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Our House
By Theresa Rebeck
An arrogant television executive faced with dwindling ratings hires America's favorite news anchor to host a popular reality show. Meanwhile, a TV addict with an unhealthy obsession for her teeters on the edge as tensions in her house rise and explode into a drama that holds the nation riveted. Filled with comedic satire, Our House examines a culture that is fascinated with transforming sobering crisis into sexy entertainment.
For mature audiences only, due to violent content and strong language.
2014 Performance Dates
April 4, 5, 11 & 12 at 8 p.m.
April 6 & 13 (ASL interpreted) at 2:30 p.m.
Ticket Information
Adults - $10
Seniors (55 and over) - $7
Non-KSU Students (17 and under) - $7
KSU Students - Free with current ID
- Tickets go on sale March 24.
- Purchase tickets online, by phone or in person at the Box Office.
- Visa, MasterCard and Discover accepted. Checks and cash accepted in person at the Box Office.
- Tickets purchased online or by phone will be available at Will Call.
- Will Call opens one hour prior to curtain time and closes when the performance begins.
- Kent State Students: Free admission with current Kent State ID. Seats must be reserved in person at the Box Office.
- No refunds for purchased tickets. Exchanges for the same production can be made by contacting the Box Office prior to the reserved performance date.
- Tickets held at Will Call will be forfeited if not picked up by curtain time.
Ticket sales begin March 24 at 8 a.m.
Sophia Kisgeropoulos: Jennifer
Sophia is a sophomore at Kent State Stark, and is majoring in psychology. While it is her first time participating as an actress in a theatre production, Sophia has taken several acting courses here at Kent State Stark, including her favorite, Improv. She would like to thank Brian Newberg for his innovative teaching style that has taught her so much about acting, as well as her mother, Chris, for always supporting any and all of her endeavors. In her free time, Sophia models with a professional agency on the side, has an ongoing moderate obsession with the band Green Day, and enjoys playing with her two cats, Panther and T-Love.
Clay Magilavy: Wes
Clay is a freshmen from Kent, Ohio, majoring in music technology. He has been in numerous plays, his first role being The Father in The First Thanksgiving when he was in second grade. From there he went on to participate in many productions for the Kent Children's Musical Theatre, including Balloo the Bear in Jungle Book, Jafar in Alladin, and he even performed at the Akron Civic as Horton from Seussical the Musical. He continued his theatre career in high school, where he played roles such as Samuel from Pirates of Penzance and Judah in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He also wrote three plays and directed one. He sang baritone in a barbershop quartet known as Tetrad, which competed and won at the Johnny Appleseed District High School Barbershop Finals.
C.J. Pinter: Stu
C.J. is a sophomore at Kent State Stark, and is majoring in marketing as well as theatre. C.J. has done theatre in high school, snagging multiple leads in Rehearsal for Murder, and being plant operator for Little Shop of Horrors. He also started the One Act Festival at his high school and was president of the Improv club. Aside from theatre, he enjoys a nice healthy lunch from Chipotle, head banging to music, and quoting Will Ferrell as much as humanly possible. He would like to thank the director for challenging him and giving him this great opportunity. Recently, C.J. played Paul in The Maiden's Prayer at Kent State Stark.
Jessica Swank: Jessica Swank has been involved in high school, community and professional theatre. Her passion is theatre because it takes all of the other arts disciplines, and brings them together. She has taken a strong interest in costuming and playwriting, and wishes to pursue them both, as well as acting. Some of her roles include; Jessica in Merchant of Venice at Canton Player's Guild, Maria in West Side Story at GlenOak High School, Macduff/3rd Witch in Macbeth with the Bodwin Portable Theatre Company, Pace in The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at Dobama Theater.
Jennifer Nelson: Alice
Jenny is thrilled to be back on the stage at Kent State Stark! While away, she obtained dual bachelor's degree in theatre and music performance and pursued a music career in Nashville, Tennessee, where she appeared in two episodes of ABC's hit show Nashville. Her favorite roles include Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, Amneris in Aida, and Solange in The Maids. Thanks to Brian for this opportunity, and to her family and husband for their love and support!
Cassandra Terry: Grigsby
Cassandra is a junior at Kent State Stark and is pursuing a degree in human development and family studies with a focus in family life education. Her previous theatre experience includes acting in Voices from Hurt Street, Godspell, Once Upon A Mattress, Grease, Beauty and the Beast, The Sound of Music, and Annie Get Your Gun. Cassie is a graduate of Field High School and when not busy with her schoolwork, she enjoys reading, dancing and spending quality time with her family.
Bryant Campbell: Vince
Bryant appeared in the Kent State Stark productions of The Glass Menagerie, Songs for a New World and Dating is Tough to Do… and Funny, Too! Bryant would also like to thank his family and all of his supportive friends who continue to be his inspiration to do what he loves.
Production Team
Brian Newberg: Director
Brian Newberg is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Theatre Director at Kent State University at Stark. Brian's directing experience (more than 80 production credits) includes Broadway, regional, equity waiver, industry showcases, new work development, and many college productions. He has extensive experience as an actor (more than 70 production credits) in the New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oregon areas. He has also served as an associate artistic director for a regional theatre company, run his own private acting studios, and taught at a number of colleges on the West Coast before coming to Kent State. Brian is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and received his M.F.A. in Directing from the University of California, Irvine.
Louis Williams: Scenic & Lighting Designer
Louis Williams is the resident technical director, and scenic and lighting designer at Kent State Stark and has designed more than 200 productions in 30 years in theatre, opera, ballet and rock 'n' roll. This includes work with such theatre companies as: the American Ballet Theatre II; the Joffrey Ballet II; the Arizona Theatre Company; the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis; the Kenley Players; the Ohio Light Opera; the Cleveland Opera; the Cinncinnati Opera; Southern Arizona Light Opera Company; Carousel Dinner Theatre; the Agora in Cleveland, Ohio; the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, Arizona; ChildsPlay Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona; and the Scottsdale Civic Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. Read more about Louis Williams.
Susan Blurton: Costume Designer
Susan Blurton has designed costumes for various productions over the past 16 years including the Canton Palace Theater, Canton Civic Center, Players Guild, Porthouse Theatre, John F. Knight Center, Akron Civic Theater and The Christmas Spectacular, which was recorded and aired on PBS. She began her venture into theatre while living in New York and freelancing for Off-Broadway shows, mainly as a stitcher and pattern maker. She designed sportswear for the 7th Ave. design house Ellen Tracy/Liz Claiborne. Her duties included designs for sportswear and the dress division, purchases of all fabric and trims, and dressing models at runway shows and photo shoots. While living in L.A., she served as a dresser to Frankie Valli, The Pointer Sisters, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and she was a personal shopper for Aaron Spelling. Along with designing costumes, she is an active artist and art teacher. She received her B.S. in Fashion Design from the University of Cincinnati, teaching certification from Mount Union University and an M.A. from Marygrove College.
Ron Jarvis: Sound Designer
You might recognize Ron Jarvis as a performer, producer, music director, and/or composer for such stalwart Northeast Ohio acts as The Buckeye Biscuit Band, Ital, First Light, Alex Bevan, Pat Dailey and, most recently, Macaw, the American Worldbeat Band. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Kent State where he has taught Art of the Theatre and Theatre Criticism classes as well as the three-part series of Sound Design and Technology classes for the Entertainment Arts and Technologies certificates program. Ron has worked with world renowned directors Vincent Dowling (composition for The Winter's Tale at Kent State) as well as Ping Chong (Blindness: The Irresistible Light Of Encounter at La Mama Theatre in NYC), and has served as a live-mix consultant at Geauga Lake and Cedar Point amusement parks. Although his first sound design for Kent State Stark was for the 2002 production of Dancing at Lughnasa, since 2007 he has designed many of the Kent State Stark theatrical productions including Oklahoma!, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Into the Woods, The Revenger's Tragedy, The Mikado, Crazy for You, Dating is Tough to Do... and Funny, Too!, Songs for a New World, Plumfield, Iraq, Evil Dead: The Musical and Anton in Show Business.
Molly Patterson: Stage Manager
Molly Patterson is a senior at Kent State University pursuing a BFA in theatre design and technology. Her credits include stage manager for I Love You Because (2012); assistant stage manager for The Crucible: An Opera (2013) and Buried Child (2012); assistant director for Cat's-Paw (2014); and scenic/lighting design assistant for The Maiden's Prayer (2013) and Voices from Hurt Street (2013). She also has spent the past two seasons working as a Theatre Department technician at Kent State Stark. She would like to dedicate her work on Our House in memory of her father, who always supported her theatrical endeavors. Romans 5:4
Caitlin Roberts: Assistant Stage Manager
Caitlin is a junior as Kent State University at Stark. She is pursuing a major in theatre studies: design & technology, and a minor in music. Caitlin has worked on a number of shows at Kent State Stark: makeup & special effects design assistant for Evil Dead: The Musical, lighting/scenic design assistant for Buried Child, stage management for Plumfield, Iraq and Our House; and helped in the production of the student written Voices from Hurt Street (as a member of the writing ensemble and makeup designer). Caitlin has worked as a Theatre Department technician in the scene shop at Kent State Stark for the past three years. She is a member of multiple choirs, as well as various performing ensembles here on campus.
Hilary Carrender: Costume Design Assistant
Hilary is a sophomore majoring in theater production. She grew up in Amherst, Ohio, and began her theatrical career as a member of The Cleveland Singing Angels. She was in choir and theater all through school. She spent a year in Nashville, Tennessee, studying music at Belmont University. She then relocated to Orlando, Florida, to live her dream of being a part of the Entertainment Department of Walt Disney World. She plans to finish her degree at Kent State, then return to Florida to be an entertainment manager at Disney. She enjoys yoga, dancing, song writing, and spending time with her fiancé, Josh, who she is marrying this June.
Natalie Nicholson: Costume Design Assistant
This is Natalie's first semester in the Kent State Stark Theatre Department, and thus, Our House is her first time helping with a production. Although new to theater, she is no stranger to costuming and costume design. She had been making and designing costumes for nearly seven years, and is excited to be of help with the designs of Our House and more shows to come.
Sarah Peters: Scenic/Lighting Design Assistant
Sarah is majoring in electronic media while minoring in theatre. After attending a year at Kent, she transferred to NYCDA: School for Film and Television located in New York City, which she graduated from. In addition to NYCDA, she also received voice over training from Howard Ross, her voice over coach, voice over character training from Paul Liberti, and improv training from the Red Tie Mafia improvisational group. She has now returned to Kent to finish where she left off. Before college, she appeared in numerous community plays at the Canal Fulton Players Guild, and was active in her high school theatre and choir productions. Some of her past performances include Buried Child and Anton in Show Business at Kent State Stark, where she was also a scenic/lighting design assistant for I Love You Because and Voices from Hurt Street and a crew member for The Maiden's Prayer and Cat's-Paw. She also performed in The Music Man, The Odd Couple, Bus Stop, Fiddler on the Roof, The Wizard of Oz, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and Blithe Spirit.
Lynda Wilkinson: Sound Design Assistant
Lynda is a freshman at Kent State University at Stark, majoring in theatre. Lynda was in a play her senior year of high school entitled Senile Senior Bliss. She began singing as a young child with her father who was a musician. She performed on a local television show that aired weekly, and in clubs and churches. Lynda has done some commercial acting for a local college and restaurant. She also is the voice over voice for DentalWorks auto attendant. Her first involvement in theatre at Kent State Stark was the privilege of being the sound design assistant for Cat's-Paw. She looks forward to furthering her theatrical involvement at Kent State Stark.
Jillian Dailey: Crew
Jillian began her theatrical training at Lake Center Christian High School where she was involved in all the musicals and plays during her four years there. This included leading roles in Seussical and Little Women. She is a sophomore at Kent State Stark, where she has performed in Anton in Show Business and Plumfield, Iraq, was the costume design assistant for I Love You Because, Evil Dead: The Musical and Voices from Hurt Street, a member of the crew for The Maiden's Prayer and Cat's-Paw, and was a member of the writing ensemble for Voices from Hurt Street.
Jonathan Diehl: Crew
Jonathan is pursuing a music technology degree here at Kent State Stark. He has a been a part of a few concerts and plays at Kent State Stark, such as I Love You Because (crew), Voices from Hurt Street (assistant stage manager & composer/musician), The Maiden's Prayer (stage manager) and Cat's-Paw (stage manager).
Cory Kosman: Crew
Cory's theater experience started in 7th grade when he acted in the musical Guys And Dolls. When freshman year rolled around he found himself being drawn towards the technical side of the theater. Since then he has had a deep love of anything tech related; sound especially. He has been the lead sound engineer on two musicals at his high school. He has also worked sound for two rock concerts that took place at his high school. He was a scenic/lighting design assistant for I Love You Because and Cat's-Paw, crew for Buried Child, and a musician/composer for Voices from Hurt Street at Kent State Stark, and hopes to continue on the tech path throughout college and beyond.
James McKeon: Crew
James is a music technology major at Kent State Stark. He has an extensive background in music performance and writing, as well as painting. James has performed in various bands since 5th grade, and has created original artwork all his life. He learned about scenic design through his first full theatre experience at Kent State Stark with Evil Dead: The Musical. He recently was a crew member for The Maiden's Prayer and Cat's-Paw.
John-Michael Roberts: Crew
John-Michael is a junior at Kent State University at Stark majoring in psychology and minoring in theatre sound design. His work in the theater has ranged from acting (Buried Child, Huck Finn's Story, Crazy for You, Cat's-Paw), sound design assistant (I Love You Because, Dating is Tough to Do,and Funny Too!, The Glass Menagerie) and stage management (Anton in Show Business, The Crucible). He was part of the writing ensemble for Voices from Hurt Street and recently a crew member for The Maiden's Prayer. In the future he hopes to continue his work in theatre while working on his degree in counseling.


