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The 2009 HOT ZOMBIE AWARDS
- Our first award is for the Best Blog Written by A Gay Man Trapped in the Body of A Sexy Young College Co-Ed: and that award goes to DAY OF THE WOMAN. When not twirling her baton, working with the homeless, or assisting illegal immigrants across the border, BJ-C hosts one of the freshest new horror blogs on the interwebs. BJ puts a lot of the boys to shame with her no-nonsense, ballsy prose and feminist take on the genre of film we love so much.
- Wasn't that exciting? Of course it was! Our next award is for the Blog With the Catchiest Title, EVAH!: and it will not take much to figure out why, CHUCK NORRIS ATE MY BABY is taking home an HZA tonight! Ok, well, besides the blog's moniker, it's a great read. Matt House come on up and take a freakin' bow!
- My goodness, that was a great acceptance speech, Matt, now go sit down, and take that bottle of cheap whiskey with you ... Next up, a very special award, for a special blog, the Best Blog By a Guy Named, Ryne goes to THE MOON IS A DEAD WORLD. I said, the Best Blog By a Guy Named, Ryne goes to THE MOON IS A DEAD W..., what's that? Sorry, Ryne could not be here tonight, so I'll accept this award for him: Ryne would like to thank his girlfriend, his parents, and god. Thank you.
- Heavens, Is this exciting? I am positivity shivering in delight. That said, our next award is for the Best Blog By a Former WWF/WWE Employee, and that award goes to THE VAULT OF HORROR ! Lauded by everyone from one of Howard Stern's lackeys to the shoeshine guy at the New York Port Authority's bus station, TVOH might just be the most entertaining horror blog out there. Considering that blog-master, B-Sol, spent ten years in prison after taking the fall for his former boss over that steroid scandal at the WWF, Mr. Sol maintains an air of dignity and class seldom scene in the hard scrabble world of blogging. He's also one hell of a great writer.
- Wow, did Kanye West just run off with B-Sol's award? Shit, where the hell is security? Moving right along, our next award is for The Best Damn Written Blog That's So Good, It Puts Everyone Else to Shame, and that award goes to the Monster Scholar, Jeanette, and her labor of love, MONSTER LAND. Well executed, painfully researched, and often witty, Jeanette brings some much needed class to the horror blogging community.
- Now it's time for two very special awards. Here at Billy Loves Stu, we pride ourselves on being aboveboard and not easily swayed, but when blogger, Sean Abley showed up at Billy Loves Stu offices decked out in a form fitting little Channel number and said, "You like? I am going to be wearing it to the HZA's this year!" It broke our heart, and we decided to award Sean's GAY OF THE DEAD the HZA for The Gayest Gay Horror Blog in The World! Kisses, Sean, WE LOVE YOU! Of course, you know what bitches bloggers can be (sure you do), so when Vince Liaguno of Slasher Speak got word of Sean's award, well, let's just say it wasn't very pretty ... so in order to keep the peace, we've decided to honor the prolific Mr. Liaguno with the award for The Best Blog By a Gay Man Obsessed with Jamie Lee Curtis! Come on up here, Vinnie, you crazy beyotch and get your HZA!
- Getting down to the wire, only one more award before we give out the final...now then, our next winner is a former child star, CEO of a failed Fortune 500 Company, and of course, a fantastic blogger! For the winner of The Blog With the Most Disturbing Header Picture, ladies and germs, give it up for, I LOVE HORROR MOVIES. Carl is a man with so many DVD's he has an on-line database (HERE), and his take on horror and sci-fi flicks is a must read (as is his failed scripts section).
- And now, our final award of the night...drum-roll please...the HZA for The Hand's Down Coolest Freakin' Horror Blog In The World goes to, ZOMBO'S CLOSET OF HORROR!! Every day, day after day, The Master of all Horror Bloggers, Iloz Zoc treats his readers to dark pleasures, movie reviews, and, profiles of fellow bloggers. And, if that's not enough, Mr. Zoc also runs that tree-house of terrors known as The League of Tana Tea Drinkers; a clearing house for the web's most
crazedtalented horror bloggers. Were it not for the kindness of Mr. Zoc, most Tana Tea denizens would probably be locked away in padded cells somewhere - however, Mr. Zoc brought us all together and turned us into a happy dysfunctional family of misfits. Thanks, IIoz!


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"I do not expect to be a mother but I do expect to die alone"
Tony's Gallery is proud to present "I do not expect to be a mother but I do expect to die alone", the first UK solo exhibition by Polish-born, New York-based artist Olek. Renowned for her use of crocheted yarn as a medium both indoors and on the street, the artist has created a major installation and sculptural environment: a distinctive Olek-esque living quarters filled with domestic objects of all kinds. These, along with the gallery walls and floor, have been entirely covered in crochet.
Both playful and rich in metaphor, the brightly coloured work on display features multiple designs including Olek's trademark camouflage motif. The omnipresence of explicit messages crocheted into the objects, are statements revealing her position as a female artist in an art world that is inclined to have sexist opinions. These text-based pieces replicate actual missives sent to the artist by SMS text messaging, immortalising intimate details of her past relationships. The viewer thus becomes witness to Olek's personal history as she continues her exploration of modern day concerns, touching upon the themes of privacy, technology and communication.
For this exhibition, Olek has drawn inspiration from her experiences of living in the UK over the past few months and assimilating into British culture, as reflected in recent works such as her crocheted London black cab, a piece produced outside of Tony's in November. The show's title is a direct quote from I do not expect, an appliquéd blanket produced by Tracey Emin in 2002.
Her practice has the striking quality of presenting a double-edged approach whereby the initial impact is colorful, enchanting and almost cartoon-like and yet under this camouflaged skin lies a complex and subversive metaphor for the world as she sees it. She instigates a dialogue between fiction and reality by carefully playing with our ambivalent perception of her work.
The performative nature of her work is an essential element within her practice, from the time-consuming and laborious act of crocheting on immense scales to her active and impromptu positioning of objects in the street as well as her use of participating performers who, dressed in crocheted suits, are part of her environments. This notion of performance instigates an interaction between the artist and viewer who inadvertently takes part in her work either by discovering her objects or by ultimately being positioned within her artistic context.
Later this year, Olek will participate in the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition, 40 under 40, which will showcase her entire crocheted studio apartment. She is quickly becoming recognised as an influential artist in the contemporary art world as well as the street art scene, and was recently listed in the Artinfo article See the Women Who Shook Up the Art World in 2011 alongside Anita Zabludowicz, Marina Abramovic and Mera Rubell and has also been listed in "The 25 most important artists of 2011" (http://www.complex.com/art-design/2011/12/the-25-most-important-artists-of-2011 )
Olek was born Agata Oleksiak in 1978 in Poland. In 2000, she received a Bachelor degree in Cultural Studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and relocated to New York City, where she is currently based. Olek's work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and public spaces worldwide, and featured in numerous publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Time Out NY, Village Voice, CNN, ABC News, CBS News and NBC News. Olek is the recipient of awards including the Ruth Mellon Award for sculpture in 2004, In Situ Artaq award (France) in 2011, and a grant in 2011 from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) for performance in public space. Olek's residencies have included Sculpture Space in 2005, Instituto Sacatar (Brazil) in 2009 and AAI-LES in 2010. In 2008, Olek was the winner of the Apex Art competition, which aired on PBS. In 2010, the artist was commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art for a one-day interactive performance installation.
All works in the installation are for sale individually, please ask for the PDF price list.
villagevoice.com – OLEK SOLO SHOW
villagevoice.com – OLEK Crochets a London Cab
postersandprintsblog.com – OLEK Crocheting London Taxi At Tony's Gallery
HOOKED BLOG – OLEK bombs black cab
OLEK AND THE CHARGING BULL ON WALL STREET from olek on Vimeo.

