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Your chance to save the NHS
The British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Royal College of GPs publicly oppose the government's NHS reforms. A focused campaign can convince the Conservatives and Lib Dems that pressing ahead will cost them the next election. 38 Degrees aims to put up billboards in London and in key Conservative and Lib Dem constituencies. I've contributed. Now is your chance.
WOW! Over 15,000 of us have donated over £200,000 so far this week. Huge billboards will be going up in 150 locations across London on Monday morning.38 Degrees - Donate to buy NHS billboard ads
If another 5,000 of us donate by Monday, we can take the ads to high streets across the UK. Imagine the extra pressure when billboards appear in 50 of the most marginal Lib Dem and Conservative constituencies. Not to mention those of Andrew Lansley, Nick Clegg and David Cameron!
David Cameron is trying to ride it out. He knows his plans for the NHS are a disaster. [1] But after more than a year of phoney listening exercises, aggressive spin and backroom deals, he thinks abandoning the plan now would simply be too embarrassing.
But there's one thing that politicians care about more than saving face: saving their jobs. At the moment, Cameron is gambling that it's best to force through the changes - then hope that it doesn't cost him too many votes later on. We can shift this calculation by proving to Cameron that the NHS is already an election issue, and a losing one for his party if they refuse to listen.
Elections for the Mayor of London are fast approaching. Cameron desperately wants the Conservatives to win. Together, we can buy billboards all over the city, on the very streets where Cameron bought billboards promising the NHS would be safe with him. The adverts can warn potential Conservative voters that most doctors and nurses think the changes will make our NHS worse.
Sometimes 38 Degrees members come together to pay for things which otherwise only big companies and political parties can afford. Earlier thousands of us chipped in to hire a crack legal team: their report made the front page of The Observer. This helped force Lansley to back away from plans to scrap his legal duty to provide our health service. Now we can take one big, bold message to the voters Cameron cares about most.
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WHS Promotion Gives Homeless Pets Hope For The Holidays | Pets
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WUSA) - In the season of gifting, the Washington Humane Society (WHS) asks you to remember the animals whose only holiday wish is the gift of a forever home. WHS is offering area residents four ways to help during its Hope for the Holidays promotion.:
• For Thanksgiving, WHS is calling on the community to open their hearts and homes to the many deserving animals who are seeking a loving family by offering $22 adoption fees for all animals adopted between November 19 and 26. (For more information on adoptions and available animals, visit www.washhumane.org.)
• For those who would like to give a special gift this season, there are gift certificates to cover the cost of WHS adoption fees, so rather than presenting an animal as a gift, a certificate for the right choice will offer a surprised potential pet owner the perfect opportunity to find the right animal match.
• When buying your own pet's present, remember that homeless pets would love to receive a gift too. WHS has set up collection bins at: The Big Bad Woof, Doggy Style, Dog-Ma Daycare, Wagtime, Metro Mutts, Paw Shop, and Pro Feed Nutrition Centers. For a wish list and locations, check the WHS website.
• And what's a holiday without a holiday pet picture? Hope for the Holidays offers your own pets a chance to tell Santa what they want under the tree (because, after all, you won't let them shop for themselves online!). For a $20 donation to WHS, your dog or cat can sit on Santa's lap and whisper those wishes, and you get to take home a special holiday photo. Pictures with Santa, like those shown from last year's happy pets, begin Nov. 17 and run through Dec. 15. Photos with Santa run from November 17 - December 15, and a full list of locations can be found on the WHS website.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi all.
I have this observer pattern based logger in my program. In it I have a method that allows you get get a listener depending on its class. Thought it would be a simple solution, since it is all I need at the moment and it didnt take much effort to implement. I use generics to make so the caller wont have to care that much about casting. However, I get a compiler warning about an unsafe cast.
The code itself runs just fine. No exceptions are thrown during runtime (in fact I am just using the method once, to avoid sending the object along side with the logger). Is this warning something I should worry about?public synchronized <T extends LogListener> T findListener(Class<T> logClass) { T found = null; if (logClass != null) { for (LogListener l : mListeners) // mListeners is just a list of listeners { if ( logClass.isInstance( l ) ) { found = (T) l; // This is where the warning comes in break; } } } return found; }
Take care,


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Some readers might wonder why the European Journal of International Law has decided to launch a blog. An explanation of this would help in identifying the goals of the blog and in setting out what we seek to achieve. This explanation can be viewed by clicking on More about EJIL:Talk! (to the right) but I thought it best to put it in a prominent place on the main page.
EJIL already has a homepage www.ejil.org, the autonomous website of the European Journal of International Law. Our website was a pioneer long before publishers such as our current publisher, OUP, moved into digital journal publishing, and it is distinct from all other mainline journals of which we are aware. Not only is a sizeable portion of current content made free to the reader, but all content becomes free one year after publication – the scholarly world's Napster! I say all this to indicate that we are not parvenus to the notion of digital internet publishing
The decision to experiment with a blog – and an experiment it is – was decidedly not a bandwagon effect – they all have it, so should we. It is the result of serious reflection of the Editorial Board, with our Scientific Advisory Board, on the evolving relationship between traditional and digital forms of scholarship and publishing. In its first twenty years, EJIL from time to time made huge efforts to provide 'services' e.g. the now defunct service on decisions of the ECJ on matters of International Law or our running commentary on decisions of the WTO Appellate Body of importance to public international lawyers. That, for the most part, has become a redundant and futile exercise rendered such by the power of 'search engines' and the ubiquity of primary sources on the internet. EJIL also tried to be 'topical' by, e.g., trying to hold symposia on recent decisions of the ICJ, or an ILC Report, or certain 'incidents' as soon as possible after the event. In the old days a time lag of six to nine months was considered very topical. That has become laughable – our production process, even at its best, is a tortoise to the internet hare.
And yet, there is, we think, an EJIL sensibility – with, say, its panache for the theoretical article, for aggressively bringing in younger scholars, for its intellectually diverse modes of analysis, realism mixed with doctrine, a strong appeal to, and interest in, history, to mention but a few. (To some Europeans, too Americanized; to some Americans, too European – we take comfort in that debate…). If our new blog EJIL:Talk! is successful, it will continue to reflect those EJIL sensibilities on the internet but enable us to effect a certain mutation in the identity of EJIL itself: We will give increasing preference to articles which deal with the fundamentals, with First Things, which look at an 'Incident' or 'decision of a Tribunal' with a view to exploring wide systemic meaning; in short, to articles which we predict will have lasting value – that will be interesting four or five or more years after publication. EJIL:Talk! and EJIL may thus complement each other. Note – we hope it does not provoke just short off the cuff academic gossipmentary, but short, incisive, even well-researched pieces which should simply be thought of as a different genre of writing, not unlike the difference between an article and a book.