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Published on September 25th, 2013 | by Daniel R. Perlman0
Former Alderman Medrano convicted on third corruption charge
Former Chicago Alderman Ambrosio Medrano was convicted of corruption Tuesday for a third time and could face more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty in a 2010 bribery scheme to influence a bandage contract at Stroger Hospital.
Medrano, 59, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud but reached no agreement with prosecutors on the likely length of his prison sentence. Prosecutors said they plan to ask for up to 20 years in prison at sentencing in January, while Medrano's attorney, Gal Pissetzky, said closer to two years would be appropriate.
"You understand there is a dramatically different view of what the (sentencing) guidelines will be?" U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman asked Medrano, who answered in a soft voice that he understood.
A disgraced former alderman who went to prison nearly two decades ago in Chicago's infamous Operation Silver Shovel probe, Medrano is also awaiting sentencing on a separate conviction earlier this year for plotting with a Nebraska businessman to pay off a Los Angeles official for a mail-order pharmaceutical contract with the Cook County hospital system.
The businessman, James Barta, 71, was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in prison for his role in the scheme.
In a recent court filing calling for the maximum five-year sentence for Medrano in that case, prosecutors called the former alderman "incorrigibly corrupt" and said that to him bribery "was just part of the government process, something that went without saying."
The charges to which Medrano pleaded guilty stemmed from a lengthy federal investigation in which the government used a mole – Michael DiFoggio, a Bridgeport businessman with tax troubles who was a pal of Medrano's – and an undercover FBI agent to snag a number of targets, including Joseph Mario Moreno, a former Cook County commissioner.
Medrano admitted Tuesday to scheming with Moreno and others to steer a contract for Dermafill medical bandages to a particular company in exchange for thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.
Moreno has pleaded guilty in the case as well as to two other fraud schemes and faces up to seventeen and a half years in prison.
A longtime fixture in Chicago's Pilsen community, Medrano was a protege of former Mayor Richard M. Daley who in 1989 was the Hispanic coordinator of Daley's first mayoral campaign. He was elected to the City Council in 1991 and was considered a rising Latino political star. But just five years later, he became the first city official to go down in the sweeping Silver Shovel investigation that ultimately netted 18 convictions, including those of six aldermen. Medrano pleaded guilty to pocketing about $31,000 in bribes from John Christopher, a mob-connected paving contractor-turned-government mole.
After serving 30 months in prison, Medrano twice tried to re-enter political life but both times was ruled ineligible because of a state law barring convicted felons from running for office.
If you have been arrested for a Federal Fraud Crime the Law Offices of Daniel R. Perlman can help. Please contact a Los Angeles Federal Fraud Crimes Attorney today to have your case reviewed.
Source: chicagotribune.com "Former Alderman Medrano convicted on third corruption charge," September 25, 2013.

subset: commoncrawl


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"This helmet may not be very effective in combat, but it sure makes for a good back scratcher!"
The Pickelhaube (German for Pickle hat) was a spiked military helmet invented in the later half of the 19th century that is now worn today in heavy metal and outlaw biker fashion as a form of rebellion against popular fashion trends. It is most commonly seen in all the Germanic countries. It can also be found elsewhere.
The Pickelhaube was originally designed by the very horny[Citation not needed at all; thank you very much] King Frederick William IV of Prussia in an attempt to create a sex toy that he could use to pleasure his wife and her friends whenever they came over for parties. He modeled the German Pickelhaube after the Russian military helmet that had a feathery plume at the top which was used to tickle adversaries. The version he designed was made of leather and had half of a pickle glued on top of it. He introduced the Pickelhaube to the Prussian military in October 23, 1842. They said that they would accept it only if he replaced the pickle with something more useful[1], so he replaced the pickle with an iron spike. This change in design made no difference to his wife, as she could now use the spiked Pickelhaube for sadomasochistic purposes.
The basic Pickelhaube was made of skin from animal bum — usually a cow — that was painted black and wrapped in aluminum foil to keep out insects[2]. The Pickelhaube also included an iron spike at the crown, but the ones with tall spikes (like the one worn by Otto von Bismarck) were reserved for high-ranking military officials, because they were seen as "cooler" than the rest of the military. Early versions of the Pickelhaube had a high crown, but the height gradually reduced due to protests that it looked to much like a certain part of the male anatomy.
Besides the sharp metal pointy thing sticking out the top of it, perhaps the most recognizable feature of the Pickelhaube was the ornamental front plate, which denoted the regiment's province, state, city, house, or cardboard box sitting in the alley. Some of the most common front plate designs included the eagle, the Siamese twin eagle, and the emoticon.
All-metal versions of the Pickelhaube were worn by high-ranking military officials because they hoarded most of the metal that was available. This version also included a curved neck guard to prevent sunburn and to keep birds from pooping on their neck. On the neck guard there was usually a message written on it. The most common message was the phrase "Russen raus!", which was German for "Kiss my ass, Russians".[3]
In 1892, the "Pickelhaube-Cozy" — a variant of the Tea-Cozy — became standard issue for all soldiers wearing the Pickelhaube. This accessory was meant to taunt the enemy and look fabulous at the same time. It also prevented old ladies[4] from running away at the sight of the Pickelhaube.
All helmets produced for the infantry before and during World War I were made of leather or some mystery substance that felt like leather. As the war progressed, they were running out of cows to kill for their leather. Realizing this, they started to make the Pickelhaube out of other materials. Starting in 1915, they started to make the Pickelhaube out of sheet steel, pebbles, and pennies they found on the ground on their way to work. However, the German high command demanded much higher numbers of the Pickelhaube, leading to the usage of old shirts, paper,
people, and cardboard boxes.
During World War I, it was discovered that the Pickelhaube was not all that it was cracked up to be. The leather Pickelhaube didn't do much to protect against shell fragments, and when it became stained, it could not be removed because the Pickelhaube was not machine-washable. Another slight inadequacy was that the spike stuck out over the trenches and threw insults at the opposing force, thus making it an indicator for German troop locations. At the end of World War I, they replaced the Pickelhaube with the Stahlhelm, as they felt it was "less easy to make fun of an upside down cooking pot than it was to make fun of a helmet that made the person wearing it look like a human spear".[Citation not needed at all; thank you very much]
Today, the Pickelhaube is not seen all that often anymore, but they can still be bought on eBay and placed in a collection, but it still makes for a good kinky sex toy after all these years.
Tactics and Use[edit]
The original tactic for use of the Pickelhaube as a weapon was "throw your outlandish hat at the enemy", invented by King Frederick IV. The problem with this tactic was that the Pickelhaube was not very Aerodynamic due to its design, thus it would not travel far if thrown. Sometimes, the wind would blow in the opposite direction that the soldiers were throwing, and the helmet would travel back and end up being impaled in the soldier's eye. For these reasons, use of the Pickelhaube in this fashion was scrapped.
During the Franco-Prussian War, Otto von Bismarck thought of a new tactic for use of the Pickelhaube as a weapon: point your head down until you face the floor and charge blindly at your enemy while screaming like a madman. This tactic was so popular and effective that they even made a game out of it: 5 points if you hit the enemy in the abdomen, 10 points if you hit the enemy in the head, 100 points if you hit the enemy in the crotch, and a trillion points if you hit the enemy in the bum. Through the use of this tactic, the Germans were able to defeat the French, and left them with a painful feeling in their hind quarters.
See also[edit]


