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How to make autumn cocktails at home
Fall is around the corner which means it's almost the season for sweater weather, apple cider, pumpkin everything and spicy autumnal cocktails. Although you could head to a cocktail bar for top-quality drinks, making fall cocktails from your home kitchen is easier than you may think.
With the right tools, ingredients, recipes and inspiration, you can make cocktails for your own summer send-off or autumn equinox party. By gathering ingredients that remind you of fall and making small tweaks to classic recipes, you can produce a cocktail menu to last through the season.
What you need to make fall cocktails
In order to make good cocktails at home, you need quality liquor, cocktail-making tools, fresh ice (preferably made with filtered water), fall ingredients and recipes.
Liquor, spirits and liqueurs
Every cocktail recipe requires at least one spirit, a high-proof liquor that has more alcohol than beer or wine. Common spirits are gin, whiskey, vodka, tequila and rum. Many cocktails also feature liqueurs, or cordials, which are sweetened lower-proof liquors that usually embody a specific flavor or blend of flavors. Popular cordials include triple sec (orange liqueur), Chambord (black raspberry), Kahlua (coffee-flavored) and amaretto (almond).
Many fall cocktails also feature amaro, a special liqueur named after the Italian word for "bitter." Most Amari is variations on an herbal liqueur with their own unique recipes and ingredient lists, some of which go back hundreds of years. There is a wide variety of Amari available, and despite the different types, all Amari are bitter. An amaro of some kind is commonly used as a "secret ingredient" by bartenders and mixologists. If you use an amaro, make sure its flavor profile compliments the other ingredients in your drink.
Cocktail making tools
Making great-tasting drinks requires precision and the proper tools can make your experience easier and your cocktails delicious. If you plan on becoming an amateur mixologist, you may want to invest in a cocktail tool kit, complete with everything you need, and many kits even including a recipe book.
For simple cocktails, you only need a few tools, including the important jigger. With a small cup on one end and a larger one on the opposite end, a jigger provides the exact measurements you need for almost any single-serve cocktail ever created.
You also need a cocktail stirring spoon and shaker, which are the two tools commonly used to mix drinks. A stirring spoon is used to mix and chill drinks that are high in alcohol, like a martini, while a shaker is used to chill, dilute and texturize drinks with fresh juice or other low-proof and non-alcoholic ingredients. A large mixing glass is great for stirring drinks, as well, and a muddler is crucial for drinks with crushed fruit or herbs.
Punches are great to make regardless of the season, and they are easy to put together. Punches require a large number of ingredients, but once they are made, you have a convenient, self-serve beverage that serves a crowd. Some good punch bowl sets come with matching glasses to have unified decor.
Other ingredients
Fall cocktails have similar flavor profiles to other, non-alcoholic autumn-themed drinks. While ingredients vary based on the recipe. Common ingredients include cinnamon, cloves, baking spice, apple cider, demerara simple syrup, pumpkin spice and ginger. Sour drinks call for fresh juice, so make sure you have a hand juicer handy.
Fall cocktails to make at home
Autumn Sangria
This seasonal spin on the popular punch is a creative and delicious way to use both red wine and hard apple cider to capture the essence of the changing season, and it's easy to make for a small crowd.
Ingredients: Spanish red wine, dry sparkling hard apple cider, orange peel, orange slices, apple slices, whole cherries, cinnamon sticks and demerara sugar
Combine one bottle of red wine, one large (750ml) bottle of sparkling cider, several orange peels, orange slices and apple slices, 1.5 cups of whole cherries, several cinnamon sticks and 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar in a 1-gallon pitcher. Stir the ingredients with a wooden spoon and let them soak for an hour. Fill the pitcher with ice before stirring and serving sangria over ice.
Mulled Spice Apple Cider
Warm up with spiked, hot apple cider mulled with cinnamon, cloves and other tasty fall spices. It's a great beverage to drink while gathering around a bonfire or just enjoying the changing color of the leaves.
Ingredients: One gallon of fresh apple cider, spiced rum, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise, allspice, nutmeg, brown sugar and orange slices
Combine all non-alcoholic ingredients into a large saucepan and heat on a stove until boiling. Place the lid on the pan, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the ingredients and return to heat. Keep mulled cider hot either on the stove or in an insulated carafe. Add 1.5 ounces of spiced rum to a warm mug, fill with hot mulled cider and garnish with a whole cinnamon stick.
Bird's Nest
For a boozier autumn libation, try this riff on a classic Martini and Martinez. Chicago's Letherbee Distillery makes a new "autumnal gin" every fall, and each year features a new combination of aromatics and flavors.
Ingredients: Letherbee Autumnal gin, Yellow Chartreuse and Dolin dry vermouth
Add 1.5 ounces of autumnal gin, .5 ounce of yellow chartreuse liqueur and .5 ounce of dry vermouth to a large mixing glass, then fill with ice. Using a cocktail spoon, stir the spirits for about 10 seconds before straining them into a chilled glass.
Pumpkin Spice Whiskey Sour
Pumpkin spice fans can enjoy this sweet, sour and spiced cocktail. It's great for newcomers to cocktails and old-school bourbon fans alike, and optional egg whites create a smooth and irresistible mouthfeel.
Ingredients: High-proof bourbon whiskey, fresh lemon juice, pumpkin spice syrup and egg whites (optional)
Combine 2 ounces of high-proof bourbon whiskey, 1 ounce of lemon juice and .5 ounce of pumpkin spice syrup in a shaker tin. Shake for 5 seconds without ice, fill the shaker with ice and shake again for 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled glass. If you prefer to leave out the egg white, skip those steps and serve the drink over ice.
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In Bob Seger's 1977 single "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," his driving ode to rock's timeless place in our lives, he reminds us that "all of Chuck's children are out there, playing his licks."
Seger didn't need to drop a last name: Chuck, to anyone whose pulse ever thumped to a guitar played just like ringing a bell, could only be Chuck Berry.
Berry's death Saturday at age 90 spurred an outpouring of accolades for a man praised variously as a legend, pioneer and king who led us to hail, hail rock 'n' roll. But Seger sang it most accurately all those years ago: Berry's the father of the ageless music that changed the world.
Using a mere three chords, syncopated with his lefty pinky forever reaching down and tapping the neck of his Gibson guitar, the son of St. Louis not only redefined music, but the very power and possibility of youth. From "Johnny B. Goode" to "Sweet Little Sixteen" to "Maybellene," the duck-walking Berry bent strings —freeing the feet and the soul while unleashing the spirit lurking in the psyche of post-war teenagers.
It's tempting, but an oversimplification, to view Berry as a musical bridge between early rhythm-and-blues and the 1960s rock explosion. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Berry rose to fame in the 1950s as the American interstate system began connecting, at least physically, the divided country.
All musical roads led to and sprouted anew from Berry, who took blues, gospel, big band and country and, wielding the power of electrification, melded them into a rollicking creation that traveled at lightening speed across the globe.
Sure, Elvis Presley — Berry's 1950s peer in playing alchemy with genres — sold more records. But fans can argue Berry forged a longer and stronger influence on the musical titans who followed.
U.S. & World
Berry became the common primary inspiration linking the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, three disparate and dominant acts. "If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'," John Lennon once declared.
Lennon, with Paul McCartney, borrowed from the master on songs from "I Saw Her Standing There" (the bass line from "Talkin' About You") to "Come Together" (the opening lines from "You Can't Catch Me").
Berry also presaged the era of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and other gods of the six-string, kicking off his songs with siren-call riffs that put the lead guitar at the center of rock. And Bob Dylan might not exist without Berry, who became rock's first poet, proving that pop lyrics could transcend sappy love songs.
Berry infused his tunes with word play (the very title of "Johnny B. Goode" is a pun). He conjured clever imagery ("You know my temperature's risin'/And the jukebox's blowin' a fuse," Berry sang in "Roll Over Beethoven").
He could be a little naughty, too, griping in double-entendre-filled "No Particular Place to Go," his best guys-gals-and-cars tale: "All the way home I held a grudge/For the safety belt that wouldn't budge."
Berry also displayed a sardonic streak that he employed to both satirize and celebrate the illusion of all-American greatness. "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" could be read as a commentary on race relations, wrapped in braggadocios ("Back ever since the world began/There's been a whole lot of good women shed a tear/For a brown eyed handsome man").
In "Back in the U.S.A.," Berry suggested his country didn't always live up to its promise: "Did I miss the skyscrapers, did I miss the long freeway?/From the coast of California to the shores of Delaware Bay?/You can bet your life I did, till I got back to the U.S.A."
Berry, who earned Kennedy Center honors in 2000, wasn't always treated like a king in the U.S.A., growing up amid segregation and getting sentenced to prison twice. He performed well into his 80s, and even has an album coming out this year. But in later years, he always toured on his own terms, often traveling alone and fronting makeshift backing bands.
The complexity of the genius behind the deceivingly simple classic pop songs shined through in "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll," the 1987 documentary about the all-star tribute concert Rolling Stone Keith Richards put together to mark Berry's 60th birthday. In one remarkable sequence, Berry repeatedly schools Richards on how to play the opening riff from "Carol."
Richards and all of Chuck's children will be playing his licks forever. But nobody played them better then their inventor, Chuck Berry, the father of rock 'n' roll, which never forgets.
Jere Hester is Director of News Products and Projects at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.

subset: commoncrawl


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Can you eat your cake and have it, too? Can you drive your Ferrari F355 convertible for half the day, then, effortlessly, switch over to a bike despite having no roof or trunk on which to mount it? If you're this enterprising driver the answer is "rich people can make anything happen."
Austin-based car spy Autovoyeur captured this fine specimen of a Ferrari hanging out in a parking garage with a bike hanging out from it.
Click through the gallery to see how he did it.
The trick is a small mount on the rear engine cover for the bike's rear tire and an ingenious mount attached to the rails of the passenger seat headrest for the front fork of the bike. We're guessing the tire probably goes with the owner.
There's no reason why this layout wouldn't work for anyone who has a bike and a convertible, although a rear/mid-engined car likely works better.
Frankly, if you ask us, we think it's rather ingenious.


