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In twenty pages this paper discusses the marketing strategy behind the 1985 decision by Coca Cola to replace its century old secret formula for a New Coke product and examines the public's reaction to this change. Nine sources are cited in the bibliography.
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In twenty pages this paper discusses the marketing strategy behind the 1985 decision by Coca Cola to replace its century old secre...
In five pages this paper considers the history of Coca Cola's marketing philosophy in a consideration that includes recent changes...
a far different industry than it was only a decade ago. Changes were apparent even then, but few understood the breadth of change...
of 2005 (US: Coke lowers earnings and sales expectations, 2004). All of Coca-Colas "numbers" - current ratio, earnings per share,...
Coca-Cola products are available in virtually every county in the world now, but company leadership recently has discovered that i...
directly provide a final product to the market. Rather, its customers constitute the global network of bottlers and companies wit...
historical mission of the Coca-Cola Company has been to make the product a universal, global one. Long before the globalization t...
between Coke and Diet Coke division of the firm, with the Coke firm apparently taking legal action against Diet Coke, as the produ...
that there are no conflicting messages sent and that the message appeals to the target market and supports the positioning. To d...
Coca Cola may be the leader in the soft drinks market, but it is in second place in the global alterative beverage market, and thi...
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PRESS RELEASE: Tor & Dabel Brothers Announce Wheel of Time® Comics Schedule!
In the last few years before his death, Robert Jordan worked closely with the Dabel Brothers on graphic adaptations of his bestselling Wheel of Time series. The first fruit of this collaboration was the comic book adaptation of "New Spring", the New York Times bestselling prequel to the series.
The "New Spring" comic book series, which is eight issues long, was started in 2005 and was published up through issue #5. It tells the story of the search for the infant Dragon Reborn and of the adventures of Moiraine Damodred, a young Aes Sedai, and Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned king of a long-dead nation. Dabel Brothers Publishing will be finishing the series in 2009, with issue #6 shipping in April, and issues #7 and #8 each shipping on a monthly basis thereafter.
Also in April 2009, Dabel Brothers Publishing will be releasing "Dragonmount" #0, which is a prequel and lead-in to the graphic novel adaptation of "The Eye of the World", the bestselling first volume of Robert Jordan's acclaimed fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. The Dabels will be launching "The Eye of the World" in May. The book will feature art by Chase Conley, with Chuck Dixon (Batman, CrossGen, G.I. Joe) helming the script adaptation. Subsequent issues will ship on a regular monthly basis.
Tor Books is proud to publish the "New Spring" graphic novel in November 2009. The Dabel Bros. will be adding special bonus material to the book, including developmental art, pages from scripts, and correspondence between Robert Jordan and Chuck Dixon. "New Spring" the graphic novel will also have a stunning, brand new, fully painted cover by artist Michael Kormarck.
Tor will publish the first "Eye of the World" graphic novel in July 2010. This graphic novel will collect the first six issues of the "Eye of the World" comic book and will feature similar bonus material and added content from the Dabels, as well as striking new cover art. Future graphic novel collections will be released on a regular basis, approximately every nine months.
Universal Pictures acquired the movie rights to The Wheel of Time in August 2008, and currently plan to adapt "The Eye of the World" as the first movie. The last four volumes in the series have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and the eleven Wheel of Time novels published so far have sold more than 44 million copies worldwide.
Robert Jordan is the multiple New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post, and Toronto Globe and Mail bestselling author of The Wheel of Time. He passed away on September 16, 2007 (Rest In Peace).
Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is a New York-based publisher of hardcover and softcover books, founded in 1980 and committed (although not limited) to SF and fantasy literature. Between an extensive hardcover and trade paperback line, the Orb backlist program, and a stronghold in mass-market paperback, Tor annually publishes what is arguably the largest and most diverse line of science fiction and fantasy ever produced by a single English-language publisher. Books from Tor have won every major award in the SF and fantasy fields and Tor has been named Best Publisher in the Locus Poll, the largest consumer poll in SF, for twenty consecutive years.
Dabel Brothers Publishing, LLC, is a comic book studio dedicated to bringing many of the best and most popular novels in the world of fantasy to the comic book medium. Since its inception in 2001 they have produced adaptations of novels by bestselling authors including George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Laurell K. Hamilton, Raymond E. Feist, Tad Williams, Richard A. Knaak, and Robert Silverberg. Currently on the schedule is a remarkable list of high-profile projects including adaptations of major novels by bestselling authors: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, an original story set in the world of Jim Butcher's bestselling series The Dresden Files, a Wild Cards series edited and overseen by George R. R. Martin, and a brand-new Mercy Thompson adventure by Patricia Briggs.Recently announced Dabel Brothers projects include Malcom Wong's Dog Eaters, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, The Warriors, Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters, the Illustrated George R.R. Martin A Song if Ice & Fire 2009 Calendar, C.E. Murphy's original comic book Take a Chance and Dean Koontz's original comic book Nevermore.
NOTE: I'm really excited by this announcement! I was collecting the "New Spring" comic book when it was being published and was sorely disppointed when the mini-series was never completed. So it's going to be great to finally finish that series :) Even more exciting is the adaptation of the actual Wheel of Time saga. I'm a little wary about the artwork because I'm not familiar with Chase Conley who seems to be relatively unknown, but having a veteran writer like Chuck Dixon is a great decision, especially since he worked on the "New Spring" adaptation. As far as the images included in this post, the first one is the cover to "New Spring" #6, while the remaining three images are Covers A, B, and C to "The Eye of the World" #1.
7 comments:
- SparklingBlue said...
Awesome! Both my mom and me are huge fans of "The Wheel of Time".
- February 7, 2009 at 11:53 AM
- Cindy said...
I'm so excited about this! I really hope it's as good as I have envisioned in my mind.
- February 8, 2009 at 3:18 AM
Given their track record, I would'nt count on this coming out in a timely manner. (See issues with the GRRM Fire and Ice calendars)
- February 8, 2009 at 1:49 PM
- Robert said...
I understand what you're saying Anonymous...I ordered one of those signed GRRM calendars :( Still, I'm hoping for the best!
- February 9, 2009 at 10:41 AM
- Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...
I'm not a graphic novel fan myself, but I AM a huge Wheel of Time fan, so I'm excited about this news! Although I likely won't collect all the books, I will really enjoy seeing the illustrations and getting new perspectives on the characters.
As an aside, I'm assuming you know about the Wheel of Time re-read going on over at Tor.com. I've been rereading myself, in prep for the release of A Memory of Light later this year, but it is MUCH more fun to read and comment along with everyone else. :)
- February 10, 2009 at 11:27 AM
- gabe said...
No need to be wary of the artwork, Chase Conley is an up-and-comer possessing amazing talent. His work will only improve with every issue.
- February 19, 2009 at 11:11 AM
- Robert said...
That's good to hear Gabe, thanks!
- February 23, 2009 at 11:20 AM