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I know Gizmodo is one of our Gawker littermates and I love them, but I have to call them out like anyone else when they say something misleading about "car enthusiasts." Things like how Google Glass will "save car enthusiasts from extinction." Because we don't need saving, and even if we did, Google Glass is not our Superman.
The article is off-base from the very first paragraph, where it suggests a fake war:
"Computers are killing the automotive hobby!" Car geeks say this with defeatist disdain; tech nerds utter it with futurist superiority. Thing is, they're both wrong. Virtual reality and wearable tech could very well save hobbyist mechanics from becoming the 21st century's horseshoe installers.
First off, nobody is saying computers are killing the automotive hobby. Sure, there's plenty of old cranks out there who lament the passing of the carburetor while pounding their fist on a bad O2 sensor housing, but the idea that the average car lover has any beef with computers is crazy.
Computers are why we're getting better mileage than ever before with less emissions. Computers are how you can get 20 more HP just by flashing the software on your ECU, computers are how you can actually find parts for a 40 year old British car in California, computers are how you can virtually drive the Nurburgring in a Lancia Stratos while in your underwear, and computers are part of how cars will remain viable in the future.
There is no war between computers and gearheads. There's only love. Sweet, sweet love. In fact, with (hopefully common) open-source CAN busses and open protocols like Ford's OpenXC protocol, there's more possibility for car-tinkering than ever before. This whole cars v. computers thing is just a strange straw man.
As far as the Google Glass being a great tool for working on your car, I totally agree. In fact, we pointed out this very thing last year. But the idea that this is what's going to "save" car enthusiasts is ridiculous. There will be plenty of car enthusiasts who will either work on vintage cars that don't require this or don't work on their own cars at all (because they're under warranty, or lack of interest/skill/space/whatever) — and those people are still important in car culture.
I know the author is a car guy, and I actually agree with almost all of what he's saying — I just don't agree with the idea that gearheads need saving, or the argument he brings up about the criticisms of the car as a "dying concept of transportation." I don't think the author agrees with this either, but the idea comes up enough that it's worth addressing.
Sure, in many big, congested cities, it makes no sense to own a car. That's fine, there's plenty of options there. But a car — any car — still means freedom in a way no public transport system can touch. At a rural lakehouse at 4 am when you get a craving for donuts? Good luck waiting for that bus to take you into town. Have a partner about to give birth in a city with less than 500,000 people? Knock yourself out on that hypothetical subway express line to the delivery ward.
It's not that this article is actually wrong about the basic subject, that wearable tech and related technologies will be good for auto enthusiasts — it's the way it approaches it. Setting these technologies up as something that will "save" car culture and setting up straw man arguments of both opposition in the car community and about the fundamental value of cars themselves is just not productive.
Sorry to expose everyone to a bit of friendly sibling squabbling, but I really don't like how often car culture is portrayed as some embattled relic that needs radical face-computers to save us.
We're fine. We're not going anywhere. But if we do, it'll be in our cars, and just because we like to drive.


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Luxor, Egypt, Aug 20, 2013 / 23:10 pm
In the midst of recent violence in Egypt, the Coptic Bishop of Luxor says he was terrorized Aug. 16 by Islamists who tried to break into his house and kill him.
"During a demonstration in Luxor a group of Islamists tried to break into my house and tried to set fire to the whole building," Bishop Youhannes Zakaria Badir told Aid to the Church in Need Aug. 19.
"Thank God, the army intervened to our aid."
His message was sent alongside that of Bishop Kyrillos William Samaan of the Coptic Eparchy of Assiut, who said he believes "that the West does not realize what is actually happening; the reality is that we were attacked by a group of armed terrorists."
Bishop Badir added that Christians are "willing to suffer, to lose their churches and homes," and that they "accept it is for the good of our country and of all Christians and Muslims of Egypt."
The Luxor bishop said that since the start of harsh anti-Christian attacks on Aug. 14, many churches have been closed and faithful, priests and religious are afraid to leave their homes.
"We prefer to stay at home, safe from further violence."
The attacks began shortly after the Egyptian military killed protesters in Cairo who were demanding the restoration of Mohammad Morsi, who had been elected president following the country's Arab Spring, yet was ousted by a military coup July 3.
The demonstrators, who are aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement, then began vandalizing and burning churches, cars, shops, schools and homes belonging to Christians across the country, convinced of their complicity with the ouster of Morsi.
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the nation's largest Christian group, had publicly supported the military's coup.
Bishop William Samaan told Aid to the Church in Need that 80 churches have been burned or damaged since Aug. 14. "It is true they should be allowed to protest, but without using weapons," he said.
The Egyptian military has cracked down on all protests, and has arrested both Morsi and Mohammad Badie, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Since the Aug. 14 crack down, violence has spread across the country, with some 900 dead in the past week. While violence against Christians in Egypt is linked to Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood has officially stated that it "stands firmly against any attack – even verbal – against churches."
According to Bishop Badir, five Christians and a moderate Muslim were killed in Dabbiah, near Luxor.
He stated Islamists wrote anti-Christian slogans on religious buildings, including "down with you liars, down with you traitors" on the walls of the Melkite Greek Catholic parish of Saint Cyril in Cairo.
Christians across the country have been attacked, with seven killed in Al Nazla and one in Sohag. In Alexandria, a Coptic taxi driver was beaten to death after telling protesters they were disrupting his work.
Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak stated Aug. 18 that "out of love for our country and in solidarity with all lovers of Egypt, both Christians and Muslims," the patriarchate will not label the crisis "a political struggle between different factions."
Rather, he insisted, the conflict is "a war against terrorism."


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LUKŠIĆ /lukshich/
This web page contains information about Croatian surname or family name LUKŠIĆ. Anyone who knows anything about the origin of this surname or about the history of LUKŠIĆ family may leave the message in the comment section of this page. Thank you!
Frequency in population of Croatia: 1.216 (427th Most Frequent)