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Rick Nauert, Ph.D., PsychCentral: The benefits of meditation are well-acknowledged. Yet a scientific explanation of how it works has been conspicuously absent.
Brown University scientists may have helped to overcome this barrier as researchers propose a neurophysiological framework to explain the clinical benefits bestowed by meditation.
Scientists believe that mindfulness practitioners gain enhanced control over sensory cortical alpha rhythms that help regulate how the brain processes and filters sensations, including pain, and memories such as depressive thoughts.
The proposal, based on published experimental results and a validated computer simulation of neural networks, is based upon the intimate connection in mindfulness between mind and…


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So two huge changes come to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, first is that all professional teams will play in the tournament and second is that locations for all but the Semi-Finals and Final will be determined by random draw. Here is the official info from US Soccer:
Tournament Field Expands to Modern Era-Record 64 Teams, First Round Kicks off May 15;
Random Selection Process Utilized for Hosting Matches through Quarterfinal Round
CHICAGO (Jan. 11, 2012) - From an expanded tournament field to an equal opportunity to host matches, the 99th edition of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup features an assortment of strategic changes as the competition begins first-round action on May 15.
This year's U.S. Open Cup includes a 64-team field, which represents the largest in the modern era (1995 to present), eclipsing the previous record of 42 teams set in 2005 and 2006. It also is the largest expansion of teams (24) from a previous year in the competition's recent history.
All Division I, II and III professional clubs will be participating in the tournament proper for the first time ever. The Division I field includes all 16 U.S.-based Major League Soccer teams, which is double the representation from the past five years and the first time since 2006 that all Division I teams will take part. Meanwhile, all six U.S.-based North American Soccer League teams (Division II) and all 10 U.S.-based USL PRO teams (Division III) will complete the balance of the 32 professional sides competing (also a modern record). This 2012 competition marks the first year that clubs representing the NASL will participate in America's oldest national soccer tournament.
The amateur entries will feature 32 teams from various leagues affiliated with the U.S. Adult Soccer Association (including USASA regional qualifiers, the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League and the National Premier Soccer League) and US Club Soccer.
Another revision heading into this year's U.S. Open Cup includes a random selection process for determining home teams from the first round through the quarterfinals among clubs that have applied to host. This change gives each participating team with a venue meeting tournament standards an equal chance at hosting its possible opponent for these rounds.[Read More]
more after the jump:
All 2012 U.S. Open Cup matches until the final are scheduled for Tuesdays, with the championship taking place on either Tuesday, Aug. 7, or Wednesday, Aug. 8. In the first round, 32 amateur-level sides will be paired geographically, with the restriction that teams from the same qualifying pool (meaning USASA regional qualifiers, PDL and NPSL) cannot be paired. The first-round winners will face Division II or Division III clubs in the second round based on geographic proximity. Second-round winners play Division I clubs in the third round, matched on a geographic basis.
The opening portion of the U.S. Open Cup schedule will occur in rapid fashion as the first four rounds take place in back-to-back weeks from May 15 to June 5. The quarterfinals are set for June 26, the semifinals for July 10, and the final for Aug. 7 or 8. The majority of the tournament will have only a minimal overlap with CONCACAF Champions League play.
Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer will look to make history as it attempts to become the first team to win a fourth consecutive U.S. Open Cup title. The Sounders defeated the Chicago Fire 2-0 on Oct. 5, 2011, to become the first team in 42 years to win the Open Cup three years in a row. Seattle won the 2010 U.S. Open Cup against the Columbus Crew and the 2009 U.S. Open Cup against D.C. United.
The U.S. Open Cup is a single-elimination tournament. A match that is tied after regulation is extended by two 15-minute halves. If a winner is not determined in overtime, advancement is determined by kicks from the penalty spot.
The tournament has crowned a champion for 98 consecutive years beginning in 1914. Every winning team's name is engraved on the base of the Dewar Challenge Trophy, which dates to the first year of the tournament and currently resides at U.S. Soccer House in Chicago.
The 2012 champion will earn a $100,000 cash prize, while the runner-up will collect $50,000. The top Division II, Division III and amateur clubs will each receive a $10,000 prize.
2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Schedule:
April 29: Qualifying deadline
May 15: First Round
May 22: Second Round
May 29: Third Round
June 5: Fourth Round
June 26: Quarterfinals
July 10: Semifinals
Aug. 7 or 8: Final
Participating Professional Teams (32 total)
Major League Soccer (Division I - 16 teams): Chicago Fire, Chivas USA, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, LA Galaxy, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Philadelphia Union, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders FC, Sporting Kansas City.
North American Soccer League (Division II - 6 teams): Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Fort Lauderdale Strikers, NSC Minnesota Stars, San Antonio Scorpions, Tampa Bay Rowdies.
USL PRO (Division III - 10 teams): Charleston Battery, Charlotte Eagles, Dayton Dutch Lions, Harrisburg City Islanders, Los Angeles Blues, Orlando City, Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Richmond Kickers, Rochester Rhinos, Wilmington Hammerheads.
Distribution of Amateur-Level Places (32 total):
U.S. Adult Soccer Association Regional Qualifiers - 9 places: USASA regional qualifiers will increase their number of places in the tournament by one compared to 2011.
United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League - 16 places: The PDL will have the largest increase in representation among the amateur leagues since 2011, growing from nine slots.
National Premier Soccer League - 6.5 places: The NPSL is a national amateur league affiliated with the USASA. In previous years, its teams participated via USASA regional qualifying.
US Club Soccer - 0.5 place: U.S. Club Soccer is an organization member of U.S. Soccer.
Note: One team from the National Premier Soccer League will face a US Club Soccer representative for the final place in the tournament.
2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Facts:
- Largest field of teams (64) in tournament proper in competition's modern era (1995 to present), eclipsing previous record of 42 (2005, 2006)
- Largest expansion of teams (24) from previous a year in competition's modern era
- First time in modern era where all U.S.-based Division I, II and III professional clubs will participate in tournament proper
- Home teams through quarterfinal round to be determined by random selection (change from sealed bid process)
- Largest field of professional teams (32) in tournament proper in competition's modern era, eclipsing previous record of 28 (2000, 2001)
- Largest field of amateur teams (32) in tournament proper in competition's modern era, eclipsing previous record of 21 (2011)
These are huge changes and I look forward to them, now if we could get some media coverage of this tournament and if MLS could add say a $250,000 allocation fund bounty if a MLS team wins the tournament, maybe everyone would start to take it seriously.


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Oh I love how companies make things "salted" to make it seem fancy. Don't get me wrong, I defended this choice on the Nosh Show in hopes that it's meant to make the pecans stand out a bit more. I'm ok with it as long as it serves a true purpose and is not just a marketing gimmick.
Ok, this review is going to be a bit of a back and forth on a few points, so hold on. I get the name now. I assume that they are going for a truffle flavor overall, and then for whatever reason it's going to be crazy (the kerfuffle part).
I don't really get the truffle part. Are salted truffles a big thing somewhere? Sure there is plenty of texture here, but it's not a candy like texture, it's much more about crunchy. Maybe the swirl didn't hit me as thick as they intended it to, but I don't get a truffle vibe, though maybe I don't eat enough fancy candy. Who knows.
I think the salt of the salty swirl is the worst part of this pint actually. Instead of adding to the flavor profile, I think it's pulling me out of the moment. It just doesn't fit right. I was just kind of so-so going through this pint and I was going to put it away, but I kept stealing bites and I realized the salty aspect had died down for a little bit. Another puddle of swirl popped up, I took a bite, and then I was done, I didn't need to keep going.
I know a lot of people where down on this flavor but I tried to be positive. Having finished my first sampling, I was definitely a little too optimistic. I get that they wanted the salty swirl to set this apart, to stop it from being every other vanilla with a fudge swirl, but it backfires. It's not a huge backfire, but I know it's enough to stop me from buying this one again. It will sound cliche, but they should have gone with a caramel swirl. The caramel would have bridged the gap between the fudge chips and the pecans in a way that the chocolate can't.
On Second Scoop: Up until the last bite, I was enjoying this more than I did the first time. The last bite just hit me funny, but kind of reinforced a random notion I had. I did not let the ice cream melt at all this time, I ate it straight from the freezer. The swirl was still a solid, fudge-like substance as opposed to the more puddle like substance I was downing on Friday. I don't know if that helped keep things in check a bit better or if I was just more ready for the flavor this time. It wasn't until that last bite that I had flashbacks to the other day. Look, there's no denying that the plentiful texture provided by all the pecans and fudge bits is fun and enjoyable. It's the overall flavor profile that has me at a loss. As with many products on this site, this one will come down to personal preference. If you give it a try, be sure to let us know your thoughts.
History Note: Nestle, under the Wonka brand, once released a Kerfuffle Truffle flavor!
Verdict? very busy
Buy Again? not likely


