text:
I absolutely love her photography, recipes and site, but what really sparked me is her Les Petit Chefs series, which sets her apart. I was in awe at the invaluable, inspired work she does fostering an outside the box, creative learning environment for kids. Please make sure to check the Les Petit Chefs series.
Mardi, a teacher of French to elementary school boys also working on obtaining her certificate in Food and Media. Clearly a cerebral overachiever and I am super excited to have her as my third guest. A perfectionist of sorts that is why I approached her, I trusted she would approach this project head on. She chose the most challenging (of course!) of ingredients, cocoa nibs, to work with, instead of the almond flour. In a conversation on twitter as Mardi tweetpic'd a sneak peek of her Cocoa Nib Shells with Peanut Butter Ganache, Stella, who Mardi introduced me to, tweeted 'cocoa nib macarons are exquisite, chocolate-ier than a brownie, amazing.' So here is Mardi with her cocoa nib journey:
Mocharons and Stella's Pumpkin Seed and Matcha Macarons – but those are big shoes to fill, right? No matter, I am always up for a challenge…
Last time I tried to make macarons with a different nut flour (peanut), I couldn't quite get them to work with 100% peanut flour and ended up using some almonds in the mix too. Not great for someone with a tree-nut allergy! So I pulled out my giant bag of cocoa nibs and got to work with them. Warning: experimenting with cocoa nibs can be costly. They are not cheap. I bought a huge bag because I misread the price and didn't realize until it was too late… I've used them in everything from cookies to granola lately but I still had a ton left. Perfect.
I followed Stella's recipe and replaced the almonds gram for gram with finely ground cocoa nibs. Trays and trays of these later, I realize that the secret is in the grinding of the nibs – not so fine that it forms a paste but not so coarse that it thickens the batter so much that it will never thin out enough to the right consistency. About ½ way through this experiment, I messaged Stella bemoaning the cocoa nibs and their finicky nature and she revealed that she, she who BAKES for a living, has not yet mastered the perfect technique. Ok then. So here's me, a novice mac maker trying to do something that a Culinary Institute of America graduate hasn't figured out. That made me feel much better. Kind of. But those of you who know me, know that I take a challenge very seriously and I DO NOT like to not do well.
Today I will share the recipe and some of the technique with you but bear in mind that this IS a work in progress, hope you don't mind. But you know what? If I were reading this post and it told me these were a breeze to make, I would be fairly annoyed when I went to make them and they failed. Failed like this:
Or these:
On the right, nibs not ground fine enough PLUS egg whites over beaten, making the insides cakey rather than macaron-y. When the egg whites are over beaten and the nibs are not ground fine enough, it's really tough to get the batter the right consistency – lava-like.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Look at the tray below, on the left:
Speaking of inconsistency…
The last batch I made were the most consistent in that most of them worked out with little cracky feet…
Cocoa nib macarons
Ingredients (makes about 20 macarons)
29g powdered cocoa nibs (see note below)
52g grams powdered/ icing sugar
7g cocoa powder
36g egg whites, at room temperature
18g caster sugar
Optional: Red food colouring (natural by preference, artificial if you can't find natural colours and are not allergic – Shulie's blog is artificial colour free so I want to respect that). You can also bake them with no colouring but be warned that cocoa bakes grey so the colour ensures the macarons remain a nice chocolately brown. You'll need about 15 drops of liquid or 1/2 teaspoon of powder.
Preheat the oven to 320°F.
Place a large (14") pastry bag fitted with a plain tip upside down in a glass so that you can easily pour the batter in when it's ready to pipe.
Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper and place each tray on top of another tray. I find the double trays help prevent the macarons from cooking too fast on the bottom.
Grind the cocoa nibs in a spice/ coffee grinder. You will need more than 29g because you want 29g of POWDER. 29g of nibs will not produce 29g of powder that is fine enough to use. Grind about 30g at a time and sift into a bowl on a scale to make sure you are using 29g of powder. Even in a spice grinder all the nibs won't grind up fine enough to use. Set the leftovers aside for use in baking.
Place the nib powder, cocoa and powdered sugar in a food processor and grind until well combined. Sift this mixture twice over a large bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites and caster sugar and beat at a low speed (Kitchen Aid speed 4) for 2 minutes.
Increase the speed to 6 and beat for another 2 minutes.
Increase the speed again to 8 and beat for another 1 minute.
The egg whites should be fairly stiff at this point.
The macaron batter with cocoa nibs will be fairly thick. I beat away at it for about 100 strokes in the batches that worked and had feet. I even considered using the paddle attachment of the Kitchen Aid. Basically, the macaron batter needs to be thick enough that it will mound up on itself, but fluid enough that after about 20 seconds, it will melt back down.Think lava.
Pour about half the batter to a piping bag and pipe the batter in small circles on the tray. When I pipe macarons, I hold the bag at an angle, with the tip always touching the tray. When I have piped enough for one macaron, I make a comma-like movement to remove the tip from the tray. That little comma-shaped bit of batter will settle down when when you rap the trays 4-6 times on a hard surface to remove any air bubbles that might remain.
Bake for 6 minutes, one tray at a time, then turn the tray from front to back for another 6 minutes. You'll be able to tell at the 6 minute mark if your macs will succeed - the feet will have formed by then.
Remove tray from oven and remove the macarons on the parchment paper from the tray. Place on a cool surface and cool thoroughly, then remove the cooled macarons from the parchment paper.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with the filling of your choice and pipe a quarter sized mound of ganache (or whatever) into half of the shells, then sandwich them with the other half.
Even though you will want to taste them right away, macarons actually get better with age. The shells soften and become more chewy, mingling with the flavor of the filling too. You can store them in cool place for up to a week. If you store them in the fridge, bring them to room temperature before you eat them.
Tree Nut Free Macaron Series:
1. Mocharons, Chocolate-Coffee Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache by The Daily Palette.
2. Pumpkin Seed and Matcha Macarons with Coconut, Dark Chocolate Ganache by Brave Tart.
3. Cocoa nib Macarons with peanut butter ganache by eat.live.travel.write.
Go to visit these three ladies' sites and show them some Macaron love!


text:
Graham: A copy of Time costs $5 for 58 pages, or 8.6 cents a page. The Economist costs $7 for 86 pages, or 8.1 cents a page. Better journalism is actually slightly cheaper.
Reality: A pointless comparison. Time also costs $5 when it is 86 pages, which would be 5.8 cents per page. When The Economist is 58 pages, cost per page is 12 cents each.
Graham: Book publishers "treat the words printed in the book the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics," meaning content does not differentiate price.
Reality: Famous, popular authors make LOTS more money than others. Laura Bush got $1.7; by some reports Sarah Palin got $7 million. Graham's contention is just plainly wrong.
Graham, on offering someone his copy of the New York Times: "Do you, er, want a printout of yesterday's news?" I asked. (He didn't.)
Reality: Calling the NYT "a printout of yesterday's news" is snotty and snarky, to be sure, but it's also inaccurate. I'll bet the ranch that there were 50 substantial items in the paper that the person had never seen, and wouldn't encounter otherwise. That's news. Graham's insult is correct only if he thinks only generic facts and events are "news." That's a small fraction of what the New York Times presents every day. Dismissing the whole paper as "yesterday's news" is misleading wrong.
Graham: "If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn't better content cost more?"
Reality: Better content (as judged by public taste) PAYS more, EARNS more and SELLS more because more people buy it. The decision to price all movies or CDs about the same is a marketing decision that says absolutely nothing about the realative value of the content. Graham needs some elementary economics and business instruction.
(I wonder if a good book about LISP will earn its author more than a bad one? Bet it does.)
I'll close by noting that I have insisted for years that selling content was never the real business model of the press. I agree with Paul Graham and Jeff and many other media thinkers on that point.
But if I hadn't believed it before I started reading, I certainly wouldn't have found Graham's argument persuasive. I have too little respect for shallow reasoning or sloppy conclusions.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Topics & Subjects
favorite 0
quote 0
. >> the two founders of myspace who figure largest were tom anderson and crystal wolf. as i said before they were not technologists. they were marketers. they live in l.a.. they left a start up after it collapsed in 2000. they started their own e-mail marketing company. at the time e-mail marketing was not officially known as spam but it was. because they weren't getting consent from the people they rescinding e-mails to and quickly they were profitable. there was no many to raise money. they branched into selling in addition to sending e-mails for other people they started selling their own products. they sold five cameras you could hide in your shoe. basil e. books like how to hypnotize people and how to grow taller which involved a lot of stretching. the distributed spy whereas i was discussing after 9/11. it would turn your cursor to draw the american flag. it would track you as you went around the internet. they were operating on the fringes of the internet economy. >> this was a portion of a booktv program. you can view the entire program and many other booktv pro
Fetching more results


text:
Brunton Dairy
Skim (Pint)
Regular price $2.50
Forage-fed milk with no added hormones.
Milk tastes better when it comes from one family farm and healthy animals.
Brunton Dairy is located in Beaver County, PA.Items are grown on small family farms in our region which are no more than 175 miles from Pittsburgh. All animals are raised on pasture and fed a forage diet of local grasses and non-GMO grains. They are also free of added hormones and antibiotics.