Our plan is to allow the members of our Scientific Advisory Board to host the blog on a rotating basis, with Dapo Akande serving as our inaugural guest editor.
Please help make EJIL:Talk! a successful blog and, indirectly, EJIL an even more successful Journal.


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U.S. single-family home prices picked up in December, closing out 2012 with the biggest yearly gain in more than six years as the housing market got back on its feet, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.
The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 0.9 per cent in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, topping expectations for a gain of 0.5 per cent.
On a non-adjusted basis, prices were up 0.2 per cent.
"Home prices ended 2012 with solid gains," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.
"Housing and residential construction (led) the economy in the 2012 fourth quarter."
Prices in the 20 cities jumped 6.8 per cent year-over-year, ahead of expectations for 6.6 per cent and the best yearly gain since July 2006.
For the final quarter of the year, prices gained 2 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis.


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The Value of an IC Education
This fall the media was abuzz with articles questioning the value of higher education:
Newsweek magazine asked, "Is college a lousy investment?"
The Economist wrote of "the college cost calamity."
The New York Times highlighted those "saying no to college," and a cover story in Time magazine talked about "reinventing college."
Where does Ithaca College figure into this conversation?
Greater concern about affordability, an increasing price tag, and additional competition from online offerings has helped to create a challenging environment for the college. The declining number of college-bound students in the Northeast has also contributed to the challenge.
But Ithaca College is working proactively to combat the issues that are within its control. The college is going through a process of self-examination, focusing on what makes the college great and identifying areas that can be further strengthened. The goal is to increase the value of an IC education.
"For decades, IC has been a reputable—and highly sought-after—option for students despite being two to three times as expensive as a SUNY school for a New York resident," says President Tom Rochon. "But if we continue to add to quality by increasing cost well beyond the rate of inflation, talented students who would benefit from the IC experience can't and won't come here, and the value of our institution will decline. To maintain that value, we are challenged to increase the quality of an IC education while substantially reining in the growth of our costs."
In other words: Value = quality/cost.
Decreasing Cost
Ithaca College is not alone: Tuition for private, nonprofit colleges has risen 31 percent in the last 10 years. The average increase for 2012–13 was 4.2 percent at private colleges and 4.8 percent at public universities, according to the College Board.
Ithaca College increased its tuition rate by 4.7 percent for the 2012–13 school year, bringing the total cost of tuition, fees, room, and board above $50,000 for the first time. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 150 other colleges also charge more than $50,000, up from 123 a year ago.
In his 2012 campaign, the president of the United States called on colleges to cut their rate of cost increase in half to match the rate of inflation. Since Rochon became president of Ithaca College in the fall of 2008, the rate of tuition increase has declined every year, but IC has still raised prices faster than the rate of inflation.
In four blog posts this winter, Rochon wrote about the college's plan to manage costs. He says, "There are two general strategies for cost control. One is an across-the-board belt tightening that freezes salaries and keeps all budgets flat. That's a reasonable response to weathering a temporary economic crisis, but our challenge is to change a cost spiral that has gone on for decades. Our charge is not to reduce our rate of tuition increase for one year but on an ongoing basis. To do that, we are embarking on a targeted cost-reduction strategy."
The first step in that strategy, according to the president, will be implementing some of the recommendations made by the Huron Consulting Group in the Effectiveness and Affordability Review it conducted last fall.
Read more about the Effectiveness and Affordability Review.
Increasing Quality
While IC is attempting to decrease costs, it must also increase quality.
"Increasing quality is a more complex task than decreasing cost," says Rochon. "Everyone knows that less expensive is better than more expensive, but there are differences of opinion as to what quality means in a college education."
"No set of metrics is going to be able to settle whether or not an Ithaca College education is worth the cost," says economics professor Elia Kacapyr. "Students looking to maximize their lifetime earnings relative to their tuition expenditures don't realize that the big payoff from a college education is not monetary."
The outcomes of an IC education are more than just a job and a paycheck. An IC education should help students achieve a full, happy, and rewarding life, and encourage them to be lifelong learners, sharing in the responsibilities of citizenship and service in the global community. The college's educational mission is to provide a foundation for lifelong learning following three principles: "that knowledge is acquired through discipline, competence is established when knowledge is tempered by experience, and character is developed when competence is exercised for the benefit of others."
This mission was taken into consideration in the formation of IC 20/20, the strategic plan that aims to prepare students to be visionary leaders, ready to tackle the full range of professional and life challenges that they will face in the future—even challenges that we can't yet imagine.
The plan includes the creation of an integrative core curriculum that will go into effect in fall 2013. This core curriculum will enable students to choose a theme with real-world importance that will then be woven throughout their general education courses in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Increased residential life programming, global educational experiences, and civic engagement are also prongs of the plan. Other initiatives include the establishment of an academic advising center and a student-alumni mentor program.
This spring marks the one-year anniversary of the ICNYC program, another initiative of IC 20/20. Participation has grown to more than 50 students this spring, and next year the School of Music will launch a music immersion program and a sound recording technology program as part of ICNYC.
"Our students, faculty, staff, and alumni have made the ICNYC program a tremendous success during the past year, and we look forward to continuing to see Ithaca College students live, study, and intern in one of the most dynamic cities in the world," says Provost Marisa Kelly.
"In the decade ahead, the success of IC 20/20 will position the college as a leader among educational institutions," Rochon says. "This prominence will allow us to sustain our enrollment in the face of the sharp and prolonged demographic decline facing institutions across the country but especially in the Northeast."
Change Is Necessary
"The tuition increases in the last decades were neither wrong nor wasteful because we were responding to student demand for small classes and low faculty-to-student ratios, the best academic and recreational facilities, programs for student services and support, and added faculty and staff to support those programs," says Rochon. "But those accomplishments are no longer enough when an increasing proportion of the college-aged population can no longer afford to attend IC."
Despite our efforts, though, the Ithaca College experience will never be inexpensive. Few things of value are. The tension between value, quality, and cost is reflected in a 2011 Pew Research Center survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said higher education did not provide good value for the money, and 75 percent said college was too expensive. Yet in that same survey, 94 percent of parents said they expect their children to go to college, and 86 percent of college graduates believe their education was a good investment.
