text:
My Dear Abbe.
"My marriage with your cousin is broken off in the most stupid way, all on account of an idiotic trick which I almost involuntarily played my intedded. In my perplexity I turn to you, my old school chum, for you may be able to help me out of the difficulty. If you can, I shall be grateful to you until I die.
"You know Gilberte, or, rather, you think you know her, but do we ever understand women? All their opinions, their ideas, their creeds, are a surprise to us. They are all full of twists and turns, cf the unforeseen, of unintelligible arguments, of defective logic and of obstinate ideas, which seem final, but which they alter because a little bird came and perched on the window ledge.
"I need not tell you that your cousin is very religious, as she was brought up by the White (or was it the Black?) Ladies at Nancy. You know that better than I do, but what you perhaps do not know is, that she is just as excitable about other matters as she is about religion. Her head flies away, just as a leaf is whirled away by the wind; and she is a true woman, or, rather, girl, for she is moved or made angry in a moment, starting off at a gallop in affection, just as she does in hatred, and returning in the same manner; and she is pretty--as you know, and more charming than I can say--as you will never know.
"Well, we became engaged, and I adored her, as I adore her still, and she appeared to love me.
"One evening, I received a telegram summoning me to Cologne for a consultation, which might be followed by a serious and difficult operation, and as I had to start the next morning, I went to wish Gilberte good-by, and tell her why I could not dine with them on Wednesday, but would do so on Friday, the day of my return. Ah! Beware of Fridays, for I assure you they are unlucky!
"When I told her that I had to go to Germany, I saw that her eyes filled with tears, but when I said I should be back very soon, she clapped her hands, and said:
"'I am very glad you are going, then! You must bring me back something; a mere trifle, just a souvenir, but a souvenir that you have chosen for me. You must guess what I should like best, do you hear? And then I shall see whether you have any imagination.'
"She thought for a few moments, and then added:
"'I forbid you to spend more than twenty francs on it. I want it for the intention, and for a remembrance of your penetration, and not for its intrinsic value:
"And then, after another moment's silence, she said, in a low voice, and with downcast eyes:
"'If it costs you nothing in money, but is something very ingenious and pretty, I will--I will kiss you.'
"The next day I was in Cologne. It was a case of a terrible accident, which had plunged a whole family into despair, and a difficult amputation was necessary. They lodged me in the house; I might say, they almost locked me up, and I saw nobody but people in tears, who almost deafened me with their lamentations; I operated on a man who appeared to be in a moribund state, and who nearly died under my hands, and with whom I remained two nights; and then, when I saw that there was a chance of his recovery, I drove to the station. I had, however, made a mistake in the trains, and I had an hour to wait, and so I wandered about the streets, still thinking of my poor patient, when a man accosted me. I do not know German, and he was totally ignorant of French, but at last I made out that he was offering me some relics. I thought of Gilberte, for I knew her fanatical devotion, and here was my present ready to hand, so I followed the man into a shop where religious objects were for sale, and I bought a small piece of a bone of one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.
"The pretended relic was inclosed in a charming old silver box, and that determined my choice, and, putting my purchase into my pocket, I went to the railway station, and so on to Paris.
"As soon as I got home, I wished to examine my purchase again, and on taking hold of it, I found that the box was open, and the relic missing! I searched in vain in my pocket, and turned it inside out; the small bit of bone, which was no bigger than half a pin, had disappeared.
"You know, my dear little Abbe, that my faith is not very fervent, but, as my friend, you are magnanimous enough to put up with my lukewarmness, and to leave me alone, and to wait for the future, so you say. But I absolutely disbelieve in the relics of secondhand dealers in piety, and you share my doubts in that respect. Therefore, the loss of that bit of sheep's carcass did not grieve me, and I easily procured a similar fragment, which I carefully fastened inside my jewel-box, and then I went to see my intended.
"As soon as she saw me, she ran up to me, smiling and eager, and, said to me:
"'What have you brought me?'
"I pretended to have forgotten, but she did not believe me, and I made her beg, and even beseech me. But when I saw that she was devoured by curiosity, I gave her the sacred silver box. She appeared overjoyed.
"'A relic! Oh! A relic!'
"And she kissed the box passionately, so that I was ashamed of my deception. She was not quite satisfied, however, and her uneasiness soon turned to terrible fear, and looking straight into my eyes, she said:
"'Are you sure-that it is genuine?'
"'Absolutely certain.'
"'How can you be so certain?'
"I was trapped; for to say that I had bought it of a man in the streets would be my destruction. What was I to say? A wild idea struck me, and I said, in a low, mysterious voice:
"'I stole it for you.'
"She looked at me with astonishment and delight in her large eyes.
"'Oh! You stole it? Where?'
"'In the cathedral; in the very shrine of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.'
"Her heart beat with pleasure, and she murmured:
"'Oh! Did you really do that-for me? Tell me-all about it!'
"That was the climax; I could not retract what I had said. I made up a fanciful story; with precise details: I had given the custodian of the building a hundred francs to be allowed to go about the building by myself; the shrine was being repaired, but I happened to be there at the breakfast hour of the workmen and clergy; by removing a small panel, I had been enabled to seize a small piece of bone (oh! so small), among a quantity of others (I said a quantity, as I thought of the amount that the remains of the skeletons of eleven thousand virgins must produce). Then I went to a goldsmith's and bought a casket worthy of the relic; and I was not sorry to let her know that the silver box cost me five hundred francs.
"But she did not think of that; she listened to me, trembling, in an ecstasy, and whispering: 'How I love you!' she threw herself into my arms.
"Just note this: I had committed sacrilege for her sake. I had committed a theft; I had violated a church; I had violated a shrine; violated and stolen holy relics, and for that she adored me, thought me perfect, tender, divine. Such is woman, my dear Abbe, every woman.
"For two months I was the most admirable of lovers. In her room, she had made a kind of magnificent chapel in which to keep this bit of mutton chop, which, as she thought, had made me commit that divine love-crime, and she worked up her religious enthusiasm in front of it every morning and evening. I had asked her to keep the matter secret, for fear, as I said, that I might be arrested, condemned, and given over to Germany, and she kept her promise.
"Well, at the beginning of the summer, she was seized with an irresistible desire to see the scene of my exploit, and she teased her father so persistently (without telling him her secret reason), that he took her to Cologne, but without telling me of their trip, according to his daughter's wish.
"I need not tell you that I had not seen the interior of the cathedral. I do not know where the tomb (if there be a tomb) of the Eleven Thousand Virgins is; and then, it appears, it is unapproachable, alas!
"A week afterward, I received ten lines, breaking off our engagement, and then an explanatory letter from her father, whom she had, somewhat late, taken into her confidence.
"At the sight of the shrine, she had suddenly seen through my trickery and my lie, and at the same time discovered my real innocence of any crime. Having asked the keeper of the relics whether any robbery had been committed, the man began to laugh, and pointed out to them how impossible such a crime was. But, from the moment that I had not plunged my profane hand into venerable relics, I was no longer worthy of my fair- haired, sensitive betrothed.
"I was forbidden the house; I begged and prayed in vain; nothing could move the fair devotee, and I became ill from grief. Well, last week, her cousin, Madame d'Arville, who is your cousin also, sent me word that she should like to see me, and when I called, she told me on what conditions I might obtain my pardon, and here they are. I must bring her a relic, a real, authentic relic of some virgin and martyr, certified to be such by our Holy Father, the Pope, and I am going mad from embarrassment and anxiety.
"I will go to Rome, if needful, but I cannot call on the Pope unexpectedly, to tell him my stupid misadventure; and, besides, I doubt whether they allow private individuals to have relics. Could not you give me an introduction to some cardinal, or even to some French prelate who possesses some remains of a female saint? Or, perhaps, you may have the precious object she wants in your collection?
"Help me out of my difficulty, my dear Abbe, and I promise you that I will be converted ten years sooner than I otherwise should be!
"Madame d'Arville, who takes the matter seriously, said to me the other day:
"'Poor Gilberte will never marry.'
"My dear old schoolmate, will you allow your cousin to die the victim of a stupid piece of subterfuge on my part? Pray prevent her from being virgin eleven thousand and one.
"Pardon me, I am unworthy, but I embrace vou, and love you with all my heart.
"Your old friend, "HENRI FONTAL."
Return to the Guy de Maupassant library , or . . . Read the next short story; The Rondoli Sisters


text:
French accordion track. A light ethereal "musette" style piece for accordion. The sounds of French waltz create the atmosphere of love and romance. Beautiful French music. The best background for your french video.
Please don't forget to rate after purchasing!
Try This Music.
The dramatic, exciting track in the New Tango style ( French, Spanish ). Acoustic Guitar, Percussion and Bandoneon are used here. Could be a nice piece of background music for a Film, wedding album, good for TV and show, movie, video, commercials, slideshow or for advertisement. 100% live music !!!
Thank you for your interest in my music, and for supporting it!
Dear customers! Please send links to your work where you use my music. I can put them in my profile. Thank you! email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Samsung Electronics and South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom plan to demonstrate next week research into future "5G" wireless and data transmission at 7.55Gbps.
The two companies, which formed a research and development agreement on 5G wireless in October last year, will show off the technology at the Mobile World Congress expo in Barcelona. The annual event, the biggest in the wireless telecommunications industry, begins on Monday.
The transmission will use millimeter wave frequencies, which are generally considered to be those over 6GHz. That's higher than current mobile phone and Wi-Fi frequencies and something that brings advantages and disadvantages.
Among the advantages is the high speed that is possible but the disadvantages include poor propagation. Millimeter wave signals generally require an unobstructed transmission path, which means walls, windows and other objects can easily interfere or cut off communications. This is seen in direct-to-home satellite TV systems, which also utilize millimeter waves at around 11GHz and where the dish needs a clear view of the satellite in the sky.
To help realize the high-speed data, the two companies are employing "3D beamforming"—a technique that involves sensing the location of a smartphone and directing a narrow pencil-like transmission beam towards it. A cellular base station usually transmits signals over a wide area, but with more intelligent antenna systems in 5G wireless that could change.
Cellular carriers and equipment makers are looking at millimeter wave frequency bands to help alleviate crowding in lower frequencies and better serve users in crowded cities. Because millimeter waves are easily attenuated by objects, the same frequencies can be reused in areas close to each other, perhaps separated by a building, without fear of interference. That leads to more efficient use of spectrum.
Samsung and SK Telecom's research into 5G wireless is being driven in part by a desire to launch the world's first commercial 5G network. The two companies are currently hoping they will be able to realize that in South Korea in 2020, two years after Japan's NTT DoCoMo is targeting the launch of a demonstration network in Tokyo. The Japanese network is timed to go on-air with the 2018 Tokyo Olympic Games.


