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Nasdaq Still 57% Lower Compared to 2000 High
Guess who's back on top? No, it's not Paul Krugman and neither is it the Chicago Bulls. It's the Nasdaq Composite - that wretched technology heavy stock index you've grown to hate.
Today, the Nasdaq (NasdaqGS:ONEQ) reached 3,223 for the first time in 12 years, according to enthusiastic media reports. Never mind that Andrew Mason, (Groupon's former CEO) got canned last week. Tech, if you're on the right side of the market, is still a great racket. (See Andy's $225 million in Groupon stock as proof.)
How thrilled is everyone?
So thrilled, even ancient business jargon like "new economy" and "first mover advantage" have returned. Friending and tweeting (NasdaqGS:SOCL) are still cool too. (zaibatsu is only cool if you work at Kleiner Perkins or a simliar beast.)
The Nasdaq's 12-year odyssey has been grueling. To give you some perspective on just how long 12 years is, if you were 9 years old, now you're the legal drinking age of 21. And if you were 58, now you're 70 or close to it - which means mandatory distributions - and taxes - from your retirement accounts await you. Joy of joys!
And while the Nasdaq's upward march (in March its favorite month!) is impressive, the benchmark technology index is still a bothersome 57% lower compared to its closing price of 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000. (I had to include some bad news in this back from the dead story, to give it some balance and to throw a few cheap shots at the tech sector, which has doled out more than its fair share of dogs.) The basic translation is that you can't produce superior investment results if you're buying the same assets at the same prices as everyone else, particularly at market peaks.
The Nasdaq Composite measures all domestic and international stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange (NasdaqGS:NDAQ) - which doesn't necessarily make it a technology index per se. Nonetheless, with more than 49% of its exposure is to technology stocks, its fortunes are closely linked to how the sector performs. (Side Note: By comparison, the much smaller Nasdaq-100 (NasdaqGS:QQQ) which excludes financial companies, has almost 63% exposure to technology.)Here are a few lessons we learn from the Nasdaq Composite's slow climb back to 12-year highs:
Large losses are virtually impossible to recover from. People that consistently lose money in the stock market often double or triple down on their losers. As a result, they end up taking greater financial risks in attempt to recoup their losses, which almost never works. A $500,000 investment that loses 50% in value needs to experience an incredible 100% gain just to get back to even.
Big gains from investing in stocks can take decades, but large losses can occur in a flash. It took the Nasdaq Composite decades to reach its pinnacle point of 5,000. But after hitting that amazing level, it took the Nasdaq just nine months to be cut in half and another 24 months to fall 75% from its peak.
Focusing your net worth in one stock or one industry sector is always a gamble. Great wealth can be obtained by concentrating investments in one fantastic performing area, but it can also massively backfire and it often does. People have short memories. The mere mention of the countless technology failures like Flooz, Kozmo, Nortel Networks, Webvan and others that have destroyed trillions in shareholder capital serves as no warning to people who suffer from financial amnesia. If they refuse to remember, nobody can make them.
There are always exceptions. In retrospect, even a dummy could've seen that LinkedIn (NasdaqGS:LNKD) would've been the stock to own instead of Zynga (NasdaqGS:ZNGA). But unfortunately, we don't live in retrospect nor can we invest in retrospect. There are always a very tiny number of winners in the stock market (NYSEArca:SCHB) - with an even tinier group of investors that are able to pre-identify those winning stocks before they become that way.
Finally, there are a few lucky kamikazes who bought stocks like Google (NasdaqGS:GOOG) at a 50% plus premium to its IPO offer price on the first day of trading and still made out like bandits. Hats off to you. Now I dare you to try it again.
The ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter uses a common sense approach to fundamental and technical analysis to identify key inflection points and profit opportunities in ETFs tracking stocks, bonds, and commodities.

subset: commoncrawl


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UPDATE: Dr. Shapiro sent me a response to my critique below and asked me to post it; I have done so in the comments (here), and have written a brief response directly below it.
Jim Shapiro is a professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology here at the University of Chicago, so I suppose he could be considered a colleague, though I've had almost no interaction with him. I have, however, followed his activities in the literature—and with some dismay. Shapiro, it seems, has devoted much of his writing to pointing out that the modern theory of evolution ("neo-Darwinism") is deeply flawed and needs a new paradigm.
That, I think, is the thesis of his book, Evolution: A View from the 21st Century, which was published in June of last year. I haven't read it, but Shapiro presents a summary of its thesis in a piece at the HuffPo science page, "What is the key to a realistic theory of evolution?" His thesis is that, contrary to Darwin's views, and those of modern evolutionary biologists, evolution is not as "gradual" as we think:
Darwin put it this way in Chapter 6: "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case."
There has always been controversy about whether random variation and natural selection for improved fitness can truly explain biological evolution over time. Today we can apply genome sequence data to test Darwin's theory. It answers clearly about gradualism.
Many genome changes at key stages of evolution have been neither small nor gradual.
Now what one means by "gradual" is a matter of taste. Nearly all of us agree that large changes in phenotype—the complex of traits that distinguish, say, genera or families, don't occur instantaneously but take thousands to millions of years to accomplish. Sometimes these changes are faster than others (this is the basis of the "pattern" part of punctuated equilibrium theory), but they never happen overnight. And we know from the fossil record that gradualism is often the case: the transformation of land-dwelling artiodactyls into whales, for example, took about ten million years, and the transformation of reptiles into modern mammals took three or four times that span. We know this because we see the gradual transformation of fossils. Theory also tells us that such profound evolution can't happen instantly: it's unlikely to see a single mutation that would, for example, transform a theropod dinosaur into a bird (many traits must change before that happens), and the coordinated change in many traits that differentiate these groups takes time, as we must await the buildup of many mutations. There's also a limit to how fast selection can transform populations.
I'm comfortable with saying, then, that big changes in form in evolution are—and must be—gradual, with "gradual" meaning tens of thousands to millions of years.
Shapiro, however, points out that there are instances of more rapid evolution:
- Polyploidy and other forms of speciation involving hybridization. Sometimes different species in nature can hybridize, and, though the hybrids may be sterile, they can undergo doubling of the hybrid set of chromosomes to produce a fertile "allotetraploid" species that is fertile because each species' chromosomes can pair during gamete formation. This has happened many times in nature (we estimate that 2-7% of all flowering plants arose this way), and it's very quick: about 2 generations. We have actually seen this occur in a human lifetime in nature: this is described in WEIT. New species can also arise in this way by doubling of the chromosomes of a single species, forming an "autotetraploid". Or, sometimes, interspecies hybrids can form new species without doubling their chromosomes; their genes sort out in a way that makes them reproductively isolated (and morphologically different) from the two parental species. This process, called "diploid hybrid speciation," occurs relatively quickly as well: I believe that some diploid hybrid sunflowers arose in about 50 generations. Darwin, of course, didn't know about this because the genetics wasn't worked out till much later. Polyploidy is a rapid form of evolution and speciation, one that is fairly common in plants, but very rare in animals. (The reason for its rarity in animals isn't understood, but we discuss the theories in the book I wrote with Allen Orr, Speciation.
Many domesticated species arose by either deliberate hybridization by humans or selection on naturally-occurring hybrids. Wheat, for example, cited by Shapiro as an example of near-instantaneous evolution, did arise by humans picking out a naturally-occurring hybrid; this probably happened twice, so that modern wheat contains the genomes from three wild species of grass. But much of the selection that makes for modern wheat was also artificial: humans picked out the variants with bigger heads that remained on the plant. So the differences between wild and cultivated wheat don't completely exemplify near-instantaneous evolution in nature.
- Symbiosis. We all know, thanks to Lynn Margulis, that the evolution of the eukaryotic cell involved two rapid evolutionary events: the acquisition of mitochondria via the ingestion of one bacterium by another cell, and, in plants, the origin of chloroplasts via a similar route. Centrioles (a group of microtubules involved in cell division) may have originated via symbiosis. And some species, like lichens, are actually a mixture of two distinct species—in the case of lichens, an alga (or cyanobacterium) and a fungus. That fusion probably happened quickly as well.
Margulis theorized that symbiosis was not only important in evolution, but ubiquitous, involved in nearly all cases of speciation and macroevolution. She was wrong. We know now that the rapid origin of new taxa by symbiosis, while critical for some evolutionary transformations, is rare. It can hardly be used to discount the notion that "Darwinian" evolution is usually gradual.
- Acquisition of DNA from other species. This uptake of DNA between species, also called "horizontal gene transfer" (HGT) happens sometimes, and although rare (especially in animals), may be more common than we think. I regard it as a form of mutation, since the acquired gene is, after acquisition, subject to evolution via natural selection. Given its rarity (if it were common we wouldn't be able to make good DNA-based trees of various species) and the subsequent modification of the acquired DNA by natural selection, it's doubtful whether HGT qualifies as "instantaneous evolution."
- Genomic changes other than slight changes in DNA sequence. Shapiro cites several of these which have been involved in the evolution of new genes, including gene duplication (a whole gene gets copied in its entirety, which can lead to the origin of "gene families") and the formation of new genes by pasting together bits of old ones (this is the topic of research by my Chicago colleague Manyuan Long). But while these pheomena are "rapid" on the DNA level, they're not necessarily a cause of rapid evolution on the organismal, biochemical, or even genomic level. After all, those new genes, particularly the duplicated ones, must undergo their own gradual divergence via natural selection: that's how the different opsins in our eyes, the divergent genes in our immune system, and the different types of human hemoglobin arose. That differentiation took a long time, because the new genes have to await mutations.
So yes, evolution can be almost instantaneous in the case of symbiosis and polyploidy, and there are mechanisms of mutation not dreamt of in the genetics of Watson and Crick. But does this invalidate the paradigm of neo-Darwinism? Shapiro thinks it does:
Was Darwin simply mistaken about the gradual nature of hereditary variation? Such ignorance would be unavoidable before we knew about Mendelian genetics and DNA. Or was there a deeper flaw in the theory that he (and Alfred Russell Wallace) propounded? The answer may well be that it was a basic mistake to think that optimizing fitness is the source of biological diversity.
Here he's completely wrong. Yes, evolution can sometimes be rapid, though most of the time it's gradual, but in all cases—all cases—adaptive evolution occurs by natural selection, and that means "optimizing fitness." Shapiro is getting Darwinism wrong here, for he's conflating the materials of evolutionary diversity (mutations and new genes that arise randomly) with their disposition by natural selection, a nonrandom process that does involve "optimizing fitness." Given that adaptive differentiation between species involves natural selection, you simply cannot say that "optimizing fitness' is not a part of biological diversity. That attack on neo-Darwinism is misguided, and it's wrong to suggest it to lay readers.
Shapiro's piece then rapidly goes downhill as he starts repeating creationist arguments. Here's one:
The first problem with selection as the source of diversity is that selection by humans, the subject of Darwin's opening chapter, modifies existing traits but does not produce new traits or new species. Dogs may vary widely as a result of selective breeding, but they always remain dogs.
You'll recognize this as the old creationist canard. Yes, of course we can't turn a dog into a cat by artificial selection, because that would take millions of years, and we've only been selecting on dogs for a couple of thousand years. But the true refutation of this idea is in the fossil record: we can see land-living artiodactyls (resembling small deer) turning into whales, we can see fish turning into amphibians, we can see early reptiles turning into mammals, we can see theropod dinosaurs turning into birds, and we can see our apelike ancestors turning into more modern humans. In other words, we find in fossils precisely those transformations that Shapiro says are impossible. I deplore that a colleague of mine makes this misguided argument, and in the Science section of HuffPo, which I'm increasingly beginning to deplore as well.
Shapiro also goes after the neo-Darwinian idea that mutations are random:
The second problem is that Darwin understood only "numerous, successive, slight modifications" as the sources of inherited change. His neo-Darwinian followers have modified this position to assert that all mutations occur randomly. They insist there is no biological input into the change process. For them, the genome determines organism characteristics. They think of it as a read-only memory (ROM), which only changes by accident.
Well, he's wrong again here. What we mean when we say that mutations are "random" is not that there's no biological input into the mutation process (that would be a truly stupid assertion), but that the biological inputs into diversity occur irrespective of whether they would be useful to the organism. Mutational change occurs by accident, or as a byproduct of something else (like a gene being accidentally duplicated, or the ingestion of DNA from another species), but those changes occur whether or not they'd be "good" (i.e., increase the reproductive output of) individuals in the species that has mutated. Gene shuffling, gene duplication, horizontal gene transfer: all of these are biological accidents that are just the precursors of adaptive differentiation—the fuel of evolutionary change. They're the gas that fills the tank of the car, which moves by natural selection. Adaptive differentiation still requires the process of natural selection: the nonrandom differential reproduction of genes (and individuals), usually involving greater success in the environment.
While Shapiro rightfully points out that there are more sources of genetic variation than were dreamt of in your genetics, Watson and Crick, he is misguided in thinking that these new sources of variation completely destroy the Darwinian idea of gradualism and natural selection. We see many examples of gradual evolutionary change in the fossil record, and natural selection is still the only game in town when in comes to explaining adaptations. If Shapiro knows any other way that adaptation can occur, let him tell us.
Neo-Darwinism has certainly expanded since it began to form in the 1930s, and it should: evolution is a vibrant science with new discoveries occurring weekly. But it's simply wrong to think that those new discoveries have invalidated (or even caused a serious reassessment of) the major tenets of neo-Darwinism. That theory is regularly pronounced dead—as it is here by Shapiro—but it refuses to lie down.