"What those results say to me is that consumers believe higher education is in terrible straits, but they want it regardless," says Rochon. "The survey results, taken together, say that people think a college education was great for them, and essential for their children, and yet has become unaffordable. This conundrum provokes anxiety and even anger. If it comes to the point where we can't offer the Ithaca College experience to talented students from all economic backgrounds, we will have failed to be the kind of institution we have been and always aspired to be, and failing is something we do not intend to do."
Read more about some of the IC students and alumni who are on the front lines of this story:
Diana Glicini '09, M.S., D.P.T. '10


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First African Cup in Morocco Completes Calendar
By Fergus Murray on 05/03/10 at 5:25 pm
The first ever ITU event in Morocco completes the African calendar for 2010. The historical event will be a sprint triathlon on 30th May in Larache, Northern Morocco.
Enrique Quesada, chair of the ITU Technical Committee visited the venue and discussed all technical aspects of the race with the representatives of the LOC. After swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, the spectacular bike and run course lap through the city centre and finish in the town square. Elite athletes will be racing a full sprint distance (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run) while the courses for age groupers and paratriathletes will be a little shorter. The organisers will provide elite athletes with free two-night accommodation.
Before and after the site visit several meetings were held among the Governor, the Major of Larache and the Spanish Consul in Larache.
Attached photo:
(from left to right)
Mr. M'hamed Atfaoui, Secretary General of the Government of Larache
Mr. Abderraouf El Amrani, Chief of the Cabinet of the Governor of Larache
Mr. Javier Jimenez-Ugarte Hernandez, General Consul of Spain in Tetouan and Larache
Mr. Mohamed El Amin El Mrabet Therghi, Governor of Larache province
Mr. Enrique Quesada, ITU Technical Delegate
Mr. Alberto Gabarre Banzo, Director of the Spanish College in Larache "Luis Vives"
Mr. Nicolas Perez Sanchez, Chancellor of the Spain Consulate in Larache
Click here to view the full African Calendar for 2010.
Find more details about this event - 2010 Larache ITU Sprint Triathlon African Cup


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We're constantly amazed by how creative our shoppers get with their own ideas for Christmas cards. You upload photos that express your personalities in funny or fabulous ways, substitute colors we never would have imagined, and write original greetings that make us smile.
Christmas Card Ideas
Christmas Card Shopping Myth #1: What You See is What You Get
If you think your card has to look exactly like the one featured on our website, you're in for a surprise. Watch our video, 5 Cards 20 Ways, to see how the same card can take on a whole new look with colors, filters and a new greeting!


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While I am happy that you can afford a stereo system that costs more than most people's homes, many of us cannot afford much more than "boxed-wines" even though we appreciate the benefits that better quality audio products bring. Being out of work for over 2.5 years (a direct result of the recession of the late 2000's), I must enjoy my music the best I can on the lowly components that I am still able to afford. I find that it is actually more economical to attend live performances than try to find the cash to purchase high end audio products that are priced in the realm of lunacy. I find your tone offensive and your attitude condescending. Many would find it obscene that you can pay $200,000 for a pair of speakers while many in this country are unable to find work or cannot afford health insurance. It is great that you are able to have such a system, and I am not saying that you should not own it if you can afford it, but there is no need to "rub it in our faces," just go enjoy it quietly.
The Pursuit of Audio Excellence
This system has taken my listening sessions to an entirely different level. Over the many hours I have spent sitting in front of it, I have been trying to articulate what that means.
I think that when one climbs to the more rarified air of the audiophile environment, the reasons for that ascent become more varied, intense, sincere, and sometimes ridiculous. Only those who remain ignorant of hi-fi's power would contest the fact that a certain pair of speakers, the right cables, or stylus can bring a listener closer to the Playback Promised Land. All you can do is pity their box-wine-grade appreciation skills and move on.
Like many music fanatics, I have had a stereo system of some kind from a very early age. It wasn't until I got a bit older, heard better systems, found myself on both sides of a PA, and started spending incredible amounts of time in recording, mixing, and mastering studios, that I understood that the more optimal the playback, the more of the source tape and its intent would be revealed to me. This is what started a fairly obsessive journey, seconded only by my fascination, curiosity, and love of music itself.
Perhaps the single thing that inspired me to switch out gear and upgrade was listening to multitrack mixes through reference monitors during recording sessionsfollowed several months later by the frustration of getting the eventual LP of the sessions, playing it, and being so incredibly underwhelmed by what was coming out of the speakers. It's not as if you can snap your fingers and suddenly be in an acoustically tuned room cranking a mix from the 2" master tape, sharing what you heard with someone else. It was this dependable sonic bummer that was the catalyst for me to improve my listening environment whenever possible.
As a far more astute audiophile than I could ever hope to be, the average Stereophile reader can appreciate the following: My evaluation of playback has been influenced by the audio systems of my youth. No matter what setup I am experiencing, I am listening for the same things every time: clarity and complete realization of the lows, mids, and highs, and the ability to hear the full sonic bouquet of the source, without having to turn the system up loud to get there. If loud is the only way you listen, you often miss out on some of the best aspects of the music. Basically, since my 20s, I have been seeking the perfect blend of warm, listener-oriented enjoyment and nothing-but-the-facts-ma'am reference values for an immersive, persuasive, yet somewhat forensic listening experience. I want to be swept away by the overall sound, but still be able to hear the edits and punch-ins.
You're perhaps thinking I could save myself a lot of time and effort by merely hanging a pair of Altecs from the ceiling and calling it a day. Many years ago, I actually considered that.
My first pair of "real" speakers were handmade for me by Dave Levine, of the now-legendary Rat Sound, in 1986. They were two large boxes with 12" woofers on their bottoms, a mid and a tweeter on their fronts. He made them out of parts he had around the shop. It was all I could afford. I gave them away only a few years ago, and would have kept them if I'd had the roomthey were great, and I got a lot of use out of them in the hovels I was living in around the Los Angeles area. A few years later I upgraded, and have been doing my best to ascend ever since.
This pursuit of sonic excellence was due not only to my time spent in the studio and live-music environments, but also to the rapidly expanding diameter of my appreciation for music. I found that systems that "rocked" didn't necessarily treat acoustic recordings very well. As my affection for jazz went from strength to strength, the frustration I felt at my system's relative boneheadedness became a distraction.