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Fort Campbell facts for kids
Quick facts for kidsFort Campbell
|Oak Grove, Kentucky /
Clarksville, Tennessee
Insignia of military units stationed at Fort Campbell
|Army post
|Site information
|Controlled by
|U.S. Army
|Site history
|In use
|Garrison information
|MG Joseph P. McGee
|MG John F. Campbell, 101st ABN
|101st Airborne Division
160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
5th Special Forces Group
52nd Ordnance Group (EOD)
86th Combat Support Hospital
716th Military Police Battalion
19th Air Support Operations Squadron (USAF)
63rd Chemical Company
1000th MP Battalion (CID)
Sabalauski Air Assault School
Blanchfield Army Community Hospital
NCO Academy
Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astride the Kentucky–Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee (post address is located in Kentucky). Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The fort is named in honor of Union Army Brigadier General William Bowen Campbell, the last Whig Governor of Tennessee.
The site for Fort Campbell was selected on July 16, 1941, and the Title I Survey was completed November 15, 1941, coincidentally the same time the Japanese Imperial Fleet was leaving Japanese home waters for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Construction of Camp Campbell began on January 12, 1942. Within a year, the reservation designated as Camp Campbell was developed to accommodate one armored division and various support troops, with a total size of 102,414 acres (414 km2), and billets for 2,422 officers and 45,198 enlisted personnel.
Due to its close proximity to Clarksville, Tennessee, the War Department on March 6, 1942, designated Tennessee as the official address of the new camp. This caused a great deal of confusion, since the Headquarters was in Tennessee and the post office was in Kentucky. After many months of mail delivery problems, Colonel Guy W. Chipman requested that the address be changed to Camp Campbell, Kentucky. The War Department officially changed the address on September 23, 1942.
Early in the summer of 1942, the post's initial cadre, one officer and 19 enlisted men, arrived from Fort Knox, Kentucky. From that time until the end of World War II, Camp Campbell was the training ground for the 12th, 14th and 20th Armored divisions, Headquarters IV Armored Corps and the 26th Infantry Division.
In the spring of 1949, the 11th Airborne Division arrived at Campbell following occupation duty in Japan. The 11th was in residence there until early 1956.
By April 1950, the post had evolved from a wartime training camp to a permanent installation and was renamed Fort Campbell.
From 1950 to 1962 the post operated an Airborne Course which trained nearly 30,000 soldiers as paratroopers before its inactivation.
On September 21, 1956, Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker and the Army Chief of Staff, General Maxwell D. Taylor, presented the colors of the 101st Airborne Division to MG T.L. Sherbourne, the first commander of the new ROTAD airborne division. This was the official ceremony reactivating the famed "Screaming Eagles" of World War II.
On May 2, 1966, Third Army General Order 161 directed the activation of a Basic Combat Training Center at Fort Campbell. On July 6, barely two months after its activation, Fort Campbell's Army Training Center received its first 220 newly inducted soldiers. Basic Combat Training began on schedule July 11 with a full complement of 1,100 trainees. The Training Center operated until April 15, 1972, when it was deactivated.
The 1st Brigade was sent for duty in Vietnam in July 1965. Soon thereafter, upon the escalation of hostilities in Southeast Asia, the rest of the division arrived. Also in response to the military buildup, the 6th Infantry Division was reactivated at Fort Campbell on November 24, 1966, and inactivated July 25, 1968.
In September 1971 the 173rd Airborne Brigade returned to Fort Campbell and conducted its official homecoming ceremonies, which were presided over by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird. The 173rd was then inactivated on 14 January 1972 and its personnel and the equipment used to rebuild the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). The 3rd Brigade remained on jump status until April 1974, when its jump status was terminated and the division became entirely airmobile. On April 6, 1972, the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) was officially welcomed back to its home station after the cessation of hostilities in Vietnam. The ceremonies were attended by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and General William C. Westmoreland, Army Chief of Staff.
On 12 December 1985, 246 servicemembers died with eight aircrew shortly after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, during a return from peacekeeping duties in Egypt. A memorial grove of trees and monument are near the post museum.
2011 tornado
Early on April 26, 2011, a strong tornado struck the Campbell Army Airfield at Fort Campbell, destroying one building and causing heavy damage to several others, all of which were large and well-constructed. Large doors were blown in on these buildings as well. Several other smaller buildings received minor to major damage, and numerous heavy vehicles were damaged, with at least three being flipped over. Immediately north of the airfield, across farmland, several dozen trees were downed, two barns were heavily damaged, three power poles were blown down, and some shingles were blown off of a house. The tornado was rated as an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
Operations and taxation
The Sabalauski Air Assault School, named after Command Sergeant Major Walter James Sabalauski is located on FT Campbell. Courses taught include Air Assault, Pathfinder, Pre-Ranger, Jumpmaster Refresher, and Rappel Master. FRIES/SPIES Master courses are also taught. The school is also home to the Division's Parachute Demonstration Team.
Kentucky has limited rights to taxation: Individuals performing services on the Kentucky portion of Fort Campbell only pay taxes to the state where they are residents, refer to US Code Title 4, Chapter 4, §115.
Fort Campbell Parachute Demonstration Team "Screaming Eagles"
The Fort Campbell parachute demonstration team was established in 1958 during the infancy of precision freefall as the Army's first such team — pre-dating the Golden Knights, United States Army Parachute Team, by one year. Early team members were soldiers who volunteered their free time in order to perform quality parachute demonstrations. In 1984, the 101st command group opted to form a full-time parachute team, known as the "Screaming Eagles".
The "Screaming Eagles" perform more than 60 parachute demonstrations each year in front of an average viewing audience of 5,000 spectators. The team has a diverse background of Army Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) and at this time has seven members. The team has one Light Wheeled Mechanic, two Combat Medics, three Infantrymen, and one Parachute Rigger most of whom have combat experience. Collectively, the 2009 team has more than 40 years of skydiving experience and more than 6,000 skydives.
Tenant units
- 101st Airborne Division
- 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
- 5th Special Forces Group
- 52nd Ordnance Group (EOD)
- 86th Combat Support Hospital
- Campbell Army Airfield (USAF units)
Other facilities include Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Sabalauski Air Assault School and the SSG John W. Kreckel NCO Academy.
See also
In Spanish: Fort Campbell para niños
|Jenna Ortega
|Anthony Quinn
|Chita Rivera
|Antonio Banderas


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The ukulele is a great instrument to learn if you want to play something that sounds great in a compact and portable size. More affordable and easier to learn than a guitar, these four-stringed instruments deliver a unique sound and boast a rich and storied history.
There are four common types of ukulele: soprano, concert, tenor and baritone. While the soprano is currently the most popular choice, the baritone ukulele is a great option if you're looking for something larger that delivers a rich, deeper tone. Due to their size and similar tonal qualities, many guitar players are also drawn to the baritone ukulele. That being said, whether you are a beginner or an experienced musician, there are some important factors to consider when purchasing a baritone ukulele.
While still considerably cheaper than most standard guitars, baritone ukuleles are typically more expensive than other types of ukuleles due to their larger size. Typically around 30 inches long, the prices of baritone ukuleles can vary widely from $57 on the lower end to nearly $400. The more expensive ukuleles are often made from high-quality woods like acacia or koa that will improve tonally with age. Less expensive ukuleles will usually be crafted from durable, common wood types like mahogany or spruce.
Do you plan on bringing your baritone ukulele to an open mic or is it an instrument that you'll casually play at home? There are many acoustic-electric baritone ukuleles available that can be plugged directly into a guitar amp, PA or recording interface; purchasing one of these is a great idea if you plan on performing in public.
Similar in tone to a classical guitar, baritone ukuleles are also tuned to the same notes as the top four strings of a standard guitar (D-G-B-E). This makes the baritone ukulele a particularly easy instrument for most guitar players to learn. The player can also match the tuning of a standard ukulele by placing a capo on the fifth fret of the baritone ukulele. This method is particularly convenient when playing alongside other types of ukuleles.
As with buying any other instrument online, you should verify the brand before making a purchase. An obscure manufacturer might sell a baritone ukulele for cheap, but you may regret investing in a subpar instrument later on. While most ukulele manufacturers may not have famous names like Gibson or Fender, there are plenty of reputable companies that produce exceptionally high-quality ukuleles at affordable prices. Look for respected ukulele manufacturers like Cordoba, Oscar Schmidt, Kala and Kmise.
Kala KA-SA-B Solid Acacia Series Baritone Ukulele
Our take: With a body crafted from acacia wood, this Kala baritone ukulele also has a walnut fingerboard, a mahogany neck and comes pre-strung with Aquila strings.
What we like: It has a deep, warm tone and a quality of sound that improves with age, thanks to the acacia body.
What we dislike: At close to $400, the Kala Solid Acacia Baritone is pricier than most ukuleles on the market.
Available at Amazon
Our take: Made from durable mahogany wood, the Kmise Baritone Ukulele is affordable and makes for a great beginner's ukulele.
What we like: This baritone ukulele comes with an adjustable truss rod that can be used to adjust the action on the instrument. This simply means that you have the ability to adjust the ukulele to your preference, making playing the instrument more comfortable.
What we dislike: The instrument comes pre-strung with G-C-E-A ukulele strings, instead of the standard baritone D-G-B-E strings. This means that you'll need to purchase baritone ukulele strings separately if you want to play in the normal baritone tuning.
Available at Amazon
Our take: With a mahogany wood finish, this popular baritone ukulele has a classic look and a reasonable price tag.
What we like: The Kmise KMU30B bundle works as a great ukulele starter kit, complete with a gig bag, ukulele strap and five ukulele picks. It also comes with an adjustable truss rod and high-quality 18:1 tuners.
What we dislike: There have been several reports of the ukulele not staying in tune properly.
Available at Amazon
Oscar Schmidt OU52E Mahogany Baritone Acoustic Electric Ukulele
Our take: Crafted from rosewood and mahogany, this acoustic electric ukulele is backed up by Oscar Schmidt's stellar reputation.
What we like: This stage-ready baritone ukulele has chrome tuning knobs, volume control and a distinctive satin finish.
What we dislike: There have been reports of fretboard malfunctions.
Available at Amazon
Our take: Boasting an appealing price tag, this is a solid choice for a beginner ukulele player or if you're looking for something simple to bring on a camping trip.
What we like: This budget-oriented ukulele is made from high-quality materials like mahogany and rosewood and has a Hawaiian koa wood finish.
What we dislike: Since it's one of the most affordable baritone ukuleles available, many experienced musicians may be disappointed by its mediocre playability and quality of sound.
Available at Amazon
Kala MK-B Makala Baritone Ukulele Bundle
Our take: With a reasonable price, this Kala ukulele bundle has everything you need to start playing the baritone ukulele.
What we like: This bundle includes Kala's well-received MK-B baritone ukulele, in addition to a gig bag, digital tuner, instructional DVD and polishing cloth. It also comes pre-strung with Aquila nylgut strings.
What we dislike: While all of the accessories found in the bundle should be useful for beginners, experienced ukulele players likely won't have much use for many of the items included.
Available at Amazon
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Patrick Farmer writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.


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As I'm wrapping up my April projects for the blog, it reminds me that May will be right around the corner. That means school will be out, we'll be spending lots of time outdoors, our house will be filled with kids, the pool will be opening, we'll be taking some road trips, tackling some projects, gardening, heading to the lake....and just enjoying the Summer. It makes it a little harder to keep a steady schedule of crafty creations here on the blog but I've got lots of fun, ongoing projects to keep me busy.
I thought I'd share a little lineup of what you'll be seeing throughout the Summer months. I am thoroughly enjoying working with Gossamer Blue. The monthly kits have increased my creativity tremendously and Lori selects the most fantastic products month after month. There will be exciting new things coming up so be sure to stay tuned.
You'll be able to view the Design Team Gallery & purchase new kits on May 1st. Here are some quick facts that might answer some questions you have if you're interested in purchasing the kits. I have some fun sneak peeks to show you for what's coming in May for Gossamer Blue too. My projects will be up in the Gossamer Blue Design Team Gallery + I'll be sharing them here on my blog with mini tutorials.
Here I paired some stamps from my stash with a calendar stamp from the kit.....
There's all sorts of fun embellishments this month, great for collage type projects......
Mixed Media Kit.
In addition to my monthly Gossamer Blue projects, I'll be sharing my art journal pages and more art-like projects. Here's my first attempt using my new Dylusions Creative Journal. This is just a start to my first pages and I'll be sharing the completed layout soon. I have to say that this art journal is fantastic if you're interested in getting started in art journaling. The quality of the pages is really nice and sturdy.
October Afternoon update.....I decided not to renew my contract with October Afternoon so April will be my last month on the Design Team. The products are so great and I look forward to working with them....I'll just be back on the customer side of things now. A big thanks to everyone at October Afternoon for having me and I wish them the best of luck.
And in addition to all this, I've started a Summer bucket list that is getting long already. I'm going to have the girls and Eric add to the list and we'll see what happens. I've got about 3 weeks to prepare before school is out and then we're gonna tackle the list. I'll be sharing some of those ideas in my Summer bucket list post soon.
So tell me...what's going on in your world? Any new crafty projects you want to tackle? Summer projects? I'd love to hear what's on your list.


