the wall" request, VanWagoner testified.
"He offered me $10,000 to continue my resuscitation and not quit," he said. "It just struck me as very odd and still remains odd."


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Icy surfaces again is the concern overnight as the temperature drops below freezing.
Tuesday morning's snow quickly melted into the night, but is expected to freeze over and form black ice just in time for your morning commute Wednesday.
Expect lows in the teens to near 20 degrees.
Temperatures should remain below freezing most of Wednesday and Thursday. Snow will stay in place into Friday.
The highest snow totals Tuesday morning were west and north of the metro area, where up to six inches fell. The immediate D.C. metro area saw 1 to 3 inches.
The threat of inclement weather led federal offices in D.C. to close Tuesday. Several major school districts also decided to close, including D.C. and Prince George's, Montgomery and Fairfax counties.
If you're hitting the roads, give yourself some extra time, especially because of the possibility of icy spots. Make sure to clear off the trunk and roof of your vehicles to protect other drivers from flying sheets of snow and ice.
Tuesday's second wave of snow followed a storm overnight Sunday that closed many major school districts and ended with waves of ice that brought down power lines and trees in the area.
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest on the storm.
Get the latest weather from NBCWashington.com:
- Severe Weather Alerts: click here
- Interactive Radar: click here
- Complete Weather Coverage: click here
Download our NEW free weather apps for iPad and iPhone. You can also follow us on Twitter andFacebook, and sign up for our e-mail newsletters.


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You start off with a paddle blank on both sides... then an arrow (engraved and highlighted) appears on one end. The arrow moves to the middle, then to the far end. It's shakenfrom spot to spot, then slid. It multiplies, and even jumps about on its own volition. In one wild sequence, the arrows on the paddle refuse to cooperate and apparently lead one anotherfrom place to place! Finally, the arrow is visibly split in two and the paddle is handed out for examination.
The Amazing Jumping Arrow is destined to become a classic. Crafted from aluminum specifically for this effect, then anodized and engraved, this elegant prop produces a beautifulroutine in which a variety of amazing, amusing visual effects take place - each more incredible than the last.
Do you own this product? Write a review.


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Were the euroskeptics right after all? Was the dream of a unified Europe — inspired by fears of another European war, and sustained by the idealistic hope that nation-states were obsolete and would give way to good Europeans — a utopian dead end?
On the surface, Europe's current crisis, which some people predict will tear apart the EU, is financial. Former European Commission president Jacques Delors, one of the architects of the euro, now claims that his idea for a single currency was good, but that its "execution" was flawed because the weaker countries were allowed to borrow too much.
However, fundamentally, the crisis is political. When sovereign states have their own currencies, citizens are willing to see their tax money go to the weakest regions. That is an expression of national solidarity, a sense that a country's citizens belong together and are prepared, in a crisis, to sacrifice their own interests for the collective good.
Even in nation-states, this is not always self-evident. Many northern Italians fail to see why they should pay for the poorer south. Affluent Flemings in Belgium resent having to support unemployed Walloons. Still, on the whole, just as citizens of democratic states tolerate the government that won the last election, they usually accept economic solidarity as a part of nationhood.
Since the EU is neither a nation-state nor a democracy, there is no "European people" to see the EU through hard times. Rich Germans and Dutch do not want to pay for the economic mess in which the Greeks, Portuguese or Spanish now find themselves.
Instead of showing solidarity, they moralize, as though all of the problems in Mediterranean Europe were the result of native laziness or its citizens' corrupt nature. As a result, the moralizers risk bringing the common roof down on Europe's head, and confronting the nationalist dangers that the EU was created to prevent.
Europe must be fixed politically as much as financially. It is a cliche, but nonetheless true, that the EU suffers from a "democratic deficit." The problem is that democracy has only ever worked within nation-states. Nation-states need not be monocultural or even monolingual. Think of Switzerland or India. They need not be democracies, either: China, Vietnam and Cuba come to mind. However, democracy does require that citizens have a sense of belonging.
Is this possible in a ----supra-national body like the EU? If the answer is no, it may be best to restore the sovereignty of individual European nation-states, give up on the common currency and abandon a dream that is threatening to become a nightmare.
This is what the more radical euroskeptics in Britain think, having never shared the EU dream to begin with. It is easy to dismiss this as typical British chauvinism — the insular attitude of a people living in splendid isolation. However, in Britain's defense, its citizens have had a longer and more successful democratic history than have most continental Europeans.
Still, even if disbanding Europe were possible, it would come at enormous cost. Abandoning the euro, for example, would cripple the continent's banking system, affecting both Germany and the affluent north and the distressed countries in the south. Moreover, if the Greek and Italian economies face difficult recoveries inside the eurozone, consider how hard it would be to repay euro--denominated debts with devalued drachmas or lira.