Initially, when acquainting myself with my new setup, I listened to records I was very familiar with, to allow my brain to make contextual evaluations of the sounds. Led Zeppelin albums were perfect for this. Like some of you, perhaps, I have spent literally well over half my life listening to those records. A deeper emotional connection with them I could not have imagined. The new system not only makes this possible but fairly inescapable. The attention to detail, the energy and depth that the Wilsons and VTLs never shy away from, provide a listening experience that is so completely immersive, you can forget your life before the record begins to play. There is nothing between me and the music. It is simply that damn good. This system blows my mind on a regular basis.
A man was at the house earlier today, making a repair in the kitchen. He looked at the Alexandrias and asked me, "What are these?!"
"Robots," I replied.
It is this that I have been after for decades: to have the music become part of my DNA, to lock in to music as I have while onstage, where there is nothing else on earth happening but that moment.
Music has not lost any of its awesome power. I used to sit transfixed in the small apartment bedrooms of my childhood, listening to records over and over again. Friday is still my favorite day, a holdover from high school. After classes were over, I would have two days of no teachers, no uniform, and nothing to keep me from listening to music for hours undisturbed. As I get older, the place that listening to music holds in my life only gets larger and more intense. Most of the people I speak to on a regular basis are music fanatics, and we talk of little else.
I would hope that, in part, your pursuit of audio excellence is an attempt to get closer and closer to the music, not to merely accumulate items to impress others. Music should be at least one place where we can suspend our cynicism. The many audiophiles I have spoken to, their unguarded joy when they describe what they have been listening to, how it moves them, and the excitement rendered by the technology meeting the perfect humanity of music, is quite heartening.
I think it's necessary to have at least one thing in your life that leads you to say: "This is what it's all about." For me, that's music. I think we should all feel quite lucky that we found it. Listening to the jams, whatever they may be, is the most perfect use of time I know.
Henry Rollins is a singer, a songwriter, a radio DJ, and an author. His new book, Before the Chop, is available now.
...but his tone was all about his passion for music and its related reproduction and the joy that it can bring to an individual. Dude, this is the Stereophile site. It is all about what is possible at the high end. This is not where we come to remember a world that doesn't have passion for music and its faithful reproduction...a world where mass- produced squawk boxes pervade the audio landscape. A world of audio mediocrity.
I am sympathetic with your economic plight. Hey, I can't afford that kind of gear either. But, at the same time, I wonder whether you are projecting some negatives on Mr R. that may not be deserved. From what little I know about him, he earned every watt, every kHz, every note. He is one crazy, creative, multi-talented, prolific MoFo. Lunch room madness...Adv. Bio Team Captain...come on.... And, I think his current socio-political-economic views are more in synch with the plight of everyman than you give him credit for.
I really enjoy getting a glimpse audio-wise of how the "other half" lives. Or, should I more politically correctly say; "the other 1 percent."
Relax, enjoy what you do have. Keep on pushing for that job. I wish you good health so you won't need any damned health insurance.
Hank the Crank... Man, he just rules.
I'm so far behind on his books, I'll never catch up to the new one... dang.
Wish he was still rockin live... got other stuff to do. Glad I caught his last tour.
Hey, what about the Rega gear? Still running that too?
Punk does sound better through a great system. I still think Weight is an audiophile recording.
I really enjoy reading HR contributions to Stereophile. The magazine should let him write quarterly, at the very least. Very nice selection of loudspeakers and pre/power amps. I would like to hear about the cables/cords/conditioning used, as well as, sources (TT, CD/SACD/DVD or Server).
Sorry about your plight dude, been there done that, it is hard being in that spot. However the man is writing about the pure joy of music that I hope all of us here experience. I can't wait to go home, kiss my newborn then fire up the turntable and share a Bach fugue or Billy Bragg with the lad. It is not about the gear, it is about the music and following that line of notes that makes the music. As Music_Guy said we should relax forget all the negativity and enjoy the music coming out of our modest systems. Because as HR said it is all about the music.
I think the point is quite clear. Enjoy the music. Be it through $200K speakers or a pair of Koss portaPros, as I am at the moment while listening to the Beethoven station on the new iTunes radio.
The title of the article is quite misleading.
Great to read someone who builds on his life experience in music with a pursuit of better reproduction quality, as opposed to so many whose nostalgia is served up by a Bose lifestyle speaker. Led Zeppelin, Black Flag, Miles Davis - not so different really - it's all about life, and life can be expensive whether you invest in a high end audio system or owe the medical establishment a couple of kidneys because you can't afford the insurance when you get sick. There's a funny quote in Rock-n-Roll High School where the Ramones' manager says "This is the big time girlie - this is Rock and Roll". And indeed it is. You get one shot at life, short or long, so enjoy the heck out of it, and thanks HR for posting this.
...Tony Alva, Shogo kubo, Wentzle Ruml and ritalin is alright by me!
Truth, obviously.
This is just great! Keep the HR pieces coming!
Axiom05 - I am sorry for your troubles but, I think his message is loud and clear - " the perfect humanity of music" regardless of costs! I think your comment is rude and reeks of jealousy to a man who has paid his dues and focuses on the root (not the material world - which most of us live in).
Good luck to your situation improving though!
I'm kind of flummoxed by what Rollins wrote. Recently I was wondering if The Stooges "Raw Power" sounded as horrible on Rollins' Wilson/Macintosh system as it does through my Vandersteen/Audiolab system. Now I read that he gets bummed out listening to that system and needed to spend over $200,000 on a new system. Part of me is glad for Rollins that he's so close to that audio goal I picture in my head, and part of me thinks that this is exactly what is wrong with pursuing some elusive audio nirvana.
Nevertheless I enjoy Rollins' articles, appreciate his candor, and through any system "Raw Power" is still a great record (horribly recorded but hugely fun).
I just got a copy of Raw Power from iTunes, and it's not that bad actually. The vocal is clear and the forward percussion/guitars are solid enough. The background instruments sound a little off, but there's no harshness or other distortion in this track that requires lowering the volume on a good system.
It could be just the version I have then. I got it about 15 years ago and on the cover it says "remastered by Iggy Pop". In the liner notes Iggy says: "everything is still in the red". Thanks Iggy. "Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell" in particular is tough to listen to.
I can appreciate that Rollins hears something in the studio and in his home the same thing sounds quite different but he seems to have a bad case of audio nervosa.
EDIT: I checked on iTunes and the 2010 version of Raw Power that looks like it was remixed by David Bowie sounds pretty good compared to the 1973 version which sounds a lot like what I have.