subset: commoncrawl


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Spatial Material¶
SpatialMaterial is a default 3D material that aims to provide most of the features
artists look for in a material, without the need for writing shader code. However,
it can be converted to shader code if additional functionality is needed.
This tutorial explains most parameters present in
There are 4 ways to add a
SpatialMaterial to an object. It can be added in
the Material property of the mesh. It can be added in the Material property of
the node using the mesh (such as a MeshInstance node), the Material Override property
of the node using the mesh, and the Material Overlay.
If you add a material to the mesh itself, every time that mesh is used it will have that material. If you add a material to the node using the mesh, the material will only be used by that node, it will also override the material property of the mesh. If a material is added in the Material Override property of the node, it will only be used by that node. It will also override the regular material property of the node and the material property of the mesh.
The Material Overlay property will render a material over the current one being used by the mesh. As an example, this can be used to put a transparent shield effect on a mesh.
Spatial materials have many flags determining the general usage of a material.
In Godot, materials are not transparent unless specifically configured to be. The main reason behind this is that transparent materials are rendered using a different technique (sorted from back to front and rendered in order).
This technique is less efficient (many state changes happen) and makes the materials unusable with many mid- and post-processing effects (such as SSAO, SSR, etc.) that require perfectly opaque geometry.
For this reason, materials in Godot are assumed opaque unless specified otherwise. The main settings that enable transparency are:
Transparent flag (this one)
Blend mode set to other than "Mix"
Enabling distance or proximity fade
Use Shadow to Opacity¶
Lighting modifies the alpha so shadowed areas are opaque and non-shadowed areas are transparent. Useful for overlaying shadows onto a camera feed in AR.
In most cases it is common for materials to be affected by lighting (shaded).
However, in some cases you might want to show just the albedo (color) and ignore the rest. Toggling this flag on will remove all shading and display pure, unlit color.
Vertex Lighting¶
Godot has a more or less uniform cost per pixel thanks to depth pre-pass. All lighting calculations are made by running the lighting shader on every pixel.
As these calculations are costly, performance can be brought down considerably in some corner cases such as drawing several layers of transparency (which is common in particle systems). Switching to per-vertex lighting may help in these cases.
Additionally, on low-end or mobile devices, switching to vertex lighting can considerably increase rendering performance.
Keep in mind that when vertex lighting is enabled, only directional lighting can produce shadows (for performance reasons).
No Depth Test¶
In order for close objects to appear over far away objects, depth testing is performed. Disabling it has the result of objects appearing over (or under) everything else.
Disabling this makes the most sense for drawing indicators in world space, and works very well with the Render Priority property of Material (see the bottom of this page).
Use Point Size¶
This option is only effective when the geometry rendered is made of points (generally it's made of triangles when imported from 3D DCCs). If so, then those points can be resized (see below).
World Triplanar¶
When using triplanar mapping (see below, in the UV1 and UV2 settings), triplanar is computed in object local space. This option makes triplanar work in world space.
Fixed Size¶
This causes the object to be rendered at the same size no matter the distance. This is useful mostly for indicators (no depth test and high render priority) and some types of billboards.
Do Not Receive Shadows¶
Makes the object not receive any kind of shadow that would otherwise be cast onto it.
Disable Ambient Light¶
Makes the object not receive any kind of ambient lighting that would otherwise light it.
Ensure Correct Normals¶
Fixes normals when non-uniform scaling is used.
Vertex Color¶
This setting allows choosing what is done by default to vertex colors that come from your 3D modelling application. By default, they are ignored.
Use as Albedo¶
Choosing this option means vertex color is used as albedo color.
Is sRGB¶
Most 3D DCCs will likely export vertex colors as sRGB, so toggling this option on will help them look correct.
SpatialMaterial also has several configurable parameters to tweak
many aspects of the rendering:
Diffuse Mode¶
Specifies the algorithm used by diffuse scattering of light when hitting the object. The default is Burley. Other modes are also available:
Burley: Default mode, the original Disney Principled PBS diffuse algorithm.
Lambert: Is not affected by roughness.
Lambert Wrap: Extends Lambert to cover more than 90 degrees when roughness increases. Works great for hair and simulating cheap subsurface scattering. This implementation is energy conserving.
Oren Nayar: This implementation aims to take microsurfacing into account (via roughness). Works well for clay-like materials and some types of cloth.
Toon: Provides a hard cut for lighting, with smoothing affected by roughness. It is recommended you disable sky contribution from your environment's ambient light settings or disable ambient light in the spatial material to achieve a better effect.
Specular Mode¶
Specifies how the specular blob will be rendered. The specular blob represents the shape of a light source reflected in the object.
ShlickGGX: The most common blob used by PBR 3D engines nowadays.
Blinn: Common in previous-generation engines. Not worth using nowadays, but left here for the sake of compatibility.
Phong: Same as above.
Toon: Creates a toon blob, which changes size depending on roughness.
Disabled: Sometimes the blob gets in the way. Begone!
Blend Mode¶
Controls the blend mode for the material. Keep in mind that any mode other than Mix forces the object to go through the transparent pipeline.
Mix: Default blend mode, alpha controls how much the object is visible.
Add: Object is blended additively, nice for flares or some fire-like effects.
Sub: Object is subtracted.
Mul: Object is multiplied.
Cull Mode¶
Determines which side of the object is not drawn when backfaces are rendered:
Back: The back of the object is culled when not visible (default).
Front: The front of the object is culled when not visible.
Disabled: Used for objects that are double-sided (no culling is performed).
By default, Blender has backface culling disabled on materials and will export materials to match how they render in Blender. This means that materials in Godot will have their cull mode set to Disabled. This can decrease performance since backfaces will be rendered, even when they are being culled by other faces. To resolve this, enable Backface Culling in Blender's Materials tab, then export the scene to glTF again.
Depth Draw Mode¶
Specifies when depth rendering must take place.
Opaque Only (default): Depth is only drawn for opaque objects.
Always: Depth draw is drawn for both opaque and transparent objects.
Never: No depth draw takes place (do not confuse this with the No Depth Test option above).
Depth Pre-Pass: For transparent objects, an opaque pass is made first with the opaque parts, then transparency is drawn above. Use this option with transparent grass or tree foliage.
Line Width¶
When drawing lines, specify the width of the lines being drawn. This option is not available on most modern hardware.
Point Size¶
When drawing points, specify the point size in pixels.
Billboard Mode¶
Enables billboard mode for drawing materials. This controls how the object faces the camera:
Disabled: Billboard mode is disabled.
Enabled: Billboard mode is enabled, the object's -Z axis will always face the camera.
Y-Billboard: The object's X axis will always be aligned with the camera.
Particles: Most suited for particle systems, because it allows specifying animation options.
The above options are only enabled for Particle Billboard.
Billboard Keep Scale¶
Enables scaling a mesh in billboard mode.
Grows the object vertices in the direction pointed by their normals:
This is commonly used to create cheap outlines. Add a second material pass, make it black and unshaded, reverse culling (Cull Front), and add some grow:
Use Alpha Scissor¶
When transparency other than
0 or
1 is not needed, it's possible to
set a threshold to prevent the object from rendering semi-transparent pixels.
This renders the object via the opaque pipeline, which is faster and allows it to use mid- and post-process effects such as SSAO, SSR, etc.
Material colors, maps and channels¶
Besides the parameters, what defines materials themselves are the colors, textures, and channels. Godot supports an extensive list of them. They are described in detail below:
Albedo is the base color for the material, on which all the other settings operate. When set to Unshaded, this is the only color that is visible. In previous versions of Godot, this channel was named Diffuse. The change of name mainly happened because, in PBR (Physically Based Rendering), this color affects many more calculations than just the diffuse lighting path.
Albedo color and texture can be used together as they are multiplied.
Alpha channel in albedo color and texture is also used for the object transparency. If you use a color or texture with alpha channel, make sure to either enable transparency or alpha scissoring for it to work.
Godot uses a metallic model over competing models due to its simplicity. This parameter defines how reflective the material is. The more reflective, the less diffuse/ambient light affects the material and the more light is reflected. This model is called "energy-conserving".
The Specular parameter is a general amount for the reflectivity (unlike
Metallic, this is not energy-conserving, so leave it at
0.5 and don't touch
it unless you need to).
The minimum internal reflectivity is
0.04, so it's impossible to make a
material completely unreflective, just like in real life.
Roughness affects the way reflection happens. A value of
0 makes it a
perfect mirror while a value of
1 completely blurs the reflection (simulating
natural microsurfacing). Most common types of materials can be achieved with
the right combination of Metallic and Roughness.
Emission specifies how much light is emitted by the material (keep in mind this does not include light surrounding geometry unless Using GIProbe are used). This value is added to the resulting final image and is not affected by other lighting in the scene.
Normal map¶
Normal mapping allows you to set a texture that represents finer shape detail. This does not modify geometry, only the incident angle for light. In Godot, only the red and green channels of normal maps are used for better compression and wider compatibility.
Godot requires the normal map to use the X+, Y+ and Z+ coordinates, this is known as OpenGL style. If you've imported a material made to be used with another engine it may be DirectX style, in which case the normal map needs to be converted so its Y axis is flipped.
More information about normal maps (including a coordinate order table for popular engines) can be found here.
Some fabrics have small micro-fur that causes light to scatter around it. Godot emulates this with the Rim parameter. Unlike other rim lighting implementations, which just use the emission channel, this one actually takes light into account (no light means no rim). This makes the effect considerably more believable.
Rim size depends on roughness, and there is a special parameter to specify how
it must be colored. If Tint is
0, the color of the light is used for the
rim. If Tint is
1, then the albedo of the material is used. Using
intermediate values generally works best.
This feature is only available when using the GLES3 backend.
The Clearcoat parameter is used to add a secondary pass of transparent coat to the material. This is common in car paint and toys. In practice, it's a smaller specular blob added on top of the existing material.
The effect is extremely subtle in Godot 3 releases, and may require specific lighting or looking at a material a specific way to notice a difference. This can be seen in the image below where clearcoat is turned on in the right.
The effect will be more noticeable in Godot 4.
This feature is only available when using the GLES3 backend.
This changes the shape of the specular blob and aligns it to tangent space. Anisotropy is commonly used with hair, or to make materials such as brushed aluminum more realistic. It works especially well when combined with flowmaps.
Ambient Occlusion¶
It is possible to specify a baked ambient occlusion map. This map affects how much ambient light reaches each surface of the object (it does not affect direct light by default). While it is possible to use Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) to generate ambient occlusion, nothing beats the quality of a well-baked AO map. It is recommended to bake ambient occlusion whenever possible.
This feature is only available when using the GLES3 backend.
Setting a depth map on a material produces a ray-marched search to emulate the proper displacement of cavities along the view direction. This is not real added geometry, but an illusion of depth. It may not work for complex objects, but it produces a realistic depth effect for textures. For best results, Depth should be used together with normal mapping.
Subsurface Scattering¶
This feature is only available when using the GLES3 backend.
This effect emulates light that penetrates an object's surface, is scattered, and then comes out. It is useful to create realistic skin, marble, colored liquids, etc.
This controls how much light from the lit side (visible to light) is transferred to the dark side (opposite from the light). This works well for thin objects such as plant leaves, grass, human ears, etc.
This feature is only available when using the GLES3 backend.
When refraction is enabled, it supersedes alpha blending, and Godot attempts to fetch information from behind the object being rendered instead. This allows distorting the transparency in a way similar to refraction in real life.
Godot allows using secondary albedo and normal maps to generate a detail texture, which can be blended in many ways. By combining this with secondary UV or triplanar modes, many interesting textures can be achieved.
There are several settings that control how detail is used.
Mask: The detail mask is a black and white image used to control where the blending takes place on a texture. White is for the detail textures, Black is for the regular material textures, different shades of gray are for partial blending of the material textures and detail textures.
Blend Mode: These four modes control how the textures are blended together.
Mix: Combines pixel values of both textures. At black, only show the material texture, at white, only show the detail texture. Values of gray create a smooth blend between the two.
Add: Adds pixel values of one Texture with the other. Unlike mix mode both textures are completely mixed at white parts of a mask and not at gray parts. The original texture is mostly unchanged at black
Sub: Subtracts pixel values of one texture with the other. The second texture is completely subtracted at white parts of a mask with only a little subtraction in black parts, gray parts being different levels of subtraction based on the exact texture.
Mul: Multiplies the RGB channel numbers for each pixel from the top texture with the values for the corresponding pixel from the bottom texture.
Albedo: This is where you put an albedo texture you want to blend. If nothing is in this slot it will be interpreted as white by default.
Normal: This is where you put a normal texture you want to blend. If nothing is in this slot it will be interpreted as a flat normal map. This can still be used even if the material does not have normal map enabled.
UV1 and UV2¶
Godot supports two UV channels per material. Secondary UV is often useful for ambient occlusion or emission (baked light). UVs can be scaled and offset, which is useful when using repeating textures.
Triplanar Mapping¶
Triplanar mapping is supported for both UV1 and UV2. This is an alternative way to obtain texture coordinates, sometimes called "Autotexture". Textures are sampled in X, Y and Z and blended by the normal. Triplanar mapping can be performed in either world space or object space.
In the image below, you can see how all primitives share the same material with world triplanar, so the brick texture continues smoothly between them.
Proximity and distance fade¶
Godot allows materials to fade by proximity to each other as well as depending on the distance from the viewer. Proximity fade is useful for effects such as soft particles or a mass of water with a smooth blending to the shores. Distance fade is useful for light shafts or indicators that are only present after a given distance.
Keep in mind enabling these enables alpha blending, so abusing them for an entire scene is usually not a good idea.
Render priority¶
The rendering order of objects can be changed, although this is mostly useful for transparent objects (or opaque objects that perform depth draw but no color draw, such as cracks on the floor).