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I'm sitting here at the CloudBeat event, a conference that I've had a deep involvement in with as co-content adviser along with my friend and colleague Paul Miller. Our focus for this event was to avoid the obvious vendor pitches and CloudWashing sessions and instead gather togteher some great customer success stories to tell the world. Despite this customer focus however there are always the odd interesting product announcement and this is where VirtualSharp comes in.
One of the finalists in the CloudBeat Innovation Showdown, VirtualSharp is a provider of automated disaster recovery solutions for private and public clouds, and they've just announced the latest release of their product, ReliableDR 3.0. Reliable takes a different perspective on DR, coming to it from a data center orchestration viewpoint. They're trying to not simply look at data replication, but to look at recovery across the entire stack, from storage to applications.
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Friday, November 27, 2009
Science Cookies: Periodic Table
Well the science cookies seem to be a big hit and I really like making them, so I am going to continue to indulge my science geek side. Periodic table cookies?
Chemistry and baking are very much alike, right? They both utilize precise measurements and techniques in the hopes of getting just the right chemical reaction. Sometimes while tinkering around you create something amazing... and sometimes you just get a really nasty smell.
Really the only difference is, in chemistry you never get to lick your spoons.
Anyway on to the silly cookies...
I'm not sure the evening following Thanksgiving dinner was the best time to attempt these. I was pretty tired and I know that tends to make me sloppy, not exactly the ideal mindset for making iced cookies. I admit I plowed through making these. However, despite my 2 hour rush job, I think they turned out pretty darn cute.
Yes, I know I left off the lanthanides and the actinides (and those flakey unun-elements too). I ran out of dough, sorry. When I make these cookies again (only bigger and more awesome!) I'll be sure to include them.
26 comments:
Very clever! I love it!ReplyDelete
These are so creative! What a great idea. Yeah, I can imagine how tired you were right after Thanksgiving. I also tend to get sloppy when I'm tired. Yours certainly don't look sloppy but I can't wait till you make them again and post the results.ReplyDelete
I bet they were delicious too. Wonderful job!
- AnonymousNovember 29, 2009 at 8:57 AM
This is you when you're tired? Incredible. You should see the ugly, lopsided gingerbread house I am attempting to cull together for my kids. And I'm _not_ tired. AND I took a lot of chemistry. So, no excuses for me (except that C in inorganic, I suppose).ReplyDelete
Questions: Are these shortbread? Or sugar cookies? what kind of icing? Confectioner's plus milk? Or royal icing? Or something else entirely?
Rule of Life #124: Doing even remotely well in inorganic or O-chem gives you a pass on any and all gingerbread house failures for life, as that is a far more impressive feat. Same goes for P-chem, which also forgives overcooking fish, broken sauces and fallen soufflés.ReplyDelete
These are sugar cookies (recipe I almost always use is here--only I add a little almond extract to my dough) and I used royal icing for these (confectioner's/meringue powder/water).
I found a cookie cutter that will let me make nice large clean tiles for the elements yesterday. Hand cutting these with a ruler didn't work as well as I would have liked, so the next version will have a far more polished look for sure.
- AnonymousNovember 30, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Wow! These are so SO great. As is the petri dish. I'm currently blowing off my Orgo, Bio, and Physics reading for the night to peruse food blogs and this was exactly what I needed to convince myself I made the right decision :D I really cannot wait to make these for the next party I go to...thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete
Okay, okay, I was impressed by the petri dish cookies, but this one is just stupendous! I have to mention this on my blog!ReplyDelete
Really clever and fun!ReplyDelete
So cool!ReplyDelete
I am tempted to forward this post to my husband (he'll love it) but I know that he will want me to make him a periodic table of biscuits if he see's yours!
This is beautiful! I made a Periodic Table out of mini-cupcakes for National Chemistry Week. It was a nice practical way to accomplish the task and include all elements through 112. But it wasn't nearly as pretty as yours, and probably not as tasty either.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 8, 2009 at 8:39 PM
ahh...these are awesome! I really wish I had the baking talent to attempt to make these for my middle school science classes. I'm way too intimidated though. :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 9, 2009 at 5:22 PM
These are great!!ReplyDelete
Maybe next time you could include the lanthanide and actinide subgroups aswell... more cookies!
These are incredible! I want to tell you about my science romantic comedy, LOSING CONTROL, about a female scientist who wants proof that her boyfriend is "the one." The main character makes DNA cupcakes for her thesis committee. I love your cookies. Please email me at firstname.lastname@example.com to hear more about our movie...ReplyDelete
I love you...I really do! ♥ReplyDelete
*coughs* AHEM, I do believe you ditched the metalloids groupReplyDelete
And I fully expect atomic numbers and mass in the next table =D
This WAS the coolest thing I'd ever seen... unitl I saw you sushi cupcakes!ReplyDelete
You've got a rare talent.
- AnonymousJanuary 23, 2010 at 2:20 AM
Now you are dedicated, that must have taken forever!ReplyDelete
Fantastic idea! Must copy it immediately. Thanks so much!ReplyDelete
What? No lanthanides or actinides? Where the f-block love?ReplyDelete
My husband is an industrial chemist (charading as a program manager at the moment) and occasionally has to take morning tea, I can't wait to make these and your atoms for him! They'll have a ball with them (and because I know little about chemistry will be forgiven for them not being completely accurate - I'm thinking the atomic cookies).ReplyDelete
You realise now all I can think about is going making this for my next MSc presentation meeting...ReplyDelete
I must say- love your science cookies.
I'm always impressed at how many scientists are mean bakers too...:). I can make things that taste good...I'm still working slowly on the prettying it up part. You've given me so many geeky ideas. Thanks!
And I agree...any half decent mark in O-chem gives you full right to make any kind of gingerbread house you please :)
I LOVE these! I am an undergraduate in chemistry and a complete bake freak... Chemistry and baking is really quite alike, though my kitchen often smells nicer than the lab...ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 28, 2010 at 1:10 PM
- AnonymousSeptember 28, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Can't wait to try this one .Thanks for share it! One question. You have 1/4 cup slivered almonds listed twice. did you mean that or should it be something else? Buy ViagraReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 19, 2010 at 3:20 PM
I'm glad Make Magazine found your blog! You inspired me to construct a periodic table of cupcakes for my book launch.ReplyDelete
You need a cookie jar that just has the word CAT written on it. It would have a double sided false bottom that would randomly open on cookies that would be shaped like a dead cat or an alive cat. Schrodinger's Cookie Jar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_catReplyDelete
Thank you SO much for this fabulous idea. I'm graduating from college this May with a degree in Biological Sciences and am planning on making these and probably also the gel electrophoresis cookies for my graduation party!ReplyDelete


text:
Truett, George Washington
6 May 1867–7 July 1944
George Washington Truett, clergyman, was born on a farm near Hayesville, Clay County, the seventh child of Charles Levi and Mary Rebecca Kimsey Truett. His father, a native of Buncombe County, was of English and Scots-Irish ancestry; his mother, of Scots-Irish descent, was the daughter of James Kimsey and the niece of Elijah Kimsey, both well-known Baptist preachers in the North Carolina mountains. Charles Levi Truett's family lived in Cherokee County at the time the older children were born but later moved to Clay to take advantage of the better educational opportunities available there. Although his circumstances ranged between poverty and simple comfort, he always supplied his family with books and periodicals suitable for a religiously oriented household.