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Lewie's Weekly Deals – The Beatles: Rock Band for a fiver
Got a few spare quid? Why not buy yourself a game? Go on, you deserve it. These are so cheap, you'd be wasting your money by not buying them. It's Lewie's Weekly Deals, the roundup of the best offers going on games every week. For updates on gaming bargains throughout the week, get yourself over […]
Playtv headlines
SCEE "aware" of PlayTV issues, hopes to have a solution "shortly"
SCEE has said its is aware of a system-crashing bug plaguing PlayTV and it is working on the matter.
Studio Cambridge working on PlayTV 2
Senior producer at Studio Cambridge Mark Green has told SPOnG that it's currently working on PlayTV 2.
PlayTV updated to 1.21
SCEE just said PlayTV's been updated to 1.21. New stuff: It now lets you "watch, pause and record High Definition TV for DVB-T standard broadcast." Aino remote play support added. Updates PS3 to Firmware 3.0. If you haven't done it already, you'll need it for the mobile functions. "Better" SD upscaling. Amazatron. Hit the link […]
85,000 PlayTV units ship in the UK
According to this GI story, Sony's confirmed it's shipped 85,000 units of PlayTV in the UK. The hardware add-on, which acts as a freeview box and personal video recorder, went on sale last weekend for £70. Everyone we know who has one can't stop banging on about it. Which is clearly why 85,000 of them […]
SCEE wins three at GC
We were mailed about this last night but couldn't open it, for some reason. SCEE won awards at GC08 for Best PS3 Game (LBP), Best PSP Game (Resistance: Retribution) and Best Innovation (PlayTV). And that's it. Read more on ThreeSpeech.
PlayTV gets 8/10 on Eurogamer
Eurogamer has reviewed Sony's new set-top box, PlayTV, giving it 8/10. This of course means the all singing, all dancing, record-the-telly-whilst-you-play-Resistance 2, £69.99 wonder is as good as Halo and MGS4, but not quite as good as GRID or Splinter Cell: Double Agent. However, if that doesn't sell it you, you can read more about […]
PlayTV dated for September in UK
SCEE president David Reeves has said that its PlayTV service will go live in the UK from September 10, with a European rollout continuing through to December, writes Eurogamer. This is a little later than the July 31 date we were given back in May, but there you go. "Yep, it's going to be September […]
SCEE PlayStation Day: Last sets of screens from the asset disc
Just to add to this lot of screens and movies, here are the last shots we missed from the asset disc handed out at the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday. MotorStorm Pacific Rift shots Siren: Blood Curse shots SingStar Vol. 2 shots SingStar PS3 shots PlayTV shots Elefunk shots PixelJunk Eden shots
PlayTV show recordings can be taken off PS3s
According to this, TV shows recorded using PlayTV on PlayStation 3 can then be dragged off the machine as MPEG2 files onto any memory stick or PC. "We've talked to our legal department about it," said Mark Bunting, a producer at Sony's Cambridge Studio. "All we're doing is moving it out of PlayTV and to […]
Playtv latest
SCEE "aware" of PlayTV issues, hopes to have a solution "shortly"
SCEE PlayStation Day: Last sets of screens from the asset disc