text:
"God is my savior" Unisex Long Sleeve is created by our Jesuspirit designers that you couldn't find elsewhere.
Perfect for daily day, workplace, dates or parties to get new and fashionable look.
It would be an ideal gift for friends or family on special occasions such as birthday, anniversaries, Christmas, Thanksgiving or so on.
Product Details
All items are made to order. This means that when you place your order, we print/make that item just for you, one at a time, for the best quality!
Production Time: All orders are processed within 2 - 10 business days (depends on type of products).
Shipping Time: You will receive your order anywhere from 4 - 20 business days from the date that it is shipped out, not the date the order is placed within the US, and 7 - 30 business days for rest of the world (depends on type of products).
For more details, please click HERE
Shipping Fee: We calculate shipping fee at Checkout depending on size, weight of the product, and your location.
Free shipping: We offer free shipping on orders over $100
Tracking Number: When available, we will send you the tracking number with the confirmation email so that you can track the package online.
Worldwide Shipping Available: At Jesuspirit, we ship products to over 100 countries worldwide. Shipping rates and fees may vary depending on your country or region.
If you have any other queries, please feel free to email us at firstname.lastname@example.com
JESUSPIRIT exists for a greater intention, not just a selling purpose. We want tobring people Closer to God, feel His love, His protection through our variety of products! We want you to be surrounded by the Love of God, His word that you can live, grow in Faith.
We are devoted to work tocarry faith, hope and love to our customersthrough amazing ideas, gorgeous designs and creating positive values for Christians!
Inspired by the Faith in God,we stand behind and support every product we make. If our products fail to live up to your standards, please don't hesitate to contact us via firstname.lastname@example.com receive quick assistance. Your satisfaction is our priority and happiness.
The shirt is nice. Beautiful design. A couple of the letters are almost covered up by the white which is a bit disappointing but otherwise I'm satisfied.
I bought this shirt because I Can Only Imagine was my sister's, who passed away in 2019, favorite song. The shirt did not disappoint. It's absolutely gorgeous and oh so comfortable!
I purchased these beautiful sweatshirts. Can't wait to wear them and inspire others! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Keep up your wonderful angelic works on earth!
Love the beautiful design! It's so colorful and delightful! Thank you so much for the wonderful inspirations as always!
When I received this T shirt. I was so excited. I love Lions and I love the Lord. The T shit was BETTER than I thought. PERFECT 🥰 💞 👌


text:
She gives new meaning to the term "silver fox."
Model Kristen McMenamy is experiencing a revitalization in her career despite two very large checks against her — she's 45 years old and she has long, fully gray hair.
This stunning woman is currently the alterna-flavor du jour, with a long tally of enviable jobs to her credit: She's featured in American Vogue's August Age Issue; designer Alber Elbaz chose her for his recent Lanvin campaign; she's in the current issue of Dazed and Confused magazine; she walked in the fall 2010 runway shows for Calvin Klein and Viktor & Rolf this past spring, and who knows where we'll see her in the upcoming spring fashion shows starting in September.
Elegance with an edge
And all this for a model who rode the tail end of the original supermodel era in the 1990s — one mentioned in the next breath after Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista.
Even then, though, McMenamy, who lives in London with husband, photographer Miles Aldridge and their four children (including two they had together, as well as one each from previous relationships), was never particularly mainstream. Her lanky frame showed off clothing fabulously, but her facial features were not particularly feminine. The story goes that when she was a young model trying to make it, Eileen Ford told her it would never happen unless she had extensive plastic surgery.
But McMenamy persevered — and, as luck had it, her androgynous looks appealed to the edgier members of the fashion flock.
Like Linda Evangelista, who became a superstar when she cut off her hair, McMenamy shot to fame when she shaved off her eyebrows, in 1993. The look was a little disturbing, but designers and creative directors clamored to work with her.
And also like Evangelista, who is currently appearing as the fall face of retailer Talbots, McMenamy's revival is more about who she is and what she projects from inside than how she fits the standard norms of beauty.
"Kristen has always been recognized for her beauty, personality and natural confidence; she has aged gracefully," said Francisco Costa, women's creative director for Calvin Klein. "Kristen is just as relevant today as she was when she first started modeling."
"With Kristen, you've got the reality factor, the intelligence factor, and the talent factor," Vogue fashion director Tonne Goodman says in her magazine. "She understands who she is; she understands fashion in a way that's remarkable."
It's also McMenamy's sense of self that led her to stop covering up the gray in her hair six years ago. "I thought all that gray hair would make a beautiful picture," the model told Vogue.
However, her glorious gray is not without maintenance: McMenamy still has to visit a colorist every couple of weeks. "I have one big black streak in the center of my hair. It sounds really cool, but it's not," she told Vogue. Her London colorist lightens it to match the rest of her silver mane.
Not surprisingly, this model's great gray look is on the forefront of the fashion trend of youngish people putting gray into their hair. Iconic model Kate Moss and Kelly Osbourne have both been spotted with silvery-gray streaks throughout their hair.
And the oddest person to be sporting faux gray is teenage fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson, who oddly resembles a little old lady with her gray, not the fashion trailblazer she aspires to be.


text: Copyright Notice All of the content featured or displayed on this site, including, but not limited to photographs, images, graphics, moving images, and text ("content") are owned by Clifton Li Photography (CLP) and/or its content providers. All elements of this site, including, but not limited to, the general design and the content, are protected by Trade Dress, Copyrights, Moral Rights, Trademark and all other laws protecting Intellectual Property Rights. No content may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way, without CLP's prior written permission, except that you may email a low-res PDF using the "Create PDF" feature on this site and/or view the content on any single computer monitor for your personal non-commercial use only, provided you keep intact, without change, all copyright and other proprietary notices. Modification of the content for any other purposes is a violation of CLP's copyright and/or other proprietary rights. The photographic images on this site are not royalty-free. © 2010-2021 Clifton Li Photography. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Multiple angry snake-like heads rise from the sleek, serpentine body of this terrifying monster.
AC 22, touch 9, flat-footed 21 (+1 Dex, +13 natural, -2 size)
Speed 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Str 18, Dex 12, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 9
Fast Healing (Ex)
A hydra's fast healing ability is equal to its current number of heads (minimum fast healing 5). This fast healing applies only to damage inflicted on the hydra's body.
Hydra Traits (Ex)
A hydra can be killed by severing all of its heads or slaying its body. Any attack that is not an attempt to sever a head affects the body, including area attacks or attacks that cause piercing or bludgeoning damage. To sever a head, an opponent must make a sunder attempt with a slashing weapon targeting a head. A head is considered a separate weapon with hardness 0 and hit points equal to the hydra's HD. To sever a head, an opponent must inflict enough damage to reduce the head's hit points to 0 or less. Severing a head deals damage to the hydra's body equal to the hydra's current HD. A hydra can't attack with a severed head, but takes no other penalties.
Regenerate Head (Ex)
When a hydra's head is destroyed, two heads regrow in 1d4 rounds. A hydra cannot have more than twice its original number of heads at any one time. To prevent new heads from growing, at least 5 points of acid or fire damage must be dealt to the stump (a touch attack to hit) before they appear. Acid or fire damage from area attacks can affect stumps and the body simultaneously. A hydra doesn't die from losing its heads until all are cut off and the stumps seared by acid or fire.
Base Creature


text:
other sections
|Device Drivers Manual
tdfx —
Voodoo Graphics and VoodooII Memory Access GLIDE device driver
device tdfx
device tdfx_linux
DESCRIPTION¶This driver creates an entry in /dev that allows programs (mostly GLIDE-based software) to access the device memory of the Voodoo Graphics and VoodooII 3D accelerators created by 3Dfx, Inc. This provides an interface for applications based on the GLIDE API or that simply use the API provided by the linux /dev/3dfx device to use the video device.
Supports all cards based on the following chipsets:
- 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics
- 3Dfx Voodoo II
Specifically, the following cards should work:
- Diamond Multimedia Monster 3D
- Diamond Multimedia Monster 3D II
Note that this driver does not currently have support for the Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3, Voodoo5, or Voodoo6 based cards. It also does not currently support the Voodoo Rush. It also does not yet handle the SLI feature of the Voodoo II boards. You can only use each of them separately.
By including
tdfx_linux, you can enable
the linux ioctl code for this driver, where the only supported applications
currently reside.
- /dev/3dfx
- Symlinked to default 3dfx board
- /dev/3dfx*
- Character Device programming interface
- /dev/voodoo
- Mirrors of above interfaces
- /dev/voodoo*
- (Some apps use /dev/voodoo)
tdfx driver appeared in FreeBSD
5.0, and was originally developed for Linux kernel 2.0.x, later written
for 2.2.x and 2.4.x.
AUTHORS¶The driver was developed by Coleman Kane <firstname.lastname@example.com> after the linux version of this driver by Darryll Straus, John Taylor, Jens Axboe, Carlo Wood <email@example.com> and Joseph Kain <email@example.com> to be directly compatible with it and support the many GLIDE based games available for Linux and UNIX.
|February 19, 2001
|Linux 4.9.0-9-amd64