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With so little turnover thus far on their roster, it's beginning to look as if the 2013 Opening Day roster will closely resemble 2012 -- albeit minus Tim Byrdak (recoverying from shoulder surgery) as well as free agents Jon Rauch, Ramon Ramirez, Kelly Shoppach and possibly Scott Hairston and non-tenders Mike Pelfrey, Andres Torres and Manny Acosta.
Even GM Sandy Alderson acknowledges the rosters very well will be similar.
William Perlman/US Presswire
Sandy Alderson acknowledged the Opening Day roster may look a lot like the end of 2012."I would expect the roster will look similar to the way it did at the end of last year -- with some exceptions," Alderson said Tuesday. "It's hard to speculate. When you think about it, the trade market, signing free agents and so forth, it's relatively young in the season. It's hard, really, to accurately predict where things will end up."
David Wright reduced the amount he was owed in 2013 as part of his new deal, Jason Bay deferred money as part of his buyout and Mets officials swear the payroll can inch slightly higher in 2013. Still, Alderson acknowledged, the Mets may not use the available capital -- in part because the prices on the market may not be worth it.
"Again, it's hard for me to predict what exactly will happen," Alderson said. "But we're not going to spend the money in mid-December just because we have it. We may spend it in January. We may spend it at some other time. We may not spend it. But the important thing is we have the flexibility to make a baseball decision about that rather than be constrained by sort of an artificial financial limitation."
The bullpen is one area in need of reinforcements. Currently, Bobby Parnell is the lone established and credible setup man for closer Frank Francisco.
"We'd like to have a little more veteran presence there, but we're excited about some of the young relievers that we have -- some of those that arrived late last season," Alderson said. "So we think that's going to be a plus."


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Story highlights
U.S. State Department has added al-Nusra Front in Syria to its list of terrorist organizations
Some Syrian rebels object, saying al-Nusra's expertise is needed in fight against regime
The U.S. wants to build up a moderate political opposition for a future post-Assad Syria
Al-Nusra says it wants Syria to be an Islamic state, but it's not formally linked to al Qaeda
In designating the al-Nusra Front as a foreign terrorist organization and an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq, the U.S. State Department has put flesh on the bones of its policy of discriminating between the "bad" Syrian rebels and the "good" ones. But the decision is getting mixed reviews in Syria.
Rebels in brigades fighting around Aleppo have told CNN that the move is a miscalculation. Their argument goes something like this: "The U.S. and the West in general have given us next to no help while we've witnessed thousands die at the hands of Bashar al-Assad's heavy weaponry and dominance of the skies.
Read more: New head of Syrian opposition briefs European foreign ministers
"To add insult to injury, Washington has now proscribed one of the most effective fighting forces among rebel groups. We may not share al-Nusra's worldview, but we need their organizational and battlefield experience."
This has translated into resentment and anger toward the United States on the ground, as people ask: "Al-Nusra are terrorists, but Bashar is not?"
For the United States, the decision is part of a broader effort to support a moderate political opposition in Syria – one that can be part of an eventual transition to a post-Assad Syria.
Read more: Syrian rebels move toward unified command
Without such a presence – one that can begin to function as a government in waiting – U.S. policy-makers fear a prolonged war of attrition that will play into the hands of more radical factions while Syria's humanitarian crisis turns into catastrophe.
Additionally there is concern among U.S. officials that groups like al-Nusra will make common cause with Sunni militants in Iraq, who would like nothing better than a sympathetic rear base across the Euphrates River.
U.S. officials are making the argument that the overall affect of the designation of al-Nusra will be to minimize the group's role in the Syrian opposition while not reducing the fighting capabilities of the rebel groups.
"Al-Nusra Front is one of many groups that are fighting the Syrian regime now, it is not the only one," a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday in explaining the designation. "In fact it is a minority. Its influence has grown in recent months, but it still represents the minority element within the broader armed opposition."
By the estimates of rebel commanders in Syria, al-Nusra (also known as Jabhat al-Nusra) makes up less than 10% of the brigades fighting the regime. Most of its fighters are Syrian. Some waged jihad in Iraq before returning home, though several also spent time in the Bucca prison camp in Iraq, where hundreds of insurgents were held.
There is also more than a smattering of foreign fighters in al-Nusra's ranks – Jordanian, Iraqi, Libyan, a few from Central Asia.
U.S. officials also point out that the State Department has designated Syrian groups known as the Shabiha – paramilitary militias controlled by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that have attacked and killed opponents of the al-Assad regime.
"Whether the American steps today will immediately curtail al-Nusra's capabilities, I don't think they know," the senior administration official said. "But I think that other nations that are involved in helping the armed opposition will now take more seriously our concerns about the Nusra front."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday: "We've had concerns that al-Nusra is little more than a front for al Qaeda in Iraq who has moved some of its operations into Syria. … We do see al Qaeda in Iraq trying to make these inroads."
Some tribal leaders in Iraqi provinces like Anbar are already thought to be funneling money and weapons to Islamist factions across the long border, and al-Nusra has been strong in areas near the Iraqi border.
Read more: Syria's chemical weapon potential: What are the health risks?
The West appears ready to accept that Islamists loyal to organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood will be part of the post-Assad scenery. They are well represented in the new Military Council established this week, from which al-Nusra was excluded. Al-Nusra had already boycotted the new political opposition, making common cause with other militant factions.
Some analysts believe that al-Nusra is too important on the battlefield, especially in attacking military bases in the Northwest, for other rebel commanders to ostracize it.
In the year since al-Nusra emerged, it has carried out a number of complex and coordinated suicide bombings against high-profile regime targets and built a coherent fighting force through a thorough vetting process. By the admission of Free Syrian Army commanders on the ground, al-Nusra was instrumental in the seizure of the Sheikh Suleiman Military Academy near Aleppo this week. A reporter for Agence France-Presse in the area said many of the fighters "were from other Arab countries and Central Asia."
At another military base, rebel commander Ali Jadlan told CNN that fighters with al-Nusra were among the three brigades laying siege to the military academy. He said they were responsible for the most dangerous area.
The group has continued its offensive against the regime with a devastating series of suicide bombings – most recently claiming responsibility for blowing up a government checkpoint in al Qusayr, and posting before and after photographs on jihadist online forums.
The analysts say that only if U.S. designation of al-Nusra were followed by serious weapons supplies to the "good" rebels might those rebels change their stance toward the group.
While President Barack Obama has not ruled out the option of supplying weapons, officials say there first must be more clarity on the ground.
"For us, providing arms has to be done in a way that helps promote a political solution," the senior administration official said. "Until we understand how these arms promote a political solution, we do not see how provision of arms is a good idea."
Not much is known about al-Nusra's structure or leadership, but its emir, who goes by the nom de guerre of of Abu Muhammad al-Golani, said in an audio message at the beginning of the year that its goal was to make Syria an Islamic state. The group's propaganda frequently tells Syrians that they have been "abandoned" by the West.
The lesson of history is that revolutions tend to be won by the best organized and most ruthless, rather than the best intentioned and most reasonable. For Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, organization was as important as ideology. The Taliban swept across Afghanistan as the only coherent force in a country craving order and stability. Egypt's revolution ended up favoring the Muslim Brotherhood as the only political organization tried and tested by decades of repression. Similarly, al-Nusra stands out among Syrian rebel groups as the most effective and disciplined.
Al-Nusra has also learned from history, according to other Islamists among Syrian rebel ranks. Many of its more experienced fighters saw al Qaeda in Iraq alienate the Sunni tribes there with its vicious sectarian bloodletting. As Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote in Foreign Policy last week, "Jabhat al-Nusra seems to have learned from the mistakes of al Qaeda in Iraq: It has not attacked civilians randomly, nor has it shown wanton disregard for human life by publicizing videos showing the beheading of its enemies."
Instead, Islamist leaders in Aleppo say, it is looking to broaden its appeal and spread its fundamentalist message.
Ordinary people in Aleppo complain that some FSA units mishandle or misappropriate bread distribution, and they have begun to look to Islamist groups for greater honesty in managing local affairs. One chant recently heard in Aleppo, revealingly, was this: "We don't want a thieving free army, we want an Islamic army."
The United States would rather see that role in the hands of the Local Coordination Committees, present in many Syrian cities since early in the uprising.
Such is the undercurrent of resentment toward the United States among Syrians pummeled by nearly two years of regime attacks that designating al-Nusra may have the unintended consequence of making it more popular. Designation may also make it more attractive to foreign jihadists. According to the SITE Intelligence Group, another jihadist group, the al-Sahaba Army, has already congratulated al-Nusra for its designation, describing it as a "great honor" and calling on other groups to rally to al-Nusra.
For now, the group has no formal affiliation with al Qaeda, and according to other Islamist fighters it is probably wary of being pigeonholed as part of the group, for fear of causing a backlash among a population that historically is among the less conservative in the Arab world.
One leading Islamist in Aleppo described al-Nusra as similar to jihadist groups in Iraq before they morphed into al Qaeda. So far, he said, al-Nusra has yet to receive al Qaeda's seal of approval.
The U.S. State Department thinks otherwise.
This story is based on reporting by Arwa Damon in Aleppo, Syria, and Jill Dougherty and Jamie Crawford in Washington, and was written by Tim Lister in Atlanta.