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We've covered Windows 7 from rumor to golden master. Now—as we wait for its Oct. 22 arrival—it's enchilada time: Here's everything of value that we learned about Win 7, packed in a complete, easy-to-read guide.
Table of Contents
What It All Means: Windows 7 Review
So much anticipation has led up to the arrival of Windows 7, aka The Redeemer. But does it live up to the hype? Here we pass judgment, and then, because we like you, we give you a super-quick tour of its best features and tips.
Chapter 1
The Real Cost of Upgrading to Windows 7
Now that prices are announced and it's time to think about upgrading, here are all the different considerations you'll have to make. It's as smart a Windows upgrade as there ever was, but do your homework!
Chapter 2
How To Use Windows 7, or Why The New UI Is So Great
Windows 7 is Microsoft's biggest user-interface overhaul since Windows 95. It's no surprise, then, that even Windows veterans could use a crash course on how to use it.
Chapter 3
Device Stage Hardware Fun, Plus More Productivity Tips
Device Stage, the instant recognition of cameras, printers and other peripherals, is candy for the gadget-addicted, but knowing what works and what doesn't definitely matters.
Chapter 4
Windows Media Player and Media File Compatibility
Music and movies—not only are they more important than they were when Vista came out, but they also come from more sources in more formats. Windows 7 attempts to master them all.
Chapter 5
Couch Tricks: New Features for Windows Media Center
Our favorite "10-foot" media software shows up in Windows 7 with loads of new features—if you haven't yet seen why Media Center makes even TiVo look dated, you better pay attention.
Chapter 6
Important Changes to Networking and Security
When it comes to life online, there's no way to underestimate advances in networking and security. Windows 7 is full of them, and it pays to know what they are and how to use them.
Chapter 7
Natural Interfaces: Pen, Touch and Multitouch
Windows 7 comes of age at a time when the keyboard and mouse are giving way to newer more instinctive controls—luckily, it's got many of those controls built right in. Bonus: Here's a first look at the fun Surface-like Windows 7 Touch Pack which may soon be available on all touch PCs.
Chapter 8
Got Troubles? Here's How To Shoot 'Em Down
Even a good operating system can be bad once in a while. During the Beta test, we had our share of issues. Here's a discussion of many of the problems that can be solved, and a few that can't.
Is there something missing, a discussion you were hoping to have but aren't seeing here? We want to be thorough, so let's have it. Go ahead and hit us up, either in direct emails or to our tips line, with the subject "Windows 7 Guide."