Raw Power is gonna sound lousy no matter what you listen to it on, because the recording was botched. If you blow it at that point, there's really no saving it. It's a testament to the material and the performances that anyone listens to it at all. It's a shame because it should've been one of the greatest rock records, ever.
I don't know if they're still available, but Rhino did reissues of the first two Stooges albums, both of which were fine recordings to begin with, and nicely remastered and pressed. If you haven't heard those, you should really check 'em out.
While Stereophile is all about equipment in its various forms and a lot of contributors have pretty exclusive systems I think the phrases about "rarified air" and pitying box-wine appreciation can come across as audio snobbism (and by Rollins´ criteria a lot of objectivists would be left out of this enlightened club as well but that might be a completely different subject) and that might be what axiom reacted to - I certainly did when I read it. I wouldn´t say his comment reeks of jelousy and while I wouldn´t turn down a nice hi fi if I could get one I don´t think spening your money on stereo is a more noble pusuit or less materialistic than spending it on something else.
One irony here: there are some pretty good wines being offered in boxes nowadays, as the wine industry experiments w/ alternative "delivery" m.o.'s. You can cobble together a pretty damn good system for 2K w/ Rega components. Is that a box wine? Dunno, but it's a good one. And actually I don't think the author would disagree.
Thank you for another excellent article, Henry. You absolutely nailed the reason I am an audiophile when you said, "There is nothing between me and the music." That is the Playback Promised Land, indeed. I had that in my living room for several years with Sound Lab Ultimate-1s, Wolcott P-400 amps, Balanced Audio Technology front end gear, and a Basis Ovation 'table. I tinkered with the system for several years. One day I changed all the interconnects to Nordost Vaklyrja and I stopped tinkering. It was not a conscious decision; I simply didn't feel the urge to change anything. I didn't want anything to change. I listened to music. That's it. Every time I cued up an album it was completely involving, invoking emotional reactions that were startling at times.
I'm glad you have found that level of satisfaction with your new system. I'm especially happy that you have been successful enough to enjoy this hobby at its highest level while maintaining your artistic integrity. Good for you! I've had some financial challenges the last couple of years and I no longer have my Sound Lab system. I started a new career at 50 last year and I'm very optimistic about it. Rather than lamenting my situation, I'm using my desire to own another mind-blowing system to motivate me to get up and work hard every day.
I'm looking forward to your next essay!
Your column is perfect timing for what I`ve been up to myself, in pursuit of audio excellence. I`ve had plenty of stereos around here. I recently decided to rid myself of a very large pro-audio system that was taking up too much space in favor of something smaller yet musically satisfying.
Long story short, after much trial and error, a big discovery, and an awakening to music I hadnt imagined, I`ve managed to put together a really great sounding system.
One which includes ridiculously expensive cables, and some other more expensive than average components.
I didnt do it because I`m rich, in fact I`d say my 40k a year is less than average, so my 20k system might be considered insane among my peers.
But as I put together this system and listened to it I heard music in ways I never had dreamed possible before.
My musical enjoyment was raised an entire level higher each time I upgraded cables or DAC, until I took it as far as this particular system can go.
It is audio excellence for me, and like musical heaven on earth every time I listen.
Once you experience a taste of real audio excellence and music becomes important to you like it did to me, its not a matter of what you can afford anymore. It becomes a matter of what you cannot afford to be without.


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Learn about the SAMHSA-funded grant programs that address behavioral health and criminal justice issues:
GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation
Learn about trauma-informed response training and locate a trauma trainer.
Active trainers may log in to find training tools and resources.
GAINS is an acronym for Gather, Assess, Integrate, Network, and Stimulate. Learn about the history of the GAINS Center and its model for coordinating with justice systems to provide behavioral health services.


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Planning a holiday getaway? If you're in the know, you can find some great deals on rental cars.
"As demand from consumers has returned, rental companies have expanded their fleets, so pricing has softened," says Neil Abrams, president of Purchase, N.Y.-based Abrams Consulting Group, a leading consultant to the car rental industry.
Another reason for lower prices? Rental companies are capitalizing on a strong used-car market to sell older fleet vehicles at a premium. This allows them to offer more competitive rental rates.
Here are eight tips to help you get the best deal possible:
1. Plan ahead. Taking your chances by walking into a rental agency instead of making a reservation is risky business. Odds are you'll pay more, have to choose from a limited and more expensive selection of vehicles, or find that the agency has no available vehicles. Some agencies now offer additional discounts if you prepay, says Bonnie Shillig, product director for USAA's rental car program.
Booking ahead of time also lets you explore all options. "You want to be sure to capture any possible deal the rental agencies have," Shillig says.
Depending on the dates you rent, she says you could receive a free weekend day or free upgrade. "You could even receive a discounted weekly rate whether you rent for five or seven days," she says. "Oftentimes, agencies will discount your rental further the longer you keep the vehicle, so check a few dates before you lock in your rate."
2. Start with "members only" discounts. Don't miss out on car rental deals available through businesses and organizations you already use. Also consider redeeming some of the loyalty rewards you've earned.
3. Take care on the Web. Popular travel websites allow you to compare offers from multiple companies, displaying all taxes and fees upfront. Beware of websites, however, that promise deep discounts if you commit to booking without knowing all the details in advance. You could face restrictions and fees if your travel plans change.
4. Go to town. Most times, the fees, taxes and rates for rental cars are less at off-airport locations. One reason: Many cities fund public projects by taxing visitors who stay in hotels and rent cars. That strategy extends to rental cars in more than 100 markets, Abrams says. If a little less convenience won't wreck your travel plans, you could save big by taking public transit into town and then renting. However, be aware that off-airport locations may have limited selections and restricted hours.
5. Make it right. To avoid hassles caused by overbooking, confirm your reservation and vehicle type a few days before your trip. If the car you reserved is unavailable when you arrive, demand an upgrade at no extra cost, or request that the company get the vehicle you need from another location or agency. In a worst-case scenario, in which no agency has any cars available, ask the rental company to reimburse you for taxi expenses.
6. Avoid the call of extra, extra. Add-ons are critical revenue generators for the car rental industry and can increase your bill by 20% or more. Even though you reserved a certain type of car, you could be asked if you'd like to upgrade for a few dollars more per day. Gadgets and equipment -- from GPS units to satellite radio and ski racks -- also are big moneymakers for agencies. Resist the temptation to purchase any extras you don't really need.
7. Play by the rules. Be sure you understand the terms of the rental contract. When you pick up your vehicle, go over the details with the rental agent.