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Um, yeah, no, hmm...
Discourse markers are the little words at the beginning and ends of sentences that help people organize conversation and relate to listeners.
"I noticed 'yeah, no,' 'no, yeah' and 'no, I know,' where no seems to mean yes," said Anne Curzan, an English Professor at the University of Michigan.
'Yeah, no' does a few things. It helps people agree with another person who has made a negative statement.
"So someone says, 'I don't think that rule applies here.' And you can say, 'yeah, no I don't think it does.' So you're affirming a negative statement," she said.
Curzan tells Rina Miller, these "discourse markers" also help people politely disagree with someone.
"Let's imagine someone says, 'Oh good there's no group work,' and you say, 'Yeah, no there is group work.' So you're acknowledging they've said it, but you're respectfully disagreeing."
And then, as Curzan says, people use it to do a "funny disprefered response." Basically it's when people about to say "no" to someone.
"Let's imagine someone asks me, 'Anne, will you do this hundred question survey?' And I say, "yeah, no.'"
'Um' is another way to signal to another person that you are about to disagree, or say no.


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After decades of riding icebreakers in Antarctica's icy waters hoping to better understand the fragile ecosystem on and around this frigid continent scientists have begun delegating data collection to satellite-guided robotic subs. The hope is that these sea gliders, which can dive hundreds of meters and stay in the water for months at a time, will help to unlock the secrets of phytoplankton blooms that nourish the organisms in Antarctica's Ross Sea for a few months each year before mysteriously disappearing.
There are neither green plants in Antarctica nor macro-algae in the surrounding waters, says Vernon Asper, a marine science professor at the University of Southern Mississippi's (U.S.M.) Department of Marine Science at the NASA Stennis Space Center. "Essentially, everything that eats, lives and breathes in Antarctica is fed from phytoplankton in the ocean."
These blooms, which turn the sea from deep blue to lush green, begin sometime in November in a large polynya (an opening in the ice) in the Ross Sea when the liquid water is exposed to sunlight. The heat stratifies the sea surface in this roughly 160- by 320-kilometer area. (Its expanse varies from year to year.) This allows microscopic phytoplankton to flourish.
"In January, generally, the bloom is going great, the algae is growing like crazy, and then all of a sudden it quits," Asper says. "By mid-January the algae falls out of the water column and it gets clear again. We'd like to see what is different between mid-November and mid-January." Researchers have determined that there is no appreciable difference in water nutrients, sunlight, water temperature or stratification from the time the blooms begin in November to the time they disappear in January.
Researchers have been traveling to this polynya for decades, studying the phytoplankton during ship expeditions or collecting data from moorings placed in the water. The information has been incomplete because ice flows prevent ships from traveling to the area prior to late December (the beginning of southern summer). (They have been able to determine when the blooms begin with the aid of satellite images.) "It's hard to study the onset of the bloom," says Asper, who has been making the trip regularly since the early 1990s. "If you want to study the phytoplankton from a ship, it's like missing the first acts of a play."
Interest in the phytoplankton blooms began when ships traveling to the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station would report on how green the water was. "We're interested in understanding the ecosystem around the Southern Ocean because it's an extremely productive place," Asper says. "Given that the entire ecosystem depends on the phytoplankton, we really want to nail down what they depend on. You could stretch that and say we're interested in this for a global significance, because we want to get baseline data to study global climate change, and we want to be able to monitor how things change."
Late last year, Asper and a diverse team of colleagues from U.S.M., the University of Washington in Seattle, Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, and the U.K.'s University of East Anglia turned to robot subs to help get more comprehensive readings of the phytoplankton and surrounding water. During a trip funded by the National Science Foundation, the researchers dropped two Seaglider unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) built by Bedford, Mass.–based iRobot Corp. into the Ross Sea polynya. Seaglider is essentially a pointy-nosed, 1.8-meter-long yellow torpedo with two rear fins having a one-meter wingspan. The tetherless Seaglider drives through the water at a speed of about 1.8 kilometers per hour, driven by changes in buoyancy rather than a propeller system.*
The GPS-guided Seagliders at times operated beneath 100 meters of ice, although the researchers generally tried to avoid directing the subs below ice where they cannot get a satellite signal for prolonged periods of time. When they are out of GPS range the gliders use deduced reckoning (aka "dead" reckoning) to calculate their position and navigate using their last known coordinates until they can resurface and reestablish a GPS link. The deepest dives were about 500 meters and lasted no more than three hours at a time.
The scientists are still parsing the data collected by the gliders' sensors. A conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) sensor was used to measure water temperature and salinity, which will help researchers calculate the its density and potential to mix with water flowing in from other locations. Researchers are hoping that the Seagliders' three optical sensors shed light on the water's biological properties, including the amount of oxygen and the presence of chlorophyll.
Asper and his colleagues were not the only researchers in the area using a UUV to study the phytoplankton blooms. A team led by Rutgers University oceanography professor Josh Kohut deployed an autonomous glider of its own design called the RU26 to track very small changes in the polynya's temperature and salinity. The RU26 was placed in the water December 11 and traversed 1,180 kilometers through the Ross Sea before it had to be removed on February 5 due to a mechanical problem.
Ocean scientists got their first taste of how gliders could help with their research last summer, following BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. iRobot provided Seagliders in May to help detect the presence of oil by measuring temperature, salinity and other ocean properties at depths of up to 1,000 meters.
As data from the Ross Sea is analyzed, Asper and his colleagues plan to build computerized models that help them visualize the phytoplankton blooms below the surface. Asper expects gliders and other autonomous subs are the future of oceanographic data collection. "They can work in conditions where ships can't," he says. "They don't care about hurricanes, they don't get tired or sick—they just work."
View a slide show of the Seagliders' deployment.
*Correction (2/25/11): This sentence was edited after posting. It originally referred to the maximum speed as 1.8 kilometers per second.
Bloom with a View: Robot Subs Help Researchers Study Mysterious Antarctic Sea Life [Slide Show]
Having tested their mettle in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, automated sea gliders are deployed in polar-opposite conditions to investigate short-lived phytoplankton blooms
After decades of riding icebreakers in Antarctica's icy waters hoping to better understand the fragile ecosystem on and around this frigid continent scientists have begun delegating data collection to satellite-guided robotic subs. The hope is that these sea gliders, which can dive hundreds of meters and stay in the water for months at a time, will help to unlock the secrets of phytoplankton blooms that nourish the organisms in Antarctica's Ross Sea for a few months each year before mysteriously disappearing.