text:
D-Lib Magazine
Ben Lund, Tony Hammond, Martin Flack and Timo Hannay
Connotea [1] is a free online reference management and social bookmarking service for scientists created by Nature Publishing Group [2]. While somewhat experimental in nature, Connotea already has a large and growing number of users, and is a real, fully functioning service [3]. The label 'experimental' is not meant to imply that the service is any way ephemeral or esoteric, rather that the concept of social bookmarking itself and the application of that concept to reference management are both recent developments. Connotea is under active development, and we are still in the process of discovering how people will use it. In addition to Connotea being a free and public service, the core code is freely available under an open source license [4].
Connotea was conceived from the outset as an online, social tool. Seeing the possibilities that del.icio.us [5] was opening up for its users in the area of general web linking, we realised that scholarly reference management was a similar problem space. Connotea was designed and developed late in 2004, and soft-launched at the end of December 2004.
Usage has grown over the past several months, to the point where there is now enough data in the system for interesting second-order effects to emerge. This paper will start by giving an overview of Connotea, and will outline the key concepts and describe its main features. We will then take the reader on a brief guided tour, show some of the aforementioned second-order effects, and end with a discussion of Connotea's likely future direction.
The Key Concepts behind Connotea
Unashamedly inspired by del.icio.us as we were, we felt there were some additional characteristics of academic reference lists that warranted a separate, tailored service catering to, and making the most of, the needs of the academic community. Therefore, Connotea is a meld of existing reference management conventions and new social bookmarking concepts that are explored in a companion paper [6]. While none of these concepts is original to Connotea, the combination is. To spell them out:
1. Online storage of references and bookmarks
The current standard practice in personal reference management is to have a database of citations stored locally on a user's own computer, and manipulated using dedicated desktop software. Moving the database online has a number of advantages: it makes the collection available from any web-enabled computer, and it allows easy sharing of personal collections (or subsets of them). Storing references online also opens up some new possibilities direct linking into the literature, for example and is the foundation that supports the other three pillars of Connotea (see below). Of course, online storage has its disadvantages too: the responsiveness and usability of the application, for example, and the fact that the availability of your data is in the hands of others. To alleviate these risks, we therefore intend to allow easy import and export between Connotea and other systems, including desktop reference management tools.
2. Simple, non-hierarchical organising
Instead of placing reference material in folders, or folders within folders, the organisational apparatus of Connotea creates a totally flat, but multi-faceted, space. The data can be viewed from the perspective of tags, or users, or links. The 'tags' of Connotea and other social bookmarking tools often lead commentators to decry the anarchy of unconstrained keywords, but this overlooks the fact that tags are intended first and foremost as a way for individual users to manage their own collections. In this way, they are similar in purpose to folder names in computer file systems. However, instead of creating sub-levels of organisation by nesting folders hierarchically, flat tagging achieves this by assigning multiple tags to each item, each tag being treated equally. This releases the user from some of the constraints of a traditional file system, and a web-based interface allows easy navigation of material organised in this way.
3. Opening the list to others
At the time of writing, all bookmarks posted to Connotea are visible to all registered users and visitors. This takes the concept of sharing to a new level, but also brings new opportunities. We recognise that some users will want to keep some of what they are reading personal, so private bookmarks will soon be added as a feature, though the default will be to make the bookmark public. The main benefits of openness come not just from the ease with which it allows explicit sharing with friends and colleagues, but from many users storing their bookmarks in the same place. This allows Connotea to automatically discover and present connections between users. For example, if someone else has bookmarked the same things as you, that person's library will be a good candidate for a place to find interesting new content. In addition, shared lists allow more sophisticated collaborative filtering algorithms to make recommendations of the form "people who bookmarked this also bookmarked...".
4. Auto-discovery of bibliographic information
In the spirit of making it quick and easy to use, Connotea attempts to find and import the bibliographic information for any article or book that is added. In many cases, this information is freely available on the web, so why should a user have to retype it? There is also, of course, the benefit of eliminating typing errors. Along with the use of bookmarklets (see below), automatically adding the bibliographic information reduces the workload of saving a reference to two clicks and a small amount of typing for tag names.
The Key Features of Connotea
What do these concepts mean for the day-to-day activities of a practicing researcher and their use of Connotea? Here we describe the main features of Connotea that implement the concepts discussed above.
1. Bookmarklets
The user clicks the bookmarklet, the URL of the page is sent to Connotea, and Connotea presents a form for adding the page to the user's collection.
2. Recognising URLs from common archives and importing bibliographic data
Figure 1 also illustrates the second key feature of Connotea. When a URL is added to Connotea, it is first analysed in order to determine whether it belongs to the set of URLs that Connotea recognises. This can trigger a special behaviour for those web pages that represent academic articles or books bibliographic data for the reference material is collected and added to Connotea. For example, for scholarly articles, Connotea stores the publication name, volume and issue numbers, publication date and the list of authors for the article. At the time of writing, Connotea supports four different article archives and websites [n2], and the Amazon websites for books.
This bibliographic data collection process is accomplished by means of a plug-in system. Each Connotea plug-in is specific to a particular archive or website, and must be able to follow the steps outlined in Fig. 2. We are happy to accept plug-ins written by third parties; volunteers should either contact the authors for details of the API (application programming interface) or refer to the Connotea source code and accompanying documentation [4].
As an example, we will now walk you through the bibliographic information import process for a particular PubMed article in this case about the discovery of new hominid fossils attributed to the ancient species Ardipithecus ramidus. The abstract resides at
First of all, we can recognise this as an article from PubMed by the domain portion of the URL '
3. Tagging
Once the URL has been sent to Connotea and the bibliographic import process has been completed, the user can add personalised information. The most essential information is the list of tags to associate with the article. Tags are the means by which references are organised in Connotea. Suitable tags should therefore be meaningful in the context of that particular article and that user. For this reason, Connotea allows tags to be almost anything (including both single words and phrases). As discussed above, tags can be thought of as a list of categories for the article, or as folder names, albeit without the potential inconvenience of hierarchy and with the bonus of being able to store the article simultaneously in multiple folders. Figure 3 shows a Connotea window for adding an article. The article in question has been identified, and a few suitable tags have been entered. There is also an option to add a personal description of the resource being bookmarked.
4. Comments
The other noteworthy piece of personal data is the user's comment. Each user can comment any number of times on any bookmark in their library, and comments from different users are combined to display a chronological, and conversational, thread about a resource. Figure 4 shows a list of comments drawn from the contributions of individual users. Connotea also has a bookmarklet (see Fig. 1) for adding a new comment about the current web page. The idea is that when a user is viewing an article that they already have in their Connotea library, they can quickly and easily add a public note about it.
The bookmarks stored in Connotea can be viewed and navigated by user, by tag, or by a combination of users and tags. The tag and user criteria can be combined using Boolean operators, which allows Connotea visitors to view, for example, all bookmarks created by users '
A Guided Tour
In this section we conduct a brief guided tour of Connotea's uses and functions. In the spirit of the web- and article-centric nature of Connotea, we start by bookmarking this very paper. To do this, either click on the '
If you are already logged-in, you will be taken to a form for adding this paper. More likely, if you are not a registered user you will need to register for an account (which is required to post items, but not to browse them). This process takes only a minute or two, and when completed you will then be taken to the bookmarking form. The only required task to perform at this stage is to add some tags, the choice of which is, of course, entirely up to you, the user. We chose '
Now that we have this paper in our library, we can use it as a starting point for exploring the rest of the site and the content. Let us find out who else has bookmarked this paper. Go to your library at
and click the '
This page lists the distinct 'bookmarking events' for the paper, so although the paper title appears many times on the page, each item shows a different user who has bookmarked it, and the tags they used to categorise it.
These tags offer another perspective on the content of Connotea. Click on a tag name and a list of articles that have been categorised using that tag is displayed. Optionally, this list can be restricted to articles posted just by one particular user, and so provide a convenient way of navigating one's own collection (or, for that matter, the collection of another person). Tag-filtered views also provide a simple content discovery route: browsing through lists of bookmarks by hopping between co-occurring tags. For example, at the time of writing, a visitor to Connotea viewing articles tagged (by any user) with '
If you have been tag-browsing, return to your library at
where (if you have bookmarked it as described above) you should again see this paper in the list. If any user has commented on the paper, the total number of comments will be displayed and linked below the title and bibliographic information. Clicking on
will take you to the comments list. See Fig. 4 for a similar list. If you are logged in, a form for submitting a new comment appears at the bottom of the list. We encourage readers of this paper to contribute to the discussion there.