text:
This current sensor is a carrier board or breakout board for Allegro's ACS711KEXLT-15AB-T Hall effect-based linear current sensor with overcurrent fault output; we therefore recommend careful reading of the ACS711 datasheet (551k pdf) before using this product. This sensor has an operating voltage of 3 V to 5.5 V and an output sensitivity of 90 mV/A when Vcc is 3.3 V (or 136 mV/A when Vcc is 5 V). The following list details some of the sensor's key features:
- Designed for bidirectional input current from -15.5 A to 15.5 A (though the robust sensor IC can tolerate 100 ms transient current spikes up to 100 A).
- Conductive path internal resistance is typically 0.6 mΩ, and the PCB is made with 2-oz copper, so very little power is lost in the board.
- Use of a Hall effect sensor means the IC is able to electrically isolate the current path from the sensor's electronics (for applications up to 100 V), which allows the sensor to be inserted anywhere along the current path and to be used in applications that require electrical isolation.
- 100 kHz bandwith.
- Good accuracy and reliability: factory calibration results in a typical total output error of ±5% at room temperature, the output offset voltage is extremely stable, and the sensor has zero magnetic hysteresis.
- Overcurrent FAULT output latches low when current magnitude exceeds 15.5 A.
- Operating temperature range of -40°C to 125°C.
The pads are labeled on the bottom silkscreen, as shown in the picture to the right. The silkscreen also shows the direction that is interpreted as positive current flow via the +i arrow.
This 15.5 A current sensor is marked with a black X. We also sell a 31 A version that uses the same carrier PCB; you can distinguish the versions by reading the text on the IC or by looking at the color of the X on the bottom silkscreen.
This sensor is very similar to our original ACS711 -12.5 to +12.5 A Current Sensor Carrier, but uses a smaller "EX" package that has a larger optimized sensing range and reduced internal resistance. The board size, pinout, and hole locations are all unchanged, so it can generally be used as a drop-in replacement for our ACS711 carriers with "LC" packages.
Using the sensor
Electrical connections
The sensor requires a supply voltage of 3 V to 5.5 V to be connected across the Vcc and GND pads, which are labeled on the bottom silkscreen. The sensor outputs an analog voltage that is linearly proportional to the input current. The quiescent output voltage is Vcc/2 and changes by 90 mV per amp of input current (when Vcc = 3.3 V), with positive current increasing the output voltage and negative current decreasing the output voltage. The relationship between the instantaneous input current, i, and sensor output voltage, VOUT, can be represented by the following equations:
The FAULT pin is normally high and latches low when the current exceeds ±15.5 A. Once the FAULT pin is latched low, the only way to reset it is by toggling power on the Vcc pin. In our tests, this module was able to handle 15 A of continuous current without exceeding 50°C, with no cooling beyond the heat dissipation of the PCB.
The input current can be connected to the board in a variety of ways. Holes with 0.1″, 3.5 mm, and 5 mm spacing are available as shown in the diagram above for connecting male header pins or terminal blocks. For high-current applications, you can solder wires directly to the through-holes that best match your wires, or you can use solderless ring terminal connectors, as shown in the picture above. The large through-holes are big enough for #6 screws.
Warning: This product is intended for use below 30 V. Working with higher voltages can be extremely dangerous and should only be attempted by qualified individuals with appropriate equipment and protective gear.
Mounting information
The board has two mounting holes on the logic side of the board. These mounting holes are 0.5" apart and are designed for #2 screws.
|Part. No. :
Questions on 2452 - ACS711EX Current Sensor Carrier -15.5A to +15.5A
No questions asked yetRegister or Login to ask a question.
Related Products
341187 1187 - ACS714 Current Sensor Carrier -30 to +30AThis board is a simple carrier of Allegro's ±30A ACS714 Hall effect-based linear current sensor, which offers a low-resistancfalseExcl. Tax:€9.50Incl. Tax:€11.59
Prices VAT incl.Compare
582508 2453 - ACS711EX Current Sensor Carrier -31A to +31AThis board is a simple carrier of Allegro's ±31 A ACS711 Hall effect-based linear current sensor with overcurrent fault outpufalseExcl. Tax:€3.93Incl. Tax:€4.79
Prices VAT incl.Compare


text:
In order to achieve sustainability, we need scenarios of where we want to go: not only warnings and plans, but also reports as if we'd already made the transition. Who would have suspected they'd come from the south Pacific?
New Zealand, apart from supplying the setting for The Lord of the Rings, is a good place to think about sustainability. A small nation, it is relatively free from imperial delusions. Surrounded by water, it's heavily dependent on foreign trade, exporting (for example) dairy products, meat, wool, and wood. Foreign trade would be adversely affected by a sharp rise in the price of oil. One analyst who takes account of the global peak of oil production, argues that New Zealand may be one of the first countries to achieve sustainability, driven in part by need.
This island nation also has some advantages. Over half of its electricity is generated by hydro, which is renewable; and according to a recent study, the nation has enough land to feed its small population.
In any case, at least two groups in New Zealand have given us scenarios of their country as if it had made the transition to sustainability. An institution called Landcare published Four Scenarios for New Zealand in 2005 (followed by a second edition in 2007), and then Hatched: The Capacity for Sustainable Development in 2009.
New Zealand also has the advantage of containing more than one culture, so some people there are accustomed to thinking in terms of alternatives. (Landcare's name in the other official language of the country, Maori, is Manaaki Whenua.)
Another striking report comes from Sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand. (Aotearoa is Maori for "land of the long white cloud," an ancient name for the islands.) The report is called Strong Sustainability, though as SANZ board member K. Bosselmann notes, "In fact, there is only 'sustainability,' not a weak and strong version, just as there is no weak or strong version of justice, freedom and equality. You either follow these foundational principles or you don't." Bosselmann heads the Centre for Environmental Law at the University of Auckland.
SANZ adopted the rubric of "strong sustainability," I gather, to distinguish its approach from token or fledgling versions that began a quarter century ago with the sometimes oxymoronic phrase "sustainable development."
One of the scenarios published by Landcare, and much of the SANZ report, depict a New Zealand that is less integrated into the global economy, more able to stand on its own. The authors are aware of the economic theory of "comparative advantage," which holds that overall prosperity is increased when each place produces what it does best and trades freely. However, they are struck by the possibility that trade may become increasingly costly and what had been leading trade partners may experience declining ability to pay.
If this scenario happens, what is now the dominant way of life will falter, and new challenges emerge. Machines dependent on oil will become more costly. A different infrastructure will be required. Skills will shift in value. For an introduction to that new world, which is not a prediction but only a possibility, check out the gifts of foresight from New Zealand.
Scenario planning has a long history. For example, the end of the Cold War was imagined by the sociologist David Riesman, who, in his fake history, The Nylon War, reported on an operation that began with the U.S. "bombing" its adversary with consumer goods, on the assumption that "if allowed to sample the riches of America, the Russian people would not long tolerate masters who gave them tanks and spies instead of vacuum cleaners and beauty parlors."
Royal Dutch Shell uses scenario planning to amplify its corporate thinking about the future. Science fiction offers a version, as in Arthur C. Clarke's vision of a geosynchronous communications satellite. Aldous Huxley imagined a utopia in his last novel, Island. Ernest Callenbach wrote Ecotopia, about a fictional world visited by an increasingly less skeptical journalist. A book published by the Ark Foundation spoke of "jumping ahead and looking back at the future." In 2007, Harvey Wasserman published Solartopia, an airplane jaunt over a world no longer dependent on carbon-based energy. Transition Towns recommends "energy descent plans,"* and the town of Totnes in southern England has produced one.
When I spent a year after college registered at the London School of Economics, and read the current debate about what the United Kingdom could become after the loss of its empire, it never occurred to me that one day my country might be facing a not dissimilar question. In New Zealand terms, a related sadness and dejection appears in the classic movie, Whale Rider, when a Maori character speaks of looking for "somebody who's gonna lead our people out of the darkness, and who will make everything all right again."
Just as Maori traditions have been rendered less relevant by modern society, so much of consumer society could be threatened by the transition to a sustainable world. Calculations that make sense now would refer to practices that no longer exist. We'd all be feeling grief as the familiar was no longer supportable, and the sadness of which the anthropologist Levi-Straus spoke would then apply to the most economically advanced people.
Scenario planning if course is only one element of what we need to make the transition to sustainability: not sufficient, but definitely useful. In the words of Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Along with its other exports, New Zealand has given us a template, if necessary, for success.