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On July 15, 2011, Los Angeles began "carmageddon": the closure of the 405. Although the inconveniences will surely be mammoth, I hope Angelenos take pride and full advantage of their superb alternative transportation systems. Below, I profile my surprisingly positive experience using only the LA Metro, Metrolink, and my bicycle to get around.
IntroductionOn 10/10/10, Los Angeles banned cars from 7.5 miles of roadway through the center of Los Angeles for CicLAvia. The LA Times piece covers the details of the day.
This post is about my experience flying in for the event with nothing but a bicycle. The trip shattered my outdated perception of LA as purely a car mecca. Riding nothing but public transportation throughout both urban and suburban LA was surprisingly pleasant and efficient. It also brought me closer to the people of this city in ways I didn't expect.
What's it to me?
Oaklavia". Why did I care so much about this one?
Personal Redemption
Perhaps it was because, 25 years earlier, I tried and failed to use only a bike in LA while attending school. Black soot in my lungs and overt contempt from motorists quickly ended that. For this and other reasons, I transferred to UC Berkeley soon after and left town. So the prospect of cycling into the open arms of a city that had sent me and my bike packing 25 years earlier was definitely compelling.
Possible Sea Change
Personal redemption or historic sea change, I had to see this for myself. I signed up to volunteer at the event and padded the trip with a few extra days to try out some of the other new alternative transportation infrastructure and events.
Getting There
|Train route from Burbank to Union Station
Inter-city Trains (Amtrak) Still Lacking
The train from the bay area to LA takes all day, literally. Doing this would require taking 2 extra days off work. On top of that, a terrorist alert had heightened train security which meant increased delays.
Planes, Trains, But No Automobiles
Given all this, I decided to fly down with the bike. I'd congest the airways getting down there but not the freeways getting around town. This seemed right to me. It's all about right-sizing your ride for the journey not using bike or train at all costs. I'm not a bike ascetic.
Bob Hope Airport
Generally though, it leaves the airport for downtown every hour during commute hours. As I found out later, weekends are a different story: there's no service on the Burbank line and other lines are severely scaled back. Nevertheless, on this particular Friday I was on a train heading to downtown in less than 10 minutes.
The only unfortunate part of the ride was realizing that this clean, nice, fast train to downtown was virtually empty at 8:45am on a Friday. I suddenly worried that perhaps this great train service would wilt before Angelenos adopted it. But it was early yet.
Regardless, I got from Burbank Airport to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles in 40 minutes. That isn't faster than a car in good traffic but it is in bad traffic. In any case, it is much cheaper and cleaner. Best of all, I could write this or read the paper while I commuted.
Union Station
Bike Emergency
Originally, the point of flying in early was to have some time on the bike scouting the CicLAvia course on a regular work day. However, my bike was still semi-dismantled in a bike box from the flight. When I started to reassemble it at the hotel, I discovered I had left the mounting screws for my rear derailleur back at home. Without those the bike is useless. Ugh!!
Metro Gold Line: Pasadena to the Rescue
C.I.C.L.E ArtNight Ride
I was back at my hotel and had the bike assembled in plenty of time to scout a bit and then attend the "ArtNight Ride" hosted by C.I.C.L.E. The ArtNight Ride was another pleasant surprise to my outdated perception of Los Angeles as car-focused. Approximately 50-100 riders gathered in Pasadena's Central Park on a Friday night to bike between a series of art exhibits and performances. It was a beautiful night with great people, exhibits, and a heartpounding taiko drum performance.
SF Critical Mass is self-serve. Although I'm comfortable with the self-serve approach it is nice to know there's an easier intro for the new. Group rides are one of the most nourishing and fun experiences in cycling. The folks at C.I.C.L.E. are very gracious ambassadors to that. After the ride, I returned to downtown on the Orange Line about midnight with no problems.
Metro Brown Line: Pomona
Returning from Pomona around 11:30 a.m. on a Saturday, I did run into a 2 hour dead zone where there was no train until after 1 p.m. I then went on a bit of a wild goose chase looking for the bus station which ran hourly. In the end, I took the train after 1 p.m. The return soaked up more of my day than I liked but it wasn't devastating. I still had time to pedal to the beach.
Pedaling to the Ocean: Union Station to Santa Monica
Like any other tourist, I made a bee-line for the 3rd Street Promenade. Then, I hung out to watch the sunset. It had been a while since I saw the sun boil into an ocean's horizon. Very cool. Although after that I found myself standing in the dark with at least 16 miles of central LA between me and my hotel. Pedaling around Pomona and out to the beach had left me too wiped out to want to dodge cars in the dark; not to mention, any criminal activity. I decided to take the 794 Metro Rapid bus which left right from 3rd Street Promenade and went straight to Union Station.
Existential Bus Ride
The bus ride turned out to be anything but rapid. It was a classic, sweaty, overcrowded milk run. Nevertheless, it produced some precious moments that reminded me of all the intangible reasons to bike, bus, and train.
Amongst the chaos of the bag ladies, the French and Japanese tourists, the goateed art student hitting on the scantily clad UCLA coeds, an elderly man mentioned to the bus driver that he had to get off at "Western". The bus was so crowded that he couldn't see when we arrived there so he asked the bus driver to remind him. The driver had too many other people competing for his attention to notice. I didn't realize I had until 45 minutes later.
Public transport can breed empathy. It can breed animosity as well but that night it produced empathy in me that I didn't know existed.
I am hardly a bleeding heart. I can be bit of a loner, especially when I am feeling vulnerable on a strange city bus. Even so, while focusing on my own place to ditch the bus, I saw the old man's street approaching fast: Western! I looked back at him. Not only was he unaware, he was asleep. Now, I couldn't just tell him. I had to wake him. This took some doing. He was really out. It was comical but sweet to watch his eyes blink slowly as he came online. "Western?", he said. "Yah", I said. He got all flustered and lobbied for the bus driver to stop. He did so just in time.
The old man didn't thank me or anything but I felt really good from the experience. "Empathy", I thought. Public transport can breed empathy. It can breed animosity as well but that night it produced empathy in me that I didn't know existed. Any psychologist will tell you empathy is the key to healthy relationships. I am grateful for the reminder that there's more at stake in the transit debate than things like efficiency and air quality. Public transport is a way to keep us all from isolating ourselves to sociopathic degrees. It's hard to live in an apathetic bubble when people can reach out and touch you with their hands or their needs.
Perception Updated
|North Hollywood metro station
|Velo Polo players after a match
What's more, the people of LA have altered their culture towards alternative transport with a gusto and bravado that only they can. The way they decorate their train stations (North Hollywood), their bikes, and themselves, makes the whole thing more cool. The cyclist image desperately needs all the cool it can get (see this Slate article for more on that). Having the residents of an icon of cars and coolness getting on board trains, bikes, and the whole alternative transport scene is a vote of confidence that will breed a lot of global adoption.
Los Angeles is no longer just a car mecca. Los Angeles has a first class public transportation system that rivals many U.S. cities and compares favorably to many around the world. Most importantly, the people are using this system in droves and the city's transportation culture is embracing alternative transport in a big way. I don't recognize it anymore but I love LA.