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Random Acts of Pizza
Once again, pizza proves itself the universal food. One Reddit message board is drawing a little extra attention today, as people around the world post offers to purchase pies for individuals volunteering or displaced by yesterday's Boston Marathon bombing. You can see some of the latest submissions in the photograph above.
Interested in sending some pizza out into the universe? Here's what members of the Random Acts of Pizza message board have to say about their mission:
Random Acts of Pizza exists as part of a sub-community on a website called Reddit.com. It's pretty simple. People post messages on the site, some of those messages are from people wanting to give pizza away and others are from people looking to get a pizza.
There are a million different reasons why people want to give pizza away and just as many for why people want a pizza. That's where the random comes in. You could be looking to help a person out who's in need, or you could be looking to give a pizza away to the first person who drives a green Ford Taurus. Whatever the reason, random pizza means good times had by all.
What do you need to get started? First, you need to be a member of Reddit. It's free to join, but if you're just joining to take part in RAOP, we suggest you also try to dabble in the rest that Reddit has to offer.
Learn more about the message board at RandomActsofPizza.com.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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I decided i should start with the first steps towards my own game. I already know that it needs to be tile-based because that makes a lot of things a whole lot less complicated. I also know that rectangular tiles just don't cut it and hexagons are the way to go. Not only that, they're a natural fit for what i intend to build – but no, it's not going to be a wargame and you're not going to move around entities across the grid either. For now i'll leave it up to your imagination what the heck i might be doing. It'll become clearer over time.
I already know about the scaling issues of tiled engines, this cocos2d forum post being a good example. So i'm wary of mathematically correct hexagons (correct as in fractional vertex coordinates) and instead tried to come up with a simple hexagon shape whose vertices all lie on fixed point coordinates. In the image below it's the top row. And as you can see in comparison to the perfectly shaped hexagons below (implemented according to this 8-year old Gamedev.net article) they are a bit compressed along the Y-axis. But that is actually ok since i would prefer a look not straight from above but at a slight angle, so that any objects can be drawn as seen from a 60° or even 45° angle. On the other hand each object now needs 5 images for each of the 6 directions, with the horizontal direction mirrored. And hex tiles can't just be rotated to any angle, only flipped along the x axis. So there's a lot of gfx to be done (and paid for) but i'll worry about this later on.
In fact, i fully intend to work on this game off of my mind, step by step. No big plans, just one step at a time, and see where it leads me to. I have some grand ideas of course but i see them more as a guiding light than a plan that needs to be implemented. If i learned anything from the process of creating Black Hole is that it's never a singularity you're working towards. The game shifts and drifts as opinions clash and fun evolves. I don't even want to imagine how crappy the game was when we started but it can be a painful process, the idea that seemed so cool seemed to fail so utterly at one point and just didn't provide the necessary fun for quite some time. But as you move along things start to come together in different ways, as you try out different ideas. And that's how i'm planning this game. At the moment all i know is that i need a hex engine for cocos2d.
But doesn't cocos2d support TMX maps which support hex maps? Well yes, and no. It doesn't support hex maps with the edges pointing up and down but i need the straight connections to be in the horizontal direction. The other thing is: i don't want to design maps, i want to generate them. And change them during gameplay. That seems like it's not possible with TMX hex maps. I also want complete freedom, and taking a little time to come up with a hex tilemap engine is time well spent. I'm not building an engine from the ground up, just what is needed to draw a hex map and selecting fields based on coordinates.
About the look of the game, i browsed the web to find good examples of hex tiles that would fit perfectly to the game. But that was harder than i thought. There's only one set of hex tiles i particularly liked, they were made by David Baumgart and posted on his Gamedev.net journal:
I especially like the blending effect seen in the zoom-in part of the image. As much as possible i would like to hide the fact that the game map is based on hexagons and create a much smoother, visual look. But that is still a long way out and i don't even know if that's possible on the iPad. I'll definitely dig into that though.


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Due to inbreeding, and farmers' mistaken impression that they eat their livestock, numbers of cheetahs in the wild have long been in serious decline. Recent studies estimate that only 12,400 cheetahs remain in the wild. They have been placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of vulnerable species, and the US Endangered Species Act.
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The WWF is dedicated to nurturing and protecting endangered species of animals from all over the world. Their website offers you the opportunity to contribute to the welfare of many different species that desperately need protection. This can be done quickly and easily online.
Through its animal adoption and sponsorship scheme, the WWF returns endangered animals to safe, natural habitats. Why not adopt or sponsor an animal today, and help them do their vital work? Adopting an animal in this way can also serve as a creative and worthwhile ethical gift for family or friends whether it be for Christmas, a birthday or as a creative Valentine's gift.
Sponsor or adopt a cheetah today and help protect endangered animals for years to come.


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Happy birthday!
Wishing you good health and happiness, you great smelling Birthday Boy!
Fragrant birthday wishes to you, Tott!
Take care
Happy birthday
Hi tott!
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
Hi Tott,
Great to see you back - haven't seen you about too much recently. Hope all's well. Stay fragrant
Happy Birthday!!!! hope you had a great day
Happy Birthday, I hope you have a wonderful day!
Best wishes!
Merry Christmas Tott, Have a good year
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Basenotes is an online guide to perfume and fragrance, featuring news, a database of fragrances, perfume glossary, fragrance forums, user reviews and more.


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Woman's running nose revealed to be leaking brain fluid
For four months, doctors believed one Arizona woman's running nose was allergies. The truth turned out to be a much more horrifying scenario – brain fluid was leaking out of her nose.
According to the University of Arizona department of surgery, whenever Aundrea Aragon bent over, clear liquid would run out of her nose.
"I was scared to death and desperate,'' Aragon said. "I knew it could not be allergies. The fluid would come out like a puddle.''
After she visited several doctors', UA surgeons finally discovered two small cracks in the back of Aragon's sphenoid sinus, which were caused by cerebral pressure. The crack ultimately allowed cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) to stream through her nose.
Although the human brain replaces brain fluid, the leak put Aragon at risk of developing meningitis, in which bacteria crawls through the brain, causing either a coma or death.
While the typical surgery to fix this condition is invasive and often results in a painful recovery process and other dangerous side effects, UA surgeons were able to fix Aragon's condition without using any incisions. They performed an endoscopic procedure through her nose, using image-guided neuronavigation and fluorescein dye to locate the cracks. Then, using tissue from her nose and a small portion of belly fat, the surgeons were able to repair the cracks, stopping the leak.
The process liberated Aragon from a long, painful recovery. She is now recovering well at home with her husband and two children. She recently posted about her ordeal on her Facebook page.
"I am so grateful to [the UA surgeons] for everything they have done for us,'' said Aragon. "I had great care from a great staff. I'm here, and I am grateful I can take care of my kids."