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EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been amended to clarify the translation of the pope's reference to "demiurge" below.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Monday (Oct. 27) waded into the controversial debate over the origins of human life, saying the big bang theory did not contradict the role of a divine creator, but even required it.
The pope was addressing the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which gathered at the Vatican to discuss "Evolving Concepts of Nature."
"When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so," Francis said.
"He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment."
Francis said the beginning of the world was not "a work of chaos" but created from a principle of love. He said sometimes competing beliefs in creation and evolution could co-exist.
"God is not a demiurge [demigod] or a magician, but the Creator who gives being to all entities," the pope said. "Evolution in nature is not opposed to the notion of Creation, because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve."
Unlike much of evangelical Protestantism in the U.S., Catholic teaching traditionally has not been at odds with evolution. In 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed there was no opposition between evolution and Catholic doctrine. In 1996, St. John Paul II endorsed Pius' statement.
Some wondered if Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wanted to change that when he and some acolytes seemed to endorse the theory of intelligent design, the idea that the world is too complex to have evolved according to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, a close associate of Benedict, penned a widely noticed 2005 op-ed in The New York Times that said "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense — an unguided, unplanned process … is not."
Giovanni Bignami, a professor and president of Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics, welcomed Francis' comments, saying he had buried the "pseudo theories" of creationists.
"The pope's statement is significant," Bignami told Italian news agency Adnkronos. "We are the direct descendents from the Big Bang that created the universe. Evolution came from creation."
Giulio Giorello, professor of the philosophy of science at Milan's University degli Studi, said he believed Francis was "trying to reduce the emotion of dispute or presumed disputes" with science.
Francis made his speech while unveiling a bust in honor of Benedict, his predecessor, at the Vatican.
"Benedict XVI was a great pope: great for the power and penetration of his intellect, great for his significant contribution to theology, great for his love of the church and of human beings, great for his virtue and piety," he said.
KRE/AMB END McKENNA


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The more I notice how little (if anything) I have control over, the more I seem to be nothing but a witness to what plays out in the field of experience.
So much of what happens to me, so much of what I think or feel, is out of my control. I act, I make choices, but rarely with full knowledge even of what choice it is I am making, much less the implications and consequences of that choice.
It seems we are a society of commentators, commenting on the strange things experience throws at us.
I don't choose my thoughts or feelings, I don't choose much of what happens to me. So much of what constitutes my experience is a reaction to something that has risen in the field of experience. Something strikes me as odd, or tragic, or funny. Then the witness/commentator sometimes feels moved to express that observation, like a musician might feel moved to respond and "riff off of" something someone else just played. Or sometimes it is silent, and the thought effervesces away as if it never existed.
So then, this "witness," this commenter/observer, is what feels like "me." I can't find "me" pulling the strings behind my experience, but I can find "me" watching it all, reacting to it all. My body is not "me," what happens to me was not chosen or willed by "me," my feelings and thoughts are not "me"... so much of this just seems the rumblings of the organism as it interacts with the rest of nature... but then there is that pesky "me." The "I think, therefore I am" that Descartes encountered. Except more like "I think about my thoughts, therefore I am."
But then, the practice of Zen, coming back again and again to the realization that this annoying pundit that thinks of itself as "me" is always wrong. Whatever I think about what is happening is just a fabrication. Just a story. I don't know where "me" comes from, or what it is, but it is like a hologram, a dumb one at that, some hokey dime-store thing with 'MADE IN CHINA' stamped somewhere on it.
So the witness, as ever-present, annoying, and misinformed as any Fox News pundit, is an illusion, an annoyingly convincing one, that you feel like a dumbass for falling for every single time.
And that's what Buddhism seems to teach... that "me" is an illusion... with Zen adding that it is experience free of "me" that is THE REAL DEAL...
But... how can we say that "direct experience" is real? It may be less fabricated than the witness, but it's fabricated nonetheless. The direct experience of taste, or smell, or touch, involves so many different processes of contact and interpretation and brain processing. So CONCEPTION is illusory, but so too is SENSATION.
This all sounds heady, but I make this point because it is something I feel in the pit of my stomach every day, that there must be something that is real, somewhere, but where is it? For as long as I can remember, sense data has felt false to me, or rather 'walled off,' as if I was blocked from the objects I was sensing by a foot-thick not-quite-clear glass wall. My 'secret practice' early on was that I could sit zazen enough that this glass wall would shatter, and suddenly everything would feel real! I would REALLY taste and REALLY feel and REALLY see. And in addition to that hope, I have sought out intense flavors, intense physical sensations, intense sounds, intense visuals, intense psychological experiences. Because it takes something intense to break through the wall and really feel like something. Oh, THAT was something. Now back to THIS, which feels like nothing.
I've had some "clear" moments, but I can never hold on to them. That was what I did for so long, chase after the feeling of realness. Until one day the thought arose, "Why shouldn't I feel a few steps removed from my experience?" Doesn't research show that any perception of sense data that arises is based in the brain, a few steps removed from the initial contact (chemicals entering the nasal passage, the hand brushing over a surface)? Maybe that feeling that sense data isn't quite as direct or clear as it seems to be IS the real deal.
So if the witness/commentator is a dime-store hologram that is always wrong about everything, and what we perceive directly through the senses is a construction of the brain, what the hell is real? Is the feeling that something is real just another trick?
Put another way: I'm tired of living in a sandcastle, thinking it's really a castle, but when the waves come wash it away, they wash away not only a sandcastle, but the whole beach, and then there is just the sound of the ocean, but even that is just a crappy bit of guesswork done by my brain. Why kick over the sand castle if there's nothing any more real than the sand castle?
Why take the red pill?


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[Ed note: Print will befeaturing one New Visual Artist per day while the issue is onnewsstands. Keep checking back every weekday for new profiles on printmag.com. You can viewthe entire list of winners here.]
Illustrations for undergraduate viewbook for Loyola University, Baltimore. Agency: 160 over 90; creative director: Dan Shepelavy; designer: Kelly Dorsey; writer: Rich Black; chief creative officer: Darryl Cilli; executive creative director: Jim Walls.
Title: Illustrator, letterpress artisan
From: Canton, OH
Lives in: Philadelphia
Age: 28
URL: mikeyburton.com
A native of Canton, Ohio, Mikey Burton has already amassed a broad range of experiences as a graphic designer. As Kent State undergrads, Burton and two friends taught themselves screen-printing and started a company, Little Jacket, which scored logo, brand identity, and various other design jobs.
Meanwhile, Burton's thesis project–he stayed at Kent State for his graduate degree–reenvisioned the covers of classic novels: Fahrenheit 451, The Outsiders, Animal Farm, all done rock-poster style and called "New Covers for Old Books." "Every day I get an e-mail from someone asking if it's a real book series yet," Burton says.
Letterpress printing, however, is Burton's true love. "It's great to be physically doing something," he says. "Your back is aching; you've been standing there for six hours and not sitting at a screen pushing pixels around. There's an action and a real beauty to it."
Using this method of production, he has crafted exquisite business cards for Judy Friedman, an L.A.-based interior designer, and the San Francisco furniture makers Cottage Table Co. Last year, he collaborated with the printing studio Cranky Pressman on a calendar that was promoted as "ugly and scary … a fitting tribute to what will likely prove to be a crappy year."
Burton currently works at 160 over 90, a Philadelphia branding agency, where one project included illustrations for a Loyola University publication. "I'd never actually seen how a company is supposed to function," he confesses. "It's been a great learning process."
"Mikey loves problem solving," says Keith Berger, a printer at Cranky Pressman. "The limitations of the medium allow him to focus on his ideas–big ideas, beautifully stated."
"New Covers for Old Books" thesis project.
[View the entire list of winners here.]