Most rental companies require drivers to be at least 25 years old, and they sometimes charge extra if more than one person will drive the car. But there are exceptions, depending on the agency. Other restrictions may prohibit you from crossing state or country borders. If you sneak around these rules, it could result in extra charges and void your insurance protection.
Finally, return the car at the time you promised or risk a late fee. Many consumers are unaware that car rentals operate in 24-hour increments, Shillig says. "If you rent a car for a day and pick it up at noon," she says, "you should plan to return it the following day at noon. You could be charged fees or even for a whole extra day if you return it past 24 hours."
8. Fill the tank. It's usually cheaper to refuel the car yourself rather than buy the prepaid fuel option. But there could be circumstances in which paying for the convenience is worth it -- it's better than missing your flight because you couldn't find a gas station. If possible, don't decline the prepaid fuel and return the car empty. That could cost you a bundle -- as much as $9 per gallon for gas and the "refueling service charge."


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Future bets are out for college football. Updated ones at least. For odds to win the national championship and over/under on wins for the season. Now that we're about six weeks from kickoff some of these propositions start to get pretty interesting.
Thanks to the NCAA threatening to geld any media outlet that actually mentions gambling and college sports in the same sentence, none of this stuff ever gets talked about. Where's the money going as we get close to season kickoff on August 28? Not surprisingly, Southern Cal is a big favorite to win the National Championship at 3-1. Followed by the usual suspects of Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia and Ohio State. But who is sneaking into the picture after the proverbial big boys? Missouri at 10-1.
Georgia sliding in at 8-1 is a horrible bet. They aren't that much better, if at all, than several teams on their schedule and they have a quarterback in Mathew Stafford who still prefers to pick dandelions on the sideline. So waste your money on the Dawgs if you must.
Seven other things that jump out at me based on these odds:
1. West Virginia even under their new coach that no one has ever heard of, Bill Stewart, is still at 15-1. Which seems surprising given a trip out to Colorado and a game at home against Auburn. That's a horrible bet.
2. Virginia Tech is lurking there at 22-1. Just tantalizing enough that if you put your money on them, you'll start getting optimistic come mid-October before the inevitable Frank Beamer-led tanking. But what special teams! Also, and this is somehow perfect, Virginia Tech's official site already color coordinates what games you're to wear white, maroon, and orange. Because when you think Virginia Tech Hokie fans, you think fashion-obsessed.
3. Not particularly surprising but the dismissal of quarterback Ryan Perrilloux from LSU's team has dropped them from 15-1 contenders to 25-1. At least for Perrilloux's sake they're going to be selling sweet tea vodka in Alabama soon. That will end well.
4. Clemson (at 20-1) and Wisconsin (at 30-1) are two teams that are lurking outside the national attention and seem like decent plays. Taking them in reverse order, look at Wisconsin's schedule. They play at Michigan, which is probably their toughest road game, but get Ohio State, Penn State, and Illinois at home. If Wisconsin can manage to beat Ohio State, odds are they win the Big Ten and could still have a decent chance to play for the national championship even with one other loss on their schedule. At 30-1 that looks pretty good to me. Then, Clemson at 20-1. The Tigers open with a neutral game in Atlanta against Alabama (which they'll be favored to win) and then play four home games in a row that they'll be prohibitive favorites in. So a very decent chance they start off 5-0. Now I know that Tommy Bowden has started seasons great before tanking in the past, but you're telling me that Clemson's three toughest road games are at BC, at Florida State, and at Virginia? That's ridiculous. None of those three teams are very good. So Clemson at 20-1 looks pretty good. They'll probably be favored in every regular season game. Unlike, Wisconsin you have to worry about them tripping up in the conference title game, but, still, Clemson's a good bet.
5. 17 teams are left outside the field. Who's included in the field that could win the national championship? Not a single team. Seriously, that's a weak field.
6. Notre Dame clocks in at 100-1. This means they'll be #12 in the media poll to begin the season.
7. If there are any actual UNLV fans, leaving the odds of their winning the national championship is just rubbing it in. At the very bottom, 1,000-1. And the cum shot on UNLV football fandom, college football behemoth Nevada is only at 400-1.
College Football Odds to Win National Championship [Vegas Insider]


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Revista Cubana de Salud Pública
versión impresa ISSN 0864-3466
ALVAREZ VAZQUEZ, Luisa y SALOMON AVICH, Nelli. Abortion in teenagers within the legal contex. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2012, vol.38, n.1, pp.45-53. ISSN 0864-3466.
Introduction: the health care provided to the Cuban women by highly scientific professionals is full, universal and free, where the vulnerable groups are prioritized. The cessation of unwanted pregnancy in all women presupposes their personal willingness. There are various ways of thinking related to this decision. Objectives: to describe the assessments made by the teenager and the social actors linked to the decisions on abortion. Methods: cuban health statistics as well as the results of several qualitative research works were used. Results: in Cuba, many researchers have considered abortion as a health problem due to its complexity and other related effects. The results showed poor knowledge on the role played by the partner of the woman having abortion. The teenager and her family are the ones who generally take that decision. The physicians pointed out the machist conceptions reflected in debates about protection; as well as the existence of a strategy aimed at unwanted pregnancy prevention and included in the Cuban programs of sexual education and health, where the importance of reaching gender equality and equity is underlined. However, the expected results are yet to be achieved since it is necessary that all the social actors help to attain this goal. Conclusions: the ways of thinking of different participants, particularly the educational and health service providers, are not always in line with the necessary actions for effective pregnancy prevention. There exists the need of drawing up strategies to take more effective actions.
Palabras clave : Abortion; teenager; legal significance.