text:
Governance for Peace: Securing the Social Contract
Governance for Peace: Securing the Social Contract
October 30, 2015
Based upon an extensive stocktaking of UNDP's experience in crisis affected contexts, Governance for Peace: Securing the Social Contract provides insights on new approaches to governance promotion, analysis and programming adapted to the 21st century challenges of fragility. Relying on interviews with policy makers, partners and programme staff this publication draws attention to innovative and promising practices in governance and highlights the importance of ensuring approaches based upon rebuilding social contracts and consolidating peacebuilding gains.
This paper highlights four core objectives that should influence and shape governance support strategies in the coming years:
• Construct responsive institutions that build on available capacities to deliver essential functions and enable minimum standards of service delivery.
• Promote inclusive political processes and facilitate state-society dialogue through institutions of political governance.
• Foster a resilient society by mobilising local capacities to adapt and cope with stress and crisis.
• Strengthen partnerships with national and sub-national government counterparts, representative civil society organizations, international financial institutions and the wider system of UN agencies in order to deliver in more coordinated, coherent and complimentary ways.
This publication identifies that these objectives are fundamentally interconnected. Without focusing on responsiveness, inclusiveness and resilience, there is little place for partnerships. Without a renewed emphasis on reshaping UNDP's strategic partnerships, there is little possibility of achieving the goal of more responsive, inclusive and resilient states and effective development dividends.
This report concludes that durable investments in achieving governance gains in fragile contexts require approaches that take account of strategic outcomes rather than sector-specific outputs, and provides ideas on how to approach a governance agenda in a rapidly changing world.


text:
Bordeaux Wine France 1 Items
- All White Wine
- Bordeaux White Blends 5
- Sauvignon Blanc clear Wine Type filter
Gift Type Any
Occasion Any
Variety Any
Varietal Sauvignon Blanc
Region Bordeaux
Availability Ships Anytime
Size & Type Screw Caps
Fine Wine Any
Vintage Any
Reviewed By Any
Sort By Most Popular
French Blue Sauvignon Blanc 2022Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux, France0.0 0 Ratings17 99Ships TomorrowLimit 0 per customerSold in increments of 0
Learn about Bordeaux wine, common tasting notes, where the regions is and more ...
One of the most important wine regions of the world, Bordeaux is a powerhouse producer of wines of all colors, sweetness levels, and price points. Separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a coastal pine forest, this relatively flat region has a mild maritime climate, marked by cool wet winters and warm summers. Annual weather differences create significant vintage variations, making Bordeaux an exciting French wine region to follow.
The Gironde estuary, a defining feature of Bordeaux, separates most of the region into the Left Bank and the Right Bank. Farther inland, where the Gironde splits into the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers, the bucolic, rolling hills of the area in between, called Entre-Deux-Mers, is a source of great quality, approachable reds and whites.
The Left Bank, dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, contains the Médoc, Graves, and Sauternes, as well as the region's most famous chateaux. Merlot is important here as the perfect blending grape for Cabernet Sauvignon adding plush fruit and softening Cabernet's sometimes hefty tannins. Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec may also be used in the Left Bank Bordeaux wine blends.
Merlot is the principal Bordeaux wine variety of the Right Bank; Cabernet Franc adds structure and complexity to Merlot, creating wines that are concentrated, supple, and more imminently ready for drinking, compared with their Left Bank counterparts. Key appellations of the Right Bank include St. Emilion and Pomerol.
Dry and sweet Bordeaux white wines are produced throughout the region from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and sometimes Muscadelle or Sauvignon Gris. Some of the finest dry whites can be found in the Graves sub-appellation of Pessac-Léognan, while Sauternes is undisputedly the gold standard for sweet wines. Small amounts of rosé and sparkling Bordeaux wines are made in the region as well.


text:
Press Release
Actifio Customers Selected to Present at Gartner Data Center Summit London
November 27, 2012
IT Leaders from Audax and Boston University School of Medicine Among Eight Case Study Presenters
Waltham, Mass. – November 27, 2012 – Actifio™, the radically simple copy data management company, today announced its participation at the Gartner Data Center Summit London, November 27-28, 2012. Actifio's presence is highlighted by its customers, Dr. John Meyers of Boston University School of Medicine (BUMC) and Erik–Jan Dubóvik of Audax Group featured as case study speakers. They were selected by Gartner as two of the eight case study presenters.
Dr. Meyers, assistant professor of medicine and director of technology at BUMC will speak about how the institution built a research storage and computing platform from the ground up based on Actifio's Protection and Availability Storage (PAS) platform. Dr. Meyers will outline how Actifio PAS saved the organization almost $1 million, allowing it to fund pilot grants and support novel research.
Erik Dubovik, Audax Group's vice president of IT, will discuss how Actifio's PAS enabled Audax to migrate its data centers to a single co-location facility with minimal interruptions and eliminate the need for multiple point tools by creating multiple copies of the same data.
As an exhibiting sponsor at booth #S15, Actifio will demonstrate new cost saving opportunities for companies looking to solve the strategic challenges associated with copy data management. The average company today has between five and 12 different systems that make copies of data including backup, snapshot, disaster recovery, business continuity, test and development, analytics, information sharing, and even compliance tools. The result is a complex and increasingly expensive infrastructure that creates an operational nightmare. Actifio's Protection and Availability Storage (PAS) platform addresses this challenge with a totally new approach to managing copy data across the enterprise, essentially virtualizing multiple applications into a single data management appliance that can recover anything instantly, for up to 90 percent less than traditional solutions.
"We're excited that Gartner invited two of our customers to share their enterprise storage best practices," said Ash Ashutosh, Actifio Founder and CEO. "We're also very much looking forward to meeting with European data center professionals at this premier event to show the game-changing benefits PAS can bring to them. Our business in Europe is growing extremely rapidly and is a big reason we have become the fastest growing enterprise storage company from inception, ever."
"Tool consolidation has been a major goal of IT organizations and is particularly evident in the backup space. Reducing the number of data management applications, deploying deduplication to contain the redundant number of copies of data and standardizing on common policies and practices to drive down errors and reduce risk have all been common activities within the data center," said Dave Russell, Gartner's Research Vice President, Storage Technologies and Strategies, in the Gartner report, "Does Integrated Backup and Archiving Make Sense?", March 21, 2012. "With this in mind, the notion of a collapsed set of infrastructures for backup and archiving, where multiple agents, policy engines, repositories and administrative consoles give way to a unified toolset becomes attractive."
In May 2012, Gartner recognized Actifio by naming the company a "Cool Vendor in Storage Technologies, 2012." Actifio believes this acknowledgement is a testament of its innovative storage capabilities provided by PAS.
To learn how copy data management can increase network utilization and save 90 percent of storage costs, and to learn more about Actifio, stop by Booth #S15 at the Gartner Data Center Summit London.
For more information on Actifio PAS and the company's range of partner solutions, visit https://www.actifio.com/products. Gartner, Inc., "Cool Vendors in Storage Technologies, 2012," April 2012 by Dave Russell.
About the Cool Vendor
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Actifio
Actifio is radically simple copy data management. Our Protection and Availability Storage (PAS) lets businesses recover anything instantly, for up to 90 percent less. PAS eliminates siloed data protection applications, virtualizing data management to deliver an application-centric, SLA-driven solution that decouples the management of data from storage, network and server infrastructure. Actifio has helped liberate IT organizations and service providers of all sizes from vendor lock-in and the management challenges associated with exploding data growth. Actifio is headquartered in Waltham, Mass., with offices around the world. For more information, please visit https://www.actifio.com/ or email email@example.com.
About Gartner Data Center Summit
The Data Center Summit will equip IT Leaders with the capability to deliver operational excellence and smart infrastructure investment in this rapidly changing environment, making optimum use of initiatives like consolidation, virtualization, mobility, big data, disaster recovery, storage, infrastructure convergence, facilities, cost optimization and cloud computing. We will achieve this with a five point plan — built around mastering the politics of data center governance, delivering performance where it matters, achieving and maintaining process excellence, leading pioneering investments and establishing the right priorities for service quality. http://www.gartner.com/technology/summits/emea/data-center/
Copyright © 2012 Actifio, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
Media Inquiries:
Ted Weismann
fama PR
Phone: +1 617-986-5009
Email: email@example.com


text:
BBC MicrocomputerA series of 6502-based personal computers launched by Acorn Computers Ltd. in January 1982, for use in the British Broadcasting Corporation's educational programmes on computing. The computers are noted for their reliability (many are still in active service in 1994) and both hardware and software were designed for easy expansion. The 6502-based computers were succeeded in 1987 by the Acorn Archimedes family. xbeeb is a BBC Micro emulator for Unix and X11.
Nearby terms:
BBC ♦ BBC Micro ♦ BBC Microcomputer ♦ BBC Networking Club ♦ BBL ♦ BBN Butterfly
Try this search on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google, OneLook.


text:
It is possible to move assembled container with crane or forklift truck.To hang it on a crane has each corner angle of the container crane hug.
With a container can be delivered a Vandal bar. A user can also equip it with standard protection system using sensor and alarm.
Lot of different accessories and special equipment can be installed in container as shown in following gallery. Suitable accessories can be bought with container.