From 1875 to 1885 George Washington Truett attended Hicksville Academy (later called Hayesville Academy), operated by John O. Hicks, a highly regarded schoolmaster. By the time Truett was eighteen, he had completed all of the courses offered by the academy and wanted to go to college to study law. Needing money, he began teaching in a one-room public school on Crooked Creek in Towns County, Ga., just over the state line from his North Carolina home. In 1887 he founded and became principal of Hiawassee Academy in Towns County. The next year an impromptu speech before the Georgia Baptist Convention about his school brought him to public attention. He so stirred his hearers that they determined to support the school, and one even offered to pay his expenses if he would attend Mercer University. Many have believed that the clear diction and sharp pronunciation that characterized Truett's speaking then and afterwards may be attributed in part to the fact that at home he practiced pronouncing every word distinctly, forcing his lips to do their part, for the benefit of his deaf brother, who depended on lip reading.
In the summer of 1889 Truett followed his parents to Whitewright, Grayson County, Tex., where they had migrated early that year. That fall he entered Grayson Junior College in Whitewright, and the next year he was ordained to the ministry by the Whitewright Baptist Church. From 1890 to 1893 he was financial secretary of Baylor University, traveling for twenty-three months and raising $92,000 to free the university of debt. For the next four years he was a student at Baylor, receiving the A.B. degree in 1897. Baylor awarded him the D.D. degree only two years later and a few years after that elected him to the presidency, which he declined. The LL.D. degree was conferred by Alabama, Baylor, and Southern Methodist.
While a student at Baylor, Truett was pastor of East Waco Baptist Church. In 1897 he became pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Tex., a position he held until his death forty-seven years later. During his pastorate membership increased from 715 to 7,804; a total of 19,531 new members were received, and total contributions exceeded $6 million.
It was in the period of World War I that Truett reached his peak as preacher, pastor, and world-renowned leader. From the first an outspoken supporter of the war effort as a struggle of democracy against autocracy, he held noonday religious services in the Palace Theater in downtown Dallas for the convenience of people at work. By appointment of President Woodrow Wilson he spent six months in Europe in 1918 preaching a message of "patriotism and religion" to the Allied armies and navies. On 16 May 1920 he delivered from the steps of the capitol in Washington a memorable address on religious liberty. In 1921 he began broadcasting services by radio, one of the first in the nation to do so.
From 1927 to 1930 Truett was president of the Southern Baptist Convention. During the Great Depression it was he who led the convention to determine to repay one hundred cents on the dollar on the debts of its agencies. In the summer of 1930 he went on a preaching tour in South America, and in 1934 he was the sole American speaker on the program of the Spurgeon Centenary in England. The successes achieved on these two occasions assured his election as president of the Baptist World Alliance at Berlin in 1934. From then until the end of his term in 1939, he preached and conferred all over the world.
Truett was a trustee of Baylor University; of South-western Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth; and of Baylor Hospital, Dallas. For one week each summer for thirty-seven years he preached at the Cowboy Camp Meetings held in the Davis Mountain country of western Texas. He returned frequently to North Carolina, especially to Ridgecrest, and once told a Raleigh audience: "Every thought of North Carolina, my native land, warms my heart to the depths. The spirit of the people is the great thing about them." The Charlotte Observer called him "America's greatest preacher," and Josephus Daniels said in 1936 that Truett was "the greatest living North Carolinian." In 1937 the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina acquired the Truett home near Hayesville by deed in order to preserve it as a memorial. Dozens of religious, educational, and healing institutional buildings over the South and abroad bear his name.
Although Truett wrote little intended for publication, others have compiled and edited ten volumes of his sermons, two volumes of his addresses, and two volumes of his annual Christmas messages, which were originally personal letters to friends. His authorized biography (Powhatan W. James, George W. Truett—A Biography ) has appeared in six issues, five by the Macmillan Company, New York (1939–45), and the sixth by the Broadman Press, Nashville (1953).
However sophisticated his audience, Truett's basic orientation and figures of speech remained rural. The effect of his haunting voice, clear as a bell and under complete control, was enhanced by his striking appearance. Soon after moving to Dallas he went quail hunting with two friends, one of whom was fatally wounded by the accidental discharge of Truett's gun. Because he never used humor in the pulpit and maintained an air of quiet dignity that bordered on detachment, the legend arose that he never smiled after the accident. The truth is that by age twenty-three, years before the tragedy, "he already had the serious and solemn dignity that always marked his platform presence." In informal circles he had a "most infectious and frequent smile" and a keen sense of humor. Surprisingly, he never learned to drive an automobile, and his only hobby was collecting books.
On 28 June 1894 Truett married Josephine Jenkins, the daughter of Judge W. H. Jenkins, a resident of Waco and chairman of the Baylor trustees. The Truetts had three daughters: Jessie (Mrs. Powhatan W. James), Mary (Mrs. Thomas W. Gilliam), and Annie Sallee (Mrs. Robert L. Milliken). Truett was buried in the Grove Hill Cemetery, but some months later his body was moved to the more spacious Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery, both in Dallas.
Dallas Morning News, 8–11 July 1944 (portrait).
Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists, vol. 2 (1958).
Margaret Walker Freel, Our Heritage: The People of Cherokee County, North Carolina, 1540–1955 (1956).
Powhatan W. James, George W. Truett: A Biography (1939 [portrait]).
Leon McBeth, The First Baptist Church of Dallas (1968 [portrait]).
Loulie Latimer Owens, "Dr. George W. Truett Probably Best-known Baptist in History," Charity and Children, 16 May 1957.
Raleigh, Biblical Recorder, 12 Feb. 1966 (portrait).
Raleigh News and Observer, 8 Apr. 1958.
George Washington Truett, Baptist voices of yesterday, Recordings (Historical Commission, Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville).
George Washington Truett Papers (Baptist Historical Collection, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem).
Who's Who in America, 1942–1943.
Additional Resources:
George Truett in WorldCat: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3ATruett%2C+George+W.&qt=hot_author
"George W. Truett." N.C. Highway Historical Marker Q-37, N.C. Office of Archives & History. https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/division-historical-resources/nc-highway-historical-marker-program/Markers.aspx?sp=Markers&k=Markers&sv=Q-37 (accessed May 20, 2013).
Texas State Historical Association: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ftr16
George W. Truett - Word Sermons, Baylor: http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/fa-gwt
George W. Truett, Baptist Joint Committee: http://www.bjconline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4454
Truett, George Washington Truett: Papers on Microfiche, 1890-1939, Fuller Theological Seminary: http://archon.fuller.edu/?p=collections/findingaid&id=74&q=
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives: http://www.sbhla.org/bio_gtruett.htm
George Washington Truett Collection #0095, Baylor University: http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/170397.pdf
Image Credits:
"George W. Truett." N.C. Highway Historical Marker Q-37, N.C. Office of Archives & History. https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/division-historical-resources/nc-highway-historical-marker-program/Markers.aspx?sp=Markers&k=Markers&sv=Q-37 (accessed May 20, 2013).
1 January 1996 | Stroupe, Henry S.