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About us
Car Fantasy is the name in the area of Exclusive Cars, Auto Parts and Premium Rims.
We have been your specialist for over 12 years and we ship our products all over the world. With 27 websites and 450,000 articles online, we are leading in our industry! Car Fantasy is located in Elst with various showrooms, 800 m2 warehouse and a large stock.
There are currently 9 employees working within our team. For us, service, direct customer contact and good quality products are the most important spearheads. Our products are mainly from Germany, England, America, the Netherlands, Italy and Poland. This characterizes the quality of our products. We therefore choose A-brands and offer them at a competitive price. In addition to a competitive price, you can also contact us for technical support. We do not have a workshop but we use a 'cash and carry' principle. Sales via our websites is therefore our most important core task. Because we work closely with our suppliers and our own large stock, we can provide a fast delivery.
Besides the well-known brands, we are the exclusive importer of, among others, M-Tech, Radi8, Cast13, 3SDM, Ispiri, Veemann, Rotiform, Z-Performance, RimRingz, Supersport, Magnaflow, Vogtland and more. We are also official wholesaler for Osram, Green Filters, Meguiars, Eibach, Bilstein, Dectane and SCC. We supply both private and B2B customers.


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ChocolateSwap Token Is Set To Go For Pre-sale On Pinksale
ChocolateSwap is a delicious cryptocurrency token which is set for pre-sale on the Pinksale starting August 13, 2022. Soft cap is set at 300 BNB with 51% of the total raised funds going to the liquidity. Besides, the lockup time of the liquidity is 365 days.
The ChocolateSwap token is the heart and power of the ChocolateSwap ecosystem, a totally decentralized and community-driven project. As per the audit done by ContractChecker, Chocolate Swap meets all the requirements listed on Pinksale Documentation for SAFU contracts. The Chocolate Swap token is also KYC verified by ContractChecker, a trusted developer of Pinksale launchpad.
ChocolateSwap runs on the BNB Smart Chain, a blockchain with much lower transaction costs than Ethereum or Bitcoin. ChocolateSwap gives its community BabyDogeCoin as a holding reward.
To take part in the pre-sale, no registration or account is required. Users can instantly swap tokens. It gives users the ability to trade directly from their wallet app. No account information is required. There is a 0% trading fee on every buy and sell, which means anyone can now trade on the ChocolateSwap platform at no additional fee.
Speaking about making the ChocolateSwap ecosystem seamless and convenient, the spokesperson for the company said, "We have eliminated the need to create accounts or register users, which means users can instantly start swapping coins without wasting any time on registration. Using their wallet app, any user can trade the coins directly. They don't have to share any details with us, as we believe that the money belongs to the user and they are the sole owner of it. "
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Media Contact
Company Name: CHOCOLATESWAP
Contact Person: TERRY JUNIOR
Email: Send Email
City: New York City
State: New York
Country: United States
Website: chocolateswap.finance


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Happy, ironic and joyful comedy song with "Queen style" grand opening in the first minute.
For the arrangement i use Piano, Orchestra, "lazy" bass guitar, lead motive played by oboe and drums to underline the rhythm.
Perfect choice for your comedy movies, commercials, animations, TV spots, video games or cartoon movies.
Thank you for listening and if you purchase please rate this song.


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Missed my earlier posts? Don't worry, you can catch up by clicking the button below.
Alphabe-Thursday - S for Seashore
19 comments:
This looks so warm and inviting.ReplyDelete
What a beautiful photograph! I can just picture myself sitting on one of those rocks in the sun, listening to the surf. Thank you so much for posting this and sharing with us!ReplyDelete
JoAnn @ Stitches and Thyme
Absolutely stunning photo for S. I wish the weather was 1/100th as beautiful here. Still buried in many feet of snow.ReplyDelete
This makes me want to visit Goa asap.. or, on the opposite coast, Mamallapuram.. ah beautiful beaches <3ReplyDelete
Wonderful shot!ReplyDelete
Makes me look all the more forward to my beach trip this weekend.
This is a wonderful photo! Great work!ReplyDelete
Lovely photo. I can imagine the waves rolling in and out.ReplyDelete
Makes me want to go to the coast so bad!ReplyDelete
Stunning! It looks like the perfect place to be.ReplyDelete
now that is an interesting looking shoreline!ReplyDelete
This pictures is so beautiful makes me homesick... I used to play at seashore long ago..^^ReplyDelete
Perfectly lovely beach, and a fantastic shot!ReplyDelete
Looks inviting ...fabulous shot.ReplyDelete
Beautiful photo of a beautiful place!ReplyDelete
Patrick Tillett, Extremely Overdue
Where is that?ReplyDelete
It looks like an absolutely magical place.
Thanks for sharing this visual of serenity with us this week on our little journey through Alphabe-Thursday's letter 'S'.
You are so talented.
Oh so wonderful! I can see myself there now!ReplyDelete
Well there is no drought there , that's for sure !ReplyDelete
Those rain clouds are ominous brrrrr scary .
I appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog and I truly value any feedback you have to offer. If you have a moment, please share your thoughts with me.
**If you opt to post a comment anonymously, kindly disclose your name to put my curiosity to rest.


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Auto Parts and Accessories in Houston, TX
Auto Parts and Accessories
8515 North Fwy,
Houston , TX 77037 UNITED STATES
We are one of the largest Automotive Electronics Remanufacturer in North America providing quality Engine, Transmission, Body and other control modules to leading Auto Parts Supply Stores and Repair Shops. We have one of the largest computerized inventory of ECU, ECM, TCM, BCM, and other control modules in the world. We do provide fast overnight shipping to most U. S. cities and two to five days shipping worldwide.
Autocomp established in 1996 to be the leading provider of Automotive Control Units. We have established and acquired advanced testing processes, techniques, and equipments. Our Technicians and Engineers have over 100 years of combined Automotive and Electronics experience.
Whether you need a single module or a thousand, Autocomp Technologies, Inc. can be your only dependable source for all your automotive electronics and computers needs.
Worldwide > United States > Houston, TX > Auto Parts and Accessories


text:
Woodworking Double Feather Board For Trimmer Router Table Machine Saw Fence BOS. Specification: Name: Woodworking Feather board set Color: Orange Thickness: 16mm Width: 165mm Total Length: 210mm Feature: – Easy set-up feature – Unique miter gauge slot allows quick removal – Multipurpose featherboard for holding the stock against the guide fence – High tech polymer ensures it will maintain its original shape – Advanced design means no marring to your workpiece Product included: 2 x Feather board for router tablesWith parts and accessories Feature: 1. A featherboard is undoubtedly the most underrated router-table accessory. When properly installed, the flexible fingers keep the workpiece. Pressed tightly against the router tabletop or router fence throughout the routing operation. Featherboard are made from a high-tech polymer. And each one has 13 angled fingers that apply steady pressure consistently produces cleaner cuts with less chance of kickback, chattering or lifting. Featherboard slide into miter-gauge slots in the router table or fence, and are locked in place by tightening a pair of knobs. Note it can also be used on a table saw, shaper, bandsaw or any other woodworking machine with a miter gauge slot. The images are for reference only. Please take the item you get as the standard. Please repack the item carefully. We do not work holidays in Hong Kong. If you we are not satisfied with the product or service , please contact me and don't give us negative or natural feedback, We must give you a satisfactory solution. Your action will help us offer our milk and bread. The item "Woodworking Double Feather Board For Trimmer Router Table Machine Saw Fence BOS" is in sale since Sunday, January 07, 2018. This item is in the category "Home & Garden\Tools\Power Tools\Saws & Blades\Table Saws". The seller is "best_online_store" and is located in Shang Hai. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Brand: A.B Crew
- Type: Woodworking Feather board set
- MPN: Does Not Apply
- Country/Region of Manufacture: China
- Width: 165mm
- Thickness: 16mm
- Total Length: 210mm
- Colour: Orange
- Qty: 1Set