text:
Machine Data Analytics: Splunk
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.Join For Free
Machine data or "data exhaust" analysis is one of the fastest growing segments of "big data"–generated by websites, applications, servers, networks, mobile devices and other sources. The goal is to aggregate, parse and visualize this data – log files, scripts, messages, alerts, changes, IT configurations, tickets, user profiles etc – to spot trends and act.
By monitoring and analyzing data from customer clickstreams, transactions, log files to network activity and call records–and more, there is new breed of startups that are racing to convert "invisible" machine data into useful performance insights. The label for this type of analytics – operational or application performance intelligence.
In this posting we cover a low profile big data company, Splunk which recently went public. Splunk has >3500 customers already. Splunk ended its first day on the stock market with amazing 108.7 percent bump in price from its $17-per-share IPO.
Splunk's search, analysis and visualization capabilities are used by companies — Comcast to Zynga — to make sense of the reams of log data they generate every second.
Some real-world customer examples include:
- E-commerce… Expedia uses Splunk to avoid website outages by
monitoring server and application health and performance. Today, ~3,000
users at Expedia use Splunk to gain real-time visibility on tens of
terabytes of unstructured, time-sensitive machine data (from not only
their IT infrastructure, but also online bookings, deal analysis and
coupon use).
- SaaS…. Salesforce.com uses Splunk to mine the large quantities of
data generated from its entire technology stack. Salesforce.com has
>500 users of Splunk dashboards from IT users monitoring customer
experience to product managers performing analytics on services like
'Chatter.' With Splunk, SFDC claims to have taken application
troubleshooting for 100,000 customers to the next level.
- Digital publishing… NPR uses Splunk to gain insight of their digital
asset infrastructure. NPR uses Splunk to monitor and troubleshoot their
end to-end asset delivery infrastructure. They use Splunk to measure
program popularity, views by device, reconcile royalty payments for
digital rights, measure abandonment rates and more.
Machine Data Basics
Data, in general, falls into 3 categories:
- Business application data,
- Human-generated content and
- Machine data.
Business data is the digital information used by organizations to conduct their daily operations, such as payroll, supply chain and financial data. Most biz apps rely on relational database technology and software that have pre-defined data structures, or schema for organizing, storing, accessing and reporting on structured data.
Human-generated content is the digital information derived from human-to-human (H2H) interactions, including email, spreadsheets and documents, mobile text messages, video, photos, recorded audio and social media messaging. Human-generated content comes in the form of unstructured data, which means that it's not optimized for storage in a relational database.
Machine data (or data exhaust) is produced 24x7x365 by nearly every software application and electronic device. The applications, servers, network devices, sensors, browsers, desktop and laptop computers, mobile devices and various other systems deployed to support operations are continuously generating information relating to their status and activities.
Machine data can be found in a variety of formats such as application log files, call detail records, clickstream data associated with user web interactions, data files, system configuration files, alerts and tickets.
Machine data is generated by both machine-to-machine (M2M) as well as human-to-machine (H2M) interactions. Outside of traditional IT infrastructure, every processor-based system, including HVAC controllers, smart electrical meters, GPS devices and RFID tags, and many consumer-oriented systems, such as mobile devices, automobiles and medical devices that contain embedded electronic devices, are also continuously generating machine data.
Machine data can be structured or unstructured. The growth of machine data has accelerated in recent years. The increasing complexity of IT infrastructures driven by the adoption of mobile devices, virtual servers and desktops, as well as cloud-based services and RFID technologies, is contributing to the growth.
Leveraging Machine Data
The requirement for organizations: end-to-end visibility, analytics, and real-time intelligence across all of their applications, services and IT infrastructure to achieve required service levels, manage costs, mitigate security risks, demonstrate and maintain compliance and gain new insights to drive better business decisions.
Machine data provides a definitive, time-stamped record of current and historical activity and events within and outside an organization, including application and system performance, user activity, system configuration changes, electronic transaction records, security alerts, error messages and device locations.
Machine data in a typical enterprise is generated in a multitude of formats and structures, as each software application or hardware device records and creates machine data associated with their specific use. Machine data also varies among vendors and even within the same vendor across product types, families and models.
The figure below illustrates the type of machine data created and the business and IT insights that can be derived when a single web visitor makes a purchase in a typical ecommerce environment:
The illustration above is an example of the type and amount of valuable information generated by a single website visitor that is recorded. A typical ecommerce site serving thousands of users a day will generate gigabytes of machine data which can be used to provide significant insights into the IT infrastructure and business operations.
The Gap: Existing IT and BI Solutions are Unable to Handle Machine Data.
While machine data has always been generated by computing environments, many organizations have failed to recognize the value of this data or have encountered challenges extracting value from it. As a result, heterogeneous machine data is largely ignored and restricted to ad hoc use at the time of troubleshooting IT failures or errors.
A number of IT management products are available to analyze log files and other information related to specific devices, applications or use cases. However, these point solutions are narrowly scoped to only work with specific data formats and systems and are unable to correlate machine data from multiple sources, formats and systems for real-time analysis without significant configuration. Because each point solution targets a specific use case or data format, multiple point solutions are required to understand, cross-correlate and take advantage of the multitude of machine data sets available to an organization. This can lead to significant IT complexity as well as significant capital and IT resource expenditures.
While computing environments have always generated large amounts of machine data, current legacy IT operations management, security and compliance and BI technologies, such as relational databases, online analytical processing (OLAP) engines and other analytical tools are built on software optimized for structured data, namely data where the structure is known and can thus be placed into pre-defined relational databases.
Most of today's enterprise applications are architected for managing data in legacy relational databases. However, because machine data exists in a variety of formats and can be structured or unstructured, these legacy systems are not optimized to address the massive amounts of dynamic machine data generated within an organization.
Unstructured data is extremely diverse and complex. Legacy data tools, which are generally designed to handle structured data, need to be re-architected to address the complexity of machine data. If either the analysis or the format of the data changes, the legacy systems needs to re-collect and normalize the data, and the application that leveraged the database need to modify their structure to handle the new data formats. Many legacy solutions are also expensive to install and maintain, often needing deployment and update cycles that require professional services, extensive training and technical support over several months, and sometimes years.
Point products as well as legacy IT systems were not built to address the challenges and opportunities of machine data. Moreover, existing solutions and systems are not architected to take advantage of price/performance improvements of computing and storage systems, and in many cases require significant investment in computing hardware. Because of these limitations, these solutions and systems are unable to provide historical and real-time operational intelligence across a wide variety of use cases.
Market Opportunity Being Addressed by Splunk
Splunk believe there is a big opportunity to help organizations unlock the value of machine data. Organizations need to capture the value locked in their machine data to enable more effective application management, IT operations management, security and compliance, and to derive intelligence and insight across the organization.
The software segments that operational intelligence have been estimated by Gartner to be ~$32 billion in 2012. Specifically, Gartner expects the market for products addressing IT operations, which includes application management, to be approximately $18.6 billion in 2012; the market for BI related products, including web analytics software, to be ~$12.5 billion in 2012; and the market for security information and event management software to be ~$1.3 billion in 2012.
Splunk's Solution
Splunk started out building technology used by sysadmins to search computer log files for security issues, server-level bugs or other problem
The core of Splunk's software is a proprietary machine data engine, comprised of collection, indexing, search and data management capabilities. The software can collect and index terabytes of information daily, irrespective of format or source.
The machine data engine uses an innovative data architecture that enables dynamic, schema creation on the fly, allowing users to run queries on data without having to understand the structure of the data prior to collection and indexing.
The machine data fabric for data collection and indexing delivers speed and scalability when processing massive amounts of machine data.
Deployment of Splunk
The software can be deployed in a variety of environments ranging from a single laptop to a distributed enterprise IT environment handling massive amounts of data. The combination of Splunk forwarders, indexers, and search heads together create a machine data fabric that allows for the efficient, secure and real-time collection and indexing of machine data regardless of network, data center or IT infrastructure topology.
The diagram below shows a representative Splunk deployment topology in a distributed environment making use of machine data fabric.
Additional Notes
- Good overview on mining log files
- Splunk, which will trade under the
SPLK ticker, has taken in $40 million from investors, including August
Capital, Ignition Partners, JK&B Capital and Sevin Rosen Funds.
- Splunk is derived from Spelunking which stands for "digging thru caves with headlamps and helmets, crawling thru the muck."
- A majority of Splunk customers are beginning to use Splunk for "Application Performance Monitoring"
— monitoring their large scale, distributed mission critical
applications. Splunk can be used to isolate problems, diagnose and
troubleshoot issues, to monitor performance and service levels, to
connect transactions across different components of infrastructure. All
this enables better operational insights about applications.
- Competitors for Splunk in the
Security Information and Event Management (Big Data use case) include
HP/ArcSight. LogLogic, LogRhythm, netForensics and SenSage.
Published at DZone with permission of Ravi Kalakota, DZone MVB. See the original article here.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.