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The security technology called "sandboxing" aims at detecting malware code by subjecting it to run in a computer-based system of one type of another to analyze it for behavior and traits indicative of malware. Sandboxing -- one alternative to traditional signature-based malware defense -- is seen as a way to spot zero-day malware and stealthy attacks in particular. While this technique often effective, it's hardly foolproof, warns a security researcher who helped establish the sandboxing technology used by startup Lastline.
When it comes to malware detection, "a sandbox shouldn't be considered a silver bullet," says Christopher Kruegel, associate professor, computer science department at University of California at Santa Barbara, who is also chief scientist at Lastline, which has its own sandboxing techniques. His admonition comes at a time when the sandbox approach, typically applied to email, is getting more attention as a way to uncover stealthy zero-day attacks intended to compromise organizations and steal data.
[ IN THE NEWS: McAfee acquires ValidEdge sandboxing technology ]
FireEye, Trend Micro, Palo Alto with its WildFire service, GFI, AhnLab, Damballa, Norman and Sourcefire are among the security firms with some form of sandboxing; McAfee recently acquired ValidEdge to expand its own approach.
But malware authors are aware of sandboxing and they come up with various ways to evade sandbox detection, Krugel warns, in what he says is an "arms race." Among malware evasion methods that are part of this growing trend are:
- Stalling code. According to Lastline, "this new evasive technique, which we refer to as stalling code, delays the execution of malicious cade so that a sandbox times out. However, to do this, the malware does not simply sleep. Instead, the malware performs some (useless) computation that gives the appearance of activity."
The stalling technique by the malware works because it "simply executes, and from the point of view of the malware analysis system, everything is normal." According to Lastline's research, it can be part of the sandbox "blind spot":
- A "blind spot" in the sandbox implementation. To monitor malware, "a sandbox introduces hooks," Lastline says. "These hooks can be inserted directly into a program to get notifications (callbacks) for function or library calls. The problem with direct hooks is that the program code needs to be modified, and this can be detected by malware or interfere with dynamic code generation (unpacking)." But the main problem with hooking system calls is that "the sandbox cannot see any instruction that the malware executes between calls. This is a significant blind spot that malware authors can target; and they do so with stalling code, which is code that runs between system calls."
Another evasive method is done through environmental checks, Lastline points out.
- Malware authors can add novel, zero-day "environmental checks" related to the operating system and "manipulate the return value" as an evasive maneuver that forces vendors to "patch" their sandbox to catch it, according to Lastline.
Lastline seeks to address these sandbox-evasion tricks in its Previct appliance it offers, but Kruegel acknowledges "there is no 100% security."
Some information-security managers say they appreciate sandboxing as a defensive technology but don't seem to have any illusions that it is going to be perfect in detecting and stopping malware.
"Sandboxing will get some of it," says Brad Stroeh, senior network security engineer at First Financial Bank, a Sourcefire customer, in discussing a wide variety of security approaches and the credence he places in them. It's worthwhile subjecting malware when possible to a sandbox test, and using it as part of the overall defensive process. But since malware could bypass sandbox checks, it only makes sense to use other malware-detection methods as well.
Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG publication and website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security. Twitter: @MessmerE. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy has had some really stellar movies: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and now The World's End. What's especially interesting about the most recent movie, The World's End, is how much content is conveyed through the use of cars. Oh, and don't worry, there's nothing really spoilery here. No ruined movies for you!
There's two primary types of cars used to further the story in the movie, one blatantly and one more subtly. The first, is, of course, the main character's 80s-era Mk2 British Ford Granada, named "The Beast." It's was a vaguely bad-boy car to have for a young man in the early 90s, but now it's just a loud, filthy, outdated and dated old heap. Which makes it by far the most desirable car in the movie.
It's a perfect analogue for the main character as well, Gary King, an aging loser who never managed to move beyond his brief heyday in the early 90s. That use of the car as something to develop/enhance a character is pretty obvious, but it works well.
The other car is used in a much more subtle, if relentless, way. It's actually not one car, but many cars of a particular model: the Vauxhall Ampera, which we here in the states know as a Chevy Volt.
Amperas are seen throughout the movie, and with the exception of one very noticeable billboard, aren't really called attention to. But if you actually start looking around the environment of the movie, it becomes clear that Amperas are in almost every scene, increasing in number as the movie progresses.
The movie is essentially a body snatchers-type invasion movie. That's all obvious from the trailers, so nobody send angry comments about how I ruined your date night with your RealDoll or whatever. These alien androids are replacing humans in the town in the movie, and the implication is that these alien androids are more rational than humans, more efficient, and generally just do things better.
Is that getting spoilery? I hope not.
The Amperas appeas wherever the anrdroids are. When android concentrations get high enough, there's a parking lot almost full of just them. The cars are used to convey conformity, but not just any conformity — a very rational, effiicient, and, on paper at least, a much better kind of conformity.
Of course, all these clean Amperas are in direct contrast to the raw, imperfect humans' smoke-belching Granada. This distinction becomes quite key, but I won't ruin things by spelling it out more.
So, if you're going to see this movie, keep an eye open for how the cars are used to advance some fundamental messages of the movie. For something that's not a car movie exactly, the cars play a huge role. I can't remember when I've seen cars like this used so effectively, which is a great reason to go see this.
In case tubby British guys kicking the crap out of space androids wasn't enough for you.


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From a Maryland Jockey Club release
The Laurel Park racing office announced this afternoon that a total of 118 pre-entries, barring late mail or emails after regular business hours today, were named to the nine stakes races which comprise the 2013 Jim McKay Maryland Million.
The 28th running of the event will take place at Laurel Park next Saturday, Oct. 19. First post is 12:15 p.m.
Maryland Million officials eliminated two stakes races from the program (Turf Sprint and Oaks), replacing them with a pair of $50,000 maiden races on the turf. In addition, the purses of the Turf and Ladies are increased from $100,000 to $125,000.
- $150,000 Classic — 11 nominations
- $125,000 Turf — 21 nominations
- $125,000 Ladies — 10 nominations
- $100,000 Sprint — 12 nominations
- $100,000 Distaff — 11 nominations
- $100,000 Lassie — 10 nominations
- $100,000 Nursery — 12 nominations
- $50,000 Starter Handicap — 14 nominations
- $50,000 Distaff Starter Handicap — 17 nominations
There were no pre-entries taken for the maiden races.
The post position draw for the $1 million day will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16 in Laurel's Terrace Dining Room.
Ben's Cat is looking to become the first horse to win four Maryland Million races. Last year, the King Leatherbury homebred won the Turf Sprint for the third consecutive year. With that race eliminated, Leatherbury cross-entered his star in the Sprint and Turf, which is now a mile (an eighth of a mile shorter than previous years). The son of Parker's Storm Cat, who became Leatherbury's first millionaire last year, has won 23-of-35 starts for earnings of $1,695,640. Now seven, Ben's Cat had to recover from a broken pelvis before he made his maiden debut at age four in 2010, then began his career with eight consecutive victories. He has 15 stakes victories on the grass, including three graded wins.
Eleven older horses are nominated to the Classic, including 2011 champion Eighttofasttocatch, who finished fifth a year ago as the betting favorite. The son of Not For Love is 1-for-5 this year during his 7-year-old campaign, which includes a score in the Henry Clark Stakes and a gutsy second in the Pimlico Special (G3) on Preakness weekend. The Tim Keefe trainee has six career stakes victories at Laurel Park.
Overall ten previous Million day winners are nominated, including defending champions Action Andy (Sprint), Roadhog (Turf), Pagan Priestess (Ladies), Varborough (Starter Handicap) and Motherload Hipster (Distaff Handicap).
Introduced in 1986, the Maryland Million, a program of races restricted to the offspring of Maryland-based stallions, has been duplicated by more than 20 other states. Maryland-sired Thoroughbreds are nominated before they become 2-year-olds and remain eligible for life to run in the Maryland Million races. After twenty-seven runnings, 222 stallions have been represented in Maryland Million races.
Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim McKay originally proposed the concept and remained Chairman of the Board until his death five years ago. Twenty-two times attendance figures have topped 20,000 for the event.
The first 4,000 full-paid admissions and Maryland-licensed owners and trainers will each receive a free Maryland Million Sport Cap. On-track entertainment between races will include two pony races, Suttler Clydesdales, Goshen Foxhounds, Great Falls Vaulters and Special Olympics Maryland and a visit from Joey of War Horse fame, brought to life by puppeteers.
HRTV will have a live presence for the entire card with hosts Dick Jerardi and Caton Bredar on site.
(Featured image, of Ben's Cat, by Laurie Asseo.)


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Fake news – Why is it happening?
Today, we will discuss fake news. Why is it happening? Why are people creating fake news? Have they got nothing better to do?
To clarify, fake news is the deliberate spread of misinformation. It is a type of hoax. It is phoney news. It can also be biased news, to derail a situation or real story. Fake news is not factual news. So when people read a story, they struggle to know whether it is fact or fiction.
Like it or lump it, fake news is everywhere. The internet is flooded with fake news. It helps amplify someone's viewpoint and helps increase online readership and online sharing. This drives profits up, as payments are generated when ads are clicked. Fake news can go viral, thus increasing clicks and income, even more.