The first comment by user '
As described in the companion paper [6], judicious use of tagging can be used to enable online sharing of reference lists for papers (or book chapters or lectures or meetings) and also to facilitate subsequent sharing of new, related links among readers (or students or attendees). One of the tags in the tag list for '
(See Fig. 7 for a screenshot of a similar page.) This is a 'closed' list intended to contain only links to the references used in this paper. The closed nature of the list is enforced by selecting only articles that have been bookmarked with the tag '
The materials in the reference list are also tagged with '
is a weblog entry relevant to this paper, although it does not appear in the reference list. Clicking on
and assigning '
Other readers can then see new items posted to this community list by visiting
Note that in this case, unlike that above, we have not specified any user in the query, so you will see items that have been posted by all Connotea users. If you prefer to see new items posted only by the author of this paper then go instead to
Of course, another username or even several usernames can be used in place of '
Second-Order Effects
While the primary goal for Connotea is for it to be useful as a personal bookmarking and reference management tool, some other features and uses emerge as a consequence of pooling this information, and also as a result of the way that individuals use Connotea. Emergent properties that have become apparent to us so far include tag convergence, recommendations, and directory creation.
Tag Convergence
The term 'folksonomy' [9] refers to the vocabulary, or list of terms, that emerges from the overlapping usage of tags between users. When bookmarking a page, users will often choose their tags deliberately to converge with those of other users in order to gain the discovery benefits described above. In addition, Connotea's 'rename tag' feature not only allows individual users to change their mind about the way they organise their personal libraries, it also facilitates the development of shared tags, by allowing users to change their own taxonomies to better fit in with those of other users [n5].
Although still at an early stage of development, we are beginning to see the emergence of a folksonomy in Connotea. Of the 3359 unique tag names in Connotea at the time of writing, 460 (14%) of them are shared by two or more users, 188 (6%) by three or more, and 109 (3%) by four or more. In fact, the distribution follows a classic power law, as shown in Fig. 6.
Implicit Recommendation
By analysing the data voluntarily supplied by users, Connotea is able to offer them a way of finding new and related content. In other words, Connotea is not only a place to store your bookmarks but is also a community-driven recommendation system.
The Connotea interface is hyperlink-oriented bookmark titles are linked to the external web pages, user names are linked to their libraries, and tag names are linked to lists of bookmarks to which that tag has been applied. These links provide one-click access to related material. In addition, and wherever possible, Connotea presents a list of related tags. These are tags that have been co-assigned at some point with the tags that are associated with the current list of bookmarks. Note that it is the users themselves who drive this their tagging behaviour is the foundation of the 'related tags' algorithm. Figure 7 shows a real example of this.
In addition to using co-assignment of tags as a relation indicator, Connotea also employs common bookmarking events as a route into related content. Once again, this is entirely user-driven if two users bookmark the same article, then their interests clearly overlap to some degree. The best place to see this behaviour in action is on an individual user's library page. In the right-hand column of that page there is a list of related users clicking on those user names takes you to their libraries.
Semi-Automatic Directory Pages
Perhaps the most surprising emergent feature of Connotea is its rise to prominence in Google search results for search terms that coincide with certain Connotea tag names. Because all tag names are hyperlinked in Connotea, and because those links lead to pages listing material that has been bookmarked using that tag, Connotea becomes a user-generated directory of relevant and related resources, and one that Google's ranking algorithm often considers authoritative.
For example, at the time of writing a search on Google for 'Drosophila trachea'
gives the Connotea bookmark list for that tag as the first result. The term 'microflora' and various species names of ancient hominids that have been used as tag names are other good examples of this while not claiming the number one spot, the relevant Connotea pages rank highly.
Future Plans and Prospects
The Connotea we have described here is the one that exists at the time of writing; it is not the same Connotea that will be available in a few days, weeks or months hence. Indeed, one of the major benefits web-based applications have over their desktop counterparts is that it is relatively quick and easy to roll out new functionality and fixes. Therefore updates can be very frequent sometimes even occurring daily. In this spirit we have a number of new features planned for release in the near future.
Meeting the Needs
As alluded to in our overview of Connotea, we plan to add the ability to keep certain bookmarks private viewable only by the user who posted them. While this removes certain benefits to others of bookmark sharing, we hope that it will also encourage some users to participate who might not otherwise use the system at all, and that those users will make at least some of their bookmarks public. Such users can, of course, still benefit from other users' public bookmarks.
We also plan to expand the number of sites whose URLs Connotea recognises. As Connotea understands more, it will retro-actively apply this knowledge to links that have been already posted, turning what were once simple bookmarks into full references. In addition, we are adding RIS and BibTeX import and export functionality to enable researchers to more closely co-ordinate their Connotea collection with their desktop applications and pre-existing reference stores.
As well as integrating with user's existing reference stores, it is important for Connotea to be able to integrate with the way they gain access to scholarly information. For this reason, we plan to support OpenURL linking from Connotea.
Another plan is to enable user groups. This would allow, for example, a research team to manage their reference lists collaboratively and selectively view recommendations generated only from within the team.
Above all, in deploying these and other future developments, we will be listening to feedback from Connotea users. Our priorities remain flexible and we are open to suggestions for other features that users would like to see.
The Open Source Opportunity
In addition to these development plans, we have also released Connotea's code under the open-source GNU General Public License [11]. The code, and related documentation, is available from
Some might ask why we would consider offering potential competitors a head start by releasing our code in this manner. There are a number of reasons.
One is the fact that we have already received several requests for the code from individuals and organisations whose feedback we would value highly. For example, one early adopter, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Research Library, is already experimenting with the Connotea code for possible deployment as an internal application. We invite others to explore similar possibilities and, where possible, supply us with feedback so that we can improve the publicly available implementation and code base.
In addition, opening up the source code will, we hope, help other communities, also non-scientific, to set up social bookmarking services of their own. And if any of these groups are able to offer us their own suggestions or improvements, then this will also benefit users of Connotea.
Finally, opening up the code allows webmasters to inspect it and to discover exactly how their own URLs are being treated. Those with sufficient motivation and programming expertise might even offer their own improvements, thus benefiting not only themselves but all Connotea users. Similarly, where a suitable plug-in for a website does not yet exist, the openness of the code should help webmasters or other interested developers to contribute one. Thus, by releasing the code we hope to be able to expand the number of sites from which Connotea can extract bibliographic information at a faster rate than we would be able to manage by keeping all development work in-house.
But above all, we believe that releasing the code is firmly in keeping with the spirit of Connotea as a piece of community software. It is easier to ask users to submit and share their data if we are willing to publish and share our code. Moreover, the main value of Connotea (and other social bookmarking services) lies not in the technology that runs them, but in the communities that use them. Anything that enhances the Connotea user community whether that is providing them access to the source code or responding to their requests for new features enhances Connotea.
The authors would like to thank Herbert Van de Sompel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Research Library and Tom Coates of BBC Radio and Music Interactive for reviewing this paper and for providing us with helpful insights and feedback.
n1. See the companion paper [6] for a fuller explanation of the use of bookmarklets in social bookmarking applications.
n2. The article archives and websites that Connotea currently supports are:
n3. The movie showing the bookmarking process is available in the following formats:
n4. If Connotea has the bibliographic information for an article, the RSS feed includes this. See [8] for more information about publication metadata in RSS.
n5. See, for example, Jon Udell's screencast (or video tour) about del.icio.us [10].
1. Connotea, (application). <http://www.connotea.org/>.
2. Nature Publishing Group. <http://npg.nature.com/>.
3. Lund, B., Scott, J., Hammond, T., and Hannay, T., Connotea: A Free Online Reference Management Service for Scientists, D-Lib Magazine 11(3), March 2005. <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march05/03inbrief.html#HAMMOND>.
4. Connotea, (code distribution). <http://connotea.sourceforge.net/>.
5. del.icio.us. <http://del.icio.us/>.
6. Hammond, T., Hannay, T., Lund, B., and Scott, J., Social Bookmarking Tools (I): A General Review, D-Lib Magazine 11(4), April 2005. <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html>.
7. Entrez Programming Utilities. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/eutils_help.html>.
8. Hammond, T., Hannay, T., and Lund, B., The Role of RSS in Science Publishing: Syndication and Annotation on the Web, D-Lib Magazine 10(12), December 2004. <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december04/hammond/12hammond.html>.
9. Folksonomy, (definition of). <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy>.
10. Udell, J., del.icio.us: the screencast, Jon Udell's Weblog, March 14, 2005. <http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/03/14.html>.
11. GNU General Public License. <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>.
Copyright © 2005 Ben Lund, Tony Hammond, Martin Flack and Timo Hannay
Top | Contents
D-Lib Magazine Access Terms and Conditions