text:
Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99...
The name of a legendary sacred vessel, variously identified with the chalice of the Eucharist or the dish of the Pascal lamb, and the theme of a famous medieval cycle of romance. In the romances the conception of the Grail varies considerably; its nature is often but vaguely indicated, and, in the case of Chrestien's Perceval poem, it is left wholly unexplained.
The meaning of the word has also been variously explained. The generally accepted meaning is that is given by the Cistercian chronicler Helinandus (d. about 1230), who, under the date of about 717, mentions of a vision, shown to a hermit concerning the dish used by Our Lord at the Last Supper, and about which the hermit then wrote a Latin book called "Gradale." "Now in French," so Helinandus informs us, "Gradalis or Gradale means a dish (scutella), wide and somewhat deep, in which costly viands are wont to be served to the rich in degrees (gradatim), one morsel after another in different rows. In popular speech it is also called "greal" because it is pleasant (grata) and acceptable to him eating therein" etc. The medieval Latin word "gradale" because in Old French "graal," or "greal," or "greel," whence the English "grail." Others derive the word from "garalis" or from "cratalis" (crater, a mixing bowl). It certainly means a dish, the derivation from "grata" in the latter part of the passage cited above or from "agréer" (to please) in the French romances is secondary. The explanation of "San greal" as "sang real" (kingly blood) was not current until the later Middle Ages. Other etymologies that have been advanced may be passed over as obsolete.
When we come to examine the literary tradition concerning the Grail we notice at the outset that the Grail legend is closely connected with that of Perceval as well as that of King Arthur. Yet all these legends were originally independent of each other. The Perceval story may have a mythical origin, or it may be regarded as the tale of a simpleton (French, nicelot) who, however, in the end achieves great things. In all the versions that we have of it, it is a part of the Arthurian legend, and, in almost all, it is furthermore connected with the Grail. So the reconstruction of the original Grail legend can be accomplished only by an analytical comparison of all extant versions, and is a task that has given rise to some of the most difficult problems in the whole range of literary history.
The great body of the Grail romances came into existence between the years 1180 and 1240. After the thirteenth century nothing new was added to the Grail legend. Most of these romances are in French, but there are versions in German, English, Norwegian, Italian, and Portuguese. These are of very unequal value as sources, some are mere translations or recasts of French romances. Now all of these romances may be conveniently divided into two classes: those which are concerned chiefly with the quest of the Grail, and with the adventures and personality of the hero of this quest; and those that are mainly concerned with the history of the sacred vessel itself. These two classes have been styled respectively the Quest and the Early History versions.
Of the first class is the "Conte del Graal" of Chrestien de Troyes and his continuators, a vast poetic compilation of some 60,000 verses, composed between 1180 and 1240, and the Middle High German epic poem "Parzival" of Wolfram von Eschenbach, written between 1205 and 1215, and based, according to Wolfram's statement, on the French poem of a certain Kyot (Guiot) of Provence, which, however, is not extant and the very existence of which is doubtful. To these may be added the Welsh folk-tales or "Mabinogion" known to us only from manuscripts of the thirteenth century, though the material is certainly older, and the English poem "Sir Percyvelle," of the fifteenth century. Of the Early History versions the oldest is the metrical trilogy of Robert de Boron, composed between 1170 and 1212, of which only the first part, the "Joseph d'Arimathie," and a portion of the second, the "Merlin," are extant. We have, however, a complete prose version, preserved in the so-called Didot manuscript. The most detailed history of the Grail is in the "Grand St. Graal," a bulky French prose romance of the first half of the thirteenth century, where we are told that Christ Himself presented to a pious hermit the book concerning this history. Besides these versions we have three French prose romances, also from the thirteenth century, which, though concerned chiefly with the quest, give also an account of the history of the sacred vessel. Of these the most notable is the "Queste del St. Graal," well known to English readers because it was embodied almost entire in Malory's "Morte d' Arthur." The others are the so-called "Didot Perceval" or "La petite queste" and the lengthy and prolix "Perceval le Gallois," also known as "Perlesvaus."
The poem of Chrestien, regarded by many as the oldest known Grail romance, tells of Perceval's visit to the Grail castle, where he sees a Graal borne in by a damsel. Its accompaniments are a bleeding lance and a silver plate. It is a precious vessel set with jewels, and so resplendent as to eclipse the lights of the hall. All the assembled knights show it reverence. Mindful of an injunction not to inquire too much, Perceval does not ask concerning the significance of what he sees, and thereby incurs guilt and reproach. Undoubtly Chrestien meant to relate the hero's second visit to the castle, when he would have put the question and received the desired information. But the poet did not live to finish his story, whether the explanation of the Graal, offered by the continuators, is that which Chrestien what the Graal signifies; in his version it has no pronounced religious character. On the other hand, in the Early History versions it is invested with the greatest sanctity. It is explained as the dish from which Christ ate the Paschal lamb with his disciples, which passed into possession of Joseph of Arimathea, and was used by him to gather the Precious Blood of Our Saviour, when His body was taken from the Cross. It becomes identified with the Chalice of the Eucharist. The lance is explained as the one with which Longinus pierced Our Lord's side, and the silver plate becomes the paten covering the chalice. The quest in these versions assumes a most sacred character, the atmosphere of chivalric adventure in Chrestien's poem yields to a militant asceticism, which insists not only on the purity of the quester, but, in some versions (Queste, Perlesvaus), on his virginity. In the "Queste" and "Grand St. Graal," moreover, the hero is not Perceval but the maiden-knight, Galaad. But the other knights of the Round Table are made to participate in the quest.
The early history of the Grail is intimately connected with the story of Joseph of Arimathea. When he is cast into prison by the Jews, Christ appears to him and gives him the vessel, through which he is miraculously sustained for forty-two years, until liberated by Vespasian. The Grail is then brought to the West, to Britain, either by Joseph and Josephes, his son (Grand St. Graal), or by Alain one of his kin (Robert de Boron). Galaad (or Perceval) achieves the quest; after the death of its keeper the Grail vanishes. According to the version of the "Perlesvaus" Perceval is removed, no one knows whither, by a ship with white sails on which is displayed a red cross. In the Guiot-Wolfram version we meet with a conception of the Grail wholly different from that of the French romances. Wolfram conceives of it as a precious stone, lapsit exillis (i.e. lapis or lapsi ex caelis?) of special purity, possessing miraculous powers conferred upon it and sustained by a consecrated Host which, on every Good Friday, a dove brings down from heaven and lays down upon it. The angels who remained neutral during the rebellion of Lucifer were its first guardians; then it was brought to earth and entrusted to Titurel, the first Grail king. It is guarded in the splendid castle of Munsalvaesche (mons salvationis or silvaticus?) by itself and nourished by its miraculous food-giving power.
The relationship of the Grail versions to each other, especially that of Chrestien to those of Robert de Boron and the "Queste," is a matter of dispute. Nor is their relative chronology certain. But in all these versions the legend appears in an advanced state of development, the preceeding phases of which are not attested by literary monuments, and therefore, can only be conjectured. The origin of the legend is involved in obscurity, and scholars are divided in their views on this point. An Oriental, a Celtic, and a purely Christian origin have been claimed. But the Oriental parallels, like the sun-table of the Ethiopians, the Persian cup of Jamshid, the Hindu paradise, Cridavana, are not very convincing, and Wolfram's statement, that Kyot's source was an Arabic manuscript of Toledo, is open to grave doubt. It is different with the Celtic story. There are undoubtly Celtic elements in the legend as we have it; the Perceval story is probably, and the Arthurian legend certainly, of Celtic origin, and both of these legends intimately connected with the quest story. Talismans, such as magic lances and food-giving vessels figure prominently in Celtic myths and folk-tales. According to this theory the "Mabinogion," with its simple story of vengeance by means of talismans and devoid of religious significance, would yield the version nearest to the original form of the legend. Back of the quest-story would be some pre-Christian tale of a hero seeking to avenge the injury done to a kinsman. The religious element would then be of secondary origin, and would have come into the legend when the old vengeance-tale was fused with the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, which is essentially a legend of the conversion of Britain.
Those who maintain the theory of a purely Christian origin regard the religious element in the story as fundamental and trace the leading motifs to Christian ideas and conceptions. It is derived from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, which is known to have had a great vogue in the twelfth century, paricularly in Britain. There we read how Joseph, whom the Jews had imprisoned, is miraculously fed by Christ Himself . Additional traits were supplied by the "Vindicta Salvatoris," the legendary account of the destruction of Jerusalem. Furthermore, Joseph was confused with the Jewish historian, Josephus, whose liberation by Titus is narrated by Suetonius. The food-producing properties of the vessel can be explained, without resorting to Celtic parallels, by the association of the Grail with the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which gives spiritual nourishment to the faithful. The purely Christian legend which thus had arisen was brought into contact with the traditional evangelization of Britain, and then developed on British soil, in Wales, and thus the Celtic stamp, which it undeniably bears, is accounted for. In connection with the legendary conversion of Britain it is noteworthy that the literary accounts of this event are connected with the famous Abbey of Glastonbury, which is also intimately associated with the legend of Arthur, Glastonbury being identified in William of Malmesbury's account with the mythic Avalon. So scholars are inclined to connect this British sanctuary with the origin of the Grail romances. Possibly Walter Map, who died as Archdeacon of Oxford in 1210, and to whom is ascribed the authorship of a Grail-Lancelot cycle, got his information from that abbey. The first Grail romances was then probably written in Latin and became the basis for the work of Robert de Boron, who was an English knight under King Henry II, and a contemporary of Chrestien and of Map.
The fully developed Grail legend was later on still further connected with other legends, as in Wolfram's poem with that of Lohengrim, the swan-knight, and also with that of Prester John, the fabled Christian monarch of the East. Here also the story of Klinschor, the magician, was added. After the Renaissance the Grail legend, together with most medieval legends, fell into oblivion, from which it was rescued when the Romantic movement set in at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The most famous modern versions are Tennyson's "Holy Grail" in the "Idylls of the King" (1869), and Wagner's music-drama, the festival-play, "Parsifal," produced for the first time at Bayreuth in 1882.
A word as to the attitude of the Church towards the legend. It would seem that a legend so distinctively Christian would find favour with the Church. Yet this was not the case. Excepting Helinandus, clerical writers do not mention the Grail, and the Church ignored the legend completely. After all, the legend contained the elements of which the Church could not approve. Its sources are in apocryphal, not in canonical, scripture, and the claims of sanctity made for the Grail were refuted by their very extravagance. Moreover, the legend claimed for the Church in Britain an origin well nigh as illustrious as that of the Church of Rome, and independent of Rome. It was thus calculated to encourage and to foster any separatist tendencies that might exist in Britain. As we have seen, the whole tradition concerning the Grail is of late origin and on many points at variance with historical truth.
The "Queste" was edited by Furnivall, "La Queste del Saint Graal" (Roxburghe Club, London, 1864), also the Grand St. Graal under the title "Seynt Graal or the Sank Ryal", etc. (Roxburghe Club, London, 1861-63). The Perlesvaus is in Potvin's edition of Chrestien, I (Mons, 1866); the Didot Perceval in Hucher, "Le Saint Graal" (Le Mans, 1874-78). Robert de Boron's poem was edited by Michel, "Le roman du St. Graal" (Bordeaux, 1841), Malory's "Morte D'Arthur" by Sommer (London, 1889-91), and the Perlesvaus rendered into English by Evans, "The High History of the Holy Grail" (London, 1898). (See WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH.)
APA citation. (1909). The Holy Grail. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06719a.htm
MLA citation. "The Holy Grail." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06719a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas. In memory of Hattie Ratajezak.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.