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Nov 11, 2016
Alibaba Singles' Day sales race past $5 billion in first hour
Nov 11, 2016
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it racked up more than $5 billion in transactions in the first hour of its annual 'Singles' Day' sales blitz on Friday -- a third more than in the first hour of last year's spree.
The 24-hour event held annually on Nov. 11 offers a benchmark for Alibaba's performance and an insight into China's swing to online shopping, especially via smartphones. Launched in 2009, Alibaba's version of the event was designed to encourage consumers without a partner to treat themselves.
Always accompanied by celebrity razzmatazz - sports stars David Beckham and Kobe Bryant attended Alibaba's countdown this year - Singles' Day shifts more goods than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States combined. Sales on Alibaba platforms, which include Tmall and Taobao, are tipped to exceed $20 billion this year, up from $14 billion last year.
"Back in 2013, 35 billion yuan ($5.15 billion) was our one-day GMV (gross merchandise volume)," said Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang in a live microblog posting on Alibaba's event. "Now we can achieve it in one hour."
Sales officially opened at midnight, releasing a wave of pre-orders that shoppers had placed ahead of the event and propelling the first billion dollars of transactions in just under 5 minutes, Alibaba said on its official microblog.
Alibaba is not the only retailer to mark Nov. 11 with a massive sales drive. China's no. 2 e-commerce player - and bitter Alibaba rival - JD.com Inc and many others also offer discount deals on the day.
The rise of Singles Day reflects how China's consumers, armed with smartphones, are racing online to shop - to the detriment of bricks and mortar stores. Alibaba said on Friday 84 percent of sales in the first two hours were via mobile devices, up from last year.
For Alibaba, extending the expansion of Singles Day could help consolidate sales growth this quarter after a 55 percent surge in second-quarter revenue. The firm co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma beat analyst estimates for July-September on the back of strong core e-commerce sales as well as growth in media and entertainment.
But cut-throat competition for customers on Singles' Day has caused concern over false advertising and massaged statistics. This week China's business regulator warned mainland online shopping platforms against suspect sales tactics.
In May this year, Alibaba said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was looking into how it reports its Single's Day figures. Alibaba said at the time it was cooperating with the authorities, and that the SEC advised it the investigation should not be seen as an indication the company had violated federal securities laws.
© Thomson Reuters 2023 All rights reserved.


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Summary: The world is wracked by a clash of civilizations. America is the aggressor. The rest of the world is on the defensive. Today we discuss why America is winning, with eventual victory almost certain: western culture will crush our foes, as it did in the Cold War. That means empathy for our foes should be part of our grand strategy.
"In War: resolution. In Defeat: defiance. In Victory: magnanimity. In Peace: good will."
— Good advice from Winston Churchill's The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948)
Contents of this series
(a) How I learned to stop worrying and love Fourth Generation War. We can win at this game.
(b) We are the attackers in the Clash of Civilizations. We're winning.
- A spectre haunts the world
- Islam vs. America
(c) Today's post:
- Who is playing offense? defense?
- Can they win against our culture?
- Who is at fault? Us or them?
- The military dimension
- Recommendations
- For more information
(3) Who is playing offense? Who is playing defense?
From one perspective, we see that Islamic jihadis have suddenly decided to retake their lost lands, such as Spain, and declare war on the Great Satan (i.e., America, or perhaps western civilization). But why attack now? Why attack the USA, rather than (for example) Israel? Such questions have been the subject of fascinating and often fevered speculation, mostly without much evidence or even logic. Here's one of the better answers:
Ideologically, Salafism is to Jihadism what Marxism is to Leninism, even though psychologically, the jihadist disease appears closer to Nazism (i.e., pathological fear of, rather than faith in, modernity, along with virulent anti-Semitism). Just as the communist project of yesterday was summed up by the proverbial slogan "the Soviets, plus electricity," the jihadist project today is best captured by "the sha'ria, plus WMD." Like the Communist International, the Salafist International has its Bolsheviks and its Mensheviks, its Bernsteins and its Kautskys, and even its Leninesque What Is to Be Done? (Qutb's Milestones).
As for the debates over what priority to give to the "far enemy" vs. the "near enemy," they are but the equivalent of yesterday's clashes between Trotskyite partisans of "permanent revolution" and Stalinist supporters of "socialism in one country."
— Tony Corn, "World War IV as Fourth-Generation Warfare", Policy Review, January 2006
Another and simpler explanation is that the jihadists are defending themselves. American culture threatens to wash away some key values of Islamic societies, as it is doing to so many other societies. The difference between their values and ours — and hence the danger — is greater for them than, for example, our western cousins (e.g., the French). So they seek self-preservation, an instinct both ubiquitous in practice and enshrined in the law of nations. Whether America's cultural "aggression" is deliberate or inadvertent is not relevant. We don't care, nor do they.
Let's check this conclusion by another line of logic. One objective of modern war (i.e., of the past few centuries) is to gain the moral high ground, usually by portraying the other side as the aggressor, a decisive advantage in wars from the American Revolution to the USSR-Afghanistan War. In today's global community what nation consistently appears among the most likely to disturb the global peace? America.
(4) Can they successfully defend against American culture?
Probably not.
- Ideas and technology have always spread irresistibly. Cultures that have walled themselves off, such as China did for centuries, suffered as a result.
- Globalization makes borders porous. Travel and trade allow cultural contagions to spread rapidly across the globe.
- Modern communications technology allows the first two factors to change cultures in years instead of over generations.
(5) Who is at fault for this conflict? America or them?
Please consult a priest or philosopher for answers to such questions. The FM website discusses what was, what is, and what might be.
In any case, neither Mother Nature nor Mistress Cleo (the muse of history) cares. Rather than bother with such a pointless exercise, we should practice empathy for those whose cultures we threaten — and probably will irrevocably change. No matter if we disagree with their values, we can understand and sympathize with their anguish and lost traditions.
"There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford."
— Said by John Bradford while imprisoned in the Tower of London (as a Protestant) when he saw others led toward their execution. He burned at the stake on 1 July 1555 (See Wikipedia)
(6) The military dimension of this conflict
We couple an offensive cultural strategy with an aggressive military strategy. Although we call our military a "defense", our actions speak louder than our words. We maintain a chain of approximately 700+ bases encircling the world plus a massive military force — that frequently intervenes in foreign lands. Those nations not on friendly terms with us might reasonably find this threatening.
As is so often the case in history, the conflict between the West and the rest is structural. We will not change ourselves to suit others. It's our culture and their problem. What strategy will work best for us? Should we play offense or defense?
Both. And neither. The terms are meaningless except as generalities. Worse, they imply that we compete against everyone else. If so, what is the prize? Who cares? What does it mean to "win" the clash of civilizations"? The Soviet Union was a global menace for several generations, spreading communism and revolution over the globe – until it collapsed. What did their aggressiveness accomplish?
Disciple Caine: Master, do we seek victory in contention?
Master Kan: Seek rather not to contend.
Disciple Caine: But shall we not then be defeated?
Master Kan: We know that where there is no contention, there is neither defeat nor victory. The supple willow does not contend against the storm, yet it survives.
— From episode #1 of the television show "Kung Fu" (1972)
Our goal should be to build the best possible America. There is no perfect security in this world, only in the next. But we can make more friends than enemies, with empathy a powerful tool in our arsenal — in addition to the bombs.
Most importantly, patience and restraint make time our ally. Rather than our bombs, make our economic strength and vibrant culture the our cutting edges in this conflict, so that our enemies look with fear on the coming of each new year — as events slowly force them to evolve.
Or we can continue our bold warlike ways, and risk blowing our advantages. History provides many examples of ways to to this. Athens held a winning position similar to ours, and threw it away in an imprudent war. Lots of lessons for America in this passage.
Actually, we do know one important, big thing about the Classical Greek world that Thucydides did not know … There is a deep, powerful sense in which time was on the side of Athens and its empire. Each decade that the war between Sparta and Athens remained cold rather than hot was a decade for metics and immigrants to the Geek world to think whether they wanted to live in Spartan-allied oligarchies dominated by a closed guild of landowners, or in Athenian-allied places where the (male, citizen) demos ruled and where there was much more growth, commerce, trade, and opportunity.
Each decade that the war between Sparta and Athens remained cold rather than hot was a decade for rich Spartiates to marry the daughters of other rich Spartiates, and for poor Spartiates to find that they could no longer afford the Spartan lifestyle and so drop out of the citizen body — and of the main line of battle. By 350 Sparta could — this is a guess — put only one-fifth as many professional hoplite soldiers into the line of battle as it could have two centuries before. A policy of postponing the showdown — even if one of "apparently limitless forbearance" — was a policy of greatly increasing the relative strength of the Athenian side.
— "History as Tragedy: The Peloponnesian War", Brad DeLong, Professor of Economic at Berkeley
The US government borrows vast sums each year (often from foreign governments) to sustain our trillion-dollar military apparatus, our foreign bases, and many wars. A great nation's wealth, thoughtlessly thrown away without considering alternative strategies, which might achieve security at a cost we can afford. And allow time for the world to change so that this clash of civilizations passes, as have those in the past, leaving a better world in its wake.
(7) Recommendations
For details about a defensive grand strategy:
- The Myth of Grand Strategy, 31 January 2006
- One step beyond Lind: What is America's geopolitical strategy?, 28 October 2007
- How I learned to stop worrying and love Fourth Generation War. We can win at this game., 18 September 2013
(8) For More Information
(a) To read other posts about these things, see the FM reference page on the right side menu bar: posts about Military and strategic theory.
(b) Posts about the Long War:
- The Fight for Islamic Hearts and Minds, 20 February 2012
- A look at al Qaeda, the long war — and us, 7 August 2013
- How I learned to stop worrying and love Fourth Generation War. We can win at this game., 18 September 2013
(c) Posts about Islam
- Are islamic extremists like the anarchists?, 14 December 2009
- Hatred and fear of Islam – of Moslems – is understandable. But are there hidden forces at work?, 3 August 2010
- Should we fear that religion whose believers have killed so many people?, 4 August 2010
- Hard (and disturbing) information about schools in Pakistan – the madāris, 1 May 2011
- The Fight for Islamic Hearts and Minds, 20 February 2012