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FORTALEZA, Brazil — Not long after celebrating another all-important win at the World Cup, Brazil was jolted by the loss of Neymar.
The tournament's poster boy with the dyed-blonde fauxhawk fractured a vertebra in his back during Brazil's 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Colombia on Friday. The injury has ruled the striker out of the rest of the competition, dealing a massive blow to the team's chances of finally winning a World Cup at home.
Brazil advanced to the semifinals for the first time in 12 years, with the goals coming from defenders Thiago Silva and David Luiz. But the jubilation was quickly tempered when Brazil team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said Neymar broke his third vertebrae and is expected to be out for several weeks, ruling him out of Tuesday's semifinal match against Germany in Belo Horizonte.
"It's a situation that leaves us in a difficult position for the match against Germany," Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. "But we have great players and if I have to change something I will do it and we will be OK."
The 22-year-old Neymar has been the focal point of both the Brazilian team and the entire World Cup, and he lived up to expectations with four goals in the first three matches.
But he took a knee to the back late in the match against Colombia at the Arena Castelao in a collision with Juan Camilo Zuniga. The Brazilian star was crying in pain as he was carried off the field, and was taken to a private clinic. He has since been released.
"He will not be in condition to play, he will need a few weeks to be fit again," said Lasmar, the team doctor. "He is very, very sad."
The foul on Neymar came toward the end of one of the dirtiest games of the tournament as Brazil committed 31 fouls and Colombia had 23.
Brazil will also be without Silva for Tuesday's match against Germany. The captain must sit out after getting his second yellow card of the tournament after impeding Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina.
Brazil, which is trying to become the first host to win the World Cup since France in 1998, had been eliminated in the quarterfinals at the last two tournaments. The "Selecao" lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals in 2010 and to France in 2006 after winning its fifth title in 2002.
Back in 1950, Brazil needed only a draw in the final match to win the World Cup, but the team lost to Uruguay in a match known as the "Maracanazo."
This time around, Brazil won its group and then beat Chile on penalties in the second round.
On Friday against Colombia, Silva gave Brazil the lead in the seventh minute, scoring with his left knee after a corner from Neymar passed through the Colombian defense. He celebrated the goal by pointing to the emblem on his jersey and shouting, "This is Brazil, this is Brazil."
Luiz added the second from a free kick in the 69th, side-footing a long-range shot into the top of the net.
Colombia got one back in the 80th. James Rodriguez scored his tournament-leading sixth goal from the penalty spot after Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar brought down substitute Carlos Bacca inside the area.
Rodriguez tried to control the pace of the match, but it was Brazil that created most of the scoring chances as Ospina had to make a series of saves in the first half alone.
The Colombians tried to pressure after Rodriguez's late penalty, but Brazil held on with solid defending.
Colombia, playing at the World Cup for the first time since 1998 and in the quarterfinals for the first time ever, had entered the match after scoring 11 goals, second only to the Netherlands.
"After not playing in the World Cup for so long, we were able to show the value of the Colombian football and the talent of some of our players," said Colombia coach Jose Pekerman, an Argentine. "They showed great spirit and presence of mind. They came to play a great World Cup, not just to participate."
There was a lot of talk about Rodriguez and Neymar before the match, but the 22-year-old forwards didn't really deliver in Fortaleza. Rodriguez scored the late penalty but was otherwise mostly ineffective, as was Neymar before he left on a stretcher.
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Sunday's 6.0 earthquake in Napa County, Calif. caused power surges that may have led to much of the damage to computers in homes and small businesses, according to computer technicians in Napa.
The quake was violent enough to cause partial building collapses, move furniture and toss PCs from desks, cracking screens and damaging hard drives. It also disrupted power, and may have sent large electric loads to homes and business, overwhelming surge protectors.
The quake may have exposed the limitations of surge protectors that are designed to handle the transient power spikes of lightning strikes or from a home coffee maker shorting out, not the kind of power grid disruptions delivered by an earthquake.
The force of the quake was such "that I lost pretty much everything in my house that was glass," said Dylan Williams, general manager of Valley Tech Solutions in Napa. Shelves and furniture were knocked over, he said. His office didn't fare any better.
"We had shelves of product and desk and equipment that basically just got tossed around like toys," said Williams. "Our office is pretty much a wreck."
By 9 a.m. Monday, Williams had 10 calls from clients seeking help, and he's been adding people to the list since.
The quake delivered power surges "all over the area," said Williams.
"Things have been dramatically, physically damaged from electricity surges," he said, citing customers who relied on power strips with surge protection. "That's primarily what I'm seeing all over the place."
Chris Rohrer, a repair tech and software developer at Computer Engineering Group in Napa, said that 75% of the firm's computer repairs involve power surges. "The main issue has been the fact that a lot of computers weren't plugged into the proper surge protector," said Rohrer.
Electric grid damage caused by an earthquake may be a particularly brutal test of surge protectors.
Colin Campbell, vice president of APC, a company that is part of Schneider Electric and makes power protection for home and industrial use, said that surge protectors do not necessarily have the ability to protect PCs from power swells -- an increase of voltage -- or sags -- a dip -- caused by severe earthquakes that physically damage power grid equipment.
"This sounds counter-intuitive, as a surge protector sounds like something that can correct for bad power," said Campbell. But the difference is in understanding that lighting generated voltage surges or spikes last only 50 to 100 micro-seconds. But the swells and sags caused by a grid that is made unstable by a disaster can last hundreds of milliseconds.
"Surge protectors can suppress quick bursts of voltage, but have no internal energy source to continuously correct for comparatively slower line voltage transients," said Colin.
Normally, the line voltage is 120 volts but an extended swell above 140 volts can damage many surge protectors and cause them to fail, said Campbell.
Campbell's bottom line recommendation is to buy a UPS, which provides surge protection and battery backup. A UPS can monitor the line voltage and when it goes outside the safe envelope rapidly switch to its internal energy source, the battery. The UPS also offers connectivity in an outage.
People using power strips, particularly low-end power strip,s should be aware of their limitations.
Ed Spears, the technical product marketing manager at Eaton, which also makes power management equipment for homes and industries, said the power strips sold in stores use metal oxide varistors (MOV) that can offer surge protection. When they do get a power surge, the MOV essentially catches the surge and directs it away from the electronic equipment and diverts it to the building's ground system.
There's only a certain amount of surge energy that the devices can handle. Many of the strips include an LED indicator that goes out if the surge strip isn't functioning. But Spears said users may not notice this.
The quality of these power strips varies, as does the length of time they may last. In South Florida, which gets a lot of lightning strikes, they may not last longer than six months to a year, said Spears.
In Napa, Williams said he planned to talk to all his clients about power protection, and about using a UPS. That's because he did not see power surge damage where a UPS was in use.


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To call Queerbait!, a new project involving Gina Young (she of Team Gina fame), different would be an understatement.
The group is difficult to describe and they are not like any other acts gracing stages in Seattle, which is one of the many reasons I am thrilled to have them as part of Ear Candy's Birthday Bash 2010 at Nectar Lounge
Queerbait! is really more of a performance art multimedia project than it is a band and its live shows look to be equally visually intriguing and musically entertaining (see videos below). The core lineup consists of two modern dancers (Meredith Meiko and Tova Eisner), a visual artist (Johanna Breiding) and a musician (Gina Young). Not much is more is known about Queerbait! because they have a limited web presence, no recorded material and the group has only performed one live show. But from the videos you get a glimpse of lots of interesting costumes, makeup and some rapping in German. While the project is in its infancy, I've been told the group intends future collaborations with musicians like Kamikavi and Radio Sloan, and queer theorists/academics like E.L. Hunter and Marisa Ragonese.
See, I told you they are unlike anything happening in Seattle.
Peep the videos below and come catch Queerbait! at Nectar Lounge March 14 when they open Ear Candy's Birthday Bash 2010. Other performers slated for the show include Lisa Dank, Katie Kate and No-Fi Soul Rebellion. Doors at 8 p.m., show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets cost $6 at the door. Show is 21+


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This week's secret ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is thyme. We could all use a little more thyme in our lives. Thyme is a basic herb that is used in a lot of French cooking. It is also an integral part of Bouquet Garni. Thyme is part of the mint family and is a perennial meaning once you plant it, it will come back each year. I love that. It's a very easy herb to grow. You can use thyme when cooking vegetables, meats, poultry and fish dishes, soups and cream sauces. It is usually easy to find both fresh and in a jar at the supermarket. Now here is something to keep in mind. You should store your herbs in a cool dark place for no more than 6 months.
With this being such a wonderful ingredient I can't wait to see all the dishes you share today.
- Share your recipe title along with your name and blog name. example- Diane@ The WHOLE Gang-Roasted Balsamic Chicken with Figs and Onions.
- Link to your individual post, not your homepage and then link back to this post. This completes the circle and allows your readers to find more recipes using the secret ingredient.
- Include your name and recipe title. Please link back to this post in your recipe post.
Please follow these guidelines so I don't have to delete your link. Every week some get deleted.
Next week's secret ingredient is ……………Pepitas!
November 5th …..Lentils
November 12th …..Cinnamon
November 19th …..Sage
November 26th …..Thanksgiving Inspired Meals


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Ages And Ages, 'Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)'
"In a lot of ways, I feel like this is the way our music is intended to be: inclusive, communal, and all together," Ages And Ages front man Tim Perry tells us in an email about his band's new video for the song "Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)."
The tear-inducing video was shot in a single live take in the living room of a friend's house. "We surrounded ourselves with friends, family (my mom is one of the violinists), and all of our favorite musicians from all of our favorite Portland bands," says Perry. "We reached out to people who'd inspired us over the years: other artists, activists, organizers. We reached out to Northwest Children's Choir. We reached out to PHAME, a choir of adults with disabilities. We reached out to a lot of other people we didn't know but wish we did. It was all over and done in four short hours. And it was one of the best days of my life."
"Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)" is the title track to Ages And Ages most recent album. You can see the group perform it and other cuts from the record in a recent Tiny Desk concert.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom...Colin Murdock
Killing Me Softly with his ThongKelly Robinson
The Secret Service assigned this dude to be Obama's personal bodyguard while in San Francisco.davestuckey
Red Bull gives you wings. But there are side effects.Julius_Goat
In an Australian Post-Apocolyptic Wasteland, he is King.Mr.Excalibur
Related to the Witch Doctor is the What The Fuck Doctor.Julius_Goat
How the Olympic Torch parties at night.Wicked_One
Damn, I knew I forgot to lock the dungeon door again...Joey_09876
They bring him into every crime-scene...he always finds semen.Mr.Excalibur
Even Lou ferrigno needs to feel pretty now and then.NeilSoan
The devil wears next to nada.CPLPunisher
Jerry, is there mayhaps a gentler way you could inform your parents?Ceveron
What do you know. There is such as thing as too much self-confidencebcanders


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Friday, June 18, 2010
Attn: Mark McNairy For Urban Outfitters
[Editor's Note: Read more from the two parties involved here.]
7 comments:
Those saddles are D.O.P.E.ReplyDelete
thanks for showing me that longwing with the nurse heel.ReplyDelete
now i can comfortably ignore anything Mark McNairy puts his name on from now until the end of time.
Why would I spend $300 + on a colabo when I could get the original aesthetic for less. However, those wedge soled brogues are worth a second look.ReplyDelete
- Paul PotsteinJune 18, 2010 at 8:17 PM
So, where are the affordable options? I guess they're coming at a later date.ReplyDelete
UO is weak. Shop at a small local shop and get the attention you deserve. UO is trying so hard ! They don't realize that as soon as they touch these trends they kill them. Who shops at Urban to buy shoes for $300+ and get zero service from some teenager. They tried it with Redwings and fell flat on their faces and discounted them at 50% off.ReplyDelete
im so glad these are hideous so i have no reason to ever step foot in an urban outfitters.ReplyDelete
The cap toe boot is nice but the wing tips with it's sole is wicked.ReplyDelete