text:
Battle fatigue
Five years into the sex abuse crisis, some Catholics are growing weary, while others are cautiously optimistic.
The priest sex abuse crisis is the U.S. Catholic Church's Iraq War. The comparisons are hard to miss: the mounting list of casualties, the ever-increasing cost, the reluctance of leadership to admit mistakes, the ill-advised strategic moves, the obsession to conceal documents lest the truth come out, the loss of confidence by the public in the top decision-makers, the powerlessness of ordinary citizens to have their voice heard, and the growing conviction on the part of many that it will never end.
It was in the spring of 2003 when President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," announced, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Nine months later Bishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the U.S. bishops' conference, held up two volumes on the history and proposed solution to the abuse crisis, and told reporters, "The terrible history recorded here is history." He assured everyone that no stone had been left unturned to stop that scandal and that no known offenders were still at large.
The largest diocesan payouts in priest abuse settlements
• Diocese of Orange, Calif.
But the fog of war has enshrouded both these campaigns. It has been five years since the bishops met in Dallas and agreed on a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the National Review Board to monitor the effort, and an office to assess progress. Still the battle occupies the news almost daily with new revelations and accusations, new court filings, new charges of deceit and cover-up, new TV specials. Catholics look on with a wide spectrum of attitudes including outrage, patient endurance, despair, and even confident hope.
Joseph Lynaugh, a retired HMO executive from New Jersey, says this sort of crisis is inevitable in a closed society. "The big problem here is a complete lack of accountability and transparency. And I don't think anything significant is going to happen. When I look to the prospects for the next generation of Catholics, my prognosis is grim."
Lee Ann Roblee, a stay-at-home mother in Cedar Park, Texas, says she understands the anger of victims. "But you can't change the past, and you can't apologize forever. I think it's time to move on and make a difference where you can," she says. "I believe the church is making progress and I'm very hopeful for the future."
How far have we come after five years?
The bomb drops
What provided the early public interest in the crisis were the horrific accounts of predatory priests and innocent victims. The Boston Globe broke the story nationally in early 2002 (it has run over 800 abuse-related stories since), and similar accounts quickly spread like the bubonic plague in virtually every diocese in the country. Perhaps the most complete collection of documentation is the work of two Boston-area Catholics who have been putting online court rulings, survivors' stories, information (and photos) of credibly accused priests, and newspaper accounts—practically everything available about the scandal that exists in print since 2003. Anne Barrett Doyle and Terry McKiernan, creators of bishopaccountability.org have amassed literally hundreds of thousands of pages, which may some day provide the raw material for scholars of the crisis. New material from all over the nation is added to the site daily, and much of it has already been of help to investigators, prosecutors, lawyers, and abuse survivors.
Doyle fears these five years may be just the beginning of the deluge. "From what we've seen," she says, "it seems to take victims 30 years or more to come forth, and we haven't heard much yet from those in the 1980s and 1990s." She wonders if sociologist Father Andrew Greeley's prediction that the number of victims could reach 100,000 may be true.
Though the public outcry against priest perpetrators has been intense, it has been absolutely vehement against the bishops who knew of the abuse yet continued to move clerics from one assignment to another without informing pastors or parishioners. Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston became the best known of these, largely through his denials and incredible lapses of memory under interrogation by prosecutors.
Crisis by the numbers
Data on the abuse scandal is far from precise. Almost everything is a disputed approximation. A massive survey of past priest abuse between 1950 and 2002 was authorized by the bishops in Dallas in June 2002 and undertaken by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate has provided reports from 2004 through 2006.
Analysts factoring in estimates for 2003 have suggested the realistic totals for the entire 1950-2006 period would be 12,700 allegations, 5,500 accused priests, and more than $2 billion paid out for compensation, legal fees, treatment for victims and offenders, and other costs. Considering that dozens of dioceses are still negotiating settlements (500 cases in Los Angeles alone) and that new allegations continue to come forth, Charles Zech, director of the Center for Church Management, says the cost of priest abuse will certainly reach $3 billion before it's over. —Robert J. McClory
Law's approach seemed to set a standard for other bishops whose apologies were transparent only in their denial of guilt and absence of contrition. New York Cardinal Edward Egan apologized in a letter to his priests, saying, "If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made...I am deeply sorry."
These efforts to distance themselves from the scandal, more than anything else, brought down the wrath of Catholics. Justice Anne Burke, now of the Illinois Supreme Court, was a member of the original National Review Board appointed by the bishops in 2002, and she served as its interim president for two years. "This could have been a teaching moment. The bishops could have said, 'This isn't about the faith, it's about us as poor administrators.' They could have embraced the people and said, 'We need you in this time of crisis.' But they didn't, and as far as I can see, they haven't since," she says.
In their defense, many bishops still insist their past handling of abusive priests reflected the best psychological and legal advice of the time—that with therapy, prayer, and medication, deviant tendencies could be controlled, if not cured, and the men returned to service. But the recidivism of many priests should have been a signal to these cautious church leaders.
In 1984 Dominican Father Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer at the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C. at the time, produced an extensive analysis of the abuse problem along with comprehensive recommendations for reform. Based on the few high-profile cases emerging at the time, Doyle warned that a strategy of quietly paying off victims and coddling the abusers would result in the greatest scandal in U.S. church history. The bishops dismissed his ideas then and again in the early 1990s, when a new spurt of accusations made the headlines.
The failure of the hierarchy to recognize the problem and stem it sooner may be just one manifestation of a generally poor management style, suggests Frank Butler, president of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA). In a 2003 talk at Yale University, Butler outlined "a sad litany of embezzlements, misuse of charitable collections, bad investments, wheeling and dealing, and poor management undermining confidence that dioceses are run soundly and accountably." Butler says some dioceses are now using excellent management practices.
But there is still a long way to go, as illustrated this year by the Center for Church Management at Villanova University. Of 78 dioceses participating in a management study, 85 percent reported embezzlement had occurred in the past five years. Some 71 percent of these dioceses reported losses of more than $50,000, and 11 percent had losses greater than $500,000. Clearly, says Charles Zech, an author of the study, the need for accountability has not been met.
Weapons of accusation
As in any war, blame for the crisis is not limited to the obvious sources but gets spread all over the landscape. The media have been frequent targets in the abuse crisis—accused of sensationalizing the crimes, harassing priests and bishops, and failing to mention that most priests are doing wonderful work. Father Benedict Groeschel, a frequent commentator on the Eternal Word Television Network, claimed the media actually created the crisis. Archbishop Julian Herranz, then head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, complained about the "tenacious, scandalistic style of the press," suggesting that anti-Catholic media outlets deliberately "sully the image of the church and weaken the moral credibility of the magisterium." Herranz is also among a host of observers who view homosexuality as the real source of sexual abuse and chide the church for not weeding out gay priests and seminarians.
A tempting target are the lawyers representing victims. Amounts of up to 30 or 40 percent of large compensation payments to victims have been awarded to these lawyers, who are then accused of greed and conspiring with advocacy groups to enrich themselves. The accusations have grown in frequency and indignation as the sums paid out by the church have increased. In a 2005 speech Thomas Doyle called the anti-lawyer attack "baseless and moronic."
"It was the lawyers who essentially did what the clergy should have been doing," he said. "They believed the victims, they supported them, they allowed them to vent, they gave them the beginnings of comfort and assurance that there was nothing wrong with them, that [the abuse] was real, that it did happen."
Organizations supporting victims have been extremely busy throughout the crisis, none more so than the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), whose leaders are quick to challenge any suggestion that the scandal is being satisfactorily resolved. SNAP was founded in 1989 by its current president, Barbara Blaine, herself a survivor of five years of abuse by a priest when she was a teenager. It is the oldest and largest survivor group, with some 8,000 members and support groups in 60 regions of the country.
Blaine is not optimistic about real change. "If bishops are cooperating, it's only because they're under the spotlight," she says. "If they're working hard at public relations, it's to protect the secrets more than the flock. As far as they are concerned, we [the survivors] are the enemy."
Blaine has a fierce, protective instinct for the survivor community, which she regards as still being victimized by powerful, uncaring forces. In her view the oppressors were not just the guilty priests and bishops but all the others who knew but remained silent—the other priests, nuns, lay teachers, school employees, police, prosecutors, judges.
"Many, many knew," says Blaine. "They knew and they protected the predators!" And what of the priests who have been wrongly charged in this accusatory environment? "We've found that that almost never happens," she says. "It's so rare as to be almost meaningless."
It is not meaningless, however, to those priests who have been falsely accused, and their numbers are considerable. The problem, says Father Michael Sullivan, a canon lawyer from the Crookston, Minnesota diocese, is that the standard of judging the credibility of accusations is so low in many dioceses as to be meaningless. "The presumption has switched from the accused being innocent to being guilty," he told the National Catholic Reporter. "I'm reminded of the Salem Witch hunts."
Easing tensions
Although hardly noticed amid the crisis, a major, ongoing effort has occurred in scores of dioceses to ensure it will never happen again. The Dallas charter requires—besides compensation and treatment for victims and swift removal of perpetrators from ministry—thorough training of all church personnel in detecting and reporting allegations.
Patricia O'Donnell Ewers is the current president of the National Review Board, which has the responsibility to see that the bishops live up to those commitments. She is well aware of the struggle of the board in its earliest day when the first president, Frank Keating, former governor of Oklahoma, compared the secretive tactics of some bishops to the mafia.
"We've had a definite improvement since then," she says. "Now there's a basic cooperative relationship." Yet Ewers, former president of Pace University, admits the work of the board is not always easy. "Bishops and cardinals have a problem with the laity telling them what to do," she says.
Ewers says the bishops place such high emphasis on their accountability to the pope alone that "they have no idea of their accountability to one another." Nor can the board take action against the few institutions (two dioceses, Lincoln, Nebraska and Baker, Oregon; and two eparchies of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church) that refuse to cooperate with the charter. "The charter doesn't say anything about accountability," she explains.
So far, Ewers says, the bishops have approved every major action the board has proposed and are gradually "coming to recognize the growing desire of the laity to have a say in the direction in which their church is going."
Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, which gathers data on charter implementation, says the work "goes well" nationally. Almost 6 million children have received safe environment training, thousands of teachers and church employees are being trained in recognizing danger signs, all new employees must agree to detailed background checks, and every diocese has a safe environment and victim assistant coordinator.
Bishop Gregory Aymond of Fort Worth, Texas, chair of the bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Youth, is equally upbeat about the work. "Children are far safer today than 10 years ago, abusive priests are being dismissed from ministry, and the vast majority of the bishops are reaching out to the victimized," he says. "Yes, we lost the trust of the people, but it is being rebuilt."
Aymond's recent meeting with the national president of the activist group Voice of the Faithful was cordial, he says. "We were on the same page on practically everything." The one sticking point is the release by dioceses of all the names of credibly accused priest since 1950. While VOTF, Call to Action, and others insist this is necessary for healing, Aymond's committee has so far opposed disclosure because, he says, many of the priests are dead and there may be questions about the accuracy of some of the accusations. Nevertheless, he says, "I am extremely hopeful we're moving beyond the bad news."
So are many of the bishop's people. "I am energized by what goes on in Austin," says Paulette Stepp, a human resources consultant and volunteer trainer in the diocese's child protection program. "Bishop Aymond's commitment to the children was strong even before the Dallas charter," she says, "and folks around here appreciate that."
Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen, New Jersey also received kudos for his response in the early days of the scandal. He began meeting with victims and letting them freely tell their stories. He immediately placed on his diocesan review board a person who had been abused by a priest; he met with local leaders of SNAP and sent representatives to their meetings; and he paid $800,000 in diocesan investments to a group of victims even though criminal charges could not be brought against their priest abusers due to the state statute of limitations.
"I did what I did in justice and compassion," he says. "Meeting victims was very uncomfortable at first, but it helped me understand what they went through, and they were very appreciative."
The nuclear option
On another front, five dioceses have attempted to calm hostilities by filing for diocesan bankruptcy. The first, Portland, Oregon, took action in 2004, and the latest, San Diego, California, earlier this year. Bankruptcy halts all suits against the diocese, but it also puts final judgment in the hands of a civil judge who decides how much the church must pay claimants and to what extent diocesan files must be made public.
For Tucson, Arizona bankruptcy has apparently worked in the diocese's favor. Agreement was reached within a year to pay some $22 million to victims, with the bulk of the funds coming from the sale of unused church property and from insurance.
"We were lucky," says Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas. "The judge didn't want any haggling over money, we had a positive dialogue with the victims, and we had been forthright in publishing names [of the credibly accused]." As a result, he says, a fair and equitable settlement was reached. "I know we have critics," says Kikanis, "but if we're moving toward forgiveness and recovery, then everyone benefits."
Other dioceses, like Spokane, have not had the legal advantages that benefited Tucson. When it finally declared bankruptcy, it had only $11 million in assets against $75 million in debts.
The assumption that most dioceses will survive by just carving off fat is absolutely wrong, says Villanova's Sergent. With reduced availability of insurance coverage, dioceses will be "slicing into bone and muscle," he declared in Commonweal magazine. "Who then will pay? Not the molesters, not the long-dead or retired bishops and chancery officials.... The bill will be paid by closing and selling off older, marginal parishes...and schools."
It's already happening, though church officials say otherwise. The Archdiocese of Boston said it was closing some 50 parishes in 2004 because of population shifts, the priest shortage, aging and deteriorating buildings, and fewer Mass-goers. Nothing was said about the $85 million the church is paying in abuse claims.
Speaking by phone from St. Francis Cabrini Church in a Boston suburb, John Roberts and his wife, Maryellen, insist everyone knows the truth. "The dollars for the settlement had to come from someplace, and it's coming from our churches," says John. The couple was bedding down in the church for the night. Since the church was closed, a contingent from the parish has been sleeping in it each night in protest.
"It's been two years and four months now," says Maryellen. "There was absolutely no reason in the world to close this young, growing parish except to sell off the property for money." Parishioners at a dozen or more closed Boston parishes are appealing in church and civil courts.
Collateral damage
The abuse problem has hit Catholics hard, according to national surveys sponsored by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) and FADICA during the past five years. As of late 2005, 74 percent of Mass-attending parishioners believed it was hurting the credibility of church leaders "a great deal or somewhat." This was almost identical to the view two years before at the height of the crisis.
Only 29 percent of the respondents contributed to a diocesan collection in 2005, down from their giving rate in 2003. And some 39 percent of the Mass-goers had "little or no confidence" that the bishops as a whole were even addressing the sexual abuse problem.
On the other hand, the problem does not seem to have gravely affected Catholics' commitment to the church, especially at the local level. Forty-five percent believed their own bishop had done a "good or excellent job" in handling accusations of abuse. Some 74 percent contributed to collections regularly at their parish church, and a similar percentage had confidence their own bishop was handling finances properly.
The surveys challenge a common perception that anger over the handling of the abuse problem has driven many out of the church or greatly alienated Catholics from church leadership. Mary Gautier, a CARA senior research associate, says the findings suggest Catholic faith is "stronger than the tornado" created by the scandal, or it may prove that "faith, like politics, is essentially local."
Ultimately attitudes toward all aspects of the problem are in the eye of the beholder. In the Cincinnati archdiocese, Christi Miller, a mother of two young daughters, has become the local outspoken critic of the church, challenging its claims of concern for victims and accusing it of concealing facts. When a bill was proposed in the state legislature to open the statute of limitations so that past priest abusers could be prosecuted, "the bishops got together with the politicians and essentially emasculated it," she says.
Miller was abused by a priest as a teenager. Since the crisis became public, she has removed her children from Catholic school and no longer considers herself Catholic. "After learning all I've learned," she says, "I don't want to participate in a hierarchical religion."
Joe Metzger, a transportation consultant in Cincinnati and a father, looks at the same situation Miller sees. "I know what the archdiocese did on child protection even back to 1984," he says. "And I know they've developed a solid child protection program here. But there are people who keep pushing. For them a priest accused is a priest guilty. I don't agree. So how do we move on?" He most regrets the loss of relationship he and his peers once had with priests. "A priest took me to my first ballgame," says Metzger. "That can't happen anymore."
Robert J. McClory is professor emeritus of journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. His latest book, The Coming Democratization of the Catholic Church (Crossroad), is due out this fall.