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Season 2022/23
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The manufacturer-independent calculation tool SISTEMA provides assistance in the evaluation of safety-related control components in the context of EN ISO 13849-1 standard and simplifies the risk assessment analysis.
The software assistent SISTEMA provides the opportunity to load the safety reliability data of components into the user program from existing libraries. Design engineers have the manufacturers data directly available in the software.


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Iron Maiden
|Iron Maiden
|Year(s) active
|Whatever God or This Guy Tells Them To Play
|Holy Records!
|*deep breath* Paul Day, Terry Rance, Steve Harris, Ron Matthews, Dave Sullivan, *deep breath* Dave Murray, Dennis Wilcock, Bob Sawyer, Terry Wapram, Tony Moore, Thunderstick, Doug Sampson, Paul Di'Anno, Paul Cairns, *gasp* Paul Todd, Dave Mac, Tony Parsons, Dennis Stratton, *gasp* Clive Burr, Adrian Smith, Bruce Dickinson, Nicko McBrain, Janick Gers, and Blaze Bayley!! *passes out*
|Former members
|{{{former members}}}
Iron Maiden is a Christian heavy metal band from Great Britain. Originally formed by bassist and zealous protestant Steve Harris, they are influenced by Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit. Their mascot is Eddie, an immortal, decaying corpse used to get the attention of the youth, as well as to symbolize the eternal life ahead of those who worship God. They are one of the most successful Christian rock bands of all time, selling over 27 albums worldwide.
Formation, Early Career, and Rise to Fame
Iron Maiden formed on Christmas Day, 1975, with bassist and firebrand "fire and brimstone" preacher Steve Harris, recruiting church guitarist Dave Murray and raspy-voiced spiritual healer Paul Di'Anno. According to Harris, there was "something missing" from the heavy metal genre of music, and he felt he needed help figuring out what that something was. Harris stated that he was seeking "divine intervention," after looking up the word "divine" in the dictionary. Unfortunately, he never encountered divine intervention. He later decided to look up "intervention," but could not find it in the dictionary. Harris calls this experience one of the major disappointments of his life.
Instead of the more preferable help from the divine, Harris hired and fired numerous congregation members, so that by 1980 Iron Maiden consisted of Paul Di'Anno on vocals, Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton on guitars, Steve Harris on bass, and Clive Burr on drums. All were in some way connected to the Christian religions, from Harris' status as a preacher to Dennis Stratton's infamous encounter with an over-eager Catholic Priest.
They named themselves "Iron Maiden," after a poor, lost soul asked if Jesus was crucified on the iron maiden. After explaining to him that Jesus was never crucified, and he actually secretly flew to Mars, Steve Harris suggested that "Jesus Actually Flew to Mars" would be a good name. Unfortunately, this name was taken by another band by the name of "Jesus Actually Flew to Mars," so Iron Maiden was accepted as a second choice. This paved the way for their first album, cleverly titled Iron Maiden. On this cleverly titled album was the cleverly titled song, "Iron Maiden." To this day, the band members refuse to say how they came up with such clever song and album titles.
Iron Maiden's next album was Killers, which contained songs about the Crusades, from the first crusade in 1095, The Last Crusade (which was ironically not the last at all) in 1989, to the Iraq crusades in 1990, and George W. Bush's Superfuntastic Holy Crusade: Live in Iraq 2003. Shortly before the recording of this new album, Harris fired Stratton, citing creative and personal differences, as well as Stratton's alleged Judaism. Said Harris during an interview: "...and so, that is why Christianity advocates love, and...what? A what? A fucking Jew in our band!? GET OUT, JEW!" Stratton's replacement was Adrian Smith, who was previously a guitar-playing missionary to Guatemala.
The album contained such tracks as "Wrathchild," about the horrible people that the noble Catholic knights fought against in the Crusades, "The Ides of March," about one day that the horrible people that the noble Catholic knights fought against in the Crusades were particularly morally wrong, and "Killers," about the horrible people that the noble Catholic knights fought against in the Crusades. Iron Maiden's subject matter had clearly begun to diversify, and their widespread success was imminent, especially in Texas.
By 1981, Paul Di'Anno was demonstrating increasingly self-destructive behavior, particularly by having casual, polite conversation with non-Christians that was not attempts to convert them. His lack of piety prompted Harris to fire and have him excommunicated, and Iron Maiden's search for a new singer began. Shortly, Bruce Dickinson joined the band. He was previously a member of the band Samson, but was fed up with the band's refusal to play songs that had lyrics about killing all the non-Christians. In 1982, Iron Maiden released The Number of the Beast, cementing their world fame. It contained such tracks as the curiously named "The Number of the Beast," about how the Number of the Beast is evil and how everyone that follows it is going to hell, and "Run to the Hills," about escaping from Satan, who is evil and lives in hell. The Number of the Beast sold over 6 copies worldwide, and Iron Maiden was officially the biggest Christian metal band in the world.
Fame and Famousness
A year after The Number of the Beast came Piece of Mind, Iron Maiden's fourth album. Before the recording, Clive Burr was fired from the band, allegedly for heresy, and replaced by Nicko McBrain. This lineup remained the same through the recording of Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, their fifth, sixth, and seventh albums, but was changed again when Adrian Smith was fired for alleged heresy. He was replaced by Janick Gers, and the albums No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark were recorded with the same, heretic-free lineup.
Piece of Mind was accidentally misspelled by the record company, and contained songs about peace coming from eternal life after death. Powerslave was musically darker, containing songs about peace, love, and happiness and showcasing Iron Maiden's lack of fear to play music about the things nobody else wanted to talk about. Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son were both themed largely around the life of Jesus. No Prayer for the Dying was actually supposed to be titled "No Prayer for the Dying Musical Creativity of the Band," but this used more ink than was acceptable for the record company, who forced the band to shorten their title. One of its songs, Holy Smoke, was all about how listeners needed to send the band money, lest they be eternally damned to Hell. Fear of the Dark was actually written about Steve Harris's bizarre phobia that lingered even into his adulthood, and was not technically a Christian album. Iron Maiden disagreed, however, saying that since God created them, and they created the album, that it was still Christian.
All the while, Maiden continued to tour relentlessly, giving fiery sermons and singing their catchy, upbeat tunes about slaughtering the unbelievers.
Screwing it all up
In 1993, Bruce Dickinson decided to leave Iron Maiden, saying that "if the fucking roadies can't give me a realistic 200-foot manger, then I can't stand on stage and sing for a little while." After auditioning numerous vocalists and hating them all, the band members agreed that Jeff Biggsby was the right man for the job. Unfortunately, just days after his recruitment, he was found out to have been illicitly baptized. Biggsby was then publicly stoned by the band. In his stead, Blaze Bayley was hired to sing for the band, who had a "different vocal style," compared to Dickinson, which resulted in "mixed reception" by the fans. With Bayley, Iron Maiden sold 2.5 albums, including the copies sold to friends and family, their lowest sales numbers to date.
Returning to their senses
Luckily, the band was starting to return to its senses, and Harris agreed to lick Dickinson's shoes clean every day if he'd agree to return to the band. Dickinson also finally got his wish: a 200-foot-tall moving nativity scene, complete with a manger, all three kings, and a faulty and extremely dangerous pyrotechnics system. Iron Maiden officially stated, after several complaints from fans about being burned to death, that "those people didn't really die, now they just live in Heaven with God."
Third degree burns aside, both Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson returned to Iron Maiden, and the band soon released Brave New World, which contained songs about Manifest Destiny and to justify the genocide of any non Christian populations who are standing in the way of Catholic believers and supporters. The supporting tour eventually produced a live album, called Rock in Rio, which contained spoken word material about bingo night at church. By 2003, the band had completed and released their 13th album, Dance of Death, which contained songs based around the concept of the everlasting punishment in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone for the pagans, sinners, and the little people. A single was released "Rainmaker", which is about the gentle tears of God fall on the worshipers, Mormons (not to confused with morons), and His true believers. The supporting tour eventually produced a live album, called Death on the Road, which contained songs about the second coming of the messiah and the eventual destruction of every synagogue in the American Midwest. Finally, in the autumn of 2006, Iron Maiden released their latest studio album, titled A Matter of Life and Death. This album contains songs about the resurrection of Jesus H. Christ. They plan to release a live album from the recordings collected from the supporting tour of the album. Though the album's name is as of yet undecided, the band has explicitly stated that the new live album will contain songs about the afterlife, though almost definitely not about Hell or the Gay community.
In late 2006, the band announced that they were breaking off with their ties with Holy Records! to form their own record company, after Holy Records!'s owner was caught stealing communion wafers from a church in London. Steve Harris later said in an interview, "We're gonna make our own clubhouse, and you're not invited!"
According to Iron Maiden, their next album will be called Christian In A Christian's World (That's Right, It's OUR World You Heathens) and will be released on December 21st, 2012. The new single, "Worship God, Or We'll Fucking Kill You" will be released on December 22nd, 2012, but only in Heaven. Earth fans might have to wait a little longer before they receive the final judgment.
Throughout its history, Iron Maiden was the target of consistent criticism from non-Christian groups. Since they reached worldwide fame with The Number of the Beast, they attracted groups of protesters to their shows, who were outraged by Iron Maiden's blunt Christianity. Iron Maiden's Jewish critics disliked the explicit use of "Jesus," Islamic protesters were outraged that God was never referred to as Allah, and many Buddhists found the band's recurring theme of "killing the unbelievers" to be "somewhat objectionable."
In an interview about the protesters, singer Bruce Dickinson said "Look, it's not like we're forcing them to listen. Besides, it's not our fault that they haven't accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior and are going to hell. You hear that, you stupid fuckers!? You're. Going. To. Hell!"
Still, Iron Maiden assures fans that there is no end in sight for their brand of wholesome, clean, diet cola flavored Christian heavy metal. "We know you want our guidance, my fellow servants of Christ," said Steve Harris in a 2006 interview. "And we'd give it to you even if you didn't."
Band members
Current Religious Fanatics
- Steve "Fire and Brimstone" Harris – bass, keyboards, backing vocals (1975–present)
- Dave "Dutch Rudder" Murray – guitars (1976–present)
- Adrian "Biblethumping" Smith – guitars, backing vocals (1980–1990, 1999–present)
- Bruce "The Reverend" Dickinson – lead vocals, additional guitars (1981–1993, 1999–present)
- Nicko "Dicko" McBrain – drums, percussion (1982–present)
- Janick "Am I Famous Yet?" Gers – guitars (1990-present), backing vocals (2007-present)
Former Members of the Cult
- Doug "Who?" Sampson – drums, percussion (1977–1979)
- Dennis "I got kicked out of Iron Maiden" Stratton – guitars, backing vocals (1979–1980)
- Paul "Mr. Pope" Di'Anno – lead vocals (1978–1981)
- Clive "Alive" Burr – drums, percussion (1979–1982)
- Blaze "The Fans Hate Me" Bayley – lead vocals (1994–1999)
- Studio albums
- 1980: Iron Maiden
- 1981: Killers
- 1982: The Number of the Beast
- 1983: Piece of Mind
- 1984: Powerslave
- 1986: Somewhere in Time
- 1988: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
- 1990: No Prayer for the Dying
- 1992: Fear of the Dark
- 1995: The X Factor
- 1998: Virtual XI
- 2000: Brave New World
- 2003: Dance of Death
- 2006: A Matter of Life and Death
- 2010: The Final Frontier
- 2015: The Book of Souls
|Featured Article (read another featured article)
|Featured version: 18 December 2008
|This article has been featured on the main page. — You can vote for or nominate your favourite articles at Uncyclopedia:VFH.


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Halton Christian Arp
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- Born:
- March 21, 1927 New York City New York
- Notable Works:
- "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies"
Halton Christian Arp, (born March 21, 1927, New York, New York, U.S.—died December 28, 2013, Munich, Germany), American astronomer noted for challenging the theory that redshifts of quasars indicate their great distance.
Arp received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1949 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1953. He subsequently accepted a research fellowship to conduct postdoctoral studies at the nearby Hale Observatories (now Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories). After he worked as a research associate at Indiana University from 1955 to 1957, Arp returned to Mount Wilson, securing a post as an assistant astronomer on the observatory staff. He was appointed astronomer there in 1965.
Arp became skeptical about the distance of quasars when he noticed that some of the galaxies that he had included in his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (1966) seemed to lie in the vicinity of quasars. Using photographic evidence, Arp tried to prove that the low-redshift galaxies and the high-redshift quasars not only appear close together but also actually are connected by gaseous bridges, an impossibility if the quasars are billions of light-years farther away than the galaxies. Arp theorized that the nuclei of galaxies may explode, ejecting quasars with a velocity great enough to account for their redshifts. The dispute over the distances of the quasars was known as the "redshift controversy." The controversy faded away in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Arp's theory could not account for quasars and nearby galaxies that were at the same redshift, the gravitational lensing of quasars by high-redshift galaxies, or the existence of high-redshift intergalactic gas that absorbs the light of quasars at even higher redshifts. In 1984 Arp became a senior research scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Garching, Germany.