text:
Learning is awesome, this semester had made me absolutely certain that this is what I need to be doing with my life right now. With long days and a long commute, time with Darron and the kids becomes my highest priority so personal sewing hangs pretty low on my list. That's not to say I haven't made anything lately. There were those bridesmaid dresses I keep talking about but haven't shown you yet, and I'll sort out some photos of my school stuff eventually too, but I have still managed to make some stuff.
Like this Sunny! At the start of the year I bought a bunch of top patterns from Style Arc, this is the second of that lot that I've made.
This was super quick to make. All up it took about hour to run it up on the overlocker, then twin needle for the hem and sleeves. I used a teal mid weight drapey cotton/acrylic knit I've had sitting around for a couple of years and it was perfect for this pattern. Its soft and warm without being bulky.
The cocoon shape is a new one for me, and I must say I'm glad I tried it out. It is a seriously comfortable top, casual without being sloppy. I'd like to make one in a heavier weight fabric but i'm a bit concerned that with too much body it might turn out like a big round bubble, which is not the look I'm after.
Pattern: Sunny from Style Arc (Size 12)


text:
Swoon-worthy Stories and Heartwarming Tales for All Ages February 7, 2019
Handmade Valentine's Day cards are some of the easiest crafts to DIY and so joyously celebrate love— whether it is romantic love, love for family, and love for friends!
So, while you're making your cards this week (whether you're creating them on your own or with family and friends), delight in these heartwarming love-ly stories. READ MORE


text:
You may have read in earlier Blog entries that I joined my first two Virtual Quilting Bees this year. Not because I don't have enough to do (you know with all that free time I have, right?) but more to challenge myself to quilt outside of my little Leah-Box.
My goal, was to not only create every block assigned to me, but to commit to:
- Using the newly learned block in some form to create a mini-quilt
- Only using fabric from my stash & scraps, and...
- Quilting the mini-quilt MYSELF and not sending it off to a long arm quilter
My first block was for my Sew.Bee.Create buddy Mennikelly. She sent us lovely Amy Butler fabric and requested that we create blocks inspired by the Kaffe Fassett's Jewel Box pattern.
To complete my mini quilt, I grabbed some Sophie fabric from my stash and just started sewing. The end result is three small jewel boxes nestled atop a larger jewel box and partially surrounded by complimentary Sophie squares. The quilt, "Oh My Darlin'" came together super fast and will make a great snuggle-bankie for a little girl! (pardon the windy day!)
No time to quilt it just yet though, because it was time to move on to my Wonky Bee buddy Georgia's Block!
Georgie loved the Wonky Triangles quilt from the awesome book "Block Party". Now for some reason, this block was incredibly difficult for me. Partially because this was probably the quilt I liked least from this book- auto mental block! But we join bees to get us out of our box, so out of the box I crawled.
All I can say is Georgie must be one of my NEW FAVORITE people, because she inspired me to design this quilt. And I LOVE this quilt design more than I can describe!! I am calling this design "the Moon of Origin".
Thank you Georgia for my inspiration!!! And I sew can't wait to get started!!
Tomorrow I will show you another block for Wonky Bee member, Jodi. Jodi opted to have us bee'ers create a simple wonky strip block. This block was oooooober simple and took about 10 minutes to create! (but the sun has gone down today- so I will show it tomorrow!)
The quilt Jodi's block inspired was "Wonky Pinwheel Cubed" using either Impressions or Domestic Bliss, both with Bella Solids. I am leaning toward Impressions because I just love the color orange!
So Quilting Bees are super exciting to me, and I am so glad I joined! Have you been inspired by your bee to create something new and awesome? I'd love to see the Bee blocks and the inspiration that followed!


text:
Eroiy, a blockchain-based incognito payment method for the adult entertainment industry, is all set to start its pre-ICO campaign on January 30. This revolutionary business ecosystem will address a wide range of customer requirements in the industry, including data protection, anonymity, protection from financial fraud, low transaction costs and payment convenience.
January 23, 2018
Blockchain technology startup Eroiy is pleased to announce the company will start its pre-ICO crowdsale campaign on January 30, 2018. It has also been disclosed that the company's ICO campaign will start on March 1, following the end of the pre-ICO phase. All details related to Eroiy's crowdfunding initiatives are now available at https://www.eroiy.io/
Eroiy was created with the vision of solving a series of problems the adult entertainment industry has faced over the years. The most useful feature of this platform is that it allows anonymous transactions on top of eliminating financial middlemen and their associated fees. Discretion while paying for online adult content has been a long-standing demand for both customers and merchants of the adult entertainment industry. By meeting this demand, Eroiy is looking to bring about a radical change in the global adult entertainment market, which is currently worth almost $100 billion. Apart from anonymity, Eroiy also offers benefits such as data protection, financial fraud protection, low transaction costs, and the convenience of one-click payment.
Eroiy will also make lives easier for merchants and service providers through low transaction costs, a limitation on the potential charge-backs, protection from data piracy and financial fraud, and complete independence from credit card companies. Use of multiple payment methods makes it mandatory for them to develop an intricate infrastructure to ensure streamline transactions. Utilizing cryptocurrency as the solution, Eroiy fulfils their ever-increasing need for a decentralized payment alternative.
Based on the NEM blockchain protocol, Eroiy is safe, cost-efficient, fast, and allows users to execute smart contracts. The ecosystem comprises of the EroiyCoin, the Eroiy eWallet, the Eroiy-Xchange, and an Eroiy Crypto Debit Card. The company claims the Eroiy eWallet is a one-of-a-kind solution for convenient, anonymous and cost-efficient payments of online content and merchandise.
Eroiy is the brainchild of a team with a wealth of experience and numerous key contacts in the adult entertainment industry. The organization's CEO, Markus Steffen, has worked as a Director and Partner, delivering effective business solutions for over fifteen years. The advisory body of Eroiy comprises of many seasoned professionals from different fields, such as e-commerce, online marketing, event monetization, risk management, finance, law, and cryptocurrencies.
"The adult entertainment industry is already known for innovation, and it is now time for it to adopt cryptocurrencies," says Markus Steffen, the CEO of Eroiy. "Through the introduction of Eroiy, we have the possibility to enhance trust and discretion in the business. It is the only way for the market to develop, take its next steps, and increase its social acceptance. Whether for end users, merchants or token-buyers, Eroiy is there to help individuals unfold improvidently."
The Eroiy Corporation has already managed to build a chain of adult entertainment companies that are ready to accept Eroiy as their payment system. Agreements for key collaborations with the industry's leading marketing, media, and trade fair companies have also been initiated. While recently attending the XBiz and InterNext trade shows in Los Angeles and Las Vegas respectively, the company has received tremendous response from the major players in the industry. The overall concept of Eroiy was welcomed with great enthusiasm by the general participants. As a result, there are numerous upcoming collaborations with highly experienced business partners that are perfect for the project's advancement and implementation.
EroiyCoins sold during the upcoming ICO will immediately be distributed to the provided address inside the EroiyCoin Client Area and be made visible and accessible at the Eroiy eWallet. Key details related to this crowdsale campaign are mentioned below.
Pre-ICO: Starts on January 30 and Ends on February 28
ICO: Starts on March 1 and ends on March 31
Pre-ICO starting price: 1 Eroiy for $0.08
ICO starting price: 1 Eroiy for $0.12
Maximum Eroiy produced: 2 billion
Maximum Eroiy for sale: 1.2 billion
Fundraising goal: $48 million
Minimum purchase: 100 Eroiy
Purchase methods: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, XEM, and fiat currencies such as US Dollar, Euro, and Swiss Franc.
More details can be found at https://www.eroiy.io/files/whitepaper.pdf
About Eroiy: Eroiy is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency designed specifically as an incognito payment alternative in the adult entertainment industry. The beauty of it is that it allows for anonymous transactions and is independent of the financial middlemen and their associated fees. This revolutionary development promises to be a gamechanger for the approximately USD 100 billion adult entertainment market worldwide.
Contact: Walter Hasenclever, PR Director
Website: https://www.eroiy.io/
Email: [email protected]
TheBitcoinNews.com – Bitcoin News source since June 2011 –
Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. TheBitcoinNews.com holds several Cryptocurrencies, and this information does NOT constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.
Everything on this website can be seen as Advertisment and most comes from Press Releases, TheBitcoinNews.com is is not responsible for any of the content of or from external sites and feeds. Sponsored posts are always flagged as this, guest posts, guest articles and PRs are most time but NOT always flagged as this. Expert opinions and Price predictions are not supported by us and comes up from 3th part websites.
Advertise with us : Advertise
Our Social Networks: Facebook Instagram Pinterest Reddit Telegram Twitter Youtube