text:
RND(9) BSD Kernel Manual RND(9)
random - device kernel interface
#include <dev/rndvar.h> void add_true_randomness(int); void add_timer_randomness(int); void add_mouse_randomness(int); void add_tty_randomness(int); void add_disk_randomness(int); void add_net_randomness(int); void add_auvis_randomness(int); void add_imacs_randomness(int); void get_random_bytes(void *buf, size_t nbytes); u_int32_t arc4random(void); void arc4random_buf(void *buf, size_t len); uint32_t arc4random_uniform(uint32_t upper_bound); void rnd_lopool_add(const void *buf, size_t len); void rnd_lopool_addh(const void *buf, size_t len); void rnd_lopool_addv(unsigned long);
The add_mouse_randomness(), add_tty_randomness(), add_net_randomness(), add_disk_randomness(), add_auvis_randomness(), and add_imacs_randomness() routines are used to supply data for the random data source device for further processing. The processing involves calculating inter-event time delta and measuring entropy contained in the resulting delta-T; the argu- ment data supplied is just mixed into the pool and does not increase the entropy counter. add_true_randomness() does not involve the usual timing calculations, and causes the supplied data argument to be added to the entropy pool, in- creasing the entropy counter by 32 bits. add_timer_randomness() will not cause the entropy counter to rise. It is used to change the state of the pool periodically, mostly by means of timing the random driver's operations. get_random_bytes() may be used to retrieve strong random data, just as it would by the srandom(4) device. arc4random() will give random 32 bit numbers hashed with the ARC4 algo- rithm, which appears to be faster and less abusive to the entropy pool. arc4random_buf() will fill a buffer with bytes from the same source. arc4random_uniform() will give the result of arc4random() modulo upper_bound, except the result is uniformly distributed across the result value space. rnd_lopool_add() will add bytes from wrandom(4) and other "untrusted" sources via two temporary pools, one using the one-at-a-time hash, the other using the arcfour stream cipher, into the arc4random pool. rnd_lopool_addh() will hash the input into a 32-bit number first, and rnd_lopool_addv() takes an integral argument instead of a buffer.
arc4random(3), pchb(4), random(4)
None of these functions should really be called during the autoconf(4) process. Calling the three arc4random and the three rnd_lopool_add func- tions however is safe at any time since MirBSD #11. MirBSD #10-current July 9, 2011 1