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The Thieves Guild is not the worst bit of writing in Skyrim. (I think I'd give that honor to the quest in Markarth where you have to deal with the Forsworn.) But I don't want you to think I'm cherry-picking some halfhearted sidequest. This is a major part of Skyrim and a lot of environments, characters, and cutscenes are dedicated it This is a shame, because the Thieves Guild questline is a mess. It's unnecessarily terrible, failing at multiple levels and attempting things that aren't even needed. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning…
The introduction to the Thieves Guild is kind of strange. It's not horrible or broken, but for the sake of setting this up I need to plod through these first few quests.
Brynjolf walks up to me, a total stranger, and says, "You've never worked a day in your life for all that coin you're carrying around." This is a really screwy thing to say to an adventurer. (I imagine running over mountains and fighting through tombs is pretty labor-intensive.) I guess he's supposed to be insinuating that I'm naturally a thief, but he says this to the player regardless of what gear they have or how much money they've got. It's also odd because you can't steal for a living until you join the guild, because you have no way to unload stolen goods. He's implying you're a thief, when by definition you can't be one yet. So no matter who you are, he's flat-out wrong. It's also odd to be approached to join the Thieves Guild. I get that the guild has fallen on hard times, but this still feels awkward.
I do a little job for him where I steal a ring from person A and slip it into the pocket of person B. I'm actually railroaded into asking why he wants me to do this. Apparently Bethesda thought everyone was too stupid to to untangle the threads of this thuddingly obvious frame-up. This is not the last time they will underestimate the intelligence of the player.
Once that's over I do an initiation where I have to run around town and extort money from a few of the locals. Once that bit is over, we settle into the main plot of the questline.
I'm sent to Goldenglow Estate, a bee farm. Maven (the local crime boss) buys honey from the farm and uses it to make mead. The owner of Goldenglow has stopped selling his honey to Maven, and so I'm supposed to teach him a lesson by burning some of the hives and clearing out his safe.
When I rob the safe, I find a bill of sale inside. The owner of Goldenglow sold the property to a mystery person.
Dun dun dun!
Yeah, not exactly a nail-biting moment. At this point I was already feeling a little underwhelmed. Someone is engaged in a plot to reduce the margins on mead production for the local crime-lord?!? This is not exactly a tale of intrigue worthy of this sort of guild. It's not theft. Heck, it's not even illegal. This might work as some sort of "business tycoon" quest line, but for the Thieves Guild?
Next I'm sent to see Maven. The quest line has been building her up, talking about how important she is to the guild and how she has half the city in her grip. Fine, except once this quest is over she never comes up again. I don't mind if the game puts in interesting "flavor" characters, but Maven is cutthroat in a very bland way, she never seems terribly important, and she's not at all imposing. She's just another map marker to chase down on your way to the end of the quest. Despite her build-up as some kind of crime boss, she comes across as a cranky dimwit. You don't even meet her in an impressive office or estate. You meet her in an open hallway of the inn. She doesn't even have a bodyguard.
Maven is a jerk to me, and then she sends me to see a guy named Mallus. He sends me to Honningbrew Meadery, which is is a mead distillery in the city of Whiterun. It competes with Maven. The owner of Honningbrew is about to hold a tasting for the captain of the guard, and my job is to poison the mead.
Okay, this is where the quest line starts to come apart. First of all, you have to put the poison into this mead tank:
Then walk next door where the tasting is taking place:
The poison I just planted next door is now in this small keg. Somehow.
Anyway, the captain of the guard takes one sip, and then instantly arrests the owner of the place, promising that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. The Thieves Guild makes a big deal out of never killing their victims, but this doesn't seem all that different than killing to me. I mean, I thought the point of the Thieves Guild was to act unseen, and to take valuables without hurting people.
You can murder a civilian in broad daylight and allow the guard to take you to jail for a modest span of time. (Or just pay a 1,000 dollar fine.) But inadvertent food contamination with no victims is worthy of life in prison? It's a worse offense than murder, even though it might have been an accident or sabotage? And the Honningbrew owner never points the finger at me, the mysterious stranger who he recently allowed into the distillery? He pulled a fresh batch of mead from the vat and never saw fit to taste it himself first?
Then the captain of the guard tells Mallus to take over, and Mallus tells me he's going to start converting the distillery to make mead for Maven.
Look, if the health inspector shuts down your McDonald's, the police don't come in and give the building to Burger King. Who owns this place? What's happening here?
I check the books, and find this place was cutting a deal with the same mystery person who bought Goldenglow. I bring this information back to Mercer Frey, and he's very concerned. He says they're obviously facing an organized and well-funded enemy. He's impressed with them.
Dude, are you kidding? We just made a fortune. This foe cut a deal with this distillery, but we did a bunch of nonsense and now we own it. (Or run it. Whatever.) They bought the Goldenglow bee farm, but now they don't have anywhere else to sell their honey. They spent a fortune, and have nothing. This other party is not a criminal mastermind. (Hoo boy. Just wait.) They tried to legitimately compete against deeply entrenched organized crime, and lost everything before they made a single shiny coin.
Mercer says they were doing this to drive a wedge between Maven and the Guild. How would making mead accomplish that? If a bunch of people conspire to control all the beer in the city, and then someone else tries to sell beer, the conspirators wouldn't necessarily turn on each other. They would probably work together to drive out the competition. That's the whole reason they conspired in the first place.
Mercer, worried about this inept non-threat, sends me to see Gulum-Ei, the guy who brokered the property sale. After a bunch of screwing around, Gulum-Ei finally breaks down and tells me that the mystery client is Karliah. Twenty-five years ago she apparently killed the previous guild leader and then vanished. (Twenty-five years. Remember that.) Now she's back and… trying to break into the mead business? Or something.
Karliah left a clue. She told Gulum-Ei that she was going "back to where the ending began".
Mercer believes that this can only mean one place: The ruin where she killed Gallus, the previous guild leader. Mercer decides to meet me there so that the two of us can kill her.
Could Have Been Great
Here are four games that could have been much better with just a little more work.
A look back at Star Trek, from the Original Series to the Abrams Reboot.
DM of the Rings
Both a celebration and an evisceration of tabletop roleplaying games, by twisting the Lord of the Rings films into a D&D game.
The Brilliance of Mass Effect
What is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?
What is Vulkan?
What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?


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White House Photographs
John F. Kennedy, Jr. (center right), feeds his dog, Wolf, near the walkway outside the Oval Office; family dogs Shannon (mostly hidden, left of John, Jr.) and Clipper (partially hidden at right) stand on the lawn. President John F. Kennedy's Personal Secretary, Evelyn Lincoln (center left), and nanny to the Kennedy children, Maud Shaw (right, with back to camera), look on. West Wing Lawn, White House, Washington, D.C.


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We've seen our share of photo booths. While they come in all shapes, colors and sizes, they usually operate in the same manner and produce similar pictures.
Super Frog Saves Tokyo have another take on the usual photo-booth. It involves a RED Epic, and probably the funnest slo-mo video a wedding has ever produced.
The booth was installed for Quang and Ellie wedding reception and after the editing is done (featuring Robin Thicke's appropriately popping "Blurred Lines" ) the result is something their grand-kids won't be bored watching.
Of course, it does take a RED Epic to produce this video :) I bet someone's gonna use a GoPro for that end soon enough.


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James Deen, the porn star that GOOD recently described as the only option for women "interested in watching a young, heterosexual, nonrepulsive man engage in sex," is enjoying a wave of popularity as an empathetic Jewish boy with a naughty side. But Molly Oswaks at The Atlantic Health argues that Deen's brand of porn is sexist because he represents the idea that women only enjoy certain types of erotica — "lady porn," if you will. Oswaks briefly notes Deen's bondage work but dismisses it to discuss his "non-threatening" aesthetic and "his talent for performing vanilla sex scenes — for example: XXX parodies of TV shows like Seinfeld, 30 Rock, and Scrubs" which is what she believes truly makes him a "novelty in the porn world." She writes:
Why at this late date are we still reinforcing the idea that women are modest and fragile and in need of gender-specific accommodations? ... As I see it, the only thing necessarily lady-friendly about soft-core scenes is that they come with less stigma than the real stuff. Watching this vanilla variety of porn might feel, for some, like less of a betrayal of one's feminist values — because the sex depicted is a little gentler, not quite as rapey as what you might expect of, say, a typical S&M scene — but there is nothing at all feminist, or psychologically healthy, about limiting the expression of a woman's sexuality.
Oswaks' frustration with the concept that women only respond to emotional, non-threatening porn is definitely legitimate, but it's unfair to completely push aside the rougher sex play that Deen's actually known for — according to a recent New York Observer profile, Deen films roughly one bondage and S&M scene for every three straight scenes. "I've been into rough sex pretty much my whole sexual life and so I'm not, like, bad at it," Mr. Deen told the Observer. "I don't know how to say it without being a hideous prick, but I'm pretty good at having rough sex. It got to the point where a lot of girls who aren't into that type of sex were afraid to work with me because they thought I was going to slap them in the face or something."
Doesn't really make him seen all that "vanilla," does it? I asked Oswaks to expand on her point via email, and she told me she was less concerned with Deen than with the attitude toward female pleasure that he represents. "For whatever reason, something to do with gender archetypes I imagine, we like to think that pleasing or pleasuring woman only happens one way," she wrote. "I know plenty of woman, including myself, who don't get anything from the more 'respectful' angle of 'porn-for-ladies.' I like very kinky shit, I'm into BDSM, I'm also a feminist––people have a very hard time accepting that those aren't all mutually exclusive. Which is a shame."
Fair and valid! But why hate on Deen just because he's in the spotlight? It seems like most of Deen's fans like him less because they think he's "safe" and more because he's the only male porn star out there who actually seems into the women he works with. "He doesn't have some stupid blank expression on his face; he seems to be enjoying himself — and she, enjoying herself — far more than in the typical fare," one Jezebel staffer said. Plus, as the Observer puts it, Deen's the "the flip side of a good girl with a dirty mind," a trope that's totally overplayed in mainstream porn, in which most male stars look like Ken dolls or juiced-out guidos and lack any three-dimensional qualities. It's hard to see whats wrong — or sexist — about that kind of fantasy.
Porn for Ladies: The Subtle Sexism of Assessing Female-Friendly Smut [The Atlantic]
The Boyfriend Experience: Can Bret Easton Ellis Mainstream Porn Star James Deen? [NYO]