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Factory House, 42-60 Crescent Street, 7C - Long Island City, New York
Bringing the industrial feel into inviting living spaces, these exquisite 2-bedrooms, 2-baths, span across a spacious 1,088 square feet. The residence features brick interior walls, rustic wood floors, and expansive windows. Adding old-fashioned character, prewar-inspired double-hung windows frame lofty views of Long Island City. Modern convenience is at the heart of Factory House's open kitchens, with fine rift-cut red oak cabinets, white Caesarstone countertops, stainless steel apron-front sinks with spring coiled faucets and pot fillers, a tile backsplash, efficient and easy-to-clean electric stove, and stainless steel appliances. Bathrooms feature Kohler tubs and Grohe faucets and are well-appointed and distinctive, combining the polish of Venetian bronze fixtures with uniquely distressed porcelain tiles in shower and floor. Additionally, the residence includes an in-unit washer and dryer.Evoking Long Island City's industrial past, Factory House's 1 to 4-bedroom condominiums reference the area's manufacturing legacy with a sleek warehouse feel. This new boutique residence revives a level of historic architectural detail often lost in new construction. Inside this 10-story building, sunlight floods through the airy two-story lobby's floor-to-ceiling windows to illuminate rustic porcelain tile, red brick walls and sculptural steel beams. A dramatic second-floor open balcony overlooks the lobby, a prime perch to admire the uniquely textured flooring and the ceiling's wooden joists. Factory House offers a full range of services and amenities including an attended lobby, on-site parking garage and bicycle storage. On the second floor, the fitness center and children's playroom open onto a spacious landscaped resident terrace. On the third floor, the residents' library lounge provides a sun-filled space for reading, relaxing or socializing.
This listing courtesy of Douglas Elliman
Click more information to get more information.


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Hi, im having some strange issues with Drastic.
The first issue is that yesterday evening I downloaded Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All and for some reason the emulator detected the new game, but also detected a game with no name and the Drastic icon. I tried to open it and it had no icon, name or description and for the emulator it was not a valid ROM. I had to erase the app data to get that away. Also some icons of games became blank, erasing the app data fixed also that.
I uploaded some screenshots
The second issue is about cheats. I have Pokemon Versione Oro Heartgold (Italy) and I remember that this game had a cheat list, but today no cheats were available. Cheats Database works as intended in other games. Do you think its a Drastic problem or the ROM headers got corrupted?
Weird issues
Discuss anything about DraStic here.
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
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Re: Weird issues
You may want to check if your SD card is failing.
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1


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Four-star face-off
THANKSGIVING SPECIAL ISSUE THANKSGIVING SPECIAL ISSUE Byline Byline Credit Douglas Keane pits his Asian-style Thanksgiving against Michael Mina's traditional meal
Between Michael Mina's Prada loafers and Douglas Keane's bribery scheme, we didn't know what to expect from our competing four-star chefs.
But when one of the judges asked if he could bring a doggie bag for leftovers, we knew this might be our most inspired Turkey Training Camp yet.
The Chronicle Food section's quasi-annual Thanksgiving event was different from previous years. Instead of inviting readers to participate in the cooking, we offered them a chance to judge a Nov. 3 "Iron Chef"-type contest between Mina, of his eponymous San Francisco restaurant, and Keane, of Cyrus in Healdsburg.
More than 200 candidates answered our call, "So You Think You're a Food Critic." It seems everyone wanted a chance to sample Thanksgiving done by the experts. In the end, we chose five judges and an alternate to represent the Bay Area eating public.
But that wasn't the end of the competition. In fact, it had only just begun.
In the weeks leading up to the cook-off, there was some serious trash talk. We're not going to get into who said what, but the chefs were pretty pumped up. The rules seemed fairly straightforward to us: Come up with a holiday menu that could easily be made by a home cook. Apparently, four-star chefs have issues with the word "easy."
Both sent recipes in advance, as requested. When members of our trained culinary staff saw them, they rolled their eyes.
"They want to bloody confit their turkeys," someone swore.
Confit is a preserving technique in which meat and poultry is slow cooked in fat. Mina's recipe also called for some fancy deboning that I don't think most butchers know how to do.
Food editor Miriam Morgan's eyes grew wider with panic as she focused on their menus: Mina's traditionally-inspired meal with chestnut soup; carrot-sweet potato puree; and pecan, apple and sausage stuffing; and Keane's Asian-style supper, including Meyer lemon miso soup with goji and cranberry relish; and sushi rice stuffing with dried shrimp, Chinese sausage and mushrooms.
Personally, I thought the joke would be on the chefs, especially when they discovered the stoves they had to work with - an electric one that is somewhat unpredictable and a gas range with a burner that needs a certain degree of coaxing before it will turn on. You see, the second rule of the contest was they had to use our kitchen and our equipment.
After a few phone calls, a couple of recipe tweaks and assurances from the chefs that even a beginner cook could pull off the confit, their menus were approved.
Now it was time for the Food staff to go shopping. Both chefs needed duck fat, vats and vats of it - Keane to confit his turkey legs and Mina to confit the entire bird. After making a round of calls, we discovered that a number of stores carry the fat (see list at right). Most of the chefs' other ingredients were available at markets such as Andronico's , Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Bristol Farms and 99 Ranch.
A head start
We allowed Keane to brine his Willie Bird at home the night before the competition, and let both men bring their own desserts. They later admitted that their pastry chefs had made them, except for Keane's cardamom ice cream, which he made in our kitchen. Afterward, we tested Mina's quince cobbler and Keane's pumpkin custard pie to make sure they were doable by mere mortals. After a couple of revisions, they were.
On the morning of the contest, both chefs arrived at 9:30 a.m. sharp. Mina brought Sean O'Toole, the Las Vegas-based corporate chef of the Mina Group's 14 restaurants. Keane came with Amos Watts, sous chef at Cyrus. Both teams brought their own knives.
The four men checked out their new digs for the day and if they found them lacking, they graciously kept that to themselves. Caitlin Olmstead, our intrepid California Culinary Academy intern, immediately noticed Mina's designer footwear. We expected he'd eventually slip into something a little more chef-like, but he never did.
The starstruck staff felt jittery. In previous Turkey Training Camps the kitchen was chaos, and our amateur chefs were cut throat. We figured Mina and Keane would be twice as messy, especially given the fact that they have large staffs to clean up after them. As far as competitive - who could be more type A than a four-star chef?
With a sly gleam in his eye, Keane announced that he had brought gifts for all the judges. "Oh, no you don't," someone on the staff admonished.
Smoke signals
By 11 a.m. we had our first mishap. Watts cut his hand while shredding ginger on the new microplane grater and had to hit the first-aid kit. We felt bad about his injury, but heartened by the fact that even the pros screw up. It wasn't long after that the smoke alarm went off.
"Ah, just like home," said Keane.
The chefs had magnanimously agreed to share both ranges, even though we expected them to fight over them, particularly the gas one. The judges were arriving at 2 p.m., so dinner needed to be on the table by 2:30 p.m.
Keane, Mina and their helpers got to cooking. Staffers Amanda Gold and Lynne Char Bennett, both professionally trained cooks, were assigned to follow them around to make sure they were actually adhering to the recipes they had sent us. Chefs are notorious for making things up as they go.