text:
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Training Class on Prism, MVVM, and MEF
Programming Microsoft Prism Class Description
Detailed Syllabus
Contact Dave
Rolling Thunder
Home Page
Date/Time: TBA
Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with the .NET
Framework and Visual Studio 2010. Class is taught in C#, but Visual Basic users
are welcome. Sample programs are in VS 2010 C#. Knowledge of CAB/SCSF is
not required.
GUARANTEED! We stand firmly behind our training class and the
knowledge we're confident you'll gain from attending. You must be completely
satisfied with the quality and results of attending this training, or we will fully refund
your tuition. If you attend the class and you're not happy, you
don't pay. This includes any problems with web delivery, even if they're on your
end. This policy does not apply to students who register for the class but don't
attend. Our cancellation policy is in the next paragraph.


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Nature Necklace
Seductive, beautifully bright, emotionally intense !
All handcrafted, the ANDINA jewels offer a whole range of unique rings, bracelets, pendents and earrings. All of genuine Colombian origin, our emeralds are delicately set in original silver mounts whose design is inspired by various shapes, such as the hexagon whose six sides are not unlike the crystals of emerald itself.
Nature Necklace
Silver pendant 925/1000, rhodium
A Colombian emerald, round faceted approx. 2.7 mm in diameter
Black nylon cord
As symbols of elegance, our jewels make a beautiful magical blend of emerald and silver which will complément your personality!
The photograph is an example of the product. Each ANDINA jewel is made by hand and has unique features. Each emerald presents shapes, various tones of colour and imperfections related to the nature of the stone itself
Hallmark of an exceptional gem, the emerald is our masterpiece
The ANDINA collection is an exclusive new concept presenting a line of jewels all set with noble emeralds certified of Colombian origin. Created and assembled in Colombia by a group of local craftsmen, the ANDINA jewels combine the precious beauty of emerald with the design of silver bracelets, necklaces and sets of jewels all handcrafted in shapes of appealing elegance. Thanks to our presence on the mining sites and close collaboration with our partners, we have the privilege to offer a set of sublimely authentic collector's jewels at very affordable prices to discerning gem enthusiasts.
An extraordinary journey
On these roads you will have the opportunity to experience pure and dazzling nature : a forest brimming with life, a sanctuary for orchids, hummingbirds, emerald toucans, the renowned morpho-butterfly with its electric-blue colour, and crystal waterfalls.
On the roads of Colombia, making your way to the emerald mines, you will discover enchanted landscapes in the very heart of the Andes mountains.
An expertise confirmed by experience
Student at the University of Nantes (France), David Goubert obtained his academic diploma of gemology in 2012. He has passions and ambitions. In order to further his scientific and technical expertise he travel, to the great mining sites in Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Australia and Colombia. There, on the very sites of extraction and exploitation of gemstones, he become familiar with every detail pertaining to the trade by taking a daily active part in the work. In close contact with mining industry and gemstone marketing professionals as well as with jewel and jewelry artisans, he acquire a sum of knowledge which enables him to master the technology of creating and crafting inspired jewelry. Today, with the launching of the ANDINA jewelry line, David Goubert is causing a sensation in the world of fashion and design.
The birth of the jewel
When emerald and silver are combined to give birth to an utterly seductive masterpiece of harmony, they make a perfect couple. Both originate from the legendary mountains of the Colombian Andes. Solid silver is a marvellous complement to the star-like brilliance of our precious emerald. The result is pure magic !
The art of cutting, the emerald's completion
A precious stone more precious than all others, the emerald demands to be cut by confirmed master gemcutters. Theirs is the most delicate task of shaping the emerald by cutting clear flat sides so as to protect it against any impact and provide it with the style and the perfect aspect of the jewel which has so long been admired.
In the heart of the magic world of emeralds
From antiquity to the modern age, fascination for emeralds has survived all fashion trends. Could its distinctive green colour, symbolizing love, hope, renewal and youth, be the source of its powerful attraction? Extracted from bedrock, a treasure of the mineral world, the emerald's lure is the stuff of legends.


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Marketing Podcast with Robert Cialdini
Like so many others in marketing, one of the first books I read was Influence. Today this is required reading for anyone trying to persuade through writing, messaging, speaking – pretty much any form of communication. The principles outlined in this book have stood the test of time.
So, it's a pretty darn big deal when the author of said book, Dr. Robert Cialdini decides it is time to add to the conversion slightly 30 years later.
I asked him why it took so long to write his second book and his answer is testament to just how important his first work is. He said, "I didn't want to plant a bunch of shrubs around a great tree, I wanted to wait until I had another tree."
My guest for this week's episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the legendary NY Times Bestseller book, Influence (which sold over 3 million copies and has been published in over 30 languages.) He is also the founder of Influence at Work and author to a new book called Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. Robert and I talk about the science behind communication and how the message before the message is key.
Dr. Robert Cialdini, frequently regarded as the "Godfather of Influence," knows all about persuasion, compliance, and negotiation. His books are the result of decades of peer-reviewed research on why people comply with requests.
Questions I ask Robert Cialdini:
- Can you describe for us the research that went into your newest book, Pre-Suasion?
- Do we need social proof and consistency for this kind of pre-suasion to be effective?
- Some people may view this as "tricking." Are there unethical elements in influencing?
What you'll learn if you give a listen:
- How altering the mindset of the moment, referred to as "privileged moments," can create a state of mind for recipients in communication
- What a tactical approach to influence is and how environment plays a critical role
- Why asking for a person's advice, versus asking for an opinion, can encourage collaboration and support
Learn more about Robert Cialdini and Influence at Work here. Buy Robert's book, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, here.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders bruised by the defeat of a massive farm bill last month are working to quickly revive the measure with a vote on a pared-down version that avoids an immediate showdown on food stamp cuts.
Just hours before Thursday's expected floor vote, it was still unclear whether GOP leaders had the 218 votes needed to pass the new measure containing only farm programs. The food stamp part of the legislation would be dealt with separately at a later date. The legislation faces a veto threat from the White House, and House Democrats have reacted angrily to the last-minute move by the GOP.
The night-before release of the bill's text underscores the lengths to which House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio must go as he tries to get almost any measure past his fractious Republican caucus. Splitting the popular farm bill from the controversial food stamp cuts, and releasing the bill's text at 8 p.m. on the eve of the scheduled vote Thursday, denied conservatives the time to rally opposition to it. But the bill's prospects remained a tense question through the day.
In an apparent effort to stem that opposition to the bill, the leaders were planning to move quickly. The new legislation was released late Wednesday and a vote was expected in the afternoon. No amendments were to be allowed.
Boehner acknowledged that the process was unusual but said "my goal right now is to get a farm bill passed."
As late as Thursday morning, conservative groups and farm groups traditionally aligned with Republicans were also lobbying against the measure, as was the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson.
The dropped food stamp section would have made a 3 percent cut to the $80 billion-a-year feeding program. Many Republicans say that isn't enough since the program's cost has doubled in the last five years. Democrats have opposed any cuts. The food stamp program doesn't need legislation to continue, but Congress would have to pass a bill to enact reforms.
The split bill is an attempt to gather support from conservatives who voted against the $100 billion-a-year farm bill. The House rejected the farm bill in June by a vote of 234-195, with 62 Republicans voting against it.
The idea of a split bill is that the farm portion, which the Congressional Budget Office calculates would cost about $20 billion a year and contain about $1.3 billion a year in cuts to farm subsidies, could pass without the food stamp provisions. Republicans would then be able to make bigger cuts in food stamp programs, the thinking goes, and pass that bill with conservative support.
Democrats opposing the bill called for procedural votes to delay the vote on the split bill and painted the legislation as taking the food stamps away from the hungry.
"You are taking food out of the mouths of your own poor constituents," Pelosi told Republicans in a floor speech. Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus spoke angrily against the bill as well.
The White House agreed that food stamps should not be left out of the bill and threatened to veto it. The Obama administration had also threatened to veto the original bill, saying it did not include enough reductions to farm subsidies and the food stamp cuts were too severe.
Few Democrats are expected to vote for the measure. Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, called it a "bill to nowhere" since the Democratic Senate is likely to add the food stamp money back in.
"This dead-on-arrival messaging bill only seeks to accomplish one objective: to make it appear that Republicans are moving forward with important legislation even while they continue to struggle at governing," Hoyer said.
Peterson was urging his colleagues to vote no, saying he sees "no clear path to getting a bill passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president."
The Club for Growth and Heritage Action said they would use a vote for the bill against Republicans in upcoming campaigns, maintaining that the idea was a ruse to get the bill in conference with the Democratic-led Senate, where food stamps will be added back in with smaller cuts.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a farm bill last month with only a half-percent cut to food stamps and would be reluctant to go along with a split bill or further cuts to the programs.
A memo sent out by Heritage Action Thursday morning targeted the only new provision in the revised farm bill — a repeal of farm laws from the 1930s and 1940s that kick in when current farm law expires. Farm-state lawmakers have kept those laws on the books so there would be incentive to pass new farm bills and avoid expiration, but the threat of outdated policies kicking in has been a headache for farmers who worry they can't depend on Congress to create new laws or extend more recent versions of the law.
Repealing those decades-old laws could mean that Congress would have little incentive to create new farm bills, however, and could make many farm programs permanent. The conservative groups seized on that point to try and dissuade Republicans from voting for the bill, saying many of those farm programs are costly.
"Market-distorting programs would continue indefinitely, like the government-imposed tariffs on sugar imports and quotas on domestic sugar production," read the Heritage Action memo.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman sent a letter to members Thursday morning saying that passing only half of the farm bill could make eventual passage of farm legislation impossible.
He said it was frustrating to the group's members that a broad agriculture coalition "appears to have been pushed aside in favor of interests that have no real stake in this farm bill."
House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said as recently as last week that he opposed splitting the bill. But he has now reluctantly agreed to the strategy, saying he would support it if his Republican leaders could deliver the votes. Late Wednesday, he gave a reserved endorsement of the plan to the GOP-controlled Rules Committee, which determines the procedures for floor debate.
"Maybe the old dynamic of how we have done things since 1965 isn't valid anymore," he said. "Maybe it is time to try something different."
Lucas said as he left the meeting just before midnight Wednesday that he didn't know whether the leadership had the 218 votes necessary for passage.
Farm groups and anti-hunger groups have warned that separating the farm and nutrition programs after decades of linking them would be misguided. Rural lawmakers have long-added money for food stamps to the farm bill, which sets policy for agricultural subsidies and other farm programs, to gather urban votes for the measure.
In a letter to Boehner, more than 500 farm groups last week asked the GOP leadership not to split the legislation.
Lucas said he hopes a food stamp bill would come to the floor quickly, so the House and Senate can begin negotiations and get a farm bill passed.
"The quicker that second bill is passed the easier it is to complete the whole process," he said.
(Photo: AP)
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For decades, Columbia Point was an isolated peninsula of Boston that failed to attract much in the way of new development, despite its location on a prime strip of waterfront overlooking Dorchester Bay.
But a burst of building activity now promises to transform many of the area's stubbornly underused and vacant properties into new housing communities, retail stores, restaurants, and striking academic and cultural buildings.
"Nobody could imagine these possibilities a few decades ago," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, recalling when Columbia Point was home to a crime-ridden housing development few outsiders dared to enter. "Now it has the potential to be a great walkable neighborhood through a balance of residential and retail development.''
In the past few weeks developers have filed plans for more than 450 apartments on Morrissey Boulevard and Mount Vernon Street. University of Massachusetts Boston is in the midst of a $700 million expansion, Boston College High School is proceeding with a new arts and athletic center, and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is under construction near the waterfront.
City officials are also planning to build new roads and add bike lanes and walking paths to improve circulation around the neighborhood.
The 400-acre peninsula already hosts more than 1,500 mixed-income housing units that replaced the former Columbia Point housing development, which was notoriously violent and nearly uninhabitable by the time it was demolished in the mid-1980s. Although the area has come a long way since then, plenty of work remains.
While it is served by an MBTA station, with easy access to Interstate 93, Columbia Point still feels cut off from the rest of the city, partly due to the wide roadways that bisect the area. It has few retail options, and its picturesque waterfront is hidden behind buildings that do not always take advantage of the views.
A 2011 master plan commissioned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority calls for a mix of commercial and residential redevelopment on several properties between I-93 and the waterfront. The plan emphasizes the need for ground-floor retail shops and restaurants to create more active commercial streets. It also calls for towers up to 17 stories high next to the JFK/UMass MBTA station, with the buildings to step down in height as they get closer to residential South Boston.
Planned transportation improvements include extending Old Colony Avenue to the T station, and construction of a new street that would run from the Shaw's Supermarket across Morrissey Boulevard to Mount Vernon Street. That street would continue to Day Boulevard, providing an alternative to the often-clogged elevated traffic circle at the entrance to the neighborhood.
The first major project near the MBTA station was submitted last week by developer David Greaney of Synergy Investments, which wants to build 278 apartments on a weed-covered lot along Morrissey Boulevard next to Shaw's. The $60 million project would include two 5½-story buildings, a courtyard, gym, club room, and parking garage.
Rents for the apartments — a mix of studios and lofts, and one- and two-bedroom units — are expected to range from $1,200 to just over $2,000 a month.
"This is a good market for people who work in the city, but can't afford to live right downtown," he said. "Our building is going to have a modern, hip design, and we think it will appeal to a lot of different people."
Greaney, whose company also owns the Shaw's plaza, said he hopes to add a second phase that could include more housing and additional retail stores.
And just a few yards down Morrissey Boulevard car dealer Herb Chambers wants to open a BMW dealership on the former Channel 56 property next to The Boston Globe. Meanwhile, over on Mount Vernon Street, developer Corcoran Jennison Cos. is proposing to build 170 apartments on a parking lot in front of the company's office building. The six-story complex would include a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units, underground parking garage, and retail stores at street level.
The company was a pioneer in Columbia Point's redevelopment, building the 1,280-unit Harbor Point housing community and the 335-unit Peninsula apartment complex at 401 Mount Vernon.
Michael Corcoran said he hopes this next wave of building will bring new shops, restaurants, and entertainment to the area.
"With all the housing and the plans at UMass, we think there will be good demand for retail here," Corcoran said. "We're encouraged by the feelers we've put out so far."
The UMass expansion will bring a new building at the gateway to the campus, a sleek, glass-walled science center that is expected to be completed by the fall of 2014. The university is also planning construction of two other academic buildings and about 2,000 dorm rooms over the next decade or so.
"We want this to be a destination for people when they come to Boston, and we believe this peninsula can become that," said university chancellor J. Keith Motley. "Our plan is to make it more beautiful, open, and accessible to our students and the surrounding community."
The plans include transportation improvements and construction of a large green or quad at the center of the campus. The Edward M. Kennedy Institute, next to the JFK Library, is expected to open within two years, and should also bring more students, tourists, and residents to the area.
Among the uncertainties is what UMass will do with the adjacent Bayside Exposition Center, which it acquired out of foreclosure in 2010. The university is only now considering plans, including one to turn it into a health and science center with classrooms, laboratories, and recreation space. In the short term, the property will be used for additional parking.
Casey Ross can be reached at email@example.com.