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Beef Vet: Start With The End In Mind & Work BackwardsBeef Vet: Start With The End In Mind & Work Backwards
For Scott Crain, improving cattle care for clients is an endless journey of questions.
June 11, 2013
If you feel like a train is coming at you, you're tied to the train tracks and a rattlesnake is slithering toward you, the last thing you want to do is panic and try to scare away the snake," says Scott Crain, DVM. "All that happens then is that you get snake bit before getting hit by the train."
Though tongue-in-cheek, Dr. Crain believes the analogy is instructive as veterinarians face dwindling cattle and client numbers.
Dr. Crain is founder and owner of Cattle Health Management Network (CHMN), a feedlot consulting practice at Meade, KS.
Dr. Scott Crain
Up front, Dr. Crain is one of those folks who peers generally regard as brilliant or nuts.
There's not much middle ground.
He's unconcerned one way or the other.
"Our industry has been shrinking for years. We all know that. That's seeing the tracks," Dr. Crain says. "Then you hear the train whistle; that's the client you lost last month because of cattle and producer attrition."
Viewing the World Differently
Dichotomous impressions of Dr. Crain stem in part from the fact that he views the world, cattle care and the veterinary profession through a different lens than most.
"As veterinarians, we may be wrong, but we're never in doubt," says Dr. Crain with a laugh.
Like other veterinarians, Dr. Crain uses previous experience and science-based evidence to make decisions. When pondering how to improve his decision making for clients, Dr. Crain keeps in mind, "Data is a stick with two ends; science-based evidence on one end and science-based deception on the other. If you forget that you don't have all of the evidence, the data can become science-based deception."
He shares an example.
A couple of years ago, CHMN was seeing a few long-day cattle with no visible symptoms heading to the dead pile. The only thing Dr. Crain could find were signs loosely associated with some sort of an acute bacterial infection of an unknown source, so that's what he figured it was—unknown. In the same time period, long-time CHMN veterinarian, Nate McDonald, identified in the same class of deads, subtle intestinal lesions associated with mucosal disease and bovine viral diarrheal virus (BVDV). That made no sense to them because the cattle had been vaccinated multiple times with multiple strains of BVDV. Those events percolated awhile. Long story, short, Dr. Crain pulled blood from pen mates of long-day cattle that had died. He had it screened for viruses and bacteria. BVDV strain 1b lit up the scoreboard.
"We'd checked the BVDV box. The cattle were vaccinated multiple times for it. We never knew it could show up in the heart. Everything we thought we knew at that point said that's not what it could be." (Read further on about real-time pathogen surveillance.)
Then, some new-arrival cattle were breaking hard. Necropsies showed no lung lesions, but some with the minor heart lesions associated with histophilus. Culture and sensitivity produced nothing, however virus isolation demonstrated an overwhelming level of bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) 1b in the heart.
Dr. Crain believes that assuming you could be wrong means looking for why that may be true. "The opposite of that is assuming you're right, which means collecting existing data to defend your decision," Dr. Crain says. "If you spend your time defending your decision, you do nothing to improve. Asking if it could be better is more instructive than trying to prove why you're right."
As for unconventional thinking, also consider that Dr. Crain and his wife, Lori, have two daughters—Lissa Leigh, a freshman at Kansas State University, her parent's alma mater. The other, Bobbie Annie, is a sophomore in high school also headed that direction. Both want to become veterinarians. Though proud his kids want to follow in his professional footsteps, Dr. Crain is trying his best to discourage them from it, at least when it comes to consideration of a traditional large animal or small animal practice.
"Everything is shrinking, cattle numbers, equine numbers, small animal numbers," Dr. Crain says. "Though animal numbers are shrinking, there are more veterinarians. It costs up to $250,000 to go to vet school. It can take 15 years to pay off student loans; that's how long it took me."
Most people ask young people what they want to be or what kind of business they want to own. Dr. Crain asks a simpler question: How much money do you want to make?
Enjoy what you are reading? Subscribe to BEEF Daily for more industry news Monday-Thursday.
Rather than a job or profession defining him, Dr. Crain has always been more about doing what he enjoys, but making sure that provides enough revenue to live the kind of life he wants. That's one reason, by design, he's a serial entrepreneur.
Though CHMN serves feedlots with an annual capacity of about 1.5 million head, saying that Dr. Crain is a feedlot veterinarian is akin to saying Bill Gates is a computer programmer.
In the name of serving his clients, Dr. Crain has developed a range of new products and services over the years, ranging from Cattle Information Network (a data-based feedlot management software system) to real-time pathogen surveillance (and associated development of autogenous and commercial vaccines), to the VeriPrime Food Safety Cooperative (VPFSC), to his latest mobile X-ray-based pneumonia detection system. And, that's a short list.
Cattle Information Network
Cattle Information Network (CIN) was a central feedlot information management system. Briefly, it took daily operating data from participating feed yards, pooled and analyzed the data each evening. The next morning, the feed yard manager could see how his pens were performing relative to a regional benchmark. They could see problems developing in real-time. You can find pieces, parts and elements of that system incorporated into current systems today.
Dr. Crain sold CIN to eMerge Interactive in January of 1999 at the front end of that company's short-lived heyday. As part of the deal, he went to work for eMerge, helping flesh out a visionary array of products and services that was to serve as a fulcrum to vertical industry cooperation and integration. In February of 2000, he was among a small cadre of eMerge folks ringing the opening bell at NASDAQ as eMerge went public, raising a total of $235 million.
CIN represented Dr. Crain's third patent. He filed for his first patent when he was a freshman in vet school. It was a mechanical patent for the oil field, where he was working outside of class to help pay for his education.
Incidentally, Dr. Crain received that first patent when he was a junior. He secured financing and sunk a wad into developing the patent into saleable equipment—about the time oil crashed in 1984.
"Failure is just a small success," Dr. Crain says. "You realize you won't do that again. I'm not going to win them all. Failure isn't a measure of success. Success is how many failures can you have but continue to move ahead positively."
Real-Time Pathogen Surveillance
Real-time pathogen surveillance grew from the aforementioned BVD example. Working with Texas Vet Lab (TVL) based at San Angelo, Texas, Dr. Crain and Dr. McDonald discovered the cause of the late-day mortality in question was BVDV subtype 1b, a strain unaccounted for in the vaccines they were using. So, CHMN and TVL developed an autogenous vaccine. Ultimately, CHMN formed a coalition of likeminded veterinarians—Professional Veterinary Associates (PVA)—that collect and submit BVDV samples to a national databank. Through a process called antigenic cartography, PVA monitors the mutation of specific BVDV strains showing up in member yards and then develops autogenous vaccines to battle specific bugs.
Taking it a step further, CHMN and TVL developed a comprehensive, integrated pathogen surveillance protocol that hinges upon real-time diagnostic testing and reporting.
Using this approach, BVDV surveillance demonstrated an 80 percent reduction in BVDV-related disease and illness over the next two years in CHMN client yards, along with a corresponding reduction in death loss and morbidity.
"The value we are finding in continuous surveillance is that besides monitoring pathogens and sensitivity patterns in the deads, we have a reference point that is instructive on the likely pathogens and sensitivity patterns of other cattle arriving in the same time frame," Dr. Crain says.
VeriPrime Food Safety Cooperative