Mina was carefully measuring cranberry juice for his relish. Then he hefted a pile of chestnuts onto a kitchen scale for his soup.
"Do you normally measure and weigh your ingredients?" I asked.
"No," he answered, looking at me like I had just escaped from an insane asylum.
"So this is what a tablespoon looks like," Keane could be heard saying across the room.
As he and Watts perused their recipes, they began laughing. Their recipe for the turkey brine called for two quarts of salt. The pair realized it should actually be two cups. Oops.
Both Keane and Mina make Thanksgiving dinner at home. Keane uses his restaurant, which is closed for the holiday, and hosted close to 25 people last year. Mina had 64 people over to his house, mostly family, friends and neighbors - even people he didn't know.
"I had someone ask me who I was at my own Thanksgiving," he said. "I told them, 'I'm just the caterer.' "
The four chefs talked amicably while nonchalantly preparing their meals. There was no cursing, no mess and no acts of sabotage - although, at one point Mina deviously suggested that Keane add another cup of salt to his miso soup.
The chefs were impeccably neat, washing up as they went. They even shared ingredients. Frankly, the whole camaraderie thing was bugging us. Without a single brouhaha, we certainly weren't going to beat "Top Chef'" in the ratings.
When Mina mentioned we had purchased the wrong kind of pumpernickel bread for his soup croutons - he likes the toast kind - we thought perhaps some drama at last. Then he began dicing up the loaf as if it were no big deal.
By this time the delicious smells wafting out of the oven were wreaking havoc on our senses.
No stress
"Aren't you worried about getting everything done at the same time?" I asked, concerned that some dishes were almost ready and there were still a couple of hours to go before the judges arrived.
"No," said Keane. "All these dishes can be reheated at the last minute."
In fact, he said, "Some of this stuff can be made two to four days ahead of time. Holidays are for visiting and enjoying, not for stressing."
But what were their tricks for making everything taste so good?
Was it love? Heck, no. It's the butter and salt. O'Toole used half a stick just to grease the baking dish for Mina's stuffing. The duck fat didn't hurt, either. Mina swore that his confit method was a fail-safe way to a moist bird.
But it would be up to our selected panelists to be the judges of that. As we ushered them into a private room away from the chefs, they voiced disappointment.
"I thought we would get to watch the action," complained David "Andy" Anderson, a 68-year-old retired Navy pilot from Belvedere, who was chosen as an alternate.
We explained that they would be judging the food without knowing who made what, so they couldn't be traipsing around the kitchen.
Executive food and wine editor and restaurant critic Michael Bauer gave the judges a score sheet and a brief primer on critiquing the food. He also advised them to try to refrain from influencing one another's decisions.
Back in kitchen stadium, the chefs put the final touches on their dishes. Keane kept tasting and adding water to his soup, but remained cool as a cucumber.
The chefs' creations were presented to the judges so they could rate their appearance. Then the food was brought back into the kitchen, where team Mina and team Keane began pouring and garnishing their soup courses.
"Wow," blurted judge David Kan, a 34-year-old San Francisco psychiatrist, as he tasted Mina's chestnut soup, then slapped his hand across his mouth when he remembered to keep his opinions to himself.
The panelists remained mostly silent as they ate their turkey and side dishes, occasionally scribbling notes on their score sheets. Tamara Ribas, a 39-year-old federal administrative judge from San Francisco, broke the quiet by announcing that she planned to "eat both plates clean and not feel an ounce of guilt."
Satarupa Bhattacharya, a 39-year-old San Mateo recruitment manager, had told us earlier that she had never met a turkey she liked - they've always been too dry and flavorless for her taste. She would be the chefs' toughest critic. Christopher Kennedy, a 40-year-old Yountville bartender, and Laura Mastrangelo, a 24-year-old law student from San Francisco, concentrated intently on their meals.
By the time dessert was sent in, their confidence as critics seemed to be building. They were getting chattier, and closer to a decision. Price Waterhouse representatives were standing just outside the door ready to tally up the score cards. OK, it was really just Bauer and food editor Morgan.
Most of the judges said they thought Keane's Meyer lemon/miso soup was a disaster. "It was too strong of a dish to come out of the gate with," said Ribas. Kennedy, on the other hand, loved it. Almost everyone agreed that Mina's chestnut soup was superior. But, when, it came to the turkey, Keane's won hands down.
"It was the first time I loved turkey," said Bhattacharya.
What seemed to give him the edge was the hoisin glaze, adding Asian flair to an otherwise American dish.
The desserts were a tie, so the battle was in the side dishes. Mastrangelo's favorite was Mina's sausage stuffing, especially the buttery brioche. Ribas was gaga for Keane's roasted Brussels sprouts with candied kumquats.
It looked like the competition would be close. As soon as the editors added up the scores, Bauer burst into the room and announced, "We have a winner."
The chefs held hands, just like in the Miss America competition. All right, that didn't really happen. But before the top chef was named, we made Mina and Keane promise that whoever won would prominently display our dorky turkey trophy at the front of their restaurant.
And the winner was (drum roll, please): Douglas Keane.
The reason: The judges loved his flavors and the fact that the meal was so untraditional.
As Ribas summed it up, "For an every-year Thanksgiving meal, I'd go with Mina." But for something unexpected, she said, it would have to be Keane.
Four-star menus, recipes, tips & matching wines Pages F4-F8
Where to get your dinner to go, and where to dine out Page F2
Watch the cook-off video at sfgate.com/food
Next Wednesday:
More Thanksgiving: Our Best Way turkey, gravy, pie recipes & more. Plus 10 essential preparation tips & videos
Check out all our top recipes & tips, from appetizers to relishes to vegetables to dessert at sfgate.com/thanksgiving


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The Roy Inch and Sons Team Was Honoured to Participate in Community Living London's Night of Heroes
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Teays Valley Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning Congratulates Daniel Parker as the Recent Recipient of the Joseph Groh Foundation
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text:
I have a degenerate string
S1=xadcdax, where
x can be replaced by any of the four characters
c, or
d. This
S1 string is match with another non-degerate string
I can first use brute force to find all possible strings of
S1, which requires
4^n (
n is the number of degenerates in a string), so the complexity is
4^2. After that, for each string of
S1 matched with
S2 by using dynamic programming which requires
(i x j) running time (where
i is the length of
S1 and
j is the length of
But the total running time will be
4^n x ij = 4ij^n, which is quite slow.
Is there a more efficient algorithm for this?