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Price: $
or 3 equal layaway payments in store, with a credit card of $231.67 over 60 days.
Free Gallery Wrapping on Disney Animation Fine Art $395 or more - $60 value! US Orders only. *(applies to canvas art. Sale items & Layaway not included)
Rodel Gonzalez Forest Bridge - From Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is eligible for 3 equal layaway payments in store, with a credit card of $231.67 over 60 days.
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As an option you may also pay for Rodel Gonzalez Forest Bridge - From Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
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Forest Bridge Giclee on Canvas - CEFOREST
Forest Bridge - From Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Rodel Gonzalez
image Copyright © 2023 by Rodel Gonzalez
Rodel Gonzalez is an artist of inspirational talents with a keen eye for seeing the beauty in the commonplace and grace in the ordinary. His story starts with an initiation into the art business through the tutelage of his father, Rick Gonzalez and grandfather, Felix Gonzalez, at the age of 9. "Growing up my father would always tells me to not be intimidated by the paint and be 100% sure about my intentions on my first stroke at the canvas, says Rodel. His explorations of color, form, and composition ignited a lifelong passion for the arts in its many forms. He studied at the University of Santo Tomas, with a major in painting and went on to earn a degree in Interior Design from the Philippines School of Interior Design. This early training required perseverance in acquiring the skills and discipline that would prove to serve him well in future endeavors on his path to artistic freedom. His artistry became evident in the field of music and at 20 he founded "Side A" in the Philippines. The band is still active today and is currently the longest-lived band in Manila. Rodel was the lead singer and the band's most prolific songwriter. His success in the music industry fulfilled a part of him, but exposed a desire for a more meaningful and deeper connection with his audience. In 1994, Rodel embarked on a new journey. His talents were manifested as a minister in the service of others. Although busy with his official duties, he maintained his connection with art by doing commissioned portraits, murals, and sketches for friends and acquaintances. In 2002, Rodel began in earnest his dreams of pursuing a fine art career. With inspiration and influence from his brother, Rudolf Gonzalez, and support from his cousin Roy Gonzalez Tabora, he has a newfound energy and dedication for his artwork. When asked about his latest works for the Disney Fine Art portfolio, Rodel has said, "Having the opportunity to create Disney paintings is such a treat because Disney was definitely part of my childhood. I remember watching my first Disney films "Bambi" and "Snow White" and ever since I've been mesmerized by the succeeding Disney movies I've seen. I believe a painting is a mirror of the painter's understanding of an insight he has. The Disney paintings each involved such a strong concept that every brushstroke was a joyful anticipation of the finished product. The energy was very strong therefore my intentions were sure and refined. I would say that there was a lot of grace present on every painting.


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Renewable Energy
July 18, 2010 by Assistant Editor
Filed under Edit
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: I heard that some wind farms use fossil fuels to power their generators when the wind won't. Doesn't that defeat their whole renewable energy purpose? Why not let the wind power it or not? Also, I've heard that the low-frequency sounds generated by these turbines can harm people and animals. Is this true? — Ryan Lewis, Plainwell, MI
Indeed, one of the major drawbacks to wind power is the fact that, even in windy locations, the wind doesn't always blow. So the ability of turbines to generate power is intermittent at best. Many turbines can generate power only about 30 percent of the time, thanks to the inconsistency of their feedstock.
In order to overcome this Achilles' heel of intermittent production, some wind companies have developed back-up systems that can spin turbines even when the wind isn't blowing, thus optimizing and keeping consistent the power output. For example, Colorado-based Hybrid Turbines Inc. is selling wind farms systems that marry a natural gas-based generator to a wind turbine. "Even if natural gas is used, the electricity produced…is twice as environmentally clean as burning coal," reports the company. Better yet, if a user can power them with plant-derived biofuels, they can remain 100 percent renewable energy-based.
While some wind energy companies may want to invest in such technologies to wring the most production out of their big investments, utilities aren't likely to suffer much from the intermittent output if they don't. Even the utilities that are most bullish on wind power still generate most of their electricity from other more traditional sources at the present time. So, when wind energy output decreases, utilities simply draw more power from other sources—such as solar arrays, hydroelectric dams, nuclear reactors and coal-fired power plants—to maintain consistent electrical service. As such, reports the American Wind Energy Association, utilities act as "system operators" drawing power from where it's available and dispatching it to where it is needed in tune with rising and falling power needs.
But just because generating wind power all day long isn't imperative doesn't mean that suppliers aren't doing all they can to maximize output. To wit, turbine manufacturers are beginning to incorporate so-called Active Flow Control (AFC) technology, which delays the occurrence of partial or complete stalls when the wind dies down, and also enables start-up and power generation at lower wind speeds than conventional turbines. The non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists lauds AFC for these capabilities, which in turn can help system operators create a more reliable electric grid less dependent on fossil fuels.
As to whether or not noise from wind farms can harm people and wildlife, the jury is still out. New York-based pediatrician Nina Pierpont argues in her book, Wind Turbine Syndrome, that turbines may produce sounds that can affect the mood of people nearby or cause physiological problems like insomnia, vertigo, headaches and nausea. On the flip side, Renewable UK, a British wind energy trade group, says that the noise measured 1,000 feet away from a wind farm is less than that of normal road traffic. Here in the U.S., a Texas jury denied a 2006 noise pollution suit against FPL Energy after FPL showed that noise readings from its wind farm maxed out at 44 decibels, roughly the same generated by a 10 mile-per-hour wind.
CONTACTS: Hybrid Turbines, Inc., www.hybridturbines.com; American Wind Energy Association, www.awea.org; Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org; Nina Pierpont's Wind Turbine Syndrome, www.windturbinesyndrome.com.
SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; email@example.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: My neighbor told me to pour bleach down my drains every week to keep them clear. Is this safe to do? — Trish Osterling, via e-mail
Bleach is a useful cleaner and disinfectant, but pouring it down the drain will not do anything to help keep the drains clear. In addition, you could cause a dangerous chemical reaction if it comes into contact with other household products you might be using.
Common household bleach, also known as chlorine bleach, is a liquid compound of sodium hypochlorite, which is a combination of sodium chloride (a salt) with water and chlorine. It's often used to whiten laundry or to disinfect kitchen surfaces. Bleach is also an ingredient in other household cleaners, like those used for bath and toilet cleaning. (A different sort of bleach, known as oxygen bleach, is used for laundry stain removal and does not have the same disinfecting/cleaning properties as chlorine bleach.)
According to the Household Products Database at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), chlorine bleach is corrosive to the eyes; injures skin and mucous membranes on contact; and is harmful if swallowed. Bleach is "a lung and eye irritant," warns the Washington Toxics Coalition (WTC), a Seattle non-profit that advocates for green friendly household products. Even used alone, fumes from chlorine bleach can irritate the lungs, so it should not be used by people with asthma or lung or heart problems, says the group. It is also "reactive" with ammonia and acids, forming more harmful fumes.
"One of the most common home accidents is the mixing of products containing chlorine bleach with those containing ammonia," says WTC. The combination creates chloramine gas, which is highly irritating to the lungs. Since many cleaning products contain ammonia, the inadvertent mixing must be avoided. Mixing bleach and acids results in the release of chlorine gas, according to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, exposure to which can cause coughing and breathing problems, burning eyes and, at high levels, vomiting, pneumonia and even death. Products containing acids include vinegar, some glass and window cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, drain cleaners and rust removers. An "incompatibility chart" listing many chemicals that will react with bleach is available at the Chlorine Institute's cl2.com website.
Bleach alone is not necessarily hard on the environment. When use as directed, it will break down mostly into salt water in wastewater treatment or septic systems, says WTC. A dilution of bleach in water is effective as a disinfectant, and can be scrubbed onto non-porous food-contact surfaces like plastic cutting boards or refrigerator shelves and left to air dry. The Clorox Company recommends a solution of one tablespoon bleach per gallon of water for sanitizing.
So, what are the better ways to keep drains clear? Home drains in the kitchen and bath generally get clogged by grease, food waste and hair, none of which will be effectively dispersed by bleach. WTC recommends carefully pouring a kettleful of boiling water down the drain to free up a slow drain, or using mechanical methods such as a plumber's snake, plunger or hose-end bladder to clean a clogged drain.
CONTACTS: DHHS Household Products Database, http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov ; Washington Toxics Coalition, www.washingtontoxics.org; New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, www.state.nj.us/health; Chlorine Institute, www.cl2.com.
SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; email@example.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.


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Gorgeous growth chart with sweet watercolor woodland animals wearing flower crowns peeking around the edges of the chart! The peek a boo animals really bring out the smiles!
The colors are stunning and the canvas texture and ribbon are luxurious. The growth chart will last as a loving family heirloom forever!
Our canvas growth charts are printed with a professional large format printer with archival quality giclee inks on heavyweight, museum grade canvas. The canvas growth chart arrives with wooden dowels at top and bottom and a grosgrain ribbon and is ready to hang and make memories.
- See matching art here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/967642668
Kids love seeing their name in big letters and parents love the modern designs! Kids just love to measure themselves! If your child is older, just ask your doctor for their height records to add them to the chart.
• When you order, please leave your child's name in the Notes box at checkout.
• If you want metric measurements, request that there as well.
• Ships within 1-3 business days. Expedited Shipping available.
--- Transport time in Continental US: 1-5 business days.
--- Transport time for Int'l Orders: 1-3 weeks; Canada: 2 wks
• Size: 10" W x 42" H or 54" H. Hang chart 20" from ground.
• Use a Sharpie to record your child's milestone heights on the chart (not included).
Every chart is designed with love to make its recipient feel as special as they are. We also donate a portion of all proceeds to two charities close to our hearts - Girls, Inc., helping build confidence in girls, and Donors Choose, supporting public school classrooms.
© All rights reserved. Copyrights fully enforced.
1-3 business days
I'll do my best to meet these shipping estimates, but can't guarantee them. Actual delivery time will depend on the shipping method you choose.
Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I'm not responsible for delays due to customs.
Just contact me within: 7 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 14 days of delivery
Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value.
Please contact me if you have any problems with your order.