text:
Tommy Caldwell: Before The Dawn Wall
A true master of rock, Tommy Caldwell reflects on his mega-project, the Dawn Wall, as well as having a family, being captured in Kyrgyzstan, and a lifetime spent climbing at the highest level.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
This article appeared in Rock and Ice issue 217 (April 2014).
Climbing has taught me a ton. It has allowed me to travel and see the world, and given me a venue to live a very full, exciting life. Above all else, I think climbing has taught me to live life without fear.
My greatest hardship would be the ordeal in Kyrgyzstan where four of us were kidnapped by Islamic militants for six days. It's a long, complicated story but, in short, we and our captors were hunted by the Kyrgyzstan military. We abandoned our food and warm clothes and hid out under boulders and in holes in the ground. We eventually escaped when I pushed one of our captors off a cliff and we made a run for the nearest military
The experience in Kyrgyzstan rocked my world in ways that I am still learning about 14 years later. There was definitely a dark side to the recovery process, but in the end it made me a much stronger, more life-loving person. The amount of suffering and fear we endured made the rest of life seem like a cakewalk. It reset my idea of what real pain is (physical and emotional) and now I walk through life without much fear. I learned
that pain sharpens us.
Kyrgyzstan tops the list of hard experiences, but my divorce in 2010 comes in a close second. Chopping off my index finger was stressful because I thought it might end my full-time climbing career at a time when I still had a ton of big dreams I wanted to pursue. But through these experiences I learned that hardship is what changes us the most. It puts us in an intensely meditative state where we figure out what we really want. And it motivates
us to go for those things we have always dreamed of.
I have learned that the longer I climb, the more I will love it. And I have learned that I can't predict what will happen in my life one year ahead—much less 25.
My wife, Becca, and I welcomed an amazing little boy into our lives nine months ago. His birth has made me much more responsible and intentional because I want to set a good example. But having a son also makes me want to let loose and have fun. I want little Fitz to see how awesome life can be.
From the Dawn Wall project, I've learned to take joy in the process and to be patient. I love the way the Dawn Wall breathes energy into my entire life. And I love how it motivates me to constantly push myself.
Being able to make it as a pro climber is many times better than winning the lottery. I get to dream up the biggest adventures I can and go for them without having to worry about a nine-to-five job. It doesn't get much better than that.
There are rigors to being a pro climber. Like everyone these days, I spend quite a bit of time on the computer. And the constant travel can drain my power. But in those moments I try to remember that when you are doing what you love, you never work a day in your life.
But climbing, just like being filthy rich, tends to spoil people. Many of us become self-absorbed and this selfishness makes both climbing and relationships hard. I've learned that I love climbing, but I love people more.
From the Dawn Wall project, I've learned to take joy in the process and to be patient. I love the way the Dawn Wall breathes energy into my entire life. And I love how it motivates me to constantly push myself.
I quickly realized that I wasn't going to be able to climb the Dawn Wall alone. I am incredibly lucky to have found such an amazing partner in Kevin Jorgeson. Sharing the experience with him has made it many times richer than it would have been without him.
This season in Yosemite, Kevin and I experienced setbacks both from the government shutdown and from my injury. One of the biggest challenges with free-climbing the Dawn Wall has been that the southern aspect of the climb makes it boiling hot up there much of the time. But because of the setbacks we climbed a lot in December, which actually gave us good conditions and helped us realize that it is best done as a winter free climb. When I injured myself it looked as though the cards were stacked against me this season. It would have been really easy to throw in the towel for the year. But on a project like this, it is important to keep a sense of urgency. While injured, I continued to do finger- strengthening exercises, and I started climbing again as soon as possible. In the end it paid off. I learned to trust my instincts and continue to push forward.
I've found that my strengths are the ability to dream big, to never give up and to endure a lot. Combine those with a sport- climbing background, and big-wall free climbing is the thing in life that I can be the best at. The best moments of my climbing life have been on El Cap.
My goals for the future are to be a loving husband, a great dad and to share my love of life and climbing with the people that will listen … and hopefully send the Dawn Wall.


text:
UN sounds alarm on South Sudan hepatitis E outbreak
The UN's refugee agency warned Friday that an outbreak of hepatitis E among refugees in South Sudan was worsening and that it did not have the needed funds to contain it.
"With funding depleted for our operations in South Sudan, UNHCR is warning today that the capacity to contain an outbreak of hepatitis E among the refugee population is increasingly stretched," agency spokesman Adrian Edwards lamented to reporters in Geneva.
The UNHCR and other aid organisations were already battling a hepatitis E outbreak in Upper Nile and Unity states—"two regions where the disease is endemic and where 175,000 Sudanese refugees are settled," he explained.
Some 1,050 cases of the virus, which is spread through the consumption of contaminated food and water and which damages the liver, had been detected in the refugee camps, he said.
So far, 26 people have died from the disease in camps in the Upper Nile—10 of them since mid-September.
And the situation was expected to get worse, Edwards said, pointing out that insecurity in the neighbouring Sudan regions of South Kordofan and Blue Nile was expected to push thousands of new refugees across the border and into the outbreak zone as soon as roads soon become passable after the rainy season.
The risk of hepatitis E "is high in densely populated settings such as refugee camps," he explained, adding that the danger "is further exacerbated in the rainy season due to flooding and poor sanitation," and that women and small children were most at risk.
The UNHCR has asked for $186 million (146.2 million euros) for its work in South Sudan this year, but Edwards said it so far had received only 40 percent of that amount.
"UNHCR needs a minimum of $20 million until the end of there to keep up basic lifesaving activities" in South Sudan, he said.
(c) 2012 AFP


text:
ArtRage 4.5.10 just went live in the member area and on Steam, and we'll be updating Amazon shortly (though it may take a little while to go live).
- Support for AES styluses on Windows that provide stylus ID information. This allows ArtRage to recognise different AES styluses and allocate tools to them via the Stylus Manager in the application.
- Realtime Stylus: Fixed a potential slowdown that could occur after painting for some time using a Realtime Stylus input device.
- Scripts: Fixed a crash that could occur when using a manually written script to trigger a file dialog.
- Transform Shortcuts: Fixed a bug that prevented zoom shortcuts working during transform.
- Blend Modes: Made some changes to saturation blend mode to match the approach taken by Photoshop.
- Mac OS X: Fixed a problem that prevented the app properly leaving full screen mode if it had been entered via the + button on the window titlebar.
See the full update history here: https://www.artrage.com/faqs/artrage-4-update-history/


text:
LSUA Approved to Offer Additional Sports
class="alignright wp-image-21010″ style="margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px;" title="LSUA-Logo" src="http://klax-tv.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/LSUA-Logo.png" alt="" width="200″ height="200″ />LSU Alexandria will introduce five additional sports programs by the 2014-15 academic year, a move approved Wednesday by the LSU Board of Supervisors.
The additional sports will be funded through the student athletic fee, booster support, and other donor gifts. The expansion of LSU Alexandria's athletics program and the increase in student athletic fees was approved by a student-wide referendum vote in mid-March and was affirmed by the Board of Supervisors' vote on Wednesday.
The new sports include men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, and women's tennis, bringing the total number of sports on the campus to seven.
"We are excited about these sports complementing our already successful athletic program," said Charlie Zeilman, LSU Alexandria's director of athletics and head softball coach. "Our student-athletes are dedicated and enthusiastic, both on the field and in the classroom, and we anticipate even more of that energy on campus with these additional sports."
The move will allow LSU Alexandria to join a conference with peer universities as athletic competitors. Until now, as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, LSU Alexandria's baseball and softball teams have competed with a limited number of other independent programs.
LSU Alexandria first began its baseball and softball programs in the spring semester of the 2007-08 academic year, almost two years after initial approval by the Board of Supervisors. Likewise, the 2013-14 academic year will be one in which the basic elements of the infrastructure to offer the additional sports will be put into place. Intercollegiate play in the five additional sports should begin with the 2014-15 academic year.
To remain a member in good standing with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, LSU Alexandria was required to field and compete in at least six NAIA championship sports by the 2015-16 academic year.
The LSU Alexandria baseball and softball programs have proven highly successful with 32 current softball student-athletes and 45 baseball student-athletes. LSU Alexandria softball and baseball programs are self-sufficient.
The expansion of the athletic program will bring with it a more traditional campus atmosphere and will aid in the development of co-curricular activities as well as act as a recruitment tool. Campus officials are planning advances in other areas of student life to enhance the growth of athletics and housing.
LSU Alexandria already has facilities that lend themselves to these additional sports. The campus boasts state-of-the-art outdoor tennis courts and a properly graded soccer field. The campus also has a Fitness Center with a basketball court. All of these venues are on campus and have ample parking.
In the future, the campus may consider incorporating additional low-cost sports such as golf, cross-country, and women's volleyball, if demand and revenues support such an expansion. LSU Alexandria does not anticipate developing an intercollegiate football program.


text:
New Jersey Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery
Stephen A. Chidyllo, MD
Central Jersey Plastic Surgery
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
Monmouth & Ocean County New Jersey
Dr. Stephen A. Chidyllo is a board certified Plastic, Cosmetic, Reconstructive& Maxillofacial Surgeon. He is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery Inc. Memberships include the American Society of Plastic Surgeons & American College of Surgeons.
Offices located in Monmouth& Ocean Counties New Jersey. He is medical director of Central New Jersey Plastic Surgery, and is the former Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. He is also on staff at Southern Ocean Medical Center,Stafford Township, Ocean County New Jersey, Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank New Jersey, and Atlanticare Medical Center, Atlantic City New Jersey.
Dr. Stephen Chidyllo has two plastic surgery offices which are convenient for our patients in: Monmouth County, Middlesex County, Ocean County, Burlington County& Atlantic County New Jersey.
As a Board Certified Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon, his practice specializes in Cosmetic,Plastic & Reconstructive surgery of the Face, Breasts & Body Contour. Cosmetic Surgery Include:Facelift, Neck lift,Eyelid surgery,Chin implants,Breast Augmentation, Breast Implants,Breast Reduction,Breast Lift along with tummy tucks&liposuction. Reconstructive Surgery include:Maxillofacial &Craniofacial Reconstruction of Facial Bone Fractures&Facial Deformities,along with Breast Reconstruction. For additional information concerning any plastic surgical procedures, review the individual topics or surgery listed above.