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Learn About the Law
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[275 U.S. 359, 360] Mr. Godfrey Goldmark, of New York City, for petitioner.
[275 U.S. 359, 364] Messrs. George Trosk, William De Forest Manice, and Allen R. Memhard, all of New York City, for respondent.
Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
Knauth, Nachod & Kuhne being in bankruptcy, the respondent, The First National Bank of Trinidad, Colorado, claimed priority in respect of certain funds collected by the trustee in bankruptcy, the petitioner, from the Banca Commerciale Italiana; the ground of the claim being that these funds were charged with a trust in the hands of the Italian bank. The respondent prevailed in the Circuit Court of Appeals. Ex parte First Nat. Bank of Trinidad, 13 F.(2d) 732. A writ of certiorari was granted by this Court. 273 U.S. 684 , 47 S. Ct. 240.
The facts are as follows. The bankrupts had credit with many foreign banks and to enable small banks in this country to issue drafts upon such banks in their own name offered these terms:
It was added that the drawing banks act as principals and draw in their own name, the bankrupts being employed merely 'as agents of the drawers for the purpose of advising the issue of their drafts and providing the drawee banks with sufficient funds to cover their payment.' The bankrupts sent out lists of their foreign correspondents and also daily rate cards fixing the rate for the various foreign currencies, including their own compensation, good only for the day of the date. In accordance with this plan the Trinidad bank drew a draft on a branch of the Banca Commerciale Italiana for 24,360 lire, sent notice to the bankrupts that they had sold it 'and shall thank you to protect same upon presentation,' and remitted therewith a check for $1,191.20, which the bankrupts received on May 22, 1923, [275 U.S. 359, 366] and deposited to their general account. On the same day the bankrupts sent to the Italian bank and to its branch a list and description of the drafts issued by inland banks and by the bankrupts and requested it to 'honor the above listed drafts charging same to our account.' The list was received on or before June 4, 1923; the account of the bankrupts was debited with the total amount and to that extent ceased to draw interest, the bank getting its compensation in this way. At the same time in account termed 'Drafts Payable' was credited with the same amount, this account being credited in the same way with drafts from other dealers with the bank and the bankrupts themselves. In accordance with the practice in international banking, the bankrupts when they saw fit to do so canceled their advices and were recredited in their general account; and although in fact they did not cancel the advice of inland drafts except when requested by the inland banks, the Italian bank did not know or inquire into reasons and so far as appears the Trinidad bank or at all events the holder of the draft knew nothing of the mode of bookkeeping described.
The draft was presented after the petition in bankruptcy had been filed and was dishonored; the petitioner as drawer had to take it up and now claims on the two grounds that the sum paid by it was paid upon trust to be applied to the draft, and that as holder of the draft it is, by subrogation, an equitable assignee of the bankrupts' deposit with the drawee. The first of these need not detain us. Beecher v. Cosmopolitan Trust Co., 239 Mass. 48, 131 N. E. 338. Legniti v. Mechanics & Metals Nat. Bank of New York, 230 N. Y. 415, 130 N. E. 597, 16 A. L. R. 185. The identity of the fund was not maintained and no one expected it to be. See National City Bank of New York v. Hotchkiss, 231 U.S. 50, 56 , 57 S., 34 S. Ct. 20. The bankrupts undertook to 'forward' advice but only to 'provide' the drawee with funds. The second contention was that which prevailed below. Of course there is room for difference if [275 U.S. 359, 367] the parties did not express very clearly what they wanted or meant but we are led to a different conclusion whether the reliance be upon the rights of the holder or upon the original contract between the respondent and the bankrupts. In the first place the ignorance of the whole affair on the part of the holder and the general understanding that the party dealing immediately with the bank having the 'Bills Payable' account is master of it, as between himself and the bank, are quite inconsistent with the notion that an entry on that account is the appropriation of a fund to the holder's use. The respondent tries to give a different turn to the evidence but the master's finding and our own conclusion from the testimony leave no doubt in our minds. It is true that after such an entry the interest allowed to the depositor stops but that is only a convenient way of giving compensation to the bank. It is not uncommon in commercial transactions to see some of the elements of an earlier or a half imitated transaction appear, although the essentials of the transaction are not there. Whether a fund was appropriated or not depended wholly on the dealings between the bankrupts and the Italian bank; and both of them dealt with the account as subject to the bankrupt's control. The cessation of interest was for the benefit of the bank because the account was only with its general funds, and did not have any assets especially set aside and appropriated to it-in short was a bookkeeping device for the convenience of the bank.
Again, the terms offered by the bankrupts to their correspondents seem to us to promise the appropriation of a specified fund to the draft as little as they promise to apply the money received by them to that end. They are to provide the drawee banks with sufficient funds for the payment of the drafts by transfer of credit from our balance 'or otherwise.' They are to provide, that is, as convenient to themselves, for payment by the drawee banks, not to give them an earmarked corpus to be [275 U.S. 359, 368] handed over. They are requested by their correspondents to protect the drafts, which again means merely to see that they are paid. Wabash, St. L . & P. R. Co. v. Ham, 114 U.S. 587, 596 , 5 S. Ct. 1081. People dealing with large banks do not ordinarily seek the ambiguous security of an identified fund, they are satisfied if the bank gives them credit. We see no indications that the Trinidad bank was not perfectly content to know that it would have credit with the Banca Commerciale, and that in the usual course of things its drafts would be paid. Evidently with this conception of their duties the bankrupts asked the Italian bank 'to protect to the debit of our account the drafts' in question and others, and the branch bank to 'honor the above listed drafts.' That such a letter of advice is not an assignment is clearly explained in Eastman Kodak Co. v. National Park Bank (D. C.) 231 F. 320, 323, affirmed (C. C. A.) 247 F. 1002
We have called the instrument under which the respondent claims as assignee, a draft. But on its face it is called 'check.' The form was a general form furnished by the bankrupts and the purpose is said to have been that in continental Europe or some parts of it checks are not subject to the same stamp tax as drafts. It is said in a reputable work that the fact that the instrument purports to be drawn upon a deposit is what constitutes it a check. Daniels, Negotiable Instruments (6th Ed.) 1569. The existence of this opinion sufficiently explains the words of the document before us 'Pay from balance against this check.' They no more purport to assign a fraction of a fund than does an ordinary check. They would not naturally take that shape as the respondent, the drawer of the check, had no fund in the hands of the drawee.
The decision of this case depends more upon the general import of the transaction and upon what the parties were [275 U.S. 359, 369] likely to want than upon the phrases that can be picked out from the several steps. We repeat that in our opinion what the parties meant to establish and what the respondent got was the assurance of a credit abroad to the extent of its check as in the case of a letter of credit, not an attenuated property right in an account to which no special funds were attached and the particulars of which neither the respondent nor the purchaser of the check could know.
Order reversed.
Mr. Justice STONE (dissenting).
The agreement of the bankrupts, on the faith of which petitioner sold its draft, did more than stipulate that the draft should be paid on presentation. It provided specifically the method of payment; that the bankrupts should 'promptly,' on notice of the draft, 'provide the drawee with funds sufficient for the payment of the draft abroad, by a transfer of credit or otherwise.' It plainly contemplated the course of business, actually followed, in which a credit, to be established with the drawee, was to be set apart and specifically appropriated to the payment of the draft. The draft was by its terms made payable from 'balance against this check.'
We need not discuss what the petitioner's rights would have been if no such credit had been established, for here the bankrupts had performed their contract fully and to the letter. They set apart the stipulated credit. Withdrawal of it by them would have been a violation of their contract with petitioner, for the contract contained no intimation of a right to revoke it, and if the receiver had not done what they had no right to do the draft would have been paid. Nor does it appear to me that the real question is whether the Italian bank was charged with a trust with respect to funds lodged with it by the bankrupts. It may be assumed that it was not a trustee, but [275 U.S. 359, 370] only a debtor to the bankrupts for the funds thus received, with power to discharge the debt pro tanto by payment of the draft when presented.
Stated with precision the question seems rather to be whether, since the bankrupts had performed their agreement by specifically designating and setting apart enough of their credit with the Italian bank to meet the draft, the credit thus set apart is to be treated in equity as security for the payment of the draft. If subject to that equitable obligation, neither the bankrupts nor the receiver could convert the credit, so set apart, into cash and turn the proceeds over to general creditors freed of that obligation.
Since Holroyd v. Marshall, 10 H. L. Cas. 191, it has been generally accepted doctrine, the recording acts permitting, that an agreement to hold property which the promisor may afterwards acquire as security for the payment of a debt, operates in equity once the property is acquired, to give the stipulated security to the promisee in preference to general creditors. Such is the rule in this Court. Sexton v. Kessler & Co., 225 U.S. 90 , 32 S. Ct. 657. I had supposed it to be equally well settled that the agreement need not mention the word 'security' to accomplish that result, if its plain purpose is to provide for the satisfaction of a debt or obligation out of identifiable property. Compare Walker v. Brown, 165 U.S. 654 , 17 S. Ct. 453; Ingersoll v. Coram, 211 U.S. 335 , 29 S. Ct. 92; Hurley v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 213 U.S. 126 , 29 S. Ct. 466; Ketchum v. St. Louis, 101 U.S. 306 ; Parlin & Orendorff Implement Co. v. Moulden (C. C. A.) 228 F. 111, L. R. A. 1917B, 130; Curtis v. Walpole Tire & Rubber Co. (C. C. A.) 218 F. 145. There has been no dissent from the view that an agreement to apply a designated credit or account to the payment of a check or draft drawn upon it creates security in the credit enforcible in equity as against general creditors. Fourth Street Nat. Bank v. Yardley, 165 U.S. 634 , 17 S. Ct. 439; Farley v. Turner, 35 L. J. Ch. 710; Coates v. First N. Bank of Emporia, 91 N. Y. [275 U.S. 359, 371] 20; Muller v. Kling, 209 N. Y. 239, 103 N. E. 138; In re Hollins (C. C. A.) 215 F. 41, L. R. A. 1915B, 438. Equity, in making such agreements effective, does no more than it habitually does in compelling the performance of an agreement to give a mortgage to secure advances made on the faith of the agreement.
Both parties to this transaction knew that American drafts drawn on European banks would be worthless unless definite arrangement for their payment by the drawee was made in advance of their presentation, and that where, as here, a particular credit was set apart for that purpose the utility of such drafts would be seriously impaired if the credit, once established, could be canceled at will. No intelligent banker would sell such drafts if the establishment of such a credit were not contemplated. A bank here, drawing and selling such drafts against a credit to be established abroad by others, pledges its own credit to the payee and is secured against loss and the dishonor of its drafts only in so far as it may insure the creation of the appropriate credit and retain the benefit of it once it is created. The stipulation that the bankrupts should promptly set apart a credit for that purpose upon receipt of advice of the draft and advise the drawee of it was a material inducement to petitioner to pledge its own credit by the sale of its draft. Once performed it is valuable security to both payee and drawer, if it is permitted to have the legal sanctions which ordinarily attach to agreements of this character.
The evidence in this case appears to me, as it did to the court below, to fall far short of establishing a practice or custom, or any rule of Italian law, permitting the depositor, while the drafts are outstanding, to cancel or control for his own purposes the credit set apart for their payment. Our own rule is that a bank of deposit may not, with impunity, ignore the known equitable rights of others to the credit established by its depositor, Central Nat. Bank v. Connecticut Mut. L. Ins. Co., 104 U.S. 54 , and it would seem [275 U.S. 359, 372] that that rule should be applied here in determining the rights of the parties in the absence of proof of any other. But in any case, such control, if retained by the bankrupts as between themselves and the Italian bank, could not be rightfully exercised in violation of their contract with petitioner.
The case would therefore seem to be a proper one for the application of the rule announced by this court in Fourth Street Nat. Bank v. Yardley, supra, that a court of equity will lend its aid to carry into effect an agreement that an obligation shall be satisfied out of a specified credit. Applied here that rule would make effective the intention of the parties and give stability to a large and important class of banking transactions. The judgment should be affirmed.
Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS joins in this dissent.
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How Amazon Studios went from grassroots idealist to Hollywood threat
Amazon's arm for making movies and TV shows veered away from its early ambitions with a grander plan to lure Prime customers and crush Netflix. Now it has some in Hollywood on edge.
The small army of comedians that swarmed Portland, Ore., last April for the Bridgetown Comedy Festival were sleeping off their hangovers from the previous night's festivities, or still drunkenly stumbling through the hallways of the Hotel Fifty.
Except for two of them.
Ben Roy and Adam Cayton-Holland -- members of the three-man Denver comedy gang, the Grawlix -- woke up early in their shared hotel room and grabbed their laptops to watch their sitcom pilot, "Those Who Can't," debut on Amazon.com. Their act had never had such a large stage, and the two men followed in real time as hundreds of customers banged out reviews. Their phones started ringing with interview requests.
"It was like Christmas morning," said Roy, a tattoo-covered dad, punk-band frontman and longtime stand-up comic.
This was exactly the sort of success story that Amazon envisioned when it unveiled its Hollywood arm, Amazon Studios, three years ago. Its purpose: Invest in video projects from Hollywood outsiders and let the world's biggest focus group -- Amazon's customer base -- approve or not. The idea was to help talent bubble up and, along the way, collect valuable data about what Amazon customers watch.
It's also a mission Amazon quickly downgraded from star to extra. Top customer ratings aren't enough for Amazon Studios and what it wants to achieve: namely, to challenge Netflix, upend the traditional studios and, above all, persuade millions of people to sign up for Amazon Prime, the $79-a-year service for second-day shipping on some items and for access to streaming movies and TV shows.
"Those Who Can't" earned the highest customer score of any Amazon pilot, but Amazon is betting potential Prime customers are more interested in big-named talent than the Gawlix gang. And so Amazon is spending as much as cable heavyweight HBO and others to create programs with top stars. To some degree, we've read this script before: Jeff Bezos bleeds millions -- think Kindle -- to bulk up and plow through an entrenched industry that he remakes in Amazon's image.
So when "Alpha House," Amazon's first full series, debuts Friday, it will star John Goodman, and include cameos by Stephen Colbert and Bill Murray. "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau, the first comic-strip artist to win a Pulitzer, created the half-hour political comedy.
As one top talent agent put it, "Amazon has the potential to be very scary to its competitors because content is a very small part of its business." In other words, what's $10 million here and $10 million there when you're trying to overhaul the movie business as a way to lure lifelong Amazon customers?
Idealistic beginnings
When Roy Price, the founding director of the studio, rolled out Amazon Studios in November 2010, he positioned it as the "movie studio of the future," a sort of anti-Hollywood shop that helps aspiring movie makers and empowers them with Amazon's reach. "Today, the movie business is organized and decisions are made pretty much in one place, Hollywood," Price said in a promotional video aimed at amateur actors and screenwriters. "At Amazon Studios, we hope to discover voices that might not otherwise be heard."
Anyone could join, and Price invited members to submit scripts and suggest revisions, with the enticement that Warner Bros. could option films. If the projects went to theatrical release, the creator would get $200,000, plus a $400,000 bonus if the movie earned $60 million at the box office. So far, Warner Bros. has optioned none.
Amazon sweetened the pot for writers with the prospect of instant cash, promising to dole out $2.7 million in prize money to projects submitted in 2011. (The top prize, $1 million, went to a 34-year-old music composer from Mesa, Ariz., named Rob Gardner. He made a rudimentary full-length animation mockup of his children's musical about princesses. Gardner, who didn't reply to requests for comment, is still raising money, most recently on Kickstarter.)