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123 HP Officejet 5741 Printer Setup
An ideal printer device with latest functionalities such as built-in faxing,automatic document feeder. It is an all-in-one printer device with workplace features at an affordable price. Use the automatic duplex mechanism to print on both sides simultaneously,it saves time and effort. Get more Automatic duplex support from 123.hp.com/setup 5741. This printer device's control panel has 2.2 inch monochrome touch display and separate home and back button. HP OfficeJet 5741 is comparatively faster in the printing process, use the quiet-mode feature to reduce the printer's noise level. On the other hand, this printer device takes more time to complete the printing and scanning process. HP OfficeJet 5741 offers lot of features at budget- friendly price and it has inbuilt software for printing, scanning, faxing and copying.
Unbox HP OfficeJet 5741-123.hp.com/setup 5741
- Open your HP OfficeJet 5741 printer package and you can find the basic accessories and reference materials on the top of the printer package.
- Use these accessories to complete the hp.com/setup 5741 setup process.Set aside the packing materials,you can recycle the packing materials with the HP support.
- Use the plastic cover and pull out the printer device from the package. Gently remove the tape materials in and around the printer device.
- Lift open the scanner lid and take out the Styrofoam sheet, open the ink access door and remove the cardboard piece and other packing materials.
- Slide out the paper input tray and remove the tape and other packing materials, use the paper width guide and adjust the paper size.
- After completing the unpacking process, complete the basic printer 123.hp.com/setup 5741 setup process and use your printer device.
123 HP OfficeJet 5741 Printer Setup
- Use the power cord that came along with the printer package. Connect one end of the power cord to the printer device and the other end to the power source.
- Turn ON your printer device using the power button, set the basic preferences like language,time & Date and Country/Region. Finally,touch Done to confirm the settings.
- Now the printer device prompts you to insert the ink cartridges, open the ink access door and insert the ink cartridges in their allotted slots.
- Carefully remove the orange tape,don't touch electrical contacts or ink nozzles. After placing the ink cartridges, close the ink access door.
- Your printer's control panel displays, " Thank you for Installing HP Instant Ink Ready Cartridges". Touch OK to continue with the printer setup process.
- The printer device prompts you to load paper in the input tray,slide out the paper input tray load a pile of unused paper into the input tray.
- Your printer device automatically prints an alignment page, scan this page to calibrate your printer device. After the scanning process,the panel either displays " Alignment successful" or " Alignment Failed".
- If the panel displays " Alignment Sucessful" message, click finish and complete the printer setup process. If the alignment process is not successful, get Troubleshooting instructions from the 123.hp.com/setup 5741 manufacturer .
HP Printer Driver Installation for Windows Using CD
- Use the Printer Driver Installation CD that came with the printer package. Load the CD into the CD-drive,your installer automatically runs the setup.exe file.
- Choose Yes in the User Account Control Window,use the " Go Online " option to complete the printer driver installation with the 123.hp.com/setup 5741 HP support.
- Click " No thanks,I want to set up using the CD". The Installation process takes 3 steps prepare step involves a basic printer setup process.
- Choose your printer software in the connect process. Use the customize software selection option and click next.
- Select the " I have reviewed and accept the installation agreements and setting" check box and click next. Your installer starts the printer driver Installation process and prompts you to choose the connection type.
- Input the needed details and fax setup information, choose the printer's primary usage and enter the postal code of the printer' location.
- After entering the needed information, click next to complete the printer driver installation process.
HP Printer Driver Installation for Mac-123.hp.com/setup 5741
- From the apple menu, select system preferences. Choose Printers and Scanners in the system preferences window.
- Select your printer device from the list, you can select your printer device using the (+) symbol. Use the (-) symbol to remove the printer device.
- To add a printer device,click (+) sign and choose Add printer or scanner. In the add window, choose your printer device from the list and make sure that it is of USB or Bonjour Multifunction.
- Click Add to complete the software installation process.
Wireless Setup-123.hp.com/setup 5741
- You can easily connect your printer device to the wireless network using the control panel controls. Touch the wireless icon on your printer's control panel.
- Tap the Settings icon (gear-like), choose the wireless setup wizard your printer device automatically scans for available wireless routers within the range.
- Choose your network name from the list and touch OK. If prompted, enter the network password using the on-screen keyboard and touch Ok to confirm the settings.
- Your printer device validates your wireless connection information and connect to the wireless network. Finally,it displays the connection successful message with the wireless connection information.
Automatic Duplex Feeder
- The Automatic Duplex feature enables you to print both sides of paper at the same time. It helps you to save time and effort.
- Start the process by loading blank paper into the input tray and choose the document that you want to print.
- From the file menu ,choose print and click printer properties. In the Printer's preferences window,click printing shortcut tab.Get more support information from 123.hp.com/setup 5741.
- Under the "print on both sides manually" drop-down menu ,choose print on Long Edge for booklet style printing or Print on Short Edge for tablet style printing. Finally ,click OK and print.
HP ePrint-123.hp.com/setup 5741
- The HP print feature makes the printing process easier, send the document or image directly to your printer device and complete the printing process.
- Make sure that your printer device supports HP ePrint ,connect your printer device to the same wireless network as your computer.
- If you are using wired connection, the connection green link light should be steady and the orange light should blink after establishing the cable connection.
- If you are using a wireless connection, turn ON the wireless feature and make sure that the printer device is connected to the same wireless network as your computer.
Web Services
- Web Services helps you to establish secure communication between your printer device and printing apps such as ePrint and AirPrint.
- If your printer device does not have ePrint icon or button, you can find the web services menu under the wireless settings.
- If the installer prompts you to turn ON web services, follow the on-screen instructions 123.hp.com/setup 5741 and enable the web services on your printer device.
- If the printer's control panel displays web services summary or connected status, it means that web services was already ON.
- Touch print info to get more information about the web services.
Printer's email address
- After enabling the web services, your printer device automatically prints " Get the most out of your printer" instruction It provides web services information about printer claim code which can be used as printer's email address.
- If there is a delay,wait for 5 to 10 minutes. If your printer device still can't print the web services information, restart the web services and it prints new information page.
- You can find your printer's information page on the printer's information page. You can also use the printer's claim code as the printer's email address with @hpeprint.com.
Print using HP ePrint
To print saved document or image
- Sign into your email account and compose a new email. Enter your printer's email address in the TO field.
- You should not leave the subject field empty,enter a related title in the subject line. Attach the document or photo that you want to print and send the email.Visit 123.hp.com/setup 5741 for more information about the ePrint setup.
To print an email message
- Select and open the email message that you want to print, click forward and enter the printer's email address in the TO field.
- Mention your subject in the subject field and send it to the printer device. To Print a webpage, save it as a document and attach it to the email message.
HP ePrint requirements-123.hp.com/setup 5741
- Mention printer's email address in the TO field,you can't enter multiple email address in the TO field. The server may cancel the print job.
- Type related subject in the subject field, the ePrint server may cancel the job if the you leave this field empty.
- Maximum attachment size is 10MB and you can't attach more than 10 files. It supports .txt, PDF,HTML, Microsoft word,Microsoft Powerpoint and Microsoft Excel files.
- HP ePrint does not support Digitally signed,encrypted and password protected documents. On the other hand, the duplex feeding mechanism is not supported.


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<------- Be sure to upvote this post after voting on the poll if you're interested in this product as it would really help us out
[HR][/HR]Hey guys,
I'm proud to present to you something we've been working on for the last couple of months called ODIN Tracker
We hope you enjoy the read and we would love to hear your feedback (if any) either here on the forums or via one of our various methods of contact listed below.
[HR][/HR]ODIN Tracker is a UE4 Plugin that greatly increases workflow efficiency in-editor when it comes to using both Source Control and Project Management Software/Services i.e. a tool that does the job quickly and hopefully annoyance-free as to allow an artist, designer or other to get back to what he/she does best, which is to create magic
After all,
Both you and they don't really want to be paid to fiddle around with Source Control and Project Management Software/Services any longer than is absolutely necessary…
[HR][/HR]Product Summary
[HR][/HR]The ODIN Tracker UE4 Plugin has the following sub-modules:
- Task Tracker (JIRA, GitHub, Trello, etc.)
- Capture Tool (Image/GIF/Video + entire Blueprint capture and post-capture editing tools).
- Time Tracker (Tracker/Logger + Timesheets with upload to JIRA/Other).
- Settings + Custom Templates and Workflow Builder Back-End.
We have plans for both an Offline Mode which will be partially completed in the 1.0 release with the remaining features being added in 1.1 through to 2.x and features to support running the plugin at run-time within your game for QA and Alpha/Beta Testers to have access to with included granular permission settings to manage QA, Private, and Public Alpha/Beta Tester submission access rights.
We are also looking at supporting a 3D Space Issue/Task placement with the UE4 Editor Viewport that would include:
- Sign/Marker with text (In-Viewport + Runtime).
- Area/Volume Marker (In-Viewport + Editor PanelTab + Runtime) e.g. build house/car park/shopping mall within this grid space.
- Tag to object (In-Viewport + Editor PanelTab) e.g. "This tagged [ISSUE-KEY] mesh has a broken collision volume."
ETA on this feature is uncertain at this stage but some elements of this feature set will most likely make their way into somewhere between 1.0 through to 2.0
[HR][/HR]Estimated Release Date
- Alpha Released on the UE4 Marketplace = Feburary 2017
- Beta Released on the UE4 Marketplace = Late Q2 2017
- v1.0 Released on the UE4 Marketplace = TBD
[HR][/HR]Estimated Price
- Basic Functionality = FREE
- Advanced Functionality (v1.0 Price) = $75 USD per-user (one-time payment for all updates included in the 1.x release)
- Enterprise Functionality = TBD
- Premium Support = TBD
Pricing Breakdown
- ALL-IN-1 PRICE = Alpha ($50) -> Beta ($62.50) -> v1.0 ($75)
Add-ons Purchased Separately
- ODIN Core = FREE!
- ODIN Capture = Alpha ($10) -> Beta ($12.50) -> v1.0 ($15)
- ODIN Tasks = Alpha ($20) -> Beta ($25) -> v1.0 ($30)
- ODIN Time = Alpha ($5) -> Beta ($7.50) -> v1.0 ($10)
- ODIN QA = Alpha ($15) -> Beta ($17.50) -> v1.0 ($20)
[HR][/HR]If you have any Questions, Comments, Bug reports or feature requests for this plugin, or you wish to contact us in general then feel free to email us at [EMAIL="email@example.com"]email@example.com / [EMAIL="email@example.com"]email@example.com or join our official Discord server at http://discord.odintracker.io
We have also setup up a JIRA Service Desk: http://tasks.binarysword.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/14
[HR][/HR] Feel free to Like, Follow, and Subscribe on our various social networks:
Which should become rather active leading up to the ODIN Tracker's release date (TBD).