VeriPrime Food Safety Cooperative (VPFSC) is a revolutionary concept that has been glacially slow when it comes to gaining traction. Simplistically, it is a member owned federation of cooperatives that decides how to improve beef safety preharvest, and pays members to do it. Consider E. coli interventions that can be applied at the feedlot and ranch, for example. Most everyone says reducing the prevalence of E. coli ahead of the packing house increases ultimate food safety. Most consumers believe such interventions would be positive. Far fewer consumers, Dr. Crain says, understand the success of preharvest E. coli interventions depends on industry-wide application. Although consumers would likely bear the final cost, so far, none of the packers, food service folks or retailers Dr. Crain has visited with have agreed to adopt this kind of added assurance.
X-Ray Pneumonia Detection System
Dr. Crain's latest endeavor is an X-ray pneumonia detection system aimed at detecting lung lesions and subclinical pneumonia when cattle arrive at the feed yard.
"Obviously, the idea of using an X-ray is not original with me," Dr. Crain says. "What's new is the availability of digital technology that allows us to take X-rays in a matter of seconds."
Though interest from feed yards has been more than positive, Dr. Crain says, "We don't know if it has value in the field. There's hardly any of this kind of data. We need to validate it."
There are two things he is sure of.
First, he says he's not smart enough to see subclinical bovine respiratory disease complex in every head. Second, doing things the way they have been done continues to stymie much cattle health progress at the feedlot level.
"Over the last several years, we (the industry) vaccinate more and more, treat more and more cattle with more and more expensive antibiotics and designer molecules and we're losing more cattle," Dr. Crain says. "This kind of data may provide us with some insight as to why that is."
Thinking Backwards
Aside from the entrepreneurial spirit behind these and other Dr. Crain creations, common themes include reverse thinking, proactive collaboration and the earnest belief an answer exists; it's just a matter of shifting current thinking around enough to see it.
Of the former, Dr. Crain starts with the end in mind and works backward.
"But, critical thinking means evaluating evidence in order to make a decision," Dr. Crain says. "By definition, you are limited to the evidence known to you; that can be a mental trap."
Plus, Dr. Crain explains, "When you start talking about the pros and cons of something, creativity stops as soon as you focus on the cons. If I make the assumption that there is a better answer, then I'm led down a different path. When you focus on what you want to create rather than what your current thinking and experience deem possible, you place your thinking in a different zone."
And you don't worry about sharing the idea. One of Dr. Crain's early mentors held more than 370 patents and a lucrative career. "He always told me the idea is one-tenth of one percent of it; execution is all the rest," Dr. Crain says. "I'm open with sharing ideas because so much of the ultimate success of them comes down to execution."
In fact, Dr. Crain likens having a degree in veterinary medicine to holding a patent: "It separates you from others and narrows the competition, but you still have to do something with it."
Besides, Dr. Crain believes there aren't new ideas as much as there are old ideas recovered and new applications developed.
For him, realigning existing puzzle pieces to create new solutions has often meant stepping outside the animal health box to visit with innovators in other disparate fields.
Consider VPFSC. He called and also travelled to meet with Dee Hock. Many may not know the name, but Hock is the founder and former CEO of Visa Credit Card Association. It was development of this unique organization that enables you to use a credit card of your choosing at about any retailer in the world.
Dr. Crain reads about how human medicine is attacking influenza and he ends up talking with scientists at University of Cambridge in England.
More recently, he has become involved with folks at Columbia University, sharing notes about what animal medicine and human medicine have to offer each other.
"What I learned is that you can pick up the phone and contact the people you read about. They're approachable," Dr. Crain says.
The Future From Here
Admittedly, with the industry in the midst of a paradigm shift—most everyone agreeing long-established production and market fundamentals are changing, but no one knowing where the other side is or what it looks like—panic is a perfectly normal first response.
Thinking about the shrinking industry pie again, Dr. Crain says, "It scares me. I don't like change. I'm used to doing what I do. I think everyone's first reaction is to sprint and grab your piece of the pie. That might work until you get tripped. Panic kills reasoning and creativity."
Once you see the train tracks and hear the approaching train whistle, Dr. Crain figures the future depends on what you do next.
"I'm trying to make more money by serving my clients better," Dr. Crain says. "Every day in our practice we ask ourselves how we can do a better job for the clients we have and make them more money. How do we make more money by helping them make more money? How do we find more clients to help make them more money?"
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President Barack Obama faced perhaps his toughest and most direct question ever on the H-1B program by a Texas woman during an online town hall Monday.
The woman, Jennifer Weddel, was polite and direct but tenacious in getting the president to reveal some of his views about the H-1B program when she asked: "Why does the government continue to issue and extend H-1b visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?" Her husband is a semiconductor engineer.
Weddel succeeded in getting Obama to acknowledge that there should be limits to the H-1B program.
The visa "should be reserved only for those companies that say they cannot find somebody in that particular field," Obama said.
The H-1B program is also heavily used by offshore outsourcing companies that transfer IT work overseas. See: The top 10 H-1B visa users in the U.S.
The Obama administration has argued that the U.S. is in need of engineers, especially in high tech and has outlined a plan to train 10,000 new engineers.
Here's the transcript of the section involving Weddel's question to Obama's during Google+ Hangout session:
Weddel: My husband has an engineering degree with over 10 years of experience and he was laid off three years ago and has yet to find a permanent job in his field. My question to you is why does the government continue to issue and extend H-1b visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?
Obama: Well, Jennifer, I don't know your husband's specialty but I can tell you that there is a huge demand around the country for engineers. Now, obviously, there are different kinds of engineers, so a civil engineer, for example, right now may not be getting as much work because we're not building our infrastructure as much as we should. Which is part of the reason why in the State of the Union I said let's put folks to work -- not just construction workers, but also engineers and architects -- rebuilding our schools and roads and our bridges and so on. Where you are see seeing a lot of specialized demand is in engineering that's related to the high-tech industries. Now what industry tells me is that they don't have enough highly skilled engineers. If your husband is in that field, then we should get his resume and I'll forward it to some of these companies that are telling me they can't find enough engineers in this field. So it's going to vary, but as a basic matter there is a huge demand for engineers around the country right now ...
Weddel: (breaking in) I understand that, but how, I mean, given the list that you're getting, we're not getting that. You said in the State of the Union address for business leaders to ask themselves what can they do to bring jobs back to America. But why do you think that the H-1b program is so popular with the corporations?
Obama: Jennifer, can I ask you what kind of engineer your husband is?
Weddel: He is a semiconductor engineer.
Obama: The, see, it is interesting to me, and I meant what I said if you send me your husband's resume I'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there because the word we're getting is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away. And the H-1bs should be reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in that particular field. So that wouldn't necessarily apply if in fact there are a lot of highly skilled American engineers in that position. I'd be interested in ... I will follow up on this because I'm interested in finding out and maybe we can get some information as to why your husband has been having trouble getting placed. We want to encourage more American engineers to be placed and that's part of the reason why it's so important for us to boost American manufacturing.
Weddel: I appreciate your response, Mr. President. I'll have to take you up on that, Thank you.
Patrick Thibodeau covers cloud computing and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed. His e-mail address is email@example.com.