Read: New Amazon movie studio seeks submissions
Each step of the way, Amazon learned a bit more. The data showed, for instance, that many of the most popular scripts were comedies. Price used the submission system and customer reaction to scripts to test out stories before shooting anything, he said. It was the first of many ways Amazon would use data to decide which movies and shows to bankroll.
The premise, however, wasn't quite right. The customers involved didn't represent the audience Amazon ultimately needed -- people who like to shop a lot online. People who read scripts, Price said, are a rare niche.
Jack Epps Jr., who co-wrote "Top Gun," is a University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts professor and was an unofficial adviser to Amazon early on. He said this kind of pre-testing is vulnerable to the same trap as all focus groups: they're all supposed to represent what people want, but often they don't.
"Nobody knows what they want until it's there," he said. He gave the example of AMC's critical and ratings darling "Breaking Bad." What focus group would have ever applauded a show about a cancer-stricken high-school teacher cooking meth?
It didn't help Amazon Studios that the submitted scripts needed work.
"Some were better than others, but there was nothing that jumped out at me and said "God, I'd like to option this,'" said Michael Taylor, a producer and another USC professor who judged Amazon movie scripts in the early days. "It's probably a very good idea that they evolved to the in-house development....They've taken control over the process."
Falling behind Netflix
In early 2012, Amazon Studios was far behind the original content race. It had been a year since Netflix, looking at its viewer data, outbid HBO with a reported $100 million commitment for two seasons of "House of Cards." Its first original TV show, "Lilyhammer," premiered that February, and Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings was telling investors that Netflix would lavish its original series with up to 15 percent of its content budget, which was already three times the size of Amazon's. Amazon's service, he declared, was "a confusing mess."
And so began the march to make it all more professional, although Price wouldn't talk about why Amazon changed strategy. He brought on a television development team with people whose resumes boast stints at 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures Family Entertainment.
"We explicitly decided to include both an open online process of submitting ideas and have a robust traditional development process, reaching out to top talent, top producers," Price said. "With TV, the goal was to get the best shows we could and to make progress quickly."
Epps, the "Top Gun" screenwriter and one of the first people to publicly applaud Amazon Studio's open-invitation system, said the new direction is smarter if Amazon wants to make headway. "At the end of the day, they still went to a successful writer to pull off their series," said Epps.
Price has stayed mum about the budget for "Alpha House," but he did say that Amazon is spending as much as big production houses would on any high-end TV series. The set, at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York, reflects that, including a replica of the Russell Senate Office Building, precise down to the mailbox slots and marble. On the day I visited, one of the stars, Mark Consuelos, half joked that the quality of a show's catering matches the quality of the production. "The food is hard-core," he said, gratified that the spread included almond milk.
A data-driven operation
Even if Amazon isn't outspending Netflix -- remember, Netflix paid a reported $100 million for "House of Cards" -- it's likely beating Netflix's data dedication. The company has also culled from statistics about what movies and shows people buy on Amazon.com and what they look up on the Internet Movie Database, which Amazon bought in 1998.
"Amazon customers like 'Breaking Bad' and they like 'Downton Abbey,' so maybe we should develop a show about aristocrats in Surrey who are also crystal meth dealers?" Price said in an October keynote at an entertainment conference in France. "Too simplistic."
So Amazon plowed deeper into the data. In April of this year, Amazon Studios put 14 pilots up for all customers to watch and rate, including "Alpha House" and "Those Who Can't." It used those customer ratings plus viewing data to help pick programs to make into full series. Joe Lewis, a former Fox development manager who was Price's first hire to work on television, said the company looked at how many people finish watching a pilot, how many watch more than once, and how many write a review. Price noted that different shows draw in different audience segments, and "it helps to be attracting the right group."
In essence, it made Amazon the first studio with ratings for its shows before they're really "shows" -- that is, before it gives the green light to a full series.
Price likened it to owning a restaurant, and testing out a special entree one night before printing up entirely new menus. He also has said that human oversight is essential too. "It's not just like you walk in Tuesday morning and the computer tells you which shows to order," he said at the conference in France. "You still have to apply human judgment."
Amazon is still starkly behind Netflix in several respects. A study by Sandvine, which runs fixed and mobile data networks worldwide, found that Netflix commands the largest amount of North American Internet traffic of any Web property, 31 percent of the total volume during the peak part of the day. Amazon Video represented just 1.61 percent.
Part of the problem is simple awareness, said Edward S. Williams, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets. People think of Amazon Prime for its shipping bargains, he said, but most Prime subscribers -- estimated at 12 million people -- seem unaware that a premium video service comes with the membership. Netflix, by contrast, has more than 43 million members worldwide.
But others involved with Amazon Studios productions noted how Amazon has quickly become a peer to industry heavyweights in other ways.
"Amazon is now considered up there with Netflix, FX, anywhere you would go to pitch," said Jill Soloway, the writer and director of a pilot Amazon is shooting, "Transparent," as well as an Emmy nominee for her work writing for "Six Feet Under."
There are differences, she said: if anything, working with Amazon was easier and better than with a typical studio. "Amazon had a business model that felt incredibly fast. Because they're so new, they don't have the levels of infrastructure," she said. "You're usually going through three rounds of notes at each stage, and things can really get paralyzed over the years."
Retailer versus entertainer
The most fundamental way that Amazon differs from its competition, however, is its identity. At its core, Amazon is a retailer. And Bezos, competitors know all too well, willingly sacrifices profits to build out his businesses.
In the new book "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon," journalist Brad Stone recounts how Amazon was in a bidding war with Walmart over Quidsi, the operator of Diapers.com, at the same time it launched Amazon Mom, which offered a yearlong Prime subscription and a 30 percent discount on diapers. Quidsi executives calculated that the program would cost Amazon $100 million over three months just on diapers. And one of Bezos' deputies warned that the CEO would drive diaper prices to zero if Walmart won Quidsi.
"Ultimately, any established player should be concerned when Amazon decides to enter your market, invest heavily to take away market share, with no accountability for traditional measures of profitability, while Wall Street continues to reward them on their long-term strategy," said Steve Felter, who launched digital projects at Warner Bros. and Disney before leaving to run his own gaming startup, GameSalad.
How does Amazon Studios fit into that long-term strategy? It comes down to Prime, which is becoming ever more powerful for the company. Analysts estimate that Prime subscribers spend between two and four times as much on Amazon as nonmembers do. Additional features, like original shows from Amazon Studios, could reel in new types of customers. Amazon's decision to release most episodes of its original series week to week, in contrast with the Netflix approach of unleashing them all in one bingeable bunch, supports that idea -- tease your viewers, keep them coming back to the store.
Amazon is also giving everyone a free taste of its originals, having found that a good proportion of the people who sign up for free trial memberships end up as paying subscribers. The first three episodes of its series will be available for anyone to watch, but the rest are reserved for Prime.
Next up, Amazon is casting Prime as a true Netflix challenger by moving into edgy dramas, the type of originals that made a name for Netflix in Hollywood. Since Netflix won three Emmys for "House of Cards," Amazon's unofficial stance is to win awards like that too, said Jonathan Alter, an "Alpha House" executive producer.
Late last month, Amazon announced plans for two hour-long drama pilots from Chris Carter, the creator of "The X-Files," as well as best-selling author Michael Connelly and Eric Overmyer, who wrote for "The Wire" and co-created the HBO drama "Treme."
Even the creator of "Alpha House" couldn't resist lampooning the oddity of a television studio creating content to get more people to sign up for rush orders of blenders and Blu-Ray discs. At the New York premiere of the series, in a 700-seat theater of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Garry Trudeau thanked Bezos -- he called him "Mr. B" -- and Amazon before addressing the audience.
"We hope you enjoy our show," he said, "and will spread the word about our sex, our violence, and of course, our free two-day shipping." Which, funny as it sounds, is exactly what Mr. B hopes will happen.
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The Arts In Every Classroom: A Video Library K-5
Three Leaders at Arts-Based Schools Activities and Discussion
Suggested Activities and Discussion
Consider these questions for reflection:
- If your school is not an arts-based school, how can you incorporate the arts into your curriculum?
- How would you respond if your school adopted an arts-based approach?
- How can educators organize and collaborate to use the arts as a means of promoting and supporting student inquiry?
Improving Practice
Here are some additional ways you can build on the ideas in this program in a variety of school and community settings:
Professional Development for Administrators
- Create a model plan for incorporating arts-based learning into your school. Include learning objectives and a timetable as well as strategies for meeting them.
- Develop a professional development unit on building teams of arts specialist teachers and classroom teachers.
- Create a schedule that allows your teachers to collaborate and plan together to support the integration of the arts with other subjects.
Professional Development for Teachers
- Develop a unit that focuses on the classroom management skills that are necessary in an arts-based school.
Curriculum-Planning Sessions
- Consider how you can incorporate arts-based learning into your existing curriculum.
- Facilitate a discussion of goals for an arts-based curriculum. Is your goal to teach specific arts subjects, integrate the arts with other subjects, or both? Consider specific ways you would meet these goals.
- Become familiar with state and national arts education standards for teachers and students.
- Identify local and other resources for funding arts-based projects at your school.
Community Outreach
- Invite a representative of a school with a successful arts-based program to discuss how the arts can enhance learning at your school.
- Present reflections by students on how the arts have enhanced their readiness to learn or their academic achievement.
Program 0 Introducing Arts Education
This program includes three segments: Is Arts Education? What Are the Arts? In How Do You Know They're Learning?
Program 1 Expanding the Role of the Arts Specialist
Three arts teachers work with colleagues around their schools, using collaborative techniques that go beyond the traditional work of arts specialists. Kathy DeJean is a dance artist at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans; Mary Perkerson is the visual art teacher at Harmony Leland Elementary School in Mableton, Georgia; and Amanda Newberry is the theatre specialist at Lusher.
Program 2 Teaching Dance
Two teachers with contrasting training and approaches to teaching bring rich dance experiences to students at their arts–based schools. Kathy DeJean, the dance specialist at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans, promotes inquiry and self-expression in a multi-grade dance class. Scott Pivnik, a former physical education teacher at P.S. 156 (The Waverly School of the Arts) in Brooklyn, New York, uses African dance as a gateway to geography, writing, and personal growth for a class of second–graders.
Program 3 Teaching Music
Two music specialists from arts–based schools demonstrate different approaches to serving diverse student populations. At Harmony Leland Elementary School in Mableton, Georgia, all 500 students study the violin. Their classes with Barrett Jackson become lessons in character and discipline. At Smith Renaissance School of the Arts in Denver, Sylvia Bookhardt and a class of fifth–graders explore the Renaissance through choral singing.
Program 4 Teaching Theatre
Two specialists work on basic theatre skills with children of various ages, and use theatre education as a gateway to other kinds of learning. At Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans, Amanda Newberry's lesson in improvisation with a third–grade class stimulates students' imagination, heightens language and listening skills, and encourages critical thinking. At Barney Ford Elementary School in Denver, George Jackson teaches basic movement skills to a first–grade class, invites fourth–graders to take center stage as they explore a script, and works with fifth–graders to create masks that reveal inner feelings.
Program 5 Teaching Visual Art
Two visual art specialist teachers use contrasting interpretations of the human face to explore inquiry–based instruction and various techniques in visual art. Pamela Mancini, the visual art teacher at Helen Street School in Hamden, Connecticut, uses portraits to foster inquiry and self-expression with a class of fifth-graders. At Ridgeway Elementary School in White Plains, New York, MaryFrances Perkins introduces mask–making to a second–grade art class. In making their own masks, students examine the concept of symmetry, study the vocabulary word for the day, and learn that masks are found in cultures throughout the world.
Program 6 Developing an Arts-Based Unit
A team of first– and second–grade teachers at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans plans a year–end project that will let students show what they have learned in science, math, and English. The students write and perform an original play, using a painting by Breughel and an opera by Stravinsky as their starting points.
Program 7 Working With Local Artists
Students and teachers at P.S. 156 (The Waverly School of the Arts) in Brooklyn, New York, benefit from the school's established relationships with artists from local organizations. This program focuses on a first–grade class creating original works with visiting artists — a dancer and a writer.
Program 8 Collaborating With a Cultural Resource
A fourth–grade teacher and a museum educator in New Orleans collaborate to develop a unit of study with ties to language arts, social studies, and visual art. Students explore the work of a well–known artist, visit an exhibition of his work, meet for a drawing lesson alongside the Mississippi River, and create poems and pictures that they proudly display to their parents.
Program 9 Bringing Artists to Your Community
Successful collaborations between classroom teachers and artists who come for a residency enrich the curriculum of this rural school in Idalia, Colorado. A visiting actor brings story–telling and vocabulary to life for kindergarten and fourth–grade students and their teachers, while a musician engages first– and third–grade students in writing songs that relate to subjects they are studying.
Program 10 Students Create a Multi-Arts Performance
A team of arts specialists and classroom teachers at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans guides kindergarten and fourth–grade students in creating an original work based on Cirque du Soleil's Quidam. The program presents highlights of the creative process, including brainstorming about characters' emotions, creating speech and movement for the characters, constructing costumes, and performing.
Program 11 Borrowing From the Arts To Enhance Learning
To add vitality and context to day–to–day learning experiences, three teachers use techniques drawn from the arts that engage their students' minds, bodies, and emotions. In Denver, a teacher uses rhythm, color, movement, and hands–on projects to engage her class of fourth– and fifth–grade boys. In White Plains, New York, third–grade students create short skits that help them understand the concept of cause and effect. In Lithonia, Georgia, a fifth–grade social studies unit on family history culminates with students using favorite objects to make visual representations of their lives.
Program 12 Three Leaders at Arts-Based Schools
Three administrators provide instructional leadership and solve day–to–day challenges at arts–based schools serving diverse student populations. In Brooklyn, principal Martha Rodriguez–Torres describes her role as "politician, social worker, parent, and police officer," and says that her primary responsibility is to "provide teachers the resources they need to fulfill the program." In Georgia, principal Sandra McGary–Ervin encourages use of the arts to achieve the school's priority goal of literacy. And in Denver, assistant principal Rory Pullens uses his own arts background to ensure that the arts play a prominent role in day–to–day learning.
Program 13 Leadership Team
At Lusher Elementary School in New Orleans, principal Kathleen Hurstell Riedlinger works closely with a Leadership Team of classroom and arts teachers. The team's central role in management is part of a long–term strategy to protect the school's commitment to arts–based learning. We meet individual members of the team and see them work together on a diverse agenda, including the school's annual Arts Celebration, the increased demand for enrollment from outside the school's neighborhood, and orientation of new teachers to the school's arts–based curriculum.