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ClearPath® - Integrated Servo System
ClearPath® - Integrated Servo System
The ClearPath-MCPV model gives you a simple, low-cost way to precisely control position without needing a separate motion controller or servo drive. ClearPath's innovative servo control algorithm provides excellent tracking accuracy and fast settling time, even with very large inertial loads.
Torque/Speed Curves
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|Cont. (RMS) Torque
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|Cont. (RMS) Power
|Qty 1-9
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|Volume pricing requires registration
Click the "See Accessories" button to view a list of required and recommended accessories to complete your ClearPath system. Select from assorted cables and more. Also, download your free copy of ClearPath software.
|Motor Frame Size
|NEMA 23 - 2.33 in (59.18 mm) sq.
|3.34 in (84.84 mm)
|Input (bus) Voltage Range
|24-75 VDC (90 VDC max)
|Peak Torque (@75 VDC)
|290 oz-in (2.0 N-m)
|Cont. (RMS) Torque (@75 VDC)
|58 oz-in (0.4 N-m)
|Max Speed (@75 VDC)
|Achievable Resolution
|0.057 degrees
|0.03 degrees
|Shaft Diameter
|0.375 in (9.53 mm)
|1.4 lb (0.6 kg)
|Rotor Inertia
|0.4 oz-in² (0.1 kg-cm²)
|Logic Input Voltage Range
|4.0 to 28 VDC
|Maximum Radial Load
|25 lbf (111.2 N)
|Maximum Thrust Load
|5.0 lbf (22.2 N)
|Ambient Temperature1
|-40° to +70° C
|Ambient Humidity
|0-95%; non-condensing
|Environmental Rating
|Dust & water splash resistant
|Regulatory Certifications
|UL recognized; cUL recognized; CE; RoHS
|Supports STO (IEC 60204-1) Safety Requirements
|Country of Origin
|3 Years
1The RMS torque limit on certain motors is derated for operation in ambient temperatures above +40 degrees C. Contact Teknic for derating assistance.
2Wired according to Teknic's instructions, ClearPath surpasses STO (IEC 60204-1) Safe Stop 0 safety requirements. Contact Teknic for more information.
2D Drawings*
3D Drawings*
ClearPath User Manual*
*Requires quick registration
Control your ClearPath-MC servo systems with a ClearCore™ or ClearLink™ Motion & I/O Controller. ClearCore is a C++ programmable controller for general-purpose machine control, while ClearLink adds motion and I/O capability to any EtherNet/IP-compatible PLC.
With either controller you can coordinate up to four ClearPath-MC motors per controller. You can also control 13 software-configurable, analog and digital I/O points (up to 24VDC). Both controllers can be networked to control larger systems with more motors, and you can use I/O expansion modules to increase the I/O count.
Blower Kit
Part Number: BLOWER-1P230V
Connector: Screw Terminal Block
Length: Adds 2.12 in to motor length (see manual/3D models for specifics)
Input Power: Single-phase 190-230 VAC
Weight: 2.0 lbs
|Qty 1-9
|Qty 10-49
|Qty 50-99
|Qty 100-199
|Qty 200+


text: If you're in the market for a new job, you've probably been spending more time on LinkedIn updating your profile and expanding your network. The professional social network, which now boasts more than 100 million users, has a number of free tools and features to kick start your job search. But could one of its paid options give you the edge you need to land the perfect job? Lewis Howes, LinkedIn expert and author of LinkedWorking: Generating Success On The World's Largest Professional Networking Website, says that paid account or not, the goals of what you do on LinkedIn are the same. "It's important for job seekers to understand how to build quality relationships that add value to the decision makers at the companies they want to work for the most," he says. Here's what you need to know about LinkedIn's three paid options, and how they differ from what you can get for free. Free vs. Paid LinkedIn Accounts: Key FeaturesIn many instances, LinkedIn's free account offers you just a taste of the extended features in its paid accounts. Here are a few of the top perks: See who's viewed your profile: This feature, located on the right-side about halfway down when you log in to LinkedIn, gives you some detail about who's checked out your profile. Usually you'll receive a handful of names\u2014sometimes anonymous, sometimes not\u2014as well as how often your profile has shown up in search and how many views your profile has received. If you upgrade to one of the paid accounts, LinkedIn gives you access to more information, including the top search keywords people used to find you, your viewers by industry and geography, and the full list of people who have viewed your profile. [Want more LinkedIn tips, tricks and analysis? Check out CIO.com's LinkedIn Bible.]Search by salary: When you search for jobs on LinkedIn, you're able to narrow the field by a number of filters including location, job function, company, the date the listing was posted and more. If you upgrade to a paid account, LinkedIn gives you the added option of searching by salary. Move to the top of the list: When you upgrade to a paid account, you're moved to the top of the list when you apply for jobs. This feature was introduced two years ago and helps you stand out more with hiring managers. Send InMails: InMail is a feature available in only two of the three paid LinkedIn accounts, which lets you directly message anyone on LinkedIn. If you have a free account, the contact first has to accept your invitation to connect before you're able to message him. With a paid account, you can send InMails to perspective contacts without first having to be connected. [Seven Career Tips to Help You Negotiate Better]Howes says that while InMails can have advantages, you can still obtain the same value from the free LinkedIn accounts. "There are ways to connect with decision makers by simply growing your personal network on LinkedIn. Getting introductions [through your existing connections] add more credibility and social proof than simply reaching out by yourself," he says. For the complete list of features for paid accounts, check out LinkedIn's upgrade page. Differences Among Paid LinkedIn AccountsLinkedIn has three types of paid accounts: "Job Seeker Basic," "Job Seeker" and "Job Seeker Plus." Each includes the features mentioned above, with the exception of InMails (noted below). Here's how the three differ: \n\nJob Seeker Basic\nPrice: $19.95\/month on a monthly basis; $15.95\/month when paid in full. \nInMails: None \nCompany Introductions: 10\n\nJob Seeker\nPrice: $29.95\/month on a monthly basis; $24.95\/month when paid in full. \nInMails: 5 per month \nCompany Introductions: 15\n\nJob Seeker Plus\nPrice: $49.95\/month on a monthly basis; $39.95\/month when paid in full. \nInMails: 10 per month \nCompany Introductions: 25[10 LinkedIn Tips to Boost Your Job Search]In addition to tiered accounts for job seekers, LinkedIn also offers tiered accounts for businesses, recruiters and sales. Kristin Burnham covers consumer technology, social networking and enterprise collaboration for CIO.com. Follow Kristin on Twitter @kmburnham. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Kristin at email@example.com


text:
(visited by Praveen Goggi and Chandra Dasaka)
24-Dec-2003 -- Our Expedition to the Discovery of 18N 79E
Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 at 0745 hours
Visit by: Praveen Goggi and Chandra Dasaka
Place: Arjunpet Village, near Dudada town, Medak District Andhra Pradesh, India
Distance: 90 Kms NNE from Hyderabad.
Earlier Visits: 17°N 78°E, 17°N 79°E and 17°N 80°E
Expedition dedicated to: Guenter Walser, Austria
Our team had now an experience of 3 confluence point under our belt and we were completely planned and more excited when we decided to visit 2 confluence points in one day this Christmas. After having a quick look at map, it was 18°N 79°E and 18°N 78°E, which we took up.
Chandra and myself started on cold winter morning of 24th December 2003 and raced our way towards Dudada town (90 Kms on the state-highway to the North-North-East of Hyderabad). With a quick break for tea and newspaper, we were in Dudada town at 0730 hours.
GPS now pointed towards West of Dudada and showed about 6+ kms to go! We asked locals at Dudada about interior roads and where would they lead. Having collected enough information, me and Chandra drove my car (Fiat palio) on the dusty roads of village in the early morning hours!
Chandra was in charge of GPS and directed me accurately. I just followed his instructions, and kept on asking him how near we were to our destination. Chandra wanted to surprise me and just gave me directions, till the time GPS showed that we were about 30 meters from the destination… We were so close, it was a tiny village and we doubted if it was in one of the houses.
Hoping for the best, we walked 20+ meters towards West, into a courtyard of a farmer's house. The courtyard is basically the house for goats to relax during nights and afternoons. With the farmer's permission, we found our way amidst the goats (U must see first picture to believe this). We, indeed, found 18N 79E inside this courtyard. We took the required snaps and came out to see a group of villagers starring at us curiously.
Chandra explained our project to few school-going kids and they appreciated it, and others thought we were from the TV Company. With this, we had done one more confluence and set to do the next one in next couple of hours (18N 78E)
Contact Info:
Praveen Goggi, +91-98851-98951 or +91-20-295-3090
Chandra Dasaka, +91-40-3090-2105