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EXCLUSIVE: As Cannes slates continue to come together with a week to go before the market kicks off on the Croisette, Lionsgate International has confirmed it will commence pre-sales on The Last Witch Hunter.
Vin Diesel will star as the immortal witch hunter Kaulder, who must team up with a Catholic priest and a benign witch to thwart an attempt by his foe Belial from possessing an all-powerful talisman.
Cory Goodman wrote the screenplay, which takes place in the present day.
Breck Eisner will direct and principal photography on the Mark Canton Productions and One Race Entertainment project is scheduled for February 2014.
Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann and Diesel are producing The Last Witch Hunter and Summit Entertainment holds US rights.


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Another shocking story of sex trafficking in the United States, this time involving a Hollywood actress arrested on charges of recruiting women to become sex slaves for a cult.
The cult, operating as "self-help" business NXIVM, was flagged as "expensive brainwashing" as far back as 2003. But the organization is much more than that, with connections to both Hollywood and political elite.
This is a Reality Check you won't get anywhere else.
Allison Mack, known for her role as "Chloe" in the TV series Smallville, was arrested on April 20 as part of an indictment charging her and a man named Keith Raniere for sex trafficking and forced labor.
Mack allegedly recruited women to join a female empowerment group, one of many programs under Raniere's multi-level marketing business, NXIVM.
But according to U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue, instead of being empowered, these women were "exploited, both sexually and for their labor."
Based in Albany, New York, Raniere formed Executive Success Programs, Inc. in 1998 offering courses to help "actualize human potential." He later set up NXIVM in 2003 as the umbrella organization for ESP, Inc. and other affiliated entities.
Since then, NXIVM has grown to become a global pyramid scheme, operating in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South America. Members are required to recruit others to rise in the ranks, and are charged thousands of dollars for so-called self-help classes that can run as long as 14 hours per day.
Now, after years of reports that NXIVM is a cult, Raniere has been arrested, taken into custody in March following sex trafficking and forced labor charges.
A month later, Mack was charged and arrested. She was released on $5 million bond…
So what exactly did Mack do? According to the DOJ, "Mack is credited in publicly available materials with co-creating a NXIVM program, called the source, which recruited actors."
Mack regularly touted NXIVM as a feminist group on her social media pages.
In particular, she exhibited strange behavior on Twitter, allegedly attempted to recruit actress Emma Watson, and back in January, posting an image of Marina Abramovic… yes, the woman most famous for "spirit cooking."
Further, court filings state that, "Mack directly or implicitly required her slaves, including Jane Does 1 and 2, as identified in the indictment, to engage in sexual activity with Raniere. In exchange for this, Mack received financial and other benefits from Raniere."
These slaves were allegedly starved, branded, and forced to have nude photos taken of them as collateral. And that might not be the full extent of the torture these women went through.
The latest in this sex cult scandal: NXIVM's resident physician has been charged with conducting illegal human experiments.
Forty-four-year-old Dr. Brandon Porter is accused of forcing actress Jennifer Kobelt to watch dismemberment and rape videos for an alleged "fright study."
The New York State Office of Professional Medical Conduct is accusing Porter of moral unfitness, gross incompetence, and gross negligence, according to the New York Post.
What you need to know is that NXIVM's self-help and empowerment programs attracted wealthy, powerful and public figures from around the world, even as the company was accused of being a front for a cult.
And now, beyond these charges against Mack and Raniere for sex trafficking, there could be bigger implications for those who funded NXIVM.
That includes the heiresses to the Seagrams liquor fortune, Clare and Sara Bronfman reportedly gave $150 million of their trust fund to support NXIVM, according to an article published by Vanity Fair in 2010.
Because remember, in December of last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order stating that anyone involved in human rights abuses and corruption could have their assets frozen.


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Due to what appears to be a glitch in Disney's Online Reservations System, guests have been able to make reservations 190 days out — even without a valid resort reservation number.
The site's booking calendar extends 190 days from today, and when a date is chosen that exists outside of the 180 day window, guests are prompted to enter their resort reservation number as usual. Interestingly, when I entered "12345678" for a reservation number, I was easily able to book a reservation for dinner at Le Cellier, breakfast at Chef Mickey's, and dinner at Boma 190 days out (December 13th).
Interestingly, Cinderella's Royal Table is considered in "invalid" restaurant when searching this way.
Maybe this is beta testing for a new system, or maybe it's a glitch with the new online reservation system. Remains to be seen.
Thanks to Chris for the heads up!


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Deathmatch: Apple iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III
Is Apple's svelte, skinny iPhone 5 strong enough to fend off the challenge from the big, bold Android muscle phone?
If you're a fanboy (about 5 million of you qualify), you've already ordered your iPhone 5. But for the rest of the world waiting for Apple to replenish its stocks so that they can get a better look at one of the most overhyped products ever, there's a choice to be made.
The iPhone 5 is the new standard-bearer for Apple, the company that invented the modern smartphone, but Android smartphones have made great leaps in the last year. The Samsung Galaxy S III is the first Android device to break into the "Very Good" rating in the InfoWorld Test Center's smartphone reviews, and it's the only non-Apple smartphone to score that highly. Apple's iPhone line has worn that "Very Good" rating for years.
[ See how the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III compare to other Android, iOS, and Windows Phone smartphones. | Also on InfoWorld: "Google's Nexus 7 douses the Kindle Fire" and "Why the new iPad doesn't deserve a '3.'" | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobilize newsletter. ]
They're very different smartphones. The iPhone 5 is the skinny model in the understated Chanel dress, whereas the Galaxy S III is the musclebound jock. Compared to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 isn't that dramatic of an upgrade, whereas the Galaxy S III is heads and shoulders above the Android offerings of two years ago. On the other hand, the iPhone has been way, way ahead of Android, so Android smartphones needed big improvements to catch up. Apple has had the luxury of solidifying its offerings after making its great leap years ago.
Unless you're already committed to either the Apple cult or the Android cult, the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III are the two smartphones you're likely comparing if you're aiming for the top of the line and need to be meet the security requirements of most businesses. (If you insist on a physical keyboard, then your only real option is the Motorola Mobility Droid 4.)
Read on for what you need to know to choose:
- The hardware
- Web and Internet support
- Business connectivity
- Application support
- Security and management
- Usability
|InfoWorld Scorecard
Business connectivity (20.0%)
Application support (15.0%)
Security and management (20.0%)
Usability (15.0%)
Web and Internet support (20.0%)
Hardware (10.0%)
Overall Score (100%)
|Apple iPhone 5
|Samsung Galaxy S III


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For Belknap College Alumni and Staff, and by Belknap College Alumni and Staff
Ed Meskys passed away 7/25/2021
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Other common attributes
These common attributes are used across a wide variety of elements, with the common definition included below. These attributes are not defined as a group, and many elements only specify one or two from this list.
- @keyref
- @keyref provides a redirectable reference based on a key defined within a map. See The @keyref attribute for information on using this attribute.
- @outputclass
- Names a role that the element is playing. The role must be consistent with the basic semantic and expectations for the element. In particular, the @outputclass attribute can be used for styling during output processing; HTML output will typically preserve @outputclass for CSS processing.
- @compact
- Indicates
close vertical spacing between list items. Expanded spacing is the processing default.
The output result of compact spacing depends on the processor or browser. Allowable
values are:
- yes
- Indicates compact spacing.
- no
- Indicates expanded spacing.
- -dita-use-conref-target
- See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.
- @xml:space
- This attribute is provided on <pre>, <lines>, and on elements specialized from those. It ensures that parsers in editors and transforms respect the white space, including line-end characters, that is part of the data in those elements. It is intended to be part of the default properties of these elements, and not for authors to change or delete. When defined, it has a fixed value of "preserve".
- @anchorref
- Identifies
a location within another map file where this map will be anchored at runtime.
Resolution of the map is deferred until the final step in the delivery of any rendered
content. For example,
anchorref="map1.ditamap/a1"causes this map to be pulled into the location of the anchor point "a1" inside
map1.ditamapis rendered for delivery.
- @mapkeyref
- Identifies the map, if any, from which the contained links or metadata are derived. This value might be automatically generated by a process that creates the links or metadata based on map context, as a way to identify which map the material came from. If the <linklist>, or <linkpool>, or metadata is manually created by an author, there is no need to use this attribute. Note that this attribute is not related to the @keyref attribute, and is not used for key based processing.