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Practically speaking, it is nearly impossible to measure the actual wind speed inside tornadoes, as they can destroy just about any unprotected weather instruments placed in their path. While ingenious storm chasers and engineers have devised vehicles and instrument packs that can withstand a tornado, the logistics and time involved to deploy such devices before every tornado would be inconceivable.
This is why a measurement system for estimating the intensity of tornadoes after their impact was devised, a system known today as the Enhanced Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale.
The original Fujita scale is named after Dr. Ted Fujita, a University of Chicago severe storms research scientist who came up with the scale in 1971. Dr. Fujita's scale, which ranges from F0 to F5, is based upon the type and severity of damage the tornado produced. At that time, there were very few actual measurements of tornado wind speeds that he could relate to the damage, but he used them -- together with a lot of insight -- to devise approximate wind speed ranges for each damage category.
In subsequent years, structural engineers and meteorologists have examined damage from many tornadoes. They use knowledge of the wind forces needed to damage or destroy various buildings and their components to estimate the resultant wind speeds. The engineers and scientists eventually determined that the original F-Scale wind speeds were too high for categories F3 and higher.
In particular, homes are not built so strongly that 250-300 mph winds are needed to destroy them. In some areas, building codes may only require that roofs withstand 70 mph winds. Once the roof is blown off, walls have less support and begin to fail. In other cases, the house frame may not be properly bolted to the foundation. It then begins to slide off the foundation, perhaps partly lifted by strong upward winds in the tornado. By the early 1990s, even Dr. Fujita recognized these shortcomings and recommended adjusting the assessments.
(MORE: Top 10 Worst Tornadoes | 10 Worst Tornado Outbreaks)
Guidelines in the original scheme lumped together homes, schools, mobile homes, vehicles, and trees in one short description of damage for each F-Scale category. In the enhanced scheme, detailed descriptions are given for examples of damage to 23 types of buildings and five additional objects like trees, towers, and poles. Wind speed estimates are then provided for each structure and type of damage.
The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale was devised by a panel of meteorologists and engineers convened by the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University. The Weather Channel's severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes was on the team of experts who determined the revised wind speed ranges. Since 2007, the EF Scale has been used to rate tornadoes.
The Storm Prediction Center has a brief description of the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
Original Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: less than 73 mph.
Enhanced Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 65 to 85 mph.
Typical Observations: Light damage. Peels surface off some roofs; some damage to gutters or siding; branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
Original Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 73 to 112 mph.
Enhanced Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 86 to 110 mph.
Typical Observations: Moderate damage. Roofs severely stripped; mobile homes overturned or badly damaged; loss of exterior doors; windows and other glass broken.
Original Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 113 to 157 mph.
Enhanced Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 111 to 135 mph.
Typical Observations: Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-constructed houses; foundations of frame homes shifted; mobile homes completely destroyed; large trees snapped or uprooted; light-object missiles generated; cars lifted off ground.
Original Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 158 to 206 mph.
Enhanced Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 136 to 165 mph.
Typical Observations: Severe damage. Entire stories of well-constructed houses destroyed; severe damage to large buildings such as shopping malls; trains overturned; trees debarked; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance.
Original Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 207 to 260 mph.
Enhanced Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 166 to 200 mph.
Typical Observations: Devastating damage. Whole frame houses Well-constructed houses and whole frame houses completely leveled; cars thrown and small missiles generated.
Original Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: 261 to 318 mph.
Enhanced Fujita Scale estimated wind speeds: Over 200 mph.
Typical Observations: Incredible damage. Strong frame houses leveled off foundations and swept away; automobile-sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 m (109 yd); high-rise buildings have significant structural deformation; incredible phenomena will occur.
The Weather Company's primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.