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Brown and Ivory Cuyahoga Valley National Park
These giclee prints feature an original hand drawn map of Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Northeast Ohio done by artist Katie Ford. Giclee prints are on archival matte paper, and they are UV resistant.
This print measures 8x10 and will fit nicely right in to any 8x10 frame of your choosing.
Your print will arrive carefully packaged and wrapped with backing board in a sealed plastic sleeve.
|Not Customizable


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The purpose of this document is not to start yet another discussion, but rather it is to show how to take an implementation of delegates in C++ —which normally most of C++ compilers don't support—to one more step ahead. And, this will make it really easy for developers to add such feature to their existing C++ program. These features should compile on any C++ compiler.
What Am I Talking About?
I am talking about a member (treated as variable) of a class that has two types of functions associated with; one function that returns the value of a certain type when the data member is asked to return a value, and another function to set the value when the data member is assigned a value.
Using A Simple Example
Take the example of a button on a dialog. Button is basically a class and has a member called "width". When width is assigned a value the button's width is physically changed on the dialog's surface. When this member is assigned to an "int" type variable, the "width" property returns the width of the button.
Button b; b.width = 100; //setting / assigning the value, change button width to 100 pixels int bw = b.width; //getting the value, get button's current width in pixels
Now, if the data member "width" was a normal integer "int" it won't affect the width of the button physically, so basically you have to create "width" in a way that it will affect the button width when assigned a value, and it must retun button's physical width when required. For this two functions need to be attached to this member—one function for changing the button's width and the other for getting button's width.
How Do You Accomplish This?
To accomplish this, you will not define data member 'width' as int, but rather you will define member 'width' as a property; In other words, a class that has "operator =" and has two functions that are bound to this tiny Button class for getting and setting data value as well as performing extra functionality (e.g. affecting button's width). So you need something like:
class Button { public: <SOMETHING ELSE BUT NOT int> width; void set_value(int newValue) { //change button width } int get_value() { return ??; //button's width; } };
The question is how to attach the two little member functions 'set_value' and 'get_value' to the data member 'width', so that they get called automatically when 'width' is used in either way.
Let's dive a little into the depth. This is what keywords, property in Microsoft Visual C++, delegates in C#, and closure in Borland C++ Builder are used. But, they are not cross platform and not supported by all C++ compilers.
For example (keyword):
- property not supported by GCC
- property not supported by Borland C++
- closure not supported by GCC
- closure not supported by Microsoft VC++
- property and closure both not supported by Watcom C++
- property and closure both not supported by LCC
- property and closure both not supported by Intel C++ (am not sure about this)
To overcome this problem, we have many implementations for generic properties
- some use templates
- some use hardcoded class name to use with scope resolution operator
- some utilize #define keyword
- etc.
Keyword "property" is available in MSVC++ only.
Keyword "closure" is available in Borland C++ only.
What about GCC, and compilers on other platforms like Linux and Mac OSX?
Using other than (built-in implementations) "property" and "closure", mostly a new class is created for each data member, which becomes bulky. The result might not affect program speed (depends), but definitely increases final executable size very much. And after all, it is not a good idea to have new class for
thousands of data members.
In all implementations to member functions are bound to such properties. But we know that ISO forbids assigning address of member function in a class. In the result we have to point to a member function including class scope, such as &Button::*get_value or &Button::*set_value. But wait, this is specific to class Button, and of course we will end up with templates to resolve this problem.
Now question arrives?
Because we like our member functions to access all elements of the class (they are in), either
public, private, and/or protected.
I had an idea last night. Why not use "friend" functions? (If it has already been implemented, forgive me I neve saw it!)
A "friend" function has access to all of private, protected, as well as public data, which will result in more generic class for properties imnplementation. Create a type once and use it multiple times. So, I wrote two macros bacially. One creates the abstract class not "abstract of c++" I would say a new type). The other resolves the class pointer from long, using casting "reinterpret_cast".
#include "delegate.h" CREATE_PROPERTY_TYPE(int, intProp); class Button { public: intProp width; //generic property of type "int" };
Now it is time to bind some "friend" functions
class Button { public: intProp width; Button() { // bind property to 2 new friend functions // rather than member functions width.bind( get_width , set_width , (long)this ); } // bound "friend" functions friend int get_width(long); friend int set_width(long, int); };
What is this?
width.bind( get_width , set_width , (long)this );
We called the function "bind" that is a member of the new property class that was created. It is then passed arguments:
- getter – get_width
- setter – set_width
- pointer to current class to reuse in friend functions
- The first argument of each get and set functions must be "long", which will be used as a class pointer.
- In the set function's second argument will be the type of variable "new class type" was created for.
- The set function must also have a return type of property type, even if it is not returning any value.
Now implement the bind functions. They can be implemented outside, but I am implementing them
within the class to make it clearer.
class Button { public: intProp width; HWND hwnd; //assumed handle to Button window Button(HWND han=NULL) { this->hwnd = han; width.bind( get_width , set_width , (long)this ); } friend int get_width(long __CP) { Button *cls = reinterpret_cast<Button *> (__CP); //get access to class pointer RECT r; GetWindowRect(cls->hwnd,&r); return r.right-r.left; } friend int set_width(long __CP, int v) { Button *cls = reinterpret_cast<Button *> (__CP); //get access to class pointer RECT r; GetWindowRect(cls->hwnd,&r); MoveWindow(cls->hwnd,r.left,r.top,value,r.bottom-r.top,true); return value; } };
Further summarizing the interpretation portion of the code:
CREATE_CLASS_POINTER(Button, cls);
instead of using
//Button *cls = reinterpret_cast<Button *> (__CP);
- First argument variable name of both get and set functions must be __CP, if you wishto use said
"CREATE_CLASS_POINTER" macro, or create your own.
USING THIS "Button" CLASS:
Button b( GetDlgItem(myDlg, 101) ); btn.width = 100; int bw = btn.width;
Summary of All Talk
- Cross platform code
- All C++ compilers supopport
- Small foot-prints in final executable
- Not bulky for execution
- Can be used even if you have no idea what are function pointers and generic properties
IMPLEMENTATION OF "CREATE_PROPERTY_TYPE" in delegate.h
#define CREATE_PROPERTY_TYPE(__USERTYPE, __TYPENAME) class __TYPENAME { typedef __USERTYPE (*__TYPENAME##_GP)(long); typedef __USERTYPE (*__TYPENAME##_SP)(long, __USERTYPE); private: __TYPENAME##_GP gf; __TYPENAME##_SP sf; long cls; public: __TYPENAME() { gf = NULL; sf = NULL; } void bind(__TYPENAME##_GP vgf,__TYPENAME##_SP vsf, long vcls=0) { gf=vgf; sf=vsf; cls=vcls; } __TYPENAME(__TYPENAME##_GP vgf,__TYPENAME##_SP vsf, long vcls=0) { this->bind(vgf,vsf,vcls); } __USERTYPE operator = (__USERTYPE v) { (*sf)(cls, v); return (__USERTYPE)v; } __USERTYPE operator = (__TYPENAME & v) { (*sf)(cls, v); return (__USERTYPE)v; } operator __USERTYPE () const { return (__USERTYPE)(*gf)(cls); } bool operator == (__USERTYPE v) { return ( (__USERTYPE)(*gf)(cls) == v ); } bool operator != (__USERTYPE v) { return ( (__USERTYPE)(*gf)(cls) != v ); } };
IMPLEMENTATION OF "CREATE_CLASS_POINTER" in delegate.h
#define CREATE_CLASS_POINTER(__CLASS, __VAR) __CLASS * __VAR = reinterpret_cast <__CLASS *> (__CP);
SAMPLE WINDOWS PROGRAM (changes and retrieves width of a window):
#include <windows.h> #include "delegate.h" /* C++ generic properties demostration program Scenario: Create a class window, which has a generic property "width". When property width is assigned a value, it will resize the window to assigned value, and equally returns the width of the window when property itself is assign to some other variable of same type. */ CREATE_PROPERTY_TYPE(int, intProp); //Create new property type class Window { public: intProp width; HWND hwnd; Window(HWND=NULL); //friend bound functions friend int get_width(long); friend int set_width(long, int); }; int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPSTR, int) { HWND dlg = CreateWindowEx( 0, WC_DIALOG, TEXT("My Window"), WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW | WS_VISIBLE, 100,100,200,200,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL ); Window w(dlg); MessageBox(dlg, TEXT("Now we will assign property value which will affect the width of the window"),TEXT(""),0); w.width = 500; //notice this TCHAR temp[100]; int wid = w.width; // notice this wsprintf(temp,TEXT("New width is %d"),wid); MessageBox(dlg,temp,TEXT(""),0); return 0; } //implementation of constructor and bound functions Window::Window(HWND han) { this->hwnd = han; width.bind( get_width , set_width , (long)this ); } int get_width(long __CP) { CREATE_CLASS_POINTER(Window, cls); RECT r; GetWindowRect(cls->hwnd,&r); return r.right-r.left; } int set_width(long __CP, int value) { CREATE_CLASS_POINTER(Window, cls); RECT r; GetWindowRect(cls->hwnd,&r); MoveWindow(cls->hwnd,r.left,r.top,value,r.bottom-r.top,true); return value; }
That's all for now, and let me know if I missed anything or if this article was of some help to you.


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InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network
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The Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) is a national network within InterVarsity's Graduate & Faculty Ministries which supports those on the academic pathway as they work out how their academic vocation serves God and others. We encourage and equip undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and early career faculty as they navigate each stage of their academic vocation and transition to the next step in or beyond the academy.