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text:
The Malatya court judges overseeing hearings on the murders of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske requested that the Istanbul criminal court establish whether the case was linked to the controversial cabal of military, political and other influential figures, Ergenekon, which has allegedly been trying to overthrow the government by upsetting Turkey's peace.
(Photo: Christians Necati Aydin, Tilmann Geske and Ugur Yuksel were murdered in Turkey in 2007.)
For the last two and a half years prosecuting lawyers have established the case that Emre Gunaydin, Salih Gurler, Cuma Ozdemir, Hamit Ceker and Abuzer Yildirim, who were caught at the murder scene on April 18, 2007, were not acting independently but were incited by Turkey's "deep state," an expression of which is Ergenekon.
Seven months ago the Malatya court requested from prosecutors on the Ergenekon case at the Istanbul high court to examine whether the two cases were connected. They have not received a reply yet.
The court and various mainstream media have received informant letters with specific names linking the murders to top gendarmerie officials. Last month a Turkish newspaper received a list of payments the gendarmerie made to informants to physically follow and collect information on Christians in Malatya.
Phone trees also show calls made from the murderers to two alleged "middle-men," Huseyin Yelki and Bulent Varol Aral, gendarmerie officials and other nationalist figures in Malatya.
"We are expecting the Istanbul prosecutor to make a careful investigation and give us a response and attest to the connections the court has found," said prosecuting attorney Erdal Dogan on Friday during a press briefing. "The actions of these men who are on trial were not independent, and from the beginning we believed they were organized by Ergenekon. Our theories have become more concrete, and we are expecting the Istanbul prosecutor to investigate these closely, establish the connections and give us a response."
Lawyers said that informant letters, testimonies and other evidence have only confirmed their original suspicions. The most striking of these is that the local gendarmerie forces were following activities of Christians in Malatya in the months leading up to the murders and afterwards yet did not stop the young men from stabbing and slashing the three Christians to death.
"If you have been watching a small, tiny group so closely," said lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz, "how could it be possible that you disregard this murder? This is a legitimate question which requires ordinary intelligence."
Last month the head of Istanbul police intelligence, Ramazan Akyurek, was demoted amid allegations that he had neglected to investigate three Christian murder cases between 2006 and 2007. When Turkish news reporters asked Dogan whether prosecutors would make a request to investigate whether Akyurek played a greater part in the murders, he said that it was not out of the question.
The five young suspects were apprehended after Zirve Publishing Co. workers went to the publishing house to find out why the three Christian men were not answering their phones. Finding the door of the office locked and getting no answer, they called police. In a report prepared by Akyurek's department, his staff claimed that the murderers were apprehended thanks to phone tapping – which attorney Dogan said is a lie.
"According to a report, they said that they had been listening to the murderers' phones and following them, and that that's how they found and arrested them," said Dogan. "You know this is a lie. The five men were arrested haphazardly. We know that. We also know that the gendarmerie was in fact listening to their conversations, but there's something interesting here: On the one hand they are listening to the criminals' phones, but on the other they couldn't thwart the crime."
Prosecuting lawyers said that this makes both Akyurek's department and the gendarmerie guilty of being accomplices to the crime, and that they should be tried along with the five young men.
"They should stand trial for not thwarting a crime and failing to perform their duties," said Dogan. "They [gendarmerie and the police intelligence security] should be tried under Article 8 of the penal code as accomplices because they are connected. This is not a question of removing someone from his position. They should stand trial with the men who are now on trial."
The lawyers expressed frustration at being able to see the bigger picture yet not having enough evidence to proceed, as well as with having to wait on the Istanbul prosecutor for more evidence.
"It is crystal clear," said attorney Cengiz. "There is a much bigger agenda and much more complex connections. We convinced everyone, but we cannot do this beyond reasonable doubt; we can't prove it. We are blocked, actually."
Cengiz explained that as lawyers for the victims' families, they are not in a position to collect evidence.
"We are heavily dependent on what the prosecutor is doing, and unfortunately they are not able to do much," he said.
Cengiz said that although the case was complicated and the Malatya judges resisted their arguments at the outset of the hearings, now they agree with the prosecuting lawyers that there is a broader network behind the murders.
"Now they are very clear – they know what happened and what kind of connections there are, etcetera, but they are fighting against a dragon," said Cengiz. "So they desperately sent this request to the prosecutor in Istanbul, hoping that it will be the Istanbul prosecutor who will create these links rather than them. It should be vice versa because they have all these details, but they are not ready for this confrontation."
Cengiz explained that while the Malatya court has a better understanding of the case than the Istanbul prosecutors, the advantage of the Istanbul High Criminal Court is that it has the backing of the Justice Ministry and is better positioned to take on the powers that may be behind this and other murders.
"They can't take the responsibility because this is just a tiny court in the remote part of Turkey, so how can they confront the reality?" he said.
The next hearing is set for Dec. 25, and prosecutors expect that by then the 13th Istanbul High Criminal Court will have sent an answer about connections of the murders to Ergenekon. They are also expecting the prosecuting judge to demand all five of the young men be charged with "three times life imprisonment," plus additional years for organizing the crime.
"In our estimation, until now in a bizarre way the accused are acting like they have been given assurances that they will be forgiven and will get off the hook," Dogan commented on the comfortable demeanor of the five men in court and their denial that others were behind the murders. "In the last months we see a continuation of the attempts to wreak havoc and chaos and overthrow the government. So we think whoever is giving confidence to these guys is affecting them. It is obvious to us that there is a group actively doing this. That means they are still trying to create chaos."
Last week Ergenekon prosecutors found a hit-list consisting of 10 prominent representatives of minority groups as well as subscribers to Armenian weekly newspaper Agos, whose editor-in-chief was murdered three months before the Christians in Malatya. Cengiz explained that Ergenekon members are obsessed with purging Turkey of non-Muslim elements and non-Turkish minorities, which they see as a threat to the state.
"They were trying to create chaos in Turkey, and of course they were trying to send a clear message to members of non-Muslim groups that they are not wanted in Turkey," said Cengiz of the way the three Christians in Malatya were murdered. "They did it in a horrendous, barbaric way. This was also part of the message. Everything was planned but not by them, by other people. They are just puppets."
Further Evidence of Cabal
This week Turkish news magazine Yeni Aktuel published a five-page article with pictures chronicling the "anti-terrorist" activities of a counter-guerilla team leader identified only by his initials, K.T.
In the article, K.T. described how for years he and his team pursued and killed members of the outlawed Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK). Anti-guerilla activities in Turkey are paramilitary efforts managed by the "deep state."
In K.T.'s account, he claimed that during his time in Malatya he met with members of an ultra-nationalist group who talked about murdering Hrant Dink, editor of Argos. Also during that time, members of the group spoke about how those who distributed Bibles in Malatya had to be "punished."
One of the members of this group was a high school teacher called "O." The teacher said that he arranged to be out of town before the Malatya murders, because police were following him and he wanted to make sure that they could not connect him to the Malatya murders.


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Shogun Assassin: 5-Film Blu-ray Collector's Set
DirectorKenji Misumi, Buichi Saito, Yoshiyuki Kuroda
Release Date(s)1972-1980 (April 24, 2012)
Studio(s)Toho Co., Ltd. (AnimEigo)
- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: C+
- Extras Grade: B+
- Overall Grade: B+
This two-disc set collects the entirety of the Americanized versions of the Lone Wolf and Cub/Baby Cart series of films (of which there are 6 Japanese language versions). The first film, Shogun Assassin contains the first two films in that series (Sword of Vengeance and Baby Cart at the River Styx) edited down into one film.
It ends up being about ten minutes or so of the first film and a majority of footage from the second film making for a lean and mean 85 minutes of awesome samurai violence. Ogami Itto, in this version, quits his job as executioner for a corrupt Shogun and rather than commit ritual suicide, he and his son (who "chooses" to join him after picking a sword rather than a ball as a plaything) make a bloody exit from the Shogun castle and make their way out in the world. There's actually something worth mentioning that is showcased in this edit: in this version of the film, the Shogun is Yagyu Retsudo - who in the original Japanese series is only the puppet master for the Shogun's ninja team and, because of a greedy power play, the one who is responsible for Itto's downfall. It is Yagyu whom Itto has sworn vengeance on - not the Shogun. Anyway, here, the Shogun not one for being betrayed, sends him best assassins out to kill Itto. All are destroyed, culminating with a gang of three master assassins meeting a swift but bloody end at the end of Itto's blade. Oh, yeah, spoiler alert. The film is remembered for its staccato (and quite silly) narration from Diagoro (Itto's son) keeping us updated on the action of the film and was featured prominently in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill 2. On its own though, Shogun Assassin has become a fondly remembered cult film and is partly responsible for samurai fandom in the 70s, 80s and 90s which allows for so many of these films to be on DVD and Blu-ray.
The rest of the films in this set are the remaining films in the series presented in their entirety, without any subtitles or Japanese dubbing available. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades is renamed Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril is Shogun Assassin 3: Slashing Blades of Carnage, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons is Shogun Assassin 4: Five Fistfuls of Gold and Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell is Shogun Assassin 5: Cold Road to Hell. From all I can tell, there are no changes made to these films or any edits that I can see that would make them more in line with the Shogun Assassin cut of the first two films. They are just presented here in a collected set.
The Kenji Misumi connection is - he was the director on the first two films that make up Shogun Assassin. He also directed Lightning Swords of Death in this set, as well as Five Fistfuls of Gold. Sadly, he was not responsible for my favorite entry: Slashing Blade of Carnage that featured the tattooed female assassin Oyuki. I'm going to save discussion of these films for the upcoming Blu-ray release of the original versions of these films. That should be later this year (2012). As it is, for fans of samurai films who don't like to read, these are all very well produced and Ogami Itto is a stoic yet endearing hero. These films are fun, full of bloody battles, comic-book fight scenes and plenty of the things that make exploitation-style samurai films some of the best samurai films.
AnimEigo did a great job with this set. The first disc of this set is basically a repackaged Shogun Assassin disc that was released stand-alone in 2010. The second disc is the remaining 4 films - all beautifully remastered. Video across all films is presented in a nice, crisp and colorful 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer at approx. 2.35:1 (for all intents and purposes, don't email me Home Theater Forum guys - I know, I know). It would see AnimEigo remade the first Shogun with brand new elements rather than try and save an old print of the original cut - which was a smart move. The other films are straight transfer and all look might fine. There are some aging issues across the board, but these transfers are leaps and bounds above the previous VHS and DVD releases. Audio is a bit different. The first film features lossless and uncompressed two-channel LPCM mono mix which gives the film a nice full sound. The rest of the films feature lossless mono tracks which all sound good but lack the extra push the 2.0 mono track has on the first film. It's slightly obvious, but nothing that truly hurts the release.
Extras on board are exclusive to disc one: There are two tracks here. There are two commentary tracks. The first features film scholar Ric Meyers and martial arts expert Steve Wilson discussing the original Lone Wolf and Cub series, giving insight to the way of the samurai, how samurai films impacted bother cinema and martial arts and Wilson dissects some of the swordplay. The second track has producer of the American version Davis Weisman joined by Jim Evans who illustrated the original theatrical poster as well as Gibran Evans, who played the part of the iconic narrator Daigoro. He did the voice when he was just seven years old turns out. We get a bit of insight to the Americanized version with a lot of time spent "remembering" things for the first time in a long time. It's not a bad track, just lacks focus. There's also an interview with Samuel L. Jackson presented in 1080p as he talks about seeing the original release in NYC theaters and how the film impacted his career and design to make samurai films himself (which he did with Afro Samurai). There's also a Restoration Gallery with comparisons of this version with previous DVD and bootleg releases as well as text-based Program Notes.
Kenji Misumi was a remarkable filmmaker and a key player in Japanese cinema. These two disc sets are a great way to visit some of his films and see for yourself what great cinema he made. Again, check out that story I linked above - it will give you a little bit of insight into the man who made so many great samurai films.
- Todd Doogan