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|Page tools: Print Page
Australia's native and plantation forests are an important natural resource providing a wide range of products and benefits to the community.
The combined resource of standing planted forests in Australia was 1.6 million ha planted to December 2002 (table 15.2). Softwood plantations, which are dominated by the exotic species Pinus radiata, represented 60% (988,000 ha). Hardwood plantations, which are almost all native eucalyptus species, mainly the Eucalyptus globulus variety, represented 39% (638,000 ha). The proportion of the estate accounted for by hardwood plantations is continuing to increase, up from 15% in 1994 and 29% in 1999.
A diverse range of ownership arrangements exists in the Australian plantation industry, including a variety of joint venture and annuity schemes between public and private parties. Over time, the area of plantations in public ownership has lessened, while the proportion in private ownership has increased. Just over half of the resource planted since 1990 involved private ownership of land and trees, while only a quarter of the resource planted during this period involved public ownership.
Farm forestry
Farm forestry generally refers to the incorporation of commercial tree growing into farming systems. This may take the form of smaller scale plantations on farms, timber belts, wind breaks, alleys and wide-spaced plantings, and may also include management of native forest for commercial returns on farms.
Farm forestry is increasingly becoming adopted as part of farm management planning and integrated into existing land uses, not only to supply wood but also to provide a range of benefits such as environmental protection and increased agricultural production.
To date, plantation farm forestry has mostly occurred in higher rainfall regions (greater than 600 mm) where good growth rates can be achieved and there is an existing timber processing industry. Many farmers have also entered into farm forestry by leasing their land or forming joint venture agreements with large-scale forest management companies. In lower rainfall regions, fostering farm forestry uptake and revegetation in general, will become an increasing priority in government programs designed to improve land management and ameliorate environmental degradation, especially salinity and water quality.
The baseline area for plantations owned outright by individuals having total estates less than 1,000 ha (i.e. the small-grower sector) was just on 67,000 ha in 2000, or nearly 5% of Australia's total plantation estate (Bureau of Rural Sciences, Australia's State of the Forests Report, 2003). In contrast to the wider plantation estate, which mainly comprised softwoods, the farm forest resource comprised over 60% hardwoods.
The management of private native forests is recognised as an important component of farm forestry, as 24% of Australia's total native forest area is in private ownership and a further 46% is on privately managed leasehold land.
Wood and paper products
Australia's wood and paper products industries are important components of Australia's primary and secondary industry sectors. They are particularly important in providing economic development and employment in many regions of rural Australia. The industries include hardwood and softwood sawmilling, plywood and panels manufacturing, woodchip production and export, and the pulp and paper industries. In 2000-01, the total sales and service income of the Wood and paper product manufacturing industries was $15.1b, of which Paper and paper product manufacturing contributed $8.0b (table 15.3).
In 2001-02, it is estimated that total roundwood removed from forests remained steady at 24.3 million cubic metres. The removal of broadleaved wood (primarily from native forests) fell 8.6% in 2001-02 to 10.6 million cubic metres, while 7.5% more coniferous wood (mainly from plantations) was removed.
In 2001-02, the value of exports of forest products totalled $2.0b, of which 36% were woodchips and 35% paper and paperboard products. In that year the value of imports of forest products was $3.7b, of which 53% were paper and paperboard products and 12% sawnwood. This indicates a trade deficit in forest products of $1.7b in 2001-02. Australia produces 87% of its sawn timber needs, of which native forests provide 27%, with the balance coming from softwood plantations. Imported sawn timber is mostly Radiata pine from New Zealand and Douglas fir from North America.
The hardwood and softwood sawmilling industries comprise mills of various sizes which process wood into sawn timber and other products such as veneers, mouldings and floorings. The hardwood mills are generally small scale and scattered. The softwood mills are generally larger and more highly integrated with other wood processing facilities. Australia's production of sawn timber increased by 17% in 2001-02 to 4,119,000 cubic metres (table 15.4), of which 73% was softwood.
Other value-added timber products include plywood, wood-based panels and reconstituted wood products. Australian wood-based panels include particleboard, medium density fibreboard, and hardboard made from softwood or hardwood pulp logs, sawmill residues or thinnings.
Pulp and paper mills use roundwood thinnings, low quality logs, harvesting residues and sawmill waste, recycled paper and paperboard to produce a broad range of pulp and paper products. Of the paper and paper products consumed domestically in 2001-02, 39% were imported, with 72% of printing and writing paper coming from overseas. The majority of paper products produced domestically were packaging and industrial paper (58%) along with newsprint, printing and writing papers, and tissue paper. Recycled paper now contributes 54% of the fibre used in the production of all paper and paperboard.
Woodchips are mainly used in the production of Australia's paper and paper products, and the woodchip export industry uses sawmill residues and timber which is unsuitable for sawmilling and not required by the pulp, paper and reconstituted wood products industries. Before the advent of the woodchip export industry, much of this material was left in the forest after logging. Considerable quantities of sawmill waste material, which would otherwise be burnt, are also chipped for local pulpwood-using industries and for export. Up until 1990-91, at least 95% of woodchips exported from Australia had been eucalypt, but since then greater quantities of softwood woodchips have become available from pine plantations. In 2001-02, some 19% of the total value of woodchips exported was from softwood woodchips.
Management of forests
Land and forest management is the constitutional responsibility of state and territory governments. Each state has a forest authority responsible for the management and control of publicly owned forests, in accordance with the relevant Forestry Acts and Regulations.
The Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (AFFA) and the Department of the Environment and Heritage (E&H) are the two key agencies with responsibilities relating to forests at the national level. Close liaison is maintained between them on relevant issues. AFFA's main responsibilities are the development of a national approach to forest management; providing advice to government on forest matters; administration of export licensing responsibilities in relation to unprocessed timber; liaison with state, national and international organisations concerned with forestry; and management of policy and program initiatives.
E&H has responsibility for environmental matters relating to forests, and provides policy advice to government on conservation and environmental matters pertaining to Australia's forests, including biological diversity and climate change. The Australian Heritage Commission and Environment Australia have assessment, management and monitoring roles in respect of the national estate, endangered species and environmental impacts in Australia's forests.
AFFA and E&H, in close cooperation with the state and territory governments, and other bodies, were extensively involved in the development of the National Forest Policy Statement and continue to actively participate in ongoing development of Australia's National Forest Inventory. Details of these initiatives and others such as Regional Forest Agreements, the Forestry Industry Structural Adjustment Program and the National Plantation Inventory can be obtained from the AFFA web site, <http://www.daff.gov.au/>.
Research for the forestry, wood and paper industries addresses industrial and environmental forestry including the sustainable management of eucalypt and softwood plantations, tree breeding and genetics, wood properties and quality, forest assessment, and wood and fibre processing and products.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) plays a major role in undertaking research into a broad range of community and economic issues including landscape degradation, conservation of biodiversity, water quality, renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration, and new product options such as novel composites and environmentally benign preservation methods. CSIRO is also an active participant in five Cooperative Research Centres: Sustainable Production Forestry, Greenhouse Accounting, Functional Communication Surfaces, Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity, and Innovative Wood Manufacturing.


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LONDON (VIP-NEWS) — Faith No More has announced its first live performances since splitting up in 1998. The band will play a series of European festival dates this summer, according to a statement from frontman Mike Patton's publicist.
No North American Faith No More dates are scheduled at this time. As previously reported, only Patton and frequent collaborator Rahzel will perform at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April, despite speculation about a Faith No More appearance.
Neither the lineup for the revived Faith No More nor the specific festival dates have been announced. No further details on the band are available yet, according to Patton's representative.
The news of Faith No More's reunion comes as Patton completes his first film score, for "Crank 2: High Voltage," which will hit theaters on April 17.
Patton and beatboxer Rahzel, meanwhile, have worked on an album that has not yet been officially released.
Faith No More's biggest single, "Epic," reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 in 1990. "Midlife Crisis" earned the band the top spot on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1992. According to Billboard