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SongVault Artist Profile
Abu hakim
New York, United Arab Emirates
Old School
Abu Hakim is a Digital Marketing Expert at Allied Dubai Movers. Experienced in managing promotional campaigns, crafting marketing strategies to generate niche relevant traffic for organizations through his blogs.
Allied Dubai Movers offers full inclusive moving services, packing, removal, relocation, furniture movers, local movers, self-storage Services, including packaging and covering of your stuff and things for the journey.
At Allied Dubai Movers, we own our own Trucks. We use bubble sheets cartons and other packing materials to prevent damage to your belongings during relocation. We take responsibility for any damage so care for them very seriously.
Movers And Packers In Abu Dhabi


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Flood Insurance
Insure your property
Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States and can happen anywhere and at any time. The Town has adopted the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) Flood Insurance Study (FIS), and associated Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) for our community; thus making residents of the Town eligible for flood insurance. This study documents flood hazards including flow rates, base flood evaluations and floodplain delineations. Changing weather patterns, erosion and development can also affect floodplain boundaries.
Flood maps, known officially as Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), show areas of high, moderate and low flood risk zones. To determine if your property is within a floodplain visit FEMA's Flood Map Service Center.
The Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973 and the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994 require all structures with a mortgage to carry flood insurance as a separate policy if the property is within a floodplain. Even if your property is outside a flood zone, flooding is an inherent risk. Common insurance policies, including homeowner's insurance policies, do not cover damages due to flooding. A separate flood insurance policy is needed to cover damages from flooding. To discuss the flood insurance policies that may be available to you, contact your insurance agent or visit FloodSmart.
The Town provides data and assistance regarding floodplain regulations and flood insurance map questions. Please contact the Stormwater Hotline by email or phone 720-733-2235 for additional information.
View the Town's floodplain regulations, Title 18 of the Town of Castle Rock Municipal Code.


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Sun and Ski Sports
Since 1980, Sun & Ski has specialized in making outdoor dreams come true by providing customers with quality merchandise, exceptional service and outstanding values. Originally a ski and snowboard shop that sold cycling and outdoor gear in the summer, Sun & Ski has grown to include stores throughout the country, dedicated to satisfying the needs of a wide array of active lifestyle customers.
While all stores' heritage is that of providing the best for snow sports, Sun & Ski's sunbelt stores are merchandised to meet the needs of the local consumer with year round specialty sports offerings for cyclists, runners, and all consumers looking for leading brands for an active lifestyle. On the east coast, the stores are ski and snowboard shops in the winter and offer the best selection of outdoor patio furniture for the summer season.
This local specialization contrasts significantly with the mega-stores, who offer hundreds of categories of goods, but with little commitment to better product and brands with little or no knowledgeable service.
"We stick to an old concept: Do a few things, but do them better than anybody else," says Chief Operating Officer Steve Rath.
With 30 stores across the country, Sun & Ski's buying power to gives customers the lowest prices, guaranteed. Add to that, an incredible philosophy of service, quality and commitment to customer satisfaction, and you have one heck of a store.
This concept allows Sun & Ski to give you that small store feel with big store competitive pricing. According to Rath, this combination is the beauty of the store – "We capture the best of both worlds – the best service and the best prices – guaranteed."


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Many kids dream about becoming famous like their favorite Disney and Nickelodeon stars. Many always ask the question where and how to find auditions for kids and teens.
How many auditions you can find depends on a few factors, the largest of which is where you live. Most auditions are held in Los Angeles or New York, which is why aspiring actors move to Los Angeles. Every now and then some auditions are held in other cities, but not very often. The reason most auditions are held in Los Angeles or New York is simple. it's because that is where the casting directors are. Most casting directors will not travel to auditions people, the people must travel to them. I know it sounds a bit unfair for the kids looking for auditions, but that is just the way it works.
The next factor in finding auditions for kids and teens is having your family on board. Yes, you must have the support of your parents. There is no way around that since kids can not travel or sign a contract. Your parents must be very involved and supportive. Your parents must be available to take you to auditions and sign any contracts you may need in case you got the acting job.
The third factor in being successful at finding auditions is having an agent. An agent is very important because it is the agent who actually sends the actors out to audition.
Large productions do not just have an open casting call to find lead roles, supporting roles or speaking parts. That may sound unfair as well but there is good reason. Casting directors do not have the time or man power to audition EVERYONE who wants to try. Can you imagine what would happen if large budget movies like Iron Man, Twilight, Hunger Games, etc. did an open casting call. They would get 1000's if not 10,000's of wanna be actors. If every audition took a few minutes, that would be hundreds of hours of straight auditions, a huge amount of staff to handle it all, and needing a stadium or large convention center to hold the event. That kind of time and spending is out of the question for most professionals. Not to mention that most of that time would be spent auditioning kids that were simply not qualified.
To save time and money, most casting directors choose to use a screening process that we call and acting agent. Most acting agents work closely with casting directors and they are in tune with what the casting directors are looking for. The agents have clients which are on their roster and when a casting director sends the agent a request for talent, the agent knows exactly who fits the bill and who has a shot at the role.
An agent only gets paid when the actor does, meaning that the actor not only needs to audition but also land the part for the agent to get paid. For that reason reputable agents do not just take anyone. They like to see actors with experience and some training because those actors will have a better chance of getting the acting job.
Not all agents are equal and some claiming to be agents really are not. When looking for an agent be aware of the usual ploys to separate you from your money. A good rule is if someone calls out of the blue, gets your name from a profile, asks for money upfront or requires you take expensive classes, photos or other service, then they are most likely scammers. Real agents are licensed by the state in which they work in, don't require payment and will not guarantee any work.
So, if you want to find auditions for kids you need to be in the right place and have an agent that gives you a heads up on who is casting what and sets up an appointment for you.


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Protect your investment with high quality covers to fit all of our sawmill models. These tough covers are made from high-quality, fiber-reinforced material and come with metal eyelets and rubber shock-cords for protection against strong winds. Our one-piece cover (CC) protects the cutting head, engine, control console, and power-feed motors.
*CC not recommended for high-speed highway transporting.


text: In the massive city of Tokyo, Kumiko, a twenty-nine year old, lives in utter solitude. She works a dreadful, dead-end job under an awful boss, is intimidated by her well-off peers, and nagged incessantly by her overbearing mother who is exasperated by the fact that her daughter is not married or even in a relationship. The only joys in her life come from a grainy VHS tape – an American film in which a man buries a satchel of money in the snowy Midwestern plains – and her beloved pet rabbit, Bunzo. Kumiko is somehow convinced that this treasure is real, and obsesses over its discovery. With a hand-stitched treasure map and a quixotic spirit, Kumiko embarks on an incredible journey over the Pacific and through the frozen Minnesota wilderness to uncover a purported fortune.


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Sweet Bird - Plastic
Sweet Bird & Co. = Reclaimed – Reinvented – Repurposed – Globally. Each day an estimated 44,000,000 pounds of plastic flows into our oceans. As a citizen of the world we have a monumental problem that we must address in how we consume single use plastics, but we also must repurpose the mountains of plastics that we have into other viable products. This is where our outdoor safe wall décor, made of recycled water bottles and other polystyrene materials comes into play. Our Destination Outdoors Collection is made of plastic materials recycled from all around the world. We repurpose single use plastics into vibrant and memorable wall décor pieces that are safe for outdoor or indoor use.


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One of Donald Trump's daughters-in-law was in Iowa today and a member of the Kennedy clan was here to campaign for Hillary Clinton. Campaign veterans say having a "surrogate" stand-in to campaign for the candidate can be a tricky.
David Kochel of Des Moines was a key insider on campaigns for Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney. He says unless the campaign surrogate "has the same last name as the presidential candidate," it's difficult to draw much of a crowd or the desired media attention.
"In general, it can eat up a lot of staff resources and time with marginal benefit," he says.
Good surrogates "underscore" the campaign's core message to voters, according to Kochel.
"It is a motivation for supporters who are doing a lot of the work and the volunteering," Kochel says. "It's also a way to recruit volunteers and bring them in the door, but the message is the main thing."
John Norris of Des Moines was a key insider on campaigns for Democratic presidential candidates Jesse Jackson and John Kerry. Norris says there's a fine line between asset and liability when it comes to campaign surrogates.
"First of all, you want surrogates who are low maintainence, surrogates who can attract people for whatever the purpose is — for message, for fundraising," Norris says,"and in Iowa there's probably a higher threshold than in other states because Iowans are so used to having presidential candidates here."
Kochel agrees.
"It's always been tougher in Iowa to draw people who aren't he candidates because we see so much of the candidates throughout the caucus process," Kochel says.
Norris points out the presidential campaigns in Iowa are focused on early voting right now, since Iowans can start casting ballots next week.
"If the surrogate event is about getting the vote out and they're an attractice surrogate, they can be helpful," Norris says. "But if you spend a whole lot of time for a surrogate who doesn't have much draw or electoral value, then you are probably directing your resources in a non-productive way."
Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Ted Kennedy, hosted a roundtable discussion in Des Moines this morning to call attention to Clinton's ideas for addressing gaps in the mental health care system. At nearly the same time, there was a "Women for Trump" event featuring Trump's daughter-in-law and a long-time aide to three of Trump's adult children.
Lynne Patton is also an executive for Eric Trump's charity. During an interview with Jason Noble of The Des Moines Register, Patton defended Donald Trump's record of charitable donations. She told the newspaper Trump often asks groups to write a check to his charity rather than pay him directly for giving a speech. A Washington Post analysis concluded the candidate has not personally donated to his own charity since 2007.
As for those two political pros quotes above, I ran into John Norris at the statehouse late this morning. He and wife, Jackie Norris — the manager of Obama 2008 & Michelle Obama's first White House chief of staff — have just returned to Des Moines after living in Rome for nearly two years. John Norris resigned as a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member in August of 2014 to become minister-counselor for the USDA's Foreign Agriculture Service in Rome.
This afternoon, I talked by phone with David Kochel, who is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He's a "fellow" this fall at the Harvard Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School. Tomorrow will be the first of his (private) study groups about "the campaign that broke all the rules." Read more here. Check out his Twitter feed for his lunch photo. It's not about the food, but the company. (Hint: the guy authored a book titled, "This Just In" back in 2002.)