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Charm and naturalness for all kinds of spaces with differents types of floor tiles
PORCELANOSA Group is a leading manufacturer of ceramic floor tiles, renowned for its advanced production techniques and the quality and versatility of its designs. A market leader in setting new trends, its flooring collections clearly demonstrate that they are profoundly inspired by natural materials, while always retaining the intrinsic properties and features of ceramic.
These collections are more versatile and easy to install than continuous flooring and include series that reproduce the texture of cement, or are extremely ecological due to the extensive use of recycled materials.
Its wide range of ceramic stones reflects the great diversity found in our natural environment: granite, limestone, quartzite and basalt, with a particular emphasis on ceramic slates that closely reproduce the tonal richness and variety of this metamorphic rock. Collections also include a refined use of select marbles that imbue any setting with elegant distinction.
The reflections of light that shimmer on the surface of the Metallic collection are reminiscent of an industrial look reinterpreted in ceramic, while single colour tiles create original surfaces and textures with sober tones that work together in chromatic unity.


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The Tempo, was introduced as one of Ford's first front wheel drive vehicles in 1984 until its eventual replacement by FoMoCo in 1995 with the Contour. The Jack Telnack-designed compact shared platforms with the Ford Escort, and although this boxy compact was claimed to have "the world's most advanced automotive computer" and "more rear room than a Mercedes 300D," it still was seen by many a pundit as inferior to the re-designed '86 Camry (more horsepower), the '85 Accord (even more horsepower) and the '84 Cavalier (more sales). Still, despite the competition, the car sold rather well — and even merits a car club of its own. We can't help but think it was due to the decent fuel economy (28/43) and of course, as the commercial showed, the car's matchbox-style acrobatics — were indubitably displayed in real life.
Classic Ad Watch: The Iron Sheik Feels Toyota, American Freedom [internal]


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I've used Selenium on several Java projects, so I was just assuming that the topic of Selenium would be germane to JavaOne. I sent the co-creator of Selenium, Jason Huggins (@hugs), a quick email to see if he was interested in talking to us on camera about Selenium and Java, and he responded with a quick warning: He wasn't into Java. "Python and JavaScript (and to a lesser extent, CoffeeScript and Hypertalk) are my true passions when it comes to programming," he wrote. I thought this was fair enough — very few people could call Java "a passion" at this point — and I could do my best to steer the conversation toward Java. Selenium can be scripted in whatever language, and I was convinced that we needed to include some content about testing in our interviews.
He also was wondering if he could talk about something entirely different: "a Selenium-powered, 'Angry Birds'-playing mobile-phone-testing robot." While I had initially been worried I'd have to sit for several hours of interviews about Component Dependency Ennui 4.2, here was an interesting guy that wanted to not only demonstrate his "Angry Birds"-playing robot but also relate it to his testing-focused startup Sauce Labs. I welcomed the opportunity, and here's the result:
From what I could gather, Huggins' bot is driving two stepper motors that control a retractable "dowel" finger covered in some sort of skin-like material that can fool the capacitive touch sensor of a mobile device. He sends keystroke commands through this Arduino-based controller, which then sends signals to two stepper motors. The frame of the device is made of what looks like balsa wood. He's calling it a "BitBeamBot." You can find out all about it here and you can see it in action in the following video:
Relating BitBeamBot to Sauce Labs and Selenium
In the course of the interview it became clear that BitBeamBot was the product of an off-time project. Here's how Huggins explained it: Imagine a wall of these retractable dowels, each representing a single pixel. if you could create a system to control these dowels, then you could draw pictures with a controller.
While working on this project, Huggins attended a Maker Faire and found some suitable technology. His creation of a single-arm controller then led to his big "eureka" moment: This same technology could create a robot that can play "Angry Birds," and if a contraption can play "Angry Birds," it's a simple leap to create a system that can test any mobile application in the real world.
Huggins went through a similar discovery process with Selenium. Selenium is a contraption that supports and contains a browser. You feed a series of instructions and criteria to a browser and then you measure the output.
With BitBeamBot, Huggins has taken the central software idea that he developed at Thoughtworks and applied it to the physical world. He envisions a service from Sauce Labs, the company he co-founded, where customers would pay to have mobile applications tested in farms of these mobile testing robots.
Sauce Labs
Sauce Labs is focused on the idea that testing infrastructure is often more expensive to set up and maintain than most companies realize. The burden of maintaining an infrastructure of browsers and machines can often exceed the effort required to support a production network.
With Sauce Labs you can move your testing infrastructure to the cloud. The company offers a service that executes testing scripts on cloud-based hardware. For a few dollars you can run a suite of unit tests against an application without having to worry about physical hardware and ongoing maintenance. Sauce Labs is trying to do for testing what Amazon EC2 and other services have done for hosting.
Toward the end of the interview (contained in the first video, above) we also discussed some interesting recent developments at Sauce Labs, including a new system that uses SSH port forwarding to allow Sauce Labs' testing infrastructure to test internal applications behind a corporate firewall.


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Shop the Best Selection of Tennis Umpire Chairs
Tennis Umpire chairs give any tennis court that "official stamp," even if it is in your own backyard; they send the message that there is serious tennis happening on your court.
Tennis umpire chairs stand about eight feet high and give an umpire the advantage of elevation allowing them to make informed calls about the match.
Do It Tennis carries three brands of tennis umpire chairs, allowing buyers to choose the best option for their court.
Putterman Athletics offers tennis umpire chairs with high-quality German engineering in their Deluxe models. Their durability and slip-proof ladders make them a trusted addition to any court.
The Gamma Aluminum Tennis Umpire Chair can be used for anything from calling a tennis match to pool-side lifeguarding. The aluminum construction and size of this chair makes it easy to move into storage at the end of the day as it is lightweight and can fit through a standard sized door or gate. This chair also provides both assurance and sturdiness as it will not rust over time.
Courtmaster is another brand that offers both durability and safety when it comes to their tennis umpire chairs. The classic look of both the PVC and Royal Umpire Chairs make them eye-catching additions to any court that requires a judge.
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