text:
Krabat (2008)
Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner
Genres - Drama, Fantasy, Thriller | Sub-Genres - Fantasy Adventure | Run Time - 55 min. | Countries - Germany | MPAA Rating - NR
Share on
Synopsis by Jason Buchanan
Director Marco Kreuzpaintner adapts author Otfried Preußler's award-winning novel about a young sorcerer's apprentice who rebels against his malevolent master after making a disturbing discovery. The year is 1646. Krabat is a starving fourteen year old orphan from Germany who has struggled for survival after seeing his country decimated by war and disease. One night, a strange voice calls out to Krabat in his dreams, beckoning the destitute child to a mysterious mill in the countryside. When the miller offers Krabat room and board in exchange for becoming an apprentice, the hungry young boy readily accepts. But something isn't quite right in this mill, and Krabat can sense it. He gradually begins to suspect that the eleven other young men who live in the mill are harboring a mysterious secret, suspicions that are later confirmed when the curious newcomer discovers that his fellow apprentices are involved with some truly bizarre activities. Upon further inquiry, Krabat discovers that the miller is in fact a master of the dark arts, and that the young men who reside in the mill are his students. Fascinated by their magic and eager to belong, Krabat accepts their invitation to become a member of their secret society. When Krabat discovers that his new master's plans could spell doom for his protector and best friend Tonda, however, realizes that in order to save Tonda he will somehow have to break free of the malevolent sorcerer's powerful grip.
apprentice, boy, magic, mill, miller, occult, orphan, sorcerer


text:
Jennifer Lopez's New Fashion Collection to Debut at Kohl's in September [VIDEO]
Jennifer Lopez has a lot going on these days — motherhood, a clothing line, a recording career, a judging stint on 'American Idol,' and a recent split from husband Marc Anthony. As if that isn't enough, she's just added a second line to her fashion empire.
She tells O Magazine it will join her existing J.Lo collection at Kohl's in September. But unlike the fledgling designs, which were aimed at teens and young adults, the new line is geared for the grown-up crowd.
"I'm a mom," she told O. "I work. I want comfort. But I want to feel sexy and modern. I think most women want the same things … [The] fulfilling part [is] to have women tell me, 'This is so comfortable, it fits so well.'"
Get a sneak peek at the new threads below.


text:
Rupert Murdoch's climate crusade
News Corp.'s campaign against global warming includes free light bulbs, subsidized hybrids and babes in green, reports Fortune's Marc Gunther.
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Readers of the The Sun, a British tabloid best known for its bare-breasted Page Three girls, opened their newspapers to see a young woman named Keeley Hazell wearing only green paint. Ms. Hazell is the face - well, not just the face - of the paper's campaign against global warming.
When subscribers to the British satellite TV provider BSkyB order new set-top boxes, some installers now also deliver, at no additional charge, three energy-efficient light bulbs and a low-flow shower head.
Viewers of Fox-owned TV stations in the United States, meanwhile, are urged in news stories to join the FOX-e (pronounced foxy) energy team, to save money and the environment. ("Switch off lights and turn off basic appliances when you're not using them...")
What all these audiences are witnessing is a major media company tackling the problem of climate change. The surprise is that the initiative - which is sweeping and serious - comes from Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) and purveyor of Fox News, The New York Post and The Weekly Standard, none of which are generally regarded as friends of the earth. Soon Murdoch will own The Wall Street Journal, whose editorial pages rarely find much to admire about the likes of Al Gore.
Then again, maybe it makes sense that Murdoch's ahead of the other media barons on the climate change issue. Historically, he has proven willing to imbue his media properties with his conservative politics. Other CEOs - say, at Disney (Charts, Fortune 500) and Time Warner (Charts, Fortune 500) (parent of Fortune and CNNMoney.com), which have their own smaller-scale green projects underway - are either reluctant or unwilling to rule by fiat.
By contrast, Murdoch has boldly promised to make News Corp. carbon neutral by 2010 and to weave environmental issues and themes into his newspapers, TV shows, movies and online properties - a tricky business, particularly when it comes to news.
"Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats," Murdoch said last spring, in a speech webcast to all News Corp. employees (and available here.) "We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can't afford the risk of inaction."
He went on to say, "Our audience's carbon footprint is 10,000 times bigger than ours. That's the carbon footprint we want to conquer."
So it may not be coincidental that in "The Simpsons Movie," Homer dumps pig manure into a lake, with dire consequences. But News Corp. executives hasten to say that they won't force global warming stories into programming in heavy-handed ways.
"Jack Bauer's not going to be driving a Prius," says Roy Bahat, the News Corp. executive who has led the efforts on energy use and climate change. Behind the scenes, though, the Fox drama "24" will use biodiesel fuel to power generators, purchase "green power," and integrate hybrids into its production fleet. You can read a ponderous press release about the show's climate change efforts here.)
Murdoch's evolution into a climate change crusader took time. Australia, where he grew up and still owns newspapers, has been experiencing its worst drought in a century. Closer to home, his son James Murdoch, who drives a Prius to work and a hybrid SUV on weekends, has been influential. James is the chief executive of BSkyB, which became carbon neutral in 2006. "This had enormous appeal to their subscribers and employees," Bahat said.
About a year ago, Murdoch hosted an all-star team of environmental leaders at a News Corp. management conference in Pebble Beach, Ca. They included then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Al Gore, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, energy strategist Amory Lovins and solar power evangelist Bill Gross.
News Corp. hired a consultant and learned that its own carbon emissions amounted to 641,150 tons. It has promised to reduce that by 10 percent by 2012, mostly through energy efficiency measures and by buying renewable power. It will offset the rest by investing in projects to reduce emissions elsewhere; this year, News Corp. purchased its first offsets, which ended up helping to finance a wind energy project in the state of Maharashtra, India.
The climate change initiative is being felt in many corners of the Murdoch empire. Working with Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500), Fox's home video unit has reduced the cardboard used in packaging DVDs. HarperCollins UK replaced its car service provider with one that uses only hybrids. Fox employees are getting incentives to buy hybrid vehicles. A MySpace channel called OurPlanet has about 120,000 "friends."
This internal work will be easier than selling the company's mission to Hollywood writers, who can be an independent lot. (As Samuel Goldwyn reportedly said, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union.") Fox made a successful movie about a global warming catastrophe called "The Day After Tomorrow" in 2004, but there are only so many times you can go to that well.
Still, Murdoch should not be underestimated. He's the most powerful media mogul in the world, with big broadcast properties in India and China as well as Britain and the United States. If you think "An Inconvenient Truth" helped shift the debate, just wait to see what Rupert can do.


text:
If we assume that a healthy Nerlens Noel goes first or second in an historically thin NBA draft, he lost somewhere between $4 million and $5 million over the next three years—all because he vaporized his knee in February while playing amateur basketball as a nominally unpaid intern at Kentucky.
According to the NBA's rookie salary scale, Noel would have been owed an average of $4.6 million per year over the next three seasons if he had been drafted No. 1 overall, and about $4.1 million per year if he had been taken at the No. 2 spot. But Noel fell to the sixth spot in the draft, and he's set to make around $2.7 per year during his first three seasons in the league.
Why the drop? Well, There are the usual stupid whispers about Noel's associates. Or, as ESPN put it, with mystifying scare quotes, "There were concerns with the 'people' he chose to surround himself." (That's right. Not actual people. Humanoids and maybe cyborgs, too. Nerlens Noel is hanging out with the T-1000, a fleet of Daleks, and Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner.)
But it was almost certainly the injury, a torn ACL, that sandbagged Noel. "The knee looks bad," an anonymous executive told ESPN.
But don't worry about Nerlens! says ESPN. This may in fact be a blessing wearing the disguise of a shitty thing that just cost him millions of dollars:
The fall certainly cost Noel a few bucks in his first contract, but the second deal is the one that truly matters. Now Noel has a chance to be far more marketable in a city like Philadelphia than in Cleveland. He'll also come in with a chip on his shoulder again, similar to when he arrived at Kentucky a year ago with no shortage of skeptics.
Noel will walk into Philadelphia as just another draftee, while Bennett will have the weight of No. 1 pick when he arrives in Cleveland. There's a certain expectation that comes with being picked first overall, and some just aren't equipped to handle it.
You might think that open collusion between a profit-maximizing entity and a talent-horny, tax-exempt moral abomination whereby a talented basketball player is required to spend a year in semi-professional limbo (during which he might just blow up his knee and cost himself millions of dollars) is a bad thing. But really, the NBA and the NCAA were just doing the kid a solid. Say thank you, Nerlens!


text:
Alfriston College – Te Kahikatoa
Alfriston College opened in 2004. Thirty-five per cent of students in the school are Māori. The culturally diverse student group also includes more than 20 other ethnicities including 20 per cent from various Pacific heritages and a growing Indian population. The school's wharenui, Te Pae ō Takānini, sits at the centre of the grounds. It signifies clearly the place of Māori as tangata whenua and represents the school's strong commitment to its local Takānini and Manurewa areas.


text:
Roof Repairs PencarnisiogSave on Pencarnisiog roofing repair costs with our free service.
If you're in need of Pencarnisiog roof repairs, putting it off could greatly affect the structural integrity of your building. One of the biggest reasons why people put off roof repairs is because they feel overwhelmed by the idea of finding a contractor. That doesn't have to be the case when you partner with us, as we've gone out of our way to ensure everything is as easy as possible.


text:
BEIJING (AFP) - A jilted Chinese man spent US$40,000 (S$50,000) to book four entire IMAX cinemas for first-day showings of the latest "Transformers" movie on Friday to prove his ex-girlfriend was wrong when she dumped him for being poor seven years ago, he said.
"Hu Xiaoyun: I was so poor when we were in our fourth year at college in 2007 that I could not afford just two film tickets," the man said in a posting on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
"You said when you left for Beijing that I will always be that way.
"I have been working hard for the past seven years because of that sentence and today I spent half my monthly income to book all the seats in Beijing's IMAX cinemas on June 27.
"I just want to say maybe your choice back then was wrong."
As evidence he posted the contract with a booking agency and three receipts totalling 250,000 yuan.
The man has only been identified in Chinese media reports by his surname Wang.
Using the online handle Chicken Run 1234 and a profile image as a Na'vi warrior from the 2009 Hollywood blockbuster Avatar, he called on Internet users to spread the message "until she sees it" and promised to reward reposters with free tickets.
They quickly ran out, and his message had been reposted more than 110,000 times by Friday.
Previous "Transformers" movies were box-office hits in China and midnight showings of the fourth instalment "Age of Extinction" took 40 million yuan in the early hours of Friday, a new national record, according to Chinese media reports.
The man said separately that his old flame had contacted him by phone.
Both had put the feud behind them, he indicated, but there was no hope of rekindling their relationship.
"I promised her when we first met that if she left one day, I would make the whole world know I was looking for her," he said.