text:
Dumping Moore's Law is perhaps the best thing that could happen to computers, as it'll hasten the move away from an aging computer architecture holding back hardware innovation.
That's the view of prominent scientist R. Stanley Williams, a senior fellow in the Hewlett Packard Labs. Williams played a key role in the creation of the memristor by HP in 2008.
Moore's Law is an observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 that has helped make devices smaller and faster. It predicts that the density of transistors would double every 18 to 24 months, while the cost of making chips goes down.
Every year, computers and mobile devices that are significantly faster can be bought with the same amount of money thanks in part to guidance from Moore's Law. The observation has helped drive up device performance on a predictable basis while keeping costs down.
But the predictions tied to Moore's Law are reaching their limits as it becomes harder to make chips at smaller geometries. That's a challenge facing all top chip makers including Intel, which is changing the way it interprets Moore's Law as it tries to cling on to it for dear life.
Williams is the latest to join a growing cadre of scientists who predict Moore's Law is dying. The end of Moore's Law "could be the best thing that has happened to computing in decades," Williams wrote in a research paper published in the latest issue of IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering.
The end of Moore's Law will bring creativity to chip and computer design and help engineers and researchers think outside the box, Williams said. Moore's Law has bottled up innovation in computer design, he hinted.
So what's next? Williams predicted there would be computers with a series of chips and accelerators patched together, much like the early forms of superfast computers. Computing could also be memory driven, with a much faster bus driving speedier computing and throughput.
The idea of a memory-driven computer plays to the strength of HPE, which has built The Machine along those lines. The initial version of The Machine has persistent memory that can be used as both DRAM and flash storage but could eventually be based on memristor, an intelligent form of memory and storage that can track data patterns.
Memory-driven computing could also break down the current architecture-based and processor-centric domination of the computer market. In the longer term, neuromorphic chips designed around the way the brain works could drive computing.
In the longer term, neuromorphic chips that are designed around the way the brain works could drive computing. HPE is developing a chip designed to mimic a human brain, and similar chips are being developed by IBM, Qualcomm, and universities in the U.S. and Europe.
"Although our understanding of brains today is limited, we know enough now to design and build circuits that can accelerate certain computational tasks," Williams wrote.
Applications like machine learning highlight the need for new types of chips. IBM has benchmarked its neuromorphic chip called TrueNorth as being faster and more power-efficient than conventional deep-learning chips like GPUs.
Williams suggested ASICs and FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) could play a role in driving computing beyond Moore's Law. These technologies will use superfast interconnects like Gen Z, which was introduced last year and will be supported by major chipmakers and server makers like Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Quantum computers are also emerging as a way to replace today's PCs and servers, but are still decades away from running everyday applications.


text:
Notice: Here's a link to the Timon Article and the Pumbaa Article @ The Lion King Wiki. -- The Staff
Timon is really funny! Some people think he's mean but deep down he'll always be there for his friends ^^
Pumbaa is great too. Together they're the most humorous part of TLK for sure
What do you guys think of Timon & Pumbaa?


text:
MSNBC Host Blasts GOP Presidential Candidates' Show of 'Cheap' Christianity
During the "Clear the Air" segment of his nightly MSNBC program, journalist Martin Bashir turned his attention to the 2012 campaign, questioning the faith of the Republican candidates and their obedience to the Bible's teaching on truth telling, looking after the "least of these," and turning the other cheek.
Apparently tired of the political mudslinging and candidates' fast and loose presentation of the facts, Bashir, a Christian, ripped into Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Ron Paul for statements they have made in recent days.
In the three-minute segment that aired Wednesday night, Bashir paralleled GOP candidates' comments with the teachings of Scripture.
He said, "It's time to clear the air, and we're now mid-season in what's becoming a multi-channel miniseries of Republican presidential debates. Although the candidates differ on some aspects of policy, most of them, aside from Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, who are Mormons, claim to be Christians with a strong commitment to the central tenets of Christianity."
Without noting his perceived distinctions between Mormonism and Christianity, Bashir went on to reveal his "trouble trying to understand the kind of Christianity these candidates represent."
After noting that "biblical Christianity is committed to truth-telling," the MSNBC host went on to recount Jesus Christ's declaration in Scripture to be "the way, the truth and the life" while noting that Michele Bachmann failed to "fact check" her claim about a woman whose daughter purportedly developed mental retardation after receiving the HPV vaccine.
"Every medical institution... has dismissed her story as entirely inaccurate and untrue, so where was her commitment to truth-telling?" Bashir asked of the Minnesota Congresswoman.
Turning his attention to Rick Perry, Bashir wondered at the Texas governor's insisting that he couldn't be bought for $5,000 by a pharmaceutical company.
Bashir countered, saying, "[He] actually received six times that amount, and his chief of staff had not only joined the drug company [Merck] but was now running a political action committee on his behalf."
Merck PAC – the DRUG company's Washington, D.C.-based political action committee – has given Perry $28,500 since 2001, according to Texas Ethics Commission filings, reports The Los Angeles Times.
Bashir asked of Perry's claim, "Again, where's the transparency? Where's the commitment to truth-telling? Where's the Christian walk to go with all the Christian talk?"
The MSNBC host took Congressman Ron Paul to task, wondering about the Texas politician's Christian compassion.
"During the debate this week there was a disturbing exchange between the moderator and Dr. Ron Paul, in which he was set a hypothetical test where a young man becomes seriously ill but he doesn't have any health insurance."
The moderator of that debate, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, asked Paul who would pay for the young man's medical expenses if he went into a coma.
The Texas congressman responded, "In a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to take care of it."
Prodded, Paul added, "What he should do is whatever he wants to do and assume responsibility for himself. My advice to him would be to have a major medical policy."
When reminded that the young man in the hypothetical situation has no medical insurance, Paul shrugged, saying, "That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risk."
Pointing his pen at the camera, Bashir called for viewers to compare Paul's response to Jesus' teachings in Matthew 5:38-42 as well as his teaching on the good Samaritan.
Bashir concluded, "As these candidates come under scrutiny for their fiscal and foreign policies, let's also make sure that they don't get away with talking up a cheap form of Christianity that they think will play with voters, because some of the things that these candidates are recommending seem a million miles from the compassion and kindness that has long been associated with true Christianity."
Bachmann and Perry have been especially vocal about their Christian faith during the campaign, while Paul has not been quite as vocal about his religious beliefs.
The Texas politician, an avid supporter of limited government, offers a statement of faith on his campaign website in which he states, "I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and I endeavor every day to follow Him in all I do and in every position I advocate."
In the statement Paul explains, "My faith is a deeply private issue to me, and I don't speak on it in great detail during my speeches because I want to avoid any appearance of exploiting it for political gain."
Bashir, who interviewed Rob Bell for his book Love Wins in March, revealed on a Christian radio program afterward that he is a "committed Christian" who attends Tim Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.