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With the Earth's climate at the tipping point to spin the planet into overheated mass extinction, some of us are thankful for the economy's collapse. "The worst slowdown since the Great Depression," said the New York Times (Business Day, Jan. 3). While it's true some kinds of environmental protection slacken when times are rougher for certain industries, on the whole there's a direct relationship between consumption and ecological destruction. Another relationship is between increased consumption (and work and debt) to unhappiness, mental illness and diminished social cohesion.
In addition to climate concerns and society's pathologies, we need to terminate our dangerous reliance on petroleum, coal, natural gas, uranium other metals and poisons that have built up our toxic house of cards. There are positive trends, such as dam removal and the radicalization of America's top climate scientist, James Hansen.
Although overpopulation has already been achieved thanks to petroleum's former rising abundance, and petrocollapse began last year with sustained skyrocketing prices, we can cushion the blows from the collapsing house of cards by cutting our losses. This means retreating into our local communities' economies and their inherent social structures for mutual aid. With every step we start to undo some of the momentum to kill off the climate as we've known it.
Essential economic activity goes on in a Depression, but there's less wealth generated. The problem is when the rich try to get richer off the poor's inability to pay for housing. As tough as the housing crisis may become if landlords and banks try to create mass homelessness -- that is, if people don't resist effectively -- our collective problem will not be shelter. For there's plenty of unused living space: churches, office buildings, second homes of the rich, etc.
What there's not going to be enough of is food, when nine energy inputs from fossil fuels go into food production for every one unit of calories yielded by the food in question (in the U.S.). As for transporting the food, we have gotten used to the average morsel traveling 1,500 miles before reaching the plate. So we have a painful rebalancing of energy ahead. Indications are that it has started, although some changes at this point are publicized as lifestyle news stories for leisurely readers of green lore. Examples are the "Loving the 100 Mile Diet" and "Sail Transport Network Hauls Food Across the Sea."
Clearly, "alternatives" such as those as well as urban food gardens, pedal power produce-hauling, and more veganism need to begin in ernest.
These methods for local self-sufficiency and sustainable food and freight were laughed at by most of the "mainstream" until now. Now they make more sense to anyone questioning buying a car or shelling out scarce dollars for expensive, long-distance hauled food.
To pursue these strategies now, to strip the car and oil industries of "earnings," will accelerate the fall of the corporate petroleum state. Its days are numbered, prompting a call for the proactive dissolution of the U.S. (Culture Change Letter #221). There's more to be done to finish the job of this oil-shock induced Depression, for more positive outcomes than we'll get if we cling to yesterday's economic system. It's too fantastic this week anyway, but what about ceasing 90% of the "Defense" budget to help bring an end to the deadly economic system heating the climate? We cannot foresee how soon collapse will be able to run its course to put the self-serving weapons industry mostly out of business.
But we can rejoice in the fact that
"The U.S. economy was on even weaker footing than commonly believed as 2008 came to a close. Moreover, the signal from the export orders index is that the rest of the world is right there with us. Hardly a signal for economic recovery anytime soon. New orders... are at the lowest level on record going back to January 1948." (New York Times, Jan. 3)
We are bombarded with corporate hope and sympathy for the polluting giants of industry: the phrase "economic recovery" is propagandistic mantra that all of us are supposed to join in -- even though the present economy is based on theft, fraud, exploitation and destruction. Is there another way? This is answered in the affirmative by Culture Change columnist Chuck Burr ("A Better Way of Making a Living for Humanity", link below) and in many other essays in Culture Change's two decades.
More propaganda: "Grim readings come from the Asia-Pacific region, including China and India." (New York Times, Jan. 3) Let's keep in mind that China has been putting up one new coal-fired power station per week while economic growth was about 10% annually -- a disaster for the planet's ecosystem and our health. Hallelujah that things are finally changing, even faster than we could have dreamed. This means hope for life on Earth to flourish in its diversity, instead of being snuffed out by the great evil of history: economic growth and its inextricable sins.
Celebrate! "The manufacturing sector (of China) had contracted for a fifth consecutive month... the steepest decline in its history." Thank you gods and goddesses!
These developments occurred because of peak oil and peak money. Praise be to petrocollapse.
More wonderful news from the same edition of the Times: "November Chip Sales Slipped 10%" (from Reuters). Shucks, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition must be in tears. Of joy.
"Desperate Retailers Try Frantic Discounts and Giveaways." Remember folks, do your duty to your local economy by never buying any corporate or far-away-made product -- get it used or local-made.
"Manufacturing is Suffering Globally" -- this undue pessimism about contraction is part of the imbalanced so-called journalism practiced by the nation's "newspaper of record." The Earth gets a break at long last, but this is "grim"? And "Worsening data..." -- this is objectivity?
What a gift from Santa Claus to start a year of more peace and less war on nature and, if trends continue, between the oil-greedy U.S. against other nations. If concerns such as militarism and generating positive feedback loops for the climate don't matter much today to Joe Sixpack, he can at least raise his Bud to this other news item in the same New York Times Business Day: "What's the use in endless collections calls? Creditors take what they can get." (from a story headlined as "Lenders Race to Settle While the Borrowers Still Have a Few Cents.") Happy new year, happy new age.
* * * * *
Further reading:
"Data Show Manufacturing Is Suffering In All Corners" by Bettina Wassener, New York Times, Jan. 3, 2009:
"Sail Transport Network Hauls Food Across the Sea." by Jan Lundberg, Culture Change Letter #225:
"A Better Way of Making a Living for Humanity" by Chuck Burr, January 2, 2009:
"Dissolve the U.S.: an Option for Proactive Change before Collapse - Will Obama be a Greater Gorbachev?" by Jan Lundberg, Culture Change Letter #221:
"Why it's best that people lose their jobs in this unsustainable economy" by Jan Lundberg, Culture Change Letter #214:
"Peak Money: The Shambles of Peak Oil" by Jan Lundberg, Culture Change Letter #220:
Cimate news and discussion that we initiated, ongoing since 2003: Global Warming Crisis Council
Culture Change mailing address: P.O. Box 3387, Santa Cruz, California, 95063, USA, Telephone 1-215-243-3144 (and fax).
Culture Change was founded by Sustainable Energy Institute (formerly Fossil Fuels Policy Action), a nonprofit organization.
Some articles are published under Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. See Fair Use Notice for more information.


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JERUSALEM – The Israeli military says it has driven out some 100 Palestinian activists who had pitched an illegal tent camp near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Saturday's operation marked the fifth time in the past month Israeli forces broke up a Palestinian encampment.
The Palestinians aim to draw attention to Israel's control of territory they seek for a future state. In particular, they say they are protesting what they describe as a broad Israeli policy to prevent Palestinians from building in West Bank areas controlled by the Jewish state.
The activists seem to be adopting a tactic of Jewish settlers, who establish communities on contested territory hoping it will remain theirs once structures are built.
The military said soldiers used riot control measures to disperse the crowd.


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Please Just Fade Away! By Beauty Salon Taringa – Call Us On 07 3871 0477
If you're over 40, you most likely are seeing more and more "age spots" popping up all over your body.
Aptly named, age spots are a consequence of sun damage through the accumulation of the dark pigment, melanin.
Although age spots rarely pose a threat, they are the bane of almost every woman!
Can anything be done about them? Yes! There are many choices for fading this pesky problem.
At home treatments: For light-colored spots, choose products with the vitamin A derivative, or retinoids, that accelerate exfoliation of the skin. Weaker strength glycolic and kojic acid also fade age spots.
Professional Treatments: For darker spots, the treatment may require a professional touch.
Chemical peels burn off the outer layer of skin to enable the growth of new skin.
Intense Pulsed Light also effectively tackles age spots. No matter what your aestheician recommends, the key with age spots is time and persistence.
Don't expect a quick fix because there isn't one. Combining treatments, however, is a highly effective way to speed up the process.
Set up a consult with us and we'll outline a treatment plan tailored just for your skincare needs. Lastly, use sunscreen year round to prevent further damage.
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Usergroup parameter type
From Joomla! Documentation
The "J1.5" namespace is an archived namespace. This page contains information for a Joomla! version which is no longer supported. It exists only as a historical reference, it will not be improved and its content may be incomplete and/or contain broken links.
|Parameters have been superseded by form fields in Joomla! 1.6. You may want to use the corresponding Usergroup form field type.
The usergroup parameter type provides a drop down list of user groups. If the parameter has a value saved, this value is displayed when the page is first loaded. If not, the default value (if any) is selected.
- type (mandatory) must be usergroup.
- name (mandatory) is the unique name of the parameter.
- label (mandatory) (translatable) is the descriptive title of the field.
- default (optional) is the default user group. This is the user group ID number.
- size (optional) is the number of rows of the list to display. If there are more items in the list than the size specified then scroll-bars will appear. If there is no size attribute, the list will be shown as a drop-down list if multiple is not set. If multiple is true and no size is set, the default size is the number of items in the list.
- multiple (optional) indicates whether multiple selections are allowed. If the multiple attribute is present (for example,
multiple="yes"), then multiple items may be selected from the drop-down list. If omitted, then only one item may be selected. Note that if multiple is used, the selected values are returned as an array. Also, if multiple is used, you should set the size attribute to control the size of the list box.
- description (optional) (translatable) is text that will be shown as a tooltip when the user moves the mouse over the drop-down box.
- class (optional) is a CSS class name for the HTML form field. If omitted this will default to 'inputbox'.
Example XML parameter definition:
<param name="myusergroups" type="usergroup" default="" label="Select a user group" description="" />


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Philippe Delzenne began his career as a comic artist in 1977, working for Frank Sels on the series 'Zilverpijl'. Two years later he was hired by Jef Nys to assist on the backgrounds and the inking of the adventures of 'Jommeke'. Delzenne left Nys' Antwerp-based studio in 1985 to join Studio Peyo. For a period of ten years, he drew 'Smurfs' for all sorts of projects, and he has also cooperated with Peyo and Thierry Culliford on scripts. He also provided the artwork for some new 'Poussy' gags that were published in Schtroumpf magazine in 1991-1992.
Delzenne returned to Studio Jef Nys in 1998 and has cooperated on the 'Jommeke' stories together with Gerd van Loock since then. He has also redrawn some of the earlier installments in the series, and has participated in the scriptwriting since the story 'De Komkommerprinses'. When Nys died in 2009, Delzenne and Van Loock became the official authors of the series. They alternatively write and draw their own 'Jommeke' albums, by now with credits.
In 2014 Merho, Carll Cneut and Mark Borgions all designed the cover of the 'Jommeke' album 'De Boemerang van Kirimbir' in their own style. All three albums with these unique covers could be collected, while the original story drawn by Delzenne was also available. Apart from the covers nothing else was different about the publications.