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You may recall last month's unveiling of Machinima's Xbox One experience — you'll soon be able to access tips, tricks, and strategies via Machinima Wingman while you play.
Today, we are announcing the official list of Machinima Wingman videos (more than 30 at launch!) as well as unique media achievements tied to the app.
For a list of supported launch titles and a sneak peek at these Machinima achievements, head on over to Major Nelson's post on Xbox Wire.


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JFTP: :connect: Could not connect to host ' ftp.beddingbarn.com ' on port ' 21 '
Click photo to enlarge
Simmons BeautyRest Black Series Natasha Luxury Firm Pillow Top
CONFORMING BACK SUPPORT Advanced Pocketed Coil Technology Helps deliver exceptional conforming back support and pressure relief. COMFORT AND PRESSURE RELIEF Comfort Response Latex This ventilated latex layer conforms and contours your body for pressure relieving comfort. Dynamic Response Memory Foam This ventilated memory foam has a unique feel and helps provide conforming back support. TEMPERATURE MANAGEMENT BlackICE Memory Foam New breathable gen technology applied to our Micro Diamond Memory Foam designated to help maintain an ideal sleep climate. SurfaceCool Plus Fiber Located at the surface of the bed this layer of vertically oriented fibers is designed to dissipate body heat away from the sleeping surface.
- Color: Black


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yesterday was my first time bring my favorite notebook, a Hasee notebook, to work in office. the morning i found the proxy offered by a women colleague's husband refusing connection. i felt its time to do some more readings into ebooks i collected so many. tech news i enjoyed previously so much can be followed via offline function of google products, like gmail, google calendar, google reader, etc, all offer offline function, including this post. i ditched the legend pc offered by QRRS, my once employer, and cleared my desk for my notebook. in the last afternoon, i started to enjoy reading ebook on software architecture. but the woman colleague soon visited my office and dialed to let her husband to resume proxy for me. in the night baby played pc game all night. we, ema and me, all enjoyed the game with baby.
this snow, the 6th in lunar 2009, is a surprise for me. for i didn't felt too much dirt to cleanse. last noon i got the idea to buy a new game machine notebook, to name it, a Hasee Grace HP640, which equipped with dvd-rw, independent video card with 128m memory, 2g ram, just a dreamed box. i discussed it with ema at noon, but she sneezed at me as usual as anything concerning money. in the night i tried to contact my kid brother in south China for assistance but failed. the cellphone number offered by my elder sister in my home town also in valid. that's my sunny yesterday.
this snow is sure a blessing upon my idea that i can and should own 2 Hasee notebooks. one for work, one for game. one for mobile and office, one for home and entertain. one for me and one for future baby son, warren, God and hope of China, if i depart from him temporarily. i surely will soon see my second Hasee (the brand Chinese name "神舟") notebook toward my biz on the earth on behalf of God.
yesterday after i got Internet access again, i also doubting if i should strike a blog entry for my favorite Hasee notebook's first time accompanying me in office, but i felt i will spent more time doing research with my plenty ebooks, and take a deeper attitude toward my presence on web in coming time, so i gave up. now i know that my most beloved want me to announce the great moment of our being together in business. i m proud of u, my dear.
its second time since yesterday i bring my camera and my notebook in one pack. i hope i sooner live with my best beloved, girl Masheng and girls zhous. i live to live with u together and with pure light entertain from Heaven. that's my vision.
last night baby asked to watch war movie lately after 11pm. her mother felt unsatisfied by his behavior and slept since diner. i felt the conspiring evil, but more faith in God. i watched a English movie on tv titled "my son jack", a proud father and his most endeared son who join arm and lost life in his debut. God, God sees, in the universe who can induce harm to the Son. God laughs.
last afternoon near the end of work time, i claimed 2 yahoo accounts with baby, likely first time claimed the title as his name, warren zhu, and web id, warrenzh. God again sees the coincidence.
recently claimed sites:
warren's flickr: http://www.flickr.com/warrenzhy/ http://www.flickr.com/waryinzhu/
my Royal twitter: https://twitter.com/zhuson https://twitter.com/songdod
my Royal vidpod: http://zhuson.vodspot.tv/
site log >


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Microsoft Nixes GoldenEye XBLA Rumors
"Unfortunately, we were never contacted by the publication to confirm information or participate in the story in any way, as we would have confirmed that we do not have the necessary rights to release GoldenEye on Xbox Live Arcade," said MGS according to Eurogamer.
Rare had previously developed a port of the game for XBLA, but production stalled when Microsoft was unable to acquire the rights to the property from GoldenEye publisher Nintendo.
Microsoft today professed an appreciation of the game's appeal, saying it would "love to release" a port in the future should a deal with Nintendo be reached.
From The Chatty


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The fire was at the Kingsbridge project, near Goderich, which was built in 2005. It is owned by utility Capital Power. Images of the incident show the nacelle was completely burnt out.
In 2011, a 2MW V80 caught fire in high winds at the Ardrossan wind farm in Ayrshire, Scotland. The incident occurred as the northern half of the UK faced winds of up to 165 miles per hour.
Last year Vestas was hit by a number of fires in its turbines. In April, the nacelle of a V112 3MW turbine caught fire in Germany, while in June a V90 in Spain suffered a similar fate.
The Spanish fire was caused by an arc flash during servicing, while the German incident was the result of a loose connection in the electrical system.
Last week a Vestas V52 collapsed in high winds at a project in Donegal, Ireland.


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A couple times now, I've encountered a Mantis ship decorated with Rock body parts. If I have a Rock crew member, I am given a blue option to put him on the comm with the mantis ship. Every time I do this, there is still a fight and I get no obvious rewards increase at the end.
Usually a blue option avoids a fight or gives some other kind of benefit, but what does this one do for me?