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KAHANA, ELIEZER BEN REUBEN:(Redirected from CAHANA, ELIEZER.)
Preacher and homiletic exegete in Karlin at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He wrote: "Siaḥ Sefunim" (Zolkiev, 1751-52), a commentary on the Five Rolls, each of them having its special subtitle; and "Ṭa'ame Torah" (ib. 1752-65), on the accents, the Masorah, and the recitation of the Pentateuch.
- Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, i. 125;
- Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, pp. 211, 572.


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To no great surprise, fans of ABC's Life on Mars are quite upset that the network has decided to kill the series after only 17 episodes. Granted, the early ratings weren't that great but the network didn't help matters either. Will viewers be given closure or will they and Sam Tyler be left stranded forever in the 1970s?
Life on Mars, a remake of the popular UK series, revolves around a modern-day detective (Jason O'Mara) who is somehow transported back to 1973. He manages to acclimate himself but is stymied as to the how and why of his situation. The series also features Michael Imperioli, Gretchen Mol, Harvey Keitel, Jonathan Murphy, Dominick Mancino, John Cenatiempo, Chris Miskiewicz, Tom Stratford, Matthew Cowles, and Tanya Fischer.
The drama debuted on October 9, 2008 to a solid 11.33 million viewers and a 3.8/10 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. Unfortunately, those numbers didn't last and Mars fell significantly in its second week, to 8.22 million and a 2.5/7 — a loss of 25% of the total audience. The ratings for the next five episodes averaged just eight million, sinking to a low of 7.77 million and a 2.5/7 rating/share on November 20th.
Though the series was struggling, there was still a chance that things could turn things around. But then, the network put Mars on a two month hiatus. For a serial drama, particularly one with an ongoing mystery, a hiatus like that is essentially a kiss of death. As expected, when the series finally returned in January, lots of viewers didn't come back. For the first four showings in 2009, Mars averaged a disastrous 5.5 million viewers and hit a low of 4.63 million and a 1.6/4 rating/share.
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This decline caused ABC to pull the plug but, as executive producer Andre Nemec told the LA Times, it didn't come as a big surprise. He said, "We were struggling a bit with our numbers… It didn't seem like we were getting that slow, steady climb every week." Thankfully, the network execs made their decision early enough for the producers to be able to craft an ending for the series.
Nemec noted, "We've felt from the beginning that if the show wasn't going to get its legs for a second season, nothing would have been more of a gift from the network and the studio than to give us the opportunity to find the creative closure a lot of shows don't get."
When ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson called with the bad news, the crew was prepping to shoot episode 17, the final installment of the season. Josh Appelbaum, Scott Rosenberg, and Nemec immediately got busy reworking the script. Nemec reflected, "It was heartbreaking to have to write it and simultaneously cathartic to be able to do it." Production on the episode wrapped last week and it's scheduled to air on April 1st.
Though the details are a closely guarded secret, we do know that the last episode of Mars begins with Sam searching for his younger self who's been kidnapped. The story ends in another time.
For those who have looked to the UK version for clues about the show's final resolution, they should know that it will be significantly different. In the British version, Sam awoke from a coma at the end of the program's two season, 16 episode run. Applebaum assures, "This could not be further from that."
He tells TV Guide that the show's secrets will indeed be revealed — including those about Hyde Park, the precinct he supposedly came from. Appelbaum said, "We will go to Hyde. We will learn what it is and what it looks like." He continued, "Everything we did is completely justified. It's one of those endings I believe will make you want to watch the series again, because you'll see that we've given you very distinct clues that will come together."
Nemec isn't sure if viewers will be surprised by the resolution but hopes that they will be pleased. He said, "If you've been watching the show and paying attention, I think in the last frame you'll find yourself saying that we didn't cheat you."
Image courtesy ABC.


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Intel's acquisition of Ethernet chip vendor Fulcrum Microsystems is just the latest step in integrating the components within data centers to help them work smoothly as a single virtual system.
Fulcrum makes silicon for data-center switches with 10-Gigabit and 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports. Its chips are known for low latency. The small, privately held company's technology will give Intel a place inside the switches atop server racks that link servers to each other and to the overall network. Intel wants to pair Fulcrum's chips with its own silicon used in Ethernet adapters and controllers so they can exchange new types of information about security, quality of service, management and other variables.
Intel did not disclose the price it paid for Fulcrum, which is based in Calabasas, California, and was founded in 1999. Its plan is to have most of Fulcrum's employees transfer to Intel and work in the company's data center group.
System vendors are already lining up their own computing, networking and storage platforms to help automate the operation of virtualized data centers. Cisco Systems has paired its Unified Computing System (UCS) servers with its data-center switches, along with EMC storage and VMware's virtualization software. Hewlett-Packard also sees itself offering data-center integration, and Juniper Networks and IBM seem to be heading down the same path through a partnership.
"Our customers are looking to purchase compute, networking and storage as one unit," said Steve Schultz, director of marketing at Intel. "This is a building block we didn't have in our product portfolio."
The key to these types of initiatives is to make servers and network components aware of each other so they can work more closely together, said Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. As applications on dedicated servers give way to virtual machines that can be moved around for greater efficiency, it's harder for IT administrators to keep network policies up to date manually, he said. Such an effort is both time-consuming and prone to human errors, which are the leading cause of network downtime, according to Kerravala.
No other vendor yet has all the pieces for the kind of tight integration Cisco has achieved, Kerravala said. If Intel makes server and switch chips that can talk to each other at that level, smaller manufacturers will be able to offer coordination with products from other vendors that also use Intel.
"This gives the rest of the field an opportunity to go compete with Cisco," Kerravala said. Though they wouldn't be likely to match Cisco overnight, these smaller rivals ultimately could claim high-level interoperability based on a de facto industry standard of Intel chips, he said. One customer of such an architecture might be Arista Networks, a maker of high-performance data-center switches that is already a partner of both Intel and Fulcrum. Arista's switches are geared toward very large cloud-computing infrastructures that need connections as fast as 40G bps or 100G bps. Arista was not immediately available to comment on the Intel-Fulcrum deal.
Intel has tried to enter the network infrastructure business in the past, with little success. It has a better chance to succeed now because of the closer relationship between computing and networking, Kerravala said.
Broadcom, a major rival of Intel's for both switch and controller silicon, said on Tuesday it has been able to achieve the same kinds of data-center integration capabilities in conjunction with its customers. "The silicon vendors have to provide the capabilities in their chips, and the system vendors have to then tie it all together with their software," said Rajiv Ramaswami, executive vice president and general manager of Broadcom's infrastructure and networking group.
The types of higher-level capabilities that Intel and others are talking about should cause IT administrators to look closely at interoperability, Kerravala added. While all Ethernet devices will work together at a basic level, the more advanced types of interaction aren't likely to work across all brands of gear that an enterprise may buy, potentially limiting choice.
"Even if you choose to do it the Intel way, you're still stuck with the Intel stack," Kerravala said.
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is email@example.com


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before /pirate visionary.
during/ fixed. for a week.
now/ citrus punch.
the raybans are fab! i particularly love them for cycling because they really stay in place and they don't interfere with my helmet. and because they're que cute!ReplyDelete
right! I noticed that after having those massive old ones, I dont have to readjust stuff with these 'smaller' ones ;)
♥thanks gina
Sorry to hear about your sunglasses - thats always such a bummer.. But the new ones look so good! I love the little hint of yellow. I have a similar pair with teal on the inside and a slight fade on the lenses :)ReplyDelete


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Helioviewer is a solar data browser. You can browse and compare images of the sun at different times, at different wavelengths, and at different magnifications.
These are some breathtaking photos from the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.
Weber School District
5320 Adams Ave. Pkwy
Ogden, UT 84405
Phone - 801.476.7800


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[Notch], the guy behind Minecraft, is currently working on a new game called 0x10c. This game includes an in-game 16-bit computer called the DCPU that hearkens back to the 1980s microcomputers with really weird hardware architecture. [Benedek] thought it would be a great idea to turn his ThinkPad into a DCPU, so he wrote a bootable x86 emulator for the DCPU that is fully compliant with the current DCPU spec.
This bootable DCPU emulator comes from the fruitful workshop of [Benedek], the brains behind drawing fractals on the DCPU, emulating bit-flipping radiation, and even putting the Portal end credits inside [notch]'s 0x10c computer.
[Benedek] wrote this new in x86 assembly, allowing it to be booted without an OS from a USB flash drive on any old laptop. This allows for direct hardware communication for everything implemented for the DCPU so far.
If you'd like to run your bare-metal DCPU, [Benedek] made all the files avaiable. Since the entire emulator is only 1800 lines of x86 assembly, it's possible to load this off a floppy disk; an ancient tech we'll be seeing in [notch]'s new game.
Oh. One more thing. When we were introduced to 0x10c, we said we'll be holding a contest for the best hardware implementation of the DCPU. We're still waiting on some of the hardware specs to be released (hard drives and the MIDI-based serial interface), so we'll probably be holding that when there is a playable alpha release. [Benedek]'s bootable emulator is a great start, though.


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Willie "the Lion" Smith
Paul Studer first met Willie "the Lion" Smith at a jazz event at the Overseas Press Club and they formed a close friendship. Studer attended Smith's concerts at Central Plaza and he often visited Smith in his home. Smith invited Studer and his girlfriend Jeann "Roni" Failows to accompany him, Duke Ellington, and other prominent musicians to a jazz festival in Connecticut. Studer greatly enjoyed this friendship. On occasion he had the honor and privilege of jamming with Smith on the clarinet. Smith gave him copies of sheet music he composed, and Studer has them to this day. Studer remembers Smith as a friendly, cheerful, and humorous man who loved classical music.Read More
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